Deep Cover--A Love Over Duty Novel

by Scarlett Cole

  He placed his palms on her cheeks and cupped her face gently before pressing his lips to hers. Immediately forgetting where they were and who they were with, she slid her hands around his waist. As the cool water on his chest soaked through her bikini top, she ignored the cheers and hoots and hollers. Her heart raced as she processed the fact that he’d been thinking of her even when she hadn’t been thinking about herself. And she loved him for it. A part of her wanted to tell him as much, but here wasn’t the place.

  “Do you still need to leave?” he said, grinning as he slid a hand up her back, sliding it deliciously under the strap of her bikini.

  Amy looked down at his arm, suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of shyness she didn’t normally experience. “No. Do I get play in the pool with you?”

  “Ames,” he said, bending suddenly to throw her over the shoulder. “You can play with me wherever you want.”

  Even though she was still wearing her shorts, Cabe jumped into the pool. When they surfaced, he reached for her and pulled her to him.

  And kissed her again in front of every single person who mattered.

  * * *

  Bodies were everywhere, and he was violently sick at the sight.

  They were lined up like railroad ties on an old track with just enough room between them for him to place his feet as he walked over them.

  It was an old dream, one he hadn’t had in a while, but Cabe couldn’t force himself to wake up. It felt too real. Too much. And he needed to know how it ended.

  Sokolov was at the end of the hallway, sitting on a throne, and the bodies were screaming and writhing in agony, their limbs bloodied, their clothes torn.

  But it was their faces, wide eyed and in pain, that terrified him the most.

  Because he knew every single person. The first few—members of his old SEAL team, Mac, Six, warriors who went into battle knowing the possible outcomes but did so anyway—he forced himself to step over. In the throes of death, they encouraged him to carry on, to finish the mission. Some were draped with American flags, like they had been when they’d taken that final flight home. He could force himself to leave them behind for now, though it killed him inside. Brock, his childhood friend who’d died while they were cliff-jumping reached out his arms toward Cabe and began to vomit seaweed and water. Another person he hadn’t been able to save. The next was his mom, and then Delaney, whose hair had all been shaved off. And then there was Lou, who was screaming out Six’s name in a voice so hoarse it brought tears to his eyes. He crouched by her and she gripped his arm, digging her nails into his skin. “Where is Six?” she gasped. “Why didn’t he come for me?”

  There were two more bodies. One to the left of the throne, and one to the right.

  As he got closer, he realized that one was Jess and the other Amy.

  He had to choose.

  Jess reached out to him. Amy remained still. His feet wouldn’t move. His brain couldn’t calculate the risk, figure out the odds. But his heart suddenly pounded in his chest, a sound so loud that Sokolov began to laugh.

  Cabe stepped in Amy’s direction just as Sokolov pulled out Cabe’s favorite SIG and pointed it directly at Jess’s chest before pulling the trigger. Cabe ran toward Amy until his lungs burned and his chest ached, but she kept moving farther and farther away.

  “You killed her,” Sokolov shouted. “Remember that, Cabe.”

  Remember that.

  He sat upright in bed, taking the covers with him, gasping for breath, and searching for her with his hand. Latching gently onto Amy’s calf, he steadied himself. The clock said 3:01 and they were in Amy’s old apartment. Jesus Christ. The dream.

  You killed her.

  Sweat clung to his skin, leaving him chilled to the bone.

  He felt Amy stir, and was surprised when she took to her knees, one on either side of his thighs, and pressed her naked chest against his back. Usually that would be enough to snap him out of any funk, but the nightmare had gotten its claws into him and he couldn’t shake it.

  Her lips pressed to his shoulder as her arms slipped around him. “What was it about?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice rough. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “There’s no need to be sorry for that,” she said. “You were tossing and turning. I didn’t know what to do. You called out my name … and Jess’s.”

  He placed his hand over hers and pressed her palm to his chest so she could feel how his heart raced. He knew it was all confusion, just the rewiring of his brain as he changed and adapted to his relationship with Amy, but the dream had felt so real. “Sokolov had you. Had you both. And a hundred other people that I know. He had hurt you, all of you. And in the end, he expected me to pick between you and Jess.”

  They sat in silence, the occasional sound of the air-conditioning clicking on and off. “That must have been an impossible choice,” Amy said finally, running a trail of kisses along his shoulder.

  Not Who did you pick? Or Did you choose me? Or worse, Did you choose her?

  She was just caring for him, and for a few moments of silence, he let her.

  “I have nightmares occasionally,” she said softly. “About Mom. I see her in a crowded street, but she’s fading out of focus, and there are too many people for me to catch up to her. I know how brutal they can be.”

  “Yeah, they can.” He needed her to know that he’d moved on. “Do you know what I started to do on Thursday?” He ran his palms along her thighs.

  Amy rested her chin on his shoulder so their cheeks were close. “No. Tell me?”

  “I started to deal with some things in my apartment so that when this is done, you can come sleep over.”

  “That’s sweet of you, but I’m sure you didn’t need to—”

  “I packed up stuff to do with Jess. It started while I was drinking coffee and thinking of you and how amazing it’s going to be when this is over, and I suddenly saw my place through your eyes.” Cabe turned to face her, meeting her in the middle of the bed on his knees. “It was a sickening dream, Ames,” he said, sliding his hand around the back of her neck, “but it wasn’t a difficult choice. I never thought I’d find what I had with Jess with anyone else. I never imagined I would find something … more.”

  “‘More’ is a good word for us,” she said.

  The tenderness with which she said the words filled his heart. “‘Love’ is another good word,” he said, taking a chance to lay his true feelings at her knees. “I love you, Ames.”

  Her eyes fluttered shut, and a soft smile graced her features as she sighed. “When we talked on the steps at your mom’s, I thought then that I loved you for thinking of me, for protecting me that way. I love you too, Cabe.”

  God, he wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve a second chance at love in his life, but he was eternally fucking grateful. Gently, he nudged Amy back onto the bed and kissed her. Kissed her slowly, and deeply, with kisses that made his own head swim and his balls tighten as she moved and groaned beneath him.

  “Tell me you have condoms,” he said as he kissed a trail of kisses along her neck, knowing he’d used the one in his wallet with her when they’d first arrived here, a decision they’d made on the way home. It was their safe haven, away from the op, the one place they were simply Cabe and Amy.

  “In the drawer,” she replied, pointing to the table at the side of the bed.

  “Thank God.” If she’d said no, he’d have been in his shorts and sneakers looking for an open CVS.

  Amy ran her fingers through his hair as he settled in the soft cradle of her thighs. There was no better place to be on this earth. He loved her, and by some miracle she loved him. He felt like he was exactly where he was meant to be. The thought gave him pause. He wanted to slow down and make love to Amy thoroughly.

  He kissed her collarbone, where she still smelled of chlorine from the pool. They been so anxious to get naked that they hadn’t stopped to shower. He kissed the top of her shoulder, strong with muscles. And he kissed
the soft valley between her breasts. Worshipping her body was the only way he could think of to convince her that she was everything.

  There had been no choice.

  He’d wanted her.

  He’d picked her.

  Gently, he slid a hand along the curve of her waist as he ran his lips along the tanned skin of her stomach. Devour her. That’s what he wanted to do. He knelt between her legs and pushed her thighs wide with his palms while she stared at him with nothing in her eyes but a love he wasn’t even sure he deserved.

  When he placed his thumb gently over her clit, rubbing softly back and forth, Amy sighed. He studied the way her lips turned pink and began to swell, watched the first signs of wetness appear, and ignored the fact that his cock was hard and ready, lying heavy between his thighs.

  Tonight was for savoring.

  Tonight was to put a stamp on who they were together.

  Tonight was about her.

  “You’re beautiful, Ames.” His voice was gruff, his emotions heavy in his chest. Their only connection was his thumb on her clit, yet he could feel her in every cell of his body. The muscles in her stomach clenched occasionally until eventually her back arched, her eyes closed, and she gasped. “Could I get you off like this, I wonder?”

  “Cabe, please.” Amy opened her eyes, her mouth still open, a perfect O.

  “What do you want, sweetheart? You want my fingers sliding in and out of you, reaching for the place you love so much? Or this?” He reached down and took hold of his cock, stroking it long and hard. “Because I want to give you everything you want, everything you need, everything you deserve. Nothing you can ask of me is too much. Do you understand that?”

  Amy nodded, too in the moment to speak.

  He bent forward and replaced his thumb with his mouth, lapping her slowly, then circling her clit in fast hard strokes until he traced straight over the swollen bud. God, he loved the taste of her. Loved the way she moved beneath him, the way she opened for him.

  “Oh, God. Yes. Just like that,” she said, threading her fingers through his hair and holding him where she wanted.

  When he added a finger, he could feel the telltale tightening. He could tell when her mind lost control and her body took over.

  But he wanted to be buried deep inside her when she finally came. He wanted to be in her, and on her, and with her, as close as one human could be to another. Because the dream had only been about one thing and he knew it. He couldn’t lose her.

  “No, Cabe, I was so close,” she cried out when he withdrew his finger from her and sucked it into his mouth.

  “I know, Ames,” he said, reaching for the condoms in the drawer. After he slid one on, he lowered his body back over her and guided himself into her. Fuck, he was so turned on, so ready. Desperate to make it last, he stopped for a moment and framed her face with his hands, pushing her hair back so he could see her clearly. So he could take in eyes bluer than any water he’d ever dived into. “Call me a greedy man, but I wanted to feel you come around my cock.”

  He slid one of his hands beneath her and gripped her ass, opening her to him even more. Then he began to move, a slow and steady lovemaking that took the two of them deeper and deeper until he was nothing but the sensation of where they were connected, until they came together.

  And while his heart still raced, and her breath came fast, “I love you” took on a whole different meaning.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Cabe studied the layout of the hundred-and-fourteen-foot yacht that lay on Eagle Securities’ conference room table. The ship was registered in Sokolov’s mom’s name, but seeing that Ekaterina Petrov was currently in Rostov-on-Don, part of the East European Plain of Russia, Cabe was pretty sure the yacht wasn’t actually hers.

  “You going to kick my ass if I come in?” Six asked.

  It was hard to remain mad, not when his mom had kissed him and told him how happy she was that he was finally moving on and told him that Amy was an amazing woman. He’d drawn the line when she’d offered a six-tier red velvet wedding cake, only vaguely hearing a comment about grandchildren that had caused Amy to cover her mouth to hide the laughter.

  He’d tried to scowl at Amy, but he got why they were all happy. Because he was. Happy to be himself with Amy.

  But during all that, Six had made his escape with Louisa. And the air between the two of them wasn’t completely clear. Because while the outcome had ended up being positive, Six had been out of line.

  On the drive home, it had dawned on Cabe that he was the only person who hadn’t believed he was entitled to his own happily ever after.

  “You’re lucky Mac got to me before I got to you yesterday,” he said, sliding his hands into his pockets.

  “Yeah. I get that. But it was hurting my stone-cold heart watching the two of you act like you barely knew each other.”

  Cabe battled his indecision. To trust his friend, like he always had, or keep Amy’s secrets for her. He allowed silence to settle around him and listened to his gut. “Amy suffered sexual harassment at the hands of a senior agent in Atlanta. It’s why she moved here.”

  “No shit,” Six said, and pulled out a chair. “That’s rough.”

  “Yeah.” Cabe sat too. “At first she wasn’t believed, then some thought she’d asked for it. Me and her, this op, me technically senior to her. She’s worried about perception. About the optics of us dating. And Noah’s buddies from the SDPD were there yesterday.”

  “Fuck. You guys were just on the down low because of optics. Man, I’m sorry. I’ll apologize to Amy when I see her.”

  “Luckily for you, we’re good. And Noah talked it through with his friends. He trusts them to keep it quiet. It was a dick move to out us like that, though. When did you figure it out?”

  Six ran his hand through his hair. “That bullshit you fed us when we were breaking into the casino. I don’t know. The way you talked about her spoke volumes. And I’m gonna give you permission to kick my ass for even saying this, but you’ve been happy. I remember that day you came back to our tour after Jess’s funeral and you became a machine, a robot. And sure, you’ve loosened up in recent months, but … You’ve seemed more like Cabe, the little shit I sat next to on our first day of Junior Kindergarten.”

  Cabe swallowed, then nodded. It was impossible to stay mad at his friend after his honest words. “I’m just counting down the days until this is over so we can go public instead of having to hide.”

  “Lou really liked her, for what it’s worth, as did Delaney. And your mom. You know she called my mom this morning to ask if she knew which wedding shop Lou got her dress from, just in case Amy asks her to go dress shopping, given that it’s just Amy and her dad.”

  Cabe rubbed his face and grinned. “I want to be mad at her, but for some reason…”

  Six laughed. “You’re sunk.”

  “If I end up marrying Amy, there is only one place she’ll want it to happen. Caesars Palace. If it doesn’t, I’m seriously concerned her uncle Clive will get an old-school hit man to take my ass out.”

  “Well, when this is over, and we go there before my wedding, I look forward to meeting him!” Six stood, yanked Cabe out of his chair, and pulled him into a hug, the kind they rarely shared. “I’m happy for you,” he said gruffly, then let go before facing the scaled drawing of the yacht. “It’s a good-looking boat.”

  It was. Chrome-effect paint on the fiberglass hull reflected the water, making it look like the upper levels hovered in the air. “Yeah,” Cabe agreed. “If this guy is doing what we think he’s doing, it’s ironic that he thinks nothing about selling women into the sex trade, but named his boat Katie because he loves his momma.”

  Six shook his head. “That’s totally fucked-up.”

  “We need a place to put the beacon.” They were going in tonight to put it on the ship, since there was a high probability that whatever was going down was happening there.

  Mac and Harley had gone out to do basic intel on the boat and the
harbor. Buddha and Bailey were looking at local ordinance maps to find ways into the water that didn’t include walking in through the main entrance or swimming the shipping lanes.

  Hours later, after he’d called Amy on her way to the latest shift at the casino and long after the sun had gone down, he found himself dressed in his dive gear, rebreather set at the ready, in a draining channel. They’d studied the plans for the marina over and over, but this was definitely the most covert way. And it stunk like shit. Through his night goggles, he could see firsthand how the warm weather had caused the slow-moving water to stagnate. Smelly or not, slow and steady was the only way in. Mac and Six followed him. Maybe it was because he’d read way too many adventure stories as a kid, but he’d always gotten a kick out of doing missions with his best friends.

  The ripples of water around their ankles sloshed despite their efforts to remain silent, but in the pitch of night they wouldn’t be seen. Dressed from head to toe in their wetsuits, they would blend into the darkness. Six carried a rolled caving ladder, and Cabe carried a telescopic pole. The drainage channel opened out into the marina, and Cabe went first, popping the mouthpiece of the rebreather unit into his mouth before dropping himself silently into the shallows.

  They’d decide to use the closed-circuit rebreathers rather than the open-circuit scuba gear to conceal their dive. Bubbles were underwater stealth work’s nemesis, and the last thing they needed was somebody on the Katie or a neighboring boat spotting the bubbles and trying to figure out what they were coming from.

  The water was dark but became clearer once they moved away from the drainage channel. The three of them had been members of the same swim team once upon a time, and later their life as SEALs had trained them to be both powerful and silent under the water. As they swam around the top of the first dock, Mac signaled three with his fingers, reminding Cabe to swim beneath three of the berths.