Mountain protector mt op.., p.4
Mountain Protector (MT Ops Book 1), page 4
She nodded and tugged one arm free of the strap. When she moved, the tendons strained across her shoulder and the front of her arm.
Ohhh, that hurt.
Just what she didn’t need—an injury. Such a strain could set her back for weeks on the slopes, and there was no time to spare with Olympic trials around the corner.
She didn’t have time to worry about straining the tendons further because Rafe gripped the pack and swung it off her like it was filled with clouds.
She examined the bulky packs he carried strapped to his huge body and wondered if he really needed the break. Twin lines extended between his brows, but he didn’t show exhaustion the way most people did.
“You don’t look as tired as you should after shouldering two of those.” She pointed at her own backpack.
He sliced an amused look at her but said nothing. Instead, he dropped onto one knee in the snow and unzipped her backpack. He swiped a big hand through the interior pocket and came out with a pair of gloves.
“Put these on. They’ll be too big for you, but at least you’ll keep all your fingers.”
She accepted the gloves from Rafe and slipped them on. Immediately, her chilled fingers thanked her. The hand warmer had helped, but she didn’t even realize how frozen they were until they were encased in warmth.
He straightened and shook off both his packs. Then he began searching through the contents, placing items in a pile next to the rock. When he withdrew a bunch of ammunition, Zoe sucked in a breath.
“There’s a handgun in the front pocket of your backpack. Do you know how to shoot?”
She sucked in a breath. “I’m not going to touch it.”
His brow creased but he said nothing.
“I think I have the right to know who you work for,” she said.
He stopped shoving all the ammo into the front pocket of one pack to look at her. “Let’s just say that there are enough people like those ones who blew up the resort running around these parts to call for people like me to fight them.”
“I knew you were black ops.”
He didn’t meet her gaze but his arched brow said enough.
Next he removed clothing from one pack. He held out a pair of snow camo pants, looked at them and then shook his head.
“Those will be far too big on you. They’ll only slow you down more.”
“More? I’m keeping up with you, aren’t I?”
From his kneeling position, he looked her over. Why did she feel his gaze linger on her hips?
“You stand out too much wearing that blue. But it can’t be helped right now. I’ll figure something out when we stop to camp for the night.” He stuffed the extra layers into the bottom of the other backpack.
“Well?” she pushed him. “Are you going to tell me who you work for?”
He pinned her in his gaze. “I’m ops.”
Though she’d guessed it already, her mind reeled with his confirmation. She expelled a shaky breath.
Guessing it and hearing it were two very different things. One scared her…and the other shot terror through her. It was the difference between being hungry and starving. Requiring escort from a special operative reminded her all over again of the danger she was in.
The low zip of Rafe securing the pack roused her from the dark tunnel of her thoughts.
When Rafe straightened, he had only one pack centered between his bulky shoulders. The other he left abandoned next to the rock.
He tugged his own gloves on his hands.
She froze, mesmerized by the tight cloth sheathing those long, capable…deadly…fingers.
He’d fired on those men who shot at her and killed Richmond.
“Can you keep going?” His deep voice interrupted the loop in her brain between how him putting gloves on shouldn’t be hot and the danger they were both running from.
She nodded.
“Good girl.” His abrupt praise surprised her. So did his use of the word girl. She was far from girlish, being thirty and overly serious about life. But for some reason, the word heated her insides.
He pointed toward a spot high on the ridge. “See where that light is separating the shadows?”
She nodded.
“That’s where the trail starts. From there it’s easier walking, and when we can find a safe place to stop, we’ll rest for the night.”
She nodded and ignored the twinge in her shoulder as she shifted her pack into place. “I’m ready.”
The next leg of the upward climb was tedious. Strenuous. And more terrifying than Zoe would ever admit to Rafe or herself.
She was strong and few things bothered her, but everything was even more slippery and frozen at this altitude. Her oxygen levels were depleting faster, which slowed them down. Lucky for him, Rafe didn’t say a word about their progress. She was physically fit, but a lift took her up mountains and she slid down them on skis. She didn’t spend a lot of time making her lungs work this way.
Occasionally, Rafe stopped and raised a set of binoculars to his eyes to scan the area they’d just covered. Each time, she found herself holding her breath and waiting for guns to fire until he lowered the binoculars again.
By the time they reached the place where she guessed the trail started, the sun was fading. She steadied herself on the ridge and faced the section of mountain they’d just climbed.
“Oh my god.” Awe echoed in her voice.
The view from the top was breathtaking.
He stepped up beside her, close enough that she felt his body heat through her clothes.
A crack rang out. Snow shuddered on the branches of a nearby tree.
Then Rafe threw her to the ground.
She gulped back a cry as two men seemed to manifest out of the very snow and gray rock they were standing on.
Rafe swung his weapon up and shot one. She twisted her gaze away but blood spattered the ground.
“Drop your weapon!” he roared at the one left standing.
A grim laugh carried on the wind, and Zoe’s blood ran cold. Goosebumps rolled over her, and her stomach bottomed out. After all she’d done to escape, she was still going to die up here.
Her parents would lose another child. Regrets flooded her. All those holidays and birthdays she’d missed sharing with her parents because she was traveling to train on the best slopes in the world.
Hot tears threatened, but she battled them down. Crying would do her no good right now. They wouldn’t help Rafe.
His body was a wall in front of her, shielding her. But it also made him a bigger target.
In one swipe of an arm, he shoved her. Already on her knees, she tipped and careened backward. Her body hit hard, thrusting the air from her lungs. She tried to suck it back in, but she couldn’t find any as she rolled down the slope, out of control.
Another bellow blasted through her mind. Rafe was yelling at their attacker. Maybe more than one had popped up out of the snow and were even now circling him like wolves on the hunt.
But Rafe was no rabbit. He was the predator.
She landed hard, with her head inches from a tree. She’d lost a glove and hot pain seared through her shoulder.
The sensation forced her lungs to open again, and she dragged in gasping breaths while trying to roll onto her hands and knees. She strained to hear what was going on up on the ridge above but only the whoosh of wind in the branches reached her.
Rafe!
She swayed to her feet, bracing her arm over her chest to alleviate the pain.
A shot split the air. She couldn’t hold back her cry and attempted to run up the hill, but she didn’t make it more than two steps before she realized it was too steep to navigate. Looking up, she wondered how she managed to miss all those trees on her tumble down. She could have split her head open.
Those men were on the mountain. How had they found her? They’d made good time—great, maybe. But they were already up here, lying in wait.
“Zoe!” The deep voice was one she’d only known for half a day, but she’d recognize it anywhere.
“Rafe! I’m here!”
She looked up and his head appeared over the top of the high ridge.
“Fuck! Are you hurt?”
Her shoulder was agonizing, and using it to pull herself up would make it worse, but she called, “No!”
“It’s too steep for you to climb back up. I’m coming down. We’ll find another trail. Sit tight. I’m coming.”
She sank to her knees to wait. A second later, he started down the incline, carrying both of their packs.
She shuddered. She didn’t even realize hers had fallen off. Visions of that blood on the snow left her feeling queasy and disoriented. She wasn’t squeamish when it came to broken legs and dislocated shoulders in the skiing wipeouts she’d seen. But blood?
She scrubbed her glove over her face, letting the cold sink into her pores and bring her back to her senses.
Rafe continued toward her, his features set in a hard expression that told her nothing about what he was thinking or feeling. She scoured his body for blood and to her relief, saw none.
When he came within a few steps of her, she shoved to her feet and caught onto a tree to steady herself.
“Took you long enough, Sheppard.” Her voice was a little raspy. “I got down here much faster.”
His eyes glinted and then he did something she never expected to see at all from the steely man, let alone after what just happened to them.
Those full lips quirked at the corner—then he smiled.
The breath punched from her lungs again, though not with the same intensity she’d lost it before. God, the man was as stunning as that view from the top that they barely got a chance to appreciate before all hell broke loose.
He reached out a hand to her and wrapped his fingers around her upper arm. “Are you all right?”
“Fantastic.” She was still a little breathless, but not from fear. The way he was looking at her, with concern and something akin to appreciation, threw her even more off balance than she’d been while rolling down the mountain.
Rafe stood beside her close enough to rip a shiver down her spine.
“You’re cold. Let me find you a jacket.” He lowered her pack to the ground and rummaged in the bottom.
Taking it, she whispered, “Thanks.”
“Once darkness falls, you’ll really need it. We’ve got more layers for you, and the tent will protect us from the worst of the wind.”
Tent. That meant sleeping together, because she was not sleeping alone in the wilderness.
“Are you going to tell me what happened up there?” She slipped her arms into the sleeves, gritting her teeth at the pain in her shoulder.
His eyes fixed on her. With a hard jerk, he zipped the flap of the pack. “No.”
“Well…are they…dead?”
“Yes.”
“You killed them?”
“Yes.” His voice became a monotone that sent a shudder down her spine.
“You’re certain there aren’t any more hiding out waiting for us?”
“Positive.”
“Can’t you give me anything more than one-word answers? I’m scared, Rafe.”
His head snapped up. When his stare hit hers, she watched the flint in their depths soften, then melt into…compassion?
Her heart gave a small jog. She sank to the ground next to him. “Can we take a minute to rest?”
She meant recover.
“Of course.” He sat next to her, shoulder to shoulder, facing down the slope that continued for what seemed to be forever.
“I’m sorry that happened,” he said after a long time.
“It wasn’t your fault!”
“No, but I’m out here to keep you safe, and I failed.”
“Failed? My god. You saved my life, Rafe. Saved both of our lives.”
He didn’t twitch a muscle. Only the hair falling over his forehead fluttered in the wind. “I don’t know how they got up here so fast. I don’t know how they knew we were here at all. I never saw any human tracks, only wolf.”
“Wolf!”
He swung his gaze to hers. “We’re safe from animals.”
But maybe not humans.
“They must have come up the other face of the mountain. I just can’t figure out how—” he broke off, eyes narrowing on her. “Do you have a satellite phone on you, Zoe?”
She slowly nodded.
“Give it to me.”
She bristled at his command but fumbled in her vest pocket for the device. When she passed it to him, he bit off a curse. Then he smashed it against the side of a tree. The phone splintered in his hand. He dropped it to the ground and crushed it under his boot in a violent stomp.
She gaped at him. “They tracked me through my phone?”
“Satellite phones are easy to hack and get the GPS location. Dammit. They can’t track us now, but this is the last pin they’ll receive. If someone comes looking, they’ll not only find our tracks but their dead buddies. Come on. We have to move.”
The angled set of his jaw frightened her. But not as much as the cold disconnect in his eyes. As she shouldered her pack, she longed for the moments Rafe had looked at her before, with softness and even concern.
For the first time she saw what her family members talked about when they discussed being in the military. She recalled conversations about men who lost all sense of reality and became machines without the ability to feel.
A new goal shimmered in her mind—to put that smile back on her protector’s face and the warmth back in his forest-green eyes.
Chapter Four
Rafe kept his gaze trained on Zoe’s back. Even a few feet ahead of him in the dark, he couldn’t see her features, but from what he could see, she had as much stamina as he did and they’d been walking for hours.
They had to keep going. He couldn’t take any more risks, and just because he’d killed two men didn’t mean more weren’t on the mountain.
Damn, this op had gone south quick. He didn’t have his team for backup—using his own satellite phone would alert more than the team to his location. True, he knew these mountains and he knew how to fight.
What he did not know was how to put the brakes on the changes he felt in himself.
Over the course of hours, he’d smiled more than he did in an entire month. He’d…felt things. Things besides fury. After he knocked her out of the way and she tumbled down the ridge, fear had fisted his heart.
Zoe walked straight ahead of him on a natural break through the trees. Her spine was rigid and her head high. She wore a knit cap that made him want to tug it off just to see her loose hair.
Or let it fall into his hands.
Bringing his attention back to duty, he kept his senses peeled for any noises that didn’t belong—and some sounds of wildlife that did. Until he secured camp for the night, he wasn’t going to be able to relax even the slightest bit.
He was used to moving in the darkness, but he had his team to rely on. He had enough skill to protect both himself and Zoe, which was good since he’d seen her recoil at the mention of the weapon in her backpack.
Once they circled the mountain, they hit deeper snow and paused to don snowshoes. The contraptions were difficult to get used to, and luckily Zoe already was skilled at using them so they made good time on the trail.
Looking up at the break in the trees, he picked out the glimmer of a star that could lead him if he were ever lost. By now, his team would be worried as hell, especially when they inevitably heard about Richmond. The vehicle he and Zoe hid would also have been found by now, which meant MT Ops also knew that Rafe had fled with the witness to the bombing.
They had all the training and experience he did—they’d know he took to the wilderness for safety. Even if he couldn’t get word to them, he was confident they’d find a way to locate him.
Dipping his head, he peered at the thick snow covering the track. He hadn’t seen any more signs of wolves, which was good. In these parts, it wasn’t unusual to hear of attacks now and then, and that was the last thing Zoe needed after all that happened.
Hell, he hated tears, but it worried him that she hadn’t broken down by now. The women he’d encountered would have been inconsolable a handful of times already. Zoe bottled it all up, not totally unlike himself.
“This is a good place to stop for the night.” His voice came out grittier, with an edge of strain it didn’t usually hold.
Probably because every few minutes his mind swayed to how the hell he was going to share a tent with his hiking companion.
The more he looked at her, the more he noticed how strikingly beautiful she was. From that thick hair and the way her brown eyes flipped from anger to worry based on what she was feeling in that moment, to how she never complained after walking for literal hours, the woman more than appealed to him.
In fact, she was driving him crazy. When she argued with him, he got the urge to crush his mouth over hers to stop the flow of words. And when she really got sassy, she planted her small, gloved fist on one hip. If only she knew how that action sparked fantasies rolling through his head, she’d stop.
And each time she reached a precarious spot on the rough terrain and stifled a little moan, his pants grew tighter.
He hadn’t been with a woman in a really long time. Most men would have picked up the first willing woman to slake his lust with.
Rafe? Hid from a world that would never, ever understand the things he’d done.
Zoe threw him a dirty look, which only had more need crawling through his groin. Facing the prospect of sleeping next to her was making him regret his decision to go months without sex.
Being attracted to Zoe was wrong on so many levels, but he was a red-blooded man like any other. If Tripp, Denver or any of the other guys were here, they’d be jabbing each other in the ribs and sharing raised eyebrows.
Add in the fact that Zoe was tough and competent, with a mouth on her and a level of sexy sass, and any man would be vying for her attention.
She turned to face him. The moonlight gleaming through the trees painted strokes of pale blue on her high cheekbones and the full bow of her upper lip. Even in the dark, he could make out her beauty.
