Dangerously Hot (A Hostile Operations Team Novel)(#4) (18 page)

“The hotel is being watched,” Knight Rider said. “Not that we didn’t expect that.”

“Two different groups, we think,” Iceman added. “Obviously, the Qu’rimi military is watching. As for the other group… could be the Freedom Force, or it could be the Opposition.”

“We need to assume those are one and the same at this point,” Kev added.

Matt nodded. “Agreed. We have no idea what information they’re sharing, but if Al Ahmad is behind the rebellion—and all the indicators say he is—he’s got his fingers in the hierarchy.”

“Do we have any idea how old his daughter is yet?” Lucky asked. She’d been quiet the entire meeting so far.
 

Matt looked over at her. “Unfortunately, no.”

“You guys aren’t making this easy.”

“They’re still sifting the data back home, but so far we’ve got nothing else,
chère
.”

Kev frowned at the way Matt hesitated for a moment before he went back to the briefing. It could just be that he felt badly about not being able to give Lucky more information, or it could be that he knew something he wasn’t sharing.

Whatever the case, Kev’s senses went on high alert. They talked for a few more minutes, everyone reporting in on his findings, and then they split into twos and threes, going back to their rooms so they could start fresh in the morning. The guys would take short shifts during the night to stay awake and monitor the channels and perimeter for any suspicious activity.

Kev, of course, didn’t have to participate in that. His sole duty was Lucky. But when he walked Matt to the door, he glanced over his shoulder at her. She was sitting on the bed, leaning back against a pillow she’d propped up, her eyes closed.

“What aren’t you saying, Richie?” he asked as they stepped into the hall.

Matt looked up and down the corridor before meeting his eyes again. “It’s nothing she needs to know, you understand?”

His heart thumped. “Yeah.”

“Her name is on the latest intercepts.” He shrugged. “He’s looking for her, but he doesn’t know she married Marco. They’re still looking for her maiden name.”

A cold chill snaked through him, turning his spine to ice. “Jesus.”

“The good thing is they’re looking Stateside.”

That
was
a good thing, but just knowing that Al Ahmad was actively searching for her now… it lit a hot fire deep in Kev’s belly that he couldn’t extinguish.

Matt put a hand on his shoulder. “Go back inside and keep her safe. That’s your job. We’ll be with you all the way, man.”

Kev went back into the room. Lucky looked up as he shut the door behind him and gave him a little smile. She looked tired. She couldn’t be called pale, not after several months in the Hawaiian sun, but she seemed more sallow than he’d yet seen her. For a minute, he wondered if she’d heard them talking. But that was impossible unless she had supersonic hearing.

She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, and he thought back to when she’d come out of the bathroom earlier, nothing but a towel wrapped around her body, her tanned legs smooth and lean beneath the white cotton. Her hair had been wet then and she’d pushed it back just like that.
 

His dick had gone from zero to sixty in about half a second when she’d leaned over her suitcase and the towel had ridden up her thighs. She’d dragged out some clothing before clutching it to her and retreating to the bathroom again. When she’d emerged, she’d been covered from neck to ankle in a long dress that skimmed her curves.

She was still wearing that dress, and the blue swirling pattern set off the golden undertones of her hair to perfection.

“You feeling all right?” he asked, shoving away thoughts of her in a towel before he embarrassed himself.

She wiped her hands along the tops of her thighs. “I’m fine. Just tired. And worried.”

He walked back to the desk and sat down. Then he rubbed a hand through his hair and yawned. “Yeah, I understand. It’s eleven at night here, and we’ve been awake for nearly twenty-four hours. Why don’t you get ready for bed? We need to start early in the morning.”

She looked around. “I haven’t wanted to address this before now, but where precisely am I supposed to sleep?”

“The bed?”

She arched an eyebrow. “And where are you sleeping? They only gave us one bed.”

Of course he had no intentions of sleeping with her, but to hear her state so baldly that she didn’t want him in the same bed—especially after that explosive couple of hours they’d shared in his townhouse a lifetime ago—rubbed him wrong. It wasn’t the first time she’d said it, considering she’d thanked him for the stress relief the morning after, but it bugged him more now than it had then.

Still, that wasn’t what they were here for. This wasn’t personal. It was a mission and it was critical. He tamped down on his anger and hurt—yeah, he could admit he was hurt—and gave her an even look.

“I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Her eyes widened. “It’s made of tile.”

“And I’ve slept on worse. Besides, I’m equipped for it.”

He stood and went to his duffel. When he pulled out a sleeping bag, her jaw dropped.

“You brought a sleeping bag?”

“And a first-aid kit, ammo, MREs, and a lot of other things you wouldn’t believe.” He dropped the bag on the floor near the door. “This is a mission, not a spa retreat. If I don’t get the soft bed or the hot-rock massage complete with New Age music and incense, I’ll live.”

Her expression tightened. “I’m fully aware this isn’t a spa retreat.”
 

She rubbed her hands along her arms and her eyebrows drew down as she studied a tile in the floor. Naturally, she made him feel like an asshole. Which he deserved for snapping at her.
 

“Poor choice of words. I just meant I’m prepared, same as always.” Some of it he’d brought in and some of it the CIA had made sure the team got once they arrived.
 

Kev unzipped his jeans and shoved them down his hips. Lucky was looking at him again but she averted her gaze when his tightie-whities came into view.

Just as well. If she watched him undress, he’d probably get hard. And then what?
 

He walked over and took a pillow from the bed, and then went back and climbed into the sleeping bag. Then he put an arm behind his head and lay there staring up at the plaster ceiling and the whirring fan.

He very much feared, as she stood and began to pull the covers down on the bed, that this mission would be the death of him. And not for the usual reasons.

***

An explosion jolted Lucky awake and she shot upright in bed, her heart pounding hard as she tried to process what she’d heard. Her gaze slid over to the window to find Kev standing there, his face lit with an orange-and-red glow. Outside, she could hear the blare of sirens and the shouts and screams of people.

It took her another moment to process that what she’d heard had been a bomb blast. A shudder of horror rolled through her. “What happened?” she asked, though she knew.

Kev looked her way. “I’m waiting to hear from Iceman or Hawk, but it was a bomb in the city center. There’s no doubt about that. But where and how and why—I’m guessing we don’t know that yet.”

“It’s the Freedom Force.”

He came over to the bed and sat down on the edge. “We don’t know for certain. But yeah, this is one of their tactics, and so far the Opposition hasn’t used bombings in the city. But with the pace of the unrest accelerating—it was only a matter of time.” He swore softly. “I’d hoped we’d be gone by the time it started.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d been in a city wracked by bomb blasts—she’d been active duty, and she’d spent time in the Middle East on interpreter duties during Operation Iraqi Freedom—but it certainly didn’t bring back any fond memories.

She brought her knees up and hugged them. “Do you think he knows we’re here?”

Kev shook his head. “Us specifically, no. But he knows there’s a price on his head. And he wants to finish this so he can bargain with the Chinese and drive the king’s government out.” He blew out a harsh breath. “And then there’s the possibility that the Opposition has the manpower to escalate things now and it has nothing to do with Al Ahmad. For all we know, he’s fled the region.”

She thought of that beautiful, evil voice and his latent narcissism and knew it wasn’t true. If he’d returned from the dead and sown the seeds of unrest, he’d want to stay around and see it come to fruition.

“He’s here. He’s too arrogant to flee when his plans are working. Besides, he escaped death once before, so he’ll feel invincible. The CIA thought they had him, didn’t they? Claimed their sniper put a bullet in his brain and they watched him go down? Well, they obviously didn’t. And Al Ahmad is the kind of man who would stroll through the center of a battalion dressed as a poor beggar just to laugh and say he’d fooled us all.” She shook her head. “He’s here. And he’ll stay unless he feels threatened.”

Kev was looking at her with his head cocked to the side. She never found out what he might have said because there was a knock at the door. He got up. After a whispered exchange through the crack in the door, he opened it the rest of the way and Iceman walked in. Hawk was with him. They were both winded.

No one turned on a light. She thought she should find that odd, but considering this group, perhaps not.

“Bomb in a market stall about a mile away,” Iceman said. “One person killed. No one has claimed responsibility yet, but it seems to have been a warning.”

“The government’s had a military checkpoint near that market for weeks now. We can be thankful it didn’t go off tomorrow morning during rush hour,” Hawk added. He tapped Iceman on the arm. “Let’s roll, dude. Knight Rider needs us out there.”

“Thanks for letting us know,” Kev said as he let them out again.
 

“We’ll have your back tomorrow,” Hawk said, and then the door closed and they were alone.

Lucky’s heart was beating hard and fast when Kev came back over to the bed. This was getting real, fast. And it was just a small bomb a mile away. What happened next? She ran her hands over her arms as dread tap-danced down her spine.

“Are you scared?”

She met Kev’s gaze. “I’m not thrilled, but I’m not scared.”
Yet.
She fisted her hands in the covers. “We came here to do a job. We’re going to do it.”

His teeth flashed in the darkness. “That’s what I like to hear. Now, you want me to slide in next to you and hold you tight or can you manage to go back to sleep on your own?”

She wanted him to slide in next to her, but not to sleep. The visceral tug in her belly—and lower—had nothing to do with sleep. Lucky bit her lip to keep any sound from escaping. He was teasing her again, trying to make her laugh, but she wished he was serious. Still, she couldn’t show him how pitifully needy she was where he was concerned. She simply couldn’t handle the rejection right now.

“Go away, Kev,” she said tightly.
 

He laughed softly, like it was nothing but a joke. She heard him get into his sleeping bag, and her heart throbbed with regret and frustration. She turned on her side and punched her pillow viciously.
 

It would be a long time before she fell asleep.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The city seemed subdued the next morning when Lucky finally dragged herself from bed. Her eyes felt like they had sand in them, and her reflection in the mirror made her groan. The bags under her eyes could qualify as extra luggage today.
 

Instead of going out early, they had to wait because of reports that traffic was still snarled at the bomb site, which was on the way to the embassy. And since the embassy was currently in lockdown, very little traffic was getting in or out. They might have a mission, and that mission might require the embassy’s assistance, but no one was getting in there this morning.

Lucky had a cup of strong, sweet Arab coffee that Kev brought back to the room, and then she showered and dressed in a cotton halter dress before slipping on the abaya and fixing the hijab over her hair. When she was satisfied that only her face and hands showed, she walked out of the bathroom.

Kev gave her a once-over. He was sinfully handsome in khakis and a white button-down with loafers. She knew he was packing a weapon—possibly two or three—on that gorgeous frame of his.

“Isn’t that going to be hot?” he said.

She looked down at the tan garment. “Not too bad, really. And it’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

“It makes you feel safer.”

She lowered her gaze as her pulse thumped. He knew her better than she would like sometimes. “I think that’s probably obvious.”

“I understand why.”

She shrugged. “It’s silly in a way. I doubt he’s out there on the street searching for me.”
 

Kev seemed to stiffen for a second, but then he went over to his gear and opened a flap on the backpack where he’d stowed his camera equipment. “No, he’s too busy for that.”
 

Lucky wished she could say that Al Ahmad had probably forgotten her, but she knew that wasn’t true. But he had bigger fish to fry right now, so he probably wasn’t thinking about the only person to ever escape him. Much.