Danger Mine: A Base Branch Novel

by Megan Mitcham

  “So it’s my fault you snuck behind my back, and then lied to me about it while getting me to fuck you again?” she spat.

  Zeke groaned.

  He ignored her brother. The piece of shit didn’t know how lucky he was to have Khani’s unfettered love and devotion. “No. I knew what I was doing every step of the way. If I had it to do over again, I would. All of it.”

  “Yeah.” The muscles in her jaw flexed. “I’ll bet you would.” Her head jerked as though the sight of him repulsed her. “You sure fucked me, didn’t you?”

  “I tried to protect you.” He broke and took a step in her direction.

  Khani sidestepped, backing her shoulders to the sink. “Leave.”

  Street retreated the step and lifted his palms in surrender. “I’ll leave when you’re both home safely. You don’t have—”

  She cut him off with a slice of her bladed hand through the air. “You said you’d never hurt me. I knew you were a lot of things, but not a liar.”

  The comment hit him square between the eyes. Being called a liar was nothing new. She wasn’t the first to say it. She wouldn't be the last. But he’d hurt her. His troop admitted as much, which said a lot about how much she’d opened up to him over the last few days. It said a lot about what an idiot he was.

  Tears glimmered in her eyes. They fueled her rage. She blinked wildly, crossed to the door, and opened it. “Leave now.”

  24

  Was there anything more irritating than a commercial flight? Plenty came to mind, but none more boisterous and close to her stinging eardrum than Zeke. She’d done a great job of ignoring him over the past two days and close-contact eight hours. It wasn’t hard to ignore someone when they were unconscious. Try ignoring them stuffed into the seat next to you in a tiny double row at sixty-thousand feet. It took so much effort she’d shaved a few centimeters off her molars.

  His attempted escape combined with the scathing words he had for the head nurse who found a new vein, restarted his IV, and explained the stringent rules of the facility, had earned him round the clock sedation until the doctor released him. His induced coma had given her plenty of time to see that the Polzins didn’t leave their cell for a good long time, along with their cop buddy who’d taken their bribes.

  The cabin attendant propped a hip against the seat, jarring her from the darkness of her mind. “We’re on approach. Can I get you anything else? Another pack of—”

  “No, thank you.” Khani shooed the woman away with a wave. Zeke’s mouth gaped and his eyes followed the shiny snack packs in her hands as she moved to the row behind them, where she collected empty cups. At least it shut him up for a second. But just one.

  “I can’t bloody believe you let those wankers dope me while my friends are…” His gaze shot around the cabin of the Boeing. “I can’t bloody believe it.”

  Khani canted her head toward him, giving him her full attention for the first time in the eleven long hours he’d been awake and rattling on about the same damn thing over and over. The fight finally fled him. He plowed long fingers into his dark mop and twisted them into the nap. True misery haunted his eyes.

  Her defenses clattered the earth. “If you’d gone off fully cocked with no ammunition, they’d have killed you along with your friends.”

  “Put yourself in my position.” He leaned so close his nose bumped her cheek. The touch annoyed her because it made her think about the last person to caress her face, the only person. “Put your precious Branch operatives in jeopardy, and then think about what you’d do in my position.” He eased back into his seat and mumbled, “I can’t bloody believe it.”

  “You can’t believe I would put your life above that of your friends?”

  Khani remembered the time he’d found a half-broken harmonica on the side of the road. He’d played that damn thing for days on end, driving her to the front steps of the looney bin. She hadn’t taken it away, tossed it into the road and clapped as traffic smashed it into bits. He’d been a child with no toys to call his own. She’d gritted her teeth and endured.

  But he was no longer a child.

  “I put your life above my own. Hell yes, I’d put it above your friends.”

  “It’s time for you to stop.” Every ounce of bitterness faded from his voice. Mature finality emanated in his tone.

  Was he pushing her away? After all they’d been through. After all they’d survived together, how could he close her out of his life? His friends apparently meant more to him than she did.

  Zeke sighed a long drawn breath.

  She just blinked at him to keep the waterworks in check—something she did quite often over the last few days. Fucking pansy.

  “Khan.” He grabbed both her hands into his palm and shielded them with his right. “You’ve always looked out for me, always put me first and still do. I remember every time you went without dinner so I could eat. You collected bottles constantly, turning them in for a tiny fraction of a pound. And when you finally collected enough to buy clothes from a second-hand store, you bought me a harmonica to replace the broken one I’d dropped down the sewer grate the week before.”

  He smiled. “After all these years, it’s my most prized possession.”

  “I thought that was your ’Cuda,” she said, reminding him of the 1970 cherry red muscle car he’d bought upon arrival in the States.

  Zeke sucked a breath through his teeth. “It’s a close one, but Elizabeth comes in second.”

  “Elizabeth?”

  He shrugged, and then grimaced. “She’s royalty.”

  “Queen Elizabeth.” Khani’s head shook.

  The smile curving his lips fell. “I moved to the States for a job, but I also took it for the distance it would put between us.”

  She tugged her hands back, needing them to temper the ache of her already shredded heart.

  Zeke held firm. “I hated the thought of being away from you, but I thought if we were apart, you’d make a life for yourself that didn’t revolve around caring for me. And then…”

  “And then I followed you across the pond,” she finished.

  “Yeah,” he said, looking chagrinned. “I never expected you’d leave England. When you did, I stayed away for a few reasons. The biggest of them being my hope that you’d start living.” His hand closed around hers. “And you did.”

  Khani turned her head away and found two wet-eyed women wedging their heads so hard into the gab between the seats they’d need the Jaws of Life to extract them. Their clumpy lashes spread wide in surprise. They snapped around and faced the cockpit. Guess they didn't need help after all.

  “Khan.” Zeke tugged on her hands, but she looked past the guilty women to a row of middle-aged men trying not to touch elbows in the narrow seats.

  “I had a hunch about why you left home. Now I know I’m too smart for your own good.”

  “Shut it,” she said.

  “You have no one to blame, but yourself. Should have let me shirk on my homework once or twice a week.”

  Finally she relented and gave him her tired gaze.

  “You love him.” Zeke’s lips pursed.

  “Sod it all, yes.”

  “He loves you.”

  She didn’t dignify that with a response. Unless a huff qualified as a response.

  “Khani,” he urged. “Did you learn nothing from our dispute?”

  “That’s different.”

  “You wasted a year being mad at me for wanting to protect you.”

  “I wasted a year being mad at you for your dishonesty. He knew how I felt about honesty from the very first, long before he betrayed me.”

  “Which goes to show how much he cares about you.”

  “When we get to DC you’re getting another MRI. I think Valentine missed something.”

  “He knew if you lost me, you’d be devastated. You told me earlier that if he hadn’t been there, steering your efforts, you wouldn't have found me. Whatever he learned in his research was critical to my rescue, but if you�
��d known about it sooner you’d have pushed him away. It’s what you do, even to me.”

  When she started to look away Z pressed her hands flat between his palms. “He didn’t have to come clean. You’d have never known, but he also knew I’d have done anything to get to my friends in time to warn them. He also knew I would have gotten myself into an elephant’s backside of trouble.”

  Zeke grinned—something he wasn’t prone to. “He loves you more than he loves himself, sis. Now you have to figure out how to deal with that truth.”

  He released her hands. The airplane zipped over the clouds. She stared at them for a long time, hours, thinking about every conversation she and King had over the course of the trip. Remembering every touch. Every look.

  As hard as it was, she turned her scrutiny inside, to the ugly truth she never wanted to sully herself with.

  She’d taken care of Zeke for so long he became her shield to the world. She hid behind him and in turn clung to the past.

  Khani had done what she always did and pushed King away. She’d hurt the man she loved. She’d shunned a man accustomed to the world’s neglect. His own mother had abandoned him. Yet, he’d put his trust in her.

  And she fucked up.

  Her ears popped several times as they descended into Reagan National. Khani grabbed her carry-on and waited in the mid-plane shuffle with Zeke at her back. Slowly, they made their way to the luggage carousel for her three bags.

  She swallowed the rise of emotion and turned to her bother. How he’d grown from the scrawny kid she incessantly worried didn’t get enough to eat into a beautiful man. She didn’t agree with his career choice, but hey, at least he had a job, a house, a car, and a mission…whatever it may be. She wrestled him into an embrace, squeezing as hard as she dared with his cracked ribs.

  “I love you, Zeke.” When she thought her heart would burst she released him and stepped back. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

  “What?” His chin dropped and he looked at her down his nose.

  “Beat it. You don’t have any luggage.”

  “You’re not putting me in cuffs?” he asked with a lopsided smirk.

  “No. You were right. It’s time I let go of the past, take care of myself, and let you take care of yourself. So,” she clutched his hand, “take care of yourself.”

  He smashed her hand in his. “I will, sis. You taught me how.” His fingers slipped though hers. He turned and trotted out the sliding glass doors.

  Khani watched him flag a cab and hop in as though he had the world to save. The yellow car eased into traffic and the brother she worked so hard to save disappeared into the trickling traffic.

  The pang she expected to stab her in the center of her heart was replaced by hope. The next weeks wouldn’t be easy, but she knew what she needed to do.

  25

  It had taken less time than expected to get everything in order in DC. Her boys found Cara Lee. And she’d judiciously left Vail in charge of that explosive situation. She had more important business to attend to.

  One month and twelve days after she left Anchorage, Khani walked into the office of the commander of the Base Branch’s London division— her old office.

  “I knew you were coming and I still can’t believe my eyes.” Baine McCord’s rich bass rumbled across the room. He stood from his desk, from the mounds of files and errant papers, and strode around the side.

  “I can’t believe you’re the freaking commander.” She hurried across the distance and tossed her arms around her friend.

  After several seconds his arms tentatively encompassed her. “You want the job, say the word and it’s yours. Too much damn paperwork and too many meetings.”

  “Not a chance.” She settled her heels onto the floor and looked up at his clean-shaven face. “Never thought I’d see the day you’d lose the beard.”

  “Tell me about it. Alma and Alisa eyed me like an imposter for days.” He chuckled. “Never thought I’d see the day you’d hug me.” His light eyes twinkled with his smile. “What do they put in the water over there?” He nodded his head in the direction of the States. “I’ve known you for what, almost twenty years? And you’ve never even offered a hand shake.”

  “I’m working on some personal shit,” she explained.

  “Aren’t we all.”

  “Speaking of personal, how are your ladies?”

  “Come sit.” He directed her to one of the two chairs opposite his and he took the other. Well, his smile took up most of the chair. “They’re expensive. Why do you think I came back to the job?”

  “Because you love making a difference.” Khani looped her heavy tote on the arm of the chair.

  “There’s that too.” He nodded. “Two weeks ago we celebrated the girl’s fifth birthday. And if Sloan has her way, we’ll have a little boy’s birthday to celebrate next year.”

  “What? Are you trying to…” she stalled, realizing how inappropriate the question was.

  “Adoption,” he supplied. “He’s the cutest damn thing, but he’s tiny, squish-able.” Baine pulled a phone from his pocket and punched some numbers. A fat grin spread across his face. “Look.” He offered her the view of the screen and the swaddled grub displayed across it. “I don’t know what do with a baby.”

  “When they came into your life you didn’t know what to do with the girls. You’ll figure this out in no time. They’re not near as breakable as they look.”

  “Let’s hope not.” Baine stowed his phone and eased back into the chair with a baffled look cramping his face. “Now, before I give you the key to the building, so to speak, I need to make sure I understand something. You want me to demote you?”

  “Yes.” She crossed her leg and sat forward.

  “You know you used to bark orders at me, right?” he reminded.

  “Not that you listened.” She grinned.

  “True enough.” He rubbed his chin, an obvious throwback from his bearded days. “Just tell me why.”

  “It goes back to that personal shit,” she offered.

  “You and Street?” he prodded.

  “Absolutely.”

  He nodded. “I can’t say I understand it, but I don’t need to. All I need to see is the peace on your face. When will you see Law? Because I can’t keep this a secret for much longer.”

  “Are you guys free for dinner tomorrow?” she asked. “I could tell him then.”

  “Are you cooking?”

  “It’s been a long time, but yeah. I’ll cook for old friends.”

  “Then we’re free.” He grinned.

  “Great. All of you at my new flat around seven?”

  “It’s a date.” Baine smacked a fist on the arm of his chair, and then rounded his desk. He closed his laptop and stuffed it into a briefcase. Then he hefted the phone. “You sure you’re ready for this? He’s been a beast around here the last few weeks. I’ve threatened to knock him down to size more than once.”

  “I’m sure.” She nodded.

  “Just clean up the blood before you leave.” Baine lifted the phone from the cradle and depressed a single button. “Street, my office in three.” He grimaced. “Your date can wait for an hour.”

  Khani took the punch like a professional. She gagged and hacked and cried on the inside. Outside she didn’t blink. Of course he’d moved on. She hadn’t spoken to him in a month and her last words to him were harsh enough he’d be justified if he chose to ignore her appeal.

  Baine replaced the receiver, rounded the desk with his briefcase in tow, and reached for her hand. He placed a kiss on the back of her hand. “For better or worse, I’m glad you’re back, and I’m glad you’re trying.”

  “Thank you, Commander.” She managed a smile. “Better or worse, I’m happy to be back.”

  He released her hand. “See you tomorrow night, and then Monday morning, Operative Slaughter.” Baine bowed his head, and then headed for the door. He headed right out of it, away from Street’s office.

  Khani stood, smoothed her s
weaty palms down her black skirt, and then faced the door. The seconds that ticked seemed the longest in her life. Longer than when she searched for Zeke. Longer than the hours spent waiting for daylight on London’s streets.

  She waited for calm to descend like it always did before an op. It remained stubbornly out of reach of her trembling fingers.

  The door swung wide. “I’ve got shit to…” Two steps inside the door, King’s hazel gaze froze on her.

  “King,” she whispered.

  He just stared for an interminable minute.

  She took the time to study his thick legs and wide shoulders the well-tailored suit barely contained. Her gaze drank in his chin and narrowing hazel gaze. Those speckled eyes swept the room, likely looking for his boss. When they didn’t find anyone else in the office they settled back on her.

  “Khani, you’re looking well,” he said with maddening reserve.

  “Cut the bull,” she snapped. “I didn’t cross half the world for polite conversation.”

  His mouth tightened as though fighting back words, words she wished he’d set free. She probably didn't want to hear all of what he had to say, but it beat his constraint. “Okay,” he said.

  Okay? She deserved that and more. After all she’d brought them here. She straightened her shoulders and dragged in a breath. “Have you found someone else?”

  “What?” His brows knitted.

  “Your date,” she reminded. “You don’t owe me any kind of explanation. But I’d like to know before I continue.”

  He rubbed a hand over his close-cropped hair. “Continue what? I’m not especially soft in the head, but I have no idea what’s going on right now.”

  “I need to apologize.” Khani took a step forward. King’s large hand flew up, palm out. The back-off gesture stopping her cold.

  “My date is with Callie…my dog. I’ve only had her for a week. I haven’t told anyone because I didn’t know if she’d keep me.”