“You’re Tess Montgomery?” he addressed the woman, just to make sure.
T.’s smile was slow and sultry. “Yes,” she answered, then returned her attention to Jed. “I didn’t tell Grace. I’m still on vacation, so this is a detour from a shopping expedition.”
Jed’s eyebrows shot up. “Shopping? You choose shopping over Diamond?”
“Darling, a woman has her prerogatives,” T. said. “You should do that sometimes. Shopping is good for the soul. Ask Stash.”
Jed and Rick both looked at Steve at the same time. He was looking extremely fit and tan, showing better form and muscle definition since he left his position with Task Force Two to work for these guys, Rick noted, wondering where the navy SEAL had been training. These GEM teams were beginning to intrigue him more and more.
“Well, is that so, McMillan?”
Standing behind Marlena, Steve shrugged. A rueful grin tugged at his mouth. “It all depends whether you like color-coordinated shoes and clothing.” He flicked a telling glance at Marlena. “The changing rooms are interesting places.”
Marlena, clad in her usual leather outfit, carelessly tossed her hair, took a step back, and bumped up against Steve, causing him to wrap a possessive arm over her front. She didn’t say a word, just leaned back and smiled naughtily as she ran a hand down his bare arm.
“I stand corrected. Shopping is really good for the soul,” Steve said with a straight face.
“We’ll leave you with the ladies, then, McMillan,” Jed said. “As liaison, you can report back to the admiral about the debriefing.”
“Of course,” Steve said.
“Wait a minute,” Rick interrupted. “They’re here to debrief Nikki? I won’t allow it. She’s still not up to it.”
Tess picked up a small briefcase. “Nikki is GEM. We take care of our own. And besides, she’s going to need me to fix her up.”
“Fix her up,” reiterated Rick, with a frown.
“Just go with Jed,” T. said, and started to walk in the direction of Nikki’s room. “Trust me, Nikki will look and feel
better after we’re done with her, and you can talk to me then, Rick Harden. Right now I’ve no time for you. I have a student to take care of.”
“Let them go, Harden. We got an appointment, remember?”
Rick ignored Jed, turning to follow T. and her operatives. He wanted to make sure about Nikki. T. swung around just at the entrance. Her catlike topaz eyes slowly swept over him, like a woman appreciating a man. Rick stiffened.
“Don’t try your NOPAIN shit on me, Tess,” he warned. “It won’t work.”
T.’s laugh tinkled like soft rain. Her eyes remained bold, unperturbed, and Rick was suddenly aware of the intelligence lurking in them, looking for weaknesses. She was, after all, Nikki’s leader. It didn’t take much to see why Alex Diamond had a hard time going after the woman. She exuded an elusiveness that rivaled Jed McNeil’s.
Her gaze turned thoughtful. “You trusted me enough to free Steve that one time. Don’t you trust me with Nikki?”
His own gaze narrowed. “I didn’t trust you. That’s why I wired Cam.”
“Which proved to be a good idea, since you needed all the evidence you got to trap Gorman,” T. said. “Now, why would you worry about Nikki in my hands? She is my operative. Her job is to report to me.” Her voice lowered. “I promise she’ll be here when you return, Harden, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
Damn them all. They all knew the heart of his fears, that this was still an assignment for Nikki. He was afraid this would remind her that it was just a job.
“What’s the matter?” T. asked, eyes suddenly shrewd. “Don’t you think Nikki would know what she wants on her own?”
Rick clenched his jaw but he’d be damned if he let this woman have the last word. “Well, she
is
your student,” he pointed out softly, “and I know, from watching Diamond, how good you are at disappearing. I’ll hold you personally responsible if she does. And if she isn’t here when I get back, I’ll find you for Diamond myself.”
With that he turned on his heels and stalked past Jed. He heard Jed’s short bark of laughter, followed by, “T., Alex’s going to get a kick out of hearing about this.”
“And I’m going to kick you if you tell him where I am, Jed.”
“Tell you what, I’ll kick-start the race after I take care of some business. Should be interesting to watch you screaming and kicking when he catches up with you.”
Rick didn’t hear the rest of the jibes as he left the whole damn room of manipulation experts. Covert tongue twisting. One-upmanship mind games. He didn’t need any of them to do what he had in mind. He had a promise to fulfill.
The man, manacled at the wrists and ankles, climbed into the secured van. He sat down where the guard pointed. A look of anger and disdain crossed his face as he watched the guard unlock his chains, then shackle them to the seat, thus impeding any chance of escape. His lips thinned, as if he was having a hard time being silent.
Rick continued studying the man while he waited for the van to start up. There was silence as the engine fired up and the driver pulled out into traffic. The prisoner stared resolutely at nothing as his body swayed to the van’s movements.
After a few minutes, Rick tipped up his guard’s hat. “You’re thinner,” he remarked. “The food must not be the same rich diet you’re used to.”
Gorman raised his head sharply at the sound of Rick’s voice and his eyes widened. He looked at the two guards in the van with him. “What’s he doing here?” he demanded. When the two guards remained silent, he swerved back to Rick and mocked, “What’s the matter, Harden? Breaking the law now? I thought you were all for rules and regulations.”
Rick allowed a cold smile. This was Gorman, his nemesis, the man responsible for Leah’s disappearance, the man behind his own fall from grace. This was the man who had almost cost him Nikki. It would be so easy to unleash the violent storm of his hate, to go after this piece of garbage. He could imagine killing the man for what he had done. He could even convince himself that it would be worth going to jail for.
“This isn’t legal without the presence of my lawyer,” Gorman continued, his voice filled with confidence. “Moving me to a high-security prison won’t make me talk. Intimidation isn’t going to work so you can just tell EYES to stop playing games and take me back.”
“If you think this move to a high-security facility is just a trick, then you’re dead wrong,” Rick informed him. “The DOJ has deemed you a high security risk ever since your sidekick, Johnson, disappeared with
your
boss—remember her?—at the same time. Imagine, the head of the Directorate of Administration and Greta, Task Force Two’s secretary. No one left but you, so guess what, Gorman? EYES aren’t willing to deal anymore. There’s a huge list of questionable shipments dating back for a decade that they want answers for and the main guy in charge is gone, leaving you behind. And there is still the matter of the missing laptop you were caught stealing. They sure as hell aren’t going to admit to the public that the government had been duped by a mole disguised as a fifty-something secretary.”
Rick paused, allowing the other man to digest what he had revealed. His face had grown pale and tight, making the lines deeper.
“Things don’t look good, do they? In a few weeks or so, Admiral Madison is going to commence with his panel on national security and a lot of information is going to come out. Most of it has to do with you—your ten-year rise to power and your misuse of it. No one will even look at me. You know why? Because I made a deal with EYES. I won’t bring up their cover-up of Leah’s operation ten years ago, won’t reveal their leaving behind operatives who were still alive. In return, they will reopen the case and reinstate my wife’s status, and they get to blame everything on you. They have evidence now, Gorman, that you leaked the operation’s mission.”
Rick noted with satisfaction the thin sheen of sweat on Gorman’s forehead. His own fury was churning like thunder still but he kept it under control as he continued his verbal assault. “This isn’t a threat, Gorman, so technically I’m not
breaking any big law here. I’m just informing you as a former underling of all the information in my hands, as I’ve so often done all these years, to my detriment and to your gain. So use this as you always have. You might even escape the death penalty they give to traitors.”
Gorman pursed his lips into a sneer. “I still have friends in high places.”
Rick shifted, leaning forward. “You don’t understand, do you? Your friends are deserting you, Gorman. They killed Denise. Do you think they’re going to give you any chance to wheel and deal? Johnson’s disappeared. Who knows whether he’s dead? You’re moving to a facility with violent men. Who knows whether you’re going to last long there?” He sat back, stretching the silence as the van rumbled on. Softly, predatorily, he ground out, “Frankly, I don’t give a damn whether they kill you or not, Gorman. What you did to Leah…if you were a free man, I’d come after you personally and give you what you deserve. But you’re under the protection of the law, and…you know what? I think it’ll do you good to sit in solitary confinement for a long, long time.”
He nodded at Jed, who was sitting close by. Jed rapped on the divider between the front and the back of the van, and the vehicle came to a halt.
The back door opened and Rick stood. Two security guards appeared to take his and Jed’s place. They had been ordered to follow the van in another car. Jed got off first.
“All this over a dead woman,” derided Gorman bitterly. “I should’ve had Marlena Maxwell killed off exactly the same way your Leah disappeared. You disappointed me, Harden. You couldn’t rise above a dead woman. You’ll never do anything but passively mourn for the rest of your life.”
Rick pulled Gorman to his feet and slammed him hard against the side of the van. He grabbed the man’s throat, squeezing hard enough to cut off air. “Women seem to find a way to defeat you, Gorman. Marlena Maxwell smoked you out from the rat hole. And Leah…” He met Gorman’s bulging eyes. “My wife’s alive. She’s alive and will be testifying against you. And no one will mourn for you.”
He pushed off, leaving Gorman choking for breath. Out in the open, he stared up into the bright expanse of sky. There wasn’t a cloud at all, no hint of the roiling storm raging within him. It was hard to swallow that much hatred for a person who had done him and his so much wrong, but he had to. He wouldn’t allow Gorman to haunt his future. If justice was delivered, he needn’t worry about that traitor any longer.
“That wasn’t bad,” Jed remarked from behind. “If they kick you off the agency, give me a call. I like your style, Harden.”
Rick gave him a brief glance as they strode toward the waiting car. “Wasn’t bad?”
For a second, Jed’s silver eyes glinted with humor as their gaze met over the hood. “It’d have been better in my book if you had punched the daylights out of him.”
Rick stared back, and then laughed. And just like that, the killing storm inside dissipated into something less dangerous. He climbed into the driver’s seat, and canted a brow at the other man. “I thought you were my surrogate fists.”
Jed’s eyes narrowed for a second. He slammed the door. “You’re in the driver’s seat today, Harden. There’s always tomorrow.”
Rick put the car in gear. Jed McNeil, he was discovering, was a man of infinite patience, a quality that he himself had plenty of. He hadn’t done anything today out of respect for him, and Rick appreciated that. He suspected that Jed didn’t put other people in front of him too often. Whatever he had planned for Gorman, Rick approved. He didn’t care any longer. He looked ahead at the traffic.
He had been focused on the past for so long because he had thought he didn’t have a future. Now there was only Nikki. Everything else could wait.
N
ikki breathed in the sweet scent of the night blossoms drifting in through the picture window. The cool air brushed lightly against her bare skin, lifting her hair. She stepped forward a little more, peering into the darkness to see whether the moon was out.
A long male arm scooped under her breasts and pulled her back possessively and she smiled as she turned without demur into her husband’s naked heat. She shivered in delight as his fingers caressed the curve of her spine. He splayed them through her short hair, playing with the tresses as his lips nibbled at her earlobe.
“What are you doing up so late?” he whispered. “Come back to bed.”
“It’s our last night here,” she whispered back. “I just wanted one last look at the garden.”
It had been a glorious two weeks. She had missed her sanctuary so much. This was her place and she had needed to be here to recuperate. In light of all the investigations going on, Task Force Two had been suspended indefinitely as Internal Investigations prepared its reports to the Department of Justice.
“Are you ready for tomorrow?” he asked.
Nikki laced her arms around him and lay her head against his chest. Tomorrow they returned to reality. Admiral Madison’s panel on national security was scheduled to begin, and she was needed to give her own report on the security holes
she had discovered. Not to mention that she was the star witness. Everyone in Washington, according to the admiral, was buzzing about the ten-year-old case of the missing operatives, and how one of them made it back after so many years of having been thought dead.
That was the concession from EYES. Not
abandoned
and labeled as a “broken wing,” as she had been, but
missing.
In return, she received the acknowledgment she sought, and the case on the ill-fated operation would be reopened. It all tied in neatly with the man who was being held responsible for leaking information and selling national secrets for ten years—Gorman. Everyone in the higher levels was pleased. They had someone to blame.
Nikki was only happy about one thing, that it wasn’t Rick that they were staking, as they had all originally intended. She hugged her husband a little tighter.
Sensing her thoughts, he dropped a kiss on her head. “Nikki?” His finger tipped her chin. “Are you going to be all right when you go in to testify?”
“Yes,” she assured him. “I was just thinking about you. If not for certain events, you’d be the one they’d hang because Gorman had so much over them. With the missing director from administration and your secretary, with Erik’s files and testimony, and with Admiral Madison’s support, the right person is standing trial.”
Rick framed her face with his hands and tenderly traced the delicate bone structure. He smiled down and shook his head. She was still protective of him, still thinking about his welfare when tomorrow was
her
moment,
her
day of recognition.
“You forgot the most important thing, little bird,” he said.
“What?”
“You.” He lifted her into his arms and turned toward the bed. He laid her down on the silk sheets and settled his weight slowly on her welcoming body. She opened her legs and gave a sigh of pleasure. He kissed her briefly before continuing, “You’re the most important thing. Without you, I’d still be half alive. Without you, there’d be no future. As long as
you’re with me, I feel I can do anything. Tomorrow, when we return to Washington, we’ll face every challenge together.”
“Yes,” Nikki murmured, wrapping loving arms around her husband. “So much to do. And there’s still Cam and Patty…”
“We’ll find out what happened to them,” Rick promised. “We’ve already zeroed in on the shipments, so we’ve got an idea where they might be. It’s just a matter of getting more information from those drop-off areas.”
“I know.” Tomorrow their lives would again be filled with details, bureaucratic rules and red tape. This time, they sat in the driver’s seat, in control of their future. But for now, she wanted Rick all to herself one more night. “Kiss me.”
He did. And he made such sweet love to her, her body sang like the harmonizing chimes in her garden.