Joanne was already drifting back toward consciousness when she felt Alex jerk beside her. Her eyes sprang open in the dimness to find him pushing up into a sitting position. She immediately turned onto her side and propped herself up on one elbow. He’d thrown both legs over the side of the bed and his head was cocked slightly, his body eerily still.“What is it?” she murmured, reaching out to stroke a hand down the length of his naked back. The muscles beneath her palm were rigid with tension.Then she heard it. Faint popping noises, from either down the hall or maybe the floor beneath them. Followed closely by what sounded like human screams. Joanne’s heart stuttered as she realized what it was.Gunfire. Bursts of it.Shit! She shot upright, her eyes on Alex as she lunged for her bra and panties lying on the floor beside the bed.He was already up and reaching for his jeans, his phone to his ear. “We’ve got automatic fire in the hotel,” he said to whoever h

At the sound of Alex’s voice Joanne closed her eyes for a second and sent up a silent prayer of thanks. She had no idea how he’d survived all that gunfire, or how she’d remained unscathed with all those bullets flying around. Pushing to her feet, she threw out a hand to steady herself when her legs wobbled. The inside of her chest burned from the smoke and her coughing had done little to clear her lungs. Her left hand gripped the railing, her right holding fast to the pistol. It felt strange against her palm but she wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger if she had to, lack of training or not.A few unsteady steps down and she craned her head around to see Alex and the two men lying crumpled on the floor. Bile rose in her throat. Her gaze swung from the bodies to Alex, taking in the rifles and—Alex was bleeding.“You were shot!” She rushed down the remaining steps, ignoring his muttered dismissal, her attention on the blood spilling down his

Over an hour after being wheeled into the emergency room on a fucking gurney, Alex was done with people poking and prodding at him. The wounds in his upper arm and calf hurt the worst, but the doc had already confirmed there were no bullets in him, just bits of concrete and splinters of metal. Two nurses were currently pulling some of them out of his back with tweezers while the doc sewed up the hole in his arm in preparation for a precautionary round of x-rays.Biting back a snarl when one of the nurses dug deep into the middle of his back to extract a splinter of shrapnel, he gritted his teeth and fought for patience. Joanne was safe; she was being looked over somewhere in this same ER, he just couldn’t go to her. And he needed to. Wanted to see for himself that she was truly okay.The doctor, a young Cuban woman, tied off the last stitch and set down her needle driver on the metal tray beside his bed. “I stopped all the bleeding so that should do for now. Once we verify via x-ray t

“Joanne.” A hand waved in front of her face. “Hello?”She looked away from the Emirates 767 parked at the gate waiting to take them to London and turned to blink up at Pam. “Sorry?”She didn’t comment on her spacing out, just gestured across the gate lounge toward the snack shops where a few vendors were open to cater to the tourists who weren’t observing the Ramadan fasting. “I asked if you want something to eat before they start boarding us.”“No thanks.” Ick, the last thing she felt like doing right now was eating. She glanced at her watch. They were due to board in another few minutes. Pam as well, since she was coming with her and Michelle all the way back to Chicago. she’d told her she meant to see her home safely, and she wasn’t going to argue because the truth was she felt better with her there. God knew she needed the mental support Pam’s protection gave her.She covered another dry cough with one hand, wince

2 weeks later Rushing to a last minute meeting early on a Monday morning didn’t exactly bode well for the rest of her week. Walking as fast as she could in her four inch heels, Claire was halfway from her car to the front door of the imposing black Fort Meade CIA headquarters building when her cell rang. It wasn’t even seven a.m., so whoever was calling probably didn’t have good news. With a mental curse she slowed enough to dig through her purse then continued hurrying to the entrance as she checked the screen.She bit back a groan when she saw her father’s number on display and answered anyway. “Hi, Dad. I’m just on my way into an important meeting and I’m in a rush, so I can’t talk right now.” Her boss’s call had woken her from a dead sleep at five thirty and she had less than ten minutes to get up to his office for the impromptu seven o’clock meeting. Whatever it was about, it had to be big. The nervous flutter in her belly intensified.
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