Raines, Elizabeth - Wanted [Wicked Missions 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (9 page)

Achchim turned to Izzie. “Leave now, we must.” He picked up the duffle then inclined his head at Spencer and Hammond. “They soon leave?”

Izzie nodded. “Yeah. Look, you go on ahead with the unis, Achchim. I need to talk to my friends about that vaccine shipment for Markus. We need to figure out how to get it aboard the
Ecstasy
.”

Although his red eyes held suspicion, Achchim finally nodded and walked away without another word.

The trio remained quiet for a long time—long enough Spencer was sure the Dracorian was gone before he spoke. “Fuckin’ bastard. It must be killing you to play nice with him, Izzie.”

“You have no idea,” she replied, rolling her shoulders as if her muscles were tense. “Makes my skin crawl every time I see him. If he wasn’t such a suspicious prick by nature, I’d be more worried he’d figure out I wasn’t really a scumbag like him. Tends to poke his ugly nose in places he’d better off staying out of.”

Hammond folded his arms over his chest. “We need to talk about Callie.”

“Damn straight.” Izzie mimicked his actions. “You’ve been asking far too many questions, and Markus thinks it’s not because of Carlos trying to plug you two.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Spencer asked.

“Lyrianna Seebré. She’s the one you’re asking about, right?” The men nodded. “Well, she’s also conveniently the one who got Syrus Graveland caught. Didn’t take too much on Markus’s part to figure out your Callie is Lyrianna’s sister when you started asking everyone and their brother what happened to her.”

“It couldn’t be that easy!” Spencer insisted. “No one knows who Callie is!”

“They damn well do,” Izzie replied. “She crossed some of Carlos’s guys more than once on Bromond. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out she’s Belusian, either. Put that together with you guys sending out inquiries as to where Lyrianna went and…”

“Fuck.” Spencer hit his thigh with his fist.

“Bingo.” Her grin could only be described as smug. “One good thing is, Markus wants Carlos’s territory. He doesn’t care how the guy gets brought down, even by some nurse. She’s your key to ending this whole charade with a win, boys.”

“Not happening,” Hammond said. Spencer nodded.

“You might not have a choice. Carlos wants her. You don’t produce her, then your whole cover might be blown.” Izzie nodded at the
Ecstasy
. “She’s still on your ship, isn’t she?”

Like Spencer could ever hide anything from someone who’d been his friend from the time they’d both worked their way through the Interplanetary Drug Enforcement Agency training together. He drew his lips into a thin line and nodded.

Izzie’s hand shot out to smack the side of his head, the same thing she always did when she thought he was being particularly dense. “You’re thinking with your dick, Spence. Falling head over heels for some slut—”

“She’s not like that!” he insisted. “That shit we told the Dracorian wasn’t true. None of it.”

Hammond shook his head. “It’s not true. Callie’s wonderful. And we’re not letting her go, Izzie.”

Her eyes rolled. “Let me guess…true love for three. Right? Are you nuts? Don’t you guys realize what it means to protect her? You’ll be on Carlos’s shit list—numbers one and two with a bullet. We need to bring that bastard down, and we can only do that from the inside. You know that!
Both
of you! What woman is worth risking two years of undercover work and your lives for?”

“Callie,” both replied.

Izzie rolled her eyes again. “Fine. You win. Or perhaps your dicks do… I guess we’ll find a safe house for her. She can go to Remiza or Earth. Or maybe—”

Both men were already shaking their heads. From the moment Spencer had been paired with Hammond as I.D.E.A. agents, they’d been in sync. Now that they’d found Callie, now that she’d taught them how to connect, they were even more so. “She’s safer with us, and you know it,” he finally replied. “If he wants her, there’s no house safe enough in this sector. Someone could find a way to get to her. I can’t let that happen.”

“She stays with us,” Hammond added. “We’re the only ones who can protect her.”

“Can I at least meet Miss Wonderful?” Izzie asked. “I need to see the one and only woman in the universe who could make you two forget about each other.”

“Forget about each other? What are you talking about?” Spencer blurted out.

Her laughter filled the air. “C’mon, Spence. Who do you think you’re fooling? I know how much you two like each other. I guess I always figured you’d find a way to make it work together. At least I did until this chick came along.”

“She’s not a chick.”

“Whatever. So now it’s two guys, one girl. Does that mean you two have given up on each other?”

“That’s none of your damn business, Izzie,” Hammond grumbled.

“Probably not, but I’m
dying
of curiosity.” She chuckled. “And maybe feeling a little envy. Never thought about being part of a threesome before. Don’t you guys get…I don’t know…jealous of each other? Or do you get off on watching while the other fucks her?”

“Let. It. Go.” Hammond’s voice was so icy, Spencer was amazed frost didn’t follow the words.

Izzie held out her palms. “Fine. Fine. Can I please meet her? At least that way I can help with misinformation. You know, pass on some bad descriptions to throw people off her tail?”

Her suggestion made sense, but if they introduced Callie to Izzie, he and Hammond would have to finally lay all their cards on the table and tell her about their
real
jobs. They’d talked about revealing the whole truth when they could snatch a few moments of privacy, both wanting to be entirely honest with Callie now that she’d come to mean so much to them. Plus, he hated the idea that she thought they were nothing but lowlife smugglers.

Would she be pleased that they were truly undercover I.D.E.A. agents? Would she be happy that they had noble motives to help people rather than base desires to make money? He wanted her to be proud of her men.

Her men.
And they were. No way would he or Hammond ever let Callinda Seebré go. Not when she’d come to be the love of their lives.

Spencer nodded at Izzie, then looked to Hammond. “We need to talk to her anyway. Time to tell her the truth.”

He nodded in response.

Spencer led the way back up the ramp. Once inside the
Ecstasy
, he called, “Callie! Hey, baby! We need to talk.” When she didn’t reply, he walked over to the bedroom. The door opened with a swish, and he stuck his head inside. “Callie? Baby?” He turned back to Hammond, his instincts suddenly screaming that something was wrong—
very
wrong. “Check the cockpit.”

Hammond hurried down the corridor.

Izzie pointed at an open drawer that had clothes haphazardly hanging out. “Someone was in a hurry to get dressed.”

“Fuck!” Hammond’s shout sounded from the helm.

Spencer hurried to him, Izzie hot on his heels. “What’s wrong?”

He was punching buttons on the com. “She was listening to us.”

“You’re sure?”

Hammond nodded before the fear registered in his eyes. “She left, didn’t she? She heard the lies and left.”

“But we didn’t see her go,” Izzie insisted. “We would’ve seen her on the ramp, even if she was trying to be sneaky.”

Spencer was already moving to their bolt hole. Just as he feared, it was wide open. “Fuck,” he whispered. The second time, he shouted it.

“We have to find her,” Hammond insisted as he came to stand at Spencer’s side. “Where would she go?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “But we’re damned well going to find out.”

Chapter 7

The building looked secure. Callie approached it from the back entrance, remembering the code Lyrianna had made her memorize so her sister could get inside whenever she needed to. After one more glance around, Callie entered the digits and held her breath as she waited to see if the door opened. With a loud click, the lock unlatched. She grabbed the handle, pulled it open, and slipped inside.

Shit! Is it the third door on the left or the fourth?

Her memory was failing her, probably because her thoughts were in so much turmoil. All she could seem to do was fight back tears as images of the guys she loved haunted her. She wanted to scream. She wanted to hit something. She wanted to sit down someplace private and cry her eyes out. Never in her life had she felt so lost and so alone.

How could she have given her heart so completely to two drug smugglers?

They made money in a way that turned her stomach, but things were rough all over the galaxy. Even she and Lyrianna had been forced to work with people they’d normally never even consider talking to. And some of those people were now their friends. So Callie could forgive them working on the black market.

The biggest problem was not being sure enough of their feelings for her to trust them. She didn’t want to believe that they’d turn her in for the bounty Carlos Pontierri was offering, and her empathic skill had never sensed anything duplicitous about either Hammond or Spencer. But the fact she’d been drowning in desire—hers
and
theirs—might have compromised her newfound ability. She had to get away from them, to clear her head so she could think instead of just react. And by leaving them, she was helping them.

She’d done the right thing running away. She had to protect herself, and she had to protect them. Carlos would leave her guys alone now.

Stopping by the third door, Callie punched in the code, hoping against hope she’d found her sister’s place. Thankfully, the door slid open. Here, she’d be safe. Lyrianna always sublet any apartment she’d lived at, being wise enough to never use her own name, so no way could anyone trace her here. Not even Carlos. Now, she could let her guard down, rest, and make some plans for the future—especially figuring out some way to locate more Ampirica to take back to her girls on Bromond. Somehow.

The interior was dark, the only light seeping from around the blinds covering the apartment’s single window. Moonlight created a dim rectangle that barely offered enough illumination for her to fumble for a light. When she finally felt a lamp, she tapped the control, showering the small room with brightness.

In typical Lyrianna fashion, the place was furnished as sparsely as a military barrack with only a desk, an ancient computer, and a small viewer sitting in front of an overstuffed chair. On the wall with the window was a kitchenette, which was nothing more than a couple of cabinets, a miniature refrigerator, and a microwave oven.

Callie opened the fridge, finding exactly what she expected.
Nothing
. The cabinet yielded a box of cookies—thankfully unopened—and a few cans of soup and vegetables that were still within their expiration dates. At that moment, her stomach was still in such nervous knots, she didn’t even care about the fact she didn’t have a single uni to use to buy anything else to eat. Dinner would be soup and cookies, if she could find the will to even bother opening the box or a can.

The walls were bare with the exception of several images printed from holopictures that her sister had arranged in a collage and tacked up. Callie stepped closer to look at them and had to choke back more tears when she saw most of them were of her and Lyrianna from the few times they’d managed to find a day or two to spend together in the last couple of years.

Moving to the bedroom, she clicked on the lamp and took in the rumpled bed and single dresser. A brush and several hair ties sat on the dresser’s surface next to a small wooden box. Callie couldn’t stop herself from flipping open the lid. Inside was a gold necklace exactly like the one Callie owned—the one she’d left back on Bromond. They’d bought the identical serpentine chains on their vacation together on Remiza, the last time she’d seen Lyrianna.

A tear slipped down her cheek as she slipped the chain around her neck.

The bathroom still had a few of Lyrianna’s favorite toiletries, but it was clear no one had been in the place for quite a while, especially since a layer of dust had covered the sparse furniture and the sink and shower were as dry as Bromond’s deserts.

“Where are you?” she whispered, not sure why she didn’t shout the question instead. The frustration and hurt threatened to drag her under like some relentless undertow.

Figuring she at least now had a place to stop, rest, and regroup, Callie went about getting the small apartment in order. She found a fresh set of sheets in the dresser, stripped the bed, and remade it, using the dirty pillowcases to dust the furniture. Then she fished some of Lyri’s clothes out of a drawer, popped in the shower, and scrubbed her skin until it pinkened and her hair until her scalp tingled.