Target Engaged by M. L. Buchman

Author:M. L. Buchman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
Published: 2015-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Agent Fred Smith had arranged a sailboat charter for them at the Oranjestad waterfront, a short taxi ride from where they’d come ashore. The capital city of thirty thousand was a teeming metropolis compared to the resort communities along Palm and Eagle Beaches, but they passed through it too quickly for her to form much of an impression.

They picked up the fifty-six-foot sloop from a worried-looking rental agent.

Kyle and Richie both spoke sailboat to him until he relaxed.

Carla had never sailed. She’d been on transport ships and could pilot a small rubber Zodiac through a storm in the dark of night with a dozen of the world’s deadliest warriors aboard just fine. Sailboats were a new experience.

So she did her best to stand there, be a pretty airhead, and not grind her teeth overmuch while the rental agent went through the boat with the guys.

Aruba claimed two other small islands well to the east as a part of its territory, and the guys spun a story about wanting to show their sister the other islands.

The agent wasn’t buying it.

As soon as he was gone and they had started preparing to depart, she stepped lightly aboard and settled in the cockpit to watch them.

“You know…” She lounged back in her short sundress, stretching out her legs to rest on the bench across the cockpit. She was starting to appreciate the advantages to girl clothes, like torturing guys. “You boys need a better cover story if you don’t want everyone assuming we’re going to sea to have an orgy.”

Duane and Chad grinned at her wickedly. They’d caught on right away that their story wasn’t working and had done what they could to really twist the agent’s mind.

Kyle’s head shot up from whatever line he was working on and then cursed when he finally connected the truth of that.

Richie blinked at her. “Why would they think that?”

“If we’re all friendly and cozy as brothers and sister, Richie, Mama led a very wide-ranging sex life, a fact the agent clearly noted.”

He looked around at their varied complexions—New York Jew, darkly tanned Georgia, and Scandinavian white. She and Kyle were the closest to possibly being related, but not really. She expressed a lot of her grandmother’s Cherokee genes, and Kyle was just gorgeous Anglo-Saxon mutt.

The look on Kyle’s face verged on horror at impugning her virtue, as if they weren’t screwing each other at every opportunity. He mouthed a “sorry.”

She wanted to make him suffer, but couldn’t keep it in and laughed.

“Like I care what an Aruban rental agent thinks.”

* * *

Kyle had settled in at the helm. He’d taken first shift. Carla leaned back against him so that he had one hand on the tiller and the other around her waist. He’d almost broached the boat side to the waves, earning a surprised scowl from Richie, who’d been cleaning up lines on the forward deck.

“You sure you know how to sail?”

He knew how to sail, and he knew what to do with their mission.

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