Fire and Ice (Guardians) (35 page)

"I love you! God, I love you!" Jack groaned into her neck as he pumped hot semen into her, gushing out in spurts as he continued to push into her until he was spent. He released her hands and wrapped his arms around her tightly as the last of his shudders receded.

***

Jack felt, rather than saw, Maia freeze. He knew what had prompted it. His unchecked declarations of love. Fuck it. He wasn't denying it or taking it back.

"We're not ignoring it, you know," Jack said. Maia was in the crook of his arms, albeit stiff as a rod, and he was running the back of his fingers up and down the back of her arms absently.

"I'm in love with you," Jack said quietly. "I didn't mean to tell you anytime soon. But I can't keep it inside me any longer. I think I've loved you since the first time I kissed you."

He tipped her chin up to look at him. He saw some fear and uncertainty in her eyes. "And I know you love me too, Maia."

Her eyes flashed in annoyance. "Oh, and what makes you think that, you conceited ass?"

Now this, he could deal with. Jack grinned, "Babe, no way can I love you this much without you loving me back in some fucking way. When we make love, Maia, I see it in your eyes. It's not just physical. It's fucking body and soul."

"I don't think this is a good idea," Maia mumbled.

"You do love me?" Jack prompted.
 

"I don't know," Maia mumbled again while Jack's heart fell. He sighed and kissed her on the temple. He was feeling vulnerable, laying his heart out not knowing how she felt for him in return. Maybe this was payback for his past emotional detachment in his previous relationships—didn't feel too good being on the other side. After a few moments, she huffed in obvious annoyance.

"I think so," Maia conceded.

Jack knifed up from the bed and straddled her. He dug his fingers into her sides, tickling her.
 
He knew he was not playing fair, but she gave him an in and he was pulling her through the rest of the way.

"Jack!" Maia squealed and started laughing.

"You think?" he said, unrelenting.

"Jack stop it, you're not playing...stop it!" Maia pleaded while gasping for air.

He was merciless.

"You think?" he repeated.

"Fine! I love you too!" Maia yelled as she swiped his hands away.
 

He rolled off to his back and took her with him, her naked body sprawled on top of him.

"I love you so much, babe," Jack declared as he looked deeply in her eyes.

"How much?"

"I think I'd rather show you," Jack replied devilishly. "Can I?"

"I'll be disappointed if you didn't."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The days that followed were bliss. Jack was the most attentive lover, both in and out of bed. Jack telling her that he loved her had stripped away the last of their inhibitions; now there was no guessing where their relationship was going. They were actually trying to make this work. But when Jack returned her AGS cell phone, the nagging thought that she had to keep some work secrets from him bothered her. At the same time, though, she knew he didn't have the right to know.

Hopefully he would understand. The topic had not come up.

During the first week of December, more than two weeks after the Reznikov incident, Maia received an anonymous text on her phone to meet around the corner of the apartment building. She had no doubt it was the contact for Alexsey Volynsky.

Pulling on a trench coat over her sweats, she hurried to the elevator and punched the key for the ground floor. She nodded to Tim, the bellman, and walked out into the chilly December air.

There was a bus stop at that corner, so Maia figured that was where the drop was going to be. She sat down and opened the paperback she had brought and started reading. Almost immediately someone sat down beside her. It was the same woman who had been at the convention.

"The number has changed. Good luck." She pushed a piece of paper towards Maia, who took it and inserted it in the pages of her book. As if on cue, a bus pulled up to the stop and the woman got on and disappeared.

"Welcome back, Maia," Viktor said when she called.

She hadn't communicated with him since the hospital, and he had not left her any messages on her phone either. He was giving her space and waiting for her to decide when to come back to work.

"Volynsky made contact again," Maia informed him. She filled him in on the first conversation that had taken place way back in Baltimore. Viktor listened without interrupting, but Maia knew he was irritated that she had not informed him of this development sooner.

"Early January, you say?" Viktor said finally. "Do you want to do this?"

"I don't know," Maia said, thinking of Jack. Shit, her relationship with him was starting to affect her willingness to do a job. "What do you think?"

"I won't lie, baby. This sounds very risky," Viktor admitted. "You'll be depending on people you've never worked with, and you won't have any of your own around. But the Volynsky name is the only one strong enough to overthrow the regime of Gavlik and that would strike a major blow to the Russian drug and prostitution ring."

"I'll do it. But this is the last time I'll take a job of this nature," Maia said.

"Understood," Viktor said softly. "What time do you want me to send the comm van?"

It was 11:45 pm. Unfortunately, this wasn't one of the nights Jack was working late. Maia was pretending to be interested in the evening news, but she knew there was no way she could sneak out of the apartment without Jack finding out.

"Babe, it's getting late," Jack came over to where she was sitting on the couch and kissed her on the head. He was wearing drawstring pajamas, was shirtless and she wanted nothing more than to cuddle in bed with him. "What's so interesting on the news, anyway?"

"Um, nothing," Maia said as she turned off the TV and stood up. Facing Jack with the couch between them seemed like a good idea at the moment.

"I need to get to the AGS comm van at midnight," Maia said as she walked towards the hall closet to grab her coat. She immediately felt the air in the room change. Jack's face had turned stony and his whole body grew taut with rising anger. She pretended that everything was normal and started to put on her sneakers.

"I thought we were through with this shit," Jack said roughly.

"Jack, I just..."

"Were you even going to mention this to me? Were you, Maia?" He was really pissed off now.

Maia looked at her watch and walked to the elevator.

"I have no time to discuss this. We'll talk later," Maia replied calmly.

In a flash, Jack was in front of her and gripping her shoulders.

Before he could say anything, she looked him directly in the eye. "You said you weren't going to interfere with my work. You know the risks. Don't make me regret us."

He let her go. The last thing Maia saw when the elevator doors slid close was his stricken face.

"I'm glad you're agreeing to do this," Volynsky said.

"So what do I do next?" Maia asked abruptly. She was still upset that her two worlds were colliding. It was so much simpler when she didn't have Jack in her life.

"I'll forward your travel papers to the AGS headquarters. Someone will pick you up at the Moscow airport. Your contact now will be Erik Costa. He will fill you in on the plans before and after you get here."

"When will I actually get to see you?"

"Erik will be in charge of logistics and everything else. You will be brought directly to me and we will start our journey across Russia. By the time you arrive you should already know our route."

"Sounds like a plan," Maia said, starting to actually get excited. At least it wouldn't involve communicating through a comm van the whole time. That could be tedious. There was an AGS satellite office in New Park which she could use to videoconference with this Erik Costa guy.

"Thanks again, Agent Pierce. I will see you in January."

***

Jack sat on the couch with a glass of whiskey in hand. He was waiting for Maia to return. They had been so happy the past week. They had done things normal couples did: they went on dates, went to movies, made love, walked in the park. And with the holidays a few weeks away, the energy of the festivities added glow to their time together.

He knew when he returned her phone that her other life was going to catch up with them. It just had.
 

The elevators swooshed open and closed. Maia's quiet footfalls padded to the closet where she divested herself of her coat and sneakers.

Without a word, she walked up to where he was seated on the couch and got on his lap, like she always did lately, and snuggled close to him.

Jack's heart twitched whenever she did that.

"All done?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Want some whiskey?"

"I'll just take a sip of yours."

They sat like that for a moment just savoring each other's scents and warmth.

"Is it something you can talk about?" Jack asked finally.

"No."

"What's the risk factor?" Jack asked. "Could you at least tell me that?"

"What good will that do. It'll just make you worry," Maia replied.

"If it wasn't risky, you would have told me already," Jack sighed. "Judging from the set of your jaw, it's bad. Just be careful, Maia."

"You know, I really didn't want to take the job," Maia admitted. "Because of you. You've changed the way I work, Jack. I don't know if that's good or bad."

Jack was overjoyed that Maia was beginning to factor him into her work decisions. He was slowly getting through to her. What he didn't want was to be a distraction; that could have fatal consequences.

"I hope it's for the best," Jack said quietly. Maia tipped her face up and gave him a kiss. He would have turned it into a full blown make-out session if her blasted phone hadn't started ringing.

Maia tore her lips away to answer the call.

"Pierce... Who?... Wow, you're quick."

To Jack's annoyance, Maia got off his lap and padded to the window.

"We can set up a weekly meeting to touch base. Yes. Give me your email, Erik, I'll send you the videoconference invitation... Should I take care of the passport or you?... I don't think I'll look good as blonde, I'll use a wig, I've done that before... Uh-huh... Listen, let's just talk about this tomorrow... Yes, that time works. Right."

Maia ended the call and then punched a speed dial number.

"We're on. My new contact is Erik Costa... I need to use the satellite office tomorrow ... Sounds good."

Maia breathed out forcefully and sat beside Jack as she took a sip of the whiskey.

"I wish I could talk to you about it," Maia told him. "I think you'll enjoy it from a strategic view point."

"What kind of mission is it?" Jack asked casually.
 

Maia looked like she was deciding what to tell him. "Extraction."

Jack resisted the urge to curse. Extractions meant there were bad guys all around trying to take shots at you. "Why do you need to go as a blonde?"

"They're not sure if the hostiles know how I look like. I need at least to get through the airport undetected."

"So does that mean you have crossed paths with these hostiles before?"

"Jack, I've already told you too much."

He resisted the urge to press her for more, but his mind was working overtime putting pieces of information together. Maia had admitted that the mess in Baltimore did not end with Reznikov. There was one other person in play that he knew of: Mikhail Gavlik, who had sent those four badass-looking commandos that got to Colt.

"You're going up against Mikhail Gavlik, aren't you?" Jack stated hoarsely as his chest tightened with unbearable anxiety.

Maia's stunned reaction confirmed his deduction. Fuck.

"Babe, don't do this," he pleaded, but he knew from her set face that it was useless to try to dissuade her.

"Jack, baby," Maia said as she laid her head on his bare chest. "You have to trust me."

Jack rested his head on top of hers, feeling his own jaw clench. "OK."

He wasn't okay with it, but he relented. He didn't want to mess with her head by making her worry about him when she had deal with a Russian mob boss who was worse than Reznikov. But he had to find a way to protect her. It was imperative.

The next morning, Jack regarded Derek Lockwood steadily after he had filled him in on his suspicions of Maia's activities.

"But she had not confirmed this?" Derek pressed.

"She didn't have to, it was written all over her face," Jack replied.

His friend sighed. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to offer several vials of the tracking serum to Viktor for trial as well as a couple of the handheld tracking devices," Jack said.

"You know that the serum wasn't meant to be used as a stalking device," Derek said dryly.

"Just do it, Derek!"

***

"So Erik, what's an Italian doing mixed up with the Russian mob?" Maia asked the black-haired, olive-skinned man in the videoconference monitor.

"I'm only half Italian, my mother was Russian," Erik grinned, flashing even white teeth. "And I'm not mixed up with the Russian bratva, I'm fighting against them."

"A noble cause. So, what do you have for me?" Maia asked, getting down to business.
 

"I'll be emailing you the planned route of our journey. It will only lead to the outskirts of the province that Volynsky is hiding out in. Even we do not know his exact location just yet. He communicates via a network of trusted couriers. Timing is everything. I'll be meeting you at the Moscow airport. His courier will meet us to personally hand us his current location."

Maia considered this. "What if Gavlik's men intercept? Do you know if you're being followed right now?"

"We've clashed with them a couple of times," Erik admitted. "But we match them in men and firepower."

"You know, I'm just curious about your stake in this?" Maia asked shrewdly. "It's almost like carrying out a regime change."

Erik's face clouded as if remembering a painful memory. "When the Soviet Union collapsed, it brought about the rise of the Russian bratvas. They controlled the economy and many of our countrymen were exploited. My mother worked at GAV-VOL Pharmaceuticals and was killed in the crossfire between the warring bratvas. Gavlik is turning the company into a front for producing illegal drugs, Volynsky is committed to stopping that. They both own equal shares of the company but Gavlik is usurping the power of the board. We just need to install Volynsky back in control because legally, he is the only one who can do it."