by Kait Nolan
“So I take out the power grid, create shadow, boom, we’re out. Unless he’s unconscious, he can do that.”
“Right. And you’re just going to happen to be able to figure out how to manage all that without getting caught by one of the hundreds of troops floating around in there. Because no way will all of them be at the fight.”
“Then I’ll wing it,” she gritted out.
Gage shook his head. “This is why you would never have made a good Walker. You can’t separate your heart from your head, and it makes you reckless. And it’s why your father is in this mess to begin with—because he’s exactly the same way.”
She whirled on him, flames of temper rippling down her arms. “You son of a bitch. Don’t you dare tell me about my father. You owe him everything. If he hadn’t had a heart, you’d have likely been beaten to death by your own father.”
Gage nodded, eyes serious. “I know it. I’m where it started. I’m where he started to lose his edge. He took risks with me that no Walker should ever take because he loved me and that’s what ultimately led the other Shadow Walkers straight to me.”
“Don’t be stupid. He would never have endangered you that way. He was careful. Always.”
“It’s just a fact, Ember. He slipped up somehow. Or I did. I knew it was only a matter of time—”
“It was me,” she burst out.
He stopped talking and stared at her.
“It was me they followed. I’m the one who was careless, who skipped some precautions. Because, yes, I was reckless, and at the time the only thing in the world that mattered to me was seeing you again.”
Emotion flashed over his face, too fast for her to read. “Ember—”
“Shut up, I’m not finished. I’ve had ten years to regret those mistakes, to become someone who dots every ‘i’ and crosses every ‘t’. I follow the rules, and I’m well goddamned trained at what I do. So if you think I’m going to go off half-cocked and risk losing my father the way I lost you, then you don’t know me at all.”
The fire along her arms winked out as misery swamped her. She turned away from him. Could this be any more of a disaster? She’d recruited him specifically because she’d thought he’d follow her lead, do what she said. What needed to be done. When had he become so careful and conservative? Never mind that he’d raised good points. Careful and conservative was the reason the Council wouldn’t send an extraction team.
Hands settled on her shoulders. “I’m not trying to shoot you down here, Embry. But if we’re going to do this, we have to be careful about it. I know you don’t want to lose Adan. Neither do I. But I don’t want to screw something up and risk losing you. Not now. Not again.”
She knew her jaw was clenched and defiant, though she didn’t turn to look at him. “I won’t screw this up.”
“Then you agree to be sensible about this?” he asked. “You promise you won’t try to do anything on your own?”
“I promise I won’t do anything stupid.” It wasn’t quite the same thing, but Gage seemed satisfied with her response. She turned to face him, and his hands fell away. “We can’t really plan much for this. As you said, we won’t know enough until we get in tomorrow.”
“Then in the meantime, you need to decompress. You’ll be more effective if you’re calm and cool when we go in there.”
Embry gave a harsh laugh. “I haven’t slept well. I’ve hardly been able to breathe since they took my dad. Exactly how do you propose I decompress?”
Something hot sprang into his eyes, and Embry felt her skin flush with an entirely different heat.
“We could talk,” he said.
“Talk?” she asked faintly. Nothing at all in his expression suggested talking.
“About the last time we saw each other. Before things went to shit. You changed things between us.”
Touch me. The echo of her words swept through her, snapping desire to life. She had wanted him so much. She still wanted him.
“I did.”
He hesitated, not moving any closer. “If things had gone differently. If we hadn’t been interrupted, would you have changed your mind about that?”
Never. “Would you?”
One corner of his mouth tipped in amusement. She wanted to press her lips just there.
“I spent every day from the time you were sixteen trying to convince myself that you were my sister.”
Embry blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Because of your father. He treated me like a son, and I didn’t think he’d much appreciate the thoughts I was having about his daughter.”
She wondered if those thoughts had run parallel to hers and whether he’d lain awake nights aching for her. “I never thought of you as a brother.”
The other corner of his lips twitched into a full smile. “It’s probably a good thing I didn’t know that back then since that was essentially the lynchpin of my self-discipline.”
Her mind conjured up the memory of Gage braced over her, straining desperately to control himself as she shamelessly kept him pinned with her legs. She had no idea why she’d chosen that night to test him, except that she was so tired of waiting, of wrestling with all the feelings he stirred up in her and not knowing whether he felt the same. She didn’t know what she would have done if he’d rejected her. Run in mortification, most likely. And then he’d have been alone when they came for him.
She closed her eyes and shuddered, just slightly. With an effort, she pushed the thought away, fixing a smile on her lips and aiming for light and a little flirty. “I had a terrible crush on you.”
His face went serious. “I was in love with you.”
Could he hear her heart thumping? she wondered. It beat like jungle drums in her ears as she stared at him. Still, her voice was steady, even a little amused when she spoke. “Were you?”
Gage shook his head. “Well that’s not entirely accurate. I’m still in love with you, Embry.”
She couldn’t breathe for the fist that squeezed her heart. No, no, don’t do this to me now. Not when we have no future. Swallowing did nothing to quench the desert of her throat.
Before she could think of a reply, he continued. “Things might not go as we hope tomorrow. And if something goes wrong, I needed you to know that.”
She should back away. Get another room. Anything to escape how the expression of fierce, protective adoration on his face made her feel.
Instead, she stepped into him, rising to her toes and threading her fingers in his hair before capturing his mouth and taking.
* * *
It was different than the kiss they’d shared in her hotel room in New Orleans. He’d been Cade then. Attractive, attracted, but not hers. And she’d been trying to distract him.
But this, this was Gage. His mouth was hot and hungry on hers, with an edgy demand that hadn’t been present a decade before. He’d been unflaggingly careful then. Cautious and considerate of her inexperience.
Even now, he pulled on depths of patience she simply didn’t have. When he tried to gentle the kiss, to slow things down, she nipped and goaded, eroding his control, wanting him desperate and unthinking. For this one night, she needed to give in to the fire.
He staggered a little as she hitched herself up, wrapping her legs around his waist. Then he righted himself, hands gripping her hips and shifting her until she pressed firmly against the bulge of his erection. Purring approval, she took her lips on a sprinting journey over his face, tasting each corner of that gorgeous mouth, feeling the scrape of stubble.
Fire hummed just beneath her skin, rising, straining toward his touch. No more distance. Impatient, she stripped off her shirt, one of those sleeveless tanks with a built in bra. His eyes went dark. Desperate to feel his flesh against her, Embry went after his t-shirt. Backing her into a wall for leverage, he tugged it off. Then he leaned away and looked his fill.
Embry knew her skin was flushed, both with desire and flame. She all but vibrated with it.
“You’re so damned beaut
iful,” he muttered.
The wall pressed cool against her fevered back. The longer he stared, drinking her in, the more her brain threatened to engage, reminding her of what the Council would do to him and to her if they found out what she’d done. Give me tonight. It would be enough. It would have to be. “Touch me,” she whispered.
He needed no second invitation.
Capturing her mouth, he circled them across the room, hands stroking, igniting. He turned so that he took the brunt of the impact as they tumbled onto the bed. But just like in a sparring match, he was fluid, loose, swarming over her body, stripping the remaining layers, maddeningly elusive when she would have taken control. Her pulse beat thick and fast in her throat, surging yet again when he pressed his lips just there as he covered her with the glorious weight of his body.
Impatient and unbearably aroused, she bowed up, rolling until she rose over him. She used her hands and mouth to taste and take, until she memorized every line of his body and gorged herself on his flavor. His lips burned a trail of brands down her throat, between her breasts. Skin grew slick with sweat. Frantic, they rolled again, until they were joined heat to heat, bodies moving to the pulsing rhythm of the flame that grew inside her. Faster, higher, hotter, until the fire spun out of control, bursting free of her skin to engulf them both.
Passion banked, skin cooled. Logic returned with a brutal swiftness that left her cold.
What have I done?
She’d promised herself she wouldn’t go here. They had no future beyond this mission. She knew that. Gage didn’t, and this was just going to feed into his expectations that they would pursue this. Assuming they both survived. He was in love with her, for God’s sake.
Why did you have to tell me? I might have resisted if not for that.
She curled into his warmth, knowing that after tonight, she’d never feel it again.
Gage made a small groan.
Embry cracked a cautious eye and took in their surroundings.
There were no scorch marks on the furniture, no lingering flames on the bedclothes to douse. She hadn’t actually set the room on fire. Just the two of them. His heart thudded slow and reassuring beneath her hand, and with it she felt the pulse of something else, hot and bright. As if some of her fire were lodged just there inside him.
Well wasn’t that interesting?
Gage ran his hand in a lazy stroke down her back. “You’re tensing up again.”
“I’m worried about tomorrow.” It wasn’t a lie.
“If that wasn’t wiped out of your mind for at least another ten minutes, we didn’t do something right.” He rolled, half pinning her with his body as he traced nipping kisses down the column of her throat. “Give me a few minutes, and I can do better. Though it seems like it might be sensible to have a fire extinguisher handy the next time we make love, just in case.”
Because he expected playful, Embry assumed an expression of mock offense and shoved him to his back. “Are you impugning my control, Dempsey?”
He grinned. “Well now, I was always really good at making you lose it.”
Frowning, Embry lifted his hands, rubbing her thumb over the smooth white scars. “I would never burn you on purpose.”
He tugged her down to his chest and kissed her softly. “I didn’t mean it like that.” He studied one hand thoughtfully. “I figure I did it to myself. Ran right at you while you were going nova.”
“I wasn’t going nova. I was trying to protect you.”
“How?”
Embry thought back, wondering how to describe what had been sheer instinct at the time. “I was trying to wrap you in light. They couldn’t have taken you if they couldn’t get you to shadow. It’s the same principle the military is using to keep my father captive.”
His face turned distant, and she knew he was remembering. “So . . . when I touched you it messed something up.”
“I don’t know exactly what happened. It . . . changed the focus somehow. And what I was trying to wrap around you was redirected at you instead, and I thought…” She trailed off, settling her head against his chest and taking comfort in the steady tha-thump, tha-thump.
“You thought what?”
“I thought I’d killed you,” she whispered.
“You what?”
Embry swallowed. “When you touched me there was an explosion. It threw you across the dojo, into the wall. You just . . . lay there. And then Matthias said . . . ”
“What did Matthias say?” Gage’s voice was soft, but beneath her, his body was rigid.
“He said that I’d completed their mission for them.”
His rage was its own kind of heat. “That son of a bitch let you go all these years thinking—”
“Yes.”
“I’ll kill him.” The words were short, sharp, as if they were bones snapping in his hands.
Embry propped herself up and stroked the hard lines of his face. “It won’t change anything.”
“He deserves to pay for what he did to you,” he growled.
“Maybe so. But I’ve thought about this a lot the last week. Matthias is senior. If he said you were dead, his men had no reason to question it. It’s probably the only way he was able to get away with wiping your memory and dumping you in Vegas. If that’s the price I had to pay for you to live, so be it. I’d pay it again in a heartbeat.”
Some of the tension leeched out of his face. “You deserve some happily ever after to make up for all this shit.”
And you deserve honesty that I just can’t give you, she thought. Lowering her lips to his, she murmured, “We have right now. Tonight. I suggest we make the most of it.”
Chapter 8
Sergeant Mackey was waiting on the other side of the soaring fence when they pulled up. At his order, the gate swung open, and Gage drove through. Mackey leaned over as he rolled down the driver’s side window of the Charger.
“Hope you brought your chops. The men are looking forward to watching our guy wipe the floor with your ass, but I hope you’ll be able to last a few rounds, at least.”
“I’m ready,” said Gage. The message was clear: I want a good fight, so don’t drop our guy in the first round. Gage almost smiled. The guy was giving him permission to draw this thing out. He nodded, feeling understanding pass between them. “I’ll try to hold out,” he said dryly.
With a smirk and a quick double tap on the car door, the sergeant waved them on.
“Cocky bastard,” Gage muttered. As the gates closed behind them, he said a fleeting prayer that they would make it out alive, preferably with his car intact and Adan in tow.
They entered the big, concrete tunnel leading into the mountain. It looked like any other tunnel, lit at regular intervals by fluorescent bulbs. Except that instead of open air, this tunnel let out into a cavernous underground parking lot that was lit brighter than an NFL field. Guards were posted every fifty yards. Embry raised an eyebrow at the sight of them. “You could take any of these meatheads in your sleep. But for the sake of the recon, you think you can drag it out a while?”
“Baby, I can take this fight anywhere it needs to go. I’ll give you as long as I can. But you be careful. If you get caught—”
“If I get caught, I’ll just say I got lost on the way back from the bathroom.”
Her flip response put him on edge. “Embry. . . ”
“I’ll be careful, Gage.”
“I don’t like this,” he ground out as he whipped the car into a space at the far end of a row of Humvees. “I can’t back you up from the ring.”
“You won’t have to back me up. You just have to distract them. I’ll find out the lay of the land. In and out. Just like we talked about.” She looked perfectly reasonable and calm. So why did he feel like cats were clawing their way up his bare back?
He shut off the engine and reached across to cradle her face. “Ember, I love you. Don’t do anything risky.”
She leaned forward and laid her lips over his. The thrill of it, the heat of it
shot through him, juicing him well beyond the adrenaline that preceded a fight. Beneath his fingers, he could feel the flame just under her skin. Vital, addictive. Alive.
He exhaled unsteadily as she pulled back. “When we get out of this, we’ve got some serious catching up to do,” he said.
Someone knocked on the window. Gage shifted back to see a BDU clad soldier with an MP-5 slung over his shoulder. He gestured for them to get out of the car. “Showtime,” Gage muttered. There was no time to issue further cautions or rehash their sketchy plan. Fixing an arrogant smile in place, he opened the door. “Evenin’, Private.”
Face expressionless, the guard escorted them to a bank of elevators, where Mackey was waiting for them with three other soldiers. The sergeant leaned forward for a retinal scan. Once the system had verified his identity, the doors slid open. He motioned for them to enter.
“Fancy toys y’all got here,” observed Gage. “You tryin’ to keep folks in or out?”
Mackey gave him a cool look. “Our security is none of your concern, civilian.”
Inside, Gage noted discrete cameras mounted in all four corners of the brightly lit car. The private punched a button for SL-23 and the elevator began a long, whisper-quiet descent. Though she lounged beside him with a bored expression on her face, Gage could feel the tension in Embry as they went deeper and deeper into the mountain. He noted the surreptitious glances the accompanying soldiers shot at her, and he wondered if there were any women at this base.
“So who am I facing off with?” Gage asked Mackey. “I sure hope you’ll give me a better challenger than Stegman. You did say you wanted an entertaining fight.”
The sergeant’s smile was thin and cold. “Oh we have something a bit more special in mind.”