Page 48 of Russian Rescue

I nodded and turned around, the breeze blowing across my back as we waited. My heart pounded like it always did when I prepared to exit a moving helicopter, but it wasn’t fear speeding up my pulse. It was pure fucking adrenaline.

I lived for this shit.

“Good luck, guys,” Wes said into our comms.

Just hearing his voice caused my stomach to plummet like I’d already launched headfirst out of the helicopter. It instantly transported me back to his arms, listening to his voice in my ear as he growled into it while he pinned me against a wall and took me standing up. It was the hottest sex I’d ever had in my life... and we’d done it over and over again in every room of that cabin.

Focus on the mission, Piper.

I closed my eyes for a beat and tried to force the memories of our steamy night from my mind, but once again, his visage invaded me again. Every molecule in my body begged me to complete this mission and get back to his arms again, but I warred against them. What Wes and I had experienced together was amazing, but it wouldn’t happen again. Couldn’t happen again. I’d already broken all of my rules last night.

Don’t kiss anyone you have feelings for. Check.

Don’t sleep in bed with a man after sex. Check.

Don’t get attached to any man. Check.

My rules were there for a reason, and the fact I was thinking about Wes right then when I should be thinking about the mission was proof in the pudding that I needed to end this thing before it spiraled out of control. I had a new calling in this world, and it was a good one—save as many women and children as I could from the monsters who tormented them. And there was no way in hell I was letting my feelings for Wes put a stop to my mission, and there was no way I was going to endanger someone I cared about by dragging him into it. I’d been weak last night, but today I needed to find the strength to say no to the man I wanted nothing more than to scream “yes” to over and over again while he sank himself into my body.

The helicopter blades slowed down to a silent, soft thumping as Knox killed the engine. The machine started drifting down, but Knox kept the pitch just right, so we didn’t drop like a rock.

“See you soon!” Knox called back.

Marcus and I slid down the rope together, my stomach flipping and somersaulting as we rapidly descended. The straps around my legs tightened as we continued sliding down the rope at increasing speeds.

“You good?” Marcus said into my comms, the noise of the wind whipping past us making it impossible to hear him without it even though he was just a few feet away.

“Good,” I responded. “Let’s get down to the bottom.”

We used our descenders to lower us even farther down, needing to be four hundred feet below the helicopter when we disengaged on the roof. From Knox’s calculations, he’d still be high enough to clear the city and glide safely to the field he’d picked out during our planning.

As the helicopter continued its descent toward the target building, Marcus and I crept lower and lower down our ropes. The farther we got from the helicopter, the more drag we picked up until we were dangling far behind the silent machine above us. My legs ached from the straps cutting into them, but it was a good ache. The kind of ache I’d missed since we’d retired.

“You guys good?” Wes asked into my comms.

I glanced down at the roof approaching, smiling that it looked like Knox had pulled it off. “Yep. We’ve got this.”

Marcus and I gripped our ropes tight, unhooking ourselves from the clips so we could release as quickly as we needed to when we passed over the roof. The wind shear tugged at me, but I tightened my grip as we hung freely from the ropes.

“This is it,” Knox said. “Get ready.”

“Roger that,” I responded. “Good luck on your landing.”

He chuckled. “Landing a helicopter without an engine? Walk in the park. Don’t forget to pick me up once you get Amanda.”

“Roger that,” Marcus answered.

The roof grew closer and closer. Lucky for us, it was the highest building in the area, so we didn’t have to maneuver around any others. The muscles in my arms burned as I hung on tight, waiting for just the right second to let go. When the roof appeared fifteen feet below us, Marcus gave the cue.

“Now!”

We both let go, dropping onto the roof and rolling to a stop.

“Fuck yeah,” I whispered with a smile. “We’re on.”

Knox whooted into his comms, and I looked up and watched the faint silhouette of the helicopter quietly drifting away toward the field he aimed at.

“You’re good? You’re safe?” Wes asked, concern lifting the octaves of his voice. It wasn’t the same deep, gritty voice that had growled in my ear last night all the ways he was going to make me scream his name. Just the thought of how he had worked my body into a frenzy with such ease made my stomach flip again.