Cherry Adair - T-flac 06 (27 page)

"Damn it to hell."
I didn't protect her from a sniper or the avalanche
, he told himself, adjusting the reins as Max and Kryptonite pulled him a little off the trail to bypass a fallen tree. If the sniper had been halfway competent, Lily
would
be dead right now. If the explosion had been the correct velocity, half the damn mountain would've catapulted Lily and her team to their deaths.

Both times he'd been within shouting distance. How had he helped her? And why the hell, if they were that close, had they targeted Lily instead of him? Ineptitude? Or strategic planning? Jesus, he was at a loss for the first time in his life. The people he worked with took care of their own asses.

But not Lily. Lily was an innocent.

She had no business being anywhere near the scum of the earth that Derek and other T-FLAC

operatives had to deal with daily. He hoped to God whoever had set the explosive hadn't seen him
kiss
her. Who knew what would set the guy off? No. From now until this was resolved he had to treat Lily

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circumspectly. Show no affection at all. She was in danger. Christ.

Leave her behind and she'd be defenseless against the assassin. Keep her with him and he doubled her danger. Send her ahead, she might be safe. With him nearby she'd at least have his expertise for protection.

Darius wasn't back on the line. But he would be soon. "Chiku is having problems," Derek told Lily after clicking channels. "I'm going to stop to rest the team."

"He checked out okay in Rohn." He imagined that endearing little worry frown between her brows.

"Want me to turn around and take a look?"

"No. I think he pulled a muscle. I'll put a heat wrap on it, and let them rest for an hour or so. Don't worry," he told her lightly. "I'll catch up with you in Nikolai."

Lily laughed. "In your dreams. I'll be long gone by the time you get there."

"Keep your mic on in case I need advice." So that he could hear if she was in trouble. She was only about ten minutes ahead of him now. Close enough to get to her if there was any sign of trouble, and just far enough away to attract attention only to himself.

The faint hum of the snowmobile engine beat against his temper.

"Will do. Check Eyota, too, when you stop," Lily instructed. "She looked constipated."

Derek choked back a half laugh. "Constipated? And if she is, I do… what?"
Yes, I can hear you. Come
and get me, you son of a bitch
.

"Toss a couple of those frozen pumpkin treats in with her food when you heat her snack," Lily told him cheerfully. "She'll be fine."

"Will do."

He heard her click the mic, and smiled. She thought she was turning it off, but all she was doing was changing channels. Wherever she went, he'd be there.

The sat phone buzzed. Still smiling, he flicked off Lily's audio so she couldn't hear him, and clicked in to HQ. He could hear her breathing softly in the background.

Thirteen

"What have we got?" Derek demanded.

"Hey, don't bite my head off," Dare snarled in his ear. "I'm not the one touring the tundra and going through the mountains." He didn't like being control and stuck in the office; he wanted to be in the field.

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But Dare was babysitting someone and wouldn't leave her, not even to do a job he loved.

"I've still got the guy riding my ass. I thought I'd stop and have a word with him," Derek told him. "Fill me in while I wait. And while you're doing that, have someone check again the possibility that my friend isn't an Oslukivati operative."

He heard Darius typing away on his keyboard as he spoke. "Doesn't sound competent enough for the connect, but we'll see… Now to the meat. Homeland Threat Advisory and the National Security Council have agreed to finally admit we have an 'installation' up there, and they would 'have reason for concern' if said facility were breached. Pretty much, it means we should all be shitting ourselves until Oslukivati's contained."

"Hell." Derek rapidly put up a mental map of the area. It made sense that the United States would have some sort of installation way the hell up here in Alaska.

"What kind of facility?" he asked Darius. "Too far for a DEW? Or did they stick another one up here somewhere we don't know about?" Distant early warning observation stations were strung across the Aleutian Islands. It was possible—hell, probable—they'd added a few without advising T-FLAC. The anti-terrorist group didn't work for the government. They were freelance. And therefore frequently the last to know, as well as often the last resort for an efficient cleanup.

"Could be. They're not talking. But we have our best people in on this. Possibly a critical energy infrastructure?"

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"You are one cranky ass lately, what's up with you?" Dare asked, his tone amused. "Woman troubles?"

"Out here?" The faint sound of the snowmobile engine changed. Infinitesimally. The guy had made a turn.

Which way?

"Your lovely widowed lady vet partner is there, isn't she?" Of course Dare knew Lily was here with him.

It was the loaded implication in the observation that made Derek frown.

The man hadn't left HQ in a year; how did
he
know Derek's feelings for Lily? "Nobody likes a smart-ass," Derek said absently, listening to the faint sound of the approaching engine.

"Better than being a cranky ass," Dare countered.

Derek checked the clip of the Baer, then returned his weapon to the outside pocket of his coat, where he could reach it quickly. "They'd better work on plugging that leak while they're at it. It pisses me off that the bad guys know what's up here before we do."

Dare's voice was dry as he said, "They'd better tell us where the hell we're headed before it's too late."

That was a given. "
Any
coordinates?"

"Michael's in D.C. putting pressure on the president as we speak. Kinda hard for us to go in to help the Marines if they don't tell us where the hell they are."

Derek thought of his ex-Navy SEAL brother, Michael, and smiled.

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They'd have those coordinates within the hour if he knew his brother.

"I'll be in Nikolai in about four hours," he told Darius. "Have a snowmobile and my equipment ready, and have someone there to take Lily back to Montana, where she'll be safe. This asshole blew up the mountain to get me, and almost killed her. Until this situation is contained, I want her—"

"It's not that I regret having sex with you," Lily spoke directly into his ear, cutting off the feed from Darius. Clearly she'd been chewing on the subject for hours. "Now that I've had time to consider my actions, I'm wondering if I wasn't a bit… rash."

"Rash?" he parroted, opening his mic to her. "It was incredible! You did things with your body that are forever imprinted on my brain. And I sure as hell am not going to let you slip away now."

Derek switched gears easily as he keyed Dare back in. "Get back to me on those details ASAP," he told his control, then clicked back into Lily's audio channel without her being any the wiser.

Of course she'd try to diminish the intensity of their lovemaking. Safer for her that way. "Nice try, sweetheart."

"We weren't thinking clearly."

"And I took advantage of you?" he asked dangerously.

"No," she said honestly. "If anything it was the other way around."

Derek laughed. "It was exactly as it should've been. Mutual. Don't analyze it to death."

"Sean—"

"Don't," Derek said tightly. "Do
not
throw Sean up to me now. It won't work, and frankly, Lily, I'm damn sick of pretending it ever did. You might lie to yourself about him. But you will not lie about what's going on between us."

"I'm not lying about anything, Derek. For your information, I was about to say Sean had never touched me the way you did in those few hours—"

He inhaled sharply, taken off guard, and lost his chance to talk.

"But now I'm not feeling quite so
friendly
." Lily's voice tightened, then dropped a notch as she asked,

"Derek, I have to know. Are you involved in the bogus bull-sperm sales? And don't lie to me, either.

Please."

Derek frowned as the hum of the engine got closer, staying parallel instead of closing in. He removed the Walther from his pocket and held it in readiness against the handlebars. The Baer in his right, the Walther in his left.

Come and get me, you bastard
. "Say what?"

"Someone is selling sperm overseas and claiming it belongs to Diablo."

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"And you know this—how?" Derek asked softly into the lip mic, as his eyes scanned the darkness.

Definitely closer. No visual. But within range.

"I was in the birthing shed about six weeks ago and overheard two of the hands talking about it."

Christ. Exactly what he
hadn't
wanted to happen: Lily knowing about the illegal activity going on at the ranch. He'd insisted on keeping her out of it. It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize just how dangerous Lily's discovery was.

The sale of prime bull sperm was a multimillion-dollar business. Hell, Diablo's sperm went for upward of a million dollars a vial. The main objectives behind Sean's scheme were to develop and refine various biotechnical applications related to the in vitro production of bovine embryos on an industrial scale.

Good DNA, which Diablo had in spades, was essential. A high-genetic merit bull could produce thousands of viable offspring. The fact that Diablo's sperm had also been successfully sexed before sale made it much more valuable.

Derek suspected the article about sexing in the
Cattleman's Weekly
last year had started the ball rolling internationally.

"Who the hell were they?" he demanded, keeping his voice low so it didn't carry. The custom, handcrafted rosewood grip of the Baer Ultimate combat pistol fit comfortably in his hand like an old friend. The Walther was backup.

Come on. Come on. Come on.

"And
exactly
what did they say?"

"One was Sam Croft." She sighed and her voice sounded ghostly, whispering through the mic. "I didn't recognize the other guy's voice. They said it made no difference whether Sean was around or not, it was business as usual, and another large order from their buyer in Japan had just come in."

His heart shuddered in his chest. Croft. Dead. Bloody. Brutally murdered Sam Croft. On a snowy Alaskan mountainside.

Not Oslukivati.

Closer to home.

Much
closer to home.

Who the
hell
was the second man? Who? "Jesus Christ, Lily. Did they see
you
?"

She huffed out an insulted breath. "Of course not."

"Are you positive?"

"Yes, I'm positive. It was well after midnight, and I'd fallen asleep in Clementine's stall waiting for her labor to intensify. I woke up when I heard their voices."