Surrender to Temptation (Agent Lovers Series Book 1) (34 page)

Jennifer fired the grenade by pressing a button, and a long explosive flame shot backwards out of the tube. With a dangerous hiss, the grenade flew into the wooden hut, exploded, and levelled the crude building. Boards and splinters flew through the air and fell all around the camp.

“For that, you only get seven points. You didn’t even hit anyone,” Liz called out as she ran to Jennifer.

“Eight went in and only three came out again, so I must have gotten five. Not too bad.” Jennifer threw the now useless launching tube to the side and followed her friend to the motorcycles. They swung up on the machines and raced out of camp and into the undergrowth. When they heard the roar of the Jeeps behind them, they pulled up next to each other. Jennifer pulled a remote ignition unit out of the pocket of her vest and pressed the trigger. When they heard five explosions in rapid succession, they knew that they’d killed their pursuers. They started up again and steered the bikes over the hilly and impassable terrain. Branches whipped their arms and legs and tore at their clothes, but neither of them took any notice.

“Maintain this direction and you’ll come out of the undergrowth and onto an unpaved road. After about twenty miles, right on the border of Guatemala, you’ll find a small, temporary Army base, built to serve as a training camp for operations abroad. Gray will warn them that you’re coming,” Chris told them. “Not that they’d want to mess with you.”

“That wouldn’t be nice.” Jennifer laughed and passed Liz’s motorcycle. Once they reached the unpaved road Chris had described, a real race flared up between the two. The men shook their heads as they followed the race by satellite.

“Those two are good! Crazy, but really good!” Jeff scrunched his shoulders up around his head in anticipation of another blow. When it didn’t come, he relaxed again and looked at his brother. “Why do you look so happy?”

“I’ve got a little surprise in store for them.” Gray rubbed his hands together.

“What have you done?” Chris sounded annoyed.

“Just wait. The show isn’t over yet.” Gray stared, mesmerized, at the monitor.

Suddenly, Chris realized what his friend was talking about. The news of the women’s imminent arrival had to be passed on to Terence Garber, a Lieutenant Colonel who had served as an instructor for new army recruits for a while and who conducted training exercises abroad and had authority at those bases. Besides all that, Garber was a former TDA. Chris could imagine very well what was about happen. The three men stared at the monitor and watched what happened next.

***

“The temporary check point is just ahead.”

“I’m not blind, Jenny. Who do you think will get there first?”

“What do I get if I win?”

“What do you suggest?”

“If I win, you have to take my place when Chris blows up so I don’t have to listen to it.”

“And vice versa! If I win, you suffer Gray’s dressing down for me.”

“Deal!”

“You’re on. Deal!”

Pushing their machines to their limits, they hurtled at full speed toward the temporary barrier. Even when they saw that the barrier gate was merely creeping upward, they didn’t slow down. Neck and neck, they shot into the secure area, ducking slightly so they wouldn’t hit the barrier gate. A large, gray, cloud of dust swirled up around them as they braked.

“Looks like you’ll have to face Chris’s lecture, yourself,” Liz said as she climbed off the motorcycle.

“And you’ll have to let Gray set you straight.” Their race was a draw.

“Gray can piss off!” Liz said.

Several soldiers with weapons at the ready advanced upon the women and surrounded them at a distance.

“Put your weapons down and your hands over your head!” a young soldier ordered them in a slightly uncertain voice.

“We don’t have any weapons in our hands. And what’s the big idea, anyway? Weren’t you told we were coming?” Jennifer asked.

“What were we supposed to be told? That two crazy motorcycle chicks with camo-smeared faces were going to race in here? No one said anything about that. Now drop your backpacks, get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head!” he ordered them a little more bravely.

“Gray? Did you forget to inform these overzealous boys we were coming?” Liz established radio contact through her headset.

“What did you say? I’m having a hard time understanding you. The connection still isn’t the best. Can you repeat that please?” Gray asked cheerfully.

“You understood me perfectly!”

“Sorry, sweetheart! I’d better check the connection! I’ll report back as soon as it’s working properly again.” Gray leaned back with his arms crossed and watched the scene unfold with a mischievous smile.

“I’ll tell you one last time! Hands behind your head and on your knees!” the soldier snapped at the women.

“It’s okay, boys!” Irritated, Jennifer removed her backpack and the holster that held her HK MP7 sub-machine gun and dropped them both on the ground. Next, she pulled the GLOCK 29 out of the holster on her leg and threw it beside the other munitions. Her GLOCK 81 survival knife with the single-sided edge, which served both in hand-to-hand combat and as a survival knife, landed on the pile last. Liz followed suit. Both dropped to their knees and laced their fingers behind their heads.

With their weapons at the ready and using extreme caution, the soldiers approached and pulled the backpacks and weapons out of reach. Liz’s and Jennifer’s hands were handcuffed behind their backs before they were pulled up from the ground. Two of the soldiers searched them for more weapons, but found nothing.

When one of the soldiers pulled Liz’s knife out of its protective sheath and discovered blood on it, he gave her a suspicious look and passed it without a word to his superior, who was standing right behind him. The Lieutenant Colonel approached and stood directly in front of Liz. “Obviously you’ve injured or even killed someone. That’s going to cause some problems for you, lady.”

“Our war paint alone should tell you something—or is everyone here slow on the uptake?” Liz said. “Look at us and the equipment we’re carrying. Does it seem like we’ve just come from a scout meeting? What is this crap? I demand to talk to your superior immediately! Hopefully he’ll have more brains than you sorry figures do.”

“I’m the only one you can speak to here. So what do you have to say for yourself, miss?” He spoke with exaggerated friendliness.

That puzzled Liz. She studied the man in front of her. She guessed he was pushing forty. He was barely a head taller than she, had short black hair and a toned body. And she recognized his accent. As she looked at him she started to get a sneaky suspicion about who might have had a hand in this. After all, they had been there earlier to raise the barrier gate.

Great,
Liz thought.
Two can play at this game!
“What can I tell you?” She wrinkled her forehead as if concentrating fiercely and looked at Jennifer. “How many people have I killed with the knife this boy has in his hands? I’m afraid I’ve lost track, Jenny. Can you help?”

Jennifer caught on immediately and played along. “I’m not sure. Four maybe?”

“What? Only four? Surely it was more than that.” Liz acted disgusted.

“You shot down the APACHE, so that doesn’t count. You blew up the barracks with a grenade. So that doesn’t count either. Sorry. You can twist it however you want, Liz, but it still won’t be any more than four.”

“I’ve done better.”

As the women talked, the soldiers kept backing up, wide-eyed and with stunned expressions on their faces. Liz smiled charmingly at the officer in front of her whose neat look stood in marked contrast to her filthy and camo-painted appearance. “Would you do me a favor?” she asked in a soft voice.

“What?” He sounded suspicious.

“Tell your friend that I’ve figured out his little game. Since the radio has inconveniently ‘malfunctioned’ he won’t be able to hear it from me.”

“Which friend are you referring to?”

“Blackwood. Grayson Blackwood.”

“Never mind, Liz!” Gray’s voice broke in over the radio. He sounded resigned. “That was supposed to be a little lesson in following orders. A couple of days in custody should have cooled down your tempers. But I see that the shot backfired. Give me to Terence, the man standing in front of you.”

“How I’m supposed to do that? They put me in handcuffs.”

Since she obviously wasn’t speaking to him, Terence took the headset off of her and held it against his right ear.

“They saw through me, Blackwood.”

“That was unavoidable.”

“What gave me away?”

“Your tone sounds a lot like mine. That’s probably what made her suspicious. Liz is my wife, after all.”

“I never would have thought you’d get married. But when I look at her, I can see why you changed your mind.”

“Don’t look too closely, if you want to stay friends!”

Terence laughed. “So what am I supposed to do with them?”

“Adopt them until we get there.”

“You? And how are you going to get here to pick them up? I can put them on the next helicopter and send them your way.”

“No way! Chris and I will personally pick them up. If you just send them our way, you can bet they’ll make a detour to Japan to give us time to calm down before their return.”

Terence laughed again. “You’re still working with Robbins? Why is he so desperate to come too? If you tell me you need his assistance, I’ll have to start doubting your abilities.”

“No need for that,” Chris broke in. “Liz’s colleague, Jennifer, is my wife and I have a bone to pick with her.”

Terence looked past Liz to Jennifer, who was smiling nicely too. He grinned again.

“I’ll take care of it, buddy. See you in a few hours!” With a shake of his head, he put the headset back on Liz and took off the handcuffs. “How would you two feel about a decent meal and a strong cup of coffee? After what you’ve just been through, you could sure use it.”

“I’m assuming Gray and Chris will turn up here?” Liz had been listening closely to the conversation.

“They will,” he confirmed with a nod.

“Hm. I think I’d rather gas up the motorcycles and take off before they show up and get their hands on us.”

At this answer, Terence broke out into resounding laughter. Oh, yes! If Gray and Chris were angry, the women were right to proceed with extreme caution. It wasn’t so stupid for them to be considering an escape.

***

Several hours later a KIOWA landed in the training camp carrying Terence’s former colleagues Grayson Blackwood and Chris Robbins. Terence waited at the edge of the landing area and smiled as they climbed out of the helicopter wearing civilian clothing. Since they obviously weren’t on duty, but were acting as private citizens, he passed on saluting.

“Long time, no see, Gray. Chris.”

“Good to see you again. Where are they?” Gray got right to the point. There’d be time enough later to welcome friends properly. Right now, he wanted to read his wife the riot act.

“They’re sleeping. It seems like they had a pretty exciting night.”

“That it was.”

“I’ll take you to them.”

Terence led the way to a makeshift barrack and pointed to an area partitioned off by a blanket, behind which the women were sleeping. He grinned. He couldn’t wait to see how his friends would handle these two.

Gray and Chris disappeared behind the blanket curtain and settled themselves next to the cots in which Liz and Jennifer were sleeping. Both women wore only black tank tops and shorts. The camo-paint and dirt on their faces and hair had been washed away.

“LIZ!”

“JENNIFER!”

The men yelled their names so loudly that the women sat up with a jolt and looked around in shock. When they saw their husbands standing next to them, they rolled their eyes and fell back on the cots again. Liz draped an arm over her eyes and murmured softly, “Couldn’t you have come a couple hours from now? A whole day would have been even better. Then we would have been awake.”

“I agree,” Jennifer said from under the thin cover.

“Nothing doing! Get up! I have a bone to pick with you, Mrs. Robbins.” Chris pulled the blanket off his wife.

“And you get up too! Or I’ll drag you outside and dunk your head in the latrine.” Liz tried to hold on to the blanket as Gray pulled it from her body.

“Leave me alone!” She rolled over on her side, tucked up her legs, and closed her eyes again, ignoring him.

Gray pulled Liz up from the cot, threw her over his shoulder, and stormed outside, past a grinning Terence and the soldiers, who watched curiously.

“Put me down right now!” Liz ordered him imperiously. She struggled wildly and struck his back with her balled up fists. She tried this only once, because his response was a powerful smack on her backside.

“Forget it!”

Gray marched over to a row of chest-high barrels, pulled the cover off of one and dumped her in the water. With one hand he pushed her head under the water until she disappeared completely in the barrel. Snorting water from her nose, she resurfaced and shook herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jennifer, swearing loudly, get dunked into a nearby barrel.

“What’s that for?” Liz yelled furiously.

“Are you finally awake?”

“How dare you? Get your filthy paws off of me!” Once more Liz’s head disappeared under the water. When she surfaced this time, her husband stood a little further from her. His arms were crossed and he looked at her challengingly. Chris stood a few yards away, watching as Jennifer raged in her own barrel and shouted, “Do you nut jobs have a screw loose?” She tore the lid from the barrel next to her and threw it at them like a Frisbee. Quickly the men jumped aside, so they wouldn’t be hit. Then they watched Jennifer climb out of the water and wait for Liz, who was pulling herself out of her own barrel.

Their thin tops and shorts clung to them like a second skin, emphasizing every curve and drawing the attention of all the men present.

Gray and Chris threw threatening looks at the gaping soldiers who quickly tore their gazes away and stared sheepishly at the ground.

Rude curses spilled from Liz and Jennifer’s lips as they stormed back to the barracks. Jennifer gave Terence’s shoulder a powerful shove when he failed to give her enough room. He shook his head and walked over to his friends.