A few seconds later, the two men reached the SUV. With Archer Nash behind the wheel, Logan made his way around the front to ride shotgun. Van kept his hold on the woman they’d traveled across the world to find, as Jason “Lucky” Lucas and Chase Boyer both slid across the middle bench seat to make room.
Van reached out with his left hand and pulled the door shut. “Let’s move!” he ordered gruffly as he and the two men beside him sat squished together.
The bottom half of the Dawari woman’s body lay limply across his thighs while her torso and arms spilled over onto Lucky. Her eyes were still closed, and Van noticed the way her green hijab had slid back a few inches from her forehead as Chase held her head steady in his lap.
Dark hair. Olive skin. Sharp features most models would give anything to possess. The woman was an exotic creature, so naturally beautiful it almost hurt to look at her.
He glanced away, his focus shifting to the blurred scenery passing by the tinted window on his left. This woman was thecause of insurmountable loss. Of course, looking at her would cause him pain.
As for her beauty, Van new better than most that sometimes the deadliest threats came in the most unsuspecting packages. Even ones with long, black hair and skin his fingers inexplicably itched to reach out and touch.
“In case you need a refresher”—Logan looked over his shoulder to address the group as a whole—“Nash will drop Braddock and I off at the back, then take the rest of you around to the front. Go in, make enough noise to draw attention to yourselves, and we’ll use the distraction to get her inside the building and up to our room.”
“What if someone sees Van carrying an unconscious woman?” Lucky asked.
Van answered before Logan had the chance. “Same story as we discussed. She’s my wife, and she got overheated.”
Few in this region—if any—would question the claim. Especially when made by a male who spoke their language.
“You spend any time brushing up on your Pashto?” Chase asked as if he’d been reading Van’s thoughts. “’Cause I’m pretty sure Lucky’s the only other one of us who knows enough to sound believable. And his accent isn’t exactly good.”
“Hey, now.” Lucky turned his blue gaze in Boyer’s direction. “My accent is just fine, thank you, very much.”
But Van slid his dark stare past Lucky as he used his best Pashto to call Chase a spineless dickhead. It wasn’t an exact translation, but anyone who spoke the language would get the idea.
Their security team’s lead sniper frowned. “Not sure what the hell you just said, but I have a feeling it wasn’t all that flattering.”
“Always best to stick with your gut, Boyer.” Lucky chuckled beside him. “Pretty sure Van just called you a dick with no spine.”
Close enough.
But rather than smile, Van did a quick check to make sure the woman in his arms was still out cold before returning his focus to the direction they were headed. A few short minutes later, Archer was pulling the SUV around the back of the hotel, hitting the brakes as they approached the building’s rear entrance.
“We need to move quickly,” the man behind the wheel announced unnecessarily.
Van opened his door and slid himself from beneath the woman’s still form. His boots hit the pavement, and he immediately began working with Lucky to get her back into his arms.
“See you inside.” He used his hip to shut his door before turning and heading for the hotel.
From behind him he heard Logan tell the others as he exited the front seat, “Make sure you’re seen, but don’t overdo it.”
This was followed by Archer’s sardonic, “Hear that, Lucky? The man saiddon’toverdo it.”
The SUV took off before they could hear their resident computer genius’s smartassed response.
Logan waited long enough for the guys to have time to get around to the front and get inside. Glancing around, he opened the hotel’s back door, keeping it propped wide so Van could pass through.
Despite his desire to kill the woman in his arms, Van found himself being careful not to let her head smack against the door’s metal frame as he slid past his teammate on his way into the building.
Both men took an immediate left, making quick work of the staircase leading them to the upper floors. The Dawari woman’s body jostled slightly with his hastened steps, but she showed no signs of waking up anytime soon.
With the dose he’d given her, she should be out for at leastanother couple of hours. Plenty of time to prepare for what would come next.
Logan rushed past Van to open the door to the structure’s third floor. After a quick glance in each direction, he motioned that the coast was clear.
Van’s boots made quick work over the worn carpet lining the narrow hall. He and Logan stopped when they reached the fifth door on their left.
He waited for his teammate to open the door with the key, and a few seconds later, the three of them were safely inside without having been seen by anyone else along the way.
