Casanova In Training (24 page)

Her nails dug into his flesh and her eyes, which looked more golden at this moment, met his. He brushed his lips along the tip of her nose. Their gazes locked and he refused to let her go.

She crested first, her body clenching around his cock, and she dragged him over. Staring deep into her eyes, he came within her, her body continuing to ripple around him until he had nothing left to give. Or so he thought, until she gave him a siren’s smile, soft, inviting, and sultry.

“I’ve missed you, sweets,” he murmured right before his mouth captured hers again. Everything else faded away and he was swept off into a world composed of two people. Him and her. Gio and Jaydee. All he ever needed.

“Commander Amos! Are you in here?”

The voice woke him. It took him all of two seconds to evaluate the situation. He and Jaydee were naked, limbs intertwined on the small bed in her bomber. And people were coming closer. She lay sprawled on top of him, their bodies pressed as close as possible.

“Commander Amos!”

Her eyes snapped wide, full of panic. Her lips were still rosy from his kisses, her skin a bit flushed, and damn if she didn’t have this look of a woman who’d just been pleasured. And well. An arrogant smirk lifted the sides of his mouth.

“Shit!” she hissed and scrambled for her clothing.

He followed suit, not really wanting to be caught naked when whomever was yelling for her showed up. He knew they were busted, but he didn’t give a damn.

A head popped up as she was swiftly braiding her hair. One of the MPs stood there, a sergeant who, with one look, took in the entire situation. Gio saw the nearly indiscernible smirk before he composed himself.

“Excuse me, ma’am, but Admiral Fitzroy is looking for you.”

He slashed his gaze back to Jaydee who glanced at her watch and paled a bit. “On my way, Sergeant.”

“Correction,” a loud voice boomed from down below, “the Admiral is here.”

The sergeant’s face morphed into an apologetic one. Gio suddenly didn’t feel as confident as he had before. He glanced to Jaydee but she refused to look at him. There was nothing while she made her way towards the man who’d interrupted their secluded rendezvous and not even when she climbed down and out of sight.

He debated up there for maybe a minute before he scrambled for the way down. There wasn’t anything to think about. He was in this as much as she was and he’d be damned if he would let her take it all.

“Jaydee, wait,” he hollered as he hit the floor of the hangar and spun around.

Jaydee stood with three men. Two he knew and one he didn’t. Admiral Fitzroy he assumed to be the one he didn’t know. Crap, make that Vice Admiral Fitzroy. The other two were Captain Fentress and Rear Admiral Griffin.

He’d just been caught with a woman he worked with in a highly compromising situation by a captain, a one-star admiral, and a three-star one who wore the Budweiser. He was so fucked.

“We’ll be discussing
this
later,” Fitzroy said, his voice sounding like a bass drum. Direct blue eyes pinned them both before he homed in on Jaydee. “We have something to discuss preceding this, I believe.”

She stood straight, as if her spine had been infused with steel. “Yes, sir, we do.”

The man was huge and certainly had the intimidation factor down when he crossed his arms over that barrel chest. Nope, he didn’t feel any better when he couldn’t see the pin that marked the man as a member of the Teams, a Navy SEAL. One of the country’s most elite military groups—
the
top, some would say. Uh-uh. Not at all.

“Get on with it, then.”

“Here, sir?”

One brown eyebrow rose. “Well, I was waiting where you asked me to be, Amos. You were the one who wasn’t there.”

“Yes, sir, it was regrettable and I thank you for taking the time to come out here at my request.”

Her words were like a punch to his gut. But he didn’t move. Griffin gave him a shake of the head and he held still. How? He had no clue, but he did.

“Don’t try to placate me, Amos. You never call, you don’t write, and when you finally do you say something about a traitor to
my
country working here at this facility. Did you really think I wouldn’t show up here?”

Gio narrowed his eyes at the casualness that rang in his tone. These two had a history with one another. Then the words he spoke sank in. A traitor? What the fuck was going on?

“I have proof of who it is, but I don’t have it on me.”

“Is this dealing with Mike’s death?” he butted in the conversation.

Three sets of eyes bored into him but his gaze remained riveted on Jaydee. She barely afforded him a nod but it was enough for him. He lifted his gaze and tracked hers to land on Fentress. The man seemed a bit green around the gills but his expression was set in stone.

Could it be?

“I need a word with my two pilots,” Fentress said.

“I don’t think so, Fentress. We’re all going in to talk about this.” Fitzroy’s tone left no room for argument.

He positioned himself beside Jaydee as they headed back to the main facility. With each step they took he could see the walls erecting back up around her. He hated it and longed to tear them all down but, at this moment, he wanted to know more about the situation with Mike.

At the door, he allowed his hand to graze along the small of her back as he held it open for her. There was no reaction. And he didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. He figured not so much but a guard stepped between them and he had to force himself not to thrust him away.

“Don’t make this any worse,” Griffin hissed in his ear as they entered an empty room and he brushed by him to head to the front.

“Speak,” Fitzroy barked as the door closed behind them all.

Jaydee stepped forward and faced all three officers. She lifted her chin and spoke.

“You wanted to know why I called you here and I’ll tell you.” She whispered something to a guard standing beside her and he nodded before stepping away to the phone on the wall. “We know why I was sent here and I did my job. I came and inspected the systems in the planes, including the one which went down, and found the electrogravitics to be fine. However, upon further and a much more in-depth review, I began to notice some disturbing discrepancies in the maintenance logs. You, gentlemen, have a traitor among you.”

His blood ran colder than it had the first time the word was mentioned. The door opened and he turned to see Lizard and Keel come in escorted by armed men. His heart sank. Please don’t let it be one of his friends. It hit him when they looked at him and raised their eyebrows in question. Did they suspect him?

Head whipping to Jaydee, he frowned. Did
she
?

“And who is it, then?” Fentress demanded, his scowl matching those on the two admirals.

Jaydee looked at Lizard and Keel before her eyes found him. In them, he could read her sorrow. Then she turned and shocked the hell out of him with the words that came out of her mouth.

“You should know, Captain. You’re the traitor.”

Gio knew that his mouth had dropped open and chaos erupted throughout the room.

Jaydee stood there as voices, raised in anger, circled around her. She was aware, highly aware, of where everyone stood, especially Gio. She couldn’t even begin to describe the depth of her embarrassment. Not only did the sergeant searching for her know what they’d been up to, but also Captain Fentress, Admiral Griffin, and Vice Admiral Vincent Fitzroy.

Her inexcusable behaviour would filter back to her father. Not that that was what bothered her. She hated that she’d been late and they’d had to come find her.

Gio. He stood to her left and she could feel his intense stare upon her. She’d done it, given in again to allow herself the pleasure of his touch. And, Lord have mercy, it had been amazing, like usual.

“Amos!”

“Sir.” She snapped out of her thoughts of Gio and his touch to focus on Fitzroy.

“Explain yourself. You’d better have some iron-clad proof to be slinging accusations like this.”

She glanced to Fentress, whose face was mottled red, then skimmed over the two admirals. Griffin, tall and lean, his gold wings reminding everyone he had been a pilot. Fitzroy, salt and pepper hair, fit and impressive with his gold trident.

Regardless of the severity of the situation, she still bristled slightly at Fitzroy’s suggestion that she not be able to back up her claim.

“I can, sir.”

She peeked towards Lizard and held out her hand, pleased Ivan had delivered it as she’d asked. He stepped close and handed over her tablet. She gave him a nod of thanks and met Fentress’ glare. She knew full well he’d been looking for that.

“I have it all right here.”

Bringing up the files, she handed the item to the Vice Admiral. He skimmed and scowled ferociously.

“Get this piece of shit out of my sight,” he snarled at the guards waiting in the room. “Put his ass in holding until I get there.”

“Yes, sir!”

They dragged Fentress away, everyone ignoring his cries of innocence and his threats against her.

“Get out!” Fitzroy barked. “Except Amos.” A few seconds passed before he bellowed, “Now!”

The click of the door sounded so final. Blue eyes met hers and he gestured at the table. She claimed a seat without hesitation. The two men sat across from her.

“How did you come across this?”

She laced her fingers and placed them on the smooth surface before her. “While I was finishing up my report, I learned some disturbing facts.”

“Such as?” He looked at her briefly before returning his attention to her tablet.

“I had been misinformed about the parameters of the incident. The second pilot was made up, so Lieutenant Walker had been flying alone.”

Both men frowned. “What?” Griffin this time.

“I was informed at the beginning that it had been Sidewinder and a man named Wicked up there. That wasn’t—”

“Damn it! There are supposed to be two at least.” Griffin slammed his hand on the table.

She didn’t bother to respond to that specific statement, just continued on. “I wondered if it wasn’t a deliberate act then and went back to Commander Cassano who’d originally been scheduled to take the flight along with Lieutenant Armstrong.”

“But Casanova hurt himself and Sidewinder volunteered.” Griffin filled in.

“Yes, sir. However, Sidewinder could have had someone with him. Keel offered to go but Fentress told him it was covered. So Sidewinder went alone.” She waved a hand. “I went back to the wreckage once I’d determined it wasn’t a deliberate act and ran maintenance logs. That’s when I started noticing the inconsistencies. The planes are high maintenance and require a lot of upkeep. Not to mention, everything has specific batch numbers for tracking purposes.”

“Wait…why were you doing this?”

“It could have been my fault, Admiral.” The disgust she felt was obvious in her tone. “When the lies began I checked deeper.” She shrugged. “Some of the items in his wreckage were from newer batches. So I knew they’d been switched. I had someone look deeper in that venue and the information is all there. It was only this morning that the final connecting piece came in. Then, and only then, did I allow myself to call.”

“You’re not a detective.” She stared straight ahead. “Well?” Fitzroy demanded.

“Waiting for a question, sir.”

He grumbled low. “Christ, I forgot that about you, always so—”

The door burst open and she spun in her chair to see Gio charge past the armed guard. “This is bullshit, you can’t put the blame fully on her!”

His eyes overflowed with steely determination and her heart skipped several beats as their gazes met. Why was he doing this? She could take care of herself. The look in his gaze changed and, while only for an instant, she understood what he and Lexy had been trying to get her to realise. Emotions weren’t a horrible thing.

“Stand down, Commander,” Fitzroy advised, tone hard.

Gio continued on until he stood beside her chair. Something prompted her to stand as well. His scent flowed over her and some of her tension loosened.

“I won’t let you face this alone,” he remarked in a sotto voice.

Well aware of the scrutiny both admirals gave, she still turned an eye to the handsome pilot at her side.

“This isn’t about our misconduct. It’s about Fentress.”

Something foreign flashed in his eyes turning the hazel more green for a second. “I’m staying. They’ll have to shoot me first.” His announcement was loud enough for all to hear.

“If you two are done,” Griffin’s voice dripped with sarcasm, “perhaps, now, Amos can finish telling us what happened.”

“How did you figure this out?” Fitzroy again.

“I’m nosy and I ask questions. There were missing pieces and wrong trails.”

“And you did this on your own?” Fitzroy leant back and held her gaze.

“No, sir. I had help.”

“By his presence here I’m assuming he ‘helped’ as well?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Who else?”

She hesitated not wanting to say.

“I suggest you tell me, Dr Amos.”

“Sorry, sir. That person wished to remain anonymous and not receive the title of a rat. I have to respect their wishes.”

Fitzroy’s blue eyes narrowed. “It wasn’t a request.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I will not betray a confidence.”

The man’s hands fisted before he apparently relaxed. “Okay. I’m sure more will come out once the bastard’s been charged. I need this sent to my office.”

“Already done, sir.”

“Good.” He cracked his neck, leant forward, and rested large arms on the table. “Now, about you two. We will meet in forty-eight hours, this room, and at that time I want to know what the hell is going on here. I have to call General Nelson and get him informed on all this. Until then, you two stay away from one another here. I mean it. Stay away.”

“Yes, sir.” They both responded together.

“Dismissed. Get out of here.”

She stepped up for her tablet PC then walked to the door, face composed, insides a tempest. Lieutenant General Nelson. Not good. Not good at all. He was the second in command overseeing this test facility.

“Cassano, stay.”