Top Gun Tiger (Protection, Inc 7)

That made him feel a lot better. Dismissing whatever in-joke she’d decided not to tell him—it was probably something about one of her teammates that would take way too long to explain, and then not be funny unless you already knew him—he said, “What’s the soonest ETA, and what’s the latest?”

“Soonest…” She again glanced up. “Twenty minutes, maybe. Latest, probably not more than forty-five. Hmm. That’s not so good.”

Forty-five minutes—twenty minutes—even two minutes—was a very long time when the enemy was armed and you weren’t.

“I’d better try to get my gun,” Ethan said. “Do you want to stay here, or come with me? I’m honestly not sure which would be safer.”

“Come with. I’ll keep watch from the shadows while you dive.” Destiny looked down at herself, let out a soft groan of dismay, then said, “Well, it’s pretty much ruined anyway.”

Working quickly, she scooped up handfuls of mud and smeared them across her sequined dress, then over her silver shoes. Ethan watched in disbelief for a moment, then realized that it was camouflage. Otherwise she’d stand out like a woman-shaped glitter ball. He grabbed a palmful of mud and applied it to the hard-to-reach parts of her back.

“Thanks,” she said. “I guess. That was my favorite dancing dress. ‘Was’ being the operative word.”

“I’ll buy you a new one,” he offered.

She rolled her eyes at him. “How much do you think a dress like this costs?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. It was your favorite and I helped destroy it. I’ll work some overtime if I have to.”

She snickered. “Okay, then. We’re going shopping when we get back. Maybe you can get a makeover while we’re at it.”

He helped her up, and was glad to find that she was much steadier on her feet than he’d expected. The cut on her head had stopped bleeding, and was smaller than he’d initially thought.

Destiny looked down at herself and sighed. “You plotted this entire thing as the lead-up to a mudpuppy joke, didn’t you?”

“I plotted it because I thought it’d be hot,” he said. “Mud is the new wet T-shirt.”

She nailed him with a handful of mud, straight to the chest. “There. Now we’re both hot.”

As they walked through the woods, he noticed that she could move as silently and stealthily as he could. Not only that, but she made herself blend in with the shadows until he felt like if he looked away for a single second, he wouldn’t be able to spot her when he looked back. That wasn’t a skill he’d known they taught to military police, or to bodyguards for that matter. Maybe she’d done a whole lot of extra training on her own time and dime. Or maybe she was just that good. And she was doing it injured, and in high heels and a mud-plastered dancing dress.

He felt certain that he could trust her the same way he trusted his own men—that no matter what was thrown at them, she’d have his back just as much as he’d have hers. It wasn’t something he’d ever expected to feel about a woman he was also dying to get naked with. And despite her mud-plastered dress, Destiny was still ridiculously sexy.

She’s what I’ve always wanted, he thought. I never knew till now.

At the edge of the woods, they stopped and surveyed the lake. The car had sunk beneath the water, and everything looked peaceful in the moonlight. But if their enemies were lying in wait rather than gone, Ethan would be completely exposed once he left the woods to dive for his gun. And there wouldn’t be anything Destiny could do to help, as she was unarmed herself.

But he wasn’t afraid. Instead, he was filled with a cool, calm readiness. He gestured to her to stay where she was, concealed in the shadows. Then he ran out, moving as quietly as he could, and plunged into the lake.

Diving into freezing water was always a shock. But it was the sort of shock he was used to. He’d expected to have to feel around for the car, but though it was night, the water was clear and the car was cherry red. He could see it at the bottom of the lake, glowing like a coal in the refracted moonlight.

Ethan swam down to the trunk, keys in hand. This was the tricky part. If the trunk was watertight, the water pressure would keep it closed whether it was unlocked or not. But if it had filled with water, then the pressure would be equal inside and out, and he should be able to open it. He guessed. This wasn’t exactly something he’d tried before. Carefully, he inserted the key in the lock and turned it. Nothing seemed to happen, but he put the keys back in his pocket, wedged the heels of his hands beneath the trunk, and shoved it upward with all his strength.

The trunk didn’t budge. Frustrated, Ethan gave it another shove, pushing until his shoulders burned and black spots danced before his eyes. But he might as well be trying to lift the entire car. There was no way he could get to his gun.

He turned his face upward. His exertion had burned through a lot of his oxygen, and his chest hurt. As he started to kick off the bottom, he was startled by the splash of something falling into the lake. It was one of Destiny’s dancing shoes. Ethan froze as he watched it sink toward him, the mud coming off in clouds and leaving it shiny and clean.

She was warning him not to surface—and in a way that would have given away her location to any watching enemies.

He swam away as fast as he could. A second later, he heard gunshots, along with the splashes of bullets s

triking the water. They were shooting at him. Good. That meant they weren’t shooting at her. The pain in his chest became an agony, but he swam on until he reached one of the clusters of reeds that edged the lake. Once he was concealed within it, moving very slowly to avoid making ripples, he lifted his face out of the water.

What he saw filled him with a protective fury. Two men stood in the clearing by the lake, both armed with pistols. One was scanning the lake, clearly trying to spot Ethan. And the other was stalking toward the part of the woods where Destiny had concealed herself.

Ethan longed to stop the man going after her before he got anywhere near her. But neither of the enemies were close to him. He’d be seen the instant he stood up from the reeds, and he’d be shot down before he could do anything. He forced himself to take a deep breath and think. Destiny had undoubtedly moved from her original position; she was a veteran and a working bodyguard, and he’d seen how stealthily she could move through the woods. Even injured, unarmed, and missing one shoe, she was perfectly capable of concealing herself. If they both stayed hidden, they could sit it out until her team arrived.

The man at the shore ruined that idea by firing into the clump of reeds closest to him. He systematically raked that area with fire, then started in on another clump. Ethan readied himself to dive again. This time he’d hunt for Destiny’s Sig Sauer, which had to be somewhere at the bottom of the lake. It wasn’t much of a chance, but it was the best he had.