Surrender (The Command Series Book 3) (7 page)

“I understand,” Giovanni spat out, “but I don’t have that kind of partnership with Amin yet. We start here and work up to that.” There was a long pause. Finally, a zipper rang out and the Italian made a noise of annoyance. “What is this? Rocks?”

“Diamonds,” Johannes answered. “Not cut.”

Jesus. Had Johannes just handed Giovanni honest-to-God blood diamonds? Ethan’s focus shifted abruptly and his breath stopped.

Someone or something was coming down the path.

-5-

Not enough time to move, but Ethan wasn’t going to get ambushed either. He drew his weapon, the blood racing in his ears. If he had to put a bullet in someone right now, this could fuck everything up.

Lit only by the moonlight, he saw her first, then the security guard beside her. And likewise, Olivia noticed Ethan before the guard did. Or maybe she noticed the gun Ethan had fixed on her.

She went still as stone. Ethan lowered his weapon and pressed a finger to his lips, signaling he needed quiet.

“Wait. Did you hear something?” Giovanni’s voice cut through the night air. Confusion widened on Olivia’s face.

“I go,” Johannes said, hurried.

Heavy footfalls faded away. Which meant Giovanni was headed in Ethan’s direction. His brain ran the different scenarios, and settled on the one that took Olivia out of the situation. Footsteps approached. Fuck, he was going to have to hurry. Ethan launched himself toward the pair who had stumbled upon him, his focus on the young man carrying the rifle.

“You’re on patrol,” Ethan said in a barely audible voice to the guard. “You never saw us.”

Olivia’s wrist was warm when Ethan wrapped a hand around it and tugged her along with him, disappearing from Giovanni’s view hopefully in time. She said nothing as he once again had her hidden from their boss, her back against a wall and her body dangerously close.

Worst-case scenario, Giovanni would find them and think he’d caught his bodyguard and pilot in an intimate moment. Olivia stared up at Ethan in the silvery light, her eyes clear and unblinking. If he had time, he would have liked to look at her longer. Instead, her head turned to the sound of Italian around the corner. Giovanni asked the guard what he was doing, but the guard didn’t understand.

There was no attempt to kiss him this time. She seemed to study the sounds past the wall as intently as Ethan did, and he was thankful she stayed silent as Giovanni shuffled off, back toward the lodge with the guard. But her evaluating gaze slowly shifted and returned to him.

“So . . .” she whispered. “What was that about?”

This was bad.

There were two different types of operations Ethan participated in. Covert and clandestine. Covert meant no one knew the U.S. was involved. Clandestine meant no one even knew a mission had taken place. The pair of green eyes examining him seemed too smart, and clandestine was about to go out the window.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ethan pushed away from the wall, away from her, extending a hand toward the path to her room. “Let’s go.”

She remained, an eyebrow lifted. Like a challenge.

Ethan didn’t have time for this. He needed to report in on the deal he’d overheard and get his office working on the name Giovanni dropped. The sooner it was done, the sooner the Abramos were handled and Ethan was out of this mess.

“Why were you spying on our boss?” Her voice was hushed as she strolled closer to Ethan, and he had to will his body not to respond. Not to reach out and touch her. “That’s what you were doing, right?” she asked.

“No. Giovanni wanted privacy. He asked me to hang back.”

Her mouth lifted in that infuriating, sexy smile. “Yeah, sorry. I don’t believe you. He had no idea you were there.” She headed down the path, only—

“You’re going the wrong way,” he said. She moved fast, her pace demanding he keep up.

“Not if I’m going to the lodge.”

“Olivia, stop.” His voice was cold and harsh, but he was still stunned when it worked. She spun to face him, her eyes furious.

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

The phone in his pocket twitched with the door alarm. Presumably Giovanni had made it back to his room, and was within range of Ethan’s listening devices. Which meant it was unnecessary to throw her over his shoulder and carry her back to her cabin to avoid Giovanni. Ethan hesitated at the thought, fearing how his hands and mouth would react to her in his arms.

“You’re right,” he said in a low voice. “He didn’t exactly know I was there, and that’s all I’m going to say about it. I need you to understand that Giovanni’s dangerous.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits. “I need you to understand, I can take care of myself. Trust me, I’ve dealt with men worse than him.”

She said it with such conviction, but Ethan shook his head. “You don’t know him.”

“I suppose that’s true. Vitale travels more.” Her gaze sharpened. Her head tilted a degree, letting the moonlight play over her high cheekbones. He watched the annoyance fade from her face, and her words came out weighted, insinuating. “I’ve seen a lot more with him.”

Wait a minute.
Ethan pulled his shoulders back. “What does that mean? What’ve you seen?”

“You want to talk about it here? In the dark with me?” Her face turned skeptical.

An excellent point. Turning her down last time had been near impossible, and he wouldn’t survive a second time.

As soon as he stepped inside the lodge, he dug his phone out and sent a coded text message to Daniel. The reply came back quickly: “On it.”

Since the bartender was gone for the evening, the manager Frances led them to the bar area, clunked an unopened bottle of beer down in front of each of them, and then scurried back to the ancient computer she’d been working on in the front office.

The narrow bar was cozy. Pin lighting over the rack of bottles behind the bar provided the only light in the room, reflected by a mirror on the back wall. He sat on a barstool, expecting her to as well, but instead she glanced to the door Frances had disappeared through. Satisfied she was clear, Olivia slipped behind the bar.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

She rummaged around and bottles clinked together softly. Finished, she turned and set two glass tumblers on the bar, pouring a few swallows worth of amber liquid into each one. The bottle was so dusty he couldn’t read the label until she’d screwed the cap back on, and set it down.

“Bourbon? You like bourbon?”

She gave him a weird look, just short of embarrassment. “It reminds me of home. My dad drinks this.”

He stifled the urge to say anything. To tell her that on the nights he missed being stateside, he’d drink bourbon. Kentucky bourbon. Like what she’d just poured for them.

Don’t drink it.
He needed to get the information from her and promptly get away. Drinking bourbon alone in a dark bar with an American, who happened to be the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, was more risky than gunplay.

“Vitale,” he prompted, ignoring the drink.

What if this woman across the bar from him was the key to busting his operation wide open? His eyes followed every move of the glass as she brought it to her full lips and drank. His gaze continued its journey down her slender neck as she swallowed.

“He travels a lot . . . to Spain.” She set her drink down and leaned her elbows on the bar. “My first job when I moved overseas was a commercial route between Madrid and Barcelona. The Abramos know I don’t speak Italian.”

It took him no time to put it together. “But you speak Spanish.”

“
Si
.”

Ethan’s pulse ticked up a notch. “What did you hear?”

“Vitale’s meeting with the Spaniard was in Italian. But there was a phone call, and the man did that in Spanish.” Her gaze washed over Ethan’s face, pausing on his lips, then flicked back to connect with his eyes. “It sounded like he was arranging a container. Shipping information, and customs.”

“When was he arranging it for?”

She shook her head and straightened. “I didn’t hear that part.”

“When was this meeting? What day?”

Her eyebrows pulled together. “It was back during my first week. I’d have to look it up in my log. He had us flying all over the place.”

I have crates of these and can arrange transport
, Giovanni had said, not twenty minutes ago.

Olivia’s hand darted through her wavy hair, pushing a lock of it back. “What business are the Abramos really in?”

Ethan didn’t say anything.

“You seem to know a lot about the family that hired you last minute. What business are
you
in, Nathan?”

Ethan gripped the tumbler of bourbon, swirling the liquid inside, watching the liquor slip down the sides of the glass. For some reason, he preferred to give her no answer instead of a lie. The woman wasn’t just beautiful, she was smart. It made her dangerous.

He sat still, only the clock ticking quietly on the back wall made any sound, until he sighed. “Anything else you remember from the conversation?”

“No. Sorry I couldn’t be more help.”

He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not, but it spurred a thought. “Why tell me? After today, and after last night?” She had to be pissed at his rejection, and hell, she saw him kill a man today.

She pursed her lips together as she appeared to consider her answer. “Maybe I got into my contract with the Abramos before I realized who they were. Maybe I’m concerned that when that contract’s over, they’re going to insist I re-up.”

Ethan’s chest tightened. She was very right to be concerned about that.

“Maybe,” she continued, her voice falling to a hush, “I’m hoping you’re interested in putting a stop to their extracurricular activities.”

“Do I seem like I’m a man who cares about that?” His voice was condescending, but her eyes burned right through to his half-empty soul.

“Yeah. You do.”

He gave up fighting the urge and took a long sip of his bourbon, letting the oaky flavor seep into his tongue before swallowing it down. The stab of loneliness that usually accompanied the taste wasn’t there, because for the first time in years, Ethan wasn’t alone. Olivia was trapped, playing a role reluctantly, just like he was.

“Am I wrong?” she asked.

The conversation needed to head in another direction immediately. “Why did you become a pilot?”

“What?” Her expression was total confusion.

“Why’d you move overseas?”

Her shoulders tensed. “Because I wanted to.” He shot her a look that called out her bullshit. “Can we . . . I don’t really like talking about myself.”

Of course she didn’t. Another thing they had in common. “Yeah, me neither.”

He better get the hell out of here before his thinking migrated south of his belt. Ethan finished his bourbon and put his hands on the bar to stand.

“My dad,” she said. “Before he retired, he was a pilot.” She knocked back the rest of her drink, took his, and set the empty glasses in the sink. “I left the States because I wanted to get lost for a while.”

It came out before he could stop it. “Is it working?”

“Yeah, I guess. I feel lost sometimes.” She made a face. “That came out wrong.” Olivia exited the bar and padded over to him, her deep eyes sucking him in like gravity. The air became hard to breathe. His hand ached to slip behind her back and pull her close so he could taste her again. She’d probably taste like bourbon. Shit, she’d taste like home.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“Like what?”

“Like you want me to kiss you again.”

“Don’t.” His voice came out uneven. Anyone would know it was a lie, not just her.

Yet she didn’t kiss him. She stepped back and crossed her arms, giving him a hard look. “You realize I could help you.”

The conflict between relief and regret was sharp. “Help with what?

“The Abramos.”

The internal conflict was settled to make room for anger. “No. You stay off Giovanni’s radar as much as possible. I mean it.”

“I can take care of myself, Nathan.” He opened his mouth to protest, but she continued, “I’ll get Frances to walk me back to my room.”

He watched her slip through the doorway, his body too filled with tension to follow.