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“You were asleep before I got to tell you before,” he said. “We’re headed to Boston. Ethan tracked Dr. Standridge there.” Gabe pulled on underwear, fresh cargo pants, and another black T-shirt while she stared at him in silence. “You’re going to have to put your acting skills to the test once we get there. Wear the green silk dress. Standridge won’t know what hit him.”
Gabe buckled his high-tech watch around his left wrist and looked at the time. Grace wished she knew the right words to say. What she could do to make things right.
“Gabe,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “I thought you’d understand.”
He shook his head. “The only thing I understand is that I love you and I don’t want you dead. We have a couple more hours till we land. Try to get some more sleep.”
He closed the bedroom door behind him quietly, and Grace winced at the amount of control he used to make sure it shut quietly. There was no way she’d be getting any more sleep. Restless thoughts invaded her mind, and for the first time in two years, her goals were being altered. She couldn’t afford to let Gabe make her wish for things that weren’t possible. She had a score to settle, and nothing would stand in her way. Not even Gabe.
ChapterFourteen
“Where the hell am I supposed to put my gun in this dress?” Grace asked her reflection in the full-length mirror that hung on the back of the bathroom door. She looked at her SIG and then back at the miniscule dress in irritation.
The green silk plunged in the front and the back. It fit like a second skin, and it barely covered all the parts that needed to be covered. It emphasized all the curves she’d thought she’d lost over the last couple of years, and it made her breasts look spectacular. She was pretty sure that wearing this dress on the street would be illegal in some states.
She slipped into a pair of black stilettos that were going to make her feet scream with agony by the end of the night, and she finally settled on dropping her SIG into an oversized black handbag.
“I’ve got a problem here, Gabe,” she called out.
He’d occupied himself by keeping as far away from her as possible for the remainder of the flight. They’d each needed a little space after what had happened between them. She hadn’t been able to go back to sleep as he’d suggested, though. She’d lain in bed with her eyes open, her mind a symphony of memories overdubbed by Gabe’s words.
It didn’t take her long to come to the realization that leaning on Gabe and trusting him again was asking for more heartache. He would always see the final outcome of any mission in his head first—decide on the right course to take and act on it—before any of the rest of the team had a chance to catch up. It was a gift he’d always possessed. If Gabe said a mission would be successful, then it would be. Plain and simple. He could blend in anywhere, a chameleon for every climate and any country.
Gabe had promised her that Tussad would be taken down. But he’d promised her things before. He’d promised he’d love her and their daughter forever and protect them both. There were some promises that were just impossible to keep.
The quick knock on the door gave her enough time to blank any emotions from her face.
“What’s the…” Gabe didn’t finish his sentence, and the look on his face was enough to make the woman in her purr with pride. He circled his finger, and she obligingly turned around.
“I amnotletting you go out in public like that.” He took a step toward her with his hands reaching out to her before he caught himself. “I’ve seen every inch of your body, and I had no idea you had curves like that.”
“I’m just following orders, sir,” she said cheekily. “You told me to wear the green silk. But I do have a small problem as to where I should put my weapons. This dress is so tight that I can’t even wear underwear, much less a thigh holster.”
Gabe’s eyes darkened with desire, and he started toward her with predatory steps. Her heart pounded in her chest. She stood her ground as he closed in on her and moaned as his calloused hands touched her thigh just where flesh and fabric met.
He skimmed his fingers over her hips, across the dip of her stomach, and along the mounds of her breasts before tangling his fingers in her braid, all the while never breaking eye contact with her. God, he had such beautiful eyes—streaks of silver shot through deep blue. She was powerless to look away.
“You should wear it down.” He tugged at the end of the braid and ran his fingers through it until it hung in curls over her shoulders. He rubbed the ends between his fingers. “It’s like fire, but cool to the touch.”
She waited for the animal she saw inside of him to take control, but just as his lips skimmed across hers, no more than a taste, the shutters came down over his eyes, and his face was a hard mask of determination.
The job comes first. Just like always.
“This is going to be up close and personal,” he said. “We need Standridge alive enough to talk for a while. We’ve got to destroy his research and test formulas. Just get us inside his home, and we’ll decide where to go from there.”
“He can’t be left alive, Gabe.”
“I know. But I figure after one look at you in that dress, he’ll drop dead of a heart attack.”
“That would be the easiest way. Bloodstains are hell to get out of silk.”
* * *
Grace had never been drunk in her life. She’d never liked the idea of being completely out of control. But she’d seen her fair share of fools stumbling around, so she figured she could act the part sufficiently enough.
She gathered her bag and the half-full champagne bottle close and rang the doorbell at Allen Standridge’s Back Bay home. It was a couple of minutes before she heard the shuffle of feet and felt his gaze as he looked at her through the peephole. She took a quick slug of champagne, wobbled unevenly on her heels, and rang the doorbell several times again.
The door opened slowly, and Grace got her first look at Dr. Allen Standridge. He was no prize, that was for damn sure, but she played her part to perfection.
