Code Name: Luminous (2 page)

“’Kay,” he said, throwing a few cubes in a
glass and filling it. He sat down beside her and snapped the top from a beer
for himself. “You’re safe here. Relax.” Encouragement didn’t help, evaluating
her straight back, hands tightly folded, and the tense air wavering around her.
He wanted to calm her down. Her fear bothered him.
“From the
start, Lumin.
Tell me all of it.”

Lumin swiveled to look at him. The buzzing in
his head when her gaze fell on him made it a little hard to hear. He shot back
a healthy swallow of beer, and took a steadying breath.

“I—”

A knock on his front door stopped her. “Stay
here.” He waited until a second knock fell. Small fingers, he surmised. “Hello?”

“Tony, I saw you come home,” a woman’s voice
floated through the door.

He opened it to see Marcie standing there in a
see-through dress.
He’d spent one hot night tearing up the
sheets with her, and got a bad case of “run for the hills” when she moved in upstairs.
“Hey, Mars, yeah, listen, I’ve got company.”

“Oh.” Her gaze stroked across him with
disappointment. “I was just about to start dinner and thought…”

“Sorry, babe.
My company’s staying with me. Rain check, okay?”

“I suppose,” she said, trying to peek around
his shoulder.

“Talk later.” He gave her a friendly smile
before closing the door. His stomach clenched when he saw Lumin wasn’t where
he’d left her.
Okay, SEAL, get a grip
.
“Lumin?”
The patio door was open, and the curtains
fluttered aside revealing his guest standing like a beautiful Greek statue
adorning the postage stamp-sized space.

“I should go,” she said, when he stepped onto
the patio to join her. “I’ll contact the CDC and tell them what I know. I
should have done that before involving you. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

He offered her a raised brow. She was trying
hard to not show her fear, but he could feel it as if it was rooted deep inside
him. “You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
Wasn’t that the
truth
.
Since December the team had been busy with workups, but he’d thought about her
many times. At least five times he’d picked up the phone, but never finished
dialing. He gently gripped her hand, and she let him lead her back inside.
“Maybe you should lie down for a while.” She refused with a slow shake of her
head. When he had her settled, he said, “How did you get involved in this?” The
nervous flit of her gaze put him on edge.

“I don’t normally mix it up with tourists.
They’re only in Vegas for a few days, but my friend Star is always on me to
take time off from studying.”

“Studying what?” he asked.

“In September I start the third year of my law
degree.”

That surprised him. “You’re an aerialist,
aren’t you?”

“I am now. My parents are performers, and they
taught my brother and
I
everything they know.”

“Where are they?”

“Europe.
On tour.
My
brother has a family. I didn’t want to take the chance I’d lead any trouble to
him.”

“Makes sense.”

“Star convinced me to go out, but she didn’t
tell me she’d set up a blind date. Dr. Carmichael was introduced to me as a
scientist. He seemed uptight, but decent enough. We took him and his friend out
on the town.”

Tony’s mind romped ahead at SEAL speed,
wondering how she’d ended up in a hotel room with him, and he wasn’t sure he
wanted to hear it. “Did he say where he was from?”

“Lebanon.”

Tony took another swallow of his beer, nodding
as he settled the bottle on his knee. “What happened next?”

“Star ditched me, and I was left to babysit.
Halfway through the night he started hammering back the drinks. I suggested
he
return to his hotel. Dr. Carmichael could barely stand,
so I helped him. When we got to his hotel, he threw up, and he did it all over
me the first time. Instead of calling the hotel doctor, I stayed with him. I
washed out my clothes and hung them to dry while I tried to keep him cool with
compresses. He started talking about a plague. I thought it was drunken babble
or delirium at first.

He began to beg for forgiveness, explaining he
hadn’t known what the bacteria would be used for. He’d been contracted to work
with the Bubonic Plague, but alter it. Weaponize it, is the term he used. He
thought he’d been hired by the U.S. military, but he found out it was a private
backer. When he attempted to walk away, they locked him in a lab and threatened
him.”

“Did he mention names?”

“Just Dr. Clifford Bjornson.
I think he was Carmichael’s partner.” Lumin shook her head and
stared at Tony with a reflective expression. “I stayed with him because he
begged me to. I fell asleep, and when I woke up…”

“He was dead.”

She nodded.

“Have you told anyone else?”

“No, just you.”

“Did he tell you where the lab was located?”

“Out in the Nevada desert.
He didn’t mention a town just that it was in the middle of
nowhere.”

Lumin stood up and began to pace the room.
Tony’s gaze tracked her lithe movements and graceful, long strides in her
hip-hugging shorts. He was reminded of the first time he’d seen her hot-footing
it across the lobby of the Grand Palms Casino in Las Vegas. Something had begun
to race inside him then, and the key was still in the ignition.

“Have you eaten?” She continued to pace,
preoccupied with her thoughts. “Chinese or Italian?” he tried again.

“What?” She stopped and stared at him.

His lips curved into a grin. “I asked whether
you want me to order Chinese or
Italian?
”

“I’m not really hungry, Tony.”

“Come here for a second.” She kept her
distance. “Lumin, you are not infected. Please, come here.” She sighed and
slowly approached him. He gently twined his fingers in hers and drew her down.
Their knees brushed, and the touch sent a supercharged jolt through him. “You
need to eat and rest.” He stood up and adjusted the pillow, then pressed her shoulders
to lay back. “Do me a favor and close your eyes.”

“Tony, I can’t sleep. My mind is running in
circles.”

“Just for a second.”
Her dainty, soft fingers gripped his calloused ones. Seeing her
again was a little surreal. Holding her hand sent his blood galloping through
his veins, but it wasn’t lust, more like an incessant need to get closer.

Their time together had been brief, but it had
a lasting impact. There were plenty of women to keep him busy in Coronado.
Sometimes he didn’t even remember the girls he’d screwed when they’d catch him
in a coffee shop and say hello, but he remembered Lumin, and he’d never touched
her. Not even a kiss.

She watched him with a cautious gaze as he
lifted her hand and encased it with both of his. “SEALs learn how to fall
asleep quickly. Many times we can only catch a few winks before we have to
start moving again. Clear your mind.” He smiled down at her. “Close your eyes.”
He waited until she did. “You’re safe, Lumin. You’re safe with me.”

While he ordered a Chinese dinner for two, he
darted a look at her. Her pale lips were parted a little, her breasts rose and
fell in a shallow rhythm, and he knew she’d fallen asleep. Before he knocked,
Tony met the delivery guy at the door. He grabbed, tipped, and closed the door.
He set the food out and hovered at the back of the couch, reasoning in his mind
that he was programmed to help people. Yet, it didn’t explain why he wanted to
simply stand and gaze at her sleeping form. High cheekbones, soft, inviting
skin; everything about her challenged him to possess her. She reminded him of
looking out across a blanket of newly fallen snow, absolutely pristine. If he
touched her, he’d tarnish her. His desire begged to run full ahead and leave
its mark. Good sense reminded him she’d sought him out for his protection, not
to be mauled by a womanizing jackass.

He’d pulled her act at the Grand Palms up on
YouTube. She amazed him as she balanced on the thin beam suspended high above
the stage. Brave and agile, with an elfin beauty, she had the audience holding
their breath. Like a lovesick fan, he played it at least fifty times. Even
though he’d chickened out of calling her, the internet offered a small fix from
a distance, but why the hell hadn’t he called her?

“Are you just going to stare at me all night?”

He blinked and stepped back a little
embarrassed. “Dinner’s ready.”

With a sweep of her long, tanned legs she
strode to the table and settled down. The woman wore a pair of shorts like no
one else.

“Smells good.
I guess I am hungry.”

She filled her plate, but pushed aside the
chunks of chicken and beef.

“You’re a vegetarian.”

After slowly chewing a mouthful, she said,
“You notice everything, don’t you?”

He shrugged and loaded his plate. He was
starving, but the hunger wasn’t for food.
“Depends on the
subject.”

She lowered her fork before it reached her
mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I told you. I owed you one.”

“Not that. I didn’t ask you how the little
girl you were trying to find is doing.”

He smiled. “She’s doing great.”

She mirrored his expression. “Good.”

Tony remembered tracking Lumin into the
nightclub in Vegas. “That guy that manhandled you in the bar, what happened to
him?”

Lumin narrowed her eyes. “He was my show
manager, but he was fired the next night. You wouldn’t happen to know anything
about that, would you?”

He shrugged innocently. When Steven Porter
flew them back to Coronado in his helicopter after rescuing Squirt, Tony
described the guy, and what he’d done to Lumin in the bar. He had a feeling Mr.
Porter wouldn’t like it much.

“Gordon was getting a little hard to bear, to
be honest. I’m pretty sure he was high half of the time, and when he was, he
got aggressive.”

The thought of anyone touching Lumin gnawed at
his belly.

“You said you were at Mace and Nina’s wedding
when I called.”

“Yeah, one of those
love
at first sight things.”

Lumin tilted her head and surveyed him. “And
you? Am I going to make some girl angry for dragging you into this? I won’t be
here long. She doesn’t have to be concerned.”

He shook his head. “No, I…”

The door blew open and Lumin shot to her feet,
her chair toppling over. He rolled his eyes seeing the herd of people
stampeding into the condo. The loud chatter that accompanied them made him
chuckle. Lumin’s eyes were everywhere as the crowd put themselves front and
center. “Lumin, this is Alpha Squad. Squad, this is Lumin Edenridge.”

Gabbs
crawled into his lap and slung an arm around his shoulder. “Hi,
I’m Gabriella. Mom calls me
Gabbs
, and Uncle Tony
calls me Squirt.”

Lumin laughed. Her cheeks blushed as she
righted the chair. “So, you’re Squirt, huh?”

Gabbs
nodded her head vigorously. “I’m hungry, Uncle Tony.”

“You’re always hungry, Squirt.” He handed her
his fork and she dug in.

“Lumin, it’s nice to see you again. I never
got the chance to thank you,” Nina said, walking up to her.

“Your daughter is beautiful.”

“Thank
you,
and you
remember Mace?”

“Hi, Mace.”

He gave her a two-finger salute. “Sorry, bud.
The wife said we had to pack up our gear and follow you. We owe Lumin too.”

Lumin’s brow tightened. “You cut your
honeymoon short? That’s not right.”

Nina placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s
kinda
like the Musketeers.
All for one
and one for all.”

Lumin gazed at the rest of the crowd and Nina
made the introductions. Master Chief Mason Briggs, who they called Fox, and his
wife, Kate, had two beautiful girls, both redheads; Caleb, whose team name was
Stitch, and his family; Clay, their electronics guy, and his wife; and finally,
Nathan Young and Ed Saxton, who came solo to the wedding.

“
Where’s
the Admiral
and Captain Cobbs?” Tony asked.

“Right here, Tinman.”

Admiral Austen strode through the doorway with
his son, Adam, in his arms and Kayla at his side, followed by Cobbs, Marg, and
Kelsey. Kelsey quickly pushed her way through the adults and scrambled up on
Tony’s lap, nudging herself next to Squirt. He laughed and reached for another
fork. “Suppose you’re hungry too.”

“Do you have dessert, Uncle Tony?”

“No, but we’ll get some.”

Kayla and Marg pressed their way through the
crowd and shook Lumin’s hand.
“Nice to meet you, Lumin.
I’m Kayla Austen.”