by J. M. Madden
Then he started talking dirty to her. Not verbally, but mentally. He told her how great she felt wrapped around his cock, and how much it meant to him to be held by a woman again. When he kissed along her neck, he told her how much her subtle scent had aroused him, even from the first moment in the alley. The words, the sentiment, curled into her mind and aroused her just as much as what his body was doing to hers. The kicker, though, the thing that put her over the edge, came when he paused long enough to look down into her eyes and to thank her for letting him touch her.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him down to her, nuzzling against his neck. “It’s my pleasure, obviously.”
His body curled into her in a hard, fast drive, until they both crashed over that edge of bliss. Her vision swam and he was the only steady thing to hang onto.
This time when he rolled away from her she followed, sprawling across his chest. Aiden seemed a little surprised, but appreciative and he pulled her tight.
“You need to quit thanking me for touching you,” she told him. “It’s not a hardship. Believe me.”
One side of his mouth kicked up. “Okay. I thought maybe you might be enjoying yourself.”
“Um, yeah,” she said wryly, trying not to sound too ridiculous. “You didn’t forget anything while you were gone.”
His smile faded and she cursed herself. “Sorry. Not trying to make light of what you went through.”
“I know,” he said softly. “I just forgot for the first time in a long time what we were in the middle of. Thank you for letting me do that.”
He dropped a kiss to her lips. “I should go clean up. If the shower was bigger I’d invite you in.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him. “You might be surprised what will fit in there. Let’s try.”
With a saucy wink, Angela rolled out of bed, Aiden laughing behind her. She showed him exactly what could be done in a shower his size.
Once they were cleaned up they headed for the kitchen to find something to eat, but Aiden jerked to a stop in the bedroom doorway. Angela peered around his shoulder.
A man sat in the office chair at Aiden’s computer console, obviously waiting for them to appear. Even though he was slouched in the chair she could tell he was a tall, muscular man. Taller than Aiden, definitely, but maybe not as muscular. He had thick, curling, golden blond hair and vibrant blue-green eyes that narrowed on her dangerously as she rested a hand on Aiden’s waist.
Angela assumed this was Fontana, but until Aiden told her for sure she would be on her guard.
There was a buzzing in her head and she glanced between the two men. They seemed to be talking around her, keeping her out of the loop. “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t do that,” she broke in, elbowing Aiden in the ribs. “It’s very rude. I’m Detective Angela Holloway. I assume you’re Drake Fontana.”
The man’s electric gaze flipped to Aiden for a telling moment, then back to her. He gave her a dangerous smile. “Yes, I’m Fontana. I didn’t expect Aiden to have company. You’ll have to excuse me for being taken aback.”
Angela stared at him a moment longer, as if weighing the genuineness of the smile. She apparently didn’t believe it because she narrowed her eyes.
Aiden would have laughed but he didn’t want to piss off his friend any more than he already had. Fontana’s mental ‘What the fuck?’ had been eloquent enough when he’d first seen him. And Aiden could understand the disbelief. He’d been out here alone for a long time. All of them had been alone, because there was no way they could drag innocents into what was going on. He knew Fontana could do casual hookups and he assumed Wulfe did as well, but he hadn’t been in a place where he could do that, mentally.
Pushing all that aside he stepped toward his buddy. Fontana stood to meet him and they clasped hands, then pulled each other in for a back-slapping hug. Aiden grinned up at him, truly glad to see his friend in one piece. “I didn’t hear anything from you. I was getting worried.”
“You should be worried. I think we’ve got operatives converging. I’ve had one on my tail for three states, and there was one a few miles away from here at a rest area outside of town. The third I’m not positive about.”
“How do you know they’re operatives?” Angela asked, moving up beside them.
Aiden winced. If she was going to be around he needed to be better aware of her position. He’d had no idea she’d been that close until she’d spoken.
Fontana seemed a little spooked as well. “Why can’t I hear her?”
“I’m not sure,” Aiden admitted. “She’s a dead spot for you as well?”
Fontana nodded, folding his arms across his chest as he stared at the detective. She stared right back and stood in almost the exact same position.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she repeated. “How do you recognize them?”
Aiden had to admire her persistence. “There’s a tension in the air when we’re near danger. Every part of our body feels it.”
“Is it that you’re picking up malevolence from the operatives?”
The two men looked at each other. That had never occurred to them. “Perhaps,” Aiden admitted.
“Soldiers often psych themselves up for an attack,” she continued. “Maybe if they’ve been tested on like you guys have been, and are receptive to that kind of thing, maybe they can broadcast as well. Maybe they’re trying to psyche you out.”
Aiden shook his head. They’d been running for the better part of two years but that had never been part of the team discussions. She’d been with them hours and seemed to have a fresh, maybe better insight to the problem. Or maybe just a more objective view of the situation. He gave her a small smile. “I think you might be right. How close are they, Fontana?”
The other man shrugged. “I think within the city. At least two are. But there’s another…” he turned to look out the high windows, then looked back at them. “The third feels further away, but there’s something huge to the north drawing my attention as well, though I’m not sure what.”
Wincing, Aiden held out his hand. “Do you have the drive?”
Retrieving the small black plastic stick drive from his boot, Fontana handed it over without a word and moved out of Aiden’s chair. Within just a few seconds Aiden had downloaded the information and was running it in a third column alongside the rest of the info stored there. They waited for the computer to make some kind of connection between the three disks, but it just didn’t happen.
“It still looks like gibberish,” Angela murmured.
Aiden tried not to let the disappointment surge too much. He’d known that it would be a long shot. The fourth disk had to be the key.
The three of them stared at the screens for several long moments.
“I still say we send the info to your brother to see what he can make of it,” Angela murmured.
Fontana glanced at him sharply and he knew he would have some explaining to do about spilling information, but Aiden shrugged it off for the moment. “I don’t know.”
“If you want we can run it through my computer and I’ll go to a library or coffee shop to use their Wi-Fi. No connection to you or this location.” She held up a finger. “Or, you can give me the drives and I can take them to him, then you don’t have to worry about transmitting them at all. Other than knowing where my apartment is they probably don’t know me.”
Fontana snorted and shifted on his feet. “Oh, I’m sure they know who you are by now. The Collaborative works a lot faster than that.”
“I don’t think the transmitting will be the issue, anyway. I do think that once the drives are unlocked it’ll trigger a locator program. That’s how Shu and the company worked.” He avoided the rest of her suggestion. There was no way he would allow her to become more involved than she already was. She certainly wasn’t going out alone to do this. They had no idea where the operatives were, or even how many of them. The force to the north worried him and now that Fontana had mentioned it, he could f
eel it as well.
“I need to catch Fontana up for a minute, Angela.” He reached out to touch her elbow. “I’m not blocking you out of anything important but it’s easier for me to do this our way.”
She didn’t like it but she nodded. “I’m going to go braid my hair.”
For a moment he watched her go, taken aback at the rightness he felt at having her in his space.
What the fuck, Dude?
Aiden laughed at Fontana, slipping into the shorthand mental conversations like they’d never been apart. They caught each other up on details about what they’d gone through since they’d been apart and the trials they’d faced. Fontana had been dealing with his own issues, which made Aiden feel better about what he’d had to do to survive.
“It’s been hell,” the other man told him quietly. Then his eyes lightened. “I’m glad to see you getting your rocks off. Did it have to be a detective, though? How’s that working out?”
Grinning, Aiden shrugged. “Not bad, actually. She investigated the case when TJ was killed. His body was never recovered. Neither was the body of the operative I took out.”
Fontana’s handsome face darkened with fury. “It pisses me off that they took him back. The Collaborative has no right to his body.”
A subtle tremor shook through the warehouse, setting off the alarms. Aiden spun to his consoles but knew what he would find. Nothing. He looked up at Fontana, impressed at the man’s growth. “Is that new?”
Fontana shrugged. “Not really. It’s happened a few times recently.”
Angela rushed out of the bedroom. “Did we just have an earthquake?”
Her hands were over her head as she finished the braid and tied it off. Aiden shook his head. “No. Just Fontana flexing his muscles. He has an affinity to metal.”
Her eyes widened and slid to the other man. “Damn, that’s impressive. And scary. What other tricks can you do?”
“Nothing he would let me show you,” Fontana grinned, sliding a glance at Aiden, but his friend could still see the anger banked in his eyes.
Fontana had grown significantly since he’d last been with him.
“Until we figure these drives out we have no leverage with the company, and we’ll just be running from them. At some point we’ll slip up and they’ll catch us.”
Not if we catch them first.
Aiden glanced at Fontana. “What do you mean?”
“Why don’t we go after them? Turn the tables and shut the door on them.”
There was merit to what he suggested. He’d been hiding for so long. It would be nice to turn the tables on them for once.
“Can you pinpoint them?”
Fontana’s gaze turned fuzzy as he stared into the middle distance. “Yes, I think so. I’m sure I can when they get closer.”
Angela shoved her hands into her jeans pockets. “How can I help?”
Aiden turned to look at her, then stood from the chair. He looked into her eyes. “I don’t know that you should. If the situation turns bad you have the most to lose.”
“You’re joking, right,” she demanded, brow furrowed. “There are military from every branch being tested on by a covert government entity and you’re worried about my job?” she shook her head. “I’m not worried about it. This is more important than any job. I was a Marine MP before I was a cop. If they’d come to me with the same proposition I might have taken them up on it as well. It’s hard to tell how many young men got sucked into this shit show. This is more important than any of us.”
Aiden didn’t know if that was true or not, but he didn’t want to argue with her.
“Imagine what would happen if the government actually started using soldiers like these,” she pushed.
Oh, he had, many times. And he’d worried that in the two years since they’d escaped and gone dark that the camp had continued to function and refine their process. Shu had had smart doctors and researchers working beneath him. It was entirely possible that the camp was still turning out enhanced soldiers but he had no way of knowing unless he went back there. Or heard from someone who had been there recently.
The thought of other Navy SEALs being roped into doing what he did turned his stomach. It physically made him ill. But what could he do about it right now?
Maybe it was time to think about asking for help to dig into the drives from Lost and Found, specifically his brother John. Fuck. That was the last thing he wanted to do. The man had two new babies and a beautiful wife, a family. If anything happened to any of them it would devastate him but Aiden had run out of options. It was hard to tell when they’d see Wulfe and retrieve the remaining drive. Maybe he would send him a message on the generic email, letting him know that the third disk was a no go.
Angela continued to stare at him, waiting, and he wavered. “Maybe… I’ll send you to Lost and Found with the disks.”
A brilliant smile split her mouth and she leaned forward to wrap him in a tight hug, giving him a scorching kiss as she pulled away. “Thank you. This needs to be stopped, Aiden.”
“I know,” he sighed. “I just wanted the least amount of collateral damage possible. Maybe I’ll go with you…”
He glanced at Fontana, who was sitting quietly. The other man shook his head. “Don’t look at me for permission. It’s got to be up to you how you deal with your family.”
Aiden frowned, looking down at the computer console.
“If you don’t want to take the drives,” she said quietly, “let’s at least go talk to him and see what his thoughts are about opening the fourth. Are you positive it’ll have some kind of locator program attached to it? Maybe he’ll have an idea on how to disable that.”
Aiden looked at Angela with new respect. That was an option he hadn’t thought about. “The locator program is a proprietary safety measure the Collaborative uses on all of their equipment.”
He turned the small black drive to show her the scrolling SC logo on the back.
“Ah, I see. Aren’t they the sneaky bastards?”
“You have no idea,” Fontana told her.
So, they made plans to head to Lost and Found. They would take Angela’s vehicle, but she would call first to make sure that John would be there.
When she gave him a thumbs up two minutes later, then pocketed her cell phone, Aiden knew he had no choice but to go through with the plan. He had a lot of trepidation about this, though. It had been a long time since he’d seen John and he didn’t want things to be awkward. He certainly didn’t want the man to feel obligated to accept him or help him for any reason.
Chapter Sixteen
Fontana didn’t like going out as a group, but he understood the advantages. If they were ambushed, he and Aiden both had a better chance of keeping everyone else safe. He’d also wanted to drive, but Aiden’s woman had given him a death glare. What the fuck was up with that?
Yeah, she was a Marine veteran so he understood some of her antagonism, but so far she hadn’t impressed him. Aiden seemed to be hooked on her though. If his head wasn’t in the game the way it should be, Fontana would look out for him.
As they pulled out of the warehouse, Fontana began scanning the area. It was early morning. He’d gotten to the warehouse before dawn, and they hadn’t spent a lot of time chattering. They seemed to have missed the morning rush hour, because traffic was sparse in this area. His own car was several blocks away in the parking lot of a grocery store.
He shifted uncomfortably in the seat. There wasn’t enough room back here for his long legs and being curled up like this was really beginning to hurt. His right leg had never recovered correctly from being broken during their jungle escape. He didn’t know if it was the contamination that had gotten inside the bone or what, but it had just never healed right. Most days he could ignore the pain and power through it, but he’d used it hard the past two days getting here.
Apparently this company they were talking about wasn’t far from the warehouse because the detective started taking surface streets and alle
ys. Fontana kept a mental diagram in his head just in case he had to backtrack. It also helped because the Rocky Mountains and the Denver skyscrapers were such an easy landmark to see. The diagram suddenly lit up and he realized they’d crossed this street twice, and it ran north and south. Even as he watched for ambush, he continued to map out the Denver streets. His sense of direction had sharpened in the past two years.
Lost and Found Investigative Service was five blocks from Aiden’s warehouse bolthole, but they’d driven twenty-two, in heavy traffic and light, just to be sure they weren’t followed. Yes, it was probably overkill, but Aiden needed to take every precaution he could to be comfortable that he was doing everything possible to protect his brother.
Fontana understood the caution, in a way. No, he didn’t have a blood brother like Aiden did, but he’d taken the same care in coming to Aiden who was his brother just the same.
His eyes burned as he scanned the area, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Everything looked normal, he thought. Aiden’s head was also on a swivel and if anyone was likely to spot something out of place it was him, because this was his home turf. Fontana would defer to him in all things tactical in this area.
“Do you want me to park in the lot or down the block?” the woman asked.
“There’s an alley behind the building,” Aiden told her. “We’ll go in the back door. I might know someone who can jimmy a lock.”
Fontana grinned from the back seat, his eyes connecting with Aiden’s for a split second. They’d been apart for a long time and he had a great big bag of new tricks to show his buddy.
They parked right up against the building, in an out of the way corner. A long morning shadow shielded them as they made their way to one of the service doors on the back of the building. Cameras were mounted on the top corners of the building, but Fontana wasn’t worried about them. He’d learned to create static when he needed to. If the security guard was actually watching the feed, all he would see would be a screen of snow until Fontana passed.
