Way of the Shadows

Anger burned in Duncan’s stare. “Now I see why I warranted a personal visit from the FBI. It’s certainly not every day that I’m tracked to my home like this....” His breath heaved out in what was probably supposed to look like an affronted rush. “I don’t like the accusations flying from you two.”

“We’ve made no accusations,” Noelle replied. Thomas had to admire her. She was good at keeping her emotions in check. “We’re simply asking you questions.”

“You’re done with your questions.” The senator stomped toward the door. “You want to see me again, you talk to my lawyer.” He yanked open the door and gave them a hard glare. “Hope you enjoy your trip back to D.C. By the time you get there, I’ll have already talked to your supervisor. You’ll both be lucky to have jobs waiting on you.”

Oh, Thomas was sure the jobs would be waiting. He was also sure they wouldn’t be leaving Alaska anytime soon.

The mission isn’t over. It’s just started.

“Thanks for your time, Senator,” Noelle said. “It’s certainly been enlightening.”

Duncan frowned at that, but Noelle just headed right past the guy.

Thomas took his time following her. He’d been around men like the senator before. Men born with silver spoons shoved deep in their mouths. He often wished those guys would choke on them.

“You and your partner should be careful,” the senator muttered. “This is a dangerous part of the country.”

Thomas froze. Had that jerk just threatened them? He turned his head and met the senator’s dark stare.

“No one comes into my home and tries to destroy me,” the senator spat at him. “No one. You’ve just made a very powerful enemy.”

Thomas fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Right. In case you can’t tell, I’m terrified right now.”

The senator frowned.

It was Thomas’s turn to smile. “Something you should know, too. I’m a bit of a hunter, like you.” He motioned to the trophies on the wall. “Only I don’t hunt animals. I take out the humans who are too dangerous to be walking the streets.”

“I—” The senator’s face reddened.

Thomas leaned in closer to him. “We know what you did. We know what you are. Soon, the whole world will know, too.”

The senator’s shoulders hunched.

Thomas nodded. “We’ll be seeing you again, soon.” Because they hadn’t come all the way to Alaska for some quick turnaround trip. They’d come to Alaska to get the proof they needed. Proof of the senator’s guilt. They weren’t leaving until they’d accomplished their mission.

Satisfied he’d made his point, Thomas exited behind Noelle. Paula watched them with wide, wary eyes. Thomas knew she’d overheard plenty of their conversation. If you’re smart, lady, you’ll get away from the senator, as fast as you can.

But Paula appeared to have frozen in place.

Thomas and Noelle didn’t speak again until they’d left the senator’s mansion. Once they were back inside their rented SUV, Thomas glanced at Noelle.

She was staring up at the senator’s home.

“Don’t keep me in suspense,” he drawled as he cranked the vehicle. A light dusting of snow had started to fall. “What did you think?”

She didn’t glance his way. “It’s too early to tell.”

He didn’t buy it. Noelle made her living by reading people. By looking past the bright, shiny surface they presented to the rest of the world. He pulled out of the winding drive and headed back toward the cabin in town that the EOD had rented for them.

They hadn’t bothered with getting a room in the local lodge—they’d needed more permanency.

They were planning to stay in Alaska for the long haul.

Until we can bury the senator.

“But I do know he was lying to us,” Noelle added.

Thomas wasn’t a profiler, and he knew that. The guy had barely been able to hold eye contact with him, and the senator had reacted far too strongly to their questions.

“So he’s our guy.” Thomas kept his hold steady on the steering wheel. He’d driven on snow-covered roads plenty of times. But those roads were sure different from the dirt roads of his youth.

“I think he could be. The man is controlling, dominating, and he’s—” Noelle hesitated. “I think there may be quite a few layers to the senator.”

“Yeah, well, your job is to peel away those layers, isn’t it? To find out what hides underneath.” That knowledge made him nervous. He didn’t want Noelle to ever see beneath the surface he presented. Thomas had told her before she shouldn’t profile him, but he’d caught her staring at him a few times, her eyes curious.

What does Noelle see when she looks at me? He knew what he saw when he looked into her eyes.

The thing I want most.

But when she stared at him, Thomas wondered if she just saw a killer.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what he was.

* * *

“THEY NEED TO VANISH,” Lawrence Duncan said as his fingers tightened around the phone he had pressed to his ear. “Hell, yes, I know the risks, and that’s why I’m telling you...they can’t make it out of this area.”

His heart was racing in his chest. It had been pounding too fast from the moment his study door had opened and FBI agent Noelle Evers had walked inside. He’d recognized her instantly, even after all those long years. “She’s a threat,” he said flatly. “One that should have been eliminated by now.”

Silence stretched on the phone line.

“Do it,” Lawrence snarled. “Or I will.” Even though he hated to get his hands dirty. But too much was at stake in this situation. They were already too exposed. And when Noelle put the pieces together—

I’ll lose everything.

He heard the rough rasp of breathing on the other end of the line. Lawrence waited, hoping to hear—

“They’ll die tonight.”

He smiled. “The snowfall is just going to get heavier. They’re on their way to their cabin now. That means they are heading your way.” He’d taken the liberty of acquiring all of his information earlier. His assistant, Paula, had a knack for discovering information. Even before the agents had entered his home, Lawrence had known where they’d be staying in town. “With weather like this, it will be easy enough for them to have an accident.”

A fatal one.

The senator hesitated. “Just...don’t leave obvious wounds on their bodies.”

“Don’t worry, there won’t be any bodies to find.”

The words should have chilled Lawrence, but he’d lost his conscience long ago. The first time he’d seen a kill, his life had changed.

And the blood had stained his hands ever since.

* * *

THEY’D BEEN DRIVING for about twenty minutes when the bright flash of headlights illuminated their rental vehicle. Thomas narrowed his eyes as he glanced in the rearview mirror. He could hear the growl of a fast-approaching vehicle behind him.

Even as the snow continued to fall in heavier waves.

“Where’d he come from?” Noelle asked as she turned in her seat to glance back.

Thomas’s hands tightened around the wheel. Adrenaline spiked in his blood as the other vehicle’s engine growled again and seemed to come even closer.

“What is he doing?” Alarm sharpened Noelle’s voice. “Maybe we should slow down, in case he wants to pass.”

The road was narrow and surrounded by trees. Up ahead, an old bridge crossed over what looked like an ice-filled lake.

“We’re not slowing down,” Thomas said because his instincts were screaming at him. A dark road. A driver who was—

The other vehicle slammed into the back of Thomas’s SUV. The impact was jarring, and he had to fight to keep the SUV from swerving off the road. “Hold on,” he growled to Noelle. “Just hold—”

The other driver came at them again, hitting even harder this time. The SUV’s wheels slipped on the icy road as the bridge loomed before them.

“It’s a truck,” Noelle gasped out. “I can see its outline. It’s big and—”

It hit them again. Noelle’s words ended in a scream because the SUV flew across the slick road. They were heading for the bridge. The SUV started to spin as the tires slid right over the ice.

“Thomas!”

The SUV slammed into the side of the bridge. The impact was on Noelle’s side, and Thomas’s gaze immediately jerked toward her as fear clawed through him.

Her hair had fallen over her face, and the echo of her scream seemed to shudder through his whole body. “Noelle?”

Thomas could hear the other vehicle’s motor growling again. The SOB was going to come at him again. And if the truck hit them, they could easily plunge into the frigid water.

They had to get out of there, fast. “Come on, baby,” he said, the endearment sliding from his mouth without thought because it was her. “We have to move.”

The bright headlights were on them again. Coming fast, too fast.

Noelle’s head lifted. She blinked at him. “Thomas?”

He yanked her free from the seat belt. He was already out of his, too. He shoved open his door.

The vehicle slammed right into Thomas’s open door. Metal crunched, groaned—and the door ripped away as the truck drove their SUV harder into the side of the bridge and its old railing.

“Climb out the back!” Thomas yelled. “Hurry!” He pushed her into the rear seat. He had his weapon in his hands, and he turned back, aiming toward the other driver.

Who are you? What in the hell is happening?

His bullets blasted through the other vehicle’s windshield. The truck stopped its advance. Noelle had made it into the backseat. She forced open the rear door, and Thomas followed her, barely fitting in the small escape space because the vehicle was wedged so closely to the railing.

He’d just cleared the vehicle when—

The truck hit them again. Only this time, the railing broke. Glass shattered. Metal crunched. And the wooden barrier splintered.

Thomas grabbed tightly to Noelle, and he lunged forward with her, hurtling them toward the woods near the edge of the bridge. They hit the snow and rolled down the ravine, tumbling again and again as they flew toward the bottom.

The SUV crashed into the frozen lake, sending chunks of ice into the air.

Thomas and Noelle finally stopped. They were about two feet away from that lake. Noelle was on top of him, and he quickly reversed their positions, holding her tightly. He could hear the growl of the other vehicle’s engine, and then...

“He’s leaving,” Noelle whispered.

Yes, he was. Because he thought he’d gotten his prey?

The engine’s snarl grew softer as the truck drove away.

The snow kept falling.

Noelle pushed against his shoulders. Thomas rose slowly, and he pulled Noelle to her feet. Their SUV was partially submerged and sinking fast. Damn it.

“Are you all right?” Thomas asked her as his eyes swept over her. He didn’t see any injuries, but he wanted to be sure she was all right.

“He just tried to kill us!” She sounded incredulous.

She was also shaking.

Because it was cold out there. He shouldered out of his coat and pushed it toward her. When she tried to refuse, Thomas just wrapped it around her shoulders. “Senior agent,” he snapped at her, still remembering the flash of fear he’d felt in the SUV. “That means you do what I say. Right now, I’m saying...take my coat.”

She pulled the coat closer. Thomas yanked out his phone. They’d rolled a good twenty feet from the road. A heavy darkness was already sweeping over the area. He lifted the phone—and realized it had been smashed to hell and back during the tumble.

“Tell me your phone’s working,” he said.

“I...I think it’s in the SUV.”

Hell.

The temperature was too low. It was getting too dark. No one was going to see them down there, and if anyone did happen to come along that lonely stretch of road again, it could very well be the same jerk who’d just tried to kill them.

Noelle started to climb back up toward the road. He caught her arm, stopping her. “Was your gun in the vehicle, too?” Thomas demanded.

She gave a grim nod. “Yours?” Noelle asked softly.

“You know I don’t need a gun to kill.” She was still shivering. They had to get to safety, fast. “But I’ve got the weapon.”

“Stay to the shadows as much as possible,” Thomas told her, keeping his voice quiet, too. In this area, any noise would carry easily. “He could come back, but we have to travel close to the road because running through the wilderness sure isn’t an option for us.” Not unless they wanted a slow death.

“I thought I saw a turnoff, a mile or so before the bridge,” Noelle told him. When she spoke, a small cloud appeared before her mouth. It’s too cold out here. “Maybe there’s a cabin there. Someone who can help us.”

Maybe. Right then, that turnoff sounded like their best chance. He kept his hold on her arm, and they started walking through the darkness.

Chapter Two

“You need to strip.”

The cabin door slammed closed behind Noelle. At Thomas’s growled words, Noelle stiffened. “Excuse me?”

They’d been walking for what felt like an hour. They’d taken the turnoff from the main road and slogged ahead until they’d found this place—a rundown, one-room cabin, which looked as if it hadn’t been used in years.

It was as cold inside as it was outside. Noelle couldn’t stop the shivers that rocked her body.

“Your core temperature is too low,” Thomas told her flatly. “We have to get warm. The snow wet our clothing, so we have to ditch it.” He was leaning over what looked like one very ancient fireplace. “Lucky damn night,” he rasped. “There’s some old wood here.”

Uh, yeah, but how were they going to light that fire and—

He pulled out a small kit from his pocket and went to work. A flame flared seconds later.

Her breath expelled in a relieved rush.

Still kneeling in front of the fire, Thomas glanced back at her. “There was no way I’d come into the Alaskan wilderness without a fire kit.”

She shivered. Again.

“Strip,” he ordered once more.

The cabin was deserted, so they sure weren’t going to get any rescue crew out there that night. But if they didn’t warm up, soon, Noelle realized the odds of them making it until morning weren’t going to be high.

Thomas headed toward her.

Noelle tensed.

“There you go again,” he said, and he sounded angry. “When will you learn, I’m not going to bite?”

“I—”

He brushed by her and yanked open a small closet. No, he yanked down that closet’s door; the old thing just literally fell off its hinges. “This will have to do for kindling ’cause we aren’t finding any dry wood outside.” He broke the door into heavy chunks. He had the fire flaring even higher when he added it. His back was turned to her as she inched toward that inviting warmth.

“My clothes are hitting the floor,” Thomas told her bluntly. “Yours need to do the same.”

Because they were soaked. But...

He stripped out of his sweater. Dropped the shirt he’d worn under it for layering. When he bent to remove his boots and socks, the firelight flickered over the tight muscles in his chest and arms. He had to work out—a lot. She’d never seen anyone with such sculpted muscles. As she stared at him—probably too long and too hard—Noelle could just make out the...scars on his body. Twisting, sharp, they snaked around his abs and lined his back.

She remembered the wound notations in his files. He’d been captured on a mission a while back. Held. Tortured. But, by the time rescue had come, all of his captors had been dead.

Thomas turned then. He still wore his jeans. His eyes met hers. “It’s not personal,” he told her in his deep, dark voice. “It’s survival.”

She felt her cheeks burn. Well, at least burning was better than freezing. Noelle fumbled and her clothes started to hit the floor. His jacket. Hers. Her sweater. Her undershirt. Her boots. Her socks.

Her fingers were fumbling, uncoordinated, as she tried to unhook the snap of her jeans.

“Let me.” His voice was rougher than before, and his fingers were suddenly working at her waistband. He was so close, seeming to surround her with his strength. Noelle tried to pull in a deep breath, and his scent—masculine and crisp—wrapped around her.

Her zipper eased down with a hiss of sound.

She jerked back from him. Nearly fell. Would have, if Thomas hadn’t snagged her arm so quickly. “Easy,” he murmured.

Easy was the last thing she felt right then.

His fingers slowly uncurled their grip. “I’ll spread out our clothes to dry. We should try to get some rest near the fire.”

Noelle didn’t hold out a lot of hope regarding rest. She bent and pushed her jeans down her legs. Then she looked up. Thomas had turned his back to her, but he’d stuck his hand out behind him, obviously waiting for her jeans. She pushed them into his hand.

“The rest,” Thomas pressed.

“No way,” Noelle said, aware that her voice held a sharp snap. “I’m keeping on my underwear, and I want you to do the same.” Her panties and her bra were dry enough, and she was absolutely not planning to flash him any more than necessary.

Noelle thought she heard Thomas sigh, but he bent and finished spreading out her clothes. And his. And—

“Sorry,” he said, voice a bit wry as she jerked her gaze off him and back toward the fire. “But I’m not wearing underwear.”

No, no, he hadn’t been.

Noelle dropped toward the fire. She sat on the floor and pulled her knees up toward her. She was still shivering, and the tips of her fingers and toes were starting to ache.

A few moments later, Thomas eased down next to her. He reached for her.

The flinch was instinctive. She’d been withdrawing from people ever since—well, ever since she’d been seventeen years old and she’d woken, terrified, in a cabin that had actually looked a whole lot like the one they were currently in.

Her shoulders hunched.

“We need to share body warmth,” he said again. “Don’t worry I think I can control myself here.”

Okay, now he was just mocking her.

But his hands gently curled around her, and he eased her fully down on the wooden floor next to him. Then he curled his body around hers. His left arm slid under her head, almost like a pillow, while his right curled around her stomach and pulled her back against the warm, hard cradle of his body.

“I think that I can,” he added roughly, his breath blowing over the shell of her ear.

The fire crackled in front of her.

Noelle swallowed and tried to figure out what she was supposed to do in this situation. Being naked and trapped in a one-room cabin with Agent Thomas Anthony certainly hadn’t been on her to-do list.

“I think we have confirmation of the senator’s guilt.”

His rumbling voice seemed to roll right through her.

“We visit the senator,” Thomas continued grimly, “then less than half an hour later, some maniac tries to kill us. Connecting those dots sure isn’t hard.”

No, it wasn’t, and Noelle had never been the type to believe in coincidences. She tried to put a little more space between their bodies.

Thomas just pulled her right back against him. “He left the scene because he thinks we’re dead.”

“If we hadn’t cleared the SUV right then, we would be dead.” Her own words were quiet and they gave no hint to the terror that had rocked through her as she fought to get out of the vehicle. As cold as it was outside...if they’d plunged beneath the ice in that lake, survival would have been only a dim hope. “But I don’t know if the senator did this himself. He strikes me as more of a guy who hires out his dirty work.” After all, that was exactly what they thought he’d done in D.C.—hired Jack to take out the EOD.

And as far as getting rid of her and Thomas, well, she was sure that counted as dirty work.

“He just tried to kill two federal agents,” Thomas’s lips brushed against her neck. Had he meant to do that? Surely not. “Whether he did it himself or he hired someone, we’re getting the guy. At first light, we’re finding a way out of this place, and we’re going after him.”

First light. That certainly seemed very far away.

“He panicked.” That was the only explanation she had. “Something set him off during our meeting.” Something they’d said or done.

“He got set off because the FBI was at his door. The guy’s probably trying to run as fast and as far as he can right now.”

Noelle wasn’t so sure. If he thought they were dead, why would he bother to run?

“But I’ll find him,” Thomas vowed. “I won’t stop until I do.”

The fire surged a bit higher then, sending sparks into the air.

“We should get some sleep.” His voice softened a bit. “Who the hell knows what we’ll face tomorrow.”

Since they’d just survived one attempt on their lives, Noelle knew he was right.

Her gaze drifted away from the fire. She glanced at the flickering shadows lining the walls. This place... It was just like the cabin that haunted her nightmares. Those nightmares chased her wherever she went, no matter what she did.

“You’re too tense,” he said. “Look, I get that you don’t like me, but—”

“I like you just fine.” How awkward was this conversation? But he had a right to know... “It’s not you that I’m afraid of, okay? It’s...this place.”

He was silent behind her. But his fingers moved lightly against her stomach. Almost as if he were caressing her.

“We’re safe.”

Her gaze slid to the right. His gun was there. Within easy reach. “Sometimes, I don’t ever feel safe.” As soon as she said the words, Noelle wished she could call them back. She’d never made that confession to anyone.

“Why not?” His hold definitely tightened then.

Noelle shook her head. She was feeling warmer, so much warmer now. The shivers and shudders were easing. “Because I’m never sure what waits in the darkness.” But she wasn’t talking about the darkness outside the cabin. She was talking about the darkness in her own mind.

He was silent behind her.

And Noelle found she couldn’t stop talking, not to him. Not then. “When I was seventeen, I was...taken.” Just saying the words hurt, but it also seemed a relief to put them out there. “I was missing from my home for over forty-eight hours before the police found me.” She was glad she wasn’t looking into his face when she told this story. Noelle wasn’t sure she wanted to see his reaction. “Forty-eight hours,” she said again, whispering the words. “And to this day, I still can’t remember a single thing that happened during that time.” When she tried to remember, she only saw the darkness.

“Maybe you’re better off not remembering.”

That was what her mother had told her, over and over. Her mother had thought it would be better to just move forward. To put those two days into the back of her mind and pretend they hadn’t happened.

But they had happened. They’d changed her.

“When the police found me, a dead man was in the cabin with me.”

Silence. Then, “You think you killed him?”

“I was tied, bound to a chair. Someone else was there.” The man’s accomplice? Another shudder had her body quaking. But she didn’t know if that shudder came from the cold or from the fear in her belly. “A killer was there, and I can’t remember a thing about him.”

That scared her more than anything else. Because that man—that killer—he could be anyone. He could be anywhere. She could have met him a hundred times and never known.

She’d become a profiler because of what happened. Because she wanted to be able to see the murderers out there. To look behind the masks they wore.

What she’d discovered during the course of her career was that monsters were real. They just wore the guise of men.

Her eyes squeezed closed. She didn’t know why she’d revealed so much to Thomas. In the harsh light of dawn, she knew she’d regret sharing so much with him. But, right then, she still just felt that strange relief.

And the fear slid away as the fire warmed her and he held her close. It was odd to feel so secure...in the arms of a dragon.