Sworn to Secrecy (Special Ops)

by Montgomery, Capri

  Alex would have flown commercially, but Preston didn’t think it was a good idea. He didn’t either actually. He needed his gear and going commercial wouldn’t allow for him to take it. He had his own connections in specific areas of the world where he knew he could get the weapons and other supplies that he couldn’t get onboard a commercial flight, but this wasn’t a place where he knew anybody he could go to for a hookup on weaponry. He wouldn’t have time to try to secure what he needed once he arrived in the country, especially when they didn’t have any reliable contacts in the area.

  He knew they had a bidder down near where he needed to go. He could have taken a detour and acquired things that way, but a bidder was just that—a man or woman who sold their services to the highest payer. They never used one if they could avoid it. If they couldn’t avoid it then that usually meant it was a two member assignment, something so detailed and complicated that for some reason they hadn’t been able to use the private plane and they needed some heavy duty weapons to get to their location. That scenario was rare. While they did tag team some missions, some of the more dangerous ones, it was rare that those missions led them to a bidder. He rolled his shoulders and shook out the tension already creeping into his muscles. He wasn’t nervous. This was like a walk in the park—a really hot and humid park, but that didn’t mean that his body wasn’t already giving him grief for the trek he was going to have to take once he landed. First they would have to land someplace secure, someplace where he could get out in a hurry without having to log a flight plan. Preston said he knew a perfect spot. He had researched their options long before he agreed to take the case because that’s what he did. Between Preston and Natalia going in blind was never an issue. They always had knowledge of what awaited them; even though they didn’t always have knowledge of every detail they weren’t flying completely blind either.

  Alex was also going to have to acquire, and by acquire that meant steal, a vehicle and stash it on the route he planned to take out of the jungle. Then, as always, he was going to have to enter from an outside direction so that the way out and the way in never overlapped. He couldn’t risk any bad guys knowing his general location and tracking his movements back to his escape vehicle. Oh yeah, he thought; this mission was going to be barrels of fun, and of course that thought was pure sarcasm, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t ready for the challenge or that he wasn’t up for the mission. There were two things he knew about himself. The first was that he loved the danger and the excitement; while he knew how to be smart and be careful he still loved feeling as if he were making a difference and pushing himself at the same time. The second thing was he knew how much he craved a challenge. Challenging assignments always got him going because it meant doing something that his family never would have thought he could do. While they didn’t know the extent of his job with these guys, and they didn’t care for that matter, it still made him feel a hundred times better just knowing he was right and they were wrong. He was worth something, even if they didn’t think he was.

  He got the last minute mission pep talk from the guys; the one that told him if he ran into trouble they were there, and then a quick hug from Natalia. All the guys got the same speech when they went on assignment so it never bothered Alex. They were like family—they were family, and they all worried about each other, would die for each other and would kill for each other if it came down to that. After the usual before mission speech Alex left. He needed to secure his home, gather his things and make sure he was completely ready for his mission. Hanging around the office would only be procrastinating and he wasn’t much for procrastinating. Things needed to be done, so he set about doing them. “No time like the present,” he had said. “No time like the present.” And with those words he secured his home, packed his gear and turned in for a few hours of sleep before boarding the plane at three o’clock in the morning. The package was coming home. There was no doubt in his mind about that at all.

  Chapter Two

  It was hot; he was tired and after a long night and day of travel, getting to the package seemed like a glorious relief of pressure. Alex wasn’t complaining—much. He was used to hard missions in inhospitable conditions, but there was a sudden sense of urgency in this mission. No demands had been sent yet. No contact had been officially made and that told him that the package could soon be dead or moved to another location.

  He saw which hut the package was being held in so he knew he could get to her, but he also knew he had to play this smart. Just walking into the village wasn’t going to get him what he needed. It might get him killed though. He needed to enter covertly, that was the plan, but apparently they were having some kind of party that night because the fire was burning, the food was cooking and the people were festive. He didn’t see her until she came out the hut, accompanied by several women and one man. She was adamantly refusing something; he didn’t know what but the look on her face and the tension in her body caused him to speculate. Given the people clearly watching her moves, he would guess she wasn’t getting much alone time. He wasn’t worried; he knew he could find his way in. He would retrieve the package and back to Austin they would go. He could sit out on his porch and do some stargazing. Watching the stars happened to be one of his favorite past times and from what he had been tracking before he left he knew the sky was going to be lit up with a meteor shower in just a few days. He wanted to be back in time to catch the show.

  It would be nice to have somebody to watch it with, but since his last relationship ended he hadn’t jumped into another. He was too busy dealing with work and balancing his family—or more like surviving his family. Kevin had inked yet another endorsement deal and his parents just had to throw a few parties they required him to attend. He couldn’t even use the excuse of work because at the time of the parties he wasn’t on a rescue mission. Maybe he didn’t care as much about the parties. He was rather used to the “Kevin is a god and you’re a nobody” treatment he received, but what he couldn’t adjust to was seeing his brother dating one of his ex-girlfriends. It wasn’t the last woman he had been with; that relationship had ended and that was his choice since she had cheated on him. But Kevin had taken interest in Krystal Diggs, the first woman he thought he might just be in love with. When she moved to California it had been hard for both of them, but they were going to make it work. At least she said they were. He understood long distance relationships. He was in the military; he knew what it was like to be thousands of miles away from each other. He thought they were okay until he got the email that she had met somebody else. Apparently absence did not make the heart grow fonder.

  Now she was back in Texas. She was moving to Dallas to be with Kevin. Krystal had moved away for a job when they were together, but she was willing to give that same job up just to be with his brother. He found out about their relationship at one of the parties his parents had decided to host. Nobody would ever mistake his family for the Waltons; that was for sure.

  He put his mind back on the mission and took it off his family problems. It wasn’t as if his family was going to change. He couldn’t do anything about that, but he could do something about this situation. He was going to retrieve the package. The package, Carissa Jones, was going home and then he was getting back to his favorite nightly relaxation routine of watching the stars above him. He would need all the relaxation he could get if he was going to attend another family party in Dallas. They were planning to do a Fourth of July bash to celebrate Kevin’s success. Alex had nearly laughed at that. Fourth of July had nothing to do with football and everything to do with freedom, which he had actually spent six years in the military helping to fight for, but they didn’t care about that. Fourth of July was over a month away, so he had a little time to prep himself for the event. He was still trying to find a way to get out of it, but he had nothing yet.

  Micah and Natalia were going away to Colorado. He had talked her into going hiking so they could celebrate the freedom of the country in the freedom of nature. Je
t was trying to salvage what was left of his relationship with Charlie. He had planned to spend the night with her. He hoped for Jet’s sake that the plan worked. Those two were definitely teetering on the edge of breaking up, and since he had gone through a few breakups himself he could state with certainty that they probably would be over by the end of summer if they couldn’t work through whatever was going on with them. Their weekly night out as a group was still happening at the bar and grill Charlie tended bar at, but the tension between the two was so visibly clear it was painful to watch.

  Preston, now that was a man of great contradictions. He was single once again. None of them were surprised. It was clear Preston was still very much in love with his ex-wife. Fifteen years hadn’t changed those feelings no matter how many women he tried to replace her with. Ironically, even Preston had plans for the holiday that would not include Alex. There was nothing he could use as an excuse not to go to his family’s party without looking like the jealous brother. He wasn’t jealous; he was just tired. There was only so much a person could take and he was reaching his breaking point. Krystal had pushed him there. There were just some things brothers didn’t do and that was date the ex without permission. Kevin knew what Krystal had meant to him. Alex had been so sure they were going to get married. He had actually bought the ring and was planning to propose when he went out to see her, but then he got that email and everything changed. They weren’t together anymore, but having his brother show up with her, knowing that she was going to be living with him now, was just too much of a betrayal not to hurt.

  “Get your head back on this mission,” he told himself. He needed to drop the family issues right now because he had more important things to deal with.

  He watched Carissa as she sat on the ground next to several practically naked women. She looked tired, but he noticed she was trying to pay attention to the festivities. She smiled at a few of the kids as they came up to her. She didn’t look as if she were distressed about being held captive, but then again, maybe she was too tired to put up a fight. It wasn’t as if she had the opportunity to run.

  He waited all night. He saw her being led into her tent and then being left alone, but the festivities were still going and he didn’t have a way inside their grounds—not without being noticed.

  He camped out all night until just before dawn and that’s when he made his way into the village, into her tent, and then he took her. He had his gun in hand just in case any of the locals came after him. He wouldn’t shoot to kill. They had primitive weapons, maybe he could just shoot to wound; that should work. He was supposed to rescue her not kill anybody. But if it came down to him or the captors he wasn’t going to be the one to die.

  “Let’s go,” he had said to her. She had silently protested, but she took one look at his gun and he could see the fight leave her eyes. He could explain things to her later, but for now they needed to get moving. He trekked through the jungle. He had to pull her along as he went. A couple hours of that and he was beyond tired of dealing with her. He had already told her he was there to rescue her. Her father had hired them and he had drawn the mission. Given the circumstances he was now looking at it as one unlucky draw.

  Alex tugged on Carissa’s arm. He didn’t have time for this. He was putting his life on the line to rescue her and she wasn’t helping at all. “Move your feet,” he barked. This wasn’t how he planned to spend his Memorial Day weekend, trudging through the Amazon trying to bring some brat socialite home to her daddy. “You act like you don’t want to be rescued. What; do you have Stockholm already?”

  “I don’t want to be rescued,” she pulled her arm free of his hold. “Those men saved my life.”

  “Great, now you need a shrink. Look lady, that’s not my area of expertise okay. Save it for when you get home.”

  “You don’t get it,” Her short curly hair fell in a bob cut at chin level and framed her beautiful face. He liked her when he saw her picture. She went for the natural texture of her hair, but her father had also dropped off a photo where she had straightened it and she looked good with that look too. She had almond shaped ash colored eyes, which somehow looked even more exotic combined with her cocoa brown skin. And those lips—those lips were just too lush not to kiss. Oh yeah, he had a great deal of fantasies flicker through his mind after looking at her pictures—those fantasies were gone now. He didn’t care how great her body was, tall, curvy with a slender waist and c-cup breasts, he was sure of that because he had no problems sizing up a woman’s measurements—but she was a brat and he had no room for that in his life or in his bed. He just wanted to get her home so he could be done with her.

  “My father sent people to kill me and if it weren’t for those men in that village I would be dead. They brought me down the river and into the jungle to stay in their village to save me.”

  “Your father sent me here to find you. The first team he sent was actually trying to save your a—”

  “Don’t curse around me!”

  He mumbled several expletives under his breath. Right now he wanted to kill her. He was tired and sweating bullets from the heat. Struggling with her was not his ideal situation. Never before had he gone in to save somebody who didn’t want to be saved. Whether they were saving hostages or rescuing hikers stuck up on a mountain, the package always wanted to be returned to safety.

  “I heard those too,” she admonished him.

  “You have issues lady.”

  “My father sent those men here to kill me, not find me. I wasn’t lost. I was on a tour Kayaking, hiking—I wasn’t lost. My father wants me dead and you’re leading me right back to him.”

  “Why would he want you dead?” He took hold of her arm and dragged her along again.

  “Because I know something I shouldn’t know.”

  “Right; and it’s worth killing over.”

  “Let’s see,” she hummed and he found it highly annoying. “Prison for treason or kill your only daughter…yeah, tough choice that one.” She yanked her arm free again when he stopped walking.

  “Don’t lie on that man. Ronald Jones is a good man. He worked his way up to billionaire status with only the clothes on his back and he has been doing charitable donations ever since. He has helped get a lot of homeless people, including Vets, off the streets. Don’t slander his name.” He growled. Spoiled brat.

  “Right, his work with charities is so well known it makes it easy for him to do something illegal and get away with it. He’s working with companies that aren’t actually completely legit—oh some of them are, don’t get that wrong, but funneling money to OTG is not a legal charitable contribution.”

  “Lady, I’m warning you.”

  “You work for my father. You’re probably just like him. Well I don’t care what you try to do to me I will not let him continue to hurt our country.”

  “I’m an independent contractor.” He forced her to start walking again.

  “An independent contract killer huh?”

  He growled.

  “Look, I’m serious. If you don’t believe me then call Special Agent Garrison…right, you can’t; nobody is supposed to know I’m helping her.”

  “What are you yapping about now?”

  “When I found out about the things my father was doing I went to the FBI, who dismissed me at first. Apparently everybody is awestruck with the presence of my father. The FBI wouldn’t listen so I went to Homeland Security, who also dismissed me. But when they found that bomb outside the federal building they started taking me more seriously—at least a little.”

  “You’re trying to tell me that your father is in cahoots with Overthrow the Government? I don’t buy it. Keep walking.”

  She exhaled sharply. “You’re taking me back to him and he will kill me.”

  “You’re so worried about our country and that’s why you’re down here in Central America huh?”

  “Garrison thought it would be a good idea for me to leave town while they investigated the latest threat. I
was only supposed to be gone a week. The day before I was scheduled to return I heard from Garrison. She said they had put a guy on the inside and the organization was getting suspicious of how their plans were being foiled. They thought maybe I might have something to do with it. She told me to be careful. She told me when I came back to the States she would have more information and if she needed to she would have an agent follow me around. I thought I would be okay and then those men showed up. I got turned around from the group,” she chuckled. “Three person hiking group that is, and I wandered off while chasing butterflies.”

  “Butterflies?” He mumbled as he kept walking.