Code Name: Kayla's Fire (A Warrior's Challenge)

by Natasza Waters

  “Lieutenant Commander.” He gave all of them a nod, and walked away.

  “He seems nice,” Nina said taking a sip of coffee. Her expression twisted with disgust. “Holy crap, this is bad.”

  Ignoring Nina’s snobbery when it came to coffee wasn’t hard. The woman was as judgmental about coffee as she was men. “Really nice guy, actually. He knows the port like no one else. I think he said he’d been here for thirty-plus years.” Greg tracked Themes as he walked away. “What’s the matter with you?”

  Greg’s arm curled around her shoulder. “Nothing,” and his face brightened, his green eyes giving her the once-over.

  “Speaking of nice, those SEALs are pretty…hot.” Nina instantly blushed, being a redhead didn’t give her much opportunity to hide it. “What’s up with that Mace guy? Seems like the strong silent type.”

  She choked on a chunk of chicken then laughed. “Yeah—sure, strong and silent.”

  “I’m reading him wrong, am I?” Nina pyramided her mug with her slender fingers. “What’s it like working with them? I mean, I’ve heard stories, but they seem so down to earth. I kind of expected something else.”

  She swallowed and nodded. “I did too, when I first got here. They’re men doing an extremely hazardous job. Fearless, duty-bound, highly skilled and self assured, but I like the way Fox puts it, ‘We’re still just blood and bone.’”

  Putting her mug down, Nina said, “So what’s the story on Mace?”

  With her fork halfway to her mouth, she stopped and eyed her. “Mace? Why?”

  A blush rose on Nina’s cheeks again. “Just asking?”

  “You never ask about anyone,” her brows rising with humor.

  Lunch officially hit, and a continuous flood of people came through the doors. A squad from Team Three sat down to their left, and they all darted glances at Nina.

  “Snow White,” Lieutenant Law greeted, taking the chair next to Greg.

  “Hi, Lieutenant. This is Nina, she’s here to interview for a job in Base Command. Nina, this is Lieutenant Law, SEAL Team Three.” Law had already met Greg, and they nodded at one another.

  “Nice to meet you, Nina. Another Canuck, we’re being invaded.”

  “Just when you thought you were safe,” Nina said.

  Law leaned back to see around Greg. “I thought you were up to staff in Command, Snow White?”

  “They are, but someone’s leaving.”

  “Who?”

  She turned her attention back to her salad. “Me.”

  “What?” Nina and the Lieutenant said on top of each other.

  “You didn’t tell me that.” Nina squawked with concern. “What’s going on? I thought you were happy here.” The coffee in her cup slopped over the side when she sat it roughly on her tray.

  She didn’t look at either of them. “It’s time to move on.”

  Law lifted his plate from the tray and pushed it away. “Snow White, I talked to Ghost today. Christ, he pretty much put out a bulletin. We’re all watching.”

  “Watching what?” Nina asked, her voice tight. Nina’s ability to foresee things was almost as good as hers. They’d hired Nina when she was getting back on her feet ten years ago, thinking she wouldn’t be back.

  Law turned his sharp eyes on Nina. “You haven’t told her?”

  She shook her head.

  “Told me what?” Nina threaded her fingers together. “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Nothing for you to worry about.”

  “For her own safety, she should know, if she’s going to spend any time on the base,” Law urged.

  Nina’s eyes narrowed when she didn’t confess. Kayla lost her appetite, and pushed her food around on the plate. “We have some trouble on the base. There’s a serial killer running free.” Cranking a look at Law, she said, “Nina’s obviously a redhead, she doesn’t have to worry.”

  “Who does?” Nina’s question shot across the table. “Brunettes, by any chance?”

  More staff joined them, filling the empty seats at their table. Alpha Squad muscled for room, Fox, Nathan, Caleb, Clay, Tony and Mace joining them.

  Tony hurriedly took the seat next to Nina. “Hey, Nina.”

  “Hi,”she said, then turned piercing green eyes back on her quarry. “You better start talking, boss.”

  Boss, shit she hadn’t been called that in a while, but that’s what Nina had always called her.

  “Boss?” Tony piped up.

  Nina gave him a cursory glance. “Yeah, didn’t you know, Kayla gave up her commission to come here.”

  What a blabbermouth. She didn’t need to look up to know all eyes turned her way.

  “Man, does everyone like keeping secrets around here,” Nina chided. She turned a sour look on Greg. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me any of this?”

  Greg raised his hands, seeing Nina’s temper starting to pick up. “Lieutenant Banks kept me in the dark just as much as you, cherie. I’m innocent.”

  “Need to know is a way of life around here,” Tony interjected. “Has to be that way, either that or we end up dead. We don’t like dead.” Tony shrugged in a friendly way.

  Mace laid a hand on her thigh. “A lieutenant?”

  She shook her head not wanting to share. She, Nina, Barry and Gord worked for the Canadian Joint Operations Command initially, and then transferred to the West Coast where they had been hired by the U.S. Navy. The others were non-commissioned, but she had joined the Canadian Navy at seventeen in the officer cadet program.

  “Kayla, that’s an O-3 in the U.S. Navy. Hell, you outrank me, by a long shot.” Mace said.

  She looked around the table to see everyone staring. “What?”

  “She was one helluva good one too,” Greg added.

  Nina waved her hand in the air. “Hey, Boss Lady, over here and nice diversion, but what’s the story?”

  Mace’s expression sobered. “Kayla’s on the Shark’s radar.”

  “The Shark. The serial killer? What do you mean on the radar? He’s…would someone please spill?”

  “The Blood Shark has been tracking Kayla,” Mace explained. “But we’re tracking him now.”

  “No you’re not. I saw Art this morning. You’ve got a mission,” she interrupted. The guys all turned their eyes on her. “When do you leave?”

  “The Captain’s not coming, Snow White,” Tony offered.

  “What? He is going,” she said sternly. “He’s not staying here. You’re a team, and I know you can operate on your own, but now is not the time for him to stay behind.”

  “Kayla, easy,” Mace said.

  “Mace is right, take a breath,” Greg said, giving her hand a squeeze. “You don’t want to have a—moment—here, do you?”

  She didn’t feel like calming down. Cobbs joined them, taking the seat on the other side of Nina, and across from Greg.

  “Listen up, Snow White,” Cobbs said harshly, pinning her with his wicked silver eyes. “You don’t dictate Ghost’s decisions, he does. He extracts every option, and always picks the right one.” A noodle from his lunch slipped off his plate, and he forked it up.

  “So do I, Lieutenant,” ruffled at his response. “Nina, this is Patrick Cobbs, Alpha Squad’s lieutenant.”

  Cobbs, sensing he’d pushed in the wrong direction, said, “It’s never been an obligation for the Captain to continue in the field, it’s been an option. He’s exercising that option now.” He cast his sharp gaze at her in warning not to argue.

  Nina’s expression twisted with worry. “Are you staying?” she asked Greg.

  “As long as she’ll let me,” Greg answered.

  Their voices began to attract attention, mostly hers, and she toned it down. “This,” she argued, craning over the table toward Cobbs, “has got to stop. I appreciate everything you have done, but I make the decisions in my life, not him.”

  Nina watched with widening eyes, and then they rose to something standing behind her.

  Thane’s words were like a cold knife dr
awing against Kayla’s ear. “This is my base, my men and you, my Maple Leaf lieutenant, are mine as well.” He cranked his head toward Greg. “Don’t forget that.”

  Kayla recognized the flutter of trepidation in Nina’s eyes. She could imagine the scary look on Thane’s expression. One Nina wasn’t used to, the one that shook everyone to the core. The roughness of his cheek grazed hers. “We’ll discuss this later—privately,” he whispered.

  A few chuckles from the guys in the team broke the moment, and Nina’s jaw went slack. Kayla pushed herself up, making Thane step back. “Nina, come on.”

  “Uh, yeah right. Um, bye, guys.”

  “Next weekend, the ranch,” Cobbs said. “Marg and I are having a party. Everyone’s invited.”

  Cobbs’ wife had inherited a hundred and fifty acre ranch from her grandparents. Whenever Marg threw a party it meant the mission was going to be a hard one, meaning someone might not come home. They obviously had time to plan, since they weren’t on a plane already.

  The SEAL wives hung on to these moments while the men were away. Hope and fear. The two clung to each other like wayward children, until the plane landed and their men stepped off it.

  Nina joined her, pushing against the flow of personnel entering the galley. “Umm, is there something you want to tell me about that extraordinarily out of this world, hot Captain Austen?”

  “Shut it, Nina.”

  “Yes, boss.”

  * * * *

  Kayla paced outside of the building where Nina was being given the once, twice, three times you’re out interview. If it was anything like hers, she’d have to rivet her ass to the chair and hang on for dear life.

  The Navy implemented everything in one flaming shot, knowledge, psychological assessment, and scenario-based questions, all the while trying to see if the candidate would remain collected and not compromise. Some parts of the inquisition were like the Star Trek evaluation—Kobayashi Maru—the no-win test Captain Kirk infamously cheated on.

  “Holy shit,” Nina blustered, pulling Kayla out of her thoughts.

  “Well?” she asked, palms up as Nina stopped in front of her. “SITREP.”

  “I’m sure I hit the skids.”

  “Oh, God, Nina, you’re such a pessimist. How hard was Tha…Captain Austen on you?”

  “Not at all. He was polite and straightforward. He seemed almost subdued. They must have mentioned you five times or more. I think you greased the wheels for me—again.”

  “Has nothing to do with me, you get what you get, on your own merit. You always have.”

  “Yeah, bullshit, boss.”

  They walked toward Base Command, and she began to give Nina a quick explanation as they strode down Bougainville Road. “NABC—Naval Amphibious Base Coronado is the maritime component of the U.S. Special Operations Command. We have a community of approximately eighty-three hundred, including Amphibious Construction Battalion One, NavSpec Warfare Group One, and Tactical Air Control Group One. Twenty-three hundred active duty SEALs, and—”

  “Kayla, I did my homework before I came.”

  “Right, of course you did.”

  Turning the corner onto Eniwetok Road, they passed the pool where water and fortitude challenged each other in the men and women who trained there, and ran into Tony and Mace.

  “Hey, Snow White,” Tony said, diverting with Mace who walked a few steps behind him.

  “Snow White,” Nina snorted and placed a hand on her kicked out hip. “More like Cruella De Ville.”

  “Hey now, Missy.”

  “Just saying it as it is,” Nina spouted.

  “Don’t you always.”

  Nina stood five-foot-eight, and her body rocked because she spent an hour every day at the gym pumping something, except the guys slobbering over her. When they found out she was a single mom, with the cutest daughter in the world, some headed for the hills, but others left a drooling trail behind her. Her daughter Gabby was the center of her world. The guy who finally caught Nina would have a package deal.

  Tony watched with a burgeoning grin while Mace stood composed but attentive, all of it on Nina.

  “I’m taking Nina back to my place, Mace, would we be able to get a ride?”

  “Yeah, sure,” he said, glancing at Tony.

  “Where’s your gear, Nina, I’ll grab it,” Tony said, giving her a head tilt and a smoky smile.

  Still creepy.

  Mace was extremely quiet in the car, leaving Tony to try his best at impressing Nina sitting in the back seat with him. When they arrived at her condominium, Mace parked the car, and both he and Tony got out.

  “Guys, you don’t have to come in, unless you’re coming for a drink, because that’s what’s on the dinner menu.”

  “Just going to check things out, Kayla,” Mace said quietly, and lifted one of Nina’s bags across his shoulder.

  “Thanks, Mace. I can take that,” Nina said, but he pulled back giving her a quirked brow.

  Tony swung her other bag from the trunk, and thumped the lid closed, taking up the rear, while Mace led the way up the front walk.

  Kayla dug for her keys. Thane didn’t exactly know she was coming home, but too bad. If he assumed she was going to be walled-up for the rest of her life, he could stuff it. Throwing a strong arm over her head, Mace pushed open the door, and she scooted under it. It smelled like someone had stashed a gazillion pennies somewhere in her condo.

  Nina blew out her breath. “Whoa, Kayla, nice place, but open some windows, it’s a little stuffy in here.” Nina strolled down the hallway. “I need to use the head.”

  Everything happened so fast. Recognition of what the smell was, Tony and Mace’s body language going taut, their eyes scanning the place as quickly as she did.

  “Oh, shit,” she muttered.

  Mace turned abruptly. “Nina, stop,” he yelled, running after her, but she’d already reached the bathroom.

  Chapter Eight

  A strangled cry flew down the hallway. Nina backed out of the bathroom, and slammed against the wall sending a picture crashing to the ground, shattering the glass. Mace yanked the bathroom door shut, and swung Nina into his arms.

  “Kayla, stay there,” Mace shouted at her, even though she was right beside him.

  Nina’s eyes widened like a silent movie star.

  “What is it?” Tony grabbed Kayla around the shoulders. “Mace?”

  The smell of blood curled through the hallway, and she glanced worriedly at Nina.

  “Hey, are you all right, Red?” Mace said to Nina, seeing her pallor change to sheer white, her veins standing out like a blue maze.

  “Watch out, Mace!”

  “What?” Not taking his eyes off Nina.

  “Uh-oh.” The woman could eat a mouth full of bugs and spit nails, but blood—she couldn’t stand the sight of it. “Hang on to her,” she ordered. Mace’s grip tightened, as Nina draped like a flag across him.

  “Check the rooms, Tinman,” he ordered, picking Nina up into his arms. “Kayla, follow me.” His hands were full with Nina, and she wasn’t so good at following orders. Tinman was already in her bedroom when she forged a will of steel, and prodded the bathroom door open with one finger. The smell of blood wafted from the interior like a sticky, humid blanket.

  There was no body, but her bathroom held a bloodbath. A stream of blood from the overfilled sink crawled across the floor, staining the grout. Sticky fingers of red liquid stretched across her white counters and pooled against the backsplash. The stark white tub held a couple inches of congealed blood, and the sides were splattered with droplets and streaks as if the Shark had splashed around in it like a kid playing in a puddle. Her eyes stilled on the message left on her mirror.

  Your friend first.

  “Kayla, get the hell out of here,” Tony growled, grabbing her from behind, and yanking her backwards, slamming the door closed between her and the gore.

  The hallway darkened and began to spin, a cold numbness creeping through her veins like an a
dvancing enemy.

  “Please, I can’t watch that again. I don’t know what to do.” He shook her once. “Snow White, no!” She winced as Tony engulfed her in his arms and squeezed tight. “Stay with me. No wandering into the dark zone.”

  “I’m okay. I’m okay,” she murmured, her voice muffled by his chest.

  Mace appeared beside them. “Kayla, Nina’s out cold. She needs you.”

  “I’m coming.” Tony kept his arm around her waist, and helped her walk with shaking legs back to her friend. “Tony, get me some scotch out of the cabinet above the sink.” The pointy corner of her coffee table tagged her shin. “Shit!” She staggered toward the kitchen sink, and grabbed a cloth, soaking it with cold water.

  A wave of darkness came with the telltale thumping of her heart. She shook her head to clear it. Keep it together. Returning to the couch, she knelt down, and pressed the cloth against Nina’s forehead. Tony was on his phone, and Mace hovered, looking worriedly down at Nina. “She can’t stand blood. The woman is tough as nuts, but blood is her weak link. Her father’s a doctor. They found out early, when he took her to work one day.”

  Nina started to come to, and Mace rounded the couch and crouched down, reaching out to glide a finger across Nina’s delicate cheek. “Hey, Red, you’re all right.”

  Huh, there was that funny little lilt in his voice again. And Red? Mace took the cloth from her, and dabbed it against Nina’s neck.

  “Oh, God,” Nina breathed, holding her hand across her eyes as she came to.

  “Come on, sit up. Let’s get the bloo…” he bit down on the word. “Let’s get you sitting up.”

  “Oh, God. I’m so embarrassed.” Nina buried her face in her hands.

  A smile broke on Mace’s lips. “For what?” He grasped her delicate fingers in his to stop them from shaking.

  Tony crouched down beside them. “Team’s on the way. No doubt the Captain is breaking all speed records to get here.” Tony ground a look at her. “Especially after the dressing down I just took. You didn’t clear it with him to come back here.”

  “Clear it?” she sputtered. “What the fu…Tony…never mind.”

  “Do you think that’s actually—somebody?” Nina choked out, staring wide-eyed at Mace.