by Sara Daniel
“Feel your diaphragm moving down and back up again. Down and back up.” Justin spoke slowly against her ear.
She inhaled. The steady ocean waves pounded against the cliffs in rhythm to their breathing. She exhaled. His fingers inched closer to her breasts. Inhale. She moved her hands lower and dreamed of stroking him in rhythm. Exhale. His hands pressed against her chest. Inhale. His erection pulsed against her ass. Exhale. She slid her fingers inside the waistband of his athletic shorts.
“I think you mastered it,” Justin murmured. He dropped his hands from around her and pulled back.
She blinked and looked around. They were alone on the lawn. The other guests had disappeared. Trixie was nowhere to be seen. Holly had been so wrapped up in Justin that she hadn’t noticed anything. How was it possible that breathing together was the closest she’d ever felt to anyone? It was by far the most intimate experience she’d ever had in her entire year with Justin.
She turned to face him slowly. Whenever she felt they were making a connection and tried to embrace it seemed to be the point when he pushed her away. She braced for it, even as she couldn’t resist smoothing her hands over his torso one more time. “That was amazing.”
Instead of shutting down, his hot gaze locked on her. “There’s a hot springs on the east side of the island. Will you come there with me?”
“Yes.” Holly didn’t hesitate. She knew what she was saying yes to—getting naked and making love until they damn near killed each other trying to get enough. She wanted it so badly she could hardly stand to wait until they got there.
Justin stood, doing his best not to show that it felt like a knife was slicing through his knee as he did so. He wanted to leave his cane behind while he walked hand-in-hand with Holly, but that foolishness would end with him lying sprawled at her feet again. Then she’d be looking at him with pity, instead of like she wanted to swallow him whole. He grasped the hated stick with his right hand and started to walk.
She reached for his left elbow, completely emasculating him anyway.
He jerked out of her reach. “Do not treat me like your grandmother.”
Instead of apologizing, she laughed a deep throaty laugh that turned him instantly hard again. “What I feel for you right now is nothing like what I’ve ever felt for my grandmother.”
“Thank goodness for that.” She wasn’t patronizing him or trying to coddle him. Hell, she even seemed to still want his pathetic self.
She clasped his palm and threaded her fingers through his as if she was worried he would pull away again. He wouldn’t. He craved her touch so much he couldn’t let go.
He was a jerk. But he’d never planned to be trapped here with her. If he kept pushing her away, they’d still be thrown together for the rest of the week. A single day of resisting her had been all it took to completely wear away his defenses.
“So, after you decided to dump me, instead of calling and asking for my help when you left the hospital, who did you call instead?” Holly asked.
He heard the reproach in her voice. She knew as well as he did that acting on their insane desire for each other wasn’t going to change the long-term prospects for their relationship. Knowing they were on the same page should have absolved him of guilt that he was taking advantage of her. Instead, it made him want to protect her from himself even more. “I came straight here. The real question is how did you find me?”
“Certainly not from you.” She smiled at him.
He couldn’t meet her gaze and pretend that he believed her false cheeriness. Instead, he looked ahead as the wooded path curved and bumped around an outcropping of rocks.
Her fake smile faded, and her tone turned frustrated. “It was like you disappeared off the face of the earth. It is not cool to break up with a woman that way, especially one you’d had a serious relationship with.”
Finally, honesty that he could meet head-on. “You’re right. It wasn’t cool, and I won’t become involved to the point where either of us believe we’re headed for a serious relationship again.”
“Did you believe we were serious before this?” She stopped walking and gestured to his knee. “Did you ever consider meeting my family or letting your coworkers know you were dating me?”
Justin paused to face her. He could either tell her the truth and piss her off more, or lie and match her false smiles from earlier. Neither option was palatable.
The unmistakable crack of a rifle split the air. A bullet whizzed by Justin’s shoulder and embedded in the tree behind him. He reached for his gun but was unarmed. Shit!
He threw himself at Holly and shoved her to the ground, covering her body with his.
“Wh—”
He covered her mouth with his hand, cutting her off. Being with her had dulled his instincts. He hadn’t noticed any signs of danger, hadn’t felt any warning in his gut that something was off or someone was after him.
One thing was certain: he didn’t have to worry he was paranoid. If he’d taken another step forward, he wouldn’t be worried about a thing right now. He’d be dead. “Don’t say a word. Don’t move. Our lives depend on it.”
Her eyes widened in panic, but she nodded.
Shit. If this was anything more than a hunter’s bullet gone awry, the killer wasn’t going to leave a witness when he took out Justin. Holly was in just as much danger as he was. Lying on the ground, they were protected by a large boulder between them and the line of fire. Of course, luck probably didn’t have anything to do with it. The killer had likely chosen it so they wouldn’t spot him until it was too late.
He slowly lifted his body off Holly. “Don’t move, no matter what happens. Understand?”
Her eyes widened, looking more horrified, but she nodded again.
Damn it. This was why he didn’t want her anywhere near him. Because of him, she was in danger. His knee screamed in agony as he crouched behind the rock. He glanced back for his cane. He could reach it without getting his head blown off, but it would be no use to him except as a weapon he could hurl at the gunman. He could throw a rock further and with a lot more force.
He crawled around the side of the rocks and glanced back to make sure Holly wasn’t following him. She hadn’t moved, but her terrified gaze pleaded with him to be careful. It was bad enough she’d followed him to the island. Now when he needed his concentration to be completely focused on eliminating the danger, his heart wanted to return to her instead.
He deliberately turned away and scooted on his stomach up the rock, just high enough that he could look out the tiny crevice near the top. Through the crack, he could see up the hill. At the top, half-shielded by a much smaller boulder was his most trusted comrade. Everything was okay. Tom had his back.
No, something wasn’t right. He looked at the man lying flat on his stomach, his hat pulled low over his eyes. If Tom had his back, he’d have his gun trained on where the shot had come from, not moving from side-to-side, waiting for Justin to emerge from his hiding place.
Justin slid down the boulder onto the dirt. He wished Tom had blown his head off before he’d discovered the truth. The one man he’d never suspected, that he would have trusted with his life, was out to kill him. He had no idea why. As a matter of fact, Tom had had the chance to do it in the hospital room. Instead, he’d sent Justin to the Wiccan Haus, so he could knock him off here.
Justin looked over at Holly, who was obeying his order to lie still but was watching his every move. She trusted him to come up with a plan to save them. Hell, she trusted him with her life. He might be an ass who couldn’t give her what she deserved emotionally, but he wasn’t going to betray her the way Tom had him. He’d get some answers from Tom while he got her to safety.
And then, well, he didn’t really care what happened. He didn’t have anything left to live for, no friends covering his back. He wasn’t fit to save the world from evil Paras or do anything else worthwhile for the Army.
“I’m going to make a run and direct his fire at me,” Justin whis
pered. “While I do that, you run to lodge. Don’t stop and don’t look back, no matter what.”
Holly’s eyes were wide and terrified. She silently shook her head no.
“I’m counting on you. Contact Rekkus and Cyrus with the island security. They’ll come help me.” Or more likely, recover his body. “I need to know you’re safe.”
She swallowed hard and sat up.
Satisfied he’d done what little he could to protect her, Justin scouted out the next outcropping of rocks to get him closer to Tom but still stay out of sight. He picked up his cane and speared it javelin style up the trail the way he and Holly would have walked if they hadn’t been stopped. Then he took off running through the opens woods toward his next bit of shelter.
He glanced up the hill as he sprinted. Tom shot at the cane twice before he realized it was a distraction and swiveled the rifle in Justin’s direction. He ducked and rolled through the trees as the bullets sprayed around him. Almost to the protection of the rocks. Just a couple more feet.
His elbow hit something hard. His knee hit another. Realizing he was slamming into rocks hidden in the brush, not taking bullets, didn’t make the pain any less. He jumped up to run the final steps and a searing pain shot up from his knee as he collapsed. Training and instinct kicked in, and Justin rolled the remaining distance. Bullets pinged and ricocheted off the boulder, but for the moment he was protected.
He tried to look back at the rocks he’d come from, but couldn’t see Holly anywhere on the path. Hopefully, she’d run fast and silently and was even now almost to the lodge. He looked down at his knee. It was swelling and turning purple fast. It hurt like hell and hadn’t been able to hold his weight for a second. Good thing she was safe because the only thing he was good for now was target practice.
“So, you were the one with the lousy aim. Why did you send me here instead of finishing me off in the hospital?” Nothing made any sense. He still couldn’t believe that Tom was behind everything. He’d butted heads with some guys over strategy and the Para threat they were fighting, but Tom was a guy who never got riled, just calmly listened. The guy who had his back.
“It’s all about the portals.”
“The portals?”
“You know what a pain in the ass they are to find, much less have one that opens reliably.”
That was for sure. Two-thirds of their battle strategy was all about protecting these openings to the Para world and stopping the threats before they came through. But they were only necessary for the Paras to get back to their world, and Tom was human. Tom was on his team.
Tom also had a generic name, never mentioned family or friends, and was vague about where he went on leave.
And Justin, who had rolled his eyes at the oblivious humans in the Wiccan Haus, had been just as naïve and clueless. For years. Tom had never been his friend, while Justin had been so intent on keeping everyone at a distance that he’d never attempted a deep enough friendship to notice.
He better be a hell of a lot more observant about the features of the landscape, if he had a chance of surviving now. Three sides of the ledge Tom was on were steep rocks, but the backside was mostly dirt and flat enough that on a good day Justin could reach him in three seconds flat.
This wasn’t a good day.
“You were a damn good imitation of a human,” Justin admitted. Hopefully, giving Tom a couple ego strokes would keep him talking. As long as he kept talking, Justin didn’t have to worry that he was moving out of position and would sneak up on him again. “I never suspected you could be a rogue assassin. Why didn’t you kill me years ago?”
Sure, the portals in the human world weren’t nearly as accessible as the one on the grounds of the Wiccan Haus. But over the years they’d had missions centered around busy portals where he could have killed Justin and easily escaped.
“I wasn’t sent to knock you off. I was sent to infiltrate your team and bring down Cyrus if I ever got close enough to get the chance.”
Cyrus was one of the four Rowan siblings, a retrocog who could touch an object and instantly know its history, a gift that had both made him famous in the Para world and put a price on his head. Even the United States military brass had debated capturing that gift for themselves. “So, you were aiming for my knee, after all, so you could send me here?”
“No, I was aiming for your head.” Another bullet pinged harmlessly off the rock, reminding Justin Tom was still aiming for his head. “It was supposed to be all about getting to Cyrus. But after spending five years working under you, I knew you were the biggest threat to any Para who wants to bring down Cyrus or take over the human world. I knew I had to eliminate you first.”
In some warped backward way, Tom’s words were a compliment. Justin might not have earned Tom’s friendship, but he had earned Tom’s respect as a threat. All that meant was that Tom saw him as the enemy and wasn’t going to negotiate to put his gun down. Justin lay on his stomach and carefully pushed away from the rock, maneuvering with his elbows and the toes from his uninjured leg.
“When I hit your knee, I eliminated you as a legitimate threat. I had a chance to get Cyrus by sending you here and convincing my superiors I needed to follow you because you were meeting with Cyrus. But it took forever for me to get to a portal in the human world that wasn’t guarded.”
The enemy had written him off as worthless to protect or to fight or to do anything else he’d been trained to do. It was hard to have any hope the military with access to his medical records wouldn’t come to the same conclusion. Justin might not be able to walk right now, but Tom hadn’t eliminated him, not by a long shot.
Twigs and vines and rocks poked at Justin as he scooted across the ground, scraping his skin raw. There was a reason that crawling through rocky terrain made long sleeves mandatory in the field. Too bad he’d missed the memo about today’s mission and had somehow believed he’d be having steamy sex with Holly right now.
He couldn’t let thoughts of her allow him to lose focus, and worrying about a few cuts because of his thin T-shirt and shorts was the least of his problems. Tom needed to keep the conversation going on his own. If Justin spoke now, Tom would know he’d left his position behind the rock. Worse, dragging his bad leg wasn’t making his progress as soundless as he needed to be, and he needed Tom’s voice to drown out the snapping sticks.
He shoved against his elbows to pull himself up the steepest part of the slope. Several stones tumbled down around him. He froze, sweating, his heart pumping blood so fast all of it felt like it was in his ears as he waited for the gunshot that would end his life.
The only sound was a rustle of leaves on the opposite side of the hill and complete silence.
After way too long, Tom continued, his voice still blessedly coming from the same place. “In the meantime your girlfriend called.”
So, that’s how Holly had found him. He hadn’t given her the base number, but somehow she’d still tracked him down. The effort she went through on his behalf amazed him. Of course, Tom had put through quite a bit of effort too—to kill him.
“I realized if you hadn’t told her about your injury, you were probably perfectly fine and your government had sent you here to protect Cyrus, so I needed to go back to my original mission to kill you off before I got to him.”
If the plan hadn’t boiled down to Tom wanting him dead, Justin might have been more impressed with the convoluted theory. And he wished like hell he had a better plan than crawling up a rocky hill to disarm a man whose intent was to shoot to kill when he didn’t have a weapon or the ability to run.
His knee bumped on a protruding root, shooting pain straight up to his forehead, so intense that the edges of his vision grayed.
Another rustle of sticks and leaves sounded from the other side of the hill. “Who’s there?” Tom demanded. “Show yourself.”
Justin was still six feet away, but with Tom facing the other direction, he had to take the chance now. He gathered the last of his reserves and lunged.
Tom swung around. He pointed the gun directly at Justin’s head and pulled the trigger.
Chapter Five
JUSTIN HAD NEVER IMAGINED the last moments of his life would play out in slow motion, but it was exactly how it happened. He was six feet away, too far to reach his nemesis and too close for Tom to miss. He would die with a single regret. He hadn’t spent nearly enough of his life in Holly’s arms.
Tom’s hand flung spastically. The gun fired, inexplicably flying out of his hand, and Tom screamed. Justin tackled him and closed his hand around his throat. He didn’t feel the shot and had no idea if or where he’d been hit. All he could feel was Tom squirming and reaching his hand across the ground.
The gun. It was just behind Justin, out of both their reaches. Justin used his left foot and kicked it further to the side. Then he released Tom and lunged for it at the same time.
“You disappoint me,” Tom said shakily, his hands in the air, as Justin trained the weapon him. “I never thought you’d be the type to rely on a civilian to save your life.”
His words made Justin pause before pulling the trigger. “What do you mean?”
“Oh thank goodness.” Holly popped over the other side of the hill. “I didn’t know what I was going to hit when I threw that rock, but I had to do something. Pitching softball all through high school and college finally paid off.”
She’d knocked the gun out of Tom’s hand. Suddenly, why he hadn’t felt the gunshot made sense. Her aim had knocked the shot to the side.
“You’re supposed to be safe inside the lodge.”
“Don’t let him get away,” Holly screamed.
He swung back to Tom to find he was no longer there. He was running down the hill. Justin pulled the trigger, and Tom rolled and jumped back up and ran again, zigzagging and taking cover behind a ledge of rocks. He’d missed. Damn his shaking hands. And Tom had two perfectly good legs. Double damn.
He turned again and glared at Holly. His hands hadn’t shaken while he was shooting since his very first mission. And even in that first mission he’d known better than to turn his back and give the enemy a chance to escape. She might have saved his life, but she was completely screwing with his concentration. “I told you to leave and not come back.”
