On Thin Ice (Special Ops) (16 page)

“We’ll be okay up here for the night. They’ll be down there; if they keep moving I’ll see the lights they use to navigate and I’ll handle it.”

“Jet,” she shivered. “I need my top.” She almost felt her teeth chattering.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” He swiftly opened the pack and pulled her top out. She took it just as swiftly and pulled it over her head, hoping the fabric would warm her cold arms.

“I didn’t want to make us stop.”

“Akira,” he warned. “You should have said something.”

“I’m saying something now.” Her fingers tugged on the blanket still attached to the bottom of his pack. He obviously got the hint because he removed it, unfolded it and wrapped it around her. “God, it’s cold out here. I was fine last night.”

“You were sheltered by four walls,” he reminded her. “You don’t have anything to keep you from the wind out here, or to cut down the impact of the cold temperature. Come here,” he leaned against the tree and opened his arms for her. She edged closer to him and he pulled her onto his lap. “I’ll help keep you warm for a little while, and then I have to keep watch.”

“You need sleep.”

“I’ll get a little. I’ll just make sure I don’t sleep too comfortably.” He wrapped his arms around her. She looked up into his eyes and smiled.

“I like being in your arms. I have dreamed about this for so long…well, not the chased by really bad guys with guns part, but just being in your arms—being with you.” She blushed and looked away. He slipped two fingers underneath her chin and prompted her to raise her head and her eyes to look at him.

He brushed his thumb over her lips. “If you knew how hard I tried to fight this, how long…”

“Why? I know you say it’s the age thing, but Jet, I’m a grown woman.”

“I’m an old man.”

She chuckled. “You’re not that old and you know it.”

“Maybe I was just afraid you would wake up one day and realize you could have done better.”

“There is nobody better for me, Jet. I love you. I’ll always love you. I love you so much it hurt knowing you couldn’t love me the same, but I didn’t want to...I never meant to…lose the friendship.”

“You never lost it, and you never will. For the record, I do love you. I’m in love with you and I’m not going to fight it anymore.” He leaned in and kissed her, pressing the palm of his hand against the coolness of her cheek. His tongue danced with hers, drawing her deeper into the embrace. She wanted this. She wanted him and now he was hers. This was really happening. This wasn’t a dream. This was her reality.

She deepened the kiss as his hand gently moved to caress her body. She felt it when he slipped his hand beneath the blanket and stroked her quivering belly. Then his hand traveled ever so slowly up to her breasts where he took his time with deliciously captivating strokes of the small mound covered by her clothes. Right now she wished she hadn’t put the top back on because having his hands on her body without the obstruction of fabric had been another dream of hers. She moaned as she deepened the kiss even more and he returned with his own low rumbling moan.

He pulled away from her, his eyes darkened with desire. “Woman, you can make a man forget what’s chasing him.”

She smiled. She liked knowing she could turn him on. She liked knowing that he wanted her just as much as she wanted him. “I better get off your lap, I guess.”

“Are you warm?”

“Scorching,” she winked as she eased off his lap. She was not mistaking the hardness growing between his legs. While she wanted to explore it they both needed to stay alert and she knew it.

“Get some sleep,” he told her.

“You too.”

“A little,” he agreed as he lay down beside her and wrapped his arm around her. There is where she wanted to be, not with the crazy that followed them, but with him. She loved this man, and knowing that all of her dreams about being with him were finally on the verge of coming true she wasn’t ready to have that snatched away from her. They had to make it down off this mountain and back to Texas. They just had to.

She wasn’t sure how long she had slept, only that it was still dark when Jet placed his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t move,” he said so low she wouldn’t have heard him if he weren’t mere centimeters away from her ear at the time. Her eyes opened slowly and her ears perked up. She could hear the voices coming toward their direction.

“I’m going to take care of this. You stay here. Stay low and don’t move.”

She wanted to protest his putting his life in danger. They were down low; they wouldn’t see them up there, but then she realized even if they didn’t see them something still had to be done. If he let them pass then they would have plenty of time to set a trap. Still, she didn’t want him to risk his life. There were four of them, and only one of him. From the noises she could hear she only heard two voices, but that didn’t mean the others weren’t there with them.

“Be careful,” she said instead of the words that were really in her heart and on her mind—
don’t go
. Jet knew what he was doing and she had to trust him on this and have faith in his abilities.

When he left her she watched him until he faded from sight. He was taking the roundabout way down instead of climbing down and she guessed that had more to do with the element of surprise. If he came at them head on they would see him. Plus, she couldn’t tell how far away they were so they could have been close enough to see him make the descent had he gone the same way they had gotten up there. She couldn’t see any lights. She could only hear their muffled voices and so she assumed that meant they were still far enough away not to see him coming, but close enough to be dangerous.

The way their voices raised she would think they were arguing. They must have been arguing because it wouldn’t have been smart to talk as if they were mates at a bar having a good time while they were trying to sneak up on somebody. Of course they didn’t know that she and Jet had stopped to sleep. If they weren’t tired they probably figured she and her rescuer wouldn’t be either. They probably assumed that she and Jet were still moving ahead of them.

The voices weren’t audible anymore and she wondered if that meant Jet had gotten them or if they had gotten him. She hadn’t heard gunfire and she thought she would have heard that if Jet had gotten to them first.

The silence seemed to go on for so long. In those moments where she could only hear the distant sounds of the nocturnal forest inhabitants making their ruckus she felt an ache in her heart for Jet. She would never forgive herself if he died because of her.

She heard the subtle hint of movement and she knew he was okay. She looked up expecting to find Jet, but what she found was the one they called Iakov standing over her while pointing his gun at her head and looking highly satisfied at the predicament she was now in.

“Jet,” she whispered in a tear strained voice. He hadn’t made it.

“Get up and move,” he motioned with his gun. She complied, walking in the direction he told her to walk. “I’m going to get a sweet reward for delivering you to Alexei. He isn’t that far behind us. Maybe a couple hours at most. Sweet,” he whistled. “Da, it’s going to be sweet. I told that fool Kostya you all had to stop for the night. He did not believe me, but I was right. I knew you did not sleep comfortably and you are a weak woman,” he laughed. “I have you.”

She turned on him so fast she didn’t know where her sudden rush of bravery came from. Maybe she was angry because they had killed Jet, or because this creep was standing here laughing over her heartbreak.

She lunged at him, knocking the gun out of his hand. He placed both hands on her arms trying to hold her still, but with the furry of a wild woman in rage he couldn’t steady her. She kicked his shin and then went straight for the area she knew would at least give her enough time to run. She got him square in the seat of his pants with a solid kick. In one angry howl he backhanded her so hard she fell a few feet backwards. She lay sprawled out on the ground. She tried to get up. She was ready to get up and fight some more, but when she turned her head she saw Jet tackle Iakov like a line backer. A few punches and then a solid head lock followed by the breaking of bones and she knew the monster in front of her was dead.

She pulled to her feet swiftly.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.”

She ran to him, throwing her arms around him. “I thought they had you. I thought you were dead.”

“They split up before I got to them. I went hand to hand with the other one and when I got back up here you weren’t where I left you. I heard him,” he gestured to Iakov with a subtle nod of his head. His eyes narrowed as he took in the blood trickling down her chin. He growled.

“It’s not your fault, Jet. I’m all right.”

“It shouldn’t have happened,” his anger was highly evident in his tone. “It shouldn’t have happened at all and definitely not on my watch.”
 
He took hold of her arm. “Come on. We need to get our things and keep moving.”

“I know. The others aren’t far behind.”

“So I heard.”

He was obviously in the mood to get moving fast, but he took the time to clean her new injury. She was going to look like a walking punching bag by the time they got out of this, but if they made it out of this she wouldn’t complain about cuts, scrapes and bruises. The most important thing was getting home alive—for both of them. In those few moments when she thought he might be dead everything seemed bleak. She felt so much pain and rage that she didn’t know how to handle it, which is probably why she lashed out when she had no chance of winning the fight. She figured he would either subdue her or kill her. With the rage she felt she figured he would have to kill her because she had no intentions of willingly surrendering. They were planning to kill her anyway and she knew that. If he had done it right there at least they wouldn’t be able to hit her father up for anything and she wouldn’t be back in that holding cell suffering their abuse once again. She was not going back there, not if she could help it.

The fact that the darkness was still pervasive told her it was still too early in the morning for sunrise. Jet had used his flashlight even though he hadn’t wanted to use that particular instrument. They couldn’t stay put and they couldn’t safely navigate the terrain without more light. The moon was still full and high in the sky, but that didn’t mean there was enough light to go walking in the wild without an additional aid.

They walked in silence until they came to an area dense with trees and shrubs. She didn’t know why he was stopping until he guided her behind an area with trees and brush covering. “I have to end this. I want to get you to safety, but they’re too close and we won’t make it down that mountain if I don’t end this here. I need you to stay—” He held up his hand when he saw the hint of protest getting ready to leave her lips. She didn’t want him to fight the last two. Those two scared her the most. Those two were the most lethal and they wouldn’t fight fair. She knew they wouldn’t. “I need you to stay put. Do not move unless you have to. If I don’t make it you run. Do you understand me? You run.”

She felt the tears falling from her eyes onto her cheeks. Her lips quivered as he gently brushed away her fallen tears with the pad of his thumb. She nodded, unable to speak, unable to think really. She didn’t want to picture a world where Jet didn’t make it out of this. He leaned in and kissed her softly before leaving her where he put her. She could see him as he walked back a little and then hid on the other side behind bushes. He gave her a hand signal to stay low so she stopped trying to watch him so that she was able to stay low.