by Lori Ryan
Still, somehow Heath felt more anxious than he had before on a mission. He didn’t have to be a genius to figure out why. It was the woman sitting between him and Zip. Having Eleanor here was messing with his head big time and he didn’t like it. It didn’t help that his injury meant he had to let his team step up and take on most of the protection detail for at least the next couple of days.
They needed to get her through this mission and home safe. The idea of it lanced through him, even as he knew it was what he wanted. He wanted her safe but that meant having her far away from here. Far away from him.
They pulled onto the farm of their host, Aksan, and toward the barn that housed the mama sheep and their babies when Aksan wanted to separate them from the rest of the flock. It also housed the tunnel.
Aksan waved them into the space and they all piled out of the SUV while Merlin paid for Aksan’s trouble in American dollars. A lot of them.
The sheep and lambs began to bleat at them and Zip tipped a head toward the side of the aisle that held most of them. “Take care of that will you, Woof?”
Heath laughed, but crossed to the sheep, letting the lambs nuzzle at his good arm as they waited. They did get quieter and he saw Eleanor grinning at him and shaking her head.
Then Aksan signaled his men to lift an enormous trap door in the center aisle of the barn. The ground beneath the floor had been hollowed out into a steep ramp and Merlin steered their SUV down the slope to the bottom of the space.
The precarious slant of the car would make most people nervous but Eleanor didn’t seem to bat an eye at it. Nor did she question it when she was handed a pair of night vision goggles and they all had to clamber past the car and head into a tunnel that was small enough they had to crouch and walk single file to fit.
Heath hoped like hell she continued on without issue for the mile-long trek underground. It was different than being in a tunnel in your car. One built by engineers and shored up with concrete and metal. This was nothing more than rock and dirt and without his training, it would be easy to let panic kick in at the idea that the whole thing could collapse and bury them alive.
“How we doing up there, Eleanor?” Heath asked, pitching his voice low. They didn’t have to be completely silent since they were only crossing under the open grazing land of Aksan’s farm at the moment, but he wasn’t exactly going to shout to her.
“Oh, just dandy.” There was a small squeak to her voice that said she was fighting the very fear he’d just wondered about. “And you?” she asked.
He chuckled. “Hanging in. We’ve made this trip before. One foot in front of the other. Piece of cake.”
“Piece of cake, huh?”
Jangles chimed in from in front of Eleanor. “Now would be a bad time to let us know you’re claustrophobic.”
“You never asked,” Eleanor said and Heath didn’t miss the tremble in her voice. “And besides, I didn’t think I was until now.”
Heath slung the strap of his weapon around to hang on his back and reached out to rest a hand on Eleanor’s side, squeezing as they continued through the tunnel. At the pace they were moving at, they had a good twenty to thirty minutes to go. They needed to keep her calm through this.
“Remember that cave in the Philippines?” Zip chimed in.
Jangles groaned. “No, I don’t. In fact I do my damned best not to remember those caves. Ever.”
“What happened?” Eleanor asked.
“We had a little down time in the Philippines so Zip schedules this caving expedition,” Heath said, ignoring how damned good it felt to have his hand on Eleanor as they moved in the dark. “Only he decides to go with this discount tour operator because, as he put it, we know what we’re doing so what does it matter if our tour guide does?”
“Oh no,” Eleanor said.
“Oh yes.” Heath laughed at the memory. “The guy got stuck head down in a crevice. He was wedged so deep it took us three hours to get him out of there.”
“Probably not the best story for the moment,” Duff said from behind them.
“I’m okay with it,” Eleanor assured him and Heath could hear the strain had left her voice. She was handling this and he had so much damned pride for her. She’d been incredible through all of this. “You guys got him out?”
“We did,” Jangles said. “Made for a lovely vacation.”
Zip snorted. “There’s no other way you’d rather spend your off time.”
It was true, Heath thought. They had all loved the challenge. A body isn’t made to be upside down for so long, so the guy had been in real danger. It had been a race against the clock to get him free using only what they had in their packs. They’d had to chisel a pulley system into the walls of the cave and ease him out inch by inch with ropes.
“Aksan and his cousin have a lot of people going through this tunnel?” She asked.
“Not so many that they get caught. They charge enough for it to pay off any patrols that do come by, but they keep the traffic light. They make it cost prohibitive to keep it that way,” Merlin said.
“So Uncle Sam is paying a fortune to get me to Kazarus?”
Heath and the others laughed and Heath answered. “Discretionary Mission Funding.”
There was laughter in her voice when she answered. “That sounds good and vague.”
“Perfect. That’s the way it’s supposed to sound,” said Zip.
Ahead of them Merlin signaled for silence and they all went quiet as they continued the trek through the dark.
As they moved through the space, Heath kept his eyes trained on Eleanor and cursed himself six ways from Sunday. He was going to hell.
Because as they snuck through a dark tunnel under the border of two nation states, he was thinking about her body. He was thinking about how soft she felt under his hand. He was thinking about how good her silhouette looked even through his night vision goggles and how much he wished they were alone in the dark, and not in a tunnel.
Yeah, he was going to hell. He grinned. Might as well sit back and enjoy the trip.
Chapter 9
Eleanor didn’t realize how worried she was about her team until she saw them all waiting by their vehicle at the rendezvous point two miles out from Demir’s compound. They stood by their vehicle on the side of a road surrounded by rocky outcroppings and shrubs. White, blue, and yellow wildflowers dotted the landscape and if she wasn’t feeling on edge, she would be happy for the chance to take in the view.
She hoped they wouldn’t be there long. She felt exposed.
“You’re all okay?” She asked for the third time.
This time, her assistant Beth laughed at her, as did the other three people going into the negotiations with them.
“We had a gorgeous drive down the coast. It was beautiful,” Beth gushed.
Eleanor forced a smile. She’d seen the coastline of Turkey before and knew how breathtaking it was. She’d been surprised on her first trip here. She had thought Turkey would be sandy, all deserts and dunes. There were rock faces but they were beautiful and filled in with lush green shrubs and trees.
Her team had come down the western coast so they’d had the treat of ocean views and coastal breezes for their trip.
Beth had been her assistant since the woman graduated from college six years earlier. She had moved up through two promotions with Eleanor and they worked well together. She was uber organized and usually able to predict what Eleanor needed, even if she did have an addiction to romance novels Eleanor just couldn’t understand.
Eleanor had worked with Geoff, Sharon, and Marcus all before and liked them, for the most part. They had all worked to get where they were and didn’t seem to feel entitled to their positions. Her boss had let her choose who was coming on the trip with her and it had been a no-brainer to choose this team.
Geoff and Sharon had a lot of experience and she respected their opinions. That was important going into something like this.
Marcus, the youngest of the group, took a step clo
ser to her. “It’s good to see you here in one piece. They wouldn’t tell us anything about where you were.”
Eleanor nodded. It was meant to be that way, with no one on her team or from her office knowing exactly where she was. She hated the fact that this whole thing had put her in doubt of the people standing around her right now. She needed to trust them to do her job. Needed to know they had her back as she went into these talks.
She raised her gaze to the man she knew she could trust above all others. Heath stood talking to two of five men who had escorted her team to the meetup, but his eyes were on her as he spoke. Her and the area around them, she realized. He was watching, always careful not to let his guard down.
She was grateful for that.
He crossed to her and introduced her to the two men who followed. “Eleanor, this is Ris and Nan. They’ve been with your team the last couple days.” He turned to the men. “This is Nor—uh, Eleanor.”
Eleanor flushed at his almost use of her old nickname. If she were really being honest with herself, she would admit that she’d missed the way her name sounded coming from him. Even when he said it here in front of other people, it made her heart race the way it had when he’d first told her he liked her after a tutoring session when they were teens.
Of course, back then, she’d thought he might be teasing her or setting her up for some horrible joke where the rest of the football team would jump out of hiding to make fun of her.
But things were different between them now.
So much of what had happened back then shaped who they were today. Hell, if it all hadn’t happened the way it had, he would have gone to a college near her school and played ball while she pursued her degree. He wouldn’t have ended up enlisting straight out of high school. He wouldn’t be here trying to sneak her into a dangerous negotiation that could go wrong at any turn.
She plastered a smile on her face and shook hands with the burly men in front of her. “Nan, Ris, thanks for being part of this. We appreciate all you’re doing to make this negotiation happen.”
The men grinned and Ris gave her one of those drawling, “Just doing our jobs, ma’am,” lines. Somehow, his flirting managed to not be offensive.
At least not to her. Heath was giving Ris a glare that could scare the pants off a four-star general. He was all muscle and chiseled features. He looked like a comic book super hero come to life.
And she had to laugh when Ris winked at Heath. She couldn’t believe how much these guys all ribbed each other during their missions.
Heath stepped between her and the other men, taking her by the elbow. Luckily for him, his grip was gentle, not controlling, or he’d be getting a mouthful and then some from her. As it was, she had to tell herself not to read too much into his actions.
“You’re going to ride with me. We’re heading to the hotel first and then we’ll go to the compound.”
They walked to the SUV that her team had arrived in and she, Heath, Beth, Zip, and Duff loaded in. Duff took the wheel. She looked behind them to see the others all loading into the other vehicle with Merlin driving that one and Jangles sitting in the back. She wondered how Ris and Nan’s team was going to get to wherever their next assignment was but no one seemed to be concerned about it.
She shook her head. Special forces. Knowing them, they’d just walk off into the woods somewhere and melt into the landscape until someone needed them.
Heath took the spot to the right of her and Beth and Zip sat behind them.
Heath leaned in. “Coming and going from the compound each day will be our most vulnerable times. When we load up each day, I want you to listen and follow directions. Don’t question anything the team or I tell you to do. Just do it. I’ll be right next to you when we come and go and we’ll be on alert.”
She nodded and he continued.
“Same goes for the hotel. Listen to what the team tells you to do. We won’t be ordering room service or anything like that. We have two teams here, so we’ll have our guys get food and bring it in. If you wake up and you’re restless, there’s no going out for a walk or going down to the fitness center or anything like that. You’ll stay in the hotel room at all times unless one of us tells you to leave.”
She bit down on her lips to keep from smiling. It wasn’t funny. What he was telling her wasn’t at all entertaining and her reaction wasn’t at all like her. She was professional. Always. She was the one who kept her head together during stressful times and always had a plan that was two steps ahead of those around her.
So why was she falling apart right now? This was her life and possibly the lives of her team on the line. Still, she couldn’t help it. He was sexy when he was being bossy and for some reason, that made her want to laugh.
He leaned in even closer and growled. “Are you laughing at me, Nori?”
She shook her head. “Not even a little,” she tried, but the choked way the words came out completely belied the statement.
And damn, now she was truly laughing and she didn’t know why. She waved a hand at him as her eyes started to water with the effort of holding back the laughter. “It’s nerves,” she said, but then she lost it and she was full out laughing as he glowered at her.
Jesus, this didn’t happen to her. She didn’t fall apart. Not ever. She held herself together through everything that could possibly happen in her work.
Beth was joining in on it in the back seat and Zip was smiling as he watched Heath growl at her while she and Beth lost it.
Eleanor wiped at her eyes and got herself under control. “Sorry, it’s not funny. It’s just been a long few days.”
She and Beth managed to hold it together for a few seconds and Eleanor thought maybe she’d salvage her reputation as one of the top negotiators for the United States.
Then Beth piped up from the backseat. “Like an alpha male,” and Eleanor knew she was talking about the romance novels she was always reading.
Heath shot Beth a look complete with growl and Eleanor laughed again.
It was all over.
Chapter 10
Two hours later, Eleanor was finally doing the work she should have been doing this whole time with her team.
While Zip and Duff stood guard in the corners of the hotel room, they were poring over every last detail the government had about Onur Demir and his rebels. Heath was watching from a nearby chair but he was officially off duty and supposedly resting. He didn’t look like he was resting to her. He’d taken off his sling but refused to leave the room, and she had a feeling telling him to go lie down wouldn’t have any affect so she didn’t try. She didn’t believe in wasted energy on lost causes.
She also noticed he was being particularly testy with the male members of her team. He’d actually growled at Geoff at one point when Geoff tried to hold the door for her.
She shook her head and focused on Demir instead. He wasn’t what you’d expect in a rebel leader. He came from a family who was nearly as wealthy and well connected as the monarchy in Kazarus. He’d grown up with wealth and privilege. But somewhere along the way, he’d developed the notion that the people of Kazarus should be able to live a free life under democratic rule.
Beth summarized what they knew. “His family is wealthy and was once powerful, though they’ve lost some of that power in recent decades. His grandfather was a general in the country’s military before the current regime took over. He died during the coup and Demir’s father barely escaped with his life. He and his younger brother, Farid, both fight in the Kazarus Freedom Army. Onur as its founder and head, and Farid as his right-hand man.”
Marcus picked up the narrative. “Onur was educated in Turkey and the US before coming home to Kazarus to establish the KFA. It started out as a small group of protesters but it quickly grew and estimates suggest he has an army of over ten thousand men. There are up to fifty thousand civilians forming a network of support across the nation.”
With a population of only 1.5 million people in the small nation, those
were not insignificant numbers.
“So far, they’ve kept their attacks to military installations and government offices,” Geoff added.
“So far?” Eleanor asked. “Do we think that’s going to change?”
Her team looked distinctly uncomfortable.
Geoff offered an answer first. “It’s hard to say. When the group first formed, they funded their efforts by kidnapping people from wealthy Kazarus families, but they were careful not to extend those efforts to visitors from other nations. It’s said Demir believed the fight should be kept within Kazarus, not only its borders, but among only its people.”
Marcus took up the explanation. “On the whole, they no longer do that. They’re well-funded now and they’re striving for greater legitimacy. But they’ve broken with this new stance recently when they kidnapped several nurses and doctors that were here delivering free surgical care as part of a charity from the US, UK, and France. We don’t know what that means.”
“Or what his intentions are with them,” Geoff said. “He’s made no demands so far.”
“He’s had them for two months now?” Eleanor asked, although she knew she was right. She’d already been through the file. She was mostly trying to talk through all they knew so that her thoughts could begin to gel where Onur Demir is concerned.
Her team all nodded in response.
“That’s the unknown in all of this,” she said. “I don’t like it. Did Cheryl send any other intel on where they’re being held?”
“Not much,” Beth said, pulling out a sheet of paper and handing it to Eleanor. “It’s an underground bunker left over from the tail end of World War I when the country was part of the Ottoman Empire just before its fall. When Kazarus reestablished its independence during the Arab Revolt, the ruling party of the time—the now defunct Kazarus Arab Military—took over the bunker. Kazarus lost its freedom again briefly just before World War II when it was occupied by Iraq.”
“We think at some point after the second world war,” Marcus said, “when Kazarus took back its independence and the current monarchy was established, the bunker was abandoned. It’s not clear whether anyone was using it between then and whenever Demir chose to use it. Our guys haven’t gotten eyes in there yet to see what the underground portion is like or what condition it’s in now.”
