Page 100 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

She didn't say anything more, just held on to him, her hands stroking along his neck as he fought to gain the strength to pull away from her.

His head lifted and he stared into her eyes, holding on to her as she found her footing on the shower floor. Deep, dark gray orbs ringed in ocean blue. Like a fairy, or one of those damned pixies his mother had been forever telling him stories about when he was a child.

"You're my weakness." He acknowledged the reality of it with the words.

"You're my strength. And I'm yours, Ian. We'll fight better, stronger, together. Don't try to send me away." Somber determination glittered in her eyes. "I won't leave."

He hadn't even realized what he intended to do until she said the words.

"I'll be distracted."

"You'll be distracted even worse when I take a two-by-four to your head after this is over. I won't be protected. I'm not a hothouse flower and I'm not a weakness. I know how to defend myself and you know it. Start this again and I'll make sure you're limping when you face Diego this morning."

She was a wildcat. Pride swelled within him as she faced him, more determined, willful, and confident than any woman he had ever known.

"Muriel's going to die this morning," he warned her. "I can't risk him informing Sorrell that we know he's a plant. I'm killing him."

He had learned lessons since taking over the reins of the cartel. Never give them time to get a message out. In this world, take an enemy prisoner and it was the same as giving them a knife to cut your throat. He wouldn't risk it. Not with Kira's life on the line as well. And taking out Muriel was one less drug-running, innocents-destroying bastard left to breathe precious air.

He knew Muriel's guilt. Knew the crimes he had committed, just as Ian knew he was taking the task of judge and jury onto his own shoulders.

He nodded. Pulling two washcloths from the small shelf above the shower head he handed her one and kept the other for himself.

"We finished this then. Let's shower and get to it."

Kira dressed for battle. She wore soft figure-hugging tan leggings, a matching cotton tank top, and ankle boots made for comfort as well as endurance. She wore a shoulder holster beneath a matching dark brown blazer, but anyone with eyes, or experience, would realize she was armed.

Diego sure as hell didn't miss it. As they stepped into the small office he used, his head turned from where he sat with his cousin Muriel, the traitorous bastard, his brow lifting as he met Kira's gaze, then Ian's.

"She's armed?" There was an edge of condescension in his voice as he directed the question to Ian.

"She's not the first woman to go to war with her lover." Ian's voice snapped with ire as he strode across the room and, as Diego's expression turned to disbelief, used the butt of his pistol against the back of Muriel's head.

The other man slumped against his chair, his coarse black hair feathering over his swarthy features. He was unconscious before he knew what hit him. Diego was out of his seat, suspicion tightening his features even before he pinned Ian with black, furious eyes.

"What has he done?"

Kira could tell Ian was surprised by the question. It flickered in his gaze for only a second before he motioned Deke over.

"Strip him. Make certain he's not wearing a skin tag then have him bound and held in the basement. I'll deal with him later," Ian ordered Deke.

The bodyguard wrestled the broad Colombian from his chair, hefted him over his shoulder, and left the room. Trevor, Mendez, and Cristo placed themselves in defensive positions around Ian and Kira.

Diego's gaze tracked their movements before he turned back to Ian.

Suave, dressed in dark slacks and a white silk shirt, his black and gray hair still full and pulled back to his neck and bound with black elastic, the father stared back at the son coolly.

"I believe I asked you a question, Ian," he stated. "What has he done?"

Ian lifted the file he carried in the other hand and slapped it down on the table between the two chairs Diego and Muriel had occupied.

"He's been giving Ascarti, and in turn Sorrell, information on the entire network. I told you to keep this son of a bitch out of the loop. Do you remember that, Diego?"

Despair flashed in Diego's black eyes as he sat down slowly and opened the file. In living color, the pictures were displayed before him.

Kira glanced at Ian's face and swore she saw a flash of regret, but it was gone as quickly as it had come, and had been missed by Diego as his attention centered on the photos.

"There was no need for him to betray us," Diego whispered heavily. "I would have given him whatever he asked for."

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