Shadows and Silk Read online

  “Jesus—Darcy,” he moaned. Perspiration broke out on his skin and he worked his free hand between them to loosen his pants and relieve the pressure. The thought of her mouth around him was too much to bear.

  “Let me,” she begged.

  He didn’t have the strength to say no, so he released her hands. She stroked him through his jeans and he dropped his head back against the seat in pleasure. That’s when he felt the prick of the knife at his throat.

  He opened his eyes and stared into the furious blue of hers. “I loved you once,” she said. “And maybe what I felt for you isn’t as distant as I’d like it to be. But gone are the days when you or anyone else will dictate my pleasure. Like I told my brothers, I can take care of myself.”

  She lied. To herself and to him. He could see the love she had for him was still there. In the way the blue of her eyes softened and her gaze got a little sad. Or maybe that was disappointment. Who the hell knew?

  “Maybe you can take care of yourself,” he agreed. “At least for a while.”

  He gripped her wrist, and it went limp in his hand as he hit her pressure point. The knife dropped into his other hand, and he stabbed it into the seat next to them. “But there will always be someone out there you’ll lose against. It’s the way of the world. Trust no one and take care of yourself. That way you’re never disappointed.”

  Darcy pushed out of his lap and dropped back into the seat across from him. “If you believe that, then you’re worse off than I thought. What about my brothers? Your own family? Are you waiting for them to stab you in the back? They love you.”

  “It’s a stupid word that no one knows the real meaning of,” he spat out. “It’s a fucking fairy tale. I prefer to face reality.”

  “So you believe Cade and Bayleigh are delusional?” she asked sarcastically. “Your sister and my brother are just caught up in the fairy tale, and eventually they’ll realize their mistake and go their separate ways? Too bad they’re about to bring a child into the world to share their misery. When’s the baby due? Another three weeks, right? I guess it’s too late now to tell them the truth.”

  “You’re pissing me off, Darcy.”

  “I guess I wouldn’t want to do that,” she said, all innocence. “Not when you have my knife.”

  “Cade and Bayleigh made a promise to each other,” he said. “They’ll see it through because that’s the kind of people they are.”

  He hated that she was backing him into a corner. Maybe love was an option for some people. Or even the illusion of love. But not for him. It wasn’t worth the cost in the long run.

  “And that’s all it is? A promise with nothing but vows behind it?”

  Darcy stared out the window and fiddled with the rings on her left hand, a nervous gesture he’d rarely seen from her. But the sight of those rings—rings he’d picked himself, even though he’d known he shouldn’t make it so personal—made him feel as virile as any male laying claim to a mate. He knew he couldn’t love her the way she wanted. But he needed her anyway.

  “You’re living an illusion,” he said softly. She looked up, and what he saw in her face only made him more determined to make her see the truth. “You think you love me. I’ve seen it in your eyes since you were too young to know any better. But you’re fooling yourself if you think it’s real. Nothing is forever, sweetheart. And human nature is a fickle thing. You’re asking for heartbreak if you think you can give a person everything you have—your heart and soul—and not expect them to trample it to dust.”

  “I know. It’s what I got from you,” she said, the aim of her arrow hitting true. “But I still believe in it. I guess if I’m guilty of living an illusion, then you’re just as guilty of living in the past. You must have loved her a lot.”

  Brant’s fists clenched tight, and his nails bit into the palms of his hands. The last thing he needed was for Darcy to find out about Vivian. On second thought, maybe that was the best way for her to see the truth. The fact that he’d killed his wife would shatter any illusions Darcy had of true love.

  “I need to change clothes,” he said abruptly. “We’ll be landing in another hour.”

  Brant grabbed the clothes he’d hung on the back of the door and escaped into the bathroom. He couldn’t force her to see the truth, and he couldn’t let himself give into the illusion. Not even for Darcy.

  ***

  Darcy struggled to push away the anger—the envy of knowing another woman had gotten the love she’d always wanted. She couldn’t remember her brothers ever talking about Brant being in a relationship, and he sure as hell never brought a girlfriend around whenever he visited her family. But there had been someone. And Darcy wanted to know what the woman had done to him.

  She grabbed her knife out of the seat and put it back in the sheath inside her boot. Declan was going to have questions about the damage to his plane, and she’d never hear the end of it if he learned the truth.

  Her body was strung taut, and her silk panties were soaked with the need for fulfillment. Damn him for bringing her so close, only to ruin it at the last minute.

  She was lying to herself. She’d never stopped loving him. And the attraction between them was even stronger than it had been four years ago. They’d both changed individually, and those changes had only intensified the sexual chemistry.

  The glimpses of danger she saw in him didn’t scare her away. She loved the way he touched her, the way he demanded that she surrender. Even now, her breasts felt full and heavy and her clit throbbed, begging for attention. And there was nowhere she could go to find relief. Not without him knowing.

  She gathered her files and went to the long conference table that sat on the opposite side of the aisle. If anything, Declan always made efficient use of his time and work space, so his plane was set up much like a boardroom. Maps and photographs lay in rigid order on the mahogany surface, and she added the new pictures she’d found after Declan had left her hotel room earlier that morning.

  More women were dead. The body count had only increased over the past months since she’d been deciphering the glyphs. The problem was they were always a step behind. Ramos hadn’t put the drug Rabbit out on the worldwide market yet. It wasn’t even the exact same drug the del Fuego cartel had been distributing four years ago. But it was still just as deadly. Even more so, if such a thing were possible.

  The Sinaloa cartel and Ramos had made their name and fortune from cocaine distribution. And once he’d successfully taken over the del Fuego cartel and moved the labs, he’d had the scientists experiment with the original formula. They’d targeted individual women at first. Mostly American tourists.

  The core of Rabbit was the same. It was a date rape drug, plain and simple. It was topical, which is what made it different from other date rape drugs. Only a small amount had to touch the skin for it to be effective—easy for anyone to administer by jostling or bumping the victim in a crowd or dancing too close at a club. It took less than a minute to take effect—for the vicious heat to take hold and the lust to compromise all rational thought. It was a drug that made the victim seem like the willing, even though those who’d survived had heard their own screams of refusal in the backs of their minds even as they’d welcomed the next waiting man into their arms.

  But Ramos had decided to cut the drug with a little cocaine, and the results had tripled the death count. The cocaine added a violence and adrenaline rush to the victim. The crime scenes had been horrendous. She’d seen some of the photographs. At least the ones Declan had cleared her to see. The damage a hundred and twenty pound woman could do to a full grown man—several full grown men—with the right mix of chemicals in the system was jaw dropping. The victim had killed more than one of her attackers before her body had finally overtaxed itself and she’d gone into cardiac arrest.

  Ramos had had to readjust several times over the last year before he had a saleable product, and it looked like he’d finally found the right amount of cocaine to lace in the drug. It was just enough
to make the victim think she was having a good time, and keep her alive a few hours longer than the original drug. Until her heart finally gave out from exertion. The lust didn’t dissipate over time. The more orgasms you had, the more you wanted.

  Darcy took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. The deaths were increasing in frequency, and she knew it was because Ramos had perfected the formula and was ready to hold an auction for major buyers all over the world. And that’s where her expertise came into this. She lined up the pictures of the newest hieroglyphs—nothing more the crude graffiti drawn onto the side of a building. The note Declan had attached said they were only two days old.

  Ramos’s men were using the glyphs as coordinates for drop locations. It was part of the reason Ramos hadn’t been caught. He had thousands of men to take the fall for him. The glyphs were a map of sorts. Ramos would deliver the drug to his cartel members, and then they’d use the glyphs as a map to find the location of the buyer. It was a well-organized network. No two people doing the same job twice. Unfortunately, the bodies they’d been finding also matched the coordinates of where the buys were taking place. They were testing out the merchandise on site and then disappearing like rats back to their holes.

  The bathroom door opened and Darcy watched Brant from the corner of her eye. He didn’t look at her, but she knew he was aware of everything she was doing. His shoulders were tense and his jaw clenched in anger. She’d struck a nerve asking about the other woman. At least she knew for sure that her hunch had been right.

  He’d taken the time to shave, and he’d changed into natural linen pants and a green island shirt the same color as his eyes. He wore loafers without socks, and she noticed he wore a wedding band on his finger that matched hers. The sight of it gave her a little thrill she couldn’t explain, even though she knew they were pretending. She couldn’t help but drink in the sight of him. He was so big. So—male. He dominated every space he was in. No one should be that sexy. He turned her on in ways that should be sinful, but it didn’t stop the wanting. She lusted for him. Ached for him.

  The muscles in his shoulders and back bunched as he pulled a heavy case from an overhead compartment, and she had to roll her eyes at the distraction he presented. It was a damned good thing he hadn’t been around the last four years or she never would have finished her doctoral dissertation.

  Her eyes widened as Brant unlatched the case and pulled out a pistol. He checked it over thoroughly and then popped in a magazine before putting it at the small of his back.

  “I didn’t realize we were going in armed,” she said, turning to face him. He kept his back to her and his attention on inspecting the other weapons. “I don’t think I have a place to put my gun in any of the outfits that were packed for me.”

  “We’re not going in armed. I’m going in armed. Always be prepared for the worst. Even at five star resorts.”

  “I’m sure that’ll be a great relief to the masseuse when we get our couples massage. Let’s hope she doesn’t pull the trigger on that stick up your ass.”

  Brant stopped what he was doing and turned to face her, his expression thunderous. If she’d had room to back away she might have given in to the temptation. He was pissed. Though the day had been pretty varied so far, so she wasn’t sure what, exactly, he was angry about.

  “One day, Darcy,” he said menacingly, stalking her like a big cat, “You’re going to push me too far. And I’m going to be forced to bend you over my knee for the spanking you deserve.”

  Her ass clenched and the throb between her legs quickened. It took everything she had to let amusement cross her face instead of the lust she was feeling.

  “In your dreams, lover boy. Now if you’ve finished your Dom fantasies, I’ve finished deciphering the glyphs Declan left me this morning.”

  She should have been warned by the thin smile that spread across his face that she was in deep trouble. Some day she was going to learn to keep her mouth shut. Her brothers had been warning her for years that it was going to get her into trouble one day.

  He kept coming toward her, and she had to lift her chin to keep eye contact.

  “They’re not just fantasies, baby,” he whispered. “Your sweet ass is mine. It’s going to burn red from my hand, which is nothing more than you deserve after all the stunts you’ve pulled. You think you’re hiding how much the thought of that turns you on? I can read you like a book, sugar, and your nipples are hard enough to cut glass. Now show me what you’ve found before I bend you over this table and give the babysitters your brother sent something to report.”

  “What makes you think I’d protest?” she purred.

  His nostrils flared and a growl rumbled in his chest. “You are so fucked, baby. The minute we get to the hotel.” He inhaled deeply and took a step back. “Now tell me about the damned glyphs, and stop distracting me.”

  Her heart thudded in her chest and her pussy was weeping anticipation. Damn him for being able to do that to her. Just a look. Barely a touch. And she was ready to welcome him between her thighs like the Prodigal Son. She braced her hands on the table and pointed to the map.

  “The resort we’re staying at is here.” She’d already circled the location in red marker. “And the glyphs were found at the ruins at Bonampak, about an hour or so away. The wording is vague, but I think we’re either looking at Chiapa de Corzo or San Cristobal for their next location. The outer limits of the towns are sparsely populated and there are miles of nothing, so it would be very easy to transfer the drug without being seen. Or they might have been seen and no one cares, because those cities are in Ramos territory.”

  “Shane reported in that a body was found in Chiapa de Corzo early this morning,” he said. “I just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago. His team is already checking out the area, but they’re lying low so no one suspects they’re there. We can’t let Ramos find out we have men in place.”

  A sigh escaped before she could stop it and she dropped her head. “I was hoping I could relay the message in time to get someone in place. Before they killed someone else. Too many lives have been lost, and I can’t stop it.”

  “Those deaths lie on Alexander Ramos’s shoulders,” he said. “Not yours. We’ll get him. And then we’ll make him pay.”

  “That won’t bring these women back to their families.”

  “No,” he said, running his hand down the back of her hair in a gesture so gentle it almost brought tears to her eyes. “But it’ll save the ones he hasn’t gotten to yet.”

  “The resort we’re staying at is in a good location. We’ve got the ocean to our backs, and the cities where each of the hieroglyphs were found are no more than a two or three hour drive in any direction.”

  “But we need to find the lab site, not go over old ground,” she protested. “They haven’t repeated any of the drop locations and Ramos wouldn’t have his men making the drops too close to where he has the lab set up. I think I’ve got the lab possibilities narrowed down to two locations. Both within the fifty-mile radius Declan asked for. But it’s impossible to know for sure. Ramos has had four years to build the labs, and there hasn’t even been a whisper of suspicious activity for a project of that magnitude anywhere in Mexico.”

  “The lab won’t be far from where these hits are happening. It takes about twenty hours to drive from one end of his territory to the other, but only a couple of hours by plane. Ramos isn’t known for his delegation skills. He likes to know what’s going on in his cartel on every level. And visiting the drop locations is exactly what we need to do. It won’t take them long before they start noticing how closely we’re tracking the coordinates. Ramos will have eyes on us within a couple of days. And then we’ll have fireworks.”

  Brant traced his fingers across the map—along the routes she’d plotted—and the image of how those hands had touched her so skillfully had her biting back a whimper.

  “Ramos is smart. He’s been patient and he’s kept low. After Carlos and Miguel del Fuego were killed,
all the street traces of Rabbit were found and discarded. Or so we thought. We kept our eyes on Colombia, because we knew that’s where the del Fuegos had set up their original labs, and the del Fuegos were enemies of both Mexican cartels, so we knew they wouldn’t have moved their operation into enemy territory.

  “There were rumblings Ramos had slowly gained control of the cartel, but no solid proof. Some of the del Fuego cartel’s top lieutenants were found dead, but once again, we couldn’t prove it was Ramos behind the killings. So after a year of no new movement or related drug deaths, the DHS and DEA were ordered to cut the number of agents they had in the area because of budgetary issues. And now we don’t have the men we need in place to bring them down as easily.”

  “Well, there’s us,” she said, raising a brow.

  “That’s what scares me.” He moved in close, trying to intimidate her with his size, but she stood her ground. “You don’t understand how fucking dangerous this is, Darcy. We’re bait, sugar. And I’m going to strangle your brother the next time I see him for putting you in this position. You think I can’t see the need for the thrill in your eyes? I hate knowing that you’re going to be a moving target if they get wind of what we’re doing, and it scares the hell out of me that I might not be able to save you.”

  “Brant—”

  He touched her lips with his fingers, stopping her from reminding him that she could take care of herself. He leaned in closer—so close that she felt the breath of his words against her cheek.

  “Listen to me, and listen close, because I’m only going to say this once. There’s something about you, baby. Something that’s always drawn me closer to you, even though I knew damn good and well I should be pushing you away. You filled my mind with thoughts I shouldn’t have been having when you were too young for me to act on them. And now you’ve got me so twisted up inside I worry that I won’t see the danger until it’s too late.”