Don’t Look Back

by Dawn Ryder

  Maybe that was the real reason he’d turned on Pullman. Once he’d accepted what a dumbass he’d been, there seemed to be nothing stopping him from growing the one thing he’d always prided himself on not giving a shit over.

  A conscience.

  * * *

  “I’m eager to have this entire matter finished, too.”

  Dunn jerked his head around. Miranda offered him a shy smile as she came out of the bedroom in their suite. It was barely first light.

  She moved over to where a pot of coffee was sitting on a warming station in the kitchen. “But I think maybe you’re a little more focused on ensuring Agent Sinclair is proven innocent.”

  Dunn turned to face her. “I came here for you, Mother.”

  She’d filled a mug but didn’t take a sip as she smiled at him. “It makes me so very happy … having you here. Especially now that we have a plan to end it all at last. I simply can’t sleep knowing that Thais is in a cell unjustly.”

  “In a few hours, we’ll have everything we need to free her,” Dunn assured her.

  And then what?

  Dunn watched his mother sip at her coffee. Heat was spreading through him but for a much different reason.

  It was anticipation.

  The waiting was almost over, and he was more than ready to get to the battle.

  Thais had better sleep while she could.

  * * *

  “Details are sketchy at this hour, but there are reports that Congress hopeful Miranda Delacroix Ryland has been murdered.”

  Eric Geyer stared at the news report as he tapped on the surface of his phone.

  “It was just after eight this morning when the congressional hopeful was leaving her hotel for an appearance. Reports are that she was struck by a single shot as she was crossing from the lobby of her hotel to her car.”

  Eric didn’t leave Carl’s side very often. He sent a signal to one of the other security men in Carl’s escort and traded out so he could get far enough away to make a phone call.

  Carl kept his focus on the governor he was talking to but Eric knew he was itching for confirmation.

  Eric was more than ready for closure.

  He pulled out the burner phone he used for contacting Pullman.

  “Don’t fucking call me,” said the growly voice that Eric assumed was the hitman’s when he picked up the line. “Just finish the deal now that I’ve done the job.”

  Eric didn’t obey just yet though. He dialed another number and waited for one of the men on Miranda’s security detail to answer.

  “Is it true?” Eric pressed the man when he answered.

  “Clean chest shot,” the man answered. “There was blood everywhere.”

  Eric grinned and killed the call. He hadn’t really expected to feel anything over Miranda’s death. Sure, he didn’t have any personal grievance with her and maybe some men would have seen him following the order to have her killed as something that should have taxed his conscience.

  It didn’t.

  He logged into a slush account and transferred the last part of the payment. The signal bounced around the globe before it landed in the bank Pullman had selected in the Caribbean. He stared at the confirmation number for a moment before he crushed the phone and pulled the SIM card out to break it into tiny pieces.

  Carl came through the door, his face flushed with excitement. Eric locked gazes with him.

  “I’m sorry to inform you that Miranda Delacroix has been killed.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Vitus was driving the SUV when he and Saxon returned to the military base. Thais enjoyed the way the marines looked at her with confusion.

  Let them wonder.

  It wouldn’t be the first time or the last that they found themselves dealing with situations they didn’t get officially filled in on.

  She knew what it felt like.

  Today though, what filled her thoughts was how empty she felt. With Pullman dead, the case would likely go cold. Oh, she didn’t think for a moment that Carl Davis was going to stop trying to close the Shadow Ops teams down. No, they knew too much about him for that.

  But their focus would shift back to Carl.

  So, it was over.

  Do you want it to continue?

  Thais knew what the question was really about. She climbed into the SUV with her teammates and tried to push her thoughts back into the place she’d had them locked away before Dunn had broken her out of Homeland.

  Before you gave into your needs?

  Yes, and shut up!

  “From Dunn,” Greer said quietly. Her fellow agent laid something in her lap. Thais opened the small case to see a Lynx.

  It was over.

  Or maybe it didn’t have to be. She’d thought Dunn had managed to rip into her walls before. Now? She realized she was wide open because the Lynx was like a red-hot coal just waiting to burn her.

  She shut the case and dropped it beside her on the seat. Saxon was watching out of the corner of his eye. Even with his shades on, she knew him well enough to know when he was observing her.

  Thais looked out the window.

  She refused to need anyone besides her team. Her badge was her identity by choice. Besides, Dunn wasn’t the sort of man a woman domesticated. She’d always known it. Better to end it now, before she let him any deeper into herself.

  It was over.

  And that was the way it had to be.

  No matter how badly she wanted to second-guess herself.

  * * *

  Dunn checked his phone.

  He never had a shortage of messages. His email files were bursting after two weeks of his attention being on other things than his empire.

  Text messages had piled up as he fell behind on emails.

  Phone messages? Check that, too. He had a nice accumulation of those waiting for him as well.

  But he didn’t have the message he was waiting for.

  “Ignoring me, Agent Sinclair?”

  “The Lynx can’t be traced.”

  There was a delay before Thais responded.

  “Nothing is foolproof.”

  Dunn grinned.

  “Like your rule about never getting involved with any of your lovers? Nice of you to give me hope, Thais.”

  “You’re the recluse.”

  “Some would say we’re well-matched.”

  Dunn waited but Thais didn’t reply. He found himself grinning at the challenge she presented and from the sheer enjoyment of knowing she’d failed to ignore his present. She was no stranger to brushing off men she wanted nothing more to do with.

  “That’s a good look for you,” Miranda said as she came into the sitting room. “Someone has made you happy.”

  Dunn checked the rest of the room.

  “We’re alone,” Miranda confirmed. “Just as Kagan stipulated.” His mother reached up and ruffled her hair. “I do believe that fake blood left a stain or two!”

  “As soon as they crack that phone, you’ll be free to have a hair professional deal with it,” Dunn said. “For the moment though, you’re dead, so stuck with only me and Kent for company.”

  Miranda offered him a smile. “Well worth it in my opinion. I really can’t wait to see Carl’s reaction to my survival. He’s enjoyed having the media work to his advantage so often, I do believe it’s high time he discovered that he’s not the only one who can get caught in the back draft of unconfirmed details.”

  Dunn grinned again. “I admit I’m looking forward to it myself.”

  “And you can get back to courting that lovely agent, Thais Sinclair.”

  Dunn’s lips thinned. Miranda’s smile, on the other hand, brightened until her eyes were sparkling with mirth.

  “You two really are well-matched.” Miranda eyed him over the rim of a teacup. “You can’t control her. It’s the element you need to keep you on your toes. That’s why you haven’t settled down before, you could never be sure if it was you or your empire that your girlfriend loved.”

 
; Miranda took a sip of her tea and stared straight back at the hard look Dunn aimed her way. Plenty of people he knew would have called it a warning look. Miranda only fluttered her eyelashes and didn’t falter.

  “You really are my mother,” he remarked to her delight. “Just as stubborn as I am.”

  He’d invested a lot of effort in making sure no one was in the position to say they truly knew him. A defensive action, one he’d taken solace in for too many years. Now? He’d be a liar if he didn’t admit he enjoyed knowing someone else could read him. Controlling his world had limits to the level of satisfaction it could provide.

  A bit of a newsflash.

  But one he found himself welcoming because it was a kick in the ass. One designed to get him moving, before he lost an opportunity to see if Thais was the missing piece in his world.

  * * *

  Thais let out a huff.

  She stared at the computer screen and tapped in another line of numbers.

  When the data changed she cussed.

  “That doesn’t sound promising,” Saxon said, stating the obvious.

  Thais swiveled around in her chair and looked at her team leader. “I traced the money to a slush account but can’t nail it on Carl’s ass.”

  “Which means we have a dead hitman, proof he was paid to kill Miranda Delacroix, and pictures of him tracking her…” Thais shook her head. She was up and out of her seat as she spoke, agitated by the lack of conclusion.

  “I’ll take it,” Vitus Hale said, delivering his opinion in a firm tone. He didn’t waver when Thais turned on him. “You’re off the hook. The team is vindicated. We survive to fight another day.”

  “It will have to be enough,” Saxon said. “Delaying any further could cost Miranda the election. We need to clear her to come out of hiding.”

  Thais nodded. “If we can’t nail Carl Davis, at least we can let Miranda drive him nuts by being alive and well.”

  Saxon picked up his phone and called in to their section leader. Thais sat down and processed the evidence she’d found. Offshore accounts and Pullman’s nest eggs. Ricky Sullivan knew his business or at least his fellow hitmen. Pullman had known what he was doing, too; they might have found the money but the trail went back to a slush fund she couldn’t prove anyone owned. That meant the owner had paid a hefty sum to the bank before they killed the account and the bank had erased it. The money itself was tagged and couldn’t be transferred into most countries because of its origins, but Pullman would have just arrived in the Caribbean and withdrawn it in person. From there it would have been a simple matter of buying diamonds, gold, or some other portable type of wealth.

  Saxon finished his call. Thais felt her team leader’s stare. She swiveled around again to discover Vitus and Greer both watching to see what Saxon was getting ready to drop on her.

  The way Saxon had his jaw tightened promised her it wasn’t going to be something she liked.

  “Miranda needs to utilize the media attention she’ll receive once she emerges from protective custody.”

  Thais narrowed her eyes as Saxon hesitated.

  “This involves me … how?” Thais asked.

  Her team leader looked like his collar was shrinking. “By presenting you with the FBI Medal of Valor. Seems she’s pulled a few strings and has the president on board with doing a ceremony tomorrow when she emerges from her enforced hiding.”

  There was silence in the room. One of those silences no one wanted to break because they didn’t want to be the target of Thais’s reaction.

  “I don’t think so,” she said softly.

  “It’s an order,” Saxon replied. “From Kagan.”

  “Kagan can go to the ceremony,” Thais informed him.

  “You were right there when both of us had to stand through a medal ceremony,” Saxon said, trying to apply logic to his argument.

  “This is different,” Thais declared.

  “I don’t see how,” Vitus remarked. He was a master at controlling his expression but his eyes were glittering with amusement.

  Thais stood.

  “Miranda has the right idea.” Saxon jumped in to shield his brother. “We need to make Carl nervous. It’s the only way he might get spooked enough to slip up.”

  “Otherwise we’re stuck waiting for him to win this election and sign an executive order disbanding us,” Vitus added.

  “All or nothing?” Thais replied.

  Her teammates nodded. They were amused but she admitted she’d enjoyed watching them be strong-armed into medal ceremonies when a public display had been what a case called for.

  Besides, she knew the real reason she was balking at Kagan’s order.

  And it was personal.

  So she would be keeping her mouth shut before her teammates realized the real reason she didn’t want to go near Miranda was because she knew Dunn would be there.

  Well, you don’t know for sure …

  But she did. It was in the pit of her stomach. A ball of tension left from the time they’d spent together.

  It’s hadn’t been enough.

  Admitting that was tough but what had her turning her back on her teammates and going through the motions of packing up her gear was the fact that she couldn’t be certain Dunn would be there.

  She’d given Dunn the brushoff. He had every reason to consider it finished between them and because she’d told him she didn’t want anything else.

  But what stuck in her head, what she just couldn’t seem to shake was the fact that part of her worried he’d be happy to move on.

  Thais knew how to take her knocks in life. What she found herself dreading was something far more than a knock. Something she wouldn’t be able to mask the pain of.

  Something like a broken heart.

  * * *

  The press loved to think they could sniff out any secrets.

  Dunn watched the security footage from the main ballroom where Tom Hilliard had called a surprise press conference. He was closing the gap on Carl Davis and being the one to announce that Miranda wasn’t dead was sure to see his name on the top of every newsfeed from print to social media sites.

  “I admit I am going to enjoy this a great deal,” Miranda declared as she emerged from the side of the suite she had been using.

  “Rising from the dead or getting out of this suite?” Dunn asked.

  “You’ve spent enough time in here with me,” she muttered. “Even if I admit I’d like to keep you all to myself. But…” She took a glance in the mirror, checking her suit and hair one last time before she turned and sent Dunn a look full of all the strength she kept so very neatly disguised beneath her gently aged persona.

  “I should very much like to help Tom win this election,” Miranda finished.

  Kent rapped on the outer door. Dunn pulled it open as the security cameras captured the sight of Tom waving on his way to where he would address the press. The flash of hundreds of cameras flickered through the room while Dunn and Kent escorted Miranda down.

  “And so … it’s with great relief that I can share with you all at last…” Tom grasped the sides of the lectern before finishing. “Miranda Delacroix is in fact alive and well.”

  The room erupted. Reporters ignored the rule of raising hands and just shouted out their questions. Tom raised his hands, begging for the chance to explain. The horde in front of him didn’t grant it to him immediately.

  “Allowing the world to believe she was dead was necessary to trap the hitman who was intent on killing her. It’s my pleasure to report that she is here and ready to resume her bid for a seat in Congress.”

  The room was in an uproar as Miranda appeared. Dunn hung back, watching as Tom’s security continued to maintain a solid perimeter around the speaking lectern. Miranda took it all in stride. Moving forward as the press surged to their feet, demanding answers. She waited while the cameras flashed, her smile perfect and her composure flawless until at last the press settled down because they wanted their answers.

&nbs
p; “Your mom has a solid spine,” Kent remarked as Miranda began to address the press.

  They didn’t give her any mercy, but Miranda stood firm, never wavering as she answered sharp-edged questions with an ease that impressed him.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Miranda said, finally raising her voice after the questions had become repetitive. “Today is not all about me. My survival is due completely to the efforts of men and women who have dedicated their lives to the very foundational values of this country. Without their efforts, I would be as dead as you were lead to believe. Now that the hitman is dealt with, I am at liberty to publicly thank a woman who safeguarded me, even at the expense of her own reputation. I would like to welcome Special Agent Thais Sinclair to this press gathering.”

  Dunn slowly grinned. Thais was flanked by her teammates and her poise was flawless but he knew her better. There was a slight narrowing of her eyes that gave away her true feelings.

  He realized he enjoyed knowing he knew her.

  It was an intimacy.

  How long had it been since he’d let someone touch him that deeply?

  It was sobering to say the least. An admission of just how deeply he’d let Rhianna slash him. Trust opened a person up to possibilities like that. And he realized he’d trusted Thais.

  A damn risky gamble.

  And yet, he wasn’t contemplating how to minimize his loses.

  No, he was sizing up his counterpart and deciding on a course of action.

  * * *

  “I have been looking forward to having the opportunity to thank Special Agent Thais Sinclair for her dedication to duty, above and beyond the scope of her job description…”

  Miranda proceeded with a flawless execution of the award ceremony. Her father had raised her to be the perfect politician’s wife and she didn’t disappoint.

  Thais knew that sort of training as well. She smiled and shook Miranda’s hand after Miranda had placed the award around her neck. The flashing of cameras never seemed to stop. Her lips were frozen in place, the sides of her face aching as she continued to hold position. Miranda finally declared the press conference over, slipping away as she let her security people surround her to prevent the press from following too closely.