The Danforths: Marc, Tanya & Abe: The Laws of Passion / Terms of Surrender / Shocking the Senator

Ian laid a hand on his arm. “All right, baby brother. I guess you need as many people on your side as you can get right now. If that’s what you want, she can stay. Both of you have a seat.”

Ian eased into his huge leather chair and drove his fingers through his hair. “You’re not going to like what I have to say.”

Marcus leaned his big six-two frame toward the front of the high-backed visitor’s chair. “What’s wrong? Is it the family? Are they all okay?”

“Yes,” Ian told him. “Everyone is fine at the moment. Everyone but you.”

“It’s not Dad then? He can’t be happy about my arrest when he’s just about to swing this election. He’s still running ahead, isn’t he?”

“Dad’s not concerned about how your arrest will or will not affect his election chances. He’s concerned about you. We all are.” Ian hesitated a moment, then bit his lip.

Dana was astounded. Everything she’d ever read or heard about Ian Danforth said he was the self-assured and competent president of a national firm. But at the moment, he looked stung and unsure of himself. She sat back and waited to hear his story.

“I had a phone call a little while ago, Marc. From…”

“Don’t tell me. I’ll bet it was from our nemesis, Sonny Hernandez. I don’t have any doubts that he’s in on this frame-up. What did he want?”

“Excuse me,” Dana interrupted. “I know I said I’d just be quiet, but who’s this Sonny Hernandez?”

Marcus turned to her. “He a scum gopher for a drug cartel and a local coffee bean importer. Nasty piece of work he is, too. He’s been pressuring us to do business with the importer exclusively.”

“What kind of business?”

“He doesn’t just want to do business with our shipping company,” Ian told her. “He wants our help with laundering their dirty drug money.”

“Ah. Drug dealing is nasty stuff. What kind of pressure?” she asked, in as innocent tone of voice as she could manage.

“The threats started back in February,” Marcus replied. “Then in April they got a lot more personal when they blew up one of our warehouse offices.”

“Blew it up? An explosion? Was anyone hurt?” Dana had read about it in the files, but she wanted their take on who had done it.

Ian shook his head. “No. And so far the police haven’t found any clues as to who set it off. But we know who’s behind it.”

“You mean you think the importers blew up your building to coerce you into doing what they want?”

Ian scowled. “Yes and no. Yes, the explosion was meant to scare me into doing what they want. But no, it’s not coming from the local coffee bean people. Like Marc was saying, they’re just a front for a Colombian drug cartel. The cartel has threatened my life several times, and went so far as kidnapping an innocent woman who they mistook for my mistress. And when those tactics didn’t work, they framed my brother.”

Marcus stirred in his chair then addressed Ian. “So what did good old charming Sonny have to say tonight?”

“It wasn’t Sonny this time,” Ian told him. “The call was from the kingpin himself. Ernesto Estoban Escalante.”

Dana’s jaw dropped opened, but she covertly closed it and swallowed hard. Escalante? The most notorious drug lord in the world? The FBI had been hunting the man for nearly a decade. Every time they thought they had him, he’d drop back into the oblivion of the Colombian rain forests where his cartel ruled supreme.

And he had personally called Ian Danforth tonight? Suddenly everything changed for Dana. If what Ian and Marcus had told her was true, the Danforths were in big trouble. And she had stepped into something much larger than Marcus and his racketeering charge.

But she still wasn’t positive that the Danforths were innocents. What if Marcus had given in to the cartel to protect his brother? He could still make a good informant.

Dana kept her mouth shut and listened.

Ian was speaking to Marcus and shaking his head sadly. “I don’t know how to fix this for you, Marc. Escalante plainly told me that if I would help them launder their money through the coffee supplies that he’d get you off the hook. But…”

“The bastard as much as admitted to you that he framed me?” Marcus snapped.

“Yeah. I thought I’d lived through the worst they could throw at me. But…I can’t sit back and let you go to jail for something you didn’t do.” Ian grimaced and took a breath. “Besides, they won’t stop at that. Next they’ll probably start murdering all of us…one at a time.”

“You can’t be thinking of giving in to them now?” Marcus sounded stunned. “You can’t do that. I’m not going to jail for something I didn’t do. Don’t worry. I’ll find the evidence to prove my innocence. Just give me a little time.”

Dana just had to interrupt again to make a comment. “By any chance did you happen to get tonight’s phone call on tape?”

Ian narrowed his eyes at her. “I don’t normally tape my phone conversations, no.”

“Are you going to try getting the police involved with this again?” Marcus asked his brother. “They have to believe you by now.”

“They do believe us. But there’s nothing they can do without proof. All the leads we’ve given them have turned cold. The cartel is too powerful.” Ian took a deep breath and ran the back of his hand across his mouth. “And too dangerous. I’m not going to let any more of my family suffer out of some misguided sense of righteousness. I can’t. It’s not worth it.”

“Ian, please,” Marcus begged. “Give me at least a few days to find the proof. I promise you, I’m not going to jail…and we’ll find the evidence to stop this once and for all.”

Ian clenched his fists on his desk. Then he turned to Dana. “Can you guarantee me that you’ll keep him alive while he investigates this damned murdering drug lord?”

Dana hesitated for one second then answered him sharply. “I can guarantee you that as long as I am alive, Marcus will be fine. Nothing will happen to him.”

“Yeah? Well, I’d just as soon you didn’t die over my stupid pride, either.” Ian stood and started to pace. “All right, Marc,” he finally agreed. “I can put them off for a couple more weeks. But after that I give up. You are not going to do time for a crime you didn’t commit. Not as long as I can stop it.”

Marcus stood and went to put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ian. We’ll beat them.” He turned and smiled at Dana. “And I’ll be all right. I have a guardian angel at my side.”

Dana stood, too. “I’ve never been called an angel before.” She set her jaw and turned to Ian. “But don’t worry, Mr. Danforth. I intend to see that all of you come out of this in one piece. You have my word.”

As both men stood speechless after that strange remark, Dana’s mind was already leaping into a plan. “Okay. Now. What can you tell me about your phone system? And after we check on that, I want you to tell me everything you remember about that phone call with Escalante.”

Marc checked to see that the employee door was locked as they left the office building. Then he followed a very antsy Dana while she cautiously climbed into her car and pressed the door-lock button as soon as he’d closed the door behind him.

She put her key in the ignition, but didn’t turn it. “There’s something I have to tell you,” she said softly.

“I had a feeling there might be.”

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and shifted slightly in her seat. “Yeah, you’re too smart not to have been guessing about me. And I’d also be willing to bet that Ian is on the phone to Michael Whittaker right this minute, demanding some answers.”

“You’re not a bodyguard, are you?”

She shook her head.

“Then who…?”

“I’m an FBI special agent, Marcus. I’ve been assigned to offer you a deal to turn over any information that could help the federal attorney convict the cartel.”

“FBI agent?” After his initial shock, he knew in his gut that what she’d said was true. “I suppose you can prove that?” he asked anyway.

“Not at the moment. I’ve been undercover…you understand. But I want to take you to someone who can prove it for me. He’s someone I think you should talk to.”

“Just a minute.” Marc’s mind was swimming with all the things she’d said. “Why are you telling me this now? What’s changed?”

“I’ve changed. I don’t think you’re guilty of racketeering anymore.”

“Gee, thanks.” He reached over and took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “You mean when I first told you I wasn’t guilty you thought I was lying?”

She pulled her chin from his grip, but turned in her seat to face him. “That’s how I was trained. Suspect everyone and trust no one. It isn’t personal. It’s just my job.”

Not personal? And here he’d been dreaming of making things between them as personal as you can get. He still wanted that. In fact, his fingers ached right now with wanting to touch her again.

“Okay, Dana. Let’s go see the man who can prove who you are.” This revelation of hers was going to take a bit of getting used to.

She bent to crank the ignition, but he suddenly thought of something and stopped her. “Hey. Dana Aldrich is your real name, isn’t it?”

“It’s the name I’ve always used,” she told him flatly. “That’s all I can tell you.”

Marc sat in stony silence while Dana drove them all over town, ending up only a few blocks from where they’d started. She’d made two mobile-phone calls, but he didn’t catch much from her side of the conversation.

A war was going on inside him. He was mad. Confused. Slightly frightened and…still desperate to find a way into Dana’s bed. She was totally different than any woman he’d ever known. And he’d never figured that he would be so attracted to a tough, professional law-woman.

In fact, he never figured he would be attracted to any woman ever again after that monumentally embarrassing fiasco of last year. Yet, here he was, lusting after a woman with long, soft curls and the biggest brown eyes he’d ever seen.

They finally pulled into a darkened garage behind a nondescript building on East Bryan Street and parked the car. “Where are we?” he asked.

“The FBI Resident Agency office. Luckily, my boss is here in Savannah from the Atlanta field office. I want him to meet you.”

They climbed the back stairs to the fourth floor. “The office is open at this hour?” he asked.

She shook her head and led him into a shadowed hallway. “The public reception area closes at five. We’re headed to a small conference suite in back.”

Dana opened a door for him to walk through. As he stepped inside, he saw a medium sized room, absolutely crammed with high-tech equipment. When his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he recognized state-of-the-art computers and a screen that seemed to be some kind of radar scanner. A young man was sitting in front of communications-style machines that blinked with lights and buzzed with noises.

But Dana didn’t acknowledge the man who was operating the computers. She walked right past the guy.

“This way.” Dana motioned Marc to follow her into a side room. “Good evening, SAC Simon,” she said as she closed the door.

“Dana.” A middle-aged man with steel blue eyes and a little gray at his temples stood and walked toward them. “And this must be Marcus Danforth. I’m Special Agent-In-Charge Steve Simon. Please just call me Steve.” He shook hands. “How’re you doing?”

“I’m not so hot, at the moment,” Marc grumbled. “This morning I was in jail, and tonight I seem to have been dropped into some kind of weird espionage movie. I’m not thrilled about either one.”

“Have a seat, son. I think we’d better talk.” Steve moved to the polished wood conference table and took a chair.

When the three of them were seated, Marc couldn’t wait to start asking questions. “Why am I here? What do you want from me?”

“You’re here in our covert operations office because Dana has disobeyed standard procedures and told you who she really is,” Steve replied. “You are also here because you may be able to help both your family and your country. Are you willing to listen to and then consider a proposition to do both of those things?”

Marc nodded his head but kept his mouth shut. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten himself into this mess, but now he knew he needed advice on how to get out of it.

“Good. But first, I want to assure you that the woman you’ve known as your bodyguard is indeed Special Agent Dana Aldrich. I’ve already received a call from my old friend, Michael Whittaker, saying your brother Ian is determined to find out the truth about her. I’ll call Ian later and explain. We’ll probably be needing his assistance on this investigation anyway.”

Steve sat back in his chair and studied both Marc and Dana. “I understand your brother received a phone call tonight from Ernesto Escalante. If he is determined to get your family’s assistance in his schemes, there is no way you can escape his wrath. He’s one of the most dangerous men on earth. So far you have all been very lucky.”

“Lucky? I wouldn’t say that what we’ve been through qualifies as anything but bad luck.” Marc gritted his teeth in frustration. “Don’t tell me there’s no hope of besting the cartel. I refuse to believe it. I intend to get the proof I need to beat my frame-up.”

Steve smiled at him. “I believe you would try it. But you might die trying. And then what? Escalante would just keep the pressure on Ian to do what he wants. Killing off your family members one by one would be his next move.”

“That’s what Ian said.” Marcus was annoyed as hell now. There had to be a way out of this.

“Your brother is a smart man who’s been in a terrible bind. But I have an idea for something that might end your family’s terror right here. Will you listen?”

Marc sat up in his chair and looked from Dana to Steve and back again. “I’ll listen.”

Steve spent the next hour outlining a plan for him and Dana to investigate the whereabouts of Escalante and then for them to participate in a sting designed to capture the man and put an end to the blackmail once and for all. Marc wasn’t positive the plan would work. But he figured it was worth a shot. After all, he was the one family member that now had nothing to lose.

It was two a.m. when he and Dana left the FBI office and climbed back into her car. “Does this car really belong to you?” he inquired as he stifled a yawn.

“It’s a Bureau vehicle,” she told him. “It has a few modifications over the standard issue. It’ll do sixty in eight seconds flat. There are airbags across the front and on all doors.”

She smiled as they buckled up. “And it’s also equipped with a transmitter and GPS positioner that will work in a radius of up to three hundred miles.”

“Terrific.” Marc was becoming more irritable by the second. Regardless of being warned by her boss to obey Dana’s instructions at the risk of his life, he was tired and still furious that Dana had lied to him. Oh, he knew it was her job, but still…

“Where are we headed?” he scowled.

“To your farm. Now that I know for sure you’re not involved with the cartel, I’m convinced they have no reason to take you out…yet. They need you alive, temporarily, to use as a hold over Ian. So we should be fairly safe at your home for a while.”

Dana backed out of the garage and headed down the river road in the general direction of the farm. “Besides, you look like you’re about to drop. We’ll be able to form a clearer strategy after you get a good night’s sleep.”

Marc stewed in silence for the entire forty-five minutes it took them to travel what should’ve been a twenty-minute trip. Evidently, she was never going to drive in a straight line to any destination.

When they arrived, she pulled in behind the barn and they got out as she locked the doors. “I’ll check your SUV for bugs and tracking devices in the morning. We may need to use it as part of the sting.”

“Swell.” He grabbed her arm and swung her around to face him. “You owe me something. You’ve admitted you lied, and I want to know how many of the things you told me were true and what was just part of the game.”

In the clear light of a full moon, he saw her face flush with anger and her hands ball into fists. “I told you…it was all part of the job.”

She tried to jerk herself free from his grasp, but he tightened his grip. “No dice, sister. That’s not going to cut it anymore. I want to know who you are—underneath the tough special agent.”

“Don’t make a huge mistake before we even get started, Danforth. You’re asleep on you feet. It’ll all look better in the morning.”

“Maybe so, sugar. But I’m still going to want answers.”

She was right. It was a mistake to take out all his frustrations on her. But what the hell? He’d been dying to get his hands on her since the first instant she’d spoken his name in that spun-sugar voice of hers. And now he could feel her muscled upper arm flexing under his hand.

He wanted to touch her skin without the clothes. He wanted to see what she looked like standing naked before him. He wanted…

“Take your hand off me.” She slipped her keys into her pocket with her free hand. “And don’t call me sugar.” She turned her body away from him and jerked on her arm again.

“Oh. Excuse me. I meant Special Agent Sugar.” The wave of tenderness he felt was a complete surprise. But the wave of passion that pushed it aside with an erotic shove was nothing new. He’d been plagued by those sexy urges for most of this very long evening.

In one fell swoop, Marc swung her off her feet and into his arms. “Aw, the hell with it.” He forgot his irritation and forgot the rules of decency along with it. “Let’s just find out what’s real and what’s not—right now.”

Four

“Marcus?” The look on Dana’s face had to be pure amazement. Not so much because he’d physically assaulted her—they both knew she could’ve defended herself against him with little trouble.

No, she looked—self conscious. A bit frightened by her own lack of resistance, perhaps. Or maybe she was simply amazed because she’d let things get out of control. He wondered if she was feeling concerned by his actions…or if she felt as stunned by her own reactions as he did.

Lost in the sensual moment, Marc forgot everything as his blood heated and pulsed. He forgot about being arrested. He forgot she was an FBI agent. He surprisingly managed to even forget that he’d sworn off women forever.

“Dana.” Desire roughened his voice as they stared into each other’s eyes. He tried again. “Please….”

Never before had she heard anyone say her name in quite that same raspy, pleading kind of voice. The sound sent licks of fire spiraling down her spine. She shivered in the flames, without really understanding why.

She would give anything to hear him say her name that way once more. But instinct made her afraid to ask for what she wanted. Afraid to break the spell. She wasn’t frightened of him—only of herself.

A soft uncertain noise sounded in her ears, and she realized it came from her own throat. It surprised her, the same way she’d been amazed when she placed a hand against his chest to balance herself and found his heart beating as rapidly as her own.

Finding her throat suddenly dry, she swallowed hard. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and she knew in an instant what would come next. He lowered his head the few inches separating their mouths and grazed his lips against hers.

Soft. The thought registered with surprise. The texture of his mouth felt like velvet—so soft, so exotic.

Dana couldn’t exactly remember when she’d last kissed a man—if she ever really had. But she did know for sure that it could not have been like this.

For all its gentleness, there was a deep demand in Marcus’s kiss. Hunger and passion were buried under the guise of a tender touch. She was certain about his desires because the drugging insistence of them was pulling the same responses from her own body.

A breathless whimper rumbled deep and escaped her lips, amazing her yet again with such wanton responses to him. As if with a life of their own, her fingers began to knead the cotton of his shirt. The navy-blue pullover bunched as she flexed her hand.

She wished she had the nerve and the time to rip his shirt all the way off so she could run her fingers through the hair on his chest. The vision of him shirtless was as clear to her now as it had been a few hours ago when he’d first stepped from his shower. And she felt every bit as desperate to touch that hair-covered flesh—to slide her palms over his work-hardened muscles…as she had then.

Marcus eased one of his hands away, slowly letting her slide down the full length of him, without ever breaking the kiss. She felt his stiffened flesh pressing against her belly, right through both their slacks.

When he tenderly placed his hands on her face and kneaded her jaw, she opened for him. His tongue caressed her lips, seducing its way past them to find her teeth. She opened wider yet and gingerly touched his tongue with hers.

Intoxicating and sweet. Like nothing she’d ever experienced before.

Marcus anchored a fist in her hair and slid the other hand down her back. Endlessly, his palm inched a heated path down her spine, finally coming to rest on her hip.

Deepening the kiss, he coaxed her tongue to wind around his. Then he drove deeper still, blasting her with a wicked heat. He dragged her hips tighter against his groin.

She melted against him. There was no resistance anywhere in her body. In her whole life she’d never felt so limp and needy. Wanting this, wanting him, she moaned into his mouth.

Marc heard the sound like a roar of white water across slickened rocks. She tasted sizzling hot, icy sweet. When he felt her hands tentatively touch his shoulders, it was as if the rest of the world simply ceased to exist.

Passion and power. He’d found all of that and more in her kiss. Feasting on her softness, he filled his hands with her rounded jeans-covered bottom.

He broke the kiss, needing to taste the rest of her. Licking his way up her jawline, he found her sensitive earlobe and suckled. What fascinating sensations she had stirred in him. He kissed his way down her neck, restlessly moving his hands up and down her sides, eager to fill his palms with her breasts.

Finally covering one breast with his hand, he lasered his mouth back across hers, letting the beast inside the man go free. He wanted to taste every inch. He wanted to go on, licking and lathing, until he could bury himself deep inside her welcoming body.

Somewhere, back in a still-rational part of his brain, he knew this was not how a man kissed a woman for the first time. But this was the kind of kiss—the kind of woman—that he’d dreamed about for all of his life.

Dana was so much more than anyone before. So strong, yet so tender. Passionate, vibrant and real. She was everything that Alicia had never been.

That shocking thought brought him up abruptly. The pain of remembering Alicia’s betrayal threw ice water against his heated skin and numbed his desire. What in God’s name was he doing?

Clutching lamely at Dana’s shoulders, he levered himself away from her and tried to catch his breath. She reached out to him and opened her drugged eyes, silently pleading with him to come back.

Heaven knew that’s what he wanted, too. He wanted to go on kissing her…and much more.

He shut his eyes and cursed through gritted teeth.

Dana found herself blinking furiously, but at last she cleared the confusion from her brain. “Where the hell did that come from, Danforth?” she demanded with a shaky voice. “What were you thinking?”

Marc opened his eyes wide, but took a step back. “I’m not sure. But whatever it was, you were thinking it too.” The look in his eyes held the same accusations and disorientation that she was feeling.

Many inadequate images ripped through her, but she wasn’t positive she could articulate any of them. She’d definitely wanted him to keep on kissing her. But the rational side of her knew it had been right for them to stop.