Designated Target

by Karen Anders

  She preceded him out of the bathroom, but stopped short outside the door. “Um, you go ahead. I just need a moment.”

  He nodded and slid past her. “Don’t think too hard about it, Sky,” he said, disappearing out of the bedroom door.

  She swiped at her eyes, wondering when she’d lost her mind.

  That was simple. The instant she’d stopped taking care of herself and let herself lean on somebody. Maybe he’d had the right idea all along. Letting themselves want each other, giving in to that want, led to allowing themselves to depend on each other. To needing things that they shouldn’t be needing...and wanting things they couldn’t have.

  Right now she needed a little privacy, a chance to regroup, to figure out what she wanted—no, what she needed to do next. She knew what she wanted.

  She leaned back against the closed bathroom door and let out a long, contented sigh now that Vin couldn’t see her. Yeah, the thought of him taking her roughly was back. She squeezed her eyes shut. It only made the images in her mind stronger. The sensations, how he filled her when he’d been thrusting inside of her, made her thighs clench together as her muscles jumped at the thought of him.

  She turned suddenly away and rubbed vigorously at her face, catching her reflection in the mirror as she did so. It stunned her that she looked no different, completely unchanged, same long, dark hair, same delicate arched brows, her full mouth and plump lips and the same cobalt-blue eyes. She looked closer, meeting her gaze headlong in the mirror. No, she’d been wrong. The blue was the same, but that depth was new. Something that hadn’t been there before she’d gone through this ordeal. Before she’d met a very special agent. Confusion was new to her, though. Usually her head was quite clear. Her gaze landed right on the bed. How likely was it that they wouldn’t end up back there? Not long from now. She took a long, deep breath as her body made it clear that it was enthusiastically on board. So much for regrouping.

  She jumped when his voice came sailing in through the open bedroom door. “If you don’t get your butt out here, Sky, I’m going to carry you over my shoulder, then force-feed you with choo-choo whistle sounds.”

  She snorted. She was a goner. How was she supposed to shore up her defenses, resume her steely-eyed distance from a guy who’d brought her through hell, taken her to heaven, then made her laugh?

  Chapter 10

  Chris paced while the news played in the background. He could hear Sia laughing as she bathed their son, Raphael.

  Why the hell hadn’t Fitzgerald checked in? He was already skating on thin ice with the director for disappearing with Dr. Baang.

  His cell rang, and he snatched it off the coffee table. “Vargas.”

  “Boss, it’s me.”

  “Beau, what are you still doing at work?”

  “I couldn’t relax, knowing that there are tangos out there dogging Vin. I found some hacking activity on our database. Not much of a breach, but they got something on Vin.”

  “What the hell!”

  “The guy was good, but not good enough to get deeper into our database. IT is on it.”

  “They damn well better be. Where’s Vin’s family?”

  “Boston.”

  “Call the field office and get some agents over to his family’s residence. Tell them to use caution, and, for the love of God, don’t freak out the family. If he doesn’t call in soon, he’s going to be in even hotter water.”

  “He’s doing his job, boss. Protecting Dr. Baang. I don’t know how the safe house was compromised unless there was an internal leak. It seems to me he’s justified.”

  “We have protocol for a reason, Beau. Do you have any idea where he could have gone?”

  “No, but I can dig around and see if I can come up with something. I’ll call you back if I find out anything.”

  “I’m worried about him, too. See what you can do. Is Amber there, too?”

  “Um...would you believe me if I said no?”

  “No.”

  Chris hung up, but then his cell phone chimed again. He answered.

  “Special Agent Vargas, this is Dr. Russell Coyne,” the man on the other line said. “I was wondering if Dr. Baang is all right. I’ve tried her cell numerous times and she’s not answering.”

  “There was an incident at the safe house. She’s been moved.”

  “I really need to speak with her. I have a presentation at the end of the week, and I need the results of a test she recently ran. It’s imperative.”

  “I’ll see what I can do to help, but her safety is much more important than data, Dr. Coyne.”

  “Of course it is. I’m as concerned about her welfare as you are. If you could ask her to call me as soon as she can, I would very much appreciate it.”

  “I’ll relay the message when I can.”

  “Thank you. Good night.”

  Chris disconnected the call and swore softly under his breath. He got up and walked into the bathroom. “Sia, sweetheart, I have to go back to the office.”

  “Is Vin still off the radar?”

  “Yes, and if he doesn’t call in soon, I’m going to have to put him on administrative leave and pull him off this detail.”

  “Really, even though he’s trying to save this woman. Chris, can’t you stall? You know Vin and how good he is. I’ve never known his observation skills to be off.”

  “I agree.” He cupped her cheek. “I may be home late or out all night.”

  “You do what you have to. We’ll be here when you get home. Be careful.” He kissed her and headed out the door. He wasn’t going to sleep while his team was working hard. One more head might help.

  * * *

  “That looks really good,” Sky said as she settled across the table from him. “Look at you. You set the table and everything.”

  “I have skills,” he said, watching her without trying to watch her. He was completely screwed. He knew it deep in his gut. Sky was trying to hide her anxiety, and really he didn’t even know her story. He was sure she had one, especially after she’d dropped that bomb about him wasting his time at NCIS when he’d first met her. The woman drove him crazy with the wanting of not just her body, but of that agile and brilliant mind. She was clever and funny, but what was putting that anxiety in her eyes? It wasn’t tied to the kidnapping. He was sure it was tied to him.

  He was the root of the problem, but he was very observant, could read people just like he’d read what kind of clothes she would prefer. It was all about that knowing he’d always possessed.

  She wasn’t even doing anything particularly remarkable or cute at the moment. She was just digging into her food, sipping at her iced tea from a bottle. He’d guessed correctly that she didn’t drink soda. She was dressed in faded jeans now, along with a light green T-shirt and an oversize sweater that refused to stay on both shoulders at the same time. Her hair was loose, spilling over her shoulders in a long, inky fall, no makeup on her face, her cheeks a little flushed from their encounter in the bathroom.

  He took a spoonful of the chili, trying not to think about what he’d wanted to do just a few moments ago in the bathroom.

  The mere thought brought his body leaping to life. He’d stayed away from her all day on purpose, trying to get his head around what exactly he was doing. This compromised him. Compromised his professionalism. He wasn’t proud of that. But was it just skin deep? Was it about the physical and sex? She was a beautiful woman. That was evident just from looking at her. But the complications and the complexity of her intrigued him more.

  He drew his eyes away so that she wouldn’t catch him staring at her with a sappy look on his face.

  It was getting close to her that had triggered it. He could overcome it.

  Exactly after he’d had her, like, maybe, a hundred more times.

  Yeah, maybe
.

  She reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Oh, I made garlic bread. I’ll get it.” She pushed away from the table, and he watched her graceful moves as she grabbed a napkin-covered basket off the counter.

  “That sounds good.”

  “It’s nothing to get excited about. Might be a little cold. Do you want me to warm them up?”

  “It’s all good,” he said as she offered him the basket. He reached out and snagged a piece of garlic bread. “I appreciate you taking the time to make it.” If she was aware how she turned him on, she’d run and keep running the hell away from him.

  It was both relaxed and amazingly awkward between them. He was pretty sure he knew why; they weren’t sure where things stood between them or where they wanted them to stand. At least he wasn’t, anyway. They both dug into the food, neither speaking for several long moments. “It looks like the snow is finally letting up. More wet than anything else. I won’t even have to shovel the driveway.”

  Taking a sip of her tea, she said, “How long do you think we’ll have to stay here?”

  “Until we find out if there’s a leak at NCIS or we catch the Russians, neutralize the threat to you.”

  “Do you think it would be possible to get my laptop?” She held his gaze steadily because she had to be aware this was going to rile him up. “At the very least I could keep working.”

  The threat to her was real. Giving away their location because she wanted to work seemed like a foolish idea. “I’d prefer to lie low for a bit longer. But I’ll consider it.”

  She gave him a quelling look. “You’ll consider it? I knew you’d react this way.” Her voice rose slightly. “Don’t I have any say in this?”

  She had said that her work was her life, had confessed that she really hadn’t lived much. “You have a say to a certain extent. I will be the one to assess risk. I don’t care if you get mad about it. I say we keep a low profile for now. I haven’t even checked in yet.” His voice had gone flat.

  She set her spoon down. This time her look was peeved and concerned. “Vin, I don’t want you to jeopardize your job for me. Isn’t there an alternative? A middle ground.”

  He bristled. “There is no middle ground when it comes to your freedom or your life, Sky. And I’m not worried about jeopardizing my job. Two NCIS agents were killed to get to you. There was a very short list of who knew your location. I don’t trust anyone right now. I was assigned as your bodyguard and I’m damn well going to do my job my way.”

  “Everything else be damned?” Her eyes went stormy.

  He rose and walked over to her, realizing that she was being driven by her own need to keep working, keep busy. “I know this is scary and you want some kind of normalcy, but not at the expense of your life.” He braced one hand on the table and the other on her chair back, his thumb caressing the soft skin of her neck. His anger was sparked by the thought of losing her.

  She was quiet for so long, he didn’t think she was going to respond. He’d been tough with her more than once in this conversation, not giving an inch on her safety, and if she didn’t like that, too damn bad. But bulldozing over her feelings wasn’t right, either.

  “I’m sorry I got angry,” he said, his voice rough. “I’m...concerned about keeping you safe. It’s all I care about right now.”

  She made a soft sound in her throat, her expression going pained, her eyes softening. She surged off the chair, wrapping her arms around his neck. His arms came around her immediately, crushing her close. She held on to him as the pressure increased in his throat. Her chest expanded raggedly, and he smoothed his hand up the back of her neck. “Dammit, Sky, I’ll keep you safe, sweetheart. Just let me...do my job.

  She huffed out an impatient sigh. “This is a pretty good tactic you got going.”

  “What?”

  “You know what. Using emotion to manage me.”

  “If it’s working, I’ll use it. Anything to keep you from falling into their hands. But let’s get something straight. I’m only managing you because of a threat to your safety. I’m not a controlling jerk.”

  “I get it. I do. I don’t want to be in this situation, but I am. I want you to keep me safe. I just want my laptop, Vin. I need it to stay sane.”

  “I get that and I’ll think about it. Trust me in this. I’m a cop, Sky. That’s what I do. Before that I was a marine.”

  “And before that?” The tension seemed to have drained out of her. His honest admission about keeping her safe had soothed her.

  His lips tightened and he eased his hold. She folded back down into the chair and he returned to his seat.

  “You don’t want to talk about that?”

  “About my affluent family in Boston? No. Not really.” All he had to say about that was how much he’d let his father down. Vin had quite literally escaped by going into the service.

  “Boston? That’s where you’re from?”

  Leaning back, he said, “Yes. My family is well-off and paragons of the city. I could have had that life if I had wanted it. Could still have it,” he said, the words sounding bitter even to his own ears. “Then I would be my daddy’s best boy all over again.”

  “At least you have a family.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound insensitive. But when you have these expectations hanging over you, it leads to a lot of disappointment. I’m just setting the record straight.”

  “I know about expectations. I have the ghosts of my parents haunting me. But you’re talking about disappointment? In choosing NCIS over...?”

  “The family business.”

  “Oh, that is tough. Where I come from, family is everything. It’s something to sacrifice for. But you’re such a good NCIS agent, can’t they see that makes you happy and fulfilled?” This was so different from the conversation he’d had with Brittany. She’d urged him to give up NCIS and go back to Boston, take up the corporate life and embrace his responsibilities, as if by working for the agency, he was shirking his duties. Damn, she so hadn’t understood him or even accepted him for the kind of man he was. No way to build any kind of lasting relationship. “I don’t think my father wants to acknowledge my accomplishments at NCIS because he wants me back on board. Are you happy with your choices?”

  She bit her lip and looked away. “Sometimes there aren’t choices, especially when you have talents and abilities others don’t have. Sometimes there’s just a choice, a promise.” There was an unnatural tenseness in every line of her body, such a tormented look in her eyes. She was fighting something that was intensely personal. Something that was eating her alive.

  “You are the only one who can shape your own life. Relying on expectations and absolutes doesn’t really work well. It certainly doesn’t make us happy with our choices...particularly if they’re not our own.”

  “I know it can’t be easy. I know your work is important to you on a personal level. I need to use my gift and try to do justice to my parents’ sacrifice. Aren’t those worthwhile goals?”

  “Yes, they are worthwhile, but life isn’t just about that. Keeping things in perspective goes a long way to making us not only happy, but fulfilled with what we’re doing.”

  “I guess my upbringing and culture plays a big part in how I see it. I can’t make it make sense any other way. I lost my mother because of my intelligence and my father last year. I’m sure that I’m not telling you anything you haven’t read in my background, so this isn’t anything new to you. They protected me with their very lives. That’s what scares me about you. I don’t want anyone else to have to die for me.”

  “You lost your parents because the Chinese murdered them, not because of you,” he said pointedly until her shoulders relaxed and she nodded. “Yes, I know your background. It was my job to read your file, but I didn’t know you then. You were just a designated target then. Now it’
s different. I care what you went through and feel for you that you lost your parents under such terrible circumstances. It also makes me look at my relationship with my family differently. Sometimes we take things for granted because we really don’t know anything else. I’m just trying to point out that people have to make their own choices and not buckle under the pressure of expectations.”

  She nodded and toyed with her chili. “I try not to take anything for granted. Maybe I have isolated myself in a lab and you think that’s wrong. But my parents were very protective of me after I was kidnapped. Fear does that to you. It altered them, and we were never the same as a family. It was always about that damn fear. Sometimes I cursed my intelligence. But, like your parents, they too wanted the best for me. After my mother was killed, my father became increasingly paranoid. When he realized that he was being methodically framed for my mother’s death, he knew he had to get me out of the country. The government wanted me, and with my mother and father out of the picture, they would have no impediment to their plans. I wonder if the Chinese...”

  “Are after you? That this is just an attempt to bring you back into service for them?”

  “Do you think that’s far-fetched?” Her mouth tensed up, and her shoulders froze.

  “I wouldn’t discount your fear, Sky, but it’s unlikely. I would wonder why after all this time. Surely they must realize that you’ve been Americanized. You now value freedom over captivity. You’re not brainwashed into thinking that it’s all about service to your government. Even here you have the choice on whether or not to serve your country or go into the private sector.”

  Her shoulders and mouth eased some. His gut instinct told him that they were after her for something she possessed in her navy-scientist brain and had nothing to do with her past.

  “I would find working for the Chinese government nothing but aiding the enemy. The United States has my heart and my loyalty. They also really have nothing to hold over me. I can’t be coerced into doing what they want.”