Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action) (19 page)

“How long have you been like this?”

“Shane, that is so not important right now. As I recall, those things rattle before they attack.” In other words, she was telling him to stop talking and start acting now because that thing was definitely shaking its tail.

He could check the video footage later and see if he could make anything out of the images. Even if the guy had been wearing a mask he could at least pin down height, weight and build to narrow down his search. “I can’t shoot it; I’ll hit you.”

“If you don’t shoot it, it will bite me.” She said in a tone that told him she thought being shot accidently was the lesser of two evils here.

“Damn,” he cursed low and furious. “I can’t shoot you, baby. I might kill you.” She was small and while she had muscle mass he doubted it would stop a bullet from ricocheting its way through her body.

“So will it,” she said in a harsh whisper. “I’ll take my chance with a bullet.”

“I can’t,” he felt his heart racing. He didn’t want to risk it, but he knew he had to do something.

“I’ve got this,” Leo bent down, pulled his pants leg up just enough to expose the steel blade strapped to his lower leg. He removed it slowly, cautiously, as if trying not to jar the snake into a faster attack. “Valencia insisted I bring this,” he mumbled before taking aim.

“Don’t hit Alyssa,” Shane felt compelled to say.

“I’ve got this, Shane. Settle down.” He aimed and threw the blade just as the snake’s head was poised and ready to take the strike. It dropped, so easily as if it had just decided to back down when in reality it was dead—or dying, either way it wasn’t going to get his woman.

Shane rushed over to her. “Careful,” she had said as he got closer to the area where the snake was. “I’ve got you,” he whispered before coming behind her chair and lifting it, so effortlessly, and moving her away from the snake.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” she gasped.

“You’re light weight,” he assured her.

“Can you get these things off of me, please?”

Leo went to her kitchen and grabbed two knives before coming over to them and handing Shane one of them. Together, they managed to get her out of her bindings. She was shaking, trembling with fear, and unshed tears were making the blue of her eyes shimmer like a crystal clear lake. She was stubborn. She refused to show her emotions right now, even when Shane pulled her up into his arms, felt her trembling body resting against his own, she didn’t cry. His heart was pounding against his chest hard, furious, angrily drumming a beat that drowned out the sounds in the apartment until all he heard was the deafening rage growing in his heart. “When I find the bastard who did this,” he growled low. “He’s going to die.”

“He had to have some military training, Shane. One of the moves he tried on me was one Gavin taught me years ago. He learned it doing his training. I never really got how to get out of it without opening myself up to another attack, though,” she sighed as she pulled back from him. He could have killed me outside; why didn’t he? Why do it like this?”

“It’s him,” Shane growled. “It has to be him.”

“Now don’t jump to conclusions, Shane. It could be any whacko with some military experience. Or anybody who picked it up from somebody. What do I know? That move could be everywhere by now.”

“No; it’s him. I know he’s here.”

“Why would he come after me? I wasn’t a member of your team.”

“Does this have anything to do with your friend who just got killed?” Leo broke their moment for two, and Shane could tell the man was already getting into hunter mode. This wasn’t his fight. He was on vacation and he deserved to enjoy it. After the year his squad had just had the man deserved some time off.

“This doesn’t concern you, Leo. Stick to your vacation and I’ll handle my own demons.”

“The hell you will. You saved my life in Oahu, Shane. You stopped a man from putting a bullet in my head while I was trying to diffuse a bomb and I won’t ever forget that. Somebody comes after you and they deal with both of us.”

Shane could stand there and argue all day, but it wouldn’t change things. Leo was a man of his word and once he committed to something he didn’t back down. He went after it, pursued it, fought for it, hard and relentless without mercy until he met the end goal. The mission that brought them together had been one of Shane’s last missions. He was there to uncover a domestic terrorism ring. That was the job of his team, to keep America safe from enemies in and out of its borders. They had needed local authorities assistance and they got Leo’s precinct, which was good because they had came upon a bomb that was so large it could have leveled a few city blocks. Leo, confident or cocky, depending on how anybody looked at it, walked right into hell without a second thought. Shane’s team went in to disarm the bomb of the human persuasion while Leo went in to get what the bastards had set up.

The group of religious fanatics had left a few of their own behind. Just in case somebody came in and tried to stop things they were there to shoot to kill. Shane couldn’t understand what would make anybody willing to blow themselves up for any cause, but there they were, eight total, just waiting for everything to explode in some big blaze of glory.

“I’ll look after your woman,” Leo said and Shane was sure that was his way of telling him he understood she was off limits. “You go find the bastard.”

“What if it’s not him? Seriously, Shane, why would he come after me?”

“To get to me,” he uttered those words with staunch anger in his tone.

“I have had my own problems lately,” she reminded him. “There was the lawsuit. And Dumas did say it wasn’t over. Then there’s Craig. I don’t think he’d do this, but who walks around carrying flex cuffs?”

“They’re not hard to get,” he told her. Anybody could walk around with those things. He had seen it before. A lot of predators kept their victims immobilized that way.

“The point is,” she sighed. “This could be anything. And maybe your friend’s death was something else.”

“No it wasn’t,” Shane stroked the back of his fingers along the bruise on her cheek. “I got a call last night that the reopened investigation on David’s car accident showed that it wasn’t an accident. Then you take that with Rick’s murder in that hotel parking lot and it’s clear; somebody is after our team. That somebody is working their way west and it makes sense that I’d be the next target from the direction he’s traveling.”

She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. “Why would anybody do this to you all? You’re the good guys.”

“We are, but we also pissed off a lot of the bad guys in the process. It comes with the job,” he noted. While they were mostly covert with their identities, there wasn’t complete anonymity. Somebody knew who they all were and whoever it was they were picking them off one by one. So far, both men killed had been assigned to the first Dove Team with Rick being the last one to come on board for their unit. He didn’t know if this were an attack on all the teams, starting with theirs, or if this had something specifically to do with his unit. Without knowing that information, he couldn’t fully know if he were looking in the right direction. It could be something in relation to their previous missions, or it could be somebody with a beef on the government sponsored teams in general. He couldn’t be sure, but he was leaning towards it being somebody pissed at his unit since both men had been a part of his unit.

“I’m supposed to be helping you stay safe,” he said softly. “And here I am putting you in danger.”

“You’ve helped me,” she said as she pulled back and looked in his eyes. “Now you have to help yourself and what’s left of the team you worked with. Go; do whatever you need to do. I’ll be safe here.”

“Freeze!” Alyssa jumped as they all turned around.

“Craig? What are you doing?” She asked breathlessly as she tried to get her wildly pulsing heartbeat back under control.

He lowered his gun. “I saw your back door open.”

“What were you doing back there?” Leo didn’t hold his tongue; that was one thing Shane liked about the man from the day he met him. He spoke what was on his mind without much censorship involved.

“My job,” Craig snapped. “Who are you?”

“Not important,” Leo said firmly. “Are you going to call it in or do I have to?”

“What happened here?” Craig proceeded to start a report without worrying about calling too much in until he got answers. Shane watched Alyssa give an account of what happened. She left out a few things, mainly her suspicion that it was a military man.

“Seems not even your security guard can keep you safe,” he mumbled.

“She’ll be safe;” Shane snapped. “She’s packing a bag and she’s coming to stay with me.”

“Pardon me?” Alyssa tacked one hand to her hip and looked at him with scolding indignation. He knew he hadn’t asked her. Sure he hadn’t checked in to make sure it was okay, but if she thought he was going to leave her there unguarded she was out of her mind crazy. He could protect her better at his place. His security at home was better than what he was able to provide for her here. He wouldn’t leave her out in the open in case the bastard came back and tried it again.

“You’re staying with me and that’s not optional, Alyssa,” he nearly growled.

“What makes you think you have the right to tell me what to do?” She sassed him. She didn’t like people telling her what to do. She didn’t like the men in her life telling her what to do. Well, tough, he thought. He was going to keep her safe first and worry about getting a tongue lashing second.

“This,” he said as he angrily reached for her, pulling her close to his body and clasping one hand in her hair. Pulling her head back he let his mouth descend on hers, kissing her ferociously with the fervor of a man claiming full possession of his woman. He heard Craig clearing his throat, but he didn’t pay the man any attention. This, this heat and passion and proclamation that he had the right to keep her safe, was far more important than the man in uniform. When Shane pulled back and looked in her eyes he could see that her anger had softened.

“Oh, that,” she smiled on a breathless whisper. “You’ll get away with it this time because I hate snakes. But in the future, don’t think your alpha male routine is going to work on me. I grew up with two of them and if I didn’t take it from them I’m not going to take it from you either.” She said in a tone so serious and honest that he knew she wasn’t kidding. They were equals, and he was going to have to ask nicely rather than just assume things would be done his way. On the other hand of that, when it came to her safety he wouldn’t compromise. She would comply.

“Pistol,” Leo chuckled. “I love that fiery spirit in a woman.” He held up his hands when Shane cut him a look that told him to keep his hands off of her. “Not your woman,” he said.

“I’m still in the room here,” Craig snapped. “And I’m trying to take the report.”

“You need to call it in,” Leo said. “I’m sure the rules of engagement don’t work different here on the Mainland. Call it in,” he ordered as if he were on his home territory. Obviously Craig decided protesting would make him look like a bigger jerk than he already came off as because he called it in.

“You’ve had several robberies out here,” Leo went into on-duty mode fast. “Could this be related?” He, unlike Shane, seemed to be keeping his mind open to other enemies. Shane, however, was certain it was the same bastard that had killed two of his friends. He would have gotten three, but Larry was fortunately on his father-son bonding trip. He had been taking those trips with his son since he was a boy and he hadn’t stopped just because he was a grown man now. His son had been homeschooled and could easily take a few extra weeks away at any point in time, but now that he was a grown man, the trips went from three to four weeks on up to several months when Larry had the time off. Family was important to him, and with the death of his wife six years ago, Larry seemed to need the connection to his son even more. He put himself on modified duty, meaning he worked when absolutely necessary; otherwise, he came in after his time with his son. Larry Junior was a photographer for
National Geographic
; he could work from any place without needing to be in an office at any particular time. That trip had saved his life and he didn’t even know it yet.