Authors: Rebecca Zanetti
“Why?”
“For a checkup regarding my last surgery.” She tried to tug her foot free, and he held tight. He always
did have an unbreakable hold. Flutters cascaded down her back.
His gaze lifted to meet hers. “How many surgeries have there been?”
She frowned, thinking back. “Five on my leg and three internally to repair fallopian tubes and one
ovary. I lost the other one.” Why lie? She cleared her throat. “Where have you been for five years?”
“No.” He glanced at her exposed knees and cleared his throat. “I ask the questions.”
“You want answers? You provide them, too.” If he insisted on interrogating her, she deserved to have
her curiosity appeased.
He rubbed his whiskers. “I’ve been all over, undercover, trying to take on the commander and get the
kill chips. Can you have kids now?” His gaze remained down.
“Yes.” She probably wouldn’t get the chance to have kids, though. The idea that she’d once almost had
his kid made her heart ache, and deep down she wondered at another chance with Nate. She didn’t want
hope with him—not again. Talk about impossible. “Well, I probably can have kids.”
“I’m glad for you.” His shoulders lowered, his gaze shuttering. “Who is the senator going to recommend
funding this year? What military group?”
Her stomach undulated. When Nate shut her out like that, the entire world turned cold. But she couldn’t
tell him the truth, and he’d sense a half-truth. “I don’t know.”
Her zipper released in record time, and the second boot flew across the room.
“Hey! That wasn’t a lie, damn it.” She kicked out with the now revealed fuzzy pink sock.
“A refusal is the same as a lie.” A frown settled between his brows, and he sat back, his gaze gentling.
“Your socks don’t match, Audrey.” Bemusement and a softness coated his strong voice.
She hunched her shoulders. “I really need to do some laundry, like I said.”
His grin reminded her of the younger Nathan as he ran a warm palm up the calf of her injured leg,
caressing each scar, dimple, and pin. “How many breaks in your leg?”
The question caught her off guard. “Just four,” she said. The sensation of his hand on her after so much
time sent butterflies winging to life below her abdomen. While she wanted to pull away, memories of his
touch scalded her body into electric need.
He massaged her leg, and she fought a low groan. “Stop.”
“Am I hurting you?” he asked, decreasing the pressure, watching her closely, his gaze predatory and
intent. Sexy as sin and twice as dangerous.
“No,” she breathed out. But her muscles were quickly turning to mush, and she needed to be on high
alert with him. Nate had changed, and he probably wasn’t above using seduction to get what he wanted.
Feminine need built inside her, and she took a deep breath to regain control. “How are your brothers?”
His fingers flexed in warning below her knee. “Off-limits.”
Yeah, that hurt. “Fine. Then so is the senator.”
“No.” Nate removed the purple sock, his thumbs skimming her skin. “I like your toenails.”
She shivered and glanced down at the sparkling pink polish. “Give me back my sock.”
“No. How close have Nash and the commander become?” Nate asked, tucking his thumb into her
remaining sock. Even while he remained gentle, his movements were controlling and dangerously sexual.
She’d often wondered about this side of him. Anger and need melded inside her, pooling at the apex of
her thighs. “The commander doesn’t confide in me,” she whispered.
Her other sock flew across the room. “Knock it off, Nate.”
He ran his palms up her knees. “You’re misreading me if you think I won’t take all your clothes, Aud.”
The nickname. He used to whisper it in her ear, late at night, in stolen hours alone. Naked, panting, fully
complete, he’d murmur in that low Southern drawl he usually masked.
She swallowed and fought the charm of sexy memories. “The commander hasn’t told me anything.”
“Yet you know something.”
She had to protect him from her plan. “Nate, I—”
A knock sounded on the door.
Nate jumped up, drawing a gun from the back of his waist. “You expecting anybody?”
“No.” She pushed out of her chair. Fear sizzled into her bloodstream. What would Nate do?
He cuffed her arm with strong fingers and led her through the apartment to the door, where he peered
through the keyhole. Every muscle down his back visibly tightened, and his arms seemed to vibrate.
When he turned toward her, she involuntarily stepped back from the deadly rage glittering in his eyes.
“What?” she asked.
Nate’s face hardened until no expression lived in the dangerous hollows and cut lines. “I’ll be in the
other room. If you say a word about me, or if you try to leave with him, I’ll shoot him dead. I mean it.”
Without another word, he released her, turned on his heel, and stalked into the lone bedroom.
Audrey took a deep breath, her lungs seizing. What in the world? One glance through the keyhole, and
she stopped breathing completely. Oh. Her hand shook when she reached for the doorknob to open the
door. Her biggest enemy and greatest fear stood before her in fatigues and combat boots. She disliked
herself for lying to Nate, but she’d hate herself if she got him killed. Panic threatened to cut off her air even
as she forced on a polite smile. She opened the door. “Good evening, Commander.”
The scent of gardenias surrounded Nate in the sensual bedroom. While Audrey hadn’t decorated the rest
of the apartment, the lone bedroom whispered of her sensuality. A deep purple bedspread, dreamy
paintings of storms over mountains, and antique furniture all showed class and femininity. Two open doors
led to a walk-in closet and attached bath.
The closet looked as if a hurricane had passed through, and discarded clothing littered the floor around
the bed.
He’d forgotten what a slob she was. At the memory, his lips twitched.
Then a voice from his biggest nightmares echoed from the other room. The commander—in the flesh
and close enough to kill. Nate’s system instantly shot into cold, deadly alertness.
He crept forward and cracked the bedroom door open to better see the man who’d ordered his creation.
The bastard hadn’t changed much in twenty years. Tall, lean, and muscular, the emotionless soldier even sat
at attention on Audrey’s floral sofa.
His black hair had turned a steel gray, shaped in a buzz cut as always.
The gun lay heavy against Nate’s back, offering opportunity. His fingers twitched with the need to hold
cold silver and end the man who’d created such a hellacious childhood for Nate’s brothers. But now wasn’t
the time. Not until Nate found the codes to defuse the kill chips, and not until he discovered what had
happened to his youngest brother.
But having the commander sit so close to Audrey heated the breath in Nate’s lungs.
“So these are the other pseudo-military organizations currently vying for funding,” the commander said,
pointing at a series of papers laid out on Audrey’s coffee table. “What do you know about them?”
Audrey leaned forward, her slender face pale. “The NSA decommissioned this one a day ago.” She
tapped her nails on a piece of paper. While she appeared calm, Nate could hear her heart racing and a
stressed tenor in her voice.
Would the commander notice?
Apparently Audrey understood that being allies with the commander wouldn’t guarantee her safety if
she screwed up. So why would the woman align with him? Nate rubbed his chin, trying to make sense of
the situation.
The commander glanced at her. “Why did the NSA get involved with that organization?”
She shrugged. “Failure to complete several covert operations that almost brought attention to the
States.”
A satisfied gleam filled the commander’s eyes. “Good. Were they also operating outside of the U.S.’s
military reach?”
“No. You’re the only organization, as far as I know, that considers the United States as merely a client.
Of course, our military and political leaders have no idea about that.” While she kept her expression bland,
a bite echoed in her words.
The commander nodded as if he hadn’t noticed the tone. “What about these other two groups?”
“They’re in the running for funding from the subcommittee,” Audrey said.
The commander anchored her arm. “We put you in place to prevent that.”
Nate felt a growl low in his belly at the sight of the commander touching Audrey. Even now, he wanted
her away from the sadistic monster. So when she patted the commander’s arm, all feeling left Nate’s legs.
Audrey chuckled. “The senator is on board with your plan and realizes your organization can
accomplish much more than the other two. I believe he will be able to convince the remaining members of
the subcommittee to earmark all of the funds for you. Don’t worry, Franklin.”
Franklin
? She fucking called him by his first name? Who the hell was this woman, and how could Nate
have been so wrong about her?
“Good.” The commander brushed the papers into a pile and pointed to something on the top page. “The
base out of North Carolina run by this group is going to experience a gas explosion late tomorrow that will
put them out of commission, so they’ll be out of the running.”
Audrey pursed her lips and slid a paper from the bottom. “So that leaves TechnoZyn Corporation and
the Red Force group that’s headquartered in Florida.”
The commander chuckled. “Such amateurs. A computer company and
Red Force
. Having a name is a
bad idea, and choosing a stupid one is ridiculous.”
Audrey nodded. “I have a dinner date with Darian Hannah tomorrow night, and I’ll find out more about
them.”
Nate stilled.
The commander’s gray eyebrow arched. “He’s the newly hired lobbyist for the group?”
“We believe so,” Audrey said.
“Who arranged the meeting?” the commander asked.
Audrey leaned back. “He’s been asking me to dinner for about a month.”
Approval lifted the commander’s thin lips. “Smart to make him wait. Is the dinner a personal or
business meeting?”
“I think he wants both.”
“Sometimes you remind me so much of your mother,” the commander said, his tone flat and factual, as
if making a business observation.
Fury roared through Nate.
Regret tinged Audrey’s smile. “Genetics do shape us.”
“Absolutely. I’ll report back to your mother what a wonderful job you’re doing here. She advocated
your assignment, while I had doubts. I’m pleased she was right.” The commander gathered his papers
together.
“Thank you.” Audrey reached for a piece of paper that had fallen onto the floor. “I owed her and you.”
“Yes, you did.” The commander stood and tucked his papers at his side. “The doctors did an amazing
job healing you. Sometimes I forget how badly you were injured when I see you thriving like this, working
so hard for our cause.”
His
cause
? Nate rubbed a hand through his hair. He shoved an image of Audrey, broken and hurt, down
in his mind.
Audrey stood up. “I’ll find out from Darian Hannah what he and Red Force have planned, and more
importantly, what they know about you.” She retrieved a pillow from a chair to replace on the sofa. “I’m
sure they don’t know a thing.”
“Good. I’d hate to think they know about any of our experiments,” the commander muttered.
Nate swallowed several times. The woman really was working with the commander. While Nate had
suspected her complicity, deep down, he’d hoped he was wrong. That Audrey was an unwilling victim
somehow. How had she become so lost in five years? Did she think Nate was just an
experiment
?
Only thoughtfulness colored Audrey’s tone. “Don’t worry, I’ll find out what Darian knows.”
Anger glinted in the commander’s black eyes. “Do what you have to do and report back to me Thursday
morning.” He all but marched to the door.
“I have my last doctor’s appointment on Thursday and will request to see you afterward.” Audrey
escorted him, her head barely coming to the commander’s shoulder.
“Excellent.” The commander paused and turned. “How was the fund-raiser the other night?”
Audrey’s heartbeat increased in tempo, and Nate winced in the bedroom. “It was fine. Why?” she asked,
her tone merely curious and in a direct contrast to the blood whooshing through her veins. But the
commander couldn’t hear that, now, could he?
“I had several friends there, and they said you disappeared. Where did you go?” The commander
stepped slightly into her space.
Nate tensed, ready to leap.
Audrey chuckled. “The party became boring and I walked to ease the cramp in my leg. After the pain
eased, I came home.”
She was a damn good liar.
Nate’s breath heated and his lungs seized. The sense of loss threatened to swamp him, so he welcomed
the tide of hot, fierce anger rising in him. With anger came control, as only a bastard with no soul could
manage. His fingers twitched with the need to kill the commander, so he placed a hand against the wall to