Matt (Red, Hot, & Blue) (8 page)

Sam laughed. “You didn’t eat any of it.”

“I’ll get to it. I plan on getting to lots of things before tonight is over.” He ran both hands down her spine. The shaky breath she drew in when his slick fingertip breached the entrance of her ass had him leaning low. “Tell me if I hurt you.”

His breath against her ear sent a shiver through her. “No, you’re not hurting me.”

He moaned, soft and low near her ear. “Good.”

Yes, it was. Very good.

Chapter Six

Head bowed over the keyboard, Matt watched the screen while his fingers flew across the keys. Sam had finally spilled her assignment to him during their second shower together last night. It didn’t take Matt long to formulate a plan. While lathering Sam’s incredibly hot body with his hands, he’d whispered his idea to her under the cover of the sound of the water. She’d agreed.

Matt had gone to the air base early that morning. In actuality, he was done with them, but their base offered a secure computer and a good excuse for him to still be there as he pretended to his palace hosts he had more work to do. At the base, he created a program that looked real but wasn’t.

Back at his room, Matt proceeded as if he had more work to do. He loaded the disc he’d created at the base onto the computer in his room. The trick was he’d rigged the program so it appeared to work, but in reality it had very limited functionality. Then he added what he thought was an absolute stroke of genius—an invisible tracking program.

So now he worked like a fiend on the computer provided for him in his room. The same computer he and Sam both believed was not by any stretch of the imagination secure. He knew that any bad guy hoping to steal American military technology or secrets would access anything Matt did here, and that was Matt’s plan exactly.

Whoever was contacting known terrorists from within this compound would hopefully find the program Matt had planted. If they did, they would definitely forward the technology and inadvertently lead the good guys to them. That way, instead of just capturing the one fish Sam had been sent to locate, they’d get the whole pond full. Everyone and anyone connected.

It was no small task to code all of this on the fly, but Matt thrived on pressure. In fact, he didn’t notice the sun set and ignored the growling in his stomach until a knock on the door reminded him that Sam should be delivering his evening meal. He glanced at his watch. She was late. He could definitely stand a meal break…and a sex break.

He flung open the door, intending to tease her about being a bad little harem girl for delivering her master’s meal late, but Rashid stood in the doorway, tray in hand.

Matt stepped back into the room. “Rashid. Where’s…” Uh, oh. What name was she using? They’d gotten around to a lot the night before, but the name she’d given them at the compound wasn’t one of them. “Uh, the girl who was here last night? Blue eyes, short light hair, pretty…”

“You mean Sabrina.” Rashid frowned. “You like her, I can see. But I have bad news.”

Matt’s heart skipped a beat. “What bad news?”

“She was taken away today.”

Matt braced himself with one hand on the edge of the desk and tried to cover his panic. Hoping his voice didn’t betray his feelings, he asked, “What do you mean
taken
?”

“A man came and said she belonged to him. That she had run from him and he was here to take her back. Then he hit her. Hard. I saw blood on her mouth.”

Matt swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. “Thank you, Rashid. You can go. I have work to do.”

Rashid bowed his head and backed out of the room. Matt managed to wait for the door to close before he collapsed in the computer chair. His mind raced. Of course, she wasn’t a runaway. Was this her cover story and her way to extricate herself from the assignment? But wouldn’t she have waited to make sure the program he was working on was a success before she left?

What was to stop any man from coming here and claiming her as his own? His stomach clenched.

He closed his eyes and breathed deep. He was nearly finished. A little more time, if he could get his brain to focus on the job and not Sam, and he’d be done. But there was still no way he could search for her in Dubai. It would raise suspicion. Besides, she might not even still be in Dubai. People could disappear completely in this region.

Matt had to have faith in her to take care of herself. Faith in Omega team to take care of her, just as Zeta took care of their own.

Easier said than done. He flashed back to the condition Jimmy had been in by the time they’d extracted him after his cover had been blown. That didn’t help calm him. Exactly the opposite.

The best thing he could do to help her was finish planting the bait and then get his ass out of this place so he could find out what happened to Sam. First thing he’d do once he was clear of here and could contact the commander securely, was pass on all that had happened. Central Command would have to start monitoring the tracking device while he was in transit home. Hopefully, a call to Omega would yield the information Matt wanted—that Sam was en route to the States, as well. Safe and sound.

If not, he’d track down both her and whoever had her, and God help the man who took her.

Flinging open the door, he turned to the ever-present guard. “I need transportation to the airport. Who do I talk to about that?”

As she watched the scenery whiz by the car window, Sam fingered her throbbing mouth. The cut on her fat lip was going to look even prettier by tomorrow when it was set off by all the colors her bruise would turn. She picked up the ice pack and held it in place, wondering if her mouth hurt more with or without the cold pressed to it. But the sick feeling in her gut wasn’t from being hit. It was because every minute, every mile, took her farther away from Matt.

Was he still in the compound? Had he been able to code the Trojan Horse program they’d talked about? And if so, did he get away clean afterward? If anyone figured out what he was up to, they could have detained him or worse.

A large male hand covered hers. “Foster, I’m so sorry.”

“Please, sir. Stop apologizing. Just try and remember the next time you get into playing the role of angry harem-girl master, wear the gaudy gold ring on your left hand and make sure you slap me with your right.” She winced as speaking opened the crack in her lip wider.

“I hope there isn’t a next time.” His eyes focused on the road as he drove, Commander Anderson drew in a deep breath and shook his head. “But if there is, check in when you’re supposed to so I don’t assume you’ve been compromised.”

If one of the guys on the team had gone dark for a few days during an uncover op, the commander wouldn’t have come swooping in like a deranged Superman and dragged them out. Sam scowled at the double standard.

“It was too risky to contact you. I had no privacy whatsoever.”

In hindsight, she should have had Matt make contact for her, but that wouldn’t have been without its risks either.

Her commander should have trusted in her skills. He hadn’t, and that pissed Sam off. Instead, he’d swept in wearing a disguise so over the top it nearly made her laugh. But he’d spewed Farsi like he’d been born speaking it, and had no problem convincing everyone there what he spoke was the truth. His pretend anger over Sam’s presence there had even the guards cowering, especially after he added a backhanded blow across her mouth. He demanded his woman be returned, and Sam and her single bag had been handed over to him immediately.

Commander Anderson looked in her direction again and cringed. “Good thing you don’t have some big protective boyfriend around, huh? He’d kick my ass for what I did to your face.”

“Yeah. Good thing.” Her mind turned to Matt. Their brief time together. The feel of his hands on her. She wouldn’t mind having a big protective boyfriend. Not one bit.

He pulled the car up to the security checkpoint at the base’s front gate and glanced at her as the guard checked his ID, saluted and waved the vehicle through. “You up for this? The debriefing can wait a day. You can skip the team meeting. Take a few days if you need to.”

Sam frowned. “Are you kidding? I finally got a battle scar. There’s no way I’m hiding at home and not showing it off to the guys.”

That earned her a smile from Commander Anderson. “All right. Understood. I’ll stop coddling you. You handled yourself well, Foster.”

“Thanks, but the program to monitor and track the transmissions was Matt Coleman’s doing, not mine.” Sam had waited a long time for a compliment like that from her leader, but she had to give credit where credit was due.

“I think you would have come up with something on your own, but I am glad he was there, because I don’t want to even think about what you would have had to resort to if he hadn’t been.”

That thought had crossed Sam’s mind too. Cozying up to the Brunei prince was the last thing she’d wanted to do, but she would have done it to gain information. On the other hand, playing harem girl with Matt hadn’t been a problem at all. Not even a little bit. Her insides heated just thinking about it, even as her concern for his wellbeing hung over her.

First moment she had, she was going to try and contact him.

The commander parked the car in the lot nearest their building. “Last chance. You want to go home and rest? We just got off the plane—”

Sam cocked a brow. “Commander, if I needed to run home and nap every time I lost a little sleep, I’m in the wrong profession.”

“All right. Your choice.” He swung open the door and stepped out, glancing at her over the hood of the black SUV. “Meeting at zero-eight-hundred.”

“Perfect. Just enough time for me to microwave a cup of tea first.”

“Whatever.” He shook his head and smiled.

Commander Anderson didn’t believe Sam’s claim that tea had as much caffeine as coffee, but he didn’t argue with her about it now the way he always had in the past. More proof of his guilty conscience over Sam’s fat lip.

A quarter of an hour later, Sam sat at the table surrounded by the members of Omega.

Her teammate, Justin, eyed her from across the table. “Nice lip.”

“Thanks.” She sipped gingerly from her steaming mug, trying not to inflict more pain on herself.

Next to her, Glenn leaned close. “How was the harem?”

“Sorry, but what happens in the harem, stays in the harem.” She couldn’t help but smile at his raised brow. That hurt, but was worth it.

The commander stepped out of his office and into the meeting room, ending further interrogation by her team. “I just got off the phone with Commander Miller from Task Force Zeta. Foster worked with Zeta’s communications officer in Dubai, and the program they put in place has already tracked the transmission to its destination. No surprise, it went directly to a heavily guarded compound located in Pakistan, which we believe to be occupied by leaders of Al Qaeda.”

A wide grin spread across Sam’s face. It made her lip hurt like hell, but she couldn’t help it. This was huge news. It meant that not only had Matt gotten the program up and running, but it had yielded the exact results they’d hoped for. What it didn’t answer was if Matt had gotten out safely. That thought erased her smile.

“Are we going in, sir?” Justin leaned forward, looking excited at the hope of some action.

“Not quite yet, but soon.”

Sam wasn’t surprised by the commander’s answer. Central Command would want to watch and wait to see where else Matt’s tracking device might lead before going in and tipping their hand. At least, that’s what she would do if the decision were up to her.

Of course, if Sam were in charge, she would also have already been on the phone to Commander Miller demanding to know if Matt was safe.

The meeting room door flung open, interrupting further thought. Every gaze inside turned to look, including Sam’s.

What she saw overwhelmed her. Matt stood in the doorway. He took one look at her and let out a huge breath. His relief at seeing her safe was clear in his expression. He must have been crazed when she disappeared from the compound.

She stood, but it was the commander who spoke first. “May I help you?”

Sam swallowed and tried to keep her voice calm as she said, “Commander Anderson, this is Zeta’s com officer Matt Coleman. The operative that helped me on the assignment.”

The commander looked from her to Matt. Sam could imagine how relieved she looked at seeing Matt safe.

“Well, then. We owe you thanks. That was a brilliant plan.”

Matt tore his gaze away from her to address the commander. “Thank you, sir.”

“Sir, I haven’t had a follow-up report from Coleman yet. Could I be excused from the meeting, obtain the report and then relay it to you?”

Sam was shaking. He’d come to find her. To get here so soon, he must have flown directly to Virginia from Dubai instead of going back to his own base in North Carolina.

“Go ahead, Foster.” The commander almost controlled his smile, but not quite. “Take all the time you need.”

“Thank you, sir.” She ignored the reaction of the team as they stared and snickered.

Maybe it was obvious more had gone on in Dubai than just coding a program, but she didn’t give a crap what they thought. She led Matt out the door, down the hall and into an empty office. She managed to not attack him until they were alone, but then she didn’t hold back.