by Zoe Dawson
“Just what you think.”
“Yeah, the guy’s lying. I think he knows Markam.”
Derrick tapped his nose. “Exactly, and if he’s not involved with him, why did he lie?”
“Bingo. Carter is involved with the SEAL team ambush, which tells me that Tyler Prescott might have been the initial target.”
“I think you got that part right,” Derrick said.
Austin’s phone rang as the cab pulled up. “Beck.”
“Austin, Bagram is secure. You and Gunn can catch a helo there now,” Kai said.
“Yes, ma’am.” Austin told her where they were on the case. She told them to keep digging and to keep her posted. He hung up and told Derrick.
He had a gut feeling that he would have something for his boss very soon. They had pieces and all they had to do was fit them together.
And Austin was very good at puzzles.
Outcast Headquarters, Kabul, Parwan Province, Afghanistan
Carl picked up the phone, fuming as it rang.
“Hello.” Ted had left after the NCIS agents did. He had a mission. “Ted?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” he growled.
“You with Markam?”
“Yes, Carl. I found him.”
“Good. When you find that SEAL and the senator and kill them, dig a hole and bury them deep and anyone helping them. Make sure those bodies are never found, and Ted?”
“Yes.”
“Make sure Markam’s body goes in before you cover them up.”
“What about the money?”
“We’ve gotten half, and this is heating up.” His voice was flat. “NCIS has already connected us to Carter and now Markam. If they nab him, he’ll rat us out to save his own hide.” Carl enjoyed his cushy life way too much and he wanted to protect what he’d built. “His plan is to pretend that he got kidnapped by insurgents and escaped. I don’t think the story that insurgents killed the senator and the SEAL will fly now that they’ve connected him to us. We’re cutting our losses.”
“Yes, sir. You got it.”
Bagram Airfield, Parwan Province, Afghanistan
Austin and Derrick climbed out of the helo once it set down on the runway at Bagram. Colonel Aazar Aziz, the Afghan commander, met them and turned them over to a guy who escorted them to Bagram. The place was in shambles, with bodies laid out on the side and covered with sheets. Hatch’s body had been flown out two days ago and was already being autopsied. NCIS tech Lara Comstock was busy analyzing the blood and the ballistics on the bullets that had killed Hatch.
“Special Agent Beck?” a female voice said, and he turned to find a dark-haired woman standing behind him. She reached out her hand. “Hello, I’m Christina Davis, and I was here when the insurgents attacked. I understand you need to talk to me.”
“Yes, thank you. Is there somewhere we can go that’s private?”
“Sure, the nurses’ break room.”
Once they were situated, Austin said, “Can you tell me what happened the night you were attacked?”
“I was just coming back from the runway after loading Petty Officer Prescott onto his flight for Landstuhl. The flight was early, and I had to hustle to get him there. When I was walking back to Bagram, I saw them overrun the gate.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried to make it back to warn people, but I was too late. They were already coming through the front door. I managed to alert most of the nursing staff, and we all barricaded ourselves into the supply room.”
“Did you see Agents Markam or Hatch?”
“No. I didn’t.”
“How about Senator Jones and Lieutenant Kaczewski?”
“No. Senator Jones was sleeping in a room just off the front doors. She was waiting for a military transport back to the States. Lieutenant Kaczewski was in the wing over from this one. He was the last of our patients and was flying to Walter Reed in the morning.”
“Did Senator Jones and Lieutenant Kaczewski speak?”
“They did more than that. He got out of bed and went to Petty Officer Prescott’s room with her help.”
“So they had contact?”
“Yes, sir.”
Austin smiled. “Thank you for your time, Lieutenant Davis. We’re glad you’re okay.”
“They didn’t seem to be interested in us. We were quite safe in the supply room. No one even came near the door.”
Austin’s phone rang as soon as Christina left. “Beck, it’s Lara.”
“What do you have for me, oh, forensic goddess?”
She chuckled. “The blood they found on the floor at Bagram. It’s Lieutenant Kaczewski’s and Agent Hatch’s. Looks like they went at it.” She paused and he heard tapping. “I also did ballistics on the recovered gun and the bullets that killed Agent Hatch.”
“And?”
“The guy was killed with his own gun. One right through the heart. The two bullets in his head don’t match anything on record.”
“That all you got?”
“Agent Beck, aren’t I a goddess?” she said with pique.
“I thought I detected a smug tone to your voice. What is it?”
“I got prints off the grip and the barrel.”
“Who do they belong to?”
“That would be two whos.”
“Really?”
“Yup. Senator Piper Jones and Lieutenant Dexter Kaczewski.”
“No way?”
“Way. But Kaczewski’s is only on the barrel of the gun. Senator Piper Jones is the one who pulled the trigger.”
After Austin related all this information to Derrick, he got back on his computer and started digging some more. As night transitioned to day, he and Derrick had a chance to look around outside. Just past the main gate and across the road, Derrick found some prints. Some small enough to be those of a woman. He also found dried blood.
“Looks like they hightailed it into the valley.”
“What’s close to here?”
“Charikar is twelve miles from here, and there’s a number of small villages all over this area.”
“All right, let me do more research on Lieutenant Kaczewski and see if I can unearth any clues while you start cataloging the villages. We can get an interpreter.”
“No need. I speak the language fluently.”
“Do you?”
Derrick looked across the expanse of wilderness and Austin knew they were working against the clock. It seemed to him that Senator Jones’s protection detail had been compromised and she had not only killed one of the men who was supposed to be protecting her, but she was also supporting a wounded Navy SEAL. They were running for their lives. Which begged the question: Who wanted Piper Jones dead enough to go through all these hoops to make it look like an insurgents’ attack and why? Also, that SEAL ambush was all about Tyler Prescott. He was the bait to lure her here. Those Marines didn’t die in battle. They were casualties of a damn conspiracy to take out a US senator. Outcast was most likely involved, but who hired them? How far did this conspiracy go? All the way to the White House?
Safid Darreh, Parwan Province, Afghanistan
Dex woke, his heart racing, as if something heavy was sitting on his chest and the walls were closing in on him. He was glad that Blessing would be here today to get them out. Once in Kabul, they could fly out of Afghanistan and back to DC to get to the bottom of this mess. The sooner he figured out who was trying to kill Piper, the sooner he could get the hell away from his best friend’s sister.
It was still dark, and he drifted off again, only to jerk out of a sound sleep. His fever was gone, but not the fever of wanting her. His heart was still pounding and his breathing heavy, as if he’d been running with the dream still fresh in his mind. It might have been created from the meds in his system, the wild kiss they shared ,and the fact that he was hot for her. But it had seemed so real; his whole body throbbed with a heavy, pulsating ache—one that left him waking up with a hard-on and a fierce emptiness.
It was bad e
nough that Piper infiltrated his waking thoughts, but now she had also infiltrated his dreams. Sweet, sensual dreams, hot, erotic dreams, that left him so shaken, so achy, he was twisted the hell up inside.
Except that last dream, the one he was having before he woke up, had been more intense. More explicit. More real.
Damn, he had to make them stop. But that was hard when she was again snuggled up to him, as if she, too, couldn’t keep away from him in sleep.
He heard a small sound, like a catch in her breath, and she started to shift against him. He looked down at her. “Piper?” he said.
There was a soft, muffled sound, and his heart jammed up in his chest, then started to pound in a different rhythm. She didn’t wake up. Instead, she cried out in her sleep. “Brad! No. No. Please, God. Please. I’ll do anything. No!”
She was sobbing now, and the sound was of the deepest agony; he realized how much she had loved her husband, and she was once again reliving that nightmare. And he knew how real it could all seem.
Dex knew he couldn’t let her continue. He shook her hard. “Piper. Wake up!”
She came out of the nightmare sobbing, as if she didn’t quite realize she was awake. He rose into a sitting position; his wound was aching, but it was bearable. Bracing himself against the wall, he brought her up with him.
“It’s all right, sweetheart,” he murmured gruffly. “It was a nightmare.”
She resisted for a moment, then relented, her arms sliding around him, drawing a deep, shuddering breath as she cried, her tears running down his chest. “It was so real.”
“I know,” he whispered. Pressing her head to his shoulder, he gathered her up in a tight embrace and his hand tangled in her hair. Shifting so she was flat against him, he shut his eyes, the rush of tactile sensation so intense that he had to grit his teeth against it. He tightened his hold on her, his heart hammering, his breathing constricted. She moved, sending a shock wave of heat through him, and he clutched her head, the feel of her almost too much to handle.
His fingers snagging in her hair, he tucked his head against hers, forcing himself to remain immobile. Every muscle in his body demanded that he move, and his nerve endings tingled as if they were stripped raw, but he tried to ignore the feelings pounding through him. She had no idea what she was doing to him, but he was all too aware of what was happening.
It took him a while, but he finally got himself under control, and he could finally breathe without it nearly killing him. He adjusted his hold on her, drawing her deeper into his embrace, his lungs constricting. Seeing such a strong, brave woman come apart like this humbled him; there was so much pain inside her that she finally had to get it all out. The thought of her going through something like this a second time made him completely understand all her fears. It sobered him like little else had, and he pressed her head closer to him, a dozen regrets settling in his chest. If only… If only…
Knowing nothing good could come from going there, he tightened his arms around her and simply held her, the fullness in his chest expanding. She was so torn up. And vulnerable. And he wasn’t sure how he was going to get them both out of this without getting in a wreck.
He was so close to the edge that it wouldn’t take a whole hell of a lot to push him over. And she felt so good and smelled so good, and damn, he wanted to feel her flush against him.
Unable to control the urge, he pulled her across his lap, turning his face against her neck and clenching his teeth. He hoped she was so far out of it that she wouldn’t notice the state he was in.
But she wasn’t that far out of it. She went still in his arms, then made a low, desperate sound and twisted her head, her mouth suddenly hot and urgent against his. The bolt of pure, raw sensation knocked the wind right out of him. Dex shuddered, and he widened his mouth against hers. She made another wild sound and clutched at him, the movement welding their bodies together like two halves of a whole, and he nearly lost it right then. But the taste of tears cut through his senses, and he dragged his mouth away from hers, his heart pounding like a locomotive in his chest.
Wrong. God, this was wrong. She was an emotional wreck, and she didn’t know what she was doing—she was just reacting, reaching for comfort. And it was dangerous. There was too much going on here, between them, to them, too much need, and it would be too easy—God, so easy—to just let it happen.
Trying to regain some control, he held her with every ounce of strength he had, fighting for every breath. Somehow, he had to put the brakes on. Somehow.
Inhaling jaggedly, he pulled her head closer, turning his face against hers. “Easy,” he whispered against her hair. “Easy, sweetheart. It’s all okay.”
An anguished sob was wrenched from her, and she clutched him tighter, as if she were trying to climb right inside him. There was so much desperation in that one small sound, so much fire, it was like a knife in his chest. Her arms locked around him and she choked out his name; then she moved against him, silently pleading with him, pleading with her body—and any connection he had with reason shattered into a thousand pieces.
The feel of her heat against him was too much, and he clenched his jaw, turning his head restlessly against her soft hair. His face contorting from the surge of desire, he caught her around the hips, welding her roughly against him. God, he needed this—the heat of her, the weight of her. Her. He needed her.
Piper made another low sound, then she inhaled raggedly and pulled herself up against his erection, her voice breaking on a low sob of relief. “Dex. Please, I need to feel alive again.” She moved against him again, and Dex tightened his hold even more, unable to stop as he involuntarily responded. Body to body, heat to heat, and suddenly there was no turning back.
When he’d woken up, she’d been so close to him, her hand on his face as if in the night she’d needed to check for fever. He was toast. He took a deep breath and got all of her deep into his lungs. She slowly opened her eyes as he exhaled. For long moments she just stared right into his soul. Then he smiled because he saw her soul, and this…this was an unbreakable woman. Tears gathered in those goddamn beautiful eyes. Silently they tracked down her cheeks. She cupped his face, her palm traveling over four days’ growth of beard, her thumb caressing his cheek, and then she swiped right over his mouth. He closed his eyes to better absorb the sensation. He felt her tremble and he opened his eyes, reaching up to brush away the tears.
“I was so, so scared.”
“I know, but you were so damned brave, baby, so brave. You saved my life.”
She closed her eyes and buried her face into his neck. Her mouth connected with his skin with an electrifying sensation like nothing he’d ever felt before. He grabbed her chin and dragged her face up, settling his mouth over hers with a soft groan of need.
Shifting her head, he covered her mouth in a hot, deep kiss, and she opened to him, moving against him with an urgent hunger. It was too much and not nearly enough, and Dex hauled her across his lap, grunting at the pain of using his torso muscles under the wounds, but not letting it deter him. With one twisting motion, his hard heat was flush against hers. Grasping her buttocks, he thrust against her again and again, a low groan wrenched from him as she moved with him, riding him, riding the hard, thick ridge jammed against her. But that wasn’t enough, either. Dex nearly went ballistic, certain he would explode if he didn’t get inside her.
“Piper…babe. I need to get…free.”
Making incoherent sounds against his mouth, Piper twisted free, and a violent shudder coursed through Dex when he felt her hands fumble with the cotton covering him. The instant she touched his hard, throbbing erection, he groaned out her name and let go of her, desperate to rid them both of any barriers.
Somehow, he got her pants off and pulled the tunic over her head, but the instant he felt her hand close around him, he lost it completely. Jerking her hand away, he lifted her up against him. On the verge of release, he clenched his eyes shut and thrust into her, unable to hold back one second longer. T
he feel of her, tight and wet, closing around him drove the air right out of him, the sensation so intense he couldn’t move.
“Dex, please.” Piper sobbed and locked her knees against his thighs, her movements urging him on. Dex crushed her against him, white-hot desire rolling over him. Angling his arm across her back, he drove up into her again and again, the pressure building and building. A low, guttural sound was torn from him, and his release came in a blinding rush that went on and on, so powerful he felt as if he were being turned inside out. He wanted to let it roll over him, to take him under, but he forced himself to keep moving in her, knowing she was on the very edge. She cried out and he clutched at her back, then went rigid in his arms, and she finally convulsed around him, the gripping spasms wringing him dry.
His heart hammering, his breathing so labored he felt almost dizzy, he weakly rested his head against hers, his whole body quivering. He felt as if he had been wrenched in two.
“You pack one hell of a punch, lady,” he rasped.
It wasn’t until he shifted his hold and tucked his face against hers that he realized her cheek was wet with tears. Hauling in an unstable breath, he turned his head and kissed her on the neck, a feeling of overwhelming protectiveness rising up his chest. There was no way he could let her go. Not yet. God, not yet. He waited a moment for the knot of emotion to ease, then he smoothed his hand up her back.
“Are you all right?”
She nodded once and tightened her arms around him. “You are such a beautiful man,” she whispered. “You feel so good inside me. So good.”
With her still straddling him, he drew her head into the curve of his neck and released an unsteady sigh. Sharply aware of her full breasts pressed against his chest, he twisted and settled her beneath him. She clasped him hard, and when he settled his weight on her, she shuddered as she took him deeper inside her.
Hit with a rush of emotion, Dex nestled her tighter against him and closed his eyes, slipping his hand up her rib cage over the swell of her breast, thumbing the nipple, needing the feel of her skin against him. He kissed her on the neck as she shivered again and melted around him, and his heart rolled over.