Silent Warrior: A Loveswept Classic Romance (6 page)

“You’re stalling again, Cali.”

“And you’re digressing again, McShane.” But she conceded the point and took a knife from the table, using it to slit open the brown tape sealing the box.

John placed a hand on her wrist, stopping her. “Not so fast. You said you were expecting this. How do you know it hasn’t been tampered with? Who did you trust, Cali? Who else knows you’re here?”

“Off-island? Only two people. You and the safety-deposit-box officer from the bank on Grand Cayman.” She shook his hand free and finished opening the box. “He’s overseen Nathan’s box the entire time.”

John gripped her arm again. She sighed in exasperation, but stopped. “What?”

“Well, the setup that Nathan had with the bank is highly unusual.”

“Yes, but you forget, he worked for some pretty unusual people over the years. Who knows what sort of contacts he had. As for the bank officer, it’s not odd for someone to keep the same job for many years.”
She slanted him a look. “You’re still a super-spy, you can relate.”

John wondered if she’d kept track of him. He’d taken Seve Delgado’s offer to be part of his highly specialized team shortly after Nathan’s death. The basic tenet of the Dirty Dozen squad’s philosophy was “All for one and only one.” Meaning, duty came first and there was no second. It had been the perfect choice of job for a man who had spent his whole life making sure his only duty was to himself.

The original dozen had been handpicked for a wide variety of reasons. But the one thing they all had in common was that, outside of the team, they had absolutely no ties to anyone. Not family, not friends. No one.

They were inviolable. No ties meant no weaknesses, no vulnerable spots that could be exploited by their enemies, the trump card used most often in his line of work.

But even the team members were human. Half the squad had been lost during various missions, but the other losses had occurred when several agents had fallen prey to the human need for the one thing they weren’t allowed to have. Ties.

Delgado himself had almost lost an important case and his own life to protect a daughter no one had known he had. The team member sent in to protect her had lost his heart.

John looked down at his hand. Cali’s pulse thrummed beneath his thumb. Links. Ties.

He was tied to this woman in ways he couldn’t
begin to fathom. This was the last place on earth he should be—and the only place he wanted to be.

He pulled his hand away. “So, this was sent by the bank? I thought you’d collected it all. Notes and a photo.”

“I was trying to get to that, but Eudora interrupted us before I could. I don’t know for sure if what’s in here is connected or not.”

“Where did it come from?”

“Apparently, Nathan opened more than one safety-deposit box. I stopped in Grand Cayman to officially close the account and the box, only to find out he had two of them.”

“And you’re just now telling me?” He swallowed the urge to shout. Jaw tight, he asked, “Couldn’t you tell from the statements that there was an unaccounted-for payment?”

“At the time I didn’t pay close attention and just assumed the payments were for the one box he had. Since my name wasn’t on this box, I had to wrangle with the bank to get them to open it. They demanded all sorts of documents proving I was Nathan’s sole heir. Which, since my condo was ripped off, wasn’t easy. I got it all faxed in, but there was a waiting period while they approved it. I didn’t want to wait any longer to get here and start digging.”

“Then they notified you here?”

“Of course not. I told them I’d check back with them.”

“Then why did you have them send the stuff
rather than pick it up yourself? That’s a direct link.” John didn’t want to think about links.

She looked away, busying herself with pulling out the packing paper then lifting out a fat manila envelope.

“Bank officers, even those working for highly confidential banks like the ones on Grand Cayman, can still be gotten to, Cali.”

She rooted through the rest of the packing papers, but found nothing else. She finally looked at him again.

“Maybe I was hoping you’d really come,” she said quietly. “I didn’t want to risk being gone if you came.”

John tried to ignore the shadow of vulnerability he found in her eyes. “Then you should have waited until after I arrived to pick it up.”

The shadow disappeared. “I had no idea how long that might be. It’s not as if I’m not aware of what is involved here, McShane. I’ve worked on numerous top-secret assignments.”

“That was ten years ago. You said yourself you’ve only done civilian work since Nathan’s death.”

“Time doesn’t change the basic rules for protecting yourself. I’m not naive.” She paused for a moment, as if waiting for him to refute the statement. After several seconds of silence, her shoulders dipped, losing some of their rigidity.

“But,” she added, “I have to be honest. Though I am absolutely sure I didn’t leave a trail, I admit that I wasn’t comfortable about letting any more time pass
without doing everything I could. I was Nathan’s wife and acknowledged heir to his other accounts with the bank, yet they still put me through the wringer before letting me have access to the second safety-deposit box. Given that, I felt as secure as I could that they wouldn’t reveal any information to anyone else regarding my business there. That is why people bank there in the first place.”

“Nothing is foolproof, Cali. You shouldn’t have left any connection to Martinique. And you better than anyone know that if human weakness can’t be exploited, there is always someone who can exploit a technological one.”

“I doubt anyone hacked their way into the bank’s computer. And even so, that would show account activity, but not forwarding addresses.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“Well, it’s a moot point because I had it mailed to Aleria under a different name.” She flipped the box flap and pointed to the label on the box. “MWJ, Inc. It’s phony. It’s my mom’s maiden initials. I opened a post office box here and I’ve checked it every day. The return address is also a phony. It’s an off-island secured holding facility the bank uses for unclaimed property. I guess someone could trace that if they worked hard enough, but really, I don’t—”

“How did Eudora know this was yours, then?”

His quietly spoken question cut through the steamy afternoon air like a sharp gust of cold air. Even Cali’s sun-flushed cheeks paled.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “I didn’t even
think—I mean, you had just shown up and I was so surprised and so relieved. And then Eudora was there with the box and it didn’t occur to me to that she shouldn’t know—”

“By accepting the package, you acknowledged you are MWJ, Inc.”

Her eyes widened. “You don’t think this means
she’s
in on the whole mess somehow, do you?”

John’s expression betrayed none of the turmoil going on inside his head. He had a very bad feeling about all of this. “In your talks with her, did you ever mention that you were waiting for a package?”

She shook her head. “I’m certain of that. I stuck to my story that I was here on a sort of sentimental journey on the tenth anniversary of my husband’s death. She’d probably have heard I got mail after the fact, but what difference would that have made?” She looked down at the envelope and then toward the door Eudora had left through. “I guess there’s no point in going after her now.”

“It won’t do us any good anyway.” John turned and paced to the counter and back, raking his hand through his damp hair. “Whatever she might know she won’t give up to us.” He turned back to face her.

She began to peel open the sealed flap. She glanced up at him, her eyes filled with both excitement and a healthy dose of trepidation.

John crossed the room and slid the opened package from her hands. She grabbed for them, but he was too fast.

“Hey!”

“I don’t know where the hell my head is.” He knew exactly where it was. On Cali instead of on the job. “I shouldn’t have let you open the box without me checking it first. That Eudora knew it was for you alerted me, but I thought you’d slipped and given out your address. Dammit, Cali, this whole thing could have been rigged.”

Understanding dawned on her face. “Makes sense. Why else deliver it to me in the first place? If Eudora is somehow working for the black hats, she’d have just taken the box and delivered it to her boss. I’d never have known it arrived. But she did deliver it, so that either means …”

He studied the thick envelope. “That it’s a trap of some kind. That someone on the island suspected you’re MWJ, Incorporated and passed that information on innocently to Eudora or—”

“No, she’d have said something. She wouldn’t let something unusual like that pass without a question.” She stared pointedly at John. “Of course, she
was
a bit distracted.”

John didn’t react. He’d just been doing his job. Something he managed to do easily with everyone on the planet but Cali Ellis. Ellis. She’d signed her note that way. Meaning she hadn’t remarried. He found his gaze straying to her ring finger and purposely pulled it back in, forcing his mind back to the matter at hand.

“Then there is the curious coincidence of her son leaving the island just when this whole fiasco began. We don’t rule her out.”

“Okay, then,” she said. “Why deliver it to me? Why not keep it?”

“For all we know they’ve been through it already.”

“The men who are after me are here?”

John shook his head. “My instincts say no. They might have traced your faxes to Cayman and intercepted the package before it left.”

“If that’s true, that still doesn’t explain Eudora or why it was sent on to me.”

“They could pass it on to you, then follow you. I’m not sure about Eudora’s role at this point.”

Cali shivered despite the hotter-than-average weather. She rubbed the sudden gooseflesh on her arms. “This is almost too paranoid even for me to believe.”

“Don’t be stupid, Cali. We’re talking about people who made the contents of your condo disappear in the space of a day. Whatever Nathan was into must have been mighty powerful for them to launch a campaign like this. Rule number one: Never underestimate your opponent.” He held her gaze until she lowered her hands and squared her shoulders.

“I was only trying to do the right thing, John. I didn’t ask for this. Any of it. But I can’t just hand over whatever is in that envelope or whatever information it might lead us to uncover without first figuring out just what it is I have stumbled into.”

“Even at the risk of your life?”

She paled again, but her eyes flashed. The contrast made him want to yank her behind him, to protect
her from risking herself and doing anything foolish. And at the same time he wanted to pull her into his arms, soothe her fears, promise her he’d fight this battle for her if she’d just promise to keep herself safe in return.

He could do neither. Nor could he extract that sort of promise from her. She wouldn’t give it. And he couldn’t allow her, or anyone, to matter that much to him.

Or rather, he could never let anyone know how much she already mattered. Least of all Cali herself.

“I don’t see where I really have a choice on risk, McShane. The bullets are already flying.”

He’d liked it better when she called him John. “You could let me put you somewhere safe while I figure this out.”

“No way. We already covered this ground. This is my fight. Whoever it is was responsible for Nathan’s death. I feel it in my bones. And if that’s not enough, now they’ve come after me too.” She crossed the room and snatched the envelope from his hands, turned, and emptied the contents onto the table. A three-ring binder stuffed thick with well-worn paper fell out.

But it was the stack of diskettes that drew their undivided attention. Cali pinned him with her gaze. “Will you help me find Nathan’s killers, John?”

FOUR

Say yes
.

Cali repeated the words silently over and over as she stared him down. She had no idea what he was thinking. She hoped McShane couldn’t see how badly she was shaking inside. Bullets really were flying. She meant every word she’d said, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t scared out of her mind.

“Well,” she said with far more bravery than she felt. “What’s it going to be?”

He was silent for several more nerve-stretching seconds, then finally shifted his gaze back to the diskettes. “These are five-and-a-quarter floppies. We’ll have to find an older CPU.”

It wasn’t exactly an enthusiastic avowal of support, but it was all she could do not to slump forward in abject relief. She desperately wanted to take five and regroup. She’d barely adapted to island time, and now
things were popping too fast. But she didn’t have that luxury.

“Did you bring a PC with you?” he asked.

“I had an entire room filled with state-of-the-art equipment and enough software to make even Bill Gates drool.” She snapped her fingers. “All gone.”

He glanced at her. “I take it that’s a no.”

Cali fought an unexpected smile. Watching John flirt with Eudora had bothered her in ways it shouldn’t have. But now, with his newly revealed charm directed at her, she wondered if she’d been too hasty with her silent wishes.