Lily shook her head. “I don’t think so. What do you want me to say to Brad?” She smiled mischievously. “I can make him jealous, tell him you have a new boyfriend.”
“Oh, stop. You know he isn’t interested in me.”
“Sometimes I wonder, Amber. He spends an awful lot of time with you, doesn’t he? Maybe he wants more than friendship.”
Amber gave Lily a long look. She had to answer carefully here. On the one hand, she and Brad always had a good time together, even though it was a platonic relationship. On the other hand, she didn’t want to make Lily jealous about the situation. It was complicated. The setup was necessary to establish that she and Brad were a couple; yet she also knew her friend had a thing for Brad, no matter how much she denied it.
“I think he wants more than friendship with you,” Amber finally said, not wanting to betray Brad’s confidence. Lily shrugged and turned away. “What he wants, I can’t give. I don’t have it in me.” She picked up her purse. “Got to go. You enjoy your date, okay? Just stop drugging each other. You’ll be fine. You can tell me all about it when you get back.”
“We’ll exchange girlie notes,” Amber said dryly as they went into the kitchen.
“Oh, I’m sure mine will be boring, boring, boring.” Lily headed to the back door.“Ta!”
You’re running out just a bit too fast, my friend.Amber smiled. Sometimes one had to let things play out to see where things were going. She doubted there would be any boring moments in a meeting between Brad and Lily.
Which brought her back to her plans for this evening. His handwriting was small and very neat.Meeting tonight. IM 0900 hours for instructions. Wear something hot.
Instructions. Bah. Who did he think he was? He needed her to help him, not the other way around. One thing was certain. She would have to lay some ground rules with Hawk McMillan.
8
Hawk thumbed through the tourist brochuresDilaver had given to him.Hrvatsko narodno kaza-liste. Beogradsko dramsko posoriste.All the different national and drama theaters.
“Pick any one you want,” Dilaver told him. He was comfortably lounging on his new sofa, still drinking beer. He had told Hawk that he was waiting for an international call, but meanwhile, his nonstop intake of alcohol didn’t bode well. It was going to be one of those nights, the kind Hawk had to steel himself to be part of.
“One’s in Croatia. The other’s in Belgrade,” Hawk pointed out dryly.
“I run business all through the Balkans and the former Yugoslavia, so we’ll go wherever I want next. Or we’ll fly to one place one day and the other the next. We’ll even take Amber along to keep you company if you want.”
“I don’t think the lady can just take off.”
Dilaver shrugged. “I’ll order her to. Or kidnap her. Only if you want her along, of course.”
“Out of curiosity, is there any woman you take with you that you actually have invited, Dilaver?” Hawk asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with anyone but akafenagirl.”
Dilaver made a rude noise. “You’ve obviously been living in the civilized world too damn long, boy. Look around you. I have girls by the dozens at any time I want. Girls to break. Girls to teach. Even a virgin or two, if I’m lucky to get to her before her seller does.” He leaned closer, a lecherous look on his face. “Have you ever broken a girl, Hawk? And I don’t mean just a nice spread between the legs. I mean those obstinate ones, the ones who think they’re better than the rest of them. Oh, I enjoy those the most. And at the end, they’re obedient and willing, just like every girl I’ve got. Now, Amber Hutchens…she thinks she’s better. I can see it in her eyes, in the way she looks at me, but she’s smart, you see. She makes herself useful in other ways, such as sleeping with a powerful man. But one day”—He snapped his fingers—“her usefulness will be over and then I can have her, too. If I want. She’s too old for my liking, but her looks…now, those are still very nice, don’t you agree?”
It took every ounce of control to act detached whenever Dilaver got on this topic. He struggled with the urge to bash the other man’s face in. Six months ago, Hawk’s solution would have been easy. Pull out a weapon. Destroy the piece of shit. He usually countered his disgust by answering as truthfully as he could. That was the first thing he’d learned from his psychological training with GEM, the agency in a joint mission with his SEAL team. Truth would hide his lies, T., GEM’s chief operative, had advised him.
“It’s rather difficult to tell you about appreciating a woman when you’re contemplating breaking and taming her, don’t you think?” Hawk asked. He stretched out his legs in an attempt to release the tension inside him. “Not very appealing.”
“Now it’s your turn to satisfy my curiosity. I’ve been watching you around me for a couple of months now, and you’re like a damn Boy Scout when it comes to women. Now you’re interested in Amber. Don’t you find it exciting that you have the power to take her whenever, wherever you want? That she can be your sex slave? You can own her, just like that.” Dilaver snapped his fingers again. “I get horny imagining her all tied up for my pleasure, but you…all these months…and now you’ve found someone you want, why don’t you go for it, as they say in America? Life’s short. Seize the day.”
Hawk had never met anyone who used clichés like Dilaver. But it made sense, in a warped way. Every action was explained away by some colloquial saying, be it local or foreign, even forcing a woman to be a sex slave.
Again, he was forced to hide behind the truth. “We’re back to her having a powerful boyfriend,” he said.
Dilaver shrugged. “Want to get rid of him? You saved my life. I’ll do that for you.”
Saved his life. So he’d take one for Hawk. Hawk knew he had to get out of the room soon before he said and did something that would betray his real feelings. He affected a yawn. “Nah. I didn’t come here to start a local war over a woman, Dilaver. I have one errand to run for my boss and that’s it.”
“But you’re still considering coming to work for me.”
“Yes.”Then I’ll destroy you somehow.“Your offer sounds interesting.”
“Wait till you see the cache. I’m meeting a middleman right after my international call. I’ll let you in to watch me.” Dilaver checked the time on his cell. “She’s late again.”
“A woman?”
