Too Hot to Hold

by Stephanie Tyler

  “Both of the men from the airport are dead,” she told them. “This is—”

  Nick stared at the man. “Clutch? Shit, I tried getting a message to you through the usual contact. He’d said you’d disappeared.”

  “I did.”

  “You obviously know her.”

  Clutch glanced over at Sarah—even in the thin beam of the flashlight, Kaylee could see the softness in her eyes now as she looked at the man with the nearly white blond hair. “I never expected to find her here, with Kaylee.”

  “You’re looking for me?” Kaylee asked, heard the uncertainty in her own voice even as Nick pulled her tighter to him.

  “I brought you here,” Clutch told her.

  “I came for Aaron—I don’t even know you.”

  “I served next to Aaron for three years.”

  Kaylee had been holding on to Nick’s free arm tightly, had taken a step toward Clutch without even realizing it. “Do you know where he is? The Army told me he was KIA—and then those agents from the airport said he went AWOL.”

  Clutch paused again. “He was KIA, Kaylee. He just wasn’t a part of the Army when it happened.”

  “But he’s been calling me.”

  “I’ve been calling you, KK.” Clutch’s voice was oddly hoarse.

  “How did you know he called me that?” she demanded. “How do you know so damned much about me?”

  Nick knew—one look in Clutch’s eyes and he knew.

  “I was with him that night—we’d taken fire, there was no way to get him to a hospital. He talked about you before he died,” Clutch said, his voice halting. Nick lowered his weapon at the sound of the big man in front of him nearly breaking down, and part of him wanted to sink to his knees himself.

  “He died here, in Africa?” she asked.

  Clutch nodded.

  Gunfire shattered the surrounding quiet. Kaylee jumped and Clutch and Sarah both stilled. Nick had too—the shots were far enough away and scattered, random fire … more soldiers.

  Instinctively, the group pulled together a bit more closely, although Kaylee noticed that everyone’s weapons were at the ready. “I don’t understand any of this—you’re going to have to explain why I had to come here, and what was so important that these men were trying to kill me.”

  Clutch nodded. “What I’m going to tell you, where I’m going to take you … let’s just say you’ll need to decide how deep you’re willing to go.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until I know more,” she told him, the feeling of dread growing in her stomach. If Aaron had worked with—died next to—this man, she had to know everything.

  “We need to wait out the soldiers anyway,” Sarah said as she stared off into the distance—the sounds of sharp gunfire permeated the air, distant but still close enough. “Not safe to push on right now.”

  Nick pulled Kaylee gently to his side as he held the semi-automatic pointed at Sarah and Clutch. “The question is, is it safe to stay here with you two?”

  Nick would kill both Clutch and Sarah if he had to. As he pressed his anger back—anger mostly aimed at himself for trusting anyone beyond his brothers—the mercenary held up both his hands as a show of peace.

  “Nick, just give me a chance to explain,” Clutch said. “You’ve got nothing to fear from me or from Sarah.”

  Nick didn’t move, kept the rifle trained on Clutch. Sarah had, so far, kept her own hands down at her sides.

  That meant nothing.

  Clutch looked at Sarah, who nodded. “Tell them, Clutch. Tell them everything you told me earlier,” she implored.

  “And start from the beginning,” Nick said.

  Clutch drew a deep breath and Nick swore he saw a shudder go through the man, even in the darkness. “I was in Witness Protection before I went into the Army. I was given another new name then, a new identity, and Witness Protection cut me free. But it wasn’t that simple. Years later, the government came back, wanted more from me. They killed the woman I was engaged to just to prove their point and threatened to turn my mother and me over to the men who we were hiding from in the first place. They forced me out of Delta Force and into this government-funded group of mercenaries. They call us GOST.”

  “I don’t understand—I first worked with you a year ago,” Nick said slowly.

  “When you worked with me, and then again when I helped you and Jake a few months ago, I was out. I got called back immediately afterward—something I’d never wanted to happen.”

  “What about Aaron—you said he served with you?” Kaylee asked. “Was he part of this group?”

  “Yes, he was one of us, was killed during a GOST mission.”

  “But Aaron wasn’t in Witness Protection—I would’ve known that,” Kaylee protested.

  “He wasn’t in Witness Protection,” Clutch agreed. “He’d ordered his team to fire on a caravan of UN peacekeepers in the Sudan—he was following a direct order, but Aaron’s CO let him take the blame for all the deaths, in order to save his own ass.”

  “He chose GOST over jail.”

  “Not exactly.” Clutch glanced at Kaylee. “They didn’t threaten him with Leavenworth—they used something worse.”

  “I can’t imagine what would be worse than being imprisoned for the rest of your life.” Kaylee was still holding Nick’s free arm with a death grip.

  “They threatened him withyou , Kaylee. His best friend. The only woman he ever loved. Using the people we love against us is the most effective way to keep us in line.”

  Her voice was halting, like she was having trouble breathing again, when she asked, “Who the hell are the people in charge?” Nick noted that her hands shook, andfuck , he wished she didn’t have to hear all this.

  “You met two of them.”

  “Were Simms and Ferone really FBI?” Nick asked.

  Clutch shook his head. “They were CIA when I knew them.”

  “CIA posing as FBI—probably the closest the two agencies will ever come to working together,” Nick muttered. “They followed us here from Virginia. How did they know when we’d be landing? How did they even know we’d be coming here?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t set Kaylee up—I need her alive. I want her help.”

  “You want her money, Aaron’s money.”

  Clutch shook his head impatiently. “I don’t have any use for that money, but it was the best way to get Kaylee here—I didn’t think she’d come here just for my story.”

  “Your story?” Kaylee looked between Nick and Clutch. “You brought me here to write a story about GOST?”

  “One that could possibly save my life, Sarah’s life—as well as the lives of the other people pressed into service,” Clutch told her.

  “What did I get you involved in?” she muttered to Nick, who held her around the waist tightly. She held the pistol loosely at her side.

  “You called Kaylee—did they tap your line? Could they have found out about this through you?” Nick demanded of Clutch.

  “They can do a lot of things. But I’d never have called if I’d known they’d follow you, Kaylee. You have to believe that. Aaron was a good man—I would never do that to a member of his family.”

  Nick didn’t know what Kaylee believed … he wasn’t sure himself what the hell to believe anymore. “Which members of GOST know your plan?”

  “All of them,” Clutch admitted. “It was too risky not to let all the members know what I was going to do. In order for Simms and Ferone to know your location, one of the people I work with had to tell them—one of them has to be a plant.”

  “That’s the only way they would’ve known when we might be flying in and to where. Simms and Ferone got here ahead of us, just in time.” Too close for fucking comfort.

  “And we need to get the hell out of here. Find someplace where we can circle the wagons and decide our next move,” Clutch said. “It’s got to be one of the two newer members. I’m not alerting them of anything yet. It’ll keep them guessing if they don’t hear from me or
from Simms and Ferone.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  Clutch stared at Kaylee. “If Kaylee agrees to write the article, she writes it here. We get it transmitted and then I have to go back to the warehouse and find the leak.”

  Nick shook his head. “Once they figure out that those men are dead, we’re all in big trouble.”

  Clutch stared up at the sky. “They won’t know tonight. Big rains are coming in. We’re going to have to get to higher ground once the soldiers move.”

  “When will that be?” Kaylee asked.

  “Borders are closed, can’t go anywhere for at least a few hours—they’ll have their fun and then we can go,” Sarah told them.

  “Who else is involved in all of this?”

  Clutch hesitated and then, “There aren’t many. As far as I know, GOST consists of five men, including me, and a single woman. And then the two former agents—”

  Nick was beyond patience. “Who else? There’s got to be another person out there that’s making you all run. Because if the two agents were it, you wouldn’t need Kaylee to write your story.”

  “That’s true. There’s the one man out there—the one you need to worry about the most.” Clutch paused. “We know him as John Caspar. He gives us our orders, knows all our secrets.”

  “He’s the one who’ll hunt you until you’re gone,” Nick said finally.

  “We believe so,” Clutch said quietly.

  “Is he CIA too?”

  “Once he’d been placed in charge of GOST, he wasn’t officially assigned anywhere, not under CIA, FBI or any other agency that might be located at Liberty Crossing in DC. He’s stealthy and lethal. He has no conscience and no soul. We don’t know if he works alone or not—I’ve only met him twice. And I’m sorry, Kaylee. You have no idea how sorry I am.” Clutch’s voice broke slightly and Nick watched Sarah put a hand on the man’s shoulder.

  He still hadn’t moved his own weapon.

  “You don’t know what these men have been through. They’ve had everything taken from them.” Sarah spoke when Clutch couldn’t. “The article could be their way out—their only shot at living. I won’t even say a normal life, because it’s never going to be that way for us again.”

  “Us? You’re part of the group too?” Kaylee asked, but Sarah shook her head.

  “No. But I’m not going anywhere without Clutch. GOST used me to get him back in. I won’t let that happen again.” Her voice was fierce as she held on to Clutch, and Nick had to admire Sarah’s loyalty.

  Still, Kaylee was his priority. “Kaylee needs some time—I won’t let her make this decision right now,” Nick told them. Any other time, he knew Kaylee would no doubt chafe under theI won’t let her comment, but for right now, she seemed grateful. He couldn’t tell if she realized that the article was the best chance at saving her own life as well.

  “I understand.” Clutch shuffled the ground with his feet. “No matter what, we’ll make sure you have safe passage—whether it’s back to the airport or with us to write the article and then back home again. We mean no harm.”

  Reiteration aside, Nick could still feel Kaylee shake next to him—part fear, part emotional exhaustion; there was a huge decision looming in front of her and the past she’d thought Aaron had was blown wide open.

  She had to understand the full implications of what had happened the second they’d touched down on African soil—probably from the second she’d opened Aaron’s safe-deposit box.

  There was no real way out for her now that the man who ran GOST had her firmly in his crosshairs.

  Nick was used to impossible situations—he’d lived one for the better part of his life, in one way or another. Maggie used to read his palm and tell him that everything would work out. As much as he’d wanted to believe her, he never had. And telling Kaylee Maggie’s theory wasn’t going to do either of them any good.

  He’d have to figure out what would.

  ———

  Clutch and Sarah had gone to set up what they’d called a perimeter—Kaylee remained by Nick’s side, trying to process all of it. Trying to stay on her feet.

  Nick handed her water, ordered her to drink it. She drained the bottle, played with the top as she stared at the red dust beneath her feet. “My God, Nick—their story… is it true?”

  “I’ve heard rumors about a group like this—there are always rumors, though. But I’ve worked with Clutch before—and he helped my brother out a few months ago.”

  “So you still trust him?”

  “He’s in trouble, Kaylee. People in trouble don’t always act the way you’d expect.”

  That didn’t make her feel any better. The air had cooled, made her breathing slightly easier than it had been before, but the stress coupled with the dust wasn’t a good combination for her asthma. “I don’t understand any of this … what these people do. I don’t get how they can just kill. And don’t give me any of thatThey didn’t have a choice bullshit. You’re the one who told me that we’ve always got a choice.”

  “They chose to stay alive any way they could,” Nick said. “This is why people have secrets, Kaylee. It’s easier that way.” He looked around to see where Clutch and Sarah were. “Get into the car—backseat.”

  Clutch had already pulled his own car close to Sarah’s, circling the wagons as he’d mentioned earlier, and now Kaylee climbed into the backseat of Sarah’s car, with Nick right behind her. He shut the door, and even though the windows by the front seats were open, she felt safe and private. Finally.

  “You can let it go, Kaylee. You’re allowed to have a freak-out now.”

  The way he said it made her laugh, like he could command her freak-outs—and so she laughed and he laughed and then, just as suddenly, the tears were rolling down her face.

  He simply held her, told her that it would all be okay.

  In his arms, she believed him. And they remained that way for long minutes, until he pulled back. “I have to make a quick call.”

  He quickly spoke in numbers—she guessed longitude and latitude, and then gave a condensed version of what they themselves had just found out. “That was for Chris—the brother you met,” he told her when he’d hung up.

  “You’re sure he’s coming here?”

  “Yeah, he left me a message earlier. He shouldn’t be, but I can’t stop him.”

  “Nick, Clutch told us a lot of things… how do we know he’s telling the truth?”

  “You want to try to fact-check his intel? Because I’m thinking having the CIA try to kill you is pretty good evidence that you’re on to something dangerous.”

  She pressed her hands to her cheeks for a second and then let them fall to her lap in loose fists. “I’m on to something dangerous and Aaron’s really dead. I don’t know why this feels like mourning him all over again.”

  “You really wanted to see him. You counted on it. Maybe even thought you had a second chance.”

  “I wanted a chance to end things the right way. A chance to part friends instead of holding on to unnecessary anger.”

  “You loved Aaron, didn’t you?”

  “I did.”

  “What was that like?”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Yeah, I am. I want to know what it felt like.”

  She frowned a little, as she tried to figure out how to explain it. “At first it was wonderful. I couldn’t be with him enough, you know? Then … I told you that he loved the military more than me—and that was true. But he also loved other women too. Lots of them,” she said softly. “That betrayal nearly killed me. I knew we weren’t compatible, that the passion wasn’t there between us the way it should’ve been. But maybe our friendship could’ve been salvaged if he’d been honest with me. By the time I found out about the cheating, it was too late for me to forgive him.”

  “Relationships take a lot of commitment,” he said.

  “Yes. They also take a lot of trust. And after Aaron, I didn’t trust anyone. I didn’t think I ever would.�
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  He didn’t say anything to that. At some point, he’d wrapped his head in a green bandanna—it made his eyes stand out even more, made his cheekbones look sharper, made him look deadlier.

  “What’s going to happen to me if I don’t do this article? I know you’re trying to protect me, that you don’t want me to know the full reality of this situation … but I need to know.”

  “Kaylee, fuck… let’s just get out of this jungle first.”

  “Please.”

  He shook his head slowly, like her knowing was a bad idea, and he didn’t take his eyes off the road. “You know about Aaron. About GOST. And the men behind GOST know about you,” he said bluntly.

  Yes, she’d known that from the moment Clutch informed her about GOST—but she’d needed to hear it spoken out loud, because knowing and hearing it said out loud were two different things entirely. She could quite possibly lose everything, depending on how this shook out. And while she’d told Nick that there was no one who would worry about her… that just served to make her chest ache even more. “I have no one.”

  “You have me, Kaylee. I told you before, we’re in this together. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  She willed herself to believe him. She also knew they were working on borrowed time—she had to make her decision fast. Her heart already told her what she needed to do, she just had to make sure her head was ready to follow. And in order for that to happen, she needed answers. “I need to speak with Clutch—the sooner I get this started, the better off we’ll all be.”

  Her decision was made.

  “Let’s go, then—we don’t have a lot of time.” He opened the door and helped her back outside.

  Nick called Clutch over—he and Sarah came toward the car as Kaylee pulled herself up onto the hood and pulled a pad out of her bag to take notes on. Nick leaned against the side of the car, far enough away to give her space, close enough to make her feel comfortable.

  Sarah, however, stayed close to Clutch, like she refused to let him out of her sight. Still, both of them looked like they were guarding against some invisible but all too real threat.