Jameson (In the Company of Snipers #22) - Irish Winters Page 0,55
hand if you’re feeling good enough to keep going.”
He squeezed good and hard, as if telling Jameson he was hanging in there.
“Sorry about the rough ride. As soon as we hit asphalt, we’ll get you to a hospital.”
An older style flip cell phone slid into his palm.
“Wow, thanks. Maddie, I’ve got a phone!” Jameson called out while he thumbed his new boss’s number.
A woman answered, “TEAM headquarters, how may I help you?”
Thank God! “Alex Stewart. I know it’s late, but I need to talk to—”
“Jameson? Is Maddie with you?”
“Yeah,” he replied as he sank to the seat opposite Vlad. “Is this Mom? Great! Maddie! I’ve got Mom—”
“Mother,” the woman snapped.
“I’ve got Mom on the phone,” he insisted.
“Not Mom. Mother!” Ewww, the snark. Mother, who would from this day forward be known as Mom, was testy tonight.
“What phone?” Maddie asked.
“Vlad had a cell. I’m online with the office, and someone is actually there. Can you believe that?”
“I wish I’d known he had a phone!” Maddie yelled over her shoulder.
“Alex is already in transit, Jameson,” Mother interrupted primly. “We know right where you are. Stay put.”
“Yes, Mom!” he replied with exuberant relish.
“I said don’t call me that.”
He pretended he didn’t hear her. “We’ve got a man who needs rapid evac. He’s been shot, but he’s stable at the moment. What’s Alex’s ETA?”
“He’s coming to you by chopper,” she replied tersely. “Is there somewhere close he can land?”
“I have no idea. We’re in some pretty dense brush, I think. But I can’t see, remember? Mom? Are you still there?”
“Damn you,” she hissed. “Never mind. I’m switching to satellite topography. Okay, no. The closest LZ is a couple miles due west of your location, and you’re right. Your vehicle is in dense trees and undergrowth. Why aren’t you guys on a road?”
“Because we’re taking the scenic route.” He wasn’t about to cast any blame on Maddie. Wing men didn’t do that.
“Never mind. One way or the other, Alex is still coming. He’ll touchdown in five, then make his way to you. I’ll contact first responders. Anyone else hurt?”
“No, we’re good,” Jameson breathed as he sank his weary, worn-out ass into the plush leather seat of Lucy Shade’s stolen limo. “Damned good now that I’m talking with you. It’s sure nice to hear your friendly voice, Mom. Us kids really needed that. It’s been a helluva long day and night.”
The connection went dead. Jameson stuffed the phone into his front jeans pocket, semi-pleased that he’d made an impression on Alex’s grouchy secretary, if only because he’d called her Mom.
In seconds, Maddie was climbing in the other side door, then into his arms. “We made it,” she cried. “I can’t believe we’re still alive.”
Vlad grunted when Jameson closed an arm around her, then settled her onto his lap, where, oddly, it seemed like she’d always belonged. But that was just adrenaline talking. She was scared and reaching out for the only safe port in a storm, and he was lucky to be that port. At least that was what Jameson told himself. He couldn’t be that kind of lucky, could he?
Yet even as he gave her a way out of the feelings he admittedly had for her, she snuggled under his chin and whispered, “You saved me.”
His head dipped automatically into the top of her head and he buried his nose in her hair. “No, babe. You saved me.”
When Mr. Vlad grunted again, Jameson had a feeling he could see too much.
But when Maddie lifted her chin, Jameson knew right where her mouth was and that her lips were so, so close… Too close. He couldn’t resist, just shut his unseeing eyes and kissed her with all his heart. Adrenaline, maybe, but she needed this connection and, by hell, he did, too. He dipped her back into the crook of his arm and cupped her fragile jaw while he deepened the kiss.
Maddie opened wide, angling her head as she braced his jaw between both hands and licked her way inside his mouth. He should’ve held back, maybe held her back. But Jameson wanted this. He really liked this woman, and he wanted her to know it. Besides, the tiny moaning sounds coming from the back of her throat were turning him on. Right here. In front of Vlad.
That reality snapped Jameson back to his senses. A quick kiss was one thing. Going all out and all over Maddie, in front of an audience, was another. He growled as he ended the heated kiss, his heart pounding