Reckoning (8 page)

Once parked, he grabbed their duffel bags from the back, and they went inside. It was nothing great, but a hell of a lot nicer than their home base.

First thing he did was get out his bug scanner. There was no way anyone could have known they were coming here, to this room, but he’d grown accustomed to being exceptionally cautious.

Harper called Noah on her cell, giving him only the necessary information. He was already in Vegas, so he’d meet them in under two hours.

The room was clean, and so was the phone. Seth looked at his watch then met Harper’s gaze. Her smile told him they were on the same page. There was at least an hour to kill and a king-sized bed. Waste Not, Want Not.

IT WAS TEN-THIRTY, and for once, Nate was in the room, in the bed, not asleep. Tam looked at him again, just to make sure he hadn’t drifted off, but no, he was still watching TV. He had a beer on the nightstand, which he sipped periodically, and the remains of a turkey sandwich on a plastic plate.

There were things happening here, things that felt important. Just for starters the fact that he muted the commercials. All of them. Even when he was eating or drinking, his free hand was on the remote. Then there was the whole gun prep thing. Jeez. Before dinner, he’d sat at the small round table and cleaned his weapon so carefully she wondered if he had a touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Or maybe he’d just been in the military too long. He’d smiled in this possessive, affectionate way when he’d finished, and it would have creeped her out if she hadn’t needed him to protect her.

But the most interesting thing was the touching part. She was in a T-shirt and panties. He was in his boxer shorts, ever able to leap to the door if something came up. From the moment he’d come in from a meeting with Vince, some part of his body had touched some part of her body.

When she’d been making the sandwiches, it had been his hip. When she’d taken off her pants, his hand went to the small of her back. In bed, they were thigh to thigh, and when she rolled to get her drink, he touched her shoulder.

All that, and she didn’t think he wanted to do anything but this. Watch the tube, then go to sleep.

Was this normal? Not the TV or the sleep part. Did all new couples touch like this? She liked it, no question about that. After such a long time alone, it felt terrific. But that didn’t mean it was healthy.

“Nate?”

He turned his head toward her, but kept his gaze on the TV. “Yeah?”

“What do you miss most?”

That got his full attention. “About what?”

“Your life?”

His thumb moved from the mute button to the on-off button and the room became quiet. “Most? I’m not sure.”

“What are the contenders?”

“My work.”

“You really like all that stuff, huh? The guns, the danger. But then, you’ve got that in this life, too.”

“That’s not the part I miss. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t been in the service. I liked the challenge, the fact that I wouldn’t know from day to day what we were going to face. And the camaraderie. I don’t think there’s any situation around where men depend on each other so thoroughly, and when the pressure’s off, man, the partying…”

She grinned. “I can only imagine. My colleagues at MIT sucked at partying. They’d all have to talk shop, and after two beers, they wanted to go home.”

“Well, when this is over, me and the boys will show you how.”

“You’re on. But what else?”

“I miss feeling safe.”

“That one I completely understand.”

“I’m lucky Christie’s here, even though I wouldn’t have wanted this for her.”

Tam felt the twist in her gut that had become too familiar. “I miss my parents. I miss them so much.”

“Tell me about them,” he said.

She closed her eyes, picturing her mother as if she’d seen her yesterday. “My mother’s family is from Canada. Toronto, actually. She met my father when she was on vacation in San Francisco. He was working his way through school as a tour guide. He grew up speaking Cantonese, so it was an easy job for him.”

“So, she was on one of his tours?”

Tam nodded. “By mistake. Even though she didn’t understand much of what he said, she stayed for the whole ride. Afterward, my father repeated the trip in English, just for her.”

“And your father’s a physicist, right?”

“Yes. He teaches. Writes. And my mother teaches, too. Education was a very big hairy deal in my family.”

“Good thing you inherited the beauty and the brains.”

She eyed him, letting him know she wasn’t buying the corny line. “My mother warned me about guys like you.”

“Really? What did she say?”

Tam sighed. “Mostly she told me that men like you didn’t go out with girls like me.”

“What did she mean?”

“Somehow my mother, who, by the way, has honey-blond hair, evolved into the ultimate Chinese wife. Overprotective, superstitious, and completely convinced that after I graduated with honors from MIT, I should find a nice man like my father and focus all my attention on giving her grandsons.”

“She must have really loved your going to Kosovo.”

Tam remembered the day she’d told her family. Her father had asked her if she was determined to go. When she said yes, he’d gotten very quiet. Probably because her mother was talking enough for both of them. “I wish I’d handled it better,” she said. “I didn’t know it was going to be the last time I’d see them.”

“It’s not,” Nate said. He caressed her cheek with his fingers. “I wish there was a way for you to see them.”

“I know there isn’t, but I hate it.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Uh, try that again? You sound awfully insincere.”

He smiled and dropped his head. “Yeah, well, I do miss them. We just never had that great of a relationship.”

“Christie said something about your father being sick?”

“He’s got Alzheimer’s, and that’s brutal.”

“How’s your mother?”

“She’s consistent, if nothing else. The whole world revolves around my mother. Everything’s personal, and no one understands. When we were kids she tried to be a loving mother, but the pretense wore on her. Finally, when Christie was in high school, she stopped pretending. Everyone was relieved. It had been too much work.”

“Even so—”

“Even so,” he said, “I do miss her. I miss my old college friends, even though we hardly got to see each other. I miss going to football games.”

“Football?”

“Go Army.”

“Right.”

“MIT has a football team, doesn’t it?” he teased.

“Probably. Didn’t we have the whole I’m a nerd conversation?”

He nodded. “So, what do you miss most?”

“Well, I already said. My folks.”

“What else?”

“My illusions.”

He shifted more, so he looked at her straight on. “Meaning?”

“Before this, I had all kinds of grandiose dreams about my future. I was going to win a Nobel. I was going to cure cancer. I would be the alumni of the year. Oh, and I’d own a really cool car.”

Nate laughed. “I’d love to know what kind of car you consider really cool.”

“A Bentley. Silver. With every extra possible.”

“A Bentley? Jeez, you are a nerd.”

She sat up straighter and gave him an evil look. “Excuse me. Bentleys are excellent cars. They’re very classy.”

“A Ferrari is a cool car. A ’Vette is cool. A Bentley’s for your grandfather.”

“You know nothing of class. I’m appalled. With all your world travels, you’re just a heathen.”

“Heathen? Nah. Barbarian, maybe.”

“Just please don’t tell me you think classical music is boring and that you’d rather go blind than go to a museum.”

He looked at her funny. “Museum? I’ve heard of Mooseums, where they got all them cows—”

She laughed, and so did he and it was the nicest, most normal conversation she’d had in forever. He scooted closer to her, put his arm around her shoulders, then turned the TV back on. Just like real people.

CHRISTIE HAD GONE TO THE Renegade five nights in a row, and they hadn’t yet found the right subject. Nate was beginning to think that Omicron made their top level employees sign a nonfraternization agreement. But, they’d still keep trying. He’d been in Christie’s bedroom, where they’d set up the computer, as Boone, Seth and Christie combed through yet another night’s take, but he’d had to move, to stretch his legs so he could think.

There were just so damn many things that could go wrong. Tam had told him to focus on everything that had gone right in the last two weeks, but his brain didn’t work that way. In fact, the only thing that had taken his mind off disaster scenarios had been Tam herself.

Jesus, she was…He shook his head at the way his shoulders relaxed at the mere thought of her. It worked every time.

The woman helped him forget everything—that there was even a world outside their bed. She’d really gotten into it, wanting to explore different positions, not to mention some sex games she’d heard of. Just last night she’d asked him to blindfold her, to tie her up. He’d been hesitant—bondage was fun when the world around you was safe, but when she was in this much danger?

Turned out, she must have felt pretty safe with him because she didn’t freak at all. In fact, she’d been so goddamn hot, he’d gotten it up twice in, like, three hours. Considering that most of the time he felt as old as Methuselah, it was a pleasant change.

Shit. Just picturing how she’d looked tied to the chair made him hard. He’d pulled her to the edge of the seat and kept her legs spread wide, giving him ample access to her pussy. To say she’d been surprised when he’d shaved her was an understatement.

He’d lathered her up and as he slowly divested her of her dark curls, he’d watched her swell before his eyes. By the time she was clean and smooth as silk, she was breathing so hard he had to keep checking to make sure she wouldn’t hyperventilate. She’d also begged him to do something, anything, to ease her need.

Bastard that he was, he’d made her wait on that. Oh, he’d teased her with his tongue, taking her right to the edge, then he’d changed his tactics, feeling wicked when she’d begged and begged.

He’d offered her his cock, and she’d sucked him with every intention of making him lose his mind. But he was a soldier and he’d been tested before. It had taken everything he had to pull out before he came, but the payoff was worth it.

It still amazed him how beautiful she’d looked, even when he couldn’t see her eyes. He had to admit he’d been somewhat obsessed with those until last night when he’d really studied the rest of her face.

Her lips were smooth and pink, not too thin, but not ridiculously puffed up. Then there was her pale skin, almost translucent and a shocking contrast to her dark, nearly black hair.

The feel of her skin always lingered, and when he closed his eyes he could remember the tactile pleasure so well it was almost as good as the real thing. But from now on, he’d add her voice to his memories, combining the warm silk of her cheek with the sound of her pleading to come.

He adjusted his cock, sorry now that he’d let his mind wander away from the business at hand.

But damned if he could push away the image of the moment he’d balanced his knees on the pillows. She’d still been tied to the chair, unable to move more than a couple of inches, still blindfolded, with her senses on full alert.

He’d been so hard it hurt, but he’d taken his time getting his position just right. Then he’d gripped the edges of her chair and thrust inside her so hard, both of them had nearly toppled.

Her scream had probably awakened everyone at the motel, but since the only residents were his people, he didn’t care.

Tam had come so fast it stunned him, and he hadn’t been far behind. It had been hell untying her, but as he well knew, there was nothing more uncomfortable than being bound after the main event.

She still had tears in her eyes when he’d taken off the blindfold and that panicked him, but she’d kissed him, held him, trembled in his arms.

He shook himself out of the memory, trying hard to remember that he had a mission to plan. He adjusted his cock again but it was pretty useless. There was nothing to do but take his shirt out of his pants, hoping no one exited the bedroom before he’d shrunk.

His phone rang. He got it out of his pocket and saw it was Eli. Just as he answered, Boone, Seth and Christie came out of the bedroom, and he could tell they’d found the perfect subject. He couldn’t celebrate yet. He turned his back on the trio and listened carefully to what Eli had to say. The conversation was brief but it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and every other part of him deflate.

He hung up and took a moment before he turned.

The three of them must have picked up on his mood because they were all silent and staring.

“That was Eli,” he said. Even as he spoke, his anger and frustration rose so fast his hands curled into fists and he could feel the pulse at his temple throb. “A village in Chad has been wiped out by that damn gas! Over six hundred deaths at last count. Men, women, children.”