Fire and Ice (Guardians)

by Paige, Victoria

  The front of the stonehouse had been shot up. All windows were broken, the inside was probably riddled with bullets. But it had been a one-sided fight. It had been apparent within the first few minutes of the firefight that Jack's team was superior.

  Six men had assaulted the stonehouse, six very inexperienced thugs. What baffled Jack was that the Russian would send a crew such as this. They had come in all guns blazing without any semblance of strategy. It was like watching a video game in which the bad guys jumped out from behind a wall (or in this case a tree), started shooting, and then jumped back into hiding. What message was the Russian sending?

  "You're surrounded, you might as well give up," Jack called out. What was the guy waiting for? It was like he was stalling. Did he think they couldn't wait him out? They could of course smoke him out with a hail of gun fire, but Jack wanted answers and didn't want to risk fatally wounding the last gunman.

  Police sirens started blaring in the distance. Took them long enough, Jack thought.

  "Hear that? The police are on their way. You've got nowhere to go, best for you to surrender. If you've got more buddies coming they aren't ..." Jack didn't finish his sentence because a muffled but very distinct explosion rumbled in the distance.

  "What the hell was that?" Jack shouted in alarm.

  "That's your boat exploding," the last gunman said smugly. He came out from his cover, his hand held high in surrender. "We were just the distraction to split up your men. We knew you had an escape route behind the house."

  "Secure him!" Jack yelled to the bodyguards as he darted around the house towards the edge of the cliff and stared in horrific disbelief at the fiery debris on the ocean. Hell no! Not again. This was not happening again. His parents, Brett and ... Maia. His Maia.

  Jack shakily pulled out his comms. "Taylor, come in ... Taylor, God damn it!"

  Static. Jack couldn't breathe. He had never felt such paralyzing fear in his life. Nothing compared. Not what had happened twelve years before. Not his most harrowing missions as a SEAL. Nothing.

  "Jack," Taylor's voice came over the radio. Jack could hear the distinct sound of his mom wailing in the background, plus a couple of voices. Thank God. Oh. Thank. God.

  "What the fuck was that explosion?" Jack growled through comms, his relief quickly being replaced by anger. "Is everyone okay?"

  "We were pursued by enemy fire, there was a black speed boat," Taylor began, his voice shaken.

  Fear crept back in as he rephrased his question, "Was anyone hurt?"

  Silence.

  "Taylor, was anyone hurt?"

  "Maia went after them in the jet ski," Taylor continued. Jack closed his eyes, his chest constricting tightly as he dreaded Taylor's next words.

  "I'm sorry, Jack. They were gaining on us, they had an RPG," Taylor's voice cracked. "Maia drove her jet ski into their boat."

  Fuck. Damn you, Maia. Jack felt the back of his eyes stinging.

  Jack returned to the stonehouse. It was close to midnight, six hours after the explosion of the black boat. He had just gotten back from doing search and rescue operations with the U.S. Coast Guard. The waves were starting to get rough from the oncoming Nor'Easter, so they had had to call off the search. They found only two male remains and a bunch of debris from the black boat and the jet ski. There were no signs of Maia or the third person from the boat.

  The Coast Guard was pessimistic about any possibility of there being any survivors. After his initial reaction, Jack would not give up hope: he demanded proof, he would not believe she was dead until he saw a body.

  Derek had called him a few minutes before. Viktor was concerned because an alarm had gone off in their system indicating that Maia's phone had gone off the grid. Jack told him the news.

  Derek, after muttering a string of expletives, said, "I'm with you, Jack. I don't care what the fucking Coast Guard says. This is Maia we're talking about. She's been in worse scrapes than this. She jumped off a low flying helicopter once before it smashed into the mountain."

  Jesus Christ, Jack thought.

  "She broke her arm," Derek continued. "Bitched and moaned about the broken arm, and we joked for days that she had used up the last of her nine lives but..."

  "Derek," Jack said wearily.

  "Right. I'm sorry, Jack," Derek sighed. "I'm scared for her too. I guess I was trying to make myself feel better. I should let Viktor know what's going on."

  After his call with Derek, Jack had walked into the living room, which was shot up pretty bad but usable. Everyone was still awake, though his mom appeared to have dozed off on the couch. They rose when he came in.

  "Anything?" Brett asked.

  Jack shook his head.

  "I'm sorry, Jack," Brett said, his voice cracking. "I am such a fuck up."

  Jack did not say anything, but simply looked numbly at his brother. His emotions were tightly coiled, and he was afraid he might lose it like he had done earlier.

  After Taylor had informed him of what Maia had done, Jack went berserk: he went for the gunman who had surrendered to them and started beating the guy up, demanding the name and whereabouts of the man who had sent them. It took Brody and Maddox to pull him off. Thankfully, the police arrived, along with Detective Rick Tanner. Jack had nearly decked Rick too when he wanted to detain him when all Jack wanted to do was to go look for Maia.

  "You stop me, Tanner and I will shoot you," Jack growled as Rick got in his face.

  "Got five dead guys, and what looks like a war zone over here," the detective said. "You got permits for all those guns?"

  "Fuck you, Tanner," Jack snapped and pushed the detective out of the way. When Rick refused to budge, Jack threw back his arm ready to let fly.

  "Jack, calm down and tell me what is going on?" Rick asked, stepping away as he realized that Jack was half out of his mind. Rick held up his hands, letting Jack know that he was listening.

  Jack stalked off to the cliff and pointed in the direction of the burning boat.

  Rick stared at the devastation, stunned.

  "Maia is missing," Jack said hoarsely. "She rammed a jet ski into the boat that was pursuing my family."

  "Oh my God," Rick breathed unbelievingly.

  "Now, detective, any more questions?"

  Tanner stepped aside to let him go.

  Jack got into his SUV and told Rick that his parents, Taylor and Brett should be on the way back and he could take their statements.

  Jack thought of his last words to her: Please protect them, Maia. And she did, probably at the cost of her own life.

  CHAPTER NINE

  It was 2 am on Sunday morning. The breeze had started picking up and a light drizzle had begun to fall. Jack was sitting in the living room with Kane Taylor, a comprehensive map of the Outer Banks rolled out on the coffee table. They were studying the topography of the barrier island figuring out where the current would push the pieces from the wreckage. Maia was wearing a life jacket, and if she held on to some debris she would have drifted with it. Jack struggled to remain optimistic, the water temperature was around 60 degrees and the weather had recently been on a warming trend, but the Nor' Easter could not have happened at a worse possible time.

  All through the ordeal, Jack did not once stop to analyze what he was feeling. The heavy loss that was weighing in his heart was pointing to an emotion that felt alien to him. He was afraid that if these deep sentiments overwhelmed him he would become useless to anyone. Maia was alive, he needed to stay strong.

  Jack looked over at Taylor whose face was taut with strain.

  "You should get some rest, Taylor," Jack said as he pinched the bridge of his nose, a sign of his own fatigue. "We can pick this up tomorrow."

  "I'm sorry I didn't keep her safe for you, Jack," Taylor said. "Instead, she saved us all."

  They both froze when they heard a vehicle pull up in front of the house. The other guys had boarded up the windows and put tarps over them to prevent the expected rain from getting in. He would have someone do m
ajor clean up after the storm blew through.

  Jack locked and loaded his semi-automatic as he and Taylor cautiously approached the door, which was surprisingly intact after the firefight. Brody was on perimeter duty.

  "Get out of the vehicle and keep your hands where I can see them," Brody shouted from outside. "Taylor, we've got company!"

  The two men slipped through the entryway, staying to the shadows when they heard a car door slam.

  "Holy shit!" they heard Brody say.

  Jack spotted the familiar figure standing beside the passenger side of a beat-up pick-up truck, his eyes widened in disbelief.

  Maia.

  Jack felt his pulse quicken, his heart hammering painfully against his chest. His throat was clogged with suppressed emotion that threatened to bubble up.

  She stood there, looking like a drowned rat. Her hair dried up in clumps, she was filthy with sand, grime and motor oil. Her clothes were ripped in places, but to Jack she was still the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

  "Maia, you came back," he whispered gruffly. He strode purposefully toward her and clenched her to him, burying his face in her saltwater-crusted hair. She gave a soft yelp of pain and he eased up.

  "Can't get rid of me that easily," she replied in a scratchy voice.

  He raised his head, looked deeply into her eyes and bent forward to kiss her gently, mindful that her lips may have been raw from exposure to the sea. Her body was seized with intermittent tremors, either from being in wet clothes for too long or from shock. She was holding up bravely, but he could tell she was on the verge of collapse. A feeling of fierce protectiveness overwhelmed Jack as he swept her up in his arms and carried her inside.

  He took Maia to his room immediately and started the shower. He slowly undressed her, careful that some areas of clothing may be stuck to a wound. He was relieved to see she had only slight abrasions and was not bleeding anywhere. However, the extent of her injuries wouldn't be known until he had washed out all the grit from her. He probably should've whisked her to the hospital immediately in case she had internal injuries, but the desire to have her to himself clouded his better judgment.

  "Maia, I'm going to shower the grime off of you and take you to the hospital."

  "I'm fine, Jack," she croaked. "Just need to sleep."

  She swayed where she stood and Jack moved to steady her.

  He held her for a while, waiting for the hot water to steam up the bathroom.

  He never wanted to let her go again.

  Maia's eyes opened, the smell of antiseptic making her nose twitch. An IV line was attached to the back of her hand. She was in a hospital. Jack was sleeping on a chair with his head resting on his folded arm on the bed.

  She must have made a sound because his head jerked up and he looked at her. He smiled as his slate-blue eyes flooded with warmth.

  "Hey, babe," he whispered, his hand reached out, stroking her hair.

  Maia tried to say something but all that came out was a croak. She cleared her throat and tried again.

  "Hey, what time is it?" she managed to ask.

  "2pm on Sunday. You scared the shit out of us, Maia."

  There was anguish in Jack's voice that squeezed her heart. "I'm sorry, there was no other way."

  Jack smile was grim, his expression hinted that this was not the end of the discussion.

  "Are you hungry, thirsty?"

  "Thirsty."

  Jack got his phone out and punched a button. "Grace? Tell everyone Maia's awake. They're gonna check her vitals and if everything's okay we'll be home soon."

  "Your parents are still here?"

  "Babe, they could hardly leave without thanking the person who saved their lives," Jack said softly as he held up a straw for her to take a sip of water.

  "I feel like I've been run over by a steamroller," Maia said after quenching her thirst.

  "You were lucky, you only escaped with a bruised rib, a couple of scrapes, dehydration and exposure," Jack said roughly.

  Maia leaned back on her pillows as she recalled what had happened yesterday. She had jumped off the jet ski right before impact, but the force knocked the wind out of her. She didn't think she lost consciousness completely while she clung to a loose board. The waves were rough and she was submerged a couple of times, but she somehow ended up in the town of Waves in the Hateras Islands. By the time she reached the shore, she was dead tired and just wanted to sleep. She didn't know if she dozed off or not, but she forced herself to walk to a road and someone gave her a lift.

  "I was lucky," Maia admitted. "I really don't know how I made it, the ocean was getting rough."

  Jack sucked in a breath. "I don't know if I want to strangle you or kiss you. What you did was suicidal."

  "Split-second decision. Had to stop them," Maia replied ignoring the clenching of Jack's jaw. He would just have to deal with how she operated. She couldn't deny that wanting to get back to him gave her strength, but right now with a pounding headache and her body feeling like she had wrestled with Godzilla, she didn't want to speculate what that meant.

  "We'll talk about that, later," Jack promised in a dire tone. "Don't roll your eyes. I mean it, Maia. We'll discuss this stunt of yours when you're in better shape."

  All of sudden, Maia remembered something else. "Did you find any of the assailants from the boat? I saw one of them briefly. He was clinging to some wreckage. He was as winded as I was, but I don't think he's badly injured."

  Jack stiffened and sat up. "The Coast Guard recovered two bodies. We know there was a third one but they presumed he was dead."

  "Well, they're wrong. If I made it, no reason he wouldn't," Maia said. She yanked out the IV line and moved to hop off the bed. Jack was on her in an instant.

  "What the fuck are you doing?" Jack hissed as he physically restrained her from getting up.

  "There's an assassin out there. We need to check area hospitals and any suspicious incidents," Maia said in annoyance.

  "I'll handle it," Jack replied tersely. "Will you settle down?"

  "We're wasting time ..."

  "Maia, don't make me cuff you to the bed!"

  "You wouldn't dare!"

  "Try me."

  "You don't have cuffs anyway," Maia replied mulishly, then raised an eyebrow. "Do you?"

  "No, I don't," Jack admitted. "Look, I'm calling Taylor and Rick Tanner or whatever his name is and giving them the heads up. Right now, the doctor needs to give you the once over and then I'm taking you home."

  Maia's heart warmed with the way Jack said home, but she knew it was a feeling she shouldn't be having, one of belonging. She quickly shoved it into her inner black hole, from which unwanted emotions had no hope of escaping.

  ***

  Maia lazed, stretched out on the sectional where Jack had tucked her in with a pillow on her back and cozy wool blanket on her lap. The attending doctor had given her the all-clear and sent her home but not without a stern rebuke.

  "Hopefully there won't be a next time, but if there is you come straight to the hospital, you hear? You're lucky water temperatures were not too bad yet and the storm had not hit." The doctor turned to Jack, "Make sure she has plenty of rest and fluids. I'll write a prescription for pain meds."

  The official story was that there was a boating accident. Rick Tanner filed the report and left out the deadly pursuit.

  When they got home, Brett and his parents thanked her profusely for saving them. They were supposed to stay until the Nor'Easter blew through, but with the new development with the missing attacker, Taylor and Jack decided it would be best for them to leave immediately.

  So now it was back to her and Jack alone in the house. Grace had left earlier before the storm got worse, but not before making a pot of chicken and dumplings.

  Maia must have dozed off briefly because Jack was suddenly sitting beside her, holding out a bowl of comfort food. Damn medication had addled her senses.

  "Want me to feed you?" Jack asked with an amused gleam in
his eyes.

  "Don't be silly," Maia retorted as she reached for the bowl. She was starving, she had only eaten a bit of jello at the hospital, so this was a big treat. Of course she burned her tongue in her haste to eat so she slowed down and patiently blew on each heaped spoonful before shoveling it into her mouth. Jack chuckled as he reached for his own bowl and they ate in silence for a while.

  Halfway through her food, Maia mumbled, "I'm feeling 100% better already."

  "Easy killer, you're not doing anything except sitting your ass on that couch. No videconferencing with Viktor either," Jack warned.

  "I'll give myself tonight to take it easy. Otherwise, this inactivity could drive me nuts."

  Jack set his bowl down and leaned into her. "I can think of some fun activities."

  "I'm sure you can."

  He took her bowl away.

  "Hey, I'm still eating that."

  "Later, need to give you a kiss right now," Jack whispered as he kissed her gently, lightly teasing her lips. He had his hands on opposite sides of her. Maia got impatient and wrapped her arms around his neck to draw him closer.

  "I don't want to hurt you."

  "Stop treating me as if I'm made out of crystal."

  She deepened the kiss and pushed her tongue through his mouth. Jack groaned and started devouring her lips. After a few seconds, he reluctantly pulled away.

  "No, you're not strong enough."

  "You started it."

  Jack grinned ruefully before picking up her bowl and handing it back to her. Before he could say anything they heard an explosion and the lights went out.

  "Must be the transformer, but the generator should have kicked in automatically," Jack said.

  He got up and walked to the window to peek outside. "Yep, it looks like the wind took out a whole section of the neighborhood. I see a swath of darkness all around us."

  Moving to the bureau by the fireplace where two semi-automatic pistols lay, he picked one up and tucked it behind him while he handed the other one to Maia.