In Rides Trouble by Julie Ann Walker Read Free Book Online

on their mission?”
    “Affirmative.” Bill nodded as Angel echoed his response.
    “Then let’s harden our balls and our resolve and get this fucker done.”
    Bill chuckled at the look of incredulity that shot across Angel’s face. “I surely love your inspirational speeches, Boss.”
    ***
    Sharif Garane watched the narrow back of the American woman as she wrestled with a large bolt on some huge machine in the British tanker’s sweltering engine room.
    Rebecca Reichert was her name, but everyone called her Becky. He liked the sound of that. It suited her all-American looks.
    He did not like her , however.
    And had he known, when the directive came down for him to ensure she repaired the damaged engines on the tanker, that her tongue would be so abrasive, he might have passed on the opportunity.
    Then again, probably not. This assignment was his ticket to economic freedom. If he could keep from killing her long enough for her to finish her repairs, that is…
    “Sonofabitch!” she said as the bolt suddenly broke free and she banged her elbow on an adjacent piece of machinery.
    He chuckled at her discomfort until she turned to glare at him, her dark eyes—so disconcerting against her fair coloring—shooting fire in his direction.
    “What’s so funny?” She wiped her perspiring forehead with a wrist, leaving behind a black streak of grease.
    He stopped laughing to curl his lip at her disgusting level of dishabille. She’d been dirty when he’d come aboard the catamaran. No doubt it hadn’t crossed the pirates’ minds to allow the women to shower. Now, covered in the sweat of nearly a week and the grease of the last ten hours, she was positively obscene.
    “Get back to work,” he ordered. “Your stalling tactics are trying my patience. If you persist, I might decide to start taking the lost minutes out of your soft hide. Have you ever seen what a strip of wet leather does to human flesh?”
    “I’m not stalling,” she said. “You’re the one who sent the ship’s engineers up to the bridge. If you’d left them down here to work with me, I’d probably already be finished.”
    Perhaps. But he hadn’t cared for the way the three men ogled her. It’d been…distracting. Plus, they were three very large men, and he hadn’t wished to be alone with them down in the steaming engine room where they could easily overwhelm him if they took it into their thick skulls to chance a bullet wound.
    He was in this thing for the money, not to risk death or injury. It was disconcerting enough to actually be involved in this particular venture—he was accustomed to sitting in air-conditioned rooms, waiting for the phones to ring so he could wheedle cash from wealthy western pockets—he didn’t want to strain his nerves further by locking himself in a room full of vulgar, overgrown sailors.
    No. It was better this way.
    Just the two of them. Alone.
    Reaching for the buckle on his belt for emphasis he said, “I’m going to count to three, and if you haven’t returned to your work by then, I’m giving you three strikes for every second you stalled.”
    “One,” he began, hoping her pride wouldn’t allow her to back down. He very much thought he’d enjoy beating her, watching her fair skin turn bright red under his blistering blows.
    With a snarl she spun back to her work, cursing him beneath her breath as she attacked the loosened bolt with renewed vigor.
    Disappointed at her quick capitulation, he took another hasty sip of water and used his handkerchief to wipe at the sweat running down his temples and the back of his neck. It was an absolute oven in the engine room, and the longer he sat waiting for her to complete her repairs, the more irritable he became. His fantasies involving her punishment were growing ever more creative and violent by the hour.
    She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Why are you sweating so much? Aren’t you used to this type of heat?”
    He considered ignoring her. The woman