Jas opened her eyes, damn, she had jet lag, but it had been worth it to stay up yesterday and hang with Fin, Easy and Maxi in London. They had a blast, but she was more than ready to move on. There were places she wanted to go all over Europe and just ‘cause she had a tag-along, didn’t mean that she was going to change her plans, she wasn’t damn it. Fling assured her and her mother it was a simple drop and go mission.
She rolled over and looked at the clock, Maxi, Easy and Fin were already gone, she had said her goodbyes last night. With a giant sigh, she lurched out of bed and moved to the bathroom to get ready. Today was the beginning of her adventure; she grinned and pulled off the Harley tee she wore as a nightgown.
A shower and a cup of coffee from her hotel room coffee maker, which was just not gonna do it for the day. She grabbed her bag; she packed and walked out of the room down the hall and into the elevator. God, she hoped this guy was not a tool, the kind where he thinks he is God’s gift to women and expected Jas to do the female shit of this operation. Like, act like a wife or some shit like that, ‘cause that was so not happening.
The elevator hit the lobby, and she stepped out and looked around. It wasn’t like she was covert or anything. She had on a Harley tank, tight jeans, and thigh-high steel-toed black boots. Her hair was pulled back, and with the outfit, you could see every single tat she had, so she didn’t look very wifey.
When she turned, there was an adorable shorter elderly man standing right in front of her. If she had taken a step, she would have mowed over him. “Hey, sorry about that, I wasn’t looking,” she said with a grin because he was grinning at her first.
“Oh, my dear, no worries. I was my fault really; I was just down here stalking my friend a little,” the older man said.
Jas let out a bark of laughter, “Do you do that often, you know, stalking, ‘cause I am pretty sure you will get into trouble for that.”
He chuckled and shook his head, “Nah, I am pretty sure I would get off, I mean, who would put little old me in jail for watching out for his friends.”
Jas shook her head, “Well, I am going to go eat some breakfast; you can continue your stalking and don’t worry, I won’t say a word.”
The older man stepped aside, and as she walked away, he said loudly, “Roger.”
Jas paused and looked over her shoulder, “What?”
“Roger, my name, that is, just in case we bump into each other again. Just call me Roger.”
Jas laughed and nodded, “Jas, my name is Jas.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said with a wink.
She laughed again and then moved towards where the café for the hotel was. She needed coffee and something to put in her gut. After meeting the man she was supposed to meet, they would be getting on their bikes and begin moving out of the city into the countryside. Jas hadn’t made reservations anywhere; she just knew what she wanted to see, the Eifel Tower, the Colosseum, and many more things. Plus, the food, Jas, was excited about tasting all the food in Europe.
She walked into the café and looked around; no one stood out, so she shrugged and went to the counter and ordered. Whoever she was supposed to be meeting obviously had a problem with being on time. There was no man who looked like he was military. She looked at her watch and sighed, she had really wanted to get on the road sooner than this, but since she had a new tag along, she was at the mercy of this man’s timeframe.
Jas moved to a window seat after she had gotten her coffee and pastry and stared out the window, watching people moving quickly or slowly depending on where they were supposed to go. She stood out, she knew that, and she didn’t care too much either, she had hair dye if needed. Jas looked at her watch again and frowned, almost thirty minutes late, seriously?
She heard someone clear their throat behind her, and she ignored it. Seriously, she was going to kick someone’s ass when she met him. Again, someone cleared their throat, a male the same as before, and she rolled her eyes. Great, now someone wanted to strike up a conversation with her. Why? She wondered. She was friendly up to a point, but to sit a talk to someone, umm no fucking way. She knew she exuded the impression she wasn’t open for conversations, so why the hell was he being an asshole. Her past was well her past, and it made who she was today. If she were truthful with herself, she was a slightly awkward, slightly anti-social psychopath that at times, could feel empathy but only to people who she felt deserved it.
Jas took a sip of her coffee and then leaned forward a little, hoping whoever was trying to get her attention would leave her alone. No such luck, especially when she not only heard the man clear his voice again, but she also felt someone brush their hand against her shoulder. Wow, umm no, there was no way in hell that someone was just gonna touch her. She felt herself stiffen, and she turned slowly, thinking the entire time not to beat the shit out of someone in London, that would be bad. Satisfying but bad.
The first thing she noticed was the eyes as she looked at the man who was trying to get her attention. They were blue, like the ocean, she thought and frowned at him while she noticed he was frowning at her. What the fuck? He was the one trying to talk to her, why was he scowling at her. And why was she thinking about sex with this man, he looked like an asshole. But sex could be good with an asshole, she could scrape them off quickly as opposed to a nice guy who was clingy, she hated clingy, they were just so…needy and shit. Something Jas had no time for at all. Shit, get with the program.
“Excuse me?” She snapped, and the man raised an eyebrow and stared at her without saying anything. She leaned back and took in all of him; he was tall, built, and fucking hot. But he was also an asshole, just as she thought. Jas felt unnerved, and it showed, as she raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to say something. But she knew her eyes were telling him to fuck her. She hated it when they did that. It was one of the problems Bob had been working with her on, looking bored while a man was trying to hook up with her. They had to put in the effort.
“Pink hair,” the man said oddly, and Jas frowned, an odd way to start a conversation.
“You have a problem with my hair?”
The man stared at her harder and said, “How old are you?”
“Old enough to know better than to talk to strangers.” She taunted and then turned back around. What the fuck was his deal, her hair and her age, maybe he was a pedophile who if she killed no one would care. ‘Cause she would totally do that without question.
“What is your name?” the man demanded, and Jas ignored him, looking around the café for any sign of the man she was supposed to be meeting. She was distracted by the intensity of the man and his looks. She had not seen a perfect man in a long time. Fling said the man would find her, well mostly because she stuck out like a sore thumb anywhere she went. Jas closed her eyes and then turned around again and looked at the man who was still turned in his seat, staring at her. She had made a big mistake.
“Jas,” she said quietly, and the man nodded and stood and moved to the other side of her table.
“Dax,” he muttered.
“And I am Roger,” the old man from the lobby announced and winked at her as he pulled up a chair.
“Damn it,” Dax growled and said, “Ignore him.”
Jas blinked and looked at Dax, then at Roger. How the fuck was she supposed to ignore the man? Was he part of the mission, hell they were supposed to be newlyweds with a chaperone? This didn’t make sense.
“For the sake of all that is holy, someone tell me exactly what is going on. Because this is not what I was told.” Jas snapped, and Roger smiled and looked at Dax.
“I like her; she is feisty.”
Dax glared at the old man and pushed the envelope towards her, and she grabbed it and opened it. Inside there were instructions from Fling in there, and she knew this is who she was to meet. Jas didn’t know the older man, but whatever, she was focused on the younger man, and damned if it didn’t freak her out just a little. Of course, she had a crush on Trey, and she had felt things for other men, but this. The raw energy that seemed to flow through them as they stared at each other was just fucking weird. Finally, the man said.
“Well, I am Dax Murphy, and we are supposed to be newlyweds, which while standing here in public is all fine and good, but since it is my ass on the line, and I don’t really feel like dying, I would hope neither do you. So possibly if we could move this along, the fucking hair dye I used to change my color stained the back of my neck and I can’t get it off, but I am assuming since I changed my appearance I don’t want it to look like I changed my appearance so as not to stand out I need this shit off the back of my neck. In other words, I need help with where I can’t see.” Wow, he was totally sounding like a fucking girl again, what was going on with him? He was only twenty-nine, there is no way he was having a mid-life crisis. This touchy-feely girly shit needed to stop, he was a man, who gave a shit about hair color. And why had his cock gotten so fucking hard when she turned around. She was hot, there was no denying it, but he was on a mission. His big head needs to think more than his little head.
“Turn around,” Jas said. He had a jacket on with the collar turned up.
Dax glared at her and the turned, he will never know how women do their own hair and not look like shit. He followed the fucking directions, to turn his hair a light brown, it had dripped and flowed down his neck, what the hell is that about? She almost busted up laughing, his neck looked awful. It was stained the whole back part, and there were lines down his neck as well, from where it must have run. What a doorknob, she thought and shook her head as she then chuckled lowly and said, “Dude, you should know that you can get a color stain out with ashes, like from a cigarette, you just wet a little paper towel and get the ashes on it and rub the area it stained.”
Dax looked at her like she was crazy. “What the hell are you talking about? This is fucking dye, hair dye, you know it stains like everything it touches, I had to throw away my shirt because of it.”
“You have short hair; you should have only used like maybe a fourth of the bottle,” Jas said, laughing louder because she could seriously not keep a straight face when Dax turned around and glared at her.
“Then why do they say to use the whole fucking bottle?” Dax snapped. “I followed the directions, thank goodness I protected my face, but I still have some if you look really hard.
Jas squinted and then laughed again and slapped her leg. “Omg, this is the best ever! Wait until the guys hear about this. You know even Maxi knows how to dye his hair for a mission.”
Dax dropped her head down and stared at the table and just wanted to wrap his hands around that gorgeous neck. Shit, this is now what he did. He didn’t see women and become instantly attracted to them, especially during his tour in the middle east. It was all in his head, he knew it, he just had to get his cock to believe that. She was not his normal type; he usually went more for a feminine woman; the chick sitting in front of him was young, had pink hair, and was covered in tattoos. Hell, it is like the polar opposite of what he was attracted too. But there was something about the tight body that filled out her jeans and the tank top she was wearing that molded to her figure that made him sit up and take notice.
“Can we get back to the matter at hand?” Dax growled, and Jas instantly sobered and looked at him with the scary black eyes he had seen when he approached her. Damn that was sexy as hell, he thought, and then Roger said.
“Right back on task, so basically, you two need to do something completely off the books and make sure no one is the wiser, yes?”
Jas turned and smiled at the older man; he was so dang cute, she wondered what his story was, maybe would have time to get it. Roger slapped his hand on the table and said loudly. “Tour Guide!”
“Come again?” Dax said with a growl, even though he was certain he knew where the older man was going, and he didn't like it at all.
Jas leaned forward and said, “I get where you are coming from Roger, but we are going to be on bikes, not in a car. I already have them rented.”
Roger smiled, “Well, just add one more to it.”
Jas grinned at the old man’s tenacity, “Uh, you have to have a driver’s license for that.”
Fuck, Dax thought he knew Roger have his license for a motorcycle because he was the one who taught him to drive. It was one of the things they had bonded over, and why Dax was leery about leaving him here. It was only his fault, and seriously this was his burden to bear.
“Have it,” Roger said and pulled it out. “Did you know there are tour guides who ride with Americans, so they do not get lost in the countryside. It will be perfect; we can see all the best places, my dear, since you are new to Europe, we can certainly make sure that you have a good experience. Even if a little bit of work is involved.”
Dax growled at him; the old man was playing her and doing it quite a good job of it. He looked at Roger, who and then Jas, and wanted to throw up his hands in frustration. This is not what he thought it was going to be. First of all, he figured the woman who came to deliver the formatted drive was be some frumpy older woman who didn’t stand out anywhere. Hell, instead he got a woman who did not belong in the background, she refused to. Instead, she demanded everyone to look at her. And everyone was. He looked around at the tables and saw most of the men sitting there and looking at Jas at least one or two times, especially when she laughed, and he had to admit her laugh was pretty good. Not the point he thought and wanted to kick his own ass for his response to her at all.
“This will be fun,” Jas said a huge grin with and looked at Dax, who was not smiling; instead, he was frowning and looked like he was ready to kill someone.
“What?” she asked and then looked at Roger, who was smiling even bigger.
“First off, we are supposed to newlyweds, and I don’t know about you, but most newlyweds do not need a chaperone. Second, and I am not a dick when I say, Roger, we may come upon a situation that you may or may not be hurt at. And I do not like that, you know it. And third, there is this little thing called, being retired, RETIRED do you know what that means?”
Jas raised up her hand and said, “Oh, oh, pick me!!”
Dax glared at her, and she said, “What the big guy is trying to say is that he doesn’t want you to get hurt.” She tilted her head. “Awe, he thinks of you as a father figure.”
Roger sighed, “I really don’t know why he thinks…”
Jas cut him off and said, “Loki’s mom said you were here, and if I ran into any trouble to get to you ASAP to be extracted, now I don’t know about you, but that means something. Especially coming from the source. Now, Roger, I believe you will be handy on this because not only do you have contacts that we do not, but also you are trained in several different forms of combat that may be useful as well. If you know Carole, then you are an asset.”
Dax raised an eyebrow and stared at the young woman while Roger laughed loudly. “Well, she has you there,” Roger said.
Dax knew all about the old man's training since he still worked out while Dax did. And he had to admit the old man was fairly buff for his age. But he didn’t want him involved because Dax had no family but Roger, and if he lost him…well, he was not going to go down that road because it was not going to happen.
He opened his mouth to tell them both that when Jas spoke up. “Since I am the leader of this little band of brothers/sister action we have going on. I say who goes and who we dump in the countryside bare ass naked and no identification. That would go over well at the embassy.”
Dax frowned and then said, “You are not in charge; I am in charge.”
“No, you are someone who needed to be saved because you attracted some assholes who are trying to kill you, which I fully support and would vote for if this was a democracy but it’s not, it is a dictatorship, and I am like the Rocky Balboa of all these countries, the good part not when he was too old to play the part, I mean the early one where he met the Russian dude. I could totally kick ass across Europe for fun, I know there is underground fighting I know, Maverick told me, but I digress. You are also someone who has breached my vacation time, and so, I must be partially in tune with my badass side instead of being a chick on the road riding across Europe, not having to keep my guard up so much. In fact, I think Roger is ahead of you in the leadership tier we have going on. He is trained and with the CIA and had contacts that are way more influential than what you have. Yep, you are the low man on the totem pole, so Roger will be going with us, and he will be taking his orders from me.” Jas said firmly, and Dax finally smiled because he had something to seriously laugh about. This chick was bat shit crazy, literally, BAT SHIT CRAZY! He was yelling in his head.
Did she really think she was in charge? Who was this chick? She reminded him of someone; he just wasn’t sure who. But it didn’t matter, she was not in charge and will never be in charge unless he was laying on the ground with blood draining from his body at a very fast rate, then she was in charge to go find him someone to save him. Fuck, but she was sexy as hell, and he needed to stop thinking that her ass and tits were amazing. He wanted to cup both of them.
Before he could say a word, Roger piped up. “I agree with the little General. In fact, that should be her call sign, ‘Little General.’”
“Oh, well, most people just call me Jas,” the younger woman.
“That will never do, you have to have a cool name to put on your cut, mine, of course, was ‘Radar,’” he said, pointing at her name on her cut, it just said Jas.
Jas laughed and said, “OK, why?”
Roger smiled and said, “When I was younger, they would say I had a chick radar. I could spot them a hundred yards away.”
Jas laughed even more, and then Dax said, “Maybe we should go somewhere and talk about what we need to do instead of attracting attention we want to seem ordinary.” Jas tilted her head at him.
“Let me fix your hair and neck. Then, we need to get another motorcycle and shit before we go. We are going to deliver our package; first, it should only take a few days to get where we need to go. Then we wait.” She stood and moved to the door and out of the hotel, looking around for just a minute to find her bearings, and then she moved. Dax had to give it to her, and she must have at least studied a map because, for the next few minutes, she didn’t speak. When they hit the corner, she spied a shop and said.
“Ta-da.”
Roger smiled and looked at her. “Okay, I am fine; you guys go back, get your bikes, and come back here for me.”
She nodded and turned around to run into a wonderfully massive muscle-bound chest. She looked up, “I think you were following a little close there brother maybe take a step back. Unless you are trying to get close to me, then we need to renegotiate our cover again, maybe you know, play it for real?”
He shook his head and turned and began walking back to the hotel with Jas on his heels. She whistled while she walked and took in the sites more so than when they were on their way to the motorcycle rental shop.
As they neared the hotel, Dax stopped and turned. “Where are your bags?” he all but growled.
She grinned and shook her head, “Listen, pseudo giant, I am seriously only saying this one more time, so you need to get it through your thick skull. I don’t need your help with a bike, and I don’t need your help with protection. I can take care of myself and did for a long time. So, no helping me with my bags because unless you are blind as a bat, you should have already seen my bike parked and ready to go right over there. If you didn’t see it, then buddy, you are not a fucking help; you are a hindrance, one I do not need. So, settle down, pull up your big boy shorts and let's get this shot done”
Dax rolled his eyes. “Fine, I reserve the right to call you a girl when we get to Paris after three days on a bike, clocking eight hours each day. Your tough exterior will be a little sore.”
“Oh, I am a woman, make no mistake about that, and I have ridden for days before, and when I ride, I ride hard,” she practically purred at him and stepped closer. “Maybe if you play your cards right, I will let you lead for an hour or so.”
Dax laughed and shook his head. “I bet your mom and dad are proud. They are in the Ops Warriors right; that is what Loki told me.”
She nodded and said, “My two dads are very proud of me; they are the ones who trained me to be able to do this shit in case something happened, and I was on my own moving. Now my mom, well, she is the one who taught me how to fight along with my aunts. They all belong to the Lady Riders. My mom did not coddle me.”
Dax looked at her. “Yeah, two dads.”
She glared at him, “Fuck off.”
“No, no,” Dax said. “I am not passing judgment. I was making a statement. Go on.”
She began to walk to her bike, and he followed her. “You didn’t tell me anything about your mom,” he said, hoping to let the tension go after he had fucked up that one.
She turned and looked him squarely in the eyes, and said, “My mother’s name is Shady.”
He stood there for a minute, and then all of a sudden, a lightbulb went off in his head, and he looked down at the girl standing there. “Shit.” He was going to kick Loki’s ass; he didn’t tell him whose daughter she was. What the fuck?
“Yeah, see if I can survive my mom through the tender years when I was a teen. I can pretty much survive anything.” She smirked, and then as she went to turn, she also said over her shoulder. “And Auntie Harmony showed me the whole spork trick so we should be good if we stop to eat. She packed some in my backpack.”
Dax frowned, and she walked away, what in the fuck was he doing here. The first time he saw her green eyes, his cock had stood at attention and not stopped, he thought as he shifted a little. Damn, not the reaction he needed right now, he had to keep his head on straight. And what was up with the spork thing? Knowing the rumors, he suspected it wasn’t a good story.
Doc said Jas would help, and now it seemed like that whole circus was following them. And her hair, yeah that was gonna need to change he didn’t want to tell her, maybe he will tell Roger to tell her. He grinned and thought, ‘Yeah, he could do it,’ that is the old man's punishment for pushing his way into this situation.
Now he just had to worry about Shady; she had a reputation, even in the military. And what people said was that she was slightly unstable in a cool kinda Rambo way. Just what he needed, if Jas got herself killed, he was certain he was going to be killed with a spork.