Dom: Hell Squad #18

by Hackett, Anna

  Heart aching, she rose up, crawling into his lap. “You think that changes how I feel about you? You were a child, Dom. An abused one with very few options.”

  “But then I became an adult, Arden.”

  She tilted her head. “And how did you end up here? At Blue Mountain Base, and then the Enclave?”

  He paused, his dark eyes on her face.

  “Well?” she urged.

  “I was with Salvatore in Sydney when the aliens came. He had a meeting with some drug suppliers.”

  “And?”

  “During the attack, I…” He looked over her shoulder. “I killed Salvatore and escaped.”

  “You finally saw a chance, and you took it.”

  “I’m thirty-five, Arden. I’d been doing his dirty work for a long time.”

  “Would he ever have let you leave?”

  “Never. No one leaves the Ndrangheta. I knew far too much.”

  Dom was the only person who didn’t realize that there was a good man buried inside him. She pressed a palm to his bare chest, right over his beating heart. Then she moved her head and touched her lips to his.

  As they kissed, his body relaxed. He pulled her closer. “You are too good for me, Arden.”

  “Stop saying that. I won’t listen to it anymore.”

  A faint smile touched his lips. “I have to meet my squad.”

  “I have to go, too. I promised to meet Indy for breakfast.”

  They kissed again, and then took their time dressing. Arden watched him shrug into his shirt, then run a hand through his thick hair. He probably had no clue how sexy those simple moves were. As she slipped into her own shirt, she realized they were almost behaving like any other normal couple.

  Although they were far from normal.

  “Good luck with your search today.” He ran his finger down her nose.

  “You, too. I’m hoping my brain won’t leak out my ears from the boredom of searching drone footage.”

  “I heard Hemi mutter something similar.”

  With one last kiss, Dom was gone. Without his presence beside her, Arden felt lonely. Then she smiled. She had quite a few pleasant aches, and a few sexy memories, that kept him on her mind.

  Shaking her head, she headed for the dining room. When she entered, she spotted Indy at a table, tablet in one hand, and a glass of juice in the other. As Arden approached, her friend looked up with a smile on her face.

  Indy’s smile froze, then widened. “You got laid.”

  Arden stumbled to a halt. “What?”

  “Soft face, dreamy eyes, relaxed body.” Indy smirked and raised a brow. “And stubble burn on your neck.”

  Automatically, Arden reached up to touch the tender skin on her neck.

  Indy lowered her tablet. “I knew it. Spill, girl. I want details. It was that teacher who asked you out the other week, right?”

  Arden sat and reached over to pour a cup of tea.

  “Arden.”

  She met her friend’s gaze. “No, it wasn’t Paul. Um, it was Dom.”

  Indy blinked and her mouth dropped open. “Dom? As in Dominic Santora?”

  Arden nodded.

  “You got naked with the most dangerous man in the Enclave?”

  “There are a lot of dangerous men in the Enclave. You sleep with one of them.”

  “Yes, but no one radiates that dark intensity that says ‘I could kill you in ten seconds’ like Dom does.”

  Arden sipped her drink. “He’s not dangerous to me.” She smiled, thinking of the way he held her.

  “So I see.” Indy tilted her head. “Wow. Just give my poor brain a second to process.” Indy wagged a finger. “Okay, I’ll admit to wondering just how that sexy Italian is between the sheets.”

  Arden smiled. “Amazing.”

  Indy grinned. “I am so damn happy for you, Ard. You snagged yourself a sexy berserker.”

  Then the two of them burst into giggles and it felt so good.

  * * *

  Dom’s chair creaked as he shifted. He was back in a conference room, poring over more footage.

  He was trying to focus on the image in front of him, but all he could think about was Arden—the sound she made when he slid inside her, the way her hair smelled, the taste of her skin.

  “Dom? Earth to Dom? Hey!”

  Dom looked up and saw all of his squad mates staring at him. “What?”

  Griff shook his head. “You’re a million miles away.”

  Dom just grunted.

  “He needs to get laid, I tell you,” Hemi said.

  Dom shot Hemi a look. “The only thing I need is to find this bomb. There’s no need for you to worry about my sex life, Rahia.”

  Hemi snorted. “Especially when you don’t have one.”

  Levi set a file down on the table. “We’ve found dick-all. I say we get back out there. There’s nothing in these pictures.”

  Tane rose and started pacing. “We can’t cover the entire Blue Mountains on foot. We need to narrow things down. Where would the Gizzida take this bomb?”

  “Somewhere well hidden,” Ash suggested. “And they can’t have taken it too far, or we’d have noticed.”

  The team started spitballing, tossing out theories, each one wilder than the next, but slowly, every single idea was discarded.

  The fact of the matter was, they didn’t have one fucking clue.

  The door opened and Indy entered. Their comms officer was juggling a large coffee mug and her portable comp. She moved over and dropped a kiss on Griff’s lips before she sat down. Then she looked straight at Dom and smiled at him.

  Shit. She knew.

  She winked at him.

  As his team continued to brainstorm, Dom focused back on the discussion. Indy joined in, offering her own theories and opinions.

  “We’ve got nothing.” Tane pressed his hands to the table. Frustration throbbed off him.

  Then the door flew open.

  “Lunch,” the redhead in the doorway called out.

  “Hey, Spitfire.” Levi grinned at his woman.

  Chrissy smiled as she carried a large box. She had some grease stains on her tank top, no doubt from her maintenance job. A cute blonde wearing glasses appeared beside her, carrying some drinks.

  Chrissy dropped the box of sandwiches on the table and sauntered over to Levi. The man pulled her into his lap and kissed her like there was no one else in the room. Marin Mitchell from the tech team shot a wide-eyed smile at Ash, her blonde curls bouncing. The tattooed berserker rose, pulling her into his arms.

  Dom watched the men’s faces light up.

  He could have that. He could have that with Arden. Someone who was solely his, for the first time ever in his entire life. Someone who made crawling through the darkness worth it.

  As his team mates reached for the sandwiches, Dom realized that he finally had something worth fighting for.

  But before he and Arden had a future, he first had to protect her and ensure their survival.

  “How’s the search going?” Chrissy asked.

  Levi groaned. “Don’t ask. If I have to look at more drone footage, I’m going to let the Gizzida kill me.”

  Sitting beside Ash, Marin leaned forward, nibbling on a salad. “The tech team is doing more tests on the samples you guys brought back from the town.” Her shoulders slumped. “But nothing new so far.”

  “How are the other squads doing?” Tane asked.

  Marin pulled a face. “Same as you guys. Slow and frustrated.” She nibbled on some lettuce. “Holmes is working with the other bases. He’s talking to Groom Lake right now. Everyone knows we have to find the other two bombs.”

  A sour mood fell over the room and everyone picked at their food.

  When the door opened again, Dom leaned back in his chair and glanced over. Arden rushed in, her hair mussed.

  “Ard?” Indy said.

  Dom leaped to his feet. Arden’s gaze hit him and she circled the table, making a beeline straight to him.

 
“I found something!” She was breathless. “The rest of my squad has gone to lunch, but I had to tell somebody.”

  “Calm down, bella.”

  She slapped a hand to his chest. “I think I know where the bomb might be.” She went up on her toes, pressing her mouth to his.

  It was Arden, so naturally, Dom’s brain short-circuited. He wrapped an arm around her and kissed her back.

  He sensed the mood in the room change. He pulled her close to his side and looked up.

  Griff was flat-out grinning. Ash, Levi, and Tane were looking on with raised eyebrows. Chrissy was elbowing Marin, Indy looked smug, and Hemi appeared shocked.

  “What the fuck, Santora?” Hemi said. “You’ve been holding out on us.”

  Arden blinked, as though she was suddenly realizing that there were other people in the room.

  “Ah…” Pink filled her cheeks.

  Dom just held her tighter. “Tell us what you found, bella.”

  “This.” She slapped the printout she was holding onto the table. Everyone rose, leaning over to look at it.

  It was an image. Dom recognized the remnants of the test bomb, sitting among a bunch of track marks in the mud.

  “Okay.” Tane frowned. “The test bomb. We’ve all seen it.”

  “Not the bomb. Here.” Arden pointed to a smudge on the image.

  Dom frowned. There was a faint smear of blue-green color in one of the track marks.

  Everyone traded confused looks.

  “We need more, Arden,” Dom said.

  “The blue-green mark. Here, I enlarged it.” She set another picture down on the table.

  There was some more detail to it now. Dom’s frown deepened. It wasn’t really clear, but it looked like a string of pearls.

  “What is it?” Indy asked.

  “It’s a glow worm larva,” Arden said.

  Glow worms? That didn’t mean much to Dom.

  Hemi grunted. “Tane, remember that family vacation?”

  Tane nodded. “Back in New Zealand. Our parents took us on a boat tour through Waitomo Caves when we were kids.”

  “The glow worms were amazing,” Hemi said. “Like stars.”

  “Glow worms are a common name for a few different types of insect larvae that glow through bioluminescence,” Arden said.

  “I’m guessing the bomb isn’t in a cave in New Zealand,” Indy said.

  “Newnes Plateau.” Arden practically bounced on her feet. “There’s a famous glow worm tunnel in the Blue Mountains. It’s an old, abandoned train tunnel that is filled with glow worm larvae. They used to do tours of it, pre-invasion.”

  Dom stiffened. Now it clicked. “This larva got transferred to Mount Wilson when they moved the test bomb.”

  She nodded. “That’s my theory. Yes.”

  Tane stood. “And maybe this tunnel is where they’re keeping the main bomb.”

  Arden nodded again.

  Indy tapped on her comp screen, pulling up a map.

  “Here. The tunnel isn’t far from Mount Wilson! About thirty kilometers as the crow flies.”

  Dom pulled Arden up on her toes. “Nice work, bella.”

  “Thanks.”

  Tane straightened. “This is great, Arden.” He looked around the room. “I’ll inform the general. I want all of you ready to move.”

  “Thank fuck for that,” Levi said.

  Chapter Eleven

  Arden tried not to fidget as she stood in the busy Command Center with Indy, and Elle Steele from Hell Squad, flanking her.

  General Holmes came out of the door leading to one of the conference rooms. He strode to the front of the crowd and Arden thought he looked stressed. His shirt was rumpled, and he looked like he’d been running his hands through his silver-tinged, dark hair.

  She’d shared her discovery about the glow worm larvae with him. He’d been about to go back into a call with the Groom Lake base.

  Holmes straightened and ran his gaze over the assembled squads. “Groom Lake has intel.”

  The air in the room changed, sharpening. Arden turned her head and glanced at Dom. He gave her a small nod.

  Just that small move eased some of the tension in her chest.

  “They interrogated a Gizzida prisoner,” the general said. “A scientist.” He took a deep breath. “They’ve confirmed that there are three bombs. They need to be placed in certain locations around the planet and detonated together.”

  “Why?” Tane called out.

  “Apparently, doing so will amplify their effect…and ensure the entire planet is covered with Gizzida genetic material.”

  God. Arden’s stomach dropped away. This was worse than she’d ever imagined.

  “Fuckers,” Indy muttered.

  “If we can destroy one bomb, that will mitigate the effect,” Holmes said. “And give the other bases time to search for the other two bombs.”

  The soldiers in the room shifted restlessly. Tane stood with his hands on his hips, staring at the ground. Marcus looked like he wanted to punch something. Roth looked angry.

  “From what the scientist shared, one of the bombs is in the North American region. Groom Lake is working to track it down. Nothing concrete yet.”

  “And the other?” Marcus asked.

  Holmes lifted one shoulder and blew out a breath. “No sign of it yet. The Gizzida scientist didn’t know where it was.”

  “So, we need to destroy the bomb we know is here,” Tane confirmed.

  The general nodded.

  “How?” Hemi asked. “If we blow it up, it’s gonna spread alien DNA all over the place.”

  Noah stepped forward. “My team’s best guess is that we should drain the liquid out of the bomb and destroy the detonating mechanism.”

  Marcus crossed his arms over his chest. “But the aliens can remake the bomb, right? Fill it back up again.”

  Noah nodded. “Sure, they could. But that will take time. Right now, we need time to find the other two bombs and find a more decisive solution for destroying them.”

  “And we now have a location of where our bomb is?” Marcus asked.

  The general turned his blue gaze to Arden. He waved her forward.

  Clearing her throat, Arden addressed the crowd. “I found glow worm larva in the footage from Mount Wilson.” The picture flashed up on the screen. “There’s a well-known glow worm tunnel close by.”

  More pictures appeared, these ones from the archives. They showed the amazing beauty of the glow worm tunnel. The glow worm larvae lit up the roof of the tunnel like stars scattered through the night sky.

  “I don’t know for certain that the bomb itself is there,” Arden continued. “But it was likely that the test bomb was.”

  “Tane,” Holmes said. “I’m tasking this to your squad.”

  Tane nodded, one dreadlock falling over his broad shoulder.

  “Hell Squad and Squad Nine,” Holmes continued. “You’re on standby as their back-up.”

  “General.” A soft, female voice cut through the room. “I’d like to go on the mission.”

  Arden turned and spotted Selena stepping through the crowd. From nearby, Tane growled.

  The general looked at the alien woman for a second. He glanced at Tane, before he looked back at Selena. “Your skills would be welcomed, Selena. We need to throw whatever we have at destroying this bomb.”

  “This is my home, too.” Her large, green eyes flickered to Tane for a brief second. “I’ll fight to protect it.”

  Arden shifted a little. “I’d like to go as well. With the combat drone—”

  Dom stepped forward, two menacing steps. “Arden.”

  “This is also my fight,” she said. “I want to help.”

  Dom ground his teeth together, then cursed in Italian.

  “Welcome to my fucking club,” Tane muttered to Dom.

  Noah cleared his throat. “I’ve equipped Arden’s combat drone with our new cineole weapons.”

  “You’ve finished testing them?” Holmes asked. />
  The head of the tech team nodded. “We’ve been running non-stop tests. We know the cineole breaks down the raptor’s cellular structure with enough exposure. My team has amplified the affects as much as we can. It will certainly help weaken them.”

  Excited whispers rippled through the soldiers.

  They’d known for a long time that the raptors were affected by the trees on Earth. Now they had a chance to use it to the benefit of all humans. Maybe these weapons could help turn the tide of the fight.

  Noah looked at Squad Three. “I’d be happy to add some cineole to your weapons.”

  The berserkers all nodded.

  “If it makes them bleed, then bring it,” Hemi said.

  Tane was looking up at the screen. “The trees are too thick around the glow worm tunnel entrance to land the Hawks.”

  Indy nodded and tapped on a comp. “I agree. I suggest you ride up the track that leads to the entrance on your bikes.” She tapped again. “From here.”

  A map flashed on the screen, a glowing dot appearing.

  Tane nodded.

  “Okay, everyone knows their jobs.” Holmes scanned the room. “There’s a lot riding on this mission.” He gave a faint smile. “And I know the berserkers will make a mess and make the Gizzida sorry they tangled with us.”

  “Hell yeah!” Hemi shouted.

  “Hey, that’s our battle cry,” Shaw from Hell Squad said. “Get your own.”

  Arden looked at Dom.

  He shot her a molten glare before he turned and stalked out. Her chest hitched.

  “Uh-oh,” Indy murmured. “Trouble in paradise.”

  Arden sighed. “I have to go on this mission, Indy.”

  “I know. He knows, too, but these alpha males have this built-in need to keep their women safe.” Indy smiled. “Some latent caveman gene. He’ll come around.”

  Arden swallowed. She hoped so.

  * * *

  Dom was barely able to control his anger. He pulled his knives out of his locker, shoving them into the sheaths on his belt.

  He’d already been forced to take Arden out in the field once. He did not want to do it again.

  All around him in the locker room, his squad was getting ready for the mission. Dom was already in his armor, but the others were in various states of undress.