Deliciously Dangerous

Shane lifted his gaze to hers, wondering just what he was putting at risk here. There was the inescapable sense that Callie simply wasn’t aware of the score, even for all her savvy.

The moment drew out to a taut wire of tension, and all of it sexual.

“What is it you came here for, Callie? I tend to doubt it was me.”

She pursed her perfectly sculpted lips into a pout, which was so out of character for her, it actually made him smile. “Darling,” she purred, running her thigh along his hip, “don’t sell yourself too short. I could be here for you.” Her voice was filled with all the carnal knowledge she had of him, making him twitch hard inside his now-snug trousers.

He had carnal knowledge, too. “And I’d certainly never want anything less than complete honesty from you.”

Something flashed across her eyes then, so swiftly he’d have missed it if he hadn’t been paying close attention. Where Callie was involved, he always paid close attention.

“So noted,” she said. “I’m here for two reasons: one, I’ve gotten wind of your business needs, and two, I simply want you.”

“Two tempting offers in one day,” he replied.

“Temptation is something we both know more than a little about….”

To Tara Cowan for being there
when I needed her

J
AMMER, AKA THE
G
HOST,
stared out at the mess Max Carpenter and Watchdog had made of Eduardo Fuentes’s compound for the second time. All to save one DEA agent, Rio Marshall.

Fuentes was livid. He was an egomaniac and had gotten it into his head that Rio and her FBI bodyguard, Max Carpenter, needed to be eliminated. It didn’t look good to Eduardo’s Libertad friends that he couldn’t keep track of a DEA agent who had eluded him twice. From what Jammer had gleaned in the chase across Maui that had ensued after Max and Rio escaped, Rio had bested Eduardo. Now he wanted her dead more than ever. Although Fuentes’s contacts had searched, it was as if the agent and her boyfriend had disappeared off the face of the earth.

But Jammer was pretty sure he could get Fuentes back on track and distract him from his hunt of Rio and Max. The deal Jammer had made to provide a large shipment of weapons to support Fuentes and the paramilitary group the Defensores de la Libertad in their
coup of the Colombian government would be front and center again. He’d worked for three years on this deal; he couldn’t let anything jeopardize it now that he was so close to the end.

All he had left to do was assemble the rest of the shipment Eduardo required, and for that he’d have to make a trip to some dangerous places and deal with some dangerous people.

Silently, he pulled a picture out of a secret compartment in his wallet. It was a photo of Gina Callahan, the arms dealer he’d met in Paris. He had, for a time, lost him self to her. He still longed to see her, but knew he’d made the right decision in leaving her.

His longing changed into a heavy ache in his chest, but he turned from the window and prepared to calm Fuentes down and move on to the next phase.

Soon it would all be over.

C
ALLIE
C
ARPENTER STOOD
in front of Gillian Santiago, the director of Watchdog. She’d joined the agency only recently, after a stint with the CIA, but she already felt admiration and loyalty for Gillian. Watchdog had taken good care of Callie during her recuperation from the hit-and-run she’d endured while on an undercover mission in Paris. Her assignment had been to hook the Ghost in as a buyer and then, when the deal went down in L.A., take him into custody.

But her twin sister, Allie, had been mistaken for Callie while she’d been decorating Callie’s decoy apartment for their birthday, and with Callie out of commission,
Watchdog had recruited both Drew Miller and her tame, interior-designer sister.

Callie had been out of it for most of the two weeks her sister had been posing as her undercover persona, Gina Callahan, a tough-as-nails, spandex-and-tulle-wearing arms dealer. Allie had done a surprisingly good job, but it was Callie’s mission and she intended to finish it.

“It says here in your file, Callie, you’re fit for duty.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m ready.” She was. She’d already made contact with one of the Ghost’s lackeys, Jammer. Okay, so it’d been more than simple contact. She’d slept with the guy, unable to resist him. Watchdog didn’t know of her personal relationship with Jammer, and once this operation was over, she would have to put him behind bars. She squirmed inside, thinking about how she’d have to use Jammer to get close to the Ghost. But that was what working undercover was all about.

“That’s good. Take a look at this.” Gillian held out a letter to Callie.

“The president wants the Ghost dead or alive. That gives us carte blanche, then.”

Gillian nodded. “It does, and the perfect opportunity just dropped on my desk. The DEA has just alerted us to the fact that the Defensores de la Libertad in Colombia is throwing their lot in with Eduardo Fuentes.”

“Which means they’re going to require a shitload of weapons, and for that, they’ll need the Ghost,” Callie said. It was time to finally put the Ghost out of commission, and if she netted herself a drug lord in the process, well, goody for her.

“All these purchases have been for Fuentes? He’s amassing weapons for the Libertad.”

“Yes. We believe the weapons you…er, your sister, Allie, sold to the Ghost when she was posing as Tina, your alias Gina Callahan’s twin sister, were part of the cache. As are the launchers the Ghost stole from Fudo Miyagi before killing him.”

“Miyagi was mine—
I
was the one he wanted dead, or at least he wanted Gina Callahan dead.
I
was the one his thugs ran down in Paris, forcing
my
sister to step in and almost get killed dealing with Miyagi. He was
my
problem.”

“You were lucky you survived. And you should be grateful that Jammer took care of
your problem
and
helped Drew Miller and Allie to eliminate Miyagi. Jammer double-crossed Miyagi—they had a deal.”

“What was the deal?”

“You in exchange for the launchers.”

“And instead he betrayed Miyagi, saving me and my sister.”

“Do you think that was a deliberate act?” Gillian asked, her tone speculative.

Callie shrugged. “He wanted the launchers, and we know how ruthless the Ghost can be when he wants something. I doubt that he considered his actions would save Allie—or Tina, as he knew her. He most likely instructed Jammer to use her for leverage.”

Callie couldn’t be sure what “orders” Jammer had received from the Ghost—which had been his decisions and which the Ghost’s—but she was sure he had orchestrated it so Miyagi would be on the losing end.

“In any case, now that we know what the Ghost needs, Gina Callahan is going to be very important to this operation.”

Callie smiled. “In what way, ma’am?”

“She’s going to be in possession of a shitload of weapons.”

“I’d better go pack my spandex and tulle.”

“D
ON’T SCREW WITH ME
, Igor,” Jammer said to the man standing in a warehouse on the outskirts of Minsk. Igor was dressed in a heavy wool coat and wore the requisite
ushanka,
a distinctly Russian hat made out of sheepskin. “You told me you had the weapons I required when I spoke to you last week.”

“Then, I did. It is true. But now they are sold.” He shrugged. “So sorry. We had no deal. Weapons were, as you say, ‘up for grabs.’”

“Son of a—” Jammer paced away from Igor, trying to control his anger, his agitated breath fogging the air. He
needed
those weapons to add to his shipment for Fuentes. Walking back, he said, “A deal was implied, Igor, and you know it.”

“
Da,
you make offer. I did not accept. Someone make better offer.”

“Who?”

“I do not let this information out of bag. Protecting clients best business. You wish this so,
da?
”

“Yes,” Jammer hissed.

“I have more in two weeks. Will this do?”

“No, it won’t. I need these weapons yesterday.”

Igor shrugged without sympathy. “Market is tight. You will need the good luck to get the amount of weapons you want. Igor cannot help.”

“That’s just great.”

This was a serious setback to his very short deadline. If he didn’t deliver as he’d promised, everything he’d worked for would collapse.

Three years of sacrifice would be for nothing.

And that was not acceptable.