Navy SEALs Complete Series: 3 Books + 3 Novellas (Tempting Navy SEALs) (105 page)

Josef shook his head desperately, sweat beading his brow as broken gasps left his lips.

“I learned a lot of ways to hurt a man in the American military.” He twisted Missern’s wrist easily, dragging another cry from his lips. “Ways that make a man pray for death. Don’t make me watch you pray, Josef. It would just piss me off and bite into my schedule. When you do that, I get mean.” Ian pressed his thumb deeper into the other man’s wrist, gave it a hard twist, and heard it crack. It didn’t break. It didn’t dislocate, but the distinctions in pain were so slight as to be negligible.

He released the shuddering man, moved back to his seat, and pushed the door open.

“While you’re contemplating betraying me and talking to Sorrell on the phone, inform him that if he wants to end this, then he’ll meet with me. The next time he sends one of his fuck buddies to strike out at me, I’ll start killing them. That’s a promise, Josef, you hear me?”

Josef struggled back to the seat, staring back at Ian fearfully, his once perfectly combed white-blond hair lying mussed around his face now.

“You are letting us leave alive?” he asked hesitantly.

Ian shook his head and tsked mockingly. “I keep my word, Josef. Unlike Sorrell. I’ll give you one last piece of advice. Get the hell out of Aruba until Sorrell and I come to an understanding, because I’d hate to have to kill you. Now get out of my limo. I’ve had enough of you.”

He grabbed the lapels of the arms dealer’s jacket, jerked him from the seat, and threw him from the car. Josef struggled to his feet, lurched toward his bodyguards, and cast one last wary look back at the limo as Ian slammed the door closed.

The helicopter lifted from the ground as the limo pulled from the meeting area and began to pick up speed along the eastern coast of the island.

“Why did we drive out here rather than flying?”

The question wasn’t the one he had expected, nor was her calm demeanor. Though he knew he shouldn’t have expected anything less.

“Because I like the drive,” he growled.

“Liar.”

He breathed out roughly. “The first two months I was here I had two copters brought down and three bodyguards taken out. They have a harder time attacking the limo.”

“They?”

He grunted a sharp laugh. “Who the fuck knows. Pissed-off SEALs and SFs, Sorrell’s men, DEA, CIA, FBI. Hell, there are agents from a dozen alphabet-soup agencies in the world staked out on this damned island since I came here.”

And he didn’t blame a damned one of them for trying to take him out. Now, it wasn’t just him though. It was Kira as well. Son of a bitch. Suddenly, this mission was beginning to seriously tax his patience. In ways he had never imagined possible.

He pushed his fingers through his hair and checked their location. He pulled the Glock free of his side holster, checked the clip then pulled the extra clips from the pockets of his pants and checked them.

Turning, he stared through the back window at the SUV following them. Mendez and Cristo had the heavier weapons with them, Trevor was watching overhead with the copter.

Hell, he wished he was in that damned copter. Unfortunately they were too easy to track and too easy to take out of the sky. And he had too many enemies now.

“What’s happening with this meet we’re driving to, Ian?”

He returned his gaze to her as he shoved the Glock back in its holster.

He shook his head firmly. “I told you what the meeting involved.”

Her expression was scoffing. “Come on, Ian, don’t pull that on me. Tell me what’s really going on.”

“There’s nothing to pull.” He shrugged. “I need to meet with some of the men that are transporting loads between Colombia and American waters. I give them their GPS coordinates for the first phase of delivery. After that, they receive transportation routes in phases.”

What he wasn’t telling her was the fact he suspected at least one of the transporters was going to be mildly upset when they learned that their loads had been shifted to other parties.

The men he was dealing with here weren’t regular Fuentes soldiers or cartel members. Diego had been using independent contract workers for the most part until Ian arrived. Ian had slowly been replacing those contractors with cartel members. Efficiency, he had explained to Diego. Efficiency be damned; it would make the cartel that much easier to take down when Diego fell.

In this particular instance though, the men he was getting ready to replace wouldn’t exactly take it with a shrug and smile. He wasn’t firing a union member, he was firing a cutthroat, murderous drug dealer with delusions of status.

Rodrigo Cruz was on the DEA’s and FBI’s most wanted lists. When this was over, Ian hoped he would be either dead or maneuvered into a position that would allow capture within a matter of days.

At times like this, he was forcefully reminded that perhaps genetics and DNA were indeed stronger than hatred. Because he had learned he could be just as deceptive, controlling, and manipulating as the man who had donated the sperm in his conception.

“How dangerous do you anticipate this little meeting turning?”

He stared at her, proud of her, terrified of losing her, though a part of him knew she was his greatest strength now.

“Oh, I don’t know, Kira,” he drawled. “I’m meeting with half a dozen cocaine transporters whose fortunes depend upon securing each successive shipment. What do you think?”

“I think that if you weren’t planning something to piss them off then there would be little danger involved. Unless you suspected one of them of conspiring with Sorrell.”

“Right now, I suspect everyone in the Fuentes camp of conspiring with Sorrell.” He snorted. “I’ve learned to be careful, that’s all.”

“If that’s all, then I can go in with you,” she stated.

“Do you want me to tie you to the bed the next time I have a meeting that I refuse to allow you to attend?” He stared back at her, knowing the look on his face was just short of savage. Hell, he felt savage. He knew each time he walked into one of these meetings that it could be his last. And now it could endanger her as well.

“Chauvinism doesn’t become you, Ian.” She sighed. “Very well, I’ll wait in the limo like a good little girl.”

Ian nodded sharply. “This shouldn’t take long,” he told her as the limo neared the port town Oranjestad. “It’s just a meeting. The business Fuentes does here in Aruba is simple. Orders go out from here. Dealers pick up their cargo in Colombia. I don’t risk actual shipments onto the island.”

“What I’d like to know is how you’ve managed to keep your head on your shoulders here. Aruba isn’t exactly a good hiding place.”

“I’m not hiding.” He shrugged. “I’ve not been arrested because I’ve managed to escape every operation sent out against me. I don’t have predictable travel routes and I don’t let myself become comfortable. And that’s besides the fact that money does talk. Aruba hasn’t yet given the U.S. permission to conduct an operation against me on their turf.”

“I was under the impression Aruba had a very close relationship with America,” Kira pointed out. “You’re a deserter . . .”

“You didn’t do your homework.” That word had the power to clench his guts. “The truth is, I resigned my commission. The papers
were logged in to the system during the Atlanta mission; I was due to step down a week later.”

“You did it a week early. Technically, a deserter.”

He inclined his head in mocking agreement. “My lawyers are arguing that case in Washington as a matter of fact. The cartel has some excellent lawyers.”

And that was the truth. Of course, neither the Navy nor DHS was pushing too hard at this time for charges.

A smile tugged at her lips as her gaze went past him to the vista of perfect blue waters that surrounded the island. Her sharp frown was his first warning.

“Evade! Evade!” Trevor’s voice across the receiver located in the radio at the side of the backward-facing seat was his final warning.

He pushed Kira to the floor as the limo swerved and the back window began lowering. His head swung around, a curse leaving his lips, as the front of the limo seemed to explode, the car flying across the road and burying itself in the side of a rocky sand dune.

The force of the landing flung him across the car as he fought to hold Kira in place. Even as the vehicle shuddered he kicked the door open, dragging her out and throwing her toward Mendez and Cristo as they rushed for the limo.

“Get Trevor on the ground,” he yelled to Mendez as Cristo caught Kira. “Now.”

He gripped the driver’s-side door, pulling at it before cursing when it didn’t open. Turning, he jumped into the back of the vehicle, climbing through the back partition to check Deke.

“How’s Deke?” Mendez yelled.

“Alive.” Barely.

Ian gripped the passenger door, forced it open then backed out as he dragged Deke’s heavy, unconscious body across the seat. Mendez and Cristo helped lift him as wind from the helicopter’s rotors beat around them.

“Boss, two speedboats,” Trevor yelled as he rushed toward
them, grabbing Deke’s legs as Cristo and Mendez grabbed his upper body.

“Get him in the copter,” Ian snapped. “Now. Call the villa and have the doc pulled in. Trevor, did you get any ID marks on those boats?”

“I know them, boss.” He was walking backward, rushing Deke’s lower body to the copter while the rest of them followed. “Both are rentals out of Oranjestad.”

They loaded Deke quickly into the copter as Ian turned for Kira and nearly did a double take.

She was poised, shoeless, her hair whipping around her, an M-16 braced in her arms as she secured the area. Ian knew he had never seen anything so damned hot in his life.

“Let’s go.” He stepped to her quickly, pulled the weapon from her hands, and tossed it to Mendez. “Mendez, you and Cristo get to the villa double time.” He pushed Kira into the front of the copter with Trevor before jumping into the cramped back with a still unconscious Deke.

His gaze stayed on Kira as the helicopter lifted off, banked, and raced across the island. He hated using air power.

“Tracking’s on, boss, we’re showing no locks. We’ll make it.”

The advanced radar and weapons detection equipment he’d had installed was his best insurance in case of emergency but it wasn’t foolproof.

“Just get us there, Trevor,” he called out, his gaze meeting Kira’s as she turned her head and stared back at him worriedly.

She was in the middle of a war zone and he couldn’t force her out or protect her. The knowledge of that ate at his guts and tightened his chest as anger burned inside him.

He wanted her out of here. He wanted her so far from this situation that there wasn’t a chance of it touching her, and he knew it wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t just a
trained contract agent. She was a woman who had a hold on his balls which he couldn’t seem to break.

Chauvinism, his ass. This was more than chauvinism, this was an emotion he couldn’t conquer and couldn’t force behind him. It was a mix of protectiveness and possessiveness, fury and worry. She was getting to him and he had no idea how to stop it.

T
HE HELICOPTER LANDED DIRECTLY BEHIND
the villa. Men raced from the French doors that led to the pool area, M-16s and Uzis gripped in their hands, to surround the aircraft as Ian jumped from the side and motioned to several of the soldiers to ease the lead bodyguard through the opening and carry him into the house.

Kira accepted Trevor’s helping hand from the pilot’s door, her eyes on Ian, seeing the lines bracketing his lips and eyes, the barely contained rage that glittered in his gaze.

“The doctor is en route,” one of the Fuentes soldiers that had converged on the villa shouted to Ian as the helicopter’s rotors slowly eased and stopped. “Ramon called when they left town. Another three minutes at the most.”

Ian nodded then turned, his hand latching around Kira’s wrist and dragging her to his side before heading for the villa.

“Get him in his room and show the doctor straight to him. Get out to the limo and get it towed and ditch it. I want all evidence of this attempted hit wiped away. Understand that?” he snapped to the soldier.

“Sí.”
The soldier turned away, called several soldiers to him, and rushed to the attached garage rather than entering the house with the rest of the force.

As they moved through the informal patio room and into
the wide hallway toward the foyer, Kira watched as Diego Fuentes came out from his study. He said nothing, but his expression was heavy, concerned. Black eyes were shielded by dark lashes, his lips tightly compressed. He was worried, and perhaps a bit frightened. Kira would have taken the time to reflect more on that if Ian wasn’t pulling her quickly up the stairs in the wake of the soldiers carrying Deke.

“Go to our room,” he ordered, his voice flat and hard as he unlocked the door and pushed her inside. “I’ll be right back.” The door closed in her face.

Kira rolled her eyes. There were some moods that she wouldn’t mind opposing, but something in his eyes warned her to steer clear of pushing him much harder right now. Waiting would likely be the smartest decision. And when he came to her— She blew out a hard breath. She had seen that mood before, the racing adrenaline, the need for action. When he began coming down, he was going to be ready for more than tea and cakes.

She rubbed at the chill that raced over her arms and tried to still the excitement that began to claw at her stomach. He was going to be hard, confrontational. Ready to go head-to-head with the first person willing to give him the chance.

She knew. The adrenaline wasn’t as all-consuming for her as it was for most men she had worked with. She had seen some of the operatives and SEALs she had worked with fight or fuck for hours after coming down from a dangerous situation.

Fucking just for the sake of the adrenaline had never been her thing, until Ian. She could definitely see the benefits of it now.

She pushed her fingers roughly through her hair at that thought. She could have lost him today. And she knew it wasn’t the first time he had been attacked. In the past eight months there had been half a dozen attempts.