Rescuing Katherine (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Bravo Series Book 2)

by Anna Blakely

  “Is Katherine protected?” Jake interrupted.

  “Yes,” Matt quickly assured him. “I made sure they were both secure inside the cabin before I left.”

  Jake nodded before taking a moment to process what Matt had told him. Then, the man shocked the hell out of him.

  “While I would’ve appreciated a heads-up prior to your leaving, I understand why you did.”

  Matt felt his eyes widen. “You do?”

  With a tip of his head, Jake explained his thoughts on the situation.

  “You have a history with this woman, and not a good one. You tried to tell me assigning you as her bodyguard was a mistake. I didn’t listen.” Jake sighed, looking a bit chagrined. “I saw the way you two looked at each other in my office and in the conference room. I could tell you were pissed as hell, but the way Katherine looked at you when you walked in…it’s the same way Liv still looks at me.”

  Okay, now he was thoroughly confused. “I don’t understand.”

  “I messed up with my wife, Turner. Before she was my wife. I lied and kept things from her, important things, and it damn near cost me everything. As pissed as you were when you realized Kat was our new client, I saw something else there, behind those guarded eyes of yours that made me think you cared.”

  Suddenly it all made sense. In a shocking, knock-him-on-his-ass kind of way. “You trying to play Cupid, Boss?” Matt asked the man in charge.

  Jake smirked and sat back against the couch. “I guess I was.” He ran a hand over the short, dark beard covering his jaw. “Looks like it backfired, huh?”

  “You could say that,” Matt snorted.

  “Damn, man.” Trevor turned to Jake. “And here I thought Derek was the hopeless romantic of Alpha Team.”

  “Shut the fuck up, both of you,” Jake ordered, though his tone held no seriousness whatsoever. “Look. Maybe it’s the impending birth of our baby. Sympathy hormones or some shit. All I know is, I get what it’s like to waist a chunk of time not being with the woman you love. To risk the one chance at happiness with the person who knows you better than you know yourself. I saw that in you and Kat, and I guess I thought if I forced you two into close quarters, maybe you could work through your shit and…I don’t know. Be as happy as Liv and I are.”

  Something hit Matt. “Wait a minute. I thought you said Ryker wanted me to get close to her to figure out if she was in on the scheme to steal the formula.”

  Jake simply shrugged. “Two birds and all that shit.”

  Matt laughed at that, the sound almost foreign. He hadn’t done much laughing the past couple of days.

  Grabbing the back of his neck, he squeezed his tense muscles. After taking in a long, deep breath, he said, “So, I take it I’m not fired?”

  Jake looked at him like he was stupid. “You removed yourself from a situation where you felt your ability to efficiently protect our client had been compromised. Katherine is still being guarded by a member of Bravo, and you’ve been upfront and honest about everything. More than I needed to know, actually.” The man smirked. “So no. You’re not fired. Just…maybe next time call me first. Before you leave your post.”

  Matt released the breath he’d been holding. “Hopefully, there won’t be a next time, Boss.”

  “Good answer, Turner,” Trevor smiled back at him.

  “Now that we have that out of the way.” Jake changed the uncomfortable subject. “D filled us in on what he found out about Todd Kennedy. Obviously, someone was paying him to gain access to the formula. Since you’re no longer on protection detail, I thought you and Gabe could work with Derek to figure out who that was.”

  “Actually, there’s one more thing.” Now came the tricky part.

  “Okay. Let’s hear it.”

  Matt filled his lungs once more before blurting, “I want to borrow the jet.”

  His boss stared back at him silently, studying him with an assessing glance. “You want to confront Katherine’s father about what he did.”

  “I do,” Matt answered honestly. He respected Jake too much to lie to the man.

  “Can’t say I blame you.”

  “Do you think that’s a wise decision?” Trevor asked from beside him. “You seem pretty keyed up. With good reason,” he added quickly. “I’d want to beat the hell out of the man, too, if I were you.”

  “I don’t plan on beating Thomas Marsh up. That would only give him more ammunition to use against me. The last thing I want is for the bastard to have more leverage to hold over my head.”

  “So what is your plan?” Jake eyed him closely.

  Matt shrugged. “Just want to talk. Confirm what Kat said was true.”

  Trevor shook his head. “You realize he’ll probably never own up to it.”

  “Actually, I think that’s exactly what he’ll do.”

  Gabe’s brows turned inward. “What makes you say that?”

  He pictured Marsh’s smug face with his perpetually turned-up nose. “Kat’s dad is a textbook narcissist with major control issues. Especially when it comes to his daughter. He’s also arrogant as fuck. The bastard got what he wanted, so in his mind, he won.” Matt shook his head. “No way he passes up on the chance to rub that shit in my face.”

  “You think that’ll bring you closure?” Jake asked pointedly.

  “Partial closure. Yes.” Matt nodded. “A five-minute conversation. That’s all I need. I know it probably sounds stupid, but I need Marsh to know I know. Once that happens, I think I’ll finally be able to move forward.”

  “With Katherine?” his boss asked, sounding hopeful. Damn, the man really was a romantic at heart.

  Matt thought for a second. If he’d been asked that question a day ago—hell, two hours ago—his answer would’ve been an immediate and unquestionable ‘fuck no’.

  Her earlier words still rang loudly behind his ears.

  I did love you. I still…

  She’d tried to tell him she still loved him, but he wouldn’t listen. Suddenly, Matt wished he’d have shut the fuck up and let her finish.

  “Maybe.” Turning to Gabe, he added, “If she’ll still have me.”

  All three men smiled back at him. Then, after sharing a look with Trevor, Jake stood from the couch and made his way around the coffee table. He extended his hand.

  “I’ll make sure the jet is fueled and ready to go. I’ll stay behind to assist Derek with whatever he needs until you get back. Take Trevor and Gabe with you, in case Marsh decides to grow a wild hair and try something stupid.”

  “Thanks, Jake.”

  With a nod, the man walked to the front door and pulled it open. Before he left, he turned back around and told Matt, “Say what needs to be said, and get your ass back here. We’ve got work to do.”

  A while later, as Gabe flew them to California, Matt thought about his conversation with Jake once more. Not only had the man not fired him, he was actually letting him use the company jet for personal business…while in the middle of a job.

  His personal life may be a jumbled mess of shit, but damn. As far as the professional side of things went, Matt couldn’t ask for a better boss—or team—to work with.

  After the three-plus hour flight into Long Beach, Matt found himself standing across the street, staring at the ornate, wrought-iron gate. He’d gone through it a handful of times with Kat when they were younger.

  Back then, his gut had tightened with anxiety every time they came here. And, if he were being completely honest, a little fear. As he stared at the man’s ridiculously large house now, the only thing Matt felt was fury.

  He was pissed at what Kat’s dad had threatened to do to him, but he was even more upset by what the man had done to her.

  “You ready?” Gabe asked beside him.

  Matt nodded. “More than you know.”

  “Just remember,” Trevor said, presenting himself as the voice of reason. “Guy like this probably has security cameras in every room. Let him make the first contact.”

  With nothing
more than a tip of his head, Matt checked for traffic before starting across the paved road. The other two men followed, having his back as all R.I.S.C. operatives did.

  Unlike before, his hand was steady as he pushed the state-of-the-art intercom. Though he couldn’t see whoever answered from inside the house, the small, round camera facing Matt would show them exactly who had come to visit.

  “Can I help you?” A man’s voice emulated through the system’s speaker.

  “I’m here to see Thomas Marsh.”

  “Do you have an appointment?”

  No, he didn’t have a fucking appointment. “He’s gonna to want to talk to me.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. But without an appointment—”

  “Tell your boss Matthew Turner from the R.I.S.C. Security Firm is here to see him. Tell him it’s about his daughter.”

  There was a stretch of silence before the voice said, “Please give me a moment. I’ll get Mr. Marsh.”

  “You do that.”

  Standing out of the camera’s line of sight, Gabe silently raised a brow.

  Confident they weren’t currently being watched, Matt shrugged his shoulders. “What?”

  “The guy hired us to watch his daughter,” Gabe stated the obvious.

  “And?”

  “What if he thinks we’re here because something happened to her?”

  Matt gave his team leader a smug smile. “My guess is, he’ll open the gate and let us in.”

  The other man shook his head, laughing silently. “Sly bastard.”

  A few moments passed by before they heard a loud clicking sound. The three men turned their heads as the large gate began to slowly swing open.

  Taking it as their invitation to enter, Matt and the others made their way along the paved drive to the home’s elaborate front entrance. Before he could ring the bell, the door was opened. Staring back at him for the first time in years, was the bastard himself, Thomas Marsh.

  At five-nine, the sixty-two-year-old man was shorter than Matt. His hair was a silver-gray, and there were several new lines that had formed on his aged face.

  Marsh quickly scanned the area behind Matt before his blue eyes met Matt’s. “Where’s Katherine? Is she all right? Did something happen to her?” His voice was laced with genuine concern.

  “Kat’s fine.” Matt stared down at him. “She’s being guarded by one of my teammates.”

  “Why aren’t you with her?”

  Though he didn’t react, Matt couldn’t help but be surprised at the question. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think Marsh was upset that he wasn’t the one guarding his daughter.

  How about that? Guess there really is a first time for everything.

  “We need to talk.” Without waiting for a formal invitation, Matt stepped past Kat’s father and entered the home.

  “Okay.” Thomas swallowed hard, following him inside.

  Gabe and Trevor came in, too, but kept their distance. Matt appreciated that they were willing to let him handle this on his own. Speaking of which…

  “There someplace private we can talk?”

  Marsh’s nervous gaze slid to the other two operatives before landing back on Matt. “We can go to my office. It’s just down the hall.”

  With a nod, Matt let his co-workers know he had things under control before following the not-so-scary man down the long hallway and into a room on their right. Marsh waited to close the door before speaking.

  “Would you like a drink?”

  The man walked over to an expensive-looking cabinet. On top was a silver tray housing a crystal bourbon decanter and two matching glasses. Matt remembered the man offering him one of those same glasses the same day the prick had tried to buy him off.

  “I didn’t come here for a social call, Marsh. I came here to talk.”

  “I have a feeling I know what this is about, so I’ll save you the trouble.”

  One large, perfectly square ice cube landed with a dull clink as he dropped it into his glass. Pouring two fingers of what Matt assumed to be high-dollar bourbon over the frozen water, he then returned the delicate stopper and took a sip.

  “Yes,” Marsh continued. “I hired a man to take pictures of you and Katherine. And yes, I used those pictures and the threat of bringing criminal charges against you to entice her to end things.”

  The asshole didn’t even appear sorry for what he’d done.

  Before he realized he’d moved, Matt had crossed the room and was fisting the man’s crisp dress shirt between his two fists. Bourbon spilled sloppily over the tilted glass and onto Marsh’s shirt before he dropped it on the carpeted floor.

  “You son of a bitch!” Matt ground out between clenched teeth. “Why?”

  Though he appeared afraid, Kat’s dad didn’t back down. “You remember what it was like back then. What you were like. I did what I did for the good of my daughter.”

  “Bullshit!” Matt’s breath flew in and out of his flared nostrils. “You did what you did for yourself. No one else.”

  With a harsh shove, Matt released the man and stepped back. If he didn’t put some space between them, he had no doubt he’d beat the man to a fucking pulp.

  “I know exactly what I was like,” he continued talking. “I was the man who loved your daughter more than anything in the entire world. I wanted to marry her. Raise a family with her. No, I didn’t have a lot to offer in the way of money, but I was working my ass off in the Navy, doing everything I could to better myself so I could provide for her. For us.”

  He looked around the dark, stuffy office. “Maybe I couldn’t afford to build this sort of house, but did you ever stop to think maybe Kat didn’t want that? That she was okay living life on our terms?”

  “Katherine was seventeen years old.” Marsh picked up the now-empty glass and set it back down. Wiping a hand over his damp shirt, he attempted to regain his composure. “She didn’t know what she wanted.”

  “She wanted me!” Matt’s loud voice echoed off the wooden paneled walls. “But you took that choice away because you were so stuck on your high-society bullshit, you were too blind to see what she wanted. The life she dreamed of having.”

  Marsh lifted his chin. “She moved on. Did quite well for herself, too. Even married a wealthy lawyer.”

  Without missing a beat, Matt came back with, “A gay lawyer who put a bullet in his brain because he couldn’t bear the thought of living a lie for one more day. A lie that included being married to your daughter rather than the man he truly loved.”

  “That marriage was her choice. Not mine.”

  “You’re right,” Matt nodded sarcastically. “It was her choice. Kat chose to marry a man who had no romantic interest in her whatsoever, because she couldn’t stand the thought of you pushing her to anymore rich assholes. That’s the choice you left her with.”

  Matt crossed the room getting in the bastard’s face. “Brian Anderson killed himself because he would’ve rather been dead than in a fake fucking marriage. Your daughter found him. She still sees the image of him lying in that goddamn shower, his blood and brains splattered all over the fucking walls. You did that to her.”

  A hint of guilt seeped through the guy’s unshakeable demeanor. It was the first real sign of emotion he’d ever seen on the bastard’s face.

  About fucking time.

  “You talk about the kind of man I was back then,” Matt continued on. “Let me tell you. I was the man who would have done anything in order to be with your daughter. I loved Katherine with everything I had. I would have died to protect her.”

  “And now?” Marsh stared back at him. “After everything that’s happened between you two, would you still give your life to keep Katherine safe?”

  Matt didn’t hesitate. “You bet your ass, I would.”

  “Good.”

  The man’s response left him blinking.

  “Weren’t expecting that, were you?” Marsh gave him a sad smile. “No, I don’t supposed you would.”

  He st
epped to the side and made his way back over to the bourbon. “I know you probably won’t believe me, but I do regret what I did to you both.”

  “You’re right. I don’t.”

  Kat’s father studied him a moment before taking another sip. “I suppose I deserve that. Nevertheless, it’s true.” He drew in a weary breath before asking, “Do you have any children, Matthew?”

  “No.” Hopefully, I will soon, though.

  The thought came out of nowhere, but oddly, it didn’t freak Matt out like it probably should have.

  “Well, when you do, you might understand a little better why I did what I did.”

  “What you did was wrong, Marsh. No way around that.”

  “You’re right. But my reasoning behind it wasn’t.”

  Matt rolled his eyes as the asshole kept talking.

  “As you know, Katherine’s mother died very young. What you don’t know is the last promise I ever made to her was while she was on her death bed. She was lying before me, struggling for every breath, and her only concern was that of our daughter’s well-being. I promised my wife I would do everything in my power to protect Katherine. To make sure she had the best life had to offer for as long as I lived. Now, at the time I was misguided. I believed money equaled happiness. And more than anything, I wanted my daughter to be happy.”

  “She was happy,” Matt growled. “With me.”

  “I know that, now. I also know that, while Katherine married Brian to help him save face with his father, she also married him to protect herself, too.”

  “From being hounded by you. She told me.”

  “There was more to it than that, Matthew. Katherine married Brian because she knew she’d never truly love anyone else the way she loved you. Had no desire to…give herself…to another man the way she had you.”

  As twisted as it made him, the primal part of Matt wanted to puff his chest and holler to the rafters. Instead, he made sure Thomas Marsh knew exactly where he stood, as far as Kat was concerned.

  “She won’t ever have to worry about that again. Not as long as I’m still breathing.”

  The man smiled, the shocking sight nearly knocking Matt on his ass. “I was hoping you’d say that.”