Free Heatseeker (Atrati) by Lucy Monroe Page A

was glad. He knew she had been worried he was still going to try to extract her from Morocco without Jamila Massri.
    She let him help her into the house and voiced no protest when he swung her into his arms to carry her up the narrow stairs to the second floor.
    Like most houses in Marrakech, this one was built on multiple levels with an expansive living area on the roof. The interior rooms were narrow and long, divided by thick walls and even narrower hallways.
    The Abduls, the couple who cared for the house and those who used it, showed no surprise at their arrival. The man, a Moroccan of indeterminate years somewhere between his forties and sixties, explained that he’d been informed to expect them.
    Roman.
    Kadin was grateful the other man hadn’t left orders to evacuate. Chief might not like that Kadin had decided to stay in Marrakech, but Roman Chernichenko wasn’t the type of man to undermine his new captain’s orders.
    And it was a damn good thing, because whatever Roman had said, Kadin wasn’t leaving Africa without Rachel, and Rachel wasn’t going anywhere without the young woman, Jamila.
    There were empty bedrooms on the second floor. Kadin didn’t even bother doing mental calculations before carrying Rachel into one of them. His team could sort themselves out, but he was staying with the woman he’d come to Morocco to rescue.
    Looking over his shoulder to Cowboy, Kadin asked, “Can you get my pack?”
    “Sure thing, Trig.” Cowboy dumped a pack inside the door with a smirk.
    The other man must have grabbed it with his own when they got out of the Land Rover. Kadin wasn’t even surprised. They were Atrati, after all. Semper paratus, semper fatalis . Always ready, always deadly.
    Kadin nodded his thanks and carried Rachel to the bed. Eva was right behind them.
    The doc examined a barely-awake Rachel, taking her blood pressure before changing the bandages over the abrasions on her wrists. “These look better. She probably won’t need the gauze after tomorrow.”
    “Good.”
    “Without proper medical facilities, I can’t run the tests I’d like, but it looks like she’s doing fine.” Eva turned to face Kadin. “She needs sleep more than anything else right now.”
    “She’ll get it.”
    “You could use some, too.” Eva’s voice held censure.
    Kadin just shrugged.
    “Don’t have to watch over me,” Rachel slurred from the bed.
    He turned to face her, wanting to rage at the vulnerability in her pale eyes. “It’s a pleasure, angel.”
    She shook her head, wincing in pain from the movement.
    Eva’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Your muscles sore?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s to be expected.” Eva gave Kadin a measured look. “A massage would help, though.”

Chapter Six
    “Y ou think I should give her a massage?” Kadin asked, glad that in his tone, at least, surprise overrode the other emotions cascading through him.
    “It will help her muscles recover from the shock-induced contractions.”
    Kadin knew that his field medic was right, but his sudden fear made him want to continue protesting, anyway. He couldn’t even touch Rachel without feeling things he’d spent the best part of a decade avoiding.
    Oh, he hadn’t been celibate or anything, but neither had he touched another person with tenderness and care in all that time. Sex was just that. Sex. Screwing. Stress release.
    Emotion hadn’t entered into him since the last time he’d been with Rachel. He didn’t show or receive affection from anyone but his family, and he’d kept them at a distance about the same number of years.
    His mom never gave up, but Trigger did his best to be on assignment for all the major holidays. The people he loved, whom he’d fought his entire adult life to protect, deserved something better than to say grace over dinner with a killer.
    This wasn’t a family dinner, though; this was something a hell of a lot harder.
    Touching the one woman who had ever laid claim to his heart was something he knew