Undercover with a SEAL
Page 24
In a few seconds, Ashe was back. She saw him out of the corner of her eye, and he was indeed carrying a snazzy rifle of some kind. It was blunt and dangerous-looking in his arms, but he handled it like a pro. Sometimes she forgot how accomplished a warrior he was.
Feet braced wide, he took up a shooter’s stance beside her.
“Pull up as close as you can!” he shouted.
She reached for the throttles and was alarmed to discover that they went even a little further forward from their current position. She nudged the last bit of power out of the boat’s incredible engines, and the gap between the boats closed even more.
The bad news was that, this close to Vitaly’s boat, the V of his wake was very narrow and took intense concentration to steer within.
Ashe raised the rifle to his shoulder. Sighted down it. And took the shot.
It was two shots, actually. Vitaly slumped, falling over the steering wheel. His boat swerved to one side violently and flipped up in the air, turning over and over in a high-speed rolling flight.
Her own boat went airborne, launched by crossing the wake of Vitaly’s boat. In a slow-motion movement as they sailed through space, Ashe dived for the steering wheel, grabbing it above her hands just as their boat crashed back down into the water.
It tried to swerve, but with both of them hanging onto the steering wheel with all their strength, they were able to muscle it forward.
A huge crash to their right and behind them announced that Vitaly’s boat had hit the water.
Ashe slammed the throttle back, and their boat slowed rapidly. She slipped out of the pilot’s seat, breathing hard, and Ashe took her place. He turned the boat in a wide sweep, heading back toward the burning debris field in the bayou that had once been Vitaly’s boat.
“What are you doing?” she asked him, confused.
“Take the wheel again. Keep it slow, and stay down low behind the windshield. I’m going to confirm the kill. Your boss is not getting out of this night alive to threaten you ever again.”
They cruised slowly toward the debris field with Ashe scanning the water through the sight on his weapon. The hull of their powerboat scraped against random pieces of Vitaly’s boat as they eased close to the point of impact.
“Over there,” Ashe called low. “Turn left.”
She did as he ordered, and as the cigarette came about, she spotted what Ashe had seen. A human body floated in the water, facedown.
She pulled up beside the corpse, and Ashe used a grappling hook from the fishing equipment locker to snag the body. She moved away from the edge of the vessel, not eager to look at a corpse.
Leaning far over the edge, Ash grunted with effort as he obviously attempted to roll the body face-up. “Come over here, Hank. I want you to see this.”
Reluctantly, she moved to Ashe’s side and forced her gaze over the side of the boat. It was Vitaly. And Ashe’s shots had obviously penetrated the back of her boss’s head and emerged from the front of his skull, tearing away the right side of his face.
She looked away quickly from the destroyed remains of Vitaly’s face, horrified. Although the sight was gory and awful, something settled in her stomach. She actually felt the pervasive fear she’d lived with for all these months lifting away from her. Vitaly was dead. He would never threaten her again.
She understood all of a sudden why Ashe had wanted her to look at Vitaly’s body. It gave her closure.
“Help me drag him aboard,” Ashe murmured. “Our people are going to want to make a positive ID on him before we contact the Russians to make a trade for him.”
“But he’s dead.”
“They hang on to the bodies of our fallen operatives. Vitaly’s remains will be put in cold storage until such time as a trade is necessary.”
Eeyew. For the sake of America’s undercover operatives abroad, she hoped such a trade didn’t occur for a very long time.
Laboriously, they dragged the Russian’s body aboard the vessel. Ashe took the wheel once more and continued back toward New Orleans at a more moderate pace. At the north end of the giant bayou, Ashe steered the craft into a canal and followed it all the way to the Mississippi River. He talked on the boat’s radio and got permission to enter the mighty river, and from there, it was a short ride to what turned out to be a navy dock.
Ashe helped her ashore and then had a fairly lengthy conversation about what to do with the dead man in the back of his boat with a bevy of official people who showed up to meet them.
But eventually, Ashe escorted her off the pier and into a police car. It drove them across the base to what she recognized as the ready room for the security team that she’d escaped from before.
He had yet to acknowledge her apology. Or maybe he wasn’t planning to. Maybe she’d made it too late. Maybe she had already lost him. Goodness knew, he’d made it perfectly clear from the outset that honesty was of utmost importance to him. She’d just hoped he could find room in his heart to forgive her.
Her own heart breaking, she let him hand her out of the backseat of the police car. He didn’t make eye contact with her. Oh, God. He really wasn’t going to forgive her. Despair washed over her, cold and dark, and blotting out all hope. How was she ever going to survive without him?
Instead of taking her inside, though, Ashe led her to a bench underneath the spreading branches of a giant live oak tree in front of the building. He sat down and gestured curtly for her to join him.
She perched on the edge of the bench, too tense and in too much pain to do anything else.
At least Ashe was safe, and Vitaly was dead.
She lurched all of a sudden. “What about the girls back at the club? Are they okay?”
“Raid on the Who Do Voodoo went off about a half hour before I boarded the yacht. A whole bunch of girls were rounded up and taken into protective custody at a hospital. They’ll be treated for their addictions, debriefed and repatriated to their homes and families. Or, if they want, they can stay in America and make a new start here.”
She took a deep breath and gave voice to the burning question hanging between them. “And what about us? Is there any chance we can make a new start? I’m so sorry, Ashe. Really—”
He held out his arms to her silently, and she dived into them, burrowing against his chest hungrily. At least until it dawned on her that he still hadn’t said anything to indicate that he forgave her.
She pushed away from his warmth to look up at him. “You still haven’t answered my question. Are we okay?”
He stared down at her for a long time, searching her face and her eyes for something she desperately hoped he found. Then, at long last, he answered gruffly, “We’re good.”
She sank back against his chest, afraid to push for any more than that. It was enough for now. As long as he gave her a chance, she would earn back his trust, no matter how long it took.
Gradually, she relaxed against Ashe’s big, comforting chest, replaying events of the evening through her mind. But then she lifted her head sharply as something occurred to her.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“You said you had two loose ends to clear up. Vitaly was only one of those, right?”
“Correct.” Ashe suddenly sounded cautious. Alert.
“What was the other one?”
He sat up straight beside her, towering over her in the shadows. Lord, he was a big, powerful man. If she hadn’t known how good a heart he had, he would have been awfully intimidating.
“You. You’re the other loose end.”
“I—I’m a loose end?” she repeated in a small, quavering voice. Her heart dropped out of her chest and thudded to the ground somewhere in the vicinity of her shoes. Was he going to leave her after all? Just like Max. Was he going to disappear into his shadow world and never contact her again?
Her heart cracked right down the middle and split in two inside her chest. It hurt so badly she couldn’t draw her next breath. She had to find a way to let him go. But how on earth was
she going to survive losing him, too?
First Max, and now him. Both of the men she loved were lost to a world of darkness and danger that she knew now she did not belong in. She wasn’t remotely equipped to handle their way of life.
But she also knew now exactly how dangerous a place they inhabited.
Ashe slid off the bench to face her, kneeling on one knee. “I know I’m not a forgiving person and that I set ridiculously high standards for the people around me. Although to your credit, you’ve pretty much risen to those standards. I get why you weren’t square with me from the beginning. And I think you won’t make that mistake again. Am I correct?”
She nodded, unsure of where he was going with this soliloquy.
“I saw how bad it freaked you out when your brother went dark on you, and my work has been known to require me to do the same thing from time to time. I can’t promise to be home for holidays or anniversaries, or even to be able to call you on the important occasions. I would suck as a boyfriend, and I would probably suck ten times worse as a husband. But is there any way at all you would consider trying to make it work for me?”
“What?” That mental blue screen of doom thing was back. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I love you, Hank. When I saw those bastards pointing guns at you, the only thing I could think of was throwing myself in front of you and taking every bullet myself. The idea of you coming to harm was more than I could bear.”
“I felt the same way when that Remi guy tried to shoot you. But Max jumped in front of me before I could dive on you to protect you.”
“Remind me to thank Max for stopping you.”
She nodded, and Ashe looked up again, his gaze more intense than she’d ever seen it. He continued, “When Vitaly was choking me, I promised myself that if you and I both made it off that yacht alive, I was going to marry you, settle down somewhere quiet with you and have a bunch of kids.”
She blinked at him, stunned. He’d actually uttered the M-word aloud? And his head hadn’t exploded and disintegrated into a pile of dust?
“What about it, Hank? Will you marry me?”
She could only stare at him in shock. Her mouth opened and closed several times before she managed to form words. “I would love nothing more. However, you don’t have to do this. You don’t owe me anything—”
“I owe you everything! You showed me that there’s more to life than the job. You helped me face my issues with my father and accept that, for all his flaws, he helped make me the man I am. And if you love that man, then I’m good with everything he did—and didn’t—do. Hell, you taught me that I’m capable of loving another person: genuine, messy, all-in, true love.”
“Maybe after you retire...when you get off the teams...I don’t think I could sit at home, knowing what I do now about the nature of your work...” she stammered.
“I already told Commander Perriman that this would be my last combat mission. I’m done. I finally found something I want to live for more than I want to risk dying on the teams. Or more precisely, someone. You, Hank.”
“You’d give up your job for me?”
“It’s a done deal, baby. Cole Perriman has already offered me a job in the ops center supporting teams in the field. The rest of the time, I’m going to stalk you until you accept my marriage proposal.”
It was all there, right in front of her. Everything she’d ever dreamed of. A man who would never leave her. A home. Family. Safety. And most of all, love. Real, no-kidding, over-the-moon love. And all because a warrior in pain had wandered into a bar looking for oblivion. But instead, they’d found each other.
What were the odds?
No odds at all. It hadn’t been an act of chance. It had clearly been an act of fate that they’d been brought together. She sent out a silent thanks to whatever force in the universe had crossed their paths and uncrossed their stars.
“You won’t have to stalk me, Ashe,” she replied, a slow smile unfolding across her face and spreading to encompass her heart. “If you’ll have me, I’m all yours.”
He swept her up in his arms and rose to his feet, kissing her exultantly and spinning her around in the shadows that had been his home for so long. The night wrapped around them in a soft blanket of joy, the moonlight finding its way through the leaves mirroring the love bubbling over in her heart and spilling out of her to encompass Ashe.
And for the first time in a long time, she wasn’t afraid of the dark at all.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from
THE TEMPTATION OF DR. COLTON
by Karen Whiddon.
If you love Cindy Dees, be sure to pick up her other stories:
HIGH-STAKES PLAYBOY
HIGH-STAKES BACHELOR
A BILLIONAIRE’S REDEMPTION
DEADLY SIGHT
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SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
When a beautiful stranger is run down by a car right in front of him, surgeon Eric Colton rushes to help. Miraculously, she isn’t badly hurt—except she has amnesia. Can he keep her safe long enough for her to regain her memory?
Read on for a sneak peek at
THE TEMPTATION OF DR. COLTON
by Karen Whiddon,
the latest in Harlequin® Romantic Suspense’s The Coltons of Oklahoma series
Flipping through the chart, Eric Colton barely noticed when the nurse bustled off. Unbelievably, all Jane Doe appeared to have suffered was a concussion and some bruised ribs. No broken bones or internal injuries. Wow. As far as he could tell, she was the luckiest woman in Tulsa.
He might as well take a look at her while he was here. Chart in hand, he hurried down the hall toward her room.
After tapping briskly twice, Eric pushed open the door and called out a quiet “Good morning.” Apparently, he’d woken her. She blinked groggily up at him, her amazing pale blue eyes slow to focus on him. He couldn’t help but notice her long and thick lashes.
“Doctor?” Pushing herself up on her elbows, she shoved her light brown curls away from her face. “You look so familiar.”
“That’s because I rode with you in the ambulance last night.”
“Ambulance?” She tilted her head, giving him an uncertain smile. “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about that.”
Amnesia? He frowned. “How much do you remember?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Her husky voice broke and her full lips quivered, just the slightest bit. “Not even my name or what happened to me.”
He took a seat in the chair next to the bed, suppressing the urge to take her hand. “Give it time. You’ve suffered a traumatic accident. I’m quite confident you’ll start to remember bits and pieces as time goes on.”
“I hope so.” Her sleepy smile transformed her face, lighting her up, changing from pretty to absolutely gorgeous.
Unbelievably, he felt his body stir in response. Shocked, he nearly pushed to his feet.
This kind of thing had never happened to him.
Ever.
Don’t miss THE TEMPTATION OF DR. COLTON by Karen Whiddon,
Available August 2015,
Part of the Coltons of Oklahoma series:
COLTON COWBOY PROTECTOR by Beth Cornelison
COLTON’S C
OWBOY CODE by Melissa Cutler
PROTECTING THE COLTON BRIDE by Elle James
SECOND CHANCE COLTON by Marie Ferrarella
THE COLTON BODYGUARD by Carla Cassidy
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Copyright ©2015 by Harlequin Books S.A.
ISBN-13: 9781460384732
Undercover with a SEAL
Copyright © 2015 by Cynthia Dees
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