Again. This time he reached under her with one hand and stroked her c.l.i.t. She almost collapsed. If he hadn't supported her body with his hand, she would have.

She was at the edge of sanity in seconds, the strange new pressure inside her a.s.s combined with the maddening strokes of his fingers, making her need increase.

She pressed back into him, engaging in the thrusting and helping set the pace. He met her speed and his fingers moved faster at the same time. When he pinched her c.l.i.t, she couldn't hold back any longer. She came hard and fast. Too many o.r.g.a.s.ms in less than twelve hours changed their quality. They were shorter and more forceful.

Jude followed her, his c.o.c.k pulsing inside her a.s.s. When he finally pulled out, she collapsed onto her stomach, breathing heavily.

He brushed her hair from her face and kissed her temple before settling against her side. "So beautiful, baby." His fingers danced down her spine just as they had when he woke her up. "I love you."

She turned her head to face him. He set a finger on her lips.

"Shhh." He wouldn't let her respond. She would have cried if she'd had the energy. Instead she gazed at him, memorizing his face. She'd told him already. He knew how she felt.

Doom filled the room. It was strange because it was absurd, but somehow she knew. Like a psychic skill or something. She could tell by his expression, the way he touched her, the look in his eyes. h.e.l.l, even the air was thick.

The clock ticked and they stared at each other as the sun rose higher and filled the room with a ray of light. They hardly blinked.

Jude stroked her face, her cheeks, her lips. He kissed her temple and nibbled a path to her mouth before setting a chaste kiss on her lips.

She remained unmoving, watching him. Soaking in his warmth, his obvious love.

Suddenly a phone rang. She should have flinched. She should have jumped and grabbed his cell from the bedside table and flung it across the room to make it shatter into pieces. She should have screamed. Fought.

She did none of those things. As though on cue, the ringing occurred to break into her picture-perfect moment and destroy it and her life.

Jude reached for the d.a.m.n device, not breaking eye contact until the last second when he flung himself onto his back and opened the call. "Cavanaugh here."

She couldn't hear the person on the other end, and Jude lay still for long breaths, listening. It was so quiet she could almost believe it hadn't happened. Or maybe the caller wasn't really on the line. Maybe it had been a wrong number or a hang up.

"Okay." When he finally spoke that word, she did flinch. It was so final. The only thing he said and then he hung up.

He turned his head to face her, stared for a second and then eased back into her side. Maybe it wasn't what she thought. Maybe everything was going to be okay. He kissed her reverently on the lips and held her head to gaze into her eyes. "We have to go," he whispered.

She nodded. There was only that for a response.

In the silence of the early morning, they rose, showered together quickly and dressed in street clothes.

She wasn't his submissive now. She was his lover. She wouldn't fight him on this. It was no use. Whatever issues Jude had, she couldn't alter them. He would leave anyway and she wouldn't see him again. To argue would only taint their last minutes together.

She gathered her purse and slipped on her shoes. She followed him to his car, leaving hers in the driveway. She knew where they were going just as well as she'd known about this doom.

When they pulled up to Jason's house, Jude exited the car and circled to help her out. He held her hand as he walked her to the door.

He knocked and then turned to her, took her face in his hands and kissed her hard. He set his forehead on hers for only a moment, and then he released her and jogged back to the car. He was gone so fast she didn't have time to say the ten thousand thoughts running through her head. It didn't matter. Words weren't necessary.

Still she wanted more minutes.

Jason opened the door behind her. She stared at the street where the illusion of Jude's car had been. The only way she knew it had been real was that she now stood on Jason's doorstep.

Jason took her hand and pulled her inside. He shut the door and embraced her in a thick hug.

Then the tears fell. There were no sounds. Only tears that fell without ceasing. Jason led her down the hall to his spare room, pulled back the covers and sat her down. He pulled off her shoes and tucked her into bed, clothing and all. He sat next to her.

The tears still fell as she stared up at him through the haze.

He stroked her hair away from her face. "I'm so sorry, sweetie. I'm here for you. Sleep now. We'll talk later."

Heavy with sorrow and exhausted from a night of s.e.x and stress, Lori let sleep take over. She closed her eyes against the world and drifted off.

Chapter Nineteen.

Leaving Lori the first time had been the hardest thing Jude thought to ever endure. Leaving her again this morning had been ten times worse.

She hadn't spoken a word. He was glad for the reprieve and angry at the same time. In some ways it would have been easier if she'd gone down kicking and screaming.

Jude had a man to kill. That man wasn't in the Middle East this time. He was on American soil. He was close enough Jude could practically sense his presence. He knew Abdul Sharik better than anyone alive.

It didn't matter that Jude had already accomplished this mission. Clearly he hadn't killed Sharik quite well enough, because the guy was back from the dead and hunting Jude down with revenge fueling his veins.

Sharik would have reinforcements. Not the men he'd had with him the last time Jude's team had confronted him on his turf; those men were all dead. But a new group had been groomed to guard him. They would be bigger, better and more numerous.

How the man had slipped into the country was anyone's guess, but luckily Special Forces had picked up on his location and followed him from New York to the Southeast for two days. He was in the vicinity now, holed up in an abandoned warehouse.

Jude had people too. Some of the same guys he'd worked with from his Special Forces unit, some new guys. All were trained to kill. All were excellent shots. None would be as good as Sharik.

The man personified death. He killed first and asked questions later. The list of his victims was so long no one knew quite how many people had died on his watch.

Jude would be added to that list today, but Sharik would be going down with him.

Jude gripped the steering wheel hard with both hands as he drove the twenty miles to the army base to meet up with his men. They would have a plan in place, every detail plotted out, but in the end, it would all be in vain.

Jude had no intention of anyone else's blood being shed at the altar of Sharik. One man would give up his life today. And that man needed to be Jude.

Jude pulled through security and watched in the rearview mirror as the security gates closed behind him.

His commanding officer stood outside the door of the building Jude was approaching and nodded. Stanton said nothing as Jude parked and exited his car. He was dressed in the civilian clothes he'd left the house in. He'd change later.

The entire event was unprecedented. He'd already been rea.s.signed as an advisor after his vacation. But this was an unusual circ.u.mstance. His unit needed him.

Jude had spent years of his life tracking this a.s.shole and following his every move. Most of his surveillance had been spearheaded from this army base. When intelligence told them Sharik's precise location, Jude had led his Special Forces unit into the Middle East to nail this b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

The mission had been one of the most dangerous in US history. Neither Jude nor any of his men believed they would return unscathed. And Jude had intended to die trying. Several of his troops had died that day, but Jude had miraculously survived.

Sharik and all of his people had been killed in that underground bunker. Except for the small detail that Sharik had apparently not. Jude had personally shot Sharik in the chest and watched him fall. He'd leaned over while the dying man took his last breath. But the gunfire had continued around him as reinforcements had moved into the bunker.

Trapped and without a means of escaping this turn of events, Jude and his unit had turned around and fired hundreds of rounds at the incoming terrorists. They'd killed all of them, even with their backs against the wall. Jude had lived. Five of his men had lived also. Bodies had lain strewn across the bunker on top of one another.

Jude had taken one more look at the wide-eyed, open-mouthed face of Sharik, buried beneath several of his men, and fled the bunker.

That son of a b.i.t.c.h had faked his death, however. And Jude would live to regret not firing one last round into Sharik's forehead. He'd looked the man in the eye. Even removed his night-vision gear to peer at Sharik's face.

That had been two months ago. Sharik knew who his target was. And the man was on a mission to kill, as always.

Jude entered the conference room and nodded at the group of men waiting to be briefed. He slipped into an open seat and listened while the officer in charge presented everything intelligence had gathered.

There were twelve men with Sharik, eight of whom had joined him after his arrival, having already been living on American soil. That fact alone made Jude cringe.

The group was organizing at a warehouse about fifteen miles away. They'd arrived early in the morning. They were surrounded from a distance, but picking them off without killing civilians was going to be difficult.

This time the civilians were US citizens completely unaware of the threat to their safety right in their neighborhood.

It wasn't the first time suspects would be apprehended on US land, but it would likely get the most media coverage because the chances of apprehending anyone quickly and quietly were in the nonexistent range. Sharik wasn't a man to go down without a fight. He either died or everyone else did trying to kill him.

The resulting fight would be loud and dangerous for anyone in the area.

At this point, no civilians were believed to be close by.

Jude sat back in his seat, extended his legs and crossed his hands in his lap. He knew Sharik better than anyone in the room. All this yammering was for naught. There was no telling what that man might do, but it wouldn't be whatever anyone expected.

Stanton finished his briefing. His final words were, "We mobilize in thirty minutes. Our first goal is to surround this son of a b.i.t.c.h so he has no escape. We'll do that about a quarter of a mile from the warehouse, in a giant sweeping circle."

It was a good plan. Sound. Reasonable. Encouraging even. After all, the man was known to be inside that warehouse, plotting with his men.

Except Jude knew something was off. It was too easy. Either Sharik wasn't there or he had a motive to cause his own "capture" that fell right into his own design.

As the men filed out of the room, Stanton grabbed Jude's arm. "A word, please."

Jude hung back and waited for everyone to leave. He turned to Stanton and waited.

"I know you're half-c.o.c.ked, and I get that. But I don't want you doing anything stupid out there today. You hear?"

Jude nodded. "Yes, sir."

Stanton tipped his head and narrowed his eyes. He grinned then. "Why am I even bothering to speak to you? You're going to do things Cavanaugh's way no matter what the personal cost. My words are futile." He shook his head. "I don't want to see you dead, Jude. You're a good man. I don't like this."

"I don't like it either, sir. But it is what it is, and we wouldn't be in this position if I had followed through with the job in the first place."

"You know this isn't your fault. Every man in that room attested to the fact that you left Sharik there dead. You couldn't have known he was faking. The signs were against it." Stanton stood taller and stared hard at Jude. "You know I never would have called you in here today if it weren't for the hit on you."

"I know." Jude nodded. "And I would have been p.i.s.sed enough to shoot you myself if you hadn't brought me back inside. I made a choice that day, and I missed my opportunity by not nailing him with an extra-dead bullet to the head. That's on me. Those were my men. I never should have led them out of there without making certain." Jude paused. "Did you ever get a trace on that d.a.m.n call I keep getting?"

Stanton shook his head. "No. It's coming from a disposable cell. No way to trace its origin. Probably one of his men checking up on you or trying to make you nervous."

Jude shook. "Well, it worked. I'm beyond nervous. I'm f.u.c.king p.i.s.sed."

Stanton shook his head again. He set a hand on Jude's shoulder. "Let's get him this time."

Jude nodded. "Affirmative, sir."

Jason let Lori sleep all morning. He didn't hear a single noise from the guest room. The woman had to be exhausted. Wrung out. Her body needed rest.

He made soup, knowing the comfort food would be a welcome meal when she emerged.

At one o'clock she hadn't surfaced, so Jason eased the door open to check on her. He glanced around the room when he realized she wasn't in the bed and stepped inside. She wasn't even in the room. The adjoining bathroom door was open and she wasn't in there either.

"What the h.e.l.l?" He spun in circles. How could she have left without him knowing? And where could she have gone? She didn't even have a car.

His chest pounded. He'd promised to take care of her, make sure she was okay. He couldn't do anything of the sort if she wasn't anywhere to be found. Just for good measure, he looked under the bed and in the closet, as if she were in hiding. Ridiculous.

Jason returned to the living room to grab his cell. First he dialed Lori and got her voicemail.

Then he dialed Carlton, who thankfully picked up on the third ring while Jason paced the room.

"Hey, Master J. What's up?"

Jason would have smiled normally. Carlton could be such a comic when it came to addressing people. "Lori's missing."

"What?" Carlton yelled. "What do you mean missing?"

"Jude brought her here this morning and I thought she'd been asleep all morning. I just went in to check on her and she's not there. I have no idea how she walked out the front door without my knowledge, but somehow she managed."

"Why would she do that? You're the closest family she has."

"Yeah, I was hoping you knew something."

"Maybe she went back to her apartment."

"Let's hope. Thanks, man. I'll call there next." Before Carlton could utter another syllable, Jason hung up and pressed speed dial for her apartment. The phone rang several times. There was no answer.

Jason slumped onto the couch and leaned his elbows on his knees. Think. His cell rang again within a few seconds. He yanked the phone up, hoping to see Lori's name on the caller ID. Carlton. He answered.

"Anything?"

"No. No answer."

"This isn't like her."

"Yeah, she was pretty distraught. She might have been in shock."

"Why? What happened?"