Page 54

But Katie had banished all of that from his heart. Instead, she filled him with laughter and the heat of real love. A real relationship. As reluctant as he was to admit it, he might just need a relationship like that in his life. With a woman who loved him unconditionally.

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her long and deeply. She melted into him the way she always did, and for once, he didn’t fight the feelings she aroused in him. He embraced her heat, letting its promise burn away all the icy pain locked in his soul.

“Let’s go home, Katie. To our daughter. Our family.”

“Oh, Alex,” she breathed against his lips. “I love the sound of that.”

“I love you, Katie.”

She froze in his arms. Oh, right. That was the first time he’d ever said that to her. Honestly, it was the first time he’d ever consciously thought the words. But as he said them, he realized he’d felt that way for a very long time.

She interrupted his surprised train of thought by saying back playfully, “I know that, silly. I’ve always known you love me.”

And that pretty much said it all. She’d known him better than he’d known himself, all this time. And she loved him, anyway.

“I don’t deserve you,” he muttered as he tucked her under his arm and led her outside.

A sleek, black limousine was just turning into the long driveway.

“Yikes,” Katie exclaimed softly. “Now what?”

“More like, now who?” André mumbled.

The vehicle stopped and the driver jumped out to open the passenger door. A tall, portly, gray-haired man wearing an expensive wool coat stepped out of the limo.

“Sonofabitch,” André breathed.

Smiling, Alex started forward, dragging Katie with him. He spoke in polite Russian. “Ambassador Deryevnan. To what do we owe this honor?”

“Alexei. Your father sends his greetings to you.”

He bowed his head respectfully. “Thank you, sir. What can I do for you this cold evening?”

“Cold? This?” the Russian ambassador chuckled. “We must send you back to Moscow in January for a visit if you think this is cold.”

“No thank you, sir. I’m afraid I’ve become a soft, coddled American.”

The Russian ambassador to the United States looked around at the assortment of armed and alert men lounging deceptively around the yard. “The way I hear it, you are as tough and smart as your father. A great credit to Roman.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“So. You nearly started a war this night. You have put many good Russian men at risk. What are we to do with you?”

Frowning, he braced himself mentally. What in the hell was someone of this rank doing out here in person to clean up his mess? He answered carefully, “I gather by your presence here, that you have something in mind, Ambassador.”

The big man threw his head back and laughed. “Ahh, you are so much like Roman. I do, indeed, have a proposal for you.”

Alex’s arm tightened around Katie’s shoulders.

Nothing this guy could say would make him leave her again, nor make him betray everything she loved and believed in.

he could never do that to the woman he loved…

even if he were prepared to betray his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States…

which he was never going to be prepared to do.

As the Russian ambassador cleared his throat and opened his mouth, Alex frowned.

The man was going to lay out his offer to Alex in front of his CIA handler?

What the hell? Alex glanced over at André, who was listening closely to the exchange as if he understood Russian fluently. Which he probably did.

“What might your offer be?” Alex asked cautiously.

“Your mother. She works for the CIA. Your father. He works for the FSB. How are you supposed to choose sides? No child should be asked to do this.” The ambassador shrugged. “Besides, who would trust you, no matter which side you choose? Neither, I am thinking.”

Alex nodded. He’d already lived that exact dilemma. The ambassador was correct on all counts. But Alex failed to see where the man was going with this line of reasoning.

The ambassador added shrewdly, “Or maybe both sides would trust him.”

“How’s that?”

“From time to time, our countries need to exchange information. To share certain...sensitive…pieces of intelligence with each other. Discreet channels for such transfers of information are difficult to come by. We propose that you and your companion consider continuing your employment with Doctors Unlimited.”

The Russian paused for a moment, and then continued carefully, “And, we propose that the two of you also join the employ of a similar Russian aid organization. Doctors of such skill as yourself and your indispensable nurse assistant…” The man glanced in Katie’s direction, “...are few and far between. Surely the Americans would not mind sharing your talent with others. After all, your mission as a doctor is to help all patients, no matter what their nationality may be.”

Alex’s jaw dropped. They wanted him and Katie to work for both the CIA and FSB…with the full knowledge and approval of both agencies? “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” he blurted.

“I think we can all agree your situation is unique, can we not?”

André interjected, “We most certainly can.”

Katie muttered urgently, “What’s he saying?”

Alex answered quickly, “He wants me to work for both the CIA and the FSB and act as an information conduit from time to time.”

Her jaw dropped in shock. He knew the feeling.

“Does that mean everyone will stop trying to kill us?” she asked.

He glanced up at the ambassador, who nodded. Fortinay nodded as well.

“Are you going to do it, Alex?” she breathed.

He gazed down at her lovingly. “What do you think? We’re in this together, after all.”

“Really?” she asked in a tiny, hopeful voice.

“Really,” he answered firmly. “Not only do I love you, I think I need you.”

Her jaw went slack for a moment. Then she gathered herself. “Well, in that case, I’d say the two of us will make a heck of a tightrope walking act together. And I’m all for open lines of communication between our countries.”

Alex looked up at the ambassador and André, who were both staring back expectantly. “The lady has spoken. We’ll do it.”

Here’s a sneak peek at Katie’s brother, Ian McCloud, in the next Love in Danger book, Edge of Danger , meeting Piper Roth, the one woman who can keep up with him in a fight and in love…

A hot breath of air wafted across Ian McCloud’s left cheek, carrying with it grit and a hint of death.

The metal plate beside his face, almost too hot to touch, made his right cheek sweat.

He eased his left hand forward, reaching up awkwardly from his prone position to dial in a minute windage adjustment to his tricked-out Barrett XM 500 sniper rifle’s scope.

He scanned the street below, beige on beige, sand blowing across dirt, dust devils rising from shimmering waves of heat.

Khartoum. Once a great city straddling the vast Nubian plains of the Sudan, now a certified armpit of the universe.

Abandoned by the civilized world to wallow in its atrocities of violence and filth of body and soul.

He looked out across the skyline, dirty brown in the morning sun—brown mud buildings that had long since lost their stucco, a few brown stunted trees coated with dust like skeletal ghosts.

Brown people in streets brown with crusted clay.

But beneath the brown surface lay a black hole of the human soul.

The broad street before him was a particularly grim little corner of Khartoum’s worst slum, trampled by warring gangs, bled on and suffered on, ignored by the rest of the world.

Except, of course, by El Noor. He was the new warlord in town and had his eye on capturing this worthless strip of real estate in a meaningless gesture of dominance over his neighbor.

Ian’s soon to be brother-in-law, a double agent for the CIA and FSB—and both agencies knew about it—had passed a message from the Russians that a possible terrorist plot might be cooking in this happy little corner of Purgatory.

El Noor was rumored to be meeting with an up-and-coming Palestinian terrorist. The guess was that El Noor was planning to finance an attack of some kind. And Russian intel placed the target inside the United States.

Which was why Ian was parked on this roof doing surveillance, sweltering under a scrap wood shelter in hundred- degree heat with sweat pouring down his forehead and flies viciously biting the exposed backs of his hands. And it was barely eight o’clock in the morning.

Welcome to K-town. Jesus, what a hellhole.

A loud rat-a-tat erupted nearby. Gunfire. He went utterly still, abruptly a predator on the hunt. Semi-automatic machine gun fire interspersed with single-shot rifle shots. Eight, maybe ten, weapons firing. Roughly two hundred yards to his left.

He swung his rifle toward the noise, scanning methodically through his telescopic scope for its source. Armed men poured out of an ancient Land Rover, firing clumsily as they went. But the amount of lead they were laying down more than compensated for their lousy execution.

The street emptied as the locals melted into surrounding buildings. A motor revved and tires squealed. Closing in fast. From the other direction. Hello.

He went on full battle alert as his position abruptly looked to be ground zero for some serious action. Another Jeep loaded with thugs careened around the corner. It screeched to a sideways stop, blocking the street.

Minions of Dharwani, this street’s warlord, fired sporadically out of doorways and windows at the intruders. They couldn’t match El Noor’s AK-47’s with their World War Two surplus M-1’s. One lopsided rout, coming up.

Quick head count to his left…four, five, six. All wearing the distinctive black beret of Marak El Noor pulled down ominously over their right eyebrows.

Four more El Noor gunmen plus a driver on the right. Late teens to early twenties. Ian mentally groaned. Put a gun in the hands of kids that age, and they abruptly had the brains of codfish.