by KaLyn Cooper
With nothing more than a glance toward the lights, they both sprinted to their villas.
Chapter Ten
Rayne peeled off her soaked clothes as she headed straight for the shower. Dex had heated her from the inside out, but the second she stepped into the air-conditioned villa, a cold bucket of reality dumped over her.
What the hell was she doing kissing Dex Carson?
She had wanted to get away for a few moments to clear her head. ‘Disappointed’ couldn’t begin to describe how she felt. She’d walked room to room in the empty house. The girls had been there. The house still held the scent of teenage sweat, hints of stale cigarette, and men in need of a shower, but it was the discarded feminine products in the hall bathroom that confirmed their presence in her mind.
She’d sauntered down the beach needing to cleanse away the anger of being so close yet missing them. She was livid with herself for not thinking like an investigative agent. Rayne knew that Jaja would move, and often. His backup plans had backup plans. She needed to cast off the emotions in order to concentrate on finding the girls.
Stepping under the warm spray, she savored the feel of water pelting her skin. She grabbed her shower poof and squirted her favorite gel, then squeezed it into a lather. As she soaped her body, the light exfoliator stimulated her already aroused nipples into hard pebbles.
Where was a man when she needed one?
Right next door.
One who knew exactly what to do with her body. Given the size of his erection as he had kissed her, he was willing and would certainly be able to satisfy her.
Damn Dex. Just being around him had stirred emotions that she had kicked into a dark corner twelve years ago. Back then, she had wanted him, needed him, more than she’d ever needed any other man. She had even dared to think long term with him.
She was such an idiot, then and now. He had kissed her, but could she let it go at that? No! She had to take control and kiss him back. As though it was a sign from God, it started to rain. She’d been elated. So, what did she do? She kissed him harder.
Kissing in the rain had been on her list since she was a little girl dreaming of her knight in shining armor coming to rescue her from a house filled with children.
Smack in the middle of seven kids, she’d always felt like the forgotten one. She’d excelled at sports, hoping to be noticed, but there was constantly an event at church or activity in the community where her parents were expected to attend. They’d missed almost all her games. When not at practice, she hid in the bedroom she shared with her two older sisters and studied, or read romances, dreaming of that hero who would pay attention to her, listen to her and think that she was brilliant, then whisk her away where it was only the two of them.
Sometime in high school, Rayne realized that the armor worn by most knights wasn’t shiny after all and that no one was coming to save her. She could don the bullet-proof armor and save herself. She could also rescue others. The champion didn’t always have to be a man.
She also liked being feminine. She thoroughly enjoyed getting dressed up and going out on a date, especially if the man proved interesting. She’d had a few one-night stands—her choice, not his. Rayne had learned early on in the dating game that men were rather clueless when it came to sex. They often needed instruction, and she was willing to add to their education if it resulted in multiple orgasms for her.
On the rare occasion, she’d find a man who interested her over dinner as well as in bed. Dex had been like that. She’d enjoyed his intelligence from the first day they’d met. Although they’d never even kissed until after the successful mission in Nigeria, she’d somehow known he wouldn’t need a map to find her clitoris.
She was right. For hours he had taken her to heights beyond reach with any other man. Then his phone had buzzed. He’d crawled out of her hotel room bed without a word, a kiss, or a backward glance.
Rayne hadn’t seen or heard from Dex until twelve hours ago.
His kiss had taken her back to that hotel room with sex-dampened sheets. Her brain had filled with a lusty need for more of this man’s body and what he could do to her…for her…with her.
Why did being with him feel so damn good? Why did their conversation have to be so easy? Why did she want him so fucking bad?
Her shower held no answers.
Finally warm once again, she turned off the water and stepped out. Someone was beating on her door.
Quickly wrapping a towel around her naked body, she trotted to the door and looked through the peep hole. Dex stood on her porch with wet hair and clean dry clothes. “Rayne, open the door. We have new intel. We have to go. Now!”
Without remembering that she wore nothing but a towel, Rayne opened the door. “What’s going on?”
Dex’s gaze fell down her body. He stared at her bare feet with red painted toenails before his eyes slowly crawled upward. The bath sheet hung below her knees and was tightly wrapped across her chest, completely covering her small breasts. There was certainly nothing sexy as far as she was concerned.
“Dex?” She asked impatiently.
His eyes met hers. “Uhm…since you’re…” His eyes scanned her body once again. “Looks like you just got out of the shower. Dress as quick as you can and meet us in the war room.”
“What’s going on?” She asked for the second time.
“Video.” He seemed to have difficulty getting the one word out. “Jaja sent another video to the President. Conference call in five minutes.”
“I’ll be there.” She practically slammed the door in his face and dropped the towel on the way to her duffel bag. She was used to getting dressed in a hurry. She threw on a tank top, stepped into camouflage cargo pants, and grabbed her boots, throwing clean socks inside them. Rushing by the bathroom, she scooped up her brush with hair ties wound around the handle. Within two minutes she was sprinting down the sand. Thankfully, the band of rain had passed over the island. The nearly full moon lit the way while the black sky was filled with stars. She wished she’d been able to take a few minutes to absorb the beauty of the night.
Quietly sliding into the back of the darkened room, she leaned against a wall just as the Department of Homeland Security logo stopped spinning and Silas Branson appeared on the large flat screen.
“Eleven minutes ago, the President received another video from Aahil Mohammed Jaja. Dex, you’ll have to retrieve it from the secure file.” Silas slowly shook his head. “He used one of the kids this time. She was identified as Elianna Martin.”
Rayne’s heart leapt. She was thankful and sorry the same time. Part of her was grateful that Jaja hadn’t chosen Callie, while she felt terrible for Elianna’s parents.
“Her father is Congressman John Martin, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Jaja made her hold up a list of names of men he wants released from U.S. custody, three from Nicaragua and two from Chad. He made it clear that he wants the President to put pressure on these countries to release his men.”
“The President has no intention of doing any of that, right?” Dex asked.
“Fuck, no,” Silas shot back. “We all know the policy, the United States does not negotiate with terrorists, even ones who kidnap little girls. Which brings me to my next point.”
A weather map of the Caribbean filled half the screen.
Holy shit. That hurricane was big and headed straight for them.
“This outer band of storms has moved across St. John and cooled everything off, making it much easier to identify fourteen people most likely huddled together.” He leaned his forearms on his desk. “We have analysts searching every inch of the island and data streaming in every second. We’re going to find them, but we have a very short window of time before the next storm band crosses St. John. I want everybody to sleep until we’ve pinpointed the house. The strike is going to be fast and deadly. Be prepared to leave on a moment’s notice. Everyone is dismissed except Dex’s team.”
Lights in the back half of the room came on. Chairs s
craped across the tile floor as boots shuffled toward the exits. To Rayne, it seemed like there were a lot more people crammed into the small private room.
When everyone was gone except Dex and the six special operations men, she walked to the front of the room where the rest of her team was gathered around the table. “Who were all those men?”
“That’s the complete team,” Dex explained. “The platoon of active duty SEALs who were assisting local police all day, three helicopter crews, and us.” He pressed a key on the computer and the screen came back to life. “The rest of them don’t need to see this but I thought it might help us. I’ll play it a couple times.”
Rayne’s stomach flipped as the camera zoomed in on Elianna’s shaking body.
“Say hello to the President and tell him who you are.” The female voice off camera sounded like Ms. Rogers.
“Hello, Mr. Presi—” Her small trembling voice could barely be heard.
“Speak up, child,” demanded a male voice. “Shout if you have to.”
She looked off to the right of the camera and her eyes held as though she were listening to someone important.
Nodding, she took in a jerky breath. “Hello, Mr. President. I’m Elianna Martin,” she said in a louder and slightly less shaky voice. The girl’s eyes kept darting to the right side as though for approval.
“Hold up the list so the camera can get a close-up,” came the female voice again.
As the camera neared Elianna, her eyes became very big and she started to back up.
“No, Eliana,” pleaded the female voice. “Stand still so he can get a good shot of all the names on that list. Hold it out in front of you toward the camera.”
The small, dark-haired girl shoved the piece of paper in the direction of the camera.
“Try to hold it still, so the President can see all the names.” Ms. Rogers was doing a good job of keeping the girl calm.
The camera moved back and Jaja was holding the gun to the little girl’s head. “Mr. President, you have my list. For every one of my men set free, I’ll give you back one of these pretty little girls. You have exactly twelve hours from the time I sent this video to let my men free before I start killing these hostages.”
Jaja ran the muzzle of the gun down the little girl’s jawline and leaned in very close to her ear. “You should hurry, Mr. President. I might have to give some of these virgins to my men before I kill them.” His smile was cruel and didn’t change his dead eyes. “After being fucked by each of my men, multiple times, in every hole in their nubile bodies, they will beg to die.” The screen went blank.
Rayne’s blood boiled. “I’m going to kill that fucker.”
“Not if I get to him first,” Dex pledged. “We’re going to watch it again, and this time keep an eye on the background, anything that would give us another clue.
On the second pass, they saw the corner of the now familiar mirror. The color of the walls matched the ones they had been in a few hours before.
By the fifth time they’d seen the same video, everyone agreed that Jaja had recorded this message before they had moved the hostages.
Rayne fought a yawn but caught Dex watching her.
“We need to sleep, too.” Dex started gathering the map in closing down the computer. “I’ll call you if anything changes. Like Si said, be ready to roll with moment’s notice.”
Without a backward glance at Dex, Rayne walked back to her villa, placed her nighttime camouflage gear in the exact order she needed to put it on, and crawled into bed wearing panties and a black tank top. It had been a while since she had practiced combat naps, sleeping deeply for a short period of time and waking completely refreshed, but it only took her a few deep breaths to fall asleep.
At 2:30 in the morning, approximately twenty-three hours after the girls were kidnapped, her phone rang. She awoke fully in an instant.
“Yoshida.”
“War room. Now. We’re going after them.” Dex didn’t bother saying hello or goodbye.
As Rayne walked into the war room, she was surprised that only her team was there gearing up. Some were strapping on Kevlar vests while others were Velcroing holsters to their thighs and ankles. Dex looked as though he hadn’t left.
“So, what did I miss while I was sleeping?” Rayne dug her custom-made bulletproof vest out of her bag and started to strap it on.
“About an hour ago, Si woke me up with the news that they had narrowed the possibilities down to three houses. We sent the active duty SEALs to check out each of the houses.” He pointed to the map. “This was the only one that had guards patrolling the woods surrounding it. The others were all empty.”
Rayne’s heart began to beat stronger and faster. This was it. She had a good feeling about this one. It would be over before daybreak, hopefully. “What’s the plan?”
“Dark and fast,” Dex announced. “All the active duty SEALs are converging on this location and currently in a holding pattern. They are not to engage until we arrive.”
She glanced around as she strapped her favorite pistol holster to her right thigh. “Helicopter crews getting ready?”
“We’ll drive to this point and leave the SUVs here.” Dex stopped lacing up his boots and pointed to a house about a mile from the target. “Once we’ve secured the house and the hostages, the active duty SEAL team is going to run through the woods,” he traced a straight line between the two homes, “and bring the SUVs down the road to us. They’ll then help us with the evacuation, escorting the hostages over to St. Thomas where they will turn them over to the FBI.”
“With hours to spare before Jaja intends to start killing people,” Ethan announced as he slid a nine-inch knife into a sheath at his waist.
Rayne wondered if he was going to be able to use that weapon and once again live up to his moniker of Blade.
“Ready?” Dex asked his team.
“Fuckin’ A,” Shep responded.
Robert Taylor and Devin Martindale, two of the Special Forces men from DOJ, gave him a thumbs-up.
Will, one of the medics, asked, “Is there any way Stephen and I can talk you into letting us go in with you?”
“No.” Dex headed for the door. “You’re going to have your hands so full within minutes you can thank me for making you wait.” As he opened the door, he looked directly at Rayne. “You’re with them.”
“I know.” She didn’t like it, but completely understood why her team leader had made that decision.
Forty minutes later, she still didn’t like being mandated to the second wave, but she was certainly thankful for the active duty SEALs who had silently taken out all the guards patrolling the perimeter.
The breaching team had moved up to the house while the SEALs had their backs, protecting the perimeter and assuring they hadn’t missed any bad guys.
“On three.” Dex started the countdown. “Counting. One.”
Minutes ago, Dex announced that Si had sent an infrared picture of the house to his satellite phone. All the heat signatures seemed to be concentrated in one room on the backside of the house. They were too close together to get an exact count but it looked as though adults were mixed in with the children. On the live satellite feed at the Homeland Security Operations Center, they could see three people walking around inside the house.
“Two.” Dex counted off.
Rayne, Stephen, and Will would go through the kitchen door at the side of the house once it was cleared.
“Three.”
They opened the doors at the same time. Gunfire erupted immediately.
“One down,” someone announced through their communications units over the squealing girls.
“Make that two,” another voice came through Rayne’s earpiece.
High-pitched screams assaulted her ears. She could hear the girls through the communications unit in her right ear as well as through her open left ear.
“Basement clear.” That sounded like Devin, which would make sense since he was given the lowest level.
>
“I’ve got number three.” Dex’s voice was easy for her to identify.
He was safe. Relief rushed through Rayne.
“Rayne, medics, get in here and calm these girls down,” Dex commanded.
With a nod, Will lead the way. The kitchen was empty but smelled of recently cooked food.
As Rayne stepped into the living room, she noticed eyes peeking from under blankets. A few of the girls sat upright screaming. The chaperones weren’t sure what to do.
Rayne stuck her fingers into her mouth and whistled. The room fell into silence. “Young ladies, you all know me, I’m Senior Special Agent Yoshida. We are here to rescue you.” She glanced at Dex. “Are we clear?”
Dex shook his head side to side.
“Girls,” she ordered, “Chaperones, climb underneath all the mattresses and pillows. Don’t come out until I come and get you.”
“Upstairs clear.” She was relatively sure that was Ethan reporting in.
“Do you see any more tangoes?” Dex was asking Silas on a separate communications channel.
When Rayne stepped back, she almost slipped in blood. One glance at the headshot and her supper crawled up her throat. The girls couldn’t see this. The kitchen was free of any bodies, so she’d send them there. It was also one of the safest places in the house, with solid wood cabinets filled with cans and heavy appliances.
After what seemed like the longest minute of her life, Dex finally gave her the “All clear.”
She immediately started pulling girls from their hiding places. Lifting a couch cushion and tossing it aside, she found three girls. “Aria, Zoey, Elianna, you know me. I need you to do exactly as I say.”
The girls nodded and looked around.
Rita Garcia stuck her head out from under a mattress.
Thank God. An adult. She didn’t seem to be panicking. Even better yet.
“Mrs. Garcia, I want you to take the girls straight to the kitchen. Make them sit on the floor until I get there.” With the slightest tilt of her head, Rayne indicated the dead body behind her. She watched the woman close her eyes and swallow hard. “I know this isn’t easy, but I need you to move now.”
