“You’re not in a position to make bargains.”
“On the contrary. I am prepared to give you what you ask. I will provide the vaccine, you can have the woman, but only when I have the child.”
Jack’s fingers cramped on the syringe. It took every scrap of willpower he possessed to keep his arm motionless. He didn’t want to use the needle on Burian. He wanted to use his fist.
How could anyone, even a demented bastard like this one, think of separating Eva from her baby? It would be the same as asking her to cut off an arm. Or cut out her heart. A woman like Eva would fight to the death to protect the child she loved. Jack understood that. He’d seen it for himself. It was how he felt about them both.
Eva stumbled into the workbench, knocking over a pair of empty beakers that were clamped to a metal stand. Glass shattered on the floor.
Jack got to her side just as her knees gave. She clutched his arms and leaned toward Burian. “No!” she cried. “You’re not getting Katya!”
“I am her father, Eva.”
“You don’t love her.”
He lifted his shoulders. It was an arrogant gesture for a man who was bound hand and foot. He appeared to be empowered by the effect he was having on Eva. “She is merely an infant. Love is immaterial. It is guidance that she needs, not sentiment. I will teach my daughter to be strong, like me.”
Eva’s cheeks had paled. She was fighting for breath. “Jack…”
He picked her up and carried her to the chair behind the desk. Once she was seated, he gave her another dose of the medications Dr. Arguin had prepared. “Try to stay calm, Eva,” he said, holding his water bottle to her lips. “Your pulse rate is too high.”
“You can’t help her,” Burian said. “The symptoms will continue to worsen. Without my help, in another five days, her liver will fail. Fluid will gather around her internal organs. Her heart will not endure the strain. You have no time to waste. Where is the child? I will send my people for her.”
Jack squeezed Eva’s hands and looked at Burian. “You’re not getting anywhere near that baby. You’re not fit to raise a lab rat.”
“What bluster. You are the one who is annoying. I have more friends and resources than you can imagine. If you do not accept my bargain…” He looked toward the door. His lips stretched into a smile. “I believe our negotiations are finished. My men are early.”
There was the stamp of boots outside. Someone was shouting orders in the corridor.
Had their parachute gear been found? Jack looked at Eva. She was in no shape to make a run for the stairs. And if he carried her, he wouldn’t be able to fire with any accuracy.
But leaving without the vaccine wasn’t an option, anyway.
He dragged the desk across the room to barricade the door. Seconds later, it reverberated with a heavy knock. A male voice came through the steel panel, calling out something in Russian. The only words Jack understood were Burian’s name.
“You should have accepted my offer,” Burian said. “Now you both will die.”
Jack wedged the desk firmly against the door. The heavy oak should buy them some time. After that…
He returned to Eva and knelt beside her chair. “Get everything you can off that computer,” he said. “The formula has to be in there. We’ll find someone to duplicate the vaccine when we get out of here.”
She was too smart to buy into his attempt to cheer her. Instead of reaching for the keyboard, she touched his face. It was clear by the sadness in her eyes that she understood there was little hope of escape. “I’m sorry, Jack. I should have stopped you from coming. I knew it was too risky.”
“You couldn’t have stopped me, Eva. I would have tried anyway.”
The door shook from the impact of a heavy object. Plaster dust wafted down from the ceiling. Burian managed to get his legs under him and rose to his knees, shouting encouragement.
Eva trembled. She traced the lines beside Jack’s mouth and then touched both hands to the corners of his eyes. “I wish we had met sooner.”
“So do I.” He turned his head to kiss her palm. “But then we would have missed all this fun.”
A tear crept down her cheek. “That’s right. You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”
His own eyes filled with moisture. He hadn’t cried since he’d been fourteen and standing beside his mother’s grave. It was the last time he’d allowed himself to love anyone.
The next blow on the door opened a split in the door frame. Jack could see the lights in the corridor. It was only a matter of seconds before the guards would break through.
Jack wanted more than a few more seconds with Eva. He didn’t want to measure their time in mere days. He wanted to sleep with her every night and wake up with her every morning, feel her hair slide between his fingers, hear her laugh, watch her eat and let her steal the bread from his plate. He wanted the chance to see her play with her baby again—and see her stomach grow round with another one. He wanted to be there to teach Katya how to ride a bike or oil a baseball glove or even tie ribbons in her doll’s hair if that’s what she asked. All the ordinary, everyday things a family did…Damn.
He cupped the back of Eva’s head and kissed her with all the pent-up frustration he felt. Now that he’d found a woman he could see in his future, chances were they wouldn’t have one.
The door gave with a crash, crushing the desk into splinters. Jack broke off the kiss and placed himself in front of Eva.
The first man who came through didn’t look like one of guards from the complex. He wore the uniform of a Russian soldier. Four more soldiers entered behind him. They bypassed Jack and Eva and converged on Burian, their weapons drawn. One man yanked him to his feet while another shouted questions.
Jack felt behind him for Eva’s hand. “What are they saying?”
“Oh, my God,” she breathed. “I don’t believe this.”
“What?”
“It sounds as if they’re arresting him.”
Chapter 13
Katya was running between the trees, afternoon sunlight dappling her white-blond pigtails and her arms full of ripe apples. She slid to a stop beside the basket, let the fruit tumble and gave Eva a gap-toothed grin. Then she ran to Jack, laughter and a hair ribbon trailing behind her.
He swung her into his arms and lifted her high so she could reach the branches with the ripest apples.
Eva drew the blanket over her shoulders as she walked toward them. The breeze was getting cool. It was almost time to go home, but she didn’t feel any urgency. She knew how to get there. She wasn’t lost.
Home was where it always had been. It wasn’t a place but a feeling.
The sunlight faded. The scent of grass and ripe apples became cotton, bleach and the perfume of flowers. Eva stretched out her hand. “Jack?”
His fingers closed gently around hers. “I’m right here, Eva.”
She opened her eyes.
The dream melded with reality. Jack was sitting beside her hospital bed. He was holding Katya to his shoulder with one hand while he clasped Eva’s fingers with the other. “How are you doing?” he asked.
She pushed herself up on one elbow. “Better every day.”
“I heard you’re getting discharged this afternoon.”
“That’s what the doctors told me.”
“Are you still going to that hotel room the spooks got for you?”
“For a while, at least.”
“You’ll need a moving van for all these flowers.”
She let go of his hand and sat up. During the two weeks since she’d arrived in Washington, there had been new arrangements delivered daily. Every available surface in the hospital room was crammed with bouquets and gifts, many from people she hadn’t met. There were lilies from an official at the State Department, a potted orchid from the director of the CIA and a silver samovar from the Russian ambassador.
The Russian government was as grateful to Eva as the Americans. It turned out that Burian had deceived th
em along with everyone else. They had been completely unaware of the Chameleon Virus program until the Americans had scheduled talks in order to stop it. Burian hadn’t meant to give his weapon to his own country. In his twisted view of fairness, he had planned to sell it to the highest bidder.
The Russian raid on the complex had almost been too late. Burian had been scheduled to meet with a buyer that very night. It was why he had gone to his laboratory—he’d meant to pick up samples of both the virus and the vaccine to take with him. It was also why he’d infected Eva the week before—he’d imagined that would have given him enough time to convince her to share his triumph. In his mind, he believed himself justified in everything he’d done.
If Burian hadn’t been delayed by Jack and Eva, he might have gotten away with it.
It had taken less than an hour for the Russians to provide her with the vaccine that saved her life. She’d never asked how they had persuaded Burian to part with the information. Some things were better left alone. Eva still got chills whenever she thought of how easily the outcome could have been different.
She pulled up her feet beneath the blanket and wrapped her arms around her legs. Then she rested her cheek on her knees as she regarded Jack. He was wearing his dress uniform today. Katya appeared fascinated with the ribbons on his chest. Eva could understand that. In that uniform, Jack looked good enough to stare at all day….
She lifted her head quickly. “The hearing,” she said. “It was supposed to be this morning, wasn’t it?”
He nodded.
“What happened?”
“I was given an official reprimand for assaulting a foreign civilian during my leave.”
“That’s all?”
He grinned. “The major called in some favors. The Russians did, too. Turns out the guys who did the raid were from their Special Forces. They were pretty impressed by how we got there before them and wanted to show me some professional courtesy.”
“Jack, that’s wonderful! Then you’re still with Eagle Squadron.”
“Oh, yeah. They’re stuck with me.”
“I’m so glad. I know how much it means to you.”
He stood, carried Katya to the bassinet at the foot of the bed and laid her on her back. She gurgled, batting at the plastic beads he’d strung across it the day before. He ruffled Katya’s hair and gave the beads a spin before he returned to Eva’s side. “Belonging to Eagle Squadron does mean a lot to me,” he said. “My work has been the most important thing in my life.”
“I understand.”
“But I have to come clean, Eva. I haven’t been completely honest with you.”
He was smiling, so she didn’t think he was going to say something that would upset her. Still, since they’d returned to the States and reality had set in, they hadn’t spoken of much except her health, the mission and its aftermath. She had wanted to wait until she was well again before she pushed him about their relationship. She knew how seriously he took his honor. She didn’t want him staying with her out of duty or pity.
There was no longer any time limit on her future. She was going to recover. She had all the time in the world to make Jack love her.
“Rafe and Flynn send their regards,” he said. “They were at the hearing today.”
“They’re good men. I owe them a lot.”
“You don’t owe them anything. They’re family. It evens out.” He took her hand. “But there’s something else you need to know about them. I told you they’d each gone through the same kind of adrenaline attraction during a mission that you and I did.”
Some of her confidence ebbed. “Yes, I remember. It’s why they left the army.”
“Not exactly. In Rafe’s case, the attraction wasn’t temporary. He ended up marrying a hostage he rescued. That was seven years ago. His wife’s the one who financed his new company.”
“What?”
“She comes from old money. She also owns a few hotels. Flynn got involved with a civilian during another mission. That wasn’t temporary, either. He and Abbie celebrated their fifth anniversary last month. They’re expecting twins next year.”
“Oh.”
“And I told you about Sarah, our former intelligence specialist.”
“You said she quit the team to have children.”
“The father of her children is the man she’d once been assigned to guard.” He twined his fingers with hers. “I didn’t tell you this before because I was scared, Eva. I’d been on my own for so long that I didn’t want to change. But these past few weeks haven’t really changed me. They just showed me what I truly wanted. Not all the feelings that get stirred up during a mission wear off.”
Her heart began to pound. The virus was gone from her body, so she knew the cause wasn’t physical. “No, they don’t. Some of them are too deep to wear off.”
“I know I don’t have a great track record when it comes to relationships. I don’t know anything about babies or raising kids. The missions I’ll be going on will take me away for days at a stretch, sometimes weeks. I can’t understand the kind of work that you do. Hell, I can’t even do my own taxes. I watch too much football, I can’t cook and if I have a few beers I end up snoring all night.”
She laid her hand against his jaw. “You won’t be able to talk me out of loving you, Jack, no matter how hard you try.”
“I’m not trying to talk you out of…” He paused. “What did you say?”
“I love you, Jack.”
He closed his eyes and pressed his lips to her hand. He breathed deeply a few times, as if he’d just run a race. “Damn, and I had a great speech planned.”
She laughed. “Go ahead. I won’t stop you.”
“Okay. I don’t want you and Katya to go to a hotel when you leave here. I want you to come back to Bragg with me. Live with me. Marry me. Let me be a father to your baby. Give her a whole houseful of toys and sisters and brothers to play with.”
“Sisters and brothers?”
He picked up the chair, carried it to the door and angled it beneath the handle to hold it shut. Peeling off his jacket, he returned to the bed.
“Jack? What are you doing?”
“The docs said you’re recovered. You can resume your normal activities.” He toed off his shoes, got on the bed and pulled her into his arms. “I’ve been waiting for weeks to tell you I love you. I think it would be better to show you instead.”
Eva smiled as she sank into Jack’s kiss.
And she knew she was finally home.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5237-4
HER BABY’S BODYGUARD
Copyright © 2010 by Ingrid Caris
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*Eagle Squadron
*Eagle Squadron
*Eagle Squadron
†Payback
†Payback
†Payback
**Eagle Squadron: Countdown
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Ingrid Weaver, Her Baby’s Bodyguard
Her Baby’s Bodyguard Page 18
