He saw Kayla’s head jerk once as she bowed it, and fell into Lydia’s arms. Red’s gaze settled on him, and he finally smiled, nodding his approval. Mission accomplished.
“I need some help in the kitchen,” Marg called out.
When Kayla immediately turned, Lydia stopped her, and led her to the couch instead. The women tucked their heads together. Kate and Naomi strode toward the kitchen, but Nina sat down in front of Kayla. He didn’t need to be part of that discussion, and turned back toward his men, who’d taken roost at the table.
“We’re back at square one, men. Tell me Manchester has something,” Thane said, looking at each of his squad members.
Fox took over Marg’s cup, and gulped down the cool coffee. “He finally made a mistake,” he said, squaring a look on him.
He stilled, waiting.
“We were looking in the wrong direction. He’s a marine, not a SEAL.”
“How do you know?”
They followed a trail of blood from his last victim. Some shit-hole motel, he’d laid low for one night. Place was clean except for one thing. Got snagged on the sheets. A pin.”
Thane nodded.
“First Battalion, ninth division.”
“The Walking Dead? Sure it’s not a plant?”
“Don’t think so, Captain,” Mace said shaking his head. “Semper Fi, at least he used to be.”
“They’re trying to date the pin,” Caleb offered, reaching for the plate of bacon. “If he’s a Jarhead, our list got bigger.”
“Can’t wait that long. Now that Kayla’s back, he’s going to go full ahead.”
“At least we know it was only the bug on Kayla, the Shark had hidden,” Fox added.
“How do they know that?” Thane asked, taking a draw on his coffee.
Fox turned his gaze on Cobbs. “Yeah, well I forgot to mention that.”
“Mention what?”
Cobbs took another sip of his coffee, and sat the cup down on the table. “Kayla bugged us.”
“Say—what?” he barked, swiveling to see the women talking quietly. Kayla darted a quick look at him, and then turned away nervously. “Kaylaaa,” he growled. “What the hell.”
She looked at Cobbs for help, but he wasn’t offering. Thane crossed the room quickly to stand in front of her with his hands on his hips. “Sweetheart, can we talk?”
Big brown eyes stared up at him, looking about as innocent as a mouse with a piece of cheese dripping off her lip.
“You were tracking us? Why?”
“They were just little bugs,” she said, pinching her thumb and forefinger together. “Little satellite…tracking…It came in handy, didn’t it?” she said with a scowl.
His face went slack, and he swung around. “Is that how the retrieval team found us?”
Cobbs nodded, looking amused. “She had us all down to the square inch, and used the Spysat to keep an eye on us.”
“The Spysat! You gotta be kidding me. Holy shit. Who knows this?” he said, suddenly worried. More than one throat cleared itself, so he pinned his gaze on the culprit. “Who, Kayla?”
“Admiral Timmons,” she said, giving him a toothy smile with her brows perched high on her forehead.
“Aww, shit.” His arms flopped to his sides. “Old iron ass is gonna can yours.”
“Not exactly,” Mace said, stepping up to his side. “Kayla’s a combo cracker.”
Now why didn’t that surprise him? “Timmons wants her to start crackin’ codes for the good old US of A, is that it?”
Mace nodded. He leaned over, and she tilted back, blinking, and giving him a cute little smile. “Kayla—sweetheart—were you a naughty girl, and cracked the United States Spysat using it to keep track of us while we were deployed?” Kayla scratched her cheek with one finger, and then looked up at him without giving him an answer, which was all the affirmative he needed. “How long?” his voice dropped to a low growl, usually reserved for Mace.
“Thane, don’t upset her,” Lydia warned.
“I want to know exactly when you did that.” He narrowed his eyes at her. Come on sweetheart, let’s see some of your laundry.
Kayla stared down at the carpet, her hands stuffed under her thighs. “First mission,” she said quietly.
“He reached out his hand, and tipped her chin upwards. “First mission. You mean the first mission after we met?” One brow cocked.
The sides of her cheeks sucked inward, knowing she was caught and cornered. Warmth and love filled his chest. Oh yeah, she liked him, from the start. The aloof, proper, by the books Ms. Banks had it just as bad as he did. He leaned in and kissed her. “Goddamn, Ms. Banks, I think someone had a thing for me from the word go.” Before she was going to argue, he pulled her into his arms, and gave her a luxurious kiss that was pretty much indecent for mixed company. Too bad it wasn’t enough they’d leave, so he could take her back to bed.
Wrapping Kayla under his arm, he said, “This is the last inning, men. We’re bringing the Shark down one way or the other. My son is due in two months. We have better things to do, like get the nursery ready, and make my place kid-friendly. We’re going back to work, and this time we nail him.” He paused looking down at Kayla. “Did ya really crack the Spysat codes, baby? That’s supposed to be impossible.”
Kayla shrugged,
“Huh. All right—let’s figure this out and reel this son of a bitch in.”
“I’m going back to work, if I’m not fired,” she said.
“No, you’re not. Working odd hours does not equate to taking care of yourself.”
“Thane, it’s another two months.”
“We’ll argue about it later.”
“Come on everyone,” Marg called out, setting breakfast on the table.
Together again, and for the first time in too long, he felt everything was going to work out.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Nina cracked the door to the anteroom, and the raised voices coming from the Captain’s office came with her.
“What’s going on in there?” Kayla asked, swiveling in her chair.
“Think it’s about you,” Nina said, sitting in the other chair, and leaning toward the intel monitor, checking for incoming messages.
“I’ve downloaded them all, already. Who’s in the office?”
“Admiral Timmons.”
“Oh.”
Captain Redding called from the anteroom. “Kayla, meeting,” he said, motioning for her to come.
“Yes, sir. Nina can you finish these?” she asked, sliding a hefty pile of SOFREPs that needed disseminating. “I’ve processed them, just haven’t sent them.”
Nina tucked them to her chest. “You don’t think they’re going to fire you, do you? I know Thane wouldn’t, but that Admiral Timmons seems like a real hard-liner.”
“He is, and he might.”
She stepped through the door and read the three faces easily. Hopefully, they couldn’t read hers. “Sir?”
“Take a seat, Ms. Banks,” Admiral Timmons said, rising from his chair, and offering it to her.
“Thank you, sir.” She glanced at Thane. His severe expression told her someone was in big shit, namely her.
Admiral Timmons closed the door himself, then crossed his hands together giving her a steady look. “Do you know what the penalty for breaching the highest classified equipment in the U.S. Navy is, Ms. Banks?”
The Navy had a long memory. Good, cut to the chase. She wasn’t going to get away with what she’d done scot-free. “No, sir.”
“Dismissal, possibly jail time.”
“Understood, sir.”
Admiral Timmons blinked and then approached the desk. “You’re several months pregnant, Ms. Banks, and you’re prepared to go to jail?”
“Yes, sir.”
The Admiral sat down, tossing his hat on Thane’s desk as an afterthought. “Explain to me why you would do this for any other reason than to share the information with Canada or some other country. Maybe for monetary gain. You d
on’t have a husband to support you.”
“No, sir, to both questions.” She folded her arms around her baby lump.
“The internal investigation found that you only tracked one SEAL squad. The history on the satellite shows it was Alpha Squad, and you’ve been doing it for months. Care to explain why to me, before you have to explain it to an inquiry board.”
She darted a look at Thane, and although he worried the inside of his jaw, he was giving no tells. “I was concerned about the squad. They often go into extreme circumstances I was monitoring their movements.”
“The point of a SEAL team going dark is for their protection, and the secrecy of the mission.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you share the information with anyone?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then it was for your own knowledge.”
The long corridor she was being herded down was narrowing. “That’s correct.”
“Are you also aware that it is a serious offense if two people working in a classified area are involved in a personal relationship?”
Kayla swallowed. “Yes, sir.”
“It’s been brought to my attention by a source here in Command that your Captain has acted in an unprofessional manner.”
Geez, way to go Miss Sweater-too-tight. Spiteful bitch.
“Captain Austen is well aware of the disciplinary actions associated with this. I don’t have to be much of an investigator to put two and two together, Ms. Banks. Who is the father of your child?” Admiral Timmons asked, piercing her with a look.
He already knew the answer. Either she or Thane was about to be busted, maybe both of them. She remembered what he told her in the Middle East. ‘They need both of us in the service and they know it.’ “Admiral Timmons, I was the one to act in an unprofessional manner.”
“No, she wasn’t,” Thane said quickly.
The Admiral held his hand up. “Ms. Banks—continue.”
“Kayla is allowed representation,” Thane interrupted again.
“Yes, she is,” the Admiral stated. “But I believe this can be resolved in another way if we put all our cards on the table.”
Thane looked warily at Redding and then at the Admiral.
“Admiral, I tracked Alpha Squad because I was concerned for all of them. You already know what I did in my last job. I was aware the satellite was read only. I accept whatever disciplinary action you see fit, and I don’t need any representation.”
“Ms. Banks, are you having an affair with Captain Thane Austen?”
Her heart thumped hard. Before she spoke, Thane did. “It’s not an affair, Al. If you’re going to hang someone, hang me,” he said leaning forward. “I’m the one who initiated the relationship.”
“No, he didn’t,” she piped up.
“I did,” Thane said harshly, giving his head one quick shake while the Admiral’s attention was on her.
“No, you didn’t. It was me. I seduced the Captain. If you’re going to discipline me, and you already have to because of the Spysat, then I want the rest.”
“You couldn’t seduce a fruit fly, lady,” Thane said, giving her a level look.
“Bullshit. I was the one to rip my clothes off first. You wanted me to shut the door between us.”
“Kayla,” he hissed, but his eyes heated at the same time.
“That’s the truth, Admiral.”
The Admiral bowed his head and his chin sharpened to a point. “You two are a pain in my ass,” he said.
That stopped both of them from arguing. “Why is it the best of my people always have to be a handful of trouble as well? Thane, I’m walking out the door for retirement in less than a month, because Paula says its time, and I can’t come up with any more excuses not to be on the golf course eighteen hours a day. Now, here I am with two serious offenses on my plate, involving two of the most talented people in the service in their own disciplines. You two argue like you’re married already, so I guess that answers one question. I need to find a resolution for the other.”
“I’m not moving, Al, and neither is she. She’s safe in the Command Center while the Shark is out there. I explained this to you. It’s like a vault—”
“One the Shark already penetrated.”
“Once, but not since. I don’t want Kayla out of my sight until he’s caught, but if it has to be one of us, reassign me, Admiral.”
“I was hoping you’d say that, Ghost.”
Thane stiffened. They’d both been outmaneuvered.
The Admiral leaned forward. “When is the baby due, Kayla?”
“September twenty-fifth, sir.”
“And your plans?”
The Admiral watched her, but he didn’t look like he was out for blood anymore. Now she really had to worry. “Maternity leave and then…return to work, if I’m not in jail,” she said slowly.
“What if Captain Austen is no longer in this state?”
Where were they going to send him? “I—”
“With me, Al. Where I go, she goes, package deal,” Thane said with little doubt he meant it. “If you want her to crack your damn codes, she can do it from anywhere. That is if we decide she’s going back to work, which she doesn’t have to.”
Okay, this was news to her.
The Admiral reached for his hat. “Uncle Sam would be very grateful if Kayla decided to help for a while, maybe even train some folks to do the same. I think it would be looked on favorably, and the indiscretion of using the Spysat for her own personal knowledge could be overlooked.”
Now her actions were an indiscretion? “Admiral, I signed a piece of paper before leaving Canada. Barry spilled the beans, but I haven’t broken that agreement yet, but if I showed you how it’s done—”
“Kayla,” Thane interrupted. “I am not bringing you a cake with a file in it on your birthday to some prison. We have been through enough.” He turned his anger on Timmons. “She’s not breaking her agreement, and the mother of my son is not going to jail. Tell the CIA to figure it out for their fuckin’ selves.”
“Ghost, I’m not at the top of the food chain on this one. This is not a case of ‘de minimis no curat lex.’ The CIA wants her knowledge, obviously, it would be used passively. It doesn’t even have to be documented. The CIA and the Navy can throw up enough subterfuge that nothing would point to her. If she doesn’t, JAG will prosecute her. It’s already in their office, and I’ve asked for a suitable amount of time to resolve this issue, without dragging it into the courtroom.”
“Passively, huh?” Thane practically snorted with disgust. “There’s no such thing, when it comes to black ops. She’s not going to be the CIA’s goddamn puppet.”
Kayla knew she was way out of her league here, but she felt like she was being bartered on some flesh market. Both these men knew a lot more than she ever would, and she remained quiet, but unhappy that she wasn’t getting a say in her future.
“Our son needs his mother. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fucking janitor, the second you step into the walls of anything CIA, your life is screwed. I’m not letting her within a hundred miles of those pricks. If she does this, and that’s a big if, it will be within the confines of the Navy, no interaction with CIA whatsoever. Deal breaker. I’ll put her on a plane and hide her so deep, no one will ever know where she is, got it?”
“You’re thinking like a husband and a father.”
Thane slammed a heavy fist down on his desk. “How the hell else should I be thinking, Al? You’re willing to sacrifice the woman I love. Screw you.”
The Admiral sighed and then nodded. “Kayla, would you agree to using the Spysat and breaking the codes while someone watched? We’ll bring in people in that field who could figure out what you’re doing. No documentation.” He looked at Thane. “I don’t know how I’m going to pull this off, but no CIA involvement.”
“Yes sir, that I could do.” She didn’t have a choice.
“I’m sure you have things to discuss,” the Admiral said, ad
justing his cap. “I’ll be in touch tomorrow.” He nodded at both of them. Captain Redding escorted the Admiral from the room, and discreetly closed the door behind them.
Thane’s severe expression finally dissolved, kneeling in front of her. “This is just a bump in the road, Kayla. It’s nothing to worry about.” He laid a gentle hand on her stomach.
She ran her fingers through her hair and stared up at the ceiling.
“Sweetheart, I will take care of this, put it out of your mind.”
“Being sent to prison or cracking some silly code is not what I’m thinking about.”
“Then what?” He took up a position behind her chair, his fingers gently messaging her shoulders.
“We’ve been a little preoccupied with avoiding the Shark and junior here. We’ve never discussed…” How was she going to put this? “Other things.” A definite quiver of fear began to fester inside her.
“Like what?” Thane still wasn’t catching on.
“Never mind.” She was too exhausted to start rambling, and that’s how it would come out. “Help the blimp up, would you?” she asked, pushing forward, but Thane gently pulled her back, and continued to massage her, eliciting a purr. He had magical fingers, no matter where he touched her.
His breath tickled her ear. “As in you and me, forever,” he said.
A tail started to flap in her belly and it wasn’t her SEAL pup.
“As in you in a long white dress, me in number one whites, and a guy with a collar holding the good book in his hand in front of us?”
She stilled. Her breath stuck in her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut. This is Thane, not Daniel. Thane had never hit her, never threatened to hit her. Daniel had treated her like a piece of property as soon as she’d said “I do.” The jealousy started and so did the abuse. Thane’s words pulled her back into the present.
“I don’t know, Ms. Banks. I seem to remember you asking me a couple months ago, and I seem to remember saying yes.”
Her eyes followed Thane as he knelt down in front of her.
“I’ve had plenty of women tell me they love me.”
Instant jealousy blazed a trail up her spine, even though she knew she was being manipulated.
Code Name: Kayla's Fire (A Warrior's Challenge) Page 36