X-Ops Exposed Read online

  Curious, he wandered over to the brushed nickel trash can that probably cost as much as his big-screen TV at home and pressed on the foot pedal. The doctor had been dead long enough for things to start getting ripe in a normal person’s trash, but this one didn’t smell at all. The can was empty except for a frozen dinner package and a plastic tray with the remains of some kind of pasta dish that looked like it had been thrown out only a couple of hours ago.

  Intrigued, Tate opened the dishwasher. Water droplets clung to the plastic containers lined up neatly on the upper rack. Someone had been eating leftovers, then was nice enough to wash the dishes.

  It probably hadn’t been Bell, since dead people didn’t eat pasta. Or wash dishes.

  “Tate, you might want to come into the living room and take a look at this.”

  Closing the dishwasher, Tate walked into a living room that would make Martha Stewart swoon in approval to find Chase looking at a framed photo on the far wall.

  He glanced at Tate over his shoulder. “I think I finally figured out who Bell was in a relationship with.”

  The photo was a close-up of Bell and Mahsood sitting on a small sailboat, the wind tousling their hair as one of them took the selfie. Mahsood had an arm thrown around the other doctor’s shoulder, and Bell looked genuinely happy. Hell, Mahsood looked happy, too.

  “This probably explains why Bell was tortured,” Chase said.

  “I guess so,” Tate agreed. “Either Ashley or the mercenaries we ran into at Joanne’s place knew about Mahsood and Bell’s relationship and carved up the doctor to try to get him to talk. But if the signs of recent activity in the kitchen are any indication, they didn’t get what they wanted. Mahsood is still in town.”

  * * *

  Zarina lowered the big wood crossbar across the cabin door the moment Tanner left, then climbed in bed and prayed he’d be okay out there. The bed was still warm from his recent departure, and she pulled the blanket around her shoulders, trying to ward off the chill. The small cabin had seemed so much warmer when he’d been with her. She knew there was no scientific basis for that, but it was true nonetheless.

  Shouting came from outside the cabin followed by the sound of vehicles speeding out of camp. She pictured Tanner in one of those vehicles, speeding toward danger.

  Zarina cursed. If she let her mind wander too far in that direction, it would drive her insane with worry. Instead, she forced herself to think much more pleasant thoughts, specifically the things she and Tanner had been doing right there in bed.

  Her lips still felt deliciously abraded from where the scruff on his jaw had rubbed against her as they kissed. She smiled. She’d never been kissed with such complete and utter abandon like that before. The memory of how his strong hands had caressed her body at the same time as he’d teased her with his mouth almost made her moan.

  And when Tanner had dropped to his knees in front of her and kissed her belly button? There weren’t words to describe how amazing that had been. Heat had pooled between her thighs the moment he’d pressed his lips to her navel. She’d been so turned on, it was unreal. It had only gotten better when he’d unbuckled her belt and begun kissing and licking his way downward. For a moment there, she thought she might actually orgasm with her clothes still on.

  She’d been with other men, but it had never been like this with any of them. Then again, she’d never experienced a man like Tanner. He was beyond special.

  Zarina had known that about him from the moment she’d slipped into his cell in the ski lodge right before those crazy doctors had shown up to give him another injection. She’d been shocked he’d survived the first dose of hybrid serum and knew the chance of him making it through a second without help from her was slim to none. So she’d rushed in with a sedative mixture that she hoped would keep his body from tearing itself apart and another drug cocktail she’d put together to drop his heart rate down low enough so they’d think he’d died. If he didn’t die for real. It had been a risky plan, but it had been the only thing she’d been able to come up.

  Zarina wrapped the blanket more tightly around her, remembering it like it had been yesterday. Tanner had been strapped to a gurney, his shirtless chest straining as he’d growled and fought to pull his arms loose from the heavy manacles holding him down. As she’d leaned over him, his eyes glowed vivid red and his fangs extended, but they’d both disappeared the moment she told him she was going to save him. He’d stared at her wide-eyed before telling her it was too dangerous, that she was putting herself at risk and should get out of the cell before it was too late.

  That was the first indication of how amazing Tanner truly was. He’d been terrified, in horrible pain, and mere seconds away from being given a drug that would almost certainly kill him, and yet he’d been more worried about her than he’d been about himself. As she’d learned in the weeks and months following that day, that was simply the kind of man Tanner was. Courageous, fearless, gentle, and unselfish.

  Zarina wasn’t exactly sure when she’d fallen in love with Tanner, but there came a point when she had stopped thinking about him as someone who needed her help and instead began seeing him as someone she wanted to spend her life with. That was why she’d come out here. Not merely to deliver the antiserum, but to spend her life with him. Admittedly, it had been tough breaking through the damn wall he’d built up around himself, but now that she had, she wasn’t going to let him build it back up again.

  It had been difficult hearing about what had happened to him in Afghanistan, then afterward here in Washington, but she was glad he’d told her. Not only had it helped her understand what was going on with him, but it had also been good for him to get it off his chest. During the walk back to camp, Zarina noticed a lot of the tension that had been a near-constant companion for Tanner for as long as she’d known him had disappeared.

  Unfortunately, hearing the other prepper camp was under attack had immediately made him tense all over again. She only hoped everything would be okay. As soon as Tanner was back in her arms, they’d see about getting those tight muscles relaxed again.

  She was still thinking about all the things they could do to make that happen when an urgent knocking at the door made her jump.

  “Zarina, are you in there? It’s Lillie.”

  She threw off the blanket and was halfway to the door before she remembered her promise to Tanner that she wouldn’t open the door to anyone but him. That was before Lillie, or someone else in the camp, might be in trouble.

  Zarina shoved the lock bar up and pushed it aside, then yanked open the door to find Lillie standing there holding a handgun that looked way too big for her.

  “Dad sent me to round everyone up and get them to the main building,” Lillie said. “It’s sturdier and easier to defend.”

  Zarina nodded. “I’ll help you look for stragglers. Let me grab my coat.”

  Picking it up from the floor where Tanner had dropped it when he’d undressed her earlier, she slipped into it, then stopped, her gaze locking on her backpack. Tanner might not be interested in taking the antiserum anytime soon, but it was still too valuable to leave lying around. Grabbing it from the floor, she slung it over her shoulders.

  “Here,” Lillie said, holding out a gun to her.

  It was much smaller than the one Lillie was carrying, but it was still a weapon. That kind of worried Zarina.

  “I don’t really know how to use a gun,” she admitted.

  Lillie didn’t so much as bat an eye as she shoved her weapon into a holster on her hip. Zarina was relatively certain it was the automatic kind, but she was only guessing. Not that she knew what that meant. She might work for a covert organization, but she was a doctor, not a soldier. She couldn’t be expected to know things like that.

  “This is a basic revolver, so all you have to do is point and shoot.” Lillie attached a small holster to Zarina’s belt, then stepped back and pointed at a little piece of metal sticking out on the side of the gun. “This is the cylinder release. Just push it to swing the cylinder out. Like this.” She nudged the cylinder out, showing Zarina the backside of the five bullets. “If you have to reload, point the weapon up and push here. The shells will fall out. Put five more back in, then close the cylinder. Once it snaps into place, you’re ready to go. There’s no safety, so all you have to do is point it in the direction of the bad guys and then squeeze the trigger.”

  Lillie pushed the cylinder back in and held it out to Zarina again. She carefully took it from the girl, then stared down at it, her fingers as far away from the trigger as she could get them without dropping the thing.

  “I’m not sure I could do that,” she whispered. “Shoot someone, I mean.”

  “It’s hard to do, so I get that,” Lillie said. “If you can’t shoot, then run like hell. Just remember there might be a time when you can’t run, and you’ll have to decide what you’re capable of doing to protect yourself or someone you care about.”

  Lillie turned and walked out of the cabin, moving quickly and deliberately across the camp. As Zarina hurried after her, she couldn’t help wonder if she would ever be as confident and sure as the younger woman if she found herself in one of those situations Lillie had just described. Zarina prayed she never found herself in a position where she had to find out.

  Chapter 10

  Tanner’s heart was pounding like a drum by the time he ran into Chad’s camp and raced for the cabin he and Zarina shared. It was possible his elevated pulse might have something to do with the fact that he’d run back from the other camp at breakneck speed. He’d nearly killed himself half a dozen times over by jumping off cliffs and outcroppings he never would have normally tried in an effort to get there faster.

  That wasn’t why his heart was beating so fast, though. It was fear that he’d be too late and get to the camp to find that those guys with the guns had attacked and Zarina was already dead.

  But there was no indication the camp had been attacked. No scent of gunfire or strangers. No stench of panic. That didn’t keep Tanner from sprinting for the cabin anyway, only to slide to a stop when he realized the door was wide open. He burst inside, looking around wildly, but Zarina was nowhere to be seen.

  His clawed hands clenched and unclenched as his inner beast fought to take control. The animal wanted to tear apart the camp piece by piece until it found Zarina. Tanner cursed and shoved the beast back, desperate to get the thing under control. He needed his human half in charge right now, not a raging hybrid.

  It took a few seconds, but he got the animal into its cage so he could think clearly. That’s when he picked up Zarina’s scent—along with everyone else’s—coming from the main building. They must have barricaded themselves in there in case trouble came this way.

  Not a bad plan if it wasn’t for the fact that he’d told Zarina to stay put before he’d left. Then again, why the hell did he think she’d do a damn thing he’d told her? She never had before.

  Tanner strode toward the big building, claws and fangs retracting. He was still a few feet away when the door opened and Peter stuck his head out, relief mixed with worry on his face.

  “Are you the only one back?”

  “The others will be here soon,” Tanner said, walking past Peter into the meeting house/dining hall. “They’re transporting the wounded.”

  Chad intercepted him before he could take more than a few steps. Tanner ignored him for the moment, focused instead on finding Zarina. He let his nose guide him, following her scent to the far corner of the big open building. She and Lillie were surrounded by a bunch of scared-looking kids. As if feeling his gaze on her, Zarina lifted her head and looked his way. Smiling at him, she said something to the kids, then detached herself from the group and moved in his direction. His heart slowed drastically at the sight of her until he realized she was wearing a gun on her hip. What the hell was she doing with a gun? She didn’t have the first clue how to even use one. Not that she had any business using a weapon in the first place.

  He started toward her, but Chad sidestepped to block his path. “How bad was it? Was anyone badly hurt?”

  Tanner resisted the urge to pick Chad up and physically move him out of the way. He knew the older man was simply worried. The prepper communities up here were like an extended family, and like family, they looked out for each other.

  “No one from here was injured,” Tanner said as Zarina reached them, Lillie at her heels. “But the other camp took some serious injuries. Five people, three with gunshot wounds.”

  “I’ll get the medical supplies set up in Lorraine’s cabin,” Lillie said. “It worked well as an operating room before. We can make it work again.”

  Zarina nodded as Lillie hurried off, then looked at Tanner. “You said five people were injured. What happened to the other two?”

  “They were hit with some kind of tranquilizer darts. They were still unconscious when I left.”

  “Tranquilized?” Chad’s eyes filled with confusion. “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Tanner admitted. “All I can say for sure is that whoever attacked the camp was in the process of dragging them away when I got there.”

  Tanner hadn’t realized that the rest of the building had gone quiet until surprised chatter suddenly filled the silence. Chad frowned and turned to field questions, even though he had no answer to most of them. Tanner used the interruption to finally focus on Zarina.

  “Why the hell do you have a gun?” he demanded.

  She lifted her chin to look up at him. Something told him she didn’t like the question. “Why do you think?”

  “Dammit, Zarina. This isn’t a game.” He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “There are some seriously bad guys out there. They’re well trained and heavily armed, and they haven’t shown any hesitation when it comes to hurting people. You’re not some kind of comic book superhero. You should have stayed in the cabin like I told you.”

  Her brows rose. “Like you told me? What am I, your pet?”

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

  She folded her arms. “Then what did you mean?”

  This wasn’t how this conversation was supposed to go. “Just that I want you safe.”

  “You mean you want me to stay all safe and tucked away while you go out and risk yourself for others.”

  He ran his hand through his hair. Why was she turning this around on him? Couldn’t she see how terrified he was at the thought of something happening to her? “Zarina, you know how much you mean to me. You have to be careful.”

  “And you don’t?” she demanded, her voice rising. A few of the preppers looked their way. “We’ve been together long enough for you to know me. If someone is in trouble, I’m going to help them the same as you would. I’d never expect anything less of you, so don’t expect anything less of me.”

  He was trying to come up with a reasonable response to that when a ringing noise interrupted him. He frowned. None of the preppers had cell phones, so where the hell was it coming from?

  When the sound came again, he realized it was from Zarina’s backpack. The satellite phone. She must have figured it out at the same time, because she shrugged the bag off her shoulder and quickly dug the phone out.

  “This is Zarina Sokolov.”

  She said it so tentatively that Tanner would have smiled if he wasn’t still mad at her. He guessed she wasn’t used to answering a DCO satellite phone. But the urge to grin disappeared the moment he recognized the voice on the other end of the line.

  “It’s Cam,” Zarina said, holding the phone out to him. “He said he needs to talk to you, that it’s urgent.”

  Ignoring the curious looks Chad and the other preppers were giving him and Zarina, he took the phone from her and put it to his ear. “What’s up, Cam?”

  “I tracked down two of the missing preppers and three of the homeless people you mentioned,” his brother said. “It took a while, because the descriptions you gave me were the only thing I had to work with, but once I found the first one, locating the others went faster.”

  “And?” Tanner prompted, even though he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

  “Two of the men and a woman washed up along different stretches of the west shore of Lake Washington. The other two guys were found way over in Elliott Bay. Without any IDs on them, they all ended up getting labeled as John and Jane Does and their cases put on the back burner, but when I started poking around, the ME office noticed the connection and started digging. He says that all five victims were beaten to death.”

  Tanner cursed. “Were any of them drugged?”

  “Yeah,” Cam said. “How’d you know about that? Even if you could get TV up there, we’re keeping that detail out of the news.”

  Tanner took a deep breath and told him about the attack that had just happened and the men he’d seen trying to kidnap the preppers. “I don’t know what they’re doing with the people they’re grabbing, but I recognize professionals when I see them.”

  “Dammit, Tanner, what the hell is going on up there?” Cam demanded. “I’m trying to do what you asked and keep this low-key, but it’s starting to get out of hand. My captain thinks this is gang-related and that I know more than I’m saying. I don’t know how much longer I can keep the lid on this, especially if more bodies show up.”

  Tanner sighed. “I understand. Try to give me a little more time, but don’t do anything to risk your career. Let me know if you hear anything else.”

  “Was that the police?” Chad asked, his jaw tight.

  Tanner nodded. “Yeah. My brother. He’s a cop with the Seattle PD.”

  Chad cursed, his fists clenching like he wanted to punch something. Probably him. “Dammit, Tanner. I trusted you! You know how we feel about cops. You promised you wouldn’t get them involved.”

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