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a sound. Like something heavy falling. A piece of
furniture? A& body? The sound came from the living
room, right outside the bedroom door. A long moment
of silence, while she strained her ears.
And then another sound, metallic this time.
Someone picking the lock.
Suzanne wiped her eyes. Whatever was going to
happen in the next few seconds, she wanted to be clear-
eyed.
A scraping& the chair was pushed out of the way.
Suddenly, light flooded through the louvered slats of
the closet door. A shadow fell across the door.
Suzanne waited, dry-eyed now, breathing slowly.
Trying crazily to brace herself against a bullet. She
scooted as far as she could go against the wall, pressing
against the wooden slats with her shoulders, wishing
she could push herself through to the other side. 62
The closet door opened and a man filled the doorway.
Broad shoulders barely cleared the frame. A killer s
face lean cheeks, cold gunmetal eyes, hard mouth. He
looked at her with narrowed eyes, a large black gun in
his hand.
With a glad cry Suzanne rushed into his arms. 63
CHAPTER SEVEN
John s arms closed around her fiercely.
Suzanne was trembling, trying hard not to cry.
Shaking, breathing raggedly. Soft and warm and
thank you, God alive.
John covered the back of her head with his right hand
and wrapped his other arm around her waist, holding
her tight, trying to give her the animal comfort of his
body. Pressing her close to still those awful tremors.
She was frightened to death. So was he. He couldn t
remember being this scared, ever. Not in the fiercest
firefight.
He hadn t been frightened for himself. The takedown
had been smooth, a textbook SEAL operation. The bad
guy hadn t even known John was there until he was
uselessly tugging at the knife cutting through his
throat. But until this moment, until he had his arms
tight around Suzanne s slender body, John hadn t been
sure he d got here in time. Hadn t been sure he
wouldn t find Suzanne lying in a pool of her own
blood&
He d been driving home, content with the day s work
advising a bank in Eugene on security, with a five-year
consultancy contract in his pocket. If business
continued like this, he d have to expand again. For the
third time in six months. Maybe call in a few other
guys from his team who were up for retirement.
He d had to retire early because of the damned knee
injury, but he probably hadn t had more than another
seven, eight years of active duty left in him anyway. In
his line of work, you either died on the job or retired
early. It s wasn t a job you aged in.
The Teams took everything a man had and then
sucked up some more.
If he expanded again, he knew exactly who to call.
Senior Chief Kowalski was up for retirement and
would make a perfect employee, maybe some day a
partner. Super-smart, skilled, honest and looking like
something out of a horror movie. John smiled at the
thought of introducing Suzanne to Kowalski, though
she hadn t turned a hair on her lovely head at meeting
Jacko.
Despite her fragile appearance, Ms. Suzanne Barron
seemed pretty sturdy. And smart and beautiful and with
it. Oh yeah, she d do just fine. All in all, John had been
well pleased with himself while driving home.
Home.
When was the last time he d ever felt a place was
home? As opposed to a bed to bunk in? Yet 437 Rose
Street had instantly become home. And that was before
the delectable Ms. Barron decorated his working and
living quarters.
He couldn t wait for that, odd in a man who never
cared what anything in his surroundings looked like.
His major color scheme all his life had been olive drab.
But 64
now he found himself really looking forward to living
in what he d seen in those drawings. Those rich muted
colors, those sleek elegant lines hell yes, he could get
used really fast to working out of an office like that. It
would be a pleasure. He couldn t wait for her to start.
Yes, he d been definitely revved as he drove back
through the rain. He was living in the same building as
the most beautiful and desirable woman he d ever seen.
They d already had explosive sex and getting back into
her bed back into her, it didn t have to be in a bed
was just a matter of time. And to top it all off, he was
well on his way to becoming rich and successful. Life
just didn t get any better than that.
And then Suzanne had called and he d instantly gone
to Defcon 1 the highest state of alert.
He d known the instant he d seen the number on the
screen that something was badly wrong. Suzanne
wouldn t call him at midnight unless she was in trouble
 and she was.
A man in her apartment. An armed man. It didn t take
SEAL training to know what that meant. Burglars don t
carry weapons. Burglars are nice gentlemanly
criminals. All they want is to infiltrate your house,
politely relieve you of your expensive worldly
possessions and get quietly back out. No guns. No
violence. The alternative was a hophead, crashing into
Suzanne s house hoping to boost her hi fi or TV for
resale to the local fences to make enough for the next
fix. But druggies weren t organized. A hophead
wouldn t be slinking, trying not to make noise.
No, the scumbag in Suzanne s house was there for one
purpose only. To take her out. Any intruder who was
bypassing the silver, artwork and fancy electronics in
her study was out for much bigger game blood.
Suzanne s blood.
Not while John could draw a breath.
His hands had clenched hard around the steering wheel
as he braked to a stop a block from the house, around
the corner and out of sight. The son of a bitch was
armed. Well, so was he. Sig Sauer and knife and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]