The Russian gulped when she pointed it at him. He understood by looking at her she knew nothing about guns and was probably twitchy. She hoped he’d stand very still and behave.
Buck messed with the phone and when he started speaking she heard him say Chill’s name, but didn’t hear everything else. Most of it was murmured.
He finally disconnected and turned to Melinda. “Help’s on the way.” To the Russian he said, “Have a seat.”
From one of his pants pockets Buck pulled out a couple of zip ties and secured the guy to the chair. He took the gun back from Melinda and whacked him on the head to knock him out.
“Okay, let’s go find the life boat,” Buck said, shutting the door behind them.
He led the way into familiar passageways. Mikhail’s office had to be nearby, which triggered a concern. “Wait,” Melinda said.
“What? We don’t have time to wait.”
“Ivan stole my work—the drug, and my research on a flash drive. Obviously he was working for Mikhail, so everything must be on this ship. We can’t let them have it.”
“You want to search for a drug and a flash drive? They could be anywhere.”
Melinda shook her head. “No. They’ll be in Mikhail’s office.”
“Which is where?”
“Follow me,” Melinda said.
Buck grabbed her arm and held her back. “No. You stay behind me, remember?”
“Fine, it’s up that passage and turn left.”
Buck led the way, peeking around the corner and staying cautious. They made it to the door, only to find it locked. Buck went through his efficient lock-picking steps. Still squatting low, he inched the door open and peeked inside.
He pulled back and ran a hand over his hair. “He’s sitting at his desk,” Buck said.
Melinda bit her lip. She didn’t want to put them in any more danger, and she wanted to get off the ship before it exploded, but if they didn’t get her work before they escaped, the Russians would win. “I need my work back.”
He let out a long, exasperated sigh. “Okay. We’ll go in hot, take him by surprise. I doubt he’ll tell us, but ask him where your stuff is. We need to get in and out fast.”
He took a deep breath, then stood and barged into the office, pointing his gun at Mikhail, who showed a moment of surprise, but recovered quickly. “I knew I should have killed you.”
“Where’s my work, Mikhail,” Melinda asked.
He shook his head and chuckled. Melinda ignored him and scanned the room, trying to focus on the task at hand and not wonder how much time had passed since Buck set the explosives.
The drug was in liquid form so it would have to be refrigerated. The bar in the corner of the room drew her attention, and she headed over to open the small cooler under the bar itself.
“Ha,” she said, proud of herself as she pulled the three vials from the fridge. She unstoppered them one at a time and poured them down the bar sink.
“What are you doing?” Mikhail asked. “Do you have any idea how valuable those are?”
“They don’t belong to you, so it’s none of your concern,” she said.
“They belong to whoever possesses them.”
“Speaking of which…” She spun and stalked over to him.
“That’s close enough, Mindy,” Buck warned. He still held his weapon—dead steady—pointed at Mikhail, who didn’t seem to care.
“Where’s my research?” Melinda asked. Mikhail shrugged, but she bet he kept the flash drive close by. She gestured for him to move.
“It doesn’t matter if you find the flash drive. I’ve already copied it and taken measures to keep the information safe,” Mikhail said.
Melinda’s heart dropped. Damn him. She still wanted the drive back. Just in case he was bluffing. It was a small chance, but still.
“You heard the lady,” Buck said. “And keep your hands where I can see them.”
The warning came a second too late, because Mikhail used the moment to make his move. He reached for something under the desk, then came up with a gun, aimed it at Buck, and pulled the trigger.
Melinda threw herself to the floor and covered her head. All she heard was gunfire as Mikhail launched himself out from behind the desk. He and Buck went at it, emptying clips, and when the gunfire stopped she popped her head up over the top of the desk to find them punching each other and fighting, punctuated by determined and frustrated deep, incoherent male grunting.
She took the opportunity to scoot behind Mikhail’s desk and check the drawers. Of course one drawer was locked, so it was probably in there.
She needed keys. Her first thought was, Mikhail probably kept those on him, but then she noticed his jacket hanging on the back of the chair and fished around in the pockets, smiling when she found his keys.
Fumbling with the bunch of them, she tried them all until the right one slid into the lock and the drawer popped open. Inside she found several flash drives. She had no idea which one was hers, so she scooped them all up and shoved them into the pouch in the front of her vest just as Nikolai, Ivan, and a handful of goons poured through the door. The gunfire must have alerted them.
Buck grabbed Mikhail by the front of his shirt and hauled him bodily from the ground to use as a human shield. “Jesus, Mindy,” he grunted. “Please tell me you have what you need?”
“Yep.”
Buck pulled another gun from some hidden place on his body—Melinda had no idea how he’d managed to stash and haul as much weaponry as he had—and pointed it at Nikolai over Mikhail’s shoulder.
“Put down your weapon,” Nikolai said. “You’re outnumbered.”
“Just the way I like it,” Buck said. “Mindy, come over here behind me.”
“Do not move, Dr. Emerson,” Nikolai said.
“Shoot her now,” Mikhail said.
“Trust me, Mindy,” Buck said.
Melinda eyeballed them all. Nikolai saw her watching him and swung his gun over to point it at her. She definitely didn’t trust him, so the second a smirk curled his lips, she moved and all hell broke loose.
Nikolai shot at her, but missed. Buck turned and shot out a window. The glass cracked and shattered, bits flying all over. He shoved Mikhail at the gaggle of goons, and pushed Melinda toward the broken window following her and shooting at the Russians as he went. She thought she saw at least one go down.
Melinda assumed he wanted her to climb out the window. He could probably vault out and land in a forward roll, but she couldn’t. With bullets whizzing around her, though, she did manage to get through in record time, albeit with some cuts.
“Life boat should be nearby,” Buck yelled as he jumped out the window. “Come on.”
He grabbed her hand and hauled her out on the walkway in the dark. Melinda glanced to the east—ahead of them—at the horizon where the sky had begun to fade from black to gray with the early morning.
More bullets pinged off surrounding metal as the Russians poured out onto the walkway, too.
“Here,” Buck said, hopping up onto a ladder.
A craft that looked like a mini-submarine hung above them mounted on a piece of roller coaster rail. She didn’t like the look of it at all, especially if it was going to slide several stories down into the ocean below. He expected her to get into that thing?
But when a bullet whipped through her hair she squealed and climbed up after him. He shot at the oncoming Russians and a couple of them crumpled.
Just then a deep boom reverberated inside the ship. A couple of seconds later another followed, and another.
“I love that sound,” Buck said.
The ship shuddered under them and the Russians all froze, bracing themselves against whatever they could grab hold of. Mikhail and Nikolai bolted back inside.
Some primal fear woke in Melinda’s heart. She wanted off the ship now. Going down with it didn’t sound like a great plan.
Buck took advantage of the moment to climb the final couple of steps and open the little d
oor on the side. “Come on, Mindy.”
She hurried up and inside, and Buck climbed in after her and shut the door, locking it down. The air inside smelled thick and stale.
Buck flicked on a flashlight and hurried to what looked like a pilot’s seat. “Strap yourself in, Mindy. This is going to be a rough ride.”
She threw herself into the nearest seat—there appeared to be quite a few, upwards of fifty or more—and fastened the seatbelt while Buck powered it up. When he’d said life boat, she’d imagined an inflatable dinghy, not a modern, enclosed boat with an engine.
Again, the ship convulsed under them, settling noticeably.
“Can we go now?” Melinda asked. She couldn’t think of a worse fate than being sucked under in a mini-sub attached to a sinking ship.
“You bet,” Buck said, and pulled a lever and pushed a button.
All of a sudden the life boat slid down the short bit of roller coaster rail and flew downward into the ocean.
The impact of hitting the water jerked her in her seat, and she’d probably have whiplash, but the little boat bobbed up to the surface. Buck powered up the engine. There were a few little portholes around the perimeter of the boat. She undid her seatbelt and peeked out of one.
The cargo ship had listed onto its side, and all the containers it had been hauling on top slid off into the ocean one by one. Flames roared from the belly of the ship, lighting up the early morning sky.
“Are there any other life boats on that ship?” Melinda asked.
“Don’t know,” Buck said. “If there are, they’d be the inflatable kind. This is the primary emergency vehicle and those guys aren’t welcome aboard it. They can go down with their goddamned ship.”
Buck had never been so happy to see a Seahawk. The guys hauled Mindy up into the chopper first, and when Buck climbed on board, he grabbed Chill in a big hug.
“Took you fucking long enough,” Buck said as he pulled away.
Chill peeked out the door at the life boat down below, then cocked his head at Buck. “Seriously? A couple of days in that thing is a piece of cake compared to some of the places we’ve been stuck.”
“Doesn’t mean you had to take your time.”
Chill grinned as he took his seat.
Wolf slapped Buck on the shoulder and said, “Glad to see you’re okay. Sorry we couldn’t get here sooner. Logistics.”
Buck settled into the seat next to Mindy. Someone had wrapped a blanket around her and belted her in, but she still shivered so he grabbed an end of the blanket and climbed inside with her. Wolf sat next to him.
“I’m just sorry you brought the whole gang and I couldn’t leave any leftovers for you,” Buck said.
“You’ll owe us,” Wolf said.
The helicopter banked and headed south toward Hawaii.
The next morning, Buck rolled over in bed to find Mindy leaned up on her elbow watching him sleep.
“That’s not creepy or anything,” he said.
She’d booked a room at a hotel near the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, claiming she needed at least one good night’s sleep before hopping on another plane and flying home. Buck had checked in at the base and debriefed, then met Mindy at her hotel. He had to be back at Coronado base in San Diego the next day and already had a seat on a Navy flight.
“Sorry,” she said.
Despite the bright Hawaiian sunshine pouring in through the hotel windows, Mindy’s mood projected gloominess.
He didn’t want to ask what bothered her because it was probably the same thing that bothered him. What did their future hold, if anything?
He couldn’t deny that going back to life without her would be impossible. Yeah, their relationship had been forged in trauma, but his whole fucking life was trauma so it didn’t feel out of place to him. Bottom line? He wanted her in his life. How to manage that might be a challenge.
He was always up for a challenge, though. Might as well start now.
“What’s bothering you darlin’?”
She traced lazy, random circles on his chest with the tip of her finger, waking up his cock despite the serious nature of the coming conversation. He couldn’t help that she drove him wild with wanting her whenever they were together.
“I don’t want to go home and have all this end.”
He snort-laughed. “I’m sure the Russians would be happy to oblige.”
She gave him a wilting look. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. I meant us.”
There was the opening salvo.
“So what do you want instead?” he asked.
She scooted over and snuggled up to him. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her next to his body. They’d both showered several times since getting back, appreciating the luxury of hot water and cleanliness—and shower sex. They’d also bought new clothes. Not that they wore any now, which was fine with him. He loved the feel of her soft, warm skin on his.
“Can’t we just stay here forever?” she asked.
Her finger settled on his nipple first tweaking, then swirling around it. His cock twitched and he groaned before grabbing her hand in his. He’d never be able to have a clear-headed discussion if she kept that up.
“I wish we could. Listen, I’ve been thinking, and I have a proposal.”
She looked up at him, her eyebrows tented in a skeptical lift. “Oh?”
“Not that kind of proposal. At least not yet, anyway. The point is that…” He’d never told a woman he loved her. It stuck in his throat like an awkward lump. Did he love her? He didn’t really know what love felt like. Lust, sure. But he liked the freedom of being a bachelor, and SEAL life didn’t really lend itself to settling down—despite the evidence he’d seen from his teammate Beast Caine, Wolf Steele, and several others on Wolf’s team.
Fuck. Maybe it was possible to make it work. When he thought about parting ways with Mindy panic burst in his chest, which said something because he never panicked. He defused fucking bombs for a living for fuck’s sake. He had nerves of steel.
But thinking about life without Mindy? Seemed like a lot of empty days strung one after another into oblivion.
“The point is what?” she asked.
“The point is I want you in my life.” There, he’d said it.
“Are you planning on staying in San Diego?” she asked.
“No. I’m based in Virginia. You’ll come out there.”
She shot him another amused but skeptical lift of her brows. “Oh, I will?”
“Well, yeah.”
“How about if you ask nicely?”
“I can do that. I’m good at asking nicely.”
“Yes, you are,” she said.
Buck rolled her to her back and climbed over the top of her, his cock locked and loaded. Seeing her laid out like that, just for him, her hair tumbled around her head, her cheeks rosy with wanting him, her eyes sparkling with teasing, her lips demanding to be kissed—he didn’t think he could ask nicely so much as demand.
He leaned down to kiss her, and she met him halfway all lips and teeth and tongue, driving him wild. He grabbed her hair and she dug her heels into his ass and he plunged into her fast and deep and held himself there, like at the moment in a HALO jump right before he pulled the rip cord.
She threw her head back and arced her body, thrusting her breasts upward. God, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and she was his, and his alone.
“Mindy. Look at me, darlin’”
She brought her gaze to meet his, full of lust and trust. He wanted to see that look the rest of his life.
“Come to Virginia with me?”
Her triumphant smile—like she’d won something—made him happy. He pulled out and set a punishing rhythm, but no matter how hard or fast he thrust, she kept up, demanding more of him, until she hit her peak, grabbing fists full of bedding and making those beautiful sounds that always pushed him over the edge.
***
Melinda sat in her office, too stunned to think. The CIA rep sit
ting in the chair opposite Melinda’s desk had shown up out of the blue, surprising her on her first day back at work with a full court recruitment press.
Melinda hadn’t even had time to talk to Jayla—her CIA inside person—yet about all the flash drives she’d swiped from Mikhail. Thankfully one had had her research on it. She’d looked at the rest, but didn’t understand most of it since a lot was in Russian. What wasn’t, left her baffled and confused.
“Listen,” Melinda said. “For all I know Mikhail made copies of my research, and emailed the documents to someone in Russia. By now it could be spread all over the place. I don’t know how me working for the CIA is going to change the fact that Russia has the formula now.”
“Langley still intends to move forward on development. The potential is too great, and especially now that the Russians have it, it’s even more critical we balance that. As Amaranthine’s creator, you’re best equipped to develop it in a way that minimizes or eliminates side effects while enhancing the drug’s intended purpose.”
Melinda rolled her eyes. “I keep telling everyone, it has no intended purpose. The drug was a complete accident.”
“Be that as it may, it exists now and you’re uniquely qualified to perfect it. Wouldn’t you rather have a hand in making sure the agents who use it are safe?”
“Of course I want them to be safe,” Melinda said, thinking of Jayla and hoping she never, ever used the drug. “What would my working for the CIA involve?”
“We’d like you to stay here and continue working on the drug at Triada, and we’ll advance your training as needed.”
“I want complete autonomy over the drug development and trials,” Melinda said. If she was going to be railroaded into the job, she wanted some control over it.
The rep nodded, reassuringly, which made Melinda nervous. “Of course,” she said. “And once the drug is ready for human trials, you’ll be in charge of that phase.”
When it came down to it, Melinda really didn’t have a choice. They wanted Amaranthine, and since she came up with the stuff she felt responsible for it. If she didn’t work on it to eliminate the side effects, she’d be sentencing anyone who took it to unknown dangers.
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Bang for the Buck (Kindle Worlds Novella) (SWAK Series Book 1) Page 11
