Storm Warning (Security Specialists International Book 4) (29 page)

“Oh yeah.” Tweeter trailed a finger down DJ’s spine until it reached the silky fabric at her waist. “Been in before. Left a back door.”

“Fuck me,” Dawn breathed. “I think I’m in love.”

“Mine,” DJ said. “But I’m sure we can find you a nice guy.”

Dawn laughed and shook her head. “Maybe I should let you. God knows, the guys I come across are twats.”

“Twats?” DJ asked.

“Idiots,” Dawn translated.

Tweeter liked the little Brit, and he could tell DJ did also. Maybe Dawn would like to become the second SSI female operative? He’d talk to Ren after their current op was done. SSI paid a lot better than Interpol and had much less bureaucracy. They could have Vanko, a former Interpol operative, talk to her.

O’Riley ran over and fawning ensued. If the Irishman had beamed any brighter, he could’ve done double duty as a fucking lighthouse. It promised to be a long, boring evening, but Tweeter would take boring as long as DJ was next to him, all safe and sound.

Evening, February 25
th

“Ace?” DJ called out for the third time. This time she leaned over his shoulder and bit his ear lobe.

The lines and lines of code on his monitor passed in a blur. Clearly, he understood all that gibberish, but she didn’t. Give her a computer screen with maps, longitudes, latitudes, wind speed, air speed, and elevations—and she was fine. This?—not so much.

“Sec,” he muttered.

Over the last few hours, he’d been in what she’d come to think of as a geek coma. She wasn’t even sure if she’d walked in front of him stark naked, knelt down, and began giving him a blow job, he’d have come out of it.

He typed in a few more lines to the multitude of existing lines and hit “Enter.” Then he turned and pulled her face to his and took her mouth in a nibbling, tongue-thrusting kiss. When he broke away, she was breathless.

“Thanks, I needed that,” he rasped, his voice scratchy from lack of use.

Okay, the blow job might’ve pulled him out, but she bet just her naked wouldn’t have. Might be interesting to test her theory some time when they weren’t in public and surrounded by potential danger.

She sank her teeth into his lower lip and then let go. “You’re welcome, but that’s not why I wanted your attention.”

Ace swivelled his chair and pulled her onto his lap. She threw her arms around his neck and rested against him. She massaged his neck as he rubbed her thigh. “You know you could cover my ass by sitting next to me. You don’t have to stand.”

“Yeah, but I want to be able to move fast.” And reach her weapons quickly. Her long dress concealed the weapons she’d strapped to her thighs, but getting access in a timely manner wasn’t something the designer figured into the design of his evening dresses. To remedy that fault, she’d undone the stitching on both sides so she could slip her hand through the seams and get at her weapons. Still not the fastest route, but better than not being able to access them at all. Her quick go-to backup was a Taser in her evening purse, along with her cell phone with Conn as number one on her speed dial.

“Well, I’m done. We can leave tonight after we’ve retired to our suite and things quiet down a bit.”

Halle-fucking-lujah.
Over the evening, the tension in the room had bloomed as the tests grew harder. Even nerds got intense and threw off their own unique form of testosterone. Even stronger vibes had come from O’Riley and Salazar. Their avid focus was on Ace; they had ever-growing hard-ons for his computer skills.

DJ wanted her man out of here—the sooner, the better.

Ace nuzzled her neck and took a little bite. “Why were you trying to get my attention?”

“I need to visit the ladies’ room, and Dawn’s willing to go with me.” She turned and the other woman was laughing at them. “I sort of forgot.”

He chuckled. “I like that I can befuddle you.”

“I like you befuddling me. But if you can leave now—”

“Not just yet. Still need to play the game. O’Riley is supposed to sign off on the completion of the tests. No reason to make them suspicious now.” Ace hit his time clock and looked over at O’Riley who nodded and then turned to say something to Salazar. “Come straight back here. I should be ready to leave by then.”

“Okay.” DJ got off his lap and kissed him on the lips. “Hold my place. I have plans for you once we’re well away from here.”

“What a coincidence—I have plans for you, too. The bedroom on the jet has our name written all over it.” He slapped her on the butt. “Go on. Hurry back.”

DJ joined Dawn, who still sat at her comp station a few feet from Ace’s. “Ace is completely done.”

Dawn whistled and rose. “The Phantom’s good. You two going to retire for the night?”

“Yes. I have plans for that man.”

Dawn laughed. “Doll, if I had a man like that, I’d have plans too.” The woman led the way into the ladies’ room and checked it out. “No one else here. No little bugs either. Let’s take turns. I don’t trust Rossi. He was eyeing me earlier after you were declared off-limits. Guess his bad reputation has had a chilling effect on the local female population, and he’s willing to settle for the only single woman available even if she’s a little dark wren.”

“Dawn, without all the gunk…” DJ entered the stall. “You’re striking.”

“Tell the blokes that, would you? Most men never notice small dark birds when they can have leggy blonde goddesses.”

Since they were alone and bug-free, DJ asked the question that had been bothering her ever since she recognized the agent. “I’ve seen you without all that gunk. You’re very pretty. In fact, I’d call you a delicate beauty, striking with porcelain skin, green cat eyes, and thick, silky hair. Is that why you layered on the Goth makeup—to deflect male attention?”

“Yeah, even geek types get handsy.” She entered the stall as DJ went to the sink. “But I’m still not in your league. You could be the model you’re pretending to be.”

“Have no desire to stand around and have people take my picture.” DJ would rather shoot herself than model. “By the way, Ace has four brothers. I’ve met them. Very nice guys. They’re just like Ace, strong and intelligent, but without the computer geek side. Interested?”

Dawn exited the stall and joined DJ at the sink. “Really? Okay, maybe—we’ll see. Ready to go back? I still have another three tasks to finish on my hacking for the evening. Not all of us are the Phantom.”

DJ laughed. “Well, you know more than I do about computers. All that stuff looked like nonsense to me.”

They walked back into the conference room. DJ looked around and her gut roiled. Forcing herself to breathe through the overwhelming sense of dread, she turned to Dawn. “Do you see Ace?”

“No.” Dawn’s answer was terse as they approached Ace’s computer station. “His computer’s still here. No self-respecting geek leaves his computer on and unlocked for another geek to mess with.”

“Yeah.” DJ looked around. “Plus, he wouldn’t leave without me.” Even more worrisome, she didn’t see O’Riley.

“I know. That man loves you. Even if you weren’t covering his ass, he’d be covering yours. My gut is screaming bloody murder.” Dawn frowned. “Bloody fucking hell. Salazar just entered the room from the back service hallway. I do not like the smarmy look on the fuckwit’s face.”

DJ looked over her shoulder. Salazar headed their way. She turned to face Dawn and then leaned into the smaller woman and pressed a small card into her hand. The Brit slid it into one of her pockets. “Those coordinates lead to a man named Sam Crocker. He’s CIA. Tell him what happened. He knows how to get in touch with Ace’s and my backup—if I can’t.”

“Okay, doll.” Dawn patted her arm and then said loudly for Salazar’s benefit, “I’m sure there’s a good reason why your man isn’t waiting for you.”

DJ sniffed. “He promised to stay right here.” She turned away from Dawn and faced Salazar who reached for her hands. She wrung them together in front of her to avoid having her movements restricted. Plus, she didn’t want the sleaze-bag touching her.

“Erik is not missing, Dahlia.” Salazar practically purred. “We are hammering out our agreement with him.” DJ didn’t like Salazar’s slimy tone of voice or the slight smile on his face. “We are suspending the rest of the tests. Erik is obviously the best hacker present, and my employer very much wants the Phantom to agree to be on his team.”

The latter was most likely true, but Ace wouldn’t have left the room willingly. He definitely would’ve put off talking employment since he hadn’t planned on hanging around for the rest of the contest. So, the hammering-out-an-agreement language was Salazar bullshit. Her worst fear was they’d figured out who Ace really was and even now were torturing him for information on how compromised Oraio was.

Chill, Dahlia Jane. You’re guessing. Go with the man. Deal with him. Then get your man back.

“Where he is?” She blinked at Salazar and managed to squeeze a tear, from undiluted anger, not fear.

“No need to cry, lovely one.”
Gag
. Salazar gestured toward the exit to the service hallway which ran behind all the conference rooms. “We’ll go to the room we are using as an office and you can see him.”

DJ nodded, then turned to Dawn and hugged her. She muttered against the woman’s ear, “Ace and I have trackers. Get to Crocker.”

“Okay, doll. See you later.” Dawn gave her a squeeze.

DJ turned and walked on Salazar’s left side, maintaining enough distance so she could defend herself, if needed. Her mind kept wandering to what they might be doing to Ace.

Get your head in the game, Dahlia Jane.

This was a search-and-rescue operation. She’d done hundreds of those in war zones. She needed to get her mind wrapped around the current mission and stay on task. Whatever had happened in the past or was happening now, she had no control over. What happened in the next few minutes and beyond was totally under her control, and her actions would take her one step closer to completing her mission—getting Ace back.

She refused to fail.

Her head back in the game, she slipped her left hand through the slit in her dress and touched the knife in its scabbard. The motion further helped to center her and strengthen her resolve.

Hold on, Ace. I’m coming.

As they walked the lengthy, deserted hallway, she took slow, deep breaths and readied herself to move quickly and decisively when the opportunity arose. Her senses became hyper-aware to every breath and motion from the man beside her and to their surroundings.

They were alone. There were no resort employees around. No security guards.

Salazar had come for her without backup, thinking he could easily handle her. He was cocky and that would be his downfall.

When they reached a rear exit to the outside, she stopped. “I thought we were going to where Erik is.”

“We are. The room we’re using as an office is in a
casita
.” His tone was impatient.

He was also lying. If Ace were in a
casita
on the grounds, she’d eat her Beretta.

“Mr. Salazar, I apologize for my earlier upset when I didn’t find Erik waiting for me. I really don’t need to be there while my fiancé does his business thing. Why don’t I just go and wait in our
casita
? He can come to me when he’s done signing contracts or whatever.”

Salazar grabbed her upper right arm in a tight grip and man-handled her through the doorway. “No, no, Dahlia. You must come with me. Erik is being very unreasonable. He is refusing to sign anything without seeing you first. He thinks my friend Alberto has you.”

“Why would he think that?” She allowed him to drag her along, while still managing to keep her body away from his as much as possible.

Her left hand hovered over her thigh. Her Taser was unreachable in her purse slung across her chest and lying between her and Salazar. Even if she could get to her gun on her right thigh, it was too noisy to use this close to the resort.

“Because we told him so. He wishes to see that you are unharmed.”

DJ heard the implied “for now” he left off.

One thing she knew for sure, Ace’s cover was still intact. Somehow, O’Riley had subdued him in a room full of people and taken him away. Now, Oraio’s people were using threats to harm her as leverage to get the Phantom to work for Oraio. The only bright spot in all of this was they needed Ace healthy enough to work for them, so they wouldn’t hurt him so much that he couldn’t. Still, she wouldn’t be at ease until she had him safely by her side.

DJ never should’ve left him. But then neither one of them would’ve expected Oraio’s men to make such a move in a room full of potential witnesses.

A bruising grip on her arm, Salazar hustled her along a stone path illuminated by landscape lighting. This path led to the back of the resort property. It was the same route she and Ace had taken earlier today. There were no buildings past the helicopter hanger, just groomed, lush landscaping that gave way to thick jungle. Once in the jungle, she and Ace had found and followed a beaten-down path for quite a ways on their reconnaissance of the area. There were no obvious structures in the jungle either.

When they were about eight meters from the back of the resort’s main building, she pretended to stumble. “Oww. My ankle.”

Listing toward the ground, placing her body even farther away from Salazar, she pulled her knife. As her captor turned toward her and tugged at her right arm to keep her upright, she swung her left arm in an arc. The momentum of her thrust and his off-balanced body posture allowed her to shove the blade up, under his rib cage, and then twist the knife in his chest cavity, ripping through his lung and into his heart. His sharp inhalation of pain and shock was relatively quiet in the noisy jungle.

As his grip on her weakened, DJ shoved Salazar away. Laboring for breath, he fell to the ground. With shaky hands, he grabbed at the knife, but failed to dislodge it as his life faded away. His eyes held shock. Bloody foam came from his mouth, then he went limp in death.

The smell of his bowels evacuating overpowered the night-blooming tropical flowers lining the path. DJ swallowed hard against the nausea rising in her throat.

A potent emotional cocktail swept through her, freezing her in place, messing with her head. Satisfaction at slaying an enemy. Regret for taking a life. Fear that before the night was over she’d take even more lives. She shivered so hard her teeth chattered as she hugged herself, trying to hold herself together.

Her skin was cold and clammy in the hot tropical night air. Her vision blurred. She was slipping into shock—but the creak of the main building’s rear door brought DJ abruptly back into the now as adrenaline surged into her bloodstream.

She moved off the path and hid among some giant ferns. Going for the more silent option, she left her gun holstered and fumbled her Taser out of her purse. Whoever had followed them, she’d take him down quickly and then find her man.

“You can come out, DJ.”

DJ peered through the fern fronds and found Dawn standing over Salazar, studying him with a wrinkled nose and thinned lips.