by Em Petrova
“You’re grateful?” Irritation rose like a black cloud in him.
“Yes.” Her gaze was unwavering.
She truly meant what she said, and that pissed him off more, along with the fact that she knew it would never work too.
Dammit, why couldn’t it?
Why was he being a whiny bitch about it?
Still, he couldn’t stop himself from reeling her close, hooking his arm around her back and smashing her against his body. Staring down at her fiercely, he ground out, “I did not only make love to you to comfort you. I did it because I wanted to as well.”
Her expression closed. When she put her mind to it, she had as much of a poker face as some of the best spies he knew.
“You’d make a damn good special operative.” His voice sounded with more of a rough edge.
Her eyes widened. “Are you offering me a job?”
“Hell no. We couldn’t work together anyway. It’s not allowed, even if OFFAT is less restrictive than other special forces.”
“I could be your pilot and guide.”
“I don’t want you anywhere within a thousand miles of danger, Hutton.”
“So when you want to kiss me, I’m Angel and when you’re ticked off, I’m Hutton,” she countered.
“That’s right.”
She lowered her stare to latch onto his mouth. “Too bad. Because I was hoping you’d kiss me again.”
“Fuck, Angel.” He captured her mouth, and she sucked in sharply as he plunged his tongue between her lips. Heat struck his core, and if he had all the time in the world, he could think of twenty positions to make love to this woman, but the clock was ticking and he wasted precious minutes as it was.
She melted into him, giving as much heat as he gave and then some. When she began tugging at his clothes, he found the brake pedal—and with considerable amount of willpower—depressed it.
He tore his mouth free. Panting, he stared down at her. “I’m going to get you out of here as fast as I fucking can. I need to know you’re safe.”
“Annnd the commander’s back.” She ripped from his hold. If he didn’t realize she was better at this trekking through the Alaskan wilderness thing than he or any member of Xtreme Ops, he might call out to caution her to watch where she was walking.
She didn’t need to tell him he was confusing the hell out of her. He was confusing himself even more.
Focus on the mission. Later, after this was all over, maybe he’d have a chance to call her or pop in to see how she was faring. But nothing came before his job—his team.
With a solid grip on his control again, he strode after Cora.
“Captain.” Broshears’ voice penetrated his earpiece. “Either I can hear your footsteps or someone else is coming toward me.”
“What’s your position, Broshears?”
He told him. Up ahead, Cora had slowed her pace. Then she raised her hand and pointed. “There!”
Penn ducked under a pine branch hanging low with snow and spotted his teammate sitting on a large jutting rock.
Relief filtered into Penn as he walked up to Broshears. The man wore a shit-eating grin that Penn found contagious. Holding out his fist to the man, he received a knuckle-bump in return. Penn thumped him on the spine.
“Good to see ya, bro.”
“You too, Captain.” Broshears looked toward Cora, and Penn caught her dashing a tear with a gloved finger. She stepped up to the man.
Broshears patted her on the head. “Lost your hat, Hutton.”
“Lost all our tents too.”
He shrugged. “We’re alive. All that matters. Gasper’s ankle is only sprained. He stabilized it with some supplies he was carrying.”
“Good news,” Penn said.
“It is! Ohhh! Come here.” She put her arms around Broshears and squeezed. He brought his arms around her in what better be a brotherly embrace before letting her go. He dug into one of his pockets and came out with an insulated cap.
“Here, take my extra. Can’t have your ears getting frostbitten.”
She smiled and accepted the cap, pulling it over her head.
Penn looked him over. “Any injuries to report?”
“Bruises. I slid a good thirty yards before one of those tree trunks stopped me. Rang my bells for a few minutes, but I’m fine.”
“Let me see your eyes.” Cora grabbed Broshears by the chin and peered up at him. For some reason, Penn didn’t like it while at the same time finding even more pride that she proved herself worthy of this mission. “Your pupils are even. Any headache?”
“No, ma’am.” He grinned and then slid his gaze to Penn as if to say what Penn already knew—that Cora was a damn good team member.
“We should make you an honorary Xtreme Ops teammate,” Broshears said.
“No thanks.”
“Why not?” His smile widened into one of teasing.
She gave it right back with a look slanted toward Penn. “Can’t take orders from the captain.”
Broshears cackled with laughter, but Penn just rolled his eyes. “Let’s find the others,” Penn said.
The three of them continued on, searching for the rest of the team spread out across the ridge and valley below. Penn couldn’t help but sense the change in the dynamics of his relationship with Cora. Her sassy self was here full force, and their banter and stolen kisses filled in the other blanks.
If he wasn’t mistaken—and he usually wasn’t—she liked him as much as he liked her.
The instant Penn stepped up to the prisoner and glared into his eyes, Cora felt a wave of fear hit her system. That look of hate was real—and she never wanted to be on the receiving end of it.
Then Penn opened his mouth and shocked her more. The fluent Russian that flowed from his lips raised the hair all over her body.
She felt her eyes go wide as she watched the exchange. Or rather, the one-sided conversation Penn seemed to be having with the prisoner.
With all six men circling the small but wiry dark-haired man, he should be shitting an ice block right now, but he raised his chin with a tilt of defiance and met Penn’s gaze with a burning glare of his own.
Cora wrapped her arms around her middle to steady her nerves. At any second, she expected a shot to be fired, but Penn only shifted his jaw, causing the crease to bulge. He spat more words at the man, at first in a voice of deadly calm and then increasing in volume until he was barraging him with shouted questions.
Lipton turned and glanced up at the ridge they’d just finally navigated, as if expecting Penn’s volume level to cause another avalanche. If the men didn’t understand what he was saying, they didn’t let on. But she got an eerie feeling she was the only one left in the dark. When all five of them bobbed their heads in agreement with something Penn said in Russian, it became glaringly apparent.
Penn snapped off another command, this one aimed at Lipton. The big man stepped forward and aimed his weapon at the prisoner’s foot. He didn’t so much as blink.
Cora twisted. She couldn’t watch what came next. In fact, she wished she had a place to burrow in to hide from the situation…the world. Right now, she’d give anything for that airlift that Penn kept threatening to put her on. She wasn’t cut out for this. If she could find a cave to hide in right now, she’d take her chances with a hungry grizzly woken from hibernation.
A shot rang out, and she spun back, staring at the man’s foot, expecting to see spurting blood soaking the snow. A divot in the snow and flecks of earth ripped up from the force of Lipton’s bullet made her hands shake.
A big rough hand came down on her shoulder, and she looked over to see Broshears practically holding her up. She hadn’t realized until that second how wobbly she felt. The sun had been gone hours ago. She was cold, tired, hungry—the pizza slice long ago worn off—scared and feeling so many other emotions she couldn’t manage to put into words.
Broshears ducked his head to whisper to her. “He won’t kill him. He has the name of the ship.”
> Penn’s stare landed on them both before he turned his attention to the prisoner again. He spoke to the man, and received no response. This time Penn looked up at Broshears and flicked his head.
Broshears’ grip tightened on her shoulder, and he towed her around, propelling her fast.
“What’s happening? What are they going to do?” she cried out.
“Something you don’t want to witness.” When she tried to crane her neck, he pushed her faster, walking her along the ridge to the place where Gasper had been yanked from his partial burial in the snow.
“Broshears! I—”
A howl of pain sounded, and her jaw dropped.
He caught her by the point of her chin. “Look at me. It has to happen. We need the name of that ship, and he refuses to cooperate.”
“So the team’s going to torture him?”
“They’re just scaring him.”
“Scaring him… Oh God.” Another scream of pain sounded. Broshears focused inwardly, and she knew by his faraway expression that he could hear every word through their comms.
She pasted her hands to her ears and sat in the snow with her legs tucked up. Broshears stood over her for a minute and then dropped into a crouch next to her.
“That was easy.” He grinned.
She withdrew her hands. “He talked?”
“Yup. Sang like a canary.”
Her stomach pitched, threatening to bring up the acid burning a hole into her stomach. She didn’t want to hear what they’d done to get the name of the ship.
Broshears touched her shoulder again. “What I said about training you for the team… You wouldn’t really make it, you know.”
Her brow crinkled. “I don’t know if I’m offended or relieved.”
“Be relieved, Hutton. All of us are damaged in some way.”
Her gaze flew to his. “Even Penn?”
“Especially Penn.”
“Why are you saying this?”
Broshears shrugged as though everyone knew what she didn’t. “Leaders can’t be attached emotionally.”
“That doesn’t make him broken.”
“He’s been working alone for a lot of years. At least when we see bad shit, we see it with our team.”
She thought of the wolf tearing at the dead man’s flesh and clasped her fingers into fists.
Broshears continued, “It creates a bond, and even if we never speak of it again, we still can look at our brothers and share those moments. Penn never had that. He was kicked out of the Texas Rangers early on and hasn’t had the support of a team since.”
Blinking, she couldn’t find any words to respond to his claim. Knowing that the softness she received from Penn wasn’t the norm only confused her further. Seeing this new side of him, a landscape painted by Broshears’ words, left her shocked as well.
Just because she’d spent a few days with these men, and bonded over several dark events as well as shared some laughs, did not mean she knew any of them. Especially their steadfast captain, it seemed.
Broshears spoke to someone via his device. “We’re coming.”
“What’s happening?”
He settled his gaze on her. She could see he wasn’t present here but back with the other men. “We have the name of the ship, and Lip just confirmed that it was spotted moving toward the harbor in the Northwest Arctic.”
She stared at Broshears for a long heartbeat. “And you’re what? Flying there?”
He nodded.
“What about me?”
She never noticed how compassionate his eyes could be before now. “You’ll be going back, Hutton.”
She shook her head. “No. I’m not finished. I need to see my father avenged.” Her voice rose an octave.
“Hutton—”
“I will see my father avenged!” The fury rose in her unchecked, and her scream carried across the valley, echoing off either ridge. “I’ve been plane-wrecked and shot at, held at knifepoint, and I lost the last person left of my family! I won’t stop until I see that man responsible in chains!”
Broshears reached for her, but she set off walking at a pace that made even him jog to catch up despite his long legs. “Hutton.”
“I intend to fight for my place!”
“Hutton!”
She reached the grouping and saw the prisoner hunched over, holding his hand in his good one. Penn spotted her and broke free of the rest to meet her. She stormed up to him and poked a finger into his immovable granite chest. “I am not getting dropped off at home.”
He traded looks with Broshears, which made her want to scream louder. She checked herself. Her father always said it was best to show your calm before your fight. She might be majorly annoyed, but she still had her wits.
“I’ve proved I’m capable of being part of your group.”
Penn’s eyelids slowly closed and then opened. “You told her she’s going home, didn’t you?” he asked Broshears as if she wasn’t even present.
“I’m standing right here. And yes, he did. I’m not going.” She set her teeth together and waited.
“I’ll take it from here. Broshears, back up Lipton.” When he gained a nod from the man, he grasped Cora’s shoulder and steered her away from them.
She dug in her heels. “I’m not going, Penn. I want to see Yahontov captured.”
“Cora.” He kneaded her shoulder in a display of tenderness she still didn’t quite understand how he whipped out at will, when he’d just ‘scared’ information from the prisoner.
He pitched his voice low. “Angel, the ship is in the Northwest Arctic.”
“Yes, all the way across Alaska. I’ve been there before. You can check out my YouTube channel if you want.”
“We don’t know what we’re getting into. We’re meeting a ship with a bunch of Russians who will be pissed that their drug deal fell through and several of their men are dead. We could be walking into hell with all guns blazing. You can’t be part of that. You’ve been an excellent guide—better than I even expected, but—”
She gaped at him. “Take me with you. I’ll stay in the bed and breakfast or whatever drafty motel’s in town.”
He narrowed his eyes on her. For a bit, she thought he might break down and agree to her suggestion. Then he shook his head. “No. You’ll go home, Cora.”
“Penn—”
“No.”
She wanted to scream, but her father’s voice sounded in the recesses of her mind. Keep a level head and see how much further it takes you, Cora girl.
She issued a slow sigh. “Fine. Then I’ll get there on my own.”
“What? Hell no.”
“I feel like taking a trip. Travel’s unpredictable at this time of year, of course. We’re looking at storms, especially on the coast. But I’m definitely up for a weekend getaway.”
“Jesus, woman. Do you ever know when to back down from a fight?”
She met his gaze. “No.”
He closed his eyes again, and when he reopened them, she saw she’d gotten to him at least.
“If we don’t take you, you’ll go alone and put yourself in even more danger, won’t you?”
She held out her gloved hand as if examining her fingernails in a nonchalant manner. “Yes.” She didn’t glance up.
He groaned.
The grating noise might have come from an angry bear—or from the man she was coming to like more and more for all his stubbornness. If she didn’t know the real Penn yet, then she wanted to spend more time with him to find out. Besides, she didn’t have anything left to go home to.
“Son of a bitch,” he bit off. “Fine. I’m going to be fired from this team for allowing such a thing.”
“Tell your superior officer I’m your guide.”
He snorted. “He’s not an idiot, Cora.”
“And neither are you. You’ve made the right decision, Penn. You’ll see how helpful it is to have a person who’s knowledgeable of the area. When do we fly? And will he be going with us?” She looked past him
to the prisoner sitting there.
“We can’t leave him behind.”
“Well, then I’d like to put in a seating request before we board whatever plane or—”
“Chopper,” he said.
“—chopper we are on,” she finished. “I’d like a seat right behind the pilot, and I want him on the opposite side of the craft.”
Penn shifted his jaw in that manner he had of showing his displeasure but unwillingness to voice it. “You’ll be with me.” His tone brooked no arguments, as if she’d ever present any—she didn’t want to be anywhere else but with Penn.
“Deal.” She thrust out her hand for him to shake.
He looked down at it before grasping her hand and squeezing. He skimmed his thumb across her knuckles, and even through her gloves, she felt the warmth of his touch. “Don’t make me regret this, Hutton.”
“Don’t worry—I’ll be wearing my halo the whole time.”
Chapter Nine
Penn had seen some small towns in his day, but this Alaskan village was a mere pinprick on the map. It included a harbor, though, and that was all they needed. When the Russian ship, named the Grisha according to the man they captured, came into port, the Xtreme Ops would be waiting.
Grisha meant watchful, and he had no doubts in his mind that the crew of that vessel would be ever-watchful. Their trade demanded top precautions, but now that they’d lost contact with their men slated to pick up and move that shipment of drugs, they would be even deadlier.
The village also clung to the edge of the world, farther north than he’d ever been in his life. Along with a small harbor, the fishing village also boasted a hotel and a B&B, which Cora had mentioned. He still didn’t know what made him bring her along with them. Maybe it was the look in her eyes when she demanded to see the man who’d killed her father captured. If it were his brother…his family…wouldn’t he want revenge too?
She’d been so quiet during their trip out of the bush. After landing on the small airstrip here in the village, she still had said little. Despite Penn’s vow to remain emotionally distanced from her, her silence was worrying the hell out of him.
