“And now?”
Branson grinned. “I got her back. Even have a little one on the way. Got remarried several months ago now.”
Garrett was envious. But there wasn’t anyone in his past he regretted losing, except Connor. No woman had cracked that outer shell, and never would.
“Well, there’s a big star for you, then. I suppose that makes you the better man.”
Branson started to interrupt him, but Garrett held him off with a show of his enormous palm.
“I don’t have anyone and never really did. I like to fly solo, unless I have a partner like Connor, and that’s not going to happen again, so we’ll just have to disagree on that score. Congrats and all that, but now, let’s get back to some other details.”
Silas was silent, watching Garrett design his basic grid perimeter, listing the unknowns and the knowns, adding the cast of characters, assessing where their weaknesses would be, and trying to select people who might fill that hole. He hadn’t come to the part about fixing the confidante hole when there came a knock at the door.
He hadn’t met the two men he pegged as Special Agents, who entered first and then introduced themselves. They were probably either agents for the Secret Service or State, because they looked too young to be FBI. He had a couple choices for team slots with two or three of his Bureau friends who were considering retirement, but these two, hardly old enough to shave, must be information gatherers, strictly background, and at the beginning of their careers. Probably a temporary assignment so they could prove themselves.
Behind them stood two women, not one. He knew the first one, knew quite a few things about her—like how she liked to be handcuffed when she fucked, how she loved being creative in bed and tried to be dominant, something he found fascinating, but never liked. Their night-long tussles were more akin to an athletic competition.
He was trying to figure out how the former Deputy Ambassador to Nigeria would become a school teacher, until he saw the non-descript Rubinesque woman standing behind her wearing horn-rimmed glasses that nearly covered her face.
“Morning, Garrett. It’s been too long,” Felicia said in that hoarse, commanding tone that still made his hair stand on end. The two youngsters shared a look between them but kept quiet.
Silas Branson rose. “Well, I didn’t realize we knew each other. I wasn’t told—”
Felicia Menendez interrupted him without apology. “Commander Branson, Garrett and I go way back.” Her eyes hooked into Garrett’s and wouldn’t allow him to pull away. He wasn’t going to let her see his fear level rise.
“And,” she said, focusing now on Branson, “the First Lady herself asked me to come along for the interviews, and some of the background. I’ve known this girl even before she was born.” She scanned the circle of characters, stopping to study Garrett.
“Okay,” Hoaglund announced separating the air so everyone could breathe. “This is Mrs. Mimi Wagner, who was Georgette’s teacher at the Academy.”
Mrs. Wagner was clearly outmatched as far as rank. Garrett noticed she would have very kind eyes if she wasn’t scared to death like she was now. Her cheeks were soft and rosy, and her clothes didn’t cover up her ample chest. He regretted telling Branson she couldn’t be trusted. He knew instantly she could be, because he didn’t pick up an ounce of rancor or evil. He decided to reach out to her and ignore Felicia Menendez.
“Sorry to drag you into this, Mrs. Wagner,” he said as he extended his hand. She barely touched him past his first knuckles in the weakest handshake he’d ever received, even for a woman.
The young teacher looked shocked, stumbling on her words, saying something and then faltering. Garrett couldn’t make out anything she was trying to communicate.
Agent Desideri, about the same age as the young teacher, spoke up, coming to her aid. “Mrs. Wagner is probably much more comfortable with Poetry and English Grammar, aren’t you, ma’am?”
Garrett wondered why she didn’t take her eyes off him, but merely nodded, as if she was in some kind of trance. He saw her fear and didn’t want to have that permeate the room.
“Well, let’s take our seats, because I have some questions,” he barked.
Branson added his comments as he grabbed his chair. “Let me just start out by laying down the ground rules a bit. We don’t address anyone in military terms, so Commander Tierney and Commander Branson are just Garrett and Si. He has full discretion on who he wants as part of the team. This is an informational meeting. No one here should assume they are part of the task force until we hear it from Garrett. And just so you know, Ms. Menendez—”
“That’s Deputy Ambassador Menendez, please,” she said pertly.
“Well, Ms. Menendez, there aren’t going to be any more surprises coming from the White House, with all due respect. We sometimes get mixed messages coming from the family, but mostly from the staff. It’s essential that we make sure Garrett is fully in command. Understood?”
She gave Branson a sexy wide grin, and, with a slight nod of her forehead, said, “I like it when a man of action is in charge. I think it bodes well for the outcome.” She looked directly at Garrett.
Holy cow. If there ever was a more fucked beginning to a high-level operation, he couldn’t remember it. Garrett had two females he hadn’t chosen. Neither of them was equipped with anything they’d need on a mission of this type. The Special Agents needed to see real blood and real death, not make-believe things they’d studied in school. This wasn’t Disneyland.
Silas Branson had been sideswiped on his first assignment by the White House, and not by the man himself but his wife, the most difficult woman in the entire world, if he believed the stories told about her. And here was her best friend, the woman Garrett had saved from the embassy bombing shortly before he got out, the one who helped him see a portion of himself so disgusting he knew he’d never want to be in a committed relationship. And he’d fucked her. Dozens of times.
If it wasn’t totally against his Creed and Code of Conduct, he’d almost started thinking of himself as a victim.
He was going to have to take charge before they all got demoted or killed.
Chapter 4
One of Mimi’s complaints about the Academy was how slow things took to get approved, planned and executed. But today, they were moving at light speed. When the two Agents brought her back to her classroom, she was told by her waiting principal that a sub had already been arranged for tomorrow and the days, perhaps weeks, to follow. The story was going to be she had a family emergency involving her mother. He’d known about Georgette from the beginning.
She was also told she had two hours to pack.
“Pack? For what?” she asked as she and Agent Desideri walked to the school parking lot. Hoaglund joined them a few seconds later.
“Taking the Team to a safe location. We’ve rented a house an hour away.”
“What do I pack?”
“Like for a vacation, camping trip. Clothes you’d wear going to visit your mom,” Agent Desideri said, wiggling his sizeable curly eyebrows. He shrugged at Mimi’s shocked reaction.
“No one ever told me about all this,” she whispered as they ushered her toward her car.
“Keys?” Hoaglund held out his hand.
“I can drive just fine.”
“I gotta have the keys, Mrs. Wagner.”
Mimi churned in her purse and handed the tall blonde young man her fistful of keys. She and Desideri led the way with Hoaglund following behind in her car, until they reached her apartment some ten minutes away from school.
Her heartbeat was so strong her hands were shaking. She’d barely been introduced to Commander Tierney, and now everything she’d been living the past year was being shoved to the back room as if she was running from the law. Was he going to the same location? And why didn’t they ask her permission for the “witness protection” detail she was being put under?
She found it difficult to think or make choices. In her haste, she’d picked out six tops
and one pair of pants, so she dumped the contents on her bed for the third time and neatly folded everything back. Taking inventory of her underwear and socks, always things she forgot to bring, she also added two more pairs of jeans, her stretchy, comfortable ones. And a bathing suit, which she would most definitely take if she were going to San Diego. But Virginia? She didn’t even know all the freeways an hour out of D.C. yet. It was like being taken to some secret encampment.
At the last minute she threw in her tattered backpack she’d used all throughout college. It was her good luck charm.
The boys carried the bags downstairs for her. She brought her computer case and two jackets then grabbed her cosmetic bag just before closing the door on her old life. Having decent face paint was necessary. If it was going to mean a new chapter in her life, at least she’d look good running through it.
She had lots of questions as they drove out of the city. The biggest one nagging on her was if, when, and who she should tell her story to? Obviously, no one had put together the dots, or realized that her father and this SEAL Commander she was supposed to partner with had been best buddies. Hardest of all was trying to speak, around him, look at him, or stand next to him and have that familiar manly scent make her brain go fuzzy. She was hoping he didn’t recognize or remember her, not that he did and was being an efficient asshole. She wasn’t about to let go of her fantasies about the man unless she had to. The jury was still out on that one.
Suddenly, Mimi remembered her tentative agreement with her mother for the visit to San Diego.
“I have to call my mother, or she’ll be expecting me this weekend. I’m not going to be anywhere close to San Diego.”
“I’d say that’s a no-brainer, Mrs. Wagner.”
She dialed her mother, who picked up on the first ring. Soft music was in the background and Mimi guessed her soon-to-be stepfather was lurking around somewhere close.
“Hey sweetie! Got it all arranged?”
“No, Mom. Listen, I’ve been called out for a school field trip I can’t get out of. One of the other teachers is home with the flu and I’m the next on the list. I tried to get out of it.” She peered across the seat at agent Desideri, who rose his eyebrows.
“Oh darn. We were making some nice plans. Where will you be?”
“Somewhere in the Virginia woods, Mom.” She again searched agent Desideri’s smiling face. He nodded his approval. She knew that would be the extent of what she could tell her. “I’ll call when I’m back in town.”
“Stay out of the poison ivy and watch for those mosquitos and deer ticks with Lyme disease and all that going on.”
“No worries.”
Mimi signed off and then leaned back in the seat, placing her fingers to her forehead, feeling the beginnings of a headache.
“That was easy,” Agent Hoaglund said from the back seat.
“Yes, my mother would have a heart attack if she knew what I was really up to. She thinks my biggest worry are ticks and mosquitos—oh, and poison ivy.”
“I’ve had to tell girlfriends some mighty crazy stories. After awhile, they stopped believing me completely. It was better that way,” added Desideri.
She smiled at the young agent and didn’t see how he possibly could be old enough to have experiences he couldn’t reveal to a girlfriend.
They had left the busy, over-taxed grid of D.C. and wound through two-lane roads bordered by trees turning colors in bright orange and yellows. It would have been a beautiful, crisp fall day if it was a real vacation. But nothing about this afternoon was real.
“So will I be under house arrest or something?”
Desideri had a chuckle over that. “Who do you think we are?”
“I have no idea. What do I tell my mom if she calls?”
“Tell her you’re chasing a missing kid.” Desideri turned and faced her. “It’s sort of the truth.”
“If she gets any inkling, she’ll be all over my case.”
“Ask Tierney, if you’ve got questions what to say. He’ll have a solution.”
“So, he’s the boss of me right now?” She couldn’t help thinking she sounded like one of her students.
Desideri gave her a warm smile, then checked his rearview mirror to make contact with Hoaglund sitting behind him, and answered, “Pretty much. But you’re in good hands. He’s a highly decorated former Navy SEAL Commander. He was specially picked for this mission.”
“So is he going out to the house too? Or, does he get to keep his own place in D.C.?”
“Commander Tierney will be joining you. I believe he lives in California.”
“You and Hoaglund?”
“We live in Maryland.”
“No, I meant, are you guys staying out at this mysterious hangout?”
“We’ll be back and forth. We’re responsible for logistics now. Getting you guys situated, procuring food, equipment, things Garrett and the team thinks they’ll need. Basically, we’re errand-boys. We’re working on some things right now.”
“I would hope so. Why the delay?”
“What do you mean? We’ve been working on this twenty-four seven,” he asked.
“So you were working behind the scenes? Why all of a sudden do you have Commander Tierney involved? And why me?”
“This is a new command, just created and Tierney is the first guy hired to set up his own team. And while this was being greenlighted, we were working with the White House staff, watching for someone to make a move that would flag they were responsible for her disappearance.”
“What kind of move?”
“A ransom demand or something. We’ve been tracking and studying everyone around her.” He turned to face her briefly. “Yes, we’ve been watching you too.”
“Great.”
“Well, you asked.”
She kept her arms folded across her chest, biting her lower lip. It sucked.
“Trust me, we’ve been busy, but nothing’s come up. No communications of any kind, and no one acting like they’re involved. It’s like she just disappeared without a trace.”
Mimi knew there was no real way anyone could just totally drop out of sight. But then, she’d never tried.
She remembered the electricity between Commander Tierney and the Deputy Ambassador.
“Is the Ambassador part of the team?”
“Only if Tierney wants her.” He chuckled. “From the looks of things, I’m thinking no.”
“So, she won’t be staying with us?”
“No, ma’am. Tierney will be adding to the team, but right now, you’re it.”
Oh great.
But then, she caught herself. The vision of Georgette Collier, perhaps all alone, maybe lost, kidnapped, or confused, regretting being pulled away from the safety of the Secret Service detail, no matter how obnoxious it might feel, and knowing she could be scared—that thought changed everything for Mimi. By now, did Georgette understand what kind of danger she was in? And did she do it? Or was it forced upon her?
They pulled through an open iron gate, driving down a gravel path which arched to the right until a large home came into view. Leaves whirled to the sides as the car plowed through the covered drive. The place must have been eight or nine bedrooms with grounds that used to be well manicured and still had the bones of something stately.
“Holy cow. Who owns this place?”
“Drug seizure. Uncle Sam is the proud owner. One of the nice percs of having those confiscation laws.”
A four-door grey Suburban was parked in front.
“That must be Tierney’s rental,” murmured Hoaglund. “Let’s see who he dragged along.”
Mimi scowled, got out and began to handle her bags.
“Leave them. Go on inside. We’ll bring them in for you.”
“Which means you’re going to go through them, aren’t you?”
“You know how important this op is, Mrs. Wagner. We don’t leave anything to chance. But for your information, Tierney himself requested we do so. He doesn’t wan
t any weapons or pot or pills entering the home, anything he doesn’t know about.”
“Great. When is the strip search?”
She could see that annoyed Desideri, who had taken her attitude with some humor, but now the humor left his face, and he yanked her overnight bag from her as he barked to her face. “She’s the fuckin’ daughter of the president and First Lady of the United States. I’d say this is a little more important than chaperoning a school field trip. The sooner you take this seriously, the faster we can start to get some real progress going.”
He was right, of course, but Mimi was trying to get over Garrett Tierney, her father’s former best friend, having ordered her things be searched. Maybe she should tell him after all. Tonight. When it was just the two of them. Maybe they’d dump her from the team. Now she wished she’d tossed her vibrator into the suitcase.
“What’s so funny?” agent Desideri asked.
“None of your business. That’s a need to know for me, and very private.” She worked hard to stop from bursting out laughing.
She’d always dreamt about the day she’d get to meet Tierney again, she just didn’t think they’d be alone in a house in the woods somewhere.
Careful what you wish for.
She dropped her arms and allowed Desideri to take the bag from her. She twirled on her toes and headed for the house—where her future, whatever that was—lay in front of her. The mission her father had been on had taken him away from her forever. Her Navy SEAL husband was killed in a training accident before he could deploy. Was this mission now going to take her fantasy life away forever too?
Mimi opened the large carved doors that lumbered on squeaky hinges that needed oil. And there he was, poring over papers, just like her father had done years ago. He had a long-necked opened bottle of beer to the side. The light was dim, except for the reflection off the glass coffee table onto his face. His light blue shirt was the same color as his blue eyes.
SEAL Love's Legacy (Silver SEALs Book 1) Page 4
