Page 68 of Hot Intent

That was relief deflating her lungs like that, right? She was furious at him. No disappointment whatsoever, darn it.

André had been adamantly opposed to her coming back here when he’d debriefed her earlier. She still couldn’t believe Alex had turned out to be so unstable. And selfish. What a bastard. But André had regretfully informed her that the CIA assessment of him was that he had snapped. He could not be trusted. They’d declared him a rogue agent, armed and extremely dangerous.

If Alex was as crazy as they said he was, no way would he come back here. Right? It was the one place people knew to look for him. He would avoid his home like the plague.

Part of her wished he would show up here. That he would come looking for her to explain himself and apologize.

Theremusthave been a reason he’d ditched her in Cuba not once, but twice. Her initial fury had given way to grief. She really, truly, loved him.

But he’d made his lack of return feelings crystal clear to her. Strange how love could transform to hatred and back again so quickly. She’d actively despised him for several days for up and leaving her.

Wiped out after all the travel and long hours of debriefing in exhaustive detail with André, she crawled into the master bed.

Fortinay had been deeply disappointed when she failed to produce any proof of chemical weapons stockpiles in Cuba. But all of the samples had ended up with Alex. And at this point, she expected he’d destroyed them all.

At least she was able to describe in exact detail where the bunker was located. They’d even pulled up a live satellite feed and had her zoom in on the spot. It had been creepy to look at the Zacara factory, the dirt road, and that innocuous grassy mound. It was all so vivid in her mind, but it was starting to take on a dreamlike quality as it slipped into the past.

She supposed the CIA would send more operatives down to check the place out since she and Alex had failed. At least they’d brought out intel that the chemicals were there. That was something. If Alex were here, he would call her a Pollyanna for thinking like that.

The loss of him was a sharp pain in her chest that came and went. Sadly, she suspected she would live with those unpredictable slashes of grief across her heart for a long time to come.

As exhausted as she was, she tossed and turned, her thoughts churning furiously. Which was why she heard the front door locks disengaging in the wee hours of the night. She rolled out of bed and to her feet in one fluid move.

No lights came on in the condo, and her internal threat sensors went on high alert. Alex or someone here innocently would have turned the lights on. Wait. It was well after midnight. No one innocent was here.

A dark figure moved stealthily through the bedroom door. She slipped out her hiding place behind the door and jammed her pistol against the man’s spine. She ordered, “Freeze.”

The intruder froze at the same moment recognition of his height, silhouette, and the scent of his aftershave registered simultaneously.Alex.

“Gotchya. I win,” she said dryly.

Except she didn’t win. He simultaneously dropped to his knees, spun around, and surged up from below, ripping the pistol out of her hand and slamming her backward against the wall with a forearm across her neck. She glared at him disbelievingly.

He’d justattackedher.Surely not...

Surely, he had.

Abrupt fury blazed in her gut, and she let it. “What the hell are you doing here?” she snarled past his forearm.

“What the hell areyoudoing here?” he demanded. “This is my home.”

“Not for much longer, it isn’t. The entire CIA is looking for you. You’re done, Alex.”

In the darkness, his teeth flashed momentarily as he smiled in sardonic amusement. She supposed he had a right to be amused. She doubted they would catch him if he didn’t want to be caught, either.

“What are you doing here?” she challenged.

“Taking care of a few loose ends before I disappear.”

“Is that what I am? A loose end?” Her voice rose. “Why did you abandon me in Cuba?”

“They sent you down there to spy on me. And then you betrayed me.”

“I never betrayed you!” she exclaimed.

She reached out to activate the light switch. She damned well wanted him to look her in the eye when he spouted that crap at her. Small halogen spotlights created strategic pools of light around the room.

Alex, who happened to be near one of the bright circles thrown down by the spotlights, looked like hell. It wasn’t so much that he needed a shave or his clothes looked as if he’d slept in them several times. It was the look in his eyes that staggered her.

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