Secrets and Lies (Crimson Romance) (20 page)

“You can’t smuggle guns over the border!”

“Watch me. I’m tired of being an unarmed target.”

“Those are dangerous!”

“I practice regularly at a firing range with a friend of mine. Just because I don’t own a gun doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use one.”

“Oh.” She eyed them. As a cop’s daughter she’d lived around guns her whole life. But Charlie and a gun? He was morphing again before her eyes.

Charlie gave her his sexy, lopsided smile. “I’m armed and dangerous, Jules.”

Juliana snorted. “You’re completely at my mercy when you see my pussy.”

He choked back a laugh. “Who plunders whom? I’m the one with the nightstick.”

“C’mon, stud. I think those weapons will fit in my makeup bag.”

“I know where one weapon will fit.”

“Too bad we don’t have a thigh strap. I’ve always wanted to pack heat under my skirt.”

“You do pack heat.” His pupils dilated with remembrance. “God, are you hot down there.”

Charlie caressed her back. Juliana felt his leashed need. He wanted her right here and now. She wanted to climb in the back seat with him and let him search her heat with his concealed weapon. But the sun was already up. They’d lost almost a half hour tending his wounds.

They tucked the guns in her luggage. It was a huge risk taking them through customs, but not the greatest risk they were taking on this venture. Gutierrez wasn’t even the biggest threat. No, Charlie was the greatest peril . . . to her heart.

Juliana’s cousin, Felipe Sanchez, looked nothing like her, although the resemblance to her father was startling. Whereas Captain Sanchez was built like a heavyweight boxer, Felipe was more of a middleweight and a few years younger. His straight hair was blacker than the Captain’s, and where Juliana’s father had cold cop eyes, Felipe’s warm gaze and easy smile welcomed the visitors to his home.

“Juliana’s
novio
,” Felipe greeted Charlie in Spanish, pumping his hand vigorously. “I know Dolores and Alejandro prayed for this day.”

He released Charlie’s hand, frowning. “Ziffkin. Where have I heard that name before?”

“Charlie grew up next door to me,” Juliana explained.

Felipe pointed at Charlie. “
You
are the one. The one who tried to take Juliana’s virtue when she was sixteen.”

Geez, the story had made it all the way to Mexico. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“You waited a long time to claim her.”

“I needed to prove myself first.”

Felipe nodded. “Yes, that is the way with young men. Did you prove yourself?”

“I’m still working on it.”

“That’s why we’re here, cousin,” Juliana said. “Can we sit down and tell you what you’ve invited into your home?”

“You are always welcome here, cousin, no matter what the circumstances.” Felipe led them through the airy whitewashed house into the dining room.

“Sit. Would you like something to drink? Rosita will be home in an hour to cook the noon meal.”

“Something cold would be welcome,” Charlie said.

When they were seated with tall cold bottles of Pepsi before them, Juliana told her cousin everything about the sculpture and Gutierrez.

When she finished, her cousin frowned fiercely. “But this is too dangerous for you, Juliana. You should turn it over to the police, to your father.”

Juliana’s face reddened. “My father can’t help with this. The DEA told us they can’t help either. We can’t count on anyone in law enforcement. We’re the only ones who can do this.”

Felipe made horizontal slicing motions with his hands. “No, I forbid it. Your father would want me to.”

“Juliana, would you help me untape the sculpture?” Charlie grimaced. “It’s digging into my rib cage.”

Juliana frowned but rose and came to his side. Charlie watched Felipe’s face as he lifted his T-shirt. The older man looked shocked and then surprised.

“Hunahpu,” Felipe breathed. “The Hero Twins. I recognize this likeness. I read of them at university. That looks old.”

“It is.” Juliana began to pull off the tape.

“Let me see if I remember,” Felipe said. “He and his brother, Xbalanque, tricked and defeated the god of the Underworld. Why would a drug lord want something with a reputation like that?”

“Perhaps he’s not thinking of his own defeat but of besting his competition, maybe outwitting the authorities,” Juliana said. She pulled off the last strip of tape. Charlie rubbed the raw spot at the top of his chest.

Juliana handed Felipe the sculpture. “Do you want to know what I feel when I touch this?”

Felipe’s brown eyes grew huge. He swallowed. “No. I can see in your face it disturbs you to touch it. I do not try to understand your gift or the burden it sometimes places on you.”

He looked down at the sculpture, stroking it. “Powerful men covet old and valuable things. Who does this belong to?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t had time to think about that.”

“Perhaps you should. If this person is alive, they can help you fight this Gutierrez.” Felipe looked up. “I am not sure about your young man, and you are not a warrior, Juliana.”

“Cousin, we don’t have time to find the owner if they’re alive. It might take days or weeks to get to wherever the sculpture came from. We only have now. Will you help us?”

Felipe shrugged. “What can
I
do? I manage a hotel.”

“If Gutierrez comes to Mexico, we need eyes and ears. In the meantime, we need to hide. Charlie and I need to be relatives who’ve come for a visit.”

Felipe smiled. “You are that.”

“But I think Charlie needs to lose his last name. It’s too distinctive. He can become Charles Sanchez, my husband.”

Charlie nodded. “Yes, with my brown contacts and dark hair, I can pass for a Sanchez. Juliana’s never been to Ensenada before, so no one here knows her.”

Felipe sighed. “I will ask the Sanchezes who live closest. We have cousins, nieces, and nephews in Tecate, Rosarito, and Mexicali. Family helps family.”

Charlie slumped as the tension drained from him. “We’ll have to drop Hessler’s name around town to get the word out.” He rubbed the center of his forehead. “I can’t think anymore.”

“You’re tired. It’s been a long night,” Juliana said. “Felipe, Charlie needs medical treatment, very discreet.”

“I saw the bandages. Let me see what I can do.”

“I think Charlie and I would like to take a shower before Rosita comes home.”

Felipe rose, smiling. “I’ll show you to your room.”

It was an airy room with okra-colored walls and a wildly colorful bedspread in yellow, brown, and red. The colored pots in the window reminded Charlie of Juliana’s apartment.

Charlie let Juliana lead him into the tiled bathroom. When he stripped off his clothes, his shirt clung to the tape residue. He needed her to scrub it off him. She peeled off her clothes, exposing the firm, shapely flesh he loved. So feminine, so inviting, so arousing. His cock came to attention.

She pulled him into the shower, and he gritted his teeth while she scrubbed him. Then her soapy hands slid way below the tape lines to boldly stroke his cock to spike-like firmness. She soaped his balls and between his buttocks. He bit back a groan as she teased his anus.

“The tape, Juliana.” If she didn’t finish that job, he was going to be finished.

Juliana scrubbed his back, and when she turned him, his hands were full of soap. He spread it over her breasts. Her nipples were aroused to points that stabbed his palms. He massaged them thoroughly before sliding his hand down her slightly rounded abdomen to her mound. He slipped his hands between her legs, running his slippery fingers from her clit to her anus. Juliana moaned. He circled her opening with one hand while stroking her clit with the other. She leaned hard against him.

Removing his hands, he slid his cock between her legs. As he lifted her enough to slide inside her, she clung to him.

“Charlie, give it all to me.”

He did, several times, then: “You said something about tasting.”

He turned off the water. Juliana slid down his body to her knees. She licked from the tip of his cock to the base. It felt like heaven. She placed her mouth on the head and slowly took him inside the tight warmth. He groaned.

She released him slowly, sucking hard, and then swallowed him again. He shuddered with pleasure. Again she released him, sucking the loose skin before taking his length inside once more. He tensed on the edge of orgasm. Once more, and he’d come. But he didn’t want to come that way.

Charlie pulled loose, pushed her to her back, and followed her down. He nestled between her thighs and thrust inside. The pleasure was intense. He shifted on her, sliding deeper. She raised her hips and deepened his penetration. In three thrusts he came, driving hard into her.

Charlie raised his head and kissed her. “How was that, Mrs. Sanchez?”

“Wonderful, Mr. Sanchez. Did I redeem my promise?”

“For now. I’ll need to be serviced again soon. I have a high-performance engine, you know.”

“Your piston works just fine.”

“A well-lubricated cylinder helps it slide home.”

“Oh, is that what you were doing?”

“You bet. Did you really need a nap?” he asked.

“If you have the energy, there’s a spot between my legs that needs a little more attention.”

“Oh?”

“I promise it won’t take long.”

“You’re that ready?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Charlie rolled her over onto her knees and lifted her bottom. He spread her and placed his mouth over her pussy, sucking. She rewarded him with groans. He laved the tender flesh, probing inside her. Then he sucked her clit. She shifted and groaned. He ran his tongue down to her pussy and probed and sucked some more. Little rhythmic strains and groans escaped her lips, and she shuddered all over with her orgasm. It turned him on. Damn, but she made him horny with his face in her pussy. He pulled out his hot rod to take her for another ride.

For two days Charlie and Juliana had done Ensenada and each other. They’d danced in the discothèque and between the sheets. They’d walked from one end of town to the other under the watchful eyes of Mexican cops patrolling with machine guns; they watched a cruise ship dock, cruised the peer, made love in the ocean, visited shrines, missions, museums, and her relatives.

Eleven Sanchez cousins arrived from the surrounding towns. Charlie and Juliana spent much of their time with the ones in their twenties, including Ricarda, Alfonso, Estebon, Jose, and Lorenzo. The huge Sanchez clan accepted Charlie as Juliana’s fiancé. Rosita blatantly encouraged them to seek the priest to make it legal.

Gutierrez remained frustratingly silent. Charlie had been certain he’d come.

Although cousins surrounded them wherever they went, Charlie didn’t feel safe. It wasn’t just because the Mexican cops randomly stopped cars to check papers, putting their cover constantly in jeopardy. Gutierrez was wily. He lived his life off the radar. Charlie wouldn’t put it past the drug lord to arrive in Ensenada unannounced. It was a sure bet no one would check
his
papers.

Felipe and Rosita had told them there was a dark side to glittering Ensenada. Parties seemed to go on nonstop, with the California crowd letting loose south of the border. And drugs played a part in some of that activity. Mexican officials outwardly denounced it, but with money changing hands, they looked the other way.

Ensenada was Gutierrez’s natural habitat; Gutierrez’s people.

Charlie wasn’t the only one who felt uneasy. Juliana’s stiff posture and the tight lines around her eyes revealed her tension. Charlie rubbed her arm. “Relax.”

“I feel like I’m being watched.”

“That’s your cousins. Or the cops.”

“No. It’s more.”

He tensed. “You can’t sense him.”

“No. I wish we had a photo of him so I could find him. I think he’s here.”

Charlie wrapped an arm around her. “If he is, he doesn’t know who we are or what we look like either. Our car is covered under a tarp, so no one knows it’s American. We’re Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez. Not Jordan Hessler and his lover.”

Juliana rubbed at the goose bumps on her arms. “Don’t say things like that.”

“He’ll call,” Charlie assured her.

“He’s cautious. He’ll look before he leaps. And he won’t be alone.”

“We’re not alone either.”

“They’re trained to kill. We’re not.”

“I’ll take him with me if he tries.” Charlie carried a gun he’d use if he had to. Another reason not to let the cops stop him. But he needed to lighten Juliana’s mood. “Let’s go shopping. Rosita’s birthday is next week.”

“All right.” She gave him a bright smile.

Hessler’s phone rang and nearly stopped Charlie’s heart. And then it galloped madly. Juliana clutched his arm. He took a deep breath, looked at the number and opened the phone. “Hessler.” Juliana pressed her ear close.

“You’re a hard man to find,” Gutierrez’s smooth Spanish voice said. “You’re everywhere but you’re nowhere.”

“I told you I’m in Ensenada.”

“I’m here. I’ve come to collect what you owe me.”

“Where and when?”

“Tonight. Midnight. Pier 80, slip 42, the Sandpiper.”

“I’ll be there.” Charlie closed the phone.

“How do we know it’s not a trap?” Juliana demanded.

“We don’t. So we get there first.”

They caught a taxi to Pier 80 with Ricarda and Alfonso Sanchez. Charlie scanned the area. This didn’t feel right. “We’re a group of young people out to see a friend off. Look for slip 42, but don’t indicate you’ve seen it. Then look for someone casting off. We’ll watch them leave then come back here. Everyone got the plan?”

Ricarda and Alfonso agreed. They were from two different branches of the Sanchez family. Ricarda was twenty and string-bean thin with straight black hair down to her hips. Alfonso was the same age but muscular with a sharp mustache.

The women paired up and strolled casually past slip 42. Charlie saw nothing unusual about the large sailboat. It looked like it was locked up tight, the sail lashed down. He continued walking to where the women had stopped ten slips further down. A group of people were making preparations to depart.