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Crafty
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2024-10-29 19:42:56One of Jay’s medics tended to Caitlyn’s injuries in the van on the drive back to Florence under Duke’s watchful eye. Beside her, Rachel fussed over her like a mother hen, periodically sparing a brief, blatantly hostile glance towards the smirking Jay, who eyed her like a predator does a particularly tasty snack.
Shell-shocked and still fighting the effects of the drug in her system, Caitlyn stared sightlessly out the rear window. Duke knew her thoughts were a private fortress of hell that she’d built to protect the rest of them, but he also knew her well enough to know he couldn’t force her out of it. He’d have to lay siege, then gently coax her into negotiations to talk through her mental anguish.
Still, he struggled with her silence, particularly after what she’d experienced and witnessed. “Darlin’? You okay?” he asked gently, his voice low and soothing, the way he’d talk to a skittish horse.
Her warm toffee eyes dilated and focused, and she stared at him,
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“Caitlyn.” She must’ve fallen asleep because Duke’s low rumbling voice penetrated her consciousness through a sludgy haze, along with the recognition of the gradual slowing of the van they were traveling in. A soft groan escaped her as she opened her eyes—or at least mostly opened them. One had swollen nearly shut from the abuse she’d taken, and her head ached miserably with the residual of the drug in her system. She startled, flinching violently at the ruckus and chatter that ensued as the van stopped and the sliding door was flung open. “Dr. Maddox?” Jay extended a hand to her to help her out of the vehicle, staring at her with a quizzical expression when she refused to take it with a tight shake of her head. “Um. Duke?” Beside him, Rachel turned. “Caitlyn?” Caught in the irrational grip of fear, Caitlyn froze, sucking in air in shallow little hisses through her parted lips. Behind her, Duke gave a silent jerk of his head towards Jay. With
Italy With A Duke Widow
Tears welled in Caitlyn’s liquid caramel eyes and he could see her flinch as the salt stung the tender abrasions and cuts in her abused skin. Releasing her chin, he caressed her hair and brushed a light kiss against her forehead. “Never mind, darlin’. Whatever it is, it’ll wait. I’m here and I’m not leaving you. Not ever again.” Swallowing around the lump in her throat, she shook her head against his chest, too afraid to look up and confront the emotions in his eyes. “Be-before you commit to those things, you need to know,” she said quietly. His heavy man-sigh penetrated all the way to her heart, piercing and sharp. “What do I need to know?” “You heard—wh-what he said.” Wrapped in his arms as she was, she felt his simple nod. Duke had heard a few things—enough. At least for his own peace of mind. He couldn’t imagine there being more. Certainly nothing that he couldn’t reconcile his conscience to about Agent Richards or his former boss, Jantzi. “You h-heard what I—what I said?” “
Italy With A Duke Confession
Caitlyn sucked in a sharp breath through parted lips that ached from the splits in them. She wished she hadn’t said that—it had come out in the worst possible way and there was no way to reverse it. Her eyes squeezed shut, the swollen one shooting a lancing pain into her head. Pressing against Duke’s chest, she would have pulled away, but his arms tightened around her, refusing her escape. He shook his head. “No. Stay right where you are. I’ve spent three years watching you from a distance. In love with a woman that I wasn’t supposed to have. I’m tired of the space between us,” he told her in a harsh whisper, an edge to his voice that sent a shiver racing over her. “Whatever this is, Caitlyn. Whatever you’ve done, you need to tell me. That’s all I ask. And you need to know, whatever it is, there’s no way in hell I’m letting you go.” “Duke, I—.” He silenced her protest with a kiss, tender against her abused lips despite the severity of his words. There was no
Italy With A Duke Guilty
Duke tucked his mouth up close at her ear. “If you’re guilty, Caitlyn, then so am I.” Her pulse quickened and her toes curled, a zinging tingle sweeping over her flesh as his breath stirred her hair, tickled across the whorl of her ear. “I don’t care about the right or wrong of it, darlin’. I can’t see beyond this minute. Or next week. All I can see is you. And you’re too good, Caitlyn. Too pure of heart and intention to ever maliciously hurt someone else.” “But Duke—,” she tried urgently, but he continued, his words spilling over his lips, across her trembling flesh. She turned her head into his shoulder, breathed in the clean, warm, distinctly male scent of him. “I don’t care what you do. I don’t care what you’ve done.” His mouth closed, warm and insistent, over the tip of one breast and she shuddered, her fingers diving into his hair. “But I’m afraid to lose you,” he assured her, moving to the taut tip of the opposite breast to pay its due. “I’m afraid to lose the love of my life
Italy With A Duke Interloper
Standing before the window in her darkened room, Rachel crossed her arms over her chest and peered into the nighttime murk beyond it. It all seemed still, quiet, exactly like any other remote forest ought to be. Except that every once in a while, she’d catch the brief flash of a tiny lamp—sometimes green, sometimes blue, most often red—and detect movement, and she knew that there were men out there patrolling. She heaved a deep sigh. Maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to come here. Reaching out, she fisted the heavy drapes at the sides of the tall, narrow window and jerked them sharply, pulling them closed. She pivoted in the dark, using the dim light through the remaining windows to guide her to the bedside. There, she turned and let herself fall backwards onto the mattress. Then again, the accommodations are a vast improvement over the cramped little hotel room. She stared up at the Murano glass chandelier in the center of the ceiling, glinting with multi-colore
Italy With A Duke Hostilities
Dex perched over the arm of a sofa so he could see down the long hallway that led to the bedrooms. He’d been appalled to watch Jay Ellis invite himself into Rachel’s bedroom, but was even more appalled when the man reemerged five minutes later, and after shutting the door behind him quietly, headed for the bar in the corner of the living area. “Goddamn, that woman is spicy,” Jay muttered appreciatively as he adjusted himself in his expensive slacks, a feral grin plastered over his face. Gritting his teeth, Dex suppressed his envy and watched as the other man poured himself a generous Scotch and tossed it back without so much as a flinch. Rachel was spicy—on that much they agreed—and it annoyed the hell out of him to think that this was the kind of man she’d settle for. “You want something, pretty boy?” At the bar, the other man refilled his drink. Dex arched a brow as his head swiveled towards Jay. The suit the man wore was Armani, and if he was any guess, probably as expensive as
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Duke’s brow furrowed at the question, one he doubted she’d like the answer for. “For the moment, I’d like you to rest and heal.” Beneath him, Caitlyn froze. “You said we were going home. What aren’t you telling me?” she asked in a dangerously soft voice. His long exhale of frustration tickled across her flesh, raising the delicate hairs along her neck and arms in alarm. “There’s nothing to tell, darlin’. We don’t yet know what we’re up against.” Caitlyn processed his statement in a soporific haze. She hurt. And her body was so tired that her exhaustion felt like a drug, her limbs heavy and unresponsive. From the little that she’d gleaned, both from her kidnappers and from Duke and her rescuers after, his statement made no sense. They’d taken out the rogue agents. They’d incapacitated the terrorist agents and turned them over to Interpol. “I thought—.” Her voice trailed off as an irrational panic fueled by fatigue washed over her. If this was l
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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
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Tucking the thin parcel under his arm to hold it, Duke pressed his thumb against the biometric security lock at the lab door, then entered his security code. When the door released, he pulled it open, then closed behind him. He stopped in the entry room, juggling Caitlyn’s package between hands to don his long, white lab coat and a pair of safety glasses. “Hey Paula.” He gave his wife’s lab worker a polite smile and nod as he passed through the wet lab between the aquarium racks teeming with zebra fish. “Hi Duke. She’s in at the microscope.” “Thanks.” On the opposite side of the room, he passed through another door into the main laboratory space, a generous work area with water-resistant flooring, provisions for tissue cultures, microscopy, cell cultures and chemical prep rooms outfitted with biological safety cabinets. Immediately, he spotted his wife. As he’d been advised, Caitlyn was seated at one of the sturdy laboratory tables before a microscope
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Turning the knob slowly, Duke eased the latch free and peered around the door into the bedroom of his suite with Caitlyn. Piercing green eyes landed instinctively on the bed, where she lay with her back to him. Her knees were curled up towards her chest, her shoulders rolled forward almost protectively. Closing the door as silently as he’d opened it, he covered the few paces to the bedside without a sound. She’d slept a lot in the last few days—healing, she’d told him. It was a sentiment reiterated by the medic with Jay’s team. But even though something about that sat wrong with him, he wasn’t going to wake her. If she was able to sleep, then her body needed the rest. All he needed was to be close to her, even if that didn’t involve touching or holding her. He’d have preferred if it involved touching and holding her. He wanted to saturate himself in her beauty, in the yielding sweetness of her warm body, to let his own stress and fear dissipate. Even if only for a little while. Al
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“Mr. Ellis,” the low voice droned, filling the small sitting. It belonged to a man clearly used to issuing orders that were obeyed. For a call of this magnitude, Allie had gathered their ragtag band— Jay, Duke, Caitlyn and herself—in her suite on the Italian Riviera. When it was all said and done, it had been easier getting to the awaiting boat than Caitlyn had anticipated. Of course, gravity tended to work that way. As soon as Dex had placed a portion of his weight upon it, as Duke had anticipated, the damaged and rusted grate over the collapsing drainage shaft had groaned loudly then given way, unceremoniously dumping the three of them into the open air. Immediately, Duke had deployed the parachute to slow their fall. The fire-heated sea drafts had carried them in a descending spiral, out over the frigid water of the Adriatic where they’d landed safely. Dex slipped the makeshift harness before they’d resurfaced and struck hard for the boat, bringing it along
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Caitlyn heaved forcefully as the choking fumes were piped down her throat and into her lungs, singing the sensitive passageways. She collapsed into the muck in a spasming heap. “Duke!” Squeezing onto his side, Dex dragged himself alongside the hacking, weakly thrashing woman as she clawed at her throat. Glancing back, Duke cursed. “Can you pull her?” Another rumbling explosion rocked the tunnel. This time, bits of dust and pebbles tumbled from between the stones above them. “Oh hell.” “Uh-huh. Got it.” Dex wrapped an arm around the floundering woman’s hips and braced his feet on opposite sides of the tunnel. With one arm and using the slime on the bottom to reduce the friction from their weight, he inched them both toward the exit. In the lead, Duke watched the struggling pair, debating whether he should go ahead and prepare for the jump to their escape or wait until they caught up so he could take Caitlyn from the other man. Both thoughts were immedi
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“Alex!” she breathed, starting forward when he raised a violently shaking hand towards her. His thin mouth opened in silent accusation and supplication. Then both Dex and Duke were turning her, one on each upper arm with a firm grip. They propelled her swiftly through the hidden door. “Duke, the latch,” Dex ordered as they rushed into the narrow passageway. He pointed at the door, then reached for the switch to reconnect his communication equipment. “Knight 2 and 3. Asset acquired. Allie, we could use an exit plan.” As Duke released her, Caitlyn jerked herself free of Dex’s grasp. She flung herself at the door. “No! He needs my help!” Ramming the bolt home, he pivoted and grasped her by the upper arms. “Caitlyn!” he snapped harshly, shaking her once to get her attention as the light dimmed to nothingness. “No matter what he did to stay alive before, you can’t save him now.” “You don’t know that!” she cried to the darkness.
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“Caitlyn!” The lump of stone that had become his heart leapt into Duke’s throat with ringing alarm. “Shut your mouth, you worthless whore!” Alex jerked the pistol at her furiously. “How dare you even speak to me like that!?” A soft gasp escaped her and she took a step backwards, closer to Duke and the meager amount of safety he presented as Alex advanced on her. She'd intended to provoke him. This was a much bigger reaction than she'd anticipated. “You have no idea! No fucking idea how I felt having to squat just to stand in your shadow!” His vicious words spat at her through clenched teeth. His bourgeoning rage scorched over her, filling the tiny antechamber with its malevolent presence. “You don’t know what it’s like to have your life’s work—the epitome of your creativity and intelligence— shown up and disproven by some pathetic little girl who refuses to see potential! To watch as you dusted your hands of it, like everything I did wa
Italy With A Duke Senza Umanità
Except in photographs, Duke had only ever seen Alex Maddox once—the day the man’s body had been moved from the hospital morgue to the funeral home where Caitlyn had made final arrangements. Frankly, he didn’t look much better now than he had in the body bag, even if he did technically have a pulse. But he had no doubt in Caitlyn’s recognition. Whatever Alex had put himself through to create the illusion that he was dying, it clearly hadn’t been without lasting effect. Not that he’d ever been particularly robust anyway. True, he hadn’t been the stereotypical scrawny, bespectacled and pocket-protected scientist obsessing over his collection of tribble plushies. Like his med school performance, Alex Maddox had been average. Average height and weight, average build, average looks. Though Duke never would have guessed it studying the skeletal creature leveling a pistol at his weeping wife. He had been fastidious about his appearance—getting a haircut every 28 days without fail and only w
Italy With A Duke Vengeance Denied
Frozen in place and unable to turn away, Caitlyn watched the violence of the wild seizures as Tommaso thrashed on the hard stone floor. Each second that ticked away was a new horror as her potent chemical cocktail took effect. Within seconds, the man’s uncontrolled muscle spasms had pulled bones from joints or outright snapped them. His respirations turned into hiccupping gasps, shallow and forced and his skin flushed dark red from the fierce pounding of his heart.And then it was over.As a physician, she knew what the man’s final second had involved and she gagged, stumbling backwards a few steps knowing that she’d caused it. Catching herself with one slim hand on the edge of a lab table, she crashed to her knees and vomited. Like pulling the trigger of the gun aimed at Agent Richards, it had been too easy—far too easy to kill.She gave a weak sob, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Even with Duke’s words in her head, she knew that until she reached her foul captor’s ch
Italy With A Duke Best Laid Plans
“Knight 1. In position,” Jay drawled lazily through the comms, and Duke couldn’t suppress his grin. Both he and Jay were uncomfortable, but there hadn’t been time to develop a full-scale assault plan. At most, they might get twenty-four hours before Caitlyn was either killed or sold to another terrorist group. They’d already lost seven and half hours just getting to her location. They couldn’t afford to wait. A few seconds after, Dex’s acknowledgement hissed through his earpiece. “Knight 2. In position.” Ignoring the brief bursts of chatter through his comms, Duke reached for another handhold, and pulled himself up the sheer face of the cliff on the ocean-facing side of the stone fortress. A hot twinge of pain shot along his nerves from his shoulder, as the numbing medication wore off. He gritted his teeth against it, continuing his climb. Of course, they had the benefit of some of the most advanced surveillance equipment in the world, and arguably the most brilliant mind to opera
