Personal Target: An Elite Ops Novel (11 page)

“So how would this work, Teddy? I understand the woman can’t travel to Africa, but who’ll teach my courses next semester if I go in her place?” Jenny’s excitement was palatable: in her tone, in the set of her shoulders, in the tilt of her head.

Africa?

“They’d do that?” she asked.

Another pause. Nick’s lust vanished in 2.4 seconds, changing to something infinitely more combustible.

“I know I organized the Paleo-Niger project, but that was volunteer work. I’d planned to go with you and pay my own way until my financial circumstances made that impossible. Now you’re saying the Russ Foundation wants to hire me to go to Africa? This week?”

Part of him wished he hadn’t heard anything. Jenny wanted to go to Africa? Getting her out of town was a good plan, but talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

If Nick had stayed with the NCS, his next assignment would have been in Africa. Before he quit he’d done preliminary background work for the assignment. A year ago the Republic of Niger had been an extraordinarily dangerous place, particularly for foreigners.

Nothing had happened in the past twelve months to change that. If anything, the situation was even more out of control. He couldn’t think about what it would be like for an American woman travelling alone there. His frustration level ratcheted up as he listened to Jenny’s side of the conversation.

“Of course I want to go. I’ve just—it’s, um . . . complicated. But yes, I can do it. You’ve already got my passport information, and I had the visa all arranged before I cancelled, so go ahead and make my reservations.”

She was so caught up in what was happening, she didn’t realize Nick was standing in the doorway hearing every word.

“I need only a few hours to get things together here. My dig pack is in my storage unit along with my passport and visa. I took everything over there when I thought I was cancelling last week. I never put the passport back in my safety deposit box, so I don’t even have to wait on the bank to open tomorrow before I leave. I can fly into JFK tonight and catch that early morning flight to Niamey tomorrow.”

She swung around in the chair and looked up at that moment to make eye contact. Her face was lit with an excitement Nick hadn’t seen since the summer they’d first met. Despite finding him there in the doorway, her gaze didn’t waver as she spoke into the phone. But something in her expression changed.

“On second thought, don’t make the reservation for New York till tomorrow.” She turned her back to him in the next pause. “You’re right. I’m so excited, I didn’t think about the holiday. It’ll be crazy to travel. Okay, I’ll just put my roller skates on and get it done. Tomorrow evening will be fine.”

She listened for a moment. “Of course, just let me know. Sure, you too, and thank you. I’ll see you soon.” She set the landline back down in the cradle on the desktop and took an audible breath before she turned to look up at him.

“Hi.” She smiled. “I hope you don’t mind. I needed to call my boss.”

Nick studied her and considered counting to ten before speaking, but he knew that even if he counted to a thousand it wouldn’t help. “No, I don’t mind. But I would like to know what in God’s name you think you’re doing planning a trip to Africa less than eight hours back from that ordeal in Mexico?”

She tilted her head, and he could tell from the look in her eye that he was about to be handled. His pulse rate ratcheted up before she said a word.

“That’s just it, Nick. I know I need to get away, to get out of town while you sort all this out. Isn’t Africa far enough away?”

How could he argue with that? Of course, distance was the very problem. Africa was too damn far away. He didn’t like the thought of Jennifer being where he couldn’t see her, couldn’t touch her.

Jesus.
What had happened to getting the hell away from her once he got her back to Dallas? When had he become so incredibly possessive? When the woman he’d dreamed about for the past ten years had been kidnapped and he’d risked his life to rescue her from a brothel in Mexico, that’s when. If that didn’t inspire a slight feeling of possessiveness, he wasn’t sure what would.

He leaned forward, meeting her gaze. “Africa is absolutely lousy with cartels, terrorists, and criminals who would just as soon shoot you as look at you. The Republic of Niger’s government has become increasingly chaotic and unstable over the past year, and that’s a generous assessment of the situation. At this point, it’s possible you might be safer in Mexico.”

“I don’t want to argue with you—”

“Of course you do,” he interrupted. “But you’ve got to listen.” He took a deep breath, preparing to explain exactly what he meant.

“Where is Bryan?” she asked.

He blinked at the abrupt change in subject. “He’s gone home to sleep, I’d imagine.” Before he could say anything else, she stood and walked toward him.

“Good.” With no warning, she slipped his robe from her shoulders.

He stood staring in shocked silence as he tried to process the conversation’s appealing change of direction. She was naked underneath the robe. He’d known she would be, but he hadn’t expected to see her standing so gloriously naked in his office.

“I don’t want to talk right now. Can’t we do that later?” She slid her arms around his neck and pulled herself to him as his brain shorted out.

Still, he recognized those words as his line. He was supposed to be the one not wanting to talk about things, not dealing with problems when he would be leaving. It took him a moment to piece that together as he was working with less blood supply to his brain than usual, but she was doing exactly what he’d done to her ten years ago when he’d left. She was planning to leave and not discuss things at all, and he was supposed to be okay with that.

He was more than a little surprised at how “un-okay” he was.

He tried putting his hands on her arms but couldn’t quite bring himself to push her away.

“Jenny, we need to talk.”

She kissed his collarbone and pressed all that lovely bare flesh closer to him, and his arms automatically went around her. She kissed the line of his jaw.

“Aren’t there things you’d rather do than talk?” she asked.

“Is that a trick question?” He nuzzled the side of her neck.

No, he didn’t want to talk. He wanted to take her down the hall to his bedroom and pick up where they’d left off a few hours ago. She was giving a fair impression that she wanted the same thing. But what had happened to the weeping woman at the airstrip and in his bathroom last night? Was she really recovered from the horror of the past two-and-a-half days and able to move on so quickly, or was this some huge act to distract him from her leaving town?

Why couldn’t he turn his brain off and focus on this? On now? On her bare ass in his hands?

His slid his fingertips up her waist and pulled her closer. “Jenny, I—”

“Shhh.” She kissed him again, this time sucking at his lower lip as she ran her hands around his waist and over his butt.

He gave up and quit arguing. Hell, if she didn’t want to talk, why should he? He slipped one hand between her legs and felt the heat under her soft curls.

She moaned deep in her throat as he finally stopped thinking and melted into the moment. Her hands were back around at his waistband and she had him out of his gym shorts in record time. Her hand was stroking him as he backed her up to his desk.

With one swipe he cleared the neatly arranged pens and papers to lift her up and over the raised edge of the uniquely designed desktop. He’d always prided himself on keeping a ruthlessly spartan office. That came in handy now.

He was about to be inside her again. It was just as it had always been. One look at her and he was turned on. Her lips were moving against the side of his neck, and she was nibbling at his earlobe when the phone beside her hip rang with a startling vibration.

She jumped, and he would have smiled if he hadn’t caught her guilty expression. Her eyes widened as she looked away from his face, but it was too late. He’d been seconds from being “played,” his mind taken away from the real issue at hand.

Africa? Seriously?

After the trauma of what she’d experienced in Mexico, he wasn’t sure if travelling to Niger was the height of idiocy, recklessness, or both. How could she possibly be considering going there?

The phone rang a second time, and he reluctantly checked the caller ID. It was Gavin. He couldn’t ignore his boss, no matter how inconvenient the timing.

Jenny started to pull away, but he held her to him with one hand as he picked up the phone. They were going to discuss Africa, with their clothes on, as soon as he finished this call.

“Hope I’m not catching you at a bad time,” said Gavin.

Nick snorted a grim laugh and wondered, not for the first time, if there weren’t cameras in the office, even though he knew for a fact there were not. The man just had excellent “spidey” senses, more so than anyone Nick had ever worked with.

“No, boss. Everything’s fine here. What can I do for you?” Jennifer again moved to pull away, and he held her firmly in place, not in the least bothered that he was standing there with his pants around his thighs.

“I talked to Bryan earlier, and he suggested I let you sleep in, so I did. But I wanted to talk about what you ran into in Tenancingo. It sounds like something more was going on there than just a simple turf dispute.”

Nick cleared his throat. “I agree. It was a deliberate massacre. There was no reason to kill those people once the building burned.”

Jenny stiffened in his arms. Nick ran his palm up and down her spine as he continued. “It’s like someone was trying to start a war.”

The connection was lousy, and Nick had to press the phone closer to his ear to hear. Still, Gavin’s voice was staticky and dropped out every couple of seconds. “Tenancingo has been operating as a center for sex trafficking for a couple of generations now with little to no interference from local law enforcement. That level of violence doesn’t make sense.”

“The hits on Rivera’s compound last month and the vet clinic take on a whole new meaning with this. No one is strong enough to take over both cartels, but someone could be trying to get them to fight among themselves. If they start destroying each other, the agitator wouldn’t have to work as hard to stir things up,” said Nick.

“Do you think Leland’s contact, Alvarez, might know something?” asked Gavin.

Jenny quit struggling, making no secret of the fact that she was listening to both sides of the conversation. Nick figured there was nothing she shouldn’t hear. If anything, it might make the argument to keep her out of Africa more forceful.

He tilted the phone so she could hear more easily. “He might, if he’s in the loop with Vega. Should I talk to Alvarez or have Leland do it? Most of our communication was through text.”

“You go ahead,” said Gavin. “I’ve got Leland busy with a couple of other things now. But I’ll have him check with his old contacts in the DEA.”

“This didn’t look like a cartel feud in the classic sense. And I don’t see how it could have been about me or Bryan unless Leland’s contact was dirty.”

“Do you think this was some sort of hit on Tomas Rivera?” asked Gavin.

Nick straightened and pulled Jenny closer toward him, enjoying the feel of her bare skin against him but still smarting over the idea that she’d been trying to distract him with sex earlier.

“With the attacks last month on Rivera’s compound and on Cesar Vega, it’s not that farfetched. Someone was emboldened in a big way to think they could strike at the heart of the Rivera cartel one day and take out the enforcer for the Vegas the next.”

“That kind of violence is all too common down there. It would almost prove the opposite of what we’re saying here, that this is a turf war,” said Gavin.

Nick exhaled. “Could be . . .” Even he heard the lack of conviction in his tone.

Jenny pushed at his chest again, and he was so surprised he almost took a step back. Anger flashed in her eyes. Apparently, she didn’t like being held still while he talked. He let her go and watched reluctantly as she slid off his desk and bent to pick up her robe. She pulled it on before she left the room, covering the ass he’d been holding just moments ago. Obviously pissed with him, she snapped the door closed.

He pulled up his own pants with a sigh. “Gavin, what do you know about West Africa, specifically the Republic of Niger?”

“Geographically? Politically? What are you looking for?”

“All of it. Jenny is talking about going to Niamey on a paleontology dig.”

“That’s a very bad idea. It’s a hellhole over there right now. The drought in the area has produced a political crisis, and they’ve got a new government in charge every other week with tribes fighting among themselves based on religious affiliations and allegiance to whichever group is in charge at the moment. Al-Qaeda connections run deep all over the area.”

Nick had suspected as much but had hoped instead for something that would reassure him about Jenny’s choice. Unfortunately, he’d have to settle for ammunition in their pending conversation about her travel plans. Gavin wasn’t sharing anything encouraging.

“Drug cartels have moved from Latin America to the coast of West Africa. Niger is in the center of a prime shipping route across the continent for moving their product into Europe: mostly Spain, the U.K., and France. There’s very little law enforcement, and the drugs travel with virtually no resistance.”

“I thought the DEA had an office in Niamey,” said Nick.

Gavin snorted. “Oh, they do. It’s one of four DEA offices covering a continent spanning 11.7 million square miles and inhabited by one billion people. I think you can safely say that doesn’t even qualify as spitting in the ocean.”

Nick nodded, his worst fears confirmed about where Jenny was headed.

Chapter Ten

J
ENNIFER MADE HER
way back to the bedroom, struggling with her equilibrium. She’d acted on impulse. Thank God the phone had interrupted, or she would have made a serious error.

That Nick still held such a sexual thrall over her after all this time was disturbing on multiple levels. She’d stepped into his arms to stop an argument and had almost ended up having sex with him on a desktop. Who was she kidding? Certainly not herself. She was becoming addicted to him all over again and reminded herself of how well that had ended before.