Authors: Susan Hayes
Alayna was about to make introductions when a strong arm locked around her waist and lifted her out of the way. She landed behind Nikolai and tried to move past him, only to have him wrap his arm around her again, pinning her to his side. Colin had moved forward, putting himself between Sam and Alayna.
“You’re not taking her away from us,” Colin snarled.
“You can quit growling like a dog over his favorite bone. I’m only here to make sure my little girl is doing okay.” Sam looked up at the much bigger man with something that wasn’t quite a grin.
“What are you laughing at, old man?”
Nik demanded, still restraining Alayna, who was doing her best to break free and not getting very far.
“Never seen anybody manhandle Alayna before, like she was a fluffy bit of nothing needing protection.” Sam chuckled and shook his head.
“Sorry, little girl, but if you could see the look on your face right now.”
“I don’t need anyone’s protection! Damn it,
Nik, let me go! Sam’s no threat to me.” She stomped on his foot, but Nikolai merely grunted and squeezed her tighter.
“Stop it, minx. You are not getting near him until we know what’s going on. The more you
fight, the longer that’s going to take.” She huffed in frustration and stopped trying to break free. She wasn’t strong enough anyway.
“Care to explain why you’re sneaking around our house instead of walking up to the front door?” Colin asked, not moving from his place in front of Sam.
Sam snorted and crossed his arms over his narrow chest. “I wanted to be sure my girl wasn’t being abused. Not much chance of watching you tw
o'
leets with her if I let you know I was here. Now, I’ve seen enough to know that she’s not gonna be hurt.”
“How long have you
been
here?” Nikolai asked, his voice still raw with barely leashed anger.
“Long enough.
You two are going to have to do a better job watching over my girl in future.”
“I didn’t get a chance to activate the new alarm system because
Nik’s rude, obnoxious parents arrived and messed up my plans for the day! And now you’re here, screwing up what was looking to be a pleasant evening. Colin, I swear to the stars above, if your family shows up without any warning I’ll go nova! Nik, let the fuck go of me and let me go see my foster father before I start getting pissed.”
“And there’s my girl.” Sam chuckled.
“And you! Sneaking in here and eavesdropping! Don’t think you’re sitting pretty, Sam Dixon. I’m not happy with you either.”
Nik
let go of her and Alayna marched straight past him, around Colin and up to her foster father. For a moment she simply stood there, and then she did something that surprised her, and shocked Sam. She hugged him. Alayna couldn’t recall the last time she’d done that, but she knew it had been years. It had to have been, because the last time they’d hugged, Sam had been taller than her, but now she had a few inches on him.
He smelled the same as always, a familiar blend of soap and the butterscotch candies that were his only vice. Alayna hugged him tight, trying to ignore the lump in her throat and the way her eyes burned. Just when she was about to let go, Sam lifted his arms and hugged her back. When she glanced at his face, she could swear there were tears glittering in his eyes, but then he blinked and they were gone.
“You
have
gone soft,” he muttered as he slowly released her.
The comment stung, but she knew he was only covering for the fact he’d actually hugged her back. “Maybe I have, but I’m not the only one. Why are you here, Sam?”
“I got a half-assed note saying you’d been claimed and wouldn’t be coming back. Did you really think I was going to do nothing but sit back and mourn your loss?”
“Honestly? Yes.”
Colin cleared his throat and Alayna glanced back to find her two bonded standing side by side, arms crossed over their chests and nearly identical expressions on their faces. They were not happy, and had no problem letting Sam know it. It would have been funny, if it wasn’t so damned annoying.
“What now?” she snapped.
“We’ve got something to say to your foster father,” Colin said and Nikolai nodded.
“Stars save me.
Fine. Say what you need to.” She threw her hands up in the air and stepped away from Sam, who was looking at her men with a trace of a grin on his chapped lips.
Colin spoke first. “We have chosen your daughter. She’s ours now.
Ours to love, to cherish and to protect.”
“And we will protect her from any threat, including you,”
Nik added, his voice rolling like thunder across the kitchen. Alayna was tempted to roll her eyes, but she knew that this was important to them, so she stayed quiet.
Sam eyed both men for a minute,
then nodded. “You’ll do.”
Alayna blinked. She couldn’t have possible heard that correctly. There was no way it could be that easy. “That’s it? They charge in here, threaten you and you just shrug and tell them they’ll do?”
Her foster father looked over at her and grinned. “What did you want me to say? That they’re not worthy? They damned well caught you, didn’t they? I’d say that’s a pretty good indication of their ability. I’ve been watching you since this morning. You didn’t look like you were unhappy. Looked to me like you were making yourself right at home in fact. You had the place to yourself for a few hours and you didn’t bolt for the fence. Seemed pretty clear to me you’ve decided to stay.”
“They said they’d hunt me down if I left,” she pointed out, feeling the need to defend herself.
“Bullshit. If you didn’t want to be found, they’d of never found you. Same as if you didn’t want to stay, they wouldn’t have been able to keep you here, pretty new tattoo or not.” Sam touched the side of his face in the spot where she now wore Nik and Colin’s mark.
“We would have found her,” Colin growled.
“No, boy, you wouldn’t have. Not if she didn’t want to be found. I taught her better than that. She’s here because she wants to be. That’s all I needed to know.”
Nikolai felt some of the tension leave her body at Sam’s words. The bastard wasn’t exactly one for soft words or tender moments, but at least he’d come to check up on Alayna. Nikolai had the feeling he would never like the man much, but if Sam didn’t try to interfere with Alayna’s happiness, then maybe they could put up with him.
“So, you staying for dinner, old man?” Alayna asked.
“You haven’t been around to cook me a meal in months. What do you think?”
“I think that since I’m cooking, you can make yourself useful and finish the security installation. And don’t bother trying to put in a personal access code. Next time you visit you can come to the front door and knock like a normal person would do.”
Sam glanced over at Nikolai, then Colin. “You two are in for a lifetime of attitude. You know that, right?”
Nikolai dropped a kiss to the top of her head before replying.” We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
***
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Have I mentioned how much I hate this plan?” Nikolai’s voice sounded in Alayna’s ear, perfectly transmitted through the earpiece they’d fitted her with only a few minutes before.
“Yes, several times,” she murmured in the barest of whispers, trusting her throat mic to pick up the near-silent response. Alayna didn’t blame
Nik for being unhappy. If she were in his shoes, she would be, too. He was stuck monitoring the situation from his desk, while Colin and Alayna got to have all the fun.
After two more days of investigation, they had identified dozens of incidents where the lieutenant had accessed one of the warehouses, but never appeared on any security footage. Once they had a starting point, the patterns appeared like magic. In the past three years, the man had stolen an impressive list of inventory, all of it highly valued on the black market.
Bolger had started off slowly, but as he got bolder he’d started stealing more and more often, getting sloppier with every theft. He had become a man of habit, always making his run in the late afternoon and then reporting the theft two to three days later.
On the second day, they determined that their thief wasn’t working alone. He had an accomplice, the base’s newly retired chief surgeon, Dr. Simms. The same doctor that Dane had arrived early to replace. According to their findings, Simms had ordered expensive pharmaceuticals and other items with an impressive value on the black market that seemed to disappear each time the thefts occurred. As the chief surgeon, no one had checked his requisition orders, so no one noticed when the requests for rare and high-end items had tripled in a matter of months. The pattern was undeniable, and their friend Dane was able to confirm that those high priced items should never have been ordered in the first place, as they had enough on hand.
Nikolai had already alerted command, and they were quietly looking into both Simms and Bolger’s financial records. In the meantime, Nik, Alayna and Colin determined that there had been one last order made using the fake codes, and it was still sitting in storage bay one. They had the bait for their trap. Now, they were waiting for their thief to come and collect it.
That was the part Nikolai didn’t like very much. In order to maintain the illusion that nothing was unusual, he was still in his office, just the way he would be on a normal day. Once Bolger entered the warehouse, Nikolai and a small security detail would move in and wait for their target to leave with the stolen goods, catching him red-handed. That meant that Colin needed to be inside the warehouse, keeping an eye on things in case anything went off track.
They’d tried to tell Alayna she wasn’t going to be part of the arrest and she’d laughed at them. There was no way she was sitting this one out. In the end, they hadn’t had a choice. She had casually pointed out that Bolger’s office overlooked the entrance to the warehouse, so they were going to need another way in. Both men had cursed until they were blue in the face, but in the end they had been forced to include her.
So, now she and Colin were walking across the base with
Nik grumbling in their ears. Not that Colin was doing much better. He was growling under his breath every time any man so much as looked Alayna’s way. She had covered her facial tattoos and repainted the simple star that would allow her to pass for an infertile woman, and her bonded had acquired an Alliance uniform for her to wear so she wouldn’t stand out while on base.
“I don’t like this either,” Colin muttered as they passed another group of officers heading off shift. They’d saluted and then turned their attention to Alayna, who was doing her best not to laugh at Colin’s irritation.
“You can’t blame them for looking. They don’t have any idea I’m claimed,” she pointed out softly.
“That’s the part I don’t like. You’re
ours
, damn it.”
“I told you this was a bad idea, Ghost,” Nikolai growled through their earpieces.
“You two really need to get over it already.
I
know I’m yours, and that’s all that matters.” Both men growled and she had to cover her mouth and cough to hide a snicker. Alliance officers didn’t snicker. Hell, as far as she could tell, smiling was prohibited while on duty. Everyone looked so fucking serious all the time. When her new advisory position was made official, she was going to make a point of smiling and laughing as often as possible.
They had talked about her new position, and her former career, a lot over the last few days. Neither of her bonded
were thrilled about her past, but since she had no intention of going back to that life, they were working it out.
She led Colin away from the busy areas, finally arriving at their destination, an alley that ran between the two main warehouses. Alayna knew from past experience that it would be stacked high with empty crates and pallets. The piles of discarded supplies didn’t look like much, but to her they were a built-in staircase that provided access to the roof of either building. “Give me the rope and let me go up first.”
“Go up? Up where? You said there was an easy access point.” Colin glanced around them, gesturing vaguely. “If there’s an easy access, I’m not seeing it.”
“It’s here. You’re just not trained to see it. Stay here and watch what I do.”
“I outrank you, you know. Try to remember that.”
“At this moment, you don’t.” Alayna grinned at him before jabbing a thumb at her chest and then pointing to him. “Right now, I’m the master thief, and you’re the apprentice.”
“She’s enjoying this way too fucking much,” Nikolai grumbled, his unhappiness transmitting clearly.
“Uh huh, she really is. We’ll make her pay for it later,” Colin said and dropped the bag he’d been carrying over one shoulder. Crouching beside it, he removed a length of climbing rope and handed it to Alayna.
Taking the rope, Alayna danced a few feet away from Colin and stuck her tongue out at him. “You two are trying to ruin all my fun.”
“This isn’t fun, minx! This is dangerous!”
“You and I have very different ideas of what fun is,” she announced as she slipped the coil rope cross-wise across her body. The guys didn’t understand. This
was
fun. Her senses were heightened, her heart was pounding, there was a bounce in her step and she couldn’t keep the grin off her face any longer. All her training and experience came to the fore. To Alayna’s eyes, the path to the rooftop was as clear as day, and her mind was already rehearsing the steps she’d need to go through to deactivate the sensors that guarded the air vents they’d be using to get inside. She looked around the area one last time, confirming they were alone, then blew Colin a kiss and started climbing.
Nikolai checked every recorder they had, but not one of them showed him even a glimpse of Alayna or Colin. How the hell had no one noticed that blind spot before and how many others were there? He had a gut feeling that Alayna could tell him exactly how many blind spots there
were. He’d bet a month’s pay that the moment they got her new position authorized, she’d start working on eliminating every vulnerability she’d previously exploited.
He was equally sure that in exchange for preventing more thefts, the little
vorovka
would want to see that the people she used to steal for would be getting what they needed through official channels. All in all, it was a fair exchange, and if anyone could convince the bureaucrats to do things her way, it would be Alayna. She was his sexy, fearless, chosen, and she was currently doing something dangerous and reckless while he sat in his office, doing nothing.
“Fuck this!”
Nik slammed his hand, palm down, on his desktop. Making everything rattle and jump a few inches into the air.
Alayna’s snarl was barely more than a whisper, but it carried clearly through her throat mic.
“Fucking hell, Nik! Are you trying to kill me? I’m twenty feet in the air right now, hanging off the side of a building. Bad time for an outburst.”
“Sorry.
Forgot the mic was on.” Nikolai shoved himself back from his desk and started prowling around his office, making sure his mic was off as he gave vent to all his frustration. He’d gone into security so that he didn’t have to be on the sidelines, watching. He had fought his way to the upper ranks so that he could be part of things, making a difference. He should be out there right now, but one of them had to maintain appearances, and for the first time in his life, his size had cost him a chance to take part.
Alayna had pointed out that there was no way he’d fit inside the vent they’d need to crawl through. When he’d argued, she’d made him call up the blueprints and showed him the dimensions. It would be a tight fit for Colin, and impossible for him. Not that knowing that made it any easier to sit in his office and twiddle his thumbs while the two people he cared most about in the world were out taking chances and getting things done.
He had the mic off, but Alayna and Colin’s were still transmitting, so he could hear every breath and muffled curse. Finally, Alayna’s breathing slowed and he heard Colin heave a heavy sigh of relief. “She made it. I have no fucking clue how she did it, but she’s fine, Griz. You can stop wearing a hole in your floor now.”
Nikolai stopped prowling around his office and switched his mic back on. “I’m not pacing.”
“Bullshit. You’ve probably been beating on your furniture too. Relax, she’s safe. Possibly insane, and able to climb like a starving monkey going after a banana, but fine.”
“I’m not insane, thank you. I’ve got a unique skill set. Now, let’s see how you manage, oh illustrious elite of the Alliance.”
“Sass will get you spanked, princess.”
“How are you going to do that from all the way down there?”
“Pardon me for a minute, will you? I need to climb a wall and remind our chosen who’s in charge in this relationship.”
“Good luck with that,” Nikolai said, feeling some of his tension ease after listening to their banter.
There was a soft chime and Colin’s voice came in over their private channel. “Don’t ever tell her I said this, but she’s good, Griz. So good I’m not sure how the fuck we managed to catch her that night. We shouldn’t have been able to.”
“Fate.
That’s the only way I can explain it. I’m just grateful we found her.”
“Me, too.
Now, shut up for a second. If I fuck this up she’s never going to let me forget it.”
Alayna knew she should be working on getting them inside, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Colin. He held onto the rope she’d tossed him, but he wasn’t relying on it to get him up the
wall. Instead, he was doing a decent job of replicating her ascent, and it occurred to her that if he hadn’t wound up adopted into an Alliance family, he’d of likely made a hell of a thief.
She didn’t relax until he was safe on the roof beside her. Once he was, both of them hunkered down behind a weather-ravaged metal housing that protected the ventilation system. The housing hid them from any rooftop surveillance, and the flat roof made it impossible for anyone on the ground to see them as long as they stayed low. It was a design flaw that appeared in a number of pre-fabricated military buildings, and one she took advantage of often.
At least, she used to.
It hadn’t really occurred to her how much she would miss the adrenaline rush that came with pulling off a job like this. She missed the rush, but as she remembered how carefully she had watched Colin make the climb, she knew that it wouldn’t be fair to put her bonded through that kind of fear. As if he could read her mind, Colin leaned in close and grazed a kiss to her mouth. “Did you know that
Griz blows off steam by driving like he was behind the wheel of a racer? I teach classes in advance hand-to-hand combat and spar whenever I can. If this is what gets your heart going, princess, we’ll find a way you can enjoy it, without breaking any laws.”
“I did warn you I wasn’t like other girls,” she whispered and kissed him back.
Nikolai rejoined their conversation. “Yeah, you did. But you might have noticed by now that we don’t listen that well.”
“I noticed.
Nik, I’m going to get us inside, it should take me about three and a half minutes. I need you to tell me if you see anyone heading in our direction.”
“You got it. When this is over, you and I are going to have a long talk about security upgrades. I had no idea this place was so fucking vulnerable.” She grinned as she heard the annoyed tone in Nikolai’s voice.
“Blind spots?” she teased.
“Don’t even pretend to be surprised about that, minx. And we’re going to get rid of every fucking one of them.”
She managed to get the cover off and the program hacked in less than three minutes, a new personal best. Alayna had never had an audience before, and she wanted to impress them. Once they were inside, she led Colin down into the warehouse, following the small signs and reminders she had left scratched on the sides of the shaft on previous entries.
They arrived at a vent positioned right over a veritable mountain of shipping crates, and Alayna got out of the way to let Colin wrestle with the cover. Once he had it out of the way, she hopped into the gap and dropped onto the top of the pile. Colin joined her a moment later, and they both grinned at each other as they took in the view from their new vantage point.