Rescuing Kassie: Delta Force Heroes, Book 5

by Stoker, Susan

  “So it’s not a huge division thing?”

  Kassie looked to Hollywood, not understanding the Army term he’d used. Hollywood shook his head quickly, letting her know the answer.

  “No. Just them against another small group of men.”

  “On post?”

  “No. One of the guys was bitching about how even though they’d be near the beach, they wouldn’t get to spend any time checking out the chicks in bikinis.” Kassie was ad libbing, but it seemed to be working. Dean was more interested in hearing the details than threatening her sister.

  “Where? Jesus Christ, just answer the fucking question.”

  “I’m trying, Dean! Give me a second to think.”

  “You’ve had two fucking weeks. Where. The. Fuck. Is. It?”

  Shivering at the hate in his words, she blurted, “They talked about a wildlife refuge near Galveston.”

  She heard Dean typing on a keyboard, probably pulling a map up online. She hated the sick feeling she had inside. Even knowing she was telling Dean exactly what Hollywood and his friends wanted her to, she still somehow felt as if she was betraying them.

  “The Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge?” Dean asked. “Why the fuck would they go there for an exercise?”

  Ad libbing more now—Hollywood’s friends hadn’t told her what to say if he asked why—Kassie said, “I don’t know, but they said something about their boss wanting them to get some wetland training instead of always doing desert stuff.”

  “Yeah, yeah, that makes sense,” Dean said, more to himself than her.

  “Good job,” Hollywood whispered before wrapping his arms around her, holding her sideways against his chest.

  “Is that good info?” Kassie asked, her voice genuinely quivering. She didn’t need to fake her fear.

  “For now. But if this intel is false, Karina will pay,” Dean threatened.

  “It’s not!” Kassie said quickly. “I heard them talking about it. I swear. Stay away from my sister. I gave you the information you wanted.”

  “You’re a good little spy,” Dean sneered. “If you want to keep your sister safe, I’d nurture the relationship with that fucking loser. We’re gonna want more info.”

  “No! You said the ball was it. You said I wouldn’t have to do anything else,” Kassie practically shouted.

  “I lied. Kiss your sister good night for me. Later.”

  “No! Dean! Dean? Are you still there?”

  Hollywood took the phone out of her hand and clicked it off. He brought his own, which had been in his hand throughout the entire conversation, to his mouth. “You get all that, Ghost?”

  “Affirmative. Am I on speaker?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good job, Kassie,” Ghost told her. “You did exactly what you were supposed to.”

  Ignoring Ghost, Kassie looked up at Hollywood. “I can’t live with myself if something happens to Karina.”

  “Nothing’s gonna happen to your sister,” Ghost said, thinking she was talking to him. “We got this. It was more than obvious he took the bait. We’ll be ready for him next weekend. Have no doubt. Hollywood? I’ll see you tomorrow?”

  “I’ll be there,” he told his teammate.

  “Later.”

  “Later,” Hollywood responded and clicked off his phone.

  He immediately turned Kassie so they were chest to chest and he hugged her tightly without saying a word.

  Feeling as if an hour had passed, but knowing it had only been a couple minutes, Kassie murmured, “We should go out and tell my dad what’s going on.”

  “There’s no hurry,” Hollywood told her, not moving an inch.

  “Uh, you were out there when he lost his shit when he found out Dean was calling me, right?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, Kass. I was there. But we aren’t moving an inch until I’m sure you’re okay and you know what a fucking fantastic job you did.”

  “I was scared.”

  “I know. That makes what you just did even more impressive.”

  “He’s going to do something to Karina,” Kassie said sadly.

  Hollywood shifted her away from him and Kassie knew he was staring down, waiting for her to look up.

  So she did.

  “I wish I could guarantee that he won’t, but I can’t. And I promised I’d never lie to you. But I swear to God, if he manages to slip by Fish, and he grabs her, nothing will stop me until I’ve found her and brought her home.”

  The tears she’d managed to hold back finally leaked through. “P-promise?” she choked out.

  “Swear to fucking God.”

  That made her smile. “I don’t think you’re supposed to use the Lord’s name in vain when you’re promising something as important as this, Hollywood. Or anytime, really.”

  “Sorry. I swear that I’m going to make your family safe, Kass. You know why?”

  She shook her head.

  “Because they’re your family. Because I want a future with you. A long one. Filled with laughter, fights, passion, and children. And in order to have that, I need to take care of what’s most important to you.”

  “I want that too,” Kassie admitted out loud for the first time.

  “Then we’ll have it.”

  Kassie closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then looked at him once more. “It’s late. You should probably get going.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, but didn’t move.

  Dropping her head to his chest, Kassie sighed. “I don’t want you to go.”

  “I know.”

  “There’s not going to be a point to come down in the next week since I’m working until late,” she told him.

  “Unfortunately, I know that too.”

  “We can talk on the phone. And text.”

  “It’s not the same.”

  The four words struck Kassie hard. It wasn’t the same. It absolutely wasn’t. But she had to work, and so did Hollywood.

  “Fish’ll be here and he’ll check in with you to make sure Dean is keeping his distance. But if you need something, like you’re at work and see that asshole lurking around, you call Fish first, then me. It’ll take me at least an hour to get here, but Fish is in the area, he’ll get to you quicker.”

  “Okay, Hollywood.”

  “Same goes with Karina. You’ll have a talk with her? Program our numbers into her phone?”

  “Yeah.”

  “In a couple of weeks this’ll be over, one way or another,” Hollywood told her.

  “Will it? What will happen to Dean and whoever he’s recruited to help when you guys catch them at the training thing? How is that going to keep Richard and Dean from messing with me? You’re not going to shoot them, are you?”

  Hollywood chuckled. “No, sweetheart. We aren’t going to shoot them. That’s kinda frowned upon.”

  She looked up at him. “Then what?”

  “My team’ll convince Dean that he doesn’t want to continue on this path of destruction he’s on. If he resists this convincing, the commanding officer received permission to drag him to Fort Hood to sit in the brig there.”

  “But he’s not in the Army,” Kassie said.

  “You’re right, but interfering with a government training exercise isn’t exactly legal. He and the Army lawyers will come up with a dozen different laws he’s broken and they’ll be able to keep him locked up for a long time.”

  Kassie shook her head. “He and Richard have been tormenting me for a while now, Hollywood. I just don’t see how this’ll make them stop.” Looking up at him with huge eyes filled with tears, she whispered, “They won’t stop until they’re dead. Are you sure you can’t shoot them?”

  Hating the despair he saw in her eyes, Hollywood still couldn’t keep the lip twitch back at her words. “We can’t shoot them.”

  “Darn,” she replied.

  “This will end after next weekend,” Hollywood repeated firmly.

  “I hope so.”

  “It will,” he insisted. Then he strangely said,
“You know there’s a JCPenney in the Temple Mall.”

  “What?” Kassie asked, keeping her eyes locked on his brown ones.

  “There’s a JCPenney in the Temple Mall,” he repeated. “This goes the way we want it, Fletch said you could rent the apartment over his garage for as long as you need. You could see about a transfer at work.”

  As stupid as it sounded, Kassie hadn’t even thought about what would happen with their relationship after the thing with Dean and Richard was done. Yes, she wanted to be with Hollywood, but the logistics of where she’d live and her job hadn’t even occurred to her yet. The fact that he was more than aware of both those things, and had talked with Fletch about the apartment, proved how serious he was about a long-term relationship with her.

  At what must’ve been the shocked look on her face, Hollywood grinned and said, “What part of me telling your sister she should go to Baylor so she could be near you to see her future nieces and nephews didn’t you understand, sweetheart?”

  “I just…it’s…I hadn’t thought about that stuff.”

  “Well, now you can. You wanna live somewhere else or do somethin’ else, I’m cool with it. As long as you’re doing it where we can eventually sleep in the same bed every night.”

  “You really need to go tonight?” Kassie asked, knowing he did, but asking anyway, making sure he knew how much she wanted him to stay.

  “Yeah. Now that Dean has called, I have to brief the guys and we need to finalize the details on this fuckin’ fake exercise they’re goin’ on.”

  Kassie giggled. He sounded extremely put out.

  “I’d much rather hold you all night and wake up with you in my arms like I did Sunday morning.”

  “Me too.”

  They stared at each other for a long moment, then Hollywood ordered, “Kiss me.”

  So Kassie stood on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed him.

  Ten minutes later, they reluctantly left the office hand in hand to talk to her parents.

  Hollywood talked, letting Kassie interject here and there with any details he left out. By the time they were done, Jim’s face was red with anger, and Donna looked shell-shocked.

  “I can’t believe the nice young man we knew would end up like this,” Kassie’s mom said, sniffing.

  “Anything you need from us, you got it,” Jim told Hollywood, all signs of disapproval gone from his face and tone.

  “Get my number from Kassie. And all of my teammates’ as well. I’ll tell you what I told Kassie, if you sense anything is off, call Fish…err…Dane Munroe. He’s here in Austin and can get to you immediately.”

  Jim held out his hand and he and Hollywood shook. “I’m sorry if I came across like an asshole earlier,” he said.

  Hollywood immediately shook his head. “No, don’t apologize. You’re just a dad looking after his daughters. If I’m lucky enough to be blessed with a daughter, you better believe I’ll be just as protective as you are. Probably more.”

  He looked down at Kassie then, and she blushed. He continued, “Unfortunately, I need to head out. Got to get back up to Temple. Oh-four-hundred comes early.”

  Jim nodded approvingly. “That is does.”

  Kassie gathered her purse and they all meandered to the front door.

  “I appreciate all you’re doing for my girls. Thank you for taking the time to come to dinner and get to know us. And for making sure Kassie is protected.”

  “It was my pleasure,” Hollywood told the older man. “Not only did I get to see Kassie again, but I got to eat the best meatloaf I’ve ever had. But don’t tell my mother. She thinks hers is the world’s best.”

  Donna blushed, but rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Thank you for the compliment, but my meatloaf is only passable, and I know it. But if you tell me my lasagna is the best you’ve ever eaten, that I’ll believe.”

  Kassie hugged her mom but told her, “You’re so full of crap,” when she did. Her mom was an excellent cook and they all knew it. She shifted to her dad and gave him a bear hug. “Love you, Dad.”

  “Love you too, Kass. You take care, hear?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Hollywood wrapped his arm around her waist and led her to their cars, which were sitting in the driveway. He’d met her at her parents’ house since he’d come up from Temple that evening. They stood by his car and Kassie sighed heavily.

  “What was that for?” he asked, once more pulling her against him.

  “I want to make out with you, but don’t think it’s exactly appropriate in my parents’ driveway. The neighbors are all probably spying on us. Not to mention Karina, and with my luck, Dean too since I told him I was here.”

  “Normally, I wouldn’t give a shit,” Hollywood told her with a grin. “But because I’m still trying to impress your dad, and don’t want him to come out of the house with a shotgun, I’m gonna play it safe tonight.” His smile died then. “You’ll call when you get home from work every night?”

  “I’ll call,” she reassured him.

  “Tell me you have next Saturday off,” he demanded.

  “I have next Saturday off,” Kassie reassured him. “I’m supposed to come over here and help Karina get ready for the dance. Do you think that’s still okay?”

  “Yeah. It’ll be fine.”

  “And you’re still coming to my place?” Kassie tentatively asked. He’d said he would be with her rather than at the refuge with his team, but she wasn’t sure.

  “Absolutely,” he said with conviction. “There’s no other place I’d be.”

  “Okay. Then I’ll see you next weekend.”

  He nodded, then leaned down and kissed her. It wasn’t a peck on the lips, but it also wasn’t anything that would have her dad storming out of the house threatening his life, either. When he pulled back, he said, “One of the best sexual memories I have is when I made you come without even touching your bare skin. I dream about the orgasm I had that afternoon. I want to make love to you so badly, I ache.”

  When he paused, Kassie tentatively asked, “But?” as it seemed like there was a big one there.

  “But I’d like to wait until you’re free of Jacks. And Dean. When you know that we’re together because we want to be, not because I’m keeping you safe. Not because you were blackmailed into getting to know me. When we’re two regular people dating and moving forward with meshing our lives together, that’s when I’ll make you mine, and you’ll make me yours.”

  “You’re awfully sure of yourself,” Kassie teased.

  “Actually, I’m not. I’m absolutely terrified, sweetheart,” Hollywood told her in a soft voice.

  “Of what?” she asked, blown away.

  “That you’ll come to your senses and wonder what the fuck you’re doing with a Special Forces soldier who gets called away on missions sometimes without any warning. That you’ll decide my OCD when it comes to keeping my apartment clean is something you can’t deal with. That you’ll stop thinking me not having a proper bed is cute. That once this is over, you’ll realize that you don’t need anyone to protect you because you’ve been doing a hell of a job of it all by yourself for a fuck of a long time.”

  “Hollywood, I’m not going to think that. You don’t need to be afraid.”

  “I’ve never had a real relationship. Not one where I want it to continue forever. I’m afraid I’m going to screw it up.”

  “The last relationship I had I thought was going to be forever, and the man forced me to drink foul-tasting punch, French kiss his friends, and is now threatening to do something horrible to my sister. I don’t think you can screw this relationship up that badly. I think you’re good.”

  Kassie was relieved when Hollywood smiled down at her. She didn’t like to think of him as scared. He seemed invincible to her. He was her strength when she didn’t have it and stood like a wall between her and anything that might hurt her.

  “Go home, Graham,” she whispered. “Dream of me, just as I do of you every night. I to
uch myself wishing it was your hands on my body, and I hold out hope that we’ll get there sooner rather than later. I kind of like the thought of waiting until all this is over though. I don’t want to think of anything other than you when we make love.”

  His hands pressed against her back until they were touching from knees to chest. “You get yourself off thinking about me?” he asked with his eyes narrowed.

  “Uh…did I say that out loud?” she asked rhetorically.

  “Yeah, you did. Fuck,” he swore, then put his head back and stared up at the stars. “I’m never gonna get to sleep now that I’ve got that image in my head.”

  Kassie giggled and stood on tiptoes to kiss the underside of his jaw. His head came down and he caught her lips once more with his. Stepping away long before she was ready, he said, “If I don’t leave now, I won’t be able to.”

  Putting him out of his misery because she knew he really did need to leave, Kassie said, “Drive safe. Let me know when you get home.”

  “I will. You too.”

  “Okay.”

  “I liked meeting your parents,” Hollywood said as he opened his car door. “They seem like good people.”

  “They are.”

  He leaned over once more and grabbed her chin, then kissed her briefly before letting go and getting in.

  Kassie stood back and let him shut the door. He rolled down the window and said, “I’ll talk to you soon. Stay safe, sweetheart.”

  “I will. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  The words “I love you” were on the tip of her tongue, but Kassie held them back…barely. It was insane that she loved Hollywood after only a few weeks, but there it was.

  Kassie gazed up at the same stars Hollywood had just been looking at. A shooting star careened across the sky right as she looked up.

  Kassie hadn’t wished upon a star in a long time, but tonight the plea came without thought. “Please let this work out in the end,” she whispered.

  Chapter 17

  Kassie sat on her couch, sipping a glass of red wine, watching Hollywood cooking in her kitchen. She’d tried to help, but he’d shooed her away, telling her to go sit and relax. It was Friday night and it’d been a long, stressful ten days. Dean had called half a dozen times, fishing for additional details about the exercise. She hadn’t been able to give him any more information than she already had, simply because she had no idea what Hollywood and his friends had planned.