by Kaylea Cross
Stretching his long frame into his chair, Rhys helped himself to the food on the table. “I hear I missed out on some excitement today.”
The happy light in Bryn’s eyes snuffed out. “Yeah. It sure was…exciting.”
“Well, don’t worry about a thing. All four of us will take care of you until this thing is over.” His voice held grim determination.
As Bryn excused herself to take the phone call, Luke helped himself to a warm roll, his mind humming. “Dec, I need to know if Bryn’s ready or not. This can’t wait much longer.”
“As ready as she’s gonna be. We’ve gone over self-defense, CQB, firearms, some anti-surveillance. She’s got the basics down.”
“Where’s her head at?”
“She’ll manage. She’s very…”
“Stubborn,” Ben finished for him, setting down his fork and popping in a piece of gum. “That’s the word you’re looking for.”
Dec grinned. “She is a little headstrong, yeah.”
“She won’t let you down,” said Rhys. “She’s smart, and as loyal as they come. She’ll do what she has to, and would rather drop dead from exhaustion than quit. Keep that in mind.”
“We will,” Dec said. “Her safety’s paramount, even more than bagging Tehrazzi.”
Chewing on rice pilaf studded with stewed dates and scented with cinnamon, Luke saw the twins’ grudging appreciation, but then Ben leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “Tell me again why you need her so badly for this op?”
Luke fielded that one. “Because Tehrazzi wants her.”
Ben snapped his gum. “Uh-huh.” The muscles in his arms tightened, aggression showing in the narrowing of his eyes. “So what, we tour her through town a little, let everyone see her and wait for the fish to start jumping? Like this afternoon?”
“Sort of.”
Rhys folded his arms. “You really think Tehrazzi’ll jump?”
“Trust me, he’ll jump.”
Rhys’s black brows shot upward. “Because that’s what his psych eval says, or are you his biographer?”
A cold smile spread across Luke’s face. “Something like that.”
“Look,” Dec said. “None of us like that Bryn’s going into harm’s way. But that’s where we come in. If we do our job right, she’ll never be at serious risk. Let’s tie this up and get her the hell home safely.”
“Sorry about that,” Bryn said, returning from the library. She looked at Luke. “That was your wife on the phone.”
The comment threw him. He did his damndest to hide any reaction, but the mention of Emily jarred him inside. He hated that anything could affect him in such a way while he was working. He forced the mouthful he’d been chewing down a throat suddenly gone too tight. “Ex-wife.”
“Right.” Bryn’s gaze dropped to her plate as she sat down. “Sorry.”
He waved away her concern. “She was probably worried about you.”
“Yes, until I told her you were staying here.” When he didn’t reply, she set about cutting a piece of meat. “I said I’d hired you to look out for me until I went home, and she was relieved.”
“That’s good.” The last thing he needed was Emily knowing Bryn was working for him. The less anyone knew about what was really going on, the better for all of them.
Bryn slanted a glance across the table at him. “She said to say hi.”
Something painful expanded in his chest. Something that burned like hope. So he squashed it, out of habit. “Did she?”
“Yeah, and that I couldn’t be in better hands.”
He met her level stare with a bland one. “Nice to know she thinks of me that way.” They both knew what a load of shit that was. If Bryn was tight with his son, and if she and Emily were close enough that his ex would call here to check on her, then Bryn must know exactly what kind of man he was.
And what kind he wasn’t.
He tossed back the rest of his water. “When everyone’s finished dinner, we’ll check our supplies while McCabe and I get our rides set up. We’ll leave for Damascus at oh-four-hundred.”
Bryn pushed to her feet. “Think I’ll…run up and take a bath. See you guys in the morning.”
With her exit Luke headed into the library to go over some maps, debating Bryn’s connection with his ex-wife and son and the added weight that placed on his shoulders.
And he thought of Tehrazzi, still at large six years after the hunt for him had begun. Probably out there riding one of his beloved horses right now. In all the time he’d been tracking him, one constant had remained in Tehrazzi’s life—his horses. He loved them more than anything else, maybe even more than the God in whose name he waged jihad.
Sighing, Luke was reminded of how desperate he was in order to try this. If anything happened to Bryn while she was under his care, he could kiss his fledgling, sorry-assed relationship with his son goodbye, and Emily…well, she might finally wind up hating him. But he couldn’t see any other way to get the job done.
Was he sure Tehrazzi would bite if Bryn was the bait? Damn right he was. He knew him better than anyone else.
You should, the derisive voice in his head pointed out. You trained the son of a bitch in the first place.
****
Curled up in her bed with a Jane Austen novel, Bryn relaxed amid the rumbling of masculine voices drifting up from the lower floor. Having the military men in the house—special ops soldiers at that—she didn’t worry for a second that she wasn’t safe. It amazed her that four alpha males could function together without fistfights and bloodshed.
Not that there was any doubt as to who was the alpha of this pack. Luke’s dominance was unquestionable.
At least Ben and Dec seemed to have settled whatever differences they’d had and were acting like buddies now. Earlier they had sat around the table discussing the latest information on the men who’d come after them this afternoon.
After passing on the license plate to the local law enforcement, within an hour they had received a call saying two men had been arrested. Not only had they neglected to ditch their car, but they’d parked it right in front of the apartment where its owner lived and had gone inside.
The police reported the men had seen the reward posted on the web for her capture. They’d followed the Range Rover to the doctor’s office and chased after them in the hopes of shooting out a tire so they could ambush the vehicle and snatch her.
Stupid, yes, but still a threat. Amateur criminals could be equally as dangerous as seasoned ones, especially to innocent bystanders. No matter how she viewed it, she was a marked woman, and it wasn’t a matter of if, but when, she would be targeted again. Odds were her pursuers couldn’t all be incompetent.
Despite the criminals’ ineptitude today, Tehrazzi had almost gotten her. Again.
He wants you dead, Bryn…
Dec’s voice pierced her thoughts. Back at the compound after the car chase, he’d hustled her out of the Rover straight into the living room, where he’d settled her on a sofa with a throw blanket. He’d been so sweet with her, like at the hospital. And though she’d have loved to crawl onto his lap and burrow into his chest, she’d kept that impulse to herself, afraid he would have distanced himself from her again.
A communal laugh came from below and she sighed wistfully. If it had been old times, with just her and the Sinclair twins, she would have been down there playing cards or Monopoly with them. But for some reason, Dec and Luke made her feel like an outsider, even though she technically now owned this place.
That empty dining chair at the head of the table haunted her. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to grieve for her father, for what their relationship could have been. After his funeral she’d found boxes and albums in his study, full of pictures of her from infancy to adulthood. Luke had been right in his observation about her father. She’d cried because even though he’d been half a world away, he’d taken the trouble to follow her life.
At first she’d wondered why he’d hidden tha
t part of himself, but after some pondering had decided he hadn’t wanted to appear weak. Plus, had he shown the kind of affection and attention she’d craved, he might have inadvertently placed her in jeopardy long before the bombing at the embassy and their kidnapping.
She’d also found pictures of her father with Luke, during the civil war back in the eighties. Luke looked so much like his son, it was uncanny. No wonder Emily had a hard time when Rayne was around.
It was ironic. Here Bryn was, well on her way to falling in love with a SEAL, despite it being a disaster waiting to happen. And Luke was downstairs right now, planning the mission, logistics, strategy, resources at their disposal and a million other things she didn’t have a clue about.
She had no worries about them taking care of her. During her visits here with her father, Ben and Rhys had been like her personal Secret Service detail, and they would now raise that to a whole new level.
As for Dec, she knew he hated her being involved, and because he was the only one to have seen her in action in the field, she had to wonder what he really thought of her. Maybe he was convinced she was going to get them all killed.
She put a hand to her throat. God, what if she did something wrong and they got shot or blown up because of her? What if they were maimed or killed because she’d been stupid and stubborn enough to sign on for this op? She’d rather die than be the cause of any more deaths.
Footsteps along the hall caught her attention. She jerked the forgotten paperback off her lap, fumbling to open the pages as someone knocked at her door.
At her invitation the door cracked open, revealing Dec’s silhouette backlit by the wall sconces in the hall. “Hey.”
She drew her knees to her chest, pulse picking up. “Hey.”
“Can I come in?”
“Sure.” She scooted further against the headboard to make room for him, and he sat at the foot of her bed. This close the scent of his soap teased her, making her wish she could bury her face in the curve of his neck just to breathe him in.
His gaze was thoughtful. “How you doing?”
“Good. I’m good. You?”
He smiled, revealing that sexy pair of dimples. “Don’t worry about me. I’m tougher than I look.”
Eyeing the width of his shoulders, she smiled back. “You look plenty tough to me.”
He hesitated, and she realized he was making an attempt to be more human with her. His guard was lowered, his posture relaxed. “You need anything?”
“No thanks. Was just reading a bit. You know, help take my mind off…everything.” She was exhausted, but maybe insomnia was for the best. More than once she’d woken out of a dead sleep drenched in sweat, terrified she was still in that damned cellar.
“Is it working?”
“Nah.”
He studied her a moment. “You know, if I could make all this go away, I would.”
She leaned back into her pillow. “Maybe we could chat for a while.”
“Sure. What about?”
“Anything except…all this.” Maybe now would be a good time to let her curiosity about him get the better of her. “You have a family back home?”
His tawny eyes met hers, their unusual color more arresting thanks to the thick black lashes framing them. “Parents, and a brother and sister. In Montana.”
So he wasn’t married. Thank God. Now she didn’t need to feel guilty about poaching when she daydreamed about him. She did envy him, though. She’d always wanted siblings. “Are you close?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Mother and step-father live in Baltimore. But I’m guessing you already knew that.” When his eyes lit with amusement, she knew she was right. “It was in my file, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“What else was in there?”
He moved his broad shoulders in a negligent shrug. “Your background, education, identification marks—”
“Such as?”
“I know you had your appendix out.”
Oh. “Anything else?”
His eyes laughed at her. “Why? You afraid I know some dirt you don’t want anyone to find out about?”
“No dirt here,” she assured him. “It’s just weird that you knew all about me before we met and I still don’t know anything about you.”
“Made our job easier when we came in to get you.”
How much would he reveal about himself if she kept questioning him? Some level of secrecy had to be maintained, she supposed. It would make him that much more effective at his job. And of course there was the issue of him keeping a professional distance between them. She didn’t want to have that conversation with him again.
“Luke told me you were a friend of his family. That true?” His question surprised her.
What a tidy way for Luke to sidestep all the complications of their shared connections. “His son’s my best friend in the world, and I’m pretty close to Luke’s ex-wife.”
“Bet that bugs the hell out of him.”
“I bet it does too. They all get along okay—I mean, they’re civil to each other and everything. And the guys took a stab at burying the hatchet this past spring, so it’s better than it was. It wasn’t easy for any of them with Luke’s line of work, which you can well imagine.” Which was why it was so, so stupid for her to even daydream of being with Dec. She knew what sort of misery could come from that. What was wrong with her?
“Yeah, a lot of marriages don’t work out under that kind of stress. It would take some special kind of woman to hang in there for the long haul with one of us.”
She kept to herself that she figured she could handle it. “But sometimes it’s not the wife who wants out. And even when they part ways, it doesn’t mean they don’t still love each other.”
His gaze sharpened. “Meaning Luke was the one to leave?”
It wasn’t her place to fill Dec in on Luke’s private history. “Let’s just say Emily would give up everything to be with him. In a heartbeat. I think he feels the same way, but he’s either too stubborn or paranoid to let it happen.”
“Stubborn, huh. I know a few people too stubborn to know what’s good for them.”
Despite herself, she snickered. His answering smile almost melted her bone marrow.
“What about the twins? Where’d you meet them?”
“At a restaurant in Boston. I was working at this Greek place one weekend in college for some extra money when they came in with some of their military buddies.” She’d been dancing, and they’d stuffed her costume bra and belt full of money. On the sly she’d paid for Ben and Rhys’s dinners, and after her show they’d invited her to join them.
“Ah.”
“Did you know they grew up in foster care?” She was babbling, couldn’t seem to stop. “Their mother was a crack addict in Southie, had them living out of a car. Social Services took them in when they were ten and they went through hell until the Sinclairs adopted them at fourteen.” She swept a stray lock of hair from her face. “That’s how I ended up choosing to be a social worker. No child I was involved with was going to get tossed around like they did.”
Actually, she’d probably been a caretaker all her life. Being raised by a single mother, Bryn had always been very protective of her. “Anyway, we kept in touch while I went through grad school and after they left the military, I mentioned to my father that they might be interested in doing private security. One thing led to another, and here we are.”
Dec nodded. “So with your job, it’s the kids you’re in it for?”
“I can’t stand knowing kids are out there suffering all sorts of abuse, especially when it comes from the people who are supposed to love and protect them. If I find out about it, I do everything in my power to take that child away to a safe and loving environment.” She cocked her head. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
She lifted a shoulder. Hopefully she was coming across as casual and not scaring him off. “What did you do before becoming a SEAL?”
&nbs
p; “Earned my engineering degree with the Navy two years before I entered BUD/S.”
“An engineer? What kind?”
“Civil. I learned how to make bridges, and then in the Navy I learned how to blow them up. Turns out blowing them up’s way more fun. Who knew?”
So he wasn’t just an elite soldier with a pretty face. He had a mind every bit as formidable as his tactical skills, which made him even more irresistible to her. Though to be honest, if she hadn’t seen him in action in the field she would never have believed him to be lethal. He came across as so calm and kind, she had trouble reconciling what she saw in him to what she’d witnessed out in the desert.
She wanted to understand what made him tick. “So why did you decide to be a SEAL?”
“9/11, same as a lot of people. I got real pissed off and decided to do something about it. The SEALs seemed the obvious choice, since we’re deployed to hot zones all over the world. Lucky for me, I was good at it. I thrived on the challenge.”
“Challenge? I know what they do to you guys. You call being tortured and living day and night in freezing cold water with no sleep a challenge?”
His dimples materialized. “Loved it. See, the trick is to not quit. That’s all that got me through the training, and why other guys rang out. Sheer willpower. Most trainees are in great physical shape, but the mentally tough ones are the guys who finish. You stop thinking about how bad it is and just do it.”
He laid his left palm on the mattress, the crescent-shaped scar on the back of his hand reminding her of when he’d framed her body with his against that sheer rock face. “If you let yourself think about being cold and wet and tired for days on end, you’ll never make it because your brain’s telling you you can’t endure it. So you shut everything out except what you’re doing at any given moment and get through it one task at a time.”
She eyed him like he was nuts and he laughed.
“When you think about it, they have to train us the way they do. They need guys who are motivated, mentally tough and won’t give up on themselves or their teammates. Pretty simple, really.”
If she looked awed by that speech, she couldn’t help it. He was heroic down to his core and he didn’t seem to realize it.
