Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes)

by Bristol, Sidney

  Andy recovered first, leaping from the passenger seat to the prow of the speedboat and up onto the cruising ship. Rand and Noah scrambled after him, while Matt brought up the rear. They made it up and over the railing before their prey realized what was happening.

  Sarah clung to the rail, staring at him with wide eyes. Rand didn’t dare fire off a shot, not with her right there.

  Andy moved in first, zeroing in on the injured Wei. Rand lunged forward, Noah keeping pace with him. The first man in his path wasn’t even armed. He grappled with Rand with one hand, the other hanging uselessly at his side. Rand used his greater size and muscle to hurl the smaller man off the boat.

  The fewer people on board, the less threat to Sarah.

  He turned, sensing danger at his back, and came face to face with Wang Ping. The man fired off the six-shooter in his hand. The bullet knocked the air out of Rand. He staggered back a step, but the Kevlar did its job.

  Rand lunged forward, grasping the son of a bitch by the lapels. A thin, high-pitched scream pierced the din of noise, then a splash.

  Sarah!

  Rand decked the suit-wearing piece of shit in the face and kicked his legs out from under him.

  A siren blared not too far away. The Coast Guard’s larger vessel came into view.

  Andy and Wei were locked, hand-to-hand at the stern of the ship. The party boat lurched, a larger wave rolling under them. They went over the side of the rail.

  Rand reached the last spot he’d seen Sarah, but she wasn’t there anymore.

  The Coast Guard ship’s speaker blared a “prepare for boarding” warning, but all Rand heard was the lack of a scream or a call for help. No sign of Sarah.

  “Hands up!”

  That order pierced the fog swirling around Rand’s head.

  He glanced over his shoulder at the Coast Guard’s gunner mate stationed in the aft of the inflatable boat alongside the Chinese escape ship.

  Sorry, buddy.

  Rand jumped overboard, diving into the choppy water with one thing on his mind: finding Sarah alive.

  He peered through the murky waters of the Potomac, made worse by the rain and three boats overhead. The dappled light cast strange shadows on the depths below.

  Rand twisted, turning left and right, seeking any sort of movement. A bit of light glinted off something metallic in the corner of his eye. He cupped the water, turning himself.

  There.

  The briefcase. That damn, stupid thing.

  Sarah had both arms wrapped around it and kicked toward the surface, but didn’t make it far.

  He propelled himself toward her, swimming through the current pushing them apart until he reached her struggling form.

  Rand wrapped an arm around her and kicked. She held onto the case, and he pulled them toward the surface.

  Damn, but it shouldn’t be this hard.

  His lungs burned, and Sarah squirmed. She’d been under longer than him. He focused on the light ahead, the space between two boats, and kicked for all he was worth.

  They broke the surface to a cacophony of yelling, sirens, and the chugging engine of the speedboat now permanently lodged in the prow of the party vessel.

  Sarah clung to him, coughing water. Their legs bumped together as they treaded water.

  She was alive.

  They’d made it.

  …

  Sarah wasn’t sure she’d ever be warm again, despite dry clothes and the blanket wrapped around her.

  “Sarah? Oh my God, you poor thing.” Irene hobbled into the hospital room Sarah had been locked in since the doctor had left.

  “Did you get it?” Sarah slipped off the bed and to her feet.

  “Yes.” Irene sat down in the padded chair against the wall.

  A blonde woman followed Irene in and closed the door behind her.

  “We don’t have much time.” Irene folded her coat around her. “There’s a transport that will be here in a few moments to take you, Rand, and the others to the camp, but you can’t go there.”

  “Why? What’s wrong? What about Matt?”

  “Your brother was quietly released to the rest of your family.” Irene sat forward, her expression grave.

  “What’s going on?” Sarah glanced from Irene to the blonde woman. She’d thought it was over, but from the look on Irene’s face it wasn’t.

  “Charlie burned you. He was the mole.” Irene’s brow creased and her gaze softened. She’d cautioned Sarah against getting involved with Charlie, but it’d been too late.

  “But…he’s dead…?”

  “Best we can figure, he got his brother to come visit him, and it was James Peterson who was killed in Hong Kong. Rand and the others captured Charlie alive, and he was taken to the camp straight from the marina, but someone got to him.”

  “W-what?”

  “I’m sorry, a lot is happening very fast. Someone within the company is working against us, and I don’t want to chance you ending up in danger. We’ve managed to eliminate the others from the first-person reports with the help of the Coast Guard, but doing so puts the focus on you. We can’t reveal that you’re a CIA employee without putting more focus on you, and as a civilian, you don’t receive the same kind of protections.”

  “Wh-where—what are we doing?”

  Someone tapped on the door, then it opened. Mitch McConnel leaned in. “Ready,” he said.

  “Sarah, you have to go now,” Irene said. “Carol will help get you out of the building.”

  “But…Rand?”

  “He’s gone already.”

  Gone? Rand had left her? Sarah stood there, stunned.

  A piece of her was gone. Rand had always been connected to her and her family, but things had changed. He was more important to her than ever. She was in love with him, and he’d left her without so much as a good-bye.

  Maybe she should have seen it coming. He did it to Matt, his best fucking friend, so what made her think he’d be different with her?

  A blonde woman took Sarah by the hand and tossed a long coat over her shoulders. Sarah swiped at her cheeks, trying to fight away the tears, then shoved her arms into the coat.

  “My name’s Carol Sark. I’ve heard a lot about you. You sound very brave.”

  “You have to go now, Sarah.” Mitch’s expression was grim.

  But…Rand.

  Sarah let Carol guide her out of the hospital room. She gave Sarah a hat, which she dutifully put on. All the while, her heart screamed at her to go back. If she waited for him, he’d come for her…wouldn’t he?

  She knew that answer, because she’d waited for years for him to come back and he never had.

  “What’s going on?” Sarah asked Carol. She was tired, oh, so tired of it all, but she couldn’t stop now. Not even if Rand had left her and her heart was broken. She had to keep going.

  “We’re working on that,” Carol replied. “Shh.”

  Carol led Sarah through the hospital, past the security guards and out through a staff entrance.

  Had Rand left this way?

  Sarah covered her face with the cuff of her coat and sobbed into the material.

  A SUV idled in a handicapped spot, the tinted windows disguising the people inside. Carol opened the back door and stood rooted to the spot, seeming as surprised as Sarah.

  Rand leaned toward Sarah and grasped her hand. He pulled her stunned body into the SUV and across the seat, almost into his lap.

  “What’s he doing here?” Carol didn’t wait for an answer. She closed the door and circled to the passenger seat.

  Rand was here. All around her. What was he doing here? Why had Irene said he was gone?

  “I thought you left again,” Sarah whispered.

  “I did, but I realized there was an us after all. I figured I needed to come argue my point.” His lips brushed her ear, his words just for her.

  Sarah squeezed her eyes shut. Was he telling the truth? Had he really come back for her?

  “He’s not supposed to be here.”
Carol twisted to stare back at them.

  “You’ve never met Rand before, have you?” Hector shifted the SUV into reverse and they eased out of the spot. “He’s like a damn cat. You can’t tell him what to do.”

  Sarah buried her face against his chest, wishing it was over. That they were going home to lick their wounds and put this behind them. She didn’t think that was going to be the case.

  “What’s happening?” Sarah clung to Rand’s hand.

  “Irene and I have been working on a theory that we have a mole within the company.” Carol glanced from Sarah to Rand. “Until now it’s been small hiccups, mistakes, things going wrong. When we identified the source of this leak was Charlie, we thought that was it.”

  “I…but I thought this was over,” Sarah said.

  Rand pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

  “For you, it is,” Carol said.

  “I don’t understand,” Sarah said.

  “We’re getting fired,” Rand said.

  “You could still go back into the field,” Hector said.

  “Someone has to watch Sarah’s back.” Rand stroked her side, his arms tightening around her.

  “Reservation under the name of Jennifer Martin. There are documents for her. Rand, if this is what you’re doing, you’re on your own, you realize that?”

  “I do.”

  “Fine. I suggest you find a place to disappear for a while.” Hector pulled the SUV into the parking lot of a rental car company then killed the engine. “I’ll miss working with you.”

  “Likewise.” Rand shook Hector’s hand, then got out and opened Sarah’s door.

  She felt like she was ten steps behind everyone else. Rand took her hand and led her into the rental building. She was out of place in her borrowed sweats and canvas shoes. Nothing really fit, and she needed a shower badly.

  Rand picked up their car reservation and guided her back out to the lot and into a nondescript sedan. Neither of them spoke until he was behind the wheel and on the road. Even then, it took her brain several miles to rev up to actual thoughts.

  “What are we going to do, Rand?” This was her life, not a movie.

  “We’re going to meet up with your family at the lake, then take it from there. One day at a time.”

  “No, what does this mean?” Her voice rose in pitch. It was all too much.

  Rand parked in a gas station, then pulled her into his arms.

  “What’s going to happen to us? What happened to my family?”

  “They’re fine. They’re at the lake house.”

  “What?” Sarah sat back, blinking at Rand. “They aren’t dead?”

  “What? No.”

  “I thought—I saw a flash, and then nothing.”

  “Were you watching the feed?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Oh, well, we had a slight accident and destroyed their cameras. Your family is perfectly safe.”

  “Thank God.” Sarah slumped in her seat.

  “This is all happening fast, I know, and I’m sorry. Just hang with me, okay? We’re going to be okay.”

  “What’s happening, Rand? I’m…lost.”

  “Charlie burned you, likely for a fat payday, but it sounds like Charlie isn’t the only mole. The company is protecting their ass by cutting us loose, but only until they do damage control. We’re going to the lake house so you can reassure your family, then…I don’t know. Neither of us can risk going back to Asia any time soon.”

  Sarah nodded. She’d assumed as much. “I’m just glad you’re alive.” She squeezed Rand’s hand and eased back into the seat.

  “Me, too. Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while.”

  Sarah’s stomach flip-flopped. She wasn’t sure she could withstand much longer in Rand’s presence. Not like this. He was more of a danger to her than Wei or Charlie ever were.

  …

  “Rand, a word?”

  Rand had barely set foot past the door. He was weighed down with the responsibility of the unknown and his tank was bone-dry. All he wanted to do was wrap his arms around Sarah and take comfort in the fact that she was alive and they were, for now, safe.

  Matt nodded toward the back of the house.

  Mr. and Mrs. Collins sat poised at the kitchen table with Emily and the baby, cups of coffee on hand.

  Damn, that coffee looked good. “Sure, man,” Rand said.

  There were so many things to nail down, where they were going, how long they’d need to play it safe. In time, he had no doubt that Hector, Irene, and Mitch would ferret out who was behind Charlie’s death, but until then Rand’s number one job was keeping Sarah close and safe. She might not know it, but being fired was likely the key to their futures. Killing them now would only encourage more investigation. Letting them go was likely the only way to keep them breathing and ready in the wings. It wouldn’t be the first time Rand had worked off under-the-table payments.

  Matt led the way out through the back door and onto the porch.

  The day was fading to night, most of it taken up with being arrested by the Coast Guard, then picked up by the company and waiting out Sarah’s release at the hospital.

  “What the hell happened?” Matt crossed his arms over his chest.

  “The less you know the better, but in short, we were fired.” Rand didn’t have to like it, but that was how it was going down.

  “Okay, what do we tell the family?”

  “I…don’t know, man.” Rand sighed. “A version of the truth?”

  “What version is that?”

  “I guess what we’re telling people is that…” Rand blew out a breath. “I worked for the government. Sarah’s job brought her in contact with me, and some bad guys thought they could get at me through Sarah. It’s a version that’ll hold water.”

  “What comes next?” Matt faced Rand, every bit of him the protective older brother.

  “That’s…what we have to figure out.”

  “I don’t know you anymore, man.” Matt shook his head.

  Those words drew blood, as they should. Matt was right. Rand was a stranger. He’d exited their lives and only rarely looked back.

  “But…I’ll always trust you to have our back. Look after Sarah, okay? She’s not as tough as she thinks she is.”

  Rand stared at Matt’s retreating back. He jumped off the porch and retrieved a couple logs, probably for the fireplace. The old house always had been a bit drafty at night, no matter the season.

  What the hell just happened?

  Matt and Rand were strangers, there was no denying they’d changed, and yet Matt still trusted him? Without a backward glance or voicing his doubts?

  Rand held the door for Matt, but stayed on the porch, staring out at the water.

  His priorities had changed. The job didn’t come first anymore, Sarah did.

  He braced his hands on the porch rail and watched the sun dip below the horizon. There was no doubt for him that tomorrow, he wanted to be with Sarah. The youthful crush had blossomed and aged with maturity into something integral to who he was, and it was time to stop denying that.

  It was time to have that talk they kept putting off, the one about them. What they were, where this was headed. There was an us; they just kept ignoring it.

  Rand stepped through the door and almost got his knees whacked by an exuberant little girl with Matt’s eyes and Emily’s hair. She grinned and scampered off, brandishing a wooden sword with all the vigor of the young.

  He glanced around, but only Matt and Emily were around. Emily caught Rand’s eye and pointed upstairs.

  Which made sense. Sarah had a lot to sort through, but this next part they had to do together.

  Rand circled to the front stairs. He knew this house as well as he did his own. The Collinses had brought him out here often enough. He climbed the stairs to the quieter second level.

  Sarah’s room was tucked away in the corner at the front of the house. It was a small room compared to the others, but her grandparents had l
et her paint it with purple and turquoise stripes. Even now, after all these years, it was a bit of a jolt to the senses seeing it.

  “Hey.” Sarah sat on the floor, her back braced against the bed. “It’s quieter up here.”

  “I’ll say.” He sank down next to her and took her smaller hand in his. “How you doing?”

  “Confused.”

  Rand stroked the back of her hand. She had to have so many questions.

  “Seeing Charlie…it all makes sense, you know? That it was him all along.” She turned her head and stared out of the window. “We had this talk once, about doing the right thing. He laughed at me and said there was no right thing, because there were no good or bad sides, just what you chose to do.”

  They sat there for several moments, the stillness of her room comforting after days of being on the move, watching their back.

  “Is it safe to be here?” she asked softly.

  “Yeah, we’re good.”

  “Thanks for coming back for the briefcase and me.”

  “Sarah, I came back for you. You could have let that stupid case sink for all I care.” In fact, maybe she should have let it go.

  “What comes next?”

  “We recuperate, then play it by ear.”

  “I’m so getting fired.”

  “You never know.”

  “Is it really over?”

  “For us? Yes.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “We’re just pawns in this. Whoever was behind Charlie’s death gains nothing by coming after us.”

  “I’m still kind of scared. Is that normal?” She leaned her head on his shoulder.

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her toward him. She came easily, curling around him and burying her face against his chest.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He kissed the top of her head. “It was never about the briefcase. It was always about you.”

  She snorted.

  “That’s not what you said—”

  “Yeah, well, I was wrong.” He hugged her to him. The truth had been there all along, he’d simply chosen to be blind, deaf, and dumb.

  “I can’t—I can’t, Rand.” Sarah sat up and turned toward the window, her shoulders hunched.

  “I get that you might not feel the same way about me, or maybe you don’t want to, but…I have always—and will always—care about you, Sarah. Part of me will… I’m always going to love you.”