“Relax,” Tim said, stroking a palm over the woman’s stomach and up her side.
Maya swallowed the curse that mounted hot in her throat. At least it confirmed one thing. Whatever it was she’d seen in Tim’s eyes when she’d straddled his lap, was nothing. Despite Tim’s magnificent hard-on, the desire had been one-sided. Tim had rejected her for this woman. Maybe he loved the dark beauty. Love was a weakness, one she should’ve been glad to discover in the case of her enemy, but she only felt an uncomfortable pinch in the region of her chest. Even if she couldn’t justify it, the feeling was very similar to the one she’d had when she’d found out her lover of six months was married.
She didn’t want to see more. In any event, Lee was getting dangerously near. She retreated to the edge of the backyard from where she watched Lee do a round of the house before he took up a position by the front door. She slipped to the road and back through the village, walking home along the path where the jungle was once more noisy with invisible animal and insect life. For the first time in years, Maya thought about Darren, who would’ve told her she was an ass for giving a shit.
She’d always heeded Darren’s advice. He’d been her hero. As a child, when the family she’d never known had discarded her like garbage, Darren had taken the place of the brother and father she’d never had. When they’d been older, he’d played the role of boyfriend. She’d put him on a pedestal, and then she’d gotten him killed. Her oath, the promise she’d made to Cain to protect mankind against Godfrey’s evil crimes, was for Darren. It couldn’t bring him back, but it was her way of paying penance. It was her only hope of, maybe one day, getting the absolution she craved.
Everything since that tragic day had changed, and yet, deep inside, everything was the same. No matter how hard she worked at fighting crime, she couldn’t move on or find the peace she was after. With every new mission, she hoped she’d finally find the forgiveness Darren hadn’t had the time to give her, but the closure never came.
This mission was different. She felt things she wasn’t supposed to be feeling. When Tim had touched her, her body had come alive for him like it had for no other man, not even for Darren. He had an effect on her she could name—desire. What she couldn’t explain, was the tightness in her chest when she’d seen him with the Costa Rican woman. For the sake of her oath, and for Darren, she should heed the voice in her head that told her not to care, not to let anyone in.
It took no less than a week to fix up the dive center to meet the minimal operational requirements, time that Maya both resented and valued. She resented how it added nothing to her mission except for setting up her cover. No new info to send to Cain. In the meanwhile, innocent people were dying because of illegal weapons. On the other hand, she valued the time to think and find her balance. Tim had caught her off guard with his rejection after having gone to all the trouble of finding her. It didn’t make sense, unless he’d looked her up for a different reason. Could he have smelled a rat? Unlikely. In no way could he suspect her. Her profile was clean, freshly created in cyber space to leave a history of innocent dive instructor jobs around the world. By now, Tim would’ve pulled up what he could on her. That was what ambassadors did before they went out of their way to meet someone. That was what criminals did too. Too bad he’d flirted with her and then went and screwed someone else. If she were honest with herself, she’d admit there was more to her disappointment than simply a lost opportunity at obtaining information.
Darren would’ve chastised her, and told her not to make it personal. He would’ve advised her never to desire anyone, especially not the men who attracted her, because affection made one weak. With a scoff, she pushed the memory of Darren from her mind and gave herself a mental shake.
Whatever the case, Cain didn’t require a psychological evaluation. He needed stats. According to Cain’s source, before someone had made sushi of him, small arms shipments left Puerto Viejo on a frequent but irregular basis. Money from a Cayman Islands account, which was connected to Godfrey, found its way to Tim Fardel’s savings, and Tim had a holiday home in Puerto Viejo. How convenient. How was Tim connected to Godfrey and the arms? She needed to get into Tim’s home and into his computer or phone. Not into his head and certainly not into his pants. With newfound resolution, she got ready for the first morning of the dive center being open.
Two clients from the hotel had signed up for a beginner’s course that encompassed five qualifying dives over a week. She’d arrived an hour before the scheduled time to check the equipment and watch the water. She didn’t need tide charts to know the sea conditions. It was like an inborn compass, integral to her being. Sometimes she swore it was water that flowed through her veins instead of blood.
She double-checked the oxygen levels of the tanks and the functionality of the buoyancy compensators and regulators. She was just about to carry her equipment to the inflatable raft when two young men appeared in the open door. One had limp, brown hair tied into a ponytail, and the other was a redhead with a fair skin covered in freckles. From the booking forms, she knew they were Jake and Elvin, respectively twenty and twenty-two years old.
“Good morning, guys. I’m Maya, your divemaster.”
The young men exchanged a look Maya knew well. She gave an indulgent smile as the redhead’s mouth fell open and his friend’s eyes locked on her breasts.
Freckles found his voice first. “Uh, I’m Jake,” he pointed at his buddy, “and this is Elvin.”
She stretched and flicked the strap of her red bikini. “Ready?”
Jake’s eyes raked down her body before he looked at Elvin again. “Hell, yeah.”
“Right. Let’s fit you out.”
They went outside onto the deck where fins, masks, snorkels, BCs, and weight belts in different sizes were laid out. As Maya visually measured the two men and started handing out fins for them to try on, the noise of an engine sounded from the direction of the lodge. She glanced up just as a beach buggy pulled up in front of the cabin.
Maya squinted into the sun and then smiled. “Looks like we have another diver.”
“That’s just unlucky, man,” Elvin said to Jake. “Competition.”
Maya dragged her gaze over Tim as he jumped from the vehicle and approached them. He wore a pair of blue and green Bermuda swimming shorts with a towel thrown over his shoulder. The muscles flexed in his veined upper arm where he gripped the fabric, and his chiseled body glistened with perspiration. Blond curls fell over his forehead.
He stopped in front of her. “Maya.”
The word wasn’t a greeting, it was a caress. The way he said it made her insides warm. Fuzzy insides weren’t good.
Jake and Elvin looked between her and Tim.
“Joining us?” she asked, mentally kicking herself for having swallowed her tongue for a second.
“Got nothing better to do.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “On a Monday? Shouldn’t you be wearing an expensive suit and impressing investors and their wives?”
He smiled. “Maybe tomorrow.”
“Better sign the indemnity form then. Come inside.” Maya entered the cabin. “You guys too,” she called to Jake and Elvin from over her shoulder.