Army of Two, page 14
“Did I hear you right, Knox? You’re changing the timetable?”
That voice had come from behind him instead of from the walkie-talkie. Lewis lowered it to his side as he turned. One of the men he’d left on guard duty stood at the door to the deck. He’d brought the hostage who’d served as their inside contact with him.
Lewis scowled. “What are you doing out here?”
Jim Whitby pulled the bathrobe his boss had loaned him more tightly around his skinny frame and walked forward. “The others wanted someone to talk to you about their living conditions,” he said. “I volunteered.”
In Lewis’s opinion, the hostages had nothing to complain about. They had been fed each day. They were escorted to the bathroom at regular intervals. He’d restrained his men from getting too rough. “What’s the problem?”
“The women wanted some privacy. Taddeo’s making them uncomfortable.”
“Tell them the next one who complains gets some privacy with Taddeo. Don’t bother me with these details. We’ll be moving out as soon as we confirm the ship is loaded.”
“I thought you needed to wait until it was in international waters.”
Why was everyone questioning him? He fingered his gun. “I trust you don’t object, Whitby?”
The breeze from the lake strengthened. Whitby took a deep breath of the fresh air. “Not a chance. The sooner we finish this, the better. I haven’t had a shower in three days.”
“You’re the one who wanted to keep up the farce.”
“You have your exit strategy, I have mine. The money won’t do me any good if I’m sitting in jail, but no one’s going to suspect an innocent victim.”
Lewis didn’t respond. He couldn’t respect someone whose betrayal could be so readily bought. True, Whitby had provided essential information, but if he could sell out the company he’d worked for, he could just as easily sell out Lewis and his crew. All the hostages would be sharing the same fate tonight, regardless of what this turncoat believed. He stepped forward and delivered a backhanded slap.
Whitby staggered sideways. “What was that for?”
“Your friends can see us. You want to keep up appearances, don’t you?”
“You could have used some other way. You didn’t have to get rough again.”
“Consider it more exit strategy. Don’t try to talk to me until I send for you.” Lewis motioned to the guard. “Take him back inside.”
Mitch took down the rope that he’d used for a clothesline, coiled it neatly and hooked it on the back of a chair. He paused beside the table. “That’s looking good.”
Chantal straightened, rolling her shoulders to ease their stiffness. For the past hour, she’d been doing her best to draw a schematic of the main lodge, but she was no architect. The piece of charcoal she’d been using was no drafting pencil, either. Nor was the wooden tabletop the best surface for showing detail. “This won’t be enough. You need me, Mitch.”
“I need your knowledge of the layout.”
“The Aerie is more than just a floor plan. I know it inside and out.”
“Which is why I want you to teach me what you know.”
She dropped the charcoal and wiped her fingers on her jeans. Mitch planned to move in on the Aerie at dark. He’d said he had no other choice. Even though someone was bound to investigate the disappearance of Sharon’s plane, there was no guarantee they would get here in time. If they did come, Knox might deal with them the same way.
The day had seemed endless as she and Mitch had made their preparations. Now that dusk was approaching, the time was slipping by too fast. “I thought we were a team,” she said.
“We are.”
“And we’re supposed to be focusing on the mission.”
“That’s what we’re doing.”
“So tell me, Major Redinger, if you were on any other mission, and you had a member of your team who was intimately familiar with the place you were about to—” she swallowed before she could continue “—to infiltrate, would you be leaving them behind?”
He leaned heavily on his cane as he walked to the bedroom. With the knife he’d been using to fix their meals, he cut a strip from the quilt. He wrapped it around the blade and slipped the knife and its improvised scabbard into the pocket on the outside of his right pant leg. “That depends,” he said as he returned.
“On what?”
“If I deemed them unfit for duty, I wouldn’t allow them to participate.”
“Unfit?” She pointed at his ankle. “I’m fitter than you are. You hurt yourself again when you ran to the lake this morning. You’re hobbling worse than ever.”
“I’ve had worse. It’ll pass. You, on the other hand, are not going to become a trained soldier by nightfall.” He braced his knuckles on the edge of the table and leaned over to study her sketch more thoroughly. “Where are the air vents?”
“What?”
“For the heating system.”
“There aren’t any. We have radiant heating in the floors from an outdoor furnace. That’s sufficient for cool nights. The fireplaces are vented straight to the outside. Those are only a few of dozens of details I know that you don’t.”
“I’ll be fine. This is what I do for a living. I’ll be able to concentrate better if I don’t have to worry about your safety.”
“My safety?” She picked up the walkie-talkie they’d been monitoring and set it down hard in the cold wood stove. “I’m not the one you should be worrying about. You heard what Knox said. His timetable’s accelerated. They’re leaving tonight. In case you’ve forgotten, that means they plan to kill their hostages. Thirteen innocent people, including a twelve-year-old boy, have only hours to live if we don’t succeed. Not to mention the thousands of people who could be killed by the missiles Knox is stealing. We’re their only chance. You couldn’t honestly believe that I would be content to stay behind, do you?”
“Chantal…”
“Because if you do, then you truly don’t know me at all.”
“You told me you don’t like to rely on anyone else, or to wait for someone to rescue you, but this is no time to let your pride overrule your common sense. Be logical.”
“I could say the same to you. You’re being too stubborn to admit you need my help. That’s not logical, either.”
He regarded the tabletop. He appeared to be memorizing the drawing.
She grasped his elbow. “You’ve said that I’m brave. You even went so far as to say I would have made a good officer. Was that only talk? Didn’t you mean it?”
He straightened and turned to face her. For a while, he regarded her as intently as he’d studied her sketch. “I meant it, Chantal. I respect you immensely.”
“Then it makes no sense to leave me behind.”
“If you’d been anyone else, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I would be doing everything in my power to persuade you to come along.”
“Is this because I’m a woman?”
“No. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve knowingly exposed a woman to danger. I’ve done it in the past. I’ve earned a reputation for doing whatever it takes in order to achieve the mission objectives.”
“So far, you’re only proving my point.”
A muscle twitched in his cheek. “I should be grateful for your willingness to help, but I don’t want to use you or to expose you to harm.”
“Mitch—”
“The truth is, my desire to keep you safe has nothing to do with the good of the mission. I’m letting my personal feelings for you overrule my logic. It’s as simple as that.”
His tone hadn’t changed. He sounded as matter-of-fact as when he’d spoken about the Aerie’s heating system. It took a moment for his words to sink in. “You admit you’re being unreasonable.”
“Yes.”
“And unprofessional.”
“Completely.”
“Well, you’d better get over it, because if you leave me behind I’ll follow you anyway.”
“Why?”
“I just told you. You need me.”
“Don’t you trust me? Don’t you believe you can depend on me?”
“Of course, I do. I’d trust you with my life, Mitch.”
“It’s your life I’m worried about.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the safest place for me is right beside you. What would happen if I stay here and the man who’s looking for Bamford finds this cabin? We’ve been walking around this area for days. The grass is beaten down. Anyone with any sense would be able to tell it’s no longer deserted.”
His gaze flicked to the window.
She pressed her advantage. “I wouldn’t be able to defend myself, either, since I’d be tied up.”
“I’d leave you a gun. You wouldn’t let him tie you up.”
“I didn’t mean him, I meant you, because tying me up is the only way you’re going to be able to leave me behind.”
“You’re really determined to do this?”
“As determined as you are, Mitch.”
“It’s going to be risky.”
“I’m fully aware of that. I just care about you too much to let you do this alone.”
He cupped her chin. “You care about me. What exactly does that mean?”
It was a dangerous question, one she didn’t want to think about, let alone answer. She turned back to the table and picked up the piece of charcoal. “At least you admitted we’re still a team.”
“I think we make an excellent team,” he said, moving behind her. “But let’s get back to the other thing you said. You were telling me how you feel.”
“It’s just an expression. I’m worried about what would happen to you, okay?”
“I wouldn’t say that I care about you.”
“You wouldn’t?”
He put his hands on the table on both sides of her hips to cage her between his arms. “That word’s not strong enough for what I feel.”
She dropped the charcoal again and rubbed her arms. “What you feel is from stress. Hormones.”
“For sure, there’s chemistry involved.”
“We’ve bonded because of the circumstances. It’s temporary.”
“I know that’s what we said earlier, but it doesn’t hold up anymore, Chantal. I think we’ve both been in denial over what’s happening here. It’s not going to go away just because it’s not convenient.”
“Mitch, please. We already discussed this. More than once. Let’s leave it alone.”
He curled his body over hers to rest his chin on her shoulder. “Do you want to know something strange?”
“You mean besides the two of us having this discussion when we really should be planning how to stop a murdering monster?”
“Yes, besides that.” He nosed her hair aside and kissed her ear. “Remember the last time we saw each other? Before now, that is.”
Of all the ridiculous questions. Remember it? She closed her eyes and looked at the image of the twenty-eight-year-old Captain Redinger that had been burned into her brain. His Patriots sweatshirt had been newer and cleaner than the one he wore now. The shoulders had been spattered with raindrops. His wet hair had shone from the lamp on the foyer table as he’d leaned over to pick up the blanket that she’d dropped. “Vaguely.”
“I almost hadn’t come over.”
“Then why did you?”
“Because ten seconds before you phoned me, I could have sworn I heard your voice calling to me.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“I didn’t, either. I figured you must have been on my mind because of your mother’s funeral. Or because I’d been expending a lot of energy trying to avoid you.”
She dipped her shoulder to dislodge his chin and pushed against one of his arms. “You don’t need to go into that again.”
He folded his arms in front of her waist to hold her in place. “Let me finish. The strange part is that I thought it was possible the two of us had some sort of connection. I’d tried to regard you as a kid sister for a while. That could have been why.”
No. Oh, please, she didn’t want to hear this. He’d thought they’d had a connection? That had been part of her fantasy, the make-believe world where Mitch had loved her.
“There’s unquestionably something between us now,” he said. “You said it’s due to the circumstances.”
“Because it’s the truth.”
“Possibly, but it doesn’t explain why I feel so strongly about protecting you, or why having my arms around you seems like such a natural thing to do.”
Chantal covered her face with her hands. Her inner teenager wasn’t celebrating this time. She was laughing. Mocking her. Thumbing her nose at the attempts she’d made to stifle her. “If it feels natural, it’s because sex is a natural function. It’s nothing special.”
He tightened his embrace. The muscles in his forearms flexed, lifting her breasts. “This feels special to me.”
“You’re deliberately trying to distract me. You want me to stop worrying about the plan to go after Knox.”
He turned her to face him, took her hands in his and pressed them to his lips. “Since I can’t persuade you to stay behind, I’m going to be honest with you, Chantal. The odds of success aren’t good. Even with your help, we’ll still be vastly outgunned and outnumbered.”
For an instant, she wished that he could have lied. Why couldn’t he have called the situation a minor setback again, or assured her in that confident voice he’d used so often before that they’d find a way?
Yet that wouldn’t be Mitch. He might sugarcoat the truth to comfort her, but he was too honorable to mislead her with false hope. “We still have to try. Neither of us could live with ourselves if we didn’t.”
“I swear, I’ll do everything I can to keep you from getting hurt.”
She nodded. “I know you will.”
“Good, because I don’t want to talk anymore. I can think of a far better use for my mouth.”
There was absolutely nothing she could think of to say to that. She lifted her face. He lowered his.
The kiss tore through her nerves, kicking her pulse into a run. This was what she’d been waiting for all day. In spite of what she’d attempted to tell herself, from the moment she’d awakened she’d been longing to recapture the mindless pleasure of the night before. The difference was, this pleasure was bittersweet.
One way or another, her time together with Mitch would end tonight. No matter how thoroughly they tried to prepare for this attempt against Knox and his gang of killers, the chances of pulling it off were dismal. If by some miracle they did succeed, then everyone would be safe and life would go back to normal. That meant she would stay at the Aerie and he would return to his life at Fort Bragg.
If they didn’t succeed, they could die. They both knew it. It was the reason they were so edgy. It was why they’d been arguing, and why this kiss was making her head spin.
She slid her arms around Mitch, holding on as hard as she could. In her kiss, she could express the feelings that she hadn’t dared to put into words. The emotions she’d locked away in her heart so many years ago could never compare to the love she felt for him now.
Panic curled through her stomach. No. She couldn’t be in love. She knew better than that.
The two of us had some sort of connection.
No! She grabbed his hair and yanked his head up before the old fantasies could get started again. “This is sex, Mitch,” she said. “That’s what we’re feeling.”
He turned his head to rub his teeth along her wrist.
“Don’t try to make out there’s anything more to it,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Because that’s all I’m willing to give you.”
His gaze bored into hers. “Are you sure?”
She wasn’t sure about anything except the overwhelming need to touch him. She pushed up his sweatshirt and unbuckled his belt. “You said it yourself. A team never functions well if there’s tension between the members.”
He grabbed her hand as she started on his zipper. “I didn’t mean this kind of tension.”
“Why not? We’re both adults. We know where this leads. Sex is a great way to relieve stress.”
“You told me this morning you didn’t do one-night stands. Now you’re saying you’d make love with me for the sake of team morale?”
Moisture flooded her eyes. She blinked it away. “No, Mitch. I wouldn’t make love. Love has nothing to do with it. Why are you arguing?”
“I’m not.”
“Then do you want to have sex or not?”
He pressed her fingers to the front of his pants. “What do you think?”
Her breath caught as she traced the hard length that strained against the fabric. An answering heat curled between her legs.
This time he didn’t try to stop her when she lowered his zipper. He tilted his pelvis to make it easier. She shoved his pants past his hips, hooked her thumbs into the elastic of his boxers to pull them aside and took his erection into her hands.
He might have groaned. Or swore. Neither of them spoke again after that. She felt the touch of cool air, then the warmth of his fingers as he moved his hands beneath her sweater. Without letting him go, she leaned the top of her head on his chest. The pleasure he gave her blended with what she gave him. She watched him respond to every stroke of her palms and squeeze of her fingers, even the sweep of her hair as the ends brushed his skin. Her own arousal deepened with each increasing sign of his until the urge to do more became painful. She moved restlessly, her grip firming.
Mitch unzipped her jeans and pushed them to her thighs. She had time to kick free from only one leg before he grasped her by the hips and lifted her to the table. The friction of her sensitized skin against the wood made her gasp. She was ready, past ready. Without any more delay, he slid his hands beneath her buttocks and entered her.
It was primitive and powerful. It was what she’d offered him. Sex, that was all. There were no soft words or promises, no room for thoughts of the future, only a driving, pounding need. She hooked her legs behind his waist and lay back when he leaned over her, clasping his arms, hanging on as he finished what they’d started. She wanted to do this for him, to give him what he’d so generously given her the night before. She would find her own satisfaction in his.
