At Close Range (Ranger Ops Book 1)

by Em Petrova

  Nash drifted back toward the building, trying to see through a crack where the boards didn’t quite cover the entire window. “Bullshit. Get Jess on this. Any police reports in the area, relatives of the owner.”

  “Already on it. Might as well head back to the party, Sully. Lots happening in the square now. There’s a fight breaking out.”

  “Not yet.” Nash stepped up to the door and knocked on it.

  Penn let out a laugh and pocketed the unlit cigarette. “Didn’t know you had it in ya, brother.”

  “I got a feeling about this place. Keep your mouth shut and let me do the talking.”

  He knocked again, and this time one of the men came to the door. His dark eyes slid from Nash to his brother and back to Nash. “No tourists,” he said in stilted English.

  In Spanish, Nash said, “I’m looking for someone who knows about computers.”

  “No computers. Go away.”

  “A friend of mine told me you have ways of fixing computers here that others do not,” Nash pressed on in fluent Spanish.

  The man shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re speaking of. Now go.”

  Nash turned to Penn. Still speaking the native tongue so the man at the door understood, he said, “Didn’t Dom say this is the place we should go?”

  “Si.”

  “If he’s sending us on a dead errand, I’m going to put his balls in a meat grinder.”

  Not being as quick with Spanish, Penn didn’t follow but just nodded enthusiastically. Nash pretended to get worked up, cussing and looking around the street, spewing things about getting information out of a computer that nobody else had been able to.

  The man at the door watched him closely. Nash swore something slithered behind his eyes, but he wasn’t biting—he shook his head and slammed the door in their faces.

  Nash cursed loudly in Spanish and then walked away with Penn at his side.

  “Nice job. You got him interested,” his brother said.

  “Thanks. How the fuck are you operating here in Mexico with your Spanish being so bad?”

  “I got other ways of talkin’.” He touched his side where his weapon was concealed. “That guy knew what you were looking for.”

  “I know.” Nash rounded the corner and spotted Cavanagh.

  “What’s that mangy dog doin’ here?” Penn said.

  Nash tossed him a look. “For a PI you don’t know fucking much, do you? We’re working together. Split off from me and circle the block. Meet up here.” He handed Penn a matchbook with the logo of a bar next to the hostel on it.

  “Thanks for the light,” Penn called to Nash’s retreating back.

  Amusement struck Nash, along with that familial warmth of seeing his kid brother again. He shook his head, but his smile didn’t fade. “Asshole,” he muttered.

  Woody snorted in his ear. “Brotherly love.”

  * * * * *

  Nevaeh had chewed off all her fingernails. She’d chewed bite marks into the end of the pen. And she’d eaten far too many leftover tamales.

  She seriously needed to get a grip on needing to put things in her mouth when she was anxious. At least there wasn’t a stash of her favorite dark chocolate sitting around the room, because she’d gain ten pounds by the time she made it home.

  Home. What were her parents doing? Was she going to give them the news they needed to move on with their lives? All she wanted was for them to begin living, to see some smiles on their faces more often.

  She opened the door of the mini fridge, but the tamales were gone and only bottled waters remained. She grabbed one and kicked the door shut.

  This room was becoming claustrophobic. First thing this morning, Nash had come in, gotten the paper she’d scribbled on half the night and then moved back to the door in that predatory rolling walk of his. Right before leaving, he’d cast her a hard look over his shoulder. “Stay put. We’re keeping an eye on you.”

  She couldn’t quite figure that out either—was she being held prisoner? Nobody had come in to explain it to her, and the one time she’d cracked the door hoping to go out, she was met with the back of a huge man, almost as tall and muscled as Nash.

  Nash—when had she begun thinking of him by his given name and not a captain or Sullivan? She was really starting to lose her mind in here.

  Another thing that had been eating at her were the words she’d written down… and one she hadn’t.

  A nickname her brother had used for her since the day she was born. Baby deer. Or baby dear. The terms were interchangeable. As a child, he’d probably meant it as a sweet term, but as he’d grown and developed a sense of humor, he’d drawn pictures of her as an actual fawn and his first gift to her purchased with his own money had been a stuffed deer.

  She’d loved that deer to death, dragging it around by one leg until it hung by threads and her mother had to sew it. The stuffed toy had earned a special place on her bed, and every time she looked at it, she thought of Antonio.

  For an hour she’d been battling with a plan that had formulated in her mind. It was a bad idea, right? Yet she couldn’t shake it. Finally, she walked to the door and opened it.

  The man was still standing there, broad back to her, arms folded over his chest. When he half-turned to look at her, she followed the bulge of his biceps to his forearms snaked with cords of sinew and veins.

  She looked up at him. Man, he was tall. Was Nash really this large?

  Larger, her brain reminded her.

  “Um, would you like some water?” She offered him the unopened bottle.

  “No thanks.”

  “Uh… I’m hungry. Would you be able to grab me something to eat?” She wasn’t really, still stuffed with tamales. But she hoped her plan to lure him from her doorway worked and she could sneak out.

  “Sure. Do you have any preferences?”

  She shook her head, hiding the leaping of her heart. It was working.

  “No, I’m not picky. Anything will do. Thank you.”

  “Sure thing.” He moved away from her door and went to the other.

  Crap, it wasn’t going to work. He wouldn’t just leave her unguarded, not if he had orders, and she knew he must.

  Just before he reached for the door, he turned his head and stopped. It took her a moment before realizing someone had spoken to him through his communication device.

  He opened the other door and poked his head in to say something.

  Nevaeh took her chance and slinked out of the room, hurrying around the corner where the stairs were and praying she wasn’t seen by one of the special ops unit Nash captained. She didn’t want to know what the man would have to say about her hiding from those meant to protect her.

  Listening hard over the pounding of her own heart, she heard heavy footsteps. For a moment, she had a jolt of fear that the men were headed her way. But they were moving the opposite.

  They walked to the end and Nevaeh rushed to the door of the room with the computer setup.

  Briefly listening for voices, she kept a watch on the hallway. A young girl exited a room with a giggle, and Nevaeh was shocked by the sound. What a different world that young woman was living in while she was deeply involved in this darker, scarier one.

  Well, she either opened the door or didn’t. If she didn’t hurry, she’d be caught—those men were standing with their backs to her but could turn at any second.

  She needed that laptop and standing here wasn’t going to make it magically appear in her hands.

  She twisted the handle. Part of her expected to find the door locked, but it wasn’t. Heart pounding wildly, she peeked her head inside. Nobody was in sight, but she knew that space wasn’t unpatrolled and open. Someone was in there, but she needed to slip past him.

  She darted in, eyes on the prize. A laptop was still hooked up to her brother’s hard drive. She quickly unplugged the power cord and ran for the door.

  When she slipped back into the space she’d been ordered to stay hidden in, she leaned on it, b
reathing heavily as if she’d run a marathon when it had been no more than a few steps.

  Dumb luck had been on her side, and she hadn’t been caught.

  Yet.

  She gripped the laptop to her chest and reached behind herself to twist two deadbolts. It was only a matter of time before one of the guys realized what was missing from their computer setup and come looking for her. Until then…

  Rushing to the bed, she opened the laptop. It took a second for the screen to pop up, but there it was—all the words she’d written had been punched in rows and were even now processing, blinking on the screen as each was tried against the hard drive.

  With no clue what she was doing or even looking for, she added another to that list.

  Cría de ciervo.

  Baby deer.

  Suddenly, the laptop began beeping. Windows opened. Nevaeh’s jaw dropped as she stared. Then a loud buzzing tone filled the room.

  Loud thumping at her door raised a half-scream from her, and she launched off the bed, staring at the laptop as if it was about to explode.

  “Nevaeh! Let me in!”

  That deep voice made her heart slam harder. The laptop continued to buzz in that alarming way.

  She launched off the bed and ran to unlock the door. Nash and another guy burst in. His gaze landed on the laptop, and he stormed to it, muscles throwing off vibes of his power.

  He spun to glare at her. “You stole this from the other room.”

  “I—”

  “Damn, she’s a beauty,” the other guy remarked.

  Nash growled and stalked over to Nevaeh. He grabbed her by the upper arms and hauled her onto tiptoe. “You stole that and brought it in here. What did you enter into it to make it start up those programs?”

  Suddenly, two other men appeared in the doorway. One rushed to the laptop, scooped it onto his thighs and began typing madly. The alarm silenced in seconds, leaving her ears ringing and allowing her to hear just how erratically her heart tripped.

  “Of course she’s got eyes only for Nash,” the guy she’d never seen before commented in an amused way.

  “Shut the fuck up, Penn. Get out.”

  The man only laughed.

  As tough as she wanted to be, she dropped her gaze from Nash’s direct one.

  “What did you do? Tell us now.”

  “I… I entered another word into the passcode list.”

  “Jesus. She tapped it. She fucking did it.” The man looked over the laptop at them.

  Nash spun her to the bed, holding her there. “Point to the word.”

  It wasn’t the last word, but one she’d entered into the middle of a column. With a shaking finger, she pointed to it.

  “My Spanish is good, but that is the oddest password I’ve ever seen.” The man shook his head as if in awe.

  Nash read it and yanked her around to face him. “Fix it, Jess. I need to talk to Miss Vincent alone.”

  She found herself hauled into yet another room, this one with what appeared to be bulky bags holding what she could only think must be weapons. Nash closed the door and locked it.

  She was officially trapped with this very big, very angry special ops unit captain. He was supposed to be finding her brother, and what she’d done could have forever put a halt to that.

  His eyes drilled into her. “What is baby deer?”

  “I… It’s me. My brother used to call me that. It was a joke between us.”

  His jaw worked as if he was grinding his teeth. “You should have written it down on the sheet. My men are more experienced to handle what just happened.”

  “What did just happen?” She angled her head to look up at him, though she could barely meet that heated stare. Funny things were happening to her body again—that warmth was back.

  “You breached another system, and they know it. They’re tracking us right now.”

  “Oh no.” She felt faint.

  “I could have you thrown in jail for interfering in this case.”

  “I-I didn’t mean to cause trouble. It was just something that popped into my head, and I wanted to try the word.”

  “Then you should have told one of the team to enter it. Jesus, do you have any fucking clue what you’re facing here? Somebody snatched your brother because of this. For all we know, they’ve forced him into slavery for the past decade and have him hacking systems all over the fucking world for God knows what ends.”

  Her head swirled. Finally hearing what this team suspected had happened to her brother made her stomach sink.

  “What about your parents?” Nash barked out. “Do you think losing you to this crusade of finding their son will make life any better for them? Jesus.” He grabbed her by the arms, lifted her against him and kissed her.

  Slamming his mouth hard over hers, leaving her gasping.

  Her body lit in a blaze of want at his mere taste, and she responded by parting her lips.

  He washed his tongue through her mouth, seeking, demanding. Her knees weakened, but it didn’t matter because he held her fast to his big, steely chest. Her fingers twisted in his shirt but brushed over coarse, springy hair sticking from the opening at the neck.

  Nash angled his head and drank from her for long, dizzying seconds before letting her go. She landed back on the heels of her shoes, swaying.

  He stared at her, chest heaving. Then he picked her up and spun for the bed. Her body, already ignited, burned hotter as scorching lava slid through her lower belly and down between her thighs. He pressed her back, fitting his hips between her legs, the bulge in his pants nudging hard at her neediest spot.

  She cried out, and he caught her hand, pressing it up and over her head to the bed. His eyes darkened even more as he gazed down at her. When he trailed a fingertip from the corner of her mouth, branding her with the rough, callused pad, down her throat and to the crest of her breast, she shivered uncontrollably.

  All of a sudden, he pushed away, leaving her alone on the bed while he towered over her. He mashed his fingers through his dark hair. “Fuck, I can’t.”

  She dragged herself to her feet to face him, shuddering as desire pulsed through her system. His deep chocolate eyes only heightened her need as he stared at her with unadulterated lust.

  Without a word, Nash pivoted and strode out, leaving her clinging to the reality of what had nearly happened just now.

  What she wanted to happen with everything in her being.

  * * * * *

  Dammit to hell, Nash didn’t even have time to hide his boner after that encounter, because the instant he stepped foot out of the room, Cavanagh and Penn were in his face.

  He took one look at his brother and his scowl deepened. “Why are you still here?”

  “Brotherly love,” Penn jibed to Cavanagh.

  “We need to discuss some things.” Cavanagh rubber-necked as a pretty coed walked down the hall to her room. She glanced back over her shoulder at him, a smile on her face.

  Nash shoved a finger into Cavanagh’s chest. “No fucking around on missions. Got it?”

  Fuck, what a hypocrite he was.

  He pushed past the guys and into the room that was serving as their central base. The rest of the team was gathered around the computer station with Jess at the helm.

  “She got it. She actually fucking cracked this code, and we’re in.” Linc turned to look at Nash as he entered. “It wasn’t in the plan, but your little Miss Vincent helped us slide right into the database we needed.”

  Nash bristled. “She’s not my little Miss Vincent. What have we got?” He stared at the screen Jess was pointing at. After a second of ingesting the info, he pushed out a breath of surprise. “It fucking was those guys in that building we visited today.” He turned to Woody.

  Shaw Woodward looked like a bodybuilder who’d accidentally put on the wrong set of clothes in the locker room—the polo shirt with big splotchy flowers on it stretched tight over his chest and biceps. And his shorts were… well, stupidly short. Nash would laugh at him if
he wasn’t so damn distracted by not only what was up on the screen and everything it could mean to locating Antonio and closing this mission fast, but from the one and only little Miss Vincent.

  Damn her, why did she have to be so alluring, sexy, stunning and taste like pure fucking sin all in one? To a man like Nash, she was goddamn perfect.

  And he’d damn near stripped her down right then and there and tasted every delicious inch of her body. The way she’d kissed him back, as if she’d been holding back for days too, still had him sporting wood.

  Focus. He had to focus.

  “Tonight we’re going back there. Get eyes on that building, Jess, and I want every single name and background of every person who goes in and out of it.” Nash looked around and settled his gaze on Penn.

  “I’m at your service, brother,” Penn said.

  Nash’s first instinct was to send him away, back to whatever hole in the ground he’d come from and let them do their jobs. But fact was, Penn was damn good at what he did, rooting some of the most notorious criminals out of their hiding spots, that they could use him to their advantage.

  “Cav, fill in Penn on all that’s been happening.”

  “Gotcha, boss.”

  While Cavanagh and Penn moved to the table where several pizza boxes sat, Nash gestured to Linc and Woody to come closer. “I’m guessing the database we breached is what? Credit card numbers? Bank accounts?”

  “Some yeah,” Linc told him, rubbing at the scar above his eye. “Some’s a little more worrisome, according to Jess.”

  Nash didn’t want to interrupt their tech guru as he was deep in thought, brows pinched while he typed with manic speed, but he needed to know everything.

  “What are we looking at, Jess?” he asked.

  “Uh…” He finished typing a series of numbers and then half-turned in his chair to fix his gaze on Nash. “This is a broad scope of data theft, but it extends to government.”

  “Which government? Mexican?”

  He nodded. “That and more. Some Argentinian, Brazilian.”

  “Show me.”

  Nash spent the next half hour poring over the information Jess shared with him. When he gathered the guys together, he said, “We’ve gotta formulate a plan of action.”