Page 11

CHAPTER 10

Two hours later…

“I’m in.” Shadow blew out a breath of relief when the new window popped up on her laptop’s screen.

“Good.” Digger’s deep voice traveled through the otherwise still air. Grumbled one-word responses were pretty much all he’d offered since leaving the hospital to come here.

Their newest home away from home was a high-end apartment in the heart of downtown Charlotte. And regardless of her feelings about being sequestered away, she couldn’t deny this place was even nicer than the cabin in the woods.

When it came to safe houses, her father apparently spared no expense. But the two spaces he’d utilized couldn’t be any more different.

The cabin had been an impressive display of rich, rustic charm, whereas the space in which she and Digger were holed up now was a modern creation of white walls and accents of black and gray. The two safe houses were opposite in almost every single way, much like her and Digger.

Speaking of Dig…

Shadow stole a glimpse of the tall, dark, and ridiculously handsome man from over the top of her screen. His broad back was to her as he looked through the sliding glass doors leading to the apartment’s private, fifth-floor balcony. He’d been even quieter than usual since leaving the Tac-Ops office, which for him, was saying a heck of a lot.

When she’d first regained consciousness after nearly getting her ass blown to smithereens, she’d found him staring down at her through a sea of tumultuous emotion. And, apart from when medical staff had taken her away for the doctor ordered CT, Slade had stayed right by her side the entire time, refusing to let a doctor check him out, as well.

To be fair, he seemed physically okay, save a few scratches and scrapes and a bruise on his left cheek. Shadow had done what she could to convince him to let a doctor do a quick once-over, but he’d instantly—and vehemently—declined. He’d told her his only concern was knowing she was okay.

That, of course, was incredibly sweet, and made her like the big jerk even more than she already did. Which sucked because Digger had made himself pretty clear about where the two of them stood. And it wasn’t anywhere near where Shadow wanted them to be.

That’s a different problem for a different day.

She blinked away her wandering thoughts because her inner voice was right. There was a much more pressing matter that needed her undivided attention, so she put aside her feelings for the stubborn, stoic man and chose to return her focus on stopping a killer.

“The hospital’s security system isn’t all that impressive,” Shadow kept the topic of conversation to the task at hand and nothing else. “Now we just have to cross our fingers and pray I got to the footage before Stanton’s minions.”

She looked back at the screen and began rewinding from the present back to just before she and the rest of the team arrived. A few minutes into the search, she saw Digger’s car racing to a stop near the emergency room’s entrance. Right behind it was the SUV that had been carrying Falcon and Bones.

Feeling as though she were watching some sort of bizarre movie starring her and her friends, Shadow observed herself practically jump out of Digger’s passenger seat before he’d fully brought the vehicle to a complete stop.

Her chest tightened when she caught sight of her recorded image’s worried expression. The panic she’d felt while running through those doors still so close to the surface, it would take no effort at all to conjure it back to life.

He’s okay. Dad’s alive and well, and he’s totally okay.

It was the same mental reminder she’d given herself since seeing her father at the office following the explosion.

He was okay, as were Digger, Bones, and Falcon. They were all still alive, and minus some minor injuries, they were all okay.

But they almost weren’t, and she was the reason for that. It was her fault Digger and their other two teammates almost died. Now her father and poor Ashley had been dragged into her mess, and she couldn’t manage to find a shred of evidence linking Stanton to any of his crimes.

There!

Movement behind Digger’s car caught Shadow’s attention, and she hurried to rewind the footage. Her gaze narrowed as it became even more focused than before, and she tapped a few keys to change the recording to play in half-time speed.

She watched and waited, not daring to take her eyes off the small screen for even a second. A man appeared from the bottom left corner, as if he’d just come out the lobby’s automatic doors. He was wearing a black ball cap with the bill pulled down tight, a matching jacket, pants, and a pair of lace-up boots.

Shadow watched as he walked approached Digger’s car using slow, casual steps. His hands were in the pockets of his jacket, and for a moment, she thought she’d made a mistake. But then…

Bingo.

Her eyes followed the man’s every move, including the way he was subtly inching closer to the side of Digger’s car. He stepped off the curb to walk between the back of the car and the team’s front bumper.

Shadow’s chest grew tight, her stomach churning with anger when she saw what the man did next. It happened so quickly she almost missed it.

Lucky for her, she didn’t.

The man moved to walk between the two vehicles, pulling something small and square out of his right pocket. Seconds before he moved between the two vehicles, he reached out and placed what had to be the bomb beneath the edge of Digger’s rear bumper.

Son of a…

“I’ve got him!” Shadow blurted out excitedly, rushing to rewind the video back several seconds. Then she watched that part over again.

“Are you sure?” Digger marched toward her from where he’d been standing across the room.

Using the coffee table as a desk, she remained on the couch, spinning the laptop around so the screen was facing him. “You tell me.”

He stopped, his eyes immediately going to the frozen image. Leaning in, his gaze narrowed slightly as if to better focus on what he was seeing.

The muscles at the side of his bearded jaw twitched, and his hardened expression practically turned to stone.

“Can you get facial rec?”

She spun the computer back around, her hands immediately going to the keys. She typed and talked, giving him the best answer she had.

“The angle isn’t great, and the bastard purposely kept his hat down low to avoid being seen on the footage. I’ll have to play around with it a bit to try to get the clearest shot of his face.”

“How long until you know?”

“Hard to say. If I can’t get a clean image from this camera, which it’s looking like that’s going to be the case, then I’ll have to see if I can find him in the footage from one of the others. Why?” She sent a quick smirk in his direction. “You got someplace else you need to be?”

“Just the shower.”

Shadow’s fingers froze, their tips hovering a few centimeters above the keyboard. Unwanted images of Digger naked and wet filled her mind’s eye in a flash.

Nope, nope, nope. You cannot think about that now. There’s a man out there who tried blowing the both of you up today. Find him, stop Stanton, and then maybe…

“You have time.” She brought her focus back down to the screen.

Digger didn’t say anything more, but he also didn’t immediately leave. He just stood there, a few feet from where she sat working, not talking or moving or doing anything other than staring. Until finally, blessedly, he turned and walked away.

Shadow refused to look, knowing if she did she’d once again become distracted. She’d stolen enough glances over the last few days to know he was a weakness she couldn’t afford.

The sound of running water reached her ears minutes later. A stretch of time passed, and at first, she thought she’d finally become a master at Operation Ignore How Sinfully Sexy Digger Is.

A few seconds later, the tempting images returned in full force, and no matter how hard she tried, she could think of nothing but him.

“Gah!” Shadow released a frustrating growl as she shot up from the couch and grabbed her computer with a huff.

Biting back the creative string of curse words close to the tip of her tongue, she stormed out of the living room and through the sliding glass doors. She slammed it shut behind her, using much more force than necessary.

Shadow stopped and looked around, spotting a small patio table and two chairs positioned against the balcony’s back corner several feet to her left. She walked over and set her laptop onto the rounded glass before plopping down into the chair with its back nearly touching the building’s brick wall.

The air was warm and a touch thicker than she preferred, but she pulled as much of it as she could into her lungs, holding it there a few seconds longer, before releasing it back into the wild.

Boy, what a mess her life had become, and she had no one to blame but herself. That wasn’t true. Michael Stanton was really the one to blame. She just prayed that she and the team could find their smoking gun soon…before it was too late.

* * *

Slade stepped out of the shower and onto the plush white mat covering the tiled floor. His bare feet sank deep as he reached for the nearby towel he’d hung up on the hook to his right. He was halfway through drying off his legs when the sound of a door slamming shut sounded from the floor below.

He stood tall, his spine becoming stiff with the tensing of his muscles. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he ignored the drips of water still present on his dampened skin as he exited the humid space and made his way across the bedroom.

Once there, he reached out, opening the door and peeking his head through the opening into the hall.

“Shadow?” Slade called out for her.

Silence was his only response.

Moving fully into the hallway, he walked a few feet to his left, stopping midway between his bedroom door and the top of the apartment’s split-level stairs. He looked over the black metal railing to his right, but Shadow was no longer sitting on the couch where he’d left her. And her computer was also missing from the glass coffee table.

Slade turned and went back the way he’d come. Bypassing the room that would be his for the foreseeable future, he continued down the hall to the next door on the right.

He knocked, and the door moved slowly beneath the force of his hand. Once again, he called out for the woman he’d been assigned to protect, and once again, she didn’t call back.

After letting himself in to double-check that her bedroom and bathroom were both void of her presence, Slade checked the other spare room and bathroom on the second level. With no sign of Shadow being on the second floor, he picked up his pace and hurried toward the stairs.

His hand held the knotted towel at his hip to keep the damn thing from coming loose and falling to the floor. When he reached the bottom, he looked around, first in the half-bath on that level and then the open kitchen, which extended from the expansive living room.

Where are you?

Slade turned to his right, his gaze searching the part of the balcony he could see through the long, partially opened curtains. Doing his best to keep his burgeoning worry at bay, he went to the massive glass door and slid it open.

He didn’t see her at first, and damn if a jolt of panic didn’t start to set in. But then?—

“I didn’t realize the dress code was so relaxed around here.”

Shadow’s voice came from his left, and he swung his gaze that way. With her computer resting on the small patio table where she sat, she had her bare feet propped up on the empty chair to her right.

She was dressed in a pair of cotton shorts and a black tank that didn’t quite cover her abs, and the tips of her long hair blew with the passing breeze. Her eyes met his, and there was a glimmer of humor there. One matching the ornery smirk lifting one corner of her tempting mouth.

Damn, she’s beautiful.

“I called for you, but you didn’t answer. Next time tell me before you come outside by yourself.”

The gruff order sent her head back in a slight recoil, her big blue eyes blinking as she stared back at him with surprise. Not sounding apologetic in the least, she shot back with a sarcastic response.

“I’m sorry.” Her words sounded about as disingenuous as her expression. “But as your current state of undress clearly reflects, you were otherwise indisposed.”

“You could’ve hollered at me from the door.”

“And miss all this?” She motioned toward his almost naked form.

On reflex, his fists slid a bit lower to help shield the erection starting to form beneath the terrycloth towel. “You know, I get that everything’s a big fucking joke to you, but it’s my job to protect you, and I can’t exactly do that if I have no idea where you are.”

“A job.” Shadow snorted humorlessly, dropping her feet so she could stand. “Because that’s all I am to you, right?” She picked up her computer, storming toward him along the balcony before going back inside.

Anger broiled just beneath the surface as he did his best not to let it run free.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Slade followed her in.

Her back remained to him as she marched angrily toward the kitchen. She set the laptop onto the island’s gray and white granite countertop so hard, he was surprised it didn’t break. While it continued to run whatever software system she had going, the scowling woman turned back around to face him.

“No, see, that’s where you’re wrong. I actually don’t know that because you’ve pretty much stopped talking to me these past few days.”

What the…

“I’ve talked to you.”

“A grunt here or a couple of words there doesn’t count, and you know it. Seriously tell me one meaningful conversation the two of us have shared.” When Slade opened his mouth to remind her of how he’d told her about his mom, she shut him down with a clarifying, “And I’m talking about after the night you unilaterally decided there would never be an us.”

His gut clenched and his chest grew tight as his lungs pulled in a sharp inhale. “I already explained that to you, Shadow. I’m not?—”

“The man for me.” She tossed his own words from that night right back in his face. “Yeah, I heard you loud and clear, big guy. But you see, I’m thinking that’s not entirely true.”

“What the hell do you mean, it’s not true? You think I’m lying?”

I’d never lie to you.

“Not a lie, exactly. More like an excuse to keep me or anyone else from getting too close to the real you.”

The real…

“I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not.”

“No, you just don’t think you deserve the same happiness the rest of us do. And I get it, Dig.” Shadow released a sardonic chuckle. “Trust me, I’m the queen of self-deprecating. Why do you think I spent so much time on the computer as a child? I could make it do whatever I wanted. Be whoever I wanted to be. There was no judgement from other kids like I got at school. No field trips or class parties where everyone’s mom showed up but mine. No one to point and whisper about the poor little girl who saw her mommy get shot in the head.”

“You’re more than that, and you know it.”

“I do now. Or at least I’m starting to see it. But it’s so obvious to me that you don’t see your worth. It breaks my heart to know you don’t believe you deserve the same happiness the other guys on the team have all found. To know that, deep down, you honestly don’t think you deserve to be…loved. And before you get your panties in a twist, I’m not saying you and I are destined for forever. I’m just saying you should have that with someone , you know? Or at least give it a try. I mean…what’s the worst that could happen?”

“The worst that could…” He shook his head as his face twisted into an incredulous stare. “You’ve seen the worst, Alice. You know exactly what happens to the women who end up with guys like us.”

She blinked in what appeared to be a shocked reaction to hearing him say her real name for the very first time. But almost as quickly, a sad smile lifted the corners of Shadow’s mouth as she took a few hesitant steps forward.

“You’re right. I have seen what happened to them.” Her gaze remained locked onto his as she listed off his teammates’ women. “Avery, Nicki, Evie…I’ve seen all of their smiles and heard their laughter. I know all about the weddings I never attended and their promises of a future none of them can wait to fulfill.”

“That’s not what I?—”

“I know what you meant,” she interrupted him again. “And trust me, I get that I probably sound like the world’s biggest hypocrite right now. It’s just that…I don’t know.” Shadow blew out a frustrated breath. “I guess almost dying twice in less than a week has given me some perspective on a few things. Namely, I finally realized just how precious the time we have here really is. And I don’t know about you, but I’m sick to death of wasting it. Because in case you hadn’t noticed, that’s what people like us do.”

Slade remained quiet, his muscles unmoving as he processed everything he’d just heard. This woman—this incredible, frustrating, amazing woman—was actually mad that she couldn’t see himself through her gorgeous eyes.

“We spend our lives keeping everyone at arm’s length until one day we wake up and there’s no one left to hold onto,” Shadow continued. “And I want someone to hold onto, Dig. Even if it’s only for a little while. It’s taken me a long time to see it, but I finally realized I deserve at least that much. And whether you want to believe it, you do, too.”

It made no sense that this woman saw him as someone so deserving.

The obstinate beauty knew him in action, first-hand. From behind her computer, she’d witnessed him as the hardened Tac-Ops team leader.

Shadow had listened through the team’s comms as he’d taken multiple enemy lives. And despite all of that—and his less than sunny disposition—she’d still said all those wonderful things.

But what surprised him even more was the fact that Shadow genuinely seemed to believe them. And if he was being completely honest, as he stood there staring back at her, he had no idea what he was supposed to do with all of that.

You know exactly what you should do. You’re just afraid you’ll do something to screw it all up.

Slade locked eyes with the woman he was beginning to think was his personal savior, knowing they were opposites in about every way that mattered. But perhaps it was because of those same differences that they somehow made the perfectly imperfect pair.

He took a step toward her, first one and then another. Moving slowly, his eyes never once left hers. And when he was mere inches from where she stood, Slade stopped.

He didn’t speak, because he was a man of action. In fact, Slade didn’t utter a solitary sound. Instead he brought a hand to the unbruised side of her face. And when he leaned in close…he slammed his mouth to hers.

* * *

“One job.” Doug Easton fumed at the man he’d trusted to get the job done. “You had one fucking job, and yet, she’s still alive.”

Andrew Reiner—a mid-level field agent Doug had easily blackmailed into doing his bidding—stared up at him with a guarded expression. “Like I told you on the phone, there was a problem with the device.”

“A problem.” Doug huffed out a breath with a disbelieving shake of his head.

“Yes, Easton. A problem.” The shorter-than-average man glared. “Look, I get that it didn’t go as planned but shit like this happens more than you think.”

“Shit happens? That’s all you have to say?”

“There’s not much else I can say.”

“You could tell me you have another way to eliminate the problem. Otherwise, I’ll have to pay that pretty, unsuspecting wife of yours a visit to let her know her husband hasn’t just lied to her about what he does for a living, but he’s also been sleeping with another agent for the past six months.”

Reiner’s entire existence was filled with danger and death, yet the threat Doug had just laid down at the other man’s feet created a visible flash of fear. A thin layer of visible threat beaded on the short bastard’s forehead as he took an angry step forward.

“I told you I’d take care of it, and I will,” he vowed. “In fact, if you’d given me time to talk, rather than barging in here with your admonishments and threats, I would have told you I already know exactly where the target is.”

Doug’s heart kicked hard with a hope he knew he shouldn’t possess. “Where?”

“She and the guy who drove her to the hospital are staying at a high-end apartment downtown.”

“How?”

“Why does it matter, how?”

“It was your job to kill her, and your last plan failed.” He took a menacing step forward. “So I’ll ask you one more time…how?”

The man’s dark eyes didn’t hide their own frustration as the muscles at the sides of his long jaw twitched. “Explosives are a tricky thing, so I always have a back-up in place. After the ill-timed explosion, I backtracked to the other side of the hospital, changed into the pair of scrubs I was wearing under my other clothes, and then I took the back way through the hospital and waltzed right into the E.R.”

“Then what?”

“I waited.” Reiner pulled a small tablet from the bag slung over one shoulder. “I knew our girl was knocked out by the blast, and typical concussion protocol would be a CT to also rule out a brain bleed. So I made myself scarce until the techs came down to get her, and I accidentally bumped into her gurney when they started pushing her down the hall.”

The other man tapped the tablet’s screen, flipping it around for Doug to see. He watched as the footage began to play, and within seconds, he realized what Reiner had done.

“You put a tracker on her shoe?”

“No one ever thinks to check the shoes.” Reiner shrugged. “And before you bring it up, as far as the bombing is concerned, the cops won’t be looking for a guy in scrubs. So I’m not concerned about having been seen inside the building. Hiding in plain sight and all that.” He began tapping the tablet’s screen once again. “Anyway”—the other man continued—“after our girl left here, she went to a high-rise downtown, where she remained for about an hour and a half. From there, the tracker shows her going to a new apartment building a few blocks away. Nice place, which means it has lots of security.”

“You saying you can’t get to her?”

“Not at all. Just that it’s going to be a challenge. But, if you’re willing to forgo discretion for effectiveness, I know a couple of guys willing to help. Best I’ve ever used, to tell you the truth. They don’t ask questions, do exactly as they’re told, and they’ll take it to their graves.” Reiner added a belated, “For the right price, of course.”

The right price.

There was always a price. For Reiner’s men, it was money. For Reiner, it was making sure his trusting wife never found out she’d married a liar and a cheat.

As for Doug, his price was a bit more complicated than that. He had plenty of money, no wife or kids, and no strings whatsoever. For him, it was about the love of the chase, and the thrills he got from the deadly risks he so willingly took.

And then there was Stanton. The man who relied on Doug far too often to clean up the messes the idiot inevitably made. But having a senator in his back pocket…or even better, the U.S. President, well…that was worth all the risks Doug had ever made combined.

Giving Reiner a stark warning, he told the man, “You have one chance to make this right, Andrew. But listen closely, because there’s been a slight change of plans.”