Tightrope [Black Ops Brotherhood 6] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Bella Juarez

  “Friend,” she said as she walked to the table, picked up her duty belt, and wrapped it around her waist. She noticed Schotzie’s behavior turn from tense vigilance to curiosity. Knowing the dog wouldn’t move without a verbal or hand command, she glanced behind her as she fastened the belt and said, “You can pet her now.”

  Kneeling down, he gave the big dog some much-appreciated affection evident by the way she smiled and wagged her tail. It surprised her at how relaxed Schotzie seemed to be around him. It was unusual for her to warm up to anyone that quick. She couldn’t resist sneaking a peek at him petting her dog and saw he’d lost the appearance of an inexperienced adolescent and something more powerful had taken its place. There were the barest beginnings of laugh lines around his eyes and creases in his brow—marks of experiences far beyond those of most of his peers. And the five o’clock shadow added to his raw, vital, downright sexy aura. She shivered as she imagined the feel of that scruff against her sensitive throat.

  “She’s beautiful, Rio. What’s her name?”

  “Schotzie.” She tapped her thigh. “Are you ready? Come on, girl, time to go to work.” She turned her attention back to Dan. “Let’s go to the station, so I can pick up a vehicle, and I’ll follow you out to the place you saw them.”

  When he didn’t answer, she paused and turned to face him directly to see him staring at her. She glanced down at herself.

  What? Have I grown a third eye or something? This is a clean uniform. What the hell is he staring at?

  Still on his knees and petting her dog, the intensity of his gaze made her clear her throat with nervous tension. The sight of him on his knees made her blush as a slow warmth spread from her belly to the juncture of her thighs. As he stood, she noticed the sudden bulge behind the zipper of his jeans and realized her panties were damp. She tore her gaze from his cock and looked at his face.

  Oh. My. God.

  Danny was more than undressing her with his eyes. This was an outright eye-fuck that sent her straight into sexual overload. She had visions of ripping off his clothes to see if the muscles that filled his sleeves were as enticing when uncovered. She’d bet her next paycheck that he had a set of abs that would make a woman drop her panties in the blink of an eye—or one crook of his finger.

  The sudden image of her running her fingers through his thick black hair as he ate her pussy while on his knees in front of her made her clench her fists. Her arousal rose to the point of being almost unbearable. The profound sexual vibes he put off made her heart beat faster, and she struggled to remember why he’d come here in the first place. Taking a deep breath, she fought to get her racing heart and hormones under control. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Ever vigilant, Schotzie gave a playful bark that brought them out of their lustful trance.

  * * * *

  As Rio slid into her Jeep, she took a minute to reset her brain cells. She glanced at his truck as she inhaled and noticed he had someone else with him. Someone’s been waiting out here all along? WTF? She remembered her devastation when Dan took another girl to his first prom. The entire time in high school, he’d filled her every waking moment. She swore then she would not get wrapped up in dreams that wouldn’t go anywhere, certainly not about a guy who would leave her again when he went back to wherever he came from. Once alone in her vehicle and not thinking with her pussy, she realized being so busy with work and volunteering at the animal shelter consumed her. By the time she arrived at the station, she wanted to get this over with as soon as possible and avoid Danny for the rest of the time he was home on leave.

  After he gave her directions to the location where he’d first seen the men, Danny told her that he’d been out shooting some pictures near one of the canyons when he saw some suspicious activity from people who looked as if they didn’t belong there. It agitated her to see he’d brought a friend with him on this venture. At least it’s a guy.

  Needing to get a grip on her teenage angst she shook her head and focused on the task ahead of her. She radioed her location, and stepped out of the vehicle. She immediately noted the acrid scent of burning wood. Any open fire concerned her because the tinderbox dry desert and winds that swept through it this time of year could cause an uncontrolled fire and be a huge problem. She checked her weapon and looked in the direction of the scent as Danny and his friend approached.

  “They sure as hell aren’t trying to hide, are they?” Danny being so close caused more tension than she needed right now. They made her aggravation worse when she saw they were armed.

  “You guys need to get back to your vehicle.”

  “Little girl, those guys have AK-47s. Why don’t you let the big boys handle this?” Danny’s friend said.

  Excuse me?

  “Say what?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

  Who the hell does he think he is? Navy or no navy, they don’t have the first clue about dealing with people illegally crossing an international border. I ought to arrest this smartass right now.

  Rio turned and readied herself to slap the cuffs on Friday when she caught Danny looking at her again. The smoldering look he gave her forced her to look away.

  Why the hell does he keep looking at me like that—a straight-up eye-fuck? Focus Rio, focus.

  “Friday, stand down, will you? We can’t do anything unless we’re defending ourselves, remember?” Danny said looking away from her.

  “Bullshit, I’m not standing by and letting these bastards invade my country. Look at her,” Dan’s friend said, pointing in her direction. “What the hell can she do by herself?”

  That tears it.

  Rio’s bearing completely changed. She seemed to grow another foot. Her eyes, normally a deep, warm brown, turned ice cold and glittered like polished obsidian. She’d taken down bigger, more dangerous men in her career. Taking him down wouldn’t be easy, but she had something he didn’t—Schotzie. She left no question that the dog would maim or kill on command. This asshole would be down before he realized what hit him. Easy or bloody—his choice.

  She knew how to get her point across with a look and her body language. When she moved into Friday’s space, she noted his first reaction was defensive and he frowned. He stepped back as she advanced until she had him up against her patrol vehicle. Schotzie, still inside the vehicle, sensed the tension and growled. He turned around to look through the window and came face-to-face with the snarling German shepherd. Friday’s posture and startled look made it clear she held the upper hand, and he knew it. She left no question in his mind she’d open the door and let her dog out. Nearly a full head taller than she, Rio got right up into his face and when she spoke, her voice was low and frigid.

  “Back off, big boy. This is my job and I can handle it.”

  Danny’s friend nodded. She didn’t take her eyes off Friday as Danny whispered close enough to her that she felt his breath on her ear. “Rio, we’re here to help if you need it. There are three of them. Be careful.”

  Rio stepped back to allow Friday to move away from the vehicle. She turned to Danny and cocked her head in the other man’s direction.

  “Keep him in check.”

  Danny’s nearness messed with her head. She wrestled her focus back to the job at hand as she walked around, took out a shotgun from the back, and let Schotzie out of the vehicle. When Danny’s breath touched her ear, it sent vibrations straight to her pussy and almost put her over the edge. She’d get herself killed if she didn’t get away from him. If these guys were carrying AK-47s, she didn’t have the leeway of a missed shot, and with Danny distracting her every time she looked at him, she just might miss. She looked in the direction of the glow in the distance and considered her strategy.

  “Schotzie, heel,” she said as she walked away from her vehicle.

  Finding some brush for cover, she observed the three men sitting around eating. They kept their guns close, and she couldn’t see a scout looking for any signs of trouble. Something about them seemed out of plac
e, so she watched them closer, observing their habits. As she listened, she had a difficult time making out the conversation because they weren’t speaking Spanish. Her concentration shattered when Danny and Friday caught up to her. Aw, hell! This is the last thing I need.

  “We’re just here for backup, trust us,” Dan whispered.

  The way he said trust us, warmed her, and she knew he’d protect her if she got into any serious trouble. But she couldn’t allow them to get involved. If one of them got hurt, she’d be in a shitload of trouble. Never mind the problem of military interdiction on US soil. Not wanting to risk giving away her position by ordering them back to the vehicles, she turned her attention back to the task at hand.

  People could be unpredictable, and making initial contact was the most dangerous part of her job. She stood and walked toward the camp, called out to them informing them she was CBP, and ordered them facedown on the ground. When the men scrambled for their weapons, she knew this would turn into a clusterfuck, and she had to do something to minimize the damage as quickly as possible.

  “Go left!” she called to her dog

  She took out the one closest to the weapons first. Then, firing low, she peppered two sets of legs with buckshot. They fell to their knees as the buckshot splattered everything in its path. They didn’t move again. She called Schotzie away as Danny and Friday moved in to cover the men as she radioed for medical support. While she waited for the CBP STAR unit to arrive, she searched the campsite and found a few backpacks. Searching the backpacks turned up something she hadn’t seen since she’d left the military.

  “What the hell is this?” She removed the object from the backpack. The second she recognized it, her blood ran cold.

  No, they hadn’t been speaking Spanish. They were speaking Arabic. She had taken down three likely Middle-Eastern terrorists in possession of a bona fide WMD. Rio knew exactly what she held, a portable electronic magnetic pulse weapon or EMP device. Even though it was small enough to fit in a regular backpack, the device had the potential to take out anything with a microchip—nowadays that meant anything from airplanes to doorbells. For all intents and purposes, all infrastructure that made up modern life would all come to a grinding halt if this weapon or one like it deployed from an aircraft. Terrorists didn’t need to fly aircraft into buildings, they could crash them with the release of a pin from a canister the size of a beer can. If these men had a chance to deploy these weapons, it could plunge the entire southwestern United States back into the Stone Age.

  “Fuck me,” Danny murmured.

  Rio sharply turned her head in his direction. By his alarmed expression, he knew exactly what she held in her hand.

  “What?” she asked.

  Danny didn’t answer her directly. “Friday, get Rock on the line. We’ve got a big problem.”

  Rio heard another CBP agent radio that he was on his way to assist. “Go put your weapons away and get back to your vehicle.”

  “Why?” Friday asked.

  “Because if you don’t I’ll throw your ass in jail for interfering in my arrest.”

  “Come on, Friday, let her do her job,” Danny said, leading his friend away.

  * * * *

  Within an hour, Rio had returned to the station. When she searched the rest of the suspects’ belongings she found two more of those devices. Obviously, these weren’t run-of-the-mill detainees.

  The commander of the CBP station sat back in his chair and shook his head.

  “If you want time off, all you need to do is ask,” he said.

  “Felix, I had no choice.”

  “I know, but this time, I have no choice, either. I’ll have to put you on leave pending an investigation. That’s twice in less than a week you’ve fired your weapon.”

  “I understand,” she said.

  While they were in the middle of discussing her report and impending leave, Linda, Felix’s assistant, stepped into the office.

  “What is it, Linda?” her boss asked.

  “Special Agent Gavin Walsh from the FBI is on the phone for you, Felix. He says it’s urgent. He needs to talk with you immediately.”

  “FBI? What the hell do they want with me?” he asked with a frown.

  Rio left her boss to his phone call and went back to her tiny cubicle to finish up the paperwork needed to hold these men until Tucson decided how they wanted this handled. She knew it would be useless to try to question them.

  “Van!” Rio called.

  “What’s up, Lil’ bit?” CBP Van McKay asked.

  The nickname made her smile. It didn’t matter how far she advanced in the chain of command, she and Van had grown up together in Bisbee. To him she would always be Lil’bit.

  “How’s your Arabic?” Rio asked.

  “Still passable, why?”

  “Can you take a drive up to the hospital in Sierra Vista and figure out who those guys are that I brought in?”

  “Sure thing. I thought they were Guatemalan? Why would they speak Arabic?” McKay asked as he leaned against the opening in her cubical.

  “Jensen! McKay!” Felix called out.

  Wheeling her chair backward, she poked her head out. “Yes, sir?”

  “Stop whatever you’re doing and initiate an agency transfer. The FBI’s been looking for these guys, and they’re coming to pick them up.”

  “They haven’t processed, yet. I’ll finish up—”

  “That’s the FBI’s problem. Drop it, and let them handle it.”

  Something about that statement struck her as odd.

  “Yes, sir,” she said, rolling her chair back to her desk.

  As she searched for the electronic forms for an intra-agency detainee transfer on her computer, she figured these guys must’ve hit the system somehow and that’s why—

  Stopped herself in mid-thought, she sat back bewildered. She realized nothing had been started yet because no one knew what to do with the men she’d captured.

  Wait a minute… These guys aren’t in the system yet. Why would the FBI be calling about them?

  The only way the FBI—or any agency for that matter—would know they were here was if their fingerprints had been run through the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System or IAFIS, which the FBI managed. However, with what she’d found, a decision hadn’t been made on how the men would be processed. Rio furrowed her brow in thought as she snatched the phone from her desk and called down to the holding area.

  “Martinez? Have you started processing those guys I brought in? Did anyone fingerprint them to see if we could get a hit from IAFIS?”

  “No, they’re all in the hospital. I’ve been dragging my feet until I hear from you or Felix. I did start going through their belongings,” Martinez said.

  “Did you tag anything and log it in? Did you run the passports we found? Did you run them through any system?”

  “Nope. But, I found a lot of cash and a couple of burn phones.”

  Rio recalled seeing the wad of what looked like hundred-dollar bills. “Okay, thanks.” She hung up the phone and stared at her computer screen.

  We haven’t run their prints yet, and no one has started any paperwork. How the hell did the FBI know we had these guys here?

  She replayed the takedown in her head to try to figure out how anyone other than the people involved would know these men were here. Then it hit her…

  Danny!

  Chapter 5

  St. Elmo’s Tavern

  Bisbee, Arizona

  June 18, 2010/0014 Zulu

  Dan, Friday, and Davey sat back at St. Elmo’s and threw back another round. Leave hadn’t lasted very long because Captain O’Malley had just ordered them to stand by and snoop around while he and the command staff wrapped their heads around this new problem.

  “What does your sister think about all the shit going down around here?” Friday asked glancing at Dan.

  “She’s got her hands full. As soon as she rounds them up, those motherfuckers come right back,” Davey sa
id, taking a sip of his beer.

  Davey smiled at him. He really didn’t want to tell Davey, best friend, that his little sister Rio had become the object of Dan’s dirty mind. Seeing her in a uniform and in action had thrown his libido into overdrive. By the time he got home yesterday, his dick had been hard enough to drive nails. He wanted her to jack him up, like she’d done with Friday when she had him up against her patrol vehicle. He looked at his SEAL buddy with a twinge of jealousy. That fucker had the firsthand pleasure of her sexy growl directed at him and didn’t know what to do with it. Dan would’ve pushed her buttons, forcing her into doing something to him, and her handcuffs would’ve been a great start to his evening.

  “What’s up, man?” Dan asked

  “When I told you to go by and see her, I didn’t mean like that.”

  “I didn’t mean to drop in, like that.”

  “Why don’t you ask her to go to the reunion with you?”

  “Are you going to keep busting my balls about your sister? I remember back in the day you’d kick someone’s ass if they got too close.”

  “They were the wrong guys. The one I trusted hooked up with the school bimbo.”

  “Fuck you,” Dan said, leaning back and looking away.

  “Jesus Christ, Danny.” Davey shook his head. “Everybody saw it but you. Rio’s been in love with you since high school. If you ask me, Sylvia fucked you just to piss her off. That’s the reason why Sylvia broke it off with you. Rio left, and all the fun of screwing around left with her.”

  “No one fucking asked you.” Dan leaned back in his chair.

  “No shit? Is that why you’ve never been able to seriously hook up as much as you’ve tried?” Friday asked with a wide grin.

  “Go to hell, both of you!” Dan said, looking away.

  “Dude… What more do you need? You’ve got the blessing right here. She’s cute, and just the way you like them… Feisty,” Friday said.