Under the Wire: Bad Boys Undercover

by HelenKay Dimon

  She wanted to call out for Reid but didn’t. Anyone else could hear and she didn’t want to invite company. Not without Reid standing right next to her, ready to shoot. He’d had to snap the old lock holding the main double doors to the mine so they could get in, but that didn’t mean they were alone in here. She didn’t trust any obvious sign anymore.

  Instead of fidgeting or exploring, she waited in the main section of the mine. Just around a slight bend, so the front doors were no longer visible and right before two tunnel openings into what she thought of as rooms. Within one of these, she could see a huge pool of water blocking further passage. An old mining cart stood in the entry of the other tunnel opening, which Reid had slipped past before disappearing into the darkness to hunt for potential attackers.

  “Please don’t find any,” she whispered to herself as she pushed off from the wall. Nervous energy had her needing to move. She had to burn off some of this adrenaline before her mind started spinning and her imagination ran wild.

  She picked up one of the glow sticks and walked toward the standing water. Something drew her to that spot. Maybe the creepy atmosphere or questions about the unknown. Sometimes she couldn’t turn off the scientist brain, the need to know and explore. To venture outside of her boundaries and test.

  Her footsteps echoed through the damp space as she walked to the edge of the pool. The darkness hid most of the secrets of this tunnel. She held up the glow stick and looked across the dark water. The stillness haunted her. No ripples. No movement.

  The pool was not the result of a leak. It was a huge hole, one intentionally carved into the ground, which likely filled with water from underneath. It stretched a good thirty feet along the sides and was cut into a perfect rectangle.

  “Hey.” Reid whispered the greeting as his hand slipped under her elbow.

  The whole scene should have had her jumping out of her skin and headfirst into the dark pool. But she’d heard him coming. She was beginning to pick out the difference between his quiet don’t-want-to-be-heard walk and the noisy-for-him version that tipped her off to his entry.

  He wasn’t the type to intentionally scare her. He didn’t get off on seeing women cower in fear. She’d dated an asshole like that once. As if he needed to prove his manhood by showing he was so much tougher than she was. Not Reid. He didn’t play those games. Didn’t overwhelm her with his strength. He could probably pick her up with one hand and throw her over his shoulder, but he respected boundaries so long as he didn’t think her safety was at issue.

  He seemed to prefer ordering her around. For some reason that made her smile.

  It was Reid’s turn to hold up the light and study the tight quarters. He frowned as he did. “What am I looking at?”

  “They flooded this shaft.” Not an unusual practice. It tended to dissuade trespassers and kids seeking excitement from plunging in. “They filled the space with water so no one goes down there looking for gold, or whatever they were fishing out of this mine before closing it down.”

  The water could also signal a radiation issue. The Geiger counter in her bag wasn’t ticking. She’d turned it on to get a reading on the confined space and so far they were fine. But that didn’t mean she wanted to enjoy a long swim.

  “Do you know what they were digging for here?”

  “Could be anything.” She guessed coal, but gold and precious gems were just as likely. The mineral rich area provided what seemed like an endless supply. Once one mine dried up, they moved a mile or so to one side and started again.

  “Let’s see what’s under there.” Reid threw one of the sticks into the water.

  It floated on the surface, casting the pool in a green glow. The water was clear, deep. From one tiny light she could see a good distance down. The sides were carved into the stone and evened out. Stacks of what looked like wood and ladders sat in a junk pile just under the surface. Steps led down beneath the debris, with lights hooked to the wall to illuminate the way.

  She pointed at the steps. “That must have been a way up and down, to go deeper into the mine.”

  “I don’t see tracks for the carts.”

  “The prisoners likely had to climb in and out.” She felt Reid staring at her and explained. “Most of these mines were built by the men trapped in the gulag system. The prison work camps.”

  Reid nodded. “An endless supply of free labor.”

  “Exactly. If a man fell to his death—and that happened all the time, I’m sure—the guards would grab another one and send him down in the deceased man’s place.” No one bothered to measure the human toll because they didn’t care.

  “While the world ignored it.”

  The comment sounded dramatic but actually wasn’t. The history books referenced the hard life of political prisoners and anyone unlucky enough to land on the wrong side of those in power but couldn’t really describe the horror. Records were falsified and information buried. “That’s why we have people like you now.”

  He frowned. “Meaning?”

  “I’m thinking if Russia started up a modern-day labor camp and used prisoners to mine or as subjects in weapons’ experiments, you guys would know.” For some reason, she slept better thinking that. Knowing he and his team were out there made her feel safer. Twitchy and more than a little concerned about his safety, though Reid was the most competent man she knew.

  An expert with weapons. Smart in planning. Not one to rattle. While the bossy thing worked on her nerves, there was something very sexy about how in control he stayed under pressure.

  “Which makes me wonder why the government sent scientists in to handle this rather than us in the first place.” He shook his head as he stepped back from the edge. “We should have had dependable recon on this and set up protection before you and your team ever hit the ground.”

  “There might not be anything to find.” Despite all the death and danger, she needed to conduct her experiments. She couldn’t imagine getting back to work, but she also refused to let her friends’ deaths be in vain.

  He scoffed. “The dead bodies suggest otherwise.”

  The reminder zipped to her stomach like a shot. “Right.”

  He did a double take. In one step he stood back at her side. “Shit, sorry. Let’s go back out into the main area. At some point you need to eat something.”

  At the thought of eating, she almost choked up the protein bar she’d forced down for breakfast. “That is not going to happen.”

  “Cara . . .”

  “I’ll eat when you agree to sit down and let me examine you, stitch you up, and give you pain pills.” She stared at him, challenging him. Waiting for him to blink.

  “So, the timing is wrong for food.” He nodded. “I get that.”

  She ducked her head and smiled as they walked out of the damp room and into the drier main entrance tunnel. “Did you see anything down the other opening?”

  As he walked, rock-filled mounds of dirt and shards of wood cracked under his steps. “No.”

  “Would you tell me if you did?” She stopped and spun around until her back hit the cool, white-painted wall.

  He balanced a palm against the wall right next to her shoulder. “We’re safe here. At least for now.”

  “So, it’s okay for me to fall apart.” She almost hoped he’d give her permission.

  “Do you need to?”

  “Sort of.” She prided herself on holding it together, but she’d been down this road before and knew her mind could only handle so much strain. The kidnapping left her afraid to fall asleep for months. Back then Reid left the condo and she waited on the couch for his return.

  She hid it all, of course. Pretended she bounced back without trouble. But even now, more than a year later, a stray sound could send her flying into the corner, holding her gun for protection. She’d taken lessons and practiced at the range.

  For most of her life the only thing that helped to ease the tightening inside her, the churning panic that started in her stomach and could t
urn her entire body into a shaking mess, was to bury her mind in work. Run off the spiraling tension or hunkering down to review research. Fill her head with anything else.

  Then she met Reid. With him she found the one thing that mattered as much as her work. The one person who could sweep her up and away. And that had scared her. Looking back now, she wondered if that’s why she ran when Reid wouldn’t talk. Took the first opportunity to flee and dredged up every excuse to justify her choices.

  The weight of all she needed to apologize for and explain nearly suffocated her. She was right to be frustrated with him. Thinking her love for him would just disappear had been the huge mistake.

  “Cara?” His voice sounded so soft. So soothing.

  It mesmerized her. Almost had her swaying. “Huh?”

  “Fall, if you need to.” He leaned in and cradled her cheek in his palm. “I’ll be right here.”

  “I thought men hated to see women cry.” Not that she planned to, but she probably could if she eased up on her self-control the tiniest bit.

  “Some men are losers.”

  She dragged her hand down the front of his jacket. Let her fingers linger over the zipper. “Not you.”

  “I wish that were true.”

  She felt the pang through every part of her. An odd sensation that made her desperate to comfort him.

  “I didn’t leave because you were a loser.” And that was the truth. He had faults. They both did. But he was a good man. Better than he knew or would admit. With her single-minded focus, maybe better than she deserved. “You absolutely are not a loser.”

  “You clearly left because I was such good husband material.” He pushed away from the wall, put a few feet between them.

  She hated that. Grabbed a fistful of his jacket and drew him close again. “You really didn’t have any doubts about us? After the way we started out, hiding for days, all intense and dependent only on each other?”

  “No.”

  “We skipped over dating and went right to sex and then the engagement.”

  His eyebrow lifted. “The one you never told your family about.”

  She heard the thread of anger in his voice. A bit of disappointment seemed to linger there, too. “How did you figure that out?”

  That hadn’t been an oversight but it wasn’t really on purpose either. She’d kept waiting to tell the big engagement news, thinking she’d get some sort of sign or her mind would just somehow know that he was the one. She felt it in her heart, in the way her breath sputtered every time she saw him, but she’d never been the type to believe in curl-your-toes love. When it happened to her, she discounted it.

  Looking at him now, she wondered why she hadn’t fought harder for answers. That doubt never entered her mind before. Even though leaving him hurt—ripped her in two and had her fighting for air—she’d always needed to believe she made the right choice for them. Not just for her.

  But now questions swirled. She wanted to blame the situation and the adrenaline, but the way her heart flipped over from just seeing him told her those feelings she’d convinced herself were so shallow really weren’t.

  “Caleb asked why I left you.” Reid’s expression stayed blank. Unreadable. “I didn’t bother correcting him or defending my choices.”

  “He thinks we were dating and it didn’t work out.” Because that’s what she told her brother and her parents. Rather than bring home the lethal undercover operative no one expected, she kept him away and silently insisted she’d saved him from family drama.

  All of those choices that seemed so right at one time now jumbled in her head. She spent most of her workdays analyzing data and coming to reasoned conclusions. She’d applied that same logic to her relationship with Reid. Now she wondered if he defied explanation. If he was the one variable she could not account for.

  “I’m guessing you used my controlling behavior as the reason we broke up.” He didn’t sound judgmental as his hand brushed up and down her arm.

  Cara pulled back. Almost slammed her head against the wall by accident. “Did Caleb say that?”

  “He knew about the tracker.”

  She refused to apologize for tattling about that. “You have to agree it was over the top.”

  “I did it because you were still under a kidnap threat.” Reid’s fingers slipped along her chin. “Until all the men involved were caught, I needed to know where you were.”

  The gentle touches had her aching for more. “That all sounds logical.”

  “See?”

  She ignored how breathy her voice sounded as she took his hand in hers. Didn’t push him away, but held on. “Except for the part where you forgot to tell me first.”

  “Admittedly that wasn’t a great move on my part.” He lifted their joint hands and kissed the back of hers.

  With a wink, he broke contact and walked over to his bags. He cradled his injured side as he bent down and grabbed a few things out of them.

  The way he held his side made her want to kick her own butt. She was about to order him to stand up so she could check the wound when he dropped a coat on the ground. Then a blanket. Next he slipped an extra sweater out of the bag and set that down on the pile he made.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Making a place for us to rest for a few minutes.” He used the toe of his boot to move the pile around. Kept doing it until he seemed satisfied.

  “Is that smart?” He might think she was talking about safety, but no. She meant because the gathered material on the ground looked big enough for one, which meant she would be sitting on his lap. Which meant facing a new round of temptation she wasn’t convinced she could handle.

  His head shot up and he pinned her with a sly grin. “Are you afraid I’m going to propose again?”

  She tried to stand still and not shift her weight around. “That joke still isn’t funny.”

  He slid to the floor. Winced then covered it up with a fake smile. “I have to laugh about what happened back then or . . .”

  Anxiety welled inside her. “What?”

  “Never mind.” He patted his lap. “Come here.”

  This idea had trouble written all over it. “There’s that adrenaline issue again.”

  “Do I look on edge to you?”

  So smooth. He handled this like he did everything else—without flinching. “No, but you’re a bit of a freak.”

  He frowned. “Thank you?”

  But she sank down. Somehow her knees bent and her body dropped. She blamed a momentary loss of common sense. There was no other explanation for why she ran right into the same situation that broke her heart before.

  Trying to be smart and failing miserably, she sat up straight. Didn’t touch him or lean back.

  He was having none of it.

  A screeching echoed through the space as he opened the Velcro straps at her sides, then slipped her protective vest off. With his hands on her biceps, he pulled her back and settled her against him. “Just relax.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  He laughed and the sound vibrated in his broad chest beneath her. “In this position? Not really.”

  He wrapped his arms around her, letting one rest on her upper thigh and the other fall on her stomach. He didn’t make another move. Didn’t try to kiss her or take them another step.

  “This does feel good.” She brushed her fingers over his as she debated her choices and tried to turn off her mind.

  Something about him reeled her in. The warmth of his body, the husky coaxing tone of his voice. A churning started inside her, low in her stomach. A need that kicked into gear whenever he touched her or looked at her. In their months apart she could call it up just by thinking about him. It made her forget the pain of losing him.

  His fingers rubbed over her stomach in small circles. The touch burned through her layers of clothes to her bare skin. Her nerve endings tingled to life. The memories of what he could do with his mouth and his fingers bombarded her. Need whipped up inside he
r and she didn’t want to beat it back.

  Couldn’t. Not this time.

  The words she wanted to say but shouldn’t stuck in her throat. She debated saying them anyway. Opening her mouth now could change everything, and she knew that . . . and didn’t care.

  “You could help me feel even better.” She whispered the words as her palm traveled up his arm.

  His hand froze over her stomach. “Is this the aftermath talking?”

  He deserved the truth, so she gave it to him. “Maybe, I don’t know.”

  “You’ve regretted what we’ve done during these times in the past.” His lips touched her hair. His mouth wandered down the side of her head to her ear.

  She shivered when a warm breath blew across her skin. “Never.”

  “Cara, I was there.” His voice rumbled against that sensitive area near the bottom of her ear.

  She hated to break contact, but for what she meant to tell him, she needed to see his eyes. Slow and calm so she didn’t spook him or make him think she was running away, she turned around and faced him. “I never regretted our time together. It scared the hell out of me. My feelings for you . . .”

  “Yes?” His intense stare didn’t ease up.

  “I need you to touch me.” She took his hand in hers and held it against her chest, just below the base of her neck. “I mean really touch me.”

  For a second he didn’t say anything. His gaze toured her face then down her neck. When it bounced back up to her face again, heat flared behind his eyes. “Lean back.”

  His hands slipped up and down her sides as she turned with her back to him. When his palms reached her breasts, he stopped to cup them. Rubbed his thumbs over her hard nipples through her clothes.

  Her head fell back against his shoulder as he lowered her jacket zipper. And those fingers kept traveling. Over her stomach to the fly of her pants. Instead of plunging inside, he rubbed his hand over her from on top of her pants. Round and round, the heel of his hand passed over her. Pressing and grinding.

  Without any thought from her brain her hips moved. Up and down to the beat of his hand. Every time he eased up on the pressure, she lifted up seeking more. She grabbed onto his forearm and tried to drag his hand even lower. Put his fingers where she needed them to be. But he didn’t move faster. He kept his steady rhythm. Circled over her most sensitive place until the air hiccupped out of her lungs.