by Dawn Ryder
Kagan had to know Carl would seek retaliation.
Well, Eric would bet Kagan expected it, but what Carl really should have been worried about was whether or not Kagan was planning the entire thing.
Carl Davis believed himself too far removed from it though. He was an arrogant pile of shit but Eric stood with him because life was about winners and losers. Carl was a winner and Eric wanted his seat at the victory feast.
Was he a sellout?
Maybe.
But so was everyone else. Some of them were just too full of shit to admit it. So there was no way Eric would allow guilt to land on his shoulders. He was just doing what any other man in the same position would have done. There were twenty Secret Service men traveling with them and Eric didn’t doubt they’d all fall into line with whatever Carl demanded if he was offering them the position of head of his security.
The only thing left to do was syphon off some of the cash from the offshore accounts Carl gave him access to for dealing with hitmen.
An insurance policy.
Retirement fund.
Escape plan.
Whatever anyone wanted to call it, Eric moved money between the slush funds, placing 10 percent into his own accounts before paying Pullman his fee.
CHAPTER THREE
Carl Davis was a good public speaker.
He knew it and utilized the skill to stoke up the passion of his followers. He might be leading in the polls, but there were ten weeks until the election, and he wasn’t going to take a chance on a last-minute upset.
“It is a travesty of justice … to see the federal agent Thais Sinclair being sheltered by her own kind to avoid facing the penalty of the law.”
The crowd roared with approval.
“I promise you…”—Carl had to wait for the screaming to die down—“I will bring this rogue agent to justice, along with anyone who helps her.”
His followers cheered. He scanned the crowd, taking delight in the number of posters made up picturing Thais in handcuffs.
“Miranda Delacroix is a beacon of hope for our planet and children … I will not stand to see her silenced by corrupt businessmen who value only their profits … who would see our oceans polluted and our air unfit to breathe!”
* * *
“He’s laying it on thick.” Saxon Hale muttered out loud what they were all thinking. Inside the small town house, the Shadow Ops teams were clustered around a monitor to watch Carl Davis.
“He’s declaring war on us,” Dare Servant answered. “I’d hoped busting Kirkland would cut enough of his funds off to slow the bastard down.”
“It did,” Vitus remarked. “That…”—he pointed at the monitor—“that’s a desperate man. He’s trying to push Kagan into a corner.”
“I wouldn’t trust Carl to honor any option he offered,” Dare Servant said. “We all know too much about him.”
“So we’d better get busy finding out who paid for the hit on Miranda,” Saxon declared grimly. “Kagan will have to order us after Thais soon.”
“I’m surprised the order hasn’t already come down,” Dare Servant answered. “We’re on borrowed time.”
It wasn’t a first for any man in the room. They worked high-risk cases, ones where the consequences were often their own lives. Thais knew it as well.
* * *
Thais was restless.
She shifted in her sleep, not really deep enough into slumber to completely shut out the world around her.
She heard the door open to her suite.
Her body responded with every bit of the sharpness she expected from herself. Her mind cleared instantly, allowing her to listen for the footfalls of the person approaching her bed.
“Thais…” Dunn’s voice came across the room. “We’ve got company.”
He was as collected as she expected her teammates to be. She rolled over, landing on her feet as she took in the way he’d braced himself between her and the door.
“There’s a bunker inside the back wall,” Dunn informed her. “Scent sealed.”
He moved past her as she stepped into the boots she’d placed beside her bed. Dunn reached the back wall of the room as she heard heavy steps on the floor beyond the suite door.
“Federal agents! Search warrant!”
“Thais … here…” Dunn had pulled part of the wall open. What looked like a privacy wall between the bathroom and the bedroom opened to show a dark space between. “Inside … now.”
She was in motion before he finished. Slipping inside and moving back to make room for him.
Only Dunn didn’t join her.
“You’ll be safe here,” he informed her before he closed the door.
She surged forward but it was too late. There was a click and then a whoosh of air as the pressure stabilized. She dug at the place where the door was but it was smooth, only offering her a thin line of disruption between where the door panel was and the wall met it.
“Dunn!”
She shouldn’t have cried out.
But she just couldn’t stop herself.
Her poise was crumbling as she thought about Dunn stepping between her and danger. She couldn’t allow him to do it.
Which is why he locked you inside here …
It was infuriating.
And touching …
She ended up hitting the door with frustration. Damn him for making her feel.
And damn her for liking it.
* * *
“Clear!”
Dunn fought the urge to try to flip over. “I’m not resisting,” he growled at the agent who was pressing his knee into Dunn’s shoulder. “So get off me.”
The suite was lit up now, agents scouring the place, the frowns on their faces making it clear they didn’t like coming up empty-handed.
Two of them hooked Dunn by his handcuffed arms and hauled him off the floor. They strong-armed him toward a chair near the fireplace in the suite and dropped him into it.
“Where is she?” one demanded.
“My partners don’t spend the night,” Dunn remarked.
Thais’s bra was hanging over the back of a chair, so there was no point in claiming there hadn’t been a woman present.
“Where is she?” the agent persisted. “I’ll haul you in if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”
Dunn sent the guy a hard look. “A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell. So unless that search warrant says I have to divulge the name of my dinner date, you’re never going to hear it. My man will already have my lawyer on the line.”
“You know we’re looking for Thais Sinclair.”
“How the fuck would I know that?” Dunn demanded. “Maybe you should start by showing me that damned warrant and it had better be good because I’ve never dated Thais Sinclair.”
The best lies were the ones that didn’t deviate from the truth very far. An old espionage trick. Play as close to yourself as you could because it would limit the number of possible times you could be taken by surprise.
“And while you’re at it,” Dunn continued. “Better get a list together of evidence supporting your appearance here tonight.”
“We wouldn’t have a warrant if we didn’t have evidence,” one of the agents said as he flashed a badge and identification card. “Agent Bradford and I’ll get you the list. But your plane took off right after she was broken out of Homeland. You have the resources to accomplish that sort of an operation.”
Dunn raised an eyebrow. “So I’m being detained because I’m rich?”
Agent Bradford shook his head. “You were on the plane that left the area at the same time Agent Sinclair would have.”
Dunn grunted. “As you can see … she’s not here and I have never dated her. So my leaving town at the same time is a little thin.”
“You forgot the resources.”
Dunn leveled a hard look at Agent Bradford. “Miranda Delacroix is my mother.”
The agents searching through the closets went still, turning to look his way.
“You heard me.” Dunn didn’t raise his voice, but he didn’t need to, because the search had come to a standstill. “Check the records. I visited her in the hospital, flew in the moment I heard about her being shot. There is no way in hell I’d help whoever hurt her. So I don’t give a damn what sort of evidence you think you have. I wouldn’t be alive if she hadn’t risked her reputation and future against having me instead of the very quiet abortion her image-loving family preferred.”
Dunn enjoyed the looks on the faces of the men in his home.
Hell, he just plain loved being able to say what so many people had told him never to talk about.
The truth had been burning a hole in him since he was old enough to understand that his mother wasn’t in his life because of her parents. When you were five years old, all you wanted was a mommy and grandparents. A five-year-old didn’t grasp the ugliness of the power-hungry world.
At least, he shouldn’t have had to come face-to-face with the fact that his grandparents didn’t want him to be alive.
Now? He was going to enjoy letting the information out. He was going to enjoy every last second of knowing that those who had kept Miranda from the man she loved were inconvenienced by his revelation.
And he was going to love knowing Thais was safer for it all.
* * *
Time was crawling by.
Sealed behind the door, Thais flattened her head against the seam, straining to hear what was happening on the other side.
Nothing.
She was truly sealed in tight. It made sense. In the era of heat-sensing scopes, Dunn had ensured his bunker was a true haven. Scent sealed, so even a dog wasn’t going to sniff her out.
And he’d put her in it.
Protected her …
She paced down the length of the narrow hallway, agitated by the fact that she wasn’t facing down the situation.
They’ll only haul you back to a cell …
It made more sense to stay hidden. But Thais wasn’t thinking at the moment. No, she was reacting. Emotion was rising up and over the walls she’d built to keep them back. Hitting her like a tsunami.
She moved faster, trying to escape, and ended up looking at a set of stairs. Lights flickered on as she came close, showing her that they descended below the level of the house. At the bottom, a living space opened up. Spacious and furnished well, Thais roamed around it, impressed by the details. Against one wall, there was even an electric fireplace to give the space a homey feel.
A kitchen was against one wall. A peek inside the cabinets showed her enough stock for someone to live there for weeks on end without worry. Dunn’s reputation as a recluse was suddenly a lot easier to understand.
She sensed Dunn more than she heard him. Turning around and hesitating for a second because she wasn’t sure if she’d just conjured him up or if he was really emerging from the stairwell.
“They’re gone,” Dunn offered, a hint of disgust in his tone. “Or so they say. Personally, I don’t think they’ve tossed in the towel just yet.”
“Unlikely,” she agreed, coming around the breakfast bar. “You should have let me deal with them.”
One of Dunn’s dark eyebrows rose. Thais felt her eyes narrow in response and he didn’t miss it.
Dunn scoffed at her annoyance. “I would think you’d have a little more flexibility when it came to working on a team, Thais.”
“You’re not my team,” she retorted. Her heart was accelerating, the wave of emotions she’d walked down the stairs to escape reforming.
Dunn met her head-on. “Yes I am.”
“You’re a civilian—” And her control was slipping. She knew how to deal with men like him—never take a straight, frontal approach.
But she marched up to him and hit him straight in the center of his chest. “Don’t ever … cut me out of the action…”
Her heart was racing and her respiration, too. Her rapid breathing drew in his scent, setting off a whole new awareness of him.
“I will not let you be bait, Thais,” he growled.
“You don’t have a choice,” she insisted with another sock to his chest. He was just as hard-bodied as she’d determined he was.
And she liked knowing it.
Heat was flaring up inside her, melting the walls she’d learned to live inside of for the sake of her choices. Her entire world was coming down as the part of her she’d kept contained broke free.
“Yes, I do,” he informed her before wrapping his hand around the back of her head. He threaded his fingers through her hair, pulling the strands just tight enough to send a ripple of awareness through her core.
She craved that strength.
And Dunn didn’t deny her.
He caught her against his body, wrapping his opposite arm around her waist and pulling her close. She was reeling for a moment, intoxicated by the sensation overload of being pressed up against him.
And then he kissed her.
Thinking … control … even reason … they all went up in a wisp of smoke as the flames inside her flared up.
And she liked it.
There was no denying it or even a pretense of seeking out enough self-discipline to rein herself back in.
She wanted him and she rose up onto her toes to kiss him back.
His chest rumbled with a growl. Thais felt an answering sound coming from herself as she flattened her hands on his chest, smoothing over the ridges she’d only suspected lay beneath his shirt.
She shivered.
And let out a little moan that gained an instant response from Dunn. His arms tightened around her, his lips parting hers to deepen the kiss. His tongue swept along her lower lip, awakening a throbbing in her clit.
She liked sex.
But Dunn made her crave it.
Crave him …
His clothing irritated her. Presenting a barrier she wasn’t willing to suffer. Thais dug her fingers into the knot of his tie, loosening it before pulling it away from his neck. She gained her freedom for a moment as she drew the length of silk away from his throat. She caught the flash of hunger in his eyes a moment before he caught the edge of her shirt and pulled the garment up and over her head.
The rush of cool air against her overheated skin was welcome. Her bra was somewhere in the suite above. Dunn enjoyed the sight of her breasts, his lips thinning as his green eyes lowered to them.
She knew what lust looked like.
Knew how a man looked at her when she was nothing but an amusement.
Dunn’s expression was different. The intensity of it sent a chill through her. He was going to be intimate with her and what frightened her had nothing to do with the physical realities of sex.
She stepped back.
His eyes narrowed as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt. “I know I scare you, Thais.”
He worked the buttons on his shirtfront, baring his chest before he shrugged out of it.
“You don’t,” she muttered, the need to shield her weakness too strong to resist. But her tone betrayed her. Husky and full of uncertainty. “I’m just wondering how wise … this is…”
His lips twitched. “Wise? Maybe not, but it feels like a necessity from where I’m standing…”
She knew the feeling. He reached out and cupped her breast. The touch so simple, and yet, there was a gleam in his eyes that made it seem so very tender. He was caressing her.
She couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen someone look at her like that.
It shook her to her core, drawing her back toward him, back into the feeling of intimacy. Having a taste of it made her realize how truly starved she was for more than the physical act of intercourse.
And how long it had been since she’d let anyone strip her walls down.
She reached out for him, fumbling with his belt as she worked the buckle loose and pulled it open.
“It’s not going to be that simple, Thais.”
His tone was husky and full of intent. He scooped her off her fe
et, lifting her up and onto the island in the kitchen. She sucked in her breath at the coolness of the marble against her bare skin. But it just made her more conscious of how hot his skin was when he cupped her breasts in both hands.
“I’ve thought too much about you … about having you…” His tone was almost too low to hear, or maybe she was just too focused on the way he was kneading her breasts.
“We’re going to do more than fuck.”
It was a promise.
A very male, dominant sort of thing to say.
Her eyes had been slipping closed, as he drew his hands down her body, slowly rubbing her abdomen. But she lifted her eyelids as he caught the waistband of her soft pajama bottoms. There was a flash of determination in his eyes, one he waited for her to see before he pulled her clothing from her body, laying her bare.
He swept her up and down, his lips curving up with male satisfaction. She might have felt exposed, maybe she should have felt that way, but she didn’t. Instead, she was caught up once more in the sensation of seeing the way he looked at her.
And noticing just how different it was from the countless targets she’d engaged with over the years.
But what exactly was it?
Dunn didn’t give her time to think her feelings through.
And the truth was, she didn’t want to think.
No, she let out a breathy sound as he leaned over her body, his bare skin connecting with hers. It was mind-blowing.
And exactly what she craved.
There were a million points of contact between them. He framed the sides of her face, stroking her skin before turning his head and fitting his mouth against hers. He took the kiss slow, savoring the interaction of their lips. It was a sweet torment, one that kept her suspended between intimacy and lust. She wanted to move faster, trying to lift her head up and kiss him harder.
“No,” he growled, keeping her head in place before he trailed kisses down her neck and onto her chest.
Her nipples drew tight as she felt like she was twisting on the end of a thread while waiting for him to draw her nipple into his mouth. Seconds swelled up until they felt as long as minutes. She felt his breath brush the tender skin on her breast first. Goosebumps went racing across her skin, her senses heightened to an almost unbearable level.