Code Name: Ghost

by Natasza Waters

  His brows knit together. “Then I’ll come with you.” His hand curled around hers to stop her.

  She shook her head again. “I’ll catch up to you later.”

  Thane searched her face. “Why do I feel like I’m letting a dove free into a flock of ravens?”

  Gazing into his features made her stomach tighten. “I don’t really remember my grandmother. She died a long time ago, but she had a saying for everything. I heard her tell my mother once, although a raven has sharp eyes and quick claws, it can’t catch what’s already dead.”

  He jerked his head. “I don’t know what that means, and I don’t think I want to know,” he said quietly. “Let me come with you. I’ll show you the field. There’s plenty of wind out there.”

  “I walk alone, Commander.” He didn’t try to stop her again, and she was glad he didn’t.

  Chapter Ten

  After waiting for forty-five minutes to get in, Mace and the rest of the team found a table near the back of the tent. The smell of barbeque, fried onions and loud conversation choked the air. The Beer Garden overflowed with air, sea and land personnel mixing it up with the civilians.

  Before the single women descended on their table, the Commander pulled him aside while the guys went for grub.

  “Where do you think she is, Mace?”

  He shrugged. “Don’t know, sir. She got all weird when you were all gawking at her.”

  The Commander’s eyes darted away from his, and scanned the crowd. “She—doesn’t normally look—like—that,” he said carefully.

  Mace pinched his lips together, trying to burn the smile knowing he had the Commander figured out. “Like what, sir?”

  Tony popped between them and thrust a plastic cup into each of their hands. “Salute!” he said.

  “Learn that from Kayla?” Mace asked.

  “Yup,” he said, throwing back a long gulp. “Christ, it’s hot, eh?”

  “Eh?” Mace laughed.

  Tony chuckled. “She rubs off on you, ya know. Spent a few hours with her yesterday.”

  “What did she say?” the Commander jumped in.

  Tony’s brows rose. “’Bout what?”

  “Anything.”

  Tony shot a look his way, not sure what the Commander wanted. He started to open his mouth and then slammed it shut. Mace knew the feeling. When he figured out the Commander was becoming human, and his attraction to Kayla was more than bed-sheet-worthy, it numbed the brain.

  “We—uh—she, sir, not sure what you mean?”

  He wasn’t helping Tinman, he could ride this mission on his own.

  “Did she talk about anything other than work?”

  Tony glanced around. “Ah, well, we hung out at the beach for a while, and then she made me dinner.”

  “You got dinner!” Mace griped. “Seriously. Why do you rate?”

  “Wasn’t just me, dude. Gord and Barry came over.”

  “Did they say anything?” the Commander asked, looking more frustrated by the second.

  “About what, sir?”

  “Kayla, you asshole,” the Commander growled. “Did they divulge anything about their time before they came here?”

  “Not really, I mean Gord asked Kayla asked about some guy. Lieutenant Commander somebody or another. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  The Commander stilled. Not good. “Sir, it could be anybody.”

  “Wouldn’t say that,” Tony added, then motioned with his cup after taking a drink. “She looked a little worried when they brought him up, and she said this guy didn’t know she was here. Other than that, we just kicked back and bullshitted.”

  “Do you think she has a boyfriend, a serviceman?” the Commander asked, his expression tight.

  Tony’s brows popped and Mace could see the light finally came on.

  Mace eyed the Commander carefully. “Sir, I doubt it. I think she would have mentioned something to me.”

  The Commander turned a stormy expression on him. “Why is that, Petty Officer Callahan?”

  Shit. His hands jumped in the air to ward off the anger that struck like a compression blast. “Whenever I’ve asked her about Canada, she quickly changes the subject.”

  “Why do you think that is?”

  “Don’t know, but she gets very guarded. I asked Barry about it.”

  “And?”

  He felt like he was deceiving Kayla by talking behind her back, so he stalled.

  “Mace, what aren’t you telling me?”

  He rammed his hands in his pockets. “It’s nothing.”

  “Listen, Mace, we don’t know her. There’s a reason I’m asking.”

  Tony’s head bobbed back and forth, obviously relieved he wasn’t on the spot.

  “Barry doesn’t know anything, but he says Gord does and won’t share. Like I said, it’s probably nothing. Workplace crap.”

  The Commander put the cup he’d emptied on a table beside him. “I’m going to find her. She shouldn’t be roaming around here on her own.”

  “No, sir. She’ll come back when she’s ready. Let’s grab something to eat.”

  * * * *

  Mace saw the Commander look at his watch again, and for the hundredth time scan the crowd. The team had consumed enough Smokies and beer in the last two hours to feed three squads.

  “Something wrong, sailor?” The gorgeous brunette who’d hooked herself to his side an hour ago asked.

  Mace adjusted her on his lap. “No, sweetheart, we’re just missing part of our team.”

  The Commander shot a look across the table at him. The nuclear blonde who paddled upstream trying to get his attention all night wasn’t giving in. She laid her hands gently from time to time on the Commander’s arm, and was giving him all the signals, but the Commander wasn’t acting like he normally did.

  “Maybe I should go look for her, Commander.”

  “Her?” the brunette asked, raising a brow. “If she works with you, she must be built like a moose,” and she giggled.

  He ignored the twenty-one year old on his lap.

  “I’ll take a wander around,” the Commander said, raising his large frame from the table. “Excuse me.” He nodded absently at the blonde.

  The blonde didn’t bother to hide the ticked expression crossing her features. Time spent and wasted, Mace thought, grinning to himself.

  The Commander pulled out his cell phone. “Yeah, room three-oh-five.” He waited then snapped it shut, scanning the surroundings again. The enormous tent was brimming with people, and more waited in a line to get in.

  “Not in her room, huh?” Mace said.

  “Where’s the Commander going?” Tony asked, swaggering up to them with a beautiful redhead in his arms.

  “He’s going to look for Snow White.”

  “Then he’s going in the wrong direction.”

  The Commander stopped and turned. “Where is she?” he said gruffly.

  “Over there. She’s ripping up the dance floor.”

  There was no way to tell whom she was dancing with, but men circled her, and it looked like all of them. The Commander glared at her, and if she didn’t feel the burn of that stare, nothing would hurt her.

  The Commander’s eyes shot to the blonde who watched him with half-hooded lids, the sexual innuendo pooling on the table, but the Commander’s thoughts were misdirected and Mace knew it. As the Commander zeroed in on the blonde, Kayla suddenly appeared.

  “Hi guys.” Her eyes drifted immediately to the Commander and the blonde.

  “Where ya been, Kayla-girl?” Fox yelled over the music, lifting a pitcher of beer into the air. “It’s time you did some serious drinking with us.”

  “Working off some extra calories,” she said, laughing, but the laugh didn’t reach her eyes as the blonde reached for the Commander.

  “Hey, why don’t we hit the deck,” Mace piped up and stretched his arm over the table, grabbing the blonde and lifting the brunette off his lap. “Come on, ladies, I wanna see what you got.”
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  “I don’t feel like dancing,” the blonde said, pinching her sharp features into a snarl then ran her long, pink polished nails down the Commander’s chest.

  Mace didn’t miss the fact the Commander had started to drink more as the night marched along, getting more and more agitated with every hour. The look in the Commander’s eyes said he was about to tear into the blonde. He should just let it happen, but…“Don’t do it, sir. You do, and you’ll regret it,” he warned in a low voice. The Commander glared at him. “Snow White come here,” he waved her over, and she wove her way between the chairs.

  “What’s up, Ssssniper?”

  Yeah, she’d had a few all right. “The Commander here needs some dance lessons.” The blonde shot him a scathing look, tucking her body tight against the Commander’s.

  Kayla threw her hands on her hips. “Dance lessons? That I can do.” She reached her hand out, and the Commander grasped it immediately, following without a single word of resistance or a second look at the other woman. Mace watched them disappear into the crowd. Jealousy and acceptance swirled inside him. He should probably shoot himself the next time they were out on deployment.

  * * * *

  “Where have you been?” he asked. The music slowed down and the Commander wrapped her in his arms, pulling her a little roughly against him.

  “Why? Did ya miss me?” she shot back, grinning up at him. She’d lost count of how many drinks she’d thrown back, but enough to brazenly meet his eyes. Warmth swarmed through her as she pressed against his hard body, and by God, it was as firm as it looked.

  He cocked his head at her and gave her a stern look. “This place is filled with guys who’d love to take advantage of a beautiful woman.”

  “Well, then, I’ve got no worries,” she said, flopping her hands out, palms up. “They felt sorry for me, and I didn’t have to buy a single drink tonight.”

  A full-on scowl stiffened his jaw. “Where were you?”

  “Not cramping your style. You didn’t need me tagging along.”

  “Kayla, why do you always insist on going it alone?”

  She slid her arms around his neck. He isn’t so tough. “I don’t think you need any dance lessons, you dance just fine,” she said, ignoring his other question. The flutter in her heart wasn’t betrayed in her voice when his look turned into a glare. Thank God, she was half-cut.

  The desert grew chilly in the evening, but the goose bumps rippling across her skin weren’t from the night, but from his large palm as it brushed against the bare skin at the hollow of her back.

  Bloody hell, there was that terrible sour feeling in her chest again. It pierced right through all the alcohol. The look in his eyes hardened. Maybe he was sorry he’d let her come. “You always look at me like you hate me. If you want me to leave the Command center, I will. If you don’t think I belong, I’ll put in a transfer,” she spurted, looking away.

  A gust of air left the Commander’s lungs as his hand slid up her back, and through her curls. “I don’t hate you, Kayla,” his chest expanding with deep breaths.

  She swallowed hard. The song ended and she backed away from him, feeling like a total fool. Sounding like some bratty twenty-year-old did nothing for her cause. “Good night, sir.”

  “No, Kayla, don’t walk away from me, again,” he commanded.

  Denial and desire mixed in his light blue eyes. His muscled forearm slipped around her waist and drew her tight. “I—I think I should,” but it came out like a breath of air. A wave of heat tingled in her toes and quickly rushed through her body. She’d wondered more than once what being in his arms would feel like. Now she knew, and it scared her. Twenty years had passed since she’d felt sensations as strong as this. An aura like his could enchant any woman, and she’d fallen as well.

  He barely shook his head, his full, strong lips coming closer, their gazes spellbound.

  Her airway closed off. Oh, God.

  “Snow White, Snow White.” The team started to pound the table.

  They both jumped apart, the chant breaking their hold on each other.

  “Who the hell is Snow White?” the singer on the stage asked.

  “Show ‘em what you got, Snow White,” Tony yelled, jumping on his chair, calling across all the heads that filled the Beer Garden.

  The Commander gently nudged her along, making a path for her through the people. As he released her, his hands sensually slipped across her shoulders, and his warm breath kissed her ear. “Sing for me, sweetheart.” Her heart pounded in her chest, not because she had to sing, but because of what he had called her.

  “You’re Snow White, huh?” the hottie on the stage said, smiling down at her.

  She planted her hands on her hips and stared up at him. “Apparently.” The racket from her team’s table started to catch and the place started to jump. The guy held his hand out and she grabbed it, hoisting her up onto the two-foot high stage. “Why don’t we turn it up a notch?” she called out.

  “What’s it gonna be?” he asked.

  “How about helping me out with On the Floor, by Ms. Lopez.”

  “Whoa, you don’t fool around, let’s do it, girlfriend.”

  The band started the song, and people bulleted for the dance area in front of the stage. A spark ignited inside her, flared and then an explosion filled her as the music lit up her soul. In the past, her love for music had saved her life. It was the only thing she loved that hadn’t been taken from her.

  * * * *

  Thane returned to the table, but he didn’t sit. On the stage, his little mermaid transformed. Her vocals shook the crowd, but this time she let loose, and the place went absolutely crazy when her body undulated to the music as the beat rose like an approaching orgasm. The guy on the stage with her couldn’t hide his surprise, and together they blew the canopy off the place.

  Kayla’s gorgeous body gyrated, her hips swaying with the music. The crowd—in unison—thrust their arms into the air toward her in rhythm with the beat. The entire place moved with her. Kayla took them higher, running her hands through her waves of hair leaving it in sexy disarray, her eyes on fire. There couldn’t have been a man in the place who didn’t want to claim her, because he sure the hell did. Raising his fingers to his lips, he whistled. The team joined in, cheering their girl on. He leaned over. “That’s my girl, and she’s goddamned beautiful, Mace.”

  The song ended and the crowd roared with applause, begging for more. But typical Kayla, shook her head and was going to jump to the ground when the singer of the band stopped her. “Not so fast, Snow White. One more for the road,” he said, blowing a kiss at her, and giving her the stage.

  “Okay, one more.” She put her hand up to shield her eyes, looking into the crowd. “This one’s for my team. They’re brave, their acts of valor are never forgotten, and I’m so proud to work with them. I love them all.” She cleared her throat as the place quieted down. “I pray that my men, and all of you who fight an endless battle always come home safe to the ones you love. If there was ever a song that held a prayer, this is it.”

  Mace looked over at him. “Maybe she loves one of us a little more, Commander.”

  His eyes never veered from his little powerhouse on the stage. “A man couldn’t be that lucky,” he muttered. And obviously no man had been, since she’d managed to walk through thirty-plus years of life alone. He couldn’t understand it.

  When the music started, he knew exactly what song she was going to sing: a hit made famous by Andrea Bocelli—The Prayer.

  When the first words left her lips, the audience stilled.

  Kayla slid from the stage and wound her way through the crowd who gaped with awe as she passed. Transitioning between English and Italian with perfect resonance, she wandered amidst the tables. Near the center of her audience, she reached the pinnacle of the song, and he saw tears in people’s eyes.

  Her gaze found his, and stilled his heart. Slowly, she approached him, her voice pulling the perfect notes with power from some
where inside her. The song came straight from her soul and struck his with a painful force, shattering it.

  When she reached him, his arm snaked out to curl around her waist and pull her between his thighs. The feel of her warm skin on his fingers, her voice filling the air with sweet magic made his heart sail into an open sea. Her final note and her eyes riveted him. When the song ended, he drew her to his chest and without even thinking twice, claimed her mouth. Passion seared through him. She seared through him.

  “Now that’s one lucky bastard,” the lead singer yelled to the crowd, who were on their feet applauding. Not wanting his audience to cool down, he immediately rolled into a rock song from the eighties.

  Surrounded by the team, yet separated from the world, their kiss deepened to a frantic pitch. He had to get a grip, but his grip was on the only thing that mattered to him. An electrical storm of need grew between them, and Kayla incinerated his belief that his heart was forever buried—to ash.

  Slowly, she drew away from him. The light in her eyes when she’d sung dimmed and before him was the same beautiful, humble woman she always was. The team careened around them, but for one exquisite moment, their gaze locked the world out, and it was just the two of them. He would have given all he owned, his soul, everything—to stay this way with her.

  Kayla melted into the crowd. When he spotted her again she was weaving her way through the throngs of moving bodies on the dance floor. She was leaving—again. He watched until she disappeared into the darkness, and yet he could still see her, like you see the sun behind closed eyes after looking directly into it.

  “Oh-seven-hundred hours tomorrow at the hanger,” he called over the music at Mace.

  Mace gave him a nod. He flipped a leg over the cheesy plastic picket fence surrounding the gardens, and headed with long strides to catch up with Kayla.

  In no hurry, her steps lazily meandering, she made for the front gate. “Hey,” he said, reaching for her. She refused to look at him, instead, she crossed her arms and stared at the sand. “I’m sorry, I…”