HOT Angel: Hostile Operations Team - Book 12

by Lynn Raye Harris

  “Two weeks isn’t all that long. We were still getting to know each other.”

  “I know.”

  He rolled to his side and fondled her nipples. She sighed. “Be truthful with me, Brooke.”

  Her eyes snapped open, her baby blues meeting his gaze. She looked wary. “I have been.”

  “I know that, angel. But I want you to be truthful with yourself too. You experienced a trauma two years ago. You aren’t suddenly cured because we’ve had sex. You still need to process it.”

  Her lashes dropped over her eyes. “I’m fine. I feel great.”

  He sighed. “Baby. Promise me.”

  She reached up and ran her palm along his jaw. “I promise to see my therapist. I promise to tell her what really happened two years ago.”

  He dipped his mouth to hers and kissed her. “I’m glad. Because I want to keep doing this with you, Brooke. I want to move forward with you, and I don’t want anything to stop that from happening.”

  “It won’t,” she said.

  He wasn’t sure he believed her.

  *

  Cade got up and dragged jeans on over his naked body, then pulled a T-shirt over his head and scrubbed his hands through his hair. Brooke watched in awe. She didn’t think she’d ever seen a sexier man than Cade Rodgers.

  He was comfortable with himself, and he damn sure knew his way around a woman’s body. His tongue should be a registered weapon. His cock—damn, his cock ought to be licensed as a clear and present danger to her peace of mind. She’d been with other men, but she’d never wanted to get that acquainted with their cocks.

  Cade’s, however… Well, she could spend a lot of time licking him like a lollipop and never grow tired of doing so. Most dicks were not memorable. Most were unattractive. But if Cade sent her a dick pic, she’d make it into her wallpaper.

  Okay, maybe not her wallpaper. Decency standards and all. But she’d damn sure use it to get herself off when he wasn’t around.

  “You want to go out, Max?”

  Max jumped off the couch and did a few whirls. Then he barked.

  “Hey,” Brooke said. “No barking.”

  Max woofed more quietly the next time. Cade laughed as he grabbed the leash. “Be thinking about what you want for breakfast,” he said as he clipped on the leash.

  “Your cock,” she said automatically.

  Cade’s nostrils flared. “Angel.”

  She didn’t know who the hell she was turning into, but she trailed her fingers down her abdomen and into the wetness below. “I’m going to shower. Maybe you can join me?”

  “How many times can you…?” He shook his head. “Yeah, I want to join you. Gotta take the dog out first.”

  “Better hurry.”

  *

  She’d just turned on the shower when Cade returned. She was standing in the bathroom, utterly naked, when he came inside and looked at her with that intense I’m going to fuck you look he had.

  He stripped out of his clothes and left them where they landed. Then he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around him. He made her feel like she weighed next to nothing as he stepped into the shower with her.

  It was a small shower, the water tolerably warm but nothing to write home about. The tub was actually porcelain, a holdover from days gone by, and the shower head sprayed an anemic stream of water on them.

  He backed her into it, fused his mouth to hers. Brooke threaded her arms around his neck and kissed him for all she was worth.

  No, in some ways she didn’t recognize the person she was with him. But in others, she knew she was who she was supposed to be. Who she would have been without the trauma of her past.

  He lifted her up and then brought her down on his stone-hard cock. Brooke gasped as he filled her. She weighed nothing in his arms. Absolutely nothing.

  He held her with one arm beneath her ass, lifting her again and again as he fucked her, his other hand on her breasts, pinching her nipples. Brooke clung to him, let him take her where he wanted, knowing it would be good for them both if she gave up control.

  She was sore, and she was happy. Cade drove himself home inside her until she caught fire and came in one long, shuddering moan that seemed to go on forever. She could tell when he came because he finally pushed her back against the wall and ground his hips into her, grunting when his climax hit him.

  When it was over, he helped her wash, helped her remove the semen that dripped down her thighs, and then he washed her hair and rinsed it for her. She spent far more time than she should soaping his body, exploring the hard muscles, until finally he took her hand and peeled the sponge out of it.

  “No more,” he told her. “Not this time.”

  They finished their shower, then got out and dressed, exchanging kisses as they did so. It was such a normal thing, other than the cheap hotel room, and it made Brooke’s heart sing.

  She was in love with this man, for the first time in her life, and she wanted to keep feeling this way. She didn’t want to think about the past or about Scott and the man in the corridor, but she knew those things were waiting for her. They hadn’t gone away at all.

  After they dressed, Cade tucked his weapons into the holsters he’d secreted on his body. She watched him do it, her heart throbbing. This was his life. Guns. Violence. Danger.

  It scared her. What if something happened to him?

  “Breakfast?” he asked her when he was done.

  She nodded, her throat tight, her mind still caught in the grip of her fear for him.

  He tilted his head. “Something wrong?”

  “No, nothing.”

  His brows drew together. “Don’t lie to me, angel. It’s the guns, isn’t it?”

  “It’s what you do. I know that. I just worry.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m the nightmare standing between you and those who would harm you. Never forget that.”

  Her stomach trembled inside. “I won’t.”

  His phone rang before he could say anything else. “Yeah.”

  Brooke watched his expression harden, his jaw tighten, and her nerves popped like a high-tension line. His gaze lifted to her, his brows drawing down.

  “We’ll be there in an hour.”

  “What’s wrong?” she asked when he dropped his arm to his side.

  He didn’t stop frowning. “Bert’s daughter has been abducted.”

  Brooke blinked. “Bert? Bert Lewis, the security guard at my building?” Logically, she knew that’s who he meant, but she was having trouble processing it. Who would abduct Bert’s little girl?

  “Yes, that Bert.”

  Her stomach twisted before falling into her toes. “Oh my God, what happened? Who took Amy? Why would they go after her?”

  He came over and put his hands on her shoulders, ran them down her arms. It soothed her, but barely.

  “There’s no easy way to say this, angel.” He hesitated. “The Espinoza Cartel—those are the men that Scott was selling weapons to—they’re the ones who took her.”

  Chapter 18

  “It’s my fault. They were after me, weren’t they?”

  Fury rolled deep inside him. “It’s not your fault. It’s Scott Lloyd’s fault. Don’t ever forget that.”

  “But what does Bert or his child have to do with any of this? What can these people expect to happen now?”

  He held her by the shoulders, wishing he could take away her pain and fear. She trembled. “I don’t know, angel. But we’ve got to go to HQ and find out what happens next. We’ll get Bert’s daughter back—but first we need to know what they want, and we need a plan.”

  She nodded as if she trusted him to solve the problem completely. “You can’t let anything happen to her. Amy is Bert’s life. He and his wife tried for so long to have her—they’d given up hope when Shelly got pregnant. Amy is their only child.”

  Usually he walled off his emotions and got the job done. It was as natural as breathing. But this time— Hell, this time he was pissed. He didn’t know what
those fuckers wanted, but if they were abducting little girls, they were soulless monsters who would stop at nothing.

  He intended to stop them though. Stop them cold before they hurt Amy. And before they could harm Brooke. Because he had no doubt this somehow related to Brooke and what she might know or might have seen.

  “Let’s get going,” he told her.

  She nodded and turned away to get her bags. They loaded everything in his truck and then hit a drive-through for a quick bite and some coffee. He bought a small breakfast sandwich for Max too.

  Brooke didn’t appear to notice him order it, but she found it when she was rummaging through the bag for their breakfast. “Is this yours?” she asked, holding it up.

  “Nope. Thought Max needed something too.”

  She snorted. “Oh, Cade. My dog is going to weigh two hundred pounds when you’re done if I don’t watch you closely.”

  He glanced in the rearview. Max sat back against the seat, belted in with his special seat belt, and watched them both.

  “Look at that face,” Cade said. “How can you resist it?”

  Brooke sighed as she unwrapped the sandwich. “I can’t. Guess you can’t either.”

  She fed Max and then sat back and sighed, sipping her coffee as the miles went by. He knew she was probably thinking of her own treatment at the hands of her kidnappers and worrying for Amy. He wanted to take that fear away from her, but he couldn’t.

  “I’m sorry, angel,” he said after a while. “I know this hurts.”

  It was a good hour’s drive from the motel in southern Maryland to HOT HQ, and she hadn’t said anything for the past twenty minutes as she’d stared out the window and drank her coffee.

  He was beginning to feel a little desperate, truth be told. Last night—and this morning—had been so perfect, so earth-shattering, that he didn’t want to go back to the way it was before.

  There was something about this woman that made him crazy. Crazy hot, crazy horny, crazy for her in general. He’d never felt like this before. He didn’t quite understand how or why, but she meant something to him. Something more than anyone else he’d ever been with.

  She turned to gaze at him. There were worry lines on her forehead. “I keep reminding myself that Scott is the one who got involved with a drug cartel in the first place. He’s the one who decided to sell them weapons.”

  “Yeah. I wish I’d seen this one coming last night. I could have protected Bert’s little girl.”

  “You couldn’t know.”

  No, he couldn’t have. He’d gotten Brooke out of there, but he’d never thought the cartel would go after someone else. They must have had the building under surveillance for quite some time. Someone had helped them erase the recordings. Had it been Bert? Was he involved in helping the cartel’s man enter the building, undetected by security cameras? If so, why had he been so free with information when Cade had talked to him? It didn’t make sense.

  But Cade was also realistic enough to realize that it must have been an inside job. And Bert was as likely a candidate as any, especially now that the cartel had his daughter. Why would they have chosen her otherwise?

  “We’ll get her out. I promise.”

  “I know.” She turned to gaze out the window. She was quiet, and he didn’t like it. It felt like she was shutting him out, and he hated that feeling. He’d been a part of her not so long ago, his cock and his tongue and his soul, deep inside her, giving and taking and forging bonds he’d thought were more solid than they seemed at this moment.

  “You don’t sound like you’re very confident.”

  She turned. “I am, Cade. I promise I am. I just… I keep thinking about Amy, all alone and scared. She’s six, and she’ll be terrified. If what happened to me turned my life upside down, what will happen to a kid? I’m also scared about you leaving me to go and free Amy, and I don’t know how to process any of this fear I’m feeling.”

  “You won’t be in any danger. I’ll make sure of it before I go.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  He blinked. “You’re scared… for me?”

  It hardly seemed possible, and yet there it was.

  “I know I shouldn’t be. Grace says goodbye to Garrett all the time, and he always comes back. And it’s not like you’re going alone. You go with a team.”

  Cade flexed his hands on the wheel. “I’m coming back, angel. Don’t worry about that.”

  “But I do. I can’t help it. I…” She sighed and raked a hand through her hair. “This thing between us is new, but I trust you. I didn’t think I’d ever get past what happened to me, but sex with you… It’s amazing. I don’t think about some asshole abusing me when I’m with you. I think of you and us and all the things I want to do with you. All the things I feel.”

  He swallowed the knot in his throat. “I feel things too,” he said. “And I worry about you. I don’t want you anywhere near this mess right now, and yet I’m driving you into the eye of the storm. It’s killing me because I’d rather take you somewhere far away from the whole damned thing.”

  “I guess we’re both in a pickle then.”

  “Yeah, guess so.”

  “But Cade, you’re only taking me to HOT HQ—don’t look shocked, I know what it is after what I went through. I’m not really in any danger. I’m especially in no danger in the middle of HOT.”

  What she said was true, and yet he couldn’t shake the gut-deep feeling he had that something was going to go wrong. That she’d be a part of this whole thing before it was over. Still, he wasn’t telling her that.

  “I know how you feel being around the guys. You aren’t going to like it there. Too many men.”

  She laughed. “So you noticed that, I guess.”

  “It wasn’t difficult. You and Grace spent the entire football game in the kitchen. Not exactly hard to connect the dots.”

  “Maybe I don’t care about football. Maybe we were talking.”

  “You care about football. You have a favorite team.”

  “Okay, fine. But my favorite team wasn’t playing, so Grace and I chatted instead.”

  “You freaked out the second I walked into the room. And don’t think I didn’t notice how tense you were when the guys all went to grab snacks during halftime. They make you uncomfortable.”

  “And then there was the wedding,” she said. “The colonel’s wedding where you must have thought I was insane.”

  He remembered his first sight of her that night, how gorgeous and utterly enchanting she seemed to him. He’d wanted to get to know her, but Garrett and Grace showed up and dragged her away as if he’d been planning to strip her naked and fuck her right there in public.

  It had been an odd night, and he’d been left with an emptiness that had been stronger than any he usually felt. But then he’d moved on and forgotten about it—well, okay, he hadn’t quite forgotten, but he’d known it wasn’t ever happening the next few times he saw her.

  “I didn’t think that,” he said. “You seemed troubled. And you weren’t scared of me that night.”

  “I was drunk. Self-medication, Cade. I’d also taken a Xanax, which meant I was pretty loopy.”

  “You didn’t seem loopy. You seemed… a little uninhibited, but not out of control.”

  “I wasn’t out of control. I got pretty good at self-medicating for a while there. But I don’t mix alcohol and antidepressants anymore, promise. That was a dumb idea, and I paid for it with a monster hangover.”

  “So why’d you do it?”

  “Truthfully? I’d forgotten I’d taken the Xanax when someone handed me a drink. By the time I remembered, I’d had a mixed drink and felt fine. So I had another. And then another. I almost convinced myself that I was over my fears. In fact, when you started talking to me, I’d pretty much already determined to take one of you home that night.”

  Jesus, he was glad he was the one she’d talked to first. Even if Garrett and Grace hadn’t interfered, he liked to think his patience and self-
control would have held him back from taking advantage of her. One of the other guys would have been on her like a bee to nectar.

  “As much as I woulda liked to have been the one you took home, I’m glad it didn’t happen that night.” Because he had no doubt he wouldn’t have seen her again. It would have been sex and nothing else—and that wasn’t enough with her.

  “Me too.” She smiled. “Last night was so much better than it could have been back then.”

  “So you gonna be all right around all these guys?”

  “I’ll be fine, Cade. I know they’re the good guys.”

  *

  She’d told Cade she would be okay, but she was still nervous once they arrived at HOT HQ. The men were big, and many of them walked around with firearms openly strapped to their sides. There were women too, though not as many.

  They had to pass through several security checks, but when they were finally through, Cade took her to a conference room with a big table and chairs arranged around it. There were computers at every seat and a huge monitor hanging at one end of the room. There was another monitor with clocks displayed on it, showing every time zone across the world.

  Cade pulled out a seat for her and she sat. “I’ve got to go to another area for a little bit, angel. You’ll be fine here. Airman Reynolds will be with you until I return.”

  Her heart jumped in protest, but then the door opened and a woman in uniform walked in. Her hair was neatly contained in a bun at the base of her neck and her smile was friendly.

  “You’ll be back?”

  He dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “I’ll be back. Promise. Can you show Miss Sullivan the organizational film, Airman?” he said to the young woman standing just inside the door.

  “Absolutely, sir. Be happy to.” She gazed at him with something more than professional courtesy. A pinprick of jealousy stabbed into Brooke.

  Mine. Hands off. Even mental hands.

  Cade grinned at the woman, and Brooke’s jealousy throbbed. “I’m a sergeant, not a sir.”

  “Yes, Sergeant.”

  He strode from the room and Brooke tried to breathe normally. Not because she was scared, but because he made her insides churn and her breath shorten whenever he was near. Especially when he kissed her. He made her feel like she’d gotten on a roller coaster, but she didn’t want off.