by Kaylea Cross
Luke glanced between the two of them, weighing the possibilities in his mind, and not liking any of the conclusions he came to. His gut said this was significant. “Can you trace where the bank accounts are, and who they’re registered to?”
“I plan to, as long as you don’t mind me working on it from here. It’s uh, not exactly legal.”
He nodded. He was no stranger to living in the gray area of the law. That’s how things got done in his world. “That’s fine. Anything else?” It also bothered him that Sam had received all this on the day she’d flown down here.
Had someone used her because of her connection to him? Lord knew he still had plenty of enemies out there, even though he hadn’t been out in the field since Beirut earlier this year. These days he stuck close to home as often as possible, and to Em. She was his number one priority.
“No. Just wanted to give you a heads up, and make sure you were okay with us digging from here. There’s a chance that someone could be monitoring activity on this. I don’t want to share what I’ve found with anyone at the Agency until I know what I’m dealing with.”
“Understood.” Once she did, he could contact Jamie, his former boss. He was the only one Luke trusted in the whole Agency. “Let me know if you find anything concrete. I’ve still got some contacts we could use without triggering the Agency’s notice.” People who owed him favors and would keep their mouths shut if he told them to.
Sam gave him a relieved smile. “That’d be great. Thanks.”
Luke waved a hand at his desk, wanting answers. Sam was a hard, dedicated worker. When she sank her teeth into something, she didn’t let go until she’d finished the job. “Make yourselves at home. If anyone asks what you’re doing I’ll just say you’re finishing up some last-minute things to clear the deck for when the others get here.”
“Perfect,” Ben said, clapping him once on the shoulder.
Luke stepped out into the hall and closed the pocket door behind him, wondering about the contents of the flash drive and what the key was for. Sam was incredible at what she did. Luke was certain she’d find answers to their questions soon enough.
Rayne was just coming into the kitchen when Luke passed by moments later. His son set some empty beer bottles in the recycling bin under the sink and turned to face him. “Mom looks happy.”
He nodded, struck again by the man Rayne had become. They had slightly different coloring, and Rayne was taller with a larger build, but there was no doubt he was Luke’s son. Luke was damn proud of him. “She does. She’s been looking forward to this for a long time.”
“We’ll have to make sure she doesn’t wear herself out.”
Luke half-smiled. Their son was protective as hell of Em, and Luke admired him for it. “I’m on it.”
Rayne covered a yawn and shook his head. “I’m beat. Think we’ll turn in soon.”
“Sure.” And speaking of that… It was already almost ten. Em had been up at six to get the house ready, even though he’d already helped her clean it from top to bottom and put fresh sheets on all the beds yesterday. She needed to rest.
He found her still talking with Christa in the living room. “Did Ben and Sam turn in?” she asked him.
“No, they’re just finishing up some work they need to get done.”
“Chris and I are gonna hit the hay,” Rayne said, crossing over to envelop Em in a hug. “G’night. See you in the morning.”
“Night, son.” She squeezed him tight, her face all but glowing with happiness. As soon as Rayne and Christa left the room, she popped up and started tidying and fluffing cushions.
“You ready for bed?” he asked, following her into the kitchen with some plates a moment later.
She didn’t look back at him as she started rinsing dishes in the sink, already back in busy-bee mode. “In a bit. I want to get a head start on—”
Luke stepped up behind her, then reached around her and turned off the faucet. Settling his hands on her hips, he turned her to face him, then boosted her up onto the kitchen counter, bringing their gazes level.
Her gorgeous green eyes blinked at him in surprise as he ran a hand up her slender back, the shadows under them worrying him. She needed all her strength to fight whatever was happening inside her body. He wasn’t going to stand by and watch her exhaust herself this week.
“I’ll finish up here. And whatever else needs to be done can wait until tomorrow,” he said in a low voice.
“Yes, but—”
He cupped the back of her neck and silenced her with a kiss. She didn’t protest, her hands settling on his shoulders as her lips softened under his.
Luke moved in closer, settling deeper between her open thighs. He took his time with the kiss, coaxing and seducing, banding an arm around her back as he eased his tongue into her mouth. Giving her time to empty her mind of all the things she thought she needed to do, and focus on the here and now with him.
Her fingers tightened on his shoulders, a little hum of pleasure coming from her throat as she arched into him. And just that fast, arousal punched through him, hot and intense.
He touched his tongue to hers, caressing, teasing, then retreated to kiss the corner of her mouth. Her jaw. The scar he’d left with the point of his knife. A mark he could never erase but would spend the rest of his life making up for.
“Come to bed, Em,” he murmured against her skin.
She was the love of his life. How the hell he’d managed to get through the empty wasteland of his life without her for so many years, he didn’t know, but he’d been frozen inside. Encased in ice until her touch and her love had once again magically melted it away.
He felt the shape of her smile form under his lips. “Okay,” she whispered, and looped her arms around the back of his neck.
Luke shifted and scooped her up in his arms, heading for the stairs while desire pulsed through him. Em curled into his chest, her soft weight pressed against his torso as she nuzzled the side of his neck. She loved it when he took charge like this, and it worked for him every bit as much as it did for her. Getting her revved up and then getting her off was his favorite thing in the world.
Pushing their bedroom door open with his foot, he shut it behind them and carried her over to place her on their king-size bed. Em sat up and reached for his shirt, her mouth capturing his as her fingers hurriedly undid the buttons.
Luke shrugged it off, stripped off everything else and came down on top of her in the darkness, wedging his hips between her thighs and drinking in her soft, sensual moan. Without breaking the kiss, he leaned over and switched his bedside lamp onto the lowest setting.
She made a sound of protest and stopped in the act of pulling her shirt off, but he grasped the material and eased it over her head, silencing her protests with another kiss. “I want to see you,” he whispered, hard and aching for her.
She was still self-conscious of her mastectomy scars, and he was determined to make her believe she was more beautiful to him than ever. “Want to see your face when I make you come.” He kissed her again, slid his hand beneath her to unhook her prosthetic bra.
She let him. Didn’t cringe or curl in on herself as he drew it away. Instead her eyes stayed locked with his, her arms coming around his back. “I love you,” she murmured.
Luke groaned and captured her mouth again, sliding his palm across her surgical scar before finding and cupping her left breast, drinking in her little gasp of pleasure. He’d lost too many damn years with her as it was.
Each day they had together was precious and he was going to savor every single moment of whatever time they had left.
****
“Oh, wow…”
Ben pushed to his feet and came around the desk to stand behind Sam so he could see the screen of her laptop. The house was still and quiet, everyone else having gone upstairs a while ago. “What’d you find?”
“Facial recognition software just got a hit.” She typed something, clicked on a file. “This guy is in all the photos.�
�� She looked up at him. “You recognize the name?”
Joseph Hanes. He frowned, thinking. “It’s…familiar.” But he couldn’t place it off the top of his head.
“Well, according to my sources, he’s an Agency paramilitary ops officer.”
Just like Luke had been. “Think he’s linked to the accounts?”
So far Ben had managed to trace over half of them to their banks of origin. All offshore in various countries, registered to several different companies. He’d bet his left nut they were all shell companies, used to funnel dirty money out of the U.S. What kind of dirty was anyone’s guess.
“Wouldn’t be surprised.” She leaned back and rubbed her fingers over her eyes, then lowered her hands into her lap and peered up at him. “Think Luke might know him?”
“Good chance he would.” Luke was a legend for a reason in the intel community. He knew everyone who was anyone in that world.
Sam raised her dark auburn eyebrows. “Think he’s still up?”
“Maybe.” He’d heard Luke and Emily go upstairs about an hour ago. Rather than go check upstairs and risk interrupting anything, Ben shot him a text. You still awake?
The response came back seconds later. Find something?
Affirm.
Be down in two minutes.
“He’s on his way down. Can you pull up the shot of Hanes in the BDUs? It’s taken on a base somewhere. I wanna see if we can find anything in the background that might—”
The laptop beeped, drawing their gazes to the screen. “Hold on. Program just found another possible match.” She brought up the diagnostics. Ben studied them along with her. Eighty-five-percent probability of a match based on various data.
“It’s this guy,” Sam finally said, tapping on the image of a man standing in the background of the shot Ben had been asking about, just behind Hanes’s shoulder. Light brown skin. Either tanned Caucasian or maybe light-skinned Middle Eastern descent, and wearing military BDUs.
Whoever this other guy was, he and Hanes clearly knew each other well. Well enough to work together?
The pocket door opened. Luke came in wearing the same jeans and shirt he’d had on earlier. Sam waved him over, bringing up the first match. “We got two matches from the photos, according to the software. Here’s the first one.”
Luke stepped over to them, looked at the screen, and his face tightened. “Joe Hanes,” he muttered.
Ben looked at him sharply. “You know him?”
Luke nodded once, gaze hard. “We’ve met.”
Knowing Luke, that could mean any number of classified things, and it was clear Luke wasn’t a fan of the guy. “What do you know about him?”
“Last I heard he was in Syria working an HVT.”
“How long ago?”
“Couple weeks.”
“And what about this guy?” Sam asked, bringing up the other photo.
“Shit,” Luke muttered, straightening to set his hands on his hips.
Ben cranked his head around to stare at him, alarm bells going off in his head. He knew that tone, and it never meant anything good. “What?”
“That’s Said Kader.”
Whoa. Ben frowned as he looked back at the image on screen, trying to make sense of it. He’d heard about Kader, especially over the past few weeks. “He’s a terrorist.”
“One of the Agency’s top ten HVTs. Hanes was tasked with capturing or killing him,” Luke added, his gaze shifting to Sam. “He sent this to you?”
“No idea,” she murmured, bringing up more information while Ben and Luke read over her shoulder. Sure as shit, Kader’s name appeared on all kinds of things on the Agency’s radar.
Luke shook his head, still watching Sam. “Why you?”
“I have no idea. I don’t even know him—or Hanes.” Her brown eyes swung up to him. “But you do. So maybe whoever sent it knows my connection to you, and…”
Ben’s insides tightened as her unfinished sentence hung in the air, her words confirming the fear stirring in his gut. Someone knew way too damn much about them, and had just landed them in the middle of a shit sandwich. Possibly to target Luke, anticipating that Sam would reach out to him.
“No. If that was the case, the sender would have sent it to me directly,” Luke muttered.
Ben wanted to know more about this HVT, Hanes, and Hanes’s connection to Luke, because the timing of this whole thing was fucking suspicious, and he didn’t want Sam or anyone else in this house in harm’s way ever again. “Can you confirm whether—”
“Yeah, I’ll check with someone right now,” Luke said, pulling out his phone.
Ben folded his arms and chewed harder on his gum, his mind racing—to all kinds of terrible conclusions. Sam was nibbling on her lower lip as she studied the data, a frown knitting her forehead.
He hated that she was at the center of whatever this was. It made him want to whisk her out of here and take her off grid to a secluded cabin somewhere until they got to the bottom of it and confirmed she wasn’t at risk. He was paranoid and protective like that.
“Roger, it’s Hutch,” Luke said to whomever he’d called. “Sorry to call so late. Listen, I wonder if you can verify two assets’ locations for me.” He met Ben’s gaze. “Joe Hanes, and Said Kader.” He listened for a few moments, then nodded once. “All right, thanks. Appreciate it. Merry Christmas, brother.”
“Well?” Ben prompted as Luke lowered the phone.
“Hanes is back Stateside, just had meetings in D.C. with some higher ups the other day. And Kader was reportedly KIA in a drone strike the day before that in Idlib. Courtesy of Hanes and crew.”
The tension in Ben’s stomach eased, the all-too familiar burn disappearing as relief washed through him. Kader was dead. No crazy terrorist was gunning for Sam, or Luke. Crisis averted. “So then…who sent Sam the letter?”
“No damn idea,” Sam murmured, frowning at her screen.
Someone who had a score to settle against Hanes. “The accounts must mean something. We can dig into them more tomorrow, find out what the deposits and withdrawals mean, and go from there.”
He laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently, relieved she wasn’t in danger from this. “And on that note, let’s call it a night.” If he didn’t force her to stop now, his little workaholic would still be sitting in here with her laptop come morning.
“All right,” Sam said, sounding disappointed as she started shutting everything down.
“Let me know when you find out who the companies behind those accounts are registered to,” Luke said. “Sleep well, but not too late. Em’ll be in the kitchen at daybreak fixing breakfast for everyone no matter what I say, and you’ll hurt her feelings if you miss it.”
Ben grinned, feeling at ease once more. “I love that woman.” He squeezed Sam’s shoulder, looking forward to getting her naked in their room so he could shut her brain down with more enjoyable things for a while. “Come on, sweets. There’s a fancy, antique four-poster waiting for us upstairs with our name on it.” And he planned on making the most of it with his gorgeous wife.
Chapter Four
“Give me good news,” Joe said to his guys as he walked into the condo currently serving as his safehouse.
From the moment he’d seen the video footage of Kader putting that envelope into the mailbox, his team had been trying to find out who he’d sent it to, with no luck so far. They didn’t know what the envelope contained, but Joe could guess.
A hard copy of electronic files Kader hoped to destroy him with. Maybe even a location for the storage unit. Joe couldn’t be sure whether Kader had been bullshitting him about that, trying to save himself with lies and an empty threat.
Of course, that threat might also be real.
Joe pulled in a steadying breath, beyond agitated. He needed to know where that fucking storage unit was. Everything he needed to start over was in there, but it had to stay a secret. And knowing Kader, the bastard had likely left some other kind of evidence that would end Joe as
well.
He shook his head in disgust, rage building deep inside him. For Kader to try to take him down after everything that asshole had done in Syria? Crimes that even Joe didn’t have the stomach to pull off? Fuck that.
“I’ve been ripping apart files from the laptop we recovered in his motel room,” Joe’s tech whiz replied. “From what I can tell, everything points to one person. He’d been searching for her—”
“Her?”
“Yeah, and he tried to look up her home address in the Agency files too.”
Joe was still stuck on the last part. Since when did Kader have female contacts here? Let alone within the Agency? “He sent it to a female Agency employee?”
“Best I can tell she’s a contract employee, civilian. The name Samarra Sinclair mean anything to you?”
Joe stilled, something catching at the back of his mind. “It’s familiar.” Her first name, at least. But he couldn’t remember why, other than it was the name of a city in Iraq. “Can you pull up a picture of her?”
Five seconds later, Joe was looking at a familiar face. Deep auburn hair, brown eyes, freckles. Recognition flickered to life. “Samarra Wallace,” he murmured, stunned as he finally placed her. She must have gotten married or something, explaining the surname change.
The tech guy looked up at him. “So you know her?”
“I know of her. She worked with Luke Hutchinson on various ops a while back.” Joe knew him, but not well. More like he was aware of Hutchinson’s reputation. One of the best operatives in the Agency’s history, and a man you didn’t want to cross.
“Did you get her address?” And what was Kader’s connection to her? Joe didn’t see how they would know each other. Unless Kader had reached out to her on a hunch because of her connection to Hutchinson.
“Yep. About a fifteen-minute drive from where Kader dropped the envelope into the mail. I’ve already pulled up the building specs.”
