Several days passed; Suzanne wasn’t sure exactly how many.  They settled into a semblance of a routine, twisted as it was.  Sasha was away for most of the day, leaving Suzanne on her own.  She had contemplated attempting to escape, but there was nowhere to go.  They were miles from anything that would be classed as civilisation, even in this country.  So she busied herself with sleeping, and attempting to keep herself as fit as possible without the use of any equipment to help her.  And waiting for Sasha to come home.

She was becoming attached to him, and that was a problem.  He made her feel alive; like the time that she had first flown solo or rode a bike by herself, even.  He was rough and he was brutal but he was beautiful and passionate and intense and she lo –

No.  Stop right there.

It was definitely a problem.  Suzanne had a job to do – to finish, and people were relying on her.  She needed to get to a phone.  Sasha had a mobile but he’d never left it where she could get at it without him knowing.  She was going to have to think of something, she was running out of time.  If she wasn’t careful, she was going to be late, in more ways than one.

The opportunity presented itself in the end.  They were making dinner, and Sasha left Suzanne in charge of stirring the food while he went upstairs to take a shower.  She turned away from the cooker to find that he’d left his mobile on the kitchen table.  Strange.  She waited for several moments, and then heard Sasha enter the bathroom and turn on the shower.  It was perfect.  She grabbed the phone and dialled the number for her contact, quickly stirring their dinner while making sure that she was in sight of the stairs.  She’d see his shadow approach in time to put the phone back so that he was none the wiser.

It seemed to ring forever, and Suzanne bit her lip in trepidation.  Was she too late?  A strange mixture of emotion washed over her at that thought.  Something else not to think about.  The call connected just in time to spare her having to identify her emotions.

Silence.  She spoke quietly, identifying herself with her call sign and password only.  The person on the other end of the line was satisfied, and confirmed their identity to her.  “Report?” Suzanne asked softly.

“Intelligence confirms they are acting on your information and moving into position,” the voice replied.  “We will be ready to meet them.  Everything is going as planned.”

“When?”

“Approximately seven hours.  A team will be ready for extraction.  Location?”

“Can you trace the position of this call?”

“Of course.”

“Then it will be from here.”

“Agreed.  We will extract you as soon as the operation begins.”

Suzanne’s breath caught in her throat and she didn’t respond for a moment.  She had no idea that things were going to happen so soon.

“Ma’am?”  the voice on the other end of the line enquired.

“Yes,” she replied, trying to mentally shake herself.  “I’ll be ready.”

“I’m glad to hear your voice again, ma’am.  See you back at Operations.”

“Thank you,” Suzanne replied, and ended the call.  A moment later, the shower turned off.  She searched through the unfamiliar language of the menus of the phone, trying to find the call logs.  She found the entry for the call that she had just made and deleted that single entry, thankful that the mobile phone was a Nokia and she was familiar enough with it to do this even if she wasn’t sure of all of the language.  She placed the phone back on the table exactly as if it hadn’t been disturbed, and returned to stirring their dinner.

Sasha returned to the kitchen feeling slightly uneasy but not sure why.  He spotted the phone on the table and instantly recognised his potentially massive mistake.  It didn’t look as if it had been moved, but he couldn’t be sure.  “Dinner’s ready,” Suzanne said over her shoulder absently.  When he didn’t reply, she turned to look at him, a puzzled look on her face.

He still didn’t say anything.  Suzanne followed his gaze to rest on the mobile, then looked back up at him, a look of slight disappointment and embarrassment on her face.  She looked away again, then turned back to the cooker and busied herself with stirring.  The intention was to make him realise that she hadn’t touched the phone.  Of course she hadn’t, and how could he think such a thing of her?  He still wasn’t moving, so she sniffed a couple of times softly, willing tears to come to her eyes.

Sasha trusted Suzanne not to try to hurt him, and she hadn’t tried to leave when he’d left her in the house on her own.  But to leave his phone where she could get to it?  He wasn’t so sure that she wouldn’t have tried to contact someone.  Not until he heard her sniffling, at least.  He swore under his breath softly, walked up towards her and slipped his phone into his pocket on the way.  He slid his arms around her from behind and slid his mouth to her neck, nuzzled gently.

Suzanne wiped the tears from her face angrily and redoubled her efforts in stirring, attempting to ignore Sasha in his quest for the extra sensitive area below her ear.  “Come here,” he whispered, turning her around in his arms.

“No,” she replied sulkily, trying to stop him from turning her to face him, but she wasn’t trying too hard.  He pulled her away from the cooker and leaned her against the table.  “Dinner’s going to burn,” she warned, and he shrugged, sliding his hand along the back of her thigh and up to her arse, sliding the (rather large) shirt she was wearing out of the way as he went.  He slid his other hand to her cheek and pulled her towards him, kissing gently.  She pulled away from him, still putting up a façade of protest in order to save face.  He pulled her back and kissed harder.

Suzanne didn’t protest any further as Sasha lifted her onto the table and laid her back, then unbuttoned her shirt and pushed it out of the way.  He slid his palms from the bottom of her breast down to her hips, laid a gentle kiss just above her pubic hair.  She gasped as her body jerked sharply.  She was burning immediately, her legs parting automatically and without her consent.  He slid her towards the edge of the table, leaned over her to look directly in her eyes and slid one finger into her mouth.  She licked for a moment, then sucked gently until he withdrew it again.  He slid the wet finger over one of her nipples gently and she moaned in frustration.

Sasha repeated his actions, sliding his wet finger over Suzanne’s other breast gently.  She arched against him, murmured softly in Bosnian the equivalent of “Oh please just fuck me Sasha!”  He slid his finger to her mouth and shushed her, slid his mouth against her ear again.

“Don’t talk,” he whispered softly.  “Just relax.”  He slid his finger into her mouth again, then slid the torturing wet digit down into her pubic hair and onto her clitoris.  He stroked gently, leaned over and slid a nipple into his mouth and sucked for a moment.  Suzanne writhed, and then Sasha bit into her nipple slowly.  A low moan escaped her and she shuddered as her body surged into orgasm.  Sasha smiled, slid back up to kiss her as her body relaxed again. 

“I have to go out tomorrow,” Sasha whispered.  “Early.  I should be back by midday.”  He was already sliding back down, parting her legs again and she felt his breath on her thighs.  Oh god.  Thinking was becoming difficult…

If he was going out in the morning, it meant that he was going to do a job.  And the only job it could possibly be was the one she had given them information on.  If he went there, he would die.  And she couldn’t warn him without telling him why.  Oh god.

She’d have to stop him.  She was glad she had one more trick up her sleeve that would allow her to do that.  He was by no means a good or decent man, but she wasn’t going to kill him.  And she wasn’t going to ask herself why, either.

Sasha slid one finger inside her and his tongue onto her clitoris and Suzanne lost her train of thought completely.  She slid her hands into his hair and scratched his scalp gently, pulling him closer.  He groaned in contentment and the vibrations from his voice caused Suzanne to come again.

“Please Sasha,” she whispered softly, and he stood up slowly.  He unbuttoned his pants and leaned over her, and Suzanne raised her legs and locked them around his back.  He braced his forearms on the table on either side of Suzanne’s head, and slid against her gently.  Suzanne slid her arms along Sasha’s sides until she reached his arse, and pulled a little.  He bumped against her, stretched her opening slightly until she moaned in anticipation, then pulled back out to rest against her.  She looked up at him, saw the look in his eyes and knew exactly what he wanted.

“Sasha…” she whispered softly, sliding her hand back across his hips and brushing her fingers across the length of his penis and down to her clitoris.  She stroked for a moment, let her head fall backwards for a moment as she moaned in pleasure and he groaned in response.  She looked back into his eyes as she whispered “I’m hot and I’m wet.”  She slid a finger inside herself and then pulled it back out to stroke along his penis again.  “See?  Don’t you want to feel that?”

His mock resistance never did last long.  Sasha cured the ache inside Suzanne with one forceful thrust which caused her to whine in pain-laced pleasure as he settled inside her.  She slid her hands back to his arse and pulled hard, wanting him to move even harder.  Every thrust was causing her to cry out in pain as he bumped her cervix, and she scratched her nails along his back until he had to hold her arms down.  She came again, and her lust for pain lessened as her body calmed down again.  Sasha slowed his movement inside her and she moaned in appreciation.  He let her arms go and she slid them around him, one sliding into his hair and stroking gently.

“Aleksandar,” she whispered, using his full Christian name for the first time since she’d found out that Sasha was a pet name.  “I…”  She stopped herself from saying something very stupid.  “You’re so beautiful.”

He looked at her for a moment, wondered what she had meant to say, but she wouldn’t look at him and so he couldn’t tell.  She slid her hand between his legs and squeezed his balls gently and he forgot all about what she had been going to say.

The dinner was burned, but they ate it anyway.  Suzanne was quiet during the meal, worrying about the night ahead.  Sasha didn’t notice; he was relaxed and he had a full belly and he was never much of a talker, anyway.  Suzanne sneaked to the bathroom while they were cleaning the dishes, a sharp knife concealed in her shirt sleeve.  She sat on the toilet with her left foot dangling over the bath, and felt along the arch of her foot for two small bumps.  Grimacing, she slid the knife into the skin to the side of the left bump, and a small capsule plopped out of the wound, along with a ridiculous amount of blood.  She ran her foot under the cold water and pressed tissue paper to the cut until the bleeding stopped, washing the capsule in the water as well.  She hid the knife in the cistern of the toilet before padding down the stairs again.

Suzanne busied herself preparing a hot drink for both of them, breaking open the capsule and dumping the contents into Sasha’s cup while his back was turned.  They drank their tea and then plodded upstairs to bed, Suzanne’s stomach in knots at the thought of what was about to happen.  Sasha sank onto the bed, the sedative already taking its toll on him.  He frowned; he knew that something was wrong but he didn’t have the energy to do anything about it.  Suzanne lifted his face towards her and stroked his cheek gently.

“I’m sorry Sasha,” she whispered softly.  “Please believe that I’m doing this to try to help you.  I can’t let them kill you.”  She wasn’t sure if he could hear her, but she had to say something.  She knew that he would be mad as hell when he woke up in the morning.

Suzanne didn’t sleep.  She sat up and watched Sasha sleep as she waited for her extraction team to arrive.  The sound of an approaching engine signalled that she had to leave.  She had slid on a pair of his pants as well as the shirt, but his boots were ridiculously large and so she had to go barefoot.  She checked that Sasha was still sleeping soundly, then kissed him gently before creeping downstairs.  She had to wipe tears from her eyes before she opened the door and met the familiar face of her handler waiting to meet her.

 

Sasha knew that something was wrong as soon as he woke up.  His body was heavy and his head was groggy.  He usually woke up instantly; a necessity in his line of work.  And the other side of the bed was empty.  And cold.  And it was light.  Shit!  He laid back in the bed, trying to clear the fog in his head.  She’s gone.

What could have gone wrong?  He never overslept, and he never woke up feeling like this.  The dinner had been burned, yes, but it wasn’t poisonous.  She’s gone.

He leaned his head over the edge of the bed and threw up, his body expelling the majority of last night’s meal, and whatever was causing him to feel like this. She’s gone.

Sasha grabbed his rifle and his handgun and ran downstairs, checking to make sure that yes, she really was gone.  Shit, shit, shit.  He tried to calm himself so that he could think.  His first priority was to get to his earlier destination, and find out what had happened.  Then he could worry about finding the girl.  He jumped into his truck and sped off, anger burning through the throbbing in his head.  He almost couldn’t believe what he found.

Bodies.  He’d expected bodies, but not the ones that lay on the ground in front of him.  Someone had ambushed the Serb soldiers, and they lay dead in the mud, weapons strewn where they had dropped them.  He spotted Boskovic and his commanding officer, and several others whose names eluded him, but they had all been stationed at the base from where he removed Suzanne.  He left, not wanting to be a target for any snipers that might have been left behind, just in case.

The anger overtook his calm now as a hundred thoughts ran through Sasha’s head at once.  She’d lied to him.  She’d told them what they wanted to hear and they had believed her, biding her time until she could escape.  She’d kept him happy with sex and lured the soldiers into a trap that was meant for him, as well.  A wave of emotion washed over him that felt dangerously close to pain and he viciously kicked the side of the truck in frustration.  He was meant to be dead here, too!

But she’d drugged him.  Stopped him from leaving the house on time.  Why?  What could she have possibly gained by him not turning up to do his job as he’d been ordered?  He growled furiously as he realised that this now looked as if he’d been the one who’d set them up.  The chances of him getting out of this alive were slim indeed.

It was past midday.  If she’d left after he’d fallen asleep, she would have had hours to get away now.  He’d never find her today.  Deciding that his best chance for survival was to get away from the scene as quickly as possible, he got back into the truck and headed east as fast as the shitheap could manage.  He ground his teeth in frustration as he tried to work out a plan of action.  He wasn’t going to stop until he found her, and he didn’t care where he had to go to do it.  And when he did, she was going to regret it.