End Game

by Rachel Dylan

  “Good. We all need to be extra vigilant.” Bailey feared that every member of the team was a potential target.

  Izzy looked at Viv and Layla. “How do you two know Bailey?”

  Viv smiled. “We went to law school together at Georgetown.”

  Izzy’s eyes widened. “Ah, so you’re the friends Bailey told me about.”

  Layla nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t actually practice law. Viv and I work at the State Department. Viv’s a lawyer, but I’m a political analyst in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.”

  Bailey noticed how comfortable Layla was with her cover story. She wouldn’t tell someone she was in the CIA even if they worked for NCIS.

  “I would love to hear more about your work sometime. It sounds really interesting.” Izzy nodded to Bailey’s friends and then took a step back. “I’ll get out of your hair.”

  “You’re not bothering us,” Bailey insisted. “You can stay.”

  Izzy smiled. “It’s okay. I need to update Jay, and then we’re trying to figure out a game plan for tomorrow. Viv, Layla, great to meet you.”

  “You too,” they answered in unison.

  Izzy left the room with a wave and a smile.

  “She seems nice,” Viv said.

  “Very. She’s young and still trying to figure out how to be an NCIS agent. And working for Marco isn’t always the easiest thing in the world.” Bailey looked up at the clock on the wall. “It’s getting late. You two should go home.”

  “We’re actually working tonight,” Layla said. “But we had to make sure you were all right. Thanks for texting us. You know you’re never a burden.”

  As the two of them said good night and left the room, Bailey wondered if that was truly the case, but her friends were too nice to say otherwise.

  She closed her eyes to rest, and soon she had dozed off and was dreaming deeply. The next thing she knew, she was awakened by a hand over her mouth—stifling her scream.

  A man stood over her, his hand pressing down on her mouth and his other hand on her shoulder, holding her down. “Where’s the USB drive?”

  His blue eyes were ice cold—and familiar. She’d never forget those eyes. This was the man who had attacked her in the garage.

  Fear flooded through her body as she realized this man’s plan was probably to kill her. She squirmed, but he pushed down harder on her already sore shoulder.

  “Where is it?” he asked again. “Did you make copies of it?”

  Of course she had, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

  He lifted his hand from her mouth for a second so she could speak.

  She gasped for air and screamed. If she was going down, she wouldn’t let him get one ounce of useful intel from her.

  He quickly pressed his hand over her mouth and nose so she couldn’t breathe. Frantic, she started thrashing, but he used his body weight to force her flat onto the bed.

  Lord, please help me, but if this is it, please forgive me of my sins and welcome me home. She couldn’t get any breath, and the room started to close in on her. Tell my mom and dad that I’ll be there soon, Jesus.

  She closed her eyes, trying to conserve her energy for one final attempt to break away from him.

  “What are you doing?” A loud female voice rang out.

  Bailey’s eyes flew open, and she saw a nurse standing at the door. The assailant ran toward the door, barreling over the nurse, who landed on the floor with a thud.

  Bailey hopped out of bed, yelling for help. She crouched beside the nurse, who must have hit her head because she wasn’t conscious. Bailey screamed again, and after what seemed like forever but had probably been only seconds, a few nurses rushed toward her.

  But her attacker was long gone.

  The next afternoon Bailey and Marco had both been discharged and were back at NCIS with Izzy and Jay.

  Marco cleared his throat. “We know for certain that Kappen isn’t responsible for trying to take us out, since he was with Lexi and another servicemember at the time. Both the NCIS and FBI directors want to be fully briefed by the end of the day. This last series of events has shot this investigation up their lists, and they want answers.” That was an understatement, but he was going to have to manage in the same way Bailey would. He turned his attention to her, and she still looked a bit pale to him. “Bailey, let’s go over every detail you can remember about what your attacker looked like.”

  She looked down. “It was the same man from the garage. He was probably under six feet but bulked up. Caucasian, blue eyes, short blond buzz cut. He almost had a military look about him. And as my email indicated this morning, he wanted to know about the USB drive, but I didn’t say a word.”

  “We’re having Ryder take a look at the drive to make sure we didn’t miss anything,” Izzy said. “If this man was willing to take such a big risk and be seen by Bailey, then it had to be of the utmost importance.”

  “Bailey is sitting with a sketch artist in a few minutes,” Marco said. “Jay, what do you have?”

  “I coordinated with hospital security and local PD, but no one is optimistic that this guy is going to emerge again. And his description is generic enough that he could be anyone.”

  “No distinguishing marks or features?” Marco asked Bailey.

  She shook her head. “No. I got a great look at his face, though. I’ll never forget those eyes. Hopefully the sketch artist can capture that.” She looked up at him. “There has to be something on that USB, or at least they think there is. WSI has to be knee-deep in this. That’s where we should focus our energy.”

  “Agreed. We need to see if we can figure out what WSI is really hiding.”

  Marco sat on his couch with Bailey by his side. He’d insisted that she hang out a bit tonight because he wasn’t convinced that her head was fully in the game after the attack at the hospital. As if the car wreck hadn’t been enough, she’d almost been smothered to death. He shuddered to think what would have happened if that nurse had been only a few seconds later. That thought made him thank God yet again for protecting Bailey. She was a woman of faith, and she would need it to get through this. They both needed their faith right now, because if he was honest with himself, he was more than a bit concerned over how quickly things had escalated. The sketch artist had rendered a great image that they were trying to match, but so far they had come up empty.

  “Talk to me,” he said to her.

  “I think I’m talked out.” She leaned her head back against the couch. “How’re you feeling?”

  “The headache has finally started to subside, so I’m thankful for that. I’ll feel a lot better if Ryder tells us that he found something on that USB drive.” The names of the victims were not in the data that had been readily apparent to them, but Ryder could do amazing things with technology. Marco was still holding out hope that Ryder would bring this thing home.

  “We need to talk to Cullen Mink again,” Bailey said.

  “I completely agree. He is either hiding something or is being played by someone in his organization.” This had become highly personal to Marco. A person he cared about had been targeted, and that got under his skin. “Do you want to talk about what happened in the hospital?”

  She looked over at him. “We’ve already done that, haven’t we?”

  “Yeah, about the logistics of what happened. I’m asking more about how you feel about it. You’ve had two personal attacks against you now. That can’t be easy to process.”

  Bailey laughed, but it was clearly out of frustration, not humor. “Yes, I’m a federal agent who has been attacked twice and hasn’t been able to do anything about it—or protect the nurse who came in to help me. Of course that makes me feel bad. Helpless. And even more than that—angry. Angry at myself for not being able to do more.”

  “That is not what I was trying to get at by bringing this up. You cannot blame yourself here. You had just been in a car accident. You weren’t expecting someone to come into your room and hurt you at the hospital.”r />
  “But I should have! Don’t you see? We said we were being more cautious, but once we had one curve ball thrown at us, we let down our guards.”

  “And that’s not going to happen again. It could have just as easily been me if I hadn’t been having those tests run.” It tore him up to see her struggling. He placed his hand on hers. “We’re going to get through this, Bailey. I promise you that.”

  “I don’t know how you can be so confident.” She sighed.

  “We’ll fight another day. That’s what we do.”

  “At least we’re not fighting alone.” Her eyes misted up. “There were a couple of moments when I thought I was praying my last prayer, but the Lord was there for me in ways I never even realized were possible.”

  He understood exactly what she was talking about. “This has been a faith builder for me too. We always talk about believing that the Lord is on our side, but having to call on Him for help and strength and seeing it materialize right in front of your eyes is something totally different. I don’t even remember reacting when that SUV came straight at us, Bailey. But what I do remember is God’s grace protecting us.”

  She smiled at him, and he wanted to wrap his arms around her. So that was exactly what he did. He pulled her close to him, and she placed her head on his shoulder. He didn’t fall easily, but when he fell, it was usually headlong.

  What he didn’t know was how Bailey would feel about that. Right now she needed safety and someone she could trust. She also needed a friend who would be able to comfort her. He wanted to do all of that and more, but she’d told him before that the case had to come first. Not one to hold back on anything, he turned toward her, looking directly into her pretty green eyes.

  “I know this case is our focus, but I also know that, sitting here with you in my arms, nothing has ever felt more right.”

  Her eyes widened, but she didn’t immediately respond. So in typical fashion, he kept talking.

  “You’re special, Bailey, and I find myself thinking about you and wanting to know if you’re thinking of me too. We aren’t guaranteed our next breath. The events of the past couple of weeks have made that crystal clear, and I don’t want to have any regrets where the two of us are concerned.”

  She looked up at him. “I don’t either.”

  That was all the encouragement he needed. He pulled her in closer and pressed his lips against hers. He was a ball of nerves, but the moment their lips touched, it was like Fourth of July fireworks went off around them. There was no doubt that he’d thought about kissing her for a while now, but nothing could have prepared him for what that actually felt like.

  Not wanting to push things, he pulled back after a minute and looked at her. Fear struck him at first, wondering if she had felt what he had. But when she smiled, he knew they were both on the same page. He couldn’t help himself as he gave her one more kiss.

  He was crazy about Bailey Ryan.

  At four o’clock the next morning, Bailey lay awake, staring at the ceiling. She’d been up for about half an hour and was unable to go back to sleep. Fluffing the pillow, she shifted onto her side. Her thoughts were on a seesaw—back and forth between the kiss last night and the fear that someone might hurt her again.

  She tried to focus on the good thoughts. Yeah, she’d told Marco they needed to wait to explore what was between them, but that was before a brush with death. His words had rung so true to her. She didn’t want regrets either. Marco was an amazing guy, and even though she wouldn’t normally let someone in, it wasn’t that difficult to think about opening up to him. She just hoped she wasn’t getting ahead of herself. From what she could gather, Marco seemed like he could be a ladies’ man. She didn’t think he was a player, but she was worried that he might be the type to quickly jump into something before really thinking it through.

  She, on the other hand, was the ultimate queen of thinking things through. Analyzing things from every angle—and she’d lived long enough to know that sometimes the heart made decisions that didn’t make logical sense. She told herself that she would just take things one day at a time.

  Closing her eyes, she thought about what it would be like for Marco to kiss her again.

  Bailey dozed off but was awakened by the loud shrill of the hotel phone. She’d put her cell on vibrate, and only a couple of people had her hotel information, so she knew it had to be bad news.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “Hey, it’s me,” Marco said. “I’m on my way to get you, so if you can, start getting ready.”

  Her stomach dropped. “What happened?”

  “Bailey, I hate to tell you this.”

  “What?”

  “Tobias Kappen is dead.”

  CHAPTER

  SIXTEEN

  Bailey had jumped in a two-minute shower, not even bothering to wash her hair, and had been ready when Marco got to the hotel. Now they were arriving at the crime scene—the condo in Arlington that belonged to Kappen’s parents.

  “You ready?” Marco asked her.

  She nodded and opened the SUV door. This wasn’t how this was supposed to play out. They flashed their credentials and gained entry to a scene already abuzz with NCIS, FBI, and local police. Izzy and Jay had beaten them to the scene.

  “What’s the deal?” Marco asked Izzy.

  “The body is in the master bathroom. He was already cut down.” Izzy seemed to run out of words and turned to Jay.

  “Kappen hanged himself in the bathroom,” Jay said flatly. “Or at least that’s what it looks like on first blush.”

  “Any note, any indication of forced entry?” Bailey asked.

  “Neither,” Jay responded.

  “Who found him?” She walked farther into the condo.

  “One of his teammates. In fact, that’s who cut him down,” Izzy said.

  “Is he still here?”

  “Yes. He’s in the living room with the FBI. I told them not to let him go anywhere. I figured we’d want to take him in for more extensive questioning,” Izzy added.

  “Good move, Izzy,” Marco said. Then he turned to Bailey. “Let’s go take a look.”

  Bailey followed Marco down the hallway and through the bedroom before arriving at the bathroom.

  Kappen’s body lay on the floor, where the ME and another NCIS agent were working. Bailey felt like she’d been sucker-punched in the gut as she looked down at his lifeless body, but she kept her composure.

  “What can you tell us?” Bailey asked the ME.

  “I’d put time of death as early as twelve hours ago and as late as eight. We’ll know more after tests. I’ll be running the full tox screen plus anything else you may want me to look at.”

  “Does this look self-inflicted to you?” Marco asked.

  “My first assessment would be yes, but that’s always subject to change upon further examination. The scene was a bit contaminated by his friend’s presence and actions.”

  “Yeah, we’re going to talk to him,” Marco said. “Anything else?”

  “No. I understand from the other agents that this is a hot one, so we’ll expedite the best we can.”

  “Thanks, Doc,” Marco said.

  They walked out of the bathroom and stood by themselves in the corner of the bedroom.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Bailey said.

  “You don’t think it’s suicide?”

  “Think about it. He gets out on bail and then kills himself? That doesn’t seem likely to me. Do we want to talk to Kappen’s teammate here or at HQ?”

  “Let’s get him back to HQ. I’ll leave Izzy and Jay here in case anything else comes up.”

  A little over an hour later, with a large and much-needed cup of coffee in hand, Bailey prepared to question Petty Officer Clark Chandler.

  “Who’s taking the lead?” she asked Marco.

  “Why don’t you? That’ll give us room for me to escalate if needed.”

  Bailey took a sip of coffee. “You think Chandler could have
something to do with this?”

  Marco shrugged. “I really hope not, but everyone is suspect right now. This whole thing screams foul play. And remember, he wasn’t even supposed to be close to these guys. He’s a loner.”

  She locked eyes with him. “We’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  “After you.”

  He let her lead the way to the interrogation room. She took a deep breath. Lord, please give me discernment to help find the truth.

  She opened the door to find Petty Officer Chandler sitting on the other side of the table. He immediately stood at attention as they walked in.

  “You can sit down,” she said. “I’m Special Agent Bailey Ryan with the FBI, and this is Special Agent Marco Agostini with NCIS. We need to talk to you about what happened last night.”

  The SEAL had long dark hair and a full beard—as if he was either getting ready to deploy or had just returned. “Yes, ma’am. I’m not even sure where to begin.”

  “When’s the last time you spoke with Tobias Kappen?”

  “Yesterday afternoon. He said he’d gotten out of prison on bail and that he needed to talk. He said he wanted to do it in person because it had to do with Battle’s death, and he needed my help. And he was adamant about his innocence.”

  “And were you friendly with either man?”

  “I’m friends with everyone on the teams, but I was closer to Battle. Kappen is a hard nut to crack, but he was a heck of a sniper, ma’am. It’s a huge loss. Now we’ve lost two members of SEAL Team 8 stateside. That’s just not how things are supposed to work.”

  So far Chandler seemed sincere. He was making direct eye contact and showed no sign of nervousness.

  “Are you in Battle’s or Kappen’s platoon?”

  “Neither. I’m in a different platoon altogether. I just got home last week. That’s when I found out about Battle’s murder.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I still can’t believe it. And now Kappen.” Chandler’s jaw tightened. “Kappen kept saying he didn’t do it, but now I’m even more confused. Do you think Kappen killed himself because he felt guilty for murdering Battle?”