She shifted to sit next to him. “Is this really what you want? To risk infiltrating uncharted enemy territory just to see a dead body?”
He tilted his head to look down at her, a kind of naked vulnerability in his gaze she’d never seen before. One she doubted he’d ever let anyone else know existed.
“I can’t live without knowing either way, without making sure he can’t use what he knows against us. He fooled everyone on squad, everyone on the entire damn ship. But I was his best friend. We were almost brothers in everything but blood. I should have seen it, should have picked up on something not being right. Hell, maybe I did, and I just didn’t want to see it.”
He dragged a hand across his eyes, leaving a track of moisture as he looked away from her.
“It’s all on me. All of it. If I’d just—”
“No.” She took his face in her hands, making him look at her. Another tear escaped, slipping down his cheek and over her fingers. “This isn’t your fault. You can’t take that kind of responsibility, because it’ll kill you. Lawler would have been trained, just like I was. He knew how to make sure no one suspected a thing. We always identify and befriend the smart ones, the ones we think will be the most likely to discover the truth, so we can keep a closer eye on them. If Lawler worked so hard at becoming close to you, it’s because you were the most likely one out of the entire squad who could have figured it out.”
He sniffed, wiping his face. “And what’s that supposed to be, cold comfort?”
“It’s a fact. Take it however you need to.”
He sighed, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. “Now what?”
She let her fingers trail over his jaw, short whiskers pleasantly abrasive against the tips. “If you’re still convinced this is what you need, we go to Ilari and find a crash site.”
He studied her, eyes still damp, making the deep brown a richer color. “What about your situation? I thought you were going to Earth.”
She sent him a small smile. “After everything you’ve done for me, it doesn’t seem like the thing to do—cutting out when you could use my help. Besides, I have my own reasons for wanting to find him. I need to know who helped him escape. I could be wrong, but what happened to me and this thing with Lawler are part of a bigger picture I can’t see yet.”
“I think you’re right. I think the connection is Stanton.”
Her heart skipped an apprehensive beat. “Stanton?”
“He’s the CSS mole inside Command Intelligence. It makes sense, Jenna.”
“I’m not jumping to any conclusions. I deal in facts. That’s all.”
She didn’t want to agree with Seb, but if his theory was correct, it made Stanton that much more dangerous. Acting under the orders of CI was one thing, but if he had his own agenda, that made him unpredictable. And an unpredictable element could prove deadly.
Seb placed a hand gently against the side of her face. “I know it’s a possibility you don’t want to consider.”
“This isn’t going to be easy, I can minimize our chances of getting caught or killed, but you heard Alpha. We’ll be heading into enemy territory where even CI hasn’t set foot. There’s a pretty good bet we won’t come out alive.”
For some reason, she sensed the gravity of that had finally sunk past Seb’s rage and drive for vengeance, and saw the fatalistic acceptance in his tight expression. But she doubted it would change his mind. The man was stubborn, and considering his record, running into danger seemed to be standard operating procedure.
“If you do this and we find Lawler’s body, you might never get your answers.”
“The outcomes of both my options are about the same. I could just as easily fail by going to Earth.”
In reality, infiltrating CI HQ for answers wouldn’t have eventuated. She’d likely have been captured or exposed and then executed long before she got answers. At least this suicidal mission was more likely to yield results, because getting in wouldn’t be half as hard as getting out again.
She took a clearing breath. “If you’re right and it turns out Stanton is CSS, it won’t make a difference to me. The damage has already been done.”
Seb nodded, as if he completely understood. Maybe he played the brawn, the airheaded lady-charmer, but deep down, he was a very sensitive, intelligent guy, and she couldn’t figure out why he hid that from the galaxy.
He glanced around the cell. “How long was I out for?”
“A little over two hours.” She got her datapad out. “If we’re going, we haven’t got much time. Moore said he was going to come check on you in three hours.”
“The guy better consider himself lucky when he turns up to find the cell empty,” Seb muttered, using the bulkhead to remain steady as he pushed to his feet. “Oh, by the way. That nurse back in my room—”
“I’m pretty sure she was CI.” She got to her feet as well, keeping an eye on him in case he looked like he was going down again. “Stanton must have sent her.”
“What was she going to do, kill Ace and me?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe just to gather more intel. See how you reacted to the news about Lawler.”
“I’ve had it with Stanton’s games. I’m assuming you spent those two hours while I was getting my beauty sleep coming up with a plan to get us off the ship undetected?”
“There’s a supply shuttle heading to the Ilari base in about half an hour for routine engine maintenance. It’ll pretty much be empty, so I figured we can get on board and hide somewhere.”
“Half an hour? That’s cutting it close. What would you have done if I hadn’t woken up in time?”
She shrugged. “I always have a plan B. You would have liked plan B. It involved knocking people out and stealing a ship.”
His eyes lit up, chasing away the last cobwebs from the drugs. “Let’s go with plan B.”
She shook her head at him. “Plan B has a higher chance of getting caught before we even leave the Knox’s deck. Plan A might be boring, but we’ll be more likely to make it to the ground.”
“Buzzkill,” Seb muttered as they left the cell.
As they reached the end of the passageway and another locked door, Jenna input a command into her datapad to launch the protocol she had set in place.
“Okay, in about thirty seconds, the MPs are going to clear out. We’ll wait a minute or so and then sneak past whoever is left.”
On the other side of this door, they had to get past twenty on-duty MPs. She’d rigged the system to put in a false call—the highest-level emergency the MPs responded to. It should put nearly all the police into action and keep them distracted until the shuttle was launching. By the time they got back and realized Seb was missing, the shuttle would be halfway to Ilari.
A large, warm hand landed on her shoulder.
“In case I don’t get a chance to say it later, thank you, Jenna. No one has ever put themselves on the line like this for me before.” He kissed her cheek and then her jaw, along to her ear, the light, warm sensation of his lips on her skin sending a light shiver cascading through her. “I don’t have words for what this means to me.”
Just like she didn’t have words for what Seb now meant to her. His welfare had become more important than her own, and she hadn’t even noticed.
“Thank me after we get off the ship.” Though she could have happily sunk into his arms and forgotten about every little problem hanging over their heads, she pushed back from him.
“Yeah, that sounds like a really good idea.” The warm, wicked gleam in his gaze left no doubt what he meant.
She sent him an exasperated frown. “Keep your head in the game, cowboy.”
He simply grinned with an irreverent spark in his eyes.
Taking her own advice, she turned her attention back to the datapad to see the fake call had gone through and the MPs were mobilizing.
“Okay, we’re going to head out in one minute.” She checked the security feeds, watching as nearly all the MPs left the level. “I’m counting three m
arks to avoid on the way out.”
With a last glance, she charted their best escape route without being seen, and slipped her datapad away.
“Ready?” She glanced over her shoulder to see Seb nodding.
Opening the hatchway, she glanced out cautiously, though as expected, there was no one in the immediate area.
They hurried out, moving swiftly down the short passageway, then going low as they passed through the open central area where the three remaining MPs were glued to their consoles and very obviously not looking for escaping fighter pilots. Halfway across the room, Seb snatched something from a desk. She cut him a hard look, and he flashed her a packet of mints, before popping a couple into his mouth. Rolling her eyes, she sidled the remaining steps across the large open area, hitting the passageway that led out.
Once they reached the transit and the doors closed behind them, she breathed a little easier. No one except Sub-Doctor Moore, Alpha, and Bren knew Seb was meant to be locked up, with maybe the exception of Commander Yang. So there’d be no need to skulk about until they arrived at the beta launch deck.
For the rest of the journey, she used her CI clearance. If anyone went looking later, it’d leave them scratching their heads, since she was meant to be dead.
And okay, it was probably giving away her hand after she’d gone to so much trouble to conceal her presence, but there was a very good chance neither of them would make it back from Ilari. And if they happened to survive this insane mission, it would be well past time for her to disappear. It was a shame that the notion of leaving the Knox, of leaving Seb, was like taking a hot knife to the stomach.
She forced herself to ignore the smoldering sensation as they arrived on the beta launch deck. This was the busiest deck on the Knox, with supplies and other cargo constantly being moved on and off the ship. No one paid them any attention as they navigated the slight crowd. One of the first things a CI agent learned—if you looked like you belonged somewhere, people didn’t take a second look.
Seb kept his face angled down and away from anyone they passed too closely, but for the most part, remained relaxed. Maybe he thought he didn’t have the skills of subtlety or subterfuge, but he’d been doing a pretty good job at it.
Near their destination, they paused by a stack of crates, and Jenna took in the outlay. A woman in a pilot’s uniform appeared to be doing some kind of final check. A man joined her, presumably the copilot.
Once the two of them walked off, she tugged on Seb’s shirt and they hurried over and jogged up the ramp into the empty cargo hold.
“So the problem with empty supply ships is that they leave nowhere to hide,” Seb said in a low voice, glancing around.
But she’d already made her way over to one of the rarely used, fragile storage compartments. On a war supply ship like this, breakable cargo was hardly ever shipped, and most people forgot the lockers even existed. This wasn’t the first time she’d used one of these compartments to conceal her presence on a shuttle.
She pulled open the narrow hatchway to find a stack of likely-forgotten cloths. Shoving them out of the way, she opened the hatchway a little wider.
“You can go in first.”
“Well, that’s going to be cozy.”
She reexamined the space with a critical eye, realizing Seb’s shoulders were broader than she’d thought. While she’d hidden in these kinds of spaces before, she’d never shared one with another person. Cozy was an understatement.
“It’s only half an hour to Ilari. I think we can stand it.”
He sent her a flat look. “You’ll be standing. Me, not so much.”
“Hurry up.” She waved a hand toward the opening. “While you’re bitching, we’re increasing our chances of getting caught.”
With a long sigh, he turned and backed into the locker, dropping to his knees, and shifting the dusty cloths around to make himself comfortable. Well, as comfortable as he was likely to get squashed in there. Damn, he took up nearly all the room. Carefully setting a foot on either side of his thighs, she maneuvered herself in and then pulled the hatchway closed, shutting them into almost complete darkness, apart from a thin sliver of light at the bottom of the door.
Seb’s chin came up against her lower abdomen, making her jump.
“Well, this presents some interesting possibilities.” His hands landed on her hips, holding her in place as he found the gap between her pants and shirt, lips skimming the sensitive skin there.
“Shh!” She shifted a little, but there was nowhere to go.
“I can be quiet. You were the one screaming last night.”
“Seb—” His warm breath on her lower stomach was chipping away at her common sense.
“Are you really going to stand for the next half an hour?” His hands shifted to her lower back, pressing her into him.
“There’s not exactly any room for me to sit.” Her voice came out uneven, giving a hint to the way he unsettled her.
“We can figure something out.” He tugged, and she allowed herself to sink down, ending up in his lap with her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders. “There now. Isn’t that better?”
Hell no, it wasn’t. She could feel the hard ridge of his erection between them. One of his hands cupped the back of her head as his lips found hers. But he’d barely started kissing her when voices registered.
She leaned back, looking over her shoulder at the door that stood between them and being discovered, trying to catch her breath that had somehow gotten all out of control. Seb went still beneath her as the pilots boarded. But they didn’t start launch sequence, they seemed to be discussing some kind of delay. Hell, that couldn’t be good.
For a few tense minutes, as the pilots continued discussing whatever problem had cropped up—the details of which she couldn’t hear properly—neither of them moved. At the conclusion of the pilots’ back-and-forth, one disembarked again, stating they’d be back in ten minutes, leaving the other to double check things and ready the ship for flight.
“What do you think is going on?” Seb whispered.
She glanced down at him, able to see him a little better now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. “I don’t know, but now we have to decide whether to wait the ten minutes for the other pilot to return, or find another way off this ship before anyone realizes you’re missing.”
“This is proving to be more difficult than you made it sound,” he muttered, a typical hint of impatience to his voice.
“I told you this wasn’t going to be easy. You think this is hard? Wait until we get to the ground and across enemy lines.”
“The way I see it, we’ve got over half an hour before we hit dirt and have to worry about the hard part. In fact, there are some hard issues right here that need taking care of.”
Despite their tenuous situation, she couldn’t help grinning.
“You’re a scoundrel.”
“I’ve been called far worse,” he murmured, leaning in to catch her mouth before she could reply.
On the scale of bad ideas, this one was right up there, a solid fifteen out of ten. CI agents were always alert, never letting anything or anyone distract them. Except she wasn’t a CI agent anymore. And this might be their last chance to think about nothing but each other for a few minutes. If the pilots caught them, they’d face some questions, Seb might get suspended again, and she’d be handed over to CI. But once they were on the ground, any distraction that led to them being caught would see them dead.
Throwing caution to the stars for the first time in years, she sank into the kiss, spearing her hands into Seb’s short hair. He made a low, quiet noise of approval, and the kiss deepened, got a little wilder.
Reaching down, she tugged at the top catches of her shirt, exposing her chest. But that wasn’t enough for him. He slid his hands to her shoulders inside the shirt and skimmed her bra straps down, dropping the cups to her lower ribs and exposing her nipples to his roving mouth.
She clenched her jaw over cr
ying out, arching and pushing her breasts more firmly into his hold, reveling in every rippling sensation that coursed through her. But she needed more, she needed all of him.
Pulling out of his hold, she flicked the fasteners of her pants open and stood. Toeing out of her boots proved to be a mastery in balance, especially as Seb took up kissing her lower abdomen, with more intent, his lips and tongue weakening every muscle in her body. He helped her tug her pants down and out of the way, but when she would have dropped back into his lap, he simply tightened his hold on her hips and shook his head at her with a truly wicked grin.
He couldn’t mean—
Oh, but he did. She almost lost her balance, knees buckling as his mouth found her very core. He lifted her left leg and hooked it over his shoulder, and she discovered a brace in the bulkhead just above her to hang on for dear life.
Seb took her with no quarter. This was no slow build, no gentle wind up to set her soaring. This was an incursion, an immediate, wicked assault on every nerve ending, ripping her toward a hard and fast orgasm.
The combustion came just as she knew it would, sudden and unyielding, tearing through her senses, leaving her dazed and weak.
Seb allowed her to slip down his body, shifting so she came down and took him into her still-throbbing core with no resistance. When the delicious heat and hardness speared into her, it sent another, deeper wave of pleasure reverberating through her.
He groaned in her ear, low and gravelly, sparking her senses with an echo of heady gratification at the sensation of them joined together.
Regaining some vigor, she braced herself and shifted against him, meeting his short thrust with the limited room they had. Tension built between them, and he pulled her harder against him, mouth taking hers as the urge to cry out got harder to control.
Seb braced a hand against the bulkhead next to them, and the next thrust had more power behind it, going deeper, driving the ecstasy within her higher. She clamped her thighs tighter around his hips, sinking more fully onto him and it was like the ignition point for both of them. Seb bucked beneath her, while she fused her mouth to his, muffling them as they hit orbit and burst into the black like shooting stars.
Cover Fire (Valiant Knox) Page 21
