by Linzi Basset
“I agree, but you do know they’ve identified our signature on that bomb.”
Zee cursed. He’d been so focused on getting rid of Michael Flores that he’d missed the one thing he’d always prided himself on. Caution. And for what? Flores hadn’t even attended the wedding. He frowned.
“I didn’t see Flores at the wedding, did you?”
“No, but he wasn’t a friend of Max or Ethan, so why would he have been? Don’t tell me you expected him to be there? Fuck it, Zee! That’s just one more thing to show you didn’t think before you acted.”
“Stop regurgitating over the same fucking fact. It’s done and we need to move on.”
Dexter bit back another sharp retort. He dragged in a deep breath. “I haven’t heard anything from Flores in weeks.”
“I don’t like it. Find out where he is. At this stage, he’s our biggest enemy. With the Massage Parlor compromised, we have to lay low for now. Even though they might identify the bomb as our signature, there’s no need to worry about it. They won’t be able to connect us with the bombing or find the Sixth Order for that matter.”
“Yeah, except now every legal authority, the FBI and CIA are on the lookout for the Sixth Order.”
Zee laughed. “As they should be. Stop worrying about it. They’ve never been able to capture any of our assassins who are the only ones that can point the authorities in our direction.”
“You’re right, but they’re getting closer. Someone was clever enough to find out where the Massage Parlor was. They’ve gotten to our technical team, not that I’m concerned about most of the operatives they captured. Their knowledge is limited to their specific access, and they wouldn’t be able to give them any useable information, but what about William Seely and Will Glover? Both of them know more than I’m comfortable with. Will, for one, could help them decrypt our files to get the information on all our operations.”
“I’ve just found out the location of the safe house to where Glover’s family had been moved. He’s still kept under lock and key at one of Precision Secure’s safe houses, which means he hasn’t talked.”
“That itself is a red flag. They might be holding onto him in the hopes of drawing us out to eliminate him.”
“Yeah, I know, but that’s not going to stop me. We have to shut his mouth. Get hold of Blade Runner. He’s the best assassin on our team for the job.”
“What about Seely? We have no idea where he is. From what I heard, someone extracted him from the underground bunker right under their noses in the Precision Secure building.”
“That worries me. It means Seely has a connection we missed. Keep digging into his background. Have you managed to find a replacement for Glover? We need to get the new Operation Hub up and running. We’ve lost too much money and status over the past couple of weeks. We need to know what files Precision Secure have managed to decrypt.” His gaze sharpened. “Once we do, we’ll have to start eliminating those contacts that have been compromised. Some of them know too much of our movements. It would be all someone as sharp as Rhone Greer and Max Shaw need to discover our true identities.”
“I’m seeing Jessica Simmons this afternoon. She studied with Glover and was the second candidate when we appointed him. During the interim years, she has honed her skills and is just as good as he is. In the meantime, I already have replacement operatives setting up the IT systems at the Sauna House in the secure bunker in the Michaux State Forest in Pennsylvania.”
“Good. It’s a much safer location and completely undetected.”
The old bomb shelter had been closed down centuries ago. The perfect location for their needs. Zee had used their contacts in the Government to gain access to it. They had started converting it a year earlier into a secure operation hub with accommodation facilities for all the operatives. No one would come and go to draw any attention to the outside world.
“It’s a pity we waited so long to move our operation there.” Zee shrugged. “Too late now. What’s done is done. Now we need to recover and quickly. I need to know what Precision Secure knows.”
“We need to know.”
Zee ignored Dexter’s surly interjection. They both knew who swung the scepter in this partnership. He didn’t need to remind him of that.
Chapter Four
Alex’s steps slowed at the sound of chittering female voices from the kitchen floating toward him as he descended the stairs of his house in Mason Neck on the bank of the Potomac River. He lived a couple of houses down from Lance. He loved this neighborhood in Virginia. He had spent millions when he’d bought the property to have the three-story mansion restored to its original majestic beauty. He’d turned it into a home, at the time, with the belief that it would be filled with a wife and children. He shook off the feeling of melancholy.
He checked the time on his dark blue Freelancer Chronograph Raymond Weil Genève wristwatch—a birthday gift from Pamela just before Kieran’s death—that he rarely wore. He frowned, wondering why he’d chosen to wear it today but shrugged it off. It was a beautiful timepiece and deserved to be worn.
It had just turned eight AM. Much too early for visitors. He forced back the irritation scratching at his mind. His mother meant well but he had never dealt well with her pampering, which, now that he’d been injured, had cranked up to the extreme.
He grunted as he yanked too hard on the navy-blue tie he’d been knotting around his throat and threatened to choke himself. Walking on eggshells in his own house didn’t sit well with him. It was time his mother realized it too.
“Why is it that my son has never mentioned you, deary?”
Alex hesitated in the hallway.
“Now, now, young lady, don’t pout at me. I don’t buy the story that you’re a business associate of his. I might be a tad older than you, but I have a very sharp mind. If you did business with Alex, you would’ve phoned him, not arrived at his private residence before eight in the morning.”
“I guess you caught me.”
Alex’s lips flattened into a grim line. He refused to acknowledge the fluttering of heat the husky voice set alight low in his stomach. He stomped into the kitchen, his gaze homing in on the gorgeous blonde perched on one of the barstools at the island counter, watching his mother prepare breakfast. His aesthetic senses came alive as he watched her with brooding intensity.
After all the years he’d known her, he was still struck mute by her allure. Such beauty, which poets defined in endless lines, constantly infiltrated his thoughts of her at the times when he lost himself in his favorite pastime … reading poetry. Every thought and vision of her, he found in the verse of the erotic and traditional poems, the elation of her beauty praised by each rhyme.
She glanced at him. He detected an unknown shyness to her, a hesitation in her body movements as she returned his stare. It shook him and reminded him of the first time they’d met when she’d been overwhelmed by the power he’d exuded in that brief encounter. She’d been running up the stairs toward the courthouse when her heel had snapped. She would’ve tumbled down the stairs if he hadn’t been on the way down at the time and caught her against his chest.
“Alex.”
There was a softness to her voice that drew him to her. Alluringly, she blinked her eyes and he followed the fluttering of her eyelashes that had the grace of the wings of a butterfly. Her eyes were simply spellbinding, a rapturous shade of cerulean blue. Both held a coruscate gleam that enhanced their beauty in a perfectly heart-shaped face. Her ivory skin was soft and invitingly sensual, a canvas of sensuality to the hair that fell in a riot of striking curls down her back, the color of liquid sunshine against a face as smooth as satin. Her full, plump lips were naturally tinted a rosy pink that was a perfect companion to the form-fitting, dark blue business suit she wore. He’d watched those lips curl into a mischievous grin many times. Lips he yearned to taste, to once again feel their softness against his own.
His eyes followed the full curve of her voluptuous breasts pressing against the s
ilk blouse, the gentle roundness of her hips encased in a tight pencil skirt, down her perfectly form calves to her small feet encased in a pair of peep-toe high heel pumps. She crossed her legs. His gaze narrowed as he detected the self-consciousness in the action. He hid his smile. He still had the ability to unnerve her. Not that her expression gave her away, but the hand that continued to gently stroke Percy, his gray Maine Coon, trembled ever so slightly. He followed the coral pink colored nails as she scratched behind his ear. The feral beast purred and turned his head into her hand, begging for more.
Pamela pressed her face against Percy’s. Alex was enchanted by the vision. Her blonde beauty against Percy’s long fur that framed his face like a lion, took his breath away. The contrast was striking. It reminded him of the fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast―the same category he now fell in with his burned and disfigured face. He bit back the bitterness at the reminder as he watched the big cat curl contently on her lap.
It seems my cat is as captivated by her seductive prowess as I am.
“What are you doing here, Mrs. Seeger?” He didn’t bother to hide his annoyance from either woman.
“Alexander Pegasus White, mind your manners,” Stacy White lilted in her best stern but motherly voice. Alex was hard pressed not to laugh. His mother was still beautiful at the age of sixty-nine but she’d never been the glamorous type. After his father’s death three years ago, she’d gone completely gray and picked up a couple of pounds. Today she was very comfortable in her plump body but still lacked the conviction to properly reprimand her only child.
Pearl, Percy’s love interest, and a very recent addition to his home, circled around his feet, rubbing her face against his pants. Alex bent to pick her up. He’d found her hungry and abandoned in the city two months ago. Advertisements to find her owner hadn’t brought anyone forth, so he’d decided to keep her … much to Percy’s delight, of course.
“I’m waiting. I thought I made my feelings perfectly clear at the hospital the other day.”
Pamela flinched at the crass way he spat out the reminder. She had been waiting for him to walk away for four years but now that he was, it threatened to splinter apart the tenuous hold she had over her emotions. As always, she felt small and vulnerable in his powerful presence. Even at the club, in the role as the formidable Mistress Pam, he made her feel like a submissive.
Well, of course he did, you dimwit. Of everyone there, he is the only one who knows why you play at being a Domme.
She shook off the thoughts as she stared at him. To her, Alex portrayed a man with the heart of a lion and the soul of an angel in a very tall and muscular body. Dressed in a usual dark suit with a brisk white silk shirt that hugged his broad chest, he took her breath away. Her eyes drifted to his dark blond hair that he usually wore short on the side with a tousled length on top, which he always ran his hands through with careless finesse. At the moment, it was starting to grow back from being shaved off after the fire had scorched most of it. He had strong arched brows and eyelashes so thick, it should be illegal. And then his eyes—they were deep and catastrophic, a vivid baby blue like a great body of water that softly melted into a milky green. Over the distance, Pamela saw the flecks of silver in his eyes, a sign of his anger. His distinct cheekbones and angular jaw always drew her gaze to his full lips. The stark contrast of the white surgical patch-type dressing on his left cheek added to his brooding countenance. She swallowed the drool as thoughts of his mouth covering hers in a passionate, demanding kiss flooded her mind.
“You never gave me a chance to say anything then, Alex.”
“Ah, so now you decided to invade my privacy.” Alex put down Pearl who mewled in protest. He straightened, pushed his jacket out of the way, and his hands landed low on his hips. With his head tilted back, he stared at her down the aristocratic line of his nose. “To what purpose I wonder. Especially in light of the fact that you never bothered before.”
“I have something to say and I’m not leaving until I do.”
Alex watched how she pulled back her shoulders and tilted her chin higher. He’d seen her do that numerous times in the courtroom, just before she obliterated the person on the stand.
He rocked on his feet. One eyebrow shot in a curve toward his hairline as she hesitated with a brief glance in Stacy’s direction.
“Can we talk in your study?”
“No. I have a meeting in an hour. You can talk while I have my breakfast.” His stern gaze fell on his mother who turned to leave. “With my mother.”
Stacy glanced between them. The tension was so thick she could almost choke on it. “I think it’ll be better if I leave you two alone. I’ll eat later.”
“No, Mom. Anything Mrs. Seeger has to say can be said in front of you.”
“It’s clear that this young lady has something weighing heavy on her heart. I’m sure she doesn’t need my presence—”
“What she wants doesn’t matter. It used to, but it doesn’t anymore. Sit down, Mother.”
“Now you listen to me, my boy. I—”
“I’m hardly a boy. I’m forty-two years old.”
“Wise beyond years, aren’t you?” she scoffed. “And I have twenty-seven years on you, my boy. Don’t you dare try and pull that dominant stuff on me. I’m not going to wilt into a puddle and say, yes sir.” She stomped toward the hallway. “You will give this young lady your ear, Alexander, and be cordial and respectful, like your father and I raised you.” She smiled at Pamela. “I’ll be in the living room, deary. Don’t let him bully you.”
Alex almost laughed aloud at the veiled threat in Stacy’s words but he was too annoyed that his relaxing mood of earlier had been spoiled.
“You have two minutes,” he barked as he sat down opposite her. Without looking at her, he started to eat from the overloaded plate of eggs, bacon, hash browns, and mushrooms his mother had dished up for him.
Pamela lowered Percy to the floor. She folded her hands demurely on her lap and watched him eat. The words she’d so carefully recited were now scrambled all over in her mind. His nonchalant and no care attitude completely unsettled her and scared her witless. Had she waited too long?
“Your time is almost up, Pamela. Say what you came to say or leave. I don’t care either way.”
“I love you, Alex.”
She watched his body turn to a statue. His jaw stopped for a brief moment before he continued to chew. He took a sip of the scalding coffee, watching her with a glacial look over the rim.
Damn it. Where the hell did that come from?
She’d never voiced those three words aloud … not to him or to herself for that matter. She’d always only acknowledged it in her mind. She definitely never intended to say them when she came here.
“Care to rephrase that, Mrs. Seeger?”
“Stop calling me that! I hate it when you always … do you have to remind me of him like that? I hate that fucking name!”
Alex didn’t look at her. His concentration returned to the meal he seemed to enjoy with ravenous delight.
“If you hate the reminder so much why did you keep his name? Oh, wait … I almost forgot. You take pleasure in torturing yourself.”
“What did you mean by rephrasing?” Pamela chose to ignore the direction Alex was pushing the conversation.
He snorted and turned his face to draw her attention to the white patch-type dressing. “Pity isn’t love and I don’t need it.”
“I don’t … god, when did you turn into such as asshole? You know me better than that, Alex.”
“Do I? I thought I did. Four years ago, but I’ve come to realize the woman I believed was always honest with me didn’t exist. That she was nothing more than a figment of my imagination … or should I say, a good fuck who couldn’t get enough of my cock.” He forced out a low laugh. “Don’t look so shocked, Mistress Pam. That’s all I was to you at the time, wasn’t I? A buffer to keep your mind sane from the emotional and verbal abuse your husband flung at you.” He held up his hand wh
en she opened her mouth. For once he was unmoved by the pallor of her face. “Don’t try and deny it. I have finally come to realize I was never more to you than a good fuck-buddy. I pity myself for being such a fool all these years to have believed otherwise.”
His gaze scorched over her face and heaving breasts. His lips twisted into an ugly grimace. “Besides, your tastes have changed. You love to fuck women or, as I’ve heard of late, male subs at the club.” He leaned toward her. “Anyone but me, right, Mistress Pam?”
Pamela felt all the blood leave her face. She’d been a fool to think he wouldn’t have heard of the one time she’d given in to have sex with a man. The only time in the past four years. A moment of weakness where she had needed to reconnect with life, to push the thought of Alex’s pain and suffering from her mind. On the one hand, she didn’t regret it. It had been the emptiness after the act that had made her realize what a fool she’d been and admit how much she loved him.
“Alex … I made a mistake. I was worried and felt lost. I couldn’t―”
“Leave it. I’m not interested. You’ve said what you wanted to say. Now leave.”
“Just like that? Alex, I admit I have been a fool to keep …” Her hands fluttered in the air. “To allow his memory and my guilt to come between us. But when I watched that house explode … I guess it shook me out of the void I’d been living in. I’m done paying for something I know I wasn’t responsible for. That moment when I thought I lost you … I just … I’m sorry for all the lost years. For pushing you away and for … everything I did to keep you away.”
“Yeah, and you went ahead and proved it by fucking Jason Newman.”
“Stop it! It wasn’t like you’ve been celibate all these years, Alex. You fucked so many women, I lost count.” Her voice broke. She jumped from the barstool. Her voice trembled. “You have no idea how hard it was for me to watch you … to know what you did with them when you took them to the private rooms.”
He was around the counter in a flash. His hands bit into her upper arms. Ignoring her painful gasp, he pulled her against his chest and lowered his face to bite out through clenched teeth. “What did you expect? I’m a man, Pamela, with needs and desires. And yes, I fucked other women, many of them, and I enjoyed every one of them too. Don’t try and pin the blame on me for that. You made the decision and were abundantly clear you’d never spread your legs for me again.” He barked out a laugh. “Do you know the funny thing about all this, Mrs. Seeger? For a year I did wait. I became as celibate as a young teenage virgin, hoping and wishing you’d see the light. I had no desire to have sex with anyone but you. Do you know what changed my mind?”
