Lahat ng Kabanata ng Solid Heart (Unseen Enemy 7): Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

When Henri shut his eyes with a groan and lowered his lips to hers, she kept her eyes wide open. She forced herself to really see him – his blond hair, his long, lean face – and to really feel him – his small, streamlined muscles – so that she didn’t escape this moment. She didn’t want to pretend that she was somewhere else, with someone else. She had a part to play, and she had to be fully present to do it well enough to keep her alive.Francine forced herself to raise her hands to his chest, forced herself to clutch the front of his coat. She moved her lips under his, feigning passion, watching him the whole time. When his eyes began to open, she quickly shut her own, quickly pasted a look of contentment on her face.He ran his fingers through her hair and she looked up at him now, her eyes full of plaintive tears.“Why are you crying, chérie?” he said roughly. “Did I hurt you?”She shook her head, averted her gaze, playing the submissive. He forced her face back up, his blue eyes w

Trying hard to stay calm, she did. When he reached for her, she shut her eyes, hoping hard that whatever happened, she’d come out of it whole.When he laid her down, then lay down next to her, she was so surprised her eyes popped open again. He was facing her, holding her gently, and she stared up at him, totally confused.“Sleep, mon ange.” He dropped a soft kiss on her forehead and she sighed in relief. “You need to rest.”Too stunned to respond, too grateful to risk saying or doing anything stupid, Francine just nodded. She shut her eyes again, tried to relax in his suffocating embrace, hating his touch. She pretended to drop off, forced her breathing to get slower and deeper.“Je t’aime,” he murmured in her ear, his breath hot and smelling of wine. “I love you so much, Francine. I’m so happy you’re here.”Henri fell asleep quickly and she sent up a silent prayer of thanks. She waited, totally silent and still, her mind whirring. She was remembering where he’d put the car keys, pla

Mark sucked back his third black coffee of the morning, but it wasn’t going to do too much for him, he knew. He may have had no sleep whatsoever the night before, but his body was fully energized, tensed up, and ready to move. Caffeine wasn’t required, but it was a twenty-plus-year habit, so he was pounding it down like water.When King and Dallas walked into the conference room, Mark got to his feet. Without so much as a nod or a greeting, he grated out, “And?”To his credit, King didn’t even blink. “He found Mary-Anne. Or whatever the hell her name is now.”Mark almost fell backwards in relief, slumped back into the chair instead. “Where is she?”“Dunno.” King sat too. “He can’t tell me that, but he did say he’s on his way to the airport to catch a plane to her now. He’ll be there in about seven hours and he’ll go straight to her home, ask her about the cabin. He’ll need to do it in person – show a badge and have her call her contact in the protection program to vouch for him. If he

Early that evening, Ian Neilson shook hands all around, accepted a coffee, sat down. The tension in the room was sky-high and he narrowed his black eyes, taking in everyone’s grim expressions.“You sure about this, man?” King said without preamble, and Ian bit back a grin. The man’s reputation preceded him, big time, and so far, Matt Kingston was about as scowling and lethal-looking as Ian would have expected. “If you ain’t, say so now. No harm, no foul.”“I’m sure,” Ian said. “I know what we’re doing.”Dallas’ ears perked up. “Texas?”“Born and bred in Dallas, though I’m more recently out of Houston,” Ian said. “And you’re clearly a fellow Dallas boy.”Dallas grinned. “You picked up on that, huh?”“Well, it was a no-brainer in a couple of ways.”“Anyway,” King huffed, done with idle chit-chat. “The ex-wife says that the cabin’s in Vermont.”Ian cocked his blond head, thinking. “Well, that makes sense. It’s right on the Quebec border, after all.”“Uh-huh,” Dallas said. “It’s in a real

The men landed in Burlington, Vermont at six o’clock that evening. Mark had spent the ten-hour journey almost beside himself with impatience. They hadn’t managed to get a direct flight on such short notice, and had had not one but two stop-overs. Thank God they’d been short stop-overs, so the men had just grabbed their carry-on bags and dashed through the airports to make the connections. They had been quite a sight, naturally: four huge, glowering guys stampeding to the gates. More than one female passenger had stared in open admiration as Mark, Dallas, King, and Ian had barrelled on past; quite a few men had enjoyed the view, too.As soon as they were off the plane, they bolted to the car rental place. The woman behind the counter actually backed up a few feet when they stormed on up to her, looming and furious. “SUV. Now,” Mark snapped as Dallas slammed down the credit card.Petrified, the woman nodded. She knew better than to ask any unnecessary questions; she also knew that wh