Hostile Ground (The Arsenal #7) - Cara Carnes Page 0,71

front. I’ve never had a serious relationship.”

“Me either. Scratching the itch kept it away and kept me focused on what mattered.”

He got it. Damn him.

“I’m not a morning person. This chatter box shit wouldn’t fly.”

He grinned. “I’m figuring that out.” He drew her closer and brushed his mouth across hers.

Heat trickled through her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and licked the seam of his mouth, careful not to hurt his lip. They were a banged-up mess of bruises, cuts, and injuries.

She pulled back. “I’ve never run from a fight. All I can promise is I won’t start now.”

“That’s all I need for now.”

“The mission comes first. This…whatever it is…has to wait until everything is settled.” She swallowed. “It won’t be easy. None of it will.”

“I know.”

A pounding sounded from the door. Addy stepped away from Kristof as the entry opened and Beast entered. His gaze narrowed as it swept across them both.

“Meeting starts in ten.” He turned and left.

Addy went to the dresser and picked up the com. Kristof grasped her wrist.

“I liked waking with you in my arms,” he whispered.

“I liked it too, minus the chatter.”

He chuckled as she put the com in and flicked it on. Reality had dragged her away before she got lost in the emotions rioting for control within her.

For now, all that mattered was the mission.

Find the missiles.

Take down the bad guys.

16

Kristof pushed too hard. The realization came to him as he sat on the ground in the living room beside Addy and noted the wariness in her expression as her gaze tracked to everyone around her. Guilt assailed him a moment. She’d gone through enough the past several weeks. He shouldn’t compound it.

But he couldn’t ignore what had happened between them. He’d shared his darkest secrets and the shame he’d buried decades ago. She hadn’t responded with the anger and hatred and accusations he’d expected.

His gut clenched when Nolan and Marshall both locked gazes with him. Yeah, they wouldn’t be happy if he didn’t back their plan to send Addy to Texas. But she was a fearless, capable woman who could decide for herself if she wanted to remain. She fought her own battles.

Addy leaned toward him. Awareness fired within his blood and surged southward as her breath heated the skin along his neck and behind his ear. Focusing on anything beyond his need for her was proving harder every day.

“Are you ready for this?” Concern filled her voice.

“I am.” He trailed his knuckles downward along her forearm and rested his hand atop hers. “Are you? Seeing the surveillance of my father’s compound is going to be hard. He tore down all the buildings but…” Worry filled his stomach when her gaze turned turbulent. Haunted.

“Was it hard? Going back there? Remembering?”

“At first,” he admitted. “Each return fortified my determination, though. It reminded me what I was fighting for.”

“Vengeance for your mother and cousin.”

“And you,” he admitted. Her eyes widened. “He may not have been part of what we endured there daily, but he needs to pay for his role in what you endured.”

“He will.” She turned her hand beneath his and interlaced their fingers.

The com chimed three times. He shifted his attention to the three televisions sat beside one another against the wall. Addy squeezed his hand. Awareness arced through him as the rightness of her at his side fortified his resolve. Father would pay for everything he’d done.

“We’ve got a lot to go over, so let’s get to work,” Jesse said via the com. “Gage, run through what your team and Marshall’s found at the target location.”

“Our teams dispatched drones along the entire perimeter,” Gage said as he stood and approached the screens. A large map of the compound appeared on the center television. Red circles appeared around the encampment. “Crawlers were sent out and programmed to work eight different grids.”

“Crawlers?” Kristof asked. He’d always considered himself tech savvy until he’d been around The Arsenal a few days. The slick weapons and equipment they had were unlike anything he’d seen—which was saying a lot since his primary business within the underworld was illegal arms.

“They’re like worm or bug robots. They can crawl under the dirt or along the ground,” Shep said.

Impressive. They’d prove useful on an encampment this large.

“That’s a lot larger than I expected,” Nolan said. “No wonder you all were gone all night.”

“Our teams are still there,” Marshall said. “Only Gage and I pulled out. Initial recon indicates at least two hundred heavily armed combatants, but traffic back