Trained for Seduction (29 page)

“Well, I hope you don’t wish to return to him. You are too beautiful to belong to a woman beater. The guards said you were quite—responsive—to his touch, during your picnic. I’d love to see how responsive you can be.” He lowered his head and brushed his mouth on the corner of hers. She winced and he withdrew, his hand smoothed the corner of her lip. “It hurts here, doesn’t it?”

“Yes.” She sat up a bit and struggled to look interested. “Are you offering me something better?”

“Maybe.” He rose and went to the window, then turned. “But I think you’re lying. I think you love another, and you led this one on.”

“I love another,” she whispered, then realized it was the wrong thing to say. The Arab world didn’t suffer a woman who cheated. She quickly lied, “But I can’t have him. He’s married. I don’t do married men.”

“Ah.” Zareh came back to the bedside. “At least you’re honest, unlike most Americans.”

“I try to be.” She fought to look intrigued, mixed with a little lust. “I’ll be honest right now. You’re an attractive man, and I like foreign men. A lot.”

His gaze heated, but then he looked toward the balcony and hesitated. “Will you be all right on your own? I’m not going to restrain you. I have something to see to, and then you and I will discuss your fate. There’s a guard at the door, so don’t think of leaving.”

“I don’t mind staying.” She smiled. “Where’s my friend?”

“Your abusive boyfriend is about to take a short walk with a friend of mine to cool off, as you Americans like to say. Nothing to worry about. I’ll return.” He nodded and turned.

“Wait,” she whispered. She tucked her soul away and gave him the look she gave Chase when she wanted sex. “Where do want me to wait for you?”

He tilted his head slightly, studying her like she was a whole new person. “I’d love you in my bed, naked.”

“Which side is yours?”

“I like the left, but be where you like. I have lots of plans for you, pretty girl. Lots of naughty, wicked plans.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

“I look forward to it.” He gave her a sexy smile and left the bedroom.

“Oh, Jake, hang on,” she whispered, knowing damned well the walk Jake was taking a death walk. She fumbled with the locket at her neck and opened it.

She activated the sensor to the bomb inside and unclasped it from her neck. She slid the chain and the locket under the mattress on the left side. The bomb was weight sensitive, so when he returned at night for bed, it would be triggered. She knew the weight was right—she’d set it herself—and he weighed about what Chase weighed. It would work.

Now the chopper would also be alerted and dispatched to the extraction site. Chase would know she’d done the first part of her job. Now she just had to get Jake out alive.

She went to the window and looked down at the courtyard. One of the guards from earlier followed Jake along the brick walk toward her end of the building, a pistol shoved in his back.

A quick scan showed the two were alone. Zareh hadn’t gotten downstairs yet. She went to the French doors and opened them, then stepped out on the balcony as quietly as possible.

She sucked in a breath and climbed up on the railing, positioning herself. When they stopped walking, Jake was just below her, his hands cuffed behind his back, the guard a few feet to her right.

“Turn,” the guard sneered, and she scooted over just an inch more.

Jake turned, and she jumped, missing the guard, landing on the ground between them in a crouch. The gun went off just as she stood, the look of surprise on the guard’s face priceless. Adrenaline helped her ignore the blast of pain in her side and she kicked the man in the face, knocking him unconscious.

Then she staggered and bent over the guard to find the keys to his handcuffs, fighting to catch her breath on the endless wave of pain. She stood, leaning slightly against Jake’s strong back as she undid the cuffs with trembling hands.

Jake turned, and she covered the wound with her hand, hiding it from him, hopefully stopping the blood. She bent and grabbed the guard’s pistol with the other.

“Jesus, Kate.” Jake grabbed her shoulders, his blue eyes searching hers. “Were you hit?”

The other guard rounded the corner of the house, shouting in Arabic for her to stop. He aimed his weapon at them. Kate raised the gun in her hand and double tapped the trigger, just like Chase had taught her. The man grabbed his chest and fell.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. She met Jake’s eyes, shocked, her hand shaking as she shoved the gun at his chest.

“Let’s go.” Jake grabbed her elbow with his free hand and turned her, then fumbled for her hand. “Just run, Kate. Don’t think about what you just did. It’s okay.” He tugged her hand and they ran through the garden, toward the extraction point.

All she could think about was the pain. White-hot, almost blinding, the pain radiated outward, a sticky, hot wetness covering her palm. She knew she shouldn’t be able to stand, to run, but adrenaline mixed with the need to see Chase. At the rate the blood was flowing, she knew there wasn’t much time. But she had to get Jake out. It was her job.

“Did you get it done?” he hollered as he glanced at her over his shoulder, then shoved her to the side to avoid something. A stump?

She slammed her shoulder against a tree and winced, not needing much more to take her down. “Yes, now shut up and keep running.”

An alarm sounded, and Jake pushed her head down as shots were fired. They ducked into the woods, using the brush as cover, and she stumbled, the breath in her chest like molten fire. She glanced down. So much blood, her shirt and pants now soaked, the hole under her hand pulsing, hot, and a wave of fear swallowed her.

“It’s not far, Kate. You can do it,” he shouted in her ear, pulling her to the side, away from more gunfire.

She stumbled again, and the world became gray, her legs numb, the pain in her side blinding. Jake yanked her along and she inhaled his scent—Chase’s cologne—and her knees gave way. She hit the ground on her stomach, her hand falling from Jake’s, the soil moist, cool on her cheek in stark contrast to the warm tears flowing. She’d failed Jake, failed Chase. She was done running.

“Damn it, Kate, we don’t have time for this.” Jake dragged her up and tossed her over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. He shifted her hips, and the hand she held over her wound fell away from her side. She was too tired to lift it again.

He must have seen the blood then because he gasped. “Jesus, Kate. They shot you. You lied to me.”

Kate had never heard his voice sound so horrified before, but the pain was fading, so it couldn’t be that bad, after all. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt so much anymore.”

How odd, she could barely feel Jake under her now. She knew he was running, but the ground blurred and began to fade. The gunfire and the roar of the chopper trying to land grew silent.

This place she found herself in now was quiet, pain-free. Peaceful. Maybe this was the place Chase talked about, where souls would be safe. She relaxed a little more, waiting to feel Chase’s arms around her. He’d said he’d be there. She would wait.

“Hang on, sweetheart. Just hang on for me—for Chase. We’re almost out.”

No, she wanted to go to that quiet place and wait for Chase. If out meant she’d have to face that pain again, she wanted no part of it. She was too tired. She sighed against Jake’s back, knowing now what she needed to tell him.

She struggled just a bit, trying to get closer to his ear. “Tell Chase I love him,” she whispered and let the peaceful darkness take her.

****

Chase had sat for agonizing hours, the hands on his watch unmoving it seemed, until the alarm sounded, signaling the bomb had been engaged. And then the tent became a flurry of activity. Chase rose to his feet, wanting to move, to follow the bustle, get to Kate, but his job was to stand still, to watch, direct. Control.

“Go, people, go,” he commanded, his heart pounding harder. “Get that chopper in the air. They’ve got five minutes.”

Kate had done it. Even better, the alarm meant she was still alive. Jake promised he’d get her out, and now he just had to wait until the chopper made the rendezvous spot for extraction.

He paced the tent, his eyes scanning every monitor, every sensor even though they were quiet. They couldn’t get cameras on the extraction side. He hated this radio silence, not being able to track them, but it would have been too dangerous to monitor them. It was a piece of the mission he couldn’t control, and now he had to let Jake’s skill and Lady Luck bring them home.

He glanced at his watch. They should hear news any moment. “Find out if the chopper has made contact.”

“Negative.” Then the younger guy held up a hand. “Wait, here they come.”

A cheer went up.

“Let’s get a call in to medical for standby, just in case.” Chase shoved his hands in his pockets to keep them from shaking.

“The pilot has them in sight. They made it to the extraction zone.”

The room cheered again, and Chase motioned for silence. “Patch them in.”

Then they heard the roar of the chopper’s engine, the blades whirling, and a volley of gunfire in the background.

“Fuck, move your ass,” the pilot shouted. There was more gunfire, and the chopper lifted off, the engine a high-pitched whine, the rotors whirling faster. “There’s a medical kit there. Yes, take that, too. Shit, that’s way too much blood.”

Chase closed his eyes, steeling himself. “Mac? Is Jake okay?”

“We have an agent down, requesting medical support,” the pilot reported.

“Mac, you need to give me details, STAT.” Chase snapped his fingers at a team member to his left. “You had better be talking to the trauma team. Get blood for a transfusion on that ambulance. Jake’s AB positive.”

There was a long moment of silence except for background chopper noise, and the pilot finally reported, “Jake is fine, sir.”

Then…Kate was the agent down. Every nerve went on alert, horror washing over him. He sucked in a breath, searched for the control, and held it by a thread. “How bad is she hurt? I need to talk to Jake. Now.”

“He’s busy right now, sir.”

It took Chase a second not to be offended—damn it, Jake owed him an explanation—and then he realized what his friend was doing. He was up to his elbows in her blood, saving her life. He grabbed the back of his chair to steady himself.

“Gunshot wound to the left side. Agent Wells has lost a lot of blood and is unconscious, vitals weak, IV fluids started. ETA six minutes. Jake wants the trauma team to meet us at the helipad with whatever they’ve got for a transfusion,” the pilot reported.

No.

Mac said, “I’ll touchdown long enough for the trauma team to board, then I’ll head straight to the hospital. Have medical staff ready on the receiving end and an operating room waiting.”

“How many can you take?”

“Sir, you can’t come.” He heard Jake shouting something in the background, his voice lost in the drone of the engine, but the pilot answered, “I’ll tell him.”

“Bullshit. I want on!”

“He said you won’t make it to the drop point in time, sir. He said we can’t wait a second more than letting the trauma team board. You’d have to be there, now. Have someone take you to the hospital, STAT.”

Go to the hospital. They couldn’t wait. That meant it was bad. Really bad. Chase swallowed and glanced around the room.

“Bypass the trauma team, then. Go right to the hospital, Mac.”

“Negative, sir, she won’t live if we do that.”

No, she couldn’t die. She didn’t know he loved her.

“Who is taking me?” His gaze landed on Ryan, the young man at the radio, the one who had guessed Kate’s bra color accurately.

“Sir—”

“She’s not going to die in his arms, not while I sit here. She is mine. Now take me to the hospital, and you had better drive like I have a gun to your head.”

****

Chase ran like he’d never run before, not even when he’d been chased in Afghanistan by insurgents. His life wasn’t on the line but hers was, and the walls of the hospital hallway were a blur, the corridor seeming endless, a sea of white and glass, each breath like fire to his aching lungs. He’d never told her how he felt. He never said he loved her. Fuck Jake for being right.

Then Jake was at the end of the corridor, covered in blood—her blood—and the shock hit Chase in the gut like a sucker punch. He heaved in air and stopped running, unable to finish the distance to ask what he really didn’t want to know.

Someone handed Jake a fresh shirt, and he stripped. His stomach was covered in bruises, his arms splattered in her blood, the blood at the corner of his mouth dried. There was no way she could have lived. So much blood, his shirt ruined.

Jake yanked the clean T-shirt over his head, smoothing it in place, and their gazes locked. Shit no, he looked like hell, like he’d lost his best friend, which Kate was.

No.

Jake strode over, closing the distance, and Chase wanted to throw up, the pain in his stomach was so bad.

“Chase. She’s alive. Barely.” Jake took him by the shoulders. “Look at me, buddy. Take a deep breath. You can’t throw up here, so take a deep breath.”

Jake shook him slightly, and Chase tore his eyes off of Jake’s bloody shirt, hanging from the trashcan, to meet his friend’s earnest blue eyes.

Chase breathed as instructed, his mind racing a mile a minute, trying to picture her… “Where is she?”

“She’s in surgery, but she’s alive.”

“That’s good?” He’d never felt so lost before. Right now he loved Jake for saving her more than he hated him for making her come in the clearing. “That’s good.”

“It’s really good. They’re pumping blood back into her and stopping the bleeding. She’s a fighter.” Jake guided him to a chair in the waiting area and pushed him to sit. “She was fucking magnificent, Chase. Right from the start, she did what she had to do. She saved my life at the end—jumped off a fucking balcony—and took the bullet meant for me.”

Chase closed his eyes, the pain of his job, his responsibility, too much. “I told her you had to come back. You were priority. She thought I didn’t want her to come back.”

“I doubt she was thinking of what a dick you are while she was saving my ass.”