Heart of Danger (Special Ops) Read online

  “You returned the package and you’re still on the job,” she mumbled.

  “First of all,” he caught hold of her arm. “You were never considered the package.”

  “I wasn’t?” Every hostage or missing person was considered the package.

  “You weren’t,” he assured her. “We never called you that title. We always thought of you as Natalia; not a standard package at all.”

  She smiled. Something in those words really told her how much they did mean that she was part of their family. She liked that feeling. She liked it a lot. “And secondly?”

  “Secondly,” he winked at her. “You’re a mission worth accepting,” he leaned in close to her and whispered in her ear; “on every level.” He straightened and placed his hand on her low back, ushering her towards her front door. Had she heard a hint of flirtation in his words? Or was she reading something into nothing? She hoped there was a hint of flirtation there and not just her imagination running away with her heart.

  He unlocked the door, she disarmed the alarm system and he immediately locked up and armed it again. She knew he was taking precaution. Usually she waited to arm the alarm until she was settled in for the evening, but now she would have to readjust her normal behavior to take more precaution. She would need to make sure the alarm was on the second she was fully in the house with the door closed and locked. Of course she was well aware that these guys had no intention of leaving her alone until this thing with Diego was done and the threat had been eliminated. Still, it never hurt to get used to taking precautions on her own. She made a mental note to herself to lock up and set the alarm as soon as she was in the house from now on.

  She had been quiet throughout dinner. She had said she wasn’t really hungry, but she hadn’t been eating much since she got back. To be honest, she hadn’t eaten much while she was captive either. He had seen the way she pushed the food around her plate. In Colombia he could understand why. He wouldn’t have trusted that Diego hadn’t drugged the food either. But back home she should have been eating. She was already thin and she didn’t need to lose any more weight, but if she kept avoiding the food on her plate as if it were some dark plague, she was going to waste away.

  He had an idea of what he could cook to get her to eat something. He cooked her his famous turkey pasta dish that everybody seemed to love. She had the turkey breast cutlets in the freezer, it just took thawing and dicing them so he could sauté them until it was cooked through, remove it and then cook the vegetables in the same pan before adding the turkey again. She actually ate a little more than he expected, and the rest she put in a bowl for leftovers.

  She had been so silent that he wanted to do something to help her, but he knew he couldn’t do more than what he was already doing. The only thing he could do was be there for her but the healing process was something she was going to have to be willing to do, which meant she was going to have to willingly talk about things.

  She had gone to her room early, but she hadn’t slept. He heard her crying so he went in to hold her. At first he wasn’t sure she wanted him there. She didn’t even acknowledge his presence until his weight shifted off the bed as he prepared to leave her room. She reached back and caught hold of his hand, “stay,” her voice was so tiny it broke his heart. He got back into bed with her. She was under the covers, while he lay on top, and he pulled her into his arms. He held her while she cried, but he didn’t speak. His presence was more comforting than any words could be right now. She needed to cry. She needed to let it out and not hold it in any longer.

  He had stayed with her, even after she fell asleep. He had some insatiable need to hold her, to reaffirm that she was alive and safe at home. He thought about that distant look in her eyes during dinner. He had seen that look before. It was the look of a tortured soul in need of healing. If she kept fighting it she wouldn’t heal.

  He was sound asleep when she bolted upright with a startled yell. It didn’t take much to wake him up. He sat up, pulled her back down into his arms and held her trembling body. “We’re going to talk,” he didn’t ask if she wanted to because he knew she would say no. He was demanding this conversation because he was sure something more happened to her than what she was telling them.

  “I’m sorry. I just can’t get his face out of my head. Every time I close my eyes I can either see Kelly dying, or I see him. I feel the evil coming off of him and I just can’t expunge my mind of what he looked like, felt like, tasted like…” she let her words trail off. His grip tightened on her. She had told him he hadn’t forced himself on her.

  “Natalia?”

  “He…before dinner the first night he wanted a kiss. I didn’t want one, but that didn’t stop him from taking it. I can still taste the minty flavor of his mouth, mixed with something spicy like gingerroot.” She shivered. “I just wish I could forget.”

  “It takes time to bounce back from something like this, Natalia and even then you’ll never forget.”

  She sighed. “I was afraid you would say that.”

  He had recovered from his moments of captivity, and from his moments of battle, but he would never forget even one detail of those moments. They would always be with him. And unfortunately for her, her memories of losing her friend and being held prisoner would always be with her too. “It will get easier, Natalia. It just takes time.”

  She didn’t say anything; she just buried her fingers in the fabric of his t-shirt. He could feel the warmth of her tears seeping through the thin cotton fabric. “I’ll be okay,” she sighed. The words sounded as if she were trying to convince herself of that fact. “I just wish it were completely over. You know while I was in Australia, and even once I made up my mind in Colombia that I could try to escape, I just knew once I got free and back to America I would be safe and it would all be over. And now I have to worry about him coming here after me.”

  “He won’t get you. I won’t let him get you.” And he meant that promise. He would give his last breath to keep her safe.

  “Well…” she sighed once again. “I think I need to see somebody…you know, like a shrink or something. I’m having a hard time dealing with Kelly’s death. She was my sister, maybe not in law or by blood, but she was the only sister I had. She was my family and my heart and losing her just hurts so much I just feel as if I’m going to stop breathing because of the pain. My heart hurts, Micah. It hurts.”

  “I know it does, honey. I’ll ask Preston to find us somebody for you to see. It will have to be somebody we can trust, and I’ll take you.” He wanted to make sure whatever therapist she went to was above board honest and couldn’t be bought to aid in making her captive of Diego Valdez again.

  “I’m so angry. I just want to kill them all.” He felt her grip tighten on him. He understood her anger. He was still angry himself, but that lust to kill the enemy wasn’t exactly a new feeling for him; it was for her. “And that guy with the crusty gold tooth…ooh I want him dead so much it burns.”

  “Gold tooth guy…yeah, he might be,” he shrugged when her head lifted off his stomach and she stared at him. “I shot off his testicle, among other things, while trying to get your location. I didn’t exactly stick around to doctor him. Since he was tied to a chair I can’t guarantee he didn’t bleed out.”

  She laughed. She laughed hard. “Serves him right,” she finally managed to say through labored breaths. “He shot Kelly and verbally tortured me while I was at that compound so trust me when I say that I have no sympathy for that pig.”

  “Had I known he shot your friend I would have put a bullet in his head.”

  “Um…Micah?”

  “Yeah?” He stroked his fingers through her hair, pushing the curly locks away from her face. He loved it when she wore it curly. It didn’t take much, he noticed, for her to get her hair to curl. Even with the relaxer if she let it dry naturally it had a hint of a wavy curl and it looked good on her.

  “Couldn’t we do some more of that kissing that we were doing earlier?”
r />   “No,” he shook his head.

  “Why not? You liked it, yes?”

  “I loved it. That kiss went clear down to other regions of my body, honey, and I wanted more; but you need some time.”

  “No I don’t. I’ve wanted you for years. I’m…I’m in love with you, Micah.”

  “I care for you Natalia. I don’t think I’ve ever been in love and I don’t know what that feels like, but I know I care for you deeply. I want you; don’t think that I don’t, because I do. I just want there to be a little more time for you to heal before we venture into a relationship. Don’t think that means I’m giving you a mountain of time, because I’m not.” He winked and she smiled at him.

  “Okay, well then I guess I’ll try to wait patiently. But if you try to make me wait forever I’ll just have to tie you up and have my way with you.”

  He laughed heartedly. “Baby, you wouldn’t stand a chance. The only way you could get me tied up is if I let you do it.”

  “Oh please,” she rolled her eyes.

  “I speak the truth,” he knew she couldn’t strap him down unless he let her. “And I’ll be honest with you when I say if restraint is involved I’m not going to be the one restrained.”

  She gasped. “Oh,” her eyes darkened with her arousal.

  “Now go to bed.”

  “I’m already in bed.”

  “Then go to sleep,” he chuckled.

  “All right, but will you hold me while I sleep?”

  “I’ll hold you anytime you like, Natalia. Anytime,” he shifted comfortably in bed and pulled her into his arms. He could hold this woman forever. The thoughts, the feelings, they were new to him. It wasn’t that he didn’t have passions, because he’d had a lot of those, but never had he felt this connection before; this deep need to shelter, protect, conquer, and he wondered if this was what love felt like. If it was, then he could say that he was indeed in love with Natalia Bright. The thought that one day she could be Mrs. Natalia Dillard entered his mind and for a brief second that scared him. He was thinking of giving her his last name, and he had never had those thoughts with any other woman. Why was he thinking it with this one? Well hell, maybe he was in love.

  Chapter Nine

  His phone blared its loud ringtone. For the first time he realized he had left the sleek, slender contraption in the living room. He extracted himself from Natalia’s grasp and ran for his phone.

  “What’s up, Preston?”

  “What took you so long?”

  “Natalia had some nightmares. I stayed with her.”

  “I figured she would. I wish she hadn’t had to experience that hell. We all know what it’s like in one fashion or another; either to see your comrade fall beside you or to be prisoner, and we all know she’s going to be in hell for a while.”

  “Yeah, that we do. She wants to see a therapist. Can you find a good one that we can trust?”

  “Yeah, I think I can handle that. But I’m actually calling with bad news…expected, but bad nonetheless.”

  “He’s here isn’t he?”

  “Arrived in Dallas this morning. I think he’s going to work his way here to Austin. I’m guessing he wanted to lose the tail the government had following him from the airport. He probably knew they would follow. The man is smart.”

  “He’s done this before; evading the feds comes easily for him. Where’d they lose him?”

  Preston let out an irritated laugh. “At the airport.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I said; difference is more expletives followed my words. They got wind that he was coming into the country. Oddly enough the runway he used is rented to a major cooperation out of D.C. Anyway, he flew his private jet in…or more like his pilot flew it in, he got off, rented an SUV and took off. Now I know what you’re thinking, follow the SUV right?”

  “Well yeah.” It wasn’t rocket science.

  “They did. He wasn’t in it by the time they had a Texas Ranger pull them over. Apparently he and one of his guys took off in another vehicle while his decoys took the SUV. There’s no word on what kind of vehicle yet, and no video footage to show anything either.”

  “He had help on the inside…or at least help from somebody in power here in the U.S. There’s no way to execute that without help.”

  “I know, but here’s where it gets worse.”

  Micah sighed as he sat down on the sofa. “Hit me,” he signaled his position on being ready to take the news.

  “Apparently ten more of his guys came in over the past four hours on different flights and in different cities. There could be more, but that’s all the feds have right now. They found out about that this morning so I don’t think I need to tell you that those ten men are in the wind just like Diego.”

  No, he didn’t need to tell him that at all. Micah already could figure that out on his own. “Then we prepare for war.”

  “We prepare for war. Oh and Micah, get her out of that house and take her back to your place. It’s not safe for her there right now.”

  “Got it,” he said before disconnecting the call.

  “He’s here isn’t he?” Her voice snapped his attention to the hallway where she stood leaning against the wall. He didn’t know she was there, but there was no reason to hide the truth from her. She had every right to know.

  “He’s here with some of his men. The feds lost him, but I think you and I both know he’s on his way to Austin. He’s on his way here. So I need you to pack whatever you need because we’re going to go stay at my place.”

  “Okay.”

  He was thankful she hadn’t put up a fight on the change of location. She really wasn’t safe at her home any longer. Dallas wasn’t that far away and given the fact that the feds lost the man long before they thought they had lost him, Micah was sure Diego was much closer than any of them thought. “Be quick about it,” he added because the sooner they got out of there, the better their chances that he wouldn’t show up in time to follow them to the new location. How much about her did he know? That’s what he needed to know right now.

  He walked back to her room. “What did you tell him about yourself?”

  “Not much. He asked my name and I gave him first name only. He asked about what I did and I told him I was a receptionist for a small company, but I didn’t tell him anything else. He seemed more interested in talking about himself than me so it worked. Why?”

  “I just wanted to make sure he didn’t know where you worked. That gives us a little more advantage here.” His not knowing the particulars meant he was less likely to have intelligence on who helped with her rescue and just how skilled they were.

  “You’ll like sleeping in my bed,” he told her. “It’s very, very comfortable.”

  “Ooh, I get to sleep with you?”

  “The guest bedroom is downstairs and I won’t have you down there by yourself. You’re going to sleep upstairs with me and my guns.”

  She laughed so hard she fell on the bed. “You and those guns,” she shrieked. “I think you’re having an affair with your guns.”

  “Those guns helped save my butt on more than one occasion. My Ak-47 is pretty damn cool too,” he wiggled his eyebrows. “Now, pack faster.”

  “Stop making me laugh hysterically and I will.” She shooed him away with her hand and he took the hint. He could make her laugh once he got her back to his place, but for now it was vital that she finished packing so they could get moving.

  Natalia packed as completely as she could with the limited time. She made sure she had enough underwear, and top clothes, shoes, and all of her lotions and oils along with deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrush, plus the floss. She couldn’t imagine what she might be forgetting. She took one last look around and deciding she was fairly sure she had everything; she locked up her home and went with Micah to his.

  He was such a gentleman, carrying her bags upstairs, making sure she had everything she needed to be comfortable. She just had one question. How was he pl
anning to hold on to that gentleman like behavior once he saw what she slept in? They would be sleeping in the same bed so he was bound to see what she wore underneath her satin housecoat—panties only, and usually cute little lace bikini cut ones, and sometimes boy-short ones. She didn’t actually physically have any nightgowns that she slept in. Even in the winter if it were cold outside she would just crank up the heat in her place and sleep comfortably under her feather down comforter.

  So, after her hot shower and nightly routine she joined him in the bedroom. He was already lounging in sweatpants and a t-shirt. She smiled at him so sweetly and innocently. “I’m going to go to bed. I hope you don’t mind.”