Code Name: Nanny (SEAL and Code Name #5)(78)

“Too much time wasted. You need Izzy monitoring the guard post and radio communications, not running cover for me. I’ll come back alone.”

“Forget it.”

“This is no time for chivalry, Gabe. I know the route and I’m armed. I’ll be fine.”

“Our intel isn’t ironclad. Izzy goes with you or you don’t go.”

Summer slid her lip mike into place and pulled a balaclava around her face. “You need Izzy right where he is. Trust me, I’ll call if I need him. Let’s go.”

Gabe muttered something that sounded like “hard-ass female,” then motioned Summer to follow him into the darkness.



The main security center for the clinic had unpainted stucco walls and probably a dozen power lines running into the roof. One guard stood outside smoking a cigarette and talking to his partner, who was busy relieving himself in the bushes.

A few feet away, just across the wall, Summer crouched motionless on the ground, trying to ignore an itch at her nose.

Finally the men walked away. Gabe tapped her shoulder once.

Time to move.

Without a sound, Gabe swung up into the overhanging tree, following a branch over the fence. Summer followed in silence, grimacing when a twig snapped back into her face. The wall and the electric wires were directly beneath them as they crouched tensely, waiting for Izzy to work his magic a second time.

“Hold tight.” Izzy’s voice rippled through Summer’s headset. “One more wire to go. Bam, let’s kick it up a notch.”

Once again the lights flickered. The air-conditioning coughed and the big waterfall in the pool stopped flowing over a cliff of man-made boulders. Gabe tapped Summer’s arm, moving out along the branch, and a moment later she heard him drop lightly onto the clinic grounds.

As Summer was crossing above the fence, a phone rang inside the security center. She heard a man’s angry tirade as she swung down and dropped.

She hit harder than expected. Standing up, she felt a sharp twinge at her ankle. Gabe pulled her back into the foliage just before the lights came back on. Once again the air-conditioning kicked in and the water feature began to spill over the boulders.

Izzy’s voice crackled through her headset. “You have thirteen minutes and ten seconds until the next security check. Get moving.”

Gabe hit his power button once in reply, then nodded at Summer. He had his game face on now. Summer realized that she probably did, too.

Amid more cursing from the security office, the two headed toward the small shed beyond the pool enclosure and stopped beside the ventilation hole leading to the roof. Braced against the wall, Gabe held out his hands to Summer, lifting her up so that she could remove the grate, which Gabe had already unscrewed. Once in place, she swung her legs down through the open hole, but got only as far as her thighs.

Izzy’s tense words broke the silence. “You’ve got company at six o’clock. I make out two men and both are armed as hell.”

Major problem.

The grate was off, and Summer was now stuck tight, completely visible.



“Yes, Amanda, we’re fine. The girls are telling tall tales with Bud and the boys. Tate and I were just about to join them.” Cara glanced at Tate. Her eyes filled with mischief as she snapped his naked backside with a towel, earning a soft bite at the curve of her breast.

Her voice caught in a soft gasp as Tate moved lower, finding soft, yielding folds of skin.

“No,” she said hoarsely.

Tate smiled darkly and ignored her.

“No, not you, Amanda. I was talking to Tate. He—he wanted me to have some more wine and I—”

She gripped Tate’s head, her eyes closing as a wave of pleasure tore through her.

“What? Oh, you know Tate.” Cara took a sharp breath. “You can’t tell him no. He always gets his way.”

“Damned straight.” Tate grabbed the phone. “She’ll call you back, Mother,” he said tightly. “Yeah, later. No, I don’t want to hear about the dead rat again.”

Tate’s hand moved, his thumb climbing between Cara’s legs until she went rigid, digging her nails into his back. “Have to go, Mother,” he said. “I’ve got another call. That’s right, it’s an emergency. Could be a nuclear issue. Definite meltdown possibility,” he said hoarsely as Cara pushed him against the wall.

Her mouth closed over him and he bit back a dark curse. “Where? Closer than you’d ever imagine.”

He flipped off the phone and twisted, gripping Cara against the rough log wall of the bedroom overlooking forty miles of pristine forest.

“Meltdown, Senator?” Cara’s eyes glinted.

“Any damned second.”

The phone dropped. He was inside her, her legs wrapped around his waist, before the phone hit the floor.





[page]chapter 28

Summer kicked her legs, feverishly shoving against the roof, but each time something held her back. She heard the click of metal against tile and looked down. Her belt buckle was stuck.

Somewhere a bird cried in the night, and flashlights moved over the lawn. Any moment she would be caught in their beams. Sweat dripped down her face as she unhooked the belt and yanked the leather free. With one kick she was down, plunging through the ventilation hole.

She couldn’t let go, not with the guards close enough to hear her fall. Ignoring the burn in her fingers, she clung to the ventilation frame, suspended in the hot darkness while a steady stream of Spanish continued a few feet away, and sweat dripped in her eyes.