Chapter 5
Natalia stared up at Jagger’s painted face and blinked. She’d seen his delectable mouth move. She’d heard the deep timbre of his masculine voice as it feathered past her ear.
But for the life of her, as she lay there feeling as though she were floating on some sort of weird, uncomfortable cloud, she couldn’t seem to process the man’s actual words.
“W-Wha…” Natalia cleared the crackling from her voice and tried again. “What did…you just…say?”
A flicker of something that looked a lot like worry flashed across Jagger’s darkened features.
“I said, if you keep looking at me like that, I’m gonna be forced to kiss you.
Now, I’ve never been one to shy away from a little PDA, but given the audience we currently have, I thought it best to leave the decision up to you. ”
PDA? Audience?
A deep crevice carved its way between Natalia’s downturned brows as she worked to decipher what the confusing man was going on about. In that same moment, her distorted vision finally began to clear. When it did, Natalia saw the audience Jagger was referring to.
Twelve highly trained R.I.S.C. operatives had positioned themselves shoulder-to-broad shoulder around her and Jagger. The members of Echo and Delta stared down at her with matching expressions, appearing to be anxiously awaiting confirmation that she was okay.
Like a rubber band snapping from being stretched beyond its limits, everything came back to her in one giant, overpowering wave. The op. Echo and Delta. Their textbook takedowns of every single previously acquired target.
Her scrambled mind returned to the very start of the mission. While the remaining holes in her memory became filled with their missing pieces, Natalia was able to recall every incident of the night up to the point where the world went black.
After having secured the eight initial targets and the two men who’d disembarked the boat as instructed, Natalia and the others had found the final two men standing on the deck of their boat. The one on the left had held his weapon on her the entire time.
The other man—the one that had looked so frightened and unsure—had been seconds away from surrendering his weapon. She’d known it. Natalia had seen the look of defeat in the man’s eyes.
All that changed when a large fish splashed its way out of the water’s mirrored surface. It was the moment when all hell broke loose…and Natalia almost died.
A gun had gone off. The target who’d spun toward the splash fell dead where he’d been standing. Jagger had shouted for the remaining target not to shoot. Even now, she could almost hear the panic in his raging voice.
Natalia shifted her body, causing the back of the vest to slide against the asphalt beneath her. She winced, the pain in her chest a stark reminder that the jerk clearly hadn’t followed her partner’s order.
It wasn’t until she’d heard Jagger’s soft and gentle voice that she’d found her way back into consciousness. He’d sounded different, though. All soft and buttery for some reason.
You keep lookin’ at my lips like that, I’ll have no other choice but to kiss you.
No. No way did he just say that to her. She had to have heard him wrong.
Except he did say it, actually. Twice, in fact. And you still haven’t said a damn thing.
Natalia’s focus flew toward their so-called audience, and she immediately regretted the sudden move. Squinting her eyes shut, she waited for the spinning to subside before forcing herself to look again.
Dammit. They were all still there. Their gazes locked in tight on her. And though she could very well be mistaken, it sure seemed as though they were on the edge of their proverbial seats.
“Let…me…up!” She slapped the palms of her hands against the center of Jagger’s tactical vest and pushed.
Hard.
The unexpected move nearly knocked the operative back onto his ass, and Natalia knew she should probably feel bad. But she was too busy trying to save face in front of the others to worry about a harmless, little shove.
Jagger recovered almost instantly, of course. The tall, dark, and sexy operative rose back up to his feet with ease. Rather than turn away, as she’d fully expected, he leaned down and offered her his hand.
Natalia held it in her sights as if it were a snake preparing to strike, but she made no move to take it. It was a nice gesture, especially considering she did just try to knock him over. And still, she refused to take it.
A few grunts and grimaces later, she finally managed to stand of her own volition. See? She didn’t need him or his hand.
She was perfectly fine on her own. Always had been. Things were much simpler that way.
Yes, because God forbid, you actually admit to needing someone else’s help.
“The vest stopped the bullet.” Christian’s comment broke through her whirling thoughts. “That being said, you were out cold for a bit and are probably concussed. Plus, I’m sure you’re aware of the internal damage a forty-five can cause, even when it’s stopped by the Kevlar.”
“I’m aware.”
“Good.” Delta’s team leader nodded. “Then you also understand how important it is to get checked out by a doctor as soon as possible. Again, just to rule out anything internally.”
“No doctors.” Natalia started to give her head a small shake but stopped cold when the world around her began to spin. “I’m fine.”
She was the leader of this op, and a trip to the E.R. would take hours…at least. And she’d definitely suffered worse injuries than this and lived to see another day.
“You’re concussed.”
The growled diagnosis came from Jagger, who was still standing to her right. Careful to keep her movements slow and steady, Natalia’s attention slid away from Christian.
“I’m fine,” she repeated, holding Jagger’s stare as steady as her aching head would allow. “It’s nothing a couple of ibuprofen and a good night’s sleep won’t fix.”
Liar, liar.
“You took a round to the chest, and your head bounced off the pavement like it was a damn ball.”
Bounced, huh? Explains why my skull feels like it’s seconds away from imploding.
“I’m upright and talking, which is more than I can say about those two.” She pointed toward the bodies bleeding all over the boat’s wooden deck. “Look, we’ll go over what happened in detail later, but right now, our priority is clearing the scene so the clean-up crew can do their jobs.”
The ten men she and the two teams had left duct taped and bound. The dead bodies. All the blood. By the time Natalia’s crew was finished, it would be as if none of them were ever there.
“Yeah, sorry about that, Agent Foster.” Jimmy stepped forward despite her warning that they needed to go. “Asshole turned his gun my way.” A casual shrug. “I had no choice but to shoot.”
Before she could remind him that she’d just said they’d do a breakdown of the mission later, Jagger spun on the heels of his boots and locked the other man down with an angry glare.
“You always have a choice, Baxter,” Jagger growled. “And FYI, that guy wasn’t turning to shoot. He got startled by the damn fish that jumped out of the water. But right before that, he was about to drop his weapon and surrender.”
Glad I’m not the only one who saw it that way.
“Your shot set everything into motion.” Jagger went on. “And it was your shot that damn near got Agent Foster killed.”
Jimmy’s face tightened beneath the black paint smearing his smooth, shaven skin. With more bite in his defensive tone, the Echo Team member shot back with, “I just said, I didn’t have a choice. The prick was turning his gun my way. What the hell was I supposed to do?”
“You should have been damn sure.”
“You wait, you die.” Jimmy took a hard step forward. “Or have you forgotten what they taught you in basic?”
Ah, hell.
As if the bump to her head gave her otherworldly powers, Natalia could see the next few seconds playing out in her aching mind.
Jagger would cold-clock Jimmy. Jimmy would most likely go down.
There’d wind up being a brawl between Delta and Echo, and the rest of their mission would undoubtedly go to shit.
Or…
“Enough!” Natalia forced her way between the two men, not giving either of them the chance to argue. “You want to whip ’em out and compare sizes? Fine. But that shit waits until you’re on your own time. Understood?”
Jagger’s gaze lowered to hers, and though she could tell he wanted to say a whole lot more, he dipped his chin in agreement.
She looked to Jimmy, who was still looking at Jagger like he wanted to punch the senior operative square in the mouth. Dammit, they did not have time for a pissing contest, and she needed to make sure he knew it.
“I asked you a question, Baxter.” Natalia faced him directly. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” the young Echo Team member grumbled.
“Yes, what?” Jagger demanded from where he stood behind her.
A muscle twitched at the side of Jimmy’s jaw before he added a tightly enunciated, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” She stepped out from between the two idiots and started to walk away. “I’m giving the cleaners the green light. We’ve already wasted too much time as it is.”
While she used her comms to contact the cleaners on a secured channel, Jagger and the others fell in line silently behind her. As far as the op was concerned, their part in it was complete. They’d leave the same way they came, and the clean-up crew would take care of the rest.
Sanchez’s boat would vanish, along with the bodies of his deceased employees. The other ten men working for the cartel would be taken into custody and transported to a secured location where they’d be questioned.
Homeland’s hope was that the men they’d captured tonight would turn on Sanchez to save their own asses. Natalia was confident at least a couple of them would make the wise choice and share what intel they could.
As for the cache of weapons and ammo, it would all be logged into evidence before the morning sun rose. Not a single one would ever reach the hands of a child, and for her, that was the most important thing.