Shadow Woman Read online

  Once they’d all been so close, linked by the importance of the mission; she’d never respected a group of people more. Not one of them had taken the job lightly, but even so, going in, none of them had realized how steep the price they’d paid would be. How had it come to this?

  Survival of the fittest. That was what they’d failed to take into account, the primal instinct to protect oneself and family.

  In hindsight, this was something she should have done years ago, immediately after the mission had been completed, when no one was expecting it. The body count would have attracted too much attention, though, and now here they were. She had to eliminate all of them—do it herself, or have it done.

  Xavier should have been first. He was by far the most dangerous, had been even before the bungled attempt on his life. Al was almost as bad, but he’d grudgingly agreed that taking out Xavier was the only thing they could do now, so she’d bought some time there. The main thing with Al was to act before he got his guard up.

  The specialist would have to handle Xavier. There was nothing she could do herself; she’d have to be insane to even consider the idea of trying to handle Xavier. He would be coming for her, Al was completely right about that, and the best place to get her was her own home. When she was at work, she was untouchable. Xavier would expect her to take evasive actions going to and from work. He might think she would go to ground somewhere, but she couldn’t live her entire life hiding from him and he’d know that. He’d also expect her to think she had everything handled, that her ego would blind her to her vulnerabilities.

  She had an ego, but not where work was concerned. When it came to the job, her motto was simple: do it. No matter what, do the job. That was where they all underestimated her, but then she’d deliberately built that image. Winning was easier when the opposition didn’t know what you were capable of doing.

  If she knew Xavier, he wouldn’t wait long. He’d hit fast and hard. She’d truly expected him before now; what had delayed him? Was he trying to find Lizzy? When Lizzy had left her car behind in the restaurant parking lot, they’d lost any way of tracking her. That didn’t mean Xavier had lost her, though. The sneaky bastard probably had his own trackers planted on her. She had no way of knowing for certain, but she trusted when her gut told her something, and it was saying she was on the right track.

  In that case, Xavier had gone after Lizzy, and was probably making certain she was in a safe place. That would make locating her more difficult, but she’d surface sooner or later. And every hour Xavier delayed was an extra hour in which she layered in another story, another false trail, another document that proved he was unstable and descending into insanity. Let all of his trip wires be sprung; he’d be just another nut-job conspiracy theorist. The evidence in the deaths of President and First Lady Thorndike was ironclad, right down to the DNA. Despite the unexpected circumstances, the plan had held.

  This one would, too. The most worrisome factor for her was the time limit. This couldn’t stretch on for too long.

  Ashley was furious at being taken from college, of course. She so enjoyed stretching her wings, and now abruptly her feathers had been clipped. She was very much Felice’s daughter, fiercely determined in everything she did. Felice could make the fiction she’d concocted—that the NSA had picked up on chatter that could indicate a domestic terrorist attack on Ashley’s college—hold for a couple of days, but after that Ashley wouldn’t buy it.

  She didn’t mind battling with Ashley, but she didn’t want to alienate her forever. Being too heavy-handed would definitely push her daughter away. She would, if necessary, do anything to protect Ashley, but she’d do everything she could to make certain it didn’t come to that.

  On cue, her cell phone rang. It was Ashley’s ring tone, the one she herself had picked out so Felice would know it was her and answer the call. She only hoped the men guarding Ashley had placed the call, instead of letting her call whomever she wanted. Sighing, she took the call.

  “Hello, Ashley. No, nothing has been settled, one way or the other.” She put weariness in her tone.

  “Mom, this is ridiculous.”

  “Protecting you isn’t ridiculous.”

  “Then why didn’t you have the entire college evacuated?”

  “Because if there is a legitimate threat, doing so would alert the perpetrators and we wouldn’t catch them.”

  “So you’d just let people die?”

  “Of course not. Investigators are working around the clock to make certain that doesn’t happen, and I might add they’re risking their own lives in doing so.”

  “Only if there’s a real threat, and you don’t know that for certain.”

  “No, I don’t.” Arguing with Ashley was like trying to nail gelatin to a wall. Her girl was slippery.

  “So you intend to have me kidnapped and guarded every time you think there might be a threat?”

  “Have I done this before?” Felice demanded.

  A pause, then she heard a sulky, “No.”

  “Then give me a little credit. I evaluated the intelligence, and even though I personally think nothing will come of it, it’s still credible enough that I don’t want to risk your life. You’ll understand when you’re a mother.”

  Ashley made an exasperated sound. She would have continued arguing, but Felice said briskly, “I assume Mr. Johnson is there with you. Please hand the phone to him.” Johnson was the name they’d chosen for Ashley’s guard. Again, Felice had no idea what his real name was, nor did it matter.

  “This is Johnson.” The man’s voice was calm. She was glad; whether or not he was a nice person didn’t matter, so long as he acted nice in front of Ashley.

  “Be careful with her cell phone. Don’t let her have it again until this situation is resolved.”

  “Yes, ma’am. She won’t like it, but you’re the boss.”

  In the background, Felice heard Ashley demanding, “What did she say?”

  “You may tell her exactly what I said. Keep her buttoned down tight.”

  Felice ended the call, smiling at Ashley’s spirit even though it had been for nothing. She’d pay a price for this, but keeping her daughter safe was worth it.

  Tomorrow … tomorrow she’d take care of Al.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Lizzy slept. She didn’t know how, because despite Xavier’s warning, the shock was so massive she’d been reeling from it. It didn’t help that she had no memory of what she’d done; she believed him implicitly. Not remembering her actions was somehow worse, because she had no context through which to filter the things he’d told her. She didn’t know what she’d thought, what she’d felt, what the other agents had done, where they’d taken her afterward or what she’d said and done. All she had were the bare facts, and on the face of it they were ugly.

  Xavier could have told her more, and would if she asked, but all she’d wanted was time to absorb what he’d already said. “I’m okay,” she said steadily. “Just let me deal with it, okay?”

  He’d given her a sharp look, one she’d returned without flinching, so he’d given a brief nod, turned out the light, and slid down in the bed with her. She’d turned on her side so her back was to him, not to shut him out, but because that was what felt right. He’d put his heavy arm around her and pulled her back so she was nestled in the cradle of his muscular body. She rested her hand on top of his. The position, the feel of him, the familiarity, had combined with the sheer physical exhaustion of the day and instead of lying awake fretting about things she couldn’t change, she’d gone to sleep within minutes.

  She woke before dawn with his big hand sliding over her breasts, stroking and teasing her nipples into tight peaks. The things he’d told her the night before loomed over her, a heavy weight that could crush her. She shouldn’t enjoy this, she thought dimly. She didn’t deserve to laugh, to feel joy, yet pleasure was already blooming deep in her belly, so that she rose through layers of sleep into need, her breath sighing out, her body moving restle