by Em Petrova
A minute later, another voice filled his ear. Since this comms had a range of a mile, that must mean Ben and the others were headed this direction.
“What’s the word?” Ben asked.
“We got them,” Sean reported.
A beat of silence. “All three?”
“Two.”
“And they’re disarmed,” Dylan added with a note of victory in his tone.
A low cheer flooded Sean’s hearing, coming from Rocko and Roades. But they weren’t out of danger yet—whoever owned this place would obviously have a problem with the stolen missiles being discovered.
Sean started to remind them of this when Ben said, “Great—here comes the Knight Ops Pee-Wee Team.”
Sean peered into the darkness but couldn’t detect any movement. “Who?”
“Fuckin’ Jackson saddled us with backup. We met up with them an hour or so ago, told them we can handle it. But they’re clinging to us like flies.”
“Who the hell’s heading the Pee-Wees?” Sean scanned the property again just as his brothers exited the steel building, cloaked by camo and darkness as they navigated the yard to where Sean hunkered down by the dilapidated Chevy.
Dylan’s teeth flashed white in his face, darkened with grease paint. “Never saw a warhead in person.”
“Let’s hope we see at least one more, and soon,” Chaz said, crowding close to Sean and looking to him. “Who the hell are these Pee-Wees?”
“They’re the assholes who’ll be doing the paperwork since we did all the work finding the warheads.” Sean’s dry tone had them all chuckling, even Ben.
“To answer your question, Thunder, Hawk’s heading the Pee-Wees.”
Sean sobered. “That asshole?” Hawk wasn’t exactly a small man either, so Sean’s amusement shot up a notch thinking of him on a team the Knight Ops were calling the Pee-Wees.
“For the record, we can hear you motherfuckers,” Hawk’s voice came in over theirs.
Sean did a mental eye roll. The last thing they needed was that guy’s cocky attitude on the scene. He checked their surroundings again before directing Ben and the guys to come in.
As they scattered to search for the third warhead, Sean held his position. From what he could tell, the farmhouse was abandoned. There wasn’t a cluck of a chicken or a soft knicker of a horse to break the night, and Sean didn’t think it was because the animals were so well-behaved. There simply weren’t any.
But that didn’t mean someone wasn’t sleeping inside the house and just hadn’t yet realized they were there. When he did, he was sure to bring friends.
Dylan nudged him. “You get a piece of that code cracker?”
Sean swung his gaze to him, an odd shiver in his gut at the mention of Elise. “Who says I was interested?”
Dylan snorted. “Why else did you push me aside and take over? It wasn’t to learn a new skill.”
“Fuck you.”
Another low chuckle sounded from Dylan, but he abruptly cut it off as four men emerged from the shadows to join them. This time Sean did roll his eyes—Hawk had his chest puffed up like a fucking rooster.
“We only need you to get out your pens and get ready to do the paperwork, boys.” Sean’s statement made Hawk’s head snap around. The man’s dark eyes glittered. What Elise had seen in the guy was beyond Sean. But he didn’t like thinking of Hawk kissing her, touching her.
“Watch yourself, Thunder,” Hawk said, low.
Ignoring his position, Sean stood, placing his chest inches from Hawk’s. They glared at each other.
“I think it’s you who’d better watch yourself.” Sean wanted to tell him to stay away from Elise, but she’d told him that they were close friends, and Hawk would go running back with Sean’s words.
He opened his mouth to say more, but a deadly thump ripped through the night. The bullet peeled up the turf inches to the right of where he and Hawk stood. Sean hit the dirt, scope fixed in the direction from where the shot had come.
“Shot fired. Chaz, Dylan, circle around and come in on this fucker’s left. See if you can get eyes on him.” Sean’s orders drew a grunt from Hawk, who was lying beside him, in a sniper position using his leg to stabilize him to make the shot.
If he got one first—Sean prided himself on being quick on the trigger.
Spotting the faintest outline of a man’s leg, Sean estimated how far up his heart would be and took the shot.
At the same time, Hawk bumped his elbow as he squeezed off his own shot.
A scream of pain told Sean he’d hit his mark, but anger boiled in his temples as he whirled on the man who’d purposely bumped him so he could look like the fucking hero.
“You asshole, I should fucking shoot off your kneecaps for that.” Sean dropped his weapon and reached for Hawk’s throat.
Hawk tossed his rifle down too and swung his fist at Sean’s nose.
He dodged and closed his fingers around Hawk’s thick neck. It would take a while to strangle him to death, but Sean had big hands and there was plenty of land to bury the cocky ass on.
Dylan stepped between them, delivering an elbow to Sean’s midsection and knocking the breath from him even as he raised his rifle butt over Hawk’s brow. “Don’t make me knock your ass out, Hawk. Now I don’t know what happened just now, but we’ve got a man bleeding or worse on the ground and possibly more threats.”
Sean pushed out a low growl and stepped back from Hawk, bending to retrieve his weapon. When Hawk attempted the same, Sean set his boot down on Hawk’s fingers.
“Both of ya are dumbasses,” Dylan murmured and moved into stealth mode, running up on the man on the ground.
Sean stared down at Hawk. “Don’t fuck with me.”
Hawk grunted but said nothing. Sean lifted his foot and they sprang forward at the same time, securing the area.
As Ben pounced on the man who’d been shot, howls of pain were interspersed with Ben’s sharp commands. Sean focused on everything going on, but the back of his mind still burned with fury over Hawkeye’s actions. When he got the man alone—
“Thunder, make the call to Jackson. Tell him this idiot claims to have purchased two warheads for his collection. Ninja, Rocko, take the Pee-Wees and search the place.”
Sean pushed out a laugh at the mention of the Pee-Wees, and Hawk glared at him. Sean arched a brow and waited for him to walk away from him. When he did, Sean resisted the urge to swing his rifle butt at the back of the man’s thick skull.
Yeah, Elise must have been blind to have married that thing. And Sean didn’t even want to dwell on the fact that they were still friends.
* * * * *
Dinner. Pick u up at 7.
Elise read the text from Bo and sighed at his high-handedness. He still thought he could control her life, and up until a few days ago, she wouldn’t have minded a dinner date.
So what had changed?
She leaned back in her deck chair situated on the miniscule balcony of her apartment. It overlooked a grassy lawn and part of the dirty alley behind the building, but she rested against the back to stare at the sky. A thin wisp of a cloud floated by, for some reason reminding her of a ship.
Which oddly led her to thoughts of Sean, probably because he’d sailed out of her life as quickly as he’d crash-landed into it.
After a very long, sweaty night of passionate sex, she’d woken to find him gone.
She crossed her legs and closed her eyes, but memories of that night bombarded her. Sighs of pleasure, cries of ecstasy. The salty-sweet taste of his body. Then that four-a.m. shower that would live on in her mind forever…
But he’d walked out of her life and she hadn’t even received a text from him, and he couldn’t claim he didn’t know her number. He’d charmed her with his crinkle-eyed smiles and his playfulness—then after he got what he wanted from her, he’d run out.
She had a feeling if she rustled up a few of his lovers, they’d tell her similar stories. Elise wasn’t different and definitely not special.
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She cracked an eye open, but the wisp of cloud was gone. Just like Sean.
These odd moments of down-time always unnerved her and left her too much time to contemplate her life. OFFSUS didn’t have work for her every day, but when they called, she had to drop everything and run to help. That meant she couldn’t hold down a part-time job just to cure the boredom of days sitting here on her lousy balcony.
Dwelling on Sean definitely wasn’t something she had time for—he’d only been a fuck. Someone to scratch an itch, and a damn beautiful man too. Who wouldn’t have taken a chance on him?
If she’d met him at a bar, a one-night stand wouldn’t have warranted a passing thought about the man. But since they’d worked together—hell, shared meals, jokes and too many long, heated looks to count—she felt betrayed.
Ugh, not that word. She was too soft for her own good, and even years as a Marine hadn’t knocked the sweet Louisiana girl out of her. She still harbored dreams of finding Mr. Right and sharing a life.
Not that she’d ever let her mind go there with Sean Knight. No, he was never Mr. Right in her eyes. In fact, he was Mr. All Wrong from the very start. Yet she’d let him into more than her bed.
Dammit, she had to cut off these thoughts of him and get on with her life. Sunbathing on her tiny balcony wasn’t helping her any. She had to get up, find something to do.
Maybe go for a run.
That brought her mind right back to Sean and his gorgeous muscles rolling under his tanned skin as he sprinted across the shore.
Great—now her nipples were hard too. She might as well try texting him and throwing herself at the guy. Her body’s reactions were just as worthless to her.
She grabbed her phone and did the only thing she could think would help her close the book on those few days of her life once and for all. She texted Bo.
Can u meet now?
What’s wrong? He responded immediately, as always. He never ignored her, made her feel important. Too bad they hadn’t worked out because they seemed to perfect for each other. So what was it about Bo that hadn’t been right?
Nothing’s wrong. Just too much time on my hands.
I’ll be there in 5.
As she went back inside and closed and locked the door leading to the balcony, she couldn’t help but feel a little pitiful. If she were honest, she’d summoned Bo like other women would text a girlfriend asking them to bring a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and join them for a break-up pity party.
Except it wasn’t a breakup, she told herself for the umpteenth time. She and Sean were never a thing.
While she waited for Bo, she busied herself by tidying up the apartment, cleaning off the countertop and washing her breakfast plates. When she was placing the wet dishes on the draining rack, the door opened.
She turned to watch her ex striding toward her, eyes narrowed and a fierce expression on his rugged features.
“What happened?” he demanded, coming to a stop in front of her.
She craned her neck to meet his gaze. “Nothing happened. Just bored is all. I guess I need more jobs.” She gave a faint giggle with no heart behind it.
He took her by the shoulders, forcing her to hold his stare. “You slept with that asshole.”
She nearly swallowed her tongue. Once she could force air past her vocal cords, she said, “What? Why would you ask me that?”
“Because I saw how he looked at you. Fucking hell, I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone with him!”
“Bo, calm down. I never said I slept with Sean.” Her voice gave a suspicious wobble on his name.
“Jesus, and you’ve fallen for him.” He released her shoulders and ran his fingers over his shaved head.
She gaped at him. Was he some kind of mind-reader? Because the link between friends, or exes, was far from telepathic. And there was no other way for Bo to know she’d slept with Sean—soooo many mind-blowing times—because she didn’t even sport a red mark of beard burn from the man to give her away.
She shook her head. “I haven’t fallen for anybody.”
“But you did sleep with him.” Bo’s words came out flat.
For a pulsing second, she considered denying it. But he’d see right through her lie.
She nodded. “Yeah, I did.”
He shoved out a breath and leaned against the countertop, staring at her without pause. She couldn’t read the lights moving behind his eyes, but strangely she could have recited everything she’d seen in Sean’s since the moment he’d sat beside her and started working with her.
Hell, maybe she had fallen for him.
No, she was just a wee bit obsessed. It was a crush, nothing more.
Except if he walked through the door right now, she’d shove Bo out and throw herself at the man.
Fuck, she was a little more than obsessed.
“I’m not even going to ask what you see in Knight.”
The statement caught her off-guard. She wanted to ask Bo to tell her so she could understand herself. “You’re not?”
“He’s a low-life woman-schmoozing asshole with too much game. He knew exactly how to play you.” Bo’s eyes darkened, and Elise finally knew what her ex was thinking. She’d seen that look a few times, and it was always associated with her trying to stop him from breaking the neck of somebody who looked at her too long or even took liberties with her on a dance floor.
She put a hand on Bo’s forearm, only to find the muscles and tendons leaping there. She looked down to find his fingers fisted.
“Bo,” she said with warning in her tone, “don’t. Sean didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Now you’re defending the motherfucker to me?”
She raised a shoulder and let it drop before spinning away to look out of the glass door leading to the balcony.
For a long minute, silence reigned, and she wondered if she’d gone too far with the friendship thing with Bo. Maybe they weren’t really able to forget they were once committed to each other, and he was affected by the knowledge she’d slept with Sean.
Though she could list half a dozen women Bo had been with.
She didn’t know those women, however, and Bo did.
She spun, her words flying from her lips. “Look, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Go on this run with me.”
She blinked. “What?”
“After I texted you about dinner, something fell into my lap, and I have to take care of it. I could use a sidekick.”
Eyeing him, she said, “Sidekick?”
His face relaxed for the first time since walking through the door. “Backup. C’mon, Elise.”
She jumped at the chance to get out of her apartment and her own head. “What is it? Am I dressed appropriately?”
“I’ll arm you once we get there. You’re perfect.” He leaned in and kissed her between the brows, giving her warm fuzzy thoughts of Sean doing the same thing when he believed her asleep.
“All right, I’m in. Let me get my boots on.”
“The ball-breakers with the steel toes, cher.”
More shades of Sean, his deep, low voice caressing her as he called her by the same endearment.
To cover her response, she arched a brow at Bo. “Whose balls am I breaking? I’d rather just shoot someone.”
“If we’re lucky, you’ll get to do both. Hurry now. No time to waste.”
* * * * *
Sean fiddled with the engine of the airboat, but it wasn’t that healthy, stuttering and stalling out before he tweaked the carburetor again. Leave it to fucking Jackson to try to punish him for Hawk’s bad behavior the other night. The guy was going to pay when Sean saw him next time too, for even telling the Colonel that Sean’s shot had gone haywire.
The hot sun beat down on his shoulders as he messed with the engine until it purred like a happy gator gaping in the sun. Sean was actually looking forward to finding this fugitive just to take out his frustrations. And he would find him—nobody knew these swamps like he and his brothers.
Dylan was already out there waiting for Sean to catch up. The rest of Knight Ops, as far as he knew, were back at the cabin cracking open some cold ones and watching the game. Sean didn’t mind taking this punishment, however. He needed the time to think, and his brothers hadn’t stopped ribbing him about the incident.
But as far as he was concerned, he’d rather be out here tracking down an old-timer believed to have some knowledge of the third missile than deal with his sister, Lexi’s latest boyfriend scandal. Wait till his brothers learned about it.
“Jesus Christ.” The words, faint and several feet away, made Sean jerk to his feet, hand on his weapon.
“Don’t even reach for it, dickhead.” Hawk’s voice made Sean’s finger twitch. Better than burying the guy on a farm was weighting him and dropping him into the swamp. The gators would have his bones picked clean in a day, and nobody would ever be the wiser.
He opened his mouth to respond, but the breath punched from him when Hawk moved aside enough for him to see the small, tough, dark-haired beauty behind him.
Elise.
His lungs burned, screaming for air, but he couldn’t find any, not when their gazes had locked.
She was dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt with heavy military-issue boots, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Her eyes… God, she was gorgeous. And Sean’s dick was twitching at the very sight of her.
He braced his feet wide as the pair approached.
“What the fuck’re you doin’ here?” Hawk asked, earning a sideways look from Elise.
A smile tugged at the corner of Sean’s lips. Maybe the jerk would dig his own grave with Elise with his smart comments and she’d see him for what he was.
“Jackson ordered me to come.” Sean stopped and stared at Hawk, not bothering to mention Dylan. “That son of a bitch. He sent you too?”
“Just me, not Elise. I asked her to come along as backup.”
Sean stepped toward her, the urge to shield her strong. “You couldn’t have found someone else?
“I wanted to come.” When Elise spoke up, her soft voice burrowed deep into Sean. It hit his chest, dropping his heart and then slid downward to settle in his groin. His cock twitched again.
