Jack watched to make sure no one was trailing them, but so far so good. The lonely stretch of highway headed northeast to a remote safe house tucked into the forest. It would be far better than his cabin outside of Nome, which stood with its back to the sea, facing the tundra. Although, in his home he could see who was coming and going.
He liked being by the edge of the sea. He liked the wide open space.
It was easy to hide in plain sight.
Still, he followed the coordinates Lisa had put into the GPS.
For one brief moment he glanced at her. She had her head resting against the passenger door, and was sleeping in the early morning light. She looked peaceful. Watching her sleep was one of the things he’d liked to do in the mornings, when she was all tangled in the sheets, her honey-gold hair fanned across the pillows, those full, pink lips bruised from his kisses.
Fuck.
He wanted her. Just like that and he was turned on.
This is what he’d been afraid of when he took on the assignment; that he wouldn’t be able to control himself around her. When it came to Lisa Morgan all bets were off. All his careful control, all his willpower and years of training were gone in a puff of smoke.
Get a grip on yourself.
Why did it have to be Lisa? Why did she have to meddle into something as dangerous as finding the antigen? Didn’t she know how dangerous this whole situation would be?
Maybe she did.
And that thought angered him. He promised Dane he’d look out for her. How could he keep her safe if she was participating in dangerous situations like this? Why couldn’t she have just stayed in Annapolis and become a Naval surgeon like was expected of her? Why did she have to study microbiology and immunology? Why did she have to become involved in biochemical warfare?
She was foolish, putting herself in harm’s way.
Oh and I’m so innocent? Maybe if I’d stayed she wouldn’t have put herself in harm’s way. It’s all my fault. I couldn’t deal with the pain of what happened and left her. I left it all behind.
The GPS pinged and he turned down an isolated gravel road that was swallowed up by the forest. Back up into the mountains. They were sandwiched somewhere between Nome and Fairbanks.
At the change from tarmac to pressed gravel Lisa awoke.
“Are we there yet?”
“Soon,” he responded gruffly.
She straightened in her seat. “Good. The sooner I can get this information off the better.”
“Are you going to let me in on the plan?”
“It’s classified,” she said quickly, not looking at him.
“I just saved your life. The least you can do is fill me in.”
“It’s classified,” she hissed again. Her blue eyes narrowed, glinting with that dangerous twinkle he knew all too well. Even after ten years he knew when he was pushing her too hard. When her stubbornness would win over everything else.
How many times had they butted heads over something and ended up in bed together? Countless. He was just as stubborn as she was.
“We’re on the same side, Lisa. You can tell me. You can trust me.”
She snorted. “Sure.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re a stranger.”
“Hardly,” he said.
“Oh? You’ve been missing in action for ten years. You didn’t even come to the funeral service when Dane was buried with the rest of your platoon.”
It was an emotional gut punch. A stinging verbal slap. He’d been there at Arlington when his platoon had been interred. She just didn’t know it.
And he wasn’t going to get into that painful discussion at this moment. He wasn’t going to think about the men he thought of as brothers being buried. Of how he was left. Alone.
“Look, my job is to protect you from terrorists and I’ve been given limited information from the Omega Team. Only what they were told. What terrorist organization is after you?”
Her lips were pressed together in a firm line, and he was about to demand it from her, but then she sighed in resignation.
“I think it’s Bio-Tek, not terrorists.”
“What?” he asked, in shock.
“I’m doing a covert operation to smoke them out. Bio-Tek has been under investigation as the creators of Chem Agent 1157. My orders were to infiltrate the inner workings, find the makeup of the agent and then create the antigen if there wasn’t one; but there was. Bio-Tek hired me to create a new biochemical weapon. I didn’t, obviously.”
“I can’t believe Grey would be working for Bio-Tek. He would know if they were under investigation. Although, he said someone higher up in the chain of command had hired the Omega Team.”
“He’s not working for Bio-Tek. There are other agents deep in the heart of this operation. They are the ones who hired the Omega team to protect me while I looked for the information and either created or found the antigen. We had to keep the Omega team in the dark a bit so they wouldn’t blow our cover.”
Jack nodded and then cursed. “Dammit, Lisa, you knew you were putting your life in danger.”
“And is that so different from what you do?”
“It’s different,” he snapped.
She snorted. “Is it?”
“I promised Dane I would protect you. Always.”
Lisa’s expression softened at the mention of her brother, but only for a moment. “I have no family, Jack. The only family I ever had was killed when a bomb containing Chem Agent 1157 exploded during a covert operation ten years ago. I have no one. Nothing. It was my duty to find a way to stop this biochemical warfare. Even if the price I paid was my life.”
He understood that well.
Before he joined with Dane and the others in his platoon, he had no one. No family. He’d gone through the foster system. Going from group home to group home until he was old enough to enlist. Just like his late father had, which is why he’d been orphaned when his father died during his tour of duty.
Which is why he enlisted. He wanted to fight for his country. Die for his country, like his father did.
Only he survived, broken and half the man he’d been.
Jack stopped in front of a gate. “What’s the code?”
“I’ll punch it in.” She made to open the door, but he reached out and stopped her.
“You’ll do no such thing. No one can see you going into this house. You’ll stay in the confines of the tinted windows. Now, the code, if you please.”
“Alpha, Omega, seven, five, seven, Alpha.”
Jack didn’t thank her, or say anything else, as he got out of the SUV and punched in the code at the gate. Inside Lisa was fuming.
She didn’t want to talk about Dane or his funeral, but when Jack attacked her by throwing Dane in her face, she reacted.
All the pain and anger she felt when he wasn’t there at Arlington the day her brother was laid to rest with honors had been festering away inside, and just burst out of her. She had to get better control of her emotions or she’d do something foolish, make a mistake, which could put the mission in jeopardy.
The gate slid open and Jack got back in. He didn’t say anything to her as he drove the SUV through the gate, which closed once they had passed through. And the moment it closed it would electrify and there was an alarm that would be triggered by anyone intruding. There was another twisty drive, which took them deep into the forest to what looked like a cave but was actually a garage that Jack drove the SUV into.
The moment the engine turned off, the lights inside flickered on and the door, which looked like a rock wall, slid shut.
They were deep in a cement bunker.
In a safe house with a safe connection through which she could dispatch the information on the USB to her commander in San Diego and wait for further instructions.
She got out of the SUV and punched in the code to open another door, which led them into the house part of the bunker. Jack followed her, still not saying anything, but the tension between them was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
She was still angry at him. And the pain she thought she’d dealt with was bubbling to the surface. Her hurt, her anger and her loneliness over his absence ran deeper than she thought.
“What now?” he asked, crossing his arms and standing away from her.
“I upload the information.” She reached into her bra to pull out the USB stick and she could see his gaze drift to her breasts, but she wasn’t worried about him taking the information. He was on her side and she knew that look.
That look of hunger, the fire of passion igniting in him. She knew that’s what it was, because she was fighting the flames too.
It had been so long since she’d been with a man. Only once since Jack disappeared had she had a brief relationship, but it didn’t create the heat or the chemistry that Jack stirred in her. Being celibate was a hell of a lot easier than the dating scene.
Especially when she still only wanted him.
Lisa sat down at the computer and inputted all the codes to access the secure line. There was a self-destruct in the computer if the bunker was infiltrated, a trigger system to wipe the hard drive if the wrong code was entered, and the USB stick could be easily disposed of.
She plugged in the USB drive and, in a flash, the information loaded onto the server and was sent to her commander. She got the confirmation that it had made it.
Now she needed to destroy the USB and wait for instructions. Lisa pulled it from the computer and then put it into the incinerator. Only the incinerator would take some time to fire up, so the USB sat there, waiting to be destroyed, but at least it was there now. It would be safely disposed of.
“Now what?” Jack asked impatiently.
“We wait for orders.”
He frowned. “Here?”
“This is a secure bunker.”
“I would feel better if it were underground and not built into the side of a mountain.”
“There are tunnels to escape through and a vehicle at the other end.”
Jack nodded and relaxed his stance. “That’s good.”
“I’m going to have a shower and maybe get something to eat.” She had to put distance between her and Jack before she did something she’d regret. Although her body thought it was a great idea to get reacquainted with Jack. Her heart, on the other hand, didn’t think it was too hot.
“I’ll watch the security cameras.” Then he turned around in the small room, which only had a computer, a table, kitchenette and a bed in the corner. “Where can I watch the security cameras?”
“The television there.” She pointed and then bit her lip, trying to keep back the request to conserve water and have him shower with her. She gripped the dog tags she wore to remind her that he left. He left her alone. He broke her heart.
How many years had she been left wondering what happened to him? How many years did she watch the obituaries for his name to appear? How many times did she check coroner websites to check on John Does? Too many years.
And all this time he was in Alaska and working for the Omega team.
I can’t have him. He doesn’t want me. If he wanted me he wouldn’t have left.
Jack glanced at her. “Was there something else you needed?”
Yes. You. “No, I’m good. I’ll see you in a bit.”
And she cursed herself inwardly for her weakness, for wanting him still after all this time, and she knew that a long, cold shower was in order.
She may have survived the attack at the lab, but she knew she had a long battle ahead of her.