Dangerous Assignment (Aegis Group Book 4) (29 page)

She reached for him, and he leaned back.

“No,” he whispered, part of him wanting to hold onto this vision of her for a few more moments.

Her fingers were warm. They curled around his cheek, pressing against him until he could feel each individual digit.

If this was a dream, if this was a hallucination, he didn’t want to be fixed.

She was there, even if it was only in his head.

Luke wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his face against her stomach. She smelled of lavender. Her hand stroked over his head, down his neck. She spoke, but he couldn’t make out her words.

Abigail sat in his lap, her injured arm between them, her other arm around his neck.

“It’s me,” she whispered.

“You were dead.” His breath shuddered out of his body.

“It was staged.”

“What?” He pulled back, his head reeling.

“I didn’t know,” she said in a rush.

“What? How?” His head was still stuck on the fact that she was very much alive, on his lap, in his apartment.

“I realized it when I saw the bomb. Baron had a team that got to it first. He never told me. They deconstructed it as soon as they knew Zach got away with the codes and the location. They replaced it with a similar model and C4. It was all staged.”

“Those men? Zach?”

“They were real. Baron knew Zach had the gas, and he had this stupid plan.” She shook her head.

“What the fuck did he do this time?”

“He—”

“Start at the beginning. How are you alive?”

“The bomb. I realized when I saw it that it’d been tampered with. It wasn’t the real one. I didn’t get the chance to tell you because Zach was there. He knocked me out. A Mossad agent shot and killed Zach on site, scooped me up, and detonated the bomb. They used my DNA to plant the physical evidence that I’d died.”

“Whose picture is it they’re showing on TV?”

“She’s a Mossad agent, that’s all I can tell you.”

“Did they kill her?”

“No, but her family allowed them to use her image as mine.”

“Then…what? Why?”

Abigail lifted her shoulders.

“Are you okay?” He leaned back, taking stock of her injuries.

“I’ll heal.” Her voice was watery, broken.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Abigail…”

What wasn’t she telling him? Had he gotten her back just to lose her again?

Abigail had never seen
anything more beautiful than Luke. The way he looked at her… How he made her feel… And to think, she’d cursed Baron for giving her this life. Without it, she’d never have met Luke. All the hardships, the years, they’d led her here. To him.

“Abigail?” He stroked her hair, her face. She didn’t care about the muscle twinges, the pressure on her shoulder or the throb of bruises. He was touching her.

“I hate Baron, but…”

“There’s no ‘But’ about it, he better stay across the damn ocean.”

“He arranged it all.”

“What?”

“My death.”

“I’m supposed to thank him for that?”

“I’m dead, Luke. Think about it.”

He stared at her, his gaze a little unsteady. If she had to guess, based on the state of the house, he’d been in mourning. For her. And here she’d wondered if he cared, if her coming back from the dead was a good idea or not.

“You look awfully alive to me,” he said.

“Yael is dead. No one is looking for her.”

“So what?”

“It means I’m done. I don’t work for Mossad anymore. Everyone connected with my blackmail is gone. I’m out.”

“Are you serious? You’re free?”

“Yes.” She took a deep breath. “I don’t really know what happens next.”

Luke squeezed her, just a bit. She winced, but hid it by burying her face in his neck.

“You can stay here,” he said, his voice small and hopeful.

She wanted that. To stay with him. But was it because it was all she knew? Without covert work, Luke was all she had. The only anchor in existence for her.

“I’ve never been able to choose where I went or what I did…” She stared at the sofa.

“I can imagine.”

“During training, there was this one instructor. She said that hearts lied. That they were fickle, weak things, and we had to trust our head and our gut. I’ve never trusted my heart. I don’t know how to. I don’t know what I want, if I’m making the right choice. I…feel things…”

Love.

She felt love for Luke, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“Hey?” Luke cupped her cheek. “How about this? You stay here for as long as it takes you to figure out what you want to do, and then we’ll figure out the rest.”

“But…what will I do?”

“What do you want to do?”

“I…don’t…know. I can’t work in covert intelligence. That’s the agreement. What am I supposed to do with myself?”

“Well, the obvious is that you could work with Zain. Not in intelligence, but in logistics. Moving people around, evaluating their strengths, who should do what job. I bet you could help him out a lot, especially if we get that Department of Defense contract. Word is Crawford wants to move Zain out west anyway. They’d need someone here who knows how to evaluate field ready skills. Stevens is good but he’s more operational.”

“But…they will know the truth.”

“And you think the guys don’t have secrets?”

Her gut had said the Aegis men who knew her were the good kind. Trusting them with this new life would be a gamble…but to be with Luke? Worth it.

“Abigail?” He cupped her cheek, his deep, brown eyes staring at her like she was his world. She wanted to be that, to matter that much to him. “Whatever you want to do, or wherever you want to be, just tell me, okay? I…love you. And I lost you twice already. You don’t have to love me back, you aren’t bound to me, but please, let me look out for you? I'm sorry I wasn't part of your past, can I make it up by being in your future?”

She sputtered and laughed. This man and his silly lines had wormed his way into her heart.

If she’d ever felt happiness before, it paled in comparison to what coursed through her veins now. Love. Joy. Happiness. She’d found them in this man’s arms, but could she trust it? Did she know how to be the kind of woman he needed her to be?

Epilogue.

Six months later…

“Hey, Bliss? Hannah? Where
you want this ice?” Luke hefted a couple bags up under his arms. The cookout was in full swing, and he’d drawn the unlucky straw to replenish the ice mid-celebration. Probably for the best, since he was among one of the only sober ones in attendance. It was going to be one hell of a night, that was for sure.

“Oh, just through there, please?” Bliss pointed at the doorway leading into the laundry room. “Did you see who Molly Turner brought? Who is that guy, Luke?”

“Not sure.” The last thing Luke wanted to talk about was Ethan’s widow with someone else.

He shouldered through the door. Several empty coolers sat up against the walls, drinks and bottles stacked on top of the washer and dryer. He let the bags drop before ripping open one bag.

Life was…good. Work had cooled off, staying mostly uneventful, though he was pretty sure the admiral was keeping him close to home after the fiasco six months ago. Abigail was settling in nicely. They had a routine.

Work.

Make love.

And on the weekends they went somewhere. She’d never been to an amusement park, never seen the Grand Canyon, never celebrated a damn birthday. They were writing the pages of her new life. Together. And he never lost the opportunity to tell her he loved her.

That still made her uncomfortable as hell.

Was it because he didn’t care if she wasn’t telling him she loved him back? Because that was fine. Considering everything she’d been through, in her position, he wouldn’t be quick to pull the trigger either.

Maybe he should run it by Hannah. Or Bliss.

Get a woman’s perspective on things.

The kitchen door opened, the obnoxiously loud music spilling in for a moment before it thudded shut again.

“Bliss? Hannah?”

Abigail’s voice made him smile, the day seem brighter, the air sweeter.

“Hey!” Hannah’s voice cut off, drowned out by Abigail’s anxious words.

“Can I ask you something, Hannah?” Abigail spoke in a rush. Had something happened? He straightened, torn between wanting to fix it and sitting back to let Abigail do what she wanted. If she wasn’t talking to him about something, she probably had her reasons.

“Sure…” Hannah’s tone was…confused.

“What’s up?” Bliss asked.

Damn it. He should leave—but there wasn’t a door.

“It’s about Luke…”

Shit.

He froze.

This was the moment he needed to excuse himself. Abigail deserved confidents, people she could talk to who weren’t him. Even if she wanted to talk
about him
.

“Well, uh…”

“You know—”

Abigail charged ahead, speaking over the other two women. “Luke says he loves me, and I believe him. I think… I mean… I do, too, I just—what I’m trying to say is that I want to figure out a way to tell him. That I love him, too. My hands are shaking just saying it out loud. Shit. I want to figure out how to tell him…I want to spend my life with him. I know he won’t ask, and whenever I should say something I get tongue tied and then the moment passes and—”

“Shut up,” Hannah blurted out.

“Wait—are you saying you want to what? Marry Luke or something? Our Luke? I mean—your Luke?” That was Bliss, permanently on the marriage bandwagon.

Luke couldn’t breathe. He gripped his knees, trying to draw in breath, but he couldn’t.

Here he’d been wondering what he’d done wrong and…

Abigail was learning to follow her heart.

It was different for her.

“Oh my God,” Hannah said, her voice muffled.

He could imagine her glancing from Abigail to the laundry room door. Hannah had a terrible poker face sometimes.

“What?” Abigail asked. “Yes, if Luke wants to get married.”

He pushed upright, one hand on the dryer.

He was grinning so big his face hurt.

“But he won’t ask me. That’s part of the problem.” Abigail sighed.

He pulled the laundry door open, peering out.

Abigail stood with her back toward him, Hannah and Bliss staring at her—then him—eyes wide.

“I thought about asking him, but that’s not really done, is it? Men are supposed to be the ones asking.” Abigail shoved a hand through her hair and made a frustrated sound he’d come to adore. She only made it when there was something about normal living that annoyed her. “Why is this so hard?”

“Nothing easy is ever worth the effort.” He looped his arms around her waist.

Abigail gasped and elbowed him in the stomach trying to turn around.

“Where did you come from?” she demanded.

“I was looking for a Band-Aid. I skinned my knees falling in love with you.”

“That’s a new one.” Abigail sputtered, rolling her eyes.

“How about this?” He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “You may fall from the sky, you may fall from a tree, but the best way to fall…is in love with me?”

“How long were you there?”

Luke knelt. He’d have preferred to have an actual ring, but they didn’t do anything by the book, so why start now?

“Abigail, I’d be honored to marry you—but would you marry me?”

“I was supposed to surprise you.” She glared at him.

“We had a deal, remember? No surprises.” Like finding out she wasn’t actually dead. “What does your heart say?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

You can stay up to date on the whole Aegis Group team in
Dangerous Attraction
,
Dangerous in Training
and
Dangerous Games
out now, and
Dangerous Protector
coming soon!

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See where it all started…

Blind: Killer Instincts

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He recognizes the darkness in her. It’s in him, too.

Detective Jacob Payton knows the clock is ticking down. Someone is about to die, and his best suspect is also his only source of information. He’s known Emma Ration’s story for years—after all, a brutal serial killer left his mark on both their lives when they were still young. Meeting her is another experience altogether. She challenges his control and entices him in ways no other woman has.

But is she the killer? As the bodies pile up and their passion ignite, Jacob runs the risk of losing his control. Falling for Emma was never in his plan, but now that she’s part of his life he’s not about to give her up. Not even to the FBI on the trail of the very same killer.

Jacob must figure out if it’s Emma in danger, or himself. If he can’t uncover the identity of the copycat killer, it could be the end for both him and the woman who has fast become the center of his life.

Blind, a new romantic suspense book for fans of Criminal Minds and The Following, from New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Sidney Bristol.