Falling Hard Read online

  West broke away. One hand went to his gun. The other went to her mouth. “Don’t move.”

  He pushed her behind him, into the corner and against a cabinet. Without being told, she slid down, probably on instinct. The woman’s sense for combating danger continued to impress him.

  West was ready for battle. Would fire without any guilt.

  Adrenaline pumped through him as his body readied for battle. He got the whole way to the back door before he lowered the gun.

  “What?” Her harsh whisper carried across the small room.

  This time he’d seen a shirt and the hair. “This isn’t an enemy.”

  As West said the words, Josiah came through the front door. “I thought you saw me, mostly because you didn’t shoot.”

  “You were making enough noise for even a novice to pick out your location.” The comment wasn’t true, but West was looking to stall, not win a debate.

  Josiah looked from West to Lexi and back again. “Bad timing?”

  Lexi stood up as she answered. “Yes.”

  “No,” West said at the same time.

  Josiah shook his head as he lowered his gun. “You Americans are never dull.”

  6

  THIS WASN’T exactly how Lexi pictured the day going when she woke up this morning. Set a few broken bones, talk to hikers about general first aid, convince the one with a breathing issue to reconsider a climb up one of the world’s deadliest mountains.

  That was the usual stuff. Bandages, stitches, broken bones, and common sense climbing talk. As the season progressed, she’d have to worry about hypoxia and frostbite. Possibly deal with death. But today was supposed to be a normal day.

  No one clued her in about armed men landing on her doorstep. Certainly no one warned her how she could lose all her father had built by doing what she believed to be the right thing.

  And no one prepared her for West. Big and objectively scary, though that initial impression faded fast. Those hands and that kiss . . . yeah, forget dating studious guys. Her type might have just changed forever.

  Josiah nodded toward the front door. “I can come back.”

  West still hadn’t put his gun away. “Shut the fuck up.”

  Not the most flattering response to a kiss, but Lexi decided to stay quiet. If the big clench only affected her and not him, which she did not think was possible unless the guy had a “faking it” skill on his undercover agent résumé, fine.

  “No one is going to believe this.” Josiah shook his head as he leaned against the small table in the kitchen.

  “No one is going to hear about this,” West said in a voice that promised a whole lot of pain.

  Josiah closed one eye as if he was thinking about it. “Is that accurate?”

  “You want to die?”

  She’d had just about enough of this nonsense. “I can hear you two. I am standing right in front of you.”

  They acted as if she had a horn growing out of her head. Sure, she might not be a supermodel, but she didn’t have fangs or walk bent over with her knuckles dragging against the ground. West could calm down, and he’d be wise to do that soon.

  Instead he had the nerve to frown at her. “I know.”

  For whatever reason, that simple answer struck a match and set her brain on fire. “Then maybe stop acting like kissing me is equal to the plague.”

  “Wait, you did kiss?” Josiah stood up and moved between West and Lexi. “While on assignment?”

  West shoved Josiah right back down. “One more question and I bury your body at the base camp of K2.”

  From his smile, Josiah looked prepared to keep ribbing. “But I thought you hated the cold.”

  She’d been about to jump in again, maybe threaten to bang their heads together, when she heard that. The comment struck her as odd since it referenced a guy who kept talking about his knowledge of the area.

  “Then why has he been up there before?” Her gaze went to West. “Care to answer that?”

  “Has he?” Josiah asked in a voice filled with sarcasm.

  Now she had no idea what was happening. Every time she thought she’d gained a bit more insight into West, something happened to slam the door shut again. The guy had her patience crumbling and her anger in free-fall.

  “The map to the encampment, Lexi. Now.”

  And the ordering around thing had her back teeth slamming together. She was about to tell him when Josiah butted in.

  “That’s going to have to wait.”

  West opened his mouth, but she asked first. “Why?”

  “I’ve lost contact.”

  “Fuck.” West shook his head as he stared at the floor.

  The guy had ample opportunity to lose his temper over the last few hours but hadn’t. This was as close as he’d come, and he contained even this small blowup. Not bad for a guy she viewed as lethal and dangerous.

  But since he reacted to Josiah’s news, she guessed she should be in a full-fledged panic. Good thing she didn’t really do that sort of thing very often. “I take it losing contact with whomever is a really bad thing.”

  West’s expression went blank. “No, it happens all the time. Don’t worry.”

  If that was his idea of consoling her, it needed work. Really, his people skills were about a D minus. Though it was kind of sweet that he tried. “Then why is your voice strained?”

  Josiah balanced his palms on the table behind him. “I kind of like her.”

  “Spend some time with her.”

  She chose to ignore that shot from West. Maybe he got grumpy postkiss. She had the opposite reaction, so she could be tolerant for a few minutes. But she was pretty sure he’d use up her goodwill soon and looked at Josiah.

  “Maybe I should go with you instead of West.” Though the idea of separating from him made something shrivel inside her.

  “Definitely not.” West snapped out the response with a glare.

  Josiah smiled. “Fascinating.”

  The glaring continued for a few more seconds, then West’s shoulders relaxed. He put the gun away and his hands went to his hips. “What’s the plan?”

  “I do an emergency drop with the guys—”

  “Who?” She winced after she interrupted. Now that they were finally talking about something other than the kiss, she should let them go back and forth. But there were so many blanks, and she’d never figure this out without pushing them around a bit.

  If West was ticked off he hid it well. He shot her a quick glance. “The other members of his team.”

  “Two of them,” Josiah said. “The fourth is on hold in Islamabad.”

  The way she counted, that meant five, but since Josiah actually answered questions and with him around West didn’t change the subject—and she did not want either of those things to stop—the proper count could wait until later. “On hold for what?”

  West shook his head. “Nothing.”

  They’d made a tiny bit of progress and then West did that. She guessed that was the more typical response for civilians for these two. “That thing where you guys talk in half sentences? It’s annoying.”

  Josiah swallowed a smile before looking at West. “I’ll connect with the team and headquarters. You hunker down here while I see if I can fix the communication problem.”

  The pieces started to come together in her head. The threats, the man at the clinic, Raheel showing up . . . not good. “Does this so-called problem have anything to do with the men you guys attacked?”

  Josiah nodded. “Smart woman for a ‘sort of’ doctor.”

  About that . . . “I’m smart no matter what I do for a living.”

  West rolled his eyes. “No kidding, but some guidance on what you actually do in Pakistan would be helpful. Nurse, maybe?”

  “No.”

  She searched her memory for the details she did provide. Not many. The idea of spilling her guts now, when West hadn’t provided one crumb about who he was, ticked her off. So she went with an abbreviated, little information versi
on. “My dad is the doctor. I work with him. There.”

  West’s eyes narrowed. “There?”

  She thought that explained enough, but from looking at their frowns maybe not. It was a sensitive subject for her, and West wasn’t exactly coughing up details about his own life or his plans to get them out of this mess. She was happy to negotiate a settlement on this issue.

  “You tell me about the last time you were in Pakistan and I’ll talk about my life.” She knew West would ignore her, but satisfaction surged through her at being able to say it. “Deal?”

  “Draw the map.” He ground the words out between clenched teeth.

  “He says you don’t need it.” She pointed at Josiah. “Isn’t he in charge?” Then the possibility hit her that she’d been reading the situation all wrong. She turned back to West. “Oh, God. You’re not the leader, are you?”

  Josiah laughed. “She looks horrified. More so than when we killed her attacker in front of her.”

  “I’m not denying it.” Yeah, the idea of West leading a group of people made her question the group the government sent to find her and track down the weapons. He was strong and commanding but blended in and listened. She couldn’t see him moving pieces around and sticking with an administrative job.

  “A man came to the clinic and tried to hurt you. Your pal Raheel tried to drag you away.”

  “Who?” Josiah asked.

  “Pakistani army.” She figured she’d spill it all. “West here knocked him out.”

  West shrugged. “Went for the larynx so he’d have trouble talking for a few days.”

  “Wait.” Josiah stood up straight again, as if leaning against the table made being in the guy’s house worse. “You know two men in the Pakistani army?”

  “I do live in Pakistan part of the year.” Seemed obvious to her.

  “If we could go back to my point.” West stepped right in front of her. Those shoulders blocked everything else. “Don’t you think, maybe, you have information that puts you in danger?”

  “Possibly.” It didn’t take a medical degree or even a general knowledge of addition and subtraction to figure that one out. Maybe someone heard her relay the emergency message or saw her sneaking around the edges of the encampment.

  West kept up that menacing stare. “Then ‘maybe’ you could follow orders.”

  “Smooth.” Josiah said the word over a fake cough.

  “She knows I’m right.” West never broke eye contact with her as he said it.

  As if that made it better. They acted like she wasn’t even in the room. “ ‘She’ can speak for herself.”

  “We have a lot of people roaming around and caravans of weapons. We don’t have time to waste on finding the rest of the team,” West said to Josiah, as if she hadn’t spoken.

  Leaving men behind. She was pretty sure every movie she’d ever seen said that was a bad move. “That’s kind of bloodthirsty.”

  “No, he’s right.” Josiah waved her concerns off. “Or would be if the comm hadn’t cut out. We’re fighting blind, and I think that means we have company.”

  “What?” She wasn’t sure exactly what to ask but knew his comment didn’t sound good.

  West answered. “More bad guys are coming.”

  She was starting to have some trouble telling all the players apart. “You’re the good guys, right?”

  He winked at her. “Count on it.”

  She pretty much was.

  When Tasha called, Ward and Harlan answered. They walked into her office ten minutes after receiving the emergency command to find her standing by the window . . . or what would be the window if secure government offices could have those.

  Instead, a painting hung there, and not a very good one. Looked like a countryside, and Ward couldn’t imagine Tasha sitting still for two minutes to visit a place like that.

  With the big desk and bookcases filled with binders, the room looked professional. Ward hated the office. It was fussy and orderly. There were rules and people in suits. Not his thing at all. Not Tasha’s either, but she played the game and kept them all in business.

  She turned and acknowledged them with a small nod. Before anyone could say anything, she lifted a slim file off the corner of her desk and handed it to him. “You’re going to Islamabad.”

  “Okay.” From the flatness in her eyes and the chosen location, Ward knew this wasn’t going to be a fun trip.

  “Why him?” Harlan scoffed and managed to make it sound haughty and British. “No offense but we could grab a guy off the street and have him shoot better.”

  “How could I be offended by that?” Ward wanted to be but it was the truth. Having a stake driven through his hand on his last job in the field messed up the muscles and confined him to a desk. Go figure.

  “You’re going, too.” Tasha let out one of those sighs that said she was not happy with how a meeting was going. This time it was aimed at Harlan. “You were stationed in Pakistan. You know the players and have some old contacts. Use the plane ride to communicate with them.”

  “About what exactly?” he asked.

  “Your job is to find Josiah, extract this doctor’s daughter, and then come up with the strategy to track those weapons and the person moving them.”

  Since that was exactly what they’d all been doing for the last twenty hours, Ward suspected he had a schedule opening headed his way. “Am I serving drinks on the plane?”

  “You’re watching Pearce. He’ll be going with you.”

  That explained the look on her face.

  “No fucking way.” The words came out before Ward could think them through or contemplate how furious she would be about the accidental dress-down.

  From the flat line of her mouth and stiff shoulders, Ward guessed the answer was pretty damn angry.

  “Sorry.” Harlan grabbed the file and paged through it. “I have to agree with Ward on this one.”

  Which never happened. It was enough to get Ward rethinking his initial response.

  Not that Tasha was giving them a choice. She slid into the chair behind her desk as she issued her orders. “We need Pearce on this. He knows too much about West’s location and assignment.”

  Ward hated that. “He could be guessing.”

  “It would be a damn good guess.” She shook her head. “No, get him to talk. Let him think he’s in charge.”

  Harlan was already shaking his head. “Too risky.”

  Very much so, but Ward understood her. He got how she thought, and this could work. “You want me to play him.”

  The corner of her mouth lifted but the small smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Exactly.”

  Harlan wasn’t done fighting. He went around the side of Tasha’s desk and stood right next to her. “We can’t give him what he wants. He’s trained. We get him out and he’ll run.”

  The plan formed in Ward’s mind. It only took him a second to realize that, injury or not, he got the better part of this assignment. “Only if we want him to.”

  This time she did smile. Wide and sincere. “And don’t bring him back unless it’s in pieces or in a box.”

  “What about the intel he supposedly has?” Harlan asked, because those were the types of things he worried about.

  “He’s not worth it.” She continued to look at Ward. “Bleed the information out of him then take him out.”

  Man, he loved this woman. “Yes, ma’am.”

  West and Josiah stood outside of Javed’s house. They’d conducted a sweep, scanned the area before deciding they were alone.

  Lexi waited inside, drawing her map. West had other worries now. Cutting the team’s communication was no easy job. If someone was blocking signals, that meant they knew there was a team on the ground and in play. Which could cause the person at the encampment to move and try to hide the weapons.

  They knew so little. Lexi provided some details in her initial reporting. West intended to get more out of her. But they had other problems to deal with.

  “You need to
run checks on Javed Gul and Raheel Najam.” He wanted every detail on both of them. Lexi trusted them but that didn’t mean he did. “Alleged Pakistani helicopter pilots.”

  Josiah’s eyebrow rose. “You’re doubting?”

  “Raheel tried to take Lexi away. Made it sound like it was for her protection.” That one smelled wrong. West would bet Raheel worked for someone in addition to the army. Someone who wanted Lexi to be quiet. “I’m not buying it.”

  “And you’re neutral when it comes to her.”

  The tone annoyed West. He might suck at reading people but he understood sarcasm. You had to in Alliance or you’d be trounced daily. “I think you’re trying to make a point.”

  Josiah leaned against the side of the house and stared out into the trees beyond. “Do I need to give you the talk?”

  West thought they were already having one. “About?”

  “Do not have sex with the asset.” Josiah faced West then. “I mean, come on. I expect to give one of the other guys that speech, but you?”

  West wasn’t interested in the playboy lifestyle but he didn’t like the suggestion he didn’t know which end of a condom to use. “I have sex.”

  “On the job?”

  Never. He’d never even been tempted . . . until Lexi. A few hours with her and his common sense took a hike. Fucking fickle thing.

  “No, I generally spend my workday infiltrating hostiles’ hiding places and grabbing them. Doing a lot of shooting.” He played the enforcer and it worked for him. He’d been raised to come out fighting, but for Alliance the fighting had a bigger purpose and that made all the difference.

  “I don’t mean to sound like your father, but—”

  “There’s no way that could happen.” West shut that line of thinking down as quickly as possible. Acer Brown had not been a man to give advice. Not good advice. His life centered on the Future of Tomorrow, the compound in a forgotten corner of Montana. A sex talk would have been a waste of his time.

  Josiah had to know about his past. That’s the way it worked. Harlan and Ward picked the teams, and the leaders of each—Josiah and Ford—had final say on each member. That meant reviewing files and backgrounds. That meant Josiah knew that he’d grown up in a doomsday cult.