Kat Attalla Special Edition (32 page)

He cupped his hands on her shoulders and gave her a shake. “Damn it, Lilly! How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t work for Santana! He killed my partner, for God’s sake.”

She pushed him away and stepped back. “Then who do you work for?”

He paused, deciding whether or not to answer. The idea had been to frighten her by  keeping her in the dark, and again he’d mastered his craft. Her questioning stare reflected the battle scars of a war weary refugee too suspicious to recognize an ally. He’d learned the hard way that control by fear didn’t work with Lilly. Perhaps control through trust might.

“The
United States
Customs Service. Special Agent Jack Murphy at your service, ma’am.” He tipped his head and walked out the door.

Chapter
Five

Lilly tried to compose a coherent thought. The Customs Department? What did they want with her? And why go to all the trouble of smuggling her into her own country when she could go back of her own free will?

She still had many unanswered questions, but when she looked up, Jack had gone. Well, he shouldn’t blame her when he’d lied to begin with. What was she supposed to think when a strange man followed her all over the world? Instead of feeling relief, her temper began to boil. If the good guys arbitrarily broke the law to achieve their goals, how could anyone tell them from the criminals?

She took the leftover eggs, sandwiched in a chunk of bread, and put it aside to eat later. The rest of the platters she neatly stacked and carried into the galley. Crashing around some cast iron pots would help her let off steam. She only wished she could crack one over Jack’s head.

“You’re free to go,” he’d told her. Like she had anywhere to go now. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed American would not go unnoticed in
Morocco
. A caftan and veil would help, but she had no place to hide anyway.

Free to go? If she had to, she would stalk him.

After finishing the dishes, she poured herself a cup of coffee and went to enjoy her breakfast. She saw Jack talking to Mustafa at the end of the hallway, but decided against speaking to him yet. As she entered the dining area she noticed her breakfast was no longer on the table. She turned back and glanced down the hall just as Jack took the last bite of her sandwich. The louse hadn’t been content with ruining her breakfast, he ate it too.

The day passed too quickly for her to find a chance to speak with Jack. She had a full time job just keeping the men fed. By the time she retired for the night, Jack had already started his shift.

Every time Lilly found a spare second, Jack disappeared. Oh, he cleverly kept up the charade. In front of the men he was playful and attentive, but the minute they were alone, he made a quick retreat to work. As the boat filled up with the daily catch there was always something that needed to be done.

The first day, she thought she’d never get used to the smell of fish, but after a while, she didn’t even notice. She worried about what would happen when they arrived in port. If she didn’t speak to Jack soon, it might be too late. Three days had already passed, and she had no idea how much longer they would remain at sea.

When she finished the last of the dinner dishes, she climbed up on deck in search of Jack. He stood at the rail of the bow, watching the red sunset. She took a deep breath and grabbed hold of his arm. “May I talk to you?”

He glanced down at the fingers grasping the fabric of his sleeve and raised his head slowly. “What do you want?”

She cast off the last remaining threads of her stubborn pride. “Please don’t leave me there by myself.”

“Why not? That’s what you want, isn’t it? Or maybe I should stick around until you really do slit my throat.”

Her eyes flew automatically to the gash on his cheek. It had begun to heal, but there would no doubt be a scar. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know who you were. What would you have done in my place?”

* * * *

Jack opened his mouth and then clamped it shut again. How could he defend his actions? He had kidnapped her and he had lied to her. When he was honest with himself, which wasn’t often these days, he couldn’t blame her. He had, in effect, terrorized her across half of the European continent. Should he now expect her to see him as her savior and offer herself to him in undying gratitude?

Although, that mental picture appealed to him. “You’re right.”

She let go of his arm and began pacing. “So, maybe I have a quick temper. I’m sorry. That’s the way I am. But I won’t complain about anything again. I promise.”

“Okay.”

She seemed so intent on getting the words out of her mouth that she stared straight down at the deck and walked back and forth. “Well, maybe I can’t promise that. But I’ll try. Although why I care if I get back is a mystery. I’m going to be paying off my credit cards for the rest of my natural life. However long that might be.”

Jack leaned back against the rail and smiled as she finished her monologue. He saw no point in trying to stop her. She didn’t pause long enough to listen.

“Of course, I won’t live very long if you leave me by myself. And, well, I said I’m sorry. And short of promising you my first born, which I’d have to survive to bear, I don’t know what else you want me to say.” Finally finished, she turned her desperate eyes up to him. “Jack?”

“Are you always this long-winded?”

She blinked. “What?”

“Are you going to be yapping like this until we get back?”

The fear in her face drained away. “You had no intention of leaving me alone, did you?”

He shook his head and broke out in a wide grin. “None at all.”

She smacked her palms into his chest and groaned. Although she was smaller than him by a head, he humored her and let her try to punish him. He enjoyed the feeling of her hands on him.

“And you just let me go on and on, making a fool of myself. Of all the contemptible….” She grabbed the collar of his shirt. “Rotten….” She shoved him backwards. “Slimy….”

She paused, and he saw her struggle for more adjectives to hurl at him. “Should I wait here while you get a thesaurus?”

She stomped her foot in frustration. “Oh, I hate you.”

He laughed and pulled her into his arms. He gazed into her eyes, trying to see how much conviction she held in her words. She was confused, maybe even a little frightened. But hate? God knows he’d given her enough reason. “No, you don’t hate me. But I’ll just bet you wish you did.”

* * * *

Lilly’s jaw dropped. He’d landed so close to the truth that she was stunned. She didn’t want to need him in any capacity. But she did, in more ways than she dared admit.

When she looked up again, he was no longer laughing. His dark eyes searched her face, and she knew his intention before he made a single move.
Stop him while you can
.

His strong arm circled her waist, pulling her even closer. The protest on the tip of her tongue was brushed away as their lips met, forcing a response she tried hard to suppress.

She raised her hands to push him away, but her traitorous arms locked around his neck. While her mind screamed
no
, her body moved so close she heard the beating of his heart drumming out all caution.

He explored her mouth with his tongue at the same time his hands explored her body, teasing and tantalizing, heightening every nerve ending. His rough hand slid gently under her tee shirt, gliding upward until it rested below her breast. He paused, as if expecting some kind of withdrawal, but she pulled him back.

Never had a kiss affected her in such a way. Every part of her body tingled, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. He moved his hand up and covered her breast, stroking the hardened tip until she let out a soft sigh of pleasure.

How did he make her react like that when she didn’t even like him? She broke away, trying to regain her sensibility. Her response had nothing to do with likes or dislikes. Logically, she knew that she merely experienced a physical reaction to an outside stimulus. Logic hadn’t propelled her into his arms to begin with. That was pure emotion, no matter how much she wanted to deny it to herself.

* * * *

Jack bit his bottom lip to keep from grinning. For someone who claimed to hate him, she’d certainly put a lot into that kiss. The soft panting and shining midnight-blue eyes that stared back was all the proof he needed. He wisely hid his triumph. Lilly reacted, and she was furious with herself. Any comment would unleash all that fury on him.

Even in her anger, when he leaned forward to kiss her again, she returned the kiss. At the same time she kissed him, her arms begin to tense. Only because he quickly caught her wrists in his hands was he spared the physical assault she clearly wanted to inflict.

“If I let you go, are you going to hit me?”

“Yes,” she hissed as she tried to yank her arms free. “Let me go.”

“So that you can hit me? I think not.”

She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep, calming breath. “I won’t hit you.” Jack let her go and stepped back to look at her. Whips of blonde hair framed her flushed face. What a sensual beauty! Wild and passionate and very much shocked by her own behavior.

He raised one hand to her cheek, and she smacked it away violently. “You said you weren’t going to hit me.”

“I lied.”

He stifled another laugh. “Oh, Lilly. And you promised me not five minutes ago that you weren’t going to complain about anything. You even promised me your first born.”

“I didn’t promise you could father him.”

He cocked his eyebrow. “Then what’s the point? All I’d get is dirty diapers.”

As hard as she tried, she couldn’t contain a smile. She rested her head on the shoulder he offered and moaned. “I can’t win against you.”

He ran his hand along the side of her face and down her neck, twisting his finger through her hair to force her to look up. “It’s not a contest, baby. I can’t have you fighting me all the time. We have enough problems ahead.”

Lilly was a very independent woman. She didn’t like being told what to do, but in this case she seemed to accept his rules. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth from the beginning?”

“Because I didn’t know if you were involved or not.”

“Involved in what?”

“Don’t you have any idea what Santana was really exporting?”

She shook her head. “I never actually saw the cargo. He gave me the information, and I typed up the documents. Only sometimes my paperwork was so far off the mark that I was beginning to question my own abilities.”

“What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t take a genius fill out international shipping documents. But half the time he made me change the paperwork. Either I’d chosen the wrong shipper, or he claimed my calculations were off.”

“But we can’t prove that he changed anything. You signed all the paperwork.”

“I may be a farm girl but I’m no idiot. Every time he made me change it, I saved my original and made a copy of the changes he authorized. At first, I figured he was being overcharged for freight, and I wanted to get him proof. But after a few months I realized that something was wrong. So I asked him about it and when I didn’t like the answer I got, I took the file from my desk and left.”

That kind of proof could be the break they needed for a conviction. Santana must have known she had the originals or she wouldn’t be a threat to him. “Where is the file now?”

Lilly twisted her fingers together nervously. “What good are they? Those are shipments that have already left.”

“To see if there’s a pattern.”

Frowning, she mumbled sadly, “There’s no pattern. I read through them a dozen times trying to figure it out. Different days, different cargo, different ships, different destinations.”

“But how many different customs officials?”

“What?”

“How does he always get them through customs? We’ve never been able to catch him. Every time he’s been searched, he’s come up clean. Someone has to be informing him.”

“What are you talking about? Drugs?”

“No, drugs are a bigger problem on the import end, not export.”

“Guns?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

He couldn’t tell her, or her testimony would be worthless. Any good lawyer could make a case for collusion. Especially since Lilly’s signature appeared on everything. He had to keep her guessing. She knew export laws. Eventually, she would figure it out.

She leaned back against the rail and closed her eyes. “Chemicals that can be used to manufacture weapons. He sends them under the guise of medicines.”

He smiled, impressed with how quickly she caught on. “That’s the one.”

“But that doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t he give me correct information to begin with? Why make me go through two sets of paperwork?”

“To set you up for a fall if he got caught. He wanted to make it look like you were the one changing the paper work after he gave orders. I’m sure he was never expecting someone like you to walk out with the file of originals.” That came out tactlessly, he realized, when her eyes filled with tears.