Under Fire (Elite Force #3)

Under Fire (Elite Force #3) Page 7

A thank-you note from a family after she’d located their toddler son in the woods.

Photos of her with her mom that she’d been meaning to scan into the computer and somehow never found the time.

A shoe box of memories from when she’d dated Caden, so little to commemorate a love that had filled every corner of her heart.

Her eyes slid to Liam. Tears clogged her throat. Her hand drifted to the top of her sleeping dog’s head, resting between the two seats. Liam covered her hand with his. A sprinkling of blond hair on his arms glinted, lighter than the dark blond hair on his head, cut short to military regulations. For some reason she’d remembered it longer before, but then she’d heard rules differed for special-operations warriors. And how funny to be thinking of his hair right now, but it was as if she needed to soak up every detail, reassuring herself again and again she’d chosen right.

“It’ll be all right. We’ll find Brandon Harris,” he said, sounding totally undaunted by everything that had happened.

“How can you be so sure? Someone burned my town house to the ground. I don’t give a crap about the contents, but the people who were hurt, what could have happened… That’s eating me up inside. I should have been more persistent. I should have made someone listen sooner.”

He squeezed her fingers before holding on to the steering wheel again. “All we can do is focus on the now. While you were loading the dog up, I went ahead and called my friend in the OSI. I passed along Brandon’s name. Someone’s driving over to pick him up now. That may be why he didn’t answer.”

He’d placed his call when she wouldn’t hear? Why? What had he said that he didn’t want her to know? Liam was so charming and he’d told her how much he cared about her. She’d trusted that, even if she wasn’t a big believer in the longevity of his “love.” She’d tried to be up front with him in return, because she honest to God didn’t want to hurt this incredible man.

What if she was wrong and Liam had been feeding her a line?

God, she hoped she’d done right by Brandon. He was already so suspicious of anyone military. Her stomach roiled just thinking of how freaked-out he might be. “And you trust this guy, your friend in the Office of Special Investigations? You trust he’ll be careful with Brandon and keep his traumatized state in mind?”

She’d come to Liam because of his air force special-operations connections, but now she wondered if those same ties would work against her. Not that she thought he would betray his country for even a second. But if he gave the wrong people the benefit of the doubt, she could be in even more danger. Brandon could be in danger.

Liam adjusted the rearview mirror, the three garters swaying. “I trust her completely.”

Her? “But you still didn’t tell her everything about what Brandon said, I hope.”

“Not over a cell phone, no. I can’t be sure of privacy until we’re in a secure room. Even talking out here could be risky, so why don’t we save the rest for when we get there.”

She looked sharply from the water to the man, headlights from oncoming cars streaking across his face, just as quickly gone, leaving him in shadows. The light and dark flashes reminded her of the two sides of Liam. At one moment he was the charmer who wowed her with his smile and wit. And in a flash he became the honed professional, a military man in charge of his universe.

She’d sought him out because of that professional side of him… not because she hadn’t been able to forget him for even one day over the past six months. Right? She fingered the tear in the Jeep’s ragtop. “Tell me more about your friend in OSI.”

Where had that question come from?

From the part of her that liked his smile and that almost quaint way he had of squeezing her hand.

“Not much to tell,” he said. “We’ve been stationed together a couple of times, deployed together once. She’s helped with intel on a few missions, always sharp, always right.” He shot a quick glance her way. “I answered your question, and now I have one of my own. Why did you choose Florida for your big move?”

Her heart flipped. Because she’d heard Florida and thought of him? “The rescue group in D.C. that works with pairing shelter pets with vets identified this area for expanding the concept. The timing was right for me to move. I accepted the challenge for a change.”

“That’s a pretty radical change just because you’re burned out on work. Most folks would opt for a vacation rather than another emotionally draining career field.”

“I’m following dreams I’m passionate about.” She shrugged, the wind lifting her damp hair and reminding her of the moment Liam burst into the bathroom. “I have no family entanglements. There’s nothing to stop me from picking up and relocating if I wish. I guess I’m a lot like a female version of you—without the trail of ex-spouses.”

“Fair enough. But why? You were damn good at your job.” His praise reached across as tangibly as any touch. “More than that, you seemed intense about your search and rescue work.”

“Too intense. I told you I burned out in the Bahamas and I meant it.” Her emotions had felt all the more close to the surface with Liam around. She’d hoped returning to D.C., staying away from him, would bring balance back to her life.

No such luck.

“So you decided to work with PTSD patients? Sounds like a real party.” He snorted.

“Okay,” she said, half smiling along with him. God, he was so wonderfully irreverent. “I can see why it wouldn’t seem the logical choice, but after so many failures in the Bahamas, so many dead people… dead children… I needed to do some saving.”

His smile faded. “I get that.”

Of course he would. She sometimes forgot how he’d once told her that he’d been an Army Ranger before shifting to the air force. Even now, there had to be unbelievable stress in his job, and somehow he’d managed to continue the grind for over a decade. “How do you hold tough through the ones you can’t rescue?”

“I can’t quit. There’s always another one who needs me,” he said simply, steering the Jeep steady on. “It’s the only way I know to be.”

Palm trees whipped past one after the other in perfectly spaced rhythm, leading toward a distant bridge like going from one rescue to another, week after week, month after month, until years passed. Lives were saved and still no life had been built.

How did a person go about building a life that wasn’t wrapped up in the calling to rescue people? A calling that consumed a person until there wasn’t time left for anything else. “What about retirement?”

“Are you calling me old?” He cocked an eyebrow.

A laugh burst free and even managed to deflate at least an ounce of tension with it. “Hardly. You’re so honed and in shape, you could take down anyone I know.”

And just that fast her admission of how very much she’d noticed his body was out there. Hanging in the air heavier than any salt-water-laden humidity. The attraction she’d felt for Liam hadn’t lessened one bit.

As his bottle green eyes held hers, she could see an answering call in his gaze. He’d made it clear before how much he wanted her, and apparently time hadn’t changed a thing between them.

If anything, the need had just increased. She’d been fooling herself that she could come here and keep it in check. Her whole body hummed with an awareness and fire that grew with each minute together, gathering force until she pressed her knees tightly together against the ache.

“Liam?” she whispered, and wondered at the husky, hungry sound that crawled from deep inside her.

He hauled his attention front toward a bridge only fifty yards ahead. “God, woman, you tear me up inside from wanting you. And you also have the strangest timing. Right now, we have somewhere to be. But let me be clear. Once we finish there, we’re not pretending we’re just work acquaintances anymore. You’re not going to just fall off the planet without warning again. Got it?”

Wow, he was really laying it all out there. No dancing around the subject or giving them time to sort through feelings. And on top if it all, she still had to deal with an exploded town house and a possible treasonous threat. “I hear you.”

Just these few hours together made her accept that the move to Florida hadn’t been coincidental. The attraction to Liam was magnetic, to say the least. His eyes locked with her only for a second, but this man packed more in an instant than most put into a lifetime.

Then his gaze slid away, his attention back on driving, checking the rearview mirror—

“Shit!” he hissed.

Frowning, she glanced at him as they drove onto the mile-long bridge. “What’s wrong?”

“Someone’s following us and gaining fast… damn it.” His arm shot out across her. “Brace yourself! We’re about to be hit.”

Rachel jerked around, expecting to find the silver sedan tailing her again. She looked and found…

Her navy blue SUV. With the customized license plate she’d chosen in honor of her dog. There was no mistaking the word Disco1 as the Ford accelerated closer. Her Ford, which she’d left on base and now someone else was driving…

Her car rammed the Jeep.

Chapter 4

Jolting forward and back in her seat, Rachel braced against the dash with one hand and reached behind with her other to grab Disco’s collar. If they’d been in her SUV, she would have had him in a crate, secured. Hell, if she’d been in her own vehicle, none of this would be happening at all.

“Liam?” she shouted against the roar of insanity. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he said quickly, his voice calm, controlled, his toned body seemingly impervious.

Except she knew too well how even the strongest of soldiers could be brought down in a flash.

They slammed the concrete railing. Her body jerked and her thoughts fractured. She bit her tongue. The tinny taste of blood filled her mouth as the vehicle skidded. The echo of grinding metal shrieked along with honking horns. She looked out the passenger window as the Jeep scraped along the railing. The ocean churned below, dark and murky, waiting to swallow them if the barrier gave way. She looked up fast at the rearview mirror just as her SUV rammed them again.

The barrier had looked plenty sturdy when she’d driven over it earlier today. And now? It looked flimsier than a couple of two-by-fours holding out against a bulldozer.

Her heart lurched, then raced faster than the Jeep accelerating back into traffic. Squealing brakes sounded from behind them. She searched for ways to help, to alert Liam to anything that might help. In the rearview mirror, she saw a VW bug spinning out along the bridge, her blue SUV whipping fast. Oh God, what if this chase accidentally caused someone else to go over the side, into the ocean? Her dog jockeyed for balance with the same sure-footedness that had saved him when they worked disaster sites.

Liam steered on a dime and whipped around the other evening commuters. But so did the SUV, until it roared right up on their tail again. Whipping to the side, the vehicle—her car, which someone had stolen—accelerated beside them.

“Down!” Liam shouted, palming the back of her head.

She ducked just as a shot rang out. Both side windows shattered—driver’s, then passenger’s. Her heart in her throat, she reached to touch Liam’s chest right over the steady thump of his heart. A sigh of relief cascaded through her. With her other hand, she reached back. Her dog nuzzled her, crouching low without flinching. He was trained well.

Liam covered her hand with his briefly, firmly, then took the wheel again.

“I’m fine,” he said, the Jeep surging ahead. “But I need your help.”

“Anything,” she answered without hesitation.