Page 72 of Stealthy Seduction
“Collateral damage.” Daniel waved his hand dismissively. “Every war has casualties. The difference is, I’m honest about what I’m doing. Your government friends like to pretend their hands are clean while they order drone strikes on wedding parties and call it counterterrorism.”
“You really believe you’re justified in all this?”
“I believe in consequences.” His voice took on the fervor of a true believer. “My mother dedicated her life to helping people in war zones. She saved hundreds of lives, and what did she get for it? A bomb delivered to her workplace because someone decided her facility was a good place to make a name for their resistancegroup. No one was held accountable. No one even remembered her name six months later!”
Izzy felt sick listening to him, but she couldn’t stop. This might be the only chance anyone would have to understand the mind behind the terror. “So you decided to become judge, jury and executioner?”
“I decided to balance the scales.” Daniel’s eyes glittered with conviction. “Every person who failed my mother dies. Simple as that. And if other people get in the way…” He shrugged.
The container went still except for the distant sound of water lapping against the pier and the musty stench of wrack. It had been hours since she left the Blackout base. Since then, she had watched the sun climb in the sky until it began its descent down the other side of the skyline and cast shadows along the ground.
Where was Hudson? Did he even know she was gone? He might still be in the thick of that op. He could be—
She cut off the thought, unable to let it seep into the cracks of her mind. Otherwise, what was she even doing this for? She had sacrificed herself to save him and the team and the women she called friends.
No, they were all her family now.
In the gathering shadows, Daniel looked even younger, almost vulnerable. But Izzy could see the madness behind his façade—the broken mind of someone who’d taken grief and twisted it into something monstrous.
“You know what the beautiful thing is?” he said suddenly, leaning forward again. “Your boyfriend is probably planning his rescue mission right now. Gathering his team, checking his weapons, all of that tactical preparation they love so much. And he has no idea that every step he takes toward this pier brings him closer to joining Echo team.”
Izzy closed her eyes, thinking of Hudson’s face the last time she’d seen him—fierce, his eyes filled with emotion, holding her close in the early morning darkness.
She’d never told him she loved him, not to his face. Only as she left the base, on her desperate rush to meet Daniel Sheen at the pier.
And oh, Hudson deserved to hear those three big words as she gazed into his eyes with all the love bursting inside her.
Now she never would.
“He’s going to come for me.” She barely got the words out without them breaking. “And when he does, you’re going to try to k-kill him.” She squeezed her eyes shut.
“I’m not going to try, Izzy.” Daniel’s voice was soft, almost gentle. “I’m going to succeed. And the last thing Hudson Steele sees before he dies will be your face, knowing that you’re the reason he’s here. That your choices led him straight into my trap.”
“You’re wrong about one thing.” Izzy opened her eyes to meet his gaze directly.
“What’s that?”
“He’s not going to die. And when he kills you—and he will kill you—it won’t be for his team or his mission or his country.” Her voice grew stronger with each word. “It’ll be for me. And that’s something you’ll never understand, because you’ve never loved anyone enough to die for them.”
Daniel’s smile faltered for just a moment, and in that brief crack in his mask, Izzy saw something that might have been human once. Then it was gone, replaced by cold calculation.
“We’ll see about that,” he said. “We’ll see about that very soon.”
FIFTEEN
Steele swiped the keys to the fastest vehicle Blackout had, and he never looked back.
The car cut through New York traffic like a blade, and Steele’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel as Dante’s voice crackled through his earpiece giving real-time intelligence updates.
“Drone’s in position over the pier.”
Steele could almost see Dante hunched over his laptop, brows lowered in concentration.
“I’ve got eyes on the target location. Northwest corner of Pier 47.”
“Is she in a warehouse?” His throat clamped on the words. Too many things went sideways in warehouses. Shots went wild; people took hits from ricochets.
“No,” Dante said so slowly that he might think his teammate was mocking his Southern drawl. “Jesus, Steele—I can see her. She’s in a shipping container.”
