Chapter 9 Blackjack
BLACKJACK
The plane was over open water when I stood up.
Beacon hadn’t looked at me since takeoff.
In fact, she’d barely looked in my direction since last night’s kiss.
I’d watched her not look at me through the safety briefing and the climb and the first hour in level flight, and had decided somewhere around the end of the second hour that I was done with it. She’d avoided me long enough.
The cabin was quiet. Most of the team was working or sleeping.
Kingston had his head down with Amaryllis on a shared screen.
Hornet had a headset on. Mercury and Henry were at the front of the cabin together.
Mrs. Eggers sat across the aisle from them with her hands folded in her lap.
Nobody was paying attention to the aisle.
I crossed to Beacon’s seat.
“Come with me.”
She didn’t ask what I wanted. She didn’t tell me no. She reached for her crutch, planted it, and got to her feet.
I moved aside to allow her to step into the aisle.
“Go ahead,” I said.
I walked a half-step behind her to the plane’s aft, close enough that if her knee buckled, I could catch her, far enough that nobody in the main cabin had a reason to look twice at the two of us. She passed the galley and slowed for a second at the edge of it. The crutch paused on the carpet.
“Keep going.”
The stateroom was at the rear of the cabin, behind a door that looked like the wall. I came up behind her, reached around her shoulder, and turned the handle. My other hand landed on the small of her back, and I moved her through the doorway. She didn’t resist.
I closed the door behind us and locked it.
She was facing the room. I took her good arm, turned her, and pressed her against the wall beside the door.
Then I kissed her.
I gripped her chin and held her where I wanted her. Her mouth opened under mine, and I thrust my tongue into it. When she whimpered, I leaned away enough to see her face.
Her eyes bored into mine, but she didn’t speak.
“Unless I specifically ask you a question, if you make a sound, I stop. Do you understand me?”
She nodded.
“Say it.”
“I understand.”
“Good.”
Her hand fisted my shirt as I worked the button of her pants loose one-handed and kept her mouth busy with another kiss. The button gave, and I lowered her zipper.
I broke the connection long enough to put my mouth against her ear and eased my hand inside her panties. “I have wanted to do this since I stripped you bare and put you in that shower.”
She was so wet that my fingers slid against her without effort. She was hot and tight, and when I curled my fingers, her whole body jerked against the wall, and she bit her lip.
Before her leg could buckle, I put one arm behind her knees, the other around her waist, and lifted her onto the stateroom bed. She weighed nothing. I followed her down, eased her pants over the brace, and knelt between her legs.
“Bishop, I need more,” she whispered.
“Shh.”
I spread her legs, rested my palms on the inside of her thighs, and brought my mouth to her. Her taste hit my tongue, and my hips pressed down into the mattress, my cock aching behind the zipper.
I licked through her folds, and when she gasped, I stilled and waited for her to quiet. Her thigh quivered under my hand, and her pulse beat against my thumb.
When I licked again, she wove her fingers into my hair and her hips came up off the bed. I laid my forearm across her belly, gently enough not to hurt her ribs but firmly, so she couldn’t move away from me.
I took my time, bringing her to the edge, then pulling my fingers away and kissing the inside of her thigh until she settled. I did it again, then a third time, and when her hand tightened in my hair hard enough to tell me she was ready to scream, I smiled against her skin.
Through it all, Beacon was silent.
When I finally let her come, her whole body went rigid under my arm.
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Her eyes stayed on me as her essence flooded my tongue.
I was so close to coming with her. Only the idea that the first time I let myself, it would be inside her, gave me the restraint I needed.
I stayed where I was until she stopped shaking. Then I sat up and wiped my mouth on my hand. Her taste was still on my tongue. I leaned down and kissed her once, slowly, so she could taste herself on my mouth.
“I’ll give you a minute to collect yourself.”
I eased her pants up over the brace, then straightened my shirt.
Before I opened the stateroom door, I took one more look at the woman whose kiss had wrecked me the night before. Now, I’d wrecked her.
My cock was hard against my zipper as I returned to my seat, opened my laptop, and pulled up the arrival sequence where I’d left it.
Beacon came out of the stateroom four minutes later. She took her seat across the aisle, picked up her tablet, and smiled.
The jet’s wheels touched down in upstate New York at twenty-two hundred hours on the same calendar day that we left Geneva.
Every nerve ending in my body was tuned to the woman in the seat across from me.
She hadn’t looked at me once since coming out of the stateroom, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her.
All I thought about for the rest of the flight was getting her in there again and fucking her so hard that we’d both make enough noise that everyone on the plane would know exactly what we were doing.
Once the cabin door opened and the airstairs were lowered, Doc, Razor, and Gunner exited first. Henry went next, then turned at the top of the airstairs and offered Polina his hand. She took it. Mercury followed, with Anna a half step behind her.
Beacon did not move until the aisle cleared. Then she reached for the crutch.
I didn’t offer to help her, but I stayed close enough behind her to be able to if needed.
The air bit colder than it had in Switzerland, and underneath it was the sweet, resinous scent of balsam fir that belonged to these mountains and nowhere else.
Four SUVs were waiting on the tarmac, black and unmarked, with their engines running. A guy I’d worked with at K19 Shadow Ops approached and handed Henry three key fobs. Doc, Gunner, and Razor followed him to the vehicle parked farthest away and said they’d be in touch tomorrow.
Razor split off and approached me.
“The Sentinel Cyber team is watching the fence line until zero six hundred. If anything comes up before we’re live, call them.”
“Copy.”
He jogged to catch Doc and Gunner.
When Henry placed a fob in my hand, I checked the tag, then headed to the first vehicle in the line. Beacon followed and waited on the passenger side. I hit the unlock button so she could get in.
“Can I ride with you?” Magnolia asked.
“Room for two. Dagger, you’re with us.”
He and I grabbed all our bags from the cart where the airfield crew was unloading them, threw them in the rear of the SUV, and once we were all inside, drove out onto the highway.
“How are you doing?” I asked Beacon.
“Tired.” She smirked without looking at me, which told me more than her one-word response had.
Our route ran north out of Fulton County.
The only light along the way was from the moon and our vehicle.
The few businesses that dotted the highway had either closed hours ago or were shuttered for the season.
It took fifteen minutes to get to the turnoff for South Shore Road, where the pavement turned to gravel.
At the six-mile mark, the SUV’s headlights illuminated a low stone wall that was half buried by the overgrowth of trees.
When we came to the break in the fence, an iron gate was open, and on one side, built into the stone that held them, was a wooden sign that read, Onteora.
I glanced at an awestruck Beacon. One hand was in her pocket, and the other gripped the door handle tightly. The trees thinned a quarter mile past the sign, and the lake opened out ahead of us. We rounded another bend, and the lights from the main camp shone brightly.
I slowed the SUV, but nobody in the vehicle moved until I pulled into the clearing and shifted into park. Magnolia and Dagger climbed out, but I stayed with Beacon.
The other vehicles parked in the same area.
Henry was out first and at the rear passenger door before Polina could reach for the handle.
He offered his hand, and she took it. She stepped down onto the gravel and stopped there, looking up at the main camp.
Anna came around the front of the SUV and stood beside her.
Mercury followed and stood on Polina’s other side.
Polina said something I couldn’t hear. Anna answered just as quietly. Then Anna took one of Polina’s hands and Mercury took the other, and the three of them walked together toward the porch steps. Polina stopped once at the bottom, her hand on the railing, before she went up.
The front door of the main camp opened before Anna reached the top step. A man I placed in his mid-seventies stepped out. He was tall and lean and wore a wool shirt, jeans, and a barn jacket that had seen a lot of winters.
He took Anna’s free hand in his, and the two spoke quietly before stepping aside so everyone could enter.
Even after they had, Beacon didn’t move.
“Katarina?”
“Shh.”
“Do you want to be alone?”
She shook her head.
“Polina told me something yesterday morning,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“My father taught me to swim off that dock when I was four.” She pointed to the wooden structure that was barely visible. “I don’t remember it or him. I lived my whole life without knowing this place, because I didn’t remember and no one told me.”
“And now, you’re here.”
“And I know my parents were here. I feel closer to them now, sitting inside this vehicle, than at any other time in my life. Even at the cemetery.”
She took her hand out of her jacket pocket, and in her palm sat a compass. She set it on the console between us. “This was my dad’s. Anna gave it to me before we left Lausanne.”
She reached into the same pocket and pulled something else out—the journal she’d taken from the safe after the bombing. She set it on the console, beside the compass.
“I haven’t been ready to open it,” she said. “I thought I would on the plane. Then I thought I’d wait until we got here. Now, I think I’ll wait until I’m inside.”
I stared at it but didn’t touch it. It felt too sacred. After a couple of minutes, she picked it up and returned it to her pocket.
“I’m ready,” she said.
“Please wait for my help. The ground is probably uneven.”
I came around the front of the vehicle and handed her the crutch. She took it and planted it in the gravel and stood up on her good leg.
“Welcome to Onteora,” I said.
“Don’t say it like I’m a guest.”
“Noted.”
“Say it properly.”
I thought it over for a split second, then realized what she was looking for. “Welcome home, Katarina.”
Rather than grab the bags, I walked with her to the steps that led to the entrance, where she stopped.
“Bishop?”
“Yeah?”
“I need your help.”
I put my arm under hers and took most of her weight as we climbed the six slate steps. When we reached the top, she thanked me.
The front door opened when we approached, and Henry stepped aside to let us in. Anna’s voice was coming from somewhere deeper in the main camp. She was talking to Mercury, reminiscing, from what I could hear. When Beacon made her way over to the large picture windows, I joined her.
“I don’t know if it’s the power of suggestion, but I get glimpses.”
“What do you see?”
“Not enough,” she murmured.
Henry crossed the foyer toward me with Julian a step behind him. “Bishop, Julian Loxley. Julian, Bishop Black.”
“Mr. Black,” he said with an English accent I hadn’t expected.
“Bishop is fine.”
“Julian’s got your key,” said Henry.
“Ohkwari. Third camp in the clearing, with the easiest access to the main camp,” he said, handing me the key. “The fire’s been laid, and the wood box is full. There’s more stacked under the eave on the lake side if you run through it.”
“Thank you.”
“Ma’am.” He nodded at Beacon and stepped out of the doorway of the main room.
“Bear Camp,” Anna murmured.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Ohkwari means bear.”
“I like it,” I said.
“It fits,” Beacon muttered. I wasn’t sure if she meant it as a compliment, but I’d take it that way.
“I should get our gear. Where are you?” I asked her.
She turned to Henry.
“I thought you’d like to be in the main camp. If you want to make a change, we can do that in the morning.”
Beacon shook her head. “This is where I want to be.”
“Mom and Aunt Polina are on this level, as is Givre. I thought the ground floor would be easier on her.”
“Thank you,” she said from the kitchen doorway where she stood.
“I’ll get your things,” I said, leaning closer to Beacon, as though I intended to kiss her. It was instinct, not intentional, as was the way I jerked myself away when she looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
After taking her things to the second floor, I said good night to those still in the great room, then found my camp.
I tossed my bag on the floor, brushed my teeth, toed off my boots, and climbed under the Hudson Bay point blanket fully clothed. Tomorrow, I’d light a fire to warm this place up. Tonight was all about keeping my eyes open long enough for my head to land on the pillow.