what I dare do.” With that, he sauntered past her and down the short hallway. Before he turned and was lost from sight, he glanced back at her and winked—a gesture that should’ve been obnoxious and overconfident, but was actually sexy enough that her knees knocked together and she had to lean against the doorjamb.
So Chris Wilson, Mr. Security Specialist, was going to monitor her? Somehow, she wasn’t as annoyed and angry as she should be. Instead, she found her stomach heating up at the thought that he wanted to protect her. Not that she needed it now that she was smart and grown up, no longer a trusting teenager who’d almost lost her virtue to a despicable jerk.
Heading back into her office, she tried to focus on work until her dinner date with Antonio. Yet it was impossible to think about anything but Chris, the crazy conversation they’d had, the way he looked at her, and the way he made her feel.
Chapter Four
Devon was partially fuming and partially chuckling at the conversation he’d just had with Iris. She was infuriating and so attractive she muddled his brain like nothing he’d ever experienced. He feared he’d overstepped bounds a spy should never even approach. He’d used the job of security specialist often and always told people he was from San Francisco to keep the story simple. Using names like Chris Wilson, Tom Jensen, or Jake Smith kept him safe from being discovered. There were dozens of such names in San Francisco.
Iris. What a lady she was. She didn’t bow to his demands or act afraid, though there was something in her eyes that said she had felt fear before and dealt with it. If he’d read her correctly, that was remarkable, but that lack of fear terrified him when there were men such as Antonio Jasper around and most likely preying on her. It was still impressive that she wouldn’t live her life in fear. Stupid, but impressive.
Before long, his phone screen displayed the view through her resort’s security cameras that he’d easily tapped into. She was meeting up for dinner with Antonio in one of the resort’s restaurants; Antonio’s men were sitting at another table. Devon headed for his own room and his surveillance suitcase. He didn’t like being away from watching over Iris, especially when she was basically in Antonio’s grasp, but Devon had a job to do, and once he got everything set up, he could focus on watching Iris—and sadly, Antonio too.
Minutes later, he’d jammed the camera in the hallway outside the penthouse, used the all-access key card he’d lifted from Iris’s desktop when they’d had their talk, and slipped inside. He stayed just inside the door, listening and searching with his eyes and his probe for heat sensors or lasers. Interestingly enough, Antonio didn’t have either, or maybe hadn’t set them up yet. More likely, the man didn’t think he needed them in this safe little valley, and it wasn’t as if he was hiding anything in his hotel rooms.
If Devon’s contacts were correct, this trip was to identify and find distribution spots for drug exchanges, and possibly trafficking as well. This beauty valley, with a quiet, unmonitored airstrip and plenty of spots to take cover in trees and mountains, would be a decent spot for them to fly in shipments and then distribute through the countryside. There were only a couple of drawbacks he could see: there was really only one way in and out of the valley, and the airstrip was pretty exposed to the small town. Maybe they’d find that out in their research, give up, and leave. It was interesting that an affluent criminal would take the time to do the research himself, but it would explain why he not only was successful but also hadn’t been caught yet. He trusted only himself.
Devon located several cameras that Antonio’s men must have installed. He scrambled them into a constant repeat of the seconds before he entered the room, and then he got to work. Ten minutes later, he’d hidden his own cameras throughout the room, along with tracking devices and some microphones in laptops, shoes, suitcases, and anything he could find that they might take with them when they went to meet with contacts. He downloaded a copy of everything on their computer hard drives and would send it on to Interpol for them to try to decode and find information that would help nail Antonio. He’d already bugged their Land Rover