Mercenary Trilogy - Willing Part 2

nipples were, but how sweet they tasted.

He stepped up to the SUV, watching with both amus.e.m.e.nt and irritation as she hurriedly moved back.

She gave more confusing signals than a bug scrambler.

Opening the pa.s.senger door, he said, "Get in."

She climbed inside without a word, careful not to let their bodies make contact at any point, but that didn

't stop her female scent from reaching out to touch him. Both sweet and spicy from her earlier exertionsand fear, it overrode the lingering smell of smoke on her clothes.He wanted to pull her to him and add another fragrance to the ones she was emitting...arousal.Knowing it would make her uncomfortable, but not really caring, he slipped her seat belt across her body and clipped it into place. He didn't pull back immediately, but took a second to enjoy her proximity whileher eyes rounded in confusion."What are you doing?"He tilted his head, so their lips were mere centimeters apart. "Buckling you in.""Oh." It came out a breath of sound.He smiled. "Do you need anything else.""Uh...no." But she didn't turn her head away.

She just waited.

His arms were as good as around her in this position, and it would be so easy to take her lips, to taste them.

He did, briefly. Softly. And she let him, hanging there, her lips attached to his, but not moving against his.

He pulled back, stepping away from the car. "I'm glad you're okay."

She nodded, mute, but her eyes were asking questions he didn't want to answer right then.Soon he would, but not right now."Okay, what's going on?" he asked after sliding into the driver's seat.She stared at him."Your dad, Josie."She gasped, her cheeks turning cherry red, and then she burst into speech. "They moved Dad a little over an hour ago. He asked for some privacy to get cleaned up, and I gave it to him. He's wounded,

confused, I thought weak. It never occurred to me he'd just disappear.""Tyler has his own reasons for doing the things he does, and they aren't always comprehensible toothers, but it's a safe bet he wasn't nearly as weak as he let on."

"You're right." She rubbed her eyes. "When no one came to get me after half an hour, I went looking on

my own. His room was empty."

"Did anyone see anything?"

"No."

"Did he leave of his own volition?"

"Yes."

"You're sure?"

"Yes. He took the jeep and he left this." She handed him a note.

He read it. "Do you know where this footlocker is?"

"Dad keeps it in an underground storage unit that only he and I know about."Of course. Some people might say Tyler McCall was on the paranoid side, but he was a d.a.m.n goodsoldier and trainer of men. "Would it have survived the explosion?"

"I think so, but until we get up the mountain, we won't know."

"Are there any other leads to follow up on here?"

"No. He left nothing." She sounded dispirited.

"Don't blame yourself, Josie. Your dad is one of the best. He can take care of himself." Daniel started

the car."But why would he leave?""I don't know. That's a mystery he may have to solve for us, but right now we've got other things to attend to." He pulled the big black SUV out of the hospital parking lot, noting with pleasure the dearth ofcars on the road."Where are we going?"

"Back to the mountain."

She needed rest, but the longer they took to get back to the compound, the better chance whoever set

the explosions would have to hide or destroy evidence, not to mention maybe finding the journal Tylerwanted his daughter to read."What caused the explosion?" he asked."I don't know. I haven't been back.""I didn't think you had." But she had a d.a.m.n uncanny ability when it came to identifying bombs. He wouldn't have been surprised if she'd known the type and volume of explosives used simply from the

explosion itself.

She seemed to realize that and explained. "I was out walking when I felt the ground shake. By the time I made it to his room, half of the wall had fallen on him, and the place was in flames."

"Any chance it was an accident?"

"My gut says no."

He'd pretty much expected that answer, and he believed her. He trusted few people's instincts as much

as his own, but she was one of them. Josie was a darn good soldier. He'd implied otherwise on their last

mission, and maybe he owed her an apology.

From what she'd said before, she hadn't forgotten his frustration-induced words, but the apology would have to come later.

"Any ideas on who did it?" he asked.

"No, but I'm going to find out."

"I'm going to help."

"It's not your problem."

"It is. I'm half owner of the school now."

She sighed. "I'd forgotten. I'm sure Dad will understand if you want your investment back."

"I don't. I want to help you find out who tried to kill you and your dad and who blew up my new

business venture.""No one knew I was at the compound.""I knew.""You didn't set the bombs.""Of course not.""What I meant was, if no one knew I was there, then whoever did set the bombs weren't trying to harm me."

"Just Tyler."

"Right. We can't overlook the fact it happened during a hiatus between training camps.""Meaning?""Whoever it was didn't want unnecessary deaths on their conscience.""Or the chance of having witnesses.""It could be antiwar protestors, but the fact Dad was so clearly targeted pretty much rules that out.""You think they'd blow up some buildings, but stop at killing?""Yes.""With a few exceptions, I think you're right.""Since it happened when no one else was at camp, I also don't think it was targeted at the school in general.""It's got a personal feel to it.""Exactly.""So, you think it's linked directly to your dad?""I do, which makes his disappearance all the more worrisome.""Josie, if you can't find him, you can bet his enemies can't either.""But how will I know?""You'll just have to trust."

It was early light by the time they reached the compound.

It had been a quiet drive. Nitro didn't talk much anyway, and Josie got tongue-tied around him. The kiss hadn't helped any. Why had he done it?

He'd said he was glad she wasn't hurt. Was it like a kiss of relief? Whatever his motives, he'd turned her inside out and hadn't even seemed to notice. He must be used to kissing lots of women, only that didn't ring true. Nitro was too private to sleep around indiscriminately, but even if he'd been with only one woman, and that scenario was more unlikely than the first one, he was ahead of her in experience.

However, despite that lack of experience and all that had happened in the last few hours, her first reaction to him-before he'd ever kissed her-had been violent physical need. Being next to him in the close confines of the SUV for over an hour had her senses on complete overload. It wasn't a good situation.

She was tired and likely to betray her feelings to a man who despised her.

She wished she could think of some way to get him to let her conduct the investigation alone, but he took his responsibilities seriously. And the minute her dad had become Nitro's partner, the Mercenary Training School and Tyler McCall had become two more things Nitro took responsibility for.

She climbed out of the car, the lack of sleep making itself known in the stiffness of her limbs. She wasn't tempted to stretch out the kinks, though, not after the way she'd reacted to Nitro watching her do it before. She could swear he had been looking at her chest, but there wasn't a whole lot there for him to see. At least there hadn't been until her nipples got hard.

She didn't want to know what he'd thought when he'd seen that, but his expression alone had burned through to the core of her.

Trying to forget the peculiar things Nitro made her feel, she turned toward the decimated compound.

The fire service had been and gone. She could see signs of their obviously successful efforts to put out the fire, but she was glad no one was there to question her. The FBI, and probably the ATF too, were probably already on their way, but she hoped she and Nitro would get out of there before the authorities arrived. There would come a reckoning, but she would avoid it as long as she could.

She started toward the wreckage, her senses on full alert. Of its own volition, her hand reached out to touch a piece of charred wood, and her mind went to that place it did when she focused on a bomb, trying to feel its composition.

Daniel watched Josie go into her woo-woo mode, and d.a.m.ned if it didn't turn him on.

Everything about her excited him, and it made him mad. He didn't like being out of control, and when he was around Josie McCall, his hard-won control was under a constant state of siege. Bent over, her sweet little bottom was outlined by the fatigues she wore, and she touched the burned debris with the sensual caress of a lover. He wanted that caress on his body.

Get your mind on the task at hand, boy-o. You don't have time to focus on that heart-shaped a.s.s right now or the way she touches some burned-up piece of wood.

With a grimace of self-disgust, he obeyed his inner urgings to focus on the destroyed compound.

Whatever had been used, it had been effective. No walls were left standing, and the fire had destroyed pretty much everything before the fire service had been able to contain it. At least the woods surrounding the compound had not been affected. The fifty-foot expanse of dirt around the perimeter had made an effective fire barrier.

Tyler McCall was a man who prepared for every eventuality. Even someone trying to blow him up apparently. He'd been sleeping in a secret bedroom that students and faculty alike knew nothing about.