She couldn’t seem to take a deep enough breath. Thomas filled the space around her so completely.
The pilot’s voice floated over the intercom then, announcing their impending landing.
Thomas leaned back.
But Noelle’s hand flew out. She touched his wrist.
Thomas stilled.
“I know you’re not psychotic. You’re a soldier. A damn fine one, at that,” she added because it was true. “And if I seem nervous...” Tell him. “It’s not you, really. I have a...very hard time getting close to people.” Mostly because Noelle had made a habit of putting a wall between herself and others.
Once, that wall had been necessary for Noelle’s survival. But now, she didn’t know how to live without that protection.
His gaze dropped to her hand.
Noelle slowly pulled her fingers back.
After a moment, Thomas’s stare lifted once more to her face. “You’ll be closer to me than you will be to anyone else.”
Goose bumps rose on Noelle’s arms. Was that a promise? Or a warning?
Then the plane began its descent, and she held back the other questions she wanted to ask him.
* * *
THOMAS ANTHONY WAS used to danger. He was used to pain. He was used to surviving any and every hellhole on earth. As an Army Ranger, his job had been to get the mission accomplished, no matter what.
But his job had never involved working intimately with Noelle Evers, not until now.
She doesn’t remember me.
He’d known that, of course, from the beginning. From the first day he’d glanced up at the EOD and found himself staring into her warm, hazel eyes. Just looking at her had been like a punch to his gut. He’d wondered if she’d seen the flare of recognition in his eyes, but...
No, she hadn’t shown any awareness of the past they shared.
That was a good thing. Her not remembering helped him. Because if she ever did remember what he’d done...
She’d be terrified of me.
Even more afraid than she already was.
And, despite her words, Noelle was afraid of him. Thomas knew a whole lot about fear, and he was certain of the emotion he saw in her eyes.
“The senator will see you now,” Paula Quill said as she pointed toward the closed door on the right. The woman’s blond hair was pulled back in a perfect twist, and her face was schooled to show not even a hint of curiosity about their visit. As the senator’s assistant, Thomas figured the woman was used to keeping that mask of hers in place.
They were in the senator’s mansion, a too-big, mausoleum-type place Thomas didn’t like. But they’d needed to track the man back to his lair, even if that lair was in one of the most isolated spots in Alaska.
“He’s waiting in his study,” Paula added. Paula was pretty, a woman in her early twenties, and based on what Thomas knew about the senator, Paula was exactly the guy’s type. The senator was single, and from all accounts, quite a ladies’ man.
The EOD also suspected the man was a killer.
Noelle breezed past the other woman and headed into the senator’s study.
Noelle and Paula...they were night and day. Paula was icy reserve, cold perfection.
But Noelle...with her dark, red hair and her striking face...she was heat. Fire.
Passion.
The senator turned at Noelle’s approach, a fake smile on his face. Senator Lawrence Duncan was forty-two, rich and currently the chief suspect in the recent bombing of the EOD office in Washington, D.C.
Someone with a whole lot of power had hired an assassin—a man known as the Jack of Hearts—to take out EOD Director Bruce Mercer and to destroy the EOD in the process.
Right now, all of their intel was pointing to Senator Duncan as being that person in question.
“Senator Duncan.” Noelle’s voice was smooth, giving no hint at all to her southern roots. “Thank you for seeing us today.” She offered the senator her hand.
And he held it far too long. “How could I refuse?” Duncan murmured. “Though I’ll confess, I don’t quite know why the FBI wants to see me.”
That was their cover. They were acting as FBI agents because even U.S. senators didn’t have clearance to know about EOD missions.
But if this guy is the one we’re after, he already knows far too much about the EOD.
“We have some questions to ask you,” Noelle murmured. “About a killer who was recently hunting in D.C.”
Paula pulled the door shut, sealing them inside the room with the senator as she left.
The senator’s gaze swept over Noelle. He was still holding her hand and looking far too appreciative as his gaze dipped over her.
Noelle was a fine-looking woman, no doubt about it. Tall and curved, Thomas had seen plenty of men pass admiring stares her way. And every time those guys gazed at her with desire flaring in their eyes, Thomas wanted to drive his fist into their faces.
He cleared his throat. “I’m Agent Thomas Anthony,” Thomas said. A full, fake dossier had been created with his FBI credentials, just in case the senator wanted to dig. “And we certainly appreciate your cooperation.” Bull. Thomas didn’t appreciate anything about the jerk, and if the guy didn’t let Noelle’s hand go in the next five seconds—
Noelle pulled away from the senator. “Are you familiar with the killer known as the Jack of Hearts?”
Duncan blinked. “Ah...I read about him in the paper. Wasn’t he the serial killer who left playing cards at the scenes of his kills?”
Not exactly. Jack had been a murderer all right, but he’d been an assassin, not a serial killer. His kills hadn’t been for pleasure. They’d been for pure profit.
“That’s him,” Noelle inclined her head toward the senator. Thomas noticed her gaze swept around the study.
Thomas followed her stare. Duncan was a hunter. The trophies from his kills filled the walls of the room. And so did pictures. Pictures of cabins. Of boats. Of smiling women who stood at his side.
“Ah, well, I’ve certainly never met the man.” Duncan took a seat behind his desk. He motioned toward the couch on the right. “So I don’t see how I can—”
“When the authorities caught up with him,” Noelle interrupted smoothly. “He was planning to escape on your boat, the Dreamer. It was docked in D.C., and Jack had intended to slip away on that vessel.”
The senator’s eyes flared with surprise. “I hadn’t realized that. I heard he was at the dock, but not that he was planning to use my boat.”
Thomas thought the senator’s response seemed a little too perfect. Almost rehearsed.