Something very different from the forest noises woke me up, and it was already fading by the time I realized what it was.
A helicopter.
A fucking helicopter had just flown overhead, and I was caught with my pants down.
No. My pants were still off.
I glanced beside me to see Chloe gone, and snatched my pants as I rolled from under the blankets. Being in such a hurry, I barely noticed how stiff they were getting from the lack of washing. A day in the forest was like five days in civilization in terms of garment maintenance.
Slipping my pants on as I stepped outside, I only vaguely registered the cold morning air creeping over my bare skin. The helicopter had too much of my attention. I peered through the canopy of trees, ears strained to hear the whisper of blades, but they’d already faded, leaving nothing but the stillness of early morning.
“Came from the southwest,” Chloe’s voice drifted from behind me. I turned to see her approaching, still limping a little from yesterday’s activities. She was fully clothed and had a small satchel that carried the two rockets we took from one of Tanaka’s mercenaries.
“Isn’t that the direction we came from?” I asked.
“Yep,” she said, stopping well outside my personal space. She set the satchel on the ground. Then, she took a moment to check me out, her eyes doing a quick scan up and down my body. “Damn,” she said. “You’re coming along nicely.”
“What?”
“You’ve lost a few pounds,” she said. “Getting a little more muscle, too. Your workouts are starting to pay off.”
I glanced down, and that’s when the temperature hit me. It wasn’t unbearable, but it was definitely uncomfortable without half my clothes.
Refusing to be distracted, I said, “Thanks. You’re going to the cabin right now?”
“That might be our people. The sooner I get there, the better.”
“I should go with you,” I said.
Chloe shook her head as she reached just inside the hut and pulled out the pack she’d taken with her the last two days, straightening as she slung it over her shoulder. “I need to move quickly. You’ll slow me down.”
She must have seen the offense on my face because she continued before I could even open my mouth.
“You know I don’t think you’ll be a burden, but you don’t have my training, and I’m faster alone.” She reached between two trees and pulled at a large cylinder—the rocket launcher. “It’ll be slow enough going with this thing,” she said as she slung it on top of the pack.
I studied her, noticing the dark rings under her eyes. Other than that, she looked completely unfazed. “Chloe, you’re hurt, and you have your limits. I should be going with you.”
She pointed to the rockets. “Hand me that bag, would you?”
I obliged as she continued, “I already told you, no. Besides,” she jerked her head in Astrid’s direction, “someone’s got to keep an eye on the princess.”
I considered pushing back against her insistence to go alone, but even with her injury, she could have cracked my head open with that rocket launcher. Besides, she was probably right. With our luck, if I went with her, that was likely the moment when a wolf or something else showed up and ate Astrid, who was practically defenseless.
“Be careful out there,” I said, leveling a look at her to let her know I meant it.
She winked at me, the only sign that the Chloe I’d gotten to know was still there. “I’ll be back this evening. Hopefully, with help.”
Heading in the direction of the cabin, she called out, “Astrid has the remote. Keep sending that signal. That chopper might not be our people.”
“Okay,” I called out, annoyed that she hadn’t even addressed the giant elephant in the room—her resignation.
“We’re going to talk later, though,” I called after her.
“No, we aren’t,” she said without looking back or breaking stride.
Yeah, she knew what I meant.
And if Chloe thought we wouldn’t talk about any of this later, she had another thing coming.
______
Tuesday, September 10th, late morning
“Feel better?” I asked, as I leaned against the doorway of the helicopter and sat down.
Astrid sighed and passed me the remote. “I didn’t realize how washing my face would make me feel like a completely new person, and brushing my teeth is almost enough to make me forget about being trapped here.”
“Yeah,” I said as I repeated the all-too-familiar pattern on the remote. “Sorry I let you go without it for so long.”
“It’s okay,” Astrid said. “It’s low on the list of priorities right now. Thank you for everything that you’ve done for me.”
“No problem,” I said, distracted as I stared at the remote. It still bothered me how Chloe had seemed so… tactical this morning. We barely exchanged any words before she traipsed into the forest again, and it was like she couldn’t wait to get away from me. Of course, I knew better; she was in a hurry to reach the cabin just in case those were our people.
Still…
I leaned my head against the wreckage and recalled our conversation from the night before. Chloe’s words came back to me:
I’m thinking of quitting when we get back to the States.
“I’m thinking of quitting when we get back to the States.”
“What?” I’d asked, lifting my head to look at her.
“My position. I think I might have to vacate it after we return home.”
“Why?” I asked.
Chloe had studied me for a while, and I’d never seen her look so uncertain and vulnerable. I thought she was about to ask me to kiss her again, but instead she simply said, “I crossed a line.”
“I’m okay with that,” I said.
“I’m not,” she said, her tone flat. “I can’t trust myself to make good decisions, and you can’t trust me to do my job.”
“Chloe—”
“I’m not changing my mind,” she said. She rolled away from me, exposing her back.
“I don’t care about you being compromised,” I said to the back of her head. “I don’t want anyone else!”
“You’re gonna,” Chloe muttered.
“I don’t accept your resignation,” I said.
“I don’t care.”
I sighed and rolled on my back, staring at the low ceiling of the hut as the shadows played across it in the flickering flame’s light.
“Let’s say you quit,” I finally said, cutting through the minutes-long silence like a knife. “Would you leave?”
“I wouldn’t have a job there. Of course I would.”
I wasn’t sure what hurt more, my heart from the callous way she was suddenly treating me, or my neck from the proverbial whiplash. What the hell had happened in the sixty seconds between heaven and heartbreak?”
“Chloe…”
“Go to sleep, Marcus. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
We’re not out of the woods yet.
I violently cranked the remote to its highest setting, imagining that Helen still had the egg inside her. A desperate SOS by way of sex toy: Bitch! Get me the fuck out of here!
“What’s the matter?”
I looked up to find Astrid watching me, her head tilted… half curious, half amused as she lay back on the twisted remains of the helicopter seating.
“Lover’s quarrel?”
I blinked. “What?”
She gave me a ghost of a smile. “You and Chloe. You’ve been intimate at least twice. Something happened last night. She seemed more surly than usual this morning when she brought me the remote.”
Helen, Erin, Natashya… now Astrid. God save me from insightful women.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Astrid rolled her eyes. “I’m not stupid, Marcus. I’ve seen the way you have looked at her since we met. You’ve been wanting her badly for a while, and now that it’s the two of you alone in the wilderness on these long, cold nights, you’ve given in to your passions.” She smirked. “You’ll get no judgment from me.”
There was no point in denying it. Astrid had my number, and if I were to continue denying it, I’d just look like a fool. It didn’t mean I had to confirm anything, though, so I simply shrugged.
“At least, I know why you haven’t come to see me at night. I was hoping you’d offer to keep me warm in a way more fun than these thermal packets.”
I snorted and nodded at the twisted frames of the seats that had been her prison and, likely, her savior. “Really? Kind of limited on our options, don’t you think?”
“I’m very creative.” Astrid purred, reminding me a little of Helen. “I’m sure we could have found a way to make it work.”
“Oh, fuck!” I suddenly realized that I still had the slider up, and quickly dropped it back down to zero. If Helen still had that thing inside of her and was getting my signal, I was giving her one hell of a ride right about now. I decided to give it a rest for a few minutes.
“Tell me about her,” Astrid said.
“Chloe?”
“No. The one who is hopefully receiving your signal. Helen, right?”
“Oh,” I said, not feeling like opening up right now. “There isn’t much to say.”
Astrid closed her eyes and smiled amusedly. “I’m sure she would be flattered to hear that. It’s not true, though. It’s Roger VanCamp’s wife, correct? They’ve been married for years, now.”
“Was married to Roger,” I quickly corrected. “That’s over.”
“They got divorced?”
“Eh… not officially,” I admitted, “but they’re separated. The paperwork just needs to be filed.”
“And now she’s walking around New York with a vibrating egg inside her, and you have the remote.” There was a twinkle in Astrid’s eyes. Up until this point, she’d been sweet and pleasant. I’d called her out when she tried to manipulate me, and I guess I’d made enough of an impression that she had been relatively docile with more of a friend vibe than the in-control femme fatale one. I saw a little of that return as she asked me about Helen, but it was more charming than alarming.
And I found myself wanting to give it to her. We were being hunted in a cold, damp forest. Chloe was doing the heavy lifting, and I felt like the little kid standing there holding the flashlight. Our only communication with the outside world was by tapping out Morse code on my lawyer’s cooch. My only respite had been the sudden intimacy I’d gained with my beautiful bodyguard.
Now, with Chloe’s sudden shift in mood after handing me her two weeks, I needed a pick-me-up. Astrid's rapt attention as I told her the story of how I cucked Roger VanCamp in every way possible seemed like a cheap way to feel better.
So, I filled her in on all the juicy detail—how Roger had sent Helen to influence me, and how I’d learned about his propensity to pimp out his wife. I told her how much Helen loathed the man and how, after confronting her, she switched allegiances. I confided in Astrid that it was Roger who had taken part in my kidnapping, and that he’d threatened me at my house party. Finally, I told her how I’d come to his partners with proof of his crime against me and threatened to leave their firm unless they dropped him as a partner. By the time I reached the end of the story where I confronted Roger in his own office and in front of his own partners, it was impossible not to smile.
“So,” I finished, “now Roger VanCamp lost his partnership and got disbarred while I get to fuck his very willing wife, and I hope he falls asleep every night in squalor, crying about it.”
I wasn’t the only one grinning. My story enraptured Astrid. “God, Marcus. That is the sexiest thing I have ever heard. Did you fuck her in front of her husband?”
Immediately, the image of Roger VanCamp tied to a chair, being forced to watch as I took his wife right in front of him swam into my mind. The dark part of me that had broken Bobbi, seduced Ashlee, and fucked Carla Tanaka was very attracted to the idea of taking Helen in full view of her husband and looking that bastard in the eyes while I cucked him again and again.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I had some of my security escort him away. I was going to question him about my kidnapping, but he got away before I had the chance. I have a guy looking for him now.”
Astrid slowly closed her eyes and rolled her head back, stretching as well as she could underneath her prison. Something between a moan and a purr escaped her lips, which were curled into a smile that almost resembled post-orgasmic bliss. “I’m sure he regrets crossing you,” she said. “He lost so much… and that wife of his…”
She rolled her head back to the side, her eyes fluttering open as she fixed me with a smoky gaze. “She’s certainly beautiful enough. Tell me, was she worth all that trouble?”
“Helen?” Once again, I let my head fall back against the wreckage. My arms were resting on my knees, and I let one slide off so I could rest my hand between my legs. I was only half aware of grinding my palm against a rapidly hardening prick. “God, I don’t know where to begin.”
“Well, I know what she looks like,” Astrid said, “and I’ve had limited interaction with her in a business setting. What’s she like behind closed doors?”
“She’s one of the coolest women I’ve ever met,” I said. “A lot of her good qualities are just… better when we’re alone. She’s always been a little guarded, but she lets a lot of it fall around me. She’s a great listener, and she’s almost always right. She’s been invaluable, and I’d go through Roger’s crap all over again if I had to keep her.”
“High praise,” Astrid said. “How’s the sex?”
I unconsciously dug the heel of my palm into my erection and then tried to mask it by fiddling with the remote. I thought about Helen’s body… her lithe form stretched out on the bed the first time I saw her nude. She had that classic, elegant shape—long, lean legs that met a well-sculpted, firm ass. Her waist curved in a way that gave her a subtle hourglass shape, with just enough feminine padding to prevent her from having a prominent six-pack. Her breasts hung naturally, light golden from recent sun exposure. She was forty-three, but a life of luxury and the most expensive products had her looking five to ten years younger.
And god, could she fuck…
“She’s one of the best lovers I’ve ever had,” I admitted. “Tender and caring when needed… wild and fierce when that’s what I want… and the way she handles Bobbi…”
I recalled that first night in the dungeon she commissioned for us. Helen was dressed in all-black, wielding a crop. The way she caressed Bobbi’s skin with the tip of it… the way I watched Bobbi, who claimed to have no interest in her own gender, turn into a veritable puddle around that woman…
I sighed… I missed Helen. I missed her calming presence. I missed her wit and charm. I missed feeling her lips on mine as I slid inside of her.
“She’s one of the most important women to me,” I said.
It would have been hard to choose between the two women who had become the twin pillars in my life: Helen and Erin.
“She sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime girl.”
“A lot of the women in my life are,” I said. “I’ve realized that it’s one of the things about being this wealthy—it’s much easier to find the really good ones.”
“You’re right,” Astrid said, her simmering expression faded as she got a far-away look in her eyes. There was a subtle change in her smile, becoming less predatory and more… wistful. “Often, they find you.”
“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” I said.
“Mmm,” she said, staring at something in the middle distance that wasn’t there. “I had a relationship like the one you had with Helen. Isak.”
“Had?” I asked.
Her wistful look turned a little sad, and she didn’t answer immediately. Her stare slowly shifted until I had her gaze again. “He’s gone.”
“You mean he left you? Or he died?”
“Both,” Astrid said. “My family gets a lot of attention in Northern Europe. He… some of the lifestyle disagreed with him, so he left. I found out a year later that he passed. Cancer.”
Suddenly, my problems with Chloe seemed so insignificant compared to this woman trapped in wreckage and remembering an old love that she’d lost. “I’m sorry to hear about that, Astrid.”
She gave me a faint smile. “Thank you. I sometimes wonder if he had more faith in us, would I have been able to provide him the type of care he needed to survive?”
“You can’t think like that,” I said. “It’ll drive you crazy.”
“I think we both know I’m already a little crazy,” Astrid said with the faintest sting in her tone. The sudden shift left me flat-footed, and it took me a moment to figure out what to say.
She was referring to our earlier disagreement about how she treated Bobbi and our lesser moment of tension when I called her out for manipulating me. At both points, I thought of her as a monster. I’d written her off as a spoiled, rich princess who got exactly what she wanted without concern for how she treated others. I assumed my first impression of her as a mild-mannered, sweet woman was nothing more than a facade she employed to disarm people around her.
What if there was more to it than just that? What if she were just a broken woman? How did the saying go? “Hurt people hurt people?” She reminded me of Bobbi and Helen—Bobbi, who had no family she could rely on and had been taken advantage of, only to be discarded because she hated herself so much that she actively pushed people away. Helen had been conniving and manipulative in the early stages of our relationship. Then I discovered that she was simply scared of her husband and the gilded cage he’d built around her. My relationship with Bobbi still had a long way to go, but I felt like we were making progress.
Helen, though…
I gave her a second chance, and she had risen to the task. She wasn’t just a lover and a damn good lawyer. She was a compass and one of my most trusted advisors..
Maybe Astrid needed the same thing?
“I might have been a little harsh a couple of days ago,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
Astrid gave me a smile tinged with sadness. “I might have been trying to pull at your strings a little, but with good reason. You’re my lifeline, Marcus. I’m completely at your mercy here, and you’ve been nothing but good to me. You could have left with Chloe, but you didn’t. Part of me wanted to show you how grateful I am.”
A pang of guilt shot through me. I had stuck around, sure, but it was only on Chloe’s insistence—something Astrid didn’t need to know.
“That was only part,” she continued. Her earlier heat grew brighter in her eyes once more. “You’re attractive, Marcus, and despite making me as comfortable as possible, I’m cold and lonely. I wanted a little more attention from you.”
An intense moment of silence followed, and that smoldering gaze did things to my body that I had a hard time ignoring. Astrid was a lovely woman—tall and willowy with a dancer’s build. She had the poise and grace to match. Even injured and trapped, she carried herself with a regal bearing that belied a bravery and steadfastness that few could match. Her porcelain skin and cool demeanor gave her fine, elfin features a cold, almost immortal beauty. The twin furnaces of blue-green flame suggested that she was anything but cold to the touch, though.
I was confused. Two days ago, I considered this woman a monster. Now, I was connecting with her on levels I hadn’t with the woman I’d been sharing my bed with. Chloe had been hot with a primal need. She had shared her body with me, and I had been given a glimpse behind the veil she kept up, but I was still starving for intimacy. Now, Chloe had turned cold on me, making it harder to ignore whatever this was between me and Astrid.
And let me say one more time, Astrid was a gorgeous woman.
“I’m going to get us some food,” I said, adjusting the erection in my pants as I got to my feet.
“I would love that,” Astrid said. She didn’t seem put off by the fact that I hadn’t acknowledged her confession, which, if anything, demonstrated her diplomacy and grace even more. She would have made one hell of a companion when navigating the waters of business and wealthy social dynamics.
“Before you go, though,” she said, “Could you get my neck and back with one of these wipes? I know it’s been rather cool, but lying down like this for days has made my back sweat, and it feels a little uncomfortable.”
“Um, sure,” I said, approaching her. I took one of the wipes from the small packet I’d given her as she sat up about as far as she could, which was at roughly a fifteen-degree angle.
“How do you want me to do this?” I asked, stepping into position. Once again, I found myself just behind her with the top of her head just above my crotch as she supported herself with her elbows.
She tilted her head so she could look up at me, her summer-sea-colored eyes luminescent. “Just get at whatever you can.”
I crouched behind her as I wrapped the wipe around the fingers of my right hand and then slipped it down the back of her shirt. Astrid’s eyes fluttered shut as I ran the cool, alcohol-soaked rag across her skin, wiping away days of grime.
My lips were inches from Astrid’s forehead as I set to work, and my free hand slid to the back of her neck, resting at the base of her skull to help support her head. I gave it a light squeeze, and the corners of her lips turned up in a little smile.
“Mmmm,” she groaned softly, her head lolling back a little more so that her nose and lips were inches from my face.
This felt a hell of a lot like manipulation, but after what she’d confessed, it didn’t feel like much of a threat. Besides, giving her a quick wipe-down in a place that was impossible for her to reach felt like a reasonable ask. It wasn’t exactly her fault that I was making her feel good in the process.
I worked up her back with my other hand, concentrating on the ridges of muscle along her spine and turning it into a half-bath, half-massage. She let out another soft moan and then swallowed, giving me a lovely view of her throat as it worked—that pale, perfect throat.
Up her traps and onto the back of her neck, I finished wiping her down and then slowly lowered her to the cushion. As I slid my hand from underneath her head, her eyes fluttered open, and she gazed up at me again. I could have been seriously burned by the heat from them.
The tip of her tongue slowly slid into view, running briefly across the center of her upper lip before disappearing again, a subtle gesture. Her pink lips—wet with moisture—parted, and her breath washed over me, strong and earthy mixed with a hint of mint. I found myself hovering infinitesimally closer to her with every heartbeat. Just a few inches, and I could have a taste…
Neither of us moved for a long moment.
Then, Astrid broke the spell first.
“Thank you, Marcus,” she said, giving me a grateful smile.
“No problem,” I said. “I’ll be back with some food soon.”
I walked away before I could do something I seriously regretted.
Only… if that were the case, then why did every step away from her make me feel that much worse?
______
Tuesday, September 10th, late evening
The rest of the day went by uneventfully.
I’m not sure if she could sense my discomfort after our close moment with each other, but I felt a lot less sexual tension when I returned with food. As we ate, I stayed relatively silent while Astrid filled me in a little more on what she knew of the Tanaka family. She was able to confirm what Chloe had said—the younger Tanaka was a rude, hot-tempered, entitled man in his early thirties who partied, drank, and whored his way through Asia. She only met him twice, but was barely able to tolerate his presence both times. Now that she’d been shot out of the air by the man, her opinion of him only lessened. She thought so little of the man that she even expressed surprise that he hadn’t burned down the entire forest just to kill us.
I was grateful that Astrid remained so talkative; it gave me something to concentrate on besides the sexual tension between me and both women. Plus, she was incredibly helpful, providing me with a wealth of information on Tanaka, Kelly Maddox, my late grandfather, and others who shared similar circles. None of it was world-shattering information, but it helped me paint a better picture of our little corner of high society as a whole.
After eating, taking turns with the remote, and spending some time examining the wreckage for any signs that there might be a way to extract Astrid, the heiress fell asleep. That left me with only my thoughts to keep me company.
I flirted hard with Astrid. A large part of the reason for that was because Chloe had gone so cold on me this morning, but that wasn’t all there was to it. I couldn’t deny an animal attraction to the woman, and she admitted the same toward me. We almost kissed, and my hands had been all over her body under the guise of helping her.
I wanted more.
And I felt guilty for it.
Chloe was already doing so much for us—she was racking up a hell of a body count in the forest and making a several-mile trek daily. She had been injured and braved the cold for us. On top of that, she was clearly struggling with crossing certain professional boundaries. It made sense why she was pulling away from me, and instead of being an understanding friend, lover, or whatever we were… I felt sorry for myself and turned to another for comfort.
I didn’t even know if that was a relevant concern to Chloe. She knew well that there were other women in my life and hadn’t seemed the jealous type. Surely, she didn’t expect me to give it all up for her.
Unless I completely misread the situation. What if she was pulling back because she was extremely confident that we were about to be saved? Was our possible rescue making her sad? After all, we did finally fuck when none of the others were around. Was that on purpose? Would she want me to give up my lifestyle for her?
Would I be willing to give it up? Could I give up Bobbi, Erin, and Helen for Chloe?
Would I give up wiling away hours on flights in bed with Shea? Could I give up the rendezvous Erin arranged with vetted strangers? What about Jessica? Rose? Were Natashya and I really done? Danni? Carla?
What about Natalie?
The faint sound of thunder rumbling in the distance registered in the back of my mind while I wondered what Natalie was doing… if she knew that I was missing.
Wait. Thunder?
Almost the entire time that I’d been in Norway, it stayed overcast and rainy. I enjoyed rain as much as the next person, but it was getting old… especially after spending so much time out in the middle of it. Why today, of all days, would I hear thunder.
There was a sinking sensation in my stomach and I slowly rose to my feet, wringing my hands as I looked in the general direction of the cabin—the direction Chloe disappeared every day.
“That’s not thunder,” I muttered.
It was an explosion.
The only question was, who was responsible for it? Was that Chloe? Or was it Ryo Tanaka and his men?
There was no way of telling.
Unsure of what to do, I began pacing, my imagination running wild. She could have gotten a shot off, then been gunned down before she got a chance to get away. She might have been caught before she had an opportunity to launch it, and attempted to fire it as a last-ditch attempt to get them to back off, killing her plan. Maybe she got ambushed and the rocket launcher exploded on her! I didn’t know how RPGs worked.
Another distant rumble pulled my attention back to the Northeast.
Chloe had taken two rockets with her… was that second one hers?
Continuing to pace, I kept my ears open for any other explosions or perhaps even gunfire, but couldn’t make out anything else. For the first time in days, I’d finally heard something from the direction of the cabin while Chloe was gone. I just hoped it was good news.
I spent the rest of the afternoon walking the perimeter of our little camp, but all remained calm. By the time the afternoon darkened to evening, the rain had started again, and I was beginning to worry in earnest whether I would see Chloe again.
The day clung to the final strands of gray light as I stood under a tree, watching for Chloe and trying to stay as dry as I could. I was considering going to see if Astrid was awake when I heard a twig break behind me. Spinning, I drew my gun and flipped off the safety just in time to see Chloe’s familiar form emerge from behind a tree.
Her limp was exaggerated, and there was no sign of the rocket launcher anywhere. She had her satchel thrown over her left shoulder and carried a pistol in her left hand. Her hair was wet and stringy, hanging around her face like a shower curtain.
“Easy,” she called out as she approached. “It’s just me.”
“Thank God,” I breathed, flipping the safety back on and tucking my gun away as I walked toward her. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Just wet and cold. Let’s get in the shelter.”
“Of course,” I said, alarm rising in my chest. There was blood running down her right side.
“You’re hurt!”
Chloe shook her head. “It’s fine. Wound opened up again when I fired the rocket the second time.”
I was unconvinced, but decided not to press her until she’d had a chance to take a breather and get some food in her. I headed toward the shelter with her limping behind me.
“I would have prepared some for you, but I wasn’t sure when you were going to be back, and I didn’t want to waste anything. You’re back sooner than I expected.” I said as I lit the second-to-last can of Sterno.
“It’s fine,” Chloe reassured me, sounding short of breath and incredibly tired. “I ran most of the way back here. I had at least three of them on me for a while.”
I glanced at her. “Do you think they followed you here?”
“No,” Chloe said, stripping out of her clothes. She peeled the shirt off and tossed it in one of the corners. Her pants went next, then the boxers she borrowed from me so that she was completely naked. She was right—the wound I stitched up last night was bleeding. It didn’t look nearly as bad as it had yesterday, but it would need some attention before she went to bed.
Neither of us said a word for the next few minutes as I set up a little cup of soup for her, balancing it over the tiny flame. “Give it about ten minutes and it should be warm enough.”
“It’s fine like that,” Chloe said.
“You’re not eating cold soup, Chloe.”
“I’m hungry!” she snapped, reaching for the cup.
“Then I’ll get you a protein bar!” I snapped back, batting her hand away. “You’re cold and wet. At least let me make sure you get some hot food!”
I stretched out to grab one of the protein bars and tossed it to her. She caught it, stared at me for a beat before tearing into it. The sound of cellophane crinkling was the only thing cutting through the silence in our tiny home as I sat there making her soup, trying to assuage my guilt. Chloe had been out there getting shot at while I’d been hardcore flirting with another woman. It was apology soup for something she wasn’t even aware of.
While her food was heating, I grabbed the kit and had her sit with her back facing me so I could patch her up again. I handed her something for the pain and then set to work. It was still uncomfortable to do, but much easier than it had been last night.
After nearly a minute of silence, I finally asked, “What happened out there?”
“There was a second chopper,” Chloe muttered.
“A second helicopter?”
“Yeah. The one we heard this morning. It was some of Astrid’s people. I don’t know how many of them came out. When I got there, I couldn’t see anyone other than Tanaka’s men. At the time, I wasn’t sure who the second chopper belonged to or what Tanaka was doing with the passengers. I couldn’t do anything about it on my own, so I decided to stick with the plan.”
Chloe stared into the flame as it danced just under her cup of soup, a haunted look on her face. A bite of protein bar later, Chloe said, “I took out his chopper.”
“How?” I asked as I continued to work on her. “With the rocket?”
“Yep,” Chloe said without looking at me. “I spent a couple of hours assessing the situation. Decided the best option was to get their attention around their own chopper, so I got a body from one of the men I killed yesterday and hauled him back to the house. Wasn’t too far. When I got the right moment, I dragged him to the front of the chopper and left.
“It got their attention,” she said, “in about ten minutes, I had four of them around it trying to figure out where the body came from. That’s when I fired.”
She finally tore her eyes away from the flame to look at me over her shoulder, her expression unreadable as she popped the last of her protein bar in her mouth, slowly chewing on it as we stared at each other. At that moment, she looked cold and emotionless… a woman who had simply done her job.
I didn’t know what she needed to hear, so I simply said, “You did what you had to do.”
“I know,” she said, looking back toward the little flame. “Tanaka and two of his men came out a few minutes later. He was looking for me, screaming about how I had about a minute to come out. His guys were holding a third man and put him on his knees. Tanaka put a gun to his head and repeated himself.
“After about a minute,” Chloe continued, raising her hand to mimic a gun, she mimed shooting the soup cup. “He pulled the trigger. Point-blank range. Didn’t hesitate.”
“Jesus,” I said. It was hard to imagine some brat of Tanaka’s could have that kind of resolve… especially after what Chloe and Astrid had told me about him. Tanaka seemed like the type who wouldn’t hesitate to kill, though. Maybe his son was cut from the same cloth.
“Ryo Tanaka’s got ice water in his veins,” Chloe agreed with a single nod. “Pissed me off, so I sent him another message and blew up the second chopper.”
I cut the stitches, returned the scissors and the line to the box, and grabbed the glue. “You didn’t want to take Tanaka out?”
“I couldn’t hit him where he was at. It would’ve risked damaging too much of the cabin, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to get out in the open. I couldn’t get a clean shot with a rifle. Hitting the second chopper felt like the right move.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because he doesn’t get to leave unless it’s with us,” she said, glancing over her shoulder again. The look in Chloe’s eyes suggested that she wasn’t simply stating a wish. She was preaching gospel.
“Even if Tanaka didn’t send his kid to kill you, the old man would love to see you die. Maybe he’d have a change of heart if it meant getting his son back alive.”
“How are we gonna get out of here, though?” I asked.
“We’ll make a call at the cabin,” Chloe said. “If communications are down, then, at the very least, there are more supplies there. Someone will show up in a couple of days. Either they’ll figure out how to reach Psalter, or more of Astrid’s people will come out here to check on the first crew.”
“One problem,” I said, putting the finishing touches on the glue and capping it. “Can’t he just call for backup, too?”
“He can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Ryo Tanaka went rogue when he tried to kill us. He wasn’t supposed to move on us, but I think he wanted to do something to surprise his dad. Hiro’s been trying to reach him for the past couple of days, and Ryo’s been stalling. I don’t know if it’s because Hiro would disapprove of what Ryo’s trying to do or if he’s just trying to postpone talking to his dad until he can report progress, but he can’t access his money or get any more men without Hiro becoming suspicious.”
Wait… how did she know that Ryo was afraid of talking to his dad? It wasn’t like he just strolled out into the yard and monologued all his thoughts. I could feel the disbelief on my face as I stared back at her.
Chloe must have seen the confusion on my face because she slunk to the other side of the hut to reach her pack and pulled out a walkie-talkie. She tossed it to me.
“Finally got my hands on a couple of these. His men talk a lot when they think Ryo isn’t listening. I was able to put enough of it together to figure out that he’s too afraid of talking to his dad to ask for anything. I think he’s stuck here until he kills or captures us.”
I turned it on and saw the number twenty-three pop up on the display. “Chloe, you’re amazing!” I looked back up at her, “Do they reach all the way to the cabin?”
Chloe shook her head. “Not quite, but I think it’s close. These will be useful, though. Tanaka’s men are clustered on channels four through five. I’ve set yours to twenty-three. Keep it there. I’ll take the other one with me tomorrow in case we need to communicate. Keep transmissions short—less than five seconds—and don’t say anything unless necessary. If you do have to say something, say ‘Vegas’ before anything so I know it’s you.”
I set the radio down while listening to the rest of her instructions and tended the soup. It was warm enough, so I took it off the small flame and handed it to her. “So, you’re going back out tomorrow?” I asked.
“Yep,” Chloe said, eyeing the soup hungrily as she took it. “They expect it, and I’m gonna give it to them.”
I wanted to protest, but that hadn’t gotten me anywhere with her.
“What they won’t expect,” Chloe said around a mouthful of food, “is that you and I are going to hit them tomorrow night.
That got my attention. This entire time, I thought we would try to take it the day after tomorrow. “Tomorrow night? Why?”
“Like I said… they won’t expect it. We’re breaking the pattern, which should help us catch them by surprise. We’ll also have the dark to our advantage.”
“Shooting people in the dark sounds risky,” I said. “What about the rest of Astrid’s people? You know… the ones Tanaka didn’t kill?”
“You’re right. It’s risky and not something I’d usually go for, but in this scenario, it’s better than doing it in the daylight. As for the hostages,” Chloe said, her face growing more sober, as if that was even possible, “I’m still working through that one, but I promise you, Marcus, I’m doing everything I can to make sure no innocents get hurt.”
Something about the way she said that gave me pause. There was a thickness to her tone that suggested complete conviction—not that I doubted she lacked it with anything else she’d said, but this just sounded that much more sincere.
Running my hands through my hair, I blew out a long breath as I mulled over her plan. “You think it’s gonna work?”
Chloe looked away from me, spooned another mouthful of soup, and shrugged. "It’s the best plan I have. We’re running low on supplies, and there’s no telling when Henry or more of Astrid’s people will show up. Waiting until we’re completely out of supplies is a bad idea. We need to do this before our back is against the wall.”
“How many men are left?”
“I count seven, including Tanaka,” Chloe said.
I balked. “And this is doable?”
“I’ve taken out six by myself. Taking a few precautions and with your help, it’s doable.”
“What about Astrid?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Chloe said as she turned back to eating her soup. “That’s a problem. We can’t move her, so after we’ve secured the cabin, I’ll come back out and sit with Astrid while you rest up. In the morning, I’ll switch with you, and you can keep an eye on her during the day.”
Again, I wanted to bring up all the ways this could go wrong, but Chloe knew the score way better than I did. She had been out there for the last several days. She knew their habits and the holes in their defenses. She had killed half a dozen of them on her own, and was still in one relative piece. I’d trusted Chloe this far. I could trust her to take us the rest of the way, so I swallowed the rest of my concerns and let my bodyguard do her damn job.
Some of those concerns weren’t related to her job, though. Chloe and I hadn’t even addressed what was going on between us, and whatever switch had flipped was still firmly in place. She was sitting across from me, entirely in the nude, looking incredible despite the exhaustion in her eyes and the many bruises and abrasions. Yet, it was like nothing happened between us, and she wasn’t even acknowledging all the times she kept catching my wayward glances at her body.
My default emotional state was to blame myself for whatever was going on, but I wasn’t a child, either. The past several days had been hell for me, but it’d been a cakewalk compared to what Chloe had to do. I took on a handful of people once and had Chloe to back me up for most of it. Chloe had taken out an entire squad of mercenaries and blown up two helicopters by herself. Not only that, but she also felt responsible for my safety and Astrid’s. I wasn’t naive enough to assume that all of her sudden detachment was because of something I’d done or because of our relationship.
Still… minutes after having sex, she announced she would resign once we returned to the States. Our relationship had to play some part in whatever was going on with her, and I was desperate to know what that was.
But I couldn’t bring myself to mention it. Not right now… not like this and with everything else going on. She had too many more important things to worry about, and she was already stretched thin—the last thing she needed was me insisting that we define the relationship.
So, I did something profoundly difficult—I sat back, nodded, and continued going over Chloe’s plan for tomorrow. After a while, some of the tenseness in her shoulders seemed to drain, and I suspected it was because she thought she was in the clear… that I wouldn’t address our conversation from last night or this morning. All that did was make me more uneasy, but if Chloe could compartmentalize, so could I… no matter how much it killed me.
Eventually, she finished her food, and we both ended up under the blankets. Naked.
Apparently, huddling together for warmth was much more effective without clothes on, which was unfortunate, given the current circumstances.
The temptation was there. Chloe may have looked tired, battered, and a little on edge, but she was still a beautiful woman. However, I managed to keep my libido in check, for once, and kept it to spooning, with her as the little spoon. She didn’t seem to object, nor did she have a problem with me running my fingers through her stringy hair, trying my best to comfort her as she settled into me for a night’s sleep.
Silence had become a refuge in which I was just starting to retreat when Chloe cut through it. “That man died today because of me.”
It took me a moment to realize who she was talking about—one of the men working for Astrid. Ryo shot him after Chloe had blown up the first helicopter.
I recalled Ray and how he’d been killed while protecting me on that rooftop in Vegas. The guilt I felt after my rescue had been one of the worst things I’d experienced in my life. Having to face his husband at the funeral had been almost unbearable. It didn’t occur to me that Chloe might feel the same way about someone who had been killed because of her direct actions. It also made me realize that she might have been struggling with the loss of Ray as well. Hell… she might feel more responsible than I did.
It reminded me that underneath all that bravado, Chloe was a simple human with all the same emotions I had.
Wrapping one arm tighter around her waist—careful to avoid any action that could have been deemed sexual—I squeezed her into me and ran my other hand across her hair. “He died because Ryo Tanaka,” I said and then instinctively kissed the back of her head. “This isn’t on you, Chloe.”
Chloe didn’t respond. There was no shift in movement to get away from me or to try to look at me. There wouldn’t have been any point… it was too dark. She simply lay in my arms and let me hold her. I ran my fingers through her hair once more and then slid them along one wayward strand that fell across her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. As I did so, my fingertips passed through something damp along her cheekbone… just under the corner of her eye. Something that had nothing to do with rainwater.
Neither of us said another word to each other for the rest of the night. We just lay in the dark, trying to fall asleep, lost in our thoughts and silent fears of what awaited us tomorrow. I wanted to have hope in Chloe’s plan… that I would see all my friends again… that Chloe and I would be okay.
But it was impossible to find hope in any of it. So, eventually, I found sleep instead.
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Book II is now underway, with Chapters 1–22 already available. 9 bonus chapters for Book II are also available, including some of the events mentioned in this chapter.