Edge of Control: An Edge Security Novel (Edge Security Series Book 1) (12 page)

She looked back as she started to turn the knob. Her champagne glass rested on the desk. Dammit.

She sprinted across the room and grabbed it. Back at the door, she listened carefully before she cracked it open. The hallway was empty.

She moved out, closing and locking the door behind her, breathing out slowly. She strode to the small set of stairs and realized a burly man in a black suit stood facing down the steps. She paused and cursed silently. He must be one of Dmitri’s bodyguards.

She turned to go down the main stairs. Maybe she could get down those unnoticed.

“Stop.” The heavy Russian accent made the low voice seem deeper and more commanding. She stumbled and spilled a bit of her champagne.

“Yessh?” She whirled, her arms too wide, spilling more champagne and smiling broadly at the approaching guard.

“What are you doing here? You are not allowed up here.” He grabbed her arm and gave it a little shake. She let her head rock with the small movement.

“Stop that,” she said, still trying to slur her words, swatting at him ineffectively with her clutch. “I was looking for my husband. I know he’s off with that nasty blonde woman. He’s here somewhere.” She looked mournfully at her glass of champagne, now mostly spilled because of the arm shaking. “Could you be a dear and get me another?”

The guard growled something low and full of Russian curses before shoving her toward the kitchen stairs. “Your husband is not up here. Go home now or I will see that you never get home.”

She let her eyes widen in fear and squeaked as she wobbled her way to the steps. Once there, she raced down, growing steadier as she went. She chanced a look back to make sure the guard hadn’t followed her.

Strong arms snagged her and pulled her against a hard body. She dropped her champagne glass and struck backward with her elbow. A grunt sounded before Jake’s voice growled in her ear. “Relax. It’s me.”

She didn’t relax, but jerked away from him. “What the hell are you doing? Trying to freak me out?”

“Alpha, sitrep, over.”

Dani answered instead. “I have it. We’re leaving.” She turned to the front of the house and strode down the hallway. Jake grabbed her hand.

“Not that way,” he said, tugging her toward the back of the house.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“One of Dmitri’s guards got in my way,” Jake said. “I took care of him, but I didn’t have time to hide him well.”

A scream sounded from the front of the house.

Jake sighed. “I had to stick him in the ladies.”

Dani struggled not to smile at his disgruntlement. “Do you have an exit plan?”

Jake still hadn’t released her hand as they walked calmly through the kitchen. “The back door,” he said.

One of the chefs looked up from plating appetizers and scowled at them. Dani smiled apologetically at her. “Loved the food.”

Jake snorted and pulled her from the kitchen into a room that looked like a cross between a mudroom and a storage room. Through the glass back door, she could see a garage where a truck with a catering logo sat parked. This entryway must be for the servants.

Jake put his hand on the doorknob and looked at her. “You did good up there, hacker girl, thinking on your feet like that.”

Warmth spilled through her. “Thanks,” she said. “And thanks for coming for me.”

He smiled. “You didn’t need me. And for that, I’m impressed.”

His gaze flicked beyond her, and he quickly let go of the door and pulled her fiercely into his arms. His mouth descended on hers. The warmth inside her turned to heat before surging into an inferno and whipping like wildfire through her. Her pulse pounded in her ears as his soft lips molded to hers. His tongue licked at her lips and her mouth opened, allowing him entrance. Her tongue darted out to touch his and waves of heat washed over her.

He groaned and his arms tightened around her before he whirled and pressed her back against the door. His hands roamed her body, not quite touching what needed to be touched. She pressed against him, all rational thought gone. He broke the kiss to trail his hot mouth up to her ear. Her hands clutched at his shoulders as sparks arced from her ear to the heat in her belly.

She moaned.

“Is he still there?” Jake’s breathy whisper on the sensitive skin of her ear caused her to shudder. “Dani, is the guard still there?” Jake’s fingers dug into her ribs and her eyes popped open.

A lean man in a black suit stood talking to the chef.

Dani closed her eyes and wanted to curl up inside of herself, far away from Jake and his fiery kiss. “Yes,” she choked out, embarrassment tightening her throat.

The kiss hadn’t been real, just a way to keep their cover. She prayed for the guard to leave so she could get out of there and away from Jake.

But she had to keep letting him nuzzle her neck. And
merde
, he was good at it. She couldn’t control her shiver as he pressed his lips to her pounding pulse.

She kept her hands on his shoulders, though she really wanted to curl them into fists to help her stop the waves of sensation assaulting her body. Jake must have sensed something because he raised his face and stared into her eyes, so close that their breath mingled.

She couldn’t move, couldn’t look away from the heat and predatory gleam in his eyes. His gaze seared her, inside and out.

Jake blinked and the soldier took control, his gaze cooling and becoming assessing. “What’s he doing now?”

She realized Jake had switched their positions so his broad back now protected her from the man, but she could see his frustration at not knowing what was happening behind him.

She leaned her forehead to his, pretending to want his attention. “He’s finished talking with the chef.” She watched for a second more. “He’s in the hall. His back is to us.”

Jake glanced back, nodded, and they slipped through the door. “Can you run in those?” he pointed to her spike heels.

She slipped them off and held them. “Let’s go.”

Jake pulled his Sig Sauer P226 from the holster at his lower back and moved silently along the back of the house. His leg throbbed. The guard had managed to kick it before Jake took him down. Now each step sent fire burning through the limb.

Dani followed behind him, quiet. She’d obviously spent time learning to be stealthy, and it only emphasized her mysterious, and no doubt criminal, background.

He grit his teeth. The question was, was she
still
a criminal? Could he trust her?

He scanned the dark lawn and the woods starting twenty-five yards away. They’d have to run for it. His back itched at the thought of being out in the open for that long, but there was no hope for it. They had to move. It wouldn’t be long before the guards realized the kissing couple from the kitchen had disappeared.

The thought of that kiss sent heat racing through him and made his cock twitch. He could still feel Dani’s body pressed against him, her hot lips under his, and hear the small moan that set his blood racing.

He blew out a breath. Now was not the time. He forced all thoughts of the kiss out of his head. He needed to focus and get them to the extraction site before they were discovered.

“Our people are through the woods and across a small stream.” He glanced at her bare feet. They were going to get torn to shreds. Why hadn’t anyone thought of that problem in the briefing? More importantly, why hadn’t Dani brought it up?

He shrugged it off. He’d carry her if he had to, even with his crappy leg. He wouldn’t leave her unprotected.

With a last glance around, he grabbed her hand and tugged her forward, starting to run. His leg protested each footfall, but he shoved it aside. Dani depended on him.

She kept up with him easily, so he increased his pace. Her stride lengthened and he felt a strange pride that she could match him.

They slowed to enter the woods, and bark splintered on a tree near his head. Dani stopped to look, but he dragged her into the darkness.

“Someone’s shooting at us,” he told her. Another crack and more bark exploded nearby.

Shouts came from the lawn. Too close. He wished for a pair of NVGs, but he’d done enough training in the dark to have decent night vision without the goggles. He pulled Dani through the woods, ducking branches, jumping rotten logs, pushing both of them hard. Trying to stay quiet, but not reducing their speed.

The guards behind them continued to shout directions at each other in Russian, nicely giving away their locations to him. The stream was just yards in front of them. He slowed, his senses on high alert as he listened and scanned the open area ahead of them. The trees had been cleared on the other side of the stream and a six-foot concrete wall stood between them and the street where Rhys and Koven waited.

“I’ll go and make sure it’s clear,” he whispered to Dani. “Then you run to me and I’ll help you over.”

Her jaw set. “Like hell. We’ll both go and get over that wall right now.” And she took off, leaping the stream and racing for the wall. He caught up easily, but stayed a step behind just in case she needed help.

She threw her shoes over the wall as she ran at it. Her hands gripped the top as she planted a foot on the wall and pushed off, going up and over, her long legs flashing pale through the slit in her dress.

He hadn’t seen anything much sexier than that in his life. She kept a low profile as she slid over the wall, making sure her silhouette didn’t stand out against the night sky.

He followed suit, but when he landed his leg crumpled under him and he stumbled.

“You okay?” she whispered.

“I’m fine.” Damn his leg. The muscle around the injury threatened to cramp. He rubbed his hand along it, digging hard into the screaming muscles. She watched him and opened her mouth.

He cut her off, but kept his voice low. “I’m fine.”

She huffed a breath. “Whatever.” She picked up her shoes and took off at a jog.

He grit his teeth, but kept up with her. “By the way, nice work getting over the wall,” he said, still speaking softly.

She curled her lip at him. “Do you underestimate every woman you’re with?” She increased her pace.

What
? He caught up with her again. His hand squeezed his thigh muscles as he ran, trying to stop the oncoming spasm. “Can’t you take a compliment?”

She kept jogging toward the van containing their team just ahead. “Oh. Was that a compliment? It felt more like a pat on the head.” She demonstrated with a hand gesture. “Good doggie.”

He let her race ahead. What the hell? Why was she so ticked? He shook his head and continued to the van, rubbing at his leg. The threat of a cramp receded, thankfully. They piled into the van and took off, driving back to E.D.G.E. HQ where they’d debrief.

He sat quietly in the van while Dani pointedly ignored him. First her kiss made him burn and then she turned into an ice queen when he complimented her? She made no sense. He definitely needed to stay clear of Dani Everett.

Dani still wore Tassia’s slinky dress an hour later when the debrief at E.D.G.E. finished. They sat at one end of a conference table in a room with multiple monitors on the wall. Mike sat at the other end, laptop open and going through the files Dani had taken from Dmitri’s computer.

She, Jake, Rhys, and Koven filled in the stern-looking Blackwell on every little detail of the operation. Somehow they’d avoided all mention of the kiss. For which she was truly grateful.

She should feel elated about having completed a successful mission and shown everyone she could be a field operator, but instead she just felt exhausted.

Her eyes were gritty and she wanted to slump in her chair. Her feet throbbed from her run over rocks and forest debris. She’d shoved them back into her heels in the van. Right now, the sole of her left foot had its own heartbeat and warmth trickled down between her toes. She figured she’d stepped on glass or a sharp rock.

“Have you gotten anything useful yet, Mike?” Blackwell asked the IT guru.

“Not yet, sir. Some of the files are in Russian. I think I could use Dani’s help with this.”

Dani wanted to groan. She just wanted a shower and her bed.

But Tassia had been in the Rusakovs’ hands for five days now.

“Pass it here,” she said.

Mike slid his laptop down to her. “I’ve highlighted the files that I think might be useful. Let me know what you think.”

The others continued to talk while she started to delve into the system. Her mind awoke at the puzzle before her. But that had always been the case. Anytime she had an interesting hack, she’d stay awake late into the night until she cracked it. She slid her shoes off and the distracting throbbing eased.

She started going through the files Mike had suggested first. Something wasn’t quite right. She started coordinating emails with the spreadsheets tracking shipments.

“I think I’ve got something,” she said, looking up. Only Jake was left in the room. “Where’d everyone go?”

“Home,” he said. Then he smiled. “Actually, I think Mike is bunking in the ops room. I don’t know if that guy ever goes home.”

She looked at her watch. Three in the morning. She’d been going over this for an hour. “You waited for me?”

“You’re my partner. We watch each other’s backs.”

She froze for a moment. Those simple words struck her hard. Had she ever had anyone watch her back before? Jake’s gaze seemed to dig into her soul, unwilling to accept the surface facade that no one else bothered to look beyond.

She ducked her head to get away from those piercing eyes. She needed to get a handle on herself. He was just sitting at a table, probably only because he had to. It didn’t mean anything. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before looking up.

Jake’s head tilted as he studied her. “You haven’t had many partners, have you?”

Her cheeks warmed. What was he trying to do to her? She set her jaw. It didn’t matter. Only Tassia mattered right now. “Do you want to hear what I found or not?”

He shook his head. “Damn, you’re tough.”

“Is that a compliment?”

He laughed. “Shit. Just show me what you found, hacker girl.”

His laugh eased around her like her favorite pair of cozy pajamas. Her muscles relaxed and she smiled as she twisted the laptop so he could see the screen. “As far as I can tell, Dmitri has a legitimate import business dealing with Russian art.”