John (Guardian Defenders Book 3)

by Kris Michaels

“Okay, be safe.”

  “You too. That herd is going to be skittish after this.”

  “I know. We can handle them.” Gregg was a very competent hand who’d been with the Marshalls for almost as long as John had been at the ranch. He gave the man a final nod and jogged back to the waiting helicopter.

  The trip back to the ranch took a year, or at least that’s what it seemed like. He couldn’t talk to Dixon and Drake—there was no comm equipment behind the two men. The second they landed he was out of the bird. Chief was waiting for him with an ATV. He jumped into the small vehicle. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “I have no idea. We had orders to find you, get you back, and set you up with a secure video conference connection,” Chief spoke over the sound of the engine. Because of the cold, tears formed in his eyes, pushing back toward his ears as they raced toward Mike’s office. As soon as Mike shoved the selector level into park, they were both out of the ATV and running up the steps to the main door. “Conference room in the back.”

  John nodded and slammed down the hallway to the same room where Shae and he had spent hours with Jared King. They both dropped their cell phones in the tray outside the room. Chief hit a code on the door and the lock sprung open. The monitor was active and split into four quadrants. The conversation happening between the participants stopped when he and Mike burst into view.

  “What the hell is going on?” He was confused and he needed answers. Now.

  Jason King “Sit down, John, we have a lot to go over. Mike, thanks for getting him here.”

  “I’ll wait in my office until you’re done,” Mike spoke as he closed the door behind him. The sound of the lock activating behind him dropped like a lead balloon from the air.

  “Why am I here?”

  “Have a seat.” Jason tapped on his desk as he spoke. John took off his coat and flipped it onto the back of the seat. He sat down and drew a deep breath.

  “Jewell, you can start.” Jason once again spoke without looking at the monitor.

  “Hi, John. So, Dom Ops has a team of investigators tracking down the leads they were able to garner from several different points.”

  Jared King interrupted, “One of those points was the information provided by Shae. Actually, it was pursuing the names she gave us, the employees of Amira Raz, the woman who brought Shae to Canada, that gave us a foothold. From information we garnered, we were able to track down what we believe are a pod of mid-level members of Stratus’ organization.”

  John shook his head and stared at the three screens before he looked at the picture of himself in the lower-left corner. “And that involves me how?”

  Jared held up a hand. “I’m getting there. The latest takedown was in Chicago. We were able to track and apprehend a person who has been talking. Does the name Edna Barkley sound familiar?”

  All the confusion drained from him in less than a second. Edna Barkley was a cover identity he’d constructed. It was one of ten that hadn’t been utilized. He’d given the profiles and names to Guardian to utilize should they need it.

  John leaned forward. “One of your own people?”

  Jason’s head snapped up. “No. We haven’t touched the identities you’ve given us. They are locked up tight, paper copies only, and the safe where they are stored hasn’t been compromised. Whoever is using the name and cover isn’t Guardian. Did the Agency have access to the profiles you were working on?”

  John dropped his chin into his hand and sighed. “I didn’t think so. Have you checked to make sure this Edna is actually using the life I engineered?”

  Jewell nodded. “Down to the last detail.”

  John shook his head. It wasn’t possible. There was no way someone could have found those files. They were paper, old school, handwritten casefiles with IDs, manufactured school records, letters of recommendation, social security cards. Ten entire lives built in meticulous fashion and they were kept at his apartment in his safe. They were his insurance policy in case he needed a negotiation chip. Thankfully, Guardian stepped up, and they were extraneous. No one at the Agency knew about his excess profiles. No one. “How in the hell did this happen?”

  “That’s what we need to find out. Walk us through your last couple of days with the Agency.” Jared’s question pushed him into his past. Again.

  Chapter 20

  Shae paced around John’s house after finishing her phone call. The disquiet emanated from a straightforward conversation and hard answers to simple questions. Even Cat had grown tired of her restlessness and meowed at the door to be let out. Her thoughts were a jumble of memories and questions, which was always the case when she finished a conversation with Jeremiah.

  She dropped her head back and stared at the ceiling. This mental scramble and rehash were getting her nowhere. But sleep was out of the question, thanks to the noise in her brain. Resigned to a sleepless night, she turned the light on in John’s office and padded in. The haphazard way she’d thrown her paperwork into the laptop bag was enough to prompt her into action. She turned on the desk light and pulled out her papers, putting them in proper order before she turned on the computer and lost herself in the details.

  The sound of the helicopter coming back registered as she plugged numbers into the budget software. Jeremiah’s words echoed in her mind. She wasn’t going to borrow trouble. She didn’t know why the helicopter left and it didn’t concern her. John? Maybe, but when he could, he’d let her know what was going on.

  Forcing herself back to the information, she ticked off the line item she left off with and went to the next. “That can’t be right.” According to the spreadsheet, the expenditure for the last quarter was nearly quadruple what the requested budget was for this quarter. She opened John’s top drawer and fished through the items, looking for a highlighter. Nothing. She opened the rest and drew a blank. Her eye caught on the credenza tucked away in an odd-shaped corner of the room.

  Shae stood up and stretched, reaching her arms to the ceiling. She was starting to get tired, which was a good thing. There were maybe ten items left on the page she was currently working, and after that she’d go to bed. But first, she needed a highlighter. The pen marks in the columns were too close together and would make finding the error difficult if she didn’t mark it in some way. She opened the drawers and smiled at a pack of yellow highlighters. She snapped them up and spun around.

  Shae’s heart stopped. Slowly, she turned her head to the credenza, and she lowered her gaze to the picture frame on the top of the low hutch. The highlighters slid from her fingers, clattering on the hardwood floor. Gripped in icy cold apprehension, she reached out to the frame and turned it toward her.

  “No.” Oh, dear God. No. It couldn’t be. But it was… It was her. The hair was different, but… oh, God, John had a photo of the woman who’d had her tortured. How? How could he know this woman? Shae leaned against the wall, her knees gave out, and she slid to the floor while staring at the face of the woman she saw in her nightmares.

  There had to be an explanation but… how? The woman was smiling into the camera. It was an intimate picture. A picture a close friend… or lover would take. Bile rose in her throat. She swiped at tears that rolled down her cheeks, only then realizing she was crying. She pushed up from the floor and lurched toward her cell phone. Her hand shook so badly she had to put the frame down in order to steady herself enough to call John’s number. It rang several times as she tried to breathe.

  “Hello?”

  Shae blinked and glanced at her phone face. She’d dialed right. “Mike? Where’s John?”

  “Shae, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “No. No, God, I’m so far away from okay. Where is John?”

  “He’s in the secure conference room here at the office. I answered his phone when I saw your name. Do you need me to come over? You’re at his house, right?”

  “Don’t let him leave. Mike, he knows her.”

  “Knows who?”

  “Her! Don’t let him leave!”
Shae hung up and grabbed the picture frame. She launched out of the house without a coat and ran as if Satan himself was chasing her. Her tears froze against the bitter cold wind as her heart crumbled under the horrid thought pulsing through her thoughts. Did Guardian know they had a link to this woman in their midst?

  John shook his head. “After the funds were taken from my local bank, I called them. They told me the funds were withdrawn and the accounts closed by the only authorized person. But I was the only person authorized. It had to be the agency recouping resources. Then shit got crazy when Lori sent me that text saying she thought someone was trying to kill her. I tried to call her. I couldn’t reach her, so I ran out of the office. I left everything.”

  “Could elements of those files have somehow been accessed via your company computer system?” Jewell asked.

  “Impossible. They were my projects. I only worked on them at my apartment on my laptop. The laptop was locked in my safe with those folders and the documents. They were all intact when I grabbed them and came to Guardian.”

  “Who had access to your apartment?” Jared asked the question.

  John jumped at a loud banging on the conference room door. “Stand by, something’s going on outside.”

  “Jewell, sanitize the connection,” Jason growled.

  “Done.” All the screens went black.

  John opened the door and caught Shae as she fell forward. “Shae, what in the hell?”

  She yanked her arm from his grip and screamed, “You! You know her! I trusted you! I love you, you bastard, and you knew her all along! How long have you been lying to Guardian, to me?”

  “What are you talking about? I’ve never lied to you or to Guardian.”

  “Then explain this!” Shae hissed and shoved his picture of Lori in his face.

  “Explain what? That’s Lori. It’s the only picture I have of her.”

  “This is your sister? Your dead sister?” Shae shouted at him. Mike was behind her shaking his head, clearly confused, too.

  John nodded. “Yes, why?”

  “Because she’s not dead! She was the one who ordered Maurice to torture me! She was the one that called and told him to kill me! This woman is Stratus!”

  The venom in her voice and accusations pushed pieces of the puzzle together in his mind. He staggered back and flopped into the chair he’d been sitting in. “Dear God.” He glanced at the screen and noticed Guardian was back up. “My sister had access to my apartment. She knew the combination to the safe.”

  “Okay. The two of you obviously need to talk. Jewell, start running the other names John gave us. I’ll get you the files on the rest of the profiles so you can run a comparison. We need to know if other profiles have been utilized. John, Shae, you’ve got thirty minutes to talk this out and then we’ll dial back in. Archangel out.”

  The screens went blank and Mike closed the conference room door, leaving them alone. John dropped his head to his hands. Grief, guilt and pain swamped him in a massive wave. “I didn’t know, Shae. I swear I didn’t know. I saw her car explode.”

  Shae slid down the door jamb and sat on the floor. “She’s your sister.”

  He nodded. “I never lied to you or to them. Guardian can verify my whereabouts every day since the day I went to them for help.”

  Shae swallowed hard and nodded. “She’s your sister.”

  He swallowed hard and admitted the truth, “She is.”

  Shae trembled when she spoke, “She’s a monster.”

  John stared at the picture of his sister. It was one she liked. She’d texted it to him and he’d used it as her contact picture on his phone. He had his phone when Guardian took him in. It was the only reason he had a copy of it. “Are you sure? Absolutely sure?”

  “I will never forget her face.” The whispered confirmation stabbed any hope he had of a mistake through the heart.

  “I don’t want to believe it,” John spoke in the same whisper.

  “I’m not lying,” Shae’s hiss reached him.

  He snapped his eyes to her. “I know. I don’t want to believe it, but it makes sense now. Everything Guardian is discovering, what happened in the days before she… died.”

  “What happened?”

  He glanced at the screens and detailed the events that had rocked his world and sent him into hiding from an agency that always affirmed they had no idea who had targeted Shae or John.

  Shae sighed and scrubbed her face with her hands. “I thought… When I saw her picture, I thought… I didn’t want to believe that you…”

  “I can imagine.” Hell, she’d flung a hell of a lot of accusations. He knew exactly what she’d been thinking. He was related to the woman who still haunted her dreams. He’d held her several times after she’d wake up from a night terror. Dear God… the woman who tortured her was his sister. He stared at his hands but didn’t see anything except memories. Lori’s greed, her scheming. She’d used him. Stolen from him and set him up. If he hadn’t gone to Guardian, he would have been killed in one of the two explosions targeting him. He would have died because of her… what… greed? He hated what she was capable of, but even more, he hated what she’d done to innocents. How many more had suffered because of her? Lori’s reign of terror was going to end. Guardian was on her trail now, and it was only a matter of time until they tracked her and the rest of Stratus down. He’d be on that team. The one to make sure she couldn’t hurt anyone ever again. “She started her actions with me. I’ll be the one to end them.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll sleep in the dormitory after we finish here.”

  Shae sniffed and turned to look at him. “Why?”

  “To give you space. You probably want to talk to Jeremiah, maybe wrap your head around what is going on.” He glanced at the clock. They only had a few more minutes.

  “Me? What about you?” Shae tossed the question back at him.

  “I think it will be a long time before I can understand any of this.”

  “I don’t know if I will ever be able to understand how someone so evil could have you as a brother.”

  John drew a deep breath. His natural instinct was to defend and protect Lori, but the words Shae spoke were… damn it, they were true. A series of beeps sounded from the monitor. “They are coming back online. Do you want to leave and call Jeremiah?” He mentioned the doctor again.

  Shae held his eyes while she shook her head slowly from one side to the other. Her voice held no hesitancy. “No, for once, I don’t need him.” Shae stood and wiped her cheeks. “We work together to take her down. You want answers, I want justice. We both want her stopped. Right?”

  He stood up, coming within inches of her. “If I could take away the pain she caused, I would.”

  Shae leaned her forehead against his chest and placed her hands on his hips. He wrapped her in his arms and held her against him. All of this, the love he felt for this woman, their future together, Lori would have stripped from him. First with her attempt to kill him because who else could it have been? And then what she allowed—no, directed—to happen to Shae. He pulled her closer. “I love you.” He whispered the words against her hair.

  “I love you, too.”

  “I hate to interrupt, but we need to proceed.” Jason King’s voice jarred them out of the moment.

  He let her go and moved a chair over for Shae so they both could sit down. She reached for his hand under the table. He squeezed it and she shot him a sideways look.

  “Jewell, tell them what you’ve found.”

  “Okay, all ten of your profiles are in use.”

  His jaw dropped. “Excuse me? What?” The earth-shattering shocks just kept coming, didn’t they?

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too, but good news is we have a bearing on all of them. Additionally, the profiles are attached to actual people now, so we have pictures to go with the IDs.” A patchwork of faces appeared on the screen.

  “She’s not there,” Shae said after a few seconds examining the females’ faces. “No,
she’s not there.”

  He nodded, but that didn’t mean anything. Lori could make her own profiles. Granted, she wasn’t as skilled as he was, but she could have countless IDs and become whoever she wanted to be.

  “We are organizing an operation to apprehend all of these people at the same time. Ten teams.”

  “We’re coming to D.C.” His tone left no room for argument.

  “Figured. We’ll have a plane heading your way in the morning. Same protocols are in effect.” Jason nodded. “Jared, bring him up to speed.”

  “We’re compiling a list of names. Names of people we couldn’t run to ground. I would like you to dissect them and see if they are fake profiles. Hopefully, we’ll have the people using your profiles in custody and be able to extract more information from them at that time.”

  “Oh boy,” Jewell muttered in the background.

  “What?” Jason’s head snapped up and everyone stopped talking. Shae squeezed John’s hand, but he didn’t think she knew she had a death grip on it.

  “Just for shits and giggles I threw up the faces associated with the profiles and I’m running them through all the facial recognition databases we have. The man here, using the Collin Sower’s ID? He’s wanted by MI6.”

  “He didn’t change his facial features?” John leaned in. “Everyone knows manipulation of the nose or jaw can throw the facial recognition off. Less than an eighty percent match won’t trigger the facial recognition software.”

  “Nope. He’s a one hundred percent match.” Jewell tapped on the keyboard. “I’m just getting started. Give me twenty-four hours. I’ll get you everything I can on who he was and who he is now.”

  “Shae, I need to know where you stand before I pull you into an active op. I’m calling Jeremiah. You won’t be going on any missions unless he clears you.” Jason leaned back in his chair as he spoke.

  “He’ll clear me.”

  The determination in her voice left little doubt she was right, but John agreed with Jason, they needed to know for sure that she could handle the adrenaline hype of a mission.