Cherry Adair - T-flac 06 (35 page)

"Don't worry. They'll be with Matt this afternoon," Derek told her. "This is one of the times you're going to agree to do as I ask. I want you to ride in the sled for the first four hours. Try to take a nap. Close your mouth, please. Because, thank you," he continued when Lily snapped her mouth shut, "because you're still in shock after your dunking, and I'd feel better if you rested. Will you do that for me? Please?"

"Yes, sir. Just don'—"

He brushed her mouth with his. "Nothing is going to happen to either of us. Actually, I just want to be able to take a nice relaxing nap on
your
watch."

He helped Lily step into the basket of the sled. "I love watching you sleep," she told him as she sat down with her legs extended. "You make a cute little snuffling noise just before you drop off."

Derek chuckled as he went to the back of the sled. "I do not. Maybe something manly like a good rib-cracking
snore
—but a snuffle? No way."

"Very sweet. Quite endearing, really." She looked in the direction her other dogs had taken. "They'll be
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okay, won't they?"

"Matt'll get them home safe and sound and have them waiting for us when we get back. Lip mic on?" he finished, directly in her ear.

Lily spread an unfolded sleeping bag over her to keep her warm since she wouldn't be doing much moving in the next few hours, and nodded. "Hit it."

Even though she could practically feel Derek standing directly behind her, the lip mic made it possible for them to communicate without shouting.

It was a beautiful day for a run. Crisply cold but windy. And that wind was picking up speed at an alarming rate. The dogs, eager to stretch their legs, let out assorted happy yips as they crested the hill.

Derek steered them expertly away from the marked trail their little friends had taken, and with only a brief hesitation they streaked along as if they were on greased wheels.

Lily felt a pang as they left the trail behind. She was going into uncharted territory, and that always made her a little nervous. She coped better when things were predictable. Her heart lurched at just how unpredictable the past few days had been. Other than falling into the water, leaving the race, abandoning her dogs, blinding Derek and joining a supersecret organization out to save the world from terrorists, it had turned into a pretty good day, Lily thought with a grin.

The blizzard had started just minutes after leaving the river. Bundled up, taking her turn on the back of the sled, Lily's head ached from trying to see beyond the snow-dancing yellow beam of her headlamp.

Her fingers were stiff on the handlebar from gripping it so tightly as the sled slid and slithered from side to side where there was no traction.

The night was horror-movie eerie, she thought, licking dry lips beneath the heavy protection of the wool scarf. The bright moonlight of the night before was just a memory. She could almost feel the low clouds brushing her shoulders in the oppressive darkness.

The only sound was of the runners gliding across the frozen snow with a high-pitched
ssssssshhhhheee
, accompanied by the crunch of the dogs' feet breaking into the icy crust as if stomping on cardboard with every step.

Across open plains, over small frozen tributaries and through deep forests, she, Derek and the dogs seemed to be the only creatures on earth.

And the snow kept falling, and falling and falling. Covering their tracks as if they'd never been. Very
Twilight Zone-ish
.

Kind of spooky.

And kind of thrilling, she thought, correcting a left-hand skid with a flick of the brake. She loved the challenge of the Iditarod. But this wild race through unmarked territory, this anticipation of an event people sleeping safe in their beds didn't even know about—this made her heart race and her pulse leap.

She felt…
alive
. Terrified. But alive.

To fight the bad guys, they first had to triumph over the elements. This was something she could do.

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Something she was good at.

She felt almost heroic.

Who knew she would have made a great spy?

"Need to stop?" Derek asked softly in her ear. He'd been very quiet for several hours since their last stop and she suspected he'd dozed off and on. Just as he'd stayed silent when it was her turn to be in the cargo bed, she'd left him alone, too. He hadn't gotten much sleep lately. The black fur of his hat and the sleeping bag covering him were mounded with snow and shiny with ice.

"I'm fine, and the kids are loving it," Lily assured him, brushing a small mound of snow off the top edge of her goggles. "You could pour me a cup of coffee, though."

"Sure." He found the Thermos and carefully poured a steaming mug of coffee, then handed the half-filled container back to her, over his head.

Lily pushed down the thick scarf covering the lower half of her face and took the mug. Her goggles fogged up, but she didn't care. She took two sips, enjoying the burn all the way down to her esophagus before she murmured, "Elixir of the gods."

"Isn't it, though." He drank from his own cup. All Lily saw was the steam coming from beneath a snow cap and floating up to her in the dark. "I could get used to this," he told her, his voice melting over her like thick, rich chocolate.
Hot
chocolate, Lily thought fancifully.

"What?" she asked lightly. For some reason, hearing his voice after so many hours of silence made her heart actually ache. "Traveling at the speed of dog in the snow?"

"Me sitting here while you do all the work. This is what it'll be like when we're really, really old."

"Don't tell me." Lily laughed; the wind hurt her teeth and she quickly took another gulp of rapidly cooling coffee. "Me pushing you around in your wheelchair?"

He chuckled, and the deep, rumbling sound rolled around her like a warm breeze. "Or me pushing you in yours. Or both tooling around in our high-powered, state-of-the-art chairs together."

"I think I'll get a fluorescent-red racing stripe on mine," Lily said, keeping her tone light. Just idle chitchat as they traveled. Not a commitment to a future together. One thing could be said for Derek Wright, she thought, ignoring the ache in her chest: when he had his attention focused on a woman, she felt as though she was the
only
woman in his world.

It was a heady sensation, and one she'd remember with heat long after their affair was over. In the meantime, they were out here together—perhaps not romantically at this very moment, but sharing an adventure together—and she wasn't going to spoil one precious moment with him by taking a reality check a second too soon.

There'd be plenty of time for that later.

"Racing stripe, huh?"

"You bet," Lily said, forcing lightness into her tone.

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"Uh-huh." Derek paused and in that moment, a world of time ticked past. "Doesn't matter how fast you go, Lily," he said softly, "I'll always catch you."

The predicted ice storm was even worse than Derek had anticipated. Within hours, tree branches and shrubs became encapsulated inside cocoons of crystalline ice.

They now stopped every half hour to check the dogs' feet, change booties and give the animals a few minutes' respite from the layer of solid crust frosting the top of the snow.

As much as Derek hated to take all these stops, he realized if Lily wasn't with him, the trip would've been much more difficult. No, he admitted honestly, he wasn't at all sure he'd've made it. She shouldered more than her fair share of responsibility without comment or complaint. And she knew her dogs'

strengths and weaknesses and drove them accordingly.

"Can you tell me a little about what we're heading into?" Lily asked in his ear. Her voice shook, partly from the cold, and partly, he was sure, from fear. She sat in the sled bed, muffled from top to toe. She'd still be cold, though. It was almost easier standing on the back of the sled and using one's legs to help propel the sled forward.

"The bunch we're after is called Oslukivati. A Serbian terrorist group," Derek told her, blinking to get his headlight focused back on the dogs. "They're on the top terrorist lists around the world. Somehow they've discovered an early warning installation up here, south of Nome. If this installation is taken out, they could bring in missiles and the United States wouldn't know about them until they'd taken out a major city."

"My God."

"Our intel shows they plan to eliminate the early warning facility with a dirty bomb, and then come in guns blazing. A one-two punch. All carefully coordinated with one of the biggest storms to hit Alaska in seventy-eight years."

"How—" Lily's voice caught and she had to start again. "How can one man possibly do this alone?"

"I'll have backup," he assured her. "Don't worry." Christ only knew, he was worried enough for everybody. Dare had assured him nothing was going to be in the air for at least twelve hours. Plenty of time for Oslukivati to blow up half the free world. "
Gee
!" he shouted to the dogs.

"Where's backup?" Lily demanded. "I don't see the cavalry racing in to help you. I want cannons and flamethrowers and atomic weapons of our own, damn it!"

T-FLAC operatives were a resourceful bunch. If they couldn't fly in, they'd find another way. Derek forced a chuckle. "I'd kinda like to see you operating a flamethrower."

"Hey. Get me one. I'll do on-the-job training."

Derek shifted his weight as the lead dogs curved around a clump of frozen bushes before straightening out again. Lily wouldn't be within five miles of the action. Once he located where he needed to be, he'd head her and the dogs toward Nome and safety. She'd make it. She had to.

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"I'll consider giving you a flamethrower for your next birthday, how's that?"

"Seriously, Derek—"

"Seriously, Lily. My people will be there to greet us with open arms."
Please, God
.

"Are the bad people ever stopped?"

God. He considered lying through his teeth. "Occasionally."

"Crappy odds. Why do you—" She cut herself off with a sigh. "Because that's just who you are."

Derek checked his GPS in his headlight, and adjusted the heading of the dogs slightly. Yeah. That's who he was.

He'd never before doubted his role in life. He thrived on his work with T-FLAC, and even when it occasionally didn't feel as though they could ever make a dent in the terrorists that kept sprouting around the world like a cancer, he knew that he, and others like him, did make a difference. The world was a safer place because men and women like him did everything in their power to make it so.

It was the big picture that had always kept him focused, and sane in the middle of chaos. But suddenly the picture was pinpointed down to this small, slender woman, and there weren't enough T-FLAC

operatives, not enough Marines, or Rangers or even freaking Navy SEALs, to circle the wagons and keep her safe.

Big picture. Small woman. The bottom line was he was heading, hell-bent for leather,
with Lily
, into danger.

And there was absolutely no assurance that he wouldn't have to go in alone.

"The dogs have to have a break." Lily cut into his thoughts. "Sorry."

"We'll stop for half an hour. Enough time?" He knew she wanted to beg for a couple of hours. No can do, he thought, slowing the dogs gradually.

She was a trouper, and his heart swelled with emotion when she said quietly, "Fine."

They pulled off under a thick stand of trees, taking time to light a small fire to heat coffee and soup and food for the dogs. Derek did kitchen duty while Lily meticulously went down the line checking and rechecking the dogs' feet and legs for ice cuts.

"Everyone's good except Rio," she told him through the lip mic. "I'll take him up in the basket for the next leg and then see how he does." She came to stand beside him, muffled so that all that showed were her eyes behind her goggles. "I hate to delay us more than necessary, but they have to rest and eat."

"I know. The break won't hurt us, either. We've been making good time, all things considered." He glanced up at the lowering clouds and the never-ceasing fall of snow. If anything the storm was worsening. As were the chances of the good guys being at the location when he arrived.

Ground teams would be coming up from Anchorage. They'd have to stop for gas to fuel snowmobiles.

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No, Derek acknowledged to himself, there was now only a snowball's chance in hell of him having backup. His eye throbbed in protest.

There wasn't a damn thing he could do about his vision. Or this storm.

Jesus.

"Coffee done yet?" Lily looked longingly at the blackened pot over the fire.

"Another couple of minutes. The pot's so cold it's taking longer to heat up. How are you holding up, sweetheart?"

"I'm peachy. Frozen-daiquiri kinda peachy, but peachy all the same. How's your poor eye?"

"Doesn't need the sock anymore."

Her eyes crinkled, but he couldn't see her smile behind the scarf. "I'm so relieved. It would spoil the whole James Bond image if you had to chase the bad guys with a gym sock pressed to your face."

"I love you, Lily."

Her eyes widened behind the goggles. Shock? Surprise? Pleasure?

"I, ah, love you, too," she said, voice muffled. "I'll go unharness the kids while that brews. Be right back."

And she was gone.

That went amazingly well, Derek thought ruefully, shaking his head as he watched Lily working with the dogs through a veil of falling snow. He hadn't meant to blurt it out like that. But just looking at her had made his heart swell with love and pride. He'd felt it for so long that saying he loved her sounded natural.