Honeymoon To Die For (11 page)

“I’m not. He knows I’m not wired for schmoozing.”

She can get married and let a man accused of murder kiss her, but he couldn’t schmooze a little to hold up his end of the deal? They were going to have a come-to-Jesus meeting real soon about everyone’s responsibilities this week. If they made it that far.

Hubrecht glanced at her. “Ryder’s right, but I wasn’t thinking of sales.”  His gaze shifted back to Ryder. “I need someone in production. Would you be interested in that?”

The only sign Bianca showed of her thrill at hearing that possibility was squeezing Ryder’s hand. She hoped he read hand squeezes better than eye messages.

“Maybe. What’d you have in mind?”

“I’ll tell you tomorrow when we can talk more about this.”

She got where he was going. Hubrecht didn’t want to tell Ryder anything in front of her, which meant Ryder would be coming here
without
her. That couldn’t happen, but Ryder was barely getting his foot in the door. Would he ask for Hubrecht to give Bianca a position as well?

Nope. Ryder didn’t say a word about her.

She tried to look pleased when she said, “That is so nice of you, Hubrecht. I’m hoping I’ll have as easy a time finding a position.”

“I’m sure I could find a place for you here—”

Bianca jumped on it. “Really? That’s wonderful.”

“—if I could trust you,” he finished with unapologetic bluntness.  

“What ...?” she sputtered, ready to demand Ryder pull out their wedding documents.

Instead, Ryder stood. “I don’t need a job here. Let’s go.”

He couldn’t be serious, could he? How had this fallen apart so quickly? “Wait, Ryder.”

“Why? So he can insult you again?”

Hubrecht stood. “I have no intention of insulting Bianca, but I didn’t build a company this successful without vetting every person who works for me. I’m only being cautious. She’s an FBI agent.”

Oh,
crap
. Bianca jumped up. “I was.”

“And you want me to believe you just walked away from the agency?”  

Ryder pulled her to his side. Before Bianca could get in another word, Ryder ripped into Hubrecht. “Bianca lost everything when she stuck her neck out for me. As soon as she uncovered evidence that proved I couldn’t have been in position in time to make that shot, the FBI let her go on the lame excuse that she’d gotten involved with a murder suspect. She fought them and everyone else to get me released. It cost her a job and her friends. Her entire department treats her like a pariah because she proved their research was flawed, which embarrassed all of them. Besides that, she’s still the only one who believes I’m innocent.”

That sounded like the speech
she’d
practiced, thinking she would be the one expected to explain herself, but Ryder’s delivery was so spot on that even she believed him.

And he wasn’t done. “With my notoriety, Bianca is severely limited in her options, especially with her background. Her chances of getting a job in law enforcement are nil and, even if she could, I wouldn’t let her risk it because some law enforcement might retaliate against her for springing me. We come as a package deal. All or none.”

Well
that
threw down the gauntlet.

For all the anger pulsing from Ryder, not a flicker of emotion had surfaced in Hubrecht’s face. “I don’t want to fight with you, Ryder, and I do want you to stay. I was sincere when I invited both of you to reside at the family home, especially now when you’ll be hounded by the media. Family is everything to me. I trust you, because I know you. Bianca is welcome to enjoy doing anything she wants while you’re gone from home, but how can you expect me to trust someone I’ve just met with VDE information?”

Hubrecht sounded so rational when he put it that way.

Bianca stepped in before Ryder had a chance to bomb this fragile relationship. She held her hand up, requesting to be heard. “I expected this. We both did.”  

She spared Ryder a glance then continued. “I do appreciate the offer to just take it easy, but I can’t sit around and do nothing. I spent the past three years pulling twelve, sometimes fifteen-hour workdays on the cyber espionage team. That’s why I was able to dig for so much on Ryder’s case. I’m sure I can find some contract computer security work I can do from home for the time being.”  

If she thought Hubrecht was distrusting before, telling him she was going to spend her days on a computer while inside the family home clearly bothered him.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
She told Hubrecht, “But regardless of what I do for work, having us stay in your home is going to be uncomfortable if you don’t trust me, which means none of the family will. So what can I do to solve this dilemma for you?”

Ryder growled, “You’re not doing
anything
to prove yourself to them, Bianca.”

“I like how you think,” Hubrecht said, ignoring Ryder, his attention on Bianca only. “I could use someone with counter-cyber-espionage skills.”

“I’m listening.”

“I’ll have my security department clear you.”

Bianca said, “All right.”

Ryder growled, “No! She’s my wife. That should be enough.”

She wasn’t sure if Ryder meant that or was just playing up the moment so she turned to him. “We talked about this. You know it’s always going to be an issue.”  

“I trust you. That’s all that matters.”  He cupped her face, holding her gaze long enough for her to see the struggle in his eyes. He really didn’t want her to agree?

No. That was just great acting.

She put her hand up on Ryder’s arm and put some pleading in her eyes. “But I want to fit in with your family and they aren’t going to allow me to if Hubrecht isn’t satisfied.”
And I am not letting you come to work without
me.
 

Hubrecht interjected, “See? You married a bright girl, Ryder. It’s settled.”  He paused before adding, “There’s a car downstairs inside my secured garage that will take you both to the house. Meet me at ten tomorrow, Ryder.”

“Don’t you want me here, too, Hubrecht?”

“I’ll let you know as soon as you have security clearance. It shouldn’t take more than two weeks.”  

Two weeks?
Hubrecht had managed to diffuse the issue and still bar her from VDE for the duration of the operation.

She needed Ryder to take the job with Hubrecht, but Hubrecht and Ryder might be the ones putting on a show for her right now, which meant she could not allow Ryder to come here without her.

How the blazes was she going to manage that?

CHAPTER 8

 Munk kept the crosshairs of his night-vision-enhanced scope on the male target who, at half-a-mile away, hammered his mistress on the secluded balcony of a premier London residence—a private flat the man kept secret from his wife.

The same wife who’d paid Munk exceptionally well for evidence of her husband’s secrets and offered a bonus to tidy up her dirty laundry.

An unfortunate arrangement for her two-timing husband, but a windfall for Munk.

Fog smoked around his body and the evening chill felt refreshing after the last two weeks he’d spent in an Iraqi desert hunting a political target.

Someone else’s politics. Didn’t matter which country or who the target was as long as they agreed on his price.

His cell phone vibrated in the pocket of his gray desert-patterned cargo pants. Munk’s entire body lay hidden beneath tree branches that overhung the roof. His purposeful choice of clothing blended into the rooftop’s bleak colors. He easily lifted his two-hundred-and-fifteen pounds an inch off the gritty surface to pull the phone out and slide his finger across the surface to answer.

“What?” he whispered. Munk disliked interruptions while on a mission, but being an enterprising businessman he didn’t want to miss out on any lucrative projects.

“When can you be in the States?”

Ohhh—his best-paying American customer. Annoying, but with deep pockets. Munk’s pulse always jumped at the chance to work for this one, but he never allowed his enthusiasm to show. “Depends.”

“This pays well.”

“That’s a given.”  Munk adjusted his Barrett Model 99 two millimeters to the right and fixed the crosshairs on his target.
Not yet
. Let the guy have one last good hump.

Professional courtesy from one potent male to another.

“There’s paying well...then there’s paying
exceptionally well
,” his client said.

Munk sucked in a quiet breath. He never broke a sweat over a kill—that was sport. He fed on the adrenaline rush of the hunt, but money—big money—made him hard faster than a Shanghai whore.

Grinning, he spoke softly. “How soon do you need me?”

“Now would be ideal, but tomorrow is sufficient.”

“Who’s going down?”  Munk started mentally calculating what he’d need for the trip.

“This is different.”

“How so?”  He liked clean kills, nothing fancy.

“I’ll give you the details when you arrive.”

“And it pays exceptionally well?”  

“Yes.”

“So what do you want? Information extraction?”  He had creative ways to reach a captive’s physical and emotional limits that were almost as satisfying as killing.

Not quite, but almost.

Considering this client, Munk had an inkling of the target’s identity. His lips curled up. A fat wad of money to inflict pain on a man Munk would dismember for kicks.

It didn’t get any better than this.

His client interrupted his fantasy. “No. More like terror. I want her rattled until I get what I need. I have specific plans.”

“Her? How old?”  Munk wanted to make sure he’d heard correctly, but male, female, child—he didn’t care as long as the jack came stacked high.

“
Her
. Twenty-six. Can you be here by eight tomorrow morning, ready to work?”

Munk checked his Glashutte wristwatch, admiring the new timepiece that had set him back twenty thousand—chump change. With a little luck he could make the last flight out of Gatwick.

“I’ll be there. No killing, huh?” Munk asked, a little disappointed.

Silence filled the line for a few seconds before his client answered. “I didn’t say that, but I have a specific timeline for this itinerary. I’ll call you at eight eastern time.”  

Munk slipped the phone back into his pocket and checked the target. The mistress twisted in her lover’s arms, allowing a clear view of the man’s face, contorted as he neared ecstasy.

Slowing his breath to reptilian, Munk centered the crosshairs on his target’s right eye.

Too bad, Romeo. Time to go
.

CHAPTER 9

Ryder should have mastered patience after sitting in a tiny cell day in and day out, wondering if that was all he’d do for the rest of his life.

He definitely should have gained extraordinary tolerance from the two times he’d been in the Hole. But he evidently hadn’t, because he’d come damned close to screwing this mission when he’d been forced to act pleased to be offered a job at Van Dyke Enterprises.

That came from having spent his youth under Hubrecht’s grinding thumb. Ryder had never wanted to return.

I spend five months locked away like an animal and Hubrecht acts as if it were nothing. Cold-blooded bastard.

Had the Van Dyke patriarch framed Ryder for murder?

Ryder would never have thought so back when he’d first gone into the Army. At one time, Ryder had credited his extreme discipline to the time he’d spent working with Hubrecht.

Back when he’d had time away from this place to consider all the things Hubrecht had done for him, the bastard child of Hubrecht’s dead sister.

Now Ryder wasn’t so sure of anyone any more.

“Ryder.”

He blinked at the sound of Bianca’s voice breaking through the haze that blanketed him. Immediately sweeping a look around them, he realized he’d been frowning as he walked through the top floor of Van Dyke Tower. Not a wise move with security cameras everywhere.

Cutting his eyes over at Bianca, he felt like an ogre when she managed to keep a pleasant expression on her face as they headed to the elevators. “What?”

She whispered out the side of her mouth. “I’m going to have a bruise if you don’t let up,
dar
-lin’.”

His fingers were gripping her upper arm. Damn. He loosened his hold and felt a sick punch to his middle when he saw pink blotches where his hand had been. “Sorry.”   

“It’s okay.” Her words were too terse for that to be the truth.

“No, it’s not.”  He’d never put a mark on a woman who hadn’t attacked him first in a combat situation, but this was not the time to discuss the injury. Bianca probably wouldn’t believe someone who’d just been in prison anyhow, would she?

Regardless, he rubbed his thumb lightly over the injured skin.

She glanced up at him with that look again, the one that questioned what he was doing.

Did she think he’d held her that tightly on purpose?

Sometimes everything around him faded away and his world changed to a different place with little notice. He had a moment of wanting to explain that to her so she’d understand, but telling Bianca that he disappeared from reality at times might only freak her out.

That wasn’t her fault. Ryder had demanded someone with no field experience. She was a brilliant researcher and he’d called her a file clerk.

He cringed now, thinking back on what an asshole he’d been.

But he’d walked into that room on the heels of seven days in the Hole, took one look at Murdock, who represented the power of the FBI, and Ryder had seen red, as in
wanting-blood
red. He’d needed someone to be as miserable as he was, but with some distance, he was now cursing a decision made in anger.

Bianca had compiled a ton of evidence against him. For that reason, he
had
hoped that he could get her into a position where she could see the evidence differently, but in truth she was here partly because she’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time the day Ryder had walked into that meeting.

The FBI owed him for turning a blind eye to the possibility that Ryder had been framed, content to let Ryder go down in flames for someone else’s crime. He’d wanted Murdock to see how it felt to lose control of a situation, so Ryder had forced Murdock’s hand in demanding Bianca partner with him.