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Authors: Capri Montgomery

On Thin Ice (Special Ops) (9 page)

BOOK: On Thin Ice (Special Ops)
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“Sucks to be a hostage,” she said.

 

“Yeah. Sucks to rescue one who doesn’t realize they’re on the fast track to being murdered too.”

 

“I couldn’t do your job. I would have just shot him and left him.” She handed him her files. “Spread them out on the bench if you need to.”

 

He looked over the files, spreading them out on her workbench while she gathered the weapons he would use, and the hiking gear he would need. He also noticed the protein bars and the couple big bottles of water she added. If they weren’t going to feed Akira then they probably wouldn’t give her water either. He had to get to her soon because if he didn’t she just might die from dehydration and starvation. These guys definitely didn’t care. They were planning to kill her anyway. All they needed her for was to get whatever they wanted from Aaron and then they wouldn’t need her. Alexei would no doubt swiftly kill her when that time came. Or maybe he would torture her to hurt Aaron. Either way, Jet was sure Alexei would kill her and was equally as sure that he wouldn’t let him do it. He was going to rescue her. He had to.

 

Jet had told Alex to alert him as soon as they got the second call, but neither of them expected it to come in before the next day. He would have to call Alex and let him know not to call because he might be in a spot where a ringing phone could give his position away. Or he might not have any coverage at all. He would have to turn the phone off before he went out on foot. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t ever been out of contact while on a mission, but this time he needed access to updates, and he needed to let Aaron and Sakura know there was hope. This was the first time he wanted to keep the people who hired him updated on every step. He knew he couldn’t do that, and that he shouldn’t do that, but he still felt compelled to do it. Feeling compelled to do it didn’t mean he was going to risk screwing up. After he set out on foot the phone would simply have to go silent until he could make his next call to Alex.

 

He looked at one black and white picture in particular and he recognized the subject in the photo. Then he saw another photograph and then another series of them one right behind the other. “Why do you have pictures of him?”

 

“Who?”

 

He held up the picture.

 

“Oh, the supposed cop,” she laughed. “Actually I can’t find anything to say that he’s not on the level, other than the fact that he’s going by a different name. I got that picture out of a file from about seven years ago. I don’t know who took it, or when they took it, but I found it while searching some government files.” She winked at him and he knew her search had been anything but legal. “I couldn’t find anything on him really. I was just curious as to why the photo was there. The only name that I found with the picture was Nikifor Chuchin. There was no other information attached to it…nothing at all. And you know me; I can’t resist a good mystery. From what I can tell he changed his name somewhere along the way. My research on this guy faded fast. He just vanished off the map. Basically I lost track of him until I saw him on the tube today giving a statement about catching the guys. I don’t know if he’s friend or foe, Jet. I can’t find anything on him. It’s like he just vanished as Nikifor and showed up as Nathan.”

 

“He doesn’t have an accent.”

 

“From what I could find on Nikifor it would seem that he was born in America to parents who were second generation Americans. He was born in Michigan and then his family moved to New York, New Jersey and then dropped off the grid when he was probably fourteen or fifteen, but I can’t be sure on his age at the time, just that they all vanished. In that photo he looks older so I would say the government was keeping tabs on him for some reason. I wouldn’t trust him. I’m not even sure how he obtained the credentials he has…but he could have fabricated enough information to get on the force. I was planning to investigate later. This really isn’t my war, but I like to know who’s in my backyard if you know what I mean. I just wanted to get some target practice in first.”

 

He nodded. “What you’ve given me is enough to get me going.”

 

“Jet,” Henri waited to get his full attention and when he finally looked up at her she spoke again. “She seems like a nice woman—genuine.”

 

“She is.”

 

“Then don’t muck it up. When you get her out of there and get her home don’t let her get away. Put a ring on her finger and make it forever.”

 

He laughed nervously. “Who says she would want to marry me.”

 

“She would have to be a fool not to. And she doesn’t strike me as a fool. Besides, you and I both know having a woman want to marry you was never the problem.”

 

He knew she was right. The problem was he never wanted to marry them. Even Charlie…they had been together so long that he was comfortable with the way things were. He didn’t want a wedding. He didn’t want to live together. And for a long time she didn’t either. Then she suddenly decided to change her mind just because her mother gave her the tick-tock speech—that and the fact that she was getting tired of him leaving to go on missions. She thought if they were married that would change and he would spend more time with her at home. “Either your job or me, Jet. Which one of us would you rather be married to?”

 

“Why do I have to choose one over the other? I love my job and you know that. Why can’t we just stay the way we are? You were the one who said you didn’t want a wedding, a husband or a live-in boyfriend.” Apparently that answer hadn’t been the one she was looking for and she ended things right there. She knew he was going off on a mission and instead of at least waiting until he got back to drop the move in with me, marry me, make babies with me, bomb on him she had done it barely an hour before he had to leave.

 

He didn’t want to move in with her. He didn’t want to marry her. He didn’t want to make babies with her and he didn’t know why. She was beautiful. She was fun, but she wasn’t the one. He wasn’t even sure he was looking for the one woman that he would want forever with. He had gone through life unmarried all this time; he didn’t see a need to change that, not even with Charlie.

 

Maybe what had him more baffled was that when Henri mentioned marrying Akira he hadn’t had that gut churning reaction that he usually got when anybody mentioned the word marriage in the same sentence as his name.

 

“I should get moving.” He checked over the equipment she gave him. Henri was the only contact he had who didn’t expect him to pay her for the use of her weapons. Saving her brother’s life once probably endeared him to her good graces. Amazingly he was friendlier with her than her brother. He didn’t know why, but he and Henri just clicked, while he and Paul hadn’t really taken to friendship with each other. Maybe it was because Henri was laid back and easy going, but she was also kick-butt like an Amazonian warrior. They meshed, and the friendship was one that neither party would ever betray.

 

“Seriously, Jet; marry her.”

 

“Henri,” he warned in a low tone.

 

“It’s clear you love her. Maybe you’re not dating. Maybe you’re not even close, but I know you, Jet. The anger I see in your eyes right now you might be able to pass off as some noble “man who hates man who hits woman” type of thing, but the fear,” she pointed to his face. “The fear is for her and it’s real. It’s from your heart and that, my good man, is a sure sign that you love her. I don’t know the whole story, but I think you should marry her.”

 

“Why don’t you worry about getting yourself married, Henri?”

 

She laughed. “No thank you. Not now. Not ever.” She shook her head and held up her hands in surrender. “I’ll let it drop, Jet, but you know I’m right. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter.”

 

She just had to get the last word in—as always. It was going to take a strong man to live with her…maybe a man as obsessed with guns as she was. Now that would make an interesting pairing.

 

“Be careful, Jet. I’d hate to lose my friend and then have to go to war with the Russians.”

 

“Careful is my middle name, Henri.”

 

“No it’s not,” she shook her head and gave him a devious grin. “Jethro Jamison Jackson.”

 

“Why do you have to be so gosh darn good at finding information?” He mumbled and she laughed. He had dropped his middle name from use before he hit junior high school. He didn’t like it. He didn’t use it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still the name on his birth certificate. Legally he was Jethro Jamison Jackson. He preferred to just go by Jet; Jet Jackson if they wanted to be more formal. He didn’t really like for people to call him Jethro and he definitely didn’t like for them to call him by his full name. When anybody called him by his full name it reminded him of all the times his mother had used it when he had done something stupid that landed him in her not so good graces.

 

He climbed into the truck, gave one final wave to Henri and took off. He had a mountain to travel, a woman to save, and bad guys to kill. “All in a day’s work,” he said. “All in a day’s work.”

 
 

Chapter Six

 

I
have to go to the bathroom!” Akira yelled loudly and she kept yelling. She didn’t have to go desperately, but her legs were starting to fall asleep and she knew if she wanted to still be able to escape—if ever the opportunity presented itself—then she needed to keep her body ready for movement. A walk to wherever the bathroom was would at least allow her to shake out her legs and arms.

 

“Hey you big jerk! I have to go to the bathroom!” When the door pushed open and banged against the wall with a loud thud she stopped yelling. The door bounced back toward the man, but he swiftly put his hand out to stop it from whacking him in the face. Now that would have been a fun thing to see, she thought. He was the one who had hit her and she would love to see him get whacked in the face with a big metal door.

 

He approached her with a steady gait that sent a shiver of fear up her spine, but she refused to show weakness. “You do anything stupid and I’ll break your bones and blow out your knee. You got me?”

 

She nodded. She didn’t have a plan and she wasn’t going to just try to make a run for it when she didn’t have a plan; she had already tried that and fortunately she was smart enough to learn from her mistakes. She was unconscious when they arrived here so she didn’t even know the way out. A few bathroom breaks might help her figure out the layout of the building. Maybe she would see an exit, and then calculate if she could get to it or not. She still didn’t know where she was. If they had taken her to Russia she would have thought she would have awakened between Alaska and there, but then they could have stuck her with needle full of a drug to keep her knocked out.

 

She watched as he cut her bindings attached to the chair and then cuffed her hands in front of her body. She hadn’t expected that. Maybe he was using extra caution, not trusting her to stick to her word of not trying anything stupid. If that were the case then maybe he didn’t want to have to shoot her. It wasn’t as if she thought he would care if he did shoot her, but maybe having a wounded hostage would be more work than he wanted right now. She had doubts, but still, she wouldn’t chance trying to escape right now.

 

He pushed her into the bathroom and entered with her. He closed the door behind him. “There’s the toilet.”

 

Yes, she could see that. “You have to take the cuffs off me so I can go.” Clearly she couldn’t get her pants down with the cuffs on. He approached her and she thought he would comply with her request, but instead of removing the handcuffs he started attacking the buttons on her pants and then he yanked them down with her panties before pushing her backwards. She fell onto the toilet seat. She almost fell off the other side, but she used her leg muscles to steady her like she would steady herself from an almost fall on the ice. Still, the impact of butt to seat hurt. It was like those times when she would fall on her butt on the ice, only she didn’t have anything cold soothing the ache.

 

“Piss already.” He barked.

 

“I can’t go with you standing there.”

BOOK: On Thin Ice (Special Ops)
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