Titanium Security Series 4 - Extinguished (11 page)

She blinked. Just like that? “Are we still taking the vehicle?” She eyed it with trepidation. God only knew what other kinds of booby traps there might be in there.

“Nah, I got what I wanted. Let’s get this thing out.” He cast her a sideways look as he leaned over the engine. “Ever done this before?”

She had some experience with demolitions, but not with car bombs. “No.”

“This one’s pretty unsophisticated. No trip wires or anything else to worry about.” He sounded damn near insulted by that. “We just have to unhook the leads and get it out of there. Hold the light for me?” He handed her back the pen light.

Shining it so he could see what he was doing, Jordyn watched closely as Alex dug a pocketknife out of his pants and flipped out a little screwdriver attachment. He unhooked the wires from the battery terminals then checked to make sure he hadn’t missed anything before he got down on the ground on his back and wedged himself beneath the undercarriage. “Man, they wedged this in good and tight,” he said with a grunt as he wrestled to pull the plastic explosives out of its hiding spot.

“My hands are smaller. Want me to try?”

“Yeah.” He pulled out and dusted himself off, seeming totally unconcerned that someone had planted explosives in the vehicle they were supposed to have taken. If she’d started the engine, it likely would have detonated. The thought made her go cold all over.

She handed him the pen light and got under the vehicle. It took a while for her to work the Semtex free but eventually it gave way and she was able to push it upward so Alex could pull it out from beneath the engine block.

He helped her up. “Let’s head back. The guys and I have more work to do now.” He was already on his phone texting something as he walked away.

Feeling more than a little unsettled, Jordyn followed him back to their SUV and did a thorough sweep of it with him before climbing inside. Once they were on the road, she couldn’t keep the questions inside any longer. “You said the Pakistani government earmarked that for us.”

“Yep.” He drove with his left arm propped on the window frame, utterly at ease.

“So does that mean someone in the government planted that, hoping to kill us?”

“That’s the way I read it, yeah.”

The nonchalant tone was really starting to grate on her nerves. She blew out a breath. “And we’re not going to do anything about that?”

He glanced over at her, his silver eyes intense, penetrating. “Hell yeah, we are.”

Realization slowly dawned. “You suspected they’d done this?” Someone or something must have tipped him off earlier, which was why he’d wanted to check it out personally. He’d not only anticipated this, clearly he’d had a plan in mind for when he confirmed the evidence. But there was still something that didn’t make any sense to her at all. “And you wanted me to come along because…?”

“Because if it was hidden under the hood, I knew you’d be able to find it faster than me. You were a big help, thanks.” He clapped a hand on her shoulder twice.

She forced her gaze away from him to stare out the windshield. “You’re um, welcome.”

One thing was for sure; she may have spent her entire life surrounded by military men, but she’d never, ever met a man like Alex Rycroft before.

The call to evening prayer had just sounded from the minarets of the local mosque when Blake arrived back at HQ with Dunphy. Hunter and Gage were already inside after a five hour recon job that had turned up exactly nothing. Everyone was wiped and looking forward to some quality rack time.

Except for him, because from the muted sounds coming from the garage, he knew Jordyn was still working. He found her tackling the second bike, the first now parked next to the closed rolling bay door. She had her ball cap on backward.

She stopped what she was doing when he entered, her welcoming smile doing funny things to his heart. Even dressed in cargo pants and a T-shirt and wearing no makeup, she was still the hottest woman he’d ever known. He couldn’t wait to finally stroke all those long, lean lines, find out where she was most sensitive and use it to drive her out of her mind.

“Just get back?” she asked, coming around the end of the workbench toward him.

“A few minutes ago.” The warmth and obvious affection in her eyes were just for him and knowing that made him feel like the luckiest sonofabitch in the world. When she stepped up to wrap her arms around him he tugged her close and buried his face in her neck. Her little sigh of pleasure and contentment tangled him up inside, had his body tightening in need. God, she felt good up against him. She fit perfectly in his hold, all soft and pliant. The mixed scents of shampoo, soap and a hint of axel grease teased his nostrils. Pure Jordyn.

He smiled against her neck and nuzzled the velvety skin just below her ear, earning a delicate shiver from her. He’d never been free to express what he’d truly felt for her before. He was going to savor every moment of this stolen time together. “What about you? How long you been in here?”

“Since Alex and I got back a few hours ago,” she murmured into his shoulder. She cuddled in closer, apparently content to stay right where she was and Blake was only too happy to hold her close like this. His whole body felt electrically charged, every nerve ending attuned to each place they touched.

She lifted her head. Her eyes were smoky with desire. One he couldn’t wait for the chance to satisfy. But not here where they had no privacy. When he took her, it would be somewhere behind a locked door when they had enough time to explore each other so he could find out exactly how to ramp her up until she was begging for him to fuck her.

“Did he tell you what happened?” she asked.

The fog of lust cleared slightly from his brain. “No, what?” He stroked a hand up her back, the other wrapped securely around her waist. If she felt this good with her clothes on, he couldn’t wait to find out what she’d feel like naked against him. Beneath him, on top of him, he didn’t care, but whenever it finally happened he planned to show her all the things he’d been fantasizing about with her.

He knew she was thinking about the exact same thing because she squirmed against him and seemed to shake herself before answering. “We went to this impound lot to look at a vehicle the government had set aside for us. Alex told me to check the engine, and when I did we found this.” She pulled away from him and walked over to a box on a shelf anchored to the wall. When she reached inside and held up a block of Semtex with the wires and blasting caps still attached, his eyes widened.

“Holy shit.” He took it from her and examined it. “Was it hooked up to the battery?”

“Yeah, but whoever planted this did a good job of hiding it. And it was a bitch to get out of there once Alex unhooked it.”

He looked up into her eyes. “What did he say?”

“I think he knew it was there all along. He’s been busy with Evers and the girls from the time we got back, I think following up on the potential lead this gives us. He mentioned something about having Claire trace the material or whatever. Then he could maybe find out where it had come from and who authorized planting it. I’m guessing someone in the police or military, but I’m not sure.” She frowned. “He really didn’t say anything?”

“No, nothing.” Not that it surprised him, knowing what a secretive bastard Alex was. Blake set the plastic explosive aside, just grateful they’d found it before they’d fired up the engine. If it had gone off, it would’ve killed them and probably anyone else within a fifty yard radius. He studied her intently, searching for signs of fear or strain but saw nothing that concerned him except the lines of fatigue around her eyes and mouth. Lifting a hand, he traced the shadows under her eyes. “You must be wiped.”

She leaned into his touch, that spark of desire igniting in her eyes once more. “Yeah, the jetlag’s starting to catch up with me. I’ll head up once I’m finished cleaning these spark plugs.” She had a row of them laid out on top of the bench. “What about you?”

“I’m free right now, so I’ll give you a hand.” Though he wanted to haul her close and kiss her until she couldn’t breathe, he didn’t want to start anything he couldn’t finish and the sooner he could help her finish up, the better. They both needed sleep.

He reached for a plug, started scrubbing at the rust with a rag drenched in cleaner but paused when someone knocked on the side door. He opened it to find Alex there, that usual air of barely suppressed energy humming around him.

“Hey, wanted to give you both a heads up that we might have a solid lead to follow. Better crash for a bit while you can, because once we get a location, we’re outta here.”

“Got it,” Blake replied. He shut the door behind Alex and turned to face Jordyn. “You gonna head up now?”

She sighed. “Guess we’d better. I’ll finish this first thing in the morning.”

Blake wasn’t leaving her without staking his claim one more time.

In three easy strides he stood in front of her. She stared up at him, waiting, those gorgeous eyes darkening as her pupils expanded. Taking her face in his hands, he caught her quiet gasp as he trailed a line of kisses from her forehead and down her nose, then at last covered her mouth with his. She twined her arms around his neck and lifted up on tiptoe to kiss him back, her tongue darting out to play with his.

Blake bit back a groan at the taste of her, sweet and hot with a hint of cinnamon like she’d been eating candy before he walked in. Need clawed at him. He wanted to see the expression on her face as he touched and tasted her everywhere. Wanted to see her eyes go blind when he put his mouth between her legs and teased her with his tongue.

He was rock hard in his cargo pants, the length of his erection pressing against the softness of her abdomen. His whole body pulsed as the heat exploded between them. Then Jordyn made it a thousand times worse by rubbing against him, a little moan of pleasure and need escaping her.

With a low growl, Blake shoved her ball cap off. He fisted his hands in her soft, short hair, showing her exactly how much he wanted her. Needed her. If he’d thought they wouldn’t be interrupted, he would have started peeling off her clothes just to see and touch all that silky skin hidden from his ravenous gaze. But this place gave them only the illusion of privacy and he would never jeopardize Jordyn’s reputation by being careless. If anyone caught them he didn’t want it to look like she wasn’t taking her job seriously, or that they were having a fling just because they both had an itch to scratch.

Breathing hard, his heart racing, he forced himself to end the kiss. For a moment her arms tightened about his neck in protest, then she pressed her face into his chest, taking slow, deep breaths to calm herself. “How’m I gonna sleep now that you’ve got me all wound up again?” she muttered against his shirt.

Hell if he knew. He’d be up half the night with a painful hard on now. Releasing his grip on her hair, he wrapped his arms around her back and squeezed tight. “I don’t wanna let you go, angel.”

Her head came up at the endearment, those big blue eyes searching his, full of unquenched need. “I’m not going anywhere, Blake. I’ve waited a long time for this. For you.”

God, she turned him inside out when she said things like that. He hated leaving her all worked up and unsatisfied. “If I get called out, I’ll keep in touch as much as I can.”

She nodded, but he could see the worry lingering in her eyes. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

The primal part of him fucking loved knowing she’d be waiting for him. “Take care of yourself, okay?”

“I will. You too.”

Before he gave in to the need to say to hell with his restraint and finish what they’d started, he released her and set a hand on her lower back to usher her toward the stairs. And if he stared at her ass the entire time she climbed them, who could blame him? It was a damn fine ass. At the top she looked over her shoulder at him and gave a sexy little smile that set his libido racing before she entered the female quarters.

All revved up with no end to his torment in sight, Blake walked down the hall, eased the door to the men’s side of the barracks open and crept inside. There was barely enough light for him to make out the rows of inflatable mattresses laid out on the floor. He stopped and squinted when he saw Dunphy crouching next to Gage’s bunk. Hunter, Alex and Evers were all gone. Dunphy swung his head around to glance at him, held a finger up to his lips to signal for silence, then turned back to whatever he was doing.

As his eyes adjusted to the dimness, Blake saw the scene more clearly as he headed for his own bunk. Dunphy was perched on his haunches behind Gage’s head, a grin of gleeful anticipation on his face as he knelt over his unsuspecting victim. He was holding something in his hand. Gage was out cold, one tatted arm folded beneath his head, the other stretched out over the edge of the mattress, palm up. A tall pile of what had to be shaving cream lay in the center of it.

Blake shook his head at Dunphy.
Dude, seriously?
And picking on the exhausted, oldest guy on the team whose hearing still hadn’t recovered from injuries sustained in the line of duty a few weeks back? Dunphy must be desperate to have a little fun to pick Gage as a target.

Unperturbed by the audience or Blake’s silent disapproval, Dunphy leaned down and carefully brushed something across Gage’s face. The second-in-command twitched in his sleep but didn’t wake, his nearly unconscious state telling Blake how smoked he was.

Not that Dunphy cared. No, he let out a quiet snicker and did it again, dragging what looked like a piece of string or something over Gage’s bristly face. This time the former master sergeant felt it and instinctively brought his hand up to brush the tickling thing away, covering his face in shaving cream in the process.

Jolting awake, Gage let out an outraged roar and vaulted from the air mattress. Dunphy barked out a laugh and scrambled out of the way, cackling like a lunatic. The sound of it was so infectious, Blake couldn’t help but laugh too.

Gage didn’t find it nearly so amusing. He locked onto Dunphy with a ferocious glower. “What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” he bellowed, swiping at the white foam smeared all over him.