Survivors (Hell Squad #19) Read online

  Itch for things he shouldn’t be fucking thinking about.

  Now he was going to grapple with her and pin her under him in front of a bunch of recruits?

  Fuck.

  She tossed her head back, and for a second, he was distracted by her dark locks and loose curls.

  He remembered the day that they’d rescued her and her group. She’d been splattered with raptor blood, fierce as hell as she’d protected the others. Somehow, she’d kept that little group alive, even with raptors hunting for them.

  He saw that same stubborn jut of her chin and glint in her eye right now.

  She didn’t like him. He got it. He couldn’t afford to make friends with anyone, and he’d been tough on her because he’d seen her potential. She was going to make a damn good security officer.

  He also knew what she’d come from, and that made her even more impressive. If the alien apocalypse had never happened, she’d have had a great career as a cop.

  “Take me down, Silver.”

  She rushed him, spinning fast and dropping to her knees.

  Dak lost his concentration for a vital second—Naomi Silver was on her knees in front of him. Her head level with his crotch. Shit.

  Then she rammed a fist into his knee. He stumbled and swallowed a curse. He swiveled and she rushed at him again.

  He turned and grabbed her from behind. For a second, her butt was nestled back against him, her sleek curves pressed against his body. He barely held back a groan.

  Then she dropped and broke free.

  They traded and blocked blows, moving across the mats. She was damn good. He wasn’t using his full strength—because what most people in this base didn’t know was that Dak had been part of a very small, very elite military group who’d been trained to kill in every way imaginable.

  Naomi spun and her hand raked across his gut—if she’d had a knife, he’d be bleeding.

  Dak shifted and blocked her next punch, but her other hand whipped out fast. He twisted to avoid a blow, and instead, her fingers brushed his groin.

  Her dark-brown eyes widened and she gasped.

  Yeah, she probably couldn’t miss his semi-hard cock.

  Dak dropped and took her to the mat, pinning her under his body. She put up a good fight, almost twisting free. They strained against each other, and he heard a rush of air escape her. He pushed harder and let her take his weight. He pressed her flat against the mat, his hips falling into the cradle of hers. At full contact, she froze and sucked in a breath.

  Helpless to control himself, he pressed his hips against hers. Her thighs tightened on him and he was sure he heard her moan.

  Shit. That small sound rocketed through him.

  Her deep-brown eyes met his for a humming second.

  Dak jumped up and held out a hand. “You’d be dead, Silver.”

  She ignored his hand and climbed to her feet. “And you’d be bleeding out.”

  “Doesn’t matter if you scratch them if you’re dead.”

  He turned to the class. “Everyone team up, groups of three. One of you gets to pretend to be the enemy. Your focus is on distracting the raptor in order to get away. Survival at all cost.”

  Dak didn’t let himself look at Naomi again. Survival—he had to make sure humanity had a fighting chance.

  That meant he didn’t have time for anything else—no women, no friends, no pleasure, no Naomi.

  He had to remember that.

  Chapter Two

  Naomi slung her carbine over her shoulder and checked the patrol roster on the corridor wall.

  “Oh, shit.” She sighed.

  She was on patrol with a fellow recruit, Ryan Kaminski. Nice guy, a few years younger than her, but persistent as hell. He’d asked her out about a hundred times.

  But that wasn’t what bothered her. The senior officer on patrol with them was Captain Dak Vaughn.

  She was still embarrassed from the gym session yesterday. When he’d pinned her, his muscular body on top of hers, she’d liked it.

  Way too much.

  Plus, she was pretty damn certain the captain had been sporting an erection. A nice, big hard one.

  Doesn’t mean anything. They’d been there rolling around on the ground together. It happened.

  Naomi scrubbed a hand over her face. Except she’d had a few very detailed dreams of lowering Dak Vaughn’s zipper and seeing exactly what that hard cock looked like.

  Cursing, she shook her head. Snap out of it. She’d had sex a few times since the invasion. Mainly to scratch an itch, to feel alive. Afterward, she’d felt hollow, and since then, no one had really caught her eye.

  Liar. Okay, Dak Vaughn caught her eye. He caught every woman’s eye. The man had the firmest ass she’d ever seen, and a voice that made a woman want to lie down naked and roll around on a bed. And the way his T-shirts stretched over his chest…

  Shit. She headed down the corridor toward the patrol meeting point. The captain had made it very clear that he found her lacking. He called her out more times than the other recruits, he hounded her during training.

  She was used to people looking down on her because of her family. It made her more determined to succeed.

  Vaughn had to know that she was from the infamous Silvers of Las Vegas. Her grandfather had been in organized crime—gambling, extortion, illegal fights, just about any unsavory thing you could think up. In pre-invasion Las Vegas, if you needed someone to “take care” of someone for you, there was a Silver who’d do it for the right price.

  Her grandfather had been a cantankerous old bastard, and Naomi’s father had gone into the family business, as well. Les Silver had been just as bad as her grandfather, if not worse. He sure was never going to win father of the year. Her two older brothers had joined the family business too.

  Naomi had detested them all and what they did. From the day her mother had left, Naomi’s life had been a battlefield.

  Her mama had left when Naomi was young. Sofia Chavez Silver had made the mistake of falling in love with Les Silver and thinking she could change him. She’d left when Naomi was twelve.

  I can’t handle it anymore, baby girl. I’m going home to mi familia. He won’t let me take you, baby. I’m so sorry I couldn’t be stronger. Naomi remembered the tears in her mother’s beautiful brown eyes. She remembered her own heartbroken sobs and pleas for her mama to take her too. Be strong, baby girl. Be you.

  Naomi had grown up hating her father, hating her family. When she’d hit eighteen, she packed a small bag and left. She’d refused her father’s tainted money. Instead, she’d bounced around jobs—waitressing, bartending, construction work—until she’d finally found what she wanted to do. She’d joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.

  She’d been determined to make it on her own and put her family behind her.

  But now her asshole father was dead, killed by the alien bombs, and he was still affecting her life.

  At the end of the hall, she saw the captain standing straight and tall, one hand resting on his hip. He was dressed in dark gray body armor, the carbon fiber making him look even bigger than usual and more in command. Then his head snapped up and that gray gaze landed on her.

  Naomi’s skin prickled and her belly tightened. Damn him.

  “Silver.”

  “Captain.”

  Ryan appeared, sauntering down the hall with his usual swagger. “Hey, everybody.” The young man’s dirty-blond hair was messy, and he was all smiles, shooting Naomi a flirty look.

  “Hi, Ryan.”

  “Kaminski, you’re late,” Vaughn said.

  “By one minute.”

  “Late is late.” His gaze ran over their body armor and weapons, then he nodded. “Let’s move it.”

  Naomi suppressed an eye roll and followed the captain as they headed out the secure hatch and into the desert.

  The sun had set, but the moon was up, turning the desert a whitewashed silver. As they walked across the hard-packed sand, residual heat wafted up from beneat
h their feet.

  They followed the patrol path set out for the night. Vaughn always mixed up the patrol routes and teams. If the aliens were watching them, they’d never pick up any patterns.

  Even though the base had high-tech sensors and drones, they’d learned that the Gizzida could be sneaky when it suited them. It paid to have boots on the ground patrolling the base perimeter, as well.

  If the aliens ever got into Groom Lake Base… Naomi shuddered at the thought. There were a lot of innocent people and kids who could lose their lives.

  “Kaminski, quit making so much noise,” Vaughn snapped in a low voice.

  “Sorry, sir.” Ryan straightened, lifting his feet.

  Vaughn moved ahead of Naomi and damn, she liked the way the man moved. He was muscular but with a fluid, athletic grace.

  Quit looking at the man’s ass, Naomi.

  They did a lap of their route. Everything was quiet.

  Suddenly, Vaughn froze. He scanned the far horizon and Naomi followed his gaze.

  Her muscles tightened. Red lights zipped through the sky toward the west.

  Alien ptero ships.

  “Down,” Vaughn murmured.

  They all crouched and watched. The pteros danced through the sky in an amazing display of aeronautics.

  Memories of those same ships dropping bombs on Las Vegas made her throat tighten.

  A few minutes later, the lights flickered out, and the alien ships disappeared into the distance.

  Their earpieces pinged.

  “Patrol One, we have a camera down in quadrant beta five,” a male comms officer said.

  Vaughn touched his ear. “Acknowledged. We’ll check it out.”

  They headed in the direction of the malfunctioning camera. Naomi kept her gaze peeled for any signs of aliens. Thankfully, everything remained still and quiet.

  In the distance, she saw the hulking shadows of the old Area 51 buildings and aircraft hangars that sat atop the underground base. They were all just ruins now.

  Vaughn found the camera. It was recessed into a rock to keep it hidden.

  Naomi leaned closer. The lens was smashed.

  “Must have been an accident,” Ryan said.

  Vaughn frowned.

  “Something impacted the glass,” she said.

  The captain nodded. “Animal?”

  “Unlikely.”

  His gaze met hers. “Agreed.”

  She felt a faint bloom in her chest. A rare moment of camaraderie between them. They stared at each other for another beat.

  “I think you guys are overreacting,” Ryan said.

  “I’d prefer to be alive and overreacting, than dead and lazy,” Vaughn said. “Look around, stay sharp.”

  Naomi turned and found herself looking at Vaughn’s ass again. She was pretty sure that wasn’t what he intended when he said look around. He was so close to her that, even with his armor on, she could smell him. He always wore a citrusy cologne that made her mouth water.

  “So, Naomi, when are you going to have a drink with me?” Ryan asked.

  She sighed. When she lifted her head, she saw a muscle tick in Vaughn’s jaw. He caught her looking and raised a brow, almost like a dare.

  Dammit, it was time she put these unruly feelings for this man to bed. “Sure, Ryan, I’ll have a drink with you.”

  “Really?” A grin lit up Ryan’s cute face. “Awesome.”

  All of a sudden, there was a whistle of sound.

  A bone-like projectile whizzed past Naomi’s head.

  “Down!” Vaughn yelled.

  Adrenaline spiking, she hit the sand.

  “This is Patrol One, we’re under fire,” Dak yelled into his earpiece.

  “Acknowledged,” his comms officer replied.

  Where was Naomi? Dak searched the darkness. “Silver?”

  “I’m in cover. To your right, five feet.”

  Now he spotted her in the shadows. “Ryan?” No response. “Ryan?”

  “I found him,” Naomi said. “Looks like he bumped his head when he went down. He’s out cold.”

  Shit. A barrage of more projectiles peppered the ground and rocks around them. He knew the raptor snipers used these bone-like bolts.

  “Can you get over to me, Silver?”

  “I think so.”

  “Stay low.”

  She darted across the gap between them, staying low. She ducked in beside him, her face set and focused.

  He scanned ahead. “The alien snipers are—”

  “On the ridge to the west,” she replied.

  He fought a smile. Damn, she was good. “Yes. Cover me, and I’ll circle around behind them.”

  She frowned. “That’s risky. I thought you wanted us to run if we encountered the aliens.”

  “Only when you aren’t wearing armor. They’ll likely overrun us at any second. We can’t carry Ryan out of here and fight the raptors. So, we need to neutralize them. We can do it, Silver. I know you’re an excellent shot.”

  Her lips parted with surprise. “You always tell me I need more practice.”

  “To keep your skills sharp. Ready?”

  She lifted her carbine. “Ready.”

  Then she swiveled on one knee, lifted the weapon, and aimed. She pulled the trigger.

  As her laser fire lit up the night, Dak sprinted. He skidded in behind some rocks. He peered around the side, trying to get a view of the aliens. He ran again, darting forward.

  When he got down between another outcrop of rocks, he had a better angle and a good view of the alien raptors. The assholes were crouched behind some rocks on a small rise.

  He lifted his carbine and fired.

  A pained grunt filled the air, followed by muttering in the guttural alien language. Dak aimed and fired again. And again.

  An alien went down.

  Between him and Silver, they kept firing and picking the aliens off.

  “Silver, I think they’re all down.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  He loved her smoky voice. She sounded calm and steady. Nerves of steel. Dak rose, scanning the group of aliens. None of them were moving. He headed back toward Naomi. When she spotted him, she stood and nodded.

  “Nice shooting,” he said.

  She smiled. “You too.” Then she looked over his shoulder and her face changed. “Vaughn, watch out!”

  Dak spun to see a hidden raptor rise up from out of the sand. Sand poured off its scaly shoulders as it lifted its huge, scaled, sniper weapon.

  Dak was already whipping his own carbine around. He fired, but at the same moment, so did the raptor.

  Something slammed into Dak’s gut, like a sucker punch. Pain hit him hard.

  The alien fell backward, but so did Dak.

  He sprawled, landing on the sand flat on his back. Pain like fire ripped through his midsection.

  “Shit, Vaughn.” Naomi skidded to her knees beside him.

  “Check…alien dead.”

  She muttered a curse, but disappeared for a moment. Then she was back.

  “It’s dead.” She touched her ear. “This is Patrol One. The captain’s down, I repeat, the captain is down. We need medical help.”

  “Medical team en route,” the comms officer replied, voice shaky.

  Naomi yanked at Dak’s chest armor and he grunted. Her face was lined with panic.

  “You care if I die, Silver?”

  “Yes, dammit.” She tore his shirt up. “The carbon fiber took the brunt of it.” Her hands were shaking as they touched his bare stomach. “But you’re bleeding bad.”

  She pulled a small field first aid kit off her belt. Then she was pressing something against his gut. Dak grunted from the pain.

  “I’m too tough to die,” he muttered.

  “You’re not invincible.”

  Their gazes met and he swallowed. “Fuck, you have gorgeous eyes.”

  She blinked, then she kept trying to staunch the bleeding.

  “That surprise you?” he asked.

  �
�You’ve been a hardass to me from the first day I arrived.”

  “Mainly because I thought you had gorgeous eyes then, too. I can’t afford to get close to anyone. And because I saw your potential.”

  Now her mouth dropped open.

  He groped for her hand and then pressed it higher, against his beating heart. Her fingers stroked his skin and he felt a flare of sensation that pushed out the pain.

  She stroked downward and he sucked in a breath. Damn, that felt good. She stroked him again and he groaned.

  “Vaughn… Dak.”

  It was the first time she’d used his given name.

  “Now you know my secret,” he said. “I am totally, one hundred percent, attracted to you.”

  She touched his jaw and Dak closed his eyes for a second.

  “I’ve imagined your hands on me a lot,” he murmured.

  “You have?”

  “I tried to shut it down, but I’ve imagined touching you.” Far too many times to count.

  She gasped. “I thought you didn’t like me.”

  “I’ve pushed you because you’re good, capable, smart.”

  “I was sure you thought I wasn’t up to the job.”

  He snorted. “I think the exact opposite of that.”

  She paused. “You know who my family is… Was?”

  “You aren’t your family, Silver. I judge people on their actions, not the actions of the people they’re related to.”

  She stared down at him. “You have the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard.”

  Dak’s pulse jumped.

  “And the firmest, most biteable ass I’ve ever seen.”

  Despite his injury, his cock throbbed. “Naomi.”

  She leaned over him, her face moving closer.

  Then there was the sound of people running toward them, and she yanked back.

  The medical team arrived.

  “Out of my way,” a male nurse ordered.

  Naomi pulled back. “Our other patrol member is injured too. Bumped his head and knocked himself out.”

  “Recruits,” the man muttered.

  “Show me,” a female paramedic said.

  Then Dak lost sight of Naomi as the medical team started to work on him and lifted him onto a stretcher.

  Chapter Three