"I saw you sleeping earlier and didn't want to wake you," Alex said to Drake. "How you manage to sleep with all the noise going on is beyond me."
Drake pulled himself into a sitting position as Alex took the patio chair across from him. Drake shrugged. "I'm used to snatching sleep where and when I can." He extended his hand to Alex and gave him a firm handshake. "It's good to see you again."
Alex smiled. "Same here, Drake, and I remember those days with the Bureau when sleep was a precious commodity you never got enough of." He then leaned back in his chair and took a sip of the lemonade Corinthians had placed in his hand the moment he had walked into the backyard. "Trevor told me you want me to find someone."
Drake inhaled deeply. "It's this woman I met, a former CIA agent by the name of Victoria Green. While I was out on an assignment she left the Agency and per Agency policies, no one can give me any information as to where she's gone. I tried using the contacts that I had but it seems like she's fallen off the face of the earth."
Alex nodded. "Finding a former agent who doesn't want to be found isn't easy although not impossible." He studied Drake for a moment then asked, "Why do you want to find Victoria Green?"
"It's a personal matter."
Alex's lips tightened and a few moments later he said, "You know usually I'd turn down a job like this. I respect any agent's desire to build another life for themselves and put the past behind them." He stared at Drake and Drake stared back, determination and sheer stubbornness firming his jaw. Alex sighed. "But in this case, I'll make an exception and get on it right away."
Drake let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Thanks. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."
Alex's lips eased into a smile. "I believe that." He then took another sip of his lemonade and glanced around the bustling party. He went still as something-or someone-caught his attention. Out of curiosity, Drake followed his line of vision.
Christy Madaris.
The young woman was standing next to Corinthians near the grill and holding one of Kyle and Kimara Garwood's kids on her hip. She appeared to be in a happy mood and was laughing at whatever it was Corinthians was telling her, and seemed not to have noticed the attention she was getting from one particular person.
"That's the Madaris brothers' youngest sister, isn't it?" Drake asked when Alex just sat there, staring, not saying a single word.
"Yes, that's her."
"She's kind of pretty, don't you think?"
Just like he'd known he would, Alex tore his gaze away from Christy Madaris and looked at Drake. He gave him a tight smile before saying, "Yes, I think she's kind of pretty."
The harshness in Alex's tone of voice almost made Drake chuckle. Alex was acting like a male animal marking his territory and Drake wondered if he knew he was also courting danger. Anyone who knew Justin, Dex, and Clayton Madaris also knew that when it came to their baby sister, they had a tendency to be a little overprotective.
"So you think you'll have the information I want in a week?" Drake asked when he saw Alex's gaze had wandered back to Christy Madaris again. She had returned the little girl to the Garwoods and was standing off to the side talking to her three brothers.
"Although I assume Victoria Green will have covered her tracks well, I'm hoping it will take less time than that for me to find her. I have a knack for finding people, especially those who don't want to be found," was Alex's reply, without refocusing his gaze on Drake.
"Interesting," Drake murmured, as a small smile pulled at his mouth. And he wasn't talking about Alex's efficiency.
Christy Madaris shook her head as she met the glares of her brothers, Justin, Dex, and Clayton. "Hey, you guys, let up. I'll be turning twenty-two in a few months, not to mention that I'll be graduating from college in six weeks. Don't you think it's time to get over the overprotective kick the three of you have been on for the past twenty years?"
Justin leaned back against a huge oak tree. "All we want to know is who's the guy you're going out with tonight?"
"How old is he?" Clayton threw in.
'And who's his people?" Dex Madaris added.
Christy raised a brow at the third question. "Who's his People?"
Dex shrugged. "Yes. Who's his family?"
Christy gently pushed the reddish brown curls back from her forehead. "No one you would know. David and his family moved here recently."
"Then we'd like to meet him," Justin said, smiling.
"And I'd like to meet them," Dex added, not smiling.
Christy frowned. "What the three of you mean is that you'd like the opportunity to scare David off but it won't work. I've already told him about the three of you and how you operate. He doesn't mind meeting you and in fact he's looking forward to it and found it rather amusing that you behave this way."
Dex crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his gaze. "Since he finds it so funny maybe we ought to really give him something to laugh at."
Christy raised her eyes upward, totally exasperated. "You know there's going to come a time when the three of you will have to loosen the reins."
Clayton chuckled. "Why should we?"
Christy glared. "Mainly because you can't keep up with me forever. You have wives and children of your own. Don't you think you should be keeping up with them?"
"Yeah, but we have an obligation to keep up with you as well. Just think of how boring your life would be if we didn't," Clayton said, grinning.
Christy shook her head, wondering if they actually believed that. When she was younger she'd thought their overprotectiveness was rather cute, and it hadn't bothered her any since she'd always had a crush on Alex Maxwell, and had made up in her mind that she would one day grow up and marry him. But last year Alex had pretty much burst her bubble when he'd told her that he wasn't interested in her childhood fantasies and she needed to grow up and remove him from the picture.
So she had.
Seeing that she wasn't getting anywhere with her brothers, Christy turned to walk off, only to bump into a hard, solid chest. When she realized who it was, she took a step back. But it hadn't been quick enough. She had felt the heat from Alex Maxwell's body the moment they had touched, but she refused to let him know how strongly he affected her. "Alex."
"Christy."
She met his eyes and the look in them was dark, intense, like he was the hunter who had cornered his prey. She shook her head to clear her brain cells, thinking she was definitely imagining things. Alex had pretty much let her know he was way out of her league. Anger filled her every being at the very idea that at one time she'd thought her entire existence had revolved around this one man.
"I see the three of you have pissed Christy off again," he said to her brothers in a deep tone of his voice that she found slightly hypnotic. It reminded her of that one time he had lost control and kissed her.
It was a night she didn't want to remember but could not forget.
"She's upset because we cared enough to question her about her date," Clayton explained.
"Oh."
Christy's anger increased. They were discussing her like she wasn't standing there! She met Alex's gaze again and saw the hint of amusement that touched his lips. Unable to find anything remotely humorous about the situation, she angrily walked off, leaving the four men staring after her.
"California?" Solomon Cross murmured to the caller on the phone. The Red Hunter had called to report they had located Victoria Green. It seemed that she had purchased a place on the beach in California.
As far as Cross was concerned it had taken long enough to locate her. "What took you so long to find her?" he asked, annoyed. It had been almost two weeks.
"Someone in the Agency wanted to make sure she wasn't found. It wasn't easy breaking the code in the database and getting the information in a way that it couldn't be traced."
Cross sighed. He really didn't want to hear excuses. "How soon can you get her to me?" He'd been thinking about her a lot lately, anticipating her arrival.
"We have to plan this one well and not be too hasty," the Red Hunter was saying. "She's a former CIA agent and if she suddenly becomes missing, a lot of questions will be raised. We don't want anything to look suspicious or there will be an investigation that you don't want."
Cross shrugged. "And nothing will be linked back to me. How can it? Besides, I'm paying you enough to make sure that it doesn't."
CHAPTER 6
Tori's eyes suddenly flew open when she heard a sound. Struggling through the sleep that clouded her mind, she quickly sat up in bed; her heart was rapidly beating in her chest. She sat there, straining to hear whatever had awakened her.
There was nothing but the pound of the surf outside. She looked toward the window opposite her bed and didn't see anything, but still, her sixth sense had alerted her to danger. Goose bumps were forming on her arm and a shiver was running down her spine.
Moving quickly, she quietly eased out of bed and slipped into her robe. She automatically opened the nightstand drawer and pulled out the Beretta 9mm pistol she kept there. Flicking off the safety, she moved across the room and silently opened her bedroom door.
Narrowing her eyes to slits she searched the darkened living room and the entrances to the other two rooms. Her heart began racing wildly and she forced herself to calm down. Seconds passed before Tori eased from her position after detecting no further sound. But still, she knew for certain she had heard something. It hadn't been her imagination. First the suspicions last week and now this. She refused to believe she was just acting paranoid.
And then she heard a noise again and quickly crossed the room at the same time she heard the sound of running feet outside on the porch. With her gun raised, ready to fire, she snatched open the door and made out the silhouette of someone running down the beach.
"Freeze!" she said, taking aim but not pulling the trigger. She had to remember she was not in some hostile country, and the person who had tried entering her home could have been a teenager with nothing to do but get into trouble. She was a sharpshooter and the bullets in her gun were not intended to warn but to kill.
Before lowering her gun she glanced around, quickly checking the areas around her porch beyond the open door, just in case her trespasser had brought along an accomplice. Seconds passed and once she was satisfied there was no one else, she turned and looked beyond her porch, noticing the footprints in the sand that the moonlight revealed.
Breathing hard and taking precautions, she walked off the porch to examine the area. It was man's shoe and from all indication it looked to be about a size eleven. Tori glanced around and noticed the screen from the side window of her house lay on the ground. Raising her gun again, she quickly circled her house to see if anything else had been tampered with, her ears tuned to pick up any sound. When she returned to the porch she sighed deeply.
Someone had tried to get into the window of her guest bedroom and she had two questions. Who? And why?
Drake pulled the SUV he had rented into a hotel off of Interstate 580. He had caught a plane from Houston to Oakland, California, deciding to drive the rest of the way to Stinson Beach. But since it was night, he decided to check into a hotel and arrive on Tori's doorstep first thing in the morning.
It had taken less than seventy-two hours for Alex Maxwell to provide him with the information he needed. He had been both elated and somewhat nervous. If Alex could find Tori so easily, then so could anyone else. Although according to Alex, it hadn't been as easy as it seemed to find Tori since there were a lot of Victoria Greens living in the United States and she had apparently tried hiding her tracks. He had narrowed the list down to those who had changed residences within the last six months and then from there he had zeroed in on those who had recently searched the Internet for job opportunities. It seemed that a Victoria Green who lived in Stinson Beach, California was a new resident who had moved into the beach community recently, although she had owned the home for over a year.
After traveling for almost an entire day, Drake didn't know what he planned to say to Tori when he saw her. "Hey, I was passing through and thought I'd look you up" just didn't sound plausible. He then decided that "I need to know if you're pregnant" was better. However since she hadn't tried contacting him, he could only assume that she wasn't, and she might be quick to bring that fact to his attention.
A frown marred his brow as he pulled his overnight bag out of the SUV and carried it inside the hotel to register. He would get a good night's sleep and think things through before showing up at Tori's place unannounced.
A few moments later, after entering his hotel room and closing the door behind him, he unpacked his toiletries and placed them on the counter in the bathroom. Taking off his jacket, he removed the 9mm Beretta from his holster. He might travel light but he never went anywhere without his gun.
He didn't want to think that he had no right tracking Tori down the way he had, invading her privacy and interfering with the new life she had created for herself. He struggled with the thought that she would immediately think he was nothing but a selfish bastard, and he shrugged knowing basically that that was true. They had only been together that once, but there had been something about her that had driven him to this point; to where he couldn't let go of the memory of her compelling dark-brown eyes or the soft brown hair that framed her face and flowed over her shoulders, giving her features such an innocent look. Or the sassiness of her attitude-there was definitely nothing innocent about a woman who could take down a man twice her size with her bare hands, and who was surprisingly at home with just about any firearm he could think of.