by Dawn Ryder
“What the fuck?” Carl started to surge after her. Eric stepped into his path, pushing him back up the stairway.
“Don’t let that bitch pull a faint!” Carl said. “I need her support.”
“It’s legitimate,” Eric muttered as he raised his hand. His fingers were closed around a small, spring-loaded syringe.
Carl stared at it as Eric dropped it into his pocket.
“What … what are you doing?” Carl demanded, his expression darkening. “You know how much we need her…”
“She’s right,” Eric said, reaching out, and Carl heard the discharge of another spring-loaded syringe. “You are a monster. And all the attention is now focused on her. Leaving you and me, very much alone.”
Carl jerked away from Eric but a spot on his forearm stung, proving the needle had punctured his skin. Disbelief contorted his features as he looked at his head of security.
“You will experience more than a faint,” Eric said as he wiped the syringe clean before dropping it back into his pocket.
“What … what … I was going to give you everything you ever dreamed of!”
Eric locked gazes with Carl. “Maybe I didn’t fancy knowing you’d thin me out as part of the herd when it suited your purpose.”
Carl stumbled back, but his knees suddenly weakened until they folded. His eyes bulged as he strained, struggling to maintain his control, but there was never any doubt as to what would happen. Eric watched as Carl’s knees buckled and he looked up at him while trying to make his tongue work. Eric observed him for a moment, looking completely unremorseful. He watched him struggle to speak, to tell him how he felt. The drug reduced Carl to helplessness, just as he’d done to so many others. Eric lowered himself so he was eye-to-eye with Carl.
“It’s less painful than the death you ordered me to arrange for Damascus Ryland,” Eric muttered softly. “You’re just going to stop breathing. And know that all the paramedics are with Miranda right now. You wanted her to feel helpless. But you know what they say, Carl: whatever you spread around … comes … back … to … you.”
Carl slid back onto the stairs, feeling Eric leaning over him. Inside his chest, his heart beat hard, slow beats. Each one separated from the last by more time. He felt the edges of his sight darkening, watched the circle of his field of vision decreasing with every second that he noticed like it was an hour.
He knew the moment his heart stopped. Was suspended in that moment as he realized the muscle had seized and wasn’t going to pump again. But his brain was still functioning, letting him feel the approach of darkness, until it extinguished the light completely.
* * *
“Doctors still aren’t willing to speculate on the cause of death of presidential hopeful Carl Davis. Congress hopeful Miranda Delacroix has made a full recovery … and there is no clear cause yet in this case…”
It wasn’t the first time Saxon’s team had known more about the news than the reporter did. Standing in the back room of the office they’d turned into their command center, Saxon shared a look with his brother, Vitus.
Dare Servant let out a low whistle. “Seems a little anticlimactic, considering how many times that bastard tried to kill us.”
“I’ll take it,” Greer said.
Vitus nodded agreement. “Working cold cases suddenly strikes me as attractive.”
“Glad to hear it,” Kagan said as he came through the back entrance. The team turned and gave their section leader their full attention. “I’ve assured Tom Hilliard we aren’t rogue agents. He’s decided to give us the benefit of the doubt. Seems he didn’t see many virtues in Carl.”
There were some clearing of throats in the room.
“Keep on your construction projects for the moment,” Kagan advised. “It’s becoming too hard to stay off grid in the city. And take some time off. You’ve all earned it.”
Kagan was never one to prolong conversations. He nodded once and left. With the departure of their section leader, the rest of Thais’s team relaxed. It was well earned and yet, there was still a cord of tension left among them because Thais wasn’t among them. Privacy was something none of them expected but they all wanted to afford one another. In that moment, they knew Thais’s heart was on the line.
But it was something none of them could help her with.
* * *
Thais fought to wake up.
Long before she shook off the hold of the drug keeping her in slumber, she knew there was something she needed to do.
Something she hoped was waiting for her.
Sweat coated her skin when she managed to open her eyes. There was a moment of victory before she remembered the moments right before she’d gone under.
She’d left Dunn without a wingman.
It was something an agent never did.
Of course, she’d done it to force him to stand down. But he’d figure that out on his own just fine. What remained to be seen was what he’d do about it.
Someone had put her in a bed. The ceiling of the room was pristine with crown molding and not a cobweb insight. Her head was lying on a pillow and there was a blanket tucked up to her chin. Her teammates would have made sure she wasn’t in danger, maybe put her on a couch, but the king-size bed told her Dunn had taken care of her himself.
Just as she’d hoped to force him to do instead of charging into the situation they’d been ordered to stay out of. She’d used his feelings for her against him. The knowledge burned in her gut because it was a line she wasn’t sure he could deal with her crossing.
The door opened and she felt Dunn’s arrival as much as she identified him. Their gazes locked, sending a jolt through her system.
“You knew I wouldn’t leave you,” Dunn said.
She fought to sit up, earning a narrowing of his eyes.
The damn room felt like it was shrinking as Dunn came toward her. The look in his eyes pinned her in place. He reached out and cupped her shoulders before pushing her gently back down onto the bed.
“You’re not ready to be up, Thais,” he growled at her.
“You’re pissed,” she replied. “I expected nothing less. You knew who I was, Dunn. An agent. I follow orders. You would have done the same.”
“There was a time I did,” he confirmed in a hard tone. “I gave it up because I realized there was more to life.”
She jerked as the sound of his voice cut her to the bone.
“Isn’t it time to stop hiding behind your badge, Thais?” It wasn’t really a question.
No, it felt like it was a cry from the person inside her that didn’t want to be trapped behind the walls she was determined to live with.
“I know, because I’ve done it myself,” Dunn continued. “And the truth is, until you came into my reclusive world, I wasn’t as far from MI-6 as I’d convinced myself I was.”
His fingers tightened on her shoulders for a moment, letting her know he was straining against his self-control as well.
She was having trouble grasping the moment. “I crossed a line, Dunn. I know it.”
“And you don’t expect me to be able to get past it?” he asked.
Precisely …
A ragged breath escaped her lips before she was blinking her eyes, fighting the sting of unshed tears.
“I want ye to marry me, Thais,” he said, raising his voice. “How’s that for getting past things?”
Thais was stunned. She felt something stretching inside her again. It was that need, that yearning Dunn had touched so very exclusively. She’d only managed to contain it by accepting that he’d never forgive her.
Now? She was left staring at him, trying to decide if she should just jump off the cliff with him.
“Happy ever after?” she questioned him. “Neither of us knows how to live like that.”
His lips twitched into a grin.
Logic be damned.
“I’m thinking it’s high time we both tried to learn a new way of living,” Dunn said, extending his hand, offering it to her
. “You’re no coward, Thais. Don’t start being one now.”
Her lips twitched up. “Making it a challenge?”
Dunn tilted his head to one side, his grin becoming cocky. “Life is a challenge. We both thrive on them.”
Oh, did they …
“And I know that I love you,” he said, his expression tightening. “Choose me, Thais, over your ghosts and I swear I’ll do the same. Together, we’ll figure out the rest.”
Her hand landed in his.
Did she think about it? No. But then again, with Dunn, things were so much better when she just let her impulses lead the way.
He smiled as she felt his fingers closing around hers. A moment later, he was tugging her into his embrace, and she sat up so she could kiss him.
Was it love?
It sure as hell was, because there was one thing about her relationship with Dunn that Thais was 100 percent certain of.
She’d never felt the way she did about another man.
And she’d never been in love.
So it was love.
* * *
Kagan had stopped, allowing Saxon and Vitus to run into him. Their section leader was whistling as he rocked back on his heels.
“There are parts of this life I love more than others,” Kagan said, offering a rare bit of conversation to them. “It’s bittersweet though, because your team is officially going into support, Hale.”
There had been a time when Saxon would have scowled at Kagan for even hinting at such a thing. Today, Saxon grinned and knew for a fact that his brother was doing the same. Kagan flashed them a smile in return before he nodded and shook their hands.
“It’s been an honor serving with you both,” Kagan said formally. “Let Sinclair know I wish her well.”
“Sure she and Dunn are going to work things out?” Saxon asked.
“I have a feeling they’ll do just fine,” Kagan assured them.
Kagan made his way down the street and around the corner. Saxon watched him go and discovered all he felt was a sense of certainty.
He was certain he’d chosen the right path.
“Everything ends,” Vitus remarked. “Even if I view this as a little bit more of a new-chapter sort of beginning.”
“The chapter we’ll both hope our kids never dig up and read about for fear they’ll be just like us,” Saxon warned his brother.
Vitus’s eyebrows rose. Saxon snorted in response before they both laughed. Love was the thing they’d all joked about never needing.
Thank God they’d been proven wrong!
* * *
Dunn’s phone lit up, illuminating the dark room. He wasn’t willing to disturb his wife to reach for it but Thais lifted her head off his chest.
He offered her a smile before he swept his finger across the screen.
“Yes?”
“Glad you weren’t sleeping.” Kagan’s voice came over the line. “I might have had to argue with Sinclair about marring you if you had been snoring instead of enjoying your new bride.”
Dunn grunted. “Argue until you’re blue in the face, it won’t do you any good. My bride is quite content.”
Thais had rolled over to the edge of the bed and sat up. She turned though, looking back at him.
“What can I do for you, Kagan?”
His bride’s lips pressed into a hard line.
“Want to make you an offer,” Kagan said. “You have a reputation for being a recluse and I could use a man like that.”
“Planning to go underground?” Dunn asked.
“Justice has always been the cause I fight for,” Kagan replied. “There are plenty of people who don’t want to see me succeed.”
“I’m in,” Dunn replied.
The line went dead, leaving him facing Thais.
“Seems you’re going to be deprived of your favorite argument to use against me,” Dunn muttered as Thais came back into the bed.
“And which one would that be?” she asked as he threaded his fingers through her hair.
Dunn grinned at her, enjoying the moment hugely. “Civilian.”
Her eyes widened and he chuckled.
“See? I am the perfect man for you,” Dunn said before he rolled her onto her back and kissed her.
Thais kissed him back. It was a long, slow motion of lips, one that drew her into the moment where she felt cherished and loved.
Oh, so loved!
* * *
Ireland—
“Right there!” Ricky yelled at the men up on the ladders outside a section of boarded-up windows. “I want the sign right there!”
One of the men reached up and marked the spot. Ricky crossed back across the road so he was standing on the sidewalk in front of what was going to become his fight club and pub. Kagan had paid up, making sure the property was his free and clear.
“A fight club?”
Ricky turned as a feminine voice came from behind him. Cat was looking at the sign in the window.
“It’s been my dream for a long time,” he said, reaching up and tugging on the corner of his cap. “I hope you’ll come by.”
Cat fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Can’t say my mother would approve if I did.”
She had blue eyes. Ricky realized he was grinning like a fool but he was too enthralled to give a shit.
“What about your father?” he asked.
Cat laughed. Her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Well, my da … he’ll likely show his face more than my mother knows. Double if there’s whiskey involved.”
She started to turn away and continue walking but she looked back over her shoulder at him. “I take after my da.”
Ricky tugged on his cap again. Damn, his mother would be proud of his manners.
She’d be proud to see you finally got your feet on the straight and narrow path.
It wasn’t so bad, really. Ricky heard the church bells ringing and looked back at the men hanging his sign. “You know what to do, lads. I’ll be back in a bit. Got to go prove myself.”
He turned and walked down the path. It was only the weekday service, the pews far from full. He slid into one and enjoyed the way Cat’s sister elbowed her mother. Ricky grinned as Cat’s mother eyed him sternly.
But he remembered the prayers. The words rose from his memory as he recalled perfectly the times his mother had been saying them when she thought he was asleep.
When she’d begged for mercy from poverty. Oh, not for herself … for him. There might be plenty of folks who said he shouldn’t enjoy his ill-gotten gains and yet, he recalled more than one target whose death had left the world a brighter place.
He wasn’t denying he’d been a bad guy.
But he’d stepped up when asked and that meant he still had a soul.
Right?
Cat snuck another look toward him, filling him with a certainty he honestly couldn’t explain. All he knew was he liked the feeling.
So he was going to get busy earning more of it.
* * *
Carl Davis was laid to rest with all the pomp and circumstance his nation could offer.
Traffic was a nightmare as his funeral procession went through the streets, the elite of Washington, D.C., society following somberly.
Miranda stood at the front of the mourners. Oh, she was perfectly attired in a black dress that was neither too tight nor too decorated. Her hair was neatly pinned up under a small hat secured in place to complete her look.
Her eyes were dry.
Not because she was holding in her emotions as her father would have expected.
No, she realized the world was a better place now and that she didn’t owe any apology for her way of thinking.
Perhaps just a bit of a feeling of lament for the waste Carl had made of his life.
The proper response was to learn from his mistakes.
Miranda turned and moved away as the gravesite ceremony ended. Mingling wasn’t going to achieve anything but her own agenda. She had to be better than that. There was a world o
ut there that she needed to help improve for her grandchildren.
It was a task she was looking forward to.
* * *
“Seems you’re out of a job,” Kagan said as he came up on Eric Geyer. Kagan had his attention on the graveside service for Carl Davis.
Eric had stayed near the back of the crowd.
The very back, where he could slip behind a tree.
“Sometimes,” Kagan began when Eric remained silent, “things happen for a reason.”
“My mother used to say that,” Eric replied. “I always took a bit more after my father.” Eric turned and looked at Kagan. “My dad said, ‘Don’t expect the shoe-making elves to show up while you’re sitting on your ass.’”
Kagan’s lips twitched, raising the corners of his mouth into what might be considered a grin. “Sounds like my old man.”
Eric nodded.
“Toxicology reports came back on Carl,” Kagan said. “Seems he had come in contact with rocuronium.”
Eric didn’t waver. “Paramedics must have used it when they were trying to intubate him.”
“Possibly,” Kagan responded. “It was an easy death. Some might say, too easy.”
Eric held Kagan’s stare. “Some would agree with you.”
Kagan nodded and offered Eric his hand. Eric hesitated for a moment out of sheer surprise. But he shook Kagan’s hand after his initial shock.
“What’s next?” Kagan asked.
“I’m going back home,” Eric replied. “Going to simplify.”
“I hear that’s good for the soul,” Kagan said.
Eric tilted his head to one side. “Mine could use a little good.”
Kagan nodded before he disappeared into the cemetery. Eric mopped the sweat off his forehead and let out a long breath of relief.
Yeah, he needed some simplification.
And a dose of wholesomeness.
Somehow, he’d gotten so far off the path he’d started on, he wasn’t even sure who he was.
Well, looking at the casket ahead of him, Eric knew one thing for certain. He wasn’t too far gone to right his direction. He was going to use that confidence to make something better out of his remaining years.
* * *
“Restless?”
Dunn came out of the shadows. He wrapped his arms around her as she stood looking out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of his penthouse in Edinburgh.
