The Shadow of Mudflap (A Foxtrot Team Novel #1)

by Christi Snow

  The label practically screamed at him. Oh, shit, no. He ripped the plastic tubing out of Grant’s arm just as the alarms started going off.

  Shanae

  Shanae rolled out of bed, groaning. Who the hell was pounding on her door at freaking o’dark thirty in the morning? She’d only arrived home two hours ago after being up for forty-six hours straight. Her brain screamed that she hadn’t had enough sleep. Mickey’s was a mess. The bomb had gone off just as the Intrepids meeting had disbanded. Because several of the gang members were wanted, the ones who made it out scattered. All day yesterday, the ruins of the bar had been too hot to complete the recovery of the bodies, so it was still too early to know exactly how many perished.

  Shanae was relieved that Troy was one of the lucky ones. He’d been out in the alley taking out the trash when the bomb went off. He had some residual burns and shrapnel wounds, but nothing serious.

  There still wasn’t any word about the DEA agent, Slade. At least that was the case two hours ago when she left HQ after spending the day helping to monitor and organize the teams. She’d call in and check as soon as she got rid of the asshole beating down her door.

  She paused for a moment before opening the door, debating the benefits of doing so with a knife in hand. There was one in the table right beside the door and she’d really enjoy filleting whoever this was. Peering through her peep hole settled the debate. She grabbed the knife and flung the door open.

  Her ex-boyfriend, Seth, barged in, yelling, “Who the hell is he, Shanae?”

  Oh God, she needed coffee to deal with this. She paid no attention to Seth. Flexing her hand around the knife clutched in her hand, she walked into the kitchen and started the coffee pot. Blatantly ignoring Seth’s ranting while the coffee brewed, she finally turned to him with a cocked eyebrow after she’d taken her first sip. He stood glaring at her.

  She knew that glare too well. Toward the end of their relationship, it had become his favorite look to give her when she didn’t bow down to his wishes. He just didn’t get that she was her own person and had her own career. A career he had worked to dominate more and more by using his influence as a CIA agent. Finally, she had had enough and broke up with him. That still hadn’t been enough to get him to butt out of her work or home life, so she’d left the Houston office and moved to Lubbock.

  She took a deep breath, looking for patience so she could be civil to him. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  “No,” he pouted like a little kid. “I want an answer. Who. Is. He?”

  “Who, Seth? You need to be a little bit more specific if you’re going to drag me out of bed for this discussion.”

  “The guy you went out with two nights ago.”

  She narrowed her gaze at him. “How do you know I went out with someone? Do you have me under surveillance?” Her voice sounded shrill, but was he serious? Seth was a CIA agent out of the Houston office and he had resources at his fingertips that he better fucking not be using on her.

  “What are you doing in Lubbock?” she demanded. His sudden appearance just as she started dating someone else was not giving her a warm, fuzzy feeling.

  “I’m here for an assignment.” Seth stalked closer. “I know his name is Mudflap Davidson and he’s a firefighter, but I need to know what he means to you. Are you serious about him?”

  She was beginning to think a move out of the country may be necessary. But no, she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her. Slowly and methodically, she set her coffee cup down and then lunged at him, pressing her knife below his crotch. He never had a chance to react. He really should have remembered that waking her up was never a good thing.

  Through gritted teeth, she said, “Seth, first of all, we are no longer involved. Who I see or don’t see is none of your fucking business. I could have the entire naval fleet parade through my bedroom and you couldn’t say a damn thing about it anymore.”

  He began to speak, but she stopped him with more pressure to his groin, letting the sharp blade prick through the fabric on his jeans. The blood drained from his face as his eyes widened.

  “Now, I’m asking you again. Am I under surveillance? Are you, or are you not, using CIA assets to monitor me?”

  He must have finally started getting a measure of her temper since he immediately began to placate her. “Now, Shanae—”

  “Don’t you—”

  “Okay,” he said soothingly, “yes, I’m watching, but only so I know you’re safe. Your job is dangerous. I worry about you.”

  Her heart softened despite her anger. That right there was why she’d always had problems holding this guy at her normal arm’s length. He’d be a complete jerk, and then turn around and say something that made it so she couldn’t hate him. She couldn’t hate the guy for caring, but she wasn’t going to get sucked into his vortex again. She took a large step back from him.

  The breath he’d been holding whooshed out.

  “Seth, it’s not your job to worry about me anymore. We broke up eight months ago and this is a good example as to why. You’re a great guy, but you’re not going to be my great guy. You and I never would have worked together. You need someone to heed your beck and call. That isn’t me and never will be me. You need to move on—”

  Her LiFT cell phone rang. She ran a hand through her bed-head hairstyle and closed her eyes in surrender. This wasn’t going to be a good day, was it?

  “Shadowfox,” she answered, since it was her work phone.

  “I need you to come in. There’s been an attempt on the firefighter’s life.” It was her boss, Daniel.

  Her heart stuttered to a halt, before taking off again at a gallop. “Mudflap? Is he okay?”

  She saw Seth’s eyes narrow, but turned away from him so he wouldn’t distract her.

  “Not Mudflap. His partner, Grant Simpson, the one who was hurt in the fire.”

  Her knees gave way and she slumped against the counter. She couldn’t examine why the relief was so incredibly overwhelming right now.

  “I need you in here as soon as possible, Shadowfox.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.” As she turned off her cell phone, she ignored Seth’s direct, hardened gaze. “I need you to leave. I have to go to work.”

  He crossed his arms, which he knew emphasized his bulk and muscles. It felt like a threat to her especially when combined with the mutinous glare in his eye. She lost her patience. Her heartbeat was still too erratic from the scare of thinking that Mudflap was hurt or worse.

  “Get out, Seth!” She glanced down to her empty hand. The knife she had before had been put down when she answered her phone. Instead, she pulled the switchblade out of the drawer in front of her. She flipped it open which locked the blade into place. It was a deadly, wicked looking 9” blade and she wouldn’t think twice about using it.

  Seth knew enough about her knife play to know that she could nail him in the balls from where she stood. “I’m not playing your games anymore. I thought we could be friends, but obviously I was wrong. I don’t want to see you anymore and if I find out you’re watching me again, I will cut off your balls.”

  He raised his hands in surrender as he began to slowly back out of the room toward the front door. “Okay, calm down, Shanae. I’ll go for right now, but we aren’t through here.” He closed the door behind him.

  She thunked her head on the countertop. Damn, it was seriously going to be one of those days.

  Game 3 Results:

  Texas Tech (19): 44

  vs.

  University of Arkansas: 28

  Week 4: Sometimes a Substitution is Needed

  Mudflap

  Mudflap opened his front door, puzzled to find his brother, TC, standing there in the hazy morning light just starting to filter over the horizon.

  “Surprise!” TC grinned as he shouldered past Mudflap who stood shocked in the doorway. “Guess who your new roommate is.”

  “Um, what?” Mudflap shut the door and frowned at the duffle bag
that TC carried. “No.”

  Derek stumbled into the living room rubbing his sleep-worn face. He looked confused and sleepy as he dropped onto the couch, watching them warily.

  Mudflap gestured toward Derek. “That’s my roommate and besides, don’t you have a job, you know, with the Kansas City Chiefs?”

  TC gave him a shit-eating grin. “That was my former job. I resigned yesterday after the game.”

  “What?” Mudflap exclaimed.

  TC just kept grinning. “As of last night, my new job is head coach of the Texas Tech football team.”

  That little statement even woke Derek out of his stupor as his eyes widened.

  “No way.” Disbelief stuttered through Mudflap. This was shocking and in a much bigger way than having his brother as head coach. In Lubbock, the football personnel were considered family. To have the current coach suddenly leave was a serious blow for the entire town. “What happened to Coach Porter?”

  TC’s grin finally faded a bit. “I’m not really sure. The only thing I know is that he resigned because of personal issues, but I have no idea what that really means. So, where would you like me to throw my stuff?” He began walking down the hall, toward the bedrooms.

  Mudflap stopped mid-stride. “Wait. What?”

  “Mudflap.” TC sounded exasperated, but from where Mudflap sat, he couldn’t see why TC thought he could just move in. “Listen, you know where the Tech football program is this year. They have a good shot at going all the way to the National Championship. I can’t come in here and screw that up. I need to be able to concentrate on football and only football. It’s just for a couple of months. I’ll find a house after football season is over, but until then, I need a place to crash. This is a four bedroom house so you have room for me. You aren’t gonna be the one to throw the Tech football program into jeopardy are you?”

  Hell, how could he argue with that? “Fine, but you’re going to be sleeping on a lumpy futon, because that’s all that’s left.”

  “No worries. I’ll just have my bed delivered here.” And TC walked down the hall like he owned the place.

  Mudflap looked over at Derek who asked, “Want me to make coffee?”

  “Hell, yes. Lots of it.” He glanced over at the clock. He had to get to the fire station for work and he needed to check on Grant, who’d miraculously survived the attempt on his life, but was still in a coma. Life had gotten incredibly complicated over the last few weeks.

  How exactly had he gone to having his own place to living with two other guys in three months? Fuck, at this rate, his place was going to be like a frat house by the end of the year.

  Shanae

  Later that morning, Shanae held a death grip on her coffee cup, daring anyone to take her caffeine from her today. She’d take them out with a stir-stick if she had to. She knew how to do that. Having to function on so little sleep made her feral.

  When she stepped into the war room, the frenetic energy was even more crazy than normal. Her boss, Daniel, immediately saw her as she walked in and waved her over to the table where most of the rest of her team was already sitting. “Sit down and I’ll give you a quick briefing. Then you all have a new job to report in to.”

  She glanced around the table, but most everyone looked as confused as she felt as she took her seat.

  Daniel began, “We’ve had several developments over the last twenty-four hours and we have our analysts trying to connect the dots, but right now things are very sketchy. First, there was an attempt on the life of the firefighter who’s currently in a coma from the cotton gin fire. We don’t know if the two things are related or not, but we’re moving forward on the assumption that they are since the fire was the first incident tying ALT to the current situation.”

  He turned toward Shanae. “His partner, Mudflap Davidson, was there when the attempt was made and is the entire reason why the attempt was thwarted. He has paramedic training and realized his partner was poisoned via his IV. Mudflap also saw the person who administered the drug and he is still at large, so I need you to watch for any threats. His life could also be in danger.”

  Daniel pushed a button and a police sketch flickered on the screen of the assailant.

  A ball of dread built in the pit of Shanae’s stomach. She didn’t like the idea of Mudflap in danger. She hadn’t seen him since their date, but that hadn’t kept her from constantly thinking and obsessing about him and where their night might have gone if she hadn’t been called into work.

  “To increase the complications in this case, we have an additional situation. Yesterday morning the head coach of the Texas Tech football program suddenly resigned. He’s been receiving threats from an undisclosed group. He’s been extremely uncooperative with authorities on what exactly those threats entailed, stating he won’t risk the safety of his family. It’s believed he wouldn’t have reported any of it, but he doesn’t want to have to pay the millions of dollars he’ll need to break his contract with Texas Tech. We can’t make him talk, but something or someone has sent this guy running scared to the point where he’s just destroyed an extremely lucrative career. Combined with the increase in terrorist chatter, we’re thinking the incidents are related.”

  Murmurs around the table increased. Living in Lubbock, they all lived and breathed Texas Tech football, especially this season. It was simply the way of life out here, even for transplants. To say this was a surprise was putting it mildly. Shanae had only lived here three months and was surprised at how stunned she felt. She couldn’t imagine how much the true locals must be reeling.

  Quirk asked the question they were all thinking. “Who did Tech name as interim coach?”

  Daniel took a deep breath. “There wasn’t an interim coach named. They’ve already hired their permanent replacement, TC Davidson.”

  “Mudflap’s brother?” Shanae wondered why this hadn’t occurred to her. Just the other day they’d been talking about the fact that TC wanted a university football program to coach in Texas. Immediately, she wondered about Mudflap’s reaction to today’s developments. Would he be excited to have his big brother as the coach in a town that practically worshipped at the altar of football?

  He gave a sharp nod. “And the Department of Homeland Security believes the threat has become great enough that as of this morning, Lift EMS is the new ambulance and paramedic contractor for the Texas Tech football program so that LiFT will be able to provide national security. Boys and girls, if there is activity in the stadium or training field we are there to provide both security and medical services. Keep your eyes and ears open. Loss of life, especially civilian, is unacceptable.”

  And Mudflap’s brother was right in the heart of it which put Mudflap at risk, too. A rock settled into the pit of her stomach. They had to get this case solved quickly.

  Halftime Texting

  Shanae: I have two cookies: one is a snickerdoodle, one is a chocolate chip.

  Mudflap: Okay, that’s just mean when I haven’t eaten lunch yet.

  Shanae: It’s a test. If I offer you one, which one do you take?

  Mudflap: You’re testing me?

  Shanae: Yes, now answer the question.

  Mudflap: I’d take the snickerdoodle.

  Shanae: Good answer, but why?

  Mudflap: I have sisters. I know better than to get between a girl and her chocolate.

  Mudflap: Did I pass?

  Shanae: With flying colors.

  Pause…

  Mudflap: You weren’t just teasing about the cookies, right? I really am hungry.

  Mudflap

  Even with all the craziness at his house, Mudflap made it to the fire station with five minutes to spare before his shift started. He still couldn’t believe his brother was the new head coach of the Texas Tech football team. It didn’t appear like the hits were going to stop anytime soon since the captain hollered at him as soon as he cleared the front door.

  When he stepped into the office, he immediately snapped to attention at the sight of the Army
colonel standing beside his captain. Old habits didn’t die.

  The man murmured a quiet, “At ease,” and Mudflap’s muscles loosened.

  His captain grinned, “Damn, Davidson, why don’t you snap to like that for me?”

  A chagrined smile spread across his face. “Sorry, Captain. The Army spent a lot of time training that into me. It’s just automatic.”

  Mudflap looked curiously at the colonel waiting patiently to the side of the captain’s desk. All the insignia on his uniform was unfamiliar with the exception of the colonel’s rank.

  The fire captain made the introductions. “This is Colonel Barr.”

  The man stepped forward and reached his hand out to shake Mudflap’s hand.

  The captain continued, “And this is Mudflap Davidson.”

  Mudflap shook his hand and gave a slight nod with his respectful, “Sir.”

  “He needs to talk to you. Come in and sit down and I’ll leave you to it,” the captain instructed, as he strode toward the doorway.

  When the door clicked behind him, Mudflap turned back toward the colonel who had made himself at home at the captain’s desk.

  The colonel opened a file which sat before him on the desk. “Mr. Davidson, our records show you served as a sniper with the Army for eight years, and you were highly decorated before your honorable discharge.”

  Mudflap simply nodded trying to figure out what was going on here.

  “I’ve been sent here by the Department of Defense to recruit your help on a tenuous situation we’ve had come up here in Lubbock. You’ve been chosen for this job because of your exceptional record, skills, and your unique standing within the Lubbock community. This is a sensitive situation and anything I tell you about it needs to be held in the strictest of confidence.”

  Again, Mudflap just nodded, becoming more confused and concerned about what the colonel was building up to.

  “We’ve discussed the situation with the Lubbock Fire Department and they’ve agreed to allow you to take a paid leave of absence while you work this issue for us. That’s assuming you agree to the job, which is where we’re at right now. I can’t tell you more until I have your agreement to work for us.” The colonel looked to Mudflap for some sort of response.