No Remorse_A Manhunters Novel

by Skye Jordan

  “I hadn’t seen it that way,” she said, her voice soft, “but, I guess… Maybe…”

  He wanted to reach out to her. Comfort her. But the last time he did that, they’d ended up in bed, and Roman’s world had been turned upside down. He knew if it happened again, he’d be turned inside out. He might be a glutton for some punishment, but not that kind.

  “Everly made some good points,” he told her. “And she’s got a keen skill for reading people. We’ll dig deeper. But you need to remember you’ve given this to us because you trust us to get the job done. You need to let go now.”

  She lifted her gaze to his. “You’re right.” She laughed softly and lifted a hand, patting his chest. “You really do know me.”

  He wanted to close his hand around her wrist, drag her against him, and kiss her. Taste that sweet mouth of hers again. See if it was as irresistible as he remembered. Instead, he eased back to break contact. “Let’s get you to the airport.”

  The sooner, the better.

  4

  Bullets pumped from the rifle, holding the enemy behind a rock outcropping. Austin cut off fire and ran through the jungle, Tevez on his right, Beau on his left, all of them reloading as they moved.

  At the next barrier, a downed tree, they all hit the ground on their bellies, rested their barrels on the tree trunk, and emptied another magazine. Then they were up and running again. Jovan and Lorenzo returned fire from inside the trees, covered in ghillie suits so well constructed, even Austin couldn’t find them. A marking round hit his calf and marred his fatigues with neon-green paint.

  “God dammit.” The wax bullet didn’t hurt, but he had to honor the shot. Austin dropped to one knee and returned fire, crawling over the lush earth toward Grayson. His prior teammate lay on his back, looking up at the jungle canopy, ankles crossed, hands clasped on his chest.

  “There’s one of those scarlet-something-or-others up there,” Gray said conversationally. He pointed into the trees. “Right there.”

  “Scarlet macaw, and dead men don’t talk.” Austin released his M4, letting it dangle from the strap over his shoulder while Tevez and Beau provided cover fire. He gripped Gray—who was doing a damn good job pretending to be dead weight—around the torso and hoisted him over his shoulder. “Jesus Christ. You need to lose at least ten pounds, buddy.”

  Gray just laughed and dangled over Austin’s shoulder, limp. “Desk work’s makin’ someone soft.”

  Austin continued to favor the leg hit by the training round, but he ran as fast as he could while limping until he gained cover behind a cluster of trees.

  “I like this job better than I thought,” Gray said. “I’ll spend my leave playing dead for you any day.”

  Austin stepped in mud from a recent rain and grinned. “End of the line for you.” He growled as he hoisted Gray off his shoulder and let him fall—right into the mud.

  The swampy water splashed. Gray yelled. And Austin laughed along with Tevez and Beau.

  While Gray spit water and wiped his face, swearing, Austin grinned. “God, I love my job.”

  Gray lunged for Austin. He jumped, avoiding Gray’s reach, then quick-stepped backward, laughing. “No joy, buddy.” Austin rested his hands on his knees and caught his breath. “No joy.”

  With their training session complete, the guys gathered their gear and started for the house. Tevez, Beau, Lorenzo, Grayson, and Jovan were all men Austin had served with. They were his brothers. His family. They’d stuck by him when he’d decided to leave the unit to raise Bella. They’d risked their careers when he’d had to take matters into his own hands and take Bella out of the country. And they continued to help him develop the software and training regimens that made their active units stronger in the field and made Austin a millionaire several times over.

  On the two-mile hike back to the house, Beau came up beside Austin. The youngest of the team, the kid was in his early twenties. “Is that smokin’ hot chick still at the house? Please tell me you hired her.”

  “He didn’t hire her, you idiot,” Tevez answered for Austin. Tevez was closer to Austin’s age, in his early thirties, and still had a Hispanic accent even though he’d been in the US for twenty years. “He’d never get a damn thing done with that wandering around the house every day.” He cut a glance at Austin. “Am I right? Serious distraction.”

  Austin pulled in a breath to answer, but Lorenzo spoke up first. “Wouldn’t mind a distraction like that one. Like every damn day.”

  “Hooah,” all the men shouted in chorus.

  Thoughts of Everly at the house were troubling enough. The idea of these woman-eaters hitting on her only made the tension worse. He let the guys mouth off until they crested the last hill toward the property. Bella’s joyful giggle among splashes of water touched his ears.

  He turned and walked backward toward the house. “Okay, guys. I did hire her—”

  Catcalls and shouts of approval peppered the air.

  “But there is a strict hands-off policy in place,” he finished.

  That news elicited moans of disappointment.

  He was still turned away from the house when they came up on the pool deck. The moment all five men looked past him, Austin knew Everly was right where she should be, poolside with Bella. But it was the collective jaw-drop that told him Everly was also using the pool.

  “Hands off,” Jovan said as Austin turned, “but we can still look, right?”

  One of them whistled between his teeth, a low holy-Mary-mother-of-God whistle.

  Everly was at the edge of the pool, down on one knee beside Bella, positioning his daughter’s arms overhead for a dive. And she was in a bikini. Not a string bikini. More like a sport bikini. But still a bikini. And the sight made Austin’s stomach drop, then float.

  The suit was a fun, bright Aztec pattern, bordered in black. The top stretched across her breasts and dipped in the front, putting Everly’s supple cleavage on display. The back was a strip of black lattice between her shoulder blades. The bottoms covered her ass, less rather than more. And, damn, what an ass.

  The overall effect showed off a lean, fit body that stole Austin’s breath. The woman had far more curves than her dress the day before had disclosed. And when she mirrored Bella, pushing to her feet beside his daughter, stretching her arms overhead and counting down, Austin’s brain flipped to standby.

  “Three, two, one,” Everly said.

  She and Bella tipped over the side and slipped into the water with hardly a ripple.

  “Holy shit.” Jovan turned a look on Austin before the girls’ heads cleared the surface. “Tell me you’re tapping that, dude. If you’re going to stick to the hands-off policy, at least let us live vicariously.”

  “Hooah,” the others echoed before they burst out laughing.

  “Daddy, Daddy,” Bella called. “You see? See me dive?”

  He moved to the pool ledge, crouching to smile down at Bella. “I sure did. It was amazing.”

  As badly as he wanted to push to his feet, turn, and escape into the house, he couldn’t keep himself from casting a look at Everly, treading water behind his daughter. Her dark hair was slicked off her face, and her blue eyes were like lightning rods through his chest.

  “Well done.” His simple words seemed to please her, and she turned an equally heart-melting smile on Austin.

  “That’s all her,” Everly said. “She barely needed any coaching.”

  “Hey, Bella.” Beau came to the poolside.

  “Hi, Uncle Beau.”

  “Can we see you do that again?” Without waiting for an answer, he crouched and extended his hand toward Everly as if she could shake it. “I’m Beau.”

  Austin turned and smacked the kid in the chest. “She’s treading water, nimrod.”

  “Right, right.” He eased back into a resting position, forearms on his knees, his grin set to stun. “I can wait until you get out.”

  That made everyone laugh, including Everly. She cut a look at Austin, grinning with a y
ou-were-so-right look in her eyes before disappearing underwater. The pool’s dark blue bottom silhouetted her body as she swam to the other side and reappeared.

  “Show Daddy your freestyle, Bella,” she called.

  “Watch, Daddy.” She took a big breath, let go of the side, and set her arms into a sloppy windmill toward Everly. Halfway there, she lifted her head for air, then put it down again and powered on.

  Austin laughed and pushed to his feet. He caught the back of Beau’s T-shirt and dragged him to his feet as well, then gave him a shove toward the side door leading to a pimped-out barracks where the guys stayed. “Time for a cold shower, kid.”

  Austin would be needing one as well. If he’d thought sleep had been hard to find last night, it would sure as hell be all smoke and mirrors tonight.

  Bella swam into Everly’s arms and lifted her scrunched face from the water, pushing her hair from her eyes.

  All the guys clapped and whistled, making Bella giggle with delight. Austin sighed. At this rate, with a cheering squad like that, his kid certainly wouldn’t grow up with any self-confidence problems.

  He turned to face the guys, who were all still riveted to Everly. “Helmet straps,” he said, hand outstretched. The guys stripped off their helmets, then detached the EEG straps from the inside and tossed them to Austin. “Clean up. Lunch in an hour.”

  When he turned around, Bella was playing with floating toys on the steps, and Everly popped up from the water near his feet. She crossed her arms on the pool deck and squinted up at him. “They seem nice.”

  “They’re good guys, but—they’re guys.”

  She shrugged, unperturbed by their overt attention. That was good, because more often than not, there were a lot of men on this property, and they would all find Everly fascinating. “Friends from your military days?”

  “Best teammates a guy could have. I’m going to clean up. You and Bella are welcome to join us for lunch, but don’t feel like you have to.”

  “Okay. I’ll let Bella decide.” And she disappeared under the water again.

  This time, Austin forced himself to turn away and head inside instead of watching her lithe frame move through the water.

  In the mud room off the kitchen, Austin dragged off his gear and hung it on various hooks. Then stripped out of his muddy, sweaty clothes and dropped them in a special laundry basket to be washed separately. His live-in housekeeper, Renalda, would take care of everything during her daily routine.

  He wrapped a towel around his waist and crossed the kitchen to the stairs toward his suite. When he glanced toward the pool on his way past, he found Everly still in the pool with her elbows propped on the deck, arms crossed as she spoke to Bella. Her gaze jumped past Bella and tracked Austin’s path, one that seemed longer than usual with Everly’s gaze on him. Just before he turned to climb the stairs, a flirty, hot little smile turned her lips.

  And Austin spent his time in the shower watching the dirt circle the drain and trying to erase that sexy smirk from his mind. Along with the fantasies that came with it.

  “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, sucker,” he muttered to himself. It was a common truth in military life. One he’d thrived on by embracing it. He was glad he had the practice, because he’d be very uncomfortable until he’d found a way to strip away her sexy quotient so he could see her as just another employee.

  Twenty minutes later, he was dressed and pulling a visual representation of the day’s training exercise off the printer.

  He laid out all six printouts across the surface of his desk, planted his hands on the edge, and leaned in to study them.

  “Knock, knock.”

  Everly’s voice jerked Austin’s head up. She stood in the door in jean shorts that made him notice the length of her toned, tanned thighs, and an ocean-blue, tie-dyed T-shirt that fit every curve. Again, neither were inappropriate or even sexy on their own. But the way she filled them out made Austin’s brain slide a little sideways.

  “Hey.” He straightened and glanced at her feet. The fact that they were bare made him feel a little better about not hearing her. “You sure can sneak up on a guy.”

  She grinned. “Is this a good time?”

  “Sure.” He sank into his thickly padded leather desk chair. “What’s up?”

  She came to the side of the desk and started to lay the paper down but saw his work there and offered it to him instead. “An itinerary for Bella’s week. When you get a chance, if you could just give me the go-ahead or let me know what you’d like to change?”

  He took the paper. “I can look it over now.”

  While she stood there waiting, Austin’s gaze rolled over the program. The schedule combined short learning periods in reading, math, science, and computer skills with longer outdoor activities such as swimming, hiking, hopscotch, jump rope, and yoga.

  A small smile curved his lips.

  “What?” she asked.

  His gaze darted to hers. “Yoga?”

  “Oh, heck yeah. Not only is yoga challenging for people of most ages, it’s a great way to teach balance and mindfulness.”

  He bobbed his head and shrugged. “Okay, I can see that.” His gaze paused on short blocks of time scheduled with Lucia and Renalda. “What are these?”

  “So she can learn cooking skills and housekeeping skills, while also learning to take direction from people other than her father and nanny. They’ll also build her self-confidence.”

  He pointed to areas delineated with the words Field Trip? “And these?”

  “That depends. I understand you’re worried about her security, and I’m on the same page with you there, but she’s going to start school soon, and she’ll fare much better if she’s used to socializing with other kids. I could take her to the park or sign us up for Mommy and Me classes or something. But I think it’s important that she get out from behind these walls and experience people who aren’t in her everyday life.”

  His stomach tightened, and he released a tense breath.

  “We don’t have to,” she said when he didn’t respond. “I just thought—”

  “I know. It’s a good idea, I just…” He paused and laughed at himself with a shake of his head. “Need to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Let me think on it?”

  “Of course.”

  “Can you make me a list of activities you’re thinking of?”

  “Absolutely.”

  He glanced over the itinerary again, pleased to see ample play and free time for Bella as well. “This is fantastic. It’s more than her other nanny did with her in a month.”

  Smiling, she clasped her hands behind her. “As a recovering overachiever, I thank you. Now that you’ve approved it, I’ll distribute it to the staff.”

  He offered the schedule to her.

  She waved it away. “That’s your copy.”

  He nodded and set it above the other printouts. “Perfect, thanks.” When she didn’t turn to leave, he looked at her again and found her gaze on the data sheets. He took the opportunity of the moment to ask, “How do you feel about having the guys around?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “They don’t bother me. They seem like good guys.”

  “If their teasing ever goes too far or they step out of line, you let me know. It won’t happen twice.”

  She nodded, then glanced at the graphs again. “Would I be prying if I asked what you’re looking at? I’m sort of a nerd for graphs, spreadsheets, numbers.”

  His gaze dropped to the papers again. Her interest created a flare of excitement in his chest. It was novel to have someone who was actually interested in his work. His teams may love the training aspect of his company, but as soon as he started talking statistics, their eyes glazed over. Even the governments and security corporations that bought his equipment and hired him to train their teams weren’t interested in the nitty-gritty numbers. They only wanted proven results and cost-benefit ratios.

  “It’s just the information I gathered from the training op t
his morning.”

  Her gaze roamed over the graphs. “How do you graph something as complex as training?”

  “The simplified explanation,” he said, “is we all wear a thin undergarment that’s loaded with sensors and helmets peppered with EEG leads. All muscle movements and the brain functions that correlate to those movements are recorded through the sensors. With that data, I can see what’s happening to them neurologically while they’re performing different tasks by the area of the brain that lights up and to what degree. Then we work to make that stronger so that when they’re in a real firefight, their impulse control is better, their endurance is longer and stronger, and their adaptation to what happens in the field is better. A mass of information is collected, then sent to my software. The software crunches all the numbers and shows me the results in various forms—graphs, specs, measurements, numbers, whatever.”

  She was still looking at his graphs. In fact, she’d rounded the corner of the desk to stand beside him and peer down at them. “That’s slick.”

  “I love it.” He smiled and rested his hands at his hips. “Never thought I’d find anything that excited me as much as being a soldier. But this…this really does it for me.”

  She leaned in, resting her hands on the edge of his desk, much the way he’d been standing before she’d come in. “How do these graphs show you everything you just mentioned?”

  “I map brain activity two ways.” He pointed out a few squiggles that matched up. “In relation to the training activity and in relation to the muscles activated at that moment.”

  Her hand moved to Tevez’s graphs. “So this is what his brain’s doing when he’s doing this activity?”

  “Yep.”

  “And this is how his mind correlates to the muscles he’s using?”

  “Right.”

  A long moment of silence filled the room while Everly’s gaze remained riveted to the images. Then a quiet, almost reverent “Wow” slipped from her lips.