Armed Response

by Janie Crouch

  Lillian couldn’t hold back the moan that broke free.

  “I want you, Lily,” he said against her lips.

  Good, because she wanted him, too. In ways she thought had died long ago. She kept herself plastered against him as he picked her up by bending his knees and wrapping his arms around her hips. Then he lifted her and carried her to the bed.

  He laid her down gently, without breaking the kiss, bringing his weight down on top of her. Lillian tensed.

  She knew a man’s form resting on her was one of her triggers—she and Grace had talked about it in depth in therapy—and Lillian waited for numbness to inch through her mind as it always did so she could fight it off.

  But it didn’t come.

  All she could do was feel as Jace’s lips moved over her jaw, taking special time to gently kiss down her injured throat. Finally he reached that most sensitive point, where her shoulder and neck met. He bit down gently and a soft cry escaped her.

  She was feeling a million things. Numbness definitely was not one of them.

  Jace’s weight wasn’t frightening, wasn’t overwhelming her senses in a way that caused her mind to switch off in order to survive. That frightening place she’d barely survived as an eighteen-year-old wasn’t looming in the distance.

  Instead his weight was comfortable, as if her mind knew him, her body remembered him. Knew she was safe. And she was. Lillian knew that on every level.

  Jace equaled safety.

  As his hand ran down her body from her shoulder to her waist, unbuttoning her shirt as he went, she gripped his hair so she could see him face-to-face.

  “I want you,” she said, staring into those blue eyes that had once meant everything to her.

  He gave her a half grin that stopped her heart and seemed to have a direct link to the most feminine parts of her. “You seem a little surprised by that statement.”

  “I just want to be here with you, all the way with you. Here and now.” She knew she was being cryptic, that he couldn’t possibly understand what she meant. And she definitely wasn’t about to explain, especially not now.

  But Jace just nodded. “Then stay with me, Tiger Lily. Here and now, in this bed. Just you and me.” He bent down and brought his lips to hers again tenderly.

  And she did. For the first time in twelve years she stayed—mentally—in a bed with a man. Not just any man. Jace. Experienced every kiss, every touch. Every moan and lick and sigh. Things she’d thought she was long past able to feel.

  And found there was nowhere else she would rather be.

  Chapter Eleven

  “What the hell were you thinking, Freihof? If I hadn’t come in and saved your ass, you’d be arrested right now.”

  Damien stared at “Guy Fawkes,” his eyes narrowed to slits. The hell of it was, the younger man wasn’t wrong. Damien had made a mistake. Had miscalculated. It didn’t happen very often, but it had this morning.

  It was the anniversary of his beloved Natalie’s death. The day Omega Sector had swept in six years ago and taken her from him. Killed her in their heavy-handedness.

  Damien hadn’t planned to do anything about it. Moving on a day connected to Natalie would be too obvious. But he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

  They needed to pay.

  He’d been toying with them for months, chasing and killing their loved ones so they could know the pain that he’d known from losing his Natalie.

  But it was no longer enough. It was time for them to stop feeling the heartache of death and start feeling death itself. One by one... Groups... Damien didn’t care which.

  He just wanted them all to die.

  Setting a trap in city hall—a bomb that would take out the entire SWAT team—had seemed like the perfect plan. Yes, it would’ve messed up some of Fawkes’s destroy-all-of-law-enforcement plan, but Damien didn’t care. He was tired of the game. Tired of Fawkes and his grand scheming. Tired of Omega Sector cheating death every time.

  Tired of the same old story, so Damien was planning to turn some pages.

  For Natalie. He could still picture her in his mind. Her blond hair and blue eyes. The perfect all-American girl. And she’d been all his. His most prized possession. Until they’d taken her away forever.

  “Freihof!” Fawkes slammed his fist down on the table in the small apartment Damien had rented. “Are you listening to anything I’m saying? I took a big risk helping you and then again getting here to talk to you in person. You’ve probably ruined what I’ve taken months to set up.”

  The temptation to end Fawkes’s life right now was almost more than Damien could bear. But it would be a mistake and Damien had already made one of those several hours ago. Fawkes was still useful and Damien needed to get his emotions under control.

  A time and a place for everything. That was what he’d always told his beloved Natalie, and it was still true now.

  “It won’t happen again,” Damien muttered through tight lips.

  “It doesn’t matter if it happens again!” Fawkes began pacing back and forth. “Thanks to your stunt, they’re moving the summit to the secondary location. This changes everything for my plans. Networks I’ve painstakingly linked together for months ruined because you had to sneak in through a damn window in the middle of the night.”

  Damien watched the younger man pull at his own hair. Damien wouldn’t have to kill him. He was going to give himself a stroke. “Fawkes, I will fix this.”

  “How?” Fawkes glared at him. “How exactly will you do that?”

  “You let me worry about it. You concentrate on keeping your team from figuring out your grand scheme. From figuring out who you are.”

  Fawkes pulled at his hair again. “We have a limited window, Damien. If all my systems are not aligned when LESS goes live in thirty-six hours, my plan fails. And city hall is the center of everything. Ground zero.”

  Damien nodded. “Like I said, I will make sure the summit is returned to the original location.”

  It would take work, but Damien already had a plan in mind.

  “And Lillian Muir? She didn’t die despite me stringing her up. I’m lucky I borrowed your mask because she would definitely be able to identify me, since she didn’t die. And now she’s even more suspicious.”

  “Yes, she’s suspicious, but she’s not suspicious of you. That’s all that matters right now. She doesn’t know who she saw entering that window. She doesn’t know who strung her up in that hallway and she doesn’t know any of the plans. Besides, I have something very special in store for her. And her boyfriend.”

  “Damn Eakin. Everybody accepted him into the SWAT team like he was some sort of god. I even saw Lillian making out with him in the parking lot last week.”

  The words fairly dripped with jealously. In just over a week, Eakin had done what Fawkes had been trying to do for months: make the team, get the girl. And, more importantly, gain respect. But pointing that out to the young Mr. Fawkes wasn’t going to do any good.

  Damien could see he’d been wrong to get so impatient. To want to jump straight to killing the SWAT team rather than torture them. They would still die, but first they would suffer.

  Lillian Muir would especially. He had something special planned for her.

  “I was wrong.” Damien’s voice was full of sincerity that for once he wasn’t faking. “I shouldn’t have tried to circumvent the plan. I will make sure we get back on track.”

  Fawkes nodded, somewhat appeased. “Good. What I’m doing is important, Damien. It’s going to reshape law enforcement all over the world. The badge will mean something again. The badge will rule as it was meant to do from the beginning.”

  Ah, quoting the infamous “Manifesto of Change” once more. Fawkes constantly hid behind it, allowing it to mask his jealousy, fear and ineptitude. After all, killing thousands of people because you just couldn’t make the
SWAT team didn’t have the same ring to it. But this manifesto, which he planned to release publicly after his massacre at the LESS Summit, made Fawkes feel more legitimate.

  But Damien wasn’t about to try to convince Fawkes of his own folly. He just nodded. “Change is necessary. There’s a time and a place for everything. Omega Sector’s time and place has come and gone. Together, we’ll destroy them.”

  “There are things you don’t know, Freihof. Plans I’ve made beyond what I’ve told you that even the precious SWAT team won’t figure out.”

  “Are you sure they’re not on to you?”

  Fawkes just shrugged. “They suspect damn near everyone. But they’ll never have proof. And soon they’ll all be dead.”

  “Maybe it’s time you let me know all the details of your plan. I’m sure I can help.”

  Fawkes grinned, but anger laced the expression rather than joy. Anyone who couldn’t see that had to be blind. Then Fawkes began to tell Damien his entire plan. Damien just listened.

  He realized that everyone had underestimated this young man.

  And they all would burn.

  * * *

  WHEN JACE WOKE up after a couple hours of sleep, Lillian was gone. He wasn’t surprised. The medic had told him to keep an eye on her to make sure she was okay.

  Jace had kept a very close eye on her. On all of her. For hours.

  It was like they were trying to cram twelve years of not making love into a few short hours. Intense was an applicable term for the last few hours they’d spent in bed, but would be an understatement.

  Mind-blowing, earth-shattering, game-changing—those would be closer to the truth.

  Jace wasn’t so naive as to think that everything was perfect between him and Lillian just because they’d had some awesome sex. There were still a lot of years and a huge betrayal between them. He’d told himself—and her—that he was going to let the situation with Daryl be left in the past, but he had to admit he wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure he was there yet.

  Lily had seemed as enraptured in their lovemaking as he had been. She’d actually seemed a little surprised at their connection. At the heat. Had mentioned more than once how she wanted him, as if the notion caught her a little off guard.

  A heat that all-encompassing after twelve years was a little surprising. Of course they’d had heat at the beginning, too.

  That hadn’t stopped Jace from finding Lily in his brother’s arms a few days later. So there was no reason to think something similar wouldn’t happen again. He needed to remember that. Keep his head on straight when it came to her.

  Mind-blowing sex? No problem. Jace would partake as often as possible during this mission.

  Giving Lily a piece of his heart? Absolutely not. He couldn’t allow this to become more than a burn-the-sheets-off-the-bed sexual encounter between two friendly colleagues who would go their separate ways.

  He brutally squashed the niggling voice that tried to tell him that Lillian Muir had always held a piece of his heart.

  Jace showered and grabbed a bite to eat before dressing in full SWAT gear. He knew Lillian would meet at the secondary location at 1300 hours, like Derek had requested. Knew she would act as if nothing had happened, in both her near-death experience and the passion between the two of them. Lillian was never going to be one to wear her heart—or her weaknesses—on her sleeve.

  Jace would be professional, too. Because although he definitely planned to have Lillian back in his bed, they couldn’t deny that there was a very real threat here at the LESS Summit. Freihof and his crony might not have succeeded in making it look like Lillian was the mole, and taken her out of the picture, but that didn’t mean they would turn their backs on an opportunity to do damage.

  By surviving, Lillian had just upped the ante for whatever they had planned.

  Omega would need to be ready.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jace was making his way to the federal building serving as the secondary location when the call came through. The entire team was to stop what they were doing and head to the lobby of the adjoining building. Some sort of elevator emergency.

  He met Lillian as she was running from the federal building. Roman Weber and Saul Poniard were just two steps behind.

  “Why the hell are we being brought in for a stuck elevator? Why didn’t they call the fire department?” Jace asked as they ran, having to dodge picketers holding signs and chanting. The summit didn’t start until tomorrow, but the public and news crews were already out in full force.

  “Maybe the fire department has more on their plate than they can handle. But you can believe that Derek wouldn’t call the entire team from our current assignment if we weren’t needed.”

  Jace already knew that they were needed. It was confirmed a few minutes later as they all met up in the lobby. People were rushing by them, not screaming in panic, but not calm, either.

  The presence of a SWAT team wasn’t helping. People could tell something was wrong.

  Derek spoke fast. “As we knew, the summit is bringing out the crazies. We’ve got four different bomb threats across the city, all tied to elevators. People are stranded in them all, and the guy is threatening to detonate all the bombs in thirty minutes if he doesn’t get his demands met.”

  Saul cursed next to Jace. The ugly word very neatly summarized how he was feeling also.

  “A police negotiator is talking with the bomber, criminal psychiatrist assisting, but they both have already signaled that they think the bomber has every intention of killing people today. Wants the attention, not the three million dollars he’s demanding. Local police is spread thin, so we’re working this building.”

  Now muttered curses could be heard all the way around.

  “What’s the plan, Derek? If he’s going to blow it, let’s get the people out before he can,” Lillian said, her small body already strumming with energy.

  “Elevator is caught between the sixteenth and seventeen floors. Eight people inside. We’re going to have to jimmy the door open and pull the people out. But our clock is limited, especially if this guy is wanting to kill people solely for the attention. We have twenty-two minutes exactly.”

  The entire team set their watches. Anybody who was crazy enough to plant a bomb that would kill innocent people wasn’t someone who could be trusted to keep his word, but until they had other intel they would move as if they had twenty-two minutes.

  “Roman, Ashton, you need to help clear the stairwells and keep people moving without panic. Especially if this thing blows.” Both men nodded and moved toward the main stairwell.

  “Jace, Lillian, Saul,” Derek continued, “you’re with me.”

  The entire team sprinted to the stairwell and up the sixteen flights, the benefits of their daily physical training kicking in. Jace worried for a moment that Lillian might not be able to keep up because of her injuries, but she never faltered.

  Less than three minutes later they were in the hall of the sixteenth floor. Derek used the elevator-emergency drop key to release the outer doors and pried them open.

  Immediately they found the elevator car was over three quarters of the way up from the building doorway. There was no way anyone would be able to fit through the small space. They would have to go to the next floor.

  Jace let out a curse, doing the rough math in his head based on the height of the stairwell.

  “What?” Lillian asked.

  “That car is too high on this floor to get them out here, but based on the height of the ceilings and stairwell, it’s going to be damn tight trying to get them out on the next floor as well.”

  “We’ve got to try,” Derek said. “We’re down to seventeen minutes.”

  Immediately everyone sprinted to the next floor. The emergency drop key was reapplied on both the outer and inner doors and Jace’s theory was unfortunately proven true.
There was less than fifteen inches of space for the trapped passengers to fit through.

  The passengers inside were talking, but weren’t hysterical. They probably thought it was just a malfunction rather than a deliberate act of terror.

  “This is the SWAT team,” Derek called out. “We’re going to pry open the door. Please stand back.”

  A small cheer went up from inside the car as force was applied to the inner door...until the door was pried open and the passengers could see the small space they’d have to get through.

  “Can’t you get the elevator up or down farther to give us more room? Some of us aren’t going to fit.”

  Fourteen minutes.

  The team looked to Derek. Nobody wanted to cause a panic, but they were going to have to work pretty damn fast to get all eight people out of there in time. And the guy who spoke up was right, it was going to be tough for some of them to fit. Jace himself would have a hard time.

  But not everybody. Before they knew it, a petite woman was being hefted by someone in the elevator and was easily sliding through the fifteen-inch opening. One down, seven to go.

  “Good!” Derek called out. “Send up as many people as you can.”

  Two more women and a skinny teenager were sent through next. Jace helped the team pull them out. Lillian, knowing her lack of upper body strength was a hindrance rather than a help, particularly after what she’d been through less than twelve hours ago, scooted out of the way. She eased her head inside the elevator car to get a good look at the remaining four passengers.

  When she pulled back out, she was shaking her head, lips pursed. Her eyes met Jace’s, but she spoke to Derek. “That last guy isn’t going to fit,” she said softly so only the team could hear.

  “He’s going to have to,” Derek muttered, pulling passenger number six through.

  “He’s three hundred pounds, Derek,” Lillian replied. “There’s no way he’s going to make it through that opening, even if we could pull him up.”

  Before Jace knew what was happening, Lillian gracefully poured herself through the opening and into the elevator car.