Page 42 of Callahan's Haven

“Oh, I highly doubt that.” She pulled herself up to sit against the headboard and looked down at him. “You’re underestimating your charm,” she said, looking down his body, her brow raising with the evidence he was ready for round two as well. “See what I mean.”

“What can I say,” he said, pulling her head down to his. “It’s the company I’m with.”

Her lips crashed onto his, her open mouth devouring his while she shoved the sheet covering him aside and straddled his hips. She braced her hands against his chest and lifted her upper body while her core still wet with their previous combined release rubbed against his waiting cock. She sank down on him, her heat surrounding his aching flesh.

He pulled her in for another kiss as their bodies thrust against each other, closing his eyes and grinning when she kissed her way to his ear and nibbled on his lobe. His grin turned to a scowl when she whispered on her next downward slide, “So sorry, darling.”

His eyes flew open when a sharp pain pierced his neck, the burning sensation filling his veins accompanying her words of, “You really shouldn’t have called in your team.”

He lifted his arms to push her away—or at least he tried to. They weren’t cooperating with him.Nothingwas cooperating. He yelled obscenities in his head when his mouth refused to let him voice them.

She held the syringe in front of him. “New formula,” she said, matter-of-factly. “It works fast. Doesn’t it?” She squirmed on top of him. “Yeah.” She grimaced. “It shuts everything down. And I do meaneverything. Oh well.” She lifted herself off of him while the room turned hazy. “Too bad, too. I wouldn’t have minded finishing one last fuck.”

Darkness closed in on her smiling face.

Hav…

* * *

Duncan groaned and rubbed his forehead before slowly opening his eyes to a dimly lit plane cabin. He scrubbed his hands over his face and tried to focus. His vision was still a little blurry from…

“Thatfuckingbitch.” He struggled to get up from the reclining leather chair, but found himself belted into it. “What the—”

“We thought we’d keep you secured. It wouldn’t do for you to fall out of your seat.”

Duncan squinted over at the man sitting in shadows, his pounding head and wavering vision making it hard to identify him, but he thought he recognized his voice.

“Yeah,” Duncan said, fumbling with the lap belt. “Thanks for the consideration.” The buckle came free and he straightened in his seat, realizing at the same time he was fully dressed in a suit and tie. At least they hadn’t dragged him out of his house naked.

He glanced out the window at the sunrise on the horizon in front of them and the expanse of water below. They had to be on their way to the summit.

“You’re quite welcome,” the man said, flipping a switch that flooded the cabin with light. “The headache should be gone in a few minutes.”

Duncan blinked several times. “Whitman?”

Colonel Robert Whitman inclined his head. “Sheppard.”

“What…” Duncan frowned over at the man he’d worked with for almost ten years in the Corps. “You’re behind this?” He made a move to stand but found himself facing a gun. It wouldn’t have been a wise move to rush anyone with a loaded weapon at thirty thousand feet, so he held up his hands while settling back into his seat.

“More or less.” The other man laughed and relaxed when Duncan put his hands down and gripped the arms of his seat, but not so much he didn’t keep his gun trained on him. “But three-plus years too late thanks to your damned squad ruining everything.”

Duncan casually glanced to points in the cabin. No one else was in this section, but Whitman wouldn’t be here alone. But how many people did he have? “Be honest with yourself, Bob, if you wanted to get away with something underhanded, my team were the last Marines you should have requested for assignment under your command.”

Whitman stood and pointed the gun toward Duncan’s head, yelling, “Do you think that was my decision?”

“It wasn’t?” Duncan calmly eyed the gun and then met Whitman’s crazed expression while the other man’s derisive laughter filled the cabin as he sat back down.

“General Younces. He also made sure your fucking team was in on that last interrogation. How the hell he knew about it is still a mystery to me.” The other man narrowed his gaze. “You didn’t know?”

Duncan shook his head, but Younces had obviously had some intel on Whitman. He just wished the General had made him aware of what it was so he could’ve at least warned his people. But knowing this still didn’t explain why Whitman was behind the threat to Haven.

“You’re wondering why.”

“Of course I am.”

“Money.” Whitman laid the gun on the table beside him. “Lots of money.”

“You’d betray the Corps for money? What happened to you, Bob?”

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