Wicked Games: The Extended Edition (Steele Security #1)

by A. D. Justice

  “So, what else do you like to do besides shoot guns?” Brianna abruptly changed the subject.

  “When I’m home, I like to go out with my friends, hang out at this club not far from my stomping grounds, and maybe dance a song or two with a hot girl.”

  “Do you have a girlfriend or wife waiting at home for you?” Brianna held her breath and inwardly cringed as she waited for his answer.

  “No, nothing like that,” he replied easily. “Even though the Army prefers that operators are married, I’ve somehow managed to avoid that so far.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-nine. You?”

  “Twenty-two,” she replied.

  “And do you have a boyfriend back home, Brianna?” Reaper stepped into her personal space as he pierced her with his gaze.

  “No, no boyfriend. Not anymore anyway.”

  “Good,” he nodded. He stood rooted to the ground, soaking in her sweet scent as it enveloped him. The urge to touch her suddenly overwhelmed his senses. He took a step back as he quickly checked his watch. “I should get you back to the base now.”

  He checked their surroundings carefully before he walked her back to the vehicle, secured her blindfold, and began the drive back to the base in silence. The personal conversation felt foreign to Reaper. He’d been one of the youngest operators to ever make it into the team and it had become his life, the only way of life he knew how to live. One thing he thought he knew for sure was that he wasn’t cut out for a serious relationship.

  Spending an afternoon with Brianna, simply shooting at targets and talking about any and everything, was starting to make him rethink his position on the subject. He had never been able to picture having a wife and family before now. She was exactly the type of person that could make him want that very thing. The very type of woman that could make him look forward to leaving this line of work behind just to be home with her every night.

  In his mind, that very line of thinking was what would get an operator killed quicker than anything. It was true that the Army preferred married operators since they were less likely to be entrapped by a female enemy. But in Reaper’s view, having his mind on his family back home and not solely on the mission at hand was even more dangerous.

  When they reached the camp, Reaper removed the blindfold and called Rebel over to them.

  “Your turn, man,” Reaper said. “Hope you had fun today, Brianna.”

  She felt the sting of his sudden departure to her core. Her mouth dropped open momentarily before she caught herself. She swallowed hard and stammered out her reply. “Yeah, I did. Thanks for taking me to the shooting range, Reaper. I really appreciate it.”

  He heard the confused tone in her voice and gritted his teeth together and simply nodded at her. “Any time.”

  With that, he left her alone with Rebel. And he left her very confused.

  She turned to face Rebel and decided to jump right in to why she was there in the first place. “So, Rebel, where’d your nickname come from?”

  He gave a good-natured chuckle at her question, Rebel thought about his answer for a few seconds.

  “It’s what I am–a rebel. I go against the grain of what most others do and say. They say I always play devil’s advocate, and argue the opposite view, even if I inwardly agree with them.

  “The truth is, I just like to look at all the angles and make sure everyone else does, too. I’m what you’d call the most levelheaded of the group. I can easily see the pros and cons of any situation and helped bring balance to the team.”

  Brianna thought about his self-description and agreed with his assessment. Rebel was tall, had a light beard and a completely shaved head. He was obviously in great physical shape with his thick, muscular arms and chest. Tapering down to his waist, his six-pack abs showed through the tight cotton T-shirt he wore. His legs were also muscular, indicating he was thorough with his workouts. Evidence of tattoos occasionally tried to peek out from under the hem of his sleeves.

  “How old are you?” she asked, truly interested.

  “I’m thirty,” he answered easily.

  “Is that close to an average age for operators?”

  “It’s actually a little younger than the average age. It takes several years of service and training to become a full-fledged operator. Our boy Reaper is as smart as he is tough, so he was one of the youngest to ever make it. I think he had a lot to prove to himself and others, though. That helped drive him to where he is today,” Rebel explained.

  Brianna didn’t ask, but she had a strong feeling that it was Reaper’s family that he felt the need to prove himself to.

  “Do you have a girlfriend or wife back home?” Brianna asked.

  “No one to speak of,” Rebel replied. “I have family-my parents and my brother.”

  “I have my parents and my three sisters,” Brianna shared.

  “Reaper mentioned he took you to the shooting range?” Rebel asked.

  “Yeah, he did. Taught me how to shoot his handgun–chamber the bullet, hit the target, and quickly recycle. I did pretty good.”

  “I’m sure you did. While you’re here, I can show you some hand-to-hand techniques that can save you. We try to avoid the close-quarter skirmishes, but when we have to take someone down that way, we’re the best at it.”

  “I’d like that. You never know when I’ll be walking through a dark parking garage and some freak comes up behind me,” Brianna replied.

  “Exactly. And I can show you how to make him wish he’d never laid eyes on you.”

  “Sounds great. Right after we finish our interview questions,” Brianna negotiated.

  With a groan of disapproval, Rebel finally relented. “You should know by now that operators don’t talk about themselves much. This is painful.”

  “If you can handle all the training you’ve been through, you can answer a few personal questions for me,” Brianna countered.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Rebel agreed, leading her to a more private area to share his personal information. “What do you want to know?”

  “Where do you call home?”

  Rebel grinned mischievously, “Wherever I hang my hat.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t. I want real answers,” Brianna challenged, pointing her finger at him in a mock show of authority.

  Rebel threw his head back and laughed out loud at her bravado. “Okay, okay. I’m originally from Houston, Texas.”

  “How long have you been in the military?”

  “Since just after I turned eighteen, so twelve years.”

  “Do you still go home to Texas when you’re on leave?” Brianna asked, genuinely interested in how he transitioned from soldier to citizen.

  “Sometimes.” His eyes dropped to the ground. “I actually moved a couple of years ago and have an apartment close to Reaper.”

  Brianna realized there was something personal there that he didn’t want to talk about, so she decided to change her line of questioning.

  “Would it be easier for you to talk about the other men in your group rather than yourself? I can ask you questions about them and you can dish all the dirt to me.” Brianna’s smile was playful but she had a method to her madness. If they agreed to this, she knew she’d find out much more than if each man to gave the information about himself.

  “Actually, I think that’s a great idea.” Rebel stroked his beard with his thumb and forefinger. His eyes were cast to a far away spot as he considered the option. “Let me talk to the other guys, make sure we’re all okay with it first.”

  Brianna’s stomach picked that moment to growl loudly. Rebel’s hand slowly dropped from his face as his eyes floated to meet hers. The question in them was unmistakable, causing Brianna to blush for the hundredth time in the same day.

  “Good timing,” she muttered as her eyes roamed around, looking for anywhere else to land but on Rebel’s amused gaze. “Guess that’s my cue to go get something to eat. Let me know if they agree. If they do, you can give me th
e inside scoop on all of them.”

  “Okay.” He nodded, his tone still held amusement as he rose. “Come on. I’ll walk with you to the mess hall.”

  Chapter Three

  Before Brianna had finished her meal, the four men suddenly disappeared. Without being told, she knew they’d been called out on a secret mission and it would probably be quite a while before she saw them again. She sighed heavily with disappointment as she solemnly put her tray away and retreated to her tent. Sitting on her cot, she separated her notes into different piles to begin working on her article.

  She had made several personal notes about the men she hadn’t had a chance to thoroughly interview yet. Though she’d spent time around all of them as a group, she tried to focus on one at a time when she was in interview mode.

  Bull was as big as a bull, though not as cut as some of the others. He wasn’t as cut as Reaper, but he was taller and thicker. With those that he knew well, he was easy-going and liked to joke around. He was more reserved around outsiders, and it took longer for her to break through his wall than with the others. Once she finally did get through that tough exterior, she felt she’d have a friend for life. However, her instincts told her to never take that friendship for granted. Once his trust was betrayed, there would be no gaining it back.

  Shadow often snuck up behind her, without making a sound, and scared the shit out of her. She wondered how men that big could move as stealthily as a common house cat. He couldn’t even scratch his own back because his muscles were too big for him to reach around, but he could move silently behind his unsuspecting victims. His booming laugh when she jumped out of her skin, repeatedly, was infectious, and she could never stay mad at him.

  And then there was Judge. He had been Reaper’s best friend in high school, and even though he wasn’t part of Reaper’s direct team, the remnants of their old friendship were still evident. Judge was also built like the others, but he had blond hair, blue-green eyes, and had a much more cynical personality. Where Bull was hard to get to know, Judge was hard to like. His personality didn’t seem to mesh with the group overall, which forced Reaper to frequently run interference.

  Brianna made a quick note to ask if that was the reason why Judge wasn’t on Reaper’s team.

  After several hours passed, she heard a small commotion outside and moved to the door to investigate. In small groups, people scurried to the Delta tent. One of the soldiers she’d met earlier passed by, smiled, and motioned for her to join them. She quickly slipped her shoes on, fell in with the others, and stepped into the large tent.

  The chairs and cots had been moved to the sides, and a makeshift dance floor was prominently displayed in the middle of the tent. One man used his MP3 player to act as a DJ, changing songs to match the mood of the partygoers. They used their footlockers as coolers, with beer bottles chilling on ice, and others began arranging tables with snacks in various locations throughout the tent.

  More and more people from the base joined in the revelry and enjoyed a “night on the town,” in the middle of nowhere. The impromptu party brought everyone on the base together as friends, brothers, and sisters, giving them a feeling of being at home. Two by two, couples moved to the dance floor and moved in tandem to the music.

  The music was rocking and everyone was having a great time. Brianna’s eyes roamed around the tent, taking in the scene, but she still felt out of place. Her breath seized in her chest when she saw Reaper leaned against a post inside the tent, holding his chilled beer bottle. He laughed at someone’s poor attempt at a popular dance move, but his gorgeous smile, tall muscular physique, black hair, and chocolate brown eyes were all she could see.

  Their playful flirting over the past couple of weeks had tortured her in her dreams. Repeatedly seeing Reaper every night made the days with him harder to bear without giving away her thoughts. Feeling his presence inside the tent overpowered her senses.

  After the first song ended, the slow, sensual melody of Def Leppard’s Love Bites immediately streamed through the speakers. Brianna was talking with one of the female soldiers, trying to keep her attention on the conversation, but her eyes involuntarily grazed over the crowd.

  She silently gasped when she realized Reaper had been watching her. His lips curled into a sensuous smile while mischief danced in his beautiful brown eyes. She felt a flitter in her chest that settled low in her abdomen, but couldn’t tear her eyes away from his. She felt a smile creep across her face, despite any attempt to keep it inside. From the fire in his eyes, he knew what he did to her insides. He turned them to molten liquid.

  By the time she fully comprehended his sights were set on her, he had already pushed against the pole and walked halfway across the floor, directly toward her. She stood still, as if rooted to the floor, unable to move as he cut through the densely packed dance floor with ease.

  Just like a panther on the prowl, she thought.

  “Want to dance?” His sensual voice soothed her nerves while his eyes saw straight through the cool façade she tried to portray.

  “Sure.” She hoped she at least sounded cool and collected, because inside she was anything but calm. Her heart pounded in her chest, her eyes widened when he touched her hand, and her lips parted with her sharp intake of breath.

  He took her hand and led her to the dance floor, then wrapped his strong arms around her waist. She hooked her hands behind his neck as he pulled her closer in to his massive body. She liked the way she fit against him, pliable under his touch, and seemed to just meld with his body. She tried to think of something else–anything else before she made a complete fool of herself.

  She glanced up and realized he had been intently watching her. She felt like he could read her every thought, like a book that was laid open on full display. The heat that rose in her face was as hot as the sun and she had the sudden urge to look away from his probing eyes.

  She felt a low chuckle rumble through his chest more than she heard it. She looked back up and asked, innocently enough, “What?”

  “I love to see you blush. It’s so damn sexy.”

  Well, hell, so much for playing it off, she thought.

  She desperately wanted to say something witty back, but couldn’t think of a single comeback.

  “Hmmm…I must make you nervous. Nothing to say to that?”

  “I’m not nervous. Just not giving in to your mind games!” She reasoned that comeback was only slightly better than just blurting out, “I want you. Now!”

  “We’ll see about that.” His sexy smirk told her he knew exactly how much he affected her.

  Shadow appeared out of nowhere, per his usual MO, and tried to cut in on their dance. Reaper narrowed his eyes and his jaw muscles flexed before he quickly masked it. Shadow nonchalantly moved around them to dance with another girl. Brianna realized she just got her first glance at how this team was so effective. She knew they used hand signals to keep from speaking and giving away their location while out on a mission, but they also had their facial signals down to a science.

  “What was that look?” she asked Reaper.

  “What look?” He didn’t even have the decency to look like he’d been busted in the act.

  “Yeah. Exactly.”

  Reaper chuckled easily, and that was the end of that line of questioning.

  After several more dances, beer, and ribbing between the soldiers, Brianna thanked everyone for including her and said she was heading back to her tent. Reaper threw his empty beer bottle in the garbage. “I’ll walk you back to your tent,” he offered.

  She knew that, technically, she wasn’t allowed to move around the base after dark without a military escort. But, the fact that it was Reaper walking her made her as giddy as a middle school girl with her first boyfriend. She’d felt the spark between them from the moment they first met. She knew all too well that she was only on assignment for a short time. That fact was the sole reason she didn’t allow herself to think of him too much.

  As they walked along t
he sand road to her tent, she found it so easy to talk to him about anything and everything. The abrupt ending of their time together earlier that day had been forgotten. His warm, charming side was back in full force and she was no match for it. He was the one asking all the questions now.

  “Do you miss your family yet?”

  “Not to sound cold, but not really. I love them, and I’ll be glad to see them again, but I’m really enjoying getting to know you and the guys,” she explained.

  “So, tell me about this ex-boyfriend of yours.”

  “What ex-boyfriend?” Her eyes whipped to meet his, her feet halted in her steps, and her mind raced with possibilities. Had he looked into her background that thoroughly? Did he have someone check on her ex-boyfriend?

  “You said ‘no, not anymore.’ So, you had one. What happened to him?”

  “Oh. Well, it didn’t end well so I don’t think about him anymore,” Brianna stated matter-of-factly.

  “Caught him with someone else, did you?”

  She tilted her head to the side, narrowed her eyes, and crossed her arms across her chest as she stared Reaper down for a moment. “How did you know that?”

  “Whoa, now.” He chuckled, putting his arms up in mock surrender. “Of course you were thoroughly checked out before you were allowed on base, but remember I’m a highly trained operative. Besides, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know from your tone that he did something pretty bad. You’re not one to give up on someone so easily.”

  She relaxed her arms and nodded slowly. “Yes, he cheated on me. I walked in on him and his co-worker in bed together. As it turns out, I may not be as sweet and harmless as you think I am.”

  “Oh, why’s that?” Reaper’s eyes danced with amusement.

  “I’m pleading the Fifth to protect myself. So I can’t confirm or deny that I snatched her up by the hair of her head and dragged her out of his apartment. Naked. And threw her into the hallway.”

  Reaper’s laugh echoed through the quiet camp. “And what’d you do to him?”

  “Again, I can’t confirm or deny my actions. He ran out of the apartment right after I, uh, she left. I may or may not have secretly replaced his shampoo with Nair Hair Remover. His clothes may or may not have ended up in the garbage can…on fire. And, apparently, he subscribed to every gay, transgender, and transvestite dating service known to the Internet.”