Around-the-Clock Protector (12 page)

Carson couldn’t hold back the flood that raged through his veins. He brushed her lips with his, tasting the sweetness of her mouth as he pulled her against him.

She was his mission. Every inch of her body his territory to explore.

He ended the kiss, staring into her eyes, now bright with anticipation. “Are you sure?” he asked, knowing he could never go back once he started.

She nodded and slipped out of his arms, fingering the buttons of her blouse.

A groan rose in his throat as he eased himself onto the bed, unable to take his eyes off her as she reached the last button, undid it and slid the blouse off.

He wanted to devour her again, as he had the first time they’d made love, but he held back, enjoying the burn as it consumed his patience.

Reaching out, he unbuttoned her pants and pulled the zipper down. Slipping his hands around onto her backside, he shoved her pants over her hips. They pooled around her feet. She stepped out of them and he stared up at her, taking her hands in his.

Tiny beads of sweat dotted her upper lip and shone in the low light coming from the bedside lamp.

Carson swallowed, trying to bring his raging desire into line long enough to take her gently.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered.

She gave him a seductive half smile that worked only to drive him further from control.

He let go of her and came to his feet, undoing the buttons of his shirt, then the button and zipper of his slacks.

Ava couldn’t take her eyes off Carson as he peeled off his shirt. The hard lines of his chest, bare and rippled with muscle, made her breath catch in her throat. She didn’t dare look down. She already knew every inch of Carson Nash was as good or better than the last.

She closed her eyes, listening to his clothing being kicked off. To the sound of his desire-laden breath.

She’d been with him before, hadn’t she? Hadn’t she already felt his brand of desire on her body? She grasped at a tangle of faded memories that infused her with unspoken certainty.

Then his hands were on her. She didn’t resist as he reached around to unhook her bra clasp. He pulled it off like an unwanted entanglement.

She opened her eyes as he ran his hand from the nape of her neck down to just below her waist, catching her panties in his grasp.

A sigh escaped her as he freed her from the last impediment between them and ecstasy.

He pulled her against him, the heat of his desire burning against her abdomen.

She shivered and smiled as she raised her gaze to his.

His eyes darkened with desire, the intensity in his gaze raw and sensual.

Primal fires erupted inside her, pooling low in her belly. She was a goner as he pulled back the covers and lowered her to the cool sheets.

War raged in the back of Carson’s mind as he devoured Ava’s body. She was soft to the touch, sweet heaven to be enjoyed in slow, savory increments. But the beast inside him clawed to get out, venting heat through him like a volcanic eruption.

He tuned in to the feel of her. Focused on the friction generating in every place they made contact.

Holding back his desire to take her now, he dropped
kisses across the top of her shoulder, worked across her upper chest, finally ending the trail at her breast, where he took her nipple into his mouth.

Tasting, teasing, he flicked his tongue across it, eliciting a moan from deep in her throat.

His desire cranked up until he thought he’d explode. Rising, he stared down at the seductive smile on her perfect mouth.

Her eyes were bright, pleading. He watched her swallow and slide her tongue over her lips. His patience imploded.

The need in Ava’s body rose to a level beyond extreme. If Carson didn’t end her agony soon, she’d have no choice but to take over.

She opened for him, watching his pulse pound in his neck as he moved between her legs, crushing her to the bed.

A moan rumbled in her throat as he entered her, his need swollen and hot. With each powerful thrust, pleasure invaded her body.

She raised her hips to him, giving him access to the need inside her begging for satisfaction.

Carson’s body responded to the raw pleasure that pounded his control to dust. Again and again he thrust, feeling her climax rise out of the heated rhythm between them.

He gritted his teeth, holding back for her.

Lowering his mouth to her neck, he nibbled her
skin with his teeth, riding the line between agony and ecstasy until he brought her to orgasm underneath him. She squeezed around him.

White-hot heat seared his body. He found release and followed her into the frenzy, a guttural moan in his throat.

He spilled into her, riding the climactic wave until his body began to cool.

Going still, he gazed down at her and kissed the sensual swell of her lips, lingering over the feel of her beneath him.

“Bring back any memories?” he asked, watching her smile.

“No, but it created a new one.”

“Good.” He knew how to pleasure a woman and satisfy his own needs, but it had always been little more than a physical act to him.

Until now.

His emotions twisted as he closed his eyes for an instant. Ava was different, and no amount of training or emotional deprivation had taught him how to deal with that.

Carson lay in the darkness with his eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the night.

The feel of Ava’s body next to him gave him pause. He ran his hand over her lower abdomen. Hesitating, he spread his fingers out over the baby bump on her belly, the physical confirmation that they were indeed going to have a child.

He forced away an assault of emotions he’d never believed he’d have to tackle. He was a sworn bachelor. A warrior, too involved with his missions to see into the future, too preoccupied with his past to move forward.

He should have resisted his body’s primal needs, but making love to her again had eclipsed their first encounter, and he instinctively knew he could never step back from her again.

Somewhere outside the motel room a car door closed. Carson opened his eyes, a measure of caution
rising in his system. He glanced at the digital alarm clock on the bedside table: 4:00 a.m.

Easing away from her, he sat up and searched the floor next to the bed for his clothes.

Finding his pants, he pulled them on and stepped to the window. He pushed the drape aside and stared down into the parking lot below.

On the far side was a car with its dome light on. He could just make out the shadow of someone sitting in the passenger seat.

He noted the make and model—dark blue sedan. Could be an Agency ride. Concern wrapped around his insides.

A man walked across the parking lot toward the vehicle and a woman climbed out of the passenger side, meeting him at the rear of the car. He slipped his key into the trunk and opened it. Together they each took out a suitcase.

Late arrivals.

Carson tried to relax, but couldn’t. He scanned the parking lot, studying the other vehicles in the lot, until his gaze settled on a car parked near the edge, partially shielded by a tree. That’s when he saw it—the glow of a cigarette as the occupant of the car took a drag.

“Ava. Wake up. We’ve got to go.”

She rolled over and groaned.

He stepped back from the window. “Come on, sweetheart. We’ve got trouble.”

He reached the bed, picking up her clothes as he went.

The word
trouble
brought her to attention. She scrambled out of bed, snagging her clothes from him as she did. “How?”

“Don’t know, but we’ve got to clear out before they locate us.”

Carson grabbed his backpack and stuffed everything inside. He pulled on his shirt, strapped on his ankle holster and shoved his feet into his shoes.

Ava was dressed and ready to leave by the time he turned back to her.

“Lay the pillows out and cover them. It might buy us time.” They shaped the pillows to look like sleeping people and covered them up, meeting next to the exit.

Carson turned the knob and pulled the door open. Leaning out, he shot a glance to the left along the walkway.

“Come on,” he whispered, taking her hand. He held the knob as the door closed, keeping it silent.

They moved along the walkway without a sound, listening to the echo of footfalls coming up the open-air stairway at the end of the complex.

The agents had no doubt gotten the room number from the motel manager. They were seconds away from detection. If not for the late arrivals, Carson and Ava would’ve been sitting ducks.

At the last minute they stepped into a tiny room housing an ice machine.

Carson pulled her against the wall next to him, listening to the footsteps headed in their direction.

The sound of two male voices rose above the hum of the ice-machine compressor.

He strained to hear their conversation as their voices gradually became clear.

“A couple matching their description is in room

212. That’s up here at the end of the line.” Ava held her breath and closed her eyes, trying to blend in to the wall next to Carson. From ecstasy to terror all in one night was more than she could handle, but she remained frozen in place, listening to certain death move closer with each passing second.

Her pulse thumped. Only the feel of Carson next to her offered hope.

“You match the plate number on their car?”

“Yeah. It’s in the parking lot. Jensen did the tail outside Hinshaw’s place. Nash has been declared a rogue. It’ll make killing him and his package less of a stretch.”

“Cozy.”

Rage built in Carson as he listened to the agents talk as they moved past their hiding place. Someone had betrayed their decision to check out Hinshaw. There was only one person he’d told, and he was three thousand miles away.

“This is it.” The men were approximately seven doors down.

Carson heard the double beep of the key card in the door and took Ava’s hand.

The click of the handle was his cue. He stepped into the doorway and glanced to the right just as the men entered the motel room.

“Let’s go.” He timed their exit with the closing of the door.

“Don’t look back,” he instructed as they covered the distance to the stairway.

They hit the end of the walkway and raced down the stairs. Carson pulled up short at the bottom of the landing. He’d parked the car directly under the window of the room so he could keep an eye on it, but that meant the agents upstairs had only to look out to see their escape, and their lookout driver would spot them the minute they emerged from the shadows.

It was a risk they’d have to take.

He pulled the key out of his pocket, staring down into her face cast in shadow from the streetlights.

“Keep your head down and don’t stop moving.” He didn’t have the heart to tell her the CIA’s net was closing much faster than he’d ever anticipated.

Taking her hand, he led her along the sidewalk.

Keeping his focus on the car, he didn’t look up until he’d opened the passenger door and Ava was safe inside.

The drape slapped shut in their vacant room.

They’d been made.

Carson skirted the car and jumped in. He shoved the key into the ignition and fired the engine.

“Hang on!” He put the car in Reverse and backed out of the space, slipped it into Drive and cranked the wheel, tromping on the gas pedal. The car shot forward. He braked for a second and whipped out onto the street, headed south.

“Where are we going?”

“To ditch this car. The plates have been made. We’re sitting targets if we don’t get rid of it.”

“So we’re walking back to McLean?”

He liked her sense of humor, but he couldn’t muster a comeback. “No way.” He glanced up into the rearview mirror. The road behind them was clear. He sped up, hoping to widen the gap for the time being.

He braked for an instant and took the corner. The tires squealed and the suspension buckled. He feathered the brakes and kept it on the road.

“Find me a place where the Charles River bends with a road next to it.” It was risky, but they needed to get away clean. Ava fumbled in the glove box for the map of Cambridge they’d used to find the MIT campus. She pulled it out and turned on the dome light.

Studying the map, she spotted a place that
matched his description. “Soldiers Field Road. We can access it from Western Avenue. The street we used this afternoon.”

“Got it.” Carson slowed the car.

Panicking, Ava turned in the seat and looked behind them. “What are you doing? They’ll catch up with us.”

“Yeah. Now tell me what the road looks like after we get onto it.”

Confusion fed her fear, growing disproportionately to his calm demeanor.

She’d have to trust him. Trust that he knew what he was doing. She stared at the map and gave him directions to the river, then added, “But the road is a narrow two-way.”

“Don’t sweat it.” He glanced up into the rearview mirror. “Here they come.”

Turning, she watched in horror as a dark sedan fell in behind them approximately half a mile back and closing.

She stomped her foot against the floorboard several times in frustration, pressing an imaginary gas pedal that could jettison them out of reach, but it was futile.

“Relax. Everything’s under control.”

“Whose control?” Her nerves were frazzled, but she wanted more than anything to understand his madness.

“We’re going to launch this car into the Charles River. But,” he qualified, “we’ll be high and dry.
They’ll spend hours trying to fish our bodies out of the water to retrieve the microchip. By then we’ll be a quarter of the way back to McLean.”

For the first time since leaving the motel room in a panic, she relaxed. Carson was a capable man. A man she could count on.

“A bus?”

“Any way we can get there. I saw an umbrella on the floorboard of the backseat. Grab it for me.”

She undid her seat belt and leaned over, retrieving the black bag. Turning around, she buckled back into her seat and pulled the umbrella out of its cover. Glancing up, she looked down into the black water as they sailed over the Western Avenue bridge.

They were minutes from their final turn, a thought that set her nerves on edge.

“I’m going to stop along the road up ahead. I want you to get out of the car and hide in the ditch. No matter what happens, don’t move until I come for you.”

She stared over at Carson, afraid for him, but he laid his hand on her leg and she felt his strength infuse her body.

“We have a child to raise.”

Emotions, charged and poignant, closed her throat as she stared ahead, watching as a stop sign loomed in front of them.
We?
The word made hope churn in her mind—hope that she wouldn’t have to raise her child alone without a father.

Carson stomped on the brake, glanced to the left and slid around the corner onto Soldiers Field Road.

Raising his eyes to the mirror, he watched the headlights of the chase car make the corner less than a quarter of a mile behind them.

The timing would have to be perfect—he’d calculated the maneuver down to the last component. There was only one element that could make this fail.

“Promise me you’ll do exactly what I said.” He glanced at Ava, a silent prayer on his lips for her safety and the safety of their baby.

“Piece of cake. Just stay safe.”

Silence dogged the interior of the car. He had to give her credit for knowing how risky the maneuver was.

“What kind of closure does the umbrella have?”

“A two-stage push button. The first one opens the shaft, the next one the umbrella.”

“Open the shaft and hand it to me.”

He heard the shaft release with a tinny hiss. Reaching over with his right hand, he took it from her and lowered it until he felt it against the toe of his shoe. Rocking the handle back, he attempted to touch the bottom edge of the seat, but it was an inch short.

“I’ve got to adjust the seat, but it’ll work.” He laid the umbrella down next to him and fiddled with the seat controls, moving the seat forward. He needed to rig the gas pedal.

Up ahead in the headlights he could see the beginning of the turn. “This is it.”

A knot twisted in his gut as he pressed down hard on the gas. The car shot forward, opening the distance between them and the carload of agents.

The trees whipped past the window as the turn sharpened, putting them out of view of the chase car.

Carson slammed on the brakes. The car slid to a stop. Ava opened the door and bailed out, darting into the tall grass next to the roadway.

Carson hit the gas pedal at the same time he reached for the umbrella.

He jammed it down on the accelerator, wedging it against the bottom of the seat.

The overrevved howl of the engine cut into his senses. He popped the door handle and grabbed his pack.

In the last second before launch, he pulled the steering wheel hard to the left as the corner veered right, and dived out of the moving car.

A
VA LAY DEEP
in the ditch hidden in the tall grass surrounding her.

The eerie sound of the car hitting the water a hundred yards away from her hiding spot put a ripple of terror in her blood.

Was Carson alive? Had he made it out before the violent plunge into the Charles River? Was he injured
and lying in the middle of the road where the agents would find him and kill him for sure?

The chase car whizzed past, followed by the sound of squealing brakes.

She closed her eyes, repeating Carson’s words over and over in her head. She was safe here. Safe as long as she didn’t move, didn’t cry out, didn’t give up her location to men who would kill her if they found her. Whether she was dead or alive, they’d cut the microchip out of her body. She swallowed as the horrible image messed with her mind. Sucking in a breath, she redirected her thoughts, focusing instead on the memory of Carson lying next to her.

Carson gritted his teeth and lay still in the vegetation next to the road. He was banged up, but he’d live.

The screech of tires and slam of car doors gave away the enemy’s position. Unfortunately it wasn’t far enough away in his mind. He’d barely made it out of the car in time, and it put him precariously close to the three agents in the chase car.

“Dammit to hell. I hate the water.”

“Jensen. You’re going in. We only need the girl.”

“How deep do you think it is?”

“Fifteen, maybe twenty feet.”

“If we don’t recover that microchip, we’re dead. You know that, don’t you?”

“What’s Poltergeist got on you, anyway?”

“None of your damn business. What’s he got on you?”

“If we don’t pull together, it won’t matter what he has on any of us. We’re as good as dead. Now, find some damn rope so we can go in after the girl.”

Tension froze every muscle in Carson’s body as he peered through the low brush and grass he’d landed in on his belly. The first hint of dawn was beginning to lighten the sky overhead.

In less than an hour there’d be enough light to be seen.

He swallowed, watching the men open the trunk of the car and search around inside, finally pulling out a coil of rope.

“Fifty feet, that’s it. It better be enough.”

“Pull the car up as close as you can to the riverbank. Maybe we can spot the car with the headlights.”

He tried to make out the identities of the three agents clustered around the car. The poor lighting didn’t help, but he was sure he’d never seen any of them before tonight.