Jeff nodded. “They’re very good at what they do.”
“But knowing that might not account for the guys who jumped us in the gully, right?”
Jeff nodded again.
Kat continued thinking aloud. “We have to assume our commandos reported back to whomever they’re working for. Worst case, even more thugs get sent in to help get the disk. The good news is they have no idea who we are and no obvious means of tracking us if we’ve done our job correctly to erase our tracks tonight. But the hostiles do have one link to that CD whom they can possibly track.”
“The Ghost,” Jeff said. “But surely after tonight, he’s run for the hills. He’s probably already off the island.”
Kat shrugged. “You’re most likely right. He didn’t strike me as having a death wish. Otherwise he wouldn’t have taken such precautions when he met me. But our hostiles don’t know that for sure any more than we do.”
Jeff asked, “What do you suggest we do about it?”
Kat leaned forward eagerly. Suddenly it was as clear as a bell to her what her subconscious had been reaching toward. “We know of two more paintings that the Ghost was likely to steal-that last two from that catalog here on Barbados. What if I impersonate the Ghost and steal one of them? You guys can set up a trap around me and I’ll act as bait. We’ll draw out the hostiles and grab them.”
Jeff’s look was one of pure horror. “Absolutely not!”
Shocked at his response, Kat stared at him. “Why not? It’s a brilliant plan.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. I’m a Special Forces operative. How is it too dangerous? I do stuff more dangerous than that all the time.”
“You’re setting yourself up as bait for a force of unknown size and skill. It’d be a crapshoot. They might come in with six guys like before, or maybe they’ll come in with twenty.”
“That’s what I have the Medusas and H.O.T. Watch for. You all can take care of anything they throw at me.”
Jeff glanced around and a look of chagrin came over his face. Kat looked up to see that her teammates were riveted on the exchange between them. Crud.
“Take a walk with me,” he ordered tersely.
She concurred wholeheartedly with his impulse to finish this discussion in private. “By all means,” she retorted.
Aleesha warned quietly, “Don’t get so wrapped up in fighting with each other that you drop your guard. A team of killers is floating around out there who’d love to get their hands on Kat.”
Mamba’s warning checked Kat’s irritation in midstride. Aleesha was right. And the woman should know-she’d fallen in love in the middle of an op, too. Too? Too? Kat jolted sharply. There was no too about it. She had not fallen in love with Jeff!
He seemed to take Mamba’s warning to heart as well, for he paused just outside the cabin to let his eyesight adjust to the dark and to take a long look at the surrounding foliage before heading down the narrow, sandy path to the beach.
She stomped along as best she could beside him. Unfortunately, the soft sand didn’t make for good angry stomping. He walked until they’d reached a cove mostly surrounded by cliffs that funneled the waves into crashing surf here. More to the point, the surf was extremely loud. Someone three feet away wouldn’t be able to hear them.
He turned sharply to face her. “Don’t do this to me, Kat.”
“Do what?”
“Don’t make me choose between my head and my heart.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t send the woman I’m planning to marry into a death trap. You may be a ninja to your core, but bone deep, I’m old-fashioned. Hell, a chauvinist, if you will. I can’t send a woman I care about into danger.”
“Oh, puh-lease. You of all people know I’m not some helpless little thing. I can take care of myself.”
“You’re not Wonder Woman, dammit!”
“You’re right, I’m not. I’m real. I can do stuff Wonder Woman’s creators never dreamed of…except for the invisible jet, of course.”
“Don’t joke around about this,” he retorted raggedly.
She peered at him in the faint starlight. He was really worried about her! “Jeff, I appreciate your concern, but I’ll be okay. I’ve got a heck of a good team to back me up. We won’t get taken by surprise.”
He threw his hands up in the air in frustration.
She tried again. “If I were one of your men and I’d volunteered to do this job, would you have a problem with it? Is my idea operationally sound?”
His gaze narrowed. Reluctantly he answered, “It’s a little on the risky side, but yeah, I’d give it serious consideration.”
She glared at him reprovingly.
“Okay, so I’d go with the idea if you were one of my guys. And yes, I understand that if I’d let one of them do it, I’m supposed to let you do it, too.”
“But…” she asked leadingly.
“But…” He took a quick step toward her and swept her up in his arms. He kissed her with such passion that her toes curled into the cool, damp sand, and her knees went suspiciously weak. Ho-lee cow. Their tongues tangled, mouths slanting across one another hungrily, as they strained closer to one another, pressing body to body from shoulders to ankles.
Eventually, he tore his mouth away from hers. “Can you honestly tell me you feel nothing when we kiss like that?” he demanded.
Panting, she managed to answer, “No, I can’t. When you kiss me like that, my world tilts on its axis. I’ve never pretended otherwise. But that doesn’t have anything to do with my doing this job.”
“It has everything to do with it, dammit!”
“Why? Male operators expect their wives to wait patiently at home while they put their lives on the line and not to question their judgment out in the field. Why can’t I, as a female operator, expect the same of you?”
He shook his head. “I guess I’m not as strong as you. I’d be a wreck, waiting at home while you ran around out here playing superhero. Is that what you want to hear me say? That you’re stronger and tougher emotionally than me?”
She couldn’t help smiling sardonically. “All women who wait at home for men who do dangerous jobs know they’re the strong ones. But Jeff, if you want me, if you’re going to have me for your girlfriend or wife or whatever, you have to accept this part of me, too. My job involves taking risks, and you’re going to have to let me do that. I’ve trained my whole life to do this, and I’m not walking away from it now. Not even for you.”
“Then you admit that you feel something for me?”
She stared up at him in surprise. “Of course I feel something for you. I feel a lot for you!”
“Show me.”
“Here? Now?”
“Right here. Right now.”
For once, she didn’t feel like shying away from his challenge. She was just mad enough to grab the bull by the horns. She dragged her shirt over her head defiantly and threw it down on the sand. He stared, speechless, at her bare breasts. She gave him a moment to take that in, and then she yanked off her belt and flung off her pants and underwear. She was already barefoot, and it was a quick thing to pull out the rubber band holding her hair and shake it loose around her shoulders and breasts. The wind blew cool air upon her naked skin, and the night caressed her damply. The waves pounded wild and free, calling to the siren within her.
“Here I am, Jeff. If you want me, I’m yours. But you have to take all of me-the good with the bad. The whole package.”
He gaped for a moment more, and then all of a sudden was fumbling frantically, yanking off his clothes in clumsy haste. “You’re magnificent,” he breathed.
And then his mouth was on hers, his hands on her body, drawing her down with him to the sand, cushioning her body with his. She stretched out at full length upon him, and the sensation of his body cradling hers all but made her pass out.