Turned (20 page)

He nodded. “Had been instructed to kill the enemy.” He crossed the room and stuck out his hand. “And you are right. I’m Peter.”

She shook his hand, aware of how small hers felt in his.

He was attractive, but not as attractive as Ty. Not to her, anyway.

Madre de Dios
. She did not need to be thinking about how handsome Ty was. She commanded her body and mind to let go of images of the man who’d brought her into this whole mess and focused on the voices she now heard just outside the library doors.

“That’ll be Ty and the others,” Peter said, watching her closely.

The library doors opened, revealing three women … and Ty.

She practically devoured him with her eyes, then made a point of ignoring him when the woman he was with, the one with short brown hair and glasses, arched a brow at her.

Five minutes later, introductions had been made. The average-size woman in her early thirties with the glasses was Collette Parker. She was an ex-cop, but in her nicely worn jeans and button-down paisley shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbows, she looked more like a soccer mom. The woman with dark skin and darker hair and an unmistakable air of sensuality was Justine Maverick. And the slim, elegant blonde with sophistication and prestige and wealth stamped across her forehead was Barrett Miles.

Ana was as curious about all of them as they seemed to be about her; each of them studied the other with thinly veiled suspicion. She had to stifle a half groan, half chuckle.

Let the games begin.

“Carly’s already briefed you to some extent on Salvation’s Crossing,” Ty said, directing his attention to Ana. “It’s supposed to be a public outreach program for Hispanic culture, but we believe it’s actually a false front for a cult.” When she nodded, he turned his attention to the others.

“Illegal immigrants are being used by the cult for slave labor and for … well, let’s just say they’re being sold on the black market. Miguel Salvador finds illegals and welcomes them in to Salvation’s Crossing. He’s seeded the streets of San Diego and Los Angeles, and even
Tijuana and Mexico City with hucksters he pays to spout the word of Salvation’s Crossing.”

Collette—the ex-cop, ex–blackjack dealer who’d had extensive training in body language and could morph into anyone she needed to be, be it ingenue, femme fatale, or hooker—spoke up. “So when the illegals make it across the border, they think Salvation’s Crossing is
their
salvation.”

Ty nodded, looking around the room to ensure Ana, Barrett, and Justine understood as well. Barrett was sitting staring out the window, her knees held together at a perfect angle, the silk skirt she wore skimming her thigh and riding up just enough to be sexy but still classy. No one would guess she’d graduated from West Point Academy at the top of her class and had served overseas.

Next to her, Justine sat more relaxed. A former dancer known for blowing men’s minds and making them blow a wad of cash on her when she pole danced, Justine had an innate sensuality. She was also an ace when it came to anything with an engine, particularly cars.

The two of them seemed uninterested in his lecture, but Ty could tell they were on alert, absorbing, filtering, and processing his words. Good.

Ana, though—he cast his gaze to her. As he’d expected, she was looking at him with chin raised, eyes challenging, a woman ready for a fight. That bravado, which he fully knew she could back up with fists or a knife, stirred something deep inside him just the way it always did. Desire, he reminded himself, as his cock went to half-mast. Ana stirred up his sexuality in a truly visceral way. After their little lesson at the pool, he’d been on the verge of losing it. Before he could rip her clothes off and plunge his fangs into her neck, he’d practically run away.

“Any questions on Salvation’s Crossing?”

“What’s the next step?” Ana asked. Despite her calm demeanor, he sensed her vulnerability. It hit him then—how much a young Ana would have benefited from an organization that purported to do what Salvation’s Crossing did. How different her life would have been if she’d been given a home instead of a place in a gang.

That’s what was really driving her. Ana didn’t want to go back to her childhood home, but she wanted
a
home. One that looked like her place in Seattle, but where she didn’t live alone. She wanted to find her sister, make sure Gloria got out safe. And she wanted to stay with her sister. She wanted to have a family again.

Just like he did.

Fact was, however, she still had a chance of getting what she wanted. He didn’t.

Still, her complete love and loyalty to her sister moved him. Had he loved Naomi to such a fierce degree? He’d like to think so, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe because he’d suspected Naomi hadn’t loved him with that same fierceness, either.

Never mind the sisters, his or hers.

What he wouldn’t give to have Ana love him that much. To know she was his and would be in his bed every night, freely, enthusiastically, despite the fact that she knew exactly what he was.

A vampire.

His cock strained against the soft fabric of his jeans, no longer at half-mast. Images of ripping Ana’s jeans off her ass and plunging himself into her warm depths raged in his mind. He’d take her, and hard—from behind, up against a wall, sideways. Bite her neck—

Suddenly he realized the rest of the team members were staring at him, silent. Barrett raised an eyebrow at him, the hint of a smile quirking at one side of her mouth. Bollocks. Had she realized how much he’d been
hungering for Ana? He shifted in his seat, hoping his straining erection was sufficiently hidden behind the folders he held in his hand.

“We continue with your training. Collette, Barrett, and Justine will teach you a few things that can help you with your mission before they train with Peter.”

“Such as?” Ana’s question wasn’t rude, just direct.

“Your mission isn’t an extraction or surgical strike. It’s intelligence gathering. The only way we’re going to get in, get the evidence, and get out with it is if our cover is believable.”

Ana frowned. “What cover?”

“We’ll be posing as lovers,” he said smoothly. “That means you’re going to have to be a social butterfly. You know, someone who’s accustomed to the best in life and who’s also a free spirit. Also, it can’t bother you if I touch you—however that might happen.” He watched understanding flicker across her face and saw the bitterness that twisted her mouth.

Just like during your training
, he wanted to say. It was really best if she thought that, he told himself.

But he still wanted to shake her and insist that she see the truth: she was beautiful and he wanted her and he’d want her regardless of how they’d met. Her mind, however, was already on the mission and everything she’d learned so far.

“But I thought one of my roles was to seduce Miguel into letting us into the cult. How am I going to do that if he—if he—”

“If he thinks you’re mine?”

She scowled. “If he thinks we’re sleeping together.”

“Can you really be that naive about men, Ana?” That came from Barrett.

Ana rounded on her. “You don’t know me at all. And who asked you?”

Ana was more innocent about the desires of men than
she could ever realize, Ty thought. Mainly because she didn’t give herself the freedom to feel her own.

“What Barrett is saying,” Justine chimed in, “is that thinking you’re with Ty isn’t going to put off a man who’s truly interested in you, Ana. In fact, if Miguel believes you’re lovers, he’s going to want to win you over even more.”

A few hours after she’d learned she’d be posing as Ty’s girlfriend, Ana entered the stable behind Justine. Collette and Barrett were already inside. The blonde spoke softly to one of the mares, stroking the blaze on her forehead and slipping her a baby carrot.

The warm smell of fresh hay and old timber made Ana stop and take a deep breath, just to enjoy it. She glanced at Barrett again. There was an apple half in her hand.

Ana hadn’t thought to bring treats. She doubted they had been told to meet here to pal around with the horses, although she didn’t know the reason for Carly’s order.

Show up at the stables. Collette has my instructions
.

“Hello, ladies,” Justine said, sidestepping a sticky green-brown clump that rolled out of the straw. “Eww. Where are all the stable hands? They need to tidy up in here.”

Collette laughed. “I believe that’s our assignment.”

“The hell it is,” Justine retorted, pushing back a wavy lock of black hair. “Who told you that?”

The ex-cop took a piece of paper out of her shirt pocket and unfolded it, showing it to Justine, whose eyes widened with horror as Barrett laughed.

“Collette already enlightened me,” the blonde said. She didn’t seem in the least upset.

Ana wasn’t sure what to do or say. The other women already seemed comfortable with one another, and despite
Barrett’s tendency toward snootiness, Ana could see herself liking all of them. And despite the shitty bonding assignment Carly had given them, she liked the stable, too. It was a down-to-earth place where real work got done; and though she’d never ridden a horse, Ana had always suspected she’d love them. One whickered in her direction, as if he seconded that thought.

Collette went to a rack on the wall that held tools. “Take a rake, Justine. Pick an empty stall and muck it out.”

“I’m not dressed to deal with horse shit,” Justine wailed.

In jeweled flip-flops and tiny shorts, Justine wasn’t wrong about that. The other two women were in gingham tops and worn jeans, and Collette’s short brown hair was covered by a bandanna. Ana had opted for knee-length cutoffs and a T-shirt, pulling her hair sleekly back into a single thick braid.

She spotted a row of rubber boots in different sizes under a bench, and then noticed that Collette and Barrett already had theirs on. Feeling awkward and uncertain—two feelings she absolutely
hated
—Ana sat down and selected a pair that looked likely to fit, took off her sneakers, and pulled them on.

“Get over yourself, Justine,” Collette said briskly. “Whistle a happy tune or something.”

“Fuck that.”

Justine stomped over to the bench and changed her footwear, then grabbed one of the rakes Collette was holding out.

“Where should I start?” Ana asked, standing up.

“First you take out the water bucket and the manger,” Collette said. “And then the hay.”

Ana headed toward the chestnut.

“It’s also a good idea to remove the horse,” Colette called after her, her tone clearly good-natured.

Despite herself, Ana found herself relaxing and fought back a smile. She went in a different direction to an unoccupied stall, thinking it had been a long time since she’d indulged in “girl time.” Trying to do so, even getting closer to Téa, had always reminded her of how she’d lost Gloria. Now, with these three larger-than-life women, she suddenly found herself hoping they’d learn not to just work together, but to like one another.

Justine entered a nearby stall, the horse next door watching her with interest as she began to pitch sodden straw into the main aisle.

“You have to separate the manure,” Barrett told her. “It goes in the wheelbarrow.”

Justine looked at the contraption with disgust when Barrett pointed.

“Gee, thanks for the tip, Miss B. Where’d you learn that? You don’t look like you ever get your hands dirty.”

Justine’s mouthy comeback earned her a sharp look from Collette. She quit talking.

“You’d be surprised,” Barrett replied calmly.

Ana had to admire her for not losing her cool. And for the advice. She wouldn’t have known to separate the, uh, stuff from the straw.

The other two women got to work with them.

Three hours later, they were gathered around an outdoor table with cold beers in hand.

Justine popped the cap off her bottle with a long-nailed thumb and took a deep swig.

“Ahhh.” She set the bottle down with a thump on the wooden table. “That was so much fun. Let’s do it again. Every day.”

“That can probably be arranged. So shut up already.” Collette took a sliver of ice from the small cooler on the table and rubbed her forehead with it.

Barrett sipped from her bottle, but Ana rolled hers between her palms, enjoying the coolness. All four of
them had worked up a sweat, and smelled stronger than the exercised horses now getting rubdowns, but the job had gotten done.

Justine rested her elbows on the table and propped her chin in both hands. “Ana, you okay? You’re awfully quiet.”

“I’m fine except for the blisters on my hands.”

“Let me see.”

Barrett’s soft-voiced request surprised Ana but she extended her hands, palms up.

“I have some balm that I use. I’ll give it to you when we get back to the main house.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“
I
might not make it that far,” Justine said dramatically. “Bury me here.”

“Ana worked harder than you and she’s not complaining,” Collette pointed out. “I’m pretty sure she worked harder than any of us.”

“No way,” Ana protested, but despite herself she felt a tingling of pleasure.

“Oh, hush. And drink that damn beer before I do it for you,” Justine said to her.

Collette raised hers in agreement. Ana drank as the ex-cop, who seemed to have naturally fallen into the role of leader, finished hers.

“Okay, ladies,” she said. “Before we all crash in our bedrooms, has anyone figured out why Carly the Invisible picked us for Belladonna?”

“She must have her reasons,” Barrett observed. “Plus a bizarre sense of humor.”

“Two good guesses.” Collette clinked her bottle against Barrett’s, then Ana’s.

Justine held on to her second beer, not joining in. “Ya think? I’m not getting the humor part. I don’t think Carly is all about fun.”

Wasn’t that the truth?

“Forget her. Let’s talk about us,” Collette said. “Who we are, what we have in common, what we don’t. You start, Justine.”

“Not me. I hate sharing.”

“Okay then. You can go last.” Collette set down her beer. “You all know my name. Don’t play cards with me. I used to deal blackjack. And I used to be an undercover cop. Actually, you never stop being one, even when you quit.” She paused.