Page 8 of ELITE Protection
Isaac visually inspected the backpack. “What’s this?” He pointed to a hard nylon tubing that would sit against her body. He’d never seen anything like that before.
“That’s an avalanche airbag.” She hoisted the backpack onto her shoulders. “All I have to do is pull on this.” Hannah indicated a tab on her left shoulder. “It automatically inflates from my hips to about two feet above my head. Side bags protect my shoulders and hold my head securely.”
That was the coolest thing Isaac had ever seen. He immediately Googled it on his phone. When he clicked on the video, Hannah stood so close her breasts touched his biceps every time she took a breath. For several minutes, they watched people skiing and snowboarding on extremely steep slopes getting caught in avalanches, then inflating the airbags.
“I need one of those,” he declared just above a whisper.
“This brand is the best,” Hannah pointed to her backpack. “I’ve done extensive research.” She glanced up to the top shelf. “Grab that red backpack. I bought one for my brother when I got this one. He won’t mind if you use his. He’s far too busy with his residency at Johns Hopkins to make it out here this winter.”
Isaac gazed at her. She seemed so open and honest with her responses, caring for his safety, that he had to remind himself that she was being hunted. “Thanks. I appreciate that. Let me run out to my SUV and grab mine to transfer everything into this one.”
“While you take care of that, I’m going to make some spaghetti for supper.” As they both turned to head up the steps, she added, “Don’t expect much. My cooking skills are limited to boiling water and heating a jar of spaghetti sauce in the microwave.”
Isaac smiled. “Then I’ll cook breakfast. I make a mean omelet.” The idea of making breakfast after spending the night with a woman took on a new reality.
CHAPTER4
Hannah couldn’t sleep.
After she made a passable supper of spaghetti, Isaac had taken a phone call outside and brought in his bags. He’d transferred his backcountry gear into her brother’s backpack and then set it next to hers. She was excited about Alpine touring with him.
Although she enjoyed skiing the slopes at Big Sky, the thousands of people who flocked to the resort made her nervous. She much preferred cornflower-blue skies, pure white newly fallen snow, and the fresh scent of the tall pine trees that created a circle around the base of the mountain.
She rolled to her side and readjusted her pillow. Through her open bedroom door, she heard Isaac’s soft snoring and wondered what he wore to bed, especially after what she’d seen a few hours ago.
During her college days, she often slept naked. In Syria, she had spent her nights hunting ISIS extremists and slept during the day in the busy encampment filled with other female members of the YPJ. There was usually a battalion of men from the Syrian People’s Protection Units located on the same base. She had learned to sleep in much of her uniform, boots next to her bed, ready to move at a moment’s notice. Since she had returned to the United States and was told about the threat on her life, she had been sleeping in clothes she could easily escape in, which often meant yoga pants and a T-shirt.
Hannah rolled to her back and listened to the slow, rhythmic breathing coming from the room across the hall.
He was the reason she couldn’t sleep.
Although there were three bedrooms on this floor, the master was at the end of the hall. When Hannah had arrived a week ago, she’d selected her bedroom based on security reasons. She had multiple exits available to her, she could go up or down depending on her situation assessment, and it was central to the entire house so she could keep an eye on everything at the same time. Besides, sleeping in her parents’ bedroom had a definite ick factor to it.
There wasn’t a problem until Isaac insisted on taking the bedroom across from hers. That meant sharing a bathroom. Hannah moved all her personal items to the master bathroom. That felt like less of an intrusion on her parents’ private space than if he were using it. Besides, she loved their dual showerheads.
Cotton abraded cotton as Isaac rolled over across the hall. The thought of him sleeping so close made her girl parts tingle again.
Several hours ago, she had seen his magnificent body in nothing but a towel riding low on narrow hips. She had almost reached her bedroom door after brushing her teeth and washing her face in her parents’ ensuite when Isaac stepped out of the smaller bathroom. All she could do was stand and gape. She couldn’t stop looking at well-defined chest muscles under a smattering of dark hair. His flat nipples were nut brown and wrinkled like walnuts the longer she stared at him. She couldn’t stop her gaze from wandering over six distinct ridges before finding the thin dense line of dark hair that led from his belly button to under the towel. Ho-ly hell. The man was built.
Her nipples had hardened, and she’d hoped the loose-fitting T-shirt hid them. It had been months since Hannah had sex, and just looking at Isaac made her wonder what sleeping with him would be like. She’d had a few lovers before Aziz, but they were boys, more interested in getting off than her orgasm. Not that Aziz had been all that concerned after the first few times.
While seducing her, he’d made sure she orgasmed before he slid inside her. Once they had been lovers for a while, he often came before she had time to get there. Looking back, she could now see that he was just using her for a quick fuck…and information.
She had been so young and naïve, believing they were in love. She’d trusted him, and that had turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life. And the lives of hundreds of young girls she was not able to save. Her love for him had blinded her.
That would never happen again. Never.
She pinched her eyes closed and fought back the truth. She might not live long enough to have to worry about falling in love again.
That was another reason she couldn’t sleep.
She knew Isaac would protect her, if by some rare possibility Aziz’s family actually found her and tried to kill her. Death would be preferred over kidnapping. She had seen the results of what ISIS soldiers had done to the young girls they’d captured. They would do even worse to her.
Hannah had to shove the pictures in her mind of abused teenage girls into the dark recesses before anger took over and she headed back to the Middle East to avenge the atrocities.
Her body was exhausted after being on alert constantly. She hadn’t slept well in weeks. When she’d returned to the United States, she thought she had left all the troubles of the Middle East behind her. Then her mother had been attacked.
The Atlanta Police Department had called it a mugging, an attempt to steal money or drugs as she’d left the hospital late one night. Her family knew differently. The men who’d beat the shit out of her mom had told her it was because she had given birth to such a rebellious daughter.
