Target: A Military Romance (Unwanted Soldiers Book 1)

by Aden Lowe

  Finally, after refusing a prescription for pain medication, I rode back to the hotel in silence while Trick drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. Jones came down and let us back in the service entrance, and took care of the car.

  Trick returned me to my room, helped me get settled and comfortable, then left, saying he would see me in the morning. I lay in the comfortable bed for what seemed like hours, cursing myself. Why did I have to tell him I wanted him? Even though he said it first, by saying it out loud, I put him in a terrible position.

  Now he would worry that I would take every word or gesture the wrong way. He obviously wanted nothing to come of any attraction he might feel for me. Besides the complications from my position with Jared, he had his own career to think of.

  None of that stopped me from dreaming of him when I finally slept.

  Chapter eighteen

  Leaving Lauren alone in her room, with X-Man on the door, killed me. I wanted to crawl in that bed beside her, hold her in my arms and keep her safe, so badly I shook from the wanting. Every instinct I possessed burned to claim her.

  Her confession when I fastened her seatbelt hit me like a grenade. I never dared to dream she might be as attracted to me as I was to her. To hear her say it, especially in that soft, scared little voice, tested my willpower in ways I never imagined possible. But I managed to keep my hands to myself, to do the responsible thing, and spare her the embarrassment.

  I had to follow the plan, get her away from Richardson and back to her family, and then walk away. She deserved so much more from life than a man like me could give her. My life teetered on a razor-thin edge most of the time. Even if she wanted to, I couldn't bring her into that kind of danger and uncertainty.

  The campaign had taken rooms for staff across from Richardson's and Lauren's suites. The regular double rooms apparently were meant for anyone travelling with high-profile patrons, or whatever it took to afford the big suites. At least I could rest a little, knowing Lauren was just across the hall.

  I undressed and fell across the bed closest to the door, since Flag currently filled the other one. As I drifted off, I wondered what it would be like to have Lauren as my own. Could I live the normal sort of life that would allow her to be safe? Or would my restless nature kick in and make her hate me?

  An annoying sound intruded on my dream of making love to Lauren, and I tried to ignore it. After a moment, though, it didn't stop, and I gave up. I pulled on my pants where I'd left them beside the bed, and went to the door wiping sleep from my eyes. A careful look out the peephole showed nothing more interesting than the empty hall.

  Empty.

  Where the fuck was X-Man? I should be able to see him if he were at his post.

  "Flag!" I hissed his name and hoped like fuck he would hear me.

  He came awake instantly.

  "Something's not right." While I pulled on a shirt and shoes, he got dressed, and we both went to the door, weapons ready.

  Moving with near silence, we slipped from the room and surveyed the corridor. Flag tapped my shoulder, and nodded toward where a door on our side of the hall stood slightly ajar. We advanced swiftly, and Flag entered the room, while I stayed in the hall to keep Lauren's door in sight.

  He returned in a few seconds. "He's down. Alive but unconscious."

  On my signal, we worked our way to the other side of the hall, and I opened Lauren's door with the spare keycard. She'd been reluctant to give it to me, fearing Richardson's reaction if he found out, but in the end, she agreed it was better for someone to be able to get in. With Flag on my six, we cleared the suite quickly.

  Lauren slept on, unaware. I gave in to the impulse to wake her. I needed to know she was okay. Her eyes widened with fear as I explained why I was there.

  "Trick, you need to see this, man." Flag stood by the glass door that opened onto a balcony. He pointed to where the door stood ajar, as if someone forgot to close it. The plush carpet held clear imprints of shoes, a man's shoes, leaving the suite through that door.

  "This was closed and locked when I left her." I turned to Lauren. "Did you open this door for any reason?"

  She shook her head. "I haven't left the bed."

  Fuck! Someone, a man, had been inside her room, with her sleeping. A quick look around said the intruder had searched the suite thoroughly, not bothering to hide it. The boldness of the search could be designed to distract from something left in the room. Something intended to harm Lauren.

  My head throbbed with a combination of fear and anger. This was too much. We couldn't take the risk to search for the true motive behind the intrusion. Every additional moment in that hotel put her life in greater danger.

  "I'm pulling the plug. Flag, get X-Man awake and on his feet. We're bugging out."

  Flag had better sense than to voice the question I saw in his eyes. He just nodded, and left.

  Of course I knew the hell this move would bring down on us. But weighed against the risk to Lauren's life, it was worth being hunted from one end of the country to the other.

  "Lauren, I need you to get dressed again. The same things you wore to the ER should be fine. I'm getting you out of here now."

  "Out of here?"

  Shit, would she trust me enough to go? "We're taking you someplace safe, where we can control who has access to you. Someone is trying to scare you badly, at the very least, but I think it's more than that."

  Understanding dawned in her face, she complied quickly, without question. I turned away so she could dress. "I'm ready."

  I carefully put some of her clothing and bathroom stuff into a bag. "We'll go out the same way as before."

  Flag's low whistle signaled me from the other room, and I scooped her into my arms. This time, getting out of the hotel was decidedly more urgent. Flag cleared the stairwell ahead of me, and X-Man, looking a little green around the gills, brought up the rear. Outside, Flag jogged away, and returned a moment later with the car we used to get to the ER.

  Leaving Flag in the driver's seat, I climbed into the cramped rear seat with Lauren. X-Man tossed a bag in the trunk, and handed another to me, and slid into the passenger seat.

  As soon as we made it out of the alley, I tapped X on the shoulder. "What the fuck happened, man?"

  He turned in the seat a little, and continued checking his weapons. "Fucker came up with a room service cart, said Miss Johnson ordered something. She hadn't said anything, so I knocked on her door. She didn't answer, and I tried again. There must have been a second man, because room service dude was right beside me. Someone put a dent in my head. I don't know anything after that."

  That explained the annoying sound that woke me. I turned to Lauren. "Did you hear him knocking?"

  She shook her head, just visible in the glow from the street lights. "No. But I was tired, and the door is in a different room from the bed."

  "What's the plan, Trick?" Flag drove like a man possessed, taking corners at speed and ignoring traffic lights. At just after three a.m., there was no traffic to worry about anyway.

  "Get somewhere we can ditch this heap and find other wheels, first thing. Head to Prater's place, and switch vehicles again on the way."

  "You think it's far enough away?" He met my gaze in the rearview.

  "No, I don't, but it's a start. Should give us time to come up with something more feasible." Beside me, Lauren shook nearly as bad as she had after Poppy's murder. I reached for her hands. "It's going to be okay, Lauren."

  She looked up at me. "How can you think that? Jared isn't going to just let me disappear."

  I considered lying to her, but that would do her no good. "No, baby, he won't. There's security footage of us taking you out of the hotel. Within a few hours, those images will be all over the news. But we'll handle all that, and get you somewhere safe."

  "How can you be so sure? Trick, he's powerful. People do what he wants them to." We merged onto the freeway, and the sudden lack of street lighting made her look even more pale.

 
I took her face between my hands. "You have to trust us, baby. This is what we do."

  "Who—Who are you? You're not just bodyguards."

  Flag jumped in. "No, we're not. We're mercenaries. We do the impossible on a daily basis."

  "Mercenaries? Like hired soldiers?" Her eyes narrowed a little as she considered his words.

  I released her and sat back. "Exactly." She didn't need the bloody details, but it seemed like the time to let her know why I was there. "Your sister came to me and asked me to get you away from Richardson."

  "My…sister?" The shock in her voice worried me a little.

  I told her about the meeting with her sister, and the information she had dug up about Richardson's former girlfriends. "He would have killed you when he was finished with you." Was he the one behind the vague attempts thus far? Somehow, it didn't seem like his style.

  She stayed silent for a long time. "Yes, he would have." Tears glittered in her eyes. "I think I realized it before, but couldn't admit it to myself."

  I slid my arm around her and pulled her snug against my side. "I got you now, so don't worry."

  "What will he do?"

  "He'll hunt us. He'll probably have a story released, saying we kidnapped you. Our faces, and yours, will be all over every newsfeed in the country. Not only will every police officer be looking for us, but just about every adult in the nation will be waiting, cell phone in hand. This won't be easy." I felt terrible for telling her so much, but a lie at this point would cause more harm. She needed to mentally prepare herself for what lay ahead.

  "What are we going to do?" Fear shook her voice, even as she leaned closer into my side.

  If only I knew. "First, we're going to get out of sight. Then we'll figure out the rest." I had some ideas, but they involved some pretty big risks.

  Silence fell over the car again, except for the low music Flag put on the radio. Before long, Lauren relaxed against my side, and her deep, even breathing told me she slept.

  X-Man apparently figured it out, too. "Trick, man, I haven't worked with you before, and I ain't trying to tell you how to do the job, but it looks like you're awfully close to this target."

  For just a second, the words fueled anger, but not so long ago, I thought the very same thing. "Yeah, man, I don't know what it is." I kept my voice low to keep from waking Lauren. "I know I'm too invested here, but I can't seem to stop it."

  "Think about it, motherfucker." Flag signaled a turn. "You know exactly what's going on. That girl right there is the kind dreams are made of."

  Yeah, she was. "If she was anyone else, I'd have already had her. But she's not that type. And until yesterday, she belonged to another man."

  "Man, I ain't talking about wet dreams. I mean the forever kind. Settling down, having kids, all that bullshit." He gave a short laugh. "And you got it bad, motherfucker."

  "Fuck you." I could deny it all I wanted, but he was right. The thought of being with Lauren forever seemed about as close to paradise as a man could get. But I sure as fuck was not going to admit that out loud.

  Silence fell again, and we drove slowly along a quiet residential street. Small ranch style homes clustered together, each nearly identical to its neighbor. Some of the residents had put considerable effort into landscaping, and others only had a narrow patch of grass. But what interested the three of us were the vehicles parked in the driveways.

  We all knew exactly what we were looking for. While a nice new SUV would give us a good ride, it would also lead Richardson and law enforcement right to us. We needed something older, without advanced electronics. And it needed four-wheel drive.

  "There." X-Man pointed to an old Jeep sitting by the curb.

  Flag nodded and slowed enough for X-Man to hop out, then drove on. We stopped at the end of the block, near a little park. X-Man would either get the Jeep started and bring it, or walk to catch up. Hopefully, we would have a new ride in a few minutes.

  "When you decide to piss off a politician, you do it up right, don't you?" Flag lit a cigarette, a habit he rarely indulged. That he did so now, told me how worried he was about this mission.

  "Didn't do it intentionally, man. The plan was to convince her to leave, make sure he didn't want to follow, and get her back to her family. It would have worked, too, if someone hadn't kept making these half-assed attacks." I had no doubt now that whoever killed Poppy had been coming for Lauren. Whether they intended to hurt her, or just scare her, was still up in the air.

  "Yeah, I been thinking about that. You have any theories who's behind it?" The tip of his cigarette glowed bright for a second.

  I thought about that for a minute. "I don't know. Richardson could be, I guess, but it doesn't seem like his style. If he wanted to make some kind of point, he would just beat the hell out of her to make it."

  "Yeah. Thought the same. Any other candidates?"

  "I'll have to get back to you on that."

  The Jeep rumbled up beside the car. I woke Lauren gently, and we transferred to the new ride. Flag continued to drive the car, and headed to a convenience store we passed earlier. He pulled in at the edge of the lot. We continued on down the street for another block, then stopped to give Flag time to wipe the car down, and walk away from it.

  Chapter nineteen

  Once Jones—I heard them call him something else, but couldn't remember it—climbed into the Jeep, we started off again. Exhaustion dragged at me, and I didn't even try to fight it. Trick offered his arm and I gladly snuggled into his side, letting him flood my senses. The steady beat of his heart under my ear soothed my panic a little. His solid warmth acted like a sedative, and lulled me into a sense of comfort like I hadn't felt in years. My eyes refused to stay open more than a few minutes. As I drifted off, I allowed my imagination to conjure a future that included Trick.

  The porch swing swayed gently as we looked up at the night sky. Trick's arms around me warded off the evening chill, and had the added benefit of making me feel truly safe. I allowed myself to relax into him. We talked for a little while, then just sat in quiet appreciation.

  Trick leaned down close to point out a falling star. "Make a wish."

  I followed orders, wishing for a kiss. As if he heard my thoughts, he leaned in closer and brushed his lips over mine. Not satisfied with such a small taste of him, I wrapped my arms around his neck and drew him closer.

  Trick's soft growl as he deepened the kiss, sent my pulse racing. One hand cupped the back of my head to bring me to the perfect angle, and he kissed me until my body throbbed with the need for so much more. He drew back a little, breathing hard, but only long enough to lift me over his lap and settle my knees on each side of his hips.

  After another kiss, this one harder, more demanding, his mouth left mine to slide over my jaw, and left trails of fire down my neck. Pressed close to his obvious arousal, my body grew impatient with the layers of clothing separating us. Apparently, he felt the same, because he slid his hands up under the hem of my shirt.

  His calloused palms grazed my ribs as he inched the shirt up. He paused when his thumbs found the undersides of my breasts, as if he were waiting to see if I would object. Instead, I put one hand on his forearm, and raised his hand to cover my breast. The instant reaction drew a moan from my throat, and he chuckled a little, a sound of pure male satisfaction.

  ***

  Lauren's moan cut clearly through the low conversation in the Jeep.

  Holy fuck! I knew she was dreaming from the changes in her breathing, and I was pretty sure I knew the direction of her dreams. But that moan did crazy things to me.

  Flag glanced back over his shoulder and chuckled. "I think I'm beginning to see why you're so attached."

  "Shut up, motherfucker. If you two are going to keep gossiping like old women, why don't you turn the radio back on so you don't wake her, at least?" I might kill them if they heard another sound like that from her. Those were mine.

  X-Man's low cough sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Motherfucker.
<
br />   "You got it, boss. You want a privacy curtain, too?"

  Damn, if I wasn't worried about waking Lauren, I would punch Flag for that one. The last thing I wanted either of those two horn dogs thinking about was Lauren—well, other than how to keep her safe, anyway.

  Country music, not my preference, but whatever, surrounded us. Hopefully any sounds Lauren made in her dream now would only reach my ears. Her breath quickened, and I allowed myself to imagine what she might be dreaming.

  My dick reacted almost violently to the thought of my mouth on the smooth skin of her lower belly. I shifted uncomfortably, trying to relieve some of the pressure without disturbing her. What would she taste like? My dick responded accordingly, trying to get through my zipper. Watching Flag and X-Man to be sure they were focused elsewhere, I adjusted, and tried to relax a little.

  The scent of her hair tantalized me, and brought to mind images of it wrapped around my hands. I wanted this woman so badly, I was fucking lost. The last bit of conscience dissolved. It no longer mattered that she deserved so much more than I could give. She no longer belonged to Richardson. Nothing would stop me from making her mine. At least for a little while.

  She shifted a little in her sleep, and her soft curves pressed closer into my side. I gave in to the temptation and touched her, letting the fingers of my free hand skate along her forearm. She felt like the most exotic silk in the world. Rather than satisfy me, the small touch made me need so much more.

  I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. Maybe I could catch a small nap, get my mind off Lauren. Except, with my eyes closed, all I could see was her. The quick glimpses I had of her body provided an image I couldn't erase. The first chance I had, I would have her spread before me on a bed, and I would memorize all that perfection. Then I would taste her, and listen to her sweet cries as she came for me. Finally, when she was ready, I would sink into her, and she would be mine. Beside me, she shifted again, and moaned as if my thoughts invaded her dream.