by Kaylea Cross
Slipping around the corner of the building from the other side, she chose a shadowy spot away from any people or cameras, and waited, knife in hand. Rapid footsteps approached to her right moments later.
Gruff hottie.
The second he was within reach, she pounced.
Grabbing him by the shoulders, she spun him around and slammed his back into the brick wall behind him before he could react.
Those blue, blue eyes locked on her face in pissed-off astonishment as she pressed the edge of her blade to his groin and growled, “Who the fuck are you, and why are you following me?”
Chapter Four
What the hell?!
“Whoa.” Heath grabbed her wrist and locked his fingers around it to prevent her from doing severe damage to his junk with that KA-BAR, staring down at the woman snarling in his face. Jesus Christ. He barely recognized her. When the hell had she had time to change into a disguise?
“Talk,” she growled, the prick of the blade against his inner thigh telling him she meant business. From the way she gripped it she knew how to use it, and would do some serious damage if she didn’t like what he said.
Holy shit. He was an expert in CSAR missions, had saved dozens of lives in the line of duty. Rescuing people was his specialty, but from the glint in those narrowed brown eyes, she sure as hell didn’t look like she was in need of—or wanted—rescue.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he ground out.
“That’s right, because I’ve got a knife to your balls. Now what’s your name?” she demanded.
“Heath Barrett, and I’m here to help you. Now lose the knife.” He could snap her wrist and disarm her, but there was serious risk she’d slice him up pretty bad in the process, and the glint in her eye said she knew it.
“Help me?”
“To make sure you’re safe, because you’re in some sort of trouble. My friend sent me to follow you to make sure nothing happened to you,” he told her, keeping his voice low and calm because the position of that blade made him damn nervous. One wrong move and he could find himself castrated—or bleeding out alone on this sidewalk.
“Who sent you?” She was stronger than she looked. Even with his grip on her slender wrist, she wasn’t budging. The sharp point of the blade pricked the juncture of his thigh and groin, and it took everything he had not to snap her wrist right then and there. A few more ounces of pressure and she could slice through his jeans, thigh, and even sever his inguinal artery.
“My buddy Ty Bergstrom. He called and asked me to make sure you’re safe.” Ty had always teased him that his white-knight complex would get him in trouble one day. Ironic that it happened when Heath was trying to help him out.
“Who does he work for?” Chloe pressed harder on the tip of the blade, breaking his skin. “Talk, or I start cutting.”
Shit, Heath wasn’t sure who Ty worked for at the moment. And Ty had conveniently neglected to mention she might have a knife. “No one, but he used to be a security contractor with me, and before that he was military. You’re an old friend of his girlfriend, Megan.”
She stilled, her expression changing ever so slightly. “Megan who?”
“I don’t know her last name, but you guys were roommates or something.” College maybe? Hell if he knew, but now he wanted to, because if he had known he would have protected his balls better.
His explanation meant something to her because she stiffened, her eyes no longer narrowed but still cool, filled with suspicion and doubt.
He upped the pressure on her wrist as warm beads of blood dripped down his inner thigh. His temper surged. “Chloe. Lower the damn knife and put it away. I’m not here to hurt you.” Well, he didn’t want to hurt her, but if she didn’t move that blade away from his nuts in the next few seconds, he might be forced to snap her wrist.
Rather than reassure her, his words made her brows crash together in a fierce frown. “Did he give you my name, or did she?” She didn’t move. Didn’t flinch as he squeezed her wrist harder, though it had to hurt.
Don’t make me hurt you. “He did when he contacted me an hour before your train left, and said to follow you and keep you safe. That’s it.”
“Keep me safe? You’re not even armed,” she said in disgust. “And I’m supposed to believe you would hop on a train in the middle of the night to watch over a total stranger?” She snorted. “What does Megan look like?”
Heath didn’t need a weapon to protect her, he could do enough damage with his hands and feet when necessary, but clearly, he’d better keep talking or this could get ugly quick. And keep her safe from what? Ty had been so damn vague about it. Heath should have pressed him harder for more details. “I dunno, I’ve never met her. She and Ty have only been together for a couple months.”
“He’s such a good buddy that you’d drop everything to do this favor for him, and you’ve never met his girlfriend?” she pressed.
“Yeah, because I’ve been in northern Africa on a security contracting job until a few days ago.” He pushed down on her wrist, his patience running thin. “Now lose the damn knife.”
She studied him for a tense moment, then twisted her wrist against his hold, moving the blade away from his groin. He let go, relief washing through him when she slid the knife back into a holster hidden beneath her waistband. She did it without looking, and so smoothly it was clear she’d done it a time or two—or a thousand—before.
Then she stepped back, just out of reach, her left foot slightly in front of her right, weight on the balls of her feet and her hands curled slightly at her sides. A fighter’s stance, and it made him wonder again exactly how much and what kind of training she had. Why hadn’t Ty told him? He’d said to be subtle because she’d ghost on Heath if she noticed him following, but hell, he hadn’t expected any of this.
“And just where were you planning on following me to?” she asked, cocking her head slightly. Not backing down, but no longer feeling threatened. He wasn’t sure if he should feel insulted or not.
“To wherever you were going.” Who was she? What was the real story here?
“And then what?”
“Then I let Ty and Megan know where you are.” And oh, he couldn’t wait to talk to Ty. He had a few choice words for his buddy for leaving out some important fucking details.
“What do they want with me?”
“They want to talk to you about something in person. I’m not sure what, Ty didn’t say.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see about that.” Before he could move, she snatched his phone from his pocket. Heath bit back an annoyed retort as she considered him a moment longer, then came out of fighting stance and took a step back. “All right, you’re coming with me.”
Heath shot her an incredulous look. You gotta be shitting me. She’d held him at knifepoint, stolen his phone, and he was just supposed to go with her now to wherever she was going and pretend he was okay with it?
She lifted a dark blond eyebrow. “What’s the matter, you scared?”
“No,” he bit out, even though yeah, she was kinda scary and made his balls shrivel.
One side of her mouth curved up, somewhere between a challenge and a taunt. “If I’d wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead. I’m not letting you out of my sight until I can verify your story, and I’m not doing that here. So come on. We gotta go.” She darted a glance around them, then gave an impatient jerk of her head. “Now.”
He bit back the defensive retort that immediately sprang to his tongue. She might have gotten the drop on him initially because he hadn’t expected any kind of threat from her, but he could hold his own and wasn’t as easy a target as she seemed to think, his bleeding inner thigh notwithstanding.
For a few seconds he considered saying screw this and walking away. But a promise was a promise. He owed Ty and had given him his word that he’d watch Chloe, and he would, whether she was nuts and dangerous or not. Besides, now he wanted answers. “Where are we going?” he said with a scowl.
�
��You’ll find out soon enough. Move.” She gestured toward the parking lot, her hand near her waist, ready to draw her blade again.
Heath started for the lot, biting back a retort and shaking his head at himself. He’d thought this favor would help even things out on the debt scale with Ty? Not freaking likely.
You owe me for this, you tight-lipped bastard. Big time.
Chloe directed him to the rental car section of the parking lot. He kept a wary eye on her, having a newfound respect for her abilities and vowing to remain vigilant about watching his back until this little detour in his holiday was over. And that couldn’t come soon enough, because there was obviously a lot more going on than he realized.
Question was, how much did Ty really know?
Heath had come here to protect a woman in danger, but from where he stood, the real danger was Chloe herself.
****
She’s so hot, but she almost cut my balls off.
Heath still couldn’t quite wrap his head around that. Over an hour later he had no further information about the situation he was now stuck in.
He’d been forced to ride shotgun from the train station, watching Chloe’s every move as she drove them to this rental townhouse outside the city limits. She still had his phone. She’d checked it over, then switched it off completely before beginning the drive, he guessed because she was paranoid that someone was tracking his movements.
The ride had been tense. They hadn’t said a single word to each other since leaving the station, and it was seriously grating on his nerves. She didn’t seem bothered by it, totally absorbed in what she was doing, driving in circles, he could only assume to see if they were being followed.
He had a real bad feeling about this. She was no helpless civilian in need of protection, that was for sure, so if she was under threat, it had to be pretty major.
“The house is a few blocks east of here,” she finally said as she parked along the curb and turned off the engine. With that she reached into the backseat for her backpack and climbed out of the car.
The one-story cottage looked to be at least a hundred years old, the exterior covered in a pale yellow plaster. “Stay here,” she whispered as they reached the back of it.
Since there was no point in arguing, he stood to one side, on alert as she unlocked the back door, staring in surprise when she drew a weapon from beneath her tunic and eased inside. A pistol? How the hell had she gotten that on the damn train, and what else was she armed with that he didn’t know about?
She came back a minute later, her weapon no longer visible, wig gone and wearing what she had been on the train, minus the hat. Her golden blond hair spilled down her back in a long ponytail. It amazed him how fast she’d made herself practically unrecognizable back at the station. Spooky and impressive at the same time. Was she a spy?
“All right,” she told him. “You can come in.” The moment he crossed the threshold she shut the door and locked it.
He retreated to the living room and watched her from the safety of the sofa. She paced around the kitchen, chomping on her gum, snapping it now and again as she switched his phone back on and checked for whatever she was looking for.
All of a sudden, she stopped, faced him and strode toward him with an unreadable look that had him instantly on his feet and on guard. “All right. Call Ty and put him on speaker,” she said, thrusting his phone at him. “Tell him I want to talk to Megan personally.”
Jaw tight, Heath held her gaze and took the phone. He got why she’d be suspicious of his story, but Jesus. He hadn’t done a single thing to make her feel threatened. Other than…following her and…being a big guy and a complete stranger to her.
He heaved an irritated sigh. “Fine.” This whole thing was bullshit and he wanted it resolved as badly as she did.
He dialed the number Ty had texted him from and put it on speaker while Chloe watched him like a bug under a magnifying glass, arms folded across her chest. “Hey, it’s me,” he said when Ty picked up, “and you’re on speaker because Chloe wants to hear this and then talk to Megan.”
“You got her?” Ty asked when he answered.
“Sort of.” Not the way Ty imagined, however. More like she had him.
Heath shook his head, his annoyance burning through his forced calm. “What the hell, man? I followed your girlfriend’s friend, thinking I was doing a good deed by keeping an eye on her because that’s how you painted it, and not only was she not happy to see me, she nearly sliced my junk off with a freaking KA-BAR.”
Ty laughed. “Oh, shit.”
Heath glared at Chloe, who was grinning now as she chewed her gum. “Yeah, oh, shit is right. A little more info or some warning would’ve been nice. Care to tell me what’s really going on now?”
“Brother, that’s a long story and I’ll fill you in later, but just know I’m sorry for all this and that I owe you big time.”
“Yeah, big time,” Heath agreed, still watching Chloe. Ty hadn’t sounded that surprised about the KA-BAR bit. Asshole. “Anyway, we’re at a place outside Strasbourg, and no one else followed us. Can you put Megan on so I’m not in the hot seat anymore?”
“One sec.”
Heath stood there holding his phone like an idiot while they waited for Megan to come on the line. Chloe hadn’t moved, and though she’d lost the grin, her big brown eyes held mingled curiosity and amusement as she watched him.
“I’m here,” a female voice said a moment later, and Chloe’s expression sobered. “Your end secure?”
Chloe’s face gave nothing away. “No.”
“Understood. You like Wagner?”
Something flared in her eyes. “Yes.”
“You know what to do.”
Before Heath could make sense of the odd conversation, Chloe swiped the phone from him and ended the call. Pulling another phone from her hip pocket, she texted someone.
What was she up to now? Why wouldn’t anyone tell him what the fuck was going on here? “Can I have my phone back now?” he said, a bite to his tone.
She kept typing. “Nope.” She stopped, scanned the screen, and when it buzzed with an incoming message moments later, she tapped a button.
The first few bars of a classical song he vaguely recognized filled the silence.
Chloe froze, surprise flickering across her face before she masked it and stopped the song.
“What? What does it mean?” All clear? Danger? Jesus, he hadn’t felt this clueless since he’d been captured in SERE school.
Those big brown eyes swept over him from head to toe and back again, as though she was seeing him for the first time. “Stay here and don’t move,” she ordered. Tossing him his phone, she pivoted and marched from the room, her phone to her ear.
Chapter Five
Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” That was the song the woman claiming to be Megan had sent.
Chloe’s heart raced as she hurried to the bedroom, waiting for the call to connect. All the signs said this was real. Megan’s name. The timing of Megan finding her. The song. Even the guy waiting in the other room.
It had been years. So many years since she’d heard her friend’s voice, and she didn’t want an audience for this conversation.
“Hey,” the same woman answered.
Megan. Was it really Megan? “Your end secure?”
“Yes.”
“When did you graduate?”
“May nineteenth.”
Same day as Chloe. “Who was with you when you got your mark?” Chloe asked.
“You.”
Damn right. That rite of passage was branded every bit as much on her mind as it was on her left hip. “Motto?”
“Lima Uniform Delta.”
Loyal Unto Death. Damn straight. “Nickname?”
“Itchy. But you called me Itch, and I called you Twitch.”
A wide smile broke over Chloe’s face, her throat thickening with an unexpected surge of emotion. “Itch, is it really you?” Her voice was a bit rough.
>
Megan laughed softly. “Yeah, Twitch, it’s me. God, this is surreal. How are you, sistah?”
“I’m…hanging in there,” Chloe said with a stunned laugh. “How the hell did you find me? And who’s this guy you sent?” He wasn’t an operative like them, that much was certain.
“It wasn’t easy. We’ve been trying for months to track you down.”
“We?”
“Yes. I’ve got so much to tell you, but it’ll have to wait until it’s in person. I’ve got access to a private plane and can be there in a few hours. That cool with you?”
“Sure.” But if Megan had found her, then it was a good damn thing Chloe had gotten out of Paris when she had. Dubois would have looked at the security footage from Dom’s office and the train station by now. He’d have people after her. “And the guy is?”
“Heath Barrett, my boyfriend’s best friend. I haven’t met him yet, but they served together as security contractors for a few years.”
Chloe’s eyebrows went up at the first part. “Yeah, tell me about the boyfriend part.”
Another laugh. “Like I said, there’s a lot to fill you in on.”
“Apparently.” She had a hard time imagining Megan getting that serious with a guy. It was dangerous.
“Heath’s former AFSOC,” Megan added.
Ahh. That helped explain the calm head he’d kept during the whole knife thing. “What did he do for them?”
“Pararescue.”
“Really.” Well, wasn’t that interesting. He had SOF training, yet he hadn’t hurt her, even with the knife to his groin. “Ty didn’t tell him what I am.”
“No.”
“So he thought I was a civilian.”
“Yes.”
Yikes. That explained a lot. Now Chloe felt kinda bad for what she’d done. Poor guy had honestly been trying to help her for whatever reason. She hadn’t realized there were any men like that left in the world. “I may have pulled my blade on him. And I may have nicked him in a sensitive spot when he didn’t talk fast enough.”
