Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (15 page)

Dylan went behind a counter and began tapping away on a keyboard. A monitor on the main wall turned on and showed several large sandbags hanging from a large post in a cleared area of the property. Another screen turned on and the picture of a large target came into view with a bright-red bull’s-eye in the center. “We have hidden cameras out there to see who hits what and to make sure no one is in the area when we are doing this,” Dylan explained.

“Good idea,” Mikayla said.

Dylan smiled at her then typed in a few more keystrokes. Another screen turned on. This time it was to show a chart, similar to a bowling score card with each of their names listed in the first column.

Rock laughed and rubbed his hands together. “This is so much better than bowling. Let’s shoot some stuff!”

Gage chose to go first, not only to show the others how it was done, but also to work off some of the frustration he was feeling. Why the hell did he always feel like he was fucking up with Mikayla?

Oh yeah, because he was.

He took his time, trying to clear his mind as he sighted on the first eight targets. He felt pleased each time he heard the loud
ping
of the bullet hitting the metal targets and as he watched them fall. Once all of the targets were down he made his way over the balance beam, turning first to the targets on the left then the targets on the right. This phase of the course was meant to be harder for the bigger men, and it was. It forced them to slow down to maintain their balance so they wouldn’t fall off and have to start again.

When all six targets were down, Gage set his gun and extra clips down on the table at the bottom of the cargo net. He began to climb and let his thoughts drift back to Mikayla. Worry filled him as he thought of how climbing the net might hurt her leg. Perhaps he shouldn’t have invited her here today. Sure it was fun, but maybe she wasn’t the type of woman who enjoyed this kind of thing. Hell, she didn’t seem like the girly-girl type, but what if she was? How in the world had he become obsessed with a woman he knew almost nothing about?

Gage reached the top of the platform and loaded the sniper rifle. Staring down the scope, he pulled the trigger. Miss. Shit, he tried to slow his heartbeat after the climb and fired several more times before finally hitting the tag so the sandbag dropped. He had to reload the rifle twice before he hit one of the middle rings on the final target. He stood up and held up his hands.

“Time!” Katie called out and stopped the timer. She read out his time then Dylan added it to the scoreboard as Gage came down the stairs on the side of the platform.

“He’s a good shooter, for a civ,” Rock said as Mikayla stood next to him. “That counts for something.”

“He’s my lover, Rock,” Mikayla said dryly. “I’m not taking him to war with me.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Lynx. That’s what our lives are. It might not be on a battlefield, but it’s war all the same,” Adrian said softly as he joined them. “You need someone who can deal with it or it won’t work. And I’m not sure that one has the temperament to stand by you.”

Mikayla remained silent, worried that he might be right.

“Who’s first for your team?” Gage asked as he came to stand in front of them. “Mikayla? Maybe you shouldn’t participate. I didn’t think about the cargo net with your leg…”

“She’s fine,” Rock replied with a laugh. “But Lynx goes last. It’s the rules. I’ll go first.” He chose his weapons from those on the table, checked them over then went to the starting line. Rock took off when Katie started the timer.

Gage looked over at Mikayla, fire burning in his green eyes. Oh, she knew that look. He was on an adrenaline high, and that fighting instinct had turned to lust. For her. He took her hand in his and towed her with him around a corner.

“You did good.”

“I know. I think I deserve a prize.”

“You haven’t won yet,” Mikayla said with a smile, her earlier irritation forgotten.

“Doesn’t matter. Kiss me, woman. Give me my prize.”

Desire struck her hard at his words and made her knees weak. He had looked like a warrior who was ready to take her if she didn’t give in. But if he was going to claim her, she’d claim him right back. She stepped into him, sinking her hands into his dark, thick hair and fused her mouth to his. His arms wrapped around her waist, plastering their bodies together as they fed off one another. Their tongues danced and stroked together, igniting the flames of wanting higher and higher until they were both breathless when they pulled apart.

“I’m sorry, baby. I was an asshole earlier.”

She chuckled. “You were.”

He pressed his forehead to hers and sighed, content to hold her in his arms. “Why do I feel like I’m always apologizing to you?”

“Because you are.” Mikayla sighed and pressed her lips lightly against his again. “But I guess I can say I’m sorry, too. I know this is new to both of us and I could be more understanding about how difficult it is for you to deal with the men in my life, even if my relationship with them is strictly platonic.”

Gage seemed to thinking carefully about what he wanted to say before he spoke. “In the past I’ve stayed away from women who would bring out this side of me. I know how I can get and I don’t like it.”

Mikayla made a decision. She wanted this to work between them, and in order to do that she needed to tell him more about her life. “We both have things we’ll need to work through for this to work. I think we should talk after the games are over. There are things I have to tell you.”

“That sounds ominous. You aren’t married with three kids, are you?”

She choked out a laugh. “No, nothing like that.”

“Then we’ll talk later. Now we should join the others before your friends decide to come check on us to make sure I haven’t ravished you in the bathroom or something.”

Mikayla let a slow smile spread across her face and Gage groaned as he kissed her again. He pressed her against the wall, kissing her until they were both breathless. She let out a laugh as he finally dragged her back to the group, in time to watch Dylan tag the last target on screen.

After all the members of team Stark had gone, only Mikayla was left to make her run through the course. Unsurprisingly, the IAD members were ahead in points even without her score.

Gage watched as Mikayla checked over the various guns on the table. She handled the hardware in such a precise manner that he instantly knew she had done so many times before. It almost seemed wrong, for such a beautiful woman to be so competent with such a deadly weapon in her hand, but on the other it was totally and completely hot.

Before Mikayla could begin her run through the course, the door at the end of the corridor opened, and Sebastian entered the building wearing a fierce frown. Gage sighed. “Will you wait a couple of minutes before you start? Sebastian hates meeting with new clients. Give me a sec to calm him down.” At her nod he pressed a kiss to her forehead then went to meet Sebastian.

“You fucking owe me,” Sebastian said with a scowl. “That damn man can sure talk. I took him on a tour of the property and dropped him back off at his car at the main house. He just left.”

“So, did you seal the deal?” Gage asked with a grin.

Sebastian snorted. “Of course I did. Plus that producer friend of yours said he would be calling you next week to talk to you about potentially filming some of the movie here. So, how is the Stark clan doing?” He paused to shoot a quick glance over to where the group was talking. He started to speak again then his head immediately swiveled back to the group and his jaw dropped. “No fucking way!”

“What?” Gage’s gaze tracked over to where Sebastian was looking.

“Holy shit, it is them!”

“You know them?” Gage asked, curious as to why his cousin was gawking at the twins.

“Not really, but I know of them. We were in the Army together. It was hard not hearing about the Savage twins. Jesus. What the hell are they doing here?”

Concerned now, Gage gave Sebastian his full attention. “Adrian and Rock are Mikayla’s friends. Sebastian, what’s the deal?” Gage pulled his cousin further away from the group then lowered his voice. “Should I be worried about something?”

“No,” Sebastian shook his head. “I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. But if they’re really friends of Mikayla, I’d worry that they’ll kill you if you hurt her. And I’m not joking.”

“Shit,” Gage groaned.

“Yeah. Buddy, I think you need to rethink your relationship with this chick. Look at her friends, Gage.” Sebastian jerked his head to the side. “There is more to her than she’s telling you. You can’t trust her if you don’t know who she is.”

“Damn it, Seb. I know I should stay away from her, but I can’t stop thinking about her. I want her more than I’ve ever wanted anything. I think I’m fucking obsessed with her.”

“Fuck.”

“Exactly." Gage sighed. "Come on, I’ll introduce you.”

Gage walked back over to the group and introduced Sebastian to Rock and Adrian while keeping an eye on Slade with Mikayla at the table. He couldn’t help feeling annoyed as the other man leaned in to speak to her.

“I’ve met you before…somewhere,” Rock said to Sebastian as he studied him.

“I served two tours over in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. There was a camp outside of Baghdad where my platoon was pinned down one night. We had an idiot senator with us that had insisted on seeing the war-zone—”

“Ah, I remember that.” Rock nodded. “Didn’t he piss his pants?”

Sebastian laughed. “He did. We had him locked down tight in between two boulders, but there were two groups of militia pinning us down and we couldn’t move. Then all we heard was multiple gunshots and it was all over.”

“Our unit was in the area when we heard the distress signal over our comm. We thought we’d stop by and join in the fun,” Adrian said with a grin then turned to address Slade as he joined them. “Hey, Sebastian here was part of the senator’s piss party outside of Baghdad.”

“That one was a clusterfuck waiting to happen.” Slade sighed. “Yeah, good times.”

Sebastian stared at the other man in disbelief, unsure if he was joking or not. “I don’t know if it was good, but it sure was something. I only saw you guys there,” he said to Adrian and Rock. “But I knew you had a shooter on the ridge above us." He turned to Slade. "That was some really impressive shooting.”

“Oh, I was there, but that wasn’t me on the ridge,” Slade said with a wide grin. “That was all Lynx. Come on, you don’t want to miss her run the course.”

Sebastian’s eyes widened. “
She’s
Lynx! No fucking way!”

“What?” Gage asked, eyes narrowed on his cousin.

“Lynx is the code name for a legendary sniper. There’s no way that girl can be
the Lynx
!” Sebastian exclaimed.

“She ain’t no girl. Watch and learn, son,” Rock replied.

“Lynx, you ready?” Adrian called out.

Mikayla looked over at him, grinned then turned to Dylan. “Start the clock,” she ordered and took off. Clearing her mind, she prepared herself for the obstacle course as she would any mission. The solid weight of the steel in her hand was familiar and she automatically controlled her breathing as she approached the first set of targets.

Shooting with accuracy wasn’t about speed. If she rushed, she’d miss. If she missed, her heart rate sped up and on a real mission that could get a sniper killed. Mikayla centered herself, legs spread in a good stance and took aim. Time slowed down like it did when she was in the zone, and she was always in the zone with a weapon in her hand. She waited one heartbeat, then two and fired, watching as each metal target fell as she continued to shoot.

All eight targets down…

The constant thud of her heartbeat her only companion, Mikayla made her way to the balance beam. She breathed out as she began to cross the beam, squeezing the trigger so she hit all three targets on the right. Without slowing her stride she switched the gun into her left hand, hitting the targets on the left as she crossed the beam.

Six shots, targets down…

It felt good, hearing the
ping
of metal hitting metal, but the mission wasn’t complete. Phases one and two were just a faded memory now as she moved onto phase three. She set the gun down on the table and braced herself for the pain of the climb. Like she had been taught, Mikayla focused on one specific row of rope and used it to ascend the cargo net. Her teeth clenched in defense of the pain shooting through her leg, but she wouldn’t stop. Pushing herself, she climbed faster, wanting the arduous task to be over with and reached the top of the tower. It was there she let herself smile as she saw the two sniper rifles.

After a quick glance she chose the manual action rifle and lay down on her stomach, legs spread for perfect balance. In no time she had the rifle loaded, the stock tight against her shoulder and the target sighted down her scope. It wasn’t like her own modified personal weapon she liked to use, but it would still do the job.

Mentally she calculated the wind velocity by eyeing the flag waving heroically in the wind from a pole attached to where the sandbags were hung. She took a few more precious seconds to slow her heart rate that had sped up from her climb. She waited and waited, then, in between breaths, she fired.