Tumult (TSS Series Book 1) Read online

  Couldn’t be anything more because he wasn’t someone who was looking for a happy ever after.

  Was he?

  “So, Carrick…”

  “Yes, Audrey.”

  “Explain what happened when we checked in and all that paperwork you had to show the airline security agent.”

  “I travel with firearms and the United States requires that I keep an updated CBP on file, which is a certificate of registration as well as an EEI which allows me to temporarily export personally owned firearms. I’ve got it in my duffle in a locked box and I had to show them that the keys were in my possession. I also had to show them my security clearance and proof that I’m an independent contractor with the CIA, which in turn allows me to fall under the Status of Forces Agreement.”

  “And what is that?”

  “It’s the agreement between a host country and foreign nation regarding military forces. Since I’m technically a Green Badger, I fall under that agreement and can take my weapon into foreign countries.”

  “A Green Badger is what?”

  “A CIA contractor.”

  “Do you typically fly commercial when you’re working or do you all have a private fleet of planes that can whisk you into foreign countries in the dead of night to rescue people and right unimaginable wrongs?”

  He let out a chuckle. “Leave it to a writer to make it sound a lot more glamorous than it is.” He took her hand and laced their fingers. “Titan does have planes as well as a private gunship, armed helicopters, and armored vehicles, but those are reserved for clients that need a private army. The bread and butter of the business is protecting people and places as well as offering training for team building events, self-defense, weekend warriors, and countries interested in developing their militia’s skills.

  “The old days of billion-dollar government contracts are gone and unless we have another post-invasion Iraq scenario again, they’ll never return.”

  “What is the difference between a mercenary and a private military contractor?”

  He leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “Are we going to do PMC vs Mercenary 101?”

  “Yes. We have many hours before we land, and I’d like to learn something new. I don’t know anything about it and want to understand what it is you do.”

  “All right, get yourself ready…Mercs are soldiers for hire and PMCs are security guards for hire. The line that separates the two can sometimes be fuzzy and I bet if you asked most people they’d say there’s no difference at all. Maybe it’s a psychological one, more than anything else. I’m doing much the same work I did when I was on the Teams under a former commander and getting paid a hell of a lot more, so I don’t care what term people use when they talk about my job.”

  “Beyond the events of Nissour Square, why do you think so many people think so poorly of Private Military Contractors?”

  Shrugging carelessly, he looked down the center of the plane. “I’d like to believe it’s because they don’t know what we actually do. We’re somehow shrouded in mystery and intrigue, and I imagine people have no idea what it is we engage in. Soldiering isn’t a glamorous business and, truthfully, at the level I operate at, it can be a lot of hurry up and wait. There are a lot of days that combine mind-numbing boredom with a couple of hours of adrenaline-pumping action.”

  “Sounds a little like be an attorney minus the whole saving the world thing.”

  “I don’t know about that; there have to be at least a couple of lawyers who tried to save the world.”

  “There are, but the small inconsequential cases are what most lawyers spend their time on.”

  “Sometimes, that’s all we can do, no matter what our profession is.”

  Unlacing their fingers, she turned and looked out the plane window. “I expect that’s just about right.”

  He noticed the melancholy in her voice and wondered why she was feeling it at the beginning of the trip and not the end. By all accounts, what they were about to undertake was no small adventure and, if they were lucky, Audrey was going to have a hell of a book to write. And as far as he was concerned, nothing was going to get in her way.

  Not if he could do anything about it.

  ***

  Audrey looked up at the flight status and willed it to change from canceled to delayed. Closing her eyes, she waited ten seconds and then opened them quickly, only to discover her will was once again no match for the universe. She let out a sigh and slid her hand over the handle of her small suitcase. “Any ideas on how you want to spend the next seven or eight hours in the Munich Airport?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got one or two, but we’re going to have to grab a room for any of them to be feasible.”

  Looking up, she noticed he was like the lions in the zoo: feeding them once didn’t do a thing to diminish their appetite. “Barring sex, do you have any other ideas?” When she heard him snort, she knew he hadn’t moved beyond naked thoughts and decided it wasn’t the worst thing to ever happen. In fact, it was damn satisfying, considering she’d only managed pleasant sex up until her entanglement with Carrick. And Lord knows, “pleasant sex” was hardly worth the effort. “Let’s go see about rebooking our flights and then we can decide exactly how many hours of debauchery we can manage in Germany.”

  “You have a dirty mind; for all you know, the only thing I was interested in was sleep.”

  “I hate to keep reminding you, but I feel it’s necessary…I’m smart enough to read between the lines and your lines seem to be in the naked lane.” When his eyebrows scrunched together, she patted his arm. “I’m not complaining; I figure I have at least a couple more days to take advantage of it before we return to our lives.”

  “I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not.”

  Taking his hand, she pulled him toward the customer service desk. “When you decide, let me know.” When he grumbled, she wondered what exactly he might be objecting to. It couldn’t be the sex because it had been spectacular, and it certainly couldn’t be brevity of their affair. Maybe he was just hungry and needed to be fed. They hadn’t eaten much on the plane and their last meal was over twelve hours ago, so he was probably just hangry. “As soon as we re-book our flights, we’ll get some breakfast.”

  “We might end up here until tomorrow and, if that’s the case, let’s grab a room at the Hilton that’s in the center of the airport.”

  Audrey navigated through a throng of people and then stood in the long line snaking up to the customer service desk. “Before I saw this line, I was going to say we had nothing to worry about, but that was just wishful thinking.”

  “I think Lufthansa just has one flight a day to Ankara. Our only other option would be Turkish Airlines and they are not very good about accepting passengers with my credentials.”

  Leaning against him, she felt his arm go around her waist and pull her closer. “We’ll just do the best we can and go with the flow.”

  “That is the right attitude, babe.”

  Looking around the busy airport, she knew that this was probably the simplest thing they were going to face during the trip. By tomorrow, they could be crossing the border into Syria, and that’s when things were going to get really interesting. “Do you think the fall of Raqqa will make things easier for us to travel through the country or more difficult?”

  “Not sure. It depends on how Bashir reacts to the victory and I, for one, am not willing to make any guesses. He’s never done anything that hasn’t been in his family’s best interest and the Kurds having a win like this might not be viewed as a positive.”

  “Not to mention how the Turks are going to react. They see a stronger Kurdish population as a dangerous one, so what President Erdoğan is going to do is anyone’s guess.”

  “I hope your contacts have a chance to update us before we cross the border.”

  “We’re not crossing the border until we know what we’re getting into. We’ll probably be in Turkey for at least two days while I put together transportation and s
ecure backup. We can’t arrive in Allepo and pray they give us the permits to enter the country without a little grease, and I have to get that lubricant flying days ahead of our arrival.”

  “That sounds kinda dirty.” When he leaned down and pressed his mouth close to her ear, she felt his warm breath and felt a shower of shivers across her skin.

  “We’re getting a room as soon as we’re done here and I’m going to give you a full demonstration on just how dirty I can be.”

  She turned her head so their mouths were touching. Speaking against his lips, she said, “Maybe I’ve got one or two things to show you.”

  “A man can only pray,” he responded as he sealed their mouths together.

  Before she was entirely lost in the pleasure of Carrick’s kiss, she heard someone clear their throat loudly and lifted her head. The line had moved forward, and she realized that kissing Carrick in the middle of a crowd was going to get them in trouble. Straightening up, she watched him lift his duffle higher on his shoulder as he took the handle of her suitcase and moved it forward. “I’ll behave from now on.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he replied with a laugh.

  Shoving her elbow into his side, she then shook her head. “If you keep that up, I may not show you anything.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  Not wanting to get into a public tit for tat, she closed her mouth and stared straight ahead. Yes, we will, she thought to herself. When his arm went around her shoulder and he kissed the top of her head, she decided whatever they had in front of them could be handled. And that included the swirling desire that now was surrounding them like a blanket.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Carrick stood in front of the windows of their hotel room and looked out at the setting sun as the planes took off in the distance. They hadn’t been able to get a flight out and were going to be spending the night in Munich, which was going to work in their favor.

  Raqqa had fallen yesterday and it would be best to let things settle before they attempted to enter the country. Not only because the Bashir government was volatile and unpredictable, but the Turks could very well react negatively to the Kurds’ victory. Add to that ISIS militants that had escaped capture and there was a shit show of such epic proportions awaiting them that if he could put it off for a day or two, he’d be grateful.

  Hearing the water turn off in the bathroom, he figured Audrey was finally done with her shower. He rolled his head in a circle and attempted to let go of the frustration of not being allowed to join her. She’d firmly kicked him out thirty minutes ago and, quite frankly, he didn’t understand why. It’s not like she had something he hadn’t seen or tasted, so her need for privacy was baffling.

  Running his hand over his face, he knew he was acting irrationally and, as far as he could tell, there wasn’t much he could do to change course. The bathroom door opened and he turned to watch her walk out in a hotel robe with a smile lighting up her face. “Better?” he asked.

  “Yes. I washed away the grime of travel and feel terrific.” Taking his hand, she leaned her head against his shoulder and let out a happy sigh. “It’s your turn.”

  “I could’ve gone in with you and saved water.”

  “Sometimes a woman needs a long hot shower alone, with no man trying to get into her business.”

  “You liked my business in you yesterday.” When she looked up and gave him a heat-filled gaze, he knew he wasn’t the only who had enjoyed what happened between them.

  “I did indeed, and I could very well again.”

  When she said nothing more, he knew starting a petty argument wasn’t going to get him where he needed to be. “I’ll grab a shower and then we can go down and grab something to eat.”

  “All right.” She let go of his hand and sat down on the bed. “I’ll start digging through the news and see if I can get a sense of what’s going on now that ISIS has been driven from its caliphate.”

  “I haven’t heard anything from my contacts yet, which tells me they’re still engaged. I’m sure they’ve got their hands full in rounding up squirters and making sure the YPG and YPJ have the resources they need.”

  “It’s hard to believe that ISIS has been expelled from Mosul and Raqqa within six months of each other. What do you think the next move will be for the group?”

  “No doubt, being driven from Raqqa dealt a major strategic and symbolic blow, but they’ll evolve and adapt and that’s not something anyone is going to underestimate.”

  “The city used to have a population of over 300,000 and the latest reports are suggesting there are only around 25,000 left. Everything I’ve read points to Raqqa being the epicenter of some of the extremist group’s most gruesome public displays, including mass executions.”

  “That’s putting it mildly. They used the town center to stake the heads of people who hadn’t followed Sharia law closely. It’s one of the most barbaric displays of war that I’ve ever seen.”

  “Where do they go next?” Audrey asked as she laid against the pillows. “They just lost the crown jewel of their propaganda campaign and now that they’ve got no haven for pure Islam in Syria, do they go to Lebanon?”

  “They could,” Carrick replied as he walked over to the bed and sat down. “Tactically, the group is still viable because, in the early stages of the campaign to liberate Raqqa, it was believed that the centralized decision-making cells and senior leadership left and only a band of loyal fighters were left to fight to the death. So, as far as anyone is concerned, ISIS is still alive and well.”

  “I know that’s their pattern and it doesn’t make it any more understandable. I’ve heard they concentrate much of their efforts on recruiting foreign fighters and ceding ground is not an indication that they’ve lost their ability to rally the disaffected in Iraq and Syria.”

  “And that is their true power. Don’t ever believe it more complicated than that. If you can rally the disenfranchised, then you’ve got yourself a fighting force to be reckoned with.” He took off his boots and socks and then laid down next to Audrey and realized sleeping with a smart woman had its advantages. He’d never spent time discussing current events with anyone he’d been seeing, and realized it said a lot about him that he wasn’t terribly proud of.

  His past was littered with brief, satisfying physical encounters and not much more, lying next to Audrey made him realize what he’d been missing out on.

  Not only was she his physical match, but she was his intellectual one as well. Okay, that was a lie, she beat the hell out of him when it came to smarts and why that made her so desirable wasn’t a mystery. Glancing over, he saw her staring at the ceiling as she twisted a piece of hair. He rolled onto his side and laid his arm over her waist. “Maybe we can have room service instead of going down to eat.”

  Letting go of her hair, she mirrored his position and looked up. “That actually sounds good because, truthfully, I feel too lazy to get up and get dressed.”

  “I have never heard a better sentence in my life.” He moved his hand under her robe and discovered she had nothing on and grinned with satisfaction. The silky heat of her skin had him envisioning how they could spend the evening and since he wasn’t a man who liked to be denied, he gripped her hip and tugged her closer. “I’m going to grab a quick shower and then I’ll show you what an appetizer feels like.”

  She threw her head back and let out a laugh. “Appetizers are meant to be eaten.”

  “Exactly.” He dropped his head and kissed her savagely and then let her go. “Be back in ten minutes.”

  “I’ll be here,” she replied as she tugged her robe closed and gave him a smile that promised endless delight.

  “Make it eight minutes.” Heaving himself off the bed, he undressed as he walked into the bathroom. God damn, he was a lucky son of a bitch.

  ***

  Audrey sat up when the bathroom door opened and watched Carrick stalk out like a lion who was ready to devour his prey. When he got close, she pu
t her hand out in a stop motion and shook her head. “Wait.”

  He stopped abruptly, as frustration covered his features. “You can take one step closer and that’s it.”

  “Audrey…what the hell are you doing?”

  When he stood in front of her, she ran her hands over the towel that covered his glorious body, and let out a low laugh as she pulled it free. “I’m seducing you.” Before he could put energy into a protest, she placed a hot, wet, opened-mouthed kiss against the firm muscles of his abdomen.

  “Shiiiiit,” he rasped.

  Smiling to herself, she trailed her damp lips lower and let his masculine scent arouse her. She gripped his cock firmly in her hand as she wrapped her lips around the swollen crown, taking him just a few inches into her mouth. Swirling her tongue along the tip, she then took him deep until her lips touched the base of his cock and the sensitive head rubbed enticingly against the back of her throat. When she swallowed, he let out a groan of pure ecstasy.