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being with you.”
Evyn chuckled. “Handy, that, because I plan on being around a
lot.” “I think I’ll need you around a lot.”
Evyn propped herself up on her forearms, the first rays of morning
light breaking over her face. Her eyes were blue-gray in the dusky
dawn. “We haven’t talked about the future.”
Wes cradled Evyn’s face, scooped her fingers through her hair,
kissed her. “I want one.”
“So do I.” Evyn kissed her, exploring, teasing, tasting. She slid
deeper, claiming. “I want you. Just you. I know always sounds like a
line, but I mean it.”
Wes’s concentration faltered—gave way under the sensation of
Evyn’s mouth and hands. She pressed harder against Evyn’s thigh,
climbing faster. Too fast. Gasping, she pulled away. “I’m going to come
soon.”“Mmm—then don’t stop.”
“I want—I need—to say this first. I love you. I’ve never wanted
anyone else and I never will. Always sounds like the beginning.”
Evyn shuddered. “I never even wanted tomorrow with anyone
before. Now I want every single one of yours to be mine.”
• 254 •
Oath Of hOnOr
“They will be.” Wes’s muscles clenched and she rode the plume of
pleasure higher. “I’m sorry, I can’t…I’m coming for you.”
“Yes. For me.” Evyn scored her teeth down Wes’s neck, biting
gently. “Yes,” she breathed against Wes’s skin, hearing the startled cry
as Wes’s control unraveled. Her clitoris twitched, pulsed, thickened.
She needed to come but she held back. She needed Wes more. “Mine.
All mine. Come for me.”
Wes cried out, body shattering with pleasure. She crushed her face
to Evyn’s neck. “Yours. Yes.”
Pushing up on one arm, Evyn fumbled for Wes’s hand with the
other. She pressed Wes’s fingers between her legs. “Touch me. I need
to come for you.”
Wes stroked her, slid lower, pressed inside, and Evyn exploded
in her hand. “I love you,” Wes whispered. “No chances today, Evyn. I
can’t lose you.”
Evyn sighed and stretched, trailing her fingers down Wes’s back—
sated, supremely content. “You won’t lose me, I promise. I’m here for
the long term.”
Wes kissed her, choosing to believe for a little while longer they
could control the future.
v
Hooker opened the minifridge tucked in the corner of his motel
room and removed a small plain cardboard box the size of a ballpoint
pen case. The clear plastic vial with the screw top was nestled inside,
surrounded by a Styrofoam cut-out. A half-inch of milky white fluid
filled the end of the tube—at least it had when he’d checked it when
he’d accepted it from the woman in Georgia. He hadn’t looked at it
again. He didn’t want to look at it, he didn’t want to touch it. He wasn’t
superstitious, but he didn’t ride around with a loaded gun and the safety
off pointed at his chest, either. If all he’d been told was true, whatever
was in the tube was ten kinds of deadly dangerous. He couldn’t hand it
off soon enough.
He placed the small, narrow box in a white plastic cooler along
with a couple of cans of beer and a burrito from the minimart where
he’d gassed up the rental car he’d used to drive north the night before.
• 255 •
RADCLY fFE
Russo had pushed the timetable forward, and haste was never a good
idea, but Russo lived by the polls. If the numbers showed Powell
gaining in popularity, that was all that mattered to Russo—after all, he
wasn’t taking any risks. Hooker didn’t concern himself with politics—
politicians came and went as frequently as the weather shifted, and he’d
never seen that whoever held power changed things very much. Money
was the only true power, and Russo had plenty of that. He’d follow
Russo’s lead as long as the money held up.
He packed his travel bag and meticulously wiped down everything
he’d touched in the motel room, which hadn’t been much. He’d just
arrived the night before after dark in another rental car that he’d
procured with one of his aliases. He’d eaten at a fast-food place across
the highway from the motel and slept in his clothes. He’d shower at his
next stop. Satisfied that he hadn’t left anything of himself behind, he
grabbed his bag and the cooler, left his room key on the rickety table
by the door, and walked out just as the sun came up. He couldn’t finish
this job fast enough. In five hours, he’d be at the airport headed home
for Christmas Eve.
v
Jennifer stepped out of the shower and wrapped a fluffy white bath
sheet around her chest. It fell to her thighs, chasing away the slight chill
in the bathroom. The temperature had dropped again, and the old town
house let in a little of the night air through hidden cracks and crevices.
A small price to pay for its historic beauty, except on mornings like
these. She hurried into her bedroom, drying herself as she went, and
dressed hastily in a navy suit, white shirt, and low dark heels. She
didn’t plan to stay very long in the diner and doubted the man, Tom,
would want to linger, either. Twenty minutes, really, ought to be enough
for two people whose only connection was a common friend to share a
cup of coffee, make small talk, and go their separate ways. She’d timed
the meeting so she’d finish up and arrive at the clinic at shift change,
when she’d slide her lunch bag into the staff refrigerator just as she did
every morning. Only today, the bag would be a little fuller. Her stomach
trembled when she thought about the next step.
She wasn’t frightened, she was excited. Proud to be the one to
ultimately carry out the mission. Her family would be proud that she
• 256 •
Oath Of hOnOr
had fulfilled her destiny—that she’d learned her lessons well and had
struck a blow for true freedom and independence. If she was very lucky
and everything went according to plan, she might even survive. But if
she didn’t, she would die knowing she’d made a difference. And after
all, that’s what she’d been born for.
• 257 •
RADCLY fFE
chapter thirty-twO
Wes sat in the van beside Block and two Secret Service agents
she didn’t know, watching the monitor from a camera
trained on the front of Eva’s Diner. She’d been watching patrons come
and go since 0600. Two other video feeds—from cameras above the
restroom hallway in the rear and over the kitchen door behind the
counter—revealed the interior. A directional audio receiver that Block
could reposition remotely from his control panel had been secured to
an overhead light fixture. The place was small—a long, narrow room
with eight booths against the plate glass front windows and a dozen
black-vinyl-topped stools in front of the counter. At zero-seven twenty,
almost every space was occupied.
Roberts had advised the diner owner who’d arrived to open the
place at 0530 that the team, from an unnamed federal agency, needed
surveillance to document unspecified criminal activity. The owner, a
bottle-blonde of indeterminate age, was thrilled by the whole thing and
a very good actress. She worked the counter and never once glanced at
the cameras—or at the undercover agents posing as patrons.
Wes couldn’t see Evyn, who was posted inside the kitchen with
a view through the circular window on the swinging door. In order to
protect the civilians, the plan was to record the exchange on video and
apprehend both Jennifer and her contact outside the building in a safe
zone. Wes’s job was to receive the virus and supervise its transport to a
secure lab. The second part of her assignment—the part she hoped she
would not have to carry out—was to limit civilian exposure in the event
the virus was released and oversee the treatment of any individuals who
were exposed.
• 258 •
Oath Of hOnOr
The other agents inside the diner posed as a businessman reading
a newspaper at the far end of the counter opposite the rear exit and a
young couple having breakfast at a booth just inside the front door.
They blended in with the morning business crowd and neighborhood
diners, and Wes doubted even someone looking for it would pick up
their constant survey of anyone coming in the door.
“Here comes the subject,” Block murmured, and Wes swiveled
on her stool to get a view of his monitor. Jennifer Pattee, a large black
leather bag over one shoulder, walked briskly up to the diner door and
inside. The kitchen feed picked her up as she walked a few feet down
the aisle and then slowed as if searching for someone she planned to
meet. With a sudden smile, she hurried on and sat down across from a
single man in a Redskins cap drinking coffee in a booth. Wes had looked
at him a half dozen times and noted nothing out of the ordinary—mid-
thirties, possibly older, rugged outdoor type in a flannel shirt with faint
dark stubble along his jaw. He half rose as Jennifer sat, and Block
adjusted the audio receiver for maximum reception.
“Hi,” Jennifer said as she settled across from the man. “You must
be Tom.”
“And you’re Jennifer. Ellie’s told me so much about you.”
“She hasn’t told me nearly enough about you,” Jennifer said. “It’s
great to finally meet you. I’m sorry you won’t be able to stay longer in
the city. I could play tour guide.”
He smiled, sipped his coffee, and said nothing while a waitress
approached. Jennifer asked for coffee and a plain croissant.
“Maybe next time I’m through,” he said.
“That would be great.” Jennifer picked at the pastry, although she
didn’t appear nervous. She glanced at her watch several times while her
contact passed on a refill on his coffee and watched the door as other
customers came and went.
“Excuse me,” he said, fishing his cell phone from his pocket. “I’m
expecting a message.”
“Please—go ahead,” Jennifer said quickly.
He checked the readout and grimaced. “I’m so sorry, a business
message from a client overseas. They’re available now and I have to get
back to them. It may take a while. I hate to have gotten you all the way
out here only to run out on you.”
“That’s okay—if you can get free for lunch or dinner in the next
• 259 •
RADCLY fFE
day or so, you have my number. If not, maybe I’ll see you the next time
I visit Ellie.”
“Absolutely.” He started to rise and paused. “Oh, I almost
forgot…” He reached into a backpack beside him and drew out a small
narrow box. “Ellie asked me to give you this. A Christmas present. She
said she didn’t get her shopping done in time to mail it to you.”
Laughing, Jennifer slid the small box into her oversized bag. “That
sounds like her. Thanks for bringing it along.”
“No problem. Well—I should go.”
“All right. Hopefully we’ll meet again sometime soon.”
He held her gaze a moment. “I hope so too. Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” Jennifer said softly.
v
Roberts’s voice came over the COM. “Team one, subject is on his
way out. Take him at the corner…Go.”
Wes watched as two men closed in from either side and a woman
stepped from a parked SUV into his path, forcing him to slow. The
subject’s expression went from surprised to wary, and he quickly scanned
up and down the street as if considering his chances of escaping. Within
seconds, the two male agents each grabbed an arm and the trio pushed
him forward into the back of the idling SUV. The agents followed him
in, and the vehicle sped away. The whole thing was over in less than a
minute.
Wes scanned all the monitors for Evyn and didn’t see her
anywhere. Her mouth went dry but her pulse stayed steady. She glanced
at the masks and hazmat suits stacked by the van door. Evyn knew her
job, and she knew hers. No matter what happened out there, she’d find
Evyn.Inside the diner, Jennifer searched through the large shoulder
bag and came out with bills that she laid on the table next to her
uneaten croissant and nearly full cup of coffee. Wes wondered if she’d
transferred the stolen sample to another container inside the bag. Any
unnecessary handling risked rupturing the seal on the tube or, even
worse, breakage.
“Showtime,” Block muttered as Jennifer stood and pulled on her
topcoat, slipped the strap of her black leather bag securely onto her
• 260 •
Oath Of hOnOr
shoulder, and strode directly toward the front door. The next second,
she stepped out into the morning.
v
“Go,” Roberts said over the COM.
Evyn pushed away from the side of the diner and strode around
the corner to the front. Jennifer was thirty feet away, one hand in the
pocket of her coat, the other on top of her bag.
“Hi, Jen,” Evyn said brightly, watching the hand on the bag. As far
as she could tell, the bag was closed. She looked past Jennifer down the
block, saw Paula Stark intercept a woman with a stroller and redirect
her back the way she had come. The sidewalk right in front of the diner
was clear—the inside team would have prevented anyone from exiting
until the intercept was over and the area secured. Directly across from
Jennifer, Roberts stepped out of a parked SUV.
“Oh hi, Evyn.”
Twenty-five feet.
“How about I give you a ride to work.”
Twenty feet.
Jennifer’s friendly smile dimmed. “I’m not due in for another hour
or so. Thanks anyhow.”
Fifteen feet.
“I’ll give you a lift home, then.” And focused on shoulder bag, on
Jennifer’s fingers gripping the zipper along its top edge.
Jennifer glanced over her shoulder. Stark strode rapidly toward her.
Her gaze cut across the street. Cam, joined by another agent, arrowed
toward her. Jennifer’s eyes widened.
Ten feet.
“You’ll want to say yes, Jen,” Evyn said, watching Jennifer’s hand
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