“How old is he?” Katherine asked.
“Twelve.” Brent grinned. “He’s been trying to start his own lawn mowing business so he can start saving up for his mission and college.”
Amy studied Brent for a moment before asking. “Does he know that you mowed down your mom’s garden on purpose?”
“It was his idea,” Brent admitted, the words coming out of his mouth before he realized Amy had seen through him.
Amy threw him a line before he sank any deeper. “So you were just being a supportive uncle.”
“Something like that.” Brent turned from Amy and spoke to her mother. “Sister Whitmore, these sandwiches are wonderful.”
“Thank you, Brent.” Katherine gave him the gift of a genuine smile and then stood up. She turned to her husband. “I think I’m going to take a little walk. Jim, why don’t you come with me?”
Jim hesitated for a second before standing and taking his wife’s hand. “I’d love to.”
“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Katherine said casually as they started toward a wide path through the trees.
Brent waited until they were out of sight before he leaned toward Amy, lowering his voice. “I can’t believe your dad left us alone.”
Amy grinned. “Maybe he’s decided to like you after all.”
“Oh, I doubt that.” Brent shook his head as he reached for her hand. “He just knows that if he says you can’t go out with me, you’ll do it anyway just to spite him.”
Amy laughed, lacing her fingers with his. “What makes you say that?”
“Let’s just say I’m a trained observer. I don’t think you like to be told what to do, and your father knows it.” He skimmed his thumb over hers. “The last thing he wants right now is for you to decide to keep me around.”
Amy’s eyes met his, confusion and hope shining from them. For a fleeting moment she wished she had the nerve to ask him if he wanted her to keep him around.
Oblivious to Amy’s insecurities, Brent changed the subject. “What time do you have church tomorrow?”
“I’m not even sure,” Amy admitted. “I’ve been debating which ward to go to. If I go to my parents’ ward I’m going to be smothered by people asking me if I’m okay, but I’m not sure the singles ward would be much better.”
“There’s a singles branch that meets down in Fredericksburg. We don’t meet until three in the afternoon, but if you want, I’d be happy to come pick you up.” Brent lowered his voice. “I don’t think many people down there know you.”
Amy nodded. “Let’s hope.” A beeping noise startled her, and she watched as Brent pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s probably nothing,” Brent said as he accessed the flash message. His eyes widened as he read through the information sent to him by Admiral Mantiquez’s office. He quickly stood and extended a hand to Amy. “We need to find your parents.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Two of the other hostages from Abolstan were just killed.”
“What?” Amy’s jaw dropped at the startling news. “How?
“I’ll tell you in a minute. First we need to find your parents.”
CHAPTER 21
Brent didn’t mince words when he found the senator and Katherine standing on top of a ridge looking out over Great Falls. “Senator Whitmore, what kind of security system do you have at your house?”
“What?” Jim looked at him, confused. “Why?”
“It’s important, sir.”
Impatiently, Amy answered for him. “It’s an enhanced system in the house, installed by the government when CJ was in Witness Protection. There’s also a secondary system on the perimeter of the property.”
“Infrared beams?”
Amy nodded. “We keep the system on in the house any time we leave, but we only use the perimeter alarms at night.”
Jim folded his arms across his chest. “Would someone please tell me what’s going on?”
“Two of the other hostages were just killed. We have to eliminate the possibility that the remaining five hostages could also be targets.”
“What would someone gain by killing me or the others?” Amy asked, dumbfounded.
“I don’t know.” Brent shrugged. “But we have to make sure you’re protected until we can check it out.”
Jim pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll call and have Secret Service send over a couple of agents. They can check out the house before we get back.”
“I would rather you waited on that for a little while.”
“Why?” Jim asked, surprised.
“The easiest way to get past your security system would be to send in someone disguised as Secret Service. Someone intercepts a phone call and shows up a couple minutes later. By the time the real agents show up, it’s too late.” Brent looked over at Amy. He tried to think of her as just another assignment but failed completely. He couldn’t let anything happen to her. A plan forming in his mind,
he turned back to Jim. “I have an idea, but I need your complete cooperation.”
The muscle in Jim’s jaw twitched with irritation. “I will do whatever is necessary to protect my family.”
Brent kept his eyes on Jim’s. “That’s what I needed to know.”
* * *
“I still don’t understand why you think I’m in danger,” Amy said as Brent led her to a picnic table in the park next to Great Falls. After Brent made several phone calls, they had ridden to the picnic area near the road. A few yards away, Jim and Katherine were tying up the horses.
Brent continued to scan the area, his gaze finally landing on the nearby parking lot. “The first victim was shot leaving the hospital. A few minutes later the second victim received a phone call telling him about the incident, and he called the police for protection. When the police arrived, he was already dead.”
“You think someone showed up pretending to be the police and killed him?”
“There’s a reason Trojan horses work, and it wouldn’t be the first time someone used this approach.”
“But why come after any of us in the first place?”
“Retribution, probably.” Brent shrugged, glancing at her for a moment before turning his eyes back to the road. “It hasn’t been confirmed, but we think that one of the men killed during the rescue attempt was Namir Dagan’s brother. In fact, it was one of your sketches that caught someone’s attention at the CIA. They believe one of the confirmed dead was Lieb Dagan.”
“This just seems so farfetched.” Amy shook her head in disbelief as two cars approached.
Brent stood, shielding Amy from the road. Jim and Katherine came to stand beside Amy. Brent turned and said to Jim, “Keep them here. I’ll be right back.”
Brent moved forward and shook hands with the six men who emerged from the cars. A few minutes later, he returned with four of the men and introduced them as Secret Service.
“These men will stay with you here while we flush out any problems at your house.”
Jim looked at him, confused. “I don’t understand. I thought you said you didn’t want me to call Secret Service yet.”
“I contacted them through secure channels. When they tell you, I want you to make a call to Secret Service as though you just found out about the two hostages. If anyone is out there waiting to impersonate them, we’ll know it within a few minutes.”
Jim nodded, understanding dawning. “Just let me know when.”
Brent glanced at Amy before speaking to her protectors. “Keep them safe.”
The men nodded and set about deploying their manpower to do just that.
* * *
Leaves rustled in the summer breeze. A bird chirped in the distance. The sound of children laughing rang out down the street along with the noise of a passing car. A man walking a German shepherd passed by on the sidewalk in front of the Whitmore home, glancing for a moment at the quiet surroundings.
Brent peered through the shrub he was hiding behind, listenin
g for any sound that didn’t belong. He saw a shadow move in front of the living room window, a shadow he knew to be Tristan giving the appearance that there was someone home. The whole team had arrived within an hour of receiving Brent’s call.
From his perch in the top of an oak tree, Kel watched the traffic on the street, occasionally glancing over at the front of the house. He watched two cars drive by. He checked his watch and shook his head. Nearly five minutes had passed since the senator had made the phone call to the Secret Service. If something didn’t happen within the next ten minutes, they likely had made the trip to the Whitmores’ home for nothing.
A plain black sedan approached on the street, slowing as it neared the Whitmores’ driveway. “I’ve got something,” Kel said into the mike on his earpiece. He looked through his binoculars and counted two inside the car. “Two confirmed in the car.”
Seth’s voice came over the line a moment later. “We’ve got confirmation that Secret Service did not send anyone else out.”
Silence hung in the air once more as the car slowly pulled into the driveway. The curtain moved inside as Tristan played his part. A moment later, two men stepped out of the car, one with jet-black hair and the other blond. Both were dressed in the dark suits common to Secret Service agents. They even had the subtle bulges beneath their jackets and the earpieces for communication. Slowly they scanned the area before the dark-haired man moved to the front door. The other man stayed by the car, his eyes sweeping the yard.
The man by the door rang the bell. He waited patiently while Tristan peeked out from behind the curtains once more, and then his footsteps sounded in the entryway. As the door creaked open, the man moved for his inside pocket as though reaching for identification. The movement stopped immediately when he looked up to see Tristan holding a pistol to his forehead.
In the same instant, Seth moved forward with his weapon also trained on the man by the door as Brent and Quinn emerged from opposite sides of the yard, weapons aimed at the blond man standing by the car.
The man by the door found his voice first. “What’s the meaning of this? Senator Whitmore sent for us.”
“I don’t think so,” Tristan drawled as Seth reached into the man’s pocket and pulled out a semiautomatic pistol.
Seth shook his head as though scolding a naughty child. “That doesn’t look like identification to me.”
Seth and Tristan secured the first suspect as Quinn apprehended the second, shoving him against the car while instructing him to assume the position to be searched. Brent kept his weapon trained on the blond as he moved forward to look into the back seat of the car. He saw the figure crouched down in the back seat, gun in hand, just in time to jump out of the way. Brent dove for the ground as he shouted, “Gun!”
Quinn dropped down to the ground next to Brent just as a gunshot shattered the rear window. The man Quinn had been searching immediately broke free and took off across the side yard toward the trees. He turned to shoot at Brent and Quinn but he never got the chance. From his post twenty feet away, Kel pulled the trigger of his rifle and dropped him in one shot.
An instant later the man in the back seat scrambled out of the car, squeezing off a round of gunfire to keep the SEAL unit at bay as he started toward the backyard.
“Check Blondie,” Brent yelled at Quinn, referring to the man Kel had shot. Knowing that Quinn would comply, Brent scrambled to his feet and started after the man sprinting around the side of the house.
Brent was within fifteen yards of catching him when the man turned and aimed his gun once more in Brent’s direction. Anticipating the shot about to be fired, Brent stopped abruptly and dove behind a mature oak tree in the backyard. His back pressed against the thick trunk of the tree, Brent crouched down and waited as shots were fired in his direction.
A rapid burst of gunfire sounded. It was over in an instant, the silence of the backyard once again broken only by quick footsteps. Satisfied that the terrorist was once again retreating, Brent peered across the yard in time to see the man duck into the woods. Perfectly aware of the threat this man was to Amy, Brent angled across the yard at a dead sprint, glancing back in time to see Seth trailing behind him.
Their training took over as both men moved quietly and steadily through the trees, listening for the man they were tracking. Brent stayed in the lead, and several minutes passed before he finally caught sight of his target. Now winded, the man still held his weapon in his right hand as he reached a small clearing.
Brent picked up a stick and tossed it a few feet away. The moment the man turned toward the sound, Brent pounced forward and kicked the weapon free of his hand. As the man bent down to retrieve the weapon, Brent dove forward and used his body to knock him to the ground.
The man bucked to get Brent off of him, but Brent just sat up and shoved a knee into the middle of his back, pulling one of the man’s arms behind him. He heard Seth approaching to back him up and fought against a grin when Seth squatted down beside them, and deliberately cocked his revolver.
Seth waited for the man to turn his head, waited for the acknowledgement in the man’s eyes that his struggles were in vain. Then he said, ever so casually, “Now, I think it’s time you cooperate.”
Brent patted the man down, confiscating a pistol, a knife, and a fake set of Secret Service identification papers. A few minutes later when the police arrived to take the prisoners into custody, Kel stood looking down at the forged documents.
“It isn’t a very good forgery. Looks like they didn’t want to take the time or spend the money for the high grade stuff.”
“Or they knew that their IDs weren’t going to be looked at closely anyway,” Quinn commented. “After all, their victims were expecting them.”
“What’s the status on the other hostages?” Brent asked Kel, glancing briefly at the real Secret Service agents who were currently sweeping the area.
“Three of them are still in the hospital, and the security has been increased there. The Brits took our advice and pulled the same stunt at the other hostage’s place in London. They only sent two assassins for her.”
“Now what?” Brent asked.
Kel shrugged. “Secret Service will provide protection for the Whitmore family for the foreseeable future, and customs will red-flag anyone coming into the country who has been in Abolstan in the past couple of years.”
“Hopefully this attempt was the one and only,” Quinn said, though he didn’t sound very convincing.
“Thanks for trying, but we all know better than that.” Brent shook his head. “Dagan is ruthless. No matter what battles he is fighting in his own country, if he wants revenge, he isn’t going to stop until he gets it.”
“I don’t think it’s just revenge he’s after,” Seth interjected. “He knows one of the hostages helped stop that subway attack.”
“Even if he did make that connection, that’s water under the bridge,” Quinn pointed out. “Why go after the hostages now? The damage has already been done.”
“Unless the subway attacks were just the beginning.” Brent looked at Seth, concerned that he might be right. “He thinks the hostages have details about another attack.”
Kel dropped a hand on Brent’s shoulder in a gesture of support. “It doesn’t matter what his reasons are. We’ll get Dagan eventually. It’s only a matter of time.”
* * *
“I can’t believe this is happening.” Katherine sat down on the living room couch, gripping her husband’s hand.
“Everything is going to be okay.” Jim patted her hand with his free one and looked over at Brent. “I appreciate what you did today.”
Brent simply nodded.
Amy leaned against the arm of a chair and looked from her dad to Brent. She sensed the lingering tension from both men and was afraid of what it meant. “You think something like this will happen again.”
“I wish I could tell you that this failed attempt will be the end of it, but Dagan isn’t known for giving up,” Brent told he
r, his voice serious. “The Secret Service is already assigning agents for your protection.”
“Hopefully just their presence will keep Dagan’s men from trying again,” Jim suggested, trying to hide the doubt in his voice.
“I hope so,” Katherine added.
“Me too,” Brent agreed, though he was relieved to see the doubt in the senator’s eyes. Brent took a step toward the door. “I had better get going. I have some reports I need to take care of before church tomorrow.”
Amy stood. “Thank you again for everything.”
“My pleasure.” Brent gave her a quick smile. He turned back to the senator. “Senator, you should probably change the codes on your security system.”
“Oh, I will.”
CHAPTER 22
“I just don’t understand why you don’t want to go to church with us.” Jim adjusted his tie, annoyed that his daughter was skipping to go off with Brent Miller again, especially after the scare they’d had just the day before and the lingering threat of a repeat performance. “Everyone really wants to see you.”
“Dad, you keep telling me that it’s going to take some time for me to get over what happened in Abolstan, but then you get mad when everything isn’t normal.” Amy let out a frustrated sigh. “I feel like I can’t win.”
“After yesterday, I think it’s going to take a while before any of us feel normal again.”
Amy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She still couldn’t believe that someone would try to kill her because of a grudge any more than she could believe two of the other hostages were dead. Hearing about the men who had been sent after her still seemed surreal, and she already dreaded having two Secret Service men following her around everywhere. More, she worried that they would serve as a constant reminder of how her day could have ended yesterday had Brent not been with her. “I don’t want to think about it, okay?”
“I just don’t understand why you couldn’t go to the singles ward here.”
“Then I would have to deal with Jared. I hardly call that an improvement,” Amy said as the doorbell rang.
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