Текст книги "Blowback"

Автор книги: Emmy Curtis

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 12 страниц)

CHAPTER TWELVE

This was exactly what he’d been worried about earlier. There were a million evade and escape routes in the city, and only one in the hotel. The fucking stairs.

He was slightly concerned that Molly wasn’t really reacting to anything after her crying jag. He figured she was due for that, but now she just seemed resigned. At least she was functioning. That was all he needed right now.

He opened the door to the stairwell and peered down. It was clear. “Follow tight,” he said. They made it down one floor when the lower door burst open. Two tactical cops came through with their weapons up. Weird for European city cops. But he wasn’t waiting to find out what their rules of engagement were. He shoved his bags at Molly, who took them with zero reaction. The stairwell was wide enough that they didn’t see him until they rounded a corner.

He suspended himself using the two stairway railings and planted both feet in the chest of the first cop. He propelled himself forward so fast the cop fell back on his partner. They both tumbled down the steps. A gunshot from one of the men blasted into the concrete wall. Shit. Now the other cops would know where they were. His heart rate barely elevated as his SERE training kicked in. Survival, Escape, Resist, and Evade. Right now he was only there for the escaping. “You okay?” he asked Molly, without taking his eyes off the stunned cops.

“Sure,” she replied, almost breezily.

“Stay right at my back and be prepared to run, okay?” He leapt over the still-prone guys on the floor, and turned to hold out a hand. She ignored it, mainly, he guessed, because she was carrying all the bags now. Couldn’t be a gentleman right now because he definitely needed his hands free.

He contemplated for a second taking a gun from the cop, but given that any crimes involving guns in Europe carried huge sentences, he opted not to.

He peeked through the small round window in the door and saw nothing. He was about to open it when a door burst open a few floors above them. Losers. They took the elevator up. He grabbed Molly by the waist and propelled her through the door. “The kitchen,” he said, indicating with a nod. “Go.”

They ran together until she dropped back for him to check the kitchen. It was empty except for a guy chopping onions. He looked as if he was about to say something, so David held up his hand and smiled. The well-trained hotel worker smiled back.

They ran for the rear exit. It was clear. He took the bags back and grinned. “Smile sweetheart,” he said. If you were looking for a fugitive, your eyes automatically drifted to anyone who looked out of place: shifty, nervous, anxious to be away. So, true to his training, they ambled out of the small passageway and blended immediately with the evening throngs of people commuting home or looking for somewhere to eat.

Dusk had fallen, so it was much easier to merge with the crowd and act like tourists. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw more cops scanning the crowd, so he widened his smile and tried to shrink an inch or two. He was tempted to get her to put on the shawl, and to put on his own baseball cap, but there was no point unless he was sure they’d been identified. May as well save the makeshift disguise until they needed it.

“Where are we going?” Molly asked, as they walked slowly among their fellow pedestrians.

“For the time being, along any street that has the most tourists. Then we have to think about hunkering down for the night. Somewhere no one will find us, and I’m not sure another hotel is an option.” He had to call someone. Once they were safe and hidden.

“I know the ideal place. A place I worked at a few years back,” she said with an unexpected touch of enthusiasm in her voice. “It’s slightly illegal, but I doubt we’ll get caught. Now the more I think about it, that seems right up your alley.” She was smiling. What a freaking incredible woman. They were basically being hunted by Russian and Greek officials, and she was making a joke.

“Not so much anymore, sweetheart, but bending rules I’m okay with.” He cast a thought at Mal, who would have virtually got a hard-on at the thought of being able to do something totally illegal. “I’m in your hands. Lead the way.” He wondered what she had in mind, but didn’t see the benefit of questioning her about it when there were hundreds of people around.

She led him through the streets of Monastiraki, gradually away from the crowd, past Hadrian’s library, and up into what looked like a residential neighborhood. The streets were so small and windy that they would be able to spot someone coming easily. The occasional dog barked as they walked past its home, constantly moving upward, leaving the humidity of the streets below, feeling the lightest breeze as the air got a little cooler.

Finally a street gave way to a dirt path, with a fence on one side and a bare hill on the other.

“We are on the trail to the Parthenon. The other side of the fence is the agora. The marketplace of ancient Athens. It’s all mostly ruins now. But if you can get me over the fence, I can take you to our room for the night,” she whispered.

That he could do. “Stay here, let me do a little recon.” He went searching for the lowest, or least well-maintained part of the fence. Really it wasn’t a great security feature, more a vague discouragement of entering after hours, he suspected, when he found a brick post that was pretty easy to climb over.

He easily boosted her up, so she could jump down on the other side, and then followed by using the post as a fulcrum to swing his legs over the fence. Easy.

“This way. Be careful of the tortoises, there are a lot of them here.” She took his hand and led him into the darkness. Through undergrowth, across stone floors and small wooden bridges, until he saw the very top of a huge temple lit with floodlights looming ahead of them.

Really?

She ran up some shallow steps to the base of the temple. It was in much better shape than the other temples he’d seen in Athens. “It’s the temple of Hephaestus,” she breathed, sounding as if she was in awe. “Take your shoes off.”

He complied, watching her slip off her own sneakers. She almost danced up the broad stone steps of the temple and disappeared inside.

Molly couldn’t believe she was breaking the rules like this. It’s true, she had a pass—probably somewhere in the suitcase she’d left at the hotel—that allowed her into the archaeological sites, where tourists couldn’t go. Now with the authorities on her tail, she wasn’t entirely sure her pass would make much difference anymore.

This was the perfect place for them to stay, though. It was in a gated compound, and she was pretty sure no one would think to look for them there. The lights at the base of the temple that lit its roof for the tourists to see at a distance, let just enough light in to illuminate the interior, just enough that they could see what they were doing.

There was nothing inside, just a sandy floor and a few blocks of stone. “I think we should be safe here,” she said, sitting on the ground, leaning up against one of the inner walls and opening the bag she’d been carrying with the kebabs he’d bought earlier. “I’m starving.”

David walked around the room, looking out. Although probably in the daylight you could see through the temple, at night you couldn’t. As long as they slept toward the sides, they would never be seen. “I would never have thought to come here,” he said, sitting next to her.

“Let’s hope no one else does either.” She handed him his food, and silence fell as they ate. As the kebabs hit her stomach she felt calmer and more settled. She took a breath. And another. They were safe here. And she felt at home here. The last time she’d been inside this temple was when she was at college. But it felt familiar, and familiar was good when everything else that was happening to her was so alien.

They finished their meal in complete silence, except for the ever-present noise of the Athenian traffic. Once the last morsels had been consumed, she asked the question that had been bothering her since their car blew up.

“Are you going to get in trouble for being with me?” she asked. “I mean, with the car bomb and the killing of Dr. Doubrov?”

He paused before answering. “Honestly I don’t know. My boss ordered me back to the airport, but that was before they locked down Athens. So right now, my future at the company could go either way. I’m not worried about it though.”

She thought that might be a lie, judging by his strained voice. This was the last thing she wanted to happen. He’d just gotten his world back together, and she was the one responsible for knocking it out of whack again. She wondered how she could fix it for him. Given that he was already inextricably linked to her—after all it was his car that was blown up—she wasn’t sure how best to do it.

She stood to gather their detritus and crept outside to deposit the plastic bag in one of the trash cans in the agora. She considered leaving. Walking away, finding the police. She hesitated, looking toward the entranceway, which always had night guards. Then she looked back at the temple to see David standing, watching her, leaning against one of the pillars. “Don’t.” His voice floated to her on the light breeze.

At the thought of him watching her, her nipples tightened, shooting a small flame of need through her. Her libido was driving her nuts. She never knew she could be so turned on all the time. It was his fault. She looked up at him, and he held out his hand to her in the dark.

She slowly took the steps again, and as she approached him, she took his hand. He bent her arm so that it rested against his chest. “Don’t even think about it,” he said.

He backed up to allow her back into the temple. She didn’t want to lie, or make a promise she wasn’t entirely sure she could keep. She was about to change the subject when a light beam hit her. She tried to step out of it, but he stopped her.

“I can see through your dress,” he sounded amused. “Your nipples are poking through the material, they’re making me want to put my mouth on them. Maybe bite them until you’re just this side of the pleasure-pain line. Come here. I want to taste you.”

She was hypnotized by his voice. And really excited. All she had on was the sundress and a tiny wisp of material for panties. That fact alone excited her. She moved toward him, as if pulled by an invisible length of string.

Very deliberately he undid the top button of the sundress, showing the very tops of her breasts. Then the next button. And the next. The top of the dress came apart easily, showing her to him. He reached for her, but stopped himself. She almost whimpered.

“I want to watch you. Can I watch you?” he asked in a low voice.

She nodded, feeling like a pool of liquid, just shimmering on the surface, and having no solid mass.

He took off his T-shirt. She’d forgotten how magnificent he was. Broad shoulders, broad chest, and a complete six-pack. Obviously she’d seen him before, several times in the past day or two, but this time she watched him too. How his muscles moved under his skin as he moved.

“Take off your dress,” he said simply.

She unbuttoned the entire front of her dress and slowly peeled it off, shucking it from one shoulder, then the other. His eyes never left her. He watched the expression on her face, her shoulders as the dress fell from them, and then her whole body as she stood before him. Never had anyone watched her so intently. Never had she felt so turned on.

“Take off your panties,” he growled.

She was so wet for him, that all she wanted to do was to put her hands between her legs for some sweet relief. But instead, she turned away from him, looked over her shoulder to make sure he was still looking, and bent at the waist to remove her panties. She slowly dragged them down her legs until she was resting her hands on the floor. She picked up one foot to take them off, and then placed it down much farther away from her other leg. If he was going to watch her, she wanted him to see everything.

“Turn around.”

She turned to face him, totally naked, totally turned on. “Take off your pants. It’s only fair.” She smiled at him with her best, most innocent smile.

He took off his pants, and as she’d thought, he was commando. His dick sprang free, and her mouth watered at the sight of him. She suddenly had a reality check. She was in an ancient temple, on the run from police—or worse—and the magnificent man in front of her had just dropped his pants. David, who she’d dreamed about for nearly a year. David, who was making her mouth water at the thought of having his dick in her mouth. She was a different person. She didn’t care.

“Play with your nipple for me. I want to see how hard you can make it.” He leaned against the wall, his hand almost absently stroking his stomach.

She brought one hand up to her breast, but he stopped her before she could.

“Lick your fingers first.”

She couldn’t help but smile. He was a dream come true. She stepped closer to him, so they were only a few feet apart. She licked her fingers, and then inserted them into her mouth and sucked at them. She heard his breathing change. Victory. Instead of stroking her breasts first, she went straight for her nipple, running her slick fingers around it, and then pinching it until she could actually feel the wetness between her legs. She closed her eyes and moaned.

“Is this how you pleasure yourself when you’re alone?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

Her eyes opened. Slowly she shook her head, her hand dropping to her side.

“Show me. Pretend I’m looking in from the house next door. Pretend I was getting ready for bed, and I just happened to glance up to see you. What would you be doing?”

She looked around and perched on one of the large stones. “I’d be doing this,” she whispered. She took both breasts in her hands and stroked them with all her fingers splayed. Her fingers came together at the point of her nipples and she pulled them both lightly, pinching them until they throbbed. When she let go of them, they were totally erect, and David’s eyes never left them.

Then she moved her legs apart, lying back along the stone. Her hands then trailed down from her breasts, over her stomach, to her thighs. Her fingers danced on her thighs, stroking higher and higher until they grazed the small amount of hair she had there. She could almost feel the heat from her body. Goosebumps erupted as a breeze threaded through the temple. Her skin tightened everywhere, enhancing her arousal.

She opened her eyes. He had come closer. He was just a couple of feet from her, stroking his dick as he watched her. She took a breath and watched for a second. She didn’t think she had seen anything more beautiful in her life.

“What? Don’t you think that this is what I’d be doing if I’d caught sight of you doing this in the next-door house? I can guarantee that I’d be doing this. I’d try to prolong it as long as possible, so I can see you touch your pussy. Are you going to? I want to see you show me how wet you are right now.”

Heat shook through her as she widened her already open legs. Then she used her fingers to open herself to him, knowing there was no way he wouldn’t be able to see how wet she was, even in this light.

He took a shuddering breath as he watched her. “I want to see you come. Make yourself come for me, baby.”

Her heart jumped and a fire lit inside her. She pulled herself more firmly onto the stone and used both hands on herself. One hand stroked her clitoris, slowly to start, and then faster. Spikes of white heat flashed around her body as her muscles melted against the stone. She pushed two fingers up inside her as she continued to stroke, letting him watch her thrust her fingers in and out. In and out. In seconds she felt herself climb that wave, cresting until her orgasm racked through her body.

Before she’d even stopped shuddering, he was on his knees in front of her, his whole mouth around her, sucking, and tonguing her into another wave. His teeth grazed her already sensitive clitoris as his tongue pushed into her. The overwhelming sensation pushed her into another climax, sharper and shorter this time. She gasped for air, but he gave her no time to relax. He pulled her onto her feet and bent her over the rock. He slid into her immediately, groaning as he filled her.

“Yes,” she panted. “Yes, more.” She wanted him to lose control, she wanted to feel that power. Her breasts grazed the cool stone as he fucked her. Thrusting into her hard and fast. She tried to use her muscles to grip him, but he was too strong. Too firm in his movements.

His breathing ratcheted up a notch. “You’re unbelievab—” he started to say. He gasped out her name as he came, pushing as far into her as he could get.

Molly pushed herself up from the stone, and stretched her back, arching it and then flattening it again, aware that as she did it she was providing extra friction on his dick. He groaned. “You’re some kind of sorceress. I’ve never met anyone like you.” His hands stilled her, and she eased around, allowing him to withdraw.

His eyes were intense, and she wanted to say something funny to relieve the tension, but instead he dipped his head to kiss her. He tasted of sweat and of her. He pulled her to him and kissed her hard, his tongue demanding and controlling, sending shivers through her body. She moaned against his mouth and pressed herself against him. He pulled her into a hug, and nuzzled her neck.

This was the real deal, she was sure of it. And she wasn’t going to let him go.

But she also wasn’t going to let him be blamed for anything she’d gotten herself into.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Come here,” he said lazily, watching her look for her clothes in the dim light. He had redressed, well his pants at least, and she was looking adorably perplexed.

“I was wearing underwear, wasn’t I?” she asked, eyes still on the ground.

“They were very pretty. Now come here.”

She stopped looking and shucked on her sundress, unfortunately. She still looked like heaven to him.

Molly came over and made as if to sit next to him, but he pulled her onto his lap. It was like his rational mind had been totally clouded by her presence. He should be thinking about trekking out of Athens on foot, by night. Every moment he was here with her, he lost time they needed for their escape. But this temple and Molly had cast a spell so deep that he couldn’t bring himself to move. Not when she was so close. Not when she was nestled so perfectly in his arms. In a temple.

“We haven’t offended anyone by…I don’t know…” he started.

“Desecrating the temple?” she asked, with a smile in her voice.

“Yes. I didn’t think about it until now.” He said. He had enough black marks in his book, he didn’t want to add eternal hellfire. Although, no shit, it had been totally worth it.

“No. There are so few worshippers of the ancient gods now. They do exist, but not in vast numbers. Besides which, Hephaestus was the husband of Aphrodite, so I suspect he wouldn’t be too shocked.”

He loved that she talked about the gods as if they were real, but he guessed it was her work. Why wouldn’t it be real to her?

“I’m sure if anyone knew I’d been sitting on that rock, they’d bar me from the country, but I totally justified it in my head because I was naked. No buttons, zippers, or anything else that could damage or scratch it.” She paused. “Yeah, I’m not sure they would care about that. I’d still be banned.”

He smiled in the darkness. “Totally worth it though, right?”

“Totally.”

There was silence as he stroked her back, her skin like silk beneath his hand. “Do you believe in the ancient Greek gods?” he asked.

He felt her shrug under his arm. “Who am I to dismiss a religion that hundreds of thousands of people bought into? I’ve seen evidence of so many different religions all over the world, and they’re not that different. Just people finding meaning in nature, creating rules for themselves that benefit society. They believed in their gods so strongly that they spent generations creating temples to worship them. The temple we visited...God, was it yesterday? The day before? It feels like a week ago. The temple to Olympian Zeus? Took six hundred years to build. That’s got to indicate a fairly firm belief system. I respect all religions.”

“So if I told you I was a Jedi?”

“I would tell you that all the empirical evidence points to it being a solid belief system.” He felt her shake with laughter against him. “But would I have to convert in order to marry you?”

He wanted to laugh, but he stayed silent. Make her squirm. “Um, yeah, err, about that.”

She pulled herself up. “Oh God, I was joking. It was a joke. I was just… oh God.” She buried her face in her hands.

He let her off, and laughed.

“Were you messing with me?” she squealed, hitting his stomach with her tiny fists. He grabbed them and pulled her back to him.

“Maybe.” He said, enjoying the feeling of normality.

“You’re awful.” She wriggled against him, as if she were trying to find the most comfortable spot.

“Yes I am.” He leaned back and tried to relax. But all he could think about was the time they were wasting there. Time they should have been fleeing the city. The truth was, he didn’t see an easy way out of this mess. He always had a plan. Always. The military had drilled into him all the possible responses to any situation he could find himself in. And his SERE training would have served him well in this urban setting. Being able to navigate based on the direction TV satellite dishes were pointing, moving in concentric circles, avoiding straight streets, knowing the obvious place to go to for a fast extraction.

But none of his training had accounted for him being a private citizen, being caught up in Molly’s blowback espionage, and being hunted by virtually every security force in the city. Even possibly the US government, given he just busted the nose of a diplomat.

But even though every thinking brain cell was yelling at him to leave, every breathing cell of his body was telling him to stay right here, with this woman in his arms. It was a fight that kept him awake, even when he felt Molly drift off.

A boom echoed across the city, and the last remnants of the sound rolled into the temple, bringing David to his senses. He woke Molly up and shifted her to the ground so he could get up.

“What—” She rubbed her eyes. “How long was I asleep?”

“Not more than an hour. Did you hear that?” He tried to see the city from their vantage point in the temple, but couldn’t. “That was an explosion. Not fireworks or anything.” He looked out from between the pillars but could see nothing. “Where can I go to get a better view of the city?”

“Basically the highest point at this end of Athens is where we came from—the Acropolis.

“We’ve got to go. That sounded big. Like level-a-building big.” Or worse. He motioned to the way they had entered.

“Shouldn’t we stay here? This has got to be the safest place, don’t you think?” she said, looking around the interior as if he’d asked her to abandon her home.

“Physically maybe,” he conceded. “But also we have no alibi for…whatever just happened. And we’re already wanted by…well, probably everyone by now. The police, the Russians, the US embassy, FBI…” Not to mention his boss. He wondered if he even had a boss now. He was totally off the books here, and it didn’t feel good to him. Mal would be totally in his element here, but David, after the last year, was not.

“That never occurred to me. Maybe we should have stayed in a hotel.” She bit her lip as he hurried her out.

“I don’t think so,” he said remembering the fully armored and weaponized police who had stormed the hotel. “This was the best option out of the two.” But he really wasn’t that sure anymore if he was making any right decisions for any of the right reasons. What kind of operative let a civilian decide where they would stay the night?

He led them back the way they’d come a couple of short hours earlier, back across the agora and over the brick pillar. Then he followed the path up the Acropolis. The gates to the Parthenon—the famous temple everyone associated with Greece—were locked. Nothing he couldn’t scale if he wanted too, but opposite the gate was an unguarded hill. He started to climb.

“Good idea. The Areopagus,” Molly said.

He turned back to take her hand. “The what?”

“This is where Saint Paul preached to the ancient Greeks, started their conversion to Christianity. You can also see a whole chunk of the city from there.”

Even before they got close to the top he could see a huge plume of smoke pushing into the night sky. An orange glow told him that whatever had blown was still on fire. He could see the Temple of Olympian Zeus from where they were, and he was able to figure out where the explosion had been. As they got higher, faint sirens floated on the air. Constant and worrying.

“Where is that?” Molly asked.

“It looks to be in the vicinity of the embassies, close to the hotel we were in.” He was wondering how many people were likely to have been hurt. If it was an embassy, hopefully none, since it was nighttime. If it was the hotel, or any of the other hotels that were packed with G20 attendees, the casualty rate would be catastrophic.

“Listen, do you mind if I…” Molly began.

David couldn’t take his eyes off the scene laid out in front of him. In terms of national embarrassment, this took the cake. Having such huge security issues a few weeks before the presidents and prime ministers arrived was the worst thing a struggling country could experience, not to mention the first time in G20 history that there’d been such threats.

“Mind if you what?” he asked, still wondering what sort of device it had been and what kind of carnage it had wrought.

“I need to pee,” she said anxiously.

“It’s okay, I won’t look.” Really, he’d seen every inch of this woman, he couldn’t imagine why she would be worried about peeing.

“Okay, thank you. I won’t be a minute,” she said.

In the silence came an epiphany. He was spectating up here. This wasn’t who he was. He needed to act. To do something positive. How had Molly distracted him? Made him run and hide? He had to figure out how to keep her away from harm, but until he took the fight to the Russians, he would be sitting atop this hill forever. Well, metaphorically anyway.

Molly had to know someone in Athens, or even Greece, who could pick her up, shove her in the trunk, and get through the roadblocks and out to the countryside somewhere. When she was safe, he and Brandon Peterson needed to talk. Screw his Russian girlfriend. This was beyond that. Peterson needed to come clean, so the blame for these explosions, and the assassination wouldn’t land at the USA’s feet. Because a new world war, or even just a cold war with the constant threat of nuclear action would taint this whole generation.

This was bigger than him, bigger than Molly even, and dammit, he was going full-steam to the source. He half wished Mal were there. The annoying bastard would be useful right about now. Scared of nothing, and caring about nothing is the ideal state of mind for a soldier, something he suspected Mal knew only too well, if the rumors about him were true. That was the main difference between them. David had been trained to care about his country and his brothers in arms. Mal was mission-focused. Nothing got in the way of the mission. Which was an attitude he could have used right about then.

As soon as Molly got back, he’d make her figure out who she could call to keep her safe while he waded back into the thick of it. Back to his comfort zone. No wonder he’d felt off his game, running from hiding place to hiding place. But he hadn’t really had a choice with Molly with him. He didn’t fancy her chances with the SVR, that was for sure.

Where was she? She must have needed to pee really badly. And then his thoughts sped up and skidded to a halt when he remembered her face as she took the remnants of their meal to the trash can. He’d been almost certain that she’d been considering doing a runner. Surely she couldn’t be that crazy? A slow dawn of reality hit him. She didn’t trust him to keep her safe. To give good advice. He couldn’t really blame her. He’d broken his promise to her last year, and all he seemed to have done this year was to keep leading her into trouble. The bad guys had turned up everywhere they’d escaped to. She was right. She was dead right. He was useless. Even his company-mandated therapist had told him that he shouldn’t trust his instincts until he’d fully recovered. And that’s all he’d been doing—using his instinct. His shoulders slumped as he turned, hoping against hope that he was wrong. That she trusted him, that she’d stay with him.

He watched the path she had taken, his heart racing, almost making him light-headed. Come on, Molly, he urged. Please trust that I can keep you safe. Please don’t leave. He paused, the weight of his past rolling in waves through his body. He took a breath and tried to shake it off. He was still in the middle of a mission, and he couldn’t break down now. He clenched his fists. He didn’t care what she thought. He would save her. And then he would have to let her go.

He tried to shake off the lingering doubt he had in his own abilities as he ran back the way they’d come, making controlled slips down the scree on the hill. “Molly,” he hissed. He got to the base of the hill, opposite the gates to the Parthenon, and found no one. The path went two ways, broad and flat, and easy for her to run down in sneakers. He took a fifty-fifty chance and went back the way they’d come.

After about five minutes of running, he knew he’d chosen the wrong path.

Maybe the universe was telling him something.