Page 10

L indsey sipped her glass of beer—her first at the cantina, but as far as everyone could figure out, she’d had plenty more before she and Val had gotten there.

Her partner appeared just as plastered, if not more.

When he wasn’t nuzzling her neck and making her giggle, his droopy gaze had been roaming, landing on several woman in the bar.

With his good looks and flirtatious wink, he’d garnered plenty of female attention.

Since his upcoming fight needed to be with Lindsey, he was wisely avoiding the women who obviously had a green-eyed significant other with them.

Someone in a jealous rage was not what they needed tonight—except Lindsey, of course.

Darius and his cartel cohorts had shown up a little while ago.

The plan was for Lindsey and Val to wait about a half hour before getting into an argument.

Val would storm out, leaving her behind for Darius to hit on.

In her “inebriated” state, it wouldn’t look strange for her to leave with him after another fifteen or twenty minutes, getting back at her dog of a “boyfriend.”

After checking an incoming text on his cell phone, Val drunkenly swayed in close to Lindsey and whispered in her ear, “Everything’s all set. Whenever you’re ready, kick my sorry ass to the curb.”

“What!” she shrieked, in indignation, shoving him and making him stumble back a few steps. “Who the fuck is Brenda, you cheating son of a bitch?” Grabbing her half-full glass, she tossed the beer at him.

Pretending to be shocked, Val dried his face with his shirt sleeve and slurred, “Babe, w-what the fff-uck?”

“You just called me Brenda, you asshole! Who is she? Another one of your fucking whores?” She threw a basket of tortilla chips at his head, but he managed to duck, and it landed on the floor behind him.

They argued back and forth, with her throwing a few more things at him, while the bartender and patrons looked on in amusement. Lindsey was careful enough to keep things directed at Val and not anyone else. She didn’t want to get kicked out of the bar.

After another round of cursing at him, Lindsey sent an off-balance kick at Val’s crotch that he easily blocked. Finally, she huffed and pushed her dark hair, which was now in disarray, away from her face. “That’s it! You know what? I’m fucking done with you.”

A sneer spread across his face as he swayed on his feet. “That’s fine with me. You’re nothing but a fucking bitch, you know that? Find your own way back to the US—I’m getting out of this fucking piss-hole.” Turning, he stumbled and weaved out the door, disappearing into the night.

With calm and order now restored, the rest of the bar went back to their own conversations while still sending amused looks in her direction.

Taking her seat again, Lindsey slapped the bar top and let her inner bitch, which she only let out every once in a while, continue her ranting.

“Can I get another beer, here?” When the bartender ignored her, Lindsey snapped her fingers a few times.

“Hey! Hey, you! Cerveza! Do you understand me?”

Darius sidled up to her and sat on the next stool. “You know, a little por favor goes a long way in here.”

She glared and frowned at him. “Who the hell are you?”

“An American who knows how to get another beer without raising my voice.”

An unladylike snort erupted from her, and then she indicated with a flash of her hand for him to order for her.

After about fifteen minutes of flirting, Lindsey’s character decided to get even with her cheating boyfriend and invited Darius to accompany her to a hostel up the street.

They pulled on their heavy jackets and then Darius threw some pesos on the bar for a tip.

On their way out the door, the knowing smirks they got from his cartel comrades said their charade had worked perfectly.

Darius waved to one of them. “Hey, Torres. I’ll be back in an hour. ”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lindsey saw Darius leer at her ass and grin. He raised his voice a little louder. “Better make that two hours.”

There were cat calls and whistles as they strode out into the cold night air. “Ride her hard, amigo!”

Once they were about a block away from the bar and certain no one was following them, Lindsey shook her head at Darius. “I need a shower. I can’t remember the last time I felt so skeevy.”

He put his arm across the back of her shoulders and pulled her in close, sharing his body heat. “As always, Costello, you did good. Next time, though, don’t go so easy on Romeo. He needs a good ass-kicking every once in a while.”

“That he does, but he made me promise to let him block the kick to his gonads.”

Lindsey loved the esprit de corps she’d found with the men of Trident Security, especially the Omega Team.

While she’d been close to some of her teammates in the Marines, she’d also dealt with sexual harassment in the Corp as well.

There were many men who had thought she was a little piece of puff, unable to do the same job they did, but she’d proved them wrong, time after time.

What had gained the respect of the unit she’d been assigned to for several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan had been that she’d placed first in her sniper school and had saved their asses on numerous occasions as a result.

There were several from her team that she’d kept in contact with since opting out and joining Trident.

She’d been surprised when none of her new teammates had given her a hassle over the fact she was a woman.

They didn’t take it easy on her in training—which was actually a sign of respect—and they’d never given any indication they thought less of her as a woman.

In addition to being her co-workers, the men of Trident had also become her friends.

They laughed and joked with her, hung out with her, and had never hit on her.

She felt they were more her brothers than her real brothers had ever been.

Their significant others had welcomed her as well.

The women had never given her any indication they felt threatened by Lindsey’s status as the only female on the teams, aside from TS’s helicopter pilot/mechanic, Tempest “Babs” Van Buren.

In fact, they often invited the two women to their girls’ nights out, which was always a load of fun.

Darius and Lindsey chatted and laughed as they walked into the hostel via a side entrance, and he followed her up the stairs to where the others were waiting for them in one of the rooms. There were a few more people than she’d expected there to be, and they were all standing around the small bedroom.

Members of both the Alpha and Omega teams were there, in addition to several men she’d never seen before.

The first person Darius held his hand out to and greeted was Ian. “Hey, Boss-man. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.”

“Actually, you were the bearer of good news, in a way.” He stepped to the side and that’s when Lindsey noticed Mousaf Amar.

Her heart rate picked up as every cell in her body became aware of the man she hadn’t seen in several months, and she almost missed Ian’s next words.

“The King had already been notified of the princess’s kidnapping.

We had boots on the ground in Jamaica with Amar when Romeo called us. ”

The head of Timasur’s royal guard gave her a friendly smile before he shook Darius’s hand. “How is Her Royal Highness, Knight?”

Lindsey wasn’t put off by the tepid acknowledgement of her presence.

The two had ended up in each other’s arms several months ago, after dancing around each other for quite some time.

However, before things could really heat up, Amar had been called away on an urgent matter at the royal family’s estate in Clearwater Beach.

That had been the last time they’d had a chance to be alone together.

Since she didn’t think anyone knew of their attraction to each other, she was grateful he was keeping it under wraps, just as she was.

However, she wished her body would get the message to keep things hush-hush because it was reacting to simply being in the same room with the man.

His deep, smooth voice had her female parts tingling.

Darius took off his coat. “Holding her own, at the moment. She’s in an underground prison area, with her two cousins and the other women the cartel plans to auction off.

She’s not aware of my presence, and I’m trying to keep it that way until it’s time to rescue her. I can’t have her giving away my cover.”

“Understood.”

“Other than that, she’s a tough cookie. So is the taller of the two cousins—”

“Lahana,” Amar supplied. “Nala is the younger one.”

Darius nodded. “Yeah, Nala’s the one that’s been freaking out a bit—which, of course, is completely understandable.”

“She is only nineteen and the daughter of Queen Azhar’s sister.

The cruise was the first trip she’s taken without her parents or her brothers.

Lahana is twenty-four and the daughter of the king’s brother.

She has been afforded more freedom since turning twenty-one, however, on trips like the cruise, the women are always accompanied by at least one of their family members.

In this case, it was Farid and a friend of his. ”

Darius, Lindsey, and Val all rolled their eyes.

They’d met Farid on more than one occasion, and they all had a dislike for the man who seemed to think anyone who wasn’t considered royalty to be beneath him.

He treated the staff at the Clearwater Beach mansion like dirt.

The only person he would answer to there was Amar or whomever oversaw security at the time, as long as it was someone from the royal guards—the contract agents, i.e.

the employees of Trident Security—were peons according to the little twerp.

He’d also crudely hit on Lindsey a few times, which made her despise the creep even more.

Not wanting to cause problems between Trident and the royal family, she’d kept that to herself, however, she’d made it painfully clear to Farid the last time he’d propositioned her and put his hands on her that his actions were unacceptable.

The man had needed to ice his bruised balls after that encounter.

Taking control of the meeting, Ian quickly introduced Darius and Lindsey to several members of the royal guard and three Deimos operatives she’d only met once. Surprisingly, the only two US black-ops spies she, personally, did know weren’t there.

“Where are Carter and Jordyn?” Lindsey asked, glancing around the room. The couple was supposed to be in attendance for the upcoming raid.

“They got held up on something else,” Ian replied.

“Moving the time-frame up had us scrambling. We have several eyes on the compound, with more bodies on the way. Babs is also en route to Bolivia to contract a helo from a merc she used to serve with—I want a fast way to exfil the hostages. So, there will be plenty of boots on the ground by zero hour.”

Lindsey hoped so—with all the surprises as of late, there was always a chance things would go FUBAR. As if it wasn’t already fucked up enough.

Stepping over to the bed, Darius stared down at several maps that had been spread out. Locating the one depicting the Diaz estate, he put it on top of the others. “All right, let’s start breaking this down. I’ve got two hours max to rock Costello’s world and then get back to the bar.”

Several men chuckled, and Lindsey grinned as she playfully smacked Darius on the back of his head. “In your dreams, Batman. In your dreams.”