Inadvertent Spy

As soon as Caitlyn woke, immediately she reached behind her, seeking Duke’s reassuring presence and warmth. Instead, her fingertips found only empty space, and she frowned, rolling to her back to look at his side of the bed.

Her fingertips hadn’t lied. He was gone, and by the cool feel of the sheets, he had been for some time. She squeezed her eyes shut against the brightness of the sun against the curtained windows, then gave a soft grunt as acknowledgment of her body’s lingering pain.

She continued to lay as she was, contemplating all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. All that she’d learned from Richards and Jantzi. All that she’d learned from Duke and his remarkably resourceful and strangely unnerving friend, Jay Ellis and his sister.

Her thoughts strayed to what Duke had said about envying Alex. The vulnerability she’d heard in his voice when he’d admitted it made her tense and agitated, and left her feeling guilty and defenseless in an unhappy marriage of roiling