Read Online Forged in Fire by Trish McCallan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Trish McCallan
Ads: Link
off a glare and turned his attention back to Beth’s suddenly leery expression.
“Pay attention, Cosky,” Rawls drawled, managing to hold back the laughter long enough to force the words out. “We’re about to witness some of the finest rationalization known to man.” He started laughing again.
Zane ignored him.
Beth looked from Rawls to Zane, and back to Rawls. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
Fuck. He hadn’t intended to broach the subject like this, but any good strategist knew to regroup and redeploy. “The best way to clear you of suspicion is to give you another reason to be at the airport, spur of the moment, without your clothes.”
Nervousness touched her face. Her eyes skittered to Rawls, who’d leaned back against one of the steel rungs of the shelving. He’d stopped laughing, but his shoulders still shook.
“I’m definitely not going to like this,” she said to no one in particular.
Zane barreled ahead. “We’re on our way to Hawaii for a teammate’s wedding. Cosky’s from Seattle. Since we’re on leave, we decided to head out early, do some hiking along the trails Cosky’s been bragging about, then fly out for the wedding. We’ve been hiking all week. We’ll tell everyone we met over the weekend and things got hot, fast. I asked you to come to Hawaii with me, but you were uncomfortable taking off with someone you’d just met. We argued. But this morning you changed your mind and decided to join me, so you listed yourself on standby.”
He paused, studied her face. Was she buying his reasoning? With luck it wouldn’t occur to her that they could just claim she’d come to the gate to say goodbye.
“To make this work, you’ll need to call your supervisor and request the week off.”
Her gaze dropped to his mouth, and her flush—which had faded—gained ground again.
His body tightened. “That kiss set the stage. People will remember it. People will remember us.”
The red in her cheeks eased, but she continued to look uncomfortable. No, she didn’t like the suggestion. Too damn bad. Her expression of discomfort shifted to resignation.
She took a deep breath, let it out and her face turned stoic. “We’ll have to keep acting like a couple.”
That stoicism seriously pissed him off. Was it really that fucking hard to act like she might be interested in him? Anger prickling, he didn’t try to sugarcoat his correction.
“Not a couple. Lovers. Hot and heavy lovers. The kind so hungry for each other they’d fly to Hawaii without any luggage because they’d be spending all their time in bed.”
Chapter Four
Commander Jace Mackenzie dropped the telephone receiver into its cradle and threw himself against the backrest of his company-issue, hard-as-a-rock desk chair. The metal and plastic shifted beneath his weight, squeaking like a rabid hamster on a wheel.
So, some cocksucking motherfuckers thought they could grab one of America’s passenger planes, did they?
He rubbed a hand over his jaw, a cold, hard grin tugging at the edges of his mouth. Those fuckheads were in for a major surprise. In a contest between three of his best men and six cold-blooded killers, he’d bet every single cent he owned on his boys. Zane and company would nail those motherfuckers to the wall and hold them there until the FBI and Homeland Security swept in for clean up.
Slowly, the grin faded. It never paid to settle into complacency. The second you considered a situation under control it exploded in your face with the fury of a fucking H-bomb. He’d seen it happen too many times. Some poor schmuck who’d relaxed at the worst possible moment and got his ass handed to him in the midst of a raging firestorm. God only knew how many good men he’d lost through the years because they’d let their guard down when they should have ramped it up. Second chances out on black ops were rarer than an honest woman, and death lurked behind every foreign grain of sand.
Mac wasn’t afraid of
“Pay attention, Cosky,” Rawls drawled, managing to hold back the laughter long enough to force the words out. “We’re about to witness some of the finest rationalization known to man.” He started laughing again.
Zane ignored him.
Beth looked from Rawls to Zane, and back to Rawls. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
Fuck. He hadn’t intended to broach the subject like this, but any good strategist knew to regroup and redeploy. “The best way to clear you of suspicion is to give you another reason to be at the airport, spur of the moment, without your clothes.”
Nervousness touched her face. Her eyes skittered to Rawls, who’d leaned back against one of the steel rungs of the shelving. He’d stopped laughing, but his shoulders still shook.
“I’m definitely not going to like this,” she said to no one in particular.
Zane barreled ahead. “We’re on our way to Hawaii for a teammate’s wedding. Cosky’s from Seattle. Since we’re on leave, we decided to head out early, do some hiking along the trails Cosky’s been bragging about, then fly out for the wedding. We’ve been hiking all week. We’ll tell everyone we met over the weekend and things got hot, fast. I asked you to come to Hawaii with me, but you were uncomfortable taking off with someone you’d just met. We argued. But this morning you changed your mind and decided to join me, so you listed yourself on standby.”
He paused, studied her face. Was she buying his reasoning? With luck it wouldn’t occur to her that they could just claim she’d come to the gate to say goodbye.
“To make this work, you’ll need to call your supervisor and request the week off.”
Her gaze dropped to his mouth, and her flush—which had faded—gained ground again.
His body tightened. “That kiss set the stage. People will remember it. People will remember us.”
The red in her cheeks eased, but she continued to look uncomfortable. No, she didn’t like the suggestion. Too damn bad. Her expression of discomfort shifted to resignation.
She took a deep breath, let it out and her face turned stoic. “We’ll have to keep acting like a couple.”
That stoicism seriously pissed him off. Was it really that fucking hard to act like she might be interested in him? Anger prickling, he didn’t try to sugarcoat his correction.
“Not a couple. Lovers. Hot and heavy lovers. The kind so hungry for each other they’d fly to Hawaii without any luggage because they’d be spending all their time in bed.”
Chapter Four
Commander Jace Mackenzie dropped the telephone receiver into its cradle and threw himself against the backrest of his company-issue, hard-as-a-rock desk chair. The metal and plastic shifted beneath his weight, squeaking like a rabid hamster on a wheel.
So, some cocksucking motherfuckers thought they could grab one of America’s passenger planes, did they?
He rubbed a hand over his jaw, a cold, hard grin tugging at the edges of his mouth. Those fuckheads were in for a major surprise. In a contest between three of his best men and six cold-blooded killers, he’d bet every single cent he owned on his boys. Zane and company would nail those motherfuckers to the wall and hold them there until the FBI and Homeland Security swept in for clean up.
Slowly, the grin faded. It never paid to settle into complacency. The second you considered a situation under control it exploded in your face with the fury of a fucking H-bomb. He’d seen it happen too many times. Some poor schmuck who’d relaxed at the worst possible moment and got his ass handed to him in the midst of a raging firestorm. God only knew how many good men he’d lost through the years because they’d let their guard down when they should have ramped it up. Second chances out on black ops were rarer than an honest woman, and death lurked behind every foreign grain of sand.
Mac wasn’t afraid of
Similar Books
