Deceptive Treasures: Slye Temp Book 5 (12 page)

“Over here!” called from his left.

He treaded water hard, pushing up to locate the light. There
. Shit, he’d been swimming away from them.

The whine of the patrol boat motor was getting faint.

He tried to yell, got a mouthful of water, floundered, and started swimming again.

Then he heard Jin’s high pitched and frantic call. “
Where are you, cowboy
?”

She was worried about him.

Why that made him smile when his entire day had turned into a shit storm made no sense, but he felt a burst of energy. He dug his arm strokes deeper, plowing harder through the waves.

He could swear they were tossing him backwards as fast as he moved forward.

A flickering light bounced into view.

He was getting closer, right
? Or was that just wishful thinking. This would only work if the current was sending them toward him.

An explosion boomed, sending a flash of fire and pieces flying into the air
.

The DPRK had sunk the patrol boat.

It had to have made a quarter of a mile in that time. Was that far enough away?

Raining debris slapped the water near him
.

“This way, Bo!”

Someone on the raft had spotted him. Tanner kicked his feet hard and caught a flash of light then dove toward it, swimming hard.

“Catch,” yelled from the raft.

Something hit hard close to him. Tanner reached blindly. His hand hit a life ring. He yelled, “Got it.”

The line went tight as they pulled him against the waves
.

He reached the raft, but climbing into a raft on a rough sea with drenched clothes sounded easier than it was. He couldn’t haul his sorry ass up over the side
. Blade and Nick dragged him in.

His heart was hammering to the beat of a metal rock band and his skin pebbled with chill bumps
. The cold dug into his body with icy claws. He shivered, but this beat being out there.

Now, if this plan would only work.

Har was wheezing like a two-pack-a-day smoker and Tanner could hear Blade trying to calm him down. Blade had probably given Har well over the acceptable dose of respiratory medicine just getting him to this point.

Tanner felt Jin’s fingers on his face, but she said nothing
. Just touching him as if to confirm that he was alive.

He grasped her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze then shoved up on his knees to look past Nick so he could see outside the canopy
.

Lights still trailed way off behind them.

Tanner asked Dingo, “Where the hell is the cavalry?”

“They said they’d find us
. I can’t get a connection right now.”

Heaving hard breaths, Tanner wiped saltwater off his face
. The wind had pushed clouds past the half moon, which could be a plus for finding this raft as long as the DPRK wasn’t the one who benefitted by that.

Nick had his rifle up and pointed toward the DPRK boats
. He had to be using the scope like binoculars.

Tanner asked, “They still on our ass?”

Nick gave it a second then said, “Their lights are getting smaller. Looks like they came, they scored, and they’re leaving.”

That would be good news if not for floating in the middle of the Yellow Sea with no way to paddle out of here.

Everyone stayed silent for the next few minutes then Nick pulled his rifle down. “That can’t be good.”

Through his monocular, Tanner could see a fairwater poked up from the smooth outer shell of a submarine fifty yards out
.

Lifting a rifle right now, even to innocently use the scope would be inviting an attack. He asked Nick, “Did you see who it was before you dropped the scope?”

“Russian.”

Son of a bitch.

The top hatch popped open and the top half of a body appeared
. He spoke English with a thick Russian accent through a megaphone. “You need ride. Yes?”

Tanner leaned forward, balancing himself on the side of the raft, and squinted but couldn’t make out anything about the man
.

Dingo lifted his Sat phone
. “’Bout time, mate. Getting rough out here.” He tapped Tanner on the arm. “Looks like that’s who Logan sent.”

“A freakin’ Russian sub?” Tanner growled.

Dingo chuckled. “Logan said that was the best he could do on short notice. The Russians and Chinese have training maneuvers underway in this area. The sub is to deliver us to a lagoon thirty miles from here where Logan will meet us with a chopper and airlift us out.”

Nick rubbed his hands
. “I’m in. I’ve never driven a Russian sub.”

Tanner didn’t know which gave him more reason for concern. That Nick thought they’d let him operate the thing, or that he
had
driven some other kind of sub at some point.

Tanner cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Yes, we need a ride.”  

But how was he going to keep this from the North Koreans when Russia and Korea were chummy these days? Logan was one hell of an operator, but he was also Russian and trusted the men on that sub more than Tanner did.

Mix three escaped North Koreans, four American covert operatives and the Russian navy. What could happen?

With Tanner’s luck at this point, a whole new level of FUBAR.

Chapter Fourteen

Slye Temp headquarters, Atlanta, Georgia

Sabrina blinked and realized she had her head on her arms that were crossed on her desk. She’d fallen asleep.

That was not a problem.

She purposely didn’t move
. She’d slept at her desk plenty of times when she had an op in progress like the one in North Korea.

But something had disturbed her sleep.

Her head was turned toward the security panel on the wall just inside her office door.

All the lights were green
. Activated.

She sat up and shoved a handful of hair off her face, checked her watch and did a quick calculation
. Half past noon here. Tuesday.

That made it half past one Wednesday morning in Seoul, where Margaux and Logan were stationed.

No word yet.

The office was too quiet, but there was often more activity going on at the Slye headquarters
after
regular business hours. Her assistant, Amanda, had to courier sensitive documents to Washington DC for a client and the Slye agents didn’t keep normal office hours. They were here on an as-needed basis.   Sabrina was in no frame of mind to deal with their corporate security clients when she hadn’t slept since Tanner’s team went wheels up headed to North Korea, so she’d closed the office today.

Her cell phone buzzed and she snatched it up, not wasting the time to check the caller
. “Tell me some good news.”

The hesitation on the line caused her to pull the phone away and note the unknown caller ID then put it back to her ear
. “Who is this?”

“Unfortunately, not the person you were hoping to hear from,” Gage Laughton replied.

Disappointment and pleasure fought an old battle. “What do you want, Gage?”

“Good to talk to you, too.”

She scrubbed a hand over her face. Did she have to be a bitch to him just because he wasn’t here to hold her and tell her this North Korea job would work out? That she wasn’t going to lose people she held closer than family?

Gage hadn’t been that man in her life for over two years.

He’d wanted to be and she missed the hell out of him, but he kept putting the agency before her.

And holding out on telling her who had screwed her and her team on the last op she’d run for the CIA.

His CIA.

But he’d tried to make it up to her since then.

She picked up a pen and tapped it in a steady rhythm against the desk. Anything to release some of the tension wicking through her. “Sorry, Gage. Been a tough couple of days. How are you?”

“I’m as good as I can be without you.”

It wasn’t just what he said, but the longing behind his words. “Want me to hit the repeat button and ask you if you’re ready to give me the names of everyone who was involved in the UK job?”

She didn’t have to qualify which CIA contract she was referencing
.

Only one UK job stood between them and he refused to share the information she needed to find the people responsible for sending her and her team to their deaths
. That person had to be pissed because they’d survived, but in fairness to Gage, he was the reason no one from the agency had visited her since then.

Except him
.

He sighed as if he’d hit the repeat button on his end. “Can I come in?”

He was here? Her heart did a tap dance and it was her turn to sigh. She should tell him no. She was not in peak dealing-with-Gage shape right now and might do something stupid like give in to stripping him bare right here in her office.

But it wasn’t like she was going to send him away either. Why? Because, in spite of all that still stood between them, she wanted to see Gage. “Sure, just give me a minute to clear the alarm.”

“Don’t get up,” Gage said, then stepped around the corner from her assistant’s office into Sabrina’s. He rocked jeans, a Henley and leather jacket like no other man. He wasn’t gorgeous. Sabrina had never gone in for pretty boys. He was coiled power concealed in handsome packaging. Lean, tough and deadly, Gage would always be top dog in a room full of alphas, and they would all recognize him as such.

He lowered his hand to his side, still holding his phone.

She thumbed hers off and slammed it down on her desk.

“Does yours work after you do that, because mine would just give up the ghost.” He kept moving forward then sat in the chair that faced her desk.

“I’m firing all my security people tomorrow and putting in a new system.” 

“Be a waste of money and loss of ace security people.” 

She dropped the pen and got up to pace.

That little battle nap was all the fuel she needed to kick someone’s butt
. She walked across her office to the sitting area where she met with corporate clients who marveled over how well trained her security people were. They rarely realized her agents ran black ops missions to places like North Korea.

The mirror on the wall above the sofa reflected her lack of real sleep in the dark areas under her eyes and that her black hair could use a brush.

Out of an unconscious female reaction, she brushed her hand over her messy hair.

“Trust me, you look amazing.”

Pulling her hand down, she turned to Gage. “Why are you torturing me, Gage?” 

“Looks like you’re doing a better job of that all by yourself
. When was the last time you slept?”

“Ten minutes ago.”

“I meant in your bed.”

“Your concern for my well being is noted and ignored
. Why are you here?”

He stood and she went on alert.

The look he gave her questioned whether she’d forgotten that they’d once been in love with each other.

He claimed to
still
love her.

She hadn’t echoed that back to him. Instead, she’d threatened to kill anyone from the CIA who came near her after the UK job
.

Here’s the perfect opportunity, Sabrina
.

She’d put that threat back on the front burner later—once she’d made up her mind how she felt about Gage
.

If she went on the riot of emotions rushing around inside her at the moment, she’d admit that she wouldn’t harm even one of the brown hairs that played with his collar
.

He said, “I have something to show you.”

She smirked. “Heard that one before.”

When he smiled, his hazel eyes twinkled.

His smile used to be the first thing she’d see coming toward her as soon as either of them returned from a mission. She’d tried to forget about things like that. But with his smile now, all those memories came flooding back.

He took his time walking toward her and she held still to keep from looking defensive or aggressive
.

Defensive would bring out his protective instincts.

Aggressive would just turn him on.

Either one would not end well
.
Just keep a reasonable distance between you and all will be fine
.

Holding his phone up with the screen turned toward her, he touched the screen and an image popped into view of a man looking over his shoulder at someone or something on a street.

She did a double take and reached for his phone, forgetting all about keeping any distance. “Len-fucking-Rikker?”

“Yes.”

She had to fight the tremble of fury that shook her hands. She held the picture of the man she and her team had gone to the UK to rescue for the CIA. He’d walked away free in trade for her team, who’d faced being tortured for information, then killed.

Rikker had surfaced once since then during a terrorist operation in Miami, but he’d slipped through their fingers.

This man had racked up a huge debt in human life and was a major part of the reason she’d pushed Gage out of her life.

She finally realized Gage stood inches from her
. Should have realized it as soon as she noticed his scent. It was like no other.

His hands covered hers that held his phone.

When she lifted her eyes to him, he was watching her closely. He said, “This came off a security cam in DC. Rikker was there four days ago. I’m showing you something no one in the agency knows about but me.”

Her heart raced at just knowing that Rikker hadn’t vanished completely
.

Gage was trying to meet her part way by sharing this
. She wanted to build her half of that bridge, but did this mean he’d finally give her the names? “What are you saying by showing me this, Gage?”

He pulled the phone from her hands and slipped it into his leather jacket
. Then he reached up and cupped her face. “That I’m close and I swear I’ll do everything I can to keep you in on this. The reason I’ve never given you the names of everyone at the agency who was involved when the UK job went down, was because I haven’t found any reason to believe someone there was behind this.”

She jerked out of his hold and stepped away
. “Still protecting the agency?”

Anger burrowed into his gaze
. “You’re not listening.”

“I’m listening just fine, but you’re still withholding vital information.”

“The only things I’m holding back are names that will get you killed if you go off on your own investigation, dammit.” He ran both hands over his hair and curled his fingers into fists. He looked like he wanted to plow both of them into something hard.

Sabrina didn’t fear him. Never would
. No matter how deadly he was, he’d never harm her, or any innocent woman for that matter.

He walked around a minute then pulled his legendary control back out and crossed the room to her, calm once again
.

She let him crowd her personal space only because she missed having him close
. Screwed up, but true. She told him, “If we worked together, this wouldn’t be an issue.”

Lifting a hand to her face again, he brushed his fingers across her cheek,
then threaded them into her hair.

Her heart was thinking about jumping out of her chest and running around the room, begging him to fix this so they could go back to what they had.

Her mind was threatening to get a transplant for the defective organ. She opened her mouth to speak and he kissed her.

No man kissed anything like Gage.

When he kissed a woman, he wanted her to know this was the only place on earth he wanted to be at this very minute. His other hand settled at her waist and tugged her to him.

She’d spent night after night missing him, missing this, missing them
. Why couldn’t she beat her pride into submission and put the past behind her?

Because it hadn’t just been her in the UK.

She owed it to Josh, Dingo, Blade and Tanner. They’d all been there with her
. Josh had lost someone he’d cared about in that fight. Sabrina had lost her ability to trust the man she loved.

Gage stepped up the kiss, making love to her mouth
. He drew her in closer and her hands went around his back. Her fingers curled tight against his leather-covered shoulders.

Too many clothes
. This would be infinitely better with fewer clothes.

He slowed the kiss and whispered, “Is that important?”

“What?” Then she heard the ring and broke away, diving for her phone. She thumbed the on button as she raised the phone to her ear. “Margaux?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on.” Sabrina sent a look of apology at Gage.

He walked over and kissed her forehead, whispering, “I will not lose you.” 

Then he was gone.

Sabrina’s knees turned to rubber
. She sat down, drew in a breath and turned back to the only problem she
could
solve right now. “Tell me you found a way to extract the team and the packages.”

“Yes, but something unexpected came up.”

It was that kind of night. “What happened?”