Chapter Eleven
Greg Jordan climbed stealthily down from the tree where he’d been perched for three hours. He’d watched carefully while men in phony utility uniforms scoured the neighborhood and been edgy when he saw that another team had been put in place. But more luck fell his way. Or so he thought. Everyone was pulled to a wide perimeter, leaving the area around Latrobe’s house wide open.
Stupid. I thought these people were smarter than this.
Then he chuckled to himself. They didn’t expect someone as smart as he was to show up. Their mistake.
Knowing the people next door to Latrobe didn’t come home from work until late, he’d climbed up as soon as the area was clear. His opportunity would come as soon as the back door opened to let that infernal dog out.
It didn’t matter to him who opened it. If it was the woman, he’d shoot her, then get Latrobe when he came to help her. If it was Latrobe, one shot and he’d be done.
But that damn dog had ruined everything. He couldn’t afford to stay around to take another shot. Latrobe would be calling in the troops. Besides, the alarm would be reset by now, and he didn’t want to hit one of the sensors.
Time for him to get lost.
He harbored no illusions that the man who’d put this all together would take the news kindly. But it was time to cut his losses and let someone else chase Latrobe. This hadn’t been part of the deal anyway. He needed out and right away.
Just to protect himself, he’d transferred the money he’d been paid three times, and it now sat waiting for him in a safe place. All he needed was to get out of the country and live long enough to spend it.
Disassembling the rifle, he zipped it into its canvas bag and tucked it under his windbreaker. Forcing himself to walk slowly, he made his way to his car at the end of the street. He knew Latrobe’s men would be hitting the area any minute. Looking carefully to make sure no one was paying attention to him, he cranked the engine and pulled away from the curb.
He didn’t draw a full breath until he was out of the neighborhood and headed toward the interstate.
*****
Dan Romeo still had his cell phone clapped to his ear when he and Mike entered Rick’s house. He didn’t appear any too happy about the call he was on.
“No, Charlie,” he was saying, “I’m not trying to blow you off. I realize how serious this is. Someone just tried to kill Rick for the third time, so you can believe I’m taking this seriously.” He paused. “You can forget that. No way am I making him available to the alphabet guys. He’ll be a sitting target. Uh-huh.” Another pause. “I said I’ll handle it, damn it. Go take your medication and lie down.”
He disconnected the call and walked over to where Rick and Kelly were scrambling up from the floor, Xena standing protectively in front of them.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s have it.”
While Rick talked, Mike was busy digging the bullets out of the laundry-room wall.
“It’s a .50-caliber slug,” he told them, walking into the kitchen with them in the palm of his hand. “That could fit a lot of rifles.”
“That’s a lot of firepower for close range,” Rick said. “He didn’t just want to kill us. He wanted to pulverize us.”
“Whoever he is,” Dan added, “he wasn’t taking any chances this time.” He punched more numbers into his cell. When he hung up, he said, “People will be searching the neighborhood in less than ten. We had one team in a meeting nearby.”
“They won’t find anything,” Rick argued.
“You never know what these guys can find.”
Kelly had made fresh coffee and filled a mug for everyone. Now she sat at the kitchen table, trying to keep from shaking, Xena pressed against her leg. The last thing she wanted was for these men to think she was a wimp. Rick needed her. Her and Xena. She didn’t want to be left out because they didn’t think she could cut it.
Rick slanted his eyes at her, reached over, and covered her hand with his.
“You okay, Red?” he asked in a soft voice.
She nodded. “I’m fine.” When he quirked an eyebrow at her she said, “Really. Totally okay.” She forced a smile. “Xena was right on again, you know.”
He put his mouth close to her ear. “I might have to marry you just to get Xena.”
Kelly started. “M-marry?” She stumbled over the word. “Did you just say what I thought you did?”
Rick pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “I’ll say it again, just in case you misunderstood. I want to marry you. I know this is fast, but time is precious. The best decisions I’ve ever made are the split-second ones. You never know when you’ll lose it, and I’m not about to waste it. I want you in my life, Red.”
“Ohmigod.”
“Don’t answer me now because you might say no. But when this is all over, that’s first on my agenda.”
A warm feeling flooded her, and for a moment she couldn’t breathe. He wanted to marry her! Ohmigod! She knew she was blushing and lowered her eyes, but not before she saw Rick wink at her and turn back to Mark.
Dan brought his coffee and sat down opposite her. He studied her face for what seemed to her an interminable moment. “Kelly, we have to make some decisions here, and you’re going to have to be part of them.”
“That’s not a problem.” She took a healthy sip of the hot liquid. “Xena and I will go wherever Rick does.”
“She comes with a handgun and rifle, too.” Rick gave them a small grin, trying to lighten a very heavy situation. “And if it hadn’t been for Xena, neither of us would be alive right now.”
“Okay,” Dan told them. “Here’s the deal. Rick, you know I said earlier we need to keep you away from the feds because you were the point man for the Iraq shipment that disappeared. We wanted to have more time to dig into this before you had to answer any questions. That’s why we’re moving you out of here.”
Rick nodded slowly. “And I agreed, although I’m not happy about it.”
“I don’t know any other way to say this except straight out. The feds think you’re the one who stole the shipment and sold it to some rebel group in Iraq. The one operating in the northern corner of the country. And they’re yanking Charlie Grainger’s chain to put pressure on us to produce you.”
“What?” Rick rose from his chair, his face red with anger, his fists clenched.
“Sit down,” Dan ordered in a quiet voice. “That’s just someone making noise. No one who knows you really thinks you did this. Least of all us. But it’s all over the press, and the story just keeps feeding on itself.”
Rick slowly lowered himself into the chair again, conscious of Kelly’s soft hand on his arm. “I want to meet with these assholes. And set them straight.”
“Absolutely not. We want you as far away from them as possible.”
“But Dan, this reflects on the agency, too. This could mean trouble for everyone.”
“You let me worry about that. Meanwhile we’ll go ahead with the plans we made earlier today. Mike’s got the chopper stashed away from our airfield, just in case someone is still watching there. He’ll fly all of you up to the cabin.”
Rick smacked his hand on the table, jarring his mug. “Now that you tell me the real skinny, I’m not so sure I want to leave. I refuse to run away from this.”
“Rick.” Kelly’s voice was low but firm. “Listen to Dan. This is the best thing for us. It gets you away from the shooters, the federal agents, and the media. And gives your partners time to get to the bottom of this.” She looked at Dan. “Rick wasn’t too forthcoming this afternoon. Where is this cabin we’re going to?”
Dan forced a grin. “A little-known fact in your life. There’s a road about half a mile past your farm that goes up to the top of the cliff.”
“I know that road,” she interrupted. “It goes nowhere. I think it’s used as a takeoff and landing spot for Search and Rescue.”
The men all exchanged a look.
“If that’s what you think, then we’re doing a damn good job,” Rick told her. “We own a cabin at the top of that cliff that we use for planning missions and hiding out when we need to.”
Kelly gave him a startled look. “You’re kidding. I’ve lived there all my life. I think I would have known if something was going on up there.”
“Like Rick said,” Dan put in. “We’re obviously doing a good job at camouflage. We’ve been using it for years.”
“That’s where we brought Mark when we pulled him out of the terrorist camp in Peru,” Rick went on. “And where Mia and Dan went after . . . their little episode.”
Rick looked at Kelly, then at Dan. “She stays with me, right? Her and Xena?”
“Absolutely. That’s the plan.”
“I’d be able to check on the farm, too,” Kelly pointed out. “Even though all the dogs are gone, I want to make sure everything’s okay.”
“Actually,” Dan looked at Rick and back at her, “that’s a good thing because you’ll need to make whatever arrangements you can to close the kennel temporarily. There’s a possibility whoever this is may have identified you. If so, the first place they’ll look when they can’t find Rick is the farm.”
Kelly felt the blood drain from her face. “Are you serious? But that means the cabin might not be safe, either.”
“You said yourself—you live practically in our front yard, and you didn’t even know it existed. So that’s not a problem.”
She had planned to make some sandwiches since they hadn’t gotten around to dinner, but suddenly Kelly lost her appetite. She pushed her chair back from the table.
“Can you have someone just check to make sure everything’s locked up and the alarms are set? I don’t want to ask either of the people who work for me to do it and possibly put them in danger.”
Dan nodded. “Just give us the codes, and we’ll take care of it.”
*****
“I need to speak to your father.”
The disembodied voice at the other end of the call made Zarife’s stomach cramp.
“About what? He’s unavailable at the moment.”
“Because I had you tell him to be. But something else has come up.”
Zarife clutched his phone tighter. He wondered if he wished himself on another planet, it would happen. “What else could possibly happen now?”
“Rick Latrobe is still alive, a situation that has to be rectified immediately.”
“And what exactly do you expect my father to do about it?” Zarife asked, a terrible feeling of disaster sweeping over him.
“I expect your father to reach out to his contacts in this country and get the job done. Before Latrobe remembers what we want him to forget, and before the government gets hold of him.”
“Surely you have people who do that sort of thing,” Zarife said.
“I can’t reach out to any more people on this. There are too many involved as it is. But I may have something that will help you.”
“And what would that be?”
“Jordan e-mailed me a photo of a woman and a dog. They arrived at Latrobe’s house with him and apparently were with him wherever he was taken after Baghdad. I’m tracing her now. When she’s identified, she may lead you to Latrobe. Then she will need to be eliminated also.”
“But I can’t—”
“I don’t want to hear it. Anyway, I thought killing was second nature to all you people.”
At the words all you people, anger replaced fear in Zarife’s body. If it had been within his power, he would have found this man and . . . No. He needed to keep focused.
“I have men here who can handle all of this,” Zarife began.
“I know all about your men here,” the man interrupted. “We had this discussion before Latrobe went back to Iraq. They didn’t get the job done then, either. You get hold of your father and give him this number. It will only be good once, so don’t screw around with it. Do it now.”
Zarife began to protest again, but he realized he was talking to empty air. The man had hung up.
*****
“Getting you out of here is going to be the tricky part,” Dan said. “We don’t know how many pairs of eyes are watching, so we can’t just walk you out the front door.”
“Especially with Xena and me,” Kelly pointed out. “We aren’t exactly hard to miss.”
“Exactly. So we need a plan to get you to where Mike has the helicopter. Then he’ll fly you up to Maine.”
She nodded. “I know you don’t want me near the farm, but if I’m going to be away for any length of time, I do need to get some personal things. I didn’t expect to be here even this long.”
“All right,” Dan agreed. “Let me think how we’ll do this.”
Kelly looked at the grim expression on Rick’s face and the worry in Dan’s eyes and held up her hands. “Never mind. Except for dog food I’m good.” She smiled at Rick, trying to soften the look in his eyes.
“We’ll take care of it,” Dan assured her and opened his cell phone.
“I don’t suppose anyone’s located Greg Jordan, have they?” Rick asked.
“No, but we’re hoping you can do it from the cabin,” Mike told him. “All you need is a secure phone, your computer, and your list of contacts.”
“That bastard thinks he can disappear off the face of the earth, but he’s wrong.” A muscle twitched in Rick’s cheek. “I’ll run him to ground wherever he is. You can take that to the bank.”
“All right, then. We’d better figure out how we’re going to do this.”
*****
“I have my own problems,” al-Dulami told his son. “I can’t be involved in what’s happening over there.”
“But you are involved,” Zarife said. “They will find out who took the weapons, they will find out about me, and we will all be in trouble.”
“Not if you don’t lose your nerve.”
“It isn’t a matter of nerve,” Zarife insisted. “We must get rid of this man. When he figures out the link, he will take us all down.”
“My sources tell me Jordan has disappeared. Is that true?”
“Yes. As the Americans say, he has bailed on us.”
Al-Dulami cursed softly. “When this is finished, there won’t be a place in the world he can hide from us. I promise you.”
“Latrobe has a woman with him,” Zarife said. “And a giant dog. Not like anything I’ve ever seen before. Before he disappeared, Jordan took her picture and did a search on her.”
“And?” Zarife sighed. “Another problem. Let me tell you about this woman and her dog.”
*****
The man who had put this all in motion sat in his den with the afternoon sunlight filtering weakly through his window. He’d left his office early, telling his secretary he had some personal business to take care of.
Personal business. It certainly was that.
Fortunately his wife was at a spa for two days. Both their children were away at college, so there was no chance of them disturbing him or asking what he was doing home at this unusual hour.
In front of him on the desk was a Baccarat crystal tumbler filled with ice cubes and Jack Daniel’s Black, his favorite Kentucky, aged whiskey. He wasn’t normally a man to whom alcohol was attractive, usually only allowing himself the occasional social drink or a shot of Jack Black in honor of some special occasion. But today he didn’t think the entire bottle would be enough to blot out his troubles.
It had all seemed so simple in the beginning. He’d taken months to study the scene in the Middle East, checking out each and every possible buyer, looking for the right connection where the buyer would require as much secrecy as he did. And have the extensive cash available to pay him. Very quietly, he’d done his research and zeroed in on the al-Dulami family. It helped, of course, that he’d stumbled across Zarife al-Dulami, a seemingly harmless engineer who was doing his own sub-rosa work, searching out resources for his family, which was looking to regain its former glory.
Greg Jordan had been the frosting on the cake. Through him he’d managed the whole thing without ever having to reveal his identity. Collect the money. Deliver the goods. And he was home free.
But then Jordan had made a mistake that apparently was going to collapse the whole thing. He’d thought the man performed better than that. Helping him disappear had been the smartest thing to do, because idiot that he was, Jordan had still hidden an insurance policy—evidence that would point directly to him. Otherwise he would have disposed of Jordan when he screwed up the Latrobe killing.
Well, there’ll be plenty of time for that later on. After he figured out how to retrieve the incriminating papers.
Why had he chased money he didn’t even need? He was secure in the life he’d bought for himself. Why had he let that devil, greed, goad him into this? At first it had just been the renewed thrill of planning, the danger inherent in the project. Then the greed had taken over. No matter how much he had, he always wanted more. He should have used his head, but it apparently was on vacation.
He looked at the computer printout on his desk. Kelly Monroe and her wonder dog. He’d heard about Caucasian Ovcharkas. One-owner dogs. Brave and fearless. He knew that unless they were properly socialized and trained, they were ferocious animals, sometimes unmanageable. They considered every part of the owner’s family to be their family and would fight viciously to protect all of them. The dog’s presence could seriously complicate things. Especially with their rumored psychic link to their owner.
And apparently Kelly Monroe, dog trainer, and the big Ovcharka were Latrobe’s new guardians. The damn dog had certainly screwed up Jordan’s attempt with the rifle.
He’d forced Zarife to call his father and tell him to get his ass in gear, to call his contacts in the States and get him a first-class assassin. But he needed a way to neutralize the woman and her dog. Something that would take her away from Latrobe and leave him protected only by normal human beings.
Tapping his fingers on the desk, he sipped at his whiskey. He had an idea, but it meant bringing yet another person into the equation, one more person who could expose him, bring him down. Well, it couldn’t be helped.
Swallowing a healthy taste of the liquor, he unlocked the side drawer in his desk and pulled out a thin book with phone numbers. In for a penny, in for a pound, he guessed, as he dialed a number.
*****
“We’ll use your shiny new Navigator,” Dan said. “It’s just sitting in the garage. And no one’s seen it, so it’s pretty innocuous. We’ll load from there.”
Kelly and Rick stood in the front hall, each with a duffel bag at their feet, Kelly holding her rifle, her H&K tucked into the small of her back. Rick had his Glock in the pocket of his windbreaker. Xena sat at their feet, watching and waiting.
“I want Xena to check everything out first,” Kelly told them.
“Good idea.” Dan opened the door leading into the garage.
Kelly leaned down and took Xena’s head between her palms, her eyes looking directly into the dog’s. The connection between dog and woman was obvious to everyone watching.
Seek the danger. Protect Rick.
I will.
She whispered in Xena’s ear, signaled her with her hand, then gestured toward the garage.
Xena loped down the two steps and began patrolling the area, sniffing at everything. Slowly she paced around each vehicle, looking for all the world like a four-footed, gigantic inspector checking for defects. Finally she went back to the bottom of the steps, looked at Kelly and Rick and emitted a single bark.
“I may have to put her on salary,” Dan joked. “Okay, folks. Let’s do this.”
Rick had set the timer for the lights so the house would not be dark at night. Now he set the alarm, and they all piled into the car, rolling quietly through the neighborhood, all eyes alert for an appearance of anything out of the ordinary. In ten minutes they were on the interstate, heading for the chopper.
“Is it far from here?” Kelly asked.
“We’ll be there in just a few minutes,” Mike answered.
Twenty minutes later they turned off the highway onto a two-lane road that ended at what looked to Kelly like a country airfield. Off to one side was a two-story house, lights glowing in the windows. The helicopter stood straight ahead of them.
“Place belongs to an old friend of mine,” Mike told them. “I use it when I want to be under the radar.”
Troy was waiting for them with supplies—a small first-aid kit with extra pain medication for Rick, more of the antibiotic medication for his healing wound, and enough dog food to feed a complete kennel.
“You certainly are taking good care of my dog.” Kelly tried to smile.
“I’m not worried about Xena,” he told her. “She’s got the best money could buy.”
“But you are worried about Rick.”
“Not really. He’s got an amazing healing factor. Any other man would still be flat on his back. But it never hurts to do what you can to give his natural healing powers a boost.”
Kelly hesitated before asking the question that kept bumping around in her mind. “Is-is he going to be all right?”
Troy squeezed her shoulder. “It’ll take more than a bullet to kill him. He heals amazingly fast. He’ll be fine. Promise.”
Mike hustled them into the waiting helo. Even Xena seemed to sense the urgency of the moment, leaping into the cabin and settling in a rear seat.
“I wish some of the people I know were half as smart as she is,” Dan commented, a wry smile on his face.”
When they were all inside the bird, he closed the cabin door and backed away. He and Troy stood by the Navigator as the rotors whined then settled into the familiar rhythm and the chopper lifted into the air. Although Mike had headphones for everyone, no one had much to say as they flew up the coast in the darkness, the Atlantic Ocean a black carpet beneath them.
Still gripped with tension from the shooting, Kelly could only sit in silence, watching the lights of the cities they passed like a million flashlights winking at them. In a very short amount of time her life had taken such a dramatic turn she was still having trouble processing it. How long would it be before things were any different?
She had no idea how much time had passed before Mike punched a button on a remote and lights flashed on below them, illuminating a cleared space on a bluff. He circled in toward the left and set the chopper down with a minimum of fuss.
Rick eased himself out of the cabin, then held out his hand to her.
“I’m good,” she told him, hopping down.
Beyond the haloes of the landing lights Kelly saw a log cabin sitting sheltered in a thick stand of trees. With no welcoming light inside, it looked cold and desolate. The wind, sweeping unprotected across the high, open space, buffeted them as they made their way toward the cabin, the waves of the Atlantic crashing loudly far below them. Even though Kelly knew that her own place was less than ten minutes away, she felt as if she’d been delivered to the ends of the earth.
Mike took another small remote from his pocket and pressed two buttons in it. Instantly lights came on in the cabin, diffused through the curtains on the window.
“We have blackout curtains too, if we need them,” he told her. “This also deactivates the alarm system so we can get in without waking up Andy and the Dragon. Rick will set it again when I leave. The alarm system is set to warn the main computer system back in Maryland if it’s breached.”
Mike followed them, carrying their duffels, Xena dancing in front of them with her nose lifted, scenting the air. Scenting for danger, he realized. She ran back and forth the length of the front porch, blocking them when they tried to reach the door until she’d satisfied herself they were safe in this strange place. Once again she gave her signaling bark, her stamp of approval.
Rick unlocked the heavy door and pushed it open, and Kelly followed him inside, Xena right beside her.
Whatever she had expected, it wasn’t this. Yes, it was rudimentary—basic, and obviously built for men to use. But where the logs on the outside were rough, the inside had been sanded and polished to a high gloss. Same with the wood floor, covered in two huge rag rugs. The furniture was big and comfortable-looking, and a massive fireplace took up part of one wall. Doors in another wall obviously led to bedrooms and a bathroom, and tucked into one corner was a tiny kitchen.
Cabinets lined a third wall, and when Rick unlocked and opened them, her eyes widened. On the shelves was the most elaborate array of electronic equipment she’d ever seen. She didn’t even know what half of it was.
His mouth crooked in a grin when he caught her expression.
“Our work station,” he told her. “We’ve actually done a lot to improve the inside over the past couple of years. When we need total secrecy to plan missions, this is where we do it. Like this.” He flipped some switches, and a bank of eight monitors in the wall came to life at once. “Obviously nobody outside the Phoenix family knows about this, but since you’re now part of the family, you get to learn all the hidden secrets.”
He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her lips, tasting the seam with the tip of his tongue before he straightened up.
Kelly stared up at him, slightly dazed. “Family, huh?”
“You bet.” He winked.
“Not even waiting for my answer?”
“Nope. I’m only accepting one.”
While he adjusted the resolution of the pictures, Kelly let her gaze roam over the array, fascinated. The screens gave the viewer a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the area around the cabin.
Family! Her heart skipped in a happy little dance.
Rick flipped another set of switches. “That activates the sensors embedded in the perimeter. No one could sneak up on us here.”
“I would think it would be impossible the way the cabin’s situated anyway, out here on the bluff.”
“We don’t believe in taking chances.”
Mike looked at the two bedroom doors, at Kelly and Rick, and dropped the two duffels on the floor.
“You guys can take care of these,” he said with a half smile. “If someone will make coffee, I’ll stretch a little and head back.”
“You don’t want to stay the night?” Kelly asked. “Shouldn’t you wait until morning to leave? It’s pretty late.”
Mike grinned. “I’m good. I’ll crash when I get back to Maryland.”
“I hope you don’t mean that literally,” she told him.
Turning toward the kitchen, she noticed Rick pulling things from one of the cabinets, his face white with pain.
I knew he overdid it last night in bed. And this morning.
Her face heated as she remembered some of the things they’d done together. Then she gave herself a mental kick and made a note to try harder to keep him under control. Especially after everything that had happened today, plus the helicopter ride on top of it. Gently she took the mugs from him and the carafe he was holding. “Go lie down. I’ll bring you some aspirin in a minute. I’m perfectly capable of making coffee, you know.”
One corner of his mouth tipped up, and he relinquished his hold on the crockery. “Yes, ma’am. I think I won’t argue with you.”
She got the coffee started, then Mike showed her where everything was kept in the bathroom. Carrying a glass of water and three pills, she found Rick stretched out on the double bed in one of the bedrooms. His hand was massaging his chest, and pain was etching deeper lines on his face.
“Come on, macho man,” she told him. “Take your medicine, get your clothes off, and get under the covers.”
Unprotesting, he levered himself up enough to take the aspirin. “Are you going to tuck me in?” Even in pain his eyes had a wicked gleam to them.
“Maybe if you’re very good,” she teased. “Meanwhile let me get Mike some coffee and send him off. I wish he’d reconsider about leaving tonight. It’s really late.”
“He’s used to this. He wouldn’t fly if he didn’t think he should.” He told her how to reset the alarm system before letting his eyes drift shut.
By the time Mike left, turning the landing lights off with the remote, and she’d let Xena out one last time, Kelly was ready to crawl into bed herself. When she picked up her duffel and started for the other bedroom, a large male body blocked her way.
“I thought you were in bed,” she told him. “You need to lie down.”
“Only if you’re lying next to me.” He wobbled slightly, steadying himself on her. “Come on. You wouldn’t want me to pass out, would you?”
It amazed her that even in his less-than-tip-top condition, once they were under the covers Rick attempted to put some serious moves on her.
“I don’t think I can sleep yet,” he teased as his hands roamed beneath her sleepshirt. “I need some soothing.”
The minute he touched her, all her good intentions flew out the window. Trailing his lips down her neck, he pressed his mouth to the hollow of her throat where her pulse was beating hard. His tongue traced a pattern around it, the tip pressing right where the throbbing of her pulse was strongest, and beneath the thin material covering her, one hand cradled a breast in his palm.
“Rick,” she breathed. “I know you have to be hurting. Is this such a good idea?”
“The best one yet, Red.”
“You have to have the constitution of a horse,” she joked. “Any other man would be huddled under the cover, whining and moaning.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not any other man. You want to know what’s hurting?”
His voice was a low rumble as he took her hand and placed it over his swollen erection. All her objections were swallowed up by the fog of sensuality that wrapped itself around her.
With the heat of his body burning into her, she wrapped her slim fingers around the thick erection and caressed him with slow strokes, loving the feel of the velvety skin over the steel shaft. She rubbed her thumb over the broad, flat head, feeling the drop of liquid beading on the surface, and massaged it into the skin. He groaned, and his hand contracted on her breast, squeezing it, his fingers burning against her flesh, his thumb teasing the already hard nipple.
I am just lost with him. All he has to do is touch me. If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me up.
Rick pushed up her sleepshirt and took her nipple in his mouth as her strokes on his shaft increased.
“You’re gonna kill me, Red.” His breathing was coming in uneven spurts. “A little more of that, and it’ll be all over but the shouting.”
“That’s okay,” she murmured, squeezing him slightly. “Tonight it’s my turn to take care of you. Just like when we were at my place. Remember?”
“How could I forget?” His fingers walked up and down her spine as she bent over him, taking him in her mouth.
Her tongue traced the line of the throbbing vein that wound itself around his erection, while her free hand was busy stroking the soft skin of the sac holding his balls. As she licked and sucked his cock she cradled his sac in her palm, softly rubbing her fingertips against the tender skin.
She raised her eyes to Rick’s face, seeing how flushed it was. His eyes were half-closed, his mouth partly open as uneven breaths rushed past his lips. When she raked her teeth the length of his shaft, the muscles in his hard abdomen tightened, and the hand on her back clutched at her.
“You like that?” she asked wickedly.
“Damn right. I’ll give you about a year to stop it.”
She laughed as she bent to her task again, timing the movement of her fingers around him with the up-and-down strokes of her mouth. She felt him thicken and swell even more, another drop of fluid seeping out to land on her lip as she pulled her mouth up to the tip. She moved her mouth and her fingers in concert at a steady pace, then harder and faster.
His shaft pulsed in her hand, and then he was there, convulsing for her, filling her mouth with his warm fluid. His body jerked as spasm after spasm rocked him until she’d wrung the last drop from him, while her own body clamped down on his fingers and she let the orgasm rush through her.
At last she dropped onto her side next to him, her hand on his flat stomach. She could feel the vibrations of his racing heart, or maybe it was her own echoing through his body. His arm came up to cradle her, and she rested her head on his shoulder.
“That was better than aspirin,” he said in a low voice, his breath still raspy.
“The pleasure was mine. Think you can sleep now?” she teased.
“Oh, yeah.” And in seconds he was gone, out like a light.
Feeling the security of his body next to her, Kelly closed her eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.
*****
Denny Hammond pulled his truck off the road into a thick stand of trees, checked his canvas sack to make sure he had everything he needed, and climbed out into the night. He locked his truck and pulled his jacket collar up around his neck.
Damn Maine weather, anyway.
Even though it was late spring, in Maine—especially right here on the coast—the air still had the lingering chill of winter, and the wind blew most of the time. He hated the cold and wondered why the hell, with all the money he’d been paid, he didn’t go somewhere warm. But Maine was where he’d grown up, and it was a place where he felt comfortable. A place where he could hide if he needed to. But he still despised the cold.
The long driveway was heavy with trees, standing almost like sentinels, which was good for his purpose. He’d parked down the road and crept through the woods as close as he could get earlier, waiting and watching the activity with his binoculars. During the day the weather was actually pleasant, so he hadn’t minded the long wait.
He watched the place all day, but nobody went in or out. Funny. Maybe the place was closed. The boss hadn’t said it was, though. It would be good if it was. He drew the line at killing animals. Finally the sun began its slow descent to the horizon. He waited another hour, hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman who owned the place, to see her for himself. To be able to report that she was here, but no such luck. He’d been told she most likely wasn’t on the premises. If she was, all well and good. If not, well, this would bring her running, and hopefully, Latrobe with her. That’s what the boss really wanted. Then he could nail both of them.
“I know she’s still with him,” the man who hired him insisted. “No telling what he’s told her, so if you can make it a clean sweep, I’ll double your fee.”
Denny waited until long past midnight to return to his spot. Now he drew his special goggles out of the canvas bag and slipped them on. These enabled him to spot alarm sensors and other electronics set up around the property. Sometimes people had two or three different systems, but this one, he discovered, was pretty basic.
Stepping carefully around the sensitive areas, he made his way to the buildings and took care of business, making sure everything outside the house and kennels was properly set. By the time he finished, stopping frequently to listen in case someone showed up unexpectedly, he was sweating heavily inside his jacket, despite the cold.
At last he was back in the truck and out on the road. When he was a mile away, he took a small black box out of his pocket and pushed a button.
Kaboom!
*****
She was very hot, and a loud noise was disturbing her. Something wet pushed against her face.
“Go away,” Kelly mumbled, tossing the covers off her overheated body and pushing at whatever was annoying her.
But the noise continued, and a heavy shove finally woke her up.
Xena had a large paw resting on her body, pushing hard at her while growling in her ear. She shoved at the dog and sat up in bed.
“What is it, Xena?” She locked eyes with the dog, fanning herself at the same time. For a moment she thought she could see the images of flames dancing in her eyes. “What’s the matter? Be quiet, or you’ll wake Rick.”
“Rick’s already awake,” came a voice thick with sleep from beside her. “Does she need to go out?”
“No, I don’t think so. She’s trying to tell me something, and I can’t figure out what her problem is. And why it’s so hot in here. I’m burning up, aren’t you? Is there a heater in this room?”
“Yes,” Rick mumbled, “but I forgot to turn it on last night. And yes, I’m hot, too, but the room’s freezing. Let me turn the heater on now before we get chilled.” Groaning, he levered himself to a sitting position.
“I’m sweating.” Kelly plucked at the sleepshirt. “Something’s wrong.” She looked at Xena again. “What is it, girl? Is something wrong in the cabin?”
The room heater looked like a small old-fashioned stove. Rick turned the switch even as he pulled his T-shirt away from his sticky skin. He bent down to Xena, locking his eyes on hers.
“God.” He sounded stunned. “You aren’t going to believe this.”
“What? What is it? Is she telling you something?
“I think so. I’m getting pretty good at deciphering her code, Red. I’d say either there’s fire somewhere, or we’re about to be put on the hot seat again.” He looked at Xena. “So, girl, can you tell us which one?”
Xena moved back to Kelly and grabbed a piece of her nightshirt in her teeth and pulled at it, trying to tug her toward where she’d tossed her clothes the night before.
“All right, all right. You want me to get dressed? I’m coming, but this better be damn good. And why are we so hot? Rick, I think you may be right about some kind of fire. But where? And why is she pulling us?”
Kelly yanked on jeans and her shirt and started toward the door, but Xena threw herself in front of it, butting Kelly with her head.
“What now?” She threw up her hands. “You want me to be dressed but not go outside? What is it, Xena?”
“Let me go take a look,” Rick told her.
He reached for his own clothes and had his jeans pulled on when the satellite phone on the bedside table rang.
*****
Mike had decided to fly a little reconnaissance while he was up in the air, checking out the surroundings. Just in case. Not that anyone would find them, but at the moment he wasn’t taking anything for granted.
Finally he angled out over the ocean, then turned back in to follow the coastline as he headed south. He lifted the traveler mug that Kelly had fixed for him and sipped at the good, strong coffee. Far from being sleepy, his mind was spinning in a dozen different directions.
The media was having a field day with the story about the stolen weapons and their possible sale to the enemy by Phoenix. Like his partners, Mike was so angry he could barely keep his temper reined in. The agency had built a strong reputation since its inception, not a breath of scandal of any kind ever touching it.
Now arrows were coming at them from every angle. Government agencies wanted to comb through their records. The DOJ was issuing a subpoena for Rick. Rick’s life was in danger. Even calm, levelheaded Matt Caldwell was wondering whether Rick hadn’t gone rogue and pulled this stunt. In his quiet voice he’d pointed out how it made sense if only they’d take an objective look at it.
Objective, my ass.
Mike snorted. Anyone who knew Rick Latrobe would know he would never, ever do something like this. No, he’d have to get his brain cranking in the cabin while the rest of them did their thing and tried to put the pieces of this puzzle together. He just hoped Xena, the wonder dog, could keep the man alive until they got to the bottom of this.
He was just passing the lights of Bangor when he saw what looked like an explosion off to the north of the city. Vibrations shimmied their way up through the air. Swearing, he banked the helo and turned back the way he’d come, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He flew over the spot three times, double-checking the coordinates just to make sure, before he picked up the sat phone and punched the button for Rick.
The nightmare had just gotten worse.