Heatseeker (Atrati)

by Lucy Monroe

  Shocked, Rachel almost dropped Neil’s coffee in her hurry to turn and face Beth.

  But Rachel found it nearly impossible to believe that Whit would send his own daughter in, especially after what had happened to Rachel. Not to mention, she had always been under the impression that Beth and her husband were inseparable as one of the agency’s rare partner pairings.

  Neil saved the coffee with only a small expletive, his blue eyes wide with curiosity.

  Rachel barely noticed as her shock grew when she took in the two other people crowding the doorway. Beth’s husband, Ethan, had his hand resting protectively on the other TGP agent’s shoulder.

  Ethan’s presence made sense, but only because Beth was there. Whit hadn’t mentioned sending a team, though.

  Even harder to believe was the presence of the other agent standing as tall as Ethan’s six-feet-three-inches in her four-inch spiked heels.

  “Jayne …”

  The beautiful woman, who maintained constant deep cover as a premier and very exclusive exotic dancer, smiled.

  Though the expression didn’t quite reach her eyes. Hard and green as emeralds, they had long since seen the last of whatever innocence they might once have held. “Hello, girlfriend. I hear you’ve got a nice, juicy case to hand over to me.”

  Rachel nodded; she had no inclination whatsoever to argue for the right to stay on the case. Right now, Jamila’s safety was her biggest priority.

  Besides, Whit could not have sent an agent who would inspire more confidence in Rachel that her former assignment was in good hands.

  “But what are Ethan and Beth doing here?”

  “I’ll tell you everything you want to know if you give me some of that delicious-smelling coffee,” Beth offered.

  Ethan growled, “No coffee.”

  Instead of handing her husband his head for that bit of bossiness, Beth just pouted. “But it smells so good.”

  “You know what the OB said: keep caffeine to a minimum.”

  “OB. As in obstetrician,” Jayne reminded Beth, her expression turning dangerous. “No way in hell would your father have let you come along if he was aware of your condition.”

  “And he doesn’t need to be—not until we get back.” Beth gave Jayne a fierce look that Rachel wouldn’t have tried with the woman she secretly deemed SuperAgent.

  “Now, this is interesting,” Neil said as he unhooked his laptop from the extra monitor and printer on the table.

  “What are you doing?” Rachel asked him.

  “You don’t think I’m going to miss this explanation, do you?”

  “But you’re supposed to be researching the resident of that house.”

  “Don’t you see me bringing my computer?” he asked in the same way he might have inquired if she’d been dropped on her head as a baby.

  Before Rachel could ask Neil where he was bringing his laptop, Beth smiled up at Ethan. “He’s funny. Can we keep him and his coffee?”

  “Stop flirting.” The TGP agent glared down at his wife. “And forget the coffee.”

  The woman pouted again, and Rachel watched with amusement as her husband made another sound of frustration—before kissing her as if he couldn’t wait one more second to do so.

  Jayne rolled her eyes. “They’ve been like that the whole trip.”

  “They’re always like that,” Rachel replied.

  If there was one person she could call friend, it would be Beth Crane. Rachel had kept the other woman at a distance for a while, just as she did everyone, but Beth had kept pushing and had gained enough traction in Rachel’s life for her to be sincerely worried by the possibility of the woman being pregnant and possibly in danger.

  They weren’t mercenaries dropping by black parachutes at night into a war-ravaged area, but their work wasn’t toast and coffee in the staff room, either.

  Jayne picked up the tray with the coffee cups. “Where am I taking this?” she demanded.

  Rachel gathered the presence of mind to ask, “Who said we’re going anywhere?”

  “Your friend and his disconnected computer.”

  “Come on, this is most definitely a discussion we need fresh air for,” Neil cajoled. “Let’s go up to the roof.”

  Rachel nodded grudgingly. They could have talked in the computer command center, but maybe some fresh air would do Beth and everyone else good.

  And the rooftop garden was one of the nicest things about being at a safe house in Morocco. “I’ll get some juice for Beth.”

  “Don’t let her trick you into thinking she’s being thoughtful.” Neil waggled his eyebrows. “The woman is addicted to Mrs. Abdul’s fruit juice. I swear, she makes more orgasmic noises when she’s drinking it than my last partner did having sex.”

  Beth laughed. Ethan was watching Neil suspiciously, and Jayne’s expression was simply one of waiting. Not patient. Not impatient. Just waiting.

  If Rachel thought she was closed off, then this woman was an emotional vault.

  Kadin and Wyatt arrived while Rachel was waiting in the kitchen for Mrs. Abdul to prepare a tray of juice and refreshments.

  She told them that they had guests.

  “He sent three agents?” Kadin asked, sounding as poleaxed as Rachel had felt when the trio arrived.

  “Beth said something about being on vacation. Or leave. Or something.” Which didn’t make much sense. Not with what Whit had told her on the phone the last time they spoke. “And she’s pregnant.”

  Kadin’s brown gaze narrowed. “You’re shitting me.”

  “I’m not.”

  “No.” He didn’t add anything to the single-word denial.

  He didn’t need to. Rachel was just as unhappy at the idea of a pregnant woman coming into the situation here as the mercenary was. She was glad Whit hadn’t left her to dangle in the wind, but to send his pregnant daughter as unofficial backup? Even if he didn’t know she was pregnant, it all seemed so not okay.

  “It sounds like we need to find out what is going on,” Kadin mused aloud, his eyes filled with concern she had an awful feeling was directed at her.

  She was not that fragile.

  Silent, Wyatt was looking toward the ceiling with bad-tempered longing, as if he could sense Neil’s presence through the two stories of the house.

  Despite his clear preoccupation, he showed his well-trained Texas roots when he grabbed the tray before Rachel had a chance to do so. Not that Kadin would have allowed her to carry it.

  He still treated her as if she was delicate, even though she was a fully trained, highly experienced government agent. But Cowboy had been faster.

  They arrived on the roof to find Ethan and Neil laughing together over something, the TGP’s agent’s suspicious attitude apparently gone. At least temporarily.

  Rachel couldn’t help noting that Ethan had placed himself on the end of settee he shared with his wife, though, putting himself between her and the Atrati. Jayne sat alone in an armchair, leaving the sofa open and the other small settee occupied by Neil.

  Cowboy practically slammed the tray down onto the table next to the one with the addictively aromatic coffee before folding his muscular frame into the space beside Neil.

  “Hey, baby.” Cowboy slid his hand onto the back of Neil’s neck, leaning forward to kiss the corner of the other man’s lips.

  As statements of possession went, it wasn’t a bad one. As openly gay behavior, it was pretty darn impressive, as well.

  For the first time since meeting him, Rachel saw Neil totally flummoxed.

  “Wyatt.” Neil stared at Wyatt, his laughter suspended, his cheeks darkening.

  Though Rachel thought it was from pleasure, not embarrassment.

  “You making new friends, sweetheart?” Wyatt asked in his slow Texas drawl.

  Wow. Two publicly executed endearments in less than a minute. Cowboy was staking his claim with prejudice.

  “They want to keep me,” Neil said, sounding as dazed as he looked.

  “They can’t have y
ou.”

  “We can’t?” Beth teased.

  “No.” Cowboy didn’t look away from Neil. “He’s mine.”

  “For how long?” Neil asked, the vulnerability on his face almost painful to see.

  “A lifetime.”

  Neil swallowed, not answering, but Rachel was sure the two men had a lot of talking to do later.

  “Okay, then.” Kadin looked satisfied and something else, maybe even envious. “Glad that’s finally settled.”

  Neil opened his mouth to say something.

  Before he could argue with Kadin’s assessment of the situation, Rachel interrupted with introductions.

  “The Atrati allows romantic relationships between team members?” Jayne asked with clinical interest.

  Kadin shrugged. “We don’t have a policy against it.”

  “Gay relationships?” Jayne pressed.

  “Even the American military repealed DADT.”

  “Even without Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, there’s still a lot of bigotry out there.”

  “Not on this team,” Kadin said with absolute certainty.

  Rachel couldn’t help herself. She reached up and kissed the underside of his chin in approval before sitting down on the sofa, toward the center, the invitation clear.

  Kadin took it, sitting next to her and making no effort to hide the growing intimacy between them. Her brain told her this was a bad idea, but her heart gloried in the move.

  Jayne shook her head at them all. “Emotional entanglements make for poor decisions.”

  “I’m not driven by my emotions,” Rachel claimed, though for the first time since Linny’s death, she was not entirely certain she spoke the truth.

  Jayne poured herself a glass of juice, confidence spilling from the elegant TGP agent. “Jamila Massri.” She didn’t say anything else, just settled back to sip her juice.

  “She needs protecting,” Rachel said.

  Surprisingly, Jayne nodded. “From what Whit has told me, I would have to agree.” Then Jayne fixed Rachel with green eyes tipped just enough to indicate Asian ancestry somewhere distant in the redhead’s family tree. “Your decision to put your job on the line in order to be the one to give it was without a doubt fully motivated by emotion.”

  “Don’t let Jayne fool you,” Beth said with more warmth for the other woman than Rachel would have expected. “She would have found a way to protect Jamila Massri, too. It’s to her benefit that she doesn’t have to work that aspect of the assignment.”

  Jayne simply shrugged, her shrewd gaze giving nothing away.

  “If Jayne’s the agent on assignment, what are you and Ethan doing here?” Kadin asked of Beth.

  Beth grimaced. “You know about the congressional audit of the State Department that’s going on right now?”

  They all nodded.

  “Well, some Tea Party congressman got wind of The Goddard Project. He’s grandstanding on it, calling the agency that should have been closed after World War II a gross waste of taxpayer money. He’s saying TGP is another example of our government’s abuse of the people’s trust.”

  “But what we do is necessary.” Rachel hated politics.

  “Yes, it is, but because our agency is under the State Department and directly under the presidential umbrella, it’s a prime target for the Tea Party’s opposition.”

  “Have they gone public?”

  “Oh, yeah. We may perform black ops, but we are no longer a dark agency. Dad is going nuts. And you don’t even want to know what happened when Mom finally found out exactly what my father and I really do for a living.”

  “Poor Whit.” Rachel didn’t envy her boss his situation. “That explains why he sounded so out of sorts the last time I talked to him on the phone.”

  Beth grimaced. “I know, right? He’s, like, a religious Democrat, and he’s having nightmares of Sarah Palin showing up in his office to chase him out.”

  “But she’s not—”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ethan interrupted, looking a little too gleeful. “That’s why they’re called nightmares. The Old Man is scared of the Alaskan bogeyman.”

  Beth poked her husband. “You are enjoying my dad’s distress way too much. Have you forgotten that not only is he your boss, but he’s soon to be the grandfather of your child?”

  “Come on, sweetheart, you’ve got to admit it’s kind of funny to see the unflappable Andrew Whitney running around looking positively unhinged.”

  “I do not find it funny at all.”

  Ethan’s expression finally registered what a pile of poo he’d stepped in. Voluntarily. “Now, Beth, you know I care about the man.”

  “You love him. Not as much as you love me, but don’t pretend he’s not important to you. You even call him Dad away from the office.”

  “He’ll be fine,” Ethan tried again, clearly uncomfortable with Beth’s revelations in front of the other agents.

  She smiled slightly, as if maybe she’d aimed for just that reaction, to pay him back for the crack about her dad. Beth had an ornery streak.

  “I have to concur,” Neil said. “My sources indicate TGP will remain a viable agency when all is said and done.”

  “What sources?” Jayne asked.

  Neil just shook his head. “A man has to have his little secrets.”

  Cowboy settled back against the small couch, pulling the other man closer. “And this one has more than most.”

  “I swear he has a line tapped in the Oval Office,” Kadin grumbled beside her.

  The way Neil didn’t automatically deny it made Rachel wonder.

  “What kind of device wouldn’t get picked up by the scans?” Beth asked.

  Neil grinned, his expression full of caffeine-stimulated glee that Rachel envied hugely. “There’s prototype technology that might do it.”

  She wasn’t getting near the coffee tray now that Kadin was back. But sneaking sips from his mug might be on the agenda.

  “That still doesn’t explain what you are doing here,” Rachel prompted Beth when it seemed that she was about to get sidetracked by Neil’s subterfuges.

  “Dad’s over a barrel right now, but he takes care of his agents.” Beth shrugged. “Ethan and I are not here on official TGP business, but we are here to make sure you come home in one piece, both physically and emotionally.”

  Why was everyone acting as if she was going to have a nervous breakdown, or something? So, she’d been tortured. It happened. In her line of work more frequently than getting hit by lightning.

  She’d survived. Kadin and his team had gotten her out. That’s what mattered. Why couldn’t anyone but her see that?

  “I thought all vacation requests were on hold,” she said, redirecting the conversation away from a path she had no intention of going down.

  “They are, but we’re a federal agency, and that means both Ethan and I have ironclad access to either maternity or medical leave.”

  “Your father is unaware that you are actually pregnant, is he not?” Jayne pointed out again, her disapproval of the situation clear in her tone.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” Rachel emphasized.

  Beth waved away their concerns with a flutter of her hand. “I’m, like, a minute pregnant. There’s nothing to worry about.”

  Ethan didn’t look so sanguine, but he did look resigned. Rachel would have liked to have a listening device for the private conversation they must have had leading up to this trip. Whatever ammunition Beth had brought to the fight, it had been sufficient to push her overprotective husband into taking, effectively, a “vacation” in Marrakech.

  “You’re four months pregnant, and your dad is so going to have your ass when we get home and he finds out,” Ethan said. “But don’t worry,” he added, looking to Rachel. “I’m not letting Beth do anything that puts her at risk.”

  Four months? That was past the first trimester and well past being a “minute pregnant,” as Beth claimed. But it also explained why she looked so energetic, no pregnancy-related nausea
in sight.

  “I can always tell him it was your idea,” Beth threatened.

  “I recorded our conversation.” Ethan looked proud of his forethought.

  “I erased the recording and wiped the drive it was on.”

  Neil burst out laughing. “I like her. Can we keep her?” he asked, repeating her earlier words, this time directed at Kadin. “The Atrati could use another techno-geek.”

  “How did you know I was a techie? It’s a relatively new thing for me.”

  Neil just gave Beth a duh look.

  She nodded at his laptop. “What are you looking for right now?”

  Neil told her, and pretty soon they were lost in techspeak, throwing ideas at each other on how best to find the information Kadin had asked for. Finally, Cowboy herded them both back down to the computer command center so Beth could use her own computer, Ethan following protectively.

  Jayne uncrossed her legs and pulled a tablet PC out of the bag at her feet. “Are you up to going over the case with me?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” Rachel asked, confused. Did she look tired, or something?

  She was actually feeling pretty good.

  Instead of answering, Jayne gave Kadin a look of censure. “She hasn’t been debriefed, has she?”

  That again? Rachel was ready to scream, but she held back just because it would probably feed into everyone’s idea that she was on some sort of emotional edge.

  “We’re going a little bit at a time.” Kadin pulled Rachel closer in a sweetly telling gesture.

  She might not like his assumption that she was vulnerable and weak, but she did like the feeling that he was protective of her. Even if she didn’t need it.

  “You’re debriefing her?”

  “Yes.”

  Jayne just shook her head. “Okay, let’s go over what you learned in Egypt. Then we’ll move on to the intel you’ve gained since coming to Morocco.”

  Jayne was really good at interrogation, and she pulled information out of Rachel that she had no idea she’d stored in her memory banks. But by the time the other TGP agent pronounced herself satisfied with the information Rachel had provided and left to organize her notes, Rachel was full-on exhausted.