Code Name: Kayla's Fire (21 page)

She stopped at the door. “I’m going home.”

“Kayla, you’re not walking away from the Captain.”

“No, he walked away from me, when he made love to Zara, but it’s all right.”
She shrugged. She didn’t understand it herself. “For some reason, it’s all right.”

“Kayla, stop,” but she was already out the door. “Hey, Nina, your
turn, girlfriend.”

A line of chairs sat against the wall. Nina’s face was buried in her
hands. She raised her head and stood up slowly. “Are you going for coffee?
Maybe I’ll join you.”

“No, Mace needs you.”

Nina gave a quick nod. “I’ll try to remember that the next time he
wants to throw me out of his room.”

They fell together in a tight hug. She wasn’t going to be able to hold
the tears back for long. “I love you, Nina. Take care of Mace and Gabby.”

Nina had already started to cry. “Why are you telling me this as if
you’re leaving?”

“It’s going to be hard, Nina, but Mace is worth it.”

Nina yanked her into her arms again. “Why are you going?”

She shook her head. “You need to be with Mace. Get moving.”

She made a quick getaway—almost, a team of doctors and nurses running
beside a stretcher and rushing into the elevator made her step back and wait
for the next one.

“Kayla, wait up.” Nathan ran down the hallway. “I need to talk to
you.”

“I’ll see ya, Nathan.”

Nathan gripped her arm. “Would you just listen for a second. I heard
you talkin’ to Mace. You need to know the whole story.”

“No, I don’t.” The elevator door opened with a rubbery sounding
woosh
and she got in. “Take care of him
and each other. Say goodbye for me, would you?” She swiped a hand against her
cheek.

The flight home wasn’t fully booked which gave her a line of seats to
herself. The long flight gave her time to think. She really wasn’t pondering
three steps ahead any more. Asking for a blanket, she curled up under it, and allowed
herself fall into a light sleep. When she closed her eyes, she saw Zara and
Thane together, embracing, him making love to her. Her heart tied itself into a
cold hard knot, and she let it stay that way.

* * * *

The constant, but irritating beep of a machine close by filtered into
his conscious brought Thane around.

“Ready to join the rest of us in the real world?” Pat Cobbs asked.

His sense of smell kicked in, and without opening his eyes, Thane knew
he was in a medical facility of some kind. A spasm of pain shot through him
when he coughed. “Ah, man.” He raised his hands to his head, the headache
pounding like a full-on seven day bender. Pushing himself up, the pain in his
back bit its teeth in deep and he gave up, grasping the control lying beside
his hand. “How ya doin’, old friend?” he croaked out.

“Better now. Said hi to Jesus and then got the hell outta there.”

Pat handed him a water bottle with a straw, relishing the cool liquid
on his parched throat. He chuckled. “Yeah, I know what you mean. We took a bad
one up the ass this time.”

“Mission accomplished, though,” Pat said.

His friend sat in a thin hospital gown, looking about as bad as he
felt. “Got her out, didn’t we?”

Pat chewed his lip and nodded. “Yup, not without a lot of casualties.”

“Guess we’re outta action for a while. How is everyone?”

Pat grabbed the extra water sitting on his side table, and took a long
drink, screwing the cap back on slowly. “On the mend. Mace took it the worst,
almost lost his nuts in the process, literally. Can’t wait to see what kinda
therapy they’ve got for that, but Nina’s close by, and although he’s tried
everything to shove her out the door, she’s still here.”

“Nina? Really?” He stilled. “Did she…”

“Did she come alone? No.”

Pat shifted, and then jerked with a flinch of discomfort, grabbing his
hip. No need to ask where he took a hit. “Where’s Kayla?” He scanned the room
as if he hadn’t already three times. He’d sensed her, but relegated the feeling
to desire instead of reality.

Pat cleared his throat. “Zara’s outside.”

“What’s she doin’ here?”

“Standing watch over you.” Pat scratched his chin and settled a look
on him. “I got part of the story from Nathan. Sounds a little crazy to me. Why
don’t you tell me what happened.”

“I want to see Kayla. Is she outside?” He tilted his head to peer
through the blinds, but only Zara stood there talking on the phone. “Where is
she?”

“She’s gone, Thane.”

“What?”

“Zara was here when she came in to see you, and told her about what
happened, at least her side of it.”

“Side of it,” he repeated. “You’re not making sense, man.”

“Zara told Kayla you saved her life and became very…close during the
escape. Apparently, Zara explained you’ve got it bad for each other, and
consummated it in the middle of a mission.”

“Shit,” he flung the covers and nearly blacked out. “Pat you gotta
stop Kayla, stop her before she gets on that plane. I have to explain.”

“Too late, old friend, and you’re being transferred to a hospital in
Cairo.”

“What? What the hell are you talking about?” Just then, the door swung
open and Zara glided in.

“Darling, you’re awake.”

“What did you tell Kayla?” he boomed. From first contact, he knew this
royal was going to be a pain in the ass, but he did his job, and kept her
alive.

“I told her the truth. Now lay back and rest. I’ve made all the
arrangements. Cairo has one of the best facilities in the world, and my family
has funded much of it. They are so grateful and honored for what you did. You
will have the best care.”

“I did my job, that’s it.” Zara didn’t waver with his anger, and he
was damn angry. “We did what we had to do to stay alive while Kaleeg had us
nailed down. That’s it.”

“Darling, please relax.”

“You’re getting on your royal jet, and flying back to Cairo, but it
won’t be with me. I have a woman I love more than life itself, and you knew
that.”

“You made love to me.”

“No,” he ground out, reaching the end of his patience. “I fucked your
ass off with a gun held to both our heads because that syphilitic bastard
Keegan doesn’t get the porn channel. He would have killed us both. We bought
time.”

Zara leaned forward, her hazel eyes refusing to accept what he was
telling her. “I know it meant something to you.”

“It meant fuck all, lady. I have lain in a goddamn ditch for days
without moving, went a week without food. Staggered around in swamps with blood
suckers and bullets scraping my bones, but the hardest thing I have ever done
in my career was having to spread your legs, and break the only vow that has
ever meant anything to me, and to the woman I love. It was her I saw in my
mind, not you.”

Zara reached her slim hand toward him, and he blocked it. “You’re
upset. We went through a harrowing experience, but I know you felt it as deeply
as I did. We shared that moment. You were looking at me, making love to me.”

“Princess, get the hell out of my room.” He gritted his teeth sitting
up. “Pat, get us a transport out of here.”

“You’re in pain. I’ll get the nurse,” Zara said straightening.

“I don’t want drugs. I want you gone. Pat—” He swung his legs over the
bed.

“Lie down before you fall down, old man,” Pat ordered.

“I need a phone. I need to talk to Kayla.”

Pat shifted in his chair. “I think you better leave, Princess.”

Zara hovered close to his side, refusing to go. “Thane, Kayla is a
noble woman. When I explained to her what we mean to each other, she graciously
stepped away. She wants the best for you, and she knows that it is I.”

Zara leaned over as if to kiss him, and he thrust a hand to her
shoulder, stopping her. “You have your life. Keegan doesn’t have your country’s
secrets, but I am going home to make the woman I love—my wife, and raise my
daughter. With all due respect, you don’t mean a damn thing to me—Princess. Now
hit the road.”

When she left, he lay back with a groan. “Holy shit.” Kayla knew what
he’d done. No choice, he’d had no choice, no other way. How was he going to
explain this? How was he ever going to make Kayla believe what he’d done was a
tactical maneuver, and nothing more. A means to survival. When the door closed,
he turned his anger on his lieutenant. “What’s the matter with you, get me a
fucking phone.” When Pat shook his head, he nearly lost it. “Why not?”

Pat was silent for too long. “Because Kayla’s already gone missing,
Thane. She landed two hours ago. I spoke to Law myself. She got off the plane,
they had a visual on her, and then she disappeared.”

“What?” His heart stopped mid-stroke. “Get my clothes. I want to be on
the next plane out of here. I’ll find her.”

Pat bowed his head, a jerk of his shoulders chilled him to the bone.
When Pat raised his eyes, he saw the remorse already telling him what he didn’t
want to hear. “I’m sorry, Thane. They found her luggage, her purse, but they
didn’t find her. We don’t know how, but the Shark was waiting for her.”

“No…no…goddammit, no!” A white rage gripped him, so hot it nearly
shattered his sanity. His body trembled with the first lash of grief. He didn’t
even hear the door open, but when his hands slid from his face, the squad
surrounded the end of his bed. Nina’s eyes were red and puffy from crying, and
she took one look at him and started all over again. “Fox, Tinman,” his voice
raspy, “Go home. Find her. Please find her. She’s not dead. I’d know it.”

“Captain.” Fox whisked an arm across his eyes. “This is not your
fault. You did everything you could to protect her. We can’t win every battle.
Sometimes we have to fall to remember we’re not superhuman, simply men that
won’t quit. We’re only blood and bone.”

“Like fuck it isn’t my fault,” he yelled. “I should have taken the
bullet. Instead a princess is walking free and my Kayla’s…” No way was he going
to accept the Shark had her. “Oh, Jesus, oh, sweet Jesus, protect her.” He lost
himself in his grief, barely acknowledging the hands of the team as they
clustered around him.

Chapter Nineteen

Nina glanced at the video feed showing a hundred-and-eighty-degree arc
of the front of Base Command. A bundle of reports near her elbow needed
processing, but not with great urgency. She poked one of the buttons on the
speed dial of her phone with her pen. As it had for the last month and a half,
it rang without answer. She worried her lip.

“Still not answering his cell, huh?” Gord said, rolling up to her in
his chair.

She twined a red wisp of hair around her finger and shook her head.

“Nina—maybe it’s time you—”

Her hand jumped in the air signaling him to stop talking, and gave him
a cold look. “How can you say that?”

“You didn’t give me a chance to say anything.”

“Yeah, but I know what you want to say, and its bullshit. We both know
that.” Tears pressed at the back of her eyes. “Kayla is alive,” she said, her
words stronger today than in the past two months which had been the best and
worst of her life.

The door to the anteroom cracked and they both looked around. Gord
gave her a half smile and moved off to make himself busy across the room.

“Hey, babe.” The man of her dreams knelt down balancing on his toes,
and slid a white cardboard container in front of her. Mace stared into her eyes
with his amazing blue ones. Wearing his beige uniform, the cloth taut against a
marvel of strength that her fingers had explored in-depth.

“I see you’ve been cooking again,” she said, but didn’t dive into the
food. Hunger was the last thing on her list these days.

Mace cranked a quick look over his shoulder, and then had her mind
spinning and sparking with a deep soulful kiss. He backed away and laid a hand
on her thigh.

“How was your physio?”

“Good. It’s coming.” His eyes skittered across her face. never failing
to make her heart race.

Mace had been taken off combat duty as a SEAL, and reassigned to the
training department until he could pass his Physicals. Secretly, she wished he would
fail, but she knew he was chomping at the bit to be out with his squad, killing
terrorists and saving the world.

He’d infiltrated her heart so fast it made her head spin. Gabby loved
him already. They’d traveled back to Victoria three times, and it only took her
precocious daughter a few minutes of analyzing to decide Mace was a cool guy.

Mace was a natural with kids, and although he hadn’t pushed it, his
warmth and all-encompassing good nature had her daughter clambering onto his
lap, hooking her arm around his strong neck and declaring, “I like you. I just
got a new hockey net, you wanna play?”

Mace melted on the spot. He grabbed her carefully in his muscled arms,
and swung her into the air with a screech of joy, and that had been it. Mace
carried her everywhere they went, and Gabby didn’t want to be anywhere else.
She even wanted to eat dinner on his lap, to which Nina put her foot down,
causing her admittedly spoiled little red-mopped daughter to pitch a fit that
Mace easily rectified with a few words.

When they’d showed up at her parents the first time, her older sister
Dawn had been visiting and she’d taken one look at Mace. and started to ooze
with come-hither looks. Her sister was a slut, although she didn’t hold that
against her; she reached in the kitchen drawer and pulled out her mom’s kitchen
scissors, snipping them loudly in the air.

She unconsciously poked the speed dial again, but the same nasally
voice said, “This customer is unavailable.”

Mace’s jaw clenched. “I’ve been trying too, but the Captain isn’t
talking to anyone but Redding. He calls him once a week.”

Everyone did their best to keep clear of Redding. He wasn’t the grandfatherly,
patient man Kayla had described, since the day she disappeared. On one of only
two occasions that she’d seen Thane appear, she’d been walking by their office
door. She hadn’t recognized Redding, he sounded so different. He was angry, and
giving the Captain a dressing down like he was talking to a junior seaman. She
understood grief, because she was in a world of it herself, not wanting to
believe the Shark had taken Kayla.

God must have been listening to her today because she shot out of her
chair, seeing Captain Austen out of the corner of her eye.

“He looks like shit,” Mace mumbled.

“Gord…”

“Yeah, yeah I got everything here, go ahead.”

She dashed for the door with Mace close behind. The Captain had barely
settled in his chair when she swung into the room.

“Ms. Samson,” Captain Redding said, switching concerned eyes from
Thane who hardly looked like the same man.

He’d lost so much weight his uniform draped on his shoulders, his
cheeks were drawn in and his eyes cast with shadow.

“Anything, sir,” she asked, walking across the room while Mace hovered
at the door.

Thane lifted his gaze to hers. “Do you think I’d be here if I’d found
her?” he said, his voice a week echo of what it used to sound like. She sat
down without being invited, and he glared at her.

“Sir, I talked with Lieutenant Manchester two days ago. I’ve been
trying to call you, but your cell isn’t on.”

“It’s on,” he said darkly. Meaning he didn’t want to talk with anyone.
He’d taken on the task of finding Kayla on his own. She watched as he logged
into his computer.

“Sir?” She waited until he turned his haunted eyes toward her. “I
remembered something.”

Captain Austen sat forward.

“I called Lieutenant Manchester, and asked him how much money was in
her purse.” The Captain’s attention was pinned. They needed something. Although
not an answer to where Kayla was, a pinhole of hope she was still alive might
exist. “Sir, he said there was a hundred and fifty dollars in her purse.”

Thane said, “What does that have to do with anything. Her belongings
were left behind, her purse included.”

“I asked the lieutenant if I could look for myself.”

“Why?”

“Kayla was always prepared, I guess because she always relied on
herself.”

He nodded.

“Sir, she always, always had emergency money she carried in a separate
place in her purse. She told me once that five hundred dollars could get anyone
through an emergency. I went to the CSI headquarters and looked for myself.
Sir, the money wasn’t there.”

The Captain sat slowly back in his chair and his eyes fluttered toward
the window, considering her words.

Captain Redding had risen and come to stand beside her. “She could
have changed purses or used it.”

Nina shook her head vehemently. “Never. Kayla was adamant about it.
The Shark wouldn’t have had time to find it.” Her eyes darted back to the
Captain’s. “She’s out there somewhere, but not with the Shark.”

Captain Austen stood up abruptly, his troubled features lightening. “I
know she’s alive,” he said, sharing a look with Redding. “She has to be.”

Nina saw the sheen of tears in his eyes. The man was on the edge of
breaking down. He’d driven himself from the day they’d returned. He was only a
shell of the man she’d barely known before his deployment, but she remembered
the night at the ranch. His disclosure and the overwhelming love in his eyes
when he looked at her friend fed his determination.

“Sir?” He nodded, but didn’t look at her. “Kayla, although she doesn’t
really talk about it a lot, is half native. She grew up on tribal lands, and
knows how to survive without the trappings of a city. She once told me,
whenever she felt like she was losing ground to her demons, she could find her
center again with nature.”

“Walk, listen, see,” he murmured.

“I don’t think she’s in the city. I think Kayla would have gone to the
only place that would give her peace, where she could be happy again.”

The Captain’s tall frame turned slowly. “Happy,” he said, his gaze
skittering across the ground. Then like a rocket lifting off from its pad, the
Captain thrust his head up looking at all of them. “I know where she is.”

Redding took a step forward. “Go. Bring her home.” His words were
stern, but hope dangled somewhere in the sentence.

Nina had been racking her brain trying to figure it out, but the
Captain thought he had. “Wait,” she said, digging in her back pocket and
bringing out a note. “Give this to her when you find her.”

Captain Austen took it and nodded. “I will, Nina.”

Mace stepped up beside her. “Sir, I want to go with you.”

He shook his head. “I know you mean a lot to her, Mace, but it’s me
she’s running away from, and it’s me who has to find her.”

Thane drove like a sane man, but he felt like the demons of hell were
behind him. If Nina was right, and God he hoped she was, he knew where Kayla
was hiding. She was six months pregnant, and living a solitary life in the
backcountry of California. His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. All
this time he’d searched for her, but he didn’t forget that the Shark was
probably watching him.

He drove around for an hour, onto the I-5 and then doubled back fifty
miles, taking two exits and then doubling back again, arriving at his sister’s
place and swapping vehicles.

It would take two hours to get there, somewhere around noon. Glancing
in the mirror he looked back at eyes he barely recognized as his own. He’d
driven himself hard, without sleep or food some days, trying to pick up her
trail. He’d talked to literally thousands of people showing her picture. With
every shake of their head, he died a little more inside.

Two hours swept by in deep thought. He turned off the old highway, and
onto the graveled approach to the Cobbs’ ranch. He might be dreaming, he might
be half-insane, but his inner voice told him she was close.

He rolled to a stop and got out. The mountain wind gusted with cool
fingers, and the sun argued, splashing down on his shoulders with the late June
mid-day heat. Scanning, he looked for signs. Reaching the ranch house, two long
strides got him up the stairs. His hand shook as it hovered over the doorknob.
He closed his eyes, gripped the old metal ball and turned, as the door gave way
so did his heart, cracking open, letting all the poison that had tempted him to
give in—out. Kayla was alive.

* * * *

Kayla wandered along the lake. She picked her way onto an outcropping
of rocks. Four months ago, it had been very different, the ranch teaming with
SEALs and their families. The weeks had passed quickly since she’d left Thane
in Zara’s care.

Knowing there would be someone watching for her when she landed in San
Diego, she left everything behind at the airport then thumbed a ride most of
the way, and walked the last five miles to the ranch house. No team of swinging
SEALs had breached her doors or windows yet. She spent her days walking,
reading and she slept a lot. It was peaceful here, and just like when she was
young, she found the solace she needed in nature.

Her stomach swelled. Six months pregnant, and she hadn’t even seen a
doctor yet. Nature would have to pull its weight. If the human race survived
for thousands of years without an OB-GYN, she could surely do without one.
Closing her eyes, she listened to the birds singing to each other, and breathed
deeply, smelling the pine and cypress surrounding the lake.

Soon, she’d have to move on. Going home to Canada was a safe bet, but
getting across the border would be difficult. Somehow, she’d have to find a new
passport without leaving a trail. Silence interrupted her thoughts. The birds
stopped singing, although the bugs didn’t sense a threat and kept a steady buzz
in the background. Sitting up, she panned the entire shore of the lake. Her
senses pinged like sonar, telling her she wasn’t alone. The snap of a twig
behind her startled her to her knees, ready to run, as well as she could with a
huge water balloon attached to her stomach.

A man stepped from the bush line, and her heart pumped madly.
Impossible
!

They gazed at one another. His shoulders drooped as if he’d run a
great race, and had finally reached the end. Even being separated by several
yards, she could see how tired he was, how ragged he looked. He raised his
hands to his face, and combed them through his hair.

“Captain?” He shook his head sharply, but didn’t move. Slowly, she
walked toward him. “What are you doing here?” Fear peppered her blood. The
closer she came, she saw the torment in his expression. He’d lost a lot of
weight. Thane took a hesitant step, and then another until they were within reach,
and when he tried to take the last step, she backed away.

His brow creased tight. “I knew you weren’t dead,” he choked.

Her heart thumped hard in her throat. “How did you find me?”

“I’ve been looking for weeks. This morning Nina reminded me of something,
and it was so clear where you would go.” His voice strained as if each word
were a hardship. “The last place you felt happy, the last place we were happy.”

Six feet separated them, but the distance seemed much greater. “I’m
fine, Captain, you shouldn’t have wasted your time.”