Chapter 13
Mercy could feel his shock and surprise when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed so close against him. She wasn’t in marketing for nothing. She knew exactly what needed to happen. It was all about creating the intended impression. Right now people needed to believe the whole reason she was here was to make love with Michael. That they’d be busy for hours.
With her lips close to his ear, she whispered, “Let me lead.”
But his hands were too busy stroking up and down her back, and she wasn’t sure if he got the message she wanted him to get. It was hard to keep her head as passion flared between them. What was supposed to be a marketing exercise was quickly spiraling out of control. She hadn’t expected to melt at his touch—to want to jump his bones and assuage the need clawing at her. But then again, who could’ve imagined something like this? He was igniting a response inside her that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Maybe in forever.
Perhaps it was the taboo of being watched. And maybe it was just this incredibly sexy male who had his hands all over her, sending her hormones into overdrive. Whatever it was, the feeling was incredibly delicious. But she had to keep her head. She tried to keep her mind and body separated, but he was doing his best to seduce her, and her body was a willing partner.
She hoped he got the message, because, in a few minutes, it would be a hell of a rude awakening when she pulled back. She wasn’t trying to be a tease, but they had the window that they needed. When he had urged her back against the bed, her legs coming up against the mattress, she shuddered. She gave a shake of her head, trying to clear her mind, pushing the raging heat down before she lost all sense of what she was doing. She slipped out of his arms, her breath ragged, her breathing hoarse in her chest. And standing in front of the camera, she pulled her T-shirt up and over her head. And tossed it right over the lens.
With a shaky breath she paced the room, trying to calm down. When he grabbed her shoulder, he leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Remember it’s an audio and video device.”
She rolled her eyes, knowing what he meant. And threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. He picked her up, carried her to the bed and together were now fully focused on putting on a show to create a sweaty session of sex in audio alone.
When he finally rolled off her, she clapped a hand over her mouth, stilling the giggles. He looked at her and grinned. She rolled her eyes again and pulled the covers to her mouth to stifle any sounds. He stood and walked quietly into the other room. She lay on the bed for a long moment and let her breathing relax until she calmed down to the pretense of falling asleep. Rolling over, she slipped to her feet and tiptoed out. They had to leave the door open and the lights off.
In the other room she found him with a cup of coffee in hand, standing by the window, looking out into the night. His breathing had calmed—better than hers had—and she knew he was contemplating his options. She slipped up behind him and whispered, “Do you think it’s safe to leave?”
He reached an arm around her and pulled her against his chest. After what they’d gone through, it felt so natural to wrap her arms around him and hold him close.
“I’ll give it a few minutes. Let them think we’ve gone to sleep.”
She rubbed her cheek against his bare chest.
He squeezed her gently.
“Is it wrong I wish that wasn’t for show?” she whispered, needing him to know she cared. He was going into a dangerous situation. She wanted him to know he wasn’t alone.
He stilled and crushed her tighter against his chest. His heartbeat picked up and raced against her ear. He leaned down and whispered, “We can pick that up again later.”
She chuckled and in a throaty whisper said, “In your dreams. Not with video and audio.” His chest against her skin made her smile deepened.
“Not sure I want to leave you here alone,” he admitted against her ear.
“Considering they think I’m sleeping off a hot sweaty sex session, I don’t think you need to be worried about me.”
“Maybe, but I did find a way that I think will keep you safe in case they do come.” With his finger against his lips, he led her to the hall closet outside the bedroom. On the ceiling was access to the attic. A couple boards nailed against the wall acted as a ladder for accessing the space. He pushed the lid up and out of the frame, and she popped her head in and over. There was a handle to secure the attic access in place again. She made her way back down and looked at him. “Is it normal to have something like that?”
He shrugged. “It’s normal enough. If they had trouble with ventilation, or if they had to add fiberglass for insulation or any other number of issues, it would make sense to have attic access. What it does do is give you a hidey-hole, in case you hear anyone coming. It also connects to the other apartment so you can escape that way.”
Back in the kitchen she realized somehow he had gotten changed and was completely dressed in black. He looked like a cat burglar. When she said as much, he gave her a slanted glance and asked, “How do you know I’m not?”
She raised an eyebrow, thought about it, and smiled. “No, your morals and ethics are too high.”
This time his eyebrows shot up. “How do you figure that?” he asked curiously.
“Because you’re all about keeping me safe. You’re all about finding out the truth about your friend. And you’re all about putting the bad guys away. If you were a burglar, you wouldn’t care about all those things.”
He studied her intently for a long moment and then smiled. “Stay safe,” he instructed as he walked to the bedroom where the attic door was, then he looked back at her.
She shoved her fingers into her jeans pocket as his gaze slowly lowered to her breasts, swollen and plump in her lacy black bra. She glanced down and blushed.
“As far as images to take with me,” he said in a gravelly voice, his gaze hot, “this is the best.”
*
Having that last image of her tucked away safely in the corner of his mind, Michael slipped out of the second small apartment and down the stairs. He checked for alarms but didn’t find any. Soundlessly he opened the outside door and stepped into the night and into the hedges at the side. He waited for his eyes to adjust. As soon as he could see clearly, he set a course toward the large garage. It ran along the wall right to the back of the property and then connected to the hedge. That would give him a clear path into the back corner of the property. There was no sign of anyone as he made his way across the short but exposed grassy area. At the garage he pressed his ear against the door, but no sounds came from inside. Going up to a window, he looked inside, but it appeared dark and empty.
Crouching below the window, he carried on to the back of the building. From here he connected to the hedge, and within seconds he ran softly down the path to a good hundred yards of cedars. Lots of places for him to blend in with the darkness. The moon cut in and out of the clouds above, giving him enough light to see his next few steps, only to yank away the visual within seconds. Good thing he had great night vision.
He was pretty sure the bad guys must have another space here. He was partial to the idea of an underground bunker. The trick was getting there without being seen. Casting an assessing gaze, he quickly decided the cedar hedge offered the most protection. When he made it to the hillside and crept down the slope on the far side, he’d been out just under fifteen minutes. He hit the stopwatch to record the time.
At the bottom of the hill he could see where the gravel road beside the cedars ended. Not one vehicle was in sight. From here, he couldn’t determine if a door or some other structure was around the corner of the hill. He waited, his ear tuned for noises out of the ordinary. Something small rustled in the underbrush next to him. Most of the animals would be sound asleep by now. The only ones out at this time were the ones hunting. Just like he was.
When he heard nothing further, he picked his path carefully across the rocky ground. He moved from boulder to boulder, silent in the night. In the distance he thought he heard something. He crouched low to the ground and waited. When the noise didn’t repeat, he skulked forward yet again. The gravel road dipped, and, as he followed, he could see a truck parked against the hillside. It appeared to be empty, but he couldn’t take that chance.
After several moments passed with no one approaching the truck, he raced up behind the truck and crouched at the back end. The pickup had a canopy over the top. He peered into the windows but didn’t see anyone. There wasn’t any reason to have a truck down here, unless it was being used for something.
The keys were still in the ignition, and a rifle rack was inside the truck, but it was empty. He quickly took a picture of the inside of the cab, crept to the front to get a snapshot of the license plate. He sent both to Levi and the commander.
Hidden behind the pickup he studied what appeared to be a manmade cave in the hillside. What could have started as a cave had been reinforced with timbers and maybe steel. It looked like a big warehouse. He assumed some kind of enclosure kept the wildlife out. But, at the moment, it was open.
What were the odds there were no lights? If people were inside, there should be lights inside. He studied the dark opening with suspicion. Had they seen him coming? He debated waiting until he had some assistance but knew the next time he came, whatever this place was, would be locked up tight.
Trusting his instincts that said to get in there and find out, he stepped across the threshold and went around the first corner. No alarms went off, at least none he could hear. They spent a lot of money building this place and would need to spend a whole lot more if they wanted to set up security on something so large. He certainly would have if it’d been his place. But this looked to be in the middle of construction. And considering how well it was hidden, security might not be a priority for them.
Tucked up in his hiding spot, he let his gaze slowly wander, waiting for yet another layer of darkness to settle in. With his eyes adjusted, he could see crates on one side and tables on another. An open space in the center had tracks in the middle of the dirt. He couldn’t imagine what anything this big would be used for. It could easily hold a couple 18-wheelers, even concealing the emptied trucks and their unloaded cargo. The pickup truck sitting outside wouldn’t carry much weight compared to what had driven in here.
He studied the turnaround space outside. It was awkward, but any good driver could back a vehicle in and out. Sticking to the shadows as he moved to where the stacks of crates sat, he could see at least six. They were locked down. He desperately wanted to turn on his cell phone flashlight. He didn’t dare take the chance. With his ears tuned to the slightest noises, he lifted the lids off some of the crates. As he bent to the front of one and tried to force it open, he could hear voices. He slipped behind the crate, realizing he was up against a stone wall. He hunkered down and waited as the voices came closer.
“We need to get these out of here tonight.”
“We can’t move up the timetable that fast,” a man argued. “No need to panic. Early in the morning we’ll get the second shipment. They could both go out at the same time.”
“That’s more dangerous. Better that they go out one at a time. If one gets picked up, the other will still be safe.”
“This isn’t a fly-by-night operation. We’ve been planning this for months and months now.”
“And yet, there have been problems,” said a man, his voice cool. “Robert had to take out four different people.”
“They were all connected. They shouldn’t have been involved in the first place, but we were very short-staffed.” He snorted. “And it’s not fair to include the maid and her spy boyfriend. They should have been taken out early on.”
“We had to wait until we had proof of their snooping,” a second man said. “And now that that’s been taken care of, are we expecting any more trouble?”
“Not now. We have this morning’s work to clean up still and without my political friend who is also here finding out,” the man with the cool voice said. “That driver should never have been killed in bed while he slept. Especially not when the bedroom beside his was fully occupied. Not to mention we needed information from the driver first. Had he acted alone when he stole a crate? Or did he have help? This was badly done.”
“Not to mention, you have people working on the estate who have nothing to do with this, and, if they find out …”
“Then the same thing will happen to them that happened to the others,” said the second man angrily. “We have a lot of people working in this place now. Only a few are involved. We intend to keep it that way. But we still need people to help when things go wrong.”
“That’s the way we want to keep it. Profits can only be divided so far before there is no profit left.”
“What about the supplier?” The man with the cool voice spoke again.
There was something almost familiar about that voice, but Michael couldn’t place it.
“He hasn’t gotten back to me.”
“Well, maybe you should deal with that and not worry about the logistics here.”
“It’s all connected. I don’t intend to lose out on any of this.”
“None of us do.”
Michael listened to a bit more of the wrangling until the three men stepped up to where he could see their shadows. They kept walking, past the crates, and out into the night. Michael quickly retreated until he was at the corner, staring at their backs as they stood beside the truck. He caught one picture but knew he’d only see outlines, maybe their profiles if he was lucky. One of the men walked around the truck and hopped into the driver’s seat, turning on the engine. The other two men got into the vehicle. The truck turned around expertly and left.
When he thought he was in the clear, he heard a weird rumbling and a steel door came down almost in front of him. He had a split second to decide if he would stay inside or out. He chose inside. With a sense of foreboding, he watched as the heavy steel door clanked to the ground and sealed shut—locking him inside. He turned to the rest of the room and said, “Well, shit.”