by Rie Warren
I pulled her hands around my neck, and she reclined against me, huffing and puffing. “What did he do to you?”
“Belittled me.” She buried her face in my neck. “He never hurt me, outwardly. Just little things, hateful comments, the kind that eat away at you before you even realize you’re biting your tongue. He was a prude. Thought I was too licentious—”
“Licentious? Hell, I call it sensual, and that’s a good thing. A very good thing.”
“He wasn’t very good in bed, Justice.” She looked up at me, biting into her bottom lip. “He never made me come. Not like you do.”
“Tilly,” I groaned, rubbing my fingers lower down her spine.
“And he wore seersucker suits with bowties.” She continued to ramble.
“He was so ambitious!” She said it like ambitious was the filthiest four-letter-word in the English language.
“I care about Daddy and his career, but I’ve got my own thing. Jeremy never understood. He wanted a trophy wife. I was never a good enough hostess. And he had the gall to lecture me on world events!
“I have nevah been so angry.” Her fists balled on my chest.
“Hit me,” I said.
“What?”
“Do it.” I brought her hands to my mouth and kissed her fists. “It’ll make you feel better. And I can take it more than that weasel could.”
“But I like you!”
“So what? Do it.” I kneeled in front of her, slapping a hand to my chest. “Come on, Tilly girl, lay it on me.”
Puffing out her cheeks, she hauled back and thumped me hard on the arm.
“Again.”
Heat rose in her cheeks. “His verbal attacks were so sly, so passive-aggressive, and I was always brought up to be a strong woman, but he knocked me down, Justice. I almost lost myself!”
“Yeah? Come on, Tilly. Pound on me!”
She slammed me in the chest, and I grunted with the impact.
“Did I hurt you?”
I straightened up. “Nope. You got more in you. Give it to me.”
Her lips wobbled, but her aim was true as she took the pain out on me until she slumped in my arms.
Her tears wet my chest. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Justice.”
“Feel any better?” I rubbed her shoulders.
“Yes.” She snuffled. “But why did you let me do that? You’re such an idiot.”
My grin crooked up. “At least I’m not an asshole.”
“No.” Her forehead smudged across my chest. “Never that.”
“So why didn’t you marry Mister Asshole Peabody Nobody?”
“Just before my mom died, she knew. She’d watched us. She’d come down to dinner when Jeremy was there.” Tilly took my hand and smoothed the pad of her thumb across my knuckles. “She told me he was the wrong man. She wanted me to have love. To have loved.”
“I wish I could’ve met her.” I gently brushed Tilly’s tears away.
“Well, she probably wouldn’t have beaten you up like I did.”
“I like your fire, Tilly.”
“Do you?”
I kissed her deeply. Kissed her until the soft and sweet turned rough and raw. I kissed her clean of tears and well on the way to ready for more.
“I want you so much right now,” I rasped.
“Yes. Yes. Please, Justice.” She opened up to me, her legs around my hips, her arms around my neck.
I surged inside her, holding her all the way against my body. “You feel so good. So goddamn good.”
That time it was slow.
I sank my lips to her neck. “It might be the last time.”
It was liquid.
Tilly gripped me closer so she could grind and tilt and take what she needed.
“Don’t say that,” she whispered.
I held off. Fuck, how I held off. But the motions of her body, the gentle wave of our fucking, the soft and hard and wet and heat made it hard.
So fucking hard.
I held her breasts, the curves of her ass.
I grunted with each thrust she accepted, drawing me closer, closer, closer.
“I want you forever.” The last words I said whisked away on a harsh draw of breath when I came inside her.
Tilly rolled her hips, taking all of me, everything I had, her fingers clutching my shoulders, her body milking me slowly.
“Shit.” It was only afterward I realized what I’d done. “I didn’t wear a condom.”
“It’s okay.”
“Are you on the pill?”
“No.”
I pulled away from her. “Are you sorry?”
“No.”
“What if—”
“What if is what life is all about, Justice.” Her hand moved to my jaw. “And I like life.”
An hour later, she sat with the blankets draped around her hips, the rest of her bare.
“I have to go now. Before my father wakes up.”
That time the process of disengaging hurt.
Putting on my battle face.
Pretending I didn’t care.
That time, with Tilly, the termination of intimacy made my heart feel like it was going to combust. I’d always welcomed the call of duty before, the chance to turn my back, my ability to walk away unfazed.
I went with her to the door, her in her tank top and panties, me in my pants and nothing more. We stepped into the corridor, our bare feet dancing around each other until hers found purchase on top of mine, and she smiled.
I couldn’t smile back. I was cracking apart inside.
“I just want you to know I’ll keep my distance,” she said.
I nodded, giving no such promise.
“But I’ll want to kiss you in the morning. And sit in your lap. Laugh with you.” She held onto my forearms.
Where in the hell does she find this bravery?
I bolted myself in place.
“I’ll want to touch you.” Her lips pecked lightly along my jaw.
Oh, Christ, Tilly.
“But I won’t, because I know your job is to keep my father safe, and that’s my will too.” She turned on her heel.
Whipping out my hand, I towed her back to my arms. “You don’t get to say all that and just walk away. Because I’m hurting for you, Tilly.”
Lifting her off the floor, I turned and pushed her against the wall. “I don’t want to watch you leaving me—”
I kissed her with a hungry groan.
Tilly looped her arms around my neck, whimpering as my lips possessed her.
“You belong to me.” I growled against her mouth.
“Do I now?”
“MATILDA LAWLESS!”
The booming voice cut across us mid-kiss.
We broke apart, and there stood Ambassador Lawless several feet away, disbelief and anger mottling his face.
“Daddy, I—”
Tilly never got a chance to finish because suddenly the fast smack-smack-smack of boots pounding on the floor hurtled toward us. From around the corner Bane, Storm, and Walker streaked into sight.
“WE’VE GOT INCOMING!”
Chapter Eighteen
Full Battle Rattle
IN THE MAYHEM THAT ensued one of the guys tossed me my duffel prepacked with supplies and a medkit. I hauled on my shirt, socks, and boots, holstered my extra weapons, keeping the H&K in my hand.
I stood watch while Tilly jammed into her clothes and grabbed a go-bag filled with supplies and articles of her own belongings.
There was no time for repercussions from Ambassador Lawless or self-recriminations about getting caught at the worst possible moment with my pants literally down.
The sounds coming from the bunker room amplified into the unmistakable scream of missile launchers.
We congregated in the hall before preceding to the room the farthest away—the kitchen.
Depending on how powerful the final blast wave was, it could still reach us in there.
Bane stuck his head into the hallway one last time befor
e he pulled back, shouting, “HEAVY ARTILLERY!”
“TAKE COVER!” I ordered.
I pushed Tilly into a corner of the most protected wall and covered her with my body. The others barricaded around us.
The tunnel door blew with such force the impact roared through the empty rooms, and a wall of fire blew down the hall. Red, blue, white, orange flames crackled with intense heat. The blazes licked into the kitchen before peeling back, lifting up to the ceiling with a loud WHOOSH, searching for higher ground and more oxygen to fuel its life.
“Out! OUT NOW!” I hustled everyone from the kitchen, taking point with Storm, and Walker and Bane bringing up the rear.
We ran to the far end of the corridor, Storm wielding a fire extinguisher to clear our path and immediate area.
Shouldering toward Tilly, I stood over her, my eyes snapping to hers before I rechecked the vicinity for possible incoming threats.
I drew a second Heckler I pressed into her hand. “You use one of these before?”
“Something similar.” Tilly didn’t shake. She didn’t quail.
She took the pistol and thumbed off the safety.
I handed her an extra magazine of ammo. “Shoot the enemy. Shoot to kill. Don’t hesitate.”
Her lips thinned, and she nodded once.
Already armed, Lawless watched with a nod of his own.
“Once I get this door open Walker’s leading us out.” I went to work on the laptop I pulled out, balancing it between me and the wall, next to the only other entry point into these secure rooms—the vacuum-sealed door. “Stay close. Leave no one behind. Drive on.”
We had a possible lead-time of less than three minutes before the insurgents came crawling through the newly cleared tunnel, intent on capturing Ambassador Lawless. Tilly, too, I had no doubt. We’d planned our escape to the second, just waiting for them to attack first.
The Houthi soldiers thought we were trapped.
We hoped their extensive forces would be concentrated behind us, leaving the way ahead unfortified.
The scrabble of rubble, the sound of shouting voices in a foreign tongue came closer, clearer, and quicker than expected from down the hallway.
I tapped keys faster than I ever had in my life, hoping my test-run on the door had been accurate.
“They’re gaining, Jus.” Walker started unpacking demo-blocks from his pack just in case I fucked this up.
My fingers fumbled for a second, then I hit the last keystroke combination—connecting with the safe room security system and making it stroke out with an override command.
The heavy door unlocked with a grating metal-on-metal screech.
“Go time, people!” I issued the command, shoving the laptop into my bag.
We scrambled through the door I spun open . . . and came up immediately short.
“What in the FUCK?” Bane hissed.
My sentiments exactly.
We knew before we’d arrived in Sana’a the residence had gotten hit and hit bad. But to all outward appearances—even on the last seen video—at least some of the structure had survived intact.
Best-case scenario, we thought if we got through the stronghold wall we’d have a clear path to the front of the building.
Worst-case scenario? We’d be entombed inside a collapsed structure, bum-rushed from behind by the enemy.
This was shaping up to be worst-case.
This time it wasn’t a wall in front of us or a locked door. It was a massive sheet of rubble. A fucking mountain of it that in no way even remotely resembled anything like a room.
Already, I heard shouts behind us.
“How much more flash bang you carrying, Walker?” I asked.
“Packing enough.”
“Get to it.”
“Copy that.”
Bane, Storm, and I took up a stance at the door through which we’d come, Tilly and Lawless secured behind us.
“Can’t you just close this thing back up?” Storm struck a foot against the door.
“Yeah. We can close it. But the system’s offline. So would you rather I stand around here with my dick out trying to reconnect something I disabled beyond all repair, or would you rather I had my gun out?”
“Some fucking genius you are.” Storm aimed down the hallway.
Bane and I followed suit.
Bane took the first wave down with his fast-action machine gun, blood spraying in all directions, coating the walls of the corridor.
The retaliation was fast, and it was hot.
Gunshots flew toward us as the second wave of rebels cruised into sight.
Shoulder-to-shoulder, we aimed. Fired. Aimed. Fired. On repeat.
I glanced back.
Walker was taking too goddamn long.
“Oh. Fuck this shit.” Storm swung around, hefting a compact RPG on his shoulder to blast through the wall.
“Gimme a goddamn second, you Cajun cunt!” Walker gave the one finger salute to Storm without even looking up from his work.
Shrugging, Storm turned, aimed into the hallway, and let fly.
Body parts. Bloodshed. Death.
Adrenaline coursed right into my veins.
I popped off another clip, quickly reloading.
Sweat dripped into my vision. I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and went back to the killing as the goddamn bastards multiplied in front of us. Storm loaded another grenade into the launcher and unloaded.
“Walker!” I shouted.
“Take motherfuckin’ cover unless you want your nuts blown off!” Walker yelled.
I shot off the rest of my magazine before rolling to my side and taking Tilly beneath me.
Walker detonated the charge with a whoop! The far wall blew outward, and the white smoke of plaster dust rained down on us, chemical fumes drifted back to us. I grabbed Tilly by the shoulders, hefting her to her feet in front of me. Propelling her forward, I turned back the way we’d come.
The room suddenly crawled with the ragtag rebel masses toting high-powered AKs.
“RUN, GODDAMMIT!” I aimed and fired, hitting every mark in my sight.
Bane and Storm stood jammed right beside me, a black wall of unwavering kickass fury despite being outmanned.
Looking over my shoulder, I cursed long and loud and very fucking colorfully.
Another fucking unbreachable pyramid of debris!
We were hemmed in from every direction.
Walker swore, too, crouched down. He was already placing another charge of C-4.
“We got heat, Walker,” I called back.
“I feel ya!”
The formerly beautiful residence was now a shredded war zone, no two ways about it.
One lanky man ran ahead of the rest of his comrades, belting forward headlong with a yipping yowl that raised the hair on the back of my neck.
Training my pistol on him, I shot him point blank in the forehead.
He dropped in a one-count, but more came after him.
Their numbers multiplied, their swelling voices invading the formerly hushed building like screeching demons.
Lawless raised his Glock, marching up to join the firing line.
Between shots pumped from his gun, he bit out, “You watch out for Tilly or I’ll have your balls, son.”
I braved a glance back.
Tilly looked ready to join our ranks, the Heckler I’d given her held firmly in her hand.
She stepped up, and I strong-armed her behind me. “Get back, woman!”
The insurgents came at us like swarming insects, forcing us to fall back and back again. The ranks of terrorists closing in. For every one popped and dropped to the floor in a heap of dead flesh, three more appeared like they were breeding like cockroaches.
I heard Tilly scream, the sound pitching fear down to my stomach. I turned in time to see her battling against a man twice her size.
He held a semi-auto pistol to her temple.
Rage rocketed me through the roof. I jumped across fighting bodies, swinging arms, flas
hing knives, firing guns. As soon as I was in range, I drew out a shuriken and threw. It clawed into the enemy’s throat, slicing it wide open.
Rushing forward, I grabbed Tilly’s arm. My heart heaved in my throat, but there was no time for that. No time for anything.
Keeping her at my back, I laid the barrel of my gun at the temple of a man who charged me.
“Walker? What’s the fucking hold up?” I checked off another target.
With a pump of my finger, I wheeled to the next tango, the other man’s blood spattered across my face.
“Remote’s dead!” Walker stood behind me, and his KA-BAR sailed end-over-end to bull’s-eye a target in the throat. “Gotta detonate manually.”
I spun toward him. “You can’t do that!”
Around us the commotion heaved, one confusing ever-moving mass of bodies and complete carnage.
“Gotta. No other way out.”
The crush of incoming enemies cornered the six of us, but we held them off. Sweat dripped into my eyes, but I would not go down. Empty gun chambers clicked loudly. No time to reload. The shrieking whistle of bullets gave way to the fleshy pound of hand-to-hand combat.
We enclosed Tilly inside a tight circle. Growing ever tighter.
Chapter Nineteen
Death Blossom
KNIVES FLASHED. BLADES SLASHED. Blood spilled.
Fists beat. Feet kicked. Teeth bit.
Walker formed a barricade for himself, using our packs, just his hand visible.
In the middle of the uproar he called out, “Did I ever say thanks for getting Jade out alive?”
“What?” I wheeled around.
One brown-black eye appeared as he fiddled with the wires connected to his C-4 blocks. “She wouldn’t have lived without all of you. I might not make it out of this, but I think that’s okay because I’ve loved twice.”
The fight went on all around us. It was like the eye of a hurricane—movements slowed, blurred. Blood dripped and rubble rained down.
For a heart-stopping second I wondered if Walker would just go suicide bomber and end his life.
But he had Jade waiting for him to come home.
