It’d been three months since their arrest at Capitol Hill and three months since she’d seen Xander. According to Joshua, Red Wolf was handling the issue of Xander’s addiction and everyone else should get back to business.
Even though Scarlett desperately wanted to pepper Joshua for answers about Xander, she knew better. As much as it killed her, she swallowed her tongue and tried to focus on her job, which wasn’t easy.
Sleepless nights where she flipped and flopped, staring at the ceiling, assaulted by the myriad of questions and memories that she couldn’t sort; the grief over losing Conrad and attending his funeral; the need but utter lack of desire to process her feelings about Xander and how things had abruptly ended.
She wasn’t the kind of woman who pined for a man but for the first time in her life, yeah, she was pining.
The only saving grace had been the rosy outcome following Sheffton’s arrest for the murder of McQuarry and four civilians in the Tulsa City bombing.
Gotta hand it to Williams, he really came through when they’d needed him to. Williams was able to recover the surveillance footage from the amphitheater that Sheffton had been certain was deleted. Seems Sheffton hadn’t followed through and made sure that the footage was gone. In his arrogance, he hadn’t thought to double check and simply left the job to someone else and it had been overlooked. His sloppy work had worked to their benefit.
In light of the overwhelming evidence against him, Sheffton rolled over in the hopes of getting a more lenient sentence.
It hadn’t worked.
Sheffton was currently awaiting sentencing and legal analysts were predicting that Sheffton would likely die in prison before he was eligible for parole.
Sheffton had been squeezing Platt, forcing him to dance to his tune, but that day that Xander and Scarlett had intercepted Platt at the park, Sheffton’s men had already been en route to snip the loose end. Scarlett and Xander had only delayed the inevitable. Not that Scarlett could work up a tear for Platt’s death.
Scarlett had zero empathy for pedophiles and even less for the man who had killed her friend. The world was a lot less safe without Conrad Griggs in it, that was for sure.
Even though Sheffton deserved what he got, Scarlett definitely got the impression that the government had tried to make an example out of Sheffton to show that they were serious about rooting out deep corruption but everyone knew that it would take more than a grand gesture to drain the so-called swamp.
However, it made for good press and no one was interested in fixing the real problem so life went on.
Ironically, the bigger scandal was Secretary of Defense Bettis resigning from his position in the wake of his affair with Sheffton, even though Bettis had been unaware of Sheffton’s level of deception and depth of ambition until after everything had been revealed.
If there was anyone Scarlett had felt mildly sorry for, it was the secretary. He’d been clueless as to how Sheffton was manipulating him for his own purposes.
As it turned out, the Wakefield deal had simply been a business deal McQuarry had been pushing for his own gain and Bettis owning shares in the company had been coincidence.
It might’ve been refreshing to learn that money had been at the root of all the evil but, alas, ambition had been the catalyst.
Sheffton had been planning to use his relationship with Bettis to further his own career, knowing that the secretary would’ve said and done anything to keep their relationship quiet. Talk about some long-range, big-picture planning. She had to hand it to Sheffton for putting together a plan that would take years to put into play.
But poor Bettis was screwed. That man would end up paying for his indiscretion for his entire life.
Nothing was more titillating than a publicly disgraced politician. Shortly after the scandal broke, the secretary’s wife, Janet, filed for divorce. My, how people loved to watch the mighty fall.
Speaking of mighty...
She knew Xander had finished his rehab three months ago but he still hadn’t come back around. When his notice came across her desk, she’d fought the urge to cry silly tears.
She had to accept the realization that Xander wasn’t coming back.
He was moving on and he hadn’t said a word to her. Maybe she’d read too much into their time together but she thought they’d both felt something equally. It wasn’t like her to fill in the blanks with her own interpretation of feelings. She was pretty blunt with her needs and desires but Xander had left her feeling tongue-tied.
The first night sleeping alone had been awkward. By the time morning broke, she was cranky, sleepy and her eyes felt filled with grit.
She figured all she needed was time to adjust to sleeping alone again—hell, she preferred the option to starfish in the bed—but it’d been months and she still reached for him in her fitful sleep and woke when her grasping hands clutched at nothing.
Zak found her in the break room pouring a second cup of coffee, grabbing a granola bar from the snack box. “How you holding up, TL?” he asked.
“Fine.”
“One-word answers usually indicate the opposite,” Zak said, winking as he tore into his granola bar. “Seriously, though, are you okay?”
Scarlett forced a smile. “I’m fine. Just tired.”
Zak nodded, knowing she was full of crap but didn’t press further. They all knew that her disposition was because of Xander and she didn’t want to talk about it.
“Well, I have something that ought to cheer you up.”
Scarlett looked up from her coffee mug. “Yeah? What?”
“There’s someone waiting in the briefing room to talk to you. Seems important.”
Scarlett frowned, trying to remember if she had a meeting scheduled that she’d overlooked. Dumping her coffee down the sink and quickly rinsing her mug, she went to the briefing room to find Xander standing there.
Her breath caught and for a long moment, all she could do was stare.
Questions bubbled up but tears threatened and her throat closed. Why hadn’t he called? Why hadn’t he at least said goodbye when he left Red Wolf? What the hell? Why was he here now?
Xander broke the silence first. “You look good,” Xander said, smiling as if he hadn’t just dropped off the planet without so much as a “screw you” for a goodbye.
She held her tongue. He looked good, too. Clean, sharp, sober. He’d kicked his habit. Even if she was pissed at him for bailing on her, she was glad he was sober.
Zak quietly closed the briefing door, leaving them alone. She narrowed her gaze. This smelled of a set-up and she didn’t like being ambushed. “What can I do for you, Xander?” she asked, finding her voice. “Did you forget some personal effects?”
“You could say that,” he said, walking toward her but she stopped him with an outstretched hand that clearly warned DON’T. He frowned but didn’t push her. “I guess I have some explaining to do.”
“No. I don’t want to hear it. Whatever you came to do, do it and go. You’re no longer a part of the Red Wolf team.”
“Stubborn as always. Nice to see not much has changed in the three months I’ve been gone.”
“No, you’re wrong. Plenty has changed,” she said.
He sighed. “Can I please explain and then you can make your judgments?”
She crossed her arms. “No.”
“Please?”
“You don’t get to come in here, look cute and beg for forgiveness. I’m not that kind of woman and never have been so if that’s why you came, you can just let yourself out the same way you came in.”
“Scarlett, just do me a favor and shut the hell up for a minute. I swear, if after I’ve said my piece, you still want me to go to hell, I’ll go without another word. But I came to say something and I’m not leaving until I do.”
What would it hurt to hear him out? She supposed it would provide some kind of closure. She jerked a short nod, indicating he should get to it before she changed her mind.
Xander drew a deep breath before jumping in with an earnest expression. “Right after we left the jail, Joshua sent me to a private Red Wolf facility to detox from the narcotics. He put it pretty plainly—go to detox or get kicked out on my own. I knew Joshua was offering me a once in a lifetime deal and I couldn’t say no. The town car dropped Joshua off at his hotel and took me to the airport. I didn’t have a way of telling you what was happening and I didn’t have a choice—I had to take the deal.”
“Why didn’t Joshua tell me?” Scarlett asked, confused.
Xander didn’t know. “I’m sure he had his reasons but I wasn’t about to question his decision, you know?”
Yeah, she got it. Joshua wasn’t the kind of man you put under a hot bulb for his decisions. He was fair but stern and a little intimidating.
“I was there for a month and then when I came out, Joshua told me I needed to prove that I wasn’t going to go right back to using again. I needed to prove to Joshua but also to myself that I could rise from the mess I’d created of my life. It was important to me that I come to you with a clear head.”
Her lip threatened to tremble. “And why is that?”
“Because I never wanted to see you looking at me the way you did when I was using.”
“And what way was that?”
“With disappointment.”
She blinked back tears. “And?”
“And once I was clean, I worked on figuring out how I was going to make things right for the both of us.”
Scarlett shook her head, confused. “What do you mean? The both of us? You quit Red Wolf.”
He took a step forward, reaching for her hand. “Because I knew we couldn’t be together if you were still my TL and I would never ask you to quit. You love Red Wolf.” He drew a breath before continuing, “I needed a different job, but there are only so many positions suited to what we do. I did a lot of soul-searching and realized the reason I’ve always shied away from a leadership role was because I was afraid of screwing up. Well, I’ve already been to the backside of that equation and I realized fear is a cop-out. If I hadn’t been so afraid of seeming weak, none of this would’ve happened. Of course, one could argue that if none of this had happened I wouldn’t have had this epiphany, but that’s not the point. The point is I decided I wasn’t going to let fear drive the bus anymore.”
He gently pulled her to him and she went, but she was still confused as to what he was rambling about. Was he unemployed? Was he starting his own business? She didn’t know which way the wind was blowing.
“Do you have a job or not?” she asked, mildly exasperated because the man was taking forever to get to the point.
Xander smiled and lifted his badge to show her.
An FBI badge.
Her jaw dropped. “What?” she exclaimed. “I don’t understand... You’re an FBI agent now?”
Xander grinned, explaining, “After Platt’s role was revealed in the corruption and Conrad’s death, I was offered a job, provided I could pass the entrance tests.”
Her brow arched. “You passed the psych tests?”
Xander winked. “Joshua might’ve helped grease the wheels a little.” Scarlett was still processing the bombshell Xander had dropped when he said, “I wanted to come back to you a changed man. Clean and sober, and free and clear to do this...” Then he cupped her face tenderly and brushed a sweet kiss on her lips. She sank into him, savoring the feel of his mouth on hers. The months faded away and she gladly lost herself in the pleasure of his touch.
She glanced up at him with an amazed smile. “So are you saying...?”
“Do I have to spell it out, woman? I want you. I want you to be my girl. I want to have arguments over which is the best Chinese food restaurant and I want to fall asleep with you snoring in my ear. I want it all and I finally have what I need to make it happen if you’ll have me.”
Tears leaked down her cheeks as she sniffed and said, “I don’t snore.” Then she threw her arms around his neck like a lovesick teenager, unable to believe she’d fallen in love with Xander Scott—a man so wholly unsuited for her and yet so utterly perfect as well.
“So are you saying you’re ready to rack up some frequent flier miles?” he asked with a charming grin as he hoisted her up, cupping her ass firmly. “Because I’ve already checked the flights. It’s a thirty-minute flight from DC to West Virginia.”
Scarlett nodded as she sealed her mouth to his. “I’m ready.”
She was more than ready.
This was the love she never thought she’d find and she’d found it in the most unlikely of places.
Xander carried her out of the debriefing room and the Red Wolf team burst into applause with Zak and CJ high-fiving each other as if they’d been betting on this outcome.
She grinned as Xander put her down and said over her shoulder as they walked out, hand in hand, “I’m taking the day off. Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone and don’t call me unless the world is ending!”
Be sure to look for the next book in
Kimberly Van Meter’s
Military Precision Heroes series,
available in 2019 wherever
Harlequin Romantic Suspense books are sold!
Read on for an exclusive sneak peek at
Fatal Invasion, the next sizzling book in
the Fatal series from New York Times
bestselling author Marie Force...