Delta_Ricochet

by Cristin Harber

  “To decimate the monster.”

  ###

  Gloria stayed at her desk chair long after she’d hung up rather than press against the window and see to the sidewalk. Was that threat figurative? Or immediate?

  Her heart calmed eventually as she shakily secured her ruby earring back in place then found her cell phone, calling her head of personal security, Richard Delano.

  He reported to her desk quickly, and Gloria concisely shared what had happened, sounding far more dramatic than she intended. “What do you think?”

  His thinking process was the same as it had been years ago, before they’d found each other, when he was simply security and she was only diversifying her portfolios. But Richard knew what to do and when to do it. It was one of the reasons she trusted him with her empire.

  He crossed his arms the way he did when he was certain of a solution. “I know a guy or two.”

  “What?” Of all the things he could have said, that was not it. “No!”

  “I don’t have the resources to track down a nameless woman who knows too much.”

  “You’re my security!”

  “What do you want me to do, Gloria?”

  “If you can’t handle the threat, give it to the FBI and let them run around—” No, that wouldn’t work, and the minor annoyance ticking on his forehead said he’d already thought this through. The FBI handled her threats but when someone knew too much. “Then what would you tell an outsider?”

  He shrugged off her concerns. “The issue is twofold.”

  “Twofold, how?” She wasn’t thinking clearly.

  “How was someone able to get a hold of you?”

  Good point. She lifted her chin.

  “And if this is legitimate—”

  “It’s legitimate,” she snapped. His comfort level with questioning her was the problem with mixing their business relationship with their personal one. “Which day in my planner should we focus on?”

  “The humanitarian dinner next week? The fundraiser gala? The benefit—”

  “All of the above.” He relaxed his arms. “I’ll be near your side, but we’ll put a team on the outskirts to manage protestors, incoming threats, and I’ll get my guy to track the caller down. See how much we need to be concerned, the source of the threat, and then clean up any loose ends.”

  “There shouldn’t be any loose threads,” she mumbled. Her reputation was more valuable than the billions she owned. More than her life. It was one of the reasons she had been ruthless with her network and generous with their benefits package if they were ever compromised. Her employees would sacrifice themselves for the betterment of their families It was a simple company policy.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Very few know the inner workings of what we do. To find whoever called me, they would have to know more details.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You’ve already worked with the guy I have in mind. Any guy I’d talk to about any of this, it’d be the right guy for the job.”

  Her world, her name, her life was on the line. But Richard had never led her astray, and he’d lose everything also if she lost did.

  “A guy,” Gloria muttered the pedestrian phrase. “Find your guy and find out how she got my suite number before anyone ends up dead.”

  He crossed the room and took her hand. “Trust me.”

  She wanted to remind him whose world he lived in but didn’t dare cross their line. She was the queen, calling the shots, and he was her knight, soldiering on in their murky world that no one could understand. But he did.

  Richard knew how she helped more than she hurt. She closed her eyes as he clasped her hand. “Always.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  The lights were dim in the nerve center of Titan HQ, and the quiet hum of electronics whirred as Colin stepped into Parker’s tech haven. A low growl made him drop his gaze. He’d been too in his head to think about anything, much less a dog with as much personality or protectiveness as Bacon the Pug.

  “Easy, killer. Looking for your dad.”

  “Behind you.” Parker breezed passed Colin, tossing a treat in the air. Bacon leaped to get it, settling back onto a bed by the door.

  “Titan has a guard dog covering for you?”

  “She didn’t let you in here without a warning, did she?” Parker dropped into his black leather chair and rolled to the desk behind him. “What’s up?”

  Ryder stepped into Parker’s office, and Colin paused. Anything he said about Adelia would make it to Victoria, and the last thing he wanted was to cause gossip like he had with his sister. But this was different—though maybe Ryder was job related. “Hey, man.”

  Ryder settled into a chair. “Not much. Killing time.”

  Or, not job related.

  “Parker.” Colin crouched to face Bacon, petting her head. “Can you locate a cell for me?”

  “Sure.” He spun toward his console. “Whatcha working on?”

  Ryder’s interested perked. “We have a job?”

  “No.” Colin shook his head. “More of a side project than anything else.”

  A new screen appeared on his monitor. “My specialty. Number?”

  Colin rattled off the number, and Parker typed then leaned back and pointed to a screen. Zeroing in on the east coast. “Why are you tracking Lenora?”

  Great. Of course, Parker knew her number by heart. “She’s with Adelia.”

  “What’s up with them?” Ryder asked.

  “I dunno,” Colin mumbled. “Just getting into something I guess.”

  Maryland zoomed on screen under Parker’s keystrokes. “That’s not much of an answer.”

  He grinned flatly as Ryder watched him avoid eye contact. “How much of one do you need?”

  Parker chuckled as a mark pinged on the map with coordinates near Baltimore. “The phone’s near Baltimore. On the water, not quite the tourist district.”

  “What the hell are they doing there?” Ryder studied the screen over Parker’s shoulder.

  “Thanks.” He didn’t want to ignore Ryder but had no idea what the answer was.

  “You’re headed up there?” Parker asked.

  “Soon as I talk to Brock and then, yeah, probably.”

  Parker shook his head. “He’s with Jared. A new job just came in.”

  Damn it.

  “Don’t look so glum.” Parker shook his head.

  “I don’t know.”

  Parker answered his desk phone, rolling to another computer as he switched to a headset and immersed himself into the call.

  Ryder stood up and crossed his arms, still studying the dot that marked Baltimore and then turned to Colin. “Something going on with you and Adelia?”

  Not if Colin couldn’t get a hold of her and she ended up dead because Mayhem had a hit on her, and God only knew what she and Lenora were up to at the water in Maryland.

  “Or not,” Ryder answered, sizing up Colin’s face. “Victoria said something about you two hanging out at Seven’s wedding.”

  “Yeah, I think so. We are. It’s just...” His mind was elsewhere, and Colin was too worried to deal with the semantics of a relationship when Mayhem could be a real problem. Perhaps Brock and Jared were discussing the information he’d emailed from Lenora? But wouldn’t they have looped him in? No, their meeting had to be something else.

  “Sorry about that.” Parker rolled back to the conversation. “What were you saying?”

  “Adelia got herself in some shit with Mayhem.”

  “Who hasn’t?” Parker leaned back in his chair like he’d heard that before.

  “Well, this might be the bad kind.”

  “How bad?”

  Colin ripped his hand over his throat. “The bad kind.”

  “The kind where Lenora’s dumping Adelia’s body in the Chesapeake Bay?”

  “No, no… They’re working on something, and I don’t know if it’s some kind of last hurrah or a get-her-out-of-Mayhem-jail type of deal.”

  Parker’s for
ehead pinched. “Two very different extremes, brother.”

  “Tell me about it,” Colin muttered. “Lenora’s my access to Adelia, but she’s not answering the phone.” How many god-forsaken times could Colin hit redial without letting on that he was worried? “Either way, I said I was going to head their way. Now I know where I’m going.”

  “Hmm.” Parker rocked in his chair. “Or stick around for a few.”

  “I’m not going to bail without touching base.”

  Parker reached for a jar of dog treats on his desk, and Bacon scurried over, skittering to a stop and eagerly awaiting whatever would be asked of him. Parker flicked the treat in the air, and Bacon swallowed it before the treat landed.

  “Your dog’s going to get indigestion.”

  “Maybe.” Parker took out another one for Bacon, balancing it on his knuckles before he flipped it in the air for the process to repeat. “Lenora’s an asset. She’s our friendly. If you’re going to ask Boss Man to pick a side, work, an asset, or Javier’s sister—”

  “Are you shitting me?”

  Bacon groaned, and Parker petted her head. “All I’m saying is think before you make your ask—”

  “You don’t know what I’m going to ask for.”

  Parker’s lips flattened. “You want time off or to clean up someone’s mess—”

  “What if I did?”

  “Then sometimes you have to choose what is your highest priority.”

  “What does that mean?” Now Parker sounded like his father. Was he going to get a lecture about the future from every direction?

  “When the opportunity presents itself, you’ll know what I’m talking about.”

  Ryder dropped into a chair. “I have no clue what you two are bitchin’ about. Take it easy.”

  The phone on the desk rang again, and Parker slapped it onto speaker mode.

  “You have everything on the client packet?” Jared boomed.

  “That’s affirmative,” Parker replied.

  “Good. I’m going to find Colin and—”

  Parker and Colin simultaneously said he was there.

  “Get to the war room. Pronto. And bring everything we know.”

  “Will do,” Parker said.

  The line cut off. Colin chewed on his bottom lip. It would be the first time he’d hold the title as second-in-command of Delta team on assignment, and Parker was right. There would be no time off. Damn it.

  “That’s my cue to leave.” Ryder tossed Bacon a snack and left.

  They filed out with Bacon trotting behind. Colin’s phone buzzed. He checked the number as they entered the elevator, and shit, it was Lenora.

  “You need to take that?” Parker asked.

  Jared’s pronto rang in his ear. “I can call back.”

  He sent Lenora to voicemail. As soon as he figured out the logistics of the op, he could figure out how to get to Adelia. Not all jobs started right away, and some could finish up in a day. There was no point in calling before he knew what he was dealing with.

  Lenora rang another time, and Colin declined the call. A voicemail notification and then a text message popped up.

  LENORA: I’m heading out and trust you’ll be here soon. The town is small, and she has what she needs to wait.

  He chewed the inside of his mouth. Colin wasn’t anywhere close to leaving for Maryland right now and his anxiety inched up.

  “Everything good?” Parker asked as the elevator doors opened to their floor, and they headed toward the war room.

  “No, it’s all good.” He hit reply.

  COLIN: Hang on. I’m not there yet.

  LENORA: Getting on the plane. Right. Now. Do what you need to do. I’ve gotta roll.

  She was leaving her? But he tried to calm his concern. Adelia was a grown woman capable of being on her own. Lenora wouldn’t throw her into the wild.

  COLIN: Does she have a burner?

  LENORA: Ha. No. Do you think I’m stupid?

  COLIN: How am I supposed to find her? What are you two getting into?

  LENORA: Don’t you have an entire office building that hunts people? And we’re up to absolutely nothing you should know about.

  Hell. His anxiety jumped again.

  “Dude,” Parker interrupted his thoughts. “You sure you’re okay?”

  Colin looked from his phone and realized that Parker stood with his hand on the war room door, waiting for him. Shit. Shit, again. What the hell was he going to do?

  He slid his phone into his pocket. “Yeah, everything’s great.”

  Parker’s demeanor remained skeptical. “You know you lie for shit?” Still, he opened the door. “Relax your face some. That might help.”

  “What the hell took you so long?” Boss Man grumbled.

  Brock furiously wrote notes in the margin of a notepad until they approached the table. He looked up and tossed the pen aside. “You ready?”

  “Yup,” Colin said. And he was. The title was cool, but he wanted action, leadership. He wanted to be part of the strategy and planning. He wanted to be in this room—and yet, all he kept thinking about was the cell phone in his pocket and what else Lenora might say before she turned off her phone and the plane took off.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  The polished wood of the war room table had seen years of missions and operations. Some were battles that no one knew existed, while others had national significance and made their ways into textbooks.

  Jared paced along the wall, listening to his cell phone. “That’s all I need to hear.” He cut off the call then took his place at the head of the war room table like a king. His demeanor remained somewhere between serious and impassive with the occasional crack of his knuckles. Bacon and Thelma, Boss Man’s bulldog, lounged close, and Colin wondered how these meetings took place.

  “Glad to have you here, Colin.” Jared nodded curtly.

  “Same. Thanks.”

  “Pretty basic job came in came in from an old army buddy of mine, Richard Delano, who acts as the go-between for us and one of our trafficking intel sources.”

  Parker opened a folder and passed papers to Jared, Brock, and Colin. Gloria Astor’s name was printed across the top of the sheet, followed by her picture and basic information, but Colin didn’t have to read to know who she was.

  Gloria Astor was an international figure for human rights. Beyond that, she was absurdly wealthy and a popular person to have on guest lists at diplomatic events and black-tie fundraisers. Colin’s diplomat parents knew her well from their days overseas, and Colin could recall more than a few times Gloria Astor had been having tea with his mother when he’d arrived home from school on their various placements in Europe.

  But he opted to keep that to himself. Between the choice to shut up and listen or to name drop about who his family knew, it seemed the prudent course of action to keep his trap glued shut.

  “Her security has a credible but generic threat.”

  “What kind?” Brock asked.

  “A breach in personal information,” Parker explained.

  “Her security requested a set of back-up eyes at her bigger events.”

  Brock groaned. “Do we think it’s the best use of resources for Delta to babysit some billionaire who’s pissed that the paparazzi found her in Vail.”

  “Not that nonspecific,” Jared followed up. “Astor has had interactions with the unsub.”

  Colin raised his eyebrow at the image of a hoity-toity woman facing off with a threat. “Are they concerned about a stalker?”

  Jared shook his head. “More like a person unhappy with her angle on a human rights campaigns.”

  “Sounds like something the FBI should take on. Why us?” Brock asked.

  “Parker,” Jared said.

  He reached for a small remote next to the com system at the center of the table, and the wall illuminated. Colin remembered her kind eyes, though it had been nearly two decades since he’d last seen her or paid attention. Surely, her face had been in a newspaper or website he�
��d seen. But that was the same woman he remembered. At the time, he’d had no idea her status or business. The younger him barely knew her name, but her face would always be familiar and comfortable, with kind eyes, and a style he could only describe as New York City, old money wealthy with skin that likely had never been exposed without makeup.

  “That necklace must’ve cost more than my first year’s salary from the Army,” Jared muttered.

  “You must’ve made more than me.” Brock laughed.

  “Was there any question?” Jared shot back, cracking a smile.

  “Most of her wealth comes from the shipping conglomerates her family has owned and passed down for generations,” Parker added. “But they’re diversified soundly. Port management. Freight distribution. Rails. The Astors have found tax shelters and benefits in their philanthropic endeavors, which is how we have an intel connection.”

  Colin pursed his lips. That was a connection he couldn’t make. “Someone’s going to connect the dots for me. How’s the uber-rich lady coming across intel?”

  “Her people, her network. But Delano said she sees a great deal firsthand. She’s invested everything she can to stop human trafficking.” Parker rested his elbows on the table. “I was able to pull mentions from local papers all over the world where she stopped into a relief camp to hand deliver aid or unexpectedly showed up in local disaster not covered by the international press with containers of food and water.”

  “Damn,” Brock whistled. “She’s a saint.”

  “No good deed goes unpunished,” Parker added. “Her security team is flawless but small. They have a long history of working with the FBI, who will likely take on any investigation.”

  “Delta’s been contracted to assist with security at her major functions.” Jared turned the page, prompting Brock and Colin to do the same.

  The event scheduled started this evening. Damn it. A fundraiser in Connecticut. There were a lot of places he could’ve been sent farther away from Baltimore, but there were also days that weren’t tonight.