Page 33 of Breaking Danger (Ghost Ops #3)

Warmth on his hand. He glanced down to see Sophie’s small hand over his.

Her hand was unusually warm, it seemed that heat spread up his arm, into his chest. He realized he’d been breathing shallowly, chest tight.

Now his lungs expanded as he drew in the soft, night sea air.

That touch somehow steadied him. He opened his hand, catching her fingers between his.

Enjoying the glow of heat that came from her, as steady as a flame.

“Sophie was right,” Elle said. “The infected are dying fast. They have no instinct of self preservation. I have been unable to observe any signs of infected being able to feed themselves or even drink water. That swarm in San Francisco? Judging from the thermal scans about one third of that swarm is already dead. The infected are in effect the walking dead, only they still have the power to inflict great harm.”

“What’s the lab’s capacity?” Sophie asked.

Catherine answered, checking her tablet. “About fifty thousand doses in a 24 hour period.”

Sophie frowned. “Any hope of another lab somewhere coming online?”

“Yes. Two people here know of labs that can be converted and brought online as soon as we have the staffing and can create secure conditions. Right now, nobody can be spared but we have forty Marines arriving tomorrow with their families. They’ve already volunteered for anything we might need them to do. ”

Mac looked up from his tablet. “Jon, we’ve just sent you the GPS coordinates of Robb’s compound.

Check the perimeter when you arrive and contact us when you’re secure.

We’re going to have to start pulling our drones, fuel is getting low.

I can’t keep 24-hour oversight for you when we also have to check for survivors.

When you’re secure for the day, we’ll call back the two drones watching you and I hope we can send them out again when you exfil. We’ll do our best, anyway.”

“Roger that,” Jon said. “Hooah.”

“Hooah.” Mac hesitated, then said something no military commander ever said before a mission.

An op was all about getting the mission accomplished.

All about grabbing what had to be grabbed.

Killing whoever needed killing. The mission was first and last. If someone died, that was simply the way it rolled.

No one ever talked about safety in the pre-mission briefing.

It was never about safety, it was all about doing the job.

But now it was a new ball game. “Stay safe,” he said.

Jon’s despair had been almost palpable as his people in Haven were putting together scenarios for the future. It had hung like a dark cloud around him. Just as despair had hung around him when he talked of his past, his parents. He’d suffered and survived so much.

Her touch was instinctive, as instinctive as if he had been grievously wounded and she’d moved to staunch the flow of blood.

As instinctive as when they’d talked about his past, back at her apartment.

He’d been wounded then, too, though with that tough-guy exterior he’d probably rather be shot in the face than admit it.

His voice had been laconic, emotionless.

And underneath the skin, his emotions were boiling—a mixture of rage and sorrow and despair.

Then she’d touched him and felt a form of healing begin.

That had never happened to her before, her gift used for spiritual illness.

It had never even occurred to her that she could do such a thing.

Maybe she could only do that with Jon. Maybe the sexual connection was so strong they were linked in some way.

She’d had sex before but never such intensely intimate sex.

For long moments, she’d lost the separation between them, the separation that exists between all human beings, closed up in their skins. For long moments, she’d felt part of him, beneath the skin, inside his heart.

That wasn’t a good thing. There was a reason people were separate, apart.

Such close links would be dangerous if they were common.

She’d been inside him, he’d been inside her, in the most intimate kind of way.

Not the connection of the flesh, which was easy, superficial. But a connection of the spirit.

It was dangerous. Someone who was inside you could rip you to pieces.

She shivered.

“Here.” Jon did something to the display panel and left the wheel. He rummaged in the cabin until he found a blanket, dragged a bench over and placed it behind the wheel, sitting her down on it. He draped the blanket around her and put an arm around her with an audible grunt of satisfaction.

Sophie knew exactly how he felt. Sitting next to him on the speeding boat, so close she could feel his body heat, his arm around her, felt good, felt… right. She tipped her head against his shoulder and felt his lips kiss her hair.

“Rest now. We’ve still got a long journey ahead of us.”

“Don’t you need to, um…” What was the word?

Drive felt wrong. “Pilot the boat?” She could hear the quaver in her voice and hated it.

The adrenaline of their escape was still coursing through her body.

The blanket was a lightweight, thermal blanket and she was warm underneath it, but the trembling wasn’t from cold.

Jon tightened his arm around her. “It’s on autopilot. See this?” He tapped a dial. She nodded. “Radar and IR and thermal scanner. We’re not going to run into any boats, even those adrift. We’ve got another nine or ten hours to go so I want you to relax, if you can.”

Relax? “How can I relax when?—”

He kissed her. He turned, took her in both arms and kissed her and kissed her.

One big hand held the back of her head, as if she might want to turn away when nothing on this earth would make her turn away.

His mouth was so delicious! Heat came off him like steam off an iron.

She’d been so cold up until a few moments ago.

The cold of fear, of adrenaline rushing through her system.

The cold even of despair, because there was no guarantee that they’d make it.

No guarantee that she could get the vaccine up to Haven.

She and Jon were willing to die to complete this mission and they might end up doing just that.

But she couldn’t think that as Jon kissed her. Kissed her as if his life depended on it. In a very real sense, her life certainly did. He pulled back, ran his thumb under her eyes. “You’re tired,” he said gently. “Rest.”

Sophie thought she could never rest again but she was wrong.

Leaning against Jon’s broad shoulder, she watched as the dark mainland drifted by.

With no light pollution the stars were bright, constellations she hadn’t seen in years decorating the sky.

The light from some of those stars was a million years old, before mankind had begun its journey.

And even if mankind ceased to exist, those same cold, bright stars would send their light across the vast expanse of the universe, forever. Uncaring about men.

The boat was steady, the sea calm. They arrowed their way silently through the water, hardly any spray lifting. Twice, a boom came from the mainland. Other than that, silence.

Everyone was so used to the sounds of civilization. Cars, generators, TVs. She wasn’t a camper, didn’t go trekking over the weekends. She was a city girl, used to city noises. This was the still silence not of peace but of a world breaking down.

Jon’s hand lifted from where it cupped her shoulder to run a long, calloused finger down her cheek.

And yet, and yet. The world was breaking down, yes, but there were some smart, strong people working hard to hold it together.

Like the man holding her. She looked straight ahead into the blackness, feeling his solid, warm strength along her side, feeling his strong hand caressing her cheek, playing with her hair.

A man she barely knew, and yet she knew him down to his core.

Knew the strength and honor in him. Knew that he was fearless, that he worked for the good.

She’d felt his pain when he spoke of the betrayal of his parents and what he thought had been the betrayal of the man he’d chosen to follow.

It had been as painful and as deep as any wound, any organic illness.

Most people, when grievously wounded, curled up and withdrew from the world.

It was the body’s natural reflex, to curl in on itself.

But not Jon. Jon had turned himself into a man of strength and he stepped forward, not backward.

There was so much she didn’t know about him. His tastes in music and movies. What kind of food he liked. How strong a sense of humor he had. How well read he was.

None of that really mattered, though, when measured against her understanding of his character.

Not to mention he was a god in bed.

That took her by surprise because Sophie didn’t really judge men by their prowess in the bedroom.

It was a nice extra if it was there, that was all.

But sex with Jon was…was overwhelming. Almost an extrasensory event.

Beyond the five senses, moving into a world beyond her ken.

The sheer power of the experience swept her away.

When he kissed her, caressed her, entered her, the world disappeared and there was only the two of them, an explosion of heat and light.

Life.

When they were surrounded by death.

Here on the vast dark ocean it was almost easy to forget for a few moments that the world was ripping itself apart.

Here, right now, under the vast star-filled sky, arrowing their way north, they could simply be a normal couple going on vacation, with no deeper concerns than the quality of the food at their destination.