Soldier for Hire

by Kimberly Van Meter

  That last part was a total bluff. It was too early to tell if Williams could find the camera or the footage, but no one else knew that. Just watching Sheffton sweat was worth the lie.

  “Platt killed Special Agent Conrad Griggs—” her voice caught and she had to clear her throat before she could continue “—when Griggs found out Platt’s secret. Then Sheffton had Platt killed to cut loose ends. We’ve given all of our evidence to someone we trust and right this minute he is packaging all of our collected evidence and sending it to the authorities and the press.”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with this,” protested Bettis as Capitol police entered the room.

  The Speaker of the House gestured for the police to escort Sheffton and Bettis out of the building and said, “Thank you for your information. If you wouldn’t mind releasing our feed, we’ll take it from here.”

  Xander gave the Speaker a thumbs-up and watched as Sheffton and Bettis were removed, both squabbling at each other and promising legal action against the Senate for this embarrassment and obvious gross level of slander.

  Scarlett, Zak, CJ and Xander looked at each other and Xander asked, “Am I in the clear?”

  “Well, we just proved you didn’t kill McQuarry, so I think you are,” Scarlett said.

  “Good. I’m ready to go home. I’ve missed my damn bed.”

  He slung his arm around her shoulders and they began to walk from the building. And then they were promptly arrested.

  * * *

  Sitting in lockup, Xander, CJ and Zak were in one cell while Scarlett was on the other side of the building where the women prisoners were kept.

  “Do you think we’re going to prison?” CJ asked.

  Xander thought about it for a minute before answering, “Well, depends on what they decide to charge y’all with. Aiding and abetting a federal fugitive is generally frowned upon.”

  “Even when the fugitive is innocent?” CJ asked with a wink.

  “Yeah, not sure about that just yet. I mean, I lied through my teeth about the camera footage. We have no idea if any of it was actually salvageable and honestly, that was my best bet for getting off on the murder charges.”

  “Sounds like shitty odds,” CJ said, shaking his head, then looked apologetically to Xander saying, “Sorry, buddy. You might be screwed.”

  Xander chuckled, “Yeah, you think?” It’d been several hours since they were hauled into custody and they hadn’t received any word. No one had called them into questioning or taken their statements. They were just sitting, like ducks waiting for the shotgun blast and it wasn’t a great feeling.

  His back started to protest his position and he tried to shift to relieve the pressure. Zak noticed and commented.

  “Why didn’t you say something, man?”

  The question was real, no joking around, and Xander answered with the same seriousness. “I thought I could handle it. My ego got the better of me. I was embarrassed.”

  “We could’ve been there for you,” CJ said.

  “I know.”

  “So what are going to do about it?” Zak asked.

  He sighed. “Assuming we get out of here? I’m going to check myself into rehab and get clean.”

  CJ sat up and said, “You know, if you’d trusted us, or at least trusted me because I’m less judgy than that guy over there—” he gestured to Zak with a grin “—I could’ve told you that I know a guy who’s doing some cool stuff with stem cell shit. It’s the real deal. You remember my shoulder injury when I jacked it up during that Iraq mission? Well, I didn’t want no narcotics so I went the alternative route. Bam, stem cell rejuvenation therapy. Good as new.” He flexed to demonstrate. “Hell, I think it’s in better shape than before. This is serious sci-fi futuristic stuff, you know? But it works. You could do that with your back injury and get off that shit.”

  Xander nodded, touched that his buddies had his six even though he’d shut them out. “I’ll check it out. Thanks, man.”

  CJ nodded, leaning back against the wall, sighing with boredom. “Someone either needs to book us or let us go. This is bullshit. We’ve got rights. Right?”

  Zak ignored CJ’s whining and said, “So what are you going to do with Scarlett?”

  “What do you mean?” Xander asked, on guard. He didn’t want to reveal anything that Scarlett wasn’t ready to share.

  “You guys have been practically living together under stressful circumstances. That can create a false sense of connection. I just wondered how you guys got through it.”

  “It was fine.” A beat of silence followed and then CJ shared a knowing look with Zak, prompting Xander to ask defensively, “What was that look about?”

  “You guys are banging. We can tell. But it’s cool, man. You two have had chemistry since day one and frankly, we’re glad you finally got it over with,” Zak said.

  Xander started to protest but it was stupid to even try; they already knew. He let out a long exhale and admitted to it. “Yeah, she’s special. I like her. I mean, I think I love her. Shit, yeah, no, I love her. I didn’t mean to but it just sort of happened and before you start spouting psychology babble, I felt this way before all this crap happened.”

  “Like I said, what are you going to do about it?” Zak repeated, staring him down. “You know, nothing will ever be the same after this. You have to make a choice.”

  Xander knew Zak was right but he didn’t have an answer just yet. He had to get the drugs out of his system first. “My head’s not on straight yet. I don’t have the right to be thinking past getting clean.”

  Zak nodded, seeming to agree but they both knew the situation was far more complicated. Xander couldn’t remain with Red Wolf and date Scarlett if Scarlett was his TL. Scarlett had worked her ass off to get her position within Red Wolf and Xander would never ask her to step down for him.

  Which meant he would have to leave, but if he left...what chance did they have of making it work?

  Hell, he was jumping the gun. He didn’t know if Scarlett wanted to be with him—if they managed to get their asses out of jail.

  The jailer, a stout, stern man with a permanent scowl, gestured to the three men and said, “You’re being released.”

  Surprised but not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, they happily left the cell behind to find Joshua Handler, owner of Red Wolf, standing there waiting for them.

  Ahh, shit. The real boss man. They rarely interacted with Joshua but they knew who he was.

  To CJ and Zak he said, “I trust you can find your way home?” They nodded and thanked him for his intervention on their behalf and then cut out of there like they were on fire. To Xander, he said, “Ride with me.”

  Either he was about to be fired or... No, that was probably it.

  They climbed into the sleek dark town car and Xander had no idea where they were going.

  “I’m impressed with how you handled yourself,” Joshua said in one breath but ended with, “But you screwed up big-time and gave Red Wolf a black eye in front of some very important people.”

  Xander wouldn’t make excuses, not anymore. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I screwed up.”

  “Yes, you did.” Xander waited for him to say the words but Joshua didn’t. Instead, he said, “You’re a good man. We’ve all made mistakes in life. You’re going to go to rehab.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement of fact that left no room for arguing. “Red Wolf will take care of it.” He paused and looked to Xander, his pale blue eyes intense. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

  “I’m in love with Scarlett.”

  There, he let it drop.

  Joshua nodded, absorbing the information. “Does she feel the same?”

  “I don’t know. I hope so, but I don’t know. She’s dedicated to Red Wolf and I would never ask her to change that.”

  “Good.”

&nb
sp; And that was all he said for the rest of the ride, which ended up being to his hotel. As Joshua exited the car, he said, “The car will take you to the airport where you’ll go straight to a private Red Wolf facility to detox. When you finish, I’ll be in touch.”

  Before Xander could say anything, Joshua closed the door, and he was on his way to the airport.

  He didn’t even get a chance to talk to Scarlett first, but he supposed that was the way it had to be.

  Maybe it was even better this way. Guess it didn’t matter, because that’s what was happening.

  Chapter 26

  It’d been three months since their arrest at Capitol Hill and three months since she’d seen Xander. According to Joshua, Red Wolf was handling the issue of Xander’s addiction and everyone else should get back to business.

  Even though Scarlett desperately wanted to pepper Joshua for answers about Xander, she knew better. As much as it killed her, she swallowed her tongue and tried to focus on her job, which wasn’t easy.

  Sleepless nights where she flipped and flopped, staring at the ceiling, assaulted by the myriad of questions and memories that she couldn’t sort; the grief over losing Conrad and attending his funeral; the need but utter lack of desire to process her feelings about Xander and how things had abruptly ended.

  She wasn’t the kind of woman who pined for a man but for the first time in her life, yeah, she was pining.

  The only saving grace had been the rosy outcome following Sheffton’s arrest for the murder of McQuarry and four civilians in the Tulsa City bombing.

  Gotta hand it to Williams, he really came through when they’d needed him to. Williams was able to recover the surveillance footage from the amphitheater that Sheffton had been certain was deleted. Seems Sheffton hadn’t followed through and made sure that the footage was gone. In his arrogance, he hadn’t thought to double check and simply left the job to someone else and it had been overlooked. His sloppy work had worked to their benefit.

  In light of the overwhelming evidence against him, Sheffton rolled over in the hopes of getting a more lenient sentence.

  It hadn’t worked.

  Sheffton was currently awaiting sentencing and legal analysts were predicting that Sheffton would likely die in prison before he was eligible for parole.

  Sheffton had been squeezing Platt, forcing him to dance to his tune, but that day that Xander and Scarlett had intercepted Platt at the park, Sheffton’s men had already been en route to snip the loose end. Scarlett and Xander had only delayed the inevitable. Not that Scarlett could work up a tear for Platt’s death.

  Scarlett had zero empathy for pedophiles and even less for the man who had killed her friend. The world was a lot less safe without Conrad Griggs in it, that was for sure.

  Even though Sheffton deserved what he got, Scarlett definitely got the impression that the government had tried to make an example out of Sheffton to show that they were serious about rooting out deep corruption but everyone knew that it would take more than a grand gesture to drain the so-called swamp.

  However, it made for good press and no one was interested in fixing the real problem so life went on.

  Ironically, the bigger scandal was Secretary of Defense Bettis resigning from his position in the wake of his affair with Sheffton, even though Bettis had been unaware of Sheffton’s level of deception and depth of ambition until after everything had been revealed.

  If there was anyone Scarlett had felt mildly sorry for, it was the secretary. He’d been clueless as to how Sheffton was manipulating him for his own purposes.

  As it turned out, the Wakefield deal had simply been a business deal McQuarry had been pushing for his own gain and Bettis owning shares in the company had been coincidence.

  It might’ve been refreshing to learn that money had been at the root of all the evil but, alas, ambition had been the catalyst.

  Sheffton had been planning to use his relationship with Bettis to further his own career, knowing that the secretary would’ve said and done anything to keep their relationship quiet. Talk about some long-range, big-picture planning. She had to hand it to Sheffton for putting together a plan that would take years to put into play.

  But poor Bettis was screwed. That man would end up paying for his indiscretion for his entire life.

  Nothing was more titillating than a publicly disgraced politician. Shortly after the scandal broke, the secretary’s wife, Janet, filed for divorce. My, how people loved to watch the mighty fall.

  Speaking of mighty...

  She knew Xander had finished his rehab three months ago but he still hadn’t come back around. When his notice came across her desk, she’d fought the urge to cry silly tears.

  She had to accept the realization that Xander wasn’t coming back.

  He was moving on and he hadn’t said a word to her. Maybe she’d read too much into their time together but she thought they’d both felt something equally. It wasn’t like her to fill in the blanks with her own interpretation of feelings. She was pretty blunt with her needs and desires but Xander had left her feeling tongue-tied.

  The first night sleeping alone had been awkward. By the time morning broke, she was cranky, sleepy and her eyes felt filled with grit.

  She figured all she needed was time to adjust to sleeping alone again—hell, she preferred the option to starfish in the bed—but it’d been months and she still reached for him in her fitful sleep and woke when her grasping hands clutched at nothing.

  Zak found her in the break room pouring a second cup of coffee, grabbing a granola bar from the snack box. “How you holding up, TL?” he asked.

  “Fine.”

  “One-word answers usually indicate the opposite,” Zak said, winking as he tore into his granola bar. “Seriously, though, are you okay?”

  Scarlett forced a smile. “I’m fine. Just tired.”

  Zak nodded, knowing she was full of crap but didn’t press further. They all knew that her disposition was because of Xander and she didn’t want to talk about it.

  “Well, I have something that ought to cheer you up.”

  Scarlett looked up from her coffee mug. “Yeah? What?”

  “There’s someone waiting in the briefing room to talk to you. Seems important.”

  Scarlett frowned, trying to remember if she had a meeting scheduled that she’d overlooked. Dumping her coffee down the sink and quickly rinsing her mug, she went to the briefing room to find Xander standing there.

  Her breath caught and for a long moment, all she could do was stare.

  Questions bubbled up but tears threatened and her throat closed. Why hadn’t he called? Why hadn’t he at least said goodbye when he left Red Wolf? What the hell? Why was he here now?

  Xander broke the silence first. “You look good,” Xander said, smiling as if he hadn’t just dropped off the planet without so much as a “screw you” for a goodbye.

  She held her tongue. He looked good, too. Clean, sharp, sober. He’d kicked his habit. Even if she was pissed at him for bailing on her, she was glad he was sober.

  Zak quietly closed the briefing door, leaving them alone. She narrowed her gaze. This smelled of a set-up and she didn’t like being ambushed. “What can I do for you, Xander?” she asked, finding her voice. “Did you forget some personal effects?”

  “You could say that,” he said, walking toward her but she stopped him with an outstretched hand that clearly warned DON’T. He frowned but didn’t push her. “I guess I have some explaining to do.”

  “No. I don’t want to hear it. Whatever you came to do, do it and go. You’re no longer a part of the Red Wolf team.”

  “Stubborn as always. Nice to see not much has changed in the three months I’ve been gone.”

  “No, you’re wrong. Plenty has changed,” she said.

  He sighed. “Can I please explain and then you can make your judg
ments?”

  She crossed her arms. “No.”

  “Please?”

  “You don’t get to come in here, look cute and beg for forgiveness. I’m not that kind of woman and never have been so if that’s why you came, you can just let yourself out the same way you came in.”

  “Scarlett, just do me a favor and shut the hell up for a minute. I swear, if after I’ve said my piece, you still want me to go to hell, I’ll go without another word. But I came to say something and I’m not leaving until I do.”

  What would it hurt to hear him out? She supposed it would provide some kind of closure. She jerked a short nod, indicating he should get to it before she changed her mind.

  Xander drew a deep breath before jumping in with an earnest expression. “Right after we left the jail, Joshua sent me to a private Red Wolf facility to detox from the narcotics. He put it pretty plainly—go to detox or get kicked out on my own. I knew Joshua was offering me a once in a lifetime deal and I couldn’t say no. The town car dropped Joshua off at his hotel and took me to the airport. I didn’t have a way of telling you what was happening and I didn’t have a choice—I had to take the deal.”

  “Why didn’t Joshua tell me?” Scarlett asked, confused.

  Xander didn’t know. “I’m sure he had his reasons but I wasn’t about to question his decision, you know?”

  Yeah, she got it. Joshua wasn’t the kind of man you put under a hot bulb for his decisions. He was fair but stern and a little intimidating.

  “I was there for a month and then when I came out, Joshua told me I needed to prove that I wasn’t going to go right back to using again. I needed to prove to Joshua but also to myself that I could rise from the mess I’d created of my life. It was important to me that I come to you with a clear head.”