Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Roma, Laurie

  If a man could blush with two black eyes, Sebastian was certainly doing so. “I did deserve it. I’m sorry I was such a dick to you, Mikayla. Please, forgive me.”

  “Of course. You were just protecting your family. I understand.”

  “See, she understands,” Sebastian muttered then shifted in his seat as hard eyes focused on him from all around the table.

  “Yes, this all sounds very familiar,” Julian King said dryly. He turned to give Gage a sympathetic glance. “Joining up with this bunch requires a strong constitution and a need for hazard pay. And that’s after they start calling you a friend.”

  “Ah, honey. What did I tell you about baiting the animals?” Tara quipped as she leaned into her fiancé’s side.

  “Does that include you, love?”

  “Naw. You can bait me anytime, sugar.”

  “Oh my god, stop now before my head explodes,” Sal complained. “First it was Mac and my sister. Then T-rex and Julian. I can’t take anymore.” He scowled at Gage. “If you and I are gonna be cool, you need to promise to cut out the lovey-dovey bullshit or else I may have to hurt you.”

  “Are you kidding? Lynx has this one pussy-whipped already. I’m surprised he’s not spouting sonnets and shit from the rooftop,” Rock snorted.

  “Hey—” Gage protested.

  “Are they always like this?” Robert and Nick asked simultaneously. They got a nod in response from Adrian and Julian.

  “Are you kidding? They’re just getting started,” Tara said cheerfully then her expression became thoughtful. “What we do is intense. The friendships we have, the joking around…this bonding helps us know we can trust one another when shit goes down. We get right and tight when in action.” Julian reached out and took hold of her hand. The bond between them was easy for everyone to see.

  Sal groaned. “Another one bites the dust. You thinking about keeping him, Lynx?”

  “I’m not a goddamn puppy!” Gage snapped.

  The tone of his voice made Wulf raise his head in question from where he’d been resting. Mikayla reached down and stroked her hand over his head. She was rewarded with a lick to her hand, and it made her smile. She reached out her other hand under the table and held onto Gage’s. When he turned and smiled back at her it made her heart flutter. “I guess I’m keeping him. Since we’re getting married, I think that would certainly make him mine,” she said, still lost in Gage’s emerald eyes.

  Sal cursed again. Pulling out his wallet he slapped a bill into Brett’s outstretched hand. At her questioning glance Sal frowned at her. “Damn it, I thought after the way Gage flipped out about you being a sniper he wouldn’t stick.”

  “You know, I really don’t think I like your friends, Mikayla,” Gage muttered to her.

  “We’re an acquired taste.” Adrian grinned.

  Brett smirked at them. “I knew this would happen. And that was before I knew about the baby.”

  The table went silent. Mikayla and Gage both glared at Brett, who at least had the sense to look sheepish at his slip. “Sorry about that, hon. I guess I should have let you tell everyone.”

  “You think?” Mikayla snapped.

  “This is bullshit!” Sal exploded.

  Mikayla’s eyes narrowed at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. His focus was on Brett.

  “You fucking cheated, Bishop. Give me back my money! You had intel you didn’t disclose before we made the bet.”

  “That was classified information. And besides, I called it before I arrived, didn’t I, Slade?”

  “He did,” Slade agreed then grinned. “So, we’re going to have a little Lynx running around here soon?”

  “No,” Gage said, going slightly pale. “We can’t have a girl. She’s going to want to date and then you’ll have to arrest me for murder when I kill any boys that look at her. We have to have a boy.”

  Brett laughed. “Oh man, you are so having a girl. A little Lynx that we’ll all teach how to handle the boys herself.”

  Mikayla laughed as Gage groaned.

  “Congratulations, buddy,” Nick said with a grin.

  “Thanks. I’ll get back to being happy when I stop being so fucking terrified.”

  Sebastian slapped Gage on his back then leaned around him to smile at Mikayla. “Welcome to the family.”

  “Thanks.” And she meant it.

  Throughout the exchange Sin had simply leaned back in his chair and observed them. Mikayla could feel his watchful eyes studying her and finally turned to meet his gaze. “So, I take it you’ll be staying?”

  “Yes, and I’d like to take you up on your offer to run the training facility here.”

  “Done. And since I’m here I can see for myself that you made it through the phases of…fight club. I can call your uncle back and ensure him that you are fine. Maybe he will stop calling my cell every fifteen fucking minutes.”

  She winced. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Sin sighed. “I was with Ethan when Brett called him to let us know what was going on. We thought it was best if he wait until that shit was out of your system before he came to see you.”

  And thank god they did. It was bad enough knowing that her friends had heard her and Gage together. Having her uncle there would have been a whole new level of awkward.

  “I appreciate you coming here to make sure I’m okay and, as much as I’m glad to see all of you, I have to ask, what the hell are you doing here?”

  “Aw, come on, Lynx. You didn’t think we’d miss out on all the fun, did you?” Tara said with a smile. “It’s been weeks since I’ve killed someone.”

  “You poor woman. You’ve been so neglected,” Julian whispered playfully.

  “Jesus…” Nick breathed out as he shook his head. “You people are fucking crazy, do you know that?”

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Adrian confirmed.

  “I came with Trinity,” Lucian said. “Those fuckhead coyotes messed her up pretty good. When I was done with the takedown and she got out of surgery we had her transferred here. She’s in one of the rooms downstairs where we can monitor her through her recovery.”

  “How is she?” Mikayla asked, concerned for her friend.

  “Not good,” Brett answered with a sigh. “She screams every time the lights turn off. Reflexive PTSD and when she freaks out she’s in jeopardy of pulling her stitches and bleeding out.”

  “Damn it,” Mikayla whispered. Gage immediately wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to comfort her. Her eyes stung with tears, partially because of what had happened to her friend. They all had their demons to face, but Katrina “Trinity” Cross was a strong woman. Bold, brash and beautiful, Trinity was full of life. For that light to be extinguished would be a loss of epic proportions for all of them. The other part that had her emotions flaring was the knowing look Tara sent her.

  Not long ago, Mikayla had confided in Tara about her fear that she would never find someone to love her, flaws and all. She had watched Tara and Julian fall in love among the chaos of a mission and saw their bond fuse their lives together, making them both stronger.

  She had that now, with Gage.

  Yes, she could live without him, but her life was more with him in it.

  She allowed herself to lean into Gage, taking the comfort that was offered and found that it was easier to face the daunting conversation with him by her side. “Trinity will be fine,” she said with more conviction than she was feeling.

  “Yes, she will,” Sin said. “I came to make sure you were doing okay, but the real reason I’m still here is because I want the head of this lust-dust operation on a fucking pike. Intel is that this shit has already begun to spread. No one has been able to figure out what the hell it was because the drug alters once it’s introduced into the system. I may not get to get my hands dirty as often as I like anymore, but on this one I want to bathe in their blood.”

  “That’s…”

  “Gross,” Dylan finished when the words escaped Gage. “Totally gross.”r />
  “Umm…I’ve been working with several people in your network, giving them the information they need to treat the victims,” Robert added. “We’re collectively working on coming up with an antidote for the LDX31, but it’s difficult. It’s a very complex drug and it’s going to take some time, if we can do it at all.”

  “Director Kane Stryker sent two agents from the LA division to pick up David Henley and the other two assholes. They escorted them to a secured facility where they’ll never see the light of day again. Kane was pissed that his IAD agents hadn’t connected the deaths of all those scientists to the lust dust and kidnapping until now,” Slade said.

  “What, is he psychic all of a sudden?” Rock scoffed. “The connection wasn’t there. We might have never known about any of this shit until much later if Mikayla and Katie hadn’t been taken.”

  Lucian nodded. “Still, from what the doctor and those we have in custody have told us, a few key groups have paid a shit-ton of money for the drug already. We want to take them out before they use more of it or learn how to duplicate it.”

  “Even if another scientist were to get their hands on the substance, it would be highly unlikely that they would be able to recreate it,” Robert argued. “That’s still problematic because if they try to duplicate it and begin testing on subjects, more people are going to die. David had a group of people that got them close, but they couldn’t complete it without me. I’m a genius and it still took me several tries to get it right.”

  “Fuck, I hate this,” Adrian said. “No offense, Doc, but you really created some seriously fucked-up shit.”

  “I know,” Robert said, his shoulders hunched.

  Nick patted the doctor on the back. “It wasn’t your choice to get involved in all this. Even so, you are doing what you can to help fix it. That counts.”

  Robert smiled weakly in gratitude.

  “I’ll be back. Katie is upstairs and I want to see if she’s still sleeping or if she needs anything.” Nick got up and left the table.

  Gage frowned as he watched his friend leave the room. Mikayla squeezed his hand. “He loves her.”

  “I know. It’s just gonna take me a little bit longer to get used to them being together now.” During Gage and Mikayla’s break from reality they had been informed that Nick and Katie had their own sequestered hiatus together. At first Gage had wanted to kill his friend, but Mikayla had told him about Katie’s feelings for Nick and he had finally come to terms with everything. It was either let Katie suffer alone or let Nick, a man who loved her, help her through it. Gage had accepted it, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

  “So, Katie’s upstairs. Trinity is downstairs. The evil doctor and his henchmen are now in LA, where I’m sure this Stryker is making them wish they were dead if he’s anything like you,” Gage said to the group, getting back to the issue at hand. “What now?”

  “Now we figure out where the third facility is located in Denver and we take all three out at once. But first we need to figure out who the hell is running this operation. We figure he is either in control of the unknown location or at least is tied to it. According to our data this boss isn’t expecting contact until Saturday when he’s expecting Lynx to be delivered to him,” Slade explained.

  “Well, he is going to be pretty fucking disappointed,” Gage snarled, furious even thinking about it.

  “He is.”

  Mikayla began tapping her fingers on the table as she thought everything through. She separated the parts of the operation in her head. Fundamentally, there were several issues that needed to be handled congruently. They needed to find and track the boss, take down the facilities, rescue the kidnapped women, figure out who the drugs had already been sold to, and find the stash of existing drugs.

  “I know that look,” Tara said as she stared at Mikayla. “What do you have, Lynx?”

  “Maybe we are going about this in the wrong way. We’ve assumed that tracking the boss will lead us to the third unknown location, but what if…”

  “Ah,” Brett said, leaning back in his chair. “Not him…”

  “But it…”

  “And where it’s stored…”

  “Exactly.”

  “Fuck, I hate when you guys do that,” Adrian muttered. “Fucking binks…”

  Gage looked around, utterly confused. “What the hell?”

  “Bishop and Lynx sometimes speak in code,” Tara explained. “Our friend Finn calls their secret language ‘binks.’ It’s annoying, but they usually come up with some pretty brilliant shit.”

  Mikayla smiled. “Sorry, I was just working it all out. If we can’t find the boss we should try to come at it from both ends. Track the sales. Figure out who it’s been sold to and where they got it.”

  “You think the third location is a facility where the processed drugs are being stored. That’s why no one knows where it is,” Brett finished as Nick returned and sat back down.

  “That makes sense.” Slade nodded slowly. “Henley was pissed when we hammered him to tell us the location. He was telling the truth when he said he didn’t know. Apparently he was caught trying to sell some of the product on his own and the boss made adjustments to the storage of the drugs shortly after that.”

  “Why didn’t they just kill him?” Tara asked, confused.

  “Harsh…” Lucian murmured.

  “Yeah, but it makes more sense than keeping that jackass around if he was stealing from them.”

  “Henley was the one who put together all of the key parts of the drug from all of the different scientists. He must have held back information from whoever is running this as insurance,” Slade said.

  “He did. But he didn’t know that I was able to fill in the missing pieces because the foundation of the drug had been my idea,” Robert added.

  “So you know how to recreate this shit?” Lucian didn’t seem very impressed by the notion. In fact, he looked downright disgusted instead.

  “Yes, but I would never do it. Sin…I mean Commander Hamilton told me that I can work for you, for IAD, and I wouldn’t have to worry about someone trying to make me.”

  “Ah, you’re using your genius Jedi powers for good now.” Tara smiled. “That cryo-fix stuff is amazing. I can’t believe how fast it healed Lynx.” Robert Ellis blushed at the praise.

  “The Doc will be staying here at the training facility. He’s been working on Trinity and can be the resident doctor on site…if that is all right with Lynx since she will be running this division,” Sin said.

  “Fine with me.”

  “Okay…so, we track the sales and that will lead us to the asshole in charge?” Sebastian asked.

  “How do we do that?” Nick asked. “Do we know who they sold the drugs to?”

  “We’ve heard of three groups so far.”

  “Shit…”

  “Yeah, exactly.”

  “Why are we waiting? If we know two of the locations now then why not take them down? It’s a safe bet that someone from the other two will know where the third location is, right?”

  “We can’t risk it,” Brett explained. “It sucks wide, I know, but if we take down the other two locations and don’t have the third, all of that product will poof. They could dump the stuff in a quick sale and we’ll end up with a shit storm of lust dust flooding the marketplace with no way to stop it.”

  The horror of what Brett was explaining was clear on everyone’s face.

  “I have an idea, but you aren’t going to like it,” Tara announced.

  Julian sighed. “You seem to say that far too often.”

  Tara patted his hand then focused on her commander. “I think we should ask Phoenix for help.”

  “Fuck!”

  “I said you wouldn’t like it…”

  “That son of a bitch pisses me off. He hacks into our systems, taunts us then expects us to sit back and just accept the data he sends us?” Sin all but growled.

  Tara winced. “I told you, you wouldn’t like it. But seriously, e
verything this Phoenix guy has told us has helped us. During our last mission he said he was leaving the message board operational in case we ever wanted to get in touch with him. If he can get into systems we can’t, why not use him? Sure, we’ll have our own people working on this, but why not use him too?”

  “If he can track the sales for us we can figure out where the hell the third location is before the Saturday deadline,” Rock agreed.

  Sin was silent as he thought about it. “Fine. Set up a message. And while you are at it, ask the bastard if he can give us the name of the asshole who is running this thing. If he can find that for us then maybe I won’t gut him when I find his ass.”

  “I think it’s Arvan Kelner,” Mikayla said softly. “The guy in charge, I think it’s him.”

  Adrian shook his head. “We checked him out. He’s clean, Lynx.”

  “I know what you said, but he’s dirty. I know it.”

  “If Lynx says he’s dirty then he probably is,” Brett agreed. “I wouldn’t bet against Lynx and her gut feelings.”

  “True. Fine…I think a little surveillance on this asshole might help find something,” Adrian mused. “I think I’m going to go see what I see.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Lucian offered.

  “Good,” Sin said as he stood, taking command of the room. “Now I’m going to call some of my contacts to see if I can track the sales through underground channels. Dr. Ellis, if you could get back to working on that antidote and check on Trinity?”

  “Of course.”

  “Bishop, I want your team to tear that motherfucker’s life apart. Find me something. He has to have an alias buried. Hidden accounts. A network like this, he has to have ties somewhere. If Arvan Kelner is connected, find something.”

  “Got it, boss.”

  “T-rex, send a message to Phoenix. See if you can make contact.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “ Lynx, you’re with me. We’re calling your uncle so he’ll stop driving me bat-shit.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Get to it, people. Tick-tock.” With that the others rose to follow his orders and Sin turned and left the room, cell phone in hand. Mikayla kissed Gage lightly then followed after her commander.