Cold Day in Hell (6 page)

We’re both very fluent. I wasn’t taking any chances one of the goon squad could overhear my side of the conversation.”

She’d been intensely aware of the two men tailing her and her friends. That’s also when she’d warned Evan and Chad about Cruz; they hadn’t been present when the bastard had tried to intimidate her.

“That’s good, excellent.” He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips, then released it. “We’ll still have the advantage. They don’t know who or what I am.

They’ll underestimate me … hell, Cruz fucking underestimated you, sweetheart.” She blushed and wished she was his “sweetheart” for real and not just for the job. “If Cruz thought you were muscle, he’d come in, guns a-blazing, and just snatch me. For now, we just get shadowed.”

“Exactly, though his patience is waning.”

She swallowed. “Um, where were the cameras?” Her face flushed rosy pink, a combination of fury and embarrassment.

“Everywhere. Full coverage.” His voice was calm, but the look in his eyes verged on stormy again. It made her feel better to know he was furious on her behalf, that she wasn’t alone in her anger.

“Shit. Fuck. Crap. I want … want…” She hissed. “I’ll kill the asswipe.” A look of shock swept over Risto’s face at her threat. She choked back laughter. He had totally the wrong idea about her. Better he learn who she really was sooner rather than later. She wasn’t a prude or a pacifist. “Does it bother you that I want to kill him?”

“Not a problem, it’s just you look so lady-like…”

“Get over that notion. While I may not look like soldier material, and it’s been some time since I lived on a marine base, I can think and act like one when the occasion warrants.”
And this occasion does.
She gave an abrupt laugh. “You need to know that Keely’s brothers, their dad and mine trained me to defend myself. I excelled at the use of weapons. But while I’m coordinated enough and had the desire to learn martial arts, I just couldn’t hit or kick people. Hell, I can’t even punch a practice dummy. Wimpy, right?” Risto’s lips twisted into an amused grin. “No. Normal, I’d say.” He looked in his side mirror. She did the same on her side and noted the Rovers and the town car hadn’t moved. “Callie, Cruz will approach us while we’re having lunch, you know that?”

“Yes. Why are we going out? Why not stick close to the hotel until it’s time to move to the new place?”

“He could pay, or more likely coerce, someone to put something in our food.”

“You really think he’d drug us?”

“Me, he’d poison. You, he’d drug. As you said, he wants you alive.” As if he couldn’t stop touching her, he lifted a hand and stroked a finger down her arm. She inhaled, goose flesh arising along his finger’s path. She bit her lip to smother the gasp threatening to emerge.

“You’re lucky he wants this photo shoot to come off for reasons of his own—or he would’ve taken you the first night.” She shivered, not from his touch this time, but relief that she’d had the chance to call for help. “Hey, it’s okay.” His voice was just as gentle and soothing as his touch. “It didn’t happen. Don’t think about it. The fucker screwed up and now I’m here. He won’t get you. I promise.”

“I know. Keely and her husband trust you. I trust you.” She worried her lower lip with her teeth. “Will you get rid of the eyes and ears … in the room? When we go to change? Please.” She leaned into his hand as he moved to caress her neck. His words and touch warmed her, chasing away the throat-clenching fear she’d lived with over the past two days. On the surface, she’d called upon all her modeling skills and put on the performance of her life, but inside she’d been a quivering puddle of goo. Just having Risto here made her feel safe, feel as if she’d make it home and back to her life.

“Sorry, can’t. It would tip him off…”

“…that you were more than just a husband.” She nodded. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.

I’ve had some training about potential abduction. My dad saw to that. There was always the chance we military dependents might be kidnapped from the base housing in foreign countries. I have some survival skills, but nothing like what you’re used to with Keely.”

“Keely’s unique. Don’t compare yourself to her. From what she tells me, you’re talented, just in a different way.” He massaged the knots in her neck with a firm, but gentle motion. His touch, while it eased the tension in her neck, created new tension farther down her body. It was all she could do not to rub her thighs together to ease the aching in her sex. “As far as I can tell, you’ve done everything right to this point,” he said. “You figured out you were in big trouble as soon as you saw Cruz and you called for your extraction and protection for your brothers. You held up.”

“Thanks, I needed to hear that. I’ve been so afraid.”

“Hey, fear keeps you sharp.”

“Then I’m a Ginsu knife.” She sliced the air as if she held a knife.

Risto grinned as he switched from massaging the back of her neck to feathering her hair through his fingers. It felt wonderful, and she wondered if he was acclimating her to his touch for the act they had to put on for Cruz or if he did it because he wanted to.

“Callie, you said you had some training. What kind?”

“I told you about the failed attempts at teaching me how to take down an attacker. I couldn’t even knee a guy in the balls.” She frowned. “Although I think I have the proper motivation now. I’m pretty sure I could emasculate Cruz, the scum-sucking, Peeping Tom, lowlife fucktard.”

Risto’s lips broke into a full smile and he chuckled. Jesus, he was gorgeous when he smiled—not
GQ
, metro-sexual attractiveness, but more
Field and Stream
masculine ruggedness. “Go on … what else?”

“Um, I told you I excelled at shooting. Back at Lejeune, I was almost as good as Keely. I expect she’s better now since she’s attended Sniper School. My dad always said guns were the great equalizer for females in the military.”

“What kind of weapons?”

“You name it, I’ve probably shot a version of it. Personal sidearm?” He nodded, his black-eyed gaze fixed on her face. No nerves or awareness on his face about the bad guys watching them, but she knew he was aware of where everyone was and would act instantaneously if needed. “I prefer a Glock or a Ruger. I own a ladies Ruger since it’s lighter and fits my hand better. I like the Lapua or the Remington sniper rifles for long-range. And any of the submachine guns are just fine, though some of the Eastern European stuff is crap and gets clogged easy in wet and dirty environments.” He raised an eyebrow. His eyes glinted with amusement. “We trained in the marshes and savannas surrounding Lejeune—very wet and very dirty places.”

He nodded, chuckling. “Been there, done that. Jesus, you and Keely are unbelievable. Most women don’t even want to touch guns, let alone crawl around in the muck and shoot them.” His eyes filled with approval. “But have you shot anything in the last seven years?”

“Yep.” His wider smile reappeared. God, she loved his approval. She could get addicted to it—she who hadn’t felt the need to obtain a man’s approval since her dad died. “I taught my brothers to shoot. We go to the range a couple of times a month.” She shot him a broad grin. “I still rate expert—on paper targets.” She frowned. She’d never shot at a live target. Could she? She pictured Cruz aiming a gun at her brothers—or Risto—and knew she could.

He pulled a submachine gun from under the driver’s seat, keeping it below the level of the dash. “Can you shoot this?”

She studied it for a second then smiled. “An H&K MP5K. It has thirty-round mags.

High velocity with stopping power. Bullet caliber is 9mm. And it weighs under six pounds.” She nodded. “Yeah, I practice with the MP5A3 at the range—there’s not much difference in how the two models handle. The MP5K is just shorter overall and has a slightly different grip.”

“Very good. Put it in that huge tote bag you carry. It should fit easily. There are extra magazines and a box of ammo under your seat, get that out also. We’ll be walking from now on. We’ll pick up a new vehicle at Conn’s. I figure Cruz will plant a bug on this one while it’s in the hotel parking.”

She took the gun, making sure to keep it out of the line of sight of their watchers, and checked to make sure the safety was engaged. She popped out the magazine and checked to see it was full and loaded properly, then reinserted the mag. She put the gun in the tote sitting next to her legs then retrieved the extra mags and the extra ammunition from under her seat and added them to the bag.

Risto grunted his approval. “I’ll have Conn locate you a light-weight handgun.” He stroked a surprisingly gentle finger along the pulse beating rapidly in her neck.

Her stomach clenched and her pussy flooded. Who knew her neck was such an erogenous zone? She sure as heck never stroked her neck to get off, but if Risto kept at it long enough, she might come.

“Can you handle a knife?” he asked.

Before she could answer, he rubbed her earlobe between his thumb and a finger. She swallowed a moan at the pleasure sweeping over her upper body. Her nipples already tight from just being near him, puckered even more tightly.
Shit, this man is lethal.

“Um, knife?” He nodded, no expression on his face and his thumb and finger still plying her earlobe. “No, not really. Only to cook. I chop a mean onion.” She shoved his hand away from her ear.

He laughed and stroked his finger along her neck, then down along the clavicle.

Pleasure shot down her spine and she had a hard time not wiggling in her seat.

“Funny girl. We’ll keep the big knives away from you.”

She grabbed the hand tantalizing her. “No, no! I want a knife. I need a knife. A big effing sharp knife.”

He looked at her as if she’d gone crazy. “Callie, if you…” She held up her free hand to halt his words. “I take it we may have to hit the jungle.” He nodded and looked really unhappy about the prospect. “There are snakes and … stuff out there.” She grimaced with distaste. “Dad and Colonel Walsh always had us kids carry knives when we played in the areas around the camp. Reptiles I can kill easily, in fact, I think it is my duty to do so—way too many reptiles in the world.” Cruz being of the two-legged variety.

“Okay, one knife in a scabbard. You have any basic training in the wild?” He alternated idly stroking her neck and playing with her hair now. But she could tell he was still alert to the men watching them from the three vehicles. Glad he was, because all she was aware of was him.

“Yeah, Dad and the Colonel would take us kids on what they called wilderness vacations, but, in reality, they were toned-down versions of what the marine recruits went through.” She smiled remembering how she and Keely would bitch and moan, but refused to let the boys do better than them. “I’m just okay in swamps, so that probably includes jungles. I need to warn you, I hate heat and especially heat with humidity.

Something about my metabolism doesn’t agree with it. So, jungles, deserts, I can make it, but I tire easily. My elements are the northern woods and mountains, and I just love snow. I should’ve been born a polar bear.”

Risto smiled then sobered quickly. “Plan A avoids all roughing it and gets us out of Colombia the quickest. But if we have to go to Plans B or C, we might have several days in the rough as we head for the Panamanian border. We’ll be properly supplied, though.” Picturing a map of Colombia in her head, she knew he meant to head for the port city of Turbo for sea travel or the Darien Gap for over ground. She shivered. No one travelled across the Darien area of Colombia and Panama if they could find another way. “I’ll be fine. Just tell me what to do and when to do it—and I will. You’re the boss.”

“Yeah, I’m the boss.” His words came out husky … sexy. He glanced at his rearview mirror and stiffened. “Our friends are getting antsy. The passenger in the lead Rover is on his cell and gesticulating like crazy. Just remember, once we leave this vehicle, anything we say or do is probably being observed.” He paused. “That means, I’ll be touching and kissing you.” He stroked the back of his hand over her breasts. She inhaled as sensation shot to her clit. “I’ll be with you as you shower and dress. Keep your voice low and atonal. Whispers can be picked up by the mikes. I’ll do my best to keep my body between you and the cameras.”

God, he’d see her naked. More to the point, she’d see him naked. Her inner vixen said “yum.” Her commonsense said “chill, it’s his job to protect you, even from video cameras.”

“Got it. Academy Award time. I’m not an actress, but I’ve played up to the camera often enough for fashion shoots. I think I can handle it. But can you?” She glanced at him as he turned away from her and put the car into gear. “You have a special lady? Will it be hard for you to make pretend love to me?”

Her damn mouth had a mind of its own. She really didn’t need to know if he was seeing someone. She’d probably never see him again once they got back to the States—

well, not unless she went to work for SSI, and then she’d come across him when he wasn’t out on missions. “Forget I asked. It’s none of my business. I apologize.” His gaze straight forward as he maneuvered the crowded valet lane, he replied in a gravelly tone. “No special lady. And no, it won’t be a burden.” He turned his head, his stare glinting and hot. “Just make believe I’m the guy in that perfume commercial you did. You burned up the fucking screen. Cruz sees that kind of emotion, he’ll believe we’re lovers.”

Callie threw back her head and laughed. The first good laugh she’d had since she arrived in Colombia.

“What’s so fucking funny?” He sounded aggrieved. “That commercial is hot enough to melt steel.”