Kill Shot (27 page)

“Gabe,” she cried out, locking her legs
around him and arching into him as her orgasm started from the tips
of her toes and the top of her scalp and then raced like lightning
across her skin until she exploded into a million pieces of
pleasure.

He shouted her name as he came inside of her
and buried his face against her neck. The last thing she thought as
she drifted off to sleep was that it was nice to finally be home.
She’d missed it.

***

They didn’t speak much over the next two
days. There was no need for words. But they touched often and made
love as if their lives depended on bringing each other
pleasure.

“We’re going to eventually have to go
downstairs,” Gabe said, skimming his fingers down the gentle slope
of her breast and watching in fascination as her nipple hardened
under his touch.

“Jack will let us know if Ethan gets a lock
on the auction. We’re just waiting at this point. We don’t even
know for sure that his scientist was able to recreate The Passover
Project. There haven’t been reports of other testing sites.”

“That’s what worries me. It’ll be much
harder to isolate The Passover Project as a murder weapon if it’s
only killing one person instead of many. I’ve got Ethan looking for
high-profile unexplained deaths.”

He pulled the sheet down so she was
completely exposed to him. God, she was beautiful, and he felt
himself start to get hard again. He should be exhausted, but found
he suddenly had energy to spare.

“Can I ask you something?” Grace said.

Gabe could tell by the tone of her voice
that the topic was something she’d rather not have to talk about.
He rolled to his back and pulled her on top of him, loving the feel
of her hair as it slid like silk over his chest.

“I’m serious, Gabe. This is important.”

“You can ask me whatever you want and I’ll
give it to you. I’m desperate here.” He held her hips and
positioned her over his cock, using the pressure of his fingers to
push her down. But she held steady above him, not letting him get
what he wanted just yet.

“Do you think we can get married again?”

He froze in his attempts and looked up to
see if she was serious. Her face was flushed with a combination of
desire and embarrassment, and she wouldn’t quite meet his gaze.

“I know it’s probably not necessary at this
point, but I thought—”

“You’re right. It’s not necessary.”

He tried not to smile at the disappointed
look that came over her face, and he held her steady on top of him
when she tried to go back to her side of the bed. The nightstand
that sat next to the bed held a number of important things he
always wanted to have on hand. His gun was one of them. His wedding
ring the other.

Gabe sat up and pulled the drawer open.
Grace struggled against him in earnest now, and he held her in
place with one arm as he felt around inside the drawer for what he
was looking for. He pulled the silver chain out and held it up in
front of her face so she’d see the wide silver band that dangled
from it.

The band was plain, with no adornments, and
he always wore it around his neck because it was too dangerous to
wear a ring in the field. She froze in his arms, and her eyes
widened in shock.

“Where’s yours?” he asked.

“I threw it away, you jerk.”

She punched him in the arm and struggled to
get out of his lap once again, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

“Like hell you did,” he said, adjusting her
legs around his waist so he could slide deep inside of her. She
inhaled sharply at his intrusion, and her breasts rubbed against
his chest with every shuddering breath she took. He held perfectly
still and kept his fingers clamped to her hips like a vise so she
couldn’t move.

“Where is it, Grace? I know you still have
it.”

“In the bottom compartment of my rifle
case,” she finally said.

Gabe gave a crack of laughter and then
groaned as it made him move inside her. He stood up and held onto
her as he made his way to the kitchen table where her rifle case
sat.

“Put me down, Gabe. Why are you doing this?”
she asked, struggling against him. “If you don’t want to get
married again, it’s not a big deal.”

He sat her down on the table and pinned her
thighs when she tried to push away from him. Tears glittered in her
eyes along with an angry fire that would get him a right hook in
the jaw if he wasn’t careful. He took her mouth in a slow deep kiss
and stroked inside of her once—twice—until she was pliant in his
arms.

“I never said I didn’t want to get married
again. I just said it wasn’t necessary.” He found her ring, a
smaller replica of his own also hanging from a sturdy silver chain,
in the bottom compartment of her rifle case. “Because we’re still
married.”

“Wha—”

“I see you’re speechless for once.” He
fastened the chain around her neck and kissed her again. “I’m sorry
to say it, but I shredded your divorce papers.”

She laughed and threw her arms around him in
sheer joy. “I love you, Gabe. Thank you for not giving up on
me.”

“My pleasure, sweetheart.”

Gabe kissed her again, and her legs
tightened around his waist while his shook with desire. He didn’t
think he’d be able to make it back to the bed, so he lowered them
to the carpet and laid flat on his back. She was like a goddess
above him—her head thrown back in surrender and his ring flashing
like fire as she rode him with complete abandon. All thoughts of
control were lost as he felt her clamp around him and cry out his
name. All he could do was follow.

“I found your test subject,” Ethan yelled
through the door, pounding against it just to make sure he was
heard.

“We’ll meet you downstairs,” Gabe called
back, grabbing for his pants.

“I guess it’s back to work,” Grace said. “I
want to help, Gabe. I know I disappointed the team before, but I
can still do something.”

He looked at her long and hard, but she’d
put her shields back in place, and he couldn’t see any hint of the
vulnerability he thought he’d heard in her voice.

“I can’t make any promises.”

She nodded in understanding, and he breathed
a sigh of relief. They dressed quickly in black cargos and matching
T-shirts, arming themselves to go one floor below just as if they
were going out on a mission. Old habits were hard to break.

“You two look rested,” Jack said lazily as
they entered the second floor off the main staircase.

Grace ignored Jack and went to stand over
Ethan’s shoulder, and Jack and Gabe shared a silent look. She
hadn’t spoken to Jack at all since she’d been rescued from Kimball.
Part of her was embarrassed that he’d seen her so out of control,
Gabe knew, but another part of her was hurt that he didn’t back her
up when Gabe told her to leave Iran. They’d work it out eventually,
but there was tension in the air. Only Ethan seemed oblivious to
the fact.

Jack was straddling a chair and playing a
game of solitaire on the coffee table while Logan was working in
the protected area they’d set up for him so he could safely play
with explosive materials. He wore clear goggles and seemed to be
concentrating intently on his task, but Gabe knew he’d heard every
word since they’d walked in.

“What do you have, Ethan?” Gabe asked.

“Check out screen one.” Ethan pulled up
files from his computer and displayed them on the wall screen.
“Speaker of the House William Sloane was speaking at a college
about job growth in front of a crowd of more than three thousand
people when he suddenly fell ill and collapsed on stage. The
paramedics on scene originally thought it was cardiac arrest, which
I guess technically it was if you’re talking about all your organs
turning into soup.”

“Ethan,” Gabe said, tiredly. “Stay
focused.”

“Right.” Ethan put up photos of varying
states of Sloane’s body as the evening progressed on screen two.
“Sloane was still conscious and communicating as they airlifted him
to the hospital. By the time they were halfway there, the medics
stated in their report that he began to bleed profusely from his
ears, nose, and mouth. Sloane was dead by the time they
landed.”

“I guess Kimball is getting rid of his
competition,” Jack said. “He’s not going to want anyone around who
knows what The Passover Project is capable of.”

Ethan brought up another screen that had
nothing but jumbled letters and numbers on it, and he typed in a
long series of codes until words formed. He was locked into the
investigating agent’s computer, reading his report even as the man
was adding to it.

“Homeland Security has already filed
Sloane’s death as top-level security and they’re testing the body,
or what’s left of it, as we speak,” Ethan said. “They’ve searched
his home and office, but Sloane wasn’t stupid. They won’t find what
they’re looking for, and if Kimball’s scientist recreated The
Passover Project in its entirety, then the doctors testing Sloane’s
body will find no trace of what killed him.”

“If Homeland Security looks hard enough,
they’ll find Sloane’s ties to Standridge. There are too many
connections between his corporations and the experiments. Even his
interest in Frank Bennett. They’ll know he was involved in
something he shouldn’t have been.” It was the first time Grace had
spoken since they’d come downstairs.

“Every file you could think of that might
possibly lead the agents investigating in the right direction has
been wiped clean,” Ethan said.

“They’ll bury Sloane as a damned hero,” Jack
said, tossing down his cards and standing up to join them in front
of the screen. “And no one will ever know that the man who was
third in line for the Presidency was a terrorist. He would have had
control of the world in just a matter of years.”

“Now that honor belongs to Kimball,” Ethan
said.

“Not if we get to him first,” Gabe said.
“And the end justifies the means. We know the kind of man Sloane
was, and he’s paid in full for his crimes. We’ve got to focus on
Kimball. What have you got on possible auction sites?” he asked
Ethan.

Ethan cleared the three screens of Sloane’s
death and went back to work at his computer. “I know Kimball has
got something in the works. I tapped into his secure phone line and
have been piggybacking his calls since I couldn’t eavesdrop through
conventional means, and I’ve deciphered his code enough to know
that the auction will take place in three days at sunset. What I
don’t know is where it’s going to be.”

“What are the options?” Grace asked. “And do
you know who’s going to be in attendance?”

“I’m putting the list of attendees up on
screen one, though I’m not a hundred percent sure that’s
everyone.”

A list of eight names came on the
screen—seven men and one woman—and Jack let out a low whistle. “No,
that pretty much looks like everyone. The ones on this list are the
only ones who could afford to meet Kimball’s price.”

Gabe took Grace’s hand when he saw Tussad’s
name on the list, and she gently squeezed his fingers in
reassurance.

“They’ll want to see a demonstration,” Logan
said. “Sloane’s death won’t be proof enough for them because the
details have been covered up. They’ll demand to see what it can
actually do. The auction site will have to be secure for several
hours so they can see the weapon work from start to finish.”

“And they’ll want to be comfortable,” Grace
said. “The people on this list won’t give up creature comforts for
that long. They’ll expect to be wined and dined and given proper
accommodations. It’ll be like a damned summit meeting for
terrorists.”

“The first possible location is in Kiev,”
Ethan said.

“No,” Gabe and Grace said together.

“Alexi Sokolov has a home in Kiev,” Gabe
explained. “He’s on your guest list. Kimball won’t show partiality
by making the auction in one of the attendees’ hometowns. It needs
to be neutral territory.”

“Ooookay,” Ethan said. “Here are the other
two options.”

The wall screens filled with information and
photographs, and they all took in the information, processing what
they knew about Kimball and the rest of his guests.

“India or Morocco,” Jack said. “What do you
think, Gabe? I know you know enough about all of these guys to have
formed impressions.”

“Ethan, do a search for property acquired in
the last two weeks, either as a rental or a purchase,” Gabe said.
“In Morocco,” he added. “Kimball will have purchased it after his
scientist had completed the weapon. He’ll want opulence that
borders on ostentatious because this is the first time he’s meeting
these people as an equal. He’s always worked for them before, and
he’ll want to show off a bit. Eliminate anything worth less than
five million American.”

“Run a second check on staff,” Grace
said.

Ethan looked at her in confusion, and she
explained. “If he’s hosting an event of this magnitude, then he’ll
need a well-trained staff as well as security. They’ll need to know
how to keep their mouths shut, but they’ll need to be excellent at
their jobs. Check and see where William Sloane’s staff is now. That
would be the easiest transition. Not to mention they’ll all be
terrified to go against Kimball after seeing what he did to their
boss.”

“I knew there was a good reason for you to
be here, Red,” Jack said, pulling at her braid. “You know all about
that womanly stuff.”

Gabe knew that was as close to an apology as
Jack would ever make, and he could tell Grace knew it too by the
way she patted Jack on the arm in response.

“Bingo on both accounts,” Ethan said. “A
twelve bedroom villa was purchased in Tangier eleven days ago. Paid
with an electronic fund transfer from an account in the Caymans,
and it’s worth an approximate 7.2 million Euros. It has an ocean
view from all sides of the estate. It also has a white tiger
sanctuary and an underwater dining room.”