Heroes In Uniform (7 page)

Hours and hours?

She sighed. “I don’t have hours and hours and you know it. Besides, you’re contradicting yourself. We agreed this was a reward, not an interrogation.”

“Oh. Well, thanks for reminding me,” he said, and starting moving in and out of her in long, sure strokes.

* * *

Her hips matched his, stroke for stroke.

Luke found his eyes closing. The feel of her was incredible. Slick heat. Glove-tight. He wished he wasn’t wearing protection so he could feel how wet she was. He wished he’d taken the time to undress all of her instead of being in such a male hurry. Maybe next—

Her feminine purrs of approval urged him on as her cuffed hands between their bodies clawed at his shirt front. He heard buttons popping. He felt her tightening around his hard length, pulling at him, milking him, hurrying him on even though he wanted to slow down a bit and savor her. There was a buzz starting in the back of his neck and a fuse was lighting its way from there all the way down his spine to the tip of cock. He could feel that fire burning, making its way to an orgasmic explosion. Her urgent hands scratching his chest demanded less finesse. Taking a deep breath, he pushed into her fiercely—

The backfire of a motorcycle outside the window brought their frenzy to an immediate stop, like hitting pause in a movie, their eyes wide and alert, their whole bodies clenched in mid-action. The sensuous haze in his head screamed in frustrated need and he could feel his lower back muscles clenching and unclenching, wanting to keep pushing into that sweet heat.

More noise outside the window.

Luke cursed quietly. He moved quickly, ignoring his body and mind protesting as he pulled out of the gorgeous, hot woman beneath him.

“Maybe it’s a passing vehicle,” Nina whispered.

He shook his head. “Drei’s place has a long driveway. That was from right outside the house.”

Her eyes widened. “We’re in Drei’s house.”

Ah, well. So much for secrecy. He nodded as he quickly unlocked her cuffs. “I don’t know who’s down there but I have a feeling, at this late hour, they aren’t friends.”

“Maybe it’s Drei.”

She got out of the bed. Lucas sighed at the luscious pair of long legs begging for his attention.

“If it is, he’s got lousy timing,” he muttered.

She followed the direction of his gaze, then transferred her sultry stare toward him deliberately. “Agreed,” she said softly.

He wanted to laugh. They were both half-naked, still turned on from their interrupted lovemaking, and trying very hard to focus on a possible threat. He cocked his head, taking note of the telltale sounds of three creaky steps Drei had warned him about. Correction. Not Drei. Not one, but multiple threats.

Dangerously Hot
: Chapter Four

“What is it?” Nina picked up her pants, quickly turning them inside-out.

His gaze had turned watchful. He’d pulled on his pants and was quickly buttoning his fly up with one hand while his other played with his cell phone. His expression hardened.

“What?” She asked again as she walked.”

“Do you know these people?” Luke showed her the shadowy images on his phone.

Luke had obviously installed cameras outside Drei’s house that connected wirelessly to his smartphone. They were blurry shadows. She shook her head.

“Time to go then,” Luke decided.

“But what if they’re friends of Drei?” She asked.

“Creeping about with hand signals. Sure. You staying to find out?”

Nina combed her hair off her face. “No need to be so sarcastic. I think your not getting your reward has made you grouchy, Cowboy.”

He gave a quiet laugh. “Their timing sucks.”

She couldn’t agree more. She didn’t resist when he pulled her in to give her a hard kiss.

“What’s the plan? It’s your call since you’re obviously familiar with the upstairs of Drei’s house.” She looked around. “I hope this isn’t his room. We’ve made a mess.”

“Wait, are you saying you’re familiar with Drei’s downstairs?”

She grinned. “Knew you’d catch that. You want to talk now when—” She gestured to the window. “—some bad guys are coming in to rob Drei? I wonder what he has in here.”

That was the only reason she could come up with why there were men heading up Drei’s house this late. They couldn’t be after her since being here hadn’t been her plan, therefore, they must be after Drei or Cowboy.

Luke shook his head. “Nothing. I’ve searched every nook and cranny. Drei’s place is clean. Not a clue.”

But what was he looking for? She didn’t have time to ask as she peered over his shoulder again. “They have night goggles on too,” she noted in a low voice. “And those glints in the moonlight aren’t from their wristwatches.”

“We’ll have to leave the car and go out the back window.”

“If I remember, the river’s in the back. I don’t swim. Now what?”

He sighed. “Come on.”

There was no choice but to follow him. He opened the back window and it made a sliding noise as he did so. The chilly air wafted in. He shrugged at her and ducked his head outside into the dark. Then his big body followed in one graceful glide. A hand appeared, offering help.

Nina rolled her eyes and pushed it away. As if she needed a hand to climb out a window!

It took a few seconds to adjust her eyes to the darkness. The light from the room streamed out, showing the slope of the roof and shadows and angles of tree branches.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her along behind him and she had to concentrate on keeping up with his bigger strides. She wondered whether she’d first get hurt from being shot at or from falling off a roof as they scrambled down the slope to the edge.

“Wait,” he ordered softly.

Like she had anywhere else to go at the edge? She swallowed a gasp when he released her hand and simply jumped off, disappearing over the side of the roof. She peered over. The man? Insane. The jump? Kind of hot.

“Jump.” His whisper traveled up to her.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Naya, jump. I got you.”

She stood there looking down at his shadow. If he missed…. She looked behind her. Looked back down at Luke’s shadow.

“Jump,” he said, again. “Don’t fall forward. Don’t fling yourself. Pretend you’re stepping off the pool into water. I got you.”

She did as he ordered, taking care not to jump on top of him. There was a second of breathless weightlessness and then strong arms gathered around her thighs, sliding up her back as she fought for balance. She put her hands out onto his shoulders. In the dark, she felt them shake with amusement even as she realized his face was buried intimately against the front of her jeans. Slowly, he slid her body down, not breaking the close contact.

“I prefer doing that without clothes,” he whispered. “Next time, the top comes off too.”

She pushed against him. “There might not be a next time,” she muttered.

“Let’s be positive,” he said, pulling her along.

“What next?”

“Drei has a bike in the shed at the back. Don’t worry, I’ve ridden it.”

Yes, she remembered Drei’s motorcycle, a powerful hulk of noisy proportions. They were so going to get killed but the hand holding hers was insistent and she followed him down the short path. They reached the small shed and behind her, she heard some voices shouting.

“I see them! Back there!”

Luke pushed open the door and they ran inside. He seemed familiar with the place, going to the right. She stumbled along behind him, marveling at his lithe quickness as he climbed on the dark machine. It was running in one smooth turn of the key.

“Jump behind me,” he ordered.

She did so.

“Hang on tight. It’s going to be a cattle chase.”

“What?”

“Just a lot of circling around while we try to get on the road. Just keep your head down. It all depends on whether they decide to shoot or chase us with their bikes.”

Great. This was all she needed to hear, that she might be shot at while riding as a passenger. Time was running out and she hadn’t the time to change her mind.

“Where did you put my gun?” she asked. If she was going down in a hail of bullets, she wasn’t going out without a fight.

The bike took off. There were shouts as they emerged out of the shed.

“In the front of my jacket,” he replied, shouting over the ensuing noise of bikes and shouts.

Nina put her arms around Luke, slid one inside his jacket and found his holster immediately. She wished she had more time to explore. The man felt hard and…

The motorcycle roared as they went down the pathway, swerving left, then right. The wind and engine noise masked a lot of the other commotion but she caught sight of other headlights coming on. Their house invaders had decided to pursue.

The path was bumpy and Nina found herself automatically fisting Luke’s belt. His head turned.

“Hang on tight,” he yelled, and sped up just as the sound of gunshots rang.

Their bike raced past one car and several bikes, zigzagging, circling, raising clumps of dirt and grass and spitting them every direction. Nina gasped as somehow they flew through the air, hit the hood of the car and continued riding over the top and down the back. Her backside went up and down as if she was riding rodeo. Cowboy was definitely doing his thing. She fired off several shots, causing the other bikes to swerve away.

“Good girl!” Luke yelled.

She didn’t have time to yell back because they were flying in the air again, this time a good ten or more feet. She hung on for dear life as the came back down in a crash, tearing a hole in the earth. She had no idea how Luke managed to land on two wheels and how they were still speeding away. Somehow, in all her preparations through the years to be a fixer, she’d not envisioned she would be doing extreme biking in Estonia. In the dark. With people shooting at her.

She laughed. Exhilaration coursed through her like a current. Damn, but this was the kind of fun she liked. Nothing stealthy and all action. She turned and started shooting at the headlights, emptying her cartridge. Tires screeched and the headlights swerved erratically. She was on target with a couple of shots, as the headlights went dark. Take that, unknown armed enemies.

“I need more ammo,” she yelled into Luke’s ear as they entered the street.

“There’s another cartridge in the inside pocket,” he yelled back.

Nina reached around and slipped her hand inside the other side of his jacket. The bumpy ride made it an interesting experience. She finally found the pocket.

Load, turn, fire.

One of the bikes following them skidded.

“Any more weapons if I run out?”

“One more, baby. It’s waiting for you.”

She put her hand in one of his pockets. “Where is it?”

“Lower.”

“Not that one!”

His masculine laughter was sexy, even over the racket. He handled the big machine with expert ease, as if he’d ridden with reckless abandon a lot in his life. Part of her thrilled to his mastery, fascinated by his calm at being chased and shot at. He sped the bike around bends and over slopes, weaving between a few cars which were out late, dodging their chasers in hair-raising ways. Hanging on tightly, she vaguely noted he was heading straight toward the city lights.

“Won’t that bring out the police?” she asked.

“Exactly. Maybe they’d stop shooting so much. I can handle them chasing us, but would prefer not to do so with holes in either one of us.”

She agreed. Sure enough, as soon as the thugs realized the direction Luke was taking the bike, the number of shots began to dwindle.

“It seems our pursuers don’t want the authorities involved,” Luke said.

“They’re right behind us, though. Where are we going?”

“How many bikes still behind us?”

“Only one. I took one down and another must have crashed when it swerved.”

“Good. I’m taking us down one of the alleys and then it’ll just be that bike behind us. Once I take care of that, we’ll have to find a way out of that alley because you know the other cars will be waiting at either end.”

He didn’t wait for her acquiescence, racing the bike down the road at a dangerous speed. She hung onto his belt precariously, as she turned to check behind her. They were speeding up too.

Luke handled the bike like a pro, passing cars and bouncing back and forth from the cobblestone pavement to road and back again. Lamp posts whizzed by at heart-jarring flashes. She tried not to think about how close they were.

“Here we are. Hang on!” Luke warned and then the bike was mid-air over some parked cars and back down on its wheels. When they miraculously landed upright, he yelled to her, “Are you okay?”

“My butt hurt from all that bouncing,” she replied facetiously.

He laughed, which wasn’t the usual thing people getting shot at do. Maybe he thought he was in one of those old cowboy movies, where shootouts were the regular thing. She could only hang on as this crazy, delicious man did stunts that made her squeeze her eyes tightly shut, sliding in between moving vehicles and finally, gunning for a dark alley as their pursuers avoided accidents.

“There is a small smoke explosive in the inside left pocket of my jacket,” he instructed while their bike roared toward the alley. “Just pull the top and throw it behind us. It’d get the motorcycle. That will leave just the two cars.”

She found it immediately and as they zoomed down the long and narrow path, she looked back at the pursuing bike. She pulled the small cap and tossed the explosive at them. She didn’t hear anything because of the roar of the bikes reverberating against the old brick and stone walls, but billowing smoke began to rapidly rise like a ghostly apparition in a movie, enveloping the pursuing bike, effectively blinding the driver and his passenger. As they moved further down, she heard the unmistakable crash of a bike meeting a wall.

“Good,” Luke said, slowing down the bike. “The others have to get out of their cars to come in after us. We have options.”

“Options?” All she could think of was to escape.

“Stay and fight them and find out who they are. Run and find out who they are ourselves. Get a room and fuck and not care who they are.”