A HOT Christmas Miracle: A Hostile Operations Team Holiday Story Read online

  And now dementia had stolen the rest of her so that she didn’t know him anymore. He made sure she was taken care of, but he rarely went to see her these days. His presence agitated her, so he didn’t go.

  He pulled into the garage of the home he and Kat had purchased together just a few short months ago. It was a big house, grander than anything he’d ever expected to buy, but it had a yard and plenty of room for a growing family. Not that Kat was likely to get pregnant again, but they’d discussed adoption in the future. His life, once so regimented, was filled with possibilities these days.

  “Kat,” he said softly.

  Her eyes opened, their blue depths filled with the kind of joy that still managed to stagger him sometimes. After everything she’d been through, she was a happy person. It was one of the things he loved about her. It wasn’t that she didn’t get sad, but she didn’t dwell on her sadness. She always found the positive side of things.

  “I’m awake,” she replied. “Just warm and full and enjoying the music.”

  “We’re home, solnishko. You can keep listening inside. Or we can go to bed if you’re tired.”

  “I want to decorate the tree, Johnny.”

  He hadn’t had a Christmas tree in years, but now there was a fresh fir sitting in the living room waiting for the ornaments that he and Kat had bought recently.

  “It’s nearly ten. You sure you don’t want to do it tomorrow?”

  “No, I want to do it now. Tomorrow, you could have a crisis in the world and then we won’t get it done until Christmas is over.”

  He chuckled. “God, I hope there’s no crisis tomorrow. All right let’s go. You start the hot chocolate and I’ll put the hooks on the ornaments.”

  “Let’s put on our pajamas first.”

  “Right. Good idea.”

  They went inside and down the hall to their bedroom. It was sparsely decorated, like much of the house, but they were working on it as they had time. Kat wanted just the right furniture, the right curtains and decorations. Whatever she wanted was fine with him, so he let her take her time.

  Except for the nursery, which was fully decorated and ready to go. She hadn’t wanted to wait on that one at all, especially once they’d found out the gender of their baby. He still got mushy inside when he thought of the little girl growing inside her. The little girl that was nearly here.

  The thought terrified him sometimes. He was fifty-one years old, a general in the United States Army, nearing retirement if he wanted it, in charge of the baddest ass group of military Special Operators the world had ever known—and he was terrified of a tiny baby girl coming into his life and making him feel as if he didn’t know a damned thing or have any control.

  He’d strode into war zones with more confidence than he felt over greeting this little girl.

  Kat came over and put her arms around him once he’d shrugged out of his suit jacket and hung it up in their massive walk-in closet.

  “You’re brooding, Johnny. Is everything okay?”

  He squeezed her and kissed the top of her head. “Everything is wonderful. Just thinking about things.”

  “The kind of things you can tell me about or not?”

  He sighed as he laid his cheek against her hair. “It’s our daughter. What if I can’t protect her? What if I fail and something gets past my watch? What if the evil in the world wins?”

  Kat squeezed him hard. Then she tilted her head back and stared up at him with a fierceness he admired. Most people wouldn’t know it to look at her, but his wife was not a typical wife. Kat had spent years in the Russian FSB—the equivalent of the old KGB—and she’d worked for both the mafia and Ian Black. He pitied anyone who crossed her.

  “You won’t fail, Johnny. The evil will not win. There is you, and all your people. There’s Ian and his people. There are men and women we don’t even know who are working hard for all our tomorrows. There will always be evil, but there will always be people like us—like you—who fight it.”

  “You’re right,” he said, even if it still worried him. But he couldn’t let his fears affect her. Kat had enough to do right now. She had to deliver a baby soon, and he wasn’t going to upset her. Or activate her protective instincts because he had no doubt she’d go full-on mama grizzly if she felt threatened. He wasn’t going to let any threats perforate the bubble of their happiness.

  “I know I am. Now get your sexy ass changed so we can decorate.”

  He turned to unbutton his shirt and Kat slapped him on the ass. Mendez growled at her, but she only laughed.

  “Later, big boy. I think when we have finished the tree, I’m going to want to feel you inside me.”

  “Kat,” he groaned. He’d never known that pregnant women could be so turned on all the time, but Kat was. Since about the second trimester she’d wanted to make love as often as possible. He didn’t mind, though they’d had to get creative lately as she’d gotten bigger. She’d been small for much of her pregnancy, but the past month or so had really made a difference as she ballooned out.

  “You won’t hurt me,” she said, accurately reading his expression. “I feel fine.”

  She picked up her sleep pants and top and sashayed toward the master bath where she hummed a Christmas carol as she started the shower. His dick throbbed as he imagined her stripping off her cocktail dress and slipping beneath the spray.

  And then, because he wanted to see her pretty, naked body, he finished undressing and grabbed the Christmas sleep pants she’d bought him before strolling into the bathroom to watch her soap her creamy skin.

  Their eyes met and Kat’s twinkled. “Come to join me?”

  “Do you want me to?”

  “Oh yes,” she said, her eyes raking him from head to toe. “I can think of nothing better.”

  4

  Kat sat on the couch and sipped the hot cocoa she’d made while Johnny hung the ornaments where she told him. She’d hung several as well, but her back had started to ache and he’d made her sit down.

  “There,” she said, pointing at a blank spot on the tree. “Put it right there.”

  He dutifully hung the shiny silver snowflake and reached for another. She let her gaze slide over him—from the formfitting black T-shirt to the baggy plaid sleep pants with the drawstring that hung low on his hips. His muscles bunched and stretched as he reached up high to hang the next snowflake.

  “This okay?” he asked before he fastened the ornament in place, his eyes meeting hers over his shoulder.

  “Mmm, just like that. Stretch a little higher, sweet cakes. Let me stare at your fine ass for a moment.”

  He snorted and hung the ornament, then dropped his arm and turned. “You came three times in the shower. You trying to get me to make it a fourth?”

  Kat smiled. Her body still tingled with sexual satisfaction. She’d have never thought that sex while this pregnant would be a pleasant thing, but she was wrong. Of course they had to get creative to make it happen, but the orgasms were spectacular.

  “Would that be a bad thing?”

  “Sex is never a bad thing, Kat.”

  “I didn’t think so. Here, sit with me and drink your cocoa.”

  He picked up his mug and sat down beside her, lifting an arm so she could snuggle into his side. The tree blinked with lights that switched between multi-colored and white. Johnny reached up and turned off the lamp so that the tree was the only thing providing light in the room.

  “I love it,” she said, her throat suddenly tight. “I haven’t had a tree in years.”

  He hugged her a little tighter. “Me neither.”

  She tilted her head up to meet his gaze. She knew about his past with his mother. He’d kept nothing from her, and her heart ached for the child he’d been. A child who’d grown into a man who still didn’t do much in terms of celebrating the holiday. “I’m glad we’re doing it together.”

  “So am I. Even if you’re a little picky about where the ornaments go.”

  She laughed. “But look h
ow pretty it is. If you randomly threw ornaments everywhere, it wouldn’t be so nice.”

  “I know.”

  She laid her cheek against his chest and sipped her drink. “It’s been a great few months. I never thought I could be this happy again.”

  She felt his lips against her hair. “Same for me.”

  Beyond the tree, snow fell outside the window, coming down heavier than it had been earlier. It was nothing like the snows she’d grown up with in Russia, but it was still pretty. Not that she wanted snow like she’d had then. This snow was quite enough.

  “I’m happy, but I’m sad too,” she confessed softly, staring at the twinkling lights.

  “I know, honey.”

  “I wish you’d gotten to meet him, Johnny. He was a great kid.”

  His hand slid up and down her arm. She hated talking about Roman when they were so happy, but she couldn’t help it. And Johnny understood her need, no matter how much it had to hurt him. He’d never made her feel like she couldn’t talk about Roman when she needed to.

  “I wish I had as well.”

  Kat sniffled. “I’m not going to cry. We’re having a baby and we’ll give her all the love we couldn’t give Roman.”

  A sharp pain rolled through her, making her catch her breath. Johnny stiffened as he shifted away so he could see her face. “What’s wrong?”

  “A contraction.”

  His face went pale. “Shit, do we need to go—?”

  “No. I’ve been having Braxton-Hicks for days. It’s not labor.”

  He didn’t look convinced. “How do you know?”

  “Because Braxton-Hicks don’t follow a pattern, and they typically don’t cause much pain. This one was a little stronger, but unless I start having them regularly, then it’s nothing.”

  “Okay, but you’d better tell me if they get regular.”

  Kat ran her palm over his cheek. “Relax, General Mendez. It’s still nearly two weeks until my due date. I wasn’t even dilated at my last check up and Roman was two and a half weeks late. Dr. Butler says she has every reason to believe I will go full term.”

  “But what if the baby wants to come early?”

  “She could, I guess, but she’s not coming right now. I promise you. Now finish your drink and get back to work. I see an empty spot on the tree.”

  “You’re a task master, Mrs. Mendez.”

  She grinned. “I know. I do it perfectly, or I don’t do it at all.”

  “Got it, babe.”

  He sipped his drink. It was kind of funny to think that her badass warrior husband was sitting here in his Christmas pajamas, sipping cocoa, and yet he could order a task force into battle at any moment. It was also sexy as hell.

  “Kat,” he began.

  She turned her head to look up at him. “Yes, Johnny?”

  “Do you miss it?”

  It took her a second. “You mean work? The spy game?”

  “Yeah.”

  She shrugged. “Sometimes. When you’re off saving the world and I don’t get to be involved anymore, then yes, I do. But I won’t put our child in danger, so that’s that. No work for me.”

  She’d been worried about old enemies with grudges coming after her, but with Dmitri Leonov dead and Sergei Turov in prison, the enemies’ list had lost its two most dangerous members. There was no one else with that strong a motive to look for her.

  “And you’re okay with it?”

  She stared at the twinkling lights of the tree. “I have to be, don’t I? And I am. I hated leaving Roman while I did Sergei and Dmitri’s bidding. If I’d been with him in Novosibirsk, maybe he’d still be alive. Maybe Peter and Ludmilla would too.”

  Johnny squeezed her shoulders. “Don’t think like that, baby. You don’t know what would have happened. You might have been killed along with them.”

  “I know,” she said, her throat tight.

  “Damn, honey. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  He was frowning hard. She hated seeing that look on his face, so she kissed him. “You love me. Of course you want to know how I feel about being at home while you go to work. We were in the same profession. Mostly,” she added since she’d also worked for the Russian mafia. Not willingly, but she had. “You know what it feels like to be involved in operations, the electric charge it gives you sometimes.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t go on missions anymore. My last mission was the one I did with you.”

  Kat laughed. “That’s right. You can’t top that mission, so why try?”

  He took the cocoa from her and pulled her into his lap. She snuggled up to him, content. “Best damned mission of my life. Even if I wanted to kill you for some of it.”

  “Ha. You weren’t exactly a prince yourself, you know.”

  “No. When I think of that moment we drew down on each other…” He shivered.

  Kat felt that shiver deep inside. She caressed his cheek. She could still see him standing before her with a pistol aimed at her heart. She’d been aiming one at his, too. “You wouldn’t have shot me, nor I you.”

  “I wanted to.”

  “I know, Johnny. But you didn’t.”

  “I’d throw myself in front of a bullet before I’d hurt you.”

  She nuzzled his neck. “I already beat you to that one, sexy man.” She’d thrown herself in front of Dmitri’s bullet to save him back in Moscow. It’d worked. She’d do it a million times over for that result.

  “You did, baby. But you’d better not ever do it again.”

  “I don’t want to, Johnny. But I would. For you and for little Elena Katharine.” She put a hand over her belly. The baby kicked and she gasped.

  Johnny’s face instantly changed. “Hospital?”

  Kat shook her head, smiling. “No, honey. Tree. Finish adding ornaments for me, would you?”

  He kissed her soundly and set her on the couch. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, saluting her smartly before picking up an ornament. “Where does this go, ma’am?”

  Kat rolled her eyes at him, then laughed. “Right there, General. That big, bare spot that’d bite you in the face if it were a snake.”

  Men. They often didn’t see what was right in front of them. But that’s what wives were for….

  5

  December 19th

  Kat didn’t have the baby during the night. Mendez worried about leaving her the next morning, but he had to go into work for a few hours. He kissed her at the door and went into the garage to climb into his big black Ram truck.

  The snow had stopped during the night and the roads were mostly clear, though more snow was expected later today. In the few years that HOT had been in the DC metro area, it had snowed over Christmas exactly twice. This year could be the third time, though Mendez desperately wished it wouldn’t with Kat so heavily pregnant. He had nightmares about being delayed by weather when she most needed to get to the hospital.

  Mendez pushed those thoughts from his mind and turned them toward what would happen when they brought the baby home. Matt “Richie Rich” Girard, Alpha Squad’s team leader, had told him to get ready for sleepless nights and poopy diapers and spit up. Alex “Camel” Kamarov, a sniper on the SEAL Team who was the oldest of six siblings and therefore claimed to have lots of experience, had waved his hand in dismissal and said babies were a piece of cake. Mendez rather doubted that, but hopefully the truth was somewhere between those extremes.

  Ghost was already at work when Mendez arrived. They had a short meeting about current missions and potential hot spots and then Mendez went to his office. His phone rang almost the minute he sat down.

  “Mendez,” he said.

  “Hello, General,” Ian Black said. “You got a few minutes for me today?”

  “I can spare some time. When do you want to stop by?”

  “How’s fifteen minutes from now?”

  Mendez lifted his eyebrows. “That’ll work. Do I need to ready a team for a mission somewhere, or is this a social call?”

  “No team. I’ll tell you
more when I get there.”

  “See you soon then.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Mendez’s phone rang again. Lieutenant Connor was on the other end. “Sir, Mr. Black is here to see you.”

  “Send him in, Lieutenant.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  A second later, the door opened and Ian strode in. He was carrying a legal envelope. Mendez stood and went around the desk to shake his hand.

  “Ian. What brings you by so early? I assume this is what you wanted to talk about last night.”

  Ian nodded. “It is.” He didn’t move to open the envelope, however.

  Mendez nodded toward it. “Do you want to show me the papers?”

  “I do. But John—you need to prepare yourself for this.”

  Mendez frowned. “I’ve been a Special Operator pretty much my entire adult life. I don’t think there’s much of anything that’s going to shock me now.”

  Ian undid the clasp on the envelope and pulled out some papers. He didn’t hand them over, though. “This might. Look, I don’t know how to say this other than to just put it out there. I debated with myself for a while, wondering if the information was good enough—but if it was me, I’d want to see it.”

  Mendez’s gut was turning to ice. “What now? Is someone sending General Comstock to arrest me again? Because I didn’t get that vibe from the president last night. Pretty sure he wouldn’t have wanted me there if I was in trouble.”

  Ian shook his head. “No, it’s not that.” He turned the papers and held them out—and Mendez saw that the top paper was a photo. A photo of a young man who looked strikingly familiar somehow.

  “That’s… not me. But it could almost be, couldn’t it? I’ve never been in the Russian navy, though I suppose someone could have photoshopped—”

  The reality hit him then and the words died in his throat. He knew what Ian was showing him. Who Ian was showing him. The young man in the Russian navy uniform could be his son.