Page 6 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

It was clear Deke didn't have a clue who Algeria actually was.

Ian rubbed at his jaw, pausing before stepping closer to the Missern limo and staring around the warehouse lot. The neat wood and metal buildings were grouped close together, their contents awaiting shipping or delivery. It was the perfect place for an ambush. So why hadn't the Chameleon warned him of it?

She had been the Chameleon tonight, partially. The disguise had been perfect, as it always was. The feature-altering latex appeared as natural as true flesh. The contacts in her eyes hadn't given a hint of their true color, and the wig, if it had been a wig, looked as natural as real hair.

It better be a wig. God help her if she had cut that length of silky black hair that had graced her head in Atlanta.

She looked like a witch in her natural form. Gorgeous. Wicked. Seductive. The persona of Algeria Winters was as dangerous, as lethal, as any disguise the Chameleon had ever taken though.

"We have another problem," Deke warned him then.

Ian glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Just one?"

Deke grimaced. "Word came in as we were suiting up t

o attack the warehouse. Kira Porter sent a message to the villa saying hello."

Ian froze. Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. She had called the villa? Which meant Diego knew, and that scheming, matchmaking bastard would be all over that one like white on rice. Nothing would please Diego more than to believe Ian had managed to catch the interest of a society princess such as Kira Porter—her real life persona. But it had also been the warning he wondered why he hadn't received.

He was going to wring her slender, graceful little neck.

"Ian, what the hell is going on here?" Josef Missern snapped, as he and his brother and chauffer stood with hands flat against the hood of the limo.

Black-clad Fuentes soldiers pointed lethal M-16s at their backs, their eyes behind the black masks filled with the anticipation of death.

He pushed Kira to the back of his mind. He would deal with her later. But he would deal with her. And when he did, he promised himself, she wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much as she believed she was going to.

"Treachery, Josef." Ian strode across the distance with lazy ease as he watched the weapons dealers with a cold smile. "Treachery and death. Would you like to join in? I can arrange it for you."

The Frenchman paled as his brother stared back at him in horror.

Oh yeah, they had known what was going to happen here, and they were the perfect messengers to inform Sorrell that his highly paid assassins had failed.

As for the missing Algeria Winters, aka the Chameleon, aka one satin-fleshed, gray-eyed, black-haired Kira Porter? Well, he would take care of her on his own. And whatever her agenda, she could fly right back to Washington and let her handler know she had failed.

Ian had warned them when he left to stay the hell out of his way. He would kill and ask questions later before he would risk his own life, and his own plans. He was here for vengeance, and by God, vengeance would be his.

* * *

Two

"SO WHERE THE HELL IS Kira Porter?" Ian slammed the door to his office the next night and faced the bodyguard who had stepped inside with him.

His orders to Deke that morning had been simple: Find Kira Porter.

Deke looked as damned tired as Ian felt. Waylaying assassins and buying arms from gun smugglers at midnight, trying to justify letting the scum of the earth live another day, and doing it with only a few hours' sleep in the past two days hadn't helped his mood.

Nearly being knocked on his ass by a pint-sized black-haired witch with more guts than common sense wasn't helping either. It didn't matter to Ian that she was one of the most experienced and competent contract agents that he knew. It sure as hell didn't help that she likely knew exactly what she was doing. The fact that she was there had the blood boiling in his veins. Unfortunately, it wasn't all anger that was causing it.

"Miss Porter checked into one of the hotels on the beach," Deke reported as he frowned down at the pocket PC he was tapping quickly into. "We tracked her down pretty fast. We lost Algeria Winters though. She was on a private flight off the island within hours of the hit the other night. She's slick."

Ian grunted.

Deke was able, a master at strategy and a hell of a gutter fighter.

"And we're just now finding out Kira's here?" he gritted out, stalking to his desk and planting his hands flat on the deep, glistening wood as he stared back at Deke. "Where the hell are these informants I'm paying good money for? Wasn't her name on the fucking list?"

It was all he could do to keep his voice level, to rein in the need to pull at every hair in his head. Kira Porter had a habit of doing that to a man. She raised a man's frustration level just by being in the same room with him.

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