Soldier Protector

by Kimberly Van Meter

  He bit back a groan and covered her hand, squeezing before gently removing her grip. “It’s not that I don’t want to, because, damn, girl, I want to do all kinds of dirty things to you right now, but there are rules and I’ve broken them. I’ve gotta keep this on the DL, you know?”

  “I understand,” she said with a small sigh. “So I’m guessing you won’t be sleeping next to me tonight?”

  “No, but I’ll be in the chair so you can sleep safe.”

  “It’s better than nothing but I want you next to me.”

  “Me, too.”

  She gazed up at him with hope. “One last kiss?”

  How could he resist such a sweet request?

  Zak gathered Caitlin into his arms, holding her tightly, his hands roaming her backside to land at her cute tush. He filled both palms and squeezed. She gasped and melted against him, her mouth open, her tongue meeting his, tasting, exploring. He was quickly becoming addicted to her smell, her taste. Everything about Caitlin turned his crank. His erection was nearly bursting through his jeans. Irrational thoughts crowded his brain as he envisioned bending her over the bed and sliding himself inside her for a quick and dirty romp but he knew they didn’t have time.

  Questions would be asked.

  Scarlett would see through any excuse he could give.

  CJ would call him out for smelling like sex.

  It was almost worth all the risks.

  But he wouldn’t put Caitlin through that kind of invasion into her private business.

  With a groan he pulled back, taking a mental snapshot of Caitlin as she was in that moment—lips plump and red, cheeks pinked, breathing hard, and pupils dilated. “God, you’re sexy,” he murmured. He pushed at his erection, trying to make it less obvious. “This is what you do to me.”

  Her pleased yet sweetly sensual smile was like heroin.

  “Uh, CJ made burgers,” he said, running his hand through his hair, trying to get his mind right. “He’s a decent cook. Not as good as me but decent. Are you hungry?”

  “Yes.”

  “For food,” he clarified.

  She laughed. “No. But I’ll eat.”

  “Good girl.” He couldn’t resist and brushed a quick kiss across her swollen lips. “Let’s go. Scarlett’s going to start asking questions if we stay in here much longer.”

  Caitlin giggled, admitting, “It’s kinda exciting to be the secret.”

  Zak grinned. “I love your sense of adventure.” He lightly slapped her ass as she walked by. “Now get your game face on.”

  “Or what?”

  “Or I’ll find a way to spank you, little girl,” he promised.

  That final look she sent his way was hot enough to melt metal.

  And suddenly, he was hoping for bad girl Caitlin to make an appearance.

  Chapter 17

  Caitlin had gone to bed but Zak and the team spent some time researching various religious groups they knew were whacked in the head.

  CJ snapped his fingers as he triggered his memory. “You know that group out of North Carolina, the Congregation of the Eternal Light? They’ve got to be involved. That’s some weird-ass shit they’re preaching.”

  Zak chuckled but he didn’t think they were big enough to pull off this coup. “They’re a ragtag bunch of hillbillies. They don’t have enough money to pull off something of this magnitude. Keep looking.”

  Scarlett agreed with him. “The group that pulled this off has deep pockets, deep enough to have connections in high places. The intel on the production of the sample had to come from our own government. No one else knew that North Korea was cooking up this nasty thing except a privileged few. The op to get the sample had been strictly black ops, off the books.”

  “So we’ve gotta tap our FBI contacts,” Zak said. “What’s Xander know about this case?”

  “I haven’t talked to him about it. He’s not going to know much—it’s way above his pay grade,” Scarlett retorted.

  “But he might know someone who does,” Zak countered. “I know you don’t want to involve Xander but this is bigger than any justification that you might have not to.”

  Scarlett shot Zak a sharp look. “The last time I used an FBI contact who had a personal connection to me, he died. I don’t want Xander facing the same threat.”

  He hated to play hardball but Scarlett was being soft. “I get it. Conrad was a good guy. Without his help, we wouldn’t have been able to clear Xander’s name, and Conrad paid the ultimate price for helping us out. But Xander isn’t Conrad and he’s sharp as hell. Besides, if this whole deal goes sour, we’re all biting the big one anyway.”

  Scarlett conceded Zak’s point grudgingly, saying, “I’ll see what he can poke around and find out.”

  “Good. Okay, so we need complete background checks on all of Caitlin’s team before we can allow them to follow to the new lab. I had just started vetting the team when all hell broke loose. My gut still says it was an inside job. I don’t trust any of those people until they’ve been cleared.”

  “Does Caitlin have any idea who might’ve compromised the lab?” Scarlett asked.

  “No, she’s not willing to believe anyone on her team is capable but she’s lived a fairly sheltered life. It’s one of her best qualities but it’s also her weakness.”

  CJ nodded. “I’m on it. Give me the names and I’ll run them down.”

  “Thanks, man,” Zak said, throwing in a compliment. “Those burgers were actually edible.”

  “Don’t front, they were Gordon Ramsay–good.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  Scarlett rolled her eyes. “You two are like children.”

  CJ scoffed. “He started it.” Then, he said, “Hey, about your scientist, what’s she like?”

  Instant prickles rose on his arms. He sensed CJ’s interest and it didn’t sit well with him, but he needed to tread cautiously with Scarlett around. “She’s fine. A little on the prickly side but she’s ridiculously smart, so small talk is difficult for her.”

  “She’s cute.”

  He shrugged as if he hadn’t noticed. “Her looks don’t matter. She’s just a job.”

  “I’ve always said you’ve got the patience and the virtue of a saint. I couldn’t ignore that little cutie right beneath my nose.”

  “Well, that’s why you weren’t picked for this job,” he returned with an easy grin. “Too easily distracted.”

  Scarlett chuckled. “You walked right into that one.”

  CJ conceded with good humor. “Yeah, yeah. Okay, so back to the religious wing nuts. I’ll check with any newly registered nonprofits with a faith background or those with even a whiff of faith attached. If we’re looking for deep pockets, we need to look where money is flowing.”

  Zak yawned. “Good idea.”

  CJ looked incredulous. “Are we tapping out already? It’s barely midnight.”

  But Scarlett did Zak a solid and said, “CJ and I will take first watch, you and Laird, second. That work?”

  “Yeah, sounds good.” He rose and headed for the bedroom, saying, “I’ll take the chair in the bedroom. Caitlin is nervous with all the new people.”

  Scarlett gave him a thumbs-up and he went into the bedroom, softly closing the door. He pulled his shirt off and tossed it but he was going to sleep in his pants. Still, he went to Caitlin and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, smiling when she made soft little sleepy noises as she moved toward him. He regretfully grabbed a spare pillow and returned to the chair.

  Settling in for a few hours’ sleep, he tried to get over his need to cuddle up to Caitlin. Being so close yet unable to touch her was a different kind of torture.

  He’d never felt this way about a woman, not this quickly.

  He wasn’t sure if he liked it but he knew there wasn’t much he could do about it, either. Wh
atever Caitlin was, she was firmly buried in his brain and there to stay.

  He’d figure out the rest once she was safe.

  Until then, he’d just have to make sleeping on the chair work.

  He’d also have to figure out how to hide his reaction to CJ sniffing around his girl. Scarlett was too sharp to miss the signals for too long—and he had a pretty good idea how that conversation was going to go.

  Get your head out of your ass, Ramsey. Yep. That was exactly how it would go.

  * * *

  Caitlin woke before dawn to a cup of coffee thrust into her hand and instructions to rise and shine before she was even coherent. Luckily, she’d gone to bed at a decent hour and she was an early riser but the events of the recent past had left her discombobulated.

  She gratefully clutched the mug and sipped at the coffee, watching as the team moved in coordinated action to clear the house.

  At some point Laird had returned and they were all gearing up to vacate the house. An odd pang of sadness followed the realization that she’d miss this little house. Not because it was particularly show-ready or filled with hospitality but because this was where she and Zak had made love.

  She smothered the immediate shiver that followed her internal dialogue.

  Made love.

  It’d felt like that—not simply sex.

  Was that possible? To love someone within such a short time period? They’d only known each other for days but their connection had been off the charts.

  And the way their bodies moved together, like a perfectly orchestrated symphony, had to mean something, right? She’d never been much of a die-hard romantic but it was hard to ignore the facts as she knew them.

  There was so much to process that perhaps she was jumping the gun. High-stress situations could trigger chemical reactions in the brain that mimicked the intense feelings of attraction. Maybe all of this would fade as soon as the danger was over and she’d be left with the realization that they had zero in common.

  He was rough and masculine to a fault but he smelled like heaven and made her dizzy when he was near.

  He had a way of twisting her insides until she was a melty piece of butter on a hot pancake.

  He was an excellent cook and he actually made vegetables palatable.

  But he worked for a company that routinely put his life on the line and she didn’t have the temperament for constant anxiety.

  Did she mention that he smelled like sex and warm shortbread cookies fresh out of the oven?

  No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t cookies, exactly, but the way his skin smelled was the way fresh cookies made her feel when they were in her mouth.

  Loved.

  She’d had a great childhood and Zak wasn’t anything like her father, so take that, Freud. Imagine bringing home Zak to Mom and Dad. One word: awkward. She pictured her parents, both vociferous supporters of gun control and steeply entrenched in academia, science and other dusty, cerebral subjects, trying to find common ground with an alpha soldier who could assemble a gun blindfolded within seconds.

  Zak had probably played sports in high school.

  Her parents had both been science club geeks.

  Zak had probably been prom king and Mr. Popular.

  Caitlin had been blissfully forgotten, spending most of her free time in the library.

  They were polar opposites.

  Opposites attract—or they completely baffle, leading to huge chasms impossible to cross.

  “Are you ready?” Zak asked, breaking into her ridiculous internal debate. She perked up and nodded. “Good. We leave in ten.”

  She finished her coffee, quickly dressed and brushed her teeth.

  “Zak, you and Dr. Willows will follow behind us to the airfield. A plane is waiting for us,” Scarlett instructed, all hard edges and sharp lines. Caitlin wished she had that kind of presence. The Red Wolf team leader looked like the kind of woman who didn’t take any crap from anyone. What kind of boss did Scarlett have? Who would dare to give her orders?

  Caitlin climbed into Zak’s vehicle and they fell in behind Scarlett’s rig, leaving behind the safe house and its memories.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “Tessara has a small lab in New Hampshire. We’re heading there.”

  “And my team?”

  “When we’ve determined your team is safe to join you, they will. Until then, it’s just you and me and the Red Wolf team.”

  “What about my research?”

  “You’ll be able to access all your research from the computers at the new lab. All the servers are connected.”

  “Except the notes I had on my phone,” she grumbled.

  “Except the notes on your phone. Sorry.”

  She understood but it was just so Jason Bourne that she couldn’t quite wrap her head around it. “So...a religious cult, huh?”

  “Seems that way.”

  “It probably goes without saying that I’m not a huge believer in a man in the sky who dictates our lives. I’m a Big Bang believer. Where do you land on that debate?”

  “Hard to say. I wasn’t given much encouragement to believe in an all-powerful being who had my back. Too much shit happened to make me doubt that anyone had my back but myself.”

  Her reasons for not believing in God weren’t nearly as sad as Zak’s. Hers felt more clinical, his more emotional. From being tossed around from one foster home to another to losing his sister to suicide, he’d had a life horrible enough to make even the strongest believers question their faith.

  Then he surprised her by saying, “But as much as I don’t believe for myself, a part of me hopes that I’m wrong.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I hope that someone was there for Zoey up in heaven because I sure as hell wasn’t there for her when she needed me down here on earth.”

  Her eyes pricked with sudden tears even though it wasn’t her tragedy. She could feel the buried anguish Zak carried, even after all these years, and it landed like a stone in her gut. In that moment, she wanted to believe for Zak, too. The words choked her throat as she said, “I hope so, too.”

  Zak cast her a quick look before ducking his gaze, as if the moment was too much for him and he hadn’t meant to share something so deep. He cleared his throat a few times and finally said, “Anyway, yeah, the God thing, just never was my deal. Hard for me to understand people who do crazy shit in the name of an imaginary man up in the clouds.”

  “Same.”

  A beat of silence passed, giving them both a chance to collect their thoughts and take a step away from the ledge they were teetering on.

  “Do you know the New Hampshire lab?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “No. I’ve only ever been to the Vermont lab but I know they have labs all around the world. It was one of the reasons I wanted to work for Tessara. Unlike a lot of labs that are located in one spot, I liked the opportunity to transfer to a new place if I ever got bored of Vermont.”

  “Do you think you’d be willing to pick up and move your entire life like that?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know but I liked having the option available. Somehow, it felt less stifling to know that I had options. My parents worked for the same lab their entire lives and even though they seemed very happy, it just felt stale to me. I wanted to be able to move around if I got bored with one lab.”

  He quirked a subtle grin her way. “Are you wishing for a little bit of that boredom you feared so much?”

  “Yes,” she admitted with a laugh. “I didn’t expect this kind of excitement but I don’t regret it.”

  “You sure?”

  “Not one bit.”

  She wasn’t talking about Tessara any longer. Getting shot at, attacked in her shower and whatever else might be coming her way was worth meeting Zak and everything that happen
ed after.

  His smile widened and he seemed to know that she wasn’t talking about Tessara, either.

  What were they getting themselves into?

  Trouble—that was what they were getting into—pure trouble.

  And she was down for it all.

  Chapter 18

  The lab was a gray square box of a building that sat back against a backdrop of trees, off a main road and away from through traffic. As they pulled into the parking lot, Zak felt it looked like something out of a sci-fi film where the government did secret experiments that resulted in something horrific.

  As in something that nature would never spawn and would probably try to eat your face off.

  “Home sweet home,” Scarlett announced, immediately doing a perimeter scan, checking the visuals against what she’d already gathered from their intel. “Good defensible space, though.”

  “It looks haunted,” CJ voiced what they were all thinking. “You sure this place is the right one?”

  “Don’t be such a pussy. No such things as ghosts,” Scarlett said, though she didn’t look happy to be calling this place home, either. “Tessara said the building is empty, no personnel, only security at night, which we’ve already vetted.”

  “Why does Tessara have an empty lab lying around?” CJ asked. “It’s not like having an extra pair of shoes, just in case you get caught in a rainstorm.”

  “Deep-pocket companies can have whatever tickles their fancy,” Laird said grimly. “Let’s get inside and see what we’re looking at.”

  Zak looked to Caitlin and she cast a giddy smile his way. “I’m excited,” she said. “To be in a lab again will be the first semblance of normal I’ve known in days.” She headed for the front door, excitedly calling, “C’mon, I want to see what I’m working with.”

  They went into the four-story building and took the elevator to the fourth floor, exiting onto BSL-4—Biosafety Level 4. “Whoa,” CJ said, taking in the clean room and safety protocols. “This is some serious shit.”