Beneath the Secrets, Part Three (Tall, Dark & Deadly) (2 page)

He laughed low in his throat, a sexy rumble that made her sex clench, a moment before he kissed her again, stroking his tongue against hers in several deep, luxurious caresses. “If that’s how hate tastes,” he murmured against her mouth, “I’m addicted.”
 

“I bet you say that to all the FBI agents before you—”

“Don’t say ‘kill them’ or I might seriously have to—”

“Spank me?” she challenged, before she could stop herself from her deep need to challenge this man. “You can try but you won’t succeed.”

Chapter Two

Kara had barely issued her challenge when she was flat on her back with Blake on top of her and her hands pinned over her head. “Don’t tempt me, Kara,” Blake warned. “That would be a hell of a lot better than killing you, which is what every one of the cartel would do if they heard you were FBI. What the
hell
were you thinking coming in here alone?”

Alone was dangerous. Alone made her disappear too easily. “Who says I’m alone?”

“I know you’re alone. Why, Kara?”

Kara squeezed her eyes shut and fought her urge to trust Blake, but the fight lasted all of two seconds. She
was
alone. She was alone and she needed his help. She forced her gaze to his. “I was desperate.”

“Why would you be desperate?”

“It isn’t just me on the line here, Blake. You have no idea how much trust I really am putting in you to tell you this.”

“So you’re not alone?”

“I am. I’m alone.” More than she ever had been in her life. “It’s…my sister disappeared two months ago. Officials came up clueless and while they promised they were still trying, it wasn’t enough for me.”

“And your investigation brought you here,” he supplied.

She gave a nod. “She came here for a job as a merchandiser for a large retailer, but it was eliminated when she arrived. The last I heard from her, she was waitressing and trying to find something better. Then…she just went silent.”

Understanding registered in his face and he released her hands, settling his weight on his elbows on either side of her. “And she was working for one of the cartel’s restaurants.”

“Yes.” She hesitated and then let her hands settle on the warm wall of his chest and somehow the connection made her feel safer. “She worked at the one we were at tonight, but of course, the company files have no record she ever existed. And she’d started dating a man who fits Ignacio’s description.” Fear for her sister burned in her belly. “The landlord at her apartment said he’d never heard of her. I know where she was living. I talked to her every day until she disappeared.”

“If the cartel is looking for women they can wipe off the map, her connection to you would rule her out. She doesn’t fit the profile.”

“She has no connection to me on record. My father was FBI. Years ago he penetrated a motorcycle club, and they came after him, and our family. The FBI split us up and created new identities for both me and my sister. We didn’t find each other again until I used my resources to make it happen.”

“Why did your father let them split you up in the first place?”

She glanced down. “He’s dead.” Bitterness twisted inside her and she forced her gaze to his. “Our parents didn’t survive the attack.” Rushing past her confession before he offered sympathy that never helped, she quickly added, “I know my sister got involved with Ignacio. I’m just praying she’s still alive.”

Several beats passed, his expression impossible to read—until, abruptly, he moved, sitting up and giving her his back. Kara pushed to a sitting position, unsure what to think, watching him scrub a hand over his face before he stood up and whirled on her with a challenge. “And you thought you’d just walk into the cartel and find your sister yourself?” he demanded, his hands settling on his hips. “Are you insane, Kara? We’re talking about one of the largest, most dangerous cartels in the world.”

She scooted to the end of the bed and curled her fingers into the mattress. “This is my sister, Blake. This isn’t about the cartel. This is about her. She’s all I have.” Her voice cracked. She hated how weak it made her seem. “I don’t know if you have siblings. I don’t know how important they are, but—”
 

“Two brothers,” he surprised her by sharing. “And yes. I’d die for either or both of them but that doesn’t mean I’ll let you die for yours. What was the purpose of drugging me in Denver?”

Kara blinked at the sudden turn of subject, but she rolled with the punches, too deep into this to turn back now. “I wanted the documentation you were handing over to the cartel.”

“Why?”

“I never worked for the Denver operation. I knew about the meeting through Mendez and I knew high-level officials would be in the reports. I thought some of them might be tied to the missing women in some way. And I’m not stupid enough to think I could do this all on my own, by the way. That list had powerful names on it. If I can tie one of them to the sex-slave operation, even slip it to the press, then I can convince my superiors to take action.”

He glared at her, fury pouring from his eyes. “I could have killed you, Kara. If I was anyone else,
I would have
killed you. You’re over your head and headed to the bottom of the bay with concrete blocks on your feet. If you think I’m going to let that happen, think again.”
 

She should have been comforted by his protectiveness. She wasn’t. Not when she was confident he meant to interfere in all the wrong ways in her investigation. “I’m
going
to find my sister.”

“
I’m
going to find your sister,” he corrected. “But right now, I’m going outside to make a call. Don’t even think about trying to leave. I’ll be by the door.” He pushed to his feet and headed across the room and down the stairs.
 

Kara was on her feet in two seconds flat, running for the kitchen and opening a cabinet, pulling a gun out of a box of cereal and then running for the window, hoping she could hear his call. Praying he wasn’t going to call Ignacio or Mendez. Praying she’d been right to trust him.

Cracking the window open, she squatted down and listened, letting the heavy weight of her weapon be her security blanket. When Blake returned, she was going to be ready for him.
 

***

Kara had too much in common with Whitney, and Whitney was dead. He wasn’t letting Kara end up that way too.
 

Fighting a bloody flashback of the night Whitney had died, Blake walked down the stairs of Kara’s apartment with every nerve ending in his body jumping. That night, that damnable night, when Whitney had been undercover inside the cartel, lived deep in his soul, a rabid animal clawing away at him, slowing ripping him to pieces. And now Kara was inside the cartel, just as Whitney had been, too close to a man who would slit her throat and forget her before the blade ever left her skin. She was too close to dead, too easily stolen away. It shouldn’t matter. He shouldn’t care, but he did. This wasn’t how things were supposed to happen. He wasn’t supposed to give a damn about anything but killing Alvarez.
 

Shoving open the door, he exited into the cool San Francisco air, the breeze a welcome relief from the heat of his anger and, yes, his fear. He’d not felt fear in a long damn time, but he felt it now. Fear pissed him off. Fear gutted a person and destroyed them. Fear did not let him hunt Alvarez with all guns blazing, balls to the wall.
 

“Fuck!” he cursed, using the word Kara hated because she hated it, because he didn’t want to feel this growing attachment to her. Pacing, he tried to burn off the adrenaline burning through his body. Kara was going to hate
him
when he was done with her tonight, and trying to convince himself that was for the best. It was what had to happen. He couldn’t keep her close to him as he had Whitney. He couldn’t risk getting her killed. Kara hating him might be good. Maybe then he could stop thinking about her, stop with this damnable distraction that was going to make him give a damn if he was killed. Giving a damn and fear—two things that would be his weaknesses to Alvarez, and both came down to one person. Kara. Kara was his true weakness.
 

Blake stopped pacing, scrubbing a hand over his face. Grinding his teeth, he snatched his phone from his pocket and glanced discreetly at the window above, finding the barely there crack he expected to see. Kara was listening to see who he called. There had never been a chance in hell this woman was a secretary, and if she thought Mendez was stupid enough to believe that himself, she was wrong. He’d figure her out sooner than later, if he hadn’t already.
 

Dreading the call he was about to make, Blake punched the auto-dial for his brother Luke. “Where the hell are you?” Luke asked the instant he answered. “You damn sure aren’t on the job you said you were on. I checked. I’ve left you three messages. Why aren’t you answering your phone?”

“Why were you checking on me in the first place?”
 

“Where are you, Blake?”
 

Blake sat down on the step in front of the door and sighed, accepting the inevitable beating his brothers were going to give him when they heard the details. “In San Francisco.”

“Tell me this isn’t about Alvarez.”

“Okay, I won’t. I’ve stumbled onto a slave trade operation going on down here. Young and pretty girls are being kidnapped and forced into things I don’t think either of us wants to imagine. I’ve got two I rescued who need a safe house. Kyle has them locked down in a hotel right now.” He paused and glanced over his shoulder up at the window, before turning his back to it and lowering his voice. “Actually, make that three women who need protection. I have one with me.”

Luke cursed. “And let me guess. Alvarez is running the operation.”

“Yeah.” Blake ran his fingers over his jaw. “Alvarez is running the operation.”

“How deep are you into this?”

He rotated back around. “I’m working as head of security for one of his top men.”

“Damn it, Blake—”

“I’m going to get enough shit from Royce over this, so save me yours,” Blake snapped. “I have women who need help and a shot at bringing this asshole down once and for all. Are you in or out?”
 

“You know we’re in. We’ll charter a flight and get a team there tomorrow. I’ll work on arranging a safe house.”

“Kyle has his hands full taking care of two of the women. I need you to check on someone for me. I need to know everything you can find out about Anna Michaels. Her sister is Kara Michaels, an FBI agent on a leave of absence. Actually…fuck. I’m not sure what her sister’s name is. Their father was FBI and he was compromised on an undercover job, and Kara and her sister were given new identities.”

“If they’re in witness protection plans it will be nearly impossible to get that information, even at the highest level where Royce has connections. Why is this important?”

“Kara is here, trying to find her sister. She seems to think she’s one of the kidnapped women. I’ll need to get back to you on the sister’s name. Just get me everything you can on Kara and make sure no one but Kyle has been digging around in her file.”

“You mean Royce digging around. If Kyle got you information on Kara, he got it from Royce. And Royce is going to be pissed when he finds out Kyle lied about why to protect you, because we both know he didn’t tell him Kara tracked back to you hunting Alvarez.”

“He was just doing as ordered.”

Luke was silent a long moment before he said, “I’m not even going to bother asking the ten questions on my mind right now.”

“Thank you for that little piece of heaven,” Blake replied in mock relief.
 

“Royce—”

“Will turn heaven to hell. Believe me, I know.”
 

Luke changed the subject. “Is Kara one of the women you’re protecting?”

“I thought you weren’t asking the ten questions.”

“This is the eleventh.”

Blake’s lips thinned. “Yes.”

He snorted. “Does she know you’re protecting her? Because I’m pretty sure she’s trained to protect herself and others for that matter.”
 

“No,” he confessed. “But she’s about to.”

Luke whistled. “The shit’s about to hit the fan. She’s going to bust your chops.”

“You don’t even know her.”

“I know enough. She’s FBI and
 
her father was FBI. That enough to assume her to be tough and independent. To top that all off, she’s gone undercover inside the cartel to save her sister. That takes a pair of balls.”

“Alone,” Blake said. “She went into this alone, which is a death wish.”

“Sounds familiar,” Luke replied dryly. “Like my brother who just went MIA.”

“Screw you, Luke.”

“I’m just speaking facts. And you better be prepared for what’s coming when you try to shut down Kara. This is not a woman you send to her room and promise cookies or candy-coated orgasms, Blake. I assume that’s your plan, right?”

“Seriously, Luke. Screw you.”

Luke chuckled. “Yeah yeah, I love you too, bro. I’ll let you know what I find out about your poor, helpless FBI agent.” He hung up.

Blake growled under his breath and returned his phone to his belt, but he didn’t move. He just sat there, thinking about Kara, and he didn’t give a damn if she was FBI. She wasn’t going back inside the cartel, even if that meant he had to tie her to a bed and keep her there. Of course, he wouldn’t be in that bed. Not anymore. Not until Alvarez was dead. The distraction was too dangerous. He and Kara were not doing candy-coated anything.