Лиза Джонс - Beneath the Secrets

Her mouth curved playfully. “I’d like that very much. Can I tie you up and have my way with you?”

“Only if I can tie you up and have my wicked way with you.”

“You already did that. It’s my turn next.”

“Let me give you some incentive to give me an extra turn,” he suggested, stroking his cock along her sex. Teasing them both, and then driving into her, burying himself inside her, where he planned to spend a hell of a lot of the rest of his life. “How is that for incentive?”

“It’s a good start,” she teased.

“This is just a start , Kara,” he promised, and then he kissed her, silently vowing to make this the first night the first of forever. She was his. He wasn’t letting her go.

***

Kara’s day started with the wonderful feeling of being wrapped in Blake’s arms, and she had been amazed it was nearly noon when she’d looked at the hotel clock. Any guilt at the late hour that might have driven her out of bed faded when Blake gave her a reason—or two or three—to stay a little longer.

Now, at nearly two o’clock in the afternoon, freshly showered and dressed in dark jeans, a turquoise silk blouse, and black lace-up boots, Kara exited the bathroom, expecting to find only Blake. Instead, she was once again submerged in testosterone overload, with Blake, Royce, Luke, and Kyle all present, all eating hamburgers from a takeout joint.

“There has to be a fire code about this many men in one room,” Kara said, as Blake, who was sitting on the bed, wrapped his arm around her hip and pulled her close.

“Hungry?” he asked, glancing up at her, his long, dark hair damp and loose, framing brown eyes that said he wasn’t talking about food.

“Starving, actually,” she replied, barely containing a smile sure to make their flirtation more obvious.

“Kyle isn’t,” Luke said with a bark of laughter. “First time I’ve ever seen him miss a meal.”

Kara cast Kyle a closer inspection to realize he actually wasn’t eating. He was slumped over in a chair, his blond hair mussed, though he wasn’t quite as bluish. “You any better?”

“I’m sitting in a room without a toilet,” he said. “That’s an improvement, but I hear you’ve decided to be smart about Alvarez. I won’t throttle you.” He winked.

Kara laughed and Blake’s fingers flexed at her hip. “Something I need to know about you two?”

Kara grinned. “Don’t worry. I drugged you first. You’re my number one.”

“Kara,” Royce said, drawing her attention to where he’d claimed the desk as his own again. “We were just talking about how to get you out of the cartel without blowing Blake’s cover.”

“Yes, well,” she said, “I was thinking about that. Before we pull me out—”

“Kara,” Blake growled, turning her to face him.

“Relax,” she said, her hands settling on his shoulders. “I’m not suggesting I stay in.”

“You just said—”

“I didn’t say anything. You cut me off. I was going to say that I have access to Mendez’s office. It’s Saturday. We should go in and dig up everything we can before Monday morning.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near Mendez.”

“The offices are closed, Blake. I know my way around. You and I can go in, and if we’re caught we say we’re auditing the books to find the thief who’s stealing drugs from the operation.” Kara glanced around the room. “You all know it makes sense.” No one said anything and she grimaced. “Come on, someone say something.” Still nothing. Crickets. In fact, the big, brawny, overbearing Walker brothers, and Kyle along with them, looked like deer in the headlights. Kara refocused on Blake. “They know I’m right. They’re afraid of you.”

“If only you were,” he complained.

She ignored that comment. “Once I’m out, I’m out. This might be our last chance to get to certain information. We have to do this, Blake.”

Blake’s jaw flexed. “I don’t like this, Kara.”

“I know. But you’ll be with me. Nothing is going to go wrong.”

Chapter Six

“Any luck?”

Kara glanced up from the desk she was sitting at to find Blake, dressed in black jeans and a black t-shirt that stretched deliciously over his impressive chest, standing in the doorway of the human resources manager’s office she’d been searching for the past hour. She shook her head. “Nothing. I took pictures of the files for female employees who seemed like obvious targets for the trafficking operation, though.” Thankfully Kyle had hacked the computers, but pictures reinforced the evidence trail.

“Mendez’s office is clean,” he said, scrubbing his jaw, and while he was every bit the tall and dark, and gorgeous man she’d fallen in lust, and then love with, he practically radiated edginess. Her being here after Alvarez recognized her was making him crazy.

“I’ve only got a few more files and I’ll be done,” she promised. “We need to hit accounting before we go.”

“Great,” Blake said, looking relieved. “I’m headed to the lobby to dig through messages and then we’re out of here. Five minutes, Kara, and then we go to accounting. We’ve already been here too long in my book.” He disappeared and she quickly finished with two more files before she stood up.

Her cell phone rang and a chill ran down her spine. No one but Blake and the rest of his team had this number, and she was on mic and camera. They wouldn’t call her. She dug it from purse and glanced at the “unknown” number on her screen.

Swallowing hard, Kara answered the call and immediately heard, “Kara.”

Oh God. “Myla?” She started walking toward the door.

“Stop,” Myla said, sounding panicked. “Don’t leave the office. If you say anything to anyone right now Alvarez told them to kill me. And they said to tell you Blake’s at the reception desk and they have a gun pointed at him. They’ll kill him too, Kara.”

No. No. This wasn’t happening. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” a male voice said. “She’s fine but she won’t be if you aren’t downstairs at the back door sixty seconds after we hang up. And Kara—we have a camera on you, too. We’ll know if you dial, text, or call out. We’ll kill Blake first. That way you see the bloody results of your failure.” The line went dead.

Kara squeezed her eyes shut, and for the sake of Blake and Myla, she willed herself into “calm agent” mode, her mind racing. If she used the mic, Blake would hear and come to help, which would be sure to get him killed. She had to count on Kyle realizing something was off once she’d hit the stairwell, but she couldn’t let him know there was a problem any sooner. She had to get out of the building before they killed Blake. And what if they killed him anyway? She couldn’t think of that or she’d panic.

Somehow, she calmly walked out of the office and went to the exit door. Once she was inside the stairwell, she took off running. She had a tracking device in her boot, one that Kyle had assured Blake was about ten times better than the one he’d used on the boat. They’d find her. She’d be okay and she’d bring Myla home with her.

At the bottom of the stairwell, driven by her deadline of one minute, Kara burst out of the doorway and ran for the back exit, punching the red button and the glass. The instant she stepped outside, she was aware of the dumpster to her left—a moment before a man grabbed her. Another man was in front of her as she kicked, but they were too big, and the cloth one of them held found her mouth, fumes penetrating her senses. And just like that, everything went black.

***

“Meet me at the back exit now. Kara’s gone. Go now and I’ll meet you at the door.”