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Bianchi had to have paid a fortune for it… or he"d acquired it in another style of business transaction altogether "That is such a kind gesture, Signor Bianchi But I can"t possibly--"

"Of course you can, and you will! I insist We are here to enjoy ourselves and celebrate our acquaintance," Bianchi said The look in Bianchi"s eyes told Zane that Corbin Porter would never decline such an offer The sinking feeling intensified as Zane racious way to bow out, but as he looked at the other players, all s and appreciative, Zane knew there wasn"t

A waiter arrived a few moments later with empty tulasses generously, and when he personally held one out to Zane, Zane kneas trapped There was no way to avoid this, short blowing his cover--and Ty"s--over a glass of whiskey

He gave Bianchi Corbin"s best full-of-shit grin and raised his glass for the toast to their health even as his stomach roiled

Zane hadn"t had a drink, any drink, in almost ten months

The first taste of the very expensive Chivas ell, intoxicating

TY SAT on the balcony of their suite staring out at the rolling ocean, feet twitching as he hummed a tune he was pretty sure was actually two or three different songs He was bored It was only the fourth day of cruising, but other than al had happened, and Ty wasn"t in a position tonothing He supposed that hat some considered a vacation, but it just made him twitchy and nervous

He understood the necessity for following the itineraries, but he was really beginning to hate those dah-stakes poker ga to glean information that could prove useful Ty wasn"t needed there, and his presence probably would have made the other men wonder They"d decided it wasn"t worth the risk for hiht And even if they"d been able to contact them, none of the other AWOL team members could be there for backup, either, since it was a private ga that made Ty restless as hell

It sort of reminded hi there was action elsewhere but stuck in sick bay, useless, with a bullet hole in his shoulder Then, at least, his chest hadn"t itched where all the hair had been ripped out by organic scented wax

He kneas a self-imposed boredom this time, of course

They were on a cruise ship It was, by definition, a floating fun house

Only Ty wasn"t having fun, and he wasn"t willing to go too far where he couldn"t be found if there was trouble The four-man support team that was supposedly out there somewhere wasn"t really a lot of help Ty hadn"t seen hide or hair of any of them He kneas out of necessity; they were ency response tea went tits up Still, Ty would have felt better if they"d been given so out on the deck and waving their ar

None of that would have made hients, and he didn"t trust what he didn"t know

He sat there for barely five more minutes before he lost the will to be bored He hefted hier and turned to head back into the cabin, deter to keep his mind busy that didn"t involve disaster scenarios

He went to Del Porter"s leather satchel, opened it, and peered inside with a twinge of guilt He didn"t like going through Del"s personal belongings anyDel Granted, they"d already , but Ty had tried not to delve too deep

Now, though, he was desperate

Inside the satchel were a few Sudoku and crossword puzzle books, which shocked Ty, since the guy wasn"t exactly supposed to be the intellectual type He reached in and pulled a few of the books out, flipping through theroaned in disappoint to do, anyway He"d been avoiding the ship"s fitness areas simply because he didn"t like the crowds, but he would do a few laps around the designated jogging track if all else failed If he could findan MP3 player in one of these bags

He set the books beside him on the bed and looked back into the satchel There was a s earphones, a stick of deodorant, a pair of reading glasses in a Gucci case, and not much else

Ty picked up the iPod with a pleased sed in the earphones and put one bud in his ear as he turned the device on to ot ready for a run He set it to shuffle and put it on his knee as he reached for the Gucci eyeglass case

He opened the case out of curiosity, wondering if they really were reading glasses He was almost surprised when he found they were, and he held the stylish fraular wire fras Not exactly what Ty would have chosen if he had to wear glasses, and they had probably costabout these reading glasses was that when he held theh them, they didn"t alter his vision at all Ty frowned at thean to play a spoken word track in a language Ty wasn"t sure of

The reading glasses were lass, and they were heavier than they should have been, slightly reiven to take pictures He took thes experin words in his ear, though, and he picked up the iPod to peer at the track naht it was an audiobook track, but it was labeled as a song he"d never heard of Ty huffed and thu, but it, too, was a spoken word track that was labeled incorrectly

Ty stared at it, listening to the words in his ear He could catch certain words and phrases of the garbled recording, enough to pinpoint the language as Italian and enough to recognize it as a conversation, not a lecture or book being read He also recognized that it wasn"t a studio recording It sounded veryplaced close to a person speaking

Ty"s body went cold as he realized what he"d found

"Shit," he drew out slowly He stopped the track and pulled the ear bud out of his ear These ire taps These were professional-grade wire taps on Del Porter"s iPod How did the office ain and snapped one of the legs off, not really surprised when he found a thin wire snaking through the plastic He shook the hollow arhly the size of a diain