Code Name: Kayla's Fire (A Warrior's Challenge)
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His heart thundered as she slowly turned to face him. He’d never seen an expression on her face like he did now. A mix of fear and elation, doubt mixed with a slice of wonder. Keeping his anticipation in check, he took shallow breaths. “My first mission. Too full of myself. I lost my focus and learned a hard lesson. That’s when I got this,” he said, pointing to the scar that ran from his cheek to a jagged end near his jaw. His heart thudded in his chest when she took a step toward him. “I was on point and too green to be there, but I’d convinced Red I could.” Kayla kept her gaze glued to his as she eased herself down on the couch.
“Wading through murky water up to our necks, the jungle hot and humid after seven days of nonstop rain, we were making our way to an infiltration point. We’d been deployed for a counter-drug operation in Colombia and ran across the local militia. I didn’t see them waiting dead ahead of us. I almost got our entire team annihilated.”
“During the close quarters fight, a guy with a wicked saw-edged blade sliced me open. Red saved my ass that day.” Kayla stared at him as if stunned, her mouth slightly open, her eyes wider. “Every deployment brought a harsh education. My biggest lesson that day was the training we had was tough, but it wasn’t near as deadly or humbling as a guy trying to cleave out my tonsils from the outside.”
He sat back, trying to appear relaxed, but he was the farthest thing from it. It was her turn. He didn’t care if it took two minutes or two weeks for them to sit and share their lives with each other. It was time for Kayla to release her shadows. It was time for them to be free. Watching her, he saw her hands twist together tightly.
“I…” she began, but stopped, and dropped her gaze toward the planked floor. “What’s this going to prove, Thane?”
“It has nothing to do with proving anything. I want to hold my breath and dive to the deepest part of you, and whatever happens, from this day forward it’s me you’ll trust. I’ve never shared my fears with any woman, but I know they’re safe with you. Together we’ll swim to the surface free of our chains.”
“You can’t possibly want to hear those things.”
“I do—from the beginning, Kayla. From the first time your uncle touched you in a way he shouldn’t have. What you felt. How afraid you were. How you survived.”
“You didn’t want to hear those things before you left on the mission. Why now? You know too much already, knowing more—” Her brow wrinkled tight.
He’d been right. Today had only been a reprieve, a venting. She still doubted him. “Our son needs a mother who is whole.” With a slow stretch, he knelt before her. “He deserves your love. He needs it, just like I need you, but you can’t give that to either of us. You haven’t conquered a damn thing. You were just strong enough to bury it all inside. Kayla your soul is full. It’s why you have the PT episodes.” A single tear raced down her cheek, and then another. “Sweetheart, stop fighting. Surrender, forgive yourself, and set them free. I’ll be right beside you, all the way.” He didn’t move a muscle when her delicate hand reached out, and grasped his.
“You asked me once why I came to the U.S.,” she said quietly.
He nodded for her to carry on.
“I—came to Coronado because Daniel was released from prison. Greg was worried for my welfare. Daniel blames me for sending him over the edge.”
He pulled her hands to his lips and kissed each finger. “You did the right thing.”
Since he’d found out the forces had taken Daniel back only days after his release, he’d been keeping tabs. One day Kayla was going to go on a vacation with the girls or a weekend spa that he’d give her for Christmas, and he would be completing one more mission. Daniel’s sentence wasn’t over yet. He was only getting a reprieve, but one day he’d face the man who’d tried to take Kayla from him before he ever knew she existed. Kayla would have justice.
“He’s a lot like you.”
“What?” His thoughts came tearing back to the present.
“You have the same type of aura. Dangerous. Strong. A masculinity raw with power. Unstoppable. Willful.”
The idea that he was like her ex didn’t appeal to him one bit. Time to set that straight. “With one look from you, I feel ten times the man I am. When you make love to me, I’m stripped bare with your beauty and need. You’re the one who’s dangerous.” She needed to know the power she had over him. She had control of him, not the other way around. He stretched his hand to caress her face. A hunch he’d always had, and one Lapierre confirmed, finally found breath. “Are you afraid of me, Kayla?”
The tiniest pulse in her neck flickered.
“Why?” he breathed.
Kayla bowed her head, intent on looking at their twined fingers. “He was just like you, until we married.”
Here was something he didn’t know. “He didn’t hurt you until after you were his wife?”
She nodded.
“If you look back, you’ll see signs. It was there, and you chose not to see them.” She squeezed his hand. “There were signs, weren’t there?” He caught her chin and raised it. “Kayla?”
“Maybe.”
Another small step, they had plenty yet to take. Kayla’s life was about to be revealed, the abuse as a little girl, and the betrayal of a young woman. There would be no way to vindicate it, only listen and accept. The journey would be hard for him, but he was ready.
He put Kayla to bed, and then walked onto the front porch to stare into the heavens. It was past four in the morning, and the new day breached the sky. The stars disappeared as the approaching dawn covered their existence with light.
Last night had been the same for them, releasing the moments in their lives that had molded them into the people they were. His mind and his heart overflowed with the years of suffering she had gone through. Yet, when she told him, it was a tale told from a third person perspective, keeping herself distanced from her memories. It had been hard not to respond to what she endured as a little girl, and then as a wife.
Kayla had been raped over and over again as a child. Her uncle would trade her body for drugs and alcohol among his friends. Daniel’s slow and painful evolution into a full-fledged abuser had been insidious, but there was also something he didn’t question when she described her marriage. She seemed to have somehow forgiven him, loading everything onto Daniel’s PTSD and his scars from childhood. He couldn’t imagine the depth of courage it took for her to crawl back from all of it. Although he shared his life with her, he was careful and listened more than spoke, once she began to speak freely.
“I’m sorry.” Kayla’s arm wrapped around his waist, surprising him.
Wow! She looked so beautiful, her hair mussed, her eyes warm and sleepy. “What are ya sorry for, sweetheart?” He led her to the old swing on the porch.
“You must feel awful, hearing all that,” she said, sitting down and reaching a hand out to him.
He wrapped her in both arms, and rested his head against hers. “I’ve rescued plenty of prisoner of war hostages. Seen it all and heard it all. It bothers me only because it happened to you.”
“What good is knowing all that horrible stuff?”
He chuckled. “Use it against you, of course.”
“Captain!” She jerked in his arms, but she was securely fastened in them.
He pulled her onto his lap and nuzzled her neck. She smelled so good, a scent that belonged to only her, and sent his lust into a ready coil. “What I want is to make love to you. I know what makes you tick, sweetheart. I was listening real close to that part.”
She laughed and hugged him, and his insides melted with her affection. “I noticed you didn’t really share in that department,” she mused.
“Too enraptured listening to you, but if you want to know, let’s go to bed, our bed.” He swept her up before she could argue with him. “I like to show not tell.”
“I bet you do.”
He lay beside her, his arms above his head, his chest heaving from pleasurable exertion. It had to be the pregnan
cy, but she couldn’t get enough of him, and he was okay with that. Her lips sensually wandered across every inch of his skin. Every kiss turned him on, resurrecting him with hope and love. “I’m inches from dead, sweetheart.” He rolled her into his arms, and they kissed and kept kissing. “Tell me again,” he asked quietly, his eyes closed, strumming their baby with a gentle hand.
“That you’re a willful, stubborn-ass who won’t give up?”
He chuckled. “Umm, was thinking about something else, actually.”
“What time is it?”
“Kaylaaaa.”
She kissed his shoulder. “Fine, I might love you.”
“You call me stubborn.” Thane rolled on his side, and nuzzled her breast, swollen from all the attention he’d given it. Now let’s get some sleep, if you’re done with me, that is?”
“Your son just got up.” That shot his eyes open.
A joker like smile tightened his cheeks. “Our son. I’m going to teach him how to fish.”
“More like you’ll have him in the weapons field firing at paper targets of Al-Qaeda terrorists before he can even carry a weapon. He’s going to want to be just like his father. You know that, don’t you?”
Thane barked out a laugh. “Can’t wait to see the hot girls he brings home.”
“I’ll hate every one of them.”
“No doubt.” His hand curled around her neck, and pulled her forward, kissing her. “But you’ll be too busy keeping our daughter on the straight and narrow.”
“What makes you think we’ll have more?”
“Because I want more and so do you,” he said, stroking her cheek with his finger. “Because I need to show you that being a family means loving each other every day, even when we fight, but we never give up. The slate’s clean, Snow White. I want you to write the rest of your life with me.”
Her fingertip followed the sharp ridge of his upper lip, and the fullness of the bottom one. Waves of curls caressed his skin when she bent her head, and licked his nipple, kissing north, south, east and west of it.
“I want to try,” she whispered. “But I get scared. I feel like I should apologize just in case….”
He sat up, wrapping her in his arms. “In case what?” He read the worry on her brow. “You promised. I promised. No matter how tough things get, we are a unit now.”
A grin pushed her worry aside. “A unit, huh?”
“Yes ma’am. Long standing, secured hard and fast.”
A warm, sweet chuckle eclipsed a delicious sweep of her mouth on his, and his tongue had a mind of its own, playing with her bottom lip. Leaning back, he brought her with him, arching his hips, filling her, needing to be connected this way. “Oh yeah, forever, until death do us part, Kayla, but that won’t be for many, many years.”
“I wish I could see that like you.” She rested her head on his chest, his body a bed of strength meant only for her.
“You will, sweetheart.” He folded his arms around her, and gently squeezed her. “When you’re holding our son in your arms, you will.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Thane parked the car in the garage and scanned the area for threats. “I’ll make lunch,” he said.
“I can make lunch,” she growled, walking ahead of him, still angry with him.
“No, you can sit your beautiful ass down and rest.”
They’d been to see Doc Plymouth, and a fight always seemed to follow. Thane didn’t like the way the doc looked at her, and she didn’t waste any time letting him know he was acting like an obnoxious child. The remainder of the ride had been in silence. “I just sat for an hour, two, more…I need to stretch my legs, and I’m not hungry.”
“Then let’s go for a walk.”
“I can walk by myself.” She pointed a sharp finger at him. “Stay away from me.”
Taking the shortest route, she reached the lake, and lifted her skirt, wading to her knees in the water to cool her skin and hopefully her anger. Thane was acting like a possessive imbecile, but to be honest, she kinda loved his big Alpha insecurities. She loved him.
She heard a sound behind her, thinking Thane was sneaking up, she whirled around, but her blood coagulated. Deep beats of her pulse told her fear had taken command when Daniel stepped out from behind a mound of rocks on the shore. They were in the middle of nowhere, but Daniel was more than able to make miracles happen. His mind was keen with intellect and predatory thinking. Like Thane, he was a warrior that never gave in, and he’d tracked her down. There were no bars between them, and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.
He hadn’t changed at all, if anything, he’d become even more intimidating in his strength and aura. Daniel was the older brother, but he and Greg shared many of the same traits. The glittering green eyes and jet-black hair, a jaw set to sharp angles in desire and anger, but Daniel had three inches and thirty pounds of raw hard muscle on Greg. All of it was tense and getting tenser as he stared at her, the green of his eyes always a beacon of what emotion was to come.
“My wife, pregnant.”
She prayed to God Thane didn’t come. A premonition told her it would be a fight she couldn’t watch. She remained silent, something she hadn’t done since she’d escaped with her life, but little else.
“Where’s the lucky man?” he asked. He took a step toward her, and she immediately took one backwards, the water lapping at her thighs. “Stop, Kayla, you don’t understand.”
She shook her head. Escape by water would be useless, he’d catch her and drown her. She took a step sideways.
“I’m not here to hurt you, Angel.”
Something in his eyes made her stop. The spears of anger weren’t present.
“I’m sure Greg told you something else.” He cleared his throat. “He’s never forgiven me. I guess I…have never forgiven myself, either. That’s why I’m here.”
She took a careful step to her right. “You want to finish….”
“No, Kayla,” he said. “No, I want….”
Daniel sensed the attack a second before Thane reached him and blocked. Daniel was deadly when it came to hand-to-hand combat, but so was her SEAL. Testosterone and the fight mechanism in both warriors went to red alert. Blow for deadly blow was exchanged, each of them trying to get the upper hand, bring the other down.
“Stop!” Her heart thumped with fear. The rocks, slippery under her feet, didn’t help when she tried to scramble for the shore. She stumbled, lost her balance and fell backwards into the water.
The lakebed dropped away from her feet and she panicked, trying to get a foothold. An arm circled her and pulled her to the surface. She came up sputtering, taking in a huge gulp of water.
“Stay away,” Daniel ordered, wading quickly toward the beach and laying her down on the sand. He hovered over her. She coughed, spitting up the water in her lungs. At the same time, Thane landed a blow against the side of Daniel’s head, knocking him out. Dropping to his knees, he swept the blood from his mouth and then cradled her.
“Kayla,” he pasted her to his chest.
She stretched out to touch Daniel’s arm. “Is he dead?”
“No, just out cold. Come on, let’s get to the house. Can you walk?”
She nodded and found her feet as Thane picked up Daniel’s deadweight.
“The son of a bitch is huge,” he grumbled.
Daniel woke with a start, but realized Thane hadn’t wasted time, trussing his hands and his legs. “Kayla, are you all right?” Daniel croaked out the question.
“I’ll get you some water,” she pushed herself up and returned quickly with a glass.
“I’ll do that,” Thane commanded, walking into the great room, taking the glass from her.
She sat down on the opposite couch and wrapped the blanket around her wet clothes.
Daniel turned his acid sharp, green eyes to Thane’s blue, but accepted the water. “Think you cracked one of my ribs,” he said shifting with a wince.
“You’re lucky I didn’t kill ya.”
Daniel turned his attention on her. “I need to talk to you.” His brows came together. “Alone.”
Thane spit a laugh seething with disdain. “I don’t think so. You’ve got about thirty seconds to say what you need to say, and then I’m calling in the military police. You’re on American soil, with an attempted manslaughter charge, and you’re not on military business. You’re heading back to a cell, friend.”
Daniel’s anger sparked, but he dialed it down somehow. She’d never seen him do that before. She could tell he was calculating everything around him, looking for weaknesses in Thane, and his strengths, but her Captain was doing the same.
“You must be Austen, my brother told me about you.”
Thane remained standing with arms crossed, a looming figure. “Time’s a-wastin’, Lapierre.”
“You’re the father of my wife’s child?”
Thane leaned over. “Not your wife. You gave up that right when you tried to kill her, you piece of shit.”
Daniel flinched and straightened. “I took a chance trying to find you,” he said, putting his attention on her. She’d seen that apologetic salve in his eyes many times. He’d used it on her after his anger dissolved, and he’d finished fracturing a bone or left puffing flesh from his fists. “But I had to say this face to face,” his expression imploring her to listen. “You ran away before I had a chance to see you again, to explain.”
Thane’s movement was slight, but he’d said the same thing to her about Zara, and he didn’t like Daniel saying it.
“You’re not going to sit there and give a twelve step, please forgive me speech. Don’t insult her intelligence. You deserve to die slowly for what you did,” Thane said, his body tensing.
“I know,” Daniel answered, ignoring him and keeping his eyes on her. “It took ten years of therapy to control what I thought I never could. Greg probably told you I was still angry, but it’s not the truth.”
“He did,” she said, wary but listening.