At the end of the conversation, Alex let his breath out slowly. The prince had promised that one of his business jets and its crew would be at Alex’s disposal and available for departure from 20:00 the next day—not only that, his personal physician and a trained medic would meet them when they landed, prepared to accompany them back to the UK, if necessary.
Significantly, the prince was also going to make available all the portable firepower they’d need. It seemed that—for once—fate was on their side.
With Conor and Bax already in transit back to the UK, Ros Edwards on board, and further members of Cam’s team with whom they would meet in country, Alex allowed himself the luxury of believing that his plan might just work. The initial rendezvous would be at a private airport almost thirty miles away, where they would board the prince’s jet. The outbound flight would give Alex the opportunity to brief all three on his plan to rescue Cam Fraser.
When they landed at the prince’s personal airstrip, there would be three armoured Land Rovers, courtesy of the prince but not traceable to him, waiting for them, along with the rest of the hand-picked team, ready to make the journey to the location where Cam was being held captive. Once there, they would effect his release—using whatever means necessary—and then he and Ros would bring Cam back to the airstrip in one vehicle, while the remaining members of the team would disperse, to return to their original assignments.
If everything went according to plan, a few days from now Cam would be safe and sound, back in the UK.
All that was left was the most difficult task of all—breaking the news to Beth that he was going back into the field. When he’d first talked to her about the possibility of returning to the security arena, he’d given her his word that he’d be going back purely as a consultant, and the riskiest thing he’d be doing would be sitting behind a desk all day. She was not going to be happy, but since it was Cam who was in trouble, she’d understand. He hoped.
He found her in the family room with Stacie. Both women looked at him expectantly. He wasn’t going to insult their intelligence by beating around the bush.
“They’ve found Cam. He’s still alive, but we need to get him out quickly. I’ve got the team on standby—we’re flying out tomorrow night.”
“What do you mean, we?”
Alex looked at his wife, took in the open fear and denial in her eyes, the tension in her stance as she stood to face him. She knew exactly what he meant.
“Sweetheart, we have to get him out. I can’t just give them a plan and send them on their way. There are a million things that could go wrong—I have to be there. And I owe Cam my life too many times over.” He wrapped his arms around Beth, gaining as much comfort from the embrace as he was giving to her. “I need both of you to stay here—”
“No.” Stacie stood up then, a look of determination on her face. “He’s there because of me, so I’m going with you. I won’t get in the way, I promise.”
“And if she’s going for Cam,” Beth joined in, “I’m going too—for you.”
“Neither of you is going!” Alex thundered. He could barely believe what he’d just heard. “What the hell are you thinking?”
His wife glanced at the instigator of this insurrection, and then looked squarely back at him. “We’re thinking that we want to be there to support the men we love and care about,” she said, with that stubborn tilt to her chin that he loved so much. “We’ve already discussed this between us, just in case the opportunity arose, and we’re going!”
“This is going to be fucking dangerous, and you are both staying home, where you’ll be safe! The op has no official backing, and having to keep an eye on you two is the last thing I need!”
“You won’t need to keep an eye on us!” Beth flung back at her husband and then instantly calmed down. “We’re not stupid, Alex. In the wrong place, we know we’d only be in the way, but Stacie and I have already come up with a plan. We both agree that we could fly out there with you. I mean, you’re going to have to fly to that area, aren’t you? Even we worked that one out. We could wait at the airport, make ourselves useful if you need extra pairs of hands to take care of the small stuff that doesn’t need your experience and expertise.”
Heaven save him from scheming women. It served him right for marrying a smart sub. It seemed like she was already halfway through planning the fine details of the mission for him.
~~*~~
“That’s the prince’s small jet?”
Alex couldn’t help but chuckle at his wife’s reaction to the Boeing 737 waiting for them on the tarmac. It was evident that she’d imagined something considerably smaller, and he hadn’t disabused her of the idea. “You’re forgetting, love—his title may be prince, but in his small but very, very rich country, that makes him the absolute monarch. He’s both the head of state and head of government—at least until he can introduce the reforms he wants to make, to make his country more democratic.”
And that was the background against which Cam had been captured. The prince was trying to modernise his country; however, a not insignificant group of traditionalists were doing all they could—not to retain the status quo, but to regress to an almost feudal society. They were responsible for kidnapping the group of consultants Cam had been tasked to rescue. The consultants had been hired to make a study of how the country’s modernisation might best be accomplished—that had made them a prime target.
Formalities complete, they boarded the jet. While the exterior was fairly anonymous, the interior was a study in opulence and comfort. It was clear that no expense had been spared in fitting it out. The large seats in the main cabin were upholstered in buttery-soft cream leather, and were as comfortable as a feather bed. Highly polished light wood shone and marble gleamed in the bright lights, and the light-coloured carpets were woven with the prince’s personal insignia. The overall impression was one of immaculate taste and the wealth to indulge it.
After a brief meeting with the captain, Alex made sure that Beth and Stacie were safely installed in their chosen seats, then went to have a quick word with Ros, Conor and Bax, who had already been waiting at the ultra-modern air terminal when the three of them arrived. Once the plane had taken off, the real work would begin.
~~*~~
When they were in the air and well on their way, Stacie unfastened her seatbelt. “How does Alex come to know the prince?”
“They met at Sandhurst.”
“The Royal Military Academy?” That would make sense, given Alex’s bearing and natural air of command.
Beth nodded. “They went through officer training together.” She looked across the cabin to her husband, who was already deep in conversation with Ros, Bax and Conor. There was a map spread out on the table between them—Alex was briefing them on his plan to rescue Cam.
“A good few years ago, before he started the business where I worked for him, Alex was in partnership with Cam in Spectrum Security. The prince’s brother was one of their clients,” Beth explained. “He was a diplomat in a neighbouring and somewhat less peaceful country, and Spectrum provided an escort for his son—to take him to and from school, among other things.
“I’ll spare you the details,” she continued, “but the prince’s nephew and Alex were kidnapped and held for ransom. While he was held captive, Alex was very badly hurt. I wanted to be here in case…well, in case it brings back some old memories for him.” She shifted slightly in her seat and visibly winced.
“Are you all right?”
Beth gave her a smile—the kind one sub gave another. “Shall we just say that before we left, he tried to tell me again that I wasn’t coming on this trip? When I insisted I was, he made his feelings on the subject known in no uncertain terms.”
“You mean he…?” Stacie sent a meaningful glance in the direction of Beth’s seat.
Beth nodded. “And that’s only part of it. After he spanked me, he told me I still wasn’t coming…for a month! He said that orgasm denial is the only real punishment t
hat works with me. He’s right, of course.
“Try not to worry too much, Stacie—if anyone can get Cam out of there, it’s Alex. He knows what he’s doing, and he knows the region. Now, why don’t you and I prove we’re not just here to improve the scenery, and work out how best we can help when they get back to the plane with Cam?”
Alex looked over at his wife—she was engrossed in what appeared to be a fairly serious conversation with Stacie. From the gestures she was making, his best guess was that she was working out a strategy for what the two women would do once he and his team returned to the plane, hopefully with Cam, and hopefully with him still alive and kicking. Bloody woman—he loved her so fucking much. A wry grin turned up one side of his mouth as a thought occurred to him…if this op turned up in one of her damn novels, he’d give her a session in the playroom he’d make sure she never forgot.
He turned his attention back to the three people who would be his team leaders.
“Okay,” he said, “Let’s get started. The good news is that Cam hasn’t been moved since we last confirmed his location, so the mission plan is good to go. Ros, we’re going to need your off-road skills…”
During the next couple of hours, Alex went through every detail of his plan, over and over again, until the three people who would be accompanying him knew it as well as he did. When the plane landed, they’d be met by the other members of the team, who would then also be briefed on the mission plan.
Those individuals were responsible for liaising with the prince’s people with regard to transport and weapons. Although Alex hoped that it wouldn’t come down to a firefight, they needed to be prepared for the worst—there was no telling what might await them, but they were all professional enough to adapt and deal with any change in the operation.
Once the briefing was done, all they could do was try to rest and relax for the remainder of the flight—make the most of the downtime before they had to hit the ground running. Alex’s attention turned to his wife. Beth was asleep in one of the large, comfortable seats. She’d sent Stacie to sleep in the luxurious bedroom. When the prince’s personal physician, accompanied by a member of his medical team, boarded as soon as the plane landed, that bedroom would be transformed into a temporary sickbay.
The gnawing sensation returned to his gut, that Beth and Stacie shouldn’t have accompanied them, but at the same time he was glad his wife was there. Sight of her kept him grounded in reality, in what really mattered. With a brief acknowledgement to the others, he went over to where she was curled up—she barely stirred when he lifted her into his arms and then sat down with her on his lap, this woman who was the other half of his soul.
Ros, Conor and Bax spread themselves out around the cabin, each of them settling down to get some much-needed rest in preparation for what lay ahead. The flight attendant dimmed the lighting and one by one, in quick succession they all fell asleep, until Alex was the only one left awake, with only his thoughts and fears for company.
The last time he’d been in this part of the world—not their destination country, but another close by—it had left him with memories that had haunted him for years. The woman he cradled so tenderly in his arms had been with him on every step out of that hellish nightmare, and without fail had given him her strength when he’d needed it.
His plan to get Cam out had to work—it had to. They’d been friends and comrades for so long; they were closer than brothers, and he was damned if he’d leave the stupid bastard to die alone in a foreign country.
If he wasn’t dead already…
Alex closed his eyes. For now, his wife needed him to be strong and confident. She had faith in him and he would do his utmost to ensure that that faith wasn’t misplaced.
~~*~~
Though he’d been the last to fall asleep, Alex was still the first to wake a handful of hours later. He took advantage of the calm before the storm to kiss his wife, momentarily regretful that the luxuriously equipped jet didn’t have a second bedroom to which he could have taken her.
Still, out of all of them, Stacie was the one who would have gained most benefit from being able to sleep—it would stop her fretting her way through the flight. He, Ros, Conor and Bax, thanks to their military training, were all able to sleep whenever they could, wherever they could, and Beth would always sleep best wherever he was.
A soft sigh alerted him to Stacie’s return to the main cabin—she was standing at the opening of the passageway that led aft, and was looking at him with a longing that instinct told him wasn’t directed at him.
Rather, it was a longing for the way he held Beth so close to him, a longing for Cam to hold her the same way. He didn’t know what had gone wrong between the other couple any more than Beth did, but the look on Stacie’s face confirmed that Cam was the instigator of the rift and also told him that, in spite of what Cam might think, the matter remained far from resolved. It seemed that Beth might be right after all.
“We’ll get him out, Stacie,” he assured her with quiet conviction.
She managed a small smile. “I know. I can’t help but wonder, though, what if he’s already—”
“He isn’t,” Alex cut in harshly, not wanting her thoughts to go where his had already been—it wasn’t a good place. She had to have hope—they all did, otherwise they might as well head back home without even touching down.
A short time later the plane began losing altitude for its final approach. The landing itself was smooth, and when the jet came to a gentle halt at the terminal, the door opened and there was an eruption of noise and activity.
Beth took Stacie to a corner of the cabin, well out of the way of the eight or ten men who had just boarded the plane. Like her husband, they were all dressed in desert camouflage battledress uniforms, devoid of any insignia or other identifying marks.
This was an Alex she’d never seen before—a man who was a virtual stranger to her. He was all military now, very much the commanding officer, with a presence that set him apart from the others, even Bax and Conor. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the thoughts that all of a sudden made her mouth dry.
“Are you all right?”
She looked at Stacie and managed a small uncertain smile. “I’ve never seen him quite like this before,” she admitted quietly. “I knew he was a captain, on his way to being promoted to major when he resigned his commission, according to Cam, but that part of his life was over before we ever met. When he told me about his past, I never expected to see him have to relive it.”
She continued to watch as Alex allocated assignments, telling each person what was expected of them. Several large canvas bags had been brought on board by the new arrivals. When they were opened, several facts hit Beth all at once. Weapons like those were something she’d only ever seen in the movies and on television, and had never imagined in her worst nightmares that she might see them in real life. Certainly never in Alex’s hands, ready to be used with extreme prejudice. The knife he’d used in the fight with Ewan Underwood was one thing, but this was something else entirely.
Oh, she’d watched him shoot clay pigeons with his Purdey shotgun more times than she could remember, but that was a country gentleman’s pursuit—not a matter of life and death. As she watched him check the vicious-looking military-standard firearms, it dawned on Beth that her husband, the man who made love to her so tenderly, the Dom who turned her into a quivering mass of sobbing sexual need on a regular basis, whose collar she wore with pride and at whose feet she would willingly kneel, was a trained killer. She’d known he was, of course she had, but to see it, really see it for the first time…
Cold and unable to breathe, she wrapped her arms around her body tightly, determined not to go to pieces.
“Beth.”
She looked at Stacie again, felt the other woman’s hand rubbing her back in a gesture of comfort.
“He’s still Alex,” Stacie went on quietly. “He’s still your husband, the man you love. You already know what’s he’s capable o
f, what he had to do last year to protect both of you. This is no different. It’s just clothes.”
Just clothes. That was it. He’d been wearing normal clothes when he’d saved them both from Underwood’s revenge, when he’d fought the man to the death. The only thing that was different was the way he was dressed. Slowly Beth began to breathe normally again, regaining control over her respiration and her pounding heart. “I know. I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t know what came over me. Having hysterics won’t help anyone.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Alex caught sight of the quiet drama being played out between the two subs. On seeing his wife’s reaction to the array of firearms and other weapons, he wanted nothing more than to go to her and give her the reassurance she needed, but he’d then seen Stacie’s lips move and her arms go around Beth. Maybe they should have remained in the UK, but the truth was that he needed to keep Beth close to him, he always had, and he was glad that Stacie was there to do what he could not.
Having assigned the teams and checked that the munitions they’d brought on board matched the list he’d given the prince, Alex strapped on the combat vest and began to assemble his gear—including his sidearm, spare ammunition and the all-important comms equipment. It was a long time since he’d last had to prep for a mission, but it seemed that muscle memory lasted forever. Just as well, given the circumstances. Even the combat boots had a comforting familiarity about them.
Satisfied that everyone knew exactly what they had to do, the urgency with which their goal had to be accomplished, and the stringent requirement not to create an international shitstorm for both the prince and the UK government in the process, Alex braced himself for what, for him personally, was the most difficult part of the mission—saying goodbye to his wife.
Love Is Danger (Club Aegis Book 3) Page 24