Critical Density

by Desiree Holt

  “Here they come,” Hannah told them. “They’re over the wall and past the pool. Approaching the house.”

  “Send the drone. Have it check the front of the house.”

  Hannah fiddled with the controls. “You called it. Three bodies creeping up to the wall in front.”

  Viper pressed his throat mic. “Everyone stand by. Breach is imminent. Blaze, three tangoes on your horizon. Be alert.”

  “On it,” came the answer.

  “Hannah, fly the drone over the water and back again,” Viper told her. “Let’s see if we can get some action out of them and kill their stealth.”

  He watched as she manipulated the controls. The night vision goggles he wore allowed him to see the men approach, the drone lift off then fly straight at them and around them. One of the men aimed a handgun and shot it directly at the drone, which they had expected.

  Viper signaled Hannah to get the hell out of the room. They didn’t need anyone laying eyes on her, no matter what happened. She slipped into the hallway toward the bedrooms where Peyton was waiting before they could see her.

  When she was safely out of sight, he and Rocket watched as the men outside turned to each other, one of them nodded, then they were all at the sliding doors.

  He was sure they’d planned to use a glass cutter to reach in for the lock, but with the drone inserted into the situation, they instead smashed the glass with a gun. Then they were inside, four of them, handguns drawn. As soon as that happened, Viper and Rocket, who had been waiting to the side out of sight, stepped up to the two at the rear and placed the barrels of their rifles on their necks.

  “Tell your friends to drop their guns,” Viper ordered, “or two of you will have holes in your neck in six seconds.”

  “Go fuck yourself,” the man next to him said.

  “You first,” Viper told him and pulled the trigger. He’d learned in his first year as a SEAL not to screw around with guys like this.

  “Who’s next?” Rocket asked.

  One of the other two men shot at Rocket, but the bullet lodged in the vest he was wearing. All the Galaxy men had put them on when they’d begun the countdown. Viper shifted the barrel of his rifle and shot the man through the arm. He cried out and dropped his gun, which Rocket kicked to the side.

  “Anyone else?” Viper asked. “One body, four bodies, doesn’t matter to us.”

  At that moment, he heard Blaze’s voice in his ear.

  “Three tangoes down out front. We’re hauling them into the garage.”

  “Good copy,” Viper acknowledged. Then he looked at the men still alive. “Your friends have run into a little problem. They won’t be socializing any more. I think it’s time for you to join them.”

  One of the two men still standing and holding a gun made a move with his pistol.

  “Do it,” Rocket said. “My trigger finger’s real itchy right now.”

  The man looked at both Viper and Rocket, then at his friends, and finally bent and placed his gun on the floor.

  “Smart decision.”

  All the men were wearing throat mics and earphones, just like the Galaxy team.

  “Better collect these,” Rocket said. “Someone might know how to track them back.”

  In minutes, they had all the men—including the dead body—in the garage, gagged and stretched out on the floor, hands tied behind their backs.

  “What’s next?” Eagle asked.

  “They all have to have cell phones. Let’s check them and see if we can find any numbers.”

  “Good idea,” Viper agreed. “While you do that, I’ll check on the women.”

  He found them in his bedroom—or his and Hannah’s, as he preferred to think of it.

  “Thank god you’re still in one piece,” Hannah breathed.

  “Is Blaze okay, too?” Peyton wanted to know.

  “Everyone in Galaxy is fine,” Viper assured them. “I can’t say as much for the idiots that thought they could get away with a successful home invasion.”

  “Where are they?” Hannah asked.

  “Restrained in the garage. Rocket’s on the horn with Tom Hernandez to figure out the best thing to do with them. There’s still a whole lot riding on this and we’re running out of time. One of us will keep you in the loop, but we think it’s safer, just in case, if the two of you stay in this room until we know for sure what’s going down next.”

  “We understand where you’re coming from,” Peyton assured him. “And we don’t want to add to the stress of the situation, but don’t leave us out. Okay?”

  “We’ll do our best.”

  He answered the rest of their questions as best he could, but he was antsy to get back to the garage. He walked in to see Rocket grinning.

  “What’s up?” Viper asked. “I didn’t think there was much to smile about.”

  “We took pictures of each of these guys, woke Zander and shot them over to him. He can run them through facial rec with his machines a thousand times faster than we can.”

  “And?” he prompted.

  “The guy you shot in the shoulder is named Ed Fletcher. We’ve had a lot of people awakened tonight to give us answers, Viper, including Tom Hernandez. Who woke up his friend, and…”

  “Jesus, Rocket. Get to the fucking point.”

  “Yeah, we’re trying to get answers, too,” Eagle snarled. “Come on, Rock.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I’m just trying to wrap my head around this.” He blew out a breath. “Okay, Ed Fletcher has a full-time job as troubleshooter mopping up problems. And get this. He works for none less than Eric Lowden at Lowden Tactical. Who, by the way, has the code name of Diesel.”

  There was dead silence in the garage, heavy and thick. The men all looked at each other, stunned.

  “Fucking shit,” Viper said at last.

  “Amen to that,” Eagle added.

  “What the fuck?” This from Blaze.

  “Tom says we need more than local law on this one. This is probably hooked up to this whole business with Senator Baumann and the death of Senator Hegman.”

  Viper stared at Rocket. “So Lowden’s not the innocent bystander in Hegman’s death they pretend to be?”

  Rocket shook his head. “Not even a little. This looks like it’s all part of the plan to make Baumann chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. And who knows what else we’ll find when we open the lid?”

  Eagle nodded. “All that stuff Tom’s friend was telling him about.”

  They had been watching the men on the floor as they talked. Mostly they sat immobile, even the guy with the bullet wound. But an expression of oh shit briefly crossed the face of the one identified as Ed Fletcher.

  Oh, yeah, Viper thought. He knows they’re in deep doo doo.

  “So what’s our best move now?” he asked.

  “Tom says we need to call in the Feds,” Rocket answered. “I took the liberty of asking him to make that happen for us and he said he would.”

  “Good. We owe him big thanks on this one.”

  Rocket’s phone rang and he punched the button to answer.

  “Yeah, how did it go? Uh huh. Uh huh. Okay, thanks. We’re really in your debt on this one and we plan to make good on that. Thanks again. Yeah, I’ll be looking for it.”

  “Tom?” Viper asked.

  “Uh huh. There’s a team of Feds on the way from the Tampa office. Tom asked them for photos of whoever’s coming so we know for sure it’s them.”

  “Good move.” He looked around. “So we wait, right?”

  They all nodded.

  “I’m gonna check on Peyton,” Blaze said, “but I’ll be right back.”

  It was close to an hour later by the time the FBI arrived. Jason Halliwell introduced himself as the SAC—Special Agent in Charge—of the Tampa office.

  “I’ll be running point on this,” he told Viper after all the introductions were made. “This is too sensitive to hand it over to regular agents, although everyone on my team is top notch. In fact, all we’re
doing is transporting them to an airfield. A helo’s coming from Washington to pick them up. This one’s above even my pay grade, and I’m happy to hand it over.”

  “Thanks for responding so quickly,” Viper told him.

  “We like to wipe out scum like this as fast as we can.”

  “One of the tangoes is injured and one of them is dead,” Rocket pointed out.

  Halliwell snorted. “Good riddance. Maybe they’ll just dump his body out of the helo. And it won’t hurt the one who’s wounded to suffer a while. Not after the kind of shit they do.”

  It didn’t take long for the agents to load everyone, including the body, into the vans they’d arrived in. The guys helped Viper block the hole in the glass doors. Then everyone split to their own places.

  “Tomorrow,” Blaze said as he left with Peyton. “We need to go over all of this, because you can be damn sure the Feds will be all over us about it.”

  “And I want to protect Hannah as much as possible,” Viper added.

  “Understood.” He looked at the others. “Let’s touch base in the morning and set a time to meet.”

  Everyone agreed, then headed out of the door.

  Viper set the security system then reached out to Hannah to pull her close to his body.

  “Almost over, darlin’.”

  She pressed her face to his chest. “I can hardly believe it. A week ago, I thought I was either going to jail or about to be killed. And now…” Her voice trailed off.

  “And now you can look at what the future holds for you.” He cupped her cheek and tilted up her face. “Hopefully with me.”

  She wet her lips. “If you’re still sure you want me.”

  “Hannah, honey, I was sure I wanted you the minute you sat down next to me in that bar. That feeling only keeps getting stronger.” He studied her face. “What about you? What do you want?”

  “I want you.”

  She said the words without hesitation, which made the tight band around his chest loosen.

  “Thank fuck for that.”

  “I googled the Tampa Bay area and there are a couple of companies that really intrigue me. Of course, it depends on whether this thing with Lowden has tainted me.”

  “I think we can get the FBI to give you a sterling recommendation. After all, without you, none of this would have come to light.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.”

  “How about holding me to something else? I need to bury myself deep inside you so I know for sure this is a done deal.”

  He was so hungry for her that he hoped he could make himself wait until they got to the bedroom before stripping off her clothes. He wanted to imprint himself on this woman. In her. Make sure she knew that he loved her fiercely and wanted her with him forever.

  Her mouth curved into a sexy little smile. “I can get on board with that.”

  He swung her up in his arms and carried her to his bedroom, No, their bedroom. He stood her on her feet only long enough to remove every stitch of her clothing. Then he knelt in front of her and ran his hands from her breasts over the curve of her stomach to her sex, sliding his palms between her thighs.

  He pressed his face to her mound and inhaled deeply, her scent making his balls ache and his cock swell even more than it already was. Separating the lips with his thumb, he drew a long line in her slit with his tongue, lapping from top to bottom and back again. She shivered at the sensations and a little moan eased from her mouth, so he did it again.

  He rose to his feet and stripped off his clothing. Then he reached into the nightstand drawer and took out some condoms and one other item, tossing them on the bed. He stripped back the coverlet and stretched them both out full length. Positioning himself between Hannah’s legs, he began to kiss every inch of her body in earnest.

  Her breasts received focused attention, especially her rosy nipples which he alternately sucked and nibbled. She shifted beneath him, running her hands down his back and urging him to do more. He knew part of this was the easing of the tension that had gripped them for the past twenty-four hours, but he couldn’t think of a better way to relieve it or anyone he’d rather do this with.

  From her breasts, he trailed his tongue down to her navel, tracing the curled flesh again and again before moving even lower. Again he dragged his tongue between the lips of her sex, flicking her engorged clit and nipping it gently with his teeth. Hannah was already writhing and moaning and begging for more, but he had a plan.

  “I want to touch you,” she pleaded.

  “If you do, I’ll go off in your hand before you can close your fingers around me once. This is my show, darlin’.” He glanced up at her face. “Hannah, tonight I’m really going to make you mine.”

  He continued stringing kisses up one leg and down the other, teasing the swollen nub of her clit and licking the walls of her sex. Before long, she was shivering in anticipation and he could tell her orgasm was starting to rise inside her. His own anticipation was at the ‘explosive’ level.

  “I’m so ready,” she moaned and tried to wrap her legs around him, pulling him against her.

  “Not yet,” he told her as he continued to tease her in every sensitive place. “Tonight, I’m going to make sure you know that you’re mine. That I’m going to love you forever and that everyone in the world will know it.”

  He turned her over onto her stomach and pulled her gently to her knees.

  “Stop me if you don’t want this. I’m good with whatever.” He wanted to make absolutely sure.

  “I’ve never…”

  “If this is too much for you…”

  “No.” There was no hesitation in her voice. “I’m glad you’ll be the first.” She paused a moment. “And only. Forever.”

  Thank you, god.

  She was trembling beneath his touch and begging him for more. He placed kisses on the cheeks of her ass as she continued to shiver with need. When he separated those luscious cheeks and ran the tip of a finger down that crease, she moaned in obvious pleasure. When he pressed a fingertip against the opening, she groaned even louder.

  Oh, yeah, he thought. This is what I want. Forever.

  When he tested her sex, she was soaked, so he used some of her own liquid to lubricate her delicious rear channel.

  “Doing all right?” he asked.

  “Yes. Please, Please, please, please.”

  She was ready. He could feel it. With one hand, he rolled on the condom. Then he covered it with the special lubricating cream he had, because he didn’t want her to suffer a moment’s discomfort. He pressed the head of his dick at her opening and began to slowly enter her.

  “Still okay?” he asked, pausing when he was half inside her.

  Shit, he hoped she was because he was on the edge of the ledge himself.

  “Yes, yes, yes. Don’t stop.”

  She wriggled her ass back against him, a movement which nearly made him lose it right there and then.

  Slowly, slowly, slowly he pushed forward until he was inside her all the way.

  “Still good?” he asked, taking a nip of her shoulder.

  “I will be if you get moving in the next second,” she told him in a breathless voice.

  Okay, then.

  He began the familiar in-and-out movement, only this time he was in a channel so tight that her flesh squeezed him. He increased the pace, faster and faster, holding her hip with one hand and using the fingers of the other to stroke her clit and the wet flesh surrounding it. He would have loved for this to go on forever, but he could tell she was as aroused as he was because of the release of the night’s tension and the need for each other. It brought them to the edge of climax way too quickly.

  “I can’t hold on much longer,” he told her, gritting his teeth.

  “Me, either. Do it, Viper. Make me come.”

  He drove into her one last time, pinched her clit very hard and exploded just as her orgasm shook her body. They shuddered together with spasm after spasm, her body thrusting back against his. I
t seemed to go on forever until, at last, their bodies were trembling but quiet. He lay there on top of her, his dick clutched by her hot channel, unwilling to move. But then he realized he might be making her uncomfortable, so he eased from her body. Disposing of the condom, he flopped to the side, turned her over and pulled her into his arms.

  “Did I hurt you?”

  She gave a giddy little laugh. “Only the kind of pain that gives pleasure.” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “I know I said this already, but you’re the first…I mean…”

  “Good.” He ducked his head and kissed her shoulder. “Nobody before me, and nobody else ever. That makes you mine, darlin’. Forever.”

  “We still have a mess to get through,” she reminded him. “You sure you want to be hooked up with that?”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Hannah, stay. Forever. Make a life with me here. Please.”

  She smiled at him. “If you can handle it, I’m in for the long haul.” Then all evidence of humor left her face and she studied his expression. “I love you, Viper. I never thought I’d find someone to say that to.”

  “Same goes both ways. We’ll get past this mess and the rest will be a piece of cake.”

  He fell into the kiss with her, giving thanks for that night in Houston.

  * * * *

  They were still wrapped up in each other the next morning when they were eating at the breakfast bar and watching the national news.

  “It’s a scandal of epic proportions,” the reporter was saying. “Eric Lowden, head of Lowden Tactical, which has many government contracts for some questionable missions for its sophisticated drones, has been revealed as code name Diesel, a man who used his company to kill for power and money. But the shocker was the revelation that Gregory Kingsley, Lowden’s vice president, was actually the head of a shadowy organization that took contracts to manipulate politics not just here in the United States but in other countries.

  Known as the Conductor, it has been revealed that he is the money man behind Lowden. He’s the man who took the contract to kill Senator Mark Hegman to make way for a new chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, someone who would be more friendly to Lowden and the things the Conductor wanted. That someone was to be Senator Baumann, who has gone into seclusion and is unavailable for comment.