The same thing occurred at the FBI. She was a woman, plenty of those, but women snipers were still rather rare, and she never quite fit in. So after careful consideration, she made the choice to go after what she wanted.
She was going to connect with her brothers, maybe even Connor. And now she was going to be doing good. Not killing people. And she was thrilled.
If she missed that heady rush of adrenaline, the positives of her new situation outweighed the negatives. The logistics of surveillance, the mental calculations of vantage points, line of sight, and wind velocity, the unknowns of security and extraction, were behind her now. And while she had an occasional niggle of regret because she missed the heart pounding anticipation and rush, she was beyond happy to be helping control chaos, not inciting it.
She wasn't going to lie though. Being in the office, rather than in the field, had been a huge change of pace. She was ready for some action.
"You’re going to Port-du-Bois." He tossed pictures across his desk.
Hot damn, she’d been right. Adrenaline fluttered through her blood, lighting her up like a familiar friend. She just knew that helping the people of the disaster-ravaged island would give her the same rush as she’d experienced in her previous law enforcement life. Hopefully.
Port-du-Bois. The tiny Caribbean island nation had been decimated by an earthquake two weeks ago.
GHR had been monitoring the situation there since the disaster occurred.
"What’s the plan?" Keisha, already thumbing coded notes into her smart phone, got right to the point. She was an efficient bitch. Jess would give her that.
"You’ve got four hours before you go wheels up."
Four hours wasn't much time.
But Jess's 'go bag' had been packed since her first week on the job. At a moment's notice, she was ready to go save the world from itself. God, she couldn't wait.
"Cover?" Keisha asked.
Cover? Jess hadn’t been with Global Humanitarian Relief long, but why would they need a cover?
Jack shot Keisha a pointed look, then turned to Jess.
"You're a relief grunt, and security detail, which gives you permission to carry under the island military restrictions.” Jack addressed Jess, "The situation is unstable enough that I want you armed and ready to protect."
Guns. It wasn't that she minded. Hell she'd spent the first six years of her career shooting weapons regularly.
When she interviewed for this job she had known her weapons experience was a plus. Everyone else in the company, except Ava, was former military. But still it was on the tip of her tongue to resist until her brother spoke as if knowing that her gut reaction was to argue. "We aren't the fucking Red Cross and I refuse to leave my people unprotected."
For a moment, shadows flickered in his stippled hazel gaze before he cut back to Keisha. "You'll be coordinating seed and water purification tablet distribution. The boxed supplies are on shrink-wrapped pallets and already on their way." The slow measured look he gave Keisha seemed to indicate something more weighty.
Jess paused at the silent communication between them, and a frisson of unease overshadowed her excitement. When Jack spoke again, her worries scattered.
"Our primary logistics coordinator will be a temporary guy, Colin Davies."
Connor shot a surprised glance at Jack. "Not one of us?"
Jack had the grace to blush. "It isn't a good idea for any former military Stone brothers to be in Port-du-Bois."
Connor's eyebrows rose and he gave a short nod.
"Colin is meeting you en route." Jack aimed a remote at the television in the corner and turned up the sound. "He's already been briefed."
Temporary guy? Who was Colin Davies? And why hadn't she ever met him? And how did a new guy get in charge over Keisha? However, Keisha didn't look pissed. Surprising.
"Once you get on island, he'll assess the situation and give you orders," Jack said. "And you'll follow."
Keisha was frowning as if she’d like to argue about something.
"Are you sure she's ready?" If it had been anyone but Riley asking, it would have likely gotten Jess's back up, but she knew he didn't doubt her abilities, he just wanted to make sure she would be safe.
"She's ready." Jack aimed another slow measuring look, this time at Jess. The shadows in the swirls of his green and gold eyes, which changed colors depending on his mood, seemed vaguely threatening. Threatening? She was imagining things.
Jack finally said, "We need her."
Both Connor and Riley tensed subtly. Not wanting to jeopardize her opportunity, Jess nodded confidently. But inside she wondered...what had that little flicker been all about? What wasn't he telling her?
Three
42 hours earlier
The chopper's rotor blades swirled, trying to suck her into the updraft, as the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea-King flown by the U.S. Marine Corps lifted up and away. Jess was surprised GHR had been able to use military resources to get them onto this ship but she wasn't about to ask Keisha how GHR made that happen. She'd save that question for her big brother when she got home.
The ship's engines ground beneath her feet with a subtle chug and her stomach let her know she wasn't on land. Beside Jess, Keisha staggered and nearly fell. Not so perfect. As Jess managed to keep her sea legs, a little zing of triumph zipped through her.
Spotlights illuminated the LZ in blinding relief and cast the surrounding deck in darkness. A shadow detached from the murky side of the command tower. The silhouette was male. A little over six feet, lean, graceful, with something familiar in his movement as he sauntered toward them.
The glow from the landing pad bled over his features as he drew near. And when his face was revealed, her brain processed details. The arch of his brow, the almost aristocratic cheekbones, the sensual lips and windswept light brown hair. She'd barely slept in the last thirty hours which is why her brain didn't make the leap at first. But...she knew this guy.
Intimately.
His name hadn't been Colin when she'd had sex with him. It had been Niles. A stuffy name for a very
not stuffy
guy. Of course, they hadn't exchanged last names so he likely didn't know her last name was Stone. The sex had been smoking hot and a little too intimate for her comfort.
As a result, the last time she'd seen him, she'd been sneaking out of his hotel room at five in the morning, in a very small, very clingy little black dress, shoes dangling from two fingertips, after a particularly stressful op had almost gone totally south. As in
dead
south.
Jess's gaze narrowed in on his face, watching his eyes, difficult in the encroaching darkness. He faltered, so briefly that if she hadn't expressly been watching, she'd have missed it.
Motor oil and sea water mixed in the air as the whup-whup-whup of the helo's blades faded into the distance.
Without acknowledging any recognition, the new guy leaned down and grabbed the two extra duffels she and Keisha had brought. He jerked his head toward the door to the bunking quarters. They had several hours until the ship reached the island. It certainly seemed as if he didn't plan on discussing old times. So that's how this was going to play out.
Fine.
Of course, she looked a little different now. She'd changed her hair color, again. Now she had ribbons of blond and brown and mahogany. When they'd met before she'd had auburn hair. So maybe he really didn't recognize her.
Her heart thumped in anticipation as she realized she was about to be a part of her first humanitarian mission. After years of working for the FBI, furthering the agenda of the U.S. government at the expense of her own morals in ethically gray areas, she was finally going to do something good.
Something worthy.
No killing involved.
Jess followed Niles, er, Colin.
But the niggling doubt that wormed into her consciousness at the exact moment she'd recognized him wouldn't leave her alone. Uncertainty and apprehension rolled through her.
What was he doing here? Did her brother know Colin used to be SAS? That was a stupid thought. Sure he did. She was the only employee who wasn't former military. And she was assuming that Niles...Colin was not still active duty.
They moved quickly to the covered deck area, the grind of the ship's engines loud in the small enclosed space. "I'm Jess." She shoved out her hand and braced for the contact.
"Colin." He nodded without touching her.
"This is my first relief effort." She volunteered the information hoping for more from him. Skills and training kicked in as she assessed him calmly.
"Brilliant," he clipped.
She remembered him using that exact word when he slid inside her for the first time. Jess's gaze shot to his, and for a moment, heat and memory blazed, burning his cool gray gaze hot.
But then the fire extinguished and she was left cold.
She was even colder when she considered his presence on this boat. What were the odds that he too had grown tired of the increasingly complicated ethics of international politics and government machinations and decided to go humanitarian? At the exact time as she had?
Pretty damn slim.
When she'd been pouring out her heart between bouts of sweaty sex, she'd revealed her vulnerability and her uncertainty about her chosen profession. But Niles had done no such thing.
So what did his presence mean?
It was a well known fact that most intelligence agencies sent in operatives during relief efforts in order to get the lay of land of unstable countries. Could that be his angle? But then how did he get hooked up with GHR? And did her brother know?
She had minimal facts about his former occupation. He'd calmly and efficiently defused the bomb in the Tube station when they met previously. He was British. And totally hot in bed. Beyond swooning over his accent while he went down on her, she didn't know any more details about him.
They'd been in the right place at the wrong time and almost gotten themselves blown up, but luckily he'd been able to deactivate the explosives before the threatened deadline.
Jess had been the lookout in the small supply room, rifle trained on the crowd, vigilantly searching for anyone who looked out of place as the British police tried to calmly evacuate the crowded terminal. They'd both known that if something went wrong, they were dead. It had been the most terrifying and the most exciting hours of her life.
After cleaning up and several debrief interviews, including a mission post mortem, they'd both been nearly dead on their feet when they'd randomly met in the elevator of their hotel. Somehow the smoldering looks that had simmered throughout their time locked in a room with a ticking device had turned into a smoking hot encounter in his hotel room.
They'd planned to go to dinner, but when Jess met him in the hallway, clad in her sexy LBD that weighed about one ounce and left lots of room for her rifle and ammunition in her suitcase, they had stumbled into his room and never come out. Dinner had been forgotten in a haze of scorching lust.
Jess certainly couldn't ask any questions about how he'd gotten from that op to this place. Not until they were alone. No way in hell was she exposing herself, or his past, to perfect Keisha.
Besides, Jess had no idea what or if Keisha had security clearance. Proper procedure would be to let it go. Their prior mission didn't have any bearing on this humanitarian one...unless he wasn't former SAS but had in some way insinuated into the GHR ranks in order to carry out a separate, subversive agenda.
She wasn't going to let that happen.
***
Holy shite.
He'd had sex with Jack Stone's little sister.
When Jack had called to ask for a favor, and requested Colin head this op to keep an eye on his little sister, Colin had said yes in a heartbeat.
Thanks to a particularly hairy situation in Iraq a few years ago, he owed Jack his life. If Jack hadn't covered for him, Colin would be six feet under in a miserable desert in an unmarked grave. So when Jack had asked, the answer had been an easy yes. The last few months on the job had been stressful and disheartening. He was getting tired of dealing with the dregs of humanity and defusing their attempts to destroy. It was the perfect time to pay Jack back and Colin needed a break.
Jack had said in his gravelly 'I mean business' voice, "And just so we're clear. Don't touch my sister."
Colin had figured no problem and replied, "Of course not."
He would never in a million years betray his friendship with Jack over a woman. Not to be immodest, but he could get women whenever he wanted, he had no need to tread there. So what if he hadn't had sex in about six months? Ever since he'd hooked up with a smoking hot FBI agent that he couldn't seem to get out of his brain, his fantasies, or his dreams. He had figured keeping his hands off Jack's little sis was a no brainer.
What were the fucking odds that the FBI agent he couldn't get off his mind was also Jack's sister? When they'd met, they hadn't exactly exchanged life histories. Not even last names. Only extreme sexual pleasure for hours on end. And a few vulnerable moments in the dark.
His main objective for this mission had been to keep an eye on Jack's little sis and make sure that the op had no problems so he could relieve his debt to his friend.
But bugger it all, he hadn't been able to forget the way they had combusted in that hotel room. At the time he'd written it off to a serious excess of adrenaline and a case of 'Thank God we're alive, let's have sex' moment."
Seeing her again, he had to admit that was a lie. They had exploded faster than PE4 with a high heat detonator. You got to know a person when your lives were on the line and you could be sharing your last moments on earth with them. She had been über-cool under pressure and still managed to crack a few jokes to relieve the tension.
He had admired her steadiness and calm in the face of possible death. And he'd been attracted to her even before he'd seen her in the hotel elevator. But when she'd arrived for dinner in that excuse for a dress, Colin's lust had taken over his body and roared through him like an out of control Charing Cross train. The sex had been the best, culminating in the most amazing night of his life. He hadn't been able to forget her. Now here she was, right in front of him.