“I did not!” Amber munched on another cookie, not looking up but knowing her friend had an evil smile on her face that would make her break out laughing. “Besides, it wasn’t a full erection.”
“Aha. You at least admit to checking, then,” Llallana came back wryly.
Never mind checking, she hadfeltit in the most intimate way possible. She wondered how the poor man was going to react to her little present. “Can’t help it, he was naked,” she pointed out, finally looking up to meet her friend’s twinkling eyes. “At least I didn’t shine a flashlight on it and ooh and ahh over it like it’s the eighth wonder in the world.”
Llallana laughed. “Of course, blame it on me and my wicked ways.” She took a long sip of her coffee, then lazily settled back in her chair, cradling the cup in both hands. She watched Amber through half-closed eyes. “Unlike you, I’m not ashamed to admit to liking what I saw.”
Amber sighed. She reached for a cloth to wipe the flour from her hands. “Lily, darling, I think we both agree that shame isn’t in your genetic makeup. If we’re to work with this man, how could I look at him in the eye if I’d checked him out as thoroughly as you had?”
“Ahem…you’re the one working with him, not me, so I guess what I did was okay.” Llallana laughed again. “I think, either way, you’re going to be in trouble with the guy right now. He should have woken up by now and found your little present.”
Amber tried not to smile at the thought. “Maybe so. Maybe we shouldn’t have done what we did.”
Llallana arched her eyebrows. “Regrets? To hell with them if they can’t take it, and to hell with this new operative if he can’t take a little joke.”
“It isn’t a joke. It’s a test,” Amber corrected. She suppressed the thought of hownotlittle he was.
“Oh yeah, tell his erection that.” Llallana took another sip of her coffee. “I’ve a feeling he’s going to be oh-so-mad with you.”
“You, too.”
“Ah, but he doesn’t know I was there, Amber. You’re all alone against his wrath.”
Amber crunched on her cookie. “Ifhe can find me.”
Everything about their world was dreary and painfully serious. They had decided to seize every opportunity to have some laughter. So why not with the new operative in town? The CIA had sent him here to steal secrets. What a joke. Amber and Llallana had been working together for four years. Four freaking years watching the bloodbath around them. And now here comes some hotshot operative to take charge. Oh, really? Amber licked the crumbs from her fingers. In Macedonia, they had a saying: A foolish fox is caught by one leg, a wise one by all fours. Everything took time. And a lot of planning.
“What if he is better than the last one they sent?” Llallana interrupted her thoughts.
Amber rolled her eyes. “He has to be.”
“Okay, so the last one was a real bozo, but you said this time it involved a man named Jed McNeil. Is he showing up here, too, then?”
“No, Jed doesn’t just show up, Lily. He’s sort of like the cleanup guy in his outfit, so if we see him at all, it’s endgame time. But I did talk to him for a few short minutes.”
“What did he tell you, besides that it’s a CIA-sanctioned operation?”
“Jed never says anything, but the fact that he’s in on this thing makes it more interesting. And you know the CIA. Sanctioned? Pffft. We’re sanctioned, but that doesn’t stop them from betraying us if necessary. We’re still of use, that’s all.” Amber shrugged. “Back to this new guy—what’s our boy after that has Jed calling me up personally?”
“To warn you that he’s his boy?” As usual, Llallana chose not to address the subject of a CIA betrayal.
Amber nodded thoughtfully. “Lily, if he’s Jed’s boy, he’s not really CIA, you know that. There’s more going on than trying to find out coordinates.”
Llallana finished her coffee, placed the empty cup on the table, and stretched out her legs. “From what you told me about this Jed McNeil, he and his outfit are even grayer than our CIA, with lots of leeway. So what do you think is so damn important that everyone’s after? That Dilaver has?”
Amber had wondered herself. “Let’s find out,” she said. “If it’s that damn important, maybe we can get it for ourselves. Hell, possession is still nine-tenths of the law, even in these parts.”
2
Ubijati. To kill. Or not.
Hawk was a member of an elite black operations team, but this time he was handling an operation all by himself, with many different choices to make. No one to report to. No one to account for. Just his own life. No one would question his actions as long as he achieved the operation objective. No one to come in after him if things went to hell.
He didn’t move from his lazy lean against the door as he watched Dilaver smash up the furniture in the room, his tirade a mixture of Serbian and Croatian curses, with a healthy dose of Macedonian threats. No one else in the room made a move to stop their boss. Hell, they were probably happy Dilaver wasn’t in a truly mean mood. When that happened, furniture wasn’t the only thing that got broken.
Killing was a daily choice here. The careless disposal of life would be appalling to many, but not to this group of Macedonians. Velesta was an international crime center, and he was watching one of its most ruthless prime movers throw a tantrum.
Hawk understood most of the angry man’s diatribe, although sometimes the accent and the local dialect threw him off. Someone had done the impossible—challenged the most notorious crime lord in the most notorious crime city. His interest perked a little. Maybe this was an opening for him to get on track for his own mission. Right now he observed the men keeping out of their boss’s way. A good idea.Ubijatiwasn’t the only thing fate could ask of one…sometimes it wasubijen.From killer to the one killed.
