She hadn't wanted gentle, she had wanted hard. She had wanted to loosen the dark, furious need she hadn't even known had been building inside her. She had wanted it free, and he had freed it.
It was more than obvious she was canceling her date with Duncan tonight. There was no way she could face him like this. No way she could let him see this. And it was even more obvious that she wouldn't be seeing him again.
Shaking her head, she dried her hair, dropped the towels to the floor, and tugged on her robe before going back downstairs and making the call to Duncan.
He wasn't pleased. It was short notice, and he was irritated with that. Duncan liked to stay on schedule, and she had just messed up his little schedule. When she hung up the phone she sighed wearily at the thought of the frustration in his voice. She would have to break things off soon. Companionship was no reason to keep him hanging on. And companionship wasn't enough anymore. She had tasted hunger again, and she wanted more.
She craved more.
Sabella wandered around the dimly lit house, finally finding herself in the living room, in front of the large window, where the long table held her and Nathan's wedding photos.
How handsome he had been. She picked up the picture of them together. Her in the long white gown he had bought for her. Her head was against his chest, his dress uniform stiffly starched beneath her cheek. His hands gripped her bare shoulders and he stared down at her as though he had found something in her that he had never found anywhere else.
She had been his Bella. His Southern Bella he used to call her because of that Southern drawl she had never even tried to get rid of.
His eyes had been brilliant. So blue. So filled with life. She touched those eyes through the glass, slid her thumb down his face, then lifted her gaze to the window.
The throttled purr of the Harley could be heard from the garage that sat within sight of the house. She watched as the single light pierced the darkness and the motorcycle headed to the main road.
Noah was just a shadow, as was the cycle as it gained in power and disappeared from view. She watched the taillights until she couldn't see them any longer then looked down at Nathan's smiling face once again.
A tear splashed on the glass covering his face.
"You left me," she whispered again. "What am I supposed to do, Nathan? Tell me." Her breathing hitched as her stomach cramped with the pain of loss. 'Tell me, what am I supposed to do now?"
* * *
CHAPTER SEVEN
Noah pulled the Harley into the hidden bay that housed the individual vehicles of the Elite Ops Unit, turned off the ignition and pulled in a hard, deep breath. Damn, he hadn't wanted to leave. He'd wanted to stomp straight up the hill to that house and spend the night sparring with the wife who made him hotter than a fire in winter and mesmerized him now, more than she had six years ago. He shook his head. Getting to know her again, seeing all the things she had hidden from him when they were married, only reinforced the fear that he had made the mistake of his life when he believed Sabella couldn't handle the horror of what had happened to him.
They were waiting on him, and he was late. Late because he'd stomped around that damned apartment, swearing he could feel Sabella. Sworn, he would have sworn it on a stack of Bibles that he heard her whisper his name. But it wouldn't have been the first time. It had happened too often over the past years.
Nineteen brutal months of hell with Fuentes. He swore at times that his Sabella was with him. Wiping his brow, her eyes confused, her voice agonized as she begged him to let her help him. Then he would touch her, and he would see his own hands, bloodied from his attempts to escape or the guards he tried to kill. And she would cry. In those ragged nightmares she always cried.
He tightened his jaw at the memory of that as he stepped into the briefing room and closed the door behind him.
" 'Bout time." Jordan stood from his chair and darkened the glass with a flip of a switch as Noah took his chair. "We have intel on the names we've pulled in over the past week of suspected BCM members."
Jordan wasted his time asking why he was late.
"We have Mike Conrad, manager of the town's largest bank, also the bank that we've managed to identify as possibly a central location for the laundering of large funds to support the BCM."
Mike was on the LCD screen hanging on the wall.
"I knew him," Noah said quietly. "Mike would fit the paramilitary profile. Even when I lived here, Mike was very vocal about immigration laws and the nation's inability to pass the right ones, or to enforce the ones they have. He was a proponent of stricter laws and militias to enforce them."
"And the two of you were friends?" Micah asked curiously.
Noah shrugged. "We grew up together. I didn't have to agree with him to like the man he was at the time. That was over six years ago. Evidently, he found a way to follow his vision."
"They all do, mate," John Vincent grunted, his rugged features concerned as they flipped open the files Tehya was passing out.
"As you read, you'll see that two of the mechanics working at the Malone Garage, Timmy Dorian and Vince Steppton, are both suspected lower-level members of this militia." Their pictures came on screen. "We've been tracking them," Jordan continued. "They make frequent trips to Gaylen Patrick's ranch as well as Mike Conrad's home outside of town. We've also been tracking Conrad and his contacts." Several pictures came up; one of them was Duncan Sykes.
"I tried to hack Conrad's computer the other night." Tehya stepped in at Jordan's nod. "Spectacular work," she said, sighing. "Someone has attached a very advanced system to his connection. Sykes has the ability and the knowledge for such security. When I couldn't get in without tripping his security I tried Patrick's. We have the same setup there. We need someone on-site to upload the program I've written that will let me bypass the security entirely."
"I can get that done." Noah nodded. "I helped Mike build his house. He made an addition to the plans he bought that no one but the two of us knew about. A small escape tunnel and entrance into his study. He wouldn't have changed it after my 'death.' He'd feel more secure than ever."
"Good." Jordan nodded before breathing out wearily. "We have a report of another hunt that took place in the past week as well. Border Patrol found the bodies last night."
Those bodies were on the monitor now. A young man and woman, blank eyes, expressions twisted into lines of horror as they stared sightlessly from ravaged faces.