Conceal, Protect - By Carol Ericson Page 0,71
sacrifice her.
Alex had done it for himself. J.D. would do it for his country.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
The blast of gunfire from two shots echoed in her ears, the smell of gunpowder invading her nostrils. She waited for the pain, the blackness.
“Noelle!”
Strong hands gripped her arms and pulled her from beneath the desk. “Did he shoot you? Are you okay?”
Her eyes flew open. Zendaris’s enforcer lay dead on the floor, blood from the wound in his head soaking the dingy carpet.
A cold blast of air gusted in from the front door.
“Go get him. I swear it’s Zendaris.” She plucked at J.D.’s sleeve.
He crushed her against his chest. “Whether he’s Zendaris or not, it doesn’t matter anymore. He’s gone. I heard the helicopter take off.”
She grabbed the front of his jacket. “You should’ve gone after him. It was your best chance.”
“You’re my best chance.” He cupped her face in his hand, smoothing his thumbs across her cheeks. “My only regret is if that was Zendaris, he might be coming after you again. I don’t understand why he didn’t take the laptop with him.”
Clasping one of his wrists, she tugged him toward the computer and pointed at the screen.
J.D. read the words in the file aloud. “The file on this laptop was a decoy. My roommate, Noelle Dupree, knows nothing about the plans or my secret life. If anything happens to me, I’ll know who to blame—both Nico Zendaris and the agents of Prospero. Keep looking, but you’ll never find it.”
J.D. shook his head. “All this turmoil and the file isn’t even on the laptop.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it? He has to believe now that I know nothing about the plans.”
“That’s why he took off, if that was really Zendaris. Nothing left for him here.”
“You had an opportunity to nail him.”
“And risk your life for that?” He brushed his lips across hers. “Not worth it.”
Ted groaned from the corner.
“Oh my God. I forgot all about Ted.” She rushed to the fallen chair her brother was still tied to.
J.D. crouched beside her and sliced through Ted’s restraints with a knife.
Blinking, Ted rubbed his wrists. “What happened?”
“I sort of knocked you out when I came through the mudroom. Good thing that floor in there was rotted clean away. Are you okay?”
“That depends. What happened to every—?” Ted broke off, his eyes widening as they took in the mayhem of the room. “Where’s the other guy?”
“He got away.” J.D. grabbed Noelle’s hand. “But we’ll get him...one of these days.”
Epilogue
Noelle joined the two spies in the Spy Museum for lunch—it seemed so right.
And being back in D.C. seemed right, too. She’d handed the ranch over to Ted. He’d proven himself an adult, and she couldn’t control his behavior anyway.
She placed her soup and sandwich on the table and turned to stack the red tray on top of the others. The edge of her tray hung over the stack, and she didn’t even feel the need to shove it into place.
J.D. hopped up to pull out her chair and kissed her cheek. “Have a seat, darlin’. We were just talking about you.”
Her gaze meandered between J.D. and another Prospero agent from Team Three, Gage Booker. The two men couldn’t be more different, but they both possessed that quality of being on the edge, tightly coiled and ready to spring.
“Do you still have your suspicions of me?” She scooped up a spoonful of soup and blew on it.
J.D.’s whiskey eyes tracked her every movement and darkened as he zeroed in on her lips. “I never suspected you. I was just doing my job.”
Gage raised one brow. “Is that what you call it? Cade may have been overly involved in protecting Jenna, but he had an excuse. They were already married.”
“And we soon will be.” J.D. ran his fingers along her arm, and the electricity she’d felt the first time he’d touched her still sizzled between them.
This time Gage raised both eyebrows. “This is news. Does Jack know?”
“Thanks for the congratulations.” Noelle slurped her soup and then kissed J.D. with her warm lips.
Sliding a hand along the back of her neck, he deepened the kiss.
Gage cleared his throat. “If Jack doesn’t know, I’m sure he’ll find out soon enough the way you two are carrying on.”
J.D. grinned and picked up his sandwich. “Jack doesn’t know yet, but I’m handing the baton off to you, Gage. I understand we got some useful information out of Pia, the woman I dropped outside of the cabin.”
“We sure did. We got a