by Michele Hauf
“Did anything unusual strike you about him? Anything he said?” Sometimes criminals like Nichols bragged about what they were doing or about to do, thinking they were clever.
She shrugged. “Only that he liked to talk about himself.”
“What did he talk about?”
“Not killing anyone. Look, I wish I could help you, but I just met the guy online three nights ago. All he talked about was himself. Tonight was our first date and I was walking out on him when you shot him.”
“What did he say about his job?”
“That he was a banker, a loan officer. He talked about interest rates and the importance of saving for retirement. It was nauseating.”
“And he told you nothing more. Nothing about his opinions on capitalism?”
“Interest rates and living within one’s means. Nope. My glass of wine was more interesting than him. The only reason I stayed as long as I did was to finish it.”
“What about your correspondence prior to the date? Was there anything there?”
“Other than lies? His whole profile was a crock. No. Nothing.”
Coming here had been a waste of time. She was right, she wasn’t going to be able to help him. And now he’d have to tell Odie they had no lead.
Just then, glass shattered into the kitchen with the splatter of gunfire. Jude dove for Evie, tackling her to the floor. He moved them both to the kitchen counter and rolled to his back with his gun drawn.
A second later, a man charged inside, shooting. Jude fired twice and brought the man down. Getting up, he took hold of Evie’s hand and hauled her with him toward the front of the house. More gunfire confirmed what Jude suspected. The first man had made the entry, more would follow. They wanted something and they didn’t need Evie or him alive.
Outside, he pulled Evie into a run and didn’t stop until they reached his SUV. “Get in!”
A man in black ran after them. Jude shot him.
Evie got into the passenger side. Jude ran backward, firing at another man who ducked behind a parked car.
In the SUV, Jude yanked the gear into Drive. “Stay down!”
Bullets sprayed the side of the vehicle. The passenger window shattered, pelting them both with glass. Evie screamed.
Jude peeled out into the street, making sure the driver’s side faced the gunmen. He stuck his pistol out the window and emptied the magazine. It was enough to get them down the street.
In the rearview mirror he saw two men running for a car. There had been four of them, now there were two. He had to find out who they were.
“In the glove box there’s another clip. Get it.”
Evie complied and he reloaded.
“Stay down.” He slowed the SUV so that he could read the other car’s plates.
“What are you doing?” Evie looked behind them. “Drive faster!”
“Stay down, Evie.”
“Jude, drive faster!”
“One second.”
The men behind them began firing again. Evie crouched on her seat and screamed again.
“Sorry,” Jude said.
“Are you crazy?”
“A little busy now.” He raced into a turn.
The SUV plates wouldn’t lead the men following them to him. He’d used false identification to rent the SUV. Once he lost these two, he’d take Evie to his hotel. They’d be safe there.
Another squealing turn, and then a third, and he was putting distance between him and the car. He weaved in and out of traffic. The car got stuck and couldn’t pass.
Evie kept screaming as he veered into oncoming traffic and drove down the bike path before veering back into the right lane again.
He couldn’t even see the car anymore. Good. He drove a hundred down the street, slowing only enough to make the ramp to the highway. Once there, he kept his speed up until he was sure they weren’t being followed anymore.
Then he slowed and got off the highway, maneuvering through Overland Park until he reached the highway he needed.
Beside him Evie had calmed.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
With a cynical cock of her head, her green eyes challenged him to press that question. She was fine but didn’t appreciate the danger she’d been dragged into.
“He was your date.”
“So much for Catchem-dot-com.”
When he’d first seen her at the restaurant, he’d wondered what a woman like her was doing with Nichols. Then he’d seen her boredom and understood. Nichols had fooled her, but it hadn’t lasted long. He’d cheered when she’d gotten up in the middle of dinner and whatever Nichols had been jawing about for the better part of an hour and headed for the exit. Hips swaying slightly in her form-fitting black dress, heels making her legs look a mile long... He normally preferred his women with long hair but her fiery red curls had attitude. So did her translucent green eyes. Then she’d seen him and a look that Nichols would never have been able to put on her face emerged.
He looked over at her again. She was still in the sexy dress. Her long legs were slender and gorgeous. A modest amount of her thighs was exposed, but it was enough to distract him for a moment.
Catching himself letting his guard down, Jude put his focus on the road ahead. How could he be remotely interested in her? She was too different from him.
The nagging memory of how she’d handled herself when the gunmen had arrived teased him. There was more to her than her nine-to-five job. She’d even kept up with him in those heels.
Chapter Five
“Whoever you work for doesn’t skimp on accommodations.” Evie walked around the spacious suite at the hotel where they were staying. There was a fabulous view of downtown Kansas City.
When he didn’t respond, she turned from the big window to see him checking out the room service menu. He sat on a green-and-maroon sofa, knees open the way men sat sometimes.
She moved away from the window, going to stand beside one of two chairs that matched the sofa. “Your company must be very successful.”
Again, he didn’t respond. He didn’t say anything about the company where he worked, but it must be well-connected. He said the FBI had sent him to look into Chad Nichols’s involvement in a leftist group. Jude wasn’t FBI. He belonged to some kind of mysterious organization. She thought agencies like that only existed in fiction.
“Is Jude your real name?”
His cell phone began ringing from the island counter that separated the sitting area from a kitchenette.
“Yes.” Standing, he handed her the menu and went to answer the call. “Curran.”
He listened for a while and then found a notepad and pen the hotel had left out. “He’s from Kansas?”
He began writing as he listened to the caller. “I’ll get on it.” And then he ended the call.
Evie put the menu on the coffee table. “Who was that?”
“Someone who can help us.” He moved back toward her.
She was getting tired of his vague answers. “What did you write down?” She went over to the desk where he’d left the notepad. He’d written down a name. Josh Payne. “Who is this?”
“Someone your date knew.”
He had someone helping him investigate Chad. Someone resourceful. Jude worked in secret, not for any law enforcement agency. The FBI had called upon his company for that reason. Why? Why the need for so much secrecy, and why did Jude work that way? What had led him to this?
“Why do you do what you do, anyway?” Whatever that was.
“Why do you work as an HR director?”
That dropped her jaw. He knew everything about her already. “Did you know I was going out on a date tonight, too?”
“No. I followed Nichols to the restaurant, not you.”
“Did you know Dallas Benson was going to be there?” She’d met him when the police arrived and began questioning everyone. Like her, Mr. Benson had had to stay until they finished.
“Not until I got back to my rental and talked to...”
“The person on the phone?” she finished.
Picking up the menu, he moved away from the sitting area and looked askance at her. She could see that it annoyed him that she kept questioning him about his job. But there was something more, too. He came close to telling her the truth about whatever she asked, and had to stop himself from doing so. Did he wish he could tell her? Was that how it was with anyone he met, or was it only her? Was it because of this attraction that wouldn’t abate between them?
Turning his back, he moved to the desk near the entrance. He sure had a nice butt. And the muscles on his back were broad and lean. He was about six-two.
Thinking about him in that way eased the tension inside her that had been strung tight since her date turned out to be a psychopath. She had a hard time making sense of it all. It didn’t seem real. “Why would anyone try to commit murder in a public place?”
“Someone who wanted it to be public.”
The extremists. A whole group of them. It still seemed odd that one of them would take such a risk. Chad would have been arrested. What good would that do their purpose?
Jude lifted the earpiece of the phone on the desk. “You hungry?”
“No.”
He ordered enough food for four people. Then he went to sit on the sofa again.
Evie folded her arms, debating whether she should try to get some sleep. She was pretty wound up. And Jude had stirred her curiosity.
“It must be hard having relationships with women when you have to lie all the time.”
He turned on the television, the volume low. “I don’t lie.”
“You don’t tell them about your job.”
“I tell them what I can.”
Like what he’d told her? That he couldn’t tell her more? That he was a good guy? “I don’t know. It doesn’t seem good enough. Women like to feel trusted. Not controlled and...played.”
A crooked grin curved his mouth. “Is that how you feel? Played?”
“You’re not my boyfriend.”
“You seem to be exploring the possibility.” He patted the space next to him on the sofa. “Let’s talk.”
Was he flirting or did he mean to discourage her? Too curious not to, she went to sit beside him.
“You’re a career girl,” he said. “You like structure. A set schedule. You’re home nights and weekends.”
Now he sounded as if he was trying to talk himself out of letting their attraction lead them wherever it would go. “For the most part.”
“I live the opposite of that.”
How many times had he done that with women before? He’d lured her to the sofa only to shoot her down. To protect his heart? Or was he so sure it wouldn’t work between them that he meant to spare her?
She was never one to back down from a challenge. “You’re saying I’m not your type?” He chuckled. “That’s an understatement.”
“Are there women who do what you do?”
“Yes.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “Then why haven’t you married one of them?”
“Like you, I’m career-oriented.”
“I thought I wasn’t your type.”
Subduing her grin, she watched how that left him speechless. He claimed she wasn’t his type and yet there was something building between them.
She should be angry and upset over the blatant invasion of her privacy. Instead, she absorbed the insight into his world. Deep down, she knew he wasn’t here to do her harm. And everything he did, he did for good. She believed him in that regard.
“What are your dates like?” she asked.
“Probably a lot like yours.”
“You date online?”
“Not by choice. My parents are in a hurry for grandchildren.”
“Your parents made you date?”
“Not made. My mother signed me up and asked me to try it. I couldn’t deny her.”
How heartwarming to see how much he loved his mother. “So you don’t want to date?”
“No, I want to date, I’m just not sure online dating is any better than chance meetings.”
Why was that? “You sound like you’ve been on a lot of dates.”
He laughed shortly. “Just a few.”
She echoed his laugh because she could relate. “So have I. It’s not easy finding the right one.”
“No.”
They held a long gaze, but she snapped herself out of it. “What would the right one for you be like?” Leaning back, she rested her head on the sofa, looking at his handsome profile, feeling dangerously lulled into the ease of being in his presence.
“Independent. Secure. Trusting.”
“So she can handle long periods of your absence?” That had to be one reason why he dated so much. The women he met must not take a shine to his work. Secretive work.
“Yes. What would yours be like?”
Just like you. She rolled her head to stop looking at him. Damn, where had that come from?
“Don’t you know? Explains the online thing,” he teased. “Plenty to experiment with there.”
“No. It’s not that. Online dating is good because you know something about them before you actually meet. It’s not random.”
“There’s that control thing again.”
“No. I’d love to meet the right one. Maybe I try too hard.”
In his silence she sensed he felt the same about his own efforts. She couldn’t turn away from his gaze. They both had green eyes. His were darker than hers. He fascinated her. His mystery. His body. His mind. Underneath his warrior exterior was a kind, loving man.
“Why do you work for a covert organization? What made you do it?”
Something dark crossed his eyes. Something painful had put that look there. Empathy compelled her to find out what it was. She opened her mouth to ask more questions.
He brought his head down and pressed his mouth to hers. Tongues touching, instantly intimate. Deep and passionate. Sensation engulfed her. He’d used this to quiet her, and yet she remained intrigued. More intrigued than ever. Desire shifted her into a new direction, one she wasn’t sure she should take.
When his hand slid along the side of her face and he made love to her mouth with more urgency, doubt fled.
Chapter Six
Evie met Jude’s passion with every ounce of her own. She touched his chest, something she’d longed to do since the moment she’d seen him at the restaurant.
Lifting his head, he stared down at her. She removed uncertainty from the equation and stood up, extending her hand.
Instead of taking it, he stood with her and then stooped to lift her. Cradling her in his arms, he carried her across the sitting room to the short hall that led to the bedroom.
Setting her on her feet, he kissed her again. She looped her arms around him, vaguely wondering if this was a smart thing to do. She never leapt like this.
He reached for the hem of her cotton dress, and she let him pull the fabric over her head.
He was breathing harder now.
She stood still, torn by an uncertainty he wasn’t seeing. He removed his shirt and moved closer to her, his warm fingers working the front clasp of her bra. It loosened. Fell open. Her hesitancy, the way he looked at her and the way he brushed the straps off her shoulders made this erotic. The bra fell to the floor and he cupped her.
Uncertainty flew clean away. His hands on her made her explode with desire. And then his hands left her, leaving her tingling.
Watching him toss off the rest of his clothes, she removed her underwear and lay down on the bed. He quickly retrieved a condom from his bathroom bag, then crawled over to her.
“Are you always this prepared?” she asked as he rolled on the condom.
“Always.” He kissed her softly.
Their nakedness touched. His hard abdomen. Her soft breasts against his chest. His erection brushing her. All of it consumed her. She would analyze why he was prepared later.
She barely knew this man, but that only added to
the eroticism. Opening her legs was almost automatic. Grabbing her wrists, he slid them up along the bedspread, trapping her seductively. His face was above hers, eyes ablaze with desire.
The tip of him probed and sank inside her. He groaned as he pushed deep, setting off fireworks from where they joined to the rest of her body. When he withdrew and slid in again, her mind emptied of everything but the feel of him. His hips drove into her repeatedly, each time sending her closer to a grand finale. And yet she needed more. More of him. More of what he was doing to her.
“Harder...harder,” she rasped.
With a guttural groan, he changed his angle and slammed into her, jolting her all over. His hands kept her from moving up on the bed. She moved her hips, guiding his trajectory. He made the slightest adjustment.
“Oh. Yes. Yes!” she breathed. Closing her eyes, she tossed her head to the side and cried out.
He swore a single word and thrust faster, melding his hips to hers, keeping her orgasm going. On and on. Endless pulsing.
When she opened her eyes it was to meet his, impassioned and on the verge of reaching his own piece of heaven. As her orgasm spun down, his exploded. On a deep thrust, he went still for a few seconds. She felt his fingers tighten on her wrists. And then he pumped into her a few more times before joining her.
Breathing with exertion, he didn’t move, his hands still trapping hers. Awkwardness filtered in. She lay there naked beneath him, legs high and wide, his penis still inside her.
What now? What came next? She never did things like this. With a stranger. A stranger with secrets.
Except, Jude was good. And in a way, he was honest. He’d told her he couldn’t tell her things. Still, it made for an awkward moment just then.
Lifting his head, he looked down at her, assessing.
Evie couldn’t look at him.
“I...” He pulled out of her. “I didn’t mean to do that.” Lying beside her, he supported his head on his hand.
“Right. One more thing we don’t have in common,” she couldn’t help quipping. Might as well keep it light.