Dangerous in Training (Aegis Group, #2) (11 page)

“Come on.” He strode toward the entrance.

They could hire a cab or wait for a shuttle. Either option had pros and cons, weighing them was an exercise in half a dozen of one, six of the other.

The hair on the back of his neck rose.

Mason glanced behind him.

Hannah had stopped a dozen paces back, her bags on the ground, arms crossed over her chest.

Fucking stubborn girl.

He stalked back to her and got right up in her face, a plastic grin on his face.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked.

“I’m not leaving,” she said slowly.

“You want to put your life in danger for two girls you just met?”

“They could be hurt or in danger or...”

“And I’ll do what I can to find them, but not with you here.”

“Again, you can’t remember what they look like, so how do you think you’ll be able to find two girls you can’t even recognize.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

The hotel had video footage. It shouldn’t be terribly difficult to isolate a few images to get a visual.

“You can take me to the airport, but you can’t put me on a plane. I’ll get off and come right back here. You know me, Mason.”

He did, damn it.

And they could argue all day about it.

“You promise to do what I say, when I say, and not backtalk?” He highly doubted she could follow up with a promise like that.

“I’ll try.” She tilted her head to the side.

They were so close he could kiss her if he wanted to.

“Your dad’s going to kill me.”

She flinched as if she’d been slapped.

What exactly had they argued about?

“Come on.” He hefted his bag into a better position and grabbed her larger, rolling bag.

“Where are we going?”

“We need to establish a base. Somewhere we can pay cash, no cameras, off the beaten path.”

“And then what?”

“We need supplies, a contact, something. Then I can find this Luis and get some answers. First things first, you are safe, understand? You are my top priority. Everyone else comes second. Am I clear?”

“I kind of want to kick you in the nuts right now.” She tipped her chin up a fraction.

“I wouldn’t try it if I were you.” He wasn’t above putting her on her ass, and slinging her over his shoulder. Yeah, it would make a scene, but again—her safety came first.

He turned and she stuck close to his side. Together they walked out onto the covered entrance. Several taxis in poor condition sat idling, waiting for guests. Two shuttles were unloading guests and a third sat waiting, empty.

“Come on.” He nudged Hannah forward, aiming at the glossiest shuttle van.

“That goes to the airport,” she whispered.

“I know. Easier to give someone the slip there.”

“Oh.”

“English?” Mason pasted a patronizing grin on his face. He spoke Spanish and a handful of other languages enough to get him by. But whoever wanted Hannah didn’t need to know that.

“Yes.” The driver nodded.

Mason doubted the guy knew more than the necessary phrases, but that was fine.

“You going back to the airport?” He gestured in the general direction.

“Yes, yes.”

“Perfect.”

Mason gathered their bags next to the shuttle to wait for loading and pulled out his phone. He’d grabbed it during his hasty packing but hadn’t actually glanced at it.

Almost dead.

Shit.

He jabbed in Zain’s number and prayed the phone lasted.

“What?” his cousin said after three rings.

Mason put his back to the closest people and switched to speaking in Farsi. Besides Spanish, it was the one language he knew enough to carry on a conversation in.

“We’re in trouble,” he said slowly.

“What happened?” Zain didn’t make the switch, sticking to English, but that was fine. It was Mason’s side of the conversation that mattered.

“Someone tried to drug her, but got me instead. Think they’re after her. Two girls went missing.”

“I can book you on a plane out of there. I don’t know anyone in that area right now, but I bet I can make some friends fast.” Already the computer keys were clicking in the background.

“Can’t do. She won’t leave the other girls.”

“Fuck, Stevens won’t care.”

“I know.”

“What are you going to do?”

“We need a package drop.”

“Mason, you need to get her out of there.”

“It would take me, you, and an army.”

“Then I’d better find you an army.”

“Just a package.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but you better change her mind, Mason. I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

The call cut off. He glanced at the dark screen and cursed.

“What? What happened?” Hannah whispered.

“That was Zain. I’m trying to get us more information about the local sites for our next destination.” He smiled and draped his arm across Hannah’s shoulder.

“Ready to go?” The driver circled them, and gestured to their bags.

“Yes, thank you.” Mason let the driver take Hannah’s two rolling bags, but kept his duffle slung across his chest. “Is it just us going back?”

“To the airport?” The driver hefted first one bag then the other into the van.

“Yes.” Mason nudged Hannah toward the van.

“Yes, yes. Just us.” The driver closed the back of the van.

Mason would have preferred to travel in a pack but he wasn’t going to stick around, waiting for a couple human shields to present themselves. He handed Hannah into the first bench seat and slid in himself behind her. She clenched her hands together so tight her knuckles turned white.

He shouldn’t permit himself to touch her, but this was an extreme circumstance. Mason draped his arm across the back of the seat and wrapped his hand over hers, squeezing them.

Of all the different ways this trip could have gone, this was one of the worst. Not the worst—Hannah was still safe—but it was up there. He hated this for her, but he couldn’t let his emotions get in the way.

The driver climbed behind the wheel, flashed them a grin and started the engine. Mason didn’t draw an easy breath until they passed out from under the covered drive and merged onto the main road leading to the dinky little airport. Even then he kept his eye on their tail. There were dozens of reasons someone might want to kidnap Hannah. She was beautiful, for one, her father had made quite a number of enemies after coming to work for Aegis, and then there was her connection to the Admiral and a whole lot of people who had a beef with the company in general. It could be a crime of opportunity—or a targeted abduction. There was no way to tell until he got his hands on Luis.

When he did...the man was going to pay.

H
annah clutched her luggage handle with one hand and the edge of the phone booth with the other. Mason chattered away in a language she couldn’t even identify. In theory Zain was on the other end of the line. Hopefully it wasn’t her father.

How had this happened? Why her? Could she have dreamed it all last night? Did he really not remember?

There were so many things to be shocked about, she didn’t know what was worse.

The drugging. The missing girls. Someone breaking into her room. The cooperation of the resort staff. Sex with Mason.

He doesn’t remember.

She gulped and leaned against the phone booth. Okay, somehow that one really got her.

He really didn’t remember.

And she could recall every moment in vivid detail.

When he’d woken up, she’d thought maybe he was just hung over. She’d thought he seemed way more relaxed than normal last night. Alcohol was easily a factor. But then the rest? He really had no memory whatsoever about last night. He’d been modest and...normal. Or as normal as a man who’d just figured out he’d been drugged could be.

He’d seen her swimsuit in his room and listened to her flimsy lies without anything jogging loose. How was that possible?

Drugs.

Duh.

He’d said he’d been drugged. Which meant last night was a fluke. It wasn’t real. At least not to him, and that killed a little part of her. Her body remembered what it’d felt like. Muscles she’d never known existed were sore. And what was worse, she wanted to do it again. With Mason. But he didn’t remember. What kind of fair was that? She’d had the best—okay, the only—sex of her life, and the man didn’t even know it.

Christine. Natalie.

Shame stabbed her, drawing blood. What kind of a person was she? The two girls were gone, kidnapped, and she was wrapped up in lustful thoughts.

“Hannah?”

She blinked up at Mason.

“You okay?” He reached for her bigger bag.

“Yeah, sorry—spaced out.”

“I get this is a lot for you, but I need you to stick close to me, keep your eyes peeled, okay? You remember last night. I need for you to stay sharp, tell me if you recognize anyone who might have been at the party. We could be followed.”

“You think so?” She hadn’t even thought of that. After they left the resort, she’d thought they’d be fine.

“Until I know why someone targeted you, yes.”

“Why?” There was a reason?

“I’ll brief you when we’re safe. For now, we have to go.” He turned away from her.

“Wait.” She grabbed his wrist and nodded in the other direction. “We should leave the big bag here. In a locker. Everything I need is in this one.” She held up the smaller, rolling bag.

Mason flashed her a brief grin.

“Clever girl. Still have your phone on you?”

“Yeah.”

“Put it in the locker.”

“But...” She paused, rolling the thought around in her head. Shit. “You think they could track my cell phone. That’s why you want me to leave it.”

He pivoted and she followed, melding into the flow of foot traffic to the next terminal without answering. Then again, he didn’t need to. The hard line of his mouth said it all.

It was all much worse than she’d imagined. And here she was stuck on the tiny detail that
he did not remember having sex with her
.

She followed Mason, eyes on his back. Yeah, she was supposed to watch for familiar faces, but she couldn’t. Not yet.

They’d passed the lockers on their way to the shuttle yesterday. At the time she hadn’t paid any attention to them, but hauling all the bags through the resort made her jealous of Mason’s one little bag.

He opened one of the larger lockers, shoved the bag in, and put both their phones in the front pouch. He fed it a few coins and retrieved the key. Hopefully she’d be able to get it all back before they left, if not—it was just stuff. Clothes. Jewelry. Make-up. She could always get more. They didn’t matter.

“What’s the plan now?” she asked.

Mason straightened and looped an arm around her waist. Her stomach did little pitter patters—except he wasn’t really paying attention to her. Not really. His gaze scanned the terminal, seeing the world in a way she never would, searching out danger.

“We’re going to find someone to take us to a place. Zain has a contact in the area, but the introduction has to happen through a third party because Zain’s not exactly on friendly terms with the contact. The contact is going to get us new IDs, cash, the works.”

“Can’t we just get a taxi?”

“I don’t want to use anyone who answers to someone else. This is Mexico. There are different rules here. Come on.” He took her hand, falling in line behind a large family of Americans.

She wished the family well and hoped they weren’t headed for the same resort she’d been at.

Mason stayed with the family, right on their heels, for thirty yards or so. Without warning, he pulled her off the curb between two taxis and jogged across the street to a small lot of cars.

A man strode parallel to them, heading for a car with flashing tail lights. Mason dropped her hand and sped up, waving his hand. She’d never picked up more than token words in Spanish so it was impossible to understand anything coming out of Mason’s mouth.

She hung back, watching the exchange unfold. If a big guy had come at her, yelling and waving in a parking lot, she’d have freaked out. The man stood his ground, glanced from Mason to the car and back. It wasn’t a shiny new car, but it wasn’t in bad condition either. The man barked out a laugh and held out his hand to Mason, some sort of man test passed. The two shook and the man’s posture relaxed. They were two guys, shooting the breeze and chatting. She edged closer, picking up a word here and there, but the gist of the conversation was lost on her.

What the hell was she doing sticking around? She couldn’t even talk to the locals. Maybe she should go home. Mason was right, she was totally dependent on him. A liability. A risk.

“Come on, José is going to take us to our hotel.” Mason grabbed her suitcase and chunked it in the back seat.

“Our hotel?” She stared at Mason. They had a hotel? Hadn’t they just left one?

“I’ll explain later, honey.” His smile was too bright, too not-Mason. And—achingly—a lot like the man she’s had sex with last night.

She settled into the back seat while the men buckled up in the front and proceeded to ignore her, which suited her just fine. She had too many squishy “poor me” type thoughts to participate in a conversation right now. They quickly left the well-traveled highway and began a twisting series of turns into the heart of the city. Hannah turned, nearly pressing her nose to the glass in order to take in the sights, losing herself in the foreign place.

The buildings were a variety of colors, the tile roofs gleaming in the sun. Palm trees and other green things lined homes and decorated businesses. It was beautiful and different. She’d lived all her life in the Midwest, surrounded by fields or snow. If they survived this, she wanted to take Melissa up on her offer to fly somewhere for a weekend, just to see someplace new. She’d lived her life in a box, always within the confines of her parents’ expectations. That wasn’t the life she wanted anymore. The future might not include Mason, but she could still be happy, though it killed a little piece of herself to imagine never being with him again.

Maybe it was better that way. Last night could be her secret. Something just for her. If Mason knew what they’d done...he’d probably do something drastic. Like leave. Or stand up to her father. As much as she wanted Mason, she also wanted him alive.