by Alice Ward
The truth was, I didn’t know what would stop them from coming for her. But I’d do everything in my power to stop it from happening. It was all my fault after all.
“You feeling better?”
“Lots.” He began to dig into the lobster again. “My appetite is back with a vengeance.”
“Good for you.” I clenched my jaw as my hands fisted in my lap. I pressed them to my stomach instead.
“Zane said his stomach is hurting now.” Grace wiped her mouth with the white linen napkin then laid it over her plate. “I hope I don’t get whatever is bothering you guys.”
She didn’t have to worry about getting a thing. She was safe. And so was I. The only two in jeopardy were the people we were with. I’d make damn sure Charles got what was coming to him. And I’d move Heaven and Earth to make sure Sloane never got hurt.
“Yeah, you’re not lookin’ so good.”
My stomach somersaulted, and I lurched to my feet. “I should go. See you guys later.”
“Bye, Zane,” came Grace’s cheery voice. “Hope you feel better.”
“Tell Sloane we hope she gets to feeling better. I hate that she’s sick.” The bastard actually sounded concerned.
I couldn’t even look back at him, fearing I’d dive for him and kill the man with my bare hands. “I’ll let her know. Night.”
I walked out into the dark night. The winds had picked up even more, and I could hear the waves breaking on the shore. Lightning flashed in the distance, accentuating my mood. There was a storm growing inside me. A storm of emotions that would spin into a tornado the likes of which no one had ever seen.
My woman was in danger, and it was all because of me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Sloane
After a glass of wine and a soak in the tub, I wasn’t feeling any better about things. Padding across the bedroom floor, I went to get a robe out of the closet just as someone began to pound at my door.
I sighed. I had no doubt as to who was there. And I didn’t want to see him. I didn’t want to lie to his face. I just…
Just what?
The knocking came again, and I peeked out the window. Yes, it was Zane, the wind whipping his hair into a frenzy of dark curls. I pressed my forehead against the door.
“I’m not feeling well. I’m afraid our plans have to wait.”
“Let me in now. What I have to say can’t wait.”
Cocky, arrogant, take charge bastard.
“No, Zane. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow might be too late. Let me in. You’ve been found out.”
My stomach dropped. My legs threatened to give out.
I’d been found out?
By who?
I blew out a long breath to steady myself before opening the door. Before I could react, Zane swept me up into his arms and kicked the door closed. “Baby, I’m so fucking sorry. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. I had no idea. None.”
I pushed at his chest. “Put me down and explain, please.”
He did as I asked, and I walked on shaky legs to sit on the sofa. He got on his knees in front of me and pulled out his cell. “I turned on the app. It caught the whole thing.” He played it for me.
The suspicious was clear in Charles’ voice.
“You shouldn’t have asked him the same questions, Zane.” I ran my hand over my forehead as it began to ache.
“I know. I’m so sorry.” He was visibly upset.
I listened more and heard Grace asking about shopping. Going on a shopping spree.
Was Zane upset because he believed we wouldn’t be in the vicinity to catch Charles red-handed?
“Are you—”
“Shh… keep listening.”
Charles excused himself and then Zane did too.
He looked sick, a pale green color filtered into his face. I’d never seen a grimmer expression.
As I listened to footsteps, Zane took my hands and looked into my eyes as I heard the rest of the recording.
Charles called a hit on me.
Even though he only suspected me to be an agent, he’d called the hit anyway.
I listened long enough to find out that Zane wasn’t in danger. His rich family would be too big of a hindrance if anything happened to him. But I was marked.
“I’ll keep you safe, Sloane. No one will ever get through me to get to you. And I’m getting you the fuck out of here now. Pack your things. This is all my fault. I don’t care about you lying to me. I don’t care about a thing except your safety.” He got up, pulling me up too. “We have to hurry.”
My mouth had gone dry. With my hand still shaking, I pulled open the mini-fridge and found a bottle of water. Opening it, I took a long drink.
I turned to Zane, who was staring at me. “Okay, here it is. This is the truth. I’m an FBI agent. I was sent here to watch Smith. I’m sorry for lying to you. Using you. And I’m sorry I got you into this.”
He tried to pull me into his arms, but I pushed him away. “I’m the one who’s sorry.”
I needed to think.
“Don’t take this on yourself, Zane. I’ve made many mistakes on this mission. I shouldn’t have left you with them. I shouldn’t have lost control. I shouldn’t have…”
Fallen for you.
“I fucked it all up, Sloane. Let me take the blame that’s rightfully mine to take.” He pushed past my resistance and pulled me to his chest. “Don’t blame yourself. You were just doing your job.”
“And I did a piss poor job of it. I let you take control when I knew better than to do that. You have to let me go. I have to call my supervisor to let him know what’s happened.”
He let me go but followed me. “Tell them I can get you out of here. I can hire a private jet, whatever it takes.”
I turned on him. He didn’t get it. “I have to do what they want me to do, Zane. I don’t tell them, they tell me.” I picked up my cell to make the call that would earn me a temporary suspension and a new identity. This wasn’t good.
Zane took me by the shoulders, and if the look on his face hadn’t been so hurt, so sincere, I would have kicked him in the balls to get him out of my way. The thing was… he was sincere, the concern plastered over his expression.
“First, I want this out in the open. Sloane Anderson, I’m falling in love with you.”
I was frozen. “Zane… I…”
Did I love him? I wouldn’t tell the man even one more lie. I had to dig deep. Think about it. He made me feel more than any man ever had. If we’d met any other way, I’d have already been telling him the words right back. But we had started on lies.
I blew out a breath, my heart throbbing in my throat. “How can you say that, knowing how much I lied to you?”
“Because I understand why you did. And I also understand the truths. Your eyes, your body didn’t lie. This connection between us didn’t lie.” He took my face in his hands. “Can you ever forgive me for putting you in danger the way I have?”
I wrapped my hands around his wrists but didn’t pull his hands away. “I keep telling you, this is my fault, not yours. I don’t have to forgive you since I’ve never blamed you for it. The fact is, it comes with the job. I knew that. I knew not going by the book would be dangerous. I did it anyway.”
My face burned as emotion crept into my eyes, my sinuses.
“Sloane—”
“Let me finish. I did it because making you happy is all I can think about. Keeping you near me is all I want. And I think that means that I’m falling for you too.”
A tear fell and he wiped it away with his thumb. “Sweetheart, I—”
I squeezed his wrists. “Please, just let me talk. Thinking past this current situation, I have no idea what the FBI is going to do with me now. Maybe put me in hiding, maybe change my identity.” How could a heart hurt so much and still function? “God, how badly I wish things were different.”
He took my hand, kissing each fingertip. “Me too. If something crazy h
appens and we’re split up somehow, promise me you’ll meet me right back here in exactly one year.”
Such a romantic, foolish man.
“And what if we’re not split up? Then what?”
“Then I’m whisking you away with me to another part of the world where American mafia thugs will never find you. I’ll take care of you forever and keep you safe with me.”
He looked so sincere, in this moment.
“That sounds nice.” And it did sound nice, even though I knew how impossible it was. Did he understand that his idea meant that he’d never see his family again? Or that his family might be placed in great danger if the mafia believed they knew our location.
Better not to bring that up just yet. I had the next twenty-four hours to live through.
One day at a time.
One hour at a time.
Zane kissed me.
One minute at a time.
When our kiss ended, I could barely breathe. “I love you, Sloane.”
“I love you, Zane.”
It didn’t feel like a lie.
I stepped away. “I need to make that call.”
With a nod, he let me go. I hated that my fingers trembled as I pressed the buttons on the secure satellite phone.
“Matthews here.”
“Sir, I’ve been found out and marked for a hit.”
“Shit. What the hell happened?”
“I made mistakes. Too many of them.”
Zane took a seat and held his head in his hands, his guilt swirling back to land on his shoulders. I wished like hell he could stop feeling that way. I was the agent. He didn’t have the training I did. How was he to know how to act?
“Are you in immediate danger, Anderson?”
“No, sir. I have a recording of Smith calling the hit. He says he doesn’t have a gun and doesn’t like getting his hands dirty. I’m sure men will be flying in to do the job.”
“Secure that recording. We can use that against Smith too. Calling a hit on a federal agent carries stiff penalties. As for you, I’ll have to confer with a few people about what we’ll do with you.”
“I understand, sir.” My head hurt as I felt the disappointment he was feeling, right through the phone.
“For now, you’re safe. How are you preparing for the storm?”
I stiffened. Hell, what else had I missed?
“Storm?”
He cursed. “There’s a tropical storm skirting around the Indian Ocean in that general area. Airports are still open, but they’re on high alert and will close if the storm turns your way. You haven’t heard?”
“No, sir. The island staff haven’t mentioned this, and I’ve not focused on the local news.”
Zane stood up and came to my side, listening in. His brows were furrowed as he pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation. It was as if we kept getting one hit after another.
“The resort staff is probably waiting for the storm to turn too. They wouldn’t want to start evacuations too early. Wouldn’t want to hurt their Yelp rating.”
At least Matthews was joking. That was a good sign.
“I’ll contact the office and learn the details, sir.”
“And I’ll see what I can do to close the airport.”
“Sir?”
“We can’t get to you, but neither can the hit men. With the weather, we may lose the ability to communicate. You are to sit tight. When it’s possible, we’ll send in a team to bring you home safely.”
Zane scowled at me. “Tell him.”
“Sir, as soon as the weather permits, Zane Boyd has said he can charter a jet to—”
“No. No more civilian involvement. And Anderson?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You and this man, is there anything I should know?”
I couldn’t look at Zane. “No, sir.”
“Good. Falling in love isn’t part of the job, Anderson. Better you learn that now. Over.”
“Yes, sir. Over.”
Zane heard what my boss had said, and he smiled as he took the sat phone out of my hand, placing it on the table. Softly, he cupped my chin, drawing me to him. “As if we could’ve stopped that from happening.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Zane
Her blue eyes sparkled, her lips curved into a smile. “I think you’re right. We should blame fate for what we’ve found. But we have a few things in our way right now. Maybe if we turn on the television, we can see if there’s any news on this storm.” Slipping out of my arms, Sloane picked up the remote and turned on the small television.
I hadn’t turned one on the entire time I’d been in Maldives. There were so many other things to watch. The gentle waves, the birds, the clouds as they drifted across the blue sky. Then Sloane showed up, taking the rest of my attention.
She took a seat on the sofa, and I took one next to her as she channel surfed until she found something with a map on it. Some red areas dotted the map, and sure enough, they seemed to be spinning in a circular motion. “So that’s what he was talking about.” I ran my arm along the back of the sofa and watched the screen.
English words ran along the bottom of the screen as the broadcast was in Dhivehi, the language most natives of the islands spoke. North Malé Atoll had a chance of being missed altogether. Evacuation might not become necessary.
Sloane nodded as she watched the screen. “Looks like it could miss us.” She looked at me. “Don’t you think so too?”
“Maybe. But these things can turn on a dime. We’re not in the clear yet. I better head up to the main lobby in the morning to talk to someone about what kinds of precautions they’re taking. It’s still far enough away we won’t need to act until the morning.”
Leaning against me, she turned her face to gaze up at me. “You don’t know how good it feels to have the truth out to you, Zane. It was eating at me, like a cancer. I was positive you’d never be able to trust me and want to stop seeing me.”
I kissed her forehead. “Never. It was your job. I understand.”
But there was a bit of a niggle in my brain, telling me she was an excellent liar. Could she actually be trusted?
“The thing is, for the first time, I hated that part of my job. I hated the lying, and I hated how good I was getting at it.” She rested her head on my chest, running her hand up and down my arm. “I haven’t felt like a very nice person since I met you.”
Pressing my lips to the top of her head, I ran my hand down her back. “It’s okay. I know everything now, and I’m not mad or holding anything against you. I’m going to be with you every moment to make sure you’re okay.”
She sighed heavily and looked up at me, her brows furrowed. “Really? Even now that you know I’m a trained FBI agent, you still don’t see that I’m capable of taking care of myself?”
I kissed the wrinkle on her forehead. She had a point. I was acting like a sexist pig.
“It’s a conundrum.”
She laughed. “What is?”
“You bring out the protective nature in me, but it’s not because I don’t think you’re capable. I…” I kissed the wrinkle again. “I just want to take care of you. I want to feed you, buy you nice things, make you laugh, keep you safe.”
The wrinkle smoothed out on its own as she relaxed against me again. “The funny thing is, I like the idea of all that. For the most part.”
I chuckled. “I suggest you get over it.”
Her head popped back up, the wrinkle reappearing. “Get over it?”
“Yep.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
I should have read the teasing in her eyes for the warning that it was, but when she moved around to straddle my lap, all I could see was how her robe was opening just a bit, exposing more of her luscious cleavage.
Then I was freaking paralyzed as she did something to my base of my neck. Then my face was in the cushion, my arm twisted behind my back.
This little one-hundred-and-twenty-pound woman had just take
n me down in a blink.
She leaned close to my ear. “In addition to being highly trained with weapons, I know how to disable men three times stronger than me. I know exactly where to punch, hit, kick, and pinch. I can throw knives expertly and shoot a target from fifty yards.”
I tried to fight back, I really did. But I was down, and her soft chuckle proved it.
“Okay… you’ve made your point.”
She let me go and stood up, backing away. She looked pretty satisfied with herself.
As well she should.
It was embarrassing to admit that it took me a good minute to get up, but whatever she did to my neck was brutal. Plus, I was exaggerating the pain a little bit, and her self-satisfied smirk turned to concern.
“Are you okay?”
I rubbed my neck. “I’m not sure.”
She grumbled something that sounded like, “Big baby,” but she headed over to check me out.
Bingo.
She shrieked as I swept her up, pinning her to my chest, her arms clamped to her slides. Bright lights exploded as she rammed her forehead against mine, but I didn’t go down.
This was war.
She was giggling, not that annoying sound I hated, but this one held a musical quality as I ran with her to the bedroom. She was still struggling as I pinned her beneath me and yanked her robe open. She made a sound, half rage, half desperation. Then, somehow, I was on my back and she was off the bed, an evil grin on her face. A pillow was in her hand.
This was fun.
I lunged, and the pillow whacked me in the side of the head. Damn, she was strong for such a little thing. I lunched again, took another pillow to the face. I didn’t let it stop me and soon had her pressed against the wall.
“I’ve got you now.”
She grinned and reared up under me, looking for another head butt, connecting with my chin instead. My teeth slammed together, narrowly missing my tongue. She was like trying to hold onto a tornado as she twisted, trying for an uppercut now. I grabbed her wrists and slammed her arms against the wall.
“Don’t make me hurt you.”
It was the wrong thing to say.
I felt her lift her knee but pressed harder into her, blocking the blow. My cheek pressed against hers, and god, her smell. The scent of her shampoo now mixed with the hot sweat of her efforts to combine into a wild alchemy that drove me crazy.
