Page 55 of Nikolai
Oh man, he was so done.He bent and caught her mouth with his.A long, lush kiss, guaranteed to make him forget his aches and pains.Her mouth tasted delightful.Their tongues touched and it was like an electric wire pinged to life between his mouth and his groin.
He leaned lower, pressing against her, feeling excited and happy at the same time.Their situation was dire but not that dire.People were coming.If the earth could hold off on another quake for just another hour…
Nick’s head lifted.
“What?”Parker murmured.Her eyes were still closed, mouth a little puffy from his.
“Someone’s coming,” Nick said, suddenly snapping back into reality.
“What?”Then Parker cocked her head.She heard it too.Engines, revving.
This was not good news.“Too early for the cavalry.”He checked his satphone.“No messages.That’s not the military from the Sixth Fleet.”
Someone was coming for the nukes.
Nick stood up fast.One-handed, he stacked two crates right under the crack in the overhead ceiling.When Parker saw what he was doing she stood up and helped.
Nick moved quickly among the boxes and crates.There was a box that was regular gear, not arms, and he quickly found what he was looking for.He pulled out a pair of binoculars.Primitive by today’s standards, just 7x50, but it had been state of the art in the 50s.Then he went to a crate and pulled out an M1 Garand, the old workhorse of NATO.It still had gun oil.He checked the action, and everything seemed to be in working order.There were ten boxes of 7.62 x 51 mm ammo.A thousand rounds.Enough to do damage.He picked out a Beretta BM 49 and placed it next to the M1 Garand.
Parker looked at him, eyes huge.
Nick positioned a big crate right under the opening then clambered up, very slowly and very painfully.He pointed to a smaller crate and Parker lifted it up to him.He climbed that one, too, even more painfully.His wound began bleeding again.
He could stick his head out of the opening.He didn’t know if he could pull himself further up, whether his arm could take the strain.Probably not.
Nick put his hand down.“Can you hand me the binocs please?”
She held them up to him and he stuck his head up and glassed the area.
Oh fuck.
Three SUVs in a convoy, about a klick away, on the unpaved access road, a plume of dust following them.Those SUVs were exactly like his, like the ones the rental guy told him were used by the local mafia, the Camorra.
Mobsters had arrived for the nukes.
He texted Jacob.Three SUVs coming, not military.Probably Camorra.
Fuck.They either wanted the nukes for themselves or to sell to terrorists.Big big market.
Over his dead body.
Nick jumpeddown from the crates and it cost him.He didn’t wince but she could tell he was hurting.Whatever he saw up there had galvanized him.
“What?”Parker asked.His face was impassive, but something was wrong.
“The people coming aren’t the good guys.So until the cavalry arrives, we are the first line of defense.”
The short hairs on her arms stood up.Theywere the first line of defense?A wounded man andher?She swallowed her dismay.She understood very well that they needed to defend those nuclear weapons, however primitive they were.
But still.
“Okay.”Parker was proud to note that her voice was steady, though everything inside her quaked.“What do we do?”
Nick pointed to the back of the cavernous room.“You go hunker down behind the last cases.They are all gear of no use to anyone.Whoever’s coming wants the nukes.If anything happens to me, stay hidden until our guys come.I’ll text Jacob to tell them to look for you.”
She was frightened to death, and angry, at the same time.“If the time comes when I have to hide, because something happens to you, God forbid, I’ll hide.Or if there is a firefight.I don’t know how to use a gun or fight.But until then, I’m helping you.I thought you understood that.”
Nick winced.Though the face she’d seen on him so far was affable businessman and, last night, turned-on alpha male, this was different.She saw the soldier in him—brave and determined, even though he was wounded.Ready to die.She also saw, clearly, his fear for her.
