LITMIR.BIZ

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the pain in her arms from pulling herself up the building, the dread of having to tell her husband she’d lied to him. And focused on the moment.

      “Nightshade,” he whispered again, twisting his head so their eyes met. In the shadows his were just dark pools of indigo.

      For a moment it seemed her disguise fell away and that Kane was staring into her soul. Right down to the part she’d hidden from him for so long. She opened her mouth on a sigh.

      “Going to let me go?” he asked, leaning close to her and letting his breath brush across her cheek.

      He was flirting with her. God, it had been a long time since Kane had teased her. “Maybe.”

      “Maybe? I know how to change that to a yes.” He leaned closer and ran his lips down the side of her neck, stopping at the base where her pulse was starting to beat a little faster.

      She stepped back. For Kane’s sake she couldn’t let him do this. Couldn’t let him stay free. Pulling a pair of handcuffs from her pocket, she quickly bound his wrists. Kane lashed out at her with his feet. Of course, he’d have to do it the hard way.

      She stepped back into a defensive pose, realizing that the man she’d married had become a stranger to her.

      Kane was no stranger to fighting—enemies and allies alike. But he wasn’t himself tonight and neither was she. Although, a part of her was very much the outraged wife who’d been left in the country. Kane swung around, his graceful masculine body moving in perfect symmetry and kicking her feet out from under her.

      Sasha wanted to take him down. They’d been driving toward this confrontation for a long time. She pushed herself to her feet and dropped back into a defensive pose. He circled around her. Sasha’s nerves jangled. The aches and pains from her recent confrontation were starting to make themselves known and what she really wanted was to return to the Land Rover and get out the ice pack.

      “Kane, you can’t win.”

      “You’re good, wife, I’ll give you that. But I’m better.”

      That pissed her off. She quickly moved behind him and hit him squarely between the shoulder blades, knocking him to his knees. With his hands bound behind his back, his balance was hard to maintain. Stepping up behind him, Sasha straddled his neck with her thighs.

      She tunneled her fingers into his thick black hair and pulled back, exposing his neck. “Who’s better now?”

      His breathing was uneven and he twisted his head as far as she allowed him. His breath was a hot brand against her inner thigh. He raked his teeth down the length of the pant fabric, causing rippling sensations along her skin.

      Carefully she closed her thighs around his neck. He twisted his body, knocking her off balance. Sasha rolled to the ground, landing on her back. Before she could move, Kane fell on top of her, his head even with her breasts. He lifted his head and met her eyes. In an instant everything fell away except for Kane and this moment.

      She’d missed this type of play between them. In the early days when they’d first started going out, Kane and she used to spar all the time like this.

      “What went wrong?” he asked. “Where did the adventurous woman I first met go?”

      She couldn’t tell him. She didn’t really know. She only knew that her last mission had changed something deep inside her and she’d never be the same again. She couldn’t be.

      She lifted her arms, pulled his head to hers and took the kiss she’d been wanting. A kiss that confirmed Kane was alive. A kiss that made the past melt away and the troubled future seem even colder than she’d realized it could be.

      She’d missed his taste. All her barriers were down tonight and she’d forgotten how wonderfully seductive Kane could be when he put his mind to it. She didn’t want to think about the reason he’d stopped seducing her. When she’d given him the cold shoulder, he hadn’t taken it very well. She’d never been able to explain that it was either that or surrender her sanity.

      She slipped her hand around his neck as her tongue entered his mouth. He moaned deep in his throat and she had a second’s hesitation before she squeezed carefully on his carotid artery, rendering him unconscious. He fell limply on top of her and she brought her arms together around him to comfort him in a way he’d never allow when he was conscious.

      Chapter 3

      To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.

      —Lao-tzu

      Sasha carefully watched the men approach. She wished she knew what Kane was looking for. God, she ached from head to toe. She’d forgotten how to take a physical beating and shake it off. Or she was getting old. Because every hit she’d taken was screaming for an ice pack.

      The man on the left walked with a slight limp and used a cane. He was thin and his head was shaved and he talked in a low voice to the man walking beside him. His voice didn’t carry. She hoped Orly had gotten photos of both men. The second man was vaguely familiar to her.

      The one on the left wore a wool topcoat and his companion wore a ratty old raincoat. She wasn’t sure if that information was relevant, but it seemed to her that the men were underlings of Townsend’s, not peers. She itched to lift the assault rifle and just take them both out with one quick bullet to the head. But she wasn’t an assassin, and killing a man who wasn’t threatening her went against the grain.

      Dammit. She lowered the rifle. “Orly, Kane is bound and unconscious, keep an eye on him. I need Ano to send a detention crew for the three sentries we captured and the body of the guard Kane took out. I’m following the men to see if they’ll lead me to Townsend.”

      “Gotcha.”

      The men boarded one of the large shipping vessels down the dock. Sasha quickly bound Kane’s feet and left him hidden in the shadows.

      “Run a trace on a ship called the Eudora Manning,” she said. Then, using the international radio code, she spelled it for him. Her mind was still on Kane. Why was he doing this? He didn’t like Townsend any more than she did. Townsend was at the top of HMIA’s most-wanted list. Every agent there still felt Townsend’s betrayal very strongly. But in the last ten years he’d managed to continue evading them. And Kane was acting exactly the same way that had taken Townsend out of HMIA. Going out on his own. Not following protocol.

      “I’m going in for a closer look.”

      “Negative, Nightshade. Ano wants you to pull back.”

      Ano be damned. She was in the field and should be able to make her own decisions. “Orly, I’m close enough to get some good info. Request permission to board the Eudora.”

      “Relaying request.”

      Nightshade crouched in the shadows, waiting for permission to act. This was one reason why she’d left A.R.C. Despite their renegade status, there was still a chain of command that had to be followed. Nightshade started toward the ship, which was still anchored to the dock. The anchor was a large steel one that would be so easy to climb. She could be on the deck in a matter of minutes.

      “Negative, Nightshade. Ano repeats orders to drop back.”

      “I’ll finish a visual recon and then drop back.”

      “Relaying—”

      “Don’t relay, Orly.” Did Ano not trust her to follow orders? Or did she not trust that Nightshade could complete the job? Neither question made Sasha feel any better about things.

      “Gotcha.”

      Nightshade made a note of every detail she could, relaying information to Orly. The Eudora was a large ship probably used to transport animals of some kind. She noticed there were two lorries parked in the lower shipping bay. She didn’t know if Townsend had his hostage somewhere in the bay or if these men that Kane had been lying in wait for were just doing some recon themselves. Setting up the ship to move the

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