Colin checked the rearview mirror. "We need to discuss the plan."
"You're not going to answer."
"Nope."
"Fine. I'll just ask Jack when I have the chance."
Colin drummed his fingers on the cracked leather seat. "I'd advise against it."
"Okay," Jess said abruptly. But then she considered what he'd implied, bruises. Did he mean her brother would hurt him? That seemed flat out ridiculous. Jack was her half-brother. He was her hero, but he still wouldn't care about her sex life. So she decided to go with his original topic. "Let's talk about the plan."
"About time," he grumbled. "You're secondary backup."
Relief swelled, she wasn't first up to eliminate LeRoy. "So...."
"The plan is to poison him," Colin said softly. "With water."
"Shows a distinct level of irony."
"Yeah."
"So I'm really superfluous?"
"No. You're a world-class sniper, and if we need to take LeRoy out with lethal force, we need you." His pale gray gaze seemed to skewer her.
But she heard the unspoken caveat, if she refused to target LeRoy, they weren't in a complete bind.
"How's the poison going to be delivered?"
"I'm going to a reception tonight. While the reception is going on, Keisha is going to sneak into the mansion and slip the poison into LeRoy's bath salts."
"How does the poison work?"
"It's slow acting. LeRoy ingest the poison through his skin during his nightly bath. Then he'll go to bed and never wake up."
"What about staff and collateral damage?"
"He has a fetish about being seen naked. When he bathes, he is all alone and drains the tub himself. So everyone else in the mansion should be safe."
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
"So what's my role?"
"If, for some reason, Keisha can't get into the bathroom, I'm going to need you to shoot him." Colin hesitated. "And I need you as backup for Keisha in case she's discovered."
Jess snorted. "You'd think she'd be a little nicer to me then."
"What are you talking about?" Colin frowned.
"Nothing." Jess crossed her arms over her stomach and rubbed her biceps with her palms. "What's the comm situation?"
"I've got wireless earpieces. And voice transmitters that look like buttons. You'll be able to hear everything that's going on."
"What about interception?"
"Code is easy. No names, no specifics, so anyone listening shouldn't have a clue." Colin flexed his fingers on the wheel. "Our intentions are covert. But you know things go wrong."
Jess asked the question that was bothering her. "So who gets into power with LeRoy gone?"
"Antoine D'Aramitz." Colin released a tight breath as if her question indicated her compliance. "He's a non-denominational religious leader who champions the common people."
"But who decided that he would get power?" Jess demanded angrily. "Our government?"
"Whoa, whoa." Colin slowed down the truck. "Where did that come from?"
"One of the reasons I left the FBI was to get away from playing God," she said bitterly. She'd told her brother that. So why the hell did he send her here?
"Do you really think that LeRoy, a corrupt leader, who is stealing precious resources from his injured, starving, stricken citizens deserves your compassion?"
"Who's to say that whoever replaces him won't be worse?" Jess argued.
Before Colin could answer, they'd arrived at the distribution site.
***
They'd spent the day handing out seed packets and water purification tablets. The people had been so grateful for the small bags of seeds that Jess felt guilty about the warm MRE of beef stew she'd gulped down. And she only sipped at her water after watching a mother who gave her kids a drink first, even though it was clear from her split and cracked lips that she was terribly dehydrated.
Throughout the day, she had been by turns amazed and awestruck at Colin's ability to put people at ease.
Jess had been a little uncomfortable. The life of sniper demanded that she was more of an observer rather than someone who interacted with people. She'd perfected that role over the years. The outsider looking in. It had begun at age eight when she and her mother went to live in her father's house with his existing family and continued through her time in the FBI as a female sniper in a male-dominated field.
So six months ago, she'd made the decision to live her life differently. To be engaged. To be present. She'd known going in that adapting to this new life would take her out of her comfort zone. She relished the idea. But old habits were hard to break and she found herself watching rather than participating. But because she was constantly watching, she noticed details that others overlooked.
She'd seen Colin's conspiratorial smile with the tiny boy who had hidden in his mother's skirt. Colin's gentle hug for the woman whose husband had perished. Colin's grave sympathy and compassion for the grandmother whose daughter was missing. He'd treated the men who stood in line with dignity and gave them the respect the deserved for taking care of their family, without the pity that Jess saw reflected on many of the other workers' faces. He calmed the fears of the children when the aftershock hit.
And then Colin had stepped in front of her when the crowd waiting for their supplies got a little unruly. Jess had been bemused by the fact that
he
was trying to protect
her
. She was the one with the pistol and he'd still shielded her from the crowd and herded her back toward the cab of their truck in case they needed to hop inside to shelter from the crush.
After a full day of handing out supplies, the constant battle between smiles so hard her cheeks hurt and an innate need to release her sorrow with tears had taken a toll. She was exhausted.
Because of the mini-riot, they were behind on their schedule.
"We need to get back before the curfew," Colin said. They hopped in their truck and headed back to the main seaside town.
The sun was low in the twilight sky, bright yellow at its center bleeding to a deep red on the edges. The sky rippled with waves of blue, purple, and pink, the colors spectacular from the pollution of the quake. Beauty from destruction.
As they rounded a bend in the makeshift road, they almost ran into the truck in front of them which had come to a full stop. A line of relief aid trucks snaked through the debris field. "Checkpoint," Colin said unnecessarily.
"What time is the reception?" Jess unsnapped her holster and fingered the pistol as she watched the soldiers interrogate the workers two trucks in front of them.
"Keep your mouth shut and don't argue with anything they say," Colin commanded.
"What do you mean?"
A soldier, who was more boy than man, tapped his rifle on Colin's window. "Purpose," he asked in a sing-songy lilting, almost lyrical, voice. His skin was the color of a mahogany wood bowl polished to a brilliant shine that her mother had purchased years ago when they'd been on vacation. Her mother loved that bowl and it was a permanent decoration on their kitchen table.
"We delivered seed packets and water purification tablets," Colin replied evenly.
"Tablets?" The soldier raised his eyebrows and the whites of his eyes were ultra-bright in the deep brown of his gaunt face. "They all gone?"
"Just about."
"Show me."
Colin got out of the truck cautiously and walked around to the back. He lifted the gate that had covered the transportable boxes of seed bags and the packets of water purification tablets which were like gold in a country with a nearly destroyed infrastructure. The back was mostly empty, and held only the detritus from the packaging, crumpled shrink wrap and flattened boxes.
"How about a little something for me family?"
Colin reached into a pocket on his shorts and handed several seed packets and tablets to the soldier.
As Jess sat tight in the cab of the truck, an unsettling tension gripped her stomach. Colin seemed fine as he joked with the soldier. But somehow she knew that he was concerned. And the fact that she could intuit that he was concerned was a whole other issue. She was completely in tune with him.
Which was kind of freaking her out. She didn't get in tune with people. If anything, she was mostly out of tune. She never quite fit.
Except she'd felt un undeniable connection with him since London. A preternatural communion that defied logic. She could sense his edginess, even though his smile was loose and easy as he closed the truck bed and sauntered loose-hipped and casual back to the driver's side of the truck.
The soldier opened Jess's door and gestured for her to get out. She could practically feel the tension vibrating off Colin but his smile was relaxed and his hands were draped casually over the steering wheel as if he didn't have a care in the world. The young soldier dug through the glove box and peered under the seat.
She was glad she had listened to Colin and hid the Remington in the compartment in the dash. Otherwise she had a feeling that it would be the now be the property of the Port-du-Bois military. Or at the very least, the soldier in front of her. Jess tensed as he came close to the hidden compartment, but he seemed to miss the seam in the faded plastic dash. And finally he gestured for her to get back in.
The soldier waved them through.
Colin was silent.
She finally couldn't stand it anymore. "What's wrong?"
He tilted his head and cocked a perfectly-sculpted pale brown eyebrow. She was amazed at how well-groomed he appeared. She knew he hadn't had a real shower in two or three days, only cleaning off with baby wipes. And the heat during the day was not conducive to staying cool or clean. Not to mention sleeping in canvas tents on cots barely a foot off the dirt and debris strewn ground made for a very dusty rest.
"What makes you think something's wrong?" he asked.
She wasn't about to admit that she felt connected to him. "Just answer."
"The checkpoint going back
into
the city is unusual."
"How so?"
"If the government is worried about intelligence gathering visitors, the checks are conducted in the morning as the relief trucks are going into the distribution area. Not after everything has been handed out." He glanced into the rearview mirror and frowned. "It's almost as if they are looking for someone. Or something."
"Do you think they somehow got wind of what you, we, have planned?"
Colin drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and shot another look in the rearview mirror. "I hope not."
They drove back toward the coastal city, the interior silent as Jess contemplated the implications of the sentry.
Twilight gently bathed the woods on their right in a soft, romantic light. Driving along the pretty scenery, it would be easy to forget that the entire island was in complete disarray. Jess propped her chin on her fist and gazed out the window appreciating the beauty.
"What are you doing?"
"Thinking about how pretty the sky is."
Colin glanced over at Jess. What the hell was it about her?
All day he'd been distracted by little things. The way she found the beauty in an ugly situation. The curve of her smile as she'd handed out seed packets. Her pert breasts when she'd arched her back looking for relief from standing most of the day. Remembering the sweet wet heat of her as he'd slid home last night. The greedy pull of their attraction was nearly incandescent. The compulsion to find a secluded place and press up against her until no space existed between their bodies was strong. The urge to hold her tight in his arms and refuse to let her go. A thousand times today he'd found himself staring at her and thinking thoughts that were not going to endear him to her brother.
Shite. Those thoughts were going to lose him a friend.
He'd been doing this job as a favor to Jack but after the last few days, Colin realized he liked this work. Sure he was compiling a report that detailed information that could be sold to the both his government and the U.S. but primarily he was engaged in helping people. And he had gotten a surprising thrill from the good deeds of the last few days.
As they rounded the bend in the mostly decimated road, Colin jammed the brakes on, and the truck slid to a complete stop. "Shite," he muttered.
Jess straightened in her seat.
"Another checkpoint," Colin said. This was not good. And this close to both curfew and the city limits, the inspection of their truck was going to be a lot more thorough. Colin needed to get ready for the reception at the President's mansion. "We need to distract them."
Jess didn't hesitate. "How?"
Colin assessed the soldiers at this checkpoint. More attentive, more intense than the last guy who only wanted a few seed packets for his family. These guys meant business. He and Jess needed to be as non-threatening as possible. "Unbuckle and slide over."
Jess scooted next to him but left a few inches between their bodies.
"You need to plaster yourself to my side." Colin slung his arm around her shoulder, and yanked her snug against his body. His hand dangled above her breast.
With disconcerting predictability, his cock sat up and took notice. "How good an actress are you?"
Her breath caught and Colin couldn't help notice when the side of her breast brushed his chest. Shite. Maybe this was a bad idea.
"Pretty good." She nuzzled behind his ear. "I'll make it work. Don't worry."
Colin kept his left hand on the wheel and with his right arm he pulled her closer. While they were stopped behind another truck, he pressed his nose into her thick braid. She smelled of lemons and freshness. How did she do that? Bathing consisted of baby wipes, unless someone was crazy enough to go in the ocean. The amount of debris on the shore right now was insane which likely meant that bathing in the ocean would lead to disease or infection.
Colin didn't want touch her. Actually that was the exact opposite of the truth. He wanted to touch her so badly he ached with it. Based on the tension in her body, she felt the same. Colin had figured out from experience that if he put his hands on her, he'd go up in flames. And right now they really couldn't afford the distraction.