Unrelenting love, p.29
Unrelenting Love, page 29
Katlin was relatively sure power generators weren’t being made there, but that wasn’t her mission. Although they’d been trained in reconnaissance, their focus had always been on watching a single target, always male, followed by an up-close kill. Of course, they would report anything they found significant about the plantt. Perhaps USSOCOM, the special operations command under which Section 7 ultimately operated, would assign Black Swan’s backup team to deal with whatever was happening inside the mammoth building. The men, led by Vic Viceroy, were on standby forty-two miles away in Baghdad. Somewhere in the area was a SEAL team, which was his backup. Command layered teams just in case an op went to hell—like it had with her husband three years ago—but Jack always made sure the Ladies were covered, even though they’d never needed it.
The plan was for the mission to last a week, two at the most. Nita’s curly dark hair and brown eyes would help her blend with the locals when out of her traditional garb. They’d spray tanned her naturally olive-colored skin so it more closely matched the women in the area. She had been selected for this mission because of her medical expertise and the delicate handling necessary of the dangerous poison.
Katlin brought her rifle to her shoulder and flipped the scope to infrared. Orange and red blurs moved inside the massive building that hummed in the dark of night. Hundreds of people worked inside, and a huge heat source bloomed in the center of the room. She’d add that to the report she was about to file.
She spied Tori and Grace as they entered on the street level of the two-story house they had sequestered. Lady Falcon and Lady Eagle had been on perimeter patrol. To the untrained eye, the women seemed to move at a natural pace, but Katlin knew that something was wrong by the way they carried their bodies. The problems they’d had with communications now solved, the women would never leave again without their comm units. Turhan had been running jammers, but Lady Kite had found a way to work around them. Katlin scanned the area to assure they hadn’t been followed. All clear.
“Lady Hawk, where are you? You’re not going to fucking believe this!” Lady Falcon’s voice came through Katlin’s comm piece via Lady Kite’s microphone. These were awesome new communication units they were testing for Section 7.
“Tell them I’m on the roof, but I’ll be right down,” Katlin ordered Lei Lu. “It’s more important we get eyes and ears on Lady Harrier right now. Lady Kite, run it through its operations. Let’s test this baby.” The arm holding the tiny modified microphone and camera moved in several directions. It pointed from one side of the house to the other and up and down.
“All set, Lady Hawk. We’ve got it.” Relief gushed in Lady Kite’s voice.
“On my way.” As Katlin dropped down through the roof access hole to the second story floor, she heard Lady Falcon on the steps, Lady Eagle right behind her.
Through her earpiece, and echoing up the stairwell, Katlin heard Lady Eagle exclaim in stereo, “They’re here.”
Katlin pulled the tiny comm unit out of her ear and stood at the top of the stairs. “Who’s here?”
Lady Eagle flipped back the niqab and shoveled her red hair from under her abaya. “Griffin.”
Katlin froze. Griffin is in Tarmiyah? Why? Is he taking military jobs off the books? Did he quit Guardian? “Did I hear you right? Did you say Griffin is here?”
“Yes.” Lady Falcon flipped her entire black garb off and rolled it into a ball. “And so is Alex.”
Fear ran through Katlin’s veins. This small Iraqi city was a dangerous place. Turhan was a powerful leader in the IS rebellion. Even though Alex was black ops trained, he’d been out of the game for years. She worried for the man who had been inside her body a few short days ago. If anything happened to him—
Then anger shot through her. Why the hell was he even there? She digested the words as her gaze slowly found its way to her tall friend’s Bambi-beautiful eyes. “What the fuck?”
Lady Eagle, who became klutzy when flustered by a man, fought with the tiny buttons that ran down the front of her abaya. “They’re kitty-corner from us, facing the east side of the compound.”
Katlin’s mind spun. Is Alex back into black ops? Did he ever really leave? Is there something else going on that we don’t know about? Did someone send Alex here?
Lady Falcon crossed her arms over the ball of black cloth mandatory in this part of the world. Formally reporting to her superior officer, she explained, “Lady Eagle and I were on patrol when we saw Griffin, and someone who looked familiar, walking down the street coming right toward us.”
Finally free of the cloak-like garb, Lady Eagle continued the story. “Of course they didn’t recognize us under all this.” She carefully folded the yards of cloth into a neat square and set it on a small hall table before she led the way to what they’d transformed into a war room. Pointing to a house on the wall map of the town, she said, “They’re here. We checked for external security cameras, and when we didn’t see any, we peeked in the windows. Bold as day, there was Alex and several men we recognized as Guardian employees, although I can’t remember their names. Some were from the D.C. office and some from Miami. I’m not sure about the others.” Lady Eagle looked nervously into Katlin’s eyes. “Lady Hawk, Griffin is here.”
“Understood.” Katlin nodded. She saw the same concern in her friend’s eyes that she felt for Alex. These men could be in danger, and that added another burden to their own situation. She glanced to Lady Falcon. “What’s your assessment?”
“Looks to me as though they just got here and are getting set up.” The former model lifted her hair off the back of her long neck. “Some kind of surveillance would be my guess.”
“Any idea what they’re looking for?” Katlin glanced back and forth between the two women. They both shook their heads.
“We trailed them on what seemed to be a perimeter check.” Lady Eagle pointed to the satellite map once again. “They followed a standard pattern surveillance of the immediate area. We shadowed them for about two blocks on the south end. My initial reaction would be they are setting up to observe the compound, but there’s a strong possibility that they are here to find us.”
Lady Falcon added, “The property they’re in is one we looked at and rejected, but it does have a direct line of sight to the house where Lady Harrier is located.”
“So they might be here to work an op for the government.” That idea pissed Katlin off. She thought she’d known what Alex had been up to the past three years but had no idea he might be taking black ops jobs, but for who? Any number of alphabet agencies would want a man with his skills. Then there were the Beltway bandits, which were little more than organized mercenaries. It didn’t matter. Alex and his team presented a major problem for the Ladies of Black Swan. They knew who her team was and could fuck up their op all too easily.
Then Katlin worried that Alex and his men might get blamed for Turhan’s death, although the SEALs who would take “credit” for the kill were close by. Jack flashed through her brain and the way he had taunted Alex a few days ago. Had her boss hired her lover to be in Tarmiyah to take the backlash for the IS leader’s death? Would Jack do that to eliminate Alex from her life?
Hell yes. Jack the ass had no limits when it came to his pursuit of her. Now she was even more concerned about one of her oldest friends. And she might have been the one to put him directly in the line of fire. She had to break off any kind of relationship she might have with Alex, to keep him safe.
After a brief internal debate, Katlin announced, “Let’s watch them for twenty-four hours and see what they’re up to. This whole mission may be over by then and we can deal with those men.” She shrugged. “Or not. We’ll simply bug out of here and leave them to do whatever it was they were sent here to do.” And she would deal with Alex Wolf on her own, back on U.S. soil.
“Lady Harrier is down for the night,” Lady Kite announced and removed the headphones. “System is set on alarm. I need to get some sleep too.”
“I slept earlier. I’ll take first watch,” Lady Eagle offered.
Five hours later, Katlin, Tori, and Lei Lu stood in front of the largest computer screen in the ops center.
Lady Harrier whispered, “Are you seeing this?”
“Yeah,” Katlin replied. “What the hell happened to them?”
“Radiation poisoning would be my guess.” As Lady Harrier slowly moved her head as though to scan the open room, she shared what she saw with her team. Red-eyed men heaved blood into buckets placed beside bed pallets, noses oozed, and moans filled room. “They’ve divided the room into severity. The ones over there aren’t going to make it, and I have nothing here to ease their pain.”
“Are you in danger of exposure?” Katlin asked and wondered what they could use to test her.
“I don’t think so. They all mentioned an accident a few days ago.” Lady Harrier sucked in a breath. “Christ, it stinks in here.”
She moved to an open door and stepped out as though to get some fresh air. “The doctor is wearing a hospital badge like we had during my residency. There’s a Gray counter on the back, which records how much radiation the wearer has been exposed to over his life. I’ll grab his and check it as soon as I can.”
As soon as she returned to the sick room, her gaze went to the men on the far side, the ones worst off. “Hey, Lady Hawk, if I have any toxin left—”
“Absolutely.” Katlin hated seeing anyone in that kind of pain.
On a smaller screen, she watched Alex and Griffin leave their house. “Lady Kite, it looks like they’re doing a perimeter check every two hours.” What the hell is he up to?
Dread washed over her whole body as she watched Alex in a flowing white thaub turn the corner. That was it. She was done. “We’re going over there tonight and talk to them.” She glanced at the women around her. “We’ll take them out one at a time. Since they have a height and weight advantage, we’ll go in pairs. Stun them if you have to, but dead weight is a bitch. I’d much rather truss them up and talk to them together. I’ve got Alex, though. I can handle him by myself. We’ll leave shortly after midnight.”
Chapter 35
Four large men sat on their knees in nothing but their underpants and blindfolds, hands tied behind their backs to their ankles then the rope looped around their neck. Uncomfortable, for sure, but effective. The Ladies of Black Swan had silently taken each man by surprise in a gag-and-bag move before he could see their faces or even realize a female had captured them and stuffed a balled cloth in his mouth.
Lady Falcon leaned against the kitchen counter four feet away with her H&K MP7A1 submachine gun pointed at them. She’d never shoot them, but a few shots always intimidated a sightless man. In a deep voice, she spoke broken American English laced with a heavy Arabic accent. More than once, Lady Falcon had pulled off sounding as though she was an Arab man stumbling with the English language. They all just hoped none of Alex’s men recognized her voice. “Not one sound out of any of you or you’re all dead.”
Using American Sign Language, Lei Lu signaled, Answers the boxers or briefs question. No tighty whities here. The petite Asian woman grinned as she perused the line of muscled men.
When Katlin’s own gaze fell upon Griffin. She was glad she’d stationed Lady Eagle outside on exterior watch. If her friend, Grace, had seen the amazing body of the man who protected them most often in Miami, she’d be a bundle of nerves. Guardian’s Miami Center manager wore boxer briefs that hid nothing of his remarkable package. The former SEAL had a lot to be proud of.
Lady Falcon pointed to one of the buff men none of them recognized and licked her lips. He’d popped an impressive combat boner that tried to peek out of his Ranger panties.
Katlin smirked. She loved these women. Using their self-designed hand signals, she indicated she was headed upstairs to the bedrooms…and Alex. Although they’d already swept the rooms on the first floor, and infrared indicated there was only one person, prone, on the second floor, Lei Lu followed her to double check the other rooms.
Heart pounding, rifle nestled into her shoulder, Katlin slid on silent feet into the room as she stared into the scope in night vision mode. She could smell the familiar spicy scent of Alex and fought the instinct to ease her focus as she swept the room. His gun lay on the nightstand, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t another under his pillow. She hid weapons all over her bedroom.
His breathing never changed as she approached the side of the bed. Damn, he was beautiful, and her heart kicked in a totally different way from the mission adrenaline that had pumped through her since the team had left their base house. Part of her wanted to crawl under those sheets and touch every inch of that amazing body before she allowed him to take her where only he could. The way he made her come was addicting.
The other part, the sane part of her brain, was so angry with this man that she could have shot him right there and then. His mere presence endangered her team.
She rolled her rifle to her back and pulled out her pistol before she bent down and brushed her lips over his. “Fancy meeting you here, Alex.”
He breathed out a long, slow exhale and snaked his arms around her neck. When he tried to pull her down onto the bed, she laid the cold barrel of her gun against his temple.
“Get the fuck out of that bed, now.” Her tone was ice.
He twitched.
She jumped back out of his reach, snatching the gun from the side table., Hed stretched for it a second too late.
As he stood beside the bed, she scraped her gaze down his body, searching for a weapon.
Of course he was naked…with an outstanding erection pointed at her girl parts, which instantly saturated.
The arrogant bastard had the audacity to grin. “Once again, you’re holding a gun on me.”
“Yeah.” She smiled. “But this time you’re naked.”
“You could be too,” Alex suggested and stepped toward her.
“Not happening.” After tonight, she would never again have the pleasure of his hands and mouth on her body. She had to end whatever it was that they had between them. Something she had never dared define before. Friends? Friends with benefits? Lovers?
All the above? Probably.
Soul mate? Yes.
And damn, wasn’t this a hell of a time to realize that she not only loved Alex but that she was in love with the naked man before her? Yet, for his protection, she needed to cut ties and run far, far away. It was the only way to keep him safe. He had to leave Tarmiyah right now. The clock was ticking, and Turhan would be dead soon. She raised the pistol to chest level.
Alex stopped in his tracks. He glanced at the gun in her hand then back to her eyes. “You wouldn’t shoot me.”
What a cocky bastard. “Are you willing to bet your life on that?” she asked through clenched teeth. “I’m so fucking pissed at you right now, shooting you would solve several problems. I don’t know what the hell you’re doing here or who sent you, but I’m not happy you’re here. But that doesn’t matter. You’re leaving. Now.”
“Top sent me.”
At those three words, Katlin’s entire body went on alert. The man who had been her bodyguard since she was a child was still looking out for her.
Well, fuck.
Alex pushed on. “He had a bad feeling about this mission. He said to mention Panama to you.”
As though of its own free will, the hand holding the gun dropped to her side.
Over fifteen years ago, Top had revealed to her father his gut feeling a day before the Panamanian coup. Had her dad not paid attention to his Marine’s warning, her whole family would have been kidnapped and publically executed by the banditos who wanted to take over the Panama Canal and the country. Because of Top’s twitchy stomach, her father immediately began preparations. By the time shooting broke out in the palace and governmental buildings, the American Marines had already rounded up all the children from the embassies and hidden all of them on the main level of her parents’ large brick home inside the U.S. embassy walls. Katlin and the other teenagers had placed mattresses against the windows, secured the doors, and stood ready, guns in hand.
She had killed that day, for the first time. When the bad guys busted through the front door of her family’s home, the need to protect the innocent had taken up residence in every cell in her body. That moment had changed her life forever. She was no longer a helpless child. She had the power to stand between good and evil and shield those who couldn’t protect themselves. Safeguarding the young children who had lived in the surrounding embassies had morphed into protecting an entire country by the time she’d finished college.
“Babe.” Alex’s voice brought her back to his darkened bedroom. She needed to protect him too. “Are you okay?”
“No.” Katlin wondered why Top hadn’t contacted her but then realized she’d never made arrangements for her old friend to get in touch with her while on a mission. It could have been a fatal error.
She’d correct that as soon as this op was over. “So you came all the way to the boonies of Iraq to give me Top’s message that his infamous gut is twisting?”
“No, sweetheart.” He took a step closer to her. “I’m here to watch your six.”
Kat about lost it. “I’ve been a field operative for more years than you were. I’ve got this. We have plans in motion, and our backup plans have backup plans. Thanks so much for playing, but you can take your toys and you can take your boys and get the hell out of here before you fuck up my mission.”
“I’m not leaving. I have a man inside.” Alex jammed his fists on his naked hips.
She refused to allow her eyes to go there. “Lady Harrier…” Katlin’s brain was in Lady Hawk mode, and Alex wouldn’t know her teammate’s handle, so she added, “Nita is inside that house and will complete her mission within twenty-four hours.”
“Chase is in there to help her.” Alex must have seen the flash of fury as her whole face tensed because he quickly added, “If she needs it.”
