Читать книгу Night Life - Katherine Garbera - Страница 12

To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.

—Lao-tzu

Sasha leaned back against Kane. He was wearing body armor. And holding an Enfield SA80 battle rifle loosely in his free hand, the muzzle of his Heckler & Koch USP MK23 pressed against her skin.

By turning her head she could see that he had on a night-vision mask and a scope on his rifle. Her blood turned cold. Kane wasn’t a sniper. But for some reason he was tonight. She had a million questions and really no time to ask them. She knew only that she had to get Kane out of here before he destroyed a career he’d spent over fifteen years creating.

And she also knew from her own walk on the outside of the Company that vengeance was never worth the price. He had gone rogue. What if she couldn’t get him to back down? She knew she’d never be able to kill him but that someone else wouldn’t hesitate.

She leaned against his chest and tipped her head backward. Taking a deep breath, she pushed aside all her doubts. She had a job to do and that job, quite frankly, was to stop Kane from leaking sensitive information and blowing the operation in place for rescuing the hostages.

“Hello, lover,” she said. Her soft, naturally husky voice pitched low enough not to carry on the wind. His scent was familiar to her and she closed her eyes, breathing deeply for a minute.

He cursed softly under his breath and released her. “Go home, Sasha.”

He moved away from her back to the window and positioned his rifle on the ledge. She slid into position beside him. “Nightshade.”

This time he looked at her. Even in the shadows she felt the intensity of his gaze on her. She stood a little taller—he’d always had that effect on her. She didn’t know why this one man should make her want to preen and show off, but he did.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in a low voice that carried no farther than her ears. He took a few moments to holster his sidearm and then she heard a click. Kane wore a thick black Irish sweater and a pair of dark chinos.

He looked like Cary Grant in To Catch A Thief. Her heartbeat picked up and she was reminded of how sexy her husband could be when he wasn’t playing the English lord of the manor. God, she’d missed him.

“I heard you needed some backup,” she said softly.

“Is that all you heard?” he asked.

“No. I couldn’t let you do something stupid,” she said, not caring if he got angry with her. The risks he was taking were stupid.

He shook his head. “You know better than that.”

“I only know that HMIA is sending someone to bring you in because you have some sensitive information. That doesn’t sound smart to me.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

“Sure you do. That’s why you’re alone in a warehouse about to betray your country and your peers.”

“I don’t have time for this. Go home.”

“Come with me,” she said. Please come with me. She willed him to morph back into the man she’d married, not this steely-eyed assassin.

She’d sparred with Kane a number of times. She knew his weaknesses as well as he knew hers. Or at least as well as he knew the ones she’d let him see.

“Why’d they send you? I was expecting Temple.”

Sasha figured HMIA would send Kane’s partner as well. And then either Kane or Temple would end up dead. And there was something in Kane’s manner tonight that she’d never seen before. Something that warned her that he wasn’t going to back down easily.

She knew there had to be more to the situation than she had been informed of. “Are you having a problem at work?”

Kane gave a short derisive laugh. “That’s an understatement.”

“Help me understand this, Kane.”

“There’s nothing for a housewife to understand,” he said.

She knew he was goading her. And suspected it was because he wanted her out of here. “I’m not leaving until I get some answers. Why did you take the STAR list?”

“Stop the chitchat, Nightshade,” Orly said. “There is some activity on the dock. A BMW with dark windows just pulled up. If you don’t get Kane out of there now, it’ll be too late.”

“Gotcha, Orly.”

Kane’s eyes narrowed as Sasha spoke. “Who’s watching Dylan?”

“Dad.”

There was some movement on the dock and Kane crouched down and sighted his rifle, and she heard the minute sound of a bullet being pushed through a silencer. The man whom Kane had aimed at crumpled to the dock.

“How many men are you going to kill?” she asked softly. The man she’d married always avoided killing suspects, usually just wounding them. This wasn’t the Kane she knew. And that scared her.

“As many as I have to.” His voice was devoid of any emotion and she knew he was in work mode.

“Why are you here, Kane? Help me understand.”

“Not now, Sasha. I’m on a tight clock. Go home.”

He panned the scope, carefully searching for others on the dock. Then he stood, lifted the window and gave her a half salute before stepping over the edge.

Dammit, that was what that click was. Only now did she notice the harness and the rappelling rope. He went down smoothly and quickly. Sasha grabbed the rope and followed Kane over the edge. By the time she was on the ground, he’d moved off, blending into the shadows.

He reached the man he’d taken down and dragged the body out of the walkway. Nightshade kept her distance, waiting for the right moment to make her move. She was going to have to take him down.

“Three men are headed toward your position,” Orly told her.

Nightshade glanced toward the warehouse and made visual contact. “I see them. Kane, we got company.”

They were probably coming to investigate what had happened to the guy Kane just shot. Kane lifted his assault rifle. “No more dead bodies.”

She wasn’t going to let him go on a killing spree. Something nagged at the back of her mind. Kane seemed as if he was out for vengeance. Who the hell had been nabbed that had so badly aroused Kane’s anger? Sasha stepped in front of him. “We can capture these guys easily. I’ll take the first one.”

She waited tensely to see if he’d do it or not. She saw him push his gun behind his back. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Agreed. Ready?”

“Ready,” she said, every nerve ending tingling to life. She was good at what she’d been trained to do. In the old days, taking on three sentries would have been no sweat. But it wasn’t the old days and she felt the need to be in top form.

The three men walked steadily toward her position. She felt Kane behind her. Knew he was readying himself for the coming fight as well. Though she knew he was a trained agent capable of taking care of himself, she didn’t like to think of Kane in danger. She hoped he didn’t kill any of these men. Sasha knew from her own walk on the dark side that the more you killed the harder it was to come back.

“Monitor the radio band and see if there’s anyone else out there,” she said to Orly.

“Gotcha, Nightshade. I’ll report back as soon as I find something.”

Kane dropped back into a fighting stance. “Go, Nightshade,” he said.

She kicked her opponent as he moved past her position, knocking his weapon from his hand. He countered with a one-two jab toward her face. The blow connected with her cheekbone, stunning her. She pivoted into the punch and spun around to attack again, this time connecting with her opponent’s ribs.

He moaned and stumbled backward. Sasha’s breath ripped in and out. Damn, her face ached. She analyzed her position and, realizing that she had to put her body on autopilot, she ceased thinking about everything but surviving. This guy was twice her size and smelled as if he hadn’t bathed in about a week. She wouldn’t be able to call herself much of an agent if she couldn’t bring him down.

Sasha diverted a blow as it came at her face. She hated getting hit in the head. As she spun away, he grabbed her hair, pulling her up short. Bringing both of her hands together, she reached behind her head for his wrist, applying a firm locking technique. Then, she twisted her body, and ducked under his arm. He tried to kick her but she lifted her leg and kneed him in the groin. He moaned as she twisted his arm behind his back and forced him to his knees.

Stopping beside him, she brought his hands together, using a zip cord to cuff him, then patted him down and found two guns and a knife on him. She took his weapons and put them in her pack.

Winning always brought its own kind of high. She’d forgotten how good it felt. She didn’t examine it too closely but tucked the information away for later.

“Nightshade, you’ve got about two minutes before you’re going to be outnumbered. Finish it and get out of there,” Orly said in her ear.

“Gotcha,” she replied.

She left the guy bound and headed toward Kane a few feet away. He was holding his own with the two assailants. Kane was one of the most skilled martial artists she’d ever met.

While she used a mix of tae kwon do and the street fighting her dad had taught her in hand-to-hand combat, Kane used an ancient art form and deadly skill.

But he was still just one man. She took a deep breath and a minute to analyze the fight, then jumped into the fray, at Kane’s back. Feeling truly alive in the moment.

Fighting back to back with Kane. Each of them was equal in this moment.

She’d been bred for this and she realized as she fought with an energy that seemed to come from deep inside her that she’d denied this part of herself for too long. She couldn’t live with the lies between her and Kane any longer.

“Let’s finish this,” she said to Kane.

“I’m trying,” he said, connecting solidly with his opponent’s sternum. Then used a judo chop to the neck.

The other guy attacked her with a strong kick that knocked her into Kane. He grunted and steadied her. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she said.

She was aware of Kane and the third sentry fighting behind her and when she heard Kane groan, she wanted to go see if he was okay. But first things first.

She focused all her energy on the fight she was in. This guy had pulled his knife and took a swipe at her leg.

She kicked the weapon from his hand and out of reach. Knowing she had to make this attack count, she concentrated on hitting his neck and head. She struck him hard in the chest with a front kick, forcing his head into the wall. Jabbing his neck with her elbow, she grabbed one of his meaty wrists and brought it up behind his back, then forced his hands together and cuffed him.

She turned to help Kane but his opponent fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Kane cuffed him.

“Two men are exiting the BMW and heading your way,” Orly said. “Stop dicking around—get Kane and get out.”

“Gotcha. Kane, we’ve got to get out of here. More men are headed this way.”

Kane pulled his handgun and kept the assault rifle loosely at his side.

“You’re just going to kill them,” she said.

“No. I’m going to negotiate with them.”

“Not tonight,” Nightshade said. She closed the distance between them and embedded her thumb in his radial nerve. Kane tried to pull away but she pressed harder and his gun dropped to the ground as he lost all sensation in his arm.

“Sasha, no,” he said.

“Sorry, lover, but I’m not letting you do this,” she said. She shut out everything else, the sexy smell of Kane’s cologne, the pain in her arms from pulling herself up the building, the dread of having to tell her husband she’d lied to him. And focused on the moment.

“Nightshade,” he whispered again, twisting his head so their eyes met. In the shadows his were just dark pools of indigo.

For a moment it seemed her disguise fell away and that Kane was staring into her soul. Right down to the part she’d hidden from him for so long. She opened her mouth on a sigh.

“Going to let me go?” he asked, leaning close to her and letting his breath brush across her cheek.

He was flirting with her. God, it had been a long time since Kane had teased her. “Maybe.”

“Maybe? I know how to change that to a yes.” He leaned closer and ran his lips down the side of her neck, stopping at the base where her pulse was starting to beat a little faster.

She stepped back. For Kane’s sake she couldn’t let him do this. Couldn’t let him stay free. Pulling a pair of handcuffs from her pocket, she quickly bound his wrists. Kane lashed out at her with his feet. Of course, he’d have to do it the hard way.

She stepped back into a defensive pose, realizing that the man she’d married had become a stranger to her.

Kane was no stranger to fighting—enemies and allies alike. But he wasn’t himself tonight and neither was she. Although, a part of her was very much the outraged wife who’d been left in the country. Kane swung around, his graceful masculine body moving in perfect symmetry and kicking her feet out from under her.

Sasha wanted to take him down. They’d been driving toward this confrontation for a long time. She pushed herself to her feet and dropped back into a defensive pose. He circled around her. Sasha’s nerves jangled. The aches and pains from her recent confrontation were starting to make themselves known and what she really wanted was to return to the Land Rover and get out the ice pack.

“Kane, you can’t win.”

“You’re good, wife, I’ll give you that. But I’m better.”

That pissed her off. She quickly moved behind him and hit him squarely between the shoulder blades, knocking him to his knees. With his hands bound behind his back, his balance was hard to maintain. Stepping up behind him, Sasha straddled his neck with her thighs.

She tunneled her fingers into his thick black hair and pulled back, exposing his neck. “Who’s better now?”

His breathing was uneven and he twisted his head as far as she allowed him. His breath was a hot brand against her inner thigh. He raked his teeth down the length of the pant fabric, causing rippling sensations along her skin.

Carefully she closed her thighs around his neck. He twisted his body, knocking her off balance. Sasha rolled to the ground, landing on her back. Before she could move, Kane fell on top of her, his head even with her breasts. He lifted his head and met her eyes. In an instant everything fell away except for Kane and this moment.

She’d missed this type of play between them. In the early days when they’d first started going out, Kane and she used to spar all the time like this.

“What went wrong?” he asked. “Where did the adventurous woman I first met go?”

She couldn’t tell him. She didn’t really know. She only knew that her last mission had changed something deep inside her and she’d never be the same again. She couldn’t be.

She lifted her arms, pulled his head to hers and took the kiss she’d been wanting. A kiss that confirmed Kane was alive. A kiss that made the past melt away and the troubled future seem even colder than she’d realized it could be.

She’d missed his taste. All her barriers were down tonight and she’d forgotten how wonderfully seductive Kane could be when he put his mind to it. She didn’t want to think about the reason he’d stopped seducing her. When she’d given him the cold shoulder, he hadn’t taken it very well. She’d never been able to explain that it was either that or surrender her sanity.

She slipped her hand around his neck as her tongue entered his mouth. He moaned deep in his throat and she had a second’s hesitation before she squeezed carefully on his carotid artery, rendering him unconscious. He fell limply on top of her and she brought her arms together around him to comfort him in a way he’d never allow when he was conscious.