by KaLyn Cooper
“Alex, I get threats almost every day.” Her tone called him an idiot. “My PR staff handles all that. If it looks serious, they bump it up to Ivee. If she thinks I’m genuinely in danger, she talks to the security on the lot where we’re filming.” She sniffed. “But we won’t be filming for at least a week. Maybe two. Jon got so banged up in the accident. If it was an accident.”
Jon was obviously in the same movie as Jae. Alex would have time on the flight to check him out. In the meantime, he was relieved that her on-site security had been notified, but he had to clarify. “So, this Ivee person believes this is a viable threat and has notified the security chief on the set?”
“Hell, no! Ivee doesn’t know anything about these pictures. I’d be so embarrassed if she, or anyone else, ever saw them. I’m completely naked.” Jae screamed the last three words.
“Breathe with me, Jae. Suck in a deep breath, fill your lungs.” Alex inhaled deeply as well. “Now, let it out slowly.” He demonstrated two more times. “Feel better?”
“Yes. You always know how to calm me down.” In a sultry voice, she added, “And rev me up. I’m looking forward to spending time with you again. I’ve missed you, Alejandro.”
At hearing his childhood name, he realized they had changed to English at some point. “Jae, you know I go by Alex Wolf now, so when talking to my men be sure to use Alex. In public, I always called you JJ, just as you’ve asked. We aren’t those scared little kids from the hood anymore.”
“But in private, I will call you Alejandro.” She purred. “Especially while I’m riding you and I scream your name while I—”
“There won’t be any of that,” he quickly interjected. “I’m engaged.”
She giggled. “Engaged means you’ve promised to marry her, whoever the lucky bitch is. It doesn’t mean you have to be monogamous. We can still have a little fun.”
“Jael Jimena Martinez, you know me better than that.” He hoped she heard the warning in his voice. If he had to fight off her advances, he would pass her on to one of his men and go to one of his other centers. He was too old to play her games…and Katlin still had monogamy fears. He wouldn’t stray anyway. He loved her too much.
Changing the subject, Alex asked, “What makes you think this stalker tried to kill Jon?”
“Ten minutes after Jon dropped me off this morning, he was in a hit-and-run accident.” Jae’s voice sounded more in control. “He’s banged up really bad, to the point that we have to stop shooting for at least two weeks. The promoters are having shit-fits because they can’t shoot around him.”
She rattled on about the movie as he efficiently repacked his bag. He had everything he needed at each of his ten locations, from black utilities to tuxedos, underwear to bathing suits. Alex had learned to always be prepared, but he always carried a few changes of clothes, comfortable shoes, and combat boots.
Tuning back in, he heard her say, “It looks like your man is beeping in. The caller ID says Guardian Security. Hold on while I check.”
Thank Christ. She would be safe and he would be there soon.
“Yep. That was your guy.” Relief and excitement were evident in her voice.
“Good. I’ll be there when you wake up.” Bag in hand, he headed for the door.
“Are you going to kiss me good morning?” She teased. “And wake me up the right way?”
“No. Engaged. Remember that. Try to get some sleep.” He hung up on her before she could try to tempt him again. Her solicitations were already getting old.
2
Katlin Callahan left the door open to her assigned suite at the newly renovated U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, just as she’d done for the past week. It was an open invitation to join her should her teammates feel the need to talk…like usual.
Kicking off the three-inch stilettos on the way into her bedroom, she unfastened the custom-designed wide silver belt. Its wire edges could become a garrote and the large blue and white sapphire studded buckle hid her throwing stars. In one lithe move, she stripped out of the formal gown and rolled it into a tight ball before tossing it into her duffel bag. The navy-blue dress was one of her favorites but would definitely need dry cleaning after the night’s activities.
She hadn’t been arm candy in a Middle Eastern country in years and had forgotten that gentlemen of power in that area of the world loved their cigars. She hated the smell that her skin and hair absorbed. Unstrapping the thigh holster hidden all evening by the fluid movement of the dress, she took the small Kimber with her into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She always had a weapon within reach. Always.
Her soapy fingers ran over the titanium necklace holding her beautiful engagement ring. Sliding it through her index finger to look at it more closely, warmth filled Katlin at the thought of Alex. She was so lucky to have such a wonderful man. He’d personally selected the white diamonds on either side of the large blue diamond that had been a gift from her father to her mother.
She hoped her relationship with Alex would be as long and loving as her parents had shared for nearly thirty-five years before her mother was killed in a car accident. Her beloved father had joined her in heaven four years ago. She missed them both every day.
Chain still attached, she slid the engagement ring onto her left hand and admired it there. She never wore it while on a mission, but the moment they landed on U.S. soil, she always slipped it back where it belonged.
She wondered what Alex was doing. Before leaving, she’d memorized his schedule. As the managing partner of Guardian Security, the company they owned together, he traveled between the ten centers. Although he hated micromanagement, Alex made it a point to drop into each office every few weeks. That was, unless he and his Guardian Elite team were acting as backup for the Black Swans or on a covert mission for USSOCOM.
Given the time difference, Katlin decided to log onto her untraceable computer and shoot Alex an email before she fell asleep. She cherished the thought of waking up to a return message from him. Damn. She missed him.
Fifteen minutes later, her hair wrapped in a towel, wearing nothing but a cotton camisole with matching sleep shorts, she wandered back into the living room where her teammates already congregated. They, too, were dressed for bed, wineglasses already in hand. Katlin inwardly smiled. This was her team being real. They were no longer performing as active duty military and agents of Homeland Security. These women were her friends.
“I don’t know about you, but I need this.” After handing Katlin a glass of her favorite Riesling, Grace released the towel holding her shoulder-length auburn hair and started brushing through the tangles. “I really hate cigar smoke. Thank goodness Griffin doesn’t like them,” she said, referring to her fiancé.
“Right there with you.” She clinked glasses with her second-in-command then they filled empty seats on the couch.
“Tell me again, why the fuck are we even here?” Nita, the team’s doctor and Katlin’s sister-in-law, bit out. “I know we’re trained agents and running backup for Jonathan’s team, but in the week we’ve been here, I haven’t picked up a single piece of good, reliable intel. We need to be outside of this Embassy talking to people. Doing what we do best…tracking down a terrorist. I am so over being attached to Josh’s side.”
“Yeah, me too.” Tori poured more red wine into her glass. “And can I just state for the record that somebody needs to tell Kurt to lay off the aftershave and use more antiperspirant. That guy sweats like a double agent under CIA interrogation.”
“Do you think he’s a mole?” Katlin asked flatly. Intelligence agencies infiltrated each other on a regular basis. Since all the women in that room worked for Homeland Security, Kurt could be a spy from the CIA, the FBI, or from some other nation’s version of an alphabet agency. Handlers had tried to flip her several times, unsuccessfully of course.
“No, I just think he needs more training.” Tori took a sip before she continued. “Homeland doesn’t offer, or require, the kind of interpersonal skills training
we received at the CIA. He’s actually very awkward in social settings. He’s much more comfortable in desert utilities and combat boots than a tuxedo.”
After Katlin’s team had successfully completed the All-Female Joint Service Special Operations School which trained them the same way as Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, and Marine Raiders, they were then sent to the CIA for additional undercover training. Her team, the Ladies of Black Swan, were the most lethal women on the planet.
“I agree. I sat across from Kurt at the dinner and noticed he was always the last one to pick up a utensil and eat, yet often the first one finished,” Lei Lu added. “I’ll admit, when we sat down at the table tonight and there were seven forks, five knives, and two spoons flanking the dinner plate in addition to five more utensils above the plate, I got a little worried.”
Katlin laughed. “I was wondering why we needed five glasses.” She shrugged. “But we used every one of them.”
Nita rolled her eyes. “How many different ways can they serve lamb? Oh, let’s count the ways.”
“Let’s not.” Lei Lu insisted. “But I really liked the way the chef cooked the kibbeh.”
“It’s pretty hard to fuck up ground meat with rice and spices,” Nita noted. “Somebody needs to introduce the cook to chocolate. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like fruit, but I’m over dates in every dessert. I’ve seriously thought about slipping over to the French Embassy for a Napoleon.”
“Good Lord, don’t even mention dates. I swear, they sneak them into every meal.” Grace shook her head. “The oatmeal at breakfast has dates in it, the fruit at lunch had dates mixed in, and the biscuits at high tea had bits of them. Eating here at the embassy, you don’t need a probiotic or a laxative. And Nita, I’ll be more than happy to sneak over to the French Embassy with you, but it might be easier to get into the Swiss Embassy.”
Katlin purposefully turned the conversation toward business. “Did anyone get any new intel tonight?” Although their primary mission was to back up Jonathan’s team, they also had a responsibility to uncover new intelligence. The women were experts at divide-and-conquering a room filled with business executives, politicians, and their underlings. “I had to listen to Jonathan drivel on and on about all the wonderful things the United States is doing for Iraq. The fucking idiot doesn’t realize that you learn so much more when you shut your mouth and listen. To hear him talk, you’d think he was on the embassy staff. I tried to get him to talk to some of the new prime minister’s people, but he was more interested in swapping stories about problems in South American countries with the U.S. oil exec. When I tried to walk away from the bastard, he put his arm around me and pulled me in close as though he was about to get to the good information…which he never got around to asking.”
“You and Jonathan are oil and vinegar. It’s so obvious to anyone watching that the two of you are barely tolerant of each other.” Lei Lu wasn’t wrong. Noting so, she would have to step up her game if they were going to fool anyone.
“When I first came to Homeland Security, human resources divided the women up and assigned them to existing all-male teams.” Katlin didn’t believe she was telling them anything they didn’t already know, but sometimes it was best to remind people of the past. “I was put on a team with Jonathan, but he wasn’t a leader then. He’s still a misogynistic asshole. That hasn’t changed. He believes our role tonight is the extent of our abilities. We are to be beautiful women who hang on every word, making the man look good.”
“Has the pompous ass come up with anything about the new Iranian-backed Hezbollah leader, yet?” Tori asked. “I overheard a conversation that none of the new government officials are welcome in the northern areas because that’s still strongly controlled by the Islamic State, even though they don’t have a new leader. Not new information, but confirmation of what we heard the other day.”
“Fuck. We were told at our in-brief that there are certain streets right here in Baghdad that are controlled by the Shiites and we’re supposed to stay the fuck away,” Nita pointed out.
“I don’t believe the right hand knows what the left hand is doing,” Katlin surmised. “Since the Prime Minister has only been in office a few months, he hasn’t gained control of the entire country, yet.” She smiled. “But he will. He used to be the Intelligence Chief for the previous administration and before that he was in the Counterterrorism Service. He didn’t hesitate to pull in U.S. resources.”
“I’m just happy the Secretary of State has decided to take his happy ass back to the United States tomorrow morning.” Tori voiced what was on everyone’s mind.
“Hear, hear.” Katlin raised her glass in a toast, and everyone followed suit. Although he’d arrived with his own bodyguards, and the State’s version of special operators, the surprise visit had complicated their mission. No locals were going to openly speak of Shiite terrorists surrounded by that much heavy metal.
They heard deep male voices in the hallway. Jonathan’s team was also billeted in the area, but they’d have to go out of their way to be at this end of the hall.
Tori, who was closest to the door, raised an eyebrow. Katlin nodded once and her friend gently closed the door. Not soon enough, though.
At the knock, Jonathan yelled through the crack. “Katlin, you still up?”
Tori stood and opened the door but did not invite the men in. “It’s late, gentlemen. What do you need?”
The men gawked.
“If you’re going have a pillow fight, can we watch?” Will asked as his gaze swept the room of scantily clad women.
“No,” all five women said in disgust at the same time.
“We were enjoying a glass of wine before we were rudely interrupted.” Katlin didn’t get up, simply stared death daggers at the men crowding the doorway. “Was there a purpose to this late-night visit?”
Smugly, Jonathan stepped forward. “I got a line on the new Hezbollah leader. We are going to head up to Kirkuk and check it out.” The shit-eating grin he gave her made her skin crawl. “We’ll understand if you want to stay here rather than rough it for a few days. I could check with operations and see if there’s a Four Seasons or Hilton Hotel anywhere close, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
Katlin seethed but held her tongue. She was quite sure she’d spent more time in a tent eating from an open fire or tiny cookstove than Jonathan. Secondly, where and when had he gotten this mysterious new lead? They had separated in opposite directions at the elevator, both supposedly headed to bed.
“That’s got to be two-hundred and fifty miles north.” Lei Lu reached for her computer which was never far away. She was the team’s tech guru, a genius when it came to the keys.
“You jumping on Expedia to make hotel reservations?” Kyle chided. He used to be one of the good guys but had obviously been hanging around with Jonathan far too long.
Lei Lu looked up and smiled, “Did anybody leave anything back in Tikrit that we need to stop and pick up?” She looked at Katlin. “Maybe we need to check on our handiwork?”
“Fuck. No.” Nita couldn’t keep the acid out of her voice. During a mission a few years ago, she’d been captured and tortured in that small Iraqi town.
“I wouldn’t go within twenty-five miles of that place without a Geiger counter.” Tori shuddered. “When we blew up that nuclear bomb-making facility, I’m positive it threw radioactive materials for miles.”
“If I remember right,” Katlin’s near-photographic memory pulled up a map of the area. “There’s a more direct route from here to there.” As she thought about Baghdad, though, she suggested, “Check the route through the city first. To get to that main North-South highway, I think we have to go through the Shiite section.”
Jonathan slashed her a condescending glance. “My contact gave me directions.”
Katlin bolted to her feet. “You mean to tell me your contact isn’t going with us?” How fucking dumb could this man be?
“No. He’s got more important shit to do here in Baghdad.
” Jonathan’s eyes raked over her braless and pantyless body.
Katlin didn’t care. He could look all he wanted. He’d never be able to touch her or any woman in that room. She and her teammates would kill him the second he laid a sexual hand on their bodies. Each of them had a man at home, twice the alpha of any man in that doorway.
“What’s this contact’s name? I want to check him out before we jump into vehicles and caravan across the fucking desert for eight hours into bad guy country.” Katlin would simply call her Uncle Tom, the Deputy Director of the CIA. He’d have an answer back to her within hours.
“No need.” Kyle popped off. “I already ran him through Homeland’s system, and he came back as reliable.”
Katlin threw a glance at Lei Lu who immediately understood what she wanted. Backtracking Kyle’s search would be completed before the men were in their rooms.
“Have you checked with the embassy quartermaster for food supply for our little jaunt?” Tori’s forethought had the men shuffling their feet.
“Will,” Jonathan ordered. “Get on that.” The youngest member of his team disappeared from the huddle.
Tori stuck her head out the door. “Hey, Will. You might want to stop by transportation and see if they have an up-armored vehicle to escort us through the city.”
“Good idea.” The words echoed from down the hall.
This wasn’t the first rodeo for the Ladies of Black Swan, but Jonathan’s team seemed rather inexperienced. Not a good sign. Worse, they were not in charge. This was completely Jonathan’s circus.
“How soon do you want to leave?” Katlin and her team could be ready and out the door within the hour.
“In the morning.” Jonathan smiled at her as though he were dealing with a child. “We’ll eat breakfast here at the embassy, then get started.” His smile broadened. “Be sure to get a good night's sleep, ladies. You’re going to need it. I hear the roads around here are rather rough. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” He turned around and walked through his men who followed him down the hall.
