Seeing the man standing in front us with a gun pointed at Sophie was one of my worst nightmares. This was the reason I hadn’t wanted her along. I was so focused on getting Sophie to safety, that one thug had surprised me.

When the unkempt man squeezed his trigger, the only thing I wanted to do was save Sophie. I didn’t care what it cost. I leapt in front of her, hoping to take the bullet and save her life. Luckily, the bullet only grazed my arm. A grunt escaped me. No matter how many times I got shot, it never got easier. I was convinced that the older I got, the more the fucking bullets hurt.

At the sound of my grunt, Sophie emptied her clip into the man who shot me. Sophie killed him, and he was one less man to worry about. There had been one other man in the stairwell, and at the sound of the shooting, he came out from the other side of the garage. I didn’t give him time to raise his gun. I shifted on the ground and raised my Sig. With one clean shot, a stream of blood ran down his forehead. Headshot. The six men were no longer a threat. I needed to get Sophie to safety before more men came.

“You're alive.”

The sound of surprise made me chuckle. How could she think one low-life thug-for-hire would take me out?

“Of course. You ready to head out? Or, do you need to empty another clip in that guy?”

Sophie's face went from confusion to shock.

“I killed someone for real. What am I going to do?”

We didn’t have time for her to freak out. “Yes, you killed someone for real. Not sure there is any other way to kill someone. You emptied the clip into him. We need to head out, meet the team at the airport, and get you to safety.

I couldn’t help but groan when I went to push myself up. The bullet had grazed my arm, but it would be okay.

“I heard the bullet hit you. Where were you shot? We need to get you to the hospital. And there is another way to kill people. I have killed people electronically many times. It produces way less blood.”

Sophie was not only deadly with a gun. That woman was deadly with a computer. There was no way I would go to the hospital, though. Sophie has a one-way plane trip waiting for her.

I unlocked the SUV. “Get in.”

I heard the shuffling behind me and knew she was following my orders. Sophie was fuming with anger beside me. I didn’t have time to figure out what had her so mad. We needed to get her and Kat to safety.

Once we were on the interstate heading toward the airstrip, I reached into my bag and grabbed a burner phone. Brock answered on the first ring. I clicked the speakerphone button.

“You guys make it out? You left a nice pile of bodies in the stairwell. I’ve erased the footage of you from the stairwell. The clean-up crew is on its way to take care of the bodies. Did you get any information on the men, or did you just shoot them all and walk away?”

Sophie shifted in her seat. “Brock, we need to get Zane to the hospital, and he’s not listening to me. He's shot.” I could hear the concern in Sophie’s voice.

If Sophie had been shot, I would have headed to the hospital. I understood where she was coming from. But, she was more important than the graze I got from the bullet. Once I knew she was in the air and on her way to safety, I’d have Antonio patch me up. We had to work on our game plan after the women were safe.

“How bad?”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “It was a graze. I’ll be fine.”

Brock understood the importance of getting Sophie and Kat to safety. John was flying back with the women. Brock’s team and Asher would escort them from the airport back to Blackwood Security. Kat and Sophie would stay there until Antonio and I killed Yermushin.

“What is the ETA on Antonio?”

I could hear Brock’s fingers clicking across a keyboard. Over the short time I’d known Brock, he had impressed me with his skills. I wasn’t surprised, since Sam Blackwood had given him Blackwood Security. The last time I had spoken to Sam, he had been dealing with issues in Shialia and didn’t have time to give Blackwood the attention it needed. So, he and his future wife gifted the company to Brock. What most people didn’t know was that Brock had owned half of the company as a silent partner.

“They are only five minutes ahead of you.”

I glanced over at Sophie. She was gazing out the window. Her shoulders were still tight with tension. I wanted to make this a little easier.

“Thanks, Brock. Do Bridget and Jessica know Sophie is coming back to Blackwood today?”

At the mention of her friends, she looked at the screen, waiting for Brock’s reply. When he let her know they would be there, it seemed to help with the tension.

The streets were clear in the middle of the night, and we made it to the airfield in no time. I pulled onto the airstrip and noticed the other Range Rover parked next to the Boeing 727. The nice part of this op was that we had so many billionaires’ planes at our disposal. The Boeing 727 was Blackwood Security’s private jet. The jet had a mission control room built in that most security firms would drool over.

The second the car came to a stop, Sophie jumped out. I had to jog to catch up to her. If she thought this was the end of what we had started, she had another thing coming. The more time I spent with her, the further I was falling for her. I still didn’t know if it was lust or love. Either way, we would spend time together to figure it out.

I gently grabbed Sophie’s arm to stop her so we could talk before she left.

“Sophie, stop.”

She spun around at the sound of my words. “What? You got what you wanted.”

Damn, if it wouldn’t be harder to break this woman's outer shell than it was to shoot an apple from two and a half miles away.

“I’m far from getting what I want. I want your body spread across a bed with my tongue between your legs, begging me to make you come.”

“Our fling is over. I got my sister. You will take down the director and save the world. It seems like you don’t need my help at all.”

That was where she was having a problem? She didn’t want to be cut out of the op? The problem was that she was a computer hacker, and when she had faced down danger, she drained a complete clip on the target and saved no bullets for the other man coming after us.

Antonio and I needed trained field agents to take down Yermushin before he sold the codes to North Korea. The more time I spent with her, the more I wanted her around. If it weren’t nuclear codes being sold, I would be on the plane with her, heading home and coming up with a new plan to take down the director.

“That’s why you're upset? You want to come on the op?”

Sophie turned and looked over to where her sister and Antonio were in a heated discussion. At least I wasn’t the only one with a pissed-off woman.

Her voice almost came out as a whisper. “I want to take him down. He stole so much from me. I know I should head back to spend time with a sister I haven’t seen in years, but I want to take vengeance and kill him, and not in a one-clip way. I want to tie him up and torture him for years.”

Her declaration of wanting to kill the director made my blood rush to my pants. When I shifted to get more comfortable, Sophie noticed, and a knowing smirk came across her face.

“If it was a simple kill mission, I would set you up as a sniper and let you take him out. But we have to deal with Yermushin first and stop him from giving away the codes. I don’t think the Director will be there. When we finish this mission, I will make sure you get your vengeance.”

At my declaration, Sophie threw her arms around me. “You mean it? You won’t kill him or hand him over to your brother on a silver platter?”

It would cause my brother issues if I didn’t hand him over. But, I would give Zack enough information to know the Director was dirty and make it look like he fled the country. That way, we could handle the Director the way we wanted for hurting the people whose lives we cared about.

“Yes.”

Sophie pressed her soft lips to my mouth. My body hummed with energy. I wanted to lay her down in the middle of the tarmac and have my way with her. I slipped my tongue into her mouth. It was pure pleasure to hear her moan against me. Needing to continue with the mission, I pulled back.

When I broke the kiss, we were both panting, and Sophie's eyes were filled with desire and hunger. I wasn’t the only one ready to throw down on the tarmac.

Needing to taste her again, I went in for another kiss, but I was interrupted by coughing.

Not caring if I was holding us up, I pressed in against Sophie, and the kiss was even hotter than the last one.

“Hey, they need to leave!” Antonio shouted.

I pulled back slowly, enjoying the look of need on Sophie's face. “I’ll be at Blackwood Security tomorrow night, and we will continue where we left off.”

Sophie turned and walked toward the airplane. Her tight-fitting jeans accented her perfect ass, which had a little extra sway. I knew what she was doing, and it was working. Before she made it to the plane, she turned around and reminded me that I had promised not to take him out.

Once Sophie and the rest of them were on the plane, and I saw the wheels leave the airstrip, I let out a breath I hadn’t even known I was holding. Brock would phone me the second the plane landed in Ft. Lauderdale and everyone was safely locked away at Blackwood Security.

I wasn’t the only one happy they were on their way to safety. When I looked over at Antonio, he seemed to have relaxed a little.

“Ready to go save the world from an attack they have no clue is coming?”

Antonio reached up and scratched his head. “Isn’t that what we always do? People live their lives, not realizing how many times they have come close to being wiped out.”