by Kaylea Cross
STRIKE FAST
By
Kaylea Cross
Copyright © 2017
by Kaylea Cross
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Cover Art by
Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the author.
ISBN: 978-1-928044-23-9
Dedication
For all the single parents out there, doing one of the toughest—but most important—jobs of all on your own. This one’s for you.
Author’s Note
Dear readers,
Here we are at book 4 of the FAST series already! With any luck I tugged at your heartstrings with Reid’s introduction in the previous story, so I hope you’re as eager for him to find happiness as I was to give it to him.
Happy reading!
Kaylea Cross
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
Complete Booklist
About the Author
FAST motto: “Contain, Disrupt, Dismantle”
Prologue
Forward Operating Base Bostick
Kunar Province, Afghanistan
DEA Special Agent Tess Dubrovski’s heart thudded an erratic rhythm against her ribs, but her hand was steady on the stick as she guided the wounded Blackhawk through the dark sky to the ground inside the secure perimeter of the FOB. The moment the wheels touched down, her copilot initiated emergency shutdown procedures and she finally allowed herself to release a long, deep breath.
I’m still alive. Hard to believe after the ferocious ground fire they’d taken.
Ground crews converged on them from both sides with fire extinguishers at the ready, staying clear of the nose to avoid the low angle of the main rotor blades. Her crew chief had reported faint smoke in the cabin on the way back and she’d been forced to fly at a lower altitude due to a drop in power, but there hadn’t been a fire, thank God.
With the sound of the engines powering down in the background, Tess leaned her head back against the seat and willed her heart to slow down. They were lucky to have made it to the FOB at all, let alone in one piece. Pushing her NVGs and visor up on her helmet, she ran a gloved hand over her face. It had been a damn close call tonight.
In the left hand seat, her copilot raised his own night vision goggles on his helmet mount and turned his head toward her, his expression tense. “That was some scary shit.”
“Yeah, I’ll never forget it.” She pulled in a deep breath and just sat there while the noise from the engines wound down and the rotors slowed. “How many hits did we take, do you think?”
He snorted. “I lost count after the first dozen.”
Her, too.
The crew chief popped his head into the cockpit from the back. “They’re offloading the wounded now. I’ll check the damage once they’re out.”
“Okay,” Tess said. “How many were hit?” She’d done everything she could think of, used every trick she knew to evade the enemy fire, but no matter which direction she’d gone, they’d just kept taking ground fire.
“Two.” He glanced between her and the copilot. “You both okay?”
“We’re good,” Tess said. Physically, anyway. But only thanks to their armor-plated seats and the helo’s tough skin.
She still had no idea what the hell had happened out there. They’d landed without incident and picked up FAST Bravo and the others, including a high value target prisoner and two KIA. Right after takeoff from the LZ they’d taken a barrage of close range small arms fire from a rogue element embedded within the Afghan NIU force the DEA team had been working a joint op with. Seconds into their climb, rounds had penetrated the fuselage and struck two men on the other side of the bulkhead.
From what she could tell, the tail section had taken the worst of it. For a moment there, she’d thought the shooters had damaged the tail rotor. Then everyone onboard would have been screwed. Thankfully her door gunner had managed to clear off most of the enemy to avoid disaster, otherwise they’d all be burning in a mass of twisted metal back in those mountains behind them right now.
Her late husband’s face flashed through her mind, along with an image of the wreckage they’d pulled his body from three years ago. Her stomach clamped so hard that for a moment she feared she might be sick right there in the cockpit.
With effort, she locked the bleak, painful memory away and focused on what was going on around her aircraft.
Icy January air rushed in through the open right side door in the back as the nine men of FAST Bravo carried the wounded and dead toward the cinderblock building. At the sight of those black body bags, her hands started to shake. Tucking them under her thighs, she took slow, deep breaths in an attempt to calm down.
She’d been in tight spots before, on a couple of missions back during her army days when she’d deployed over here. But never this tight. And that had been before Brian had been killed.
Tonight, while the bullets had been flying, she hadn’t had time to be scared, her entire focus on flying the aircraft and getting them out of range of enemy fire. Now that it was all over, her nervous system was making up for lost time.
Only after all the passengers had disembarked did she unbuckle her harness and exit the aircraft through her cockpit door. She was steadier now, her heart rate back to normal as she stepped out onto the bare, frozen ground.
In the dim illumination of the base perimeter lights, she got her first look at the damage they’d sustained. It wasn’t pretty.
“Jesus Murphy,” she said under her breath.
A moment later her crew chief walked around the end of the tail and came toward her. “How bad?” she asked.
“Bad. Check this out.”
She followed him around to the other side of the tail section, and her breath caught. Light streamed through the dozens of bullet holes in the tail boom. A chunk was missing from one blade of the tail rotor. More holes raked the entire right side of the aircraft, right up to her seat in the cockpit, and the engine housing was peppered with holes as well.
Tess swallowed. Shit, it was a freaking miracle the bird had continued to fly.
Movement flashed in her peripheral vision. A man was climbing out of the Blackhawk’s cabin with some gear draped over his shoulder. When he straightened, recognition hit her. SA Prentiss, one of the FAST Bravo members. Tall, dark and handsome, the first man who had captured her curiosity and interest in a long time…and the absence of guilt that normally accompanied a thought like that about another man startled her. What did it mean?
Didn’t matter, because she was pretty sure Prentiss didn’t even know she existed.
He nodded at them and started
to turn for the building. Tess pulled her helmet off as she talked with her chief, and Prentiss stopped. Seemed to stare at her for a moment, his broad-shouldered silhouette backlit by the light coming from the building behind him.
Her pulse quickened as they studied each other across the open space. Did he recognize her? She’d spotted him around Bagram with some of his teammates a couple times over the past few weeks, and of course he’d been at the pre-mission briefings she’d attended. It was impossible not to notice him, but not once had he even made eye contact with her at a briefing or meeting. Maybe he was married, or otherwise engaged. Or maybe she was just too plain to draw his attention.
She summoned a smile, tired as hell now that her adrenaline level had crashed. “How’s your team?” she called out, feeling the need to say something. Yep, I’m the pilot commander. None of the wounded were from the FAST team, or her chief would have told her.
“We’re all fine, thanks to you,” Prentiss said in his deep, southern drawl. Even his voice was sexy. She’d spent a lot of time in the Gulf region during her training days, and from his accent she’d place him either from coastal Alabama or Mississippi.
He eyed the shot-up helo before meeting her gaze once more. At this distance she couldn’t see his features that well, but her brain had no problem filling in all the gaps, easily conjuring up the square jaw and dark blue eyes she found so captivating. “Your bird sure took one hell of a beating out there.”
She gazed at the Blackhawk fondly, grateful for the amount of protection it had given them. Wasn’t the first time she’d required it, and wouldn’t be the last. Risk came with the territory in her line of work, and she wouldn’t give up her position within the Aviation Division or flying Blackhawks for the world. “She did. But she still got us home.”
“No, you got us home. That was some damn fine flying.”
She shrugged off his praise. She and her copilot had merely followed procedure to the best of her ability. The door gunner deserved the most credit. “Just doing my job. And I’ve got a great crew.” Mostly, though, they’d just been damn lucky. And after everything that had happened tonight, she didn’t feel like talking to anyone. Even the mysterious, sexy man in front of her right now. “Have a good night.”
“You, too.” Without another word, he turned and strode for the cinderblock building.
Tess gazed after him for a long moment, cataloguing the outline of his tall, strong body and the way he moved. Confident. Sensual.
Get back to work, Dubrovski.
She gave herself a mental slap as her crew chief continued their conversation, and expelled a breath as the weight of exhaustion hit her. She had a ream of reports to fill out and questions to answer before they could return to Bagram. Only then could she be alone to crawl into her bunk and process everything that had happened. And reimagine the terror her husband had felt in those moments before the helo he was in crashed into the mountains three years ago.
But they wouldn’t be returning to Bagram on this bird.
Tess eyed the shot-up Blackhawk once more. She was too badly damaged to fly back to base, so they’d have to hitch a ride with another crew. And at the moment, she was more than okay with being a passenger instead of at the controls for the return flight.
She headed for the main building with her crew chief, deep in thought. She’d learned something surprising about herself tonight. Based on her reaction to seeing Special Agent Prentiss a few minutes ago, maybe she was finally ready to move on from Brian’s death.
Even if she had no one to move on with.
Chapter One
Four months later
Reid pulled up to the curb in front of the two-story, Colonial-style brick house in the middle of Georgetown, the most expensive neighborhood in the D.C. area. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell he could ever have afforded this kind of place on his salary as a DEA agent. Lucky for his ex, her businessman boyfriend had a lot more money than he did.
He didn’t get out of his car and go to the front door, just pulled out his phone and texted Autumn. He’d discovered years ago that it was way easier for everyone involved if he and his ex didn’t have to see each other during pick-ups and drop-offs.
He had joint custody of Autumn, but with Sarah still bitter about the divorce and forced to assume all of the parenting duties while Reid was away—and he was away a lot, either for training or deployments—he’d learned to keep a low profile with her. All their limited communication was via text or email, or through their lawyers. Which sucked, not only because it was a pain in the ass, but because it was a damn waste of money for them both.
The front door popped open a minute later and Autumn bounded onto the porch with her little pink overnight backpack strapped to her shoulders. She waved as she hurried down the steps, an excited smile on her face that made his chest tighten even as he grinned. He’d known nothing about kids or being a father before she’d arrived nine-and-a-half years ago, and now he couldn’t imagine life without her. She was the light of his life, hands down. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her.
He leaned over and popped the passenger door open for her. “Hey, baby girl.”
“Hi, Dad!” She tossed her backpack onto the backseat, then ducked into the front to wind her arms around his neck. “Missed you.”
Reid gave her a squeeze, inhaling the scent of her shampoo. “Missed you too.”
Autumn hopped out and slid into the rear seat while he set the front one back into position. She was still too short to sit up front with him. “I brought my new craft kit with me. We can do it after we get home from the movie and dinner.”
Inside, he grimaced, but he merely smiled, glad she’d have something to occupy herself with for the next several hours. “Yeah, about that…”
She stopped in the midst of doing up her seatbelt to look at him. “What?”
“I have to stop by HQ for a little while right now.”
She groaned. “Now?”
“I know, it sucks, and I’m sorry. But I have to go in, there’s an important meeting. I didn’t want to cancel our night together though, so I thought I’d just come get you, take you with me, and we can catch the movie when I’m done.”
She buckled her seatbelt and flopped back against the seat with her arms crossed, looking so much like her mother but with his coloring, it startled him. “Fine,” she muttered, gazing out the window.
Reid fired up the engine. “Shouldn’t take too long,” he said trying to put a positive spin on things. He swiveled to look back at her. “It’s a nice day out. Wanna drive with the top down?”
She shrugged and didn’t look at him. “I guess.”
The amount of attitude she managed to inject in those two syllables damn near made him chuckle. He was in so much trouble when she hit her teens. “Okay.”
Without another word he hit the button to open the convertible top and it folded away into the back, smooth as butter. Pulling away from the curb, he reached down and turned on the stereo, where he had a special playlist waiting, and cranked it.
As soon as the bass line for one of the bubblegum pop songs she loved blasted through the speakers, he glanced in the rearview mirror and caught the reluctant smile tugging at her mouth. Reid smothered a grin. Worst music in the history of music, but if it put a smile on his kid’s face, that was all that mattered.
By the time he reached FAST headquarters in Arlington just across from the Pentagon, Autumn was singing along to the music and bobbing her head in time with the beat.
Mission accomplished.
He parked in a spot out front of the building just as Maka pulled in beside them in his big-ass black, raised pickup. Reid nodded at his teammate. “Hey, who’s that?” he said to Autumn.
“Uncle Kai!” she squealed, and frantically unbuckled her seatbelt.
Reid had just enough time to switch off the ignition and pop the passenger door for her, then she was out like a rocket, practically hopping up and down as she waited i
mpatiently for Maka to climb down from his truck.
“Hey, if it isn’t my best girl,” Maka said, his bronze, rugged face breaking into a huge smile as he reached down to scoop Autumn up in a giant hug.
The contrast in their size was almost comical, but Reid had to admit there was something endearing about a guy Maka’s size hugging his daughter with such genuine affection, those huge arms wrapped around her protectively. It always made him proud that all his teammates loved her and would watch out for her.
“Nice tunes, by the way.” Maka shot Reid a knowing grin. “Didn’t know you were into that sorta stuff, man.”
“Guy’s gotta have some secrets from his teammates,” Reid said, climbing out and grabbing Autumn’s backpack, then his gear in the trunk.
The instant Maka set her down, Autumn reached up for both his hand and Reid’s. “After Dad finishes with his meeting, we’re going to see the new Pixar movie,” she said to Maka. “You wanna come with?”
“Oh, man, I wish I could, sweetie, but I’ve already got plans later.”
Autumn peered up at him, a frown tugging at her eyebrows. “You have a girlfriend?”
Reid burst out laughing at her astonishment.
Not the least bit offended, Maka grinned. “Yeah, I do. We’ve been seeing each other on and off for a while now.”
From what Reid had gathered, the “relationship”—if one could call it that—with Shelley was a total shit show, but there must be a reason why Maka kept getting back together with her. And Reid wasn’t exactly a relationship guru, so what the hell did he know. She must be damn good in bed for his buddy to put up with all the drama, though. Since he didn’t exactly have the equivalent of a PhD when it came to making things work with the opposite sex, Reid had never asked his buddy about Shelley.
“Oh, there’s Uncle Zaid!” Autumn said as they entered the building. She tugged free of their hands and raced over to Khan, who stopped and held his arms out to her with a big grin.
