Kayla paid their bill, and Nina tipped her chair over getting up. She was a natural at this, drawing attention to them in an innocuous fashion.
None of the squad recognized an unfriendly in the crowd. He knew his team would, even if the guy was a janitor they’d only seen once. The SEALs were trained extensively to do just that. If he’d modified his looks, they should be able to see through it.
The women left the restaurant, and headed for their car. “Kayla, I want you to take West Cedar drive, and stop at the convenience store.” She swiped a handful of curls behind her ear, the signal they’d agreed upon to confirm she’d heard him.
A parking lot sat kitty-corner to the small 24-hour convenience store, situated in an area that drained of people during the night. Thane glanced at his watch, ten past eleven. Nina would run in and get something before her flight, and it would give the Shark his chance, and theirs.
The team used two vehicles, both sliding into an alley behind a row of businesses. Keeping to the shadows, they made their way on foot along the buildings to view the parking lot. Seconds later Kayla drove up. The lot was void of other vehicles.
Nina got out of the car, leaned over to ask if Kayla needed anything, then strode toward the store. They all heard a bell tinkle as she pushed it open. There was a pause in her step. “Hello. Hello,” she called out. “Anyone here?”
“Nina, stay where you are,” Mace jumped in.
“Captain?” Cobbs asked in a wary tone.
Something was wrong. How the hell could that be?
“Hello,” Nina called again. “Oh hey, I didn’t want to startle you. Where do you keep your headache meds, I’ve got a blinder coming…what the hell?”
Mace didn’t wait and dashed across the parking lot at full throttle.
“He’s going out the back,” Nina called out.
“Got him,” Nathan called back. He’d placed himself behind the building along with Caleb.
Mace crashed through the front door, sending the bell into a tinkling frenzy. “Nina?”
“I’m here.”
The team converged on the store, but Thane rounded the building. Caleb had a guy face down on the pavement, his knee digging into the guys back, straining his arms upward to the breaking point. The guy’s cries of pain ripped through the air. “My turn. Caleb, Nathan inside.”
Caleb turned a wary eye on him. “Captain…”
“Now.” This was over, and the Shark’s life was over as well.
As soon as Caleb let go the guy tried to stagger to his feet. Kicking his legs out, the guy went down hard on his back. He was no more than twenty, his hair a straggly, greasy, long mess, his eyes wild.
“Fuck man,” he raised his hands to shield himself. “Don’t fucking kill me,” he slurred.
Something was wrong with this picture. This guy was high, there’s no way he was the Shark. “I’m not going to kill you.”
“I just had to tie her up.”
“Tie who up?”
“Captain,” Mace voiced on the comm. set. “I think he’s talking about the girl in here. She’s trussed up.”
“Alive?”
“Yeah.”
Digging his fingers into a particularly sensitive spot close to the neck, he asked, “Who paid you to do this?”
The young man winced in pain. “Just some guy,” he cried, trying to wiggle away.
“On your feet.” He dragged the kid up with one hand by the back of his neck. “What did he look like?”
“I don’t know, man.”
Caleb and Nathan returned to his side. Thane shook the kid hard. “Sober up or I’ll end your sorry-ass life now. Tall? Short? What?” The guy was halfway to the moon on drugs, his pupils enormous. He didn’t know whether the guy was permanently fried or not, but they were going to find out. “Call Manchester and the local PD. When this asshole sobers up we’re gonna get a description.”
They regrouped in the store, leaving Nathan outside with the kid. Nina knelt in front of a girl sitting on a small metal stool. She wasn’t more than sixteen, and crying her eyes out.
“How is this fucking possible?” Tony voiced what they were all thinking.
Cobbs’ fist slammed the counter. “Only one way.”
“Where the hell is Kayla?” he said looking everywhere.
Fox practically tripped over Tinman running for the door, and tearing it off its hinges, the rest of the squad behind him. They all stopped. Kayla stood across the street, her silhouette under a street lamp. She looked so small and unprotected. He beat the other guys to her side.
“Kayla.”
She stared at the car in the middle of the empty lot. “What is it?” She wasn’t moving, her breathing coming in short shallow gasps. He leaned over, and she looked right through him.
“Five—eleven, heavy build,” she started to tremble. “Maybe two-hundred-twenty pounds.”
“Easy, sweetheart,” he ran his hands down her arms, and could feel the goose bumps all over her.
“He—ho—he, dark hair. Might be in his late forties.”
“Kayla, did you see his face.”
She shook her head. “He was carrying something.”
“A weapon?”
She shook her head again. “Container of some kind.”
They were alone, the squad already broken up and running in a search pattern to squeeze the Shark, but he doubted he was in the area any more. “Sweetheart.” Her hand slipped to her stomach as if protecting what had barely started to grow, and she began to shake.
“He knows. How is that possible?”
“What does he know?” Her hand slid to her stomach as if protecting it.
“He knows about the baby.”
“Why would you say that?”
“He, he pointed at his stomach and made a cutting gesture. Oh God, he can’t have her.”
He drew Kayla into his arms, scanning the buildings and the streets. “Let’s get inside.” Within minutes, the squad had rallied together in the store.
There was only one way the Shark could know about the baby, about their plan. “Listen to me, you piece of shit.” He wasn’t talking to any of the men around him, but the women didn’t know that, and their heads cranked around quickly. “I’m going to find you, and when I do, I’m going to gut you like you’ve done to every single woman you’ve tortured. I hope you like pain, because your death is going to take hours.” Kayla stepped up to him, and he curled his arm around her shoulders. “You will never have her. Your mind is cracking now, and soon you’ll make a mistake. I’ll be waiting.”
“Captain?” Kayla laid her hand on his chest, and he clutched it, his heart slowing down just by touching her, having her safe in his arms.
“We’re going back to the base to find it,” he said, scanning all the men.
They nodded in unison. Heads turned when the flash of police lights shot through the front of the store. Two uniforms walked in and they gave a quick debrief.
A burly sized cop, his aging jowls drooping like the glaze melting off a doughnut, pointed a finger over his shoulder. “Whose car is that out front?”
“Mine, it’s a rental,” Kayla said.
“You always drive around with that on your windshield?” he asked in a cocky manner.
“What?”
They surrounded the car, staring in silence. The word “Mine” in runny, streams of blood oozed down the glass.
“That’s not paint, right?” Nina said in a tight voice, breaking the silence of the night. Mace didn’t hesitate, and twined his arm around her waist. “I’m okay.” She didn’t really look it, but she kept it together.
Thane bristled with the Shark’s definitive declaration of war. “Let’s get to the base.”
A forensic room was being set-up when they arrived. Sanitized and ready for them within an hour, compliments of Manchester. “Ladies, you first,” Manchester ordered. She and Nina shared a quick glance. “Everything goes in the squares taped off on the floor. Our female tech will giv
e you a body search, and scan after that.”
“You really think he has us bugged?” Kayla asked, and looked at the squad milling at the back of the room near the door.”
“From what Captain Austen told me, I have to agree. One of you is. Finding it could give us a lead.”
“Aren’t you glad you decided to apply for the job?” Kayla said, with sour amusement.
“Yeah, awesome,” Nina said, she wasn’t looking at Kayla, but across the room where Mace stood with his arms crossed against his chest. He gave her a wisp of a smile for reassurance.
It took a long time for the process to be repeated with everyone. Thane, Mace, and Cobbs’ belts each had a tiny electronic device hidden in it, along with Kayla’s purse. Manchester didn’t believe they’d found them all, he was sure the entire squad had one somewhere.
“He’s one smart bastard hiding them in things that wouldn’t be washed, and are usually worn or kept close. Everything you own will have to be processed,” Manchester explained.
They all stood in a large circle outside of the processing room. They’d been given white coveralls to wear, and Kayla’s made her look like a kid in her mommy’s clothes, it draped past her fingers and legs, pooling around her bare toes.
“How long, do you think?” Kayla asked openly for anyone who cared to answer?
“Probably months,” Cobbs said in a dangerous tone, but a sine wave of worry lapped his words. “I sure as shit haven’t left my belt hanging around at work. That means the son of a bitch has been in my house. After this weekend, I’m sending Marg and the girls to stay with her parents.”
Thane nodded. “He could lash out in any direction.” He rubbed his neck. “Not a word of our movements.” All heads nodded as he scanned the time. “It’s after oh-three-hundred. Rendezvous here tomorrow at oh-nine-hundred hours.”
Kayla was staggering tired, and Nina looked worn out as well.
Thane squeezed her to his side. “I booked us into the Hilton.”
“I’m not leaving Nina,” she stated firmly.
Mace stood beside Nina, and he did not appear to be going far. “Two rooms, sweetheart.” She sent a questioning look toward Nina, who gave a quick nod.
Chapter Fourteen
“I feel like a homeless waif,” Kayla said, flopping back on the bed. The Captain sat down beside her, and Nina hovered near the hotel room door. Mace was already in the other room, checking it.
“I’ll, ah, go for a walk,” Nina said, pulling the door open.
“What? No, you’re not. Where do you think you’re going?” she said, sitting up abruptly.
“Kayla, take a breath. I’ll go visit Mace.”
She flopped back onto the crisp white bedspread, figuring it was as good as any answer. “I thought night shifts seemed long. This day is never-ending,” she said, gazing up at Thane’s concerned eyes.
“Try being a SEAL, sweetheart.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know you’re a superhero. Tall buildings, single bound…all that stuff.”
He chuckled. “I know damn well you’ve never thought about me that way. Pain in the ass, egotistical, arrogant, bossy. Have I missed any?” he asked, swiping a curl of hair from her eyes.
The back of her hand draped across her forehead. “Probably.”
Lying down on his side, he ran his finger across her collarbone. “Maybe we should leave the sleeping arrangements like this.”
She pinched his cheek. “I’m not so sure Nina would approve.”
“She’s got her own bodyguard,” he said in a husky timbre. “What’s safer than having a SEAL holding you all night?”
“Yes, I’m sure Mace’d love to guard her body.”
Thane laughed again. “I think you’re right, and I think its past tense.”
“Somebody better warn Mace—she’s an expert in Tae Kwon Do.”
“I’m sure he’s up to the challenge.” Lowering his head, he brushed a sizzling kiss against her lips. Most of his kisses left her breathless, and this one was no different. His steely eyes drew her into the sea of emotion in his. “It must have been Canadian women who fought the war of 1812, we’re dropping like flies.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. It had seemed forever ago when she’d teased him about that.
“Besides thinking I’m an egomaniac, you think I’m brave, kind, and intelligent. That doesn’t sound like such a bad guy. Kind of balances out the asshole, doesn’t it?” He fingered the zipper tab between her breasts.
Great, she didn’t have any underwear on, and the heat between her thighs had already turned to wetness. “Captain, you’re not an asshole.”
“Why didn’t you accept Lapierre’s proposal?”
The question blindsided her. The man’s mind was a network of thoughts, most of them on high alert all the time. “I have my reasons.” She could tell he wanted more, but she wasn’t offering. Reaching behind her, she grabbed the pillow, and he slipped it under her head. “I’m tired, Thane.”
An unsettled gaze met hers. “Marriage is a big commitment. It’s forever. Being devoted when you’re apart. If he asked you to marry him, he must have thought he had a shot.”
“Divorce court says marriage is most definitely not forever, and I’ve been through ‘never veering from each other’ through the toughest times, and I didn’t like it. So I quit.”
“You should have quit a hell of a lot earlier, and come here. Reminded me that maybe there’s something as important as protecting my country.” His lips strayed down her throat, nipping the uneven pulse in her neck. “Or more,” he whispered in her ear.
Another tremble of heat passed through her. Thane’s words made her edgy. “Aren’t you forgetting somebody?”
“Doors locked, and I’m sure she’ll knock,” he said, fanning embers of excitement in her belly as he sensually laid small licks and kisses across her skin.
She placed her hands on his shoulders before he stole another kiss. “I’m referring to Miss Sweater-too-tight.”
His head jerked back, which gave her the opportunity to slide away from him. He sat up, and she moved to the edge of the other bed. “Kayla, you know damn well I don’t give a shit about her.”
“I want to talk,” she said, staring at him.
“Fine, but we’re not discussing the mission.”
How the hell did he do that? She was supposed to be a master at tactical evasion, but he had her pegged almost every time.
He ran a hand through his hair and eyed her. “We’re not fighting about it. We’re not debating or deliberating about it either.”
She nipped her lip, seeing he meant it. She’d made reference to Carrie to throw him off, but that wicked, sharp mind read her every move. Folding her hands, she rested them in her lap. Full, forward attack. “You are a SEAL.”
“Kayla—”
“Please.” She raised one hand. “You have a profession and a country that depends on your participation in protecting it. Your team is a cohesive unit, and although you can break apart and operate alone, when you operate together, you’re stronger. They are used to you being there.”
His expression grew grim, but he listened. “You’re not going to abandon them because of me. I couldn’t stand it if you didn’t go, and one of them was injured or killed. I could never look their wives in the eyes, because I’d feel responsible. Don’t put me in that position. Everyone thinks that we’re in some kind of relationship. They’d blame me. I’d blame me.” Thane’s knuckles whitened, gripping the edge of the bed. She jumped when he launched himself onto his knee in front her.
“Seriously. Prioritize, Thane, what’s more plausible for failure, your squad walking into a dangerous situation without their captain, who gives them their extra edge of strength and direction, or the chance of me being killed while I’m surrounded by SEALs?”
“Kayla.” He shook his head. “The Shark is in a frenzied state. One mistake and…I can’t trust this to anyone but me.” He gathered her hands in his. “We, we’re…” He paused a
nd chewed on his lip as he ran his hands down her legs, following every curve with purpose. “Why do you keep doing this?”
They worked in a highly classified department and there were rules. The Alpha Squad family kept their mouths closed, and no one higher up the food chain was aware of the time she and Thane spent together, but her condition was going to bring questions. “There’s no such thing as happily ever after, Captain.”
“Bullshit,” he said angrily.
Coming from Thane, it surprised her.
“I am happy. I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life.” He leaned forward, and kissed her sweetly, his full, firm lips proving it to her with every lingering touch. “My only fear is that you’re not.”
Her heart thumped hard. She knew what he wanted to hear.
His mouth found hers again for a long, soul-sweetening kiss. Touching her forehead with his, he closed his eyes. “I will love you today, tomorrow and every day for the rest of my life. That Kayla—is the truth. For the first time in my life I want peace, but I will kill anything that tries to harm you or our daughter.”
His arms swept around her, and her body hummed with contentment. The last few days had been an emotional roller coaster, but other sensations began to burn inside her, and he wasn’t peeling the clothes from her like he normally did. Restless desire made her squirm, and she reached for the zipper on his coveralls with an impatient hand.
“Sweetheart,” he gently pulled her hand away.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to hurt—”
She leaned back on her palms. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Come on,” he grasped her under her bottom, and lifted her up the bed, pushing her shoulders against the pillow.
“Seriously?”
Ridding himself of his coveralls, his hardness wasn’t hard to miss. “Go to sleep,” he ordered gently. “Stay over there.” He slipped between the sheets, and rested a hand across his forehead.
Screw that. She rolled onto her knees and slowly, unzipped her coveralls down to her mons. Thane’s eyes followed the sweep of her hand. “Kayla, keep that on.”
“No,” she said sharply, and was surprised it came from her mouth with such a childish temperamental tone.
Code Name: Kayla's Fire (A Warrior's Challenge) Page 15