Rendezvous with Danger (Reunited Series) (11 page)

There are new developments on the story we brought you last night regarding the single-family house, on Chicago’s south side exploding just before 11 p.m
.
Authorities tell us there have been two bodies discovered on the premises. A male, found near the side entrance of the house, and a woman’s body found inside. The bodies have yet to be identified, but foul play is suspected. We’ll bring you more information as it becomes available.

Alandra’s hands flew to her chest. “Oh my God, there was someone else there?” It was bad enough Isabella had lost her life, and she wondered if the other body belonged to the person who had shot Isabella.
Two bodies?

“That’s so sad. I hope it turns out that it was an accident. I would hate to think there are people out there intentionally blowing up homes.”

Alandra forgot Natasha was sitting next to her.

“Wait a minute,” Natasha turned to face her. “Why did you sound so shock when they said two bodies, as if you expected one but two was impossible?”

“What do you mean?” Alandra didn’t want to lie to her sister, but she would if she had to.

Several seconds passed before Natasha spoke. “What is going on? You’ve been acting strange since I walked in here.”

Alandra waved her off and went to the kitchen. “I’m fine.”

“That’s the third ‘I’m fine’. So I know something’s up. What is it? You know you can talk to me about anything.”

“I know.” Alandra opened the refrigerator door, unsure of what she expected to find. She still needed to grocery shop.

Natasha braced her hands against the countertop. “So, you’re not going to tell me?”

Alandra met her gaze. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Natasha threw up her hands. “
Fine
.
I give up.
I’m going to use your bathroom and then I’m outta here.”

****

At 1:15, Quinn pulled up to Alandra’s apartment building. He had to do something about her living situation. His windows were rolled up tight, yet he still heard the thumpity thump thump of rap music blaring from a car parked several doors down. Two teens lounged on the front stoop as if it were 75 degrees, instead of the low 30’s smoking cigarettes, but the worst hit him when he stepped into her building. The musky smell of beer mixed with the stink of trash sitting near the entrance made him cover his mouth and nose as he took the first flight, two stairs at a time. This was not the place for a woman, especially when the woman was his wife.

 He knocked and Alandra answered the door.

Quinn didn’t think he would ever tire of looking at her. Free of the disguise she’d worn yesterday, her long curly hair hung loose around her shoulders, and brown eyes devoid of the hideous green contact lenses held his gaze. She glanced away and then back at him. A rosy tint spread across her cheeks as he openly admired her beauty. No hospital scrubs today. The red v-neck sweater and black boot-cut jeans looked incredible on her. She appeared harmless, but he knew better. Sexy, intelligent, and had feet that were considered a deadly weapon in the martial arts world. She was anything but harmless.

Instead of greeting her with words, Quinn stepped across the threshold and pulled her into his arms. His lips covered hers before she had a chance to protest. She gasped against his mouth, but soon her tongue was tangling with his and her moans filled the air. Oh, yeah, this was what he looked forward to all morning, the sweet taste of her lips. His hands moved along her spine and he gently pulled her in closer wanting to feel every inch, every luscious curve of her delectable body.

He prided himself on being a man of great self-control, but even now, when it came to her, all common sense went out the window, especially when she fit so perfectly in his arms. When he left her this morning, he had vowed to keep his hands off of her and concentrate on finding the person or people involved in taking her away from him, but it was  impossible to be in the same room and not touch her.

Her hands glided up the side of his biceps until her arms wrapped around his neck, encouraging him to deepen the kiss. Surprised by her response, he wanted nothing more than to take this further, but someone behind her cleared their throat and his head snapped up. Alandra stepped out of his arms and visibly shuddered. “Uhh, come in,” she said and closed the door behind him. “Quinn, this is my sister, Dr. Natasha Lockham. Tasha this is Quinn.”

An easy smile lifted the corners of Natasha’s lips and she extended her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you
brother-in-law
. I’ve heard interesting things about you.”

Quinn shook her hand and quirked an eyebrow at Alandra. “Interesting, huh? I’m not sure I want to know.”

“It wasn’t anything that wasn’t true,” Alandra cracked.

Natasha grabbed her jacket from near the door. “Well, I need to get to the hospital.” She moved closer to Alandra and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. In a loud whisper she said, “Girl, your description didn’t do him justice.” She opened the door and over her shoulder asked, “Tomorrow?”

Alandra nodded.

As soon as Natasha closed the door, Quinn asked, “You okay?” He stuck his hands in his jean’s pocket noticing the way she kept rubbing her neck and moving around anxiously.

“It’s nothing.” She turned to walk away, but stopped and looked at him. “Oh, and what happened when you first arrived, won’t happen again. We can’t go back. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, and then I think it best you stay away from me.”

Chapter Eight

“That’s not going to happen.” Quinn sauntered to the coat hooks near the door. He shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the wall next to hers before taking a seat on the sofa.

Why even bother? Alandra thought. Quinn did what Quinn wanted to do and everyone else be damned. She would admit the magnetic pull between them was overwhelmingly mesmeric, and downright powerful. She wanted that kiss as much as he had, and probably would have let it go on longer had it not been for her sister. Even now, with him sitting across the room, she felt his energy, and an unexplainable pull to be near him. And those eyes: dark, intense, and full of desire, staring at her were not helping. Every fiber of her being was in sync with him, but she would not fall under his spell. She would keep her head, and draw out her enemies, and then and only then would she decide on what to do about Quinn.

“Can I get you anything?”

When he shook his head, she sat in the upholstered chair across from him. Her first thought was to apologize about falling apart on him the night before, but bringing up last night would not be a good idea. She had struggled all day with memories of his hands caressing and teasing every inch of her body into submission.

“What was in the book you took from Isabella’s house last night?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Alandra released a sigh of relief. She had no idea where to start and was glad he started with that question since she had been reading the book earlier in the day. She stood and grabbed the hardback from the kitchen counter and reclaimed her seat.

“Before she died, Isabella told me a couple of things. Her exact words were: government, CIA, and trust no one. She also mentioned this book
Love and Warfare
, and said something about a storage unit. When we were leaving and I saw the books by the bed, I had to look through them.” She handed the book to Quinn. “It’s about a prisoner of war on the run. He’s badly injured, but stumbles into a small village where he meets a young woman who nurses him back to health. They fall in love and he promises her a forever love, but eventually betrays her. She promises to make him pay for the pain he’s caused.”

Quinn raises an eyebrow. “You’ve read it?”

“No, but I heard about it. I was hoping to find some type of clue or information, but so far nothing.”

Quinn sifted through the pages. “What did she say about the storage unit and did you find anything on her cell phone?”

Alandra shook her head. “The only thing that stood out is that there were a couple of calls made to a telephone number with a 202 area code and several to a 703 area code in the last couple of days.”

“Washington, D.C. and maybe Virginia?”

Alandra nodded. “As for the storage unit, I couldn’t make out her words, and then…she died.” Alandra sucked in a deep breath and tugged at her sweater. The past forty-eight hours seemed unbelievable. Seeing Quinn after three years of being apart, getting out of Isabella’s house only seconds before it exploded, and her and Quinn’s night of passion all seemed like a dream.

Quinn stood and grasped her hand, carefully pulling her to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against his body. “We’re going to figure this out, so stop worrying.”

She closed her eyes and breathed in his woodsy scent, finding comfort in his arms. He held her for the longest time and then placed a kiss against her temple.

“Thank you,” she said and reluctantly stepped out of his arms. They both reclaimed their seats.

“So why did you go to Florida after leaving Langley, Virginia?”

He definitely came prepared with questions, Alandra thought. She laid her head against the back of the chair and stared up at the ceiling. Quinn had apparently been doing his homework. Florida seemed like a lifetime ago, a time when her life changed for the worst.

“When I left Virginia,” she said without looking at him. “I had originally planned to hide out at Harry’s place in Sperryville, but I didn’t want him wrapped up in this mess. Whoever my accuser was and those investigating me, I didn’t want them to think that Harry was anything more than my boss.”

****

Quinn always wondered if there was more to her and Harry’s relationship. She often said Harry was like a father to her, but in Quinn’s opinion, Harry didn’t look at her very daughterly.

“So what was the plan when you arrived in Miami?”

“Mexico. I had planned to get lost in Mexico.” Seeing the look on his face, she quickly added, “Not Guerrero, but Cancun. I figured I could work odd jobs, and blend in with the natives.”

Had he come back to the U.S. and she wasn’t here, he would’ve moved heaven and earth to find her. If Harry wouldn’t have told him she was dead, they would not have lost three years of their life together. Quinn still wasn’t sure what he would do to Harry when he saw him, but he definitely planned to pay him a visit.

Quinn stood and trudged around the small space. He knew the next question might send her into a tail spend like the night before, but there was still so much he didn’t know.

He leaned against the wall closest to her chair and said, “I need you to tell me everything you remember from your time in Florida, until Tzbekystan.”

****

Alandra stood and moved around the room, looking at everything, but seeing nothing. This was harder than she thought it would be. She didn’t want to relive that time in her life, but talking about it was making her do just that. She stopped at the other end of the sofa from where Quinn sat, and leaned against the back of it.

“I received a phone call, on my cell two days after I arrived in Miami.” She cleared her throat and reclaimed her seat. Her nerves were getting the best of her. If she had to suffer through this story, she needed Quinn to believe her.

“I had no idea who the caller was, and could barely understand him. The connection was terrible, but I heard him say…you needed me.”

“Did they use my name?” Quinn sat on the arm of the sofa, facing her.

She shook her head no. “They said your boyfriend needs you.”

“How did you know it wasn’t a wrong number?”

“At first I thought it might be, but when I said you have the wrong number, they sounded frustrated and said, ‘he risked his life for you wouldn’t you do the same for him if he were in trouble?’”

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I have never been so afraid in all my life. When I heard you needed me, I thought the worse. I thought you had been hurt and couldn’t talk or walk. All types of scenarios ran through my mind.” She looked away and twirled a lock of her hair around her finger, a habit that started when she was a little girl.

Quinn gently squeezed her free hand. “Go on.”

She looked at him, tears clouding her vision. Her heart swelled at the way he caressed the back of her hand, giving her strength to keep talking.

“Baby, I need you to tell me everything so we can find these people.”

“But Quinn, this is not your battle, it’s mine. I don’t want you to get hurt trying to help me clean up my mess.”

He glanced down at their joined hands and then he looked her straight in the eyes. “When are you going to understand - your battle is my battle? You’re my wife, and whatever someone does, or has done to you, they’ve done to me. Now go on, tell me the rest.”

For the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel alone. A bottomless sense of peace washed over her and she held out hope that he really would help her find these people.

She told him about the mystery caller who instructed her to pick up a boarding pass that would be waiting for her the next morning at the hotel’s front desk, for a flight to Germany that afternoon.

“I contacted Harry and told him my plans, and it was then he told me that I’d been cleared of all accusations regarding North Korea and that I could return home once I was back in the States.”

Quinn released her hand and stood to his full height. “We’re going to have to look further into this North Korea situation. It just doesn’t make sense. One day you’re being accused of selling secrets, then a couple of days later it’s like oops we made a mistake, sorry you can move on with your life. No.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t add up.”

Alandra’s heart plummeted. Here she was, being perfectly honest with him and he doubted her story.

“I’m telling you the truth,” she muttered angrily. “Everything I’m telling you is the truth.”

He looked down at her. “And I believe you. I’m just saying that there’s something suspicious about that North Korea situation.”

She relaxed her shoulders, surprised at how much she needed and wanted Quinn’s trust.