“Are you ready?” Mac asked.
“Yes,” Carolina said, smoothing a short lock of blonde hair off her face. “One thing, I promised the wife there wouldn’t be any guns.” Not a flicker of guilt showed on her face.
“You might have mentioned that earlier,” Simon snarled at her.
“I knew you wouldn’t have agreed.” Carolina didn’t show the slightest remorse.
“That’s it. We’re pulling out,” Simon said.
“You can’t. We’re here. All the arrangements are made,” Carolina said, anger coloring her cheeks.
“But you didn’t pass on all the details,” Simon snapped.
Carolina squeezed past Simon and thumped on the door. “I’m going inside. The network pays your team to protect me, so you’d better do your job.”
Mac inclined her head, indicating to Simon it was okay. She slid her gun into the waistband of her trousers, making sure it was out of sight. “Let’s do this. Half an hour, right?”
“The interview might run longer,” Carolina said.
“No, it won’t,” Simon said. “If Mac has to drag you out, she has orders to do it.”
Carolina sent her a contemptuous glance. “I’d like to see her try.”
Mac laughed inwardly and lifted her shoulders in a shrug. The door opened, and they all went on alert, prepared for anything. Mac grabbed Carolina and shoved her behind her. The two men pulled back a fraction so they were out of the line of sight, but their weapons were ready should they be required.
“Reporter for the interview,” Mac said.
The woman nodded and opened the door wider. With adrenaline pumping through her body, she stepped inside the small apartment. It was spotlessly clean with the scent of cinnamon and cloves perfuming the air.
Two other women sat watching her and Carolina, their dark eyes curious as they inspected them. In the corner of the room, a baby fussed and one of the women rose to attend to it. In another room, a woman sang. She sounded young. The ring of a phone interrupted the singing.
“My daughter. Her friends are always ringing,” the woman who answered the door said with a smile.
Mac relaxed a fraction. If danger lurked inside this apartment, it wasn’t in plain sight. “Half an hour,” she murmured to Carolina. “Clock is ticking.”
Carolina’s mouth tightened, firming to a flat line, but she smiled at the woman who had answered the door. “I’m Carolina Eastern.”
Mac’s cue to blend into the wallpaper. She stood with her back to the wall, making sure Carolina wasn’t too far away for her to grab should the need arise.
The half-hour passed quickly, the women speaking good English.
“Carolina, time’s up. We need to go.”
“I’m not quite finished,” Carolina said.
“I can give you five more minutes, and then we’re leaving,” Mac said firmly. “Understood?” To her relief, Carolina asked her question and after the women answered, she wound things up, standing and thanking them very much for their time and for agreeing to speak with her.
As much as they might dislike her, Carolina Eastern had a way of putting people at ease, if she troubled herself, which made her a natural for interviews.
They hustled Carolina out of the apartment block and arrived back at their base two hours later, the trip taking an hour longer than usual because of a dust storm that obscured the city and made travel difficult. Mac prayed the quiet period lasted through all the interviews.
“I want to arrange the next interview for Friday,” Carolina said in her usual no-nonsense tone.
Louie frowned. “That doesn’t give us long to do our research.”
Although she understood the need for the recon trips and the scrupulous planning, Mac just wanted the interviews completed. All she wanted was to get through them alive. Even now her gut hummed with healthy fear. While it made for good reactions, living with constant adrenaline rushes wasn’t good for a person. She’d end up with the jitters, jumping at every slight noise.
At base, they piled out of their vehicle.
“Are you going to the gym?” Simon asked.
Mac hesitated, her gaze going to Louie who was speaking to the drivers. “No, I need to check my emails.”
Simon nodded. “Take care.” The honest concern in his face and voice brought the prickle of tears to her eyes.
“I will.” Mac strode away, heading to her room. She sat on the edge of Louie’s bunk to unlace her boots. The tremor of her fingers started then, reaction setting in. Her hands shook so badly she tangled the lace of her right boot into a stubborn knot. A strangled curse squeezed past her tight lips.
The door to their room opened and Louie stepped inside. He took one look and was at her side with two long strides.
“Let me, sweetheart,” he said, gently knocking her hands aside. With competent hands, he untangled the knot and slid the boot off her foot.
Mac studied his face through her tear-blurred vision, waiting for his chiding words. They didn’t come. Instead he helped her remove her protective vest and then pushed her onto his bunk, sliding in after her. He drew her into his arms and held her.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. You did a good job today.” He smoothed his hand over her tightly bound hair and pressed her face against his shoulder. His arms surrounded her, the scent of soap, dust and musky sweat familiar and welcoming. Gradually her panic started to recede and her limbs ceased trembling. Just being with Louie soothed her, his strong arms representing security. Safety. Mac squeezed her eyes closed and realized she’d been fooling herself. This thing between them wasn’t anything remotely resembling friends with benefits. She had feelings for him. Somewhere along the line he’d grabbed her heart.
* * * * *
“I don’t believe it,” Mac muttered, scanning the contents of her email again.
“Problem?” Louie ambled across the bedroom to stare over her shoulder. Mac didn’t even think about hiding the email from him, which rammed home her worry that she’d fallen for him. She valued her independence and had never willingly shared her personal life with a man.
“My father is sneaking from the home again, staking out the vineyard down the road.” What the hell did she do? The director’s frustration came through clearly in his email. Her father was disrupting the smooth running of the home.
“What are you going to do?”
Mac shrugged. It was all she could manage while trying to keep other emotions at bay—the fear for her father, anger at the disease and a sense of helplessness because she couldn’t be there to intervene on her father’s behalf.
“I have an idea,” Louie said. “I have a friend who lives in Papakura. I was in the SAS with him. Why don’t I give him all the details and he can keep an eye on your father?”
“But the director won’t let in visitors who aren’t family. It’s for the patients’ safety.”
“So tell him Nikolai is your cousin or better yet, that Summer, Nikolai’s wife, is your cousin. She’s returned to Auckland and wants to visit her uncle.”
“But it’s a hassle for them. This is my problem to fix. I’ll think of something.”
“And if you don’t? What will you do if they decide your father is too much trouble? You wouldn’t want them to confine him.”
Confinement would kill her father. Mac dragged a hand through her hair, wincing when she ripped a hair clip free. “I don’t know.” She removed the clip and jammed it back in place, the faint sting of her scalp bringing home the truth. For once she needed to rely on someone else.
“Do you think your friends would mind checking on my father? And maybe giving him orders each day? I think he forgets.” The bloody disease. She hated seeing the decline in her father’s mind. Hard enough that he didn’t recognize her anymore, but seeing his pride suffer on the brief occasions when he remembered hurt far worse.
“I’ll ring Nikolai and ask him,” Louie said, his hand squeezing her shoulder.
Warmth swelled inside her. She clo
sed her eyes briefly, fighting the tender emotions. They had no place on the battlefront. “Thank you.”
Louie checked his watch. “I’ll go and ring him now. If he’s not there, I’ll leave a message for him to ring me. Why don’t you email the director and tell him your cousin has been in touch? Get Nikolai and Summer Tarei put on the official visitors’ list.”
“Are you sure your friend won’t mind?” She snorted, a trace of amusement in the sound despite her anxiety for her father. “You know the director assured me they could handle my father. I chose this particular home because of their great reputation with Alzheimer patients.”
“Your father isn’t ordinary. He’s a military man. We’re different,” Louie stated.
Mac liked the fact Louie included her in the group. She was good at her job. After all, her father had shaped her, rearing her like a young soldier. “I don’t think the director bargained on a military man.”
“Nikolai will do this. I would do anything for Nikolai and Jake, and they’d do the same for me.”
Mac understood the sentiment and had seen the same deep friendships with her father and his army mates. The men fought and lived together in close proximity, facing danger and putting their lives in the hands of their fellow soldiers. They suffered through the same experiences, had the same mental traumas, and that bond made them closer than blood relations. Unfortunately, none of her fathers’ military friends were around to offer help. “Thanks, Louie. I appreciate this. I’ll email the director now.”
“Don’t worry, Mac. Everything will turn out okay.”
Mac forced a smile, trying not to worry. She wished she shared Louie’s confidence.
Chapter Eight
Six days later
“Did you hear that girl talking on the cell phone again?” Mac asked Carolina when they left the site of the second interview.
“What girl?” Louie demanded.
“There was a girl at the first place,” Mac said. “A teenager. We didn’t see her, but after we arrived, the phone went a few times. The same thing happened today.”
“Don’t be stupid.” Carolina opened her mouth in a dainty yawn. “There’s nothing sinister about a kid and a phone. It was a young girl. Don’t you have sisters? Girls are always talking on the phone. Boys too.”
“It might be innocent,” Louie said. “What does your gut say?”
Mac thought back to the hour-long visit. “I don’t know about my gut, but today I felt as if I were in the crosshairs of a rifle the entire time we were there.”
“See, this is my problem with the whole deal,” Louie said to Carolina. “We can’t control who they have inside their house because we can’t search it beforehand. We can only secure the perimeter.”
“You’re paranoid,” Carolina said to Mac. “I have one more interview to complete. You can’t bail on me now.”
“We’re not bailing,” Mac said before Louie could snarl at Carolina and upset her. “All we’re saying is that we want to take things easy and try to control the variables.”
“We could send in a team earlier,” Tai suggested, flexing the arm where he’d managed to cop a bullet scratch. It didn’t seem to slow him down, the man was sharp and alert at all times. “Keep the place under surveillance to see if anyone suspicious enters the building before we arrive.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Louie nailed Carolina with a hard stare. “Send us all the information as usual. We want one extra day to prepare this time. This is nonnegotiable.”
“We’ll see about that,” Carolina muttered as they stopped outside her lodgings. She stomped from the vehicle, her displeasure clear in her determined departure.
Tai shook his head. “She’s not a good person to cross.”
“It can’t be helped,” Louie said. “I’d rather have her pissed and alive and the rest of us in one piece. We’ll have a strategic meeting when we get back.”
They drove to home base without incident, their meeting going well as they formulated a plan of attack and lots of variations in case everything went to hell.
“I’m going to check my email,” Mac said.
“No problem.” Louie watched her walk away, his gaze lingering on her butt. A sharp nudge in his ribs ripped his attention free. “What the hell…”
Simon scowled. “Do you want everyone to notice?”
“Notice what?” Louie decided to play dumb.
“Exactly.”
“Do you have anything to add to our plan?”
“Nah, it’s good. Unless Carolina comes back with something off the wall, we should be sweet.” Simon paused. “You know we could always turn up an hour earlier or later than we’d planned.”
“Not a bad idea. Let’s keep that in reserve. I’ll be glad when this last interview is over,” Louie said. “Coming to the gym?”
“Yeah. See you there,” Simon said.
Hopefully not straightaway. He’d hated every moment of the two interviews Carolina Eastern had arranged so far, spending the time strung out and jittery, every sense hyperalert. He’d managed to hide it, but the third one might be the death of him.
Mac was still checking her email when he arrived in their room. She glanced up, her eyes red, her face shiny with tears.
Alarm shot through him. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She scrubbed at her face with her hands. “Nothing’s wrong. These are happy tears. Your friend’s wife, Summer, sent me an email. She said Dad is fine, although insistent that the people at the vineyard are doing something illegal. Your friend is going to investigate.” Her eyes shone with gratitude. “My father insists on checking out the place again and your friend is going with him. That’s the best way to handle my father. He’s stubborn.”
“It’s obviously hereditary,” Louie said.
Mac didn’t bite at his comment. She stood and threw her arms around his neck, pulling his head down so she could kiss him. Louie wasn’t about to argue about a little lip lock. The more time he spent with her, the more he was convinced she was the woman he wanted to live with for the rest of his life.
Their lips met, gliding together with the ease of familiarity. Her taste rolled over him, her lithe body pressed close to his. Her soft groan went straight to his groin, his libido going from low simmer to a conflagration at her first touch.
“Mac, sweetheart.” Louie pulled away a fraction, dropping his hands to cup her ass to hold her in place. “I need you.” His hips moved, rubbing his cock against her stomach in illustration.
She laughed. “You always need me.”
“Newsflash, I’m breathing and I’m a guy.”
“It wouldn’t be as much fun if you were a girl.” Her tongue slid over her bottom lip, moistening it while she unfastened the top button of his shirt.
“Your mouth is so sexy. I like kissing it. I enjoy it pressed against my skin.”
“Like this?” She skimmed her lips over the skin in the V of his shirt. She lifted her head to nibble at his neck. “Or like that?”
“All of it.” Hell, he enjoyed it all. From the first touch, his future was set, and he’d tried to subtly woo her. At least she always welcomed his touch, and she’d started to share her private life with him. That was a start. “I told Simon I’d meet him in the gym.”
“We’d better hurry this party along then.”
The sparkle in her eyes and the husky note in her voice sent a signal straight to his balls. He stared for an instant, mesmerized by the naughty grin on her face then she went to her knees in front of him. Competent hands unfastened his belt and worked down his zipper.
Anticipation thrummed through him as he stared at her head. She brushed her cheek against his erection, humming lightly. Although he’d planted his feet solidly on the floor, he wondered if he’d manage to stay upright when she put her mouth on him.
“We’ll do it this way now,” she said, tugging on the waistband of his boxers. His clothing rustled as she yanked his trousers partially down his legs and dragged his
boxer waistband down until it rested below his scrotum, lifting his balls and cock higher.
“What about you?”
“I can wait until tonight.”
Louie made a sound of approval. “Sounds like a plan.” A hell of a good plan.
“I suppose I should hurry.”
“Simon is waiting.”
She glanced up at him through her dark lashes, her sexy lips pursed. This was the carefree woman he’d met in Fiji. Full of fun and open to experimentation. Her autumn hair alive with color and her golden eyes full of sensual promise. They’d made love outside in the cool night breeze and spent countless pleasurable hours in one of their rooms. “You’ll have to tell him something came up.” The deliberate drag of her tongue from the base of his cock to the tip sent a surge of pleasure through him.
“I doubt those are details he wants to hear.”
“I’m sure you’ll come up with something.” Her tongue swirled over the head of his shaft then her mouth opened, letting his cock slide inside. The heat of her mouth seared him, made his heart beat faster and his breathing stutter. She took him deeper, sliding the sensitive underside along her tongue.
Louie had to hold on to something, had to anchor himself. He gripped one of her shoulders and slid his other hand into the mass of her hair. She worked his cock, humming, the vibration in her mouth and throat echoing the length of his body. The heat—it fired through him. So good. So bloody good. And the sexy sounds she made, her sighs of approval.
“Mac, I…hell…please let me move.” His hips jerked even as he said the words, the need to thrust, to feel more of his cock surrounded by the hot moistness of her mouth. The rest of their surroundings faded away, his narrow focus on Mac and the pleasure she sent reeling through him.
She sucked hard and did something wriggly with her tongue, stroking all the good spots at once. His seed bubbled in his tight balls. Damn, this was good. He wanted to make it last, wanted to do this with her forever.
His woman.
The possessive thoughts flooded his mind, filled his body as he came, unable to hold back a second longer. “Mac,” he whispered hoarsely, the pleasure holding him in its grip, the spasms of his cock seeming to go on for a long time.
Soldier With Benefits (Military Men Book 2) Page 10
