Retribution (SSU Trilogy Book 3) (The Surgical Strike Unit) (40 page)

Chapter 35

Three Months Later

Paros, Greece

T
he sun was edging toward the horizon when Gabby made her way down the dusty lane toward her rented bungalow. Swallows danced in the air above the little cove, while on the dock not far from her front porch half a dozen octopuses hung off a clothesline stretched above the dock while a fisherman tenderized his latest catch.

Gabby’s mouth quirked up in amusement. The odd custom was just part of the magic of this island. Magic that over the past two weeks had allowed her to finally relax all the way down to her bones after working herself into exhaustion.

As soon as she’d been declared fit, Gabby had jumped right back to work. Her team tweaked the regimen they’d created to help Rafe and managed to return Toby Andrews and several other victims of Kaufmann’s program to near normalcy. With no additional victims located, Ryker had decided to shut down the Georgia facility and move the personnel into new positions at the Oregon compound.

Once the final patient had been released from treatment, all of her team’s research had been bundled up and locked away in secure storage, along with samples of the drugs they’d used. Accessible only in case someone restarted Kaufmann’s program and counteragents were needed.

Ryker swore that access to the data would be extremely limited so it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands again.

Gabby was still surprised that Ryker hadn’t closed the Georgia lab after mentioning he thought there might be another attack. But the facility would have been too hard to replicate on short notice, and Kaufmann’s victims had too short a window in which their deterioration could be stopped, so Ryker had instead tripled the security.

Luckily, the feared attack had never materialized.

Ryker had offered her a permanent position with the SSU’s medical team in Oregon and she’d accepted. The work would be straight medicine, with an occasional case of someone who’d run afoul of a new biochemical weapon. Kai would be getting a new, specialized lab at the far edge of the campus to work on counteragents to biochemical weapons. After that facility was built, Gabby would have the option of joining his team, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue working with dangerous chemicals. Straight medicine would be a welcome change.

Muscles aching pleasantly from her long hike, Gabby strolled toward the beach. The only thing she needed to make this vacation perfect was Rafe. He’d planned on coming with her, but at the last minute Ryker had activated him for a special assignment.

Gabby scowled and kicked at a stone in the path. Was it too much to ask for a little concentrated alone time with her guy? She felt as if she’d barely seen him since the afternoon Ryker had dropped the news about the deaths of Kaufmann and the others. He hadn’t even been able to phone her these last few weeks.

But Gabby’s sour mood evaporated on a flash of joy when she turned down her lane and spotted the man lounging on the beach’s low rock wall. Rafe’s thick black hair had grown out from its mission ready buzz cut. A day’s worth of beard darkened his cheeks, making him look like a rakish pirate.

He wore a steel gray t-shirt untucked over rough khaki pants. The pants were rolled up to mid-calf and his bare feet dangled in the water. A battered pair of leather hiking boots sat on the sand by the base of the rocks.

He looked healthy and tough and so edible she wanted to bury her face in the crook of his neck and nibble. She’d missed him so damn much.

He sat in profile to her while he chatted with the fisherman. Rafe hadn’t spotted her yet, but someone else had. A dark shadow leapt from Rafe’s lap and trotted toward her, purring loudly in welcome.

“Hey, Pirate,” Gabby greeted the cat, a laugh in her voice. She squatted down and rubbed the back of his head, then ran her finger between his ears and down the line of black fur separating the tawny right side of his face from the chocolate colored left side. Pirate butted his head into her palm, demanding a deeper caress. She picked him up in her arms and gave him a serious head rub.

“Lucky cat,” Rafe said.

Startled by how close his voice sounded, Gabby looked up and found that Rafe had left his rock and stood right in front of her. Her breath caught and her heart tripped over itself at the way his eyes devoured her.

She found herself grinning idiotically back at him, because his reaction was so typically Rafe. No beating around the bush for him. Just straightforward lust.

Pirate meowed and kneaded her with his claws, chastising her for neglecting her petting. Gabby gave him one more vigorous rub on the top of his head, then set him on the ground. Pirate rubbed himself against her legs and looked up at her. When he didn’t get the attention he needed, he moved to Rafe. But Rafe was fully focused on Gabby. With an unhappy swish of his tail, Pirate stalked away.

Leaving Gabby staring at Rafe, not certain what to say.
I missed you. I love you, will you give me the rest of your life
, seemed far too direct. She didn’t want to scare him off.

D
ios
, she looked fantastic. It was all Rafe could do not to haul her into his arms and kiss her senseless. But he’d made himself a promise. This time he’d court her properly. Give her all the romantic trappings she deserved. Show her every day how much he loved her.

Rafe cleared his throat to break the uncomfortable tension between them. “Hey, Gabby,” he said. “You’re, uh, looking good.” Ugh. Good? She looked fantastic. So sexy, heat pooled in his groin.

Her hair was different. Kind of full and stacked in the back. The ends of her hair now formed longer points in the front, highlighting her cheekbones and making her eyes look enormous.

Eyes that watched him with a mix of wariness, hope and heat.

He focused on the heat. As long as she still wanted him, then everything was going to be okay.

Even if she didn’t seem willing, or able, to speak.

“So, um…” he began. “Sorry it took so long to join you. Mission turned out more complicated than expected.”
Stop acting like a bumbling idiot
, he told himself.
Just say it.

“Okay, here’s the deal,” he said on a rush. He took a deep breath to steady his voice before continuing. “We haven’t had what anyone would call a normal relationship, so I think we should start over and do this right.”

He held out his hand. “Hi. I’m Rafe Andros. I’d really like to get to know you better. Will you accept me as your tour guide? My father’s family comes from Mykonos, an island not far from here. I’d love to show you around.”

Gabby placed her hand in his and beamed up at him with such radiance, Rafe felt as powerful as Zeus himself.

“Pleased to meet you, Rafe. I’m Gabby Montague.” She moved toward him. “I’d very much like a tour guide. But I’d like something else even more.”

She was close enough that he could smell suntan lotion, sweat, and underneath it all, Gabby’s cherry vanilla scent. He would have closed his eyes and let himself get lost in the scent, except he was captured by the way her eyes darkened and her tongue slipped out to wet her lips.

He almost groaned.

“Anything you want, you get,” he said hoarsely. “It’s all about you.”

Her lips curled in a sensual smile that damn near sent him to his knees. That was all the warning he got before she leaned in and took his mouth in a hot, ravenous kiss.

“I need you,” she murmured.

His arms clamped around her and he dragged her closer until their bodies were aligned chest to thigh. Gabby hummed deep in her throat, a low sound of pleasure that made Rafe forget all his good intentions.

Almost. “You sure?” he said raggedly, pulling away slightly so he could see her expression. “I had a slow, romantic wooing all planned out.”

“Yeah,” Gabby said with a shaky laugh. “I’ve missed you so damn much. Romance can wait.” She nipped at his bottom lip. Rafe groaned and took her mouth again, giving himself completely over to her.

A heavy slap on his back and the laughter-tinged voice of the fisherman congratulating Rafe on his good luck broke the sensual spell.

Rafe pulled back from the kiss. Gabby blinked up at him, her face dazed with arousal. He reached down and laced his fingers in hers. “How about dinner in town?” he suggested. “We can finish this later.”

She nodded and let him lead her back toward her bungalow, her head leaning on his shoulder. “You won’t leave me?”

He shook his head and smiled down at her. “Just because I want to take it slow doesn’t mean anything has changed. You’re mine. I love you. I just want you to get to know the new me.”

Gabby rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “Silly man. I loved you even when you were more beast than man. Nothing’s going to change that. Still, romance sounds nice.”

He laughed. “All right then. How about we start by watching the sunset?” He pulled Gabby down to sit beside him on the low wall surrounding her patio and put his arm around her.

As the sun slowly sank out of sight and the night took over, Rafe knew that his life was just beginning. A life of love with this amazing woman by his side.

Go back to where it all started. Keep reading for an excerpt of
Vengeance
, Book 1 in the SSU Trilogy.

Excerpt from
Vengeance

by Vanessa Kier

Wednesday, Late Afternoon

Surgical Strike Unit Training Compound

Oregon

J
enna Paterson had five minutes to rescue the hostage.

She nodded and her partner rammed open the door. With steady hands, Jenna pulled the pin on a flash grenade and lobbed it into the room. She quickly turned her head away, closing her eyes to protect her vision against the brilliant explosion. Then waited for her team leader to give the signal to enter. Thankfully, the shock of the grenade had startled the hostage inside into silence. Jenna had been afraid that one more minute of listening to the woman’s terrified screams would throw her back to the night two years ago when she’d been attacked.

Don’t remember
, she warned herself.
It’s not the same. You’re not the victim this time. Your job is to save this poor woman from further abuse at the hands of the terrorists.

Yet her body wasn’t buying it. Her stomach tightened in dread and her mouth was as dry as the paint on a da Vinci. She pressed her back tightly against the cheap plasterboard wall of the hallway. Inhaled the scent of the grenade’s fumes and underneath that, the nauseating mixture of fresh paint and fresh blood. She tightened her grip on her automatic rifle and hoped the team leader would give the go-ahead before her nerves got the better of her.

Stick to the plan,
the voice inside her head chanted.
These are not the men who attacked you. That’s not Kai in there.

Jenna clenched her teeth. She was better now. She was. She hadn’t frozen during action since the last time they’d rescued a female prisoner in the middle of being raped.

“Go!” The voice of her team leader came clearly over the headset. At a nod from her partner, Jenna drew in a deep breath and counted to five. He went through the door first, high and to the left followed by Jenna rolling low and to the right.

The next minutes were a surrealistic blur. Muzzle flashes turned the lingering smoke from the grenade into a multicolored cloud. The hostage cried out in fear, not realizing she was being rescued. The terrorists grunted in pain, writhing in grotesque death dances as the bullets from Jenna’s teammates found their targets.

Then, suddenly, silence. Jenna lay on her stomach, panting, her heart racing as she searched for another target. But the room was still.

Three short bursts from a whistle signaled the end of the exercise. The house lights came up and the experienced Surgical Strike Unit operators who’d been playing the terrorists rose to their feet, laser tagged vests glowing where they’d been “hit” by her team’s fire.

One of the terrorists pulled off his baseball cap, revealing sweat-stained blond hair. For a second he looked so much like Kai that Jenna turned her weapon toward him before reality returned. Reeling from the close call, she quickly lowered her weapon.

Thank God the man hadn’t noticed her targeting him. She never would have lived that one down. As she pushed hastily to her feet she snuck a glance at the rest of the room to make sure no one else had seen. And met the fierce chocolate eyes of Niko Andros.

Her heart stuttered. Didn’t that figure? The one person who’d observed her slip was today’s guest trainer, the man her classmates spoke about in awed whispers. The man who, with the predatory stillness of his body and the wary intelligence in his eyes, reminded Jenna of a falcon.

Jenna did her best to act casual, like nothing had happened, but Niko glanced from her weapon to the guy she’d almost shot and raised one eyebrow. Damn. She shrugged and forced a slight smile, hoping Niko would chalk her edginess up to adrenaline.

After holding her gaze for an uncomfortable moment, Niko’s expression shifted from questioning to a banked heat that caused an alarming frisson of sexual awareness to shoot through her. Feeling her cheeks flush, she quickly turned away.

Her stomach churned with nausea. She couldn’t handle this. Not now. Yes, she’d worked hard since the rape to get over her fear of being the object of a man’s sexual interest. She couldn’t train with guys and not expect to receive a few suggestive looks or comments. But until today she’d never felt anything but revulsion in response to a man’s attention.

The doctors would say that her appreciation of Niko as a male was a positive step. Yet even as a brief image of her running her fingers through his short dark hair flashed in her mind, panic began a familiar beat in her veins.

She had to get out of here. Had to—

“Hey, you okay?” her partner Elliot asked. She nodded, unable to meet his eyes. Afraid he’d see her fear. Hoping he hadn’t seen the look Niko had given her. What could she say? “I’m scared to death because for the first time in two years I’m actually feeling attraction toward a man, but all I can remember when I think of sex is pain and blood?” Yeah, that would go over well.