by Radclyffe
and summer highlights. Louise’s eyes were mahogany, completely
different than the intense green of Wes’s. They looked nothing alike—
Louise was sultry and sensuous, Wes was intensely sexual, physically
commanding. And why was she thinking about Wes when another
woman was sending her come-and-get-it signals?
She wasn’t just off her game, she was completely without one.
True, she hadn’t really thought about any kind of date in weeks, maybe
a few months, but it’s not something you would forget. Bicycle riding
and all that. She kissed Louise softly. “If that’s an invitation to return,
I accept.”
“Good. But you’re not leaving just yet.” Louise tugged Evyn’s
shirt free from her pants and slid her hand underneath to skate her
fingers over Evyn’s belly.
Evyn’s muscles contracted into a tight knot beneath the teasing
caress. Her breath caught. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, a
voice warned her off, but she ignored it. She was single, after all, and
this was what she knew. Louise scratched her nails rhythmically up and
down the center of Evyn’s abs and then dipped her fingers beneath the
waistband of Evyn’s pants. Evyn gripped the edge of the counter, her
thighs trembling, and kissed her again.
After all, why not?
• 95 •
RADCLY fFE
chapter twelve
Wes woke up a little after 0500 and turned on the television.
The city had received over six inches of snow during the
night, and the mayor had declared a snow emergency. All federal offices
were closed, but she didn’t think that extended to the White House. She
ordered a large pot of coffee and an American breakfast and showered
while waiting for it to come up. She’d had an aide send her clothes
down from her previous quarters, and they’d been waiting for her last
night when she’d returned. She’d have the rest moved down when she
had time.
In keeping with the less formal WHMU protocol, she dressed in
tailored black pants, a thin black leather belt, low black boots, and an
off-white open-collared shirt. At 0600 she flagged down a cab in front
of the hotel and instructed the driver to drop her off at the northwest
gate. “You work there?” asked the cabbie, a friendly young woman
with red-rimmed eyes. Judging by the empty coffee cups and fast-food
wrappers in the front seat, she’d been driving all night.
“Yes,” Wes said. “Long night?”
“Yeah, but the money is good so I’m not complaining.” The
cabbie maneuvered down the single cleared lane in the middle of a
two-way street, swerving around abandoned cars and piles of snow.
Fortunately, the streets were nearly deserted—snow-covered cars
clogged intersections and narrow side streets. The trip usually took
fifteen minutes. Today was closer to forty-five, but she was still early
for her meeting with Evyn when the cabbie let her out.
• 96 •
Oath Of hOnOr
“Thanks,” Wes called. “Have a safe one.”
“You too.”
The cab’s wheels spun, then caught, and the vehicle sluiced away.
Wes nodded to the officer at the gate and showed her ID. “Can you
point me to my office?”
“Ground floor, halfway down on the left.”
“Thanks.”
Wes hung her coat on the wooden rack inside the door, sat in
the leather swivel chair behind the desk, and took stock. The room
previously occupied by Len O’Shaughnessy had been cleared of
personal effects and now resembled every duty office she’d ever
seen—the bookcases and desk were wood, not metal, but even so, they
had an institutional look to them. The nicely framed prints on the wall
were generic renditions of American historical events that had taken
place in the region surrounding the capital. The titles in the bookcases
were standard medical classics—Harrison’s Principles of Internal
Medicine, Schwartz’s Principles of Surgery, Chance’s Introduction
to Biochemistry. Next to them, white loose-leaf binders were neatly
labeled with black script: trauma protocol, acute surgical conditions,
medical emergencies, toxic exposure, poisoning, and so on down the
line of emergency situations. She’d have to review them all.
The computer was running and she booted up. O’Shaughnessy’s
password had already been swept. Her name appeared with a prompt
to enter a password. She chose one, repeated it as directed, and was in.
She clicked a desktop icon for an e-mail program, and a list of e-mails
appeared in the in-box. Generic messages appeared from various White
House departments—the press corps, communications—and, at the
very bottom, one from [email protected]. She looked at the recipient
and smiled at the [email protected]. Apparently someone was taking
care of the details. Hopefully they’d arrange for quarters for her soon.
She opened Evyn’s message.
Good morning, Doc. I’ll wait for you in the ready
room—it’s in the basement of the OEOB. Thought you might
be running late due to the nasty weather. ED
Wes checked her watch. She still had time, but none of the other
e-mails looked important. Since the WHMU was set to run without her
• 97 •
RADCLY fFE
until she officially took charge and entered the rotation, she had nothing
else to do. Good morning, Doc. I’ll wait for you…
A rush of unexpected pleasure warmed her. She closed the mail
program, grabbed her coat, and went in search of the ready room,
Evyn’s slow smile playing through her mind.
v
Evyn poured a cup of coffee and dropped onto a sofa opposite
a widescreen TV in the ready room where she and the other agents
hung out between shifts or while waiting for Eagle to go out. She had
the place to herself and was glad of it. She wasn’t feeling talkative
and definitely didn’t want to spar with Gary about where she’d spent
the night or what she’d been doing. She hadn’t had time to go home
after waking up at Louise’s to discover the city buried under snow.
Fortunately, she’d had a change of clothes in her car—she always
did—although the blue long-sleeved polo shirt and dark khakis weren’t
what she usually wore to work. Gary’d take one look at her and know
she hadn’t been home—he knew by now what she packed in her go
bag. She closed her eyes and tuned out the news anchor, leaving her
alone with her thoughts. That was a mistake. Her internal third degree
was almost as bad as Gary’s would have been. She hadn’t had a one-
night stand in months, although maybe one-night stand wasn’t accurate
since it wasn’t the first time she’d been with Louise. The whole evening
had come out of nowhere, and she wasn’t usually impulsive when it
came to women. When she wanted company, she found it, but it was
always planned. Not last night. Why had she stayed when her mind
was only half in the moment? Louise didn’t know her well enough to
notice. At least she hoped Louise couldn’t tell she’d drifted away a few
times, very nearly starting to think of someone else before she’d caught
herself. Hell. That was just low. She’d never done that before and didn’t
want a repeat.
The door opened and Wes Masters walked in, looking just as
good out of her uniform as she had in it. She walked as if she was
still wearing her dress blues—confidently, her expression unhurried,
untroubled, and sure. Looking just as good as she had for the briefest
• 98 •
Oath Of hOnOr
moment last night when Evyn had imagined how that tight body would
feel covering hers.
“Morning, Doc,” Evyn said, feigning a cool she didn’t feel,
conscious of her own slightly rumpled appearance. At least her clothes
were clean. Still, a niggle of unease burrowed in her belly, and she
wondered if Wes could tell she’d come straight from a bed that wasn’t
hers. Not a one-night stand exactly, more like a legitimate date—second
date, even—and she’d made plans to see Louise again later in the
month, schedules permitting. Evyn’s skin prickled at the thought. She
didn’t do repeats—well, she hadn’t in a good long time—but Louise
had been fun, sexy and passionate, and completely undemanding. When
she’d said she had tickets to a holiday show and invited her to go, Evyn
couldn’t think of a single reason not to say yes. So she had.
“Have any trouble getting in this morning?” Wes asked.
Looking up with a start, Evyn stood, wondering how long she’d
been daydreaming and if anything showed in her face. “No. You?”
“Got a cab. No problem.” A faintly puzzled look crossed Wes’s
face and was quickly gone.
“Ready?” Evyn heard the curt tone in her voice and consciously
relaxed her shoulders. Wes was too sharp not to pick up on her tension,
and she didn’t intend for Wes Masters to have an inkling of what was
going on in her head.
“Absolutely. Can’t wait to get started.”
Evyn laughed at Wes’s dry tone. The uneasy churning in her
stomach disappeared and she smiled. “I’ll just bet.” She walked to the
door and locked it. “Take your jacket off.”
Watching Evyn sort through a gear box she’d placed on the table,
Wes shrugged out of her jacket. “Shirt too?”
“Ah, no,” Evyn said, busying herself untangling the lines for the
earpiece and wrist mic Wes would need to wear. She hadn’t thought
of Wes naked for all of five minutes, and she’d really like to make it
ten—years—or so before she had to squelch another image of Wes’s
tight body sliding over hers. Her thighs twitched. Hell. She held up the
radio. “This clips on the back of your pants. Turn around.”
Wes complied. “I’ll be on your channel?”
“That’s right.”
Evyn secured the radio with the minimal amount of contact
• 99 •
RADCLY fFE
possible. Even clothed, Wes had a great body. Unclothed, she’d be
incredible. She smelled really good too—kind of woodsy and crisp,
like the breeze on Whitley Island before the storm had rolled in. Clean,
sharp, exciting. Evyn stepped away before her skin burst into flames.
“That’s it. You can dre—put your jacket on.”
“That’s it?”
“You need something else?” Evyn asked around the knot in her
throat. Maybe she ought to move up her date with Louise. This hair-
trigger arousal thing was new and damn annoying. A little regular sex
might put a lid on it. “Ah…any questions?”
“Nope. The sooner we get started, the sooner we’ll be done,
right?”
“That’s the theory.” Evyn searched for a hint of resentment or
anger or resistance but found only the cool, confident tones she’d come
to associate with Wes’s approach to everything. Her body cooled off
and her head started working again. Game time. “Let’s go test it.”
“Where are we headed?” Wes asked, matching Evyn stride
for stride as they left the ready room. A trio of black SUVs waited
outside.
“The James J. Rowley Training Center—but we just call it
Beltsville.”
“What are we—”
“If you’re not in the president’s vehicle, you’ll be one behind it,”
Evyn said as they climbed into the rear of the second car. “Ordinarily
you’d have your own field-trauma kit, but you can use our FAT kit
today.”
“If I’m expected to use this equipment for any reason today,” Wes
said, “I’d like to see what’s in it before we leave.”
“You’ll have what you need if anything comes up. You can
customize your own later.”
Evyn settled next to the big guy Wes had seen at Whitley Manor.
He extended his hand. “Morning, Doc. I’m Gary Brown.”
“Wes Masters.” Wes shook hands and settled across from him and
Evyn. The cloak-and-dagger treatment was already starting to get old
and she’d just started. She understood she needed to know how PPD
operated, but she didn’t see why she needed to be in the dark. “So, will
I have to pass the physical before I get to play with the big kids?”
• 100 •
Oath Of hOnOr
Gary coughed and looked out the smoked-glass windows. To
Wes’s surprise, Evyn colored faintly.
“Can you?” Evyn asked.
As a matter of fact, she’d just had her annual re-quals and part of
that had been a fitness eval, but that had to be in her records. Which
Evyn had undoubtedly seen. “Well, I do spend an awful lot of my time
at a desk, but pushing papers around can be pretty tiring.”
Evyn grinned as if Wes’s sarcasm pleased her. “No sit-ups for you
today, Doc, but I hope you can run.”
• 101 •
RADCLY fFE
chapter thirteen
The first blast rocked the vehicle about forty-five minutes into
the trip. All Wes could see out the window was a tree-lined
road and a brilliant flash of orange somewhere ahead of them before
a cloud of dust—or smoke—enveloped the SUV. The vehicle swerved
hard right and she bounced against the door frame. Pain shot down her
left arm. She grabbed for the medical kit at her feet with her other hand
and held on.
“What’s the situation?” she shouted over a series of deafening
roars. The road beneath the heavy chassis vibrated.
“Rocket attack,” Gary yelled back.
Evyn pressed her fingers to her earpiece. Her mouth was moving,
but Wes couldn’t make out the words. She jolted forward as the SUV
jerked to a stop.
“Out, and stay with me,” Evyn said, pushing the rear door open.
Gary went out the opposite door and Wes scrambled after Evyn,
the FAT kit clenched in her fist. Acrid air stung her eyes and burned her
throat. Her ears rang. She expected to find craters in the blacktop and
wished for a flak jacket and helmet. Her heart pounded in her throat.
Everything she knew about battle training flashed through her mind.
She followed Evyn’s path exactly, thinking about IEDs and severed
limbs and crippling burns. Another flash overhead, another ban
g. Her
pulse shot up and her belly writhed.
That couldn’t be live ammo, these people weren’t that crazy, but
she ducked all the same at the sound of weapons fire. The lead car was
stopped crosswise on the road, smoke coming from under its hood. Two
• 102 •
Oath Of hOnOr
men and a woman crowded around the rear door of the limo. Evyn ran
to them and Wes pushed forward, nudging Evyn aside to get a look in
the interior.
“POTUS is unconscious.” A heavyset Asian man pointed to a man
she didn’t recognize—the president’s stand-in—sprawled half-off the
rear seat.
More explosions, more noise. Wes couldn’t make out most of what
was coming over her radio, and she shut the chaos out of her mind. Her
only job right now was stabilizing her patient.
“Don’t move him,” Wes ordered, climbing into the back.
“We have to—we’re not secure,” the agent said.
“Not yet.” Wes flipped the locks on the FAT kit and surveyed the
contents. Two seconds later she spied the cervical collar and pulled it
out. “Hold this.”
“I got it,” Evyn said, crouching next to Wes’s left shoulder.
Wes handed Evyn the collar, yanked out her earpiece, and fitted
the stethoscope to her ears. She checked for bilateral breath sounds,
made sure his airway was clear, and did a fast visual survey of the
victim. No other injuries. “I’ll take the collar now, thanks.”
She secured the collar and said, “Okay—let’s go. You”—she
pointed to the big agent—“stabilize his head and neck while we move
him. Evyn, get three others on torso and limbs.”
“We know the drill.” Evyn backed out of the vehicle and Wes
followed, keeping below the top line of the SUV to take advantage of
what little cover she had.
Agents crowded around, Wes hoisted her med kit, and the evac
team took off running.
v
Wes gathered up her gear from the floor in the back of the
ambulance and stowed it in the med kit. Her shoulder ached and her
eyes were gritty, but her head buzzed pleasantly with the adrenaline
rush that followed every trauma alert. The “president” was in the OR
fifteen minutes after injury—or would have been if this weren’t a drill.
He’d been delivered stable and ready for emergency intervention. A
by-the-book field evac—just the way she’d written it.
“You about ready?” Evyn said from behind her.