Code of Honor (Special Ops Book 7) (5 page)

He would have been sad to see her go if he didn’t already know that’s not the kind of moving she would be doing. He figured she would be dead by the time her lease came even close to expiration and he, too, would be moving on because that apartment was a rat’s cage and he was not a rat. He was a man, a Marine dishonorably discharged because of work he had done under orders. Yeah, they had trained him, conditioned him, put him on the hunt and then when they were found out they brought it down on him, his team, the men who served doing exactly what they were told to do without questions.

He chuckled to himself. “Their loss was another evil man’s gain,” he said. He and a few of the guys had gotten special requests for special things, but he was the only one who had gotten picked up full package. He was the only one good enough to do it all while they were more of the go in as backup type men. If he needed them he would call for them, but he didn’t think he would need them here. There wasn’t anybody in that Special Conditions unit who could hold even a match to his skill set. He just had to find out where she was and then go after her.

“Two kills are better than one,” he laughed as he thought about putting a bullet in the Marshal before putting his dick in his woman. He would do a slower kill for the person guarding her, but he didn’t want to waste time on an unpaid kill when he could spend that time getting in close contact with her body.

He thought about where his life had been as that young high school kid who took his GED a year early so he could go into the Marines right away. He was at the right age thanks to some stupid school board laws about birthdays and ages to start school he was a year older than most of the other people in his class. He had joined up and moved out into this world of military. He had done covert operations. He had done more as a Marine than he thought he would ever do in his life. He had lived for the Marines, proudly serving and putting his life on the line and this was how the government had treated him—dishonorably discharged for following orders. He was angry back then but it didn’t take long for him to get that one call that changed his life, his pay grade, and his purpose all at the same time. Oh yeah, dishonorably discharged was the best thing to ever happen to him.

“I think we need to talk,” Abby’s voice was soft and seductive as usual, but there was an edge. Had he pushed her too far? Maybe. Did he care? No.

Rhys pushed the paper in front of him to the side. He wasn’t reading it anymore anyway. He had already finished reading the update he printed off this morning. Autumn still didn’t have a clue as to where this guy was, but she knew he hadn’t been caught which meant he was still after Abby.

“You’re brash and—”

“That turns you on,” he said, not asked. He wasn’t mistaking the way she responded to him last night.

“That is beside the point.”

He shrugged. “Seems like a good point to me. Together we’re a wild fire waiting to rage and I promise you, when I get you in my bed again that fire is going to blaze like a fire reaching flash point.”

Her eyes dilated like she was thinking about him taking her into the hot zone and holding her there for both of their pleasure.

“Rhys, you don’t even know me really.”

“And you don’t know me at all yet that didn’t stop you from coming into my room last night.”

“I came about the tea.”

“No you didn’t. I’m not stupid, Abby. I could read you from the moment I got you beneath my body.”

“You were…you were naked.” She nearly shrieked.

“You could have been too,” he shrugged one shoulder again. Her cheeks were starting to turn a soft shade of red as the blood rushed to them.

“We can’t. After this is over I’m going back to my world and you’re…well, I don’t know what you’re going back to.”

“Does it matter?”

“That we’re going to part ways? Yes.”

He chuckled. “No, that you don’t know exactly what I do. Because I assure you once I have you I’m not letting you go, and you can count on that one, Abby.”

She exhaled slowly. “You are impossible.”

“I’m impossible,” he stood and walked toward her as she kept taking steps back. She was heading into a wall he could box her up against and she didn’t even realize it. For a woman with her training she surely did fluster easily. Or maybe she just flustered so easily around him because she wanted him.

When her back hit the wall he was quick to place his hands on either side of her body and make sure she stayed put as he moved his body closer to hers. “I’m impossible, huh? Impossible to resist.”

Her lashes fluttered wildly as she looked up into his eyes. “I…Rhys, we—”

“Can if you want to,” he cut off her words. If she wanted him he wasn’t under any restraints that would keep him from giving her what she wanted while taking what he wanted in return. He lowered his hand to her waist, letting his fingers softly caress her through the fabric of her silken blouse. “Tell me what you want,” he breathed the words firmly in a subtle tone of seduction.

“I…I want you to kiss me,” she said as if he had weakened her protest for not getting involved. “I want to know what it feels like to kiss you because I can’t stop imagining what it might be like. I figure if we kiss then I can get you out of my mind and maybe get a good night of sleep.”

He chuckled softly. “When we kiss,” he said because if wasn’t even an option. “I can assure you it won’t be a kiss that lets you put me out of your mind.” Her lips parted on a soft protest of a gasp and his mouth took the opportunity to taste her lips.

One kiss wouldn’t be enough and he knew that, but he was slow about it. He brushed his lips along hers before using his tongue to slip inside her mouth. She was quick to respond, kissing him back with a little more vigor. Oh no, he was going to seduce her completely and he wouldn’t’ have her coming apart in his arms just yet.

He let one hand massage her waist while the other slipped into her hair and fisted it tightly. He maneuvered her head so their lips could meet more completely and so he could taste her in every corner of her mouth. One delicious stroke after another sent embers of sexual need coursing through his body. God he was going to regret this. It had been a long time for him. he hadn’t wanted to for so long and right now, just one taste of her, made him want to strip her bare and take her right there against the wall.

He could smell her arousal building and it edged him on even more. He was doing this to her. he was bringing her pleasure—pleasure he would make sure was better than she ever experienced before.

“Hmm,” she moaned and he released a growl of his own. This woman was going to be his completely.

He slid his hands to her behind and hoisted her so he  could be more comfortable in his pursuit. She wrapped her legs around his waist and secured her arms around his shoulders the best she could. Oh yes, this was what he had fantasized about since he got one look at those delicious lips of hers.

His lips left hers to trail kisses down her cheek and over her neck. He may have sucked a little harder in places, marking her he was certain of that, before his lips trailed up to her ear. He nipped the clearly sensitive lobe judging from the gasp of shock meets crave able ecstasy.

“I’m not going to stop, Abby; not until we both get what we really want.” And he meant those words entirely. Right now, this moment, they were both about to explore the fire burning between them. He hadn’t missed a beat of her attraction to him. he was good at reading people, but that look in her eyes on first sight had screamed of her lust for him. lust was good; lust was very good. He couldn’t say he was working toward love, but hell, he wasn’t getting any younger and maybe, just maybe, he could make a permanent spot for her in his bed. Either way, this job was not going to end them. He meant what he said, he wasn’t planning to stop, not now, not ever, not until he was ready, or until she felt the need to push him away.

He pushed her skirt farther up her thighs. It wasn’t hard to do since the skirt wasn’t fitted to her like a glove holding her tightly wrapped. No, this skirt was free flowing and easy to navigate as he slide his hand up her thigh and to her panties.

“I hope you didn’t like these much,” he mumbled as he nipped her neck. His fingers balled the waistband up in his hand and then he tugged hard. The sound of fabric ripping brought another gasp from her mouth as her breathing intensified and the heat coming off her could nearly scorched the wall. He chuckled at her response.

“Rhys,” she moaned as she tried to arch into him. Oh yes he wanted this. He wanted this here, now, hard and fast. He wasn’t going to stop.

He expertly, with the skill of a man on a mission, released the button of his jeans, slid the zipper down and maneuvered to release his bulging erection. Straight up was the direction it went between her legs, seeking entrance to her silky hot cavern.

“Rhys!” She gasped and clutched his shoulders hard. Her nails dug into his blades and hell if that didn’t turn him on even more. “Oh, please,” she gasped.

Please was exactly what he aimed to do. He positioned his shaft ready for entry before pulling her down with ease onto him. she was warm, hot would be the better description, and she was so wet. Could he last, or was he going to break into an orgasmic inferno before he could make her come?

He couldn’t think about anything other than the way she felt and the way she moaned and screamed and called for him, clutching him tightly with every part of her being. Oh yes, this was what he had been missing, what he had been needing and now he was going to take it—all of it.

His speed increased. The sound of her body thumping against the smooth ivory wall had him grunting with the force of his own need.

“Yes,” she moaned near screamed. “Yes, there, right there.” She gasped as he continued to thrust into her. He had obviously hit that spot, the one that was going to push her over the edge of insanity, over the edge of arousal, and into the flash point of orgasm—and he was the man that was going to take her there.

He pumped into her harder, faster, unable to control his own thirst and hunger for her. He had lost control, unable to hold back even an ounce of the man that he was, of the man who was staking his claim on this woman—his woman.

“Rhys!” She screamed his name, her juices flooding out of her body as he tensed, tightened, and flooded his own into her.

He let out a loud growl that seemed more animalistic than human—more tiger winning the prize than man pleasing a woman. No, this was a hard, fast, deep, mating. He was not going to let her go.

He stayed locked inside her even after his body had exhausted the last of his orgasm. She was panting in his arms. Her warm breath bathed his neck as her head found refuge on his shoulder.

He growled. “You’re mine, Abby. I mean that. No other man gets you.”

She grunted. “You have to ask me first.”

“No, babe. I just laid claim and you let me. In case you don’t feel it, those fluids are not all yours.”

She gasped. Her head jerked backwards and he could see the sudden recognition in her eyes. “You..you don’t have on a condom.”

He shrugged one shoulder as he adjusted his hips to make his penis slide deeper into her. “Nope.”

“I’m not on the pill.”

He shrugged again. “I’m clean, by the way.”

“Me too, but I’m more worried about becoming a single mom right now.”

He chuckled. “There’s nothing single about you. If I got you pregnant I’ll just speed up the wedding to make sure we get hitched before you start showing much.”

She slapped his shoulder. “I didn’t say I was going to marry you.”

He laughed. “I haven’t asked you yet, but I already know; you’re mine. I’m yours. Everything else is transient, but I’m not letting you go.”

“You barely know me.”

He laughed. “I’d say I know you pretty well right now, Abby.”

She closed her eyes. “I shouldn’t be ovulating anyway—not right now. I think we’re safe. Next time we do this you are wearing a condom.”

He laughed. “Nope. I don’t have any. I don’t sleep around and I haven’t been with any woman in years so I don’t need condoms.”

“Rhys,” she glared at him and he laughed again.

“If it will make you feel better we’ll do other things until I can make a store run for a box—or two.” He certainly was going to get inside her again—and he planned to do it a lot. He was a gifted man and he had no trouble keeping her under protective duty while bedding her. In fact, he would say having her body underneath his was going to be a really safe place for her to be for a long time.

Chapter Four

Abby had showered before returning to the room where Rhys was working on something he wouldn’t talk about. She had noticed him doing it before and she felt like she was more of an interruption to whatever his own focus was right now. She would have felt guilty for that but it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t have a choice in entering this protection program thing, and on some level, knowing what she knew now, she didn’t think she would refuse to go anyway.

She was an interruption and he wouldn’t be able to deny that if she asked. Maybe that’s why she didn’t ask, because she didn’t want to hear him say it. she hated that feeling of disrupting somebody’s life, but here she was about to do it again. She had forgotten before because the man was pure attraction and she couldn’t resist the feelings she had around him, but she wouldn’t forget this time.

“We need to talk, Rhys.”

She watched him as he closed the laptop and looked at her with full attention. She liked that he paid keen attention to her when she spoke. It wasn’t as if the guys she worked with didn’t pay attention, it was just a different kind of attention—a business, professional based attention whereas with Rhys, despite this being important in a life or death business kind of situation, the man looking at her made her feel all sorts of tingles in her body. One look from him could make her forget everything—including the danger she was in. But she was sure she didn’t have that effect on him—not because she thought he didn’t find her worthy of his lust, but because he was a man who stayed focused on his mission. There was no way he could have made it through years of military life if he hadn’t been the kind of man to stay focused.

Despite his good looks, his blatant animal attraction drawing mannerism, she had to put her own mind back on why she wanted to talk to him in the first place. Sexy or not, she didn’t need a man in her life who needed a child with legal benefits to feel like a man.

“I just want to make sure you realize you can’t control me. I’m not a child; you’re not my father. I like you, but I don’t want to be with a man who needs a child with legal benefits to feel like a man.” There, she had said what she needed to say. She really didn’t have anything else to say—at least not that she could think of anyway. She had been so focused on getting that weight off her chest that she hadn’t thought too much past what came after the first revealing statement. She usually planned and was structured, but right now that’s all she had to go on.

He looked at her with a stern glare that had her insides wobbling, teetering on fear and arousal

“I don’t need a child with legal benefits, Abby. I like that you’re strong, independent, capable of surviving, but in this I have to have the final say. I need doors open so I can hear you if something happens. Make no mistake about it, he will find us here and an already closed door could be the death of you.”

That made sense; it really did. But it was something else in his words that had fear pulsing down her spine. “How do you know he’ll find me here?”

“Because once upon a time I was him—the man who found the impossible and went in hot, came out clean. By clean I mean a completed mission.” He leaned his forearms on to the table and clasped his hands together. “This is a mission for him, personally and professionally. He won’t stop until he completes it. I won’t stop until he’s dead, but I can’t focus if you don’t follow the rules”

She nibbled on the corner of her bottom lip before nodding. When he put it that way she understood him and his actions more.

“And stop doing that,” he pointed at her mouth. “Because I don’t have condoms and that there is tempting me to strip you and come inside you gloved or not.”

“Oh.” While the thought of him doing just that was intriguing she didn’t want babies and men without condoms brought babies.

“No glove, no entry.” She shook her finger at him. His lip turned upwards in one corner. “No additional entry,” she clarified.

He chuckled. “You don’t want babies, huh?”

She shook her head no. “Not now, not ever.”

“I don’t blame you. I don’t want any either, but know that if you do get pregnant I will be there. I don’t do the absentee dad thing.”

“Good to know,” she nodded.

“And just so you know I’m not leaving you even if you don’t get pregnant.”

“Very good to know,” she smiled with a wink. “So what are you working on? Come on, share.”

“Sharing is caring, huh?”

She laughed. “Sometimes.”

He shrugged. “Sure, why not?” He seemed to be willing which made her happy that he trusted her. “I’m trying to find the people who killed my parents.”

Her heart sunk at his words. “How long have you been searching?”

“Too long,” he admitted with great sorrow in his voice. “I was away. The bastards,” the anger in his eyes intensified. “They chained them to chairs, beat them and burned them alive.”

She gasped.

“I shouldn’t have told you. It’s too graphic.”

“No. I mean it is, but that is what happens at the start of the video game we’re working on.”

His head shot upwards. “What?” He growled the word ferociously.

“There’s a couple. Their son is in the Army and off fighting some jungle war. The man and the woman are tortured but the man doesn’t talk. They burn her first, but he still doesn’t talk. I thought it was too graphic but the creator wouldn’t let it be omitted and the powers that be said more money could come if it stayed.”

He emitted a low, yet lethal growl.

“The son returns and the game is his mission to find the killers when he finds out about the cover up.”

“What happens? Who did it?” The anger in his voice sent a tinge of fear up her spine.

“We were still developing. He was so secretive that he gave it to us piece by piece. I was surprised he inked the contract like that, but he did.”

“Now that he’s dead what are they going to do? Did he keep notes or something?”

“No,” she shook her head. “He said paper made trouble. It was hard and frustrating to have to fact check so swiftly while still designing. After he died we were told to just make up an ending—which by we I mean me.”

He stood up so swiftly that the chair fell over and slid across the stone floor. “That,” his voice was full of rage. “That is what pushed the hit on you full throttle. They think you know and they want you dead.”

“I…this is real? It’s just a game. We design games.” She felt the quiver in her voice as she spoke. Fear staked a claim on her because this, this game, was going to get her killed over something she didn’t even know.

“This is real. This is my family.”

“If this is real then we have bigger problems here. My last conversation with this story building boy genius was off. He said something that just made me wonder why the game was headed into something that would make it that much longer, but I dismissed it because it’s not like we haven’t designed super long games before. It’s just that I thought we would reach an ending and that would end this game, but something he said made me think it would bring about another game like this. He said soon we would know the end and it was going to go from CIA to the White House.”

Rhys let out a loud yell as he swept his arm out knocking the bowl of fruit off the granite top of the island.

She jumped at the sound the porcelain bowl made while shattering when it hit the floor. This was just a game in her mind. This ending that was coming, with a hint that it would go to the White House, in her mind, meant they would have another game to put together just like this one—which was getting on her nerves. But this wasn’t just a game. This was real. This was Rhys’ family here, and that meant their boy genius wasn’t just trying to put a game out there; he was trying to put the truth out there. Somehow he must have known with the chatter that would come about this epic new game that somebody was going to recognize the story, and somebody was going to see that justice got served. Unfortunately, this real life turned game was going to get her killed just as it had gotten boy genius and the senator killed too.

She wanted to help him, but she didn’t know how.

“Rhys,” she waited until he looked at her with eyes full of the rage in his heart. “He didn’t keep notes but I took notes when he told me things. I also kept notes on the code names that weren’t optional and the ones we were able to change along with what we changed them to. My notebook,” she pointed. He nodded his understanding but he didn’t say a word. She ran back to her room and grabbed the five-subject butterfly decorated notebook before jogging back to him.

She sat down and watched as he up righted the chair and returned it to the office like table. This room wasn’t the kitchen, but he had it set up in a way that allowed him to fix sandwiches and eat without having to step away from his work.

She opened her notebook and turned to the section marked ‘characters’.

“Our leading man is Rick, no last name. He’s a Cuban-American,” she held up her hand. “A name like Rick…I know, but that’s what we got as a name and that was a name that wasn’t changeable. His code name was Spirit.”

He grunted. “In real life Spirit is Arapaho, red, and very Native in looks.”

She nodded. So Spirit was real too then. She read off the other code names while he gave her the real life counterparts.

“Our bad guys, those are difficult because all we had for the top of their bad guys are code names. Black Dog, Tracer, Halo and Red Knight.” The names were pretty cool and fitting for the characters at least. She had figured people would love playing whichever character they picked to be theirs in the game, joint or computer assisted wouldn’t matter here because the names were cool and should the players want to play the bad guy instead of the good guy in a group playing they could still have kick butt names.

She looked at her scribbled notes because she had to write swiftly with the notebook on her lap for four hours. Her hands were hurting but those were the rules—no electronic notes. This was from a guy who believed paper brought trouble.

“I’ve heard Tracer, Red Knight, and Halo before. I haven’t heard of Black Dog.”

“Hmm,” she turned a page. “One of the good guys, two actually, that names were changed were Lilith and Night Force One.”

He groaned. “Lilith was a woman with the CIA. She was killed two years ago while working in Afghanistan.”

“And Night Force One?” She questioned, more curious than not as to how real life became fiction. How a tragedy became a game. And how what she knew might just help Rhys solve a decades old crime.

“That would be me during my Special Forces days.”

“That explains the character. He’s the master of disguise, the man who can get in, do the job, and get out, but he’s also super lethal like you can be when you’re angry.”

He shook his head. “How did this guy get all of this?”

“I don’t know. Until today I didn’t realize this was real life turned into gaming. But I think he did it like this so he could get the information out there.”

“It was his idea of a cover operation but they still found out. Maybe he knew they would. Maybe…”

“What?” She hated when his mind trailed off to silent thoughts because it meant she was left hanging on the outside.

“Maybe he knew they would get me to protect you.”

“What?”

“The program you’re in, even though it’s Special Conditions and these guys are top level, they are not skilled to go up against somebody with my kind of training. Maybe this guy knew he was going to die. Maybe he knew the details of this “game” would reach me. Maybe…just maybe he orchestrated this knowing he was going to die.”

“Did he have to take me into hell with him?” She balked. Okay, the guy wanted to right past wrongs, but did he have to put her life and other people’s lives in danger just to do it?

Rhys shrugged. “Seems to me he went into this knowing he was going to die. Seems to me if he knew that he should have, one, not involved civilians, and two, left better notes.”

She sighed. “Yeah, and not used me.”

“Yeah, I agree, that’s what I meant by civilians.”

“Oh,” she nodded.

“But it does seem he targeted you. I just don’t know why.”

She snorted. “You’re the best in your field here and I’m one of the best in mine. I fact check, design, build, and I’m always behind the scenes and rarely noted by my real name in the credits—that’s my choice by the way. I do end up credited on games, but I go by my code name on every game I help design. Ghost Ninja, that’s my code name. My dad kind of gave me the Ninja part because he would call me his Butterfly Ninja—sweet but lethal. The Ghost part came when I was um…playing with um…hackers,” she shrugged. “Ghost Ninja because I can get in and out. I can sit there like a ghost, invisible, observing everything, and Ninja because I can destroy the competition. Fortunately I focused more on the legal side of life and not the illegal side. Fact checking became my thing, building and design was something I was good at too, but I loved the fact checking part. The fact that I could get into databases that shouldn’t have been gotten into was just another perk to the hiring process for the gaming place I landed in. My work helped keep us ahead of the game. Most of our buyers are military, want-to-be military, or prefer to handle the hard military life from the comfort of their sofa. They like facts mixed with their fiction and help us get that. Mostly it’s just checking facts legally, but I have had to dive in on some things and go a little deeper than some legal channels would permit—nothing too out of this world or anything like that, just a little deeper.”