“That depends on how much you buy into the idea that the hunting is really all about money,” Romero muttered. “I think they’re just bored rich bastards. They don’t need the money at all.”
IT TOOK DESMOND Sparks less than an hour to drive from Baltimore to the DC metro area. Yates didn’t bother to ask his friend how many speeding laws he had broken during the trip. It was best not to know.
The SEAL was the shortest of their group at five foot eleven inches. He was stocky and scrappy with an attitude to match. But the man loved explosives. Everything about them appealed to him, especially when it involved working out a puzzle.
“You remember that unit we ran across when we were in the UAE on that supposed mission of peace?” Sparks asked, not even bothering with the hellos.
“Yeah?” Yates reached for his buddy’s hand to shake it, but got handed a report instead. “What’s this?”
“The preliminary tox screen on those samples that Romero sent me.”
Yates sighed. He’d forgotten how intense Sparks could be. “So you think this sample is a match for that team’s work?”
“It has their signature,” Sparks insisted. “And they fit the profile, anyway.”
“Why is that?”
Sparks gave Yates a sly smile. “Because they get loaned out pretty consistently on diplomatic missions.”
“Shit.” Yates had forgotten about that little piece of the puzzle. “I hadn’t even considered that to be the source of the military element involved in this crap.”
“So, where’s your team?”
“Gearing up for Project Big Mouth,” Yates said with grim acceptance. He still didn’t like this idea, nor did he condone it. The idea of letting Cassidy and Tasha wander around in front of that club broadcasting their identities and actively trying to screw up The Broker’s plan was not a good idea.
“So tell them no,” Sparks said drily. “It’s pretty simple, unless you’re whipped.” He began meowing like a cat while mimicking someone smacking an ass.
“Real classy,” Yates said irritably. “Seriously. You’re such a sensitive man. You know that?”
“I’m not the one being led around by my dick.”
“No. But someday you’re going to find a woman who will run you a merry race,” Yates predicted.
“Don’t you put that evil on me!” Sparks shouted. The man was known for his overacting, brash behavior and over-the-top toilet humor. Underneath it all, though, he was a loyal SEAL who could be counted on to do his job no matter how bad things got.
“Did you call Bones down here?” Sparks asked, referring to the final piece of their team, who happened to live in the Baltimore area.
“No.” Yates grimaced. “I have him doing recon in the harbor where that ship is supposed to be docked.”
“Good idea.” Sparks locked his truck and pulled his trench coat snug around his body.
“Can I just assume you’ve got an arsenal under there?” Yates asked drily, eyeing the coat. “Or are you just trying to look like mafia?”
“Knives mostly,” Sparks said defensively. “You didn’t really specify what we were doing tonight, so I came loaded for bear.”
Yates slapped his friend on the back. “Good to know.”
“Uh, do you know that chick right there?” Sparks pointed to a young Latina woman moving through the crowd.
“No, why?”
Yates had to admit that the woman looked suspicious enough. She wasn’t dressed for a night at the club. In fact, she looked about the opposite of such a thing. Not that she wasn’t a looker, because she most certainly was. Her smooth brown skin was perfection. Her expression was iron hard. And she was dressed in all black, complete with cargo pants and combat boots. The long black hair trailing down her back was braided, and she appeared to be headed right for Tasha and Cassidy.
“Should we intercept?” Sparks was already tensing up for a fight. “Where is Romero, anyway?”
“He’s pulling apart a bunch of invoices, looking for the money trail.” Yates shoved his way through a group of people waiting to get into the club amidst more than a few dark curses.
Sparks gestured at the neon sign flashing above their heads. “Who names a club The Happy Hunting Ground, anyway?”
“You want to argue about that now?” Yates muttered.
Sparks casually elbowed someone out of his way. “I was just observing the stupidity.”
Suddenly the young Latina woman pushed her way forward and grabbed Tasha’s arm. Yates went into action almost before he knew what he was doing.
Clearing the ground between himself and Tasha, he shoved several club patrons out of his way. He unceremoniously grabbed the Latina woman’s arm and twisted it up behind her back. To his shock, she actually cartwheeled out of the arm lock and spun to face him. The utter grace of the movement threw him mentally off balance almost enough that she nearly managed to smash the palm of her hand into his nose. At the last second he deflected her blow and wrapped his hand around her neck. She started to squirm, but he began to squeeze.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Yates snarled.
“Breckin, stop,” Tasha said quietly. “Let’s take this somewhere quiet. Please?”
“Sparks,” Yates looked over his shoulder. “Stay with Cassidy.”
“Aye, sir,” Sparks said with a casual nod.
Yates dragged his prisoner down a few steps and off to the side of the throng lined up to enter the club. Tasha was right at his shoulder. He could sense that she wanted him to let the woman go, but Yates was taking no chances. Not with Tasha’s life.
“Who are you?” Yates demanded once again.
“My name is Marina Reyes.” She held up one of the flyers that Cassidy and Tasha had been passing out. “How do you know about these people? How do you know this stuff? And how are you telling everyone without them trying to kill you?”
Yates shared a glance with Tasha. The young woman obviously knew far more than the average club-goer. Of course, Yates was pretty convinced she was not a clubber to begin with.
He felt Tasha shift closer to him and couldn’t help but wrap his arm around her shoulders. It might have been a weakness, but he didn’t care anymore. He took strength from just having this woman around. She was his sunshine when the whole world was nothing but black death.
“Hey!”
Sparks’s voice reached Yates, and he immediately turned. He knew that tone. And there was no doubt about why Sparks sounded tense. There were four bouncers closing in fast on him and Cassidy.
“We’re going to have to continue this later.” Tasha pulled a business card out of her pocket and shoved it at Marina Reyes. “Get in touch. It would appear we have some mutual interests to discuss.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“You can’t be here,” one of the bouncers told Yates. Yates figured the guy had been doing steroids since the onset of puberty. He had absolutely no neck between his shoulders and his ears. In any other situation it would have looked comical. But the bouncer was pointing at Tasha and Cassidy. “This is private property. Step off.”
“Actually, I’m standing on a public sidewalk,” Tasha said sweetly, pointing to the ground beneath her feet. Then she gestured to Cassidy, Yates, and Sparks. “We all are. So if you’d like to call the police, I’m sure I would be glad to tell them why we’re here.”
The bouncer glowered at her. “Look, lady, you need to leave.”
“Why? So you guys can abduct women in peace for your idiot bosses who—by the way—don’t care if you get arrested for their crimes?”
The guy looked plenty alarmed now. “You can’t just go around saying stuff like that.” He was throwing surreptitious glances at the people thronging toward the club entrance.
It was easy to see that Tasha’s words were leaving their mark. A large number of young women had formed a tight little group around one of their friends, who was holding a flyer. Moments later, the women all trotted back the way they’d come.
Cassidy gestured to a man standing at the door with a clipboard. “See that guy?” She made certain that everyone standing around her got an eyeful, including the bouncer. “That man is checking off women as they enter. He’s looking for pre-selected targets. I’m not kidding here, people! They did the same thing in Richmond, and I haven’t seen my roommate in weeks!”
There was a stir in the crowd. Yates got closer to Tasha. One thing they hadn’t really taken into account was what would happen if the people waiting in line got angry with the club because of the accusations.
“Is that true?” someone shouted.
Someone else was waving a flyer overhead. “These flyers have missing persons case file numbers on them!”
“You sons of bitches!” A giant-sized man shoved the bouncer. “You’re not taking my girlfriend! My sister comes here too! You think you can just charge what you want and take what you want. But you can’t!”
Oh, yes. Yates grabbed Tasha and motioned to Sparks that he should do the same with Cassidy. There was nothing left to do here. They’d effectively stalled the club’s business for the evening. Even if they got anyone else into the club, they would have a hell of a time trying to snag a target off the list with everyone so aware of their game.
“Time to go,” Yates told Tasha.
She was beaming like the sun. “We did it!”
“For tonight,” he agreed.
“Do you think Romero found the money guy buried in those invoices somewhere?” Tasha asked tensely. “We have to get this thing moving. These women have no time, Breckin. None!”
About that time Yates heard a crash behind them. He spun around to face the potential threat. Throwing out his arm, he pushed Tasha behind his back. The bouncer was now rolling on the ground with the big man who had been so indignant over the safety of his girlfriend and sisters. Both men were flailing as they tried to punch each other.
Sparks snorted. “Amateurs.”
A shadow emerged from a wall beside them. Yates half turned, nearly lunging before he caught himself. It was the Latina woman from earlier. She was also staring at the brawl, and at what appeared to be building to a nearly full-scale riot in front of the club entrance.
“They’re morons, but you’re going to catch an awful lot of attention if you don’t get out of here,” she observed.
“Who are you really? How do you fit in?” Tasha wanted to know.
Yates tugged Tasha’s arm. “How about she just comes with us and we can talk on the way back to meet Romero?”
“There are more of you?” The young woman looked surprised.
Tasha motioned her along. “Oh, honey, you’ve got no idea.”
Yates and Sparks exchanged a look. If the woman turned out to be a threat, the two SEALs wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of her in a heartbeat. No matter that she was a woman.
“Wait!” Cassidy was staring back at the mess forming in front of the club. “Look at those two men!”
“What two men?” Sparks was frowning.
Then Yates realized what Cassidy had noticed. “Shit. They’re picking off a few of their targets from inside the crowd.”
“Seriously?” Tasha’s frown intensified until it probably could have lit those men on fire. “Let’s go stop them!”
Before Yates could do anything to prevent her rash move, Tasha had bolted back down to toward the club entrance. Yates had to sprint to keep up. He waved at Sparks, telling him without words to keep Cassidy out of the mess. They didn’t need both women lost in the fray. It was tough following Tasha. She was smaller, lithe, and very quick. She ducked, dived, and dodged her way through the crowd, while Yates had to resort to shoving.
“Stop!” Tasha was yelling. “Help! Help her!”
Tasha was pointing and yelling at two men. One of them was the guy who had been holding the clipboard only a few moments ago. They were currently trying to drag a young woman away from the fringes of the crowd. Given the circumstances, the brazen nature of this abduction was almost inconceivable.
Tasha managed to gain the notice of several people waiting in the street, but she also got the attention of the remaining bouncer. Yates struggled to get past the last few people between him and Tasha just as the bouncer made his move.
TASHA WAS SO caught up in what was happening in the alley that she didn’t realize her danger until a pair of huge arms wrapped around her and squeezed. The breath whooshed out of her body, and in seconds she was feeling lightheaded. There were voices calling to her, but they sounded as though they were coming through a long tunnel. Her vision blackened and curled at the edges, and she realized that she was actually in danger of passing out.
The sensation lasted only a moment. Then something jarred her captor, and he dropped her. Tasha crashed to the pavement and struck her elbow. She rolled reflexively and came up in a defensive crouch. That was when she realized that it had been Yates to come to her rescue.
Yates had the bouncer on the ground. The man was supine with one of Yates’s knees planted center mass and a dazed expression on his square-jawed face. Yates was calling to Tasha. She tried to nod, to let him know that she was going to be fine.
“Help me!” The young woman had finally found her voice, although it might have simply been that her captor was too distracted to keep his hand over her mouth.
“Fight!” Tasha gasped. “Don’t just stand there. Fight and run! Get out of here and get help!”
The young woman seemed to come alive. She elbowed the clipboard guy and then stomped his toes with her heel. The shoe broke, but it was enough to make the guy scream like a girl and jump back away from her. She stumbled forward and managed to hobble toward the crowd, still screaming.
Tasha knew she would find help in the mob that was already looking for blood. Managing to get to her feet, she made a bid for the clipboard hanging limply in the young man’s hand as he bounced and flailed in pain.
The guy attempted to snatch the thing back, but Tasha held tight. She finally managed to wrench it out of his hand. Turning as quickly as she could, she burrowed back into the crowd surging toward the front of the club. Yates was right on her tail. She felt him behind her. His steadying presence was all she needed to give her the confidence to keep going. Her body was screaming that it was done. She didn’t care. This was not the time or place to fall apart.
She and Yates reached the alley mouth where she’d last seen Cassidy and Sparks. They were gone. She began to slow her pace, wondering what had happened. Then Yates grabbed her hand and encouraged her to keep moving.
He tugged her along. “They’re waiting farther ahead. We have to get out of here. Now!”
There was a tiny part of Tasha that wondered if this would ever be over. She felt as if she had been running for months. And the last few days had seemed like an eternity. There was nothing to do but trust this man and her own instincts, and keep fighting even though she felt like stopping.
They continued down the alley, turning at the dark corner where they’d left Yates’s truck. The vehicle was gone. Nerves tied a knot in Tasha’s belly as she wondered what they would do now. The sounds of pursuit were faint, but the boot steps were heading in their direction.
“What now?” Tasha wheezed.
“We have to keep going,” Yates insisted.
Tasha figured that was a no-brainer, but they hadn’t arranged a meeting place, which left them with an obvious problem. “Where?”
“The last place you would expect.”
“Where?”
“Hell. Let’s hit the Watergate Hotel.”
“What?”
“It’s public, open, and definitely not someplace anyone would expect. Right? Plus I happen to find the idea amusing in its own bizarre sort of way.”
Tasha felt a wave of helplessness crash over h
er. “Why would Cassidy and Sparks just leave us here?”
“To make sure at least two of us got away to tell Romero what had happened.” Yates had slowed his pace to a fast walk. He was headed to the metro station.
“You SEALs are all insane,” she grumbled.
He squeezed her hand. “But you love me anyway.”
The thought was sudden and violent. “Yeah. I do.”
She really did. How was that actually possible? In fact, it was improbable and ridiculous given the circumstances, her history, the reality of what she could expect in a relationship from this guy, and pretty much everything else.
Suddenly tugging his hand, she stopped his fast-paced walk and made him turn and face her. He raised an eyebrow, as if he were waiting for her to get to the point. Instead of speaking, Tasha stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.
The feel of his mouth against hers was delicious and about as soothing as anything could be at this moment. She sank into the contact and wrapped her arms around him as if she would never get enough.
Yates’s arms slipped around Tasha’s body as well. He pulled her closer, until she could feel every inch of her body pressed against every inch of his. He was warm and smelled of the wonderful masculine spice that had become such a vital part of her life in so short a time. This was what she wanted. It was what she had needed so badly all her life, even if she hadn’t realized it. And right now, when the world was falling apart, this was what could make things feel all right.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tasha lounged on her back. She waved her feet in the air and contemplated the notion of a pedicure. “There is something very wrong about having sex in a five-star hotel when hours ago we were starting a riot in front of a club and then running for our lives.”
“Life is like that,” Yates commented softly.
He was also on the bed. He was naked. The solid, muscular beauty of his body took her breath away. How could it be that she had only known him a few days? It felt like a lifetime. He had a few days’ scruff on his face. The blond hair gave him a rakish look, but it also humanized him in a way that was sort of endearing.
SEAL INVESTIGATIONS: A 5-Books SEAL Romance Series Page 30
