Wet For Her Warriors (Book 5 of the WILD -- Warriors Intense in Love & Domination -- Boys of Special Forces) (35 page)

“No, darling,”
Tan returned with a bitter laugh, “fuck
you
—which is what I’ll be very
happy to do, once I’ve taken a few layers of skin off your pretty body.”

During the
exchange, Tait felt Leo moving closer to their peephole. Though it ravaged his
heart to let the kid stay, it would be even more wrong to shove him back like
some five year-old. Kellan didn’t object, either, though the guy had to smash a
hand over Leo’s mouth when the teen went ballistic at Tan’s declaration. Kell
gripped the back of the kid’s neck, forcing Leo to stay locked to his
dictatorial stare. He mouthed two words.
Not helping
.

“Strip her,” Tan
ordered his guards below. “Then secure her to the post. There’s a spreader bar
on the table; clip her ankles onto that. Make sure it’s pinned at the widest
setting.”

Leo’s chest pumped
in furious heaves. He flung Kell’s hand away and zapped a glare of silver rage
at them both. “How much longer are we going to sit here?” His whisper was
harsh. “He’s going to peel off her skin with that thing! And then screw her
like a whore!”

Tait jabbed a
finger toward the main part of the kitchen, wordlessly ordering Leo and Kell to
follow him there. They had a half-wall and the refrigerator helping to muffle
their exchange from Tan.

“Leo, we copy
you on the concern, but—”

“But what?” the
kid seethed. “We’re standing around with our dicks in our hands while Lani—”

In one sweep,
Kell pinned the teen to the refrigerator. “Take a chill, Simba. We know the
goddamn circumstances. But in case you weren’t looking, the man has an army of
guard apes. We charge in there with nothing but our battle cries and Bowie
knives, you’ll end up watching your sister get tortured and killed on the mound
of our carcasses.”

Tait stepped
over, giving Kellan a let-me-give-it-a-try look. “You remember the day we first
met?” he challenged Leo. “And the issues you were having with Isis? You remember
how we worked together, did it smarter instead of harder?”

Leo mashed
together his lips but finally returned, “Fine. So do you guys have anything
‘smarter, not harder’ in mind?”

Tait looked to
Kell. The guy’s face was stone but he wasn’t capable of hiding the anguish in
his eyes as Lani’s panicked cries filtered up to them. Things were going to get
worse, in a very fast way, if they didn’t do something soon.

As in right now.

Shit. Karma had
a sick sense of humor. He was asking Kell to totally separate head and heart, a
task he’d totally screwed the pooch on in Indonesia. But now the stakes were
higher. Lani’s life was on the line. He prayed that his friend could reach
deeper inside than he’d been capable of during the failure in Indonesia.
Become
my
hero now, Slash—and hers. I swear to you that I’m here a hundred
percent this time, too.

Thank fuck. The
universe was listening this time, and so was Kell’s spirit. Between one blink
and the next, the guy narrowed his gaze, squared his jaw, and turned into Tait’s
mission-centric buddy again. “The Remington’s still in the trunk of the rental
car,” he stated in a bullet-hard tone. Tait was a little surprised Kell hadn’t
called the rifle by its nickname, “sweet baby.” The guy had worked so
extensively with the weapon, he could shoot a flea off a dog from a thousand
yards away. “All we need to do is flush the bastard out of the tunnels,” Kellan
supplied. “If he hits the beach where we were last night, I’ll have no trouble
picking him up on my night scope.”

“You can stage
up on the cliff,” Leo interjected. “Yeah. It’d give you perfect height and
invisibility.”

Tait turned with
a fast glance of appraisal. The kid’s aspirations to West Point didn’t sound so
cray-cray anymore.

“But getting him
out is still the boner killer.” Kell frowned. “As much as I love Lani for
leaving enough fire power to turn this place into a mile-wide kill zone, the
goal here is to save her, not seal her in with those asstards.”

“I can help with
that one.” Leo was still a glowing isotope of impatience, but now his energy
had direction. “We have a compost bin off the back lanai. After all the rain
we’ve had lately, everything in there is going to be really damp. Light that
shit on fire, and we’ve got instant smoke.”

“Instant
putrid
smoke,” Tait elaborated.

“Excellent,”
Kell concluded. “Make it happen, kid.”

Leo had bounded
three steps across the kitchen before stopping in his tracks and throwing them
a scowl. “What if that asshole flees but leaves Lani in the cave?”

Kellan, fully
fortified in the steely shell of ops mindset, shook his head. “Not going to
happen unless Tan’s a complete nimrod. He’ll know Lani’s his insurance policy
out of the trap and use her as a human shield. But just in case the guy did eat
paint chips for dinner, you’re going to stay here and serve as eyes and ears at
this end.” He leveled a stern stare at the kid. “If any of those choads finds
their way out through here, you kick the bin over, turn them into flaming
compost casserole, then get your ass down to the barn and hide there until one
of us comes for you. Got it?”

“Yeah.” The
teen’s face lit up with a mix of excitement and anxiety. “Got it.”

“You sure? This
isn’t normal procedure, but I need T-Bomb on that ridge with me, so we have to rely
on you, Leo. If you
dick around, your sister will have
our
gonads
diced, pickled and put in a jar on display next to the kitchen fruit bowl.”

The kid’s face
sobered. The consequence Kellan painted was closer to the truth than all three
of them cared to admit. “I’m sure, Slash.” No “gasm” as an addendum this time.
“You can count on me.”

“All right,”
Tait ordered. “Let’s roll.”

Once they were
outside, he told himself to shove Lani, and the first lashes she was likely
getting from Tan, from his mind. It was harder than he thought. No, it was
fucking impossible. Somewhere between moving the explosives outside, helping
Leo haul in the compost bin, and assisting Kell with the rifle load-up, the
realization hit. He was in love with Hokulani Kail as much as Kellan was.

And he may never
have the chance to tell her.

Focus. You can’t
afford not to, Bommer
.

“Okay.” Now
standing in the kitchen again, he handed over the fire starter to Leo. “Is your
phone on voice radio mode?”

“Yes, sir,” the
kid answered.

“There’s no time
to brief you on all the shit you’re being called to keep track of, so use your
common sense and your brain are going to be your best friends right now. Use
this,” —he tapped the teen’s forehead, then his chest— “and
not
this.
Got it?”

“Yeah.” Leo was
admirably solemn. “Yeah, I got it.”

“Cool fries.”

He reached out
to fist bump the kid. Leo didn’t meet the gesture. “Hey. Give one more thing to
me straight-up.”

Tait nodded,
also somber. “Sure.”

“If that scum
sucker is using Lani as a shield, then Kellan has to be damn accurate with the
kill shot, right?”

Tait clapped a
hand on Leo’s shoulder again. “I’m his spotter. We do this all the time, Leo.”
Well, they
had
been doing it all the time. They hadn’t succeeded at a challenge
shot like this in well over a year. And the synchronicity they’d shared lately,
burnished to perfection by their partnership in loving Lani, was in its best
form ever. Had either of them expected to put it to the test this soon? In a
situation like this? The answer was obvious. Of course not. But sometimes in
life, especially their lives, there wasn’t a choice about being ready for the
big test. You simply had to plow deep and find that readiness.

“I get that.” Leo
clearly excavated his gut for his own courage. “But it’s two in the morning.
And that beach is dark. Is—is Slash-gasm that good?”

Tait might have
been unsure about how to answer the kid’s first question, but his reply now was
a no-brainer. “Yeah, Leo. He’s that good.”

Lani’s eyes
burned with tears. Her throat burned from screaming. Her ass and back burned
with pain. Tan was only three strokes in to his promise of stripping the flesh
off her body, one whip lash at a time, and she wondered how many more of his
terrible grunts, followed by the whir of the leather and the fire on her flesh,
would come before his goal was accomplished.

Something else
burned now, too. Her lungs.

“What the fuck?”
The guard standing nearest to her, who’d been enjoying Tan’s show with a
prominent hard-on, pushed off the cave wall. Lani blinked at him, only to
wonder what was going wrong with her vision. Everything was covered in a weird gray
haze that thickened by the second. “Christ almighty, what’s that stench?”

As if cued to do
so, the rest of Tan’s henchmen began coughing and wheezing. Lani ducked her
head, trying to take shallow breaths herself. It smelled like the cave had contracted
the flu and now hurled on all of them. The camp lanterns looked like glowing
chunks of puke as the guards grabbed them in desperate efforts to locate the
source of the stench.

“I think it’s
coming from above,” one of the men called. “Someone’s in the mansion, and they
know damn well that we’re here!”

“Let me drill
their ass with lead, Tan. This’ll be fun.”

“Idiot,” Tan
snarled. “It will also be suicide. If you break the wrong supports to that
kitchen, we’ll be buried down here.”

“Shit.”

“In a word,
yes.” The man raised his voice into a shout. “Everyone out! Now!”

Lani couldn’t
contain her reacting sob. She’d take the smoke and stench over Tan’s new
proximity, less than a foot away from her. She flinched as he unfastened her
ankles from the spreader. He made her worst nightmare come true by unhooking
her wrists from the posts then yanking her back against him.

“Just a wild
guess, darling, but I’d say your boyfriends want to join our little party.” His
growl was low and menacing as he latched a possessive hand onto one of her bare
breasts. “So let’s make sure their favorite guest makes an appearance.”

His brutal hold intensified
her pain but she clung to a new hope. This twist had Tait and Kellan’s
ingenuity written all over it. Had they truly bucked their orders from Franz?
Were they really here? She could almost feel their presence on the air. Maybe
if she set her mind free a little more and tried to hear an assurance from that
cool wind of a voice again…
Aue
.
Who the hell was she kidding? If
Luna
had
returned, Lani couldn’t hear past the hammers of pain in her
body, the heavy grunts of her captor, and the cavernous echoes of their steps
through the long black tunnel.

When they burst
out onto the beach, a thousand feelings blasted at once. She wanted to weep at
the sky, having given up on ever seeing its splendor again. But she wobbled,
suddenly cold, as the wind slammed her nakedness and bit into her wounds. She
also peered around in confusion. Not a single one of Tan’s goons had waited for
him. But there was no sign of Tait, Kellan or any police or military support,
either.

Only two people stood
there: Cameron Stock and the man who’d taken Gunter’s replacement in their
scheme. Just as young and well-tailored as Gunter, Shane—who was so trendy, he
apparently had no last name—wore his chestnut hair a little longer and his
suits a little looser, but shared Gunter’s vigilant gaze and Gatsby-like
indifference to everything that didn’t pertain to their plan. In short, he was
a perfectly pretty successor to Gunter—and Lani hoped he met the same fate,
too. The sharks could always use some extra dinner.

“What the hell
are you still doing with her?” Shane barked. “We need to cut liabilities,
all
of them, right now.”

“He’s right,”
Stock added. “The car’s waiting next to the sand around the next bend. My
contacts at the base have arranged for a private transport to get us to LA,
where I’ve got a thousand corners for us to hide in. Let her go and let’s get
the fuck out of here.”

Lani prayed Tan
would see their logic, despite its roots in five hundred versions of evil, and
toss her aside. “I—I won’t say anything,” she croaked. “I—I promise.”

“Oh, there’s
nothing for you to say, honey.” Stock’s tone was smooth and snide. “They’d only
need you for picking us out in a line-up, which is never going to happen.”

Dread crashed
through her as Tan let out a roar and twisted his hold tighter. “No! She has
one more purpose to us, and I’m going to take full advantage of it!”

Stock huffed.
“What the hell are you—”

“Those two
Special Forces wankers are going to pay for what they’ve cost me—in the most devastating
manner their poor little hearts can imagine.”

Lani shivered
harder. This time, her quivers had nothing to do with the wind and everything
to do with raw terror. Tan made sure that point stuck when slamming his pistol
to her temple.

No, no, no
!

“Wait.” Shane’s
voice punched through her mental and physical ice. “Her two ‘soldier’ friends
are
Spec Ops
?” The man stomped over and yanked at Tan. The Korean almost
fell backwards, decimating Lani’s own balance. She only stayed upright through
the desperate force of tan’s grip, clawing furiously into her flesh. “Tan, you
have to ditch this bitch and move on
right
now,” Shane commanded. “I
guarantee there are rifle coordinates being dialed in on your skull as we speak.”

Tan laughed with
urbane glee. “Is that so, sweet Shane? My, my; you get a little hot under the
collar when talking about those boys in uniform. Did you know one, perhaps? Did
you put on your ‘dress blues’ for him? Did he tell you about his ‘secret
missions’ and show you his ‘special guns?’”

Lani prayed Shane’s
patience had a breaking point and Tan had just breached it. A skirmish between
the two men would be perfect in so many ways. If Shane’s allegation was true, Kellan
and Tait
were
here, waiting on the cliffs for their perfect chance to
take Tan down for good. The sooner she could get out of their way, the better.

But damn it,
Shane had to be as emotionally untouchable as she’d originally assumed.

“Drop her, Tan.”
The man’s stance was as rigid as his voice. “You’ve poked worse than a hornet’s
nest and you’re not going to win.”

“He’s right,”
Stock growled. “If you want a voice of firsthand experience as validation, let
me be it. Lor and I were ten minutes out from success on our plan in LA, and
those Spec Ops motherfuckers dropped in on us like a machine.”

“Shut up,” Tan
snapped. “Just shut the bloody hell up, Cameron!”

Stock shook his
head and blew out a hard breath. “I’ll do you one better, you insane asswipe.
I’m out of here.”

“He’s right.”
Shane rushed up again. “You’re being insane, Tan. You can’t do this. Let
Cameron get you off the island and into LA, and we’ll regroup on a new plan.
Killing this woman in cold blood isn’t going to help a fucking thing.”

Tan’s grip
slipped a little. With a rush of relief, Lani collapsed to her knees, only to
be held captive again by the monster’s hand, twisting a fistful of her hair. Tan
jerked her head back until her vision was filled with nothing but the stars—and
the barrel of his gun between her eyes. 

“Poor, stupid
Shane,” he muttered. “You’re mistaken. This does help. So many things.”

Lani’s limbs
went numb. Her blood ran with ice. But suddenly, strangely, she was warm again.
The stars reached down to her, bringing the light and fire of two special stars
with them. The first, with his gray gaze and fierce devotion, she slipped into
her heart. The second, with his golden eyes and open spirit, she dropped into
her soul.

She smiled.

Right before a
single shot pierced the night.

She took a
breath, bracing for the burst of white light to welcome her through the veils
of existence. It didn’t come. Instead, her senses resounded a deep, anguished
cry…her own. Only blackness and stillness surrounded her.

But then she
noticed the stars again. And the sea. And the trees, flittering softly in the
wind. And then the man, Shane, kneeling next to her—only he wasn’t himself.
Soft concern lit up his caramel eyes with tiny gold flecks. His mouth lifted at
her in a gentle smile.

Even though
Ayaan Tan lay flat in the sand next to her, with a bullet hole in his head.

“Oh, my God.”
She pushed away from him. “Oh, my God.”

“Ssshhh.
Careful.” Shane cupped her shoulders. His hands were shockingly warm. Strong.
And caring? He stripped off his suit jacket and folded it around her. “You
okay?”

“Y-yeah.” Her
breath left her in stunned spurts. “What the hell happ—”

A loud
zzzzzzz
cut her short. Appearing in the trees just a hundred feet away, riding the Hale
Anelas recreational zip line like a pro, was Kellan. The sight of him made her
heart surge and her body hum despite all its physical agony. He hit the landing
platform and started shimmying down the ladder, preceding Tait by only a fast
minute. His sniper Remington rifle was still strapped to his back.

“Shit.” Shane
spewed the word as he shot to his feet.

“Wh-what?” Lani
questioned. “What’s wrong?”

Kellan arrived,
having sprinted across the sand to her. He shucked his gun and hit his knees in
the sand, grabbing her with the fervency of a starving man who’d arrived at an
oasis. Lani sighed into his mouth as he kissed her with matching hunger,
finally letting her go in order to lift his eyes to Shane.

“You should
seriously get out of here,” he told the guy.

“Yeah,” Shane
said, “Probably.”

“What the hell?”
Lani queried. “Why?”

Tait arrived now,
also at a top speed run—that he continued into a full body check against Shane.
Lani shrieked, confused and stunned, as the two men rolled into the sand.
Shane’s kindness, although brief, stirred her enough to try and pull Tait up.
Wasn’t happening. Tait was lost to a haze of rage. He pulled back his arm,
curled a fist, and drove it into Shane’s face before she could stop him.

“Tait,” she
screamed. “
Lawa
! Enough!”

The man ignored
her, preparing to punch Shane again.

“Tait!” Shane
yelled. “Listen!”

The air left her
lungs. Her jaw dropped. She snapped her gape toward Kellan. “How does he know
who Tait is?”

“It was you,”
Tait roared, “wasn’t it? In the cave, with Stock and Tan. ‘Handling things’ for
them.
Working
with them!”

Tait went in for
two more blows but Shane successfully dodged both. It was clear to Lani now; the
guy had a lot of experience fighting Tait, able to interpret and evade each of
his moves. That expertise would’ve been gleaned by a friend of Tait’s, not a
fashionista criminal boy working for a creep like Cameron Stock.

What was going
on?

Finally, Shane
crawled free and popped to his feet. Tait didn’t give up. He snarled and
readied to rush Shane again.

“Don’t think it,
T.” He issued the words from gritted teeth. “I
will
drop you. We both
know I can.”

“What. The.
Hell?” Lani blurted again.

Her words didn’t
falter Tait by an inch. With his chest heaving and his eyes blazing, he
seethed, “I should just let you do it. Drop me and pummel me, you asshole,
because that’ll give me perfect justification for killing
you
with my
bare hands!”

Shane wiped
blood off his lip with the back of his hand. “Neither is going to happen.”

“No? And why the
fuck not?” Tait’s hands turned into white-capped fists at his sides. “You’re
working with
Cameron Stock
—and with the man who had a gun at the head of
the woman I love!” He pushed his head forward, staring hard at Shane. “Does
that concept even get to you anymore? Do you remember the hell I went through
after Luna, how I despaired of ever
feeling
anything again, let alone
knowing love? Well, God’s brought me another miracle—and  tonight, she almost
died as I watched. As
you
watched, goddamnit!”

Lani grabbed the
edges of Shane’s coat and pulled them tighter as tears came again. She bowed
her head, needing to be alone with this crazy moment.
Tait loved her, too.
Yet he stood there, trembling from the effort of reining back his murderous
rage at Shane.

“I wouldn’t have
let that happen,” Shane leveled, “and damn it, you know it.” While Tait flung
back only a bitter silence, the man slowly straightened and brushed off his
pants. “I have to leave now, Tait. And you’re going to let me.”

Tait chuffed.
“Right. You have to leave. Because Cameron fucking Stock is waiting for you,
isn’t he?”

Shane clenched
his jaw. Sharper lights intensified in his eyes, almost turning them pure gold
with his anger. “There’s more at play here than you understand. You’re going to
have to trust me.”

The guy didn’t
say anything else. Lani gawked again at Kellan as Tait visibly shook, clearly
abhorring himself for every step Shane took back up the beach. Tait stayed that
way even after the man disappeared around the curve in the shore. Lani stepped
toward him but Kellan shook his head a little, indicating Tait had to wage his own
battle with this particular demon—who in the end, hadn’t been much of a monster
at all. She ran her knuckles down one collar of Shane’s jacket. It smelled a
lot like the cave, at least before the universe started to barf inside it, with
a faint touch of cedar and citrus.