One Minute to Midnight (Black Ops: Automatik) (11 page)

The climax crested, and she let out a long moan. Ben slowed until he held her clit in his mouth in a long kiss. Warm, wet and dark. Her hurried pulse throbbed, and her limbs felt limp. But not calm. She stroked his shoulders, encouraging him back up to her.

Her personal storm cloud rose back up. She wrapped her arms around him. He enveloped her. The two of them remained still as her heart continued to thunder. More potential resonated in their bodies. Her awakened desires hadn’t been satisfied.

She kissed his mouth. Tasting her sex on him flared her desire, unashamed. “Don’t stop.”

“I won’t ever stop until you tell me to.” His voice was as shadowed as the surrounding night. Her heart opened to take in the promise. But how real was it? Right then, she wanted it all to be true.

Swiveling her hips signaled her need. He responded by separating their bodies and leaning between the front seats to search through his jacket. It was taking too long.

She tugged at his hip. “You got it?”

“I got it.” But he continued his hunt.

“I have some in my purse.”

“I got it...somewhere.” The crinkle of the wrapper marked his success. He returned to the back and sat next to her. “Why don’t you put it on?”

She extended her hand, and he placed the condom in her palm. She unwrapped it and turned to him. He didn’t move. She took her time exploring his chest and stomach until her fingers found his erect cock. He rumbled. Using both hands, she slowly unrolled the condom down his length. She imagined him sliding into her bit by bit. Her need roared louder.

Once he was sheathed, Ben took her by the waist and guided her so she straddled him, kneeling on the seat. She arched her back and aligned the tip of his cock with her opening. Supporting herself on his shoulders, she lowered down until he just entered her. She hovered there. He remained still for her. It had been at least a year since any fling, and her body had to adjust. Ben was patient and held her while she balanced. She sank onto him. Pleasure replaced any pinch of discomfort. Her wetness slicked him, easing his cock further. They both breathed out together when she took him completely inside.

She ground and stirred warm, thick waves of sensation up through her. He rocked with her. One hand moved from her waist to her breast. He rolled her nipple between his fingers. She tilted her head back to savor the tight rush.

Their pace increased. She ground down, and he thrust up, plunging him even deeper. Her sex accommodated him, filling her. His firm length contrasted perfectly against her softest, most sensitive skin. The SUV swayed, but the night beyond the windows was unmoved. The inside of the car filled with the sound of their moans. They moved faster and faster. The edges of the orgasm collected around her again.

“Yeah, Mary.” Her name in his mouth was as erotic as all their flesh and sweat. “Come.” He held his thumb against her clit so she could spark against it while she rode him.

Her pleasure shined much brighter than she’d expected. The climax was close. Her arms ached from holding herself on Ben and her legs shook. “I’m coming.” The release started infinitely far away, then quickly swept into her. She gasped, “I need you to come, too.”

The connection had to be complete.

“Mary...” Ben’s muscles bunched and lengthened as he thrust harder into her.

Her climax rocketed higher through her, fueled by his increased intensity. She clutched to his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her. They were locked together, each taking and giving. Pleasure spun her head. She bit into his collarbone. He buried himself, then came. Her own orgasm glowed hotter with his. He continued to slide in and out while his cock pulsed and his arms held her so tight.

Chest to chest, their hearts pounded together. They exhaled and caught their breath. She rested her head on his shoulder while he stroked through her hair. The air cooled on her sweat, but everywhere she contacted Ben remained hot.

They couldn’t stay nude and alone like this forever. Miles to the west, their mission waited. She eased off him and they disentangled themselves. He shucked the condom and got dressed. She pulled all her clothes on, the fabric too cool on her skin.

He secured his pistol to his ankle and sat back. Neither of them moved.

She asked, lightly, “What do you want to do for dinner?”

His smoky laugh reminded her of the taste of his mouth. “I already ate.” He rubbed at his shoulder. “So did you.”

“You inspired me.” She brushed her knuckles along the outside of his thigh.

He caught her hand in his. “I’d love to go on inspiring you.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed the top. “You could eat me alive.”

She understood the melancholy note in his voice. They had to go. Without having to speak or agree, they climbed back into the front seats and put their coats on. Ben started the engine and pulled the car back onto the highway. After a mile, he turned the headlights on. They were back in the world.

And driving toward Morris Flats.

The languid heat in her limbs cooled as she sharpened herself. She could see it in Ben as well. He sat straighter, eyes alert and scanning the black fields and distant lights. Was it possible to explore their passion and return to the mission? Or did the operation take precedence and the connection with Ben would have to be severed before it had been completely discovered? And after the business in Morris Flats had been wrapped up, would that be too late to find again what they’d ventured into tonight?

He stole glances at her, passion remaining in his eyes. “Thanks for coming to dinner with me.”

“I’m glad I did.” Living in the moment had been a rare freedom. Plans and tactics and strategies returned with the approach of Morris Flats. “But we need to be extra frosty back in the mix.”

He nodded, face stoic. “Mission ready. One hundred percent.”

“I don’t want...” This territory was unknown. She didn’t know how to pick her steps. “I don’t want to be frosty...” Fear choked her. She felt so vulnerable without her armor. But she couldn’t let it stop her from telling him, “...with you.”

A glimmer in his eyes cracked his mask. “You’re a gift...I’m not sure I deserve.” The serious soldier returned quickly. “And I understand. We have an op. Success is critical. We’ll stay on target.”

“Affirmative.” She understood why Ben would fly from woman to woman. No attachments to complicate the transition from bed to battlefield. But could she just turn off the attraction to him? Her body still hummed from their sex. She knew she’d crave more when the night was quiet again. Him just sitting there drew her attention like a magnet.

“Tomorrow night.” He was all business. “They should be relaxed by then, and we can recon the warehouse.”

Mission planning eased the churning questions of their personal future. “Too bad we couldn’t get a bracelet on Kit Daily.”

“Yeah.” He stretched his neck, tilting his head from side to side, as if they were heading to the op right then. “We go in dark and slow. Their patrols can’t be that tight from what we’ve seen.”

“Egress out the back of the hotel.” She imagined the map of the town and the best routes through it. “Rendezvous at the abandoned gas station. We can get to the train yard on foot from there. Just follow the tracks.”

“Damn.” He clicked his tongue.

“What is it?” The plan had sounded good so far.

“I was hoping a little shop talk might distract me, but you are one sexy operator.”

Was the sudden heat across her chest and face a girlish blush? She could tease, too. “Only for you, sailor. For the rest, I’m a nightmare.”

He curled his lip in a sneer. “The ones who live.”

“Stay on my good side.”

“That’s where you want me.”

Maybe this was their balance. They didn’t have to be all operator or all lover. Could she be both?

With the mood lighter in the car, they drove in silence to Morris Flats. The town was asleep, and they wound through the residential streets, past the businesses, then to the hotel. They walked in the front doors together. The bartender didn’t even look up from watching the TV in the corner. He was alone in the bar. They passed the desk clerk, who gave a polite nod, and continued to the elevators.

They both got off on her floor, but their steps became less certain as they progressed down the hall. She stopped at the snack machine alcove.

“I’m...still hungry.”

“Yeah.” He fished bills out of his wallet. “I wasn’t paying much attention to dinner.”

She selected trail mix, and he got chocolate-covered raisins. They bought drinks, too, and carried it all to her door. He remained with her but didn’t loom over her or push her.

It took only the slightest pause while she held her key card for him to nod and take a half step back. They were back in the operation. She wouldn’t sleep much, but she needed rest. And time to sort what had happened. Who she was and who Ben was.

He let his hand hang gently against hers. “Come running with me in the morning?”

“I’m in.”

His head tilted and he leaned forward. A kiss would shatter any calm she’d found. They’d be in her bed in an instant. The two of them fit together too well. None of the questions would be answered. She tipped her chin down and felt a pang in her chest as she shut off something she wanted so deeply.

He nodded again and stepped away. “Have a good night, Mary.”

“Good night, Ben.” She watched him walk halfway down the hall before moving into her room. She left all the lights out and listened to the silence.

Chapter Eleven

It was a bad morning. It had been a strange night. But the evening had been incredible. Ben had barely slept, though he’d collected enough rest to be ready for the day. His bed had never felt so empty. Every time he’d shifted, the exposed sheets had sliced cold into him. Mary had been one floor beneath him. Like he could see her heat signature through the walls. Close, but not close enough to feel.

Their time in the car had burned her onto him. Completely wrapped around each other, breathing each other. Being apart after that was a new wound. A hollow ache he’d never known. He’d paced through his hotel room, hoping to clear his mind. The late-night hot shower hadn’t done much to calm his thoughts either. More than the memory of her body kept returning to him. Loops of their conversations echoed. They’d knotted their connection tighter. It seemed like there was nothing he could say that she didn’t understand. And then she’d probe him for deeper meanings he hadn’t found yet.

With his body rested and mind still turning, he’d risen early in the morning. The operation took over. He’d checked the tracking app on his phone. Pulaski was at home. But so were all the rail yard workers Ben had given bracelets to. They should’ve been on the clock by now.

The sun fought its way into a steel-gray sky, and Ben dressed for his run. He went downstairs and hadn’t knocked on Mary’s door when she opened it, looking as if she’d had twelve hours of sleep after a spa day.

His voice was still morning rough. “You’ve got to teach me some of those Delta spy tricks.”

She smirked. “Maybe I was just born with it.”

He breathed in her rosy perfume as she bounded past him and shut the door. But he couldn’t follow her. He stood rooted and watched her jog up the hallway in her tight leggings and slim-fitting, long-sleeved hoodie. Now his body was really awake. Blood stirred in his legs and crotch.

She made it a few rooms down, then turned and hit him with a nasty look. Like she could take him apart if she wanted. He wanted her to.

“Move it, sailor.” Her growl immediately tugged him forward.

He reached her and they walked shoulder to shoulder toward the elevator. The hollow ache from the night before cut through him. She was close. He needed to be closer, but didn’t know how to bridge the gap.

Their job in Morris Flats, though, wasn’t compromised. “Local rail workers are all still home,” he informed her.

Her brow lowered in thought. “Their day should be started.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” They had to wait longer than usual for the elevator. “Maybe we take a jog by the yard.”

“We can recon tonight’s route.” The elevator arrived, and they stepped inside. Awkward silence tightened now that their immediate business had been taken care of. She ventured, “Sleep?”

“More like a twelve-round title fight with my pillow.” Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, allowing him to see the strong lines of her cheekbones and the sharp eyes under her dark eyebrows. “How’d you do?”

“I’ve had worse. On a rooftop in Odessa.” She shrugged it off. “In the freezing rain.”

“Luxurious.” A black ops soldier had to be something other than human. He’d been there. He hated to think of her being that uncomfortable. But she was human, just like him. She hadn’t passed the night after their time together with completely cold blood.

But could he tell her about how he’d been wanting her in his bed? Next to him, her head on his shoulder, his fingers through her hair. Would that push her away? She operated on her terms.

All he could do was tell her and not expect anything in return. “I missed you.”

Her eyes shined with emotion. She hesitated before speaking. “It was...lonely.”

The elevator doors opened, and they were thrown back into the world, back into the operation. Three men in their thirties waited to get on. They all looked weary from traveling, mouths thin lines. But their eyes were alert, and strong hands held heavy duffel bags. Ben and Mary exited the elevator, and the men paid more attention to her than him.

They were trouble.

He and Mary walked through the lobby, where three more men just like the others in heavy coats and flannel shirts waited at the front desk. Two duffel bags and a suitcase. They smelled of protein powder and gunpowder. The hotel security guard who’d seen Ben and Mary in the hall the other night leaned on the front desk and chatted familiarly with one of the men.

Ben and Mary got out of the hotel and immediately started jogging. Cold air tightened his lungs, and it took a minute for his legs to loosen.

A block away from the parking lot, she muttered, “Hitters.”

“Not their first time in town.” His awareness bristled. Morris Flats was turning into a hot zone. “Security for the shipments?”

“I’d bet.” Her gaze didn’t rest as she scanned over the buildings and intersections. “Nine o’clock.”

He looked down the left side of an intersection and saw a police car parked sideways across a street a block away. The roof lights rolled, and one of the cops was placing traffic cones in a line as a barrier to the street.

Ben extrapolated, “They’re locking down their routes.” He and Mary skirted the edge of town, near the train tracks, and saw another police-enforced road closure.

“Pretty fucking bold.” She was barely winded from the run. “Right through the middle of everything.”

“Escalation to deadline.” New security forces, road closures, the meeting in the state park. The gunrunners would move soon.

A police car eased up a street parallel to theirs. It tracked with them for a moment, and Ben could see the cops staring. One of them was the angry officer from the rec center. He waved forward, and the driver accelerated.

More train tracks collected near the two he and Mary had been following. They approached the yard. The parking lot should’ve been empty without workers. But there were plenty of cars in the spaces.

“Too many out-of-state plates.” He couldn’t see any of the workers at this far end of the yard.

Mary’s eyes narrowed on the cars. “Florida, Mass, Texas.” Anger chopped into her words. “I’m seeing out-of-date military base permits.”

“Mercs.” The population of Morris Flats was transforming from civilians to some kind of private army.

Mary slowed her pace and muttered, “The brass is here.”

Kit Daily and the mayor and her husband all stood at the edge of the parking lot. Their cold breath swirled with the steam rising from their paper cups of coffee. The Limerts hunched like conspirators and flinched when they caught sight of Ben and Mary approaching. Daily only smirked smugly and hooked his thumb in his wide belt.

After a second, the mayor mustered her usual vote-getting smile. “Of all the places to jog. You know we have a nice greenbelt on the other side of town?”

Ben had seen the muddy tract punctuated by high power lines. “This is only the first leg.” He and Mary stopped and stretched. Past Daily, the rail yard was in full swing. Men used forklifts to move pallets of crates from a freight car into a warehouse.

Mary shook hands with the three locals. “Yeah, we’ll see how far Mr. Louis is willing to chase me this morning.”

Daily leered at her calves. “I reckon he’ll never stop running.”

She ignored him and directed a question to the mayor. “Is there a problem in town? We saw police cars blocking roads.”

Donna Limert rolled her eyes at the nuisance. “Road maintenance. Nothing to worry about.”

Her husband chimed in, “Yeah, nothing that’ll drive down property prices.”

Ben chuckled. “I thought they were setting up for a parade.”

Mary was a pro and knew when to cut out so they didn’t look too suspicious. She bounced on the balls of her feet, ready to run again. “Come on, let’s see if you can chase me all the way to Chicago.”

“My old home turf?” He readied himself to resume the job. “You won’t escape me there.”

Daily looked Ben over. “You’re a Chicago boy?”

Ben rolled his shoulders and tried not to tense at being called a boy. “It’s my city.” And if Daily showed himself there, he wouldn’t last a second in an alley with no witnesses.

The boss of the train yard still looked down his nose at Ben. “Go Cubbies.”

It felt good to laugh outright in Daily’s face. “Sox.”

Mary waved at the group and took off running. Ben followed without looking back, and they were quickly around a corner and out of sight from the rail yard.

She glared at him when he caught up to her. “You want to blow it?”

“I’m not really trying to sell bracelets.” Their pace picked up. “And I don’t need him as a friend.” He wanted to run back to Daily, take the pistol from his belt and smash it into the side of his head. “I’m on target and won’t fail the op. But that doesn’t mean I have to let myself get buried by that fucker.”

She eased up, and he wanted to keep charging ahead. Her sincere voice brought him back to her. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not you.” Had he snapped too hard at her?

“I know.” She slowed to a walk. He stayed with her. “And I’m still sorry.”

He stopped walking, the rage still bubbled up through him. “Sons of bitches like Kit Daily smile, throwing guns in the streets and counting their money. We’ve both seen what that does.”

She nodded. “I want him, too.” Her jaw set. “I want to stick my knife in so deep it cuts his roots and there’s none of them left.” She patted Ben’s chest. The small touch shocked him with her comfort. “That’s how we do it. With Automatik. With the plan.”

He took her hand in his. “All the way to the bone.” Her sleeves covered her knuckles, so he pushed the cuff back and kissed the top of her hand. Not something he’d ever done with a teammate or operator before, but it felt right. A promise, not just to get the job done, but to not let her down at any cost.

Her hard eyes softened and she took a long breath. “All the way.”

They resumed their run, seeing more police cars and roads blocked with cones or city sawhorses. Their route took them across the north-south highway and into the more residential neighborhoods. The greenbelt wasn’t green. Neither was the park across from the high school. Teachers and administrators were just starting to arrive in the parking lot and chatting as they walked into the main buildings. Ben angled the run toward there when he saw Romero and his wife, Sue, getting out of their car.

He waved and got a questioning squint back from Romero. But as they approached, the man seemed to recognize Ben and smiled politely. Sue extended a “good morning” and Ben introduced Mary to the couple.

Sue’s eyebrows raised when she heard what kind of real estate Mary was involved in. “Sounds like an uphill battle in Morris Flats.”

Romero nodded and scratched at his freshly shaved chin. “I’ll bet there are other towns that would be open to it.”

“But not with the highway access,” Mary corrected. “It makes this town perfect for development.” And for gunrunners.

“Well, the best of luck to you.” Sue sounded sincere.

Before parting, Ben asked, “What’s with the streets being blocked off? We going to get trapped by construction?”

Frustration flared in Romero. “That’s just...truckers getting the right of way. Doesn’t matter who else they inconvenience.”

“How long?” Ben tried to map the town and the newly protected routes. “I mean, what if I need to get out of town or something?”

Romero glared out toward the east side. “Usually under a week. Three days?”

The timeframe sped up. Ben knew Mary would be feeling it as well but was experienced enough to know not to share a glance with her. He shook Romero’s hand. “Thanks. Glad we ran into you.”

They said their goodbyes and parted. The teachers walked into their school as Ben and Mary jogged back toward the center of town. Private security forces. Street closures. Activity at the rail yard.

He watched her processing his same thoughts. “They’re gearing up,” she said, flat.

“I’ll let Automatik know.” As soon as he had a second alone with his phone. “They’re the trigger.”

“Security is tightening. They’ll have to leak in slowly.”

Hopefully the strike team could assemble in time to stop the guns from leaving this hub. “Until then, it’s us.”

Her face was calm. She was a warfighter. “We’re the hammer.”

* * *

Mary had dropped into deadly territory from airplanes, helicopters and trucks. She’d hiked over a mountain range with her Delta team and inserted invisibly into hostile land. But she’d never watched a town transform into a combat zone around her. The tension she already felt being in the field dialed up. Every rooftop, every passing car was scrutinized. Her legs couldn’t rest, ready to run. And her hand was never far from her pistol.

After her jog with Ben, she’d gone through the motions of scouting more of the town from her rented car. She’d eaten lunch alone, then returned to the hotel, where she now sat in the bar, paperwork spread out across the small table and her phone at the ready. A regular woman, working on her regular job.

But in fact, she was positioned to track the traffic in the lobby and front desk. The private security forces she and Ben had seen earlier came and went. Their pace had been measured and calm. They weren’t on the job yet. And they didn’t perceive any threats around them. She could tell from their slow reactions to the front doors opening that their radar wasn’t tuned for trouble in town.

Two other men had arrived while she’d been observing the lobby. They were like the others. In their thirties, strong, athletic and kitted with heavy luggage. The count was up to at least eight. And that didn’t include the armed men from the state park meeting or the newcomers at the rail yard. Former military. Probably networked to Daily through his old contacts with the Marines. The corruption rotted deep and the betrayal fueled her anger. No, she wasn’t a Marine, but had known plenty of good men and women, Art Diaz the latest, and hated that the military was being used this way.

“You sure I can’t mix you a cocktail to take the edge off all that work?” Will the bartender held up a shaker hopefully.

“The way I’ve been burning the candle—” she shook her head and looked up from her files, “—it would put me right to sleep. And the boss might call any minute.”