by D. C. Stone
“That sounds like an understatement,” Chris said, leaning forward to catch his head in his free hand. DA’s whole career went out the window because of some stupid mole setting them up. Years of hard work gone in an instant. The back of his neck heated under the sun and with renewing anger.
“Needless to say, just about every alphabet-soup agency is searching for that boy. They want him something bad and they are spending tons on inside and outside agencies to achieve that goal.”
Chris hesitated to say anything because what if he was wrong? But with the very real threat Tayseer presented, should something have already made it to the US, not saying anything would be wrong. “Actually, I’m not sure if this is anything, but…”
“Spit it out, Crack.”
He took a deep breath. “A lot of weird shit has been happening around here. I’ve had this feeling like I’m being watched, like I have eyes on me all the time.”
“Could be just because of all you’ve been through.”
Chris nodded. “True, and I thought the same thing, but I don’t think that’s quite it. Then, last week I swore I saw Tayseer himself walk out of the library and down the street.”
“You check that out?”
“Unfortunately, not. I was in my truck and by the time I tracked that guy down, I couldn’t find him. He disappeared.”
“Have you gone to talk with anyone yet?”
“Ah, hell,” Chris said. “Don’t start on that shit with me.”
“Look, I don’t like it any more than you do, but orders are orders, and maybe with you thinking you are seeing the person who is the cause of where you are right now, maybe that’s a sign you need to talk to someone.”
“My house was broken into, too,” he inserted, wanting to change the subject. He didn’t want to see a shrink. Barber remained quiet, so he went on. “Then, last week there was this big night storm and Dumb Ass started growling at this limping figure walking down the street.”
“Hell… You get a good look?”
“No, but Samantha did. I heard DA growling and I’ve never really heard that sound come out of him before. He was pissed.”
“Samantha?” Barber asked.
“DA’s doc. She’s the local vet here.”
“Hmmm, Samantha. Night storm. Huh. Since when did one of the most military men I’ve ever met call someone in a professional capacity by their first name? Not Doctor so-and-so, but Sam-an-tha. I see…”
Chris snorted again and shook his head. “All I’m saying,” he went on, pushing that line of conversation away … again, “is all of that adds up to too much. Something is telling me everything isn’t as kosher as it should be in Nyack.”
“Hmmm,” Barber said, and that word weighed on Chris’s shoulders like a two-ton bag of concrete. Silence passed by with shuddering ticks and the sound of a branch rubbing against the side of his house. “You’re pretty sure about all of this?”
“What aren’t you telling me?” he asked, more than convinced there was something. Barber never beat around the bush, and unless he had gone completely off his game, something was up. Chris wouldn’t have been able to explain the feeling, but there was one thing: he wasn’t being told the entire story.
Barber sighed, the sound coming out as if he carried the weight of an elephant on his back. “All right, it could be nothing, or it could be something, but there’s been some chatter going on amongst intel groups, something about numbers passing via encrypted messages between known associates of Tayseer and some unknown email addresses. What’s weird is that each time there’s an email to this unknown address, no other communication is used on that email. It’s the damnedest thing, and something no one has seen before.”
Chris screwed up his face, not following. “What kind of numbers?”
“That’s the thing, just numbers. A few spooks think it’s some kind of code, but no one knows exactly how to break it. There are no patterns to it, nothing that makes any sense based on previous communication. It’s up in the air.”
“Okay, so what’s the big deal about it? What are you seeing that I’m not?” And he wasn’t seeing anything. Using numbers to communicate? What were they supposed to do, become computers in order to understand a mathematical language? That Tayseer’s group was communicating in this way wasn’t surprising. The guy was super-smart. He had developed that insane chemical weapon, after all.
“The IPs have been traced, and while they bounce all over the friggin’ globe, one common city keeps popping up.”
“Don’t say it,” he groaned.
“Not Nyack. But close. Just up thirty minutes across the river from you in White Plains.”
Chris popped out of his chair, and his back let out a sharp, piercing warning at the sudden movement. “You didn’t think to mention this until now?” he asked, his teeth clenched through the pain.
“None of it makes any more sense than I’ve said. But combined with what you’ve mentioned, I figured more information couldn’t hurt.”
He rubbed at his back, trying to massage the muscle into submission. The skin was still tender and raw from where the bullet had shred through him. With the muscles around the wound still tightening in reflexive response, he had learned to move much slower until he healed. “What else? No more holding back.”
“There’s nothing more, but as soon as something pops up, I will let you know first.” He paused while Chris let everything sink in, then, “I think you need a rendezvous.”
Again, Chris’s face screwed up like he had been sucking on a lemon. “Did shit just get weird between us?”
Barber barked out a laugh. “You wish, but I was thinking more of sending your team out to you, have them look around a bit, ask some questions. What could it hurt? Besides, I think everyone would feel better if they saw you in person and that you were okay.”
He rubbed his face, hating that he felt both elated at seeing his team again, yet apprehensive. He’d been thinking long and hard about his decision to stay in the military and had finally settled. To have his team here would make it all so much worse. The guilt would eat at him. Letting them down was the last thing he wanted to do. Sighing, he dropped his hands, knowing the time had come.
“What is it?” Barber asked.
Leave it to his commander to have his finger on each of his men. To be able to read them even through the phone. “I’m not coming back.”
Silence.
“Look,” he continued, “it’s not that I don’t appreciate everything you’ve done for me, for the team, I just think it’s time. This last mission and everything that happened, everything that’s happening, has set it in stone for me.”
“Would you be surprised if I told you I’m not shocked?”
Chris lifted his brows. “Kinda, yeah. When did you figure it out?”
“Before you left Ramstein. I saw it in your eyes.” Barber blew out a blustery breath. “I’m still sending the team your way. You have more leave until you’re out for good, and I’d rather spend that time doing as we’ve discussed: letting the team see you’re okay and handling this matter with Tayseer, if he’s in the area, that is. This shit isn’t going to happen the way I think it is on my watch.”
He smirked, one side of his mouth kicking up. His commander didn’t take anything from anyone. It was a great asset to have—he was a great asset to have.
“I’m on board with that plan.”
“So, what are you going to do after?” Barber asked.
Chris leaned against the railing that ran the length of his porch and looked out over the yard. Fall was showing, dropping hints of colors in the trees lining the back of his yard. Red, yellow, and orange sparked through the foliage of green, heightening the serene scene he’d always loved. The browning grass could use some TLC, but mostly, it was like a picture out of some fancy calendar. He loved this season, the colors, the cooler weather, the beer, football… “I’ve been putting some thought into an investigation or hostage rescue agency. Even before you mentioned
such a thing existed.”
“Huh,” Barber grunted. “You don’t say.”
Chris narrowed his eyes, focused on what his commander wasn’t saying. “Why do I hear the smile in your voice and know you’re up to something with a few short words?”
“Maybe because you’re not stupid, son. Whelp,” he said, and a loud smack sounded through the line, as if he slapped his desk, “I have a few calls to make. Team will be in contact. You let me know when you start your thing and I might just have some help I can push your way.’
“Wait, are you serious?”
“As a heart attack. I’ll talk to you later.”
And with that, Barber hung up. Chris looked at his phone and the ended call, then brought his brows down in a V, wondering how in the hell he’d get over just how much he would miss his team.
****
Later that night, after he’d worked some of his pent-up energy out on the yard, raking the yard of fallen leaves, dead grass, and weeds, Chris sat back on the same chair he’d sat in earlier in the day while on the phone with Barber and popped the top off his beer. He set his feet up on the banister and looked out across his dark yard.
At night, being so far from town but not too far from civilization, the sky reflected against distant city lights and shone a dark azure. His porch wrapped around more than half the house, and he planned to eventually set up a backyard barbeque area. Somewhere family could come, hang out, and connect. When he bought the house, he had decided on the property because of how far it had been from any other house. But now, and especially after his mom’s reaction, he realized how important family was, how much he missed them, and how much he wanted to be closer to his brothers.
Each of the Gonzalez troupe, as they were referred to, were spread out around the world. And that didn’t quite sit well with him anymore. He’d spent time doing his own thing, but now he felt as if he were doing a one-eighty, wanting to establish a foundation in order to build a home and a life, a family.
A car rumbled up the drive as that last thought left his head, sending a pair of headlights slicing through the darkness.
He took his feet off the banister and brought them down on his porch, causing the lantern sitting on the wood to shudder. He stood as the undercover Crown Victoria rumbled to a stop. Dwayne stepped out and eyed him over the top of the vehicle.
“You talk to Doctor Eagen?” he called out.
Chris cocked his head, digging in his back pocket for his phone. He shook his head in answer to Dwayne but tightened his lips and lit up the screen. “Two missed calls,” he said once Dwayne stepped up on the porch. Without waiting for D to explain, he hit the screen and brought his phone up to his ear.
“Paws and Claws, this is Hailey.”
Chris popped a brow and met the gaze of Hailey’s stepfather. “Hails, what are you still doing there?”
“Uncle Chris,” she said with what sounded like a relieved sigh. “Doctor Eagen has been trying to get ahold of you.”
“I hear that. Everything okay?”
Some rustling sounded through the phone. “Yeah, everything is fine now. Something spooked Doc E earlier and after D stopped by, he said he was going to make a trip up to your house but would be back to get me on his way down again.”
The hairs on his arms stood at attention. He’d been with Samantha the other night when that mysterious figure had been outside and she’d been cool, calm, and collected then. That situation had freaked him the hell out. For something to “spook her,” as Hailey said, it must mean that his danger-radar would have been going off the hook. “How about you grab Doc E for me, Hails, and we’ll catch up in a bit?”
Dwayne shifted beside him, leaning against the wooden rail and catching his gaze. D’s lips were in a flat line and his eyes alert.
What the hell happened?
More rustling. “I’ll get the door.” This from Hailey.
“Sergeant Gonzalez?” Samantha asked, slightly out of breath.
He couldn’t help it, he smiled. The sound of her voice washed over him like a soft summer breeze along the lake. Refreshing, alive, so different from his dark life. “We’re back to Sergeant Gonzalez again?” he asked.
She huffed and dropped her voice low when she replied, “Your niece is here.”
“And?”
“How professional is it going to look if she hears me calling one of my clients by their first name?”
He screwed his face up and couldn’t help the laugh that escaped. “One, it’s Hailey, she’s a lot more perceptive than you’re giving her credit for. Sweetheart, if she hears you call me Sergeant Gonzalez, she will think something is up.
“Two,” he said over her loud sigh, “you’re in Nyack, New York now. And one of the things about Nyack is we are all about that small-town feel. The place has village after its name for a reason.”
“You have an answer for just about everything, don’t you?”
Man, she sounded feisty. He grinned, liking it. “Now you’re catching on.”
She snorted, and while the sound was anything but cute, it did something to his insides. Gave him a warm feeling that had long been missing from his life. For her to feel comfortable enough to be who she was without all the other games normally played between a man and a woman, he looked to what grew between them as something more. He and Samantha were building something here, no matter how much she kept her arms raised between them.
Dwayne shifted again, which brought Chris back to the matter at hand. He grew serious and focused on the tree line edging his property, trying to picture her little shop down the hill. “All right, Red, tell me what happened earlier that has you so spooked.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice a little lower than it had been before, “some guy was here earlier, asking questions about Delta Alpha. Really strange questions, too, and normally I wouldn’t pay attention to this sort of thing because let’s face it, I’m a vet, and people are always curious. Not only about my job, but about the animals I treat, and who can really blame them, some of these animals are really friggin’ cute, DA included, of course. I mean, he’s cute in a military working dog, I-can-bite-your-head-off kind of way, not in an aw, look-at-the-cute-puppy kind of way.”
Chris blinked, trying to catch up. But it seemed as though Samantha had developed a case of verbal diarrhea and her sentences ran one right after another. A clear sign that whatever had happened had gotten her either super-excited or super-scared. He counted on the latter.
“Red—”
“Anyhow,” she said, right over him, “the reason it got weird was because I had walked in the door with DA and not two minutes later, this guy came in right after me. You see, we’d gone to the park, and I felt bad because it’s been such a dreary week and today was so pretty. Not like I’m going to lay out in a bikini in the backyard, no way. I mean, it is only forty degrees outside, and while I tried the Polar Plunge once when I was twenty-two, I really don’t think I could handle that now. It is just too dang cold up here to even consider something like that, you know? And a bikini only covers so much skin. I should have tried a one-piece instead. But I really don’t think it would be much better. They call it the Polar Plunge for a reason.”
Chris’s eyes crossed at just the simple, damn thought of Samantha in a bikini, and he did an about-face immediately, walking a few steps away from D so his brother couldn’t overhear what he said next.
“Jesus, sweetheart, focus here. There’s only so much I can take, and from the way you’re talking, I know that whatever has you spooked is big. But when you start mentioning you wearing a bikini and diving into cold water, my mind kind of loses focus and I wonder just how cold your nipples were. Do you get me?” He let out a deep breath. “Focus, baby. What happened?”
Silence, then, “I get you.”
He lifted his head and stared out across his darkening lawn. Bright spots started twinkling in the sky, the night life waking up. She got him. That was huge.
“Okay, okay,” Samantha s
aid, her voice dropping lower as if she were trying to keep their conversation from carrying. “This guy asking questions kind of struck me as odd. He wanted to know what was going on with DA, who his handler was, and the whole time he talked, his eyes kept skipping to the front of the shop as if he were keeping an eye out for someone, something, I don’t know. The questions were starting to weird me out, and I could hear Delta Alpha in the back room growling his head off. He sounded just like that night … at my place, you know.”
The line went silent, so he figured her last was a question. “I know what night, baby,” he answered, trying to soothe her with his voice. She sounded panicky as hell. Not good. “What else?”
“Well, when I asked the guy his name, he gave me this really creepy smile and said he was a friend of yours. That got me thinking and had the hairs standing up on the back of my neck. I mean, if he were a friend, wouldn’t he already know DA and who DA’s handler was?”
Chris sucked in a breath, not liking where this conversation headed.
“Then,” she said, her voice breathless. “When he turned to leave, he was limping. Limping, Chris. Like that night.”
His heart slammed against his chest, begging to be set free. He closed his eyes as a dozen scenarios rushed through his mind. The surrounding sounds amplified until it was as if he could hear the wind through the trees, the night creatures scampering through the forest, the sound of a far-off vehicle on I-287. The earth’s scent filled his lungs and every sense he had sharpened. He knew what was happening. His body did this every time he headed into a mission. Battle-ready.
The different coincidences kept adding up until he was almost one hundred percent certain Tayseer had found him here. In his hometown. What the fuck?
“All right, Red, I want you to come up and stay the night here. Bring DA with you.”
“I can’t,” she said, exasperation in her tone. “I have early appointments. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. The guy freaked me out. I have a superb alarm system here, and plus, DA won’t let me come to any harm.”
Superb. Jesus, she was a hoot. Warmth spread through his chest hearing his girl talk with such confidence in his partner. Especially when not but a few weeks ago, she’d been frozen in fear of getting bit by the same dog.
