“We’ll let you know,” said Baron.
“Cheers,” said Sutton. “You have the expense account if you decide to go.” The call ended.
“So we’re a go,” said Nessa, standing and clapping.
“No, we’re not,” said Baron, keeping his butt firmly in his chair. “He said he will leave the risk analysis to me, and I don’t know enough about the mission to give the thumbs up.”
“It’s the border,” said Nessa. “It’s practically South San Diego. Thousands of people cross every day to go shopping or go to the beach.”
“And every day nearly a hundred people are killed in Mexico due to drug violence. That’s an actual statistic; I’m not just making up a number. I’m sure it’s rare in tourist areas, since there is economic incentive to keep them safe, but by sticking our nose in the middle of a transaction we increase our chances of a bad outcome. I don’t know enough about Tijuana at this point, and a rushed safety analysis is a poor safety analysis.”
Nessa stared down at him. “So you are saying no? Sutton is fine with it, but you won’t go for it? You are taking away the one chance I have to make a difference? ”
Baron stood calmly. “You are like a week out of school, and look what you’ve done. In your career, in your life, you are going to change lives, no matter what field you end up in.”
Nessa growled in frustration. “I’m not saying we go in and make a citizen’s arrest. I just want to be in the area and watch. We can buy some surf gear.”
“No. It can wait until Monday.”
“Why is this your decision!” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Because we don’t even know the surveillance laws in Mexico.” He kept his voice steady, not rising to her level of frustration and not letting the horror of his experience as a prisoner come through in his voice. “I’m the one who’s lived in a foreign prison. If it was just me at risk, I’d go. I’d do it for you, but I will not make a choice that puts you in that much risk.”
“Oh, Baron.” She softened and the air that had inflated her irritation leaked out. “I’m a big girl. Let me make this decision.”
“You asked me to shoot straight, so I will. Would you let a five-year-old be in charge of the SCUBA gear on a deep sea dive? Even if they really, really wanted to do it? As far as you are above me on the data analysis, I’m that far above you on the security and international operations side.”
She was taken aback and just blinked at him. “I’m a five-year old?”
Oh great. Baron knew it was only a matter of time until his big mouth got him in trouble. “It’s beside the point. I can’t in good conscience go. I have a ton of respect for your skills and I don’t doubt what your analysis showed. It’s still not worth the risk to rush a mission right now, no matter how much I care about you. I can’t even describe how much I care about you, Nessa.”
“Well thanks for being my dad, since I’m not a big enough girl to make my own decisions.”
“Monday,” said Baron, wanting to end the argument and get some useful work done. “Let’s plan it.”
Nessa looked at him, her jaw working. She glanced at her chair.
Please sit down, please stay. He didn’t think saying it out loud would help.
“I know you aren’t a coward,” she told him. “So I know you think you are doing this for my good. Please, Baron, please don’t. You’ve had your years of being a hero and making a difference. I want my turn.”
Baron clenched his jaw as he looked at her. It wasn’t the time to think out loud. Once again he weighed the risk versus the benefit in his mind, trying to block his heart from the equation, even though it was begging him to do anything she asked.
“It’s not worth it,” he said. “Anything in the world I can do for you without putting you in danger, name it. I still feel the same about you, I just can’t do this.”
Nessa’s face was unreadable, and it worried Baron. Emotion usually made people easy to read, and he knew she was bubbling inside. He wanted to ask if she still felt the same about him, whatever those exact feelings were. If only he’d been an hour later flying back from Bloomington, they wouldn’t be having this discussion. With all of his heart he wanted to hug her and apologize. The one thing he couldn’t do was put her in danger, even if she held it against him forever.
“If you won’t go,” she said, and now he could sense nerves and fear in her, “then I’m going alone.” Nessa scooped her purse off the desk and walked out of the room without looking back.
Baron, former Navy SEAL who was used to dealing with changes of plans and every possible contingency, would never have predicted that. He felt his mouth drop open as he listened to her footsteps retreating on the stairs.
He hadn’t felt this helpless since his time in the Syrian prison.
9
Nessa stared at the line of cars in front of her waiting to cross the border into Mexico. The sweat on her hands made the wheel slippery and she tightened her grip. With one hand she turned up the air conditioning. Just a few seconds later she turned it back down. How could she be cold and hot at the same time?
Just because she’d never left the country before. Just because she was going into a scenario that a Navy SEAL refused to take her into because he didn’t believe it was safe. Just because she was about to pee herself from fear any second now.
She asked herself if she could really do it. Sure there were hundreds of other people waiting to cross the border for an enjoyable afternoon of Mexican culture, shopping, food, and beaches. If only she was just crossing to the big street where all of the tourists went and would be surrounded by hundreds of people, things would be great.
No, Nessa was purposefully seeking out a single point in the city where there was a high likelihood of illegal activity.
It wasn’t too late to bail on the whole plan and just stay in the United States where life usually followed predictable scripts. Nessa was driving in the far right lane to give herself an out before reaching the gate, and at the pace traffic was moving, she had a few minutes to really think about it. In fact, the plan had revolved around Baron racing after her and refusing to let her go alone. She’d been sure he wouldn’t call her bluff, and at that point, it had been a bluff. That’s what she got for trying to con a highly trained intelligence expert, because once she had reached her Escalade and pulled out of the parking lot, there was no Baron in her rear view mirror. Maybe he’d been so confident in the bluff he didn’t believe she’d do it.
And now that she was so close to the border, she was afraid to turn around and go back on what she had said she was going to do. Being around Baron gave her so much confidence and made her feel so dang safe, she never would have made the stupid declaration if it weren’t for him. And here she was now, the one trapped between two impossible decisions.
The cars in front of her moved, and Nessa slowly inched up. One car length closer to the border. If what Baron said was true, just on the other side of the border she would find chaos and lawlessness and a complete lack of any sort of order.
No, that’s not what he’d said. The thought of his fear of what could happen just reminded Nessa about how crazy she was to put herself into the situation alone.
She’d just go and watch. Grab a taxi and check it out. Just stand across the street. Or maybe buy something at the surf shop.
Maybe the sense of security Baron had instilled in her would stick with her. There was a chance it wasn’t just something she felt when he was around. Here she was, after all, inching forward again toward the border.
Someone pounded on the passenger’s window. Nessa screamed and took her foot off the brake then slammed it down again. A man in a baseball cap pounded again and Nessa slammed her hand down on the automatic locks.
The door opened and she realized instead of locking the doors she had unlocked them!
Nessa screamed again and started slapping the air in the man’s direction. Where was Border Patrol? Where were the police?
&nb
sp; The man held his hands out in a calming manner. “It’s me,” he said. “It’s Baron.”
“Baron? What … ! What are you doing?”
He climbed slowly into the front seat. “I really didn’t mean to scare you. I know you don’t like surprises.”
Nessa put a hand to her chest and realized it was rising and falling a hundred times a minute. Through teary eyes, she saw Baron was wearing a t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops, and a baseball hat. The shirt was fitted exactly right and she could see muscles she’d only guessed at before. His defined arms did not help her catch her breath. Neither did his perfect pecs. Or the outline of a six-pack she could see under his shirt.
Nessa looked straight forward so she could gather her thoughts. Things were so much better with him here, but she was as determined as ever to go forward with the mission. He had come here to stop her from going. So did that mean he was buying her bluff or not? Nessa was torn—overwhelmed with relief that he was here, but a little ticked that he was going to try to stop her now, after all she’d been through.
“You can’t stop me,” she said, feeling her spine straighten. “I told you I was going with or without you.”
“I thought it was a bluff,” he said. “I totally thought it was a bluff.”
“I’m doing it. So get out.” She pointed at the door. “Unless you plan on kidnapping me or something.”
“No kidnapping today,” he said. “On either side of the border. You’ve got more guts than anyone I know, but I’m not going to let you go alone.”
“You can’t stop me—”
“I’m not here to stop you,” he said. “I’m going with you.”
“You’re going with me?” The world wasn’t making any sense.
“Unless you’ve changed your mind and decided to park right here.”
A horn blared behind them. Nessa jumped again and another clipped scream came out. Nessa realized a couple of car lengths had opened in front of them.
As she started to pull forward, Baron signaled to the turn-off she had been eyeing and debating. “Pull over here.”
“You just said you were coming with me,” said Nessa, wondering if his claim that he was going along was totally made up.
“I am, but we don’t want to drive across. By the time we make it through this traffic it’ll be too late to make it in time. And for another thing, this car stands out way too much.”
Nessa signaled and took the turn off. “Isn’t that what you want? For it to take too long for us to make it across the border so we just have to turn around and come back?”
“I would never sabotage you,” he said immediately, and bluntly. She knew it was pure truth. And he wasn’t done. “Nessa, I’ll never face Al Qaeda again. I might not ever shoot anyone to save an innocent life. My days of saving the whole world are over. But when you need a man by your side—whether it’s doing surveillance in a foreign country or opening a jar of pickles—I can be your hero. And man is it a pleasant thought to think of being the hero by your side rather than the hero off fighting dragons.”
A smile was splitting Nessa’s face from ear to ear and her heart was trying to get her to throw her arms around him, but she was able to keep both hands on the wheel.
“Pull over here.” Baron motioned to a parking lot.
Nessa followed his instructions and as soon as she pulled into an open spot, she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. He’d come for her and not only that, he’d rather stay by her side than run off to be a hero.
Into his neck she said, “You smell good, and you feel good, and you look good.”
“You sound like me, saying whatever’s in your head.” He had his arms around her and it was the perfect contrast to the instability of her life five minutes ago.
“I want to just stay right here until Monday,” she said.
Baron sighed. “As much as I’d love that, I told you I’d go with you on the mission, so we should go.”
Nessa reluctantly let him go and they climbed out of the car. “Should I bring my purse?”
“Do you have a wallet or something? For your passport, phone, and expense card?”
“Good idea.” She pulled out her small purse and they started across the parking lot. The light jacket she wore was too warm for the sunny day. And it didn’t match his casual clothes. She had a long way to go to being an international spy, but there wasn’t time to feel sorry for herself. “Where are we going?”
“There’s a walkway across the border. When traffic gets like this, it’s faster to walk across.” He looked at her with … admiration? “How’d you know I’d come for you?”
She decided to have some fun with him. “I’m pretty sure it was a moral imperative for you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at it this way,” said Nessa. “Since I met you, I looked into what it takes to become a Navy SEAL. What can you say about a man who will go through something like BUD/S training and all the other training it takes to become a SEAL merely to have the privilege to go around the world, risking his life to protect freedom? I mean, that doesn’t even make any sense. Who would do that? I’ll tell you—the type of guy who would never let a girl,” she glanced around to make sure no one could overhear, “go on a mission like this alone.”
“So it really was a bluff?” Baron was obviously shocked. “All along, even when you were sitting in line to cross? You only came because you knew I couldn’t help myself? Wow, I didn’t realize I was up against a pro.”
Nessa smiled proudly, basking in the praise. “No. I actually thought you’d stop me at the mansion. As soon as I left I realized I had talked myself into a pretty scary corner. It’s a good thing my boyfriend, I mean my partner, is such a hero.” She winked at him, and Baron tripped over a crack in the ground.
Seeing him trip made Nessa feel all giddy inside. Everything had changed in the last five minutes.
When Baron recovered, he said, “Wow, you are good at this game of just blurting things out.”
“Oh, so it’s a game,” she said, verbally handing him a shovel to let him dig deeper. “Is that what this is for you?”
Baron bobbed his eyebrows. “I’m having fun with you and you’re laughing at me, so it kind of feels like it.”
“Me too,” admitted Nessa. “So what’s our cover story?”
“Boyfriend, girlfriend, day trip across the border.”
Nessa loved the sound of that, even though it wasn’t true and even though she had only known him a few days. “I won’t ask what our real story is, because I think you would tell me.”
Baron smiled his flirty smile. “I might just tell you anyway, but we have some mission prep to do before we actually cross the border.”
They walked along a wide sidewalk with dozens of other tourists spread out heading south. The border appeared to be a couple hundred yards away.
“Like what?” asked Nessa. “Tell Sutton we are going?”
“Already did,” said Baron. “I prepared an email on the way down. I had a black suit driving me, and when I saw you get close to the border, I sent it.”
“Saw me?” she asked. She was pretty sure she would have noticed his Escalade following her. “You’re not talking about with your eyes, are you?”
“No,” said Baron. “I tracked your Escalade.”
Nessa felt her face go hot. On principle she hated the idea. In reality she knew Baron was looking out for her. “What makes you think you had the right?”
“Full disclosure, I did it before today’s mission even came up.”
“That makes it worse!” Nessa stopped on the path and stared at him. “Stop treating me like a child!”
Keeping his voice much calmer than hers, Baron turned toward her.
Don’t let those gorgeous dark eyes distract you, she told herself.
“When we started working together, I looked at all the risks, specifically what form they might come in. If there are bad guys from the other side of the border involved
, and they catch wind of us looking into them, kidnapping is a distinct possibility.” His eyes grew even more intense as he tilted his head toward her. “Even if I didn’t care about you care about you, I would have done it for any partner.”
“Any partner?” she muttered, partly hypnotized, partially ticked still.
“Any partner,” Baron repeated.
“Even a SEAL?”
“Even a SEAL,” he told her. “And I’d expect him to do the same for me. No permission, no disclosure, just watching each other’s back.”
“Why not just tell me you were doing it?” asked Nessa.
“Guilty on that one,” said Baron. “I didn’t want to freak you out. It’s such a small chance it happens.”
“Can you see why I feel like you don’t trust me?”
“Yes,” said Baron. “I promise I won’t do it again.”
Nessa sighed. “How can I stay mad when you are so open and honest?”
“You can’t,” said Baron. “Besides, you don’t want to go on an exotic day-date with your boyfriend angry do you?”
She really didn’t want to be angry at him. “You promise to keep me in the loop in the future?” She held out a hand to shake on it.
Baron smirked as he looked down at her hand. Ignoring it, he took her by the shoulders. “I promise.”
He laid a kiss on her, and Nessa felt her feet come off the ground as she floated away in the ecstasy. It was a good thing he was supporting her or else she might have fallen over.
The kiss didn’t last nearly long enough. Nessa looked up at him, licked her lips, and said, “That was not a fake boyfriend kiss,” she told him.
Baron winked at her. “No, it wasn’t. Now back to the mission.” They started walking toward the border. “First, I’m taking you shopping.”
“Be still, my heart,” said Nessa, feeling lightheaded all over again. “Did you just say what I thought you said?”
“Yep,” said Baron. “You look like a DEA agent. Let’s tourist you up a bit, like me.”
“I don’t think that DEA comment was a compliment, so I’ll focus on you taking me shopping.”
The Honest Warrior: Navy SEALs Romances 2.0 Page 6
