Night Shadow (15 page)

being transported from pil ar to post for reasons that had yet to be

identified.

He glanced up from the report he was reading on his handheld and met

Lexi’s eyes. She sat at one end of a long leather sofa, he at the other.

Daklin, Kiersted, Ginsberg, and the returned Lu were all seated in the vast

room of the safe house. Even though dawn was breaking, they were each

focused on an element of the op, and intent on reading the intel on their

monitors.

There’d been little conversation for the hours after the meal Daklin had

volunteered to cook. Lexi had offered to prep whatever Daklin needed.

She didn’t complain by word or deed that she was doing scut work. She’d

chopped, Daklin had cooked. Kiersted kept the coffeepot filled. Alex

cleaned up afterward. Everyone had done their part.

Alex continued to feed the fire, and through it al , tried to figure what the

fuck it was about
this
op, at
this
time that made the back of his neck itch.

A short time later, the smel of strong coffee, and dinner’s gril ed steak

and onions, mingled with the scent of the hickory logs crackling in the

fireplace. The scene appeared peaceful, relaxed. Yet the very air sparked

with tension as the team tried to match il -fitting pieces of the puzzle

together into a cohesive picture that might indicate what the master plan

was.

If he reached out, Alex would be able to stroke the arch of Lexi’s bare

foot, which rested tantalizingly on the leather sofa just a few feet away

from his hip. Wearing light gray sweats the exact color of her eyes, she

was stretched out, her neck against the rol ed arm of the sofa, her bare

feet crossed at the ankles, a laptop perched on a cushion on her lap. Her

cheeks were flushed from the warmth of the fire.

Even though there was no fragrance to the soap in the bathroom where

they’d all taken turns showering earlier, he could smel her skin. Not floral,

nor fruity, something uniquely Lexi. Alex could almost taste her flavor on

his tongue. He rubbed his hand around the ache in the back of his neck.

What in God’s name was he missing?

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Night Shadow

“We should call it a night,” he told the others. “Tackle it fresh in the

morning with fresh eyes.”

Seated at the dining room table with two laptops, a thermos of coffee, and

the last quarter of a steak sandwich he’d built an hour after dinner, Daklin

glanced at his watch. “It’s practically morning now—Holy crap! Stone, take

a look at this.”

Alex and Lexi rose simultaneously. Daklin’s gaze connected with Alex. He

shook his head and smiled. “The name thing saves time.” “Doesn’t it

though? What do you have?” He sat in a chair beside the other man.

Daklin turned the monitor of one laptop so Alex had a better view.

“Wait. I want to see as wel ,” Lexi said, pushing in to stand beside Alex.

“Hang on, can you move—Yeah. Okay. Now I can see.”

“Do I need to get up?” Ginsberg asked, not removing his eyes from his

monitor. His fingers flew across the keys and he chewed an unlit cigar in

the corner of his mouth. Lu had his unlit cigarettes, Ginsberg his cigars.

Some habits were hard to break. As long as Alex didn’t see a match near

either, he was fine with it.

“What are we looking at?” he asked as Daklin manipulated the keys on his

keyboard to share a split-screen image with him.

“The first screen is a still shot taken right after the London bombing. Who

does this guy look like to you?”

“Alex,” Lexi answered excitedly. “He looks exactly like a younger Alex.

Holy shit. He’s the same guy I fought in Rio.”

“Or was
this
the guy in Rio?” Daklin keyed in another screen. The second

doppelgänger was dressed identically to the first. They weren’t mirror

images. They were indistinguishable.

“Same guy,” Alex said grimly. “Ditto,” he said as a third image came up.

Lexi leaned in, putting a hand on his shoulder for balance. Silky strands of

her bright hair brushed his face. Her hair smel ed of honey. Her low

“Hmm” shot hot and straight to his stomach like a slug of tequila.

Not the time for this. Not the fucking time!

“I would have been pretty damned precocious if I’d started having sex and

making children at fifteen or sixteen.” His voice was gruff. He was as

aroused by Lexi’s nearness as if they’d been having foreplay all day.

Damn good thing he was seated. It was going to be uncomfortable all

around if he had to stand anytime soon. He was as hard as the table.

“Zoom in.” Her warm breath smel ed of the coffee she’d been drinking.

Alex wanted to taste it on her tongue.

Daklin’s finger hesitated above the keys. “Faces?”

When she shook her head filaments of her hair clung to the bristle on

Alex’s cheek. He froze, his heart careening around his chest as if she were

the first girl he’d ever been aware of.

“See how close you can get to their left arms.” The
tattoo.
Of course.

Alex’s sense sharpened as Daklin manipulated the three images until they

could see the guys’ left arms and the series of lines and numbers.

“Please, please don’t take us back to Los Alamos,” Lexi whispered under

her breath.

“Jesus,” Alex said, stunned as the three images came into sharp focus.

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Night Shadow

Al three of the bar codes were different.

Not one doppelgänger.

Three.

Nine

Lexi chose the smallest bedroom on the opposite side of the house near

the kitchen. It had probably been servant’s quarters original y, more a

closet with a bed in it than an actual room. The guys had all offered to

switch, but there was something comforting about smal spaces, so she’d

declined.

Three of the men had gone to their rooms to catch what little sleep the

night offered. Given the implications, this op had the potential to blow

sky-high. The question wasn’t if, but
when.

On the way back from the bathroom, she heard the low hum of voices

from the living room.

She recognized Daklin’s low tones, but she didn’t need to
hear
Alex’s voice

to know he was close. Her body seemed to have developed Alex-dar, a

sense of his location that shimmied through her in palpable waves

whenever they were within a mile of one another. The closer he got, the

more she . . . pulsed.

Lexi glanced into the room as she passed. The fire had died down to red

embers, and most of the lights were off. Just the pendant light stil shone

over the men’s heads as they sat, talking quietly at the dining table. The

computer monitors were dark, and the men didn’t look as though they

were talking business. Just two friends, drinking coffee and shooting the

breeze in the early hours.

A ridiculous twinge of jealousy seized her as she passed through the dark

kitchen and opened the door to her room. She wanted to be the one

talking with Alex in low tones in the loneliest part of the night. While she

wanted to dismiss the fatal attraction she had for the man as an

adrenaline overload from her first op, Lexi rarely lied to herself. Her

memory was too powerful to let her get away with it. The truth was, she

was halfway in love with him, no matter how foolish, or il -advised, or

against T-FLAC guidelines it might be.

“Dipshit,” she whispered to herself as she undressed in the flickering red

neon glow bleeding through the flimsy curtains from the hotel sign across

the street. Maybe she was like some stupid ingenue in a play, fal ing in

love with her leading man? Actresses did it all the time.

No. She was too pragmatic and sensible to believe for a moment that she

could ever change and become flighty and irresponsible just because the

man she worked with was physical y appealing. Her attraction to Alex was

one thing, acting on these feelings another. She was a brand new

operative on her first assignment. She’d do nothing to jeopardize that.

And
she had to report any questionable behavior to IA. Instead of being

neatly black-and-white, her interest in him colored this situation in a

never-ending palette of grays. The linoleum floor was cold under her bare

feet. The room was just as chil y and she rubbed the goose bumps on her

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Night Shadow

arms as she hung her clothes neatly over a straight-backed chair in the

corner.

She was a bit like a dog chasing a car. Yeah. That was a better analogy

than the moonstruck young actress idea.

Stripped down to men’s boxers and a tank top, Lexi crawled between the

so-cold-they-felt-damp sheets in the narrow twin bed and curled into a

ball. She preferred sleeping nude, but over the course of her training

she’d learned that naked wasn’t conducive to leaving at a moment’s

notice. And working with a team—usually consisting of mostly men—

meant that any one of them could and would haul her ass out of bed if she

were needed. She had to be ready for anything.

She’d considered drawing the blackout curtains beneath the others, but if

it was too dark, she’d sleep too hard. Lexi sighed. Rol ed over. Curled up.

Straightened out. Sighed and turned over the other way.

Red blink. Flicker. Red blink. Blackness. Red blink. Flicker. Red blink.

Flicker. Argh! Damn neon. She pulled the pillow over her head. She had to

get some sleep to be fresh for whatever happened next.

She rol ed over. What were Alex and Daklin talking about? They’d closed

down the session half an hour ago after contacting the techies in Montana.

Alex had requested a program for an algorithm to analyze and extrapolate

information from the partial bar codes on the three men’s arms. The tech

department guys would work all night, which gave the team a few hours

of shut-eye they all badly needed.

Lexi tried to unclench her muscles and relax. Too much coffee. Too much

adrenaline. Not enough Alex. And a cold bed. The sheets would warm up

in a few minutes and she’d—Was that a soft knock at her door? Her heart

lurched hard against her breastbone. She bolted upright, the pillow over

her face sliding to the floor as she tossed the covers aside and jumped out

of bed.

And he was there. A large, predatory male, teleported two feet in front of

her as if she’d made a wish upon a star. Lexi stopped dead in her tracks

as hot and cold shivers ran through her body. For a moment, the red neon

light il uminated Alex’s unyielding features. His need was palpable. She

saw his desire, his hunger in the taut planes of his face, and she forgot

how to breathe.

Wordlessly, he closed the gap between them in one long stride. He

plunged his fingers into her shower-damp hair with a rough sound of

passion. Lexi’s body slammed into his as he drew her up on her toes,

bringing her mouth up to his in a punishing kiss that sucked the air from

the room and left her ears in a vacuum. He didn’t ask, he took, his mouth

hot and ravaging as his tongue sought hers. Lexi whimpered, head

spinning, heart ballistic.

He tasted of coffee and a stark hunger that mirrored her own. Her fingers

fisted in the front of his T-shirt as his tongue dueled with hers, hot and

hard. She felt the hard thump of his heart pounding beneath her hands as

she met and matched him in fervor. Stil kissing her, he shoved her

against the wall with a hard thump, even though the bed was mere feet

away.

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Night Shadow

Lexi wrapped a leg around his hips to hold him close, grinding her soft,

damp core against the hard length of his erection. She almost came right

there.

He freed one hand from her hair, sliding his palm down her throat and

across her chest, then curled his fingers around her breast. Cupping the

ful weight in his palm he pinched the erect nipple, making Lexi arch her

back as pure sensation flooded her entire body. He lifted her as if she

weighed nothing. She whimpered as their lips were roughly pulled apart.

She reached for him, grabbed hold of his broad shoulders for balance as

he buried his face between her breasts, then turned his head and closed

his mouth over her nipple through the thin cotton of her tank top.

The hard, hot pul as he sucked caused a shudder of pleasure to travel

from her head to her toes in rippling waves. Her nails dug into his skin as

his teeth closed over her hardened nipple. She shuddered with the sharp

pleasure of the smal pain.

She realized that he was suddenly naked. She wanted to be the same

way. But she didn’t want him to stop what he was doing.