Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) (42 page)

A Warrior’s Challenge Book Four

Code
Name: Luminous

Excerpt

Lumin paced across the
hotel room; stopping at the window, she gazed at the mountains skirting Las
Vegas. The sun breached the peaks, spearing her eyes. The
pre-recorded message on her phone droned on. Fear chilled her to the core. She
laid her palm against the glass, feeling the heat of the July morning
penetrating its thickness.

The voice on the phone
directed the caller to press the appropriate number for
different departments. None sounded right. She waited, her fingertips
descending the glass. She didn’t want to turn around, but she did. The bed
sheet she held to her body drew taut as she twisted. S
wallowing
hard, her gaze swept over his body. Yeah, he was still dead.

“Press zero for an
operator,” the voice instructed. Why did they always leave that to the end?

“Naval Amphibious Base
Coronado, how may I direct your call?” the woman on the other end a
sked.

“Please.” She cleared
her throat. “I need to find someone who works on your base.”

“What department does
he work in, ma’am?” the phone operator enquired with boredom.

“His name is Tony
Bale, he’s a SEAL, uh, Team One, Alpha Squad. Can you please find him for me?”

“One moment, please.”

Lumin squeezed the
cotton sheet between her fingers and breathed out slowly. Her heart banged in
her chest and refused to obey her mind. How could she have gotten herself into
this? She knew better. She was smart.
Educated.
She’d grown up in Las Vegas watc
hing,
listening, but never falling into the darkness that was an unseen
counter-balance to the bright lights and tourists who lost their restraint for
three days in an adult playground indulgent of misdemeanors if not sin.

“Ma’am.”

The operator coming
bac
k on the line made her jump. “Yes?”

“He is not on the
base.”

“Could you find him,
please? This is very important.”

“Ma’am, we do not give
out personal information.”

It sounded like the
switchboard operator was going to hang up. There was no one else she co
uld share the information with. She’d met Tony Bale last
December. He’d asked for her help because his friends had lost their daughter.
Pedro Quadero, the head of a large cartel operating in Las Vegas, had taken the
little girl hostage. She’d taken Tony an
d his
friends, Mace and Nina, to Steven Porter, a powerful man in Las Vegas who
helped them find Pedro. Steven Porter and his wife Moira were like Lumin’s
adoptive parents, but they couldn’t help her now. If she involved them they
might all end up dead. To
ny was a Navy SEAL; maybe he
would know what to do.

“Ma’am.”
Pleading wouldn’t work. She altered her
voice, professional, calm, the farthest from what she was feeling. “This is
extremely important. Mr. Bale told me to call him if I had information of a—” S
he paused.
“A
sensitive nature.
You don’t have to give me his number, but can you patch me
through to him?”

A deep sigh penetrated
the phone line.
“One moment.”

Lumin stepped to the
room control panel and checked the air temperature. She was freezing, and
switched off the AC.

“Tony Bale.” His voice
enveloped her like a warm blanket. The first bit of warmth she’d felt since she
opened her eyes this morning.

“Tony,” she whispered,
holding back tears of relief. “It’s—”

“Lumin?”
He sounded surprised.

“I’m sorr
y, but I didn’t know who else to call.”

“What’s going on?”

Lumin heard loud music
in the background and water splashing. The laughter of small children and
adults filled the airwaves between them. She bit her lip with doubt. They’d
only spent a short time
together. She pictured him in
her mind and his image was clear. A lean body with roping muscles and a chest
any woman wanted to be held against dangled in her thoughts. Their meeting,
although brief, seemed unfinished when he’d left her on the steps of Ste
ven and Moira’s place.

While every man in
Vegas looked at her and saw a tall blonde whose legs they wanted to lay
between, Tony had looked deeper. His eyes broke through her exterior and saw
more, making her nervous and excited at the same time. Tony’s ac
tions, the way he talked about the little girl they were
trying to find, and the way he carried himself proved to her he was brave,
noble, but when trustworthy popped into her head she knew she’d hit on the
right word and said, “I think I’m in big trouble.
You
need to tell me what to do.” The signal cut out, and her heart leaped in her
throat. “Are you still there?”

“I’m here, sweetheart,
what kind of trouble?” he asked, his voice hardening. “Is it Pedro? Did he find
out you
helped
us?”

The adult voices in
the background ceased.

“No, it’s not Pedro.
Where are you?”

“In
Mexico.
Nina and Mace just got married. Are you in Las Vegas?”

Lumin ran her fingers
through her blonde hair and she hooked them in the strands, tugging to replace
her rampaging fear with pain
. She hesitated.

“Don’t hang up,” Tony
commanded as if he sensed her misgivings. “You can tell me, sweetheart. I can
hear you’re scared, but don’t be. Whatever it is you’re not alone, okay.”

“Do you know what
Yersinia Pestis is?” she blurted.

Tony sucked i
n a deep breath.
“The Bubonic Plague?”

“Yes. In the middle
ages it was passed through contact, but
imagine
if it were turned into an airborne virus and mutated every
thirty-six hours. It would be the deadliest virus ever created. It would kill
millions.” S
he licked her dry lips. “I think they’ve
made one.”

“Who
is
they
, Lumin?”

“I—don’t know who they
are, but they know who I am.” Her voice quivered. “You must have contact with
people who can look into this. I heard a name, Dr. Clifford Bjornson. That
might
lead you somewhere. I have to go.”

“Wait! How do these
people know you?”

Lumin dropped the
sheet and reached for her dress. She pulled it over her head. Squeezing the
phone between her ear and shoulder as she did up the buttons she said, “Because
Dr. Bjorn
son’s partner is lying dead in my bed.”

“Okay, listen—I want
you to get on a plane and fly to San Diego. I’ll meet you.”

“You’re in Mexico.”

“I’m leaving now. Wait
for me. Stay in the airport until I get there.”

“I can’t.” Lumin
twirled looking for her fla
ts. The tip of her shoe
poked out from under the couch. She bent to retrieve it, and dug her hand
underneath to grasp the other. “If they’re trying to find me, I’m not going to
draw their attention to you. I just wanted someone to know. You’re the only Nav
y SEAL I’ve met.” Her voice choked off in fear as her gaze
slid over the carpet and came to rest on the dead scientist. “I don’t know what
killed him. He doesn’t look sick, but he might be infected and maybe I am too.”
Fear squeezed a tear from her eye and
rolled down her
cheek. “I can’t take the chance of infecting others if I am.”

“Listen…to…me.
I told you I owed you one.
If he isn’t showing signs of the plague
than he died some other way.
Get on a plane and wait for me in San Diego. I’m coming.”
Tony’s v
oice softened. “Don’t make me track you down,
because I will. We’ll lose time and it sounds like time is running out.”

A bang on the door
made her heart jump out of her chest. She waited to hear the words
“Housekeeping” but they didn’t come, only another h
ard
knock.
“Too late.
They’re here,” she whispered, backing
away. There was nowhere to go. She was on the thirtieth floor of the Grand
Palms Hotel with no way out.

“Lumin,” Tony’s
normally calm, low voice strained. “Listen to me, sweetheart, do exactly wha
t I say and do it quick.”

Message from Natasza

Thank you for spending
time with Alpha Squad, and standby for Code Name: Luminous Book Four in “A
Warrior’s Challenge” series. Tony (Tinman) Bale rides into Lumin’s life like a
knight in shining armor.
Alpha Squad only has a
couple weeks off before their next deployment. He doesn’t think twice about
answering the beautiful performers call for help or the fact that she might be
infected with a deadly airborne virus. She needs him. The warrior inside Tony
stands ready to protect her, but his heart has another
plan.

I enjoy and learn from
all your reviews. Please continue to leave them at Goodreads, Amazon or
wherever you have purchased the book. Join me on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Natasza-Waters/311286078885026
Visit my blog
http://nataszawaters.com/
or drop me a line at
Nataszaw
[email protected]
.

Please continue to
help Paws and Stripes. A nonprofit organization providing service
dogs for wounded military veterans with Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. Please visit their site to learn mor
e.
http://www.pawsandstripes.org/
and Operation Gratitude who annually
send 100,000+ care packages filled with snacks, entertainment items and
personal letters of appreciation addressed to individually named U
.S. Service Members deployed in hostile regions, to their
children left behind and to veterans, first responders, wounded warriors and
their care givers.
http://www.operationgratitude.com/

88’s

Natasza

Secret Cravings Publishing

www.secretcravingspublishing.com