Kill List (Special Ops #8)

by Capri Montgomery

  Chogan growled low. “You’re not dying,” he said those words with such hostility she felt it in her bones. She wouldn’t argue with him now. She wouldn’t tell him that he couldn’t promise her that because the man looked like he was ready to raise the war flag higher and she would be in the path of his verbal assault if she implied she just might die because of this assassin after her.

  “Say it,” he nearly ordered like she was one of his military men under his command.

  “Say what?” What was he expecting her to say? What exactly were they talking about again? Keisha…something about Keisha. The anger in his eyes had her eyes widening.

  “You’re not going to die. Say it.”

  “Cho—”

  “Say it!”

  She heard her fork hit the plate between the peaches and the pears. Clearly his voice had shocked her and she hadn’t even realized she had released the fork until it clanked on the glass dish. “I’m not going to die,” her voice trembled.

  “Damn straight you’re not.” His voice was lethally low as he bolted upright, his chair sliding back and tipping over to the floor as he stormed out of the nook area.

  She couldn’t believe his outburst. She couldn’t believe he yelled at her. She felt her mouth hanging agape and she closed it, turning her gaze to look at Skip. Shock still resonating in her eyes, in her posture, and radiating down her spine.

  Skip shrugged. “He’s a Marine, a warrior, and your thinking you’re going to die underestimates him. He’s also a man in love with you so the thought of you dying infuriates him. Marine’s don’t take lightly when it comes to being second guessed on their ability to protect, and certainly not when it comes to their woman.”

  Was that what she had done—second guessed him? She hadn’t meant to but she was a realist here. This wasn’t exactly fiction. Things didn’t always work out as planned in real life. “I didn’t—”

  “You did,” he nodded in assurance.

  She sat her napkin on the table. “I should go fix this.”

  “Yes you should,” he looked at her as if he were disappointed in her. Heck, she wasn’t military. How was she supposed to know how temperamental and moody they could be?

  Olivia softly padded into the room she had found the men in at first. Her eyes raked over the room, not seeing him. She sighed. Now she was going to have to go in search of him. She was ready to turn and go look for him when a hand clasped over her mouth and an arm wrapped around her waist. She heard the mumbled fear that came from her.

  “This,” the voice was familiar. “This is me. I can protect you. I can attack the enemy when he least expects it. I can get in, and I can get out without a trace. Don’t ever doubt that.”

  His hand released her mouth, but he hadn’t yet untangled his arm from around her waist. Her breathing was hard and heavy.

  “Don’t ever scare me like that again.” She felt her own sense of anger flare. She had been scared enough this month to last a lifetime and she didn’t need to experience more.

  “Don’t ever give me a reason to,” he uttered those words in her ear. He wasn’t sorry not one bit and maybe that made her angrier than his actions in the first place.

  “You have no idea,” she felt her voice trembling. “You have no idea what it’s like to see your best friend on her knees and a man, a complete animal, just kill her. You have no idea what it feels like to be laughing and talking one moment and seeing something so horrific you don’t know if you’ll ever be able to close your eyes and not see it again. You have no idea what it’s like to hide in plain sight and know that you could be dead, that he can find you and kill you at any moment. You have no idea what it feels like to know the people you would have called for help could be the very people who kill you too. You have no idea!” She heard the tears in her voice and felt the salty liquid streaming down her cheeks.

  “I do have an idea,” he said more smoothly. “I have been in hell and watched comrades fall beside me. I have been career military so I know,” he placed the palm of his hand on her throat and let his thumb glide gently up the side of her neck. “I know what it feels like to sense fear, to lose the ones you care about as if they were your blood. I know. I do know. So I understand your fear. But fear will get you killed if you let it, Liv. Fear will dull your senses, not sharpen them. Fear will cause you to second guess, to sidestep, to make the wrong move. You cannot let this fear consume you. You cannot let it make you think we can’t protect you—that I can’t protect you.”

  She relaxed her body against his, her back pressed softly now against his body. “I’m sorry,” she said the words that she had come in here to say in the first place. “I am afraid. I’m afraid for me, but mostly I’m afraid I’m going to watch another Harjo die and this time it will be completely my fault.”

  “You must trust me,” he slid the palm of hand to her abdomen. “You must trust me to protect you, Olivia, otherwise this, we, can never work.”

  He had switched back to full name again which told her the man was serious. Trust him or leave him. Was it that easy for him? Yes, it was that easy for him. It was easy for him and simple for him because without trust a relationship could never last.

  “Put your fear off the grid and let me be your protector, your strength, that force of nature that will move heaven and destroy hell to keep you alive. Trust my ability to keep you safe.”

  She felt her body tremble against his. “I’ll trust you,” she nearly whispered those words and he spun her around so swiftly she lost her balance. His arms came around her, anchoring her to his body and holding her tightly as he lowered his head and allowed his nose to brush against the top of her hair, inhaling strongly and wantonly.

  “I love you, Liv. I love you and I will not lose you. I will keep you safe and alive. No matter what I have to do in order to do that I will do it.”

  She understood his words. He would kill for her. He would probably even die for her. She didn’t want him to die. She didn’t want him to have to take a life though she knew he had already probably taken many. He was in wars, he was in special ops; there was no way he hadn’t delivered a kill shot.

  She held him tightly just as he held her. “I love you too, Chogan” she ran her hand lightly up and down his spine. “Come back and eat,” she kept hold of him, waiting for him to break the hold when he was ready.

  “Yeah,” he reluctantly released her body and took hold of her hand. When they got back to the table her eyes went wide and Chogan let out a groan with a headshake.

  “I didn’t know how long you would be gone,” Skip said as he finished taking a bite of the last piece of turkey bacon. “This was so good I didn’t want it to go to waste.”

  “So you ate mine too,” Chogan shook his head again.

  “Yep; it was really good, man. Thanks for sharing with me.”

  “Sharing,” Chogan glared at him and Olivia laughed.

  “I see I’m going to have to make more food—a lot more.” Her eyes raked over the empty serving platters.

  “Yeah, just wait until Trace gets here. That man eats more than I do.”

  “Oh my,” she sighed. “Somebody is going to need to make a grocery store run.” If they all ate like this they would be out of food sooner rather than later. If they ran out of their food they just might start eating hers. Well, that would be one way to get grown carnivorous men to go vegetarian. She mentally laughed at the thought but shook it out of her mind. She leaned against Chogan’s side and he wrapped his arm around her. This was comfortable, no matter the situation, he was like a slice of midnight heaven, like exploring the galaxy on a ship meant for two, like peace on earth, and she didn’t want that feeling to end. She wanted forever with him and she was going to trust him to see that they got a forever. He was right, she had to trust him. Without trust they couldn’t exist as one and that was not a viable option for her. They had finally come together and she would not let them fall apart, not now, not ever.

  Chapter Five

  Ch
ogan was glad he had given Olivia the master suite from the start because now he was bunking in there with her while Skip was downstairs in one of the larger guestrooms. Trace had shown up with D-camp flanking his six and both men had taken the remaining two guestrooms upstairs. “He wouldn’t stay put,” Trace had said when Chogan questioned the addition.

  “No way do you guys get to come out and have all the fun,” D-camp had shrugged. He didn’t have any idea what he was getting into, but he, just like the rest of them, were dedicated as a team and would help each other even when they weren’t asked to do so. When he got the details and met Olivia he took on a side Chogan hadn’t seen before.

  “You’re so little,” he said as he picked her up like a child.

  “What are you doing?” She gasped as he carried her to a side corner recliner and put her butt first into the seat.

  “You stay there where it’s safe and we’ll handle this.”

  Chogan was probably just as shocked as she was. He had seen D-camp as a loaded machine gun ready to kill, capable of some of the most gruesome kills yet still clean. People didn’t understand the mix but everybody on the team did. D-camp could be in and out fast and the carnage he left would shock even the hardest hitting killer. The man was maybe a little crazy but lucky for them he was on their side.

  This protective side of him Chogan hadn’t seen before and judging from Skip and Trace’s face he would say they hadn’t seen it either. He had gone from machinegun to big teddy bear all because of a woman.

  “So that’s all I have picked up from the video footage I hacked and the police data I got into before I got up here. I’m hoping you can find out who this guy is, Trace. His face is hidden well from the angle of the camera, but Liv says he has the same stance and stature so she’s almost sure that’s him. Show it around if you have to, maybe somebody will recognize his build and associate it with his kill. The name for check-in was a fake.”

  “No shock there,” Trace nodded as he looked at the monitor. “I know a guy I can check this out with. If he can’t help us then nobody can. He owes me several favors so I’ll call one in on this.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I did a little tracking of the police while you were…um…sleep last night.”

  Chogan chuckled and shook his head. Nobody in the house had to wonder what was going on behind closed doors and that wasn’t all Liv’s fault seeing as though he was the one howling like a wolf in heat.

  “I didn’t get any calls coming in from the location of the hotel at the time in question.”

  “Man, I was hoping,” Chogan ran his hand through his loose flowing hair.

  “But,” Trace leaned forward in the stance that told him this was going to be bad so get ready for it. “The Commissioner got one.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, he got more than one and made one back to the same disposable that it came from which is how I was able to track it. I am the master at finding the un-findable you know.”

  Yes, they all knew that, but what he found wasn’t the level Chogan was expecting. He thought maybe a dirty police chief or somebody in the precinct, but this was getting bigger and more deadly with every unveiling.

  “I also caught a call on the records from man at the top to two cops, one detective, and one on their new plain clothes surveillance team. I don’t know how much deeper in blue this goes but these three here,” he slid a file over to him. “These are the ones linked to this assassin. Maybe getting to one of them might just get us what we need.”

  “Maybe,” Chogan stated. “But getting them to talk won’t be easy.”

  “Bet you’re glad I came, aren’t you?” D-camp winked at him. “Making them talk is my specialty. I haven’t pulled torture duty in a while. All our recent missions have been more about kill the enemy and rescue the hostages.”

  “Yeah, and as I recall you got a night in bed with the hostage on one of our last takedowns.”

  D-camp laughed. “That was one sexy British reporter lady,” he chuckled.

  “I miss our just go in hot and foil their next attack mode,” Skip added in. “They should leave the hostage thing to team two.”

  “Yeah, well that’s what we get for being the Omega team,” Trace said. “We get what they don’t think anybody else can handle. This is our job men. We do what we do when we’re requested to do it.”

  “And you’re all on leave now?”

  “Yep. Your lady who called in favors to get us ended up sidelining our entire team.” D-camp told him the orders came down like a boulder tumbling down the steepest mountain out there. Autumn had higher connections than he thought it would seem because one call from her seemed to be shaking the ground the military stood on.

  “Sorry guys.”

  “Nah, you know they don’t break up a team. We wouldn’t have been sent out without you, and since the orders came in we were all sidelined because they have been denied access to calling you in until your current issue is resolved.”

  “They could have spotted me out.” Chogan knew there was another man they could have sent in his place.

  “Yeah, but the call for Trace and Skip kind of weakened the link. Trust me when I say the guys are happy for the break. They’re all flying home to see their family or to…well, you know what some of us do when the adrenaline of the last mission is still surging through our veins.”

  Oh yeah, he knew. He hadn’t taken a woman to bed since meeting Olivia, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel the urge. His hand just had to do the job while he visualized her body being connected with his at every angle, and in every possible way. He wasn’t exactly an anything with two legs and a vagina kind of man before he met her, but he was definitely not into any skirt after meeting her. He just wanted her.

  He looked at the information before him once more. He tapped the paper. “Go after this one,” he looked at the name again. Detective Harold Donovan Tate.

  “Why him? D-camp nearly growled. “I want bigger game.”

  “Bigger game comes highly protected. I know you can get to him, but going after him will raise flags we don’t want raised yet. Go after this one. He’ll break.” He looked at the name. He knew what he was talking about. He was the one who figured out the weakest link in any situation and this man was that link. The other officer had a lot more to lose. He was the one still trying to get his foot in with the right people. He was trying to move up and he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that. Chogan knew that for a fact because when did a barely twenty-two year old get to go on a special unit when that cop hadn’t even put in a full year on foot duty? No, this man had done something for somebody powerful and had gotten an in, a raise apparently, and was climbing the ladder he wanted to climb. He didn’t doubt that D-camp could break the man, but it would take longer than what they had.

  But this detective was already at the level he seemed to be content with. Ten years at the same level with a minor pay raise here or there, but nothing as swiftly moving as this other guy. Go after the weakest link was the smart move, and to Chogan this Harold guy was that link.

  He had assessed the threat. He was putting Olivia first and in doing that he knew he had to move covertly, expertly and swiftly if he was going to keep her alive—and he was going to keep her alive. Mission stated, defined, and shouldered—he would not lose her, and this man would pay for the life of his sister that he had already taken.

  Olivia bolted upright on a scream that could have awakened the dead. Her breathing was rushed, her heart pounding uncontrollably and painfully in her chest. Tears were streaming down her face like water going over Niagara Falls and all she could do was sit there in a daze shaking violently. She hadn’t heard the footsteps running up the stairs and down the hall. She hadn’t heard the bedroom door being thrust against the wall and barely even noticed the arms that went around her.

  “It’s okay. You’re safe here,” Chogan held her tightly; her arm pressed against his chest as his arms wrapped around her comfortingly. “Tal
k to me.”

  He didn’t need to ask if she were dreaming about the murder because he knew she was. Things had been so stark in her mind, yet muddled too. Things she had seen but hadn’t realized she had seen was now flooding her dream world, slowly unfolding one piece of fact at a time. It was like a constant horror movie, bits and pieces coming back to her as if she were conjuring up demons.

  “Angelus Tenebris,” she shook a little less violently now.

  “Dark Angel,” D-Camp said. “You speak Latin?”

  She shook her head. “Only a little. I tried to learn some because of being in the medical field. There’s so much Latin in our modern words, but I never really picked up much. But this, I can remember this because I learned those two words—not together, but learned them.”

  “What does it mean, Liv?”

  She looked up into his eyes. “It’s…it’s what I remember seeing on the paper. I saw him shoot her and my eyes darted down to her body, to the blood, and the paper that was down there by her body—that’s what was at the top of the paper. Her blood was starting to…” she inhaled sharply and looked away from him. “Dark Angel—Angelus Tenebris. I think maybe…but I don’t know…maybe that’s his name—his code name or whatever they call it. It was at the top of the paper and I remember seeing numbers like maybe a bank account number or something but it didn’t look like the numbers I’ve seen.”

  “Swiss Account…maybe Cayman,” Trace said. “Or somewhere like it.” He folded his arms across his chest. “The name for the account is fake too. There’s no way he would have used his real name to open it. Secrecy is key for people like him. But why have the account details and his assassin name on paper?”

  “Maybe he was finalizing payment details for a new kill or for all the people on his list. I don’t know, and I don’t really care,” Chogan’s voice was laced with anger. “I just want him dead.” And with those words Olivia knew with certainty that Chogan had moved beyond getting this guy and pushing him into the legal system. She wasn’t totally sure before but she was now. Chogan’s mission was not operation get this guy put in prison. Chogan’s mission was operation annihilation. He wanted to kill the enemy and she couldn’t fault him for that, but a part of her wondered if maybe he should want to follow the legal chain of command. What had changed while she was resting to push him completely into kill the enemy mode? What had they discovered that they weren’t telling her about? Or maybe the question was what had happened while she was asleep that made him admit his purpose to her?