Twelve Shades of Midnight:

by Liliana Hart

  He went over and enfolded her in his arms. “Yeah, I’ve never had one before and I’m enjoying the hell out of it.”

  She looked up at him, seriously. “Sappy crushes don’t last, Alex. I get it if this is just one of those ‘quickies-before-we-go-out-to-die’ kind of things for you. Just let me know now so I’m prepared.”

  He lowered his head to hers. “I intend for my sappy crush to last far beyond today.”

  “You don’t have to say anything like that. I was thinking in the bathroom…”

  “A terrible idea, Gennaro,” he said, drawing her tightly against him.

  She tried to pull back, but he wouldn’t let her. “Uh-uh. Now that I have you in my arms, tell me what you were thinking.”

  She nodded. “Okay. We both know that this could be the one and only time for us. We might not survive the assault on the compound.”

  “I was right. You’re not allowed to think in the bathroom anymore.” He took a deep breath. “To deal with your concerns…. Yes, Samantha, we might not survive the assault. Then again, maybe we will. I certainly intend to do my damnedest to ensure we do. I haven’t waited my whole life for you, not to fight like hell for us to have a chance to be together. Starting right now.”

  He felt the tension drain out of her.

  “Alex?”

  “What, Samantha?”

  “I’m sorry I got all crazy thinking about today. Make love to me, please. I don’t want to waste another minute.”

  Smiling, he picked her up, carried her over to the bed and lay her gently down. “I get it. I’ve been there a few times myself. Don’t worry. This is just about us.”

  He followed her down onto the mattress and she came into his arms, holding him like she never wanted to let go. He ran his hands down her silky skin. Her hair fanned out on the pillow, the auburn strands catching fire in the morning light.

  Alex couldn’t believe this beautiful, funny, sexy woman wanted him. With her, he didn’t feel like a monster. He never wanted to feel that again.

  But he recognized that in a few hours, he would need the beast lurking inside. Would she still feel the same way after seeing him in full rampage mode?

  He shook his head to clear it of those unwanted thoughts. For now, he would savor every precious moment with Samantha and pray they both lived through tonight.

  The Admiral leaned back in his leather office chair, contemplating the two men Benson had brought back with him.

  “You’re telling me that one tiny woman took you both down and stole your helicopter?” Midnight’s voice was dangerously low.

  The two pilots exchanged glances, then nodded.

  “She could make herself invisible,” the co-pilot added. “I shot her with the tranq gun, but she didn’t pass out. She just disappeared and clocked me with something. I couldn’t defend myself against someone I couldn’t see.”

  “Ahhhh, she’s not only tiny, but she’s a disappearing woman now.” The Admiral shifted in the chair, bringing his full attention on the pilot. “And what do you have to say for yourself? Any little green men you’d like to talk to me about?”

  The pilot shook his head. “I never saw who hit me.”

  “So, you don’t believe there was an invisible woman?”

  “I didn’t say that, sir. Someone, and I don’t who, helped me regain control of the helicopter. Once we landed, whoever it was, smashed me on the head and knocked me out. I never saw anyone. Male or female. That’s all I remember.”

  Midnight slammed his palm on his desk. “What you remember sucks. Guards, take these imbeciles away.” He glared at the men. “Maybe a night in the brig will jog your collective memories.”

  Two guards escorted them from the office.

  The Admiral turned to Benson. “What do you make of this?”

  “The brief description the co-pilot provided earlier does match the Gennaro woman. In addition, she’s a trained FBI agent, so she’d have skills.”

  “The woman is lucky to weigh one hundred ten pounds, wearing sand bags. You’re telling me that prissy little lightweight is strong enough to take down two of our super-soldiers single handedly?”

  “If she’s received some of the serum, too,” Benson offered. “She is the geneticist’s daughter. Maybe he experimented on her first. Her specialty in the field is going undercover. Maybe the invisibility is from a serum we know nothing about.”

  “Hmmmm, that’s an interesting theory. Invisibility would be a very helpful trait to have in my arsenal.” The Admiral rose to pace his office. “We need to find her. Bleed her dry, if necessary, but I want her power.”

  “What about her father?”

  “I still want him, too, but Special Agent Gennaro may be even more important to us than the good doctor himself.”

  The Admiral stared out the window at the expanse of high desert he’d claimed for his compound. “That would be a very sad case for Dr. Gennaro, if we no longer needed him. But, watching us slowly exsanguinate his darling daughter may prove just the incentive we need to get him cooperating again.”

  “What would you like me to do?” Benson asked.

  “Use her father as bait. She’ll try to break him out. Set up a heat sensor or a Kirlian photography unit in his room. Hell, I don’t care if you dump marbles on a slippery floor. Just do whatever it takes to catch Gennaro in her invisible woman act and take her down.”

  Benson nodded. “When do you think they’ll come?”

  “Tonight,” Midnight answered. “Double the guards outside and set patrols on the roads.”

  “It will all be done as you ordered, sir.” Benson turned to leave.

  “Wait.” Midnight returned to his chair, pensively making more plans. “Have someone call around to all the places in Socorro that rent any kind of transportation.”

  “Sir?”

  The Admiral sighed. He had to spell out every damn detail. “Send men into Socorro and station them near every place selling or renting any mode of transportation that Winters and Gennaro could use to get up here. I don’t care if it’s a damn skateboard. I want it watched.”

  “That will pull a lot of men from guard duty.”

  “Did I ask your opinion?” The flash of fear in Benson’s eyes pleased Midnight. “Relax, I’m not going to shoot you. The extra tasks are just for the daytime. Tonight, your precious guards will be stationed around the encampment as per usual. Tell everyone that sleep is not an option.”

  “Any special orders for the men for tonight?”

  “Yes,” Midnight said. “I want them armed to the teeth. And tell the lab to put enough tranquilizer in those darts to take down a T-Rex. I want those two alive. There’s a lot more going on with their DNA than I realized.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Midnight checked the calendar on his desk and cursed. “I have a defense committee meeting tomorrow afternoon in Washington. Prepare a helicopter to take me back to the airport. I have to get back to D.C. before anyone suspects how I’m splitting my time.”

  Benson stopped his brow furrowed. “You won’t be here when Ice Man and the woman come?”

  “Yes, but I’ll leave as soon as they’re captured and subdued.” Midnight said. “I want Winters to see who outsmarted him.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Alex held her close as she rested her cheek against his chest. She was funny. For some reason, she loved listening to is heartbeat. She said it calmed her.

  He sighed with contentment. It was a tough job, but he thought he could handle it.

  Samantha ran her hands over his wide expanse of muscled chest. “I never thought much about six pack abs and muscles that are to die for, but they sure feel good.”

  “They available to you any time you want,” he joked, kissing her on the forehead and sliding his hand over her stomach. “You feel pretty good yourself.”

  A shiver shot up her spine.

  Alex took her hands and raised it to his lips. “Are you cold?”

  She laughed. “Not even remotel
y. You give off enough body heat for both of us.”

  “Too much?” he ask, worried.

  “No. It’s perfect. I shivered because I was imagining what that heat would feel like inside me.”

  He placed his hand behind her head and drew her forward for a searing kiss. She arched into him, using her own need to feed the growing fire between them.

  He took the kiss deeper, touching her with sensuous strokes. He couldn’t get enough of her. He skimmed his lips down the curve of her neck, then buried his face in the hollow of her shoulder. He nipped her skin gently, then soothed it with a suckling kiss.

  She grabbed his head and held it there, moaning softly. He smiled as her head fell back on the pillow and she eased his attention to her breasts. He latched onto one, drawing the nipple deep into his mouth, while kneading the other with his hand.

  Her cries filled the room and she tried to get closer, reaching her hand down between them and caressing him through his pants until he broke away with a gasp.

  “Are you knowingly trying to drive me crazy?” he asked. “Because if you are, it’s working.”

  “If I’m driving you crazy,” she said breathlessly, “why do we both still have so many clothes on?”

  He laughed and rolled over on top of her. “That situation can be immediately remedied.”

  He undid the last few buttons on his shirt that she wore, kissing and laving each delicious inch of skin he uncovered. He slid lower and lower until he reached her navel. He felt her tense up, so he rested his cheek against her softness, inhaling deeply of her unique scent.

  Sighing, she brushed her fingers through his hair.

  If he wasn’t already hard as a rock, he’d stick around for more of that. It felt great.

  Before she realized what he was doing, he moved lower, sliding her legs apart to make room for his tender ministrations.

  “What are you—” She pushed against him. He ignored her, settling between her thighs and finding the very heart of her need. Lowering his head, he took her in his mouth.

  “Oh, my…” She bit her hand to stifle her sounds of ecstasy.

  Again and again, he used his teeth and tongue to tug on her most sensitive spot, then licked her and suckled until her cries became incoherent moans.

  She clawed at the shirt he wore, tearing the buttons free to reach the skin beneath. He understood needing that connection, but he wanted her to come. Now, before he claimed her fully.

  He drew on her mercilessly and seconds later, her body went stiff, a plaintive scream starting before she clutched a pillow and smothered the exquisite sound. Beneath him, her body jolted as spasm after spasm swept through her. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and she shuddered repeatedly until her cries gradually softened.

  He stood swiftly, and shucked the rest of his clothes, before rejoining her on the bed.

  “Come in me,” she whispered reaching up to welcome him into her body.

  Seconds later, he slid home. With her, the broken pieces of his soul found what he’d been searching for to make them whole. They had to survive this night.

  Carleton awoke to excruciating pain his head. He opened his eyes and realized a white cloth had been draped over his face, making it hard to breathe. Panicking, he clawed at the material, yanking it away, then drew a deep breath filled with the all too familiar smells of formaldehyde and death.

  What the hell? He pushed up on his elbows and scanned the room.

  He was in the morgue, covered with a sheet, just like three others bodies on their respective stainless tables, waiting processing.

  Had he really been the fourth?

  Had he died or had someone just assumed he was? He couldn’t remember.

  Nausea consumed him as he again breathed in the sickly sweet scent of the formaldehyde used to preserve and cover the smell of decomposing bodies.

  Carleton rubbed his forehead and realized it bore a partially healed wound. A fairly circular wound. He eased himself from the table and sought a mirrored surface, which revealed the truth.

  Powder burns showed he’d been shot point blank in the forehead. A kill shot because he failed to accomplish his mission for Admiral Midnight. The lieutenant commander had no doubt his boss’ plan would have worked if Carleton hadn’t been sneaking extra doses of the healing serums.

  He tried to muster some fury for the heinous act, but his emotions seemed strangely muted. That was insane. He should be raging and demanding revenge.

  He’d essentially been murdered by his superior officer and he felt no reaction? Was the gunshot like a lobotomy for him, given the location? Would he recover completely?

  Did he even want to? The anger and paranoia that had consumed him for so many months had eased and he felt more like himself than he had in a while. He needed to escape, but in order to do so, he’d have to avoid Midnight’s men.

  Carleton stopped, realizing he no longer thought of himself as one of them. If the Admiral knew his victim had survived that shot, Carleton would be the next lab rat to be experimented upon. Renewable soldiers would be a rare and precious commodity.

  He’d be drained completely, then cut up and studied to discover how he’d survived a lethal wound. They’d take his blood for transfusions to give to other soldiers whom the Admiral deemed more worthy.

  Carleton looked around the morgue and an idea struck him. As of now, everyone thought him dead. No one would be looking for him, but he could still get around the compound.

  A warren of basement tunnels, some that only he and Midnight knew about, connected the innocuous looking buildings above the ground. To the watchful public, the compound appeared as if it just housed a small militia, too minor to cause anyone concern. Midnight had planned out the image and the structures very carefully.

  Carleton had helped since the beginning. He knew the secret ways in and out of every building and shed on the compound.

  He also knew where the other SEAL team survivors of the lab explosion were being held. If he could convince them not to immediately kill him, he could set them free. Dr. Gennaro, too.

  That would royally screw up Midnight’s plans.

  All Carleton had to do was disable a few security system, blow up a generator or two, and not get caught. Not a problem for anyone who’d been under the Ice Man’s command.

  Alex and Samantha lay entwined on bed in the aftermath of their lovemaking, but the awareness of what came next had already intruded into Alex’s thoughts.

  They had to storm the compound somehow. God only knew how many super-soldiers lay in wait, and the site was way up in the mountains. From what he could tell from Google Earth’s satellite images, there were areas of high desert, then other sections with trees.

  Alex rubbed his hand up and down Samantha’s back as she cuddled closer. He did not want to move, but they were already later leaving then he’d planned. “So tell me, Special Agent Gennaro, do you have a preference for your mountain terrain transportation today? You have a choice between ATVs or horses?”

  She arched her neck to look him in the eyes. “The idyll is over, huh?” She sat up, established a more businesslike distance and leaned back against the headboard. “Okay, work it is. ATVs would be the easiest, but would they make too much noise and give us away?”

  “They’re not as quiet as horses, obviously. We’d have to hide them someplace before we get too close. There’d be some strenuous walking involved to actually reach the compound. The plus is that they’re faster than tired horses in the mountains and we can take other people on them.”

  He continued. “For instance, if your father is hurt, you could take both of you on one horse, but I’m heavy enough by myself for the kind of climbing the horse would have to do. If we have to rescue Ramirez and Northridge, too, we couldn’t do it. So, horses are quieter and more sure footed, but we could fit more people in the ATVs.”

  Samantha contemplated his analysis. “If we get killed up there—”

  Alex put his hand to her mouth. “I don’t want
to hear you talk like that.”

  “If we get killed,” she continued, “I don’t want to leave horses up on the mountain to fend for themselves. They could die trying to find their way back. Mountain lions could get them. I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem fair to risk them like that.”

  “ATVs rentals it is.” Alex grabbed the phone by the bed, along with the telephone book. He picked up the receiver to dial the first place listed.

  Samantha frowned. “Wait. Don’t call yet.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t you to call those places.” She hesitated. “Did you bring in the newspaper from outside?”

  “No,” he said slowly, trying to figure out what was wrong. “But there’s a little local one included in the ‘things-to-do-in-Socorro’ pile in the nightstand.”

  She rose from the bed, opened the drawer and grabbed the thin newspaper. She flipped to the classifieds.”

  “Looking for a new job?” he asked innocently.

  “No, but I’ll probably have to after this.” She brushed the hair back out of her face. “I’m hesitant about the credit check for the contract we’d have to sign and being spotted on the cameras in the rental shops or dealerships. Both things leave us vulnerable.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that, but I should have. Good job. I tend to work overseas and those things don’t tend to come up for me. Glad you’re along.”

  “Thanks. Those situations do for me. It’s one of the easiest ways I catch people.” She flipped another page in the newspaper. “There are several used ATVs for sale in here. Could you afford to buy two cheap ones? That would be better than renting, in case we don’t return them, or they get blown up, as things seem to do around us lately.”

  Alex took the paper from her. “Those prices aren’t bad. If the seller will take cash, we could get a couple from this guy listed here. The seller says he’s willing to drop them off wherever we want. We could meet him near the forest outside of town. People from the compound would be a lot less likely to trace a sale like this to us, than if we went to a regular dealership.”