Jennah slid down further into the warm water. She smiled and ran her hand through the mounds of bubbles. Dom must have used the entire bottle.
“Hey, beautiful, do you want something to eat, or tea?”
She smiled and closed her eyes. “Just tea. I’ll eat later.”
“You should try something to eat, too.”
She opened her eyes and looked over to see him standing in the door. “I think I need a nap more than food right now.” She pushed up so she could see him over the bubbles. “I’m suddenly exhausted.” His dark eyes immediately filled with concern. She laughed. “I’m fine, relax.”
He walked silently across the tiles and knelt down beside the tub. “I may never relax again.” He pushed a damp piece of hair back from her face. “At least not until Light is behind ba
Jennah hung up the phone and looked back out the window. It was snowing lightly, creating a peaceful scene. Peaceful was something she wasn’t feeling. Brody hadn’t been any help. Sitting at home recovering from a gunshot took him out of the information loop as much as she was. She hadn’t heard from Dominic since he’d been called to assist the team. The only thing she knew at this point, according to Brody, was Warden Light was now behind bars, as were the rest of his associates. He’d told her not to worry.She understood that Dom was probably up to his neck in statements, reports, and all of that, and it was just as important to her that every ‘t’ was crossed and every ‘i’ dotted so evidence was airtight and there were no holes for the Warden to slip through during prosecution, but her heart didn’t understand. She had gotten used to him being here and missed him now.&nb
Forty-five minutes later, she was standing by the window glaring at the phone in her hand. She really, really missed those old phones, the ones that were attached that you had to actually hang up in a cradle. She really wanted to slam the phone into the cradle—several times, right now. The hospital would tell her nothing! She wasn’t his superior or a family member! The captain had been less than helpful, refusing to send a car for her or to call the hospital for her right then to find out how he was doing.She turned and tossed the phone onto the couch. It wasn’t as gratifying as slamming it down, but it helped a little. At least that’s what she told herself. Did she call Rudy and see if he’d loan her his car? She rubbed her hands over her face and tried to reason out whether she could just sit here and wait or if she was going to find a way there.What day was it? Saturday? She t
She lifted her face as the rose petals cascaded down over her skin. They tickled along her cheeks lightly, making her smile from the feeling. She inhaled the light, sweet scent of the velvet soft petals. A calmness surrounded her, enveloped her in a serene feeling.“Jennah...”Dom’s voice whispered through her. Just the way he said her name filled her with love and warmth.The smell of coffee filled her nostrils, causing her to frown. How did she go from roses to coffee? Pushing her face into the cushion in a sleepy haze, she realized all of it was a dream. Dreaming of coffee was probably not a good sign. Stretching, she rolled over and opened her eyes. She was on the couch still. She blinked a few times to help focus and looked toward the window. It was near dawn.She closed her heavy eyes and opened them too see on the table a few feet from her. She squinted. There had to be two doz
Brody sat there staring at the faded wallpaper, trying to pretend he wasn’t able to hear the argument in the next room. The disagreements were becoming more frequent as the weeks of gestation increased in Jennah’s pregnancy. If the Captain hadn’t requested they all be here for a meeting, he would have made himself scarce and allowed the couple— that really did adore each other, a bit of privacy. Instead he had to be early and now had to sit through this.“You’re supposed to be on leave, in case it’s escaped your notice—you’re eight months pregnant!” Dom growled in a low tone.Jennah’s tone wasn’t low. “As if I could forget! I’m here at our headquarters, not out in the field. I may not be able to do the leg work right now—but I still have a brain that functions.” A door slammed.Yeah, Dom was going to be in the doghouse—again. Shakin
Forcing her eyes to look anywhere but at Brody took a lot of concentration, Tess could feel his eyes on her and refused to give in. He was always looking at her with those dark brooding eyes and it unnerved her. Rubbing her aching temples she turned her attention back to the Captain, her uncle, and the decorated Military Colonel. So far they’d all sat around the room while the two men had talked quietly while looking over some papers. Smithy looked tense and didn’t take his eyes off them, which worried Tess; he would be listening in on their conversation— while it was still inside their head. Whatever it was, it was serious.When they finally turned around, Tess didn’t need to be a mind reader to know this was as serious as it got.Her Uncle cleared his throat, all eyes turned to him. “This is Colonel Reynolds and from this moment on you are to discuss none of this with anyone not in this room.&rdq
“I could have brought us here.”Brody put the SUV into park and turned to glare at Tess. She just wouldn’t let it go, but what else was new? “I would rather take twenty minutes to drive here and save your strength in case we need to get out of here in a hurry.”“I can do both . . .”Gritting his teeth, he ripped the keys from the ignition. “No.” Not wanting to pound the topic any further into the ground he got out, pulling his vest with him. Shrugging into it as he looked around, his stomach tightened. For a brief minute he was going to blame her for the reaction, but then he realized it was that feeling he got when things were about to go wrong. He grinned; maybe that was his extra talent, gut instinct. It was either that or his skill was getting shot—often, he had five bullet scars to prove it.They were out in the middle of nowhere with, fr
Pausing inside the door, he scanned the room until Tess was in beside him. She closed the door and then moved away in the other direction. They’d entered into a room that was roughly twenty feet square and completely empty. The cement floor was covered in dust, making it look like no one had been in it for a long time. They had two doors to choose from to leave the room. “Door one or two, Tess, your call.”“Let’s take door number two and see if the grand prize is on the other side.” She moved over and quickly snapped a picture of the pad attached to the doorknob. “Another puzzle for you to solve Gray.”While they waited, both looked all around the space. “This is eerily weird, Brody.” She whispered.“Yep, I’m with you there.”“You sent me a picture of a lock not activated.” Grayson sounded bored
Opening the door, he stepped into a bright room with walls that were polished steel, reflecting the light from the open door. There were no other doors except the one they stood in. ‘I’d say it’s a refrigeration unit, except there are no fans.”Tess moved past him and went over to the wall. Touching the surface, she ran her hand over it. “Too warm.”Frowning, Brody let the door close quietly and went over to touch it also. It was warm, not something he expected from a metal. “The weirdness of this just keeps increasing.”“Yeah, it’s really . . .”A loud humming noise filed the room suddenly. Looking at each other for a second, they both came to the same conclusion and headed back over to the door. When Brody grasped the handle, the lock clicked. “Shit.”“Someone else is here.” Tess stared at the door.
It took Tess a moment to pull away from Brody’s kiss when she realized she’d brought them to the backyard instead of inside the house. “You had me all distracted and I didn’t focus hard enough.” Putting his arm around her, he pulled her against him and turned them towards the door. “Oh I’d say you were focused on the right thing.” Unzipping the vest, Brody shrugged out of it as soon as they entered the house. Tess kicked off her heels and sighed in relief to be free of them. Before she could turn around he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, cuddling her against his warm body. “Can I bribe you to wear those shoes again, later?” Tilting her head she closed her eyes as his mouth moved over the side of her neck. “I believe it’s illegal to bribe a police officer.” “Mmm, I’ll take my chances.” “Oh, good you’re back.” Jennah moved slowly into the room. Tes
Brody zipped the vest and pointed at the screen. “Get me to there and I’ll hoof it around get in behind the car.”“Got it.” Grayson announced as he accelerated and went barrelling down into the ditch the second they cleared the road barriers.“Smithy, you’re on scope. Anyone so much as breathes on Tess and you take them down a peg.” He growled into the com.“Won’t take my eyes off her.” The sniper in the group responded.“Colonel and I are in position. His men on are the ship with the containers and surrounding the yard.” Joslee reported. “I got your ass covered, Dom, whenever you’re ready.”Brody grabbed the door handle. “No one fires until Tess is clear.” He knew it didn’t need to be said, but he wasn’t taking any chances with her life.As he hit the ground for the second time tha
Tess couldn’t have turned around and looked behind if she had a chance; she was sandwiched between the Councilman and one of his goons. When the earpiece attached to her earring had gone dead, she could only hope that Brody got her signal. Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she cautiously looked at the man sitting beside her. He hadn’t uttered one word since they’d gotten in the car. The driver kept looking at her in the mirror and she tried to avoid making eye contact with him as well.When the car turned a corner in a rush speed, the councilman’s weight hit her. The only reason they would speed up had to mean they were being followed. She knew Dom well enough to know if he was the one driving there was no way this driver was going to be able to lose him—the man had chased down a perp on foot more than once; in a vehicle he was a demon. All she had to do was hold it together until backup got here.
“The only thing that would be worse than sitting here staring off into space would be if Tess let us listen in on the speeches. What could they possibly take this long to say? We need donations, please open your damn wallets.” Jennah hissed into the mics.Dom chuckled. “Patience doesn’t seem to be your strong point lately, lady.”“Trade you places, husband.”Brody shook his head and glanced at the man beside him to see an idiot’s grin on his face.“If only I could, wife.”“Talk time is winding down,” Joslee informed all.“It’s about time.” Brody muttered to Dom.“Yeah.” Dom turned back towards the building. “All eyes on Tess until we have her.”“Might take a few—the Councilman seems to be leading her all over the place, even holding her arm.”S
“Do you have visual?” Dom turned and looked at Brody, one eyebrow quirked. “You keep asking Smithy that every ten seconds and we’re going to spend all night standing out here.” Lowering the binoculars long enough to send the other man an annoyed look, Brody shrugged. “I’ve only asked twice. There are so many arriving right now; I don’t want to lose her.” “She’s moved a total of twenty steps since she and the Colonel got there Brody, relax.” He knew he was tensing up, but as hard as he tried he couldn’t seem to bring it under control. “I am,” he lied. Dom snorted. “Bullshit! You are so friggin tense my nerves are twitching—back it down a few notches or I’m going to have to send you to sit in the truck.” Taking a deep breath, Brody tried once more to reign in the emotions that were trampling him. He was ready to send himself to the truck for a time out when a voice came over the mic that ha
Brody didn’t take his eyes off Tessa as Jennah mothered him and cleaned and bandaged his shoulder. Tess was chewing her bottom lip as she read over the list of known associates of the guy they’d identified. Of course it turned out to be someone everyone knew or knew of—and taking him down was going to have to be a very precise operation. Getting close enough to the man in charge wasn’t going to be an easy thing to accomplish.Tessa lowered the pages and leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes for a few seconds. It was long enough for him to allow his eyes to travel over her without being caught. When she opened them again, he looked away and met Joslee’s glare. Lifting his eyebrows, he tried to look repentant for tormenting the man that could hear what he was thinking—which at this moment was something he couldn’t wait to be doing to Tess.The Captain came back into the room and glan
Tess tried not to think of how pissed Brody was going to be that she’d tricked him into agreeing to let her near the containers. If Gray’s little contraption worked and jammed up what was inside the container, it would be worth it. Of course the only ones that knew about it were her and Grayson—that wasn’t going to sit well with the others either. She slid along slowly on her belly on top of the cool steel container, trying to keep her body low enough to not be seen.Lifting her head, she spotted the truck coming up fast. All she had to do was somehow get from this trailer to the truck Joslee was driving like a madman. No biggie, how hard could jumping from one moving vehicle to another be? Swallowing she shuffled around so she could come down the back of the container feet first. If her ability worked, it would save a whole lot of stress, but regardless of whatever they’d done to ensure the t
Crouching down, Brody moved a little further over the knoll. “They have both containers loaded up.”Tess watched through the binoculars. “Everyone is gone but the driver of the truck and that jeep parked at the end.”Brody looked over to Joslee. He’d been filling Dom and the others in on what was happening. He shook his head. “They don’t have an ID yet.” Glaring at the truck, he clenched his jaw a few times. “Too bad we can’t get close enough to disable the truck to stall until the Captain gets it together.”Lowering the binoculars she looked at him and then back to the truck. “Tell me what to do and I’ll pop down do it and get back here.”“What if you can’t get back just like that?” He didn’t want to agree with her idea, but a part of him knew it was probably the only chance they had. They
Brody rounded the corner almost running over Tessa. Grabbing her arms, he steadied her. “Where are you running to in a hurry?” Her warm hands rested against his chest, burning him through his shirt.“Grayson called us all to the basement—you didn’t know?”He felt like he was drowning in her soft eyes. “I was working out then hopped in the shower.”“Oh.”It was hard to not do more than hold her arms when her eyes caressed him. When she reached up and brushed his damp hair back from his face, he had to remind his brain of what she had just said. “Why the basement?”Easing her hands slowly down his chest to rest by his waist, she shrugged. “I’m not sure, but he said to leave anything electronic up here.”“Let’s go see what’s up.” Hesitating for a few seconds, he reluctantly