Xtreme Measures (Xtreme Ops Book 5)

by Em Petrova

  “Fuck you,” she sang out as she passed him to push through the kitchen door. She threw a look at the guys still seated at the table and at the packed restaurant. When her stare lit on a man sitting alone at a table, her chest threatened to cave in.

  She’d seen enough men come to take the girls away to recognize him for what he was. Abby started toward him, and Ruby blocked her way. “I’ll take that table. You bring the guys two lemonades, okay?”

  Abby gave her a strange look but nodded.

  With a thundering heart, Ruby crossed the room to the man. She’d never seen him before, but then again, the Bratva sent a new man every time. Whether or not the men they commissioned to make a pickup at Ruby’s Place knew what cargo they hauled was a mystery to her. She didn’t care either. Over her dead body would he take her girls.

  “Hello,” she said coolly.

  He looked up from the menu. “I’m here for the catch of the day.”

  Oh.

  Hell.

  She wanted to run. Scream. Bash him over the head with a tray or stab him in the eye with her pen.

  Anything to get him out of here.

  Of course he was here to collect the girls. The catch of the day was code the same way the bowls of chili were to the special operatives eyeing her up from across the room.

  She caught the dark-haired one’s stare and held it for a moment longer than was custom.

  “Anything to drink this afternoon?” she asked the man she swung her attention to.

  He leaned back in his chair, giving her a clear view of a weapon tucked into the waist of his pants.

  Unsure if she should be relieved he was here or more frightened, she tried for a smile that probably looked as if she was about to throw up. “How about a drink while you wait?” she pressured.

  He issued a sigh. “Fine. Iced tea.”

  She didn’t feel a bit happy about the fact she’d talked him into waiting. His job was to load up as fast as possible and move the girls to the next destination, wherever that was.

  Big Mike intercepted her before she poured the man’s iced tea. “What are you doing?”

  “Fetching him a drink.”

  He leveled a glare at her. “You know what he’s here for.”

  “Yes.” She waved at the packed restaurant. “Do you think it’s wise to sneak the girls down the stairs in plain sight now? We need some of these customers to leave first. You should have thought about this before you decided to make it a shipment day.”

  He looked around. “Fine. But you’d better not be trying to pull something on me.”

  “You know I have a lot at stake—why would I do that?” Please, Elias, get my father out fast!

  She almost knocked over the iced tea she’d just poured and shooed Big Mike away. “Let me do my job!”

  He left her alone, but he positioned himself at the door where he could see every move she made. After she set the tea before the man, she caught a twitch from the special operative who’d passed her the note.

  Her stomach flipped over this time, instead of her heart. With measured steps, she reached his table.

  His eyes drilled into her for what felt like minutes even though she knew nothing more than seconds passed.

  Dropping his attention to the menu in his hands, he said, “Is that your contact person?” as casually as he would order a burger.

  She gave him a pleasant smile and nod in return.

  “He’s watching you like a hawk.”

  “That makes me feel loads better,” she said.

  He closed his menu and looked up into her eyes. “Maybe this will—we’ll have two bowls of chili.”

  Ruby made it as far as the kitchen before she burst into tears. She couldn’t even hold in the noisy tears and let it all out.

  Her father…safe at last. And she had Elias to thank.

  The sound of the door swinging open behind her made her glance over her shoulder. She went cold and dead inside.

  “What are you crying for?” Big Mike demanded.

  God, what she wouldn’t give for another pot of scalding chili. She’d hit him with it and make sure to drench his balls this time.

  Her insides coiled. “Can’t a woman cry in her own kitchen?”

  “Something is up. If you don’t tell me what it is right this minute…”

  Her fury rose, smoke and oil that darkened and smothered everything in her being with the need to hurt this man. She took a step backward, within reach of the knife block. All she needed was one stab. One. Good. Jab.

  He narrowed his eyes on her, his stare icy. “Don’t test me! All it takes is a call to end your father’s life.”

  She met his glare with a dark look of her own. Now she knew he was bluffing or he was clueless about her father’s welfare and whereabouts.

  When she took a step toward him, shock registered on his face.

  She opened her mouth to describe the length and girth of cactus he should shove up his ass when a crash sounded in the restaurant. She pushed by Big Mike and ran into the front. A single glance showed her that the room had been cleared of customers and the guy sent by the mafia was on his feet.

  So were the two special operatives.

  If she had to put money on anybody, it would be the muscled men who fought for their country. But the mafia man would play dirty and who said it would be a fair fight?

  Ruby stumbled into the room, propelled by a massive hand in the center of her back. She nearly pitched forward and grabbed for the nearest table. Sticky soda had been spilled at some point—the crash she’d heard, probably—and splashed under her boots.

  “I told you to clear out with the others,” the mafia’s guy ground out, his focus on the special operatives.

  The dark-haired man reached a lazy hand across the table and snatched up his glass. “Haven’t finished my drink.” His eyes found hers, a silent question in them.

  Are you okay?

  She gave him the barest hint of a nod in return. What she wouldn’t do to have Elias here right now. She trusted his men to keep her safe, but it wasn’t the same as having Elias’s warm arms around her.

  Big Mike latched on to her forearm, and she cried out. The special operative started forward, and his buddy stopped him. Big Mike’s mouth at her ear lifted bile in her throat.

  “Go upstairs and find the girls.”

  “I—” She cast around for some excuse. “Not before they go!” She bowed her head toward Elias’s teammates.

  She was setting them up—Big Mike would go after them and probably the mafia’s man too. But what choice did she have? They weren’t taking her girls.

  She’d already given up too many, let too many go without fighting for them. Not anymore.

  Big Mike released her arm, but not without wrenching it as a reminder that he was bigger and stronger.

  He underestimated her, though. Because she was angrier.

  Behind the bar, her father always kept a loaded shotgun in case of trouble. He hadn’t used it to get himself out of his situation with the Bratva, but she didn’t have such reservations.

  In a dead run, she zipped across the bar just as the special operatives headed toward Big Mike and the other guy. Four chests puffed out, they widened their stances, prepared to throw down and fight.

  But she whipped out the shotgun, flipped the safety and blasted a hole directly through the glass door.

  The mafia’s man hit the deck. Just as she thought—he was all show and no substance. But Big Mike ignored her and took off for the stairs. The sound of his heavy thumping steps filled her with more of that burning smoke of anger. She could nearly taste its acridity in the base of her throat.

  She tore after him, shotgun in hand.

  “Ruby, stop!” The command came from the dark-eyed special operative. God, why didn’t she know any of their names? Elias…Gasper…Jack…whoever he was, he had far too many, and they probably did too.

  She didn’t heed him—why should she? She plowed toward the stairs after Big M
ike. She didn’t make it five steps before an arm banded around her middle and yanked her down again. The weapon lifted from her hand.

  “Gasper will rip off my balls if I let anything happen to you. I’ll handle Mikhail.”

  Her stomach bottomed out at the mention of Elias. Where was he and how was her father? Were they both safe? When would she see them again?

  She watched Elias’s teammate run the stairs as if they were a flat surface. A few bumping noises later and a female shriek sounded. Ruby’s eyes widened as her bouncer rolled head over heels down the stairs with a knot of women hot after him.

  They were beating him in the face and kicking him in any body part they got access to. Several were screaming obscenities in Russian.

  More women flooded into the restaurant, and the mafia’s man raised his voice above all theirs and ordered them to the back door and into his truck.

  At which point every girl in the room turned on him.

  Ruby ran with them to attack. The wild looks on the women’s faces made her believe that the special operative told them what their true destination was—and they were fighting back.

  They wouldn’t let that happen to them, and neither would Ruby. She caught the man’s arm and used all her weight to pin it behind him while the girl next to her pulled his hair. Snippets of their cries rose up in a loud clamor, but she heard the door crash inward.

  She twisted, wishing she had her shotgun to guard them against whoever was busting in, but as soon as her eyes landed on the man standing there, her heart gave a hard heave.

  Elias covered the space between them in a blink. She started to turn to him, but he threw himself over her just as several gunshots came from the rear of the building.

  A scream collected in her throat. “My girls!”

  “Stay down.”

  Steel flashed as he whipped out a weapon and fired a shot. All the girls hit the floor, flattened and screaming or shaking where they stood, too stunned to move.

  “Get down!” Ruby tried to scrabble free to force those frozen to the floor, but Elias hovered over her like a grizzly protecting a cub. She peeked around his muscled arm to see the room flooded with men that must be the Russian mafia. And determined to drive them out, the special ops team formed a massive wall. Each toted a high-powered rifle, and they weren’t holding back.

  Her toes dragged across the floor, and she realized Elias was bodily moving her. “I can’t leave my girls! Don’t you understand—”

  His dark gaze hit hers like a physical blow. “Ruby—I can’t lose you. Do as I say!”

  “Well, you’re not saying anything! You’re just shoving me!”

  With nothing more than a grunt in return, he shoved her again, moving her across the floor to a corner. She dragged in a deep breath and caught his wholesome scent. Like a whiff of spring rain, she wanted more. She clutched at his shirt and buried her face against his hard spine as he shielded her from what was happening in her restaurant.

  An all-out war between his team and the men who’d ruled over her life this past year.

  A couple girls broke free of the group and made a beeline for the stairs. She struggled toward them, but there was no moving past Elias. He was a steel cage she couldn’t break free of.

  When she tried to move again, he threw out an arm. “Stay put, woman!”

  The harsh growl shouldn’t turn her on, nor should him calling her “woman.” But damn if a little thrill didn’t move through her body.

  When she took another peek around his arm, she saw why her mind was numbing itself to the actual battle in her restaurant. Glass shattered. Table legs were sheared off by bullets. Bodies fell to litter the floor and blood ran in streams. She pinched her eyes shut, hid behind Elias and waited for it all to end.

  Her ears rang from the blasts, but it took her long minutes to realize it was totally silent. Her hands ached from gripping Elias’s shirt so hard. She realized it, unfolding her stiff fingers.

  “How many of my girls are dead?” she whispered, her throat dry. “How many?”

  “Zero casualties among your girls.” Elias couldn’t be seeing things straight—there was too much blood. Every last girl under her care must have been wiped out.

  “Don’t lie to me!” she cried in a rough whisper that splintered.

  He swung his weapon to the side and twisted to take her in his arms. Pulling her across into his arms, he smoothed the damp hair from her cheeks. She tried to turn her head and look at the scene, but he stopped her by cupping her cheek.

  “Don’t look. I’m getting you out of here now. Close your eyes.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t leave. My girls!”

  “My team’s moving them out now.”

  Her throat closed. “They’re not dead?”

  His eyes burned with the truth. “Not a one.”

  Relief made her muscles slacken. She sagged against him, and next thing she knew, he was carrying her. She started to open her eyes, and he said, “Don’t open them, Ruby. Believe me, you don’t want to see.”

  Her stomach pitched and heaved like a tiny toy boat on the Bering Sea, but she didn’t open her eyes. When fresh air hit her face, she gulped in a deep breath that staved off some of the nausea she felt.

  “You can open them.”

  She slowly peeled her eyelids open and looked up into his ruggedly handsome face. “Usually when you’re told to open your eyes, there’s a surprise.”

  His lips quirked. “Surprise—a hot man is holding you.”

  In total opposition to all she was feeling, a laugh burst from her, unexpected and freeing.

  She threw her arms around his neck. “Can the hot man kiss me or is he on duty?”

  “I can sidestep the rules just this once.”

  She zeroed in on his full, hard lips, her body coming alive with each increment he lowered his mouth to hers. When his mouth crushed down, she sucked in a gasp and threw herself into the kiss.

  Need and passion stole through her like rays of sunshine on a dark day. She parted her lips on a groan, and their tongues tangled in a dance her body needed to mimic.

  The kiss lasted too brief a time, and Elias pulled away. She threaded her fingers into his thick hair and held him in place.

  “I love you too. I’m probably too late to say it, but…”

  He closed his eyes, his chest giving a heave. When he opened his eyes again, the depths were a blaze of love.

  “It’ll never be too late for us, sweetheart. Love doesn’t work that way.”

  “Then you…still feel something…for me?”

  He dropped his forehead to hers. “I’ll never stop. You’re it for me. I knew it when I set eyes on you.”

  A shiver of emotion coursed through her, and she snuggled closer in his arms. “Thank you for saving me.”

  “That’s what Disney princes do.”

  She giggled. “I said our names sound as if we’re twins.”

  “There’s nothing familial about this, sweetheart.” He swooped in and captured her lips again, stealing all thoughts.

  All but one.

  He hadn’t told her yet, but she was free.

  Gasper brushed his lips across Ruby’s pert nipple. When she gave him the soft moan he wanted from her, he parted his lips around the bud and drew it into his mouth.

  She cried out, arching off the hotel bed. “Elias!”

  He rumbled in answer and grazed the sensitive bud with his teeth before lapping it with his tongue to soothe the sharp pain.

  Her breaths came in harsh pants. Her red waves tumbled across the crisp white sheets, and her pale skin was quickly growing pink from his ministrations.

  Every lick, nibble and suck he delivered to her body had his cock throbbing harder and growing steelier. The head was purple and shiny with precum.

  “Don’t stop!” she burst out when he slowed his tongue.

  Grinning, he raised his head to look into her eyes. Taking his torment up a notch, he gained his knees and closed his fist aro
und the base of his cock. Her stare latched on his hand while he gave it a slow jack.

  Juice squeezed from the tip. Ruby licked her lips, and he damn near lost it. He was determined that this time—their fourth round of the night—he would remain in the driver’s seat. But a single flick of her tongue across her sweet lips was driving him mad.

  “Just one taste,” she whispered.

  “No.”

  “Please.”

  “Not a chance, beautiful. This time you’re going to be the one screaming down the rafters.” To prove his point, he dragged two fingers down the seam of her breasts, all the way to her navel. Her stomach dipped in on a gasp when he crested over her mound and pressed down on her clit.

  “Let me…suck your cock,” she cried out.

  “No.”

  “But…”

  He shoved her thighs apart and shouldered his way between them. When he parted her damp lips with his thumbs and saw how wet she was, he growled. “Not. A. Chance.”

  He speared her with his tongue. Splitting her slick folds, burrowing deep, deeper, questing to give her the biggest orgasm of her life. One that would steal any belief she could walk away from him after this.

  Or walk straight.

  Hell, walk at all.

  He stroked his tongue up her seam to crush over her clit. She gulped and writhed. After keeping her in this bed with him, he knew her trigger points, and no way would he let up until she was screaming his name.

  The flush on her skin and the small cries escaping her bitten lips had his cock pounding harder. If he stared at her lips too long, he’d give in and let her suck his cock, but that ended too fast with her at the wheel.

  Slipping two fingers into her tight sheath, he pulled the first pulsation from her. Her inner walls squeezed. Then clamped down. She stopped breathing as she teetered on the brink. He held her there for long moments and then finally pulsed his fingers in and out of her fast.

  Her hips jerked off the bed, and she called out his name. Christ, watching her face as she came apart for him was his new secret obsession. He couldn’t get enough—would never get enough.

  He’d marry this woman if she agreed to it. Problem was, she hadn’t agreed to return to the base with him or even to live in the nearest village to be close to him.