“Mom!”
“Mommy!”
Well, I’ll be damned. Worst fake trip ever. Not only had Sarah received the let’s-slow-our-departure message, but she was taking proactive measures. If the kids hadn’t been worried that their mama had hit the ground under the irate gaze of a gun-toting jerk, Sugar would’ve had to contain an inner laugh. But hell, job well done, Sarah. Even if she couldn’t have been a worse actor.
Sugar knelt next to Sarah, joining in on the theatrics. “You okay? That sounded awful.”
“Ow. My ankle hurts.”
Ow? Seriously, did she have to lob the ow twice? Sugar bit her lip, burying a grin in the dark and, instead, concentrating on Asal. How long would it take Titan to arrive? If they were really there… Of course they were.
Perfect timing for Titan to bust through the door.
Any minute.
That very second would be excellent.
But nope. No superhero brigade. Nothing.
“Get up.” The man came back, his flashlight pinning Sarah to the ground. “Or I’ll make you.”
Sarah rubbed her ankle under the dim light. “I want to, obviously. No interest in sitting in the dark. Give me a minute, will ya?”
His aggravation was almost palpable. Tension vibrated in the room. But still no Titan. And the room was so quiet. Maybe it was all in her head. Maybe she’d given Sarah hope for no good reason.
Zap. Zap. A red dot flashed, and a shocked gurgle choked out of their captor. The flashlight hit the ground, rolling, rolling, rolling almost to Sugar. A shuffle of noise. Feet? Titan? The guard staggered, then crumpled to the floor.
Titan! Her ears were playing tricks on her. Where are they?
Clutching Asal tightly to her chest, Sugar reached for the flashlight. Contact. She grabbed it and spotlighted the shuffling noise—Titan in full tactical gear. Thank God.
Someone silently subdued their armed guard. She swung the light left. Someone else from Titan stood by the door, facing the hallway.
And a third person… She didn’t need a flashlight to define the proximity of the third. She knew exactly where he stood, lording over her. She couldn’t see his face. But his masked gaze burned through her clothes and set her blood on fire.
Jared.
***
Deciding between Baer and Sugar had been a no-brainer. Sugar was top priority, and Jared was certain she could lead him to the kid. All he wanted to do was to find Sugar. Fuck their mission. Screw GSI and Buck Baer. Having Sugar in his arms was all Jared could contemplate.
And then, there she was. Night vision aside, he would’ve known her in the dark, on the floor, with his eyes closed. Somehow, someway, he had a sixth sense for her. Each step he’d taken had held no logic. Instinct had marked his route. His head, even his heart, pulled him toward his girl.
But to see her cast in night vision, sprawled on the ground and clutching a child he knew she loved, was more than he’d expected. His throat went dry. An indescribable wave of relief coasted from his boots to the tips of his ears.
He took a deep breath. Sugar had Asal, and that shaved a solid ten minutes off their rescue mission. But a second glance screamed that something was wrong. The kid wasn’t up and about. The two other kids had crawled on the ground to their mom, mewing in panic. Asal didn’t. She didn’t even stir. Curled into Sugar’s arms, Asal was as still as a stone. Something was definitely wrong.
Sugar stayed on her haunches, her eyes reaching for him in the dark, but she stayed by Brock’s wife. Why? The flashlight hung limp in her hand; she never bothered to shine it up. So he dropped to her level, grabbed it from her, and killed the light.
“Baby Cakes.” His voice was barely audible, but she heard. She leaned a degree toward him, nodding, and his arms ached to gather both woman and child into an embrace. Nothing like he’d ever felt for a rescue victim before.
“I knew you’d come,” Sugar whispered.
“Couldn’t let you off the hook that easy.” In the dark, on the job, he felt a smile tugging at his cheeks. “Mess with a man’s truck, and he’ll find you.”
Nicola turned from the door, walking to the woman with the children. “Can you quiet your girls? It’ll be okay.”
Sarah nodded. “Girls.” She looked at Sugar for confirmation in the dark, but she probably couldn’t see much. “These are the good guys. It’s okay,” she told the girls.
Nicola reached for the woman’s hand. “Can you stand up?”
“Yes. I’m fine.” Sarah easily stood, gathering her kids to her sides.
“I’m Nicola.” Her voice was one hundred percent trustworthy, and the anxiety drained out of Sarah’s face. “The three of you stick with me.”
Nicola nodded to him and staged her charges next to the exit. Jared looked at Roman, who stood in the corner. GSI’s man was down and unarmed. Roman threw a thumbs-up and headed to the door to lead them out.
Sugar still crouched, clinging to Asal. Not good. He pulled off his mask. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s sick. Unconscious. Needs a doctor.”
He didn’t need night vision to tell him that tears brimmed in her eyes. Her voice nearly cracked. All the warm and feel-good thoughts vanished and were replaced by a vicious pounding in his chest. Buck Baer would pay. Whatever was wrong, whatever he’d done, the bastard deserved to be in Jared’s grip that very second.
Lesson number one: do not mess with what was his.
Lesson number two: payback would be exponential.
Jared brushed his fingers over Sugar’s cheek, and she sucked in the quietest of breaths. The softness of her skin penetrated the calloused tips of his fingers, calming his rage and focusing his mind. “We have to move. Is she stable?”
Sugar nodded. “Enough to roll out.”
“Good. That’s my girls.”
One hand supporting her back, he helped Sugar stand.
A simple hand gesture got everyone ready to head for safety. Roman would go ahead, then meet up with Rocco. Nicola would take the lead, and he would follow at the rear.
In Jared’s earpiece, Cash gave the all clear for their hallway exit plan. Nicola nodded to nobody and guided the group out the door. Slipping his night goggles back on, Jared watched the group move forward. As soon as he secured Sugar, Sarah, and kids into Titan’s waiting vehicle, Cash and Nicola would haul ass for safety, leaving Jared to go Buck hunting.
Roman and Rocco were already scouting for him, but he wanted to be the one to pull Buck by his neck out of whatever rathole he’d stashed himself in.
Keeping pace with the group, Sugar glanced over her shoulder. No way could she see much in the dark. But he could see everything in goggled shades of green. Her expressive eyes went from unsure to settled, and with that, she surged on.
The hallway ended and dropped the group into an equally dark stairwell, which was safer than where they’d been, but not relief worthy. Nicola cracked two Day-Glo sticks and gave them to Brock’s kids. They shuffled up the long flight of stairs and into a garage. As soon as the heavy door clicked shut behind Jared, a garage door began to rise and an engine turned over.
In the SUV, Cash flipped on the headlights. Pale light from the outdoors spilled in through the faraway garage door. He jumped out of the driver’s side. Along with Nicola, they piled Sarah and her kids into the vehicle.
Sugar and Asal were the last ones to get in. Turning to him, her downcast eyes traveled from Asal back to him, and his heart clenched. This was too easy. Almost textbook. It could’ve gone so many ways. But he wasn’t going down that road.
No one else in the world would believe it, but Sugar was vulnerable, sweet, and scared. He felt it all over. His heart lurched as he wished that he could’ve clicked his rifle and destroyed her problems before she’d gotten into this situation.
Jared took a step away from the stairwell door. It was against orders. His orders. But still, there he was. Not doing his damn job, not standing on post as he should’ve been. Needing to be close
r, needing to say something, Jared closed the space between him and Sugar.
He should’ve been scanning the perimeter. He should’ve been watching for a thousand things that could go boom in the night. But his clouded mind chose that moment to remember how soft her skin had been on his fingertips and how much he would miss her. She’d absconded, leaving him madder than he’d ever been, for umpteen hours. Every lecture, each smart-ass thing he’d planned to say and school her on was forgotten.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Nicola stepped between them and eased Asal into the SUV. Ignoring the looks he was sure Nic and Cash were tossing him, Jared stole his body against hers. The tough-girl act was a front for everyone else. But Jared forgot them. It was just him and her. His mind churned with things to say. His heart had editorial comments. But his mouth stuttered for the words. “I’m…”
Sorry for the homicide accusations that I barked when we should’ve been partners.
Sorry that you were hurt.
Sorry that Asal’s sick.
Sorry that I didn’t make damn sure you knew how crazy I am about you.
The front doors shut, one after the other. Everyone had loaded up, and Cash was at the wheel. Nicola hung out the window, watching Jared’s back because he wasn’t watching anything but Sugar.
“Sugar, I—”
The muffled roar of an explosion echoed behind closed doors. Fuck.
He bumped Sugar into the vehicle, slamming the door behind her. “Go!” But the wheels were already spinning toward their exit.
Jared pivoted, running toward the blast. Smoke hit his face as he leapt down the stairs.
“Roman? Roc?” he called into his mic. “Come in. Status update. Now.”
Nothing but dead silence.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The echo of the muffled explosion played on repeat in Sugar’s head. Jared ran toward the sound. Toward his men. She knew what he did for a living and that he lived on the edge of danger, but to watch him run toward a big kaboom made her legs restless and her chest tight.
She needed a drink of water. The doors of the Explorer were closing in on her with each passing mile, and Cash was driving like he was under enemy fire. Sugar was convinced that the SUV was shrinking.
Couldn’t someone call Jared to make sure everything was okay? Nicola might understand that request seeing as her brother was in there also, but Cash wouldn’t. Plus, that was Jared at work. She couldn’t freak out when he did his job. A mantra played in her mind. Don’t get hurt. Don’t get hurt. She was sure everyone could hear her silent plea for Jared.
She hoped that no one else would get hurt, but Jared was the only thing that really mattered. He’d run toward the explosion. Son of a bitch. She stifled an uneasy groan. The situation made her sick.
What was he thinking? That should be easy to guess. He would do whatever it took to bring his boys home, just like he’d brought her home. He was always saving the day, and she got it. Even when anxiety and apprehension trickled through her blood, she knew how loyal he was to Titan. It made her want to smile—and cry. She was all over the place, spouting emotions like a feelings fountain, one bad phone call away from a nervous breakdown.
Cash had the gas pedal pressed down, maybe as far as it would go. She couldn’t see the speedometer, but if the passing cars were any indication, they were clocking some serious mph.
Cash adjusted his cowboy hat. He was brooding, blowing out deep breaths. Serious tension percolated in the SUV. Between the Titan team in danger and Brock’s family sitting pretty in the Explorer, he looked like he might snap.
Nicola pulled out her earpiece out and shrugged out of her tactical vest. She disarmed, then turned toward the backseat. “Everyone, other than Asal, doing okay?”
Sarah’s kids were in the third row of the SUV, silent and probably overwhelmed, just like their mother, who looked bad. Guilty. Dark circles. Red eyes. Brock’s betrayal wasn’t her fault, but she was ready for scapegoat duty. With pressure so thick that it was choking Sugar’s air supply, she knew Sarah was feeling it, too.
“We’re fine,” Sarah whispered from next to Sugar, hardly moving to speak. Her cheeks were flushed, and she sucked in her chapped bottom lip. Tension still hung heavy as Sarah let out a slow breath. She didn’t look Nicola in the eye, rather, stared at her shoulder. “You know Brock, too?” Sarah’s voice broke, and she cleared it, then spoke louder. “You work with him?”
Sugar, still wondering about Jared, watched both women and Cash. Cash flexed his grip on the steering wheel, his knuckles straining a pinky-white color. He stared straight forward, clenching his jaw. Brock had betrayed the team, and Cash had lost a friend. The Titan boys were tight. And to have their team leader screw them like that? No wonder Cash looked like he’d sat on a pin-less grenade.
Couple that with having no news about Jared and the men they’d left behind, anger wasn’t even the start of what was on Cash’s face. More like explosive resentment and fury.
Nicola played it cool, being far less the hothead than her husband. Still pivoted toward the back seat, she flashed a weak smile. “We did work with him.”
“Did.” Sarah nodded and interlaced her fingers, burying them in her lap. “Because he’s…”
Dead is most likely the answer.
Cash slapped the steering wheel. “Because we trusted him, we worked with him, and he fucked us in the ass.” He looked in the rearview mirror and growled through clamped teeth. “Sorry ’bout the language in front of your kids.”
Sarah nodded. The AC blew on high, and Sugar could hardly swallow. She tried to breathe quietly, but her lungfuls sounded too loud in the screaming silence. She shifted Asal in her lap. Every move, every crinkle of fabric and shift in her seatbelt, wailed louder than the last.
Nicola glared at Cash, then turned back to Sarah. “We’re all in shock right now. Nobody expected Brock to do anything other than follow the rules.”
Sarah’s lips pressed into a pale line as she re-knotted her fingers. “But still, you rescued us?”
“Well, yeah.” Cash sounded like a teenager about to drop a duh. He probably rolled his eyes, too, but the backseat wasn’t the best vantage point.
“Why?” Sarah asked.
Cash shrugged and changed lanes. “You shouldn’t reap the consequences of his mistakes. Plus we were already going in for Asal anyway. Then the shit with Sugar went down.” He scrunched his shoulders, blowing out another deep growl. “Fuckin’ Brock.”
Nicola glared at Cash again. “Kids,” she hissed under her breath. “Tone down the language.” Looking back at them, she shook her head. “Sugar, what happened anyway? Jared was short on details.”
That almost made Sugar laugh. Short on the details? Bet he was. “I ran off when he wasn’t looking. He was being a dick. I was being… me.”
“Hard to handle? Pain in the ass?” Cash volunteered over his shoulder, an impish grin hanging on his face. Nicola shoved him. They were a good couple, and Cash knew Sugar better than almost anyone did. Their history could’ve been awkward, but it never was, especially with Nicola.
“Forget him.” Nicola nudged Cash again. “You ran off on Jared. Can only imagine that went over well.”
“Never saw his reaction. I’d stolen a spark plug, so he couldn’t chase after me.”
Nicola snorted.
Cash swerved in shock, quickly righting the vehicle. “You did what?” All his tension disappeared when he threw his head back and roared with laughter.
“Look at the damn road, Cash.” Nicola turned back to Sugar. “Are you serious?”
“Girl.” Cash whistled. “Are you in some trouble. Holy hell.”
Trouble, with all capitals and spelled out. That was so true. As soon as everyone was safe and sound and healthy, Jared would rip her to pieces or wring her neck. She saw it coming, and she could do nothing but wait. Her stomach churned at the thought, then sank. God, let him be all right.
“How’d Brock find you? Get you?�
�� Nicola asked.
Sugar hadn’t thought about it. Had he been watching and waiting? Mulling it over as she looked out the window, she shrugged. “No idea. He got me to pull over and stuck my leg with a needle. I was lights-out in seconds. Never saw it coming.”
Just like that, the tension was back.
Sarah leaned toward Sugar. “I’m so sorry. So very sorry.” Fresh tears welled in her eyes. “That’s not the Brock I know. The man I love wouldn’t… wouldn’t do that.”
Sugar loosened one hand from Asal and patted Sarah’s knee. Not her typical MO, but the lady looked like she needed reassurance. “It’s not your fault. He thought he was making the right play for you guys.”
“Screw that, Sugar.” Angry Cash was back. “He handed you over, knowing damn well what would happen. And who you belong to. Screw that.”
She snorted. “I don’t belong to anyone, Cash.”
He mumbled, Nicola rolled her eyes, and Sugar didn’t know if that was meant for her or him.
“I want to pretend this never happened,” Sarah whispered. “But I don’t really know who my husband is.”
“Sure you do.” Sugar continued to pat her knee as though that would help. When did I become so damn empathetic?
“We sure as hell didn’t know about you.” Cash made a sharp change of lanes. “Or your kids.”
Sugar looked over her shoulder. The two kids in the back were asleep, probably worn out from the overstimulation and grown-up bickering. How they could sleep was a mystery.
Sarah also glanced at her kids and went back to knitting her fingers. “I don’t understand why he didn’t turn to the people he trusted most.”
“You and everyone else.” Cash slammed on his horn, then hit an exit ramp going top speed.
“Chill, Cowboy. Geez.” Could Cash be more of a prick right now?
His grip flexed on the steering wheel again. “Time to get Asal checked out and find out where the hell the guys are.”
The explosion sounded in her head again. Forget the drama. Forget the tension. She had two objectives: find out what was wrong with Asal and grovel an apology to Jared once he was home safe. Both items on her to-do list made her want to retch.
The Titan Series: Military Romance Boxed Set Page 71
