“Charges are in place,” Lukian reported. “We need to move, now!”
Green nodded. They could heal a lot of things. Being blown into tiny bits wasn’t one of them. “Alpha and Bravo Teams, pull out. I repeat, pull out. Charges are set.”
A round of acknowledgments followed as Green kept his eyes on the monitors. He mentally began calculating the amount of time it would take each operative to make it back to the van and then how far they needed to be from the facility to assure a clear, safe distance before detonating the charges.
Lukian and Roi were the first ones to make it back to the van. Roi took the driver’s seat and Lukian rode shotgun. Green thrust the back door open just in time for Jon to hop in. Glancing back at the monitors, Green spotted six red dots moving in on Wilson and Eadan’s location.
“Bravo Rat Three, you’ve got company. Consider my warning an early Christmas present. Roi was planning on buying you cheese. See, my gift is better.”
Wilson snorted and mumbled under his breath, “Asshole.”
“How many?” Eadan asked as he ran next to Wilson. The view, projected out from tiny cameras attached near the bands wrapped around the back of their heads, shook. It was nauseating but Green had grown accustomed to it over the years. Jon looked away, clearly not as conditioned to watching the image shake.
“If you’re planning on being sick, do me the courtesy of doing it outside of the van,” Green said, smiling as Jon’s face paled.
Jon nodded and then hopped out of the van. Green did his best to ignore the retching sound and concentrated on Wilson and Eadan’s progress. Finding it halted, he shot a glance at Lukian. “Captain, they’re pinned in.”
“Jon!” Lukian yelled. “Get your ass in here. Roi, get us to that side of the building, now!”
“Yes, sir.”
The van lurched forward, causing Green to fall against the control panel. He had a half a second to wonder what he might have turned on or off accidentally before he reacted. Green grabbed Jon just in time to pull him in before he’d have been left behind, and then exhaled loudly. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Jon said, his voice a bit off kilter. He patted himself once for good measure, obviously not as confident in his answer as he’d have liked all to believe.
“Green, is everyone alive?” Missy asked, reminding him she was up the road waiting. “Are they okay? God, please tell me that Roi didn’t do anything stupid.”
“Hey! I heard that. And I’ll have you know, dear wife, I never do anything stupid while on a mission.” Roi chuckled as he took the van off road and through a six-foot metal fence. “Hot damn!”
It was then Green realized he must have opened the lines of communication to the women when he fell onto the control panel. Now wasn’t the time to worry about it though. The van lifted off the ground again and slammed down, rocking its occupants violently. Equipment that was secured managed to scatter about, indicating just how crazy Roi’s driving was. Their weapons slid away, only to be replaced by others.
Lukian smacked Roi upside the back of the head and growled. “Brother, you’re going to get us killed.”
“Technically,” Green said, leaning forward, “we’re immortal, so unless you end up decapitated, blown to bits, or something pierces your heart, you should live. Granted, there is always the chance I’m wrong.”
Lukian arched a black brow and stared back at him. It was the one bearing a tiny scar he’d gotten when he was just a boy. Somehow, it had always made him seem more real to Green. “Not helping here, Green. Really.”
“Sorry, Captain.”
“Don’t apologize. Just don’t remind me how losing my head is a bad thing. At least not when I’m about to stick my neck on the line—literally.”
Laughing, Lukian leaned out of the window, his weapon in hand as he laid down cover fire. Wilson and Eadan were still pinned in. They wouldn’t make it out in time with the convoy of men dispersing on the other side of the facility.
Green grabbed a grenade launcher from the weapons chest to his left, thankful it wasn’t bouncing around the van as well, and handed it to Jon. “Open the back door and fire at the second level, fourth window in from the right.” He glanced at Roi. “Roi, spin in a circle, now!”
“Yeehaw!” Roi yelled, taking his daredevil ways to a new level as he came close to overturning the van. It tipped, lifted off the wheels on one side, before slamming back down and bouncing.
“Goddamnit, Majors!” Jon snarled, still looking a bit pale.
“Roi, if you get yourself killed, I am never having sex with you again,” Missy bit out over the headsets.
It was illogical but effective. Roi immediately began to behave himself. “Sorry, doll baby.”
Jon thrust the back door open and aimed the weapon higher than need be to aid in the trajectory.
“Eadan, throw power around Wilson and yourself, now,” Green said calmly into his microphone, knowing the Fae could handle the request. “And I suggest you run now. Trust me when I say a bullet is better than a building falling on you.”
“Tell him the head and heart story,” Roi said, laughing under his breath. “That should make him feel much better about his odds.”
A semi growl-like noise came from Missy.
“Shutting up now, dear,” Roi whispered.
“Oh shit!” Wilson and Eadan ran full force toward the van. Green grabbed a weapon and immediately began laying down cover fire for them. Lukian leaned out his window and did the same. Jon hit his mark, as Green knew he would, and the grenade exploded. Eadan dove into the van, careful to stay under Green’s line of fire. Wilson followed suit as something close to a sonic boom followed. Jon grabbed one door and Green grabbed the other, pulling them closed.
“Get us out of here now!” Lukian shouted.
Roi chuckled. “Oh, now you want my Andretti skills.”
“Do not make me shoot you.” The fake snarl from Lukian told them all he was joking.
Eadan lay on his back, laughing as they sped away. Flames engulfed the building, shooting out in all directions. Jon glanced down at Eadan. “Did you snap or do you always laugh when you come close to dying?”
It was Missy who answered. “He always does that. Give him about ten minutes. He’ll snap out of it. I went from one hot dog to another.” She would know how Eadan normally behaved. She’d been married to him years ago and had worked closely with him at PSI. Roi and Eadan had worked out their differences and had come to an understanding.
Roi huffed. “I am not a hot dog. More like a great big, I’m talking huge—mongo even—sausage. Blondie is the one with only a meager hot dog.”
“You’re oddly obsessed with my dick,” returned Eadan. “Something I should know?”
After dangerous missions when everyone made it out relatively unharmed, the men tended to rely on humor to keep their wits and their ties to something nonviolent. For too many years they’d been the silent operatives, going in and eliminating targets the world wasn’t even aware it had. It tended to wear on their human sides while feeding their beasts.
Wilson tapped Green’s leg. “Do me a favor and pull out the bullet in my shoulder. I don’t think it’s in deep. I can probably have it healed by morning.”
“Dare I guess how many bullets you’ll take when we get to South America? You seem like a magnet,” said Green, referencing their upcoming mission. They’d gotten intel on Gisbert Krauss operating a lab down in South America. Their current mission was tied to it all, being another lab Krauss was associated with.
Jon grinned. “I could use Wilson for target practice now so he’s good and conditioned.”
“I want to help,” Roi said, chuckling.
Lukian ignored their banter, pulling a chart out and flicking on his mini-flashlight instead. He was anal about the reports they filed with Colonel Brooks. Green had no doubt that Lukian would have the paperwork needed for the briefing done by the time the rest of them were home and showered.
Eadan nudged Wilson. “If
it helps, I have no desire to shoot you—yet.”
Wilson snorted. “Gee, I feel so much better now.”
Eadan snickered. “Yeah, I thought that would make you feel better. I’m charming like that.”
“Eadan, uhh, never mind,” Green muttered, unsure why thoughts of Melanie’s well-being hit him out of nowhere.
The Fae glanced up at him and gave him a soft look. “Yes, Green. Melanie is still okay. I can sense her through our bond. I’ve never been able to pick up on her activities, but when she’s not consciously blocking me, I’m able to read her feelings. I’m guessing she’s resting because it’s one of the only ways Melanie’s mind relaxes enough not to fight back against my power.”
Exhaling, Green nodded. “Thank you.”
“You know,” Wilson arched a brow, “you could just call her. Ask her out on a date. Read from one of those boring science books. Talk about mating rituals of penguins or whatever else geeks like you enjoy. Anything.”
“I will.” As Green said it, he knew it was a lie. He’d never gather the courage to ask someone like Melanie out. She was a woman he couldn’t understand but couldn’t get out of his mind either.
“Mmmhmm.” The look on Wilson’s face said he didn’t believe for a second Green would call. He was right.
“Not to break up this ‘feel good’ moment,” Jon pointed at the viewing screens, “but is that a guy on the corner of the guard shack with an RPG launcher?”
For a split second, no one said a word. The moment Jon lunged toward the weapons chest, everyone, including Roi, who was driving, reached for one. Lukian smacked him in the back of the head again. “Idiot, watch the road!”
“Oh, right.”
The rest of the men armed themselves with something capable of shooting longer distances and went into action. Eadan sat up, lifted his hands, and released his magik. It ran over Green, making the air around him buzz and the hairs on his arm stand on end. The doors to the van burst open. Jon and Wilson began firing.
“Take out that RPG!” Lukian yelled as if they needed to be told something so obvious.
Green tapped Jon’s shoulder. “Too high, you’re over-shooting.”
“Ha, Mr. Science Geek thinks he can do better.” Wilson fired as much as his mouth ran. That always left him going through ammo quicker than others.
Ignoring his comment, Green held his weapon, aimed, doing his best to mentally calculate the rate at which the vehicle was moving, versus the position of the man about to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at them, and fired. The man dropped as he fired the RPG. All of them watched in horror as a trail of fire seemed to streak toward them.
“Oh shit,” Green whispered.
“See, when he says that,” Wilson glanced at Green, “it’s always bad.”
“Nah.” Roi chuckled, glancing in the review mirror. “That’s going wide. It’ll miss us by a—”
The RPG shot past the van, narrowly missing it and causing the vehicle to rock violently. Roi looked at Lukian. “Umm, by a centimeter or two. See. All is fine. Anyone else impressed Green stepped up and nailed the guy with one shot?”
Putting his hand up, Green let out a soft laugh. “I am.”
“Just another day at the office, buddy.” Jon patted Green on the shoulder. “Nice shot.”
“I’m getting too old for this shit.”
“Aren’t we all?”
Chapter Three
Melanie Daly leaned against the wall at the upscale club, listening to the sounds of various Rat Pack members piped through the speakers. It was a place she’d always loved coming to. Not so much for the food— although that was good too—but the atmosphere was amazing. It looked like a Hollywood movie set with its high, vaulted ceiling and silver, black, and white walls. Art deco was something she’d always had a thing for and this place had it in spades.
The dance floor was full of couples enjoying their evening, and every ounce of Melanie wanted to go out and join them. She’d been shocked when her friends had shown up, demanded she pull her butt out of bed, shower and get dressed. Apparently, they wanted to cheer her up. This was certainly the way to do it. Especially since it was her birthday. The only problem was she hated her birthday and wished they hadn’t bothered. They’d only just celebrated Peren’s birthday and now it was Melanie’s turn.
Just over three weeks ago she was living life to its fullest—partying, getting ready to head into her last year at the university, and screwing a hell of a hunk. In the blink of an eye, it had all changed. She’d found herself in a whirlwind. Not fully understanding all that was going on around her, but gathering enough information to know something was off. Seriously off. Random thoughts that didn’t feel as though they were her own had begun to plague her waking hours.
The thoughts made little to no sense to her. Carrying an armful of books while wearing bobby socks and a poodle skirt was hardly something she was prone to do. Neither was obsessing over a man who had barely spoken five words to her. Yet Green was all she could concentrate on. She knew he was part of some secret operative team of men who worked for the government and that his specialty was science, but that was it. Well, that, and she knew she had to be around him. It was a compulsion she couldn’t resist. Didn’t even want to resist.
She glanced out at the dance floor and smiled as her gaze fell on her best friends, Missy and Peren. Each had their significant other with them, moving to the slow song. She’d known the women all her life and couldn’t ever remember seeing them so happy. Their boyfriends Roi and Lukian had come roaring onto the scene a little over three weeks earlier. They had actually kidnapped, for lack of a better word, Melanie and her friends. Their intentions were honorable so she let it slip by. They had been trying to protect Peren ironically enough from a kidnapping attempt. They’d succeeded.
The only real complaint she had about the ordeal was how easily she’d given in to one of the men—Lance. He’d been so charming and sexy that she’d been unable to resist his pull. Melanie was anything but a delicate flower in the male department and wasn’t ashamed to admit it. Though her fun and fancy-free approach to men had caught up with her with Lance. But that wasn’t something she wanted to focus on at the moment, regardless how much losing him pained her.
No. Right now, Melanie wanted to enjoy seeing her friends happy. She didn’t want to dwell on how sick she’d been. How she hadn’t been able to hold down anything of substance in over a week or how sleeping was a thing of the past. Now all she did was toss and turn, every joint in her body aching as her muscles tightened painfully.
Flexing her fingers, Melanie did her best to try to keep the cramps away but knew she would fail. She let her power up, careful not to let others around her know what she was doing. The last thing she wanted was anyone to know who or what she was. It wasn’t like her best friends would understand. No. They’d probably freak if they found out that she was anything but human. And she didn’t want them hurt because they learned the truth of what she was.
Besides, they hadn’t even wanted to believe her when she’d tried to tell them the truth—that Lance had shifted into an animal while they were having sex. There was no way they’d believe and understand that Melanie was more than met the eye—a mythological creature, a Fae.
The feeling of being watched came over her and Melanie pulled her gifts back into herself quickly. Turning, she searched the club but found nothing out of the ordinary. Still, the feeling returned. It wasn’t off-putting so much as it was comforting.
“Want to dance?” Wilson, one of the men who hung around with Roi and Lukian, appeared next to her with a silly grin on his face.
He was handsome; hell, they all were. How they managed to be a covert paramilitary anything was beyond her. The five of them looked like a sex squad: lethal, drop-dead gorgeous, and mysterious. Melanie glanced over Wilson’s shoulder and spotted Jon, a sandy-blond-haired man with the most off-putting amber eyes she’d ever seen. He was talking with someone Melanie couldn’t see.
Where’s Green?
Wilson waved a hand before her face and grinned. “I should be offended that you seem to be interested in everything but me, but I’m not. Want to dance, or spend the evening checking out Jon?”
Letting out a soft laugh, Melanie put her hand in his. It wasn’t Jon she wanted to spend the evening checking out. The one she wanted hadn’t come in with them and she hadn’t wanted to be obvious and ask about him. It wasn’t like her to pine after any man, especially not one who didn’t seem interested in her in the least. In addition to that, Green, the man who had caught her fancy, was completely opposite the men she was normally attracted to.
As Wilson led her out to the dance floor, she felt the intense weight of someone’s stare on her once more and shivered. Wilson, who stood only one inch taller than her since she was in spiked heels, touched her bare shoulder. “You’re cold.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, still unable to shake the feeling someone was watching them closely.
Wilson began to dance, matching her step for step. His brows rose. “Hey, you’re good at this.”
Smiling, Melanie nodded. “So are you. Care to tell me how you learned?”
He mumbled something under his breath and kept pace with her. Not really leading, but keeping up just fine.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“Green taught me,” he said, sounding as though it were a national secret he didn’t want let out. Maybe it was.
The mere mention of Green made her body tighten. “Where is he tonight?”
“Who? Green?” Wilson gave her a mischievous smile as he lifted her hand in the air and spun her in a circle as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” played in the background. The house band was amazing and a favorite of hers. She’d logged many hours staying past closing, singing along with them as they jammed. “He’s here. He came with Jon.”
Radar Deception Page 3