Take to the Limit

by Dawn Ryder

  “If you think,” she repeated, softly now that she was closer, “that you are leaving without me, well…”

  She swept him from head to toe, leaving him caught between the need to rise to her challenge and the desire to just admit she was pushing his buttons perfectly.

  “It’s not an assignment,” Dare responded. “Kagan might have something to say about it.”

  “It’s Bram,” Thais argued. “That makes it personal. And Kagan can say what he likes.”

  “You can both be sure Kagan will have his say,” Saxon Hale said, interrupting them as he came into the room. Their team leader sent her a look that made Dare jealous because Saxon was immune to Thais.

  His wife, Ginger, had somehow inoculated Saxon against the pull of their female team member.

  “But don’t think I don’t know both of you are just using that call from Bram to get out of construction detail,” Saxon said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

  Thais lifted one shoulder in a delicate motion. “Your point in no way changes the fact that I believe Bram deserves support.”

  “What’s going on with Bram?” Vitus Hale wasn’t far behind his brother Saxon. He lowered a case onto the floor, raising a little puff of dust.

  “His girlfriend has gone missing,” Dare replied. “You know the local cops can’t move on that for forty-eight and there is an evidence trail.”

  Then Dare said, “You told me to stick to Bram.”

  “So why are you still here?”

  Saxon Hale was a good team leader. One of the best because he did his job but he never forgot that his men were his best resources. Dare sent him a nod.

  The site was an old missile silo. A huge metal-and-concrete-lined hole in the ground that they’d spent three months just pumping the accumulated rainwater out of. Their section leader, Kagan, wanted it transformed into a secret underground command center. Now that Saxon and Vitus were both married, they’d been posted to the location.

  Dare felt like his blood was turning to syrup in his veins from lack of action. Settling down might be fine for the Hale brothers but he hadn’t gone and let Cupid make a domesticated man out of him.

  Dare cut Saxon a salute.

  His team leader scoffed at him. “Don’t piss off the local cops too much.”

  “That means we should wait at least two hours before finding her,” Thais said.

  Saxon shook his head. “If someone took her, kick their door in. Bram is a teammate. We take care of our own. Tell Bram he should have called sooner. If there’s trouble, he needs to suspect it’s coming for all of us. Protecting him is protecting us all.”

  Thais offered him a serious look.

  “Right,” Dare answered.

  Dare turned and pointed toward the door. Thais was swift on the uptake, turning and exiting the room. They passed teams of construction workers, all of them looking more like former Special Forces, and the reason was, every last one of them had a security clearance. Some of them were working through PTSD, others had just never found the means to integrate back into the civilian population.

  Dare avoided thinking too deeply about how alike he and the men he passed were. At the moment, his Shadow Ops badge was secured to his belt and he had a case. He didn’t delve too deeply into why he needed a crime to make him feel alive. Better to focus on the fact that he knew how to succeed.

  After all, there was a life hanging in the balance.

  No agent spent too much time pondering where his future was going to be. That was a bad place to go when you accepted a badge from someone like Kagan, his section leader among the Shadow Ops teams. If you took too much time thinking about your odds of survival, it wasn’t the badge to carry.

  Yeah, it was a wiser bet to keep his thoughts on the fact that Kagan had seen his razor sharp potential.

  Something he enjoyed pitting against the bad guys.

  Kagan allowed him to see a very refined group of scumbags. The sort no civilian cop had a prayer of touching.

  Dangerous?

  Fuck yes.

  But it kept him alive and the missile silo was cutting off the signal. Dare didn’t ponder those facts too long. Nope, he set his personal sights on being honest about who he was with himself.

  He liked the edge.

  Craved the fight.

  Dare didn’t bother to linger on just what it said about him, only that there were times a man like him had a purpose. Sometimes it took someone willing to break the rules to set the world right.

  Whoever had Jaelyn was about to come face-to-face with three members of a Shadow Ops team.

  He felt sort of sorry for the dude.

  * * *

  He wanted to see her naked.

  The gleam in the creep’s eyes made Jaelyn want to barf all over again but she dug deep and thought of Bram.

  No one saw him puking.

  So she wasn’t going to be a wimp.

  “Do you want a shower?” her captor asked.

  Jaelyn didn’t rise to the bait. He was growing excited by something and it chilled her blood the way he licked his lips when he was looking at her.

  “Got everything you need,” Creepy said with a grin. “Body wash. Some of those special sponges to keep your skin soft…” He licked his lower lip.

  “While you watch?” She couldn’t keep the disgust from her tone.

  “You’re my pet.” He stated this with a conviction that would have had her throwing up again if her stomach hadn’t already been emptied.

  “You creep!” She plucked the soap dispenser off the vanity and chucked it at him. Creepy hadn’t anticipated an attack. Her missile landed against his chest, earning a grunt from him as he recoiled out of the doorway. She dug her fingernails into the sliding door but it wouldn’t close completely with the chain running through it.

  Creepy started laughing.

  It was a blood-chilling sound that proved everything she’d already decided about him and her circumstances.

  She was the bug.

  * * *

  “That bitch is going to drive me insane.”

  Tyler Martin took a look around the room before he answered Carl Davis. There was a clink of ice against crystal as the presidential hopeful made himself a drink at the in-room bar before turning around and facing him with Scotch in hand.

  A hundred dollar pour if Tyler wasn’t mistaken.

  “I swear,” Carl drew off a sip and his lips tightened with the bite. “Miranda Delacroix running for Congress is the worst thing that could have happened to my campaign.”

  “Far from it,” Tyler Martin argued. “Use her. The woman is the pied piper when it comes to getting the voters to follow her.”

  “No kidding. I tried to marry her fucking daughter,” Carl said with a grunt. “Did you forget that?”

  Tyler Martin sent his boss a hard look. “Hardly. I cleaned up the mess that stunt left behind.”

  “I wouldn’t take that from most men,” Carl remarked as he went for another sip. “Actually, not a single other man.”

  But Tyler knew where the bodies were buried. In fact, he’d done some of the digging of those unmarked graves in the service of Carl’s interests. They were bound together by spilled blood and as far as Tyler was concerned, Carl better not forget it.

  Tyler had sold out his own men for the position as head of personal security for Carl Davis.

  Tyler didn’t lose any sleep over it. Saxon Hale and his Shadow Ops team were the sort of men who really couldn’t expect anything else. They signed up for the deadly assignments and he wasn’t going to shoulder any guilt over the fact that the Hale brothers did it because they thought they were making the world safe.

  Their personal motivations were their own problem.

  He’d embraced that valor shit, too. Once, long ago, before he’d come face-to-face with men like Carl Davis and seen up close and personal the way Carl and his cronies thought about the men of the Shadow Ops teams as expendable. Tossing out scraps known as medals and commenda
tions to the men who served them out of loyalty.

  Tyler wasn’t taking that honor crap in exchange for the parts of his soul he’d sold any more. He was going to share the glory.

  Carl flashed him a smile and turned around to pour a second drink. “Don’t worry, Ty, I know your worth.”

  Carl set the drink down in front of Tyler and held his own up for a toast. “Together, we’re going to the White House.”

  Tyler lifted the glass and touched it to Carl’s. “Keep your eye on the big picture,” Tyler said. “Miranda Delacroix is voter candy. Play nice when it counts.”

  “And you keep looking for her skeletons.” Carl reached up and loosened his tie. “That’s your job.”

  “She shot her own husband,” Tyler replied. “Even if we can’t use that because Jeb Ryland had his damned office sealed and the Hale brothers covered up the rest of it.”

  Carl tossed down more of the whiskey. “Kagan’s teams know their shit.”

  “And everyone else’s,” Tyler reminded him. “My days among the Shadow Ops helped me learn a whole lot of interesting details that I’m willing to use in your favor. Kagan and the Hale brothers will happily dance on your grave because you don’t measure up to their ideals of honor.”

  “The presidency isn’t for the innocent,” Carl remarked. “Miranda might be collecting supporters but she’ll fall flat on her face when she moves into Capitol Hill and discovers no one wants to help her achieve her goals unless she gets down to horse trading.”

  Tyler didn’t mention that Miranda was a Delacroix.

  Carl knew it well. The Delacroix name was an old one in Washington. It was the sort of connection a man running for president was wise to have in his corner. Carl knew that fact, too, and had tried to work a deal to marry Miranda’s only daughter, Damascus.

  Vitus Hale had ruined that plan.

  Eye on the big picture.

  Tyler would be better off following his own advice. The Hale brothers were off the grid now, settled in with their wives and playing house. The best thing to do would be to leave them alone.

  At least until after the election.

  Tyler slowly grinned and enjoyed the whiskey.

  He was savoring the fact that Carl had poured it for him, too.

  Things were turning out just the way he’d hoped when he’d turned in his badge and signed on with Carl.

  There was no going back.

  And no forgetting to tie up loose ends like Hale’s team.

  No, not when Tyler had sold out fellow agents. Carl made it so Kagan couldn’t touch him, or at least the section leader knew it wasn’t a good idea to mess with the man who would have the power to shut down his teams. It was exactly the sort of power card Tyler needed to hide behind. Which meant he was going to have to placate Carl’s need to know Miranda’s secrets.

  It was nothing personal.

  Just his job.

  But he did admit, he fucking loved his position. In fact, he’d kill to keep it.

  * * *

  Bram was in the kitchen doorway.

  LeAnn was fussing with the coffeemaker, doing her best to look like she had a clue how to clean it and reset it.

  Truth was, she was lost and really didn’t need a witness to the fact that she’d done precious little when it came to helping take care of her grandfather. She was ashamed but she’d deal with it privately.

  “You can’t go to practice tonight.”

  Whatever LeAnn had thought Bram might say, that wasn’t it. She turned and looked at him.

  “Whoever took Jaelyn might have been looking for you,” he explained. “Or Milton. Until I have more information, you both need to stay where I can protect you.”

  “Or they might have followed you.”

  LeAnn was suddenly stumbling into the dining room courtesy of Bram grabbing her wrist and pulling her past him. She caught herself and flipped around just in time to see Bram lowering the handgun he’d pointed at whoever was in the side door that connected to the kitchen.

  “Not bad, Magnus,” the newcomer responded from the doorway. “The girl is a little hopeless though.”

  “What in the hell is going on?” LeAnn demanded.

  “Dare Servant is tempting me to give him an ass-kicking,” Bram replied.

  “Is that the thanks I get for responding to your plea for help?” Dare asked with fake innocence.

  “Backup,” Bram said. “And it was a little gift from me to you but hey, if you want to go back to remodeling … be my guest.”

  Dare Servant had midnight black hair and eyes. LeAnn wasn’t a stranger to good-looking men, but he was a dark devil. He knew it, too, which just made him more intimidating.

  He also had the devil’s own arrogance. There wasn’t a hint of shame in his expression. No, just a very pleased grin on his lips.

  The guy was completely in his element.

  “I’ll give it to you, Bram, he looks like a hell of a great resource,” LeAnn remarked.

  “I rather prefer this one,” Milton said from the hallway. “As far as people I’d like to see breaking into my home, you’re almost welcome, young lady.”

  “Thais came along,” Dare informed Bram.

  “Saxon said to tell you,” Thais said from the dining room, “you should have called sooner.”

  LeAnn looked toward the female agent and felt her confidence crumbling. It wasn’t that LeAnn doubted her own beauty, it was the fact that Thais had a badge on. She was drop-dead gorgeous and yet, she’d earned something significant.

  LeAnn really needed a reality check. “I don’t care about missing practice. If they boot me, so what. Jaelyn is what matters.”

  Bram’s eyes narrowed and he stepped back, all the time contemplating her with that keen stare of his.

  The one that she was pretty sure enabled him to look straight into her mind.

  “Let her go,” Thais suggested. “Let’s see if anyone is watching.”

  “Too risky,” Bram said.

  Dare contemplated LeAnn for a moment. “The risk would be worth the possible gain. It’s a lot easier to catch someone taking another shot than sifting through evidence.”

  “I’m in,” LeAnn declared.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bram informed her.

  “I’m getting that,” LeAnn said. She looked back at Dare and Thais. “Yeah, which just makes me more positive of how much I’m in.”

  LeAnn went down the hall and closed the bathroom door behind her. Milton let out a low whistle. “Looks like I might have something to be grateful for when this is all over.”

  He looked at Bram. “I like your friends, son, but I’m getting an inkling that this might be more about you than my girls.”

  Milton turned and shuffled away toward the back patio. Bram had to hand it to the guy, he played the old geezer perfectly but there was more going on beneath the Grandpa exterior. Milton left so that Bram and his team could talk.

  And Jaelyn wouldn’t be the first innocent cut down as a result of Shadow Ops operations. He’d been a naive fool to return to the Sondors home. Tyler Martin wasn’t the sort of man who missed details.

  “You’d have her body if this was a case of retaliation,” Dare said, reading Bram’s thoughts.

  “Unless he’s planning on making her death a long one,” Bram answered. “As a warning.”

  “Let’s take the cheerleader out and see if anyone sniffs around her,” Thais said, interrupting. “That will give us a clear indication as to the target.”

  Bram nodded but his gut told him Jaelyn was the target.

  And he’d led whoever it was straight to her.

  * * *

  Two days later, Jaelyn decided enduring stinking wasn’t worth it. She didn’t have any different parts than other women.

  Creepy likely owned his share of memberships to porn sites.

  Still, she waited until she heard him crossing the penthouse, his steps growing fainter. Her senses had tuned in to his movements.

>   Yeah, like a mouse listening for a hawk’s wings.

  Getting off the bed and keeping her chain from rattling took patience. She got her clothing off and there was no sound of approaching footsteps.

  Creepy wasn’t as noble as a hawk …

  She smiled at the mental insult as she turned on the shower, stepping in while it was still cold in an effort to get her bath before she had company.

  She closed her eyes and tried to imagine herself back in her own bathroom. At least the water from the shower was the same temperature.

  “Turn around…”

  Creepy’s voice broke through her concentration. Every muscle she had drew tight, her fingernails sinking into the soap bar.

  “I want to see your tits.”

  Her belly was empty but it still gave a heave.

  No! She wouldn’t let him get under her skin. She was going to be the hawk, he was the rodent.

  He was just a creep.

  She refused to care.

  “Come on, bitch…”

  The lessons from that psychology class were rising up from her memory again. A warning was zipping through her at the sound of Creepy’s voice becoming strained.

  Play the game …

  Don’t let him get bored. If he did, she was worthless to him.

  Stay alive.

  “Careful,” Jaelyn said as she peeked over her shoulder, careful to hide her mouth while giving the guy a glimpse at her wide eyes with wet lashes. “I know how to be a bitch.”

  There was a flash of twisted anticipation in his eyes. Jaelyn swallowed, forcing the nausea down as she blinked at him and rubbed her shoulder with the pink fluffy shower mitt he’d brought her.

  “But I don’t like to be one…,” she cooed softly, working her eyelashes some more. “I think it’s overrated … There’s nothing wrong with being a good girl.”

  “Is that how Magnus likes you?”

  Creepy’s complexion darkened. Anger flickered in his eyes. “Doesn’t matter. You’re mine now.”

  He was working himself up into a rage.

  Jaelyn reached for the shower gel, lifting it high and making a show of drizzling it onto the mitt. She felt his eyes on her, felt dirty just because she was performing for him.

  No! He’s the creep.

  Right. The game was surviving. He’d been planning for her capture, so he was pretty committed. Pleading wasn’t going to get him to rethink his morals.