by KaLyn Cooper
Each woman went on alert. Grace reached around to her back and slid her hand under the loose tank top she wore to grab her pistol.
“Guardian approaching your six,” Alex called out.
Grace watched her entire team relax just a little, although they were always vigilant about their surroundings.
A large hand trapped hers under her gun handle as they jogged in unison.
“It’s me, sweetheart.” Griffin’s familiar low voice eased her tension but didn’t decrease her heart rate one bit. With each inhaled breath, the scent that had surrounded her the night before—one she now associated with ecstasy—calmed her fear and torched her libido.
“You guys scared the shit out of us,” Nita chastised then looked at Katlin. “Did you know they were going to join us?”
Their team leader threw her hands in the air, palms forward. “I had no idea.” She turned to Alex who matched her steps. “But I’m not complaining.” She gave her lover a contented smile.
“Morning, ladies,” several the other men greeted.
Rafe Silva fell in beside Tori, his next-door neighbor. After several years of working undercover for the CIA, he was now employed by Alex in the D.C. Guardian Center. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Yeah, right.” Tori glanced over her shoulder at Katlin and Alex. “Like he doesn’t know where she is every minute.”
“Hey, I just do what I’m told, and this morning’s instructions were cardio workout with the boss.” Rafe glanced back at what the Guardian men called the Wolf pack, jokingly named for the company’s managing partner, Alex Wolf. “I guess I should correct that statement. I’m on a run with both my bosses this morning.”
“Sometimes I forget Katlin owns half of the company,” Tori admitted.
“I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that these guys joined us,” Lei Lu added.
Nita’s gaze held on the two of the men in front of them as they disappear around the curve. “I’m not complaining. The view improved considerably when they showed up.”
“Agreed.” Lei Lu and Nita high-fived.
“So, Harper didn’t want to join us?” Tori asked Rafe. He lived with his fiancée, Harper Tambini, who had gone through the top secret special operations pilot program with the Ladies of Black Swan.
“I wish I could tell you she’d already had her morning workout, but I woke up in a cold bed this morning.”
Griffin leaned in and quietly said to Grace, “So did I. We are going to talk about that.”
Ignoring him, Grace called to Rafe, “Did Harper get called out? Who’s she working for now?”
Glancing back at Grace he acknowledged her question then turned his focus on the trail ahead while answering, “Yeah, the ATF needed her to go back to Colombia. It seems Carlos Narváez’s idiot nephew, Pablo Velez, tried to make CHAZ using Harper’s notes. What he made was an unstable, highly explosive mess that has everyone from the cartel to the Colombian government concerned that it will explode sending both the legitimate and illegal products to hell. They’re hoping she can stabilize what’s there and safely extract it back to the United States.”
“CHAZ is one of the most stable explosives on the planet…and the most lethal. The process to make it isn’t that difficult.” Tori grinned. “As long as you can follow the recipe which not everyone can do. Isn’t that right, Grace?”
“Oh, hush.” Her culinary skills left a lot to be desired, certainly compared to someone like Katlin who cooked like a gourmet chef, or Tori who insisted on eating clean and organic which most often meant raw. “At least the food I make is cooked.”
Nita gave that bawdy, phone sex voice laugh of hers. “Inedible. More like a burned offering to the gods. You’re the only woman I’ve ever known who tried to bake No Bake Cookies.”
“I thought I just missed that part of the directions,” Grace said in her defense. “Besides, cookies are baked. Candy is cooked and cooled until it’s solid. They should’ve been called candy, not cookies.”
“I don’t give a shit what you call them,” Nita declared. “When made right, they’re damn good.”
“You can call them whatever the fuck you want as long as you continue to share them with me. Harper doesn’t make dessert.” Rafe smiled and returned to his original conversation. “We should’ve blown Narváez’s southern compound off the face of the earth before we escaped from Columbia.”
“Who did they send as her protection?” Alex asked.
“My friend, Preacher, and his SEAL team. All good men,” Rafe said with confidence. “They extracted Harper and me from Columbia. They’ll protect her with their lives.”
Grace watched as Alex and Katlin exchanged a glance before he offered, “I can make a call if you want. We could go in as backup.”
“I don’t think that’ll be necess—”
The disturbance in the air beside Grace’s ear warned her before the rifle report echoed down the valley created by Rock Creek.
Dirt puffed into the air several feet behind her.
A metal trail sign clanged eighteen inches from Katlin’s right elbow as a second boom filled the air.
As though of one mind, everyone in their group yelled, “Sniper!” Grace was picked up and thrown against the hill on their left just as she reached for her gun. Griffin covered her body with his, grinding her face into last year’s rotting leaves.
“Get off me, you big oaf.” She flipped him over then stabilized her prone shooting position. A glance over at the man breathing hard next to her verified that he was doing exactly the same.
“Do you see anything?” she asked just above a whisper.
“Nothing,” he replied in a low tone.
“Roll call,” Katlin ordered in her familiar Lady Hawk mode.
“Eagle, fine.” Using her handle, Grace called back knowing she was to go first, as always.
Rafe and Tori both lay on their bellies, guns drawn, five feet up the hill. “Falcon, fine.”
On the far side of Alex and Katlin, came the words no one wanted to hear. “Harrier on the move. Kite is bleeding.”
“No!” escaped from Grace as she started to belly crawl toward Katlin.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Griffin caught her ankle.
She shook off his grip and didn’t pause. “Lei Lu has been hit.”
As she got closer to Katlin, she could hear Alex on the phone. “Get an ambulance as close as you can. We’ll get her out of here.” Then he gave a cross street location.
“Guardian report in,” Griffin called. Deep voices responded.
“Every one of yours okay?” Grace asked a minute later, hoping no one else was injured.
Griffin grunted affirmatively then crawled past Alex.
“Anyone pinpoint the fucker?” Griffin conferred with the other men while Grace crawled to where Nita gently inspected Lei Lu’s bloody throat.
“Sit rep,” Katlin demanded.
“Definitely not a bullet wound.” At Nita’s declaration, Grace and Katlin sighed in relief. “Looks like concrete shards from the sidewalk.” Nita touched a large ragged piece the size of a quarter very close to Lei Lu’s carotid artery. “I don’t like this one. I think our safest measure is to leave it in place while we transport her just in case it’s embedded in the artery.”
“Whatever you think best.” Katlin nodded and crawled off.
“Nita, what do you need me to do?” Grace kneeled on the other side of Lei Lu.
“Check her arms and legs on that side,” Nita ordered as she carefully inspected Lei Lu’s hairline, trying to find the source of the blood that was covering half of her delicate featured face. Grace carefully rolled her friend’s arm, finding only a few superficial cuts. “Do you have any pain on your torso?” She lifted Lei Lu’s shirt to find only a few red spots but none broke the skin.
“No, the ones on my arms don’t even sting anymore,” Lei Lu said. “This is nothing compared to getting shot.”
Somebody handed Grace a water bottle and she starte
d to clean the cuts. Most bled a bright red. She moved on to Lei Lu’s legs and found very few.
“Looks like her neck took the most damage,” Nita said. “Fuck, I wish I had my med case with me. I won’t even try to remove these little stones without my tweezers.”
A swath about two inches wide and six inches long looked like a bad case of acne littered with tiny pieces of gray sidewalk.
“Alex, report.” Katlin called in low tones from five feet away.
“Tori and Rafe circled back around the corner to see if they could cross the river out of sight of where we think the shooter might be. From the hole in that sign”—he tilted his head toward the path below them—“and the sound, he’s using a high-powered rifle so our handguns are useless at that range.”
“Agreed.” Katlin holstered her pistol and the other women followed suit. “We need to get Lei Lu out of here, now.”
“I need something to stabilize her neck.” Nita started looking around.
“Men,” Alex called. “Shirts.”
Each of the four remaining men quickly stripped out of their T-shirts. Alex rolled them into a makeshift neck brace.
“Well, fuck.” Nita glanced around and grinned. “The hottest manscape I’ve seen since we were on a Miami beach, and I don’t have time to take in the scenery.” She took the rolled cotton shirts and carefully maneuvered them under Lei Lu’s neck.
“Here, we can use my jacket as a stretcher.” A broad chested man with gray eyes kneeled on the other side of their patient.
“Thanks, Micah.” Alex reached for the gray Guardian Security windbreaker. “Good idea. Let’s use it to support her head and upper body. Bradley, when we pick her up I want you to hold her feet.”
“Yes, sir.” The dark-haired man with shoulders and thighs of a long distance swimmer moved to her feet.
“Men,” Katlin ordered, “you’ll lift her. Nita will stabilize her head and neck while Grace and I position the jacket. Nita, on your count.”
Moments later, Alex glanced to the four men and three women kneeling around Lei Lu. “We ready?”
In the midst of agreement, Alex’s phone buzzed. “Hold one.” He checked the caller ID then said into the phone, “Are you at the extraction zone, Top?” He was talking to Top Cooper, the manager of the Guardian Security D.C. Center. “Excellent.”
To the group kneeling fifteen feet inside the shadowed woods, he shared the good news. “Our team is here and an ambulance should be there by the time we arrive. Let’s move.”
Chapter 11
Griffin followed Alex into the Guardian Security D.C. Center and straight to their resident computer genius Brett.
“Give me everything you can find on the brothers of Nissar al Jamil,” Alex ordered. “Don’t look too deep into Nissar because he’s dead, but see what you can find on an active contract for his assassins.”
Brett’s fingers were already flying over the keys at the name of the Muslim zealot. “Do you care where I look for this information?”
“I don’t give a fuck if you have to tap into Section 7. Just don’t leave a calling card,” Alex warned.
Brett had served federal time for breaking into classified data bases, but he had no idea of the man’s talent. Obviously, Alex did and was willing to risk everything to keep the Ladies of Black Swan safe. Once again, Griffin was thankful that Alex had hired him several years ago. That only had the man made him rich, he had also given him an opportunity to do what he loved best, protect Americans at home as well as abroad.
Top Cooper, the center’s manager, joined the group. “Is there any chance this was a random act like the sniper shootings back in 2002?”
“There’s always that possibility,” Alex admitted. “It’s more likely that Katlin and her team have been targeted. Again.”
Several months ago, someone had planted a bomb on the sleek black plane used exclusively by the Ladies of Black Swan. Fortunately, the explosive had been discovered and the mercenaries hired to plant the bomb had been captured by Homeland Security. Nothing had ever been made public of the event or the capture of the culprits.
Brett filled one of his six screens with a picture of a Middle Eastern man in a long beard. “Nissar all Jamil was killed several months ago by a SEAL team.”
Alex’s glance toward Griffin was all he needed to confirm that the Ladies of Black Swan had actually taken the man out.
Brett continued, “He has two, no make that one full brother left. He had one in Tikrit, Iraq who was killed during an explosion of the plant he was building there to make nuclear bombs.”
This time when Griffin’s and Alex’s eyes met, they both grinned. That had been the first mission that Alex’s team had backed up Katlin’s team. What had started as Alex gathering a few of the best men from his company to protect his woman while she was on a mission in Iraq, had become a black ops team sanctioned by USSOCOM.
Brett pulled up another picture. “Now here’s an interesting brother. Khalid Junyard was educated in the United States and it looks like the CIA thought that he was in their pocket. We provided him with lots of money, several shipments of guns and ammo, and the guy gave us the finger.” He looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “Like we haven’t heard that story a dozen times. Fucking politicians.”
With his gaze flicking from screen to screen, Brett’s fingers moved so fast it almost made Griffin dizzy.
“Got it!” Brett pointed to a screen on the far left. Using his mouse he clicked several places on the screen and the Arabic words formed into English. “It looks like our buddy Khalid is willing to pay twenty-five thousand dollars for each SEAL who participated in killing his brother Nassar al Jamil.”
Griffin felt his empty stomach flip. The thought that Grace might be a target of Muslim extremists scared the shit out of Griffin.
Micah, one of the men who went jogging that morning with them, approached the group. “Alex, the chief of police wants to talk to you. Now. He’s holding on online three.”
“I’ve been expecting this call.” Alex laid a hand on Brett’s shoulder. “You keep at this and let me know what you find.” Turning to Griffin he said, “Come with me, I need your help.”
Alex picked up the receiver and hit the button as he slid around the back side of his desk. “Alex Wolf,” was his bosses only greeting. A few seconds later, he said, “Chief McMullen, I’m putting you on speaker. I’m in my private office with Griffin Mitchell, my second-in-command of this company.”
Well, that was a surprise. Griffin had no idea that he held such a position within the company. He’d have to talk to Alex about that later.
Before the man on the other end of the line could agree or disagree, Alex began, “We need to talk about the incident this morning. I do not want, under any circumstances, the names of the women we were guarding to be mentioned in any way, shape, or form.”
The chief chuckled. “You’re a little late with that request. I’ve already heard from Jack Ashworth over at Homeland Security. The names of the five women will never be released from this department. That’s the only guarantee I can give you.”
“Sir, will you keep us posted on your investigation?”
“Yes. Your men this morning were most helpful to my first-on-the-scene as well as the detectives,” Chief McMullen complemented. “As you probably know, your people had already found what seems to be the shooters position. We’re already checking street cams in that area, but I have to warn you, Homeland Security wants these guys bad.”
“I’ll just bet they do,” Alex admitted.
“The media is already camping outside my door so I’m going to have to have a press conference in a few hours.” The chief harrumph. “They are already stirring up the city with comparisons to the 2002 shootings.”
“Sir, would it be all right with you if I joined you for that press conference?” Alex asked. “Guardian Security’s name will certainly come up in their investigation. I believe I can put a controlled spin on the incident and keep th
e names of the women involved today out of the headlines.”
“I’d be more than happy to have you there, and thanks for the offer. Sometimes I feel like the sacrificial carcass presented to the vultures.” Voices could be heard behind the chief. “Press conference is set for three o’clock this afternoon. If you get here around two thirty I’ll give you the notes from my PR department as to my statement.”
Alex looked at Griffin. “Thank you sir. We’ll be there.”
The morning flew by as Alex and Griffin prepared a statement. Around noon, Rafe showed up and the three of them went to the Center’s dining room where the company cook had prepared seafood gumbo and cornbread.
Just as the men sat down, they were joined by Top Cooper. “Thanks for going after the shooters, Rafe. You’re relatively new here and I want to make sure that you understand that chasing down active shooters is not part of your job description. But since they were shooting at my girls, I can’t thank you enough.”
Top Cooper had known Katlin since she was a child and considered all the women on her team his girls.
“I just wish we had gotten there faster, but Tori and I agreed we needed to circle far enough around and flank them.” Rafe shook his head. “They’d obviously taken off right after they’d fired.”
“The chief was most appreciative of your help this morning,” Alex noted. “And thanks for getting Tori out of there before anyone saw her.”
“That was completely her call,” Rafe insisted. “Katlin has those women very well trained.”
Alex smiled at the complement to his lover, and Top grinned with the pride of a surrogate parent.
“Any details we should know about, Rafe?” Alex scooped another bite with a huge chunk of shrimp.
The former CIA agent chewed before he answered. “They were sloppy. There were definitely two of them and they didn’t bother to hide their tracks going in or leaving. They were at least smart enough to pick up their shells.”
“It looks like they had been there before?” Griffin asked.
Rafe shook his head and broke off a piece of cornbread. “No. One distinct set of tracks in and a second set going out.”