Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (16 page)

Taking a deep breath, trying to find his center after Khalia had tilted his world on its axis, Hunter rubbed a hand over his face and turned away from her. “Okay, so…”

“So I need you to help me go over their heads and find out what they know.”

He wasn’t following, probably because his brain was oxygen deprived since most of his blood was still pooled between his legs. “And you want me to do that how?”

“This is big, Hunt. Way bigger than I first realized. There’s a leak someplace. Has to be.”

Ah, shit. He’d wondered about that. “Got it.”

“I need you to get Gage to call in a favor at the NSA.”

That wiped any remaining traces of lust from his brain. “Oh, Christ. Why me? Why can’t you tell him?”

“He’ll listen to you. He and I’ll just get into an argument, and you know I wouldn’t be asking this of him if I wasn’t desperate for answers. Do it and get back to me ASAP, yeah?”

Not like he had an option on that one, did he? “Yeah. Bastard.”

“And proud of it. Get on it.” Tom disconnected without waiting for a reply.

Hunter hit end and turned to face Khalia. Her cheeks were flushed but her eyes had cleared. She also had her arms folded over her breasts, which was a damn shame. “I have to go see Gage for a few minutes.”

She nodded, looking uncertain. “Is everything okay?”

He didn’t see any reason to cause her more worry. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Gotta have this talk in person though. You okay?” He meant with what they’d just done and what they’d
almost
just done. And most definitely with what he wanted to finish when he got back.

Her smile was strained, a little forced as if she was suddenly unsure of herself. “Yeah.”

He’d make it up to her after this fun little convo with Gage. “Lock the door behind me. I’ll be back in a little while.” With lingering sexual frustration putting his mood in the shitter, he made the trip down and across the hall, rehearsing how he was going to word this. Because Gage was going to be pissed as hell no matter how he said it, and he’d prefer to end the conversation with his face intact.

At his knock Gage opened the door and stepped back to let him in with an expectant look on his face. “What’s up?”

Hunter stopped in the middle of the room and met his gaze, deciding it best just to put it out there. “Tom needs a favor.”

Because he was a smart sonofabitch, Gage’s expression immediately turned wary. “And apparently he needs a messenger, too.” He eyed Hunter with a raised brow, his southern boy drawl laced with a hard edge.

Yeah, this wasn’t going to go well. “He thinks there’s an Intel leak somewhere in the chain and he wants us to look into it. Starting with you contacting Claire.”

At the mention of that name, Gage’s face went eerily blank. “You’re shittin’ me.”

Hunter shook his head. “No, man, I’m not.” He held up his phone, screen out to show the ignored text message if he wanted to read it.

Gage’s eyebrows crashed together in a glower as he set his hands on his hips. “He has other contacts. He can start with them instead.”

Hunter barely refrained from scrubbing a hand over his face. “Gage. Just call her. See what she can find out.”

Gage’s jaw clenched, his eyes simmering with resentment at being placed in the position he now found himself in. “Fuck.”

Well, at least it wasn’t a
Fuck no
,
or a
Fuck you
, followed by a sucker punch to the face. “Want me to…?” He pointed over his shoulder at the bathroom, raised his eyebrows.

“No, I’ll go,” Gage muttered, eyes shooting daggers at him as he stalked past and threw the bathroom door shut with a bang that rattled the framed picture on the wall beside it.

Releasing a breath, Hunter dropped into a chair by the table that matched the one in Khalia’s room, wishing he was still with her instead of here. If Tom hadn’t called, he’d be buried inside her as deep as he could go right now, absorbing more of those sweet little cries as he took her to heaven and back. He swallowed a groan at the thought and focused on the matter at hand. How the hell long was this gonna take, anyway?

No yelling from the bathroom. That had to be a good sign. Unless Gage was still working up the guts to dial.

While he waited he texted Tom.
He’s calling now.

Sighing, Hunter leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Would be real interesting to see what came of this.

Gage had faced the attacking line of Taliban fighters that afternoon with barely a rise in his heart rate, yet at the prospect of this phone call, his hands and feet were cold and his heart knocked against his ribs. He scowled at his phone. Talking to Claire always made him feel like he’d swallowed a mouthful of hydrogen cyanide, the acid burning him alive from the inside out.

Pushing out a hard exhalation, he stared down at the screen of his phone. He still had her number programmed in it, because apparently he was a fucking closet masochist. Or a goddamn hopeless romantic, he wasn’t sure which. Either way, when it came to her, he was fucked.

Well, hell. Stalling wasn’t going to help, was it? He hit the call button and raised the phone to his ear, part of him hoping she wouldn’t pick up. It was early back on the east coast. Maybe she’d slept in or was in a meeting. On the fourth ring he was just starting to get his hopes up about getting voicemail when she answered.

She’d seen his number and picked up anyway. That had to mean something.

“Hello?”

Gage closed his eyes. Her voice.

In all the months they’d been apart he’d never forgotten the sound of it. Low for a woman and slightly husky, it was pure sex. One syllable from her, and he was thinking of the countless hours they’d spent tangled naked together in sweat dampened sheets, that sultry voice praising whatever he was doing to her aroused body, crying out his name in ecstasy as she came around his fingers or tongue or cock…

Dammit. Now his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. His suddenly dry as sand mouth. “Hey, it’s Gage,” he managed.

“Yeah, I saw your name come up.” The cautious note in her voice made it clear that the past six months without speaking to each other hadn’t made her memory of him grow any fonder. But at least she’d answered rather than let it go to voicemail.

The tightness in his chest expanded, making his lungs feel overinflated. “So…how are things?”

“Fine. Gage, what did you want to talk to me about?”

She’d always been a straight shooter. He scrubbed a hand over his closely shorn hair, leaned against the edge of the vanity. “I’m calling in a favor.”
Tom is so gonna pay for this.

“What kind of favor?” Now her tone was suspicious.

“We’ve run into a situation here—”

“Where’s
here
?”

“Pakistan.”

A pause. “Go on.”

“There’ve been some…problems on this job and Tom thinks there might be a leak—”

“You’re working for Tom?”

That would be the thing she zoned in on. They’d met through Tom at a security conference in DC. Nine hours after that he’d shown up at her hotel room door and things had burned out of control between them ever since. “Yeah. Have been since the spring.”

“You never told me.”

Yeah, because we haven’t spoken a single fucking word to each other since March.
“Well, anyway, with everything that’s happened on this job Tom thinks there’s something going on between Pak officials and the TTP. They’re getting help somewhere. We just don’t know from whom.”

“And that’s where I come in.” She didn’t sound happy about it. Not that he’d expected her to.

He pushed out a breath. “Yeah.” This entire fucking situation depressed him. How the hell had they come to this? He’d bought a ring for Chrissake, had the whole romantic proposal mapped out in his head before she’d suddenly brought his world crumbling down on him in a pile of rubble. Not so long ago they would have done anything for each other. Now they could barely have a civil conversation.

“Is this official, or off the record?” she asked.

“Off the record.”

She made an incredulous sound. “Are you serious? I could lose my job for something like that.”

“I’m not asking you to do anything illegal,” he said quickly. “Anything you could find out would be a big help. We’d all appreciate it.”

He could almost feel the anger deflating out of her on the other end of the line. “What’s happened over there?”

She had security clearance, maybe even a higher one than him, so he didn’t see the harm in telling her the basics. “I’m part of the detail for John Patterson’s daughter.”

“
What
? Holy shit, Gage, that story is still all over the news. The Taliban have threatened to kill anyone associated with—Wait, were you there at that school in the Swat Valley today?”

“Yeah.” He mentally winced. She hated what he did for a living, the danger he was sometimes in. It was one of the biggest reasons for her breaking up with him.

“God, it’s all the newscasts over here are talking about, along with the John Patterson case. Are you okay?”

Nice to know she didn’t want to see him dead, at least. That had to count for something. “We’re all good, but we need answers. The daughter—Khalia—got word last night that the State Department is investigating her father’s case. They said they have Intel showing a link between an unnamed Pak official and a known TTP operative. According to them, John Patterson and his security team were murdered for shares of the ransom money.”

She was silent a moment. “I’ll do what I can, but I’m not making any promises. Digging into this without the proper authorization isn’t going to be easy, let alone keeping anyone at the agency from finding out.”

“I understand. Thanks.” He wanted to say so much more.
I miss you. Every day. Why the hell did you walk out of my life like that?
He would also rather die than set himself up for another hit from her.

Another pause. “Tom made you call me, didn’t he?”

He smothered an ironic chuckle, hating the lingering estrangement between them. “Yep. Well, he made Hunt order me to.”

“Hunt’s there?”

“Yeah, he’s team leader on this job.” And he’d proven his worth yet again today out in the middle of that firefight. Their team was solid, even with Ellis and Dunphy being newcomers and Gage was glad to be a part of it. Especially since gainful employment over here meant he didn’t have to be home staring at the walls of his empty apartment and being constantly reminded of all he’d lost.

“Khalia’s lucky to have you guys.”

He had no idea what to read into that response or what to say in reply. “Thanks,” he mumbled lamely.

Claire expelled a long breath. “All right. I’ll see what I can do and get back to you. Or should I contact Tom?”

For some reason the hopeful note in her voice on that question was the hardest to take. He clenched his jaw. “You can contact Tom if that’s more comfortable for you.”

“That’s not what I said,” she argued. “I’m an adult, Gage. I know how to leave personal feelings out of my professional relationships.”

Great. So now he was a grudge
and
a professional relationship in addition to being her ex. Tamping down the angry response ready to burst out of his mouth, he shifted gears and went with shock tactics instead. “So, what are you wearing right now?”

A snort, followed by a grudging chuckle. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Depends on what the answer is.” Actually he’d rather know what she was wearing
underneath
whatever she had on, though he could guess. She had a fondness for lace and satin and sexy thong panties because they didn’t leave lines beneath the snug ass-hugging skirts and jeans she liked to wear. And a fine ass it was, too.

“You’re such an idiot,” she told him, this time without any bite.

He smiled sadly, feeling that yawning ache opening up in his chest again. He’d made so many mistakes he could never put right and now he had to live with the knowledge that he’d lost her forever. “I know.”

“Well. I’ll be in touch. Bye, Gage. Take care of yourself.” She disconnected before he could reply.

Gage lowered his phone and stared at the picture of her on screen that came up with her contact info, the one he’d taken on a ski trip last year with her and his daughter. Her light brown hair spilled around her shoulders, dotted with snowflakes, and those gray eyes sparkled with life and laughter as she smiled up at the camera.

Gage shook his head at himself. Every time he’d convinced himself he’d moved on, something drew her back into his life. Like Janelle reaching out to her about something instead of him, or the order from Tom tonight. He was starting to think he’d never get over her, no matter how much time went by. He made himself delete the image before putting his phone back into his pocket.

Feeling almost as shitty as he had on the night Scottie was killed, he walked out to face Hunter. He was sprawled in the chair doing something with his phone and looked up when Gage came out of the bathroom. “Well?” he asked.

“She said she’d see what she can do.”

Hunt smiled. “You still got the old charm going, huh?”

He didn’t have shit, and was reminded of that on a daily basis. “What’s the story with Khalia?”

“Tom booked her on an eleven-hundred flight tomorrow. She’ll be glad to get out of here and go home.”

Maybe, but Gage wasn’t blind. She and Hunt had been striking sparks off each other from the first moment they met. “You staying with her tonight?”

Hunter looked down to fiddle with his phone some more, a sure sign he didn’t want to answer. “Told her I would.”

Gage didn’t begrudge the guy a night with her, especially since the job to protect her was officially over tomorrow and all that was left was to put her on that plane in the morning. “Well why are you still sitting there then? Get in there and make sure she gets her money’s worth.”

Hunter’s head snapped up, the blaze of anger in his eyes disappearing when he realized Gage was only teasing. A grin spread across his face as he got to his feet. “Will do. I’ll check in with you later.”

“Yeah. Don’t forget to use protection, son,” he added when Hunter hit the door.