Protecting His Heart

by Dana Volney

  No! She stopped short because her legs stopped working, her heart stopped beating, and her breath was gone. She tucked behind a bush and stared. Her husband and her mortal enemy were having a pleasant conversation. Like old friends. Like. Fucking. Old. Friends.

  "Tu disteso il sacco di merda. Sto andando a tirare la lingua fuori e mangimi per suini,” she whispered in rapid-fire Italian and then tried to remember if she’d seen any farms close by where she could, in fact, find pigs and feed Felix’s lying tongue to them.

  Felix waved his arm in the direction she’d just come, and she closed her eyes for a moment, wishing herself invisible. Suspecting someone of betrayal was a hell of a lot easier than seeing it with your own eyes. Felix was not on her side. He was her enemy. And she had special ways of dealing with people who double-crossed her—all of which weren’t sanctioned, legal, or good-natured.

  She started to reach for the knife in her right boot, but stopped because the distance would render her blade ineffective. Her gun would have to do.

  Before she could wedge the piece out of her hiding place between her breasts where she’d jammed it earlier, Darek punched Felix. What in the hell? Felix fought back, effectively landing solid hits that put Darek down for the count. Then more goons joined the party, surrounded Felix, and he crumpled. Lifeless.

  Nausea flared in her throat, and she gulped a breath. Two of the Saudi Arabian bastards picked Felix up by his arms and feet and carried him, haphazardly, into the boathouse.

  She ran across the street in the last light of dusk, and when her foot hit the other curb, a truck screeched to a halt ten feet away. Eddie bolted out, rifle in hand, looking like the army version of David Beckham in the flesh.

  “They have him.” She tried to steady her breathing. “I don’t know—” She couldn’t finish that sentence. In no world was she supposed to be alive when Felix wasn’t. In no world was he supposed to betray her, either. Holy shit, he really did it, he sold me out to save himself. She clamped down on her teeth, pain shooting down her jaw then back up to her ears. She wanted to freak out, throw a tantrum, kick things, punch people, shoot something. But she couldn’t. Because all she could think about was Felix at Darek’s mercy. Or maybe dead already. Her heart didn’t rejoice; it didn’t beat in relief.

  It ached.

  “Where?” Eddie asked, and she followed him back to the truck for cover just in case Darek’s men started checking the perimeter.

  “We don’t have eyes,” Amelia reported. Seriously? Amelia was the best Wyn Security had to offer at this moment? Arabella balled her fists and took a hard look at the pier.

  “There.” She pointed to a shabby door on the wooden building that was not as big as the stores and restaurants on the piers around it.

  Urgency nipped at her skin and heated her neck. They were wasting time.

  Her soul had died when Felix hit the ground. Felix had claimed it long ago, and now he’d destroyed it. In Felix’s terms, she’d be Nox forever now. Her friendly smiles, happy laughs, loving touches, were gone now because they belonged to Felix. He was a part of her, could hurt her like none other, could fight with her like no one else, and could love her. Plainly love her. There was no hiding who they were from each other, and it didn’t matter—they were connected.

  She’d fought him all these years, pushed his buttons on purpose, because she’d been railing against the system in general, and Felix had perpetuated that with always being too overprotective. She was his equal and wanted to be treated as such. After their relationship had ended, it was easier to work alone. She completed her assignments without anyone worrying she wasn’t capable and had racked up quite the mission count. But she’d missed him, missed his smile, and missed his love.

  For better or worse, he was the one. He was the one she loved. She couldn’t leave him to this fate if he was alive, couldn’t turn the tables to prove a point. Even though he deserved it.

  But it would take one more round of Nox to make things right on her end. She shut down every emotion save one: the cold, hard practicality of saving Felix.

  “On our way.” Winter’s voice was strong. She’d rallied the teams.

  “I’m going in now.” If they hadn’t killed Felix yet, Darek would waste no time as soon as he was ready to leave. And she’d bet her life this is where Darek had a boat already set up as his getaway from their little meeting. Something she’d thought Amelia’s team had been covering, but apparently they were only prepared to intercept Darek when he was in the boat and fleeing—not in the actual boathouse.

  “Wait a minute,” Winter ordered.

  Arabella studied Eddie’s green eyes. He had her back. He was worried about Felix. Everyone else could cover her just fine once they were down here. “Cover me.”

  His resolve was that of a man who knew he had no choice but to agree. “Go.”

  He glanced around for a place to perch as she checked her magazines. She had three spare clips, a spare gun with one clip, and all her knives. She’d cleaned the bloodied blade on the on the pants of the guy she’d stabbed. These were her favorite set.

  “Be a Viking.” Eddie unfolded the stand on his rifle on the tailgate of the truck and pointed it toward her destination.

  Arabella set her bag containing the laptop in the bed of Eddie’s truck and took off running in a hunched position toward the back of the boathouse that filled half the pier.

  I will take no prisoners. Darek had forced her hand. She should’ve shot him in the head ten minutes ago.

  It could be a trap. Scratch that—it was a trap. But she had no choice. She wasn’t abandoning Felix. Not now. Not ever. She and the team would just have to be faster on the trigger. It was their only chance to save Felix.

  “That is my fucking husband in there. Shoot to kill,” she ordered for anyone and everyone who was listening in over the buds.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Felix heard muffled voices around him as his eyelids hung low. One second he’d been trying to keep Darek out in the open so that his team could regroup and attack, the next he’d been absorbing hammer blows to his solar plexus, punching back, and then getting tased from behind. He hadn’t heard or seen it coming. He’d been too focused on taking Darek alive.

  Darek was across the small, dimly lit room, speaking to someone, but Felix couldn’t hear their conversation or see the man’s face. There were, however, two men in a boat that looked a hell of a lot more expensive than the structure he was in and longer, as the motor was hanging out into Puget Sound. This was the extraction point. Fuck him, this wasn’t good. Roe was waiting in the open water, not policing the buildings down here. How he was still alive, Felix had no idea—he must be needed for a bargaining chip. Fucking stun guns. He hated those high voltage bastards and now with more reason.

  He paused for a moment. Silence. He opened his jaw and moved it side to side. He didn’t feel the earpiece. It must’ve fallen out either when he’d been fighting in the café or when they’d fought by the water. Either way, he was shit out of luck. By the look of the handful of men scurrying about, checking out doors, they were waiting for an attack. He had to get out of here before Arabella or anyone else on the team was harmed trying to break him out.

  “Nice of you to join us.” Darek towered over him, and Felix sat up as Darek leaned against the old, dark, wooden wall.

  Felix wasn’t used to having to look up to anyone. The perspective was different down here, a more sizable challenge. “What can I say? Didn’t want the party to end so soon.”

  Darek chuckled. “It’s a shame. You know I always liked you.” He sucked in a breath between his teeth and it made a high-pitched noise. “Right up until you tried to ruin my business.”

  “I tried to give you a way out to keep your cash.” Darek had used Felix to broker many deals in the short time they’d known each other, and Felix had known the powers that be wanted only the chemicals, not to ruin Darek’s business. In the world of give and take, which was exactly what all governments
dealt in, sometimes you kept bad guys in place because the unknown took more man-hours to track down and could be worse than the status quo. Darek had thought himself above the law, which was clearly a personality trait he still possessed, and had fought the takedown. The people calling the shots had then seen fit to make Darek pay for the hunt. Literally.

  “Until then, you were quite useful.”

  “I like to think so.”

  “You were much better at problem solving than my idiot son who put me in this mess.” A string of Arabic rattled off Darek’s tongue.

  “I wouldn’t be so hard on him. Not many men could resist her.” He’d never loved what Arabella’s job really entailed—making men eat out of the palm of her hand. But her fighting skills and the fact that she never gave any of her marks a second glance had always made him feel a little better.

  Felix hated where this conversation was going, but it was always better to keep a person who had kidnapped you talking. Always. It left less time for planning or irrational behavior.

  “Ah, yes. Arabella. She is quite the beauty.” Darek studied him with dark eyes.

  Felix resisted the urge to do anything—blink, cringe, spit in his face.

  “How long have you known her?”

  “Not long.” He tried to shrug, but the restraints on his hands made that action non-existent.

  “Long enough to form an attachment, I see.”

  “Not hardly. That woman doesn’t get attached to anything.”

  “But you do?”

  “Nope. I’m attachless.”

  “If I thought that, you’d be dead.”

  Well then. He’d count that in the “good to know” column of information being shared.

  “We may have had a thing a while ago.”

  “There it is. Why can’t we be honest with each other, Felix? Life would be so much easier. No?”

  “Are you going to let me live?”

  “Not likely.”

  “What has to happen for me to get out of here alive?”

  “Felix. I’ve had a price, a small price but even so, on your head for years. I’d be lying if I said it wouldn’t be nice to kill you right here and now. Unfortunately for me, I have yet to get what I came here for. Fortunately for you, that means more to me at the moment than your life.”

  “So, what I’m hearing is that you want the laptop in exchange for releasing me.”

  Darek took a long, loud, deep breath. “You are correct. We’ll have to party at a later date.”

  “Sounds like a plan. When should we start?”

  The reasons his team had worked so hard to keep Darek alive in all of their plans of attack were slowly being lost on him. He’d never really cared if Darek lived or died—he just didn’t want a price on his head or Arabella’s any longer. If he was going to be a free man, he needed to be free of his past. Darek was a part of that.

  So was Arabella. It was an entirely different story with her. He didn’t want her to leave. He wanted her to stay so they could build a future together—a real one, where they saw each other every day and slept in the same bed every night.

  She didn’t need saving or his protection. She’d never actually needed him—she’d wanted him, accepted him, stood by his side, and been his best friend. And that had scared the holy piss out of him. He’d not known how to handle his feelings, his attachment to this woman who held his heart firmly in her grasp. He’d experienced loss in his life, but never to a person he’d given his heart to. And he couldn’t imagine what it would feel like, how he’d crumble if she died. It wasn’t like her job was a relatively safe one. She was in harm’s way every day—what if she didn’t come home to him one night? What if when he kissed her it was for the last time? The mere thought broke him—the actual event would kill him. So he’d kept her at arm’s length, using their natural head-butting and schedules as a way to keep his distance, not let her completely in.

  He’d not been strong enough before. But he was now. Because he would rather give his all to Arabella every moment he could than live as only half the man he was without her.

  She’d been right—he didn’t really want to get back into the military life. He just wanted a reason to love his new one.

  He had to get out of this alive to tell her all the things he’d never had the balls to express before.

  • • •

  Darkness couldn’t have come at a better time. The pier and front street were lined with streetlights, but the ones around the boathouse had been conveniently dismantled. Fine by her. She thrived in the dark.

  The moment Arabella passed to the side of the door closest to the water, the one that opened broadside to her face, it swung open. She held her breath and flattened herself against the wall. I can’t believe I’m wearing fucking white and tan. Always stick to black when working. You’d think she was a novice by all the fuck-ups that had occurred this week. And now one of them had led her to trusting someone who didn’t deserve it. That would be the last time her emotions blinded her. Okay, probably not, but rage she could work with.

  Her mind screamed with scenarios, her body buzzed with a rush of invincibility laced with fear and anger, and her trigger finger itched for Darek’s head. She had to go in there and know for sure if Felix was alive or dead. The side door shut, and she continued the couple of more steps to the end of the pier. God help Darek if Felix wasn’t breathing—she wouldn’t stop at just him. Revenge would become her sole mission in life. The darkness she saved only for life-or-death situations consumed her and steeled her gaze.

  “I have eyes on your side,” Eddie spoke slowly, like he was being really still.

  “We’re moving.” Winter sounded like she was running. “We’ll surround the building.”

  Surrounding a building and breaching every point at the same time was a solid technique, one the Russian forces were partial to. It may or may not work well in this situation. All it took was for one stray bullet to end Felix. Or any of them.

  “Getting eyes soon.” She moved along the back wall of the boathouse and peeked her head around the slip that allowed a watercraft to drive in and out of the cover.

  Her view was limited—she could see movement of what looked like Darek’s men on the rickety wood landing and two in the boat built for speed.

  She sucked in a deep breath of salty air, adrenaline pumping wildly and her heartbeat in her ears. There’d be time enough to freak out later. Her present required focus. She listened carefully to hear Felix’s voice. Someone else barked orders, and then she heard a door opening. She turned her head toward the noise, listening intently for any indication she’d been made or that someone was walking toward the corner she was hiding around. It closed and no footsteps could be heard.

  She inched closer to the big opening at the back of the structure and listened again.

  Felix.

  Oh, thank God. His voice was far away, but he sounded strong. Only bits and pieces of their conversation wafted her way, but it had to do with the damned information she’d stolen. Felix was alive. They could swap—him for the damn dirty secrets. She leaned in a little more, doing a quick head count before backing away. She waited by the corner—the guards were checking the side door often, so she was going to have to time her exit precisely.

  “There are six in there with him. Darek brought a damn army to this party.” Her team had taken down at least five in the market and who knows where else around the city, and he had more stashed in the waters of the Sound.

  “Yeehaw. I’ve got a full mag.” Eddie’s playfulness was back. “Let’s do this.”

  The side door opened then closed seconds later. She hightailed it back to the truck grabbed her bag with the blasted laptop, swinging it over her shoulder.

  “Felix is alive. I’m going to make a trade out front.”

  She looked around the area. The popular restaurants, tours by boat, and other attractions were farther north—no one was around this part of the waterfront. She didn’t mind that Darek and his
men might die tonight; she didn’t need innocent people’s blood on her hands, though.

  “Ready,” came through in simulcast from Winter and Alex.

  She stood, gun in her right hand, and swung her hips like she was going to dinner and wearing a stupidly fancy dress. She needed to be confident when trying not to get herself or Felix killed. As fake as it was, perceived swagger always made her feel better and in control.

  She stopped in the street, squared with the main entrance. “Darek. I have something you want,” she shouted into the brisk night air. She waited a couple of beats then called out to him again.

  An engine fired up from the structure, and she started to breathe faster as she monitored the area for any movement. Was Darek going to leave without getting what he came here for in the first place? Had he killed Felix after she left the back of the building to grab her bag? Her throat started to tighten with fear. She had to see Felix again—look into his ice blue eyes one more time and ask why.

  The door to the boathouse swung open, and two armed guards sporting AR-15s trained on her body walked out then took a step to their respective sides. Good. Now she was getting somewhere.

  “You forgot something.” She made a fist before swinging her purse around to take out the laptop that had caused her so much trouble. She held it out to him with one hand. Darek’s sharp glare focused on it like a cat to a laser red dot as his brows knitted together.

  “It seems we each have something the other wants.” He snapped his fingers, and Felix was pushed through the door. The streetlights illuminated Felix’s arms bound in front with a rope.

  His beautiful stare bore into her. He. Was. Pissed. Of course I was going to come after you. Whether you deserved it or not. She arched an eyebrow at him momentarily before turning her smirk back to Darek. “Hardly seems fair.” She winked.

  Darek scanned the street before looking up. “I know you have people with you. What are my assurances that I can leave after our trade?”

  “I have none to offer. We are going on the honor system.” She stretched out her hand with the laptop. He was going to have to walk out to her if he wanted it.