Special Forces Seduction Page 14
She shifted. “At some point, we’ll have to.”
“I blame the dress,” Finn said.
“I blame the dress, too,” Hyde said.
Finn’s face turned serious. “Are you all right?”
She pressed a kiss to his lips. “Yes. I promise. I’m okay.”
Finn groaned and stood. “Arm cramp.”
He reached onto the couch and gathered her in his arms. “The bed. The bed is more comfortable.”
He carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the king-size mattress. He scooted close to her and wrapped his body around hers.
Hyde closed her eyes, her muscles relaxed, the lingering sensations of making love with Finn leaving her calm and in control.
She let sleep pull her into darkness.
* * *
Finn’s phone rang at 6:00 a.m. with a call from a blocked number. He wanted another few hours of sleep, but that wasn’t in the cards.
“Yeah. What?” Finn wasn’t obligated to be polite to anyone calling before seven.
“Finn, it’s me.” It was Reed Barnett. “I need you to head out to Coconut Beach. There’s a shipping yard nearby and one of my associates needs to discuss our distribution plans.”
“I’m on it. Text me the address and information,” Finn said, shaking the sleep from his voice.
“How did it go with Winslow?” Barnett asked.
“He’s in. He liked the samples,” Finn said. Beside him, Hyde opened her eyes. She looked beautiful, her hair falling across her pillow, her red lips pouty with the annoyance of being woken.
“Good. Make sure he stays happy,” Barnett said.
Hyde shifted in the bed, moving closer to him and pulling the covers over her bare shoulders.
“He’ll be happy when he gets his shipment. He knows the value of what we have,” Finn said.
“Do you?” Barnett asked.
Barnett was an irritating devil at this hour. “It’s why I’m in Miami,” Finn said.
“Just make it work,” Barnett said.
He disconnected the call. Finn hated working with Barnett. His business was despicable, and he was a difficult person. He treated the people around him like servants.
Finn set his phone on the nightstand. Hyde patted his pillow. “Go back to sleep.”
What more could he ask for from her? She was a great partner, an amazing lover and the woman of his dreams. They could have many more happy years together. As spies. Not in the happy family dynamic that Hyde seemed to want.
But she had set loose a train of thought he couldn’t stop. Was he resisting settling down to spite his father or because he didn’t want a domesticated life? Finn was too old to be playing rebellion games. For years, he had done everything possible to stay off the path his father had walked. Considering that the path wasn’t entirely bad was a foreign concept. The path of being a father and a husband wouldn’t necessarily mean being the same father and husband his father had been. Finn could do better than cold, withdrawn and demanding.
Contemplating it made him decidedly uncomfortable. The words “slippery slope” came to mind.
After this mission Hyde might change her mind about being a spy. He could help her see that she was good at what she did. Not only that, she was needed. And they had great chemistry together.
Finn hated to get out of bed. Hyde looked peaceful and needed to catch up on sleep. But if Barnett wanted him to meet a contact, he had to get moving. Finn touched Hyde’s shoulder. “I need to meet with one of Barnett’s contacts at a shipping yard.”
Hyde opened her eyes. “What time is it?”
“Six.”
Hyde groaned. “You have to meet the contact now?”
“I assume this is Barnett’s way of keeping me on my toes.”
“Then let’s go,” Hyde said and threw back the covers.
“You can stay here. I can handle this,” Finn said.
Hyde quirked an eyebrow. “Not going to happen. I need to go with you. That’s part of the arrangement.”
Finn read something in her expression akin to love. Her coldness had melted away and she was again the warm and affectionate woman he’d remembered. How long would that last?
She climbed out of bed. “Quick shower. You need me to tail you? What’s the plan?”
She was reading his mind. He followed her into the bathroom, discussing the meeting while looking at an aerial map on his phone. Hyde turned on the hot water and after steam billowed from the shower, she stepped in.
Speaking to her was natural and easy. Bouncing ideas off each other and discussing the merits of pursuing a given course of action. They’d had a rocky start, but now they were meshing well.
Finn left Hyde in the shower to brew coffee and think over their plans for the morning’s meeting. Hyde joined him in under five minutes. He loved that about her. She didn’t fuss about her appearance and managed to look flawless and beautiful. Her hair was twisted into a bun at the back of her head. Finn wished she would wear it loose.
Finn handed her an earbud and touched his left ear. “Already synced to our phones. Keep the line open so you can hear the conversation.”
“What if they check you for bugs?” Hyde asked.
“They will. They won’t find this one and my phone displays no active calls when connected to yours.” The geniuses at the West Company created imaginative toys to use in the field. It was one of the reasons Finn liked working with them.
He handed Hyde the cup of coffee and she took a sip and smiled. “Thank you. Delicious.”
After reviewing their plans verbally twice more and making small changes to account for possible problems, they headed out the door. For the first time Finn felt they were in sync. No barriers between them and they were working as a team. They were taking separate cars, Finn driving the expensive car and Hyde driving a late-model, nondescript sedan. Hyde would wait and listen and be prepared to enter the situation if Finn required backup.
Finn hoped the meeting this morning meant Barnett was pleased with his discussions with Damien Winslow the night before. Or it could be a trap and he’d be gunned down walking to the rendezvous point.
* * *
Hyde wanted to be closer to the action. A gun could go off in a second and she would be too far to help Finn. Barnett was expecting Finn to take the meeting alone, and creeping around the vicinity could raise questions.
Hyde waited half a block from the shipping yard’s gated perimeter. She checked her phone. She could hear Finn and his conversation from her earbud. Ten minutes and so far nothing in their exchange alarmed her.
From a driver’s-side mirror, she saw someone approaching. The security guard from the shipping yard. She ignored him, hoping he would leave her alone. She wasn’t on the shipping yard’s property.
He tapped on her window. Hyde smiled and lowered the glass. She had to get rid of him fast so she could concentrate on what Finn was saying and doing.
“Excuse me, ma’am. This is an unloading and loading area. No parking.”
Not a single other car was around and nothing was being loaded or unloaded anywhere she could see. Why was this man making trouble? “My apologies. I think I am lost and I was trying to use my phone to redirect myself.” She held up her phone and waved it in the air.
“What are you trying to find?” the security guard asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“The Brunch and Munch? My friends are meeting me. We were separated last night and I slept elsewhere,” Hyde said. She had passed the Brunch and Munch on her way to the shipping yard. It was a nondescript place with a vinyl sign hanging over the door. Easy to miss.
The security guard pointed behind him. “You’re close. Follow this road until you reach Palm Avenue and then make a left. Right side of the street.”
“Finn, I’ve had to relocate. Give me a couple minutes to find a place and then I’ll give you my location.” Finn couldn’t respond. He was speaking with Barnett’s contact. From the tone of the conversation, everyone was calm.
Neither Finn nor the man he was speaking with had mentioned the drug by name. They were still assessing each other. Drugs were big business and the authorities were good. They had surveillance and plants and undercover agents savvy enough that new relationships weren’t formed lightly. Even with Barnett’s recommendation, both men were cautious.
Hyde consulted her GPS, frustrated at the change of plans. She found another location. It was farther from the first and less advantageous. To get to Finn, she’d need to climb a fence. Climbing would cost her precious seconds in the event that he needed her.
Needed her. He had needed her last night. She’d sensed it in the way he’d touched her and kissed her. Her desire for him had been equally consuming. For the first time in months, she had slept long and deeply. Making the connection with Finn had quieted some of her demons.
Hyde heard a shift in the tone of the conversation. Finn’s voice dropped deeper and intensified. Adrenaline fired hard and her muscles coiled to move. Hyde abandoned her plan to find another place to park and returned to her first position, driving her car to the unmanned gate.
Her first luck for the day—the security guard had moved on and was out of sight. Hyde parked, slid on her shoulder holster and checked her gun. She raced toward the entryway.
Finn and his contact were talking about Whiteout by name, and the other man was demanding to know more about Finn. Finn had his manufactured past, but his street credit was missing.
Hyde found a location where the gate was broken, likely from other vandals or thefts. She squeezed through the stiff metal chain, catching her pants on a sharp edge and tearing them. Unhooking the fabric, she hurried inside. She navigated around the large storage containers, mentally picturing the map of the area and where Finn would be.
The situation hadn’t escalated further. Finn was doing a good job convincing the man he was a worthy partner.
When she caught sight of Finn, relief rushed over her; she was close enough to help. He was talking to three other men and their postures were aggressive. Finn appeared unruffled, but Hyde knew him well enough to know he was poised to strike.
Who were the other men? Had they just joined the group? She hadn’t heard their voices over the line, and Barnett hadn’t mentioned meeting with more than one person.
Hyde aimed her weapon, prepared to take out anyone who threatened Finn’s life. As Hyde listened, she was amazed at Finn’s ability to win people over. He laughed at the appropriate moments, said the right things and within several minutes, the three men across from him relaxed, their posture nonthreatening.
Hyde remained primed.
“We want to show you the location where we plan to store the goods,” one of the men said.
Finn nodded. “Barnett mentioned I should do a security assessment. I’m sure you guys have it locked down, but security is my specialty. We’ll drive together,” Finn said.
“We’ll take my car,” the other man said.
Hyde shivered. She didn’t like the idea of Finn alone in a car with these men, especially when he wasn’t behind the wheel. She would tail them, but navigating roads she didn’t know well while remaining undetected was challenging. Finn had his phone and his earpiece. That would help, as long as they didn’t enter a network dead zone.
Finn followed the men. Hyde couldn’t pursue without giving away her position. When they were out of sight, she returned to her car and pulled out onto the main street. She may have missed them or they could have used a different road to leave the shipping yard.
A dark car pulled out and Hyde hurried to catch up. A truck exited the shipping yard, cutting off her visual of the dark car. Hyde kept her patience. Honking at the truck would call attention. She waited. The truck moved into traffic and Hyde darted out behind it and swerved to maneuver around it.
She caught sight of the other car ahead.
As she closed the distance and followed Finn and Barnett’s associates through the streets of Miami, Hyde focused on not being too close and not being spotted.
Her mind wandered to the night before. She wondered if she was healing. Finally, really and truly learning to cope with her loss. Before spending the night in bed with Finn, she hadn’t considered being with another man. That part of her life felt sacred and private and broken. Last night she hadn’t thought about her miscarriage. For the first time in a long while, she had felt comfortable and safe with another person. She hadn’t felt judged or punished by the universe. Somehow, Finn had made it right.
Traffic grew heavier. The other car shot ahead. Hyde steered around some slow-moving vehicles and then swallowed her dread when she lost sight of Finn. She couldn’t hear Finn in her earpiece. Checking that it was on, she glanced at her phone. A no-signal message blinked. They had been disconnected.
The GPS was still transmitting a signal. Pressing harder on the accelerator, she followed the map on her phone’s screen. The moving dot abruptly turned down an unmarked road, either an alley or a private driveway. Hyde slowed and wasn’t surprised to see the road adjacent to a warehouse.
Barnett’s associates had selected a large building, half-rundown, to store Whiteout, or at least the chemicals for it. Hyde sent a message to the West Company. They wouldn’t alert the authorities until they knew more about the warehouse. Better to build a solid case against Barnett. For all they knew, the warehouse was empty and calling the police would tip off Barnett that someone was watching him or he had a mole in his crew.
Hyde parked down the street from the warehouse in front of a beat-up white house with two cars on cinderblocks in the front yard. The neighborhood was a combination of houses and businesses, and the area felt neglected and tired.
Hyde hurried toward the warehouse. Barnett’s associate’s car was parked outside a rusted door on the side of the building facing away from the street. She could go inside or wait for Finn to signal her. She hadn’t heard any parts of their conversation for the last twenty minutes, making it harder to decide what to do.
She waited outside the warehouse, crouched against the side of the building. Two hundred yards away, three black SUVs with dark tinted windows pulled up. Hyde removed her phone from her pocket and recorded. The speed of their vehicles approaching the building and their hard stop worried Hyde. Eight men dressed in black jumped from the SUVs and raced up the rickety wooden steps and into the building.
Panic tore through her and Hyde marshalled her control. Panic led to disaster. The sound of gunfire helped Hyde to focus. She needed to see what was happening inside the warehouse.
Her goal was to make sure that Finn was okay. She would not consider the possibility that he had caught a bullet from one of the intruders.
After pressing the alarm to alert the West Company of trouble, she slipped her phone into her pocket. She hauled open the rusty door to the warehouse. Slipping inside, she pressed herself against the metal wall. The space wasn’t as open as she’d expected. Stacks of cardboard boxes and crates about eight feet high filled the room, creating narrow aisles. It was dark; the only light came from windows thirty feet high on the walls. The area smelled like chemicals, but Hyde couldn’t identify the specifics. Hyde ran swiftly through the rows on silent feet, watching her back and searching for Finn.
Explosions echoed around the warehouse, making pinpointing a location of the bla
sts impossible. Adrenaline sharpened her senses. She needed to find Finn, and that would involve her search and rescue training.
Hyde glanced at her phone, hoping for a message from Finn. Only one from the West Company, asking for an update when possible and asking if she needed an ambulance. She wasn’t sure what was needed yet. Her connection to Finn was still out.
Hyde slipped her phone into her pants pocket.
She needed a bird’s-eye view to find Finn. The warehouse was too big and the boxes were making the search harder. She selected a stack of wooden crates that looked stable and scaled to the top. The darkness in the warehouse and her black clothes helped conceal her. She was careful not to make herself a target for the shooters.
The smell of chemicals was stronger where she stood and she choked back a cough. The scent was acidic and mixed with bleach. Were the chemicals being stored combustible? Hazardous? Poisonous?
Hyde couldn’t see Finn, but lights beckoned farther ahead. She climbed down the crates and jogged another ten yards to another stack.
Crouching on top for a better view, she spotted Finn. He was standing with another man and speaking to the men who had stormed into the warehouse. Finn had left the port with three men. She didn’t see the other two.
Hurrying back to the floor, she raced closer to Finn. Hyde concentrated on listening to the conversation and waiting for the right time to strike. She didn’t see anyone bleeding or on the ground. She snapped several pictures, trying to capture the faces of the people involved.
Finn was smooth-talking his way out of the situation. At least it seemed that way until the leader of the eight aimed his gun at Finn and his associate.
Hyde didn’t want to start a panic by firing her weapon. She took another approach and decided a distraction could help. If she gave Finn the opportunity, he would run. His body was tense, ready to take off in a split second.
She selected a pile of wooden crates and pushed hard. Nothing happened. She tried another pile nearby, testing the sturdiness. Going to a third pile, she found those boxes were tippable. She rocked them several times and then sent them over and tumbling into others. The impact was huge; the sound of the crashing crates drew everyone’s attention.