A Covert Affair (Deadly Ops #5)(73)
He swept a hand out on the desk, shoving the small container of pens and a scissor to the floor. It was the only potential choice of weapons on the desk and he wasn’t taking the chance she’d try to attack him when he went down on her. “I’m not your lapdog.”
She scored her nails down his chest. “I thought you might try to run.”
He tugged on her hair once. “Do I have a reason to?”
“If you want to go, get out. No one’s keeping you here. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t go to the cops.” She shoved lightly at his chest. “Leave if you want. I’ll find someone else to please me,” she murmured.
He cupped between her legs, shuddered when he found her soaking. “I’ll leave when I’m good and ready.” He yanked on her hair one more time, smiled when she sucked in a sharp breath, then went to his knees. He had no problem tasting her before he bent her over the desk.
She grabbed on to the back of his head with one hand, her grip tight as he buried his face between her legs.
“Oh yeah,” she moaned, grinding against him.
At a soft snicking sound he started to jerk back, but a sharp pain exploded in his skull, and darkness engulfed him.
“Wipe that goofy grin off your face before we head inside,” Selene murmured.
Nathan realized he was smiling as they pulled through Lopez’s security gate for the second time in twenty-four hours. “I wasn’t grinning.”
She snorted. “Please, I recognize that look. I’ve had that look. It’s the Rios woman, right?”
Nathan cleared his throat, not wanting to talk about him and Amelia. At least not here. Thinking about her as he had to slip on his Miguel persona felt wrong for some reason and he wasn’t certain why. He had erased her last text from his secure phone, not wanting any trace of their messaging on it. He didn’t need to reread it anyway. That message was burned in his brain.
I’m not letting you go either.
Good, because he couldn’t let her go. As soon as this op was over, he was making some changes and putting in a request to be transferred to the Miami location permanently. And no more undercover work. It might piss Burkhart off, but if he wanted to choose having a life and happiness, Amelia was going to win.
“Is it hard doing what you do and having a family?” He kept his question as vague as possible as Selene pulled up to the front of Lopez’s house. Nathan knew Selene’s husband, had served with the guy back in their Marine Corps days. Now Levi was a civilian with no ties to the NSA other than Selene.
“Some days. The traveling sucks, but you do what you have to do and you make it work. If you love someone and they’re willing to put up with your bullshit hours, then you don’t lose sight of that.” Her words were blunt with the sharp ring of truth.
Nathan had no doubt Amelia would put up with his hours. She didn’t exactly have a nine-to-five job anyway. That was the least of his concerns, though. His only issue was their past. But that was quickly fading as a concern too. She’d been seventeen. Yeah, he was pissed she hadn’t trusted him, but twelve years had passed. He would only focus on who they were now and move forward.
He never got a chance to respond, because two of Lopez’s guys opened their doors. He and Selene went through the whole pat-down and scanned-weapons check again before being escorted through the massive house to the pool area instead of the office.
Today Lopez had on cargo pants and a hideously bright Hawaiian-style button-down shirt. He immediately dismissed his guards and motioned for Nathan and Selene to sit in one of his covered cabanas. The white billowy curtains giving them privacy rippled in the breeze.
“You have what we need?” Selene asked, not bothering with niceties.
Lopez nodded, his expression grim. “I started asking around about Mercado, but got stonewalled when it came to Iker. But not his daughter. She’s been into some nasty shit, apparently.”
Nathan straightened slightly. Collette wasn’t even on their radar. They’d looked into her initially because of her father—but apparently not deep enough.
“Some of this is just rumors, so take it with a grain of salt. Allegedly about three years ago she got involved with some wannabe gangbanger. Guy cheated on her and his life did not end well.” Lopez shuddered. “Supposedly he was found with his throat slit and his cut-off dick in his mouth. I don’t know if that’s true, but a few months later she started moving drugs with a small team of former military guys. She had the capital and a lot of contacts to get an operation off the ground and they were turning a tidy profit. I know that’s true because I heard about it back then. Her father got angry and worried that she’d piss off one of the cartels so he used his influence to get her shut down by another outfit.”
“The cops or DEA never knew about her?” Nathan asked. Because she hadn’t been on anyone’s radar.
Lopez shook his head. “No. She hadn’t been in the business long enough. About seven months after that she very quietly—so quietly I didn’t know about it until I started making inquiries yesterday—bought up abandoned properties all over Miami. Not sure what she’s using them for, but I heard she had some of her guys trolling clubs and homeless hangouts for young girls. That part is just a rumor because she’s been very quiet the past two years. But if she was looking to scoop up young girls and women . . . I can think of a lot of reasons for that. None of them good. She could be using her properties for . . . hell, I don’t even want to think about it.”