Unending Love: Alex & Katlin: Second Chance Military Romance (Black Swan Book 7)

by KaLyn Cooper

  A woman in her mid-sixties wearing a blue suit with a red tie at her throat clicked up the sidewalk carrying a sign.

  “Excuse me,” she called as soon as she was within hearing distance. “Is there a problem with Mr. Ashworth’s house?”

  One of the suits eyed the woman up and down. “Do you know where I can find Jack Ashworth?”

  “I would imagine he’s already on an island in the Caribbean.” She looked around at all the men in black SWAT gear. “If they got those floors dirty, you’re going to pay to have them cleaned again. They were such a mess after the movers left, but Mr. Ashworth left me plenty of money to get the house in shape. My cleaning crew worked for two days straight just so we can get this house up for sale today.”

  The second suit threw his hands in the air. “So much for any evidence.”

  The first suit pinned her with a stare. “When was the last time you saw Jack Ashworth?”

  “Never. Everything we did was via email and courier. Mr. Ashworth is a very busy man, too busy to meet with me in person. He needed to finish up the last few days before retiring.” She waved her hand. “I work with a lot of government executives this way. They’re transferred somewhere else, to another country, whatever, and want their home sold quickly.” She lifted her chin. “I’m known in certain circles for getting the job done on time.” She looked around the front yard and pushed the sign into the soft grass where it could be seen from each direction.

  “Ma’am, I have a few more questions.” Suit number one took out his phone and started making notes. “What makes you think Jack Ashworth is on a Caribbean island?”

  She looked at him as though he were stupid. “He said he was going to go to the Caribbean and enjoy some time in the sun. He was tired of cold D.C. winters.” She pointed to the house. “He’s such a wonderful man. He had me send all the beautiful antique furniture that filled this house, and his parents’, over to that high-end auction house in Alexandria. He’s donating the proceeds to a charity for military children.”

  “What about the profits from the houses?” The detective tilted his head as though listening carefully.

  “That money goes into his account in the Caribbean.” She looked at him through squinted eyes. “What agency did you tell me you’re from? I think I need to see a badge.”

  Alex had seen and heard enough. He walked across the street to thank his FBI special operations friend and return the communications unit.

  “Can you believe this?” His friend’s gaze swept the area from the real estate agent being quizzed by the suit to the empty house.

  “Oh, yeah.” As Alex walked away, he wondered if Jack really was on a Caribbean island, or if his body was someplace where it could never be found. If Jack was dead, Alex was the only person he was absolutely sure was innocent of the crime. Although he thought about it way too many times.

  Alex was able to get a hold of Katlin later that afternoon, just before they were heading out for night maneuvers. “The house was completely empty.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. We heard through the grapevine that his letter of resignation was on the Secretary’s desk when he arrived to work this morning. Jack probably moved to some island in the Caribbean that doesn’t have extradition to the United States. Too many people knew he was going down. Somebody told him and he decided to cut his losses and run.” Kat sounded as though she really didn’t care. “I hate to cut this short, but our ride’s here. Thanks for calling. I love you.”

  Alex got a text on Thursday afternoon that Katlin’s team had been released for a long weekend and they were all headed to the condo.

  Katlin, her team, and all their men were sprawled around the seating area, most on their second or third drink.

  Nita scanned the crowd, then asked, “Am I the only one who thinks Jack is really dead?”

  “Everything document-wise is easy to fake.” Lei Lu sipped her wine and settled into Henry’s chest.

  “I’d certainly want to get rid of the house that my parents were murdered in as quickly as I could.” Grace shuddered.

  “That would’ve been one of the easiest things for him to do,” Henry noted. “Jack was an only child, so he immediately inherited everything. There was no one to contest the will so everything becomes his.”

  “If Jack was moving, wouldn’t he want to keep some of the contents of his house for his new place?” Griffin took a long pull on his beer.

  “No.” Katlin immediately spoke up. “When our parents passed away, they had five storage facilities filled with things they had picked up all over the world that had meaning to them, but we could care less.”

  “I had no use for anything they’d purchased twenty years ago when living in South America,” Daniel added. “I personally didn’t need any reminders of that continent. I spent enough of my life there and in Central America.”

  “Hell, I lived there and didn’t even want that shit.” Katlin slowly shook her head. “We ended up giving stuff away to anybody who would take it and then sent the rest to an auction house. Jack wouldn’t need any of his furniture in the Caribbean. I was only there once for a Christmas open house and if I remember right, the house was filled with 16th-century French furniture. I remember thinking it seemed extremely feminine.”

  “And fragile,” Tori added. “Not to mention small. I ended up standing because I couldn’t fit on any of those tiny chairs. My knees would’ve been under my chin.”

  “That shit never would’ve held up in the Caribbean,” Henry noted.

  “Well, if he’s dead, he wouldn’t need any furniture in the Caribbean. This could all be somebody’s way of redirecting attention.” Alex tipped his bottle and emptied it before standing and heading to the kitchen.

  “It is quite neat and tidy, isn’t it?” Griffin redirected his attention to Alex. “Could you pick up a fresh beer for me, too?”

  At the kitchen door, he asked, “Anyone else want anything while I’m up?” When the orders were yelled, Katlin got up to help him bring them back.

  Nita shrugged. “He could be dead. We make people disappear all the time. Cleanup is one of the first areas you work in when you’re hired at homeland. Every one of us went through it.”

  “I’ve never bought or sold property,” Grace said as she held out her glass and Katlin filled it with wine. “But don’t you have to sign papers? Wouldn’t the real estate agent have seen Jack then?”

  Katlin shook her head. “I’ve sold at least ten pieces of property and never met with the real estate listing agent. I try to not even talk to them on the phone. To be honest, I hate buying property because the agent has to be with you as you walk through the house. When I can, I do everything via email. They’ll FedEx or courier over the papers and I sign what I can then send them right back.”

  “There. Jack had to sign the listing papers, so he had to be alive at that point.” Grace bounced up and down, so happy with herself.

  Tori took a pen from her pocket and wrote something on a napkin, then handed the pen to Grace. “Sign your name on that napkin.” When Grace held it up, Tori held hers beside it. They were identical. “Do you want to see me sign Jack’s name now? We took a class in forgery.”

  “Well, darn it.” The edges of Grace’s mouth turned down.

  The dog stirred. “Nobody called you.” Katlin petted Damnit who closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

  “Doesn’t that back and forth paperwork take time?” Grace asked.

  Henry chuckled. “Money makes things happen very quickly. When my aunt and uncle were killed in a plane crash in Africa, my cousin had their house cleared out, painted, refurnished, and he’d moved in with his latest girlfriend before their bodies made it back to the United States.”

  “So, what you’re telling me is that hypothetically, if one of you had killed Jack, disposing of the furniture and the houses, setting up his supposed exit to the Caribbean, and creating his letter of resignation would be easy.

  “Yes.” All five women said at
the same time.

  “The hardest part would be killing Jack,” Grace suggested.

  Katlin scoffed. No, it wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have any problem putting a bullet in that fucker.”

  “Wouldn’t be hard to dispose of the body, either.” Tori sipped her wine. “I’d dress him like a bum and dump him in a slum.”

  “Good idea,” Katlin agreed. “But I would take him to Philadelphia, or maybe New York. He’d never be recognized there.”

  “Nobody would be looking for him.” Nita waved her hand as though to shoo away that thought. “Everybody in D.C. would believe that he was working on his tan in the Caribbean.”

  “Or, his killer could take him to the Caribbean. That would get him out of the country, his passport recorded elsewhere.” Lei Lu grinned. “There’s a lot of ocean out there. Kill them on the boat and throw him overboard.”

  “You’d want to tie the anchor to him,” Tori added to the scenario. “The last thing you’d want is for his body to show up.”

  “We were all on Grand Turk and saw how quickly a body decays underwater and how fast the fish began to feast.” Nita pointed out.

  “Or, you could put him in your trunk and take him down to the Georgia or Florida swamps,” Tori suggested. “Gators would make quick work of the body.”

  Marcus leaned forward and looked at his girlfriend then at the men in the room. “Is it just me or are these women truly frightening?”

  The other men chuckled. Everyone except Marcus had been, or was currently, special operations. Alex believed that SpecOps people truly thought differently than the average person.

  “Playing devil’s advocate,” Griffin grinned fiendishly. “If Jack is dead, who killed him?”

  “I don’t really care. I’d just like to give her, or him, my sincere thanks.” Katlin stood up. “I’m going to take a bio break. Don’t talk about anything important until I get back.”

  Before Katlin got to her room, the other four women had stood and were headed to their own bathrooms.

  With the women gone, Marcus looked at Alex with a serious expression. “Do you think they did it?” He asked quietly.

  Alex shook his head. “I believe that our women have too much honor. Yes. They kill on every mission. Those are sanctioned assassinations. If Katlin let her emotions rule her actions, I have no doubt that she could pull the trigger on Jack. She hates that man. But she’s so much better now than she was right after she awakened from the coma. I expect she’ll be on the next mission.”

  Katlin was yawning as she walked back into the common area. “Along the same morbid lines, did Jack kill his parents?”

  “No.” Came a chorus of agreement from everyone.

  “Grandpa Hank and I talked about this.” Henry repositioned Lei Lu on his lap. “Jack’s parents may have been very powerful politically, but they were terrible people. For every person they put into power, there was at least one, and usually many, whose hopes and dreams they’d crushed. That’s what makes them politicians.”

  “My family has been in politics for generations, and I can tell you with firsthand knowledge, they play dirty.” Griffin nodded his head.

  “Then there’s all the affairs they both had.” Tori loved the celebrity rags. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

  “If it had been a scorned woman, she would’ve shot his balls off.” Nita held up her glass in a toast.

  Daniel stood. “And on that note, I’m taking my wife home.”

  Half an hour later as Alex and Katlin got into bed, he had to know.

  Before he could ask, Katlin leaned in so the faces were mere inches apart. “I didn’t kill Jack, and neither did anyone on my team, but I hope he’s dead.” She gave him a small kiss. “But if he is indeed dead, I have a pretty damn good idea who did it.”

  “I didn’t kill him either.” Alex kissed her then pulled back. “But I thought about it.”

  Katlin smiled. “I love you for wanting to kill him for me.”

  Alex pulled her warm body to his. “I’d do anything for you…because I love you.”

  I hope you enjoyed Unending Love. Please consider leaving a review at your favorite retailer.

  Also by KaLyn Cooper

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