INTO DANGER (Secret Assassins (S.A.S.S.) Book 1) (28 page)

This was more like it. Back in control. For now she would make believe that this was her territory. Her man.

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S
teve muttered a soft curse. Jackass. Instead of talking it out, he’d gone after Marlena with his dick. Now there was a gulf between them. He knew her body but not her mind, and she was determined to keep him at arm’s length. He understood why. She had lost control last night and hadn’t liked it.

Now there wasn’t time. Hands in her jacket pockets, Tess studied them, amusement gleaming in her gray eyes. He knew she was checking out the scratch on his cheek. She would probably have a good laugh if she knew about the big purple bruise in the middle of his back. Or the scratches there. In fact he had marks all over him. His mermaid hadn’t started the night very submissively. His lips quirked as he recalled her declaration. Marking her territory, she’d declared. Ruefully he had to admit that she’d done that very well.

He glanced over at Marlena. She was walking a little gingerly. She wore a white angora top over white leather pants. Pale pink pearl necklace with matching earrings. Very cool, very sophisticated. But she still looked well kissed, he couldn’t help noting smugly. And she very well better admit she’d been marked, too. To his frustration, she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“I said to talk, not walk all over each other,” Tess commented, as she surveyed the living room and them. Other than picking up the leftover material that had been their clothes, they hadn’t had time to straighten up the place. She picked up half of a leather belt and wagged it around. “Remind me not to take a suite here. The room service leaves much to be desired.”

Actually, room service was amazing. A call to the hotel butler had produced a shirt and a pair of pants within half an hour. No questions asked.

“I’ve already used the intranet component,” Marlena told Tess. “Everything should have been transmitted.”

“Good. By the time we finish with Steve’s admiral, I should have verification from Command, and the rest of the codes. I suppose Steve did get to fill you in with some details since last night?” Tess’s smile echoed the mockery in her voice. She kicked one boot aside as she walked toward the dining table.

“All I need to know is when I can get back to my job. Alone.”

Steve curbed the urge to say something sarcastic. Last night was still on his mind, and there was no way to get around the fact he’d fallen in love with Marlena Maxwell. He realized that his attempts to get her to talk to him seriously had been a belly flop, and if he really wanted to get serious about winning this woman, he’d better learn more of her ways and the way her world worked. Right now she wanted her comfort zone back. He would give it to her for a few hours while he sorted things out at his end.

“Too many cooks involved in this soup, darling,” Tess said, shaking her head. She pulled out a chair. “We have to straighten out who the players are.”

“By exposing me?” Marlena asked, picking up her cup of coffee.

“Putting you in danger was the last thing I wanted to do,” Steve said quietly. How could she still think that after last night? “I didn’t know then what I know now.”

“Obviously there are a lot of layers at work here,” Tess chimed in. “I wouldn’t be here if it were an easy knot to unravel, M. You know I have stuff to do in New York.”

“Oh, I know why you’re here. I just don’t know why he’s here.” Marlena finished her coffee, hiding her expression behind the cup.

If she wanted to squash him like a bug under her pretty white boots, she was doing a good job of it. Steve shoved his hands into his pants, fisting them. He caught Tess’s warning glance and pursed his lips grimly.

Tess noisily stirred her coffee, then studied the pattern on the little silver spoon, rolling it between her fingers. “Anger is such a powerful emotion. Did you know that was how I drove away Alex?” she asked conversationally. She got off the sofa, her sideways glance steady on Marlena. Steve noted her stilted shoulders as both women exchanged challenging stares.

“Don’t mess with my mind now,” Marlena warned.

“Darling, you’re already a mess.” Unperturbed, Tess indicated their surroundings.

“You got what you wanted, didn’t you? Your Alex did exactly what you wanted.”

Steve wasn’t sure what was happening or who this Alex was, but the subject was obviously meant to push Tess away. He was beginning to understand what Tess told him. Marlena had been goading him on purpose. To drive him away. She’d been using NOPAIN on him.

“Yes, he did do exactly what I wanted,” Tess agreed, then turned toward the door. “But I didn’t get what I wanted. It’s time to go or we’ll be late.”

***

T
hankfully, the trip to the Office of Naval Research in Arlington was more businesslike in tone. Marlena didn’t ask many questions, but Steve could tell she wanted to know more about why they were involving the navy. Tess wore a brooding far-off expression, even though she answered the questions without any appearance of being distracted. Steve had the feeling that she was thinking of something—or someone—else.

He had things on his mind too, and more questions than he would like. When he was first told all those months ago he was being transferred to TIARA on an interim basis, he’d known that there were reasons for his being suddenly sent to D.C., that the admiral didn’t just pick one of his field operatives to go behind a desk. His covert training in STAR Force prepared him to enter into something unfamiliar on a need-to-know basis. Perhaps he was a little uneasy and just a tad disappointed with the way TIARA’s Task Force Two worked, compared to his own SEAL team, but he’d been willing to learn and integrate, had tried to get along with the others, some of whom didn’t seem to appreciate his transfer into their department.

At first Steve had thought it was just the natural competitiveness between different covert fields. He was a soldier, and TIARA members considered the military their footservants, so to speak, doing the dirty work for them while they gathered the necessary intel. However, as the months went by, he became aware of an underlying suspicion of him, of the group split into two, some of whom—like Cam—accepted him, and some—like Harden—who distanced themselves from him. It was exasperating, because he knew he couldn’t do a good job without total team trust.

He glanced at Marlena, physically sitting so close, yet mentally miles away. She had started it all. Besides wreaking havoc on his emotional life, she’d been the pivotal point that had forced out some of the information being kept from him.

The admiral obviously had another agenda when he’d sent Steve to TIARA. It wasn’t just a temporary fill-in, as he’d told him, and an opportunity to learn how the covert food chain worked. Harden had accused him of being the admiral’s eyes and ears. The main question was, what did the admiral want him to see and hear?

It couldn’t be mere coincidence they were meeting at the Office of Naval Research, especially after learning last night that Cunningham worked at the NRL. There had to be a connection because the ONR was the parent organization to maritime labs around the world.

Steve mentally connected the dots. Industrial research led to Project X-S-BOT. The missing laptop led to the meeting at the Naval Research Lab in D.C. Maritime research led to the navy, which led to the admiral. Where did GEM fit in? He looked at Marlena again.

She chose to slant her gaze in his direction at that very instant, and their eyes met. He could drown in those blue depths so easily, so full of secrets and promises. He couldn’t forget how dreamy she looked when they made love, how those eyes lost the defensive shields that hid what she thought and felt. In bed she responded without suspicion or fear. She didn’t draw away as she was doing now.

He wouldn’t let her gaze go, and they continued staring at each other silently. He wanted to know what she was planning. Experience had taught him that it was always better to be one step ahead of Marlena Maxwell.

“Looks like we’re expected,” announced Tess as they reached their destination. They went through security without any difficulty and followed the officer.

Marlena smiled at the smartly dressed young man holding out the door for her. “Thank you,” she said, knowing Steve was watching.

“What would you like to drink, ma’am?” asked the young man, smiling back appreciatively.

“Something hot,” Marlena answered. She turned to Tess with an arching smile. “Men in uniform...something about them.”

“And for you, ma’am? Sir?” The officer didn’t know that Steve was navy, too, since he was in civvies.

“The same thing Marlena is having, please,” Tess murmured, amusement in her eyes.

Steve repressed the urge to bark at the young officer. These two women were lethal weapons. Didn’t they ever stop playing their games? “Something cold,” he said.

As the officer left the room, Tess turned to Marlena, “Stash’s on to your little fun.”

Marlena chose one of the chairs around the conference table in the spacious office. “Stop teaching him things he isn’t supposed to know, then,” she said lightly, and gave a playful whirl in her seat.

“Well now, that’s my fun,” Tess teased.

“Seems like there is a lot of fun at my expense lately,” Steve remarked, and sat down next to Marlena. “Well, you’re in luck. You get fun sitting between the both of you.”

Marlena frowned, hearing Tess’s soft laughter. Why was she feeling so possessive? She remembered what she’d nearly admitted to that morning and firmly pushed the thought away in some corner of her mind. Love was out of the question. Besides, he didn’t look like someone who would fall in love with her anyhow.

The connecting door opened. The admiral came in first. Marlena recognized him immediately, not just from the rows and rows of medals on his uniform, but from the photos of him. Admiral Jack Madison was famous. And very handsome for a man in his fifties. Even her heart fluttered a little in the presence of such authority and magnetism.

“Tess, how are you?” he greeted warmly. Marlena sighed inwardly as she witnessed the friendly buss he gave Tess’s cheek. Trust T to have friends like that.

“Jack, marriage suits you,” Tess observed. “Sorry I couldn’t make it to the wedding.”

“You have to meet my wife sometime,” Admiral Madison said, then turned to Steve, returning his salute. “McMillan.”

“Good morning, sir.”

Marlena could see Steve’s respect for the admiral. She supposed it would be pretty hard not to admire a renowned and decorated war hero such as Jack Madison, one of the first SEAL commanders known for his saves as well as his kills. She wondered for the first time about working in a team such as a SEAL unit, as opposed to covert self-reliance.

“This is Marlena Maxwell,” Tess introduced her.

His handshake was firm and confident. “Admiral,” Marlena acknowledged, skipping the usual niceties. She really didn’t want to be there, so what was the point of pretending?

Admiral Jack Madison, in turn, introduced the other two men who came in with him. “This is the commanding officer of NRL, Captain Hector Douglas, and this is the civilian director, Dr. Thomas Cafferty. Please sit down. This is just an informal meeting, but I trust all of you understand that nothing discussed here goes beyond this room.”

After they spent a few minutes setting up and getting comfortable, the round conference table looked decidedly smaller with six people occupying it with various folders, laptops, and accessories. Marlena couldn’t remember the last time she’d attended a real conference that had to do with her job. Most of her debriefing was quietly done, on a one-on-one basis. She was an outside contractor, an entity that usually meant the fullest possible secrecy. Her role as any agency’s shadow asset was too useful to allow group conferences. T must trust the admiral’s outfit a great deal more than she had realized.

“We’ve been working at cross purposes,” Admiral Madison began, looking each of them in the eye. “That’s why I thought it necessary to call a meeting between us to clear things up. Tess, I didn’t know you were involved or I would have contacted you right at the beginning. Then we would have fewer complications.”

Tess shook her head. “You know how government agencies are, Jack. Different agendas and no communication. In a way that’s good because of our CIA problem right now, but it can become challenging trying to figure out who’s doing what, especially in the rare instances such as this one, when we bump into each other.”

“Well, this is a rather big bump, isn’t it?”

Tess smiled. “Definitely.” She clasped her hands on the table as she considered the admiral and the other two men. “I wonder whether you understand how big it is.”

The admiral lifted a hand, a casual gesture of surrender. “No, no verbal challenges with you today, Tess. I need this as clear-cut as possible for my two men here. They’re in charge of the projects at NRL, as you can see, and certainly have a great interest in the missing laptop.”

“This isn’t my assignment. I defer to Miss Maxwell.”

Marlena looked at Tess with a start. She? Answer questions? No way. “The laptop was stolen. I retrieved it, that’s all.” And she was sticking to that story.

Admiral Madison studied Marlena for a moment. “My man Steve McMillan isn’t after the laptop, Miss Maxwell. In fact we didn’t know anything about your assignment until yesterday. When I transferred him to TIARA I wanted him to report its activities back to me because of information leaks that were obviously coming from there. The CIA has a major rat infestation, and since my group depends on TIARA for certain intel, I’m putting a lot of my men’s lives in jeopardy every time I rely on that information. Your appearance became one of those leaks, as you can see. Your file seemed to have ended up too easily in the hands of William Cunningham, don’t you think?”

“Who happened to work at NRL,” Marlena pointed out. “How do you know the main leak isn’t from the research lab itself?”

“I, too, thought William Cunningham was the main NRL link,” Steve said, looking thoughtfully at the admiral. “Since he’s dead, that’s a dead end. We need the others working for him. There is at least one at TIARA who somehow got hold of what I gave to Harden.”