Walker (Bad Boys of X-Ops #1) (4 page)

I jumped toward the controls. “Brace yourselves!”

Waves
spun like whirlpools around us. Hauling on the wheel, I pointed us in the correct direction, shooting over my shoulder as the boat righted itself. The powerful engine roared, and we rocketed full throttle away from the other boats that kept up their hot pursuit.

A chopper swooped overhead, adding red flashes of gunfire.

“How many agencies are after her?” I shouted to Jade above the thunder of helicopter rotors above.

“Including you?”

Fuck me.

“Yeah.”

“All of them.”

Fuck me harder.

A sudden concussive explosion from the coast rocked all the way to the boat. The wheel spun in my hands, slippery and wet as I lost my footing. Shockwaves rolled beneath us, sending Jade half over the side of the boat.

Leaving the controls, I raced to her before she went overboard. “Hardly the time for a swim, Jade.”

She glared at me as I slung her back on deck in my arms. I set her on her feet, and her gaze flickered from me to the dark gray cloud of smoke mushrooming into the night sky from the shoreline.

I held my hands briefly in the air, gun and all. “Wasn’t me. All my precious toys were confiscated.” Reloading with precise motions, I said, “Except for this baby, that is.”

The rapid beat of the helicopter hovering above drew Jade’s head up. The lights beaming down captured the proud contours of her face, the slant of her eyes, the sweep of her thick, sooty eyelashes.

“Friends of yours?” She flipped those brilliant green eyes back to me.

Fucking Jade.

So gorgeous.

I’d totally do time for her. But not
this
time.

“Better hope so.” Ducking into the cabin, I chucked my pack on deck.

Grabbing all our gear in one hand, I wrapped an arm around Jade’s waist, hauling her to me.

Her arms wound around me as ropes from the Sikorsky slithered to the deck at our feet.

Not a second too soon, Majedah seized one of the cords, deftly wrapping it around her waist when given the nod from Jade. With Jade in my arms, I yanked on the rope curled around my fist just as a hot missile slammed the side of our boat—splintering the fiberglass sides and shooting flames into the air.

We dangled midair above the destruction for several breathtaking moments before the guys started cranking us up.

I glanced at Jade who stared at me with slightly less loathing than usual.

Hugging her to me, I murmured in her ear, “And you’d still miss me if I died.”

Stuck in a Hot Tin Can

NO SOONER DID JADE, Majedah, and I roll into the cargo area of the Pave Hawk than the squawk-talk started up from Justice and Bane—who’d been waiting in the wings—and Storm over the in-flight coms.

The risk and rescue over, and now I have to listen to this shit
?

I wanted to pull a Van Gogh move and cut my own ears off.

I lounged to the side while they all went at it. I leaned out the open aft sliding door, watching Beirut disappear, giving it the old
sayonara
fuck-you-times-two salute.

“What the fuck is
she
doing here?” Bane pointed at Jade.

Yep. That Jade. She sure made friends everywhere she went.

“You missed your fucking exfil and almost made me land in Beirut, asshole.” Storm chewed me out over the intercom.

“Never mind Jade.” Justice skimmed his hands across his blond crewcut. “What the hell is Majedah Chehab doing here? You were supposed to dust her.”

“I should just take her out now.” Bane unholstered his Sig Sauer.

He was not the friendliest of fellas, I had to admit.

Jade held my attention though. She shot in front of Madge with a fierce scowl. “Go through me to get to her.”

Bane hardly hesitated. He lifted the pistol and aimed point-blank at her heart.

I figured I probably ought to intervene, because Jade had her balls out and Bane had his dick out, and those two would probably just prefer to kill each other than get to the bottom of things.

“What say we all disarm?” I sauntered between the pair, shoving Bane back a step or two.

“You didn’t even call us in,” he complained, emptying his cache of weapons in the middle of the floor.

“What the fuck you whining about? You got two freakin’ days off.”

“I was bored.” The scar at the side of Bane’s mouth lifted when he tilted his lips in a half-smile.

“The brass knuckles too. And you, Justice, the shuriken.” I pooled my revolver with the others on the floor then pointed at Jade. “You are not exempt. And I need the gun back, Madge.”

“Madge?” The little lady from Lebanon quirked her head at me.

“MADGE?” Jade choked with straight-up fury.

“You heard me.”

Madge produced my borrowed gun, and it joined the others. I waited with a tap of my foot for Jade to comply.

Standing with her hands on her hips, she got all lippy with me. “This is my operation, Walker. You do not get to take control.”

“I just saved your ass, so yeah, I do.” I stalked toward her, meeting her stance.

“Have I told you yet how much I hate you? You’re overbearing”—she pushed at my chest. I didn’t give an inch—“
arrogant
. Stupid, knobhead, a danger to yourself and oth—”

Pulling her to me, I angled my head. She let out a gasp just before my mouth slid across hers. With one hand at the back of her neck and the other grasping her hip, I drove deep inside, my tongue finding the lush soft twist of hers. Arcane need howled through my veins. My cock woke way the fuck up, practically trying to burrow out of my pants and straight into her pussy.

Two years.

Two years
I’d wanted her mouth. Her body. I’d wanted to kill her, fuck her, get her naked, listen to her scream, and work her out of my system once and for all.

I dragged back after one last lash with the tips of our tongues touching.

No one spoke.

The bastards fucking stared. I could feel them drilling holes into my back.

Screw them.

“And you talk too fucking much.” I licked my lips for one last taste of Jade.

Damn. She tastes good.

Her mouth popped open—slick and a little swollen.

I placed my fingertips over her lips. “Dis-fucking-arm before I really make out with you.”

She bent over to unsheathe a hidden knife, and I swatted her ass.

“That should keep you quiet.” Hell, I could die a happy man now.

Standing before me, she stripped her armaments one by one. “I’m still well versed in various forms of torture.” Throwing down her last blade, she swung her hair over her shoulder. “Don’t you ever dare do that again.”

“Can’t promise that.” I smirked.

“You think we could get off the kink and focus here?” Storm bellowed from the cockpit.

“Don’t be such a bitch, dude.” I stuck my head around the corner. “Is that case of syphilis clearing up yet?”

“Dunno. How are you feeling about the heights right about now?” He took the helicopter on a sharp slant that made my stomach reel up to my throat.

“We’re not giving that woman sanctuary.” Bane wouldn’t let up even though I was about to
upchuck
.

Storm leveled the chopper, sending me an evil grin.

I ignored Bane. “How’d you track me down?”

“That implant Blaize shoved up your ass,” Storm snarled.

“That wasn’t an implant. Pretty sure that was the heel of her boot.”

“This was not a subtle extraction,” Storm snarled, again.

“At least it’s nighttime, right?” I watched a strip of land disappear below us.

“Can we fucking focus here?” Justice hunkered down on the balls of his feet.

I swiped my hands over my face. “Yeah. Jesus. Just let me think for a sec.”

“Not exactly your strong suit,” Jade mentioned, an imperious eyebrow raised while the guys snickered until my glare silenced them.

Walking around the cargo area, I muttered to myself, “Either T-Zone got the intel wrong or—”

“They want the
sheikah
dead for a different reason,” Jade interrupted.

“My husband.” Majedah’s husky, cultured voice quieted the rest of the crew. “His activities are backed by many countries that do not want to be seen openly associating with him. They are protecting his interests. They don’t want me to talk.
I’ve
been set up. I am
not
the rebel. I fight for my country, for Lebanon. Peace. It is all I want.” She shook her head. “Qasim wants war. He masterminds the Hezbollah.”

“That’s not the way we heard it, lady.” Bane growled, looking longingly at his pistol.

“You know what?” Storm called out. “You wouldn’t know intelligence from counterintelligence, Bane, so why don’t you let Walker do the questioning.”

“Shut up. The both of you.” Bane and Storm got along like a pair of pit bulls in a dogfighting ring, and I didn’t have the patience to listen to their bickering.

Bad enough having to deal with Jade’s smartass comments. And kissing her seemed the only way to get her to shut her trap, not that I was complaining.

“Seems there’s a goddamn international kill order on you.” I pointed at Madge. “Why?”

“War and terrorists, always in the news. Not pacifists. Not peacekeepers. My husband hides behind me. Pins the dirty work on
me
. Calls himself Emir.” She made a vicious sound. “I
spit
on him.”

I maintained my glare on her, unconvinced.

“Jesus Christ, Walker. How can you be so blind? It’s a classic bait-and-switch move. Of course everyone has orders to kill Majedah. It’s always her name in the headlines. Her face in the news. But she’s not the one riling up the dissenters. Qasim Hassan is!” Jade’s frustration showed when she pounded back and forth in front of me, giving her fiery speech.

“And you’re protecting her.”

“You are too, now.” Jade stopped in front of me.

“Fuck!” I didn’t know what to believe. Or which story was straight.

I wanted the black and white. The kill shots. The packages neatly dusted or quietly delivered.

“So that suicide bomber last night. You expect me to believe what? Your husband, Qasim, sent him?” I cut a glance to Madge. “Tried to publicly assassinate you? And got the wrong intel to all the agencies in case the attempt failed? Why?”

“I know too much about him . . . and Hezbollah.” She spoke firmly and clearly. “My death would incite a public uprising. The beginning of the new civil war.”

“Sounds like a fucking charmer, your husband.” Frowning heavily, I considered the information, weighed all the options.

Madge uttered, “He is an
azzhole
, and I hope one day to pull the trigger on him.”

Remind me not to get on her bad side. Jesus.

Swinging around, I stomped to the cockpit. “Get us to a landing strip, Storm. Have a plane ready.”

“I’m not handing the
sheikah
over, Walker.” Jade marched right after me and was waiting with another tongue-lashing.

“And I’m not giving her up.”

“You plan on taking us with you?”

“Until we figure this shit out, yeah.”

Jade’s lip curled. “I hope you know what kind of war you’ve gotten yourself into this time.”

“It’s always war with you, Jade.”

No fucking doubt.

“I want my weapons back, Walker.”

I contemplated her request for another thirty seconds or so then squatted down by the pile of gleaming metal—guns, blades, knuckle dusters, throwing stars, weren’t we a creative group?

I started passing out the weaponry to its various owners, but Justice curled his lip. “You’re not seriously letting her walk around packing heat, are you?”

“Way I see it, it’s the four of us guys against one and a half, if we’re including Madge. You scared, Jus?” I asked.

I thought I saw steam pouring out of Madge’s ears at my little dig—she definitely wasn’t getting my spare gun this time.

“I’m not the one who just made a deal with the devil.” Justice shoved his Heckler & Koch into a chest holster and sat on one of the jumpseats with his big legs spread and his big boots planted on the floor.

“She-devil.” A grin manifested on my lips.

And just like that, Jade hissed. But not before she systematically armed herself . . . to the eyeballs. Minus the RPG that hadn’t made it off the boat.

Not long later, Storm set us down at an abandoned airfield outside of Baalbek, Lebanon.

A stone-cold February night and not a soul in sight. And definitely no shiny private jet fueled up and ready to fly. The place was empty as a ghost town except for a line of sadly tilting corrugated metal hangars on one side of the airstrip.

“How the hell are we supposed to hitch a ride from this place?” Hopping from the helicopter onto weed-cracked tarmac, I squinted at Storm.

“Follow me.”

We all carried heavy packs, silently casing the area for hidden tangos, but none appeared as Storm took us to the farthest hangar. He rolled back one side, Justice the other, and motherfucking
voilà
.

A shiny private jet, fueled up and ready to fly.

“How in the hell?” I scratched the side of my nose.

“Every contingency covered, Tonto.”

“There better be champagne and caviar on board.” Justice barreled ahead full bore.

Bane tackled him to the concrete. “This isn’t
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
, dickhead.”

Storm walked around them. “More like lifestyles of the risky and dangerous.”

The Lear Jet stood, pristine and perfect. After we boarded one by one, I splatted into a cushy seat, kicked out my feet, and briefly considered cuffing Madge’s and Jade’s wrists together before I nodded off.

The engines ramping up was a primo fucking lullaby.

Jade’s incessant pacing up and down the small aisle was not.

And her mumbling.

Fucking hell.

I needed some shut-eye.

I finally reached out, latching onto her wrist. I yanked her into the seat beside me.

“Do you ever shut up, woman?”

“I still have a knife in my boot, you know? Works quite well if I want to cut your sodding tongue out.”

I harrumphed and rolled to my other side.

She grabbed my shoulder and hauled me bodily around. “How can you sleep right now?”

“Baby, I haven’t caught a wink in over thirty-six hours.”

“So? That’s normal for people like us. Besides, I need to know what you plan—”

I slit my eyes at her. “If you don’t stow that mouth of yours, I’m gonna have to kiss it again.”

She slouched into her seat, silently fuming.

I quietly chuckled.

Ahhh.
Blessed silence.

Sleep.

Some hours later, I prowled to the cockpit and took the co-pilot’s seat.

“Nice of you to join me. I’ve only been circling the atmosphere for the past two hours.” Unruly black hair shoved behind his ears, Storm tapped an unlit cigarette on the lit-up control panel.