Javier (Alpha Heroes #12)

Chapter Five

Javier

The shortest route to get out of the country would’ve been a straight run south for the border. This is exactly what our enemies would expect. I wasn’t in the habit of giving my foes even the smallest advantage, so instead, I led the women east, retracing my infiltration route. This entailed a trek to reach the west shore of Lake Nicaragua.

Missy had no trouble negotiating the terrain, but the older women walking ahead of me slowed our pace. We might as well be worms crawling in the mud. Exiting the theater would’ve been much faster if I hadn’t taken on extra passengers, but it wasn’t as if Missy had given me the option.

I had other problems to deal with. Military patrols spread out, blocking the roads at every turn. It didn’t take a genius to know they’d arrived at the compound and found my kills stacked up in the well. They were looking for the nuns. Perhaps they were also looking for someone just like me.

I also knew from experience that the New World Order mercs were as relentless as a bad case of diarrhea. Every time we’d faced them, they’d always had backups to their backups. My bet? The turds only got paid upon completing the job.

This is why I had to assume that the four mercs that now rested at the bottom of the well would have reinforcements nearby. By now, the backup crew was probably aware of their personnel losses and on the hunt for Missy Astor.

What was better than one bunch of blood-thirsty assholes chasing us inside hostile territory?

Two bunches of assholes.

To make matters worse, while I trampled on with my senses at full alert, I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss that Missy had given me. She’d kissed me . How was that for a shocking development?

I was usually the one initiating the shenanigans, and only as a prelude to a few lusty hours. For a second, I’d wondered if she’d lost her mind when she first kissed me. Then I’d settled in nicely, enjoying the perfect fit of her smaller mouth beneath mine. I’d never been one to pass on a kiss or two from a pretty lady. I wasn’t gonna start now. Who was I to refuse such an awesome gift?

Then the impossible happened.

Mindwipe. For a few, precious seconds I forgot everything, including my name. All I could do was feel her; her tentative lips, yielding beneath mine; her fresh citrusy taste and her quickening breaths; her fit and soft body coming alive in my arms.

Hot damn . Shit like that had never happened to me before.

I’d forced myself back to alert mode quickly, but it had been a dangerous gamble to continue to kiss her. Truth be told, I hadn’t had the self-discipline to stop. I had no idea why she’d kissed me, but I knew one thing for sure. That kiss? It’d been the sweetest of my life.

It’d felt different—all-consuming, powerful, real, as if it had always been meant to happen. Recalling the rightness of it, I now pawed the spot beneath my vest where my heart had joyfully ballooned until my ribs could barely contain it.

The kiss had also set my blood sizzling like oil in a frying pan. At first, the heat had traveled beneath my skin like a whisper, getting louder as it sifted into my veins and headed south, turning into a scalding need that made me hard as rock. Right there, in the middle of the mission, no less. What the fuck was that about?

Keeping the women in front of me, I tackled the next hill and shook my head. The way my body had reacted to her had been feral. When I’d first looked into her eyes, I’d felt tipsy, lost in the depths of those chestnut irises. And when her little tongue prodded my lips and slipped into my mouth, I about lost it. The old cliché came to mind. She’d stolen my breath away. At the same time, somehow, she’d breathed new life into me. She’d felt right in my embrace, as if my arms had been built to hold her form and my mouth had been shaped to kiss her.

The touch of her lips hit me like a double shot of whiskey. Given that it took a lot to get me drunk, the sensation was completely unfamiliar. It was odd, but even now, as we walked, I longed to hold her again, to verify or negate the strange sensations that touching and kissing her unleashed in me. How fucked up was that?

Shake it off, Marine. Head in the mission.

An hour into our escape, when we’d put enough distance between us and the soldiers, Missy paused at the top of the hill and stared at the black clouds billowing from the spot where the compound had once been located.

“Can I borrow your binoculars?” she asked, so quiet and shy I could barely hear her.

“Are you sure?” I kept an eye on Sister Janet, who was guiding Sister Elsa a few steps ahead. “It’ll be a hard thing to watch.”

“I need to see for myself,” Missy whispered, veiling her moist eyes from me.

I’d dealt with her kiss. Then I’d dealt with the absence of her lips on mine and the crisp taste of her, lingering in my mouth. After that, I’d dealt with her stubbornness and her Astor pride. And yet I felt incapable of dealing with her tears.

I handed her the binos. “Sixty seconds.”

She aimed the glasses at the burning orphanage. As she adjusted the magnification, her lips pressed into a white line. Her throat bobbed, but she didn’t cry. She was stronger than people gave her credit for.

“Time to go,” I reminded her at a murmur.

“Yes, of course.” She sniffled and handed me the glasses. “Exactly as I dreamed it.”

“What did you say?” I asked, wrangling the binoculars back to their place in my vest.

“Nothing.” Her face flushed, and she whirled around and followed the nuns.

She tried to hide her emotions from me, but I caught a glimpse of the grief that haunted her eyes. I didn’t know why, but it punched me smack on the nose. She looked as pale and terrified as if she’d seen a ghost. I couldn’t explain why her sorrow clawed at my throat and left me hurting for her. Empathy had never been my forte. Experiencing it now felt new and not a little terrifying.

We spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon skirting around roads and towns, keeping out of sight. We detoured several times to avoid soldiers. The women were silent. The burning of the orphanage had chastened even Sister Janet’s sharp tongue.

Missy was especially quiet. She’d been articulate upon meeting me, determined and vocal, but now it was obvious she preferred silence to my specialty, idle talk. Since maintaining operational silence suited me just fine at the moment, I had plenty of time to study her.

She channeled most of her energy into taking care of her friends. Her silence didn’t fool me. Her gaze shone with intelligence as she took in the world around us. I’d bet a million bucks her mind was always in motion. She was a deep thinker.

At the edge of an old, decrepit hacienda, I halted. I took off my helmet, hooked it to my ruck, and, leaving it in the women’s care, made a quick detour. I came back with some clothes from the line and handed Missy the bundle.

“Here you go,” I said. “You all need to change.”

She glanced from the clothes to me and frowned, a meeting of auburn brows that expressed all kinds of displeasure. “Did you steal these clothes from those poor people?”

“What the hell did I do to deserve this?” Not bothering to hide my annoyance, I looked up at the sky and raised my hands before I returned my stare to her. “Have you forgotten about our current designation as fugitives? If I had to steal clothing to make you safe, I would.”

“But those people need their—”

“Hold your horses.” I stopped her mid-sentence. “No need to throw a hissy fit. I left some money clipped on the line and my machete for their future use. It alone more than covers the cost of that old stuff. I’m not a goody two shoes, but I’m also not a thief. So, stop looking at me as if I’m a criminal. I’m not. Even if I’ve been to jail.”

She blinked several times. “You’ve been in jail?”

Me and my big mouth.

“Never mind.” I shouldered my ruck. “Get dressed. All of you.”

“I will not give up my habit.” Sister Elsa came to her feet with Missy’s help. “We’re the Lord’s warriors. Why should we give up our uniform when you’re wearing yours?”

“There are a lot of soldiers in this country.” It seemed I was cursed to have to explain my every thought to my little B Team. “My uniform is designed to look like theirs. You three, on the other hand, you stick out like three sore thumbs on one freakish hand.”

“But—”

“Not done, Sugar Pie.” I squelched Sister Elsa’s protests. “Some things are hard to hide. Like nuns, for example. The equation is simple. Nun plus habit plus this country equals dead nun.”

“I hate to agree with him, but he’s not wrong.” Missy surprised me. She distributed the clothes to the nuns, then grabbed the hem of her jumper and pulled it over her head. “Let’s hurry.”

I ran my gaze up and down her body. Beneath that baggy excuse for a dress, Missy wore an outfit that showcased her elegant, efficient beauty. Her spandex leggings embraced a small waist, a tight, perky ass, and a pair of lean thighs that anchored her shapely legs. Her T-shirt embraced the smooth curves of her torso, revealed her flat belly, and hugged her small breasts within the outline of her bra.

“Hey.” Her pointed glare forced me to tighten my slack lips. “What are you staring at?”

The words blurted out of my mouth. “Under that shitty dress, you’re quite the stunner.”

“Stop making fun of me,” she snapped, stuffing her jumper in her backpack.

“I wasn’t making fun of you,” I said. “Just speaking the truth, plain and simple.”

“Right.” She yanked on her bag’s zipper and closed it.

She didn’t believe me.

“You gotta trust me on this.” I opened my big mouth again, because apparently, I wasn’t able to keep it shut when facing Missy’s discontent. “I’ve been with tons of women—”

“I bet.” She rolled her eyes.

“They were all beauties, all shapes and forms.” If I was already knee deep in trouble, I might as well keep going and make my point. “Curvy, busty, assy, you name it, I’ve seen it. But you, you’re really pretty, Angel, and I mean that in the most wholesome way.”

If her eyes had been loaded with ammo, the glower she aimed in my direction would’ve made a colander out of me a second before I died.

“ Wholesome ?” Sister Elsa winced and turned her face toward Sister Janet. “Goodness gracious. His biscuit’s not done in the middle, is it?”

“The feek’s got no sense at all,” Sister Janet agreed. “He’s sharp as mashed potatoes.”

“What are you talking about?” I looked from one woman to the other. “It’s true.”

“You might want to stop talking now.” Missy’s eyes glinted with angry flecks of orange. “You’re wasting air.”

I shook my head, not a little confused. For a sweet angel, she had a temper and liked to use it on me. And here I’d tried to compliment her.

Well, maybe I’d been an idiot, and the nuns were onto something. Mentioning tons of women had probably been a mistake. I could’ve also done without the curvy, busty, assy part, but then again, I was an honest, plain speaker. Bottom line, I’d offended her, and now she was pissed at me. I gave myself a mental kick in the ass.

“Let’s change,” Sister Elsa said.

Sister Janet snapped a dress in the air and shot me a glower. “What are ye looking at, ye big oaf? Turn around, will ye?”

I did as she asked and blew out an exhale. Three women against one guy?

Not even a contest.

“I’ll take the lead.” Missy stomped forward, pounding her feet on the trail.

“Stop,” I ordered. “You stick with the group unless I say otherwise.”

She shot me a glare over her shoulder, but at least she paused. “You enjoy your power plays, don’t you?”

“No power plays,” I ground out, reacting to her lingering fury. “You’re my mission. My job is to keep you safe.”

“I’m your mission,” she repeated, her tone acid. “Your ‘wholesome’ mission. Thank God I won’t be your mission for long. Heck, maybe I won’t even be wholesome forever.”

It was more words than she’d said to me since we left the compound, and for whatever reason, they left me feeling like the biggest, meanest, dumbest jerk in the world.

I pushed hard for the lake. As we entered the jungle again, I motioned for Sister Janet to take point so I could keep an eye out for a rear attack. The gutsy nun trudged on with my gun in her hand. Missy and Sister Elsa followed on her heel. The vision-impaired nun had insisted she could navigate this smoother part of the trail on her own two feet with her cane and a little help from Missy. True to her profile, Angel had immediately offered her arm.

I hadn’t lied. Her body had the succinct, streamlined shape of a runner. Bringing up the rear, I had the best angle on her ass. How was I supposed to not look at her gorgeous little ass when she was so innocently waving it at me?

I was a great admirer of the female body in all its forms, but I usually liked my women sultry, spicy, and as lewd as me. It made my life’s mechanics work smoothly and without jams. Missy wasn’t sultry, spicy, or lewd. She was completely different from every other woman I’d ever been attracted to. She should’ve had zero effect on me.

Why then, couldn’t I take my eyes off her?

Wearing sneakers, she could be any eco-tourist wandering the countryside. She’d put her thick auburn hair up. Her long pony tail swung back and forth as she advanced, yet another distraction I had to fight to do my job.

The sun pierced through the canopy, deepening her hair’s fiery reds. The afternoon light loved her, encasing her figure in a striking radiance. As we moved out of the shadows, a sunbeam kissed her face and gleamed over her profile like a magical shimmer. The lines of her oval face made me think of softness incarnated. Her cheeks were downright cherubic. Her nose was a cute button perfectly drawn over her well-defined mouth, as small, pink, and plump as a rosebud.

What the hell?

Not even in my wildest dreams would I’ve used the term “rosebud” to describe anything, and yet here I was, “rose budding” my way to catastrophe.

As I’d prepared for this mission, I’d memorized every photo of Missy that her sister Thena had provided to me. The guys had thought Missy was another Astor looker. The problem was that the pictures of Missy Astor had failed to capture the subtle impact of her expressions, the golden fire that surrounded her pupils, and the devastating impact of her long silences. On paper, she looked cute but one-dimensional. In real life, she was anything but.

It was as if she hid her obvious intelligence behind her demure exterior, her sex appeal behind her innocence, and her power inside her delicate form. She didn’t like me, wasn’t even trying to seduce me, and yet, when I remembered her kisses, my dick stiffened.

Oh, fuck. Here I was, sweating under my gear, trekking through the hot and humid jungle, keeping my senses alert, and hard as granite.

I had to stop this. She was my mission. It was as simple as that. All I had to do was get my horny under control and take her home and yet, somehow, it didn’t feel that simple.