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“He’s persistent.” It was true. Agustin was dangerous and had no moral compass, but the same was true of Bruno. It was how all the men were in the Cartel world.
He stared down at me. “Guess I better keep you close.”
I’d like that.
As we approached the island, a stillness came over the team as they slipped into their Blackstone roles. Cole glanced at Mark, who gave a nod, then he gave that same look to Keith, who nodded, then it went like that until each of them had done their silent check-in.
Mike jumped off the boat first, and as he tied it up, John did a quick scan to cover his back. The others followed silently. I quickly stripped off Paul’s hoodie and handed it to him. He offered me a hand and tugged me up on the dock in one fluid motion. He put the hoodie in a small duffle bag.
“Stay close,” he warned and put a hand on my hip to move me behind him. I shivered. The loss of the hoodie had left me with bare arms, but the warm Mexican sun would soon warm me up.
To anyone else, we looked like a group of friends out for a good time. Mark, of course, played his part like a champ, buying a fruity drink with an umbrella and a pineapple wedge on the side. He popped on a fedora and waved a map around like he was our tour guide. The best part was how he continued to give Keith a hard time for not wanting to give the hat a try. I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d been a theater kid.
I chuckled to Cole when he came up behind me. “He always like that?”
“He’s worse,” he huffed, along with John and Paul. I laughed even harder.
“And no one minds?”
“We don’t have a choice,” Mike muttered from up ahead.
“Someday,” Cole went on, “I’ll fill you in on his backstory. He had a rough upbringing. He uses humor as a way to cope, and we all get that.”
“We all give him shit,” John said over his shoulder, “but he’s probably our favorite.”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Paul piped in and sounded ticked.
“You’re still in the doghouse.” John smirked. “I still need time.” I got a kick out of the fact that they all played along.
Paul looked down at me when I laughed, and I saw a lightness poke through his otherwise stressed expression. I realized I’d give my left kidney to know his and John’s backstory as friends.
“Would you look at that?” Mark held up his hat and pointed it up ahead. “I see our hotel.” Which was code for he spotted the boat. As fast as the guys had begun to play around, they slipped right back into military mode.
They made their way toward it slowly. I found it hard to take the time and pretend to look at things as we went. I knew we couldn’t seem like we were checking out the area around the boat.
“Mark and Mike, you’re with me,” Cole said quietly. “Keith, John, fan out on either side, and Paul and Nicole, you stay by the ramp.”
Paul positioned me by the entrance of the ramp and put an arm around me as if we were a couple. His eyes constantly scanned the area around us.
“Do you ever get scared?” I grinned up at him to look like I was flirting.
He gave me a one-word answer. “No.”
I wiggled my nose to show I didn’t like his answer. I needed something to focus on, but as I went to open my mouth again, I spotted Agustin as he hopped off some billionaire-looking yacht. The drug business sure paid well. I stepped into Paul’s chest and used him to shield me. Without hesitation, he rested a hand on my waist and pressed me behind a large dock post to partially shield us from view.
“What do you see?”
I peeked around and saw Agustin with a few men race toward some locals. “Agustin just arrived with some men. Oh, my God.” Panic rippled through me. “I see Jerry Canos and about ten of his soldiers.” I took a deep breath. I really didn’t like the idea of seeing any of them. This was becoming very real, very fast.
Paul quickly spoke into his tiny radio and let the team know. “What are they doing now?”
“I can’t see.”
He stepped into me, his knee between my legs, one hand swung around my waist, and he dipped low enough for his lips to graze the side of my neck, and where his lips were on my sensitive skin brought a rush of a hundred different endorphins to the surface. His firm hold and confidence took me by surprise. “Put your arms around me, Nic,” he whispered, and I melted at the use of his nickname for me.
“Is this how you and John work as a team?” I made a poor attempt at a joke to try to rid myself of the anxiety that was building. I pulled him in closer.
“John likes to be manhandled more.” He spread his hands along my back just as Agustin came into view. “Now what are they doing?”