Striking Distance

by Debra Webb

  Victoria had been devastated then and today.

  Tasha thought of the woman she’d met briefly when she delivered the package. Strong, steady, still very attractive at fifty or so. But that woman had been brought to her knees by a horrible reminder of the past.

  Why would Seth do that? Tasha felt certain that he was following Leberman’s orders. Lucas had told her that they suspected this man named Leberman of having taken the child. Once he’d disposed of the body he’d obviously kept souvenirs for later.

  Leberman wanted to make Victoria suffer before he ended her life. Lucas was sure he had more dirty tricks up his sleeve. Tasha also fully understood Lucas’s personal ties now. Victoria Colby.

  Tasha’s thoughts turned to Seth then. Was it about the money? She’d turned the uniform and the bills he’d given her over to Maverick for fingerprinting in hopes of finding Leberman’s or anyone else’s who might be connected. She wondered how much a man like Leberman would pay to hire a man as skilled and ruthless as Seth to carry out this well-planned drama that was supposed to end in death.

  She wondered at the brutalities Seth must have suffered to make him the kind of man he was. She flopped over onto her other side. Why the hell did she care? He was a killer. It didn’t matter what made him that way. Her only job was to stop him once they’d located Leberman.

  Tasha pushed up from the bed and shuffled into the kitchen for a drink. Sleep wasn’t coming. She might as well give up and do something useful. Maybe some yoga. She could definitely handle some relaxation exercises.

  The telephone rang, startling her.

  She blew out a breath. Damn, she was going to have to get a grip here. She strode over to the table next to the sofa and picked up the receiver. It wouldn’t be Maverick, he’d knock on her door.

  “Hello,” she said softly as if she’d been awakened, though she really didn’t expect to hear from Seth again this soon.

  “There’s a cab waiting outside.”

  Seth.

  Anticipation seared through her. “A cab? Where am I going?” She glanced at the clock, 12:35 a.m.

  “I think you know.”

  An audible click told her he’d hung up.

  She lowered the receiver and dropped it back into its cradle.

  For a while Tasha simply stood there trying to decide if she could take this step or not.

  She knew what he wanted.

  Had felt the primal urgency in his kiss that afternoon. Had also felt his resistance. He didn’t want to want her.

  She closed her eyes and ordered her heart rate to slow. Sleeping with him was supposed to be a last resort. But nothing was as it should be with him. She needed that closer connection with him. She needed him to need her. Seduction was her only option.

  Rather than stand there rationalizing further, she did what she had to do.

  She dressed for the occasion.

  Short black skirt, matching thong, even shorter gold top, no bra, no hose. She slid her feet into strappy black sandals and looked herself over. The hesitation she saw in her own eyes was unlike her…she shouldn’t hesitate. This wasn’t personal. It was business—essential to the mission. She’d known going in that it might come to this. She shook her head and looked away from the lie in her eyes. Somehow, stupidly, she had waited for this moment. She hoped like hell her motivation was grounded in the mission. But she had a very bad feeling that it wasn’t.

  Tossing her toothbrush and other essentials into a bag, she glanced at the gun she’d left lying on the toilet tank. But she couldn’t risk him finding it. She had mace. That would have to be sufficient. He was a lot bigger than her, but she could fight as well as any man. On second thought she removed the patch and tossed it into the trash. Maverick knew his location. She wasn’t going to risk having to explain the patch to Seth. Or worse, have him detect its signal if he chose to do a body sweep.

  As he’d said, a cab waited at the curb. She climbed in, and the driver pulled out onto the street without asking for directions. Maverick would be furious, but it wasn’t like they didn’t know where Seth lived now. Her apartment was monitored, they would know she’d left.

  She relaxed into the seat and cleared her mind. She wasn’t going to argue with herself anymore. Whatever happened happened. End of subject.

  She knew what she had to do.

  A few minutes later she leaned forward and surveyed the street signs.

  “Why aren’t we headed for Oak Park?”

  “That’s not the address I was given,” the cabbie offered with a shrug. He smiled then. “Maybe it’s a surprise.”

  Uneasiness slid through Tasha. An all-too-familiar sensation these days. There were surprises and there were surprises. This was definitely one she hadn’t anticipated. Failure to anticipate her target’s moves was a dangerous weakness. He looked more and more as if he was a serious weakness.

  * * *

  Thirty minutes later, after traveling through several exclusive neighborhoods, the cab braked to a stop in front of a massive ornamental gate. She squinted to make out the house that lay beyond but couldn’t.

  After a moment the gate opened and the cab rolled through and toward the house at the end of the drive. As they neared the structure she could make out the soaring, contemporary lines and angles. A high wall enclosed the property for as far as she could see, and if her sense of direction was on track they were near the lake. That would explain the elegant homes they’d passed.

  “Here you are.” The cabbie glanced back at her and smiled with masculine approval. “The fare has already been taken care of.”

  “Thanks.” Tasha stepped out of the cab and looked around for a bit before moving toward the house. The cab left through the gate, and she heard it close behind him. The house looked dark except for foundation lights that up lit from the well-landscaped shrubbery. But Seth liked the dark.

  She moved toward the front entry, wondering where his SUV was parked. A side entry garage perhaps.

  As she moved up the steps, the front door opened and he stood there waiting for her. He didn’t speak, just waited. Her pulse reacted and she chastised herself for the lack of control.

  If Maverick had tried to follow her, he was nowhere to be seen. But then, that was her fault for removing the one link between her and her backup.

  It was just him and her.

  She was on her own.

  When she’d stepped inside, he closed the door behind her and turned on the lights, the setting far dimmer than she would have preferred.

  “Looks like you’ve moved up in the world,” she said to him when he remained silent. Even in the low light she could see that the house was elegantly decorated and expensively furnished.

  “This way.”

  She followed him up the grand staircase. Surely this wasn’t his home. Maybe Leberman’s? That didn’t make sense, either. Lucas and Victoria would certainly know if he were this close. This place didn’t exactly have a lived-in feel, but it didn’t have that closed-up smell or feel about it, either.

  When he stopped again and turned on a light, they were in a generously sized bedroom with French doors that likely led out onto a balcony. She imagined there was a view of the lake. The furnishings were just as exquisite as the ones downstairs, including the massive king-size bed.

  He took her purse, then leveled that piercing gaze on her. “Take off your clothes.”

  She walked over to him and reached for the buttons of his shirt. “How about we take off yours first?”

  Strong fingers encircled her wrists and pulled her hands away from his shirt. “Take them off.”

  She backed up a step and considered her limited options. She could refuse and blow this now—maybe have to fight her way out of here—or…

  He unzipped her purse then removed a thick fold of bills from his
pocket and dropped them inside. When he’d tossed the bag aside he issued his order again. “Now, take off your clothes.”

  Unbridled fury scorched through her. “You think I’m some kind of hooker?” She glanced at her bag for emphasis.

  When he didn’t answer she huffed in disbelief. “Oh, man.” She stormed out, didn’t even bother with her purse. She wanted to make the right connection with the guy. Earn his trust. This kind of connection would get her nowhere fast.

  By the time she reached the landing he was right behind her. She ignored him and kept moving. She was down the stairs and halfway across the entry hall when he stopped her. He whirled her around to face him, his hold on her arms brutal.

  “No one walks away from me.”

  “Let me go,” she warned.

  Something changed in his expression. “I thought you needed a job,” he countered, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

  She tried without success to jerk free of his savage hold. “I need a job not a john. Now let me go!”

  He released her as suddenly as he’d grabbed her. He took a step back physically and emotionally. “Get your bag. I’ll take you back.”

  Tasha couldn’t move for a moment, unable to look away from that fierce gaze just yet. When she could break free of the spell, she turned and hurried up the stairs. She cursed herself every step of the way for being the fool she was. She should be glad that he hadn’t out-and-out raped her. Instead, he’d turned off the desire she knew he had felt as easily as he turned off a light switch.

  And, unbelievably, she was disappointed.

  CHAPTER 19

  He performed his usual check of the perimeter of the Oak Park property before entering. Thankfully no one waited for him this time. A quick sweep for alien electronics and he relaxed.

  If Leberman showed his face once more he might just kill him now and put them both out of their misery. Dread, or something on that order, hardened in his gut. He tamped it down. Hated those old sensations Leberman so easily engendered in him. When Victoria Colby was dead they would be even, anyway. What difference would a few days make? Once his score with Leberman was settled he intended to kill the bastard if he ever came near him again. Just looking at him made Seth remember the past, and he didn’t want to remember.

  He climbed the stairs to his room without bothering with light. He was as much at home in the dark as he was in the light, maybe more. The dark had always been his friend. No one could see him in the dark.

  Before he could stop the mutinous memory, Leberman’s words echoed in his head. He knew what he was all right. He was pure evil…a monster. Hadn’t he been marked long ago? That was just one more reason he couldn’t trust Tasha. She pretended to see what wasn’t there…pretended not to care what he was.

  But he knew differently.

  He knew a great deal more than she suspected. He knew exactly what she was doing. Leberman had his sources. He untied his shoes and toed them off, then shouldered out of his shirt and dropped it to the floor. The weapon and holster he shrugged off and lay on the bed. A gun had been his only sleeping partner for more than a decade. He was never without it. Never intended to be, as long as he was still breathing.

  As he peeled his T-shirt up and off, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He moved closer to inspect the numerous scars that marred his otherwise well-maintained body. Ugly, brutal marks that told the story of his past. A past he wanted to forget. He studied his face and the slash on his jaw that had been the last one inflicted by the bastard who’d trained him.

  He banked the fury that ignited instantly whenever he allowed himself to dwell on the past. His lips flattened into a grim line. The bouts of anger he’d been dealing with lately were nothing but an indicator of his one weakness—the past. When he had paid his final debt he would never think of the past again.

  The image of Tasha flashed through his mind, sending a new kind of fire straight to his groin. She was proving a weakness, as well. He’d allowed his curiosity to get the better of him…. That had been a mistake.

  It wouldn’t happen again.

  He had no reason at this point to kill her, but he would if she got in his way.

  The curiosity she’d sparked in him was the only reason she wasn’t dead already.

  But she was toying with him…there could be no other explanation.

  He knew what he was, and no woman would want that.

  Unless she was paid to want it.

  He shook his head in self-disgust when even the mere thought of her got him hard. Not once since becoming a man had he allowed any woman to hold that kind of power over him.

  Sex, he decided, was only about his body’s need for physical release, nothing more. He stepped back into his shoes and tied them. Then reached for his shirt and weapon. Well, physical release would be easy enough to obtain.

  There were plenty of women out there who knew how to use their mouths for something more than talk.

  He didn’t need Tasha.

  Any woman would do.

  They were all alike—manipulative, clingy, untrustworthy. Though admittedly they had their uses, he had never met one he needed.

  He didn’t need anyone or anything.

  CHAPTER 20

  Tasha sat in the darkness of the compact car Lucas had provided. She peered at the house where Seth had held her prisoner just forty-eight hours ago. Though the place was dark, she knew he was in there, his SUV was in the drive.

  Tonight—this morning, actually, since it was well past midnight—when he’d dropped her back at her apartment, she’d been too furious to think before she reacted. He hadn’t uttered one word to her the entire trip. He’d simply driven her back as he said he would and stopped only long enough for her to get out.

  Even now renewed fury burned away all reason. She’d entered her apartment building, given him thirty seconds and then exited again. She’d jumped in her car and driven straight back to the lake house with no rational thought as to the consequences. She’d sat there for a few minutes watching the eerily dark house, but that extra instinct of hers had nagged her into going back to the Oak Park residence. She’d sensed that he wasn’t at the lake house.

  Somehow, incredibly, they’d connected on a level that she couldn’t begin to understand. The only thing she did know with a certainty was that she’d lost a good deal of her objectivity way too fast. She felt angry at him for drawing her close, only to turn her away when she refused to do things his way. The idea that he could so easily turn off any need or desire made her want to scream with frustration.

  Bottom line, she’d wanted him to want her. Which meant one thing, she’d crossed the line. Hell, she hadn’t simply crossed the line, she’d pole-vaulted over it.

  This wasn’t supposed to be personal, even if sex were involved. It was business—the mission. Somehow she’d allowed the amateur psychoanalyst side of her to get sucked into his world. She was so busy trying to figure him out that she was losing all perspective on reality.

  He was a killer.

  An assassin.

  He tortured and murdered people for money.

  Her career would be over if the Agency or Lucas Camp discovered that she’d crossed that line. Worst of all, she feared her lack of objectivity was even more deeply personal than her overwhelming need to know what made him tick.

  Maybe her career should be over if she couldn’t maintain proper perspective any better than this.

  The headlights of his SUV suddenly glared through the darkness.

  She tensed…forgot all else and moved to a higher state of alert. Where the hell would he be going now? To Victoria Colby’s house? That didn’t feel right. He was surely aware that she would be tucked in for the night with maximum security. He was on to Lucas now, probably had been from the start.

  The SUV he
’d backed into the driveway rolled forward onto the street, in the direction of Chicago proper and away from her position.

  Slowing her respiration and pulling her focus on track, Tasha eased into a nearby driveway, turned around and followed him. Maintaining a visual would likely be impossible since she couldn’t risk getting too close. At this hour the very idea of tailing a target was ludicrous. There were no other vehicles on the quiet residential streets with which to blend.

  But she’d give it her best shot.

  Even if he didn’t spot her, she was in deep trouble. Maverick would have her hide whenever she showed up back at her apartment. She was supposed to wear the monitoring device at all times. When Seth had called about the taxi she’d foolishly assumed the destination. Now she had nothing to blame but plain old stupidity. She’d been so angry she followed him without taking the proper precautions. She’d acted on the moment…on instinct. What the hell good was backup if she left them in the dark? She imagined Maverick would report her carelessness to Lucas.

  Somehow she had to make tonight worth the risks she’d taken. Going back empty-handed wasn’t an option. She needed something.

  Something only he could give her.

  And that was the bottom line. As much as his actions had rubbed her the wrong way, pushed some button he shouldn’t even have access to, she’d walked away with nothing and no guarantee that she would see him again. Unacceptable. She was better than this. She would get to him…she would give Lucas Camp what he wanted: Leberman.

  As they neared downtown, traffic appeared, which facilitated her ability to duplicate Seth’s turns without the risk of detection. Since she’d never visited Chicago before this assignment, she didn’t know the name of the area he selected for his middle-of-the-night cruise. But it didn’t take her long to recognize he was headed toward the seedier side of town.

  Block after block of adult-entertainment joints, hole-in-the-wall newsstands, pawnshops, dive bars and the occasional sleazy-looking motel. The heavy flow of pedestrian traffic made it look like a Saturday night on Bourbon Street in New Orleans rather than a plain old weeknight in the low-rent section of Chicago.