16. Kai

SIXTEEN

Kai

Indigo Sauveterre's call woke me from a very sexy dream in which Zach was fucking me and telling me I was the prettiest boy he'd ever seen.

I loved that dream, and Indigo's five a.m. interruption was shit. I extricated myself from the warmth of Zach's arms and answered.

"Ten minutes, KD. Don't bring your fuck toy." Her tone was flat, but the call meant Kozlov's second knew about the fight in the bar and how her former pilot was probably off in a hospital somewhere and unable to fly one of the helo transports she ran for her boss. Of course, she knew—she had a hand in everything that happened on the dark fringes of Cedar Ridge.

That was the point of taking Viper out of the game.

I rolled up and out of bed, headed to the bathroom, didn't once look at Zach in case I gave in and climbed back into bed with him, then brushed my teeth and turned on the water in the shower, lost in thought.

Last night had been… intense, to say the least. And now, in the quiet aftermath, with Indigo's instruction to get myself out to the mines, I couldn't shake this nagging sense of unease. He'd held me, and fucked me, and made me feel…

… wanted.

I hated feeling scared, vulnerable. It was unfamiliar territory, a place I rarely allowed myself to venture. But last night… last night had been different. With Zach, everything felt different. He had this way of getting under my skin, of making me feel things I didn't want to feel.

What would I let it become? I'd tried to say that we should talk so I could work through the emotions swirling inside me, but he'd held me close and told me to sleep.

The pressure of the water dropped, the warmth of it cold for a second, and I rinsed off my hair, not wanting to steal all the water, then grabbed a towel and headed into the bedroom.

Zach wasn't there, and my heart fell.

Was him disappearing supposed to be a message about last night and what it hadn't mean to him?

My mind raced. He probably regretted what we'd done.

God, maybe I should regret it as well ?

Do I regret what happened?

I regretted nothing.

To me, what we'd done was just the next step in whatever fucked-up relationship we had, and it had started way back when he found me in front of that crumbling house with my crew and hostages behind me and held my hand.

Determined to convince him of my feelings on the matter, I hunted him down and found him in the kitchen. He whirled on me with surprising speed, his gaze piercing mine with an intensity that sent a chill down my spine. The fire in his green eyes burned bright, a silent display of something simmering beneath the surface. Was it anger? Or regret?

Why was I even grappling with things that had no place on this mission? Things that I thought I'd left behind. Like lust, and want, and a burning fiery need . His green eyes were half-closed, his red curls messy, and desire was still there, and all the denials turned into lust once more. Complicated dynamics between me and Zach be damned. I knew I needed to tread carefully, but he stared at me, and I could either go to my knees, fight him, or focus on the freaking mission because I couldn't afford to dwell on last night. It didn't seem like he wanted to do anything like talk or kiss in the cold light of day, and there were bigger things at stake, and I had a job to do.

"Morning," I began, my voice steady despite the tension crackling in the air between us. I waited for him to start talking, but when he did, it wasn't about what we'd done; it was more mundane things.

"Hey. I have coffee." He passed me a mug, and I stepped close enough to take it.

"Indigo called a meeting," I said.

He thumbed at the comm rig behind him. "I know."

"Right." Don't mention last night; don't focus on sex . "Look, Zach… about last night?—"

"It didn't happen. It shouldn't have happened," he said.

I stepped into his space. "It was always going to happen, and it was good, right? Better than good, and?—"

"Focus on the mission, Kai. Talking is for later."

I rolled my eyes, then moved away from him, swallowing cooling coffee. His jaw clenched, and I knew enough about my partner that one more word from me, and he would lose his shit right there and then. He was in classic closed-down-Zach mode, and even though we were supposed to be partners, last night had made the ground uneven, and it was impossible for me to find my footing.

"I want to do it again," I murmured.

"The sex was good," Zach said.

I took his hand and squeezed it. "It wasn't just sex."

He seemed confused, but the confusion cleared and then he nodded. "We'll talk when this is done. "

With a final nod, I turned away, striding to the front door, and leaving the rented house. The weight of Zach's stare followed me, but for now, I pushed the thoughts aside, focusing instead on the task at hand.

The job.

I braced myself as Indigo Sauveterre swept into the room, her presence commanding attention despite her petite frame. Her blonde hair had been scraped back into a tight ponytail, and scarlet lipstick slashed her pale features. Her sharp and piercing gaze bore into mine with a glare that could cut through steel. Second to Kozlov, she'd once been a lowly pilot for hire and worked her way up, working logistics and now ruling with an iron thumb. She wasn't Russian, more a mix of Czech-American, but somehow Kozlov had moved her up to be his second, and this was as close as I'd gotten to Kozlov.

Two imposing figures, her bodyguards, flanked her. One of them had witnessed last night's altercation with Zach. Bulldog was a hulking brute with a short fuse and a mean right hook, and he stared at me with open hatred. We'd never been friends, but I guess now I was out and had spoiled his fun I was on his shit list. The other guard was a stoic terminator-type figure with a steely focus who remained silent. Then there was Viper looming behind Indigo, his face swollen, his arm in a cast, and his scowl murderous.

"You," she snapped, and pointed her gun at my chest. "What the fuck happened with Viper?"

I stood straight, but with feigned nonchalance as I glanced beyond her at a scowling Viper. I winked at him, and he bristled, then winced, and I had to stop myself from laughing. "He threatened the guy I was with, got himself caught up in a fight." I turned my gaze back to her as her eyes narrowed.

"The environmental guy," she said in an even tone.

"Yep."

"Your… partner," she said this with a sneer, so I assumed she was not a rainbow ally.

At this point, I could explain he was a one-and-done thing, but seeing the malevolence in Viper, I held back on the quick fuck narrative. "Mine," I repeated what I'd announced in the bar. Viper joined in with the sneering, Bulldog shuffled his feet and wouldn't look at me, and Terminator's expression remained frozen in badass-for-hire mode.

"I've lost my best pilot, and you're up, but I swear…" She stepped forward, pressing the barrel of her gun to my chest. "One chance."

I held my ground, meeting her eyes with defiance. I knew better than to show fear or weakness in front of someone like Indigo Sauveterre. She was a force to be reckoned with, a mercenary for hire, but I had to show her I wasn't about to back down without a fight. In fact, I glanced at the others and calculated who I could take out before I died, hoping that I came over as mean enough.

But then, just as quickly as her anger had flared, it seemed to dissipate, replaced by a sense of resignation, and she lowered her weapon.

"You have the job," she relented, "I want you at the mines by nightfall. You know where. Tomorrow's delivery is up, then you're staying where I can see you, so you'd better say goodbye to your fuck boy."

"Yes, ma'am," I drawled.

Her eyes sparked with irritation. "Stow the polite southern shit, flyboy."

There was nothing more to Indigo Sauveterre than a stone-cold killer out for profit—there was no hint of humanity under her icy exterior. So it didn't surprise me when she turned on the heel of her leather boots and pointed her weapon at Viper.

I watched in grim fascination as Indigo's finger tightened on the trigger, her movements precise and calculated. There was no hesitation, no hint of remorse as she took aim. The shot rang out with a deafening roar, reverberating off the walls of the dingy warehouse, the bullet finding its mark with chilling accuracy.

Viper was dead before he hit the ground. Blood pooled beneath him, a crimson stain spreading across the cold concrete floor .

For a moment, there was silence, and Indigo remained calm and composed, her expression unreadable as she surveyed the scene before her.

"Deal with that," she ordered a wide-eyed Bulldog.

He hesitated only a moment and then resigned himself to dealing with disposing of someone he'd once called a friend—as much as you could have friends when any of the people working for Kozlov and Indigo could die in an instant. He lifted Viper, slung him over one shoulder in a firefighter carry, and trudged out to the cars.

Indigo turned to leave, Terminator in tow, another muscle-bound giant appearing from a side door to join them.

It was official.

I was in.

Now I had to focus on my new role, flying the helo that ferried goods from the mines to wherever the drop-off point was, and staying one step ahead of whatever dangers lay in wait.

Stay alive.

I headed back to Zach's place and knocked on the front door. I heard him descending the stairs, and when he opened the door, I grabbed him again, making a big show of kissing him, although our lips never met as we tumbled inside.

We separated as soon as the door shut, him to one wall in the hallway, me to the other. He deliberately wiped his face wherever my lips would have touched and scowled at me. I raised a hand to stop him from shouting at me.

"Cover," I explained.

He scowled some more. "I know that, asshole."

"I got the gig."

He tapped his earpiece. "I know that too." The implied idiot at the end of that was clear. God, I really wanted to punch him.

Or kiss him, but for real, like last night.

Or something.

"I'll head out in sixty to put the researcher alibi," he confirmed.

Zach had drawn the short straw—he was the one in the shadows, my backup. But then Mr. Super Hero SEAL couldn't fly the forty tons of helo plus cargo. He tossed me a box of ammo, which I caught on instinct.

"Keep your head down, and don't fuck up," he said.

"Are we going to talk about?—"

"Not on an active mission," he said, then turned his back on me and vanished into his main room.

I stayed in the hall as long as I thought it might take him to fuck me on the stairs. Not that I imagined him bending me over on the stairs and fucking me.

Or grabbing lube, kissing down his spine, me naked, him opening him up?—

"Haven't you gone yet?" he snarled, hoisting his huge backpack over a shoulder .

I tapped my belt. "You're just fucking me goodbye on the stairs, and I need sixty seconds to make it seem real."

"For god's sake, Kai." His eyes glittered with frustration.

I held up a hand. "My bad," I drawled and tapped my butt. "We know you wouldn't last much past forty-five once you're in this ass."

Then I slipped out of the house before I got an earful about the mission, rearranging my pants to show anyone who was looking what I'd done. Only brushing my hand over my hard dick was a step too far. Of course, I got hard—who wouldn't get hard as iron imagining Zach fucking me on the stairs?

It was nothing to do with last night.

Bulldog pulled the jeep to a halt outside the house when he saw me and waited as I sauntered over.

"You take it up the ass?" he asked with a nasty snarl.

"Don't knock it until you try it," I deadpanned.

He wrinkled his nose. "Fuck no."

"Where's Viper's body?" I changed the subject.

Bulldog growled. He thumbed behind us, and I glanced back to see the body shape in plastic sprawled on the back seat, in full display. Not that we'd be pulled over in a town where not even the cops intervened in Kozlov's business.

"You realize plastic is bad for the environment, right?"

He didn't answer. At least there was still a chance I'd be able to locate the disposal site for Kozlov and his merry band of murderers and thieves. Score one for Shadow Team.

We reached the mines by early afternoon, and for all the journey, Bulldog was silent and edgy. I hadn't been out to the site of Kozlov's industry before. Most of what Swim Central had done in the way of intel had been from covert surveillance. So I kinda knew what to expect from pictures, but there wasn't much of anything topside—most of what happened was underground in the old mines. I counted ten armed guards, and other silent figures scurried about with purpose.

But then we rounded a corner and I saw her.

Fuck, she was beautiful.

In the center of an open space there was the very familiar shape of a Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion, a heavy-lift cargo helicopter, the workhorses of the 427 fleet, reliable and rugged, capable of carrying heavy loads into the most hostile of environments. I grinned. My baby was a behemoth of a machine, dwarfing everything around it with its sleek but imposing size against the backdrop of the forest. However I got here, I felt a familiar wash of pride and a sense of reverence at seeing it.

I was a 427 flyboy to the core.

"This way," Bulldog ordered, pulling my thoughts away from getting up in the skies again, and I didn't argue as he adjusted the weight of Viper and strode through a gate. I followed him and stopped at a drain cover. "Open it," he said.

"Fuck off," I said.

"I'm carrying the fucking body," he snapped.

"Like I care," I muttered, but opened the cover, and then, after a pause, Bulldog tipped Viper over the edge, and I didn't hear a thump or a splash. He crowded me, pushing me close to the dark void.

"You're next," he warned.

I shoved him away, not as hard as I could, because his lips curled, and he showed his teeth. People underestimated me at five-ten, but I had moves they'd never even thought of; still, there was no point showing my hand yet.

"You can try," I said, resting my hand on my weapon.

He glared, shook his head, and then strode away. I dropped the cover, thinking about how many other bodies would be down there, and then followed Bulldog. Maybe Kozlov was here on site? Maybe not. But I knew Indigo was here, plus her two bodyguards and Bulldog. That was four I knew—the rest would come.

As I stepped forward, the sounds of the forest enveloped me.

Time to work.