Athena Force 7: Deceived Read online

  “Not when it’s something I care about.” He leaned closer to her. “Remember what I said about your lips? That they looked like they needed kissing badly?”

  “I remember.” She felt as if she was scarcely breathing.

  “They’re looking like that right now.”

  “Then maybe you should kiss them.”

  He dipped his head and captured her mouth with his. Initially it was a soft kiss, the mere meeting of lips. But within seconds it transformed into something more, something deeper as she opened her mouth to him.

  His arms wound around her, pulling her tight against him, so tight she could feel the press of his thighs and the hint of his arousal against her. His tongue swirled with hers and she felt herself burning from the inside out.

  Before she combusted into fiery flames, he released her. “I don’t know how well you do anything else, but you do that extremely well,” she said unsteadily, then blushed.

  He laughed, a low, sexy chuckle. “Can I call you tomorrow?” She nodded. “Then I’ll just say good-night for now.”

  “Good night, Nick.” She watched as he left the porch and returned to his car. She touched her lips with two fingers, the feel of his mouth still imprinted there.

  Lynn had been kissed before, more than a couple of times by several different men, but none of them had affected her like Nick had. He made her want more.

  She stood on the porch until his car disappeared from view, then turned to go inside. As she reached for the doorknob she heard the faint crackling of brush nearby.

  “Hello?” she called out. “Is somebody there?” She frowned and took a couple of steps away from the door. She tilted her head and listened, a wave of apprehension sweeping over her.

  She could have sworn she heard footsteps…or had she? She allowed herself to listen. A breeze rustled the trees. Insects clicked and chirped. Nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe it had been a stray cat or a raccoon. “Is anyone there?” she called again. Nothing.

  She went inside and locked the door behind her, her thoughts going back to Nick.

  She liked him. What’s more, she instinctively trusted him. Maybe it was because he worked for Jonas that trust had come so easily. Or maybe it was because he seemed to really listen to her, to ask questions that made her feel as if he was genuinely interested in her thoughts.

  Whatever the reason, he excited her and she looked forward to spending more time with him. This was so much better than computer relationships, so much more real.

  She went up to her room, drawn to her window by the stream of moonlight dancing in through the glass. She still tasted his kiss, felt the texture of his lips imprinted on her own. She’d wanted more…still did.

  She froze as her gaze caught on a moving shadow. In the distance…in the trees. It was there only a moment, then gone. Or had it been there at all? She blinked and focused but saw nothing amiss.

  Had she imagined it? Had her encounter the night before with the FBI made her imagine moving shadows and rustling leaves?

  She turned away from the window, certain that if anyone who didn’t belong had gotten on the property, security would have seen and responded.

  Still, it was a very long time before she allowed herself to sleep that night.

  Chapter 7

  “It’s been over two weeks, Nick. Surely you’ve learned something we can use.” Ray’s voice held more than a touch of impatience.

  Nick fought back a sigh. “And I’ve seen her every night, but these things take time, Ray. If I ask too many pointed questions, she’ll get suspicious and clam up altogether.”

  “A young woman like Lynn who has been so sheltered and isolated, I figured you could get beneath her defenses in no time.”

  “She’s young and naive, but she isn’t stupid, and she certainly isn’t loose-lipped when she talks about Jonas.”

  “Our sources tell us he’s out of the country again,” Ray said.

  “He is. According to Lynn he’s in Rome arranging for the import of some unusual vases and glasses he found. He left yesterday.”

  “That’s funny. Our information has him currently in Cuba.”

  Nick frowned. “What’s he doing in Cuba?”

  “Wish the hell we knew.”

  Nick leaned back his chair. “Look, Ray, I don’t know what to tell you. If I push too hard, not only will I chase her off and we won’t get anything from her, but I might jeopardize my job with Jonas, as well. I did manage to learn that she thinks he does some kind of defense contracting with the government.”

  “Yeah, right, and I’m the Easter Bunny,” Ray said dryly.

  “And I already told you that she does a lot of the bookkeeping. If evidence is there of his illegal activities, she’ll have it.”

  “The evidence is there all right. It’s just a matter of us getting our hands on those records. Turning her to our side would definitely be beneficial.”

  Nick frowned. “I agree, but trust me, that’s not likely. She loves the man. You have to remember, Jonas is all the family Lynn knows.” Nick sighed. “Look, Ray, I’ll get what we need, you just have to give me a little more time.”

  “I know, I know.” Ray’s voice held the weight of the world. “I’m just getting tired of waiting, Nick. We’ve been after this guy for over two years and we don’t seem any closer to putting him away now than we were when he first hit our radar.”

  “I’m doing the best I can,” Nick replied. “I’m seeing her again this evening. I’ll try to push a little harder for something we can use. I’ll report in tomorrow morning.”

  Nick hung up and walked out onto the back deck of his cottage, irritated not just with the not-so-subtle push from his supervisor for results, but also by his own conflicted emotions where Lynn was concerned.

  What had begun as an uncomplicated goal of seduction had, over the past two weeks, suddenly become complicated. The complication was the fact that he didn’t want to seduce her completely. He didn’t want to take her to bed with the intention of winning her trust and gaining her confidence to get Jonas behind bars.

  He wanted to take her to bed for all the wrong reasons. He wanted to take her to bed because she smelled like lush summer flowers and her touch lit a flame in his gut. He wanted to take her to his bed to further explore the satin softness of her skin and hear moans of pleasure escaping her lips.

  He wanted her, and that worried him.

  Over the course of the past two weeks he’d gotten to know her better and had come to recognize her relative innocence. He didn’t want to be the one to introduce her to lovemaking, knowing that it was part of his job and his own desire but without promises of anything lasting. She deserved better than that.

  He’d decided to continue a psychological seduction, but had also made up his mind that he would not attempt to take her to bed. Even this felt wrong, but it couldn’t be helped.

  He liked her—a lot—and he hadn’t expected to. But he’d come to look forward to seeing her, to spending time with her, to sharing thoughts with her and hearing everything she thought about.

  Dammit, he didn’t want to like her, but he found himself drawn to her in a way that he hadn’t been drawn to a woman in a very long time.

  He walked back into the house and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator, recognizing that he’d never been so conflicted about doing a job. Something about Lynn White got to him. Something about her touched soft places Nick had forgotten still remained in his heart.

  She continued to surprise him, as well. He hadn’t expected the inner strength he occasionally saw flash from her eyes, hadn’t expected the keen intelligence she possessed.

  He returned to the patio, popped the top of his beer and checked his wristwatch. She’d be here in an hour. He’d invited her to his little beachfront cottage for a quiet dinner.

  Although he knew he’d taken a chance telling her about this secret place, he’d decided the risk might be worth the result. Getting her not only away from Jonas’s house, but also o
ut of a public area might make her relax enough to talk more openly about Jonas and his business.

  He didn’t believe Lynn knew anything about her godfather’s illegal activities, but little pieces of information she gave him confirmed much of what the Bureau already knew.

  As his financial bookkeeper she knew where Jonas’s vast ill-gotten fortune was stashed, but she appeared to be certain that Jonas’s fortune had been gained from his import/export business and Defense Department contracts that Nick knew didn’t exist.

  The information that she and Jonas had spent a lot of time in Puerto Isla had also not come as a surprise. The Bureau had already tied Jonas to a powerful drug lord in that small Central-American country.

  He’d like to turn her, to get her on their side and have her help in bringing down the man who had raised her, but he knew that was impossible. Part of her charm was her unswerving devotion, her loyalty and love for Jonas White.

  He took a drink of the beer and settled back in the deck chair. He had a few minutes before he had to start the charcoal for the steaks and throw together a salad.

  Also weighing heavily on his mind was the most recent attempted robbery at the Markham Convention Center, which should have resulted in an arrest.

  Although Nick hadn’t been present at the convention center when the botched robbery attempt had gone down, the officers who had been there had reported to Ray that the suspect had been like a superhuman phantom. The perpetrator had run at the speed of light and had leaped over a concrete wall that nobody should have been able to jump over.

  They’d had the culprit almost in the palm of their hands and yet he’d managed to escape their little net.

  They knew Jonas was tied to the robberies, knew that he had sold several of the stolen items on the black market. But knowing and proving beyond a reasonable doubt were two different things. What they had to figure out was who worked as Jonas’s agent. Who was doing the actual robberies?

  Certainly it wasn’t Dunst—although the man was mentally capable of anything, he didn’t have the physical skills necessary to accomplish what the thief had done.

  Nick suspected somebody on Jonas’s payroll was their thief, but he had yet to identify who exactly that might be.

  He had to consider everyone, even Lynn. Perhaps her late-night drives and talk of insomnia were just a cover.

  It was difficult for him to believe that she’d have anything to do with the thefts. As far as he could discern, Lynn didn’t have a criminal bone in her body. And Jonas had men on his payroll who had the backgrounds, the temperaments, the records of real criminals.

  But he had to consider the possibility.

  He’d just finished the last swallow of his beer and was about to get up when his phone rang once again.

  The caller ID let him know it was his brother. It had been months since he’d heard from him. He steeled himself as he answered. “Anthony, what’s up?”

  “The old man wants to see you.”

  Nick couldn’t have been more surprised if his brother had told him he’d just personally given birth to twins. It had been years since Nick’s father had even acknowledged he was alive. “Yeah, well I’m not interested in seeing him.”

  “He’s ill, Nick.”

  “Then tell him to call a doctor,” he replied.

  “Too late for that. It’s cancer, Nick. He doesn’t have much time left. He wants to see you again before it’s too late.”

  Nick’s chest tightened. He closed his eyes, unsure what he felt, what to do.

  He’d long ago resigned himself to the fact that he was a man without a family, without a past. As far as he was concerned, his real life had begun when he had joined the Bureau.

  He’d believed he was at peace until this moment, when the past reached out to grab him.

  “Nick, you there?”

  He opened his eyes as a sigh escaped him. “I’m here.” He rubbed the center of his forehead where a headache began to throb. The knot in his chest constricted tightly.

  He wanted to hang up the phone, stay away from the poisonous grip of his family, but instead heard himself saying, “Tell him tomorrow night. I’ll come to the house around seven.”

  “Good. He’ll be pleased.” Without another word Anthony hung up.

  Nick clicked off and stared out at the ocean waves. He rubbed his forehead once again and thought about downing another beer but decided against it. No amount of beer would lift away the chunk of stone that sat heavily on top of his heart.

  Perhaps part of the problem with Lynn was that he could empathize with her too well. For years he’d seen the evidence of the kind of man his father was, the kinds of crimes he had committed. He’d seen the kind of men his father surrounded himself with, but he’d been too blind or just plain unwilling to recognize what he saw.

  His awakening to who and what his father was had been excruciatingly painful. He’d had to face the fact that his life with his father had been built on broken trust, lies and manipulation.

  He was surprised by how much he hated that eventually Lynn would have the same kind of awakening where Jonas was concerned and she, too, would know the kind of pain Nick had experienced.

  Nick had never gotten emotionally involved with anyone on a case before in his life, but Lynn was getting under his skin. He’d have to walk a fine line. He needed to get what he could from her to help them build a case against her godfather. He had to be an active participant in destroying her life and he had to not care that that was what he was doing.

  With another deep sigh he got up to start the charcoal.

  Lynn drove the beachfront road slowly, looking for the address to Nick’s cottage. It had been a strange and unsettling two weeks for her.

  Jonas had returned to the States, but there had been a strain between them. He’d seemed cool, and she knew he’d been disappointed by her failure to retrieve the gold vase he’d wanted from the exhibit.

  He’d assured her that he’d spoken to his contact, who had confirmed that a screw-up had occurred with the FBI involvement that night. He’d also mentioned another artifact he’d like recovered, a jeweled urn in the same exhibit as the gold vase.

  “But I certainly don’t expect you to handle it, Lynn,” he’d said. “I just don’t think you’re up to it.”

  Those words had haunted her for the past two weeks. Her unusual physical skills had been the one thing she could always count on, the one gift she used to repay her godfather for taking her in and raising her like his own daughter. The fact that he’d lost faith in her and her abilities weighed heavily on her heart.

  She had to believe that he was telling her the truth, that there had been a glitch with his contact and it had all been straightened out. She couldn’t imagine any reason for Jonas to lie to her. As far as she knew, he’d never lied to her in the past.

  He’d left again for another trip the day before and although everything had seemed okay between them when he’d told her goodbye, she’d felt a distance that had never been there before.

  At that moment she had decided to go in for the urn and surprise him when he returned home again. The decision wasn’t just for him alone. She needed to prove to herself that her skills were as sharp as they’d ever been and she could still depend on them.

  Besides, that wasn’t the only decision she’d made over the past two weeks. She would present Jonas not just with the urn, but also with the vase, then she would tell him that she was moving out.

  It was time for her to build a life separate from her godfather. As much as she loved Rita and Arturo, she was too old to need caretakers. She was more than ready to embrace life on her own terms.

  She knew Nick was at least a bit of a catalyst in her desire to make some changes. Although she’d been feeling restless, caged in and in need of change for some time, it had taken these two weeks with Nick to solidify her need for action rather than wallowing in dissatisfaction.

  She wanted a place of her own, a place where she would be responsible
for herself and her own needs, a place that nobody else could claim where she could build a life for herself.

  A place where she could cook a meal for a friend, or have a man spend the night. It was time for her to be in charge, to make her own way, make her own decisions and grow.

  She tightened her grip on her steering wheel as she thought of Nick. She hadn’t been looking for a romantic interest in her life, had never felt the need for a man to make her complete. But she loved spending time with him, talking about everything and nothing with him.

  She had never been as comfortable with another person, outside of Jonas. Nick excited her with his heated dark eyes and even hotter touch, but he also put her at ease with his gentle teasing and attentive thoughtfulness.

  She was precariously close to being completely in love with him despite the brevity of their relationship so far. She had no idea where their relationship was going, felt no need to worry about it. She simply intended to enjoy each moment as it came.

  Slowing her car, she turned into the drive of the cottage that bore Nick’s address. It was just as he’d described it, a small bungalow painted white with cheerful yellow trim.

  Before she got out of the car, he appeared on the porch. In jeans and a white T-shirt, he looked cool and casual.

  He’d told her to dress casually and bring a swimsuit. She wore a pair of red shorts and a red-and-white-striped sleeveless blouse. As she got out of the car she grabbed her purse and her beach bag from the back seat.

  “Hi,” she said as she approached the porch.

  “Hi, yourself. I see you found me all right.”

  “Your directions were perfect and this place is lovely. It reminds me of an enchanted cottage.” She joined him on the porch.

  Immediately she recognized an unusual darkness in his eyes, a tension that radiated from him that let her know something was wrong. “Is everything all right?”

  “Fine. Come on in.” He took her by the elbow and led her through the front door. “I’ve got the salad made and the charcoal ready for the steaks but thought maybe you’d like to swim a little before we eat.”