Midnight Kiss (Men of Midnight #7) - Lisa Marie Rice Page 0,50

at what he does. Not because he wants to be a billionaire. In the field, he lives exactly like his operators.”

She sighed. “If you talk to him, thank him for me.”

“Yeah. We’ve all got a stake in helping you. We all feel —” He stopped, studied her. As if he were checking for wounds.

“What?”

Luke nodded, as if coming to an agreement with himself. “We think that whoever is after you is someone either very high up in government or very high up in the security business. There are maybe ten guys — all men — in private security who could command the resources we’ve seen. And we know them all. Not all are good men, but coming after a woman like that —” Luke shook his head. “Takes a certain kind of person. And in government it would have to be people at the top, too. You’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest, honey, and none of us are happy about that.”

She blushed stop-light red at the ‘honey’ and looked away. “I’m really sorry to be creating so many problems. Maybe I shouldn’t have alerted Felicity, I should have —”

A look of horror crossed Luke’s face. “God no!”

He picked up her hand, brought it to his mouth. His lips were warm, as was the skin of his face. Warmth spread from her hand down through her body. He pressed a soft kiss in the palm of her hand. Pulling away, she closed her fist, as if to keep the kiss there.

“Somehow you got onto the radar of some bad people, either in or outside of government. Bad is bad. We’ve all tripped over them. My buddy Matt is — was — a SEAL. A squid. But I forgive him for that. Anyway, his path crossed a CIA operative’s path, and he was one of the worst men on the planet. He tried to ruin Matt’s life as a prelude to poisoning a major city and almost managed it. But with some help Matt prevailed and we’ll prevail here. No one is going to let anything happen to you. Not me, not anyone. You’ve got a team on your side now, and it’s a good one.”

She was watching his face carefully, listening to the things he was saying, listening to the things he wasn’t saying. He was speaking from the heart, as someone whose life had been ruined. As someone who knew first hand what that felt like.

“Nice thought,” she said. It was. Very nice. A team, on her side. The first and only time that had happened had been at the NSA, for about a year. Emma, Riley and she had formed an unshakeable team. And Felicity had joined them for about three months.

They’d put up with round-the-clock work, unspeakably dweeb semi-autistic men, a red-hot crisis a week. None of that mattered and they’d rolled with the punches like pros. Then, the horror of their handsy and bullying boss was too much and they scattered. All four quitting within a week of each other. They kept in touch via HER, the special room in the darkweb they’d set up, but the physical presence of her own team, day-to-day, was no more.

It had been great while it lasted.

“You don’t sound convinced.” Luke was frowning. Oh man, how could he look so good all the time? Frowning, smiling, thinking, driving. It didn’t matter what was going on with him, he just looked good. All the time. So amazingly good-looking without being in any way a pretty boy. Fine, stern features, icy blue eyes, clean lines, strong lean body. He could have been a Roman Emperor, one of the better ones before they started electing their horses to the Senate. Or maybe a Roman general, that was more like it.

Yeah, on a rearing steed, sword in hand.

“—you think?” God, he’d said something and she’d zoned out.

“What?”

“You’re tired,” he said gently. “And you need to eat.” He looked up at the sound of a buzzer and smiled. “Good timing. Hope you like what I ordered.”

Entry to the apartment was via two locked doors, like a spaceship airlock. Luke had Hope stand to one side and not open the inner door unless she heard him rap out ‘Shave and a haircut’. He closed the door behind him and opened the outer door that gave out onto the covered porch. The murmur of voices, the special knock and she opened the door.

Luke carried in what looked like enough food for a football team. Hope followed him to