JAMMER WENT RED-HOT inside. He almost lost control and leaped across the desk to pummel Fuentes. But he tamped the urge down. Eduardo wouldn’t ever touch Callie.
“You are welcome to her,” Jammer said, “once this buy is over and I am done with her.”
Eduardo chuckled. “I now have even more to look forward to.”
Jammer made sure that he shut the door in an easy and controlled way. He stalked down the hall and met up with a guard, who took him to his room.
He went inside, but Callie wasn’t there. Then he saw the open French doors and thought he caught voices. He made his way to the balcony, where he found her.
Callie turned. “Oh, hi. I didn’t hear you come in.”
Jammer looked around. “Were you talking to someone out here?”
“No. How did it go?”
“Eduardo wants to make you his love slave.”
“Like hell he does. He even tries and I’ll make him a soprano. Then I’ll really get mean.”
Jammer chuckled, releasing the last of the tension in his body. He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her to hold her tight. She slipped her arms around his neck. “Everything will work out just fine,” Jammer said into her sweet-smelling hair.
Deep down he knew that it wouldn’t be fine. He would nab Fuentes and Callie would go back to Watchdog with the satisfaction that she had helped put away a dangerous and ruthless drug lord. But the fact that they couldn’t be together weighed heavily on him. He knew it had to be done, but every time he tried to put distance between them, they became closer than ever.
“Your indifference out there when Fuentes was ogling me…That was an act, right?”
He hugged her tighter. “Of course. I don’t want him to sense how much you mean to me.”
“I knew that, but I just needed to hear you say it.”
He let her go and met her eyes. “I’m the one who said you shouldn’t be here. You remember that? I wanted you as far away from Fuentes as you could get, but circumstances dictated that I bring you along.”
“Yes, I remember, and now I see why, but I had to be here. I had to see it through.”
“I know why you had to come.” He knew her dedication to her job and the need to carry out her goal of arresting the Ghost and bringing him to justice were all that mattered. He also knew that she was torn by the discovery. He liked to think it was because she cared for him on a deeper level. But he wasn’t going to be a fool. She’d never shown any indication that she cared for him.
“We’d better get some sleep. We’ll need to be fresh for tomorrow when the buy goes down.”
“All right,” she said, her eyes dark with her own secrets and her own agenda.
He went inside, but Callie didn’t immediately follow. He turned to find her watching him. Her eyes went over every inch of him, from his hair down to his feet.
“Jammer, this is our last night together, isn’t it?
Tomorrow will change everything.”
“Don’t…don’t talk about it.”
“It will change, and we can’t get away from it no matter how much we want to.” She said it quietly and, if he wasn’t mistaken, with real regret.
“No, I guess we can’t.”
She reached over and picked an exotic flower off a vine growing close to the house. She came into the room but left the French doors open. Dimming the lights, she walked up to Jammer and slipped her hands under his shirt. Her palms were cool, and the petals of the flower whispered over his skin like butterfly wings. He shuddered as she lifted off his shirt.
She slid her hands up over his pectoral muscles and back down to his waistband, unbuckling, unbuttoning and unzipping.
With her palm in the middle of his chest, she pushed him onto the chaise longue.
“You look like a Greek god lying there.”
“I’m just a flesh-and-blood man and I need you.”
“I need you, too. I need you so much.”
She leaned across him, still fully clothed. As she began to kiss his chest, he started to undress her. When she opened her mouth over his flat nipple, he moaned and jerked her toward him. She gasped and he rid her of the rest of her clothes.
She kissed him then and her mouth was warm and soft against his. He poured himself into the kiss, knowing that their time grew short. His hands found her breasts and he cupped them, rubbing his palms over her engorged nipples, jerking her up until he could suck first one, then the other into his mouth. She cried out softly, lowered herself farther and farther down his body until she took him into her mouth.
His hips bucked and he moaned at the hot contact, at the tingling, sleek strokes of her tongue as she pulled at him.
It was difficult not to be restless, not to move his body, shift his limbs, in an effort to ease the ache that her expert mouth created in his every muscle and pore. He twisted on the chaise, his hips thrusting uncontrollably. Breaking her contact, he yanked her up against him and pushed into her so hard she cried out and climaxed. He grunted as she took him, held him, moved over him, matching him stroke for stroke as she continued to pulsate and shudder around him. He had no recourse, no way to stop the climax rushing to overtake him, and didn’t even try. She grasped his biceps, arching back as he came with a long, jerking groan. It was as if he couldn’t get deep enough, couldn’t pour enough of himself into her. It was beyond seeking physical pleasure. It was as if his soul recognized her and only her.
They clasped each other when it was over, and his voice was hoarse when he said, “How am I going to let you go?”
She pressed her face against his neck and said softly, “Don’t let me go right now. Don’t let go.”
He held on tightly to her, shifting them to the bed, where they curled into each other.
He didn’t want to sleep. He wanted to hold her for as long as he could. But when sleep came, his arms didn’t loosen around her.
THE COOL BREEZE on her skin woke her as she shifted on the mattress to glance at the clock. Still early. She snuggled up to Jammer, then felt her stomach lurch. Today would be the day she arrested him for crimes against the U.S. It was going to hurt very badly.
She rolled away from him and got up to take a shower. Under the spray, she hardened herself; she could have no mercy. She would have to treat him like any other criminal. Detaching herself wasn’t going to be easy, but she had to do it. Powerful emotions twisted in her chest but she shoved them down. The time had come for her to fulfill her mission.
When she came out of the bathroom, Jammer smiled at her and went in. When he was done, they went for breakfast.
Fuentes was in the dining room and it wasn’t long before they were served eggs, bacon and fruit. Someone brought Callie coffee and juice. She ate, keeping her eyes on her plate and away from what she was sure were lecherous looks from the drug lord.
Jammer conversed with him in a monotone voice. When breakfast was done, Fuentes pushed back from the table. The sound of trucks filtered through the open windows. Fuentes checked his watch and smiled. “Ah, our guests are arriving. It’s time to seal the deal with the Libertad.”
“Gina, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment up in the room?” Jammer said.
Callie looked at him, then at Fuentes. The smug smile that crawled across the man’s face made her skin crawl. “Sure,” she said with a smile of her own, as if she wasn’t aware that Fuentes intended to make her his. Not damned likely.
She followed Jammer back to the bedroom. He closed the door behind her, took her hand and brought her over to a chair in the corner. It had heavy metal sides and weighed a ton, but was very comfortable.
“Have a seat,” he said. When she did, she was too slow to stop the slide and click of the handcuffs that encircled her wrist. When she pulled, she found herself shackled to the chair.
“What the…” she said, looking down at the cuffs, then up at Jammer.
He backed away and grabbed the bag he’d brought with him to Colombia.
“I’m sorry, Callie.”
She jerked her head upright at the sound of her name—her real name—on his lips. Fear twisted through her, that she might finally be at the mercy of Jammer. This time he knew she had every intention of betraying him.
“You know who I am?”
“I always have. From the very beginning, I knew everything.”
“How is that possible?”
He turned around and slipped a gun into his waistband at the small of his back.
“You have someone on the inside,” she said.
“You could say that.”
Suddenly she realized who he was—the undercover DEA agent! “All this time I’ve been chasing you and you’ve been on our side all along. Three years of my life have just been rendered meaningless.”
“No, they haven’t, Callie. You and the other agencies protected my every step.”
“How do you figure that?”
“You built my cover by making me notorious. It brought me to the attention of Fuentes—my ultimate goal. So nothing you did was meaningless. Every action was a stepping-stone to justice.”
She couldn’t argue with his logic, and it did give her satisfaction that she had helped to keep this man safe. “Gillian’s going to be so pissed.”
“I’m sure a lot of government agencies will.” He came back over to the chair. “It has to be this way. I can’t be distracted. Do you understand?”
“No. I’m a black ops government agent. I can help you. Now uncuff me!” Relief gave way to anger that Jammer would leave her here in the room while he went out into serious danger.
He shook his head and headed for the door. Callie called to him in the only name she knew. “Jammer!”
He spun around and came back to the chair. He knelt in front of her, his face twisted with emotion. “For once, just this once, I want you to call me by my real name.”
Her heart pounded in her chest. “What is your real name?”
She watched him blink quickly, as if he was afraid to take his eyes off her for even a fraction of a second. “It’s Shane, Callie. Shane McMasters.”
“Shane McMasters is dead,” she said bluntly, as if he was playing her. But then she saw the truth in his eyes. He drifted away from her in body and mind, losing himself in a past that haunted his eyes, even now.
“I was. I was a ghost until you opened that hotel room door in Paris. Then I started to live again. I became whole again.”
All the emotion she’d contained in her burst free. “Let me go. Don’t go out there by yourself. Shane, please don’t do this.”
“I have to! For my fellow agents who were ambushed by that butcher. He left us for dead. Now he’s going to answer for those murders and all his other crimes.”
Callie just stared at him, at the wild gleam of pain in his eyes, the muscles and tendons that stood out in his neck, the heavy rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.
He took a badge out of the bag and rubbed the DEA letters with his thumb. When he looked up at her, tears glistened in his eyes. They slipped down his cheeks. She reached out and cupped his jaw. He pressed his forehead to hers. The tears she’d been holding back for so long spilled over and down her own cheeks, mingling with his.
His hand closed around her wrist, as if she was his only anchor. “I love you, Callie.”
A sob caught in her throat, his admission slamming into her with actual force. “Oh God, Shane. I love you, too. So don’t do this to me. Don’t make me wait here not knowing, not being able to help the man I love. I’ll never forgive you for this.”
Through her tears she watched him struggle with her words.
“I know, but you’ll be alive,” he said.
He pulled out of her embrace, even as she tried to hold on, to get through to him.
“I’ve got to go.”
“You’ll come back to get me. Say that you will.”
“I won’t. Someone will come to release you. I promise that. But we can’t be together.”
“Why not?”
“During the trial I’ll be in protective custody. After that, I have to disappear. Fuentes won’t rest until he finds me, kills me and everyone I love.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“And give up your family? Everyone and everything you know?” Anguish laced his voice. “No. I can’t ask that of you. I had to do it and it rips my heart out to know that my sister, Rio, thinks I’ve been dead for three years.”
“No,” Callie said softly, but the thought of leaving her family—Allie and Max and her parents—was unbearable. But never to see Jam…Shane again was crushing her heart.
“I love you so much, Callie.”
“Shane, no, please don’t leave. Please uncuff me.”
But he turned, set what looked like the cuff key on the nightstand and walked out of the room. Callie sat there in silence as his footsteps retreated down the hall. Her heart was breaking into little pieces. If anything happened to him, how could she go on? Now that he had revealed his true identity, now that they could really be together, the promise of spending a lifetime with him was something she wanted more than anything.
She pulled at the cuff frantically. Got up and tried to drag the chair, but it wouldn’t budge. Then she heard the doorknob turning and she stiffened. If that was him coming back, she was going to kick his ass.
But Leila slipped inside and rushed over to her. “I wondered what happened to you. Did he leave you here for that bastard Fuentes?”
“No, he’s undercover DEA.”
“What? He’s the undercover DEA agent we’ve heard so much about? Those bastards. Trying to get all the glory for themselves. Well, we’re not standing for that.”
“He left the key on the nightstand,” Callie said urgently.
Leila rushed over to the stand and grabbed the key, unlocking the cuffs.
As soon as Callie was free, she went for the gun she’d concealed in her bag. Cocking it and chambering a bullet, she said, “Let’s go.”
They rushed out the door and down the hall. “This way,” Leila said.
Callie followed her through the dining room and into the kitchen. They slipped out the back door and saw Fuentes and several men in green uniforms near an open box of the surface-to-air missiles that Callie had flown to Colombia.
They were laughing and talking like old friends. Shane was walking toward them. Several men with automatic weapons milled about, looking bored.
Callie took a moment to really study the area. She caught glimpses of men in the jungle, but only because she was searching for them.
“The cavalry is here,” Leila said softly, “Don’t worry.”
They moved around the house, and managed to slip up behind the leaders without being detected by using one of the vehicles as cover.
“Ah, here is the Ghost’s man. When will your boss be here?” he asked jovially.
“Eduardo, he’s already here.”
Eduardo looked around. “But I do not see him, señor. Is this some kind of joke?”
“No, it’s no joke. I’m the Ghost.”
“You? What is this!”
“I’ve used the Ghost as a cover for three years, building my reputation, garnering your interest solely for the purpose of providing this large shipment for you.”
“Because you want to work for me?”
Shane laughed and Callie’s heart constricted. God, she loved him.
“No. I don’t want work for you, you fuck. My real name is Shane McMasters. You left me and five dead DEA agents to rot in the jungle.”
“You’re DEA! You son of a bitch! It is you who are the traitor.”
Just then, men came pouring out of the jungle, bristling with weapons. They were dressed in dark jackets with DEA printed in white letters on the back. They shouted for everyone to stay where they were. They were accompanied by men dressed in olive drab, toting high-powered weapons.
Fuentes turned and fled. But Shane went after him and tackled him to the ground. Unfortunately, several men pointed their guns at him. Callie aimed carefully. She and Leila opened fire.
With bullets flying, Shane held on to Fuentes and dragged him behind one of the buildings, where Callie lost sight of him. She bolted around the truck, only to come face-to-face with one of the Libertad. She never hesitated. She grabbed his rifle and slammed him in the face with it, at the same time sweeping his feet out from under him. As he went down, she used the butt of the rifle to sock him in the jaw.
He went out like a light. She dropped the rifle and sprinted after Shane and Fuentes. Gunfire cut across her path and she and Leila dived for cover behind another truck.
It looked as if the DEA and the government soldiers had Fuentes’s men and the Libertad on the run. Several of their leaders were either putting their hands up or were already dead.
But there was a pocket of resistance still left. She and Leila skirted that group and came around the building. Fuentes had escaped and hidden behind three of his guards, who were effectively pinning Shane down.
“I’ll make my way around and we’ll come at them from the side and front. I hope you’re a good shot,” Callie murmured.
“They don’t call me dead-eye for nothing,” Leila said.
Callie took off and, crouching low, got into position. Then she stood and started shooting to draw their attention away from Shane. That’s when Leila took her own shots, dropping all three guards in succession. Fuentes ran for his garage.
“He’s heading for his all-terrain,” Shane yelled, and started after him.
Leila got sidetracked by a guard. “Keep going,” she urged. Callie followed Shane. He reached the garage before she did, and she drew up short when she got inside.
Shane and Fuentes were already duking it out, and Fuentes was losing. Soon he was down, but Shane wouldn’t stop. Callie ran over and tugged on his arm, shouting at him that it was enough.
Finally he stopped, dropping back against one of the mammoth wheels of the vehicle Fuentes had been trying to access. Shane’s knuckles were bloody as he sat there, breathing heavily, trying to gain his composure.
“It’s over,” she said. “It’s finally over.”
“It’ll never be over,” Shane stated, looking up at her, his eyes filled with raw pain.
“We can make it work.”
He shook his head.
Suddenly they were overrun by DEA agents. One of them grabbed Shane’s arm and escorted him out. “Wait,” Callie said.
Another agent blocked her way. “Just who are you?”
Callie watched as Shane was put into a car and driven away. Fuentes was picked up and also taken. She shoved her way past the DEA agent and met up with Leila—and with Drew.
Her heart felt empty, completely and totally empty. Shane was gone and she was never going to see him again.
IT HAD BEEN THREE WEEKS. Three weeks since Fuentes had been arrested. She’d cried more in that time than she had in her whole life. But Callie had to pick up the pieces and go on. She lounged by a pool in a hotel in Milan, waiting for Reggie to show up with some information she needed. “Hiya, love.”
She looked up to find the Brit in swim trunks that would make a stripper blush. His skin was a deep golden-brown and his blond hair spiked—just like Jammer used to wear his hair. She felt her heart tighten, and was thankful for the sunglasses that hid her eyes. “Hi, Reggie.”
He sat down in the chaise longue next to her and ordered a mai tai. He slid his hand down her sleek leg and smiled at her. “So, what do you say to hooking up? Me and you been dancing around it for some time.”
“No, Reggie. I don’t think so.”
“Ah, still pining for that bloke?”
“Black operatives don’t pine. Just give me the information and I’ll be on my way.”
Reggie smiled and gave her what she needed to know. She closed her eyes and settled back in the chair. “Thanks, Reggie. See you around.”
“You bet, love.”
She wrapped up the rest of the mission and jumped a plane to D.C., to her apartment. Once home, she listlessly went through her mail, still hoping, still waiting for something from Shane. But there was nothing.
She flipped on the TV to the news and popped some popcorn. Settling down, she was just about to turn the channel when the anchor came on and said, “This is a breaking story. While being transferred today to a more secure facility by the DEA, Eduardo Fuentes was killed when an attempt to free him failed. The attack also left one agent dead, as well as his would-be rescuers.”
Callie sat up straighter. The information seeped in. Fuentes was dead. That meant…She could barely let herself even hope. That meant Shane was free to come back to her.
But her hope turned to disappointment when after three days she’d still heard nothing from Shane.
The morning of the fourth day, her doorbell rang and her heart jumped. She ran to answer it, but found it was only a deliveryman.
He handed her a box and had her sign the delivery slip. Shutting the door, she took the package inside and set it on her table. With her breath suspended in her lungs, she opened the box. Inside was nestled a bottle of Shane’s Craving Cherry brandy.
There was no note, no instructions, no greetings. Just the bottle. She remembered that day when they had tasted the cherries. It took her only a moment to make up her mind as to what she was going to do.
SHANE STOOD ON THE PATIO and watched the sun set on the vineyard. His vineyard. The DEA director had accepted his resignation. After Fuentes had died, there was no more reason for him to hide. No more reason for him to be anyone other than who he was.
The DEA had also been generous. Shane had been allowed to keep the vineyard and all the profits it had made as compensation for giving up three years of his life and allowing his sister, Rio, to suffer through his death. He’d even received a special commendation from the president.
He was free and clear and able to do exactly what he wanted for the first time in his life. He was missing only one thing now, one truly colossal and important thing.
“Hey, I have this bottle of cherry brandy and no one to drink it with.”
At the sound of her wonderful voice, his whole body stilled, even his heart.
He turned around to find Callie silhouetted against the night, bathed in the light from the kitchen like an angel. His angel.
“I hear it’s quite good,” she said softly, her voice breaking.
She set the bottle down on the kitchen table. He wasn’t sure how he got to her. Only that he was in her arms as they both dissolved to the patio floor from the sheer emotion of seeing each other again.
They spoke between kisses.
“I waited for you.…”
“Wasn’t sure you wanted to see me…”
“I love you…Shane.”
“It’ll take a while getting used to my real name, but now we’ll have the time and the freedom to explore each other to the fullest. I love you, Callie.”
“Then everything else can be worked out.”