His expression went from stunned to angry. “Sit down, hot stuff. You’re going whether you like it or not, at this point. Besides, they’re ready to meet you, and they liked everything you’ve done so far. They agree with me that you are an asset. Not to mention, I get a bonus for bringing you in.” He snaked his hands over to catch her and pull her closer to him. Settling her into the seat next to him before snapping the seatbelt into place, he swiveled in his seat so that their legs could touch as he ran his hands over her thighs.
Handsy bastard.She slapped them off of her.
“I told you the dress was expensive, as are the shoes. Currently, I’m unhappy with you, therefore there will be no more touching.”
Growling, he grabbed her wrist, but she caught his thumb, then bent it backwards, even as she planted one of her stiletto heels right against his crotch. “I’m sorry, did I misspeak? I said no to the touching. You can look, but you cannot touch. If you continue to make me cross, I’ll shove my thumbs into your eyes so you can’t look either.” She applied a judicious amount of pressure to her stiletto, and Uranium’s breath caught in his throat. Finally, he relaxed his hands, releasing her before leaning away.
She recognized surrender when she saw it, so she relaxed the pressure but kept her foot where it was as the plane took off. The look on his face was far too priceless otherwise, and it did him good to remember she wasn’t just a piece of ass.
“So, what were you saying about them being excited to meet me?”
The flight took lessthan two hours. Deplaning on a private airstrip, she studied her surroundings with a bored air. No customs, immigration, or health officials met them. Sand drifted across the darkened tarmac, and a microdot of a hangar sat across the field. A salt breeze caressed her cheeks. The lights on the plane were off, as were they in the small office, and if they’d had runway lights when the plane landed, those were off now as well.
Cayman Islands or thereabouts.
A private car pulled up. Uranium strutted ahead of her, then slid into the back. He was a right proper plonker, that one. The driver made it to the back door in time for her to join the uncouth idiot.
He had his cell phone to his ear when she sat. “We’re here and on our way to the house.”
Arsenic kept her attention on the window as the driver pulled out of the airport. If they were in the Cayman Islands, it must be one of the smaller islands. The winding road the driver followed passed no residences or businesses. Just an endless line of tropical trees and moonlit beach.
“Ricky’s excited to meet you.” Her companion stretched his legs in front of him and drummed his fingers against her thigh.
“Is he, now?” Affecting boredom took little effort. Being pawed regularly by the man next to her grew old the first day she’d allowed him to seduce her.
“Yes, and do me a favor, babe? Play the haughty Brit bitch for him.”
“As you wish,” she agreed before she caught his fingers and pried them off her leg. “Are you to play the thuggish prick?”
“Perfect,” he said with a laugh. He rubbed his hands together. “I didn’t think he’d go for it, but it looks like they’re desperate. Every damn thing we’ve done to shoot those idiots down hasn’t worked.”
“You know, it fascinates me how you refer to them as idiots.” He wanted her to be a bitch, she decided to embrace the role. “Aren’t you one of the idiots?”
His mirth fled, and she could almost feel the tension roll off of him. “That was before the Lord High Titanium decided to involve us in his personal fucking vendetta.”
“His vendetta? I thought he was part of your precious Marines.” Though she held the military in esteem, every good barrel had a bad apple.
“Whatever.” Uranium sagged in the seat. “He used us to wage his vendetta. We catch the hell for it, and what does he do? Makes us fucking disappear. Then we’re dead, hisGhosts, sent to do his bidding…no, fuck him. Fuck him, and fuck his precious little band of merry fuckheads. I had a life, a real one, before he screwed me over. I’ll have a life again. You’re going to be a part of it, won’t you?”
“I don’t know, am I?” The drive seemed to take forever. The airstrip must be on one side of the island, and wherever they were going on the other.
“You know you are,” he said, grasping at her hand. “Truth be told, you’re the best damn thing that happened to me since everything went to hell.”
Pity. “Then perhaps you can be less mysterious about our host and why we’re here.”
“After you meet him. He’s a bit of a dick, and he wants to get a look at you before he signs off on reading you in.”
“I’m not fucking him.”
“No, you’re not.” A possessive growl slid into his voice. “That’s my cunt, and I don’t share.”
“Brilliant.”
Lights appeared in the distance. Automatic gates swung inward, and armed guards circled the vehicle once—checking beneath it with a mirror. Four guards on the gates. She spotted two more off the drive, as they proceeded. For every guard she spotted in the dark, likely there were two more she couldn’t see.
Whatever else this Ricky-bloke was, his paranoia ranked high. Midnight flights, dark islands, lights off, and heavy guards. His invitation got her in the door, but getting out might prove a tad difficult.
The inside of the villa surprised her. Based on Uranium’s reactions on their way in, she expected to find their host alone and waiting for them with his nefarious plans. So far, for all his so-called subtleness, Uranium had proven to be more of a cartoon villain than anything else. However, a dinner party in full swing awaited them. Where did all these people come from? And how did he keep the island so dark?