Hidden Impact (10 page)

But her lips spread in a sweet smile and her arms lifted and curved around his neck. “Yes, please.”

Thank God.

He pressed inside her, agonizingly slow as she stretched to accommodate him. So. Tight. So. Good. Then she wrapped her legs around his waist, tilting her hips to encourage the fit between them. He buried his face in her neck and groaned.

He was not going to last long.

“Gabe.” She accompanied his whispered name with a nip on his earlobe.

Growling, he withdrew and slid inside her again. She threw her head back as he thrust and he increased his rhythm, desperate to get deeper inside her every time. Every sound she made, her pleasure amplified his a dozen times over and he savored every bit of it.

Her thighs, her inner muscles, gripped him with surprising strength. No fragile flower here. Her hands had moved to grab his lower back, tugging and encouraging. Rolling his hips, he plunged deeper and harder. She rewarded him by calling out in time with his strokes. Her nails pricked his skin as she unlocked her ankles and planted her feet on the bed on either side of him, lifting her hips to meet him. Her body arched and her muscles squeezed, milking him, until she cried out louder and jerked as her orgasm took her.

His balls tightened and he came hard, erupting inside her in a hot rush. He thrust deep one more time as he lost his damned mind. Shuddering in the aftermath, he lowered himself over top of her carefully.

Holy shit.

“Mmm.” She nuzzled his neck. As she shifted under him, her insides squeezed him.

His cock twitched.

Whoa, down, boy.

He ground his hips into her one more time before withdrawing slowly, carefully.

As he rose from the bed, she gave him a happy and sated smile. Her eyelids were at half-mast and she looked about ten seconds away from a nap. Good.

It took less than a minute to step inside the bathroom and get rid of the condom. He grabbed a small hand towel, wet it and rung it out, then returned to her on the bed. Her eyes widened in pleased surprise as he helped her clean up.

“Thank you.” She sounded embarrassed.

He kissed her. “Least I can do. Thank
you
.”

She bit her lip. Adorable. “I know we have to get ready to go in a while, but will you lay with me for a few minutes?”

Tossing the towel to the floor, he eased down next to her and gathered her against his side. Immediately, she turned toward him and snuggled in close.

His heart thudded in his chest. He liked this.
Really
liked it. This had been different—she was different—from his past experiences. Some women were a hundred miles away even as they lay in the same bed. Others literally got up and left, their itch scratched. No hard feelings. No strings attached. And he’d never worried about it. However they wanted to move on, he’d been fine.

But having Maylin cuddled up against him, warm and happy, was all sorts of better than anything he’d imagined. Good. Better than he deserved.

“So we’re leaving in a while for the embassy, then coming back here for the night?” She traced little patterns across his chest as she asked.

“That’s the plan.” He pressed a kiss against the bridge of her nose. He’d bet her questions were slowly filling up the inside of her head again. He was glad he’d been able to help her reset her mind. Hoped she’d ask him to do it again.

“Whatever happens, I... I’m glad we did this.” She pressed a kiss against his jaw in return.

Pleased, stupid happy kind of pleased, he wrapped his arms around her. “Me too.”

“And it’s totally okay if this is a one-time thing. It won’t be awkward, so I don’t want you to think...”

He stopped her, capturing her mouth and drowning them both for a long minute. They were gasping when he lifted his head. “Not sure what this is yet. But I want to figure it out. I don’t want it to be a one-time thing.”

She smiled and his throat tightened. Wow. She was lighting up his world.

A minute later, her light dimmed.

“What is it?” He brushed a stray hair from her cheek.

“An-mei,” she whispered.

Ah, hell.

“No guilt. Don’t. Not for a minute. I don’t want to distract you and I’m going to focus on what I set out to do,” he reassured her. “We can set this aside for now. Then once we find your sister, we’ll find our way back to here.”

“Here?”

“Not this hotel, unless you want to. But this chemistry.” He pressed his hips into hers, making sure she could feel his already half-cocked erection. “Because trust me, this thing between us isn’t a one and done. You okay with that?”

She nodded, and this time she was the one to pull him down for a kiss.

“You know,” she whispered, twining her legs with his. “I’m not sure how you thought you’d fit on the sofa bed out there anyway.”

He chuckled, tucking her close. “Glad I don’t have to try.”

Chapter Nine

Gabe kept his pace easy, his stride adjusted to more of a student’s swagger. Wouldn’t make sense to slouch with his build. But there were enough physically fit students walking around the university grounds surrounding the embassy for him to blend with them. Carrying a backpack helped his assumed image too. Everything he was wearing was non-descript, something any person could’ve been wearing in this area. And in the backpack, he had a spare shirt and pullover in case he needed to rapidly change his appearance.

With Maylin safely inside the embassy making legitimate inquiries after her sister and the status of investigation surrounding An-mei’s disappearance, he was free to look into other sources of information. The both of them might have to exert some pressure to get a response, but his kind involved less noble tactics. To be honest, it gave a corner of his awareness some peace to know she was inside and out of harm’s way. The rest of his mind was focused on the task at hand.

His target was about twenty yards ahead of him, easy to keep in sight and not moving like he was in a rush. When the man stopped at a bus stop on the other side of the embassy, Gabe figured himself for lucky and hung back until a bus came into view. Catching his man exiting the embassy was so much easier than having to go in to find him and get him aside for the chat Gabe had in mind.

Timing his pace, Gabe hopped on the bus a person or two behind his target. He slid into a seat behind the man as the bus rolled forward.

“Andy Li, it’s been a long time.”

Li jumped, but recovered reasonably quickly without turning around to look at Gabe.

Good practice even though most of the seats around them were empty. Not surprising in the middle of the afternoon. The few people who’d boarded with them were scattered and absorbed in their own private bubbles. Just about everyone had earbuds, even, listening to their own entertainment.

All to the good as far as Gabe was concerned. Chatting on a bus was far less conspicuous than pulling the man aside in a building. Less likely to be overheard. “Taking a long lunch or are you done for the day?”

As a freelance translator, not attached to any specific dignitary, Li tended to take odd shifts and his schedule varied every few weeks. Convenient, really, because no one ever questioned his being in the embassy building and his employment history wasn’t scrutinized as closely as employees with hands-on access to documentation. Freed the man up to be where he needed to be, when he needed to be, to hear the choicest bits of information in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and even a few Southeast Asian languages like Taiwanese or Malaysian. A lot more than Chinese came through the embassy on various visits, and selling those pieces of overheard intelligence was more than lucrative enough to offset the inconvenience of rearranging one’s sleep schedule.

“Diaz? Didn’t expect to hear your creepy voice sneak up on me anytime soon.” Li’s own was low, not likely to be overheard by anyone more than a seat away, even with the current lack of company.

“You’re getting lazy.” Gabe pondered for a minute. Creepy? Maylin didn’t seem to think so. At least, hopefully not. “Don’t tell me business has been getting slow?”

Li shrugged. “Not a lot going on in my neighborhood in the last few months.”

Lie.

The man’s posture was relaxed now, but his tone was all off. Too laid back.

“That’s a shame. I’d think you’d be worried about your livelihood.”

“Ah, well. Gotta let the luck come when it will.” Li laughed, a touch too high pitched. “Besides, I heard about your incident overseas. Didn’t expect you around...at all.”

Ever
was more like it. It’d been touch and go there, getting out of that hellhole and then recovery afterward.

“You know rumors.” Gabe leaned forward, turning his face as if he was looking out the window. “Greatly exaggerated.”

And to his benefit in any situation. There was an edge to being underestimated in his line of work. Element of surprise tended to work to his advantage when he managed things properly.

Li shifted in his seat, giving a barely perceptible amount of ground. “My information is gold because of its accuracy, man. You took a shot in the back from the person you were supposed to be protecting.”

Yeah, wouldn’t that just suck? The reality was a hundred times worse. Li’s precious information was inaccurate, but Gabe wouldn’t hold it against the informant. The truth behind the actual shooting was locked in a need-to-know file and only Gabe’s commanding officer needed to know. Even Gabe’s team didn’t know yet.

“Not enough to take me out.” Of course not. Gabe didn’t bother trying not to sound surly about it. Being shot hadn’t tickled.

“Some say it was enough to take you out of the game.”

“Those people are wrong.” Gabe bit off each word.

And why did Li seem disappointed? Damned informants. Rarely friends. What mattered more was whether Li had gone from neutral to biased in favor of one of his other clients.

Li let loose his nervous laugh again. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy, real happy, to have one of my best friends back. Of course.”

“Of course.” Sure. And Gabe might go back to wearing tighty-whities tomorrow. “In honor of our
friendship
, why don’t you give me some insight?”

“On what?” Li sounded genuinely puzzled. “Like I said, there’s no news recently.”

“Not looking for jobs or background on any of the diplomats in-house.” Gabe tapped the metal rail along the back of Li’s seat. The urge to shake what he wanted out of the man was pretty strong. Still, Gabe would learn more if he nudged Li into babbling instead. “There might be some effort to sweep a few things under the rug, though, maybe a missing person?”

“People go missing every day, especially overseas. Police have more data on those reports than the embassy does.” Too glib. Rehearsed, even. Definitely something there.

“I’m not talking about a kid on the side of a milk carton. And the embassy is the link to the authorities overseas.” Gabe let his tone drop lower. “I don’t want to have to dig for this. Don’t make me.”

“C’mon, Diaz. Shouldn’t you be recovering? Might be too early for you to be up and out in the field.” Li dragged a shaking hand through his hair.

It was. He’d been on light security recently because it let him stay reasonably active, but he wasn’t cleared yet for serious duty. The long plane ride back to the East Coast had left him stiff and aching, a reminder to proceed with caution this trip. Course, caution might have evaporated when Maylin had ambushed him earlier.

No warm, cuddly thoughts right now. Gabe glowered to make sure they didn’t show in his expression.

“You’d like to think so.” He was done with being nice. “But here I am. And my recent experiences don’t leave me inclined to give anyone the chance to betray my trust again. Is that what you’re trying to do?”

“No, no.” Li clutched his saddle bag, but didn’t reach inside or otherwise make any motions to pull a gun or a phone.

Not like a gun was going to help the man at this close range. Gabe could have him disarmed and break something before Li could disengage a safety.

“I’m guessing your stop is coming up soon.” There were more ways to mess with a man’s livelihood than breaking things. “But you wouldn’t mind me getting off with you, right? No one to care if I’m seen with you.”

Li gulped. “It’s been weird lately, Diaz. You know? Nobody respects an objective observer anymore.”

“So I see.” Playing the sympathy card. Going straight to the jelly for a spine. “What’s the world coming to? Giving info on dirty diplomats doesn’t eat at the soul the way other things do. Like covering up the disappearance of a young woman, maybe?”

Li froze.

Gotcha.

“An American citizen, with family looking for her. I can show you her face.”

“No!” Li wiped sweat from his forehead. “I didn’t do anything. Just deleted a few emails and let a couple of calls get lost on hold indefinitely. That’s all.”

Probably true. Li supplemented his translating engagements with temp work as a low-level administrative assistant. He had access to a lot of random information—the kind that wouldn’t be valuable unless it was pieced together by someone with a broader perspective—but not a lot of power to do anything with it.

Gabe leaned harder on the back of Li’s seat. “Helped make a young woman disappear is what you did. What happened to her? Sold? You know what they do to pretty girls? You been making it into a new line of business? How many other people are you making disappear?”

“Nothing like that, no no no.” Li broke and started babbling. Being implicated in human slave trade was too big a deal for an information broker like him. The slave trade business sucked a man in and didn’t let him back out alive. “She’s some sort of genius. She won’t be hurt. Not at all. They took her to do science for some big company. Cutting-edge stuff.”

“Do science? That what they call it nowadays? And what if she won’t do the research they want? What if she doesn’t produce the results they’re looking for? You think about that? She’ll end up sold to make up the investment any way she can.” Because Gabe was thinking about it.

“No, no.” Li actually squirmed in his seat. “The company is legit into research. They take the latest and greatest and apply it to military tech.”

“You’re drinking the Kool-Aid, my
friend
.” Gabe figured he’d twisted the knife long enough. “Who arranged for this girl’s disappearance?”

“I got no names. You know how I work, mostly emails and avatars. No real identities. People can be anyone on the internet.” Li dragged in a ragged breath, struggling to keep his voice down. “Only a couple people come find me in person.”

A choice few.

“Porter van Lumanee.” Gabe let the name drop like a rock.

Li’s hands shook. “There’s a name. Dunno if it’s real. But he’s someone attached to your missing girl. He’s a chair on the programming committees for a few scientific conferences. He keeps an eye out for talent, scientists of interest to his sponsor. Other than that, he stays out of the messy activity. Probably doesn’t know more than me.”

Gabe would pay the man a visit just to be sure.

“Guy had some bad dumplings or something last trip,” Li continued. Best thing about informants, if you scared them enough they vomited their guts until you let them go. Kind of like sea cucumbers. “He’s back in the States but hospitalized for food poisoning. Could be a while before he’s up to returning to work.”

Maybe Gabe wouldn’t be following that lead after all. Sounded like van Lumanee had outlived his usefulness. Maybe became too visible since he’d turned up on the police report as last to see An-mei. He’d have Marc check into the hospital records before any of them made the trip.

“So. There’s a name you knew after all.” Gabe uttered a disappointed grunt. “I’m beginning to believe I can’t rely on your information anymore.”

“Look, Diaz. I don’t want to cross you. I don’t.” Li dropped his forehead to his hand and muttered a few curses in Chinese. Funny, Maylin sounded a lot cuter when she cursed.

“You might think whoever asked you to do these things is the scarier person,” Gabe crooned. “But you don’t want to be in a position to make either of us prove it.”

“Look at it this way, man, it’s like a goddamned high school reunion. I don’t want to be in the middle of a battle of the exes.”

Gabe sat back. Well, damn. “She’s nearby?”

“Pops up out of nowhere. As bad as you.” Li was almost crying.

“All right.” Gabe didn’t want the man dead, after all. “You keep on riding and you keep on doing what she tells you to do.”

Li nodded.

“But if you give me a heads-up on what you’ve been asked, I’d consider it a favor, between friends.” Gabe stood as the bus rolled to a stop. Didn’t matter where this was, so long as it wasn’t Li’s stop. And best if Gabe got off as soon as possible.

A favor was a lot to give the man, but he was the best lead they had to An-mei.

Gabe scanned the area as he left the bus. No watchers in the few shadows afforded by buildings and trees midafternoon.

Pulling out his smartphone, he dialed up Marc.

“Lykke,” Marc answered after three rings.

“Diaz.” Gabe didn’t waste time with pleasantries. “Porter van Lumanee is in the hospital. Check to see if it’s worth it to try to have a talk with him.”

“On it.” The sound of fingers tapping keys came across the phone. “Didn’t happen to get the name of the hospital, did you?”

“He’s stateside, if that helps.” Gabe wasn’t worried. Marc would find the man. Besides, Gabe’s gut told him Porter van Lumanee was a dead end, possibly literally. Still, best to follow every lead. “Pull up the latest we have on Jewel’s activity too.”

Silence. Then Marc cleared his voice. “She’s in this?”

“Looks like.” Gabe wasn’t thrilled.

“Van Lumanee’s a dead man, then.” Marc might grumble, but Jewel used to be one of their own. She wouldn’t leave loose strings. “I’ll see what I can get, stat.”

“Thanks.”

Marc wasn’t done yet. “If Jewel’s in this, will you be okay?”

It was a fair question. Gabe and Jewel had been a thing. They’d burned hot in their time together. Damned bad idea. Most times, mercs could indulge and go their separate ways, no hard feelings. Not him and Jewel. She’d ended them by leaving the Centurions in the worst way possible. Having her back in the game wasn’t welcome news.

In all fairness, Gabe should cede this mission to another fire team. Bias. Conflict of interest. All sorts of ways things could go wrong if his judgment was compromised. But he had a handle on this and a clear head when it came to Jewel. He was sure of it.

“For now, yeah.” Gabe paused, then added, “We’ll play it by ear for now and I’ll step back if things get complicated.”

“Roger that.” No questioning. They’d all learned to trust each other that way. And if there was any indication Gabe wasn’t acting in the best interest of the mission and the team, Marc would let him know. The team was tight. “Porter van Lumanee was admitted to the Centinela Hospital Medical Center on arrival at LAX with a serious case of food poisoning. He was unconscious on arrival and in critical condition under the care of a Doctor Becker. He’s been on intravenous fluids but hasn’t come to yet. Apparently it hit him in flight and there wasn’t a lot they could do for him until they landed.”