“We’re here to protect the envoy. What she discusses with the Rocamans isn’t relevant to our mission.”
“I doubt that. And why didn’t you tell me Eagle Squadron had been deployed here before?”
“That was seven years ago. It happened before I joined the team.”
“That’s no excuse. The other guys would have known about it. And don’t you dare say no one told me either of those things because I didn’t specifically ask.”
“I’ve answered your questions as well as I could, but remember I’ve been on duty. So have the other men. It always has to come first.”
“I realize that. I’ve seen how serious your job is. But maybe you could try to remember that I have a job I’m trying to do, too. Just because I carry a notebook instead of a gun doesn’t mean my work isn’t any less important to me. Yet you and the other men think it’s just fine to give me nothing but little tidbits about your childhoods or what you like to eat for breakfast.” She poked him harder. “I’ve been holding up my end of the deal. I have a right to expect the same from you.”
Yes, she did, Tyler thought. Not for the first time, he cursed the major’s orders. Yet since the envoy had already given Emily some of the facts, he couldn’t be faulted for setting the record straight. He slipped his arm around her shoulders and started her moving forward once more. “This isn’t the best place to have a discussion. We’re too exposed. We’re going to draw attention.”
“There you go again. Trying to distract me.”
“I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“And I’m getting tired of being put off. I’d like some answers, Tyler.” She lifted her shoulders as they walked, attempting to shrug off his arm.
In response, he firmed his grip. “The closer we are when we walk together, the less chance there is of anyone overhearing us.”
“I hope this means you’re actually going to give me something worth hearing.”
He steered her past the last of the outdoor tables of the café, then started on a curving route that would take them around the outskirts of the plaza and keep them away from the streetlamps. “I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Great. Begin with Juarez.”
“Leonardo Juarez hijacked a jet in order to bargain for the release of his brother, Arturo, who was already in an American prison. Eagle Squadron rescued the hostages and took Juarez into custody. But you won’t find any accounts of the raid on the compound in the public record. If that’s what you plan to look for at the library, you’ll be out of luck.”
“There must have been something. Bringing down the Juarez cartel would have been big news in a country where the drug trade was the primary industry.”
“Yes, there would be articles about the arrests and drug seizures, but not about Eagle Squadron’s role in them. The Rocaman government didn’t want that made public for political reasons.”
“At least that’s a place to start.”
“Keep in mind that the raid would have had little lasting effect without judicial follow-through. Norberto Gorrell was the one who did the bulk of the work to smash the cartel. He was a judge before he won the presidency.”
“The follow-through couldn’t have been complete if seven years later someone from the cartel has the means to hire an assassin.”
“We suspect someone connected to the Juarez family contracted the hit, but we don’t know for certain who it was.”
“I’ve asked both you and Major Redinger why you don’t trust the police. You’ve both avoided the question.”
He thought before he replied. There would be no harm in being honest about this, too. It might keep Emily safer. “It’s no secret that the previous administration was corrupt. A large portion of the police force was on the Juarez payroll as well. That’s something you would find in the local papers, since many officers were prosecuted or dismissed.”
“So you must suspect there are still some rotten apples.”
“We have to assume there are.”
“Of course. That’s how El Gato would have been able to get the bomb into the reception hall. You told me the public areas were patrolled by police. They could have been bribed to look the other way.”
“That’s my guess.”
“And that’s why you didn’t want me to call the police when El Gato broke into my hotel room. They wouldn’t have done anything.”
“Worse. They might have enabled him to eliminate another witness.”
She turned her head to look at him as they walked. “You really did save my life.”
He smiled. “My pleasure, ma’am.”
She looked at his mouth. “If the Rocamans want to develop a tourist industry, they’re going to have to clean up the police force.”
He lifted his hand from her shoulder to stroke the ends of her ponytail. “That’s the Rocaman government’s concern, not ours. We’re only here to guard the envoy.”
She started at the contact. “What are you doing?”
“Playing with your hair.”
“There’s no one around now. You don’t have to hang on to me any longer.”
He dropped his arm and took her hand. “It doesn’t hurt to maintain a cover,” he said.
“What?”
“Look around us. Most of the people in the plaza are in groups or in couples. They’re out for an evening stroll. We should try to blend in.”
“We’re not a couple.”
“To anyone watching we are.”
“You know what I mean. You and I are not a couple. Our relationship is strictly business. I thought I should make that plain.”
In spite of her words, her fingers warmed within his. And despite his best intentions, he vividly remembered how good her fingers had felt when she’d slid them across his chest…and when she’d opened his belt. “You’re saying this because of what happened yesterday.”
“Forget it,” she said.
“I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“I agree. I shouldn’t have kissed you, either, Tyler.”
“It had been a long day. We were both on edge from adrenaline. Given the circumstances—”
“There are any number of excuses. It doesn’t change the fact that it was a mistake. That’s why we should forget it.”
He knew she was right. The smart thing to do would be to agree with her and end this conversation. He’d intended to say much the same thing all day, but they’d never seemed to have enough privacy.
Yet there was something about the sound of distant music in the tropical night, and the feel of her hip grazing his as they walked, that made him hesitate. He might have to continue the charade as far as her story was concerned, but this was one aspect of their relationship he could be completely honest about. “It’s not possible for me to forget that kiss, Emily. From now on, I’ll be remembering it every time I climb a staircase.”
“Okay, if you want to get literal about it, I won’t be able to forget that kiss, either. It was just an expression. But I do think we should clear the air. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression, regardless of how I, uh, behaved.”
“Ah, you mean you don’t want me to think that you’re a passionate woman.”
“That’s a kind way to put it. We’re practically strangers, and I was crawling all over you like a bad rash. That’s not like me. I don’t normally—”
“Make love in a dark stairwell?”
“To be blunt, no.”
“Who chose your wardrobe?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The red lace garter belt and the scrap of a bra I saw on your hotel room floor. All the lingerie I saw in your suitcase. That silky thing you wore the other morning that didn’t want to stay on your shoulders. They’re the choices of a woman who enjoys her sexuality.”
They had reached the grove of palm trees that was across from the hotel when she stopped dead and turned to face him. “Oh, my God. Is that why you kissed me? Because you saw those clothes and thought I was easy?”
He swallowed a laugh at the absurdity of her question. “There’s nothing easy about you, Emily. That’s another reason I wanted to kiss you.”
“What the heck does that mean?”
“You’re strong. I find that very attractive.”
“Strong?” she repeated. “You’re way off base there. If I were strong, I wouldn’t have bought all those pathetic clothes that you saw. I wouldn’t have paid to come to Rocama in the first place. I wouldn’t have trusted the last man who kissed me.”
Tyler caught her chin.
He
was the last man who had kissed her. He was surprised how much that mattered to him. “Why would you say the clothes were pathetic?”
“Never mind.”
“Do you want to know what I think?”
“No, especially if it’s going to involve some metaphor about armor.”
“You’ve probably convinced yourself that you bought all that sexy underwear because of the scuzzball, but the truth is, you bought it for yourself.”
“Of course, I did. It wouldn’t have fit him.”
He tapped his finger to her lips. “No wisecracks, Emily. No arguing, either. I know he hurt you.”
“Right, and I let him.”
“That’s the real source of all this anger I’ve been seeing, isn’t it?” he asked, moving his finger to the frown line between her eyebrows. “You’re blaming yourself, not him.”
“Why not? It was my mistake. I should have noticed what he was sooner. I should have realized it was all an illusion. I should never have trusted—” Her voice broke. She blinked hard and fanned her hand in front of her eyes. “Now look what you’ve done. I told you I never cry.”
He pulled her closer to the nearest palm tree and clasped his hands behind her waist. “How did that underwear make you feel, Emily?”
“I’m not going to discuss—”
“Did it make you feel strong? In control? Like a woman who wants to celebrate her body?”
“When I bought it, and when I packed it, yes. When I looked at it again once I got to the hotel…” She rubbed her eyes. “I can’t believe I’m talking about this with you.”
“Why not? I’ve seen you naked. No amount of sexy underwear could improve on that.”
She placed her palms on his chest. “Tyler…”
“Did he ever see you in it?”
She fell silent, then slowly shook her head. “No. I bought it for our honeymoon.”
Tyler settled her closer. “Then he was your fiancé.”
“Yes.”
“And the wedding?”
“I canceled it. He’d never intended to show up to it, anyway. He’d just been going through the motions to keep me happy. By the time I found that out, there was nothing I could do about the deposits for the hall or the photographer, but I figured, why waste a perfectly good honeymoon?”
He dried her cheek with his knuckles. “So you came to Rocama on your own.”
“Spent my wedding night on my own, too. How pathetic is that? And drank all the complimentary champagne and ate all the goodies that came with the honeymoon suite, even though I knew I’d regret it in the morning. But I was feeling so sorry for myself and so damn mad at the world and men and all the stupid fairy tales I’d been idiotic enough to believe in when I’d been a kid that I couldn’t think of anything else to do. Going on a honeymoon alone was a lot better than staying in Packenham Junction.”
He stroked her jaw, picking up more tears on his fingertips. The flow was quiet but steady, as if she’d been saving them up. “I’m sorry, Emily.”
“Don’t be. All of it was my fault. I made my own choices. I trashed my life because I trusted a man. Huh, imagine that. Me, Emily Wright, who can chew guys up and spit them out if they get in my way. Anyone back home can tell you that. I’ve been using words to drive males away since my first article was published by my school newspaper in the ninth grade. I don’t have a romantic bone in my entire beanpole of a body. But I swallowed Christopher’s lies hook, line and sinker. I gave him everything. My love, my trust and every penny I had.”
“He took money from you?”
“Yes, indeed. Most of it, I’d inherited from my great-aunt Beatrice. Maybe it wasn’t much by city standards, but it would have bought a nice house where I come from. That’s what I’d been saving it for. Until Christopher came along, anyway. He was a buyer for a big antique dealer, and he’d claimed he had the inside track on a collection of rare coins that would have made us a fortune. It was an investment in our future. Our life together. Why wouldn’t I help him out?”
“What happened?”
“There were no coins. I was scammed, Tyler. He’d done it before. That’s what the cops told me. He’d been preying on single women since he’d flunked out of college. It was his pattern to use what he got from one victim to finance his pursuit of the next one. I’d thought we’d been living off his money, but it had been from the last woman he’d scammed. He’d barely waited for my check to clear before he disappeared. I had filed a missing persons report. The fraud squad showed up instead. That, as they say, was my first clue.”
Though she’d tried to be flip, she couldn’t disguise the pain in her voice. He laid his palm against her cheek, helpless to do anything but listen. “Did they ever find him?”
“I heard he was arrested two days before I came to Rocama.” She inhaled on a shaky laugh. “Sometimes I think it would have been better if I’d found him in bed with another woman. Then at least his betrayal would have been personal. I could have pretended there
had
been passion between us. I could have yelled and thrown things. That would have been a more satisfying ending to our engagement than finding a bunch of cops in suits searching our apartment.”
“It might have been a scam for him, but it was real for you. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to love someone, Emily. Cut yourself some slack.”
“Oh, no. The warning signs had been there but I hadn’t wanted to see them. I should have known it was too good to be true. I should have realized he didn’t really want me—” She stopped and pressed her lips together, then shoved away from him and wiped her eyes. “No. I’ll save the rest of this for his trial. I’m not going to shed another tear for that bastard. Because
that
would be truly pathetic.”
“Emily…”
She turned away. Her back was stiff as she fought to regain control of herself. “I’m going to the library now, Tyler. I’m going to do some research.”
He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “We can come back tomorrow. You don’t need to work tonight.”
“Wrong. I do need to work. This article is the first positive thing that’s come into my life for a long, long time. Right now, it’s all that’s giving me a reason to keep going.”