Around-the-Clock Protector (16 page)

Ava tried to breathe as beads of sweat formed at the nape of her neck and rolled down her back in rivulets she was too frightened to brush away for fear of setting off the bomb attached to her body.

Panic set in as she stared at Carson.

“Where is he?” he asked, taking a step toward her.

She swallowed. “He left me on the trail, but I don’t know if he’s there anymore.”

“Are you wearing a wire?”

“No.”

Carson took another step toward her.

She fought the need to bolt, to protect him from being blown to bits if she could. “Please…don’t get too close,” she begged.

“You know I will. It’s the only way.”

A choked sob rose in her throat. “I can’t let you…I love you.” She took a step back.

“You’ve got no choice, sweetheart, because I love
you, too, and Glendow won’t risk destroying the chip by detonating the bomb. We’ve got a better chance together.”

She stared at him, feeling a zing of hope.

In three steps Carson reached her. Putting out his hand, he stroked her cheek and stared into her eyes.

“Nitro, do you copy?” he said into his hidden microphone, still staring at her, still touching her. “We’ve got a problem.”

Confusion contorted her face, pulling her brows together.

Carson increased the pressure against her cheek. “If Glendow is watching he needs to believe we’re speaking to one another.”

Ava nodded.

“Loud and clear, Marathon. Go ahead.”

Glancing down, he studied the bomb strapped around her midsection.

“I’m looking at a simple C4 quarter brick with a probe detonator. Two wires, one red, one white.”

“Copy. Clip the red wire one-half inch from the head of the probe.”

His cell rang.

Carson pulled it from his belt, letting his hand drop from Ava’s face. “Yeah.”

“Do you like my insurance policy?” Glendow’s self-assured voice sounded at the other end of the line. “I don’t trust you, Nash. Leave her there and
follow my instruction. Now, take a step back or I’ll set it off.”

He stepped closer, prepared to play Russian roulette.

“If she goes, I go, and so does the microchip.”

Silence filled the airspace between him and Glendow.

His nerves stretched tight. Had he made the right call?

“Take the river trail and head east. At an eighth of a mile in, you’ll come to a picnic area surrounded by trees. Wait there for my call. And Nash, I’ll be watching every step you take. Don’t try anything, or she and the kid die.”

Rage coursed through Carson. “You know about the baby?”

“Resnick told me she was pregnant. I put you two together the night before she left D.C. with a DNA sample from her bedroom.”

“I’m not buying it.”

“I saw the way she stared up at the bedroom window, and I saw your profile behind the curtain. It was easy to collect DNA—the damn stuff was everywhere. The match came up in-house. The only thing I couldn’t predict was that you’d be sent into the field to rescue her from the Russians.”

Carson swallowed his anger and sobered. He may have been given pertinent details, but they weren’t in the clear yet.

Far from it.

“You’re a son of a bitch, Glendow.”

Carson closed the phone, watching a single tear slide down Ava’s cheek.

“We can do this, babe.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again he could see determination where fear had been only moments before.

“I’m ready. Which way?” She turned and walked back up onto the trail.

“East.” Carson followed close behind her looking for his opportunity. It came in the form of a woman jogging with her leashed dog. At the last minute Carson stepped left and tripped over the dog. He hit the ground on his belly and jammed his hand into his pocket, retrieving his nail clippers.

“Oh, my gosh! Are you okay?”

The woman knelt next to him, while her dog licked his face.

“Yeah.” Carson pulled himself to his feet, dusting the dirt and debris from his pants. “My fault.”

He patted the friendly Irish setter and straightened. “Sorry about that.” He nodded to the dog’s owner and caught up with Ava, who’d paused less than three feet farther up the trail.

He could almost feel Glendow’s eyes on them from somewhere in the woods, assessing the dog-crash
scenario. He tensed, moved in closer to Ava and took her hand.

“Let’s move.” The hair at his nape bristled, but he kept his eyes on the trail ahead.

“I have a pair of nail clippers. Can you feel them?” He squeezed them against her palm.

“Ouch.”

“Good.” Carson spotted the river trail sign and broke left onto it. “Listen to me carefully. I want you to use them to clip the red wire one-half inch from the top of the probe. Do it exactly as I said.”

He glanced over at her, felt her hesitate for a moment before nodding. “Red wire, one-half inch from the probe.” She repeated his instructions.

“We’ll keep moving. Drop back half a step. Use my body as cover. Glendow is probably watching from the woods to the right of us. Then button the shirt.”

Carson swallowed, feeling her pull against his grip as she removed the clippers, transferring them into her left hand before regrasping his.

Ava’s heart pounded in her chest and echoed in her eardrums as she put one foot in front of the other, dropping a half step back next to Carson.

Numbing calm took her nerves as she stared down at the explosive nightmare belted around her waist. With the clippers in hand she raised them to the red wire. One-half inch. She mentally repeated the distance and clamped down.

Click
. The red wire snapped.

She pulled in a breath and shoved the clippers into her pants pocket. “It’s done.” Taking her hand out of Carson’s, she buttoned the last three buttons on the oversize shirt.

Carson tried to relax. The bomb had been defused, hadn’t it? His team was waiting to take Glendow out, so why couldn’t he eliminate the worry wreaking havoc on his nerves?

The trail narrowed and darkened as the trees and underbrush grew more dense around them.

He moved Ava in behind him, picking his way closer to the clearing Glendow had described.

Together they walked into a circle of trees with a picnic table in the center.

The rustle of brush on their left put Carson in attack mode.

Director Glendow stepped out of the underbrush, a small black detonator in his hand.

“I’ll take that chip now,” he said, keeping his distance from both of them.

Cautiously Carson raised his hand and reached into his shirt pocket, pulling out a small plastic bag. “Hand over the detonator and the microchip is yours.”

Glendow gave him a wary smirk. “You first, Nash. Put the chip on the table unless you want to see her scrambled.”

Carson hesitated. Once Glendow got a good look
at the chip, the jig was up. “I don’t trust you. We’ll do it together or not at all.”

An instant of greed glittered in Glendow’s black eyes. He took a step forward.

Carson matched him movement for movement until they both stood at the table.

He tossed the bag and whirled left, catching Glendow in the face with a right hook.

Glendow stumbled backward, anger burning in his eyes. “She dies!” he bellowed.

Before Carson could stop him, Glendow pressed the button on the detonator.

Milliseconds passed like hours as he stared in Ava’s direction, praying they’d defused the bomb for certain.

Glendow blanched.

Carson charged him, taking him to the ground.

The shuffle of boots filled Carson’s ears as he drove his fist into Glendow’s face again and again.

“Stand down, Agent!” an unfamiliar voice shouted from somewhere in the clearing.

“Nash!”

The sound of Mark Jarrett’s holler sliced into his brain.

He stopped his fist just short of the director’s face for the last time and stood up, searching for Ava among the team.

Agent Jarrett was busy removing the bomb belt from her waist.

Agent Shelby pulled the director to his feet and frisked him for weapons as Agents Hunt and Carico strode in from the surrounding woods, sniper rifles in hand.

He focused on Ava, moving toward her like a man on fire.

Wrapping his arms around her, he buried his face against her neck.

“You SOB,” Glendow yelled, staring at the bag lying on the picnic table next to where Agent Shelby had made him sit in handcuffs. “It’s a piece of plastic!”

Carson stepped toward him, unable to keep the grin off his face. “You had the microchip the whole time. From the minute you took her. I never removed it. I just made you believe I had in order to keep her alive.”

Ava squeezed Carson’s hand as his admission sank into her brain. How could she ever have doubted him? Her heart squeezed in her chest as he pulled her closer, wrapping his arm around her waist.

“Agent Nash.” A man in a suit stepped in front of them. “I’m Agent Morallis, NSA. You’re a hard man to catch up to.”

“I wasn’t aware there was any cooperation between our two entities, Agent.”

“Not until now. We’ve been onto Director Glendow, Dr. Resnick and Jerome Hinshaw for months. Hinshaw’s body turned up last week in
Maryland, but it was his research that got our attention. You have my thanks for recovering the microchip and detaining Director Glendow.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Agent Ross.” He turned his attention to Ava. “If you’ll come with me, we’ll take you to the medical center and have the chip removed.”

Ava smiled. Her ordeal was almost over, short of a minor incision—one accompanied by anesthetic this time.

“I’ll be along in a minute,” she said.

“Take your time.” The NSA agent moved away to speak with one of his men.

Carson pointed Ava toward the circle where his team stood, stowing their gear. “There are some guys I want you to meet. You were unconscious the last time they saw you.”

Heat flamed in her cheeks, turning them a shade of pink that only served to raise the desire level in his body.

“Mission accomplished.” He stepped into the group. “This was off the record and risky, but you came through for us.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Agent Mark Jarrett said, his gaze roaming between the two of them before a knowing grin parted his lips.

Introductions went around and the four men dispersed, leaving Ava and Carson to follow behind the group as they hiked the trail to the parking lot.

Seeing the perfect opening, Carson pulled Ava into the brush and pinned her against a tree.

Staring into her eyes, he lowered his mouth to hers, tasting her like a starving man.

Brushing his hand down her body, he stopped and spread his fingers over her belly. He ended the kiss and smiled at her, his heart on fire.

“What I said back at the overlook—I meant every word of it. I love you, Ava, and our child, sight unseen.” A moment of hesitation held up his words, but he broke through the mental barriers he’d learned to erect around his emotions. He never wanted a life without her in it.

“The CIA is what I do, but there’s room for more…. For us. Will you have me?”

Ava relaxed, letting the total-man-dominance thing sweep her into ecstasy. She could live in his testosterone-saturated world. In fact, there wasn’t anywhere else she’d rather be, now or forever.

“Yes,” she said, laying her head against his chest. She breathed him in, feeling a brief quickening deep inside her as their child let its presence be felt.

Leaning back, she gazed into his eyes and brushed her fingertips over the deep scar above his left eyebrow, his hallmark of sorts.

“I love you, too, Carson. And even if you don’t believe it yet, I know you’re going to be a great husband and father. It’s in your DNA.”