Page 19 of Hot Intent

He finally declared, “You are the most stubborn, unreasonable female I’ve ever had the misfortune to know.”

Hah. Capitulation. She heard it in his voice. Gracious in victory, she murmured, “And that’s why you love me.”

He scowled, and she didn’t press the point. Instead, she asked, “Why is André going to all the trouble of infiltrating us into Cuba to hunt for something the CIA isn’t even sure exists? Does this have something to do with your father?”

“Maybe,” he answered candidly. “The close Cuban connection to Russia lends credence to the notion. Several of the ships that have been spotted belong to Russian front corporations, and some intelligence traffic has been tracked between Cuba and the FSB that corresponds to the appearances of the ships.”

“Is that why you’re so set on going on this wild goose chase, then?”

“I’d definitely rather know what Roman’s up to than be operating blind where he’s concerned.” He added quietly, “And so would the CIA.”

“Are you ever going to give up this never-ending battle against him?”

“I will if he will.”

She snorted. “Like that’s gonna happen.”

“Exactly.”

“Cuba, huh?” she said in resignation.

“Pleasestay home,” he tried one last time.

“Please stay here with me,” she retorted.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply. “I can’t.”

“There are things going on around us I don’t understand, Alex, and I’m worried. My gut says something or someone’s closing in on us. Whoever took that shot at me on the terrace did not do it randomly. I think it would be best if we both got out ofWashington and stayed off everybody’s radar for a while. Call it crazy women’s intuition.”

He stared at her for a long time. Secrets swirled in his turbulent, unwilling gaze. But in the end, keeping them to himself won out over talking her into staying home. She gathered, however, that he agreed with her intuition.

He released a long, unhappy sigh. “Are your parents going to be okay with keeping Dawn for a few weeks?”

Lemme think,” she drawled. “More time to spoil their adorable only grandchild rotten? Gee. I don’t know.”

Alex smiled briefly, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. He had some inkling of who’d taken that shot at her and why. What about that had him so freaked out? Enough to give in and let her come to Cuba with him? Was it really going to be safer for her in a hostile country where being caught meant arrest or even possible death?

Wow. Not reassuring.

4

Alex leaned back in his uncomfortable airplane seat and pretended to sleep. Why hadn’t CIA satellites picked up anythingat allon the shooter at his condo, yesterday? He’d been on the phone no more than two minutes after the shooting and André had promised the agency would take a look at its live security telemetry of the nation’s capital.

The day had been sunny and clear. They should have seensomething. A car, a figure moving away from the area on foot, a flash off a gun scope. He’d given André detailed descriptions of all three of the perches a sniper could possibly use to hit that planter on his terrace. How hard could it have been to check out three lousy hides?

His gut churned alarmingly. Something was wrong. What wasn’t André telling him? His instincts warned that the agency’s analysts had seen something but elected not to share it with him. What? And why were they hiding it from him?

And now they were sending him to Cuba, a known swarm of Russian intelligence activity, on a flimsy excuse. What did they think Roman was up to? Or were they just using his father’s name as a hot button to get him to race down to Cuba?

André had been cagey when he’d pushed his boss for details. Fortinay had flatly refused to divulge why he and Katie specifically had to go to Cuba and what exactly they were supposed to be looking for when they got there. No way was this a random aid mission. The CIA was up to something. But André had steadfastly avoided revealing even a hint of what was up.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Alex really didn’t like the fact that D.U. was determined to send Katie with him. He tried to talk André out of it but failed spectacularly. He got that they wanted someone watching him, but he resented them trying to use his civilian girlfriend that way.

This whole business of playing by the rules was starting to grate on him. He was tempted to go back to the good old days when everybody hated him and he lived on the edge, tiptoeing between his enemies to stay alive.

Katie’s head landed lightly on his shoulder and he shifted to make it into a more comfortable pillow for her. She might give his life purpose, but God, the cost of being with her and Dawn was daunting at times. He so wasn’t an inside-the-box kind of guy.

The plan was to wait out Hurricane Giselle in Florida and then make their way to Cuba after it passed. André’s contact in Cuba had flatly refused to let Alex bring any of his own equipment or supplies into the country.

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