“Break the laws I uphold?” Brad narrowed his eyes. “And what would that make me? There are consequences each time I compromise.”
“Oh yes, it might affect your way up the diplomatic chain of command,” she said, a cynical smile lifting the corners of her lips. “Who would want to stay here in this hellhole?”
Before he could reply, Amber interrupted. “Now, Lily, be fair. He’s helping as much as he can, especially now that he’s found out what we do,” she said, leaning forward to pour more wine into the glasses, her eyes catching Brad’s.
As always, he wondered about the two women’s relationship, both of whom seemed to contrast so in style and manner. One was calm and assessing and the other bothered the shit out of him. Yet, he’d caught them laughing in the kitchen before, giggling like females sometimes did when they were talking naughty stuff. Maybe he just hadn’t tried hard enough with Llallana. Hell, how could he be friendly with a woman who corrected him each time he called her Lily? He wasn’t afriend. Fine. He’d stopped after the first few times.
“That’s because you’re contracting with the CIA and he feels obligated.”
“Is that what you think?” Brad asked, curious. She wasn’t wrong, but she was also assuming that he approved of the CIA. Llallana shrugged, as if the answer were obvious. He had a feeling that there was more to this than surface accusations. “Tell me how they’ve hurt you, Llallana.”
Bingo. Something flared up in those beautiful eyes for a moment, then she dipped her head to study her fingernails. She gave him that sideways glance that always managed to hide her thoughts. “Getting melodramatic, aren’t we? Now, what is it about the girls you wanted to know again? Where are they? Out of this country. How are they? Better than before. Those too afraid to go home have enough money to survive for a while. Will they get better care?” She paused. “I don’t know. I hope so. Some of them are in bad shape, as you know.”
Her voice had lost some of its passion, as if she were trying to control her emotions by being businesslike. Brad didn’t miss the way her hands clenched and unclenched on her lap.
“When you”—he stopped to find another word for “smuggle”—“move them, don’t the authorities question some of those in bad condition? I’d be suspicious if a few girls boarded my plane with bruises and cuts.”
Some of them had more than bruises and cuts. And all of them were psychologically damaged.
“I try to give them some downtime, Brad. It isn’t easy preparing a girl that age for a journey away from everything she’s known. But then, she’s already suffered a fate that’s beyond anything girls her age should know. I try to prepare them. This is their chance to escape and they know this. There aren’t many choices, you know.”
“That’s why getting them before they’re destroyed by thekafenathugs was a good strategy,” Amber said, then added with a small smile, “and it was Brad’s idea.”
“That’s the information I can easily get without raising too many eyebrows.” After all, it was his job to trace the drugs and illegal human trafficking. “And I do know the risks you take to get them to a safe place, Llallana.”
He still couldn’t believe the woman sitting across from him was also in charge of some team of thugs or mercenaries—she wouldn’t tell and, of course, he wasn’t going to ask—who literally played highwaymen, pretending to be going after the girls for their own gain. Where did she meet with these men?
“Let’s drink to the success of the next road trip, shall we?” Amber lifted her glass. “Brad has more information, Lily.”
Brad picked up his glass and drank to the toast as he broodingly studied Llallana. He wanted to get her alone with him…like the last time. Part of him wanted to kiss her again.
4
“That went quite well,” Amber said, afterloading up the dishwasher. Despite the cool weather outside, she’d opened the kitchen back door that led onto the second-story deck outside. Standing by the entrance, she studied Llallana sitting on the stool outside, smoking a cigarette. A sign of nerves—Lily hardly smoked except when something was bothering her.
“Don’t you have other guests downstairs to attend to?”
“That’s what the staff is for,” Amber replied, “and I usually take the evening off when Brad comes to dinner.”
Llallana turned around in the semidarkness. “Sorry to have interrupted your plans.”
“Oh, come on, we’ve been friends for four years, Lily. You don’t have to play those games with me. And Brad isn’t interested in me, and vice versa.” Amber took a deep breath. “There was choking tension in the room this evening between the two of you that’s new. Mind explaining the source to me?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Llallana took a drag of her cigarette, then crushed it into the ashtray. “I didn’t feel anything.”
“When you guys didn’t hit it off when Brad first came on the scene, you told me you didn’t like his type. Too strait-laced, or something like that. What changed?”
“I still don’t like his type,” Llallana flashed.
“Uh-huh,” Amber murmured. This thing between her friend and Brad had gotten more and more interesting to watch each meeting. They were antagonistic toward each other from the very beginning, yet there was a subtle hint of sexual attraction. “It’s cold out there. I’m going to close the kitchen door now. Coming in?”
“I have my jacket on. In a few, okay?”
“Okay. Don’t leave without saying ’bye. I have stuff to talk to you about.”
“About what Brad told us?”
Amber shook her head. “We can talk about that tomorrow. There’s something else.” She wanted to tell her about the call and instant messenger conversation a few hours ago. “It isn’t urgent, but it’s something interesting.”
