Norse Security: The Complete Series

by North, Leslie

  That’s what he was telling himself anyway.

  “Right. Let’s go.” He stepped out of the shadows and headed for the entrance to the club. He’d heard of this place from some of his ex-Navy buddies, but he’d never visited himself. Always too busy. He held the door for M then walked in after her, stopped just across the threshold to let his eyes adjust to the dimmer light.

  Stripes Club was a typical military hangout, with memorabilia from all the military branches and various locations of deployment decorating the walls. Neon signs hissed and buzzed from between flat screen TVs flickering with sporting events. A wooden bar ran along one side of the room, with a mirror and shelves of liquor behind it, and booths and tables filled the rest of the space.

  There looked to be maybe sixty people in the place, and from what Loki could tell they were having some kind of themed night—if the silly party hats all the patrons were wearing were any indication. As he and M stepped into the club, a momentary hush fell over the assembled and they all turned to look at the new arrivals before resuming their previous activities.

  “Let’s start at the bar and see if we can find this Fritz.” M took off across the room, leaving Loki little choice but to follow her. Maybe not saying anything to her about last night had been a mistake. Maybe he should’ve brought it up, just to let her know that he was okay with it all and that he wasn’t expecting more. They reached the bar and squeezed in between two groups of army recruits, based on their uniforms. The place was hopping, leaving few places to sit or stand. The bartender was overworked and currently helping a customer at the other end of the bar.

  Loki leaned closer to M and laid his hand on her arm. “Hey, listen. About last night.”

  If looks could kill, the affronted stare M gave him would’ve been lethal.

  And maybe he should’ve kept his mouth shut after all.

  “This is not the time,” she said, lips tightening. “Besides, there’s nothing to talk about.”

  “Oh, okay.” He dropped his hand and inhaled slowly. “Sure. Whatever. I just thought—”

  “Stop it. Don’t think about it anymore. It was a one-time thing and fabulous, but it’s done. Got it?”

  His mind snagged on her words, short-circuiting his original response. “You thought it was fabulous?”

  M whipped around to face him, her gaze flickering from his eyes to his lips then back again, and damn if he didn’t feel that intense perusal straight in his groin. She opened her mouth to answer, but never got the chance.

  “What can I get you folks?” the bartender said, his voice harried.

  Loki switched gears fast and flashed his trademark trust-me smile. “We’re looking for someone. A guy named Fritz?”

  “That’s me,” the bartender said, his dark eyes narrowing. “Do I know you?”

  “No, but I think you’re familiar with a friend of ours,” Loki said, lowering his tone. “Todd Martin? Or you may know him as Todavi Marcogonoff.”

  The burly bartender’s face paled beneath his shaggy brown beard. His gaze darted around as if looking for an escape route, but there was none to be found. With the crowds and M and Loki so close, they’d have him pinned to the floor or the wall before he took steps.

  M reached over and took his wrist, locking him in place. “Tell us what you know and nobody has to get hurt. We just want information about his last drop. What he was trying to sell? Whose intel was involved?”

  “Uh, I can’t tell you that.” He tried to back up, but M’s grip kept him where he was. “They’ll kill me.”

  “We will too, if you don’t share.” Loki discreetly opened the front of his leather jacket to show the gun holstered at his waist. “Hey. I don’t want to hurt you. It goes against my SEAL code of ethics. But then so does treason. You see my dilemma, yeah?”

  “I don’t give a shit about ethics,” M said, her smile turning sinister. “And I’m in the mood to kick some ass tonight. Burn off some frustrations.” She glanced at Loki as she said this last part and fuck if his traitorous cock didn’t twitch like a whore for her again. Man, he had it bad. So bad, and yet so good. “How about you take a break and we go discuss our options in the back room, eh?”

  Fritz swallowed hard, the resignation in his eyes stating he knew there was no way out of this. He gave a brief nod then flagged down one of the servers to fill in for him behind the bar while he went in back to grab some new stock.

  The trio made their way to the end of the bar, M never breaking her hold on the guy’s arm and Loki playing lookout, in case one of the patrons decided to take offense to them roughing up their bartender. No one seemed to notice, though, as they disappeared into the stock room with Fritz. Loki locked the door behind them then crossed his arms.

  “I swear I don’t know what the hell Martin’s got on those disks he gives me to pass on. I just do like he says and he promises to leave my family alone.” Fritz caved like a wet paper bag once M advanced on him and bent his fingers backward almost to the point of breaking. “Please, you have to believe me. I could tell he was Russian by his accent, but I didn’t know he was KGB. I swear.”

  M pushed harder on his fingers and Fritz yelped in distress.

  Loki exhaled slowly, then began to pace the tiny space, one bare bulb hanging down in the center of the room. Shelves of stock lined the walls and the air smelled of liquor and dust. He kept his gaze locked on Fritz. “When did he last come here to make a drop?”

  “Yesterday,” Fritz said, wincing and panting as M held his fingers firm in their awkward position. “Yesterday morning, about ten a.m. He gave me two hard-drives to send to the normal address we always use.”

  “And where’s that?” M kicked him hard in the shin. “I don’t like this, Loki. He’s spilling his guts too easily. I think he’s lying.”

  “I’m not lying!” Fritz pleaded. “I swear I’m not. I’m glad you guys came in here tonight. I’ve wanted to go to the authorities with this since it started, or maybe tell some of the military guys in here what’s going on, but I can’t. Martin said he’d kill my wife and my kids, man.” Tears choked Fritz’s throat, thickening his voice. “My daughter just turned two, for Christ’s sake. And my son’s in fifth grade. Jesus, what the hell was I supposed to do? Martin had pics of them. He said he’d had them followed for weeks. He knew their schedules, when they came home from school. He was going to kill them all if I didn’t do exactly what he said.”

  Loki’s heart broke for the guy. The KGB were assholes who would do just about anything to get what they wanted. He had no doubt that Todd Martin would’ve followed through on his threats to kill Fritz’s family at the first sign of betrayal. Which gave him the leverage he needed. “Where are those disks now? Did you mail them yet?”

  “No, not yet. We’ve been so busy, I haven’t had a chance to post them.” Fritz stared up at him from where he kneeled on the floor, his dark gaze beseeching. “Why?”

  “Give them to us,” Loki said, stopping in front of Fritz so he towered over him and left the other man in shadows. “Give us the disks and I swear I’ll protect your family. But only if you tell us what we need to know.”

  Fritz squinted, swallowed hard. “How can I trust you? Martin’s working with the fucking KGB, man.”

  “I’ve got my resources.” Namely Cam and Hunter, back at Norse Security. Cam could hack anything with a microchip and Hunter was the biggest badass on the Eastern Seaboard. He also had a shitload of contacts from their SEAL days and could call in a few favors with the US Marshals’ office. Those guys owed them anyway. “You give us those disks and I’ll get you and your family out of town tonight. Martin won’t find you. He won’t even know you’re gone.”

  M watched him warily. “You can do that shit? Who the hell are you anyway?”

  “I’m the man who’s going to catch Todd Martin and nail his ass to the wall, that’s who.”

  Fritz seemed to consider this for a moment, then asked, “What about this club?”

  “Close it for a while
, or take a vacation.” M gave another tug on his fingers and Fritz hissed in pain. “Last chance, dumbass. Accept our offer or don’t. Either way we get the disks.”

  “Fine!” Fritz slumped over, defeated. “Fine. But we get my family first before I hand over the disks.”

  “No.” Loki already had his phone out and was busy dialing Cam’s number. “I’ll get everything set up, you give us the disks, then we collect your family.”

  Cam was his usual efficient self, fingers clacking at superhuman speed as he talked to Loki on the phone. “Yep. I’m in the Marshals’ database,” he said. “Good thing I hacked into that hospital system now, yeah? Who’s sorry now?” He snorted. Loki had given the guy major shit the week before for “accidentally” gaining access to a bunch of confidential patient records during a different mission. Now, though, it seemed it was good, since Fritz and his wife’s info, along with his children’s birth records, were among the files stolen. “Let me just input their data and… bam! Done. Hunter, you talked to your buddy yet?” Cam yelled offline.

  “Done,” Hunter said, chiming in on speaker phone on Cam’s end. “These guys aren’t pleased with us fucking around in their system though. Said we owe them big time.”

  “Bullshit,” Loki said, frowning. “After the way we saved their butts that time in Phoenix, they owe us this favor and about twenty more. But thanks for getting it set up. Talk to you guys soon.”

  He ended the call then turned back to Fritz, who was still kneeling on the floor and cradling his sore hand against his chest. Given the amount of force M had applied, nothing was broken, but it would still be about a week before the guy regained full range of motion in those fingers.

  She stood behind Fritz, a hand on each of his shoulders to prevent him from moving. “We ready?”

  “Ready.” Loki hiked his chin and M yanked Fritz to his feet. “Give us the disks.”

  “They’re in that box over there, behind the merlot,” Fritz said, indicating one of the shelves along the wall.

  Loki checked and sure enough there were two solid steel hard drives in an old, weathered shoe box behind the cheap wine. He held up the box and frowned. “Bit old school, isn’t it?”

  “Hey, I just send what he tells me. I don’t ask questions.”

  “What address do these go to?” Loki put the lid back on the box and tucked it under his arm. He’d need to get these over to Cam ASAP for analysis. “Tell me or the deal’s off.”

  “Ain’t no address.” Fritz cursed as M continued to restrain the man. “It’s a P.O. Box.”

  He rattled off the info and Loki typed it into the notes on his phone. Not exactly a stellar lead, but more than they’d had when they’d walked into this place. He shoved his phone back into his pocket then cocked his head toward M. “Let’s get him outside where the Marshals can pick him up. They should be on their way now.”

  “Shit. Already?” Fritz’s eyes widened. “What do I tell my wife? My kids? What about all our stuff? Our lives here?”

  “Those things are over. You go now, tonight, or you don’t go at all.” Loki walked over to the door and unlocked it, then turned back. “You should be thanking me for your new life. You have a second chance here, Fritz. Don’t fuck it up.”

  10

  Later, after they’d handed off the bartender and his family to the Marshalls, M and Loki were back at her apartment and sparring in the gym. Hard to believe, but it seemed about the only time they got along was when they were fighting.

  Not exactly the ideal relationship she’d dreamed about as a girl.

  M shoved the silly thoughts from her head. She wasn’t here to have a relationship with Loki. She was here to work and to get her coveted promotion. That was it. No matter how good the sex had been, no matter how nice it had been to wake up in his arms and see him looking down at her with that sappy expression of… No. She wasn’t going to call it love. Loki didn’t love her, any more than she loved him. They barely knew each other. Hell, half the time they couldn’t even stand each other. But still, there’d been something there, in that look. Affection, admiration. Yearning.

  Loneliness tugged at her chest before she pushed it aside and ducked, narrowly avoiding the hard uppercut Loki threw her way. At least she’d give him that. He never pulled his punches with her just because she was female. He treated her as an equal, both personally and professionally and that was a rare thing these days. Especially for a guy with his background.

  And speaking of his background…

  “Tell me about your parents,” she said. She’d seen his dossier, researched him just as he’d researched her, but she wanted to know what wasn’t on the page. There’d been precious little about him as a baby, which was odd. “Who were they?”

  He didn’t say anything, just turned and started pummeling a nearby bag hung from the ceiling by a chain. He mumbled something she didn’t quite catch between jabs.

  “I’m sorry?” she said, walking around behind the bag to steady it for him. “I didn’t catch that.”

  Loki performed an impressive roundhouse kick to the bag that knocked M back a few steps, then turned away, sweat dripping off his hair and running down his bare chest and spine. Naughty girl that she was, M couldn’t help watching that slow trickle, wishing she could trace it with her tongue, taste the salty tang of his skin, hear his moans of pleasure once more.

  “I don’t know,” he said at last, so quiet she would’ve missed it if she hadn’t been paying such close attention to him. He cracked open a bottle of water and gulped down half the contents in one shot. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the way his muscles worked in his sleek, tanned neck as he swallowed. Damn, the man was fine.

  Then his words sank in and she frowned. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “I mean I never met them. My real parents.” He finished off the water then tossed the bottle into the trash bin across the room, scoring a perfect hit. “My dad walked out on my mom before I was born. After she had me, my mom couldn’t cope, so she left me at a fire station one night with a note and never looked back. I have no idea who either of them are.”

  He looked so sad and broken standing there, messing with his gloves instead of looking at her, that M wanted to hold him close and comfort him any way she could. But judging from the hard set to his jaw and features, her sympathy wouldn’t be welcome right now. So she stayed put. “I’m sorry,” she said, the words inadequate, but nothing else came to mind to say. “I didn’t realize.”

  Loki gave an unpleasant snort. “Well, it’s not exactly the sort of thing you talk about much. Hey, my parents didn’t want me so they gave me away.” He shook his head and rolled his shoulder. “No big deal. I’m over it now. Been over it for a long time.”

  She nodded, though it was obvious his hurt over it hadn’t gone away at all. “What happened after that?”

  “I went into foster care.” He glanced up at her then, gaze narrowed. “And please, spare me your pity. It was fine. I was never mistreated and I got to live all over the country with a bunch of different families. It taught me a lot and I learned to be self-sufficient.”

  “That explains your cavalier attitude.” She grabbed her towel and wiped off her face. “You don’t seem to let anything bother you.”

  “Oh, things still bother me.” He chuckled and leaned back against the wall. “I just don’t sweat the small stuff. I learned that from my big brother when I was seven.”

  “You’ve got a brother?”

  “Not a biological one. This guy was part of that program Big Brothers and Big Sisters. The lady I was fostering with at the time was divorced and she thought it would be good for me to have a positive adult male role model in my life. So, she set me up with the program.” He shrugged and grinned as M moved in beside him against the wall. “Gus was awesome. Big guy, mid-thirties. He was a cop in Detroit where I lived at the time. At first I was a bit defensive, with my background and all, but he won me over. Used to play baseball with me and buy me the best
deep-dish pizza in the city afterward. It was great.”

  “Sounds like it.” M couldn’t help smiling along with him. “How long did he mentor you?”

  “About five years, until my foster mom got remarried and I was assigned to a new family in Arizona.” His mention of Phoenix back at the bar popped into M’s head, but she didn’t want to ask him about that just now. Learning more about this enigmatic man was too precious to jeopardize right now. “Anyway, one day Gus had to stop at his apartment for something on our way to get pizza. He got a phone call so I started looking around and found a box of old pictures in his closet. He wasn’t the same Gus I knew as a cop. He was younger, and richer too, if the fancy car in the photos was anything to go by.” Loki shook his head. “Gus caught me looking at them and when I asked about it, he told me he’d been forced to go into Witness Protection because of some bad things he’d done in his past.” Loki shrugged and stared into the distance. “I suppose that’s where my fascination with undercover work and changing personas started. I thought that if a guy like Gus could remake himself and begin a brand-new life, why couldn’t I?”

  “Good point.” M twisted the towel between her hands, wanting to keep this newfound intimacy between them going for as long as possible. It was so nice to have someone she could talk to, share things with. She had Marcus of course, and her adopted parents, who loved her like their own, but this was different. This was something she and Loki had in common, awful as it was. Another shared bond. Another connection. She cleared her throat and blurted out the words before she lost her courage. “We, uh, both have that then. Being unwanted.”

  At his inquisitive look, she continued. “You know I was adopted by the Walkers when I was just a baby. But I’ve always wondered what my birth parents were like. Why they gave me up.”

  “Hmm.” Loki nodded, staring down at the mat beneath their feet. Once more, the place was deserted except for them. Another advantage of being a night owl and working out in the wee hours. Privacy. “Have to say I’m a bit jealous of you, growing up in such a stable environment, M.”