Jameson (In the Company of Snipers #22) - Irish Winters Page 0,91

worried about Zack leaving me, Tuck,” Alex replied with venom. “Just remember, two of your men are on loan from my TEAM. The day they come back to me, you’ll lose Eden, possibly Isaiah, too. So back off.”

Tucker chuffed. “Good working with you again.”

“Copy that,” Alex replied tersely, switching off that irksome call and turning back to his TEAM.

By then, the local police had arrived on scene. Several vehicles full of agents from the Massachusetts Port Authority, too. A couple fire engines and a raft of radio and television reporters. A damned local news helicopter.

Alex pushed to his feet while Eric and Harley ran to assist Jameson and Maddie. The show might be over, but the circus was just beginning.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Why the fuck are you here?” Jameson growled down at Maddie, damned angry with her for charging into trouble without thinking things through. Without bringing him! Yet at the same time, thankful she wasn’t the one lying twenty feet away with her face poured over concrete.

“This was all my f-f-fault,” she stuttered. “I killed her dad.”

“So? Pops Delaney had it coming. He meant to kill us, remember?” How could she forget who’d abducted them?

“Yessss, but...”

Jameson’s cock went hard at the soft, sweet whisper of her tongue sliding over her lips and the way she smacked her lips… and shit. It was impossible to stay angry with this woman. He’d lost his glasses in the mad dash to get to her and… Damn! He’d give anything to be able to see her, to really look into her eyes. Yet he couldn’t let her off easy. He’d just killed the woman bent on killing Maddie, and the resounding adrenaline dump after taking a life was a hard beast to rein in.

“You wanted to be a Marine, well, listen up, Mad Dog. Team members don’t leave each other behind, and they sure as fuck don’t go off half-cocked on a revenge killing! You hear me, Bannister?!”

He waited for an answer, but when she said nothing, he let her have it. “If I was Alex, I’d fire your ass. And you’re supposed to be his Protocol Officer?! Shit. I’d have you peeling potatoes until—”

“I’m not Mad Dog!” she yelled back at him, her body shaking. “I’m just me! You’re just like my dad! Stop trying to make me someone I’m not!”

That shut him up. Was that what he’d been doing? Was he as bad as her father? He opened his mouth to say something, shut it, then opened it again, not sure what to tell her now.

Maddie solved that dilemma when she leaned up and crashed into his wide open, ornery mouth, her fingers clutching his ears and his cheeks, her tongue doing amazing laps inside his mouth and over his teeth and… salt. He tasted salty tears. She was crying.

Sweet Baby Jesus. He forgot what he was going to say. Forgot what he was thinking and where he was. Only knew that she’d scared the crap out of him, and now, he’d made her cry. Her tears, more than anything, hurt his heart. He wanted to kiss her better, inhale every last one of her fears, and spank her ass, all at the same time. But she was safe and contrite, soft, and so damned warm…

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed into his mouth. “But I couldn’t let her hurt you again. I made you a target by shooting her dad, and she knew who you were, and that we got away, and she said she was gunning for me, and I figured you’d never let her—”

“Shush,” he murmured around her prehensile, loquacious tongue. “You’re alive. She’s not. That’s what matters. But you’ve got to stop trying to rescue me. I’m trained for this shit. You’re not.”

Her chest heaved with a long draw of air. This woman could string more run-on sentences together than anyone he’d ever heard. But she’d come here to save her brothers. She’d purposefully put herself in harm’s way to protect men who were bigger, heavier, and meaner than her. That was no small thing.

“Alex is going to kill me,” she whined as she ended the best kiss of Jameson’s life. Salty and sweet, but earnest as hell. How could he stay angry after she’d risked her life to protect his? That was why she was here. She hadn’t left him and the guys behind. She’d charged straight to the frontline like a damned SEAL would have. Like the Marine she’d always wanted to be. To protect and serve. That had