Page 81 of Covert Temptation

Tears blurred her vision.

I found someone,she wanted to scream.I found someone who makes me feel alive again—and now I’ll lose him too.

As the SUV sped down the road and took the corner, Dante disappeared from her view, and with him, everything good she’d finally found.

FIFTEEN

Just as the safe house came into sight, so did a black SUV. It rounded the bend and vanished from sight.

Dante stomped on the gas, revving the engine and speeding the last few hundred yards to the house.

He barely threw it in park before his boots hit the ground. Fuck walking—heranto the door, boots chewing up the muddy gravel.

And found the door unlocked.

His heart flipped. He shoved it inward, already calling out her name. “Kennedy?”

When she didn’t answer, his tone grew urgent. “Kennedy!”

He thought back. The SUV on the road, too pristine and clean for these back country roads.

Not normal.

Something inside him began howling with pain and fury. He stepped into their little haven.

“Kennedy!”

No answer.

But he already knew she wasn’t here. She hadn’t locked the door. Hadn’t wedged the wood underneath it. But he hadn’t told her to either. He assumed she would do it without being reminded.

He was so fucking caught up in his own emotions, so wound up from what he’d learned about her…that he’d left her unguarded.

Alone.

And now…

Now the silence inside felt like a scream.

Weapon drawn, he swept in. His tactical training surged to the surface, but his hands trembled like they never had before.

In a blink, he cleared the kitchen.Twenty-three steps to the living room.

She wasn’t there. The bedrooms and bathrooms were both empty. When he rushed to the door leading to the back yard, he already knew what he was going to find.

The yard was empty. The little fire ring only filled with the cold ash of the fire they warmed themselves by the night he pulled Kennedy into his lap and warmed her with his kisses.

He turned back to face the empty living room.

All of it was empty.

No trace of her perfume hung in the air, no faint giggle sounded from across the room, no bare feet padded across wood floors, counting footsteps to the exit in case she needed to make a quick escape.

Nothing but a hollow, echoing ache in his chest.

His knees hit the floor in the middle of the living room, hand fisting around his weapon.

“No.”The sound slipped out, a gravelly moan.

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