Page 12 of Exposed

“I think we are.” She yanked her arm, but he held fast.

“What happened on the yacht?”

Her eyes met his and a loose, brittle laugh bubbled out of her. “That’s none of your business.”

He tightened his hold. She was right. It wasn’t his business. His plan had been to come here and tell her he’d be assigning someone else to the case. But god help him, he couldn’t fucking do it. He couldn’t entrust anyone else with her life. It might kill him, but he had to see this through. “It is my business. You dragged me here and both our lives are on the line.”

Her gaze landed on his hand. “Let go,” she said softly.

“Tell me.”

The top corner of her mouth lifted. In a flurry of movement, she twisted his arm until pain shot through his shoulder. He let out a sharp grunt and then she shoved him against the wall. Satisfaction sparked the hues of her eyes as she folded her arms across her chest.

He massaged his arm and scowled at her, and damn if some of his dignity hadn’t left too. “Fine, don’t tell me.”

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, then fished out the tiny baggie of crushed rohypnol. “If you get in a tight spot and need to knock him out, slip him two of these. They’re roofies.”

Her eyes sharpened on the plastic bag he held in his palm and she lifted it with her fingertips as if the contents would leap out and into her throat.

“Thank you,” she said softly and tucked them into her purse. “He’s leaving on a business trip on Monday for a week. When he gets back, he’s taking me on a cruise to San Juan.”

He rubbed the burning pain in his wrist, but it did nothing to calm the fire of rage inside him. “A cruise? Are you insane?”

Her arms stretched out beside her and her eyebrows lifted. “What choice do I have? He invited me. Had I said no, he would have moved on to the next willing piece of meat and we’d have no means to get on the inside.”

Nate shook his head and paced the small hallway. She was right, but no way in hell he’d admit it. “So you’re telling me I have a fucking week to get my team set up on the ship?”

She lifted a delicate shoulder, fire blazed from her eyes. “I guess you’d better get started.”

He closed his eyes. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this. They were supposed to ambush his next shipment of cocaine at the trade-off point—wherever the hell that was. Not follow him on a wild goose chase into the Caribbean. The cruise could be a decoy, but on the other hand, Carlos could have something bigger going on.

Regardless, there was no way in hell he could let Maddie go by herself. If he didn’t get the clearance to get his team on the ship, he’d have to go himself. He chewed the side of his tongue and straightened his shoulders.

“I’ll be in touch. Whatever you do, don’t slip up.” The words slid through his lips before he could stop them.

A hard glint came into her eyes, sharp and defiant.

Christ. He hadn’t intended it as a jab, or a reference to her previous operation that had blown up in her face. But maybe right now she needed to be reminded of how quickly thingscould go south. His fingers curled into his palm, and his index finger hovered in the air inches away from her nose. “And keep that damn phone I gave you on your person at all times. If he finds out you have an encrypted phone, the gig is up.”

He reached for the doorknob and paused. “And when it’s safe to do so, call your brother. He’s worried sick.”

The door clicked behind him and he strode down the hall. He kept his chin tucked and weaved through the hall of hotel.

He needed a damn drink.

CHAPTER 4

Maddie’s nerves vibratedalong her muscles, matching the bass of the music near the stage. Her hand shook as she filled a glass with liquor. Carlos had been gone three days, and so far, every night a different man from his entourage had been watching her. Heat crept up her chest and her temper racked up a notch.

Tonight, it was Tony. And out of all three of them, he made her the most uneasy. His nearly black eyes never left her as she moved from table to table. She topped off the glass in her hand with soda and took a deep shaky breath. It took everything in her not to storm across the room and tell him to go fuck himself. But that wouldn’t go over well, and it would ruin the image she’d carefully painted of herself.

After Nate had left the previous night, she’d called Lieutenant Davis to notify him of the cruise she and Carlos were going on. He hadn’t been much happier than Nate about it, but he’d granted her clearance.

Not like he could have stopped her anyway. Updating him while on the ship would be tough and risky, so he had agreed to settle for updates through the FBI.

“You okay?” Ginger leaned against the bar, an empty serving tray balanced on her hip. Her voice barely carried over the music, but her lips moved exaggeratedly. “You’ve been off tonight.” Her short red hair framed her jaw and her bright blue eyes focused sharply on Maddie. Ginger had been the only welcoming face since she’d started at GT’s, and pretending to be someone she wasn’t gnawed at her.

Maddie forced a smile. “I’m fine.” The urge to tell her that Tony creeped her out sat heavily on her tongue.

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