by Erin Wade
I exhaled as I recalled Alex’s magnificent entrance into my room. It seemed so long ago.
Sadie issued orders as her agents arranged for Titus and Leon’s transportation to the hospital. I held Alex’s hand as we headed for the helicopter.
We were almost out the door when I remembered my whip. I ran back to collect the most dangerous weapon in my arsenal.
##
Sadie and I spent the next two weeks going over the videos I had compressed onto the flash drive and hidden in the stock of my bullwhip. I hated debriefings. When being debriefed, one was cut off from the rest of the world. I wasn’t allowed to see anyone until the agency was satisfied that I had given them all the information I had. I was missing Alex like crazy.
“This will gut the US Fish and Wildlife Service,” Sadie said. “It looks like they were helping facilitate the poaching.”
“Not to mention these senators and representatives.” I ran my finger down the list of names on my notepad, all elected officials who had fallen prey to their greed.
“You know Alex’s father is on that list, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll tell her. May I see her now?”
“You can see her anytime you wish,” Sadie said, “but she isn’t here. She left with her lawyer last week.”
I was stunned. “Did Alex ask to see me before she left?”
“Yes, but you were in the director’s office, and her attorney assured her she would keep in touch with you.”
I returned to my agency-provided room, showered, and dressed. I packed the few things I had, including my bullwhip.
I had slept the last two weeks without Alex, and I was going crazy. I wasn’t certain where we stood. Her cool reactions after my fight with Leon and Titus had me worried. I had to find out what was going on in that beautiful head of hers.
##
I slipped into the Uber vehicle and gave the driver the address of our apartment. I didn’t have a key, so I hoped Alex would be home. She wasn’t. I sat down by our door, leaned my back against the wall, and waited for her to return.
I propped my arms on my knees and rested my forehead on them. I must have drifted off, because the dinging of the elevator startled me. I couldn’t see the women who got off, but both voices were familiar. My heart thudded in my chest as I listened to their laughter.
“Do you want me to break the news to Sloan?” Marty Masters said.
I heard Alex sigh. “No, it’s my problem. I’ll talk to her. Thanks for dinner.”
They must have been standing by the elevator. I didn’t hear footsteps, and their voices remained distant.
“I could come in for a nightcap,” Marty suggested.
I held my breath until Alex declined Marty’s offer.
The elevator dinged again, goodbyes were said, and then there was silence in the hallway.
My stomach turned inside out. I lowered my head to my knees.
“Ahem.”
I opened my eyes and let them travel up the woman who owned my heart and soul.
“What are you doing out here?” A tiny smile played on Alex’s lips. “Why didn’t you go inside?” She offered me her hand and pulled me to my feet.
“I, um, don’t have a key.”
She smiled and unlocked the door to our apartment.
Alex hung up her coat and walked into our kitchen. “I’m going to make a fresh pot of coffee. Want some?”
I nodded and sat on the stool at the counter. I loved watching Alex putter around our kitchen.
“Alex, I—”
She held up her hand to stop my declaration and then placed two coffee cups on the counter. We waited in silence as the coffee dripped into the carafe.
“Sloan, we need to talk,” she said as she poured our coffee. She pushed mine toward me then carried hers to the sofa, motioning for me to follow her.
I couldn’t swallow because of the lump in my throat. We need to talk had always preceded disaster for me. I bowed my head to gain control of my emotions and followed her to the sofa
“I don’t know where to start,” she said without looking at me. She placed her cup next to mine on the coffee table.
“Alex, please don’t—”
“Just let me talk, Sloan.” She took a deep breath as if plunging into deep water.
“This past year has been . . . I don’t even have words to describe this past year with you.” She turned toward me, sadness in her eyes. “I just know I can’t do this anymore.”
I fought hard to keep from throwing up in her lap. My stomach jumped into my throat, and I clasped my knees with my hands to keep them from shaking. Her words shook me to the core.
“The past ten years with you have been wonderful. I took care of the corporation while you traveled around the world jousting with windmills. I was lonely but fine with that, because you always came home to me. Only you weren’t jousting with harmless windmills. You were fighting deadly criminals, people who wanted to kill you.
“This year I learned things about you I never dreamed possible. I have no idea who you are, Sloan.
“You’re a lethal weapon in the service of your country. You live a life of death and intrigue. Every day you put your life on the line for the causes you believe in. You are foolishly brave and fearless and always one step this side of death’s door. I’m afraid that one day you won’t come home to me.”
I bowed my head and said nothing. I knew what she said was true. I couldn’t argue with her, and I loved her too much to lie to her by telling her I could change.
“I have asked Marty to draw up the papers to set up a board of directors to run our cosmetics company.”
“I’m sure she was more than willing to do that.” Sarcasm dripped from my lips.
“She thinks I am crazy, but she understands,” Alex said.
“She understands that I’m tired of being away from you when you’re on assignment. She understands that I want to be at your side twenty-four hours a day; that I want to fall asleep in your arms every night and awaken in them every morning. She—”
“Wait! What? What are you telling me?” I didn’t trust my ears and was afraid I wasn’t understanding what she was saying.
“I’m telling you, Sloan Cartwright, that I am your wife, and I want to go where you go. I don’t want to spend another minute away from you. I—”
“Oh God, yes!” I choked out the words. “Yes. A thousand times yes. That’s what I want too.”
Her eyes widened and her mouth moved without producing words. Finally, she found her voice. “You do? I thought you liked going your own way and doing your own thing.”
“Alex Cartwright, after ten years you still don’t know how much I love and need you? How important you are to me? How I adore you?” The hollow feeling moved from my stomach to my heart when I realized I had done a lousy job of letting this gorgeous, marvelous woman know how much I loved her.
“I have always wanted you with me,” I said. “I didn’t think you would want to leave your world and live full time in mine.”
Alex crawled into my lap and soft lips found mine. She kissed me as if it were the first and last kiss of a lifetime.
“You are the most exciting person I have ever met,” Alex murmured against my lips. The vibrations shook the foundation of my world. I pulled her closer, pressing her lips against mine as she moved them, lighting a fire in me that only she could extinguish.
##
I leaned my head back on the arm of our sofa trying to calm my breathing. Making love with Alex always left me breathless. Alex lay on my stomach as I caressed her back. “I . . . I thought you were going to leave me because of who I am.”
“Sloan, every moment we’ve spent together has been wonderful, but this past year has been exciting and earth shaking. Maybe it’s the danger or the thrill of watching you in action. Maybe it was making love in a BushCat. I don’t know.” She shifted her weight and raised her head to gaze into my eyes. “One thing I am certain of is that you can protect m
e and handle any problems that arise. Even in deadly situations, I feel safe with you.”
“You know I would die for you,” I whispered.
“I know.” She sighed, dropping her head back onto my chest. She lay still for a long time, listening to my heartbeat.
“After sharing so much with you,” Alex murmured, “I can’t go back to the staid existence I’ve been living. During the past year, I’ve traveled from one end of Africa to the other. I’ve ridden a camel, been licked in the face by a feral lioness, and made love with you in places I didn’t even know existed.”
“You were also almost molested on several occasions, nearly killed by an Egyptian cobra, and threatened by ruthless henchmen who would have killed you in a heartbeat,” I pointed out. “Not to mention our brief suspension between life and death as we dangled from the unfinished bridge to nowhere.”
“You didn’t let that happen,” she whispered.
She lay still for a long time.
“Do you have total recall?” she finally asked.
“I do.”
“Then you know who Leigh is?” Alex sighed.
“Yes,” I said. “The first time I saw you, Leigh was the date I shoved into the hallway and slammed the door on.
“She never forgave you for that,” Alex snickered.
“Apparently not,” I mumbled. “I could have been more gracious, but the minute I saw you, all I wanted was to be alone with you.”
“I suppose that is all we have ever wanted,” her lips were warm against my skin, “to be alone with each other.”
I was silent as I thought about the list of arrest warrants Sadie and the agency were serving as we lay in each other’s arms. I searched for the words to tell her about her father.
“Alex, your father’s name was on the list of people Sadie issued arrest warrants for.”
“I’m not surprised,” she said. “I’m okay with whatever happens to him. I never want to see him or LaRue again.”
“So, we’re okay?” I asked, still finding it hard to believe that I hadn’t lost the love of my life.
“We’re more than okay, baby,” she said. “We’re wonderful.”
In one easy move, I stood with her in my arms and walked toward our bedroom. “Good, because I have some desires you can fulfill.”
“Um, and I have an entirely new group of fantasies for you to make come true.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Like . . .?”
“The bullwhip.” Her voice was deep and sultry.
“Oh!” My voice rose an octave.
“And I’ll be the one using it,” she informed me in the sexiest way imaginable.
“Uh . . . you do know I’ve been teasing about the bullwhip, right?”
“I might also need a pair of spurs.” Her voice dropped lower.
“Um . . . uh, what exactly do you have in mind?” My mind was roaring through fantasies at ninety miles a minute.
“Oh, Sloan Cartwright, I am going to ride you like I bought you at an auction.” Her voice was dark and filled with promises.
“I believe this is the beginning of a new era of exploits for us.” I grinned as I lowered her onto the bed.
“I can’t wait for our next adventure,” she whispered, her eyes twinkling as she pulled me on top of her.
Neither can I.
THE END
Learn more about Erin Wade
and her books at www.erinwade.us
Other Books by Erin Wade
Too Strong to Die
Death Was Too Easy
Erin Wade writing as D.J. Jouett
The Destiny Factor
www.djjouett.com
On the following pages you will find the
first three chapters of
Don’t Dare the Devil
by Erin Wade
Release Date: March 2018
Chapter 1
Eden Daye fidgeted in the hard, uncomfortable chair across from Detective Wayne Rose’s desk. She watched as two officers discussed the information she had just given them. She could tell they thought she was demented or—at best—high on some new designer drug.
Eden thought about the information. Maybe they were right. Maybe she was hallucinating or crazy.
Across the room Rose and his partner spoke in hushed tones. “We need to get the chief involved in this,” Rose insisted. “This is too coincidental.”
“He’ll send us all to the shrink,” Rose’s partner Dozer Davis barked. “Remember how he reacted when we filed that report on Marian Lewis?”
Rose hesitated. “This is . . . look, Eden Daye isn’t some nut case off the street. She is the Eden Daye, Fortune 500 Daye, heiress to the Clayton Daye oil and gas fortune.
“It has only been six months since her father was brutally beaten to death. Something is not right in that family.”
“The others were ladies of wealth too” Dozer pointed out. “Marian Lewis was also an heiress. We spent six months trying to track her down. You know what we found.” Dozer shuttered as if the memory was too horrific to revisit. “We got nothing—no clues, no suspects.”
“I say we call in Knight,” Rose’s tone was the sound one would use to commemorate the dead.
“You know the Commissioner has to approve that.” The look of fear in Dozer’s eyes was unmistakable.
“Gentlemen,” Eden said, raising her voice over the hum of their heated discussion. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”
“I’m calling the chief,” Rose said as he headed out the door.
“Can I get you a bottle of water or soda?” Dozer asked Eden.
“No, I’m fine. I just need to know what you’re going to do about the abduction of my sister.” Eden appraised Dozer Davis as one would scrutinize a new employee.
Dozer was easy on the eyes. At six feet six and two hundred fifty pounds, he certainly fit his name. Thick blond hair curled over his head, making him look much more angelic than he was.
“Could you go over the abduction one more time?” Dozer encouraged her, trying to kill time.
“Why don’t you simply replay the recordings from the first six times I told the story?” Eden said, glaring at him.
Dozer breathed a sigh of relief when Wayne Rose entered the bull pen. “Chief wants us to escort Miss Daye to his office.” Wayne motioned for Eden to follow them.
In silence, they rode the elevator to the top floor of the Fort Worth Criminal Building that housed the Special Investigations Unit of Central, Texas. The elevator opened directly into a huge room that housed the chief and his assistant.
Chief Frank Carter rose to greet Eden and the detectives. “I’m sorry we must meet again under such dire circumstances,” he said as he shook hands with the woman.
“I suppose you want me to retell my story.” Eden scowled.
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Carter said. “Detective Rose has provided me the details.
“I would appreciate it if you could describe your sister’s abductor to me. Please try to recall everything you can. Even the minutest details will help us.”
“It was dark.” Eden closed her eyes, visualizing the event. “There was a full moon. I was watching my sister from the second-floor window as she walked in the garden. I thought I saw a movement in the shadows. Then there was nothing. I decided I had imagined it. The security around our home is state-of-the-art, impenetrable.
“Suddenly something darted from the shadows, threw Sharon over its shoulder, and jumped the garden wall. Just like that, Sharon was gone. No alarms went off, nothing.”
“How tall is the garden wall?” Chief Carter frowned as he made notes.
“Eight feet,” Eden answered. “Whatever took my sister was only a little shorter than the wall.”
Silence fell over the room as everyone digested Eden’s story. Even she was beginning to wonder if her eyes had deceived her.
“You said, ‘whatever took my sister,’” Carter reiterated. “You couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman?
”
“I’m not even certain it was human,” Eden whispered.
Carter looked at his officers. “Detectives, you may return to your office. I’ve already assigned this case to Special Agent Knight.”
As Rose and Dozer turned to leave, the elevator doors whooshed open.
Eden was certain a cold wind blew into the office as the woman stepped from the elevator. She was tall and incredibly beautiful. Her mane of thick dark hair billowed around her face as if battling for a place to rest on her shoulders. Piercing blue eyes and perfectly shaped red lips completed the look of beauty and power.
“Here’s Agent Knight now.” Carter nodded in deference to the woman who dominated the room. Without taking their eyes off the brunette, Rose and Dozer slipped into the elevator and punched the button to close the doors.
Agent Knight arched perfect brows as she scanned Eden Daye from head to foot. “He took your sister?” Knight’s sultry voice hummed. “It seems he left the best one behind.”
Eden couldn’t break the gaze of the mesmerizing blue eyes that seemed to pierce her soul. Agent Knight was spellbinding. Everything about her screamed power. Her black jumpsuit hugged a perfect body. The knee boots she wore looked as if they could be lethal weapons under the right conditions. A nine-millimeter Glock rested in the holster strapped to her right hip. Agent Knight was both breathtaking and terrifying.
Only when she stepped forward did Eden realize a huge black dog accompanied the agent. “Is he a wolf?” she asked.
A slow smile played across Knight’s face, “She is. Thank you for recognizing that and not trying to pet her.”
Somber, she had been beautiful, but Knight was gorgeous when she smiled. Red lips framed perfect white teeth, and dimples kissed the corners of her mouth. Her blue eyes sparkled. As Eden gasped for breath, she wondered how long ago she had stopped breathing.
Chief Carter broke the silence. “Agent Knight will be your constant companion until we sort this all out.”
“My constant companion?” Eden fought back the terror that overtook her at the idea of being in constant contact with Agent Knight.
