“Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.”
Jess sighed. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you? Open that drawer by the bed.”
He indicated the nightstand. Wriggling onto her stomach, Lynn did as he said.
In the drawer, on top of the room-service menu and various advertising circulars, was a small square box wrapped up in silver paper with a big white bow.
Looking at it, Lynn felt her heart start to pound.
“What is it?” she said, glancing up at him.
“Open it.” He wasn’t smiling now, and the look in his eyes was both wary and, she thought, eager.
Lynn picked up the package and slowly removed the wrappings. As she had part hoped, part feared, a red jeweler’s box was revealed.
She stared at it for a long moment before flipping back the lid.
A diamond solitaire twinkled up at her. It wasn’t large, but it was perfect.
“I think we could make it work,” he said. “Think of the great vacations we could take with all our frequent-flyer miles.”
Lynn looked up at him, at the baby-blue eyes, the handsome face, the long, faintly smiling mouth.
“Do you think you could say something? The suspense is killing me.” He hitched himself higher on the pillows, pulling her up with him.
Lynn decided to throw her cap, her heart, and everything else over the windmill.
“I’m in love with you,” she said.
“Well, that’s nice to hear.” A slow smile stretched his mouth, warmed his eyes. “Because I’m in love with you too.”
Then he kissed her.
A long time later, when they were wrapped in each other’s arms and so sated that Lynn for one thought she would never move again, he spoke out of the darkness: “I take it that means yes?”
“Yes,” Lynn said.
EPILOGUE
December 15, 1996
THE NIGHTMARE WOKE JESS with a start. He lay in the darkness, his heart gradually regaining its normal rhythm. In his arms, Lynn stirred, muttering. She didn’t wake.
They were in a hotel room in Bermuda. On their honeymoon. He’d just enjoyed three days of the hottest sex he had ever experienced in his life. With a woman he admired, desired—and loved.
Life doesn’t get much better than this, he thought.
Except for the nightmare. He hadn’t had it for a long time now. He had thought it was a thing of the past.
Lying in the dark, staring up at a ceiling he couldn’t see, Jess realized something: It was the same nightmare he always had.
Only this time there was something different about it. Pondering, Jess finally figured out what it was.
In this nightmare the raid still went awry, agents who were his friends still died, the complex still burned.
But he hadn’t felt to blame.
Because in some weird way what he had done in Provo had been an act of atonement.
It had allowed him to accept a bitter fact: In life, when a man does battle with a dragon, sometimes the dragon is going to win.
But not in Provo.
The dragon had been slain.
Chalk one up for the good guys, Jess thought. Wrapping his arms around Lynn, he rolled over and went back to sleep.
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Epilogue