Phoebe ached for him.
Head held high, Seth positioned himself in front of the man with the cane like a prisoner facing off with his executioner. “Gabe, I have a lead on Hendricks.”
“You’re so good, you can do all of our jobs now, is that it, Hero?” the mean one sneered.
“Okay, Reinhardt,” Seth said. “You want to share what you found out about Sergeant Hendricks first?” He waited a beat. When the only reply he got from the other man was a muscle twitch, he added, “Is that a no? Then fuck off and let me talk.”
Way to go, Seth. Phoebe gave him a mental high five even as a little piece of her heart broke. She’d done this to him, made him an outcast among the very men who should be his support network. God, if only she could go back in time and tell her stupid younger self to burn that article because the notoriety she was going to get wasn’t worth destroying a man’s life.
Seth handed the folder and flash drive to his commander. “If this is correct, and they haven’t moved Sergeant Hendricks yet, then he’s probably being held at an old American outpost in the mountains.”
The man with the cane—Gabe—opened the folder and his face turned to stone. “Where did you get this?”
“All right,” Zina said, still standing by the front gate, holding it open. “You have your man. Now I’d appreciate it if you left.”
Gabe faced her. “Where did this information come from?”
“A girl here at the shelter gave it to me,” Seth answered. “She’s Siddiqui’s wife and she claims Zak Hendricks helped her escape the compound before he was captured. He could still be there.”
Gabe nodded and turned to Zina. “You need to let me talk to this girl.”
Zina crossed her arms over her chest. Her glare would have skinned a lesser man. “No. And who the hell do you think you are, coming onto my property and telling me what I need to do?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said, but if he meant it, the sentiment didn’t show on his chiseled face. “My name is Gabe Bristow. And you are?”
“Zina Ojanpura. I run this shelter.”
“Ms. Ojanpura, I command a privately funded hostage rescue team and we’ve been hired to bring Zak Hendricks home. One of your girls knows where he is. We need her help to find him.”
“No,” she said firmly and let go of the gate. It fell shut with a clank. “If what you say is true and Tehani knows something about this missing man, then we’ll take it to the proper authorities.”
“With all due respect, the proper authorities in this country don’t give a shit about a missing American. In fact, we’re pretty sure those so-called proper authorities are the reason he’s a hostage.”
Zina shut her eyes and breathed out in a long, slow exhale. “I understand that and I wish I could help, but I can’t risk the girls like that. I’m all they have, and they’ve been through enough. So I’m afraid the best I can do is take the information to the embassy.”
Gabe nodded. “It’s the right thing to do, but he still won’t see freedom again anytime soon. The embassy won’t act on your information right away. They’ll sit on it, weighing the pros and cons of action, until something or someone finally forces their hand.” His gaze shifted briefly to Seth. “Which can take months.”
“Sometimes more,” Seth confirmed softly. “And a month in enemy hands is a lifetime.”
So what had fifteen months felt like for him? Phoebe shuddered to imagine.
Zina bit her lower lip. “I can’t get involved. I can’t risk reprisal from one of the local terrorist factions.”
“I understand that,” Gabe said, “but who is looking after Zak Hendricks’s safety? There’s only us.”
Zina faltered, visibly torn between wanting to help and knowing she shouldn’t take the risk. At last, her shoulders straightened. “I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”
“I can,” Phoebe said into the following silence.
Seth’s eyes cut to her, a clear warning, though she didn’t know why he cared. She ignored him. “Tehani once mentioned that the compound she escaped from is only a few miles farther up the mountain from her village. I took pictures of the surrounding area as we left.”
Gabe considered her. Damn, the man was intimidating even when she got the feeling he was trying to dial it back. “Who are you?”
“Phoebe. Phoebe Leighton. I’m a freelance photojournalist.” She held out a hand and prayed he didn’t see how nervous he made her. “I focus on human interest stories—women’s rights mostly, which is why I was at the village with Zina. I’m working on a photo-essay about child brides.”
“Okay,” Gabe said. He had a strong grip and his hand all but engulfed hers. “Phoebe. Did you have contact with Hendricks?”
“No. Neither of us did. We’re only now just hearing about him from Tehani. She hasn’t said a word about this since she got here. I think she was too afraid of her husband to talk to anyone but an American soldier. She was adamant it had to be an American soldier, so when she saw Seth…” She shrugged. “And you know the rest. Here you guys are.”
Finally, a softening showed in the big guy’s features. “Can you protect the girl?” he asked Zina.
“We do our best,” Zina said.
“Do you ever face retaliation?”
“If her husband found out we were keeping her from him? Yes, he’d come after the shelter,” Zina answered with a calmness that belied the constant state of worry Phoebe knew she lived in. “And I can’t count on the government to protect us like they’re supposed to. Men like Jahangir Siddiqui have deep pockets and use them to pay off as many government officials as possible. The key to keeping Tehani safe is to make sure he doesn’t find out she’s here. Now do you see why I can’t risk involvement with your mission?”
“Yeah, I get it. But that doesn’t negate the fact that my team and I still have a job to do.” He rubbed a hand over his face and for the first time, Phoebe realized how exhausted the entire lot of them looked. They were all bleary-eyed and sluggish, and if they tried to go up against someone like Siddiqui now, they’d get themselves killed.
“Listen,” Gabe said, “I know you want us gone.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Zina nodded.
“And I understand, but I have a proposition for you. Our local contact has been compromised and we don’t have a safe place to work from.”
Ah, that explained why they looked like a casting call for a zombie movie.
“So,” Gabe continued, “if you let my men stay here long enough to plan our mission, I’ll make sure your shelter receives a sizable donation.”
Zina’s eyes narrowed. “From…?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does if it’s blood money. I know your intentions are noble, Mr. Bristow. However, no matter how you and your team bill yourselves, you’re still mercenaries.”
“We only rescue people. That’s all we do.”
“And turn a profit while doing it?” Zina challenged, but Gabe was undaunted.
“No, not really,” he admitted. “We’re completely funded by our parent company, HumInt, Inc., which is a subsidiary of Quentin Enterprises. I’m sure even over here, you’ve heard of Tucker Quentin.”
Phoebe laughed. “Who hasn’t?”
Zina stared at her blankly.
“Oookay, apparently you haven’t. Where have you been for the last ten years, Zee? Mars?”
Zina sniffed. “Busy. Who is he and why should I care?”
Phoebe took a second to call up details about the man from her memory. During her stint as a tabloid writer, she’d written plenty of stories about him and his troubled family life. “Tucker Quentin is the son of an action film star and a former model. He did some acting as a kid, but started getting in trouble early in his teens. He turned his life around in college, joined the military and had a short but illustrious career as an Army Ranger. When he left the military, he started his first business and is now a gazillionaire with eyes on a political career.”
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br /> “Okay, Ms. Tabloid,” Zina said with a roll of her eyes.
Heat bloomed across Phoebe’s cheeks and she very carefully avoided Seth’s gaze. If she looked at him now, she was liable to blurt out that she’d also written unflattering stories about him for that same magazine. “I, uh, assume when Gabe says ‘donation’ he means it’s coming from Quentin.” She glanced to Gabe for confirmation.
“I do,” he agreed. “Tuc has set aside a hefty expense account for my team, which I’m able to put to use at my discretion.”
“For bribes?”
Ah, that was Zina. Always suspicious. But given the current state of the country she’d adopted as her own, a little suspicion was healthy. Expected, even.
“For expenses,” Gabe corrected. “Which, I’m not going to lie to you, can sometimes include bribes. But that’s not the case here. This arrangement will be more like a donation as thanks for lodging—with the added bonus of a built-in protection force. We’ll provide security for the shelter as long as we’re in-country.”
“How much of a donation are we talking about?”
“Let’s say…” His gaze traveled over to the shelter, traced the side of the building. No doubt those sharp hazel eyes noticed the sagging roof and chipping, sun-faded mud walls, and he had to know if he priced it right, Zina would be helpless to say no. “A hundred thousand, American. That sound fair?”
“Oh my God.” Zina actually swayed backward in shock like he’d dealt her a physical blow. “Oh…my God. How long will you need to stay?”
“Just a day to gather supplies and intel. We need to get up to that compound as fast as possible. Zak Hendricks is living on a very limited watch.”
“It’s an amazing deal, Zee.” Phoebe couldn’t believe she was hesitating. “Think of what you can do with that money. Hire the shelter a full-time security guard? Buy more books and clothes, new bedding? Medical care? Fix the roof?”
“Damn you,” she said to Gabe and lifted a shaking hand to her temple. “You can stay if you pay the first half up front.”
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
“But if you bring danger to my doorstep, the deal’s off. I don’t care if you paid me a million dollars, understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He motioned to the guys standing behind him. “Let me introduce you to the team. Zina, Phoebe, this is Quinn, my second-in-command.”
A solemn looking man with short dark-blond hair nodded at them. “Ms. Ojanpura. Ms. Leighton.”
Oh, so serious. Did he ever smile? From the hard line of his jaw, grim set of his mouth, and direct gray stare, Phoebe guessed not. Even so, he’d make a fantastic model and she itched to take his photo.
Gabe continued, “And Marcus, our hostage negotiator.”
“Ladies.” Marcus aimed a killer smile at both of them, and yet somehow, he made it seem like it was meant solely for her. She wondered if Zina felt the same way and glanced over. Nope. Zina was not impressed.
Nor was she impressed with the linguist, Jean-Luc—the blond man who had been with Seth at the market. He looked a little worse for wear, his face bruised, his lip split, but he still swept into a delightfully charming bow over Zina’s hand.
Gabe went through the rest of the team. Jesse, a true and blue cowboy who apparently served as a medic. Ian, the scary dude with the constant sneer, who was their bomb expert—and why did that both terrify and not surprise Phoebe? He said nothing when he was introduced, which didn’t break her heart. She’d seen the way he attacked Seth every time he opened his mouth and would rather not be on the receiving end of his bite.
Frowning at the thought, she glanced over at Seth. She’d rather he not be there either. He didn’t deserve that kind of treatment after everything else he’d already survived.
Phoebe felt eyes on her and shifted to a find a young guy with glasses watching her. Crap. He’d caught her staring at Seth and he’d probably seen all kinds of emotions cross her face in that moment. But instead of making a deal of it, he pretended like he hadn’t seen anything and turned on a wholesome grin when Gabe formally introduced him as Eric Physick, the tech specialist.
“Call me Harvard,” he said and shook Zina’s hand, lingering over hers for a moment longer than necessary.
Figures, Phoebe thought with an inward sigh. All the guys falling for the pretty blonde. Cripes, it was high school all over again. Though she had to admit, if she were going to pick a guy for her friend, Harvard seemed like the better fit than Marcus or Jean-Luc. Obviously smart, a tad geeky judging by his come to the nerd side, we have pi T-shirt, and completely adorable. Hell, he was the kind of guy she’d pick for herself because she so wasn’t into tall, broody, built-for-sex-and-fighting types.
She really wasn’t.
She oh so casually slid a glance in Seth’s direction and a jolt of awareness made her catch her breath. He was watching her and there was an indecipherable darkness in his eyes. Lust? Maybe anger? Or probably a mixture of both. He made eye contact without shame or apology. The same way, she imagined, he stared through a sniper scope before pulling the trigger. And she was his target.
Distance, she reminded herself as her pulse gave an unwelcome flutter. She had to keep her distance.
Chapter Thirteen
“Q, can I talk to you for a second?”
At Gabe’s voice, Quinn straightened away from the satellite images laid out on the table and stretched. Winced. He’d been going over the images all morning with Harvard, trying to match them up with the photos Phoebe had provided of Niazi Village and the directions to the compound provided by Tehani. So far, no luck. There were just too many fucking mountains and they all looked the same.
Sitting still and concentrating on blurry images for so long had stiffened up his bad shoulder and given him a raging headache. He’d wanted to pop some of the pills his doctor had given him for the migraines, but he hadn’t wanted Harvard to see it.
Yeah. He was regretting that decision now.
Gabe stood in the doorway of their makeshift war room and jerked his head in a follow me gesture.
Something was up.
He trailed Gabe into the hallway, through the building, and out into the backyard, away from where the guys were loading up the two SUVs he and Marcus had stolen yesterday. He bet if their host knew she had two hot vehicles sitting on her property, she’d kick them out, money or no.
The change from dim house to bright sunshine felt like needles stabbing through Quinn’s retinas and he swallowed back a surge of nausea.
Gabe narrowed his eyes. “You okay?”
No. No, he wasn’t okay. He hadn’t been anywhere in the same postal code of okay since their car accident last year. “Yeah. Little dehydrated. What’s up?”
“When we go into the mountains tomorrow, you’re staying here at the shelter.”
Oh fuck. Did Gabe know about the headaches, the blackouts? He scanned his best friend’s features. Gabe was an inscrutable bastard on his best days, but he’d known the guy for so long, he usually had no problem picking out his tells.
But not this time.
Gabe’s expression had closed down tight and not even a sliver of his thoughts crept through. If he knew about the blackouts, he’d straight-up say so, no pussyfooting around. That was Gabe’s way. But if he didn’t know, why leave Quinn behind on an op? Especially when he’d participated in several rescues in these very mountains while still a SEAL.
Goddammit, he wanted to argue. Wanted to rail against the shitty hand fate had dealt him. But what good would that do? Gabe would only think he’d lost his mind. Which, granted, wasn’t all that far from the truth.
“Why?” he asked instead and every muscle in his body tightened in dread of the answer.
Gabe glanced toward the house. “A few reasons. If we all leave, the shelter will be vulnerable and protection was one of Zina’s conditions for allowing us to stay here. I promised her we’d keep the shelter safe as long as we’re in-country.”
So this had nothing t
o do with his medical issues after all. Quinn told himself to relax and nodded. “Yeah, I wondered how we’d swing that.”
“Someone has to stay behind and look after these girls.”
“Understood.” But he couldn’t shake the sensation that Gabe was maneuvering him, tactfully keeping him out of the line of fire for some reason. Same this summer when Gabe had handed him the bodyguard assignment for a senator’s family in El Paso, Texas—
Mara.
Quinn shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. If his skull wasn’t already throbbing, he’d bang his head against the wall a couple times to shake loose the memory of that woman. Goddammit, he wasn’t supposed to think about her anymore. It was one freakin’ night.
Okay, true, his one-night stand with Senator Escareno’s daughter hadn’t been a shining moment of self-control on his part, but that was no reason for her to keep invading his thoughts.
But there she was. Shy smile. Big dark eyes. Curves like an old-time movie starlet. Soft black hair that had felt so fucking good between his fingers when he’d held her head still and took her tempting mouth with his…
No.
He forcefully shoved Mara Escareno out of his mind—he seemed to be doing that way too often lately—and refocused on the problem at hand. The shelter. Zak Hendricks. Siddiqui.
He opened his eyes. “You said you had a few reasons. What are the others?”
“Harvard,” Gabe said. “He can’t go up in those mountains.”
Okay, definitely not the answer he’d expected to hear. “Whoa, back up. Harvard? If you’d have said Seth—well, I wouldn’t like it, but yeah, I might have to agree with you. He’s not handling this sitch as well as I had hoped he would. But Harvard?”
Gabe shook his head. “My gut tells me he’s still too green. Hasn’t gotten enough training under his belt yet and he’s not ready for real combat. Besides, he’s more useful to us on the computer.”
“No doubt, but he’s not gonna like getting left behind.”
“And I don’t like the idea of taking him home in a body bag. He’s just a kid.”
“He’s no younger than we were on our first op,” Quinn reminded him.
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