Carol Ericson - A Silverhill Christmas

“Who is it? One of the security guys you supposedly slept with?”

“No, a woman. Max’s nanny.”

Rio gripped the steering wheel. So much for that idea. He refused to put a woman in danger in his quest to bring down Alexi. “She’s taking a huge risk helping you.”

Tori shrugged. “She’s a mom.”

Rio rounded the curve into Lahaina and asked Tori for the name of her hotel. She gave him the name of one of the most luxurious resorts in Maui. Alexi must’ve paid her some big bucks in the divorce settlement, but he didn’t want to judge her. Whatever monetary compensation she’d gotten out of the deal couldn’t make up for what she’d lost.

Getting out of Glazkova when she did probably saved her life. When things turned sour between arms and drug dealers, the injured party usually went after his enemy…and his enemy’s family. Rio had seen a few families pay the ultimate price.

The presence of Tori’s son in that household filled Rio with a cold dread and put a serious crimp in his options for bringing down Alexi. He couldn’t tip off Alexi’s enemies about his whereabouts and habits with a child in the house. These gangs were vicious and indiscriminate in their retaliation.

Rio rolled in front of the hotel and waved off the valet. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”

He cut the engine. “So how do you plan to get your son away from Alexi? Have you hired a good attorney yet?”

Tori laughed. “That’s just the sort of thing that would prompt Alexi to send Max back to Glazkova, and it wouldn’t work anyway. I’m going to use that as leverage though, promising Alexi that I won’t bring in the U.S. legal system if he allows me to stay at the estate and see Max.”

“Will just seeing Max be enough for you?” One glance at Tori’s tight jaw and narrowed eyes told him it wouldn’t.

“Of course not. That’s just my foot in the door.”

“Then what?” Rio’s heart pounded against his chest like a hammer as he held his breath.

“I’m going to rescue him…and you’re going to help me.”

“NO.” RIO POUNDED the steering wheel with the heel of his hand. “I am not putting you or your child in danger with some crazy rescue plan.”

Maybe she dropped this particular bombshell too soon, but Rio had to know sometime she intended to en list his help. He’d come around once she explained the entire plan to him.

She could usually get people, especially men, to come around. Of course, she had made that mistake with Alexi.

She ran her hands through her tangled curls. “Just wait. There’s something in it for you, too.”

“Do you think that’s going to change my mind? I’m here to collect information about Alexi for the CIA, not to stage a rescue operation.”

Drawing her brows together, she asked, “Aren’t you CIA?”

He dragged in a ragged breath and blew it out, staring straight ahead. “No. A couple of my buddies from the Marines and I set up our own shop, but the Agency uses us a lot—for activities under the radar, not sanctioned by the U.S. Government.”

“That’s even better.” She clapped her hands. The U.S. Government hadn’t been much use in her quest to get Max. “D-do you ever assassinate people?”

Rio’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “You want me to execute your ex-husband? We’re not hired assassins. I’m here to turn over contacts, spy on meetings, se cure a mole….”

Her heart skipped a few beats and she waved her hand. “I can be your mole.”

With the veins popping out on his neck and his white-knuckled hands still grasping the steering wheel, Rio looked ready to explode.

But his words pelted the space between them in a measured staccato. “That. Can’t. Happen.”

“Sure it can.” She patted the tensed muscles in his thigh. “I’ll approach Alexi and ask him if I can move into the compound to visit Max while he’s here. He’ll let me because I’ll promise not to cause any trouble for him with the authorities in the U.S.”

With a muscle ticking in his jaw, Rio dropped his gaze to her hand. She snatched it away and continued. “Once I’m in, I’ll keep my eyes and ears open and I can feed information to you. All you need to do in exchange for my services is get Max out of that den of iniquity.”

“Not only is that a dangerous proposition,” he said as he loosened his grasp on the steering wheel and wiped his palms across his T-shirt, “but it’ll blow my operation sky high.”

“How do you figure?” Tori thought she could convince Rio by playing on his obvious sympathy for her situation and his naturally protective instincts, which he’d demonstrated in spades tonight. She didn’t count on those protective instincts combining with a hardheaded stubbornness that refused to see the logic of putting herself in harm’s way for a greater good.

“If I attempt some sort of rescue and meet with failure, Alexi’s going to realize he’s being watched, not to mention, place you in a world of hurt.”

She flicked her fingers. “Alexi always thinks he’s being watched anyway. And I have confidence that you won’t fail.”

Leaning toward him, she trailed her fingertips along his corded forearm as the ends of her hair danced on his shoulder. Rio sucked in a sharp breath, and Tori jerked back.

His dark eyes smoldered as he looked at her, and it wasn’t due to lust as it had been on the beach. “You’re playing me, Tori whateveryourlastnameis. How do I know any of this is true? How do I know if there’s even a child at risk? I’ve never seen him. Maybe you did sleep with half of Alexi’s security force, he banished you from a life of leisure, and now you want to use me to get revenge.”

As his accusations rained down on her, the blood rushed through her veins hot and furious. Blinded by her anger, she raised her hand to smack his face, but he caught her wrist and they glared at each other over their hands.

Tori twisted free and staggered from the car. Before she slammed the door, she choked out, “You’re a sorry excuse for a McClintock.”

She stormed toward the open lobby and tripped across the tiled floors toward the pool and the beach beyond. The smell of the food from a luau, now wrapping up on a lawn bordering the sand, made her stomach grumble, reminding her she hadn’t eaten since the lunch provided on the hiking trip and that shaved ice.

Her bare feet hit the beach, each step digging a hole into the dry sand as she drove her heel into it, muttering epithets. Tears stung her eyes, blurring the lights from the boats scattered on the water.

How dare Rio accuse her of manipulating him?

As she reached the hard-packed sand, she slowed her steps and folded her arms across her stomach. Even though that’s exactly what she’d planned to do.

She’d expected to run into Ryder watching her ex-husband and twist him around her finger, playing on his Sir Galahad complex. When confronted with Rio, she had made a smooth transition practicing her wiles on him instead.

Apparently, Rio didn’t suffer from the same complex…or he had a supercharged overdose of it. He didn’t even want her to place herself in danger in the first place. But then he had accused her of lying…of lying about Max.

She sank to the beach and grabbed fistfuls of sand. Max was so close she could feel the strong maternal pull toward him like a tide out to sea. She’d get into that compound to see her little boy even if she never made it out again.

The separation from her son had bored a deep, black hole in the pit of her belly. She couldn’t live without him anymore.

Jumping to her feet, she chucked the sand she’d gathered into the ocean. She’d approach Alexi tomorrow, or at least his guards at the estate. Once she had Max in her arms, she’d figure out something—with or without the help of Rio McClintock.