by Rie Warren
“You said that already.” I rose onto an elbow to watch her when she bent at the waist.
Fucking prime view of her ass.
Oh look, my handprint right in the middle of her left cheek.
I was really glad she liked some rough fucking.
She kept foraging among the detritus on the table.
“Damn, woman. You hungry again? I just fed you like”—flopping onto my back, I squinted at the diver’s watch on my wrist—“three hours ago.”
“You turned off your phone!” Spinning around, she held the burner in the air.
“Yeah. Where’s the romance when the dipshits are sending me Grumpy Cat memes at all hours of the night?” I scratched my belly.
Jade stomped her foot. “I’m being serious.”
“We’re fine. We’re safe.” I rearranged the blankets, making it all cozy and nice for when she got over her paranoia and decided to come fuck me again.
“Majedah. She’s gone.”
“How do you know that?” Lying back, I folded my arms behind my head.
Clearly Jade did not understand the whole idea of R&R.
By R&R I meant T&A—hers. In my hands and on my mouth, specifically.
“I know.”
“Besides. Doesn’t matter anyway. My dad wouldn’t call me if there was trouble.” I crunched up to sitting. “We got a better method to signal it.”
Yup. Jade was still naked. And the way the bright sunlight shafted over her body . . . amazing.
Shafting.
Hmm.
What a good idea.
My cock throbbed in agreement.
“Come back to bed and I promise to make you breakfast.”
After I eat her out for my breakfast.
“How would he contact you?”
Easing to my feet, I dropped the last of the furs down my body. Every part of me was hard. Every part of me on show.
For a second Jade looked ready to bite . . . me . . . in just the way I liked.
I prowled forward and scooped her into my arms.
Three shots fired from the distance in fast succession. Slight pause. Three more.
“Fuck.” I set Jade on her feet, immediately searching for our clothes.
“What was that?”
“My dad. That’s our distress signal.”
Twenty-Five
Desperate Warrior
WE DRESSED INHUMANLY FAST, grabbing only what we needed.
Kohana was in the clearing, his ears pinned back, neck elongated. Even he sensed danger in the air.
There was no easy canter on the way back to the heart of the reservation. Jade and I bent forward, keeping our heads below low-hanging, fast-slapping branches. I gave Kohana his head and his hooves pounded a loud tattoo on the soft-packed snow.
Worst-case scenario: we’d been raided and Madge had been taken.
Best case: false alarm.
Too bad my dad was not one given to shooting off false alarms.
I hunched over Jade’s back, willing Kohana faster. His steamy breaths billowed in the air and sweat lathered on his flanks, but he stretched his legs longer, took the ground faster than I’d ever seen.
He started snorting just before he reached a bend several klicks from the settlement proper. Skidding to a halt, he started stepping backward, tossing his head.
“Stay still. Stay quiet,” I whispered against Jade’s ear before sliding to the ground.
I stared into Kohana’s eyes briefly, communicating to him to run like hell with Jade if I encountered trouble.
He bent his neck, pawing at the snow.
Moving through the snowbound landscape, I kept to the trees that would break into open plains in just one more klick. I had only a Bowie knife for hunting. I clasped it in my hand as I lowered my stance with every silent step forward.
Hooves. Galloping hooves. One horse. Heading in my direction.
Sheathing the knife, I leaped up to grab a tree branch. I pulled myself up and swung over it. Balanced on the balls of my feet, I waited.
The horse slowed. The rider was smart, cautious.
I prepared to jump down, effectively ambushing them.
The horse and rider loped into sight.
Fuck me.
I somersaulted through the air, landing directly in their path. “Mom?”
“Well? Who’d you think it was?” She threw back her hood as her mount pranced beneath her, whickering a greeting to me.
“What’s going on?”
“Where’s Jade?”
“Gimme a ride.” I hopped on behind her, and we quickly trekked to Jade.
Kohana must’ve scented the other horse’s approach because he’d gentled and remained where he was.
That stallion was smarter than some of my closest friends.
“Sheila?” Jade slipped from Kohana’s back.
Mom and I dismounted, the horses forming a solid-bodied wall between us and the other side of the trail with no command spoken.
“Strangers were spotted on the land. In daylight. Don’t they have the sense their God gave them?” My mom shook her head.
“And?” I pressed.
“Lots of weapons. Definitely not shotguns, if you know what I mean.”
“Government?” I asked.
“No government I’ve ever seen, but definitely . . . paid for.”
Jade and I looked at each other. “Mercs.”
“Majedah?” Jade looked ghostly white, shaken.
“Brian hid her away. Walker, he said you’d know where.”
I nodded. The caves we’d scouted out one summer and hidden with a scree of thick vines and bushes.
Jade paced in a small circle. “Majedah’s safe. Good.” She stopped in front of me. “You go for Majedah, and I’ll turn myself over.”
“Fuck that, no.” I pinned her arms at her sides, and Mom slipped back toward the horses. “We don’t even know who the mercenaries are working for.”
“Let me go, Walker.” She twisted her wrists within my hold until I was afraid she’d break them.
I relinquished her, punching back a few steps.
“I couldn’t protect Marisol, that little girl in Mexico. Couldn’t keep Majedah safe.” Two small tears slid down Jade’s face. “You have to do it. You!”
“You are not fucking leaving me. After everything we’ve been through? No.”
“I’ll buy you some time to get away.”
I grabbed her shoulders. “I am not letting you do this.”
“You will.” Her soft smile merely made everything worse. “You need to take care of Majedah. I can take care of myself. You know I can.”
Every emotion rushed over me. Fear. Loss. Panic. Hate.
Love.
“Bullshit, Jade.”
“You know the score. Don’t get personally involved.”
“Goddammit!” Grabbing her to me, I gnashed out, “It’s a bit too fucking late for that, don’t you think?”
“I love you, Walker.” She touched my cheek.
Her hand was so warm. She was always so hot to the touch, the fire burning bright inside her.
“Don’t do this. I’m begging you.” I held her against me. “We’ll find another way.”
“We’ve been trying for over a week now. There is no other way.” She pulled free. “This is the end game.”
“Your gun. Your blade! They’re at the house. Wait!”
“They won’t let me keep my weapons wherever they take me. You know that.” Jade walked briskly down the trail away from me.
“I am not done with you yet.” Reaching her, I pulled her against me.
Mom appeared beside us. “All of your belongings are waiting with Majedah.”
I spun on her. “You left that woman with all the gear and guns?”
Mom hauled herself up. “I don’t know who she is exactly or what she may or may not have done, but she’s certainly not the first woman to hold a weapon as you well know.” She looked toward Jade then back at me. “And I know I d
idn’t raise you to be a male chauvinist.
“Jade. Come here, dearling.”
“I should go, Sheila.”
“This won’t take a second.” From her pocket, my mom produced a bracelet, one I recognized.
It was a tiny, beaded, umbilical amulet in the shape of a turtle my mother had worn as her rite of passage.
She tied it briskly over Jade’s wrist and kissed her quickly on both cheeks. “Go with speed. And come back more quickly.”
As she removed herself a discreet distance away, Jade’s hand covered her mouth.
Her throat bobbed, the pulse at the base thrumming visibly.
I curled her against my body.
“Don’t do this. I won’t be able to leave,” she pleaded.
“I don’t want you to.”
With her arms wrapped around my neck, she tipped her face up. “I love you!”
The final kiss.
Oh, God.
I wanted to take it slow, to savor it, but I couldn’t. Terror trampled through me, and the only outlet was Jade.
I held her hard. I kissed her until I thought my lips would bleed. I sucked her tongue into my mouth, waiting for that whimper she always, always uttered.
Pulling away enough to relieve the aching pressure, I kissed her more softly, fully on the pout. I tasted her like spring waters after a winter’s frost. I held her hips, and I hated our parting. Salt mingled on our tongues from tears we’d never shed for each other before.
“If you don’t fucking make it through this I will never forgive you.” I swallowed hard, smudging my forehead against hers. “I love you.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“Take Kohana. He’ll get you to the house. Go in the back.” I held her face in my hands. Memorizing her unimaginable eyes. The soft bow of her lips. That tiny piercing. The smile, slightly tilted, sometimes sad—as now—that was mine alone. “My dad will walk you out.”
I helped her mount, keeping my hands on her as long as I could. Whispering into Kohana’s ear, I stroked his mane.
When I slapped his rump, he shot off.
White flurries of snow burst from beneath his hooves, but all I saw was Jade, her hair lashing back.
Loss punched me in the chest.
Loss. Again.
I braced a hand against a tree, close to puking from pain that had no other escape.
“You need to fetch Majedah now, Wakiza.”
“What about Dad and the others?” I struggled to compose myself.
It was time to get mission-ready.
Mom placed her hands on my shoulders. “Wakiza. Your dad is probably having the time of his life. You know we’re warrior people and an enemy who trespasses our land must pay our restitution.”
The following days made up the longest seventy-two hours of my life. The wait left me with a permanent sickening twist in my gut.
I’d taken Mom’s horse and raced toward the cave I knew Madge had been hidden in while Mom trekked back to the outbuildings near the big house.
Madge hadn’t been taking any chances. She jumped on me with Jade’s Beretta raised as soon as I slipped through the tangled scree.
“Goddammit, Madge. Lower the weapon.” My face stony hard, I’d brushed past her and gathered the packs containing everything we’d been lugging around since the beginning of this fucked up fiasco.
“Where’s Jade?”
I’d ignored her. I was barely keeping my emotions in check.
She grabbed my arm. “I demand to know where Jade is!”
I’d gripped her wrist hard enough to snap the bones in two.
“She fucking sacrificed herself for you,” I bit out. “Did you hear me, Sheikah? So don’t you demand anything from me. Don’t you touch me. Don’t talk to me. You may have gotten the woman I love killed.”
Shrinking back, she’d raised a hand to her mouth, clearly as horrified as I was.
Fuckitall.
The one damn thing Jade had asked of me was to take care of Madge, and I’d bitten her head off.
Harnessing the fury one more goddamn time, I’d held her hand in mine for a short moment. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to go off on you like that.”
“We’ll go after Jade then.”
“You’re damn right we will.”
Easier said than done.
I couldn’t go after Jade, not without a solid plan and a definite lead. I’d just end up putting her and Madge into even more danger.
Jade is gone.
With every minute the reality settled more deeply in my bones.
I’d had to push past the fact I didn’t know where she was, what they were doing to her, if she’d survive.
By the time Madge and I made it off the reservation the trail had been cold. We’d huddled in the cab of my pickup, and I drove like hellfire, heading east. I didn’t freeze Madge out for long.
For what it was worth, she and I were in it together until we unfucked this thing.
I’d contacted the guys, getting them on point. Thankfully they were all stateside and ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice. Since Minneapolis had been the nearest big hub, that was our rendezvous city.
Three motherfucking days later we were back in Beirut, holed up in a building across the street from the drop point. Justice, Storm, Bane, Madge, me.
The room was tight as fuck and not the prettiest joint on earth, to say the least. Rundown Shithole met Cockroach City, and I couldn’t fucking believe it had only been two weeks since this upside down, inside out fuckup of a mission had begun. Jesus Christ, it was only the first week of March. Two years of wanting culminating in two weeks together, and it felt like I’d known Jade—loved Jade—half my lifetime already.
I paced around the sparsely furnished room, trying to ignore the blockheads who were my team. The dingy place had nothing to recommend it and whole lot going wrong for it—stained walls, the bare mattress probably crawling with stuff the fake folks on CSI liked to illuminate with their flashy penlights. You know, semen, blood, vomit, the residue of drugs . . .
Add in four hulking dudes and one Middle Eastern woman, and tempers were running high.
Especially when Storm and Bane were two of the guys involved. I didn’t have a clue what their beef was, but for months they’d been at each other’s throats like mortal fucking enemies. I’d about had enough of that shit.
“Pic kee toi. I am so fucking sick of playin’ house with y’all.” Storm padded around in a constricted circle. “Fuckin’ Beirut,” he spat out.
“And I’m so fucking sick of your face.” Bane lashed back.
The two of them faced off, trading insults and ready to get into it. While we all bristled with weapons and unleashed rage issues in a few hundred square feet of space.
“You know what?” I slammed my hand down on the dusty wooden table with enough force it almost cracked in two. “I don’t give a fuck if you hate on each other, but we are here to retrieve the package—AKA Jade Huntington—and I’d really goddamn appreciate it if my girlfriend got out alive.”
“What?” Bane rocked back on his heels.
“Girlfriend? Jade?” Justice walked up to me and peered deeply into my eyes. “Did you hit up that old wacky-baccy when you were home?”
“Hol-ee shit. Jade?” Storm rubbed a hand across his furry jaw.
I knocked Justice away from me and flipped them all off. “Yeah. Jade. So, shut your shit down before I dropkick you all to kingdom come and back again.” I checked my watch as the seconds ticked down. “Bickering’s for married folk, you double douche-twats.” I pointed specifically to Bane and Storm. “Let’s do our job.”
Once the five of us had hooked up in Minneapolis we’d found a suitably sleazy motel to wait. And wait. And wait while I’d slowly gone out of my mind.
Whoever had taken Jade wouldn’t have done so without wanting something for her return. Unless they just decided to kill her outright, a thought I couldn’t even begin to think about.
We’d finally
received a message. Of course Jade had my burner number and I’d kept the phone charged and glued to my palm the entire time, willing the damn thing to give its annoying chirpy little chime with an incoming.
It had been a text from a scrambled number.
Emir Qasim Hassan requests the pleasure of the company of Walker of the Lakota Sioux and Sheikah Majedah Chehab on March 3rd, 2015 at 7:30 PM. Hotel Leviathan, Room 313, Beirut, Lebanon. In return for the safe delivery of the Emir’s wife, Jade Huntington will be released into Mr. Walker’s custody.
And cue the video message that had followed directly afterward: Jade in a black executioner’s hood, bound to a chair in a nondescript room, in classic abductee pose. Someone out of the frame held a gun to her head, and he cocked it so she could hear the noise. She didn’t move a muscle Not a single twitch or tell could be seen. She sat ramrod straight, and I just knew she was glaring straight ahead at whatever thug made the recording. Then there was a resounding crack as the barrel of the gun slammed across her face with enough force to give her whiplash.
I’d dropped the cell on the floor.
“How do you know it’s Jade?” Justice had asked. “Her face is covered. All identifying marks are covered.”
“The bracelet. My mom gave it to her.” I’d swallowed the bile in my throat.
Swallowed repeatedly.
Fought the vicious urge to vomit.
Justice had grabbed my phone so he could do the freeze-frame thing, studying the video a few more times, scanning it for clues.
I never wanted to touch the fucking thing again.
Madge appeared as shaken as me, but she rallied, cursing a stream of Arabic swears while I added my own.
“My husband, that pompous azzhole.”
With shaking hands, I tipped the bottle of whisky over a glass I’d been nursing, hoping the flash of alcohol would burn away the shock.
It hadn’t taken long for us to put together what little intel we had.
The mercs had been hired by Madge’s husband.
Jade had been delivered to his security force.
She was now the live incentive to lure Madge back.
Jesus. The man had to be warped in the head to go after his wife like that.
