Her Baby's Bodyguard (14 page)

“I can see why your home with the army means so much to you.”

“Like I said, it’s what I do.”

“You also said you drifted around before you enlisted?”

“From foster homes to juvenile detention centers.” His teeth gleamed as he gave her a smile. “I used to steal cars then, too.”

“But you turned your life around.”

“That was thanks to my probation officer. He got fed up when I turned eighteen and introduced me to an army recruiter. End of story.”

She didn’t think so. As before when he’d spoken of himself, Jack had given her the bare minimum of information, but there had been a wealth of hurt in those terse sentences. Despite his ready humor and his easygoing manner, she could see there was much more to him than he wanted people to think. She remembered what she’d thought the first time she’d gotten a good look at his face. He’d seemed like a rebellious boy behind the mask of a man. She realized that she’d been right, but she hadn’t guessed the reason.

He’d grown up without a father, just as she’d grown up without a mother. Had he felt the emptiness, too? She’d tried to fill hers by excelling at school. That was the only way she’d earned her father’s attention. Had Jack tried to fill the void with recklessness and rebellion? It fit. It explained why he felt he needed to deny any tenderness inside him. She’d done the same thing, until Katya had come along. She wished she could know him better. If only they had more time…

What was she thinking? Their association would end when he got her to safety. As far as she was concerned, that couldn’t happen soon enough.

A shadow blocked the starlight in the doorway. Jack grabbed his rifle and pushed himself to his feet just as Matheson spoke from the threshold. “Heads up, Jack. We’ve got incoming.”

Jack went to look outside. “Is it the chopper?”

“One of them is. There’s something approaching from the road, too.”

Eva held her breath. For a moment she could hear nothing but the pounding of the pulse in her ears. Gradually she became aware of a distant throb, like the beat of a helicopter. Clutching Katya to her shoulder, she rose from the pallet and moved to the doorway in order to peer past Jack.

The sky was still empty. There was no sign of any of the other men on the moonlit hillside, but a pinpoint of light shone near the road she and Jack had followed to get here. “Oh, my God,” she breathed, staring as the light resolved into twin beams. “It can’t be Burian’s men, can it?”

“Junior?” Jack asked.

“Duncan hasn’t heard any word about pursuit.”

“That didn’t mean much before. Looks like they did get a message off about Eva not being on the truck. Where did Kurt leave it?”

“On the far side of where those lights are.”

“Damn. Could they have followed you?”

“No. If it’s someone from the complex, then they figured it out on their own.”

“I can see how. Once they knew you were a decoy, they’d start looking in the opposite direction. Since we decided this would make a good rendezvous point, they could have, too.”

“The guys are already digging in. We’ll make our stand here.”

Eva looked from one man to the other. “Stand?” she repeated. “No, we have to leave. We can take the car. We can’t stay here and wait for them to find us!”

“It’s okay, Eva.” Jack slipped his arm behind her shoulders. “This is a defensible position, and the walls of this tower are thick enough to stop anything short of a mortar. With evac so close, we’re better off staying put.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Matheson said, turning away. “I’ve got a few tricks that will slow down any party crashers.”

She craned her neck to watch him go, but he soon disappeared against the hillside. She studied the lights on the road. Were they getting nearer?

“It might not be Burian’s men,” Jack said.

“Who else would it be?”

“It might be nothing but a guy who got lost coming home from market day or a pair of teenagers looking for a place to make out.” He drew her away from the doorway. “But just in case it isn’t, you’d better give me the baby. I’ll carry her.”

“I can do it. My wound’s healing well. You saw that for yourself.”

He stroked a lock of hair from her cheek. “Believe me, I haven’t forgotten what I saw.” He pressed the pad of his thumb to her lower lip. “Or tasted.”

It was more than a tingle that she felt this time. It was a sexual jolt that traveled to every nerve in her body.

Was she insane? How could she feel anything at all beyond fear? “Jack…”

“Sorry,” he muttered, dropping his hand. He returned to the pallet and spread the carrier on the blanket.

She took a few bracing lungfuls of fresh air before she followed him.

“Your wound isn’t the only reason I should carry Katya,” Jack said. “I’m stronger than you. When we go, we’ll want to move fast, and her weight won’t slow me down.”

He was right. His physical strength and stamina were far greater than Eva’s. He would be able to protect her daughter better than she could. As much as she longed to keep Katya right where she was for her own comfort, she knelt beside Jack to slide the baby into the pouch on the carrier. Together they managed to get the straps tied around him, despite the trembling in her hands.

Her emotions really were a mess. It was bad enough that she couldn’t control her physical reaction to Jack. The warmth that coursed through her as she watched him cup his palm over Katya’s back and rise to his feet had nothing to do with sex. It came from her heart.

A day ago she wouldn’t have trusted him with the disk. Why, then, was she willing to trust him with the most precious piece of her world?

Jack drew on his coat over Katya and then clasped Eva’s hand and guided her to stand beside him with her back to the wall. The thrum of the helicopter’s engine was unmistakable now. She could feel the vibrations travel from the stone floor through the soles of her boots. It had to be close. Maybe it would reach them before—

Any hope of getting away cleanly was shattered in the next instant. Gunfire erupted from the hillside.

Eva cringed and moved closer to Jack. Beyond his shoulder she saw light glare from the sky. It was a spotlight from the helicopter, she realized. It moved across the slope, sweeping over rocks and white swaths of snow until it steadied on a distinctive blue vehicle. One of the complex’s SUVs was partway up the hill. Its doors were open.

Burian’s men were here. Outside. She could see dark shapes moving in the spotlight. “Jack!” she cried.

The aircraft was directly overhead now. He had to shout to be heard over the din of its engine. “Our ride’s here. We move as soon as it lands.”

It sounded to her as if Burian had brought an army. The rattle of gunfire was unrelenting. “We’ll be shot!”

“The guys will keep them busy. We’ll be fine.” He squeezed her hand and released her. “Keep your head down and stay with me. Ready?”

Her heart felt as if it were going to beat out of her body. It was worse than the other times they’d been under fire, far worse, because the end was so close. “Ready!”

Rock, dirt and snow exploded from the hillside. Another explosion turned the SUV into a fireball. The flames reflected from the windshield of the helicopter as its landing skids touched the ground.

Jack propelled her from the doorway. “Now!”

Eva ran. Within three strides, the other commandos appeared from the darkness beyond the spotlight to provide a moving escort for her and Jack. While Matheson lobbed one grenade after another at Burian’s troops, the rest of the men laid down a barrage of covering fire. Though Eva expected to feel the agony of another bullet striking her flesh at any second, before the fear could take hold, the helicopter was in front of her and hands were lifting her through the open door in the fuselage.

The rest was a blur. Except the sound of Katya’s sleepy wails. And the warmth of Jack’s embrace. Eva pressed her face to his shoulder and, with her daughter, shared the shelter of his arms.

Chapter 8

D
awn was already lightening the sky when Eva felt a gentle nudge against her leg. She turned her head and saw that Jack was smiling at her. For a moment she thought she must be dreaming. The night had been endless. There had been little to smile about. But then he pressed his leg against hers again and put his mouth next to her ear so that she could hear him over the noise of the helicopter’s engine. When his breath warmed her skin, she knew she must be awake. “Look there,” he said, extending his arm past her.

She followed the direction he was pointing. She and the team were sitting on metal benches that ran lengthwise along the helicopter’s fuselage. Through the narrow opening to the cockpit, she could see only water and sky past the windshield. They had stopped briefly to refuel on a navy frigate in the Black Sea several hours ago, so she guessed they were now over the Mediterranean. Was that what he had wanted to show her? She glanced back at Jack. “What?” she mouthed.

He pointed again, this time lowering his head to align his cheek with hers to help her see what he did.

She tried once more, squinting past the silhouettes of the pilots. This time she saw a dark, gray shape on the water that looked like a small island. It was long and oddly flat, except for a squared off area in the center….

It wasn’t an island. It was a ship. The sheer size of it had misled her. This must be the aircraft carrier Jack had told her they were heading for. Though it was at the limit of the helicopter’s flight range, it looked as if they were really going to make it.

He put his lips to her ear again. “Almost there, Eva.”

Yes, the nightmare was nearly over. Safety was within sight, within reach. She wanted to smile and shout with triumph, but all she could manage was a brisk nod.

She looked at the men who sat across from her. Lang was slumped on the bench, his eyes closed and his chin on his chest. Gonzales’ eyes were closed, too, only he slept with his head tipped back against the fuselage and his mouth open. Matheson was rubbing a cloth over the stock of his rifle, but his movements were slow enough that he could have been doing it in his sleep. She turned her head to look past Jack and saw that Colbert appeared to be dozing, too.

They’d all more than earned a rest. Though she’d been too panicked to absorb many of the details about their escape from that hilltop, she remembered enough to appreciate how well the team had worked together. Truly like brothers.

And like a real family, there was a family resemblance. Jack appeared as exhausted as the other men. His hair was standing up in furrowed tufts. The skin beneath his eyes was bruised with fatigue. Days worth of beard stubble darkened his jaw. As she watched him, his head tipped forward. He wasn’t falling asleep, though. He was checking on Katya.

The baby was stirring in her carrier. She waved her bare fist in the air near Jack’s chin. Her mittens had come off again sometime during the night, and he had been trying, in his own endearingly awkward way, to keep her hands tucked inside his coat.

Mere hours ago he’d been shielding her from stray bullets. Now he was just as determined to protect her from the cold.

Eva could feel the burn of tears in her eyes. She understood she was tired and overly emotional—and in no condition to regard Jack rationally. She really hadn’t known him that long. Gratitude and relief were clouding her judgment. These were exceptional circumstances, and yet…

And yet she couldn’t think of ever seeing a man look more attractive to her than Jack did at this moment. It wasn’t simply due to his handsome features. It was the kindness beneath them. There was a fascinating contrast between his physical strength and his capacity for tenderness. Then there was his determination to fulfill his duty, his loyalty to his teammates and his sense of honor. He was a man who took his commitments seriously. Yet he’d said he planned to stay single. That was a shame, because he was the kind of man any woman could easily fall in love with.

He took Katya’s hand and guided it beneath the edge of his coat. She pulled free and grasped his index finger. He looked surprised at first. Then he wiggled his finger within Katya’s grip, his mouth quirking in a lopsided smile.

Oh, yes. Any woman could far too easily fall in love with Jack Norton.

The tears simply overflowed. There was nothing Eva could do about them. Too many days of fear, too many hours of running on hope and adrenaline, had left her raw. She and her daughter were on the verge of starting their new life. Jack would return to the work he loved. They were each getting what they wanted, so she had no reason to be sad.

Jack looked up and saw Eva’s face. He touched his free hand to a tear on her cheek, his smile fading. “What’s wrong?

“Nothing. I always cry when I’m happy.”

“So, the operation went according to plan, Sergeant Lang?”

“Yes, sir. Except for the weather delay, everything went smoothly.”

Apart from a slight lift of one eyebrow, Major Mitchell Redinger showed no reaction. As the commanding officer of Eagle Squadron, he was accustomed to his men’s fondness for understatement. The details would come later during the debriefing, when they had more time and privacy. For now, like a father who had been waiting up all night for his wayward teenagers to return, he was seeing for himself that they had come through unscathed. He nodded his chin toward the helicopter that sat on the hangar deck behind them. The maintenance crew was already busy swarming around it, checking for damage. “And what about the bullet holes I noticed in the belly of that Seahawk?”

“Ryazan’s men tried to persuade us not to leave, sir,” Tyler offered.

“Are you certain they weren’t Russian troops?”

“They weren’t, sir,” Colbert said. “Dr. Petrova identified them as guards from the complex. I later picked up some communications that confirmed it.”

“It’s odd that Ryazan didn’t ask his government for help,” Redinger said, “but that does leave things tidier for the diplomats. What about the extra passenger, Sergeant Norton? Any problems working the baby into the plan?”

Jack heard someone cough, but he kept his attention on the major’s face. “Not at all, Major Redinger. Although, in the future…”