Page 14 of Fatal Love
Chapter Four
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CONNOR KEPT GETTINGstatic on his comm.
He stopped on the ridge, looking down into the valley. “Zeppelin, this is Slash. Do you read?”
The tree cover was dense, but it was the straightest shot to the back of the Reese property. He flipped up his night-vision lenses and stared at the motionless valley below, awash in a soft light from the half-moon above.
With no response from Cal, he tried raising Hunter. “Coldplay, do you read? Come in.”
Nothing.
Sabrina trudged up behind him, finally catching up. She’d swapped out those fancy heeled boots for combat boots, which he was sort of sorry and annoyed about. Seeing her in those sexy heels turned him on; having her defy his orders and follow him also kind of turned him on.
Sick.
He was one sick bastard.
Because she could get hurt and it would be on his head.
But there was no stopping her. The woman had a mind of her own and made her intentions very clear.
Like when she gave himthatlook.
The one she was giving him right now as she snapped off her night-vision goggles, huffing and puffing. “Either you’re spending way more time running on the SFI track than I thought, or I’m out of shape.”
She was definitelynotout of shape. The vest she wore over her fatigues was bulky on her but even that couldn’t hide her fabulous curves.
The woody he’d had since they’d met in the weapons room was still at attention. Seeing Sabrina in combat gear should have deflated it, but no. If anything it made him harder.
Yep, he was one sick SOB.
He’d run his ass off getting to this ridge that looked down into the valley where the house sat, closing the distance to Cal and Beatrice. He’d also ran his ass off trying to gain distance from this woman who was fucking up his body and his brain.
“Thirteen miles a day on the track,” he said, checking his compass. He tended to run late at night when things at headquarters were calmer. “You’re welcome to join me anytime.”
“Thirteen?” She scrunched up her nose. “No thanks. I don’t need any more bad luck.”
So she was superstitious. Another reason to stay away from her. “Thirteen is my lucky number.”
Especially since you don’t like it.
“You’re cute.” She touched her earbud. “I’m getting static but nothing else. The static means their comms are on and they’re using them, right? Why can’t we get through to them or hear what they’re saying? We should be in range by now.”
Cute? Jesus. He’d show her cute some day. He looked at his SFI-enhanced phone and the app he had open on it. “Something is dampening the signal. Looks like our bad guys put a perimeter around the house to block transmissions, so Cal and Trace are still able to correspond with each other but not us. Once we breach that perimeter, we’ll be able to communicate again.”
Flipping his lenses back down over his goggles, he took off, not waiting for further discussion. They’d ran nearly half a mile already but they were still quite a ways from the house due to the woods, hills, and the creek that flowed between their landing spot and here. Summer rains had caused the creek to overflow its banks and the current was river-swift.
If Connor had been alone, he would have swam across. With Sabrina along, and a healthy supply of weapons on both of them, he didn’t want to chance it. So he’d taken the long way around, finding a safer, more narrow crossing point.
He heard another burst of static and what might have been Hunter yelling. He couldn’t tell for sure. Hitting the edge of the ridge, he did a slip-and-slide down the hill—layers of dead leaves, fresh, green undergrowth, and a sharp embankment sped up his descent.
More than once, he nearly went down on his ass, but his balance was as good as his 5-minute mile and he managed to land at the bottom on his feet.
Sabrina wasn’t so lucky.
