by Lucy Monroe
He needed to hear what she thought of him. Of why he did what he did.
“Maybe,” she said after several seconds of intense silence, “but you’re an agent because you care, not because you need your adrenaline fix. You’ve got a superhero complex and I, for one, find that irresistible.”
Then she did smile, but he couldn’t match her lighthearted expression. Her attitude touched something deep inside him that no one else, not even his family, had ever come close to. She was right. He did want to be a hero for his country. Not so others would look up to him; he didn’t care if anyone ever knew what he sacrificed for the greater good. But he needed to be part of making the world a better, safer place.
It wasn’t something he’d ever admitted out loud. Not even when he told his dad he wanted to do something besides ranching. Back then he’d been too embarrassed to admit to such lofty goals and since then, he’d gotten used to hiding his true nature behind his adrenaline junky image.
Beth saw through him though. “I think you’re the only person who sees that about me,” he admitted quietly.
“I doubt it. A discerning person couldn’t know you very long before realizing you want to save the world from evil.” Again the smile. So darn sweet. So incredibly beautiful to him.
“But the fact is, others don’t see it, Beth. Why do you know me so much better than anyone else?” It really was a puzzle to him.
They’d only been “together” for a matter of weeks and he’d never told her any of this. Or even hinted at it.
“You’ve been my obsession for two years, Ethan. A woman learns a thing or two about a man when she spends so much time thinking about him.”
“So, it wasn’t all sex…even in your fantasies.” Man, he liked hearing that.
She looked startled and then shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. But it did. To both of them.
“We’ve gotten off topic,” she said a little primly.
She was running again, but he was a natural-born predator. When prey ran, predators followed. Though sometimes, they bided their time, which was what he planned to do. For now. Beth was cagey and she had a lot of hang-ups about their relationship; he had to tread carefully. But he liked knowing that she’d noticed more than his great body for the past two years.
“Have we?” he asked.
She bit her lower lip and nodded, looking wary. “Yes.”
He drew her into his arms. “What were we talking about?”
“The fact that I got a listening device into Prescott’s office.” She sounded really pleased with herself.
And she had every right to be. “I’m proud of how well you think on your feet, baby, I really am, but I still want to knock the toad’s teeth in.”
She patted his chest, her small hand settling right over his heart. “Maybe you’ll get the chance when we move in for the kill.”
“There is no we about the collar. You are not an agent and will be far from the scene when we go to arrest him.”
“Whatever you say.”
He tried to read her expression, but couldn’t find any evidence of subterfuge. “You make me nervous when you get agreeable like this.”
“I don’t know why. I’m not an agent and I don’t want to risk the operation by being where I’m not needed. I used we strictly in a generalized sense.”
“I should feel reassured.”
“But you don’t?”
“No.”
“You need to trust me, Ethan.”
“I do.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I’m not stupid, you know?”
“I do know.”
“Then you should know I would never risk you or the case.”
He sighed. “I’m being overprotective, aren’t I?”
“Considering the fact that I agree with you, um…yes.”
“I’m not internalizing projected feelings,” he admitted, wishing the psychological phenomenon she’d mentioned the day before could explain his behavior. “I have this cavemanlike need to make sure you’re safe at all times.”
“And here I thought you were the epitome of the modern sophisticated male.”
“I did too,” he acknowledged wryly.
She laughed, rubbing his chest in what was no doubt supposed to be a soothing gesture, but which turned him on. Everything about her excited him. “Don’t let it upset you. I’m learning stuff about myself I didn’t know either.”
“Like what?”
“I like the adrenaline rush of fieldwork.” She said it like she was admitting a deep, dark sin.
His heart stuttered as his head swam with images of Beth taking risks he’d approved for other female agents. “I’m not sure my heart can take that, but it’s not a crime, sweetheart.”
“I know. It violates what I believed about myself though.”
“Does it bother you that your dad might be right?”
“That I’d make a good agent?”
“Yes.”
“A little, but mostly it just throws my view of the world and my place in it off-kilter.”
“Maybe the job change you need when we get back to D.C. is to take more extensive agent training instead of leaving the city looking for a place you fit better.”
“You might be right.”
As much as he hated the thought of her ever being in danger, he felt nothing but relief at her willingness to consider staying in D.C. and continuing to work for The Goddard Project. Maybe she would rethink her views on long-term commitments with agents as well.
Chapter 19
They hit pay dirt with the bug in Prescott’s office two days later.
“He’s planning an auction at the end of the month for controlled technology classified as unexportable,” Ethan told Beth. “He’s bringing the potential buyers back for a video demonstration of a UGCV along with specs. The auction will happen two days later, but so far we don’t have a line on how he intends to pass the plans on.”
“You know, I think the man is arrogant enough to store the plans at his house. The security there is tight.” She kitty-combed Beethoven’s fur while the growing kitten lounged in her lap on the sofa.
“I agree, but I’ve been over the house plans until I can see them with my eyes shut and there are just too many places he could have a hidey-hole. Going in with a warrant wouldn’t necessarily net the goods.”
“My guess is that he’s got the plans stored on a media device, maybe even his computer. He thinks it’s foolproof.”
“His security is better than most. I’ve been trying to hack his system and there are so many layers of ICE that my fingers are getting frostbite from the keyboard.”
“Ouch.”
“You’re telling me. The intrusion countermeasure engineering Prescott’s invested in is the best. There are several signatures, as if he’s got graduating as well as same-level layers of security from different sources.”
“You’ll get through.”
“Maybe we should call Bennett in on this. This is really his thing.”
“But you’re no slouch at it, Ethan. Besides, he’s on assignment in the Middle East. He left three days ago.” The cat jumped off her lap and Beth dropped the special brush down on the coffee table.
“You been checking up on the other agents, Beth?”
“I can’t help myself. Maude and I talk daily.”
“She handling things okay?”
“Of course. The woman is a miracle worker.”
“We all feel that way about you.”
Beth smiled, clearly pleased. “I’ll remind you of that the next time you give me a hard time about turning in your expense reports.”
“I never forget it, baby, but I still don’t like doing expense reports. I think miracle workers should be able to generate them without any help.”
She launched herself toward him as the phone rang.
Ethan grabbed it and her at the same time. He pressed the button to talk while pulling Beth onto his lap. “Ethan here.”
She gave him a
friendly elbow to the ribs before settling against his chest.
“Ethan, it’s Hotwire.”
“Any word for me?”
“Officially? No. But ten months ago, a young woman in Oregon killed herself. She was attending a community college not far from Prescott’s home when they met. They started dating and she stopped attending classes. She’d lost her job for not showing up and had a miscarriage due to drug usage and possible sexual trauma the week before she killed herself.”
Ethan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I didn’t find anything about this during my investigation into him.”
“Your perp did a good job of hushing up his connection to the girl.”
“But you found it.” It irked Ethan that he hadn’t.
“Her parents died when she was fifteen. Her older sister finished raising her and was helping her through college. The sister is a DEA agent by the name of Rachel Gannon. She confided her fears for her sister and then about the suicide to a friend of mine.”
“And let me guess, the DEA agent has taken a leave of absence, her whereabouts unknown.”
“Yes. My friend’s worried about her, but he hasn’t said a thing to their superiors. She’s a hell of a sniper and she’s more lethal with a knife than Wolf.”
“This doesn’t feel good.”
“I concur.”
“Damn. You think Rachel Gannon is planning personal revenge.”
“If you can stop her, you’ll be saving a life worth preserving.” They both knew Hotwire didn’t mean Prescott.
“She could have killed him at the party the other night.”
“If she was the one who was there. Yes. I’ll send you a picture for verification of her identity. But personal revenge plans aside…she’s still her country’s servant.”
“You think she wants to stop the plans for the UGCV getting into enemy hands before she offs Prescott.”
“That’s my guess.”
“Whit is going to lose his mind if I pull her into our investigation.”
“You don’t have to pull her in to stop her, but if you don’t, you’ll be robbing her of the closure she needs.”
“I’ll talk to Beth about it.”
He got a kiss on his cheek for that and couldn’t help taking her lips.
Hotwire was laughing and calling his name when Ethan remembered he was still on the phone. “Save it for when I’m not on the other end of the line. You’re making me miss Claire.”
“Where is she?”
“She went shopping for the baby with Josie. She and Nitro are staying for a few days before she goes back to classes.”
“Where’s Nitro?”
“Outside scaring the wildlife.”
“I heard that,” came from the other side of the room. “I’m going to tell Claire that our Medicine Men believe a woman should stop having sex the last three months of her pregnancy for the safety of the baby.”
“The man is getting serious,” Hotwire said, sounding far from worried. “I think I need to go kill him.”
“I’ve got a man I wouldn’t mind skinning like a snake and staking out in the sun to dry.”
“Do tell.”
Hotwire swore when Ethan told him what Prescott had done with the video and Beth.
“You watch her, Ethan.”
“I plan to.”
“I mean it. This man is a sadistic son of a bitch. I have a feeling that young woman in Oregon was one in a long line.”
“Beth will be safe.”
“If you need us, you call.”
Ethan felt something strange in his chest. Beth was right. He didn’t have a lot of friends, but because of his need to know what had really happened when his great uncle died, he’d made some good ones. “Thanks. I’ll remember that.”
“You were there for me when I needed you to help me keep Claire safe from our own government.”
“All part of the job.”
“You just keep believing that.”
They hung up a minute later after Hotwire reminded Ethan to bring Beth to visit Montana when the case was over.
The next couple of weeks were an exercise in frustration on one side for Ethan and pure bliss on the other. He was having no luck cracking Prescott’s ICE, but living with Beth was pure pleasure. He liked being with her. Even when she was cranky waking up in the mornings and slapping at his hands when he touched her in front of the agents coming in on rotation to help him listen to the audibles from Prescott’s bugs.
She acted like she enjoyed the intimacy of living in the same house, too. She definitely more than liked the pleasure they shared in the privacy of their bed at night. Holding her in his arms was addictive and he didn’t relish the thought to returning to living and sleeping alone. The closer the end of the case got, the more he considered what to do about that.
Beth was preparing a report on investment opportunities for Prescott when his secretary told her he wanted to see her in his office again.
He had a complacent expectancy about him that made her leery, but she forced a smile. “You wanted to see me, Mr. Prescott.”
“Please close the door, Beth.”
She did so, but was glad that their conversation was being overheard by Ethan and the other agents back at the cabin. This was one man she had no desire to ever be completely alone with.
He stood up from behind his desk and came toward her. “Beth, I’m not going to beat around the bush. I care about you. When I met you for your interview I knew you were special.”
She backed up toward the door. “I’m involved, Arthur, you know that.”
“Yes, I know.” Prescott looked pained. “To a man who is not worthy of you.”
“You’re wrong. Ethan is really wonderful.”
“I’m sorry but, Beth, because of my growing feelings toward you…because of who you are, how very innocent you are…I could not leave well enough alone after the party.”
“What are you saying?”
“I had your boyfriend followed by a private investigator.”
Her lungs froze for a second in stark, utter horror before her brain started working again. “You’ve had him followed? But why?”
Now, more than ever, she appreciated Ethan’s attention to detail when establishing and maintaining cover for a case. Her heart was pounding wildly, but she was confident Prescott’s private eye would not have found anything to compromise that cover.
“I didn’t believe his encounter with Miss Fournier was as blameless as he tried to pretend.”
“But he explained about that.”
“And you believed him. That is to your credit, my dear Beth, but I have evidence that it was not so.”
This was getting really bizarre. “What evidence?”
“This will be difficult for you, but I have some photos to show you.”
He indicated a file on his desk. “Please. Come with me.”
He led her to stand with him behind the desk and then without further preliminaries, flipped the file open.
The picture on top was of Ethan naked, but covered by a sheet. A woman sat on his torso, touching her breasts for his keen gaze. Beth knew that look, he gave it to her when he wanted her. She knew the pictures had to be faked, but even knowing that, pain lanced through her. The very thought of Ethan with another woman was enough to make her physically ill, but Prescott’s machinations filled her with fury. The man was worse than a snake.
Ethan had been right about that. Not that she’d doubted him. But he’d been right about something else, too. Prescott had been spying on them. The picture of Ethan’s face had to have come from times when they’d been in the living room with the curtains open.
Imagining someone watching them, even though they never did anything really intimate until they shut themselves into privacy, made her skin crawl. And Prescott would be the kind of man who got a kick out of something like that.
Forcing herself to dwell on how it would feel if it really was Ethan with another woman rather than her in
tense anger, she gave Prescott the reaction he no doubt expected. Tears spurted into her eyes as she put her hand over her mouth.
He patted her back and it was all she could do not to belt him. “You must be strong, Beth.”
Then he flipped the photo to reveal the one beneath it. There were six pictures in all, each of them very cleverly done. None actually showed Ethan naked so if he had a birthmark and his body double didn’t, she wouldn’t see that. His face was superimposed on the pictures with the skill of a true artist. If it were any situation other than the one she was in and any man other than Ethan, Beth would have taken the pictures at face value. They looked absolutely authentic.
And the more she looked, the angrier Beth got. Prescott was pure evil and she’d like to drop him in a rattlesnake pit.
She went to grab the photos. “I have to show these to Ethan.”
Instead of looking disgusted, or even disappointed, Prescott looked strangely pleased by her reaction. “You want to give him a chance to explain it, but how can he?”
“He needs to see them.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t give you the photos. I stepped outside of my role as your employer to have him followed. It would be too risky to let him have a copy of these pictures. He might try to sue me…or pay someone to say they are forgeries.”
“But I have to show them to him.”
“No, Beth. You need to decide if you will stay with a man who has cheated on you.”
“But where would I go?” she asked with credible dismay. “I just moved here…started working for you.”
“You know I’m interested in you. But I would never force the issue in your current state. However, I would be pleased to allow you to stay with me.”
“You want me to move in to your home?”
“It isn’t an offer I would make to another woman.”
“I…I appreciate it.” The slimy toad. “But I’ve got to talk to Ethan.”
“Yes, I can see that you do, Beth. But consider this…if he’s cheating on you now, chances are he’s been screwing other women all along.”