Ivy's Delta (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Delta Team Three Book 4)

by Elle James

  “Okay. We’ll move into position and wait for the fireworks before we make a run for the boat. Glad you all made it out. Yeah, we’re okay. See you in a few. Out here.”

  Duff’s gaze met hers. “We have to get closer.”

  “To the beach?” Ivy’s gut clenched. “That’s an awful lot of open air to run through. Not to mention putting the tourists at risk.”

  He nodded. “The team is setting up a diversion. We need to blend in with the beachgoers. Come on, we have some shopping to do.”

  “Shopping? Are you crazy? There are armed men after us.”

  “All the more reason to find disguises.” He winked and checked both directions over the wall. “Clear. Let’s go.” He gripped her hand and ran toward the beach and the stores that lined the waterfront. He located a beachwear shop with racks of swimsuits and sunglasses and slipped around the corner and inside.

  “I don’t have any money,” she said. “My purse is in your motorcycle back in Texas.

  “I have a credit card. Find what you need for a touristy day at the beach and put it on in the changing room. And do something to hide your hair. It’s a dead giveaway. Make it fast. Merlin’s diversion won’t be long in the making.”

  Ivy ducked her head and shopped faster than she’d ever shopped in her life. She selected a one-piece suit, a sheer coverup, water shoes instead of flipflops, floppy hat and sunglasses. She entered the changing room beside Duff. “I’ll only be a minute,” she said.

  “I’ll wait for you,” he said.

  Moments later, she’d ditched her boots, jeans, the T-shirt Vance had given her, and dressed in the suit, coverup, water shoes and sunglasses. She wound her auburn hair up and tucked it into the floppy hat. A glance at her image in the full-length mirror showed a different person from the one who’d walked into the shop. The hat and sunglasses hid the bruises and the cut on her temple and her hair. She could be any one of the tourists there for a day on the beautiful sandy beaches of Costa Rica.

  “I’m ready,” she said, and stepped out of the dressing room.

  Duff was waiting outside the door, dressed in a loud pair of swim trunks in a bright blue, green and red tropical print. He wore a matching tropical shirt, an old man’s fisherman hat and sunglasses.

  Ivy chuckled. “You don’t want to stand out at all, do you?”

  “Nope,” he said. “Just trying to fit in.” He slung a tote bag over his arm. Ivy suspected his gun and extra bullets were what was weighing it down. “I’m all paid up, let’s get you checked out and find a place to wait for our cue.”

  “Do you know what that cue might be?”

  “I’ll know it when I hear it,” he said.

  Ivy stepped up to the counter and let the clerk cut the tags off her items and ring them up. Duff paid while keeping a watch out the window for the cartel.

  When they were finished, they walked out the door like any other couple on vacation.

  As soon as they cleared the entrance, the Jeep with the machinegun rolled out onto the street, moving slowly, the driver and gunners looking in both directions.

  Ivy froze, glad for the anonymity of the sunglasses to hide her frightened expression.

  Duff curled his hand around hers and smiled at the sunshine. “It’s a glorious day, isn’t it darlin’?”

  Ivy forced a matching smile. “Yes, it is, dear.”

  The men on board looked their direction but kept going.

  The Jeep rolled by. As soon as they passed, Duff turned the opposite direction and led Ivy away.

  Ivy fought hard to keep her gaze forward, though she wanted to look back and see if the cartel thugs had turned around and were pointing their weapons at them.

  They’d gone a block when a dark SUV pulled out onto the beachfront road.

  “I could be mistaken, but that SUV looks like the one that was parked in front of Vance’s house when we left,” she said.

  As the vehicle rolled past, the passenger window lowered, revealing the occupant.

  Vance Tate.

  He looked at them, his eyes narrowing slightly before he looked ahead.

  The SUV passed.

  “Bastard,” Duff muttered beneath his breath. Softly, he spoke into his headset, “Merlin, it’s getting hot out here. We could use that diversion about now.”

  No sooner had the words left his mouth when a loud explosion ripped through the air. Ivy turned back toward the sound to see fireworks shooting up into the air, bursting one after the other.

  Duff leaned close to her. “That’s our cue. See that boat at the end of that pier?”

  She nodded.

  “That’s our ticket out of here.” He tucked her hand through his arm and started across the street, across a boardwalk, and out onto the pier.

  Ivy glanced over her shoulder.

  The dark SUV had stopped and the men were getting out, carrying guns.

  “Run!” Duff yelled.

  Chapter 16

  Duff held tight to Ivy’s hand as they raced to the end of the pier.

  A long cigar boat waited there. Merlin, Woof, Zip, and Jangles, wearing similar attire to Duff, stood waiting for them, their weapons at the ready.

  Gunfire behind them made Duff run faster. He prayed the attackers were far enough from the men who’d left the SUV that the bullets would fall short, but they still had to get away.

  As they neared the boat, he shouted, “Jump!”

  He waited for Ivy to do as he said.

  She flew off the pier onto the boat. Woof caught her and fell back in his seat. Duff landed on the bottom of the boat and rolled to his feet, pulling his gun from the bottom of the tote he’d purchased.

  The jet boat raced away from the pier as the men from the SUV, including Vance Tate, ran toward them.

  Merlin sent the boat shooting out into the water as far and as fast as he could in sixty seconds.

  Soon, the pier and the people on it were but distant specks on the horizon.

  Duff turned back to where Ivy was on the back seat of the cigar boat. Instead of sitting up, she was lying across the seat on her belly with Woof holding his hand to a wound on her side.

  The blood rushed from Duff’s head, leaving him feeling dizzy. He dropped to his knees beside Ivy. “Sweetheart, talk to me.” He leaned in close to hear her over the engine.

  She chuckled and winced. “I think I caught a bullet.”

  He smoothed a hand over her hair as it whipped her cheek in the wind.

  The cigar boat slapped the waves as it raced toward Limón and the air transport waiting for them there.

  “Someone get on the sat phone and arrange for an armed escort from the pier to the hospital,” Duff called out.

  “On it,” Jangles said, pointing to the sat phone he held to his ear.

  “Does this qualify as a war story?” Ivy asked. “I should have enlisted in the Army.” She snorted. “That would have given my mother a coronary.” She gave him a crooked smile. “Might just do that. Is there an age limit?”

  “Yes, but you’re still within the guidelines,” Woof said.

  A tear slipped from the corner of Ivy’s eye.

  Duff took her hand. “Does it hurt that bad?”

  She shook her head. “I was thinking.”

  “That’s dangerous,” Duff teased, a knot lodging in his throat. “About what?”

  “What if,” she gulped and started again. “What if that bullet damaged something important?”

  “The docs can fix you right up.”

  She squeezed his hand. “No, what if it damaged my ability…to have children?”

  “Oh, baby, you’re going to be all right.”

  “There’s so many more things I want to know about you,” she said, closing her eyes.

  “Like what?”

  “Do you like children?” she asked, her eyes opening and her gaze locking on his.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “What if I can’t?” she said, her voice barely audible above the roar of the jet boat e
ngine.

  Duff strained to hear her words. “Can’t what?” he asked.

  “Can’t have children?”

  He almost laughed. She was worried she couldn’t have children. He was worried she wouldn’t live to find out. “My mother always told me don’t borrow trouble. We deal with whatever happens when we know more about it. Just hang in there. We’ll be in Limón soon. We’ll get you to the hospital and you’ll be just fine.”

  “Magnus,” she said, her fingers squeezing his hand. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” he asked.

  “For saving my life three times now.”

  His heart squeezed hard in his chest. Until she made it to the hospital and the doctor declared she’d live, he wasn’t sure he’d saved her life at all.

  “Sweetheart?”

  “Mmmm,” she responded, her eyes closed.

  “Care to try another date with this Delta Force soldier? I can’t promise it’ll be as exciting as the first two.”

  She smiled, her eyes still closed. “I’ll take my chances.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  She opened her eyes and smiled into his. “Yes.”

  “I’d kiss you, but I might injure you more with the boat moving like it is.”

  Her grin broadened briefly. “Save some for later. I need a nap.”

  She closed her eyes and didn’t open them again until they transferred her to the ambulance waiting at the dock in Limón. Along with the ambulance was the entire team, armed to the gills, along with the Limón police.

  “We would have called in the Costa Rican army,” Lefty said. “But they don’t have one.”

  It didn’t matter. The cartel didn’t make an appearance at the dock, en route to the hospital, or at the hospital.

  The doctors took Ivy into surgery immediately.

  While he sat in the surgical waiting room, Duff thought through all Ivy had said on the boat ride to Limón. She was worried that he’d be disappointed if she couldn’t have children.

  Did that mean she was thinking long-term about their relationship?

  “Funny how Ivy was worried about having kids, isn’t it?” Zip asked.

  Duff frowned. “Why is that funny?”

  “I mean, you two have only known each other a grand total of what…three days?”

  “So?” Duff’s frown deepened.

  Zip held up his hands. “Just sayin’ it hasn’t been that long and she’s already planning your family. How do you feel about that?”

  “Honored, excited, blessed,” he answered without hesitation. “How should I feel?”

  Zip grinned. “I’ll be damned.”

  “Why the hell should you be damned?” Duff demanded.

  “It’s true.” His grin broadened. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”

  Duff was wound up tighter than a baby rattler with a new button. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You’re in love with Ivy,” Woof interjected.

  “Right!” Zip said.

  Woof’s statement hit Duff square in the gut, knocking the wind out of him.

  He was in love with Ivy.

  Holy shit. When the hell had that happened?

  He knew as soon as the thought came to him. He’d fallen for her the moment she’d landed in his arms in Gwen’s bookstore.

  The thought that he almost lost her the way he’d lost Katie, and that he could still lose her if something happened during surgery, broke him open.

  “What’s wrong, man?” Zip asked.

  “First love will hit you like that,” Woof said.

  “She’s not my first love,” Duff said.

  His teammates grew serious as they stared at him.

  So Duff told them about Katie.

  Finished telling his biggest secret, his head spinning, he almost didn’t see the doctor walking through the waiting room door.

  “She’s out,” Merlin said.

  The team stood as one and converged on the doctor. He’d come out to report that she had come through just fine and that the bullet hadn’t damaged any vital organs, including her reproductive system.

  Duff smiled. That would make Ivy happy. He didn’t care if she never had children as long as she lived. They could always adopt.

  “Can we see her?”

  “Only one visitor, por favor,” the doctor said.

  Duff followed the doctor out of the waiting room. A nurse met him in the hallway and led him to Ivy’s recovery room.

  She was just coming out of the anesthesia when he approached her bed.

  “Well?” she said, her voice gravelly, her eyes still droopy.

  “You’ll live,” he said and took the hand without the IV stuck in it.

  “I figured that when I woke.”

  “The bullet missed all your vital organs,” Duff said.

  “I can have children?” she asked, a smile blooming on her face.

  Duff’s heart burst open at her smile. “Yes, you can have as many as you like.”

  “I always wanted half a dozen,” she said, closing her eyes. “Is that a problem?”

  “No, sweetheart,” he said. “I love you. And I’d love to have as many children as you want. I’ll even change diapers.”

  “It’s a good thing. If we’re having a half a dozen, we have to get started. I’m not getting any younger.”

  He laughed. “Could we at least wait until your stitches heal?”

  With her eyes still closed, she patted the bed beside her. “No time like the present, soldier.”

  Duff grinned. “You’re not going to remember this conversation when the effects of the anesthesia wear off.”

  “Wanna bet?” she whispered and fell asleep.

  He stayed with her until the nurse chased him out of the room that night.

  He slept on the floor outside her room, still dressed in his tropical shirt and shorts with the tote bag carrying his Glock. He’d be damned if they’d come this far and someone slipped through his team guarding the hospital to get inside and hurt or kidnap her while she was recovering from a goddamn gunshot wound.

  The next day, the doctor released her from the hospital. Senator Fremont had arranged for a medical transport plane to meet the ambulance at the airport and take her back to the States.

  Duff insisted on flying back with her. The senator agreed wholeheartedly.

  The rest of the team flew home in the back of the C130 that had delivered them to Limón, giving Duff hell over his first-class flight home.

  The medical staff on board the private jet kept Ivy doped up with pain meds until she arrived back in Killeen, where she was transported to a local hospital with a surgical staff on-call to check her over.

  They kept her overnight, weaning her off the heavy doses of pain meds so that by the morning, she was fairly clear-headed and ready to go home.

  Her mother arrived in time to speak with the doctor outside Ivy’s room. When they were done, she turned to Duff. “Magnus. Thank you and your team for all you did to bring my daughter home.”

  He nodded. “She’s a fighter, ma’am.”

  The senator nodded. The circles beneath her eyes told of the strain she’d been under. “Like her father.”

  “And her mother,” he said.

  She held out her hand. “I hope to see more of you in the future.”

  “You can count on it, ma’am. If your daughter agrees.”

  “She better,” she said with a smile. “She could do a lot worse. None of the men she dated at the law firm were suitable. None of them had the fortitude and honor you and your team have in your pinky fingers. I’m glad she met you and I hope things work out between you.”

  “I’ll work on it, ma’am.”

  “Make her work for it, too. You can’t make it too easy or she’ll know something’s up.” She winked and pulled on his hand, bringing him in for a hug. “Now, I’m going to see my daughter, and then I need to get her home to recover.”

  “Your place or hers?” he asked.<
br />
  “She insisted on hers.”

  “Have you taken care of your situation? Will she remain in danger?”

  The senator’s eyes narrowed. “Not for much longer. There are government forces at work as we speak to take care of the problem now that we know where it is.”

  “Good.” He nodded his head toward Ivy’s door. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to stay with Ivy until we know for certain the problem won’t recur.”

  “Since I have to get back to Washington tomorrow, I’d like for you to stay as well,” her mother said.

  Duff’s lip’s twitched. “Now, all we have to do is get Ivy to agree.”

  “I heard that,” Ivy called out through the open door of her room. “And yes, I agree.”

  Duff went to Ivy’s bedside, taking her hand in his. “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey.”

  “I seem to keep waking up in strange places. Please, tell me I’m not in Costa Rica anymore.”

  He laughed. “You’re in Killeen and you have a visitor.” He stepped away, allowing her mother to approach the bed.

  “Hi, baby girl,” the senator said, taking her daughter’s hand. “You go to a lot of lengths to get your mother to pay a personal visit to you, don’t you?”

  “Hi, Mom. You haven’t called me baby girl since before Dad died.”

  She nodded. “I hadn’t almost lost my baby girl until now. It makes a senator rethink her priorities. Think I need to retire and spend more time with my family.”

  Ivy’s brow furrowed. “Who’s this woman and what have you done with my mother?”

  “I deserved that.”

  Ivy shook her head. “No, Mother, you are doing what you do best. You’re fighting for our country in Congress. I’ll be here when you can make it home.”

  “But I want to be around to get to know my grandchildren.”

  “You can reevaluate your duties to the country when that time comes,” Ivy said, her gaze going to Duff. She mouthed the words, half a dozen, and winked. “I remembered.”

  Duff laughed. “Yes, you did.”

  Her mother looked from her to Duff and back. “Am I missing the joke?”