by Paige Tyler
Landon waited until Ivy gave him a nod; then, he reached out and took her hand in his before looking at John. “Ivy and I are married. We have been since June.”
John stared at them, disbelief clear on his face. “Married?”
“We wanted to tell you,” Ivy said. “Heck, Landon wanted you to be there. But in your capacity as director, we were worried you’d be forced to split us up as a team if you knew we were violating DCO policy.”
John’s mouth tightened. “I wouldn’t have, but you had no way of knowing that. Who else knows?”
“Layla, of course. And the rest of Ivy’s family,” Landon said. “Kendra, Declan, Clayne, Danica, and Angelo, as well as some of the guys on my former A-team.”
John laughed. “So half of the DCO.”
“You’re not mad?” Ivy asked.
“Mad? Hell no. I’ve known you two were romantically involved for a while now. And you’re obviously good at hiding the fact that you’re married, so just keep doing that and everything will be fine. Not everyone at the DCO thinks the no-fraternization policy is as stupid as I do.”
Then John looked at Angelo, his eyes suddenly knowing. “No one mentioned it, but I assume you were in Washington State, too? Any chance the rest of your A-team was out there with you?”
Angelo swore silently. So much for keeping the rest of the guys off the DCO’s radar.
* * *
Minka tightened her grip on Angelo’s hand as they sat down in the big conference room. She’d been relieved to see Ivy, Landon, and John when she and Angelo had walked in a few minutes ago. But Dick was there too, along with the two men who had come to Zarina’s office the day they scared her into letting the beast out. There was a man deep in conversation with John, too. She didn’t recognize him, but he made the beast restless, and she had to force herself not to growl.
She ignored the man and focused on Angelo’s presence beside her as she studied the map of southern Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan in the front of the room. She recognized the markers for the cities and territorial boundaries but understood little beyond that, especially the various circles and lines drawn on it. But since the whole purpose of this meeting was about going back to Tajikistan to find the doctors who had hurt her, she supposed the markings must have something to do with where the DCO thought the doctors were located.
When Angelo had come into Layla’s office a little while ago and told her they would be going back to Tajikistan to find Klaus and Renard, she had almost hyperventilated. She knew Angelo would be with her and would keep her safe, but the thought of the doctors had nearly brought out the beast.
At the front of the room, John moved to stand behind the podium. He started the meeting by introducing the man who made the beast uneasy as Thomas Thorn, then said something about the classification of the briefing and other security protocols, most of which went completely over her head. She was still trying to understand what he was saying—all the acronyms made it very hard—when a picture flashed up on the big television screen over his left shoulder. It was the older doctor, Klaus. Minka only half listened as John gave them details about where the man was born, where he went to school, and his connection to the hybrid program. Klaus looked just as smug in the picture as he had when he’d tormented her.
Then another picture flashed on the screen, this time of Renard. She squeezed Angelo’s hand more tightly, digging in her nails. In the photo, Renard was smiling—just as he had during the experiments he’d conducted on her. Even now, she could hear him laughing as she begged him to stop one of the hundreds of painful things he had done to her.
Angelo leaned over to put his mouth close to her ear. “Hey. You okay?”
She nodded. “I do not like that man. They are both evil, but he was the worse of the two.”
Angelo traced the barely discernible scars on her arm. “Is he the one who did this?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
When Angelo didn’t say anything, she looked over to see him staring at the picture of Renard intently, as if he were trying to burn the image into his mind.
She turned back as John mentioned the autonomous region, which was where Angelo had found her. He pointed at the region on a map and indicated how far the DCO believed she had walked. He described different circles on the map, calling some of them “objective points” and others “rally points” or “primary” and “secondary landing zones.” Minka couldn’t follow all of the jargon, but she understood that was where they would be starting their search.
“Minka will lead the team in from there,” John announced after going over the map for a few more minutes. “In addition to Minka and Sergeant Rios, who is Army Special Forces, the team will include Agents Donovan and Halliwell. They both have personal experience with the doctors, which will be invaluable on this mission.”
Minka had assumed Ivy and Landon would be going, but she was still relieved to hear John say their names. She and Ivy had made a connection the day before that was unlike anything Minka had ever felt with even her closest girlfriend.
With a nod, John stepped away from the podium and Dick took his place. Minka stiffened.
“Powell and Moore will round out the team,” Dick said. “That should be more than sufficient for an op like this.”
The beast inside Minka growled at the mention of Powell’s name. He was the guard who’d suggested Dick should threaten her with the needle. She didn’t have to look to know that Moore was almost certainly the other guard. Minka was no expert on military operations, but the two men seemed like strange choices.
Landon leaned over Ivy and whispered to Minka and Angelo, “Powell and Moore aren’t typically used for anything more than corporate security. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them on a tactical operation. If they’re going, it’s more to spy for Dick or Thorn than to do any fighting. We’ll need to keep an eye on them.”
Dick stepped away from the podium and John took his place. “Minka, Angelo, could you please come up here? A few members of the team have some questions they’d like to ask.”
Minka’s pulse raced as Angelo led her up to the front of the room, but she tried not to let her nervousness show. She was going to spend quite a bit of time with these people over the next few days, so she was going to have to get used to talking to them.
Most of their questions revolved around the place where she’d been held captive. She told them as much as she could, saying she’d been chained to a wall most of the time and hadn’t seen anyone except for the two doctors and the guards.
“How many guards?” Powell asked.
“Usually three.” She refused to mention that there had only been two after she’d killed one of them with a rock. She tried to remember all the different faces and scents, but those memories belonged to the animal inside, and the beast wasn’t talking to her at the moment. So she gave the best answer she could. “But I saw others as they passed my cell, and I smelled at least ten different men.”
“Were the guards locals?” Moore asked.
“Some of them were,” she said. “But most were foreign.”
“What about weapons?” Powell wanted to know.
Minka didn’t know much about weapons. “They carried handguns and longer rifles like soldiers carry. Some of them carried grenades.”
That answer didn’t seem to make anyone very happy, including Angelo.
“Were there any other hybrids like you at this facility?” Landon asked.
“Sometimes the doctors would bring in other people they experimented on,” Minka said. “They’d lock them in the cells near mine, but they rarely survived very long. I occasionally heard screams in one of the other buildings, but when I escaped, there was only silence, so I assume they died, too.”
Powell and Moore asked about the rotation schedule for the guards, where they slept, and, most importantly, where the doctors were located. Minka tried to answer the best she could, but she didn’t know very much.
“It doesn’t seem like we
have to worry about hybrids. That’s something, at least,” Landon said. “But we could be facing as many as twenty guards. Maybe we should consider going in with a larger force, one with a few more shifters.”
John opened his mouth to answer, but Thorn cut him off.
“The goal of this mission isn’t to go in and get into a knock-down, drag-out fight with the guards. The objective is to get in, grab the doctors, and get out—that’s all. You have the element of surprise on your side, so this job should be a piece of cake for a team with your level of training.”
Minka doubted the guards were just going to stand around politely and let a team of people come in and apprehend the doctors. But no one seemed willing to challenge Thorn on his assertion.
The meeting came to a close soon after that. John and Dick left, along with Powell and Moore. Minka had hoped Thorn would go too, but he pulled Ivy and Landon aside, leaving her and Angelo alone. Minka didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but with her keen hearing, it was difficult not to.
“Hey,” Angelo whispered. “Are you listening in on their conversation with Thorn?”
Minka gave him an embarrassed look. “I know it’s rude, but yes I was.” She frowned as a thought occurred to her. “Can you hear them, too?”
He chuckled softly. “From fifty feet away? No, I can’t. What are they saying?”
“Something about not letting Klaus and Renard get captured alive, not with everything they know,” she whispered. “He said there are people on the Committee who would be more than happy to use the doctors’ hybrid research for their own purposes. He told Ivy and Landon they can’t let that happen.”
Giving Ivy and Landon a nod, Thorn glanced once in Minka and Angelo’s direction, then left the room.
Minka frowned at Ivy and Landon as the couple walked over to join her and Angelo. “I don’t understand. Did he just say that he wanted you to kill those doctors?”
Ivy smiled. “You heard that, huh?”
Minka nodded. “But why would he tell us during the briefing that we’re supposed to capture the doctors alive, then tell you to kill them?”
“I’ve stopped trying to figure out what kind of games the people around here are playing,” Landon said. “Either Thorn is actually a good guy who’s worried about another member of the Committee getting their hands on the hybrid research and doing something with it, or he’s a complete piece of crap and wants Ivy and me to clean up the mess he made.”
Minka didn’t know what Landon was talking about, but either way, she didn’t have a good feeling about it.
* * *
Minka and Angelo stayed at the DCO complex for another hour, picking up clothing and equipment they would supposedly need for the mission. Angelo was unusually quiet as they drove home. He didn’t say much after they got there either. Instead, he went into the kitchen to make sandwiches for dinner while she packed a few pieces of clothes and some toiletries. Then they sat together on the couch and ate while the silence grew heavy.
Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer. She put down her half-eaten sandwich and turned to face him. “Is everything okay? You’re very quiet.”
At first she wasn’t sure if he’d heard her because he didn’t answer. She was just about to ask again when he spoke.
“Everything’s fine,” he said. “I talked to John right before the briefing and he promised that no matter what happens on the mission—whether we find these doctors or not—you’ll be welcome at the DCO. There’ll be no strings attached, and he said you can keep working with Layla, Ivy, and Tanner, so you can get better at controlling your abilities. He’ll make sure you have a place to live. You’ll have lots of people to help you get settled. You won’t be abandoned, okay?”
Minka’s throat tightened so much she could barely breathe. Angelo had said nothing about him coming back after the mission. That was why he was being so quiet. He would be rejoining his team in Tajikistan afterward.
Questions flooded her mind as she fought to hold back tears. How long would he be gone? Would he come back to her after he finished in Tajikistan? What kind of work would he be doing? Would he be safe? Would he be able to call her to let her know he was okay?
But she didn’t ask any of those questions because she feared what the answers would be. Instead, she stood up and held out her hand to him. “Can we go to bed now?”
He put down what was left of his sandwich and took her hand, then led her to the bedroom without a word.
Neither one of them spoke, but this time, she didn’t wait patiently for him to undress them both. She reached out and began to loosen his belt even as he started taking off her clothes. When they were both naked, she moved closer and put her arms around him, pressing her face against his smooth chest and breathing in his scent. He wrapped her in his arms, and for a little while, she could almost believe that nothing could ever hurt her with Angelo there to protect her. But then it hit her, and she couldn’t stop the tears that sprang to her eyes. The pain in her chest was stronger than anything she’d ever felt. Soon, Angelo wouldn’t be there to protect her, and she would be all alone. After learning what it was like to be with him, she didn’t know how she could go on by herself.
Angelo’s fingers slipped under her chin, lifting her face up to his. Then he leaned forward and began to gently kiss away her tears.
She almost broke down then but stopped herself, knowing how much it would hurt him to see her like that. So she pushed the bad thoughts away, enclosing them in the same cage as the beast. Then she buried her fingers in Angelo’s hair and pulled him down for a kiss. Minka was terrified it might be the last time they could be together. But if it was, she didn’t want it to be sad. She wanted it to be amazing. She focused on the feel of his lips on her, thinking only of his taste, the heat pouring off his body, the tantalizing sensation of his growing hardness pressing against her stomach.
By the time Angelo picked her up and set her carefully on the bed, her tears were gone and her fear was replaced with arousal. While he rolled the condom down his shaft, she slid over, leaving room for him in the center of the bed. He looked a little confused for a moment, until she grabbed his hand and pulled him down with her, urging him onto his back. Then a smile curved his sensuous mouth as she climbed on top of him. She hadn’t been bold enough to do so last night, but now there was no time to worry about embarrassment. She wanted to make love to her angel this way, and if that meant she had to learn as she went, then she was more than ready.
It took a bit of fumbling, since she didn’t know exactly where to put her hands and knees, but then Angelo’s hands were on her hips, guiding her to the right position. And when she finally eased herself down on him, the groans that escaped them both made the momentary confusion worth it.
She leaned forward and placed her hands on his chest, carefully lifting herself up a few centimeters, then letting her bottom come down on his strong thighs in one slow, steady motion. She let out a purr as tingles spread out from her core to every part of her body. Every time she rode up and down on him, she felt a little jolt of electricity. The urge to speed up was intense, but she took her time, wanting to make the moment last forever.
But Angelo seemed to have other ideas. He got a firm grip on her hips and started moving slowly under her, thrusting in perfect rhythm with her movements. Mmm, that felt amazing.
Minka put more of her weight on his chest as he began pumping faster. One of his hands glided from her hip to grasp her bottom, squeezing tightly and completely taking over control of their pace. It was crazy. She was on top, but he was the one in control.
The sound of their bodies coming together as he thrust into her was so sexy, it was hard not to close her eyes and get lost in the rhythm. But she kept her eyes open, so she could look at his beautiful face. As she got closer to orgasm, that became impossible, and she collapsed forward, burying her face in his neck as he thrust hard into her and pushed her further toward her climax.
The pleasure kept building until Minka was sure
she was going to scream…or shift into her hybrid form. But she wasn’t worried about the beast at that moment. All that mattered was Angelo and her—their bodies becoming one, their hearts pounding together.
When she orgasmed, she screamed against Angelo’s neck, unconcerned about the feline sounds she let out.
Angelo kept thrusting all the way through her orgasm, making her whole body shake uncontrollably against his. It was only as she was sliding down the backside of her climax that she felt him start to come with her.
Minka lifted her head, looking deep into his eyes as he buried himself inside her warmth. She felt him buck under her, and her heart sang as he groaned and found his release.
As his movements slowed, she dropped her face back into the crook of his shoulder, kissing him there and enjoying the pleasant tremors that continued to ripple through her body. After a few minutes, when both of their heartbeats had returned to something close to normal, she lifted her head and gazed down at him again.
He looked so beautiful lying there, a smile curving his lips, passion still darkening his eyes. One of his hands came up and traced a finger along her jaw to her chin. It was amazing how just that simple touch brought her unbelievable pleasure.
She opened her mouth, ready to say the words flooding her heart—I love you.
But she stopped herself. She couldn’t tell him that. It would be unfair when they both knew he’d be leaving her in a day or two. Worse, while she knew he cared for her, the fact was, he’d never promised anything more than this short time together. If anything, everything he’d said about not wanting to hurt her told her that he never intended it to be more than this.
He frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Minka struggled for a moment to focus on anything other than the sudden pain in her chest. She fought to push the feeling down, not wanting him to see it.
“You are very bad,” she told him.
His frown disappeared to be replaced by a look of mock surprise. “Why do you say that?”
She took the finger he had been tracing across her jaw in her hand and kissed the tip. “I was planning to go slow and make this evening last awhile longer.”
