Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(44)

“I see him.”

“Keep watching. Every couple minutes he looks to his left,” Grant said, putting his arm around her and pulling her against his side. The thong-clad woman huffed and sashayed away. Valeria watched the target as Grant’s hand dropped from her shoulder to fondle the top of her blue triangle bikini top. He turned his head and placed a kiss on her neck as his hand dipped into the thin material of her top.

“Grant,” Valeria squeaked on a gasp when he pinched her nipple into a taut peak.

“Shhh, I’m keeping our cover,” he said, kissing his way down her neck.

Valeria chuckled as she heard a group of women sitting nearby sigh. They’d been talking about Grant for the past thirty minutes. “You’re drawing attention.”

“Good. I want the men to know you’re off limits. Plus, it’s fun.” He pulled his hand from her top and placed it on the indentation of her hip. “Did you see it?”

Valeria nodded as she rested her head on his chest. “The guy that’s getting up, right?”

“Right.”

Valeria watched the man walking off the beach and onto the private path leading to the villas. The path was obstructed from view by various palm trees and flowering bushes.

“I’ll be right back,” Valeria said, placing a quick kiss on his cheek. She climbed off the queen-sized padded lounger and adjusted her bikini bottoms as she casually strolled after the man in the short-sleeved, salmon-colored button-up shirt that was opened to his belly button. The outline of a gun was clearly seen under his shirt and against the waist of his dark blue swim trunks.

Valeria grabbed a fruity drink left abandoned beside one of the lounge chairs and went to cut him off. She hurried to an entrance farther down the beach and began to jog toward her target once in the privacy of the path.

“No, the girls are oblivious,” she heard the man say in Spanish. Valeria stopped and pressed herself into the leaves. The man was around a bend, and she couldn’t tell if he was walking toward her or just standing there talking. “Tonight? Do you want it to be an accident?”

Valeria crept forward when she noticed he wasn’t moving. She peered through the thick foliage and saw the man standing in the middle of the path and slowly circling to make sure he was alone.

“I’ll put something in their drinks. It’ll look like alcohol poisoning. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

Valeria stepped back as the man started walking in her direction. “Oops!” she giggled as she weaved toward him, stumbled, and sent the drink flying down his shirt.

“Stupid drunk,” he muttered in Spanish as he picked a pineapple wedge from where it got stuck in in shirt.

Valeria bit her lip and looked confused. “I am so sorry. I don’t speak Spanish, but let me help you.” She started brushing the drink from his chest. “Oh, dear. I have club soda in my room,” she gestured behind her and then frowned before laughing. “But you don’t speak English so you probably have no idea what I’m saying.”

“I speak Inglés.”

“Oh good!” Valeria tittered and felt stupid for doing so. She sent a slow look from his head to his crotch and then looked back up in embarrassment. “I’m here with my girlfriends this week, and they’re all down at the beach.”

It didn’t take long for the man to realize what she was insinuating, just like it didn’t take long for Valeria to notice the tattoo above his heart showing him to be a member of Hermanos de Sangre.

“You have something to clean it, yes?” he asked, his voice dipping lower.

Valeria bit her lip and nodded. “Right this way.” She reached out and took his hand in hers. He didn’t even question it when she led him behind the villas and into the overgrown lushness surrounding the resort. Not when she reached behind her as she walked and unlaced her string bikini top. And not when she turned and jabbed her fingers into his Adam’s apple. Not even when she spun behind him as he bent over gasping and slipped her string bikini around his neck and pulled.

He struggled, but she put her foot on his back and pulled until he fell lifelessly to the ground. Letting out a deep breath, Valeria tied her bathing suit back on, picked up his gun, and dug around his pockets for his key and cell phone. She dragged him off the path and tossed the gun into the dumpster behind the villas before making her way back to Grant.

“Shall we go for a swim?” he asked when she stopped in front of the cabana and tossed him the phone and key.

“I’ve been dying to.”

“Then let’s go.” Grant took her hand in his as they walked down toward the water. The girls were swimming and the man was nearby watching. He kept looking back at the path, then out to where the girls were.

“Everything go okay?” Grant asked.

“It’s been taken care of,” Valeria told him as she submerged herself under the water.

Grant dove under and came up behind her. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to sit on his leg. Valeria leaned back, and they floated there for a moment in complete silence, watching the two sisters splash in the water.

“Do you ever remember being that innocent?” Valeria asked quietly from behind her shades.

“Aye. I grew up like that. It wasn’t until I was active duty that I saw the evil of the world. I knew evil existed, but I had never seen it in person. I threw up after my first bad mission. Dalton was with me. It changed my life forever. That was years ago now. Now I’m no longer surprised by evil. I only hope to rid the world of as much of it as possible before my time is up.”