by Ali Vali
“The problem is, I don’t think we’re allowed to do that,” Baylor said, moving his head like he was cracking the bones in his neck. “But God knows I’ve wanted to on occasion.”
“I can and will. If it is the only way we can succeed, your government can punish me if that is their wish when we return. But I ask you not to try to stop me,” Jin said.
Baylor slapped his hands on his thighs and nodded. “Good enough for me, and I’m no snitch. You can come home with a necklace of Johnsons if that’s what it takes to get what we need, and I’ll swear on a stack that I didn’t see a thing.”
Jin hesitated before asking Wiley, “Is this a good thing?”
“It’s a good thing,” Wiley said and laughed. “Let’s go eat so we enjoy that relaxing the captain mentioned.”
The team ate together and thanked Aidan for her apple pies when Berkley explained why she baked them. The dessert was an American icon and reminded them of who they fought for and what was waiting when they came back. Berkley enjoyed herself but couldn’t stop the thought of the danger from within. They had to fear the terrain they were going into, but perhaps the one trying to kill them wouldn’t be the guy who’d inherited Chil’s house.
“Devin, can you set the watches and navigation for the night?” Aidan asked when they were done. It was still early, but they had only the one night left.
“You got it, ma’am, and thanks for inviting me tomorrow. I promise to keep an eye on you,” Devin said, glancing at Berkley.
“You’d better, and remember what will happen to you if something happens to her,” Berkley said.
“Your graphic explanation is scarred into my brain,” Devin said and smiled. “I’ll forget my own name before that slips my mind. However, tomorrow night she’ll be more apt to get hit on than attacked. No offense, ma’am,” he said to Aidan.
“None taken.” Aidan laughed at the somewhat awkward compliment.
“If that happens, it should be an entertaining time for you,” Berkley said, knowing Aidan could handle a situation like that with no problem.
“Here’s hoping,” Devin said with his fingers crossed, and Aidan laughed harder.
Berkley met with her pilots on the deck and placed both Vader and Killer in charge of the flight crew since, as far as everyone on board the Jefferson knew, she was joining Aidan for the dinner she’d been invited to. Preston was right. The fewer the people who knew the whole plan, the less likely they’d be double-crossed by someone alerting the North Koreans of their arrival.
She walked back to her quarters and entered Aidan’s room through the conference room. Aidan wasn’t in her office, so she headed back to the private part of the space. When she entered, Aidan was sitting on the side of the bed in white silk bikinis with a matching bra. She’d let her shoulder-length hair down from the usual ponytail she kept it in while they were at sea, and Berkley stood and stared. Aidan was incredibly beautiful.
“The first time I saw you, the thing that popped into my head,” she said, and Aidan stood up and started unbuttoning her shirt, “was wow.”
“I thought it was that I was so short.” Aidan undid the belt next and unzipped her pants. “You teased me, remember? Relentlessly if I recall that night accurately.”
“I did, but every one of us has that primal part of our brain that says, ‘That’s one fucking hot girl.’ The thing is, though, if you don’t want to sound like a Neanderthal, you only admit to wow.” Her pants dropped to her ankles and her shirt behind her.
“You know what I think?” Aidan snapped her fingers, then pointed down. She kicked her shoes to the side and took her pants completely off, but didn’t say anything. “Aren’t you curious?”
“What?” She yanked her undershirt off but left her underwear on.
“I happen to love that caveman part of your head that craves touching me, that thrum in you that wants to be inside me more than anything.” Aidan pulled her sports bra up and sucked her left nipple so hard she almost came.
“Do you?” she asked, wanting to regain whatever control she’d ever had. Aidan responded by sucking on her other nipple until she stopped moving. She knew of only one way to slow the assault, so she turned Aidan around and pressed against her back. “Are you wet for me, baby? Have you been sitting here thinking about my hands on you?”
She cupped Aidan’s breasts and squeezed. “Tell me,” she whispered in Aidan’s ear. “Tell me, or I’m not going to fuck you on this ship, even though that would definitely be against all the rules. And Triton’s kid doesn’t like breaking the rules.”
“Yes,” Aidan said, leaning back farther against her and taking hold of her wrist. She flattened her hand as Aidan moved it down her abdomen until it was at the elastic of the panties. “You’ve made me wet from that first day too. The best thing in my life is that I’m yours and you want me.”
She moved past the top of the underwear and kept going until her index and middle fingers were between Aidan’s legs. Her fingers were instantly slick with Aidan’s wetness, which made it easy to run them over the rock-hard clit before squeezing it between her fingers. “Tell me what you want.”
“What do you want?” Aidan asked as she reached up and put her hands on the back of her neck.
“I want to touch you until you come—until you can feel me everywhere.”
“Shit,” Aidan said when she pressed her fingers closer together and thrust her hips forward into Aidan. “Baby.” She smiled when Aidan pulled her hair hard enough for it to hurt. “No teasing tonight.”
She kissed the side of Aidan’s neck and started pumping her fingers over Aidan’s clit, her touch growing firmer with each pass. Nothing was better in life than watching and feeling Aidan move against her. Aidan’s hips bucked in time with her touch and sped up as a signal for her to do the same. Aidan’s clit was so hard, and she was so wet, Berkley was turned on even more.
“Don’t let me go,” Aidan said as she moved her hand up and wrapped her fingers around her forearm hard enough to leave an imprint of each one. “Damn,” Aidan said, and her movements grew jerky.
When she slumped against her right after her body had gone rigid, Berkley scooped her up and cradled her. The tears on Aidan’s face made her stop, but Aidan shook her head. “I’m just happy, honey.”
She moved to the bed and sat down, still cradling Aidan in her arms. “Are you sure that’s all it is?”
“I only cry when I’m upset or you undo me,” Aidan said, bringing their heads together so they could kiss. “All my life, no matter how long it is, it’ll be you who reaches so deep inside me. I don’t want anyone else.”
“I’m glad, and I feel the same.” She sat back against the plain headboard and smiled when Aidan straddled her lap. “You know what I’ve been thinking about?”
Aidan’s gentle fingertips caressing her face paused. “What? You can tell me anything.”
“That I can’t wait to tell everyone I run across for nine months that you’re having a baby when we finally get pregnant. Our baby,” she said, and Aidan’s eyes filled with tears again. “I’m not sure how Wiley keeps all that inside without bursting.”
“She told us because of just that—she couldn’t keep it in anymore, and she does seem deliriously happy. We need to stay in touch with her when we’re settled.” Aidan leaned in and kissed her, coating her abdomen with her wetness. “Are you really going to be happy with the life we talked about?”
“I want it all.” She put her hand back between Aidan’s legs, loving this position. It gave her lover the control to go as fast or slow as she wanted. “But mainly I want you in our bed with me every night so I can feel every bit of you against me. I don’t want anyone ordering me to stay away from you.”
“I want…fuck…to touch you,” Aidan said as Berkley’s fingers slipped back inside. Her hips came forward as if searching for her thumb on that one spot she craved her the most.
“We’ve got time, but you look so delicious, I have to have you again.” She moved her hand as much
as she could as Aidan kissed her again. “I want your mouth on me, but first I want you to come for me again.” She palmed Aidan’s ass, bringing her closer. “Do you think you can do that for me, baby?”
“God, yes,” Aidan said and started moving her hips, picking up speed as she steadied herself with her hands on Berkley’s shoulders.
Berkley’s clit was so hard she thought she might have permanent damage if she didn’t have some relief soon, but she could watch Aidan with her head thrown back, pumping her hips, her bottom lip caught between her teeth for hours. This was one of the positions they’d tried on their first night together, only then Aidan had been shyer about it.
“Shit,” Aidan said softly. “I’m coming.” She tightened her grip on her shoulders, and Berkley opened her mouth to her, swallowing every one of her moans.
“You’re so gorgeous like this,” she said when Aidan straightened up.
“You want an even more beautiful view of me?” Aidan asked after another long kiss.
“I can’t imagine you can do better than this,” she said, raising her hands when Aidan moved down the bed, spread her sex, and sucked her in. “But I could be fucking wrong.”
Chapter Twenty-two
The helicopters were loaded, and the first one away was the group joining Aidan for the dinner aboard the South Korean ship. Berkley watched her go, her lips still feeling the lingering passion of Aidan’s kiss.
Their parting was the same as always, with Aidan kissing her but not wanting to have the conversation about the folder in her desk with all the information she’d need if something happened to her in the field. It was morbid, true, but she wouldn’t have anything hovering in the corners of her mind if something went wrong. Her father had always taught her to cover all the bases no matter what, and taking care of Aidan was a major priority for her.
“You remember how to use that, right?” Wiley joked, pointing to her gun.
Camouflage wasn’t her usual wear, and she frankly felt ridiculous, but Baylor and Wiley had insisted. The weapon matched her outfit, and she would help carry out whatever they found at this place in the empty pack at her feet. “I’ll try not to wound you,” she joked back. At least this time they weren’t going to literally crash this party.
“You do, and Aubrey will take you out with the Mini Cruiser she just got. She says I have enough scars already,” Wiley said in her ear, not to be overheard. “Did you really carry him out of here?” They both glanced at Harvey as he sat next to them with his eyes closed.
“He did a lot of the work, and we stole a horse.”
“A horse? Hell, man, they might make a movie about you once we’re done saving the world.” Wiley winked when she raised her middle finger in her direction.
The helicopters swung to the right now that it was totally dark and headed to the closest town near where Jin remembered Chil’s compound being. Jin sat on her other side wearing the exact same clothes and equipment and, as if sensing her staring, opened her eyes.
“Are you nervous that I am here?” Jin asked, looking at her like she really wanted to know the answer to her question.
“No,” she answered honestly with no hesitation.
“Are you sure?”
“I believed your story about your mother and your grandparents, so yes, I’m positive. Pain like that is hard to fake, or it would be for me.”
“Good—I am not your enemy,” Jin said, placing a hand momentarily on her knee. “One day perhaps you will call me friend.”
“Thanks, but I don’t need any more time for that, my friend. Once this is over, you won’t be alone,” she said before placing the headphones back on for the rest of their ride.
It took forty minutes to reach the deserted spot devoid of light and people before the pilot spoke. “Captain, we’ll pick you up here unless you send new coordinates. Major Sterling’s team will deploy first and lead you in. Good luck, ma’am.”
“Thanks, and safe flying. Hopefully we’ll see you tomorrow night, if not sooner,” she said before they were cleared to rappel down.
Baylor’s guys had spread out and secured the area, so they could start walking. If Jin’s memory was right, they had a four-mile hike to the location. That gave them plenty of time to formulate a plan they could execute in the early morning. With Chil gone, hopefully the place was somewhat empty, but life was never that easy.
“Hold.” She heard Baylor’s voice in her earpiece for the first time in an hour. They all took cover as a truck drove by on the road fifty feet from them. They had hiked through the bush to avoid any traffic, even if the roads didn’t seem very well-traveled. “Must be changing the watch.”
Berkley saw the truck through her night-vision goggles, and the passengers in the back did seem to be military. “If that’s the number, it should be manageable.” About fifteen guys were riding out from the direction they were headed.
“Yeah, if that’s all of them. A big if,” Wiley said.
“You’re such a downer sometimes.”
Baylor gave the go-ahead signal.
Low Nam Chil was probably still pissed he’d been taken away from all this, Berkley thought when they got their first look at the compound and its sprawling main house. It sat on a lake, had extensive gardens, and was lit up brighter than Times Square. The back of the house seemed to overlook the lake, and many of the rooms featured large windows to take advantage of the beauty around them. Guards were posted at the corners of the house, but that’s all that was visible from the grove of trees they were standing in on the other side of the small lake.
“What do you think?” she asked Baylor as his guys protected their perimeter.
“Someone’s got to be in there considering all those lights, but it’s not heavily fortified,” he said as Wiley nodded. “Looks can be fucking deceiving, though, so we have to get closer. Could be the guards are scarce back here, but it’s Fort Knox in the front. If we take out two guys and the rest see them, they could go batshit, you know.”
“We need to find out,” Wiley said.
“Tito,” Baylor said, and a young guy instantly appeared. “Take two guys and go around that way.” He pointed to the left. “It’ll keep you in the trees.”
“Yes, sir.”
It took twenty minutes, but Tito radioed about the seven guys guarding the front. With a closer view he also reported a shirtless Korean man sitting at the desk in what appeared to be the office. That was the only person they saw, so it was time to gamble.
“Hold, and we’ll be right there,” Baylor said. They walked until they had people on both sides of the back of the house. “Okay, guys, you know the drill.”
“Yes, sir, shock and awe,” Tito said, and his two guys followed him to the front.
“Goose, take the west side on the front, and KO, you got the guy scratching himself on the opposite side of us. In and out, guys. This is no time to ration bullets.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Wiley, can you make that shot?” Baylor asked, staring at the guy in the office. His eyes were on the monitor on the desk, and his hand had dropped to his lap. “Remember, we only want to scare him some.”
“I’ll take it as soon as you’re done outside. No sense raising the alarm because of broken glass,” Wiley said and set up. “Once it’s done, I’ll head up top and keep an eye out.”
“Okay. We’re a go on my mark,” Baylor said.
Berkley, Harvey, and Jin waited, and everything seemed to happen at once when the two backyard guards faced each other and Baylor said, “Go.” The night was suddenly filled with the puffs that weapons with silencers make, and the only real noise was the scream from the guy in the office. “Let’s hit it, Captain.”
They followed Baylor and his men inside. They had to get to the semi-naked guy in the office before he called for reinforcements. “This way,” Jin said, leading them down a hallway in the middle of the house and shooting the two men outside the locked door. It appeared as if they’d been trying to get inside the offic
e to see what the screaming was about.
“Move aside,” Baylor said, kicking in the door after putting a bullet through the heavy-duty lock. “Make sure there’s no one else in the master bedroom,” he said to the guys at the back of the hallway.
“Do you know him?” Berkley asked Jin when she turned the guy over onto his back. Wiley had put a bullet in the same location she’d shot Rachel Chandler.
Jin shook her head as she studied the guy’s face. “I have never seen him before.” The man gazed up at Jin and said something hard sounding in Korean, and Jin kicked him in the ribs before answering him. “He said we are all going to die.”
“What did you say?” Berkley noticed the guy’s jockey shorts around his knees. That oddity made her glance at the screen, where the film showed an orgy scene.
“That it shouldn’t take him long to swallow his own penis when I cut it off. Pornography is frowned on here.” Jin kicked him again, and the man moved into a semblance of the fetal position. She said something else, and the man shook his head violently.
“Tell him he made this easy on us,” she said as Baylor removed his knife from its sheath and pressed it to the guy’s scrotum. Jin translated, and he appeared to be going into shock, so Berkley elevated his feet. “What’s your name?”
The man only shook his head back and forth rapidly, and she glanced at Baylor, who pressed down with enough pressure to draw blood.
“What’s your name, asshole?” Baylor asked, exhaling a long breath as if out of patience. “And,” he interrupted Jin, “you damn well understand me. Tell me your name, or I’m going to cut clean through and feed this tiny thing to the first dog I run across. I hear your head guy loves that kind of thing.”
“Ji Woo Min, and you are illegally in my home. My men kill you.”
“Only if they rise from the dead,” she said, and just then Wiley radioed in.
“Another group’s headed toward the house.”
They all waited and listened to Wiley breathing.
“Shit,” Wiley said, and Berkley wanted to shake her to make her talk.
