Reckoning

Jo Leigh

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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Contents

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Coming Next Month

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Nate Pratchett: Delta Force Commander—leader of the team, wanted for treason

Tamara Chen: Biochemist—tricked into creating a nightmare; forced to live a life underground…till now

Seth Turner: Delta Force Surveillance—lost his hand, but healed by the love of Harper

Harper Douglas: Physician—eyewitness to the scope of Omicron’s weapon

Boone Ferguson: Delta Force Communications—risked his life to save his best friend’s sister, Christie

Christie Pratchett: Innocent Bystander—lost her old life, but found hope and love with Boone

Kate Rydell: Forensic Accountant—the first to realize Omicron’s plan

Vince Yarrow: L.A. Homicide Detective—turned in his badge to fight for his woman, Kate

Cade Huston: Delta Force Sniper—lived silently and alone while he fought for the team and the girl he left behind

Eli Lieberman: Cub Reporter for the L.A. Times—willing to risk everything to report the truth

Leland Ingram: CEO of Omicron—the man in charge of death

Jackson Raines: Senator and guiding force behind Omicron

Omicron: A rogue CIA operation whose goal is to sell an illegal, toxic chemical weapon to the highest bidders and use the money for political gain

Prologue

ELI LIEBERMAN STARED AT the notebook in his hand, afraid to open it. He checked his front door again to make sure all the locks were in place, but what were locks? They could get past locks.

Taking a deep breath, he sat down at his kitchen table. The day had been long and frustrating. Every single lead he’d pursued on this story had dried up. No one would talk to him. The only thing he could do now was to go back to the beginning. Corky Baker’s notes.

Well, they’d become his notes after he’d found Baker dead. Baker had been the number one investigative journalist at the Los Angeles Times, while he’d just been a glorified fact checker.

He stared at it again, a small lined notebook with a blue cover. They sold for less than a buck. But inside this particular notebook was information that had already gotten one man killed, and if Eli transcribed the notes, could very likely lead to his own death.

Shit. He was only twenty-three.

He put the notebook in his briefcase, the one he’d gotten from his Uncle Morty when he’d graduated from college. Of course Uncle Morty had also told him he was a schmuck for wanting to be a reporter, that all it would bring him was headaches and overdue bills, and what girl in her right mind would want to marry a man with no money?

After a few minutes of agonizing indecision, he snatched the notebook out, but this time, Eli flipped it open to the first page. Hell, he shouldn’t be so edgy about transcribing the notes. He was already doomed. He couldn’t end up more dead. The bad guys from Omicron already knew about him and that, according to Vince Yarrow, was enough. And Vince should know—he was an L.A. homicide detective. No. Used to be. Now he worked with Nate Pratchett. Who was wanted for treason. Who led a team of ex-Delta Force soldiers, a biochemist, a doctor and an accountant, all of them on the run, all of them being hunted by the rogue CIA agents working for Omicron, all of them in possession of secrets that would turn the world of U.S. politics on its ass…. Then there was the matter of a deadly gas that could wipe people out. Big time.

He might as well transcribe the damn notes.

It probably would have been easier if it hadn’t been almost midnight. If he hadn’t been sitting in the chair that squeaked, and if he’d turned on more lights.

No, he could do this. Just reading the notebook would not put a curse on his head. It only felt as if it would.

Eli flipped open the book, squinting as he tried to decipher the almost illegible scrawl that was Corky Baker’s handwriting. Any normal person would have tossed the notebook in the trash thinking it was nonsense. But after having transcribed some of Baker’s other stories, Eli was familiar with Baker’s unique shorthand.

As he deciphered the first page, then the second, his heart beat faster, and all he wanted in this world was to write it all down. Yeah, he’d give Baker the credit, at least for the first part of the story.

As for the ending? It didn’t look good for Nate and the other fugitives. They were fighting big power and big money, and they had neither.

That’s what had made Baker pursue the story in the first place. It had all the earmarks of David versus Goliath, although it was clear Baker thought Goliath was gonna win hands down.

Eli wasn’t so sure.

1

NATE PRATCHETT stared down into hell, watching the underground lab burn. They’d found Tam. They’d either killed or taken her, and both options made him sick to his stomach. If they’d found Tam, he had to assume they’d found them all. As he was standing here, they might be at Kate and Vince’s, at his place where Cade was going over recordings from the bugs placed in the office Omicron used as a front in downtown L.A. All his friends might be dead.

He stepped back as the heat intensified, and that was lucky because something down in the lab exploded, rocking the building around him. He had to get out of here, now, before the whole place came down.

The complex itself had been an incredible find, but there had always been inherent danger. Built by Colombian drug dealers, it had been an underground labyrinth of rooms and escape routes. He’d turned it into a lab for Tam, who’d been a virtual prisoner there during the past two years as she’d worked on the antidote for the deadly gas created by Omicron. Now it was ashes and the end of hope.

There was only one chance that she wasn’t dead or captured, but he hesitated. If she wasn’t there…No, he had to go. Had to know. If she had made it out, she was probably hurt.

That thought spurred him into a run. He was halfway down the block before it occurred to him that he was heading straight for the Plan B building, and that Omicron might be watching him.

It wasn’t like him to be so careless, but shit, Tam.

He darted into an abandoned building nearby and pressed himself against a wall while his eyes grew accustomed to the dark. It was one of the many ram-shackle buildings in the projects of East Los Angeles that had once housed the poor. Even they’d moved on, except for those too whacked-out on drugs or alcohol, or who thought they could still make a buck. Mostly rats lived there. Rats and packs of dogs.

He could see now—shapes at least. There were almost no working street lights here. The city had stopped replacing them. Which made it an excellent hiding space, but damned hard to negotiate without a flashlight.

One thing in his favor, and hopefully Tam’s, was that they’d gone over this route over and over again. He’d wanted her to be able to find her way in the pitch-black night. He’d wanted her safe.

IN DARKNESS SO BLACK IT FELT like blindness, Tamara Chen touched her eyes to see if they were open. The gun in her other hand shook from her trembling, making her feel useless and petrified.

She’d just killed a man.

He’d been alive one second and dead the next, and it didn’t seem to matter that he’d tried to kill her. She’d pulled the trigger. The recoil had knocked her against the wall of the lab and hurt her wrist, but even so she’d shot him in the head. A fluke, an accident. One that had saved her life.

She curled her arm around her body, but it did nothing against the frigid January air. She’d left her coat. Her cell phone had been destroyed, along with her clothes, her pictures, her journals. Everything she had was now gone except the clothes she wore and the flash drive that hung on a long chain around her neck.

The last five years of her life were stored in it, and she could go to any computer, plug it in the USB port and there it would be. Formulas, notes, test results. Failures.

The last two weeks in the lab had been a new kind of hell for her. Nothing she’d experienced before, whether in school or at work, had prepared her for a failure of such magnitude. What in hell had made her think she could save the day? She was a biochemist. A good one. But she’d fallen so short of the mark on this one—

A sound, the crack of a branch? A backfire in the distance? She lifted the gun again, still shaking as badly as when she’d first planted herself in the corner.

They’d found her. Omicron had found her. They were clever bastards, but she’d been so careful. She never made phone calls, except with the clean cell phones Nate gave her. She hid in the basement lab, having her groceries and supplies brought to her rather than risk a trip to the market.

Nothing in her life, ever since she’d returned to the States from Kosovo, had been normal. Even her Internet connection, which she used only when absolutely necessary, had been routed through so many blind alleys and foreign ports that it would take a genius months—if ever—to pinpoint her location.

So what had gone wrong? Had they found Nate? Followed him?

The thought filled her with a whole new level of terror. If Nate had been captured, if he was dead, then she might as well give it up. There would be no winning if Nate was out of the picture. Since day one, he’d been the leader.

The first time she’d met him she’d been in Serbia, in a cramped lab, working on the development of a new chemical compound.

That seemingly dream job had come to her out of the blue. She’d just finished her final doctoral thesis and had scored a plum position working for her chemistry professor, Dr. Brennan. But Brennan had introduced her to a man claiming to be working on a secret government project. He’d offered her two hundred thousand dollars for two years of work, if she was willing to relocate to Kosovo. She wasn’t told what the project was, only her part.

While she’d known several of the other scientists who’d been approached, mostly chemists like herself, she’d had to sign a non-fraternization contract, as well as a nondisclosure agreement. One slip of the tongue, and there would be no payoff. She’d gotten a weekly per diem that took care of her necessities, and they’d provided housing, but the big money was all due upon completion. She used to spend hours at night, planning how she’d spend her two hundred grand.

How jumping on that incredible opportunity had led her to being hunted down by a rogue CIA unit was still beyond her comprehension. Those men from Omicron had destroyed the lab, trashed her personal belongings and tried to kidnap—if not kill—her. Her. Tamara Chen. Who’d been a science nerd since grade school. Who used to look forward to music night with her Mom and Dad. Who’d gone out on her first date at eighteen. Who’d never been in love.

She froze as another crack sounded. This time it wasn’t far away, and this time it was followed by footsteps coming closer, walking through the condemned building toward her.

Somehow she managed to get to her feet, then she pointed the gun in front of herself. She had no idea if she was aiming at a wall or a torn-up couch, but she had to do something. She didn’t want to die, not at twenty-eight. It was the most terrified she’d ever been, and in the last few years, she’d been shaken a lot.

She’d anxiously brooded about this moment, what it would be like to come face to face with the shadowy men of Omicron determined to kill her and her friends because of their discovery of Omicron’s deadly plans while they were stationed in Kosovo. It sucked.

NATE MOVED MORE CAREFULLY, uncomfortably aware that if Omicron was watching, they’d be using infrared. The only way to get where he needed to go was to use the buildings themselves as cover.

One room at a time, one wall at a time, he made his way block by block. He was getting closer, and his heart beat hard and heavy in his chest, dreading what he would find.

He finally reached the building, the one they’d chosen as a fail-safe. She was behind that wall or she wasn’t, and he’d have to deal with it. That’s all. He could do this.

One step, then another. The darkness here was total and there was no choice but to reach into his back pocket and take out his penlight. He looked away, turned on the thing, then followed the beam of light around the corner.

It was Tam. Bloody, shaking so hard her weapon was all over the map and filthy, but it was Tam and she was alive.

“Stop or I’ll shoot,” she said, her voice quavering, her eyes shut tight against the light.

“It’s me,” Nate said, and he had to repeat it because his voice broke. “Tam, it’s me.”

She stilled for a moment, then opened her eyes. “Nate?”

She sounded like a child. A frightened, desperate child.

He holstered his gun and crossed the distance between them. Gently pushing aside her weapon, he took her in his arms. “It’s okay,” he said, his words muffled on her hair. “I’m here.”

She dropped her gun on the floor and clutched his back. He felt her sob before he heard it, her whole chest heaving against him.

“Shh,” he said, rocking her. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head.

“Can you walk?”

A nod.

“Okay, baby, let’s take it slowly. I want to make sure there’s no one out there.”

She sniffed, then drew her head back. “I killed him,” she said.

“That was good. You did great.”

“He pointed his gun at me, but I shot first. There was no time.”

“You did the right thing,” he said. She was freaked, and he got that. Ordinary people freaked about death. About killing. They weren’t trained for anything else. “He was a bad guy, so don’t sweat it. Right now, we have to get out of here. They could come back.”

She hung on to him as he bent for her gun. He could feel her body tremble as he led her on a circuitous route through what was left of the building. It took a lot longer to get back to his truck than it had to get to her. They kept the light out for most of the journey, and toward the end she had slowed to a crawl, but finally they were in the truck and on their way.

He’d decided where to take her as they’d walked through buildings, so he knew to get on the freeway toward the San Fernando Valley. She sat close, resting her head on his shoulder.

He would have put his arm around her if he hadn’t been so worried about the rest of the team. Although it hurt him to bother her, he had her shift so he could get his cell, a new one that couldn’t be traced, and dialed Kate and Vince.

“Hello?” Kate murmured sleepily.

He had no idea what time it was, just that it was late. “Tam’s been compromised,” he said.

There was silence on the phone and when Kate said, “Where do you want us?” she didn’t sound in the least bit sleepy now.

“Meet up with Seth and Boone. We’ll follow.”

Kate hung up, but Nate knew two things. One, that she and Vince were alive, and two, that they would be out of their rented house in an hour, on their way to Nevada.

He dialed Cade’s phone. Being the soldier he was, he knew the drill, too. Only he’d have to pack Nate’s stuff as well as his own, and since Nate had the truck, he’d have to find some other transportation.

As Nate drove onto the 101 Freeway, he dialed his sister’s cell. As he’d expected, Boone and Seth were out on recon, but Christie assured him that no one had been snooping around. She promised to be vigilant and discuss the situation with the guys as soon as they returned. Harper, a doctor who’d also been in Kosovo and joined their cause, was out pulling double duty on her waitressing job.

The four of them were staying in a ratty motel in a tiny town just outside of Nellis Air Force Base. They’d wired the place like Fort Knox, so if anyone had been asking about them, they’d most likely know it. If they had the least bit of doubt, they’d pack and leave.

He got onto Ventura Boulevard then glanced at Tamara. She was sleeping, her lips slightly parted, her face smudged with dirt. Probably blood, too, but it was dark, so he didn’t have to think about that. Somehow, she still managed to look innocent.

He put the phone on the dash so he could shift her into a more comfortable position, but he picked it up again as he remembered one more call that couldn’t wait, even if it meant waking Tam.

He dialed Eli Lieberman. He was just a kid, a junior reporter for the L.A. Times, but he’d taken up their cause and was willing to run with it. Nate wasn’t sure if he was braver than hell or just nuts. The last reporter who’d tried to help them had been buried several weeks ago.

But Eli had insisted, and Nate had taken him into the fold. The kid didn’t answer right away, and after the phone switched to voice mail, Nate hung up and dialed again. He did that two more times, then heard Eli’s groggy voice.

“You okay?”

“What? Who the hell is this?”

“It’s Nate.”

“Oh, shit. Why?”

“One of the team was compromised. I wanted to make sure they hadn’t found you.”

“Oh, shit,” he repeated, more fully awake.

“You have your weapon?”

“Yeah, but I can’t hit the side of a barn door.”

“You don’t have to. You stick the gun in your assailant’s stomach and pull the trigger. Easy as pie.”

“I don’t know how to bake, either.”

“I think you’re in the clear.” Nate turned on Sycamore, then on Vanowen. “If they were going to go after you, they’d have been there by now. Just keep an eye out.”

“As if I’ll ever sleep again.”

“We’re changing our base of operations. I’ll call you in a day or two.”

“Are you leaving the city?”

“More than that. I have to go. Stay safe.” Just as Nate was hanging up, he heard Eli’s, “Oh, shit,” one last time.

There was the hotel. It wasn’t one he’d usually choose. This place had an elevator and room service. It also had a great big bathtub and beds soft as a cloud. His only problem was going to be getting Tam up to the room. He’d use the service elevator, but he hadn’t checked out the place and he wasn’t sure where it was.

He turned the truck into the underground parking, and his problem was solved almost instantly. There was a delivery truck by the restaurant back door, and Nate could see the service elevator right inside.

He parked close to the exit, and as the truck’s motor cut off, Tam woke. She blinked, looked around. “Where are we?”

“Hotel. I’m going to get a room, but you’ll need to stay in the truck while I do it.”

She looked at him with terrified eyes, but she nodded. He handed her the Glock she’d dropped back at the fail-safe, and she had enough wits about her to check the safety. “Go. I’ll keep low.”

He smiled at her, wanting to do more. Instead, he opened his door.

“Wait.”

He turned back.

She reached up and wiped his temple with the flat of her thumb. “Ash.”

He got out of the truck before he did something stupid. Like kiss her. Not that wanting to do that was anything new. But it still wasn’t right. He was responsible for her safety. How could she trust him if he came onto her? So he didn’t. Even though he wanted her as fervently as his old life.

By the time he’d spent too much on a room and returned to the car, Tam was trembling again. He’d known it would be difficult for her, but he hadn’t realized the desk clerk would move like molasses. Tam had cleaned her face a bit, but there was no way to get her in through the lobby.

There was no one near the delivery truck, so he did a very brief check, then practically carried her into the service elevator.

Though he had his gun at the ready, he doubted he’d need it. He’d know if they had been followed. At least, he had to believe that or go insane.

No one was in the hallway on the sixth floor, and he could see the relief on her face, in her body, as they entered the privacy of the room. He bolted the door, then led her to the edge of the big, king-sized bed. “I asked for two queens, but this is all they had left.”

She sat down, looking as if she’d fall over in a stiff breeze. “That’s good,” she said. “I want you to sleep with me.”

He felt his body tighten but kept his reaction from his face. “Sure. No problem. We’ll just get you in the tub first.”

She didn’t even nod or look at him. All she did was close her eyes, and he wondered if she was going to make it through a bath.

What he knew for sure is that he wouldn’t be getting any sleep. He headed for the bathroom, and as he started the water in the big tub, he whispered, “Oh, shit.”

2

BOONE FERGUSON HELD THE door open for Seth, then followed him inside the lion’s den. It was late—the graveyard shift here at Omicron’s Nevada plant—and they were dressed in blue coveralls like all the other people showing up to work. They’d stolen the uniforms three nights ago. It had taken them awhile to make their badges look legitimate. There was no reason for anyone to stop them, to question them. Unless they blew it.

All it would take was one false step and it would be over for both of them. If they were discovered, they had their instructions. No surrender. No interrogation. Period.

Boone had been a soldier for a long time and the possibility of death came with the territory. Only now, for the first time in his life, he cared. One hell of a lot.

He didn’t want to leave Christie. The thought of never seeing her again made him gut sick. He’d only just found her. In a goddamn crummy way, that’s for sure, but he figured that had helped them get closer.

Months earlier she’d been stalked to the point of abandoning her home and any life she’d known. At Nate’s request, Boone had gone to help. He’d fallen for her hard, even though he didn’t want her to be involved in this Omicron mess. It had thrown both of them when they’d discovered the stalker was actually an Omicron agent, looking for Nate. She’d been targeted, just like the rest of them. So they’d joined forces, and he’d never have guessed how it could change his life.

The irony wasn’t lost on him. He thought often about the Dickens’ quote, “It was the best of times…” Being with Christie was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Being a fugitive because of Omicron’s lies was the worst.

Tonight, he and Seth were going to be risking more than on any other foray. They were going inside, to map out the plant as thoroughly as possible. Although they hadn’t figured out what, exactly, they were going to do with the information, it was important to know what they were up against.

So they walked inside the cavernous room, filled with production lines and heavy machinery. This wasn’t where they made the deadly gas. It was where they made the canisters. On the surface, an innocuous enough task for the employee.

Walking quickly down one side of the long building, Boone estimated there were around seventy people in this room alone. He’d seen the parking lot, but he’d underestimated the number of employees who were bused here from Vegas and Mesquite.

The number of people who dealt directly with the gas would be small in comparison. For all Boone knew, they only did the most dangerous work on the day shift in another part of the factory. They’d have to keep exploring if they wanted to know for sure.

He looked ahead at Seth, who he knew was memorizing the layout for the moment they were free. Seth’s prosthetic hand was in his coverall pocket. He’d lost his hand in an earlier skirmish with Omicron, but Harper had saved his life. And there was more going on there. Boone grinned.

Seth led him past a large break room. There were rows of tables and benches and the walls were lined with vending machines. Two big refrigerators were in the back, along with a row of microwaves.

Next, they went past a locker room, and it was crowded. Men and women were stowing lunches or purses into their lockers, and he saw a number of them putting on hairnets. Like most workplaces, there was a smattering of laughter and a lot of talk. No one took notice of him or Seth.

Finally, they reached a door that held promise. A woman walked in, using a keycard. He only caught a glimpse, but it was enough to make him curse. There was a biometric hand scanner inside, one that read fingerprints. How the hell were they going to get past that device?

He moved on, following the wall until he got to the back door. A loud alarm rang, and his heart pounded until he realized it was just the work horn. The graveyard shift had officially started.

He pushed open the door and found Seth waiting. They headed toward building two where they’d find a bathroom, lock themselves inside stalls and diagram the production line. Then they’d go through the whole exercise again, until just before dawn.

One more time, they’d race across the desert until they reached the hole in the fence. One more time, Boone would pray they wouldn’t be spotted by the security guards in the air, in the jeeps, monitoring the surveillance cameras. All he had to do was keep his eye on the goal. A lifetime with Christie where they didn’t have to hide. Where they didn’t have to be scared. Where they could finally be free.

SHE WANTED TO SLEEP FOREVER, but Tam forced herself to sit on the edge of the bed as she waited for Nate. The bath would take more energy than she had, but more than anything she needed to wash away the remnants that clung to her skin, her hair, and under her nails from what had happened tonight.

The sound of water filling the tub lulled her even closer to sleep, and she jerked up, almost falling over.

Nate walked out of the bathroom, his jacket off, his blue chambray shirtsleeves rolled above his elbows. He smiled so warmly, she managed a smile back. She only wished she could stop shaking.

“It’s ready.”

She nodded as she stood, then looked back at the bedspread. She expected to see more ash and dirt on the clean white comforter, but it wasn’t too bad. Just a couple of smudges.

“You okay?”

He stood right next to her and she leaned against him as she’d done in the car. “I’m so tired.”

“That’s shock. I’m worried that you’re going to fall asleep in the tub.”

She yawned, not even covering her mouth. Her mother would have scolded her for that, although not until they were in private. “I probably will.”

He put his hand on her waist, gripping strongly. “Maybe we should skip it. Or put you in the shower.”

“No. Just come with me. If I start to drown, pull me up by the hair.”

He didn’t answer, and his hand tightened further on her waist. She should look at him, see what was going on, but screw it. She had to get clean. As tired as she was, sleeping in her own filth held no appeal. The very idea made her skin crawl. “Come on. Let’s do it.”

He helped her into the large bathroom, and for a moment she felt disoriented. The white tile, the white towels. Everything was clean and bright. This was the real world. The kind of place she’d dreamed about in her long stay underground.

He guided her over to the commode and after he put the seat down, he seated her. “We have to get these off,” he said. His voice sounded strange, or maybe it was her ears. She wouldn’t trust anything tonight.

He lifted her arms and pulled the T-shirt over her head. She felt no embarrassment being in her bra. Or out of it. Being naked was the least of her problems. If it had been anyone else, she probably would have been more concerned, but it was Nate, and his hands were so big and so gentle. He removed her clothes as if she were a child. Lifting one foot, then the other to take off her shoes. He stood her up to get her jeans off. Smart man, he took her panties along with them.

When he had her in the buff, he walked her over to the tub and held on to her as she got in the hot water. It took a minute for her to adjust to the temperature, but he was patient. Quiet, too. Inch by inch she lay down, letting the warmth seep deep into her bones.

When she was up to her neck in water, she looked up at Nate. He wasn’t smiling, in fact, his lips were pressed so tightly together they were white. She would have asked him what was wrong, but her head went back and her eyes shut as she tried to let the horrors of the night go…for now.

She felt him sit on the edge of the tub, and she giggled with the thought that he was the best bath toy ever. Rubber ducks included. She must be losing it.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay. Uh, you want me to put some soap on the washcloth for you?”

“Sure, why not?”

He reached over her and grabbed the bar of hotel soap and then he dipped the cloth in the water. “I’ll bet you’re a real fun drunk.”

“I wouldn’t know,” she said. “I’ve never been drunk.”

“Never? Not even in college?”

“Nope.”

“Come on. I’ve met guys from MIT. They partied as hard as anyone.”

“I was too busy being a nerd,” she said. “I didn’t have a social life.”

“I can’t picture that,” he said as he leaned toward her. He pushed her hair back with his tender touch, then slowly cleaned her face with the soft cloth. “I’ll bet every guy in Cambridge was banging at your door.”

“You’d lose your money.”

“You didn’t have a boyfriend?”

“One. But he was a bigger nerd than I was. We spent all our time in the lab. We never even did it.”

His hand stilled. She could just imagine the shocked look on his face. One thing for sure, no one would ever call Nate a nerd. He was everything women swoon over—tall, dark, handsome as sin. Those green eyes of his could seduce the pants off a girl without him even trying. Not to mention the little cleft in his chin.

“Are you a virgin?”

That got her eyes open. “Would that shock you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, don’t worry. I’m not.”

“Okay, then.” He rinsed the washcloth and went over her face with it once more.

“Kate told me all about you,” she said, bliss taking over her body. “She said you surprised her.”

“Oh? How?”

“She figured you were an out-and-out hound dog, but then you turned out to be a gentleman.”

He grunted.

“No, really. She said you made no pretense about not wanting anything serious, but you weren’t only thinking of yourself. She liked you.”

“She dumped me.”

“Doesn’t matter. She thought you were hot.”

“Hot, huh?”

His hand went behind her back and she let him push her forward. He washed her back, then rinsed it, and she just sat there like a lump.

“You want your hair washed?”

She nodded.

“You got it. Now, lean back and close your eyes.”

He dipped her into the warmth, holding her steady. She thought of movies she’d seen of people being baptized. The congregants had worn white robes, but still, it was just like that, and not only because of how he held her. She had lost the last of her innocence tonight. She’d taken a life, had seen her world turn to ashes.

He lifted her back up, and then he did the most amazing thing in the whole world. He poured shampoo in his hands and he washed her hair. So gently, so wonderfully, it was miraculous, life-changing, and he just kept massaging and massaging.

“You like that?”

She made some kind of sound, something in the affirmative vein.

He chuckled and he didn’t stop.

She jerked again, and blinked. She must have fallen asleep.

“Let’s get you rinsed off and put you to bed,” he said.

“Okay,” she mumbled.

She struggled to stay awake while he rinsed the shampoo out of her hair. Then he stood her up and got her out of the tub. Instantly, there was a big fluffy towel around her, and he dried her with the same care.

He led her out of the bath and when they were next to the bed he drew back the covers.

She looked at him. “I don’t have pajamas.”

“It’s okay.”

“You don’t either.”

“That’s okay, too. I’m going to be right over there.” He nodded toward a chair by the window.

“No,” she said. “You’re sleeping with me.”

“Tam—”

She turned to him, took hold of his shirt and met his gaze. “Please?”

He didn’t answer for a second as he searched her eyes. She felt sure he was going to tell her not to be ridiculous, but then he smiled and said, “Sure.”

“Nate?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for saving me.”

“You saved yourself.”

Tam shook her head. “No. You’ve saved me every single day since I met you.”

He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Not yet,” he whispered, “but I will. I promise.”

That was good enough for her. She climbed into bed, and fell asleep.

BY THE SECOND HOUR OF the weekly status meeting, CEO Leland Ingram felt a trickle of sweat snake down his neck as he forced a laugh. Senator Jackson Raines had told a joke, a bad one, but there wasn’t a man in the room who didn’t act as if Raines was as funny as Leno.

Ingram admired the senator but he didn’t like the son of a bitch one damn bit. Still, there was no option but for Leland to smile, say the right thing at the right time and do some major ass kissing. That’s just the way it went, and Leland was nothing if not a pragmatic. He might be officially in charge of Omicron’s day-to-day business, but Raines was the guiding force behind its highly secret operation. One that benefited them both.

Raines sat in the king’s chair in the conference room. It was slightly higher, slightly bigger and at the head of the table so everyone else in the meeting would have to look up at him. The decorator who’d done this building and Omicron’s office in Colorado hadn’t understood the necessity of the king’s chair until Leland had explained it to him. Men need to know who’s boss, who has the final say. In this pansy-ass age of political correctness, it wasn’t words that communicated, it was body language, position, the king’s seat.

Raines brought in the money. Therefore, he was the king pin. He’d called the meeting for 7:00 a.m., knowing it would be difficult for the managers to get here so early. When Leland’s secretary had proposed bringing in coffee and Danish, Raines had given an emphatic no. It was all games. Games with damned high stakes.

Leland himself was the Prince Regent and soon the dynamic was going to shift in his favor. Not today. Today there were going to be fireworks. Nonetheless when the shipment went out and Leland put the money in Omicron’s secret offshore account, Raines would have to give Leland his due.

“Thank you, gentlemen,” the senator said, leaning back in his chair.

That’s all that needed to be said. The underlings moved out in an orderly fashion, taking BlackBerrys and PDAs with them, leaving Ingram to hear the private word.

When the door to the conference room closed, Leland prepared by focusing his gaze on the bridge of Raines’s nose. It would appear, from the king’s seat, as if his eyes were slightly downcast, but not subservient. That he might be receiving a dressing-down, but he wasn’t a toady.

“We didn’t get the chemist,” Raines said, his voice muted. “We didn’t get her data. And we lost three men.”

“We found her once, we’ll find her again. We know she’s still in L.A. And we destroyed the lab.”

“You found her and lost her. She could be anywhere by now. And the lab was never the problem.”

“We’re on it.”

“You’re on it?”

That was about fifteen decibels louder. By the end of the conversation, Leland fully expected to hear him roar with rage.

“What the fuck does that mean, you’re on it? Do you know where she is at this moment? Do you know if she’s still connected to that Delta Force bunch? Where’s the soldier who escaped from Colorado? What the hell kind of operation is this, that you can’t find a few grunts and a chemist?”

There it was. The roar. The voice that carried across the senate floor. Now Leland’s gaze moved down a half inch and he let his shoulders sag by the same degree. “Senator, I’ve replaced the man in charge and I believe the new man will have the Delta team within the week.”

“Based on what, exactly?”

“We’re meeting later to go over the details. I’ll give you an update first thing tomorrow.”

“I’d better have answers I can count on, Leland. We cannot have this situation exposed. The American people have a great need for the money we’re bringing in with this weapon. A great need, indeed. I will not disappoint the American people, are we clear?”

“Yes, Senator. Completely.”

“I want that update by seven.”

“Yes, sir.”

Raines leaned back and his posture eased. “Bring me up to speed on the plant.”

This was the part of the meeting Leland had been waiting for. He had no idea how in hell they were going to find the scientist or the soldiers. Eventually, they’d make a mistake and that would be that. Of course, he couldn’t say that to Raines, but he wasn’t too worried. Not yet.

Now, the plant, on the other hand, had exceeded his expectations. Putting it inside the Air Force base had been a stroke of genius, particularly as even the road leading to the perimeter fence was restricted.

Leland felt the same obligation to the citizens of this country as Raines. He wasn’t about to let the godless liberals and pantywaists put his country at risk. This country, his country, would not be subject to terrorism again. Not while he still breathed.

3

TAMARA’S GASP WOKE NATE from the first sleep he’d had in twenty-two hours, but he was instantly alert. He turned on the bedside lamp to find her eyes were wide open, her mouth, too, and she looked as panicked as a person could be and live through it.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and raised her to a sitting position. When she still didn’t look at him, he shook her gently, then not so gently. Finally, she focused, recognized him. Fell completely apart.

It killed him to hear her sobs. In all the time he’d known her, in all the horrendous situations she’d been in, she’d never wept, not like this. It was as if he were listening to a heart shatter, to a world come apart at the seams. Which, of course, it was.

She’d worked so goddamn hard on the dispersal system for the antidote to the gas. When it hadn’t worked, something had broken inside her. Although he’d tried to get her to talk about it, she wouldn’t. All he knew for sure was that she blamed herself for the failure. Shit, it would have been a miracle if it had worked.

He took her into his arms and comforted her the only way he knew how. He wasn’t accustomed to this role, well, not unless he was trying to get laid. Then he had no trouble offering up a shoulder to cry on. This was different.

As far as he was concerned, she was a soldier under his command. He didn’t take the responsibility lightly. He’d have given anything to have kept her safe. If there was anyone in the room who’d failed, it was him. He hadn’t been at the lab to protect her. His precautions weren’t sufficient. “How did they know?”

She pushed away from his shoulder to look at him through tear-filled eyes. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s not important.”

She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand, then sniffed again. “I had a bad dream.”

“I could tell,” he said, wanting to touch her, but painfully aware that she was naked and that the comforter had fallen to her waist. “Want to talk about it?”

“Not really,” she said, “but I probably should.” She gazed around the room, stopping at the window. He’d made sure the blackout curtains were closed, knowing how badly she needed to sleep. “What time is it?”

He looked at his watch. “Almost eleven.”

“In the morning, right?”

“Yeah.”

When she was settled, she pulled the comforter up, covering her breasts. He dragged his gaze up to her face. He tended to think of her as delicate because she was so petite. Though her long hair was black and straight and her eyes were darkly Asian, her skin was creamy pale, as if she’d never been in the sun. But he knew she was tough, stronger than she even realized.

“I heard someone coming down the stairs, but you hadn’t called. So I got the gun and the flash drive and I hid, you know, in that fake closet.”

The previous tenants had thought of everything, including false walls and trick doors.

“They searched the place for a long time. I heard them breaking things and cursing. I just stayed as quiet as I could.”

The words were so easily spoken, but he could just imagine how terrified she must have been. He should have been there. “When did you call me?”

She looked at him quizzically. “I didn’t have the phone. I was so busy thinking about the data, I forgot it.”

“But I got a call. From your cell.”

“Who was it?”

“That was just it. No one spoke. I answered, then I heard a gunshot.”

“There was a fire. I couldn’t stay hidden or I would have burned to death and taken the data with me. When I pushed out the wall, the man was standing right in front of me. I shot him.”

He liked to think of her as his soldier, but the truth was, she wasn’t. Before they’d met, she’d never even held a gun.

“You know,” she said, pushing her hair behind her shoulder. “I think that’s why I was able to kill him.”

“What was?”

“He hesitated. Because he was dialing the cell phone. He didn’t get his gun up quickly enough.”

“Let’s hear it for the phone company,” Nate said sardonically.

“After that, I ran. I headed straight for the stairs. I know someone was behind me, but it was so dark out there I wasn’t as afraid of him as I was of falling down an elevator shaft. I went straight to plan B, but I was sure he was going to catch me. I could practically feel the bullet in my back.”

He knew exactly what she was talking about. If anyone ever did invent eyes in the back of the head, he’d be first in line with the check. “You lost him.”

She nodded. “I don’t know how.”

“Training. That’s what it’s all about. I’m just sorry I wasn’t there sooner.”

“How could you have known?”

“The question is, how did they know? I would have expected them to find me long before you. That lab was way the hell off the radar.”

“I don’t know. I also don’t know what they took out before they torched the place.”

“Every computer in there was wired to blow without the proper access keys,” Nate assured her. “They won’t get anything important.”

“But they’ll know that I was working, and they’d have to be stupid not to realize I was all over the antidote.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true.”

“Which means…”

“That whatever they’re planning, the timetable just moved up.”

“Oh, crap,” she said, with such a heavy sigh that it made Nate laugh.

“I don’t think it’s very funny.”

“It’s not. It’s a damn tragedy. But all we can do is what we can do.”

She shook her head, looking at him seriously, as if she needed him to hear her. He lost his smile and listened.

“I don’t want to die alone,” she said.

He almost spoke, but the words had been uttered so softly, so forcefully, that he waited and thought. With her hair a wild dark tangle, her eyes puffy from crying and her skin so smooth all he wanted was to touch her, he understood clearly. It wasn’t that she was almost killed last night, or that she’d had to take a life, but that she was alone. Had been alone for months. He had Seth, Boone, Cade. They all understood exactly what it was to be a soldier. They knew what the risks were, how to cope with the unbearable stress of a mission that seemed to have no end. Even Kate and Christie were holding up their end. But Tam had been forced into a bubble, a tiny world where there was no one to lean on or to question or run her ideas by. She’d been flying solo since Kosovo, and she was exhausted.

He nodded slowly, wondering briefly how he could justify kidnapping another biochemist to work with her. That was no answer. He had none. “What can I do?”

“I’m not sure,” she said. “But you can start by taking off your clothes.”

“Pardon me?”

Her cheeks had blushed a vivid pink and her hands were twisted tightly together but she looked him right in the eyes. “I think, I hope, that I haven’t been wildly off the mark with you being attracted to me.”

He thought she was going to continue but when she just kept staring, he nodded. “Yeah.” It was an understatement, but he wasn’t exactly at his best at the moment.

“I’m attracted to you, too. And since the odds of us living long, happy lives is about one in a million, I think we should do whatever we can in whatever time we have that brings us pleasure. And happiness. And comfort.”

He ought to have some kind of reasonable argument. He was the team leader. He was responsible for her, for all of them. Having sex would complicate things in ways he couldn’t possibly foresee. But all he kept thinking was thank you, God. Thank you, thank you.

“On the other hand, if I’m totally freaking you out, we can pretend I never said a word.”

“What?”

She looked away, then back again. “Nate, cut it out. If you don’t want to, just say so.”

“Don’t want to? Oh, Tam…”

“Oh, Tam, what?” She looked down pointedly. “Naked here. Can we say vulnerable?”

“Vulnera—Shit. I’m sorry. No. I want to. I just haven’t thought about us actually, you know…”

“You haven’t thought about it? Wow. I have. A lot.”

“You have?”

She nodded. “I had a lot of time alone in that lab.”

“That’s great,” he said. “Seriously, that’s great, because I have, too.”

“But you just said—”

“Don’t listen to me. I think I had a small stroke when you asked me to take off my clothes. I’m better now.”

Her smile blossomed and it made everything in the world feel as soft and clean as the pretty white sheets. “You’re weird, but then I’ve always liked weird.”

“Thanks.”

She laughed. “So we’re just gonna talk about it?”

“Huh?”

Her eyes rolled, but she didn’t lose the grin. “I meant now.”

“Oh. Oh!”

She flopped her hands on the comforter as she shook her head. “How long has it been for you?”

His shirt was already on the floor, and he was in the middle of toeing off his socks and undoing his belt. “Doesn’t matter.”

“No?”

He shook his head as he unzipped his fly. “Nope. None of it mattered until right this minute.”

“Because…”

He slipped off his jeans and his boxers then jumped under the covers. He found her hand and squeezed it gently. “Because now it’s you.”

KATE AND VINCE HAD COME to Boone and Christie’s room at one-thirty. The new arrivals had already checked into the motel, using other names of course, and Seth and Boone had helped them put in the security devices on the front door, the windows and the telephone. Christie and Harper were working at their waitressing jobs. Cade was due in an hour via Greyhound. None of them had heard a word from Nate or Tam.

“All he said was that she’d been compromised,” Kate related. She sat on the ugly beige couch that was the twin to the one in her room. Vince was next to her, close, touching from shoulder to knee. Milo, Christie’s golden lab, had curled up near her feet.

Seth stood in the kitchen making a fresh pot of coffee and Boone sat by the small round table in the corner. Both men looked as if they hadn’t slept in a while, and she wondered what these nighttime missions were costing them.

“Christie said he sounded tense.” Boone bent forward, leaning his elbows on his thighs. “She didn’t think Tam was taken, but maybe she was hurt.”

“That might explain why we haven’t heard anything.”

“Maybe.”

Seth came back into the room. He seemed a lot more comfortable with his prosthetic claw, and Kate figured doing his job again had made the difference. Truth be known, she still felt guilty that he’d lost his hand fighting to save her life. It didn’t seem to matter that it was Omicron bullets that had blown his hand almost all the way off. The guilt was hers and his new ease with his prosthesis didn’t take it away. At least he had Harper now. Kate hadn’t seen them for a couple of weeks, but she’d heard they were doing great.

“I don’t like it,” Vince said. “If we don’t hear soon, we’re going to have to make some decisions.”

“Like what?” Kate asked.

“Like what to do if they don’t come back.”

Kate shook her head. “They’ll be here. Nate wouldn’t let them get her, not Tam.” She turned to Boone and Seth. “What do you guys need us to do?”

Seth smiled. “Robbing a bank would be most helpful.”

Vince laughed. “I could probably pull it off, but man, don’t let ’em send me to an L.A. court.” Vince had been a detective in L.A. for over ten years.

“Seriously,” Boone said. “What we need most now is cash. Christie and Harper are working double shifts at that damn truck stop, but the tips aren’t that great.”

“I suppose,” Vince asked, “that Harper can’t let anyone know she’s a doctor.”

“Nope. Too chancy. We’re stuck paying for these rooms.” Seth got up again and poured himself a cup of coffee. He looked around questioningly, but no one else wanted any. “We thought about renting a house, but we haven’t found anywhere we could all stay that’s discreet enough. We’re too damn close to the Omicron plant to take any risks.”

“We’ll find jobs,” Kate assured him.

“No, wait,” Vince said, turning to look at her. “We’ve got some cash. I think we should put all our energy on breaking Omicron’s back. Waiting tables isn’t going to bring in enough to make a difference anyway.”

“Are you sure?” Kate asked.

“I’m sure.”

Seth frowned. “What are we talking about here? A couple thousand…”

“Over a hundred thousand,” Vince said. “And I can get it here without it being traced or reported to the government.”

Seth’s brows lifted in surprise. “Good man.”

“Selfish man.” Vince nodded at Kate. “I want her safe. That’s all that matters.”

Kate squeezed his hand, but caught Boone looking suspiciously hungry.

“So how long until the money can be here?” Boone asked.

“Already?” Kate was teasing. She knew exactly how desperate the money situation was. Besides, she was so busy being proud of Vince she could barely hide her grin. Man, was he ever going to get lucky tonight.

“There’s a room in the plant that has a biometric scanner to gain entry,” Boone said. “We’re pretty sure it’s where the gas is either stored or poured. Either way, we need access.”

“You mean it reads fingerprints?” she asked.

Seth nodded.

“How are you going to get past that? Aside from borrowing someone’s hand?”

Boone smiled. “Well, now that you mention it, Katie, that’s exactly what we intend to do. But, we’ll need some cash to pull it off.”

TAM LET THE COMFORTER fall once more to her waist as she moved closer to Nate. It took her a minute to get her breathing under control after that last statement. It hadn’t even been the lovely words. It was how deeply he’d meant them.

She’d known for a long time that he wanted her, but she thought it was because she was simply there. Because he had so few options. Her mind couldn’t quite grasp that she’d been so very, very wrong.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. He scooted closer to her, and she felt his naked skin brush against hers.

“I’m not very good at this kind of thing.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re perfect.”

“We haven’t done anything yet.”

He smiled. “Trust me. You’re perfect.”

She knew it was a line, but what the hell. She’d told him the truth about why she wanted this. She needed to be close to someone, to feel alive again. But she hadn’t told him everything.

He leaned in and she knew this was it. If he kissed her, it would change things forever. She still had a moment to call things off.

She parted her lips and closed her eyes.

His mouth brushed against hers. Soft lips, warm breath, slightly cautious. He didn’t press, just skimmed lightly, letting her get comfortable, she supposed.

It wasn’t what she wanted, however well intentioned. There was only one thing to do about that. She put her hand behind his neck, held him steady, and kissed him. Hard. Exactly the way she’d fantasized for all those months.

He got with the program right quick. His tongue slipped past her teeth, and he took over. That was fine with her. She moved her hand down his back then across his shoulders, amazed at the feel of him. She’d never been with a soldier before, or anyone who looked remotely like they could have been one. Nate’s body was like something out of a movie or a magazine. Wide shoulders, perfectly sculpted abs, slim waist and hips, long legs.

God, she had to stop thinking about it or she’d be too self-conscious to do another thing.

Besides, it was much more fun to enjoy the wonderful things he was doing to her mouth. She’d always loved kissing, but in theory, not in practice. With Nate, she was in the advanced course, and it was immediately clear that he had a lot to teach her.

Take the way he nipped her lower lip. It hurt, but not in a bad way. Then there was his tongue which got hard and pointy, then soft, then hard again. He explored her carefully and gave her the courage to explore right back.

The moment she ventured out with her own tongue, he sucked it into his mouth. It sent shivers down her body, and she could only deduce that if he was this good at kissing, he’d be freakin’ amazing at everything else.

He pulled back, and she was about to complain, but then he kicked off the covers so she was able to see him all over. That chest. It was stunning. Just enough dark hair to make him manly, not carpeted. Her gaze moved down, and oh—

He moved a hand to her shoulder to ease her down, but she batted it away. She’d seen penises before. But this was a whole new ball game. So to speak.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m impressed.”

He looked down. “That old thing? I’ve had it for years.”

She laughed, but she didn’t look away.

“Come on, Tam. It’s not that big a deal.”

“Yes, it is. It’s just so, well, hard.”

He laughed this time. “Who the hell have you been with?”

“Clearly the wrong men.”

He didn’t just laugh this time. His head went back and he laughed so loud she was sure the people in the next room heard.

“I’m not joking.”

He sighed out loud as he pulled her in for another kiss. When he pulled back, he met her gaze with smiling eyes. “I know. I know, and you’re amazing, so look where you want, touch what you feel like and don’t mind me. I’ll love it all.”

“Really?”

He nodded.

She grinned as she scooted down the bed. When she looked up at him again, the laughter had left his eyes. But he didn’t stop her.

4

NATE WASN’T SURE WHAT he was supposed to do. This wasn’t going according to any of his usual scripts. Most of the time, he took the lead. He was a big, tough soldier after all, and the ladies really seemed to like that. From time to time the lady in question would want to show him her colors, which was also fine by him. This experience was something completely different.

Tam had crawled under the covers and moved things around so that the comforter draped him from the waist down. All he could see of her was an undulating lump moving toward his groin. Maybe he should have been a bit more specific about the whole touching thing.

He had to fight the urge to throw back the covers, or at the very least move. She’d looked happy. Excited. More importantly, distracted.

He knew this was a risky venture. One he probably should have nipped in the bud. There was no way he could justify his actions as purely selfless. But he wasn’t being a total bastard, either.

Tam was right. If they’d found her once, they could find her again. The odds of survival shrunk daily, and even if they did make it, running from Omicron was as stressful as any wartime scenario. She didn’t want to be alone. He didn’t, either. Even if all the sex did was offer a distraction, that was enough. In fact, it was—“Shit.”

She’d taken his cock in hand, and she hadn’t been a delicate flower about it. “Hey, take it easy down there.”

He heard a muffled giggle, then she moved her hand up his shaft.

His eyes closed at the sensation of someone else’s hand rubbing him. It had been a long time. Too long. More than that, it was Tamara’s hand, and he’d had too many dreams about this to be a hundred percent sure he wouldn’t wake up any second.

Her soft palm moved down again, then all the way up to the incredibly sensitive glans. There was no choice but to move. It felt so amazingly good he was worried that things might end prematurely. “Tam?”

She didn’t answer. She just kept rubbing. When her other hand cupped his balls, he nearly jumped off the bed. He threw back the covers and she looked at him with brown eyes filled with mischief. Not terror, not sadness. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No. I just wanted to see you.”

“Okay,” she said. “I was gonna come out in a second anyway.”

“Curiosity sated?”

“Not even close.” She let him go and slithered up the sheet until her head was on her pillow. “I’ve been looking in test tubes for too long. Humans seem so fascinating.”

He shifted until he was on his side, head on his hand, his eyes about level with hers. “Humans, huh?”

She nodded. “In particular, human male soldiers who have dark brown hair and green eyes, and have sneaky little clefts in their chins.”

“Lucky me, I seem to fit the criteria.”

She nodded again as she searched his face. “Do me a favor?”

“Anything.”

“If this is a pity screw, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”

“Pity? What are you, high?”

“Good answer.”

“Not a line.”

“I know,” she said. “Now you need to give me another good answer.”

“What’s the question?”

“Do you have a condom?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

“I think it’s time to get it.”

He leaned over and kissed her soft, plush lips, then turned over to fetch his jeans from the floor. In his back pocket there was a smaller pocket, and in that were two condoms. He left one because they couldn’t stay here indefinitely no matter how much he wanted to.

When he turned back to Tam, she was nibbling on her lower lip, something he’d seen her do in the lab when faced with a problem. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“You know we can stop this right here,” he said.

“I don’t want to stop.”

“But you’re worried.”

“I just think too much.” She put her arms over her head and closed her eyes. “Make me stop. Please.”

He couldn’t do anything but stare at her. When he’d first met her in Kosovo, he hadn’t thought that much about her. He hadn’t thought of her as a great beauty, although he’d found her attractive, and she hadn’t been a particularly memorable conversationalist. He’d been shocked when he found out she was a biochemist, and a brilliant one.

As he’d come to know her over the last year, she’d become more and more beautiful to him, so much so that there were times he’d had to turn away. Maybe it was her mixed Asian-American heritage that made her loveliness so subtle, but he doubted it. Back in Kosovo, he just hadn’t been paying attention.

There had been nights when the thought of her face alone had kept him going. When he looked at her now, so trusting, he wanted her so badly he trembled.

“Nate?”

Her eyes had opened and she looked at him expectantly. He still held the condom in his hand. “One sec.” He brought the small packet to his teeth and ripped it open. Oddly, he felt a little embarrassed putting it on. Maybe because he was so goddamned turned on he was afraid he’d blow it any second.

He kept it together long enough to make it safe. Long enough to pull Tam into his arms and kiss her. It wasn’t going to be one of those record-breaking marathons. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to last until she came. So he needed to make sure she came first.

He touched her face as he kissed her, moving in slow motion. His fingers trailed down her jaw, her neck, the tender skin above her breasts.

He kissed her hard and touched her softly, then squeezed her breast as he brushed her lips with his. It was all sensation and heat and the noises she made at the back of her throat. His world became the way her nipple hardened against his palm, the feel of her ribs.

He floated as he pressed his hand flat on her stomach, as he breathed in her soft gasp. Tiny fireworks went off behind his closed eyes and each sensation made him ache that he’d never again feel it for the first time.

He moaned as she touched the nape of his neck, as her long, slim fingers skimmed his shoulder.

When he slipped his own fingers down past her mound and onto her puffy lips, he drew back, wanting to watch her face as he dipped into her, as he found her clit.

Her mouth opened, her eyelids fluttered and her pale cheeks turned pink. So responsive. She arched her back, her hips moved, her legs parted and the sound she’d held back came out—a low moan that made him want to slay dragons.

He moved his finger faster now, needing her to come a lot more quickly than he should. She had to do it soon, or he would never make it. To miss being inside her was too much to ask. He just wasn’t that noble.

Tam pointed her toes as the muscles in her legs tightened. It was the beginning of her climax, and she wasn’t sure how she’d gotten there. She was an expert in getting herself off. Living in an underground lab for a year would do that to a person, but this wasn’t anything like her solo sessions.

It wasn’t just the kissing, but oh, God, the kissing was amazing. She’d thought about Nate’s lips a lot, wondering how they would feel, and if he had some magic moves that had made all his conquests fall at his feet. The answer turned out to be yes. And the moves didn’t stop with his lips.

How was it possible he was better at this than any other man? He knew exactly how to use his fingers. How much pressure, how fast to move, when to ease up. It was wonderful. Just like she’d imagined only much better.

She gripped his shoulder with one hand, the back of his hair with the other as she prepared to come, her eyes closed tightly, she arched as she slammed into gear.

It was always like that for her—one second anticipation, the next, bam, she was gone. She always had to stop, move her hand away from any sensitive spots, and Nate did that, too. Only he didn’t flop on his back and breathe hard, like she was doing. He sat up and grabbed a pillow from the bed. His arm went under her thighs and he lifted her whole bottom half to shove the pillow beneath her butt.

Her eyes had opened during that move, and widened as he settled between her legs. He looked so big staring down at her, and so damn sexy.

Without warning, he thrust himself inside her so hard the whole bed moved. She cried out but not because it hurt or anything. God, no. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. He filled her, lifted her and she would swear that he made her come all over again.

All she could do was go along for the ride. His expression was so intense his teeth had clamped tightly together. She grabbed onto his shoulders, and the muscles she felt made her look. Cords of tendons stood out, his biceps bulged. His nipples were hard and his chest heaved with every thrust. It was all so unreal, and he was so gorgeous, it didn’t even feel like her life.

The only guys she’d ever been with had treated her carefully, as if she’d break or something, but not Nate. The gentleness he’d shown her in the tub and with his kisses had gone, leaving only the warrior.

He grunted as he sat up, as he lifted her legs and put one on each shoulder. Then he leaned over her again, bending her almost in two.

She grabbed on to the sheets as he thrust, as he turned her body into a quivering, trembling mess. It was unbelievable, totally outside anything she’d ever felt in her whole life.

He plowed into her one more time, then froze as he came, his neck long and tight, his forehead beaded with sweat, his growl low and long and thrilling.

Finally, he relaxed. He kissed her, but only for a second, then eased back, letting her legs fall to the bed. He pulled out the pillow, and then he fell heavily on his back next to her.

For long minutes, all they did was breathe hard. She gradually became aware of his hip touching hers, of her foot against his calf.

He took her hand in his and squeezed it. “You okay?”

“Oh, yes.”

“I didn’t hurt you?”

“No. Not even a little.”

He sighed. “Good.”

She turned to look at him. His chest rose and fell rapidly, his eyes were closed and his hair was wet with sweat. He was the best looking man she’d ever seen.

She had no idea what time it was, or how long they’d been awake. All she knew was that from the moment he’d touched her cheek, she’d forgotten all about last night. The rest of the world and all the horrors it held had disappeared. He’d taken her places she’d never been, and for that, she’d be grateful forever.

She knew it was just sex. She also knew that sometimes just sex was just perfect. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He looked at her. “To say it was my pleasure is an incredible understatement.”

She grinned and felt stupidly proud. “Cool.”

He chuckled and squeezed her hand again.

NATE TOOK A MILITARY shower—get wet, lather up, rinse off, do it again, done in five minutes. He did it alone. Not because he didn’t want to shower with Tam. He did. But they had to get out of here, and be quick about it.

As soon as he’d come out of his sex-induced coma, he’d called Seth, who’d given him a choice piece of his mind for worrying them all so much. The whole team had assembled in that crappy, out-of-the-way motel. Nate told him he and Tam would be there in about six hours. Time to get dressed, leave L.A., get something to eat. Then drive the damn speed limit all the way past Vegas.

He missed speeding. He used to do it all the time, before getting pulled over could have deadly consequences. His name was in every database—one call in from a highway cop could end it all. He missed having a private life too, but today had shown him once again that his first responsibility was to the team. To the mission.

Being with Tam had been fucking unbelievable. He wanted nothing more than to be with her again and again. But that wasn’t going to happen.

He’d freaked Seth out. They’d all been worried sick that he and Tam had been captured or killed. None of them needed that kind of anxiety, especially not from him.

He dried himself off and put on his clothes, hoping Tam would understand. It wasn’t that he regretted his actions, but he should have called Seth and warned him about the delay. The whole episode had confirmed what he’d suspected for months. He liked Tam too much. While he’d been busy distracting her from the nightmare she’d survived, she’d distracted him from his command.

He went back into the main room, where he saw Tam waiting on the bed. She had her clothes on her lap. All the joy had left her face, and she seemed haunted once more.

She needed time, that’s all. Time and a purpose. He’d see to that. But first, he’d get her the hell out of Los Angeles. Not that she wouldn’t be in danger in Nevada. There would be no real rest until they’d won this fight.

“It’s all yours,” he said.

“I won’t be long.”

He nodded, then turned away as she walked naked to the bathroom. It would have been a whole hell of a lot easier if he didn’t like her so much. After it was all over, he’d have to see about this. See if what he felt for her was the real deal, or just a matter of circumstance.

For now, he had only one thing he could focus on. Exposing Omicron. Nothing else mattered.

While Tam showered, he passed the time cleaning his gun, and thinking about what came next.

THE SHOWER FELT WONDERFUL, and so did the big fluffy towel as Tam dried off, but putting on her only clothes nearly made her weep.

They smelled of smoke and fear. It was just a T-shirt and jeans, and they would be fine after a wash, but she wanted more than anything to throw them away. She didn’t even have clean underwear. She had ditched those, choosing to go commando, and she’d turned her socks inside out, but it all felt wrong.

Was there money to get her new things? Probably not after they paid for the hotel room. Why had he brought her here? This place had to cost at least a hundred a night.

She wiped a clear spot on the mirror, and sighed as she got a load of her hair. She had no brush. No toothbrush. Nothing except the clothes on her back and a flash drive.

Using her fingers, she tried to make her hair obey, but it was no use. Then she rinsed her mouth out with water, and scrubbed her teeth with her finger, and that was even less successful than her finger comb.

She left the bathroom, and there was Nate standing by the door. He seemed impatient, and she felt the heat rise in her cheeks. She wasn’t sure why she was embarrassed. It wasn’t because of what they’d done. No, that had been the best thing she’d done in ages. Something else was going on, but she couldn’t pinpoint it. Not yet.

“You ready?”

She nodded. “I’d really appreciate it if we could stop at a gas station with a mini-mart. I need a toothbrush and a few other things.”

“You got it.”

She looked at him again, at his businesslike tone and she had to know. “Are you sorry?”

His shoulders sagged and he walked right up to her. He lifted her chin so he could look her straight in the eyes. “No. Don’t ever think that. I haven’t felt that wonderful in so long, I can’t even tell you. But I should have called the team. They were worried.”

“I understand.”

He hesitated, then he leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. “I’ll never forget this.”

She smiled, but his words didn’t comfort. She would have pressed, but they needed to go. And she needed to think.

What did she want from him? She’d asked him to help her forget, and he’d done just that. She’d figured since it had been so great that they’d do it again. But that was an assumption she needed to examine.

He opened the door and she knew the moment she stepped into the hallway that she had to give up her little fantasy. She wasn’t at all sure what would come next, just that what had prompted her to proposition him in the first place was still true. She didn’t want to die alone.

Now she had to wonder if she’d meant she needed someone, or if she’d meant she’d needed Nate.

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