title (6 page)

“Rachel?” She could hear the whoosh of a breath being released. “Thank heavens.

I’ve been calling and calling your house and no one answered. I was so worried.”

“Nina?” Rachel was completely puzzled. She and Nina Chan had a good working relationship but nothing that would prompt the woman to call her at such an ungodly hour. They were staff members, not friends. This was too weird. “What’s this about? Do you know what time it is?”

“Yes. That’s why I was so uneasy. When you left the party you looked really strange. I was afraid something was terribly wrong. After everyone left tonight I tried calling you at home but you didn’t answer.”

Because I had the phone shut off.

“I appreciate your concern but—”

“When I couldn’t get hold of you—”

“Hold on a minute.” She held the phone against her thigh.

Gabe and Killian were staring at her with grim expressions.

“Who is it?” Gabe demanded.

“My assistant. Nina Chan. She says she was worried about me when I left the party.” She looked Gabe in the eye. “I don’t usually leave before the end. She says she tried calling me at home but I shut the phone off when we got to my house. I wasn’t expecting any calls.”

“Is she a close friend?” Killian asked. “Would she normally do this?”

Rachel shook her head. “In fact, for her to act like this is really strange.”

“Hang up,” Killian ordered. “Now.”

When she didn’t move he grabbed the phone from her and pressed End. Then he removed the battery and crushed the phone beneath his heel.

“What are you doing?” Anger surged through her. “That’s my telephone.”

“Yes. It was. And we don’t want to give anyone more time than necessary to triangulate your position.”

“You’re kidding, right?” She looked at Gabe. “Nina Chan is a clerical person. No way could she be the person you’re looking for.”

“But someone could have asked her to make the call,” Gabe pointed out. “Don’t worry. When we need your phone, we’ll replace it. Dan has a stash of them around here. Meanwhile, you’re out of technology range.

Rachel threw up her hands. “I can’t believe this.” She started to pace, then stopped and stared at Gabe. “Wait a minute. You got into the party tonight without being on the list. Maybe someone else did too. And maybe that someone is holding a gun to Nina’s head.”

Gabe’s smile was anything but humorous. “I got in because DRK was providing the security. I can promise you no strays wandered in.”

“Then how…what…”

“I don’t know but I’d better get you two out of here.” Killian snapped open his own phone.

“Wait a minute.” Gabe put a hand on his arm. “Why? I thought we were safe here?”

“We don’t know if the Chan woman kept Rachel on the phone long enough to pinpoint this location. We can’t take chances. And besides, she may have given us an unexpected opportunity.”

“So where are we going?”

His grin was humorless. “The last place you’d expect.”

Rachel felt as if she’d been tossed into a giant mixer, spun around multiple times and dumped into a black void. Killian walked to a corner where he made a series of calls in a very quiet voice, to Gabe’s obvious irritation. She’d barely gotten her wits together after fleeing from her house and ending up someplace in the woods, before a helicopter landed in the side yard and Killian was giving orders. What she hadn’t been prepared for was Gabe obstinately digging in his heels and refusing to leave until he knew exactly what was happening. And insisting—no, demanding—that she stay put.

“You wanted action,” Killian pointed out. “I’m giving it to you. That phone call gave me an idea.”

“Then we’d better let them find me on our own terms,” he argued. “Let me call the shots. My gut tells me we’re very close to finding out who the big man is. I refuse to pass up this opportunity.”

Killian shook his head. “That’s exactly what I have in mind for you.”

“What you have in mind? Care to clue me in?”

“We have an unexpected opportunity,” Killian pointed out. “The Chan woman is somehow involved. I’m sure of it. That phone call was too far out of left field. If they spotted you tonight they know you and Rachel are somehow together and they see her as a direct conduit to you. That brings us back to the shindig tonight. I’ll have reports on everyone there in minutes.”

“So someone there tonight somehow recognized me and spotted us leaving together. And the Chan woman is somehow tied up with whoever spotted me.”

Killian ran his hands through his thick hair. “That’s my guess. She gave us an opportunity and we need to take it.”

Gabe nodded. “I see what you’re thinking. Rachel can call the woman back, explain they were cut off and tell her…whatever. But say she’s going home and bringing her date with her. If we’re right that Chan’s involved somehow, she’ll pass the word. You can get men in place at her house ahead of time and still continue to monitor the guys who were after me earlier.”

“The problem is, Rachel would need to be with you,” Killian said.

Gabe shook his head. “Absolutely not. She can make the call from here once you’ve got everyone in place. I’ll be in the house by myself.”

“Wait a minute,” Rachel broke in. “There’s a flaw in your plan.”

Both men turned to look at her.

Gabe was the first to speak. “What are you talking about?”

“If you want me to hint to Nina that you’ll be in my house with me, won’t they wonder when you show up alone? Won’t they suspect something? And what if they triangulate my cell location? What will they think if I’m in one place and you’re in another? This only works if we’re both in my house. Together. You
have
to take me with you.”

“No.” Gabe’s voice left little room for argument.

Killian cocked his head. “Wait a minute, Gabe. She has a good point here.”

“Ridiculous,” Gabe said. “I won’t risk—“

“We’ll take every precaution. And I trust you not to let anyone near her.”

“I’m in the middle of this whether you want to admit it or not,” Rachel put in.

“They tracked Gabe somehow through me and the people you’re looking at are my donors. If I call Nina and tell her I’m home, that’s where these people will expect me to be. You don’t want them to know Gabe’s setting a trap, do you?”

“Forget it, Rachel.” Gabe was unmoving. “I need all my faculties on alert while I’m doing this. You’ll only distract me.”

“Forget nothing,” she spat. “Either I go with you or I don’t make the call. I have a lot at stake here too.”

“Give it up, Gabe,” Killian told him. “She goes with you, like it or not. I’ll have plenty of men in place.”

Gabe looked as if he wanted to bite nails. “Fine. But you do exactly as I say. And I mean exactly.”

She nodded.

“Let me hear you say it.”

“Yes. I’ll do whatever you say.”

“Fine. Then let’s get going. I assume we’re using the bird to save time?”

Killian nodded. “The pilot will take you close enough to Rachel’s without attracting unwanted attention. I’ll have a car there for you. We already picked up the one you left in her driveway.”

He opened his phone to make his calls and Rachel and Gabe boarded the helicopter.

In less than twenty minutes the pilot landed them at a place not too far from her house where an SUV waited for them.

Rachel couldn’t stop turning to look over her shoulder as they drove through the silent streets, until Gabe reached over and grabbed one of her hands.

“Try to relax. No one’s following us. They didn’t have a clue where to pick us up.”

“Sorry.” She sat rigidly, forcing herself to keep her eyes straight ahead. “When do you want me to call Nina back?” She looked at her new cell, which she had clutched in one hand. “I called message bank and I have a slew of messages from her.”

“Someone’s getting anxious. Let’s wait until we’re back in your house and get ourselves settled.”

They parked the SUV in her driveway where anyone could see it and let themselves into the house.

“They must have turned off the lights when they left here,” Gabe commented.

“Maybe they thought they’d have a better chance in the dark if we came back.”

“I’ll just get this little lamp,” Rachel began.

“Don’t turn on the lights.” Gabe’s fingers clamped on her arm. “And stay right here. Don’t move.”

“What—“

“Ssh,” he whispered. “Just wait right here. They may have had another reason for turning off the lights.”

He pulled the gun from the small of his back and moved stealthily through the house, hugging the walls, peering around corners, not exposing himself. Rachel pressed herself against the wall, fighting to get her nerves under control. She had pushed her way back into this, after all. And she’d promised Gabe to follow his orders exactly.

It seemed like forever until Gabe returned, tucking his gun back into his waistband.

“All clear. I wanted to make sure they hadn’t left someone here hiding in the dark.

Just in case.”

Rachel sagged against the wall. “Should I call Nina back? I turned my phone to vibrate and it hasn’t been still for a second. And I’ll bet my answering machine is full to the brim. Let me turn on the house phone.”

As if on cue, the moment she flipped the switch to On the land line rang, the sound shrill in the darkness.

“Don’t answer it,” Gabe said, his fingers clamped around her wrist.

“But—”

“Not until I tell you, okay? And still no lights.”

He lifted her in his arms and carried her down the hall to her bedroom.

“Gabe? What’s going on?”

“A little physical release would help right about now, don’t you think?”

Her jaw dropped. “In the middle of a…whatever this is? Are you crazy?” She swallowed a hysterical laugh. “Shouldn’t I be making my call to Nina, before she calls again? Killian said he’d have men in place.”

“We need to give him time. Figured we needed a way to pass the time that might settle those nerves of yours. Anyway, we both need to be relaxed and alert.”

“But if someone’s watching,” she told him, “they’ll see the car in the driveway and know people are inside.”

“They don’t know yet and won’t until you make that call. Then we’ll turn on the lights in your bedroom and let them see you just for a moment silhouetted against the light.”

“But you were worried someone might have been left here to watch,” she reminded him.

“Killian checked. There’s no one around here at the moment. When he has everything set up, including the people watching whoever broke in here, he’ll call me on my cell. That’s when you call your friend back. Until then we’re clear.”

He nudged open her bedroom door with his shoulder. “Besides, I have some things I want to say to you before this thing goes down.”

Things to say to her? Rachel felt a band suddenly tighten around her chest. Surely he wouldn’t be the kind of man to have sex with her then dump her just before a critical operation, would he? Especially when she had a crucial role to play. Or was she just fooling herself. Had it just been the hot sex all along?

He placed her on the bed, drawing the covers back first. In seconds he had her stripped of every piece of clothing, his eyes burning into her while he removed his own.

She already felt her nipples bead involuntarily, her pussy muscles quiver and the liquid of her arousal seep out to the insides of her thighs. How could she want, desire—

need—this man so incredibly much when she got so little of him? And when he was probably tuning up for the big farewell scene.

But like it or not, there it was. Over the eighteen months of their—whatever she could call it—he’d become like a drug she was addicted to. She’d given over complete control of her body to him, reveling in every erotic act they perform, at his ability to draw her beyond any bounds of pleasure she had ever known. Dreaming about it during the long nights between his visits.

Somehow she’d contented herself with the strange arrangement, one she was sure most women wouldn’t tolerate. But it worked for them. And she filled the weeks and months between with her life at the foundation. Another reason she was reluctant to believe anyone at the Harris Foundation could be involved in this. She felt as if she knew each of them, donors included, on an intimate basis, one that would allow her to vouch for them.

But then again, she never would have expected Nina Chan, with whom she had an excellent working relationship but nothing more, to be so hysterical at not being able to reach her. Someone was definitely pushing her buttons.

While she was trying to connect all the loose threads, Gabe peeled away the last of his clothing and her brain took a sharp left. All she could think of was his magnificent body standing next to the bed, his thick erection jutting out at her, a drop of moisture already beaded at the slit, his sac heavy against his thighs. Would she ever get so used to the sight of this man that it stopped turning her brain to mush and stimulating the throbbing at every pulse point in her body?

With a tentative hand she reached out and wrapped her fingers around his thick cock, automatically stroking the velvet skin covering the steel-hard shaft. Her thumb brushed the drop of liquid over the smooth skin of the head, back and forth, feeling the shaft thicken even more, blood pulsing in the vein wrapped around it. Gabe’s breath whistled through his teeth and his hips began an automatic hitching movement.

“Careful, careful.” His voice was thick and guttural. “Let’s not get to the last chapter too fast.”

Last chapter? Her fingers tightened around him. Did that have a double meaning or was she just seeing something that wasn’t there?

Gabe’s fingers manacled her wrist and lifted her hand away. “Good. Stop. If you kept that up…”

But she shook off his hand and reached between his thighs to cradle the heavy sac that hung there, rolling the balls of his testicles until he made the same whistling sound as before.

“I’m warning you, darlin’. Push me over the edge and there might not be anything left for you.”

Even with the danger of their situation subconsciously lurking in her mind, she had to tease him. “I can’t believe that Gabriel Peralta is suddenly only good for one bite of the apple.”