Shadow Soldier by Dana Marton Page A

famous for some of the asinine dares he had taken while they’d been in training together. He’d been a daredevil through and through, had bragged that nothing would cure him of it but a body bag.
    â€œDidn’t learn much from cracking your skull, did you? What are you doing in the States?”
    The idiot grinned. “Had to deliver a package.”
    So Spike had brought a terrorist suspect back for interrogation. Alex wondered who it was, whatgroup. Last he knew, Spike was trying to take down an Arab cell in Germany. Sounded like he had a successful mission.
    Alex envied the man. This glorified baby-sitting—hiding from the terrorists rather than going after them—went against every instinct he had, not to mention his training. “Did you check out the market in Devon?”
    â€œThey used an Uzi, not what I call a hot lead. Anyone can buy those on the Internet since the Soviet Union broke up. Not much of a shooter. The bullets went way high.”
    â€œDo you work with Alex?” Nicola spoke finally.
    â€œGod forbid.”
    â€œSorry about the ashtray.”
    â€œDon’t mention it.” Spike grinned. “Good aim.”
    â€œDid you get my birds?”
    â€œYeah. They’re fine. I pulled the car off the road about a mile east of here. Wanted to see how good the protection was you were getting. With Alex being in a ‘delicate’ condition and all, the Colonel was wondering if you might need a real man on the job.”
    â€œI’ll show you real.” Alex moved toward him.
    Spike maneuvered around the couch and out of his grasp, his blue eyes sparkling with humor. “I better go bring in your stuff.”
    Alex had half a mind to go after him just to see if he’d learned any new moves since they’d last seeneach other, but then thought better of it. No sense acting like two immature schoolboys in front of Nicola. “Pull into the barn, there’s plenty of room.”
    He watched the man walk out the door and rub his swollen forehead. At least he could find some satisfaction in that. Nicola had brought Spike down. The lady definitely bore watching.
    After Spike had gone, he gave credit where credit was due. “Well done,” he said, unable to resist a grin. He liked a woman who could take care of herself. Of course, to be truthful, he liked most everything about Nicola.
    She grinned back, her face bathed in moonlight, her silhouette accented against the window. It reminded him of a specific fantasy he’d spent considerable time on during the unbearably slow nights in the treehouse. In his mind he had explored every tempting inch of her body— He caught himself and shelved that particular memory. Those were things he needed to forget instead of dwelling on them. He was here to do a job. That’s what he had to focus on.
    Not an easy task. She was dangerous in the moonlight—and not just to his libido. He grinned again. It would be a long time before he would let Spike live down the ashtray. Nailed by a civilian—a woman at that. “Have to remember not to turn my back to you.”
    She smiled innocently, wide-eyed, but he wasn’t buying any of it. Not even when she said, “I wouldn’t hurt you. We’re on the same team.”
    Sounded strange coming out of her mouth. He wasn’t much of a team player, worked mostly lone-wolf infiltration. Takedowns that required teamwork were few and far between. But in the three years since the SDDU came into being, they had taken more than a hundred terrorists out of the picture and stopped dozens of attacks. Unfortunately, as soon as they neutralized one bad guy, two took his place. SDDU soldiers fought against insurmountable odds in operations that the American public and the rest of the world knew nothing about.
    And he preferred it that way. He wasn’t in it for the glory. The job had to be done and he had the skills to do it. He had no family depending on