Hidden Agenda (17 page)

And in less than ten days Matt was to meet Cordero Birmingham and give him the name of the person who was passing U.S. military and DEA secrets to Alejandro Delgado and the rebels.

Rising to his feet, he extended a hand to Eve. “Come,
Preciosa
, it’s time we took our
siesta. Buenas tardes, Abuelo y Abuela
.”

Eve smiled at Matt’s grandparents and followed
him into the house. Their suite of rooms was on the second floor of the southern wing of the large house. A breathtaking view from the veranda revealed the calm, blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Matt unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged out of it while Eve strolled around the bedroom, examining pieces of sculpture on several tables and on the mantel over the fireplace.

“I hope you won’t let my grandfather intimidate or frighten you,” he said quietly.

She spun around, a secret smile curving her lips. “I think he knows that I don’t frighten that easily.”

“And you don’t,” Matt agreed, coming toward her. “I can honestly say that, because I’ve tried bullying you enough.”

His hands went to her blouse and he unbuttoned it. Inhaling deeply, he stared at the perfection of her firm breasts. He withdrew the silk garment from her body and buried his face against her neck.

“Why are you torturing me, Eve?” he gasped.

Closing her eyes, Eve melted against his bare chest. “How?”

“I can’t keep my hands off you. I crave you even in my sleep.”

Eve did not want to tell Matt that he’d echoed her feelings. He’d awakened her mind and body to a rushing, heated passion that intensified with every moment she was in his presence. Each time he touched her a delicious shudder rippled through her body, bringing with it a welling desire to surrender all she had to him.

She clung to him, his touch warm and comforting. “I love you, Matt.” Pulling back slightly, he stared
down at her upturned face. His gaze widened and Eve was trapped in the depths of the savage hunger radiating from the force field he had created around them.

“You will never love me the way I love you,” he stated in a challenging tone.

Her arms dropped and she took a backward step. “Why would you say that?”

“Because it’s true,” Matt insisted. He folded his hands on his hips.

Eve was puzzled by his abrupt change in mood. “You have no right to make that kind of determination.”

“I can say that because I know that I’d give up my life for you. Would you do the same for me?”

She stared wordlessly at him, her heart pounding uncontrollably. Why was Matt testing her? What did he hope to prove?

“I—I don’t—”

“There’s no need to say anything, Darling,” he interrupted. “You hesitated too long.”

“You can’t test love,” she countered.

“I just need to know how far you’ll go for me, Eve.”

“I thought being obedient, affectionate, and passionate was enough.”

“That was before I married you.”

She laughed, hoping to lighten the dark mood. “You’re taking all of this so seriously, Matt.”

His eyebrows nearly met in a frown. “I am serious. Because after all of this is over there’s not going to be an annulment or a divorce. I’m in this marriage for keeps.”

Eve nodded slowly, blinking with bewilderment. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her eyes filled with tears, and she blinked them back before they fell.

He held out his arms and she collapsed in his embrace. The medals on his chest bit into her tender breasts, but she barely registered the pain as he crushed her to his body.

“Darling, my darling,” she whispered over and over as he swung her up in his arms and walked to the bed.

Matt undressed her, then undressed himself. Within minutes he came into her outstretched arms, parted her legs with his knee and entered her body with a force strong enough to rob them both of their breath.

He wanted it to be slow, leisurely, but his body would not listen to his brain. He established a pounding rhythm with powerful thrusts, communicating his need to possess her totally.

Eve’s passion rose like the hottest fire, spreading from her to Matt, and he moaned aloud in erotic pleasure. Her body writhed sensuously beneath his, and she told him what she wanted to do to him.

“I can’t, Eve,” he panted. There was no way he could withdraw from her hot flesh—not now. “The next time,” he promised breathlessly through clenched teeth.

Neither of them thought of a next time as each wrung the vestiges of passion from the other where they lay together in a tangle of limbs, gasping for breath.

Eve fell asleep in her husband’s arms while he lay awake staring at the ceiling, trying unsuccessfully to sort out all that had happened since Eve had walked into his life. Each time he made love to her he had not used any form of contraception, and it wasn’t until now that he realized why he hadn’t.

There was always the possibility that he would not leave Mexico alive, and he wanted to make certain he
continued to exist; that was only possible if he got Eve pregnant. He wanted her to have more than just the memories of their time together.

M
att came around the car and opened the door for Eve. She placed her hand in his and stepped out into the warm May night. The setting sun fired the pristine whiteness of his dinner jacket and her matching white, ribbon-silk dress. She turned her face into the cooling breeze blowing off the Pacific Ocean before slipping her arm through Matt’s.

“Do you think Alejandro will be here?” she asked quietly.

“I was told that he was invited,” he replied softly, smiling as they approached their hostess.

His own invitation had arrived at his grandparents’ hacienda weeks before. Magda Castillo always hosted a party to celebrate the end of Acapulco’s bullfight season. Matt suspected Magda’s soirée was a fête of thanksgiving that her matador husband’s life had been spared for another season at the Plaza de Toros.

Magda Castillo floated toward Matt, her gaze fixed on the tall, slender woman at his side. It had taken only a glance to realize that Mateo Arroyo was lost to the women who had openly lusted after him for years. There was a time when she’d been counted among those women.

Before she’d married Enrique Castillo she had thought that perhaps she had a chance to seduce the dangerously attractive owner of El Moro and get him to propose to her. After seeing the woman he’d chosen as his wife, Magda knew she never would’ve been a likely candidate to become Señora Mateo Arroyo.

“Congratulations, Mateo,” she crooned, tilting her face for his kiss. Matt disappointed her when he pressed his mouth to her cheek instead of her lips.

“Thank you, Magda” he returned graciously. “I’d like you to meet my wife. Eve, Magda Castillo.”

Eve gave the beautifully coiffed and attired woman a warm smile, and was rewarded with a forced one that didn’t quite reach Magda’s dark eyes.

She quickly examined the woman whom she suspected might have had more than a passing interest in Mateo Arroyo. Magda’s glossy black hair was swept up in a mass of curls and secured with diamond clips which blazed brilliantly in the light coming from lanterns ringing the perimeter of the courtyard. Her hair was a startling contrast to the paleness of her skin, and Eve wondered if the woman ever exposed herself to the sun.

“If Mateo can bear to part with you for a few minutes, I’d like to introduce you to my husband.”

Matt’s arm curved around Eve’s waist in a protective gesture. There was no way he was going to let her
out of his sight until he found out whether Alejandro Delgado was present.

“Later.”

Magda registered the finality in the single word and shrugged her bare shoulders, her generous breasts threatening to spill from the revealing décolletage of her body-hugging black dress.

“Eve and I would like to circulate first,” Matt offered as an apology.

“Thanks, Darling,” Eve said under her breath after Magda walked away.

“Don’t mention it, Darling.” Matt smiled at her and tightened his hold around her waist.

It took less than twenty minutes for him to uncover that Alejandro Delgado had declined the Castillo invitation. After that he was able to relax.

Eve accepted Magda’s invitation to see the interior of the large white stucco structure she and her husband had recently redecorated. She was monosyllabic as Magda proudly stressed that the house was designed in an almost pure Spanish Colonial Revival style.

She was definitely not interested in the ornate furnishings which the Castillos seemed quite taken with. Eve was disappointed because she would not get to see Alex and question him about Chris.

Suddenly she was annoyed with Matt. He had retreated to the grand salon with a group of men and had left her with the boring, chatty Magda.

Eve escaped her hostess when Magda flitted off to see if her kitchen help needed instructions or chastising. Making her way to the courtyard, she accepted a glass from a passing waiter and took a sip of the
cooling liquid. The drink slipped smoothly down her throat. She recognized the cocktail as a tequila sour.

I just might acquire a taste for tequila
, she thought, smiling and recalling the first time Matt had offered her the drink. So much had happened in the short time since she’d come to Mexico.

“Eve.”

She turned at the sound of her name. Cordero Birmingham headed in her direction.

“Cord,” she returned, relieved to see a familiar face. She had had enough of what Matt had referred to as the Mexican elite.

A wave of dark red hair fell over Cord’s forehead as he reached for her hand. “Where’s Mateo?”

The muted lights strung along the galleria failed to highlight the intensity in Cord’s bright blue eyes. However, Eve recognized the tension in his voice. “He said he would be in the grand salon.”

“Don’t move from here,” Cord ordered before turning and running toward the house.

Eve felt a rush of weakness and leaned against a stone statue to steady her shaking legs. She did what she hadn’t done in a long time—she prayed. Without having to be told she knew Cordero Birmingham and Matt were in the same business. She should’ve realized that when the two of them disappeared on the day of her wedding.

A savage grip on her arm jerked her into awareness. “Let’s get out of here, Eve.”

The strength in Matt’s fingers impeded the circulation in her upper arm. “Where are we going?” she asked breathlessly as he pulled her along at a furious pace.

Her heels slowed her down and Matt swept her up in
his arms, the flowing silk of her dress draping over the sleeve of his dinner jacket and his black dress trousers.

He shoved her into his car and appeared to start and put it into gear all in one motion. “I’m taking you back to Puerto Angel.”

“Why?” Matt didn’t answer. He stared straight ahead, concentrating on the road. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” he retorted, his jaw tightening.

“Don’t lie to me, Matt. I—”

“Enough, Eve!” he snarled. “I have enough to think about without you asking me questions I won’t answer.”

Her jaw snapped loudly and she slouched down on the seat and tried cooling her temper. She was too busy calling him every dirty name she could think of to notice the needle on the speedometer inching closer to the automobile’s maximum speed.

Matt was barely aware of Eve as he recalled the information Cord had given him. The man was seven days early and his message carried death: The Falcon was snared, and was lying close to death in a tiny hospital in a town so small it barely made the map.

He stopped long enough to inform his grandparents that he and Eve were returning to Puerto Angel, then threw their luggage into the trunk of the Lincoln and began the journey back along the Pacific side of Mexico.

Matt parked his car along the narrow alley bordering Jorge’s store. Even though he’d removed his dinner jacket and turned the Lincoln’s air-conditioning to the maximum, the fabric of his dress shirt was pasted to his back and chest.

Jorge was out on the porch before Matt could exit from the car. The light coming through the store’s
front windows revealed an expression on Matt’s face he hadn’t seen since they were teenagers in Lubbock. He knew without asking that Matt was upset.

“What’s up?” he asked in Spanish.

“Take care of Eve, Jorge.”

Jorge nodded. It was apparent Matt wasn’t going to elaborate. “When will you be back?”

Matt stared at Eve as she stepped out of the car and came toward him. Her eyes were wide with fear, and never had he wished more that he was out of this business.

“I don’t know,” he answered slowly, his gaze locked with that of his wife. He removed her luggage from the trunk of the car and handed it to Jorge.

Eve stared at the bag in Jorge’s hand before she looked at Matt. He was leaving her. He was going away—maybe even to lose his life—and leaving her with a man who was practically a stranger.

Matt extended his right hand. “Eve.” His voice was hoarse with heavy emotion.

“Go, Matt,” she whispered. His hand dropped. “Please,” she whispered as she turned and walked to the front door of the grocery store. She opened and closed the door, shutting him out of her vision and her life.

Matt followed the directions Cord had given him, hoping he would make it to the tiny town of San Miguel without mishap. Cord had left Joshua’s bedside long enough to give him the news of the attempt at murder, then returned to await his arrival.

He arrived at San Miguel at ten o’clock and encountered silence. The town claimed a single main street with a hotel, café, and a general store which operated
as a grocery-post-office-pharmacy and service-station-auto-repair establishment. A handpainted sign, nailed to a wooden post, indicated the direction of the hospital, which was housed in what had one time been an old mission.

Matt rang a large bell attached to a massive wooden door and was admitted by the nurse, whom he later discovered was the doctor’s wife. She led him down a corridor and to one of the small, clean rooms at the far end.

Joshua Kirkland’s bloodless face blended with the stark whiteness of the pillowcase cradling his sun-bleached hair. His breathing was shallow, barely detectable.

A doctor sat next to the bed, holding a stethoscope to Joshua’s bandaged chest. Matt nodded to Cord, sitting in a corner, then waited for the doctor to finish examining Joshua before he introduced himself.

“He’s lost a great deal of blood, Señor Arroyo, but fortunately none of his vital organs were damaged.”

Matt did not take his gaze from the motionless figure. He knew Joshua would survive only because if he wouldn’t he would’ve died before he was brought into the hospital. On the other hand, he knew Joshua’s chances for survival diminished alarmingly with every second he remained in Mexico, because whoever attacked him would probably try again.

“He’s very strong,” the doctor continued, registering the look of concern on Matt’s face.

“Is he in a coma?”

“No. I’ve been practicing medicine for a long time,” the elderly surgeon confessed, “but I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s as if he’s willed his brain to shutdown
so that he won’t have to acknowledge his pain or weakness.”

Matt smiled for the first time. The doctor had unknowingly analyzed Joshua Kirkland. Those who knew Joshua joked about him being a human computer. This comment was never made aloud because no one dared to let Joshua know how he’d been categorized.

“How soon can he be moved?” Matt questioned.

“No, no, Señor Arroyo. He cannot be moved. He’s holding his own, but I can’t guarantee that he’ll live if you try—”

“Nothing is guaranteed, Señor Médico,” Matt interrupted. “
Nothing
.”

The doctor shrugged and spread out his hands in a futile gesture. “He’s your responsibility. I’ll sign the discharge papers, and you can take him whenever you’re ready.”

“You know damn well we can’t move him, Mateo,” Cordero Birmingham argued softly after the doctor left the room.

Matt turned and stared at Cord. “What do you suggest we do? Neither one of us can stay here and watch him.”

Cord ran long fingers through his already mussed hair. “How are we going to get him out?”

“I’ll have his family make the arrangements.”

Cord went still. “I thought he didn’t have anyone.”

“He has family,” Matt confirmed.

“I’ll stay here with him while you contact his family,” Cord suggested.

Matt nodded and left the coolness of the mission-turned-hospital and stepped out into the arid heat. The
shadowy figure of an emaciated dog wandered slowly across the darkened landscape.

He removed the cellular phone from the car and punched in the area code for Florida. The telephone on the other end buzzed several times before it was picked up.

“Martin Cole, please,” Matt said into the receiver after a woman had announced he’d reached the Cole residence.

“I’m sorry, sir, but Mr. Cole is not at home at the present time.”

“Where can he be reached?” Matt snapped impatiently.

“Mr. Cole is unavailable, sir.”

He clenched his teeth in frustration. The drawling Floridian accent reminded him of how far he was from home. “Look, Ma’am,” he continued in a softer tone. “I don’t have much time, but it is important that you get a message to Mr. Cole. This is an emergency.”

The woman on the other end registered the urgency in his voice for the first time. “Give me the information, sir, and I’ll have Mr. Cole contact you.”

Matt sat in the car, the door open, his feet planted on the dusty ground, waiting for the return call. He only had to wait three minutes. He swooped up the phone after the first ring.

“Martin?”

“What the hell is going on down there?”

He decided not to mince words. “I need you to arrange to get Joshua out of Mexico. Your brother’s belly met with the blade of someone’s knife, and I’m afraid if you don’t get him out they’ll try again.”

The raw expletive coming through the receiver
raised Matt’s eyebrows. All traces of Martin Cole’s normally velvet tone were absent.

“I’m at the hospital,” Martin informed him. “Parris is in labor, and it’s been tough going for her.” There was a pause. “I can’t leave her, but David’s in your backyard. In fact, he should be touching down in San José in about an hour. Tell me where you are, and I’ll have him make the arrangements to get Josh back here.”

Matt completed the call, then returned to the hospital.

“It’s set,” he informed Cord as he slipped quietly back into the room. “I’ll stay with him.”

Cord rose from the chair beside the bed. “He hasn’t stirred at all. Not even when the nurse changed the intravenous feeding.”

Matt gave him a reassuring smile. “He’ll be all right.” This was Cord’s first international mission and he knew the younger man was uneasy about risks he and Joshua had experienced many, many times in the past.

Cordero Birmingham turned toward the door, then hesitated. “I’ll be back in three days for Eve Blackwell. I’ve been ordered to see that she gets back to her uncle. Three days and no more, or you’re on your own.”

Sudden rage lit up Matt’s golden eyes. “You son of—”