Hot Shot (A Hostile Operations Team Novel)(#5) (2 page)

The garage door cranked up slowly and she jammed the gas before the door was all the way up, just sliding under it with enough clearance to get out. Gina whipped the car around and shoved the gearshift into drive. Then she was bolting down the driveway and out onto the road.

She had no idea where to go, but she hoped she’d stumble onto civilization if she drove far enough.
 

The full moon helped illuminate the road, but it was twisty and turny and her heart pounded as she navigated the hairpin curves. And then she caught a flash of headlights behind her and her stomach fell to her toes.

Athenasios’s house was remote. While she supposed it was possible that someone was simply out for a drive, she wasn’t betting on it. Either some of his men had come after her, or whoever had shot all those men was after her too.

Maybe it was a kidnapping attempt. Her blood froze at that thought. There had been threats against her, but that was pretty much expected when you were as high profile as she was. Tears pressed against the backs of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She’d just wanted to escape the fishbowl of her life for a while. Just a while, dammit.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Regina
—that’s what her mother would have said if she were still alive.
 

Gina stomped on the gas and whipped the Mercedes around corners like an IndyCar driver. Thank God her manager had made her take that defensive-driving course a few months ago. If she made it out of here alive, she’d kiss Barry for that.

Trees overhung the road, obscuring her vision. The headlights did their job, but it wasn’t as good as when she’d had moonlight too. Behind her, headlights flashed through the trees from time to time. If the car wasn’t following her, then she should have left it behind when she sped up.

But they were coming for her. Gina pressed the pedal down again, hoping she was better at navigating these curves than they were.

Up ahead, a dirt track led off the road and into the trees. Part of her said to keep going, but part of her said she had to get off the road and hide. At the last second, she whipped onto the track. The car bumped and thumped against the ground until she slowed down. Gina had to turn off the lights, even though it would mean she couldn’t see. Slowing to a crawl, she tried to navigate her way farther off the road. Once she was out of sight, she rolled the window down, listening for the sounds of another car. It was screaming up the incline and she swallowed a knot of panic.

Gina stopped the car and waited. Finally, the other engine roared by and kept going down the road. She made herself breathe slowly, in and out and in and out, but her heart still pounded hard. She would have to wait here for quite some time before it would be safe to go.

Though maybe this track went somewhere. She turned on the parking lights and drove slowly down the road. And then the front wheels dropped from beneath her and she realized too late that she’d hit a ditch.

She put the car in reverse and tried to back out of the gully, but the wheels spun wildly.

Gina dropped her head to the steering wheel. Now what? Tears flowed freely, and that made her angry. She wasn’t a quitter, dammit!

She sat up, determined to try again—and a bush with eyes appeared in front of her. A wave of fright washed over her, immobilizing her. And then she frantically grappled for the power button on the window.

But the bush moved toward her—and the window wasn’t going up.
 

CHAPTER TWO

SHE DIDN’T SCREAM. Jack found that intriguing because he would have bet his right nut that a woman as pampered as she was would scream. He had his hand on the door and she was frantically trying to raise the window.

Then she hit his hands with the heels of hers. He grabbed her wrists and held her hard.

“Miss Domenico, it’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you.”

She blinked those green eyes of hers. They were shimmery with tears. Silvery tracks streaked down her cheeks, and he knew she’d been crying. But she hadn’t screamed when he’d materialized in front of her. The ghillie suit he wore was designed to make him disappear in terrain such as this. He could have stayed hidden, but she’d driven right toward him. And then she’d gotten stuck.

Maybe he should have left her, but he could hear Hayley’s voice in his head, telling him he had to help. In spite of the fact he and Brandy had split up because they’d been taking fire, in spite of the fact he was late to the extraction point, in spite of it all. If her being here at this moment wasn’t a sign from the universe, he didn’t know what was.

“Wh…who are you? If it’s money you want, my manager will pay.”

He blinked. And then he realized what she meant. Ransom. She thought he was here to kidnap her.

“Miss Domenico, I’m not interested in money. I’m here to help you.”

“Y…you are? Who sent you?”

How to answer that one? “The United States Army, ma’am.” It was close enough to the truth, and maybe if she thought he was one of the good guys, she’d calm down.

She didn’t look too happy with the information, though. In fact, he’d swear she’d just cringed. He let her wrists go and she sank back into her seat.

“The car’s stuck, ma’am. You’ll have to come with me if you want to get out of here.”

“I’m wearing a swimsuit and high heels.” Her eyes widened. “Oh wait, I have flip-flops in my bag.”

He had emergency gear in his rucksack, including a Mylar survival blanket. If he could get them somewhere hidden, he could take care of them both long enough for help to arrive.

“I’m afraid you have no choice, ma’am. If you stay here, they’ll find you eventually. If you come with me, I’ll get you out safely.”

She chewed her lip as she looked at him. He knew he looked strange, like a bush with a face—though even his face was darkened with greasepaint. The only thing that made him look human would be his eyes and the flash of his teeth when he spoke.

“You still haven’t told me your name.”

“Jack Hunter.” He cleared his throat. “My wife was a big fan.”

“Was?”

And there it was, that twist in his heart that still caught him unaware sometimes. It’d only been eight months, so it wasn’t unexpected—and yet it hurt.

“She died, ma’am.”

Her breath hitched. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She reached for the handle and opened the door. And then she stood and dragged her beach bag with her. Swiftly, she changed her shoes—but she didn’t leave the old ones behind. He would have told her not to because it was positive ID she’d been in the car, but either she’d thought of that or she just loved her shoes.
 

She fixed him with a determined look. “All right, Jack Hunter. I’m ready. But you have to call me Gina, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am. I mean Gina.” He pointed to the east. “That’s the direction we’re going. About six miles, and we’ll come out on a beach with sea caves. We’ll hide there until help arrives.”

She swallowed. “Sounds fun.”

He cocked his head as he stared at her, but then he decided she was making a joke. The word that kept swirling in his brain when he looked at her was
tough
. It was turning out to be a surprise. She was tougher than he’d thought she would be. Smarter too, he’d bet.

“Then let’s go.” He hadn’t taken but a few steps when she called out.

“I can’t see you. You disappear.”

The ghillie suit. He turned back to her. “We can’t turn on any lights, I’m afraid.”

He thought about asking her to hold on to his suit, but it was possible pieces of the camouflage would tear away. There was only one solution he could think of.

“You’ll have to hold my hand.”

He stretched out his hand to her and she placed hers inside. He felt a jolt of awareness throttle through him. It was shocking to his system after all this time. He hadn’t wanted a woman since Hayley died—and he still didn’t, goddamn it—but for the first time since then, sexual awareness reared up and reminded him that he hadn’t lost the ability to feel desire.

Jesus H. Christ.

He wanted to let her go, but a tremor passed through her and he knew he couldn’t. He’d said he was here to help, and by God he was going to help. Even if he had to suffer from the things her touch was doing to him.

* * *

Gina did her best to keep up with Jack. When she stumbled, he slowed, and when they reached any obstacles, he helped her through. She’d lost count of how many times his hands had spanned her waist, but she hadn’t lost sight of how sparks had zinged through her every time. She kept telling herself it was nothing when in fact it was terribly disconcerting.
 

She’d learned a long time ago that sex was a weapon people often used against each other. And she really should have remembered it when she’d made the decision to date Athenasios Metaxas. He’d come to one of her concerts in Greece a couple of months ago, and he’d been so handsome and suave—and he’d commanded such power over his domain that he’d made her feel safe.

Until this past week when he’d shown his true nature. He’d wooed her with such meticulous attention to detail that she’d thought he was a dream come true. His brother had given her the creeps, always staring at her, but Athenasios had seemed perfectly normal.
 

He’d flown to wherever she was staying, wined and dined her, and behaved like a perfect gentleman. He’d called her—not too often—and told her how lovely she was and how much he enjoyed her company. And then he’d asked her to go sailing in the Caribbean with him.

She’d agreed.
 

That’s when she’d discovered he wasn’t a dream at all. He was brutal and thoughtless and he believed women were his for the taking. Her included. He hadn’t raped her—she couldn’t call it that—but he’d forced the issue when she wasn’t quite certain she was ready to take that step with him. Then he’d started making plans for her life as if he had every right to do so.

Gina shivered as she remembered how helpless she’d felt, how trapped.

“You okay?”
 

She looked up at the dark blur that was her companion. If he hadn’t been holding her hand, she would have thought he wasn’t there at all. He spoke quietly, and she pitched her voice low when she answered, remembering that he’d told her it was okay to talk so long as she was quiet.

“Fine. Just tired. And a mosquito bit me. Guess I missed a spot with the bug spray.”

He chuckled. The sound warmed her. He’d been amused when she’d pulled bug spray from her bag and doused herself.
 

“Sorry to laugh. It’s not funny.”

“No, I don’t mind. You have to laugh at something, right?”

“You amaze me with how calm you are about all this.”

She waved a hand. “Oh, I hike through the woods in a bikini and a robe all the time. It’s especially fun when running away from madmen.”

“Yeah.”

She bit her lip. “I guess if you’re with the Army, you must know something about what happened back there.”

“I do. But I’m afraid I can’t tell you about it.”

“I was there. I saw it. Someone shot Athenasios and the men who arrived by helicopter. And then they shot the bodyguards.”

“You really need to keep those details to yourself when you get home.”

“Trust me, I don’t want anyone knowing I was anywhere near there when it happened.”

“Wasn’t he your boyfriend?”

Her hand tightened on his, but she quickly made herself relax. She couldn’t pretend Athenasios had been a good person when she knew better. In many ways, he’d been no different from the men her mother had dated who’d hit her when she was a teenager. “Not really. Our relationship, such as it was, was definitely ending just as soon as I got away from him.”

“Too bad you didn’t leave sooner.”

“I tried. He wouldn’t let me.”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “It’s good you’re out of there. He wasn’t a nice man.”

“No, I know it now. I suck at picking men, apparently. It’s a family trait, passed down from mother to daughter.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Gina sniffed. She liked the comforting feel of his hand on hers. Especially when he gave her a little squeeze of support.

“Would you tell me about your wife? Unless it’s too painful.”

He didn’t say anything for a long while. She didn’t know why she’d asked, except she’d wanted to think about something other than the fact she was currently on the run from Athenasios’s men—and who knows who else.

“We were high school sweethearts,” he began, his voice a little rusty. “I joined the Army after school and we ended it, but I found that I didn’t like being without her. So I went back and married her a couple of years ago. She was a vet tech.”

“She wasn’t easy to forget.”

“No.” He pulled in a breath. “Still isn’t. Hayley was on her way to work during a bad storm when her car hit a patch of water and hydroplaned out of control. Broke through a railing and landed upside down in a creek. The impact killed her, which was a good thing because the creek waters were rising. She was scared of drowning, so I’m glad she didn’t go that way.”