Phantom in the Night (B.A.D. Agency, #2)(23)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

She placed two fat writing pens on the Fra’s desk, then left.

The Fra lifted the silver pen for Duff. "This contains the vial of the active viral agent."

Like he wanted to touch that shit after what he’d just seen? Duff stared at the pen with the respect of a man facing a poisonous snake about to strike.

"The virus is perfectly safe within this vial and the pen," the Fra explained. "Even if you drop the pen, the vial will not break, so you are safe."

Still skittish, Duff forced himself to take the pen, but he stuck the serum inside his leather jacket, anywhere but in his pants pocket. He grimaced again at the thought of how that poor bastard had grabbed himself.

"Take this one to Parker." The Fra handed him a second pen the same size and shape, but dark blue. "This is the antidote."

"What about the other vials?" Duff asked. "Don’t you want them delivered, too?"

"They will be safely stored in our vault until you have completed the first leg of this assignment."

Duff bit back his anger. The Fra was treating him like a kid who couldn’t handle too many things at one time.

Fra Bacchus settled back in his chair, arms hidden once again within the robe. "Remind Parker that the minute the first outbreak hits the news, he is to wire the final funds or the other two events planned will not happen on schedule."

"Yes… Fra." Duff shivered and struggled to speak. "As you wish." He stood and licked his dry lips. "Can you vaccinate me?"

"No, the antidote only works on an infected patient."

Patient, or victim?

"You’ll be fine, Duff I wouldn’t risk this getting out except at the proper stage. Make sure you deliver the active serum to our contact in Chicago by ten a.m. this morning, but get right back here and find those other two vials."

* * *

Nathan led Terri and Stoner to a narrow strip behind a building half a block from Marseaux’s warehouse. Terri stopped a few feet short of where he’d parked his Black Death.

"That the one you restored?" Stoner ran a hand over the Javelin’s polished hood.

"Yep." Nathan opened the door. Glow from the interior light reached Terri, where she stood silently observing him.

Nathan still couldn’t believe Stoner was here. He had a thousand questions and bet Stoner had just as many. "We need to talk. Soon.."

"Tomorrow. You got a cell phone?"

"No."

"I brought one just in case." Stoner handed him a small black Razr phone. "I’m in there as S. Call me in the morning." His eyes slid over to Terri, then back to Nathan." Don’t have to make it early." He turned to Terri and said, "Nice meeting you. Thanks for not shooting me," then grinned and strode away;

Nathan tried to force his shoulders to relax but he was tight as a knot. Terri could have died. Again. And now Marseaux would have his men searching for her.

He raked a loose strand of hair off his forehead that had broken away from the ponytail when he’d dropped the hood, then he wheeled on Terri. She’d been so quiet for the past fifteen minutes he couldn’t decide if she was angry, confused, or still upset from being grabbed by Marseaux. Nathan told himself he had to be calm, but dammit, she shouldn’t be here right now.

"Why didn’t you go home when I told you to?" He immediately regretted the edge in his voice and opened his mouth to smooth it over before he upset her when her gaze hit him full force.

"When did you get the idea that I had to follow your suggestions?" she tossed right back at him. All bite and no tears.

"It wasn’t a suggestion."

She shoved her hands to her h*ps and leaned in. "I was giving you the benefit of the doubt when I said suggestion. I don’t take orders from anyone, especially someone I don’t even know." Her voice raised on the last words.

Nathan crossed his arms and stepped forward. "You know me."

She scoffed. "Tonight’s the first time I’ve even seen your face."

"What I look like doesn’t mean anything."

"It means you might be a criminal."

Crickets chirped. The wind ruffled debris along the ground. Nathan waited for her to condemn him as a drug dealer, because a file full of papers said so. Couldn’t she trust her own instincts about someone to tell the difference between a suspected criminal and a real one?

"So what’s the verdict?" Nathan asked, unable to take her silence any longer. He braced himself for her condemnation, hating how much her disgust was going to suck.

"I don’t have one. I don’t know what to think."

Not a condemnation, but no rousing vote of support, either.

He had his back to the light from the car. "Forget seeing my face tonight. You can’t see it right now. Tell me… the truth. What do you believe about me?"

Her hands dropped from her h*ps to her front pockets. The blonde curls swept to the right when she tilted her head. She tapped a pink fingernail against her cheek in thought, her gaze transmitting how judiciously she chose her words.

"I believe you were trained professionally to do covert work, probably in the military. I believe you are not working for Marseaux now, but can’t speak for prior to meeting you. I believe you are not a phantom, but can’t explain the body in the morgue." She paused, grinding loose gravel against the pavement beneath her heel. "And… I believe you’re hiding something, but I don’t know if it’s a crime."

She had every reason to question him and his record, but had judged him more fairly than he’d have thought. His anger dissipated as quickly as it had come. "Thanks."

"I’ll keep your identity hidden for as long as I can. So here’s the question: Why can’t you share some trust back and tell me the truth about why you’re here?"

"It’s not a matter of trust on that. It’s more a matter of not wanting to get you any more involved than you already are."

"My life and career have been threatened how many times now? I am involved, like it or not. The only way out is to get to the bottom of all this."

His hand moved on its own to her hair, fingers lifting her curls. "I know that, but it doesn’t change that I’ve brought trouble to your door and now have to find a way to get you out of this before it gets worse."

"Then tell me what we’re up against."

We. Had she really said "we"? Nathan was so surprised he stopped talking. What could he say to that? He hadn’t thought in terms of "we" since being in the army or with his brother.

This woman fought to stand alongside him.

Since he was stuck for a response, Nathan changed the subject. "Let’s get out of here first. Where’s your car?"

"A couple blocks down the road toward the main highway. I found a turnoff close enough to hike through the woods to the shipping company."

He bit hard to keep from yelling at her. She had skills to be an investigator, but not a covert agent, dammit. Yet she’d come back to that warehouse, clearly planning to come inside. "Get in and I’ll drop you off."

She crossed her arms, a sure sign she was digging in her heels to talk.

"We aren’t out of trouble yet," he reminded her.

She cast him a malevolent grimace before she moved away.

Once they were both in the car, he fired, up the engine and motored slowly out to the road where he hung a left. He glanced over at Terri and tried to recall the last time he’d had a woman in the can Never. The last female he’d had in here before he went into the army had been a girl, not a woman.

He followed her directions to where he had to admit she’d hidden her car well. That didn’t curb the flash of body-clenching anger the idea of her hiking alone through these woods, even with a weapon in hand, brought in him. He was clearly not meant to be involved with a woman in law enforcement. No matter how skilled she was, he would never be able to come to grips with her in danger.

He parked the car and told her, "Wait until I come around."

"I can_"

"Don’t even start on me." He got out, checking the area as he moved around the car, and opened her door. On closer inspection, she’d picked a better spot than he had, but that didn’t change what she’d done. On a compromised leg.

When he closed the door behind her, she sidestepped between him and the car, then slapped the palm of her hand against his chest. "Let’s get something straight. I am not a helpless little female. I’m a trained professional."

He shifted his gaze to her upturned face. Her hand might as well be a branding iron sparking heat where she touched. Nathan covered her hand. "I don’t think you’re helpless."

"But you don’t think I can handle this job."

"That’s not true."

"Okay, what do you think?"

"That you’re capable of anything you want to do, you’re amazingly gutsy, and_" Don’t say it. Stop while you’re ahead.

His heartbeat ramped up. Her fingers relaxed and moved over to his left side, above his heart.

"What?" She’d asked in a husky voice that shoved him past any ability to think straight.

"So… damn…" Nathan lowered his head. "… hot." And kissed her. She tasted sweet and sassy, his favorite flavor. When she raised up on her toes, he wrapped an arm around her, lifting. His fingers slid around her neck up into that mane of wild curls.

CHAPTER TWELVE

She tasted as succulent as a forbidden fruit. Key word being "forbidden." Nathan knew all the reasons for not kissing Terri, which would be easier to accept if she weren’t crawling up his front side. Man, she was hot.

Terri panted, br**sts rising and falling against his chest, turning his mind to mush.

Nathan swept his tongue along her lips, which parted instantly. She kissed without abandon. The hand on his chest fisted a swatch of his T-shirt, twisting and using the grip for traction to draw him closer.

He backed her up to the car. Couldn’t get much closer together, unless he removed some clothes that were in the way. Her h*ps undulated one time, rubbing his erection. He sucked in a breath and put a hand on her hip to keep her from moving or she’d find out how very long it had been since he’d felt anything so provocative. He caressed his way up her abdomen, enjoying the feel of a woman with soft curves.

She hooked her hand around his neck, holding their lips together, down for the count.

Don’t stop before one hundred.

He cupped her breast and she shuddered. When he brushed his thumb across the straining tip she gasped, arched.

He teetered on the brink, holding her resistance so tightly his body thrummed with surging energy.

Sirens screeched from the main highway hardly a mile away, getting louder. Heading toward them.

That dumped a cold wash over him. "Baby, we’ve got to go." He started peeling her off him. But, hold that thought Right. By the time she got in the car and down the road, she’d come to her senses.

"Where are your keys?" His voice had turned rusty dry.

"Uhm, uhm." She was all elbows and arms, untangling and reaching into her shoulder bag.

Nathan snatched the keys from her hands as soon as he saw them, opened the car, and got her belted in. He didn’t want her driving off half-alert.

"I got this!" she griped at him.

He grinned. She was hitting on all cylinders again and would be fine on her own. "Drive within the speed limit and don’t make any sudden moves."

She slammed the door and cranked the engine, then rolled the window down. "Need I remind you that I’m with law enforcement?"

Good point. "I’ll be right behind you." Nathan climbed into the Javelin and fired up the engine. He backed around, avoiding trees, then followed her Mini Cooper out of the woods.

They hadn’t gone far down the two-lane road before a police cruiser and ambulance passed by. In his rearview mirror, Nathan could see both vehicles slowing to turn in at the shipping company. Who would have called the police to Marseaux’s place? Not the drug dealer.

Nathan played everything that had happened in the warehouse back through his mind. He finally recalled what Zink had said that bugged him.

Marseaux’s concerned about more than the coke from that shipment.

What else had Zink been alluding to that was Marseaux’s problem? The boxes the intruder had been searching through?

And what the hell did they contain?

* * *

Terri parked her car and climbed out. She stared at the empty driveway, waiting. Why hadn’t Nathan pulled in right behind her? That car sounded like the engine had enough power to keep up with her and then some.

What was she going to do when he got here? Invite him in for coffee? Ask him if he’d like to chat over dinner? Maybe catch a movie in between being shot at?

Or better yet, how could he be walking around alive, which begged the question, Who the hell was that body in the morgue? He had plenty of explaining to do. She didn’t care if it took all night, she wanted answers.

On second thought, she had bigger problems if it took all night. She couldn’t drum up an ounce of good sense when he was in the same room with her.

You’re so damn hot.

Men had flirted with her over the past couple years, but nothing she’d taken seriously; No offers she’d been willing to act upon.

Nathan hadn’t flirted. He’d barely spoken at times, but he’d left no doubt that he was interested in more than stolen kisses. At least he did when he wasn’t growling at her.

The guy had to work on his charm.

Instead of polite chitchat, maybe she should just be direct and tell Nathan what had been on her mind for days. Him.

And Brady thought she didn’t know what she wanted? Ha. She wanted a man she knew nothing about, only learning his identity an hour ago. See? She knew.

Pathetic.

Still no black Javelin pulling in. Why had she agreed to wait until he got here to go inside? She was armed, tired, and ready for a bath. If he wasn’t going to show up right behind her, she wasn’t going to wait.

Terri jerked up her shoulder bag, pulled out her SIG, and used her hip to shut the car door. She dug for her keys on the way to the kitchen door. After climbing the two back porch steps and fumbling with the keys twice, she found the right one and stuck it in the lock, then paused.

The sound she’d caught hadn’t been loud, but she was tuned for it this time. She swung around, weapon up. "Freeze."