Page 2 of Colombian Chemistry

Pickpockets I could watch and laugh at, but to let a woman be assaulted or murdered? Even someone as cold as me couldn’t sit by and let that one play out. I reached for my gun but then remembered the coconut beside my chair. In the blink of an eye, I ran through the scenario in my head. After I saw it successfully play out, I smiled and palmed the coconut in my hand. Just as the woman noticed the arm slinking around her neck to grab her, I hurled the coconut across the beach. With a crack, it collided with his head, dropping him into a boneless heap behind her.

A smirk lifted one corner of my lips. Perfection. It had gone exactly how I’d imagined it.

Her high-pitched scream shook the air around me as she spun and stared at the assailant knocked out cold at her feet. She glanced around until her gaze settled on me, and our eyes locked. I saw the confusion in hers, but I offered her no explanation. Instead, I lifted my bottle of beer to my lips and took a swig as I settled back into my chair.

After a few long moments of flicking her eyes between me and the man knocked out in the sand, she spun on her heel and bolted off down the beach.

Good girl. Keep running.

There. I’d done it. I’d managed to save the girl, and I’d kept myself out of the crosshairs of a police investigation. The man would wake up eventually and slink back to the shadows he’d come from, and the woman would likely race back to her hotel room and pack her bags and leave. No cops would get involved. No dead body to dispose of. No investigation would impose on my quiet little retirement. With a smile, I finished my beer and walked back to my cottage. My perfect record of unbotched missions remained intact.

Mission accomplished.

***

“Hola, Señor John.” Gabriela crooned the fake name I’d given her as we passed each other in the market.

My real name was Marcus, but I’d left that identity at the Columbian border when I’d moved here. Fresh start, fresh identity. Only the people closest to me, my most trusted comrades, got to know my real name. Those people were Knox, Piper, and Wesley. My former crew and the only people on this planet I trusted with my life and my true identity.

My family.

“Hola, Gabriela,” I responded politely but curtly with a quick nod of my head. I clutched the cardboard box of fresh vegetables, meats, cheeses, milk, and bread to my chest, hoping to hurry past her.

She batted her eyes and swished her bright red floral skirt, no doubt trying to draw my attention to her narrow waist and full hips. As she pushed out her chest to highlight the huge breasts bursting out of her ruffled top, I knew damn well what she was trying to accomplish. The very same thing those breasts and those hips had successfully accomplished last fall, and the same thing she’d been trying to recreate every time I’d seen her since. But I had no room in my life for a woman, and I’d already taken a spin with Gabriela. One and done was how I managed the ladies in my life, making sure before anything happened that they understood our affairs weren’t the start of a beautiful new friendship. They were for fun only, and I always left before the sun came up and never went back for seconds. Seconds only gave them the glimmer of hope that perhaps a relationship was in the cards.

It wasn’t.

My life had room for me, and only me. I made that clear with women before we fell into bed, but that rarely stopped them from trying to come back for more. Why the hell women were so attracted to the men they couldn’t have was one thing I’d never fully understand. A half a dozen handsome men in this market were practically on their knees begging for her attention, and yet she remained laser-focused on me.

“What are you doing tonight?” she asked in her thick, Spanish accent.

Her long fingertips slid across my shoulder, but I continued walking as I clucked the side of my cheek. “I’ve got plans tonight.”

“Do they involve me?” She tightened her grip on my shoulder and tugged me to a stop.

I exhaled a sigh and spun around, giving her a soft smile. She arched a dark brow as her tongue slid across her upper lip.

“Unfortunately, they do not. You know we agreed to only do that once.” I matched her raised brow.

Deep wrinkles formed on her forehead as she puckered up her beautiful face in a pout. “You tease me, Señor John.”

“I do not intend to tease, Gabriela. You have a dozen men here trying to win your heart. You should choose one of them.”

“But they don’t have these muscles.” She smirked as she ran a hand across my pec. It tightened in response to her touch. “Or this face.” Her fingertips drifted up my neck and slid along my shadowed jaw. “Don’t you want to be the one to win my heart?”

I reached out and took her hand, lifting it to my lips. “Trust me, Gabriela. You don’t want me. You deserve yourself a much better man than I. Have yourself a lovely evening.”

Her seductive stare slipped into a sad one as I bid her goodbye.

“You’ll change your mind. You’ll see!” she called after me.

With a chuckle, I cast a wave over my shoulder. I wouldn’t. I had a resolve stronger than titanium, and even those passions promised in her gaze couldn’t shake me from my promise to not get involved with any one woman.

My career had meant no relationships. Hell, having no family or ties was the entire reason they’d recruited us. I’d followed those rules while I was active, and now, even after retirement, it was still so ingrained in me not to get attached that I didn’t think I’d ever want to settle down. My entire adult life I’d needed to be able to pick up and disappear in a heartbeat, and having a woman to manage would have made that damn near impossible. Travel light, live simply, always be ready to move. Those survival instincts were still burned so deep into me that I knew I’d never be free of them.

The setting sun guided me down the little streets toward the cottage I’d bought two years ago. It wasn’t much, but I didn’t need a lot. It was right on the ocean, put a roof over my head, and afforded me the peace and privacy I’d been looking for. And the price had been right, leaving me a good chunk of the money I’d stashed away to support me for the rest of my days. I wouldn’t be using hundred-dollar bills as toilet paper, but I had saved enough from contracts to ensure I wouldn’t run out of money before the grim reaper finally caught up with me. God knows he’d been trying to catch me for years.

The sound of the ocean waves crashing on the shore signaled I was almost home, and I inhaled a deep breath of the salty air as I prepared to turn the last corner onto my street. But I froze when footsteps punctuated the sound of the waves. I tipped my head and listened.