To Deceive Is To Love (Romantic suspense) (7 page)

“What the hell’s the matter with you?”

For a second, he said nothing, but whatever was written on his face caused her to shrink back as if she thought he was about to strike her. Quickly, he released her wrists and stepped toward the door, doing his trousers up at the same time.

“I’m sorry, Catherine,
it’s
over. From now on, you have to make do with your husband or whoever else takes your fancy.” His voice was cruel and full of disgust, but for her or himself, he wasn’t sure.

“Why, you bastard.” She rushed forward and blocked his way to the door. “I deserve some sort of explanation, like what the hell is going on here. What gives you the right to act so damn self-righteous? My marital status has never given you
pause
before. It’s that phony French slut. Trying to clean your act up for her, are you?”

If she thought her words would change his mind, she was wrong. David stood there and felt nothing for the woman who he had been sleeping regularly with for the past two years. He wondered if he had felt something in the beginning or if it had always been this way. He watched as the emotion drained from her face.

Stepping aside, she held the door open for him. “Get out of here, David.” Her voice was cool and collected. “And don’t come crawling back to me when your tacky girlfriend realizes just how dead you are inside.”

With the mood he was in, it didn’t take David long to drive home. Once in his study, he switched on his computer. Typing in the security codes, he logged into his bank account. The deposit had been made as Hendersson promised. The message in his personal email was short and coded and it took several minutes to decipher it. Finally, David leaned back in his chair and sighed.

The process had started. From now on, he was fulfilling a role and couldn’t allow any distractions. His thoughts and actions had to be focused on one thing only and when it was over, he would be free to start again. Build a new life in Canada, where he could bury the past for good and forget all about the woman who, for the first time, had dented his armor.

Chapter 5

Three weeks had passed since David had given Hendersson the go ahead to arrange the meet and still no contact. Not that he was in any hurry to start dealing with these guys. Political terrorists distrusted everyone and everything; throw in fanatical religion and he was already the enemy just from his white skin and Western ideas. They would do checks on his background, unless they were total amateurs, which didn’t seem likely, not when large arms shipments were involved. Even the agent who had infiltrated the terrorists would only know David by the identity created for him. A mercenary who would sell his own mother out if the price was right. Someone the terrorists wanted because he had his own cargo plane and could fly in and out of anywhere.

David turned away from watching a group of trainee parachutists and looked toward the far end of the airfield. He had paid for the large hangar. Deliberately positioned away from other smaller hangars, it was off-limits to the public. In it, he kept his Islander, a plane large enough to carry heavy cargo and versatile for short take-offs and landings. His plane was part of a service he provided; without it, he wasn’t much use to the people he had dealt with over the past five years.

“Thinking of taking her out for a little joy ride in the not too distant future?” Tony broke into David’s thoughts, his tone critical.

David knew why Tony seemed to be able to read his mind at times. They were not that dissimilar. Tony now had a wife and young children, responsibilities that required he took no risks and made him want to pass on his recipe for happy living. There was little left of the hell-raising, womanizing lieutenant who had first crossed his path fifteen years ago when David was a raw recruit. Their friendship and trust hadn’t changed, but values and outlook had.

Tony had taken early retirement from the RAF and at forty-eight, now owned a private airstrip, with a regular income from renting hangars. Marrying a good woman had been the making of the new Tony. David knew the only thing waiting for him was a wooden box.
 

“I might be taking her out soon.” David turned away from the window in Tony’s office and looked back at his friend.

“Well, you know my thoughts on it. Get out now before your luck runs dry - which
will
happen, my friend. Sell the damn plane or take her to Canada like you planned.” Tony gave a heavy sigh as if realizing he was wasting his breath and returned to working on some documents on his desk.

David was about to leave when a car pulling into the car park caught his attention. Leaning against the windowsill, he strained to see who was getting out of
an old
silver BMW. Three men, all of Mediterranean decent, climbed out and stood by the car as if they were waiting for someone.

In his gut, David knew they were waiting for him.

“Do me a favor. Stay here and ask Julie to stay put also. Neither of you takes a walk outside until I give you the all
clear
. Understand?”

“Not that I was about to go walk around on my own airfield, but what the hell’s going on?” Tony joined him at the window.

David gestured angrily for Tony to stay back. “Keep away from this window. Make sure those men out there don’t see your face. Don’t worry. They won’t be staying long.”

David walked toward the door, a muscle angrily twitching in his cheek, his lips pressed tight together. Holding the door open, he turned to Tony’s secretary. “Tony needs you to go into his office and take some notes.”

She picked up her notebook, a puzzled expression on her young face as she walked past David and pulled a chair up to sit opposite Tony. David waited until Tony ruffled through some documents and then told Julie he had some letters to dictate, his eyes angrily cast in David’s direction.

Closing the door on his friend’s fury, David knew it was well deserved. Never had he risked those close to him by having them around when he was working undercover. He had always made it clear that he set up the meet, time and location so he was in control, not the other way around. Contact would be established through his e-mail and no face to face meet would take place until the actual mission. Already it was going badly wrong; somehow they had tracked him down before he had even established initial contact.

He glanced around Julie’s office, which was where private plane owners and instructors came to check in and leave their flight sheets. Luckily, it was mid-week and the only activity going on was the parachute club.

Stepping outside, David reached into his leather jacket and removed a pair of wraparound sunglasses. The day was dull and cloudy, without a ray of sunshine in sight, but he felt more comfortable wearing them. Eyes had a way of betraying a person. And he could already feel the hairs rising on the back of his neck, something that usually only happened when things were about to go badly wrong.

Approaching the three men, he cast a quick glance across the airstrip to the group all kitted out in their parachutes and jumping off wooden crates to practice their landings. They were too far away to distinguish faces and had their backs to him.

The waiting party remained casually leaning up against their car smoking; cool suspicious eyes fixed on his face.

“Are you looking for someone?” he addressed the one in the middle.

There was little to tell the two outside men apart. Both were of Mediterranean decent with dark olive skin, sharp features and thick, curly black hair. The one in the middle had very short hair and though dressed in jeans like the other two, seemed more westernized in his appearance. He was also younger, in his early twenties, David guessed. But out of the three of them, he looked the most dangerous and the most arrogant. Dark hooded eyes stared back at him, cold and menacing, certain he was in control.

“It depends if you have something we need.”

English was obviously his second language, but he spoke it well. David guessed he’d been recruited into terrorism from the student ranks.

“I don’t usually do business this way. Who told you where to find me and what do you want?” There was no use pretending he didn’t have a clue why they were here.

“You seem to have been expecting us.” The leader took one last draw on his cigarette and then threw it to the ground and stepped away from the car.

“No, but then we don’t get many tourists visiting us here. We don’t offer chartered flights and you don’t look like you’re about to join the parachuting club,” David replied dryly. Bringing his arms up, he folded them casually over his chest. “Besides that, I hear things.” He was working a hunch now and prayed Hendersson had gotten his facts right.

“What kind of things?” The leader demanded. His two companions remained silent, making David wonder if they even understood English.

“Like how you’re looking for a pilot with his own plane to transport some items back to your homeland.” Luckily, his last contact with Hendersson had informed him that background inquiries about him had been intercepted. The CTAU had made sure his name was connected to all kinds of shady deals, suggesting he would do anything for anyone as long as it paid well and a plane was involved.

Still, the fact that these three knew where to find him on a Sunday afternoon disturbed him greatly and he needed to know how they knew. Revealing nothing of his fears, he added lazily. “When questions get asked about me, I start finding out who’s doing the asking.”

For the first time, a glimmer of a cynical smile appeared and the leader held out his hand.
“Abdul.
You come highly recommended, Mr Bishop, although you charge a great deal for your service.”

David accepted the firm handshake. “Well, Mr Abdul, plane fuel is damn expensive. Before we continue, I need to know where you get your information, like how to show up here.”

Again Abdul gave a tight-lipped smirk. “You are not dealing with amateurs or fools, Mr Bishop. We make it our business to know all your secrets.”

David realized he wasn’t going to get anymore out of Abdul. It was his greatest fear that this day would come if he stayed in the business too long. It was why he’d never tried to mend the rift with Danny. He had no close family, no one who could be used or punished because of him and what he did. Canada was no longer just a possibility; it was a certainty.

Tony had once told him he sought fear and danger, that it was his adrenaline rush and without it, he had no purpose because he hadn’t experienced or valued what love could offer him. His wife had just given birth at the time, so David had accepted his sentimentality without comment. But maybe he was right. The outcome of this mission might determine whether he’d ever find out.

For the next ten minutes, David listened to what was required of him and told Abdul exactly what he wanted in return. Dates and times were yet to be arranged, but he was told to keep the next month free. Contact would be made through his usual channels; this meet was a one-time thing, but it was clearly Abdul’s way of letting him know that if anything went wrong, they could track him down.

The other two had gone to sit in the car and with the car doors open, had turned on the radio. It had drowned out any sounds around them, including, the bright yellow biplane landing on the airstrip.

Their discussions were coming to a close when David noticed that Abdul’s attention had been drawn to something behind him. Hearing the approaching footsteps, he turned to see who was coming.

Luckily, he still wore his sunglasses, because he was sure his dismay was broadcasted clearly in his eyes. Fast approaching were Chantelle and Danny, each carrying a backpack. He hadn’t seen Danny since the air show and Chantelle since she had sped out of the car park after meeting Catherine. Both were now heading right for him.

From the discomfort revealing itself in Chantelle’s downcast eyes and the angered expression in Danny’s face, it was obvious they were as horrified by his presence as he was theirs. He turned his back to them with the hope they would walk straight past and quickly ended his conversation with Abdul.

“No more face to face contact. I’ll wait to hear from you and remember” -- he leaned forward, his voice a harsh whisper -- “Full payment up front. Otherwise, my plane and I are grounded.”

Abdul nodded and walked to his car, indicating their meeting was over.

David felt relief begin to creep in, when suddenly he felt a tap on his back.

“You ignorant bastard.”
Danny was standing there, his face full of rage.

Chantelle was gone, marching off toward the other end of the car park.

“I tried to warn her about you. You used her, didn’t you; to get back at me? And now you can’t even look her in the face.”

“Grow up, Danny,” David hissed, looking away to find Abdul still standing by his car.

A smug smile appeared as he looked back at David. Then he climbed into the rear of the car, all the doors slammed shut, and the terrorists drove away.

“Who were they, friends of yours?”

David didn’t reply.

“Word gets around, you know. An old buddy of yours, Jim -- you trained together apparently -- sought me out yesterday. He was at an air display in Germany. I suppose he recognized the name from the days when you acknowledged you had a brother.”

David was only half listening, his thoughts elsewhere as Danny continued.

“Said he saw you a year back in a bar in Germany with some local scum and you brushed past him as if he didn’t exist, acting and looking like shit. Wanted to know where he could reach you, see if you’ve recovered your senses. I told him not to bother.”

David turned back to Danny and removed his glasses, his eyes narrowing sharply. Abdul’s smile worried him. It was as if he already knew who Danny was and what the accusation was about. He didn’t like it and the uneasiness made him lash out at Danny. "You said right. I’ve no need for reunions of any kind and that includes making small chat with you. As for Chantelle and me, that has nothing to do with you -- unless of course you wanted to get there first.”