Kill Shot (26 page)

“Sorry.” Her voice was barely more than a
whisper, and he leaned down, his hand touching her brow in comfort.
“It was my fault.”

“No, sweetheart,” he said. “It was mine. But
I’ve got you now, Grace. And I promise I won’t let go. No matter
what happens.”

Her grip grew surprisingly strong just as
she said, “Please don’t make me go to a hospital.” Then her hand
went slack in his, and she was out cold again.

He sighed and bent to pick her up again. It
was a damned shame he was going to have to disappoint her so soon.
She was going to be mad as hell when she woke and saw the hospital
was exactly where he’d taken her.

Four weeks later…

Grace felt the pull and stretch of every
muscle in her body as she upped the speed on the treadmill one more
time. Her hair was dampened with sweat, and the black sports bra
and shorts she wore were soaked through. She knew Gabe was watching
her from his own workout in the corner of the small room that had
been designated as a gym. He’d done nothing but watch her the last
few weeks.

The safe house was on the opposite side of
town from headquarters, almost an hour away, and they didn’t have
all the comforts of the other building. Or the security. Not that
security had done them much good before.

The safe house wasn’t in a good part of
town. The building had an outside appearance of being nothing more
than an abandoned brownstone with rotting wood and chinks missing
from the mortar. But outward appearances were often deceiving, and
the core of the building was strong and secure. It was three
levels, and they weren’t afforded nearly the privacy they’d had at
headquarters. There was a common living area on the second floor,
and Gabe had opened the walls and put the control room there as
well, so it was just one big space.

Jack and Logan slept in the rooms on the
first floor, and Ethan pretty much slept with his computers. That
left the top floor for Gabe and Grace.

Gabe had barely taken his eyes off her for
the last month. He’d barely spoken to her, either. Not to mention
he’d made it very clear that making love was out of the question.
She’d had no choice but to push her body past its limits once she
was able to get out of bed, or she’d try to kill him.

The cuts and bruises had healed over the
past weeks. Only a light discoloration decorated her shoulders and
back. And while her body had been healing, she’d had time to think
as well. It was hard to admit that she’d been headed down the path
of self-destruction. She’d disappointed her team and Gabe, but
worst of all, she’d disappointed herself. She knew what she had to
do. And she knew she needed to make Gabe listen. Because she needed
him to be her support—her strength—through this. She hadn’t been
ready to accept his help when he’d first found her in Colombia. But
she was ready now.

She slowed the machine to cool-down mode and
grabbed a towel off the rail to dry her face. Gabe turned his
attention back to the weights he was lifting when he saw her
watching him, pretending he hadn’t just spent the last hour
scrutinizing her every move.

“Gabe,” she said, waiting patiently until
his gaze met hers.

He didn’t stop his reps, and she accepted
the slow curl of lust that spread through her as his muscles bulged
with every movement. His body was a finely crafted instrument, and
she never got tired of knowing that it belonged to her, scars and
all. He finally met her eyes, but his expression was shuttered.

“You don’t need to push yourself so hard,
Grace.”

“I’m fine. And I need to push myself as much
as possible. You know it’s only a matter of time until we hear
Kimball has scheduled the auction.”

He went back to his workout, trying to
dismiss her as he’d done so many times in the last few days. He
didn’t want her thinking about Kimball. As far as he was concerned,
she needed to stay tucked in bed until the entire mission was
over.

“It’s time to talk, Gabe. No more excuses.
I’ll meet you upstairs.”

She hurried out of the gym before Gabe could
try to stop her or insist she wasn’t strong enough. They were going
to get things worked out between them. And then they were going to
make love because she honestly didn’t think she could stand the
torture of being so close to him and not having him a second
longer.

Since Gabe had rescued her, she’d had no
choice but to share his room because it had been easier for him to
take care of her. There was a spare bedroom on the top floor, but
the thought of going back to her own living space wasn’t as
appealing as it had once been. He’d stopped sharing the bed with
her once she’d been up and moving around on her own. It was damned
irritating.

She used his shower, the smell of his soap
and shampoo a comfort as she rubbed it across her skin. The hot
water beat down on her tired muscles, but also made her aware of
how sensitive her skin was to any kind of touch. Each drop of water
was a caress, and it took every ounce of willpower she had not to
move her hand to the juncture of her thighs.

She turned the water off with a flick of her
wrist and stepped out onto the mat. Her gun was just where she’d
left it on the back of the toilet seat, and she grabbed a towel off
the rack and dried off quickly. Gabe never made any sound when he
moved, but she knew he was out there, waiting for her.

She dressed in soft cotton pants and a tank
top. The best she could do with her hair was to brush the tangles
out and let it air dry. She grabbed her gun and carried it with her
into the small living area they’d been sharing.

He stood in the kitchen with his back to
her, wearing a threadbare gray T-shirt and old jeans. His hair was
damp from his own shower, and he measured coffee as efficiently as
he did everything else.

“What’s this all about, Grace? I need to get
down to the control room and talk to Ethan.”

She put her gun on the table and went to him
in the kitchen since he was determined to make this as difficult as
possible.

“I need to say what I have to say,” she
said. “And I need you to listen.” She saw his quick nod, even
though he kept his back to her.

Her throat was suddenly dry, and she wasn’t
quite sure where to start. How to start.

“I know you lost Maddie too, but I need to
make you understand.” His shoulders tensed at the mention of their
daughter’s name, but she forged ahead. “As much as you loved her,
you never felt that life inside your body. Never felt her growing
and stretching, or that instant connection that takes every
terrible thing I’ve ever done and washes it clean because I know in
my heart she’s the one thing in this life that I’ve done
right.”

She held up her hand when he turned around
and she saw he was going to speak. Her hand shook, so she put it
down quickly, but she got what she wanted. Gabe’s lips pressed
together, and he nodded again for her to continue.

“And then she was born, and it was a
completely different kind of miracle. She was so perfect, Gabe. How
could she come from two such imperfect parents?” She licked her
lips and tasted the salt of her tears. She hadn’t even realized
she’d been crying. “I can’t tell you what it feels like to have to
fight so hard to bring her into the world only to sit there
helpless as she was taken out of it.”

She couldn’t quite bring herself to look him
in the eyes. “I hated you for a while. I hated myself. To the point
where I didn’t care if I lived or died as long as I avenged her
death. I’ve been struggling on my own for these last two years,
determined to forget you and deal with the pain on my own in the
only way I knew how. What has the government made us, Gabe? What
kind of person am I that my first thought is to go out and
kill?”

“The kind who has a conscience. The kind who
takes chances because others choose to look the other direction
when it comes to right and wrong. We know what real sacrifice is.
And we live with it because there’s no other option.” His voice was
soft and full of emotion, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. Not
yet.

“This hate is like a disease,” she said. “I
can feel it creeping over my skin and devouring my soul. It scares
me, and I hate the person I’ve become.”

“Give yourself a break, sweetheart. I still
love you as you are. The woman you used to be is in there
somewhere, but she’s never going to be the same. She’ll be
stronger. Because she’s a survivor.”

He moved toward her, and she tried to back
away. To get everything said before he touched her and she fell
apart. But he wouldn’t let her. He pulled her into his arms, and
she broke. Sobs violently shook her body as she soaked his shirt
with her tears. Two years of pain, and hate, and loathing tore free
until the sounds that came from deep inside her no longer sounded
human.

Gabe knelt with her on the floor and rocked
her as he would a child, his own tears falling silently against her
neck. She didn’t know how long they stayed that way, but when the
tears were gone, her body continued to shake with fatigue and the
grief that had finally made its way to the surface.

“I don’t want to be this person anymore,
Gabe. I can’t be this person anymore. I won’t survive it.”

“And do you want to survive?”

He tilted her face up until she was looking
directly into the blue depths of his eyes. They were wet with
emotion and held their own silent grief. Grief that had nothing to
do with Maddie and everything to do with the pain she’d caused
him.

“Yes. I want to survive. I want to live
again. With you.”

“Then you will.” He kissed her softly on the
lips, and she shuddered against him as the weight began to lift
from her shoulders. “We’re going to do it right this time. There
are still going to be trouble spots ahead of us. But we’ll do it
together. No more running for either of us. I think it would be a
good idea to see a grief counselor. I think it’s time for us to
heal.”

The tears she thought were gone slipped down
her cheeks. “I’d like that, but what if it doesn’t work? I’ll kill
you if you ever tell anyone this, but I’m so scared. What if I keep
having these breakdowns?”

“Then you do, and I’ll be there to help you
through them. Don’t worry about what you can’t control. All we can
do is our best and fight through it together.”

They looked at each other a long while until
she finally found the courage to say the words she’d never stopped
feeling.

“I love you, Gabe.” She touched the ends of
his hair and rubbed the silky strands between her fingers, then
trailed her way down his neck and up to the coarse beard at his
cheeks. She wanted to memorize every texture of this moment. “I
just thought I should tell you.”

He kissed her softly, his lips tasting and
savoring as if it were their first kiss. It was the kiss of new
beginnings, and the slow, dizzying feeling of falling in love all
over again.

She didn’t know how they got from the floor
to the bedroom, only that everything around her was a hazy dream.
She’d remember the love and tenderness he was showing her for the
rest of her life, and the way he looked at her as if she were the
only woman in his universe.

They undressed each other slowly, his
calloused fingers bringing chills to her skin with every caress.
And when they were naked, he lowered her to the bed so they were
skin against skin. The hair on his chest rubbed against her nipples
and made her breasts ache, and she could feel his hardness pressing
against the juncture of her thighs.

Grace moved against him, begging without
words for him to fill her, but instead he began to kiss his way
over every inch of her body, worshipping her with his mouth and
hands. He licked and stroked until she was like liquid fire in his
arms, and then he rolled her to her stomach and kissed every bruise
and scar on her back.

“Please, Gabe. I need you so much.”

He nipped one last time at the base of her
spine and then turned her over. He moved between her thighs and she
lifted her legs so they twined around his back. Her heart pounded,
and her lungs couldn’t seem to remember how to breathe properly as
she felt him prod against her entrance.

“Open your eyes and look at me, Grace.”

Her eyelids were heavy, but she heard the
plea in his voice and did as he asked. The stark need on his face
was almost her undoing. Her eyes burned with unshed tears.

“This is forever, sweetheart. I love
you.”

She couldn’t get the words past her throat,
but she inhaled sharply and held his gaze as he pushed inside of
her slowly. She felt every ridge of his cock against her inner
walls, and her nails dug into his shoulders. He was determined to
move at a slow pace—to savor the moment—but she was just as
determined to get what she wanted.

She arched against him, her back bowing, and
she was climaxing before he was inside her to the hilt, convulsing
around him in fine tremors that made him grit his teeth and the
muscles in his neck go rigid with his restraint.

“Jesus, Grace.” He held perfectly still,
trying to get himself under control. “I want this to last,
sweetheart.”

He leaned down and kissed her again, soft
lips and the gentle invasion of his tongue as it rubbed sinuously
against hers. And then he began to move his hips in tandem with his
tongue and all thought left her head. This wasn’t a fast coupling
or the frantic mating of two lost souls. It was making love at its
core, for two souls that had just been found.

Their fingers entwined, and their gazes held
steady even as their bodies slicked with sweat and heartbeats
raced. Grace felt the tingles of pleasure gathering low in her
womb, as if her skin were too tight for her body. Flutters of
pleasure skittered across her sensitive flesh, and she cried out as
he began to move faster, plunging inside of her from hilt to tip,
making sure he claimed all of her.