Zane: A Navy SEAL Romantic Suspense Read online

“Yeah. Like this.” I cupped my hands to my mouth. “Whoooooooooo! Whoooooooooo!”

  Abbey laughed so hard she nearly fell over backwards.

  “Try it.”

  “Haaaawwwwoooohhhh!”

  I busted up laughing. “Close enough.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “That’s for sure. No go to your rock. Hurry.” I gave her a playful pat in that direction and took off for my rock.

  “Gonna beat ya!” she yelled as she ran to her rock.

  I went to my rock and stripped down. It took all of three seconds. Now I just had to wait for the owl sound. Do they even have owls in Greece? Heck if I know. Does it even matter? Not right now. About three minutes later I could hear someone entering the water.

  “It’s cold!”

  “That’s not an owl sound.”

  I heard her laughing. Ten seconds later I heard, “Whoooooooooo. Whoooooooooo.”

  I cupped my groin area and took off skipping and whistling for the sea.

  “You look so masculine,” she yelled from the water. She was about ten yards from shore.

  “Shark attack!” I yelled as I dove in and swam towards her as fast as possible. I got to her in just a couple seconds. I guessed she’d lunge to her right to escape. I guessed right. I grabbed her by the legs from underwater. Her legs were firm. Athletic like she might have played sports in high school or maybe even university. They had a nice feeling to them. I wanted to know if she was athletic all over.

  We were in water that came up to her chest. I came up for air as my hands slid from her legs, up the sides of her thighs, and onto her hips. We breached together. Gasping for air from the mock chase and mock underwater attack. We were laughing uncontrollably, but we quickly caught each other’s eyes. Her upper chest was rising and falling out of the water with each breath. The area by her collarbone. Her mouth was open. Her lips were full and soft. Her eyes were big and beautiful. There was a faint moonlight reflecting off the surface of the water. Her eyes looked amazing. I couldn’t stop staring into them.

  I couldn’t hold back. My lips came crashing down on hers. She pressed her hands against my chest. Not as if to press me away, just to keep a respectable distance after only knowing me a short time. The resistance in her hands quickly faded into grabbing my pectorals. She moved a bit closer. Still no skin-to-skin contact. I wrapped my right hand around her head. My fingers interwoven in her hair. My hand pressing the back of her head. Making her lips meet mine with even more force. More electricity. More passion. My left hand was on her hip. I could feel my grasp strengthening. Her curves felt amazing. I ran my left hand around the side and up her back. It found its way to the side of her neck. I held her head in my hands. Kissing her. Exploring her mouth with my tongue. Feeling the connection and chemistry that had been building since the first moment we met at my bungalow on the hill overlooking the sea. Then, it all suddenly ended.

  She pushed against my chest to get some space between us.

  “It’s too early,” she said in a disappointed voice. “We’re working together.”

  I didn’t say anything. I was still feeling the aftershocks of what had just happened. This little firecracker had just rocked my world so hard. There was no going back. I wanted to scoop her up right then and there in the sea and become one together as I held her in my arms.

  “I’m sorry, Zamora.”

  “It’s OK,” I said.

  “No it’s not. I didn’t mean to lead you on.”

  “You didn’t lead me on. We have chemistry. We were having a great time today. We were celebrating the first part of this mission. Everything was perfect. It was only natural.”

  She was looking down. She lifted her cute little chin up and looked at me. She started to giggle. “You’re right. It was amazing.”

  “Very,” I said.

  “Every part of it.”

  “Every single little part,” I added. “You and I make for a pretty good team.”

  “A great team actually,” she said. She reached up and tapped me on the nose with her index finger. Then she started giggling again. Her giggle was so powerful. Normally she’s in control. A sexy, powerful DEA agent. Solving problems with her sharp mind and cool demeanor.

  Now that control was out the window. Now she had the exuberance of a first time traveller abroad. The exuberance of a child. It was a complete one eighty from what I’d seen so far. I was addicted to both sides of her. I wanted to see if there were even more nuances. I had to see. I wanted to breathe them all in.

  “We can’t tell Frost,” she said.

  “Frost? I already forgot about that guy.”

  “Come on! He’s my partner on this. And he’s a good guy.”

  “I agree. I’m not questioning that at all. My point is how can I think of Frost at a moment like this.” I looked down to my submerged groin area. She slapped my left shoulder with her right hand and smiled.

  “You’re bad,” she said.

  “Very.”

  “Should we get dressed?”

  “No, but do I have a choice?” I teased.

  “No, you don’t,” she teased back.

  “OK. Ladies first.”

  She started to walk out of the water. “Hey! You just want to check out my butt!”

  “That’s not true!”

  She playfully frowned. “You don’t want to check out my butt?”

  “No, I don’t want to check out your butt. I am checking out your butt!”

  She covered her butt with her hands and ran off to her rock giggling. I came out of the water and went over to change. It dawned on me that I didn’t have a towel. I sacrificed my shirt for the cause. I was a mess, but a very happy mess. I walked around the corner of the rock and found her already dressed and ready to go.

  “Your shorts are on backwards,” I said.

  She looked down and grabbed for her zipper. She paused.

  “Made you look!”

  “Not funny” she giggled.

  “You’re right. Hilarious!” I pointed to the taxi stand. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!”

  I took off and she quickly caught up to me. She jumped on my back and I carried her the last twenty yards. We were laughing and playing like kids. I felt like I was on another planet. Just the two of us. Our own private paradise.

  We took separate cabs back to our accommodations, but agreed to meet in the morning for breakfast.

  The banter continued right along as if morning breakfast was just an extension of the fun from yesterday and last night. We had a whole day to enjoy ourselves together. Technically we were working on the case, but the only work we were really doing was on each other. It was a flirty game of cat and mouse. Push and pull without either of us trying to step over the imaginary line of professionalism and into a passionate summer romance on the Greek isles. I could feel it was more than that though. I knew it was more than just lust and fun. Abbey was the kind of girl that I wanted to spend more time with. I could never get enough. All I knew was I wanted more. And the Turk wanted me on the other side of the island.

  I awoke the following day to my phone vibrating. The message said: Other side. At the dock. Ferry leaves in forty-five minutes.

  Show time.

  Chapter 4

  I arrived on the other side and stepped out onto the concrete platform. Turkish grandmothers approached island hopping travelers offering accommodation in their homes and makeshift apartments. There were tour operators offering me everything from day trips to foot massages. They were all just distractions. Across the platform there was a mailbox. To the left of the box was a man reading the newspaper. He was wearing sunglasses. He nodded to me. I walked in his direction. He folded his newspaper. Tucked it under his arm. Took off walking to the direction opposite of where we would have went if we were going to the Turk’s shop.

  The streets were narrow and crowded. I saw boxes on the street that had the customs stamps they give packages when they exit Hong Kong. Just next to those small boxes wer
e friendly locals offering original, made in Turkey scarves and housewares. I wondered if they had remembered to remove the Made in Hong Kong sticker from the bottom of each item.

  I followed the man up some stairs, around a corner, and down some other stairs. We were walking in a circle. Taking the scenic route to the Turk’s shop. The man stopped just in front of a door. He pointed for me to go inside. Inside was the Turk. He stood to shake my hand. A different young girl than before popped out from behind the curtain leading into the back and left two small glasses of tea on the table.

  “Teşekkür ederim,” I said, as I looked her in the eye. She blushed and smiled at the same time. She seemed very shy. Surprised that someone had even acknowledged her existence.

  “Thank you,” she said. She had an accent. It didn’t sound like the ones I had heard in and around Bodrum. It was from somewhere else. I was surprised that she replied with a thank you to a thank you. I figured she was just nervous. Maybe it was one of the only English sayings she knew.

  “Thank you for coming on such short notice,” the Turk began. He removed a stack of pictures from underneath the table. “This is the family you will transport. They will be arriving in town soon.” He was talking to me like I was an underling. Normally I wouldn’t go for that, but in this case it was good. He felt comfortable superior. In charge. Look at me and who I have working for me now. I wondered if he had already gloated to his colleagues. Even worse his competition. I studied the pictures for twenty seconds. Making mental notes of facial features. The guys were easily to remember. The girls wouldn’t be. There were no clear shots of them without covered faces. I would focus on the guys. The girls would surely be with them or close by. They wouldn’t risk separating in the darkness of night.

  “This is a GPS device. You are to have it with you at all times.” He handed me a small plastic object the size of a key chain. It was simple, but effective. I had seen these units before. No bells and whistles. Just performance.

  “My colleague will show you to the pick-up point now,” he said.

  He stood to shake my hand. I stood. I took his hand without saying anything. I knew the tea would still be too hot to drink, and it was just a formality anyways.

  The man who had picked me up at the dock motioned his hand as if to exit through the door. I complied. There was a small scooter parked outside. One hundred twenty-five cc at most. He was small, but with my added size and weight this was about to get interesting. He jumped on the front and I climbed on the back. I probably looked like a tourist getting picked up for a day trip by an understaffed, or underfunded, tour operator.

  He drove cautiously and slowly. A big contrast from what I was accustomed to seeing in Turkey. Surely he didn’t want to attract any more attention than he already had with a huge tourist on the back of his bike. We exited the tourist area and followed the road down to the seaside. He parked the bike. We got off.

  He began walking right away. I still wasn’t sure if he even spoke English. For the next twenty minutes we cut through trees and bushes. We climbed over rocks. It definitely wasn’t a place any tourist would go. I was glad we had decided not to go with the jogger scenario. It would have been so out of place it would have been comical. I could see the sea just over some rocks.

  He turned around and put his hand out flat. He lowered it as if to say get low, which he did at the same time. He was in a crouched position. Half walking. Half wobbling. Eventually he was so low had to balance himself with his hands on the ground. We came to an area where two rocks met. There was a small space between them. Very narrow and the decent to the sea between them very steep. He pointed rapidly at the flat rock that was twenty yards down. He just kept pointing as if to make sure I got the message. The rock was the perfect pickup point. It was secluded from prying eyes on both sides. It sat inside a small cove. Just enough protection from the sea. I could imagine a young Turkish boy smoking shisha and having his first kiss there. Now it was a 0300 pickup point for refugees, migrants, and fugitives. How times change. The guy then pointed at his watch. He held up three fingers and then turned his hand flat and wobbled it to each side. At or around 0300. He gave me a thumbs up and raised his eyebrows. It was a question. I returned the thumbs up and added in a nod. The gestures were universal.

  He extended his palm and then quickly lifted it up, extending his finger in the process and pointing in the direction from whence we came. We walked back through the brush. Not another human in sight. About the only signs of life I saw were some small lizards and the bugs they were chasing. A sharp contrast from tonight when this stretch of coast would be packed with people. He drove me back to the port. When we arrived he just idled the bike. I guess that was all the good-bye I was going to get. I slid off. He took off. I watched him go. Expressionless throughout. I walked to the ticket office and bought a one-way ticket back to Kos.

  I exited the ferry. I was looking for a storage locker. I found a small shop with a man who tagged and stored your luggage by the hour or days at a time. Next to him was a souvenir shop. I went inside the shop. An endless supply of plates, postcards, mugs, and magnets. Not a piece of clothing to be found. I walked out and saw a convenience store selling beach towels. I bought the one that was a Greek flag. I asked the cashier for a bag. He looked at me strange as if I would need a bag to carry the towel. I would have thought the same thing being already at the sea. I stepped outside. I removed the GPS device from my pocket and wrapped it in the towel. Placed the towel in the bag. I had packed the towel tight. It allowed me to roll the bag and then stuff it longways back into its own open area for the handle. It looked like an oversized burrito. I checked the bag in at the storage lockers. I hailed a cab and went right back to my bungalow.

  I called Claire Abbey right away.

  “We have to meet now. They’ve got GPS on me.”

  “It’s on your person?”

  “Checked at the dock. Probably have less than an hour and they’ll need to see it moving. Could be just having a morning coffee right now, but if it’s still longer than about forty five minutes it will look suspicious.”

  “I’m coming over.”

  “Not all the way. The café two turns down the hill.”

  “I’m there now.” Abbey hung up.

  I walked down the hill. I was at seven minutes gone already. Abbey showed up at thirteen minutes.

  “Tonight is the pickup. About 0300. I saw pictures. Family like he had said. Five people. Looks like a husband, wife, son, and two daughters. Pickup spot is a secluded cove.”

  “Did you drop a beacon there?”

  “With what? I just have the Nokias.”

  “What model?”

  “1280s. No way they’re GPS enabled.”

  “Anything? Any way we can find that spot?”

  “Not electronically. I’ll have to explain it to you and you can get it with satellite imagery.”

  “Am I going to be able to find it?”

  “No distinguishing features other than maybe the pick-up point.”

  “A flat rock?”

  “How’d you guess?”

  “They’re a favorite of the traffickers.”

  Another minute gone. It took two more minutes to explain where the rock was located. Sixteen minutes since I stored the GPS. The shops in the harbor were close. If they didn’t have it on too sensitive a setting it would look like I stepped out of the boat and was still there. That would put me at twenty-one minutes.

  “How does the agency want to move on this one?” I asked.

  “Stick with the plan. We’re playing the long game. Just gather info. Talk to the passengers if you can.”

  “What about today?”

  “Right. You have the device. The café might be blown already. The al-Atrash kids or the boat captain probably gave up that place. No need to give them more. I’d stay away from the bungalow.”

  “Who’s that place registered to? They’ve probably called it in already.”

  “They’re Turkish. Th
ey don’t have the connections on this side.”

  “Money buys connections. If his operation is as big as you say it is he’s already taken precautions.”

  Abbey breathed out hard. “You’re right. I don’t know whose name is on that place. I’ll have to check with Frost.”

  “Where’s Frost in all this?”

  “He’s pulled off in some other direction. He’s half on this one and he’s half finishing up another case he had worked on years ago. It went dead, but some new DNA came up and now it’s hot again. The agency really wants that one. It’s a big bust. The kind voters like.”

  “So it’s all about the voters?”