Renner (In the Company of Snipers Book 19)

by Irish Winters

  “You see her a lot?”

  Her upper lip twitched, just enough that Alex knew she’d caught the dare behind his rapid-fire question. Just how good are you? “I study my marks thoroughly before I relieve them of... ahem, their heart’s desire, if that’s what you’re asking, sir.”

  Alex nodded despite the sarcasm behind that ultra-polite ‘sir’. He couldn’t deny it, Jed was a stupid shit to trust Montego. Which tweaked the pounding migraine Alex had lived with since she’d escaped his TEAM’s grasp more than six months ago. The awful irony was that Jed’s wife had died shortly after Montego fled the States. Murdering Lois was the one crime Montego couldn’t have committed.

  From that moment on, Alex had kept a close eye on his dearest friend. But not close enough. Alex and his TEAM had been too busy then, stretched too thin, covering all bases, at home and on the job, protecting their families and coworkers. Playing it safe. But when Lois died, everything came to a screeching halt.

  How could Jed have moved on so easily? He’d adored Lois. Everyone had. Alex still couldn’t get over the phone call that had broken the awful news. Some poor nurse at the hospital had to call him because Jed couldn’t speak, he’d been that torn up. The nation and The TEAM mourned with him. Hell, TEAM agents were pallbearers at her funeral. How could Jed have forgotten this quickly? Hell, Alex hadn’t yet gotten over the loss of his first wife and child, while Jed had seemingly jumped at the chance to hook up with Montego. It didn’t make sense.

  So, Alex fretted every day and stayed awake nights, working through all imaginable scenarios. How could he have prevented Lois’s death? Should he have provided Jed with security instead of letting him secure his own? Should he have been less about business, more about friendship? Should he have seen Lois’s death coming?

  Alex wished he had. Because now Jed had gone off-track, shacked up with a dark-haired beauty who called herself LuAnn, even being seen in public with her. The society pages were full of photo ops and coverage of every event Jed and LuAnn attended. The press liked her. Hell, they were making the mysterious, beautiful Cuban ‘princess’—her word, not theirs—who’d saved America’s hero from a life of depression and grief, a star!

  But Alex knew better. Montego might look different. She might have a different name, but she was still the same sadistic bitch. He and his TEAM just needed to prove it. But they also needed to proceed with caution. They couldn’t just outright accuse her, not since she’d won Jed’s affection as well as America’s. The TEAM needed rock-solid DNA evidence to link her to her past and current crimes, which, after months of tedious undercover work, they still didn’t have.

  Not a trace of Montego’s DNA evidence existed at any of the crime scenes. Not at the mansion down the road from Alex’s stronghold near the Shenandoahs, where she’d tortured Beau Villanueva. Not at the underground complex in Crystal City, where she’d maintained a disgusting pit for her kidnapped army, all of them now poster boys for the worst kind of post-traumatic stress.

  Alex shot Renner’s feminine buddy a closer look then. He could see clearly what most others could not. Like so many of his agents, Tara wore the shadows stalking her like a trench coat. They all but hung off her shoulders and encased her small, athletic body. She had definitely suffered somewhere along the line, yet she carried that shroud well, her shoulders back and a go-to-hell chin nod at the world. The fire of a survivor shone in her eyes. He liked her. She was a fighter. Like Kelsey.

  “Ah, Boss, are we going home, as in your place or mine?” Renner asked as if he’d asked once already. Which he probably had. Damned migraine.

  “I’m flying out to mine. We can talk on the drive to Reagan.” Reagan National Airport in Crystal City, Virginia, where Ben Mason, Alex’s pilot, kept The TEAM helicopter waiting.

  “Sure thing.”

  Alex liked Renner, too. More like Senior Agent Mark Houston than his other agents, he never overreacted. Some men came back from combat hardened, quick to fight. Not Renner. He was a thinker and a doer instead of a talker or complainer. His jokes were always expertly crafted, quietly delivered, and more often than not, they went unheard and unappreciated. Always understated, Renner stood back from the lead dog until he knew the best way forward. Not that he was passive. Renner hadn’t a passive bone in his wiry body.

  He never argued, just accepted his place on The TEAM, content to follow whoever was ‘lead dog’ at the time. To listen and obey. He’d been born a natural sniper, his patience an inherent character trait instead of a learned skill. That he’d screwed the pooch tonight only proved he’d been too intent on ending Montego. He’d leaned too far forward into this job, which could get an operator killed.

  How well Alex understood. Only tonight his mind was on Kelsey, and why she hadn’t been home when he’d called, why Lexie was at Mark and Libby’s place again. Not that Lexie wasn’t happily bossing Mark’s daughters around, or that she wasn’t well cared for. She most certainly was. Alex never doubted his second in command, but Kelsey’s group of organized wives seemed to be keeping her occupied. Too busy. She’d been—off—lately. And not in a Christmas spirit, shop-until-she-dropped way. He couldn’t put his finger on precisely what, but something was wrong at home, and Alex didn’t like it. He needed to fix it.

  “Out with it. What really happened?” Alex asked as the elevator emptied them into The TEAM’s subterranean parking lot. He headed toward the nearest company car, an armor-plated black Cadillac, bullet-proof, zero-dark-thirty window tinting, and reinforced undercarriage. A man didn’t own the best security business in the country without making enemies. Another hard lesson learned.

  At the car, Alex tossed the key fob over the Caddie’s hood to Renner. “You drive,” he said as he climbed in behind the passenger seat and dropped his briefcase on the seat beside him. That way they wouldn’t need to change seats at Reagan. They’d be good to go. Like him. Alex needed to be gone now.

  Miss Tumulty rode shotgun. Renner took point, adjusting the rearview mirror, meeting his gaze. “What happened, Boss, is I screwed up. I cleared McCormack’s apartment, but when Montego showed up unexpectedly, then stripped down to nothing in the foyer, I got a little distracted. I was in the kitchen. The only light on was in Jed’s living room, but yeah, she walked through the place like she lives there.”

  “She does,” Alex ground out, mentally cursing his friend’s asininity for letting a slimy snake like Montego into his home and his life.

  “That was your first mistake,” Tumulty purred.

  Renner shot her a spiked brow. “Okay, so I assumed once the shower came on that I could easily overpower her. And I could have—”

  “Until he interrupted me,” Miss Tumulty interjected, still speaking to Alex. “That was his second mistake.”

  Alex caught the tight smile Renner shot the woman at his side. He had a name for it now. Twitterpated. Renner might act pissed, but he liked this gal.

  “And?” Alex asked to keep things moving.

  “And…” Renner maneuvered through hectic Alexandria road construction. “I was wrong. I saw someone behind Jed’s bedroom curtain. Thought it was Montego. I mean, who else could it have been, right? I’d just cleared the place. She and I were the only ones there. Only it wasn’t her. But by then, like an ass, I’d cuffed myself to Miss Know-It-All here.”

  “And that was his third mistake,” Tara teased, a pleasant lilt in her voice. “You assumed. Anyone ever tell you what ‘assuming’ makes you?”

  Yup. Twitterpated.

  “Hey!” Renner quipped. “Are you keeping score or something, lady?”

  “Maybe,” she replied, her tone suggestively low. “Someone has to keep track of you.”

  “And…?” Alex snapped. “Did you get away with it? Did Montego know you were in Jed’s apartment or not?”

  “Positive she didn’t see us, Boss.”

  “She might have heard you screaming,” Tumulty added saucily.

  “Like hell I screamed.
”

  “Oh, yes, you did. Like a little girl,” she taunted. “All the way down.”

  “Did not.”

  “Did too.”

  “Guys.” Alex didn’t have time for this flirty back and forth. “I doubt people inside any building Jed built would hear screaming outside their apartment.”

  Renner’s gaze stabbed Alex in the rearview. “I did not scream.”

  Tumulty scoffed.

  He cocked his head at her. “You want to tell the rest of this story?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes.” She turned and swung an elbow over the back of her seat. “Actually, Renner is a fast learner, Mr. Stewart. He did as I instructed on the way down, and we landed safely, so all is well. But I do believe you’re right. That woman you call Montego is dangerous. What has she done?”

  Alex glared at Renner in the mirror. “You haven’t told her?”

  Renner shook his head. “Need to know, Boss. She doesn’t need to be mixed up in this.”

  “She already is.”

  “No. No, she isn’t. She won’t be going back there.”

  “I won’t?” Tara asked, her eyes boring into the side of Renner’s head.

  Alex recognized that look. She was daring Renner to tell her one more time, just one more time—what she could and could not do. He’d better watch out. The words all men dreaded might come out of her mouth next. Fine. Nothing. Go ahead. Whatever. Best of all, wow. None of those meant the same thing to a pissed-off woman as they did to a clueless guy.

  The light at the intersection blinked red. They were just south of the airport. Renner brought the caddy to a full stop.

  Alex stilled, waiting.

  Renner turned to Tara, his brows furrowed as he looked her in the eye and told her, “I sure wish you wouldn’t go back to Jed’s place. Montego’s bad news, Tara.”

  There went that chin again, this time with a flounce of red mane. “I’m not a child, Mr. Graves. I can take care of myself.”

  “Never said you couldn’t,” Renner admitted. He seemed to know how to get around his prickly friend. “But that woman’s a sadistic, cold-blooded murderer, and she’s smart as a viper. We’ve been tracking her the better part of a year now, still haven’t been able to get ahead of her, much less apprehend her. And most of us are former military. We’re trained. Ending lowlifes like her is what we do for a living. I’m sure you’ve read about the missing Marines from LeJeune. Well, she’s the witch behind that ugly mess, and I’d hate to see you in the same room with her. Please, Tara, for me, don’t go after her.”

  This guy’s good. Steady eye contact. Continued use of her name. Begging…

  Her mouth formed a silent, Oh.

  Renner nodded. “She’s tortured more men than you’ve met in your entire life. Trust me.” His hand went to her jaw as he brushed her hair off her shoulder and tucked a loose strand behind her ear. “The sooner we take her down, the better for everyone.”

  Just the right amount of physical contact.

  Tara’s neck worked through a noisy gulp. Renner had her complete attention now. “I’m… I’m sorry I ruined your chance to apprehend her tonight. Because of me, more men might be hurt. Or killed. You’re right, I shouldn’t have been there.”

  Intelligent explanation. But most of all, respect.

  Renner shrugged. “I’m not sorry. Got to meet you, didn’t I?”

  Okay, and a little bit of schmooze.

  Alex bit the inside of his cheek, watching his agent put some pretty smooth moves on his target.

  “If you know she’s a murderer, why don’t you have her arrested?” Tara asked with a hint of ‘how dumb are you’ in her tone.

  “Because she’s changed her looks,” Alex snapped, interrupting the verbal foreplay going on in the front seat. “She’s had plastic surgery and she changed her MO. She’s pandered to the press and suddenly, she’s a media darling.”

  “And we have no solid evidence to take to the DA,” Renner added evenly. “No DNA, either. Not yet.”

  “But you’re sure this LuAnn’s the same woman? You’re sure she’s Montego?”

  “Never been more positive,” Renner said evenly. “I’ve seen her. Montego can’t change the shape of her head or her retinas.”

  Alex was impressed. He hadn’t known Renner had run her profile through Ember’s facial rec program. They were at the Reagan terminal by then, turning onto the narrow road and through the gate that led to the runway and his flight home.

  At the thought of Catalina Montego and what she’d done to gullible young military men, Alex’s right frontal lobe spasmed, sending a firestorm bouncing throughout his skull like a pinball machine, skewering his retinas. He closed his eyes, every headlight on the street ahead a bright stabbing pain that offered no quarter.

  Son of a bitch, he was tired of living with migraines. He’d been doing it for too long. The shitstorm with Jed, Montego, now Kelsey’s seeming indifference was taking its toll. Maybe it was time to step away from this business and get a handle on these headaches before he stroked out. Take a long vacation. Chill.

  Yeah, no. The TEAM was his blessing and his curse. He’d see this nightmare through. He’d always soldiered through before. He could do it again.

  “Ah, Boss?”

  Alex looked up at the concern shining bright in his junior agent’s eyes. “What?” he nearly croaked as another lightning strike took his breath.

  Renner nodded toward the windshield. “I, umm, said we’re here.”

  Damn. They were at Reagan, parked at the waiting helicopter that would whisk him away from the District and onto another problem. Kelsey had better be home when he got there. Alex nodded. “Thanks.”

  “Are you feeling okay?” Renner asked calmly and evenly. Like always. “Maybe it’s just these lights, Boss, but you look a little pale.”

  Alex scooped up his briefcase, shoved the car door open, and jumped to his feet to prove he was fine. Just fine. It’d take a helluva lot more than a monster like Montego to best him.

  Tara had her window down, so he leaned over and talked past her to Renner. “Stay on Montego. Bring her down. Understood?”

  “Copy that, but are you sure you’re up to this? Maybe you should—”

  “I said I’m fine. Steady sitreps from now on, got it?”

  Renner touched two fingertips to his forehead. “I won’t fail you again.”

  Alex gave him a curt nod, turned and ran for the waiting chopper. He had no doubt about Renner. But as he settled into the copilot’s seat and snapped the noise canceling headset on, he wondered. Who was failing who?

  Alex had three agents in Cambodia at the moment, all working the sex trade epidemic sweeping the world. Two more were in Afghanistan, on loan to the current regime, monitoring heroin trafficking as well as the never-ending humanitarian crisis unique to that part of the world. People thought the Taliban were dead and gone. Guess again. The media just didn’t report the latest war on terror anymore like they should. It wasn’t popular. It didn’t earn high enough ratings. They couldn’t make money off it. Bastards. The Taliban was back, people. More cunning. Still ruthless. But definitely back.

  Then there were his two agents inside China, another three in Russia, and…

  His migraine surged back to life with a monstrous left hook that sucked his breath away. Alex leaned back in the copilot’s seat and closed his eyes before his head exploded. He’d never doubted his place in the universe until now, and that doubt revolved entirely around Kelsey. She was his only anchor and his whole heart. His reason for living. Hell, she was his reason for breathing.

  But if she’d grown tired of him...?

  God knew she had the right. His long hours away from home were enough to ruin his health, they could certainly destroy his marriage. But if this was her subtle way of moving on with her life… Of leaving him and his bullheaded, arrogant ass behind...

  He couldn’t blame her for that, either. This was his
fault. What woman in her right mind could or would wait forever for her man to come home?

  Yet Kelsey had never failed to support him. Every night he came home to a hot homemade meal. She doted on him, and when he had time, he doted on her.

  And there it was. Their problem. His problem. When he had time…

  Was there such a thing as enough time? He knew damned well there was. A smart man managed his hours and minutes, he put important things first. Only Alex hadn’t done that, not since Montego set foot in America. Not since she’d decided to exact revenge on The TEAM for her brother’s death.

  Which meant Alex had failed. He needed to work harder. Faster. Better. For everyone’s sake, he needed to end that bitch before she destroyed the people around him!

  Unless you destroy them first.

  Shit. Yeah. There was that. Alex drew in a long, slow breath to slow the freight train of despair roaring down the tracks at him. That’s precisely what he was doing. Running on empty. Always running...

  Doubt Kelsey? Never. She loved him, and he knew it. She’d never leave. He knew that, too. Where had these awful questions come from? Was he insane? Another deep breath and Alex opened his eyes to the westward winding trail of red taillights on the interstate below. He checked his home security app, the one that pinged whenever a door or window opened at his house. The one that recorded all approaches and relayed those views back to him. The last time it notified him was when Kelsey had driven away late this morning with Lexie.

  Alex refused to call her. He refused to lose hope. He’d be home soon, and Kelsey would be there. Then they could talk. Put Lexie to bed early, maybe open a bottle of white wine and relax together for one damned blessed evening. Kelsey liked wine.

  More than anything, Alex needed to see the light in her pretty brown eyes when she first saw him waiting for her. Like the sun, that light was always there, even on bad days. Wouldn’t she be surprised?