HOT Valor (Hostile Operations Team - Book 11) Read online

  Except for Hawk. Hawk looked pretty fucking miserable at the moment. Until Gina turned and their eyes met across the tarmac. His entire body language changed. But was that happiness? Or resignation?

  Probably the latter.

  “We’re lucky they don’t all insist on going,” Viking said. “My wife would if she weren’t on a mission right now.”

  Ivy McGill Erikson was a DEA agent with wicked skills of her own. Cade liked listening to her and her partner tell tales of some of their exploits with drug dealers and other lowlifes. Ace was a good guy and funnier than hell. Cade had been surprised when he learned Ace was gay—but then he figured fuck it, who the hell cared? Not him. Not anymore anyway. He would have growing up, but fortunately the world tended to show a man what was important when he stepped out into it.

  “Holy fuck, what’s that?”

  Cade turned. A cargo van rolled up and a group of men got out wearing black tactical gear and carrying big duffels full of equipment.

  “Hey, kids,” Ian Black said as he strolled up. “Going somewhere?”

  “No fucking way,” Iceman growled. He was already pissed as hell, and Black wasn’t helping. Ice was there for support only. He wasn’t allowed to set foot out of the US on a mission like this. It wouldn’t help his father-in-law if they were caught, so he had to stay behind. He was still coming to terms with it and he was grumpy as fuck. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  Cade remembered that Ice and Ian Black had once been at each other’s throats when Black appeared to be working for the people who’d tried to kidnap Dr. Grace Campbell. Black had held Ice prisoner and attempted to trade him for Grace. Hadn’t gone well, and Ice didn’t seem disposed to forgive the man anytime soon.

  “Always a treat to see you, Sergeant Spencer,” Black said. “How’s the wife?”

  Ice took a menacing step toward Black, but Richie was there with a restraining hand on Ice’s shoulder and a word in his ear.

  “Cool it, Black,” Richie said.

  Black shrugged. “Not my fault. Your boy here jumped first.” He let his gaze slide over the gathering of men, women, and equipment. “Quite a crowd.”

  Lieutenant Colonel Bishop—Ghost—strode over. Cade didn’t like the way he was frowning. “Black. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

  Ian shrugged and nodded toward the other jet preparing for takeoff. “Got a plane to catch.”

  Ghost walked away from the group and Ian followed until they were standing out of earshot. The conversation only lasted a few minutes, but it seemed heated. Ian and his men headed for the unmarked jet waiting nearby while Ghost stalked back to HOT.

  “What’s the bastard up to now?” Richie muttered to no one in particular.

  “No good, probably,” Viking replied.

  When Ghost reached them, Richie asked, “Everything okay?”

  “He has intel on Delta Squad. A possible location.”

  “Seriously? Did he give coordinates?” Richie asked. “We need to verify them.”

  Ghost held out a hand, stopping the onslaught of questions from the group gathering around. “He doesn’t have them. It’s murky intel from one of his sources, but he says they’re in Moscow. He doesn’t know where. He said to check warehouses belonging to Turov.”

  “How the fuck do we know he’s telling the truth?”

  Ghost looked grim. “Because he also told me the purpose of his mission.”

  “Why don’t I like the sound of that?” Viking asked, voicing what they were all thinking.

  “You shouldn’t,” Ghost said. “Because he’s on his way to capture Viper.”

  It took about thirty-eight hours to reach Moscow. Snow in the Urals slowed their progress and made them detour. Darkness had fallen when they finally arrived on the outskirts of the city. Kat yawned, her jaw cracking. Sleep and food were pretty much a necessity, though not in that order.

  Sex would be nice too, but the past thirty-eight hours had cemented the knowledge that it wasn’t happening ever again. Not with Johnny, anyway. He’d been distant, caught up in his own thoughts. They’d traded driving duties, had stopped for a few breaks and a couple of meals, but mostly they drove without talking. Once she’d had her breakdown over Roman, the conversation had ended soon after.

  He’d been lovely during it, holding her hand. And then he’d been angry. She didn’t blame him.

  Guilt rode her hard. She wished she had pictures of Roman to show him now, but she left those on a flash drive—and a backup drive in the cloud—at the apartment she rarely visited. Personal photos weren’t the kind of thing you carried when doing the sorts of missions she did. You didn’t want anyone figuring out who you were or where you lived.

  And she definitely didn’t want Sergei or Dmitri to find her.

  Johnny drove them to a location that Yuri Budayev had arranged for them. It was a small house with a garage for hiding the van. They climbed out, dragging their gear, and went inside. The house was barely the size of a shoebox. There was a combined kitchen and living area, a bathroom, and one bedroom.

  Johnny threw his gear into a corner and pulled out the laptop he’d gotten from Yuri. His eyes were bloodshot, but he looked as delicious as ever. He was tall, strong, his muscles bulging as he stripped off the layers he wore until there was nothing but a T-shirt stretching over his chest, dog tags dangling between his pecs.

  Kat went over and flipped on the television, searching for a news station. When she found it, she stepped back to watch. The city was gearing up for the visit of the American vice president and vendors rushed to stock commemorative souvenirs. It wasn’t as big a deal as a presidential trip, but it was still big business for Moscow’s citizens. Hence the collectibles.

  There was little mention of the ambassador and no mention of an American military team’s involvement. A good thing, probably.

  “Shit.”

  Kat turned. Johnny sat at the computer with his forehead in his hands. His face was lit by the glow of the screen, and her heart hitched. So handsome. So lonely. She wanted to go to him and press her lips to the tight corners of his mouth, the worry lines on his forehead, before sliding her tongue against his and making him forget for a while. He wouldn’t welcome that kind of comfort from her though. He never would again.

  “What’s the matter?”

  He slapped the computer closed. “My team is delayed.”

  “So we wait,” she said. “The summit isn’t until the day after tomorrow. There’s time to get to Sergei.”

  “Yeah.” He blew out a breath.

  She knew he hadn’t wanted his people to come to Russia at all, but they’d insisted on it. Which meant he’d figured them into the plan on how to infiltrate Sergei’s home. If they didn’t make it?

  Shit was right. They’d be down to two operators—her and Johnny. And that wouldn’t be easy with the increased security Sergei would have put into place for the summit being in Moscow.

  “We’ll figure it out,” she said. “We’ll get to him.”

  “There’s something else… he has my operators. My missing squad. Ian has intel they’re in Moscow, in one of Turov’s warehouses. But he doesn’t know which one.”

  He was on edge, angry, and no doubt feeling helpless. She understood those feelings better than he realized. There were too many directions to go in and not enough time or manpower.

  He shoved back from the table and stood. “We have to plan for going after Turov alone.” He yanked the map from his bag and spread it on the table. “Tell me where his security checkpoints are again.”

  “He didn’t own this house eight years ago,” she reminded him as she walked over to his side. “But I can guess based on what I know about how he does things.”

  She bent over the map. She could smell his anger and frustration. She wanted to put a hand on his shoulder and rub some of the tension away. Instead, she focused on the blueprint. “He’ll have guards at the gates. They’ll be checking IDs and quite possibly going through the vehicles. He�
�ll also station people at the entrances to the house—here and here and here. Inside, he’ll rely on cameras.”

  The map showed the location of the cameras, including the control room. She couldn’t imagine how the Tiger had gotten this, but she was glad for it. They wouldn’t go in blind at least, even if they did go in severely undermanned.

  “What kind of personal security does he have?”

  “When he’s traveling, he has bodyguards. In his house, he prefers everyone to blend into the walls. He doesn’t like being disturbed. He goes to bed at midnight and wakes at seven. He spends an hour in bed with breakfast and coffee, and then he takes a shower and gets dressed. He heads for the office around nine at least three days a week. Tomorrow is Tuesday, so he won’t go in tomorrow—provided he’s still keeping to the same schedule. It could have changed.”

  He was watching her with interest. “How do you know his schedule so intimately?”

  She forced herself to maintain eye contact though her heart thumped and bile rose in her throat. She hadn’t been Sergei’s mistress for the entire time, but she’d been in his bed often enough to know his routine didn’t vary. “Because I worked for him for ten years.”

  He seemed to accept that. “Then it’s best to go after him sometime between midnight and seven. Unfortunately, without HOT to help with a breakin, we’ll have to go during business hours. When does he let people in the gates?”

  “Around six, usually. There are deliveries, workmen, that kind of thing.”

  “Then we’ll go in the morning if HOT isn’t here before then. We can’t afford to wait.”

  Kat rubbed her arms. “Sergei knows we’re here. He sent people after us at the cemetery and the Tiger’s bunker. He’s not sitting there clueless—he’s waiting for us. Guarantee it.”

  His eyes glittered. “You can always stay here if you don’t want to go.”

  “That’s not what I’m suggesting. But we need backup. HOT, Ian—doesn’t matter who. We need more operators. I say we wait at least twenty-four hours.”

  “We don’t have time,” he growled. “He has my men, and he’s got something up his sleeve with the summit. We need time to find out what that is—if we wait too long, we may not be able to stop anything.”

  “And if we get ourselves killed, nobody’s going to find out a damned thing!”

  His face was stone. “I call the shots on this one. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to go.”

  She folded her arms and glared at him. “You aren’t in charge here, Johnny, no matter what you might think. We’re a team—I’m risking my life for you because I won’t let them take you away from me too—not after everything I went through to save you the first time. But you can’t be stupid about this.”

  “Careful, solnishko.”

  “Or what? You’re going to spank me?” Her breath hitched, damn her. She remembered him spanking her two nights ago—and her blood roared with heat. The burn of his hand on her bare skin, the stinging pleasure that followed. The way her clit ached so much it hurt, the slick wetness of her pussy as he slammed into her body again and again.

  Something of what she was thinking must have registered in his brain as well. His jaw tightened and his chest rose and fell a little more rapidly.

  “Goddamn you,” he growled.

  Wild, reckless heat soared in her soul. He was not immune, no matter how much he wanted to be. “What’s the matter, Johnny? Thinking about fucking me while spanking my ass?”

  “Val—Kat.” He closed his eyes as if working on maintaining his iron control. “This gets us nowhere.”

  “It makes you hard. Doesn’t it?” It certainly made her wet. Which was insane, because the emotional canyon yawning between them was too vast to ever cross. She could incite him to losing control, to taking her hard and fast and deep, but she could never incite him to love her again.

  Yet the love inside her threatened to swallow her up and tear her apart. Because he didn’t return it. Would never return it. She didn’t blame him, but it still hurt. She’d kept such a tight rein on it for the past two days—but now. Holy hell, now.

  They were almost to the end of this journey. She had a gut-deep feeling that it was all going wrong. That it was a suicide mission. He wouldn’t survive it—and maybe she wouldn’t either.

  She could handle the thought of her death far better than she could handle the idea of Johnny Mendez dying in Moscow after all these years. She’d left him here twenty-one years ago to save his life. Now? He couldn’t fucking die. She wouldn’t allow it. She’d sacrificed too much to let that happen.

  “It doesn’t matter what it makes me,” he said. Growled really. “Because it doesn’t change anything. I could strip you naked and lose myself in you—but I can’t forgive you. Is that what you really want?”

  Chapter 34

  “Fucking hell!”

  Cade watched as Hawk paced back and forth in the airport hotel room they’d piled into. Gina’s plane had experienced an issue that forced them to land in Berlin, and now they were waiting for the repair to be done and clearance to take off again.

  “Baby,” Gina said, sauntering over and laying a hand against his chest. “We’ll be on our way soon. Calm down.”

  Calm down? A few of the Alpha Squad members exchanged glances. Cade didn’t miss it. He’d never served with Hawk, but he’d been in HOT long enough to know that the sniper’s cool had been legendary. That he was losing it here and now was a sign of how on edge they all were.

  Fucking Ian Black was on his way to Moscow to haul Mendez back to the US. Which made no damned sense since Black was the one who’d told him he was being arrested in the first place. But Black had his orders from somewhere and he was obeying them.

  At least he’d given them information on Delta Squad even if it hadn’t been precise. Cade wondered if it was a tail-chasing maneuver. If Black was sending them out of his way so he could get to Mendez first. But why? None of it made sense. Why would he help Mendez, send one of his operators to help the colonel, and then turn on him?

  Whatever the case, HOT wanted to get to Russia, find Delta, and help Mendez before they were missed. Though maybe they’d already been missed. There’d been no chatter, but if Comstock sent for them and they weren’t there—well, AWOL would be the least of their troubles.

  Hawk wasn’t affected by military rules anymore, but he apparently still felt the pressure. He put his hands on his wife’s shoulders. Then he gave her a quick kiss.

  Lucky bastard.

  “Honey, why don’t you go to our room and rest? I’m going to sit here with the guys and see what Kid finds out, okay?”

  Gina’s beautiful eyes lit up with love. Sickening.

  Okay, no, it wasn’t sickening. It made him jealous. Which was crazy because he did not care to fuck one woman for the rest of his life. Even if she was a gorgeous pop star.

  “All right, baby. Don’t pop a blood vessel, okay? The kids and I need you too much.”

  “Yeah, fine. Promise.” Hawk kissed her with a little more heat this time. Then she sashayed out of the room and no one said anything. The clacking of the keyboard was the only sound in the room. That and the distant whine of jets as they took off and landed at the airport.

  “You fuckers are making me nervous,” Kid said after a long minute. “Say something. Somebody tell a fart joke or something.”

  “I got nothing,” Money said. “Anybody?”

  Ryan “Flash” Gordon, who usually had a joke about everything, shrugged. “Not me. Though I can regale you with poop stories about my toddler if you like.”

  Kid held up a hand. “No. Just no.”

  The door opened and Ghost walked in. He’d probably been working some sort of contact somewhere. Cade hoped it was good for them, whatever it was.

  “How’s it going, Kid?”

  “Slow. I’ve been talking with Hacker, and he’s still trying to trace the entry points into our servers. If we could get that, we could follow it back to the source and
enter their system. If it’s Open Sky and Turov, we might be able to trace Delta Squad too. But we’re also checking warehouses in Moscow for signs of Delta.”

  Hacker had stayed back in DC to handle the cyber duties from that end. The guys who’d stayed behind hadn’t wanted to stay, but they’d done the time-honored random-number system to determine who went and who didn’t. The computer had picked the winners and losers based on skills needed. Except for Iceman, who’d never been in the running to go.

  Those who lost stayed behind and handled HQ duties at Richie’s house. The rest boarded Gina’s plane and headed for Moscow. Until a malfunctioning engine landed them in Berlin.

  Ghost raked a hand through his hair. He looked frustrated as shit. They all were. “Well, hell,” he said. He shot a look at the SEALs. “What’s that thing you boys say? The only easy day was yesterday?”

  “That’s it,” Viking said.

  “Hey, got a ping,” Kid said excitedly.

  Cade’s pulse kicked a little higher. Everyone’s probably did.

  “Aw hell, forget it,” Kid said. “Just another fake entry point.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Flash asked.

  “It means that whoever did this wanted to mask the IP address the program came from, so they created a bunch of aliases. Thousands, probably. It’s like a funhouse mirror—you think you’re close, but then you see it’s a trick.”

  “So how long will it take to find the source?” Hawk asked.

  “It could take weeks. Or days. If we’re lucky, hours. It’s possible we could find a vulnerable spot in the program and then all the data points unfold like an accordion. That’s what we’re hoping for.”

  “So what you’re really saying,” Money said, “is that it’s not going well and we’re pretty much fucked?”

  “If we don’t get in soon… Yeah, we’re fucked. And so’s the colonel.”

  Chapter 35

  Mendez wanted to cross the distance between them and wrap her in his arms. He was pissed as hell—still—but the urge to have her was nearly as strong as the anger. He hadn’t gotten over the way she’d broken down in the van. She’d cried in silence, but he’d felt the tremors shaking her body. And he’d once more wanted to slay dragons for her.