Deland-Until the Dawn

Until the Dawn

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand Madison Sommers is sure she has the world in her hands—a great job working for the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a beautiful townhouse in Georgetown, her ambassador father finally at home rather than at the other end of the world. And in Dan Foreman, a lover she adores. The sex is beyond anything she could have imagined, for Dan knows how to use every part of his body, including his talented hands and mouth, to give her screaming orgasms. She wonders if life could possibly get any better. Then Dan disappears and her world turns upside down—until he reappears in the dark to addle her brain with the hottest sex she’s ever known and a secret that could bring down the country.

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Until the Dawn ISBN 9781419929403 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Until the Dawn Copyright © 2010 Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand Edited by Helen Woodall Cover art by Syneca Electronic book publication September 2010 The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

UNTIL THE DAWN

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

Dedication To our favorite thriller writers and inspirations! Daniel Silva, Brad Thor, Nelson DeMille, Vince Flynn. We love you.

Trademarks Acknowledgement The authors acknowledge the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Bell UH-1: Bell Helicopter Corporation Blackberry: Research In Motion Limited Corporation Bush Intercontinental Airport: City of Houston (Texas) Dodge: DaimlerChrysler Corporation Glock: Glock Inc. Corporation Hyatt Regency: Hyatt Corporation Jacuzzi: Jacuzzi Spas International Inc. Keurig: Keurig, Incorporated Kia: Kia Motors Corporation Mercedes: DaimlerChrysler AG Corporation Metro: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Patek: Patek Philippe SA Stetson: John B. Stetson Company

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

Chapter One Dangerously gorgeous guys were not on Madison Sommers’ list of acceptable men. Since the age of sixteen, she’d stayed away from any man who didn’t look like an accountant and have the libido of one. She stayed away for her sanity. For her career. But one look at Daniel Foreman four weeks ago as he appeared in her office for an interview had Maddie eating her words. And later, as she saw his tempting self day after day, eating her heart out, too. Not a smart move, Maddie, girl, to crave this luscious piece of man in your bed. In your cunt. Still, admiring Dan’s tight ass, the come-to-daddy pecs, the black-as-thunder hair and those grass-green eyes made her turn away now to thread her fingers through her chignon, take another sip of her gin and tonic and swallow her desire for him. “Good thing you faced me, Madison, sweetie,” crooned Josh Holbrook, their mutual boss’s press secretary as they stood at the bar of the North Capital Street Hyatt ballroom. “You were about to lose your Ice Queen nickname drooling over Danny Boy.” Madison chuckled at her friend’s insight. “Can’t hide anything from you, can I?” “Nor should you.” Josh lifted his martini in a toast. “That’s how you and I serve our country,” and he tipped his head toward the white-haired hulk who was the Speaker of the House, “and our god, over there.” “So what do you think of Dan’s performance so far?” she asked the co-worker whose opinion she trusted above all others on the Speaker Paul Trask’s staff. “He hasn’t been here that long but Dan the Man is stellar. Fast thinker. Knows more about the federal transportation regs than the boys over at 1600. Better yet, he charms

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the panties off every man, woman and beast he deigns to smile at. And the only girl he really wants—” Josh arched a blond brow at her, “is you.” “Please,” she scoffed, but her traitorous pulse jumped at the very idea. Josh snorted. “Do not tell me you haven’t noticed.” She had. Oh, she had. The startling green eyes that slid down her body the first day she interviewed him for the job of policy analyst on homeland security issues. The height, tall as heaven, all six-four hovering over her when he appeared at her desk as if he were a shield protecting her from hell. The mouth, generous and oh so kiss-me-baby sweet. The voice like gravel that scraped her raw with wild desire to strip and have him then and there. Anywhere. On her desk, on the floor. All be damned, Dan Foreman made her want to chuck every rule she’d ever made about whom to date and whom to fuck. “What do you two think?” that booming voice came from behind her. “Can we blow this party now?” Maddie turned, her body spinning against flesh that was a wall of stone. Dan Foreman was hard, massive and warm. Her hand reached out to steady herself from pressing against him. But Dan snatched up her fingers to hold her palm to his chest and what do you know, her pussy wept in want of him. “Ohh, I think we’ve done our duty for tonight.” She gazed up at him, continuing to cream so much her thong got soaked with need. Her mouth opened at the half-lidded beauty of Dan’s manly face. “We can leave.” “Good. I think we need dinner,” Dan said, his voice a rough velvet seduction, his eyes drifting from her swept-up hair to her lips and the red silk cocktail dress. His invitation was clearly for her alone. Her nipples peaked. Her pussy pounded. She bit her lower lip. “I don’t—” “Eat?” Dan asked, his dark brows rising in shock. “Of course, you do. And I love to eat. Need to. Often. I am a big man. And you are hungry.” “Oh, yes.” She gulped. What the hell were they talking about here? “I’m tired.” 7

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“All the more reason to eat.” He pressed her fingers against his heart that pounded like a gong against her flesh. “Come with me.” An invitation she should refuse. “Okay, you two.” Josh plunked his glass on the bar. “Go. Me? Do not feel remorse for me. I am going home. Gotta get packing for my vacation next week.” Dan didn’t glance at Josh. Neither did she. But as Josh bade his goodbyes, Maddie couldn’t seem to move. Captive of Dan’s charisma, captive of her own weak need to see if he was all she fantasized he was, Maddie gave in and grabbed up her evening bag. “Shall we go downstairs in the restaurant? The fish there is so fresh.” “No.” Dan took her elbow in a grip that brooked no debate as he led her toward the double doors to the hallway. “All right, no fish.” She waved goodbye to Speaker Trask and a few guests as she fought to keep up with Dan’s big strides. She racked her brain for places they could go that had plenty of light, bad acoustics and no banquettes where she would be tempted to sit next to him and feel every bulging muscle in his body. “Steak?” “My pick,” he asserted, his jaw tight and his eyes straight ahead. “Okay.” She began to stop in front of the elevator, but he hurried her toward the stairs. “Where are we going? The elevator will come in a minute.” “Yeah.” Dan thrust a shoulder into the stairwell door, pulled her through and pressed her to the wall. “But so will I.” He cupped her chin, her head against the cold cinderblock as he flowed so close to her, she wondered if his breath were hers. “Watching you laugh with Josh made me nuts. I decided I cannot do this any longer.” “What?” she whispered, her eyes searching the torrid way his examined her mouth. “Wait for you to decide when you’re going to taste me.” His arms enveloped her. His body absorbed her. His lips took hers. Once, fast and hard.

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She tore her mouth from his. “Oh, god, I shouldn’t.” Her eyes closed, her head lolled against the wall, but her arms betrayed her as they crushed him impossibly closer, the solid strength of him a wealth she’d never felt before. “I don’t do staff.” “Look at me,” he demanded, his fingers lifting her jaw so that she stared right into those mesmerizing green eyes. “Christ, you are one beauty. The Ice Queen with a reputation for never doing anyone.” His forefinger traced her lower lip and then inserted it into her mouth where she sucked him with a slow delight. He groaned and with a hand to her ass, pushed her mound up against the hard proof he wanted her. “I am not anyone. You know it. I do. So tell me what we both know is true.” She met his dare with her own madness and on a voice clear with the ring of undeniable fact, she whispered, “I want to fuck you.” He swallowed hard. “Where?” She let her purse drop to the floor. Then her hands wended down his sides and between their bodies where she felt the incomparable length and girth of his desire. “If you’ve got something to complement this,” she caressed him through his trousers, “the best place would be here.” She barely finished before he claimed her mouth like a madman who’d never have enough. “Hold that thought, baby,” he ground out and felt inside one of his trouser pockets. As he held her against him, he fingered out a strip of packets, tore one off its strip with his teeth and undid his zipper. And she felt his cock spring free. Pushing him slightly away, she glanced down and gasped at the sight of the thick blue-veined creature pointed up at her. Her knees buckled. “Dan,” she reached out to touch him, stroke him, big and hot and long as sin, “Hurry.” He rolled on the condom with a one-handed precision she admired. But flush against the wall, she had no idea what to do, how to proceed. She didn’t do stairwells and fast fucks. He stepped closer, ran a hot palm up one of her thighs and leaned in to

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speak on her mouth. “You kill me in this slip of a dress.” He cupped her lush pubic curls. “Wow, honey. Look how wet you are.” “For you,” she whispered, bold to tell him of her body’s betrayal. His eyes narrowed at her in delight as he stretched the crotch of her thong, ripped it off, let it fall to the floor and inserted two blunt fingers inside her ever-so-ready pussy. “Oh, baby,” he crooned as she writhed in joy, “good thing we’re getting going on us or you’d be wasting all this cream and it is—” he hoisted her up with her legs around his hips, “mine.” He possessed her with one long, swift, sure ram of his cock. The size of him, the heat of him, the delight of him bucked her back against the unforgiving wall. And she keened. Clutched his shoulders. Rode with him, moaned with him, reveled in the raging assurance of his strokes. She panted, snatching every second of his grinding claim, wringing a pulsing completion from his every thrust, his every groan. Seared by the fire of his possession, she began to feel the roll of her climax. “Go with me, baby.” He pounded against her, shoving himself impossibly higher into her cunt, then caught her at an angle that assuaged the mad demands of her swollen, greedy little clit. He kissed her cheek, bit her earlobe. “Trust me.” She did. She had. And with that realization, she shattered into a thousand pulsing pieces while he climbed his own mountain of release, his head thrown back, his eyes squeezed closed, his shout of delight scalding her as the two of them melted to the wall. He nuzzled her throat. “You’re wonderful, baby.” She sighed in joy and smiled. “Makes two of us.” He pulled away to view her contentment. His smile became a grin, his big white teeth looking rather like a wolf’s. “I need more.” “Me, too.” She reached out to stroke his cheek. “I’ve wanted to do this for days.” He planted a kiss in her palm. “I know. You murder my concentration.”

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“Glad you did this now then. Wouldn’t want to mark you down on your performance appraisal.” He shifted his cock up inside her. “You haven’t seen the half of what I can do.” She gave a laugh and rolled her hips on his wonderful shaft. “How can you still be hard?” “How?” he asked, wild-eyed as he splayed one hand up into the wealth of her chignon. Hairpins pinged to the concrete floor as his lips took hers in a marauding kiss that captured all her breath. “Because looking at your blue eyes and your white-blonde hair and your rosy lips has made me rock hard 24/7 for the past fourteen days, and I doubt I’ll ever be limp again.” “Oh, be still my heart,” she chided him on a whimper of need. “Where are we going? Shall I get a room here?” People’s voices drifted through the heavy doors. With his rod still inside her, he shifted so that anyone looking through the fire door’s wired window would not see her face. “Don’t move.” She bit her lip, examining him. But people came and went into the elevator, and as another wave came and departed, nerves overtook her. She began to giggle. He massaged the back of her head and led her face against his massive chest. “Shh, baby. They’ll go soon.” She inhaled the musk of his cologne, an intriguing mix of juniper, man and sex. She rubbed her nose against his sternum. “Love the way you smell.” He groaned and shifted inside her. “Stop that.” The imp in her came out to play and she let her head fall back to admire his sculpted features. His eyes were half-closed in need. And his handsomeness burrowed into her body and her mind. She knew now she had defied every rule she’d ever made for herself. It was so easy to be easy with Dan Foreman. “What if I don’t?”

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“Ah, honey, give a man a break.” He was laughing as he swayed against her, giving her reason to believe he might just be able to love her again and so soon, too. “Let me get us out of here before the rest of the party comes and joins us.” She squeezed his shaft in agreement and he grunted. “Let’s go down the stairs.” He stroked her hair that now fell to her waist. “Give me a minute to decompress here.” She shivered against him. “I love the way you feel inside me.” Another imprudent confession, Madison, of how you want to be totally free with this man. So what was one more statement? “Don’t know if I can let you go.” “Don’t have to. Madison? Baby, look at me.” He tipped up her chin, and his eyes were mellow green pools of care. “This is going to happen again tonight and—” he kissed her nose, “in a bed.” “Come home with me,” she offered, jolted that she trusted him enough to take him to the sanctuary that was her quiet little house. He withdrew slowly from her body with a luscious pop, making her moan in objection as he rolled off the full condom and zipped up his trousers. “You want me to come to Georgetown?” “I have a king-size bed that has never had a man in it.” She knew she’d said that in a small and soundless voice. “The Speaker of the House’s Chief of Staff, the famous Ice Queen, invites me to come grace her bed?” She nodded. Held her breath. Hoped she hadn’t made a fool of herself. He crushed her close. “My fondest wish is to make love to you, baby. And I damn well wouldn’t want to do it any place else that didn’t mean something to you.” She let out her breath, reached up on tiptoes and held his face in her hands. “I can’t wait.”

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She kissed him. The lips she’d coveted for days. The hard, smooth feel of his satin mouth. The thrust of his tongue inside her mouth. The sounds of his passion for her as he bent her back in his arms and planted kisses down her throat and her cleavage. “Ah, Christ.” He broke away, heaving and out of breath. “No more here.” He grabbed her hand and began to head down the stairs. “Wait.” She bent to pick up her purse and then ruefully examined the tatters of her thong. “These things don’t cover much anyway.” He chuckled and grabbed her around her waist to kiss her lips. “You won’t need those ever again.” “Sure of your prowess, are you?” He lifted her hips and pressed her against his. “With you?” He bent to slide his hand up her thigh to plunge two fingers inside her wet and tender labia and she arched into his bold possession. “If we dared, you’d have me again here and now.” Extracting his fingers, he smoothed her dress, then took the thong from her fingers and shoved it in his suit coat pocket. “We have better things to do with your sweet pussy than cover it up. Come on.”

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Chapter Two Grateful that no one had opened the door from the hallway, they took the stairs to the next floor where he led them around to the service elevator. When the doors opened and no one was inside, he pressed her to the wall and kissed her nipple through the thin silk sheath. One hand cupped the weight of her breast. “No bra?” he asked and breathed heavily when she shook her head. “Who did you dress for tonight?” “You,” she murmured, acknowledging a truth she hadn’t dared admit even to herself before now. Then, she sank her hands into his thick satin hair. He groaned and pinched her nipple. She grunted as he fingered her areola to a hard diamond. “God, Dan, if you don’t stop, I’m definitely going to need you again before we get out of the elevator!” As if on cue, the elevator door whooshed open. Dan moved slightly away from her, but held her with two strong hands to her upper arms. His gaze sought hers while one waiter cleared his throat and wheeled in a rattling room service cart. Maddie bit her lip to hold back a smile and looked down at the steel rod poking her mound. Dan’s bulging trousers stood between them like a monument to a glorious but far-off future. Sighing, she reached out to cup him, but he grabbed her hand and held her to him. They stopped, it seemed, at every floor in the damn hotel where every waiter, maid or bellboy in the place had some mission or other. By the time they hit the parking level, Dan was biting his inner cheek in frustration and Maddie was choking on gales of laughter. Pained, Dan faced her. “Where’s your car? Mine’s home. I took the Metro to work this morning. Shall I drive?” She lifted a brow and glanced at the projection in his trousers. “Can you?” 14

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He narrowed his gaze at her. “Let’s find your car and see what you can do to cure my condition.” She burst out laughing. “I’m over here.” She nodded toward her Mercedes convertible and dug in her purse for her keys. He hit the remote, opened her door for her and closed her in. As he walked around to the driver’s side, she rubbed her wet pussy through her dress and knew she’d get no satisfaction from the slick slide of silk on her leather seats. Dan folded his long frame into the little car, slammed the door and reached across the seat to cup her head. “Before I pull out of here, I need a long hard kiss to keep me fueled.” She slanted her head and met his lips with her own. His mouth was sculpted, hard and hot. His tongue long and demanding, toying with hers and outlining the insides of her cheek, her teeth, her essence. He knew all of her before he pulled back, leaving her groaning and wishing they’d taken a room and been done with this torture. “Get out of here fast, will you, please?” she begged him. He turned the ignition, began to reverse. “Where to?” “O Street. Go over Pennsylvania and up Wisconsin three blocks. Then turn right.” The trip that normally took her fifteen minutes at eight in the morning and eight at night, on this night seemed to take hours. As Dan pulled up to the front of her red-brick federal townhouse, she reached over to hit her garage door opener and he swung the little blue car into her tiny little carriage house. She didn’t wait for him to open her door, but jumped out to meet him at his side of the car. Then she grasped his hand and led him through the side door and up the stairs into her kitchen. Dropping her purse on the center island and kicking off her shoes, she suddenly stood still and realized just what she was doing. And she was scared.

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She swallowed, felt herself licking her lips and then noticed that Dan stood with his back against her kitchen door, his arms crossed, surveying her in the dim refracted light of the street lamps. “Talk to me, Maddie.” His harsh gravel voice was uncharacteristically sweet, but very rational. “What worries you?” “I don’t do things like this.” She knew she repeated herself but she had to emphasize it especially when she now knew she planned to spend all night with him in her bed. Him deep inside her, deeper than he had been. Going deeper still, far up into her heart. And that last was her greatest fear. Her unique adventure. He waited, a mellow smile broadening his handsome lips. “I don’t invite men here to make love to me,” she told him with a serenity that came with knowing she was about to strip naked and enjoy this man as she had no other. “I don’t invite staff to make love to me.” He stood, a statue, listening, watching, waiting to give her all the time she needed to reveal her trepidations. “And?” “I don’t make love with men who have reputations to make.” “Like me?” She nodded as he wrestled for a fleeting moment with an expression of insult that had crossed his face. But then she said, “I don’t make love mindlessly.” His mouth softened as he whispered, “Like you did with me?” Once more, she nodded, and boldly stated, “I don’t make love often.” He smiled, a sweet parting of his manly mouth, a tender caress of his gaze over her body. “Like you will with me?” “Yes,” she breathed. “Oh, yes.” “Well, then,” he came away from the wall, taking small sure steps toward her as he spoke. “You need to hear that I don’t make love to my bosses.”

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She snorted, pleased, thrilled that he realized what she needed here was some reciprocity to put them on sound footing. “Your résumé says you’ve had only four bosses.” He nodded. “The first two were men.” He winked. “Not my style.” She grinned now. He took another step toward her. “The next two were women. Not my type.” She beamed at him. Another step had him taking her hands in his. “I don’t make love to women I don’t care about.” She inhaled sharply. He raised her hands to kiss each of her fingertips in turn. “I’ve outgrown the onenight stands, Maddie. The quick lays that leave you feeling like a cave man.” He pressed both her palms to his cheeks and his torso to hers. “I want a relationship that means something bigger. With one woman. With brains.” He smoothed her hair. “And beauty.” He kissed her eyelids. “And a body.” He cupped her ass and pushed her groin to his. “And a passion for me.” She wound her arms around his massive shoulders and pressed her breasts against his solid chest. “I think you’ve got her.” He threw his head back and laughed, then caught her under her legs to swing her up into his arms. “Where then, my dear woman, is your bedroom?” She pointed the way up her stairs into the back of her house and her huge master bedroom. He carried her up and there, next to the king bed awash in linens of ivory and cream, Dan paused and set her to her feet. His hands fell over her from her throat to her shoulders, her arms and her fingertips. Those he raised to his shirt collar. “Undress me.” She trembled. Her lips quivered. But she began to undo his buttons, loosen his tie, peel back his suit coat and drop everything to the floor. When she came to his belt, and

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his waistband button, she gazed into his eyes, now clouded with desire, and stopped. He stared at her. “Do it.” She spun away from him. New spunk rising in her veins, she shrugged one shoulder to let her spaghetti strap fall below her elbow, then did the same with the other. Reaching around to her zipper, she pulled it open with a brisk tug that had her dress sliding over her breasts and her hips and pooling at the floor. He inhaled sharply. Naked, she glided toward him. Her breasts, full and pouting, reached toward him. Her pussy, claimed once by him tonight, she knew by the feel, was also full and pouting to have him back. She fingered her nipples for him, then plunged fingers of both hands into her full nest of curls. Who is this wanton woman, Maddie? The one who wants this man, the answer came. She took the two steps toward his warm and reaching hands. He caught her to him, squeezing the breath from her as he took her lips, her throat, her areola in his hungry mouth and bit her, sucked her and sank to his knees. There, he held her with both hands to her thighs as he nuzzled his face to her mound. “Spread your legs for me, baby,” he growled at her. On shaking limbs, she shifted and he parted her labia, then dove into her with a succulent madness that had him tickling and nibbling her clit with a talented tongue. She could barely stand, hardly breathe. She moaned and braced herself on his shoulders. At once, he cursed and stood, then forced her to the wall. “Hold open your pussy for me,” he demanded and sank again to his knees. She grasped her slick labia in two willing fingers and pulled herself wide to the cool air for him, and there he kissed her and titillated her. There he feasted like a man who had not eaten all his life. But oh, god, he knew how to. He knew to circle her clitoris with deft, hard fingers. He knew to hum against her swollen bud and use the tip of his tongue to make her moan and melt. He knew to insert one thick finger in her cunt and swirl and twirl it up 18

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inside her giving walls. He knew to tug at her pussy hair, pull it from his path and lick her lips from clit to bottom. And then he’d start all over again. “Lie down.” He pulled at her waist and laid her to the carpet. “You cream for me like you haven’t for any other man. Say it.” “I do,” she whimpered, and of their own volition her fingers found their way to her clit. “You make me wetter than any man I’ve ever had.” He gnashed his teeth in satisfaction as he leaned back on his haunches and splayed his fingers into her damp bush. “This hair,” he tugged at her lips, “is mine.” She moaned. “These lips,” he crooned and rubbed them fast and sure, “are mine.” She cried in agreement. “This,” he rolled her clit between two fingers, “is only mine.” “All of me,” she shifted her hips up as if to make an offering to him, “is yours.” Then, she reached for his zipper. “Let me have you, Dan.” She began to work his zipper down, rough going over the huge bulge of his penis. But when she got halfway, she realized that what sprang out to greet her had been the massive piece that had claimed her in the stairwell. “Oh, my god,” she whispered, reverent at the sight of his shaft. “Did I take all of that?” He discarded his trousers and came back to swing a leg over her. Faced as she was with his beautiful, long red cock, she salivated and reached out to touch his exquisite bulbous tip, now drooling for her with two big drops of pre-cum. He grunted, his hand covering hers. “Careful, baby. Go easy with him or he comes inside you faster than you know.” She giggled as she continued to caress his length. “Sorry, Dan, but I think I’ve already had a sample of how quickly this bad boy can breach my resistance.”

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Dan bent over her and took her chin between thumb and forefinger. “Listen to me, baby. There is no more resistance between me and you. Got that?” He palmed himself up and she marveled at his girth. “I do,” she whispered. “No resistance. Anymore.” Wild to taste him, she beckoned him with two fingers so that she took him in her mouth and tongued his length, sucked the head, delighting in the heat, the steel, the glory of his cock. “Dan,” she crooned as she lay back and stroked him, “I’ve needed you for weeks. Now please fuck me.” Swiftly, he reached for his trousers, pulled out a condom and rolled it down his impressive length. A wicked smile on his mouth, he slid down, splayed her legs wide, pulled her thighs up atop his and without a moment’s pause, rammed himself home. The shock, the size, the sizzling heat of him had Maddie opening her mouth to speak soundless words of praise. “Oh, Maddie, baby,” he whispered to her as his hips began to pump her hard and good, “this is what heaven feels like.” And then in countless plunging claims, he primed her, pumped her and possessed her as his own. Driving her hard, he’d pause and take her sweetly, his hips barely moving, her cunt inching closer and closer to feel every iota of his thrusts. Circling her tiny bundle of nerves with his thumb, he rolled one of her engorged nipples with his other talented fingers. Pushing her to a new height of madness, he’d grip her ass, haul her closer to him and promise her mindless things. And when he pressed one finger up into her ass, she screamed and came with a pulsing delight she’d never known with any other man. In a moment, he followed her over the precipice, grinding out her name and calling her, “Mine.” Minutes later, he rose and led her to her bed. There, he lay down and took her in his arms. “You won’t go,” she half ordered, half pleaded. “No, honey. I’m here for as long as you want me.”

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She rubbed her nose into his massive chest and kissed him there. “That may be a long time.” “I’ve got all the time in the world for you, Maddie.” He lifted her chin. “You’re stuck with me, babe.” She grinned and rolled her eyes. “We’ve got vacation next week.” He ogled her breasts. “That means we could stay in bed 24/7.” She relaxed back into the pillows, a woman well-loved, well-primed for more. “You have a big appetite.” “For you, Maddie.” He kissed her lips in a swift movement of ownership. “Only for you, honey.” And he took her again in the shower and once more in her bed before the dawn, when he wrapped himself around her and told her this was new for him, real for him. His kisses, lush and impetuous, were benedictions to his claim. His body, hot and solicitous to her needs, was a blessed assurance that in the morning, he would be there. Always be there. And for a woman who had never believed a thing a man said about sticking around, caring forever, she knew with this man, this time, she was gullible. But she loved his words. Craved his devotion. And at six, when she rolled over to reach for him, she expected him to be there. But, of course, like her father who had repeatedly and abruptly left home to risk his life in foreign war zones, like all her mother’s wily lovers who had left that woman with dead hopes and a ruined reputation, Daniel Foreman was gone. And no part of Maddie could believe that he had lied to her when he promised never to leave her.

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Chapter Three Madison rolled onto her back, closed her eyes, ran her fingers through her disheveled hair and opened her eyes one more time. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe she’d woken up in someone else’s dream and mistaken the emptiness on the other side of her bed. After all, her body felt more than pleasantly used, her pussy well plundered, her nipples still tingling. And her lips still had that bruised feeling left by the pressure of a man’s full, rigid cock. She hadn’t imagined the hedonistic satisfaction, the unbelievable variety of erotic acts she and gorgeous Dan had indulged in. So where the fuck had he gone to, this man who had turned her night upside down? Who she’d finally taken into her bed against all her protective instincts? Who said he wasn’t planning on leaving her. Washington was such a cutthroat town, anything was possible, but she refused to believe Daniel was playing her. Something didn’t sit right here. Swallowing a sigh, she forced herself upright, swung her legs over the side of the bed and pushed herself to her feet. A shower. That’s what she needed. To clear her head and rinse the lingering odor of sex from her body so she could think. That was what Maddie did best. Think. But not when her hormones were still trying to achieve equilibrium. As she stood under the hot spray, letting it pound down on her, she couldn’t help but recall the lines of Daniel’s well-sculpted body, the size of his very effective cock, the hard points of his nipples and the feel of his fingers in her ass. As her soap-slicked hands glided over her body, fingers rubbing the still swollen lips of her cunt, she felt a new trickle of desire seeping from her. No!

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Daydreaming not allowed. She had business to attend to and she couldn’t afford to be distracted. Once out of the shower she dried herself, applied minimal makeup and yanked on a tailored pair of slacks and blouse, something that with a blazer would take her anywhere. Her still-damp hair she pulled back and fastened with a clip, then she dug her BlackBerry out of her purse and began scrolling through every number she had for Dan. And lordy, there seemed to be a lot of them. Well, of course there would be for someone who held a golden spot on the staff of Speaker of the House, Paul Trask. She attacked them methodically, one by one. The Capitol main office where they both worked. His secretary. His private number. His cell number. His pager. And one she couldn’t even identify. When had she collected all these numbers from him? No matter. Each one disappointed her, defaulting to voice mail. Even the office number. Pressing the button on her brand new Keurig coffee machine, she waited fifteen seconds for her hazelnut roast to steam into the cup, took a swallow of the toohot liquid, and began again. One number at a time. This time with the last mystery number first. But instead of going to voice mail, that one now had a message declaring it was a non-working number. The others still just reverted to voice mail. Including Dan’s number at Paul Trask’s office. Damn! What the hell was going on? Maddie hung up and hit her speed dial for the Speaker’s Capitol office and got Laura, the receptionist. “No, Maddie. I’m sorry, I haven’t seen Dan at all yet. Can I help you with something?” “No, thanks anyway.” Maddie tapped a fingernail against her teeth. “Do me a favor and call up his calendar on your computer and see if he has any meetings scheduled.” “Hold on, I’ll check.”

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Maddie waited impatiently, acknowledging that with the early summer recess, Dan most likely had no appointments. She sipped the steaming brew in her cup until she heard Laura’s voice again. “Nothing, Maddie. Wherever he is, he didn’t mark it down.” She paused. “Is something wrong?” I hope not. “No. That’s okay.” “Shall I tell him you called for him?” “No.” Best not to look like the desperate one-night stand. “I’ll keep trying his cell.” Which still went directly to voice mail. Well, shit. This wasn’t good. Daniel Foreman had a very responsible position as the planning consultant on the Speaker’s staff. People like him didn’t just drop off the radar. Even the first day of recess. Okay, Maddie girl. Don’t lose it. You’ve been through stranger things than this before. There has to be a reasonable answer here someplace. Realizing the phone was not going to be her friend today, she called for a cab and swallowed the last of her coffee while she waited. When a horn honked outside, she checked to make sure it was the taxi she’d called, grabbed her purse and briefcase, remembered to set her security alarm before locking the front door and flew down the walk. “Where to?” the driver asked in his bored, accented English. Maddie looked up and down the street, feeling spooked, unsettled. In a panoramic scan, she checked to see if any unfamiliar cars were parked on the cozy street. If any unfamiliar faces walked the sidewalks, watching her. Oh, this is stupid. Who the hell is watching, Madison Sommers? I’m being too paranoid. But in Washington paranoia was very easy to come by.

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With a jerk, she forced herself to dismiss her feelings and climbed in the backseat. But when the driver repeated “Where to?” she gave him Dan’s address. Surprised at herself, she sat back, trying to ease her nerves as the cab headed through Washington’s morning traffic to the condo in the high rise where Dan lived. The guard in the lobby looked at her expectantly. “May I help you with something?” Security had been a bitch everywhere since 9/11. She’d bet this guy knew every resident and their visitors by sight. She’d been to Dan’s place a few times, but always at night when someone else was on duty. She smiled back at him. “I’m just going up to Mr. Foreman’s apartment,” she told him and headed toward the elevators. The guard came out from behind his desk and tentatively put a hand on her arm. “I’m afraid he’s not in. Could I have your name, please?” She looked at his hand, then up at his face, then back at his hand. He snatched it back as if she’d lit a match to it, but didn’t back away. Pushing the Up button impatiently, she asked, “Is there a problem?” “I told you. Mr. Foreman’s not here.” “I’ll just see for myself, okay? Sometimes he likes to hide from people.” She deliberately took two steps to the side, putting space between them. “I’m used to him. We work together. If he’s really out, I’ll just leave him a note.” “I’ll need your name,” he insisted, his own smile looking forced. “Madison Sommers.” Thankfully the elevator doors swooshed open at that moment and she stepped in. “Wait, you can’t go up there.” The guard tried to reach in and stop the doors from closing. Maddie smiled at him as she pushed the Close button, then the number for Dan’s floor. A knot the size of a fist formed in her stomach. Every sense she had told her this

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was more than a lover taking his leave after a night of hot sex. Call it egotistical. Call it crazy. But something was very wrong here. When she rang the bell for his condo and a strange man opened the door, she was even more convinced. He was well over six feet, dressed in a gray suit, white shirt, navy tie and grim look. Everything about him screamed “government”. What the hell? “Miss Sommers?” His voice sounded as if he were gargling with gravel. “I beg your pardon?” “Madison Sommers, right?” “The guard,” she guessed. “He called you.” She’d been through so many security types who did their jobs well. Working for the Speaker gave anyone who worked for him the opportunity to wheedle or cajole their way through any barrier, secure or not. The man nodded. “The guard was told to stop anyone from coming up here. He called to let us know you were tougher than he expected.” All Maddie’s senses were on full alert. What the hell was going on? “Listen, if he’s busy I’ll just give Dan a call later.” A large hand closed on her forearm and literally pulled her into the apartment. “I’m thinking maybe you can answer some questions for us.” Okay. I’ve battled with the best of them. Secret Service. FBI. CIA. The media. You name it. I don’t care who this jerk is, I’m not going to be intimidated. She yanked her arm away from him. “If Dan’s not here, just exactly what are you doing in his apartment?” “Problems, Greg?” the voice came from the direction of the kitchen. In a moment another man who could have been Greg’s twin walked into the foyer. “We’ll see,” Greg said. He reached for Maddie again and pulled her inside, shutting the door behind her. “Listen,” she protested, “I don’t know who the hell you are or what you’re doing here, but I came to see Dan. Where is he?” Maddie tried to see around the bulk of the 26

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man, but his partner also blocked her way. She shoved her hands in her pockets so they wouldn’t see they were trembling from a combination of dread and anger. “You work with Mr. Foreman, correct?” Greg asked. His partner stood behind him, an identically grim expression on his face. What the hell is going on here? “Yes. We both work for the Speaker of the House. But if you’re here I assume you know that.” She glared at him. “You still haven’t told me who you are. Don’t ask me anything else until you do.” “I don’t think—” the other man began. Greg cut him off. “I got it. Miss Sommers is right. She’s not going to tell anything to two strangers. Her boss would can her.” He pulled a flat leather wallet from his pocket and flipped it open to show her his identification. She stared at the badge and the picture identification. Her eyes skimmed over the name, Gregory Devane, drawn by the letters FBI that jumped out at her. She looked at the other man. “I suppose you’re federal, too?” He nodded, holding out his own badge wallet that identified him as Jason Riker. Great. Just what she needed. Two federal agents sticking their nose in her business and Dan’s. Trask would have a holy fit over this. He liked things to run smoothly and depended on her to keep them that way. Or did he already know something was up? If he did, why hadn’t he called her? Maddie wanted to hurry back to her apartment, jump into bed, pull the covers over her head and start the day all over again. She lifted her gaze to Greg’s face. “Tell me. What does the FBI want with Dan? He’s a planning consultant, for god’s sake.” Greg ignored her question. “When was the last time you saw Mr. Foreman?” Maddie tightened her fists in her pockets, frustration added to the growing anxiety she was feeling. “If I tell you when I saw him, will you let me know what this is all

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about? I can’t imagine Dan being in any kind of trouble.” Then a disastrous thought punched her in the stomach. “Oh, god. Has something happened to him? Is he hurt?” Is he dead? Jason Riker moved forward. “Are you expecting something to happen to him?” No. I was expecting him to be in my bed this morning, warm and naked, for one last good fuck before we had to leave for work. Not being checked out by the FBI. Maddie took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She’d done this dance before, when one or another congressman had been about to get his hand slapped and the mess ended up on Trask’s desk. But this was completely different. Besides, she hadn’t had wild, erotic sex with any of those representatives and couldn’t care less about them personally. But Dan was very different. “Of course not,” she snapped back. “Look. I don’t know what this is all about, but I might be able to help you better if I knew.” The two men looked at each other. “Unless you can tell us where Mr. Foreman might be, I don’t think we have much to say to each other. So I’ll ask you once more. When did you last see him and when were you expecting to see him today?” “I assume you tried his office.” Of course they had. And what a stir that must have caused if they identified themselves. Jason nodded. “Miss Sommers, you may not know this—” Greg Devane shook his head at his partner and looked at Maddie again. “Well?” “I don’t know where he is.” She tried to sounds as offhand as possible. “I thought he might have had some appointments or perhaps was working from home for a while. That’s why I stopped by.” She tried not to fidget, anxious to get away from these men as soon as possible. A cell phone chirped and Jason Riker pulled his from his pocket. He frowned at the text message on his screen, then moved up close to Devane and murmured something in his ear. Devane nodded.

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“All right,” he told Maddie. “When we see him we’ll tell him you were here.” As quickly as he’d pulled her inside, that fast he was hustling her toward the door. “But—” “Thank you, Miss Sommers. We’ll be in touch.” She found herself out in the hallway so quickly her head was spinning, the door locked behind her. Well! What the hell was that about? What had been on that message Riker got that made them want to get rid of her so quickly? She’d been sure she was in for a grueling Q & A session. Dan, Dan, Dan. What have you gotten yourself into?

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Chapter Four She didn’t want to admit it, even to herself, but threads of fear were wriggling their way through her body. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good. The FBI didn’t play games. And in her heart, she knew, just knew, that Dan would not have left her alone this morning if he hadn’t had to leave her. She chewed it over in her mind while she cabbed to her office in the Capitol. She knew Paul Trask would be in by this time. He had an appointment just before lunch. She’d make him talk to her, tell her what he knew. If anything. Images from the night before flashed through her mind. Dan naked, his magnificent cock rising before her eyes. Dan fucking her until she screamed for mercy. Dan sucking her nipples until they ached with arousal. Dan sliding his fingers inside her wet and waiting cunt and watching her face as he brought her to orgasm. No way could a man who could throw himself so completely into such erotic activities be on the verge of something sinister. Not unless he was a really good actor. Which she hated to admit, could be possible. But somehow, not probable. Frustrated and jittery, she sailed through the detailed Capitol security not smiling or joking with the guards whom she knew so well. Up in the Speaker’s huge offices, she marched to her desk, dumped her purse and made a beeline for Trask’s secretary. “I need five minutes with him,” she told the woman. “That’s all. Let me in now before his appointment gets here.” “You know how he is about unscheduled interruptions, Maddie.” The woman shook her head, afraid as she always was to ruffle Trask’s feathers. “His day is packed.” “Five minutes,” Maddie repeated and smiled. “I’ll tell him to blame me for any screw ups.”

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The secretary studied her with an assessing gaze. The two women had worked together for five years now and got along well. Maddie didn’t want to upset that applecart by storming past her. The woman sighed. “I’ll buzz him.” She depressed a button on her phone. “Mr. Speaker? Madison Sommers needs five minutes with you. I explained how tight your time is. All right. I’ll send her in.” Maddie blew past her, opened the heavy oak door and stepped into the Speaker’s office. Paul Trask was a tall man, muscular, with thick, stark-white hair and startling gray eyes. Those eyes could warm you with affection or pierce you like a dagger. Maddie had seen both. He’d been on the Hill for more than two decades and was in his second term as speaker. He’d made it plain he would work like a dog to retain his party’s majority in the House so he could keep his position. Everyone knew Paul thrived on power. He nodded as Maddie closed the door behind her and indicated she should take one of the chairs in front of his desk. She tamped down her impatience, appearing as casual as possible. If she was seeing gremlins where there weren’t any, she didn’t want to raise an alarm unnecessarily. But this didn’t feel like it. She needed answers. “Okay, Maddie. What’s so important you had to battle your way in here? Aren’t you and I on for our regular four o’clock wrap-up?” “We are.” She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to strong-arm Julia. I’m concerned about Dan Foreman.” “Oh? Is there a problem with him I’m not aware of?” Maddie’s stomach clenched again. Whatever was going on, Trask didn’t seem to be aware of it. Unless he was putting on a damn good act. “I don’t know. That’s what I wanted to ask you. He’s not in the office today, and he isn’t at home. I wondered if you had given him a special assignment.”

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“If I had,” Trask barked, “you’d know about it.” Trask liked order and Maddie herself was the first one to know what he did and when. She was his rock and his shield. “Why bother me to even ask such a thing?” “Because…” Because lately you act differently. She sat straighter at the shock of her own instinctive response. As if you have a secret. “I’m waiting, Maddie. Because why?” “Dan’s acting oddly. I thought perhaps something had happened to him.” Trask put down the papers in his hands. His narrowed gaze flew over her body. If he surmised what had happened between her and Dan last night, he didn’t deem it necessary to discuss. “You think he’s been hurt? In an accident? Mugged? Something like that?” She shrugged, trying for nonchalance she did not feel, stifling the urge to jump up and scream. “I was hoping you could tell me, sir. I can’t reach him. I assumed if something had happened you’d know about it.” He waited a heartbeat before answering her. “Most likely he has an appointment outside the office and just didn’t put it on the calendar.” “He wouldn’t do that.” “No? He’s not regular staff. As a contracted freelance consultant he has more freedom to pursue channels we can’t. Hell, you hired him, so you know he’s helping us put some info together on trade legislation.” Trask waved a dismissive hand. “Maybe this had to do with one of his former clients. He said when he came on with us he had a few loose ends to tie up for them.” Maddie gripped her hands together. “Wouldn’t he have left word with someone, in case you wanted to get hold of him?” Trask scowled. “He probably expected to be here by now. Then his meeting ran late. He’s thinking of his vacation, just like you’re thinking of Cancun. Right?”

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Wrong. “Sir.” Maddie moistened her lips again, not ready yet to let him know the FBI was looking for Dan. “None of Dan’s phones answer, either. They all go to voice mail.” Except that last one. “He and I have worked together for only two weeks, but it isn’t like him to just fall off the map.” Trask startled. “His phones are off? Agreed, that’s not like him.” He shoved the papers he’d been working with into a folder. “Give him another hour. If we still haven’t heard from him I’ll make phone calls. I hate to press the panic button too soon.” And I don’t want to press it too late. Another minute of verbal fencing and it was clear that either Trask knew nothing or he was stonewalling her. Either way, she’d wasted a lot of time here. “Thank you for seeing me, sir.” Something was off-kilter here. She could feel it. Almost smell it. But she could hardly call Trask a liar to his face without any proof. Maybe she could find something in Dan’s office to point her in the right direction. She hurried to its location, tucked away in a corner of the suite. His desk yielded nothing so she booted up his computer, using the password for Trask’s top level staff. A list of documents came up but she was stymied by one that was encrypted. Nothing she did opened it for her. Strange. Why would Dan lock a document on his computer and prevent her from seeing it? As the person basically in charge of everything in his office, she was given open access to everything. Again something was hinky. She was trying another password when Paul Trask’s voice brought her up short. “I’m sure you want to show Dan the same respect for privacy he’d give you.” His voice held an icy edge. Maddie looked up to him standing in the doorway, a disapproving expression stamped on his face. “I’d have thought better of you,” he continued. “Surely you have things to do. If not, I’m not making good use of your time.”

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Babbling something that sounded like an apology, Maddie escaped to her office, closed the door and dropped into her chair. She had to get hold of Dan. She didn’t want to think that he’d gone off the reservation in some way, but hell! What was she supposed to think? He did a Houdini, strange suits showed up at his apartment and the Speaker shut the door on her. One more time she tried all of Dan’s numbers with the same depressing results. She didn’t need flash cards to tell her this was more than an appointment he forgot to tell her about. Oh, Dan. What have you gotten yourself into? She had one last trump card to play, one she hesitated to use except in emergencies. But that’s what this seemed to be. Because the later it got, the more worried she became. Reluctantly, she opened her cell phone and dialed a number she knew by heart. “Ambassador Sommers’ office.” Maddie was startled when the phone was answered by an unfamiliar female voice. Who the hell was this? “This is Madison Sommers. I called my father’s private line, expecting him to answer. May I speak to him, please?” “I’m sorry. He’s not available at the moment. May I help you with something?” Maddie resisted the urge to throw the phone across the room. “Who am I speaking to?” “Caroline London. His personal assistant.” Personal assistant? Since when? “You must be new. I don’t remember hearing about you.” Maddie knew her voice had a nasty tone but she didn’t care. “I’ve actually been with the ambassador for some time now.” The frost in the woman’s voice shot through the connection. “May I take a message?” For some time now? Dad, what the hell is going on?

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“Yes. You can tell him I’m on my way over and I need to see him.” “Oh, I’m afraid that’s impossible. He’s—” “Make it possible. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” Maddie slammed the phone shut, grabbed her purse and made a beeline to the elevators. The day that should have started with warm feelings and erotic sex was deteriorating into something that made fear skitter like a feather down her spine. She fidgeted in the cab during the ride to Ambassador Sommers’ offices and was ready to take someone apart when she stormed into the building. In the foyer she took a moment to calm herself. Screaming never got her anywhere with her father, and she really needed to find out if he knew anything that could help her. Arthur Sommers was plugged into nearly everything in Washington. If something weird was going on and Dan was involved in it, there was a good chance he’d know about it. Maddie was sure the woman who came forward to meet her was the unknown assistant. Tall and thin, Caroline had perfectly toned blonde hair swept up in a chignon and makeup that looked as if an artist had applied it. Maddie wondered where her father had found her and how long she’d been around. In the two years since her mother died, he’d pretty much avoided a personal life. Or maybe he hadn’t, and just had not bothered to confide in her. Miss Thin and Tall held out a slim hand. “I’m Caroline. You must be Madison.” Maddie shook her hand unenthusiastically. “I’d like to see—” “No problem.” Caroline moved her lips in a brittle smile. “He has a very tight schedule today but he said to show you in as soon as you arrived.” Maddie and her father had never been demonstrative with each other, and had grown further apart in the past two years. Their hello kiss was perfunctory, their greeting lukewarm. “I know you wouldn’t come here if it weren’t something out of the ordinary,” he began. “What is it you think I can do for you?”

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“Right to the point, aren’t you?” She snorted. “All right. I won’t waste time. Dan Foreman, the planning consultant in the Speaker’s office, seems to have disappeared. You have your finger on the pulse of everything in this city. I want to know what you’ve heard.” “Are you sleeping with him?” Sommers asked bluntly. Maddie felt her face flush but she didn’t look away. “That isn’t important. We work together in Trask’s office and it isn’t like him to just vanish.” “So you’re not just chasing a fleeing lover?” She turned, disgusted and angry, wild to ask if her father knew she had slept with Dan last night. But that was a little too miraculous a feat, even for omniscient former CIA operative Arthur Sommers. Oh, god. She should have known better than to come here. “Never mind. Thanks for all your help.” She rose to go toward the door. “I met him several times,” Arthur said, matter-of-factly. Maddie stopped cold and turned around. “Did you, now. And?” “I don’t like him. There’s something very shady about him. Whatever’s happened to him, good riddance. Don’t get your skirts dirty looking for him.” Insulted and appalled at her father’s bald words, she bit off a curse. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “It means exactly what I said. Now please excuse me. I have a meeting to prepare for.” Standing on the sidewalk outside, Maddie had to stifle the urge to sit down on the steps and give in to tears. She shouldn’t have expected anything except what she got. She and her father shared equally low opinions of each other. Even if he knew something, she should have realized he’d never tell her anything. Baffled by the situation and lack of information, she walked the six blocks to the Metro and climbed on the next train. At Union Station, when she climbed out of the car to change lines, she decided to go upstairs instead. She’d cool down before she went

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back to the office. She’d have some lunch and a big fat drink at her favorite pub. Threading her way up the escalator and along the corridor, she was disappointed when she arrived that the place was crowded. Sighing, she scanned the booths and tables, hoping somehow she’d find one empty. What she found pleasantly stunned her. Waving at her from the other side of the room was a very familiar figure. She and Nicole Welles had been roommates in college. Now, ten years later, they kept in touch by email and with visits spaced too far apart. Nikki lived in Texas and her visits to Washington were rare. What was she doing here now? Maddie made her way across the restaurant to where Nicole was standing beside a booth. The two women hugged. “Oh, man,” Nikki said. “You’re the last person I expected to see here. How lucky could I get? Come on. Sit down.” When they were both seated in the booth and had given drink orders to the waiter, Nikki leaned across the table. “So how did you happen to pop into this place just at this moment? Congress is in recess. Aren’t you closing up shop and getting out of Dodge for a few weeks?” “Trying to,” Maddie admitted, avoiding getting into a story too long and complicated for a brief reunion with an old friend. “A better question is, what are you doing in D.C.?” “Well.” Nikki played with her silverware. “You know I started my own private investigation and security agency in San Antonio.” “Yes. With two other women you’ve known for years.” Nikki nodded. “One’s a former cop and the other is the greatest cyber expert you’ll ever find.” She grinned. “We call ourselves Nemesis.” “Ooh.” Maddie gave a mock shiver. “Sounds ominous to me.”

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“We take only high profile cases. That’s what I’m doing here, just winding one up.” She smiled at Maddie. “You still having fun as chief cook and bottle washer for the Speaker of the House?” Maddie smiled with little joy. “Same job. Same place.” “So what are you doing hanging out in Union Station? You gotta have things hopping at your office right now. That new transportation bill, for one thing.” Maddie bit her lip. Should she tell Nikki? What could she lose? “I have a problem,” she began. “It has to do with a man in our office. A consultant.” She told Nikki everything, carefully omitting the details of her scorching evening with Dan. She spread her hands, palms upward. “All but one of his phones go to voice mail. One is disconnected. All just this morning. No one in the office has seen him. It’s as if he didn’t exist. The Speaker acts as if it’s nothing and my dad thinks I should just drop the whole thing.” Nikki studied her a minute. “Is he the type to go on a bender? Take a lost weekend?” “No.” “The type to let someone get the better of him physically? Drop him in a dark alley?” Maddie chortled. “No!” Nicole examined Maddie. “The type to leave without kissing you goodbye?” Maddie stared at her friend and whispered, “No.” “Okay, then. Hear me. For as long as I’ve known you, I’ve never known you to be an alarmist. So I agree with you. Something’s going on here. And I don’t think your Dan is just a planning consultant.” The waiter had appeared with their drinks. “So let’s drink some of this good alcohol and you can start from the beginning. Maybe I can help you.”

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Chapter Five The hours of work after her lunch with Nicole raced by. Like snails. At six-fortytwo, Maddie shot up from her chair and made the excuse of a headache. Julia frowned at her. “It’s not like you to be sick. Can’t I give you an aspirin?” “No thanks. This one’s a blinder, Julia. I need sleep.” And some sanity before Nicole arrived to spend the night and talk more about Dan Foreman’s disappearance. Grabbing up her purse, Maddie spoke briefly with the communications director about a major press release due out tomorrow. Then she zipped down a stairwell, through the magnetron and Capitol guards and out the side door. Walking beyond the ugly concrete road barriers that had appeared after 9/11, she donned her sunglasses against the brilliance of the late sun and inhaled the humid air of Washington in July. Flinging her suit jacket over her shoulder, she decided to stroll west toward the Mall. The tourists had retired for the day. The worker bees in the Capitol, Senate and House office buildings were emerging from their cocoons. Like her, coats off, sunglasses on to protect from the light of day they rarely saw, they hustled to Metro stops or into bars. Some disappeared into restaurants near Constitution Avenue. She hadn’t walked like this in months—and Krav Maga workouts at the gym didn’t compare. When she’d been a teenager—and her family was home from some foreign posting of her father’s, her favorite activity was to escape the servants and her parents’ townhouse over in Foggy Bottom and walk the Mall. She’d take in the free museums and thrill to the dinosaurs in one, the airplanes in another and big brash florals of Georgia O’Keefe in the huge modern art gallery. When she’d gone to college north of town, she’d escape her studies and her worries about her mother’s penchant for gigolos by dropping in to her favorite haunts. When she’d first gotten a job on the Hill as a press secretary to Trask, she’d decompressed the same way. She hadn’t treated herself 39

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to the joy of it in such a long time that now she felt a pang of loss. A realization that she hadn’t been good to herself while working her ass off for Trask sobered her. Promising herself to reconnect with the things she loved and not let the job become everything to her, she smiled up at the Washington Monument and turned to search for a taxi. When the cab pulled up to her house she paid and jumped out. Nicole would be here soon and Maddie wanted to check the guest bedroom to ensure everything was perfect for her friend who promised to help her find the man who had left her this morning. A bigger pang of loss overcame her as she inserted her key in the lock. She paused there, promising herself to find Dan. Another thing you love, Maddie? Maybe so. Stunned at how much she could care for a man she had known so briefly, she turned the key in the front door. No alarm? I did turn it on this morning. She reached for the display panel. But the light on the panel was off. And when she flicked on the living room lights, they didn’t work. The only illumination came from the moonlight slanting in through the slivers between the halfclosed blinds. In the darkness, she felt the sudden torrid strength of two arms clamp around her. “Oh, no!” she breathed and years of practicing self-defense techniques kicked in. By rote, she shrugged, stepped one leg to one side and began to elbow her attacker. “Baby, don’t! Don’t!” a warm soothing male voice crooned in her ear. Dan? “Shh, it’s Dan.” He clutched her closer, his hand to the elbow that she would have used to double him over. Then, he pressed his searing lips to her cheek. “It’s me, Maddie. Just me, baby. Sorry.”

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“Oh, god! Dan!” Relief had her legs buckling out from under her, but he held her up, turning her toward him. “I’m sorry, baby. I scared you, but I couldn’t be sure the one coming in was you.” She blinked. “What? Why?” “Your power lines were cut.” “Cut? How? Why?” “When I got here about an hour ago, they were out.” “But who would do that?” He froze. “Maddie, I—” Her mind raced. “Someone wanted something of mine. The Matisse? My mother’s jewelry?” There was plenty of that. Her mother had an overwhelming appetite for diamonds. And Maddie had inherited every last little carat. “Did they take—?” “No, baby. Not the painting or your jewelry. I’ve checked the house. Not anything of yours.” That fake headache was fast becoming a reality. The clanging in her ears drowned out logic. “I don’t understand. Dan,” she whispered, her hands clutching his lapels. “What’s going on? Why are you here?” “I hoped you’d want to see me.” “Oh, I did. Do.” She stretched up on tiptoe to give him a welcome kiss, but when she pulled away, she noted his eyes were sad yet filled with a ravenous desire. “Dan, what the hell is going on? I thought you’d disappeared on me. That you didn’t mean anything you said. But if you’re mixed up in something bad I can help you…” “I left you too soon this morning and there was no way I could say goodbye then. I had to come back and tell you that. Tell you why.” Tingling at his sentiment, she searched his face. “I’m thrilled you’re here, but do I detect that sentence is followed by something like, ‘and now I have to leave’?”

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He gathered her close and damn if she didn’t let him hug her, put his hands to her cheeks and outline her lower lip with his thumbs. “I have to go soon. But I had to see you before I left. Then I got here and I could tell the place had been burgled.” She trembled in his arms. “What were they looking for?” “Me.” She held her breath. Stared up at him. “Why?” “Because this was the last place where anyone could track me. In your bed.” She pressed nearer to him. A silly smile escaped her lips. “Wow. Did they think you were still here?” His fingers splayed up into the wealth of her hair. “One look at you and they’d assume a man would never leave your bed.” And then he kissed her, his mouth taking hers, pressing hers, caressing hers as if he’d never kissed her, never held her, never made love to her. “I hate to leave you now.” “Don’t then,” she ordered him. “Kiss me again.” He did, backing her to the wall and plundering her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers, his teeth nipping her lower lip, his leg forcing hers apart. “I need you again.” “Dan,” she tried for some logic, “if someone’s after you, do we have time for this?” “We’ll make time.” She reached down to find his cock standing tall inside his trousers. Fumbling for his zipper, she slid the thing down and pressed open the fly in his boxers. She found his long, hot length. “I want you inside me again. Before you go. Wherever.” His cock was smooth skin over steel and she massaged him, stroked him. “Tell me you have protection in one of your pockets. I have been wet for you all day. Frantic to find you.” “Coming here,” he brushed his lips across hers, “I knew I’d need quite a few condoms.” His hand reached inside his jacket pocket and she heard the crinkled of foil. Quivering in anticipation, she laughed. “Can I help you?”

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He dived in for a hard quick kiss. “No, baby.” He pressed her against the wall and in two seconds, he had one package open and a condom rolled down his cock. In the pale light drifting through her sheer curtains, she could see his narrow-eyed concentration. And then, she was crushed in his arms once more. He nudged aside her other leg and yanked at the button of her slacks, slipped down her zipper and flicked the pants down to her ankles. “Step out of these.” And when she did, he took hold of her panties and yanked. He put one hand to her cunt and found her clit, pinched the raw bundle of nerves and made her yelp with delight. “I don’t ever want you to cover your sweet pussy again. I want you bare. Ready for my fingers and my mouth. And my cock. Anytime I need you. Agreed?” “Yes,” she moaned as he invaded her wet cunt with two fingers. “Oh, yes.” “Good girl.” He caught her up under her ass so that her legs were around his hips and pushed into her hungry channel in one swift, commanding stroke. Her head fell back against the wall. Her body was so deliciously full of his cock and her mind was flooded with the need to fuck him. With strong muscles of her sopping wet channel, she clenched his shaft in wild demand, and it was his turn to yelp. “Oh, honey, you’ll mark me yet with this juicy pussy. Let me make us both happy.” And then he pumped her ’til she groaned and pounded her until he bit her shoulder. She gritted her teeth and keened in delight. “Now baby, now!” He rocked her against the wall in a rhythmic pulse she savored to the last orgasmic ripple left her spent and his own shot from him in a rush. He let her feet fall to the floor. His smiling mouth was warm and lush on hers as he rasped, “Like last night in the stairwell, our specialty seems to be standing up.” She lifted her hands to cup his cheeks, her voice sultry from his loving. “I like you any way I can get you.” He rubbed her nose with his. “So what if I have you on the stairs?” Grinning, she rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “What will I do with you?”

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“Tell me.” His tongue trailed down her throat. “What will you do with me?” She undid his tie, the buttons of his shirt and slid his suit coat from his shoulders. “I’ll have you naked.” She eyed his trousers and shoes. “Step out of those, baby.” He did as he was told, then deftly removed the condom, marched into the kitchen and returned in a flash. Digging in his pants’ pocket, he produced another foil and held it up in the air. His fervid eyes teased her and his brows arched in question. Maddie watched him as she sat on the third step of her staircase, her shirt tails dangling between her thighs, her pussy weeping with want of another good loving. Dan came to stand before her, his blue-veined cock now at mouth-level, engorged with need of her. She admired his yummy offering. She fisted his rod, bent and flicked her tongue over the slit. “You are delicious, honey. And to think all this cum is just for me.” He made a low rumbling sound in his throat. “You’d better get on with that, baby, ’cause I am dying here.” She raised her gaze to his, the seductress in her appearing for a second astonishing time with this man who was her lover.“Let me see what I can do to help you out.” She licked him once more, her lips lingering over his heavy tip. She put her whole mouth around him, sucking him gently as she withdrew. He jammed his fingers in her hair as she sank again, this time farther, gentler, retreating with more pressure to her pull. He blew air out of his mouth as she loved him with her lips again, and yet again, each time sinking lower, laving him with her tongue and pulling back with slow, determined ardor. Then she forgot herself, loving the tempo, adoring the texture of his smooth cock, hot steel beneath her tender lips. She increased her need, her pace, her delight and heard that his came as a seething, searing yell of hoarse triumph. “Jesus, Maddie!” He came in her mouth with hot spurts of exclamation and she swallowed all of it, proud she could love him so well, so long, so forcefully.

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He sank to his knees before her, threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her like a madman. “God, baby, no one’s ever been so good.” “Really?” she asked on a chord of whimsy. “How can that be?” He caressed her lips with his own and crushed hers to him as he sent his tongue inside her mouth. “You think I’ve had so many women.” She licked her lips, tasting his mouth and his cum and cock in a scrumptious mix. “Dan, a man like you?” “A man like me, baby? Yeah. I can have so many women.” He sounded raw and self-deprecating. “And god knows I’ve had my share. But like I said last night,” his voice deepened to gravel, “no one has meant to me what you do.” Tears welled in her eyes. If this was true, if a man, this man, could love her so easily, so readily, so fully, was she a fool to believe it? She had to know, but not right now. “Right now,” she whispered, “show me what I mean to you.” “I’ll start here.” He rose up on his knees, looming and raising her chin. Running his hands down her jaw, her throat, he worked at the buttons of her blouse and slid the thing down her shoulders. At once, he flicked open the clasp of her bra and her breasts spilled free. No sooner was she bare than he was there, lifting her up to his seeking mouth. Rolling one nipple with one set of forefinger and thumb, he sucked on the other nipple with a sweet and all-too-brief pull of his lips. He let his cheek brush against that breast and with one hand to her hip, and another to her opposite thigh, he pushed her legs open. “And then go here.” He put both palms to the insides of her upper thighs and spread her wide. Shocked at how the aroma of her own juices flowed up into the air, she moaned. He brought her hips forward on the stair and lowered his dark head. The first flick of his tongue had her bucking.

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“No, baby, don’t move. I have to get a huge hot taste of you and a crazy buzz going on this swollen clit of yours. Curl up, honey. Show me more of this bud and I’ll eat it up for you.” She could have sworn she growled. She flung her head back, her thighs as wide as they could go, her cunt crying and dripping for this tender man who feasted on her pussy with a gourmand’s care. The torture went on and deliciously on for unbearably wonderful moments. Moments when she yearned to move. Moments when she craved to throw him off, demand he come inside her and fill her to the core. But she was a good girl, a craven girl, a wild woman who adored every slick lave of his tongue. “Ahhh, god, Dan! No more!” “Yes,” he demanded and sent two fingers inside her pussy while he circled and circled her pulsing clit. “This.” He dipped another finger into her and swirled her walls. “And this.” He cupped her ass and tilted her up for him so that he could trail his burning tongue over every inch of her throbbing labia. “And this.” He pulled her to the floor, gripped her inner thighs and hauled her ass up his legs. Then he fumbled for his trousers and another condom, and snapped it on his rigid cock. In the next breath, he drilled into her, impaled her, thrilled her, filled her with such a driving possession that she came once, howling, and again and more. God knew, how much more. He lay atop her, his heavy weight a welcome heat. He nuzzled her ear, dropped a kiss to her throat and wrapped his arms around her to roll them to their sides. “You are delicious.” He pushed tendrils of her hair back from her face. “Loving you takes extra energy. I’m going to be eating a lot more.” She pinched his ribs and giggled. “You already are.” “Mmm, and don’t you just love it.” “No complaints from me, Mr. Foreman.” His green eyes narrowed in the deepening shadows. His words were thick with the exertion of great sex. “I’ve become addicted to the taste of your pussy.” She smiled, almost shy now, and pressed her forehead to his chest. 46

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He dropped a kiss to her hair. “I meant what I said before. Don’t wear any panties. Never again. I need to know I can look at you at any time and see you.” He rolled her to her back and ran one open palm over her swollen labia. His fingers traced her slit and she undulated. “And pretend that I’m eating you. That my fingers are inside you.” He sank three fingers in her sopping wet channel. He bent to anoint each areola with a small suck. “That your nipples are begging for me, like they are now.” “O-Okay.” She could barely think as she arched. “And that you can want me,” he crooned, as she felt the first pulses of another orgasm, “like this. And then you can come for me. Without me putting a hand to you. That you’ll need me. Hard and fast. Like this.” She bowed up as a wave of electric pulses careened through her groin and shook her whole body. At last she sank to the carpet, her body lolling in completion. “No panties, hell!” She widened her eyes at him. “No clothes at all! Ever!” He chuckled. “But Dan,” she whispered, running a fingertip over the seam of his lips, “darling, what good will going naked do me or you, if you aren’t here with me?” His mirth died and his gaze drifted to her mouth. He glanced away. When he looked at her again, she knew his next words would be all business. He stood and handed her blouse to her, then donned his own clothes. Maddie crossed her arms, clutching her blouse, standing there naked waiting for the truth. She hated to think what came next. “I’ve got to leave town. For a while.” He faced her. “I’m not just a transportation expert, Maddie. I’m a tracker. One of the best field operatives Langley ever trained.” “The CIA,” she mouthed, her worst nightmare of Dan’s true profession becoming fact. She sat back down on the third step, shuddering as she asked, “If I ask what you are trained in, can you even tell me?” He bit his lower lip and looked pained. “Weapons. Illegal traffic.”

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She inhaled. Okay. “Why are you with us?” “There’s a problem. Shipments of illegal arms from Guatemala are coming across the southwestern border. A big concentration passed through the Laredo and El Paso areas. Border Patrol confiscated those.” “Then the problem’s taken care of.” But she had a feeling it wasn’t. Dan shook his head. “From the drivers we arrested, we learned there were two more truckloads we didn’t catch. Like the others, they were filled with rocket launchers and about two hundred assault rifles.” “But you tracked the two missing trucks? Or Border Patrol did, yes?” “Yes. They found them in the desert near Del Rio. Empty of cargo. One driver was dead of heat exhaustion. They had no water with them.” “Foolish to travel there in the worst drought Texans have had in a century. But you said one driver died of the heat. What about the other one?” “He tried to set the truck on fire, then shot himself.” “My god. Horrible.” “Yes, but he didn’t do such a great job of it. The fire didn’t totally destroy the truck. He—or someone, maybe his jefe, hid some paperwork in the rocker panels. Purchase agreements for the weapons and delivery instructions.” “Terrible. But what has all this to do with us? With the staff? And why you’re here?” Was she screeching? She never panicked. Never lost her cool. But she was responsible for every staff member’s hire, every piece of legislation every aide researched, examined, approved. Her head spun. She covered her eyes. He squatted down in front of her. “I’m here to see if anyone in Trask’s office had anything to do with the transport of that shipment.” Maddie wet her lips and took a deep breath. “Dan, when you disappeared I went to the office and spoke to Trask. He told me to mind my own business, that you’d show up any time.” She mentally steeled herself to make the next statement. “I checked your

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computer and found an encrypted document. I couldn’t get into it no matter what combination I tried. Promise me you’re not mixed up in this some way.” Dan curled his fingers into fists. “Shit, shit, shit. That’s what I was afraid of.” “Tell me,” she insisted. “Listen, Maddie. I’m not involved in this and I hate it that you could even think for one minute I could be. We’ll get to that another time. But the person pulling the strings has set me up so all roads lead to me. That’s why I had to disappear.” She had to ask, “What leads you to think one of us would be involved?” “The paperwork, what is left of it after the fire, indicates that the weapons are meant for an action directed by someone named Triska, or Truske or something close.” “Well, that does it then. It’s a mistake.” She stared at Dan when he didn’t move a muscle. “Come on, now, let’s be reasonable here. Trask is the Speaker of the House.” “He comes from south Texas.” “Yes, but that’s no reason to suspect him of this! This is—” “Treason.” Dan looked grim as death. “I won’t believe it.” She stood. “Trask is a hard-ass, a pillar of the party, a rock of south Texas and you just can’t accuse a man of doing this thing! And the staff? Before we’re hired, every one of us has to hold a top secret clearance!” She waved a hand. Dan caught it. “Hey, hey, honey! I agree with you. But I have to learn the truth. And I have to know who put an encrypted file on my computer to throw suspicion on me.” “And you need proof.” He nodded. “I do.” The doorbell rang. Maddie jumped. “Oh, my god.” Dan was at the door, peering through the eyehole. “A woman? Are you expecting a guest?”

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Maddie ran a hand through her hair. And looking down at how she was naked as a jaybird, she put out a hand. “Yes. That’s my best friend from college. Nikki Welles. She’s here to spend the night.” Dan scowled. “I don’t know about this.” “I do. Let her in. Introduce yourself. She’ll find it intriguing you’re here. Meanwhile, I,” she pointed upstairs, “am having a shower and a change of clothes.” Dan was shaking his head. “Bad time to have her here, Maddie.” She had one hand to the banister, the other gripping the flashlight she’d fished out of the hall table drawer and her blouse dangling in front of her naked body. She almost snorted. “Tell me about it. She’s a private detective, by the way, Mr. CIA, Transportation Expert. Let her in, for heaven’s sakes. She knows I’ve been missing you—and she wants to help.” “No!” Anger and torment warred on his face. “You confided in her?” “Yes! And I trust her. She lives in south Texas these days, by the way. So you never know what good could come of this.” “You are one wild woman.” The doorbell rang again. Insistently this time. “I know,” Maddie told him. “Open the door, darling. Let my friend in.”

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Chapter Six With obvious reluctance Dan opened the door and gaped at the woman standing there. Maddie, standing behind him, laughed softly. People usually stared the first time they saw Nikki Welles. At least five ten, her body was encased in a black leather jacket and pants that showed off her lean strength. Straight black hair was pulled into a ponytail that hung down her back and her face was defined by high, slashing cheekbones and deep-set black eyes that had a “Don’t fuck with me” look. A mischievous smile curved her lips as she looked at Dan, then at Maddie standing nearly nude on the stairs and back at Dan again. “Well,” she drawled. “Am I here as an observer or am I supposed to join the party?” Maddie laughed. “Neither. Sad for you.” Then she sobered. “Nicole Welles, meet Dan Foreman. My missing person. We have a problem, Nikki. Let me throw some clothes on and we’ll tell you about it.” Dan turned and looked at her. “Maddie, I’m not sure—” “Trust me,” she interrupted. “We need help and this is just the person to provide it.” Nikki stepped into the foyer and Dan closed the door. “Why is your house dark? Didn’t you pay your bill?” “Part of the story. Dan, can you find some candles in the pantry and get us some light? I’ll be right down.” By the time she’d thrown on a pair of jeans and joined Nikki and Dan in the kitchen they were huddled at the table where six candles burned in holders. “So did you tell her?” Maddie asked, looking from Dan to Nikki and back again.

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“I wormed it out of him,” Nikki told her. “Reluctantly, I might add.” She grinned. “I told him I had more ways to torture him than any terrorist he’d ever meet.” Maddie’s answering smile was weak. She was consumed with worry for Dan and a growing unease about Paul Trask. In her hasty shower she’d run through everything she knew and realized whatever was going on was bigger than she’d imagined. “Pardon my bluntness, Nicole, but I don’t know you and I think discussing this with you is a big mistake,” Dan muttered. “The more people who find out where I am, the harder it is for me to disappear and do what I have to.” “If disappearing’s what you want,” Nikko told him, “I can make that happen.” “Yeah?” Dan cocked a skeptical eyebrow. “You a magician or something?” “Better. I have a big ranch in a remote area of Texas and the transportation to get you there. If you have a base of operations where no one can get at you, you can do whatever you have to.” “Texas?” Dan looked at Maddie, who’d dropped into the chair next to him. “Is she for real?” Maddie nodded. “Her private security agency does very, very well. And she also has experience and connections in this area that we don’t have.” “I do,” he argued. “Apparently not if you’re on the run. So let her help us, please?” Maddie waited while Dan drummed his fingers on the table the way he did when he was mulling things over in his mind. “All right, I’ll consider it,” he said at last. “First, tell me how we get out of this house without being seen.” “I will but I have a question,” Nikki put in. “Dan, you’re already MIA, but Maddie, won’t people miss you if suddenly you aren’t around?”

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Maddie shook her head. “Actually, this is the best time for me to be gone. It’s the last week in July. Congress declared an early recess and everyone in our offices is either getting ready to leave town or they’ve already gone.” “Okay, then.” Nikki pushed back from the table. “Then here’s what we’ll do.”

***** Dan and Maddie stood in the huge bedroom staring at each other. “I can’t believe she actually did it,” he said at last. “Got us here right under everyone’s noses. And what a perfect place for a hideout.” “I told you she could help.” His smile was rueful. “Remind me never to get on that woman’s bad side. I’d hate to have her after me.” Maddie chuckled, but it was more a sound of relief than humor. “Her headquarters is in San Antonio which is why the ranch is in Texas, but she has contacts everyplace in the country. In the world.” Dan looked at her, curiosity flashing in his eyes. “Exactly what kind of ‘private security’ work does she do?” “I think you’ll have to ask her. But it’s pretty high powered, I know that. And she gets paid very, very well for it.” “Well.” Dan brushed a soft kiss across her lips. “She certainly gets my vote.” Getting out of her townhouse had been complicated but effective. Nicole had called a local contact who had shown up in a pizza delivery truck. The delivery person who left was Dan, while the contact hid in the trunk of Maddie’s car. She and Nicole left together, driving to the hotel where Nikki was staying. They left her car with the valet and made a show of going into the hotel. From there they went to the hotel garage where another of Nikki’s contacts picked them up and drove them to a private airport in suburban Maryland.

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The Nemesis jet ferried them to an airport outside of San Antonio. Then it was a quick helicopter ride to the ranch truly in the middle of nowhere. “Is this really a working ranch?” Dan wanted to know. Maddie nodded. “It makes a good cover. She’s got an excellent foreman and the place makes money. She also has a training facility here with a gun range hidden in a wooded section of the property.” Dan whistled. “She’s thought of everything. She must be making a bundle.” Maddie grinned. “Ya think?” He reached for her and pulled her toward him, his hands cupping her face. “Right now I don’t want to think. Right now I want to remember that we’re alive and at least temporarily out of harm’s way.” When his mouth came down on hers, Maddie’s senses were flooded with the most incredible desire. Just the hungry touch of his lips and fresh cream filled her cunt and her nipples hardened. She opened her mouth for his invading tongue, dancing her own over it. Every pulse point in her body thrummed in anticipation. His mouth slid to her cheek, then her jawline and her throat, nipping at the soft skin then soothing it with the tip of his tongue. “Will your friend come looking for us?” he asked, his voice vibrating against her skin. “No.” She had a hard time formulating an answer with the thick erotic fog wrapping itself around her. “She’s…busy in her office here.” “Good.” And that was the last thing either of them said for a long time. Dan put his mouth to better use, licking and kissing her neck, her shoulder, the valley between her breasts. Unbuttoning her blouse, one careful button at a time, he kissed each section of skin as he exposed it. Maddie simply clutched at him, her body liquid and her legs trembling. Nimble fingers unclasped her bra and slid the straps

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down her arms, his tongue following the path on first one arm then the other. She shivered beneath his feathery touch. How was it that this man could reduce her to a shimmering pool of need so quickly? With the scrap of lace and satin that passed for her bra tossed to the side, he pulled each throbbing nipple into his mouth, sucking on it until it swelled to the point of pleasure-pain. His teeth nipped lightly, tugging at the swollen buds then soothing each one with a flick of his tongue. Each nibble sent shivers of arousal through her body and a fresh release of cream in her very hungry pussy. As he concentrated on tormenting her nipples, his big hands squeezed the firm flesh of her breasts and she moaned into his mouth. Desperate to feel his skin against hers, she tried to unbutton his shirt but her hands were shaking too badly. Finally in frustration she ripped it open, the buttons popping everywhere, and curled her fingers through the soft pelt of hair on his chest. Her fingers searched through the curls to find his flat nipples and she tugged on them, eliciting a strangled sound from him that vibrated against her breasts. Dan lifted his head and pulled her against him so that they were together skin to skin. Cupping her breasts in his warm palms, he moved them back and forth against his body, the soft curls of his chest hair abrading the sensitive skin. His mouth was on hers again, tongue probing, demanding, flicking everywhere inside that liquid well. She was drowning in sensation and so crazy for him she thought she might implode. Her skin felt too hot, what clothes she still wore too tight. Through layers of fabric she could feel the thick, heated shaft of Dan’s erection branding itself against her. “Naked,” she gasped. “I want us naked. Now.” “I love it when you’re wild like this.” His voice was heavy with a need that matched hers. His hands dropped to her waist and unerringly found the button on her slacks. The fabric whispered over her legs as it dropped to the floor and pooled around her feet. Dan slid one hand into the front of her bikini panties and cupped her mound, one long finger pressing between the wet folds of her pussy. He rubbed it up and down,

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dragging it over her throbbing clit. He made a soft sound of satisfaction when her honey coated his skin. Maddie held onto his arms as she kicked away her shoes and stepped out of her slacks. Two fingers plunged into her heated channel, sliding in and out, impaling her as she struggled to take them deeper. Oh, god, she wanted his cock inside her. Right this minute. “You are soaked.” He pressed the palm of his hand against her clit as he continued to stroke her with his fingers. “I love it.” “Dan.” The word was half moan, half plea. “Please.” She fumbled to open his pants but again she couldn’t make her fingers work. Dan’s laugh was husky. “Let me, or I’ll have no clothes left at all. He slipped his fingers from her cunt and quickly disposed of his pants and boxers. Before kicking them to the side he retrieved his wallet and fished out a condom. Her eyes widened. “Do you keep an endless supply of those with you?” He shook his head. “I wish. If we keep this up we’re going to need to stock up on some supplies.” Maddie looked down and saw the heaviness of his sac beneath the swollen cock with its dark purple head. She reached for him, her body trembling with anticipation. Wrapping her slim fingers around his hard length, she stopped him from rolling on the latex. God, he is so huge. How do I ever take him inside me? Fascinated, she rubbed her thumb over the bead of liquid that had formed at the slit. As she stroked him from root to tip, he groaned. “Shit, Maddie. Careful or it will be all over before we want it to.” Ignoring her protests, he moved her fingers away, cupped his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her to the bed, juggling her for a moment as he pulled back the quilt

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before laying her down on the sheets.”Jesus, you are so wet, Maddie. I love the feel of that hot, wet pussy. And the taste.” He lifted her legs and pulled them over his shoulders as he knelt on the floor. Opening her labia as if he were peeling back the petals of a flower, he blew softly on her cunt, a stream of warm air that made the muscles of her pussy quiver in response. There was something so erotic about lying there so totally exposed to him. When he lapped at the wet pink flesh of her cunt she jerked as if tiny thunderbolts had shot through her system. He teased at her, flicking his tongue lightly, tasting her and covering her with an open-mouthed kiss. “Oh, god,” she cried, thrusting her hips out at him. “You like that?” He stroked his tongue over her again. “I like it, too.” When he rose to his feet she cried out in disappointment. Surely he wasn’t going to leave her like this? But when she opened her eyes and looked at him, he was grinning at her and rolling on the condom. With two firm hands, he pressed her knees to her chest and touched the head of his cock to her opening. She cried out in expectation. He teased her again, then flexed his hips and thrust into her, ramming home with one hard stroke. His balls slapped against the curve of her ass as he drove into her again and again. She could feel her orgasm rising low in her belly, a beast of desire clawing its way up through her body. “Pinch your nipples for me,” he ordered through gritted teeth. “Do it, Maddie.” Obediently she took them between the thumb and forefinger of each hand and squeezed them hard, until the knife edge of pain became a sword of pleasure. “God, I love your tits. They are so beautiful. That’s it. Pinch harder.” His words stoked the carnal flame blazing inside her and it flared higher. “Fuck me hard,” she whispered, pushing her hips up to match his rhythm. He increased his speed, pounding madly into her, the head of his cock rasping her sweet spot with every deep thrust.

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She pinched her nipples as hard as she could and her climax burst over her, just as Dan found his own release. The walls of her pussy clasped around his cock, milking him, pulling every drop of cum from him. They shuddered together, their bodies slick with sweat, until the last spasm faded away. Then he collapsed forward, keeping as much of his weight off her body as he could. At last he levered himself upward and slid carefully from the wet clutch of her pussy. Maddie lay there spent, listening to the sounds of him in the bathroom disposing of the condom and running water. Then he was back, stretching out beside her and pulling her against him. He let out a soft, uneven chuckle. “I hope we don’t kill each other before we get to the bottom of this mess.” She tweaked his nipples, loving it when even his tired body jerked in response. “I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

***** “Before I do anything else,” Dan said, “I think I need some clothes.” They were all in the kitchen drinking coffee. Dan was leaning against the counter dressed only in his jeans. Maddie had to force herself not to keep staring at his bare chest. How was it possible that not ten minutes ago they’d fucked their brains out and already she wanted him again? No man had ever affected her this way. She just hoped it wasn’t leading her down the path to disaster. Dan had told her he’d be there for her, but she’d learned long ago that trust was a very fragile thing. Nicole laughed. “If we could just get Maddie to stop ripping your clothes off you we’d be okay.” Maddie felt the heat creeping up her cheeks. Not a person who embarrassed easily, she still wasn’t the type to have her sexual activities discussed in front of others no matter how tight the friendship was.

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“I’ll do my best to restrain myself.” She sipped her coffee. “Seriously, Nikki. We scrammed out of my house without taking a thing with us and we can’t exactly go shopping in public.” “Not to worry.” Nikki fluttered her fingers at them. “Give me sizes and I’ll have my ranch manager’s wife take care of it. They won’t be high fashion but they’ll cover your bodies.” “We appreciate you getting us out of D.C. the way you did,” Dan told her, “and bringing us to your ranch. Also it may be the best place for us to work from, besides being off everyone’s radar.” Maddie raised an eyebrow. “How so?” “We need to take a field trip to Del Rio and talk to the Border Patrol agents at the Del Rio crossing.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “That particular area has been a hot spot for all kinds of illegal activities.” “You think any of the officers there are involved?” Nikki wanted to know. Dan shrugged. “Hard to tell. I’d like to say no, but money is a powerful incentive.” He set his mug on the counter. “I want to take a run down there and check it out.” Maddie shook her head. “They’ll be on alert, Dan. It’s too dangerous. You’ll be putting yourself in too much jeopardy.” “Not if Nikki can continue to work miracles.” Nicole narrowed her eyes. “What exactly are you asking for?” “Some fake ID and anonymous transportation.” Nikki burst out laughing. “You do have instant confidence in my abilities.” He dipped his head. “After that exit from D.C. you have definitely made a believer out of me.” He paused. “Can you do it? Will you do it?” Maddie slammed her hand on the table. “If you go, I go. I’m not letting you off on your own again.”

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“Maddie, be reasonable,” Dan argued. “This is what I do. This is what I’m good at. You’re an amateur here.” “You can’t be too good at it if they found you out and you’re hiding out here,” she snapped back. A deep flush stained his cheeks and a muscle twitched in his jaw. “Maddie, I—” She jumped up from her chair and went to stand in front of him, winding her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry, Dan. That was a terrible thing to say. I’m just so worried.” “It’s okay.” His voice was soft. “I understand. But you have to let me do this.” “Only if you take me with you,” she insisted. “She’ll give you a better cover, Dan” Nikki interjected. “A couple—especially two people who can’t keep their hands off each other—will make you harder to ID as well as raise fewer suspicions. Plus Maddie can be frightening when she goes into her Krav Maga routines.” Dan’s brows knit in pained delight. “She almost made mincemeat of me a while ago in her foyer.” Maggie grinned. “But if I agree to this and you come with me, Maddie?” Dan stared at one woman and then the other. “My rules. No exceptions. No arguments.” “Yes. Absolutely.” She kissed his cheek. “Whatever you say.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “Yeah, right. We’ll see.” Nikki rinsed her mug and stuck it in the dishwasher. “Let me get busy on personal items and identification for the two of you. Dan, I think we should spend time today planning this out and looking at every eventuality. And I’ll see where my agency can help. You should plan on leaving tomorrow morning.” Dan nodded. “Thank you. I—we—appreciate this very much.” “Just remember,” she laughed. “Payback can be hell.”

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Chapter Seven “Dan, are you sure this is the best way to find these border crossings?” Maddie rubbed her sore left thigh as the two of them sat atop horses they’d hired at a Del Rio dude ranch two hours ago. She had thought she knew this terrain from travels down to Speaker Trask’s district office years ago. But now she wasn’t sure where she was. “Sorry, baby. This is the best way we could travel along this part of the Rio Grande without arousing suspicion and find the route these truckers carved out. You haven’t ridden in a while have you?” His green eyes ran over her in sympathy and a devilish light dawned in them. “How’s your saddle?” She caught the trend of his thoughts and capitalized on any humor she could wring from the situation. “Honey, you know how my saddle is.” She squirmed in her leather seat atop her roan mare, feeling how sweetly swollen her pussy still was from Dan’s repeated possession. “Hot and—” He chuckled as he spurred his stallion beside her. “Sweet.” He leaned over and kissed her on the lips. “And I do miss being in there, so let’s check out this curve in the riverbed quickly, shall we?” He led the way along a bare, rocky path that he said was really the dry bed of the mighty Rio Grande. “The drought has been so bad the last few years,” he went on as he secured his Stetson against the brutal August sun, “that the river has disappeared in many places. Here, over in Big Bend by Lajitas, and on to El Paso, there are dozens of areas where someone can walk across and kick up the dust.” “For those coming over on foot,” Maddie added as she followed Dan’s winding trail, “these crossings are gifts.” Dan turned to shoot her a look of surprise.

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“Oh, yes, I know about the crossings, even if I haven’t ever seen them. Working for Trask, with him representing this district in Congress, you learn the statistics. Discussing smuggling of drugs and prostitutes, or illegal immigrants means you have to know how and why they come through here. But wow,” she whispered as she pulled her mare to a halt to watch a group of five teenage boys, dirty and sweaty, rise up suddenly from the brush. “I never thought I’d actually witness illegals trudging north.” “Buenos Dias,” Dan greeted them as they froze in their tracks. From the startled looks on their faces, they certainly did not think it was a good day. But Dan went on in very good Spanish, asking them something about autos and roads. One of the young men answered rapidly in his native tongue, pointing Dan toward the southwest. Then he scowled, asking Dan a question. Dan answered and from his expression, Maddie got the drift of his reply. Dan told them, no, he was not interested in arresting them or making them turn back to Mexico. He and his wife were out for a ride. The five young men shook their heads, as if to say, crazy gringos, then waved, smiled weakly and trudged onward. “Okay!” Dan grinned at her. “Come on, baby. If they’re right about the dry bed road over here, we’ve struck pay dirt.” He had told her that before he could begin a discussion with the local Border Patrol agents, he had to have an idea where the trucks loaded with weapons might come through. This made sense to Maddie, even though with the Texas border over five hundred miles long, that was like finding a needle in a haystack. Dan’s reasoning was strong though. “The trucks were eighteen wheelers,” he had told her yesterday. “You can’t carry heavy assault weapons over terrain that rough without destroying the merchandise. And when it’s expensive goods like this—and illegal to boot—a trucker needs to be certain he’s going to deliver goods intact so that he can receive his payment.” What Maddie couldn’t figure was why they chose the Del Rio area, when a sector even more sparsely patrolled was around Eagle Pass or Presidio. Both of those towns 62

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had very small Sheriff’s Departments and the Customs and Immigration checkpoints were one man operations. Bribery had often been a problem among all those in law enforcement. She didn’t expect it had changed much just because people in Washington got their panties in a bunch about security after 9/11. In fact, she’d read reports that declared corruption among locals had gotten worse. Maddie winced as the horse picked her way down a ravine, following Dan’s horse which had disappeared into a thicket of mesquite and live oaks. “Maddie!” Dan called to her. “Look at this, honey.” She ducked her head, pushing back limbs and leaves as she made her way toward his voice. Then she reined in her horse. “Good heavens.” Covered on two sides by brush, a road followed along the dry riverbank. She stood in her stirrups to see that the road snaked on for four or five miles, but shifted off to the west. “This is where they come to hide from the patrols.” Dan swung down from his horse to examine the tire tracks. The drought had created a fine dust that heavy gauge tractor-trailer tires had clawed into. The ridges on either side protected the roads and no winds had come along to erase the deep impressions in the riverbank. “Question is,” Dan said looking both ways along the concealed roadway, “where are they coming from?” He tipped his head toward Mexico. “There is no road there that can support these big babies.” “Oh, my god. Hold that thought.” Maddie dug her heels into her mare and turned her about. “Don’t move.” “No! Honey! You shouldn’t—” Dan yelled. But she lost the sounds of his objection in the rush of adrenalin and horse’s hooves leading her toward Del Rio where they’d come from. Not more than a mile from the concealed dirt road, she ground to a halt at what she saw. She wheeled the mare and they were off again, meeting Dan along the path chasing her. “Do not do that again.” He grabbed her reins. “Do you hear me?” 63

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“Yes, but I—” “I don’t want to lose you.” He cupped her chin. “My rules, remember?” “I do. But I think you will like the fact I broke this one this time.” He cocked his head, ruefulness and humor playing around his firm mouth. “And why is that, Boss Lady?” She batted big, wide, blue eyes filled with mirth. “I found the reason your trucks stop here.” Dan frowned, then smiled like a fiend. “Show me.” “This way, Boss Man.” She clicked for her mare to turn and take them back the way they’d come. At a canter, the two of them were gazing at Maddie’s discovery within two minutes. “Railroad track,” Dan said in awe. “I’ll be damned.” “I’d say it is the remains of one of the old lines of the Atchison, Topeka and the Sante Fe.” “But it’s in perfect condition.” “Tell me about it,” Maddie agreed, proud as punch of her detective work. “Cleared, clean and unbroken,” she added, wondering where the line ended, who was using it and how much contraband had come this way for how many years.

***** Two hours later, they sat in front of one of the Border Patrol outposts along the main highway out of Del Rio. Assuming their false identities that Nikki had established for them, Dan had become Dave Foreman and Maddie was his wife, Madeline. Two city slickers, they were dressed in their cords and plain shirts, loafers and matching navy blazers. “Let me ask you to repeat your story, Mr. Forester, one more time. For the record, you understand, and so my tape recorder can get the information.” The border

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patrolman was a graying gentleman with huge pot belly that lapped over his uniform belt. “Sure. Not a problem,” Dan told the heavy-set man in the green uniform. “My wife and I hired two horses for a leisurely ride in the country this morning. I guess we got lost. It took us a while to find our way back. But as we were riding, we discovered a clearing and a covered highway.” “Covered how, Mr. Forester?” the man asked from behind his desk. He might have been more interested in grass growing. “Shrubs, trees. You know, what grows here,” Dan said, sounding like a crazy Easterner. Maddie smiled and tried her part of the ruse. “But we got concerned that it might be a hideaway. And then all of a sudden, we saw three old women jump out of the brush.” The patrolman scowled. “Illegals. We can’t catch ’em all. Too damn many.” “Yes, but there’s more,” Maddie added with excitement. “More women?” the man looked concerned now. “No,” Dan added. “What my wife means is we saw more.” Now they had the patrolman’s attention. He sat forward. “More of what?” Outside in the reception area, a grumble went up from the other patrolmen. The one in the office with them shook his head and got up to close his door. “Sorry about that. They like to watch the news. Get excited at every li’l thing. Now you were saying you saw more wetbacks?” “No,” Dan said emphatically. “We saw train tracks. The women came from the area of train tracks! Do you know you have a train operating on the riverbed and it’s bringing in illegal immigrants by the hundreds?”

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The patrolman fell back in his chair as if he’d been pushed there by the force of a hurricane. “Nooo. That cannot be.” He shook his head from side to side like a puppet. “We don’t have hundreds coming through here.” How sure are you of that? Maddie glanced at Dan. “Sweetie,” she addressed him like an adoring wife, “I guess we’ll never know for sure. We’ll just have to tell it like we saw it and make the assumption that—” “Make what assumption?” The patrolman jounced forward on the spring of his chair. “Who are you people and what precisely are you making up?” “Oh, not lying. No, sir. We told you,” she addressed him, innocent as a spring daisy. “Mr. and Mrs. Dave Forester from Lancaster, Pennsylvania and we are here on our honeymoon doing research for a big true crime book. On illegals and how they get in. And we found this train track and then the women, and we were just so excited, so we said to ourselves, we have to hear what the Border Patrol can tell us about this. The responsible thing to do. Good, huh?” The patrolman gave a small roll of his eyes, as if he met nut jobs like this all the time. “Look, Mr. and Mrs. Forest.” “Forester,” she and Dan corrected him. “Whatever. We have no train tracks. We—” “We could show you.” “What you saw was an old defunct line of the A,T and Santa Fe.” “That’s the name of it.” Maddie gave him her satisfied sleuth look. “Mrs. Forest, that line does not run.” “Forester is the name,” she said, sweet as apple pie. “And how are you so certain it does not run, Patrolman Gonzales?” “We don’t hear it.” He made a circle with his finger. “The whistle? It doesn’t blow any longer.”

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***** They were a mile away in their rental car before they allowed themselves the luxury of laughing their heads off. As Maddie wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, she regretted they could not have stayed longer and riled poor patrolman Gonzales a bit more. “What a mess,” she mourned. “Do you think he has half a clue about what’s really going on there?” “He knew the railroad existed.” “But I doubt he thinks it runs.” “Yes, I think he’s honest,” Dan concluded as he slowed to go through a small town. “But he was trying to cover up the local scandal for us. He doesn’t want bad publicity and Mr. and Mrs. Dave Forester could give it to him if they really did write a book. He’s got enough problems with the two trucks that were found north of here.” “Pull in here, Dan.” They were breezing through a small town, past a convenience store. “I need some water. That ride this morning parched me.” Dan pulled in and in two minutes, she was climbing back into their Kia and handing him a bottle of water. “What’s wrong?” He was scowling, turning up the radio. “The president and the vice president are in the hospital.” “What? No!” Her mind spun. “Are you kidding? If both men are ill, the next person in line of succession is the Speaker of the House. Oh, god. I have to find Trask. I can’t go on with you. I—” “Shh, honey, listen.” Dan turned up the radio. “Both President Hamill and Vice President Tollover were taken ill during a private luncheon meeting in the White House. No one else was in attendance. The White House physician was on the scene immediately and we have word just coming in from the

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White House news room that the vice president has been released and sent home. More as it develops here. This is John Chalmers at the White House.” “I have to find Trask,” Maddie insisted. “You told him you were going to Cancun, baby. Think. He’ll find his own way to Washington if he’s even left and needs to return. Whenever the president shows any sign of physical ailments, Trask’s bodyguard doubles automatically. He’s fine. He’s got people to ensure his safety.” She ran a hand through her hair. “You’re right. You’re right.” She unscrewed her water bottle and took a long drink. “My brain is fried. Let’s get back to the dude ranch and check out. We need to go into Del Rio and talk to the administrators at the train station. They might be able to tell us when that line went dark.” “Okay, let’s.” Dan pulled out onto Main Street and within a mile was back on the four-lane highway to the ranch. Maddie was flipping stations, listening to one reporter after another speculate on the delicate health of the president and the fact that he most likely contracted salmonella poisoning in his own home. She was shaking her head over the improbability of that when Dan took her hand. “Fasten your seat belt tighter.” She saw his gaze swing to his rearview mirror. “We have company. Have had them since we left the Border Patrol station.” “Gonzales is following us?” she asked as she cinched her belt more closely. “Looks like a younger guy. Black or a great tan. With a buddy who looks twice as old and twice as mean. Nice straightaway here. Let’s peel some rubber, eh?” Dan pressed the pedal to the floor with a smooth motion that had them flying down the road. The Kia gave them zip but she wasn’t so sure how it would hold up against their pursuers. They were in a souped-up Dodge and loving the chase. As they skittered all over the road, Maddie prayed for traffic to come the other way to make them stay in their lane and tone down their tempers. But no such thing happened.

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The Dodge kept on coming. Until finally, it drew even with them and the passenger leaned out of his window with the biggest damn gun Maddie had ever seen. She screamed for Dan to pull over. Terrified the guy would hit Dan, she noted that on the straightaway a huge tractor-trailer was headed their way. “I see him,” she heard Dan yell at her. “Get down,” he mouthed, both hands on the perilously held wheel. “Stay down, baby.” She hated to be a chicken but there was little else she could do to help Dan except obey him. She crouched down and prayed. She heard the tractor trailer driver blaring his horn and felt their own car slow. She squeezed her eyes shut. And then she heard a rumble and a howl. The tractor trailer blew past them and the Kia wobbled and rolled its way onward down the highway. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Didn’t breathe. “They’re done for, Maddie. Look, baby. It’s okay now.” Dan had his hand in her hair, caressing her as he slowed down, down, down. When she rose up, she felt tears on her cheeks but had no idea how they’d gotten there. “Where are they?” she asked, pivoting to find them. And when she did, the sight resembled the car derbies. The Dodge had slewed around on a wide plane, but the centrifugal force had spun them so that the car had tipped and stood on one side. Weaving back and forth, it teetered. Dan brought their own car to a full stop. Breathing heavily and grabbing her close to him, he pressed his lips to her forehead. Cursing, he rammed the shift in reverse and drove over the rough scrub terrain toward the car. “No! No! Don’t go near them!” she shouted at Dan. “I have to know who they are, Maddie. It’s okay, baby. You’re okay. We are.” He squeezed her hand. “Dig the guns out of the glove compartment.”

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Dan drove up to the smoking auto. The two men hung at obtuse angles like limp dolls. Still. Open mouths. Comatose or dead? Dan couldn’t know but wouldn’t take any chances. The driver draped over the steering wheel. The passenger sprawled out of the rear window. Grabbing one gun, Dan told her to cover him. “No prisoners if he tries to plug me. Understand?” Dan ran up toward the car, Glock in hand. Maddie looked back toward the road. Deserted. Quiet. No man’s land. “How true,” she murmured to herself and took a two-handed aim at the Dodge. Dan leaned in, put two fingers to each man’s throat. With each pulse, he’d look toward her and shake his head. Then he reached inside, and she couldn’t understand what he was grabbing for until he pulled it out. Paper. A card. The registration? “Come on, Dan!” she yelled at him. “The car may blow any minute!” He ran like a madman and reached her just as the first flames lit the sky. “Did you get the license plate?” he asked her as they held each other and watched the car burn in a bright red ball of flame. “I did.” “Good work, Mrs. Forester. With your numbers and my registration card, let’s see if we can learn who masterminded this little escapade.”

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Chapter Eight “So what do those papers give us?” Maddie was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching Dan spread the documents out on the little round table by the window. Her heart was still racing from the car chase, the shooting and their narrow escape. “Texas Driver’s Licenses. Pretty ordinary names. Juan Gabrian and Pedro Ruiz. They both live in El Paso. But the car is registered to a Norseman Auto Dealership in Del Rio.” “Norseman?” Maddie interrupted. “That’s a pretty weird name for a dealership in South Texas.” Dan shrugged. “Maybe the family came over here from Norway years ago. I understand many European immigrants fought at the Alamo.” “That’s right. I forgot about that. Still…” Her voice trailed off. Something about this was bothering her but nothing she could identify. Maybe if she stopped thinking about it whatever it was would come to her. “But look at this.” Dan lifted a piece of paper. “It’s a crumpled pay stub made out to Gabrian that was shoved in the glove compartment. I pulled it out when I grabbed for the registration.” He stared at the documents as if he expected one of them to suddenly send him a message. “Who paid him?” Dan smoothed the paper. Squinted at the sheet, then stared at her. “Del Rio Gun Auctions, Incorporated.” Maddie slapped a hand to her chest. “Do you think that such a company could get permits for illegal weapons?”

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“Hell, honey. Smugglers wouldn’t need permits for the weapons. But a place like this could make it easier to get a shipment like that across the border.” “So if that’s true, then we still need to connect them to the Border Patrol. But how?” Dan swept the papers into a neat pile. “Not sure yet. It’s obvious that the guns are coming across in trucks, then being offloaded onto railroad cars where they can make their way to anywhere in this country.” “There has to be someone in the Border Patrol connected to this or the smugglers couldn’t make it work,” Maddie pointed out. “You’re right. Someone has to keep their eyes and ears shut when the trucks come through and offload to stock cars. Crews have to show up to offload the weapons. It’s nothing you can easily miss.” “We need Nikki’s resources to help us trace these men. Find out if they have any priors,” she offered. She caught Dan scowling. “What bothers you?” “Ordinarily, I could ask my Control to do a trace. A simple thing to do to call up the FBI files and our own.” Those green eyes were dark with worry. “But I can’t.” “Because?” He ran a hand through his hair and paced around the room. “The fact that the FBI was in my apartment when you went there the other day means someone tipped them off to come looking for me. And I’m not sure why. Can’t figure out what I did or didn’t do that could trigger a search like that. Unless my Control has had a crisis of conscience—and I missed the signs.” Dan faced her. “I can’t take the chance to give her a bead on us.” Maddie rose from the bed and took both his hands. “Sound thinking. Let’s give Nikki all this data about these two thugs. She’ll trace them, their families and friends and where else they worked. Learn more about Del Rio Gun Auctions, too. To find a link here.”

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“And we need it soon,” Dan agreed. “Whoever sent those guys after us will come looking when they don’t report in. I’m guessing whoever’s in charge can track us to this dude ranch. We need to get out of here.” “I’ll call Nikki,” Maddie told him. “She’ll help us figure a way to ditch the car and get back to her place.” Her call to Nicole was brief but productive. When she hung up she felt a little of the tension drain away. She stood up and unbuttoned her blouse. “Okay. She’s on it. She’ll call back in about thirty minutes. Meanwhile I’m taking a shower. I think I’ve smelled like a horse long enough.” “Me, too.” Dan shoved the papers into the pocket of his blazer hanging on the back of his chair, then double-locked the door and braced the back of a chair against the knob. He turned and grinned at Maddie. “Save water, shower with a friend is my motto.” “We actually do need to shower,” she teased him. “We’re on a time limit.” “I can be the fastest man in the state of Texas.” He skimmed out of his slacks and boxers and headed for the bathroom. “If you say so.” Maddie tossed her clothes onto the bed and followed him. “The water’s just right,” Dan told her, helping her into the tub that served as a shower, too. “And look.” He held up a small bottle. “Your favorite shower gel.” Maddie sighed as the hot water sluiced over muscles knotted from the horseback ride and the tension of the car chase. As Dan’s fingers, coated with lather, skillfully rubbed her shoulders and her neck, he bent his head to nibble at her earlobe at the same time. “Feel good?” he wanted to know. “Mmm,” she hummed, giving herself up to the sensations dancing through her. “Better than good.”

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His hands worked down her back, kneaded in a hypnotic rhythm that almost made her forget where they were. When he reached the slope of her buttocks he traced the line of the globes, following the curve where they joined her thighs, then lightly skipping a finger through the cleft. Maddie shivered, her pussy quaking as it always did when Dan aroused her. Small sounds of pleasure hummed in the back of her throat. “You are just so responsive,” Dan murmured, nibbling on her ear again. “God, it’s like touching fire.” He stroked his fingers up and down the cleft of her ass, letting the tip of one just circle that hot, tight ring before sliding down again and then up. Up and down, around and around, the radiating sensations gripping her in a mesmerizing fog. When he turned her around she was so boneless he had to prop her against the tiled wall. His skillful fingers worked lather into her breasts, cupping them and rubbing his thumbs back and forth against her diamond-hard nipples. She didn’t remember ever having a lover who was as clever with his hands as Dan Foreman. He plucked at her nipples and pulled at them, pinching slightly to elicit just enough pain to enhance the pleasure. “Maddie.” His voice was rough with passion. He took one of her hands and placed it on his cock. “Feel what you do to me. I can’t seem to touch you without getting harder than a spike.” She thrilled as she wrapped her fingers around his hot, thick length, feeling the vein that ran along the underside pulse against her touch. A small gasp burst from her as she squeezed it gently, doing her best to focus as Dan continued to play her body like a finely tuned instrument. His hands slipped down her rib cage to the slight rounding of her tummy, making circular motions as he rubbed the scented lather into her skin. “Yess,” she hissed, as one soap-slicked finger trailed through her slit and found its way to the opening of her cunt. With each glide in and out, she moved her hand on his shaft in the same tempo. 74

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“That’s it, Maddie. Stroke me. Feel me swell in your hand.” Without missing a beat in the movement of his fingers he leaned his head close to her again. “Do you like to touch my cock, baby? Wrap your fingers around it? I can’t wait to put it in that delicious cunt of yours.” Maddie could do little more than moan as his first finger was joined by a second and then a third, pumping in and out of her, his thumb rasping her pulsing clit. She tightened her grip on his erection, automatically increasing her pace as Dan increased his. “Wait.” He pulled his hand from the grasp of her internal muscles. “Condom. Don’t move.” She could barely breathe as he stepped out of the shower, soaking wet. In seconds he was back, already rolling the condom onto his cock. He slid his hands beneath her buttocks and lifted her, draping her legs over his arms. “Help me, Maddie,” he growled. “Show me the way home.” Maddie reached for him and positioned the head of his cock at the entrance to her pussy. “Do it,” she gasped, leaning back against the tiled wall for support. Gripping her tighter he drove home with one strong thrust, slamming into her with such forces she had to grip his arms for support. Their soap-slicked bodies slid against each other as he hammered into her over and over. He held her at just the right angle so with each thrust forward he rubbed against her clit. Spears of heat shot through her until the only thing she could focus on was that point where they were joined. “Now, baby,” he growled. “Come for me now.” “Yes,” she cried. “Now. Now.” One final plunge of his hips and he took her over the edge. His cocked pulsed inside her as her hungry pussy clenched him over and over again and her hot liquid bathed him. His lean fingers dug into her slick bottom as they rode the crest of the

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orgasm together. Maddie shook with the force of it, her entire being centered on the clutching tremors in her cunt, and the thick, heavy cock filling her. The water had turned cool by the time the last aftershock trembled through their bodies and Dan slowly lowered her feet to the bottom of the tub. Maddie leaned forward against him, unable to release her grip on his arms, her breathing still choppy, her heart thudding erratically. Dan smoothed her wet hair with a shaky hand. “We might kill ourselves, baby,” he said in an uneven voice, “but we’ll sure have a good time doing it.” In response she licked his nipple, smiling at the shudder that ran through him. “Mm-hmm. But right now I think we’d better get dressed. Nikki will be calling any minute.” He turned off the water and reached past the shower curtain for two towels. “And we need to haul ass before someone shows up here looking for us.” He brushed a kiss against her lips. “But don’t forget where we were.”

***** Dan sipped at his coffee and studied Nikki Welles. Once again they were sitting in her spacious Hill Country kitchen, exploring the snake pit they found themselves in and looking for answers. Once more Nikki had whisked them from danger. Once more, he felt stymied. Once more, he was grateful to her. As per her instructions, Dan had driven Maddie and himself to a convenience store in the center of the small town where the dude ranch was located. They’d parked at the side where a black sedan waited for them, engine purring. Fifteen minutes later, the driver had taken them to a barren field in the middle of a high desert plain where again a helicopter lifted them to safety. “How did the CIA ever miss you and your talents?” He wanted to know now. Nikki laughed. “They couldn’t pay me enough to work for them.” She winked. “No offense intended.” 76

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“I guess none taken,” he answered with a rueful grin. “But we sure could use you.” “Ever think about coming to work in the private sector?” She slid her glance to Maddie. “Both of you?” Dan shook his head. If we live long enough.

Nikki’s voice was casual but Maddie got a tight feeling in her stomach. Nikki didn’t throw questions like that around casually. Was she really serious? Would Dan take the bait? Would she? It would be a much more radical change for her than for Dan, but it would be interesting to consider. Worry about that later. Right now you have to get out of the trouble you’re in. She cleared her throat, ready to change the subject. “Were you able to find out anything about the auto dealership in Del Rio? Or the two men whose names we gave you?” “Let’s back up a little.” Nikki pulled her minicomputer out of her pocket and tapped it with the stylus. “You know there have to be big payoffs to get those trucks over the border to the train tracks.” Dan nodded. “No surprise there. It’s just a matter of figuring out who’s taking the money and who’s paying for the services.” Maddie gave an unladylike snort. “I have a good candidate to suggest.” “I agree,” Dan said. “But this seems too big a project for just one man to organize. You’ve got all the logistics of crews to deal with the merchandise and access to rolling stock to bring it to that spur to begin with.” Nikki looked from Maddie to Dan and back again. “Absolutely. This is really high up on the food chain. High enough to mount a massive operation and high enough to put Dan in this kind of frame up.” “That person is in D.C.,” Dan commented. “They had to have access to my computer to plant a file on it, and the power to sic the government on me.”

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The tightness in Maddie’s stomach morphed into a big knot. “We’re almost in a nowin situation here. We don’t have the depth of organization to battle a crime that’s getting bigger and bigger. The only way out of danger for us is to take it down.” “You have at your disposal all the resources of Nemesis,” Nicole assured them. “You know that.” She looked at Dan. “And trust me. They’re a lot more extensive than you might think.” She tapped her little screen again. “So let’s see what else we’ve got here. Those two idiots who chased you? You are right, Gabrian did work for that gun auction house for a few months. But he and his buddy work regularly—or did—as mechanics for Norseman Auto Dealership. So you can bet the owner, whoever it is, is in it up to his neck.” “What do you mean, whoever it is?” Dan asked. “Couldn’t you learn his name?” Nikki shook her head. “We’re working on it. The dealership is owned by a holding company so there are a lot of layers to this, another suspicious factor. But here’s something you can chew on.” Her lips curved in a wicked grin. “That same holding company owns another one. Norseman Import-Export in Galveston.” Maddie lifted an eyebrow. “Same name as car dealership. Same owner?” “From what we can find so far, it seems that way. I’ve still got my people working on learning who owns the holding company.” “What do they import?” Dan wanted to know. “Textiles.” Dan had picked up his mug again, and he stopped with it partway to his mouth. “Excuse me?” “You heard me. They import bolts of cloth made in factories in Mexico. This they then sell to manufacturers in this country who can put labels on the garments that say ‘Made in the USA’ even though the fabric comes from Mexico.” “Well, shit.” Dan drained his mug and got up to refill it. “This is someone who has enough money and brains to run an operation as complicated as this. To get railroad

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cars down to that clearing to meet the trucks in the desert. To import fabric and ship it over the States? It’s easy enough to hide weapons in crates of fabric.” “This has to go higher than a local importer,” Nikki pointed out. “Like I said, the operation’s going to turn out to be massive.” “Okay.” Maddie got up to refill her own mug. “So weapons are smuggled into this country in crates of fabric, with bribes paid to Border Patrolmen at the crossing. Then loaded onto railroad cars and sent…wherever. They don’t even have to go to the import-export shop first before distribution. The network’s already in place.” “And then,” Dan went on, “the guns are given away to like-minded friends.” Maddie nodded. “Or sold to terrorist groups or whoever well under the radar.” “Guys.” Nikki set her little gadget down on the table and folded her arms. “I’d say we’re still not thinking big enough. You caught the news bulletin about the president and vice president falling ill at a private luncheon, right?” Dan nodded. “We saw the report before we left the dude ranch.” “The president is in critical condition. He’s been so ill the past few months from his heart attack. The vice president seems a little better, but he’s got a bad ticker, too. And if they both die, I ask you, Maddie, who’s next in line?” The knot in her stomach morphed into a ball of lead. “Trask,” she whispered. “Nikki, you think he’s involved with this? How could he be? I mean from what we heard the president and vice president suffered from an intestinal bug. Salmonella or— ” She saw the skepticism on Nikki’s and Dan’s faces. “That’s a tall order to have someone in the White House kitchens purposely put a toxin in the president’s meal. Why would you think that’s possible?” Nikki shrugged. “We don’t have tasters like kings did in the Middle Ages. So what’s possible might not be probable.” “Or provable,” Dan pointed out.

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Nikki agreed. “I’m just saying we can’t overlook any possibility. But if what we’ve learned about the importing of weapons is true, then it would certainly make sense to have someone in Trask’s position pulling the strings. And cutting red tape.” “But why?” Maddie frowned, torn between defending a man she’d worked for and trusted—and suddenly knowing him capable of such a heinous crime. To gain more power. “What does he get out of it?” “A takeover of the government,” Dan said in a flat voice. “What?” She seemed deaf and blind to the logic. “Maddie, remember what we talked about at your house?” Dan reminded her. “About the papers retrieved from the trucks that burned?” She nodded. “Okay. What if all these weapons aren’t just going to a bunch of different groups, but a well-organized private militia that will be part of a treasonous takeover of the government?” Maddie’s jaw dropped. “But that doesn’t happen here. Not ever. We have safeguards for something like that. The FBI on the job. The CIA looking at international criminals.” Dan grunted. “Not if the people manning the safeguards are the ones planning the takeover. And you just acknowledged that if the president and vice president are out of the picture, Trask will be in the driver’s seat.” “And if he is,” she shot back, “then there is no reason for him to be heading a takeover. He’ll be the president.” She let her eyes close, calm reason return. “None of this is proof of Trask’s involvement. We need to follow the facts. Who owns this holding company? Who is this Norseman?” “I will continue to have my staff check that out.” Nikki promised.

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Maddie rubbed her temples. “Wait, wait, wait. I know what I can do. If there’s any rumble of this at all, no matter how secretive, my father would know about it. Let me call him and sound him out.” Dan’s fingers closed over her wrist. “Be very careful what you say to him, baby. You can’t let him think you have any information or even suspicions.” “Don’t worry. I don’t exactly have intimate conversations with him. And of course, this is assuming that new bitch he hired as a gatekeeper even lets me through to talk to him.” She hadn’t told Dan about her estranged and contentious relationship with her father but Nikki knew all about it. “All right.” Nikki rose gracefully from her chair. “Let me go to my home office here and connect with my team in San Antonio. They’ve been trying to unravel the Norseman ownership and also see what they could find out about rogue railroad cars. Maddie, go ahead and call your father but be very cautious. We don’t want to give away the candy store, but we don’t want to be too late to save it from attack, either.” She looked at Dan. “And I know you’re chomping at the bit to do something, but under the circumstances you have to keep a low profile.” “I know, I know. But I’ve got to do something pretty soon or I’ll go crazy.” “You can hold Maddie’s hand while she talks to that asshole, Arthur Sommers. Then come on to my office upstairs and we’ll see what we’ve come up with. I have a feeling we may be running out of time.”

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Chapter Nine “Hi, Dad. I need to talk to you.” Maddie paused while static cut into their conversation. “Madison?” Her father’s voice sounded gruff, as if he’d not had enough sleep last night. “To what do I owe the honor?” Sunshine and roses was not what she expected of him, but tart nastiness was not on her list of paternal qualities she savored either. She gazed into Dan’s eyes and got past an inkling of her father’s suspicion of why she called. She had no time for a lot of games. “I’m concerned. I heard the news about the president and the vice president.” “Yes, well. The president is the one we’re all worried about.” “I know. I needed more information. I tried to get through to Trask, but the phone lines are so jammed, it was impossible. I knew you’d know the latest on the medical bulletins.” “Where are you again?” “Cancun.” “Right. Mexico. This your cell phone, you’re calling from?” “It is, yes. How is the vice president? Still getting better?” “Not really.” “No!” She grabbed Dan’s hand and squeezed. “Tell me.” “The White House has put that out about him to calm everyone’s fears. We’ve lost presidents from sickness or assassination, but never both executives at the same time.” “Are both of them in such serious condition?”

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“Yes, they are, Madison. My advice? Whether you can get hold of Trask or not, just put your ass on the next plane up here, because Trask is going to need you. No matter what happens.” “Thank you. I will.” Her father hung up without saying goodbye. “How did I do?” Her voice quavered as she stared at Dan. “Wonderful.” He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I got the gist. The VP is in serious condition, too. The White House press secretary is feeding us a line of bull to stave off panic. Damn it all! Why not treat us like adults, tell us the truth!” Nikki appeared in the doorway, one shoulder against the jam, arms crossed. “I got the drift, too. This is not good.” She bit her lower lip and looked at the floor. “And what I have to tell you is worse.” Dan nodded. “Shoot.” “Norseman Holding is owned by two men. One we all know and love. Jack Starling.” “Starling,” Dan said the name with less awe than most did. “Winged Media Enterprises. Nice little business to own. With controlling interests in three big city newspapers, a new cable station, hundreds of radio stations and a major movie studio in Hollywood and London.” “Media. Right. Useful to have a man like that on your side if you’re interested in taking over a country by hook or by crook, isn’t it?” Maddie conjectured, taking in Dan’s and Nikki’s looks of surprise that she might be seeing things their way about Trask’s aspirations. “Who’s the other owner, Nikki?” “Tomas Barberos.” Maddie winced. “The Greek international shipping mogul from hell. Will cut your profits and your throat if you become his competitor.” Barberos. A very good friend of the Speaker’s. Since they had gone to Cambridge together in England. But during the

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past two years, she noted now with a start, she had often seen them together, heads close, voices low and discreet. Thick as thieves were the words she often used to describe their body language. Maddie had often wondered if Trask had gotten his buddy Barberos to donate to his campaigns. Illegal to have a foreigner contribute, but so what? There were ways to hide such sums. But she had never asked. Not her purview. Trask had never intimated anything of the sort. He didn’t have to. By practice and law, a Congressman’s campaign funding was separate from his staff’s reach. She had never seen the campaign records. Never asked. But she could try. “What are you cooking up?” Dan asked with caution in his green eyes. “Whatever it is, I don’t like it.” She squeezed his hand. “Yes, you do.” She glanced up at Nikki. “For once in my life, I’m going to follow my father’s advice. I’ll make an attempt to go to hook up with Trask. I’m calling his regional office here in south Texas. Someone there must know where he is. Especially with the president and vice president in such bad health.” “Better get your story straight before you dial the number. Spin it for me, honey. Why are you calling around to find Trask?” Dan asked. “I’m flying in from Cancun, you see. To help. To be by his side at this critical time. Offer my expertise at a time when half his staff in Washington is out on vacation. Of course, I also will have access to his networked computer. His calendar, his appointments—and all of this is linked to his Capitol office. And there, I know, is a list of donors to his campaigns.” She beamed. Nikki smiled back. “You think Starling is one?” “Could be. Money from Barberos would be harder to track. Either way, I have to go into Trask’s computer system to see if I can find any trace of treason.” Dan shook his head. “Aside from the fact that this is dangerous, I don’t know that donations from either man prove any complicity in what we’re talking about here.”

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“True,” Maddie said. “We need more. Damn,” she murmured, “we always need more.” “But it’s a start,” Nikki agreed. “I still don’t like it,” Dan barked. “I’m going with you.” “You can’t!” Maddie put him off. He raised his hand, his face stern. “One,” he said and raised a finger, “you might know Krav Maga, but you clutch with a gun in your hand. I don’t. Two,” he ticked off and raised a second finger, “if you are discovered mid-search, you can’t call for back up. I can. Three, if you get in there and Trask is there, you won’t be able to access anything while he’s there. And four—” “I’ll be quick!” “Quick?” he asked as if she had rocks in her head. “And dead,” Nikki inserted. “No!” Maddie slammed her hand down. “When I last saw Trask, I was telling him how you had disappeared, Dan. If I show up and you’re with me, Trask will pepper you with questions. And none of them will be easy to answer. Soon you’ll find yourself telling him your real profession—and that won’t be pretty for any of us.” “Fine. I’ll stay outside. You’ll wear a wire. Nikki, can you get us a wire, pronto?” “Absolutely. Anything else?” “A camera. Small, hi res.” Nikki snorted. “I have a dandy little creature we designed for a woman. A diamond-studded Patek.” “That’ll do.” Dan rose from his chair and stalked Maddie. “I get the wire, but—”- She didn’t know whether to thank them or laugh first. “What do I need a camera for?” “In case you can’t copy or transfer files. Does the camera take pictures of computer screens, Nikki?” 85

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“Check.” “Meanwhile,” Dan murmured as he gathered Maddie up in his arms, “Nikki is putting me at the head of her team that goes with us. Aren’t you, Nick?” “Roger that, Foreman,” Nikki replied with laughter in her voice. “So, then, Madison Sommers,” Dan crooned, “if you think I am letting you go anywhere alone after what we know about how ruthless the people running this operation are, then you don’t know me at all.” “And that,” Nikki said, turning on her heel, “is my exit cue.” “I’ll chain you to me before I would let you go alone to find Trask.” Dan bristled with determination as he crushed Maddie closer. She pressed her lips to his throat. Pleased he wouldn’t take no for an answer, proud he wanted to protect her that badly, she whispered, “If I said I’d be happy to have you accompany me tomorrow, provided you stayed in the background, would you chain me to you anyway?” He snorted, then kissed her heartily on the mouth. “What do you think?” “Dunno. Wanna show me?”

***** Maddie had been to Trask’s regional office in the Del Rio area only twice before, but she knew each one on the small staff of three. With a rental car that Dan had told Nikki to acquire from a Houston agency near Bush Intercontinental, Maddie drove into the parking lot of the Federal Building and parked. Across the street, she saw a black sedan already in place. There, she knew, Dan waited alone. Nikki’s team of four commandos stood in readiness at four points around the building. Each of them had a feed from her wire. Each was armed. And dangerous. Breathing deeply, she climbed out of the car and headed for the building.

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“No need to say anything to us,” Dan had instructed her as he secured the small microphone into her bra. “We’ll see you or we’ll hear you. And we will hear whoever talks to you.” He had patted her wrist where Nikki’s camera watch fit her snuggly. Marching into the building, Maddie noted that things seemed quiet. More quiet than they should be if Trask were here. Is he? She sailed through the hallway, past the picture of President George Hamill smiling down at her. Hey, George. Get better, will you? He hadn’t. In fact, bulletins this morning said he had slipped into a deeper coma. He had no responses to nerve stimuli now. The vice president, said the news channels, had improved. She didn’t know whether to believe that or not. But she did know one thing and that was that Speaker of the House Paul Trask was still not answering her calls. She told herself he was incognito because the Secret Service would want it that way—but she knew her boss might have used his own private bodyguards to disappear. That was a Houdini act he’d pulled before, employing four full-time men to clear his paths. True, he had always excused his absences by telling her his actions were top secret, but now putting this all together with her new suspicions, she had fewer reasons to trust every word he said. “Hello, Flora,” she bade the receptionist as she stepped into the Congressional office. She thrust her hand out to shake Flora’s. The middle--aged, dark--haired woman blinked at her. “Miss Sommers? What are you doing here?” Sweeping aside the answer to that with a wave of her hand, she announced, “I’ve been trying to reach the Speaker, Flora. I must talk to him. Where is he?” Fright made Flora’s eyes grow darker. “He was here yesterday. The Secret Service, too. It’s scary, isn’t it, to think both the president and vice president could go, just like that?” She snapped her fingers. Flora had always been long on empathy, short on logic. Maddie threw her a tolerant smile. “Who else is here? John? Lupe?” She mentioned the other two regional legislative aides who took care of Trask’s constituents’ problems 87

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with land rights, taxes, appointments to the service academies, passports and a thousand other things. “Both out. The Speaker took them with him.” That alarmed Maddie. Why would Trask take his aides with him? “He had tasks for them?” She had no idea what that might be, unless… “Si. He told them he needed them to help me organize an event.” “What event?” “A meeting.” The woman shrugged. “Where? With whom?” “Oh, you know how he does that. Up in Midland or Alpine usually. But this time, I think he said Big Bend.” “Big Bend?” Out in the middle of nowhere? Rocks and hills that dinosaurs once roamed. A barren, ugly landscape of craggy mountains, desolate valleys filled with cougars, snakes and scorpions the size of your fist. “Why the hell would they go deeper into the wilderness when we have a crisis in the line of succession?” “I know. I know. But I can’t tell you anything more than what they told me!” Maddie put a hand to the shoulder of the distressed woman. “It’s okay, Flora. I hear you. Well, then, I just need to do a few things here. Talk to people in the Speaker’s office in the Capitol and send them some things via email. Some of them are sensitive material, Flora. So I’ll just let myself into the Speakers Office.” “Sure. I’ll get the key.” Flora pulled open her desk drawer and extracted a ring filled with them. “My lord, Flora. What the hell are all those for?” She grinned. “Lots of security. The Speaker has increased it over the years to the point where he told me to carry these with me all the time.” She jiggled the metal pieces ’til they rang like chimes.

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“Good thing you are always on the job.” Maddie tried to smile. Good thing you were here to let me in. Flora led the way past two more desks piled high with paperwork toward the back of the suite and the Speaker’s private office. “Si, good thing, too, because you could not open his computer without my key.” Is that so? Since when did Trask lock up his private computer here? Weren’t the encrypted systems imposed since 9/11 enough to deter criminals and terrorists? Or did Trask have files here he wanted no one to see? “Here you go.” Flora swung open the door and marched to the desk and the computer standing there. The screen was dark. “Unlock that for me, please, Flora.” “Si, no problemo.” In a minute she had turned the key, pushed the boot button to the mainframe and made her way toward the door. “I will close this, si?” “Si, muchas gracias, Flora.” Then Maddie pulled out Trask’s chair and sat down to delve into the files of a man she had worked for, trusted and on whose integrity she had built her entire professional career. The usual files were there. Committee reports. Voting records of all Congresspersons in their party. White Papers from consultants. Including Dan’s latest on transportation issues, rolling stock coming through Trask’s district from Mexico and where it all originated. Maddie fell back in the chair and exhaled. She looked up at the clock on the far wall. She’d been at this for over an hour. “Nothing,” she said for the sake of Dan and the team. “Can’t find anything in the regular files.”

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She decided to see who was in the Capitol office this morning and picked up the phone on Trask’s desk. But no sooner was it in her hand than she put it back in the cradle. Her gaze came up. Fastened on the far wall. The pictures of Trask with President Hamill. With the previous Speaker. With other Texas Congressmen. Her gaze ran over the plaques, too. The awards from the Chambers of Commerce. The Man of the Year Awards from this organization or that. The Cattlemen’s Association Award for Good Citizenship. And then her eyes landed on the one plaque she remembered. The one that had dogged her memory. Kept her guessing what the nagging sensation was at the back of her brain whenever the term Norseman was mentioned. She rose and walked toward it. Put her hands up and touched it. Traced the words. “The Sons of Norway of Texas honor Congressman Paul Trask for his service to the Chapter.” Trask was a Norse name. Trask was a Norse man. “Trask,” she said for the edification and enjoyment of her lover and the team of people with whom she would now work, if she had the good fortune to survive this debacle, “is a Norseman.” And just for the record, just to engrave the knowledge on her mind, just to embed the full rage she felt at Trask’s betrayal of himself and their country, she repeated what she’d just told them all. Then she raised her wrist and pushed the button on her amazing little watch to take a picture of the plaque. “And now I have to find anything else I can that gives me more proof.”

***** Within the next hour, she had talked to Julia in the office in Washington. All hands still in town were on deck in the Speaker’s office, the receptionist reported. “Glad you are back from Cancun,” Julia told her.

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“My presence means nothing if I don’t know where Trask is, Julia.” Maddie wondered if the woman knew where Paul was. Over the years, she’d had the intense feeling in odd moments that Julia was more involved in Trask’s life than any of them knew or understood. Now was the time to explore all such instincts. “I need to get to him. If you know where I can find him, you must tell me.” “He told me not to say…” the receptionist sounded conflicted. “Tell me, Julia. The man is next in line to succeed. He cannot stay bundled away somewhere. Not without me!” “Carstairs’ Ranch. Rick Carstairs.” “Here? West of Del Rio?” Maddie knew this rancher. He owned the largest spread in Trask’s district. On the edges of Big Bend. He was also a major contributor whom Maddie had met many times when he came to talk with Trask in Washington. “Yes, he said he’s having a meeting there of supporters.” “When, Julia?” “Today. In fact…it starts in twenty minutes.” “Great! Thanks! But, wait! How do I get there?” “The ranch is off Route 10. I’ll send you directions. Or wait, you are at Paul’s computer?” Paul’s computer. Intriguing. “Yes, I am, Julia.” “I always get directions wrong, you know I do. I know Paul—the Speaker, I mean, has directions on his desktop.” Maddie searched the screen. “I don’t think so.” “Oh, try this. Log off. Then do you see a username that says PT?” “The Speaker’s initials?” Maddie backed out and saw an icon for PT. “I do.” “Open it.” Maddie did and got a security screen. Damn, damn. “Do you have the password?” “Viking.”

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“Viking as in Norseman?” Maddie frowned, her gaze drifting up to the Sons of Norway plaque, then typed in the password. “It’s opening.” “Great!” What was greater was the variety of items spread before Maddie on the screen. She fell back in her chair, overwhelmed with the wealth of materials. File folders labeled Donors, Scheduling, Network. Opening just the Donors folder was like opening an ant hill with dozens of more folders. She could never copy them all. On gut instinct, she opened Scheduling and found one titled, Norsemen. A hundred or more documents stood before her. Invoices. Lists of shipments. She opened Network and found a document that was a copy of an email from Trask to someone whose email address was fisherman2. The email was dated yesterday. She skimmed it and she caught her breath. Then she read aloud to Dan the words on the page. “Rover and Charger are down. Next stage is a go.” Rover, she knew, was the Secret Service’s code name for the president. And Charger belonged to none other than the vice president. She snapped a picture of the email and felt her heart hammer against her ribs. That was proof Trask had a network that cared about Rover and Charger’s illnesses and had a next stage of some plan he was approving for implementation. There were so many more documents to read and copy. God, she would be here for days. She had to find a flash drive. Quickly. She began to rummage in Trask’s drawers. Clamping a hand to her mouth, she paused. “There’s too much here to copy,” she said to herself and Dan. “I don’t have time! The meeting is in twenty minutes.” She closed her eyes. Stop. Think.

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She heard voices in the outer office. She cocked an ear. One of them was a bass, another a baritone and the third? She jumped to her feet. Froze. If this was Trask…. It couldn’t be! Dan? Help me.

***** Dan ran a hand through his hair. Christ! They’d caught a few breaks and they were still behind the eight ball! Too many files to copy. Not enough proof to convict. But at least now they knew that Trask was behind the Norseman holding company along with his pals. Terrific. Now, we have no idea who’s in this meeting. Dan had left the car and now kneeled down behind a berm near a cluster of yuccas and palms across from the building where Trask’s office was. “Did you get all that, Caleb?” he asked the team leader. “I did. What’s more I’ve got the directions to Carstairs’ ranch,” Caleb’s bass voice came at him through the wireless. He read the directions to Dan who repeated them back to him. “I’ll take the team of over there and set up posts. I think that’s our best bet—to get ahead of them. You follow her, Dan, when she comes out.” “Roger, that, Caleb.” And to Maddie whom he knew could not hear him, he whispered, “Come on, baby. Snap a few pics and get the hell out of there.” He heard a rustling in the trees to the left. “Whoa. Caleb? You there? I think we have company.” He began to crawl on his belly toward the cover of the largest yucca. He saw a camo boot, heard a scurry and felt the thump of impact in the fleshy part of his triceps. “Who the hell?”

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Chapter Ten “Maddie, you just can’t keep your nose out of everyone’s business, can you?” Trask’s voice was edgy with anger as he dragged Maddie out the back entrance of his office, into the elevator. “Good thing my office is semi-soundproofed. We won’t disturb any of the nice folks out in front.” He punched the button for the parking garage. His hand over her mouth muffled her cries while his other arm banded her arms to her sides. Dan! Where the hell are you? You promised you’d be here for me. Did you run out again? Are you going to turn out, in the end, to be someone I can’t count on? She heard Trask speaking in a low tone, as if into a lapel mic, and then the elevator door opened and Goliath was standing there—a tall, heavily muscled man in camo pants and t-shirt with a holster strapped to his shoulder. “Here.” Trask shoved Maddie at him. “Get rid of her. I’ve got to see what damage she did and then get to the Carstairs Ranch. And let Starling know what happened here. Damn it, anyway.” He turned his head toward his collar. “Mike, come on back here. I’ll need you.” If Maddie had thought Trask was strong, the man he handed her over to was off the charts. His arm around her was so tight she could hardly breathe and his thick fingers dug into her face as they clamped over her lips. “I’ll take care of it,” he assured Trask. “Here’s Mike. But he looks disturbed about something.” Dan! Oh, Dan. Now would be a good time for you to restore my faith in you. Why hadn’t Dan or any of Nikki’s men picked up Trask’s arrival? They probably did but thought he was alone because the windows in his car were darkened. Or he and his pals had been in the building already. 94

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Maddie’s mind was working furiously as she tried to figure out where everyone might be, what had happened to Dan and where Nikki’s men had gotten to. Taking the ride down to the parking level of the building was a descent to hell with this creep crushing her ribs and killing her hopes. She heard Trask raise his voice to the man jogging toward them but the man holding her dragged her toward a black SUV and threw her roughly into the front seat, then down on the floor. She tried to scramble up and opened her mouth to scream but Goliath just clipped her on the jaw. “Shut up.” Her head jerked, her mind spun and she realized what people meant when they said they saw stars. She cupped her jaw, forehead to the seat. Then she heard the engine start up and they were moving, heading up, around and out of the garage. She swallowed back the rising nausea and tried to hitch herself up on the seat. The windows were darkened but she saw daylight as they headed out of the garage toward the street. Suddenly the vehicle skewed wildly and Goliath swore creatively as he wrestled with the wheel. The car jolted again and they fishtailed more. “Son of a bitch.” He looked down at Maddie. “You open your mouth and you’re dead meat.” He opened the door and climbed out. Maddie clawed her way up to watch him as he walked around to the front of the vehicle to see what was wrong. “Damn it,” Goliath shouted, just before a tall dark shadow clipped him behind his ear and he folded neatly to the concrete. Maddie gasped at the sight. Reached for the door handle. “Come on, Maddie!” Dan was suddenly there, yanking open the passenger door and towing her across the street to his car. “We need to get the fuck out of here.” She scrambled into the front seat and opened her mouth to ask him where the hell he’d been and why he’d hung her out to dry. But her jaw still hurt from where Goliath

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had hit her and her stomach still wanted to bring up its contents. So it took her a minute, fumbling with her seat belt and trying to string words together to take a good look at Dan as he climbed in behind the wheel and realized he had blood on his right hand. “My god!” she cried. “You’re hurt. Where? How?” That’s why he didn’t show up when I needed him. I should learn to have more faith. “Where are you hurt?” “Left arm.” He winced. “I think it’s a through and through. Good thing it’s not my shooting arm. “Got blood on my hand putting pressure on the wound. I’ll live.” But the words slid out between gritted teeth as he started the car and pulled away from the curb. “I think I’m angrier at my own stupidity than anything else. My stupidity almost got us both killed.” “You’re shot? Holy hell, Dan. What happened?” “Too many things for people supposed to be professionals in this game. We didn’t cop to the fact that Trask wasn’t alone because we couldn’t figure out what his MO was.” He made a sound of disgust. “You’d think seasoned agents would be a lot smarter. Then I let Caleb take the team and head for Carstairs’ ranch because I thought I could handle Trask.” “I was scared to death when he grabbed me,” she told him. “I’ve never seen him like this.” “When you want to be president it changes your personality.” They were out of town now and on the highway. “Anyway, I was trying to get closer to the building when one of his thugs spotted me and took a shot. I’m lucky it only hit my arm. I pretended I was out cold so I could see what happened next.” “That must be what the guy named Mike was telling Trask about when the car I was in headed out of the garage.”

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“Well, we’re going to be well and truly screwed if we don’t get on top of this. That meeting he’s headed toward is probably to put final plans on the takeover of the government.” He stifled a groan. “Grab my cell off my waist and call Nikki. Make sure she’s up to speed on everything. I think Caleb’s probably got whatever equipment we need in his SUV.” “But your arm,” she protested. “I’ll have to take care of it later. I’ve had worse and lived.” They were barreling down the highway now, through the desolate stretches of West Texas where the beauty of nature was your only companion. Maddie’s headache had settled down to a dull throb but she was concerned about Dan. “So what’s the plan?” she finally asked. “Caleb should be at the Carstairs’ ranch shortly and will set up a perimeter. I’m going to assume that in all the gear he carries, besides weapons he’s got a good camera and a parabolic mic with a recorder. We need to get photos of the people there and eavesdrop on their conversations.” He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Can you drive?” Maddie’s stomach was churning and not just from the effects of the blow she’d received. “Let’s switch places.” “I’ve got it.” He spat the words out, his voice tinged with pain. “We should be there soon. Look for the turnoff Caleb told me about.” In another mile Maddie saw it and gave Dan enough notice to turn. They’d gone about a half mile when the landscape changed from flat and open to flat and wooded. “I think I’ve seen pictures of this place,” Maddie said. “The house has got to be beyond these trees. I guess the cattle are way past that.” “I can’t worry about his damn cows now unless they get in our way.” He found an opening in the trees just before a high iron gate, wide enough to jerk the car off the driveway and shut off the engine. He depressed the button on his throat mic. “Caleb? You there?”

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“Yes,” came the whisper. “About a hundred yards from the house. Be sure to stay out of sight. Folks have just finished arriving and you don’t want to get caught.” We’ve got the parab in place. Holy hell, Dan. There’s some serious shit going down here. Do you know what they’re planning?” “They are. And I do.” Dan turned to Maddie. “We’re going to try and get a little closer. I want Maddie to see who she can identify on the guest list.” “Okay. Just be careful. And watch the barbed wire getting in.” “Something I’m apparently not very good at,” Dan muttered. He reached into the glove box and pulled out two more mags of ammo and a pair of leather gloves. “Maddie, I’d leave you here if I had the choice, but I do need your eyes. So, out of the car, quietly. We need to hide ourselves.” When they were safely away from the car and hidden in a thicket of trees and tall underbrush he stopped. “I’m still bleeding so we need to do quick repair work.” He directed Maddie to rip the sleeve off his shirt, swallowing a groan as the movement jarred him. Following his direction she tore that in half, made a pressure bandage out of it and tied the rest of the cloth to keep it in place. Shoving the bloody debris into his pocket, he flexed his fingers. Satisfied that they moved enough for him to use them, he pulled his gun from the small of his back. “You stay behind me and don’t do a thing unless I tell you, got it?” Wordlessly she nodded. They moved down the fence line until Dan found a place he was satisfied with. Puling on the gloves, he held two strands of the sharp wire as far open as he could, waiting for Maddie to climb through carefully before following her. They moved low through the underbrush. When they reached the perimeter of the trees shielding the house she could barely stifle a gasp. Three of Trask’s major donors, including Starling, were standing on the porch, holding drinks and chatting. She recognized the chairman of the board of an international bank and the CEO of a global conglomerate, and whispered their names 98

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into the mic. Her stomach roiled as she realized exactly how powerful this organization was that was planning to put Trask in the presidency and what it could mean adversely for the country. “There’s Barberos,” she said, her voice so low she hoped her could hear her in the earpiece he was wearing. “I’d say he’s the one financing this but the others aren’t too shabby in that area, either.” “A lot of heavy coin on that porch,” Dan agreed. “We’ve definitely hit the mother lode here.” Dan touched his throat mic again and passed along the names to Caleb. “Are you guys getting the conversations?” He pulled out his earbud and held it so Maddie could listen, too. She pressed her ear close to his to keep the sound contained. “Roger that. I’d like to get closer but I think we’d be pushing our luck.” He paused. “Hold it. Are you guys well hidden?” “Yeah, why?” “Another car’s coming up the road. When the passenger gets out ask Maddie if she knows who he is. Everyone seems to be waiting for him.” “Copy that.” He passed on the message to Maddie as they hunkered down close to the ground. They could barely see the approach of the limo through the trees and foliage. At last it pulled up in front of the house, the driver ran around to open the door and a tall, thin man with a shock of brown hair climbed out. The men on the porch shook hands with him and Rick Carstairs came out of the house to personally greet the man. “Ohmigod!” Maddie put her fingers to her lips. “Do you know who that is?” Dan nodded. “Shit, yes. Evan Knowlton. CEO and major shareholder of Genesis. World’s largest software company.”

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“He designs programs for the Department of Defense.” Maddie could hardly get the words out. “And the State Department. Almost every branch of the government, Dan.” “No wonder I couldn’t keep a low profile. And that bastard probably knows where every CIA agent is every minute of every day. Hell, Maddie. If Trask takes over this country with these men behind him, we’re toast. We’ll be Europe West. And these guys will get even richer.” “Absolute power,” she agreed, and reminded him, “It corrupts absolutely.” Another thought occurred to her. “Those guns,” she said. “They must be smuggling them in to arm their own private army plus sell them to other rogue groups around the world.” “I’d say so. They have the cover to get them in and the organization to distribute them.” Caleb’s voice sounded in Dan’s earbud. “Dan, you should hear what these guys are talking about. We’ve got major cases for treason here.” Dan repeated the words to Maddie. If she’d felt sick before, the feeling was worse now. “We have to stop this,” she said in a low voice. “We can’t let those people get away with it.” “We won’t, darlin’. Trust me. We’ll take all this stuff to the right people and blow this whole thing wide open.” “But who?” she wanted to know. “Who can we even trust?” “We’ll get it to the president as soon as he’s better. Assuming he gets better, barring that the vice president. In the meantime we’ll talk to Nikki and examine some alternatives. Maybe even just take the whole thing to the media.” “Starling’s media?” She shook her head. “Fat chance.”

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“Starling may be the king but there are princes we can deal with. We’ll do it, Maddie. The first thing is to make sure we have enough evidence and then get the fuck away from here. I’m unhappy about exposing you this much as it is. I do this for a living. You don’t.” “I’m fine,” she assured him. “Scared and with a world-class headache but I’m okay.” He glanced at her and his eyes widened fractionally. “You’ve got a beaut of a bruise coming up on your face. Did that asshole Trask hit you?” She started to shake her head but when pain lanced through it, she thought better of it. “Not Trask. One of his goons. Some guy who makes Goliath look tiny.” “I’ll kill him.” Dan ground out the words. “I swear, I’ll tear the son of a bitch into little pieces.” “Later,” she told him. “After we get out of here. And I’ll help you.” “Dan?” Caleb again. “I’ve got what we need and we’d better get the hell out of here. They must be getting ready to start the meeting. Carstairs is motioning the folks to come on in and he’s telling his armed thugs to beat the bushes just in case.” “I’m surprised a guy like him doesn’t have his fence electrified or have warning sensors in place.” “Too risky with the cattle. Okay, heads up. They’re fanning out.” Dan began to back away slowly, one hand holding his gun, the other gripping Maddie’s hand. They crab-walked backward, keeping their eyes on the area around them, ears tuned for the slightest sound of anyone approaching them. She hoped Caleb and his team were making their own way to safety. Then a shout broke the stillness and the crack of a shot. “Hell,” Dan muttered. “They must have been spotted.” “Someone’s out there,” they heard a deep male voice yell.

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“Take everyone you can spare and beat the bushes.” Maddie recognized Carstairs’ voice. “Find them and kill them. All but one, I need someone alive to answer questions.” “Maddie?” Trask’s voice. A shiver raced over her spine. “Maddie, I’m sure you’re out there. Come on in and we’ll talk about this.” Dan’s fingers tightened on her wrist. “Don’t answer.” “You think I’m crazy? He wanted Goliath to kill me.” “Come on, Maddie. We can talk this over. It’s all just a little misunderstanding.” “Right,” she muttered. Two more shots rang out. “Caleb?” Dan touched his mic. “You guys okay?” He listened to the answer. “They’re pinned down close to the house off to our left,” he told Maddie. He says he thinks they’ve got guys circling around behind.” “What can we do?” For the first time she was truly frightened. “Call in the troops and hope we can hold out until then.” He unclipped his phone from his belt and handed it to Maddie. “Call Nikki. Give her a read on the situation and ask her how fast she can get backup here.” Maddie pressed the speed dial number for Nikki’s personal cell, and when her friend answered, she told her what they needed. “She says half an hour, no more,” Maddie related. “Can we hold out until then?” “I guess we’ll just have to. Okay, I’ve got some ideas.”

***** They were lucky. That was the only word for it. They’d managed to take cover in the trees, getting high enough that the armed mercenaries stalking them hadn’t seen them. Even Maddie, who Dan was sure had never climbed a tree in her life, gamely let

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him boost her up and hauled herself through the branches. His arm hurt like hell, but at least they were alive. Come on, Nikki. They won’t wander around much longer before they figure things out. He knew from the snatches of conversation they overheard that the vehicles had been discovered. He trusted Nikki to have provided them with clean, untraceable vehicles. Now she just had to save their bacon here. “Let’s regroup,” a voiced called out. “We probably need to reschedule here.” “That’s Carstairs,” Maddie whispered down to him. “It appears he’s sending everyone home.” The rumble of voices drifted up to them and they could plainly see four or five men standing in front of the house. Then Evan Knowlton climbed into the limo, the driver backed the vehicle around and it began the slow journey down the driveway. Maddie and Dan watched as, one by one the others left, Trask the last. When the final car had passed through the wrought iron gates they saw five men in camo gear fan out and begin the search again. “We’ll never get out of here.” Maddie clutched the limb she was straddling. But at that moment they heard the familiar whap! whap! whap! of the rotors of a helicopter, and a shape that Dan recognized as the Bell UH-1—the Huey—soared in over the treetops. The side door was open and two men with very formidable looking guns rode the open space. “Dan?” He could barely hear Caleb’s voice over the noise of the bird. “We’re here.” “Get down from the tree, watch for the ladder to drop and get to the hover spot.” “They’ll shoot us first,” he warned. “No. Our guys are going to lay down cover fire.”

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“Okay. We’re on our way.” He helped Maddie down to the ground, trying not to scream at the worsening pain in his arm. How the hell was he going to climb up that damn ladder into the chopper? He dragged Maddie through the trees, keeping low, heading for the spot under the dangling ladder. A shot zinged over their heads and immediately he heard the familiar staccato sound of an assault rifle spraying the area. Caleb and the others were already at the spot when they got there, one team member already up the ladder and almost to the helo. The assault rifles never stopped chattering, keeping the mercenaries at bay. “Give me Maddie,” Caleb yelled, and grabbed her before either of them could protest. “Wind your legs around my waist and your arms around my neck,” he instructed. “Hang on tight!” Protected by the unrelenting cover fire, Caleb scrambled up the rope ladder as if it were stationary and heaved Maddie into the cabin before hauling himself in. Then he turned to help the man assisting Dan up the ladder, and in seconds they were all inside and the helo was sideslipping away from the scene, the assault rifles firing until the last minute.

***** Dan’s San Antonio hospital room was crowded and noisy, to the dismay of the nurses who had to work around constant surveillance by Secret Service and visits from every type of law enforcement official this side of the Potomac. Nikki had brought fresh clothes for Maddie this morning. With a shower in her hotel room across the street, the change was a small sign of a return to normality. But in the past twenty-four hours since their helo rescue, Maddie could feel only worry over Dan’s condition. Logic and more debriefing sessions were going to come tonight and tomorrow, but she had refused to leave him. Now in jeans and t-shirt, she sat on the edge of his bed, holding his hand and checking his forehead every few minutes. His

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wound had become infected by all the dirt they rolled around in, and it had required surgery to clean it and stitch it. The doctor insisted on keeping him for at least two days to make sure there were no complications, despite Dan’s grumbling. At her caress, he laughed. “I think the initial dose of antibiotics took care of the fever, but please feel free to keep touching me like that.” Not bothered by the people milling around, she leaned forward and brushed a kiss over his lips. “If no one was here I’d touch you in a few other places,” she teased. She knew their relationship was far from settled but it was going someplace. She just wasn’t sure where. Nikki sat in the chair beside the bed, busy on her cell phone, while Caleb and two others of the four-man team leaned against the walls, rehashing the scene at the ranch. “Okay.” Nikki snapped her phone shut. “Here’s where we stand. “First of all, breathe easily. President Hamill is out of the woods and on the mend. Vice President Tollover is still a little shaky but they’re more optimistic about him than they were before.” “I want to know how this happened,” Maddie demanded. “Everything at the White House is so guarded and secure.” Nikki gave an unladylike snort. “Yeah, right. When you have gate crashers at a White House party it raises the question of security. Anyway, it’s simple. Trask bribed a cook in the kitchen. A man, I might add, who is enjoying the solitude of a holding cell under the watchful eye of Secret Service.” “Did you get the evidence to the right person?” Dan wanted to know. Nikki nodded. “I called your boss in Langley and made him listen to me before he went over the edge. Told him you said he was to be trusted and here was his chance to prove it. I sent the plane for him, we met right on the tarmac when he landed at the private strip, and I handed everything over. After I made copies, of course,” she grinned. “How did he take it?” 105

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“How do you think? Shocked. Stunned. Speechless. Having a difficult time comprehending that the Speaker of the House was planning a treasonous takeover of the government with his own private army. But he jumped on it right away and got the other necessary agencies involved. Trask was in custody before the plane took off to return him to D.C.” She shook her head. “Sometimes I’m amazed at the sheer audacity of human nature.” “Me, too,” Maddie agreed. “I’ll bet they’ve got his offices locked up tighter than a drum, too.” “You got that right,” Nikki agreed. Then her face sobered. “The unfortunate part is we can’t do much about any of the others except Starling, He’s the only one who actually admitted anything on tape besides Trask. But Dan, the Director said to assure you they’d be working on it.” “Yeah, well, I know how sticky that can get. At least we know those guys will have eyes on them so they can’t slip so easily under the radar. Maybe.” “Maddie, your father called. I had your cell so I answered. He’d like to hear from you.” “How did he sound?” Nikki shrugged. “Distant. Angry. Put out. Who knows.” Maddie shook her head. “He can wait.” “Well.” Nikki rose gracefully from the chair. “I think we’ll clear out of here and let the two of you have a little piece and quiet. Just a couple more things, though.” “What things?” Maddie quirked an eyebrow. “First of all, you’re out of a job now.” “True,” Maddie agreed. “The Majority Leader is succeeding Trask and he has his own chief of staff to run things.” Nikki crossed her arms and her dark eyes twinkled. “There you go! So I’d like to ask you to come to work at Nemesis. Maybe even as a partner.”

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Maddie’s jaw dropped. “You are kidding me.” “Not at all. If you’re interested we can work out the details next week.” She looked at Dan. “Same offer goes for you.” She grinned. “Except for the partnership, of course. Ladies only in that department.” The smile disappeared. “I don’t know what your options are now, so just think it over and let me know if you’re interested.” She headed for the door, motioning to her team to follow her. “Call me when you’re up to talking. Both of you.” Maddie stared after her, a feather of interest tickling her. First she wanted to know what was happening with her and Dan. Then she’d try to find out what was up with her father, who’d flat out told her Dan was dirty and not to look for him. Something was off the mark there and she meant to dig for answers. After that she’d talk to Nikki. But life had certainly become very interesting all of a sudden.

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Chapter Eleven But a coup d’etat was no small event to the FBI or Langley, the State Department and Defense. Maddie closed her front door more than three weeks later as the last of her Bureau escorts left her for the final time at her home in Georgetown. She sank against the wood and sighed. What she knew, how she’d learned about Speaker of the House Paul Trask’s attempt to destroy the central government was a labyrinth of lies that he had built over the three decades he’d been in office. He’d hidden his efforts, his conspirators and his resources so skillfully that only one agent—Dan—had detected one odd bit of information about undocumented shipments across the Mexican border into Texas. One incident. One clue. One intelligent man. She shut her eyes. Dan. How are you, sweetie? Where are you? Where did the boys from Langley take you to debrief? Back to the Rio Grande? She missed him. And she had heard nothing from him since he’d been discharged from the hospital and one agent each from the Bureau, Langley and the National Security Administration had escorted him, as they said, “to locations unknown for the immediate and unforeseeable future”. Dammit, she missed him more than she had any man, any one, ever. Waiting for him to come back to Washington had been hell. She was used to his presence. His laughter and his kisses. His loving. His concern. And his protection? Even when he had been wounded and in pain, he had extracted her from Trask’s clutches and rushed to Carstairs’ ranch. She could not even imagine how much willpower it had taken Dan to do that. But he had. And in the doing, as she relived the days she had spent with him, she realized she loved him for that. For his devotion. To find a man like Dan was rare. For her, 108

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phenomenal. She who had always known she had a tough time trusting men. But now, she just pined to have him back with her. Enough mooning over him! She toed off her shoes, unbuttoned her blouse and headed up the stairs to her bedroom. She had to clear her mind, get out of these clothes and submerge neck deep into a huge mound of frothy bubbles. Dropping her slacks on the carpet of her bedroom, she unhooked her bra and wiggled out of her panties. The sound of music froze her in her tracks. The volume rose. Flooded the room. Heart pounding, she ran to the hall. Bracing herself on the doorjamb, she blinked and wondered where the hell she’d put her gun. The volume increased again and she realized what she heard was a love song of Stevie Wonder’s. For Once in My Life drifted through her house from her own bathroom. She took the two steps to her bathroom and noted the door was ajar. With two fingers, she pushed it open. A wonderful baritone singing the lyrics flowed out to her. She stepped inside. There, in her big circular white tub with giant bubbles churned up by the Jacuzzi sat a beautifully tanned, toned and fit Daniel Foreman. His grin was generous and his words, inviting, as he shot a hand up to grab her wrist. “Hey, there, baby. Finally home from the wars, huh? I thought you would need a good way to relax.” His green eyes danced with mischief. “Care to join lonely old me?” How he had gotten in was irrelevant. When he got in would be nice to know. But that he was here made her quake with delight. So she wasn’t certain if she shrieked or groaned, but she did lean over, cup his jaw and kiss him. Hard, fast and more than once. He tasted of need and joy. 109

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“Lucky me. Naked already.” He put an arm around her waist and dragged her forward. “Get in here now and show me how you really feel.” She climbed right in, no second invitation necessary. Bracing herself on her knees, she pressed herself against his torso, wound her arms around his shoulders and kissed him again. But she jumped away! “Your arm!” “Good enough to hold you, sweetheart. Come back and kiss me again, Maddie,” he whispered. “I’ve been so lonely for you.” His words stripped her of all awareness. Suddenly, she was clutching him, her lips to his throat and tears were dribbling down her cheeks. “Hey, hey, baby. None of that!” He drew her away from him. He held her face, brushed her cheeks with two thumbs and smiled at her. “I’m fine. Better. See?” He lifted his left arm and circled it in the air. She could see the scar, still healing, and she drifted down into his embrace again, his body as warm as the water and deliciously firm. “I missed you so,” she told him as he began to stroke her back with one of her bath sponges. She sighed in release of her tension. “I wondered where you were. How you were. Wondered when you’d come back.” She kissed his chest. He ran his splayed fingers up into her hair. “But you knew I would.” She smiled against his throat. He pulled her up again so that he could see her face. His was full of fear. “You did, didn’t you?” She gave him a joyful grin. “I did. I knew because you’ve always come back for me no matter the odds. I have trusted you from the beginning. I will ’til the end of time.” “Madison Sommers,” he whispered as he brushed his lips over hers, “you are so right. I am always coming home to you. Know why?” She shook her head, speechless. “Because I love you.”

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She caught her breath and kissed him back with all the ardor and all the pent up craziness of the last five weeks. “I love you, too, Dan. I never thought I would ever say that to a man. Never thought I’d find anyone I could trust. Or love.” He crushed her close, one arm wrapped around her back, one hand skimming her breast, her belly and caressing her pussy. “Oh, honey. You are the sweetest thing I’ve ever known. The wisest. The wettest—” He shifted her so that his fingers sank up inside her cunt. “And you,” she managed as she found his hot girth and stroked him, “are the best lover an Ice Goddess ever had!” He sputtered in laughter. “Who knew I could melt you down?” Then he pushed her aside and rose, the water rippling down the planes and hollows of his body, sluicing all his tempting muscles with glistening refractions of light. He put out his hand. “Let me make you do it again.” She stepped out after him, letting him dry her off and pulling her to him to walk her backward into her bedroom. He sat her on the edge, reached over and threw pillows this way and that, then came back to her to peel the towel off her body. “Know what I love about you?” he said, his voice vague and dreamy. Lost in him, she drifted in a haze as he massaged her hair and kissed her forehead. “I want to hear.” He spread her legs wide and nestled his hot, damp torso between them. “I love your brains.” She guffawed. “Thanks!” He pulled her hair at her nape so that she looked up at him. “No joke. You are one smart cookie.” He blessed her eyelids and her nose with his mouth. “I told the boys that, over and over.”

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“The boys?” It was about all she could manage with the way his thumbs had found her nipples and rubbed them from side to side. “Mm. My boys. Frank and Len. And Jared, too.” He ran his lips over the ridge of her jaw. “The three musketeers?” she pursued his line of thinking as he bit her earlobe and made her shiver. “From the alphabet soup agencies.” He put one hand to her ass and sank his fingers between her cleft to tap her darkest orifice. That was a new adventure for her. One she’d have only with him. “Dan, I—” “Shh, baby. I’m talking here.” He leaned down and took one nipple into his mouth and sucked her hard so that she arched up. “I love your gorgeous breasts. These,” he crooned as he slipped to the other and played with the areola with the tip of his tongue. “I love how pink they are. And as soft as silk.” He nipped her. “But hard for me.” She fought for breath. He pushed her to her back, her legs dangling over the edge of the mattress as he widened her thighs. “I love your big toes!” She yelped as he pinched both of them. She cuffed him. “My toes?“ “Sure!” He fell forward over her to rub his chest on hers as he squeezed her knees. And his hard, hot beautiful cock teased at the entrance to her pussy. “Feel what a turnon your toes are for me!” “You are nuts, Foreman!” She was gasping with laughter. “You are making me crazy with lust!” “Precisely!” He dropped a kiss to her navel. “And am I ever grateful.” He put both hands to the juncture of her thighs, his thumbs to her labia. “Want me to prove how grateful?”

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“I do! Ohh, how I do!” She was giggling, groaning and counting the milliseconds until he possessed her. On a whimper, she pleaded, “Now, honey, now. Dan, I’ve waited so long for you.” “I waited to find you too, baby. You are so smart, so tough, so honest.” She ran a hand over his hair. “Dan, darling.” He made some wild sound then as he sank to spread her wide and put his mouth to her needy little cunt. His kiss on her clit was brief. His tongue on her labia was hot. His devotion to every little inch of her was long and succulent and sweetly maddening. “You know,” he murmured against her sensitive flesh, “the reason we have such good sex is because you and I knew who each other was long before we ever hooked up in that stairwell.” “Yes, Dan, I took one look at you and I knew I was a goner, honey.” “Through all this mess, you had faith in me when no one else did. Say you won’t ever leave me.” “Never! I love you. How could I go? Oh, Dan, please.” She pushed back, trying to get up more fully on the bed. “I need you inside me.” Grinning, he grabbed her nape and kissed her like he was a starving man. “Hold that thought, baby.” He pulled away. She heard a condom package tear. She felt his body heat as he came back to her, like he always did. And she smiled at him as he rose above her, hooked his hands under her knees, pulled her open and filled her with all of him. Caught in the pleasure of it, she paused. He gritted his teeth. “I love your pussy, too,” he told her with a growl. “The way you clamp your muscles around me, like that. And the way you let me in, oh, hell, baby, all the way. All the way home. Like that. And the way you just don’t ever stop.” She dug her nails into his thighs. “I won’t! I won’t ever stop loving you.”

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He slid in and pulled out ever so slowly. “I want you.” He slid in again, all the way to her heart. She bucked. “You have me.” He gathered her close to him again, his cock buried deep inside her, his big hand under her nape. “Always.” “Always.” “You’ll marry me then?” Her mouth opened. Her mind blanked. Her heart swelled. She grinned and arched. “If I say I’ll marry you, will you please make love to me before I dissolve here?” “How about Friday?” He gave her another taste of his ultimate intentions. Undulating beneath him, she beat the mattress with her fists. “Three days from now?” Who would come? Who cared? All she needed was Dan. “In Maryland.” He drove into her twice more to show her his talents with a long smooth drive to ecstasy. “You’re in a hurry?” she barked. Any second in frustration, she would gnaw the bedposts. “We go to work with Nikki soon.” He rolled his hips against hers. “And I need a nice long honeymoon, baby. To do this,” he whispered as he pinched her clit and sent shock waves through her. “And this,” he hauled her thighs up onto his and pumped into her once with deliberate force. “Say yes.” She threw back her head and groaned. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” “Nice.” He caught her hips in his two big hands. “Now be a good girl and hang on to me!”

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About the Author Desiree Holt: I always wonder what readers really want to know when I write one of these things. Getting to this point in my career has been an interesting journey. I’ve managed rock and roll bands and organized concerts. Been the only female on the sports staff of a university newspaper. Immersed myself in Nashville peddling a country singer. Lived in five different states. Married two very interesting but totally different men. I think I must have lived in Texas in another life, because the minute I set foot on Texas soil I knew I was home. Living in Texas Hill Country gives me inspiration for more stories than I’ll probably ever be able to tell, what with all the sexy cowboys who surround me and the gorgeous scenery that provides a great setting. Each day is a new adventure for me, as my characters come to life on the pages of my current work in progress. I’m absolutely compulsive about it when I’m writing and thank all the gods and goddesses that I have such a terrific husband who encourages my writing and puts up with my obsession. As a multi-published author, I love to hear from my readers. Their input keeps my mind fresh and always hunting for new ideas. Cerise DeLand: An award-winning author of more than two dozen romances and mysteries, Cerise DeLand creates heroes readers crave. Cerise has met many men in her worldwide travels and created the best of the best from all the wonderful places she’s lived and visited. Today, she lives—and writes—in wild west Texas, where a neverending stream of cowboys, vaqueros, para-military types and diplomats stroll into town and fuel her imagination for red hot affairs. Desiree and Cerise welcomes comments from readers. You can find their websites and email addresses on their author bio pages at www.ellorascave.com.

Tell Us What You Think We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email us at [email protected].

Also by Desiree Holt Cougar Challenge: Hot to Trot Cupid’s Shaft Dancing With Danger Diamond Lady Double Entry Driven by Hunger Eagle’s Run Ellora’s Cavemen: Flavors of Ecstasy I anthology Mistletoe Magic: Elven Magic with Regina Carlysle & Cindy Spencer Pape Mistletoe Magic: Touch of Magic Emerald Green Escape the Night Hot Moon Rising Hot, Wicked and Wild I Dare You Journey to the Pearl Just Say Yes Kidnapping the Groom with Allie Standifer Letting Go Line of Sight Lust Unleashed Night Heat

Once Burned Once Upon a Wedding Riding Out the Storm Rodeo Heat Scalded with Allie Standifer Scorched with Allie Standifer Seductive Illusion with Allie Standifer Switched Teaching Molly Trouble in Cowboy Boots Where Danger Hides

Also by Cerise DeLand Carried Away Her Three-Way Merger Laid Bare Mia Dolce Whenever We Meet

Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer ebooks or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.

www.ellorascave.com