by Zoe Dawson
“Sky! He’s lying. Stay where you are!” Vin’s voice.
There was a spate of automatic gunfire, and she was frozen in place. They had made him give away his position. She couldn’t lay here anymore; she had to do something.
She pushed the blanket off her and lifted the blind. All she saw were shadows running toward the boathouse and then heard more automatic gunfire.
In the distance, she could hear a helicopter drawing closer. She hoped that was the cavalry.
Should she stay put or go?
Then she heard a pain-filled cry and a triumphant laugh. Her heart sank. Through the crack in the blind she saw them drag an unconscious man into the clearing not far from her hiding spot.
Vin!
He was only a few feet away from her. Close enough for her to see the blood on his face. The whooshing of the helicopter blades drew closer and closer.
Death Head. She could see him clearly. He crouched down and put a gun to Vin’s head. He stirred awake and grabbed the gun, rolling and getting it away from the leader. He shot one of the men point-blank before one of them kicked him in the head. The gun went spinning out of his lax grip and Death Head grabbed it. Swearing at the top of his lungs, he walked toward Vin. She had no doubt that he was going to kill him.
“No!” she shouted and ran across the open ground and threw herself across Vin’s prone body.
“If you kill him,” she screamed, “you’ll get nothing from me, ever!” She felt something wet and sticky and pulled her hand back. It was covered in blood, his shirt soaked in it.
The helicopter landed in the front of the house, and Sky prayed it was NCIS. But it was a lone man, and as he drew near, her heart sank, and shock rolled through her like a Mack truck.
“Hello, Dr. Baang,” her boss, Russell Coyne, said.
Chapter Sixteen
Splintered silvery pieces of awareness filtered through Vin’s consciousness, and he drifted in and out—for how long, he couldn’t say. Then pieces of reality flowed through—the hardness beneath his head, feeling weightless and the sensation of bobbing, the rough texture of something immobilizing his hands, the piercing light above him, and the jumble of voices. He heard them as if he were under water.
“…hurt him…you…anything.”
He took a deep breath and came fully awake. “Sky!” He tried to rise, but his hands were flex cuffed.
At first glance, it looked as if they were in the captain’s stateroom aboard a ship, but if it had been a ship, there would have been portholes. There were none that he could see. There was a desk with compartments and a table that extended from the wall with two chairs and a bed. He was lying half in and half out of the tiny stateroom.
“Vin!”
Then she was there, beside him, but someone pulled her away. He twisted and tried to come to his feet, even as his side screamed in agony. Someone put a boot in the middle of his chest.
He looked up into Sky’s boss’s face. He’d met him briefly the day he’d gone with Sky to her lab. He looked to be in his forties, salt-and-pepper curly hair a little long for a man of his age, and ruthless blue eyes.
“Coyne, you hurt her, and I’ll rip your fucking heart out.”
Coyne crouched down. His face was tanned, and the sun had left its mark in deep lines around his eyes and across his forehead.
“Wow, Agent Fitzgerald, you wake up really grumpy. You look worse for wear than the last time I saw you.”
Vin stared at him and the man’s smile slipped a bit.
“Cut me loose and make it a fair fight.” His wrists throbbed, his fingers feeling numb.
He snorted and eyed the flex cuff around Vin’s wrists. “Fair? You’re wounded.”
“I can still kick your ass,” Vin said, menacingly low. “If you want, you can leave the flex cuff on.”
Coyne rose and backed up.
“What happened to your Russian wolves?” Vin asked.
“They got paid, and I sent them on their way. Andreyev is ruthless, but they were much too expensive. I simply don’t have the technology or skill to pull off a kidnapping, and they were good at misdirecting attention onto a foreign government, keeping NCIS busy. That allowed me to stay under the radar. What I didn’t bank on was a highly-trained, resourceful agent like you mucking up the works. Thankfully, I had a contingency plan in place. I knew she couldn’t stay away from that laptop.” He smirked. “I’ve got many foreign governments on the hook for this technology. These are my security people.”
“Leave him alone. I told you I would do whatever you want. You can stop gloating,” Sky said. Vin looked at her as she struggled against the hold of one of Coyne’s goons. When he connected with her gaze, she smiled. Relief rushed through him—an emotion so strong he knew he was deeply in love with her.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She nodded, giving him a reassuring look, trying to mask her fear.
“Let her go,” Coyne said. “Remember what I said, Sky.”
“And you remember what I said. I’m not doing anything for you until I tend to Vin.”
Coyne’s mouth tightened. He looked at the goon and said, “Take them down to the infirmary. If he so much as twitches, shoot him. When she’s done patching him up, separate them.”
Sky rushed forward and put herself between him and Coyne. “No! He stays with me!”
“I don’t trust him.”
“He’s bound. What could he possibly do?”
“He took down a lot of mercs carrying automatic weapons with one handgun. I don’t trust him.”
“Then you don’t get the algorithm for Stingray.”
“It galls me that you have a higher clearance than I do. Bitch. Otherwise, I could have stolen your plans without all this shit. It would have been nice to be able to frame you for treason. I’ll kill him, Sky.”
“Do that and you don’t get what you want, Russell. Good luck finding that silent submarine in all of the Atlantic Ocean!”
“Sky…” Vin said.
She looked at him, her expression set. He wasn’t going to change her mind, and he had to trust her in this. There was no way Coyne was going to let either of them walk away from this, no matter what he promised Sky. Vin was leverage against her, but she had Coyne by the short hairs. They would have a much better chance to escape if they were together.
Coyne pointed a gun at Vin.
“Go ahead,” she said, her gaze unwavering. “You’ll be killing any chance of getting what you want from me. I’ll work better knowing he’s not being mistreated. We stay together.”
Coyne grabbed her hair and pulled her head back. “You try anything, and I will put a bullet between his eyes.”
“I already said I’d give you what you want. You have armed guards and we’re defenseless.”
Coyne nodded and let her go. As soon as she was loose, she fell to her knees. “Vin,” she said as she helped him to rise into a sitting position. The agony in his side screamed, but he bit back a cry of pain.
“Careful,” she said, I don’t know how badly you’re injured. They wouldn’t let me check.”
“Let’s go,” the goon said.
“Can you walk?”
“I’m going to get you out of this.”
“I said move.” The man nudged Vin with his automatic weapon. If only his hands were free.
Sky helped him stand, and the guard motioned for them to precede him into the passageway. Sky slipped her shoulder under his arm. His head was starting to clear.
Very low, she said, “I need you to distract the guard when we get to the infirmary. Can you do that for me?”
He nodded slightly.
“Good.”
“This is about Stingray?”
“Later,” she said.
He noticed she was limping. “Did they hurt you?” he growled.
“No, later, Vin.”
At the infirmary, she supported him up on to an examining table and helped him to remove his shirt. She bent down to his side
, and when she pressed on the wound, his vision went gray, and he started to slump over. “Catch him!” Sky shouted.
The guard moved forward and caught Vin. He played it up but not by much as the guard manhandled him back on to the examining table. He met her eyes and she nodded that his fainting spell had been effective.
She swabbed the wound and breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s just a bad graze. The bullet missed your rib, too. Lucky.”
“Still hurts like a son of a bitch.”
“I bet,” she said with sympathy, her touch gentle.
She cleaned and bandaged it, then moved to his face. She stood close to him as she cleaned the blood off. “This is getting repetitious.”
“I agree.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t follow your orders. I couldn’t let him kill you. I couldn’t.”
“It’s okay.” He gave her a brief smile. “I can’t complain that I’m alive, but I’d rather you were safe.”
“This doesn’t need stitches.” She put on a couple of butterflies and helped him down. The guard escorted them back to their stateroom and closed the door. They both heard it lock.
She helped him to sit on the bed.
“You’re giving him Stingray?”
She pulled a chair up and sat down. “I’m giving him an algorithm. I don’t know where the sub is. For security reasons, the Navy wouldn’t give me the coordinates of where they were testing the sub, but I have all the training data, and with data fusion, I can extrapolate. Russell knows that.”
“Why doesn’t he just take the plans?”
“He already made me send those to his computer, but he wants the prototype to show off to his buyers.”
“Buyers. Damn.”
“I know. I can’t believe I’m working for a traitor.”
“It’s all about money, right?”
“Yes. He’s broke, or he was until he made them ante up half a million dollars apiece for the privilege of viewing the submarine and bidding on the technology.” Her eyes filled, and she looked so ashamed and guilty. “He found me by using my laptop. There’s a microdot on it. It was up under the casing, very hard to detect. He knew me, Vin.” She sat forward. “He knew I couldn’t keep away from my work. It’s my fault we’re here. I’m going to get you out of this.”
“By giving him the algorithm? He’s going to kill us anyway. You have to know that.”
She clutched his forearm. “He couldn’t risk letting us go. But, the longer we stay alive, the better chance we have. He had to bring us on the sub. He intends to use the algorithm to make sure it works before he takes care of us.” Her eyes chilled. She said, “It’s a good place to dump two bodies.”
He raised his bound hands. “Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Can you release me?”
“No. Russell forbade it.” She looked at the door and lowered her voice. “I have your knife.”
“What?”
“When I was lying across your body to keep them from shooting you, I got it out of your pocket.”
“You’re a miracle.”
“I’m resourceful.” She eyed the door again. “That’s why I was limping. I slipped it into my boot.”
“Didn’t they search you?”
“Yes, they did, but when I took my boot off, I held it against the sole of my foot, and then when they gave me back my boot, I just held it again and slipped my boot back on.”
“That was brave and clever, Sky.”
She flushed at his praise. “I’ve been hanging around with you so long, your ability is rubbing off on me.” She smiled. “Listen. The algorithm should take a couple of days. It’ll give us some time to plan how we’re going to get out of this.”
He nodded. “We are going to get out of this. I promise.”
“With you going all commando on them, I have no doubt. But we’ll have to time this carefully.”
He raised his bound hands and brushed the backs of his fingers over her soft cheek. “You tell me when.”
His heart soared when she leaned into his caress.
“Right now, you need to get some sleep. How is your head?”
“It’s okay. I think I have a concussion, but not a severe one. I know what that feels like, courtesy of an explosion when I was serving.”
“All right. Let’s get some sleep.”
He made room for her on the double bed, and she turned off the light.
“When you passed out in the infirmary, I grabbed a bottle of sedatives, and I palmed two hypodermics, too.”
“Sweet,” he said as he lifted his arms and put them around her. She snuggled up to him, careful of his wound.
“I’m tired of seeing you get shot, Vin.”
“I’m kinda sick of it myself.”
“I think Russell peed his pants when you gave him that crazy Rambo look. You scared the hell out of me. I’m glad you don’t want to hurt me.”
“Never.”
“You’re not really going to kill Russell, are you?”
“As long as he’s not stupid, no. I’m not a cold-blooded killer. I might hurt him a little.”
“For treason?”
He snorted. “No, for putting you through all this.”
He felt her mouth brush against his. “I’m so thankful that you’re alive.” She pressed her mouth against his a little desperately. He tightened his arms and kissed her back.
She relaxed against him, and her breathing slowed. He stared into the dark. He knew nothing was guaranteed. Just because they had a knife and a sedative bottle didn’t mean getting out of this alive was a given. They were under thousands of pounds of water, in the middle of nowhere, and held captive. But he vowed, whatever it took, he was going to get Sky off this sub and out of danger.
The next day they were woken up by the goon who had taken him to the infirmary. They actually brought them breakfast. Vin moved a little slowly getting off the bed. He was actually feeling pretty good, but he didn’t want the guard to know that. A seasoned guy would be vigilant, but Vin noted this guy seemed to be more of a rent-a-goon than a seasoned merc.
At the table, Vin ate his eggs and drank the coffee. Sky was given her laptop to work on. She was seated at the desk. There was no connectivity, so she couldn’t send or receive any messages.
She worked all day while he napped on and off, building up his strength. She carefully changed his bandages, and when they were back in bed, she said, “I have a plan. After I give Russell the algorithm, he’s going to try it out before he does anything to us to make sure it works.”
“That makes sense.”
“I know him. He’s cautious. He’ll make sure he can find Stingray before he kills me.” She swallowed hard. “There are two guards outside the door. I can cause a commotion and inject the first one if you can handle the second one.”
“I can do that.”
She laid the plan out for him, and he listened. “Sky, are you sure you’re not the Navy’s secret weapon?”
She blushed. “So, we’ll do this tomorrow after I give Russell the algorithm.”
He nodded.
She slipped out of bed and wedged a chair under the door handle.
“What are you doing?”
“I want some private time with you, Vin. Is that all right with you? I know we had that terrible fight and we don’t really agree. For all I know, you don’t want to have sex with me again.”
“You want to have sex? Now?”
“Yes, tomorrow is it, and there are no guarantees. I want to be with you again before…”
“Ah, sweetheart,” he said, his voice ragged.
“Please, Vin.”
“There is so much that’s complicated between us.”
“I know. But, tonight, let’s just make it simple. There may be no tomorrow.”
He pushed himself up with his bound hands and pressed his back against the headboard. “Have your way with me. Wait! Shit! Protection.”
“I scoured the cabin and found these.” She opened her hand to reveal t
hree foil packets. “Must have been expecting a good time on shore leave, huh?”
Meeting her gaze, he reached out and grabbed a long ribbon of her hair and ran it through the fingers of his bound hands.
“I wish I could release you.”
He nodded, following the fall of her hair as it settled against her upper body. So long and inky black. He leaned forward and grazed her jaw with his teeth, felt her tremble. A shuddering sigh left her, and he felt her hips rise against him with an undulating slide.
“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he said.
She made a soft sound in her throat and fused her mouth to his, kissing him with a desperation that he felt in every pore of his body. She straddled his hips, and he could feel the heat of her against his erection.
Adrenaline and a hot and willing woman were a lethal combination. The fact that their captors could come into the room at any moment added another danger element to what he was already feeling. The danger to his heart.
She dragged her mouth from his, and he felt her slide his zipper open. Their eyes met in the darkened interior, and he knew it didn’t matter if they were shamelessly desperate. Her gaze was hard with need, her hand roving over his chest, down to his dick and back up. All he could do was watch her face—so beautiful, her silky long hair, her eyes so exotic, so thickly lashed, so intensely focused on his.
His heart filled with so much love he thought he might die from it.
A guy only gave that away once, and he thought he had, but he’d been so wrong. He’d never given it away to anyone but Sky.
He loved her.
She loved him.
Oh, God, she had no idea of the potency of that feeling. How it would fill her heart to bursting. She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t catch her breath. He kept stealing it with his eyes and his mouth.
No man could ever taste like Vin, darkly delicious, primal male, answering a need in her that she hadn’t known she had until the first time he’d kissed her. She’d wanted him so badly all day, even more than she’d wanted him that first night she’d thrown herself at him.
