On The Rocks (31 page)

“Like?” Bill asked, brow knotted tight.

“I can’t pin it. It smells smoky but sweet.
It’s probably nothing.”

He reached out a weathered hand and set it
on hers. “Always trust your gut, agent. If something
feels
off, chances are it is. Anybody in particular you feel wary around?
New friends?”

She shook her head. “Got paired with a
mentor since it’s my first op. I’ve known him for a while, though,
worked with him a couple of times.”

“What’s his name?”

“Atwater. Colin.”

Bill nodded. “Okay. Probably safe, but keep
your eyes open. And this is just precautionary, all right? We don’t
know for sure if Metis knows you’re leading this.

“Any chance you know what happened to Agent
Fletcher?” She shook her head and he asked a follow up. “Did he
know what was at the heart of the Galletti case? That Metis was
involved?”

Rachel nodded slowly. “Do you think… he’s
dead?” she whispered.

Bill leaned back in his seat and blew out a
slow breath. Agent Hayford and Agent Fletcher were romantically
involved. It was clear in the way her violet eyes widened. The way
her breathing picked up just the tiniest bit. The hint of hope in
her voice.

He should level with her. Agent Fletcher
wasn’t the type to just go missing. Since Bill hadn’t heard from
the man since Hayford took over, and she obviously hadn’t either,
chances were high Fletcher was, in fact, dead.

“I don’t know, Hayford.” He needed her mind
sharp and on task. If she was stuck on Fletcher’s death, she
wouldn’t be able to function. “I honestly don’t know.

“But, if this is as you say and there
is
a shadow organization inside the CIA, you have to realize
there are only a few people you can trust. I hope you know I’m with
you on this. Kizzie, Lennox… I know they come off rough around the
edges, but they really are the best. They will stop at nothing to
protect this country from invaders both foreign and domestic. I
vouch for them one hundred percent and without equivocation.”

Hayford nodded that strawberry blond head
quickly.

“Okay, catch me up on where we stand with
Metis.”

She let him know what the team had found.
Informed him of the plan to access Galletti’s computer and do an
on-site man in the middle attack. Let him know the risks since they
couldn’t perform the tasks remotely.

Her confidence had improved since the first
day he’d met her. She’d been so unsure of herself, so worried she’d
make a mistake. But now she’d fully committed to doing what needed
to be done.

“I admit I’m nervous,” Hayford said. “I’m
worried sick that something will go wrong.”

“Can I give you some advice?”

“Please do. I’ll take all the advice I can
get at the moment.”

“I’ve been doing this since before you were
born, agent,” Bill said. “As a field agent, I’d get so nervous
sometimes that I wouldn’t eat before an op went live for fear I’d
get sick. As a handler, I’ve been worried and scared to the point
that I have an ulcer I’ve been battling off and on for years. I
still get a healthy dose of fear every time I send my people out
there to protect the country. But you know what I tell myself?”

“What’s that?”

“You just have to do it afraid.”

“Well, I’ve got that in spades.” A slow
smile blanketed her face and she nodded. “We’re going to stop
Metis, Bill. We’re going to plug this leak and bring down the
Gallettis. Get our people home. I’m sure of it.”

He patted her hand softly. “Me too, Hayford.
Me too.”

18

August
18
^th

Amalfi, Italy

T-MINUS THIRTY MINUTES to go time and Kizzie
was ready to put this mission behind her. After yesterday’s near
miss with Lennox, she’d had an ice cold shower and a little time to
think. And in the six minutes she did her scrub down she came to a
conclusion: cold showers sucked, they did
not
stop the
hornies, and thinking gave her a friggin’ headache.

Kizzie checked her high chignon in the
mirror in her room. Touched up the makeup. Satisfied things were as
good as they’d get, she grabbed her thigh holster and clutch from
her bed and opened the door.

Lennox sat at Mission Control, furiously
punching the keys of the laptop, Rook in his usual spot on his lap.
A cigar smoldered in a nearby ashtray, the familiar sight and smell
not really helping with her decision to wait for Xander.

Lennox looked up from his work a she
approached, those green eyes of his slamming her to a stop.

“What?”

“You look,” a soft breath whistled out of
his mouth, “amazing. That dress is… damn, Kizzie.”

“Thanks.”

“Are you wearing a bra?”

“No, dad.” Kizzie rolled her eyes. That’s
why tata tape was invented. Kept the girls covered without messing
up the awesome draping of the deep-cut dress. She bucked her head
toward the cat to redirect the attention. “He going with you when
we leave?”

“Maybe.” Lennox shrugged. “Leave strays
without touch they go feral.”

That wasn’t about the cat and she knew it.
She shouldn’t care, but she wished she understood the sadness
around him. For him to go from a laugh a minute to super serious
wasn’t like Lennox, and even though it’s what she’d wanted from the
outset, it was actually a little unsettling.

Pushing that aside, Kizzie dropped her
clutch on the table and opened up one of the shoe boxes she’d
bought the day before. Stepped a foot up onto the seat of the
chair, her bare leg jutting though the gap from the gown’s high
slit. The rich red fabric spilled down over either side of her
thigh and she inched it up a little to position her leg holster.
Checked her subcompact Beretta and slipped it into the loop. Ditto
for a spare clip. Her lucky knife took up res in the extra clip
pouch and then it was just a mater of twisting things a hair to get
comfortable.

Lennox let out a strained groan and she
looked up. He had his lip trapped between his teeth, hooded eyes
glued to her exposed skin. “Stop teasing me,
chuchu
,” he
whispered, face flushing with heat.

She dropped her leg.

“I was kidding… A little.” Rook piped in
with one of his loud leonine yowls and Lennox turned his attention
to his pet. “Don’t blame me, cat. She wasn’t interested. But I
appreciate you making yourself scarce as a just-in-case.” He
fist-bumped the cat’s paw. “Way to hold me down.”

“Listen, about last night—”

“Famous last words, huh?” Lennox fixed her
with a soft gaze and smile combo. “You don’t have to explain. But
the offer still stands. You know where I am when you’re ready.”

Tempting.

So tempting.

“So, you ready?”

She blinked. “Lennox, I’m serious. I’m
seeing—”

“I meant to leave.” He pushed Rook from his
lap and tapped his watch. “Party’s already started. Crowd should be
thick enough for you to get in and get Sabine and Abrahan tagged
early. Then it’s just hurry up and wait to go handle the
computer.”

Oh. Right.

The mission.

Operation Catch a Mole, not Operation Catch
an Orgasm. Got it.

“Yeah.” One hand braced on the table, Kizzie
lifted her foot behind her and pulled a shoe onto it. Repeated it
with the other. Three inches taller, she grabbed her clutch. “Let’s
rock.”

A short drive later, Lennox pulled the SUV
up to La Casa Sulle Rocce. It looked like the entire town had shown
up to get their boogie on, and not everyone got the memo that it
was black tie. Evening gowns and tuxes mixed with jeans and
miniskirts, and Kizzie kind of wished she’d been among the latter
group. Playing dress up was nice and all —and her shoes were fly no
matter how she rocked ‘em— but when sneaking into someone’s office
to launch a man in the middle attack in order to steal a NOC list,
rubber soles trumped gold Gucci heels any day.

“You sure you can handle the code?”

Her brow knit as she looked over at Lennox.
She wasn’t some noob on her first op. And she might not be able to
build an app, but she could damn sure do an on-site hack in a
pinch. Besides, that’s why he was there. In addition to keeping an
eye on the Gallettis once she got the hubby and wife team tagged,
Lennox was her back up in the event her brain fried or she ran into
a problem with the computer.

Made her wonder what was really behind that
question.

“I’ve got it.” She glanced at the clock in
the dash and then pointed to where the transparent walls of the
garage were just visible over the downward angle of the road. “Just
after seven-forty now. I’ll call you around ten when I go to make
the drop. We’ll rendezvous up there and get ghost.”

Just as she reached for the door handle,
Lennox piped up with another question. “What’s the rule, rook?”

Was he nervous?

Yup. As she looked back, yet again, she saw
it in his eyes. Something had Lennox with a case of the jitters.
Not full-on, just… antsy. How many ops had he run during his stint
with The Crew? Had to be upwards of a hundred, easy. And even on
his last one he was tense.

But that’s how it worked, wasn’t it. The
last op was the one that got you.

“What’s the rule?”

“Only mission accomplished if I get out
alive,” she said.

Lennox leaned across the bulky center
console and pressed his lips to her cheek. “Come back to me,
chuchu
.”

Kizzie nodded. Popped the door latch and
stepped out of the SUV. Outside, the evening air was warm with just
a gentle breeze stirring up a handful of fallen leaves over the
walkway. The long skirt of her dress blew out behind her as she
strut to the doors. Security was tight, Abrahan’s men in dark suits
and sunglasses doing quick pat downs of anyone going inside the
huge glass building that was once the boutique hotel’s club.

She slipped behind a guard busy coping an
extra feel on a scantily clad woman and disappeared inside. The
music pumped out of the speakers, an intense thumping, the rhythm
like a heartbeat. The words were in Italian, and she nodded along
as she scanned the crowd for her first target.

Kizzie spotted Abrahan almost immediately.
The elder Galletti stood near a hallway that appeared to lead into
the residential portion of the house. He chatted with someone she
couldn’t see for the two huge bodyguards flanking him.

He’d be tough to get to.

Second option: tag Sabine first.

Avoiding the dance floor, she two-stepped
around the bodies on the fringes doing all kinds of wild moves and
gesticulations. She turned down an offer to dance and kept moving,
searching for Sabine.

Fifteen minutes later she spotted the
dark-haired woman near a table with flutes of champagne. Sabine
stared out at the crowd, rocking a smile that didn’t reach her
eyes, like she couldn’t wait for everyone to leave the party she’d
invited them to.

Kizzie opened her clutch and dug out a
compact. A false bottom was built into the case, inside of it a
bevy of micro-RFID tags. Plucking one out, she activated it and
headed over to Sabine. A brush touch and the tag would stick to her
clothes, and then Lennox would have eyes on the woman for the
duration of the evening.

Four feet away from her target, a body
stepped into her path. Kizzie jerked to a stop and looked up.

Shit.

“I know you! You’re the adult film
star!”

Her eyes slipped closed and she shook her
head. Lennox was
so
getting his ass kicked…

Sanzio peered at her through bright eyes. He
looked sober, but smelled of alcohol and sweat and that same funky
cologne he’d had on in Belém. His heavy arm draped over her
shoulder, and he guided her away from Sabine. “There’s someone I
want you to meet.”

“Actually I—”

“Shhhh,
gostosa
. The man of the hour
would be thrilled to meet a guest such as yourself.”

Her brow popped up. Was the man of the hour
Abrahan? Had to be, given this was his odd anniversary party. If
Sanzio here could get her an up-close with the man behind the hefty
guards, she’d ride this gift horse and skip the dental exam.

Sure enough, Sanzio marched her right by the
goons and up to Abrahan himself.

“
Mano
,” Sanzio bellowed, a wicked
grin on his face. He poked his brother hard and Abrahan spun toward
him. Looked down at her with hard black eyes and then darted a
glare at his brother.

“What is it?”

Kizzie’s heart pounded in her throat. Up
close Abrahan was exactly as she’d thought he’d be: big, mean
looking, that missing ear a little disturbing. A sight to
behold.

But he was nothing compared to the man
beside him.

Xander Duquesne.

Belly doing backflips, she didn’t fight the
smile but redirected it to Abrahan as she kicked up her chin.

“Happy Anniversary, Mr. Galletti.” She felt
Xander’s eyes on her and smiled wider.

Abrahan met her with a smile of her own.
“Thank—”

“Beautiful, isn’t she?” Sanzio cut in.

She glanced at Xander. Those chocolate eyes
of his were digging a crater so deep into Sanzio’s head it was a
wonder the man was still standing.

Abrahan shifted a nervous look over to
Xander, and then back at his brother. “Indeed, your friend is
lovely.”

“You wanted me to bring you a woman, didn’t
you, brother?” Sanzio beamed.

“Zio…”

But little brother didn’t take heed. “You
would never guess she’s a porn star.”

Kizzie’s mouth popped open and she whirled
away from him. “I am
not—”

“Proof we can cover it up,” Sanzio said,
“but the ugliness is still inside of us, eh,
mano
? No matter
how nice the clothes, how big the house, we can’t hide from what we
really are.”

Abrahan’s cruel face twisted into something
terrible. He clapped a rough hand onto his brother’s shoulder.
“Excuse us.”