Rekindled (Titanium Security Series) (13 page)

“That’s better,” he murmured, the praise in his voice soothing her as much as his embrace. He removed his hand from her stomach to trail his fingers through her damp hair. His fingertips grazed her scalp in a slow, drugging rhythm that sent tiny frissons of pleasure down her spine.

She almost moaned. “Feels good,” she whispered.

“Mmm, it does. I love touching you.”

Her heart squeezed. He’d never been shy about that, seeming to truly enjoy touching her and seeing her reaction. She’d soaked up every touch, every kiss and caress like water offered to a woman dying of thirst. She remembered his voice crooning to her as he made her blind with pleasure, praising and guiding her through the erotic journey he’d taken her on. Arousal curled deep in her belly at the thought.

He felt amazing and she’d dreamed of being in his arms again for so long. Letting her guard down a little further, Grace snuggled back tighter into the shelter of his body. The hand in her hair trailed down her nape and over her shoulder, following her curves as his palm stroked over her ribs, waist and hip, then back up. Not in a sexual way exactly, but her body didn’t care. Her nipples beaded against the robe and a slow, hot throb started up in her core.

It would be so very easy to slip the robe off, turn in his arms and let him banish the lingering fear and sadness with what she knew he could do to her. He still wanted her and she knew he’d take care of her every need. But she also knew having sex with him would be a huge mistake right now. There was still so much she didn’t know about him.

“Did you really grow up in northern Virginia?” she whispered.

He chuckled against the back of her neck. “Yeah, I really did. That a problem for you, being a Yankee from Minnesota and all?”

A grin tugged at her lips. “No.” Lord, she’d missed him. Missed this closeness and the way he’d made her feel so cherished. She didn’t want to have to live without that anymore. How was she going to get over him when they parted this time?

“Glad to hear that.”

Fighting the building desire and the powerful yearning for him she’d never been able to quench, she focused on the soothing caress of his hand and let herself sink into the protective cocoon he offered. And when he wrapped his arm around her and slid the other beneath her head, her guard slipped a little more. She was safe here, and her psyche recognized that on the deepest level.

Alex’s breathing was slow and even, but she could tell he was still awake. He held her in the darkness without a word as the minutes ticked past, taking her farther and farther away from the nightmare. As she began to drift off she felt the tender kiss he pressed against her hair, heard the deeply intimate tone in his voice as he whispered to her.

“Let yourself go, angel. I’ve got you.”

David paced the length of his room as he waited for the person he’d dialed to pick up. He’d already left a half dozen texts and voice messages but the bastard hadn’t bothered calling back. The digital ring droned in his ear, each one that went unanswered increasing his blood pressure. Just as he was about to hang up, his contact answered.

“What do you want?”

For a moment David was taken aback by the impatient demand. “I—I have an update.”

“It better be important.”

“I wouldn’t have kept trying you all day if it weren’t,” David snapped.

A pause. “I’m listening.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Dr. Fallon has been taken away.”

“What?” he snapped.

“As of this morning she’s not staying here and can’t be with the team right now. There’s some sort of security situation going down, only I don’t know what it is. Travis knows, but he won’t tell the rest of us. And then when Dr. Fallon did come back to the hotel a few hours ago, she was with this guy—the same guy who followed us yesterday and hauled her out of the cab in a bear hug right in front of everyone. He’s around fifty or so, very intense and scary. I think he’s some sort of government agent. Has to be former military. She said something yesterday about him being a ghost from her past, and I’m pretty sure they were involved.” The possessive vibe coming from the man earlier today had been hard to miss.

“So?”

“So he’s taken her to a different location and I don’t know when or
if
she’ll be back. The meeting—”

“They wouldn’t cancel the meeting because of that. Would they change the time and location though?”

“They might, but…” He took a deep breath, tried to calm down as he voiced the fear that had been eating a hole in him all day long. “What if this is about me? What if he knows about the deal we made?” David’s contact had called him the day after he’d been assigned as Dr. Fallon’s assistant here in Islamabad, less than a week ago.

“Impossible,” the man scoffed.

“No, it’s not. What if they had a phone tap or something? What if they’ve been monitoring my calls somehow?” Or tracked its signal via a satellite or something?

“Relax,” the man chided. “I’m sure you’re just being paranoid.”

David didn’t think so. The way that Alex guy had looked at him, it was like he knew exactly what David had done and it had been all he could do not to squirm under the man’s intent stare. Whoever he was, he was clearly protecting Grace for more than security reasons, and it was evident he wasn’t a man to be messed with. If the threat facing Grace was serious enough to warrant moving her to a different location and taking her away from the team, then it stood to reason that anyone connected to her might be under surveillance. Including him.

David’s insides shriveled at the thought of being caught. Dammit, he’d only taken the bribe because he needed the money. He wasn’t a bad person, he just had a shitload of debt to pay off and this had seemed like such a harmless, easy way to grab some cash.

“Besides, you should be more worried about them changing the time and location of the meeting. If they do and I’m not informed in time, there’s no deal. And you won’t like the consequences,” the man went on. “If you mess up, I withhold the rest of the money
and
I’ll expose you. It’ll be all over the Internet by morning.”

His stomach dropped. “If they change anything I’ll let you know as soon as I can, but it probably won’t be until the last minute.” No way would Grace’s new bodyguard allow any of that to leak. And if he somehow knew what David had done…

“You let me know right away. Understood?”

“Yes.” Before he could say anything else the man hung up.

David set his phone on the bedside table and sank onto the mattress. He dropped his forehead into his hands and went over his options, both of them shitty. With all his heart he wished he’d never agreed to this deal in the first place.

****

General Jamal Sharif said goodnight to his housekeeper as she left and locked up behind her. Alone in the kitchen he made himself a light meal to eat before heading upstairs to shower. His wife was down in Karachi visiting relatives and he looked forward to spending the evening by himself.

In the master suite he stripped off his uniform and laid it over the chair for his housekeeper to have dry cleaned, then strode into the connecting luxury bathroom and turned on the shower. Taking his sidearm from its holster, he placed it on the marble-topped counter out of habit.

He let the water run while he gathered his shaving items and placed them beside his weapon. Steam billowed over top of the glass walls of the shower enclosure. Stepping beneath the hot spray, he sighed in enjoyment as the powerful stream pummeled the muscles in his back and shoulders. Since finding out that Hassani had escaped, he’d been working long hours to try and help both the Pakistani and American authorities involved with the hunt. His decision to turn over the man had been an easy one once it looked like Hassani would be caught, and Jamal had seen the reward money as an easy prize.

He washed his hair and body, paused to let the water flow over him for a few minutes longer. All day long he’d felt a strange prickling along his spine, as though someone was watching him. His security team hadn’t noticed anything and he’d taken extra precautions on the way home. Now that he was locked safely away behind these walls with his state-of-the-art security system, he could finally relax.

Still, that prickle of awareness didn’t disappear completely. He figured it wouldn’t until Hassani was once again behind bars. There was no doubt in his mind that under any other circumstances Hassani would order a hit on him. But as arrogant and merciless as he was, the power hungry egomaniac would never risk capture by coming here.

When he was out and dried off, Jamal wrapped his towel around his waist and took the can of shaving cream from the counter. His fingers had just closed around it when a flicker of movement in the mirror caught his attention. He froze, mouth going dry. He reached for the pistol.

“Don’t bother.”

Hassani
.

Fear shot through him. He immediately grabbed for his weapon, caught only a flash of motion in his peripheral before a hard weight slammed into his lower back. He cried out in agony at the blow to his kidneys and automatically twisted to bring his hands up. Hassani had him by the throat and jerked him to his knees before he could do more than throw out a fist to protect himself. He could see the pistol out of the corner of his eye, the grip resting just at the edge of the counter.

“You sold me out,” Hassani growled in a voice that slid like ice water through Jamal’s veins.

He tried to shake his head, fought for breath as those powerful fingers closed around his throat like a vise. “No—”

“Betrayed me.” The words were like a sharp lash in the deathly quiet room. And the rage burning in those dark, deep set eyes chilled him to the core.

Jamal lashed out with a foot to sweep a leg out to knock Hassani off balance, but the other man had been trained by Special Forces and deflected the blow easily. He could feel the blood pooling in his face from the pressure around his windpipe, his eyes beginning to bulge. There was no one to save him now, no one to hear his screams for help if Hassani relaxed his grip.

That merciless pressure increased until black spots swam before his eyes. “Was it worth it? A measly quarter million dollars for a rich man like you? That’s nothing—
nothing
compared to what you could have had when I took power.”

A garbled sound came out of Jamal’s swelling throat. There was no way he could deny the charge, and with that vise-like grip all but cutting off his airway he couldn’t even beg for mercy. Not that it would do him any good. He read the death sentence in the other man’s eyes. His guts spasmed in terror.

Those dark, pitiless eyes bore into him, cold, cruel. “
This
is what betrayal feels like.”

Hassani’s unbandaged hand drew back and Jamal saw the matte black KA-BAR knife at the last second. He opened his mouth to scream, but the blade plunged deep beneath his ribcage, right into the blood-rich tissues of his liver. The blinding shock of pain paralyzed him, stole the last of his breath.

He automatically brought his hands up to grasp the hilt of the knife, but it was too late. Staring down into his eyes, Hassani plunged the blade in to the hilt and twisted it. Agony splintered through him in a sickening burst that turned the world white, then Hassani twisted the wicked blade back and wrenched it out again. Jamal’s hands flailed weakly to staunch the flow of blood pouring from his torso as he crumpled to the floor. He crashed sideways onto the marble, his blood forming a crimson pool as it pumped from his body.

He lay on the floor bleeding out all alone, his last view of earth that of his killer’s back as he turned and walked away.

****

Alex quietly entered the hotel room and shut the door behind him as he balanced the breakfast tray with his other hand. He was disappointed to find the big, rumpled bed empty and the bathroom door shut. He could hear a blow dryer going.

He set the tray on the circular table in the corner and pulled out his phone to check his messages, trying to focus on something other than Grace, but it was hard not to think about her. Holding her last night had been like a miracle to him. That simple act, and the implicit trust she’d shown him by seeking comfort in his arms had healed the deepest part of the wound caused by leaving her four years ago. He’d dozed on and off for most of the night, unwilling to miss out on the opportunity to savor the feeling of holding her, not even for sleep.

He looked up as the bathroom door opened. Grace emerged dressed in an ankle length black skirt and a fitted pink top that hugged her generous breasts in a most distracting way. Her shiny hair was perfectly styled, her makeup minimal and understated. Elegant and gorgeous. But my God, those
curves
. She looked like a damn walking wet dream.

“Morning,” she said, offering him a little smile that was almost shy.

“Morning. You sleep okay?” There were faint shadows beneath her pretty aqua eyes.

“The second half of the night, yeah.” A light flush bloomed in her cheeks. “I’m glad you were here. Or rather, I’m glad I was here,” she said with a small laugh that told him she was still a little embarrassed about it. “I really needed that, so thanks.”

“Me too, and you’re welcome.” Though God knew he’d wanted to give her a hell of a lot more than comfort last night. At least the wall she’d erected between them seemed much smaller this morning. He considered that a major victory. The thing that drove him crazy now was the time slipping away from them.

She only had a few more days in country, unless he could convince her to stay longer, and he knew that was a selfish thing to do considering the situation and the long hours he would have to put in. Still, maybe he could lay the groundwork for spending time with her stateside. He couldn’t let go of the idea that there was a chance for a future with her if he gave her more time to get to know him again. “You hungry? I brought breakfast.”

Her gaze shifted to the tray and her face lit up. “Coffee?”