HOT Mess (Expanded Edition)(Hostile Operations Team - Book 2) Read online

  She had no idea why anyone would think Jake had been her boyfriend, but right now that was the only thing that made sense. And that thought chilled her to the bone. Jake worked for a secret agency and now he was gone.

  Dead? Of course he was dead. Sam wouldn’t say he wasn’t coming back if it wasn’t true.

  And someone had threatened her—worse, they’d actually pushed her last night. The man in the coffee shop had admitted as much. They wanted something from her, but she didn’t know what.

  Sam looked fierce. “I don’t know, but we’ll find out.”

  “I don’t see how. Jake’s gone, and I don’t know who that guy was. Or why he thinks I know anything.” She hesitated. “I didn’t do anything, Sam. I don’t know what’s going on and… I’m scared.”

  He cupped her chin. “I’ll keep you safe, Georgie. And I know people who can figure this out.”

  “I didn’t tell you this part, but the man in the coffee shop said that if I didn’t want to fall onto the tracks the next time, I’d do what they said. Last night—I thought maybe somebody pushed me. I didn’t see who pulled me to safety because people surrounded me then and he was gone so quickly. But I think it was the man from the coffee shop—or somebody associated with him.”

  Sam’s expression darkened. “You didn’t tell me you nearly fell on the tracks.”

  She nodded. “Somebody pulled me away just in time. I was going over the edge and there was nothing to stop me. If they hadn’t grabbed me, I’d be dead.”

  “It’s time to get your things, Georgie. And make it quick,” he growled.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “Somewhere safe.”

  That wasn’t an answer and he knew it. And while she might have no choice in this, there was one place she didn’t want to go. “I won’t go to Texas, Sam. I can’t—”

  His fingers caressed her skin again and she found herself wanting to lean into him, wanting him to keep touching her until the sadness went away. How could her body light up when he touched her even though she was feeling so many other things right now?

  “I’m not sending you to Texas. I’m taking you to a friend’s house where you’ll be safe while I work on this.”

  A friend’s house. She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. What if he dumped her off and she didn’t see him again? “You won’t leave me?”

  “Only to go to work. I have to show up there. Otherwise I’ll be with you.”

  She looked down at her lap, unable to meet the intensity of his gaze a moment longer. “Okay. I guess I have no choice.”

  His hand dropped away, and she found herself wanting to cry out, wanting to ask him not to stop.

  “No, you really don’t. I’m sorry about Sergeant Hamilton, Georgie. But I won’t let anything happen to you. You can count on that.”

  “I know.” Impulsively, she reached out and ran her palm along his jaw. She’d been aching to touch him. His eyes darkened, becoming hot pools she wanted to drown in. “I trust you, Sam. Completely. You’ve always done right by me.”

  He caught her hand and pulled it away from his face. “You can trust me with your life, Georgie.” He kissed her palm and shivers ran down her spine. “But don’t make the mistake of thinking you can trust me with anything else. I’m not that good, believe me.”

  6

  The trip was silent. Or would have been if not for the incessant meowing of Georgie’s cat. Sam was glad Georgie wasn’t talking right now. He needed to think. He’d told Big Mac and Kid what was happening earlier.

  Big Mac had told him to take Georgie to his place for now and gave Sam a key. They’d figure out what came next once Sam got her settled. He was still processing what Kid had found on Jake Hamilton—and obsessing over the fact that Georgie seemed to be far closer to Hamilton than she was admitting.

  Maybe he hadn’t been her boyfriend, but that didn’t mean something hadn’t happened between them.

  “You know something, Sam?”

  He started at the sound of her voice when the cat had become white noise to him. “What?”

  “You said I couldn’t trust you with anything else because you weren’t that good. But maybe I don’t want you to be good. Maybe I want you to be as bad as you can be. Did you ever think of that?”

  Sam gripped the wheel and stared straight ahead. Jesus. He hadn’t fucking expected her to say such a thing. Hell, he didn’t know why he’d said those words to her earlier, except that he’d wanted her to know the truth. He wasn’t all that good. Not where she was concerned. His control was a finite thing.

  And he wasn’t about to take advantage of her when she was emotionally compromised by her divorce and the death of Jake Hamilton, whatever that guy might have been to her.

  “Don’t say shit like that to me, Georgie. You know I’m not going there.”

  She snorted. “Boy, do I.”

  “Georgie—”

  “No, don’t you Georgie me. When you stopped that night…”

  He could feel her looking at him, her eyes boring an angry hole into him. His gut twisted. He told himself she was simply reacting to everything that had happened today and taking it out on him. This wasn’t really about something that had happened twelve years ago. It was just a convenient target for her chaotic emotions.

  The corners of her mouth were white. “When you stopped that night, I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought I wasn’t sexy enough or special enough for you. And that hurt.”

  He blinked. Did she really think…?

  “Of course you were,” he bit out. “But you’re Rick’s little sister—and I was the wrong guy for a lot of reasons. I stopped because you were special. You are special.”

  She sniffed. “You were the one I wanted.”

  He swallowed hard. “I couldn’t do it, Georgie. I couldn’t do it and look Rick in the eye ever again. Or your parents.”

  She didn’t say anything for a long moment. But he could feel the anger rolling off of her. “You know who was my first?”

  “Goddamn it, I don’t want to know.”

  His voice snapped in the interior of the car. Even the cat went silent. Sam closed his eyes. He did not lose his temper. Not ever. But she made him forget all the vows he’d ever sworn to himself about controlling his emotions.

  Georgie folded her arms over her chest. “Fine. But you know what you need to remember right now? Here it is, so put it front and center in that brain of yours and keep it there. I’m not your sister, and I’m not a kid anymore.”

  Sam sat in stony silence, uncertain what in the hell he could possibly say. No, she wasn’t his sister. But it was better if he thought of her that way.

  He wanted to keep her in a safe place in his head. But in the space of a conversation she’d gone and thrown her grappling hook over the walls he’d erected and climbed right over them.

  She thought he had trouble remembering she wasn’t a kid anymore. No, what he had trouble remembering was that he was no good for her. Because damn if he didn’t want her. He wanted her every possible way he could have her.

  But she wasn’t his for the taking. She was too good for the likes of him. Even if he wanted something more than a few nights of sex with her, he owed the Hayeses too much to drag their daughter into the kind of life he led. Now that he’d joined HOT, his already crazy life had just gotten crazier. His deployments would be more specialized now, more dangerous.

  With the Rangers, he’d done plenty of dangerous things—jumping into enemy territory in the middle of the night and engaging in pitched battles with hostile forces while trying to take or defend ground.

  But HOT—like Delta Force, the Green Berets, and Navy SEALs—was about a hundred levels up. Their missions were top secret, highly focused, and extremely sensitive. Right now most of their resources were bent toward catching Jassar ibn-Rashad.

  The new Freedom Force leader had escaped a mission to capture him just a few months ago. Two men were killed on that mission—Marco San Ramos
and Jim Matuzaki. Sam was one of the replacements—Iceman the other—and he felt it keenly.

  The other guys didn’t talk much about what had happened in the desert, but everyone knew. The entire squad was captured, and Jim and Marco had been executed when no one would talk.

  The rest of them would have been executed too, except that another HOT squad managed to get them out. Sam hadn’t gone on a mission with them yet, but it could happen at any moment.

  He hoped it didn’t because right now he had Georgie to worry about. When Kid found out that Jake Hamilton had been dragged out of the Potomac only a few days ago, Sam’s blood ran cold. Right after that, Georgie called him, terrified, and Sam bolted out of HOT HQ like someone had aimed a flamethrower at his ass.

  Thank God he’d been in an unsecure area of the building when she’d called or he wouldn’t have had his phone with him. He didn’t like to think about what she’d be doing right now if he hadn’t been able to take her call for a few hours.

  His phone blared to life and he glanced down at it. A HOT code flashed on the screen. He answered with a clipped “McKnight.”

  “This is Richie. Everything okay?”

  Sam’s gut hollowed. His new squad CO calling him couldn’t be a good thing. Matt “Richie Rich” Girard had been nothing other than welcoming, but Sam was still new enough that he didn’t quite feel at home yet. He’d get there, though. “Yes, sir. Just have to take care of something personal, sir.”

  “Leave off the sirs, Knight Rider. We’re a team. Big Mac told me about your friend. She okay?”

  Sam glanced over at Georgie, who was now staring out the window. Mad at him, no doubt. “I think so, sir—I mean Richie. There was no one in the house, but the back door had been forced and they’d gone through her things. Nothing missing though.”

  “Glad she’s okay. Seems as if circumstances have changed a bit in the last hour,” Richie said. “We’re officially involved now. You’ll need to bring her to HQ, and then we’ll make sure she gets to a safe house.”

  Sam gripped the phone tight. Jesus, if HOT was involved, there was most certainly a foreign component. The military did not operate inside US borders except under very specific and well-defined circumstances. And that made Sam’s blood run just a little colder.

  What the hell had Georgie gotten herself into?

  “I need to stay with her. I’m responsible for her.” Because Rick would kill him if anything happened to Georgie. Hell, Sam would hand him the gun and beg him to pull the trigger.

  There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. “I think I can arrange it. But get here as fast as you can. Understood?”

  “Sir, yes, sir,” Sam replied, wincing at how stiff and formal he sounded.

  Richie laughed. “You’ll get it eventually.”

  The connection ended and Sam put the phone down again with a sinking feeling in his gut. If HOT was a part of this thing, the level of severity had just taken a quantum leap.

  7

  Georgie stood on the screened-in back porch of a small cottage on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, arms folded over her chest, staring out at the creek running past the house as a sense of unreality flooded her. It was late afternoon and the sun gleamed golden on the water. A blue heron picked its way along the shore on the opposite side, and marsh grass waved occasionally in the slight breeze called up whenever a bird took flight.

  This was not at all what she’d expected to be doing when she woke up this morning. Her head was still reeling from everything that had happened since she’d nearly fallen in front of a train last night—something that had apparently not been an accident.

  She heard a sound behind her and turned as Sam strolled outside. He’d changed out of his military uniform and into a pair of faded jeans that sat low on his hips. He wore a navy T-shirt that clung to the broad muscles of his tattooed biceps and chest and made her mouth water.

  Tattoos? Sam hadn’t had tattoos before. A black tribal design appeared to surround his right bicep. She couldn’t tell what was on his left, but she saw a hint of ink when he crossed his arms over his chest.

  “You doing okay?”

  She shrugged. Belle had calmed down the instant they’d walked inside and she’d been let out to roam the house. Now she was standing on her hind legs, her front paws on the screen, watching the birds in the yard. Her tail swished back and forth happily.

  Georgie was anything but happy right now. “I’m a bit out of sorts, actually.”

  Sam shoved his hands in his pockets and walked over to join her. “Understandable.”

  After the call in the truck earlier, he’d told her they had to make a stop. She hadn’t expected him to drive onto a military facility or up to a compound surrounded by razor wire, but that’s exactly what he did. She’d only been allowed inside a big room near the entrance of the compound where they permitted visitors, but it had soon swarmed with large men in uniform who’d gazed down at her with deadly serious expressions. Belle had gone utterly silent in her carrier at that point. Even she’d been intimidated by so much testosterone.

  The man with silver birds on his shoulders—thank God for her time with the military so she could at least recognize a colonel now—had held out his hand. “Colonel Mendez, ma’am. You doing okay?”

  Everyone wanted to know if she was okay. Hell no, she was not okay—but she hadn’t told the colonel that. Instead, she’d made some sort of answer, listened while the colonel talked, and then sat down to wait while all the men, including Sam, disappeared into the inner building. A uniformed soldier came back with an offer of coffee, told her she could let Belle out to roam the room if she wanted, and then she was alone again.

  Sam didn’t return for an hour, but when he did he’d told her they were going to the much quieter Eastern Shore where they would stay for the next few days.

  She’d felt so helpless and out of control then.

  “I have classes, Sam. I can’t just disappear.” She winced the moment she said it because it was insensitive after what had happened to Jake.

  “The colonel will take care of everything. All you have left is finals, and someone will make sure they’re proctored. You’ll get the exams to grade. It’s non-negotiable, Georgie.”

  “So it’s not just you anymore?” She’d nodded her head toward the giant steel door through which he’d come. “It’s all of those guys in there too, right?”

  He’d looked somber. “That’s right. Jake Hamilton didn’t fall into the Potomac by accident.”

  That was the first she’d heard about how Jake had been found. “So why hasn’t it been on the news? A body in the Potomac isn’t something you can keep secret for long.”

  Sam lifted an eyebrow. “Depends on who wants it kept secret.”

  “I still don’t understand why the police aren’t involved. Or why the military is.”

  He’d put his hands on her shoulders. “Because there are some things the military is better equipped to do. This is one of those things, Georgie.”

  She’d been thinking about that for hours, and she still had no idea what Jake could have been tangled up in. What was the information those men had wanted from him? And why was she a part of it? What made them think she knew anything at all?

  Sam had driven off the base and headed east, eventually rolling over the Chesapeake Bay and onto the Eastern Shore. Another half hour of driving and they’d ended up here, at this small cottage tucked away on a tributary of the bay.

  Now Georgie shook her head and voiced what she’d been thinking. “I don’t understand why Jake’s dead. Or what it has to do with me.”

  Sam ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. “Jake was involved in things he shouldn’t have been. And it looks like he had a crush on you, G. He had pictures of you in his apartment, poems he’d written. Whoever killed him thinks you know something about what he was doing because they think you were together. Did you go out with him at all?”

  “No! And I don’t know anything.
I didn’t even know Jake that well. He took three classes from me, that’s it. We had coffee a few times, but it was during my office hours. It wasn’t a date or anything. I swear.”

  Jake had been crushing on her? She hadn’t known. Then again, he’d come to class early and stayed late a few times. Always talking to her about what they were reading. She’d thought he was just enthusiastic.

  “He seemed to think it was a date. He clearly convinced these guys he was seeing you.”

  She shook her head, wanting to deny everything Sam was saying. “But Jake was a good guy. Harmless. I can’t believe he was mixed up in something bad.”

  “You aren’t that naïve, Georgie. Just because someone is nice doesn’t mean they haven’t done something wrong. I’m sorry when anyone dies so senselessly, but trust me when I tell you he wasn’t minding his own business when it happened.”

  Georgie swallowed the lump in her throat. “So now you get to say when someone deserves the bad things that happen to them? I think that’s rather cynical, don’t you?”

  Sam’s expression was stark. “I’ve seen too much in this life not to be cynical. Jake Hamilton was doing things he shouldn’t have been doing. And while I’m sorry you’re hurt over this, I’m more pissed that he managed to drag you into it. You’re lucky all they wanted to do last night was scare you, otherwise somebody’d be scraping you off the tracks.”

  She closed her eyes, feeling the ache in her hip anew. Remembering the fear of that moment when she’d been going over the edge. “I know,” she whispered. “But I liked Jake. Or at least the Jake I knew. It’s not easy to start believing he was a bad person.”

  “I didn’t say he was bad. But he did bad things. Or stupid things, at least. And that cost him his life.”

  She looked up at him. “And I’m mixed up in it.”

  Sam nodded. “We don’t know exactly how yet. They might think you knew something about what he was doing because he said you were his girlfriend. Or he might have implicated you in some way in order to protect himself. Did he ever give you anything?”