Waiting... On You (Force Recon Marines) (35 page)

Nick nuzzled his way inside the loose
hood of her jacket and pressed little kisses along her wet cheek. “You’re
right. We haven’t.” With the rough pad of his thumb, he rubbed her lower lip.
His slate gray eyes were locked ruefully on her upturned face. “I’m afraid I
can’t enjoy the pleasure tonight, though, Doctor. I need to do some
reconnaissance.” The way he wiggled his eyebrows at her made her laugh. “I will
need to get some sleep tomorrow, though, before we all go in. You can join your
sleeping bag to mine then.”

Her laughter faded, and she lifted her
gloved hand to his cheek. “Be careful tonight, Nick.”

His hand rose to cover hers. “For you,
always.” Sliding his arm around her hips, he hoisted her up onto his thigh. His
rain wet lips met hers in a long drugging kiss that sent his tongue deep into
her mouth.

Shifting onto his lap, Hanna returned
his ardor in full measure. A little moan of desire passed from her to him, and
he swallowed it ravenously.

“Uhhh.... Excuse me, folks.” Kurt
cleared his voice behind them. “We gonna set up camp sometime today?”

Nick started to set her on her feet,
then changed his mind and gave her one more, way-too-short, but very
tantalizing kiss before shaking his head regretfully. “There just never seems
to be enough time for this, it seems,” he said in a low, husky voice. Then
clearing it, he set her down and looked over at his friend. “Let’s find
someplace sheltered and dry for the night.”

By dinnertime, they had set up their
overnight campsite inside a low domed cave that was carved deep into the hill.
The region around Quatsino Sound was dotted with caves. Most of them were
underground, as was this one if they chose to venture farther into it.

Hanna was thrilled to be out of the
rain and wind, but she had no intention of exploring the cave as Nick and Kurt
did initially. She had never liked caving. It gave her feelings of
claustrophobia. Aware of her dislike of underground places, Nick had Kurt help
him park all three ATV’s deeper inside the cave.

In order not to attract unwanted
attention, they used a small single propane burner to make coffee. Dinner was
simple and needed little prep. From one of their backpacks, Nick chose three
slender tube packages of chicken stew. Kurt called them MREs.

“What’s that stand for?” Hanna asked,
tearing hers open with her teeth.

“Meals Ready to Eat,” Nick answered her.

“Or Meals Rejected by Everyone,” Kurt
added with a laugh.

Hanna squeezed hers out into a metal
bowl and took an experimental bite of the military field meal. “It’s not bad.”

“Some aren’t,” Kurt relented.

“Unless you’ve been eating them for
twenty years,” Nick complained as he took his and sat down next to Hanna on the
sandy soil of the cave floor.

Kurt dropped down across from them and
tossed his buddy a look of rebuke. “If you’re crazy enough to spend most of
your twenty years in the field, you deserve an MRE every night.”

Nick didn’t respond, but Hanna thought
Kurt may have hit a nerve because he didn’t look too pleased by his friend’s
observation.

Hanna leaned back against the wall of
the cave and wished they could have had a fire to dry her clammy damp jeans.

As soon as it was dark enough, Nick
packed his surveillance toys into his backpack and left for Chen’s compound.
According to him, it was less than a mile away. After giving Hanna a brief
kiss, he faded into the fog. Kurt stayed with her and took first watch. A
couple of hours past midnight, after sleeping restlessly, Hanna relieved the
FBI agent for watch.

Within fifteen minutes, he was sound
asleep, snoring. Hanna sat just inside the entrance to the cave, her legs
tucked under her chin, hugging her waterproof jacket around her damp jeans,
staring out into the near absolute darkness. If there was a moon, it wasn’t
visible. Fog shrouded the damp ground and rose into the trees. It wafted in
thick puffs across the mouth of the cave. Just as she had predicted, it was as
thick as pea soup. A wolf howled in the distance. A few moments later, another
answered its lonely call.

In this remote wilderness of temperate
rainforest, coastal mountains, and deep cold water, bears, wolves, and cougars
claimed territory man only visited. Hanna shivered, from the cold as much as
the isolation of the night. She wondered how Nick could even see, let alone
find his way in the fog and darkness.

She fretted for a moment about him
getting lost, but quickly realized how ridiculous that was. Kurt had told her
that most missions involving stealth and reconnaissance were done at night. All
Spec Ops men did their best work at night, in the dark. Nick had twenty years
of experience and training at being a ghost. He’d welcome the blanket of thick eerie
fog.

Before crawling into his sleeping bag,
Kurt had also told her that Nick always did his own on-site intel, usually
solo. And, any intelligence he received second hand, he always verified
whenever he could. It was what made him a commander men wanted to serve under.
He didn’t leave decisions about other people’s lives up to anyone but himself.

Loyalty. That’s what Hanna had heard
in Kurt’s voice. Loyalty and respect. It had only confirmed for her what an
extraordinary man Nick Kelly was. As she sat in the dark, she wondered yet
again what was going to happen between them after they found Lance. Nick had
been on leave for over three weeks now. Surely, his CO would want to reactivate
him as soon as he heard Lance was home safe.

Where would he be sent this time?
There were so many places in the world that a military man could be sent to
these days— so many volatile, dangerous places for him to lose his life in.
Rather than getting more peaceful, the world was getting more violent and
dangerous.

Hanna wished with all her heart that
Nick would just retire. She thought something special had developed between
them these past few weeks. But he hadn’t brought up the future, other than to
mention several times that they needed to spend more time together. How could
they do that, if he didn’t retire and come back home to live?

And even though they had spent a lot
of time loving each other the past three weeks, he hadn’t said he loved her.
But then she hadn’t told she loved him, either. She knew why she hadn’t; she
was protecting her vulnerable heart. But would keeping the words to herself
really make the hurt less painful if he did leave her again? Not
if
,
when
,
she reminded herself sternly. And that would probably happen within a week, so
she had better start preparing for it now.

Tears slid coldly down her cheeks. Oh God,
how was she going to watch him leave this time, then return to life as it had
been before? She wasn’t sure she could handle this next separation. If they
weren’t going to have a future together, as more than just long-distance
friends and sometime lovers, she really needed to give him up once and for all.

Originally, when they’d first made
love again, on her boat in Seattle, she’d thought she could handle a long
distance, once-in-the-while love affair with him. Now, she knew that was
impossible. She loved him even more now than she had before. What she had
desired all her life had finally happened, and it was too incredibly wonderful
to lose.

If he went back to California, then
overseas, and she didn’t see him again for another three years, she was going
to have a terrible time coping with it. She had always worried about him and
the dangerous life he led. But now? How could she bear wondering if he was dead
or alive between letters? It really was better to desire something you’d never
had, than to have something which you treasured and couldn’t keep.

CHAPTER
24

THE SUN WAS JUST BEGINNING to rise and
cast its diluted light into the cave when Kurt crawled out of his sleeping bag
and walked over to Hanna. She was sitting at the entrance, her knees drawn up
to her chest with the side of her head resting on them.

“You were supposed to wake me after a
couple of hours.”

“Hey, I’m a good sentry.” She smiled
tiredly at him. “I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d let you.”

Kurt nodded toward the edge of the
forest. “Here he comes, safe and sound, just like I told you he would.”

Hanna lifted her head and looked
through the slowly evaporating fog to see a tall figure coming toward them. Carrying
a small backpack over his broad shoulders, he was a truly welcome sight. With a
big smile directed his way, she rose stiffly to her feet.

“Shall I make coffee?”

“No.” Nick attempted a smile in
return, but exhaustion dulled it. Blowing out a breath through the side of his
mouth, he massaged the back of his neck. “I’m beat. I need a few hours of
sleep. Guess I’m getting too old for this all night stuff.”

Kurt caught his attention. “You might
want to take her with you. She’s been awake most of the night waiting for you.”

Nick hooked an arm around her waist
and kissed the side of her head. “Yeah, she does that when she’s worried about
me.”

“I’ll tell you, buddy, it’s damn nice
having somebody care enough to sit up worrying about you like that.” Kurt gave
his friend a meaningful look. “Makes you feel kinda special, you know.”

Nick grinned at Hanna. “Yeah, I’ve
recently discovered that.”

He guided her to a spot deeper inside
the cavern where their sleeping bags were unrolled on the ground. While Kurt
proceeded to fix himself coffee and breakfast, Nick and Hanna zipped their
sleeping bags together, then crawled inside. Nick used his rolled up jacket as
a pillow, but Hanna used the muscled curve of his armpit. He helped her get
comfortable and adjust her position. Finally, she turned toward him and settled
close against his side.

The clean, damp, masculine scent of
him mixed with the warmth of his body. His cheek rested atop her head, and she
felt her hair catch on the stubble of his unshaven jaw. He stroked her arm and
kissed her forehead, pushing aside wisps of her hair. Within moments, she heard
his deep resonant breathing and knew he had fallen asleep. Exhausted herself
after being up all night worrying about him, it wasn’t long before she joined
him.

Hanna awoke to the smell of something
being cooked over the single propane burner. Tipping her head back, she looked
to see if Nick was awake.

He smiled at her lazily. “Feel
better?”

“Yes. And you?”

“I’ve never slept so well on the hard
ground before. Can I sneak you into my sleeping bag on every mission?”

“Absolutely.”

He rolled onto his side and cupped the
back of her head to pull her mouth to his. His kiss was instantly deep and
hungry, with absolutely no trace of sleepy lethargy. He was completely alert
and focused on her. She gave herself completely to his kiss and barely stifled
a moan. It was awhile before he eased back from her kiss-swollen lips and
gently pushed his long fingers into her hair.

“We should get up. It smells like Kurt
is fixing something besides MREs.”

“Ummm.” Pushing herself up on one
elbow, she outlined the shape of his wide masculine mouth with the tip of her
finger. His lips were damp from hers. She couldn’t resist just one more taste.
Inside their double sleeping bag, her knee rose to rub against his groin. “Are
you sure?”

“No.” He growled low and deep against
her lips and rotated his hips against hers. “I’d rather stay right here, but we
better get up while I still can.”

Hanna touched his cheek and tenderly
caressed it. “Nick....” She wanted so very badly to tell him that she loved
him. They’d be rescuing Lance soon. Nick was going to be putting himself in
harm’s way. She wanted him to know how she felt about him, but she couldn’t
bring herself to say anything. She was still such a coward! What if he didn’t
love her the way she loved him? What if this was just all about sexual pleasure
for him? It would destroy her to open her heart and not have him return her
feelings.

He gave her a quizzical look, then sat
up and started to push out of the sleeping bags. She touched his forearm,
stopping him. “Nick— be careful tonight.”

He rose to his feet, then pulled her
to hers. Enfolding her in his arms, he hugged her tightly for a long moment.
“Don’t worry, honey. Everything will be fine. Promise.”

Dinner was a surprise. While Nick and
Hanna had been sleeping, Kurt had gone fishing in one of the numerous streams
that flowed from the interior’s higher elevations into Quatsino Sound. A fat
fully matured salmon was grilling in a fry pan coated with oil The delicious
aroma drew Nick and Hanna to the edge of the cave, where Kurt was scooping
dinner onto metal camp plates. Besides the salmon, they feasted on bowls of
rehydrated rice and vegetables from the MRE kits.

Once they had finished eating, over
second cups of strong black coffee, Nick filled Hanna and Kurt in on what he
had discovered on his night reconnaissance of Chen’s compound.

“I found a way in, but we may have to
find a way down to their dock and take one of their boats back to Stormy
Harbour. It was tricky enough just getting myself back through their security
fence. If Lance is in a weakened condition, it will be hard backtracking and
getting us all out the way we entered. We’re going in around 2400 hours
tonight, after the compound’s quieted down for the night,” he informed them.

“So I get to go with you and Kurt?”

Nick smiled ruefully. “It isn’t safe
to leave you here alone. The guards do leave the compound to do perimeter
searches. They might come this far. The only place it would be safe to leave
you would be in the lower cave.” He saw the look of panic that briefly widened
her green eyes and immediately relieved her of it. “Don’t worry. I’m not going
to do that. I know how you feel about being underground. We’ll leave the ATV’s
here, though. I can arrange for someone to pick them up and return them later.”

“So, I’m going to help you and Kurt get
Lance out?” Hanna checked again, wanting to clarify that Nick wasn’t going to
leave her somewhere else.

“Yes.” She could tell that he was not
wholly at ease with his decision. “But I’m keeping you out of any real
dangerous situations, so if I ask you to stay put somewhere, you need to do
what I ask. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” she assured him readily,
just happy not to be left behind.

“I hope I don’t regret this.”

Her smile was full of relief. She
hadn’t really expected Nick to let her go inside the compound. “Did you find
out where they’re holding Lance?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I did.”

“Did you have to search every building
to find him?” Kurt asked.

“Pretty much.” Nick swallowed the last
of his coffee. “I checked out the three barracks. It looks like there are about
two dozen workers and another two dozen guards that live in them. The Quonset
hut is the lab and warehouse. No one was in it last night. I got in and looked
around. Looks like a fully functioning refining operation. There were crates
full of those fishing rod cylinders, by the way. It appears a big shipment is
going out soon.”

Kurt nodded, rubbing his chin. “Seth
said he thought something big was going down. Everyone in Vancouver has been
getting their distributors ready for it.”

Nick grimaced. “Maybe we can stop it
before it hits the streets.” Holding out his tin cup, he accepted the coffee refill
Hanna offered him. “It was the middle of the night by the time I searched the
main house. Everyone had gone to bed, except for two guards that sat inside by
the front door and four that patrolled the perimeter of the house outside. I
heard one of the guards talking about Chen. He’s definitely in residence. After
that, I searched the guest houses. They were all empty, but one. The one
closest to the main house was heavily guarded. I didn’t go inside, but I got
close enough to use the directional mike. I heard someone, a guard probably,
talking to Lance.”

“Did you hear Lance say anything?”
Hanna asked, filling Kurt’s empty cup.

“No, just someone using his name,
talking to him.”

“And?”

Nick wasn’t about to tell her that he
had heard his brother getting the crap kicked out of him. It had been nearly
impossible to leave him to his treatment. But a plan was only as good as how
well you followed it. And he hadn’t made one just to abandon it in a moment of
personal fury. Payback would come soon enough.

“It wasn’t real clear what they were
saying to him,” he evaded. While he sipped his coffee, he outlined the
evening’s operation. “We’ll get set up while it’s still light, wait for dark,
then enter the same way I did last night. It’s a long trek across those
footbridges, from one end of the compound to the other, and we should probably
set charges so we can blow them if needed. Pack plenty of C4 and remote
detonators,” he told Kurt. “We’ll have to get out fast after we rescue Lance,
and it will probably help to have a few distractions.”

Hanna was listening intently, watching
Nick, as she sipped her coffee from her tin mug. “Did you find a way down the
cliff, to the dock and the speedboats?”

Nick laid out a drawing he had made of
the compound. He pointed to the edge of the bluff, above the dock that they had
seen from the air yesterday. “Yeah. The main house and the guesthouses are
connected to the docks via an underground tunnel. I explored some of it last
night. It runs to an elevator that goes down the cliff, to the dock. We’re
going to need chaff grenades to disable the security cameras that are mounted
in the hallway along the tunnel.”

“Got plenty of those,” Kurt assured
him. “Damn, you got a lot done last night, Colonel.”

Nick shrugged and shook his head
ruefully. “I might be getting too old for these all-nighters, though.”

Hanna was equally impressed with
Nick’s thoroughness. It didn’t sound like there was much he had overlooked.
What amazed her was that he’d done all that surveillance, alone, without being
spotted.

“How exactly are we getting in?” Kurt
checked.

“We can breach the fence without being
seen back her,” he said, pointing to a spot along the perimeter fence he’d
drawn, “behind the barracks. The security lights don’t reach that far out, and
we’ll have fifteen minutes to get in and get to cover between patrols. We’ll
have to jump over the fence, though, because it’s electrified. It’s also topped
with concertina wire. But I chose a spot that will be an easy jump.”

An easy jump? Over barbed wire and
electrified chain-link metal? Hanna felt a frisson of real fear slide down her
spine.

“Is that how you got in and out last
night?”

“It’s the way I got in, but I came
back out through their little airport. There was a breach in the fence in the
area. It looked like it had been damaged recently by some large animal trying
to get through the fence. They hadn’t put it back on line yet. I got lucky.
Tonight, though, it will be easier and faster to take the elevator to the docks.
It will probably be messy, though.” Nick leveled a determined look on his FBI
friend. “We’ll have to keep Lance and Hanna between us. Hope it hasn’t been too
long since your training on extracting civilians.”

Kurt laughed. “I still operate in the
field, and extracting civilians is too often part of it.”

PREPARATION OF THEIR GEAR, choosing
what they were going to take into the compound with them and what they were
going to leave behind was meticulous. The wind was blowing in another batch of
drizzle and bone-chilling fog that was already thickening. The moon was hidden
behind a veil of clouds and the temperature was rapidly dropping. Conditions
were nasty, but that would surely help their mission.

For the first time, Hanna felt what it
must be like to be a soldier going into battle; what Nick had felt all of his
adult life. Besides being dressed entirely in black, each of them also smeared
black and green paint all over their faces, although Nick assisted Hanna with
hers. Afterward, she wished she had a mirror to see herself. Nick assured her
that no skin showed to reflect any light as he tucked every strand of her
blonde hair under her dark stocking cap.

Having chosen to wear her contacts in,
she prayed that they’d remain securely set and not hinder her. Just in case,
she also packed a pair of her eyeglasses.

Before Nick moved on to his weapons
check, he tenderly traced the lines of her face with his fingertips. When they
reached her lips, he bent to give her a gentle reassuring kiss, no words
needed.

As she rechecked her knapsack, she
watched Nick and Kurt arm themselves.

Nick shoved his 9mm Glock into his
shoulder holster, then adjusted the sheath on his belt that held his Ka-Bar
knife. They were all wearing bulletproof Kevlar vest, at Nick’s insistence. Before
he zipped his dark quilted nylon flight jacket, he stuffed all his pockets with
ammunition and grenades. Finally, he put his arms through the shoulder straps
of his backpack, slung his semi-automatic assault rifle over his shoulder, and
picked up what Hanna assumed must be a sniper rifle that had a very high tech,
fancy scope on it.