Shatter (36 page)

His hands slid down her back and over her ass. The way he held her, moved her to his thrusts, knew just how to bring her to climax was true ecstasy. And as she neared the edge, Mitch laid her back, tilted her hips with his hands, and let go of his own passion. Each long, deep stroke pushed her closer and closer and . . . then it was there, pleasure breaking over her, spilling through her body until her muscles clenched and her nailed scored his skin.

And he waited until the last of the orgasm trembled through her before letting go, his body driving hard, muscles clenching, every beautiful hill and valley taut and damp. Extreme pleasure washed over his handsome face, and Halina had never seen anything so beautiful. Had never been so satisfied. Had never loved so much . . . or been so loved.

 

H
alina startled from sleep. Once her eyes focused, she realized Mitch had jerked straight up in bed, his fingers clasped tight around her wrist and still holding her hand against his chest as he had in sleep. His heart beat hard and fast against her palm.

The distant sound of shattering glass ripped a path down her chest.

Dex, who’d been curled at their feet, jumped upright and growled.

Mitch released her hand and reached for his pants, sliding them on in an instant, then his shirt.

“What was that?” Halina whispered, hating the rigid fear in her voice. She pushed the covers aside and slid out of the bed beside Mitch, pulling clothes from the floor.

“Baby, stay here with Dex. Let me see what’s going on first.”

Silently, the door to their bedroom opened and someone stood silhouetted in darkness. Terror stabbed Halina’s heart, bitter and ice cold. She fell back a step. Dex moved forward, barking and snarling.

“Dude . . .” Kai whispered.

“Tikhiy,”
Halina said. Dex quieted.

“Something came through the front window.” Kai’s serious whisper both relieved and alarmed her. She released a breath and tried to slow her heart with a hand to her chest. From down the hall, rustles and whispers drifted in. “Keira and Luke are headed there now. Teague’s taking Alyssa, Jessica, and the kids to the basement. Cash is covering the back of the house.”

“Where’s Dillon? Nelson? The others?” Mitch finished dressing and helped Halina pull on her jacket.

“Not responding to radio calls.”

Halina’s stomach plummeted. Walls closed in.

Mitch reached for his phone.

“Don’t bother,” Kai rasped. “There’s some kind of signal blocker in the area. Nothing works—cell, television, radio, Internet—it’s all out.”

Mitch almost didn’t have the word finished before a booming voice slammed into the house from somewhere in the surrounding hills. “This is Major Bruce Abernathy, United States Army.”

Halina jumped. Mitch pulled her to his side but even his warmth couldn’t keep the blood from freezing in her veins. The kind of terror she thought she’d put behind her long, long ago gripped her by surprise, a steel band around her heart, growing tighter and tighter. Halina tightened her hand on Mitch’s bicep, her fingers digging in.

“We have your location surrounded,” Abernathy’s deep voice bellowed through the horn. “We are here to apprehend Halina Beloi for crimes of treason. Send Miss Beloi out, and the rest of you are free to go. Let me warn you now that we will not accept Beloi’s research only. We will not be leaving without Halina Beloi in person, and there will be no negotiation.”

A sound caught in her throat. Dex whined.

This was it.
This was what had been hanging over her head like a piano on a fraying rope for seven years. All the hopes she’d had just hours ago fell to the bottom of her stomach like lead. She turned her face against Mitch’s shoulder and took one more long breath of him.

But he gripped her hand and jerked her into a jog, pushing past Kai and trotting down the steps. Dex’s nails clicked behind them. At the landing two silhouettes—Luke and Keira—pulled equipment from a closet. Luke swung two pieces of body armor toward Mitch and he caught it as he took the last stair. Without a sound, he secured Halina’s first, then his own. Then took the weapons Keira handed him.

“Halina,” Keira whispered, “what do you shoot?”

She didn’t answer, but turned to Mitch, searching for his eyes in the dark and catching sight of his cold green gaze in the ambient light. “What are you doing? You can’t risk everyone just for—”

“She can shoot anything,” Mitch told Keira over Halina, then met her eyes again and lowered his face to hers. “Don’t you
dare
expect me to give you up again. No way in fucking hell is anyone getting you away from me.”

“If anyone other than Halina Beloi”—the voice sliced through Mitch’s last passionate statement as if to make a point—“attempts to leave the house, they will be shot.”

Two consecutive rounds of automatic gunfire splintered the thick wooden front door and lodged in the entry hall’s sheetrock with a
thwffftpt.
An explosion of gypsum powder hit their faces. Dex barked again. Halina’s lungs erupted in uncontrollable spasms. Mitch pulled her to the floor and held her against his chest until she’d hacked the junk from her lungs. When she found her bearings, Luke, Keira, and Kai were already crouched near the windows, peering over sills and around edges into the night through scopes.

A shadow moved on her left. She twisted from Mitch’s grasp, hands up, ready to strike.

“It’s Quaid.” He dropped into a crouch beside them. “Is anyone hurt?”

Before Mitch responded, Abernathy’s controlled voice echoed in the night again. “Be forewarned, every exit has been wired with explosive. Any attempt to escape will blow the entire building.”

A series of shocked, quiet curses came from what sounded like every member of the group. Kai shifted, shined a penlight out the corner of a window, and panned it around the edge. Then sprinted past the front door in a crouch and into the dining room, repeating the scan with his flashlight.

“Sonofabitch,” he murmured, then called down the hall. “Cash?”

“Here too,” Cash responded in a rough whisper. “Every door. Every window.”

“What did he use?” Quaid asked.

“C4. Remote switch.”

Mitch turned to Quaid. “Teleport outside and defuse them.”

“Can’t.” He was serious, but calm, as if he was completely at home in this chaotic stress. “The signal blocker he’s using has totally screwed up the electromagnetic signals. I’m as stuck as all of you.”

“Jessica?” Mitch asked.

“She’s in the basement with the kids. I just came from asking her. She can’t teleport either.”

At Halina’s back, Mitch’s breathing grew faster, raspier, his body a wall of fire and growing sticky with sweat. This was his family. These were the people he loved above everything else in the world. And it was clear he would be forced to choose between them and her.

Halina pushed to her feet. Before she could open her mouth, Mitch’s grip tightened on her arm. “No, Halina.” His voice shook, but his eyes remained fierce in the dim light. “I mean it.”

“Vents.” Cash’s voice made Halina startle and turn. “Ducts. Fireplace. Attic.”

Kai took charge. “Cash, you’re on vents. Mitch, ducts. Quaid, attic. I’ll look at the flues. That fucker’s not keeping us—”

“You have sixty seconds to send Beloi out,” Abernathy’s voice cut in again. “Then one explosive will be detonated every ten seconds.”

Halina’s breath siphoned into her lungs. Her heart thumped in her throat.

“Change of plans,” Mitch said, his grip still tight on Halina’s arm as if he were afraid she’d disappear if he let go. “Keira.” When she turned, Mitch tossed his phone to her. “Work that photo of Abernathy and find a weakness. Kai, go sit in a corner and get into the fucker’s body. Luke, don’t move. And if you see him, shoot his damn head off. Cash, Quaid—find a fucking way out of this place.”

“Fifty seconds,”
Abernathy called.

So many thoughts and emotions congealed inside Halina at once, it was as if her brain detonated cells in slow motion. The realization of all she would lose when she left this circle of safety. The knowledge of where she was headed when Abernathy took her away. The certainty of her ultimate reality waiting.

Inside, she steeled herself, shedding emotion like dead skin. The transition took her back to Russia and the days she had to face punishment from her uncle.

“Halina.”
Mitch took her by the arms and shook her. “Baby, you have to keep your head together.” His voice broke and the anguish that flooded into it would have dropped her to her knees if she’d still been feeling.

“Thirty seconds,”
Abernathy called.

“Jesus fucking Christ, you damn
super people,
” Mitch yelled, but pulled Halina into his arms and held her so tight it hurt, his mouth against her hair. “Do something with your sorry powers for a change.”

Halina pulled back and pressed her hands to Mitch’s face. So much pain washed his features, her body throbbed inside the steel shell she’d taken on. “Shh, it’s going to be all right. You’re going to be okay.”

“No. You can’t go,” he rasped through what sounded like tears. And in the reflection of the ambient light, wetness glistened on his thick black lashes.

Halina choked with so much love for him. “I can’t stay,” she whispered. “You know I can’t stay. Think of Alyssa, Kat, Brady . . . Mitch, let me go.”

A thin veil of ferocity glazed over the anguish in his eyes. The shadow of his jaw jumped as he clenched his teeth. “He won’t take you from me again.” His voice sounded like a feral growl. “Keira, Kai,
someone,
give me
something, goddammit
.”

Mitch’s gaze jerked toward the door.

“Baby—” Halina started, but Mitch put his hand on the back of her head and pressed her face to his chest.

“No. No.
No!
” He screamed the last, the sound filled with so much pain, Halina winced. Her shell was cracking. “I won’t do it.”

“Time’s up,” Abernathy called, his voice carrying a new edge. “Send her out
now
.”

Someone put a hand on Mitch’s shoulder and pulled.

“Mitch,” Quaid said gently while Luke pried one of Mitch’s arms from around Halina’s back. “We’ll get her back, but we’ve got to send her out now.”

Halina went cold. She forced her mind black. Told herself this was inevitable. That he would find happiness. He would recover. But when she slipped out from beneath his arm, he broke free of the others and lunged for her.

His arm closed around her, his face pressed to the side of her head with a wrenched, “I love—”

An explosion from somewhere at the back of the house rocked the ground and tossed everyone to the floor. Smoke filled the space. Voices. Shouts. Halina looked up and found the roof spinning. Spotted the front door and crawled in that direction. She used the handle to pull herself up and managed to force the locks open.

Outside, Abernathy’s voice counted down to the next blast. “Eight, seven . . .”

She swung the door wide and lost her balance. Dex appeared at her side, ready to brave the night with her.

“Ya lyublyu tebya.”
She leaned down for a quick hug and kiss. “Love you, sweet boy.
Ostat’ sya
.” She ordered him to stay.

“Five, four . . .”

Crisp, fresh air wafted over her. Her head swam.

Mitch’s plea gave her the strength to push herself out the door and into the night.

 

Slipping on debris, choking on smoke, Mitch gathered his feet beneath him and pushed off the floor with his hands. He grabbed anything to balance and slumped his shoulder against the nearest wall.

Halina was already twenty feet beyond the house. Panic churned in his stomach and made him want to puke. He pushed off the wall, lunged for the door. But came up short. Quaid caught him by the shoulders and jerked him aside just as a bullet slammed through the foyer.

“Anyone who exits the house,” Abernathy reminded with a bellow, “will
die
.”

Breathing hard, vision spinning, Mitch peered around the edge of the open door frame where icy night air whipped into the house. He couldn’t pick out Halina on the horizon and his chest constricted even further.

“Where . . . ?” He pushed to his feet, his voice rising with terror. “Was she hit?”

No. He wouldn’t shoot her. That doesn’t make sense.
Like any of this made sense? He couldn’t think straight.

Quaid’s hand remained on Mitch’s shoulder, clearly as much for restraint as support. “She’s crouched near the ground. You just can’t pick her out from the—”

A floodlight clicked on and drenched Halina in a circle of white light. Crouching just as Quaid described, she turned her head away from the beam and lifted her arm in front of her face. Seeing her out there, completely exposed and helpless, made every muscle in Mitch’s body sing with tension. Made his stomach swim with nausea. He’d never felt more utterly helpless. So completely vulnerable.

“Walk toward the light, Beloi,” Abernathy bellowed. “The faster you move, the safer the others will be.”

His implied meaning straightened Mitch’s spine and cleared his head with the crispness of the night air. “He’s going to blow this place as soon as he has her.”

Mitch turned to Quaid. “We have to get everyone out.” Then he turned to the others scattered throughout the front rooms of the house with weapons. “Out. Everyone out.”

“Where?” Luke said. “We don’t know how many guys he’s got—”

“Just two.” This came from Keira in that distant, dark tone she used when she’d been reading photographs. “He’s only got himself and . . . Owen. Owen is the shooter.”

The implications of that statement made Mitch fall back a step. His brain churned, picking at his interactions with Owen, but couldn’t find anything that pegged the man clearly as friend or enemy.

But something else Owen said came back to Mitch.
“I have just a little bit of pretty metal on my chest.”

With Owen’s skill, they would all be dead if he’d wanted them dead. “Luke. He knows you’re bulletproof?”