Seek and Destroy (TREX, #5)

by Allie K. Adams

  Laughing, she pushed him. The heat from her touch seared his skin, left him aching for more. He kept his hands deep in his pockets to stop him from pulling her in and burying himself in her right there on the beach.

  “Tell me more about your brothers.” That should keep his libido in check. He’d seen the McKoy brothers in pictures and knew Logan personally, having served on the same spec ops team with him under Special Agent Spencer Allen. The McKoys were all huge. The size of the defensive line for the Seattle Seahawks. He didn’t know what they fed them in Montana, but whatever it was did a body good. He gave a sideways glance at Charis. Oh, yeah. Definitely did a body good. The wind coming off the surf swirled in her hair, ruffling the fabric of her dress. Dear God she looked so damn beautiful in the surf.

  AgentAgentAgent.

  “The four amigos,” she said. “That’s what we call them.”

  “Four? Shouldn’t that be the three amigos?”

  She stopped hopping in the water and crinkled her brow, the look a cross between bewilderment and amusement. He loved the way her eyes sparkled, even at night. He bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from groaning. “No. I told you. I have four brothers.”

  Her parents were busy. “Right.”

  She nodded. “And two sisters. They’re twins. I’m a twin, too.”

  Very busy. He didn’t know there were that many McKoys running around. And twins? He barely controlled himself around one Charis. Holy hell, he’d lose it completely if he spotted two of them running around the world, pushing a man to the edge of sanity. Although he attempted to keep his cool, his voice gave away his anxiety as it cracked. “Another sister?”

  “Nope. My brother was born about five minutes after me. I’m the oldest of the McKoy clan. My brother’s name is Chris. Have you heard of him? He transferred to spec ops about six months ago. Oh, wait a minute. I guess, since I can’t get you to return to Seattle with me, he’s not in. Not anymore.” She stopped and lost her smile.

  The guilt of her comment smacked him against the back of his head. Maybe he’d find a way to work it so Chris would still be in spec ops without David coming back.

  And maybe pigs would suddenly sprout feathery wings and fly. Just fucking great, Weber. Way to put another person’s career on me.

  They continued to walk along the surf. He refused to allow the slight hitch in his resistance to take anchor. Going back to TREX would be a mistake. Back to long, thankless hours. Back to risking his life every day. Back to doing exactly what he loved, what he still craved to do.

  “Logan threatened to quit when he heard what SD Weber did.”

  David slowed. First Charis, then Chris. Now Logan? He didn’t need the guilt of anyone else’s career on him. “He didn’t, did he? He’s one of the best shots TREX has ever seen.” He could even give JT a run for her money.

  “No. At least, not yet.”

  Fuck. “Not yet?”

  “He said if you aren’t reinstated and Chris is kicked back to incident response, he’s going to go work for the NSA.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that so he said nothing. No one else needed to fight for him, not when he walked away instead of fighting for his own career. It was the chicken shit thing to do, running away with his tail firmly between his legs the way he did, but none of that mattered now. His life as a TREX agent was over. He had to accept that and refused to give in to the jump in his pulse that the agency wanted him back. They’d just kick him in the teeth again the instant he let down his guard.

  “You’re a good agent. A great agent. For them to simply let you go...” She trailed off, kept her eyes on the surf as she let out a sigh. “I’d want answers.”

  He knew what she played at. No way would he let her get into his head. No way. “It’s too late now.”

  Charis stopped and turned to him. When he shoved his hands back deep in his pockets and planted his feet in the sand, she walked up to him, placed a hand on his arm. The connection shot electricity up his arm and down to his annoying, painful hard-on. Her gaze searched his. “It’s never too late, David.”

  He loved the way his name fell from her lips, loved the way she scraped her teeth across her lower lip when she said it. Staring at her mouth, he waited for her to say something else. Anything to watch the way those sultry lips moved when she talked.

  She must have sensed his defenses weakening. Without hesitation, she pushed him another step by resting her free hand on his other arm. “I’ll be right there with you.”

  Her words lifted some of the weight off his heart. Maybe if... No, goddamn it! She would not talk him into returning. As her eyes softened and continued to search his, his resistance to her cracked that much more.

  “I don’t need you, or anyone, to fight my battles.”

  “Someone has to.”

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “You ran,” she stated, matter-of-factly. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you aren’t willing to go back and fight.”

  “I did not run,” he lied. He’d run like a giant coward.

  “Really?”

  Goddamn it. How did she pick up on that? “I do not run from my battles.”

  She grasped both his shoulders. Hard. “Then go back and fight. Don’t let them beat you. If you don’t do something about it, then they win. How many more agents will TREX do this to before someone stands up to them? They are destroying careers, David. You of all people should know that. Not everyone gets the Cinderella story like Dan Weber.”

  No shit. Once TREX kicked Weber’s ass to the curb for being too much of a liability after Gessler was killed in action, his career was all but over. He got a call pulling him back in, a call that changed his life. He’d uncovered the mole in the agency, saved the world from annihilation, and received the biggest promotion in TREX’s history. Talk about a comeback story.

  Charis went on when David didn’t say anything in response to her reasoning, even though it was swiftly breaking through his resistance. “They’ll just do this to another great agent and you’ll be left wondering whether you could have been the one to make a difference.”

  “I made a difference every day.”

  “Then prove it. You’re better than this. A spec ops agent doesn’t back down from a fight, does he?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “Then fight, David.”

  His pulse kicked up as determination coursed through his veins. He straightened his shoulders and drew in a breath. “I will. They can’t—” He stopped. Holy shit. She did it. She’d gotten into his head, convinced him to jump on the next flight to Seattle and tell Weber exactly what he thought of being tossed out of TREX without so much as a thanks for the memories.

  David laughed. It stemmed from deep inside his chest, reverberating through his heart, filling the emptiness with a warmth he hadn’t felt in years. “You’re good. You almost had me.”

  “Then I’m not good enough.” With that, she gave him a wink.

  He laughed again. Damn, she was fun.

  Charis turned and walked along the surf again. As if she had some invisible pull on him, he fell along beside her. “My dad is Malcolm McKoy.”

  He already knew that. “He runs TREX’s intel division.”

  “He wasn’t happy I agreed to work this op. But, since Weber outranks him, he couldn’t overrule my assignment. Now, here I am.” She jumped in the water and splashed. “I guess he still sees me as his little girl. He doesn’t act like that with my brothers. Chris, who used to be incident response, is on assignment overseas, working logistics. He says he wants to be as good as his mentor, Walter Randall. Whoever that is.”

  David grinned and kept Rand’s identity to himself. There were few logistics coordinators in TREX who could do what he could, and even fewer willing to take a rookie under his wing. Chris was in good hands.

  “Logan is fully recovered and back in action.”

  He already knew that, too. After a sniper shot him on a find, the entire tea
m thought they’d lost him. Luckily, he’d pulled through. “That’s good to hear.”

  “Then you have Mitchell. Mitch, actually. You call him Mitchell and he won’t answer. Trust me. He’s the sheriff of Rock Creek County.” She paused and took a breath. “Ever heard of it?”

  “No.”

  She shrugged. “That’s okay. No one has, unless you either live in it or nearby. It’s in Montana.”

  That would explain why he’d never heard of it.

  “Then there’s Seth. He’s the youngest of the boys. He’s serving his last year as an intern right now. Isn’t that great? We’re going to have a doctor in the family.”

  “I thought you said you were a doctor?”

  “I’m not a medical doctor. He’s going to be a doctor doctor, you know?”

  Amazing. She just kept going and going like the Energizer Bunny of gabbing. How did anyone ever carry on a conversation with this woman? She never shut up. God help them all if the enemy ever captured her. She’d tell them every secret she knew and probably make up a few.

  “Then you have my baby sisters, the other twins. So, that’s it. Me, Chris, Logan, Mitch, Seth, Bailey, and Kaylee.”

  He couldn’t believe how much personal information this woman just spilled in a matter of minutes. He had enough on her and her family to last a while. It was time for her to talk about TREX and why they wanted him back.

  “Tell me about your conversation with Weber. How did he contact you?”

  “The same way he always does. My cell.” She pulled it out of her cleavage to show him. David blinked in disbelief. He didn’t know women actually stored things in there. What else did she keep in there? His fingers itched to find out, trace her nipples until they peaked. He blew out a breath as she replaced her phone into her cleavage and hopped in the surf. “What’s your favorite season?”

  This woman’s mind bounced all over the place. He had a hell of a time focusing, let alone keeping her focused. “Uh...summer. Now, about the call—”

  “Not mine. I love the winter. Snow. Lots of it.”

  He stopped. “You love the beach. Yet you love the snow?”

  “I live in Montana. I learned to love it. It was either that or hate it, and with so much of it year after year, I had no choice. I’m weird, right?”

  More than anyone he’d ever met. He pulled her to a stop in front of him and eyed her mouth. “You could say that.”

  Charis licked her lips and met his eyes. He lowered his lips down to hers, searching for that connection they’d shared in the elevator. This kiss lit a fire in his soul. Their tongues danced, twisting with each other as they starved to taste the other. The cool water swirled around their ankles, but did nothing to cool the heat in his veins. This woman, right here, kissing him back with such unbridled passion, was all that mattered. He tested her, slowly running his hands over her bare shoulders, down to her waist. Her curves fit perfectly against him. Holding her even closer, he finally left her lips to trace the lines of her jaw with his tongue.

  She kept coming up with new ways to surprise him, this time by slipping her hands under his shirt and weaving her fingers into his chest hair. Lifting her chin to give him access, he dove for her neck and nibbled his way up to the softness of her lobe.

  His erection throbbed and he rocked his hips, pressing his cock against her. She let out a slight whimper and ground her hips in return. He found her mouth again and the passion of their kiss deepened. As he ran his hands up and down her shoulders, the goose bumps washing across her skin tickled the tips of his fingers. Moving one arm behind her neck and weaving his fingers in her hair, tracing the recesses of her mouth with his tongue, he moved the other hand down her side, barely brushing the roundness of her breast. He played with the curve of her hip before bringing his hand up to tease a waiting nipple.

  “You two newlyweds?”

  David brought his head up and finally sucked in a breath. It took him a second to force blood back into his brain since all the blood in his body went to power his rock hard arousal. Charis buried her face to his chest, letting out a slight giggle that brought a smile to his face. He glanced over his shoulder at the intruder. The old man smiled at them, the dog at the end of the leash in his hand eagerly pulling at him to keep moving.

  Oh Christ. Talk about a reality check. Immediately, David’s mind slammed into the memory of Dan Weber when he met JT. That man had nearly blown the op for that woman, and they both ended up getting pretty banged up in the process. He didn’t need to make the same error in judgment.

  He shook his head, careful not to look at Charis. “No.”

  The old man nodded politely and allowed his dog to drag him away. Reluctantly, David sighed. Charis stared at him with those piercing eyes, the mix of emotions punching him right in his gut.

  He couldn’t keep going with this. The risk was too great. He’d lose himself in her, if even for one night. He couldn’t allow emotions to get in the way. With every kiss, every smile, she pulled him deeper and deeper. If they took this any further, if he experienced the way her body responded to him the way he knew it would, he’d be lost. “This needs to stop. Now.”

  “What needs to stop?”

  “This right here.” He motioned to the fact her arms were still inside his shirt. Pushing away, he shoved his hands deep into his pockets and took several steps back to try and clear his head. “We can’t do this.”

  Her eyes clouded with emotion. “I don’t understand. You said—”

  “I know what I said,” he barked sharply. He softened his voice when she recoiled. “But you’re on an op. Hell, I’m your mark. This breaks all the rules.”

  It broke the mother of all rules. Don’t get emotionally tied to your target. It was the cardinal rule in his book as well. He’d spent years perfecting that rule. One look, one touch from a snappy brunette and he’d already broken the one rule he lived by, survived by.

  “Screw the rules,” she practically spit at him and held his attention with the heated passion in her voice. She hardened her gaze. “All my life I’ve lived by somebody else’s rules. No more. I don’t care.”

  “I do.” He turned away, shaking his head, feeling an inch tall for cutting her off like this. The fact that he did care, more than he should, irritated the shit out of him. “I don’t want you to end up hating me.”

  She let out a shaky breath and he braced himself. Please God don’t let her cry. He’d be able to shut her down as long as she didn’t cry. “I get that you’re trying the whole ‘chivalry’ approach. Let’s just get that out of the way.”

  She had it wrong. So wrong. He shook his head, placed his hands on his hips, and then looked to the sky. “No, you don’t—”

  “I want you, David Snyder. I want you to fuck me into a coma.”

  Jesus, he’d come undone if she talked to him like that. “Charis, I don’t think you know what you’re asking.”

  “I know exactly what I’m asking,” she countered. “I want to wake up in the morning barely able to walk. I want to go back to Seattle tomorrow with the memory of you loving me, if only for a night. Now, if you don’t plan to follow through with your promise, then go away.” She blinked after her admission, seemingly surprised at her own words. After that she looked away and walked along the surf again.

  Shit. He was a glutton for punishment. Now would be the perfect opportunity to simply walk away. Instead, he fell into step alongside her, his hands safely tucked back into his pockets. “It isn’t that I don’t want to.”

  “We are through having this conversation.” Her voice was flat and he felt like an even bigger piece of shit.

  “Please, Charis. I never intended for it to get this far. I was only trying to scare you.”

  “By sleeping with me? Hmm. Interesting way to scare a girl. Just how many girls do you scare this way?” She shook her head and raised her eyes to the sky. “No. Never mind. I don’t want to know the answer to that.”

  Her expression almost dropped him to his kn
ees. Her eyes shined with emotion, even in the light of the cloud-hazed moon.

  He reached for her. “Charis.”

  “No,” she ordered and stepped sideways out of his range. She blinked back the tears. “God, I feel like such an idiot. You never had any intention of sleeping with me, did you?”

  Yes, seven ways from Sunday. If only he could. “No.”

  Her laugh came out hollow. “It was all an act?”

  “It wasn’t like that.”

  “Just answer the question.”

  Goddamn it. “Yes.”

  Nodding, she visibly swallowed. “Well, I guess that’s that. First TREX set me up. Now you. At least you came clean. This has been an enlightening find. I’ll definitely go home with a few new memories.”

  “Charis.”

  “Please go.” She met his gaze, her blazing eyes on fire. His chest caved under the weight. “I’d rather you not be anywhere near me right now.”

  Her words fell right into the hole that used to be his heart. Most women would try to cover up their emotions with a slap across his face. But not this one, and it made him want her even more. “I don’t want you hating me.” She spiked an eyebrow and it crushed him. “You already hate me.” He just ruined any chance at them being anything more than awkward acquaintances, if she’d even give him that much now. “Come on. I’ll walk you back in.”

  “But—” She faced the water. “I want to stay and play in the water.”

  “You don’t want to do that.” He glanced at the sky. The clouds had moved in and settled down for a nice drenching. He’d give it another ten minutes before the rain started. The waves had already picked up from where they’d shattered onto the beach half an hour ago. “The surf here has a pretty good undertow. It’s dark. The swells are four to six feet right now. No one would see you if you went under.”

  “I know how to swim.”

  David blew out a breath. If she wanted to play in the water, he couldn’t stop her. He also refused to leave her alone to do it. “Just don’t go in over your knees.” He turned toward the resort, hoping she’d follow him out of the water.