Luke whistled and gave him the thumbs-up.
“We’re sending an EMT with you, just in case. You guys will be safe.”
“And what about you and the rest of the guys?”
“We’re going back to get him. Gotta leave right now.”
He saw her brave acknowledgement of what had to be done and her fear for his safety. He’d been enjoying the fantasy of what it would be like to spend a slow afternoon and evening clean and in some fresh sheets, undisturbed. He quickly pushed it out of his mind.
She awkwardly kissed him good-bye, a safe but very chaste kiss. They parted, and she walked away.
“Wait a minute, Mimi,” he called after her. They met in the middle. He wrapped his arms around her and planted a huge kiss, which developed into a desperate need to feel her tight against him, all her soft parts filling his hard ones.
Mimi fanned herself when they separated. Her flushed face broke out in a sexy smile. “Better. Much better, Garrett.”
“I’ll see you soon.” He had to turn away and head the opposite direction or he’d do something inappropriate.
Garrett had the authority to commandeer vehicles and equipment, but the theft of a whole mobile unit full of government surveillance equipment on such a sensitive project wasn’t something DHS would look too kindly on, so he placed a call to Silas Branson.
“Great job getting Sorrel back. The president is pleased, Garrett. I knew I could count on you. And you did it with that sonofabitch Mike nearly blowing the whole mission.”
“Well, before we start celebrating, we’re missing Tanner.”
“I thought he was with you.”
“He was to meet us down the hill. He was in the mobile unit. We went out the back way. He was on the front side, and he hasn’t returned yet.”
“Shit.”
“I’m going back—everyone is, except Joshua, who got beat up pretty bad. The girls’ plane is leaving within the hour.”
“Yeah, I just got word. The president wants to be there.”
“So just letting you know, I have to fix it, and I will. I promise.”
“Don’t mess this up, Garrett. The future of this program is riding on your shoulders.”
“I think about that every minute, Si. I won’t let you down.”
All the way back to the encampment, Garrett thought of how many times they’d planned operations, and how many times things had gone wrong, just like this. It wasn’t just now and then, it was every time. In fact, in his twenty-year career, things never went the way it was planned, except once. There was always some ass-chewing from the headshed when they came back from those missions, because most of the people directing their ops had never seen combat. They got the mission done, but sometimes they had to stand there and get yelled at because it didn’t happen the way it was supposed to.
But there was that one time, that miracle, when, finally, one mission actually went the way it was supposed to. He knew that day would never happen again. They all knew it.
Having to adjust to ever-changing conditions or poor intel was what he’d learned to be good at. This mission was no different. Except now, if it didn’t turn out, he wouldn’t be fucking up his career, he’d be fucking up everyone else’s on the team. The Bone Frog Command might cease to be. He wasn’t going to let that happen. But he also wouldn’t let one of his men languish or get lost, no matter what the rest of the outcome was.
He hoped to God it was a false alarm, was just something wrong with the electrical system or the motor on the beast. But in his heart, he knew it was bad news. Tanner hadn’t communicated with them because he couldn’t.
They’d been given a National Forest Service vehicle with a king cab. Trees at the side of the road were covered in red dust from all the emergency vehicles traveling up and down. Twice he stopped personnel to inquire on their teammate.
No one had seen the vehicle, or Tanner.
Garrett decided against alerting too many other departments. The fewer people who knew what they’d done, the better. He continued up the bumpy road, slowing down and then stopping in a small shoulder so they could travel the rest of the way on foot.
Everyone piled out and climbed a few yards. Just before they arrived at the clearing, he heard the motor on the coach start up. Through the trees, he could see it moving toward them at a high rate of speed and knew it wasn’t Tanner at the wheel.
“Take the shot, Cornell.”
His sharpshooter carefully pulled out his sniper rifle and, with total calm, drilled the driver in the forehead. The motor coach careened on its side and nearly rolled completely over. They could hear breaking glass and equipment being thrown all over the place inside. Shards of glass exploded over the road as the coach rested upside down.
Cornell stood guard while Fuzzy and Garrett ripped a door off its hinges. Smoke began to float up to the sky, and he could smell leaking fuel.
Garrett’s heart sank as nothing moved inside. Luke jumped in behind him and checked for signs of life. The driver was dead. Two other men were unconscious but still had a pulse. Garrett overturned the table and tossed the printer to the side, trying to find Tanner in the debris. Blood spatters were everywhere, but there was no sign of Tanner.
Fuzzy nodded to the closed bedroom door. Garrett gulped down the smokey air and kicked it open.
The mattress was covering a huge mound beneath it. Garrett knew there was a body there. Pure adrenaline flowed in his veins when he tossed the heavy mattress one-handed, afraid for what he’d find, but knowing he had to do it.
The body beneath the mattress was not that of Tanner, but Pastor Bales. His face was grotesquely purple, his lips blue and his eyes bloodshot, which surprised Garrett at first.
“Holy hell!” shouted Fuzzy.
Garrett heard Cornell shout out, wanting to know what they’d found.
From under the debris, Pastor Bales’ python emerged, it’s bloodied and cut body leaving a red trail as it found a hole big enough in the frame and silently exited.
“I hate snakes,” whispered Garrett.
“So where’s Tanner?” asked Luke.
Garrett scrambled to get out, careful not to get snagged on the twisted metal and glass everywhere. “Come on. Let’s get back up to our site.”
The forestry vehicle’s off-road tires grabbed the dirt just enough to keep them going forward without careening off the edge of the drive. At the clearing where they’d parked, they found Tanner’s battered body, lying in a pool of his own blood. Luke ran to the man’s side. Garrett stayed in the truck, his forehead pressed against the steering wheel, praying they weren’t too late.
“He’s still alive!” shouted Luke.
Chapter 18
Mimi wanted to see her classroom first thing the next day. It was a Saturday and school wasn’t in session. The halls were vacant even though the bells still rang.
She walked down the aisles, touching the desks of her students, even feeling the chalkboard’s dusty residue between her fingers. Papers to correct waited in her inbox. Someone had been feeding the turtle one of her students gave her last year. She smelled the books and heard the sounds outside of a landscaper mowing the Academy’s lawn. So much had happened, she longed for something normal. A reminder of what her life used to be.
What is normal?
All her concerns about teaching and her complaints about her single lifestyle faded away. Nothing was as she’d left it. And that was because she was forever changed.
Now she understood what her father had done all those years on the Teams. She understood what kind of man it would took to be able to do this sort of thing over and over again and then come home to a wife and kids. Nothing was ever normal for those guys. Risking their lives every time was just part of the job.
It wasn’t hers. That she knew for sure. She also understood the toll it had taken on her mother to care for such an intense man. Could she do it, she wondered? Mimi wasn’t sure.
Her cell rang.
“Mimi? Thi
s is President Collier.”
“Good morning, Mr. President.”
“Liz and I just wanted to thank you for all you’ve done to help us get Georgette back. I don’t quite have the proper words but let me say this. If you need anything at all, anything, you understand, something for your classroom or for yourself, you know where to call, okay?”
“Thank you. That’s very nice.” She knew the president was busy, so she began to sign off. “Well I hope she gets lots of rest. It was a very harrowing time for her.”
“She wants to come right back to your classroom,” he said. “That’s a great testament to you, Mimi.”
“I think she should take some time off and process everything. Sorry, but that’s my advice, for what it’s worth.” She suddenly was embarrassed at having given the president advice on raising his daughter. He didn’t have the option of taking his family on some relaxing vacation. He had the whole country to run. Who was she to even have an opinion? “I’m sorry, sir. That wasn’t very well said.”
“No, I completely agree, but her mother disagrees. We’re discussing our options. What about you? Are you going to jump right back into your teaching?”
That’s when it hit her. What was she going to do?
On her way back to her apartment, she resisted the temptation to call Garrett. He hadn’t called her last night when they arrived in D.C. Someone from DHS called to let her know everyone got home safely and she thanked them. He’d asked them to do that. But he couldn’t do it himself.
She’d taken a hot bath and fell asleep reading one of her romance books. She woke up realizing she’d ruined another Kindle as she eyed it lying at the bottom of the tub.
She watched a little news, just to be sure no mention of the president’s daughter’s disappearance was leaked anywhere. Mimi called her friend, Carmen, and they made a date for dinner and a movie. Halfway through, she couldn’t remember the storyline and then fell asleep in her chair.
Over pizza and a beer, Carmen started to probe. “They were very cryptic about your absence, Mimi. Is something going on?”
She almost burst out laughing. It was so absurd. “Nothing’s going on, I swear it. Everything’s just fine.”
When she got home, she fell on her bed, rolled over, kicked off her shoes, and stared at the ceiling.
Mimi knew it was stress, but it didn’t make it any easier to feel anything at all. She knew that in time, she’d unthaw.
As she lay there, a tear started forming in her left eye, and she focused on it. Then her other eye teared up, and her chest began to hurt. But it wasn’t her chest. It was her heart.
She was missing that one thing that would bring her back to life quicker. She missed that connection. She’d had a sip from the well of belonging, turning her inside out and opening her up to what could be. And now she felt the pain of losing it.
Then she saw her father’s face. She saw the two of them, best friends, on the beach laughing and wrestling, kicking sand and pulling each other into the surf. She missed all of it.
Her eyes erupted, her lip quivered, and her chest heaved, her lungs trying to fill with air between her sobs.
She knew it would be like this going forward if Garrett had decided he was done with her. There wouldn’t be any point in chasing him. And she’d hate herself afterwards if she did. It was going to have to be his move, and she’d just deal with it, if that move never came.
Life isn’t fair, like she’d told her students.
She knew what to expect. She’d have these lonely evenings, and then things would calm down before erupting again for no good reason at all. That’s how it was going to be. Until everything got processed. The ups and the downs would blend into one, and she could function or lie to herself she was functioning normally.
And, although it hurt to have hope, she was glad she did. Garrett had introduced her to that magic, the intensity of a life of action and honor. A life well-lived. She was not going to settle for anything or anyone else, even if she had to wait forever.
Because he was worth it.
Chapter 19
Garrett’s report was thirty pages long. He sat for several three-hour meetings while the Secret Service and DHS pieced together how Mike Bitner had gotten so close to the president. Every communication he’d had with the man was examined and analyzed.
Bales had used his son’s exposure as a summer intern in Mike’s office to extract payback for what he’d suffered when their Texas compound was raided and shut down. Mike did it for the money, but Bales was the truly more dangerous man. He did it for revenge, Garrett was told.
Poor Loren—Bales’ son—was the pawn in the game, the one who was able to worm his way into Georgette’s inner circle just by sneaking in an undetected cell phone so they could text message each other. The plan was so simple they’d all missed it. The boy had been obsessed with her ever since that summer when they met. He suffered from delusions like his father, the pastor, that one day Bales would allow him to marry her. He had no idea that Bales had planned her murder, not their wedding.
In the meantime, Bales intended to destroy that symbol of power that had shut him down: the White House. It didn’t matter who the First Family was, he would never stop getting even.
Thank God he was dead, thought Garrett.
Like all missions accomplished, not everything about it was successful. Two members of the team had been seriously injured, and there was the loss of a great deal of very expensive equipment.
But Georgette Collier had been safely returned, and the general public never knew what kind of danger she’d been in. The incident allowed staffers to implement changes in protocol that would ensure the safety of this and future president’s households going forward.
He was asked all the tough questions about the Bone Frog Command. Did he consider it a success? Was there a place for this type of operation going forward?
“Yes,” Garrett answered the secretary of Homeland Security. “This mission would have failed if we had too many people involved in it. If we hadn’t had individuals who were expert in their specialized fields, with the background, experience and training to work together,” he said.
“What would you have done differently?” he was asked.
“First, I’ll tell you what I wish we had. And it’s something we’ll never ever get, no matter how many times we try.”
“What’s that?”
“Accurate intel. We didn’t have it overseas. We’d get into these places and everything we were told about the mission was inaccurate or based on assumptions that were false. Here, I was working with and depending on someone who turned out to be the whole reason we were called in in the first place, sir.”
“And how do you avoid that, Tierney?”
“You know how you stop the Federal Reserve from being robbed?” He was going to use Tanner’s story as an example.
“Enlighten me, Tierney.”
“You can’t stop them, sir. You just make it impossible for them to get out in less than a half-hour and hope like hell that gives you enough time to catch them.”
“So with respect to these missions, how do you improve the quality of the intel?”
“You don’t. You hire guys who can get ’er done anyway. Who are used to getting blown and adjusting, never giving up. To properly react to some threats to the homeland, we don’t have time to go through approvals and levels of bureaucracy. That’s why you need a stealth force to cut through all the BS and not cry about it. We were trained to do the impossible, and that’s what we do.”
“Oversight?”
“That’s a dirty word, sir. Oversight is a term for not knowing what the hell you were doing in the first place.”
“Would you consider working on this team going forward?” the secretary asked him.
“Possibly, but each time, you have to get a team put together for each scenario. You can’t have the same people every time, because it requires different skills, depending on the job.”
“
So, what’s next for you? Are you willing to be on call?”
“I’m going back to Sonoma County, sir, and I’m going to plant the vegetables I didn’t get in before I came out here. I’m going to drink some beer, fix my well, probably get a couple new hens. And if the telephone never rings again asking me to do one of these, I’ll die a happy man, sir.”
“How about your personal life? I understand there was a budding romance.”
Garrett smirked at the question. He’d guessed some of Tanner’s recordings had surfaced from the wreck and he could see now he was right. He wasn’t exactly proud of it, but that was okay.
“Sir, there was, and is, a romance—not just budding, but in full raging bloom. But if I spend all my time going to interviews and writing reports, she’s going to die an old maid, or some other Bone Frog will nab her before I get the chance to convince her I’m the one.”
He saw the secretary had his eyebrows raised.
“You do know, it’s the woman who chooses?”
The secretary sat back, threw his head back, and laughed.
Garrett stood. “It’s been nice chatting with you, and I’m available if you need more information. Beyond that, sir, it’s none of your damned business.”
Chapter 20
Mimi’s cell rang but she’d gotten so many solicitation calls for credit card deals and free energy audits she stopped answering them and let them all go to voicemail. Besides, her gloved hands were dirty. She was planting some broccoli in little pots on her patio. She’d ordered several gardening books online as well.
It had been four days since they returned from Oregon. She had prepared for classes after taking the following week off. She stopped expecting a call from Garrett.
When she came inside, tossing her gloves in the sink, she checked the phone and was shocked to see Garrett’s number on the screen.
Her hands started to shake. She hit redial.
His warm, chesty voice made her spine tingle. “Well, hello there. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
SEAL Love's Legacy (Silver SEALs Book 1) Page 15