by Elle James
He dived for the open door.
Whitley slammed it shut.
Jake fell over the skid, hooked his arm around the metal runner and held on as the helicopter rose higher into the air. He pulled himself up until he was standing on the skid. Then he yanked open the door, grabbed Whitley around the throat in a headlock the man couldn’t break and pressed his P226 handgun against Whitley’s temple.
“Put this aircraft on the ground!” he shouted to the pilot.
When the pilot hesitated, Jake redirected his aim and fired a shot through the door next to the pilot. “Now!”
The pilot adjusted the helicopter flight controls suddenly, tilting the craft toward Jake in an attempt to throw him off the skid.
Jake held on to Whitley’s neck. The safety harness securing Whitley in the aircraft held both men.
Whitley clawed at the arm around his neck, but couldn’t break Jake’s stronghold.
“I’m not going anywhere, and the next bullet will be in you!” Jake shouted above the roar of the spinning rotors. “And to hell with landing this bird. Crash it, and I crash with you.” He pointed the pistol at the pilot. “Go ahead. Try me.”
“For the love of God,” Whitley wheezed into his headset. “Put it down.”
The pilot looked from Whitley to Jake and back, and then maneuvered the helicopter back over the trees toward the mining pit now spewing flames high into the sky.
As they neared the clear pad from which they’d taken off, the wind shifted suddenly and the smoke and flames blew toward the helicopter, engulfing them in a thick, acrid cloud.
Jake’s eyes stung and his throat tightened as he inhaled a big gulp of smoke. He blinked and glanced down through a sudden break in the smoke and noted the ground only ten feet from the bottom of the skid on which he stood.
Not willing to take a chance on the pilot’s ability to fly or land the chopper in blackout conditions, Jake made a split-second decision and took a chance. He released Whitley’s neck and dropped out of the helicopter.
* * *
ALEX STOOD TRANSFIXED, her heart squeezing hard in her chest as she watched the drama unfold.
She nearly had a heart attack when Jake leaped onto the helicopter. And how he held on to the side of the aircraft was nothing short of phenomenal. How he would get down without falling back to the earth would need another miracle.
She held her breath, praying out loud, “Please, let him be okay. Please, let him come down in one piece. Oh, God, let Jake be all right.”
Harm raced over to her.
“What happened to Philburn?” she asked.
“Zip-tied and gagged. I have one of the guys standing watch over him.” He looked around. “Where’s Jake?”
Alex swallowed hard and pointed up at the helicopter.
Harm squinted up into the night. The blaze gave just enough light that they could see the silhouette of a man hanging on to the outside of the chopper.
“Tell me that’s not Jake,” Harm muttered.
“I wish I could.” She stared up at the sky, her body trembling, tears stinging her eyes. “What was he thinking?”
“That’s Jake for you. He doesn’t like leaving loose ends.” Harm shook his head. “Damned fool. What am I supposed to tell the CO if I have to bring him back in a body bag?”
Alex gasped and tears spilled from her eyes.
Harm glanced down. “Sorry. If I know Jake, he’ll find a way out of this. That man’s always coming up smelling like roses. See? The chopper is coming back this way and looks like it’s going to land.”
Hope swelled in Alex’s chest. The helicopter was returning and hovering close to the ground. But just when she thought it might land, the wind shifted, blowing smoke across the sky, blanketing the helicopter, hiding it and Jake from sight.
“Where’d they go?” Alex ran forward, her heart lodged in her throat.
A hand snagged her shoulder and pulled her back. “You can’t run into that smoke.”
“But I can’t see Jake. Oh, sweet heaven, where’d he go?” she sobbed.
And then a break in the cloud of smoke and ash showed the helicopter hovering just above the ground, a black cloud whipping around it. Then the chopper shot back into the air and disappeared into the thick smoke.
The wind current shifted again, clearing the sky over Alex’s head and carrying the smoke back over the pit.
The helicopter was nowhere to be seen in the night sky.
Suddenly, a loud crash sounded in the pit. Rotor blades broke off and flew out of the smoke, and a ball of flame lit up the sky.
Alex and Harm ran toward the edge of the pit and looked over into the flames rising up from the crashed helicopter.
“Jake!” Alex screamed. She would have leaped over the edge and slid down into the pit if Harm hadn’t wrapped an arm around her waist and held on tight. “Let go! I have to find him.”
“If he’s down there, you don’t want to find him. Aviation fuel burns hot. There won’t be anything left to find.”
“He can’t be gone.” Alex turned and buried her face against Harm’s shirt. “I think I might love him,” she sobbed.
“Alex!” a voice called out.
The sound cut through Alex’s sobs. She looked up and blinked the tears from her eyes.
A tall man, covered in soot, walked out of the smoke toward her. “Alex?” He held open his arms.
Alex ran toward Jake, stumbling in her hurry, her tears falling again, blinding her with her joy. She slammed into him, knocking them both off their feet. Jake landed hard, but cushioned her fall.
He chuckled and coughed. “Hey, why the tears?” He pushed to a sitting position and gathered her in his arms. “Did you think I wasn’t coming back?”
“Yes!” She grabbed his face between her palms and kissed him hard, then leaned back. “I died a thousand deaths when you jumped on that skid. What were you thinking?”
He shrugged, a crooked smile making his teeth shine white against his blackened face. “I wasn’t really thinking. I just acted.”
“Don’t do that again,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am.” He cupped the back of her head and kissed her thoroughly before letting her up for air. “I nearly died a thousand deaths when you went missing. Why did you leave T-Mac? He would have kept you safe. What were you thinking?”
She gave him a sheepish smile. “I wasn’t really thinking. I just acted.”
Jake shook his head. “We’re a pair, the two of us.”
She nodded. “Yeah, Big Jake. So, what are we going to do about it?”
“I guess we’ll have to make a go of it.” He hugged her tight. “I kind of got used to having you around on our little trek in the hills.”
“Same here.” She leaned her forehead against his. “Thank you for coming after me.”
“Are you kidding?” Harm said as he walked over to them. “He was coming, with or without us.” He held out a hand and helped Alex to her feet. “Sorry to break up this little reunion, but we have more work to do.”
Jake rose to his feet, nodding. “Philburn or Whitley sent us a different set of coordinates to find you. We think it was a setup, sending us into a hotbed of ISIS. Our Special Forces counterparts are pre-positioned to launch an attack. We want to be there to help out.”
Alex frowned. “And what about the people here?”
“Our guys have secured Philburn’s guards and their weapons,” Harm said. “We put out a call to our command to coordinate the transport of the conscripted workers. They will be returned to their villages.”
With a sigh, Alex nodded. “Okay. I guess I’ll let you go.”
Harm laughed. “Mighty generous of you. T-Mac and some of the others are staying behind while the rest move out.”
Though Alex wanted to ask why Jake couldn’t stay, she bit down on her
tongue. The SEALs had a mission and a method. She’d have to be patient.
“If all goes well, I’ll see you back at the embassy in the morning.” Jake pulled her into his arms and kissed her again. Then he set her away from him and followed Harm and a dozen SEALs to the clearing where three helicopters swooped in one by one. The men loaded into the choppers and they lifted off, the sound of the rotor blades fading into the night.
Alex drew in a deep breath and tried not to think about the new danger they’d be facing at their next rendezvous site.
All she could hope was that Harm was right and Jake would come up smelling like roses. In the meantime, her heart ached and her eyes stung, on the verge of more tears. She didn’t have time for tears. She had work to do in order to help ensure the repatriation of the workers to the appropriate villages.
She glanced once more at the night sky where the helicopters had disappeared, and then went to work.
Chapter Eighteen
Jake hurried through the gate at the embassy, anxious to see Alex. He was dirty, covered in smoke and grime from a hard night’s fight.
The coordinates Philburn and Whitley had given them had been as they suspected. The site was an ISIS militant camp. Thankfully, the Special Forces unit had done a good job of reconnaissance and hadn’t been spotted by the rebels.
The mission had gone off with textbook accuracy. The ISIS fighters had been stockpiling munitions and explosives, and had been building improvised explosive devices in preparation for an attack on Niamey.
Not only had they stopped them from succeeding in a devastating blow to the capital city, but they’d also captured Abu Nuru al-Waseka, the leader of the Islamic State faction in Niger. The leader was more than willing to bring down those infidels who’d enlisted his assistance in stirring up trouble and finding free, able-bodied men to work the mine. He quickly named Quinten Philburn and Thomas Whitley as the Americans who’d paid him in weapons.
The debrief with Ambassador Brightbill and President Rafini had gone on for hours, but had finally ended.
Now all Jake wanted was to find Alex, get a shower and eat something. In that order.
He stopped in front of her door and knocked loudly.
When she didn’t answer right away, he knocked again. Perhaps she’d gone out to eat, since it was well past noon and the sun had been up for hours. Or had she gone with the displaced workers to help them find their way back to their respective villages? In which case, he might miss her altogether.
That last thought had him frowning heavily. Now that their mission was complete—the ISIS rebels contained and the missionaries saved—they had no reason to stay in Niger. By the next morning, they would be redeployed to Djibouti and another mission in some other part of Africa.
Jake wanted to see Alex before he had to leave. He didn’t want to leave without talking to her. Hell, he didn’t want to leave her at all. He had known her for such a short time, but it felt like a lifetime. He knew what he needed to know about her to realize she was special. The kind of woman he wanted in his life. No... She was the only woman he wanted in his life.
He couldn’t leave without telling her that he wanted to see her again. Not just once, but a lot. How they would make that happen, he wasn’t sure. But somehow he would, even if he had to spend all of his leave time flying back and forth to Niger to see her.
Once more he knocked on her door, but no one answered. Disappointed, he went to the room next door, let himself in and closed the door behind him.
“About time you realized I wasn’t in my room,” a soft voice said from the shadows.
Jake’s heart lit up and he swung toward Alex.
She lay on her side on the bed, wearing a sexy nightgown and nothing else. Her shiny black hair hung down over her shoulders and her eyes sparkled.
He sighed. “Alex.”
She slid her long legs over the side of the bed and padded barefoot to where he stood at the door. “Need some help getting out of that gear?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m filthy and you’re not. Don’t touch me until I’ve had a chance to shower.”
“I don’t care if I get dirty,” she said. “You’ve seen me covered in dust and grime and in nothing at all. Let me help you.” She reached out, unbuckled the clasps on his protective vest and slid it over his shoulders. When it dropped to the ground, a puff of dust and soot rose around it.
Jake gripped her shoulders and set her away from him. “There’s nothing I want more than to hold you and let you touch me, but I need a shower first.” He held up a finger. “Hold that thought and don’t change a thing. I’ll be right back.” Then he ducked into the bathroom, stripped out of his clothes and jumped into the shower. He didn’t care that the water coming out of the faucet started out icy cold; all he cared about was getting clean so he could hold Alex’s perfect body against his.
As he soaped and lathered, a muddy, sooty stream of water swished off his body and down the drain. He squirted an entire trial-size bottle of shampoo into his hand and ran it through his hair and down over his arms and shoulders.
Then he ducked beneath the showerhead and rinsed.
“You missed a spot,” Alex said behind him. Her hands reached around him for the bar of soap in the dish.
He turned to find her standing in the shower, naked and beautiful, her hands filled with soapy lather.
“Let me,” she said, and ran her hands over every inch of his shoulders, back, chest and torso. As the water rinsed the soap away, she pressed kisses where her hands had been, working her way downward, her body and hair getting wetter as she went.
Her hands smoothed over his thighs, down past his knees to his ankles until she’d touched every part of his body but one.
Jake’s shaft rose to the occasion, jutting straight and stiff. He wanted her so badly he could barely breathe.
She took him in her hands and stroked him until he felt like he’d explode.
Past his ability to contain himself, he bent, clasped her thighs in both hands, lifted her up and wrapped her legs around his waist. Then he marched out of the shower and bathroom and straight to the bed.
She laughed. “Aren’t we going to dry off?” She kissed his cheek and nibbled on his earlobe.
“Can’t,” he said.
“We’ll get the sheets all wet,” she said, clinging to him as he tried to lay her on the bed.
“Don’t care,” he replied. Since she wouldn’t let go of his neck so he could lay her down, he turned his back to the bed and lay down with her still in his arms.
Alex slid her legs down his, wet, warm and delicious. “You’re a man who knows what he wants.”
“I am. And I want you.” He kissed her and then flipped her over onto her back. “When we’re apart, all I can think about is being back with you.” He stared down into her gaze. Though he was desperate to plunge into her, he wanted her to see the sincerity in his eyes. “I’m not into one-night stands.”
“Neither am I.” She reached up and cupped his cheek. “So, what are we doing here?”
“Starting something that I hope will last a lifetime,” he said.
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “You don’t think it’s too soon to feel this way?”
He shook his head. “I knew the moment I found you in the village coming back to help the missionaries.”
Her lips trembled as a smile pulled at the corners. A single tear slid from the edge of one eye. “I didn’t know until you held me in your arms in that cave.”
“It’s not a contest, woman. I want you in my life.”
She gave him a watery smile. “And I want to be in your life.”
“I have a dangerous job.”
“I won’t always like it, but I know it means a lot to you.” She brushed her thumb across his lips. “I’ll be there when you come home.”
“You
’d give up Africa?”
She smiled. “I’d give up breathing if I could be with you even some of the time.”
“Please,” he said, and bent to kiss her lips. “Don’t give up breathing. I need you too much. Can we make this work?”
She nodded. “Look how far we’ve come in just a few short days. The rest of our lives will be a piece of cake.” She wrapped her arms around him and pulled his mouth to hers.
“Is this what love feels like?” he asked against her mouth.
“I’m pretty sure it is.” She reached a hand over to the nightstand and grabbed a foil packet. “Now, if we’re done talking, I’d like a little more action.”
Jake laughed out loud. “A woman after my own heart.” He made quick work of the protection and slid into her, feeling as if he’d finally come home. Whatever the next day brought, he and Alex would find a way to be together. No matter how hard the task. As always, for any SEAL, the only easy day was yesterday.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Bulletproof Christmas by Barb Han.
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