Stolen Vengeance: Slye Temp book 6 (3 page)

Chapter 3

Dingo held his breath, counting the seconds until ...

The passenger door on his van opened and Valene climbed in. “What the hell is going on?”

“I needed to talk to you.”

“Lose your phone?”

“This was better said in person.”

“You scared the crap out of me with that note,” she said, her hands stabbing her hair and flicking around. “If you need another favor, the answer is no.” The words held enough edge to cut through the tension crowding the air. “I’m a busy person who doesn’t have time for any of this, this ... whatever it is you’re here for.”

“I know you’re busy and I just need to talk to you,” he repeated gently. He couldn’t get past just taking her in. How many days and long nights had he imagined being this close to her again?

But not this way. Not when he was about to turn her world upside down.

On long nights spent alone, he’d recall watching all that wild blonde hair blowing around her sweet face as she drove her muscle car along the coast highway with him riding shotgun.

She was the sexiest thing he’d ever known.

One of her smiles would be worth the punishment he’d put his body through by not sleeping since he’d found Bergman yesterday and going nonstop to get here, just to see her alive and safe. He knew every inch of the beautiful body hidden inside that black-on-black mandarin style suit.

Damn. If he didn’t stop thinking about her sans the suit, he wouldn’t be able to walk.

“Well?” Valene snapped. “You got what you wanted. I’m sitting here.”

If he had what he wanted, she’d be in his arms and he’d be kissing the lips he missed more than he’d thought possible. That was never going to happen again, especially now when he had to open a wound that had never healed.

He asked, “Remember back when I was looking for information on a man named Giuseppe?”

Her gaze sizzled with fury. She crossed her arms. Yes, she remembered.

Shaking her head, she laughed and it came out as a dark sound. “Seven years. You disappear for
years
, then show up a month ago needing help
again
, and now you want to talk about the last time I saw you before you walked away without a word?”

No, he didn’t want to bring that up again, didn’t want to go back through time and relive all that agony. He wanted to block it out. Just like he’d blocked LA out of his mind the minute he realized she’d married.

But she didn’t know he’d shown up a year after leaving, all set to jump back in where he left off. That door hadn’t just closed, it had slammed shut.

He had no reason to feel cut up over Valene finding someone new.

She deserved someone she could have a life with, but that didn’t mean he had to celebrate when she’d found that person, did it? He hadn’t gone digging in her life, but he
had
kept an alert on his computer for any media that mentioned her name. Sick fuck that he was, the minute the legal notice of her divorce hit the papers, the muscles in his chest had eased with relief.

That was just wrong.

He couldn’t help it. After joining Garcia’s outfit by taking a bullet to gain his trust, Dingo had spent ten months with Garcia, waiting for his chance to take down the bastard and his closest circle of killers. But it had been a bloody end.

Dingo had dangled close to death for two weeks, then the minute he’d clawed his way back to the living and was physically able to travel, he’d flown to LA to surprise Valene, intending to make up for the year he’d gone missing.

He’d been the one rocked back on his heels when he found her married and happy. The only decent thing to do at that point was to turn around and leave without a word, which he’d done, never planning to contact her again ... until four weeks ago.

Big mistake.

One look in those challenging brown eyes a month ago had taken him back seven years and churned his gut into a constant want he’d never be able to satisfy.

He’d left her seven years ago, knowing she’d hate him.

No, it had been worse, because he’d hurt her by not saying a word. If he’d taken that risk, then the gamble to get inside Satan’s Garden Club and stop them from touching her would have been for naught.

But he wasn’t going to reach for the sympathy vote by explaining it now, even if he could share that information, which he couldn’t.

He’d put that hurt look in her eyes, and it didn’t matter that he’d had no choice.

“Giuseppe went missing–” Dingo started.

“So you need to find him again?” she broke in with acid dripping off her words. “Forget it. I made one exception to stop a terrorist. All your good deals are gone.”

She’d been their key to a successful mission. He admitted, “We were lucky to prevent the Orion Hunters from pulling off that attack in May, but more than being lucky we had you. If not for you, we might have lost that battle, Val. You saved a lot of lives.”

She glanced away. “Whatever.”

He’d seen her eyes glisten. She’d never been one to preen over compliments. If anything, they made her wary. He’d like to know why, wished he’d have a chance to find out.

Instead of wishing for the impossible, he asked a question he knew the answer to, but hoped would lower the tension a notch. “Did you get the money for that last job?”

“Yes.”

She’d surprised him less than one day after she’d turned her back and walked away. She’d dismissed his offer to pay her for helping them stop a crisis, but twelve hours later she’d texted him with the amount his agency owed and a bank account number for wiring it.

He’d been in the process of having a cashier’s check made ready, because he’d intended to pay her no matter what.

Just receiving that request for money had given him hope that she might not hate him after all.

But Valene had a stubborn streak wider than a city block. The last thing he’d have expected was for her to send a request for the money so quickly after she’d turned it down.

What had changed in the few hours after she’d walked away from him?

You could have dug around online and found out.

He didn’t have a lot of rules, but he believed that just because you
could
do something didn’t mean you should. Unless it had to do with stopping a criminal or protecting someone, he respected the privacy of those people who meant something to him.

He’d bent that rule just to find her today by triangulating her phone signal then tailing her from her bank to this office complex, but as far as he was concerned, this fell under protecting someone important to him.

Valene had been more than important. More than he’d wanted to admit. But the deeper he buried those feelings, the better off she’d be without him, and he’d be without ever having to face the day that she sent him packing.

And she would send him packing. He’d never been keeper material.

But that didn’t stop him from wanting to pull her into his arms. He’d like to be the person who held her when she needed someone, the man she could tell secrets like why she’d swallowed her pride and asked for the money from the last job.

What he wouldn’t give for a chance to kiss those lips just one more time.

And right now, she was spearing him with a sharp look that made him wonder if he’d said that out loud.

Valene leaned forward, her tone low and rumbling with anger. “I will not sit here and be late for my meeting. Say what you have to say or I’m leaving.”

His kiss fantasy disintegrated into a thousand tiny pieces. He explained, “About Giuseppe. I thought he was a distant relation of the man I was looking for back then, but I was wrong.”  Understatement of the century.

“Then you should have had me look for the guy you wanted, not his neighbor or cousin or whatever. That’s not my fault.”

“Let me get this out, Valene. Please.”

She waved her hands in an exasperated you-have-the-floor motion.

“I was hoping what you found out on Giuseppe would give me a lead to find the man I was after, but Giuseppe was connected to a very dangerous group back then. If I’d had any idea that he was running guns for the man I was hunting, I’d have never asked you to do it.”

“Guns. As in black market guns?”

“Among other things, yes.”

She groused, “You work with some kind of agency, right? Not that you’d ever tell me who it is or what exactly you do, but I can put enough puzzle pieces together to get a decent picture. It seems to me that some alphabet agency with hotdog operators like you should be able to find a gun runner.”

“We did.”

She flipped her hands in the air again and let out a long growl of exasperation. “So what’s the problem, 007? Still need help finding Giuseppe?
Again
? Run out of women to do your research or are they not letting you pay in trade?”

He flinched at the verbal strike. “I never treated you that way.” What they did after hours had nothing to do with his job or her contract work for him. She knew that, but she’d waited seven years to rail at him and he deserved it. That didn’t mean he could take it without grinding his back teeth.

Her gaze darted all over the place before it zeroed in on him again. “How am I supposed to know what was true and what was your job?”

Because you knew me
, he wanted to say, but she hadn’t. He’d kept her insulated from his life. Or so he’d thought. “Believe whatever you will, but I have never mixed business and pleasure. I would never show you that lack of respect.”

She was holding on to her righteous anger and she had every right to it, but he saw her chin quiver before she sat up straight and put on her game face. “You’re burning my daylight and I’m not on your payroll now. If you need Giuseppe–”

Dingo said, “No. Giuseppe died six years ago. I didn’t come here to find anyone but you. I don’t need anyone found or any information dug up. I only came to make sure you’re safe.”

Her face softened and she got that dewy look she used to have when he’d show up after being gone weeks–or months. They’d stare at each other for all of five seconds then shred clothes in an explosion of kissing and hot sex.

God, he missed the way she kissed.

He missed holding her when she slept.

He’d give up all his tomorrows for an hour with her in his arms, but not until he had her tucked away out of view.

When she didn’t say anything, he took this calm moment to explain why he was here. “I need you to leave LA for a while. Maybe three or four weeks tops, I’m guessing. I can put you in a safe house, just–”

“No.” Whatever softness had been there vanished under the return of an anger flash fire. “In fact, hell no.”

Dingo leaned forward, drawing in all the calm he could. “There’s a chance that some of those people from seven years ago are back.”

“And how is that a problem for me? I’m not involved with any of them.”

“I don’t want to risk you being out in the open until I can confirm that you are definitely not on their radar.”

She leveled him with a you-must-be-kidding glare. “Oh, so let me get this straight. You want me to go into hiding because of someone who
might
figure out that I gave you information on Giuseppe like ...” She dropped her hands. “Seven freaking years ago? Who is this supposed threat to me?”

This was where it got difficult. If he told her, Valene’s insatiable curiosity would push her to find answers. That’s why Dingo had ended up taking the gamble of his life to get inside Garcia’s organization. He was not going to allow her to make that same mistake twice.

He said, “I don’t know yet.”

She shook her head at some thought then stared at him, counting off each point on her fingers as she spoke. “You vanish for
years
and show up again only because you need something. I do my part for mankind and the US of A, help you out then you’re gone again–”

“I would have come back this time,” he muttered, but she ignored him and kept going.

“–and now back once more with some wild story about how someone from forever-years ago might find out I helped you locate Giuseppe. Oh, and he’s dead! Now you want me to go into hiding while you do what exactly?” She gave him a half beat then added, “No, let me answer. You won’t tell me because you don’t trust me with anything but your dick.”

He wouldn’t trust her with
that
right now. “I know how it sounds, Val, but–”

“Shut. Up. You did this once before and while I admit that spiriting me away for a weekend under the pretense that I had a stalker was charming, not this time. I’m done. This bullshit stops here.”

“Valene, this isn’t like that time.” He might have gone a little overboard back then to get rid of some hardtail gym rat who thought he was being cool to show up on Valene’s regular running route. “I’m serious about this. Just work with me–”

“No.”

He knew that voice, it came with a rigid backbone that bent for nothing and no one.

Don’t lose your temper with her.
He’d had spectacular rows with Val in the past, but this was not one of those times he could let her blow off steam then seduce her.