by KaLyn Cooper
Rafe wasn’t sure where to start with that information dump. He knew Alex and Katlin were in a relationship, but had no idea to what extent. She was mighty possessive of his company.
Katlin raised an eyebrow. “I take it you didn’t know that I am a partner in Guardian Security.”
“You assume correctly.” Rafe suddenly felt like an ass.
The smile Katlin gave him eased the sting. “Don’t feel bad. Alex didn’t even know until a few months ago. I’m sure you haven’t had time to read the manual provided by human resources.”
Okay, now Rafe felt even worse. Top Cooper—manager of the D.C. center and his new boss—had handed him a two-inch thick book as he’d left work a few hours ago. He’d planned on skimming through it before he reported to work on Sunday. “Guilty.” Changing the subject, he asked, “Special projects for SOCOM?”
“Yes.” Katlin hesitated then looked to Harper as though asking an unspoken question. When the woman he thought kept no secrets shook her head, Rafe wasn’t sure he was going to like what he heard next.
Katlin’s gaze never left Harper’s. “Technically, we all work for USSOCOM.”
Rafe watched the woman he loved close her eyes when he asked, “I thought you worked for the ATF?”
Harper opened her eyes and held his stern gaze. “I did. You know I’m an expert in explosives. I helped develop Chaz, the most lethal nonnuclear bomb on the planet. The government—“
“You mean SOCOM,” Rafe interrupted.
“Yes.” Harper took a reinforcing breath. “They decided I needed to be on that team and sent me to Columbia.” She smiled at him and the whole world righted itself. “You, better than anyone else, knows the rest of that story.”
She stepped to him and threw her arms around his shoulders. “Even though I didn’t appreciate you kidnapping me, if that’s what it took to bring us together, then I wouldn’t have traded a single moment for what we have now.”
He couldn’t have stopped himself if he’d tried. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight.
Then she whispered his favorite words, “I love you, Rafe.”
He kissed her temple before he said the words from the bottom of his heart, “I love you, too.”
“I hate to interrupt this little lovefest, but the clock is ticking.” Katlin’s reminder brought him back to the reality of Melina’s kidnapping and Valez’s insistence that Rafe show up in Texas all too soon.
“So Guardian Security is just a front for mercenaries.” Why the hell did I take that job? I wanted out of black ops and for some reason I keep getting forced back into it. But I’m the only one who can save Melina.
“No. Absolutely not.” Katlin declared forcefully. “Alex feels the need to back up our team. He carefully picks and chooses which assignments he takes and refuses more than he accepts.”
“So, I won’t be expected to fly to some godforsaken country to play war or rescue some idiot who didn’t follow the State Department’s mandates to get the fuck out of there?”
“No.” Katlin’s smile broadened. “Trust me. There are more than enough men working for Guardian Security’s ten offices nationwide who jump at the chance to go play soldier then fly home in a luxury jet. You’ve made it perfectly clear you’re not interested.”
“Okay, then. I guess I need to call Top Cooper and ask for a few days off.” Rafe reached for his phone, but Katlin held up her index finger while tapping her screen.
Lei Lu wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “What’s going on?”
Harper’s fingers flew in hand signals. Rafe recognized some of them taught back when he was a SEAL. A single nod from Lei Lu was the only response before she stuck her head back in the fridge and started pulling out snack food.
Within minutes, Alex and Lei Lu knew everything about the situation.
“Alex, go to your video conference room and we’ll call you back in two minutes,” Lei Lu ordered. “This kitchen is getting damn crowded. Let’s move this party to the living room and a huge TV.”
It didn’t take the team’s geek a full minute to get everything set up and Alex’s live feed in the upper right-hand of the screen. “Let’s run through this at normal speed the first time, then I suggest we tear it apart frame-by-frame.”
As they studied the video, Rafe couldn’t tear his eyes away from Melina. She’d been his handler the entire time he’d lived in Columbia. On a few occasions, she’d been his lover, although they both knew it could never go beyond sexual satisfaction. The spark just wasn’t there for either of them.
“Stop.” Katlin’s abrupt voice broke through his memories. “Back it up a few frames. Do you see her? She’s only visible for a second. What is she saying?”
Melina hadn’t said a word in the whole video.
“Capture and run her,” Katlin ordered.
“Already on it.” Lei Lu’s fingers flew over the laptop.
Katlin’s mouth moved but no words came out. “They…kill me.”
“Oh, shit. Katlin, you want to see this,” Lei Lu announced. A new box opened on the on the large TV. The driver’s license for Mary Michelle Weston appeared on the screen with several notations starting with Known Contacts: Delta Force, Ft. Hood.
“That just kicked it completely to SOCOM,” Alex announced. “Lei Lu, can you get General Lyon in on this call?”
Rafe was a little stunned and in awe that his boss could reach out and touch the commanding general of Special Operations Command at nearly midnight on a Friday night.
“Damn it, this crosses agencies. Lei Lu, pull Uncle Tom back into this conversation as well.” At Katlin’s swear, her hundred-pound dog lifted his huge head off his bed in the corner. “I’m sorry, Dammit, I didn’t mean to wake you.” The dog rose, stretched and lumbered over before he crawled up on the couch next to Katlin, placing his big head in her lap.
“What the hell does Valez want with the girlfriend of a Delta?” Rafe asked no one in particular.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” Alex paused before he looked into the camera again. “Rafe, we’ll do everything in our power to get your friend back.”
Live feed of a square-jawed man in his late fifties wearing an Army uniform appeared in the upper left-hand corner seconds before the deputy director of the CIA appeared lower left.
“Gentlemen, we’ve uncovered new essential information on the capture of the CIA agent.” Katlin took control of the meeting, quickly introducing everyone with the most concise brief of the situation Rafe could imagine. He was amazed how she could congeal all the moving parts into a few short sentences.
“I don’t like this one bit.” General Lyon leaned forward on his desk. “This is a direct threat made to a CIA agent who is intimately connected to one of my elite special operators.”
“Former CIA agent,” Rafe corrected. “I now work for Alex.” He let the general’s possessiveness of Harper pass without comment.
“And Valez has kidnapped a person connected to one of the most exclusive SpecOps teams in the U.S. military. I can’t afford to believe in coincidence.” The general glanced over his shoulder and spoke to someone off screen. In less than a minute, another box opened on the video screen in Katlin’s living room.
An Army colonel entered the frame leaning on a desk. “Yes, sir. I understand the situation has escalated and now directly involves one of my teams. We’re all in luck since I had pulled that team in to back up the CIA agent. Give me a moment while my aid transfers this to the conference room.”
Almost instantly the frame switched to where several large men in camouflage uniforms were taking seats, followed by the colonel in a crisp uniform of the day.
The soldiers, special operators according to the patches on their sleeves, glanced from one end of the room to another before returning their gazes to the senior officer. The camera had apparently been operating before their screen turned on.
Now the general’s meeting, he started by saying, “For security reasons, I’m no
t going to introduce all of you. Suffice to say, everyone here has the clearance to be in this meeting. Navy Lieutenant Callahan, roll the video for the men in Texas.”
With a nod to Lei Lu, Valez’s message took the majority of the screen as each of the live feed boxes lined the edges. Once again, Rafe was forced to watch Carlos Narváez’s nephew threaten him and slap Melina. When the camera had slipped toward his other captive, the live feed containing the Deltas in Texas erupted as almost every man around the table started to rise and all spoke at once. Whoever the woman was, she was important to them all of them. At the conclusion of the video, Lei Lu had switched the boxes back to their maximum size.
The Army soldiers talked among themselves.
“I take it from the disruption in your conference room, Colonel Olson, some of your men know the second captive.” The general’s statement was immediately confirmed.
“Yes sir. She’s a friend of theirs, especially their wives and girlfriends.” The colonel leaned forward in his seat. “Her kidnapping indicates a direct threat to the team.”
“In that case,” the General Lyon affirmed, “this has become a terrorist action and falls under my jurisdiction. Deputy Director Gillpatrick, do you agree?”
“Completely.” Tom Gillpatrick nodded. “I’ve already turned over the rescue of my agent to SOCOM. This keeps it cleanly out of the hands of local law enforcement which is perfect where my agency is concerned. To bring the men in Texas up to speed, the video you just watched was created by Pablo Valez, a Colombian citizen here in the U.S.A. on a student visa. The woman is a government agent who was the handler for Rafe Silva, the recipient of the video. Obviously, Valez blames Special Agent Silva for the death of his uncle who ran one of the largest cartels in Colombia. Our South American intelligence believes Valez is attempting to take control of that cartel.”
“Understood.” Colonel Olson asked the question on everyone’s mind, “Do you have reason to believe your agent is here in the United States or has Valez transported Miss Weston to Colombia?”
“Special Agent Costaneda is currently assigned to a patient at the hospital on Fort Hood.” Averting the question and any other inquiries, Gillpatrick redirected, “We, here at Langley, have no idea why Pablo Valez would have taken someone affiliated with your team. Do you know why she was abducted?”
After a short discussion in Texas, Colonel Olson admitted, “No one here has any idea, sir.”
Retaking control of the meeting, General Lyon announced, “Effective immediately, I am setting up an inter-agency joint task force to be headed by Alex Wolf who may choose his team. I am going to mandate it include Army Captain Tambini. Harper, since you know the captive, you may be of assistance during and immediately after her extraction.”
“Thank you, sir,” Harper said. “I owe Melina for helping me escape during my last mission.”
“Navy Lieutenant Callahan, I will not pull you and your team from your pending mission.” With a wry smile, he added, “Ladies, be sure to take warm coats. It’s still damn cold in Russia.”
“Yes, sir.” Katlin sounded disappointed.
But weren’t they going to Italy for the G7 meeting? Rafe suddenly connected two pieces of the puzzle that were Harper’s friends.
“Rafe, of course, will be on the team,” Deputy Director Gillpatrick insisted.
“Most definitely,” the general approved. “I’m also adding one representative from Delta. I’d like to keep the rest of that team on standby in case Alex needs them for backup.”
The box in the lower right of the screen exploded into chatter. One giant man stood up and announced, “This one’s mine.” The room quieted in agreement.
“Sergeant First Class Ford ‘Truck’ Laughlin will be the Delta representative,” Colonel Olson declared.
“Alex, since both women were last seen in and around the Fort Hood area, and the designated airfield for Rafe’s meeting is close to that location, assemble your team there. Transportation is being arranged right now. Colonel Olson, Alex’s team will work out of your secured area. Gentlemen, there are pressing matters elsewhere in the world that require my attention. I have complete confidence you can handle this raid and rescue. SOCOM out.” The general’s box went blank and all others shifted in size.
“Colonel Olson, I’m Alex Wolf. I’ll see you in a few hours. I already have my computer expert working on the video.”
“Mr. Wolf, I’m sure you won’t mind if we call in our own computer geek,” one of the men at the table leaned forward and spoke into the audio device. “He’s excellent when it comes to finding people and happens to be in town.”
Alex smiled. “Tell Tex I look forward to working with him again.”
The colonel returned the smile. “I knew you were one of us.”
“Close. My uniform was green, but I proudly wore the eagle, globe, and anchor.” Alex’s cell phone buzzed, and he glanced at it. “If you’ll excuse me, Colonel Olson, I need to pull my team together. I’ll let you know as soon as I have an ETA.”
“Understood. We’ll be ready for you. Delta out.” Their small box on the screen blinked black.
“Rafe, even though you are no longer in our employ, you’re still one of ours. If you need anything, just call. You know we have resources others don’t. To get Melina back, we’ll do anything we have to.” The number two man in the CIA morphed into Uncle Tom when he smiled. “Katlin, you and the ladies stay safe. Check in on your way home. We’ll cook out and have a huge picnic when you return.”
“Sounds like fun, Uncle Tom.” Familial love made Katlin’s face beam.
“You did mean all of us right, Uncle Tom?” Lei Lu interjected. “Because we could all use a picnic and Virginian sunshine after Russia.”
He chuckled, “Yes, all of you ladies are invited. You, too, Harper and Rafe.”
“We’ll be there, sir,” Harper committed before Rafe could back out. He wasn’t sure about such a casual relationship with his former boss.
Tom Gillpatrick sat up straighter. “DD CIA out.” His box disappeared and Alex’s face filled half the screen.
“Rafe, you’re one of ours, now. And we protect what’s ours.” Alex added, “This is exactly why I’ve affiliated with USSOCOM. They let me keep those important to me safe. I need you in the office now to get you geared up. See you in twenty. We fly out tonight. Wolf out.”
There was no room for discussion or questions. He and Harper were headed to Texas.
5
Everything in Jacin’s body ached, even his scalp. His captors had yanked and pulled on hair he’d let grow down to his shoulders. Now that he was stateside, he wanted to cut it short. He would never wear a high and tight again like he had in BUDs during SEAL training, but he wasn’t about to put it into a man bun like so many on television were now wearing.
A haircut was the first item on his to do list when he got out of this damn hospital.
“Feel up for visitors?” His new babysitter/guard dog, asked as he practically bounced into the room. Bill Smedley was way too excitable to be a good CIA agent.
Who exactly was the CIA recruiting these days? Children? The kid didn’t look to be twenty years old.
“If they want to bring another herd of interns in here, tell them to go to hell.” Jacin had been poked and prodded by enough twentysomethings to last him a lifetime.
“Not this time.” The kid shot the cuffs on the crisp white dress shirt he wore under the store-bought suit. “They’re from…” The idiot actually made air quotes as he said, “the company.”
Did anyone even call the CIA by that term anymore? Jacin didn’t know. He’d been so out of touch with things in the United States he felt as though he’d entered a foreign country that had leapt forward in time.
“Who are they?” Jacin hoped Melina had returned. Part of him wanted to beg forgiveness for the giant green alien of envy that had taken over his brain, and the other part wished her and Rafe well in their new life now they were back in the U.S.A.
“He said you might know him.” The kid rolled onto his toes and swung his arms back and forth like a second-grader with a secret. “Does the name Rafe Silva ring a bell?”
A bell? Not hardly. That name rang a huge gong that reverberated through Jacin’s entire body. Why the hell was he there? To rub in the fact he got the girl? The only woman in the world Jacin had ever wanted, heart and soul.
Before he could answer, the door opened.
“Times up. Were on a fast clock here and can’t afford to waste a minute more.” Rafe’s voice seemed to echo around the room and inside Jacin’s bruised brain.
“What the fuck do you want?” Jacin asked as Rafe strode across the room.
Jacin’s gaze dropped to where his archenemy held hands with a pretty brunette who kept pace beside him.
“Answers.” Rafe walked up and stood beside Jacin’s bed, looking down at him as though in disapproval. “You look better than the last time I saw you.”
“What the hell you talking about?” Jacin had to search his memory for the last time he’d seen Rafe. Oh yeah, they’d both been at a cartel party, and Melina had been hanging all over the tall man who would now slipped his arm around the woman next to him. Anger threatened to overtake Jacin’s good sense.
It was then he remembered the beautiful Brazilian actress Turi Solis had given him that weekend. Sure, he’d enjoyed her body and the things she did to his, but that had been his job. He had to maintain his cover. If he hadn’t fucked the bitch for hours, Solis wouldn’t have respected him and may have questioned his dedication to the cartel.
But the way Rafe and Melina had acted at the party, they looked to be a solid couple. Anyone could tell by the sultry look in her eyes, the loving smile he returned, they’d slept together.
Jealousy had put Jacin in that hospital bed. It had driven him to leave the sleeping actress and covertly make his way to Melina’s house hours after the party had ended. Every memory, from that point until he woke up yesterday, were snippets of pain, blurred visions of agony, and a black void.
