by Cindy Dees
“Angel, don’t tempt me.”
She half turned and laughed at him. “I thought seeing to my downfall was your job.”
“What job was that?”
Tom glanced up. “Nothing, Mac. How’s that minigun shaping up?”
“Just fine, Hoss. The firing pin needs filing, but she’ll be a sweet weapon when I’m done with her.”
“How many rounds will it deliver before it melts?”
“Six thousand, give or take.”
Annie glanced up, surprised. “A gun can melt?”
“Gatling guns like this generate huge amounts of heat. If you fire them continuously, the barrels eventually melt.”
Dutch added, “But they lay down the prettiest carpet of lead you ever saw. One of these babies can take out fifty men in ten seconds.”
She was impressed in a dubious sort of way. “I guess that’d even the odds in a fight pretty fast, wouldn’t it?”
Tom nodded. “That’s the idea.”
Annie turned to Howdy. “Where’d you get all these weapons?”
“I liberated them from their owners.”
“You stole them?”
“Not exactly, ma’am.”
Annie frowned, confused.
Tom said gently, “The owners were dead.”
“How come the other soldiers in their squads didn’t take the guns? I’ve heard you guys talk about how there’s a shortage of firearms for both armies right now.”
Tom exhaled heavily. “Nobody else took the guns because Howdy killed the owners. He’s our sniper.”
“Oh.” Sometimes she forgot the nature of Tom’s work. Or, more accurately, she tried to forget the nature of Tom’s work. She just couldn’t equate killing and violence with the passionate, considerate, gentle lover of the past two weeks.
She stopped herself from staring at the silent, polite killer across the room.
When the nightly gunfire started outside, they extinguished all but one candle. To Annie’s surprise, everyone else spread bedrolls on the floor and stretched out to sleep.
They seemed to expect her to use the bed, so she crawled into it and stripped down to her T-shirt under the covers. As soon as she was settled, Tom blew out the candle and the room plunged into blackness.
When Tom’s arms went around her from behind and his body pressed against hers a minute or two later, she about jumped out of her skin. Not only hadn’t she heard him get into bed, but she hadn’t felt it.
“How did you do that?” she whispered.
He whispered back, “Patience and stealth, my dear.”
“Sheesh. I guess. So do any of these guys snore?”
To her chagrin, Tex answered out of the dark. “Not hardly. If we did we’d be dead quick in our line of work.”
“You guys would have to have great hearing, wouldn’t you?” she groused in a normal speaking voice.
Quiet chuckles floated out of the darkness.
Tom pulled her close, spooning her body into his. “Get some sleep, Annie. You’re going to need it in a day or two.”
Why had Tom joined her in bed? Was it his way of giving her one last night with him? Or was it nothing more than his desire to sleep in a comfortable bed? Whatever his motive, she wasn’t about to kick him out.
She relaxed against the solid bulwark of his body, enjoying the easy comfort between them. It was funny how the circle of Tom’s arms had become home to her.
As she drifted toward sleep, images of flying over the jungle came to her. The feel of his body slamming into trees below her was one she’d never forget. It was strange how a single split-second decision had sent her life careening off in this direction, to this place and time, with this man.
How could she ever have made the decision to sacrifice his life to save her own? The thought made her cold all over. She’d never forgive herself for it. She’d do whatever it took to make it up to him.
Annie fell asleep quickly, but Tom wasn’t so lucky. He lay in the dark for a long time, feeling the gentle rise and fall of her ribs beneath his arm.
Every time he touched her like this, it took something from him, something he feared he would never get back. Maybe it was loneliness he felt slipping away. He feared it was something worse. Like the sense of detachment and nonchalance about dying so vital to his line of work.
Every time he made love to her, he swore it would be the last time. He’d steel himself to resist the pull between them, and then she’d smile at him or touch him or look at him in a certain way and his self-discipline unraveled all over again. He’d always prided himself on his control, but he had none at all when it came to Annie. It ate away at him, eroding his walls bit by bit.
It was a long, sweet fall toward hell. And no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t stop the descent.
It was raining when they woke up the next morning, much to Tom’s satisfaction. Rain covered the noise of men moving and tended to keep armies indoors.
They spent the day finishing off the remainder of the food, checking their equipment and picking Annie’s brains about the layout of the Old Town area of the city. To Tom’s disgust, the rain stopped just before sunset.
“Annie, could you come into the bedroom? There’s something I want to show you.”
She followed him to the window.
“Look outside.”
She pressed her eye to the peephole. “What am I supposed to see?”
“The sunset.” He’d already looked at it to know that every color from purple to brilliant orange tinged a layer of high, rippling clouds, and the sun backlit a lone thunderhead, spraying golden rays outward in all directions.
“Wow,” she breathed. “That’s gorgeous.”
“I always watch the sunset before I go on a mission.”
“Why?”
“Superstition, I guess. In case something happens to me, I won’t die without having stopped to watch it.”
“Well, if this sunset did end up being your last, it’d be a good one to go out on. But,” she added fiercely, “nothing bad is going to happen to you, Tom.”
He shrugged. “You never know.”
“That’s what I’d hate most about doing your kind of work. I can’t be casual about the possibility of not seeing another sunset. I want to survive to see another one.”
And therein lay the heart of his problem. He’d never cared one way or the other until she’d come into his life. Now he had something besides the mission to live for. And that changed everything.
The last colors faded from the sky, and he turned her around to face him. “We need to talk, Annie.”
“About what?”
He thought he detected a tremor in her voice.
Tom didn’t answer her question directly. Instead he asked, “How are you holding up, angel?”
“Okay, I guess. Nervous. Well, scared, actually. Excited.”
He nodded. “Typical premission jitters. You’ll need to be alert when we go. Try to relax as best you can and don’t tire yourself out now. In the meantime I have another request. Actually, it’s an order.”
She frowned.
“I need you to promise me you won’t push yourself too hard when we leave here.”
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve been out to prove something. I don’t know who or what it is that drives you, but over and over I’ve watched you put yourself in situations that were way beyond your experience or training. You’ve scared yourself silly a number of times and nearly gotten yourself killed a time or two. I want you to operate within your capabilities tonight.”
“I’m still standing here, so apparently everything I’ve done so far was within my capabilities,” she retorted.
He grabbed her by both shoulders. “Listen to me. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen this dozens of times before. What I’m telling you is don’t bite off more than you can chew. I can’t afford to have you choke on me.”
“I won’t choke,” sh
e declared.
“You will. You’re so caught up in being a hero you don’t know your own limits. That makes you dangerous to me and my team.”
She tore out of his grasp and paced angrily across the room and back. “I don’t give a damn about being a hero, Tom Folly. And I don’t need your amateur psychoanalysis.”
He sighed, exasperated. Didn’t she realize her angry outburst was proving his point? She was so busy being macho she wasn’t listening to him. Whether it was proving to her father or to herself or to the powers-that-be in the Air Force that she could do the same job as a man, he had no idea. Maybe she was determined to be a hero. Maybe she was just looking for the mountain she couldn’t climb. Regardless of its source, she was going to be a liability to him and his guys if she didn’t get over it.
He spoke quietly. “Just promise me you won’t do anything stupid and you’ll follow all my orders immediately and to the letter.”
She looked at him long and hard but finally nodded. “I promise.”
“Good. Then my first order is for you to relax. Don’t wear yourself out with all this nervous energy now. You’ll need it later.”
She stopped her pacing, but her hands still fidgeted.
“Come here.” He held out his arms, and she stepped into them.
“Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”
He sighed. The nasty thing about time was that it passed relentlessly. As much as he wanted to hold off leaving their hideout—and their tryst—he couldn’t any longer.
“I suppose I should warn you. Once we leave here tonight, Annie, I expect to be in high gear and thinking on all cylinders.”
“I should hope so.”
“What I’m trying to say is I’ll be in Special Forces team commander mode.”
“Tom, that’s what you’ll be doing. Of course that’s the mode you’ll be in.”
“I’m trying to warn you that I’m going to have to treat you like just another team member.”
“And?”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“I am a military officer, Tom. I understand how these things work.”
“I’ve never…I don’t know…” He frowned, at a loss for words. “Dammit, I’ve never had feelings for one of my team members, and I don’t know how to handle having you working with me.” Of course, he had been on a mission where he’d had feelings for the woman with him—a disastrous mission where he’d failed his men in the worst possible way.
He felt her grin against his chest as she said, “You’ll never know how glad I am to hear you’ve never had feelings for one of your guys.”
“I’m serious, Annie. I’m worried about tonight.”
She looked up at him soberly. “So am I, Tom. I’m scared to death I’m going to get in the way or do something dumb and get all of you killed. I could never live with myself if that happened again.”
“Again?”
He felt Annie freeze up like a deer caught in headlights. What was that all about?
She mumbled, “Well, uh, you nearly died once. I don’t want to see you flirt with death again. That’s what I meant.”
“I’m not exactly eager to tempt fate a second time myself.”
She stepped away from him, wringing her hands in agitation. He caught them between his own palms, stilling them gently.
“Look, Tom. I’ve never worked with anyone I cared about in a personal sense, either. We’re just going to have to play it by ear. If you give me an order, I’ll follow it. The rest of the time I’ll try to stay out of trouble and help you guys as much as I can. That’s the best I can do.”
“Then that will have to be enough. I’ll get us out of here safe and sound somehow, Annie. I promise.”
He exhaled slowly. He had no idea how he was going to fulfill that promise. But he’d find a way. He always did.
“I know you will. I have complete confidence in you.”
Her faith in him twisted his gut into a dozen little knots. She was so innocent. She didn’t have a clue how bad a spot they were in or how many things could go wrong with this mission.
He sighed. He wished he shared her optimism.
Annie’s premission nerves had deteriorated to abject fear by the time they slipped out into the street several hours later. The moon wasn’t due to rise until almost 4 a.m., so they had roughly six hours of what Tom termed “good darkness” in which to move.
They waited in the alley behind the apartment building for a solid twenty minutes while their night vision adapted. Meanwhile Tom checked over everyone’s black clothing and gear one more time for anything that might catch or reflect light.
Annie looked at the blackened faces of her comrades and wondered if the greasepaint wiped all expression from her face, as well. Their gazes were ice-cold.
Tom had taught her enough of their sign language for her to understand when he gestured for Howdy to take the point and Tex and Mac to back him up. Tom went next with Annie behind him. Doc followed her, and Dutch brought up the rear.
Tom had instructed her in how to move silently along walls, sliding through shadows whenever possible. She followed his black-clad shape closely, mimicking his gliding progress as best she could.
They made decent time for the first hour, which was just as well. Annie was too jumpy to have sat still for long. They wended their cautious way well into Old Town before they heard any gunfire.
It started as a gentle buzzing noise, like a bee busily collection pollen. It grew into an angry wasp, and then into a raging attack of sound upon the senses. After two weeks of nightly warfare outside her window, she’d have thought she’d be used to it by now. But she wasn’t.
Suddenly the fighting erupted all around them, with zinging sounds over their heads and bits of mortar pelting them from all sides. Annie was already on her way down to the dirt when Tom landed on top of her. Fast hand signals sent Tex and Mac slithering off on their bellies, and Tom signaled her to be still.
She was more than happy to comply. She felt like a cornered rabbit, her heart pounding so hard it nearly choked her. They were lying beside a pile of rubble at the mouth of a cavernous, black alley. A car partially obscured the street in front of them, and the corner of a building jutted out, protecting their left flank.
As she watched, one of the car’s tires went flat with a sickening thud of lead on rubber. Despite herself, she flinched. Tom’s arm tightened painfully against her shoulders, pressing her even flatter against the pavement, pinning her until she could barely breathe.
“I said, don’t move,” he hissed during the next volley of bullets.
She waited until the next blast of noise to mutter back, “Sorry.” Sheesh. He didn’t have to be so snippy about it.
Her train of thought derailed abruptly. Of course he had every right to be snippy. What was she thinking? This was what he’d been talking about earlier. He wasn’t her lover anymore. He was her commanding officer. In a war zone. With bullets flying overhead.
She was startled when a hand touched her ankle, but she managed not to jump in fright.
A black form eased its way along her body inch by agonizingly slow inch until it lay beside her.
Tex murmured in her ear, “Tell Hoss there’s an exit out the back of the alley.”
She started to turn her head to relay the message when Tex hissed, “Slowly. Move slowly. You’ll draw their attention if you move too fast.”
By gradual degrees, she eased her head to the left until her mouth rested practically on Tom’s ear.
“Tex says there’s an exit out the back of the alley.”
Tom’s response was short. “Let’s go.”
She felt Tom’s hand move on her shoulder as he signaled across her body to Tex.
The lanky soldier moved back down her side as slowly as he had before. Tex tugged on her ankle, and she took a deep breath. When the next flurry of gunfire erupted, she dug in with her toes and fingers and did her best to imitate his cold molasses style of movement.
Her arms ached and her calves were cramping by the time she moved a single body length back into the sheltering darkness of the alley. She paused during a lull in the fighting, panting from fear and exertion.
Tex tugged again, and she gathered herself to keep pushing on. Her nails were chipped and torn, and the palms of her hands felt raw from pushing against the rough asphalt. The smell of fuel oil permeating the ground beneath her head was faintly nauseating, but she tried to block it out.
Bit by torturous bit, they made their way backward into the inky bowels of the alley.
Annie thought she was going to cry before Tex finally tapped on her ankle for her to stop. Tom’s dark form rose to a crouch in front of her. He grabbed her shoulders and lifted her to a half crouch.
She plastered herself against the cold wall at her back and crept after Tex’s retreating form. Her thighs screamed in protest, but she pushed doggedly onward.
As she scaled new heights of pain, Annie decided she was never again going to think her aerobics instructor back home led a sadistic workout.
Just when Annie thought her legs were going to buckle out from under her, Tex slid around a corner and disappeared. She followed suit and nearly collapsed in relief when he motioned her to stand up. Tom joined them a moment later.
Annie jumped when a voice spoke into the tiny earpiece they’d fitted her with. She recognized Mac’s whispered brogue. “This alley dumps out on El Segundo Street at the east end and Reynaldo Street at the other. Where to now?”
Tom answered with a question of his own. “Where’s Howdy?”
Tex replied. “He’s back at the mouth of the alley. Last I saw he was heading into a building across the street from our position.”
Annie gasped. What in the world was Howdy doing heading toward the fighting instead of away from it?
She started when she heard Tom saying her name over the radio.
“Annie, does the street we just left intersect El Segundo or Reynaldo?”
She drew a blank. Oh, God. Howdy’s life might depend on her knowing the answer, and she couldn’t remember. Think, Annie, think.
She envisioned strolling down the avenue they’d left behind. There was department store with big, glass display windows. And a luggage store. The street took shape in her mind. It curved to the south and sloped downhill toward…
