GhostWalkers 10 - Samurai Game

afterward
.
    She detested that he knew her reaction to him—but at least she wasn’t alone. He’d admitted he was just as shaken as she was. Shame poured through her. Regret. She had dishonored herself and her father by such a disgraceful mistake. Nevertheless, she had to move forward. She relaxed her grip on the dagger and nodded her head to indicate she agreed with him.
    We move straight ahead. They’re trying to keep us boxed in. We’ll have to take out the soldiers in front of us as quietly as possible and slip through their line. I’ve tried to isolate separate sounds to see what we’re looking at, but the concussions messed up my hearing
.
    Sam’s voiced steadied her. He was matter-of-fact, a soldier assessing their situation. She forced air into her lungs. Sharing her mind with him seemed almost more intimate than sharing her body. He was everywhere, his body rock-hard while she had melted into him, becoming part of him. She felt as if she shared his very breath. She was samurai and she could handle this utterly intimate position with a fellow warrior.
    My hearing is messed up as well. But there are more than four of them on our left side. I think both vehicles and the helicopter were meant to drive us to the foot soldiers
. Oh, God. The moment she opened her mind fully to him to push her thoughts to him, he flooded her mind with—
him
.
    He filled her, all those dark lonely places she kept hidden from the world—from the ones she’d come to love. There was no way to hide from him. He was warmth and strength and everything she didn’t believe in and distrusted. Loneliness lived and breathed in her. She was careful to keep who she was hidden, especially from Daiki and Eiji. She didn’t want them to know the darkness permeating her, and yet she was instantly exposed and vulnerable to this total stranger. Worse, once he flooded her mind with his strengthand purpose, with the essence of who and what he was—that brilliant, determined, and very confident warrior—she felt more connection to him than she did with any other human being.
    I agree. They’re using military tactics on us
.
    Azami hesitated before venturing her opinion, but she’d thrown her lot in with this man, at least until they were out of the situation.
I think the mercenaries are considered expendable. They had no idea you have a military compound anywhere close to them. They were too relaxed. The real soldiers are in front of us
.
    For one heart-stopping moment her breath caught in her throat as his lips seemed to press ever-so-briefly against her ear.
I think you’re right. So the real question becomes, who really is after us, because they sure as hell know about the military compound and that they’re on a time limit. My people will be coming in hot and fast
.
    She turned her head to look at him. The moment their eyes met, his so dark and velvet soft, her stomach reacted with that strange fluttering. She smiled at him.
Then we’d better get to work before someone else gets all the fun
.
    A slow grin spread across his face and reached his eyes. Approval was there and in spite of her determination to remain unmoved by anything else this man did, warmth spread through her.
    My boss would kick my ass for deliberately taking you into combat
.
    I’m very proactive when it comes to saving my own life
, she assured him.
Or going after someone who endangers my brother. We need to know who is behind this
. Thorn put steel into her voice.
    She wasn’t going to back down. The attack hadn’t been directed at the compound itself. More than likely the threat was to her brother, and she’d been the one to allow him to take her place in the public eye. She moved subtly, telling him to let her go.
    Sam nodded and signaled straight ahead. She liked thatin him. They weren’t going to waste time and energy on the expendable mercenaries hired basically to get killed—he was going after the real threat. And he didn’t waste valuable time trying to argue with her; he recognized that she was no liability to him but rather a seasoned warrior.
    They moved slowly, using the sounds of their enemy to cover their presence. Thorn would have preferred the night, but she could be invisible during the day nearly as well. The soldiers would be on high alert, hunting the two of them.
    In the trees
, she warned.
Three o’clock
.
    Another at nine o’clock. Branches are too thick at twelve. Maneuver around and see if you can spot him. Take him out with