Loe raamatut: «Ironclad Cover»

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Anita Caballo—Her life was torn apart when she was framed for embezzling from the family business. Now, with a chance to prove her innocence, will she survive long enough before someone tries to silence her forever?

Brant Law—FBI special agent. Brant selected Anita for the mission, but is far from trusting her. Before long, Brant wonders if she’ll actually succeed in knocking down the walls around his heart.

Nick Tarasov—Member of the Special Designation Defense Unit. He trained the women for the mission.

David Moretti—The women’s legal advisor.

Samantha Hanley, Carly Jones and Gina Torno—The other three members of SDDU.

Tsernyakov—Illegal weapons trader. He is among the five most wanted criminals in the world.

Philippe Cavanaugh—An international businessman who is up to his neck in dirty dealings.

William Bronten—Anita’s old boyfriend.

Ironclad Cover
Dana Marton

www.millsandboon.co.uk

With many thanks to Denise Zaza,

Allison Lyons and Maggie Scillia.

Contents

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter One

She was bait, dressed in clingy red silk to attract the attention of every man in the room. The spaghetti-strap gown was sleek and sophisticated, the cut over her right leg revealing enough skin to be interesting but still acceptable for the serious businesswoman she was supposed to be.

“I’ve got visual of target number two,” Gina’s voice rasped through the nearly invisible transmitter in Anita’s ear.

“I don’t see him.” She spoke under her breath toward the flower-pin-slash-microphone on her shoulder as she turned in a slow circle, her body tensing. “Where is he?”

“Upstairs to the left of the bar. Right under the chandelier.”

She looked in that direction, but too many people were standing between her and the spot Gina had indicated. The lavish reception the Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce was throwing in honor of its members was in full swing, the black-and-white checkered marble tiles of the floor barely visible under the feet of guests who were networking, scoping out new deals and drinking copious amounts of champagne.

“I’m on it.” She moved through the crowd to get closer to Philippe Cavanaugh, target number two.

Target number one, Jose Marquez, a high-ranking city official who had several retail shops on the island, had already left. But not before Gina had worked her charm on him and gotten a business card, along with a request for a presentation next week on what Savall, Ltd., the front for the women’s covert operation, could do for his company.

One down, two more to go. They needed to get to all four of their targets. People were dying—the latest intelligence had linked Tsernyakov to the mine bombings in Africa. They needed results.

She made her way to her target without any obvious hurry, as if she were simply meandering through the crowd, maybe searching for a friend. “Excuse me. Thank you.”

The air was thick with the smell of money—expensive perfume and exclusive cigars. Her four-inch heels clickety-clicked on the marble tiles, the sound barely audible over the ebb and flow of conversation that went on in a half-dozen different languages, the ringing of glasses being touched together, the sudden pearls of laughter that bubbled above the din.

She walked to the back of the gallery, through the glittering crowd. Philippe Cavanaugh, international shipping magnate, was where Gina had said he would be, handsome and debonair in his tuxedo, deep in conversation with another man and two lavishly dressed women. He had come, which hadn’t been a certainty—although they’d had high hopes, given that the man was one of the main supporting members of the Chamber.

“I got him,” she said under her breath and let herself relax. “Where are you?”

“Downstairs by the bathrooms.”

That Gina would spot Cavanaugh first even though she was a lot farther from him and not even on the same floor, didn’t come as a surprise. She seemed to have a special sense for these kinds of things, probably left over from her cop days.

Once Anita knew where to look in the giant room, she easily spotted her partner for the night. The cream-colored dress they had talked Gina into wearing looked striking on her petite figure. The idea had been for the both of them to attract their targets’ attention and the attention of other powerful men on the island—any of who might have had some kind of connection to Tsernyakov, an elusive weapons dealer who was at the top of a dozen most-wanted lists.

The relatively new piece of intelligence that Tsernyakov had a connection on the island was a closely guarded secret about a man considered to be one of the most dangerous men in the world. The task of finding this connection and, through him, getting a location on Tsernyakov was the seemingly impossible mission that Anita and Gina along with Carly and Sam—who were staking out the house of target number three tonight—had agreed to a few eventful weeks ago.

“Ready to make contact?” Gina asked.

A man walked by too close and was watching Anita, so she couldn’t immediately respond.

He flashed an interested smile. “Hi.”

She nodded to him, not wanting to be rude, but not wanting to encourage him at the moment.

“Are you here alone?” he asked.

“No, but I think I might have lost my date.” She pretended to scan the crowd below. “There he is.” She waved at no one in particular, then shrugged. “I don’t think he sees me.”

“If he could lose you, he doesn’t deserve you.” His smile widened, showing sparkling white teeth. “Can I get you a drink? I’m Michael Lambert.”

“Anita Caballo.” She offered her hand and made a point to remember his name. “Thank you, but I think I might have had too much already.”

“Then I’m definitely sticking around.” He winked. “Besides, you can never have too much good champagne.”

He was tall and sexy—dark hair, dark eyes—with more than a hint of naughty to him. In coloring and body type, he looked a little like Brant Law, the FBI agent who had gotten her into this mess, except for that battle-hardened edge on Law. Michael’s infectious grin said his focus was heavily on fun. Nothing wrong with that. Law was entirely too stark and serious.

“Michael. Hey, Michael! Stop pestering the lovely lady for a minute and get over here. I found a buyer for your boat,” a redheaded titan yelled toward them.

Michael held up his index finger to ask him for time. “I would like to sell that miserable boat,” he told Anita with chagrin. “Promise you’ll be here when I come back?”

“Promise,” she lied to be rid of him.

He looked as if he only half believed her and flashed another charming smile before walking away. She would have to have been dead not to appreciate the fine figure he cut. He probably put in his share of time on the golf and tennis courts at his country club. His compliments felt good. It had been a long time since—She cut off that unproductive train of thought and refocused on her mission. Michael Lambert wasn’t why she was here.

She turned back toward Cavanaugh and lifted her right hand to her throat, worked the tiny button on the back of her ring with her thumb and took a couple of pictures with the microscopic camera she wore on her ring finger. Hopefully she got everyone who was with the man.

“You should probably move in before you get distracted again,” Gina said. “You might trip over one of those men falling at your feet.”

“Jealousy is a very unattractive emotion.”

“Bite me,” Gina responded with dripping cordiality.

“No thanks. I don’t like bitter.” Anita glanced toward the group where Michael was standing. He was showing the group pictures—wouldn’t notice now if she slipped away, wouldn’t follow and get in her way. “Gotta go.”

She made her way toward Cavanaugh, one of only five viable leads—four now, Alexeev had disappeared for good and was presumed dead—their team had been able to scare up after a month of hard work. And even those four…The evidence that tied them to Tsernyakov was circumstantial, at best.

She stopped when she was close enough to Cavanaugh to hear him.

“So he ran naked into the water, swam out to the closest boat and somehow got them to pick him up. Crazy, n’est-ce pas? But nobody can say that Monsieur Clavat is not a good sport.”

His audience laughed with him.

She stepped forward and opened her mouth to speak but, before the small group could take notice of her, an interruption came from the other side. A short, stocky gentleman with bushy eyebrows pressed up against Cavanaugh and murmured something into his ear. Cavanaugh’s smile turned grim for a second, then he pasted on a brand-new jovial expression.

“I apologize, I must step away for a minute. Work, it finds me everywhere,” he said to his companions.

“You know what they say, there’s no rest for the wicked.” The taller of the two women threw him a look of open flirtation.

“And since I’m rather wicked, ma chérie, there’s hardly any rest for me at all,” he responded with a knowing smile before turning and following the guy who’d come for him.

Picture. Anita remembered too late and was only able to get a shot of the other man from the back.

She opened her mouth to call out then snapped it shut again. Right now didn’t seem like the right time to try to talk to Cavanaugh. He looked to be in a hurry. He might just brush her off. And she wanted to find out who the other man was, what he had said to put that look on Cavanaugh’s face. She swiped a flute of champagne from a passing waiter and followed them at a distance that didn’t seem necessary. The men were intent on their destination and never looked back as they hurried to the back of the gallery.

A hallway opened from the inconspicuous nook the men had disappeared into, partially obstructed by heavy, fringed curtains in crimson brocade. She waited a few seconds before stepping in. The hallway ran parallel to the gallery in a half circle, coming out on the other side. She was in time to see one of the tall, solid-wood doors that lined the walls close behind the men.

Now what? She strolled by, looked for cameras without being overtly obvious about it in case she was recorded, but found no evidence of security equipment.

All the doors had mottos painted above them in Latin. She passed Fortior leone justus. The just man is stronger than a lion. The sign above Cavanaugh’s door said Vincit omnia veritas. Truth conquers all things.

She would have liked to think so but she knew, better than most, that real life didn’t work like that. In her own life, truth had conquered nothing and it certainly hadn’t set her free.

She listened by the door and discerned after a few moments that it wasn’t going to get her anywhere. The thick wood blocked everything.

“Where have you gone?” Gina asked through the earpiece.

“In the back.”

“Need me?”

“There’s a curtained-off opening to a hallway. Let me know if someone’s coming.”

“Will do. Be careful.”

Feeling better with Gina watching her back, Anita kept moving in case the men came back out. She didn’t want to be caught loitering right in front of the door.

She needed to find a way to eavesdrop. She headed toward the next room as an idea occurred to her. All the windows were open downstairs to allow in the balmy night air. If the same were true for the upstairs, she might be able to listen in on what was said in Cavanaugh’s room.

The sign above the door proclaimed, Fortuna audenes juvat. Fortune favors the bold.

Anita put her hand on the old-fashioned brass doorknob and took a deep breath, prepared with an excuse if there was anyone in there. The place was empty. And the windows were open. She didn’t bother turning on the lights; enough moonlight filtered in through the giant windows.

She took off her shoes so her heels wouldn’t click on the marble floor—pink marble up here to match the draperies and the frescos on the ceiling. The opulence of the building, which had been built during colonial times, was breathtaking on every level. She stopped near the window and focused on the low, deep voices of the men.

“Then whambandot cor mantakna yesterday…”

She pushed the hair back from her ears, but that didn’t help any. The sounds were too muffled to make out individual words—or not enough of them to put together any meaning.

She thought of the old cup-to-the-wall trick she and her sister, Maria, used to spy on their brothers when they were kids, but a quick glance of the room didn’t net anything the like. She pressed her ear to the silk wallpaper and curled a hand around it. Something of an improvement, but not enough.

She liked to think she was a resourceful woman. There had to be a way.

The room didn’t have a balcony, but wrought-iron railings cupped the nearly floor-to-ceiling windows from the outside. They had a little bump-out on the bottom, six inches wide at most, just enough to hold some balcony boxes that overspilled with fragrant blooms she didn’t recognize. She’d grown up in Maryland and wasn’t familiar with the flora and fauna of the tropics.

She didn’t want to step into the boxes—didn’t want dirt on her feet that might be hard to explain away, didn’t want to leave trampled flowers behind that someone might question later.

She grabbed the railing and placed one foot onto an ornamental scroll in the design. Flat, square bars would have been so much easier. She wished she were wearing anything else but a long gown. She focused all her attention on the task, balancing her weight as she leaned out over the moonlit garden.

Steady now. A tumble to the paved walkway below wasn’t in the plans. And I won’t. Not a good idea to be thinking about falling. Focus on the task. If the mission succeeded, she could erase the worst period of her life and heal the rift in her family, start new with a clean slate. To her, that was worth any risk.

“You can’t get a building permit for that patch of land. I tried before. Environmental setbacks. Same as at Pirate’s Cove,” somebody was saying in the next room.

She could see a sliver of their window and the light spilling from it, but no one stood close enough to glimpse. Not altogether a bad thing, since that meant they couldn’t see her, either. And in any case, she couldn’t have spared a hand to take a picture. Balancing on the curves of the ironwork was tricky enough already.

Noise from the garden below caught her attention. A couple strolled by, holding crystal glasses, having a heated discussion in Italian. Anita held her breath, not daring to step down from the railing, fearing that one might catch the movement from the corner of an eye. She would have looked like a jumper as she was. She didn’t need that kind of attention.

They stopped right under her window.

Diosmio.

The man fell silent. The woman kept on, breathlessly and with high emotion. Then the guy put his free arm around her waist and pulled her to him so suddenly that some of her champagne splashed from the glass. They were kissing the next second.

She felt a small pang of jealousy. When was the last time a man had touched her with so much passion?

“Zoning can be changed,” the words came from the other room, drawing her attention.

Was that Cavanaugh?

Would the couple in the garden hear him and look up?

Probably not, she decided after a second. She could barely hear as close as she was. She didn’t think the people below would catch anything but a low murmur, and even that would probably be drowned out by the general buzz of conversation filtering out from the downstairs windows that were much closer to them.

“I sure hope so, I’d hate to lose all that money,” said yet another man next door.

How many of them were in there besides the two she had seen entering?

“Some guy is coming your way.” Gina’s voice sounded urgent in her ear.

Anita glanced toward the door. There were at least a dozen rooms opening off the hallway. What were the chances that whoever was coming would come into hers? She could hear doors open and close. Whoever it was, he was looking for someone. Probably one of Cavanaugh’s friends coming late to the meeting.

She stepped off the balcony railing, anyway, just in case. And not a moment too soon. Her door opened slowly, revealing a dark silhouette.

“There you are. I thought I saw you come this way. Still alone?” Michael Lambert stepped into the path of the moonlight and strolled toward her with a satisfied smile.

She took a slow breath and willed her clamoring heart to slow. She could have been caught. “The cigar smoke was starting to bother me. I thought I would grab five minutes of fresh air and some quiet.” She watched him. Was he buying it?

He smiled like a man who did, so she relaxed a little.

“May I just say that you’re the most beautiful woman here tonight?” He stood in front of her, too close, and held her gaze. His eyes looked black in the dark.

She couldn’t remember their real color from earlier.

“Thank you.” She accepted the compliment that would have felt even better if he weren’t interrupting her surveillance. Still, it had been a while since she’d been alone with a handsome man who found her desirable and told her so.

“So what do you do on the island? I detect a lovely accent from up north.”

“Just started a new company, business consulting,” she said, and gave a few sentences worth of details. You never knew who he could be connected to.

“Impressive,” he said.

“And you?” Maybe she would recognize the company name. If he was ruining her eavesdropping, at least she could see if he might not be a possible link—maybe a way to get introduced to Cavanaugh.

“Land development,” he said.

Any connection to the real-estate deal being discussed next door? “Sounds exciting.” She smiled and tried to look fascinated. “Tell me more.”

“Heaven forbid.” He gave her another one of his sexy grins. “Boring a lovely lady is an unforgivable offense. Especially when there are so many other fascinating things we could talk about.” He unleashed a slow grin. He was a charmer and he knew it.

“Such as?” She played along.

“I haven’t seen you at one of these receptions before. Are you new to the island?”

“—going up.” Gina was saying something at the same time as Michael talked, so Anita caught only part of it.

“Relatively,” she told Michael. Didn’t matter if they got caught now. It would look like they were up here with romantic intentions. She doubted anyone would bother with them. “You’ve been here long? I hardly know anyone here.” Hint: I wouldn’t mind some introductions.

“Hardly anyone is worth knowing,” he murmured and leaned forward. “Present company excluded.”

Before she knew what was happening, Michael was brushing his lips against hers. But despite how easy this could have been, her hands came up to his chest and pushed him away, even as her brain registered how nice it was to have that kind of human contact again.

Her heart beat a confused rhythm in her chest as the door opened behind her. Michael raised his head.

Busted, she thought and turned just in time to see Brant Law, FBI agent extraordinaire, walk into the room with a disapproving scowl on his face. He was a lawman through and through, right down to his stance—a perfect fit for his name.

He flipped on the lights and the sudden brilliance of the chandeliers forced her to squint. What on earth was he doing here?

“WOULD YOU LIKE to tour the facilities and see how the project is coming along, sir?” The man’s voice was cutting in and out.

“No,” Tsernyakov said into his phone. He had no desire to walk through a biohazard lab, to link himself in any way to this latest project or to break the anonymity of the assignment. “I’ll be sending a representative.”

“Yes, sir.”

He hung up the phone and thought for a moment about whom to send. He didn’t like for even his most trusted men to know too much, be involved in too many branches of the business. He kept them isolated from projects other than their own, from each other. He didn’t want any of them to put together the big picture, to get any ideas about whether they might be able to take over from him.

He leaned back in his chair and ran down his list of top candidates, then settled on one. That should work fine.

A timid knock sounded on his door that he recognized as Alexandra’s.

“Come on in, dear.” He pulled himself straight and put a smile on his face.

“Is this a bad time?” She hesitated in the doorway, young and beautiful, unaware of how the pink T-shirt stretched across her breasts made him feel.

“You could never come at a bad time.” He got up and went to her. “You look breathtaking as always.”

She looked down and blushed. “I was wondering if I could go into town today.”

“Of course, I’ll tell my driver immediately.” He turned toward his desk then stopped, pretending to hesitate. “Unless…”

“If you don’t think it’s—”

“No, no. I was just thinking that I had a busy day. I could use a little time away from the office. I’ve been meaning to take you shopping at Marks & Spencer. Of course, you probably don’t feel like spending the afternoon with an old man like me.”

“You are not old,” she protested instantly.

“I’m not Ivan Ivanoff, either.” Ivan, a famous Russian piano player about the same age as Tsernyakov, had recently married a model younger than Alexandra, the top news of TV stations around the country.

“No,” she agreed. “You’re much nicer. Do you ever think about remarrying?”

He shrugged and tried to look as modest as he could. “Who would have me, anyway?” he said before she could respond. “So shopping, then maybe a movie and dinner?”

“That would be really great.”

Yes, it would be. He hadn’t had the time to work on her lately, but tonight he would make sure she began to see him as something else than just a family friend. He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so glad you are here with me.”

“Me, too.” Her smile was genuine. “Thank you for keeping me safe.”

“Nothing will happen to you, I swear.” Not as long as she pleased him. That’s what he had spared her for when he ordered the murder of her parents—something she knew nothing about.

He would end the year in style, with a new young lover and more money than he’d made on any one deal in his life before.

“Why don’t you wait for me upstairs?” He ran a finger down Alexandra’s face. “I have to make a few more calls then I’ll be right there.”

“Thank you.” She gave him a spontaneous hug and was practically skipping on her way out of the room.

“Your next appointment is here, sir.” His secretary’s voice came through the intercom.

He glanced at his calendar. “Last one for today?” he asked to double-check. Sometimes people got scheduled in at the last minute.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” He would get through it fast. Alexandra was waiting.

BRANT LAW looked at Anita seated across the table, still not over the shock of how different she looked from when he had last seen her during their briefing at Quantico. She’d been a beautiful woman in the dark blue FBI training suit, but in this dress…Every man’s head turned her way when she had walked through the restaurant’s door.

Personally, he was into leggy blondes, but he could certainly see the attraction. He tipped his glass to his lips.

“Do you always drink decaf?” she asked.

“For the past week or so.” He could hear the pain in his own voice. “I’m trying to kick a bothersome caffeine addiction.” On doctor’s orders. Since he had his hip injury, he hadn’t been moving as much as he should have and his blood pressure had been inching up. He was determined to do whatever it took to pass his next physical. “It’s all about discipline.”

“How is it going?”

He groaned just as his stomach growled. “Excuse me.”

Her full lips stretched into a sympathetic smile. “Missed your lunch?”

He nodded. He’d gotten into George Town on Grand Cayman Island late on one of those no-meal flights. His bad hip hurt from sitting still for so long. He wanted two things before he’d gone to bed for the night: a good dinner and a report from Anita Caballo on how the analysis of the financial records of their targets was going. So as soon as he’d dropped his suitcase at the hotel, he’d gone in search of her, concerned with what he might find.

Bribing four convicts to join an undercover team to bring down the king of all criminals didn’t fill him with confidence about the operation’s success. Could the four women succeed where professionals had failed? Carly was a top hacker, Sam a whiz at breaking and entering, Gina an ex-cop who’d done time for manslaughter, Anita a resourceful embezzler of four million dollars. Maybe they would have some kind of edge, a deeper understanding of criminal reasoning or whatever. Or maybe they were heading straight for disaster.

“How is the consulting business coming along?” he asked.

“Pretty well.” She seemed to relax at his choice of subject. “We have a half-dozen clients and a couple of nibbles from others. Once we complete this first round of projects, I think we’ll be getting a number of referrals.”

Since Cavanaugh had left the party minutes after Brant had discovered Anita, they’d followed him to his compound on the beach. And as they weren’t equipped for breaking and entering, he’d decided to end surveillance for the night and take her to the nearest restaurant that was still open, the Reef Street Inn. He didn’t believe in wasting time.

She looked nervous.

Did she have a reason other than being caught with a man? Frankly, he would have preferred if she spent one hundred percent of her time and energy on the mission.

He chewed his beef—a steak and potatoes man through and through—and washed it down with some decaf soda. He poured some extra steak sauce on the next slice.

“I’m tempted to throw the poor thing a life jacket. You’re drowning it,” Anita said.

He made a point in sopping up as much sauce as possible. “Best invention since the cow.”

She smiled and shook her head.

“So what have you been up to lately?” He didn’t have a good handle on the woman yet and was impatient to learn more.

She gave him a detailed rundown on all the projects the team had put into place since they had arrived on the island.

He wasn’t surprised that the business was doing well. She was a hell of a businesswoman—competent, resourceful, dedicated. He knew as much from her file. She had a fine track record with Pellegrino’s, the company she had built from nothing before she had succumbed to temptation and neatly made four million dollars disappear. “And the other end of the business?” He was referring to the money laundering they did on the sly in order to get closer to a shadier clientele that could provide valuable leads to Tsernyakov.

“I wish things would roll faster,” she said. “I was hoping to make contact with Cavanaugh tonight.”

“Got sidetracked?” He drew up an eyebrow.

She shifted in her seat, but wouldn’t look away. Good, the woman had chutzpah. She would need it on this mission.

“I was doing surveillance,” she said.

So she was using the poor bastard. How far would she have been willing to go? He thought of her shoes discarded on the marble floor. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

“I was trying to listen in on Cavanaugh’s meeting next door.”

“Find out anything?”

“Very little before I was interrupted. Cavanaugh is in some kind of a real-estate deal. He and a couple of friends of his are trying to rezone an area for building. They mentioned environmental setbacks and the possibility of losing a lot of money.”

“They?”

She shook her head. “Don’t have names. And I only saw one, other than Cavanaugh.”

“Got pictures?”

“Not a good one. But I have pictures of others Cavanaugh had been talking to earlier in the evening.”

“And your companion?”

“Michael Lambert, land developer.”

“What are your plans with him?”

She looked like she would have liked to say, none of your business, but said instead, “None. I have no plans for him at all. He followed me when I followed Cavanaugh.”

“Is he linked to him?”

“I don’t know. Yet.”

He nodded. “Find out.” She obviously had no problem with cozying up to the guy. And Lambert had wanted badly whatever she’d been offering. Brant had seen the flash of anger and disappointment in the man’s eyes when he had walked in and interrupted.

Was Anita looking for suspects, links to Cavanaugh and Tsernyakov, or was she looking for allies for her own purposes? Lambert had money, you could tell by looking at him. And with money came influence. Was Anita working him? Sure looked like it from where he was standing.

He didn’t trust her, didn’t trust any of the women, had argued against the mission and lost. He had accepted the assignment of working with the team—somebody with realistic expectations had to be involved—but he still thought it was nothing but an invitation to disaster.

You wanted to know how someone would act in the future, you looked at how he or she had acted in the past. By and large, past behavior predicted future behavior. What the hell were they doing conducting a mission based on criminals?

The way he’d seen Anita play Lambert tonight had left a bad taste in his mouth, an odd reaction since that was exactly what she’d been recruited for. And she had been good, he had to give her that. She had looked the part of a woman about to be seduced.