There was only one way to find out.
She took a wrench and began smashing the cameras one at a time. As she got herself ready, she heard a series of footsteps approaching the door. This was the moment of truth. She just hoped she got the calculations right, or this wouldn’t be good news for her, either.
There was a heavy thump against the door, and then it burst inward as a body barreled through it. The guard hit the floor at Rollie’s feet hard, unconscious or dead, but she had barely a second to notice as a second figure hurtled through the door.
Rollie swung up her hastily constructed compressed air slug gun and prepared to fire. The slug gun was based on a product her company developed for the police that fired rubberized slugs that would be enough to cause a lot of pain to incapacitate a target, but not kill. It was designed for riot control, a lot safer than real guns firing rubber bullets.
However, this one wouldn’t be firing rubber bullets. Not that Rollie was thinking about incapacitation. All she could use as ammo were large ball bearings, and she was just fine with that. Given the size of the barrel and pressure of the gas, the metal balls would most likely only cause serious pain and injury. She would have preferred a kill setting, but physics and a lack of materials prevented her from getting her wish.
Her finger tightened on the trigger, and half expecting her gun not to work, she was about to shoot when she saw who the second figure was. Time seemed to stop.
“Day?” she murmured, not quite believing her eyes.
He stopped, his hands spread to the sides, gun held loosely with its barrel pointed upward. “Rollie, sweetheart, it’s me. Remember me? Saved your ass in that cabin?”
She heard him, but she didn’t quite understand. She lowered her weapon but still kept staring at him, half expecting him to be just a hallucination of her lovesick, twisted mind.
“How...?”
“Oh, a brave and daring rescue of the damsel in distress, of course.” His lips quirked in that crooked half smile she found so endearing, but as she studied him further, she could see the lines of strain around his mouth and eyes. She scanned him, noting the bulk of a bandage poking from the collar of the T-shirt under the body armor.
Realization came to her slowly, tugging at the corners of her lips into a smile that grew brighter with every second. But with her joy, something else quickly followed. She swung back and socked him right in the jaw.
Day rolled with the punch, but it snapped his head back. He rubbed his jaw and frowned at her. “Er…mind telling me what that was for?”
“I thought you were dead, you jackass.”
She opened her mouth to say more, but she couldn’t quite think of anything else, so she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly, burying her face into his solid chest. She couldn’t help but cry. She held him so tight. She was afraid he wasn’t really there, and to let him go would make him disappear.
“I thought you were dead,” she mumbled into his chest.
“Hey, hey. Don’t cry, angel. I’m harder to kill than that. I promise,” he whispered, his lips against her hair as he gathered her closer into his arms. It wasn’t comfortable, thanks to the bulky body armor, but she didn’t care. Her bruised heart ached for what she thought had happened, and what might have been, even as it soared to realize she’d been wrong. Day wasn’t dead. She had another chance.
A sound outside brought Day’s head up sharply, and Rollie murmured in protest. Here in his arms, she felt safe, and it was a heady feeling.
His lips brushed her temple again. “Sorry to rush you, but we need to get you out of here.” He let her go and starting to shrug out of the vest.
“No, you keep it on,” said Rollie as she gave them both some distance and gripped her slug launcher tighter. “You’re going to be the one at the front. You need it more.”
Chapter Nine
Day gritted his teeth. “You are, without doubt, the most frustrating woman on the planet,” he told her, still stripping out of the vest and ignoring the pain in his shoulder. The pad would be soaked through soon, if it wasn’t already, but it could wait. He had to get Rollie out of here first.
“Now, put the damn thing on.” He growled as he shoved it into her arms. “Or I’ll put it on you myself.”
The gentle expression on her face quickly turned into hostility as her own anger sparked.
“You can try, buddy boy, and then you’ll wish you were really dead.” She threw it back at him. “You just got shot and you’re in front. I can’t think of anyone who’d need that thing more than you.”
Day held out the vest. Fear for her coiled in his chest, and he wasn’t the kind of man who was good at the hearts and flowers crap. “I can,” he bit out. “The bloody, argumentative, pain-in–the-ass woman I’m in love with. Now, put the vest on…please.”
For the second time in five minutes, Rollie had the same expression of shock on her face.
“What…. What did you say?”
“He said to put the f**king vest on so we can get the hell out of here,” Edge retorted from the door as he peered in. “We’re supposed to be a rescue party. That doesn’t quite work when everyone is dead because two geniuses were having a lover’s quarrel over a goddamned vest.” He spared a glance at the moaning figure on the floor. “Either put him out my misery, or let’s get a move on.”
Day moved quickly, while Rollie still reeled from his statement and the appearance of Edge, and wrapped her in the vest. He smoothed the Velcro down her sides and kissed her. “I love you,” he whispered, catching her gaze with his. “Now, let’s get you out of here.”
One of her hands firmly in his, he turned back to Edge, glowering as the other merc glanced toward their hands and opened his mouth. “Say it, and you’re a dead man. You got a way out of here or wha—” He broke off as gunfire sounded outside. If he and Edge were in here…. “What the fuck?”
“Reinforcements, but they’re feds, so they could belong to anyone.” Edge grinned and reached into a pocket, withdrawing a credit card and holding it out to Day. “I suggest you take the little lady there and get her a new name, then take her someplace hot. I’ll find you when you’re free and clear.”
Rollie seemed to have recovered from Day’s declaration of love because as fast as Day was, she managed to snatch the card from Edge before he could.
“I’ll hang on to this,” quipped Rollie. “You wouldn’t want some airhead gym-bunny being in charge with it. He’d use it to buy light beer and reduced fat chips so he can keep his figure.”
Edge grinned. “Airhead. Vann, she’s got you figured, so don’t screw this up. Now, you two haul ass. Catch you on the flipside,” he said and then he was gone through the door. His lean figure disappeared up the corridor as Rollie and Day emerged from the lab.
“This way. We got a truck out back.” Day started up the corridor, his whole manner alert. They weren’t out of the woods yet, and he wouldn’t be comfortable until this place was in the rearview mirror.
Rollie followed him as they ran down the corridor. “Who was that?”
“Who was who?” Day asked over his shoulder as they turned the corner.
“You know, your friend back there?” She moved faster to keep up with him. “The one whose generosity we’re going to take full advantage of in a remote tropical paradise somewhere?”
“Oh. His name is Edge. He has other, less flattering names…ooph.” Day reeled back as a door slammed open and hit his shoulder hard. The pain radiated out through his body, and he staggered back, his pistol clattering to the floor. A heavyset figure stepped through the doorway, kicking his weapon out of reach.
“Well, well, what do we have here? The knight in shining armor? Oh no, that only works well in fairytales, doesn’t it?” Morrow jeered, leveling his gun at Day’s head.
Rollie raised her slug gun and pulled the trigger.
There was a loud pop and whoosh. The steel ball bearing from her slug launcher struck the dirty agent right in his chest, throwing him back against the wall. He collapsed to the floor in a wheezing heap as he struggled to breathe. His gun clattered out of his reach.
“How does that feel, sunshine?” Rollie retorted as she approached and gave him a swift kick for good measure. “That was for landing a good one on me, you a**hole.”
“And this is from me.” Day’s voice sounded behind her, and Rollie turned to find him, gun in hand, calmly aiming at the fallen man. “Step out of the way, Rollie, and let me finish this.”
She placed her hand over the top of the gun and gently pushed it down. “What would killing him accomplish? You’re only going to end the suffering he deserves and stain your soul in the process. You’re a good man, Dayton Vann. Don’t let this define who you are.” She smiled warmly at him. “Leave him, and let’s go.”
Epilogue
The warm sun beat down onto white sand, the heat radiating from it even into the shadows under the porch of the single beach hut on this stretch of the bay. Day sighed in contentment, angling his head back to make the most of the breeze coming off the water.
He was draped comfortably in a hammock, one bare foot hanging down to rock it gently. Wearing only a pair of board shorts, it was obvious a month of sun and relaxation had healed up the gunshot wounds to his arm and shoulder. Only fading scars remained now.
The sound of movement inside the beach house registered, and he cracked an eyelid open. “You’re awake.”
Rollie reached up and stretched her whole body, catlike, before stepping out to the porch with him. Dressed in a red string bikini set underneath a sheer, gauzy shirt, with her wide-brimmed straw hat and dark sunglasses, she looked very much like a beach bunny. However, the three-inch stiletto sandals were for just his benefit.
“I wanted to stay in bed longer, but you weren’t there.” She smiled at him as she strutted toward the hammock, heels tapping on the floorboards, and leaned in to share one of their frequent, passionate kisses.
“You snore. Had to come out here to get any rest at all,” he teased, grabbing her wrist and pulling her down into his lap in one smooth move. He stroked her cheek with his fingertips as he placed a kiss on her lips. Soft and gentle, quite at odds with the heated lust coursing through his body. “Because there’s this little minx in the bedroom at night. Insatiable, she is. Won’t let a poor guy alone.”
“I don’t remember you putting up much of a resistance, and as I recall, you were pretty much using each and every physical contact we had yesterday as a prelude.” She gave him a slow kiss and then nibbled on his lower lip.
She pulled back, bit her own lip, and smiled coyly at him while walking her fingers up his chest. “Though, can you really blame me? I had been missing out for more than two decades. It was about damned time I caught up. And with such a willing instructor, what more could I ask for?”
Day grinned and caught her fingers, bringing them up to his lips so he could kiss them one by one. “Well, you have been a very enthusiastic student, but I think a test is called for.”