by Amy McKinley
“It shouldn’t be too hard to find Henry, with his facial scarring.” Other than when he wore sunglasses, his drooping eyelid and burn marks were visible, covering the right side of his face. The scarring his beard didn’t hide would be easy to spot.
Rich’s name flashed on Jack’s cell before he answered. Our CIA contact’s viewpoint about not being able to get involved had to have changed after the intel Chris had uncovered. Finding and recovering the drones would take precedence over everything. My Skype app pinged. Samir.
I moved away from the guys so Samir wouldn’t pick up any information he shouldn’t before accepting the call.
Samir’s face filled the screen. Behind him were stainless-steel appliances and modern white cabinets. If he was calling from wherever he was staying, it obviously was not a hotel.
“I’m so glad you picked up.” His hair was mussed, and wrinkles covered the blue button-down dress shirt he wore. “I have a recording of my conversation with Kara. She spoke directly to you.” He held up his phone then pressed Play.
Kara’s voice came through clearly enough to understand. “M—Keegan. You owe me, and I’m cashing in.”
I could hear the frustration in her tone. She’d almost called me by the name she’d known me by, the one that was long dead and buried. As for owing her, I could only think she meant when I’d left her behind. I shook the cobweb of memories away and listened intently to what she said.
“Come get Lily. The nanny will meet you at the southwest corner of the yard. She’s all that matters.”
Tension dripped from Kara’s voice and hit me in the gut. She was in trouble—that much was clear, especially if she wanted her daughter far away. Chills raced along my arms, and I knew I would do anything to help her.
Samir set the phone on the counter in front of him while another man entered the screen, his hand falling on Samir’s shoulder as he placed a cup of coffee at his elbow. Who is that guy? I filed away the details in my mind for later. Something about him was familiar. Could that have been David Meyer?
“Will you help?” Samir’s voice centered me once more on what needed to be done.
“Yes,” I answered. “Did she tell you when the nanny will be outside?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know. My guess would be late afternoon, but I’m hesitant to say for sure in case they’re there this morning.”
I wrapped up the call and rejoined Jack and Hawk, who were off the phone as well. “What are our orders?”
Hawk’s mouth was pressed into a tight line.
Jack responded. “Recover the contents of the bag at all costs. Henry is no longer a priority, but we’re to retrieve him regardless for questioning.”
I filled them in on my call with Samir. “If we find Kara, chances are she’ll know the whereabouts of either Henry or the drones.”
“Looks like we’re going to rendezvous with the nanny.” Hawk slung his gear on his back.
We agreed with extracting her daughter, as Kara would ultimately lead us to our directive.
I couldn’t wait any longer. “Let’s go.”
7
Keegan
Hawk crossed his arms over his chest then pushed back so that his chair balanced on its back legs. I’d almost had them out the door earlier, but Jack talked sense into me, and I agreed that we needed to see the satellite feed of Ahmed’s property first.
He, Jack, and I were holed up in the hotel room, waiting, and I couldn’t escape Hawk’s piercing blue eyes. I could practically see the calculations happening in his mind. He wasn’t going to let it go, not after he’d come around and spilled his darkest secrets that night in the cabin in California, with Stella bearing witness to his demons.
“We have a few minutes until the feed downloads.” Jack pushed back from the table, stood, and stretched.
Hawk continued to study me, and I refused to turn away. Even though he was the quiet one of our group, I knew he would be the one to push for answers. I’d slipped up that night in California and let him see how enraged I was over what his dad had been willing to do to save his own skin.
“There’s something else that connects you to this woman, isn’t there?” Hawk’s deep voice halted our movements. “What aren’t you telling us?”
Darkness unfurled as the past crowded my present reality. I didn’t want to bring them in any deeper than I had to. “Kara and I knew each other in the past, but I don’t want to go into specifics.” I glanced at Jack, who studied me. When we were in high school, Jack never pushed me to tell him where I’d come from or what demons haunted me. I respected him for that. Hawk had been the same, until recently. Things changed for Hawk when his wife, Stella, came along.
I liked Stella. She didn’t take herself too seriously and had a fierceness about her when it came to those she loved. We’d seen it firsthand with her screwed-up brother. At first, she was wary of me, if not downright afraid. That dissipated fast, and I counted myself lucky to be in the circle of those she cared about and would fight for with all she had.
Another few seconds of silence stretched between us, and then Jack seemed to come to a decision. “Bring us into the loop if it becomes something we need to know.”
That response represented why he was and always had been our unofficial leader. A good portion of tension melted away as I nodded to him. Hawk dropped his little inquisition as well.
I wished there was another way to get Kara’s daughter out and to locate the American, Henry Adams. Having Jack and Hawk with me exposed them to danger that I’d experienced firsthand. If we were lucky, we would only encounter Ahmed. The odds were not in our favor, and the less they knew, the safer they would be.
“The feed downloaded.” Hawk drew our attention to the laptop.
We huddled around the satellite video that Chris was able to get of Ahmed’s house. It was a short clip, but we got useful information from it. Guards patrolled the vast property in fifteen-minute intervals. We would need to get past the chain-link-and- barbed-wire fence that surrounded the backyard. There was space between that and the natural border of foliage that obscured the gate from being seen from the home. It would also conceal us.
I zoomed in on the live satellite feed of the front of the estate. People were congregating, some with signs, some without. Outraged fists pumped in the air. The government wasn’t looking out for its people, and they were angry. The nation was rich in resources, but the profits were not being shared with the impoverished public. If that wasn’t bad enough, they severely lacked access to medical care. With Ahmed’s obvious wealth and political position as one of the president’s supporters and advisors, he was a daily target. For the moment, they were protesting but staying on the outside of the wrought-iron gate—that could come in handy as a needed distraction.
The property was large and well-manicured, and the house sprawling and stately. It wasn’t hard for me to think of Kara growing up there. The home was unfamiliar, as I didn’t have any memories of where Kara lived. That’s not where we met. And her father… I knew him by sight, but that was it, though I picked up from afar that he was cold, authoritative, and dangerous.
From surveillance to gearing up, we were ready in no time. My mind was divided between the mission and the need to see Kara again. Chills danced over my skin despite my gear and the heat. I’d never been able to exorcise her from my thoughts.
Thirty minutes later, we had left the hotel. Jack and Hawk agreed with me that we would stake out the southeast side of the house all day if we had to. There was a good chance we’d learn something useful, and the faster we could get in place, the better.
We were mere feet from the fence we would have to scale. The barbed wire at the top didn’t matter for us, and it wasn’t visible past the natural border of shrubs and trees that lined the inside, separating security from the view of the backyard. But with the extraction of a child, going over the top was not ideal. Jack pulled wire cutters from his pack while Hawk and I took the post to watch for a
nyone who might see what we were doing.
From Chris’s intel on Ahmed’s home, we’d learned there weren’t any cameras aside from one by the front door, which fit Ahmed’s narcissistic personality. When we were young, Kara had filled me in a little about Ahmed—he was secure in his authority with the Dark Wings on his payroll. My guess was that even though there were protests, he wouldn’t contemplate that anyone could breach his sanctuary.
With the sun high and a warm breeze rustling through the foliage, we eased into place. Jack and Hawk were staked out ten feet from me on either side. None of us was in view of another. If the nanny approached the southwest side of the lawn, we had it covered.
Nestled between two trees that acted as one of the lines of defense against any uninvited guests viewing Ahmed’s property, I maintained cover. Bypassing the fence and evading the guards who walked the perimeter at timed intervals hadn’t been an issue for the three of us. One of us would be able to secret away the nanny and Lily, should the opportunity arise.
Time ticked by slowly. We’d been there over an hour, the thick shrubbery shielding us well. Our distance from the front buffered the roar from the protesters, and the diversion helped to keep the majority of the guards stationed at the entrance.
Through the branches, I caught movement behind the windows in the sprawling three-story home. The fact that Ahmed had such blatant wealth while the country he supposedly championed suffered caused my muscles to tighten with barely suppressed hatred. There always had been something I didn’t like about that man. I shifted to alleviate the need to scratch my neck where leaves brushed it.
The flash of long dark hair caught my attention, and my gut tightened. Kara moved just beyond the glass doors of the second-floor balcony. Another person entered the room, but I wasn’t able to see clearly. The French doors swung open, and she walked out, resting her elbows on the railing, her gaze scanning the section where we waited. A slight shake of her head told me all I needed to know. Lily wouldn’t be out yet.
The breeze stirred, sifting through her hair like invisible fingers. Mine itched to do the same, to feel the silkiness of her skin. The memory of our night together flooded my mind, and desire for her crashed over me like a wave.
Five years before, I’d caught sight of her through the tavern window as she walked the sidewalk near my hotel late at night. I was on my feet and outside before even thinking. The streetlamps highlighted the curve of her face, and before I’d known my intentions, I’d whispered her name—close enough for her to hear. One look was all it had taken for years to fall away.
We’d shared a drink at the bar then left and gone to my room. What happened between us played on repeat. I was distracted. She had that effect on me. Nothing good would come of not being on my game, especially with the possibility of my past and present colliding.
8
Keegan
The morning turned to late afternoon as hours ticked by. When we’d first arrived, we’d dodged the guards and set up micro cameras in the trees so we could monitor the house. I’d had a feeling we would need them at some point.
We waited, camouflaged by the trees and shrubs. Jack was more than twenty feet to my left, and Hawk an equal distance to my right. We had the southeast side covered.
The protests at the front gate had increased, drawing more guards away from the back to maintain security. That too worked in our favor.
As I’d done what felt like a million times in the last few hours, I scanned Ahmed’s house for movement behind the windows of the three-story brick-and-stucco home. The door to the ground-floor patio opened, and an older woman emerged with a small child in tow. As the door swung closed, someone caught it from inside and stopped it, following close on the heels of the pair.
The three of them were far enough away that I couldn’t make out their features, but I would have known Kara anywhere. The way she moved her limbs, her long black hair that had blue highlights when the sun hit it just right, and the way her amber eyes would pierce my soul. She was tempting when we were young, and I had to fight to keep an emotional distance from her. As a woman, she was damn near irresistible.
Kara spoke to an attractive woman not terribly older than herself who had to have been the nanny. Without pointing, Kara looked at where we hid. This is it. The nanny, who was probably a good ten years older than Kara, took the little girl’s hand and headed toward the area of the yard where we were stationed. I stopped myself from stepping out from the trees so they would know where to go. That would’ve been a terrible move. Guards patrolled the perimeter of the house itself, and someone would have seen me. Our plan for taking the young girl was through a snatch and grab. It sucked, but there wasn’t any other way.
The nanny and the little girl, Lily, neared the edge of the south side of the yard. My gaze alternated between them and Kara, who had turned back to the door as it opened. Ahmed joined her, and they engaged in a heated discussion I couldn’t hear. I divided my focus between the little girl and Kara. Her posture tensed. Kara and Ahmed were arguing. Ahmed stepped toward the nanny. Kara went to block him. He barked out an order to come back immediately.
Kara snapped at him, but I couldn’t quite make out what she said.
Ahmed moved fast, his palm slicing through the air. He’d backhanded his daughter. I could hear the strike across Kara’s face from here. Rage sizzled inside me. The little girl cried out and ran to her mom, wrapping her arms around Kara’s legs.
With Kara’s training, she could’ve retaliated, but she didn’t. I locked out the dark emotions that demanded retribution. Get her daughter. She would never forgive me if I rushed forward to defend her at the cost of her daughter’s freedom. There was more at stake than I dared risk. I ground my teeth and held my position, but being around Kara compromised my focus.
She and I lived messed-up lives.
All four of them—Kara, Lily, the nanny, and Ahmed—stood in a small circle, arguing while five guards flooded into the yard. Kara herded the nanny as she untangled her daughter’s arms from her legs, pointing them in the direction of the house.
Our small window of time slammed shut. I stepped farther into the hedge. Every muscle froze at the bite of steel at my throat and prick on my side, near my right kidney. My mind whirled. I hadn’t heard anyone approach. Alarm spread as I considered who it could be.
“I hardly recognized you,” a man growled.
Revulsion and the ingrained childhood fear shot through me in a toxic spill. “Hugo.”
“That’s right, boy.” He chuckled. “The prodigal nephew returns. Just in time to pay me back for all I’ve done for you.”
His voice sent me back to a place I fought to keep buried.
Battered by the sand, blazing sun, and an empty stomach. Past images assaulted me, shredding the man I’d become in a blinding display of despair.
That wasn’t my life. It wasn’t real, not anymore. But Hugo’s presence brought it all back: the hopelessness, the abuse, the relentless training, and the soul-destroying missions. With determination, my vision cleared, and the opulence of Ahmed’s home once again greeted me.
From our position, Jack and Hawk wouldn’t know what was happening. My comm was muted, the private conversation—and I hoped the only bloodshed—between the two of us only.
“How did you know I’d be here?” I needed more information and time for Jack and Hawk to get away. We’d planned our exit strategy, with or without the girl, in different directions that converged where we were bedding down.
“Fool girl gave you away.”
Kara had been right about the tapped line. She’d risked too much by talking on that phone. “She didn’t give me away.”
“That’s right. She didn’t give us everything. We were watching, and when I spotted you, I volunteered. What kind of a name is Keegan? You never did have any respect, Max.”
“Not for you.” I needed him to make a mistake. One slip, and I could break free.
“You have a family obligation. It
’s time you fulfilled it.”
Hugo pressed the knife against my side as he moved us forward. If he didn’t have the other one at my carotid, I’d have taken him down and killed him.
“There’ll be no more hiding, Max.”
We inched past the berm’s threshold, which had become visible. I locked eyes with Kara. She’d moved closer, and I could see the horror that bloomed across her features. The nanny and little girl were whisked inside by two of the guards. Ahmed crossed his arms, waiting even as the remaining three guards urged him to go in. He must have wanted to witness Hugo’s kill. That wouldn’t happen yet. Hugo had made it clear he wasn’t done with me.
As the pressure on my kidney lessened, I reacted. I grabbed his wrist and twisted, pulling his blade from my neck, shoving his elbow into his side, then dislodging the weapon digging into mine. I pivoted to end him and got a good look at him.
Holy hell.
Scars. The drooping eye. The beard. Hugo was Henry Adams, the hostage we’d been hired to rescue.
My legs were swept out from behind me, and I landed hard on my back. I was too stunned by Kara’s face to react.
I’d always known she would be my downfall.
Kara followed me to the ground in a lightning-fast move. Her hand wrapped around my throat. A knife pierced my chest. Black dotted over my vision as the pressure against my windpipe increased, and I went under.
The darkness parted. Was I under long? Seconds? I held still, assessing and fighting the urge to lunge up and attack. My mind screamed to hold still. I had to trust my instincts where Kara was concerned. If I gave in to the physical need to fight back, I could end up killing her.
I couldn’t. Not her.
Warmth had spread along my left pectoral where her knife had gone in. It should have struck my heart, but it hadn’t—she’d angled the blade. She’d meant to injure me, not kill me. She’s covering me. I would wait. There had to be a reason.
