I stayed where I was until she stopped shaking. Then I sat up and wiped my mouth on my hand. Her taste was still on my tongue. I leaned down and kissed her once, slowly, so she could taste herself on my mouth.
“I’ll give you a minute to collect yourself.”
I eased her pants up over the brace, then straightened my shirt.
Before I opened the stateroom door, I took one more look at the woman whose kiss had wrecked me the night before. Now, I’d wrecked her.
My cock was hard against my zipper as I returned to my seat, opened my laptop, and pulled up the arrival sequence where I’d left it.
Beacon came out of the stateroom four minutes later. She took her seat across the aisle, picked up her tablet, and smiled.
The jet’swheels touched down in upstate New York at twenty-two hundred hours on the same calendar day that we left Geneva. Every nerve ending in my body was tuned to the woman in the seat across from me. She hadn’t looked at me once since coming out of the stateroom, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. All I thought about for the rest of the flight was getting her in there again and fucking her so hard that we’d both make enough noise that everyone on the plane would know exactly what we were doing.
Once the cabin door opened and the airstairs were lowered, Doc, Razor, and Gunner exited first. Henry went next, then turned at the top of the airstairs and offered Polina his hand. She took it. Mercury followed, with Anna a half step behind her.
Beacon did not move until the aisle cleared. Then she reached for the crutch.
I didn’t offer to help her, but I stayed close enough behind her to be able to if needed.
The air bit colder than it had in Switzerland, and underneath it was the sweet, resinous scent of balsam fir that belonged to these mountains and nowhere else.
Four SUVs were waiting on the tarmac, black and unmarked, with their engines running. A guy I’d worked with at K19 Shadow Ops approached and handed Henry three key fobs. Doc, Gunner, and Razor followed him to the vehicle parked farthest away and said they’d be in touch tomorrow.
Razor split off and approached me.
“The Sentinel Cyber team is watching the fence line until zero six hundred. If anything comes up before we’re live, call them.”
“Copy.”
He jogged to catch Doc and Gunner.
When Henry placed a fob in my hand, I checked the tag, then headed to the first vehicle in the line. Beacon followed and waited on the passenger side. I hit the unlock button so she could get in.
“Can I ride with you?” Magnolia asked.
“Room for two. Dagger, you’re with us.”
He and I grabbed all our bags from the cart where the airfield crew was unloading them, threw them in the rear of the SUV, and once we were all inside, drove out onto the highway.
“How are you doing?” I asked Beacon.
“Tired.” She smirked without looking at me, which told me more than her one-word response had.
Our route ran northout of Fulton County. The only light along the way was from the moon and our vehicle. The few businesses that dotted the highway had either closed hours ago or were shuttered for the season. It took fifteen minutes to get to the turnoff for South Shore Road, where the pavement turned to gravel. At the six-mile mark, the SUV’s headlights illuminated a low stone wall that was half buried by the overgrowth of trees.
When we came to the break in the fence, an iron gate was open, and on one side, built into the stone that held them, was a wooden sign that read,Onteora.
I glanced at an awestruck Beacon. One hand was in her pocket, and the other gripped the door handle tightly. The trees thinned a quarter mile past the sign, and the lake opened out ahead of us. We rounded another bend, and the lights from the main camp shone brightly.
I slowed the SUV, but nobody in the vehicle moved until I pulled into the clearing and shifted into park.Magnolia and Dagger climbed out, but I stayed with Beacon.
The other vehicles parked in the same area. Henry was out first and at the rear passenger door before Polina could reach for the handle. He offered his hand, and she took it. She stepped down onto the gravel and stopped there, looking up at the main camp. Anna came around the front of the SUV and stood beside her. Mercury followed and stood on Polina’s other side.
Polina said something I couldn’t hear. Anna answered just as quietly. Then Anna took one of Polina’s hands and Mercury took the other, and the three of them walked together toward the porch steps. Polina stopped once at the bottom, her hand on the railing, before she went up.
The front door of the main camp opened before Anna reached the top step. A man I placed in his mid-seventies stepped out. He was tall and lean and wore a wool shirt, jeans, and a barn jacket that had seen a lot of winters.
He took Anna’s free hand in his, and the two spoke quietly before stepping aside so everyone could enter.
