INTO DANGER (Secret Assassins (S.A.S.S.) Book 1) (42 page)

“Shit, how did you see me, man?” Cam’s voice rose from the narrow catwalk about six feet below.

Steve gave a grim smile, but his eyes never left his target. A weapon was still aimed at him, after all. “Your teeth, man. Every time you chew that gum of yours, your teeth show. What do you say, Birman? Weapons down, and let this finish between Gorman and me.”

“He’ll never let you take him alive,” Birman said.

“Then you needn’t worry about dying for him,” countered Steve. “Either way, I’m not going to let you take out Marlena.”

“You’ll die for her,” Birman stated rhetorically, lowering his weapon a few inches.

Steve kept his weapon up. A marksman was a marksman, after all. “Yes.”

“Funny how many men would die for that woman. Pierre du Scheum stood to her left throughout the whole evening, blocking my view most of the time. I thought it was coincidence but now I’m not so sure. Funny what you’d do for people you love.”

“Drop the weapon,” Steve ordered softly.

His heart thudded as he waited for Birman’s decision. It’d been a while since he had faced danger head-on, but his grip on his weapon was still steady, his mind in that special place, separated from emotions. He understood that the other man was weighing the same thing. Over a year out of combat action. Long enough to lose the reflex and state of mind of a soldier.

He didn’t think. Just reacted. The glint of Birman’s ring caught the light as his fingers moved. Steve fired his weapon without any hesitation, and the other man crumpled.

“Not a SEAL, man, never a SEAL,” Steve told the injured man as he stood over him. “Not a STAR SEAL. We’re a standing and ready force, and we’re always prepared.”

He crouched down. It was never easy to fire a weapon at a fellow human being, but Birman had made the choice when he could have surrendered. Steve felt regret, but no pity. The man had murdered two people for money and would have killed Marlena, too.

“He’s all yours, Cam. I’m heading down.”

“Ten-four.” Cam climbed up from the catwalk. “I’ll take care of things up here now. Is he dead?”

“Not yet.”

“How did you know he was going to fire at you?”

“You don’t wear a wedding ring when you’re in the sniper business. In this case, it’s you who’s gone rusty, Birman.”

Before Steve stood up, the sniper pulled at his arm, groaning as he did so. Their eyes met. He gave the same nod he always did, then closed his eyes. Steve studied him grimly for one more second. Then, he got up and pulled on the metal hook that extended a retractable wire from his nylon belt. He nodded at Cam before strapping it to the rope to rappel down to the deck.

***

D
amn du Scheum! If he hadn’t listened to du Scheum’s plan to use Marlena, he wouldn’t be here now, without his ability to see everything around him. But that damn Frenchman had convinced him he needed Marlena to negotiate the item since she’d already made it known at that function that she had it. Without her the authenticity of the laptop would be questioned. That made sense then, and he’d followed du Scheum’s advice. He’d known the man was trying to negotiate Marlena’s freedom, but he’d thought he was in control, that he would show them who finally needed whom.

Now he was standing there like Napoleon watching his Waterloo, hearing the reverberations of gunshots down on the deck. He had an idea who was out there. How did that sailor locate his boat? He clenched one hand, crushing the cigarette he was smoking, barely noticing the sting as the tip of it burned his palm.

He watched as the man responsible for his downfall fell out of nowhere like a spider dropping from the ceiling, hanging by a seemingly invisible thread, shooting and not missing. How could his men miss him? He could see him as clear as the dawn breaking, and his stupid crew seemed to be shooting at nothing. There couldn’t be that many intruders on board, could there? From the amount of firepower being used, it sounded like a dozen men. Surely his own well-trained crew could contain a dozen men.

With sudden fury, he turned on his captain and first mate. “We are in the middle of the ocean. How could twelve men get on board and you two not know about it?”

As expected, they didn’t have any answer. He struck the first mate, then flexed his arm. He hadn’t used violence in a long time. He left that to his minions.

“We have another boat approaching, sir. What are your orders?” The captain was nervous, sweat popping out on his forehead. He looked as if he’d rather be somewhere else.

Drawing out his 9mm from inside his jacket, he pointed it at the captain. “Start the engine and head toward that boat at high speed.” When the man hesitated, he cocked the weapon. “Ram it. Or you die.”

He backed up, kicked the cabin door shut, and locked it. When the captain still didn’t make a move, he pointed the weapon at the first mate and pulled the trigger. The man screamed. The captain went pale and started the boat.

“Speed it up!” he ordered, looking at the horizon, at the oncoming boat. Here was something he could see. “Napoleon never backed down.” He lit his last cigarette.

***

W
hoever this man was, he’d chosen the perfect spot for cover. They were just inside the doghouse, the protective construction over the entrance from deck level to below decks. This way they could see whether anyone was coming up from behind them. The shooting was sporadic, as if Gorman’s crew was confused. She wondered how many there were on board.

“Where’s Stash?” Marlena demanded, between bursts of gunfire. She kept glancing at the man a few feet from her. He had Stash’s build, maybe a bit stockier, but with the camouflaged streaks on his face, he could easily have been Stash. “And who are you?”

The man emptied his cartridge in one direction, then turned around, his back against the thick canvas on the side of the doghouse. “Your turn,” he said, pulling out a cartridge to reload. His eyes gleamed at her in the dark. “Unless all you want to do is kiss.”

The guy even talked like him! Marlena took position, firing in the direction where bullets were coming at them. “Where’s Stash?” she yelled again, getting impatient. She needed to know that he was safe, before she went after Gorman. “Is he all right?”

He peered to the left and fired his reloaded weapon. There was a howl of pain. “Right now, we have a more immediate problem, lady. Like an unknown number of shooters after us.”

“Seven,” Marlena informed him. “Five, actually, now that you got one. I took out one before that.”

He slanted her a glance again. “Wait here while I get rid of them.” When she glared at him, he shrugged and tossed her his weapon. He pulled out two others from behind him. The man obviously thought he was Rambo. He asked, “How fast can you run? Are you as good at dodging bullets as I am at kissing?”

He was trying to scare her. Marlena gave the stranger a mocking grin. “Kissing isn’t my only talent,” she assured him, then moved to his side. “There are two behind that stanchion, the other three are to your right. I’ll take them out first. They’re using semis and we can count the reload patterns, whatever-your-name-is.”

This close to him, she could see the corner of his lips quirking. He nodded and said, “Besides kissing, Steve must be giving you sailing lessons, too.”

Did he say lessons? Marlena emptied her cartridge, blasting one of the decorative railings to pieces. “Before I kill you, you had better tell me where Stash is and who you are.”

The man cocked his head. Their counterpart in this shootout was returning fire, so Marlena waited as she watched him mentally count the number of shots coming from each weapon. He lifted his heavier weapon to his shoulder and said to her, “On the count of thirteen, those two will reload and we go after them. Ready?” When she nodded, he said, “I’m Steve McMillan, too, by the way. So you kissed the right guy.”

Marlena frowned. Two Steves? She didn’t have time to deal with this right now; he had started counting. She yelled at him before they headed out of the doghouse, “But you aren’t Kisser of the Millennium Steve, SEAL boy.”

Gunshots and the cranking sound of chains and cables drowned out his answer. She didn’t wait for him as she disposed of the two men behind the stanchion. Mr. Other Steve had better be taking care of the other three because he was on his own. The boat was moving, so that cranking sound must be the anchor cable being hoisted, and she knew exactly where Gorman was.

There were rubber-suited men everywhere! Or at least it seemed like it, because every time she turned at the sound of gunfire, there were Gorman’s crewmen being rounded up like cattle. She was pretty sure they were SEAL commandos now. Only they would look this good in rubber. That big one over there looked like he could take down the whole crew himself. Well, let them handle these guys. She wanted Gorman for herself.

To her relief, the big intimidating guy seemed to know her and stepped aside, allowing her to pass. She was afraid that he would shoot her. Well, T must have briefed these guys.

That imposing cabin door was nothing against the firepower that Mr. Other Steve had given her. It took only one shot. The kickback almost had her on her ass. She didn’t have time to admire the destructive beauty of her handiwork, but instead peered in, expecting return fire. Sure enough, she quickly retreated when she saw Gorman. The bullet whizzed past her, hitting the wall harmlessly.

“Give it up, Gorman,” she called, putting one hand in her jacket pocket. “It’s just you and me now. Isn’t that what you want?”

There was a loud spray of bullets and a crash from inside. She muttered a short curse and peered in again. Someone had smashed through one of the windows and landed on top of the other occupant. Gorman wasn’t paying any attention to her as he seemed determined to jam the steering wheel a certain way. Here was her chance. She ran at her captor. He turned, gun in hand. She raised hers. Someone pulled her by the ankle, tripping her, and Gorman’s shot missed by a couple of feet. She pounded a fist on the floor in frustration. Damn it. She would have gotten Gorman first, the idiot.

She clenched her hand around the special ballpoint pen in her hand and yelled, “I don’t want him dead, you idiot. He has one of my men.”

She looked up to see Mr. Other Steve wrestling with Gorman, who was no match for this kind of tussle. She had the satisfaction of seeing her enemy getting the daylights punched out of him. There was a painful-sounding crack to the jaw. Gorman passed out.

“Hey!” she yelled as she was unceremoniously pulled up on her feet.

The man had no manners! He grabbed her by the hair, and she kicked his shin. “Look, you tongue me again, SEAL boy, and I’ll make you into shark bait.”

He tongued her anyway.

“Stash,” she murmured against his lips. Stepping on tiptoes, she palmed his face, pulling him closer. She couldn’t get enough of him. How she’d missed him!

His mouth moved over hers possessively and she responded fiercely, forgetting everything for the moment except the fact that he was alive. She’d been so afraid for him, had never been so fearful of losing anyone. He was her Steve, all familiar sexy masculine musk and heat and...the boat was still moving! Shaking off her protesting mind, she released his face and tried to talk to him while she pushed at the hard wall of his chest.

Steve reluctantly lifted his head. God, the woman drove him nuts. He wanted to shake her and make love to her at the same time. What was she thinking, running at Gorman like that? And what did she mean, he had one of her men?

Hawk had been right behind her, so Steve knew she hadn’t been in any danger, but damn it, hadn’t he told him to get her out of the way? So why was she running ahead of him?

He looked over Marlena’s head to ask his cousin, who was standing there eyeing them silently. Steve wasn’t worried about Gorman. Hawk would take care of him if he so much as opened an eye. He narrowed his eyes as he zeroed in on a smear of red on Hawk’s lips. He knew his cousin’s bad habits like the back of his hand. “That’d better be a new line of camouflage makeup and not what I think it is,” he warned.

Marlena twisted around to see what he meant. She didn’t see anything important about Hawk’s makeup, so she turned back to Steve. “Let go. We have to stop the boat.” She was facing the water and could see exactly where they were heading. “Stash! Stop the boat! Look over there!”

Steve didn’t turn around to see the disaster ahead. He had what he wanted—Gorman out and Lena in his arms. “Why did you kiss my woman?” he demanded.

“She kissed me. She preferred me to shark bait.”

“You didn’t kiss him, did you, Lena?”

Marlena stared up at Steve. Had they both gone crazy? This wasn’t the time to play kissing games! “Stop the damn boat or we’re all going to kiss something goodbye!”

“Okay,” Steve said and snapped his fingers. He did that to annoy Marlena; she didn’t know he had wired the propellers. A rolling rumble shook the boat under them, rocking it sideways. He opened his arms as Marlena fell against him, then closed them possessively around her as he braced himself against a wall. It felt so good to have her in his arms again. He didn’t want to let go. The past forty-some hours were some of the worst of his life.

The way the boat came to a stop in time seemed like magic, but of course it was the timing device that had taken care of everything, and he had the operation clocked to perfection. That was why he’d chosen that moment to crash through the window, but Marlena’s appearance had distracted him a little bit. Just a little. He placed a kiss on her forehead and met Hawk’s mocking eyes. He glared at the smear of red again.

“What did she mean about tonguing her?” he demanded, resuming the conversation before the explosion. It was just as if he were back with his team, using adrenaline and banter after a bloody battle. Mundane conversation and sarcastic jokes were the norm to counter the chaos that usually surrounded them.

Hawk shrugged nonchalantly, licking one corner of his mouth. “We sort of tongued each other,” he replied. “I was on top and she had her hands in my hair. Accidents happen that way.”

Steve growled. Marlena shook her head in disbelief. She tried to get free but his arms were locked tightly around her. “Are you listening to me?” she demanded, about ready to explode herself.