by Cynthia Eden
For her, there was fire.
She looked back at the plane that waited. The pilot stood outside, his hands on his hips.
“We need to go, miss!”
Drew just didn’t want to let her go.
It’s not about what I want.
If he had his way, he’d be the one sticking to her like glue. But Mercer’s orders had come down. This flight was Tina’s safe passage back to D.C.
Drew’s job wasn’t finished. He was to head back to the Devast base. He was supposed to start picking up the pieces of this mission and track the HAVOC ringleader once more.
What he wanted... He wanted to kiss Tina. To taste her again.
Not here.
Drew cleared his throat. “Remember what I promised you we’d have?”
Naked, tangled together.
Her pupils widened. Her lips parted.
“I keep my promises.”
He let her hand go.
Tina stared up at him. Finally, finally, she was looking deeply into his eyes. “You’d better.”
She turned away. She and Rachel began heading toward the plane.
Watching someone walk away had never been harder.
* * *
BRUCE MERCER DRUMMED his fingers on his desk. Tina Jamison was safe. She was on her way back to him.
Dragging her into this mess had been a mistake. A miscalculation. He didn’t make those often, but when he did...
The phone vibrated on his desk. Not the confidential office phone.
His personal phone.
Only a handful of people knew his number. He picked it up instantly, thinking it was his daughter, Cassidy.
Unknown number.
Tension tightened his body as he read the message on the phone’s screen. He answered the call with a curt, “Hello?” He didn’t identify himself. Never would.
“Hello, old friend.” That voice—that familiar voice—stopped time for him.
Twenty years... It had been twenty years since he’d last heard from Anton Devast.
How had the SOB gotten his private number?
“You always underestimated me,” Anton murmured. “That was such a shame.”
Mercer didn’t speak. He wouldn’t. There was no sense giving the man any more information than Devast already possessed. And for Devast to get his private line...
He has far more intel and connections than I realized.
“I know where your daughter is...”
No, the guy didn’t. He didn’t even know who Mercer’s real daughter was.
My Cassidy is on her honeymoon now. With one of my best agents at her side. A man who’d die for her in an instant. She’s safe, and you can’t touch her.
“Your girl is flying through the sky. Safe?” Anton laughed. “No. She’s not safe. You know what I do best.”
Destroy. Terrorize.
“There won’t be anything left of her.” More laughter. “You should have agreed to the trade. Then you would be the one dying and she’d still have a shot at life.”
Click.
Sweat slickened Mercer’s temple. That call could have been a hoax. A trick to mess with his head. To cause panic and force him to make a mistake.
Except...
Anton Devast doesn’t make threats.
The bastard delivered promises.
In the next second Mercer was dialing fast and frantically on his phone, calling the one agent who should be able to help him.
Don’t be too late. Don’t be...
* * *
THE PHONE IN Drew’s pocket vibrated. Frowning, he yanked it up to his ear. Dylan had just given him the replacement phone an hour ago. There weren’t many folks who should be trying to reach him then.
He began, “Hel—”
“Get to Tina Jamison.” Bruce Mercer’s voice barked the order.
Drew’s head snapped up. Tina was heading onto the plane.
Drew started running.
“Get to her, Lancaster. Secure her. You saved her before and you damn well better save her now—”
“Tina!” Drew bellowed.
Tina turned toward him. Her head tilted, the sunlight glinting off her dark hair and the replacement glasses that she’d been given.
Rachel was just steps behind her. Rachel frowned at him. “What’s happening?”
Rachel had a phone. Rachel was the one who’d been assigned guard duty to Tina. Why hadn’t Mercer called her?
“Drew? What’s wrong?” Tina took a few steps away from the plane.
The pilot had vanished. Was he inside? Getting ready for takeoff?
Tina shook her head. “I don’t understand—”
Mercer was shouting something in his ear.
He needed to get to Tina.
He needed to—
The plane exploded.
* * *
BRUCE MERCER STARED at the phone in his hand. He’d heard an explosion, then...nothing.
“I can’t get anyone to check in at the scene.”
He looked up at his assistant’s voice. Judith Rogers stood in the doorway, her eyes wide and worried.
“Keep trying. Someone is there.” Someone has to be. He’d called Drew because he trusted the man to protect Tina. Bruce was good at observing people, and he’d watched Lancaster and the doctor.
Drew will keep her safe.
Judith didn’t look reassured. “Tina...?”
“She’s fine.” This was his fault. But he’d fix it. “Drew Lancaster was on scene. I gave him orders to protect her.” Drew had always followed mission orders. The guy did his job and he didn’t hesitate. “Drew has her.”
But his palms were sweating.
“I hope you’re right.” Judith turned away. Judith knew most of his secrets. “Because if you’re not, I’m not sure how you’ll sleep tonight.”
Yes, she knew his secrets and his sins.
* * *
“TINA!”
Drew was yelling her name again.
He seemed to do that a lot lately.
Her eyes cracked open. Drew was hunched over her. His face was haggard. And— “Do I smell smoke?”
He yanked her into his arms and nearly squeezed the breath from her.
With that crushing embrace, memories flooded back through her mind. She’d been about to board the plane. She hated small airplanes like that one, but she’d been determined to suck up her fear. Then Drew had called out to her.
And the world had exploded.
Smoke thickened the air around her. Tina pulled away from Drew and glanced over her shoulder. The plane was still burning out on the tarmac. “Rachel?” Fear cracked the word.
“She’s okay. Dylan has her.” Drew rose, pulling Tina to her feet, too. He kept a steady hand on her. “I thought I was going to be too late.”
She couldn’t take her eyes off the plane. Had the pilot gotten out in time? The flames were wild, burning so high and bright.
Sirens wailed behind her.
“A bomb, Devast’s weapon of choice.” Drew’s words vibrated with fury. “But how did he get close enough to plant it with so many agents here?”
“The pilot...” She licked her lips, tasted fire and ash. “He’s dead?”
“Pierce didn’t come out of the plane,” Drew said grimly.
Her heart squeezed in her chest.
Another minute and she would have been on that plane, too. She wouldn’t have come out.
Dark smoke swirled in the air around her. She tried to suck in air.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
But her normal routine for calming an attack wasn’t working.
A fist had her heart. Her lungs were burning. Clogged. Her eyes watered as she tried to pull in air. The muscles of her neck and chest were tightening. Clenching.
“Tina? Tina, what’s wrong?”
Her streaming eyes found his. “At-tack...” She needed her medicine. The inhaler that would help her.
But there was no inhaler there. Not in the middle of that burni
ng tarmac. No medicine. No help. And she remembered another time. Another place.
At the bank...she’d struggled to breathe. Her lungs burned. Her chest ached. The men with guns were shouting and fear clawed through her. Her father and mother had rushed to her because they’d known what was happening. Her father had reached into his jacket, grabbing for the inhaler he always carried, ever since her first attack had put her in the hospital at three years old. When he’d reached for that inhaler, one of the masked robbers yelled—then shot her father.
Her breath wheezed out. The smoke was so thick and dark. The smoke surrounded her. She couldn’t get air in—
“I need help!” Drew yelled. He was rubbing her back. “Baby, breathe for me. Nice and slow, okay?”
Didn’t it appear as if she was trying?
“Look at me.”
Her gaze flew to his once more.
“Breathe with me,” he said. “In and out.”
It wasn’t that easy. It wasn’t some mind-over-matter thing right then. She was wheezing, and soon—soon she wouldn’t even be able to do that. She could barely pull in any air at all.
Tina knew the power of a severe attack when it struck her.
The pilot is dead. I was nearly on that plane. People are dying—because of me.
Blood. Death. Everywhere.
“Tina. Tina, focus on me.”
She wanted to, but dark spots were dancing in front of her eyes. Her body trembled.
He caught her before she could fall. He scooped her into his arms and started running toward the sounds of those sirens. “I need a medic, now!”
The smoke was too heavy in the air. Even when she did manage to pull in a breath, it was coated in smoke.
“Her lips are blue, damn it. Help me!”
She saw the swirl of flashing lights. Finally something other than the darkness of the smoke. The EMTs reached for her and pulled her away from Drew.
She didn’t want to leave him. Her hand flew out, caught his.
“Don’t worry, Doc.” His voice was steady and strong. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The EMTs loaded her in an ambulance; a breathing mask was slid over her face.
Drew was right beside her.
The ambulance roared away as the team got to work on her.
* * *
SHE FELT AS if she’d been hit by a truck. Tina sat on the edge of the narrow hospital bed, clad in a thin, paper gown, and she let her breath whisper slowly past her lips.
At least I’m still alive.
They’d given her medication to stabilize her breathing. The medication had stopped what might have just been the worst attack of her life.
She’d been helpless. A prisoner, beaten by her own body.
And he’d seen her. Drew had been there every moment.
Now he knew just how weak she truly was.
The door opened. She didn’t glance up. She’d been told by Dylan that guards had been posted outside her room. It seemed that she couldn’t go anywhere without a guard now.
Because she was targeted for death.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She’d known that it was him, of course. Whenever Drew was in the room, her body responded with an awareness that was almost frightening.
Tina wasn’t sure that she liked being that tuned to another person.
His fingers brushed over her arm. “Doc?”
She forced her shoulders to straighten. “There wasn’t anything you could do while we were on the run. It wasn’t like you were going to have asthma medication in your back pocket—or even in your handy motorcycle saddlebag.”
She’d been managing to keep the asthma in check. She’d handled the motorcycle ride just fine. Tina had thought she could keep controlling the asthma. Until the plane had exploded. Until the smoke had choked her. Until— “Has Pierce been recovered?”
Drew shook his head. “There’s...not going to be much left to recover.”
Right. Her eyes closed for an instant. That last little bit of hope left her.
“Tina?”
Her eyes opened. “How did Devast know I was getting on that plane?” The EOD had made arrangements for her flight out of Texas. She should have been safe.
“I slipped into his network,” Drew said quietly, his gaze watchful on her face. “And it looks like he managed to slip someone into ours.”
Her heart seemed to ache with each beat. From past experience, she knew the soreness would last for a while. “You’re saying we have some kind of double agent in the EOD?”
He nodded. “It looks that way.”
“Who?”
“That’s what we have to find out. And we will find out.”
“Before,” she demanded because it was too much, “or after I’m dead?”
His hands rose and curled around her shoulders. “I’m not letting you die.”
Didn’t he get it? “You saw me.” She pressed her lips together so they wouldn’t tremble. Shame burned in her, but she pushed past it. “When an attack hits me, there is nothing I can do. I’m too vulnerable. If there’s a double agent in the EOD, he can find out my secret.” If he doesn’t already know. “I’m easy to kill.” The paper gown scraped across her knees as she shifted uncomfortably. “Too easy.”
“I’m not letting you die,” he said again, voice rougher.
“You can’t save everyone, you know.” That was a lesson she’d been taught long ago. Sometimes you couldn’t even save the ones who mattered to you the most.
“You aren’t everyone.” A muscle jerked in his jaw. “You aren’t dying.” His head bent toward her. “You scared me.”
She didn’t think anything scared him.
His lips brushed against hers. “You were dying in my arms. There was nothing I could do.”
Tears stung her eyes. Her father had died in her arms.
“Come back to me.”
Those harsh, rumbling words had her blinking.
And getting lost in the gold of his gaze.
“You think I don’t know,” Drew began as he eased ever closer to her, “when you leave me? I can tell when you slip into your mind, into the past that has left those scars inside you.” His lips thinned. “I don’t like it. Don’t focus on whatever the hell happened to you. Focus on now. On me.”
He kissed her again. Harder. This wasn’t a kiss of comfort. This was a kiss of pure, wild need.
His mouth didn’t hesitate—it took. He was demanding a response from her and, raw and vulnerable from all that had happened, Tina had no barriers to protect herself from him.
So she just...let go.
Her mouth met his. Hungry. Desperate.
Her hands came up and locked around his shoulders. She pulled him against her. She needed him as close as she could get him.
Her heart pounded. Ached.
When he kissed her, she didn’t feel weak. She felt sensual, powerful, alive.
Nothing else mattered in that instant. Desire twisted through her; a want that couldn’t be denied. Her breasts ached, her legs shifted restlessly. She needed to be closer to him.
Needed...him. Her short nails dug into his arms.
His mouth pulled from hers. Just a whisper of a space separated their lips as he growled, “Stay with me.” He began to kiss her neck.
Her breath was fast, it was—
He stilled. “Are you okay? What am I doing?”
And, just like that, he’d done the one thing she’d feared. He’d discovered that she was weak.
So now he was treating her as if she’d shatter too easily.
He stepped back, a hurried, almost clumsy move for a man who usually moved with such grace.
“Tina? Tina, answer me. Are you all right?”
She’d been more than all right a few seconds ago. Unfortunately reality was back. “Kissing me doesn’t kill me.” She’d had other men who treated her as though she was some kind of broken china doll once they’d seen her attack.
His eyes narrowed. “I
didn’t...” His hands fisted and he backed up another step. “I don’t mean to be so rough with you.”
She didn’t want him to back away. “I don’t need you to treat me like I’m...I’m going to shatter.”
He stared back at her. Drew seemed to absorb what she said as his eyes narrowed and swept over her face. “I won’t make the mistake again.”
She jumped off the bed. She could taste him on her lips. Desire still pulsed through her blood. A desire that seemed to burn too hot and fast whenever they touched. Was it from the adrenaline? The danger? Something else? “What is happening between us?” Then Tina forced herself to say the painful truth. “You didn’t even notice me before that group took me prisoner—”
He caught her hand. His head moved in a hard, negative shake. “That’s bull. I noticed you every moment.”
He sure hadn’t seemed to see her. Only when he’d been in the lab with her for his checkups, and then he’d been gruff. All business. Never lingering to chat or—
One dark brow rose. “Calling me a liar?” His head tilted to the right as he studied her. “Doc, I’ve wanted you in my bed from the first moment I saw you. I came into your office, expecting some kind of quick clearance check from a stuffy M.D., and the next thing I knew...you were in every dream I had.”
She sure hadn’t expected that. He’d treated her with the same icy indifference that he seemed to show everyone at the EOD.
“Yeah, I noticed you,” he continued, his voice seeming to deepen with memories. “But I knew that you were afraid of me, so I stood back.”
She didn’t deny her fear. What would have been the point? He was a dangerous man. A man who could kill as easily as most men could kiss. There were shadows that clung to him—and always would.
“You’re still afraid,” he charged, “but I’m done with stepping back. You’re not going to get away from me now.”
She hadn’t been the one stepping back a few moments ago. She’d been the one digging her nails into him. Drew had put the brakes on things. Before she could speak, someone was rapping at the door.
Tina’s gaze jumped to the door. It swung open and Dylan, looking at little singed and blistered, came striding inside.
“That perfect timing again,” Drew muttered. “Work on it, man. Work. On. It.”