Jami Alden - Caught (The Gemini Men)

KENSINGTON BOOKS

http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

To my boys, Gajus, Luke, and Myko,
who love me even when Im a stressed-out head case.
You guys make my dreams come true every day.

P AIN. IT SCORCHED through his arm and across his chest. He was afraid to look down, afraid to see the extent of the damage. He could barely see. He lifted his hand to wipe the blood out of his eyes and bit back a scream. His shoulder felt like it had been torn out of its socket, and he was pretty sure his elbow was shattered. Definitely some broken ribs.

The twisted wreckage of their plane lay in a heap several yards away. The last thing Ethan remembered was smacking his head into the steering column as hed piled into the smoothest stretch of land he could find between two knife-edged mountain peaks. He didnt know how long hed been lying here, shivering in the frigid mountain air. Could have been minutes, could have been hours.

He pushed himself up on his still functional right arm and looked around for his copilot, Huck Finnegan, swallowing back his gorge when he saw the tall, lanky form crumpled next to the wreckage. Like Ethan, Huck had somehow managed to unclip himself from his harness and extricate himself from the wreck, but he hadnt made it very far. Even in the dim light Ethan could see the dark stain spreading under his friends prone form.

He called out for his friend, Hucks name dissolving into a groan of agony when that simple movement sent a spear of pain driving between his ribs. His friend didnt so much as twitch. Ethan squinted up at the mountains, taking stock of their situation, dread deepening as he realized how vulnerable they were. Him wounded, Huck possibly dead, sitting ducks in this one flat spot for several square miles with enemy forces running around the area like a bunch of fucking mountain goats.

The emergency beacon would have been set off by the wreck, but there was no guarantee the cavalry would arrive in time to save their asses. Though his legs seemed fine, he didnt dare get up and walk. Nothing said come and shoot me like a six-foot-plus white guy in the middle of Al Quaeda country. Ethan rolled onto his belly and cursed silently as he executed a slow, excruciating belly crawl over to his copilot. Thick, dark blood oozed from a wound in Hucks abdomen, and from the amount already seeping into the parched ground, it was likely his friend was already dead.

Ethan reached out his hand, closing his eyes in relief when he felt a pulse at his throat, thready but there. But not for long if he didnt get help soon. Ethan unzipped his flight suit and stripped off his T-shirt, nearly passing out as he dragged it off his fucked-up left arm. He balled up the cotton and pressed it firmly against the wound.

Huck let out a harsh groan. Ethan took it as a good sign that he still had it in him to respond to pain. Take it easy, buddy. Were gonna get out of this.

Huck coughed, staining his lips and chin with dark blood. Im pretty fucked up, man.

Its not that bad. Ethan pressed harder against the wound. He wasnt about to let his friend bleed out on this cold, barren mountain.

Off in the distance, he heard a noisefaint, pulsing, growing closer. Helicopter blades. It might as well have been angels singing.

Cavalrys here. Were going to be fine. He prayed it was true, but Hucks color, which hadnt been good to begin with, had bleached out until he was as gray as the granite peaks surrounding them.

A sharp crack, and the dirt next to him exploded.

Ethan wrapped his good arm around Huck and launched himself for the meager cover of the plane in an adrenaline-fueled rush. The chopper peppered the area with gunfire, covering him as they came in for a landing about fifteen yards away.

It felt like fifteen miles as Ethan got his legs up under him, slung Huck over his shoulder in a firemans hold, and ran for it. He heard a meaty thunk and felt the deep burn as his leg took a hit, the bullet ripping a hole through his left quad. He staggered, hearing his friend groan, felt the sticky warmth of Hucks blood seeping through his own clothing. He refused to go down, willing his leg not to buckle as he gunned it for the chopper. The metallic stench of blood coated his nose, and dust flew into his face, the thunder of the blades and pepper of gunshots deafening as he staggered those last desperate steps

Ethan jerked awake, clawing away the sweat-soaked sheets as his breath came in heavy pants. He struggled toward wakefulness, swallowing back the rising panic as he registered a dark room and unfamiliar surroundings. As he shook off the last dregs of sleep, his eyes slowly made out the dim shapes of furniture and his body registered that he was lying on a comfortable king-size bed and not the hard floor of a Blackhawk helicopter. And the low thrum he heard wasnt the sound of helicopter blades slicing through the frigid air of the mountains south of Kabul.

It was coming from the bathroom. It took him a moment, but Ethan finally recognized the steady hum as the jets on the Jacuzzi tub. Which meant someone was taking a bath.

Gillian.

At least, he was pretty sure that was her name. A sexy blonde in a tastefully slinky red dress, a dress that was now flung across the back of a chair on the other side of the sizable master suite. Shed been a guest at the political fundraiser hed attended last night. But while she had paid five thousand dollars for her plate of rubbery chicken, Ethan had been on the job, running security for the event.

Like it or not, he was the pretty boy of Gemini Security and Investigations, the firm he ran with his brothers, Derek and Danny. That meant that any time a client wanted low-profile securitysomeone who could blend with the crowd and make conversation with the guests while ensuring the safety of all involvedyoungest brother Ethan was the one they trotted out.

So hed dragged out his tux and dusted off his social graces. At the end of the night, sexy, sophisticated Gillian had taken him home like a party favor.

He shook off the dust of his nightmare until all that was left was the buzz of adrenaline pumping through his veins. He was keyed up, strung out, and he knew the perfect way to work off the tension the dream had elicited. When he got like this, the only way to get him down was either a long run or a lusty fuck, and he sure as hell wasnt going to go home and lace up his running shoes when there was an attractive and ever-so-willing woman just a few yards away.

He slid from the bed and padded naked across the room, the humming of the jets growing louder as he got closer to the bathroom. Gillian reclined in the tub, her eyes opened into lusty slits. Shed lit about five hundred candles, and their warm light and thick scent permeated the steamy air. After their earlier energetic screw, she apparently wanted to go all romantic for round two. Whatever. Hed go along with whatever mood she chose to create. When it came to the women he slept with, he was nothing if not accommodating.