“I’m not going to last much longer, honey. And I’m taking you with me.” Caleb’s mouth found that spot on her neck that drove her wild and swirled his tongue over her hot skin. His hips sped, and he changed his angle so that he was hitting that magic spot with every powerful motion.
Lana felt her orgasm coming and reached for it, wanting to feel that perfect pleasure one more time. Caleb moaned as if trying to hold back, and his teeth tightened over that place where her neck and shoulder met. Wild sparks spread out from that bite, cascading down through Lana’s body until they lit a fire inside her womb. She crashed headlong into pleasure, giving out a ragged cry of completion just as she felt Caleb’s erection thrust deep and pulsed hot and hard inside her.
His jagged shout vibrated her spine, lengthening her release until her whole body was trembling with effort of sustaining it. Slowly, the intensity faded, and she stroked her hands over Caleb’s back.
He relaxed al those hard muscles and his weight pressed limply onto her, but she reveled in the feeling rather than fearing it.
He said something that was muffled by the pilows.
“What?”
He lifted his head and looked down at her. Into her. He was stil lodged inside her, jerking every time one of the after-spasms of her orgasm made her quiver around him.
He hadn’t worn a condom, and she could feel the slick heat of his semen inside her. The intimacy of eye contact combined with the presence of his body so deep inside hers made Lana tremble. She’d never been this close to anyone before, and it was almost too much to take.
His eyes slid over her features, studying them. “It was nothing,” he told her.
But it was something. He’d said he loved her again. She could see it glowing in his eyes. He loved her but wouldn’t say it, because she had told him not to.
Lana couldn’t do this any longer. She couldn’t keep him at arm’s length. Couldn’t keep lying to him. Not after everything he’d done for her. He deserved better.
And Lana was tired of feeling alone, tired of carrying her burdens by herself.
She puled in a deep breath, praying she was doing the right thing. Like his confession of love, once she said the words, they could never be taken back. She lowered her voice, stil uncertain whether the words she’d kept so tightly caged inside her would even come out.
“Kara was there,” she whispered. “In Armenia. She was the one who had my friends tortured. The one who had them kiled. She was the one who ordered my death.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Caleb was stunned silent, but his arms tightened around Lana as she spoke in a voice so low it was hard to hear.
Kara? That elegantly dressed, seemingly normal woman had ordered Lana’s death? He knew something about her was off, but he’d never expected this. It didn’t seem possible, but it explained everything. It explained why Lana was so jumpy every time she went to the youth center. It also explained why Kara’s perfume had tugged at his memory when they first met.
Caleb had been in that cave not long after she’d been there. He’d smeled her perfume lingering in the air, along with the stench of blood and death. He’d never seen her
—she’d been one of the terrorists who had carefuly concealed their identities and never let a peon like him meet them face to face—but he’d smeled her.
Lana shuddered in his arms. “I couldn’t tel you because I thought if I pretended not to know her long enough, she would just go away. I thought if she had no reason to suspect I could identify her, she’d leave me in peace. It was the only thing I could think of to protect my family.”
Caleb wasn’t sure if her plan was more brave or ignorant. “You didn’t tel anyone? Not even your mom?”
“No one. When you found al those bugs, I thought she’d go away—that she’d know I hadn’t told you or anyone else.”
“I’m surprised she hasn’t already kiled you.”
“Why would she want to kil me if I couldn’t identify her? It would just draw more attention, which I doubt she wants. Besides, she liked the torture best. She made them film it so she could watch over and over.” Her voice trembled over the words.
Caleb wanted to be gentle, but there was no easy way to tel her. “Your death was part of Kara’s initiation into the Swarm. She can’t let you live, even if you hadn’t seen her.”
He felt her stiffen in his arms. “Monroe said the Swarm was gone. Wiped out.”
Caleb pressed a kiss against her slippery hair. “It doesn’t matter. Even if she’s not working for them, she’l have a reputation to uphold.”
“I know she wants to hurt me, but if she kils me, her fun wil be over.”
When he thought of al the times that woman had the chance to hurt Lana . . . it made his blood run cold.
“Maybe that’s why you’re stil alive,” he said. “She’s enjoying watching you suffer. But eventualy, she’l get bored. In fact, she probably already is, which is why there was a sniper on the roof yesterday, waiting for a shot at you.”
She sat up, gripping the sheet over her breasts. Panic had drained the color from her cheeks. “I’l never be safe, wil I?”
“Like hel you won’t. I’m going to have Kara taken into custody, for starters. Then, if al goes wel, she’l die in prison. Soon.”
“And if it doesn’t go wel? If Kara has some way of puling in help from outside prison? Then what? You can’t do that. You can’t let her know I told you who she is—that I’m a witness to what she did. She’l hire someone to go after my family.”
“She won’t have the chance, Lana. I’l make sure she has no outside contact.”
“How? How are you going to make sure? I won’t let you put my family at risk.”
“We’ve got to stop her. You trusted me enough to tel me who she was, now I’m asking you to trust me enough to get rid of the threat she poses.”
“That means you can’t be there when they capture her. If you are, she’l know it was me.”
Caleb squirmed under Lana’s desperate gaze. She looked so vulnerable right now, so afraid. He wanted to do whatever it took to wipe away every trace of fear from her life. If that meant giving the pleasure of capturing and questioning Kara to someone else, then that’s what he’d do.
“Okay. I won’t go. I’l have Monroe send in a clean team to bring her in—men she’s never seen before.”
Some of the tension eased from her rigid posture. “Promise me she won’t have any reason to think I’m behind this,” demanded Lana.
Caleb smoothed a hand over her mussed hair. “I promise.”
“Promise me my family wil be safe.”
“They’re al being carefuly guarded by men I trust. Stacie, too.”
She was silent for so long, he wasn’t sure she’d heard him. Finaly, she puled her guilty gaze away from his and said, “There’s more.”
Caleb wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it, but he knew he had to. “Tel me, Lana. I need to know everything so I can keep you safe.”
She nodded, but he could see how hard this was for her—how fear was making her limbs shake. “Kara wasn’t alone. I saw others, too.”
Caleb bit back a curse, keeping his expression neutral. He didn’t want her to stop opening up to him now, even though he wanted to scream at her for holding onto this information so long. “How many?”
“The man you kiled. Kara. Three more who may or may not stil be alive.”
“Can you identify them?”
Rather than answer, she reached into her nightstand drawer and took out a sketchbook. Her hands moved slowly as if compeled, opening the sketchbook to an empty page. Her knuckles turned white under the strain of gripping the pencil so hard. Lines flowed onto the page as if she’d drawn them a thousand times before. One by one, three faces appeared on the page, each one sketched with photographic detail.
Lana ripped them carefuly out of the book and handed them to Caleb. “Wil this help?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Lana covered his hand with hers. She was trembling. “I need this to be over, Caleb. I’m not sure how much more I can take.”
Caleb gave her the most confident look he could muster. “Let me make a phone cal. I’l be right back.”
Caleb closed himself in the bathroom to make the cal. The less Lana heard about the details the better. Monroe answered before the second ring. “This had better be good.”
“It is. Is this line secure?”
“As secure as any can be in this day and age. There’s always some snot-nosed punk out there cracking the latest security.”
It would have to be good enough. “Kara McIntire was the woman who headed up that whole mess in Armenia.”
There was a brief, shocked pause before Colonel Monroe said, “I’l have her in custody within the hour.”
Caleb knew it was ilegal for Monroe to have men operating inside the U.S., so he didn’t bother asking any questions about why he had someone so nearby. He realy didn’t want to know, even if Monroe would have told him. “Make sure you use a clean team so Kara won’t connect her capture back to Lana. Also, there are three more people you need to locate. Lana drew sketches.”
“I’l send a man for the sketches right away. We’l find them, too.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I’l cal you back and confirm when it’s done. Until then, stay on guard.”
The line went dead, and Caleb let out a relieved sigh. It was almost over. She’d trusted him, and now he could keep her safe.
Marcus got off the plane, already regretting his decision to come here, no matter how necessary. He hated the Midwest. Al the smiling people and their intrusive questions grated on him. The stifling heat and humidity ate at his patience until there was none left. Not that he’d had much left since finding out just how badly Kara had messed things up.
She’d been captured like some kind of amateur. So had John, which was a shame. John had always been useful. Kara had her uses, too, but she was a serious liability. If she talked, Marcus’s days of blissful, profitable anonymity were over.
John would keep his mouth shut. Not that he knew anything of value about Marcus’s operation. Kara, on the other hand . . . if she held true to form, al it would take was a little kindness to get her to open up. One gentle interrogator could ruin al his hard work.
Marcus had to get to her first. Good thing he had an inside source who knew where the CIA was holding her and when she’d be moved to a more secure facility.
He wasn’t fond of wetwork himself, but if he wanted a job done right, he had to be wiling to get his hands a little dirty now and then.
The sooner he got out of this helhole and back to the coast, the better.
The sun was just coming up over the horizon when Lana heard Caleb’s phone vibrate. He ducked into the bathroom to answer it, and Lana gripped her coffee mug harder as she stared out the window.
She prayed she hadn’t made a mistake. Caleb promised her that her family was safe, but so many things could go wrong.