offices with desks but no sign of Kane.
Was she in the wrong place? She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, focusing instead on the darkened office. The next two offices had closed doors. She checked the hinges first; they were new-looking and not rusty.
She turned the first handle and pushed gently, but the lock was jammed. She put her shoulder to the door and forced it open. Stepping into the room, she found the window open a crack. Just large enough for the barrel of a rifle.
“I think I’ve found something,” she muttered.
“Are you alone?”
She scanned the interior of the room. “Yes. But someone’s been here recently.”
“Nightshade, that’s a negative. Someone is still there.”
Before she could move, a man stepped out from behind the file cabinet and grabbed her. He shoved the barrel of a gun up under her chin, forcing her head back.
Chapter 2
To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.
—Lao-tzu
Sasha leaned back against Kane. He was wearing body armor. And holding an Enfield SA80 battle rifle loosely in his free hand, the muzzle of his Heckler & Koch USP MK23 pressed against her skin.
By turning her head she could see that he had on a night-vision mask and a scope on his rifle. Her blood turned cold. Kane wasn’t a sniper. But for some reason he was tonight. She had a million questions and really no time to ask them. She knew only that she had to get Kane out of here before he destroyed a career he’d spent over fifteen years creating.
And she also knew from her own walk on the outside of the Company that vengeance was never worth the price. He had gone rogue. What if she couldn’t get him to back down? She knew she’d never be able to kill him but that someone else wouldn’t hesitate.
She leaned against his chest and tipped her head backward. Taking a deep breath, she pushed aside all her doubts. She had a job to do and that job, quite frankly, was to stop Kane from leaking sensitive information and blowing the operation in place for rescuing the hostages.
“Hello, lover,” she said. Her soft, naturally husky voice pitched low enough not to carry on the wind. His scent was familiar to her and she closed her eyes, breathing deeply for a minute.
He cursed softly under his breath and released her. “Go home, Sasha.”
He moved away from her back to the window and positioned his rifle on the ledge. She slid into position beside him. “Nightshade.”
This time he looked at her. Even in the shadows she felt the intensity of his gaze on her. She stood a little taller—he’d always had that effect on her. She didn’t know why this one man should make her want to preen and show off, but he did.
“What are you doing here?” he asked in a low voice that carried no farther than her ears. He took a few moments to holster his sidearm and then she heard a click. Kane wore a thick black Irish sweater and a pair of dark chinos.
He looked like Cary Grant in To Catch A Thief. Her heartbeat picked up and she was reminded of how sexy her husband could be when he wasn’t playing the English lord of the manor. God, she’d missed him.
“I heard you needed some backup,” she said softly.
“Is that all you heard?” he asked.
“No. I couldn’t let you do something stupid,” she said, not caring if he got angry with her. The risks he was taking were stupid.
He shook his head. “You know better than that.”
“I only know that HMIA is sending someone to bring you in because you have some sensitive information. That doesn’t sound smart to me.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“Sure you do. That’s why you’re alone in a warehouse about to betray your country and your peers.”
“I don’t have time for this. Go home.”
“Come with me,” she said. Please come with me. She willed him to morph back into the man she’d married, not this steely-eyed assassin.
She’d sparred with Kane a number of times. She knew his weaknesses as well as he knew hers. Or at least as well as he knew the ones she’d let him see.
“Why’d they send you? I was expecting Temple.”
Sasha figured HMIA would send Kane’s partner as well. And then either Kane or Temple would end up dead. And there was something in Kane’s manner tonight that she’d never seen before. Something that warned her that he wasn’t going to back down easily.
She knew there had to be more to the situation than she had been informed of. “Are you having a problem at work?”
Kane gave a short derisive laugh. “That’s an understatement.”
“Help me understand this, Kane.”
“There’s nothing for a housewife to understand,” he said.
She knew he was goading her. And suspected it was because he wanted her out of here. “I’m not leaving until I get some answers. Why did you take the STAR list?”
“Stop the chitchat, Nightshade,” Orly said. “There is some activity on the dock. A BMW with dark windows just pulled up. If you don’t get Kane out of there now, it’ll be too late.”
“Gotcha, Orly.”
Kane’s eyes narrowed as Sasha spoke. “Who’s watching Dylan?”
“Dad.”
There was some movement on the dock and Kane crouched down and sighted his rifle, and she heard the minute sound of a bullet being pushed through a silencer. The man whom Kane had aimed at crumpled to the dock.
“How many men are you going to kill?” she asked softly. The man she’d married always avoided killing suspects, usually just wounding them. This wasn’t the Kane she knew. And that scared her.
“As many as I have to.” His voice was devoid of any emotion and she knew he was in work mode.
“Why are you here, Kane? Help me understand.”
“Not now, Sasha. I’m on a tight clock. Go home.”
He panned the scope, carefully searching for others on the dock. Then he stood, lifted the window and gave her a half salute before stepping over the edge.
Dammit, that was what that click was. Only now did she notice the harness and the rappelling rope. He went down smoothly and quickly. Sasha grabbed the rope and followed Kane over the edge. By the time she was on the ground, he’d moved off, blending into the shadows.
He reached the man he’d taken down and dragged the body out of the walkway. Nightshade kept her distance, waiting for the right moment
