Dangerous Care (Dangerous Care Saga #1)

by M. M. Cameron

  Madoc pulled his head back and looked down at Kathryn. “I need you to do that again for me Kat. This time, I’m going to be inside you when you do.” Kathryn nodded her head slightly as Madoc tilted her head back and continued kissing her, going deeper and deeper with his mouth and tongue. Kathryn felt completely in his control as he took his other hand and slid it in between her legs. Her slickness covered her legs and his hands—the orgasm had her practically dripping. Madoc moved to remove his pants in one quick action. Kathryn reached for his shirt and started pulling it over his head, exposing his firm and defined torso. She finally saw the tattoo in all of its glory across his broad chest: a tribal grizzly bear interwoven in a fight scene with another worked its way from one pec to the other. Kathryn didn’t want to talk about it, but could only raise her hands to feel everything she saw. Madoc picked her up easily and laid her down on the towels below her, never taking his mouth away from hers. Kathryn could sense his urgency to be inside her and could feel his large cock straining against her. Using his thighs and hands, Madoc pushed open her legs and stopped to look down at her. His cock slid down her pussy, its head slick. They both stopped in that moment, sensing the importance of what was about to happen and how it would change things. To signal her willingness, she reached up with both hands, grabbing his head and pulling his mouth to hers. Madoc dove deep with his tongue and cock inside her at the same time. Kathryn spread her legs wider, letting him go as deep as possible, feeling the tip of his cock kiss the inside of her womb. Her body responded by ramping her closer to the edge of orgasm again, more quickly than before. Madoc moved into her hard, pushing her to the limits. Kathryn could tell her body would cum again if she squeezed her muscles tightly around his cock. She began massaging him from the inside and smiled as he groaned. As she neared the edge, she spoke into his mouth. “I’m going to cum.” Madoc pulled away from the kiss and raised up above her, driving into her deeper and harder than she thought she could stand.

  “Fuck Kat, oh god.” Kathryn gave one last squeeze that plummeted her over the edge and into the waves. She could feel him follow right behind her. His body was poised over her, all of his tanned muscles taut and contracted. Breathing hard, he rolled slightly to the side, opening and closing his eyes but always looking at her. Through a huff, he spoke. “The next time we do that it will be in a bed, with better wine, just us, and… no assassins.”

  “If you get me outta here alive and buy me a Big Mac, you got a deal.” They both rolled onto their backs as reality began to sink back in. Kathryn’s wine and sex high dissolved as soon as she realized she and Madoc may actually never get to do that again.

  The squall continued to ram the sturdy log walls of the cabin, rising up and falling with the snow that showed no sign of stopping. Madoc exited the bathroom first, gun sweeping the hall as the darkness welcomed him into the upper hallway overlooking the main room. The slight illumination helped Madoc guide Kathryn down the staircase towards the empty room. Tuck and Ryanne were not in sight but their wine glasses were sat on the coffee table half-full. “Tuck, you there?” Madoc whispered. No answer. He hoped to God that something hadn’t happened while he’d been distracted upstairs. Tuck would have activated their team alarm system if something was wrong… if he’d had the chance.

  A gust of wind threw the side door open, slamming it into the frame and rocking the glass in the door. Ryanne was pushed forcefully into the cottage by Tuck’s back as he continued to sweep his gun back and forth until he was fully in the cottage and the door closed. The tops of their heads were covered white, and wet melt streamed down their red faces. Tuck shook like a hairy mutt coming out of the rain and Ryanne moved to sit down near the wine, hands shaking uncontrollably.

  “Okay Doc, the sauna house is rigged with enough explosives to blow anybody that touches it away. There are tripwires by the windows that should send any intruder into a new postal code if they try to enter. That’s the best I could do in the time we had.” Madoc listened to Tuck without interrupting. He had begun analyzing the situation and the likelihood of each attack approach. He turned to Kathryn. “Go sit down while you still can. Okay, let’s go through this. They’re on a timeline—there’s no way they are stocked to last more than a couple of days and they can’t have been prepared for this weather. So what would I prefer? Sharpshooting from afar, hit the targets and get out quick—but they don’t have visibility and the snow squalls are going to continue. So, wait it out and keep an eye on the target to make sure they don’t escape—but that would mean staying in the storm… there is no way all four of them survive it through the night unless they have shelter in another cottage. Two on watch, send the other two to do intel or get in place, waiting for the right moment. But what if that moment doesn’t come, timeline again...” Madoc had moved away from the group but was still talking aloud, the wind drowning out his words. “So why not hit the targets fast, once, to see what happens, test the limits? Maybe you get lucky and catch them unprepared, take them down. Maybe you have to pull back but you have more intel on the situation—you’re not blind anymore and you can save your men until the next round when you draw the target out.” Madoc finally turned to the three pairs of eyes staring at him. Tuck was used to his process but this would be new for Kathryn and Ryanne. “They’re going to hit tonight once they are in position, at least one or two men. Something fast and easy that can take us all out or at least injure us severely so they can come in and finish the job. If we survive the first attempt, my thinking is that they’ll retreat to cover until morning. One may keep watch to eliminate our escape option. My guess it will be their best sharpshooter. A full-fledged attack in the morning… something that makes us try to escape in the vehicle or get out of the cabin.” Madoc turned to look at Tuck, waiting for his input. Madoc could be a dictator at times but he always listened to his crew’s opinions.

  “I’ll buy that. There’s also a chance they don’t know where we are. Regardless, their strength lies in the coverage the trees give them and the different angles they can hit us from. Our strength lies in our focal point, the cottage and the clock. If they can’t get us out, they’ll have to come in… and they don’t know our arsenal. They also don’t know numbers unless they’ve had eyes on us since we arrived… but with the squalls, that’s highly unlikely. They need to get closer to confirm who is in here. We want them to come in after us, that’s the only way we win.”

  Both Kathryn and Ryanne’s heads turned on Tuck at the exact same time, but only Kathryn spoke. “What the fuck do you mean you want them to come in? You said there were four of them, how are we supposed to beat them?” Madoc moved past the table he was pacing around and came to sit with Kathryn, still holding his gun near his hip. “Kat, you have to trust us, we will get you out of here. Yes, there are four of them—but, and I’m not bragging here, Tuck and I can handle them. Neither of us is worried about that—our biggest concerns are surprises. We can’t predict every move and we’ll have to watch and wait in order to respond. But I promise you that it will all work out love. Help is on the way.” Madoc reached under her chin and pulled her lips to his for the briefest kiss. Sharing a shocked glance with Tuck first, Ryanne finally spoke.

  “Oh now you’re fucking dating. This is so nuts. What the hell happened in that bathroom while I was out there risking my life with this meathead? We are all going to die. I need a cigarette.” Ryanne seemed to say this everyone and no one at the same time. She spun back to her wine glass and downed the rest. Madoc looked to Tuck, who was staring intensely at him. Madoc knew he had probably discombobulated his colleague, but now was not the time. “You take front and I’ll take back post. Ladies, stop drinking, we need you semi-sober in case you have to run. Pull a mattress from one of the downstairs bedrooms into the space between Tuck and I and get some sleep. You’ll need it.” The squalls rose up and slammed against the windows in the cottage, adding an ominous tone to Madoc’s last direction. There were no more words to say—the watching and waiting had begun.


  Chapter 30

  Kathryn rolled on the mattress again. Of course Ryanne was fully asleep, her muted snoring filling the room. Kathryn had tossed from side to side for what seemed like forever, unable to stop glancing from Madoc to Tuck. She was watching for signs of readiness or fatigue, anything that would give her a clue about their feelings. Both sat in simple wood chairs that had been made by her grandpa when she was a kid. He had been so proud of those chairs—he’d even painted Posey flowers near the top by hand. Kathryn smiled at the memory—she had forgotten it in her new life and now it stood, resurrected, in direct contrast to the two colossal men straddling them. She could hear the novelty chicken clock that sat on the stove ticking away, but couldn’t sense the time. Reaching out, she pulled Ryanne’s arm closer to her face so she could read her watch. It was almost midnight, and they’d been bunkering down since eight, preparing for the worst. The waiting was starting to eat away at Kathryn. The pregnant pause dragged on in her psyche.

  The chicken clock clucked midnight. Madoc briefly turned his head to the kitchen, where the clock sat on top of the stove and grimaced. Kathryn watched him silently in the dark. The candles had been extinguished as soon they had gotten the mattress in position, so he was hard to make out. Tuck had handed out low-light green glow sticks to each person in case they needed to move, but nobody had dared to make themselves a target.

  Chapter 31

  They had hit both good and bad luck when they reached the second cottage. It had taken them over two hours to navigate the snow-covered wilderness along the angry shores of the lake. Mohamed realized that without the shoreline as a guide, they likely would have been lost in the snow drifts amongst the trees. The cottage was empty and over a kilometre away from the first cottage where they had left the cars. As the cottage had come into sight, Mohamed had prayed to Allah that the targets would be there, but only a cold, empty two-storey shack with no electricity awaited them. Breaking in had been easy, and their first stroke of luck had come when they’d looked out the large front windows and had seen another cottage across the lake. They wouldn’t have been able to even see the cottage across the snowstorm had it not been for the slightest glow emanating from the inside. It had to be them. Mohamed’s instincts were confirmed when the glow disappeared shortly after they’d spotted it. “Praise be to Allah for our good luck,” Mohamed said to the team, who had gathered around the window, each still blanketed in white. Usif and Khalifa had not fared well in the snow and were silent. Adil, who always muscled through, nodded and moved closer to the window. “There is no way we can go around, it would take us all night and likely result in injury or death for one of us. We must go across—there is a boat near the shore. Adil and Khalifa, you two will go. Khalifa, bring the explosives and set the house to blow. If there are any survivors, Adil can manage them as they try to escape. If you two are successful, this whole mission is done and we can return to our beloved country as richly rewarded heroes. If you cannot achieve this, get as much intel as possible and return—we will reassess and determine our next attack.” Mohamed stared off into the abyss of snow and water raging below him.

  Adil turned to Usif. “Give me your sweater and weapons, we will need them.” Neither Khalifa nor Adil seemed at all anxious, but Mohamed knew there was a chance they would not be able to navigate the boat or even swim. If they did not survive, he would have to devise a new plan, one that did not include Usif and one where he found a way out of this cluster-fuck and back to his treasured homeland.

  The start of the journey went well. The aluminum boat came with two oars, making the trek possible but by no means easy. Adil and Khalifa fought the waves with each pull, each man using his body weight to encourage the forward momentum. The winds were against them, and freezing water splashed at their hands, soaking their gloves and leaving the nubs of their fingers numb. Judging by the distance, Khalifa assumed it would take half an hour to reach the shore, but with the prevailing winds and awkwardness of the boat, the shore still seemed like a distant dream after nearly an hour. They had hit several large underwater rocks already which meant shore was close, but the boat screeched in anger each time, threatening to empty them both into the freezing deep water. With each stroke, the boat turned sideways, an indication they were close to shore. It was a relief but also a nightmare—Adil attempted to exit the boat with one foot to feel for shallow water. The boat tipped sideways, daring to toss them both in. Biting the bullet he put his leg as far as possible, hitting ground and successfully standing on both feet, hip deep in water. Khalifa was glad he’d done it; he didn’t think he would’ve had the balls. The dark outline of the cottage loomed overhead as they pulled the boat up the rocky incline. Hand gestures from Adil told him to flank to the left hand side and scan the shed and cars, before preparing the explosives around the cottage. Adil would be taking the right and covering the small shed and extended porch. Khalifa flung his bag of explosives across his body and headed up the bank. Khalifa could see the clear outline of two vehicles: a small Sudan and a larger SUV buried in snow up to the frames. Khalifa peeked inside. The Sudan’s seats were covered in garbage and take-out containers. Probably the women, he thought. Canadian women disgusted and intrigued him. He hated their brashness and lack of respect but he loved the way they moved and smiled so freely. He moved to the next vehicle. Both front seats were pushed all the way back, both almost touching the back seat cushion. Driver and passenger usually only did this when there was nobody sitting in the back to accommodate. So: two KWAT team members.

  This was very good news for them. They could handle two, especially if it was the KWAT female called Charlie. She was mostly a techie and had by far pissed him off the most. Her skills were far above his own and she looked like a forbidden angel. She was the work of the devil.

  Cover from the vehicle gave Khalifa the reprieve he needed to carefully pull out his explosives. The snow and wind continued to swirl around him, covering his face and hands with cold moisture. He would set five separate bombs near the foundation to bring down the cottage in one enormous and brutally hot explosion. They would detonate from near the dock to allow a quick escape once any survivors exited the house and met Adil’s wave of gunfire. Khalifa worked efficiently to link all five bombs as he crouched, and said a prayer. “Allah, please be with me…” Tuck’s pre-set explosions broke through the howling winds with ferocious and blistering rolling balls into the sky, sending word to all witnesses that death had arrived.

  “…Cluck, cluck.” Kathryn heard the last midnight cluck and was about to crawl over to the bag of water bottles slumped by the kitchen table when the explosion ripped into the sky. Ryanne awoke with a start as Madoc and Tuck stood from their chairs. Kathryn paused on all fours, laying back down on the mattress as Tuck moved like a shadow to the front window. Kathryn had never heard an explosion before and would never forget the sound of the wild violent fire that ate up the silence. “The sauna is gone… hopefully one of them with it,” Tuck whispered as he peered through a small gap in the curtain. Kathryn’s mind imagined men in black surrounding the cottage, weapons drawn, converging on them right now. She reached out for Ryanne’s hand and found it searching for hers. She wanted to cry and scream and hurt someone, but most of all she wanted this to be over. Madoc limped over to them and dragged the mattress they were on further into the cottage, away from the front windows. “Stay here for now, if they survived, they are gonna know we booby trapped the place and will try to hit us from a distance. Stay away from the windows and stay low.” Madoc moved away, his gait slowing him slightly as he flattened himself against the wall opposite Tuck, picking up a semi-automatic weapon the size of his arm. Kat had never seen anyone move like Madoc did only seven weeks after injury. “If they blow the windows, don’t return fire. We can’t give them any more info than they already have. Watch for a grenade or smoke chamber. I expect that if there’s more than one here they will risk getting close. If they try to attack the other sides they will run into your bo
mbs. If nothing happens in half an hour, get the girls into the stone shower upstairs—they may have been scared off for now.” Kathryn felt reassured by Madoc’s cool analysis—he made it seem like they were prepared for anything. She hoped to God they didn’t blow out the big front windows, letting the storm infiltrate their little safe bubble. Ryanne began to cry beside her, pushing her face into the old downy pillow Kathryn had used to sleep on as a teenager. Tuck looked over at them for a moment before turning his focus back to the sauna. Kathryn’s appreciation for Tuck had just tripled with the explosion by the sauna. Whatever had happened out there had at least given them the heads up that the battle was on, potentially even scoring them a hit if one of those assholes had found a fiery demise. The clock ticked in the background, and the storm continued to battle against the cottage as they waited. Tuck suddenly moved across the wall towards them, his gait large and graceful. “Okay ladies, you’re going to crawl one at a time slowly up the stairs into the bathroom. No quick moments or standing up. One fluid motion. Bring water and pillows right now. Go.” Tuck motioned them with his gun up the stairs.