Her Rogue Alpha (X-Ops Book 5)

by Paige Tyler

  Dreya’s eyes darted to the window.

  “If you make a run for it, I won’t try to stop you,” Ivy said. “We both know you’ll survive the fall easily enough, even from this high up. Sure, with all the trash cans, AC units, and bikes down there, you’ll almost certainly break a few bones, but I don’t imagine it will hurt as badly as what Thorn’s men will do to you when they catch you. You know as well as I do that the only reason you got away in that alley earlier is because you had a guardian angel out there watching over you. He killed those men and Thorn will never have a clue what happened to them or where they went. But that big guy won’t be there every time, especially not if you go on the run. Thorn will come after you. And he’s not going to stop until he gets what he’s after. Be smart and give me what you stole from Thorn.”

  “How do I know you won’t just kill me the moment you get what you want?”

  “Because I give you my word.”

  That was the best Ivy could do.

  Dreya stared at her for a long time, then let out a sigh. Shaking her head, she walked into the kitchen. Ivy had thought a thief like Dreya would hide the diamond and whatever else she’d stolen from Thorn somewhere better than her refrigerator.

  But Dreya didn’t open the fridge. Instead, she pulled it smoothly out of the cubby in the wall, then slipped behind it and slid a piece of paneling aside to reveal the front of a combination safe. The woodwork had been done so seamlessly that Ivy would have had a hard time finding it on her own, even with her shifter senses.

  Dreya flipped through the combination quickly, then yanked open the door and reached inside. Ivy had about a half second to wonder if the other shifter was going to come out with a gun, but when Dreya turned around, all she held was a big, beautiful diamond on a long, gold chain. Dreya tossed it across the room, forcing Ivy to snatch it out of the air before it smashed against the wall.

  “You’ve got what you came here for,” the shifter said. “Now you can leave.”

  “Not until you give me what else you stole.”

  Dreya swallowed hard. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Ivy tightened her grip on the diamond. She didn’t want to get in a staring contest, but the longer they hung around, the more likely Thorn’s people would find out where Dreya was and come looking for her.

  “I don’t know what else you took when you grabbed that diamond, but whatever it is, it has Thorn behaving more viciously than I’ve ever see him. And trust me, I’ve seen him be really frigging nasty,” Ivy said. “I know you have family in town, and as soon as Thorn figures out exactly who you are, he won’t have a problem going after the people closest to you. Is that what you want?”

  Dreya’s eyes filled with pain. Turning back to the safe, she reached inside and took out a small, black, rectangular-shaped box. For a moment, Ivy thought it was a jewelry box, but when the other shifter walked over and handed it to her, she realized it was too heavy and solid for that. There wasn’t a hinge or any way to open it, either. There was only some kind of recessed, multipin connector on one side and an irregular hole like something a key would fit into on the other.

  “What is it?” Ivy asked.

  Dreya shrugged. “Beats me. I thought it was some kind of hard drive, but if it is, it’s not like anything I’ve ever seen and I don’t know how to get it open.”

  Ivy stared at the thing in her hand. “If you didn’t know what it was, why did you take it?”

  The blond shifter smiled. “It was in a fancy safe with a fancy diamond. I figured it must be valuable. Plus, I figured it would piss off the rich asshole if I took it. It’s one of the benefits of my chosen career path—pissing off rich people.”

  “Until you piss off the wrong one,” Ivy said.

  Dreya snorted. “So you’re just going to give this stuff back to Thorn, and that’s it—he leaves me alone?”

  “I wish,” Ivy said. “No. For this to work, I’m going to have to make sure that the person who took this stuff is dead.”

  Dreya’s eyes widened.

  Ivy laughed. “Good thing you’re not the person who took it.”

  Dreya visibly relaxed. “So…what do I do?”

  “Get out of town for a while, at least until everything is cleaned up,” Ivy suggested. “And when you come back, you might want to think about staying away from men like Thorn.”

  Pocketing the diamond and the little black box, she turned and headed for the door.

  “Hey!” Dreya called. “That’s it? You’re just going to walk out without even telling me your name?”

  Ivy stopped at the door and turned back to look at the feline shifter. “I don’t think we have to worry about that. I get the feeling we’re going to meet again soon. I’ll tell you my name then. Take my advice and get out of town, okay?”

  Dreya nodded.

  Without another word, she turned and walked out, closing the door softly behind her. On the way down the stairs, she called Landon and let him know that she’d found Dreya and had Thorn’s stuff.

  “What the hell did she have besides the diamond?” Landon asked.

  Ivy climbed into the SUV and cranked the engine. “I think it’s some kind of electronic storage media, like a hard drive. I’m going to show it to the techs at the complex. If it’s some kind of storage drive, they’ll know how to get the info off it.”

  “If you’re right about that being some kind of hard drive, you know what this means, don’t you?”

  She laughed as she pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the beltway. “It means we have Thorn by the balls and all we have to do is twist. Make sure Hayes stays away from Dreya Clark, then get your sexy butt down to the complex. This is all coming together fast.”

  “I’m on it.” Landon chuckled. “Holy shit, I’m on it.”

  * * *

  Jayson felt like he was sinking in quicksand. He’d already told himself that the hybrid serum hadn’t worked and that he’d gained little if anything from taking it. He’d been okay with that and had come to accept that what he’d done since arriving in Donetsk was more about the power of his will and his commitment to Layla than some crazy miracle drug. Finding out that the serum hadn’t even had a chance to work because Zarina had dosed him with something that kept it from ever being a possibility made him angry as hell. He felt betrayed…cheated.

  Shit.

  They didn’t have time for this. Dylan, Mikhail, Olek, and their friends were going to be ramming that car into the gate any minute now. But Jayson had to know.

  “Why would Zarina inject me with something like that without telling me?” he asked softly.

  Layla closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the green glow was gone. All that was left in the darkness was overwhelming sadness. She hadn’t wanted to tell him about this, he realized. If he hadn’t made that crack about trying to leap up on the wall like a shifter, she probably never would have.

  “Zarina knew that serum would almost certainly kill you—or worse, turn you into a monster that even you wouldn’t recognize,” Layla said. “She used the only thing she had that might stop it. Considering the fact that you were willing to die for a chance at having a normal life again, she didn’t see much point in telling you about the antidote in advance.”

  “Did you know she was going to do it?” he asked.

  Layla shook her head. “No. When you walked in with Dick all ready to take the drug, she didn’t have time to call me and ask what she should do. She had to act. But if I had been there, or if she’d been able to reach me, I would have told her to give you the antidote. Even if you hated me for it later, I would have told her to do it. Because while you needed more from your life than you had, all I needed was you. And if it means that I’m selfish for wanting you alive, then so be it.”

  Jayson started to say that it wasn’t her decision to make, but the words die
d in his throat. Suddenly, he felt like he was the one being selfish, not to mention frigging stupid. Layla was completely right. He’d been willing to die rather than keep living with the injuries he’d sustained in Afghanistan because he thought those injuries were keeping him from living the life he wanted. But since coming on this mission, he discovered it had always been within his power to decide what kind of life he ended up living. It had just taken him time—and Layla’s love—to figure that out.

  In return for this wonderful gift, all Layla had ever asked was that he simply not give up, that he stay here in the world with her whether he was whole or not. And here he was making her feel like there was something wrong with that. Of all the people who had done things wrong in this situation, Layla wasn’t one of them.

  Tears stung his eyes and he blinked them back. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him.

  “There’s nothing selfish about not wanting me to take a drug that could have killed me, or being happy Zarina gave me something that kept me safe,” he said hoarsely. “And if I made you feel any differently, I’m sorry. I got stupid there for a second, thinking about what could have been instead of what I already have. Again—I’m sorry.”

  Layla tipped her head back and stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him. Time stopped for a moment as their lips touched, and he was reminded once again that he had already gained the only thing of any real value that could have come from taking that serum—Layla.

  “What you’ve accomplished on your own is far more impressive than anything you could have done with hybrid abilities,” Layla said. “I couldn’t be prouder of my partner—or the man I love.”

  At those words, Jayson felt a surge of pride unlike anything else he’d ever experienced. He kissed her again, then pulled back. “Let’s go get those girls and bring them home.”

  As if on cue, an explosion from the front of the estate shook the ground beneath them and a big, red fireball rolled up through the night sky. Seconds later, the popping sound of small arms fire filled the air like someone was hosing down the front of the estate with a half-dozen machine guns.

  Shit. If they blew this because he was too busy throwing a pity party for himself to stay focused on the mission, he was going to be pissed.

  “Go!” Jayson urged.

  Trusting the teens’ distraction would get everyone’s attention turned the other way, Layla took off running for the back of the house, Jayson at her side. Dropping to one knee, he put his back to the rough stone and cupped his hands in front of him. He tensed, knowing it was going to hurt, but doing it anyway. Layla read his mind, launching herself at him, her booted foot thumping into his outstretched hands on the fly. He shoved up at the same time she jumped, propelling her to the top of the wall.

  She stretched out on her stomach, then threw one of her legs over the top and reached down with her free hand. Jayson didn’t know how the hell a woman her size could hold his weight even if she was a shifter, but he leaped up and grabbed her outstretched hand anyway. The moment their palms clapped together, she gripped tightly, pulling him up as he kicked with his legs. Considering they hadn’t practiced this particular move, they executed it amazingly smoothly, and within a few seconds, they were both dropping down to the far side of the high wall and were inside the estate.

  Jayson pulled the AK-74 off his back as Layla drew her pistol. He waited while she tested the air inside the compound with her nose and ears to make sure there weren’t any guards hanging around back there.

  After a moment, Layla gave him the all-clear signal.

  “Let’s head for the main section of the house, then hope that you pick up Anya’s scent from there,” Jayson said.

  Layla nodded and took point. Jayson followed her across the property as she tried to stay in the deep shadows as much as possible. They moved fast but carefully, too. It wouldn’t do Anya or anyone any good if they ran into a group of armed guards.

  As they ran past a big swimming pool artfully surrounded by raised flower beds made of stacked stone and shaped concrete, Jayson had a hard time not gawking. The place looked more like something you’d see on a private island getaway in the Mediterranean than an estate in Ukraine.

  He followed Layla around the loungers and outdoor bar as she led the way to the large french doors that led into the main house. Jayson expected the gunfire from the front of the house to start to taper off—surely there couldn’t have been that many rounds of ammunition in the trunk of a car—but as he and Layla reached the heavy glass doors, the sound of weapons fire actually got heavier.

  “Dylan and the others better not be out there in a gunfight with the guards,” he whispered to Layla. “If they are and they live through this, I’m going to kill them.”

  “A concept only a man could understand because yeah, that makes sense,” Layla muttered as she opened one of the french doors.

  They slipped inside a large space that looked less like a living room and more like a rest area if you got tired going from the west side of the estate to the east side. A central hallway branched off left and right, toward the two separate wings of the huge home, while ahead of them a monstrously large sectional couch made out of some kind of dark wood and marble sat in front of an equally large brick fireplace. Just past that, Jayson saw another hallway that looked like it led to another living room.

  Layla took Anya’s scarf out of her jacket pocket, pressed the fabric to her nose, and breathed deeply. Eyes closed, she sniffed the air, searching for the scent. A moment later, her eyes flew open, revealing that they were greener than Jayson had ever seen them.

  “I have her,” she announced.

  Stuffing the scarf back in her pocket, she turned and ran toward the east wing.

  Now that Layla had the scent, she moved fast, and it was all Jayson could do to keep up with her and provide some kind of cover. Running that fast through a house when you didn’t know if there were bad guys around every corner was reckless as hell, but he was still damn glad he had Layla and her nose leading him. They ran past more rooms, doorways, and corridors than he bothered counting. If he’d had to go down every hallway, open every door, and search every room to see if the girls were there, he’d have been there until tomorrow.

  “Anya’s scent is strong, which means she was in this hallway recently,” Layla said. “I can smell the other girls, too.”

  Layla picked up speed, forcing him to keep up. The gunfire from outside was getting even worse and from the sounds of it, there was now shooting coming from the outlying buildings where Clayne and Danica had gone. Jayson cursed, looking for other exit doors in case he and Layla ran into problems and couldn’t get out the way they’d come. Because this plan seemed to be going wrong fast.

  He was so focused on developing an alternate escape route that he almost ran over Layla when she suddenly hit the brakes and came to a sliding stop. “What’s wrong?”

  She backtracked a few dozen steps until she came to a marble-lined arch that opened up onto a set of spiraling stairs leading downward. Then she leaned out over the railing and sniffed.

  “The girls are down there somewhere,” she whispered. “There are three men, too. Do you think we can get away with me distracting them like I did at the RSA building?”

  Jayson shook his head as he slipped his rifle over his back and took out his pistol. “Those guys are going to be tense as hell from all the shooting going on. If you pop down there and say hi, they’ll likely put a bullet in you.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “We put a bullet in them first,” he said. “Depending on where they’re standing, I can probably take down two of them before they return fire, but three would be pushing my luck. Can you handle one of them yourself?”

  She didn’t hesitate. “Yes. If you asked me a week ago, I’m not so sure what I would have said, but if it means saving Anya and those other girls, I can do it.”

&nbs
p; He gave her a nod. “We’ll slip down and get as close as we can before we step out. Before we do, try to use your nose and ears to help me understand where the men are positioned. No talking—just finger and hand signals.”

  Layla nodded and descended the stairs. Halfway down, she stopped cold, testing the air again with her nose.

  “What is it?” he whispered in her ear.

  She turned to him, her eyes wide. “I smell Powell. He’s not down there now, but he was down there recently. I can smell his blood. He didn’t die up on that roof. Zolnerov has him.”

  Shit. Now they had someone else to rescue.

  * * *

  Ivy headed straight for John’s office the moment she walked into the operations building at the DCO training complex, but Kendra intercepted her before she got more than ten feet.

  “Dick hasn’t been around since he sent Jayson and Powell to Donetsk, but John doesn’t want him showing up out of the blue and figuring out that we’re onto something with Thorn,” Kendra said, taking Ivy’s arm and turning her back around. “Come with me.”

  “Are Layla and Jayson on their way back yet?” Ivy asked as they crossed the central quad area of the complex and headed toward the building where the DCO’s tech wizards maintained all the servers and databases the covert organization depended on for intelligence gathering operations.

  “Not quite.” Kendra gave her a sidelong glance. “The diplomat’s son was in Donetsk with his girlfriend. Long story short, she got kidnapped along with some other girls and is being held by one of the militia leaders. Layla and Jayson are going in to rescue them.” She glanced at her watch. “In fact, with the time difference, they should be hitting the place right now.”

  Ivy halted in midstep. “What?”

  Kendra stopped too, turning to face her. “Layla is going to be fine. She’s more like you than you think. Besides, Jayson loves her like crazy. He would never let anything happen to her. They’re going to be an amazing team. I think they can handle a little pervert warlord who’s kidnapping girls so he can build his own harem.”