Killer Secrets (15 page)

him, milking with exquisite tendrils of pleasure. Taking
him places he swore he had never been before

with a woman. And when her lips touched his, the last
fragile bonds to control were erased. One hand

clasped her hip, the other the back of her head, holding
her to him as he began to thrust, meeting each

downward stroke of her pussy with a powerful lunge.

He snarled against her lips, because it was too damned
good. Because walking away from this was

going to fucking kill him.

He rolled with her, trapping her beneath his plunging hips,
and felt her legs wrap around his back. Her

hands were in his hair, on his back, scratching, holding to
him as he fought to hold back, to force her to

hold back.

He wanted to talk. Wanted to tell her how perfect she was,
how hot, how exquisite. But he couldn't.

Not yet. Because electricity was sizzling from his balls,
up his spine, and centering in his brain. Lust was

tearing through him, adrenaline spiking, and they were both
coming.

He buried his head in shoulder, shaking from the hard,
fierce jets of release that felt more like glowing

bursts of rapture.

He wrapped his arms around her, desperate to hold on to
her. Just for a little while longer. Then he

would let her go. Just a little while longer . . .

Nine

AS DAWN NEARED, AND THEdarkness outside began to lighten,
Ian slipped from Kira's bed and

found the clothing he had discarded earlier that night.

He finished dressing, slipped back onto the balcony, and
dropped over the side of the rail to the ground

below. Crouched by the wayaca tree that had given him the
boost to the balcony that he had needed the

night before, Ian narrowed his gaze, staring around the
garden that separated him from the stone fence on

the other side.

Confident he wasn't being observed, he made his way quickly
through the flowering shrubs,

bougainvilleas, and various trees until he reached the
ten-foot stone fence. Once again using one of the

many wayaca trees spread around the property, he made his
way to the top to the divider and dropped

into the Fuentes grounds once again.

From there, it was only a short distance to the villa.
Diego's night guards didn't notice his passing, and

the dogs the guards used never flinched at his scent. He
was a part of the grounds, nothing to get excited

about, so they did nothing to warn the guards of his
presence as he climbed to the balcony outside his

bedroom and let himself back inside.

As he closed the glass doors behind him, Deke rose from his
reclining position on the couch in the sitting

area of the room and stretched stiffly.

"You said an hour." The other man reminded him
irritably of the amount of time he had been gone.

Ian let his lips quirk at the querulous tone. "I had
the cell phone on me, you could have called if you

needed me."

Deke snorted at that one, his eyes narrowing on Ian then.
"Man, you look like you been rode hard."

There was a note of envy in the bodyguard's voice.
"Bastard. Hope you enjoyed it enough for the both of

us."

Ian almost chuckled. Deke's lover, an American law
graduate, was waiting patiently at home while he

played in the criminal element, both of them surviving on
the impromptu, secretive visits the other man

managed to make every few months. Sometimes, only a few
times a year.

Yeah, he had enjoyed the night enough for four men, and
still he was far from satisfied.

"You gonna try for a few hours' shut-eye before the
day begins? I can take up watch in the main room."

Ian shook his head. "Did you manage some sleep?"

"A few hours." Deke nodded.

"Go catch a few more," Ian instructed him.
"I'm going to shower and take care of a few things before we

meet later. We have that meeting with Radacchio and his
three sons later this afternoon. I'll catch a nap

on the way there and then on the return."

"Yeah, good ole Radacchio called daddy dearest just
after you left. That meeting might not be so

important, because Diego informed him in rather bloody
terms of the fact that the Fuentes cartel will no

longer require their services."

Ian grimaced and shook his head. He should have known Diego
wouldn't leave it alone. Hell, a part of

him had known. Diego had ruled with a bloody hand, and he
saw no reason to do things differently now

that Ian was stepping into the cartel. For some reason, he
thought he could make Ian enjoy the killing, the

drug wars, and the blood lust that fueled them.

"I'll take care of Diego before we leave." He
sighed. "Be ready to roll by nine. I want to be in place and

I want the meeting site secured before we enter. I don't
put betrayal past Valence Radacchio any more

than I put it past any of Diego's other business associates
but I want to hear what he has to say about that

last attempted hijacking."

Deke touched his fingers to his forehead in agreement and
farewell before slipping from the bedroom,

then the adjoining sitting room. Left in the dark alone,
Ian stared around the bedroom, his eyes narrowed,

as he considered the spy Sorrell had on the estate now.

He'd received proof of the transfer of information before
leaving the night before. Not that she had been

able to take much to her contact. Ian didn't keep Diego in
the loop for the most part, knowing his habit of

discussing everything that passed by him with Saul. Diego
was careful, he was smart, but one of Sorrell's

spies had slipped by him.

Shaking his head, Ian headed for the shower. He needed to
clear the scent of Kira from his head so he

could think and move on with his own plans. No doubt, he was
going to have to find a way to get rid of

her now. The past night had proved his weakness to her. He
would never be able to stay out of her bed

knowing she was so close.

And it wouldn't take long for someone to catch on to the
affair and to betray it to Sorrell or one of the

other cartel enemies. Hell, even to Diego, which would be
just as bad. He knew his dear old pop. The

minute he learned Ian had a lover, a woman who meant more
than a one-night stand, then he would start

plotting, conspiring. Because nothing mattered more to
Diego than learning a weakness; he had a need to

exploit. And Ian was smart enough to know just how easily
he could be manipulated if Kira were in

danger.

He had realized that somewhere around the time he had
looked down and seen his cock spearing

between her lips, seen the hunger in her eyes, and the need
glowing in her face. Or maybe about the time

she had stopped fighting him, stopped fighting the control
he stole from her and let him enforce his own.

TWO HOURS LATER, IAN STALKEDinto the servants' quarters on
the first floor of the villa, his foot

landing squarely on the locked door of Liss Dannear's
bedroom door and splintering it from the hinges.

With Deke behind him, he moved slowly into the room, his
eyes narrowed on the two women now

cowering on the bed.

"Surprise, surprise." His smile was tight, hard,
as he looked from Liss to Eleanor. "My, my, ladies, been

up to fun and games, have you?" It seemed the known
and the suspected information leaks were keeping

more intimate company than Ian had guessed.

Eleanor's kittenish features were twisted into shock and
dismay, while Liss lowered her eyes quickly, but

not before Ian glimpsed the anger that filled them.

He stared at them coldly, aware of Deke and the others
spreading out around him, the automatic rifles

they carried held confidently in their arms.

"El Patrón, it . . . it is not as it seems,"
Eleanor gasped, her dark brown eyes widened in distress as Liss

cowered against her naked body.

Their bodies quivered, breasts bare, as the women made no
attempt to cover themselves. The obvious

signs of recent sex lingered on their thighs, on the
reddened discoloration of their nipples, and the

dampness of the sheets beneath them.

"Oh, I think it's very much as it seems." He
jerked a wooden chair forward, straddled it, and braced his

forearms on the back. And then he smiled at them. A
triumphant, knowing smile.

Eleanor pulled the sheet toward them.

"Leave the sheet alone." His hardened voice
rasped through the silence that had been broken only by

Eleanor's gasping breaths.

"El Patrón Fuentes does not mind how we find our
pleasure." Liss suddenly had the temerity to speak

up. She tried to simulate fear, but there was too much
triumph, too much anger in her for her to carry it

off.

"Liss, you forget who rules the roost here. That
rooster has done cocked his last crow, so to speak, as

far as decisions in this house are concerned, are we
clear?"

She licked her full, wide lips as she flicked a glance
around the room, obviously judging the threat. And

coming up with death.

"Ian, it is so small a transgression," Eleanor
whispered then, her limpid gaze imploring. "It was just a bit

of consolation."

"Your sex games or preferences don't concern me,
Eleanor," he assured her with an easy smile. It was a

smile she didn't seem to find much comfort in. "Your
association with Liss and, shall we say, cartel

enemies does concern me."

He was watching Eleanor directly, though he caught the
flash of fear in Liss's gaze with his peripheral

vision. Poor Eleanor, she wasn't the liar she wanted to
believe she was. Guilt marked her

chocolate-brown gaze as surely as the forceful touch of
Liss's lips on her breast had marked the taut

mound.

"I do not know."

"Don't lie to me, Eleanor." He reached his hand
out to Deke. Four pictures were placed in it, prints

taken from the digital camera that had marked Eleanor and
Liss's trip to the market the day before.

The two women were photographed speaking with a known
Sorrell contact, Ernesto Cruz, then

accepting two less than thin plain envelopes. Liss, greedy
little bitch, had opened hers and fanned through

the bills there.

He tossed the pictures to the bed where the women stared at
them in rapt horror.

"I'm going to assume you gave them the only piece of
information you could have acquired. The meeting

with Radacchio that you believed was taking place late last
night?" Liss stared back at him furiously, not

bothering to hold her rage in, as Ian continued.
"Ernesto's friends didn't find Radacchio at that meeting.

They found a small army instead. His friends were returned
to Ernesto in pieces this morning." The

women paled, terror rounding their eyes even as Ian felt
rage scour his soul.

Sorrell had sent the best he could acquire on short notice.
Two of Ian's men had died, but Sorrell's men

hadn't lived to take another breath.

It didn't matter that they were all criminals of varying
degrees, murderers dozens of times over, each and

every one of them, all in the name of the mighty coca and
the almighty dollar.

"I lost two men last night, Eleanor," he said
softly. "Two of my best. I'm not happy over that."

Her lips trembled as she quivered, fear paling her dark
face and dampening her eyes.

"Ian, there was supposed to be no one hurt." Her
breath hitched with panic. "They promised—"

"Are you a fool, Eleanor?" he snapped. "Look
at Liss. Look at her." Eleanor's gaze shot to Liss's defiant

face. "She thought Sorrell would triumph. That I'd die
in the bloodbath her boss arranged."

"No, Ian," she cried.

He whipped the Glock from the inside of his jacket, the
barrel aimed at Liss's head. For a moment, he