Colin grabbed my arm as I tried to move to one of the couches. “Don’t think we missed that shit outside. That will be discussed later.” He spoke close to my ear.
“There is nothing to talk about.” I rolled my eyes as I walked past him.
The President stood before us his suit jacket off, tie loosened around his neck, top button undone and sleeves cuffed up to his forearms. He looked relaxed and composed but there was something off when his eyes landed on me.
“Thank you all for coming on short notice. Zane told me he gave all of you the option to abort and stay behind, yet none of you did. I am in your debt. This is personal in nature for me as well as a matter of national security.” The President paused for a moment and looked at me with a look that could only be described as guilt, “I am going to make this as short as I can. First I want to introduce you all to Gerard. He is my personal body guard. The White House, staff and the rest of my agents believe I am headed to Camp David with Gerard for some rest for the weekend. Gerard has been vetted and is trusted. Zane has his file for you all to go over, nothing has been redacted. I would never expect any of you to speak freely or trust anyone you have yet to verify. Zane has looked over his file himself and certified it.”
“I’m good,” Zane offered.
The team echoed Zane’s response. If Zane certified the information and trusted this Gerard guy, then it was good enough for the team. A movement to my left caught my attention; Linc was stretching his bad shoulder and I caught his eye and he gave me a tight smile. What the hell was with everyone?
“I’ll get to it then. Ya’ll better sit down. I’m just going to skip all the preliminaries and get to it. There is no time to waste,” the President directed. He blew out a breath then blew my mind, “And frankly I am tired of hiding. Jasmin, I am your uncle. Your mother Erin was my sister. She met your father Robert when we served together, first as Navy Intelligence, then when we worked under the Director while at the CIA.”
When the President, my uncle, stopped talking my whole fucking world was spinning.
“Excuse me, what did you say?” I asked. I needed verification; all the sex thoughts of Linc might have muddled my brain.
“Jasmin, dear, I want you to know that I wanted to take you after your parents died. That is not what they wanted and I respected that. Your parents wanted Noah to raise you. He was a good man, one of the best men I had the pleasure of serving with,” my uncle informed me.
If I thought my world was spinning before it was now tilting off its axis. My vision was blurring and I had reached a whole new level of enraged. I had been lied to my whole fucking life! My head was pounding. Another headache was fast approaching. Shit and damn. I could not stop it.
“The fuck you say?” I screamed.
Linc was by my side in a second. Everything was going black. No, no, no, not again. Why was this happening? Why did I keep getting these headaches now, what the fuck was wrong with my head?
***
“You’re safe, I’ve got you, sweet Jasmin,” Linc whispered in my ear.
Why did I keep ending up in Linc’s arms and, more than that, why did I feel so safe and protected when I was? I was not some wilting flower that needed to be taken care of. If one of the other guys had tried to pick me up and whisper in my ear I would have laughed in their face. I felt Linc sit down and settle me in his lap. I opened my eyes, dreading what I would find. My team was looking at the President like it was taking all their control not to snap his neck and my uncle had moisture in his eyes. Talk about testosterone overload.
“Jasmin, I know you are not ready, but when you are I have everything your parents left for you here in the house,” my uncle offered.
“Here? In this house?” I asked.
“Yes, this house belonged to your parents. It was a safe house; it is off the books, owned by a corporation that could not be tracked back to your father,” my uncle explained.
I looked around the house, admiring it in a whole new light. I tried to picture my parents moving around this space but I could not; I have no memory of them. I was a year old when they were killed and never even had a picture of them. I asked Noah when I was a teenager if he had anything of my parents. His answer was simply, no. I never asked again, not wanting to seem ungrateful to the man who took in an orphaned child to raise as his own.
I allowed myself to take comfort in Linc’s arms. Just for a minute, I would allow myself this one weak moment in front of my team. My mind was spinning at warp speed. Suddenly I was too exhausted to even summon up the energy to be angry. Linc tightened his arm around me and gave me a squeeze. Shit and damn! I have turned into a pansy assed girl who needed a man to protect her. Screw that shit, I needed to get ahold of myself.
Before I could get off Linc’s lap, Jax started speaking. “All due respect, Mr. President but what does Jasmin’s personal life have to do with the op?” He looked pissed as shit on my behalf.
“Actually, it has everything to do with Jasmin and your entire team,” he answered. Gerard handed my uncle an 8x10 photo. He looked at it for a moment before he passed it to Z.
“That is my father. I don’t understand,” Z questioned.
“I’m sorry Zane I was not at liberty to tell you. It was a matter of national security. Your father, Rick, was on our team as well.” The President started to walk across the room to the buffet that displayed a variety of liquors. He poured himself a glass of amber liquor before he continued. “We were hot shit,” he said with a chuckle, “The four of us were at the top of our game. Rick, Robert, Noah and I took all the tier one contracts. We had some good times, brothers in every way.”
Z looked like I felt, like he just received a kick to the gut. I started to get up at the same time Linc stood. He balanced me when he placed me on my feet and walked towards his brother.
“Zane?” Linc started.
He was cut off by an explosion of activity. In one smooth move Z used his arm and swept all the knick knacks off the side table he was standing next to. Well damn, I was glad at least one of us could muster the strength to explode. I, on the other hand was, emotionally frozen. I could not form a single word. I had been lied to my entire life. I was now questioning who I was. Over the years I had many names, they changed with every op I was on, but I always knew who I was deep down inside. Now I wasn’t so sure. Zane was in the same boat, he had been lied to as well.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me Tom? All these damn years! Fuck it all to hell. I have trusted you with my brother’s life, my team. FUCK! Why wouldn’t you tell me you served with my father, hell why wouldn’t you just tell me about him?” Z was clenching his fists so tight his knuckles were turning white. His body was coiled and ready to strike. I needed to shut this shit down and fast. Even though we were all here in this house, my house as it turned out, talking about our private lives, Tom, my uncle, was still the President. If Z did something regrettable it would end him.
“Why don’t we move on to what our family ties have to do with national security. And Gerard, I know you are my uncle’s personal protection but I swear to Christ, if you do not move your hand away from your weapon I will shoot your ass dead before you even pull your piece. No joke! Z is not a threat to the President but I can promise I am a threat to you.” I was happy to have found my voice once again.
The president motioned for Gerard to stand down with a nod of his head. Gerard placed his hands in front of his body and clasped them together.
“I know this is hard…” the President started.
“This is all sorts of fucked up is what it is,” Eric chimed in.
“Yes, Eric I agree. Too many God damn secrets have been kept. Zane, it has killed me not to be able to tell you stories about your father. He was a good man, the best sort of man. He would be so proud of the man you have become. And you, Jasmin, my own niece, and I have not been able to hug you in twenty seven years. I had to watch your high school graduation from the back of the auditorium. Your basic training grad
uation after Noah died, it fucking gutted me to watch you all alone. All for some God forsaken promise and damn secrets.” My uncle was shaking as he spoke. “As far as national security, my team took out Sonreír’s father. He was a drug smuggler and human trafficker. His girls ranged between the ages of ten to sixteen, sick mother fucker. It was a pleasure to put him down like the dog he was.”
“Holy shit,” Colin said. Always stating the obvious.
Holy shit was right! I was trying to connect the dots, but something was just out of reach. I needed to move around and puzzle this out.
“If Rick, Robert, Noah and Tom killed Sonreír’s father he would want revenge. How would he get his revenge?” I asked to no one in particular.
“He would start with the men that killed his father then move to their families if they are not available,” Drew replied.
He was always the one that talked things out with me. When we were in the planning stages of an op Drew and I would bounce ideas around while the others watched in amusement. It worked, we worked.
“Three out of the four men are dead. He would seek out family. How would you seek out someone with a military background and a CIA operative?” I asked.
“You hire a hacker,” Zane supplied the answer.
“Deepweb336 was looking for where CIA operatives were undercover. Neither of us were undercover at the time of the hack nor are we still in the CIA database.” I was still missing something.
“Deepweb336 was specifically looking for Ghost, however he was told to get the entire file to throw off the investigation sending us scrambling to protect hundreds of operatives,” the President explained.
“Lincoln, why would Sonreír want to find Lincoln?” Leo asked.
“He was the pawn,” the President answered.
“How so?” Leo continued.
“Lincoln was the easiest way to get to Zane. Zane would do anything to save his brother’s life,” I said out loud as I still was trying to puzzle together the last pieces, “Who left Lincoln and Z’s mother’s name in the file for me to find?”
“An analyst was paid off. Timothy Clark,” the President answered.
What in the fuck was going on here? Who the hell were all these fucking people!
“Before you ask, Jasmin, Clark was paid off to leave that name in hopes you would put two and two together that Zane had a brother he was lying about. If there could be a rift between you and Zane, you would be easier to get to, making you a pawn to get to me,” my uncle was matter of fact in his explanation.
“Well Fuck me, Zane and Lincoln brothers,” Jax shook his head.
“What else don’t we know?” Colin sneered.
Yup, the team was getting pissed. They were lied to as well. Shit and Damn! This is going to get ugly fast. The whole room needed to separate.
“Can we please break for dinner or lunch or what the fuck ever as long as you all find a room that is not here to cool off? I just found out I have a kick ass house. I would prefer no one else break shit.” I tried to interject some humor in my request but the truth was I felt more like vomiting then laughing.
“Yup.” that’s all the response I got from the guys as they all walked in different directions.
“I’d like to see a picture if you don’t mind, Mr. President,” I asked.
“Jasmin, please call me Tom. I am your uncle for God sakes,” he answered.
Yeah, that was not happening just yet. I just found out that not only do I have an uncle, but he was the President of the United States. And he had kept himself hidden from me for the last twenty eight years.
“I hope you understand that it might take some time.”
“Of course, follow me upstairs.” He turned to Gerard before we walked away. “Will you please see if the staff has left food as instructed?”
“Yes, sir.”
I followed the President, my uncle, up the staircase. “I was at your inauguration. I got called in last minute as a replacement for a secret service agent.”
“Yes, you were. I could not let that day pass without my niece at my side, even if you didn’t know,” he replied.
“Thank you for that.”
We stepped into the master suite. My eyes widened. I looked all around the room, taking it all in. It was lovely. Done in soft greys and pale yellows, a huge four poster bed sat in the middle of the room with floor to ceiling windows at the foot of the bed. You could lie in bed and have a perfect, unobstructed view of the bay. The bureau had framed photographs atop it. I walked over to get a better look. My heart was pounding in my chest as I picked up a photograph of a man and a woman holding a baby girl. Tears streamed down my face as I saw my parents for the first time. All these years I used all the resources I had to try and find a single image of my parents. All the while there was a treasure trove of memories less than fifty miles from where I lived.
I clutched the framed photograph against my chest, hugging the parents I did not remember, mourning their death for the first time.
“Thank you, for them,” I cried.
Chapter Ten
Lincoln
I watched Jasmin sitting down by the dock holding an 8x10 framed image of her family. She had been down there damn near an hour. She was just rocking and staring at her parents. After the afternoon we all had, we decided to leave the rest of the conversation until the morning. Zane, Drew, and Tom went to the guest house with Gerard to start planning the mission. We would have tomorrow to plan then we would leave the next day, Drew staying behind at the White House.
I found myself walking towards the dock. I had tried to give her the privacy I knew she needed, but I lost the battle, needing to be next to her. I sat down behind her, putting my legs on either side of her so I could pull her back against my chest. Much to my surprise she didn’t fight me.
“Sweet Jasmin,” I whispered in her neck, smelling her sweet scent.
She tilted her head to the side, giving me better access to the side of her neck and throat. I placed a soft kiss above her collar bone. I loved the way this woman smelled, I could not get enough.
“Your mother is beautiful. You look just like her, only you have your father’s thoughtful hazel eyes.”
“You think so?” she asked, her voice rough from crying.
“Yes.”
We sat in silence, looking out over the water of the Chesapeake Bay. A few boats passed by, enjoying the warm weather. I felt her snuggle further into me and sigh.
“Why are you here Lincoln?”
“What do you mean, Jas?”
I did not want to have this conversation; I was enjoying the feel of her warm soft body pressed against me. This line of questioning would surely get her riled up and the soft Jasmin would close down.
“I don’t want any bullshit answers from you. I do not believe in coincidences. You show up just as shit gets hot with the case and don’t think I have forgotten about Russia. Your ass has a whole lot to explain.” Her voice was already starting to harden.
“I got intel while I was on an op that someone was poking around trying to find an operative named Ghost. I knew I had to quickly close my op and get stateside. I did just that. I already had the bad guy, so to speak. I was tying up loose ends. I didn’t want any blowback when the op was over. It was clean with one exception, the guard that had burned Eric had yet to be dealt with. He had been moved out of the prison, it took a while for me to track him. Once that issue was solved I left and came home. I had no idea that Tom was your uncle or that Zane’s father served with both your biological and adoptive fathers.” I explained with as little information as I could, not wanting to open a discussion about Russia. I was enjoying this time with her. I didn’t want it to be over.
I felt wetness on my hands and tried to move to wipe away her tears when she grabbed my hands.
“Don’t move. If you move I will not be able to do this. I don’t think another person has witnessed me cry in the last twenty years. I do not understand what it is about you or why I feel saf
e with you, but if you move I am afraid the spell will be broken. I just want to feel safe; I need to feel your arms around me.”
My heart soared hearing those words come from her mouth. I had waited two long years to hear those words pass her lips again, even if she didn’t remember saying them the first time.
“You’re safe; I’ve got you sweet Jasmin.” I uttered the same words I had spoken to her many times as I rocked her bloody and broken body.
I still could not forget the images of her bloodied body on the floor of the vault after her interrogation. They were burned in my brain forever. She was so fucking strong; I have seen men break long before they got to the level of torture Jasmin endured.
“Why are you here Lincoln?” Jasmin questioned a second time.
“I cannot stay away from you. Deep in my gut I know you are mine,” I was completely honest in my answer. This woman was mine.
Jasmin turned to face me. She looked beautiful with tear stained cheeks, her lips puffy from crying, her face was so open and vulnerable.
“What if I don’t want to be yours?” Her eyes sparkled as she taunted me.
“It wasn’t a question woman, you are mine. I already warned you I will have you.” I slammed my lips on hers and moaned at the contact. I had waited so long to taste her lips again. I licked the seam of her lips needing her to open her mouth. As soon as she did I thrust my tongue in and she did the same, the soft timid woman was gone, replaced by my warrior princess. It was all tongue and teeth fighting for dominance, until I fisted her long silky hair. I wrapped it around my hand, tugging it as I tilted her head to the side, positioning her where I wanted her. I took over the kiss, sucking on her tongue, and swallowing the moans she was making. My dick tried to break free from the confines of my zipper. I slowed the kiss in attempt to maintain my control and not throw her down on the grass and fuck her here out in the open. One day I would. When we were here all alone I would spread her wide and fuck her on the grass until she screamed my name.
Nightstalker: Red Team book 1 Page 7
