Fire and Ice (an extended epilogue) (2 page)

Derek nodded slowly again.

Jack sighed.
What a mess you’ve made McCord
. What
gave him the idea that Maia would meekly submit to his latest
interference? He had been looking forward to the showdown. It was
almost foreplay for them. They’d fight, and then they’d make up in
a big way. At first, he had been bothered by this cycle, but his
Mom, of all people, pointed out that it was inevitable at least for
the short term. She warned that two strong-willed people in a
relationship usually resulted in serious sparks, and in this case
his possessive, overprotective streak would be vying with her
independent nature. His mom cautioned not to let the sparks catch
fire and leave their relationship in ashes. Did Maia burn out? Had
he pushed her too far? It would take an ungodly amount of patience
to keep him from going after her. Two days. That was all he was
giving her.

*****

The
datacenter was in an uproar after Maia had walked in. When she left
MDI, she headed back to their apartment, mulling over the
circumstances. She knew in her heart that she wasn’t breaking up
with Jack. The mere thought of it inflicted physical pain because
that overbearing man was the love of her life. He also infuriated
her more than any man, and she feared her own temper. So she packed
a bag, intending to hole up at a hotel somewhere, order room
service, and just avoid Jack for the next few days. On the bright
side, she wasn’t feeling a betrayal. But she hated having the rug
pulled from under her.

At around 7:30 p.m. though, she received a 911
text from Tim, summoning her to AGS stat.

“
What’s going on?” Maia asked, as
the data analyst flitted from screen to screen, fiddling with
multiple keyboards.

“
Lucy Cortez got hit,” Tim said
grimly. “Nathan said she’s critical, and we have another
problem.”

Maia was confused.

Tim continued, “I’ll backfill you later on the
Cortez case. A call just came in from Manning. We need to assemble
a strike team against the German arms dealer. Something is going
down tonight. Stark was working with Manning on that
case.”

“
What do you need me to do?” Maia
asked quickly. In the back of her mind, she was worried for Lucy.
The poor girl. And Nathan. Just when they were moving on from a
rocky start, their worst nightmare happened.

“
Manning suspects there’ll be a
pickup at Port of Baltimore at 11:00 p.m. tonight. The intel I’ve
gathered confirms a specific crate, so there is a high probability
we could close this deal,” Tim said.

“
Sounds good. Where do I
rendezvous with Manning?”

“
Coffee shop, right outside Helen
Delich Bentley Port. Edmunds is already with him along with an ATF
agent. He’ll text you the address.”

“
Good.” Maia started to walk away
when Tim called out.

“
Maia.”

“
What?”

“
You OK, girl?”

“
About what?”

“
Jack.”

“
Tim that’s hardly
relevant—”

“
If your mind’s not on the
game—”

“
Tim, I’ve been doing this gig for
ten years.”

Tim folded his arms and rocked on his feet.
“You’ve also never been engaged before.”

“
Stop,” Maia warned. “I’m more
concerned with Lucy right now than my personal issues. And don’t
you have work to do?”

Jeez, she’s turning into a
bitch
. She didn’t wait for Tim to reply
and huffed off to the locker rooms. Fortunately, only one other
Guardian was there—Braden Connelly. He was a new recruit. Maybe he
was not up with AGS gossip yet. She worked the combination on her
locker, yanked open the door, and started changing into
gear.

“
There’s a betting pool going on
about your wedding pushing through or not,” Connelly
drawled.

Oh for Christ
sakes
. Maia mentally rolled her
eyes.

“
Is that so?” she replied coolly
as she pulled on a black t-shirt over her head. She toed off her
shoes, unbuttoned her jeans, and tugged them off.

“
Yes. So are you going to help me
out and tell me the odds?”

“
What are the
parameters?”

“
What day you’re going to break up
or make up?”

“
What’s the pot up to?”

“
A thousand bucks.”

Maia shook her head and realized she was
standing in front of Braden in her underwear, and the poor man was
trying so hard to keep his eyes on hers. “You guys are
nuts.”

“
Well?”

“
Do you honestly believe I’m
helping you cheat?”

“
Nothing like insider
information.” Braden grinned.

Maia pulled on her cargo pants and sat on the
bench to lace up her boots. She looked up at the incredibly tall,
sandy-haired Guardian, all 6’5” of him. “Sorry, I can’t help
you.”

Braden shrugged. “Didn’t think you would.
You’re on the German assignment?”

“
Yep, it’s going down tonight—at
least the initial phase.”

“
I wish Viktor would clear me for
assignments.”

“
You’re not ready yet.”

Connelly leaned on the locker, his blue eyes
staring at Maia intently. “You’ve seen my evaluations, Maia. Are
you seriously telling me I can’t handle a mission. I’m an ex-Army
Ranger.”

“
Doesn’t make you ready,” Maia
replied shortly as she got up and started strapping on her shoulder
holsters. She reached in to grab her 9mm pistols and slid them into
place. The last piece was her utility belt that had all the other
gizmos and extra magazines. “If you haven’t figured out the
difference between an Army Ranger and a Guardian, you’re not
ready.”

Braden flinched, and Maia felt guilty. Edmunds
was Connelly’s trainer, but Maia had seen the training sheets, and
she was up to take over from Edmunds. Might as well get
started.

“
Look, meet me at the sparring
room tomorrow at 4:00 p.m.,” Maia said.

Braden’s eyes lit up, making her feel better
about her earlier words.

“
What are we going to
do?”

“
For starters, either you kick my
ass, or I kick yours,” Maia quipped as she picked up a small duffle
bag and shut her locker door. She smiled at Braden, jerked her
chin, and left to meet Manning.

CHAPTER
TWO

Maia
crouched down beside Manning. A stack of shipment containers loomed
behind them. Manning was a formidable Guardian, almost six and a
half feet of bulky muscle. He reminded her of Dwayne Johnson—the
professional wrestler turned movie actor. He sported a bald head
and goatee. Despite his size, Manning moved like a cat.

Manning looked over to where Edmunds and the
ATF agent were in position behind another column of crates. Edmunds
was the opposite of Manning. He was leanly built and was only a
couple of inches taller than Maia. His physical attributes were
deceiving, and it would be fatal to underestimate him for he was a
killing machine with or without weapons. She worked frequently with
Manning and Edmunds, and they were last together on a mission that
went south when they were ambushed and held captive by the Russian
mafia.

A commercial truck and a panel van drove up to
the container flagged by Tim Burns as the item of interest. Manning
had installed cameras to record their mission and monitor the
activities without blowing their cover.

Two men stepped down from the commercial
truck, another two exited the panel van, and they all converged in
front of the shipping crate. They started speaking in German. One
of the men unlocked the crate and lifted the gate, revealing
several wooden boxes. A man took a crowbar and pried open one of
the boxes and reached in to inspect its contents. It was too dark
to discern what the man had lifted in his hand.

“
Damn it,” Manning cursed
silently. He panned the camera closer and glanced at Maia. She
couldn’t tell for sure either what the man was holding. Edmunds,
who was fluent in German, listened to the men’s conversation. They
were speaking rapidly as though they were arguing until one of them
finally broke away from the group and walked over to a fork lift.
Another man went behind the truck to lift the back gate and lower
the ramps.

Their targets started loading up the boxes
into their truck, and everyone on Maia’s team was getting
frustrated because they couldn’t move in without verbal or visual
confirmation. She started working up alternative strategies. They
didn’t call her a rule breaker for nothing.

“
I’m going in,” Maia whispered as
she unstrapped her shoulder holster and stuffed her 9mm pistol
behind her waistband.

“
No way,” Manning
rasped.

Maia ignored him and rose from her crouch;
Manning grabbed her arm. “The hell. I’m in charge here,
Pierce.”

Maia grinned. “I know, big guy. So cite me for
insubordination when we get back.”

She looked over to Edmunds who was shaking his
head in resignation. Guess the guys knew her very well.

Squaring her shoulders, she moseyed up to the
group of men loading the crates. Four guns were immediately pointed
at her.

“
Who the fuck are you?” one of the
men shouted as the others started looking nervously
around.

“
I’ve come to do business with
you, Mr. Kappel or should I say Herr Kappel,” Maia
purred.

“I don’t know who you’re talking
about,” the man replied. His eyes wavered, his gun shook, and his
voice was strangled.
Terrible liar.
He was definitely Milo Kappel.

“
I’ve no time for games,” Maia
said in a bored voice. “My boss wants the guns, Milo. He’ll pay you
good money for it. Do we have a deal?”

“
That’s not how it works, woman,”
Kappel sneered. “You don’t just walk up and ask for a deal. Huh!
Your boss is stupid. Why would he send a woman to do a man’s
job?”

Male chauvinistic pig.

“
I was an incentive,” Maia said
huskily. “Were we wrong? Do you prefer...men?”

The atmosphere in the shipyard changed. All
four men looked at Maia with lust in their eyes—Kappel’s desire was
obvious as he surveyed her in a new light. He stroked the front of
his crotch as he licked his lips and smiled. “Now we’re talking.
How do you fancy getting fucked in a shipping
container?”

“
Never tried it before, but
there’s always a first time,” Maia returned
nonchalantly.

“
Put your hands up,” Kappel
ordered. “Danny, search her for weapons.”

“
With pleasure boss,” Danny
replied as he approached Maia with a leer on his face; he also
displayed the beginnings of an erection.

“
You two,” Kappel addressed his
remaining men. “Stop looking at her and be on the lookout for her
accomplices. And maybe I might just share her with you.”

Maia sighed inwardly. This was getting too
easy. Men were such predictable creatures.

“
I can do threesomes, and I’d
loved to get fucked in the ass,” Maia added when Danny reached out
to feel her up. That did the trick. Too distracted by carnal
thoughts, Danny did not see her coming. Before he knew it, Maia had
one of his arms twisted around, his back flushed to her front, and
his own weapon pointed at his temple.

“
You, bitch!” Kappel shouted, as
all three guns shifted back to her and Danny.

“
Open the crate. I want to see
what’s inside before I let you stick your cock inside me,” Maia
said.

“
You don’t give me orders,” Kappel
said. “You can forget about doing business. Your boss can forget
his guns. Ooooh, but you can be sure I’ll fuck you before I put a
bullet in your head.”

“Don’t step any closer or Danny
boy here gets it,” Maia warned.
Wait, was
that a confession?

Kappel fired; Danny became
deadweight.

Oh hell.

“
You were
saying?
”
Kappel
mocked.

“
Freeze. Federal agents!” Manning
shouted behind her.

Maia immediately ran and flew into Kappel. Her
shoulder hit the man in his gut, and they went crashing to the
ground. Kappel lost his gun. The man was still reeling from her
running tackle, and Maia had no problem flipping him around and
keeping him subdued with his face to the ground. Surprisingly
enough, there were no gunshots behind her. Looked like a clean take
down.

The guns better be in those crates.

*****

The datacenter erupted in cheers and high fives when Manning
transmitted the images of the firearms hidden in the wooden boxes.
It had been a risky takedown, supported only by a vague verbal
confirmation from Milo Kappel.

Overwhelmed by relief, Jack sunk into a chair
and rested his elbows on his thighs, steepling his fingers and
bending slightly. Tim had set him up to receive notification when
Maia went out on assignments. He cussed a blue streak all the way
to AGS, angry at Maia and more so at himself for once again being a
distraction in her work. But watching her in action, Jack could
only admire her calmness despite having four guns pointed at her.
She was a professional capable of compartmentalizing her emotions
and for that, Jack was extremely thankful.