Page 4 of Cheating the Devil
Lin Chao sippedhis sparkling water as he waited in a comfy, leather seat located in the VIP lounge. His private jet should have already been in the air, heading for Malaysia, but there’d been a minor maintenance issue that needed to be addressed. After reaming the pilot for not being ready, he’d stepped back into the terminal and headed for the lounge, trailed by his bodyguard who now stood sentry nearby. Instead of watching the news or golf game being shown on the two wide-screen TVs hanging above the bar, Chao stared out the window separating the elite from the peasants scurrying around the main terminal. People watching was something he always found fascinating, ever since he’d been a little boy, growing up in an impoverished town in Northern China. He’d always tried to guess who the travelers passing through were and what their station in life was. It wasn’t until he was twelve, after his parents had died—his father in a mining accident, his mother of a grief-induced suicide shortly after—that Chao realized how poor his family had been. He’d been taken in by a neighbor after his mother’s death, but several days later, two men arrived and announced they were taking Chao to live with his grandfather. The wealthy man hadn’t approved of his daughter’s choice of a husband and haddisowned her when she’d refused to enter into an arranged marriage.
It wasn’t long before Chao had been getting a full education, catching up on the subjects his poor school hadn’t focused on. He’d gone from wearing stained and torn clothing to being dressed in the finest attire available—he’d even taken his maternal surname as his own, discarding the last connection to the pathetic man who’d sired him. At his grandfather’s side, he’d learned the family business—Chao was the only living male heir the elderly man had after his son’s wife had only produced two females. Being extremely wealthy, the family had been allowed to have more than one child amid the country’s strict population laws.
After his grandfather passed away, twenty-five-year-old Chao had taken over the conglomerate the old man had created. Then the heir had made the family business bigger and better, albeit less legal. With cultivated connections in the government, Chao skirted the laws of the land. Because he’d padded their pockets, and created jobs for the peons, the officials looked the other way. At least, most of them did. There had been several he hadn’t been able to turn, and at least one of them had been the cause of the demise of Chao’s businesses. Now here he was, banished from his homeland, his empire and family in ruins.
A new influx of tourists entered the terminal, and Chao studied each one. A tall man with a commanding presence towered over several other people, but as the small crowd thinned, it was the petite woman at his side who drew Chao’s attention. Rage boiled within him as every muscle in his body went rigid. His hands clenched. She was older than the last time he’d seen her, but he knew without a doubt he was staring at the woman who’d killed his eldest son. The fifteenth anniversary of Delan’s death was approaching, but Chao still felt the loss as if it’d happened only yesterday. He’d been cheated out of revengeall those years, but with that murdering bitch walking into his territory, all vows he’d made to those in power in his homeland, in exchange for his freedom, were off the table now.
Chao snapped his fingers, prompting his bodyguard and right-hand man, Shao Yan, to approach. Aware of his surroundings, the old man kept his voice low and spoke in his native tongue. “That woman in the red dress. Find out where she and her companions are going—discreetly. I want to know everything you can find out about her.” As Yan strode toward the door to the main terminal to do his bidding, Chao picked up his cell phone and called his driver, who’d dropped them off less than thirty minutes ago. When the call was answered, Chao ordered, “Come back to the airport to pick me up. My plans have changed.” Without waiting for an answer, he disconnected the call and glared at the woman who would never leave the island alive.
Lying in a chaise lounge,swirling the stirrer in her Mai Tai, Avery chuckled at Brad, who was glaring at two couples chatting in the pool. The sun was deliciously warm, and Avery was fast on her way to getting the darker tan she’d been looking forward to. Her navy-blue bikini was a bit more conservative than Lori’s black and white one, yet still showed off the curves the older woman worked hard to maintain. She wasn’t as solid as she’d been twenty years ago and had added about twenty pounds to her petite frame since then, but she still garnered appreciative glances from men of all ages. It was a boost to her ego, but there was only one man she was interested in attracting, and he was lying right next to her—brooding. Avery took a sip of her drink, then swallowed the cool, fruity liquid. “He seems like a nice guy.”
With his arms crossed over his bare chest, above his flat abs and dark green swim trunks, Brad growled. “If he was a nice guy, he wouldn’t have his hands all over my daughter.” That was an exaggeration since the two were standing side by side in three feet of water, Cameron’s arm wrapped around Lori’s waist, his hand resting on her opposite hip. The other young couple they’d just met were similarly positioned, facing them. From their body language, it was obvious they were talking about the tattoos running down Lori’s arm, and the other woman was considering getting a colorful sleeve too.
Avery reached over and ran a seductive finger down Brad’s thick bicep. “He’s not doing anything to her you didn’t do to me when we were in the pool a little while ago. In fact, if memory serves, your hands were a lot busier under the water.”
Finally, pulling his gaze away from the foursome, he turned his head toward her. “That’s different.”
“Why? Because we’re older? She’s twenty-four, he’s twenty-eight, and they’ve been dating for six months. I’m sure they’ve moved beyond hand holding by now. You and I moved beyond that after our second date, and you were in my bed at the end of the third.” Yeah, he’d swept her off her feet quickly, not that she was complaining. Sex with Brad had been better than she’d dreamed of, and she’d been dreaming of it from the moment she’d met him at Haven’s house during a joint mission between his Delta teams and Deimos.
“Please don’t insinuate my daughter’s having sex with that punk. As far as I’m concerned, she’s still a virgin and she’ll stay that way until I’m dead and buried.”
“Ha! Good luck with that. Just be happy he seems to treat her right.”
“Seems to. It’s probably an act to impress me.”
Avery squeezed his upper arm. “It would take a lot more than that to impress you, and I’m sure he knows it. Just don’t hold thefact he’s a Marine against him. Don’t turn it into an inter-branch pissing match. It’s obvious they’re smitten with each other. As long as she’s happy, that’s all that should matter.”
Brad took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right. I’ll give him a chance. But at the first sign of trouble, I’m gonna find a shovel.”
Swinging her legs off the chaise, she stood and held out her hand. “Come on, Shrek. Let’s go back to our room and take a nap before dinner.”
“A nap?” he asked incredulously as his eyes narrowed.
“I was being discreet.”
A wide grin spread across his face as he took her hand and got to his feet. “Sorry, didn’t realize we’d switched into mission mode.”
“Tsk-tsk. And you call yourself a Delta.”
As if they’dbeen created with identical minds, both Avery’s and Brad’s eyes narrowed as they saw the small piece of clear tape they’d placed at the top of their hotel room door, where it met the jamb, had been disturbed. It was a covert operative’s trick to let them know if anyone had entered their room while they were gone. Nobody should have been in there at all because they’d requested to “go green,” meaning they didn’t want or need daily maid service. They’d call the front desk if they needed the towels, toiletries, or sheets replaced. Whoever had gone into their room was probably a resort staff member, but since neither Brad nor Avery were one-hundred percent sure, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Because they’d taken a commercial flight onto a non-US island, neither had brought a weapon with them—not thatit mattered. There were many other weapons that could be mistaken for simple, everyday items and could easily be brought onto a plane or found lying around—an operative learned to improvise and use anything and everything available to them.
Glancing around, Brad spotted a discarded room-service tray a few doors down. In silence, he hurried over and swiped the butter knife. It wasn’t sharp, but with enough strength behind it, the utensil could do some damage. Meanwhile, Avery had pulled a seemingly innocent, compact umbrella, with a thicker-than-normal shaft, from her beach bag and unscrewed the handle. An expandable, tactical baton slid from inside the hollow, metal tube. With a flick of her wrist, it was ready to use.
The corners of Brad’s mouth ticked upward at her ingenuity, even though it didn’t surprise him. “Nice,” he murmured just loud enough for her to hear.
Not caring about what hotel security thought of them if they were watching the couple on the hallway cameras, Avery and Brad stood on either side of the door to their room. Brad held the keycard to the scanner and waited for the green light to appear. There was no way to silently enter the room with the bulky handle and noisy lock, so he didn’t hesitate to push open the door, using his foot to hold it ajar. When seconds passed, and no one rushed out or fired on them, the couple eased around both sides of the jamb and entered the room, letting the door shut behind them. A quick inspection revealed no one was lying in wait to murder or attack them. Nothing seemed out of place, nor did Brad have the feeling their belongings had been disturbed.
Coming out of the bathroom, where he’d checked behind the shower curtain, Brad heard Avery chuckle. “Damn room service. She’s gonna be pissed—I better not tell her.”
His gaze went to the huge fruit, cheese, and wine basket, which hadn’t been there earlier, sitting on the glass and wicker table for two by the window. Someone from room service musthave come in while they were gone and left it. Avery stood next to the table, with a little, white card in her hand. He raised an eyebrow at her as he dropped the butter knife onto the dresser next to the wide-screen TV. “Haven?”
“Yup ... Frisco too. Although I’m sure they intended for it to be here when we first arrived.” She read from the card, “Enjoy your trip and stay out of trouble.”
Tossing the card onto the table, Avery poked through the items in the basket before selecting an oversized, plump, chocolate-covered strawberry and sliding the luscious morsel from the clear plastic surrounding it. When she took a bite of it, red juice rolled down her chin. Before she could wipe it away with her hand, Brad swooped in, leaned down, and used his tongue to lap it up, reveling in the combined flavor of the fruit and Avery. Grasping her hips and pulling her close, he continued to kiss and lick his way to her mouth. He had no idea what had happened to the rest of the strawberry, and didn’t care, when Avery’s arms went around his neck. Her lips parted, granting his tongue entry. Strawberry, chocolate, and the spicy, feminine taste he’d always associate with the woman in his arms tantalized his palate. He moaned and deepened the kiss, while pivoting and walking her backward toward the bed. He couldn’t explain it, but Avery turned him on faster than any other woman he’d ever met, and that was saying a lot. His cock was ready to explode, and they were both still dressed. Not bad for a guy in his midfifties. While his response time had started to slow down in recent years, he still didn’t need the help of one of those little, blue pills. The sex-after-fifty gods were still smiling down on him.
Avery’s hands dropped to the hem of the T-shirt Brad had pulled on as he’d let Lori and Cameron know they’d meet them later for dinner, before heading back to the room. Brad reached back, grabbed a handful of cotton, and yanked the shirt up andoff. Avery’s hands were roaming his taut abs and trim waist before his shirt hit the floor. While he rarely went into the field anymore, usually remaining at a base or camp, doling out orders, Brad kept up a daily physical fitness routine to stay in shape. It was similar to the one he’d performed during his days as an active Delta operative, although, not as strenuous as it had been back then. His joints had taken a beating over the years and let him know it more often than not lately.
