Above Reproach

by Lynn Ames

  Yes, Vaughn thought, these two definitely have chemistry.

  “Can I ask a question, if you don’t mind?” All heads turned to see Sedona standing silently in the doorway.

  Vaughn wondered how long she’d been standing there and how much she’d heard. Sedona had the unnerving habit of appearing like a ghost out of nowhere, completely undetected. Perhaps that would come in handy where they were going, but at the moment, Vaughn found it just plain disconcerting.

  “Sure,” Lorraine said.

  “Are you two, by chance, married?”

  That startled a chuckle out of Peter and Lorraine. Vaughn raised an eyebrow, marveling at the directness of the question she only dared ponder in her head. She watched with interest as unspoken communication passed between Peter and Lorraine.

  In the end, it was Peter who answered. He reached out and took Lorraine’s hand, squeezing it tenderly. “Yes. We’ve been married for close to twenty years.”

  Now, when Vaughn looked at them side-by-side, all pretext swept away, she plainly could see the adoration for each other in their eyes.

  Sedona smiled at them. “I thought as much.”

  “What made you think so?” Lorraine asked. “We’ve kept it a closely guarded secret all this time so that no enemy combatant could use it as a weapon against us or perceive it as a weakness to be exploited. Even the president isn’t aware of our marital status.”

  “I used my superpowers,” Sedona breezily said as she walked back inside.

  Vaughn and the couple stared after her. “What the heck was that all about?”

  “I have no idea, but by God, I like that girl,” Lorraine said.

  “I like her too,” Peter agreed.

  Vaughn squirmed uncomfortably as the couple turned to her, waiting for her opinion. I like her too. A lot more than I want to. Vaughn’s heart kicked hard and she felt alarm bells go off in her head. “She’s certainly…different.” Vaughn didn’t like the knowing way Lorraine looked at her. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot to do to get us ready for our trip.” She turned on her heel and retreated to her room.

  Behind her, she heard Peter say, “What do you think is going on there?”

  Vaughn was wondering the same thing.

  The sand between her toes still carried the warmth of the day, even at sunset. Sedona stuffed her hands in her shorts pockets as she walked along. The sounds of the ocean lapping against the shore and the gulls calling soothed her jangled nerves as the wind pushed against her body. The breeze felt good on the exposed skin between the waistband of her shorts and the cropped top she wore.

  What was it about Vaughn Elliott that so unsettled her? She wasn’t the first strong, attractive woman Sedona had met since Rachel. She wasn’t even the first female deep-cover agent Sedona had encountered. But there was something different about her, something Sedona couldn’t easily define or dismiss. Something that got under her skin.

  Archangels, angels, ascended masters, guides. Please help me to understand why Vaughn affects me so and please help me to know what it is, if anything, I’m meant to do about it. This I ask of you with your blessing, Amen.

  “Hey!”

  Sedona bent over and picked up a shell from the sand. She turned it over and placed it in the palm of her hand, marveling at its perfection.

  “Hey!”

  A hand grabbed Sedona by the arm from behind, startling her. She hadn’t heard anyone approach. Reflexively, she stepped back hard onto the place where she estimated the person’s instep to be.

  “Damn it!” The hand tightened on the inside of her elbow, pressing against the ulnar nerve.

  Sedona whirled to face her attacker, her other hand forming a fist. Before she had a chance to strike, she was wrapped tightly against the other person’s body, her arms effectively pinned, unable to fight.

  “Let go of m…” Her voice trailed off when her mind registered that it was Vaughn. Vaughn, whose eyes flashed fire and whose nostrils flared in anger.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Vaughn’s voice was a barely restrained growl in her ear. She made no move to let go of Sedona.

  “I could ask you the same thing.” Although she refrained from smashing her heel down again on Vaughn’s instep, she, too, did not back down.

  “You’re being hunted all over the globe and you just go trotting off down a wide-open, isolated beach by yourself?”

  “I’m not in any danger here. Hell, no one knows where we are,” Sedona shot back. “Even I barely know where we are.”

  “Very funny. It’s my job to keep you safe, damn it.”

  “The hell it is.”

  “Don’t you get it? There are real people out there who want you dead.”

  “Of course I get it. I can fully well take care of myself.”

  They were nose to nose, their bodies pressed hard together. Sedona could feel the heat of Vaughn’s stomach against her bare midriff. Before she could register anything else, Vaughn’s lips crushed against hers.

  Sedona stiffened then yielded, the pulse pounding in her neck, her heart beating harder than she could ever remember. Her mouth opened under Vaughn’s insistent assault. Her body melted into Vaughn’s heat.

  Sedona wanted to touch skin, but her arms remained pinned. She groaned as Vaughn’s tongue teased her, challenging her. When Vaughn shifted to run her hand down Sedona’s bare belly, Sedona’s legs faltered.

  It wasn’t until she felt the button on her shorts release that Sedona fully understood where this was going. She clamped down on Vaughn’s hand and broke off the kiss.

  “No,” she croaked against Vaughn’s lips. Vaughn’s hand went completely still. She pulled back and Sedona could see the haze of unbridled desire in her eyes. “No. I-I can’t…”

  “I’m sorry.” Vaughn shoved off and backed several steps away. “I had no right… I didn’t mean… You’re not safe out here. You need to come back to the condo. I’ll meet you there.” Vaughn spun around and ran back toward the condo.

  Sedona stood rooted to the sand, her lips tingling, her legs swaying unsteadily, her chest heaving, her body rebelling against the chill left behind by Vaughn’s absence. She tried in her mind to process what just transpired, but she couldn’t form a coherent thought. Whatever it was, if it happened again, Sedona wasn’t sure she had the willpower to stop it.

  “They’ve gone completely off the grid.”

  “That’s not what I want to hear.”

  “I know, sir, but it’s the truth.” The young man with acne and big owl eyes pushed back from an array of computer equipment to face his visitor. He rarely got visitors down here, in the place he called “the bat cave.” That would have been unsettling enough, but this particular visitor made his palms sweat. He’d heard the stories. This was not someone to whom you gave bad news.

  “Explain.”

  “Well, sir. You said there were at least seven people we were tracking—two men and five women. We have definitive ID on one of them, Sedona Ramos. I reviewed satellite images of a ten-mile-square radius around the explosion site. Nothing. I looked at every surveillance camera on the island, including ones in the airport terminal. No such group appeared anywhere in a 24-hour period following the explosion.

  “So I considered the possibility that they might have split up. I looked for smaller groups. Still, I found nothing out of the ordinary—some tourists, some islanders—no one that looked remotely like our group. Then I hacked in and examined boat charters, airline tickets issued, private planes chartered. Still, nothing. Because we had a single name, I went through Ramos’s bank records, credit card history, phone records, et cetera. I tried to use the GPS on her cell to track her. Zilch.” The young man looked up and blinked. “I’m sorry, sir. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but there’s simply nothing to go on.”

  “Yet.”

  “Sir?”

  “There’s nothing to go on, yet. I expect you to keep on this until you have better news for me. Do I make myse
lf clear?”

  “Yes, sir. But what about the tap on the Senate committee chairman’s lines? Don’t you still want to know if I hear anything about the oil pipeline?”

  The man frowned and narrowed his eyes. “You have only one priority right now, do you hear me? I’ll assign the other matter to one of your colleagues. Now, I strongly suggest you get back to work. The next time we have a chat, I expect you’ll have better news for me.”

  The young man swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.” He really, really hoped one of the “magnificent seven,” as he’d taken to calling them, slipped up soon and left a technological trace. But just in case, he had a bag packed and ready to go in his trunk. His mother would take care of the cat.

  “Okay. Here’s where we are right now,” Vaughn began. She looked around the room at everyone…except Sedona. She simply couldn’t make eye contact. She wasn’t sure what she’d find there, and she was equally unsure whether or not she wanted to know. “I’ve asked Sabastien to lay out a few possible routes for us to take to get in-country without detection.”

  She cued him, and he began manipulating the mouse. A series of maps appeared on the wall, each with a red trail. There was a map leading from Turkey, one from Iran, one from Syria, one from Kuwait, and one from Saudi Arabia.

  “As you can see, coming in from Iran presents the shortest route. That means the least exposure.”

  “It also means insertion in a very hostile country,” Sedona said.

  Vaughn made a point of intently studying the map. “True. But I believe the risk is worth limiting the amount of time it takes us to get to the target.”

  “Maybe,” Lorraine spoke up, “but Sedona has a valid point. Even though it would take us longer to get to our destination through either Turkey or Kuwait, we’d be traveling through friendly territory at the outset. Between us, we might even have enough contacts to ensure safe passage and some additional support in terms of protection and resources.”

  Vaughn nodded in acknowledgment of the logic of Lorraine’s argument.

  “If we go in through Iran and we get caught, the likelihood of our getting out alive or without becoming an international political football are slim and none,” Justine said. “That’s a helluva risk.”

  “Peter? Wanna weigh in?” Vaughn asked.

  He studied each of the maps in turn. “You’re right, Vaughn, that the Iranian option has the advantage of keeping our time on the ground to a minimum. But I agree with the others—the stakes are too high and so are the risks.” He leaned back in his chair. “I say we figure out between us how many contacts we have in Kuwait and Turkey. Syria is too hot at the moment in terms of political temperature, and Saudi Arabia gives me a hive.”

  Clearly outnumbered, Vaughn capitulated. “Okay. We’re going to need good, solid, reliable contacts wherever we drop in. These have to be sources with some serious juice—access to high grade weapons and ammo, transportation, food supplies and some technology.” She grabbed a legal pad and a pen. “Let’s go around the table and see what we’ve got. That should help us figure out whether we’re taking the high road through Turkey or the low road through Kuwait.”

  Fifteen minutes later, it was clear that the extent of the group’s collective experience made either option viable.

  “Listen,” Lorraine said, “if we decide to come down from the north, we’re going to have to contend with the mountains in Turkey and unpredictable winter weather. If we take the southern route and slip in through Kuwait, we can get all the way to the border on the waters of the Persian Gulf. There are plenty of merchant ships that would grant us passage for the right coin, and the weather would be less of a factor. In fact, if we could find the right vessel, it might even take us up the Tigris all the way to Baghdad.”

  “I’ve got some long-time buddies who stayed in Kuwait to pick up private business contracts after they retired. I could call in some favors,” Peter offered. “These folks cross the border regularly both by land and on the water.” He looked at Lorraine. “If you can get us through the Persian Gulf to say, Umm Qasr, I think I can take it from there, assuming we don’t luck into a ship that’ll take us the rest of the way. It wouldn’t be anything for my contacts to let us hitch a ride into Baghdad. After that, we’d have to figure out a way to go the last twelve or so miles on our own.”

  “Sedona, didn’t you say that you were at Tuwaitha when they shut the place down?” Justine asked.

  “Yes.”

  Vaughn thought Sedona sounded subdued. She knew it was her fault but had no idea what to do about it. She fiddled with her pen and stared at the table in front of her.

  “How did your group travel in and out?”

  “Mostly Hummers. There were still active IEDs everywhere, so we had native guides and armored vehicles.”

  When silence followed, Vaughn was forced to look up. Sedona was looking right through her. She swallowed hard. “Okay. Well, the chances of us having an armored Hummer at our disposal are pretty slim. What are our other options?”

  “I wish you wouldn’t dismiss my input so readily, Vaughn.” Sedona said. “In fact, I may be able to get us a lift in one of those Hummers.”

  Sedona’s posture was rigid, unyielding. Vaughn flashed back to her pliant flesh, the heat of her mouth, just an hour earlier in their encounter on the beach and her face flushed.

  “Okay. If you think you can get it done, that would be great. Sabastien has procured us some untraceable burn phones. I suggest we all get to work on putting together a network of sources and resources. Sedona and Peter, you take care of our ground transportation. Lorraine and Justine, you two concentrate on getting us a ride through the Persian Gulf. Sabastien, you’re in charge of figuring out what kind of technology we’re going to need and making sure we have it. I’ll take care of getting us as far as the Persian Gulf and our weapons. Let’s target being on the road two days from now. Everyone okay with that?”

  When she heard no objections, Vaughn stood, signaling that the meeting was over. She made sure to linger behind long after Sedona left the room. When she finally emerged, Justine was waiting for her.

  “Wanna talk about it?”

  “About what?”

  Justine sighed. “I’ve known you a long time, my friend. Something’s eating you and I’d wager a month’s salary it has something to do with our Sedona Ramos, who, by the way, is also curiously brooding.”

  Vaughn continued to walk. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Don’t I?”

  “I’m not brooding.”

  “Okay. If you say so.”

  “I say so, now drop it. Don’t you have something important you need to be doing?”

  Justine stepped forward and stood in Vaughn’s path, forcing her to stop. “I thought I was doing it.”

  “What? Being a pain in the ass?” Vaughn knew her tone was caustic. She didn’t care.

  Justine recoiled as if she’d been slapped. “No,” she said, quietly. “Being your friend.”

  “I don’t need a friend right now. I need someone to get us through the Persian Gulf.” Vaughn looked at a point on the wall past Justine’s head. She didn’t want to see the hurt on Justine’s face. She knew it was there. But hadn’t prior conversations with Justine just like this on the last mission led to Vaughn’s breaking Sage’s heart? If Vaughn gave in and admitted that she had feelings for Sedona, Justine likely would encourage her to explore them, with potentially the same consequences as the last time. No. She refused to travel the same path with Sedona. There was nothing for it but to ignore what happened on the beach and move forward with the mission.

  If only Vaughn could get her rebellious body and mind to comply.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Ahmed? It’s Sedona,” she said, in perfect Arabic. “How are you? How is your wife doing? Did everything go okay with the baby’s birth?”

  “Insha'Allah. Sedona Ramos, the baby is two and a half and walking already. You would fall in love with her.”


  “I’m sure I would. Listen, I’m in a bit of a bind and I need a little help if you can swing it. I’m going to be back in your neighborhood in a few days and I sure could use a lift.” Unspoken between them was that Sedona would compensate him well for his assistance.

  “You are coming here? The Americans are coming back? I thought you were all leaving the country.”

  “Yeah. This is more of an unofficial visit.”

  “Surely you are not sight-seeing?”

  “In a manner of speaking. I’m showing some friends around. I want to be sure I keep them safe and make a good impression.”

  “I see. Exactly when would this be? I’m certain I can work something out for my old friend.”

  “That would be great. I’m thinking it would be this coming Thursday, if that’s possible.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Sedona could hear muffled voices. She imagined Ahmed talking it over with his cousin Umar. The two men—barely more than boys—had been assigned to help the Americans interface with the local tribesmen and Iraqi forces tasked to guard Tuwaitha during the dismantling process. It was Ahmed and Umar’s job to ferry the Americans anywhere they needed to go. The pair had taken a special liking to Sedona. Occasionally, they even brought her to their homes to enjoy a meal with their families. She adored Ahmed’s wife and three kids and the feeling was quite mutual.

  “Okay, Sedona. For you, we will make it happen. Where would we be meeting you and how many people?”

  “You’re the best, my friend. There will be six of us and some gear. Meet you at the usual spot in Baghdad? I’ll let you know more specifics as soon as I know them.”

  “It will be good to see you. My wife and children will be so pleased. Will you have time to come to the house?”

  “I don’t know, Ahmed. That will depend on our schedule. I think this will be a quick trip and I don’t want you to go to any trouble.” In truth, she did not want to put him or his family in any jeopardy. She wondered if he had any knowledge of the current goings-on at Tuwaitha, but now was not the time to ask. She would wait and see what kind of reception she and the team got in person.