Page 129 of Silver Fire
Sophie exhaled deeply and centered the rogue wires between some cutters and without hesitation, snipped. The beeping sound stopped. Everyone stopped breathing.
She flipped back the board to look at the digital display: 5:05.
It stopped! She did it! The air swooshed out of her lungs, the tension dissipated from her body, leaving her boneless as she collapsed. Strong arms caught her in a tight embrace.
The entire room exhaled.
“Thank god, oh thank god —” she mumbled and couldn’t say more because firm, demanding lips crushed her softer ones as Derek gave her a long, deep searching kiss.
Whooping and yelling erupted in the room and on comms after Marissa reported the successful de-activation of the zee bombs.
When the kiss ended, she was cradled on his lap. Derek gazed down at her, his eyes twinkling as he switched off his comms and reached over to turn hers off. He whispered against her lips,“So you love me?”
“Yes, I do. I love you so much, Derek,” Sophie said softly.
“About fucking time.”
* * *
“Why didn’tyou tell anyone you’ve been shot?” Sophie cried when she discovered the bleeding on Derek’s left arm. Derek winced as he wrapped a bandage around his injured limb to stem the bleeding. It was just a scratch, but it still stung.
The firefight was over. After taking out more than half of SASTac’s security personnel, the rest of them surrendered. Technically they were not detainees, all they had to do was allow the AGS/CIA team to take the bombs out of the warehouse. CIA operatives had taken Damian Stoltz into custody after Marissa had given confirmation about the zefinium bombs. They found the remote detonator on him. The profile on him was correct. He was a sociopath, and backed into a corner, he would take everyone down with him, screw the consequences and the casualties.
They were being airlifted by military Black Hawks back to Johannesburg.
“No big deal, Sophie,” Derek assured her loudly enough to be heard over the chopper’s rotors. And it wasn’t. He was feeling euphoric. After days of tension, uncertainty, and running the gamut of raw emotions, there was finally a light at the end of this tunnel. When he saw the bomb ticking down, a strange peace washed over him. He thought it was over. Then Sophie wanted him to leave, and he went a bit crazy. When he heard Sophie’s voice call his name with such desperation, he worried about her, about her state of mind. And when she told him she loved him, Derek knew they were going to be okay. He did not know how he knew it, but he did. And his love for this woman wanted to burst from his chest. He loved her. And she finally loved him. Though Derek suspected as much, he swore to himself that he would wait patiently for Sophie to realize it on her own.Yeah, fuck that. After this near-death experience, he doubted if he would have let her out of his condo until she admitted that she loved him and belonged only to him.
So this minor wound on his arm was definitely inconsequential. “Come here,” he said roughly, capturing her with his good arm and resting his chin on the top of her head. “Stop making a fuss about a flesh wound. You prevented a catastrophic event, Sophie. Dwell on that. We’re alive. We didn’t suffer any fatalities.”
Half of them though, sustained gunshot wounds. The worse was one of the CIA Black Ops guy. He got shot twice in the leg. Edmunds sustained a GSW to his arm.
“OK,” she mumbled into his chest. “Thank you.”
“For what?” Derek asked gently.
“Do you even need to ask?” Sophie whispered. “You’ve done so much for me, and I’ve been nothing but trouble. I do not deserve you.”
“Hey—no mushy stuff,” Derek teased. “Not until later. You can thank me later.”
Sophie snuggled closer, Derek gathered her to him fiercely, protectively.
* * *
After makingsure the injured men were taken care of at the local hospital—the CIA had a discreet contact on staff there—Marissa made her way back to La Belle Epoch. She had not expected Sophie to be in their room, but she was—fast asleep on her bed. Derek was sitting beside her, leaning on the headboard, just stroking her hair.
He got up quietly when she came into the room.
“I didn’t want her to be alone,” Derek whispered. “She had a rough night.”
“We all did,” Marissa replied as they made their way to the common area so as not to disturb Sophie. “How’s your arm?”
“Flesh wound,” Derek shrugged. “Great ops, Ms. Cole, congratulations.”
“Marissa, please.” She smiled. “You still got it, Derek. Anytime you’re up for contract work, let me know.”
“You know why I took this job.”
“I know,” Marissa said ruefully. “Go get some rest. We leave at 2:00 p.m. for the States tomorrow.”