by Em Petrova
She took a quick shower—using his body wash had her pussy clenching all over again—and she dressed in the clothes she’d arrived in. She couldn’t find a spare toothbrush, so she rinsed with mouthwash. After that, she called for a ride.
On the way to the hotel, Mark phoned. She brought the cell to her ear, aware of the driver inches away and how she would avoid any sensitive topics.
As soon as she answered, Mark spoke. “Alexander. Tell Ranger Ops that the rally point for Nuevo Leon is—”
“Wait. I’m not with them and have no way of getting ahold of them.” She darted a look at the driver, who seemed not to be paying attention, but she couldn’t take any chances.
A beat of silence. Then Mark exploded in her ear.
“What the hell do you mean you aren’t with them? This information came down from our office—and you’re not even with the team? I always took you as an agent who slides by and lets other people do the work, but this is fucking ridiculous, Alexander. You had one job and that is to stick with Ranger Ops until Operation X is buried in the ground. This could mean your badge, Alexander. Are you following me now? I didn’t send you to Texas to get a spot of sun!”
“I wasn’t informed they were going. I’ll take care of it and catch up to them.”
“There’s no way in hell that’s happening. They’re in the fucking chopper, and since you’re not on it, you aren’t going. Are you working on your tan by the hotel pool? This is our chance to prove how the ATF can work together with Homeland Security as equals, and now you’ve cost us the entire operation.”
Anger rose up, strong and bright, tasting like copper on her tongue. She pitched her voice low and steady as she said, “I will fix it, Mark.”
Before he could go off at her anymore, she ended the call. The strong burst of adrenaline from being told off had her heart thumping hard.
She didn’t know who she was more pissed at—her director or her lover.
Linc had knowingly gone without her.
Left her behind on a mission he knew she needed to be part of. She balled her fist on her thigh and restrained her need to throw back her head and bellow her frustration.
She thought they were a team, that she’d proved herself to him and the rest of Ranger Ops. Clearly, she was mistaken. They viewed her as a hindrance, maybe even a liability.
And her job was on the line. Mark had made that damn clear.
She had to get to the hotel and find a way to contact Linc. She knew the unit wasn’t allowed personal cell phones in the event they were captured, as Linc had been. But they still had other communication, and she was damn well going to be heard.
Giving herself a good kick was in order as well. She’d let down her guard, been unprofessional. Mark wasn’t far off base when he said he hadn’t sent her to Texas for pleasure, and wasn’t that exactly what she’d gotten all night in Linc’s bed? And this morning, when she should have been questioning him about where he was headed, she’d been lying back, enjoying his thick fingers buried in her pussy.
A growl of frustration left her, and the driver glanced back. “Everything okay?”
God, she also needed her own rental car. She couldn’t deal with nosy drivers.
“Fine,” she murmured and looked out the window as the city crawled by at what seemed like a snail’s pace when she needed to be sprinting like a roadrunner.
When she finally reached the hotel room, she walked straight to her tablet and logged in to the restricted database. It took only a few minutes to get a number locked into her mind, and she punched it in to her cell.
“Reed.”
“Linc,” she said.
“No, Lennon. But I can be Linc if you need me to be.”
She pushed out a breath and jammed her fingers into her loose hair. “I don’t have time to play the game of guess-the-right-twin. But maybe it’s better if I don’t speak to that man right now. Lennon, I need your coordinates so I can meet up with you.”
“Uh… negative. I am not at liberty to discuss it.”
“Lennon, cut the shit. I need to get to Nuevo Leon and help you take out that cell.” Her jaw ached from withholding a scream.
“No can do, Alexander. We’ll speak to you when we get back.”
The line went dead.
* * * * *
Linc whipped his head toward his twin, the name echoing in his skull and reverberating throughout his entire body along with the whir of the chopper blades not twenty feet from their team.
“Alexander?” Each boot he laid down between him and his twin felt like a thud of an earthquake.
Why the fuck had Lennon been talking to Nealy? Better yet, how the fuck had she found a way to contact the team?
Lennon shot him a look. “Dude, get hold of yourself. No need to look like you’re going for the throat. I told her she can’t be part of this.”
“Goddammit, she wasn’t even supposed to know!”
“Which is odd to me because she knew exactly where we’re headed. Clearly, somebody told her she needed to go along.” Lennon narrowed his eyes.
“She didn’t need to come, no matter what her orders were.”
“Wait a minute, bro.” Lennon cocked his head and widened his stance. “Agent Alexander was supposed to be here with us and you stepped over those orders and made your own choice not to inform her?”
Linc glared at his interfering twin. “Sully never said she was supposed to join us, so I didn’t tell her. Like I said, we got this. She’s not needed.”
“It’s because you’re in love with her.”
Linc grabbed his brother by the arms and stared into his eyes. Lennon’s words cut across him like the slash of a Bowie knife.
Fuck, now what?
He released Lennon and spun away.
His brother caught up to him, jogging to keep up to Linc’s pace. “C’mon, man. Say it. Do you love her?”
“Fuck off.”
“All you gotta do is admit it to me and I’ll leave you alone about it.”
“Get the fuck away from me.”
The chopper blades cut through the air as it lifted off, leaving Ranger Ops on the ground and fending for themselves.
“Say it, Linc,” Lennon wheedled like they were ten and he was asking his twin if he liked a girl in the fourth grade.
“Get the hell away from me.”
“All you have to do is say five little words—yes, I love her, Lennon. Or bro. You could say bro instead of my full name. I—”
Linc stopped walking and made a move to ram him off his feet.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Sully and Shaw were there, arms thrown out to create a barricade between them.
An arm came like a hard steel band around Linc’s chest as Shaw attempted to hold him back. Lennon shot him a shit-eating grin that had Linc’s fists curling.
“Just say it, man. Say you love her,” Lennon said.
“Fuck yes!” The cords of his neck strained with the yell.
“You what? You said you love her?”
Linc tore free of Shaw’s hold and strode away. “Ask me one more time and I’ll put a bullet in you.”
His twin’s laugh followed him, along with a few other chuckles. But Linc didn’t think it was one bit funny that he’d fallen in love with Nealy, a woman he hadn’t liked from the beginning.
But she grew on me.
And who was probably right now seething after finding out that he’d kept her from joining them to stop a shipment of semi-autos about to hit the highway and cross the border in one of their trucks filled with pig shit.
The memory of the scent burned his brain, resurrecting the claustrophobic feeling he was determined to beat.
She has no business anywhere near it.
Because I love her.
* * * * *
The wind from the chopper blades blew a tendril of Nealy’s hair free from her severe ponytail and across her face. She reached up to direct it behind her ear, but it refused to stay. Ignoring it, she watched as the chopper
door opened and a big, bulky man jumped to the ground. Followed by another and another.
They spotted her standing there, arms folded and her best don’t-fuck-with-me expression. Of course, Linc was the last to get out of the helicopter, and by this time, she’d perfected her glare.
His boots hit the asphalt, and he glanced up. From this distance, she couldn’t see much more than a tightening of his lips.
How could he have done this to her? Her job was on the line and he’d screwed with her career, her livelihood. She wasn’t going to be stuck in some corner cubicle desk job for the rest of her days.
When he began to approach, she stiffened. To think this man had made her feel all warm and fuzzy after he left her yesterday. She was only angrier with herself for letting down her guard, allowing a man to sweet-talk her—or finger-bang her—into believing what they had was something deeper.
Silly, stupid and reckless, when her job was at stake. She’d already lost to Mark Mitchum and now another man was undermining her position.
“Happy to see me, I gather,” Linc said above the whir of the chopper.
She shifted her weight to the other foot. Her arms were so tense that the muscles were beginning to lock up.
“It’s a joke, babe.”
“Don’t babe me,” she snapped. “You know exactly what you did to me, Reed.”
“So I’m back to Reed. Okay, Alexander, what exactly did I do to you?” He caught her by the arm and whirled her around to keep pace with him as he made his way from the chopper that was lifting off and the rest of the Ranger Ops team, looking on.
She yanked from Linc’s grasp and strode out ahead of him, blocking his path and forcing him to confront her. They were having this out, and he wasn’t taking the coward’s path and dodging her wrath.
He took one look at her face and bit off, “Not here, Nealy.”
“Well, if you think I’m getting into a car with you, you’re fucking crazy. After I tell you just how much you screwed me over, I’m getting in my car and driving far away from you.” She didn’t want to admit how much it hurt her to say those words, but it was for the best. Whatever they had was over now, and she would get back to her life.
Without Linc.
His brows pinched, and for a second, she saw the same mask of pain that he’d exposed to her after he’d called for her to come to him. He stopped walking and looked into her eyes. “Please, Nealy. Just come with me.”
Damn that harsh, gritty tone of his. It lured her in every time.
Pushing out a breath, she gave a single nod. She’d hear him out, but she wouldn’t be taken in by whatever he had to say. She would make up her own mind about his actions and how they affected her, and not be sucked into any of his excuses.
“You good, guys?” Sully called out to them.
Linc lifted a hand and waved. Nealy led him to the rental car she’d driven and got behind the wheel. She was in the driver’s seat in this game—in all ways.
He crowded into the economy car’s passenger seat, his neck bent so his head wasn’t smashed against the ceiling. “Could you get a smaller car?” he asked.
“All they had at the last minute. I guess there’s some convention in town.”
Mundane talk between people who’d shared a lot more. She swallowed and opened her mouth to speak.
Before a word expelled, Linc said, “I know you’re pissed.”
“Pissed doesn’t begin to cover it, Linc.”
He ran a hand over his face, and she saw how tired he was. Also, his knuckles sported several cuts as if he’d been in a brawl. She couldn’t imagine what he’d dealt with, but dammit, she should have been there with him.
“I’m not some shivering princess, you know. I was trained to handle extreme situations. I was responsible for taking out Manilo, the huge drug lord in Miami. I don’t mean from behind a desk, sending guns in to do my dirty work. I mean, I faced him, Linc. And I made a kill shot because he forced me to it when he had me in his sights.”
He let out a low groan. “Jesus, Nealy. I can’t stand to think of you in danger like that.”
His statement tripped her up. Her heart was beating faster, but she didn’t want to react to his sweetness, his concern. She wanted him to see her for the strong, deadly woman she could be when the situation called for it.
“You put me in a bad situation. My acting deputy director’s holding my job over my head now. Threatening to rip my position out from under my feet and leave me with nothing but a crap desk job processing paperwork. I was supposed to be with Ranger Ops, and you kept me from going. Why? How could you do that?” Her voice raised a notch with her renewed fury.
“You’re right—I shouldn’t have lied to you.”
“Damn straight you shouldn’t have!”
“But if I’m guilty of living up to my oath to protect and serve, then so be it.”
She stared at him. “Do you think you need to protect me?” She released a short laugh.
His direct gaze burned into her, his eyes burning with intensity. “Yes, I fucking do, Nealy. I fucking love you.”
Her jaw dropped. Not a single breath passed through her lungs. When she started to see stars, she sucked in sharply, and oxygen flooded her brain. With it came his words, hitting her full force.
“You love me,” she repeated.
God, could he be serious? She searched his face for a trace of humor but saw none. He was as serious as a heart attack, which she might have any moment.
She took another breath.
“Babe, I hated you at first. But now I see it for what it was—passion. A gut reaction to something that scared the balls off me.”
“You’re exhausted, haven’t slept.”
He shook his head. “That’s not why I’m saying these things, and you know it, Nealy.”
Hell, now what? Did he expect her to reply that she loved him too? She couldn’t do that, because she had no idea where her feelings stood among the lust, pleasure, irritation and anger directed toward this man.
“Fuck, don’t look at me that way. Do you think this is easy for me? Look at me. I’m six-two and two hundred and ten pounds. I carry a sniper rifle for a living and here I am gushing out cupid shit for a woman I’m pretty sure hates my guts.”
Her stomach jerked as if she’d been dealt a blow. “I don’t hate you, Linc,” she said faintly.
“I made a mistake not telling you about the mission. But the idea of you in the thick of the shit we were about to face…” He shook his head. “I wanted to keep you out of it. I wanted to keep you safe, babe.”
Her throat closed off, and she fought against her rising emotions on the tide of her extreme anger and the urge to smack his handsome face—right after brushing her fingertips over his rough stubble lining his chiseled jaw.
“Shit, Linc. Why did you have to say these things to me?” Dropping her head into her hand, she shook it back and forth.
“Damn. Do you want me to leave? The other guys haven’t left yet.”
She stared at the blank dashboard, mind in a fit of indecision. The professional part of herself wanted nothing to do with a man who was so determined to end her career. But the feminine part had tingles running through her entire system, and she wanted nothing more than to land in the lap of the man who’d just confessed his love to her.
She just wasn’t sure if she could trust him after what he’d done, keeping her from the mission she was meant to be on. And if she couldn’t trust in that, how could she believe anything else?
* * * * *
Linc sat in the dinky car seat with his knees up to his chin and his head cranked to the right, but he’d endure this for a week if it meant Nealy would give him a chance. He saw the headlights of the SUV pan across the parking lot as his team left without him.
“When I left this morning, I didn’t know you were supposed to be with us. Sully didn’t say anything to me.”
She eyed him.
“The team just left, so either I’m walking or you�
�re driving,” he said quietly to Nealy.
Her chest rose and fell. Finally, she turned on the engine and rolled out of the parking lot. He wasn’t certain what her destination might be. She could be taking him to her hotel, to his place or kicking him out into a ditch.
He probably deserved the latter—but dammit, even if Sully had told him she was meant to join them, Linc might have kept her from it, to protect her. Didn’t she see that? Of course she had her job security weighing on her mind.
And she’d looked as if she’d been caught with her pants down when he told her he loved her.
Probably shouldn’t have spilled that either. He was just making all the right choices with Nealy, wasn’t he?
The car dinged, alerting him he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. She sliced a look at him.
“I can’t buckle it. It’s crowded in here.”
She nodded and drove on. After a couple minutes, she shot him another glance from the corner of her eye. “Are you at least going to tell me about the mission?
“Technically, it’s all classified information,” he began.
She gave him a glare that would chill the balls off the devil.
“But I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” he finished.
“I’m listening,” was all she said.
As she drove, he talked, giving her all the dirty details leading up to finding the men behind the weapons buried beneath tons of pig shit on their way across the border. But when he got to the part about not a single man being around, she hit the brakes and looked at him.
“What do you mean there was nobody around?”
“The trucks were abandoned. We searched the area, spread out over half a mile, but they were tipped off. Long gone.”
“What the hell?”
“It happens. We find ways of luring them back.”
“Such as?” She eyed him and continued to drive once more.
He grinned. “We blew up one of their trucks. Losing half a million dollars’ worth of weapons brought them back in a hurry.”
“Oh my God, Linc. You know my position is to investigate explosives too. Do I need to be concerned with the amount of explosives used by Ranger Ops?”
“Yes. Be very afraid.” His grin widened, and for a moment she looked as if she might return it, but she turned her head aside and stared out the windshield again.
