by Sara Schoen
“Night Stripe!” he yelled, mostly likely waking up everyone around us. He must have finally noticed I wasn’t there.
I wiped my tears away before I raced after him. It didn’t take long to catch up, but I could see he noticed I had been crying. The anger that had been etched into his features vanished and morphed into concern as I turned the corner. I hung my head low and let me hair cover my face as I sped past him. If he asked me what was wrong, I wasn’t sure I could hold in the flood gate that would burst. To hear the concern in his voice or feel the comfort of his touch would crumble the last bits of my will power to hold it in.
“Come on,” I called back as I rounded another corner. “We don’t want to keep him waiting too long.” I didn’t wait for a reply. I turned and sprinted toward Sharp Shooter’s office. I didn’t want to give Renegade the chance to question me why I was crying, if he even cared.
Everyone around here assumed I was upset because I had been captured, so Sharp Shooter sent me on a mission alone after that. He thought sending me to Florida to assist the FBI with a case was just what I needed. He had tried to make it sound like something other than using my pretty face to seduce someone into letting me into an office to steal some files on weapons deals and explosives. Whoever was behind it was planning to let hell loose in Florida during spring break, and the civilian casualties would have been monumental. The warm weather and break from organized crime had been good for me, but then I had been dragged right back after the mission finished.
Renegade had been training with Fire Fox since then. When Fire Fox wasn’t with Renegade he was trying to weasel information out of me. My uncle liked Renegade, they got along famously, but he had taken over as the protective father figure when I joined CIRA, and wanted to know if he had to give tough love to his mentee. I never said much, or just changed the topic entirely, and gave up on telling anyone why we were at each other’s throats. It was between us, and I could barely talk to him about it.
While I was in Florida, Renegade had been on numerous missions, mostly as the muscle but also working undercover. Camo, who was impatiently waiting for me to let her into the loop about Renegade and I, updated me often. I knew she did it in hope I’d finally tell her everything, which wasn’t going to happen until he and I could be civil with each other again. I wanted to talk to him first, I just didn’t know how without starting another fight.
I stood outside Sharp Shooter’s office and waited for Renegade to catch up. Despite his previous hurry, he was sauntering along slower than my family friend from Texas. He walked slowly, much to the irritation of those in my family who were constantly in a rush. Now Renegade did the same, as if he had all the time in the world instead of rushing to save it.
“I think we need to talk before we go in there,” Renegade whispered, not wanting anyone else to hear. “You were crying, something is clearly wrong, and training isn’t going to take the pain away. You’re only going to get yourself hurt. Look what almost happened in Russia. It’s distracting you.”
I bit back a smart ass retort, but instead opened the door to walk in. “I’ll let you know if training actually does help alleviate the pain.” I walked into the office and quickly took my position in front of Sharp Shooter’s desk before Renegade could say anything more. I passed by the familiar U shaped table, where we’d be meeting soon to discuss what to do with Katya, but with only two people, Sharp Shooter preferred to see us at his desk.
Renegade fell into place beside me, and once we were in position, Sharp Shooter looked at me expectantly. There was an annoyed gleam in his eye, not the same look I had come to know from my biggest supporter. Of course, he used it as a tactic to motivate me, but now it seemed that man was gone, and this one was upset at the choices I’d made on my latest mission. I waited, and eventually he asked me to explain what happened in Russia. Yep, I’m in trouble.
“Demon and I retrieved most of the information needed from Nikolai,” I stated, knowing he wanted to know why he had an extra person on our flight back to the States. “He also said that Volodya was planning on executing the daughter and mother.”
“And you thought it was best to save them?” Sharp Shooter prompted, though judging from the steadiness of his voice and the knowing tone it was clear he knew why I did it.
“I convinced Demon to let me try to save them. He told me it was a bad idea, but I had to save Katya and her mother if possible.”
“Because you didn’t risk your life a year ago just to have them die anyway?” His tone wasn’t reprimanding, as I had expected; it seemed more understanding. Renegade looked between us curiously as he attempted to connect the dots. While I lied when I told him who killed Ash Crest, he hadn’t come to terms with the fact he would never get the revenge he sought. He spent his free time, which was rare thanks to Sharp Shooter and Fire Fox, looking for the man I blamed. I wasn’t sure I’d ever tell Renegade what I had done. I didn’t want his anger to turn toward me; then I might never be able to fix the ripple between us.
“How many files did you destroy?” Renegade questioned with a mix of shock and curiosity in his voice. He knew the bare minimum of what I had to tell him, and even then it wasn’t the full truth. He knew I destroyed some of Ash’s files, but he thought the rest had been taken care of by Ash’s killer in an attempt to cover his tracks. As far as he knew, I had shown up just after Ash was killed and got rid of the files to save his victims. “How many people were there?”
“A lot. There were a lot of people, and I did what I thought was right.” I looked at Renegade, daring him to press me further. He had tried once before and my reply was always he wasn’t there so he didn’t have a say in what I did. I could see Renegade was about to speak when Sharp Shooter interrupted.
“Enough, I’m not in the mood to see you two start fighting again.” He passed both of us a file and waited for us to scan it over. I noticed Katya’s photo stapled to the outside of the folder. This was a protection detail, one I had gotten myself into and wouldn’t be able to worm out of for a while. At least it’s something other than cartels and mafias. “Why did you call me in on this? I’m not a body guard, he is.” I pointed to Renegade, who was still looking into the file’s details.
Sharp Shooter’s reply was short and to the point; he left me speechless, which was rare in and of itself. “You made a promise to protect her, and now you’ll do just that. Katya is the daughter of a dictator we have been trying to get rid of for years. His family took over the area, much like what went down in Cuba, except Volodya kills, trades weapons with the cartels in the States, and is trying to move some of his people around the world to possibly attack a few countries and incite a war.” Sharp Shooter looked between Renegade and I as if assessing us for the mission. “So to prevent that, I want you two to get information on him from Katya. Once he finds out she’s alive, and he will find out, everything in his plans will change. If we can stop most of it now, or distract him long enough, we can hopefully end this before it blows up in all of our faces. So I don’t want to hear any complaints; get this done as soon as possible.”
Renegade nodded and turned to leave. I followed slowly, unwilling to be trapped with him on another mission without talking about what happened on the last one. I sighed and remained a few paces behind Renegade. It wasn’t difficult considering two of my steps was equal to one of his, though I never made it out of the room before Sharp Shooter called me back.
“Night Stripe, stay with me for a moment,” Sharp Shooter said as Renegade stepped over the threshold. “Renegade, she’ll be right out. Wait for her in the hall, please.”
Renegade flashed me a curious look. I shrugged before he shut the door behind him. When I turned to face Sharp Shooter, I saw the man who had taken an interest in my abilities years ago. He offered a gentle smile, one that reminded me of my father when he knew I was having a hard time, and gestured for me to sit. I took a seat at the edge of the table and silently prayed I wasn’t in trouble for the dangerous plane jump.
> “Tell me what’s going on with you two,” he instructed. “I send you two on a mission, it gets done with flying colors and in a shorter amount of time than expected, but you two come back ready to rip each other’s throats out.”
A sigh escaped my lips. I wondered how I was going to explain it. Everyone had been asking about it since we got back from Mexico, but I lied to them all because I didn’t know what to say. Other agents made jokes about how we were acting like a married couple, but honestly I was lashing out because Renegade betrayed my trust. I had been captured, literally trapped by the men we were after and he left me behind. I knew it was the rules, but Demon hadn’t left me behind on missions, and I expected the same of Renegade. I was sadly mistaken.
He had spent the whole mission doubting my abilities, trying to perform both of our jobs at once instead of letting me take the lead as Sharp Shooter instructed. He attempted to protect me from everything, almost ruined the mission, and got me captured. Of course I wasn’t going to forgive him, but if Sharp Shooter started to worry about how we worked together I’d have to sit in on a therapy session with Renegade. Marriage counseling, as I jokingly referred to it when Demon and Whip Lash were fighting and had to go. Now they were separated, and Whip Lash had been taken from our team. I didn’t want that to happen to Renegade and I, so I said nothing to anyone—not even Camo and Demon.
“Nothing,” I said, offering my most sincere smile. “The mission got us both a little on edge. After my capture, I wasn’t in the best mood. I’m sorry it comes across as anything other than me beating myself up. It won’t happen again,” I promised as I hopped off the table and quickly headed toward the door.
Sharp Shooter didn’t call me back, but as I pulled the door shut behind me, I saw the disbelieving stare in his eyes. Sooner or later, he’d find out and either Renegade or myself would be removed from the team. It was inevitable.
Chapter 7
Renegade was waiting for me when I walked out of Sharp Shooter’s office, and thankfully didn’t ask what he wanted to talk to me about or why I had been crying. Instead he started discussing the major mission that was going on in the Pacific. A few agents were undercover in the Cuban and Mexican governments after being called in by the FBI and CIA. Since then there had been an influx of over a hundred agents a few weeks later to deal with the war that suddenly broke out. A few were sent in for damage control, others to collect agents who got wounded, and even a few who were there to prevent more weapons trade, which would have led to another bloody battle. There were even a few agents here who were working on that mission, not that they could prevent every fight, but maybe they could smooth relationships enough to save a few lives. They were trying to find the epicenter of the entire thing, and from that they hoped to end the war and the trades at its source. Mostly, we wanted to make sure that mess didn’t spread into the States.
We were the defense system no one knew about, always in the shadows, watching and waiting. We made sure that as many people as possible could be protected, even if it meant digging into a war off our borders to prevent men and women from going there and losing their lives. I’d seen enough loss, and the loss of soldiers only echoed the pain and failure to protect them. I was sure Renegade felt the same—he had seen it first-hand. He had worked with the men around him, lost them, and then lived to tell the tale. I’m not sure what that would do to me, to be with them one moment and the next for them to be gone, but I knew Renegade carried the weight of their loss with him through everything. That was why he worked so hard to protect other agents, even if it was misleading.
When we first got back from the Cardoza mission I honestly thought he had feelings for me. He seemed to flirt, and attempted to spend most of our free time together between training and missions. It even got to the point where Sharp Shooter sat us down together and told us he didn’t like having agents who are in a relationship working together. We would have to be professional on missions, and if we weren’t, then Jackson would take over Whip Lash’s and Raider’s mission.
I had flashed a worried expression toward Renegade at the mention of Raider. Raider and I never got along, and the year we had worked together only made it worse, so I had a feeling he would take it out on Jackson, especially if Jackson took the leadership role away from Raider. Luckily, Sharp Shooter said I had no reason to worry; I’d be sent to help Demon if it was decided Renegade and I couldn’t work together.
We walked through the hallways in silence as we went to find Katya. By now, someone would have taken watch over her. If I had to venture a guess it would be Demon. I could see the attraction he had for her, similar to Renegade when he used to look at me. I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts, but Renegade had a knack for reading me and refused to let the chance pass by.
“I knew this was going to be a good mission for me.” He smiled coyly. He looked at me, waiting for a response, but when I didn’t offer one he continued. “I get to be with you the entire time,” he said as he leaned a little closer.
A smile curved onto my lips at his words. It was moments like this that the distance seemed a little shortened, that he was letting me back in, and we could pick up where we left off. I felt at ease and the pain washed away as he brushed against me. For a moment I could focus on us and not a near death experience. At least it was before I let the anger return, remembered how he left me, how he ignored me for weeks after, and then pushed him away. “Remember, I just have to tell Sharp Shooter that I can’t work with you without putting the mission in danger, and you get sent to the Pacific with Raider and the others to try to stop a war while attempting to end weapon trades.” I let the information sink in before playfully adding, “And you’ll miss your warm bed and thinking about us cuddling together.”
He whipped his head around to look at me. For a moment I could see the playful gleam return to his eyes. In that moment, I thought I had won him back, the old Renegade before we created this rift between us, but the moment quickly vanished as we turned the corner to see Camo showing Katya her costume. All I could think was how I hoped it was for a mission, and she wasn’t walking around the agency in her underwear for fun.
“Night Stripe!” she yelled when she noticed me staring at her. “Look! Isn’t it amazing?” she questioned as she spun to give me a full look of her outfit. She tip-toed in her four inch heels as she twirled to show off her black lingerie, matched with a pair of black wings that extended around her lean frame.
“Is it me or did you not have wings yesterday?” Renegade questioned, the joking tone in his voice going over my head.
“You saw the wings, but the lack of clothing didn’t catch your attention?” I asked, gesturing to Camo’s black diamond bra and lace panties. She looked as if she was about to walk the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Renegade shrugged his shoulders, but bit his tongue, clearly deciding it was best not to answer. Smart kid. “Where are your clothes?”
“I don’t need them,” she said with a smile. “I’m taking over for one of the models at the fashion show in New York while she’s under protection here, and this is her outfit! It’s a dream come true! I’ve always wanted to be a model! It’s been my dream since I was a little girl!” She smiled brightly as she expertly twirled once again to show off the full length of the black wings, which went from a few inches over her head to the back of her knees. They had to be about four and a half feet tall, and weigh almost as much as she did.
“I have no idea how you’re going to walk with those things on your back in those heels, but if anyone can do it, I’m sure you can,” I said with an encouraging smile as I gestured for Katya to get up and come with me. I waited for Katya, who looked as though she was very uncomfortable around Camo, before sending her off with Renegade. I knew Camo wouldn’t let the topic drop, judging from her excitement, so I waited to give her a final chance to comment.
“I will, and I get to walk with my favorite model. You’d love her accent; it’s Brazilian,” Camo said with a suggestive eyebrow lift.
“I don’t know what a model can do to get sought after by Ukrainians, but at this moment I don’t care. I get to walk down the catwalk tomorrow! If they kidnap me after my walk, I’ll be happy.”
I laughed as a response, and said a quick goodbye before wishing her a good time in her fashion show and runway experience. I knew whoever the agent was protecting the model, most likely a male agent, was going to have a good time on his assignment.
Katya spoke up as I joined her and Renegade again. From what little I could understand she called Camo beautiful. I stifled a groan and prayed that she would start speaking English, but to no avail. She continued with whatever she and Renegade had been discussing before I rejoined them. It sounded as though it was serious, but I didn’t know enough to follow the conversation. I had been studying two other languages since I joined CIRA, Spanish and French. I never expected that I would need to know Russian. Right now, I wish I did.
My eyes flicked to the shadows as we were joined by Demon. I knew he’d show up eventually, he wanted to figure out what Katya remembered, but she refused to speak English, which left Demon and I out of the loop once again. I knew Demon was just as annoyed as I was, and it didn’t help that she claimed not to remember anything after she was put into the car to head to the river. She didn’t remember her father drowning her, but knew her mother was in danger because they tried to escape previously. She knew it was only a matter of time before her father tried to get rid of them.
