Her Secret Pirate (2 page)

She was afraid. For herself. And for her father, who had been separated from her when the lights went off. Someone had roughly grabbed her and she’d kicked out at him, just the way Zone had taught her when he was instructing her class, and she’d escaped.

Zone. Rebecca closed her eyes. She’d called him a pirate once. They’d snuck away on his motorcycle and once they were out in the country, they’d ridden around without their helmets. With the carelessly tied bandanna over his dark curly hair and his equally dark gypsy eyes, all he needed was an earring and longer braided hair. Pirate, she’d teased him. And he’d laughed and hauled her over his shoulder, threatening her with all sorts of delicious things pirates were supposed to do to their captives.

Rebecca opened her eyes. Dammit. This wasn’t the time to think of Zone and her playing pirate. This was the real thing. With big evil men shooting up there and looking for her and Dad. She’d been in enough political mane
uverin
gs to understand now that they we
re
without their getaway boat, the pirates were going to need hostages and they were looking for the most obvious. Her father, the ambassador
,
would be the prime candidate. Of course, with them all separated, she had no idea whether they’
d captured him. She prayed for him to be
safe.

Down here alone, minu
tes crawled by painfully
.
She’d lost her purse in the melee so she didn’t have a cell phone to get help or to even use for light. In the
semi-
dark
ness
, shadows loomed like monsters
, and making her way around in unfamiliar surroundings was even scarier than being up on deck with bullets raining down. At least she could see up there. Here, she had no idea what was in front of her as she threaded as quietly as she could.
Sounds were magnified. She jumped at every scrape and clatter as she tried to figure out what to do next. A bug crawled
up her leg and she almost squeal
ed in panic. The only thing helping her keep calm was the though
t of the man who had taught her
class to stay clear-headed in times of danger.

Zone. She mouthed his name as sh
e peered out into the darkness.

They had an argument. It’d escalated from a simple discussion into their work; she was all about peace and he was all about war, or some such stupidly childish accusation. She’d been horrible, saying he was a killer. She was wrong. She knew it then but wouldn’t take back her words. Now the universe was punishing her by showing her how
wrong she was, because at this very moment
, real killers were looking for her. She almost screamed when somewhere above, a volley of gunfire interrupted the suffocating silence, almost in unison, like gunshots at a soldier’s funeral. What was happening on the deck?

She drew back at a sound from around the corner, becoming louder. Flashlight zigzagged its way down the passageway towards her. Hurried footsteps. A loud thud. A curse in some language she didn’t know.

Behind a stack of boxes, Rebecca flattened herself against the wall, trying not to breathe, trying to listen above her thudding heart. Her hand curled around the dinner knife she’d picked up. Training. She must remember all the moves she’d learned from Zone’s self-defense class.

The flashlight came closer. She hoped her pursuer wouldn’t see her till he actually came close enough to inspect. Then maybe she had a chance of surprising him. The light became brighter as the man came closer and she could hear the first of the boxes being shoved aside. She’d moved a few of them aside to get to her hiding spot and knew they weren’t that heavy.

She braced one foot against the box in front of her, the cardboard cool and dry against her skin. She’d taken off her heels after running away from her pursuers; they were making too much noise. She could feel the beads of perspiration slowly traveling down her forehead as she waited. Two more. One. Then, with as much strength as she could muster, she kicked out, toppling the stack.

But her timing wasn’t quite right. Too late Rebecca realized her mistake. The stack of boxes didn’t fall over immediately, swaying for one prec
ious second, giving the intruder
time to leap out of the way. She saw the light swinging a wide arc to her left and made the quick decision to
run for it from the right side.

Easier said than done. The cartons scattered about slowed her down and the sharp edge of a nearby shelf snagged her dress, pulling her back.
Something tripped her and she let out a small shriek as she fell on her knees.  T
hat something was a hand encircling
her bare foot.

B
lindly kicking out with her free foot
, s
he tried t
o stand up anyway, knowing
she was done f
or if she let herself fall flat
. Her attacker let go. She turned to run. He was quick, somehow managing to grab hold of her skirt. Suddenly remembering the knife in her hand, she turned and swung out. It wasn’t the sharp kind but it still went through flesh and the man yelle
d out in pain. Sickened, she swiveled around
again to escape but he still held on to her tightly. A big hand grabbed her neck. This time, she screamed in panic as she tried to wrench free.

The sudden flare of the emergency lights startled them both, freezing their struggle as their eyes tried to adjust. A figure, clad in black, appeare
d in the tight pa
ssageway. His weapon was aimed
at them
.

“Let her go. It’s over.”

If it weren’t connected to her skull, Rebecca’s jaw would have fallen o
n the floor.
She would recognize that husky voice with the slight accent anywhere, even coming from a
stranger
with black and green camouflage streaks painted on his face.
Zone
He was the answer she’d been unconsciously praying for—powerful, dangerous, one hundred percent warrior. He glanced at her once, very briefly, his gaze cool, taking in the situation. Then his gaze returned to some point above her head.

“Come nearer and she dies,” her captor warned, his accent thick. The hand around her neck pulled back threateningly, choking off her air. “She’s coming with me and you’re going to let me take the lifeboat to wait for my ship to pick me up. You’ll do as I say or I kill her.”

“You hurt one hair on her and you get a bullet right in the middle of your forehead. I don’t miss. Let her go. Surrender and live.”

Zone’s toneless voice sent shivers down her spine. He’d never sounded so scary, even when he played the bad guy during class.

“My men are—”

“—not going to be able to help you. They’re busy with
my
men. Now throw that on the floor and let her go.”

“No. You tell the captain I want to negotiate for a lifeboat. She’s coming with me. You go tell whoever is in charge. Or I’ll start using this knife on her.”

How did he get hold of her
knife? Zone continued
advancing as her captor,
pulling her along, backed
away. She kept her gaze trained on Zone, trying to read his thoughts.

In class, Zone had emphasized three things in the act of self-defense. Scream a lot. The element of surprise. And if all failed, attack when the enemy least expected it. The thought of going with the pirate onto a lifeboat made her sick with fear. The knowledge that she might actually end up being a hostage away from the ship scared her into another split-second decision.

“Stay back! I say I’ll cut—”

The women in her self-defense class h
ad practiced the move over and over
because many attacks came from behind.
Rebecca pivoted sharply to her right, at the same time throwing her right hand high in the air. Her elbow angled perfectly to break the pirate’s hold. Then, using all her strength, she swept her other elbow up and backwards, powering all her momentum into his solar plexus.
He
r captor
let out a gasp and toppled backwards.

The next part of her lesson was easy. Run.

Rebecca turned to hurry off in Zone’s direction but he was already there, pulling her behind him as he trained his weapon on the fal
len pirate. He kicked the dropped
knife out of the way. She grabbed on to his
broad
back for a long moment. He felt so solid and safe. And famili
ar. She wanted to lean in and hang on
. She wanted him to turn around and hold her tight. A hundred questions flooded her brain—why he was here, how, he
r father—but she understood
it wasn’t over. Taking a deep breath, she took a few steps back to let Zone do his job.

She watched as he pulled a cord from a side pouch and went down on one knee. He worked unbelievably fast, gagging and tying up the downed man as if he were cattle. Then he turned, his gaze darting left and right, checking the surroundings.

His camouflaged face had a fierce expression as he reached for her. He cupped her face and gave her a hard kiss.

“Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. She opened her mouth to ask him all the questions swirling in her mind but he bent his head and kissed her again, this time more lingeringly. The taste of him, male and something indefinable, always made her go a little crazy. This time was no different. With adrenalin added to the mix, she responded with a passion that surprised him into allowing her to push him against the passage wall. She ran her hands all over his hair and his hard muscled body as her tongue tangled with his wildly, insistently. She’d missed him so much. Did he miss her?

*
**

Damn, he didn’t want to stop. He’d kissed her to reassure himself. The sight of her in danger h
ad given him a jolt of fear
he’d never felt before. And then she’d gone and taken care of her attacker with an efficiency that would make his SEAL brothers proud.

No babbling incoherently. Not his Rebecca.

Just a quick kiss, he’d told himself. But her tongue and her hands tempted him to continue. She was kissing
him with that sexy passion which always
made him want to take her then and there. How many times in the past months had he fantasized having her in his arms again? Naked. Sweaty. With hours
of
. . . heat gathered where it shouldn’t. Man. The timing sucked.

With great reluctance, Zone curled his hands around the sweet curve of her hips and put her away from him. “We’ve got to get back on deck to make sure the others have been taken down,” he told her
softly
. He gave her a fleeting caress on the side of her face. “Later. You’re mine later.”

He grinned when she made a face at him. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears and he’d wanted to distract her
from her fear.

“I don’t understand. How did you get to be here?”

“My team and I swam.
Then we climbed on board.”

She touched his arm. “You make it sound so easy when I know it’s not.”

He squeezed her fingers briefly. No mission was easy
,
but this one had gone smoothly. He
’
d done
recon extractions more times than he cared to count and some had been a lot bloodier, but h
e was pretty sure she wouldn’t want to know how he and his team had taken down the hostiles.

“Come on,” he told her. “Follow close and keep quiet, just in case there’s another lurking close by.”

She nodded.

He activated the receiver in his belt. “Zone reporting in. Miss Powers is with me. Two hostiles are down on my end. Over.”

“Bad news. The enemy has the ambassador,” his commander told him through his ear mic. “He communicated with the satellite phone again.”

That explained the emergency lights coming on. The head pirate must have activated it after capturing the ambassador. He didn’t need
his people
t
o grope around in the dark now.

“How many?” Zone asked.

“One, as far as we know. He’s heading to the deck. He has asked for a lifeboat for him and his men. He doesn’t know all his men on deck are down.”

“He’ll want to contact his ship to pick him up,” Zone said. He shook his head at Rebecca’s questioning gaze.  “Are we negotiating?”

“We’re almost to th
eir main ship. We’ll be jamming
any contact from our end. Can you take out the lone pirate?”

“I’ve to go on deck and find a suitable location.”

“Do it if you can. But the ambassador’s safety comes first. Joker’s listening in. You coordinate with him. Copy that? Over.”

“Yes, sir, copy. Over.”

*
**

The look on Zone’s face had changed from teasing to serious as he talked to the person on the other end. The conversation made her fear for the worst.

“Zone?” she whispered w
hen he finished. “Is it Da…the A
mbassador?”