Survival is crucial.
Trust is optional.
Love is unstoppable.
Jude Dagan's life as he knew it ended a year ago. On a mission gone wrong, he was forced to watch as Ella Banning, the only woman he's ever loved, was killed. Or so he thought.
Jude wasn't the only one who lost something on the day Ella was presumed dead. She sacrificed Endgame Ops, the love of her life, and parts of herself she can never get back. Now she's determined to take down the world's most dangerous terrorist—even if it means working for him.
When Jude and Ella are reunited, they'll battle the lies Ella has been forced to tell…and struggle to save a love that knows no bounds.
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EXCERPT
Jude adjusted his scope’s sight and
settled down in the slight depression between two trees. Pine straw, dying
leaves and branches covered him. He’d made the blind to blend into the
landscape seamlessly. The sun was behind him now, its heat nothing more than a
fading promise. The wind had picked up an hour ago, and he allowed its bitter
cold to seep into his soul. It was soothing to a degree, though Jude doubted
anything could ever completely cool his rage. He’d been here for two days,
following intel that would hopefully lead him to…her. He’d
stopped even thinking her name months ago. The sound of it reverberating
through his mind caused unbearable pain that spread from his heart through
every limb. It was debilitating, that pain. And unending. Instead, he
remembered her face, the way her body had once moved beneath him, and the
promises she’d made that had inevitably been nothing more than lies.
Movement in the compound below had him tightening his grip on his
rifle. He’d been trained to take down targets a mile away, but today was simply
reconnaissance. When he’d seen her in Beirut six weeks ago, after a year of
believing her dead and gone, his mind had denied what his heart had immediately
recognized.
El—her.
Then she’d disappeared in the smoke and confusion, and he’d had no
choice but to leave her again.
In the hell that was Lebanon.
He tightened his grip on his weapon, tamping down his dangerous
emotions. Below him, four white Range Rovers pulled up to the concrete
warehouse that had once been a chemical engineering facility. Unsubstantiated
rumors had it that the facility’s purpose was to conceal Horace Dresden’s
biochemical weapons stash. Whatever the case, those rumors had hit Jude’s ears
and his skin had prickled.
Endgame’s mission for two years had been the elimination of Horace
Dresden. For Jude, the mission had morphed. Oh, he wanted Dresden, but his
motivation resided in the fact that if he could find that murdering son of a
bitch he’d find, her.
The right-side driver’s door of the lead Rover opened, and a dainty
foot encased in a nude stiletto heel lowered to the ground. The leg attached to
the foot had his gut clenching. He’d tasted the arc of that calf, tongued the
indention of that knee, and had his hands all over that thigh.
She stepped out of the Rover completely, and his gut clenched then
relaxed. It was a reaction he’d only had with her. Jude was a warrior, a
soldier. He’d spent most of his adult life training, fighting and killing. He
was damn good at what he did. Had never even realized something was missing
from his life until she’d stepped into his sphere and taken him over.
The wind caught her overcoat and tossed the ivory folds, allowing
him a glimpse of a body that was thinner than he remembered but no less
captivating. Through the scope, his gaze trailed upward over her hips and then
higher across her breasts and up along the slope of her collarbone. Her skin
was the same color as her coat but softer, glowing. The flavor of that skin
danced like a phantom over his tongue.
The trees above him bowed to the wind, and in his spot on the ridge
above the compound, His nostrils flared, a stallion scenting its mare. He swore
he could taste her on the breeze. She moved to shut the door and, in an
instant, froze.
She slowly lifted her hand and removed the dark sunglasses that hid
the frost of her gaze from him. The scar at her temple mocked him. It was the
only mark on the otherwise unblemished face that stalked his dreams. And then
she angled her head toward his location.
His heart locked in his chest. No way she had any idea he was here.
He hadn’t even told King where he was headed—had kept the information about
Dresden’s supposed compound from the Piper, King, and his teammates. This was
what he’d been reduced to. Spying on a woman who’d betrayed him…betrayed them.
Desperate for a glimpse of her. Desperate to make her pay.
The wind settled at that moment, but still she gazed up toward him.
The man who’d gotten out of the Rover on the other side must have called her
name, because she glanced at him and her lips moved before she began walking
toward the building. Jude was too far away to hear her words.
Six men got out of each of the remaining Rovers, each carrying a
small metal briefcase. Jude would bet his left nut they were here to obtain some
of Dresden’s horde of biochemicals.
He trained his gaze on her again, watching as her long legs ate up
the distance between the Rover and the building, and for a crazy second, Jude
remembered her as she’d been the night before his world had been blown to hell.
He saw her walking on their beach in North Carolina, the wind whipping her long
ebony hair, the waves playing havoc around her delicate ankles. He saw her head
turn as a grin broke across her face. He saw the flush of their recent
lovemaking on her body.
A hawk screamed in the distance, and Jude was jerked to the present.
Instead of seeing his woman through the sight of the scope, he saw her. A stranger. A traitor.
Jude’s sight remained locked on her, his finger caressing the
trigger as he let the anger flow through him. He’d heard the whispers—maybe she
was a double agent. Maybe she wasn’t the traitor he knew her to be. Maybe she
was both and neither.
Maybe he hadn’t given everything he was to a ghost.
He needed the truth, and he’d resolved that he’d have to be cold and
merciless in finding it. She’d led them on this path. She could damn well walk
it with him.
The man entered the building, but before she stepped in behind him,
she once again turned her gaze to Jude’s location.
She couldn’t see him, but for Jude, it didn’t matter. She knew he
was there. He knew she knew. She raised both hands, holding up six fingers. It
was so quick Jude wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him as his heart
threatened to burst from his chest. Had it been supplication or warning? He
didn’t know—but the sadness that passed like a cloud over the contours of her
face in that moment had him swearing.
Then she lowered her hands as the soft curves of her mouth lifted in
a travesty of a smile.
Jude cursed again, the wind taking the foul word and tossing it to
and fro. As she moved out of his sight, his gut clenched again. King had warned
Jude that all was not as it seemed, to give him time to figure it all out.
Jude hadn’t been inclined to give himself that time. Until this
moment.
Because there’d been one other emotion on her face just now that
ripped a hole right through Jude’s shriveled heart. He’d seen it many times
over the course of their year together but had despaired he’d ever see it
again. It had been the truest of all the emotions she’d ever displayed with
him.
It was the one thing that stayed his trigger finger. It was the only
thing that could save her.
Love.
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