32. March 28th

MARCH 28TH

Waters

His thumb madeslow circles on the soft skin of her arm as he held her close. She was curled up into his side, head on his chest, her leg thrown over his, and her hand over his sternum, his other hand holding it there. He turned his head to kiss the crown of her head.

"Better?" he rumbled.

"Much," she replied. "I should still be pissed at you."

"You weren't really pissed, you know."

"No. I wasn't," she admitted. "How did you know?"

"Because I've never seen you afraid." His eyes were glued to the ceiling. "But when Demon handed me that report, there was a moment where your eyes dilated as if you knew he was bringing me news that couldn't wait. And it was a look I've never seen on your face before."

"It was about Ka-Bar, wasn't it?"

He deflected. "How did you know Demon was part of my team?"

She snorted. "No deal, Waters. What did the report say? Something about a dislocated shoulder? None of our stuntmen dislocated anything." He lay in silence. She picked her head up, resting her chin on his pectoral. "Don't keep secrets from me," she begged.

He squeezed her hand. "Some things are need-to-know."

"And if it's about my brother, I do need to know. Please."

He considered for a moment before relenting.

I've already broken rule number one. Might as well break another one.

"You know my teammate, Steel, was headed to Egypt."

She nodded.

"He found where your brother was initially hiding. The ambassador, his friend, Jacques, at the embassy did some questionable things, so we followed up. It looks like he managed to meet up with your brother, possibly with an exit contact. Ka-Bar left a breadcrumb, which is what we're trained to do. Steel was following the lead and ran into some trouble. He was injured."

"The dislocated shoulder."

"Yup. But the fact that he ran into that trouble makes it clear that he's on the right track and that Ka-Bar is still out there somewhere."

"Why not ask Jacques where he is?"

Waters sighed. "We can't. He was in a car crash."

She picked her head up, and he looked her in the eye. "Jacques is dead?"

Waters brought her hand up to his mouth, kissing the back of it. "Yeah. It looks like a truck ran through an intersection by accident, but… unlikely. Too coincidental."

"What happened to Steel?"

"While he was looking into a warehouse we figured that Ka-Bar was hiding out in, a small explosion went off. More of a deterrent message than a large-scale destruction situation. Luckily for Steel, he was at the periphery. Sent him flying into a brick wall. He's incredibly lucky he got away with only a dislocated shoulder and a concussion."

They lay in the quiet. A minute or so later, she asked softly, "Your guy, Demon. He's not here to give you medical reports."

He closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head again. "No, baby, he's not."

"You have others here?"

"Yes. Two more."

"Where are they? Are they on the crew?"

"No. They're on overwatch. You'll never see them."

"Are they good at what they do?" She gave a short laugh. "Stupid question, I guess. I can't see you working with less than good."

He rolled her over onto her back, settling into her side, raising himself on one elbow over her. He brushed her hair back from her forehead, trying to reassure her with his steady gaze.

"Nope. I only work with the best. When Steel's former teammate comes calling needing a favor, he gets what he needs, no questions asked. He's Tribe by default since they served together."

"I get that someone thinks I have something. But they could just steal it, like they tried to at my trailer and here. There'd be no need to protect me. So what's with the bodyguards?" she asked.

"Babe," he started, then stopped. "I need you not to panic."

She grunted. "When have I ever gone into panic mode?"

"This is a little different than a Big Bird molting." He exhaled. "Ka-Bar is either hiding well, or they have him, and he's not giving up information. They know you have this ‘package' or at least believe you know where it is."

"I'm in danger." It wasn't a question. "You think they're coming for me, either to use me as leverage to get Ka-Bar to talk or get the information out of me."

He refused to lie. "We think so." He brought his lips to hers, brushing them softly. "I won't let anyone hurt you, Kubrick."

"I know." She smiled gently at his serious face, caressing his cheek. Then she closed her eyes, her hand flopping back to her side on the bed. She sighed. "Fuckin' Ka-Bar. I am so going to kick his ass."

He grinned. "Get into trouble often, did he?"

The snort she gave this time was less than ladylike. "You could say that. But it sounds like this time it might be the royal fuckup of all fuckups. Especially if someone might be coming after me for something I have no fuck-all clue about."

Waters chuckled. "How many times can you use ‘fuck' in a sentence, woman?"

"Don't know. Never counted."

"Mmm." He kissed her again, then nuzzled her nose with his. "Such a lady."

"Fuck that noise," she teased. "I am many things, but I have never professed to being a lady."

His mouth traveled down to her jaw, then to the hollow of her throat, the tip of his tongue barely brushing there. "Fuckin' noise is correct. You're loud."

"I am not."

"Umm… why do you think I kiss you when you orgasm? I'd much rather watch you, but you're so freaking loud, I'm worried you'll wake up Coxen Hole from here."

She smacked his shoulder. "Bullshit."

"Babe. I watched Lazarus hand Dawg a pair of earplugs."

"Liar!"

"Who the hell do you think he got the earplugs from? I had a pair for everyone."

This time, she punched him. "You fuckwitch!"

Laughing hard, he rolled over her, slid his knee between her legs, and settled his body between them. Propping his upper half up with his elbows but making sure their hips lined up, he kissed down her chest, between her breasts, then slid further down the bed and raised up on his knees as he got to her belly button. Suddenly, his hands were under her ass, lifting them to rest on his thighs. "Yes or no, babe?"

"You've ruined me, you know."

"How so?" he asked, stroking his hands up and down the insides of her thighs.

"I was never really all that interested in sex. Now I'm a freaking horny mess."

He smiled lazily. "So, does that mean ‘yes'?"

"Yes. Always yes."

He leaned over to the nightstand beside the bed, opening the drawer to retrieve a condom. Making short work of putting it on, he quickly slid inside her channel and began a slow, steady rhythm. The angle he had allowed him to easily drag his cock across her G-spot, which caused deeper and deeper hitches of her breath with each pass. At the top of each stroke, he ground his hips just enough to stimulate her clit that caused little gasps of single-syllable words like "please" and "more."

Pulling himself completely upright to a kneeling position, he slid his arms around her body and pulled her up to rest against his chest, her ass directly on his thighs. "Take it, Kubrick."

Arms wrapped around his neck, she rose and fell on his lap, grinding every part of her body against him that she could. "Waters," she warned.

"Go, babe. I'm ready."

As soon as the word "go" was out of his mouth, she clamped her teeth tight to prevent herself from screaming. She locked tight, her walls squeezing his dick like a vice, head thrown back, the ends of her long hair barely touching his thighs. He groaned as she wrung him dry.

As the last of the shudders passed through her body and he'd stopped pulsing inside her, she sat up straight, her arms wrapped around him in a near stranglehold.

Nothing. Nothing better than this.

He buried his face in her neck, chest heaving both with the rampant heartbeat from his body's release and the realization that he couldn't let her go. He'd already claimed her inside his head, but now he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that though they might part ways in a few weeks, there wouldn't be anyone else for him. This had been inevitable.

Kubrick ran her hands over the close-cropped hair at the back of his head, placing her lips against his brow. "Waters. I'm in trouble."

"I know, Kubrick. So am I."

Both squeezed each other tight.

At just before 4 a.m., Waters"watch beeped. He tried to stretch, but he was tangled in Kai's limbs. Smiling, he kissed her temple. She muttered in her sleep and rolled over, allowing him to easily extract himself from her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he searched for his pants. Kai had basically ripped them off him when he'd cave-manned her into the bedroom after her snit, and now he couldn't find them. That brought on a bigger smile. His woman was pure fire. She burned him, leaving an indelible scar to go with the rest of those on his body. He'd known she would be trouble. But right now, it felt like the best kind of trouble.

Finally, he found them half under the bed. Slipping them on, along with a T-shirt, he padded out to the War Room and stood before the television. He tapped out a code on his watch, and a few moments later, the screen changed from black to Midas.

"Good morning, Bossman. How's my sassy girl?"

He shook his head. "She's fine. Asleep. But she'll be waking up soon, so get moving. I saw Demon's report. What do we know?"

"Steel is back up and running. Before he nearly got blown sky-high, he found Ka-Bar's trident. He was definitely there at some point."

"Any leads on where he went from there?"

"Still working on that. The trident was stuck through the corner of a piece of paper. Just a corner of it. Looked like some kind of advertisement, like what you'd find on a public notice board. I'm working on trying to match it up with others I can see on public cameras, but it's slow going. Steel is looking around on foot, trying to see if he can find something as well, but he's hampered a bit by the fact that it's clear someone knows we're poking around."

"Okay. Keep looking. Any word on Jacques' accident?"

Midas rolled his eyes. "Accident, my ass. No truck barrels through a major intersection in midafternoon without trying to hit the brakes unless the driver is in some sort of distress. I broke into the interrogation feed at the local police station. He claims his brakes failed, and the police wrote it off as a terrible tragedy and let the fucker go. Now he's in the wind, but Steel is on the lookout for him, too. Somebody had to pay the guy off."

"Other casualties?"

"A warehouse maintenance guy was caught in the blast. Jacques' car exploded on impact. The blast from that took out two other vehicles and their occupants. Some bystander injuries."

"What about Jacques' family?"

"Here's where it gets interesting, Boss. They're missing, too. Shortly before Jacques went into the safe, they were escorted out of the main residence and put into a car. That car was found about six miles out of Cairo on a deserted road. Looked like it caught on fire, but not like it had been run off the road. I'm thinking it was torched purposefully, and they caught another ride.

"Or they were taken," Midas grumbled. "No bodies or remains found, and nothing to suggest struggle, though, so the first assessment is probably accurate. And finding what ride they caught is pretty unlikely. There are no cameras out that way, as it's a relatively unused highway. No way to know if the car they switched to came from the same direction. I'm looking, but I've only got so many monitors I can watch at a time. Which route do you want me to take?"

Waters pulled at his bottom lip as he considered. "Follow the trident. While I hate the thought of that family being in the wind, it's doubtful that they know anything about Ka-Bar. We've got to stick with what we know. Keep facial recognition running and all other SOP for them, though."

"Copy that." Midas was already clacking at keys to pull up camera footage. "I've also got facial recognition working on all transportation cameras I can that exit off that highway, but it's a longshot."

"Understood."

"Also, both your tablet and Kubrick's laptop are dead ends. They flared to life briefly, then went deader than dead. I'm guessing someone destroyed them."

"Why take them if you're just going to destroy them?"

"No idea. Maybe they realized they could be tracked through them?"

"Doesn't make any sense," Waters pondered.

"So…" Midas started, clearing his throat. "You get everything worked out with the missus? No more pillow bombs?" He tried to keep from laughing but failed miserably. "She's got good aim."

"Erase that footage," Waters threatened.

"Too late. God was online at the same time. Priceless."

"I'm serious. Erase it."

"Fuck that. It's going on the BTS of the DVD from your original meeting with Kubrick."

"I'm warning you, if that doesn't get erased, I'll set TB on your ass, and I will look the other way when he whales on it."

Midas looked at Waters through the screen. "I was only teasing. No worries, Boss. It's already scrubbed."

"Thank you."

"Doesn't mean you're not going to continue to get shit about it."

"That's fine. I don't want to take the chance that she learns this room is under constant surveillance. Don't want her to be self-conscious."

"Got it. Beep you when I've got something." With that, Midas signed off, and the screen went back to black.

Waters sighed, putting both hands behind his neck and lacing the fingers together.

What a fucked-up mess.

His eyes went to the door of Kubrick's room, and he couldn't help but smile. A quick glance at his watch showed it was quarter after four. Just enough time to wake her up and enjoy the process.