Special Ops Affair

by Jennifer Morey

  “Someone tried to kill you, Odie. From now on, you don’t go anywhere without Jag.”

  She raised her gaze. “I don’t need any protection.” Least of all from a man, doubly not from an adrenaline-pumped special ops dude.

  She looked over at Jag. The man was annoying. Too clever. Too good looking. Too tall. Too quiet. Too everything. He had a way of communicating with his eyes, and right now he was telling her that he knew she was keeping something to herself. Yet…he hadn’t alerted Cullen.

  Why?

  “Where is your contact?” Cullen asked.

  There was no avoiding revealing that much. She didn’t see the harm in that. “Washington, D.C.”

  “Jag goes with you or you don’t go at all.”

  “All right. Jag can go with me, but we need to leave now. Can you get me a flight tonight?”

  “Yes.”

  “One more thing,” Jag said.

  And Odie braced herself.

  “How did whoever came after you know you went to your contact for information on Hersch?”

  How was she supposed to know that? “I don’t know.” He must be asking for a reason.

  “Did you get the package from the same person who sent you the file you briefed me on this morning?”

  “Yes.” Where was he going with this?

  “Did you ask for more information?”

  “No.”

  “So…your contact just sent it to you?”

  “Something more must have come up.”

  “And you have no idea what that might be.”

  She gave him an unappreciative smirk. “None whatsoever.” None that she’d reveal. Not yet, anyway. He was just going to have to wait.

  “Where might your contact have gotten the new in formation?” Cullen asked.

  “And why was she still looking?” Jag added. “She already gave you what you needed.”

  “I have no way of knowing that.” She told them both with her eyes that she’d answered both of their questions.

  “We need to find out,” Cullen said.

  Odie looked away. It made her sick to think Kate had been exposed because of her. And she’d found something linked to ELF. She resisted the need to put her hand on her churning stomach.

  Please, don’t let this be as bad as it seems…

  “Odie.”

  She focused on Cullen and saw his genuine concern. “You do know what you’re going to find when you get to Washington, don’t you?”

  She tried to harden herself against the impact of his sobering comment. “Yes…but I’m hoping…I’m hoping…” She hated how unsteady she sounded.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She nodded. Bolstering her willpower, she pushed her softening feelings back and turned to Jag.

  “Will you take me home so I can pack and then pick me up when you’re ready to go?”

  He didn’t seem at all affected by her teary show of emotion. All business and nothing else. “We’ll stop by my place first. It won’t take me long to pack and I can wait for you to get ready at your place.”

  So he wasn’t going to let her out of his sight. He knew she wanted to go to Washington alone. He also knew she hadn’t revealed her reason. Not the entire reason. Since she no longer had a vehicle she couldn’t argue.

  “All right.” But one way or another, she’d find a way to ditch him.

  Odie glanced around her as she made her way through Dulles International Airport. Her luck, Jag had gone to Cullen and he’d seen to it that he made it to Washington, D.C., ahead of her. While he’d packed in his bedroom, she’d taken his car keys and after a quick stop at home to pack, she’d driven his Jetta to Denver, where she’d caught a late flight into Dulles. She knew just how bad it would look, but she’d set everything straight as soon as she had answers, no matter how hard those answers were on her.

  Finding a taxi, she threw her carry-on onto the backseat and climbed in with her laptop case. “Grand Hyatt.”

  Twisting to see behind her, she assured herself that she wasn’t being followed. She was safe for now, but it wouldn’t be long before Jag caught up to her. She didn’t have much time.

  She tried Kate’s number again, but still there was no answer. Odie relented to the obvious. She tried Kate’s father’s cell next, but there was no answer there, either. Digging in her laptop case, she found her day-timer and looked up a number for Kate’s sister.

  Modesty McKenzie answered.

  “Mo?” Odie queried.

  “Who is this?”

  “Odelia Frank.” She didn’t talk much to Kate’s sister, but Mo would remember her.

  “Odie. Oh my God. Have you heard?”

  Odie closed her eyes. So, it was true. “Can I come see you tonight?”

  “Yes. I’m not sleeping anyway. Mom and Dad are on their way back from the Bahamas right now.”

  That explained why she hadn’t been able to get ahold of Senator Raybourne. “I’ll be there in about a half hour.”

  She disconnected as the taxi stopped in front of the hotel. After checking in, she got another cab and gave the driver the address where Kate’s sister lived. Her mind was so full of scattered emotions and thoughts that time seemed warped on the way there. Before she knew it the cab stopped.

  “Wait for me.” She handed the driver two hundred dollar bills.

  His eyebrows rose over dark Cuban eyes surrounded by heavy lines and bushy black hair. He reached to take the money. “Take your time.”

  Odie’s unsteady knees threatened her balance as she made her way to the front door, which opened before she reached it. Mo stood there.

  Checking to make sure the taxi driver hadn’t run off with her money, Odie somberly greeted Mo as she entered the dim, dated home. Low popcorn texture ceilings and off-white walls cast the living room in dreary shadows. Mo shut the door and faced her. In her late-twenties with layered, straight blond hair, her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

  “I’m so sorry,” Odie said.

  Mo came closer and they hugged.

  “I’m sorry, too,” Mo said. “I know how close you two were.”

  Odie squeezed her eyes shut as tears sprouted. She and Kate had known each other all their lives. She leaned back from Mo.

  “When my mother told me I was so shocked,” Mo said. “It’s the strangest thing. Someone tells you your sister was murdered and it doesn’t seem real.”

  Shock didn’t begin to come close to describing the chaos taking place inside Odie. More than losing a good friend, this could expose something very dangerous. Kate had been trying to help her, and now Kate was dead.

  “What happened?” Odie asked.

  “The police don’t know much. They say there was no evidence from the scene that gives them any leads. No witnesses, either. She fought hard. There were signs of a violent struggle…before her throat was slit.”

  Odie raked her fingers through her hair, pulling back dark strands that had fallen too close to her face.

  Kate. Oh God…why did it have to be Kate?

  “Did she say anything to you? Was she worried about anything or seem anxious?” she asked.

  “No. I haven’t seen her in over a week.”

  “Did she mention talking to anyone? Seeing anyone?”

  “No, and she never talked about her work.”

  “Who found her?”

  “Her boyfriend. He was living with her, but he wasn’t home when it happened. The police have already questioned him. They haven’t named him as a suspect, but he’s still under investigation.”

  Finally. A lead. “What’s his name?”

  “Calan Friese.” She spelled the name for her. “He’s ex-Delta. Just your kind of guy.” She smiled a little but the sorrow never left her eyes.

  “How did they meet?”

  “A mutual friend had a barbecue.”

  “Who was the mutual friend?”

  “Kate didn’t say. All she said was that they both knew a colonel who had a barbecue.”

&n
bsp; Odie nodded. That might be worth looking into.

  “Dad’s taking it pretty hard,” Mo said.

  Odie could only imagine. Luis Raybourne was Kate’s stepfather and the only father she’d ever known. Mo was his flesh-and-blood daughter, but she’d never had a taste for politics so their relationship was different than the one he had with Kate. He loved both his girls, but Mo was a wife and mother and Kate was an outspoken political dynamo. Luis had a seat on the Senate Arms Services Committee. He and Kate had never run out of things to talk about. Her death had to be devastating for him.

  “He’ll be glad to see you,” Mo added. “I’ll let you know when the funeral is.”

  “I wish it was under different circumstances.” Luis and Odie’s father had met in the army when she and Kate were just kids, but after Sage and her father died, she’d lost touch with him.

  As for Calan Friese, she’d learn his background before she went to see him. She always liked to know the person she wanted to question, or have one of TES’s operatives question for her. It sometimes gave her leverage. She could use any vulnerabilities she found in her background investigations to her advantage. Friese would be at the funeral, too. She’d get a good look at him to start with. Get to know his body language. See if he was anxious.

  “How did you find out?” Mo asked.

  Odie hesitated, not sure how much she should say. She didn’t want to give Mo false hope, not before she had something solid to go on, and she didn’t want to put her life in danger by telling her things she didn’t need to know.

  “She wasn’t answering her phone,” Odie answered. “I got worried.” She hoped Mo wouldn’t question her further.

  “When did you last talk to her?”

  Not since she’d sent that first package of information about defense initiatives, but if she told Mo that, it might provoke her curiosity. “I don’t know. A few days ago,” she lied.

  “And she seemed normal?”

  “Yes.” Keep it short, she told herself. Mo wasn’t in the same league as she and Kate were. She could be misled, and for her sake, Odie would do just that.

  She saw how Mo contemplated the way she’d answered. “You flew all the way here just because she wasn’t answering her phone?”

  Crap.

  “It isn’t like her not to answer her phone. Besides, I had other business here. I just bumped up my schedule.” It wasn’t a total lie….

  The curiosity smoothed from Mo’s expression and now she just looked sad. Time to say goodbye before she started questioning her again.

  “Try and get some sleep,” she said. “I’ll see you at the funeral.”

  “Thanks for coming.”

  Odie left, already planning on how she’d go about getting information on Calan Friese. And how to face Jag. He was bound to be in D.C. by now.

  Odie entered the hotel, which opened to a wide expanse of trees and plants beneath a towering atrium flanked by several floors of balconies. On the far side she could barely see the checkout counter. She moved her gaze back to a sofa surrounded by chairs and tables and lots of vegetation and spotted him.

  Jag unfolded his big frame from the chair where he’d sat waiting for her. She stopped walking as he approached. His legs were long in dark blue jeans and the black boots made him look tough. So did the black T-shirt. Never mind that. She’d expected this, for him to find her and for it not to take long, but seeing him was jarring. Why did she feel this sudden rush of attraction?

  “Get what you needed?” he asked, his eyes giving nothing away. Was he angry? Did he have to hide a reciprocating attraction?

  “My contact is dead.” She kept her emotion out of it.

  “I know,” he said.

  How did he know? She waited for him to tell her.

  “Cullen called someone he knew,” he explained as if she’d asked aloud. “Kate Johnson?”

  Odie folded her arms. Damn that Cullen. He knew too much about how she operated.

  “Was a senior analyst for the CIA, working Middle East issues.” He nodded as though impressed. “I’m almost afraid to ask how you landed such a valuable contact.”

  “She was my friend.”

  “It’s too late to protect her, so why don’t you tell me what you think was in that package?”

  Lowering her arms, she brushed past him and marched toward the elevators, stabbing the Up button with her forefinger as he came to a stop next to her.

  “You do realize how guilty you’re making yourself appear?”

  She didn’t look at him. “I didn’t see what was in the package.”

  “But you have an idea what was.”

  She didn’t answer right away. “I didn’t see enough to tell.” It was true enough.

  “You saw something.”

  “You guys are all the same. Always asking endless questions and jumping to conclusions.”

  “The right conclusions.”

  She glowered at him, too aware of his big, fit body.

  “Why do you hate men who do special ops so much?”

  The elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, ignoring him as she pressed the floor button.

  “Cullen told me about your first husband,” he said.

  A too-familiar pang gripped her chest. “When did he tell you that?” The doors closed and the elevator began to move.

  “After I told him you went to D.C. without me.”

  Why had he told Jag that?

  “He noticed your odd behavior, too.”

  “This has nothing to do with Sage.”

  “Sage?”

  She used her eyes to warn him not to push her too far.

  “I asked him the same question I just asked you.”

  “If you already know the answer, why ask me?”

  “I wanted to see what you’d say.”

  Great, here we go. He was going to pry now. She watched the numbers climb as the elevator rose. “Cullen should learn to keep his mouth shut.”

  “It must have been hard, losing him that way.”

  “He was shot in the line of duty. Doing what he loved.”

  “I can understand why you put such a high wall up for the men you get involved with.”

  She faced him. “Look, you don’t know me. And I’m not in the mood to talk about this with you.”

  “Not all of them die,” he said anyway.

  She folded her arms, feeling a lump of sorrow clog her throat. It had been six years and still she hadn’t gotten past the hurt. The what-ifs…

  “No wonder you’re so good at what you do.”

  The elevator stopped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You have a strong sense of purpose. Losing the man you loved. Was he fighting terrorists?”

  He followed her into the hall. “You are such a bastard.” Was he deliberately trying to catch her vulnerable or did he wonder if her secret had something to do with her ex?

  “What? I’m expressing sympathy.”

  “You’re fishing. You’re trying to get me to talk.”

  “Why don’t you?”

  At her room. She opened the door and stepped inside, meaning to close the door but Jag pushed it open and came into the room, forcing her to back up. He let the door shut.

  “Get your own room,” she said.

  He looked toward the two queen beds. “This’ll do just fine.”

  Just imagining him staying the night was almost frightening. “I’ve told you all I know about what was in the package.” And that was the truth. She didn’t know the man in the photo.

  He must have recognized that as he watched her face. His eyes softened with satisfaction, at least for the moment.

  “We need to work together on this. Are you going to be able to do that?”

  “Of course.” Unless it was related to ELF.

  “You’ll share whatever you find?”

  “Yes.” Unless it was related to ELF.

  “Who did you go see tonight?”

  That she could answer. “K
ate’s sister.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Nothing, which doesn’t surprise me. Kate never involved friends and family in her work.”

  “How do you know her death was related to her work?”

  “I don’t.”

  “I thought she was just helping you. You know, on the side as it were, since she already had a good enough job.”

  “She was.”

  He sighed at her evasiveness. “Will there be someone at her funeral we can talk to?”

  “You don’t have to go to her funeral with me.”

  He cocked his head at her lame attempt to get him to leave her alone. “It’s no trouble.”

  No trouble. Not for him. What was she going to do with him hanging around all the time? Nothing, that’s what. She’d wait for the funeral—see who showed up—and then she’d go from there.

  Now her only concern was getting through the next couple of days alone with him.

  It was sunny and warm the day of Kate’s funeral. Standing near the casket as the minister finished his eulogy, Odie watched the mourners. She knew Jag was doing the same beside her, tall and big and handsome and way too distracting. He didn’t know these people the way she did, but she didn’t doubt he’d notice things—like the man standing next to Senator Raybourne and his wife and daughter. It had to be Calan Friese. Odie was already suspicious of him. He showed no emotion and yet his long-term girlfriend had just been murdered.

  She sneaked a glance at Jag. Yep, he’d noticed. Just as his head started to turn toward her, she faced forward and tried to pay attention to the service.

  The past two days had been a challenge. She’d barely managed to maintain her aloofness sharing meals and a room with a man who attracted her against her will. The only thing that saved her was her laptop. She had used the excuse of working to keep her distance. But like the trained operative he was, he’d endured the boredom with style. She’d even caught him amused while he observed her.

  The minister approached the senator and his wife. Odie hadn’t seen them in a long time. Luis looked different, still tall but his middle was beginning to protrude and his hair was gray. Alice began crying uncontrollably and he put his arm around her. She wasn’t gray but she probably dyed her hair. Slender and stylish in her long black dress, she looked fabulous. For an older woman, she sure knew how to keep her shape. Mo stood next to them, mouth tight with the effort not to cry. Luis put his other arm around her, a stoic rock of support for his family.