TRACELESS (9 page)

“Thanks.”

“I knew I could count on you.”

He gave her fingers a squeeze. “Always.”

“When the kidnapper called you, I knew you’d come running.”

“I would never let anyone hurt you.” That was the vow he made when he asked her to marry him.

He’d promised she would always come first. That no matter what, he would keep her safe. But somehow, some way, despite all the precautions and planning, his life had put her in very real danger. Only her smarts and some quick thinking by the team got them out of there without being killed.

She nibbled on her lower lip. “You just hold on so tight.”

“And when I didn’t, someone grabbed you.” That’s the failure he could not work around or forget. The flight across the country trying to get to her amounted to pure torture. The fact danger still sucked them under kept the hits coming.

“That could have happened anywhere.”

But it happened on his watch. He didn’t say it, but he felt it to the bone.

He pointed to the rock slabs and the thin opening between them. “Over here.”

She turned sideways and slipped inside. He followed, with his chest and back touching the walls. He was just about to call this off and look for another option, one with some breathing room, when he stepped into the open area. Boulders towered above them, each stacked upon the other. The top was open and blue skies flashed above them. At the far end of the long tunnel of rocks was another opening to the rubble beyond.

The formation created an open space about a third the size of a football field. She stepped into the center and spun around. “This isn’t a cave.”

“We can see a wide swath of land and have multiple ways in and out.” Just as Davis promised. Connor decided his second in command needed a raise. They all did.

She stepped to one side and ran her hand over the colors veining the rocks as she lifted his shirt off her head. “Davis thought about all of that?”

“He’s a good man.” The best, because Connor only hired the best.

“They all are.” She spun around and faced Connor again. Her hair swished. The sun had colored her cheeks. “So are you.”

Gone was the fear of snakes and anguish of all the long, hard hours behind them. The stillness, this beautiful woman and the stark landscape behind her... It all combined to send his pulse racing and his common sense on vacation.

The kick of need hit him so hard he almost groaned in reaction. “You said something about a seduction.”

“Soon.”

“Now works for me.”

She screwed up her lips. “It did for me, too.... Then I saw the snake.”

“I could probably make a gross joke here.” If he could put the words together. Right now his brain locked on permanent misfire. All he could do was feel. Thinking abandoned him.

“The idea of getting naked with snakes slithering around...” She gave a dramatic shiver. “It kind of kills the mood. They could be anywhere, just waiting to attack. I plan on watching out for them and I can’t do that if I’m crawling all over you.”

She just had to use that word. Now the visual image that popped into his mind wouldn’t leave. But the snake comment pretty much ended any possibility of getting on his back with her on top of him.

It would happen and she was right that it would be soon. Rock, ground, bed, car. He wasn’t picky.

He decided to let her know where his mind had wandered. “You know the first bed we find I’ll be all over you.”

Heat spun around her and her cheeks flushed. “It’s been a long time.”

The tension zapping between them had nothing to do with fighting. “Too long.”

She took the few steps to close the gap between them. When he opened his hand, she put hers in his. “I need you to know I didn’t run to Marcel.”

Talk about a subject sure to kill off the last of Connor’s sexual thoughts. “You kind of did.”

“I’m sorry.” Her other hand rested on his chest, right up near his throat. A finger swept over his neck.

The touching and closeness made it tough for him to swallow. “For?”

“Doing the one thing guaranteed to hurt you.”

He wanted to look away from the sudden starkness in those eyes. This conversation needed a table and boundaries and plenty of rest before it started. Now was not the best time for this conversation. Too much could go haywire. He could say the wrong thing or pick the words sure to send her running again.

Still, he had to know one thing. He’d never viewed her as deliberately hurtful and couldn’t figure out what he’d done that would be so wrong as to invite the sort of emotional stabbing she’d delivered. “Was that the plan? To make me think you wanted Marcel instead of me?”

“No, Connor. I swear. Never that.” Her hands traveled over his face and shoulders. “I didn’t set out to hurt you.”

Relief crashed into him. Intentionally causing pain was not her style. It wasn’t who she was or how she operated. He’d hoped and justified her actions on that score. Knowing he got that part right meant something. “Good.”

“Please believe me when I say I know I made a mistake.” Her hands soothed as they went. “I wasn’t thinking and miscalculated, and by the time we fought about Marcel on the phone a few weeks ago I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

That was the one thing she kept getting wrong. Very wrong. “You could have come home and worked it out with me.”

“Would you have listened?” Before he could respond, she exhaled, giving him the full female treatment from head tilt to sad smile. “See, I think you would have told me what I wanted to hear to lure me back, but then life would have settled back into the same pattern.”

The assessment struck a bit too deep. Getting her back made him ruthless. He would have tried any tactic. But the idea that he would have relaxed once she was back home was just plain wrong. Having lost her, he’d do anything not to go down that road again.

Now he had to make her understand that. “You don’t have much faith in my ability to change.”

“It’s not just you. It’s us.” Her hand slipped up to his cheek. “I am as much to blame as you are. We gloss over problems and they fester. You ignore them and I explode. It’s a back-and-forth we need to break.”

This counted as the first time she talked in terms of
them
messing up instead of just him. He tucked that away to examine later. “So, where does that leave us?”

“I would never cheat, and I think you know that.” Her hands dropped away and the distance between them widened even though she didn’t physically move back. “My feelings for Marcel are really platonic. There’s no spark and absolutely no interest on my part.”

She’d said things like that before but the way she said it now—so dismissive of there ever being anything else— had some of Connor’s anxiety washing away. “I think we should tell Marcel that. Just make sure I’m there to hear it.”

“There is only one man I love. You drive me nuts but there is just you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and tugged his head down for a kiss.

Not sweet or soft. This was a clothes-stripping, head-spinning kiss. It sucked him under and had him reeling. When she pulled back, he wanted to keep going. He thought about trying to convince her to forget the snakes and the danger and let him touch her.

But he wasn’t that guy and she deserved a better reconciliation. “Wait until we get to that bed.”

Chapter Ten

Connor’s sensual promise still rang in her ears hours later. They’d rested most of the day. Well, she did. He guarded. Paced around and turned at every sound. When she closed her eyes she thought about snakes, so she dozed on and off, jerking awake from time to time, listening for a rattle or whatever the nightsnake did before it attacked.

Now they stood behind trees, hiding as they watched the front of Marcel’s house. The sun had started to fade and a single light on the porch highlighted the red door and cast the rest of the place in shadows. They blended into the landscape. She could make out other buildings and see most of the yard thanks to a bright light on the side of the makeshift bunkhouse.

Connor had told her about the sensor lights and how to dodge them. She didn’t really get the plan. Up until ten minutes ago she thought she knew it. Meet up with Holt, Shane and Cam, regroup and try to find some answers. All while avoiding guns and explosions.

Still they stood there. Watching.

She glanced over at Connor. Leaning into a trunk, he held his large body still and focused on a spot in the middle of the yard. Whatever he saw had him frowning.

Impatience walloped her. “I give up.”

He didn’t break his eye contact with the unseen issue only he saw. “What?”

“What are we doing?” She whispered because he did, but she was just about done with ducking and mumbling.

She wanted her life back. All of it. Annapolis, her house, Connor...safety. Problem was she didn’t see a clear road that led from where she was now to all she hoped to gain.

“We’re waiting,” he said.

The man sure did have a grasp of the obvious. “Apparently.”

He looked at her then. “I need to know it’s safe before I take you up there.”

“We heard from Holt a half hour ago and he gave you the all clear.” She pressed both hands against the tree and felt the rough edges dig into her palms.

“I know.”

“Well, that clears up your plan.”

Connor exhaled and looked inches away from a frustrated-male eye roll. “Jana—”

She rushed to shut that down. “Don’t even think about it.”

He frowned. “What?”

“The lecture or whatever it is you want to say.” She held up a palm. “Save it.”

“Fine.” He took her hand and spun her around. Shifting positions, he now stood behind her. One arm rested on her shoulder. With the other, he pointed. “See the brown tarp about a hundred yards off to the right of the house? It keeps moving. It’s very slight, but it shakes.”

She squinted, even closed one eye, but she didn’t see it. Good thing she trusted him to notice things like that. “Maybe the wind?”

“There isn’t any.”

She glanced over her shoulder. It was only then she realized they were on top of each other. His heart thumped against her back and his strong arms wrapped around her.

“What are you thinking?” She knew what she was thinking and it didn’t have much to do with a tarp.

“Trap.” He pressed a palm against the tree in front of her face. “Normally I’d head over and check it out, but I’m not leaving you alone.”

She turned until she faced him, rested in his arms with him all around her. “You just rush in when you think there’s a trap?”

“I’m in charge. It’s my job.”

The response wasn’t a surprise. The man she knew wouldn’t sacrifice someone else. He wasn’t the kind of boss who sat in a room and issued orders from a safe distance. He was a boots-on-the-ground type of guy.

But she needed him alive because the thought of any other option washed the life right out of her. “Add that to the list of things we’re talking about when we sit down for our relationship chat.”

He frowned. “Danger on the job can’t be a surprise.”

“It’s the way you welcome it that scares me.”

“I don’t—”

A male chuckle broke Connor’s concentration. Davis’s voice came through the earpiece a second later. “Wanted to break in and welcome you back to the comm. Also remind you now that we’re back up and running we’re all listening in, but feel free to be embarrassing.”

“Thanks.”

Jana shook her head. “Why are you thanking me?”

Connor remembered she couldn’t hear the conversation. With his team and their somewhat loose sense of boundaries, that might turn out to be a good thing. “I’m not.”

“You just said—”

“It’s nothing.”

“Okay.”

Holt groaned over the line. “Or you could just tell her the truth. That we’re right here, except in body.”

Despite the rapt audience, Connor wanted to make one thing clear. He spent years working undercover for his country. Back then he followed the rules and didn’t question authority. In operation after operation he experienced unrelenting violence. Engaged in it and witnessed it until he thought he’d never get clean.

The case files flipped through his brain. All that paperwork for jobs no one was supposed to know about.

When he was told to ignore atrocities in the name of collecting data and growing intel, he balked. By the tenth time, he grew disillusioned. And years ago when he saw a man put a gun to Jana’s head as he made her plead for her life, Connor realized the urge to kill had become ingrained in him.

Back then he hadn’t wanted justice for her, he wanted revenge. At that time he only knew her name because the file listed it but the urge to fight for her already slammed into him pretty hard.

Throughout his time with her, first the hours then the weeks and eventually the months, he changed. Watching the way she cared about people and fought to move vaccines to the populations that desperately needed them, reordered his priorities. She could hold a conversation with the person behind her in line at the grocery store. Her life didn’t depend on her hiding in the shadows. That freedom intrigued him and he sought it out.

He’d made a conscious decision to get out of the work that stole his humanity and never regretted it. Detaching was not easy. He went through days of training and psychological testing to make sure he wasn’t a threat to the agency he’d always served. They’d gone round and round until he promised to provide assistance from his new life in security.

The first few assignments for the new firm revolved around agency cases. It wasn’t until his fourth kidnap rescue with Corcoran that his superiors finally and officially let him go.

So, no, he didn’t seek out danger. He walked away from a life mired in it. “I don’t.”

“What?” she asked.

“Like danger.”

She actually smiled. “Come on. You thrive on it.”

“I do what I do to stop it.”

Her face fell. “Do you really believe that?”

He didn’t get her reaction but that didn’t change his response. “I have to.”

“We have company.” Holt spoke this time.

Connor knew then Holt had been staking out the yard, watching and assessing. “The tarp.”

She poked his chest. “Why do you keep saying random words?”

Connor tapped his ear. “We’re back up and ears are everywhere.”

“At least for a few minutes.” Holt continued the attacker report. “And we have two at the back of the house, coming around the porch.”

“So, we have three incoming total?” Connor expected more of an armed presence.

“You really must have ticked off the guy in charge because he sure is determined to get you,” Holt said.

“I have that effect on people.”

Connor blinked and Jana’s face loomed in front of him. “Stop talking to them and talk to me. What are we going to do?”

“Smoke the bad guys out.”

But that plan fizzled when Connor saw the men sliding along the side of the house. He whispered the word sure to get everyone inside moving. “Dark.”

Shifting her behind him, Connor moved back and farther away from the light. She grabbed fists full of his shirt and he knew she sensed the danger. He didn’t have to yell a warning or give directions. She still had her gun but this time he didn’t want her to use it.

If there was shooting to do, he’d do it. The stain of every person he’d ever killed stayed with him, but he’d learned to live with it. He didn’t want her to carry that burden.

The tarp fluttered and when Connor looked back at the house the two men had made it to the front porch. He wanted to take a photo for Joel and Davis to work from, but there was no way Connor would lower his weapon or be that vulnerable just to get an ID.

One of the guys lined up with the front window. He shifted and peeked inside. Whatever he saw had him scooting back and out of the line of sight from inside. The second one ducked and ran under the window until they took up space on each side of the glass.

Connor called on his training, trying to make out their faces, but they turned away. They stayed focused on the inside of the house. Other than their builds and hair color, he couldn’t give much of a description.

“Stay here.” He gave the order but didn’t move until Jana nodded.

Even then he didn’t go far. He switched trees, trying to get a better angle. He flattened his back against the bark and glanced over at her. She had her body pressed up against the tree. Slim and still. No one would notice her unless they already knew she stood there.

If either one of these guys fired inside, any one of his men could be hit. If the team fired, a stray bullet could hit Jana. Connor couldn’t risk that.

Marcel, the team... They all needed to get out without bloodshed. Making that happen was the issue. Being out front made hiding his approach tough. But that’s exactly what he had to do.

With one last warning look in Jana’s direction, Connor took off. He ignored the swift shake of her head and the fear in those eyes. Holt would have everyone inside away from the windows, but depending on how natural he wanted them to look, people could be in that front room.

Just then Holt’s voice whispered over the line in a sound so low Connor almost thought he imagined it. “In three.”

“Jana is in the line of fire.”

After a brief hesitation Davis came on the line. “No fire.”

“Understood.” Holt’s flat voice didn’t question. “Three...”

The countdown filled Connor’s head. Looked like they weren’t waiting and these intruders didn’t plan to move without a fight. Connor was happy to oblige. He dropped low to the ground, trying to figure out if that angle would hide him. Without the rocks and scraping of his shoes, maybe it would work. But he needed leverage and silence.

“Two...” Holt continued the counting. “One...”

Connor sprang up on
go
and his shuffling had the men outside at the front door turning in his direction. For a second, he got a solid look. Tall, deadly and that’s all that registered.

The front door slammed open and the shouting started. Footsteps thudded on the wooden porch as the attackers scrambled.

Holt called out directions and someone streaked across the grass. A single gunshot from the lawn started an explosion of firepower. The rat-a-tat-tat filled the air and noises pinged all around him. Glass shattered and rocks kicked up as the team dropped out of sight. The display worked as cover and let the attackers move out as fast as they came in.

All shots came from outside. Holt clearly kept the team from firing near Jana. Connor appreciated the protection but hated not being able to just knock the attackers out.

By the time he hit the side of the porch, Connor saw that the men had disappeared. Literally. With his speed and skills, the attackers still got away, likely believing the offensive strike they launched had worked.

Connor visually searched the area and didn’t see any sign of the attackers. Darkness or not, he couldn’t spot shadows or movement. It was as if they vanished into nearby stones, which made no sense at all.

He kept one eye on his men and the other on Jana where she’d squatted down and huddled by the tree. If the attackers had known she sat there, she’d likely be gone. He called out to her to come to him. After a second or two of hesitation she jumped up and raced until she landed at his side.

He wrapped an arm around her while he held his gun with the other. “You okay?”

“You should stop asking that until we’re safe.”

Holt chuckled from his position in the middle of the front doorway. “We all good?”

Jana tugged on Connor’s shirt. “You guys didn’t shoot.”

He didn’t want to go into tactics and strategies now. The inability to grab at least one of the attackers had fury burning in his gut. “The area was too uncontrolled.”

“You mean you thought I’d get hit in the crossfire.”

Holt answered. “Yes, Jana, and we’d play it the same way again.”

“And I’m sure we’ll have another chance to make an offensive strike.” Coming to this house, right to the porch, meant the attackers either believed in their invincibility or were operating in panic mode. Connor didn’t like either possibility but at least he knew how to plan for each.

“I don’t understand.” Marcel appeared over Holt’s shoulder. “What was that?”

“Pure defense, which is not our favorite thing so now is not the time to be annoying.” Shane dragged the older man outside to the porch.

Holt pulled Marcel the rest of the way outside. “Speaking of which, any reason you put on your shoes and kept staring at the windows during the last hour?”

“What are you talking about?” Marcel broke from both men’s holds the minute his gaze locked on Jana. “You’re here. I’m so relieved.”

Before Connor could stop it or Jana could say hello, Marcel grabbed her in a crushing bear hug. If that went on more than two seconds, Connor would have to put his gun down to keep from using it.

Jana made the decision for him when she broke away. She didn’t just step back. Her voice turned chilly and she folded her arms in front of her.

That didn’t stop Marcel from putting a hand on each of her shoulders. “You’re okay.”

“She is for now.”
And no thanks to this guy.
As far as Connor was concerned, Marcel opened the door to danger and touching his wife just invited more.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Marcel asked.

The backbone was new. Connor remembered Marcel as being quiet and charming to the point where Connor wanted to pound him. Here he showed more emotion. Maybe he’d finally stopped pretending his feelings for Jana centered only on friendship. If so, his timing was worse than hers.