by India Kells
The image of Nicolas when Shane had told him of his sister’s death when he’d returned from a mission popped into his head. The scream of pain that was wrenched from his best friend would haunt him for the rest of his life. Misty was the centre of Nick’s world. Knowing she had been murdered in such a way was destroying him.
As he resumed pacing, Shane saw Beatrice stood unmoving, her eyes lost in memory.
“I need to solve this, Beatrice. I need Purgatory to help me find this killer.”
When she lifted her head, it was hard green eyes that met him. “This may be more complex than solving a murder, Shane.”
As anger bubbled up once more, someone knocked on the corrugated metal wall.
Shane turned as a couple walked in, and he recognised the man immediately. Owen Sorenson. He’d worked with the ghost operative and former Navy SEAL twice, and it had been challenging and profoundly informative. The man barely spoke, and each interaction was like extracting a tooth, but the warrior had exceptional instincts. The blond bearded man was followed by a dark-haired beauty with golden eyes. Shane wasn’t fooled by the way Owen positioned himself in front of her as he entered, it was a subtle, protective move.
Owen nodded at Beatrice and offered him his hand. “Rhodes, good to see you again.”
The woman went to kiss Beatrice on the cheek before returning to Sorenson’s side. Beatrice took two steps in their direction. “Rhodes, I’d like you to meet Dee Sorenson. Purgatory’s most dangerous member.”
The woman didn’t offer her hand but smiled at him, scanning him from head to toe. Shane accepted equality of women in civilian life, but as for missions, he had never worked with a woman. It was another strange transition with the Purgatory team he was still dealing with.
As civility was in order, he forced a smile and offered his hand. “I’m Shane Rhodes.”
The woman seemed to draw into herself before grabbing his hand as if touching him was an effort, but the discomfort quickly vanished from her expression.
Shane frowned, not sure how to react. If this woman was such a threat, she disguised it well. He risked a question. “Beatrice asked you both to come?”
Dee angled her head, putting both her hands in her pockets. Owen started walking around as if checking the boxes, but Shane knew his eyes were on him. Was it a threat or amusement he detected?
“You sound suspicious, Mr Rhodes. What’s on your mind?”
“Honestly?”
A smile stretched on her face. She was stunning when she smiled. However, the quick look Dee gave Beatrice warned him that something was up. “I wouldn’t expect anything but honesty, Mr Rhodes.”
“You are not an operative. And even if you were, I doubt you would be the most dangerous woman on the team.”
Eyes twinkling, Dee looked at him. “Are you misogynistic, Mr Rhodes?”
Shit, that was a trap. “No. I didn’t say that.”
“Because Bea didn’t say the most dangerous woman, but member.”
Shane scoffed. “No offence, but I’ve worked with Owen and he is a scary son of a bitch.”
Dee winked at the bearded man now standing immobile in one corner. It was as if he had disappeared altogether and only reappeared when needed.
“My husband is dangerous and can certainly take you down in a fight, but I can make you kneel without even touching you.”
“With what? A gun? A crossbow?”
Wiggling her fingers, as if about to perform a magic trick, she took out her cell phone and typed a few buttons. “Shane Rhodes, former Navy SEAL. Captain and team leader. Decorated and…”
He stopped her. “That’s your superpower, reading my file?”
This time, he heard Owen snort, but Dee ignored him. “You want to know what’s not in your file? I can get the amount in your bank account, the deed to any property you’ve ever owned, if you cheated at exams, who you dated, how many children you’ve fathered, all the missions you went on, your targets, your kills. And if I turn mean, I can turn your life into a living nightmare. Ever wondered what being chased by the IRS feels like? Want me to have you married to three women at the same time, or even change your last name to Dickhead?”
And it dawned on him. “You’re that hacker the team has been talking about. The former cop who now works for Purgatory.”
“I’ve worked for Purgatory for a long time. As for being a hacker, I don’t know what you are talking about.” She winked at him before becoming serious again, pocketing her cell. “But one thing I know is how to handle potential serial killers. My last case in the force was exactly that. And it left a mark on me, in and out, that’s for sure.”
Shane remembered the rumours about Dee, being abducted by the serial killer she was tracking, and being kept prisoner, tortured and scared until she was saved by Beatrice.
“I don’t know you personally, Shane Rhodes, but my husband says you’re a good man, and Beatrice wouldn’t let an asshole join us. You get a free pass; for now.”
“And what about the prodigal son returning home?”
Shane turned with the others to see an imposing man standing by the door, both arms at his side. Blond hair slicked back with a trimmed beard. He looked familiar, although he had never seen him before.
“Lance!”
As Dee ran to the man, Shane connected the dots. He was one of the Sorenson brothers, Lance Sorenson. One of Owen’s brothers and a former Navy SEAL too. They’d never crossed paths, but he remembered the name. Dee kissed the newcomer’s cheek, apparently comfortable with him, and his brother clapped his back. Only offering Shane a quick nod, Lance faced Beatrice.
Arms crossed, the Purgatory boss didn’t move a muscle as Lance stood before her. “You disappeared without a word; you hid on the other end of the world, you fought in illegal cage fights in Chicago and Thailand, and only reappeared in the middle of a mafia war because you were recognised. You’re just trouble.”
Lance shuffled, uncomfortable, almost looking like a little boy. “But you invited me here.”
“I wasn’t sure you would come. But I’m glad you did.”
Lance exhaled as his boss relaxed and smiled, the man looked as if he grew a few inches more if possible. “So that means I can return to Purgatory?”
Beatrice rolled her eyes. “As if you ever left…”
Shane had nothing against tearful family reunions, but this was leading nowhere fast. “Has everybody you were waiting for arrived or do we have to lose more daylight before we get started?”
At least his tone brought the attention of everyone gathered there to the heart of the matter.
“Calm down, Shane. We can’t act if we don’t have all the information. Dee was in charge of bringing it to me.”
Everything was going too slow. If he hadn’t requested time off and answered the questions Beatrice had fired at him, he would already be after the killer.
“I shouldn’t have listened to you, Beatrice. I could already be after that fucker now. How many other victims are already dead because he’s still on the loose?”
This time, Dee came to the desk and retrieved an envelope from her coat. “So far, five women have been attacked and killed by this psycho. All servicewomen like your friend Misty Hale.”
Swallowing hard, Shane went to the desk and started sifting through the photographs the hacker had brought with her. It took all his might to look away from the picture of Misty. It was one of her official portraits when she’d enrolled in the Army. It was her dream to become an engineer and actively help her fellow soldiers. A bundle of barely contained energy, her effervescence and joy for life shone from the image. She was like the annoying little sister he’d never had. Family; that was what her and Nicolas were to him.
After a moment of scanning all the pictures, his eyes went back over the other dead women’s faces. He frowned. “They all look alike.”
Dee nodded. “Yeah, physically. But apart from the fact that they all enrolled and were still active duty, their personality, ba
ckground even specialisation or corps are different.”
Lance checked the summary papers. “Army, Navy, Marines… We can’t protect thousands of women with shoulder-length black hair and a cute, freckled face.”
“There must be a link between all of them beyond looks.” Owen aligned each picture on the table.
The beauty, the shining eyes, the light and hope stolen from them too soon. Shane’s fists clenched. He felt so powerless and it wasn’t something he was used to or liked. He was best with a purpose, with a plan, with an action. And that’s what he desperately needed right now. What was bugging him? It was then he realised that only the men were looking at the files; Dee and Beatrice were looking at each other.
“What?”
Dee shook her head and Beatrice sighed. He knew it was going to be bad news.
“There are two more bits of information Beatrice wanted me to check and…”
At her hesitation, Shane’s adrenaline spiked. “What?”
“When I said five women, I was only referring to American women.”
More people. More women killed. It was a punch in the gut. “And can we be sure they are all victims of the same killer?”
“Yeah, same look. Chopped off hair, an X-shaped wound on their hip. Strangled. This time, four of them, all servicewomen in the British Army. No specifics.”
Owen scratched his beard. “Were they killed in the same way as the Americans? During active duty?”
“Yeah. Right on the base.”
Shane looked at Beatrice whose eyes were glued to the pictures, her expression closed off, but her eyes were blazing.
“There’s something you’re not telling us.” At Shane’s words, Beatrice closed her eyes and pulled at her shirt. There, on her hip was the same x scar found on all the victims.
“Whoa.” Owen’s low-toned reaction was an exact mirror of his own.
Lance rounded the desk to check it out more closely. The easy-go-lucky man turned feral as he approached her. “You were one of his victims? That bastard touched you?”
The boss lady shook her head and offered him a reassuring smile. “No, Lance. This scar was done during a mission. An accident.”
Shane noticed the way the victim’s hair was chopped to look like how Beatrice wore hers. It took a moment for all the details to take their rightful places in Shane’s mind. “You’re who the killer is searching for?”
Lance shook his head. “You have the freckles, the slim figure, but apart from that…”
“Don’t let the different hair colour put you off. When I founded Purgatory, I looked exactly like that. Like them. But not everybody knows about the scar. I came upon the report of the second murder by this potential serial killer, and that detail ticked immediately. I checked around and found out about the others. I talked to my husband, so he could bring this up at the Pentagon.”
If Admiral James Feander was aware of this situation that meant it was more severe than Shane thought.
“As it affects many different branches of the US military, Purgatory was asked to lead the investigation. Being independent was the only way to get this going without provoking some sort of internal power struggle. The assignment was decided two days ago.”
Two days. Misty had been killed fourteen days ago. “You knew about Misty, the link with me, and you didn’t reach out to me? Why did you withhold the information?” The pain returned full force.
“Shane, you had enough to deal with.”
Ever so slowly, trying to get a grip on his volatile emotions, he rounded the desk to stand before his boss. “And what if I hadn’t come to see you, to seek your help, would you have told me?”
Her hesitation was like treason and he acted on pure reaction. However, his move to shake some sense into her turned against him. His world spun so fast he wondered how he ended up on the floor, his face plastered to the cold concrete and his arm in the most painful lock he had ever experienced. And most of all, when he realised it was Beatrice who’d taken him down, some sense quickly came back to him. However, she didn’t release him straight away.
“Shane, I didn’t contact you right away because you had just come back from a difficult mission, and you not only had to absorb the shock of learning of a dear friend’s death but also had to inform your best friend of his sister’s death. I know you took care of everything and everyone, including the funeral and that you are worried sick about your friend. Emotions are running high right now, and you may not accept that I’ve waited, but I did. And maybe not long enough it seems. Too bad we don’t have that luxury right now. I need you to calm down, to think. I didn’t hire you because you are an exceptional warrior and leader. That is all a bonus. I hired you because of your exceptional mind and your capacity for keeping your cool in the line of fire. You understand beyond what most people only see. You’re a strategist, thinking of all possible options and the safety of all concerned. That’s what I need from you right now. Do we have an understanding?”
Beatrice’s voice, so calm and matter of fact, managed to ground him. Something he hadn’t thought was possible since Misty’s death. Shane nodded, and Beatrice released her hold, but instead of walking away, she knelt by his side as he sat on the ground.
“I know that pain. I know how it is to lose important people in your life. I could have kept you in the dark, locked you up until everything was done, but I need you. We will get the killer, as a team. You have my word.”
There and then, Shane knew she spoke the truth, and everything righted in him. The pain, the sorrow was still there, but he could finally manage it if he were satisfied that all this would come to an end and that Misty’s killer would die. He would keep it together for Nick and Misty.
As if seeing in him what she was looking for, Beatrice nodded and got to her feet, offering a hand that he took. The others remained silent, and he was surprised there was no accusation in their faces for attacking their boss and obvious friend like he had. The blinding pain must have shown more than he realised, and he felt shame for taking it out on Bea.
Bea turned around and leaned on the desk once more. “Now that everything is back under control there is another bit of information I need to share with you all. Because Dee discovered that not only US but also British female service personnel were under threat, I talked to a few contacts in the UK to see if we could garner more information. No surprise, they didn’t want to leave this investigation only to us. So, I requested a specialised security firm to represent them. They accepted, even better, they had already approached the founder and he’s aware of the situation.”
Owen shifted on his feet, crossing his arms. “I’m surprised to see you smile at that, Beatrice. You normally don’t like joint missions.”
“You’re right, but this time, I know the man and the reputation of his team. Zack Cunningham, the leader of Fortis, is someone to reckon with, straight as an arrow and lethal to boot. Same for his team. We’ve crossed paths in the past, and I know he’s one of the few we can trust in this. I already contacted him and he’s waiting for us.”
Want more? Click here to read DEADLY ALLIANCE
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About the Author
India Kells is a romantic suspense author from Montreal, Canada. Her idea of heaven is cozying up on her sofa during cold winter nights, and reading lots and lots of books. Inside her wild imagination, she weaves stories filled with the adventures of kickass women and courageous alpha men. When India’s not writing about sexy thieves, dashing soldiers and cunning villains, she’s traveling the world to find inspiration for her next stories. Human nature is her greatest muse!
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