Killer Secrets (11 page)

dangerous, closed the heavy door as Trevor Mandrake moved
to the safe in the wall, coded in the

combination, and pulled free a hand-sized electronic box
and flipped it on.

Trevor moved around the room, watching the digital and
analog displays before giving Ian a short nod

that everything was okay.

The first three months he had been with Diego, he'd had to
sweep his study as well as his bedroom each

time he entered it. The son of a bitch had been determined
to spy on him. They would fight over it, agree

that Diego wouldn't spy on him, then Ian would find more
bugs. Diego had finally begun realizing the

futility of it in the last few months.

"We haven't found a bug in a while," Deke said.
"The old man giving up?"

Ian shot him a chiding look. Diego Fuentes didn't give up,
he just waited until a person was suitably

comfortable.

"The villa next door was leased today," Trevor
announced, moving to the desk as Ian sat down in the

sinfully soft leather and stared across the gleaming cherry
top. "Kira Porter and her uncle Jason McClane

moved in this evening. I did some preliminary background
checks. They're coming up clean."

Trevor powered up his laptop, coded in the security passes,
and brought up the file he had pulled

together on Kira Porter. It was amazingly in-depth.

Ian leaned back in his chair and stared at the file Trevor
was currently scrolling through. There was

nothing about her work as an unofficial agent for the DHS,
and nothing in there concerning her code

name, Chameleon.

"This woman is no one to fuck with," Trevor said,
his voice unaccountably serious. "She has a black belt

in Tae Kwon Do, training in heavy weapons and hand-to-hand
combat. Her cousin managed to buy her

a six-month training session with a team of off-duty SEALs
ten years ago. She goes back for four weeks

once a year to renew that training. Her bodyguard, Daniel
Calloway, is one of the original SEAL team

members that trained her. They train almost daily from what
I understand. And the few times anyone

attempted to kidnap McClane's darling niece, they turned up
dead within weeks. He doesn't take

prisoners, he makes examples."

"Makes sense to train her," Deke mused.
"McClane is protective of her. She's the only family he has

left."

"Enough about Ms. Porter." Ian leaned forward and
hit the command key, closing the file Trevor had

been scrolling through. "She's an interesting event in
our otherwise dull lives, I realize, but we have our

own business to conduct." He flicked his fingers from
the laptop to Trevor, an indication to use the

equipment for the reasons they were there rather than going
over information that, as far as they were

concerned, had nothing to do with the business at hand.

"Okay, delivery routes and points of transport."
Trevor pulled up the satellite map on the laptop. "Here's

the current routes." He highlighted the mountain
passes and broken roads that led to several makeshift

airfields and shipping ports. "We've had reports that
Sorrell has men watching two of those routes, here

and here." Trevor pointed out the routes into the U.S.
"This could be the line he's wanting to use to

transport the explosives and men for the strike rumored to
be in progress against America."

"He's escalating against us to grab those lines,"
Cristo Mendez pointed out. "Not that I give a damn what

happens to a few hundred U.S. soldier boys, but if they
grab those lines then that mess is gonna slap

back on us," he growled.

"Let's move the lines for now," Ian suggested.
"See what he goes after when we switch. The lines as they

are lead into California and then Nevada, and the second
one has a lead into Annapolis. Let's see how

we can reroute them while still making it appear we're
unaware of his spies. I want to know what this

bastard intends to use the Fuentes lines for."

Ian listened to the others' suggestions, watching the
computer screen as Trevor and then Deke laid out

the new supply routes and calculated the risk factors.

There were no hidden roads anymore, satellite recon had
canceled those out. Now, the major job was

to keep the product en route, get it to its location and do
so with the least amount of bloodshed. Because

the various agencies weren't going to make it easy on him.
As far as they were concerned, he was a

traitor now. A SEAL gone bad, and they were out to fuck
him. They had no idea of the danger America

was facing if Sorrell managed to grab the Fuentes power
hold.

But Kira knew the truth, and Ian needed to know exactly
what she intended to do with that truth.

Seven

KIRA KNEW IAN WOULD COMEto her. How she knew, she wasn't
even going to guess; when it

came to the things she knew about Ian, her perception worried
her. The things they seemed to sense

about each other was almost terrifying.

Kira hadn't even known the woman that resided within
herself. She had been the Chameleon for so long,

that when Ian awoke that emotional, sexual part of her last
year, she hadn't known what to do with

herself, or how to handle it.

She was learning though, and if she had to learn, then he
could learn with her. He couldn't convince her

he wasn't working an operation here. She knew better. As he
knew her in all her guises, she knew him as

well. And she was waiting on him.

The security her bodyguard Daniel and her uncle Jason had
laid along the perimeter hadn't included the

stone fence between the two villas. She wanted that clear.
She wanted a straight, easy path for her bad

boy SEAL to get to her.

Traitor, he was called. The order that had gone out from
the law enforcement agencies worldwide was

capture only. They wanted information; they wanted to
crucify him in public for his defection to the other

side. They wanted to make an example of him.

He had excellent security; she had to give him that. The
four men he had gathered around him were

considered the best killers in the Fuentes cartel. Or in
the world. They were hard, jaded, cynical, and

paranoid. And they knew no fear. They were also die-hard
Fuentes soldiers and completely loyal to

Diego.

There were already three confirmed attempts to kidnap the
reigning Fuentes heir. And two attempted

assassinations. Ian had already lost a previous team of
security personnel that Diego Fuentes had placed

around him.

As she lay back, propped up on her pillows in her huge bed,
holding one of the steamy romance novels

she invariably got off on, she watched the figure that
stepped through the open balcony doors.

His dark blond hair was loose, framing his quiet
expression. The tobacco-brown eyes were lit with an

inner fire that burned inside her as well.

He was restraining himself. She could see it in the tension
of his shoulders, the determination in his

expression.

She laid the book on the bedside table, though she did
nothing to cover the black boxer-type panties

and matching tank she wore.

She hadn't dressed to seduce. She'd be damned if she would
allow him the excuse that she had enticed

his hard-won control. Besides, seduction wasn't on her
agenda. There were no lies between them, they

both knew why he was there, they both knew the hunger
rising between them wouldn't be denied for

long.

"You're not leaving, are you?" He was a
straightforward kind of guy. She liked that. And his voice

assured her that he wasn't accepting excuses this time.

Ian stood at the foot of the bed, one hand gripping the
heavy post beside him as he stared at her with

banked fury.

"No."

The curse that sizzled from his lips told her that wasn't
an answer he wanted to hear.

He stared around the room then, before pulling a small
electronic box from the pocket of his slacks and

flipping a switch on it.

Kira came to her knees in the middle of the bed, excitement
lancing through her body.

"It's the new model?" She knew the wand Jason had
used, for all its technological advancements, was

nothing compared to what he held in his hand.

He flicked her a dubious glare. "Down, girl. You're
not getting it."

Kira pouted as she placed her hands on her hips and watched
him impatiently.

"You could at least let me look at it."

"Not on your life. I'd never get it back." He
left the device on as he set it on the dresser across from the

bed.

Kira stared at it, fascinated by the little blinking lights
on the monitor, dying to get her hands on it. She

was a freak for security electronics, and the so-far
rumor-only Type X electronic detector made her

salivate. It detected not just analog or digital listening
devices, but also hyperbolic equipment trained in

the vicinity as well as GPS technology.

She dragged her gaze from the fascinating little toy and
back to the mesmerizing man.

"I don't need your help." He stood at the foot of
the bed once again, tension humming through his body.

"There's a price on your head," she informed him.
"It might be for capture only, but that doesn't make

you safe."

"I'm aware of the price and the fact that it's rising
daily," he told her softly. "I want you to leave, Kira.

When this is over, I'll find you . . ."

"If you're still alive to do so?" She moved from
the bed, pacing to the small table across from her and the

bottle of wine and glasses set out there. "I'm not
willing to wait."

"I can have you pulled off this," he told her
then.

She had known he would play that little ace he thought he
had.

She poured two glasses of wine before turning and moving to
him. He accepted the glass, still frowning

at her, his brows lowered broodingly.

"I have carte blanche, being a contract agent and all."
Kira kept her voice to a mere breath. "You can't

pull me off anything, Ian."

Frustration gleamed in his eyes. Kira sipped her wine,
returned to the bed to stretch out on it and lean

back into the mound of pillows.

He still held his wine loosely, close to his thigh, staring
at her, working through this new complication, as

well as the obvious arousal straining his slacks.

The white cotton shirt he wore outside his pants hung
nearly to his thighs, the ultrasoft material giving him

a relaxed though sophisticated appearance.

"Would you like to discuss it?" she finally
asked, bringing her glass back to her lips.

"Your security is slipping," he informed her
then. "We have the information on your training and your

SEAL instructors."

"Of course you do. So do all the bad guys."
Amusement curled through her. "A knowledge of strength is

the best deterrent when it comes to those believing they
can slip in on me. If you checked my past out at

all, you'd know I'm heavily into deterring problems."

And being prepared.

He brought the wine to his lips, sipped, then turned and
walked back to the sideboard where he placed

the delicate glass beside the bottle. When he turned back
to her, Kira glimpsed the barely restrained

dominance eating at him. His control was shaky, as shaky as
her own. Especially when his gaze slid to

her breasts where her tight, hard nipples pressed into the
thin tank top.

"Do you get off on fucking traitors?" he asked
her then. "I wonder if your boss knows about that?"

Kira rolled her eyes. "You're not a traitor,
Ian."

"You can't know that for sure, can you, Kira?"