Don’t bring her back here yet. Not sure what’s happening. Titanium looking into the contractors. I’m looking into other things. Steele blew a gasket when he found out he wasn’t informed. Likely Agency betrayal, again. Throw your phone out the window. Brad knows the drill. He’s going to leave you somewhere and lose you.
Find a way to contact me every two days.
Zach had immediately thrown his phone out the window, and presumably when Brad dropped them off, they’d be on their own. Agency betrayal. Zach had told her she’d been betrayed, and it seemed his people thought the same thing.
He’d died and come back. Her brother was alive and in love. It was hard to wrap her head around any of it. Only, Zach sat next to her very much alive and twitching in agony.
“Do you have any medication you can take?” Her college roommate had migraines. Sarah used to whisper, and it had been too loud. Still, she had to make herself heard over the helicopter noise.
“The only pill I have left makes me kind of loopy. Sometimes, tired.”
“Either of those options would be better than you currently are. No offense, you’re not good to me as you are. Take the pill, pass out if you need to. I’ve got you for a while. I can handle the next couple of hours if you’re so out of it you can’t be consulted.”
His blood shot eyes bore into her soul. “I don’t know.”
“You know you can trust me.” And she had to believe he did, because she had made a decision about her future when she hadn’t died in a plane crash, and it had involved Zach. He needed her, and she wanted him to. The all but neglected boy had grown into a tough, thoughtful man. One version of him had died in Russia. Whomever he’d become since, they would discover together. Maybe while she sucked on his cock and let him go down on her at the same time.
Or maybe they’d save the discovering and get each other off simply for fun.
“Take the pill, Zach.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pill case. “Is it bad I wish I had some whisky to wash it down with?”
“I understand the sentiment, only in your case, yes, it’s bad.”
His father had destroyed his liver from gin. Zach’s father had been a bitter drunk, who had gone in and out of rehab his whole life. Her own father had finally cut ties with him after Adam and Zach died. Or not died, as the case turned out to be. People had to want to be better, and she had enormous respect for people who got sober and worked to stay on track the best they could, even if they relapsed. Only, Zach’s dad was nasty, and the booze was the excuse, not the problem. He’d barely seemed to care when the boys were gone. He ignored his daughters, who in turn, pretended he didn’t exist—total dysfunction from top to bottom.
Although she had preferred the old man drunk when he’d been around than the version he became when he spent short periods sober. There had been a time, when Adam had almost died being a jackass in a car race, and Zach had insisted it was his fault to spare her brother more punishment. His lying hadn’t fooled her, she’d seen right through it. He’d made Adam drive in an imbecilic way, he’d claimed. As if anyone made Adam do anything Adam didn’t want to do. Zach had taken the beating from hell for his saving Adam. And he’d never said a word. She doubted her then hospitalized brother had even known. But she had.
And being twelve at the time, she had no idea what to say or do.
Zach nodded and took a sip of water from the bottle next to him. The helicopter had been stocked to be comfortable and could apparently go silent, if Brad felt it necessary to hide their approach. She hoped they weren’t about to face the kind of trouble which warranted his making a go silent decision.
She took another look at Zach when he’d put down the water. “No more drinking for you, if you have been. Not for a while.”
He silently affirmed her statement again and leaned back against the window. “Shit.”
“Come here.” She patted her lap. “I can rub your temples. It will help.”
She expected him to argue. Tough guys didn’t care to appear needy. Zach surprised her when he gave in without an argument. Or maybe it spoke to his level of pain.
His head rested on her lap, and she immediately felt the sheer warmth she always associated with him. He could rival the sun. She ran her hand through his hair before she let her fingers rub in a circle on his temple. “What have you been doing besides the pills? Acupuncture? Massage? Any dental treatments? Vitamins? Herbal supplements?” He’d had an injury cause the migraines, which meant changing his diet would likely not offer much relief. Or maybe it would…
He said something she couldn’t understand before he shook his head. All right, he didn’t want to talk, and she understood perfectly. They’d be silent, and she would see if she could give him some pressure point relief for his discomfort.
Minutes later, he was out cold in her lap. She didn’t know how she immediately knew the difference between Zach lying with his eyes closed and Zach fully asleep, except she noticed the second it happened. He didn’t look any less pained in his sleep, yet his breathing evened out.
When he’d been nearly dead, he had dreamed of her and Adam. The thought softened her soul. Sarah had very few emotional triggers anymore. Zach was clearly still someone with the power to throw her off her game. Who was she kidding? He’d always been nothing more than a fantasy. His coma dreams had more to do with his brotherhood with Adam than anything relating to her. Yet, he’d had thousands of dreams he could have recreated with her brother and had chosen instead to include her.
“Hey,” she called into the headset, which would grab Brad’s attention.
“Need something?” he answered.
“You’re supposed to be leaving us somewhere and losing us.”
“Correct,” Brad answered.
“Were you given any specific instructions about where, or is the destination decided by us?”
“I’ve been waiting for Zinc to let me know.”
She looked at his out cold form. It was going to be a bit until Zach was giving orders to anyone, and she didn’t want to be in the helicopter endlessly.
“How about Miami?”
“The place come from you or from him?”
She shrugged. Lying was always an option. She couldn’t see his face, although his voice sounded curious, as if he asked for no other reason than his wanting to know the answer without an ulterior motive. Of course, tones could be deceptive, and if Zach’s tale of the last three years proved anything, she was in the presence of very powerful people who could compel someone as tough as Zinc to do what they wanted.
Could hide the truth from Adam. Steele.
Zach said Brad was the other man caught in the web when Titanium had taken control of their lives. Tungsten. And Chrome had sent him specifically to come retrieve them.
She needed to keep track of all the players so she could manage the conspiracy in her mind. Even her brother—who she had misled for years, and who had in turn, been lying to her—played a role.
Other than Zach and Adam, strangers were trying to save her life when her own Agency seemingly left her to die.
“Do you have a hard time taking orders from a woman? Will you only take us to Miami if I tell you Zach, who is out cold at the moment, told me to ask you?”
Silence met her query before a loud burst of masculine laughter caught her by surprise. She had no idea what he found so fucking funny. “Miami it is. Since Zinc showed you his orders, you know I’m to lose you there. I’ll get you guys into a car, then I’m going to go find something to eat. When I come back, you’ll be gone. I’d suggest out of Miami by tomorrow morning, at the latest. Keep moving until you’re told otherwise.”
“I have a little experience with how to survive. All recent captivity to the contrary.”
“Captivity happens. Make sure Zinc takes good care of you. He’s been on edge a lot.”
She disconnected the conversation button. For the present, she would be seeing to Zach, and she knew herself well e
nough to understand doing so would be good for her too. She’d always been good at seeing others got what they needed.
Sarah stroked her hands through his hair, and his face relaxed a bit. He liked her touching him. Did he see her as a sister? He’d admitted he’d thought she was hot when he shouldn’t. Did his confession mean anything? Probably not. Was she still hot to him?
His fiancée, Ally, who Sarah would admit at least to herself she hated on sight at the funeral, was her complete opposite. If Ally was Zach’s type, he wasn’t going to want to be with Sarah. She could pretend, when need be for the job, to be an Ally-type. Needy. Dependent. Fickle. No, the last word was unfair. How did she know the depth of Ally’s feelings for Zach? Maybe she had settled for the new husband in a grief-ridden move to feel better.
Sarah had never had Zach as her own, had hardly seen him, thanks to her involvement with the Agency in the years before his ‘death.’ Yet in the three years since he and her brother had died, she hadn’t stopped seeking answers. If he had been hers, there wouldn’t have been a wedding six months later.
Could the reborn Zach prefer her type instead?
4
Zach sat on the dock, his feet swinging over. He knew he was asleep, having not been to this particular lake since he was eighteen years old. If he looked to his left, he’d see Adam, and to his right, in a moment, Sarah would join them, her feet joining his in the dangle over the dock.
Only Adam’s feet were not dangling where they belonged. He quickly looked right, and Sarah leaned back on her elbows, her feet not pushed out in front of her, instead, tucked beneath her. She wasn’t fourteen, she appeared older, beautiful not in the way of a teenager, instead, the gorgeous woman she had become.
“What’s with the strange look on your face?”
His cock jumped to life, hard and straining in his pants as if she had been stroking him instead of simply speaking to him. “I’m dreaming. And my scene is different than I’m used to it.”
Sarah reached out and brushed his hair off his forehead, as she had done when he’d rested his head on her lap in the helicopter.
The helicopter…
“Does it matter? If you’re dreaming, have a good go at it. Pretty place. I’m hot as hell, obviously.” She spoke with a twinkle in her eye. “Go wherever the dream takes you.”
A blaring horn sounded, and it seemed so out of place. Where would a horn be coming from at the lake?
“What if the dream takes me to some place where you are on top of me with your legs spread, moving up and down on top of my erection, and making me come?”
“As I said, sometimes the dream needs to go where it goes.”
Her words sounded good to him. He moved forward and…
Zach.
“Did you say something?” He ran his finger on the gentle slope of her nose. Sarah had such dainty features. Someone who could do her justice should paint her. Too bad he didn’t possess an ounce of artistic ability.
“No.” She smiled at him. “Well, I mean, you heard what I said.”
Zach. I need you to wake.
Oh, right. He was asleep. Damn it. Of course, he’d never been alone with Sarah on a dock, and she had never invited him to put his hands on her. Although, she’d admitted she once crushed on him.
His eyes flew open on the thought. Disoriented, he braced himself for the blurry haze which always came on after a bad headache.
“You’re okay.” Sarah’s soft hand stroked the side of his face. “I’m sorry I had to wake you at all.”
“No. It’s. Fine.” His brain needed to cooperate, and it needed to immediately. Sometimes when he first awakened, it took him a while to find words, as it had been when he first came out of the coma. Although all of his problems were considered normal for his healing brain—the words a doctor used—he hated it and didn’t want Sarah seeing him so laid out.
He cut his gaze away, pretending to look at his surroundings instead of giving his mind time to catch up with his alert state. They were in a car, a sedan by the size of it. Leather interior. Power steering. Four wheel drive. When he’d conked out, pathetically on her lap, they’d been in the helicopter with Brad piloting. How had they gotten into the car?
She watched him quietly for a bit before she spoke again, “Miami. We’re at a Motel Six. I’ve rented us a room. Paid in the cash Brad gave us before he took off. He helped me maneuver you into the car. You kind of roused then, although I don’t think you really woke.”
Great. There was nothing he hated more than his brothers seeing him fall apart. Although he doubted Tungsten would ever tell a soul. Brad had seen him a lot worse, when he had first awoken in the hospital, when he hadn’t been able to speak at all.
“Miami. Good choice.” Easy to be lost in a huge city, and since he was coherent again, he’d take over keeping her safe.
“That’s why I told Brad to leave us here.” She winked at him. “I would have let you sleep some more, only I can’t carry you inside the hotel room by myself.”
“Yeah, no, you trying would be humiliating.” He extended his hand. “Do you have the telephone to the room? I’ll go check it out.” She furrowed her brow, and he realized he misspoke. Zach clenched his jaw. Exactly how much embarrassment with Sarah was he going to have to endure? “Do you know what I meant, although I said the wrong thing? Probably if I try to self-correct over the next few minutes, I will continue to misspeak. So, I’m hoping you know what I…”
As an answer, she placed the key card in his outstretched hand. “Don’t worry, I speak Zach.”
He laughed at her response, the reaction catching him by surprise. “Then you’d be the only one. I’m not sure I speak me anymore.”
Zinc exited the car. Maybe he couldn’t always make himself understood—stupid brain—yet he could still check out a hotel room to make sure it was safe. Sarah was a very capable woman, and Zinc had known a lot of extremely tough ladies in his day, and if she’d wanted to argue with his protection, she could. The fact she hadn’t fought him on that point, satisfied his need to protect.
The number of the room was on the key. The hotel looked old and in need of either a major renovation or a tear down. She’d been right to pick it. If ever there was a location where there wouldn’t be video cameras, it was the motel she’d chosen.
He pushed the key in the slot and entered. The room smelled like it had been cleaned. Someone had at least sprayed air freshener, and he knew—unfortunately from experience—the air freshening might have been the extent of the sanitization. Zach did a quick look through. It seemed safe enough. He had no equipment to search for bugs, so his walk through would have to be good enough.
He crossed the room to the door and opened it before waving Sarah in. A few seconds later, she joined him. Her presence brought home a major factor he missed in his perusal. There was only a single bed in the room.
His mouth went dry.
Maybe they didn’t have double beds in the hotel…
“How is your head?” She tapped her bag before pulling out three medicine bottles. “I temporarily stole a phone off a man in the gas station and Googled migraine meds. Then I stole these three from a pharmacy. I left money they’ll find, although I suppose it’s really a moot point. No prescription, equals theft.” She shrugged.
“You stole from a pharmacy? In my pajamas?” He took the vials from her hand. “How did you manage? And you temporarily stole a phone?”
“I gave it back. The dude never knew it was gone. I’m a CIA operative. I know I was held captive, and I mostly chase paper. It doesn’t mean I don’t have some skills. Maybe I have a trustworthy face? Maybe the guy liked the Yankees?”
Her answer did nothing to quiet his utter astonishment that she had stolen him medicine after Googling them from a stolen—sorry, borrowed—phone. He stared at her, hoping he didn’t look like an idiot as she moved further into the room. Her hips swayed when she moved. Why hadn’t he noticed before? Well, his head had been throbbing, and they’d been i
n deep trouble. Or maybe the movement was simply more pronounced.
“What do you think? It’ll do, right? I didn’t go in without you. I figured a small functional room was what I should expect.”
He wanted to ask her about the bed, and instead, looked at his stolen prescriptions. One of them was right, the other two he had used and not found effective.
“You should take it round the clock. Stay ahead of the pain. It’s really an autoimmune thing. Not letting the body find the pain again.”
“Do you have a medical degree I don’t remember?” He winked at her. The last thing Zach wanted was for her to think of him as some kind of patient who needed to be pitied.
She raised a dark eyebrow and walked toward him with those hips again. His cock hardened. “I care about you, so I’m going to level with you.”
“Hold on.” He held out his hand. There were things to say before she told him off. “You were held captive for a month by a sicko. Then you had to rescue your rescuer. I’m so sorry. It’s inexcusable.”
She blinked rapidly, and it took at least ten seconds for her to respond. “Are you out of your mind?”
“Always.” She’d seen him in the car. Hell, she’d practically had to carry him.
“Zach. You rescued me from a psycho. You shot a bunch of people to do it. Killed a pilot who wanted to kill us. Managed to safely crash—if you say bail out, I’ll kick you in the shin—the plane. Then you got a migraine headache, because you are three years removed from a head injury caused in an explosion, which killed you temporarily. I think I can live with what little role I have played in our adventure.” She pointed her finger at him and poked it right into his shoulder. The movement actually hurt, and he took a step back. “Enough with the crap. Are you hungry?”
The abrupt change in topic threw him off his game. “I could eat.”
“Great. Any residual headache? I’m asking because I want to know if we need to find somewhere quiet or bring take out here.”
The Men of Elite Metal: Platinum, Zinc, & Francium Page 13
