Her Fierce Warrior (X-Ops #4)(49)

She'd moved so damn fast, Angelo feared the beast had resumed control  again, but the moment Minka spun around, he saw that her eyes were  bright green, not red. As he watched, the vivid glow faded, replaced by  her natural dark eye color, and her claws retracted.

Even though he knew Renard had to be dead, Angelo hurried over to Minka,  just in case. One look at the doctor was enough to assure Angelo the  guy wasn't going to be experimenting on anyone ever again.

He pulled Minka into his arms. "I'm sorry you had to do that."

"So am I," she said, the words muffled against his chest. "But at least  it was me doing it for the right reasons, and not the beast doing it for  the wrong ones. I can live with that."

They held each other for a few more minutes until Angelo remembered the  bullet Minka had taken in the hip. He pulled away to see how bad it was,  but it had already closed up and stopped bleeding. He couldn't believe  she could heal so fast.

Angelo gently smoothed back the hair that had come loose from her braid.  "Why didn't you stay up on the hill, where it was safe?"

"Because I saw the hybrids," she said. "I was worried about you."

He closed his eyes for a moment, then bent to rest his forehead against  hers. "We should probably go tell Ivy and Landon about Renard."

Minka nodded. "I doubt they'll be very happy."

At that moment, Angelo wasn't too worried about that. Minka was safe and  in control of herself. The sick fucks who had tormented her were dead,  and it appeared that all their research had gone up in flames. He was  just a soldier and couldn't give a shit about all the covert crap; in  his opinion, the night had ended exactly the way it should have.

* * *

Angelo and Minka found Ivy huddled over the body of the female hybrid.  He worried at first that the hybrid was dead like the others, but then  he saw her chest slowly rising and falling. Derek was kneeling beside  the hybrid, tending a wound around the woman's ankle. Diaz and Landon  were standing to one side, watching.

Ivy lifted her head as Angelo and Minka moved closer. Her eyes darted behind them, then back again, clearly looking for Renard.

"He tried to get away," Angelo said before she could ask. "He left Minka no choice."

Angelo expected Ivy to be pissed, but instead, her expression softened  as she stood and walked over to them. "You okay?" she asked Minka.

Minka nodded. "Yes. The bullet went right through, and my hip doesn't hurt at all now."

Ivy gave her a small smile. "That's not what I meant."

Minka looked down at the ground. "I would have preferred if I hadn't had  to kill Renard. I know you were hoping he'd help you put Thomas Thorn  in prison, but I didn't have a choice. He was going to shoot Angelo."

Ivy sighed and pulled Minka in for a hug. Minka wrapped her arms around  Ivy and squeezed her tight. Angelo heard a few sniffles but chose to  ignore them. The other guys were smart enough to do the same.

"I'm just glad you're still you," Ivy said when she stepped back. "That's more important to me than anything else."

Minka smiled and reached up to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

"I'm sorry I let you face Renard and that hybrid alone," Ivy said. "I  thought Klaus was trying to get around you to attack you from behind,  and by the time I figured out he was leading me away from you, it was  too late to get back to help."

"It's okay." Minka glanced at Angelo, then reached out to take his hand. "Angelo got there in time."

He started to give her a smile when the sound of footsteps made him  stiffen. He looked up to see Trevor, Watson, Powell, and Moore coming  toward them across the smoky, fire-ravaged compound.                       
       
           



       

"We almost got overrun by the last of the hybrids," Trevor said as he  and the other guys came over. "We would have been screwed if Powell and  Moore hadn't shown up."

Angelo eyed the two men. It was obvious from the claw marks on their  uniforms and tactical vests that they'd been in the thick of things.  "What happened to the two of you out there?"

Powell shrugged. "We got pinned down by some guards, then a handful of  those damn hybrids showed up. Next thing we know, the frigging ammo  storage blew up. Luckily, the flames took down most of the hybrids.  Otherwise, we'd be dead."

Moore glanced at the bodies on the ground, paying special attention to the sedated female hybrid. "Did you find the doctors?"

"Yes," Ivy said. "But Klaus had a heart attack while I was trying to run  him down, and Minka was forced to kill Renard when he pulled a weapon."

Powell and Moore exchanged looks.

"Heart attack, huh?" Powell said, glancing at Ivy. "That's too bad. I'm sure Thorn would rather we'd brought them back alive."

Ivy shrugged. "We tried. I'm sure he'll understand."

"I'm sure he will."

Giving Ivy a nod, Powell and Moore walked over to check on Derek and the hybrid.

"You believe their story?" Landon asked softly after the two men had moved out of earshot.

Trevor snorted. "Oh, I'm sure they got into it with some guards and a  few hybrids. There were so many running around here, it would have been  impossible not to. But I have no fucking doubt they blew the ammo point  and fuel dump themselves. Those places were demoed in such a way to  scatter flaming debris everywhere and burn this whole place down, which  is probably what Thorn and Dick sent them here to do."

"Do you think there's anything on those hard drives you grabbed?" Landon asked.

Trevor shrugged. "Don't know. I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"I hope so," Ivy said. "Because with both Renard and Klaus dead-and yes,  Klaus really did die from a heart attack-we've got nothing else on  Thorn except what Renard told us about his involvement. And his  statements won't mean much in a court of law."

Landon nodded, then turned and looked around at all the chaos filling  the area. "Diaz, Trevor, let's get a makeshift litter put together for  the injured hybrid, then let's get the hell out of here."

Beside Angelo, Minka took a step closer to him. "I guess the mission is over now, right?"

He nodded and slipped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her to his side. If Watson noticed, he didn't let on.

Minka wrapped her arm around Angelo's waist, resting her head against  his chest. She didn't say anything, but he knew what she was thinking.  In a few hours, she would be getting back on a bird for the States, and  he'd go with his team to their base camp in northern Afghanistan. Hell,  for all he knew, they might come right back here to Tajikistan. Either  way, he and Minka were going to have to say good-bye.

The thought scared the hell out of him.





Chapter 17


Minka tried hard to hold back tears as she boarded the Osprey with  Angelo. They found two seats in the back. It was as close to privacy as  they could get on the small aircraft. Everyone must have known they  needed some time together because they all sat up front. The thump of  the rotors made talking almost impossible, but there wasn't really  anything to say anyway. Mostly because she and Angelo had said what they  needed to while the crew had prepared the aircraft for takeoff.

"When we get to Bagram, I'm going to have to go with my team," Angelo  had said. "But I'll be coming off this deployment in a month or two. I  have a lot of leave time saved up, and I'm going to spend every minute  of it with you. If you want me to, I mean."

"Of course I want you to," she'd said, but on the inside, she didn't  know how it was going to work. She couldn't imagine living without  Angelo by her side, but that simply was not a possibility. Angelo wasn't  only a soldier; he was Special Forces, which meant he deployed-a lot.

So she'd nodded as he talked about his current enlistment and possible  options after that, like getting out of the army. But those things would  be years from now, and with the way her heart was breaking at the  thought of being separated from him for just a few weeks, it all seemed  so far away.

But she put up a good front because that was what she knew Angelo needed.

Minka leaned her head against his shoulder as the aircraft took off. She  was tired and her eyes felt heavy. The physical fighting, as well as  the internal fight she'd had with the beast, had taken a lot out of her.  But she didn't want to waste this time with Angelo sleeping. So she  held his hand and stayed awake the whole trip back. And if she let out a  few tears, she made sure he didn't see them.                       
       
           



       

* * *

By the time they got back to the air base in Bagram, Angelo knew that  Minka was barely holding it together. But what could he do? He had to go  back with his team. Watson and the rest of the A-team had been  completely out of contact with the battalion for almost two days, and  he'd been gone for over a week. If he knew Major Bennett, the man would  be waiting for them the moment they stepped off the aircraft.