INTO DANGER (Secret Assassins (S.A.S.S.) Book 1) Read online

  “He isn’t wearing clothes I bought,” she told him. “Look how you’ve ruined them.”

  Steve obediently looked down. Torn buttons. Splattered shirt. Blood. “What are you going to do about it, dock my pay?” He could afford to be playful now that he was certain she hadn’t had a hand in this attempted murder. “I just did my good deed for the day and you’re going to make me pay for a new jacket?”

  She patted him on the cheek. “Darling, I’ll just have to reward you. Let’s go shopping.” She stressed the last word, saying it louder.

  “Heartless,” he chided.

  “Dumb hero,” she scolded. But her hand busily unbuttoning his shirt was tender.

  “Lackey, remember?” he reminded her, his voice a jeer. He was intrigued by her concern. It didn’t fit the profile of an assassin.

  “Idiot. Fool.” Marlena pulled him by the lapels till his face was inches from hers. She obviously had concluded he wasn’t that hurt. “Did I ask you to go around stopping bullets?”

  “No.” She smelled so nice. Steve wanted to kiss her.

  “Then stop acting like Superman.”

  “Yes, Lois.” He goaded her on purpose. He wanted to remove the worry from her eyes.

  Whatever she was going to say was cut short by polite coughing. They both turned, startled by the sound. They’d completely forgotten there were people around them. That there was a dead body nearby. That there’d been any kind of excitement other than their own. Du Scheum and the few bodyguards left, along with a very amused Tess, were eyeing them curiously. Steve didn’t blame them. Marlena and he probably appeared to be behaving really oddly. He could only blame the rush of adrenaline making him light-headed.

  Marlena wasn’t in the mood to talk to du Scheum or anyone else. All she wanted to do was get Steve alone so she could check his cut. She didn’t care Tess had told her he could take care of himself. All she could see was the blood seeping through the shirt under his tux. Panic filled her when she realized he could have been more seriously injured. Not far behind were the beginning stages of a growing fury, simple and strong, that someone had caused it.

  “The authorities will be here soon, Marlena,” du Scheum informed them. “It’s not going to be easy to keep this quiet with a dead man.”

  “And they’ll want to talk to every one of your guests here.” Marlena nodded toward the patio. “Do you know who is behind this?

  Du Scheum shook his head. “They’ll probably be more interested in interviewing Mr. McMillan. You do know how to make a party memorable, my dear.”

  Memorable. Steve picked the word out and scowled. Another M word. How close was this du Scheum guy to Marlena anyway? They seemed to know each other pretty well. Another reason not to think this attack had anything to do with Marlena. He made a note to include this in his report later.

  “Me?” Marlena fluttered her hand to her throat. “I was nowhere near the fun, darling.” She glanced at Steve. “I only found out what happened from David and Sylvia Jackson outside the rest room when Tess and I came out. We didn’t hear a thing, did we, Tess, with the band playing?”

  “I thought there were some loud noises but you and I were busy talking. I didn’t pay much attention,” Tess answered. She looked at the man lying on the floor and shuddered. “I’m glad I wasn’t out here. Can you imagine how horrible it’d have been to be so near that...creature? You’re such a brave man, Steve, to stop him!”

  “I didn’t,” Steve said. “I managed to push Mr. du Scheum out of the way and because the man was on the floor, I rolled toward him to try to get the weapon out of his hand. He was about to shoot again when someone else shot him. I believe it was the man you talked to earlier, Mr. du Scheum.”

  “Yes, my bodyguard,” acknowledged their host. “But you’re being entirely too modest. That little knife trick hurt him enough to make him drop the gun.”

  “I thought keeping him alive would help,” Steve explained. If not for the bodyguard, they would have someone alive to question. He studied Marlena for a moment. Maybe that wasn’t concern in her eyes. It could have been relief.

  “You’re right,” du Scheum said, giving the body a cursory glance. “Too bad he’s dead. We’ll just have to let the police do their job.”

  “While we wait, do you have a medical kit, Pierre? And a little privacy?” Marlena tugged at Steve’s arm. “I want to look at that cut.”

  Du Scheum nodded and Marlena didn’t wait for anyone to show them the way. Steve looked back and saw no one following. Obviously there was a certain amount of trust between du Scheum and Marlena for him to let her go wherever it was she was taking him. Steve didn’t know whether he was happy about the fact that they were friends.

  They entered a room with huge double oak doors, the kind that shut with authoritative silence. It was more a library than a study, impressively lined with walls of books. The room smelled of leather and cigar smoke. Standing by a small bar near the fireplace, Steve watched with hooded eyes as Marlena moved to a cabinet, opening and closing closet doors with a familiarity that irritated him. Murmuring a satisfied yes, she pulled out a small white box, snapped it open, and examined the contents.

  She looked as if she fit this kind of lifestyle. Elegantly dressed. Not a hair out of place. Comfortable with the splendorous background. Not quite a mermaid, Steve taunted himself.

  He was too damn quiet, Marlena thought. “Are you going to let me see that cut now, before you bleed to death?” she asked.

  “Did you hear du Scheum just now? It’s the assassin who’s dead,” he told her quietly, “which is too bad, he said. Don’t you think it’s too bad that the assassin is dead?”

  Marlena gazed at him levelly, trying to read his mind. “He’s a henchman, not an assassin,” she finally said. There was a difference. An assassin had more patience and certainly wasn’t this clumsy. A henchman was sent, not hired. “And obviously not a good one.”

  She helped him out of his tuxedo and said something unladylike at the sight of the blood-sodden shirt underneath. Her eyes widened. This was no mere cut. The top of his shirt near the shoulder had gunpowder streaks. She started unbuttoning impatiently. He just stood there quietly, watching her with those intense eyes. He didn’t seem to be in pain.

  “Playing at words like your friend Tess, aren’t you?”

  Not really listening, Marlena told herself to ignore the bare chest until she saw to the wound, but her straying eyes already registered the perfectly sculpted torso with the hard, defined muscles. The light mat of hair that beckoned to be stroked. The sun-kissed chest with the flat male nipples. And blood smeared all over the left side. Swiftly she checked the gash near the collarbone.

  “The bullet grazed you.” Too close. Too damn close...“Damn it, Stash, why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I’m not worried about it.”

  “What did you do, jump in front of the bullet to stop it?”

  “Must have bounced off my shoulder then.”

  She stopped dabbing at the wound and glared up at him. “Not funny.” She threw away the cotton balls in her hand, took a roll of gauze out of the box, and cut off a strip. “You could have been seriously hurt.”

  His hand stopped her, pulling her smaller one against his chest. “Then you would be the one to put flowers on my headstone.”

  Marlena looked up sharply. Steve’s amusement was barely discernible. His eyes were still watchful, studying her face intently. To admit she cared would open a can of worms. To disclose she hadn’t even bothered to wonder who was trying to kill du Scheum would mean admitting something significant, something she didn’t want to face. It was better to be glib, to keep a distance.

  “What kind of flowers?” Under her hand, his skin felt very warm, and his heartbeat was strong and steady.

  “What’s your favorite?” he countered.

  She felt his hot gaze on her lips as she answered softly, “Sunflowers.”

  “Sunflowers it is, then,” he agreed, his voice seductive
ly soft too.

  Their conversations were always like this, Marlena thought dazedly, full of promises of some kind of illusive future. “You realize,” she said conversationally, tugging at her hand, “tombstones don’t make a sexy date.”

  He released her so she could resume what she was doing. The iodine must sting, but he didn’t flinch. At the sight of the raw wound, her slowly building anger went up another degree.

  “I want you,” he said.

  Exactly the way Tess had phrased it earlier in the rest room. He wants you. Marlena carefully bandaged his shoulder, securing the gauze so it wouldn’t slip. But not what you are. Suddenly his hand was on her back, softly caressing up and down. The urge to take that step closer was strong.

  “Now.” His voice was low, hypnotic. The pressure of his hand on her back was insistent, inexorable. She knew if she touched, there would be no going back. The sight of him half naked like this, his shirt hanging open, exposing flesh that tempted her, was too erotic.

  “Now, Marlena.”

  “Not now. Not here.”

  “I intend to win that bet.”

  Marlena laughed. That bet seemed like ages ago. Her ruse to distract him hadn’t worked very well because he was in deeper than ever. After tonight’s incident, he would be delving for more answers. “You’re obsessed with Tweety Bird,” she said. And because she couldn’t help herself, she leaned closer and kissed his chest. Salty. With the taste of his blood on her lips, reminding her of the danger around her. The hand on her back pulled her in harder, but she still resisted. She smiled up at him, shaking her head. “I’m not going to let you destroy two expensive outfits in an hour, Stash sweetheart. Besides, someone will be here soon.”

  “So?”

  “So you should start thinking about what to say to the cops when they ask you questions.”

  “Am I supposed to have a story ready then?”

  Marlena fingered the streaks of drying blood. “I don’t know. Do you have anything you’re hiding?” Like the fact that he wasn’t who he said he was.

  “Do you? You will be questioned, too.” His hand had resumed its soft caress. He didn’t seem overly concerned. “But of course you weren’t involved in this one incident, were you? I know Tess told you things in the rest room, Marlena. She couldn’t have just gone there after you to apologize. So what did you find out?”

  There was a lot more to Steve McMillan than she gave him credit for. He didn’t just sit there taking notes. He assessed everything going on around him and connected events to get answers. Now that she knew his background, she suddenly realized he hadn’t been really sitting around, as she’d thought. He had been waiting for his target’s next move. He was, after all, a man of action. With this new role as her companion, he was just biding his time. The thought of him stalking her was annoying. And definitely intriguing.

  She smiled, more to herself than him, and noticed his small frown. A target could easily become the hunter, after all. She could stalk as well as any macho sea mammal. What was it that Tess had accused her of? Oh yeah, that she wasn’t listening, only reacting. Now would be her turn to make Steve McMillan react and not listen.

  As she licked her lips, the faint taste of his blood continued to remind her of the danger associated with her. Time to distract him from his line of questioning again. His eyes followed her tongue like a fascinated animal. She slowly slid her palm across his chest and down the flat stomach, scraping her nails lightly. She felt each hard muscle under her hand bunch and tighten at her teasing. His nose flared. Ah, the prey sensed danger.

  “She didn’t tell me anything I wouldn’t find out eventually,” she told him, admiring the symmetrical perfection of the abdominal muscles on that beautiful chest. There were intriguing-looking scars, telling her this body hadn’t been hewn with mere sports and weights. It was a fine, hard body belonging to a warrior. She wondered whether the rest of him would look so perfect, too. She reached for the top button of his dark pants.

  “I thought you said no a moment ago.” His voice had a hard edge to it.

  Marlena glanced up quickly. Suspicion gleamed from his eyes, yet he didn’t stop her when she unhooked the button from its hole. He continued to stand there, waiting. “A woman has the prerogative to change her mind.”

  “You’re trying to distract me again.”

  That almost stopped her. She must remember he was a smart prey. “Am I succeeding?”

  “No.”

  She slid her hand down his pants. Just as she had the first time they met. His sharp intake of breath made her smile as she went after her prey.

  “Now you are,” he said through gritted teeth.

  The sound of the huge study door opening penetrated their little world. Marlena sighed and reluctantly took out her hand. Steve sighed and buttoned up his pants.

  “I can’t help it if we can’t find the right moment,” she told him.

  “Not from lack of trying,” he taunted, lips quirking.

  Marlena threw up her hands. “That’s it. You’re forbidden from talking to Tess anymore. Now she’s got you playing her word games!”

  ***

  Seize the moment. As a soldier, Steve knew that an instant could mean a lifetime. And that some moments were meant to be his alone.

  The cops took their time, asking him a bunch of questions, but they would find nothing on him that would be suspicious. Besides, Marlena had mentioned that people like du Scheum didn’t get negative publicity if they didn’t allow it. It’d be a small blurb in the news, since no one of consequence had been injured.

  Steve knew better, though. The guest list at this function wasn’t something to ignore. He supposed it was very usual in the political world to see lawmakers, arms dealers, and businessmen making deals in the same room. It went against every code he’d been taught in the military, and his SEAL buddies wouldn’t take too kindly to the notion of enemies partying with them. Yet here he was, transferred from one world to another, and not liking the new rules.

  The cops weren’t going to do more than procedural stuff. His own TIARA task force was too damn slow. And Hard-On would be pushing to haul in Marlena soon. The more he tried to untangle this skein of events, the more knotted up the mystery. He glanced over at Marlena, sitting there sipping brandy, calmly answering the last of the questions. Much like the fascinating woman behind them, who was the biggest mystery of all.

  They were finishing up. The cop interviewing Marlena was obviously smitten with her outfit, his eyes hardly ever on his notepad. Steve scowled, annoyed. Did every man get the same treatment? Did she put her hand down each one’s pants, too?

  At one point, sensing his scrutiny, she glanced in his direction and smiled. Then she caught sight of Tess sitting next to him. The smile stayed in place, but he discerned a slight hardening of her expression. Tess must have noticed it, too, because she placed a hand on his arm to get his attention; when he turned to her, there was a merry glint in those honey-gold eyes. Her elegant hand, decked with rings, squeezed him until he took his gaze away from Marlena.

  “You’re a troublemaker,” Steve accused in amusement. “You seem to like riling her.”

  “It’s a rule in my meetings with Marlena. I don’t see her often enough.”

  Steve cocked a brow questioningly. “You mean, since you don’t see her that often, you have to make her mad at you?”

  Tess nodded. “So to speak.”

  Curious, he asked, “Why?”

  “Darling, Marlena is magnificent when she’s mad.” Tess squeezed his arm again and leaned closer confidentially. “Besides, you’re going to get the brunt of it when she’s done with that policeman. That’s what lackeys are for, you know. Great to vent frustration at.”

  Steve didn’t know how, but this tall, beautiful woman seemed to be able to read minds. She had somehow seen his inner frustration and was teasing him and Marlena. And helping him by giving Marlena a dose of the same frustration. There was nothing else to do but laugh and shake his head
.

  “You’re something else,” he told her. “Won’t you tell me exactly who you are, or do I have to go find out myself?”

  “Can’t, darling. Here comes Marlena. She’s giving me evil looks already.”

  Steve couldn’t take his eyes off her. To him, she was the sexiest woman alive, even when she was magnificently angry. As she stood up and spoke some parting words to the officer, her blazing blue gaze torched him for a few seconds, setting his blood on fire, and all he could think about was finally putting his hands on her and just forgetting about principles and codes for a while.

  “Are you sure you can afford to?” Tess murmured.

  “Damn it, are you a mind reader?”

  Tess chuckled softly. “Just another one of my talents.”

  “There will come a time when you’ll have to answer my questions, Tess.” Steve didn’t need to elaborate. He had a feeling that Tess knew a lot about him.

  “Au contraire, darling. There will come a time when you’ll have to answer more important ones. Remember our conversation about selling and buying?” Tess’s ringed fingers drummed lightly on his dark sleeve, the gems catching and reflecting the light. Her voice dropped a notch lower. “Will you sell what you want? Will you buy Marlena enough time? Can trust be bought? If I give you Marlena for information, how much is it worth? Hmm?”

  Steve studied the woman beside him. One enigmatic woman on his hands was enough. He didn’t think he could deal with two.

  “You don’t shop, too, do you?” he asked.

  “Shop?”

  “All this buying and selling,” he explained. “It tires me out as much as the shopping Marlena loves.”

  Tess laughed, her enjoyment of his humor sparking interested glances their way.

  “You two are enjoying yourselves,” Marlena interrupted. She eyed Tess’s hand sliding off Steve’s sleeve as he got up to meet her. “I’m ready to go home now, Stash. Found something funny, T?”