The howling blizzard battered the walls of the isolated mountain bothy, almost obscuring it from view. Eva Stone shielded her eyes from the onslaught of slicing snow, barely able to make out the door. Exhaustion slowed her pace as much as the two feet of snow, but she had to keep moving. They were only a couple of hours behind her, max.
Bothys were never locked, but this was no ordinary bothy. It was a Deniable Unit safe house. As her gloved hand made contact with the door, she sent out a silent prayer to the Universe. It didn’t work. The door refused to move. Shite. Eva removed her glove and placed her bare skin against the freezing faux wood panel that concealed the state-of-the-art biometric reader. Click. Thank you.
She pushed the heavy door open and quickly stepped inside the tiny building, securing the door behind her. Relief coursed through her veins. Two days on the run in the mountains had taken their toll, not to mention the little food she’d had or the loss of her handgun. At least here, she could rest, replenish, and raid the armoury.
The fire crackled on the far wall, its heat intoxicating. For the briefest of moments, she froze. She wasn’t alone. There was a wee door that led into a bathroom—a luxury in a bothy. Eva pulled the knife from her boot and edged closer to the door. It was always better to be the attacker than the attack-ee. And she didn’t survive this long in her world by letting anyone get the drop on her.
Flushing water followed by soft running water was her countdown. She practised her ‘battle breathing’. In for four. Hold for four. Out for four. Hold for four. The door to the bathroom swung open before she could finish. The flickering light of the fire cast its dancing shadows over the figure.
Eva slammed a palm into the man’s kidney. He let out a howl of pain before dropping to his knees. In one fluid motion, Eva curled a fist into his hair and held the knife to his throat with her other hand. “Who the fuck are you?”
A warm honey laugh came from the man. “Eva. I thought you were dead.”
“Jack?” He was alive? He was here? She lowered her knife hand and loosened her grip, allowing him to stand.
Jack Fraser checked her up and down, his brain seemingly unable to process what his eyes were seeing. Without a word, he pulled her into his arms, his heat penetrating the ice that had encased her ever since her escape from a Consortium facility.
Blinking back the tears that threatened as the adrenaline faded from her system, she eased back to look at him. He was unscathed. “They said you were dead.”
“They wish.” He kissed the top of her head. “How’d you get away?” He glanced towards the windows, suddenly aware that danger wasn’t too far behind. “Did you get it?”
“How did you get away?” The words slipped out, but she’d been fed a steady diet of disinformation by Consortium agents for two weeks. It had been difficult to separate their lies from some of the shit that had gone on in the Deniable Unit in recent years. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know you didn’t.” He let her go, a wry grin covering the hurt. “I swiped one of the tools they were using on me and returned the favour… I’d have come for you if I thought you were still alive.” He grabbed a steaming mug from the table and handed it to her. “You obviously had the same idea as me.”
The safe house was the closest to where they’d been held. She nodded, then pulled out the rolled-up file she’d hidden in the oversized winter jacket she’d stolen on her way up the mountain. “We get this back to Harvey in Dundee, and we’ll be able to take down their operations in Valencia.” She beamed at him.
“Ya, beauty!” Jack tugged her to him, the firelight dancing in his darkening eyes.
He held her gaze, and heat pooled low in her belly. They’d done this dance before, always so close… Hot lips seared her cold ones, heating her from the inside out. Eva dropped the knife on the table, allowing her to weave her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss they’d both wanted for so long.
Jack groaned into her mouth as he aligned his hard body to hers. “Fuck, Eva—”
The faint but unmistakable high-pitched whine of snowmobiles broke through the wind. “We need to move. Now.” She grabbed her knife from the table and shoved the file back into her sleeve.
Jack lifted a floor panel, exposing a mini-armory filled with assault rifles and various handguns. He handed an assortment to Eva. “You have a plan, I’m assuming?”
“There’s a cave system a couple of hundred meters from here. If we can get out of here without them seeing us, we stand a fighting chance.”
He slung on his winter jacket and shoved food and ammo into a backpack. “Lead the way, boss.”
Next Episode: Eva & Jack (Pt 2)
This post is my entry for Kevin’s awesome No Theme Thursday challenge, where Kevin shares some of his artwork to inspire us to create!
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!
Stay awesome,
Susan x
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