Controlled Burn (10 page)

The most worrisome dilemma she’d ever faced was her travel agency’s audit when the accountant made the ominous pronouncement the company only months to prove up the business or their financial backers would sell off their assets.

All partners had drawn straws to see which of them would take the first “adventure” vacation so they could begin to familiarize themselves with this new line of offerings they hoped would net more sales. With experience only in high-end luxury packages, they’d all felt the need to become experts in the rapidly-expanding market for adventure tours. If not experts, at least they needed to get their feet wet so that they could add their personal recommendations to clients who preferred an adrenaline rush to being pummeled by a masseuse at a spa or earning a sunburn on some remote island beach.

Which was why she sat behind the steering wheel of a non-descript car on a lonely Central American highway surrounded by jungle with a man who’d introduced himself as a former merc (mercenary, he’d revised when she’d looked confused).

For Maya, the meeting had been lust at first sight.

Apparently, for Angel the experience was a living nightmare. As far as he was concerned, she drove with two left hands, braked with a lead foot, and must have gotten her driver’s license from a Cracker-Jacks box—or so she thought she heard him mumble under his breath.

Problem was, her normally razor-sharp focus on her own ambitions had lost its shiny edge. But how could she be blamed? With a build like a Chicago Bear’s linebacker, a square jaw, and blunt blade of a nose, he was the most enormous, physically powerful man she’d ever had sitting just six inches away. Never had she felt so intensely feminine—or so incredibly curious about a man’s intimate “proportions.”

And she knew for a fact he wouldn’t appreciate her opinion that his gorgeous eyes softened his tough-guy image. Moss-green with a sooty fringe of eyelashes…
mmm-mm
. Every gaze that sliced her way cut straight through her usual smart-ass reserve, rendering her insides into wiggly Jell-O.

She’d had hopes this winding trip into the mountains was just his way of getting her alone. Instead, he’d had her executing “boot turns” and “laying Goodyear” on the road—things he’d had her doing around a track with orange cones all morning long without mishap. But this narrow donkey trail of a highway was just another obstacle course.

“Time to play it for real, Princess.”

Recognizing the tension in his voice, Maya wrapped her fingers around the steering wheel like a $99 wedding dress at a Macy’s Fire Sale. The forest canopy opened and sunlight broke through the thick vegetation. An intersection loomed ahead.

“Gun it!” he bit out.

Maya pushed the pedal toward the floor.

Just before she entered the intersection, two cars appeared in her peripheral vision. The tires of a battered Land Rover on her left squealed as it turned ahead of her vehicle. Its brake lights flared bright.

Maya had just a moment to curse, knowing exactly why Angel had asked about gangbangers. Then she grabbed her emergency brake, gave the steering wheel a quarter turn, and executed a “boot turn” in the center of the crossing to face the opposite direction—too breathless to give a victory cheer.

But the second car slid neatly in front of her, cutting off her escape. She mashed the brake with her foot and halted an inch in front of the dented side of the Camaro.

For a long moment, she sat silent beside Angel, her lips pulling into a grimace before she shot him a glance. “How’d I do?” she asked in a small voice, hoping to be heard over her pounding heartbeat.

His eyes blinked as his fingers loosened from the dashboard. “Since we’re both dead now, I’d say you didn’t pass.”

The drivers of the other two vehicles got out and walked to her beat-up Dodge, wide grins wreathing their faces.

“What took you so long getting here,
Angelito
?” one of them asked.

To stop the burst of laughter threatening to erupt, Maya pressed her lips together. Who in his right mind would have the nerve to call the hulk beside her “Little Angel?” Recognizing another of the instructors, the one who’d lead the weapons familiarization class, she relaxed and decided to get out and stretch her legs.

Only when she got out of the car, she nearly crumpled to the pavement. “Hey, where’d my legs go?”

“Easy there,” Angel said, his arm slipping around her waist.

“You were fast,” she gasped as he pulled her against his chest.

“Only sometimes, Princess.”

Damn, his voice rumbled like a bear’s growl. Maya let her weak knees fold.

“You okay?” His arm tightened around her.

“Just a little shaky,” she whispered, clinging to his broad shoulders, then leaning a little closer to breathe in his lovely, musky smell.

Amusement gleamed in his eyes for a moment before he jerked up his head. His eyes turned from moss to flint. “Back to camp, boys.”

“Yeah, I’m ready for a beer. Joining us?” the other guy said, a smirk on his lips.

“Later, maybe.”

Laughter followed the two well-built men as they climbed into their cars and drove in the direction the Dodge now pointed.

Unable to peel her gaze away from their flexing muscles, Maya just stared, and then looked up into Angel’s shuttered expression.

“You want me to drive?” he asked, his face tilted only slightly towards hers.

She cleared her throat and straightened inside his embrace. However much she liked the way his big hands molded against her sides, she wasn’t going to beg him to kiss her.

Not yet, anyway.
She still owned a little Yankee pride. “I’m feeling better, now.”

His hands slid slowly away, and he stepped back.

Despite the sun glaring down, she felt chilled. Bereft, even. A word she’d never have used back in her real world. With her nipples prickling against her thin shirt after contact with his hard chest, she turned and plucked at the fabric. Had he even noticed? Or was he still critiquing her driving performance?

After she summoned the courage to face him again, she met his cool, hard gaze.

Angel pulled a pair of dark sunglasses from a pocket of his short-sleeved khaki shirt and slipped them on. “Keep it under the speed limit this time,
chica
. Class is over.”

*

Angel slipped from
the camp, climbing fast toward the rocky knoll. Each time he made the trek, he’d been careful to take different routes, not wanting to knock down a trail any of the training school staff or the cartel’s jungle runners might follow. Daylight was waning, and he needed to get out one last transmission to his handler. He’d have been here sooner but got just a little distracted by his last student of the day.

Remembering how Maya Cordoba, or whatever her real name might be, had melted against him, her supple fingers digging into his shoulders, had made him forget they were standing in the middle of a deserted highway with his Walter PPK stashed under the passenger seat. Out in the open like that without a weapon in reach, he’d left them both exposed to potential dangers lurking in the bushes around them.

He’d withdrawn, noting the disappointment pouting her lush lips and dampening the heat in her warm brown gaze. The ride back to camp had been made in silence, punctuated by his own alarmed groans each time the car’s wheels had left the tarmac and bit into the dirt shoulder. The woman had a real problem keeping her eyes focused on the road.

He’d had a bitch of a time keeping his own gaze from her bare, creamy shoulders. Curling his fists now, he tried not to think about how nicely put together she was. The trim indent of her waist swelled to rounded hips, all of which he’d felt as he’d dropped his hands from her body. Her nipples had poked through the sheer fabric of her next-to-nothing bra and shirt, scraping his chest and sending a sharp jag of electricity zinging southward. His cock still ached from the arousal that seemed to be a constant throb whenever she was in the vicinity.

His attraction was becoming a problem—interfering with his concentration and mission focus. Not something he’d ever experienced before. The climb went a long way toward helping him release the tension in his body, freeing his mind from the grip of sexual impulses that didn’t have a place in his life right now. He had a job to do. One that called for his full attention. Anything less could cost him his life.

The forest canopy above him thinned as he climbed through the lush vegetation. Ahead, he spotted the outcrop he’d selected to hide his equipment. Taking a quick glance around to make sure he wasn’t being followed, he ducked behind the rock and hunkered down, digging in the dirt until his fingers wrapped around the straps of the buried backpack.

Quickly, he pulled it free, unzipped the bag and unfolded the waxed canvas bundle inside, revealing the military-issue portable radio pack. He set it on the outcrop and powered up the unit. Moments later, he selected the channel and raised the mike, pressing the talk switch. “Cowboy, this is Wingman, over.”

A crackle and hiss was followed by a staticky, “This is Cowboy,” came the familiar, laconic drawl. “What took you so long, buddy? Over.”

“It’s complicated,” Angel muttered, picturing “Cowboy” with his worn, straw hat hunched over the radio set in his little hut in the jungle just outside Vista Verde.

“You figure out which of the females is Yanez’s little girl?”

“Not quite. Have a hunch, but haven’t confirmed. I’ve been through their rooms, tossed all their gear. Nothing.”

“Might have to turn on the charm. Get closer.”

“Damn, we’re screwed,” Angel said, his voice dry.

Cowboy laughed. “Only have three more days. We need to get to her before Yanez or any of the Calderon boys gets wise. No time to be squeamish. If you have to, get her into bed. We need her to talk. Gotta be sure.”

Angel grunted. Shouldn’t be too much of a chore with one of the two women, but he didn’t much like the idea of playing her. The thought of Maya’s soft brown gaze, staring up at him as he lied his way into her bed made his stomach hurt.

“It’s for her own safety, Wingman.”

“Roger, out.”

Angel stowed the radio, then reburied the pack, careful to cover the mound with leaves and vines. Then he headed back down the mountain, reentering the camp from behind the barracks building and skirting the front to make it seem as if he’d just come from his room.

“Hey, Angel,” a voice called from behind him.

Angel shot a glare over his shoulder, instantly wiping his face clear of annoyance when another of the instructors, Mark Saunders, strode toward him wearing a wide grin.

Saunders knocked his shoulder lightly with a balled fist. “See you made it back in one piece after taking the Cordoba woman out for a road trial.”

“Not quite,” Angel murmured, offering a pained smile. “I left my fingertips embedded in the dash.”

Saunders’s smile widened, and his eyebrows waggled. “She seemed a little shaken up when we boxed her in. Did she need a little comfort after her scare?”

Angel grimaced at the crude sentiment gleaming in the other man’s eyes. Like many of the school’s cadre, Saunders was ex-special ops with little couth when talking about the opposite sex.

Not that his own thoughts concerning the woman in question were exactly pure.

Maya had been at the center of most of the instructors’ private conversations. Seemingly, they rarely got a student as attractive or inept.

“I had her on the shooting range yesterday,” Saunders said, his face screwing into grimace. “Had to clear out everyone because she couldn’t remember to keep the barrel of her weapon pointing downrange. Never saw Migelito move so fast as when she waved it at him and let a few rounds fly.”

“Woman’s a menace,” Angel said, then added, “Ever figure out why she’s here in the first place?”

“She mentioned something about scoping out adventure vacations for her clientele.”

Seemed as good a cover as any for a woman who might be the daughter of a notorious drug lord. “What about the other female?”

“Maria Cortez is an ambassador’s daughter,” Mark said. “And a much better shot, although not nearly as interesting.”

Maria’s mousy appearance and demeanor made her seem a far less likely candidate to be the flamboyant Yanez’s flesh and blood, but Angel was never anything but thorough. He’d keep digging into both female’s backgrounds until he figured out which was his target.

“Gonna join us in the cantina for a beer?”

“Maybe later.”

Angel waited until Saunders headed to the mess facility, then backtracked to his room. Maybe he’d hunt down Maya after he’d had a chance to recheck the files on the two women in the administrator’s office. Time to dig a little deeper.

And if he had to sleep with her, he’d just have to remember he was doing it in the service to his country—enjoying himself would just be an unexpected perk to an otherwise uneventful assignment.