Satisfaction Guaranteed

Chapter 20

Beth grew fidgety as the afternoon wore on. She was keeping quiet for both Ethan’s sake and that of the agent in the other room, but she needed to breathe some air besides that in the cabin. And she wanted to go through her Poom Ses, but there was nowhere inside that she could do it without disturbing someone. The clearing about a hundred yards from the cabin would work great.

For the past two weeks, Ethan had been taking her down to the beach just after dawn each morning, where he worked out and ran while she went through her tae kwon do exercises. But they’d missed yesterday and today because of his efforts to hack into Prescott’s computer security.

She changed into clothes that would be comfortable for her workout and then tapped Ethan on the shoulder. “I’m going for a walk.”

“Wear a comm unit and stay in sight of the house.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

He turned his green gaze on her. “Don’t be smart.”

“But I am smart.”

His lips quirked. “You’re also sassy.”

“You wouldn’t want me any other way.”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

She was smiling when she let herself out the back door of the cabin. The autumn air smelled fresh and clean, so different to what she was used to and she stopped to drag in a deep breath. They were close to the ocean and she could smell the salt in the air along with wet leaves and moist earth. Even the tree bark had its own unique fragrance that added to the ambiance in the forest.

She was tempted to walk to the beach, but she’d promised to stay in sight of the house. She headed through the forest to the clearing. In the spring and summer it would have been out of sight of the house, too, but the crimson and yellow leaves had dropped from the trees, creating a spongy layer over the ground. The evergreens blocked the view from the house a little, but not completely and she was wearing the comm unit.

It was so different here. Not just clean, but earthy. What would it be like to live someplace like this all the time?

Immediately following that thought another came unbidden. Her and Ethan sharing a small house in Virginia, close enough to D.C. to continue working for TGP, but far enough from the city to catch the flavor of the world she was standing in right now. Ethan hadn’t said anything about a future, but he had suggested she train to be an agent rather than leave TGP.

He’d also seemed relieved when she said she would consider it. He didn’t want her to go, she didn’t think. She wasn’t the queen of reading men’s feelings, but she was pretty sure Ethan didn’t want their relationship to end with the conclusion of the assignment. That didn’t mean he’d be open to sharing the kind of future she was dreaming about right that minute.

She kicked at fallen leaves. She’d learned so much about herself in the past few weeks, it was kind of scary. But she realized that if she couldn’t have the life she’d always wanted-the loving family that did normal stuff together and shared the same home more than occasionally-maybe the life of an agent would be an okay substitute. It was such a huge transition in her thinking, she was wary of her reasons for feeling this way.

Was she trying again to be acceptable to someone she loved? Did she want the life Ethan had so she could share it with him?

But being an agent didn’t necessarily mean they’d spend any more time together. Ethan did not work with a partner. Most agents for TGP didn’t. He took high-risk assignments usually, not ones that a new agent would be sent out on. In fact, becoming an agent might keep her in D.C., but it wouldn’t guarantee her one more minute of Ethan’s time.

So, why was she considering it when she’d fought the idea for so long? Was it because she’d realized that she liked the adrenaline rush? Or simply because she saw that she had an aptitude for subterfuge? Or maybe, more disturbingly because her dad would be thrilled by the prospect? Was she still seeking that elusive brass ring of parental approval?

Yet, her heart rejected all the alternatives her mind tossed up to her. It told her that despite what she’d always been so sure of…she was finally finding a life that might fit who she was. Or at least who she had become.

“Beth, I’m glad to see you here.”

Her head snapped up and she stared in shock at Arthur Prescott. She’d been so lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t heard his approach. “What are you doing here?”

“Walking in the woods.” But he wasn’t exactly dressed for the endeavor. He wore one of his many designer suits and Italian leather dress shoes that looked strange against the carpet of decaying autumn leaves. “I needed some time to myself after your boyfriend called and said you would not be working for me any longer. I’m worried about you, Beth.”

He sounded so sincere, but the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. She hated the thought of his smarmy technique fooling another woman like the young girl who’d killed herself after tangling with him. There was something coldly evil that surrounded him in spite of his urbane façade.

“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean for you to be worried, but he insists you faked the pictures.”

“What do you think?”

She was using her peripheral vision to scan her surroundings, trying to listen for the sound of anyone he might have brought with him. “I don’t know what to think. He asked lots of questions about the pictures. None of them showed his naked body…he said that was proof that they were faked.”

“Did they look faked to you?”

“No, but I love him. I have to believe him.”

“That’s an admirable sentiment, my dear, but why would I do such a thing?”

“I don’t know.” She bit her lip, striving for a confused look. “Ethan says you want me.”

“I do, but I don’t have to stoop to lying to get women I want.” He was moving closer and she backed up.

He stopped and frowned at her, contriving to look hurt. “Are you afraid of me, Beth?”

“If you faked those photos, I have good reason to be. But I can handle you.” She said that for the agent monitoring her comm unit back at the cabin.

They were so close to nailing Prescott, she didn’t want to risk their cover having the Calvary come riding to the rescue.

Something sparked in Prescott’s eyes at her assertion-something like twisted anticipation. “And if I didn’t? If you quit your job and let me down…all on the word of a cheating swine, what then?”

“That’s not true.”

“Where is Ethan, Beth?”

“He’s working.”

Prescott gave her a disbelieving look. “After what you learned today, he’s dismissed you to work on another of his second-rate books?”

“His writing isn’t second rate.”

“Then why has he published with a small press in the Midwest rather than New York?”

“New York publishers require authors to be available for publicity and Ethan is a very private person.”

Prescott shook his head pityingly. “You’ll make excuses for him no matter what the circumstance, won’t you?”

“They aren’t excuses.”

He was moving again, trying to get closer and she was parrying his moves with defensive postures from her tae kwon do that were second nature to her now. But when he reached out and grabbed her arm, she let him, wanting to know what he planned to do. And not wanting to tip off how easily she could get away from him.

He pulled her closer. “I can’t stand to see you waste your life on him, Beth. This is for your best interests.”

“What?”

One of his security men came out of the forest to their left. Beth’s eyes widened, though deep inside, she was not surprised. As inconceivable as it might be in the world of the sane, she thought Prescott planned to kidnap her. And believed he could get away with it.

“I think you should come back to my house with me, Beth.”

“No.” She windmilled her arm, breaking his hold and hooked her foot behind his ankle, jerking with practiced ease while she shoved against his chest with all her might.

He went down hard and she ran.

“Get her!” Prescott yelled.

Another security man came out of the forest and the two converged on her. She’d had to spar multiple partners to earn her black belt and she let instincts she’d taken years to hone take over. The one on her left lunged for her and she used his forward momentum and a spinning axe kick to send him flying in the opposite direction.

The other guard didn’t mess with trying to grab her, but brought a gun up. She threw herself into a forward somersault landing near enough to kick upward and dislodge the gun before executing an openhanded punch to his groin. He grunted and fell forward, his face losing all color.

She flipped to her feet and sprinted toward the house, using the trees as cover in case the other guard had a gun as well. There were no shots fired behind her, but she heard Prescott curse. She felt the vibration of a pursuer in the ground and leapt to grab a leafless branch above her head.

She swung herself in an upward arc as her pursuer would have crashed into her. He passed her and skidded to a halt in the wet leaves, almost falling. Meanwhile, she had swung back and was coming forward again as he spun to face her. She let go of the tree branch and hit him with both feet solid in his chest. They both went down, but she tucked into a roll, using his body as a cushion for her fall.

She came up on her feet, turned and kicked him in the head, knocking him back to the ground and most likely unconscious. This time, when she ran for the house, there was no one behind her. She rushed in through the back door, slamming it behind her and locking it for good measure.

Ethan looked up from the computer when she came into the main living area from the mud room. His eyes narrowed and he yanked the headset for the phone from his head, pressing the disconnect button as he jumped to his feet. “What happened to you?”

She looked down at herself. She was covered in leaves and dirt. Her hands were scratched and stained green from moss where she’d gripped the tree limb. They stung. “I went to the clearing and-”

“The clearing is not in sight of the house,” he interrupted before she could finish what she was saying.

“It sort of is.”

“In just the right spot.”

“More like lots of spots. There are actually only a few areas completely out of sight of the house.”

“Regardless,” Ethan said from between clenched teeth. “Why do you look like you’ve been wrestling bear cubs?”

“Prescott was there.”

Ethan’s eyes filled with a deadly intent. “He attacked you?”

“No, but he tried to take me back to his house…or rather two of his security men tried.”

“Damn it, you promised you would wear a comm unit.”

“I did wear one.”

“Was it turned on?”

“Yes, of course. I’m not an idiot.”

“Then why wasn’t I notified you were in danger?” He looked ready to kill someone and she had the horrible feeling friendlies would do if the enemy wasn’t available.

“Probably because I did not give the distress signal.”

Ethan spun away from her and stormed to the second bedroom, slamming the door open.

A younger agent named Vinnie was listening to the audibles from Prescott’s estate as well as the output from Beth’s comm unit. He eyed Ethan warily, obviously having overheard this latest conversation as well.

“Why didn’t you inform me of Beth’s danger?”

“She indicated she could handle it, sir.”

“Is she a fully trained agent?”

“Uh, no sir.”

“Then how in the hell did you take her word in a dangerous situation that she could handle it?”

Looking highly uncomfortable, Vinnie offered no answer.

“You knew she was facing three assailants and you chose not to inform me of this fact?” Ethan asked, sounding even more dangerous.

Vinnie swallowed nervously. “I only heard one other person through the comm unit.”

“The battle was mostly silent,” Beth added.

“Battle.” Ethan drawled the word out like he was tasting it for flavor and turned to face her. “You chose to attempt to fight off three men rather than calling in reinforcements?”

“I did fight them off and if I had felt in serious danger at any point, I would have given the distress signal.”

“Did any of them have guns?”

She didn’t want to answer this question. She really didn’t. “One, but it might have been a tranquilizer gun. It looked like it could be anyway.”

“Yet you still didn’t give the distress signal?”

“I wasn’t thinking at that point…just reacting.”

“Damn it, Beth.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair like he wanted to say more, but didn’t trust himself to do so. Vinnie wasn’t so lucky. Ethan turned back to face him. “She’s not trained for fieldwork. Even if Prescott wasn’t speaking threateningly, the second you became aware she wasn’t alone, you should have alerted me.”

The look on the other man’s face gave him away.

“He did threaten her, didn’t he?” Ethan asked in a chilling voice.

Vinnie nodded. “He said he wanted to take her back to his house, for her own good.”

Ethan lost it right then. He didn’t yell, he didn’t even swear, but he ripped down one side of the younger agent and up the other and it all centered around the fact that Beth was not an agent and should never have been left unprotected in a dangerous situation. As a fully trained agent, both in surveillance and fieldwork, apparently, Vinnie should have realized that.

Beth was learning a lot herself. Not all of it pleasant, but in retrospect, she knew Ethan was right.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll never make that mistake again.”

Ethan made a visible effort to rein in his temper and nodded. “See that you don’t.”

He spun and left the room without another word. Beth followed him.

She took off her comm unit and turned it off before laying it on the dining table near the computer. “Did you get into Prescott’s system?”

“We’re close, but I cut the call with Hotwire and Claire when I saw you.”

Her eyes scanned his computer monitor. “It looks like they’re still working.”

“We have to call the sheriff.”

“But if we have Prescott arrested for attempted kidnapping, he’s going to cancel the auction.”

Ethan shook his head, his expression still bordering on fury. “He’s not going to jail over this. Men like him don’t. It’s your word against his and he’s the kind of man who has CYA down to an art form. But if we don’t call it in, we’ll look too suspicious to him. We can’t afford for him to get leery at this point and cancel anyway.”

“You’re right, I guess.”

Ethan nodded and went to make the call. He did the part of the outraged boyfriend to perfection, but he was scowling when he hung up the phone. “I expected it, but it still makes my blood boil.”

“What?”

“The sheriff is sure you are mistaken about Prescott’s intent. He’s going to go by and ask him about it.”

“He’s not even going to bring him in?”

“My guess is that the sheriff owes a lot of favors to our information broker.”

“I’m sure you are right, but it makes me mad. How many women has he gotten away with traumatizing?”

“He could have made it one more with you.”

“He wasn’t expecting me to fight back. None of them were.”

“And if they’d shot you, you wouldn’t have had the chance.”

“I fought and I won.”

“You should have given the distress signal.”

“You’re right, I should have. I’ve never been in a situation like that before and I reacted rather than really thinking,” she said again. “I think some part of my brain was afraid that if I called in reinforcements, we would have put the case in jeopardy.”

“Better that than the sadistic poser get his hands on you, but worst case scenario is I would have gone out there pretending to be looking for my wayward girlfriend. Not anything to arouse his suspicions.”

“I didn’t think of that angle.”

“You’re not the trained agent.”

“My instincts told me to handle it alone.” She wasn’t trying to justify herself, just explain why she’d made the choice she had. “I want to say that in the future, I’d do it differently, but I can’t be sure.”

“Listening to your instincts when they are on is the mark of a good agent, but part of an agent’s training is also learning to follow procedure.”

“If I had been fully trained, would I have thought to call in reinforcements?”

“Yes. In cases like this, you learn to conserve energy and diminish danger. We’re close to the end of this case and it could have been blown sky high because I guarantee you, if he’d managed to get you back to his place, I wouldn’t have left you there. The thought of you in that psycho’s hands is making my insides twist like a new rope.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You did good. I don’t want you to think I’m not proud of you, because I am. I’m still pissed as hell at our back-up agent. He had a call to make and he made the wrong one.”

“He didn’t want to interrupt your work.”

“Bad choice.”

Beth could see Ethan’s point of view on that, too. If he were in danger, she’d want to know and she wasn’t the agent in charge. This incident would go into Ethan’s report and would not reflect well on Vinnie though. And she felt sorry for him.

“You need to get back to work now that the excitement is over.”

“I’d rather take you to bed and assure myself that you are really okay.”

“I’ll be more okay when that man is behind bars.”

Ethan nodded. “Point taken.”

He went back to his computer and she went to take a shower. He was waiting for her when she came out of the bathroom though.

He had a bottle of antibiotic ointment and some gauze. “I want to treat your hands.”

“What about your hacking?”

“I called Hotwire and filled him and Claire in on what had happened. They’re still working and I was, too, until I remember seeing a glimpse of your hands. I wish you’d said something. I could have taken care of them right away.”

“I would have just gotten them wet in the shower.”

He was gentle in his ministrations, making sure the small scratches were completely clean before applying the ointment.

She sighed when he was done, wishing he could stay in the bedroom with her and knowing he couldn’t. “You really need to get back to your computer.”

“Come with me.”

“Okay.”

He moved his laptop to the living room so he could work while she cuddled next to him on the couch. The kittens joined them, snuggling against her legs and she felt contentment like she’d never known.

She was dozing with her head on his thigh when he shouted, “Hot damn, we did it!”

Beth scrambled into a sitting position. “You got into the computer?”

“We got in an hour ago, but we had to get through the security to the files of interest. Not to mention we had to find them.”

“And you’ve got those.”

“Oh, yeah, baby…we’ve got ’em. The plans are here and so are his contacts.”

“When will you move in?”

“The risk that he knows we hacked in is minimal. Once we got inside, we were able to reset his security measures. The whole situation today worked to our advantage because it kept him away from his office.”

“Who knew, huh?” she asked with a smile.

“I’ll take whatever help I can get, even when it comes from my target. Hell, especially then.”

“So, you’re waiting to move in?”

“We’ve got proof that the plans are on his system right now, but I want to raid the bastard’s house when he’s doing his little video presentation. The buyers need to be brought down as much as Prescott.”

“I agree.”

Ethan knew she would. Beth was like that. She saw the bigger picture, even when it wasn’t comfortable. Like agreeing to play agent when it was the last thing she wanted to do so they could bring down the enemy. She was such an intriguing mixture of soft heart and just mind.

She was strong, but her innocence and often shy personality fooled others like Prescott into believing she was a pushover.

Ethan knew better and he liked what he knew. A lot. He was proud of the way she’d handled herself in the clearing, but he was still jittery from her near miss. Her instincts were right on, but the one time they were off could spell disaster. He knew it. He’d been there. And he’d survived, he reminded himself.

He wanted Beth to know her own potential and live up to it, but if he had anything to say…there was a certain type of assignment she would never get offered. It probably wasn’t fair, but he wasn’t New Man when it came to her. His instincts were strictly primal where she was concerned and the first one roared with a need to protect her.

That instinct was filling him with rage the next morning when the sheriff called.

“Mr. Prescott denies being anywhere near your cabin yesterday, Mr. Grange.”

“He was here with two guards from his estate.”

“Did anyone besides Miss Whitney see them?”

“No.”

“Whereas Mr. Grange’s staff assured my officer that he was in his office the entire afternoon.”

“Did he tell you that Beth quit her job yesterday?”

“Yes, he did. Something about an argument regarding you.”

“He didn’t tell you about the photos he had faked to try to prove I’m having some kind of sleazy affair?”

“Did you see the photos, Mr. Grange?”

“Beth told me about them.”

“Just as she told you about Mr. Prescott attacking her?”

“Yes,” Ethan gritted out. He was so going to enjoy raking this small-town idiot on the carpet once the collar was made.

“Does it seem likely to you that a man of Mr. Prescott’s wealth and personal appearance needs to go to such lengths to attract a woman?”

“Stranger things have happened.”

“Maybe between the pages of your books, Mr. Grange, but here in the real world, multimillionaires do not stoop to such measures to get a date. I’m sorry to say this, but I think your girlfriend is creating drama to ensure your interest. Have you been fighting a lot lately?”

“My personal life is none of your affair, but if you think I won’t expose your incompetence to the world, you’re a fool.”

“Be very careful what kind of insinuations you make, Mr. Grange. Mr. Prescott is not taking action at this point, but if Miss Whitney persists in her accusations, he could sue her for slander.”

Ethan hung up the phone, promising himself he would rub the sheriff’s nose in his idiocy and if the cop was dirty, he was going to do time. Once charges were laid against Arthur Prescott for illegal brokering of technological secrets, kidnapping would be added to them, no matter what this hick small-town sheriff thought.

Ethan was still steaming an hour later when he got a call from a bookseller in one of the bigger coastal cities to the south. The owner of the shop said that he had just found out Ethan was living along the coast. He had a group of readers who were fans of his work and would be meeting for a discussion group the next morning. Was there any way Ethan could make it?

“I’m sorry, Mr. Jackson, but I’m far too busy with my current book to take on any publicity events right now.”

“I’m sure your publisher would appreciate your cooperation in this event.”

“My publisher understands my reticence to meet the public. I am confident they would not give you my personal telephone number and since it is unlisted, I have to ask how you came by it.”

“I’m not at liberty to divulge that information.”

“I really must insist.”

“Perhaps if you came to the discussion group, I might be persuaded to tell you.”

“I told you, I’m too involved with my current book.”

“It’s not a good idea to alienate readers, Mr. Grange.”

“Have you read my books, Mr. Jackson?”

“Actually, no.”

“If you had, you would know that I do nothing to avoid alienating anyone. Good-bye.” He hung up.

“Who was it?” Beth asked, coming from the spare room where she’d dropped off coffee for the secondary agents.

They’d both come in today and neither one had said boo to Ethan since their arrival. Vinnie had given him a particularly wide berth.

“A bookstore trying to get me to come to a discussion group tomorrow.”

“You think Prescott put him up to it?”

“I’m sure of it. The man is tenacious.”

“He’s used to getting what he wants.”

“He can’t have you.”

“No, he can’t.”

But Ethan’s blood curdled at the thought of how far the man was willing to go to get what he wanted. Rachel Gannon’s sister had not had a chance. How many other women had fallen into his dangerous web?