Читать книгу The Danforths: Marc, Tanya & Abe: The Laws of Passion / Terms of Surrender / Shocking the Senator - Leanne Banks - Страница 9

Three

Was he glad that Dana had insisted on coming along to the office? He couldn’t quite settle his thoughts when it came to her. But they were both about to leave for his meeting with Ian, just the same.

He wanted her to trust him and believe in him, though he had no idea why. But would she inhibit his efforts to prove himself innocent? He sighed, resigned to having her company whether he wanted it or not.

“How about if we take my SUV and I’ll drive?” he asked, as they locked the front door and set the alarm system.

She shook her head and headed for the driver’s side of her small, bland sedan. “No thanks. You don’t have the training, and the whole world already knows what kind of car you normally drive. In the protection business, the idea is to vary your routine…change cars, times and the routes to your regular haunts.”

Well, Marc had certainly found one thing he was not happy about. He didn’t like riding in her car. He wanted to drive himself around like usual, and he liked his normal routine. This whole business was really starting to suck.

He directed her to the Danforth corporate office building via the back roads and downtown side streets. The parking lot was all but empty at this time of night. A security van patrolled the exterior grounds and Ian’s car was parked in his normal spot.

“Nice office,” Dana said as she parked the car where he’d directed. “These brick buildings that are so common in old Savannah are very efficient. And I imagine all the trees and flowers make a nice impression on clients. Do you have many muggings or break ins in this part of town?”

He opened his car door and “tsked” at her. “You look at a beautiful historic building and fantastically lush landscaping and think of muggings? You’ve been in the bodyguard business too long, Ms. Aldrich.” He breathed deep and took in the sweet smell of honeysuckle that he’d loved since he was a kid.

She shrugged her shoulders, climbed out and locked her car. “To be the best at my job, you have to work at it twenty-four hours a day. Everything I see has some significance to the…uh…protection business. I don’t pay attention to the superficial things in this world.”

“You never take any time off to just enjoy yourself—to smell the flowers?” He slid his key into the door lock at the employee entrance and opened it. “What’s that old saying about all work and no play…?”

She grimaced and stepped ahead of him into the darkened downstairs hallway. “I don’t mind being dull. The job has all the excitement I need.”

While he led her down the hall toward the elevator behind reception, his heels clicked loudly against the polished-pecan floors. Again, Marc began to wonder about the intelligent and strong woman who’d become his bodyguard. Just what kind of person was she?

There seemed to be so much hidden about her. Did she have any kind social of life? Like, for instance, a husband or a boyfriend somewhere? When she’d talked about not caring much for family, he’d thought she had only meant her parents. Now he was becoming convinced that she was a real loner. With no one in her life who mattered.

And it was becoming very important to him to figure her out. If she’d let him, he wanted to be the one to show her how to relax and enjoy herself. To appreciate history and learn to see the beauty of the world around her. She was beginning to matter. But for the life of him, he couldn’t pin down the reason he cared so much.

That kind of reflection would have to come after he’d cleared his name. And kept himself out of jail. First things first.

The elevator reached the fifth floor and they stepped out onto the Persian carpet runner and headed in the direction of the CEO’s office. Marcus pointed out his own office down the hall the other way.

Ian was waiting for them at his desk. He stood when they came in and shot Marcus a wary glance.

“Ian, this is my new bodyguard, Dana Aldrich.”

“Yes, I heard all about her from Adam.” Ian turned to her. “How do you do, Ms. Aldrich. Michael Whittaker tells me he doesn’t know you personally, but he speaks quite highly of your reputation. Thank you for taking this job on such short notice.”

She shook his hand. “I’m glad to help.”

“Good.” Ian turned back to his desk. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have a few things to say to my brother in private. You may wait in my reception area. I don’t think there’ll be any attempts on Marc’s life while he’s in my office.”

Dana straightened her spine and stood her ground. She turned to Marcus for his word on the matter. Marcus looked hesitant but didn’t jump in to ask her to stay.

“I won’t be in your way, Mr. Danforth,” she insisted to Ian. “But I believe a good bodyguard should know where all the threats are coming from. If what you have to say to Marcus pertains to his arrest or the charges against him, I’d like to be made aware of it at the same time.”

“Yes, Ian. I want her to stay,” Marcus finally urged. “She’s going to be with me as I find the evidence to prove my innocence. She might as well know what we’re up against.”

Ian laid a hand on his arm. “All right, baby brother. I guess you need as many people on your side as you can get right now. If that’s what you want, she can stay. Both of you have a seat.”

Ian eased into his huge leather chair and drove his fingers through his hair. “You’re not going to like what I have to say.”

Marcus leaned his big six-two frame toward the front of the high-backed visitor’s chair. “What’s wrong? Is it the family? Are they all okay?”

“Yes,” Ian told him. “Everyone is fine at the moment. Everyone but you.”

“It’s not Dad then? He can’t be happy about my arrest when he’s just about to swing this election. He’s still running ahead, isn’t he?”

“Dad’s not concerned about how your arrest will or will not affect his election chances. He’s concerned about you. We all are.” Ian hesitated a moment, then bit his lip.

Dana was astounded. Everything she’d ever read or heard about Ian Danforth said he was the self-assured and competent president of a national firm. But at the moment, he looked stung and unsure of himself. She sat back and waited to hear his story.

“I had a phone call a little while ago, Marc. From…”

“Don’t tell me. I’ll bet it was from our nemesis, Sonny Hernandez. I don’t have any doubts that he’s in on this frame-up. What did he want?”

“Excuse me,” Dana interrupted. “I know I said I’d just be quiet, but who’s this Sonny Hernandez?”

Marcus turned to her. “He a scum gopher for a drug cartel and a local coffee bean importer. Nasty piece of work he is, too. He’s been pressuring us to do business with the importer exclusively.”

“What kind of business?”

“He doesn’t just want to do business with our shipping company,” Ian told her. “He wants our help with laundering their dirty drug money.”

“Ah. Drug dealing is nasty stuff. What kind of pressure?” she asked, in as innocent tone of voice as she could manage.

“The threats started back in February,” Marcus replied. “Then in April they got a lot more personal when they blew up one of our warehouse offices.”

“Blew it up? An explosion? Was anyone hurt?” Dana had read about it in the files, but she wanted their take on who had done it.

Ian shook his head. “No. And so far the police haven’t found any clues as to who set it off. But we know who’s behind it.”

“You mean you think the importers blew up your building to coerce you into doing what they want?”

Ian scowled. “Yes and no. Yes, the explosion was meant to scare me into doing what they want. But no, it’s not coming from the local coffee bean people. Like Marc was saying, they’re just a front for a Colombian drug cartel. The cartel has threatened my life several times, and went so far as kidnapping an innocent woman who they mistook for my mistress. And when those tactics didn’t work, they framed my brother.”

Marcus stirred in his chair then addressed Ian. “So what did good old charming Sonny have to say tonight?”

“It wasn’t Sonny this time,” Ian told him. “The call was from the kingpin himself. Ernesto Estoban Escalante.”

Dana’s jaw dropped opened, but she covertly closed it and swallowed hard. Escalante? The most notorious drug lord in the world? The FBI had been hunting the man for nearly a decade. Every time they thought they had him, he’d drop back into the oblivion of the Colombian rain forests where his cartel ruled supreme.

And he had personally called Ian Danforth tonight? Suddenly everything changed for Dana. If what Ian and Marcus had told her was true, the Danforths were in big trouble. And she had stepped into something much larger than Marcus and his racketeering charge.

But she still wasn’t positive that the Danforths were innocents. What if Marcus had given in to the cartel to protect his brother? He could still make a good informant.

Dana kept her mouth shut and listened.

Ian was speaking to Marcus and shaking his head sadly. “I don’t know how to fix this for you, Marc. Escalante plainly told me that if I would help them launder their money through the coffee supplies that he’d get you off the hook. But…”

“The bastard as much as admitted to you that he framed me?” Marcus snapped.

“Yeah. I thought I’d lived through the worst they could throw at me. But…I can’t sit back and let you go to jail for something you didn’t do.” Ian grimaced and took a breath. “Besides, they won’t stop at that. Next they’ll probably start murdering all of us…one at a time.”

“You can’t be thinking of giving in to them now?” Marcus sounded stunned. “You can’t do that. I’m not going to jail for something I didn’t do. Don’t worry. I’ll find the evidence to prove my innocence. Just give me a little time.”

Dana just had to interrupt again to make a comment. “By any chance did you happen to get tonight’s phone call on tape?”

Ian narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t normally tape my phone conversations, no.”

“Are you going to try getting the police involved with this again?” Marcus asked his brother. “They have to believe you by now.”

“They do believe us. But there’s nothing they can do without proof. All the leads we’ve given them have turned cold. The cartel is too powerful.” Ian took a deep breath and ran the back of his hand across his mouth. “And too dangerous. I’m not going to let any more of my family suffer out of some misguided sense of righteousness. I can’t. It’s not worth it.”

“Ian, please,” Marcus begged. “Give me at least a few days to find the proof. I promise you, I’m not going to jail…and we’ll find the evidence to stop this once and for all.”

Ian clenched his fists on his desk. Then he turned to Dana. “Can you guarantee me that you’ll keep him alive while he investigates this damned murdering drug lord?”

Dana hesitated for one second then answered him sharply. “I can guarantee you that as long as I am alive, Marcus will be fine. Nothing will happen to him.”

“Yeah? Well, I’d just as soon you didn’t die over my stupid pride, either.” Ian stood and started to pace. “All right, Marc,” he finally agreed. “I can put them off for a couple more weeks. But after that I give up. You are not going to do time for a crime you didn’t commit. Not as long as I can stop it.”

Marcus stood and went to put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ian. We’ll beat them.” He turned and smiled at Dana. “And I’ll be all right. I have a guardian angel at my side.”

Dana stood, too. “I’ve never been called an angel before.” She set her jaw and turned to Ian. “But don’t worry, Mr. Danforth. I intend to see that all of you come out of this in one piece. You have my word.”

As both men stood speechless after that strange remark, Dana’s mind was already leaping into a plan. “Okay. Now. What can you tell me about your phone system? And after we check on that, I want you to tell me everything you remember about that phone call with Escalante.”

Marc checked to see that the employee door was locked as they left the office building. Then he followed a very antsy Dana while she cautiously climbed into her car and pressed the door-lock button as soon as he’d closed the door behind him.

She put her key in the ignition, but didn’t turn it. “There’s something I have to tell you,” she said softly.

“I had a feeling there might be.”

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and shifted slightly in her seat. “Yeah, you’re too smart not to have been guessing about me. And I’d also be willing to bet that Ian is on the phone to Michael Whittaker right this minute, demanding some answers.”

“You’re not a bodyguard, are you?”

She shook her head.

“Then who…?”

“I’m an FBI special agent, Marcus. I’ve been assigned to offer you a deal to turn over any information that could help the federal attorney convict the cartel.”

“FBI agent?” After his initial shock, he knew in his gut that what she’d said was true. “I suppose you can prove that?” he asked anyway.

“Not at the moment. I’ve been undercover…you understand. But I want to take you to someone who can prove it for me. He’s someone I think you should talk to.”

“Just a minute.” Marc’s mind was swimming with all the things she’d said. “Why are you telling me this now? What’s changed?”

“I’ve changed. I don’t think you’re guilty of racketeering anymore.”

“Gee, thanks.” He reached over and took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “You mean when I first told you I wasn’t guilty you thought I was lying?”

She pulled her chin from his grip, but turned in her seat to face him. “That’s how I was trained. Suspect everyone and trust no one. It isn’t personal. It’s just my job.”

Not personal? And here he’d been dreaming of making things between them as personal as you can get. He still wanted that. In fact, his fingers ached right now with wanting to touch her again.

“Okay, Dana. Let’s go see the man who can prove who you are.” This revelation of hers was going to take a bit of getting used to.

She bent to crank the ignition, but he suddenly thought of something and stopped her. “Hey. Dana Aldrich is your real name, isn’t it?”

“It’s the name I’ve always used,” she told him flatly. “That’s all I can tell you.”

Marc sat in stony silence while Dana drove them all over town, ending up only a few blocks from where they’d started. She’d made two mobile-phone calls, but he didn’t catch much from her side of the conversation.

A war was going on inside him. He was mad. Confused. Slightly frightened and…still desperate to find a way into Dana’s bed. She was totally different than any woman he’d ever known. And he’d never figured that he would be so attracted to a tough, professional law-woman.

In fact, he never figured he would be attracted to any woman ever again after that monumentally embarrassing fiasco of last year. Yet, here he was, lusting after a woman with long, soft curls and the biggest brown eyes he’d ever seen.

They finally pulled into a darkened garage behind a nondescript building on East Bryan Street and parked the car. “Where are we?” he asked.

“The FBI Resident Agency office. Luckily, my boss is here in Savannah from the Atlanta field office. I want him to meet you.”

They climbed the back stairs to the fourth floor. “The office is open at this hour?” he asked.

She shook her head and led him into a shadowed hallway. “The public reception area closes at five. We’re headed to a small conference suite in back.”

Dana opened a door for him to walk through. As he stepped inside, he saw a medium sized room, absolutely crammed with high-tech equipment. When his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he recognized state-of-the-art computers and a screen that seemed to be some kind of radar scanner. A young man was sitting in front of communications-style machines that blinked with lights and buzzed with noises.

But Dana didn’t acknowledge the man who was operating the computers. She walked right past the guy.

“This way.” Dana motioned Marc to follow her into a side room. “Good evening, SAC Simon,” she said as she closed the door.

“Dana.” A middle-aged man with steel blue eyes and a little gray at his temples stood and walked toward them. “And this must be Marcus Danforth. I’m Special Agent-In-Charge Steve Simon. Please just call me Steve.” He shook hands. “How’re you doing?”

“I’m not so hot, at the moment,” Marc grumbled. “This morning I was in jail, and tonight I seem to have been dropped into some kind of weird espionage movie. I’m not thrilled about either one.”

“Have a seat, son. I think we’d better talk.” Steve moved to the polished wood conference table and took a chair.

When the three of them were seated, Marc couldn’t wait to start asking questions. “Why am I here? What do you want from me?”

“You’re here in our covert operations office because Dana has disobeyed standard procedures and told you who she really is,” Steve replied. “You are also here because you may be able to help both your family and your country. Are you willing to listen to and then consider a proposition to do both of those things?”

Marc nodded his head but kept his mouth shut. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten himself into this mess, but now he knew he needed advice on how to get out of it.

“Good. But first, I want to assure you that the woman you’ve known as your bodyguard is indeed Special Agent Dana Aldrich. I’ve already received a call from my old friend, Michael Whittaker, saying your brother Ian is determined to find out the truth about her. I’ll call Ian later and explain. We’ll probably be needing his assistance on this investigation anyway.”

Steve sat back in his chair and studied both Marc and Dana. “I understand your brother received a phone call tonight from Ernesto Escalante. If he is determined to get your family’s assistance in his schemes, there is no way you can escape his wrath. He’s one of the most dangerous men on earth. So far you have all been very lucky.”

“Lucky? I wouldn’t say that what we’ve been through qualifies as anything but bad luck.” Marc gritted his teeth in frustration. “Don’t tell me there’s no hope of besting the cartel. I refuse to believe it. I intend to get the proof I need to beat my frame-up.”

Steve smiled at him. “I believe you would try it. But you might die trying. And then what? Escalante would just keep the pressure on Ian to do what he wants. Killing off your family members one by one would be his next move.”

“That’s what Ian said.” Marcus was annoyed as hell now. There had to be a way out of this.

“Your brother is a smart man who’s been in a terrible bind. But I have an idea for something that might end your family’s terror right here. Will you listen?”

Marc sat up in his chair and looked from Dana to Steve and back again. “I’ll listen.”

Steve spent the next hour outlining a plan for him and Dana to investigate the whereabouts of Escalante and then for them to participate in a sting designed to capture the man and put an end to the blackmail once and for all. Marc wasn’t positive the plan would work. But he figured it was worth a shot. After all, he was the one family member that now had nothing to lose.

It was two a.m. when he and Dana left the FBI office and climbed back into her car. “Does this car really belong to you?” he inquired as he stifled a yawn.

“It’s a Bureau vehicle,” she told him. “It has a few modifications over the standard issue. It’ll do sixty in eight seconds flat. There are airbags across the front and on all doors.”

She smiled as they buckled up. “And it’s also equipped with a transmitter and GPS positioner that will work in a radius of up to three hundred miles.”

“Terrific.” Marc was becoming more irritable by the second. Regardless of being warned by her boss to obey Dana’s instructions at the risk of his life, he was tired and still furious that Dana had lied to him. Oh, he knew it was her job, but still…

“Where are we headed?” he scowled.

“To your farm. Now that I know for sure you’re not involved with the cartel, I’m convinced they have no reason to take you out…yet. They need you alive, temporarily, to use as a hold over Ian. So we should be fairly safe at your home for a while.”

Dana backed out of the garage and headed down the river road in the general direction of the farm. “Besides, you look like you’re about to drop. We’ll be able to form a clearer strategy after you get a good night’s sleep.”

Marc stewed in silence for the entire forty-five minutes it took them to travel what should’ve been a twenty-minute trip. Evidently, she was never going to drive in a straight line to any destination.

When they arrived, she pulled in behind the barn and they got out as she locked the doors. “I’ll check your SUV for bugs and tracking devices in the morning. We may need to use it as part of the sting.”

“Swell.” He grabbed her arm and swung her around to face him. “You owe me something. You’ve admitted you lied, and I want to know how many of the things you told me were true and what was just part of the game.”

In the clear light of a full moon, he saw her face flush with anger and her hands ball into fists. “I told you…it was all part of the job.”

She tried to jerk herself free from his grasp, but he tightened his grip. “No dice, sister. That’s not going to cut it anymore. I want to know who you are—underneath the tough special agent.”

“Don’t make a huge mistake before we even get started, Danforth. You’re asleep on you feet. It’ll all look better in the morning.”

“Maybe so, sugar. But I’m still going to want answers.”

She was right. It was a mistake to take out all his frustrations on her. But what the hell? He’d been dying to get his hands on her since the first instant she’d spoken his name in that spun-sugar voice of hers. And now he could feel her muscled upper arm flexing under his hand.

He wanted to touch her skin without the clothes. He wanted to see what she looked like standing naked before him. He wanted…

“Take your hand off me.” She slipped her keys into her pocket with her free hand. “And don’t call me sugar.” She turned her body away from him and jerked on her arm again.

“Oh. Excuse me. I meant Special Agent Sugar.” The wave of tenderness he felt was a complete surprise. But the wave of passion that pushed it aside with an erotic shove was nothing new. He’d been plagued by those sexy urges for most of this very long evening.

In one fell swoop, Marc swung her off her feet and into his arms. “Aw, the hell with it.” He forgot his irritation and forgot the rules of decency along with it. “Let’s just find out what’s real and what’s not—right now.”