The Exit Strategy Bundle

by Jocelynn Drake

  “Did you have a favorite?”

  Justin slowly smiled. “Davis.”

  “What kind of dog was he?”

  “Ragamuffin.”

  Gabriel stopped so suddenly, Justin ran into his back. “That’s not a dog breed. That’s…a cat.”

  “Davis was a fluffy, twenty-pound badass that didn’t take shit from any of our dogs. They all lived in terror of that cat.”

  In the light from his phone, Justin could see Gabriel shaking his head before he started walking again. “I’m guessing you didn’t.”

  “Nope. He spent most of the time in the house, stretched out in any piece of sunlight he could find. At night, he’d flop down in your lap and expect you to scratch his head. He’d run off a dog if it was in his way. Totally ruled the house. Loved me the best. Most nights, he slept at the foot of my bed like a dog.”

  Gabriel stopped again, but Justin had at least been watching for it. He looked around his lover as he lowered his phone. In front of them, he could see small hints of thin light trickling through what looked to be a large rock. They’d reached the end of the tunnel.

  “Ready?” Gabriel asked. He flipped off his flashlight app and shoved his phone into his pocket.

  Justin kept his light out to support Gabriel from behind. He could shove it into his pocket on the run if necessary. “Let’s do this. We’re heading east from here.”

  “And do you have any clue which way is east?” Gabriel demanded irritably.

  “Nope, but we can get our bearings out there once we’re sure we’re not going to be shot at.”

  Gabriel grunted, but he moved forward again, pushing his shoulder into the rock that blocked their exit. It easily slid out of their way and they stepped into the waning light as the sun set behind some hills. The air seemed a little cooler than the tunnel, but there was a lot more of it. Justin took a deep breath and shoved his phone into his pocket after turning off the light. The last of the jittery nerves receded now that he wasn’t worried about being buried alive. He turned and helped Gabriel push the rock into place over the opening.

  Putting the setting sun to their backs, they started through the woods. Now Justin was in familiar territory. He’d had plenty of experience with map readings and orienting himself on missions with few resources. At a brisk pace, they could make two clicks in less than fifteen minutes. From there, they would turn south.

  Except for the fact that they stumbled upon a small group of assassins at the turn. Literally…stumbled upon them. One of them had been laid out, his leg caught in what looked to be a bear trap. Someone had put a bullet in his head, and the other three mercs stood over him, arguing in angry, whispered tones.

  Gabriel didn’t hesitate. He fired several quick rounds and started running. Justin did the same. He saw that at least two of Gabriel’s bullets hit their mark, taking down one of the men, but Justin wasn’t sure of his own. The darkness was getting heavier in the woods as the sun disappeared, making the men more shadow than substance. Shouts and cries of pain followed them as they crashed through the leafless bracket and snow. Thick, mounded banks slowed their progress.

  They hadn’t gotten far before new gunfire broke out, and bullets slashed through the air to thunk into trees around them. Justin pushed harder, moving faster even as his leg muscles cried out and his lungs burned. Cold air sliced down the back of his throat and he gritted his teeth, fighting to stay close to Gabriel.

  As they reached a thick clump of trees, Gabriel crouched down, using them for cover. Justin moved to join him, when machine gun fire rained down. The tree closest to him splintered, sending wooden shrapnel out in all directions. Pain lanced through Justin’s upper thigh, and he went down into the snow, holding his leg with his left hand.

  Gabriel caught the collar of his coat and pulled him through the snow so that his body was blocked by the trees.

  “How bad is it?” Gabriel barked.

  “I don’t know. My leg hasn’t been blown off, but that’s about all I can tell you,” Justin snapped back. His leg throbbed while blood soaked into his jeans. Fucking bastards. He sucked in a breath and then another before trying to answer again. “I don’t think it’s bullets. I think it’s the damn tree.”

  “You mean you got a giant splinter?”

  Justin glared at Gabriel, ready to shoot the man and save their attackers the trouble, but Gabriel was looking around the tree they were hiding behind. “Looks like two left.” He aimed and fired three times. “One more.” Gabriel expertly dropped the spent magazine and slammed a free one home.

  “God, that was sexy,” Justin sighed. “If I wasn’t in so much pain, I think I’d be hard right now. I could watch you shoot people all day long.”

  The light was horrible, and he could only see Gabriel from a profile, but Justin was willing to bet his one good leg that Gabriel was smiling.

  “Well then, I can’t wait to show you later how skilled I am with a knife.”

  “Ugh. Been there, survived that. No, thank you.” He shoved into an upright position and pulled his backpack around. Grabbing a T-shirt, he tore it into strips before he started to carefully poke around the wound. Gabriel had them covered and he needed to stem the bleeding so they could make it to the car.

  He found three large chunks of wood in his leg and a few smaller splinters that had made it through his jeans. He pulled out the worst that he could spot in the shit light and bound his leg tightly. The bleeding wasn’t bad, but the damn thing hurt like hell. There was no denying he was lucky that he hadn’t been caught by the gunfire, or he wouldn’t be walking out of those woods with Gabriel.

  “Last one down,” Gabriel announced just as Justin closed his bag.

  “Help me up and we can get moving again.”

  Gabriel grabbed Justin’s extended hand and pulled him to his feet. “Are you okay?” There was a hardness to his voice, but Justin didn’t miss the faint undercurrent of worry that he couldn’t completely mask.

  “I’ll be fine. Just a couple of stitches this time. I promise.”

  With a nod, he moved back a little to allow Justin to take a few test steps before returning to his side. The pain had him gritting his teeth, and he accepted Gabriel’s offer to take some of the weight off his leg by placing his left arm across his shoulders. At the very least, they could move faster this way, and speed was still critical.

  “Think that was the last of them?” Justin asked.

  “No, but I’d love to be proved wrong. We get to the car and check it over, then we can drive for a little while. Get a hotel for the night so I can stitch you up.”

  Justin grunted. He was out of witty remarks. The injury was slowing them down, making them vulnerable, and he didn’t like it. Gabriel’s plan was a good one. The only part he wasn’t looking forward to was the drive.

  But he was still glad that the car was there when they arrived at the small clearing where they’d parked the night before. A fresh layer of snow coated the sedan from earlier in the day. There were no footprints or other signs that anyone had been there, but they took no chances. They checked every inch of the damn thing before slipping inside. Gabriel released a loud sigh when the car started without exploding around them. Somehow Nicolai’s men had discovered Grunt’s house, but not their car.

  Leaning on his right hip to keep the pressure off his left leg, Justin stared out the window. The sun had completely set nearly an hour earlier, and the forest was cloaked in darkness. In the shining snow, he could barely make out the last place he’d seen Grunt standing, waiting for them to follow him to his place this morning.

  “Do you think he made it?” Justin softly asked.

  “Nicolai has been trying to kill Grunt for over a decade. I’m not ready to believe that this time he finally succeeded. Not when Grunt is so close to the end.”

  Justin made a noise of agreement in the back of his throat, and Gabriel shifted the car into drive. He hoped Grunt made it and was still running wild in the Ukrainian forest with his landmines an
d booby traps. That guy deserved his beach house and island wife.

  Chapter 10

  Gabriel felt like he was able to take a deep breath again only when they were on the ground in Mykonos. They’d lingered one night in the Ukraine and then headed south to Bucharest for a brief stay in a nice hotel. The wound in Justin’s leg was relatively minor as he said, requiring a few stitches and the better part of an hour to have the splinters removed. Justin had been adamant that he was good to continue on to Mykonos, but they were both exhausted and Gabriel wanted to be sure the wound wasn’t getting infected.

  There had been no word from Grunt, not that Gabriel really expected it. The man preferred to stay silent and contacted Gabriel only when he had critical, time-sensitive information.

  Grunt and Nicolai had been playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse for too long, and Gabriel was looking forward to it finally coming to an end.

  Years ago, he’d argued with Grunt to move farther west, to the UK or America. Maybe somewhere in South America. Grunt argued that it took too long for information to reach him that far away. The old agent relished the idea of living right under Nicolai’s nose, thwarting his plans and killing his assassins.

  The Ukraine was just too close to Nicolai for Gabriel to be able to relax. He needed a solid plan before heading into the lion’s den. The Greek island of Mykonos gave him some much-needed space while providing a chance to take out his next to last target as her guard was down.

  Well, probably not down.

  Even if she wasn’t speaking to their father on a regular basis, he was sure that Nadia had heard about Sacha and their dead cousins already. She had to know that she was on his list.

  Nadia was only a couple of years younger than him, but she’d always been a diligent little foot soldier for their father. She’d trained with Gabriel. She’d been just as adept at shooting and hand-to-hand combat. But knives had been her specialty. Their father had bought them for her constantly until he’d had to have special glass cases constructed for her collection. Big and small, she loved them all and always had at least one secreted on her person.

  At the age of twenty, she married a man almost twice her age at their father’s urging. He’d been a power player within the party, and Gabriel knew that their father thought the alliance would be useful. Gabriel had just been grateful that he’d been out of the country at the time on an assignment so that he wouldn’t have to attend the farce. But the last time he saw Nadia before her wedding, she’d given zero indication that she had a problem with the arrangement. All for the good of the family.

  Gabriel had heard the phrase often enough while he was growing up, and it still made him grind his teeth. Fuck this family. He was finally breaking free.

  Justin walked over to the balcony door and slid it open, letting the sea breeze sweep into the room. There was a slight hitch to his step, but he was hiding it relatively well. Gabriel wanted to hug the man. He was hiding it out of fear that Gabriel would either slip away in the night or ship Justin home drugged. Neither was going to happen. Gabriel hated the idea of Justin being in danger, but he’d learned his lesson. It was better to have Justin Mallory at his side.

  The weather was milder than it had been in the Ukraine and Hungary, allowing them to shed their winter coats. The village where they’d gotten a hotel room was picturesque. All the buildings were painted white while the doors and window frames were done in a light blue. There were only a few flowers blooming in boxes and pots, but there was still a lush green to the scenery. And beyond, a sparkling Mediterranean blue sea. Gabriel wished he could have seen this island in the summertime, but he had a feeling that after he dealt with his sister, he’d never want to return.

  “Exactly how detailed are Grunt’s notes on Nadia’s location?” Justin asked, turning to look at Gabriel.

  “Pretty damn good. She’s located on the opposite side of the island near a resort called Tranquil Sea View. It should take us about thirty minutes to drive there from here.”

  “Crap,” Justin sighed.

  “What?”

  “I thought maybe we could wander the island, take in the sights, and you know…eventually find her.”

  Gabriel walked around the bed that was separating them and slid his hands across Justin’s sides until he locked his fingers behind his back. “Wander the island and see the sights? Like a vacation?”

  “Like a vacation,” Justin said. “But I was also thinking more like giving your body some additional time to recover.”

  Gabriel groaned and released Justin, starting to move away. “I’m plenty recovered. Your injury is newer than all of mine.”

  Justin grabbed his wrist before he could get more than a foot away and pulled him back in until their chests crashed together. “There is no ‘plenty recovered.’ You looked like hell when I got you outside of Berlin.”

  “That was almost two weeks ago.”

  “And I should have taken you directly to the hospital. It’s only been eleven days, and we’ve been on the run most of that time. That’s not enough time for your body to recover when we’re both running on close to empty.”

  “Don’t baby me,” Gabriel grumbled.

  “I’m not. I’m trying to keep you alive.”

  Gabriel tried to pull away a second time, but Justin held him tight. He didn’t need this. Yes, his body ached, and his brain was foggy with exhaustion, but they couldn’t stop. He was so close to finally having his family taken care of, to being free. To knowing that Justin was safe from the Krestyanovs.

  “And getting this done means that I keep you alive,” Gabriel snapped.

  Justin tipped his head and brushed his lips across Gabriel’s throat. “We’re working together to keep both of us alive.” He moved over, slowly licking across his throat. “There are so many things I want to do with you. Things I’ve never done with anyone before.”

  Gabriel hummed. “Will I need to sign a waiver for some of these things?”

  A low chuckle rumbled up Justin’s throat. “Maybe eventually. But I was thinking about things like a vacation…or maybe a cruise.”

  “Trapped on a very large boat with hundreds of people in the middle of the ocean. That’s your idea of a vacation? It sounds like a murder-suicide pact to me.”

  “Then what’s your idea of a vacation?”

  Gabriel closed his eyes and felt his body relax against Justin as the man continued to kiss along his neck. His strong hands had drifted down to his ass and were slowly kneading the muscles. He hummed again, letting the feeling of those hands get rid of the lingering aches. “Exotic, tropical location. Bali or maybe the Seychelles. Luxurious hotel room with a private pool. Massage. Excellent food.” He opened his eyes and smiled at Justin. “And you—naked, smiling, and wanting me.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  “But if times are tight, I can happily make do with just the last part.”

  “Ahh…G Love. It’s like you’re trying to get in my pants or something,” Justin teased.

  Gabriel smirked at him. “Is it working?”

  “Almost.” Opening his mouth to argue, Gabriel didn’t get a word out before Justin was quickly stepping backward. “Food first. I bet we can find some incredibly fresh seafood.”

  Gabriel was sorely tempted to throw Justin down on the bed and use some truly wicked methods to convince Justin that food could wait, but they’d checked into the hotel shortly after two, and they hadn’t grabbed more than some coffee at the airport that morning. Food was definitely sounding good. They could possibly take a drive around the island after eating, scout the area where Nadia was supposed to be staying. And they’d return to the hotel, where he’d work to make Justin forget about what was ahead of them. At least for a few hours.

  “Food first,” Gabriel said, quickly patting his pockets to make sure he still had his wallet and phone on his person. “Then I think if you’re going to start making decisions about my health, you need to conduct a thorough inspection of my body.”

 
“That sounds like an excellent plan.”

  Justin sat back in his chair and stretched his legs in front of him. There was a dull ache in his thigh but it was healing, thanks to Gabriel’s tender ministrations. For now, his stomach was full of fish and topped off with some nice wine and maybe half a painkiller. They were seated in a sunny restaurant next to an open window that allowed them a perfect view of the tourists wandering up and down the busy street. He heard a mix of dialects and languages, leading him to think that this part of Mykonos was a popular winter escape for people.

  It looked as if everyone was enjoying the warm day and bright sun shining overhead in the blue sky. Only his companion seemed on edge. Gabriel had appeared to briefly relax while they were in the hotel room, but once the man was out of his arms, all that tension came rushing back.

  Not that he could blame Gabriel. He was on a hunt to track down the people attempting to end his life. But there was a new sharpness to him that made Justin wonder if it had to do specifically with Gabriel’s sister.

  Of course, he was about to make it all worse by opening his mouth.

  “When was the last time you saw or spoke to Nadia?” Justin asked, trying to make the question sound casual, but the way Gabriel’s eyes narrowed on him indicated that he wasn’t as crafty as he’d like to think.

  “It’s been a bit,” Gabriel replied. His voice was pitched low and each word sounded hard, like he’d ground them between his molars.

  “What’s a bit?”

  “Why does it matter, Justin?” he shot back. “You didn’t ask about my last contact with Sacha before we ran him off the road in Budapest and gunned him down.”

  Gabriel nodded. “You’re right. I didn’t. Maybe I should have. I guess I still had the image of you tied up in Germany running in my head. I believed you when you told me this man hurt you and would continue to hurt you if he was left alive.”