Avenging Kiss (Savage Security Book 2)

by Karen Tjebben

  Hazeem had known the attack wasn’t over. The men would arrive soon to finish the job. They’d collect their samples to confirm their kills and gather whatever technology survived.

  Hazeem had staggered back to the jeep. The jagged cut down his torso threatened to down him, but he knew if he passed out, he’d be captured. He couldn’t let that happen. He knew too much. He clutched at his wound with one hand in an attempt to stem the bleeding.

  He’d jerked open the jeep door and slid onto the seat. His vision blurred as he started the engine. The engine roared as he floored it. The tires kicked up sand that mixed with the smoke in the air. Looking in his rearview mirror at the desolation, he’d promised to avenge Riya’s murder.

  In his search for justice, he’d utilized spies within the Afghan community and army to discover the team responsible for the cowardly killing of men as they slept. Then he’d hired others to root out where the team members now lived. Many had retired, and he couldn’t believe his luck when he discovered that a group of them worked at the same security company. That would make his job so much easier.

  Tonight was critical. He needed to implement the next stage of his attack. He may not have jets loaded with bombs to decimate entire villages, but he did have a sharp mind and a will of steel. Patience was also a virtue that he held. He could play the long-con. He was an expert at blending in.

  14

  “Logan,” Aditya whispered. She placed a kiss on his cheek and spoke his name again softly as she caressed his shoulder. She sat up, clutching the bedsheet to her breasts. His chest rose and fell as he breathed in and out. She lightly drew her nail down his chest. Goose bumps rose in the path of her nail, but his breath remained steady. She’d slipped a small dose of sleeping pills into his beer when they’d eaten. They’d slowly knocked him out and would keep him out for a few hours. When he’d wake, she’d remind him of their great sex.

  She stood and went to gather her clothes. Mojo followed her out of the room and down the hallway. The way the dog’s blue eyes watched her and the sound of his panting, she wondered if he thought the naked female body was beautiful too.

  She quickly put on her clothes and grabbed her purse.

  Logan’s laptop sat on his desk in the office. She pulled out his desk chair and settled herself behind the desk, lifting the laptop’s screen. She knew hacking into his system would be next to impossible. The man’s career focus was encryption and cryptography, but she could still spy on him. Old school stuff never really went out of style.

  She reached into her purse and pulled out a tube of lipstick, a plastic baggy, specialized tweezers, crazy glue, and tissues. She set the items on the desktop. After removing the cover of the lipstick, she rolled it all the way up. Then she picked up the tissue and wrapped it around the lipstick. She broke it off and set the lipstick and tissue in the baggy. Grabbing another tissue, she wiped the adjustable base of lipstick clean, making the tiny slit visible.

  She stood the lipstick tube on the desk and studied the keyboard. This was the hard part. Which key to use? Considering he lived his life on the computer meant that he could possibly use every key on a daily basis, but she had to hope that the odds would be with her.

  Working her nail under the edge of the F6 key, she carefully pried the key up and laid it beside the lipstick tube. She peered into the tiny space she’d created when she popped out the key. The key retainer took up some of the area in the void, but there was some free space.

  She couldn’t help but smile when Mojo set a tennis ball in her lap and looked up at her with expectant eyes. “Oh no, you’re not roping me into an endless game.” She picked up the ball and dropped it onto the floor beside her. Mojo cocked his head and whined. She chuckled and said, “No. Go lie down.” She pointed to the doggy bed nestled in the corner of the room. Mojo took the tennis ball in his teeth and slunk to the oversized pillow. He rested his head on his front paws and gnawed on the ball, keeping his eyes on her the whole time.

  Instead of watching the dog, she needed to focus. She picked up the lipstick tube and her tweezers. Working the end of the tweezer into the tiny slit on the base, she pried open the base. She set the tiny platform into her baggy, along with the lipstick.

  Smiling, she looked at the high-tech recorder that lay in the bottom of the tube. The dot was tiny, about half the size of a grain of rice. This recorder wasn’t available on the open market. She’d done a favor for a friend of the family, and he repaid her with it. He was able to smuggle the recorder out of his work place and give it to her. He was smart enough not to ask her what she wanted it for. This little recorder would be her way into Savage Security.

  Aditya was a perfectionist, so this wouldn’t be difficult. She had patience, too. She opened the crazy glue and squeezed the tiniest drop onto the top of a pinhead. Then she inserted the pinhead into the space where the F6 key used to be and left behind a small dollop of glue. Then, using the tweezers to pick up the recorder, she carefully placed it onto the glue. This action threw her back to her youth with Riya. They’d played Operation for hours. Their father finally removed the batteries because the buzzing was driving him insane. She smiled, remembering how fun life with Riya had been.

  After the glue dried, she picked up the key and set it back in place. She pressed the key down a few times to ensure that it would press down and pop up correctly.

  She knew this recorder would only stay hidden for so long, but whatever information she could gather about the men at Savage Security and their jobs, the better.

  Aditya closed the laptop and stood. She gathered up her things, put everything in the baggy, and placed them in the zipper pouch inside her purse. She moved the chair back in place, and after taking a quick look around to assure that everything looked the same way that Logan had left it, she exited the office and set her purse back in its original place.

  Mojo followed her from room to room as she made sure everything was how they’d left it last night. Then she took off her clothes and dropped them on the floor where they’d been originally dropped. Mojo cocked his head as she stood there naked. She chuckled at his curiosity. Then she walked back to Logan’s room and slid in beside him.

  She watched him as he slept. She liked him. He was a decent guy. She knew he had to be punished, but she could easily understand his perspective. In a way, he was a lot like her. He used his love of science and technology to rid the world of wickedness. The problem was, sometimes innocents got hurt. Logically Aditya knew there was no way around that. Plus, she couldn’t deny that her sister bore some responsibility. Riya had put herself in the middle of a terrorist cell, which meant she was smack dab in the middle of the target. That was why Aditya had been working to rescue her sister. It came as no surprise when Riya was killed in a bombing, but that did not ease the pain.

  Everyone knew the Americans were constantly searching for terrorist training camps. Aditya had known that she worked against the clock. She’d hoped she’d find Riya’s camp before the Americans did. Aditya had paid off lowlifes and desperate people in order to find Hazeem’s training camp.

  That thought irked her. Riya hadn’t lived in a training camp. She’d lived in a death camp. A camp full of men whose goal was to destroy lives and most likely sacrifice their own in the process. It made no sense to her. They existed only to bring destruction to their enemy. They didn’t balance their evil with acts of good will. They didn’t rescue people when a natural disaster hit or offer financial support to struggling nations. No. Their goal was to unleash pain.

  Aditya had been hiding in the village the night of the bombing. She’d planned to get her sister out the following day. Riya always went to the market on Monday. There would only be one man chaperoning her, and Aditya knew she could take him out. She’d be able to approach him, and he’d never even suspect her. Once she’d dealt with the guard, she’d force Riya to leave with her. She’d get her clean and help her get her life together again.

  But that wasn’t what happened. The rumble
of the jets had alerted Aditya that her time had run out. She’d raced to the window and watched in horror as jets dropped bombs that cut through the dark sky. The brightness of the explosions blinded her. She’d turned her head in response, and what had been left of her heart dissipated along with the camp.

  Aditya had raced to the edge of the camp, but all that waited for her was destruction and the taillights of a jeep as it raced into the darkness. Someone had survived and hadn’t waited around for the next wave of the attack. She headed towards the decimated camp, needing to see with her own eyes that Riya was dead.

  The smell of charred flesh burnt its way to Aditya’s lungs. She could taste the death in the air. She stopped and hid among a copse of trees as a team of men paced out of the darkness and into the camp. Aditya didn’t hear them speak, but she’d known they were Americans.

  The heavily armed team wore night vision goggles as they stalked through the camp. They took pictures of the dead and gathered samples of their DNA. They would determine who’d been killed in the attack. She could only assume they’d seen the jeep flee. There were a few survivors that they finished off. Aditya took their killing as an act of mercy. She probably would have done the same thing. The survivors’ bodies were so badly burned that they would never survive. They would die where they belonged, in the ashes and ruins of their death camp.

  But regardless of the positive outcome of the destruction of the training camp, Logan and his coworkers were not innocent. Logan hadn’t dropped the bomb or killed any of the survivors. He wasn’t there to smell the burning flesh or hear the miserable cries for help, but he’d watched from the sky. He’d watched as his friends killed her sister.

  Aditya didn’t care about the men in Hazeem’s training camp. Their deaths probably saved lives; she was smart enough to know that. But the killing of Riya could not be forgotten. Riya was more than collateral damage. She was Aditya’s other half. Her twin.

  15

  Tuesday

  Mike woke before the alarm clock went off. He dangled his arm across his forehead and sighed. His life had changed so quickly. When he’d left the military, the transition was hard at first. He’d gone from having a detailed plan that could change instantly and require him to problem solve so that lives weren’t lost, to life as a civilian. To go from that, the feeling of each moment being so significant that lives were on the line, to the casual, sheepish life of a civilian frustrated him. It felt as if he’d lost his purpose in life. But when he started working for Cole at Savage Security, he felt like both worlds merged, bringing him purpose and peace. Savage Security offered him a chance to still make a difference, to use his special skillset, and transition into an average, healthy person who could live life to its fullest.

  Alisha stirred next to him, adjusting the covers in her sleep. He looked at her, and his heart filled with desire. They’d been through so much, overcome so much, in such a short time that their hearts were bonded in a way he never imagined possible. But Alisha was so much more than a girlfriend. She was his lifeline to peace. She brought joy into his life with her smile and vivacious personality. She accepted him, flaws and all. He knew he could be overbearing sometimes. That’s what made him so good at his job. He didn’t hold back. He didn’t second guess himself. He made decisions and saw those decisions through. But their relationship was at a transition point. He had decisions to make.

  He loved living with Alisha. He’d been surprised when she’d asked him to formally move in so quickly, but he’d done it. And he didn’t regret it. But when he decided to put his condo on the market, he realized the level of commitment to their relationship he was showing. He was severing the ties to his bachelorhood. Overall, he liked that. He loved Alisha. He wanted to be with her, but the selling of his condo pushed a more important question to the forefront of his mind. Should they get engaged?

  Alisha still slept as she turned onto her side and faced away from him. With one arm under her pillow supporting her head, and her bottom curved towards him, he couldn’t help but want to spoon her. He pulled off his briefs and dropped them over the side of the bed onto the floor. Then he nestled up behind her. He laid his head on his arm and pushed himself against her as his legs molded to her curves.

  “Hmm,” Alisha purred. She loved the feel of his powerful body pressed against her. She wiggled closer, her bottom teasing his cock. “You’re awake,” she mumbled.

  Mike loved the sexy sound of her morning voice. It had a husky tone that seemed to disappear after she showered. He draped his arm around her waist and slid his hand up her abdomen until her breast rested in his palm. He teased her nipple through her tank top, and she moaned again.

  Her body responded to him. There was no way she’d ever get enough of him. She turned a little and slid her hand up his thigh and reached around to his butt. “You need to be closer,” she urged, doing her best to pull him into her as she pressed against him.

  “I can do that,” Mike whispered in her ear. He sucked her earlobe into his mouth as his hand traveled towards her pussy. He loved that she’d stopped wearing panties to bed. Just knowing she was bare for him was a turn on. He cupped her soft curls as his fingers gently stroked her, spreading her wetness. She moaned again and pressed into him.

  He slid his hand around her thigh and pulled it on top of his, opening her to him. Then, with a few more strokes of his fingers, she was ready for him.

  “Mike,” she purred. The desire in her voice nearly undid him.

  “I got you, baby.” He eased into her, stroking her with his fingers and his cock.

  She wasn’t sure how long he’d been sliding in and out, but it wasn’t nearly long enough. Her orgasm barreled down on her as his fingers circled her clit. She pushed herself onto him and let herself go, her channel gripping his cock as she rode him.

  He felt her shatter, and he didn’t want to hold back anymore either. He thrust faster, and their heavy panting and moans swirled together as they started their morning right.

  16

  Bella went to unlock the office door of Savage Security, but it was already unlocked. She pulled open the door and stepped in. “Hello,” she called out as she made her way to her desk.

  “Hey,” Cole replied. “Back here.”

  Bella set her stuff on her desk and walked down the corridor to Cole’s office. She rapped on the open door as she leaned against the doorjamb. “How you doing?” she asked.

  Cole looked up from behind his computer. “Good.” He knew she wouldn’t like him digging into Eric’s past. It smacked of distrust and suspicion, but that’s how they lived. Trusting the wrong person could get someone killed. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “You still seeing Eric?”

  Bella laughed. “Yes. So far, so good.” She didn’t want to get into the intimate details of her relationship with Cole. Thankfully she knew he didn’t want to hear the details either.

  Cole scraped one hand over his well-trimmed beard. “That’s good. Let me know if you need anything.”

  She couldn’t think of anything she’d need from Cole in regards to her relationship with Eric. She certainly wouldn’t go to him for relationship advice. “Thanks, I will.” She knew Cole meant well. All the guys did. They reacted strangely sometimes because of their total lack of faith in humanity. Jack’s response to Eric on Saturday night had bothered her, but she knew he’d only had her safety in mind. She appreciated his apology. That didn’t happen very often. “I’ll get the coffee started.”

  Cole nodded in response and let his fingers tap away at his keyboard. He’d received a disturbing email this morning, and he needed to share it with the guys.

  Bella went to the break room and grabbed the coffee pot. She filled it with water and poured it into the machine. Then she stuffed a filter into the top. Grabbing the coffee, she counted out the tablespoons and hit the start button. Voices filtered through the hallway as the men came into work.

  “Hello? Special delivery,” an unknown voice call
ed out.

  Bella stepped out of the break room and headed towards her desk. Her pulse picked up as excitement revved through her veins. Waiting at her desk was a man holding a huge bouquet of flowers. Stargazer lilies, roses, peonies, and baby’s breath sprang from a sturdy vase. A little white envelope stood out among the bursts of colors.

  “Bella Chan,” the man asked as she approached.

  “Yes,” she replied with a gasp. “They’re beautiful.” She took the vase and set the arrangement on her desk. She’d never received flowers at work before. She liked that Eric was declaring his affection for her to everyone that was important to her.

  “If you could sign here,” the delivery man said, holding out a tablet for her to sign.

  She peeled her eyes off of the bouquet to take the tablet and scrawled her name across the screen. “Thank you,” she said as she handed the tablet back to him.

  “You’re welcome.” He nodded and headed out the door.

  The flowers were amazing, and the scent filled the room. A special thrill raced through her. Peonies and lilies were her favorite. She’d mentioned them in passing while she and Eric had talked the other day, but she never expected to receive such an impressive bouquet. It had to cost a fortune.

  She buried her nose in one of the lilies and inhaled. The sweet fragrance tickled her senses, and she realized that she’d never look at lilies again without thinking about Eric. Was this the first of many bouquets she’d receive from him? Were flowers his ‘go to’ gift when he wanted the woman he cared about to feel special?

  Bella slid around her desk and sat in her chair. She grabbed her phone and took a picture of the magnificent flowers. Then she sent the photo to Alisha in a text.