Beyond Limits (23 page)

She glanced at the clock. The room was gray. Light seeped through the gap in the curtains, and she looked at Derek again. He lay on his stomach with his head turned away, but the slow rise and fall of his torso told her he was sound asleep.

She watched him breathing, still dazed by what had happened. He’d woken her up again and again, as if he couldn’t get enough of her. Four times in three hours. She hadn’t known men were capable of that. At least, not with her.

In the privacy of the dim light, she sat up and allowed herself to really look at him unguarded for the first time. She studied his muscled arms, his wide shoulders, the deep valley of his spine, where she saw the faint scratches she’d made with her fingernails. He had a scar on his back that she hadn’t noticed before, a diagonal slash beneath his left shoulder blade that had to have been made by a knife.

Her blood chilled. Had he gotten it in training? Or in hand-to-hand combat with someone who actually wanted him dead? The thought of it made her heart squeeze. She silently slipped out of bed and reached for her crumpled blouse on the floor.

He moved and she froze, holding her breath as he turned onto his back with a heavy sigh. His eyelids didn’t even flutter—he was still out cold. She picked up her blouse and took a moment to stare at his strong jaw, his perfect mouth, his scruffy beard, which she now knew could send shivers over her most sensitive skin.

She crept into the bathroom, eased the door shut, and switched on the light. Whoa. She cringed at her reflection. She looked as though she’d been up way too late having way too much fun—which she had.

The last time she’d shared a hotel room with Derek, she’d woken up horribly hungover—parched throat, headache, dizziness, the whole thing. She felt the same way now, even though she hadn’t had a drop of alcohol. So, a sex hangover. Another first for her.

Four times
. Maybe for him it was normal, but for her it was . . . unexpected. Surprising.

Maybe even life-altering.

She turned on the shower and climbed under the steaming-hot spray, careful to keep her bandage from getting wet. She hoped the shower would revitalize her, since ten minutes of sleep hadn’t done the trick. Her legs were sore. And her mouth. As she slathered soap on herself, she discovered a hickey on the swell of her right breast. God, when was the last time that had happened? Derek didn’t just have sex, he had
sex
, with the same relentless intensity he did everything else.

As the water sluiced over her, she realized she was ravenous. He had to be hungry, too, and she thought about inviting him to breakfast. But maybe that was too relationship-y.

’Morning, sweetie. How about an omelet?
She imagined him sitting across the table from her, his big hand curved around a coffee cup. She imagined watching him eat pancakes while she remembered him kissing her and licking her and . . . there was no way she could sit across from him ever again and not think about all the ways he’d touched her.

Suddenly, her brain snapped awake. She couldn’t take him to breakfast. What was she thinking? She couldn’t take him anywhere. Gordon’s orders last night had been to get him in or get him in custody. As in arrest him if needed. As in do not stop for sex or pancakes or Starbucks lattes. She needed to get him up and out of her hotel room so he could deliver himself to the office, pronto, to provide the statement he should have provided last night. He needed to document his evening from start to finish, from his underwater discovery to his interview with the dancer. And please, God, omitting the part where he sneaked into an FBI agent’s hotel room and set her off like a firework.

Four times.

She jumped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. She cracked the door to the bedroom to let the steam escape as she hurriedly dragged a brush through her hair. She could dry it later, after she got Derek up and moving. She stepped from the bathroom and looked at the bed.

Empty.

Her stomach dropped as she glanced around. His boots were gone. His jeans were gone, his T-shirt, his belt, his socks. Every sign of him had vanished, even the condom wrappers that had littered the nightstand, and she stood there, stunned, in her too-small bath towel.

He’d gone without a word. Without a kiss. She scanned the room. He hadn’t even left a note on the dresser.

Tears stung her eyes. But she refused to go to the window, refused to allow him to catch a glimpse of her peering through the curtains looking for him.

She went back into the bathroom and brushed her hair again, more slowly this time. She should have seen this coming. Escape and evasion. One of his specialties. He probably did this with all the women he slept with. Why would she be any different?

Her phone
ding
ed, and she felt a pitiful burst of hope as she rushed to pick it up. She saw a slew of messages from Lauren and Torres and even Potter—who’d texted her three times. Nothing from Derek, though. And nothing from Gordon, either.

A sharp rap on the door had her looking up. For a moment, she didn’t move. More rapping, and she could tell it was a man, although she knew it wasn’t Derek. The SEAL who’d slipped into her hotel room like smoke wouldn’t come pounding on her door in broad daylight, loud enough to wake the dead. She threw on some workout clothes as her phone
ding
ed again with yet another message. She ignored it and answered the door.

“Where’s your phone?” Potter demanded. “I’ve been texting you.”

He stood there in his perfect pinstripes, a Starbucks cup already in hand, and she fought the urge to slam the door in his face.

“I don’t usually text from the shower. What’s up?”

“We found Matt Palicek,” he informed her.

“Great. Where was he?”

“
Not
great. He’s in the morgue.”

Matt Palicek’s apartment was swarming with law enforcement—Houston PD, FBI, there was even a sheriff’s cruiser. Derek spotted Elizabeth’s white rental car at the far corner of the parking lot beside Potter’s Taurus.

After cleaning up at his folks’ place and wolfing down some breakfast, Derek had finally made it to the FBI field office to recount the previous day’s events ad nauseam. He’d also filled out paperwork and answered questions from a bunch of suits, including Elizabeth’s friend Lauren, who’d relayed the not-so-surprising news that Matt Palicek had turned up dead last night. His Avalanche still hadn’t been found.

Derek pulled his pickup into a space and watched the crowd of cops in his rearview mirror. His mission here was twofold. One, glean some useful intel about Ameen’s dead accomplice. And two, talk to Elizabeth. As he got out and scanned the scene, he knew the second part of his mission was going to be tougher than the first.

He spotted Jimmy Torres eyeing him from beside a stairwell leading to what he assumed was the victim’s apartment. Derek walked over.

“How’s it going?” he asked amiably, although he knew for a fact that Torres didn’t like him. Some of that was just the usual territorial bullshit, but he was protective of Elizabeth in a way Derek didn’t much like.

“It’s going.”

“Lauren said I’d find Elizabeth around here. You seen her?”

“She’s inside.” He jerked his head toward the stairwell, where two agents were tromping up. They wore dark blue windbreakers with yellow letters on the back:
FBI
.

“Where’d they find the body?” Derek asked.

Torres watched him silently, probably deciding whether to tell him anything. Derek returned his stare and waited for him to realize that if it weren’t for Derek’s legwork, they wouldn’t even have this guy, not to mention any new leads on Ameen.

“In a ditch off the Southwest Freeway,” Torres told him. “HPD got the call about five. He had his wallet on him, ID inside.”

“Murder weapon?”

“Something high-caliber, maybe a forty-five. We’ll know more after the autopsy.”

“Any sign of the gun?”

“Nope.” Torres glanced up as a pair of agents came down the stairs. Still no Elizabeth. “Could have belonged to the vic, though. He has a big cache up there, all the serial numbers filed off.”

“I’d like to have a look.”

“It’s all tagged and bagged.” Torres pulled out his phone and brought up a digital picture.

The photo showed a row of guns lined up on the carpet, presumably in Palicek’s living room. He had an array of pistols, some short-barrel shotguns, half a dozen machine guns.

Derek looked at Torres. “That a Honey Badger?”

“Yep. Fully automatic,” Torres said, reading Derek’s mind.

“You got a picture of this guy?”

Torres flipped to another photo, and this one looked like a mug shot. “This is Palicek. He got popped for drunk driving a couple years ago.”

“Mind sending it to me?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

More footsteps on the stairs, and Derek glanced up to see Elizabeth. She looked quite a bit different from when he’d last seen her, starting with the fact that she wasn’t naked. She wore a crisp white blouse, and her look today was all business. Her gaze landed on him as she reached the sidewalk.

“Are you here to give a statement?” she asked.

“Already gave it back at your office.” He studied her face, trying to read her expression. “You have a minute?”

“Sure.”

He followed her across the lot to her car. She tossed her purse inside and turned to face him. Her hair was pulled back in a smooth ponytail, not a strand out of place.

“What are you doing here?” she asked coolly.

“Information gathering.”

She cast a look over his shoulder. Clearly, she didn’t want her boss to see him here.

“I hear he has a pretty good stash up there,” he said. “Any idea who his gun connection is?”

“We’re working on it. I can’t really talk right now, though. I have to go.”

“Where?”

“The office. I may have a lead on where Ameen’s been staying, but I need to run down the details.”

Derek held her gaze. Silence stretched out until he could tell she wasn’t thinking about the case anymore. “Sorry about earlier,” he said.

“Forget it.” She looked away.

“Your phone was going crazy on the table, and I figured someone was going to show up looking for you. I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

“It’s fine.”

Still no eye contact, and he knew it definitely
wasn’t
fine. The hot, eager sex goddess from last night was long gone, replaced by this buttoned-up federal agent who wouldn’t even look at him.

He eased closer so she had no choice but to lift her gaze or stare straight at his chest. “I want to see you tonight.”

“I’ll probably have to work late.”

“After work. Whenever you’re done. I’ll take you to dinner.”

“Tonight’s going to be really busy.”

“Tomorrow, then.”

Something sparked in her eyes, but then they went cold again. “Tomorrow’s busy, too.”

“So what, then? That’s it?”

“Derek—” She blew out a sigh. “Aren’t you leaving in a few days?”

“Yeah. In the meantime, I want to see you.”

“I’m busy.”

“I want to see you when you’re not busy. It can be late. After your work wraps.”

She shook her head and glanced away.

“Liz, look at me.”

She did.

“Last night was incredible.”

She turned away.

“We were off the charts together,” he said, and she still wouldn’t look at him. “If you tell me you don’t want that again, you’re flat-out lying.”

“Derek—”

“
Look
at me.”

“Fine. God.” She looked up at him now, eyes blazing, and he saw a glimpse of the woman he’d had sex with all night.

He still couldn’t believe it. It was like she just ignited right there in his arms, and he had to keep putting the fire out, again and again.

“Let me ask you something,” she said now. “How do you see this playing out?”

Okay. Clearly, she wasn’t feeling so fiery at the moment. She was in analysis mode.

“I’ve got six days left,” he said patiently. “I plan to spend them working on this case, same as you. But when we’re not working, I want to spend time with you. Alone.”

“And then?”

“And then I’ve got an eight-week training cycle.” And after that, he was going to come straight back to Texas to see her again.

She was gazing up at him now, but he couldn’t read her expression. She shook her head and glanced across the parking lot. “Derek—”

“Derek
what
? Spit it out.”

“You don’t understand.”

“What don’t I understand?”

“Forget it.”

“No. Tell me.”

“I’m not like you.” She glared at him. “I can’t have sex with someone over and over without getting attached. I’m not wired that way. And I know you’re not looking for . . . attachments. So I don’t see the point.”

“Attachments as in a relationship?”

“Yes.”

The R-word should have been a big red stop sign, but he kept going. “Are
you
looking for a relationship?”

“I don’t know—maybe. Certainly not with you!”

He drew back, stung. “Well, shit. Tell me what you really think.”

She glanced away, shaking her head again, and anger welled in his chest. The rational part of his brain told him to let it go. Now wasn’t the time to argue with her. They were both sleep-deprived and stressed and surrounded by other people, and he knew he shouldn’t get offended, but God damn it, he couldn’t help it.

“I’m not relationship material. Is that what you’re saying?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re not
here
. That’s what I’m saying. You’re gone all the time—off on training missions or overseas. And when you are here, you slip into my hotel room at three in the morning and then sneak out at sunrise, and that’s not a relationship.”

“I knew you were pissed about that.”

“Fine! Yes, I’m pissed. You made me feel sleazy and . . . forgettable.”

Forgettable. The hurt look in her eyes was like a knife in his gut. She had no idea how amazingly
un
forgettable she was to him.