Operation: Reunited

by Linda O. Johnston

  He did as she asked and opened that file. There it was!

  “Oh, no,” Alexa cried, gripping his shoulder.

  “Damn!” he said. He grabbed the cell phone from his pocket. There wasn’t time to get to someplace secure. They appeared to be alone. And he had to get this information to Forbes immediately.

  “It’s me,” he said, when his boss answered. “This isn’t a secure connection, but I needed to report right away.”

  “What’s up?” Forbes sounded alert and ready.

  “I found the computer file. I’ve a list of all the terrorists from last time, and that might help with a conviction on murder charges if we catch their killers, since they were all found dead. Then there are the current ones who were here, along with the places they’re to be sent. They’re all areas with strategic military facilities, including the Pacific Northwest, California, Florida and Texas. And our infiltrators aren’t the only ones. There are three other training installations, though from what I gather their people should just have arrived and are probably too green to be planted at their final destinations yet. In any event, write these down.”

  “Can’t you fax or e-mail them?”

  “I will when I can, but you need to know this now.” Cole rattled off the training locations and destinations of the Hideaway’s agents, as well as the target listed for destruction at each of the group’s intended sites. They included military headquarters buildings; airports and airfields; large barracks; and officers’ quarters.

  A lot of important property would be decimated.

  A lot of lives would be lost.

  “Destruction?” Forbes demanded. “When?”

  “There’s no date given, but it’s clear they’re all to be done concurrently.”

  “Damn. The pandemonium all over the country could be catastrophic.”

  “That’s not all,” Cole told him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s clear that as soon as the damage is done and the military’s on alert at all of these places, there are landing places—air, sea and land—where terrorists from other countries will be brought in.”

  “Why? Where? What’s the goal?”

  “Washington, D.C. All of this is to be a decoy while the U.S. government is seized.”

  “What! Impossible.”

  “Think about it,” Cole insisted. “All that chaos? It’d be a perfect opportunity for a coup.”

  “You could be right,” Forbes said slowly, as if taking time for the idea to sink in. “Look, how did you get into Vane’s computer?”

  “Alexa. She found the password, let me into his room.” He glanced toward her proudly and gave her a wink. “She even suggested that I enter the password backward when it didn’t work at first.”

  “Alexa Kenner.” There was a sneering note in Forbes’s voice. “The woman who’s engaged to marry our clearest link to the conspiracy? The woman who was working with him before? This information is a plant, Rappaport. You’ve been had again.”

  Cole froze. He turned slowly back toward the computer…away from Alexa. His thoughts churned.

  His entire Special Forces Unit would be mobilized if Forbes gave the word. Perhaps the entire military of the United States. They could all be off on a fool’s errand if he were wrong.

  If this wasn’t the actual scheme, the real one could be carried through this time. Whatever it was….

  He couldn’t afford to be wrong. The country couldn’t afford it.

  Once more he turned to look at Alexa. Her expression was quizzical. She hadn’t heard Forbes’s accusations.

  She was beautiful.

  And treacherous?

  She had claimed always to have been innocent. A victim as much as he was. Could he believe her? Did he believe her?

  Yes. The answer was both as simple and as complicated as that.

  He smiled at her. Though her lovely blue eyes still appeared puzzled, she smiled back.

  Without removing his gaze from hers, he said slowly into the phone, “You’re wrong, Forbes. I’ve talked with Alexa. She wasn’t involved before, and neither was her family. And she’s only going along with things now to protect her parents. She didn’t plant anything on Vane’s computer. She didn’t bring me here to con me. What we found here is the real thing.”

  When he began this speech, he watched the shock come over Alexa’s face, turning her complexion waxy.

  As he continued to speak, tears came into her eyes. She knelt on the floor beside him, placed her head in his lap.

  He could feel her shake as she silently cried.

  “You’re not thinking, Rappaport,” Forbes barked into the phone.

  “Yes,” Cole replied, “I am. And I would suggest you get our forces mobilized. You’ll need a lot of troops to stop the destruction of all those military installations—and to greet our unwanted visitors when they arrive to invade the capitol.”

  “And you?” Forbes’s tone was derisive. “I’m sure you’ve got a great excuse to stay there and play house while this Armageddon plot you’ve unearthed is foiled by the rest of us.”

  “That’s right, I’m going to stay here,” Cole agreed. “And I will protect Alexa. But I’m also going to continue to play the game with Vane Walters until I can see his face when he’s stopped yet again.”

  “He’ll kill you…again. For real, this time.”

  “No, he won’t. I’m warned. Besides, Bradford and Maygran will be here this afternoon. We’ll keep an eye on the infiltrators who are still here—as well as getting whatever other evidence we can on Walters.” He paused only momentarily. “Better get busy, Forbes.”

  “Yeah,” he said.

  For a moment after Cole pushed the End button, he just sat there. Forbes Bowman was his boss and his friend, the man who had pulled him from the burning garage after the explosion that had killed Warren Geari and had nearly killed Cole.

  Forbes believed Cole was being set up again.

  And Cole? Well, his gut told him there was something that didn’t ring true in this situation. He couldn’t put his finger on it…yet. But things seemed both too easy and too complicated. Still, he didn’t think the problem was Alexa.

  He looked down at her. She still knelt with her head on his lap. He touched her soft hair, and she looked up at him, her eyes shimmering. “Thank you,” she whispered hoarsely.

  “For what?” He kept his voice gentle, not allowing himself to show any doubt.

  Did he feel any?

  No. He didn’t. He was certain that Forbes was wrong.

  “For believing in me,” Alexa said.

  He smiled at her. “We’d better finish up and get out of here.”

  She nodded.

  “Here,” he said, pointing to a couple of lines at the very end of the file.

  “What’s that?” Alexa peered over his shoulder.

  “Looks like a reference to a private post office box. What do you want to bet that Vane’s keeping hard copies of his file on your parents there? And this—” He pointed to a line that said “Z. Banq,” followed by a string of letters and numbers. “Here’s your Swiss bank account info, I’ll bet. ‘Z for Zurich.’”

  “Thank God,” Alexa breathed.

  He printed the contents of that horrifying, incriminating file, downloaded them onto a floppy disk. As always, he opened and closed a few other documents, ones listed on the file of most recently opened documents. That would make it harder for Vane to recognize that anyone but he had been using his computer. Then Cole logged off.

  In a short while, they stood in the hallway outside Vane’s room. “There’s one more place I want to see,” Cole said.

  “Where?” Alexa asked.

  “Minos’s room.”

  Alexa led him down the steps and along the hall past the kitchen. At its end was the separate corridor that led to a couple more guest bedrooms, and Minos’s quarters.

  She used a passkey to let them in.

  “This is amazing,” Alexa said as she stood bes
ide him just inside the doorway.

  “Why?” Cole asked. There seemed nothing amazing about this room. It was spartan, containing only a single-size mattress and box springs on a frame and a chest of drawers. The floor was bare hardwood—oak. There were no pictures on the white-painted walls, nothing on the top of the three-drawer dresser. The bed had no spread on it, but it was neatly made with white sheets and a light blue blanket. The closet door was closed.

  The room had a clean odor. It didn’t look lived in.

  “Minos demanded that I stay out of here,” Alexa said. “He told me he’d clean it himself. I figured it was because he was hiding something, like Vane was. But I don’t see anything he wouldn’t want someone else to see—at least, not on the surface. Nothing that should make him feel uncomfortable with me being in here, especially if I just cleaned the tops of things. He doesn’t have a computer or a desk. But I’ll bet…”

  She crossed the room and pulled open the top dresser drawer. Her lovely lips pursed in distaste. For the drawer’s contents, or for what she was doing?

  Cole joined her. The drawer contained several neatly folded T-shirts and that was all.

  The other drawers were similarly occupied with the man’s sparse items of clothing: jeans, socks, underwear. And nothing more.

  “Let’s try the closet,” Cole said.

  But it, too, was nearly empty, except for the set of barbells resting on the floor, along with heavy weights that could be added to the ends. It was apparent how the man maintained his muscles.

  “Except for the weights, it’s as if he doesn’t live here at all.” Alexa’s soft voice was full of wonder. “Who is he? What is he?”

  “A hired thug,” Cole said bluntly. He had moved toward the door to the bathroom. Inside, he pulled open the medicine chest. It was empty.

  He checked the cabinet below the sink and exploded with laughter. “Bubble bath!” he exclaimed.

  “What?”

  Alexa peered over his shoulder. She began laughing, too. “It’s not mine,” she said. “And I throw out anything like this that a guest leaves. It’s got to be his.”

  They continued to look around for another few minutes, but there was nothing else in that room that indicated anything about Minos Flaherty. Certainly nothing useful. No files on Alexa’s parents. No further evidence about the horrifying plot, though Minos had to be up to his shaggy eyebrows in it, just like his boss Vane.

  Cole shook his head. Something about Minos Flaherty bothered him—and not just the fact he came off as a violent bully. Alexa had hit it on the head. Who was he?

  Why was he here? Other than attempting to intimidate Alexa and poor “John O’Rourke,” he seemed to have little function.

  “Okay,” Cole said to Alexa, not wanting to worry her further. “I think we’ve got the picture, at least all we’re going to get. The man isn’t a collector. His room, like him, has no personality. And he has two pastimes when he’s not working: he lifts weights, and he takes bubble baths.”

  He loved Alexa’s lighthearted giggle as they left the room. It reminded him of two years ago, when they’d had little reason to worry about anything. Then, he had been able to keep his assignment separate from their time together.

  So he had thought.

  He tested Minos’s door to ensure it was locked behind them. Only then did he remove his surgical gloves and stuff them into his pockets. Alexa did the same.

  They walked side by side back down the hallway toward the reception area. Cole held Alexa’s soft hand firmly in his.

  When they reached the bottom of the stairway, he turned toward Alexa. She wasn’t laughing about Minos any longer. Her eyes appeared scared when she looked up at him. “We still don’t have all the answers,” she said.

  “No, but we have a hell of a lot more than we did before.”

  She didn’t appear convinced.

  “Will we be all right now?” she whispered.

  “We’re going to be fine,” he promised. Without thinking about it, he took her into his arms.

  She was warm in her brief outfit. And soft. She smelled like citrus. She smelled of memories, in this place where they had made love and promises together two years ago, before their worlds had exploded.

  Gently, he kissed her.

  Not so gently, she threw her arms about him and kissed him back.

  “Please, Cole,” she said, quivering against him.

  He knew what she was asking.

  Without another word, he took her hand once more and led her up the steps. At the top of the stairway, he looked into her eyes. He saw his own want mirrored there. Still, he had to ask, “Are you sure, Alexa? We won’t—”

  She must have anticipated the rest of his disclaimer—of promises, of any future for them—and chose not to hear it. She put her index finger against his mouth to silence him.

  He sucked it inside, licked it…and she moaned.

  With a soft moan of his own, he swept her into his arms and carried her to his room.

  Chapter Twelve

  In the haven of Cole’s strong arms, Alexa couldn’t think. She didn’t want to think. She only wanted to feel.

  Cole believed in her. They were together.

  She rested her head against the powerful, muscular surface of his chest as he carried her.

  In his room, he shoved the door closed with his foot. It slammed, but she was almost unaware of the sound.

  He put her down on his bed ever so gently.

  When she looked up, he stood over her with his hands at his sides. The glaze in his eyes spoke of heat and passion and need. And question. He gave her another opportunity to say no. To reject him.

  She would sooner have cut off a limb, for he was part of her. He had been before. He was still.

  She reached her arms toward him. That was enough to draw him down into them.

  For a moment, they lay together, unmoving. Her head rested in the crook of his neck. She inhaled his male fragrance, breathed with him. He used his hand to lift her chin. Slowly, very slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers.

  It was as if he had lit a fuse, for the kiss burned her, ignited her, welded her to him. She bit at his mouth, even as his hands tore at her clothes.

  She helped him remove her top, her shorts, her under-garments. She lay against him, naked, while he remained fully dressed. The vulnerable, exposed sensation nearly drove her crazy with desire. His hands kneaded the skin of her buttocks, her back, then burrowed between their bodies until he held her breasts. Again, he circled her nipples with one thumb, then the other, over and over, endlessly until she moaned and thrust her aching fullness into his grasp.

  He bent and took one breast into his mouth, sucking gently, teasing the straining nipple with his tongue. All the while he stroked her other breast while it waited for the same lavishing treatment.

  The feelings were familiar, yet so different that she opened her eyes. She wanted to watch him as he pleasured her. To drink in the expressions on Cole’s new face, as they learned each other’s bodies once more.

  She wanted to feel him. All over.

  She unbuttoned his shirt and tugged it until he moved enough to shrug it off. And then her hand went lower. She touched him outside his pants, felt the hard bulge of his arousal. Heard his gasp of pleasure as she gently squeezed. She undid a button and his zipper, and tugged. In moments, he was as bare as she.

  His hand slipped lower, cupped her most sensitive area. One finger, then two stroked her, teased her until she arched against his touch.

  She, too, teased. She rubbed his maleness, caressed him, felt him grow and throb until she could not wait any longer. “Please, Cole,” she managed to say.

  But he was already moving. His weight was sheer wonder as he lowered himself onto her. Into her. She nearly cried out, but his mouth swallowed the sound as he kissed her and plunged his tongue into her even as his body penetrated hers, stroked hers, fed hers sensations that she had thought never to experience again.

  “You
are still my sky, Alexa.” His voice was ragged, his mouth still against hers. “Always.”

  She rocketed higher and higher until she feared she could soar no more. And then she exploded into a million pieces, even as she heard his groan, felt him grow still, then pierce her one final, fantastical time.

  SHE MUST HAVE fallen asleep. She lay on her side, with a man’s arms crossed over her chest. Behind her was the warmth of a body curled around her.

  Cole’s body. Her lover’s. The man she would be with forever….

  She wiggled her behind, feeling the immediate response of a growing hardness against her buttocks. She purred…then opened her eyes with a start, realizing her disorientation.

  For a moment, she had thought this was two years ago, when Cole and she had made love over and over, as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Before he had died…and come back to her.

  But this time, Cole’s wonderfully welcome words of love had been said in the heat of passion. They weren’t real, could not be relied upon. There would be no forever for Cole and her. And what they had now was tenuous. Ephemeral.

  She rolled over and opened her eyes, to find Cole watching her. He smiled lazily, looked her still-naked body up and down, and she felt desire curl through her all over again.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  “Hi,” he replied, then bent down to kiss her. But even as she threw her arms about him, he drew back. “Alexa, we can’t stay here. Vane and Minos will be back soon. We have to be ready for them. And we also have to get rooms ready for other guests—my backup.”

  She nodded. Everything rushed back to her now, engulfing her with trepidation. “Is Vane really involved in a plot to overthrow our government?” The horror of it made her shudder.

  “Yeah,” Cole said succinctly. He climbed out of bed, leaving Alexa feeling even more alone and afraid. But she nevertheless watched with appreciation as his muscles flexed while he pulled on his jeans.

  His back was to her. His poor, scarred back. He had been hurt, badly. Even though she hadn’t done this to him as he had previously believed, she would still do everything she could to make it up to him.

  If she was given the chance.