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Her phone buzzed again and he moved to the table, distracted by the interruption. She could tell by the short length of the buzz that it was a text message instead of a call.
“Can you toss that to me?” she said. “I guess they’re not going to leave me alone until I answer.”
Jonah picked the phone up from the table and looked at the screen. “Looks like your friend foundProteus.”
Adrenaline surged through her veins at the information.Proteuswas one of the most dangerous men in the world. He was the mastermind of too many crimes to count, but there was never enough evidence to pursue. Only statements from witnesses who never managed to survive let them know that he existed at all.
Eden caught the phone with one hand and glanced at the screen, feeling her blood chill at the information there. She looked up in time to watch Jonah pull the trigger.
The fact that the bullet was silenced didn’t make it hurt any less when it pierced her chest. The force of it knocked her against the headboard and she struggled to breathe as what felt like molten lead burned through her lungs.
She stared at the face of her partner—her husband—and she knew she couldn’t hide her surprise. She’d never suspected. Never thought he could beProteus.And now she’d be dead because of it.
“Surprised, my love?”
She sucked in a breath and heard the whistling sound from her lungs. There was no use trying to speak.
“As you can understand, it’s time for me to leave,” he said. “You’ll have to go through debriefing by yourself. Though I’m not sure they care much at the morgue.”
His smile was a slash of cruelty and his eyes were cold as ice. Her lips were wet and she tasted the blood as it bubbled from her mouth.
“Thanks for giving me the name of your informant. I’ll take care of him immediately. And thanks for your virginity. There’s definitely room for improvement in that area. Maybe in your next life.”
Her gun was in the nightstand drawer. She might have a chance if she could just get to it in time, but she wasn’t sure she could move her arm. She focused on breathing and put the pain away as she’d been trained to do. Her mind zeroed in on the area of her body where the bullet had pierced, slowing the beat of her heart so her blood didn’t pump from the wound quite as fast. She knew how to survive. It was these skills Mossad excelled at over the American agencies.
Jonah began to dress quickly and he started scattering things across the room, tossing tables and their belongings about. But he kept his eye on her. He knew her training better than anyone. Knew that she could be just as deadly while wounded.
Eden’s time was running out and she’d never have a better opportunity to try to take him down. She made her move and pulled out the drawer, reaching for the gun inside, but the agony of another bullet had her slumping against the blood-soaked mattress.
“You could never hope to be better than me, love. You’re too soft. It’s why you failed as a Mossad agent and why you’ve failed now. Didn’t I tell you to never trust anyone? Even your partner? I told you we all have secrets.”
She didn’t even feel the third bullet as it entered her body. Her eyesight dimmed and the only sound was her waning heartbeat and the soft click of the door as he left her there to die.
ChapterOne
Present day
Hospitals reminded him of death—the cloying antiseptic that didn’t quite mask the bitter smell of urine and blood, and the insistent beep of machines that pumped life into the fragile human body.
When it came his time to go, he’d rather be taken out swiftly—in the line of duty preferably—without having to linger and waste away while a machine allowed him a few more precious breaths.
Nathan Locke waited patiently as his badge was scanned. A couple of people eyed his weapon nervously, but it would be a cold day in hell before he put his sport coat on to cover it. August in Texas was no joke.
He was finally given clearance to take the elevator to the top floor. His hands were relaxed by his sides, and none of the nerves he felt at being in a hospital were visible. He understood why the meeting had to be here, but he didn’t have to like it. Especially since he’d been called back early from vacation. The time spent with his daughter was precious, even more so since it was limited to holidays and summer vacations. But he’d come anyway.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. The scents and sounds were different here than the rest of the hospital—a highly specialized wing for agency employees, where discretion and anonymity were priority.
It looked more like a hotel than a hospital—the walls were painted a soft green and the rooms were private suites. The carpet, soft and plush beneath his feet, silenced his steps, and he handed his security identification to the nurse at the front desk so she could scribble his name. His mouth quirked in amusement as he noticed she was armed.
It had been eight weeks since Atticus Cameron, the owner of Dynamis Security, had watched his whole world implode. International private security was a dangerous business, especially when it was governments who were hiring the services that only Dynamis could provide.
It was a risk Atticus knew all too well and he’d always taken preventative measures to protect his family. But it was impossible to be everywhere all at once, and he’d been helpless when he’d gotten the call that an unidentified vehicle had opened fire on his wife and daughter as they came out of a movie theater.
He’d buried his wife weeks before. And his daughter, Anna, had been in this hospital since emergency crews had brought her back from the dead. She was still in a coma, having no idea that her mother was dead and her father was barely holding on to his sanity.
But Anna was a fighter and she’d been through more surgeries than most people had in a lifetime. No one knew why she hadn’t woken from the coma, but each day that passed was a worry.
Atticus had moved the entire operation of Dynamis to the hospital. He ate, slept and worked there. And Nate knew things must be dire for Atticus to call him while he’d been lounging on a beach in Hawaii with his daughter, Stella, so they’d both hopped on the next flight to Sacramento. His ex-wife had picked up Stella, and then Nate had caught the next leg of his journey to Dallas. He was exhausted, hungry, and irritated by the two hours he’d spent on the runway with a screaming baby two rows behind him. Everyone around him had taken full advantage of the free drinks the flight attendant was giving out. He envied them. But Atticus would expect him to be sober on landing. More’s the pity.
