Karen Anders
Deliciously Dangerous
A book in the Undercover Lovers series, 2010
Dear Reader,
I’ve come to the end of another series, and it feels both satisfying and sad. Satisfying because I’ve gotten the opportunity to write about three couples who have taken my writing from relationship stories to sexy romantic suspense. And sad because it’s finished. The final novel in my UNDERCOVER LOVERS miniseries is by far the most intense. Callie must remain undercover in her Gina Callahan alias, knowing that at the end of her mission she is going to have to arrest a man she’s fallen in love with. As Callie gets closer and closer to him, his facade falls away, and an intricate and fascinating man is revealed. Who is the Ghost and what are his real motivations? Will Callie find out in the end that she’s given her heart to friend or foe?
Thank you for taking this journey with me. I so appreciate each and every one of you. I love to hear from readers, so please feel free to e-mail me. May you enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Best,
Karen Anders
To Tara Cowan for being there
when I needed her
Prologue
JAMMER, AKA THE GHOST, stared out at the mess Max Carpenter and Watchdog had made of Eduardo Fuentes’s compound for the second time. All to save one DEA agent, Rio Marshall.
Fuentes was livid. He was an egomaniac and had gotten it into his head that Rio and her FBI bodyguard, Max Carpenter, needed to be eliminated. It didn’t look good to Eduardo’s Libertad friends that he couldn’t keep track of a DEA agent who had eluded him twice. From what Jammer had gleaned in the chase across Maui that had ensued after Max and Rio escaped, Rio had bested Eduardo. Now he wanted her dead more than ever. Although Fuentes’s contacts had searched, it was as if the agent and her boyfriend had disappeared off the face of the earth.
But Jammer was pretty sure he could get Fuentes back on track and distract him from his hunt of Rio and Max. The deal Jammer had made to provide a large shipment of weapons to support Fuentes and the paramilitary group the Defensores de la Libertad in their coup of the Colombian government would be front and center again. He’d worked for three years on this deal; he couldn’t let anything jeopardize it now that he was so close to the end.
All he had left to do was assemble the rest of the shipment Eduardo required, and for that he’d have to make a trip to some dangerous places and deal with some dangerous people.
Silently, he pulled a picture out of a secret compartment in his wallet. It was a photo of Gina Callahan, the arms dealer he’d met in Paris. He had, for a time, lost him self to her. He still longed to see her, but knew he’d made the right decision in leaving her.
His longing changed into a heavy ache in his chest, but he turned from the window and prepared to calm Fuentes down and move on to the next phase.
Soon it would all be over.
CALLIE CARPENTER STOOD in front of Gillian Santiago, the director of Watchdog. She’d joined the agency only recently, after a stint with the CIA, but she already felt admiration and loyalty for Gillian. Watchdog had taken good care of Callie during her recuperation from the hit-and-run she’d endured while on an undercover mission in Paris. Her assignment had been to hook the Ghost in as a buyer and then, when the deal went down in L.A., take him into custody.
But her twin sister, Allie, had been mistaken for Callie while she’d been decorating Callie’s decoy apartment for their birthday, and with Callie out of commission, Watchdog had recruited both Drew Miller and her tame, interior-designer sister.
Callie had been out of it for most of the two weeks her sister had been posing as her undercover persona, Gina Callahan, a tough-as-nails, spandex-and-tulle-wearing arms dealer. Allie had done a surprisingly good job, but it was Callie’s mission and she intended to finish it.
“It says here in your file, Callie, you’re fit for duty.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m ready.” She was. She’d already made contact with one of the Ghost’s lackeys, Jammer. Okay, so it’d been more than simple contact. She’d slept with the guy, unable to resist him. Watchdog didn’t know of her personal relationship with Jammer, and once this operation was over, she would have to put him behind bars. She squirmed inside, thinking about how she’d have to use Jammer to get close to the Ghost. But that was what working undercover was all about.
“That’s good. Take a look at this.” Gillian held out a letter to Callie.
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
TOP SECRET AND CONFIDENTIAL
To: Gillian Santiago, Director of Watchdog, Homeland Security
From: The President
It has come to my attention that the fugitive known as the Ghost is still at large. May I remind you the man is a direct threat to national security; he has sold weapons to our enemies. He has murdered government agents, and has broken innumerable national and international laws. I want this threat eliminated by any means necessary.
Please notify me immediately when he has been either captured or killed.
“The president wants the Ghost dead or alive. That gives us carte blanche, then.”
Gillian nodded. “It does, and the perfect opportunity just dropped on my desk. The DEA has just alerted us to the fact that the Defensores de la Libertad in Colombia is throwing their lot in with Eduardo Fuentes.”
“Which means they’re going to require a shitload of weapons, and for that, they’ll need the Ghost,” Callie said. It was time to finally put the Ghost out of commission, and if she netted herself a drug lord in the process, well, goody for her.
“All these purchases have been for Fuentes? He’s amassing weapons for the Libertad.”
“Yes. We believe the weapons you…er, your sister, Allie, sold to the Ghost when she was posing as Tina, your alias Gina Callahan’s twin sister, were part of the cache. As are the launchers the Ghost stole from Fudo Miyagi before killing him.”
“Miyagi was mine-I was the one he wanted dead, or at least he wanted Gina Callahan dead. I was the one his thugs ran down in Paris, forcing my sister to step in and almost get killed dealing with Miyagi. He was my problem.”
“You were lucky you survived. And you should be grateful that Jammer took care of your problem and helped Drew Miller and Allie to eliminate Miyagi. Jammer double-crossed Miyagi-they had a deal.”
“What was the deal?”
“You in exchange for the launchers.”
“And instead he betrayed Miyagi, saving me and my sister.”
“Do you think that was a deliberate act?” Gillian asked, her tone speculative.
Callie shrugged. “He wanted the launchers, and we know how ruthless the Ghost can be when he wants something. I doubt that he considered his actions would save Allie-or Tina, as he knew her. He most likely instructed Jammer to use her for leverage.”
Callie couldn’t be sure what “orders” Jammer had received from the Ghost-which had been his decisions and which the Ghost’s-but she was sure he had orchestrated it so Miyagi would be on the losing end.
“In any case, now that we know what the Ghost needs, Gina Callahan is going to be very important to this operation.”
Callie smiled. “In what way, ma’am?”
“She’s going to be in possession of a shitload of weapons.”
“I’d better go pack my spandex and tulle.”
“DON’T SCREW WITH ME, Igor,” Jammer said to the man standing in a warehouse on the outskirts of Minsk. Igor was dressed in a heavy wool coat and wore the requisite ushanka, a distinctly Russian hat made out of sheepskin. “You told me you had the weapons I required when I spoke to you last week.”