“In so many words.” She slid the door back to reveal a gray hard-sided suitcase wedged onto the top shelf. Jenna pointed to it. “That’s it. Proof I’m not a desperate female after your gorgeous body to save me from dying alone.”
He touched her arm.
She flinched away.
He wished he could take back what he’d said to her. He didn’t need to add to her self-esteem issues. She had enough of those already. And as far as he could tell, she had no reason for them. With her long, dark ginger curls and bright green eyes, she was practically perfect, except for the frown denting her forehead. Sawyer wanted to brush his thumb across the lines. “I said I was sorry.” He gave her a crooked smile. “You don’t let things go, do you?”
“Add that to my list of faults.” She backed away and let Sawyer pull the case off the shelf.
He carried it across to the bed and set it down. “I’ll add that to your list of positive attributes. If this case holds what you say it does, I’m lucky that you don’t give up easily.” He flicked the catches, and the case remained locked.
Jenna handed him a metal file. “Use this.”
She was not only beautiful, and anything but boring, but also smart and resourceful. He jammed the file into the locks and flipped them open one at a time.
Inside were neatly folded shirts and trousers. As he peered closer, he noticed the inside of the case wasn’t as deep as the exterior indicated. He set the clothes to the side and looked again.
With a huff of impatience, Jenna reached around him and ran her finger along the inside. A partition popped up.
As he lifted the divider, his gut clenched. Just as Jenna had said, there were parts that would make a complete sniper’s rifle with a military-grade scope, giving the shooter the capability of firing at long distances.
“This is what made me find you.” Jenna lifted the envelope and turned it upside down, shaking the contents out onto the bed.
Photographs of Sawyer fanned out on the comforter. Pictures of him walking on the streets of New Orleans when he’d spent a weekend there with his teammates, shots of him outside his apartment near Stennis in Mississippi, and even more of him when he’d last visited his father in DC three months ago. Whoever had been following him had been doing so for some time.
“I don’t understand.” He shook his head. “Why me?”
“Darlin’, if you don’t know—” Jenna let out a short, hard laugh “—I can’t help you. Have you pissed off someone in your past? Someone who would want revenge?”
He thought back on the missions he’d been a part of. The most recent sanctioned mission had to do with a terrorist training camp in Honduras. Surely the terrorists involved hadn’t come all the way to Cancún and singled him out. Why not the rest of his team? He shuffled through the photographs.
Whoever the assassin was, Sawyer was his only target.
Sawyer drew in a deep breath and let it out, then glanced across at Jenna. “My father is a US senator. Not many people know, but this doesn’t make sense. The note doesn’t make sense.”
Jenna read it aloud. “‘Bring him to the agreed-upon location by 9:00 p.m. Dead or alive.’” She stared at the paper, her face pale, her eyes wide. “I don’t know. Why would someone kill you and then deliver you somewhere?”
“Unless they’re trying to make a statement.”
Her pretty brow furrowed. “What kind of statement?”
“Perhaps it’s a drug cartel or terrorist organization picking off SEALs to show they can.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “Whoever it is hired an assassin. He might get paid more if he delivers me alive.”
“Or he might just decide to take a lesser payoff because he’s dealing with a highly trained SEAL. If he can pick you off at a distance, he has less of a chance of being taken down.”
Sawyer’s lips quirked. “You’re pretty smart.” He cupped her cheek and stared into her beautiful green eyes, wanting to do so much more. When he finally looked away, he dropped his hands to his sides. Settling the photos and note into the case, he closed it and let the locks click into place. Then he stared around the room as if for the first time. “Why the bridal suite?”
She turned and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling windows. “It’s a dumb story.”
“I still want to hear it.” He followed and stood behind her, watching her instead of the view. He liked what he saw: petite, yet strong; slim, yet curvy; smart and a bit sassy.
“I was engaged to a man who found my maid of honor more interesting than me.” She shrugged. “He texted me on our wedding day that he couldn’t go through with the marriage.” She turned and waved her hand at the room. “The hotel was nonrefundable, so I came with a friend.” She lifted her chin and faced him, her eyes slightly narrowed as if daring him to laugh.
Again, he cupped her face. “His loss, my gain. If you’d come with him, you might not have found the case and come to warn me.” He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to the backs of her knuckles. “Thank you. And for the record, your fiancé was a fool.”
“Ex-fiancé,” she amended, staring at the hand he kissed. “And I agree. I’m better off without him.” She stood as if frozen to the spot, her eyes widening as her tongue swept across pale pink lips.
Sawyer couldn’t resist. He bent to brush his mouth across hers in what he’d intended as a brief sweep. But as soon as his lips connected with hers, he couldn’t back away. He slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her close, deepening the kiss.
She rested her palms on his chest. Instead of pushing him away, her fingers curled into him, her nails scraping against his skin.
He skimmed the seam of her lips, and she opened to him.
He caressed her tongue with his, fire burning through his veins, searing a path south to his groin.
Jenna’s hands slid up his chest and linked behind his neck, pulling him closer.
The sound of a metal lock clicking brought Sawyer out of the trance Jenna’s mouth had him in, and he lifted his head.
“Oh.” The woman who’d been with Jenna at the zip line stopped in the middle of the doorway, her eyes rounding. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you.” She pointed to the closet and hurried across the room. “I’ll just be a minute,” she said, tiptoeing into the room, grimacing. “Don’t mind me. Go back to what you were doing.” She grabbed a dress and raced into the bathroom, calling out over her shoulder, “I didn’t see anything. Continue kissing.”
Jenna stepped away from Sawyer, her cheeks bright red, her eyes averted. She pressed a hand to her lips and stared out the window.
When the bathroom door opened again, her friend smiled. “Don’t wait up for me. I might not be back. I’m taking my toothbrush just in case.” She rushed to the door, yanked it open and turned with a full grin on her face. “And for the record, Tyler didn’t deserve you. And you deserve to have fun. You go, girl!” She pumped her fist and let the door close automatically behind her.
“Don’t mind Carly. She has no filter.” Jenna chuckled softly. “She’d tell you that herself.”
“I get that.”
“Should we catch her before she gets on the elevator and warn her about the hit man?” Jenna started for the door.
“No. Text her and tell her you’d like to have the room to yourself. That should keep her from coming back to a potentially dangerous situation.”
Jenna texted the message.
Carly