Assignment: Second Chances

by Honor James

  “Shit,” Burner muttered. “We need to pull back, relay this, and figure out what the fuck is going on.” Clicking on his mic, he said the same to the team. They would all except for Reaper, who was their sniper Slater Markham, withdraw to a rally point. Given where Reaper was, no one on God’s green Earth would ever spot him.

  Razor gave a nod and began to butt wiggle his way to the sloping path down from their little nest. Burner gave him a look. “Keep watch for another ten, Glacier. Make sure the team is out of the zone before you join us. Reaper, keep an eye on Glacier to ensure no one tries to sneak up on him.”

  The sniper only sent a couple of clicks for confirmation over their headsets. A man of few words once he was in his hunting mode, his language skills slid into a big fat zero.

  Burner rolled his eyes, slapped Jacobs on his arm, and then eased toward the small path that Razor had just taken. Once he was out of sight, Jacobs turned his attention back to the camp in the distance. A couple of fires were going with most of the occupants sitting around them. Sweeping the binoculars out, he began to search the shadows for movement that didn’t belong. He noted a couple members of the team carefully picking their way down another hill on their way to the rally point.

  A flash of light caught his attention. Even before his brain could fully process what it was, he was on the mic shouting out a warning. The explosion rocked the ground much too close to where his teammates had been. Thankfully they dove for cover at his warning. Shaken, covered in dirt and other particulates, they were up on their feet and racing for cover.

  The camp was in motion. Hesitating only a moment until the first body dropped, Jacobs pushed up and raced down the path. Reaper was on the job and delivering souls to whatever the hell these folks believed in, right where they belonged.

  He kept his weapon in hand as he raced down the hill. He was moving fast, but he also was keeping his speed in check. It really wouldn’t do to land in a heap at the bottom, which he reached in bare minutes, and whipped his weapon up to his shoulder. Keeping it up and steady, he let his eyes roam as he moved in a fast walk.

  A shout was the last thing he’d hear before the explosion that threw him into the air.

  * * * *

  Markham had told him he’d been tossed about twenty feet into some boulders, and slid down to lie lifeless. The sniper had taken out a couple of the guys that had swarmed over him, but he hadn’t managed to get them all. Jacobs had been dragged off, bound, and then taken God only knew where.

  When he’d woken he’d been in a cave, tied up, and dangling. He’d been tortured, beaten, burned, and cut. They had wanted him to scream, to give them information, but he’d kept his silence. Jacobs had truly thought he would break, but then had come the rescue.

  Two months in the hospital with doctors poking, and prodding. Two months of shrinks trying to get him to talk about what he’d gone through. Eventually, though, he’d been cleared for duty once more. By the end of his time in that hospital he’d been boiling with a rage that needed to be assuaged. Desperately.

  He hadn’t been a part of the team when that particular cell had been taken down, but there were always more out there. In time he’d gotten back his cool that had led to his nickname of Glacier. But it had been a long, hard-won battle to say the least.

  At the end of the last tour when Michael had said he was getting out so he could be with his woman, Gigi, the rest of the team had all taken a hard look at their lives. Because they were a team, it was an all-for-one situation for them. They’d put it to a vote, and had all decided when their contracts were up, they too would get out.

  Thankfully the Nightshade Agency had been already in motion. It gave him something to focus on so he didn’t have to delve too deep into anything else.

  But then came Olivia, the love of his life in danger again from the same man who had apparently abducted her, and tortured her. Jacobs understood torture, he’d been there, but to think of sweet Olivia being touched in any way, or worse than he had been, got his blood boiling. Seeing her again had made the small crack in the ice around his heart split wider. Seeing her anger, and pain when looking at him created a second. Knowing she had secrets he would never know of created a third.

  Being around her was a whole new level of torture, but one he wasn’t sure he could ever get free of. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to, honestly.

  Stepping back from the bag, Jacobs closed his eyes for a moment, reaching deep for the anger and pain again, and let loose on the bag once more. He could never go back to where they had been. He didn’t even want to if he were honest with himself, but he would get her through the newest terror in her life and then set her free once more. It was the least he could do. Even if it killed him this time around.

  Chapter Three

  He felt another person move up next to him. Shooting his boss a look, Gordon gave him a nod.

  “How’s the shoulder?” Michael asked.

  “Hurts like a bitch,” he said. Absolute truth, he believed in it, and while it occasionally was off-putting to some, he really didn’t give a shit. Lies only clouded up the complexity that was life.

  He’d been shot three days ago when Michael had called all of Nightshade back to the offices for an emergency meeting to discuss plans to catch Carl Parker. What no one had expected was for Parker to walk up to the front doors to grab Clara Smith. Clara had taken a round to her leg as well, but was making a speedy recovery with the help of her men. Timmons and Yoshi were devoted to her, and her safety was their number-one priority. Timmons had nearly gone off the edge when he’d figured out what was happening. Gordon couldn’t remember a time he’d seen the wise-cracking tech geek so cold, focused, and downright fucking scary.

  Gordon had always figured that Markham was the scariest member of Nightshade. But that night, when Clara had been shot, he’d adjusted his thinking to put Timmons on the top of that list.

  “Petrov called from Ms. Green’s place to say everything was still going smooth. But I need him on another case sooner than later. I know it’s only been a couple of days…”

  “I’m good,” Gordon told him. “Might hurt, but I’ve had worse. We all have,” he pointed out. Every man at Nightshade had taken more than a round or two in their day. They all had their own ways of pushing beyond the pain of a physical wound to do what needed to be done. And protecting Olivia was paramount. Especially with Phyllis, and her unknown cohort still out there.

  With Parker back in custody, this time permanently, they had to turn their focus onto the woman and her male friend. The guy had connections from recent evidence, or rather the lack of it, they had uncovered. While it was all supposition at this point, they were all of the same mind to err on the side of caution and be overly paranoid in regards to the guy, whoever the hell he was.

  “Good.” Michael gave a nod and then turned to look back through the glass into the gym where Jacobs was beating the shit out of the heavy bag. He had been for a couple of hours if the log for the security was any hint. “Keep an eye on him,” Michael said.

  “Of course,” he replied. Michael didn’t even have to ask. Gordon had met Jacobs back in basic, but because of their different goals within the military, they hadn’t run into one another for a number of years. Eventually they had reconnected, and then kept in touch. When Jacobs got out, he’d sent an open offer of a job with Nightshade to Gordon if, or when he’d decided to get out of the Corps.

  That choice hadn’t been easy for Gordon. He loved what he did with the Corps, but with the winds of war shifting he’d seen the signs and knew his time doing what he did was up. So he’d put in his papers, and then come knocking on Michael’s door when he’d finally walked away from the military.

  It was one hell of a good group of guys. Their primary mission of taking care of the family of military members, serving or having had served, was noble. They did a few other jobs of protection duty, but they were only to bring in revenue. The jobs for the family members of current or past military membe
rs was their true passion and always given at huge discounts.

  He liked that these guys were still doing their bit to assist those serving their country. It might not seem like a big thing, but he knew from past experience that knowing a loved one was being looked after by someone you trusted made doing what you had to do in a foreign land a hell of a lot easier. Worrying about shit you couldn’t do anything about was a great way to get killed in some countries.

  “I sometimes wonder if assigning him to look after Ms. Green was the right call,” Michael muttered.

  “It was never your call to make,” Gordon said. He knew that Jacobs had someone in his past that had hurt him, broken him, and made him turn a cold eye on many things in his life. From listening, and observing Jacobs and Olivia together he now knew exactly who that person was. Not that Jacobs had ever given her name during their drunken talks. But he had been trained to look for the little things, the cues so many didn’t realize they used in everyday life, and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jacobs and Olivia had serious history.

  Which made his own attraction to the woman a complication that wasn’t necessary. He’d had some seriously hot, raunchy dreams about her since meeting her. Even knowing her past, and the shit she’d had to put up with from Parker didn’t stop his mind from working overtime. It disgusted him to think of what Parker did to such a gentle soul, and it definitely left him with a foul taste in his own mouth to be thinking of doing some of the shit he’d dreamed up to her.

  Not that it stopped his mind from dreaming of stripping her naked, bending her over a table, and ramming his cock balls-deep into her pussy to fuck her hard. Or having her on her knees, looking up at him with her deep chocolate-brown eyes as she sucked his cock until he spilled down her throat.

  Lifting the cup of coffee in hand to his lips he took a sip as he fought the need to adjust his dick behind the zipper of his jeans.

  “True,” Michael said. “All right, you two get back on the detail of watching over her. We still have that bitch Phyllis out there with her boy toy to deal with. Timmons has all the video feed from the hotel they were staying at with him at home and he’s going through it. So far he has nothing more than Phyllis on camera, but he’s determined.”

  “I know the feeling. Being yanked around from some guy behind the scenes was bad enough when we were in the military, but this scene takes that to a whole new level. I want a piece of this asshole when we finally find him.”

  “You and everyone else around here.” Turning, Michael gave him a look. “Look after your shoulder. You won’t be any good to us, or to her if you don’t follow doctor’s orders to the T.”

  “Copy that, boss,” he said.

  Michael gave him a grunt, eyed him up a moment longer, and then spun around with military precision to march off up the hall. Grinning, Gordon shook his head. You take the man out of the military, but you definitely couldn’t take the military out of the man.

  Returning his gaze to Jacobs, he frowned when he saw him pausing. The other man tipped his head slightly, spun, and then stalked over to where he had a towel and water bottle sitting on a bench.

  A bad feeling rolled through Gordon that had him moving even as Jacobs dug out his cell phone. He was into the gym just as Jacobs snapped a sharp “What?” into the device. It was the stillness that had a chill creeping down Gordon’s spine. But when Jacobs met his gaze he knew something bad, really bad had happened.

  “I’m on my way. Breathe, baby,” he said in a softer tone into the phone. “I’m coming to you right now. Get somewhere secure, and don’t you fucking move an inch. I’ll be there in fifteen, tops.” Ending the call he, stuck it into the gym shorts he was wearing and raced for the doors.

  Gordon didn’t ask questions, Jacobs would explain eventually, and just followed. Right out of the building, to Jacobs’s SUV, and then they were tearing out of the parking lot before Gordon even had the door fully closed. It had to be Olivia. There was nothing else in the world that would have Jacobs looking ready to murder an entire city. Sitting back, he slipped on his seatbelt, and then held tight to the oh-shit bar over his head. Questions, and answers could wait. No way was he distracting Jacobs from his driving given his current speed.

  Chapter Four

  Olivia was sitting on her couch when she heard the doorbell. She didn’t move, instead she simply yelled, “Come in, Lee.” She knew that was who it was. She would know his knock no matter where she was at. It hadn’t changed over the years, actually there wasn’t really anything that she had forgotten about him or anything that had changed about him. Other than he gained a great deal of muscle mass, which only made him hotter.

  No. No she wasn’t going to go there. She wasn’t going to think about that. When she saw him walk in with Nathan she felt her mouth water. If she thought that Lee alone was potent, it was nothing to seeing Lee and Nathan together. Holy crap, she was in so much trouble, and when these men left her she would fall apart once more.

  She pointed to the newest letter and sniffed. “I need to go back home,” she told them without pause. “I have to return to Florida because someone destroyed the headstone and grave of my son.” A child that Lee hadn’t known about, she had tried to tell him but whatever.

  “I can’t deal with this from here. I have to go there.” It was non-negotiable. She refused to not put her son’s grave back to rights herself. It wasn’t going to work, at all.

  Lee came straight to her after briefly pausing by the table to glance at the note. He looked like he’d been working out, the shorts, and short-sleeved loose t-shirt, a dead giveaway along with the taped-up hands. She hadn’t seen him in anything but long sleeved t-shirts, jeans, and boots since he’d come back into her life she realized in that moment.

  Crouching before her he looked at her. “Are you okay?” he asked. She gave him a look that didn’t get any sort of reaction from him. “We’ll arrange the flight but we’ll be going with you. This could be them trying to draw you out, and away from protection, Olivia. Especially since we haven’t heard a peep from Phyllis or this guy she’s hangin’ with since Parker got himself caught. Go and pack right now, you’re not staying here tonight even if we don’t get a flight out immediately.”

  She nodded and took a deep breath. “I know, realistically I know that’s what it could be but he means more to me than my own safety.” Even though her son was gone he was all she had left. Lee Jacob Green was her everything.

  “I get that, but it doesn’t mean I’m letting you run off across the country right into a trap. If it is a trap. So go, pack, and get whatever you need to get together. We’re leaving here as soon as you’re done, and then we’ll figure out how the hell to get there. Move,” he said. Unfolding to his full six-feet-five height, he waved her back to her bedroom and then turned to go over to Nathan.

  It only took her ten minutes to toss some clothes into her suitcase and carry it downstairs. She saw Nahan and Lee with their heads together and frowned. “What has you both in such a deep conversation?” She was hurting inside. She felt as if her son had died all over again when she had read the note and saw the images of the desecration of her son’s grave, a child she had still not told Lee about.

  Both men turned to look at her with identical unreadable expressions. “Just running scenarios through,” Nathan told her. He moved toward her, and took the suitcase from her hand. “I’ll get this in the car. Make sure everything’s locked up tight before we leave,” he said to her quietly. Turning, he and Lee shared a look she was sure was some form of man communication. But it went over her head, and in the current situation she really didn’t care to attempt to figure it out.

  Lee was working at pulling the tape off his one hand as he watched her. A pile of tape behind him was from his other hand. “You should check the doors real quick,” he said. “Then we’ll set the alarm and head out.”

  “Can do.” She slipped back into short sentences to this man. She hardened her heart once more. She had a task and she had
to do it. There was no other option and she knew that if she let him see the crack in her heart then he would be back there once more and she wouldn’t survive a second time of him leaving her.

  Olivia moved around the house quickly, checking windows and doors, and then when she got back she nodded. “All secure. There is a waste bin by the door where you can drop that.” She tilted her head to the pile of tape. “I didn’t know who else to call. You are the only one that I really know and I didn’t have Nathan’s number, so I called you.” She saw the look on his face when he entered her home, the one that said he would rather be anywhere but there so she was explaining herself. “However thank you for coming,” she said quietly.

  Tugging the last of the tape from his hand he balled it up. As he turned with both wads, she was sure she saw something on his inner wrist, but he was moving so she couldn’t get a good look. “Of course I came,” he said. He grabbed her jacket, and moved to the door. “Set the alarm and let’s get going. We need to get you to Florida.”

  “Thank you.” She had to put that face on, the one she used when she was near Lee. The only way that she kept from falling apart when he walked back into her life. She followed him, trying to keep from looking down at his too-perfect ass. God he had only gotten better with age, he had only gotten stronger and more perfect. She hadn’t thought that it was possible, but there it was.

  Once they were in the vehicle, she sat in the backseat, much to both men’s disapproval. She was watching the scenery as it whizzed past them on the way back to Nightshade, maybe? “Where are we going?”