Full Force

by Elle James

  Mustang had to do something. He couldn’t stand by and let Viktor kill the woman who’d come to mean more to him than he’d ever imagined a woman could in such a short time. He aimed his gun and pulled the trigger, praying Emily didn’t shift at the last moment.

  Two gunshots echoed across the bridge.

  Viktor slumped over, his body landing on top of Emily’s, crushing her beneath him.

  Mustang’s breath lodged in his throat until Emily’s hand moved. “Help,” she said, her voice strained and breathy.

  Mustang ran to her, shoved Viktor over and bent to Emily. Blood covered her shirt.

  “I couldn’t get in to help in case Viktor got spooked and pulled the trigger prematurely,” Declan said, entering the room behind Mustang. “I texted Mack and told him to hold off on the explosives. We don’t know if a small explosion will trigger whatever Viktor has set. Is Emily okay?”

  “I don’t know.” Mustang stared into Emily’s gaze. “Were you hit?”

  Emily stared at the blood, her eyes widening. She patted her chest and abdomen and let out a sigh. “It’s not mine. I’m okay.” She struggled to stand. “How many minutes do we have left?” she demanded.

  Mustang looked at his watch. “Five.”

  “We have to help the others.” Emily ran for the door.

  “Wait!” Mustang caught her arm, bringing her to a stop. “We don’t know if there are more guards.”

  “I don’t care. There are nearly thirty drugged women that I know of belowdecks, as well as Sachi and Tyler Blunt. We can’t take the risk Viktor was bluffing. We have to get them out now. And some can’t get out on their own.” She shook free of his grasp and ran, heading down stairs into the bowels of the ship.

  Mustang raced after her, leaping down the stairs two at a time.

  “I’m right behind you,” Declan called out. “I’ll let the others know we’ll need help below.”

  A couple decks below the bridge, Emily came to a halt. Women filled the hallway, some staggering, others leaning on those who could help.

  Emily entered one of the doors, helped a woman to her feet and half carried, half dragged her out into the hallway. “This way,” Emily said and led the way up the stairs.

  Mustang’s heart sank when he saw how many women there were in the small, dark room. He shot a glance at his watch. Four minutes. They could only do the best they could. He lifted a limp form off the floor and tossed it over his shoulder. “Follow me,” he said and looped an arm around a woman staggering in the hallway. He powered up the stairs, out onto the deck, refusing to let the struggling woman slow him down. Once he had them off the ship, he laid the limp woman on the ground. “Take care of her,” he said to the others.

  Emily had already returned to the ship.

  Three minutes.

  Mustang passed Mack, Cole and Gus on their way out, helping two women each. Some of the ladies made it out on their own. When he returned to the lower deck, he found Sachi in the hallway. “Help me, please,” she said. “It’s Tyler. He’s hurt.” She led him into a different room where Tyler Blunt attempted to push to his feet.

  “Get her out of here,” Tyler said as he leaned heavily against the wall.

  “Tyler,” Sachi said, “I’m not leaving without you.” She hooked his arm over her shoulder.

  Mustang looped the man’s other arm over his shoulder. Between him and Sachi, they got him up the stairs and out onto the deck.

  “I can make it from here,” Tyler insisted. “Go. Help the others.”

  With only two minutes remaining, Mustang returned to the lower deck, determined to find Emily and get her out before the ship exploded.

  He passed Snow with a woman folded over his shoulder.

  “Emily. Have you seen her?”

  Snow jerked his head toward the rear. “She was checking the rest of the rooms on this corridor to make sure we didn’t leave anyone behind.”

  “Hurry, get her out of here,” Mustang said, nodding at the woman on Snow’s shoulder. “We only have seconds to spare.”

  “Same to you, man.” Snow ran down the corridor and up the stairs.

  Emily emerged from a room at the end of the hallway. “The rooms are all empty except one.” She stood in front of one, her hand on the locking lever.

  Deep voices sounded from inside, yelling in Russian.

  Emily glanced at Mustang. “They were the men who kidnapped us and brought us to Viktor.”

  “Go,” Mustang said. “Get out of here. We don’t have any time left.”

  “What about them?” she asked, tilting her head at the door. “We can’t leave them to die.”

  “I’ll let them out. But I don’t want you anywhere near.” He turned her toward the stairs. “The longer you take to leave, the more chance of them and me dying in the explosion. If you care at all for me, you’ll go.”

  She shook her head, leaned up on her toes and kissed him full on the lips. “I care,” she said. “A lot. I’m going, but I don’t want to leave you here.” She turned and ran for the stairs.

  Mustang grabbed the lock and shoved it to the side. Heaving a sigh, he spun the wheel handle.

  As soon as it hit a full stop, the door erupted outward.

  Mustang was ready. He jumped back and came out fighting. “Get out of here,” he yelled even as he blocked a right jab. “The ship is about to explode,” he warned.

  The two men weren’t listening or couldn’t speak English. Either way, Mustang wouldn’t make it out in less than a minute. Not if he had to fight his way through the two men. But he wouldn’t go down without trying.

  He threw a side kick, hitting the bigger guy in the gut. Then he spun and slugged the other man in the chin. Before he could cock his arm to swing again, he was caught from behind by the big guy and his arms were yanked behind him.

  The man he’d just clocked in the chin balled his fists and snarled.

  A shout in Russian from the other end of the corridor made all three men turn.

  Emily stood like an avenging angel with her fists on her hips and her blue eyes blazing. She shouted again in Russian. The two men stared at her, eyes narrowing.

  She spoke again, this time in a more urgent tone, and pointed upward.

  The big guy said something to the one with his arms cocked, ready to throw a punch.

  The man jabbed hard to Mustang’s middle, and then he turned and started toward Emily.

  Pain made Mustang double over.

  The big guy let go and shoved him forward. Then he ran and followed his partner.

  Mustang swept out his foot, caught the big man’s ankle with his own and sent him sprawling across the narrow hallway and slamming into his partner.

  Mustang stepped on top of both men on his way to Emily. He grabbed her hand and ran with her up the steps to the deck above.

  They had just made it onto the gangway when the first explosion shook the ship.

  The gangway rattled violently.

  Mustang grabbed Emily around the waist and leaped for the dock. Behind him the gangway shuddered and buckled, falling into the water.

  “Run!” Mustang shouted. Holding Emily’s hand, he rushed with her, aiming for the other side of a huge stack of shipping containers.

  As he reached the stack, another explosion rumbled inside the ship and then fire and debris shot out of the middle of the stacks of containers, flinging metal shrapnel in every direction.

  Mustang pushed Emily behind the containers and dove in after her.

  All the women and the rest of his team had taken cover behind the stacks of giant metal boxes.

  Mustang didn’t relax until he could see every one of Declan’s Defenders. Sachi and Tyler were there, too.

  He lay on the ground beside Emily, laughter bubbling up his throat.

  Emily leaned up on one elbow and frow
ned down at him. “What’s so funny?”

  He pulled Emily into his arms and kissed her hard. “Nothing. I’m just so thankful you made it out alive. And, wow, I wish you could have seen yourself shouting at the Russians.” A chuckle escaped his chest, relieving the past two days of stress he’d been under. “You were amazing.” He kissed her again. “Thank you for saving me.”

  “Thank you for shooting Viktor and not me,” she said and chuckled. “You had me worried for a moment there.”

  “I had me worried.” He smoothed a hand through her hair. “I’ve never met a woman as courageous as you.”

  “And I’ve never met a man who is as determined as you are to keep me safe.” She cupped his chin in her palm and brushed her lips across his in a butterfly-soft kiss. “Where do we go from here, now that we know who was behind the attacks on me, Jay and Tyler? I won’t need a bodyguard anymore.”

  “Sweetheart, you’re not getting rid of me that easily. Now that I’ve found you, I won’t let you go. I can’t. I think I’m falling in love with you.”

  Epilogue

  Emily sat across the dining table from Charlie Halverson. Mustang occupied the seat to her right and Grace the one to her left. “I guess tonight is my last night here at the Halverson estate. Thank you for putting me up for one more night.”

  “It didn’t make any sense for you to go back to your apartment so late when your clothes and toiletries were here,” Charlie said. “Besides, I love the company.” She smiled around the table at the six men of Declan’s Defenders. “While you all were helping the first responders sort through the women and Tyler Blunt, Jonah and I were digging into Viktor Sokolov’s personal emails and data files. Since we were able to focus on him, and not all of the embassy staff, we had more success uncovering what he was up to.

  “His emails contained information about meeting locations where he collected women. He used a kind of code to describe each to potential buyers. His buyers are all over the world, including contacts in Saudi Arabia, England, Germany, Bangladesh, Japan and Turkey to name only a few.” She frowned and pushed a sheet of paper into the center of the table.

  On the paper was a design Emily had seen before. “That’s a Celtic knot, a symbol of interconnectedness of all life.” She looked from it to Charlie. “What does it have to do with Sokolov and him selling women into the sex trade?”

  Mustang tapped the symbol with his finger. “We seem to keep running across it. First Grace found mention of it at Quest Aerospace when she was searching through Riley Lansing’s boss’s files. He was involved in selling secret blueprints to the Russians.”

  “And then we saw it again in the ring Riley’s sleeper-agent handler had given to her before she died,” Mack said, looping his arm over the back of Riley Lansing’s chair.

  “And Charlie’s husband had a similar ring with the same Russian inscription on the inside.”

  Declan pulled out his smart phone and showed Emily the picture of the inscription.

  Emily nodded. “It reads the equivalent of Always and Forever.” She slipped her hand into Mustang’s. “I’m not sure of the significance of the inscription.”

  Jack Snow ventured a guess. “It could mean that once the person was a part of the Trinity organization, he or she could never escape.”

  “Whatever it means, it’s making me nervous. It seems we’re running into it for a reason,” Charlie said. “I just wish we knew what that reason was.”

  Emily sighed. “I’d like to get some fresh air before I call it a night. It’s been a long day.”

  “You should be able to enjoy the rose garden,” Charlie said, “now that no one is waiting to attack you.” She gave Emily a reassuring smile.

  Mustang jumped up from his seat as Emily stood. “I’ll go with her, just to make sure she’s safe.”

  Emily’s pulse kicked up a notch and her breathing became more labored at the thought of being alone in the dark with Mustang.

  They entered the study and exited the house through the French doors.

  Immediately, Emily’s senses were bombarded with the aroma of blooming roses.

  Mustang captured her hand in his and held on as they walked deeper into the rose garden.

  When she reached the fountain with the stone benches surrounding it, she paused. “This place is magical. I can see why Charlie loves living here.”

  Mustang turned her to him. “To me, it’s the people who make the place. And right now, you’re making it magical just by being you.”

  “A marine and a poet?” She laid her hands on his chest and could feel his heart beating beneath her fingertips. “Does that mean I’ll see you again?”

  “I hope so,” he said and brushed a strand of her hair away from her cheek. “It’s up to you. Would you like to go out with me?”

  “Yes,” she said, her voice breathy, as if she’d been running hard, when in actuality she’d been holding her breath, praying he’d ask. “I’d love to go out with you.”

  “Hmm. There’s that L-word.” Mustang kissed the tip of her nose. “Are you one of those women who believes in love at first sight?”

  She shrugged. “How am I supposed to answer that? If I say yes, I might scare you away. If I say no, you might think I’m not a romantic, when I am, very much so.”

  He touched a finger to her lips. “To set the record straight, I never thought I believed in love at first sight until I met you.”

  Emily laughed. “Your first sight of me was one where I had twigs in my hair and a gun pointed at my head. How could you love that?”

  “You were so brave.” He kissed her forehead and then each of her eyelids.

  Emily’s knees threatened to buckle under his tenderness.

  “So, do you?” he asked.

  She couldn’t seem to think when he held her and kissed her like that. “Do I what?”

  He kissed her long and hard, pushing his tongue past her teeth to caress hers in a sensuous glide.

  When he brought his head up, his gaze met hers reflecting in the moonlight the full force of the emotion Emily felt for him.

  “Do you believe in love at first sight?” he said as his mouth skimmed across hers so lightly it left her wanting more.

  “Yes,” she said and wrapped her arms around his neck to bring his lips back to hers.

  * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from The Safest Lies by Debra Webb.

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  The Safest Lies


  by Debra Webb

  Chapter One

  Winchester, Tennessee

  Friday, August 9

  Sadie Buchanan had never been to Winchester before. The closest she’d come was Tullahoma and that had been years ago when she was first assigned to the Nashville area. A joint task force conference at the Arnold Air Force base had required her attendance for a day. Frankly, it was unusual for an agent to end up in this area, much less request a retrieval. The kind of trouble that required her participation rarely happened in small towns. Most of her assignments took her to the larger metropolitan areas around the state or deep into the desert or the mountains.

  In any event, whenever an agent was in trouble, she went in.

  She parked in front of the Franklin County sheriff’s office. Extracting agents from dangerous situations hadn’t exactly been a part of her plan when she started her career, but within two years of her first field assignment she found herself doing exactly that after one particular mission. The assignment as well as the agent involved had been high profile, garnering her the full attention of the powers that be. During that fateful mission she as well as the Bureau discovered her knack for getting in and out with particular ease. From that point forward, she had been focused on training for moments like this one. It wasn’t the sort of task just any agent felt comfortable doing. Success required a very particular skill set.

  Go in, attain the target and get out alive.

  Her father always said that everyone had a gift. Evidently, this was hers. It hadn’t failed her yet. She had no intention of allowing it to start today.

  Inside the brick building that housed the sheriff’s department and county jail, a female desk sergeant greeted her.

  “Special Agent Sadie Buchanan.” Sadie showed her credentials to the other woman. “I’m here to see Sheriff Tanner and Agent Ross.”

  “Good morning, Agent Buchanan. Down the hall and to the left,” Sergeant Rodriquez said with a gesture toward the long corridor beyond her desk. “They’re waiting for you in the conference room, ma’am.”