by Karen Anders
“And I commend you, Special Agent Jerrott. We thank you both for an exemplary job in taking the initiative and handling this mission to a successful outcome. A dangerous man is behind bars and will answer for his crimes. Job well done.”
Chris shook his head. “You are unbelievable, Jerrott. As soon as you’re well, get your can back to DC. I don’t want to see you in the office for two weeks, though. Take some time off.”
“Thank you, Beau,” Kirk said. “Kinley, I will see you when you land.”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
Ken powered off the laptop and slipped it back in the case. “I’m ready to take you to the airport whenever you’re ready, Special Agent Cooper.”
She nodded. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”
After Ken left, she cleared her throat and stood there awkwardly, not meeting his gaze. That wasn’t like her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “It’s just a flesh would, but oh, boy, did it hurt.” She lifted up her shirt and he saw the stiches.
“Be careful,” he said softly, “or you’ll end up as battle scarred as me.”
“I consider it a badge of courage.” She smiled.
“So, you’re heading back to Norfolk, now.” He so wanted to tell her how he felt, but with her closed expression, the words died in his throat.
“Yes...Beau...” She wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her mouth over his. She kissed him fiercely, and then let him go. “You are a wonderful, amazing man. Thank you for everything.” She swallowed hard and turned away.
“Kinley.”
“No. We both know it won’t work. You have your job and I have mine. Take care of yourself,” she breathed, her voice thick.
He nodded like an idiot as the woman of his dreams turned away and left, the door shutting quietly with finality after her.
* * *
Maria sat in the plane seat next to her. She would have a new life in the US. Too heartsore to talk, with the pain medication taking some of the sting out of her wound and making her drowsy, she closed her eyes and fell asleep. She woke up as the plane landed. As they made their way through the terminal, both of them were quiet.
Kirk Stafford was waiting at the curb and when he got out of the car to wave to them, he took one look at Maria and got this completely blindsided, shell-shocked look on his face.
He came around the hood and opened the door for her, introducing himself softly and tucking her inside. Then he glanced at Kinley.
“I should have known that sending a SEAL would get the job done, but also stir up a hornet’s nest.”
Just thinking about Beau hurt far worse than her wound or any reprimand Kirk was going to mete out. “Beau doesn’t care about getting stung. He was so focused on getting the job done. He’s...” she had to pause, “...quite persuasive and persistent.”
Kirk shook his head and got into the driver’s seat. He quickly had them back at Naval Station Norfolk where Maria was taken to a conference room with some State Department types. Kinley reassured her that she was in good hands.
Before Maria left, she hugged Kinley hard. “Thank you both for what you have done for me. I will always remember you. Please extend my thanks to Beau as well.”
Kinley accepted her tight hug and then, with tears forming in her eyes, Maria raised her head high and walked off.
“Come on, Cooper. Let’s get you home,” Kirk said.
Kinley walked with him, blinking back the tears that had threatened since she left Beau in the hospital in the Bahamas. She thought she could get away scot-free, but that wasn’t happening. She felt shredded. Devastated. She forced herself to keep walking. It will get better tomorrow. It was exactly how she’d shut down after her father’s death. Every day she told herself the next day would be easier.
And, although the pain dulled over the years, she would always miss her father terribly.
She pushed back the pain, swallowed back the tears, and made sure she was in control as she pushed out of the NCIS Office and slipped into the passenger side of Kirk’s car.
He drove while giving her looks. “You look like hell.”
A wry laughed bubbled out of her. “Thanks.”
“You did a good job. I knew you would,” he said as he pulled up in front of her house and they got out. Kirk followed her up the walk.
Once inside she settled onto the couch in the living room.
Kirk sat across from her. “The DEA has recovered Daniel’s body. They’re sending it to his parents in Spokane, where he’s from. The Cubans are pissed about the covert op, but the DEA is glossing that over and engaging in talks about the Las Espadas. Hopefully they won’t be terrorizing the island or being a conduit for drugs and terrorist drug money in the near future.”
“That is really good news.”
“Daniel’s memorial service is next week. You hereby have leave to attend.”
Her throat spasmed and her chest filled. She covered her eyes with her hand. Kirk made a soothing sound and switched to the couch, sending his arm around her. She leaned into his shoulder. Yeah, he was a guy she could trust and it was shocking how easily that happened. She thought of Beau, her heart breaking. All she had to do was take the risk. Could she?
“I’m sorry. I know this is hard, but I need to tell you.” His voice was sad. “While Daniel was in Cuba, he sent me an email and cc’d his boss.”
“What?” Kirk looked grave through the blur of her tears.
“The email basically laid out the incident that got his partner killed. He took full responsibility and he told us that you took the blame because he let you.”
She couldn’t help the soft sob.
“It exonerates you and your disciplinary action has been revoked, your record expunged. With your performance on this mission, you’re being promoted two ranks. The one you were originally at before the death of Daniel’s partner, and the one you deserve and should have been granted eight months ago.”
She cried harder.
He rubbed her back. “The commandant wants you in DC leading your own team.”
Her head came up and she just stared at Kirk. “What. I...I... Oh, God...I don’t know what to say. He saved me...”
“I know. It was in the report Beau gave to the DEA when he called in about Daniel. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m going to need more time off. I’ve got something I need to do. Visit my father’s grave at Arlington Cemetery. I haven’t been there in a while.”
He nodded. “Take the time you need. You might as well look for an apartment while you’re there.”
She nodded again. “Thank you, Kirk.”
* * *
Beau walked through the halls of the CIA, a visitor’s badge clipped to his shirt. He’d been discharged from the hospital and even though he wasn’t 100 percent, he was following through with his plan.
He didn’t bother to knock at the door to an office marked “Steven J. Giles” before letting himself in.
The man behind the desk looked up with a startled expression on his face. Then he laughed and stood up and laughed again. “Ragin’ Cajun!” he said as he came out from behind the desk and gathered Beau up in a bear hug.
Beau laughed. “Even Steven. Put me down, you moron,” Beau said, using his nickname from the SEALs.
Steven let him go. “I haven’t seen you since we were both discharged. What the hell you been up to?” He punched Beau on the shoulder.
“NCIS.”
“No way! You’re a copper, kicking ass and taking names. I guess you know what I’m doing.”
“Working for the CIA, yeah.”
“Nah, I don’t work for the CIA,” Steven said with a grin. He walked to the door and closed it. “I’m no spook.”
“Right.”
“What brings you here?” He sat on the edge of his desk as Beau settled into a chair.
“High Value Target List.”
The smile faded from Steven’s face.
“What number?”
“Two.”
“You’re kidding!”
“Kaamil ‘The Assassin’ el Ajeer, the leader of Sons of the Republic.”
“The CIA has been after him for a long time, over fifteen years, but he’s been elusive, a real ghost. But if you know where he is...”
Beau sat back and folded his arms.
“I don’t like that look.”
“Remember in BUD/S when you were working your ass up over that damn wall during PT?” Beau leaned forward. “You know, the one where you almost gave up and rang out?”
Even Steven rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, geez.”
He’d gotten his nickname because the man was fanatical about paying his debts, keeping everything even. Beau had told him he’d collect someday. “I was that grunt who grabbed your hand and hauled your ass through that obstacle course. It’s time to pay the piper.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to go after him.”
“What the... Are you crazy? The CIA won’t sanction a former SEAL and current NCIS agent a pass to go wherever el Ajeer is and take him down.”
Beau rose. “All right, then I’ll find a way myself.”
Even grabbed his arm. “Wait! Dammit, Ragin’, you’re putting me in a tough place.”
“I need to take this guy down.”
“Why?”
“It’s personal. He’s got one of our tridents.”
Even stiffened, his brows folding down and outrage lighting his eyes. “Whose?”
“Paul Cooper’s.”
“Oh, yeah. Killed in London. Hey, he has a daughter...Kinley. She’s about...um, twenty-eight. A real looker I hear.” He gave him a sly grin. “You dog.”
“It’s not like that. She deserves to have closure on this.”
“Oh, man, this is personal. Look, I could lose my job over this.”
“Steven, we’re in, we snatch-and-grab and we’re out.” He rubbed at his forehead. “What do you say? You in?”
Steven laughed and shook his head, putting his hand up for Beau to slap. “Yeah, Ragin’, I’m all in.”
* * *
Kinley stood at her father’s grave in Arlington Cemetery in DC, the second grave she’d visited in the past two days. Fog misted over the gravestones almost like it was paying homage to her father. She liked that as she not only had made peace with his death, but with the fog that had sheltered her and saved her life.
Daniel had been laid to rest with his family and friends attending. It was a large turnout. Kinley made her peace with his death, but was still struggling over what he had done for her.
She had thought that the pain of saying goodbye to Beau would have diminished by now, but it hadn’t. She was still raw, missing him terribly.
She knelt down in the grass and set the dozen roses on his grave. “Hi, Daddy,” she said softly. “I haven’t been here in some time and I’m sorry about that. I thought staying away and trying to block out everything would make it easier. But, of course, I was wrong.”
She rose and finally let the pain go. Let it drift over his grave and fly away on the wind. Beau. He was responsible for this. She had to be accountable for her own inner guidance. Everything she needed was deep inside her. She’d run a mission with a tough former SEAL and kept up with him. Not only had she learned to trust him, but more importantly, she had learned to trust herself.
He made her feel so safe. She closed her eyes. She looked across the full expanse of Arlington Cemetery, remembering what Beau had said about handling fear. Admitting it took away its power. She wanted to do that because she wanted to overcome this fear. Beau’s office wasn’t far from here. It was her next stop.
Suddenly, without warning, strong arms encircled her from behind. She didn’t have to turn around to discover who it was. The memory of his scent was locked deep inside her.
Beau.
He breathed in deep, sending waves of shivers down her spine and over her skin.
“Miss me?” he said hotly against her ear.
She turned in his arms. “Yes, and you know it.”
He grinned and took a deep breath. “Back in Cuba, I made a big mistake. I thought that it wouldn’t change your mind to tell you how I feel about you. To tell you that from the moment I met you, I have been feeling you here.” He placed his hand over his heart. “I thought that I couldn’t say anything that would affect you and make you want to take a risk with me unless you already wanted to. But I was wrong. SEALs don’t give up and I didn’t even try.”
He pressed his forehead to hers. “I found a name for the last link in my chain.” He pushed up his sleeve and Kinley’s throat got so thick and tight. Her name was etched into his skin, still rough and swollen from the recent application of red ink.
“It’s you, chérie, for being my world.” Tears spilled down her cheeks and he rubbed at them with both thumbs. “I love you, Kinley. Enough to risk my heart again. Enough that the pain of living without you and saying nothing was something I couldn’t live with.”
“Oh, Beau, I was so afraid of losing someone else that I used my job as a barrier with every man I met. Just when I thought I could maybe let go, Daniel betrayed me. It wasn’t until you came along and opened me up and showed me that it was worth it.” She kissed his mouth, pressing her lips against his, that sense of urgency subsiding.
“You helped me to not only make peace with my father’s death, but you helped me to make peace with myself, to trust myself. I love you, too, Beau.”
He pulled something out of his pocket. The gold of it caught the light and she recognized it right away. Her breath caught.
“You’re giving me your trident? Beau...”
“No, it’s not mine. It’s...your father’s.”
She cupped her hands around his, her heart so full of his love for her. “What? How did you...Ohmigod. You went after him, didn’t you?”
He pressed his forehead against hers. “I went back and I ran that bastard to ground. He wouldn’t give up, so that’s one more dead terrorist we don’t have to worry about anymore. I got this back for you. I went there not because he was on the watch list but for a brother in arms and for you, Kinley, for your justice and your closure.”
“Thank you,” she said, wiping away fresh tears, her throat so tight. She buried her face into his throat and wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing him close. Then she kissed him, his mouth responding to hers just as frantically, with the same need.
When they parted, he took a deep breath. “So, I hear you got promoted and got your own team here in DC. I’m guessing you might need a place to live.”
“Was that the little bird who also told you where I would be today?” she said, smiling through more tears.
“Taking the Fifth,” he said. He gave her a sly, slick salesman look. “Well, there’s this amazing apartment in this old building with so much charm, overlooking this amazing city. The view is breathtaking. There’s only one small problem.”
“What’s that?”
He gave her a pained look. “Well, it comes with this guy, this annoying gung-ho dickhead that might make you get up and run with him every day and make love with him every night.”
“Hmm, those sound like pretty good perks.”
“Oh, really?” He chuckled.
She slipped her hand into his hair. He really did need a haircut. “Where is this amazing apartment?”
“Well, I could take you there right now, but I have to warn you, he might have to see you naked to make his final decision to
let you stay.”
She frowned and said, “What an ass.”
He pressed his hand into hers, laughed and started to walk. “So, Kinley, I have one last question for you.”
“What is it?”
“Are you in?”
She stopped and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him again, and murmured against his mouth, “Yes, Beau—all in.”
Epilogue
Kinley held on as the old truck they were in rattled its way down a rutted and barely there path. It was reminiscent of that harrowing drive through the jungle, both going in after Maria and coming out again once they had her.
Only this time Beau wasn’t driving. It was his grandfather, or as Beau called him, his grand-père. He was speaking in what Kinley was beginning to understand as Cajun French. Proficient speakers used both French and English. “Nous avons pêché tout le temps. C’était la façon de garder nos bellies pleins. Ces buggers rouges étaient notre groupe alimentaire de base. Nous avons well mangé presque tous les jours et vendu ce que nous ne pouvions pas manger ou nous l’avions donné à des gens moins fortunés.”
Beau translated for her, his mouth sending tingles down her spine. “We fished all the time. That was the way to keep our bellies full. Those little red buggers were our basic food group. We ate well almost every day and sold what we couldn’t eat or gave it away to less fortunate people.”
Beau was sitting on the other side of her and she was sandwiched between the two men. The affection Beau held for his grandfather was evident as she’d been here in Delcambre for just under a week.
Six months had passed since their mission to Cuba. Word had reached them that the Las Espadas leaders had all been killed and the cartel had broken up. The SEALs had done a job on the rest of el Ajeer’s followers with reports of many deaths and the rounding up of the rest to face international charges. Diego Montoya had been convicted and would be sitting in a federal prison for the rest of his life.
And Maria and Kirk were...well...they were an item. He’d fallen for the Cuban beauty and had given her a shoulder to lean on, cry on and finally to hold on to. Kinley was so glad that her boss and Maria had found each other. Talk about silver linings.
