His Toughest Call

by Joss Wood

  Shit.

  Stone sucked in a breath and looked at Seth, concern on his face. “That can’t be him.”

  “Sure as hell looks like it could be, though.” Seth responded, his expression grim.

  Cracker spun his chair around and looked from Stone to Seth. “That guy could be your dad, boss.”

  “Yep.”

  Cracker frowned at Seth’s machine gun response. “And is that a problem?”

  “Yep,” Seth replied as he exchanged a long, what-the-hell look with Stone.

  He tipped his head and he and Stone walked away from the desks, away from interested ears. He trusted his staff, to an extent, but he never gave them more information than they needed to know. Frustrating sure, but this was his incident room and his rules and keeping secrets protected lives.

  “Don’t jump to conclusions. There are similarities but there are also enough differences for me to be doubtful. Besides, only DNA can prove it.” Stone stated.

  “If he’s an imposter, what’s his agenda?” Seth asked.

  “And if he’s your father, why hasn’t he contacted you before this? Father or not, imposter or not, this guy knows a lot about you. He knows Jed, knows that Jed has a sister, knows that this picture, this news would eventually get back to you,” Stone said and pulled out his phone. He quickly typed and after a couple of minutes, he looked back up at Seth. “I’ll contact the police in Spring, that’s where your father lived, wasn’t it? I’ll ask them what definitive proof they had that the body in the burned out car was Ben Halcott’s.”

  “Age, build, wallet, personal items. He was known to drive that car.”

  “Still circumstantial,” Stone replied. “I want DNA or dental records.”

  “I do, too,” Seth admitted.

  Seth tapped the back of his phone with a long finger. “I’m going to Cape Town, I’ll see if I can track him down.”

  “Going to be hard, it’s a big city.” Stone pointed out.

  “But there’s a reason he’s there. He made contact with Leah, made a concerted effort to grab my attention.” Seth rolled his shoulders attempting to relieve the tension gathered there. “I need to know why.”

  Seth walked back to Cracker and Stone followed. “Bring up Fayed Khan.” He ordered.

  Cracker hit a button on his keyboard and the screen returned to the previous subject of the radicalized boy. He was missing and he needed to be found. If Seth went to Cape Town he could kill two birds with one stone. And he could lay eyes of Leah again. Check that she was okay and that asshat Heath wasn’t trying to worm his way back into her life.

  Laying eyes on Leah was always a pleasure. Laying hands on her would be even better. Seth shook his head, annoyed at where his thoughts went. Leah...even thinking about her was a distraction. Why her? What was so special about Jed’s sister that he couldn’t forget about her? He didn’t allow anything, especially woman, to distract him from his missions.

  Besides, Leah was going through a tough breakup, was dealing with a broken heart. Remember that, Halcott.

  “I’ll go to Cape Town, look into the missing kid, if you take over here.” Seth told Stone.

  Stone sent him a hard look. “Can you be objective about either of these two missions? Looking for your father and The Recruiter? Loss of objectivity can lead to mistakes and mistakes get you a headstone.”

  Stone had a right to be concerned. His parents had been members of a small cult—a crazy-ass grouping of free spirits—and, to be honest, he still wasn’t sure what they actually believed in, if they believed in anything at all. The cult lived in a commune on the outskirts of Spring, a one horse town in the coal country of eastern Kentucky. When he was four, he and his mother left the commune and his father had not taken that news well. He found them in the next town over and made his displeasure known by rearranging his mom’s face and dragging her home. His brave and enterprising mother waited for her broken body to heal and they escaped again. Believing he would kill her if he found them again, he and his mother became nomadic, constantly changing identities to fly under the radar. As a result, he grew up overprotected, constantly looking over his shoulder and scared.

  Sick of living scared, he’d joined the military straight after school and, after a stint in the Ranger’s, made his way into Delta Force, the best of the best. Nothing scared him anymore...but his pathological hatred of any organization that promoted extremism in any form remained.

  So, hell, okay...he wasn’t objective but that wouldn’t stop him from doing his job. He’d find Fayed and he’d find The Recruiter. And he’d find his fake father...

  His highly specialized and extensive military training had taught him to separate the job from his emotions. He had the ability to operate with detachment, to do the job no matter what the cost.

  He didn’t fail. Ever.

  Seth raised his eyebrows at Stone, who cracked a small smile. “Okay, I’ll step in here. You need to update me on what operations we are currently running.”

  Seth nodded. “Most of the operations are under control, there’s no need for you to interfere. The agents like to do their own thing so we need to trust their skills and intelligence.”

  “Just like I trust you to run this show,” Stone said, amused. “I might not be army, Halcott, but this isn’t my first rodeo.”

  Not my first rodeo, said in exactly the same tone Jed used. Hmmm.

  Seth looked at Stone as they made their way to the private offices at the back of the incident rooms. When Stone made comments like that, he implied he was more than a rich boy with a fancy education, that he’d seen more action than he was prepared to admit. When Seth had first joined Pytheon, he had done a little digging of his own but nothing he’d learned about Stone suggested Stone was anything more than a smart, rich executive with an Ivy League education. But he’d seen the guy work out in the gym, on the range. Stone was a skilled marksman and even better at hand to hand combat. He had the skills that men didn’t learn in rich-boy gyms.

  Stone had a superb cover story and it pissed Seth off that he couldn’t break it. Despite the fact he loathed not having all the puzzle pieces, he knew, instinctively, Stone was rock solid and that he had Seth’s back.

  And, really, that was all that mattered.

  Since speaking to Seth yesterday, Leah found herself looking at the photograph of Seth’s dad more than she should and thinking of her and Seth’s odd conversation. Seth sounded as he usually did, super cool, super detached, and absolutely nothing like the passionate, sexy, intense man who’d kissed her with such expertise. Leah frowned and pushed a strand of hair behind her right ear. Lately she’d spent a lot of time thinking about Seth and his kiss. It was a brilliant distraction from thinking about her sham-wedding, catching her husband kissing Sara, dealing with the lawyers in an attempt to get their marriage annulled, the hurt, and the humiliation. Leah latched onto everything that allowed her a moment’s respite from thinking about her messed up life and that was why she’d accepted Ben’s offer to buy her lunch.

  Unlike his reserved, cool, sexy son, Ben had been a harmless, charming, old flirt and she’d immediately responded to and appreciated the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He’d been entertaining company but his habit of deflecting the subject away from Seth and his childhood had been very disappointing. Jed and Seth, super soldiers, were, to say the least, economical with words. She knew very little about Jed’s best friend and she’d hoped to learn more from Ben, but he’d ducked her questions about his son so Leah walked away from that lunch knowing nothing more about Seth. And, boy, she was desperate to learn more about the man who’d kissed her with such skill.

  Because he was an excellent distraction from thinking about Heath. Leah blew air into her cheeks and looked at the ceiling. She fully accepted she spent far too much time thinking about Seth, thinking about his kiss...his hands, his scent. And when she was being very honest, brutally honest, she admitted she wished he’d taken that kiss further, that he’d given her more than ahot ki
ss. There had to be something wrong with her when her hottest sexual memory in years was a brief kiss in a filthy jail cell a few hours after she said “I do” to another man.

  But when she pushed Seth aside, thoughts of Heath barreled in. Why did he marry me? Was everything a big lie to get my money? Did he love me, at all?

  Am I ever going to live down the humiliation? What must our guests think, our friends, my family? Why the hell didn’t I listen to Jed when he told me that marrying Heath was a stupid-ass idea? And, most worrying, why aren’t I more upset? Why is my heart just bruised, not broken?

  A fist knocking against the rim of her office door made Leah look up and her stomach instantly did back flips and her lungs forgot how to inflate. Worn jeans, a fire-engine red t-shirt stretched across a broad chest fell loosely over a flat and very hard stomach, legs that went on for miles. Seth pushed his designer sunglasses into his thick hair and his large hand rubbed his stubble-covered jaw.

  Fallen angel face. Gorgeous, but oh so troubled.

  Leah took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. She resisted the urge to place her hands under her thighs so Seth wouldn’t see them shaking.

  She needed her cool voice, her I-can-deal-with-anyone voice.

  “Seth Halcott.” She drawled, crossing her legs, noticing Seth’s eyes lingered on the hem of her short skirt.

  The temperature in the room rocketed up and she felt the moisture in her mouth disappear. He was so damn...male. Hot. Hard. Sexy.

  Aw, no. Not good. It’s just a chemical reaction, lust attraction. Life’s way of telling her that she wasn’t dead, that she will feel normal again.

  “So, you were the last person I expected to waltz into my office at eleven-forty on a Thursday morning.” Leah stated, watching as he stepped into the room, dropped a backpack to the floor, and kicked the door closed behind him.

  Unlike his father, he didn’t bother to ask whether this was a good time for her, whether she was busy, whether he could take her to lunch...to bed.

  Not helpful, Hamilton. And you’re only thinking that way because he’d be a wonderful way to escape your ultra-shitty life at the moment.

  “Leah, you are looking...” Seth said in his deep, growly, I-smoke-a-hundred-cigarettes-before-breakfast voice. Sexy, attractive, doable?

  “Good,” he continued. “You’re looking good. Better than I expected.”

  He was being kind.

  “But you’re still pale, look thinner and you have bags under your eyes.”

  “Gee, thanks for the effusive compliments,” Leah retorted.

  But Seth looked, doable, sexy, hot—and more—but he also looked exhausted. His eyes were red rimmed and his hair looked like he’d been running his hands through it on a continuous basis. She’d barely finished the thought when his big, tanned ringless hand pushed through those thick, wavy strands.

  “I presume you being here has something to do with your father?”

  When Seth just looked at her, his face inscrutable and eyes unreadable, Leah lifted her hands and explained. “I haven’t spoken to you since that night...”

  The night we kissed. He might not have verbalized the words but she knew he was thinking about that kiss. Oh, nothing on his face gave him away but his eyes darkened to a smoky green.

  Not going there, not going there...

  “I tell you about having lunch with your dad, I send you the picture of the two of us, and thirty-six hours later you’re here. Why?”

  Seth looked at her and Leah tried not to squirm. “He’s not my dad.”

  “I’m sorry, but you look exactly the same. There is no way you are not related to that man. You even have the same sex...scratchy voice.”

  Please let him not have caught my slip.He does not need to know he is my favorite, late night, triple x-rated fantasy. Amusement appeared in Seth’s eyes and disappeared ten seconds later. “He can’t be my father. I’m thinking this is some strange mistake.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my father is dead.”

  Chapter Two

  Seth leaned back in his chair. His eyes felt like they’d been scrubbed with sandpaper and caffeine saturated blood pumped sluggishly through his system. He he’d been tossed into a game not knowing the rules, but that was okay, he’d make up his own. But he’d still like to know who the game master was and what his motives were.

  And how did Leah fit in? Few people outside of Pytheon knew about his and Jed’s connection; Seth’s work was his life so he didn’t socialize much and when he did, work was never a subject he discussed. Apart from the fact that Pytheon frequently bent rules to get the job done, the missions and objectives of the organization were a closely guarded secret and not something that came up in conversation at the cocktail parties he never attended.

  Who knew about Jed and Leah? Cracker? Stone? His mom...

  But why Leah? Why Cape Town?

  He’s separating me from my support base. Seth looked at a point beyond Leah’s pretty head. He thinks I would be weaker, more vulnerable, away from the States.

  Bullshit. Whoever was toying with him didn’t know him very well if he thought that. Seth felt the reassuring weight of a Glock nestled against his spine. They had contacts all over the world and ten minutes after he cleared customs, he’d been handed a pack containing two unregistered firearms and a bag full of other big-boy toys. More vulnerable, his ass.

  Leah coughed and Seth moved his eyes back to her face. For someone who’d been married, cheated on, and arrested in one evening she looked like she was doing okay. Tired, sure, a little sad but remarkably composed. Leah Hamilton was tough and he admired her resilience.

  “Seth, you can’t just drop a bombshell like and that and spend the next few minutes staring at the wall. What do you mean, your father is dead?”

  Like any other woman, she liked explanations and that was problematic. He rarely explained and because he was consistently single, never explained himself to a woman. “Ten years ago we received word that my father died in a car accident—”

  “You were living apart?”

  “Since I was about four.” There was no way he was going to explain his torrid history, that they’d spent most of their lives running from his father.

  Whenever they started to get comfortable, get into a routine, his mom would get spooked and they’d be on the move again. His mom became a master of manipulating the system or changing identities, of earning and paying cash and flying under the radar. Maybe that was why he was such a good soldier, he’d been taught the art of evasion at a young age.

  “And you don’t recognize the man in the photo? He looks a lot like you.”

  “Everyone has a doppelganger,” Seth replied, digging his thumb and index finger into his eyeballs. “Can you recall what you talked about? Did he say where he was from, what he was doing in Cape Town?”

  Leah’s arched eyebrows pulled together and Seth caught his breath. God, even her eyebrows were sexy. He was in deep, deep trouble. How was he supposed to figure out this latest situation when all the blood drained from his head to his crotch?

  “He said he was here on holiday, he’d done a safari and was exploring Cape Town as every tourist does.”

  “Did he mention me? Jed?”

  Leah pulled her bottom lip between her teeth before answering. “I was thinking about that, thinking that he was very reticent, very short on personal details. I just assumed it was family trait.”

  Seth didn’t bother to respond to her comment. Yeah, sure, he was distant and emotionally unavailable, reticent. He’d spent most of his life being on his guard. Mistrusting people and their motives was a habit.

  “He said he was your dad, Seth. He looked like you and he was a funny, charming guy. I took it at face value.” Leah stated. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Seth made a concerted effort to relax his shoulders. It wasn’t easy since he was tired and aggravated and turned on. “I’m not accusing you of doing something wrong. I’m just trying
to make sense of this craziness.” It was hard to keep the frustration out of his voice. “A couple more questions, okay?”

  Leah nodded her agreement.

  “Did he give you a contact number? Tell you where he was staying?”

  “No.”

  Yeah, that would’ve been too easy. “Whose idea was it to take the photograph? Yours or his?”

  Leah wrinkled her nose. “His... We took one on my phone, one on his. He asked me to send it on to you. He said he’d run out of air time and since he was leaving soon he didn’t want to buy more air time and data.”

  “There are a million free Wi-Fi hot spots where he could’ve connected and sent it to me,” Seth said, thinking aloud. “He doesn’t have my number, can’t get my number so he used you to get to me. It was his only access.”

  Leah rubbed her temples with the tips of her fingers. “This is crazy. And confusing. But somehow he knew of your connection to Jed and that I am Jed’s sister.”

  “Yep.” Seth leaned forward, grabbed her phone off her desk, and added his number to her contacts.

  “Help yourself,” Leah muttered.

  Seth flashed her a quick grin, put the phone on the desk, and pushed it in her direction. “I just did. Call me if he gets in contact again, if anything happens—and I mean anything—that you think is odd.” He stood up, jammed his hands in his pockets and tipped his head. “Do you know the suburb of Constantia well?”

  Leah blinked at the change of subject. “Fairly well. I’ve sold a couple of properties there.”

  “Do you know Ismail Khan?”

  “The philanthropist? That Ismail Khan?”

  Seth nodded.

  “I don’t know him personally but I’ve heard of him. Why?”

  Seth ignored her question and looked at his backpack at the door. “You still living in your grandparent’s home?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I stay with you?” He didn’t know he was going to ask the question until the words were out of his mouth.

  But, right now, all he had going for him was his instinct, and it was insisting something was off and Leah was involved. He sensed this situation could turn from weird and odd to dangerous in a heartbeat and he couldn’t protect her if he was living in a hotel across the city.