by Lea Griffith
“That was your bargaining chip? Allie Redding? Why the hell did he want her so bad?”
“It isn’t her, it’s her father. Dresden knew Broemig had a daughter, and no matter how badly Dresden hates your guts, he hates Broemig even more. If I hadn’t given Dresden verification right then, it was only a matter of time before someone else did. Broemig has secrets, but he’s also trusted some people with those secrets and he must have royally pissed them off.”
King released Ella’s throat and stepped back, running a hand over his pounding head. They’d used an RPG to enter the hotel room and then attacked him. He’d been desperate to save Allie, but the steel pipe had taken him out after several blows. He should thank Ella for getting them out alive. Instead, he felt nothing but hollow.
“Who has he pissed off?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Ella spat out as she rubbed her neck.
“You’ve been following me?”
She nodded. King glanced at Madoc. “How deep are you?”
“They let me follow Ella as protection. Dresden thinks I’m a bit off after being shot, but I’ve also proven my allegiance by ratting on others so he trusts me to tell him if she goes off the deep end.”
King walked to the huge bank of windows in the large room. “If you gave them the information they wanted, why have they let you live?” He prayed she didn’t answer as he knew she was going to.
“I continue to give them information,” she replied.
“Goddamn,” he whispered, the implications of her statement making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. “What information?”
“Random, innocuous information.”
He grunted. “Yeah, I really believe you.” He ran a hand down his face. “So they just let you roam free?”
“Not so much. I’m here, but I have to go back soon or I’ll be missed. I’ve been watching you, keeping track of what’s going on, and I followed Ms. Redding to Spain,” she told him. “When I realized some of Savidge’s goons had the drop on her location, Madoc came after you and brought you here.”
“Yeah? Moving pieces on the board? Or you wanna kill me to my face instead of stabbing me in the back?”
She winced. “I came to warn you and to save the woman I gave up.”
He raised his hands. “I’m waiting.”
“Dresden is moving. He wants you, but he wants Rook and Broemig more. The White is involved—someone high up is giving away Endgame and CIA secrets. We have no friends in this, King. They know who we are, all of us, and they’re coming after us. The first sortie was Allie Redding. They want her desperately, if for no other reason than to cripple Broemig. Now that you have her, they’re even more interested. A two-for-one if you will.”
“Broemig isn’t a part of Endgame. I don’t understand how we got pulled into his shit. What about Savidge—what’s his goal?”
“If I had to guess, it’s to make Dresden the most powerful man in the world and then take him out. But he’s a deep well of hate I haven’t dared dive into. Dresden has been enough. I do know Savidge has set a bounty on Allie’s head. It only pays if she’s brought in alive, and from what I understand, he’s actively coming after her.”
“Tell me, Ella, what’s your mission now?”
“To take Dresden out. To help my team.”
King nodded, completely okay with that. His gut, which was rarely wrong, screamed at him that this was Ella—he could believe her. His head screamed he was a moron. “I don’t trust you. There’s still so much you aren’t giving me.”
“It’s something I’ll have to earn back. But after I’ve accomplished what I set out to accomplish,” Ella responded firmly.
“You get in my way, I’ll kill you and keep moving.” King infused just enough truth into his statement to get his point across.
She nodded. “Clear.”
“Jude will have to know.”
“Not yet.” It was a plea.
“I won’t keep this from him. In fact, he may already know.”
She nodded again, clearly miserable.
He turned to Madoc and raised a brow.
“I’ve been Endgame Ops since I walked through the doors, and I will remain so until I die. Protecting my teammate was the only reason I haven’t let you know I was alive. And if either of you think Jude doesn’t suspect Ella is alive, you’re both dumber than a brickbat.”
King nodded and walked to the big man. They grasped hands and pulled toward each other, slapping each other on the back. “Glad you’re still with us.”
“Keep Jude away from her,” Madoc whispered. “I don’t know what’s up her sleeve, but it’s big and it could be the end of all of this. Jude is batshit right now, and he’ll fuck it all up if he runs in guns blazing.”
King couldn’t promise that. Jude had loved Ella—been immersed in her like nothing King had ever witnessed. “I’ll do what I can,” he promised instead.
As he stepped away, his gaze fell on an ancient desktop phone and his heart stuttered. “Tell me you disabled phone service,” he whispered.
“No, why… Oh shit!” Ella shouted.
King was on the move, throwing open the door to the room he’d left Allie in.
It was empty.
Wait! No, there she was, huddled on the bed, a tiny lump under the covers.
He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but his chest constricted.
King glanced at Ella. “If he gets her, I’m holding you responsible. Know that. If he hurts her, I’ll be hell on earth,” he said as he headed to the bed.
The woman lying on it was a nuisance. Drop-dead beautiful but a nuisance nonetheless. He said he’d never seen anything like what Jude felt for Ella, but truth was, when he looked at Allie, tasted Allie, smelled Allie, he understood the sentiment all too well.
What bad timing she had. Horrible timing.
“Call Broemig. Tell him what you’ve told me if you haven’t already.” Ella looked ready to dispute his order. “Do it. I don’t care what you’ve set in motion, that woman is innocent. She’s been brought into Endgame business, and it’s my job to keep her safe.”
“No, it’s your job to find out who sold us out,” Ella pointed out.
“Call Broemig, Madoc. Tell him,” King ordered the man, even though he stared at Ella. “You betrayed us. Whether intentionally or not, we’re in this because of you. Dresden has grown in power, Savidge is now the tool of a madman, and we had our sights on him over a year ago. You played with the truth, Ella, and now an innocent could pay the price. Don’t fuck with me. I will eliminate you.”
He waited for them both to leave and rolled his head on his shoulders to ease the tension. Allie had finally succumbed to the strain and was knocked out, her breathing deep and even.
What he’d learned just now was game changing. He needed time to process it, but his head was pounding. His gut said to trust Ella.
He lowered himself to sit beside Allie on the bed and rested against the headboard. The need to close his eyes was pressing.
A little rest, and he’d figure it all out. They had to move soon. He’d relocate to London with Allie, meet up with the source on Dresden, and then get her home. Whatever happened after that, at least she’d be wrapped in all the cotton her dad could provide.
She’d be safe, and ultimately that’s what King wanted more than anything, even more than Dresden.
Chapter 20
“We’re going down, Your Highness!”
Chase’s voice was loud in his ear mic. The dying whine of the bird’s rotors screamed through his mind.
“Brace for impact!”
Then hell unleashed as they hit the ground. His world split apart, and flames covered them. Fuel was a stench in his nostrils.
“Check in,” he demanded.
Nothing.
“Goddamn it, check in
!”
Still nothing.
The crackling flames were reaching for him so he reached for his boot, grabbing his knife and cutting through his harness. His left arm was numb, his head splitting. He coughed and felt the heat and smoke singing his lungs. “Chase! Check in!”
Not a sound. Then a groan and, “Jude, check.”
“Chase. Check.”
“Rook. Check.”
“Black. Check.”
“Knight. Check.”
Nothing from Ella, Samson, or Madoc. Where were his people? King coughed again, the fire licking toward him as the black smoke choked. He crawled, ignoring the pain in his body.
The bird had been taken down. Thank God they’d been flying low. Nobody should have known they were coming. How had they known?
“Ella!” Jude was screaming his lover’s name, a wail of pain and confusion, desperation.
King saw Jude then and pushed to his feet, heading toward his man who was holding his right arm to his chest. He dragged Jude from the wreckage and went back in for the rest.
Black met him carrying Chase. “The pilots are dead. I can’t find Ella, Samson, or Madoc.”
“Get them to safety,” King ordered Black, who nodded.
Then he saw them, Ella, Madoc, and Samson, on their knees in a line, a single man holding a large rifle on them.
Savidge.
When King met Savidge’s eyes through the smoke, he knew his team members were going to die. He lifted his rifle, but before he could clear a shot, Savidge turned and fired.
King went to his knees, pulling his sight up and taking aim. Then his world ended. Another boom and the rush of a fireball blasted over him. He went to his back, but not before he witnessed hell.
Vasily Savidge stepping up, shooting each of King’s men before Horace Dresden kissed Ella on the cheek and shot her too.
They fell, one by one, and by the time what had happened registered, by the time Jude’s cries had dissolved into whimpers, Dresden and Savidge were gone. And so were his people.
* * *
Allie was warm. Cozy, even. But something had woken her. She moved closer to the heat source, let the moan building in her throat free, and smiled.
Then it hit her…she was in Spain. She’d been attacked with an RPG and was now in a house on a hill, whatever that meant. Panic replaced the smile and she opened her senses, everything but her eyes, to get a track on her surroundings.
Someone was beside her, definitely the source of the warmth. Tension snaked through the room, bleeding off the large man who thought he could sneak into her bed. Okay, technically not her bed but the one she was occupying.
He grunted, as if taking a hit, and her eyes opened. He was laid full out beside her, less than six inches separating them, but more like a miles-wide chasm, if his closed eyes and tense body told the story.
Allie lifted up and took his measure. His lids were closed, but his eyes moved rapidly beneath them as another inhuman sound ripped from him.
He was having a nightmare. His body was a rock. She lifted the covers and glanced down at his hands. They were fisted at his sides. Then he let out a cry that lifted the hair on the back of her neck. Loss. That’s what his cry spoke of.
What the hell was haunting him?
She wanted to wake him, take him in her arms, and soothe him. She wanted to press herself against his body and return the warmth she’d borrowed moments ago. She wanted to ease him.
Instead, she reached for his fist, carefully wrapping her hand around it.
He woke instantly, knifing up in the bed and pulling away. His movement was fluid, and he now stood staring down at her, his green eyes murky with his memories.
“What?” he barked.
She looked down at the space he’d just occupied and said nothing. He knew what had happened. The moment stretched taut.
“Did I hurt you?” he finally asked.
She lifted her gaze and saw the torture on his face. He wiped a hand down it, and the look disappeared. In a split second he became His Highness once again.
“No.”
He turned away from her. She heard him rummage through his bag and then head to the bathroom.
Allie heard the shower come on and rose from the bed, taking her shoes off and stretching. What was she thinking? King was beyond her scope of experience. She didn’t want a hardened spec ops soldier.
Did she?
She closed her eyes and huffed. Yes, she did. She wanted him—all of him.
The shower shut off, and she sighed. This wasn’t good at all. She had little to no control of her hormones around him already. Giving in to the emotions he roused was sure to rip her apart.
“Bathroom’s yours.”
She nodded. “I left my bag in the hotel.”
“I brought your stuff from Serbia,” he bit out. “It’s in the bag you managed to grab at the hotel.”
From the corner of her eye, she watched him leave the room. Her shoulders drooped. She was fighting an uphill battle. Oh, King McNally wanted her as much as she wanted him, but they were in for quite a fight, it seemed.
She did her own fair share of rummaging through his bag, and her heart damn near melted in her chest when she discovered what he’d brought—the Yves Saint Laurent dress and heels, all the bras and panties, and another pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
The refrain repeated—she was in trouble. Big. Large. Huge.
She showered quickly, putting her hair back into another ponytail. She brushed her teeth with a brand-new brush she found in one of the drawers and then headed back to where she’d left her clothes on the bed.
As soon as she stepped into the room, her skin tingled. He stood across the room from her, leaning against the door, arms crossed over that…damn it, that chest.
She finally acknowledged the truth. There wasn’t a word to describe the amount of trouble she was in. Her gaze stuck on his forearms, traveled up his biceps, and finally tracked back over his pecs, now encased in olive-green cotton.
Her mouth watered. She continued her journey, drifting up over the strong, tanned column of his throat, across the stubborn chin to that delicious mouth.
He smiled. Another of the rare grins she’d grown desperate for.
Damn.
She stood there like a moron, covered in a towel and nothing else, the taste of mint and the remembered flavor of his evergreen taste sliding down her throat.
“Um,” she stammered. “I need to dress.”
His smile widened. “Go ahead.”
That smile was going to make her do wicked things. The same wicked things she’d been envisioning for a few days now. Her inner hussy reared its head—Who knew she even had one?—demanding she play the game he seemed to be taunting her with.
“You think I won’t?” she asked, desperate to recall the words but picking up the gauntlet he’d thrown down.
He shook his head.
It was her turn to smile. She reached for the edge of the towel tucked between her breasts and slowly removed it, letting the towel fall to the floor.
His green eyes glittered, narrowing on her body. Never had Allie felt more feminine. Never had she seen that look on a man’s face before.
Pure, unadulterated lust. And something else she couldn’t name but that made her heart jump and her soul hope.
“Never dare me,” she whispered.
He came for her then, reclining against the door one second and in front of her the next. That glorious heat he always brought seeped into her skin, marking her in subtle ways and branding her definitively.
She backed up and met the wall. He put his hands on either side of her head and leaned down.
“Do you think I won’t?” he asked, returning her words from moments ago.
She sure hoped he would. But she shook her head just as he h
ad.
He smiled once more. She had enough time to draw in a small breath before he took her mouth and mind in one fell swoop.
It was another branding, but this one was wrapped inside a promise. What he’d started in that hotel room yesterday was going to find fruition today.
Her body sang, rising to meet and press against his. His hands pulled her ponytail free, and the feel of her hair falling over her skin was so erotic that she moaned. His presence was enough to sensitize her skin; the hair was overload.
Her hands tangled in his shirt, pushing and pulling it from his cargoes, and then she was touching him, pressing her fingertips into the satin of his skin and feeling his strength as his muscles bunched. He lifted her in his arms and brought them to the bed. He sat down, never relinquishing her mouth as he stood her before him.
Then he pulled away, letting his hands drag slowly down her sides, barely skimming the sides of her breasts before they cupped her hips.
“This is a bad idea.” His voice was guttural, and it did things to her best left unsaid.
“I disagree,” she countered, right before she moved closer to him and took his mouth.
He hissed in a breath but made no protest, allowing her to plunder and pillage as she would. He wrapped his arms around her, and Allie wondered if this was what home felt like.
His fingers smoothed the flesh of her ass and then pressed deep into the globes, holding her still for whatever he would do.
Allie ached and then decided she had no idea what that was once he settled his mouth on the tip of her breast. He watched her the entire time, his face hard, his eyes soft. Her mouth opened as he drew the tip inside the heat of his mouth, and then she exhaled as one of his hands found the flesh between her legs.
He tugged at her nipple, lightly taking it between his teeth as he stroked the inside of her thighs and finally, oh sweet baby ducks in a pond, finally touched the folds of her pussy. Her knees weakened and he caught her, laughing softly as he spread her legs and sat her over his lap.
