Born In Secret

“I had the privilege of staying at the sheik’s home as a guest of his daughter, Leila, just last year.” Jasmine’s words were even, her gaze unwavering. “He is a man of great pride. It will be difficult for him to remain in Tamir while others fight what he believes to be his battles. I think we must handle him with care.”

“Jasmine’s right. And if you’d stop prowling around the room, and listen, you’ll understand why.” Dirk waited until Walker took a seat before continuing. “We’ve suggested to Sheik Kamal that he pretend to send a dignitary to Maloun to hammer out an accord between the prime minister there and Kamal’s country. According to our sources, the government is little more than a front—the Brothers of Darkness hold the real power. Once there, you’ll arrange for the prime minister to introduce you to the rebel faction leaders and get yourselves invited to their stronghold under the guise of completing the negotiations.”

The explanation sounded a death knell for Walker’s hope to have Jasmine replaced on this mission. “Don’t tell me. She’s going to play the part of the dignitary.”

Dirk inclined his head. “Exactly. With her coloring and background she’s admirably suited to the job. You’ll go along as her driver and personal assistant. While Jasmine engages the leaders in the phony trade talks, you’ll be searching the grounds for information about the location of the virus.”

Walker considered the idea. The thought of playing servant to Jasmine wasn’t especially appealing, but he’d be the primary engaged in the search, so he supposed he could live with the situation.

He glanced at her, observed the knowing tilt of her lush lips. She expected him to refuse, he realized; expected his pride and ego to make the decision for him. Since he had an ample supply of both, perhaps it was a reasonable assumption.

And it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that Jasmine LeBarr had misjudged him.

“It could work,” he conceded, and paused a moment to enjoy her expression of consternation before addressing Dirk again. “Developing an anthrax virus is a huge undertaking for a Third World country like Maloun. How do we know the Brothers are developing the virus themselves? They could have contracted the job out.”

Dirk was shaking his head before Walker had finished speaking. “Our government gathers intelligence on all countries and groups who try to produce deadly biological agents. The few who have been successful are monitored very carefully. None of them has ties with Maloun, and we’re guessing the Malounians wouldn’t make those kinds of inquiries and risk having their plans leak out. No, they’re directly involved in the development. We know they haven’t lacked for money. A man by the name of Amin Qadir was recently arrested. It’s suspected he was one of the major sources of funding for the group. The only questions remaining are how far along the virus is and where the work is being done.”

“The development of this virus you speak of, Dirk, would require highly skilled scientists, would it not?” Jasmine’s smoky voice curled through Walker’s senses and had an immediate, unwelcome affect on his hormones. He found the involuntary response damn irritating. “They would need technical equipment, expensive supplies…”

“They have to have a lab somewhere,” Walker concluded flatly. Oddly restless, he rose again to cross to Dirk’s desk. Leaning against it, he surveyed the other two. “And their little venture is taking some big financing.”

Nodding, the older man said, “The Brothers of Darkness would be the only group in the country powerful enough to provide all of those. You’ll have to go through them to locate the virus. Once you do, I want you to confiscate it, then get the hell out of the country.” A flicker of concern crossed his face before it was smoothed away. “The group is known for being particularly brutal with those who cross them. A couple of years ago it was rumored that one their members was thought to be selling information on the group to the Pakistani government. He vanished, only to show up a month or so later on the palace grounds, disemboweled.”

Silence stretched, thick and elastic. Walker appreciated the man’s warning, but it wouldn’t change the outcome of this meeting. He’d been committed the moment Dirk had contacted him. “When do we start?”

“Immediately. As soon as I contact Kamal he’ll send his private jet for you. You’ll have time to go out and pick up anything you think you might need.” His handsome face creased with a surprisingly youthful smile. “And if there are any odds and ends that you’re lacking for the job, I can probably supply them.”

Walker was well aware of the odds and ends Dirk kept in his warehouse of high-tech gadgetry. He wouldn’t mind taking a look. The man had an incredible knack for getting his hands on tools still in the prototype stage. “I can be ready.” He sent a lazy glance Jasmine’s way. “How about you?”

If she’d been affected by Dirk’s warning, it didn’t show in her expression. Her gaze met his in a silent challenge before turning to the older man. “I am sure Kamal is anxious for your call. There is no need to make him wait any longer.”

Slapping his hands on his knees, Dirk rose, and after a moment, she followed suit. “I’ll do it right now. Then the three of us can relax and catch up for a few hours. If you’ll excuse me for a few minutes?”

Walker waited until the man had strode out the door before focusing on Jasmine. She was, if anything, lovelier than the last time he’d seen her. The scarlet suit she wore showcased her endless legs and hugged her generous breasts. She still wore her long thick hair straight and loose to swing around her shoulders. He remembered how it felt draped across his chest; wrapped around his fingers. And because the memory burned, he gave her a mocking smile.

“Red’s a good color on you, Jaz. You should wear it often.”

She lifted an elegant brow. “Compliments, Walker? I do not remember that you were so flattering the last time we spoke.”

“Yeah, I was hard on you.” Hands still in his pockets, he strolled over to her, noted her almost imperceptible reaction when he deliberately invaded her space. At five foot nine she was five inches shorter than him, and he dwarfed her when he stood this close. She was incredibly feminine, with a delicate bone structure. It was an effective disguise for a woman trained to kill a man in half a dozen different ways.

But her real danger would come not from her skills but her ability to get people to trust her. To underestimate her. Then when she turned out to be something far different from what they expected, she had the element of surprise. He could attest that she used the quality to her advantage.

He crooked a finger, ran his knuckle lightly along her delicate jaw. “I shouldn’t have said those things back then. I was angry.”

Her eyes flickered warily, and this time she did take a step backward. He followed, maintaining the contact. Intent. Predatory. His thumb skated lightly across her lips. He felt each word as she formed it.

“You were furious.”

“Yes.” The word was a whisper of a sound uttered only inches from her mouth.

She moistened her lips. “You are still angry.”

Walker cupped her face with both hands and brushed his lips against hers. Once. Twice. Again. “Do I seem angry to you?”

Her fingers locked around his wrists. When his mouth settled against hers, her grip tightened but she didn’t push him away. He pressed her lips open and let her sweet unique flavor race through his system and fire his blood. When he traced the sensitive inner seam of her lips he was reminded of the silkiness of her mouth and dove deeper. He stroked her tongue with his, forcing her to respond to him. And when she did, when her fingers turned caressing on his wrists and her mouth opened avidly under his, he lifted his lips from hers to murmur, “No, I’m not angry. There’s no point. You can’t help what you are.”

He toyed with the ends of her hair as he waited for his words to register. But then her eyes fluttered open, the look in them dazed, drugged, and lust punched him hard in the gut. And when comprehension chased those feelings away, a deeply primal part of him mourned.

“What…” He distracted her from her words by dropping a kiss at the corner of her mouth. “And what am I?”

“An opportunist.” His lips skimmed the curve of her cheek. “A woman who’ll go to any lengths to get what she wants.” He felt her tense and with a twist had his hands free to capture her wrists before she could use her nails on him. “Hell, you’re not the first woman to use sex to get what she wants. Guess I should be grateful you screwed me literally as well as figuratively.”

She was faster than he remembered. He easily dodged her swiftly raised knee, but not the stomp on his instep. Even as he winced he was grasping both her wrists in one hand before she could try to flip him over her back, and yanked her closer to defuse the danger.

They were pressed together, legs, hips, chests; a solid length of heat pulsing between them. Even now he knew better than to underestimate her. “Still carry that stiletto around your thigh?” Without waiting for an answer, Walker slipped a hand under her skirt, skimmed his fingers over her silky leg and found the weapon strapped around it. She tossed her head, glaring at him murderously. Old grudges couldn’t lessen his appreciation of the picture she made with storms brewing in her dark eyes. “You always did have a temper, Jaz.”

“And always you had the head of a pig.”

He interpreted her insult with very little difficulty. “I may be pigheaded, but I’m not stupid.” With no little reluctance he removed his hand from her thigh. “I know how you operate now, and I’m putting you on alert. You’ll do things my way in Maloun. An assignment like this can have only one leader, and it’s going to be me.” Watching the mutinous expression settle over her face, he gave her a slight shake. “I mean it. We can’t be pulling in two different directions. We’re going to have to come to some terms.”

“As usual the terms must be yours. I understand exactly.”

He might have believed her if her voice wasn’t so defiant. As it was, he had the distant observation that her accent still became more pronounced when she was upset. “I’m the one who’s going to be taking most of the risks. I have to be able to call the shots.”

“We will work as a team, as Dirk hired us to do.” Her eyes flashed at him. “You must learn to control your temper and your ego if we are to be successful.”

She pulled away and he let her go. There could be nothing more accomplished now, at any rate. Not with both of them at each other’s throats. But he’d made his point, so he turned and headed for the door.

Before he walked through it, though, sheer deviltry had him turning back again. “Oh, and Jaz?” He waited for her to look at him before smiling mockingly. “You definitely kissed me back.”

Chapter 2

Jasmine hesitated outside the door of Walker’s temporary quarters in Sheik Kamal’s palace. She’d faced the leaders of an international smuggling ring with far more equanimity than she felt right now. She’d known those men were dangerous, that her life had been in jeopardy. She’d been comfortable relying on her own skills to ensure her safety. It was telling that she regularly risked her life without a qualm, but had to summon the courage to approach Walker in his bedroom.

The man was every bit as dangerous as any she’d brought down, but it wasn’t her life she feared for around him, it was something far more fragile. He’d bruised her heart once with his callous dismissal of her. She’d never allow herself to be that vulnerable again.

The silent vow made it a bit easier to raise her hand, to rap on his door. She was disconcerted when he pulled open the door and she was confronted by his partially nude body.

Her gaze skated over his bare chest, then lowered to the jeans that rode low on his lean hips, unbuttoned to reveal his hard flat belly. Averting her gaze, she scrambled to summon a steady voice. “I can come back later.”

“No, come on in. I could use your help.”

Reluctantly she followed him into the room. It was a moment before she noted the fresh angry-looking scar running down the center of his back, only centimeters from his spine. A gasp escaped her before she could prevent it. “What happened?”

He didn’t halt on his way to the adjoining bathroom. “After setting the explosives on the last job, a member of my team caught a bullet as we were pulling out. I dropped back to give him a hand, and we were still a little too close when it detonated.”

His succinct summary was all the more chilling for its casual delivery. “You went back into a building that was set to explode?”