A Fortune in Blood: A Florida Action Adventure Novel (Scott Jarvis Private Investigator Book 7) Read online

  It would have to do, of course. Considering her circumstances, she couldn’t really complain. However, what she did find particularly frustrating was the current lack of quality in other means to satisfy her wants. She was a woman who enjoyed her pleasures. The finest drink, tobacco and food. The most luxurious living conditions, the latest and most elegant fashions and of course, only the choicest cuts of male companionship could even temporarily slake her ravenous hungers. Thus far, she was loathe to accept, the pickings at this resort were slim at best. Most of the guests were either families or couples who came for a romantic getaway. She more than once considered seducing a notably scrumptious married man who’d arrived a few days back. He was just right, tall, handsome, wealthy and saddled by two whiney children and a wife who’d not quite bounced back from the youngest.

  She’d met him and his family on a nature walk in the nearby Manuel Antonio National Park. The kids were unruly and the wife had an air of dissatisfaction about her, as if having to walk in a beautiful Costa Rican rainforest was beneath her. The husband, an investment banker from one of the second-tier states… Ohio or Oregon or Georgia or someplace… was outgoing and friendly, especially when she’d said hello and started to chat with him.

  Nothing unusual there. She was a ten and she knew it. Even at forty, her body was athletic and well-muscled. Her skin was baby-smooth and free of childbearing stretch marks. Her hair was a natural shade of golden blonde that fell in highlighted tresses halfway down her back and had yet to show a single strand of gray. Her face was that of a model, although she’d never been one. Large jade green eyes, elegantly arched brows, strong cheekbones, a pert nose, full pouty lips and a face shaped into a perfect heart without even a hint of lines.

  Her breasts were solid D’s, firm and full and a titillating contrast to her flat belly and high and proud round ass. She couldn’t go out of doors without feeling the hungry eyes of men and some women on her. Their gaze analyzing and memorizing and their minds fantasizing. And she loved every moment of it.

  So it was no surprise that when she’d met Steve… something… the next morning in the resort’s workout center that he’d found a way to exercise near her. He struck up a conversation and paid her enough attention to confirm that he could be hers if she wanted.

  But…

  Even she had to exercise some restraint, if only for now. This wasn’t what she was used to either, frankly. She was used to getting anything she wanted anytime she wanted it. However, under the current circumstances, it would be better to maintain a low profile and she knew it. She would admit that she loved her vices a bit too much, yet she also possessed a powerful will. She was strong enough to ignore her own baser impulses when there was a greater reason. And of all her desires, that of possessing as much wealth as she could acquire sat at the top of a very long list. Of course, it was true that money was power, and power gave you the ability to get what you wanted… so this muddied the waters some. Yet with wealth she could get any other thing she wanted and there were virtually no barriers to her attainment. Not financial, temporal or even ethical.

  Had she not been in Costa Rica for reasons other than pleasure, she’d have taken Steve that very morning. She even amused herself with the fantasy of how it’d go. She’d chat him up, offer to partner up in their workout and then go for a refreshing run afterward. She’d lure him to her room, get them undressed and showered and then take him. And afterward, when he’d expressed regret and guilt over his infidelity, she’d soothe him and stroke his ego. And then she’d watch him with his brats and his doughy wife and revel in her conquest.

  But…

  She wasn’t in Costa Rica to mount another woman’s husband, after all. If she was going to dally, it would be better to dally with an available man who wouldn’t represent potential trouble. That also extended to the staff, one or two of whom might fit the bill, yet this too might prove just a bit too risky. The irritation came from the fact that so far, Costa Rica had proven a good place to lay low but not so good for meeting her carnal needs.

  It was all the more frustrating as she sat on her balcony and watched the sun hanging low over the glittering ocean. Had she some masculine company, she’d lean over the railing, slide her sun dress up over her hips and let him enter her from behind, both of them watching the sun set as they rutted in full view of anyone who looked up. Yes, they’d be clothed, but a few people would know what was going on and just the thought of it made her lower belly tingle in erotic expectation.

  But no, that was not apparently to be. So she sat there, beginning to fume. The decent bourbon and the soothing smoke hadn’t yet begun to take the edge off of her frustration. She had plenty of time to think, and the thoughts were not comforting at the moment.

  After all, the whole reason she was here was because of her darling husband… well, ex-husband now. If there was a model for what would be woefully inadequate to keeping her happy, then Miles Palmer could be the poster child. Both in and out of the bedroom she found him contemptible.

  Yes, he had money. That was the primary reason she’d first paid him any attention more than a dozen years earlier. Back then he met at least some of her criteria. He was tall, good looking in a take home to mom sort of way, athletic and well-educated. At thirty-three, his sustainable engineering firm was already a modest success and poised to go international.

  If she was now considered to be a grasping, self-indulgent and power-hungry lioness, it was all Miles’ fault. When they’d first met, she’d thought him kind and friendly, if a bit shy. He was ambitious and intelligent, if a bit of a nerd. She saw a lot of potential in him. At the tender age of twenty-seven, she felt that with her support, she could push his good qualities above the average range and together they could create a financial empire that would grow beyond their wildest dreams. Back then they shared this outlook and the future seemed exciting. It was exciting enough for her to overlook some of his less than stellar qualities… at least for a while.

  While she and Miles worked well together building what was now their company into an international juggernaut… their intimate life left much to be desired. For Miles was sadly deficient behind closed doors, especially for a young woman with her almost super-human level of ardor. He had neither the skills to please her, the stamina to allow her time enough to please herself… an admittedly easy task considering her sexual hunger… and sadly, he was below average in terms of the physical requirements as well.

  Three strikes!

  She was a lioness to his ram. In every conceivable way, Andrea Palmer, once again Andrea Wellesley was his superior. She was more physically fit, far better in bed, more ambitious, far more ruthless and even more intelligent… or at least she felt so. Her intelligence and ambition weren’t hobbled by bashfulness, guilt or too many ethics for that matter. Not that she was an evil woman, it was simply that she held herself and her desires above all others and would go to greater lengths to satisfy herself than most… within reason, after all.

  Miles had served his purpose, though. He’d been the springboard that had helped Andrea attain an impressive financial portfolio as well as power. Power based in the extent and capabilities of the company that he felt she was trying to steal from him. And this, more than his three minute fumbling screws or his hesitancy in the face of opportunity was the wedge that had driven the pair apart.

  Eco Life was hers. Yes, he’d started it, but it was her genius, her doggedness and her boldness that had taken a small Missouri-based green engineering firm making less than half a million dollars annually to a multi-national business with subsidiaries in two dozen countries spanning four continents and earning nearly one-hundred million dollars and growing. All this in less than ten years! Without her, Miles Palmer would still be sitting at a CAD station designing greenhouses and solar heating systems for rich people’s homes. Homes that he couldn’t and would never have been able to afford rather than designing entire self-sustaining communities that were making national news for their ingen
uity and almost zero carbon footprint.

  Eco Life was world renowned and Miles Palmer a household name in green tech thanks entirely to his younger, smarter and tougher wife. And how did he repay her? By trying to leverage her out of what was rightfully hers. By claiming that she was undermining him and that she had no right to usurp him as the captain of the ship they’d built. Unfortunately for Miles, he had neither the guts nor the tenacity to beat her at this game. He was fighting out of his league and he’d soon learn this lesson the hard way.

  However, this meant being patient and biding her time. It meant going to Costa Rica and stewing in her own juices while her plans came to fruition. It was vital that she be as far away from the corporate headquarters still based in St. Louis when the shit truly hit the fan.

  But God how she needed a good fuck!

  She felt that there were few men who lived with her level of animal fervor. When Andrea got it in her head that she was randy, the desire was like a thirst that couldn’t be slaked or a hunger that gnawed at her. She felt that if something didn’t happen soon, she’d explode. She was a female Caesar, or a Cleopatra, and history told that such people burned with a desire for sexual conquest that rivaled their need to conquer entire nations.

  What Andrea Wellesley couldn’t have possibly imagined is just how quickly a likely candidate for her recreational thoughts would come and in what incongruous form.

  She took a long pull from her whiskey and placed one of the cigarettes between her lips and sparked it to life with the gold lighter. She drew in a deep drag and sighed. The smoke drifted around her before vanishing with the last of the sea breeze.

  Unlike her other vices, smoking was one that she kept to a minimum. Just a few pills a day, nothing more. Nothing that would permanently limit her physicality or prematurely age her. She was blessed with robust youthfulness and wouldn’t do much to jeopardize it.

  Yet here and now, with the sun beginning to dissolve into the distant horizon, the relaxing smoke and the effects of the bourbon were finally beginning to tell. Her frustrations were still in place, but the razor’s edge was beginning to dull noticeably.

  That’s why when a thick rope suddenly dropped from the balcony above and curled into a small pile just inside of her railing, Andrea nearly leapt out of her skin. It took her shocked mind a full two or three-seconds to realize that it wasn’t some slithering jungle snake coming to lie in the fading sunlight on her veranda but rather a heavy length of triple-twist nylon rope.

  “What the hell…” She gasped, more bewildered than frightened now.

  Were the upstairs neighbors playing some weird sex game?

  When a figure dressed in sneakers, jeans and a Guayabera shirt appeared above and slid smoothly down the rope to land like a cat before her, her bewilderment once again leaned toward fear. Fear and something else…

  The man was tall, at least six foot two. He had broad shoulders and a trim waist. His clothing hung well on a body that Andrea could tell was lean and well-muscled. The thick muscles of his forearms had bulged like cables as he’d slid down. She’d gotten a tantalizing glimpse of what promised to be a well-rounded and rock hard ass as well.

  He had short dark brown hair and blue eyes very close to the shade of the darkening Pacific below. His face was handsome and rugged looking and the smile he directed at her was white, even and sexy. She guessed him to be about thirty or maybe thirty-one.

  “Good evening, Miss Wellesley,” he said, still grinning. “I hope you don’t mind my dropping in on you like this.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Andrea asked, her fear rapidly evaporating in the face of his facetiousness. “What the hell… what do you mean by… by roping onto my balcony. What is this?”

  He reached behind his back with his right hand. When it reappeared it held a large black pistol. Andrea’s blood surged with adrenaline once again, yet again only partially in fear. Fear that he might be an assassin… and hope that he might intend to take her against her will…

  “Relax, Miss Wellesley,” The man said in an even tone. His smile was gone but his face didn’t seem to hold any malice. “I’m not here to harm you. On the contrary. I’m here to stop anyone from harming you.”

  Andrea inhaled a good inch of her liquor and took a long, steadying pull on her cigarette. She blew the smoke out slowly and took her time examining every inch of the man from head to toe. Maybe her prayers had been answered. He’d certainly fit the bill. A fine specimen, in fact. Young, strong and brave. She began to wonder what he’d be like once she got him out of those jeans.

  “Now who would want to harm me?” Andrea asked smoothly, getting control over herself once more.

  The man chuckled and strode into her suite like he owned the place. Over his shoulder he said, “How about Miles Palmer for one?”

  Andrea laughed, “Miles doesn’t have the balls. Ask me how I know. Mix yourself a drink and join me. We can watch what’s left of the sunset and you can explain what’s going on here.”

  She saw him check the main door and then turn to come back onto the veranda, “Maybe another time. I’ve got to keep my head clear. They should be here any minute now.”

  Andrea stood and faced him. She was fairly tall, about five foot nine. In heels, which she liked to wear when she was out on the town, she was over six feet. It was good to see that she had to look up at him. She liked to feel dominated all the while doing the dominating.

  “Who are you?” She demanded.

  “No one of consequence,” the mystery man stated casually.

  She sighed, “Who hired you?”

  “That’s not important right now,” He replied.

  He ejected the magazine on his weapon, looked into the ejection port, nodded and slapped the bullets back into the grip. He then slid the barrel back and she heard the unmistakable click, clack of a bullet being loaded into the breach.

  Andrea met his eyes and held his gaze for a long moment, “I see… then who’s coming to get me and how do you know?”

  “Two men,” Her enigmatic guest said. “Both Nicaraguan or even Costa Rican. Local talent. It’s easier to hire local guys for international hits because it avoids all the hassle of visas, passports, customs and other legal issues. Not to mention that it’s pretty tough to get a weapon on a plane nowadays for some reason. Hell, it’s hard to get a flight ever since that damned beer virus panic.”

  She smirked at that. He was a little amusing, she had to admit, “OH? And how did you get into the country with a weapon, big boy?”

  “Borrowed it,” He said. “Lot of weapons just lying around in this little paradise. As for flying, well… I’m very trustworthy.”

  “Good to hear,” She mused. “That’s a relief, considering that I’m a helpless single woman alone in a room with a large man… and his big gun?”

  This last she said with just the right hint of hopeful question in her voice. He tilted his head and gazed at her for a moment, his right eyebrow cocked.

  “I’m glad to see my intel on you was accurate,” He commented.

  “Intel?” She asked. “And let me guess… I’m a grade-A bitch, right?”

  He grinned, “Among other things. And that you have the sex drive of three teenage boys. I was supposed to be especially careful about that.”

  She snorted derisively, “That so, tough guy? You not man enough to handle a little woman?”

  He laughed, “You’re not a little woman.”

  She frowned, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He rolled his eyes, “If you’re going to ask me if I’m saying you’re fat… please don’t. It’d just be stupid. We both know you’re gorgeous, so don’t act like you’re unsure of yourself. Aside from your sex drive, I was told you don’t lack for self-esteem or confidence.”

  She laughed then, “I wasn’t going to say it. So you think I’m gorgeous, huh? That mean you’re not afraid of me?”

  “I’m not,” he said, “and you are. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to bed
with you.”

  “We’ll see,” she said, licking her lips sensually while meeting his eyes.

  There were a series of odd sounds. A couple of metallic pings or clinks and then a thundering boom as the front door, now relieved of its dead bolt, flew inward and struck the wall. Two men crowded into the frame, their silenced weapons at the ready.

  Andrea could only discern all of this through her ears, for even as the first muffled shot slammed into the lock, the big man pulled her up against his chest with his left arm and then threw them both sideways behind the big leather sofa. By the time the door flew open, he was lying on top of her, his groin pressed to hers almost as if they were dry humping one another.

  She closed her eyes tight as his own silenced pistol made a rapid puff, puff, puff, puff sound not far from her left ear. A man cried out, there was a crash as something heavy slammed into the bar sending several liquor bottles tumbling to the tiled floor where they promptly shattered and another strangled scream, as if someone were trying to shout with their mouth full.

  Andrea was breathing hard and only partly due to fear. She didn’t scare easily… but she did arouse easily. His weight on her, his hard body on top of hers and the heat of his crotch pressed against her own with only a flimsy sun dress and dungaree between them was triggering her animal desire.

  Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist, forcing them closer together. His reaction was both immediate and gratifying. She felt the pressure of his tumescence growing against her pubis.

  “It’s all right,” He whispered in her ear. His mind hadn’t quite registered what was happening between them, so focused was he on his targets. “They’re dead.”

  She moaned and bit him right at the juncture where his neck met the thick muscle of his shoulder. He let out a small involuntary gasp as she felt him grow larger against her now moistening womanhood.