Striking Distance

by Debra Webb

  It would feel too much like running.

  They’d both waited so long. But she was so very tired of living with the threat of Leberman hanging over her head. He represented all of her past pain…she wanted to banish him forever. Wanted to make him pay for what he’d done to her son.

  The worry in Lucas’s eyes very nearly undid her. “You refuse to go away with me. You have to give me something to work with here. Please.” He squeezed her hands. “Please, let me keep you safe.”

  She had known Lucas Camp for more than half her life, and this was the first time in all those years that she had sensed his emotions so near to the surface. Certainly it was the first time she’d heard him skate so close to outright begging.

  She looked into those loving gray eyes and she tried with all her might to ensure that the depth of her feelings for him shone in her own. “Lucas, I know you want to keep me safe, but I can’t run from this. If I do, it will never end. We have to stop this bastard. Face this enemy. Now.”

  “I have a strategy in place,” he countered. “One that doesn’t require you to take these kinds of risks. Whatever precautions we take at this evening’s affair, there is still a strong possibility that he’ll get close enough to hurt you. Let me bring him down my way. You have my word that I’m working on that as we speak. I will make it happen.”

  He wasn’t making this easy. She looked away, gathered her scattering courage before allowing her eyes to meet his once more. “Lucas, I’m certain that you’re doing all you can. But it might not be enough.” Pain tightened her chest as she saw the new lines of worry forming on his beloved face. “Yesterday when I looked into that box and saw that shoe I almost slipped over a precipice that I’m not completely sure I could have returned from. It’s been that way for a while now. It’s like I’m performing a balancing act on an emotional high wire.”

  She shrugged, hoped her words were making sense. “I can’t do this anymore. He won’t let me put the past behind me and move on as I’d hoped to do. You and I will never be free to live our lives as long as that bastard is breathing.”

  Lucas nodded, his eyes suspiciously bright. “You’re right. I know that, but knowing the facts won’t prevent me from going crazy with worry for you.”

  Tears brimmed behind her lashes and she took a breath, moistened her lips and tried her damnedest to hold them back. “And that’s just one of the many things I love about you.”

  He searched her eyes again, his own clearly startled by her admission. Though they had each recognized for some time how the other felt, they’d refrained from verbalizing that emotional commitment. Not out of fear or uncertainty, out of respect for the man they’d both loved in different ways. But James Colby wasn’t coming back.

  “Victoria, you must know,” Lucas began, his voice filled with the same emotion she saw in his eyes, “that I am deeply, profoundly in love with you.”

  She smiled. God, how she did love this man. “Of course you are. I’ve known it all along.”

  For several boundless moments they simply stood there, holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes while the scent of fresh-brewed coffee filled the air around them. She moved first, leaned forward just far enough to lift her mouth to meet his.

  And then he kissed her.

  His lips were as firm as she’d known they would be, his taste pleasant, sugared coffee flavored with just a hint of French vanilla—the kind they sold at the coffeehouse near his hotel. When he reached up to gently cup her face in those strong hands she moaned softly. How long had she waited for that simple touch? Desire sung vibrantly through her veins, sending a long-forgotten heat to the very core of her being…to the part of her that made her woman.

  And then she forgot to think at all.

  CHAPTER 22

  At seven-fifteen on Tuesday morning Tasha walked into her apartment building on North Dearborn. The strappy sandals she’d donned the night before hung precariously from her right hand.

  The long walk had cleared her mind of the confusing emotions she’d experienced in that club. She’d gone from outraged and obsessed to furious with herself to numb. Total exhaustion had left her defenseless and completely disillusioned about who she’d thought she was.

  Some jerk had stolen her car while she acted like a jealous lover. Her useless cell phone had been in there for all the good it would have done her. And, on that sleazy side of town, there hadn’t been a cab to be seen in the wee hours of the morning.

  She walked. Oh, she’d turned down a couple of offers for rides, but she had known, judging by the sleazebags tossing out the invitations, that she would have ended up walking, anyway—after she’d had to beat the crap out of one of them.

  But worst of all, she’d looked Leberman straight in the eyes and hadn’t been able to do anything about it.

  That screw-up alone was enough to get her tossed back to Langley. She jabbed the call button for the elevator, too damned tired to even consider the stairs.

  Not that she could blame Lucas for sending her back. She’d failed. Gotten personally involved practically overnight. She shook her head in self-disgust. All this time she’d thought she was all set to become a hotshot undercover operative. She could do anything. Kick ass all day long and never miss a beat. Boy, had she been wrong.

  She slunk onto the elevator when the doors opened and selected floor thirteen. No doubt it would stop there, anyway. Might as well save Maverick and Ramon the trouble.

  The elevator surged into motion making her stomach turn over with renewed dread. She hadn’t wanted it to end like this…she hadn’t meant to…

  The gentle bounce that signaled she’d reached her destination dragged her attention from her self-pity session. This was it. The doors slid open and Ramon waited in the corridor, one elbow braced on the arm folded over his middle so he could tap his chin like an impatient teacher.

  He did a quick but thorough appraisal. “You look like hell, honey.”

  “Where’s Maverick?” Why beat around the bush? She was done. Finito.

  Ramon hitched his head in the direction of the apartment directly beneath hers. “He was too pissed off to greet you in the corridor.” His expression turned sympathetic. “You might want to brace yourself.”

  She nodded, appreciative of his concern, but wholly undeserving.

  Ramon led the way. She followed, not bothering to brace herself. Whatever she got, she deserved. She could be ready to head back to the east coast in less than an hour. Martin might not even want her back after this fiasco. She gritted her teeth and blocked the image of Seth that tried to haunt her. If she never saw him again it would be too soon.

  Yeah, right.

  He was the whole reason she’d screwed up so badly… he’d messed with her head. Another image, this one involving him and the hooker, flashed before she could stop it. Seriously messed with her head.

  “Just one thing,” Ramon said, hesitating outside the door, “the car thing was his idea. Not mine.”

  Bewildered but too depressed to care, Tasha followed him into the apartment to face the wrath of Maverick.

  He stood in the middle of the living room, his arms crossed over his wide chest. Every feature of his formidable frame vibrating with tension. “Sit,” he ordered with a distinct nod toward the chair directly in front of him.

  She dropped her sandals onto the floor, flinched at the loud thwack, and took the seat he’d indicated.

  “Do you know how stupid what you did this morning was?”

  She looked straight into those furious eyes. “Yes.”

  “Did you also know that I have never lost an operative? Never. And you’re hell-bent on smudging that perfect record.”

  “I just—”

  “Don’t speak,” he warned, his tone lethal. “It was a rhetorical question.”

  His high-
handedness kind of ticked her off, but she knew he was right so she squashed the retort that had risen immediately at his scathing remark.

  “You went into that club—without backup—after a known assassin. He could have killed you and there would have been nothing we could do about it.”

  “But I—” His words echoed inside her head, derailing the thought before she could voice the rest of it. Club? How the hell had he known about the club?

  She looked up at him. Her confusion no doubt obvious. “How did you—” And then it hit her. These guys were specialists—the best of the best. They would have all bases covered well in advance.

  “I’m an old hand at this business, North. You’re nothing but a green recruit.” Before she could argue the point, he went on, “Did you really think I’d give you enough rope to hang yourself?” He shook his head. “No way. I knew you’d screw up.”

  Before the mental order to stay seated issued by the more reasonable side of her brain could synapse she was on her feet. “Okay, you’re right, but I got through it. And…and I came face-to-face with Leberman. You should—”

  “We know.” His expression went from furious to grim in less than a heartbeat.

  She blinked. “You know?”

  “We had a tracking device in your car. A new one we’re trying out. It’s supposed to be undetectable, but we’re not prepared to take unnecessary risks with it yet. Still, we figured bugging your vehicle would be safe enough since you usually rode with our target anyway.”

  “Why didn’t you do something?” she demanded before she could catch herself. “I mean,” she said in a more controlled tone, “what did you do?”

  “When one of our men spotted Leberman he tailed him in hopes of getting a clean shot. Halloween’s this weekend, some prick in the local adult entertainment industry decided that every night this week they’d party like the world was coming to an end over in that crime-ridden zone where we located you. The cops probably won’t even bother trying to stop them as long as no one gets murdered. But the whole scene made for crowds, and my man lost Leberman before he could take a clean shot. But we have confirmation that he’s here.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, he’s definitely here.” The standoff between Seth and Leberman tugged at her thoughts for a few seconds before Ramon’s insistence that the car wasn’t his idea jarred her gray matter from its distraction. “You took my car,” she accused as her gaze connected with Maverick’s once more, then narrowed with suspicion as the concept solidified.

  “Damn straight I did. Once I knew you’d live through your stupidity, I figured you needed a lesson in humility.”

  So Maverick was the jerk who’d stolen her car.

  She shook her head in defeat. Might as well admit now that she wasn’t good enough for this mission. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t given them a clear picture of her inadequacies. Lucas was looking for sharp people like Maverick…not impulsive hotheads like her. “So, I guess it’s over then. I failed. I’m out, right?”

  Maverick laughed, which really pissed her off. “Lucas said you’d feel that way.”

  Her humiliation was complete now. “You’ve talked to Lucas already?” She felt every bit as hollow as her voice sounded.

  “Honey, I talked to Lucas the moment you sashayed outta here in that taxi right after midnight.”

  This was it. She’d get her walking orders now.

  “Look, North, you screwed up,” Maverick offered, his tone gentled now. “You survived it. But that doesn’t mean you’re not cut out for this gig.”

  How could he know exactly what she was feeling?

  “This is the real thing, not training. You’re inexperienced in the field. No way can you expect to perform in that setting the way you did in training. Not in the beginning. It’s a whole different world. We understand that and so should you. Lucas picked you for this mission because he knew you were good.” He gave her a knowing look. “He also knew that you possessed a key element that would get you closer to our assassin than anyone else on our team. You’re a virgin.”

  “Like hell,” she blurted, then cringed. There were some things she was experienced in, but she hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

  Maverick chuckled. “Not that kind of virgin.”

  Tasha just wanted the floor to crack open and swallow her up. Could this get any worse? Her face flamed so hot, she cringed.

  “Our guy obviously picked up on your innocence in a professional sense or you’d be dead now.”

  Admittedly, a part of her had known that. He hadn’t been threatened by her. Annoyed maybe, but definitely not threatened or intimidated in any way. She’d almost convinced herself that he trusted her just a little. But that wasn’t the case. He just didn’t see her as a threat.

  “You not only got close to him,” Maverick continued, his tone openly approving now, “you got to him on some level or he would have killed you last night.”

  Damn, the man was a mind reader. “Leberman told him not to let me too close…said I’d get in his way. But he let me walk despite that warning.”

  “You got to him,” Maverick reiterated. “He doesn’t want to hurt you.”

  Her brow furrowed into a frown as she recalled Seth’s final words to her. “Well, he did say that if he saw me again he’d kill me.”

  “That’s bullshit, baby,” Ramon piped up.

  Tasha turned toward him.

  Ramon smiled at her, his apparent approval shoring up her resolve. “You did good, girl. If our boy had wanted you dead, he wouldn’t have wasted time talking, and you wouldn’t have been walking.”

  The guy missed his calling, she mused. He should have been a poet. “I guess that’s true.” A big part of her sure hoped like hell it was.

  “We know Leberman is close,” Maverick said, drawing her attention back to him. “That means whatever is going down will be happening soon. We have to be ready. We could still use an ID on that assassin. Anything we can learn would be helpful.”

  Tasha shrugged and dropped back into the chair. Damn she was tired. “I can try going to his place. Making contact again.”

  Maverick shook his head. “You have to play by his rules. He has to make the next move. You don’t want to push his generosity. He doesn’t want to see you again, but if you got to him the way we think you did, he’ll be back.”

  If only she could be that lucky. “So we wait.” She looked from Maverick to Ramon and back. “Again.”

  “We wait,” Maverick confirmed, then gave her a quick once-over. “You look like you could use some rest, anyway.”

  She nodded and pushed to her feet. The memory of that house by the lake zoomed to the forefront of her thoughts. “He took me to a house by the lake. Could it belong to Leberman?” That seemed the most likely scenario. If they’d been tracking her movements, they would know which house she meant.

  Maverick and Ramon exchanged a look. “No,” Maverick told her. “That house belongs to Victoria Colby.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Lucas surveyed the palatial lobby of Chicago’s Cultural Center as Victoria chatted with well-wishers. Soaring arches created a kind of echo chamber and allowed the classical music to gently resonate throughout and then upward. It was 6:45 p.m. and they had just started to move toward the grand staircase. He didn’t like the crowd pressing in around them. Liked even less the endless possibilities the Greek and Romanesque architecture offered in the way of hiding places.

  His men had scoured the five-story building and had set up the tightest security net possible, considering that hundreds of guests were expected for tonight’s gala. Every single person who entered the lobby had been screened, as was the current protocol for all major public events. Not one of the tuxedoed or sequined attendees looked villainous. Every security guard and police officer on site had been briefed as to the descriptions of
Leberman and the assassin. All imaginable precautions had been taken. And yet, he somehow knew that it would never be enough.

  His team had not been able to pick up either Leberman’s or the assassin’s trail since four o’clock this morning when things went to hell in that sex club.

  But there was nothing else Lucas could do. Victoria insisted on going through with this. His gaze moved to her and his heart surged into his throat. She looked incredible. More beautiful than he had ever seen her. The exquisitely simple white gown didn’t need any glittering embellishments. The woman wearing it was jewel enough. His mouth parched as he remembered the kiss they had shared. He’d waited so long for that moment. The kiss had held many promises, and even now made his body harden with desire.

  He couldn’t help wondering if tonight would be the night. That, too, would be Victoria’s decision. He would not rush the issue. As much as he wanted to make love to her, he would wait until she made the first move. Just as he had with the kiss. He took a deep breath, every fiber of his being anticipating more of those wonderful kisses.

  Moving farther up the staircase, he studied the walls of white marble. Shimmering mosaics winked in the light of the bronze sconces and the chandeliers draped from the three-story, vaulted ceiling. This was the kind of place where Victoria belonged, amid luxury and beauty, the grandest of which could not rival her own. She deserved all that life had to offer, and he would go to his death trying to give her whatever her heart desired, including this moment.

  Every instinct warned him that this was a dangerous risk, but his heart would not allow him to deny her.

  When they reached the landing, the staircase spilled into Preston Bradley Hall and more of the palatial savoir faire. Spectacular stained-glass domes, lush ornamentation and intricate coffered ceilings. Lavishly decorated tables filled the enormous hall. A stage and podium had been erected beyond a towering archway adorned with mosaic scrolls and rosettes. Opulence abounded. The perfect setting for this prestigious honor. His gaze settled on Victoria once more. And it was all for her.