The Protector

by Gennita Low

  The whole speech was spoken without any drama. Admiral Madison’s approach was simpler—he was sincere and direct and he didn’t mince his words. Vivi, seldom impressed by military trappings, felt the tingle down her spine, the kind that made one feel proud and good about oneself. This, she thought in private amazement, was NOPAIN at its best. The admiral must either be a natural or had a hell of an instructor. Again, she caught T.’s gaze and thought she saw the tiniest gleam from those amethyst eyes.

  Yet, she couldn’t dispute the truth of what Admiral Madison outlined. The sex trade was just the tip of the iceberg. And the drugs. She gave a mental shake of disgust. This drug that made its victims helpless…she shuddered inwardly. The information her superiors had given was grim. From GEM’s view, sex trade plus drugs equals finance for arms dealing. From Admiral Madison’s side, the arms dealers weren’t just dealing with illegal weapons floating around from obsolete Soviet countries, but they are also vying for power in an unstable region. The endgame was simple. The faction with the biggest weapon to sell to the highest bidder would win.

  She felt somebody tap her shoulder and turned. Jazz’s blue eyes smiled down at her. There was an intimacy in his gaze, even though his expression remained solemn. She smiled, unsure of what to say. The admiral had also pressed home a point that she had never considered. Funny. And totally ironic. She was a soldier.

  Jazz knew that it was going to be impossible to be alone with Vivi for the rest of the day. She was talking to her chief, Tess Montgomery, whom Mad Dog had introduced briefly. There was something different about the new GEM operative who had joined them. It wasn’t just because the woman looked more like a movie star than an operations chief. Tall, long-legged, with flowing reddish hair that floated loosely to her hips, she wasn’t dressed like any operations chief about to conduct official business. It was the effect she had on his team. In fact, he could have sworn when she winked at his team as she passed them, some of them shuffled their feet. That certainly wasn’t the usual attitude he knew his team had when it came to beautiful women. He caught the Stooges giving each other secret signals.

  He frowned. Hawk was talking to Tess with an easy familiarity that suggested he’d met her before. He noticed that Vivi was also watching and frowning, as if she, too, was thinking the same thing.

  This was the woman he had to spend time with to go over strategy about what his team needed to do to insert Hawk. Instinct told him that she was more than she appeared to be, that the glamour she projected was an illusion. She looked vaguely familiar, but he was sure they hadn’t met before. No one could possibly forget those Elizabeth Taylor eyes. Vivi looked over and gestured to him to join them.

  “Lieutenant Zeringue, this is my chief, T.,” she said. “She’s been involved in all the phases of the operation, and that’s why she’s here today to brief you.”

  There was a dry note to Vivi’s voice, as if she was absolutely aware of how her chief affected men in general.

  “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

  “T.,” she said easily, shaking his hand. “That way you won’t get confused when people call me by other names later.”

  “T.” he agreed. Other names?

  “I heard you’re pretty proficient with the piano, Lieutenant. I gather, from your handle, that you favor jazz and blues?” She had a beautiful speaking voice, the kind that advertisers go after. His musician ears appreciated the different inflections she placed on words.

  “Yes, being from Louisiana…” He shrugged.

  “You have to play me something one of these days, when we aren’t so busy. I have a particular blues song that is my favorite.”

  “Sure. What is it?”

  Her beautiful eyes had a gleam in them as she flashed a breathtaking smile at him. “Oh, it’s about the usual blues thing. Masquerade and masks, things to do with the heart.”

  Vivi was frowning. “T….” Jazz caught a hint of a warning in her tone of voice. “I believe we don’t have much time to talk about music.”

  “There’s a lot of choreography in music and war, darling. Don’t you agree, Hawk?”

  He was right about his earlier impression. T. and Hawk were on a first-name basis. His frown deepened. When did they meet? Hawk had never mentioned her—just Marlena Maxwell and Vivi—whenever they had talked about GEM.

  “Yes, although Jazz would tell you that they are opposites. One is creation and the other is destruction,” Hawk said.

  “Interesting point. And Lieutenant Zeringue is skilled in both.” T. arched an eyebrow.

  Jazz lifted a shoulder. He hadn’t thought about it that way. “I’m good at arranging things in sequence,” he said mildly.

  “It’s all sight and sound, isn’t it? Things can be created for destruction and vice versa, hmm? And sometimes what you can’t see can turn out either way, right?”

  Jazz frowned. He had no idea what the woman was talking about. He hoped she didn’t speak in those terms when she gave him the information about the Triads’ bunker or he was going to have a hell of a time figuring things out. “I suppose,” he hedged cautiously.

  “T., stop messing with his mind,” Vivi interrupted at that moment, her voice low. “We don’t have time for this.”

  Tess Montgomery gave him a cryptic smile. “Timing—very important in music and explosives,” she told him, then abruptly turned back to Hawk. “Introduce me to your men, Hawk. I’ve heard such good things about them.”

  Hawk flashed Jazz a quick grin, amusement stamped on his face, before going off with the GEM operative. Jazz knew that expression well. It meant his friend knew things that he wasn’t going to share yet. He turned to Vivi.

  “How’s your back? Did you do something about the scratches?” he asked.

  She looked surprised, as if his concern was unexpected. Did she think he wouldn’t remember the scratches? “I’m okay,” she said. “I’ll probably feel it more tomorrow.”

  “Tired?”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “Are you suggesting that I can’t keep up with you?”

  He widened his eyes innocently. “I was going to suggest that I continue to keep up with you. But only if you aren’t too tired, of course.”

  She kept her expression severe even though a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “I knew it,” she mocked. “I knew I shouldn’t have slept with you. Now all you’re going to think about is me naked in the woods, tearing your clothes off, pushing you to the ground, climbing on top of your naked body and having my way with you.”

  Jazz groaned at the instant reaction the description brought up. “You win,” he said, ruefully hoping no one would notice his condition.

  Vivi snickered. “Men are so easy.”

  “I wish we were alone again. Then I could show you how easy I can be.”

  She hesitated. “I…wish that too.”

  He hid his satisfaction. He understood how difficult it was for her to admit that. He had to be very careful with how he worded his next few sentences. “I don’t know how tight the schedule will be, chouchou, but I’d like to have dinner with you. I know it’s going to be very busy for both of us the next few days and without a way of contacting you, I’m at a disadvantage.” He took a step closer. “Call me?”

  “And if I don’t?”

  He cautioned himself again. “You’ll hurt my feelings. I’ll feel used and abused,” he deadpanned. “You’ll feel guilty about how you’ve hurt me for the rest of your life. And it’ll be your fault if I play ‘Oh Susannah’ mournfully on the Dan Nhat like some lovesick puppy, dying from unrequited love. Believe me, you don’t want that to happen.”

  His attempt to keep it as lighthearted as possible worked. Amusement chased away the hesitation in her eyes. She shook her head. “I believe you. I heard your first attempt,” she said wryly. “I’ll call.”

  “Soon,” he pressed. He wasn’t quite that patient.

  “Soon,” she agreed. She looked away for a second. “I have to go now. Got the other job to cat
ch up on. T.’s going to sort of take over my role for the next phase.”

  “I get the feeling she’s more into the illegal weapons division of your agency. Will you be involved in this operation at all?” He was fishing for information, selfishly wishing for her to be close by. “Miss Montgomery doesn’t have the same…touch as you, chouchou.”

  “Don’t challenge T.,” she said, but she looked somewhat pleased that he wanted her to work with him. “I probably won’t have any direct involvement now that we have gotten the girls out of Dilaver’s and the Triads’ clutches, but I’ll be busy, too. Like you, I need to be briefed about certain details that we’ve just gotten.”

  “Okay.” He could appreciate keeping their jobs separate. He would definitely have a heart attack if he watched her “at work” again. He frowned. Not that it would be any better not seeing or knowing. Damn, this was harder than he’d thought. So this was how Maman felt every time he had been deliberately vague about his job. “Just be careful.”

  He wanted to kiss her but of course he didn’t. She licked those tempting lips, as if the same thought crossed her mind. At least he hoped so. He wanted her to think about him.

  “You, too,” she said.

  He watched her walk off, enjoying the sway of her hips. One day, he would tell her that her walk turned him on. He joined Hawk and the rest of the team in the conference room. T. was the center of attention, with his team sitting and standing in a semicircle around her. She must have made a joke of some sort; they were laughing. Loudly. He frowned, walking closer to Hawk, who was leaning against the back wall.

  “I see the session hasn’t started,” Jazz commented softly.

  “I believe it has,” Hawk told him in an equally soft tone.

  “Twin, you’re keeping something from me. I can feel it.”

  Hawk glanced at him briefly before returning his attention to T. and the others. “What makes you say that?”

  “For one thing, you didn’t tell me you had met Tess Montgomery. You also seemed quite prepared to leave the team for a while, as if you’ve known about it. There’s also the mention just now of training. Lastly, look at that.” Jazz jerked his chin at the sight in front of him. “Our team doesn’t react like that, no matter how beautiful the woman.”

  “You notice too, huh?” Hawk turned to him again, quizzical expression in his eyes.

  “They are laughing with her, for God’s sake. How can I not notice that?” Jazz asked. A sudden thought occurred. “It isn’t more of that NOPAIN shit you told me about, is it?”

  “Some of it,” Hawk said, “but more lethal, I think.”

  “You think?” Jazz studied the group again. T. was talking and his team—men he had fought and lived with for years, whom he knew would never react this way—was giving her the kind of focus they usually had when they were receiving orders. “What the hell is going on, Hawk? Is she doing something to them?”

  “It’s something to do with mind control. I’ve only heard of it. You know Steve has met her. He told me that she can do certain things with her voice. And that she is the one who teaches NOPAIN to most of the GEM operatives.”

  Jazz went on instant alert. Mind control? That was the kind of gook myths and experiments the frogs laughed about. “What do you mean, her voice? You’ve talked to her before. Did you laugh and joke along with her like that?”

  Hawk shook his head. “Negative. She didn’t seem to have it turned on like now. I’ve heard she’s a mistress of disguises, that she’s really not this person we’re watching. But then that’s sort of a GEM trademark, isn’t it? Steve told me to pay attention to her voice. He didn’t mention that she has the sort of beauty that keeps one’s eyes trained on her, though.”

  Jazz looked at her closely again. She was really a stunning woman. There was something almost untouchable about her, though. Celtic music. He preferred Vivi’s warmer beauty. “Here’s another GEM operative you can get interested in,” he said, injecting a hopeful note in his voice.

  Hawk grinned. “Hell no. This one’s lethal, man. I think she can kill with her voice.”

  “You aren’t serious, right? That woman is not a mind-controlling seductress. Our guys are just horny from being locked away from female company.”

  Hawk’s grin widened and he shrugged. “You’re probably right. Let’s join them.”

  Half an hour later, Jazz was convinced Hawk had been half serious after all. T., as she seemed to prefer to call herself, had given the men all they needed to know about the next operation without one of them asking any questions. Hell, they were so absorbed in her that they seemed surprised when she addressed him.

  “I’ll get in touch with you after you’ve rested, Lieutenant Zeringue. We have to go over all the logistics.”

  “What you said earlier to me, about what one can’t see turning out to be either destructive or creative,” Jazz began, and when she arched a brow, he continued, “How about subliminal messages in music?”

  T. smiled cryptically and left without actually answering him. It suddenly felt as if energy had been sucked out of the room. There was a moment of silence.

  Mink took a deep breath. Then another. “Wow.” He looked around and headed for the flask of water on the table.

  “Yeah, wow. Hawk and Miss T. I think some people have all the damn luck,” Cucumber commented as he too joined Mink. “I think she’s fabulous.”

  Jazz exchanged glances with Hawk. T. had used that to describe things several times.

  “Fabulous? What kind of asinine word is that for a man?” Dirk asked.

  “That’s ass and nine and a half to you, scum.”

  The guys snickered. Okay, that sounded more like the Cumber Jazz knew.

  “Her ass and your—”

  “Men, we’re talking about a friend of the admiral’s. Watch the language,” Hawk said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “We have to coordinate this very carefully because it is more than our usual sneak and attack operation.” Hawk looked around at the men. “As you know, I won’t join you on the trip home. As soon as I disappear, Jazz will take over and you are to get out of there even if you see me in any trouble with Dilaver. No exceptions.”

  The team sobered up as realization dawned that this was probably the last mission they would see Hawk on for a while. They had bonded in a way that few men had—blind faith in one another’s abilities to keep each other safe. They had always gotten the job done as a team, even when they went off in pairs. This time, their commander was going to go at it alone.

  CHAPTER

  23

  Vivi burst into Juliana’s office without knocking, barely containing her fury, as she headed straight toward the woman sitting at the desk talking on the phone. She leaned over and disconnected the call.

  “Why did you have all my calls transferred to you without my permission?” she asked, in the most civil tone she could manage.

  Juliana replaced the receiver on the phone. “You weren’t here to take the calls,” she replied dulcetly.

  “First, you have no right to do that without asking me. Second, you have no right to act upon any calls placed to me without knowing the situation or checking with me.” This time Vivi didn’t bother to lower her voice. “What did you do to Rose?”

  Juliana widened her eyes. “You’re a volunteer. I can see that you were busy and had a backlog of work on your schedule. Judging from the calls, it appeared you have been unable to keep up with it and I decided—”

  “You decided? How dare you cut off my communications and tell the operator that you’re in charge of my cases?” Vivi leaned even closer, eye to eye with the other woman. “I checked with the logs and there were three calls to me from Rose. I want to know exactly what you said to her because I can’t get hold of her now.”

  Juliana pushed away from the desk, keeping some distance from Vivi. “I needed the numbers down. You were unable to cut them as requested. I did your job for you.” Her smile was small, malicious. “You think
just because you’re an outside contractor, I can’t touch you? But I can certainly help out with your responsibilities when you’re away doing other things, like dating a certain GI that you just happened to release. I told you I can be a bitch.”

  The insinuation was there to serve as warning but Vivi didn’t care right now. She was worried about Rose. She had called her house repeatedly since last night but had gotten no reply. An awful feeling had sunk into her gut when she had discovered the messages. Instead of transferring the calls to her private message line, the secretary had forwarded them to Juliana. When she had finally gotten through, a woman had whispered that Rose didn’t live there any more.

  “What did Rose tell you? Damn it, Juliana, she isn’t a number.”

  “You were giving her father cash. He ran through it like water and he wanted more, so he dangled his daughter at you again. I told you that was against organization policy. Rose is old enough to go out and find a job and that’s what I told her, that you can’t help her any longer. I’ve also reported your actions to the department for reevaluation and replacement.” Juliana picked up the receiver again. “Now, if that’s all you want to know, I have my job to do, too. You interrupted a very important media interview about—”

  Vivi rudely jerked the phone off the desk. “What I do with my money is none of your business. Yes, it’s my money that I’ve been using to stave off a child—a child, Juliana, not someone you can just shove off because she is suddenly a cut-off number—from being forced by her father to live the kind of lifestyle you and the organization are fighting against. Remember that policy? Ethical treatment of women and children? Or is that now amended to ethical treatment of women and children below the cut-off number?”

  “How dare you insinuate that I care any less than you? I have to make the numbers work so you can get the funds to keep the safe houses going. You think it’s easy for me to pick and choose? I’ve been here longer than you and have given myself fully to this organization’s work, endlessly raising the needed funds. And we are so close to getting the UN required recommendations for approval, I am not going to let some outside contractor destroy our chances to get those funds. You owe me an apology. You owe the organization and your agency an apology. How dare you talk about keeping children safe when you’re out like some loose woman with a military officer accused of molesting a child? The very same child you’re looking out for?” Juliana took in a deep breath, then released it slowly. “There are always some sacrifices in any cause. You’re blinded by your emotions. I believe it’d be better if you’re released from volunteering and just focus on your real job with Interpol. You have to admit, you work better with men.”