by Michele Hauf
He eyed her suspiciously. His cell phone began ringing. He’d left it out in the other room. It was around 3:00 a.m., judging by the clock radio.
“I have to get that.”
“Of course. Yeah. Go get it.”
He climbed off the bed. “You’re mad.”
“No, I’m not. It’s fine. Everything is fine.” Except for the fact that she’d just had sex with a stranger.
With a disgruntled look, he left the room. Seconds later, she heard his muffled voice in the other room. Getting beneath the covers, she waited. She had no other clothes than her black dress.
Jude came back into the room, still naked. “The phone numbers I gave Odie led to a local address. She also said the FBI has reported the kidnapping of five CEOs in Kansas City.”
Evie sat straight up, holding the covers over her body.
“They were probably taken at the same time Nichols planned to kill the Patriot Bank CEO,” he said.
“Why?”
Jude shrugged. “Why does any extremist do what he does?”
“Did they want to announce their intentions? Show how serious they were?”
“Maybe. We need to go. It’s not safe for you to be alone here. We’ll talk about this later.” He gestured over the bed.
Chapter Seven
Jude couldn’t keep his attention on the big old house with a stone wall lining its perimeter. There was no gate at the driveway. Few lights shone from the many windows. Nothing appeared amiss here. That was a relief because every detail of Evie occupied his thoughts. Someone could show up with a gun and he wouldn’t be ready. He’d had hot sex before, but Evie redefined the term. Her responses had triggered his.
Which made no sense. He’d always thought a woman from his type of work would be a better fit. It wasn’t easy finding women like that. He’d dated a test pilot once. And an adventure tour guide. He’d gotten the closest to a real relationship with her. But she’d wanted a family, and told him she didn’t think he’d be around enough for her or their potential kids. That was probably true. He wouldn’t be home for dinner a lot of the time. He’d be home for blocks of time and gone the rest.
“You never told me why you do what you do.”
He looked over at her from across the SUV. She was still wearing her black dress. Why did she keep asking him about that?
He’d rather not talk about the past. It never brought him good feelings. And it was even more troubling how part of him felt he could tell her. Everything. She was someone he could trust.
“What did you do before you went black?” she persisted.
“I was an FBI agent.”
“An FBI agent? So you still have friends there and that’s why they use you?”
“No. This has nothing to do with my time at the Bureau.” She wasn’t going to let up on him so he continued. “You want to know why I left? I needed more latitude, freedom to do what’s necessary to get the job done.”
Her brow tightened with confusion. “You needed to work underground? Why? Does it give you a power trip or something? You get off operating above the law?”
She was fishing for an ego problem. Was she trying to find flaws? “Once my sister’s murder was finally solved, it was time to move on.”
“Your sister...” Her face showed she was sufficiently appalled with her earlier judgment. Ego hadn’t driven him to join TES.
“She was murdered by a serial killer. He’d targeted young women who jogged at dinnertime. He abducted them in parks and bike trails. No one ever saw him.”
“Until you caught him?”
“We finally found a witness. Evidence at the killer’s house gave us all the DNA we needed to pin him with several of the other murders. My sister’s being one of them.”
“That’s so terrible.”
He waited for her to say she was sorry. Why did people say they were sorry when others lost their loved ones? Why did sorry have to be the word everyone used?
“You joined the FBI because of her?”
“Yes.”
“Once her murder was solved, why didn’t you stay? You could have still helped people. You didn’t have to go black to do that.”
“I could have stopped her killer a lot sooner if I hadn’t had to follow the law. I knew who her killer was two victims before I was able to have him arrested.” It still made him so angry. How many times had he taken his pistol and gone after him. Watched him. Almost killed him...
Evie stared at Jude as his statement sank in. He was lawless and he preferred it that way. It was the reason he’d walked from the crime scene at the restaurant. Staying would have been a waste of time.
He felt the sorry word coming. The way she looked at him clued him in. The sympathy. The helplessness. Sorry was all people had to offer in the face of loss.
“At some point you’re going to have to let her go, you know.”
Her comment, so full of ballsy attitude, so on the mark, took him aback. Rarely did anyone surprise him. Evie surprised him. Her slap-in-the-face, brutally honest statement had been meant to jar him. Well, it had.
“What did you do before you were an agent? An FBI agent, not a black ops agent.”
Had he ever met an ordinary woman who had such an attitude before? The test pilot had, and so had the adventure guide. But Evie was an HR executive. She was ruining his theory.
“I was in college when she was killed. My first year.”
“And your degree was going to be in...?”
He saw where she was headed with this.
“Geology.”
“Geology.” She nodded with a cynical frown on her mouth. “Quite a bit different than black ops.”
She made him grin, and then laugh a little. “Are you always this direct?”
“Always. Yes.”
She had left her date in the middle of dinner.
“I don’t aspire to be a geologist deep inside. I’m doing what I’m meant to do.”
“Okay, but you still haven’t let your sister go. I wonder what you’ll do with your life once you do.”
She turned as a car drove up to the house. He was glad for the interruption.
“Looks like it’s time to see who’s home,” Evie said, obliterating his concept of her as a woman who wasn’t his type. She had courage.
Independent. Secure.
He couldn’t say she was trusting yet. “You should wait here.” He got out of the SUV.
Evie did the same and met his reproach defiantly. “I’m in just as much danger out here as I am with you.”
He wasn’t quite sure how to take that and didn’t have time to argue. He let her come with him. She wouldn’t be the first woman he’d protected on a mission.
They approached the home of Nichols’s associate. He jogged with her among the trees and other landscaping around to the back. There was no security.
This may be a dead end.
“There are lights on in the basement. Look.” Evie pointed.
Jude saw that several small windows were lit. If there was any action going on here, that’s where it was.
He led her closer. No one was in sight. Crouching near one of the windows, they both saw an unfinished basement that was filled with a dozen men. Some sat at tables. There were televisions set up all over. In corners, on tables.
Evie elbowed him.
He looked to the far right of the room. Five men in suits were bound to chairs.
“They’re still alive.”
Were they going to demand money? Terrorists were often takers that way. “I can’t take you in there.” He couldn’t risk her life.
“We have to do something.”
He took out his phone. “Wait for help.” She’d know what kind of agency he worked for by the time this was over. Cullen would send his best.
Just as he finished with Odie, someone aimed a rifle at his head. “Put your hands up.”
Chapter Eight
It had been hours since Jude called that Odie person. They were now bound wit
h the CEOs. Jude had been quietly observing their captors the entire time. She wondered what he was thinking. There were two men in the basement. The others had gone to find a place to sleep. They were on a rotating schedule now. The gathering had been a celebration of success. Despite the loss of one of their own, they’d kidnapped the first of many top executives who were responsible for the state of the economy.
Josh Payne was their leader. He was the man Jude had been sent to find in connection with Chad Nichols. Now he’d found Payne and his organization, but Jude and Evie were trapped in their clutches. Josh Payne was a scary man. Tall and big with eerily pale blue eyes.
He’d already demanded money from the authorities. But Evie had heard them say that they didn’t intend to let anyone go. None of the hostages would be spared. All of the executives had to die as an example. And when they were dead, the group would endeavor to kidnap more. They planned to travel across the country, with the ultimate goal of causing change to benefit the working class for once, rather than the rich. It was ludicrous.
“Evie.”
She turned to Jude at his whisper.
“Be ready.”
“For what?”
He looked toward the window. She did, too, but saw nothing but daylight and trees.
The two guards were absorbed in a card game, one with his back to them, the other his profile.
Jude leaned over and untied her hands. His hands were free!
“How did you...?”
He untied his feet and stood. No one else who was bound said a word. Evie held her breath while she untied her own feet. The sight of Jude striding toward the two guards was awe-inspiring.
The guard sitting with his profile to them saw him first, but it was too late. Jude snapped his neck and then had his gun in hand and shot his partner before the man could put his cards down.
She hurried to the first executive and untied his hands, then the next.
“Everyone behind me. You and you—” Jude pointed to two men “—take these.” He tossed a pistol and a rifle that the guards had had to the two men. “The gunfire will bring them to us. Evie, go behind that bar!”
She ran there, crouching enough to see around the corner. One of the executives followed her, pitifully frightened.
“Do you actually run a corporation?” she asked.
The upper door opened and a stream of terrorists filed down the stairs. Jude fired along with the two others.
It was hopeless. Jude’s meager team of gunmen were outnumbered.
An explosion deafened her a moment. Men scattered. A hole appeared in the wall where she and Jude had peered into the basement hours before.
Men who were clad in black and heavily armed filed in, shooting along with Jude. The rest of the executives had found cover as soon as the explosion had hit.
When none of the leftists remained standing, Jude and the men in black ran upstairs. Evie ran after them.
When she emerged into the main room of the house, she saw that Jude and his new friends had three men on the floor. One of them was Payne. A flurry of FBI agents arrived and took over the scene.
Jude came to stand beside her, his friends following to form a half circle around her.
“Evie, this is Odie and her husband, Jag Benney,” Jude said, then turned to the other two men. “Rem D’Evereau and rescue expert Travis Todd.”
Evie passed her gaze from one hulking man to the next. “He didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“We’re in constant communication,” the woman named Odie said. And then to Jude she asked, “How much have you told her about us?”
“Not nearly enough,” Evie said, eyeing Jude. Now she knew why he’d insisted she wasn’t his type.
His friends were an intimidating bunch. And every bit as handsome as Jude. Jag, with thick, light brown hair and green eyes that missed nothing, least of all his beautiful wife. Rem, with black hair and pale blue eyes that were haunting and shrewd. And Travis, a mischievous light in his blue eyes and dark blond hair. Readiness radiated from them all. Readiness and an undeniable sense that each was exactly where they belonged.
In the middle of action, fighting evil.
Evie began to feel an anxious swell of foreboding circle her chest. Jude was right. His world was so different from hers, and yet she had this absurd desire to take a chance on him. But would he want to take a chance on her? She lived in Kansas. Would a man like him be happy here?
Realizing she was staring at Jude, she averted her gaze.
“You should get going,” Odie told them.
Jude turned to her in question.
“The police will be here any minute, along with the press. We should be long gone by then.” She glanced over at the agents. “They’ll take it from here.”
“I’ll take Evie home,” Jude said. “You setting up a conference call with Cullen?”
“I’ll email you the information.” They headed for the door.
Jude guided her with him and she went without protest. A hot shower and a change of clothes were in order, but she dreaded Jude leaving. To her mind, they had unfinished business, but would he see it that way?
* * *
Jude pulled into Evie’s driveway and stopped the SUV. He was torn about what to do. He wanted to see more of her but...should he?
Her tentative glance at him before opening the passenger door decided his first step. He got out and walked her to the door.
There, he stopped her from opening it and walking out of his life forever. “Are you going to be all right?” Her back door was broken and her house was a mess. But outside, things seemed normal. The bad guys must have taken the bodies of their friends with them and Jude didn’t see any police tape, so Evie’s neighbors probably hadn’t called the authorities.
“I’ll be fine.”
Her stiff answer told him she was disappointed. She thought he was going to leave.
Wasn’t he?
“Well, goodbye.” She pushed open the door.
“Wait.” He touched her shoulder and guided her to face him.
Her big green eyes stared up at him. Heat sparked to life in him and he felt the same response in her. It would be a shame to waste this opportunity. What if she was the one for him?
“We do have some things in common,” he heard himself say.
“Yes.”
She wasn’t going to help him. That was all right. “How about dinner tonight? I can help you board up your back door, then we can both grab a shower and some sleep and meet up again around seven.”
Her smile said it all.
* * *
Evie entered the restaurant fifteen minutes early and was delighted to see Jude was already there. He stood up from the table as she approached.
“I hope nobody is going to start shooting this time,” she quipped.
“If they do, I’ll protect you.”
“I don’t doubt you will.” She sat and so did he.
The waitress came and took their order.
“Sleep well?” he asked.
“Not really.” She’d been too excited about seeing him again.
“Me, neither.”
She had to know. Leaning back against her chair, she resolved to have it out with him. He may be a stranger but she’d slept with him. She had to know if there was anything worth pursuing between them. “What are we doing, Jude?”
“Having dinner.”
“And then what? You fly home to...where?”
“New York. But that doesn’t mean we can’t keep seeing each other.”
She liked the sound of that, but it wasn’t enough. “I’m not having sex with you again until I know you better. That last time was adrenaline, or something. I’m thinking clearly now.”
“That makes one of us.” He grinned.
He was joking to keep it light, but she was serious. “I can’t see anyone who keeps secrets from me.”
“What do you need to know?”
“Who do you work for?”
�
��Tactical Executive Security. TES. A counterterror organization. And that’s really all I can tell you.” He paused. “For now.”
She nodded, satisfied and tingling with delight because he’d told her the truth. “I’m an HR director,” she reminded him.
“A very beautiful, fearless one.”
“Are you sure you want to do this? How will it ever work? You live in New York and I live—”
“In Kansas. Don’t remind me.” He chuckled. “I could fly here whenever our schedules allow it.”
“I could fly to New York, too.” She surprised herself by her willingness. He was serious about seeing her and nothing could make her happier.
“And if things work out...”
“We can talk about that later.” They’d take it one step at a time.
Falling into the brewing desire in his green eyes, she opened her heart to him. The longer they gazed at each other, the more the embers began to smolder with the promise of flames. Her plan to not sleep with him again until she knew him better began to crumble.
She did know him better. She knew the name of the organization that employed him. And she knew he was one of the good guys. One who’d protect the things and people he loved no matter what. They had that in common.
What more did she need? For now...
* * * * *
Get your heart racing with the next story in the Vengeance in Texas miniseries, A RANCHER’S DANGEROUS AFFAIR, on sale February 2013!
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ISBN: 978-14592-4562-4
A Taste of Romance: Four Original Harlequin Novellas
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