Rescuing Gracelynn (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Bravo Series Book 1)

by Anna Blakely

  “I’m good, Jake. Really. Now, if that’s all, I’d like to get on the road. I want to get there and get settled before dark so I can do a good perimeter search and set up surveillance outside our cabin.”

  With one final look, Jake tipped his chin. “That’s all. Keep your phone close. We’ll do everything we can on our end. In the meantime, I want you to keep looking for a connection between Akmar and Craig Wyatt.”

  Nate held out his hand. “I’ll let you know if I find something.”

  With a strong grip, Jake returned the handshake. “Good luck, Nate. Stay safe.”

  Full of anxious energy, Gracie waited in Nate’s living room as he rushed to gather his things.

  He’d been fairly quiet since his private meeting with Jake.

  She wanted to ask what it was about, but he’d been bouncing back and forth between his computer room and bedroom for the past twenty minutes. She got the feeling now wasn’t the time for questions.

  A picture on the mantle above Nate’s electric fireplace caught her attention. She walked over to it and began tracing the edge of the wooden frame with her fingertip.

  With nothing else to do but wait, Gracie studied the two boys smiling back at her.

  One was clearly older. She guessed him to be around seventeen. The other boy looked as though he were eight, maybe nine. Gracie smiled when she realized the youngest boy was Nate as a child.

  The two were standing side-by-side and each was holding a fishing pole and a small, plastic tackle box. Behind them was a cabin near a large lake, the setting sun reflecting beautifully off the water’s smooth surface.

  It looked like such a happy time. Definitely a much simpler time.

  “You ready?”

  Gracie turned to face him.

  “Yeah.” Eyeing the three bags and backpack he was attempting to lug around, she went to him and pulled the small one from his hand. “Here. Let me carry this one.”

  “Thanks,” he mumbled as he handed it to her. “Okay, so just like when we came up here. You stay behind me at all times, and if I tell you to do something, you do it. No questions. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  Gracie wasn’t stupid nor did she have a death wish. This was Nate’s area of expertise, so she had absolutely no problem doing as he asked.

  As soon as they made it outside, they turned in the opposite direction from where his truck was parked. She started to ask, but Nate beat her to it.

  “We have to assume those men know about the team. If that’s the case, then they most likely know where each of us lives, what we drive, all of it. So, instead of taking my truck, we’re going to take this.”

  Gracie glanced at the white, four-door sedan Nate was already loading his bags into. “Whose car is this?”

  “Jake’s.” He took the bag from her hand and put it into the trunk next to the others. “Well, technically it belongs to R.I.S.C.” He slammed the trunk shut. “We have a few like it.”

  She studied it again. “Meaning, cars that don’t stand out or draw any unwanted attention?”

  Smiling, Nate winked. “Smart girl.” Opening the passenger door for her, he said, “Come on. If we hurry, we’ll have time to stop and get some food for the cabin before we check in.”

  “Cabin?” Gracie asked as she got into the car. She thought back to the picture.

  Rather than answer her right away, Nate shut the door and walked around the car’s rear bumper. He kept his eyes peeled on their surroundings the entire way.

  Once he’d sat down and shut his door, he turned to her. “You trust me, right?”

  “Yes.” There was no hesitation in her answer.

  “Good. Then, you should know I’m going to do everything in my power to keep those men from finding you again. Starting with getting us out of the city and to a place I know you’ll be safe.”

  “Okay.”

  With one final nod, Nate turned the key and started the car’s ignition. They’d no more hit the highway and she was out like a light.

  Gracie thought she’d be too wired to sleep, but the events from the past week, plus her earlier adrenaline surge and subsequent drop, had apparently taken their toll.

  The next thing she knew, he was waking her with a gentle nudge and a soft whisper.

  “Gracie.”

  She could hear the sweet sound of his voice but couldn’t seem to open her eyes. Nate nudged her harder.

  “Gracelynn.”

  Hearing her full name, she cracked open a heavy eyelid. “Hmm?”

  “We’re here.”

  Gracie blinked a few times and sat up straight. Once the cobwebs finally cleared from her brain, she remembered what had happened.

  Licking her dry lips, she ran her fingers through her hair. “Where exactly is here?”

  “A small resort along Lake Livingston.” When she looked at him expectantly, he added, “We’re about three hours southwest of Dallas.”

  “I slept three hours? Why didn’t you wake me?”

  He shrugged. “Figured you needed the rest.”

  Gracie rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “I guess I must have.”

  Looking through the windshield, she saw the log building they’d parked next to. It was small with a sign that read Livingston Cabins near the door. Shining brightly from one of its two windows was a neon sign letting customers know they were still open.

  Gracie started to open the door, but Nate’s hand on her arm stopped her.

  “Wait.”

  She turned to him. “What?” Then, it dawned on her. “Oh, right. I should probably let you get out first to be sure it’s safe.”

  “There is that,” he said with a tiny smirk. “But, there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about first.”

  Scooting down in his seat a bit, Gracie watched as he reached into his jeans pocket. He pulled his hand out and opened his palm to her, its contents leaving her both confused and a little breathless.

  “Are those what I think they are?”

  “Depends. If you think they’re wedding rings, then yeah. They are.”

  Her gaze landed back on his. She half-expected him to be wearing that smartass grin she was beginning to enjoy seeing. There wasn’t even a hint of a smile in his expression.

  Heart beating rapidly, she asked, “Nate, why do you have wedding rings?”

  Using his free hand, he held up the smaller of the two bands. “Akmar and Walker won’t be looking for a married couple.”

  “Oh. Right. That makes sense.”

  She took the thin gold band and slid it onto the finger that was supposed to symbolize everlasting love.

  Since she was a little girl, Gracie had always imagined what it would be like to see a ring such as this on her hand. In her wildest dreams, she never would have guessed she’d be wearing one in order to hide from a professional killer.

  Another thought hit.

  “Before we left, you said it was likely they knew who you were. What if they start calling around to hotels and places like this looking for us?”

  Nate reached into the back seat for the smaller duffle he’d brought along. With it on his lap, he unzipped a small side pocket and pulled out what appeared to be two drivers’ licenses.

  “One, businesses like these aren’t supposed to give out that type of information.” He handed her one of the plastic cards. “And two, I’ve got us covered in case they do.”

  Gracie stared down at the I.D. in her hand. It was the same picture as the one on her actual license, but everything else was different. Unfamiliar.

  “Who is Lynn Winters?”

  “She’s you. Until we get back home, that is.” He paused a moment. “The key to being undercover is to stick as close to the truth as possible without giving yourself away. There aren’t many variations of Gracie or Gracelynn, so I used the last half of your name.”

  “What about you? Who will you be?”

  Nate held up his license for her to see.

  “James Winters.” She tried it
out to see how it felt on her tongue. It felt…off.

  “James is my middle name. Winters was my grandmother’s maiden name. It’s an alias I’ve used before, but it has no ties to anything Walker or Akmar would know about.”

  “When did you even have time to make these?”

  “I already had mine from before. I threw yours together while we were at my apartment.”

  He just threw a fake I.D. together in a matter of minutes. Gracie didn’t even know what to think about that.

  Rather than respond, she glanced back down at her picture. Absentmindedly, she began to run her thumb across the fake name and address and wondered how her life had come to this.

  Placing his hand on her knee, Nate softened his voice. “It’s just a precaution, Gracie. You’ll be safe here, I promise.”

  She glanced down. Heat radiated from his hand to her leg. Even now, in the middle of the freak show her life had become, his touch sent her pulse racing.

  Gracie knew she shouldn’t be going there. But, when it came to this man, her body seemed to have a mind of its own.

  Nate pulled his hand away before muttering, “Stay there. I’ll come around and open your door.”

  “Wait.” This time it was Gracie who threw her hand out.

  He looked over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

  With her fingers clutching his impressively solid bicep, she licked her lips nervously before pulling herself up to him and pressing her mouth to his.

  It wasn’t a passionate kiss like the one in Jake’s office. It was a bit awkward and clumsy, which was the whole point.

  Pulling back, she nearly laughed at the shock reflected in Nate’s widened eyes.

  “What was that for?”

  Gracie shrugged. “I know you said nothing more can happen between us, but we’re supposed to be married, right? Depending on how long we’re here, we’re bound to be around other people. I know we’ve already kissed, but that was before.” When Nate remained silent, she tried to better her explanation. “I thought, in case we have to actually act married or something, we should probably get the awkward, unexpected kiss out of the way now. You know, so we don’t blow our cover or whatever.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard. After staring at her a few seconds longer, Nate gave her a tiny smile. “That was smart. Thanks.”

  Feeling better about the impromptu kiss, Gracie watched as he walked around the front of the car. Opening the door for her, he waited until she got out to give her the run-down for the rest of the night.

  “We’ll go check in and get some snacks for tonight. In the morning, we’ll drive into town, grab a bite to eat, and then go find you some clothes and a few necessities to get us through the next few days.”

  Right. Because they couldn’t go to her apartment for her own clothes prior to leaving Dallas.

  “Do you think that’s all it’ll take to find Akmar and Walker? A few days?”

  “I hope so.”

  Nate glanced out at the area behind her as he spoke. Always protecting me. Too bad that meant they had to be hands-off.

  Shaking those thoughts away, Gracie stood a little taller. Whining and complaining wouldn’t help the situation, so she decided to try and make the best of it. After all, they were going to be sharing a cabin on a lake. It won’t be so bad, right?

  A long stretch of rolling thunder passed over them and a big, fat raindrop landed on her cheek. She nearly laughed at its ominous timing.

  It would be just her luck to be stuck inside a cracker-box cabin with the one man she wanted but couldn’t have.

  Naturally, for the next three days, that was exactly what happened.

  It had rained and stormed nearly non-stop since their first night there. The good news was that Nate was able to spend a lot of quality time with his computer, working to figure out why someone wanted to take her. The bad news? There was no T.V.

  While Nate was busy working his magic—as he called it—she’d already finished reading the last of the only two romance novels the little log shop had for sale.

  And why she’d decided to read romance at a time like this was beyond her. The last thing she needed rolling through her head right now were stories of endless love and hot, steamy sex.

  With a loud sigh, she put the book down onto the end table next to her chair and went to the sliding glass door. The view would be beautiful, if it weren’t for the constant cloud coverage and pouring rain.

  Wrapping her arms around herself, Gracie stared out at the dismal-looking lake. For what felt like the millionth time lately, she wondered how she’d gone from being excited to start a new chapter in her life to hiding out from someone who tried to kidnap her with a man who’d barely spoken to her since they’d gotten here.

  It didn’t help that every time he walked into one of the cabin’s three rooms, her heart did this funny fluttering thing, and her insides began to tingle. The man had kissed her like a sexual god after she’d nearly been taken. Too bad he’d barely given her a second glance these past few days.

  Logically, Gracie understood why Nate hadn’t made any sort of advances toward her since that day in Jake’s office. He’d been upfront with her from the start about how things had to be.

  Their boss had declared this an official R.I.S.C. case, and Nate was in charge of keeping her safe. He’d told her he needed to stay focused on that, which meant nothing more could happen between them until this whole thing blew over.

  He was definitely a man of his word.

  Though, she’d argued with him that first night, Nate had insisted on taking the couch and giving her the bed. The bottom half of his legs hung out over the arm, and it was so narrow he’d had to remove the back cushions just to keep from rolling off.

  Gracie was deciding whether or not she should try to get him to take the bed tonight when a pair of strong hands began rubbing her shoulders from behind. Startled, she jumped, but didn’t turn around. Instead, their eyes met in the reflection of the glass.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  Afraid to move for fear he’d stop touching her, Gracie shook her head and smiled. “You didn’t.” She could see one of his dark brows lift at her claim. “Okay, so maybe you startled me a little.”

  She loved the way his reflection smiled back at her. “You seemed very deep in thought. Anything you want to share?”

  Uh, definitely not. Gracie did her best to act completely normal.

  “Just tired of all the rain. I know we aren’t exactly here for fun, but I was hoping since we are here, maybe we could…I don’t know. Go swimming or hiking or something.”

  Immediately wanting to smack her complaining self, she turned to face Nate. As expected, his hands dropped back down to his sides.

  Ignoring the intensity with which she missed his touch, she apologized.

  “Sorry. That sounded completely ungrateful. I didn’t mean it to be.”

  “I know what you meant.” He smiled down at her. “I’m sick of being cooped up, too.”

  Tilting her head toward the computer set-up on the coffee table, Gracie asked, “Have you been able to find anything useful?”

  “Not yet, but I’m not giving up. Neither is anyone else. Gabe texted earlier to say he and the others were checking up on a possible lead Ryker found, so I’m waiting to hear back about that.”

  Gracie nodded, but didn’t verbally respond.

  “Hey.” He tilted her chin up then waited for her eyes to meet his before continuing on. “I know this is hard. The waiting’s the worst. Not to mention being stuck in here with me.”

  Nate smirked, and she knew he was trying to make her smile. Good thing he didn’t realize why it was so hard being trapped in the cabin alone with him.

  The man was seriously lethal, and not just in a professional way.

  Giving him the smile she knew he was waiting for, Gracie said, “Well, I’m sure there are a million other things you’d rather be doing than babysitting me. Especially, whe
n I know for a fact you haven’t been able to sleep worth a damn since we got here.”

  “I’m good. The couch is actually more comfortable than it looks.”

  Gracie waited until she was certain he was going to stick with the lie before responding. “I sure hope your undercover skills are better than that, Mr. Winters. Otherwise, we’re screwed.”

  Feigning hurt feelings, Nate put a hand to his chest. “I’ll have you know, I’m the first person the team comes to when they need someone to go under. What do you have to say about that, Mrs. Winters?”

  Crossing her arms, Gracie studied him a moment. “Better. I almost believed you that time. Maybe there’s hope for us, yet.”

  “You think I’m lying?”

  “About the undercover part? I’m not sure. But you were lying through your teeth when you said the couch was comfortable.”

  “Yeah?” he challenged with a smart-ass grin. “What makes you so sure?”

  “I’ve been sleeping less than twenty feet away. I can literally hear you tossing and turning throughout the night, which is ridiculous seeing as how there’s a perfectly comfortable bed with plenty of room for the both of us.”

  At the mention of sharing a bed, Nate blinked, and his demeanor completely changed. Gracie could see the wall going back up and actually felt him pulling away again.

  Damn her and her big mouth, anyway.

  “So, I looked at the weather.” He turned around and started for the kitchen. “The rain’s supposed to continue throughout the night, but be cleared out by morning. I thought, if you wanted, we could rent one of those canoes we saw when we checked in and take it for a spin around the lake.”

  “Really?”

  The idea probably excited her more than it should have, but the walls in this place were seriously starting to close in on her.

  “Sure. If it stays nice, we could even go down to the beach area and swim a bit. Then, I thought maybe we could go into town for some pizza or something after. If you want.”

  Gracie felt like jumping up and down. “God, yes,” she moaned.

  Nate’s gaze shot to hers for a split second before refocusing on the glass he was filling with water. He swallowed a big gulp before clearing his throat.