Marcus (5 page)

“Yeah—” An alarm blared through the gym.
“Fuck.” The squads were needed for something urgent.

“Got to go.” Roth waved and jogged out of
the gym, followed by his team members.

“Go,” Elle urged Marcus. “I’ll get to the
Comms Control Room and if I get a chance, I’ll talk to the general
about recovering the crystals.”

Marcus nodded, his mind already turning to
prepping the team. “You tell him Hell Squad wants to go in and get
the crystals.”

“Will do.”

He started to turn.

“Marcus?”

He paused and glanced at her.

Her blue eyes were direct. “Be careful out
there.”

“Always.” For the first time he wished he
had a bit of Cruz’s good looks or Shaw’s charm. “I’m too tough to
die.”

***

The Hawk swept in low over the trees, heading
back to base. The occupants were mostly silent.

Marcus touched the button on the side of his
combat helmet and the thin, high-tech thermoplastic retracted back
into his armor. His shoulder throbbed. A fucking raptor had gotten
close enough to take a swipe at him and the damn aliens had bloody
sharp claws. It had managed to yank off part of his armor and leave
a gouge that was still stinging and bleeding sluggishly.

He glanced at his team. Cruz sat silently,
with his head in his hands. Gabe and Zeke were pacing—as best they
could in the confined space—with their carbines clenched tightly in
their hands, and Claudia was cleaning her weapon with a maniacal
intensity. Even Shaw was quiet. He sat with his head against the
wall, staring out the window.

They’d been sent out to rescue a group of
survivors headed for the base.

The raptors had found them first.

Hell Squad had fought and chased the
bastards off, but many of the survivors hadn’t made it. He scraped
a hand down his face. After months of scavenging and hiding, those
people had died just kilometers from safety, cut down like animals
in the dirt.

But he knew what hurt his team most was the
little girl they hadn’t been able to save.

She’d had her hair pulled up in two tails
off the sides of her head. Someone had cared enough for her to
scrounge some grungy purple ribbons for her. She’d almost reached
the second Hawk when a raptor had shot her in the back with one of
their poison weapons.

Fuck
. Marcus looked outside again. He
knew he’d see that little girl’s face when he went to sleep that
night. He stared, unseeing, down at the trees lining the Blue
Mountains. There was speculation that the thick trees were one of
the things helping to keep the base safe. Raptors didn’t appear to
like being amongst the trees, and as a result, they stuck to the
city, open farmland and even the desert.

Oh, the bastards had to know they were here
somewhere. But combined with the heavy forest, the entrances to the
base were thankfully well hidden—and Holmes had entire teams
dedicated to keeping it that way.

They passed over a river and a wide expanse
of rocks. Suddenly, the rocks began moving. The giant doors above
the Hawk hangars—disguised to blend into the scenery—retracted. The
Hawk’s rotors tilted and they began their descent.

Marcus shifted his carbine and his injury
burned. Shit. He hoped it wasn’t bad enough to require a trip to
the infirmary. He hated the infirmary.

The Hawk touched down.

He slid the doors back. “Everyone get some
rest. Grab a beer, watch a movie, find someone to fuck. Work out
the bad and get your head screwed back on straight. We should have
a mission soon to recover some crystals that’ll help decode the map
we found.”

He got nods and grunts in reply.

“And you,
amigo
?” Cruz murmured.
“What will you do to rest?”

“I’m fine.” He couldn’t rest. He had drone
footage he wanted to review and he needed to do some prelim
planning for the next mission.

One of Cruz’s dark brows rose. “This must
remind you of—”

“Don’t want to talk about it, Ramos.” Cruz
was a damned good friend, but that also meant he knew exactly what
buttons to push. Instead, Marcus pushed back. “Why don’t we talk
about you? The fact you’re getting quieter, playing the guitar
less, fucking less? What’s going on?”

Cruz’s mouth snapped shut. With a final look
at Marcus, he turned and leaped out of the Hawk.

As the others left the Hawk, Marcus stared
at Cruz’s back. Damn, he was worried. Cruz was normally all
charming smiles and laughs that women said were sexy. He wasn’t
usually wound so tight he might explode.

With a sigh, Marcus jumped down from the
Hawk, and his shoulder throbbed again.

Then he saw Holmes and Elle waiting for him.
Dealing with Cruz was going to have to wait. He headed over to meet
them.

“Well done bringing the survivors in,”
Holmes said. “They’re already being checked over by Medical and are
being assigned quarters.”

Marcus’ jaw worked. “We left most of them
lying dead in the dirt.”

“You can’t save everyone.”

The little girl’s terrified face flashed
through his head. He managed a nod.

“And I need you and the team ready to head
out again.”

He stopped. Saw the other members of his
team moving ahead of him stop and turn back. “What?”

Elle stepped forward. “The general’s
authorized the mission to the recover the crystals.”

“We need to find that comms hub, Steele.
Whatever it takes.”

Looked like they were going to wade through
more raptor muck much sooner than he’d thought. “Okay. But we need
a few hours. We have minor injuries and the guys need some
downtime.”

Holmes looked like he wanted to argue, which
made Marcus want to punch the guy’s perfect face.

“Fine.”

Elle cleared her throat. “There’s a
catch.”

Marcus’ jaw tightened. There was always
something. “I’m listening.”

She shoved her hands in her pockets. “I
talked more with Roth and his team. They saw loads of
crystals.”

Marcus frowned. “So we’ll grab all of
them.”

“Hundreds. You can’t grab all of them. You
need to find the right ones.”

“You’re saying we’ll need to look at what’s
on them?”

She nodded.

“I can do it.”

She shook her head. “You don’t know enough
raptor.”

“So, teach me what to look for.”

“You know that won’t work. I’ve been
studying this for over six months. You can’t just have a ten-minute
lesson.”

Holmes nodded. “She’s right. You won’t have
time to decipher on the run. You need someone with the skills to do
it quickly.” The general glanced at Elle. “Elle will be coming with
you.”

Marcus’ heart stopped. “No—”

The general’s jaw tightened. “She’s the best
we have. She’s going.”

Dammit
. Marcus’ hands curled into
fists. “No. Absolutely not. I don’t want her.”

Elle felt her heart slam against her ribs.
Marcus didn’t want her.

Struggling not to let her feelings show on
her face, she set her shoulders back. Marcus didn’t think she could
do it. It reminded her that he hadn’t wanted her for their comms
officer either. Dammit, hadn’t she proven herself by now?

General Holmes’ voice turned hard. “Steele,
we have to do what’s best for the mission—”

“Sending an untrained and unprepared
civilian into a warzone is not what’s best for the mission.” With a
vicious glance at her, Marcus stormed out of the room.

A part of Elle wanted to shrink into a
little ball. She looked up and saw Claudia, wearing her scuffed
body armor, her dark hair pulled back in one long braid, looking at
Elle, a faint smile on her face.

The other part of Elle was pissed.

That taunting smirk made Elle’s quivering
belly harden.
No way
. This mission was too important. She
wanted to help. She wouldn’t sit idly by and just be another
bystander waiting to be rescued. That’s why she’d volunteered in
the comms department in the first place. She wanted to help. She
needed
to help.

Pivoting, she strode after Marcus.

His long legs had eaten up the ground
between them and she had to jog to catch him. He was ripping pieces
of his body armor off.

For a second, her gaze snagged on his big,
muscular biceps.

Elle steeled herself. “Marcus!”

He kept going.

He was going to listen to her,
dammit.
She snagged the sleeve of his shirt. “I can do
this.”

He came to a halt so fast she almost ran
into him.

“You have no fucking idea what it’s like out
there.” He spun. His tough face was set in rigid lines. It would
have sent a lesser person running.

“Do you know what it’s like to have raptors
raining down on you? To be covered in gore?” He tugged at his
shirt, it was soaked dark red.

Under his hard green gaze her confidence
wavered, but she stiffened her spine. “I have an idea. I survived
the attack. I watch it on my screen, I hear the laser fire, the
roars of the aliens. I’ve heard people die. I feel the worry, the
anxiety knowing you…the team…are out there. I know what it’s
like.”

He shook his head. “Hearing it is nothing
like experiencing it.”

Sometimes she thought it was worse. Hearing
him firing his weapon, yelling orders at his squad as raptors
charged them, while she was stuck, unable to help, in the base. Now
she had a chance to do something.

She took a step forward until her boots hit
his. “I am not some stupid, little civvy with nothing to offer. I
know the realities. I know if we don’t pull this mission off, we’ll
be stuck in this place like rats forever. Waiting in our hole until
the raptors sniff us out and finish us humans off for good. Until
they help themselves to our planet and its resources and leave it a
desolate ruin.” She sucked in a breath, her chest heaving. “I can
do
this.”

His jaw hardened. “I know you can. That’s
not the damn problem.” He turned and stomped down the hall.

Elle blinked, her brow scrunching in
confusion. What was the issue then? “What, Marcus? You
need
to take me on this mission. What the hell is your problem?”

He moved so fast it was shocking. He pushed
her up against the smooth tunnel wall, his big body crowding her
in.

He smelled hot, sweaty and bloody, and heat
poured off his muscular frame. God, he made her feel so…small. She
felt a lick of something molten inside.

Marcus leaned in until his face was an inch
from hers. “My problem is you.”

Pain lanced through her. Okay, he couldn’t
make it any clearer that he thought she wasn’t right for the job.
She quivered against him. “I know you never wanted me as comms
officer for Six. I know you thought I couldn’t do it, but haven’t I
proven that I can?”

His head lowered, his intense gaze roaming
her face until it stopped. Was he looking at her lips? A flicker of
heat in her belly. No, Marcus would never feel that way about her,
despite her most secret fantasies.

“You’ve done a great job, but I don’t want
you in the field.”

His deep voice shivered through her.
Everything about this tough, battle-hardened man drew her in. His
voice, his strength, his resolve. She wanted to lean into his
strength, let him take all the worry and burden off her for a few
precious seconds.

But he already shouldered too much. He was
already the one all of mankind depended on to go out there every
day and risk his life to protect them.

“I need to do this, Marcus.” She stared
straight into his eyes. That bright, vivid green she sometimes saw
in her dreams. “I
need
to help.”

He groaned, his head dropping forward until
his hot lips brushed her ear. “Ellianna.”

No one called her that anymore. She’d left
Ellianna, the society girl, behind the day the aliens had destroyed
her world. But she guessed that was all Marcus saw when he looked
at her.

Her voice dropped to a whisper and she
forced the next words out, even though it felt like they were
ripped from her soul. “I need to matter.”

She’d never really mattered to anyone—not
her mother, not to the man she thought she’d marry, and least of
all, the father who’d barely noticed she was there.

Marcus was silent, his entire body vibrating
with tension. His breath was hot on the side of her neck and she
felt all the muscles in her body turn to jelly. “Do you want me to
beg? Please, Marcus—”

“No, I don’t want you to beg.”

His lips brushed her earlobe and she closed
her eyes. God, did he know he was killing her with that accidental
contact? She wanted to give into the gnawing inside her and grab
him. Hold him tight, explore those hard muscles, taste him…

“I know you can do this, Elle. I just want
to keep you safe.”

She pulled in a breath. He was always
protecting everybody else, never giving any consideration to his
own life.

Again, his lips brushed her skin, this time
the side of her neck. She shivered and barely managed to swallow a
groan.

“And you do matter,” he said. “To me.”

***

Back off, Steele.
His brain was
telling him one thing, but with Elle’s slim, enticing frame pressed
against him, his body wanted something else. Shit, it was lucky he
hadn’t taken off his lower-body armor, or she’d feel his hard cock
digging into her belly.

He fought for some control. In the field,
control was so damned easy. He commanded his squad, covered all the
bases, planned every step but was always ready to flex when the
shit hit, as it always did.

But with this woman, he always felt like he
never had a handle on anything. He shouldn’t even have his dirty,
death-covered hands anywhere near her creamy skin.

But with everything churning inside him and
being this close to her… Marcus lost the battle he’d been fighting
for months.