Egan Cassidy's Kid

by Beverly Barton

  “Don’t you lie to me, Egan Cassidy. Not when it concerns my son’s life.”

  “You may not believe me, but I’ve never lied to you, Maggie. And I’m not lying now. Without help, our chances of rescuing Bent wouldn’t be good. The truth of the matter is that Cullen plans to kill Bent and you and then me. And I figure he intends to make my agony last as long as possible—maybe for days.”

  “I—I’m not sure I understand.”

  Egan felt the fury inside Maggie’s tense body begin to subside, ever so slowly. “Cullen wants to torture Bent—” Egan pressed his cheek to Maggie’s when she gasped “—and you. He probably intends to rape you and make me watch.” Egan pulled Maggie up into a sitting position, his bent knees on either side of her, and wrapped her in his arms. “That’s what kind of man we’re dealing with.”

  Maggie sat there on the ground, enfolded in Egan’s embrace and didn’t say a word as she trembled uncontrollably.

  “I’m using whatever means necessary to prevent any harm from coming to you or Bent. And if that meant blackmailing the president, I’d do it.” Egan lifted Maggie to her feet. “This ground is cold, honey. Come on, let’s get back to the fire.”

  She walked unsteadily at his side, supported by his tight grip around her waist. They returned to the blanket and sat together, Egan holding her close.

  “By joining forces with the FBI, I’m not putting Bent in more danger,” Egan explained. “What we’re doing is giving us a better chance of saving him. That’s the only reason I agreed to the arrangement.”

  “What’s going to happen in the morning, when you and I arrive at the fort?” With the rage completely drained from her, Maggie’s voice returned to a calm, controlled tone.

  “The plan is for the Dundee agents and the government boys to take Cullen’s little army off guard, once you and I are inside to distract Cullen. He’ll be expecting an attack only from the outside, so the element of surprise will be on our side.”

  “How can you predict what will happen?” she asked. “Something could go wrong. Bent could be caught in the middle of—”

  Egan tightened his hold on Maggie. “Trust me to make sure Bent is safe. I promise you that my top priority is to get the two of you out of Cullen’s clutches and make sure he’s never a threat to either of you again.”

  “But—”

  Egan pressed his index finger over her lips, silencing her. Ah, Maggie. Maggie, my love. Always so inquisitive, so headstrong and determined. A lady who knew her own mind and wouldn’t be pacified by half-truths.

  “There is nothing I won’t do to save Bent’s life,” Egan promised, then clasped her face with his hands, leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “I’ll do whatever is necessary.” Grasping her hands, he urged her to her feet. “We have a big day tomorrow. Why don’t you get some rest, even if you can’t sleep?”

  “You’re right. I am tired.” Without saying another word or giving him a backward glance, Maggie stood, walked away from him and crawled inside the tent.

  Egan sat alone on the blanket. Nocturnal animal sounds echoed in the stillness. An owl’s eerily mournful hoots. A predatory cat’s distant cry. Insects sang their unique songs, blending together in an arthropodan serenade. With the forest all around him and the dark heavens above, Egan felt encompassed by nature. He had been alone most of his life, but he had never felt as lonely as he did at this precise moment. Maggie had withdrawn from him, leaving an emptiness inside him that he couldn’t explain.

  If this was his last night on earth, he didn’t want to spend it alone. He needed human comfort. A kind word. A gentle touch. The feel of a loving woman in his arms. If he went to Maggie, if he asked for solace, would she turn him away?

  Maggie removed her boots and set them aside, then unzipped her sleeping bag and slid her legs inside the folds. Trying to relax, she closed her eyes and listened to the rhythm of her heart as she breathed in and out. In and out.

  Rest, she told herself. Rest. You have to be at your physical and mental best in the morning. Tomorrow is the single most important day of your life. By day’s end tomorrow, you and Bent will be home in Alabama. And this nightmare will be behind you.

  But what about Egan? a concerned inner voice asked.

  Yes, what about Egan? Egan, Bent’s father. Egan, the man she had once loved with mindless passion. Egan, the person who would risk anything—including his own life—to save their son.

  Maggie’s eyelids flew open. Her heartbeat accelerated. With trembling fingers, she unzipped her sleeping bag and scrambled from its confinement.

  Oh, dear God! It can’t be true. It can’t be.

  With a blinding moment of gut-wrenching insight, Maggie realized a horrifying truth. Egan had every intention of sacrificing his life to save Bent. Despite a surprise attack from the Dundee squad, Egan couldn’t be certain that Cullen wouldn’t have time to strike, wouldn’t have time to kill Bent. Now she understood Egan’s backup plan—the one he hadn’t mentioned.

  “Oh, Egan!” she cried.

  With adrenaline rushing through her body, she raced out of the tent in search of Egan. She halted, momentarily hesitating when she saw him standing only a few feet away, his gaze fixed on the sky. Armed with the truth—the deadly reality of what tomorrow might bring—Maggie faced her feelings honestly, for the first time in many years. Despite the fact that he had rejected her, left her pregnant and never returned, she still had deep feelings for Egan Cassidy. And she still wanted him in a way she’d never wanted another man. She knew her feelings weren’t logical—hell, they never had been where Egan was concerned. But love wasn’t supposed to make sense, was it? At least not the wild, all-consuming type of love that she and Egan had shared.

  Tomorrow could bring death to Egan. And to her. For each of them were equally prepared to sacrifice themselves for their child. Tonight might well be their last night together.

  In her sock feet, Maggie flew toward Egan, her heart beating erratically. Her mind filled with thoughts of one final shared intimacy. Her body yearning to celebrate life, to grasp the pleasure and savor it for as long as possible.

  “Egan!”

  Turning when she called his name, Egan moved toward her, his arms open to catch her. She flung herself at him. Her arms circled his waist, clinging to him, hugging him, whimpering his name. Grasping her shoulders, he shook her gently.

  “What’s wrong, Maggie? What is it?”

  She looked up at him, tears pooling in her eyes, her mouth open on a gasping sigh. “I know,” she said. “I know.”

  Forking his fingers through her hair, which hung loosely around her shoulders, Egan clutched the back of her head with his open palm. “What do you know?”

  Tears trickled down her cheeks, around her nose and over her lips. “I know what you’re planning to do, and I love you for being willing to…to…”

  He understood then that she had figured out his backup plan, if it came to a choice between letting Cullen kill Bent and in dying himself. “Maggie…I—”

  He swept his hands down her arms and then up to cup her face and stare into her eyes. Her expression spoke volumes. All her emotions showed plainly on her face. Compassion and passion. Fear. Gratitude. Hope and hopelessness. And love. God, was it possible that Maggie still cared about him?

  “Once this is all over, I won’t ever let anything or anyone hurt you again, Maggie. Not even me. I swear!”

  She nodded her understanding, her face wet with tears. “Make love to me tonight. Now.”

  While there’s still time. Before we walk straight into hell tomorrow, knowing one or both of us may die. Neither of them verbally expressed what they both thought, what each of them silently acknowledged.

  Egan shut his eyes. Tremors racked his body. Like a precious gift from heaven, her invitation touched his heart and opened up the emotions he had kept buried for fifteen long, lonely years. Maggie was the only woman he had ever allowed himself to truly care about, but he had ended things with her abruptly, thin
king that by doing so he was protecting her.

  His kiss took her breath away. Tender passion. Barely contained hunger, tempered by loving consideration. She opened herself to him, taking pleasure in the taste and smell of him. In the sound of his ragged breath. The feel of his hard body beneath her fingertips. The rasp of his beard and mustache against her skin.

  The whole world faded into oblivion, ceasing to exist. Only she and Egan and the compulsion to come together as one existed in their private universe. A man. A woman. And a primeval instinct that thousands of years of civilization had left unchanged.

  With his mouth clinging, his teeth nipping, Egan swung Maggie up into his arms and headed toward their tent. She draped her arm around his neck, giving herself to him, surrendering to the desperate need that rode them both so relentlessly.

  Inside the tent, closed off from the outside elements, warm and secure, Egan and Maggie knelt on their knees and faced each other. Only the light from a gas lantern illuminated the cosy interior as Egan reached out and slid Maggie’s jacket from her shoulders and down her arms.

  She shucked off the lightweight coat, letting it drop to her side before she responded by removing Egan’s jacket.

  Her fingers shook when she undid the first button on his heavy cotton shirt. She hadn’t been with a man since her divorce from Gil. Her sexual experience was limited to two men. Everything she knew about passion and mindless pleasure, she had learned from Egan. The anticipation of experiencing once again the earth-shattering loving she had known only with Egan filled Maggie with longing. She practically ripped his shirt from his body, leaving his broad chest bare. He was older, his chest hair dusted with gray, but his body appeared as toned and hard as it had been fifteen years ago.

  Egan unbuttoned Maggie’s shirt and tossed it aside, leaving only her bra standing between him and the sight of her breasts. He pressed the center front catch of her bra and the plastic mechanism popped open. Dropping his palms over her shoulders, he hooked each index finger under the straps and glided the bit of satin down her arms.

  “My body isn’t the same as it was when I was twenty-three,” she said. “I’m thirty-eight now and I’ve carried and given birth to a child.”

  “My child.”

  Maggie shivered, even before his hands cupped and lifted her breasts. His touch ignited shards of tingling awareness within the very core of her femininity.

  “You’re more beautiful now,” he said, his voice a rugged moan as his thumbs raked over her pebble-hard nipples.

  “So—so are you.”

  It was the passion talking and they both knew it. They saw each other through a rosy haze of lust and longing. And a need to make these last sweet moments together as perfect as possible. Now was not the time for brutal honesty or harsh reality.

  Egan dragged her up against him, crushing her breasts against his chest, rubbing their bodies together as they sighed and moaned with the pleasure of flesh on flesh. Holding her to him, his sex throbbing, his heartbeat roaring in his ears, he consumed her mouth. She clung to him, returning in equal measure the intensity of his kiss. As their tongues dueled, he tumbled her onto her open sleeping bag and came down over her, grinding his arousal into her mound.

  Sighing with pleasure, she lifted her hips and thrust upward. “I want you so.”

  Lifting himself onto his knees, straddling her hips, Egan worked furiously to unsnap and unzip her jeans. He slid his hands beneath her, grasped the waistband and dragged her jeans down her hips and legs. After pulling them over her feet, he threw them to his side and concentrated on the white lace panties that hid her lush red curls from his view.

  Maggie unbuckled Egan’s belt and slid it through the loops on his jeans, then undid the snap and zipper. Not waiting to remove his pants, she slipped her hand inside and caressed the hardness covered by his briefs. Egan groaned deep in his throat, then covered her hand with his and urged her to continue fondling him.

  Rising just enough to be able to kiss his chest, Maggie began a sensual assault that soon had Egan begging her to stop. He grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her marauding lips and seductive tongue away from his body.

  “I can’t take much more of this, Maggie, my love.”

  She smiled at him, savoring the triumph of unnerving him completely. “Want me to stop?”

  “Yeah. Maybe in a hundred years.”

  He held her at bay until he could get rid of his boots and jeans. Then when nothing stood between them except her panties and his briefs, he placed her hand back where it had been and put his in the corresponding spot on her body. As he began to rub, so did she. And when he inched his fingers inside the leg-band of her panties, she inserted her fingers beneath the leg-band of his briefs. Her fingers curled around his erection. His fingers parted her moist feminine folds and sought her throbbing kernel.

  After petting her until she wriggled and moaned, Egan urged her panties down her hips. Maggie maneuvered her legs so that he could remove her underwear. He inserted two fingers up and into her. She gasped when he invaded her, the sensation electrifying as he added the strumming of his thumb over her pulsating nub.

  She yanked on the waistband of his briefs, tugging them downward by slow degrees. The minute he helped her remove them, she circled him with her hand. Pumping rhythmically, her soft hand stiffened his sex to the rock-hard stage.

  Lowering his head, Egan captured one tight nipple in his mouth and suckled her greedily. And all the while his talented fingers worked their magic between her legs. Within minutes her body clenched his fingers and her nub swelled. She squirmed against his hand, seeking fulfillment. He gave her what she wanted, increasing the tempo and pressure until she cried out and shuddered with release. While the aftershocks of her climax rippled over her nerve endings, Egan shoved her onto her back and plunged into her. Deeply. Completely.

  Maggie draped her arms over his shoulders, wrapped her legs around his hips and sought his mouth with hers. His kisses were wet and wild, a frenzy of tongue and lips and teeth. She met him thrust for pounding thrust. Giving and taking. Loving and being loved.

  And just as his pace doubled until he was jackhammering into her, Maggie reached the pinnacle a second time. Fireworks exploded inside her body, sending her soaring. Her completion ignited his. His body tensed. Then with several quick, stabbing jabs, delving deeply, he jetted his release into her receptive body.

  The animal roar that he uttered echoed inside the small tent. Maggie covered his face with kisses and wept with a joy she hadn’t known since the last time Egan had loved her.

  Egan eased his big body to her side and wrapped her in his arms. He kissed her forehead. Her eyelids. Her nose. And then her lips.

  “Thank you,” he said, his voice only a whisper.

  “Oh, Egan. Don’t thank me,” she snuggled against him as close as she could get. “I wanted you every bit as much as you wanted me.”

  “It’s always been that way between us, hasn’t it? So much hunger and passion.”

  And love, she thought. Heaven help me, I’ve always loved you!

  Chapter 7

  The heavy metal door creaked as Sawyer eased it open. He made a quick check around and behind him to make sure no one else had heard. He’d been a hundred percent sure that no one saw him enter the stairwell that led to the subterranean vault, two levels below the fort. But it always paid to be extra careful, especially when so many people’s lives depended on it.

  Grant Cullen had planned this escape hatch as a means to freedom, the tunnel leading a quarter of a mile away and opening in the forest. He had installed the underground passage, just in case he ever needed it. Cullen might have other alternate ways to escape the fortress, but this was the only one Sawyer had learned of during his time with the Ultimate Survivalists. The general’s paranoia kept him ever diligent. Always on the lookout for enemies, real and imagined.

  In a whispered voice, Sawyer called, “All clear.”

  The first to appear, stepping out
of the tunnel, was a small guy, no taller than five-six. But the minute the Dundee agent’s face and body came into full view, Sawyer realized this was no he but a she.

  “I’m Denby,” she said, then moved aside to allow room for her men to enter.

  For just a minute Sawyer couldn’t take his eyes off Ellen Denby. He’d heard about her, of course. Who hadn’t? The gorgeous, hard-as-nails CEO of the nation’s top private security and investigation agency. The black BDU she wore did nothing to disguise the lush contours of her very feminine shape. Sawyer swallowed. Damn, she was a looker. When she caught him staring at her, she gave him an eat-dirt-and-die look.

  Clearing his throat, Sawyer switched his attention to the four big men, all wearing SWAT BDUs. Their weapons of choice—MP5 submachine guns and AK-47 rifles.

  “Our pilot is with the chopper,” Ellen said. “As soon as we get the kid, Ornelas and Whitelaw will take him out of here. Once the boy is safely on board, the rest of us will have ten minutes—tops—to clear out of this hellhole. What happens to Cullen and his followers after that is up to you G-men.”

  “What about Cassidy and the boy’s mother?” Sawyer asked.

  “The plans are for the mother to go with the boy. Cassidy will be on his own. He’s going after Cullen, if we don’t get him first.”

  Morning came too soon. Reality reappeared with the dawn. As daylight slowly spread across the eastern horizon, Egan enveloped Maggie in his arms and held her. His face was buried against her breasts. Her chin rested on the top of his head. They had made love again only moments ago. Slow, sweet, desperate love. Each knowing what lay ahead of them.

  “We need to get going soon,” he told her. “It’s nearly eight miles on foot to reach Cullen’s fort.”

  “I’ll do my best not to slow us down,” she said. “I walk three or four days a week, most of the time. And I can usually make four miles in less than an hour.”

  “We’ll move at your pace. The trek will tire us some, but we don’t need to be totally exhausted when we get there.”