Kill List (Special Ops #8)

by Capri Montgomery

  She finished one apple and he washed the grapes and gave her those too. He watched her eat a little more slowly now, but still just as ravenously.

  “We were cleaning his room,” she said. “We were later that morning because the previous room looked like a frat party gone wild even though it was really occupied by business men from L.A.” She shook her head. “It was dirty—a lot, so we took longer. When we got to 1422 I told her I was taking the bathroom and she could take the disheveled sheets. We joked that the bulk of the mess might be in the bathroom. I took my case; I cleaned and I had already put my case back but I left the brush in the bathroom. Amber was trying to move his briefcase back to its previous location. She had to move it to do the cleaning. It was under the bed,” she nodded to nobody other than herself as if she were re-verifying the cases position. “Post cleaning the room we always make sure suitcases and anything else we had to move goes back to where it was first. It’s part of the rules. Nobody gets away with violating that rule. Somebody complains that their Gucci bag wasn’t on the dresser like they had it but the maid put it on a nightstand instead and the boss definitely goes in on the maids who cleaned. Amber was just trying to do the job one hundred percent the way it was supposed to be done. She was putting the case back and when she picked it up the clasps popped open and everything fell out. She was picking them up. She told me she didn’t need me to help. When I started my way back to where she was I saw him holding the gun behind her and I saw him pull the trigger. I didn’t have any time to warn her.”

  “It wouldn’t have helped anyway,” he was sure of that. She couldn’t blame herself. Had she made a sound it would be her body vanishing into the night and nobody would have known where either woman was. “You called the police.” He was near certain of that fact now.

  She nodded. “After I heard the door close I waited to make sure he wasn’t just hovering outside the door you know. I snuck out and I was headed back toward the service elevator and I heard him on the phone telling somebody he left something in the room that was important or something. He was coming back my way so I took the laundry shoot out of there.”

  “From the fourteenth floor?!”

  “Feet first,” she nodded. “Broken bones seemed better than death, but I suppose if the cart at the bottom was gone or empty I could have died too. Thank God I’m not a wide boned woman or I wouldn’t have fit down that thing. But when I got myself together I knew I couldn’t let them just get rid of her. I knew I had to do something so I called 9-1-1 from the basement. I hoped the right cops would show up and they wouldn’t be crooked.” She shook her head. “I forgot to disguise my voice, but I guess it wouldn’t have mattered. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to know the rooms aren’t cleaned alone, and it wouldn’t take a genius to find out that Amber and I were partners every day and for every clean. I laid low and I heard the sirens and the screeching halt of cars so I knew the right ones had turned up. If it were the officers he had asked for they wouldn’t have come with sirens blaring. They would have done everything quietly.”

  He nodded. She was right on that.

  “I tried to stay hidden long enough before I found a way to secretly make my way here. I didn’t want any of your neighbors to see me. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I shouldn’t have come here, but I didn’t know where else to go.”

  “Yes, you should have come here. I should have come home sooner.”

  “I don’t know what he was, Chogan. I mean, why kill her? Why do that to her? And the only thing I can think of is that there was something about those photos in the case that he didn’t want anybody to know about.”

  “Photos?” A red flag went up and he went to Defcon 1 in his alert. The highest level of alert as if nuclear war was imminent and in his mind it fit this situation perfectly. Photos plus an execution style murder from a now vanished man and crooked cops to handle the cleanup definitely was a highest level of alert situation to him. This definitely was a war, one that very much could detonate like a nuclear bomb. Destruction was imminent. The question wasn’t if it would happen, but when it would happen. There was no possible way, whoever this man was, that he would just walk away and leave a witness behind to identify him. The gun used obviously had a silencer so this man wasn’t just some sordid criminal with a gun. The room occupied was on the higher end of the price line so he wasn’t a poor man either. Photos?—Photos plus silencer, plus well connected, meant assassin to him. This man was an assassin and Amber had found his kill list.

  “Jesus,” he growled. He was going to need a lot of help here. Sure he could take the guy out if he knew what he was looking for, but a high paid assassin wasn’t a fool. That man would find Olivia fast, kill her and move on to his kill list. And if he had cops on the take then that was going to make it even more difficult. The only thing he could use Autumn to help him with now was pulling the right strings to get two men from his unit in here now. Maybe she could let him borrow one of the safe houses too. There was no way he could do what he needed to do in the city.

  “I’m sorry, Chogan. I’m sorry I couldn’t save her. I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I’m sorry I slept on your couch and used your blankets. I’m sorry for all of it.” She started crying again in large gasping hiccups. He tossed the knife onto the counter and went to her, pulling her up into his arms and holding her tightly.

  “Do not apologize to me for this, Liv. Do not apologize for staying alive. What you can tell me might help me get this guy sooner rather than later.” He sat down and let her behind grace his lap. “And don’t worry about the couch or the blankets. There’s no other woman I would share these things with than you.” And he meant that sincerely. This woman was in his heart, in his mind, in his blood. He had wanted her before but the possibility of losing her, of thinking she might be dead already, had kicked him into a shift mode that made him realize he wouldn’t wait any longer. He would claim this woman. He would claim her, save her and protect her. He would do all of this while avenging his sister’s death. This was his promise to himself and he would keep it.

  He wanted her, but not tonight. Tonight she needed to rest, to come down off the fear and the hunger and the pain. Tonight he would let her rest, but beyond that he couldn’t promise he could stay away longer. He was running full throttle on adrenaline and lust, and love—definitely love. He would have her completely. The only thing he had to worry himself with now was that he remembered not to take her like a wild animal, like he was going to pound her into the bed with every thrust. No, he would have to be more—gentle. Could he be gentle? Could he not let the warrior within leap to the forefront and claim her with a passionate furry that would leave her sore for days? He exhaled slowly. He didn’t know the answer to that because right now he was thinking hard about ripping that uniform off her, getting her panties down and pushing into her hard and fast. Yeah, he was a rough rider and right now he wanted to ride her hard.

  She smelled soft, like fresh soap, the soap that he kept in the half bath down in the basement. She had bathed the best she could using the sink and he was nearly sure of that. He brushed his lips against her forehead, inhaling her scent. “You smell like soap,” he said. “Soft soap and woman.”

  She sighed. “I used the hand soap in the bathroom. I just ran a little water and used one of the hand towels you had on the rod down there. Dial, I think is what that is—the natural one.”

  “Yep,” he inhaled the scent of her again. His body aching harder now. “My sister picked out a pack and gave it to me a while back. I’ve been trying to use it all but I’m not here long enough for that.” He felt his body warring with his mind. Do not go caveman on her is what he told himself, but his dick had a completely different opinion on the matter. The soft woman sitting on his lap was turning him on more than ever. He wanted to connect to her, to the goodness in her. He wanted that net of softness to shuck off the hardness even if only for the moment. He was still coming in hot from his previous op of rescuing a female journalist who was g
oing to be sold as a bride to the most recent terrorist uprising disorganization as he called it. The blond Brit wasn’t one of theirs but she obviously had some pull with the right people in her country and they had pull with the right people in America and he and his team had a job to do. They did it all, from search, rescue and extract, to hit them hard and kill them all. Had somebody asked him if he would be hardcore military when he was a kid he would have said no. There is no way he had seen his life being this, but once it was there was no way he could imagine anything else. He was past his twenty plus one and he could fully retire if he wanted to, but what would he retire to? What kind of man would he be if he weren’t doing what he did now? He wasn’t sure of that. He was a Marine bred in the heart until he was ready to devote his body to the core, and now he just didn’t know what else he could be.

  Had he figured out something else two years ago he would have been home protecting his family. He would have yanked his sister out of that job and made her go back to school. Maybe he would have convinced her to open her own resort on some safe zoned island, but he sure as hell wouldn’t have let her get killed on her knees.

  Maybe he blamed himself for not saving her before. Maybe he blamed himself for not insisting she do something else with her life. But she was happy. Odd as that may have seemed to some his sister liked working for that upscale hotel and she liked rising to the position she was in higher and higher. He didn’t know why. He couldn’t imagine enjoying cleaning other people’s crap out of a toilet, but from what she had told him most visitors weren’t at all bad since they had higher class guests, and the tips were beyond good. Yeah, three hundred dollars from some of the men left on the nightstand for her and the other worker every two days of their stay was one hell of a tip. She was happy, but had he even thought her slice of makeshift heaven could become her hell he would have ripped her out of there so fast she wouldn’t know what storm blew into her life and dismantled it.

  And Olivia…yeah, he blamed himself for not being here sooner to help her too. He should have come home sooner and she wouldn’t have been starving.

  He thought about how little she had eaten. He knew she didn’t eat much anyway, but he also knew what the pain of hunger felt like. No, he couldn’t rip her clothes off and let his dick go exploring. Right now he needed to get something else in her—something to feed her stomach and nourish her, replacing the nutrients she had been missing for days.

  Chogan looked down at the tears on her upturned cheek. He could feel the tears dripping from her other eye soaking into his shirt. He lifted his hand and used the back of his fingers to brush the salty liquid from her smooth brown skin.

  He tried to convince his feet to move, to convince his arms to release her, but when her eyes looked up to meet his he knew there was no way he could resist the sexual charges waging war against the control factor of his brain. Yes. Yes he needed her and he needed her now.

  Olivia looked up into his onyx meets deep brown eyes. His eyes were laced with something she couldn’t explain. His eyes were darker, fiercer, more powerful and more demanding—yes demanding, that was the look in his eyes. As if he were ready to control and order, but there was something more, something foreign that she had never seen in him before. It thrilled her, frightened her, and mystified her.

  She studied his face. Sharp cheekbones angled into a strong jaw and a very masculine narrowed nose.

  He was gorgeous, strongly man—a lethal warrior with a stone hard body. She shifted and immediately felt something else stone hard. “Oh,” she whispered as she started to understand the look in his eyes—lust, adrenaline laced lust. She hadn’t had time to process this revelation before his lips came down on hers. There was nothing subtle about his command and control of her body, of her mouth. His tongue parted her lips so easily and she let it. He dived in with such confidence and skill, kissing and stroking, controlling each thrust of his tongue in such a manner that he excited her, aroused her, heightened her awareness of need, and heightened her awareness of him.

  She tightened her arm around his shoulder as she tilted her head for more. One firm hand clasped in her disheveled hair and tugged her head back more letting his far from lazy tongue devour every crevice with such power she felt wetness pool between her legs. This kiss, this touch, this man, is what she had wanted for so long. Maybe he wanted it too. Or maybe he just needed somebody right now. Maybe he needed to feel a connection of goodness just as much as she did. Maybe he needed to blow off some steam as much as she needed to feel guarded, protected, connected to honest goodness that wouldn’t hurt her. Maybe, just maybe, they were helping each other find some comfort. Whatever he wanted, whatever he needed, she would give it to him—not just because she loved him in her own way, but because she owed him that much. She owed him so much for everything.

  She kicked the thoughts of Amber’s murder out the front of her mind and allowed herself to get lost in this kiss. This was all she needed right now—the strong man devouring her mouth, and the escape from reality, of the fear she would not be able to escape, of the killer who probably wouldn’t stop until he killed her too.

  His mouth broke from hers if only for a second to reclaim his breath and to shift her to sit straddled his lap and then he conquered her lips again. She didn’t know what to expect beyond this passion filled kiss. She hadn’t expected him to stand with her in his arms, to walk her back to the nearest wall and to anchor her to it between his hard body and the hard slab of ponderosa pine wood that made this home feel more rustic than city, more man with force than man with finesse. This man was so hot, so unbearably sexy, so much of what she wanted that she hadn’t thought twice when she felt his hand tearing at the lapel of her uniform until he ripped it open. Buttons cascaded to the floor, echoing in unison with the steady hard breathing they were both increasingly building. And when she heard the ripping of her panties she knew—oh gracious did she know—he was going to take her, all of her, and she was going to let him. She was going to give this part of herself to a man, to this man. He would be her first and her only. Live or die she didn’t want anybody else but him.

  The next garment he tackled was her bra. Effortlessly yanking it down from her small breasts before ripping the straps and yanking the garment from blocking his path. His mouth suckled her breast hard and wantonly. Never before had anybody done such a thing to her. Never before had she imagined it could be pleasurable, but the soft rasp of his tongue, the not so delicate manipulation of her areola had her aching in ways she hadn’t ached before.

  She hadn’t had time to process things before she felt him jut up into her with his solid member. She gasped loudly, her breath hitching in her throat. Either he didn’t notice or he couldn’t stop because he pulled out and pushed back in. It was adjust or be plowed without mercy. Heck, he was going to take her mercilessly either way.

  “Chogan,” she cried his name as he pumped into her hard, fast, primal fierceness dripping from the sweat on his brow.

  “Chogan!” She felt her body responding to his moves. She felt her body trying to adapt to his penis inside her never entered chamber. She felt the desire building within her, that need to feel, to have, to explode. God she wanted him so much. There was so much she should have said, should have done, but she hadn’t and now she hadn’t cared.

  He growled a harsh sound of animal fierceness as he sucked hard on her neck, marking her completely while he jutted into her over and over again and all she could do was cling to him while screaming her passions more softly than wildly, but just as needy nonetheless.

  She didn’t know how long he had been inside her before she felt a climax like things she only assumed happened in books and maybe fake porn. She felt her body come hard, deeply entrenching her in passion and then, as if he were on cue he pushed harder into her once, twice and then again and held there on a loud guttural growl before she felt him release his seaman inside of her. She wasn’t on the pill and he wasn’t wearing protection but right now she didn’t care. Rig
ht now this was all she wanted—him, this moment. And if she lived and she had his baby she would live with that too. She had never wanted kids, but with him she could have a dozen if it meant being like this with him—uninhibited and feeling all of him.

  It wasn’t until his head lifted and his eyes looked into hers that he spoke. “You’re so tight, Liv.”

  She smiled weakly. “You’re my first, Chogan. My only.”

  His eyes went wide and a raw word she couldn’t understand tore from his throat. “I shouldn’t have taken you so hard.”

  She brushed her fingers along his cheek. “I came hard,” she smiled a little at him. “But um…I’m not on the pill, Chogan.”

  His eyes slid closed and then opened. She thought for sure he was feeling regret and that pained her even more. “Good,” he finally said.

  “What?” Shock resonated in her tone and he shrugged one shoulder.

  “I’ve been thinking about what a baby with you would look like since I met you, Liv. I’m certain I’m not shooting blanks. I’m clean so you don’t have to worry about anything. We’re all tested frequently and I just came off a test before my last mission.”

  “You want kids?”