Page 46 of Betrayed

He slipped his arms around her and pulled her flush against him. “I’m just tired and disappointed we had to leave a nice comfortable bed.”

Smiling up at him, she raised a hand and rested it along his cheek. “Me, too, but this weekend we won’t have to.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said, pressing his lips to hers in a smoldering kiss. When he released her, but kept her hand in his, leading her out of his suite, the taste of her sweet mouth lingered on his. Regrettably, it did couldn’t overshadow the bitterness of his deceit or his duty, should the worst come to pass.

Chapter 14

AT NINE THE NEXT MORNING, he met Jonas, along with Reed and Brock, two of the local security contractors, for a briefing at the temporary Rossi headquarters downtown. Another man, an older craggy-faced ex-Marine, introduced simply as Rock was on surveillance duty.

“An unusual name,” Arturo remarked, as they shook hands. “I’m sure there’s a story there.”

“Not really,” he grunted, scowling at Jonas who failed to smother a grin. “If asked, I own up to the name of Norman,” he admitted in a gravelly voice. “My mother, Mrs. Rockwell, had a twisted sense of humor. That’s why I’m just Rock.”

After being subjected to his crushing grip, Arturo kept to himself that the shortened name aptly suited him. He’d also deliberately kept his gaze off of Jonas, not wanting to offend the gruff man by laughing, as he went back to monitoring the large dual screens which carried several security feeds. He noticed the house on one screen with at least eight camera angles and an equal number at Mari’s shop.

The only feed with activity enlarged and dead center, and featured Mari as she wiped down the glass doors to her shop, readying it for opening.

“Tony here,” came the familiar voice through the laptop speaker. It drew everyone to the table, except Rock.

“Did you get the file I sent?” Jonas asked him.

“Yep. I’m ready on my end.”

With a few clicks, he minimized the teleconference window and pulled up a file. A woman came on screen; dark hair, brown eyes, mid-thirties, reasonably attractive.

“Meet Adriana Crenshaw. Age thirty-five. This woman is a piece of work,” Jonas commented wryly. “She worked for BSE as an administrative assistant until four years ago, when she was terminated for security violations. Miss Adri was discovered snooping in classified areas she didn’t have clearance for.”

“How?” Arturo asked.

“She was fucking her boss, stole his key card and password. He played the innocent victim, but when security ID’d him somewhere off-limits, he got the boot, too. Having no use for him after that, she ended things between them.”

Another photo popped up on the screen.

“Enter Derek Hoffman. He became Adri’s new man a few weeks later. Not long after that, she started her new career in retail.” He gave Arturo a meaningful look.

“The prick was cheating on Mari and then had the balls to install his mistress at her shop right under her nose?”

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