by Pamela Clare
That’s when Claire had become involved with everything. Because of their recent history together, a member of Khalia’s security team had contacted Claire for the favor that had started this whole chain reaction of events in the first place.
“After they attacked the hotel where Khalia Patterson was staying, a prisoner was brought in to authorities in Islamabad. Name of Youssef Khan,” Alex continued.
Claire’s eye shot to his. Khan was the guy she’d been checking up on when she’d tripped the system. Her heart beat faster. “What did he tell them?”
“Nothing that’s helped us find Hassani so far, but through various ongoing investigations we’ve learned about a new plot they’re hatching. John Patterson had a lot of wealthy, powerful friends, including the current republican senator for Massachusetts who plans to run for President in the next election.”
“Larkin?” He’d been all over the news lately.
“That’s right. Not only has he just vowed to start a congressional hearing about what really happened the night Patterson died and the subsequent riots that killed American security contractor Scottie Easton, he’s also donated a shitload of money to Fair Start and is now serving as its unofficial figurehead. Then last night we got word from the FBI that the TTP cell might be planning an attack to target him here on US soil. A hit like that could involve a large scale terrorist attack on a soft target.”
“In Boston?” A big city with so many potential targets, and the senator lived and worked there. If that was the TTP’s plan, she hoped authorities could stop any attack before it happened.
“Don’t know for sure, but authorities there aren’t taking any chances. They’ve already beefed up security on all public transportation, stadiums and whatever.”
Jesus. “So the attack’s imminent?”
“Yes.”
The room felt a few degrees colder all of a sudden. “What sort of timeframe do they think we’re looking at?”
“Could be days. Could be weeks or months.”
That was scary as hell, but she still didn’t understand what this whole thing had to do with her, other than having found out about Hassani by accident in the first place. She knew Alex would never call her here this early just to give her a simple briefing. “And you’re telling me this…why?”
“Because you’re about to be part of the taskforce tracking this threat.”
Whoa. Not even remotely what she’d expected to hear this morning. “So I’m definitely not on probation then?”
The corner of his mouth twitched in the barest hint of a grin. “Well, this way you’ll make yourself even more useful and I’ll still be able to keep my eye on you.”
Claire relaxed and smiled back at him. Excitement pumped through her veins. Ever since she’d landed a job here she’d been waiting for the chance to become part of something important, be more than just a cryptologist, and now she had one. “What do you need me to do?”
Alex leaned back and folded his hands atop his flat stomach. “As of today you’ll be pulled from whatever you’re working on to start with the team I’ve set up. You’ll be doing signal analysis, looking at encryptions and whatever else we need. Zahra Gill will be your linguist and help you with your workload when you need it.”
She liked the female translator a lot and couldn’t wait to get started, make a real difference. “Zahra’s great. Anyone else I know?”
“Yeah, a few more, actually.”
His cryptic reply didn’t faze her because he was legendary for them. No, what worried her was the intent way he watched her. It meant he was working on phrasing just right whatever he was about to say.
“There’s something else going on,” she finished for him in a flat tone, her excitement dimming.
“There is.” He sat up, his eyes taking on a hard gleam that sent a shiver of foreboding up her spine. “Want me to be blunt?”
When was he anything but? “Yes.” She shifted slightly in her seat. Maybe she wasn’t officially off his shit list.
“The TTP cell knows about your involvement with Titanium Security, and they also know you work for us.”
At his unexpected words the blood drained out of her face, her skin prickling hot then cold. “Oh,” she said in a small voice.
“They’ve been looking into your personal information. We’ve been monitoring their activity closely over the past few days and came across some chatter on the Web along with some phone calls.”
She swallowed. “Personal information like…”
“Your name, contact information, possibly your address.”
Oh, shit. She leaned back in her chair, grateful for the support against her spine. Her house was a rental so to her knowledge it wasn’t officially listed anywhere as her residence, but considering people from this same TTP cell included multiple hackers and Youssef Khan had been an engineer, filling in the gaps wouldn’t be very hard for these guys.
She struggled to keep her expression impassive as she tried to slow her heart rate. “I assume they somehow traced me through my cell phone records?” With her low level security clearance at the agency, her personal phone wasn’t encrypted. Stupid, stupid mistake, using her cell phone for those calls and texts to Pakistan. All because of that freaking favor she was starting to wish she’d never done. Why the hell hadn’t she just said no?
Because you still care about him whether you want to or not. She pushed the thought aside and focused on Alex’s response.
“We think so. With Hassani being former ISI, there’s no way for us to know for sure what kind of connections he’s still using. It’s possible they traced your calls via the cell towers, but it could be something more sophisticated. Just wanted to give you the heads up. And to make it clear, you’re not in any direct danger that we know of. If we heard about a credible threat against you we’d take action, but since there isn’t, for now we thought it best you were made aware so you can be vigilant as a precaution.”
Claire could hardly process it all. This was the last thing she’d ever expected to hear at this meeting. She eyed her boss, believing everything he’d said. He was a notorious straight shooter, so if he knew something important pertaining to her safety, he’d have told her. “Yeah, thanks for that.”
He shrugged. “If it were me, I’d want to know. Even if it wasn’t standard procedure I’d still have told you.”
She respected that, appreciated it even. Didn’t mean she was happy about it though. She pushed out a long breath. “Anything else?”
He opened his mouth to respond but the phone on his desk rang. He picked it up, listened for a second, then said, “Send them in.” Placing the phone back in its cradle, he met her eyes. “Rest of the team is here.”
Before she could ask who the other members were, someone knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Alex called out.
The door opened. A dark-haired man probably in his mid thirties stood there dressed in a navy blue dress suit. He nodded at Alex as he entered. “Morning.”
“Morning. Evers, this is Claire Tierney. Claire, Jake Evers, FBI.”
Claire half rose to shake the hand he offered. “Hi.”
“Hello.” Evers released her hand and glanced at Alex. “You tell her?”
“Just did. She’s doing fine.”
She didn’t feel fine, Claire thought as she sank back into her chair and Evers moved past her to another. Her hands were clammy and her insides were in knots.
Alex turned his head and smiled at someone else in the doorway. “Hey.”
Claire looked over in time to see a familiar face appear. Tom Webster, owner and head of Titanium Security. Delighted, she smiled too and started to rise then spotted a second man behind him. For a second her heart stuttered but then he came into the light and she recognized Hunter Phillips, the dark-haired and muscular ex-SEAL who was Tom’s second-in-command. She’d met them both at a security conference in DC last November, along with—
Nope. Don’t even think his name. Don’t do
it.
The harsh planes of Hunter’s face softened when he saw her and smiled. “Hey, gorgeous.” He held his arms out.
Claire stood and walked into his embrace, squeezing him hard. “Good to see you. This is a surprise.” She felt steadier already.
He pulled back, his eyebrows swooping upward. “Alex didn’t tell you we were coming?”
She shot her boss a hard look. “No, he didn’t. But how are you? You all healed up?”
He moved his left arm around, nodded despite the barely healed scar she could see in his triceps where he’d taken a ricochet during the hotel attack two weeks before. “Good as new.”
“Yeah? Glad to hear that. Almost as glad as I am to see you here.” It was a relief to have someone here she knew and trusted aside from Alex.
“Good, because you’ll be seeing a lot of me from now on since it looks like we’ll be working together for the time being.”
Claire opened her mouth to respond to that when the fine hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood up. She darted a glance over Hunter’s broad shoulder at the doorway as another silhouette took shape there. Taller than Hunter, and wider through the shoulders. She was distantly aware of the way her field of vision narrowed, filtering everything out but the man who stood in the opening, and conscious of the sudden pounding of her heart.
His face emerged from the shadows as he stepped between the jambs. She caught sight of his closely shorn red-gold hair, those vibrant light blue eyes, and every muscle in her body drew taut.
Gage Wallace.
Seeing him was such a shock that she stood frozen in the center of the room as Hunt stepped aside to make room for him. Silent tension simmered in the space between them and she could feel the others watching her reaction. His eyes were every bit as piercing as she remembered, and though those full sleeves of tattoos on both muscular arms made him look every inch the badass he was, right now all she could think about was how good they’d felt wrapped around her.
For a moment she couldn’t breathe, might even have weaved on her feet for a second.
“Hey, Claire.” That deep, achingly familiar voice washed over her with its North Carolina drawl, put an instant lump in her suddenly too-tight throat. “It’s good to see you.”
Was it? she thought sourly. Too bad she couldn’t say the same in return.
It had been a little over six months since Gage had seen her last, the longest six months of his life. Claire looked the same—a little thinner maybe, her jaw line a bit more pronounced, but just as gorgeous as she had that day at her place in March when she’d uttered the five words that had blown his life apart like a two-thousand pound JDAM. Just like with the warhead, he hadn’t seen it coming, and by the time he’d realized what was happening, it was already too late.
I can’t do this anymore.
He’d never forget the words or the torment on her face when she’d said them. At the time he’d been too shocked and devastated to do more than plead with her to not let him go. They’d only been together four months but he’d spent as much time with her as he could despite working several jobs in A-stan during that time. Right from the first night they’d met things had moved fast between them, maybe too fast, and looking back now he realized that had scared her.
He’d told himself she just needed time, some space to figure things out. He’d been rushing her, he knew that, so he’d figured if he backed off she’d realize there was nothing to be afraid of about their relationship and that they were meant to be together. Only time and space had done nothing except help her move on. Without him.
Her gray eyes were locked on him now, shock and a myriad of different emotions flickering there before she blinked and put that composed mask in place. The one he’d give anything to tear away and reveal the woman he’d been ready to give his name to.
“Hey. Alex was just…bringing me up to speed,” she finished, smoothing a hand over the silky light brown hair she’d curled into a knot at the base of her neck. Gage didn’t miss the slight tremor in her fingers as she tucked a stray lock back into place, nor did he miss the pallor of her cheeks. He knew Alex a little because they’d crossed paths a couple of times back in their SF days. He’d heard what her boss had just said about her to Evers. Alex thought she was fine? She wasn’t, and to anyone who knew her well that would be obvious.
It was also plain to him that he was the last person on earth she wanted to see in this room, and that she hadn’t had any warning about him coming to this meeting.
Alex spoke up from behind the wide desk. “Okay, since you all know each other and introductions aren’t necessary, let’s get down to business.”
Claire glanced away from him and quickly sat, paying a lot of attention to smoothing out her perfectly straight pencil skirt as she crossed one ankle over the other. The hem of her skirt stopped just above her knees, giving him a clear view of the way those nude-toned pumps emphasized the shape of her sexy bare calves. Just below the hem he could see the shadowed hollow at the back of her left knee, that tender erogenous spot where the lightest stroke of his fingers could put her arousal at a simmer.
He jerked his eyes from her legs when Alex continued.
“Claire knows what’s going on and has agreed to be part of the taskforce. Tom, your guys are all briefed and ready to go?”
“They’re starting as soon as this meeting’s done,” Tom answered. “I’ll be helping coordinate logistics and things behind the scenes. Phillips,” he nodded at Hunter, “is our team leader. Wallace is 2IC,” he said with a quick chin jerk at Gage, “and I’ve got two other guys that were with us in Pakistan—Dunphy and Ellis. They’re getting us a surveillance vehicle right now.”
“Perfect,” Alex said, leaning back in his chair to peruse the group. “Claire, you’ll work on everything here in the office mostly, but you’ll have to assist in the field from time to time as well if they need you.”
“Sure.”
Gage watched her surreptitiously, his every sense attuned to her. Her slightly stiff posture told him she was uneasy with him here, let alone with the idea of having to work alongside him on the team. And no matter what Alex said or thought, she was definitely concerned about her safety. She was too smart not to be.
The meeting continued with Alex and Evers reviewing the main players suspected to be involved in the cell, going over logistics and protocol. Everyone read through the files Evers handed out but Gage’s attention was splintered between its contents, Claire’s absolute dismissal of his presence, and the fact that her fucking life might be endangered because he’d unintentionally dragged her into this quagmire two weeks ago. It didn’t matter that he’d only called her for help with their investigation at Tom and Hunt’s request; the fact remained that he was responsible.
“So, we all good here?” Alex asked when he wrapped everything up, placing his file on top of the neat pile at one corner of his desk. “Your increased security clearances are already in the works and should be granted by later this morning. Any other questions?”
Yeah, he had a few. “What about the situation concerning Claire? How much do they know about her?”
He noticed Claire looking at him from the corner of his eye, but he kept his stare pinned on Alex. One former SF operator to the other in a let’s-get-real-and-don’t-you-dare-bullshit-me look.
Alex didn’t blink. “As I told her, there’s no credible threat that we know of. If we hear anything more we’ll revisit her status then.”
“Does she need protection?” He said it calmly, but with enough force that Alex didn’t look away. Gage was well aware that pretty much everyone in the room knew of his history with Claire and that they likely thought he was being overprotective. He didn’t particularly give a fuck.
Alex regarded him with that intent stare, but there was no bullshit or challenge there. “Not at this time.”
“And if she does at some point in the future? Whose jurisdiction does that fall under? NSA? FBI?”
“If the need a
rises, we’ll take care of it.”
Not the clear answer he’d been looking for, but he chose to let it go for the moment and gave the other man a nod of assent.
“Okay then, let’s start dividing up everyone’s responsibilities.” Alex handed out more paperwork.
Gage snuck another glance over at Claire. She was scribbling something into the folder on her lap, studiously ignoring his existence even though he knew she’d been listening carefully to that last exchange. At least his questions had served their purpose and she knew he was not only aware of the possible threat, but that he intended to make sure she was given adequate protection against it. Whatever her feelings about him now, he needed to ensure she was safe. It was the least he could do.
Evers and Tom stood and Gage realized the meeting was over. He gathered his papers and pushed up from his chair, suffering a moment’s hesitation when Claire went to step past him and froze. She kept her head bent to avoid eye contact, standing close enough that he could smell the light citrus scent of her perfume and see the pulse pounding in the side of her throat. Either she couldn’t stand to look at him or she was afraid to. She might as well have kicked him in the gut.
“Go ahead,” he offered, gesturing for her to go first. She swept past him without a word and walked through the door, disappearing down the hall on the way back to what he presumed was her cubicle.
As he was exiting the room, Alex called out to him. “Hey.”
Gage paused to look back at him over his shoulder.
“I don’t take threats against any of my people lightly,” Alex said. “Whatever happens, I’ll make sure she’s taken care of. You have my word.”
Gage nodded once. “I appreciate that.” Stepping out into the hallway, he shut the door behind him, let out a breath and met Hunter’s watchful gaze. The guy had just shacked up with Khalia, the love of his life, and knew all about Gage’s shitty ending with Claire. At least there was no pity in the amber eyes staring back at him. “Helluva way to start a new assignment, huh?” he said dryly.
