Swift Strike (SEAL Team 14 Book 2)

by Mathis, Loren

  He would kill for this woman. He had already killed for this woman. And he would do so again, gladly. Without hesitation. Without remorse. The burning intensity of what he felt for her scared the hell out of him. He wasn’t even sure how to classify their burgeoning relationship. They sure as hell hadn’t met under the best of circumstances. And he had only known her for a few weeks. But here he was, clinging to this woman with all of the desperate determination of a drowning man clinging to a life preserver. Filled with a blinding, murderous rage against the man who had dared to touch her.

  Jesse didn’t do long-term. That had been his mantra for the past few years. He had never considered himself a player. And he hated the prospect of emotionally scarring a woman just because of his own FUBAR personal life. For that reason alone, he’d shied away from dating. But hell, he was a man after all and he had needs.

  So whenever he’d gotten involved with a woman he made it a priority to be upfront with her about what he wanted before it even passed the flirting stage. He’d only wanted to keep things in the realm of physical pleasure—no emotions. And if his bed partner had still harbored some mistaken notion that he would somehow change his mind after spending the night with her, he’d always let her down easy. Hey sugar, it has nothing to do with you. Someday you’ll meet the right guy.

  Since Rose, he’d never wanted to be the right guy for anyone. He hadn’t wanted to carry that extra burden. He liked things nice and simple. But things sure as hell weren’t simple with Lena. They’d never been simple with Lena. Things with Lena had been one hundred shades of unadulterated complication from day one. That fact alone should have sent him running in the opposite direction with all the speed of an Olympic gold medalist.

  But no, here he stood. Holding on to her as if his life depended on it. Heaven help him, his life probably did depend on it. He wanted to be the right guy for Lena. He hoped that he could somehow manage to be the man she could count on. Be the man that she deserved. He prayed that he wouldn’t fail her again.

  “How did you find me?” she asked on a reedy breath. She finally pulled away from him again, far enough back where she could peer up into his eyes.

  “Later,” Jesse said as he placed a quick kiss on her forehead. Forcing himself to drag his eyes from hers, his sharp-eyed gaze scoured the nearly deserted roadway for threats. A few stragglers were still meandering about, but it didn’t appear that anyone was paying any attention to them. Jesse didn’t want to take any chances though. It was nearly dusk. He and Lena needed to move. “We have to move now, sweetheart. It’s not safe here.”

  “No,” she yelped, shoving his chest so suddenly that he stumbled backwards, loosening his grip on her. Her beautiful brown eyes were two round saucers of fear and frustration. “I can’t…I can’t leave.”

  “What?” he asked, restoring his footing and firmly grabbing ahold of her arm. “What do you mean you can’t leave?”

  “I can’t leave here, not now,” she choked out. “They’ll kill my mother and brother if I go with you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Faizal! He’ll murder my family if I contact the authorities or anyone else for help.” Terror lit up her face once again, seconds before she gasped, “Oh God…if they find out that you are here, they won’t believe that I didn’t contact you and they’ll kill my mom and brother.”

  “Hey, hey. Slow down before you have a panic attack. Take a deep breath, okay?” She was really freaked out. He had never seen her in such a frenzied state of anxiety. She struggled to relax her breathing, but her chocolate-brown eyes filled with panic when shallow, gasping breaths continued to escape her lips.

  “Lena, calm down. Breathe in and out, slowly,” Jesse continued, slowing his own breathing in example. Her breathing still approached a fever pitch. A pained expression was etched across her face as her palm pressed down on her chest as if she were trying to keep her heart in. “Look at me,” he ordered her firmly. “Deep breath in, deep breath out.” At long last, her breathing eased down a notch. “Slow and steady. That’s it. Feeling better?”

  He waited until she nodded her head before continuing. “I wasn’t followed. I’ve been watching you for the past five hours now. I made sure that you didn’t have a tail.”

  “You were following me?”

  “Yeah, surveillance is kind of one of my fortes. Now you have to put a little faith in me. I would not do anything to endanger you or your family, but you have got to tell me everything that is going on so that we can sort this out together. All right?”

  Lena stood there for the longest time, not uttering a sound, simply staring past him at the brick wall of the opposing building.

  “Listen to me, Lena,” he said, cupping her cheeks in the palm of his hands. “You have got to trust me. I know that you’re frightened. And I don’t blame you for that. Not one bit—you’ve been through hell. But this is my job, this is what I do. And I am damn good at my job. I will protect you.”

  Lena gaped at him in silence, biting her lower lip.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked, almost afraid to hear her answer. There was so much riding on her answer to those four words.

  Finally, nodding her head, she said, “Yes.”

  Jesse let out a breath he had not even realized he’d been holding in. The two of them had known each other for a short period of time, so he recognized that it must still be hard for her to trust him completely. From what he did know of her, he knew that she was a fiercely independent person. It had been a struggle for her to rely on anyone but herself for anything. But this time, whether she liked it or not, she was going to need some help. And Jesse was hoping that she would soon realize that she could count on him to come through for her.

  “We’ve got to leave now, Lena,” he told her again.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere safe,” he said, grabbing on to her hand and tugging her away from the alley.

  They reached his car after another thirty minute trek. He’d hidden it in some of the woody vegetation near the outskirts of the city.

  “How did you get away?” he asked her once she was safely ensconced inside of the vehicle, disbelief that they were together again still present in his voice.

  “They let me go.”

  “They what? Why?”

  “They want me to deliver a package to my father.”

  He took his eyes off the road to look at her. “What package?” He watched as she took out a plain manila envelope that she had hidden underneath her clothing.

  “What’s in it?”

  “I don’t know, I haven’t opened it. He—Faizal—said not to. I’m supposed to deliver it directly to my father.”

  “Why do they want you to deliver it?”

  “He said that they were unable to find my father,” she said. He watched as her facial expression displayed a myriad of emotions in quick succession, all as she struggled to maintain her composure. That was his Lena, always the brave one. But still, he knew that with all she’d been through, the emotional crash was likely coming soon, and when it did, it’d be a rough one for her.

  “He thinks that I know where he is,” Lena continued. “Faizal said that they’ve taken my mother and brother to a secure location. If I don’t deliver the letter personally to my father within the next four days, they will murder my mother and brother.”

  Shit. Jesse wasn’t even aware that her mother and brother were missing. Squeezing her hand, he tried his best to reassure her that things would be okay. “We’ll figure this out, Lena. I promise you that. You’re not alone anymore.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Do you know where your father is?”

  “I’m not positive, but I have a good idea. There’s a beach home on the coast of South Africa in Cape Vidal. He purchased the property a couple of years ago. It isn’t in his name though. He bought it for one of his girlfriends.”

  “How do you know about it?”

  “My brother, Phillip. He tol
d me about it. Dad invited him down for a “guys’ weekend” a year or so ago. Apparently, it’s one of my dad’s new favorite hangout spots. He might not be there, but it’s the only place that I can think of where AnSawar wouldn’t know where to look for him.”

  Jesse’s brain was turning over a mile a minute, all synapses firing at once as he struggled to form some sort of a cogent solution. As soon as he got her to the safe house, he was going to call his CO and formulate a plan. He was going to need backup on this one. He sure as hell didn’t plan to send Lena in the lion’s den. And for some reason, this little meeting with her father that AnSawar had planned smelled every bit like a trap to him.

  “How did you find me?” Lena asked, her softly spoken words jutting into his thoughts. “I hoped that you would. I wanted to call you. You don’t know how badly I wanted to call you.”

  “Why didn’t you? Didn’t you trust that I would help you?”

  He felt her eyes boring into him as he concentrated on the road. He wasn’t mad at her, of course. He knew that she’d been in a terrible situation, he’d made a mess of things earlier by saying that he didn’t want to commit to her, but the idea that she didn’t trust him to keep her safe crushed him.

  “Of course, I did. I trusted you Jesse. I still trust you. I was just scared for my family. I didn’t know what to do.” Jesse’s eyes darted from her and back to the road. Even though they appeared to be safe for the moment he wasn’t breathing any easier. The safe house was still about an hour away. He was on full alert until they got to the safe house. Hawk was the housekeeper at this location, and Jesse needed some answers that hopefully his friend could provide.

  He remembered that he hadn’t answered her first question. “Finding you was basically pure chance. I caught a few lucky breaks. The CIA has been investigating your father’s business records and associates for a while now. They came across a deed to a warehouse here that stood out to them. I was waiting outside of the building when I saw you walking down the street. I thought I was hallucinating.” Checking the rear view mirror, Jesse continually scanned the cars trailing them. There was a two cars behind them, and as far as he could tell, neither car was exhibiting any odd behavior that would indicate he’d picked up a tail.

  “Why did you tackle me earlier? You scared me to death.”

  “Sorry about that. I hope I didn’t hurt you. Did I hurt you?” he asked her pointedly, taking his eyes off the road to look her over again.

  “No, you didn’t hurt me. I’m fine.”

  “I’d been watching you for the past couple of hours,” he said, his eyes scanning the road again. “I wanted to make sure that you weren’t being followed before I approached you. But then out of nowhere you just took off. I had to stop you before you made it back to the hostel you were staying at.”

  “Why is the CIA checking up on my father?”

  Jesse briefly took his eyes off the road to look at her. Lena’s normally vibrant face was pinched with worry and devoid of its usual bursts of color. Her shoulders were slightly hunched over in the seat as her hands nervously skimmed over her legs.

  How much did she know? How much should he tell her? She seemed anxious, but anyone would be at least a little jumpy if they’d had to go through even half of what Lena had been through these past few weeks.

  Given all that had transpired, it would be stupid to deny her this piece of information—no matter how much he wanted to shield her from it. She deserved to know the whole truth. At least, the truth as he knew it presently. He owed her that much.

  “Your father is being investigated for designing a weapon of mass destruction for sale on the black market. Specifically, the CIA, FBI, and various other agencies are looking into whether his company violated the Arms Export Control Act.”

  Closing her eyes, she released a deep, unsteady breath. Her earlier unshed tears finally found freedom, escaping out from underneath her eyelids. She was visibly upset, but there was none of the outrage or denial that he had been bracing himself for. There was not even a hint of surprise on her face at his pronouncement, just a profound sadness in her eyes.

  “You knew?” Jesse studied her face carefully. She slowly nodded her head. The silent tears that were falling down her face morphed into slow trembles, which turned into uncontainable sobs that wracked her entire body. She was shaking so hard that Jesse worried that she would collapse under the weight of her own sorrow.

  Oh God, Oh God, she said over and over again as tremors wracked her body. Jesse wanted to pull the car over to the side of the road so that he could hold her in his arms. He had to settle for capturing one of hands in his and squeezing.

  “Shh, shh, it’s going to be okay. I’m here and everything is going to be all right now, honey. We’re going to figure this out together,” he promised her. He would do anything that was necessary in order to make sure that he didn’t break this solemn oath to her. He would do whatever it took to make sure that she was safe.

  He didn’t know how long she cried, but after a while she quieted down. Glancing over at her, he found that she was leaning her head against the window, fast asleep, her slender hand still tucked in his.

  Good, he thought. She needed the rest. He doubted that she had slept much, if at all, since she’d been taken. He sure as hell hadn’t.

  Forty-five minutes later, Jesse pulled up to a run-of-the-mill, single-level home set off from the primary road. The ranch-style house was barely visible from the roadway partly because of the cover provided by the acacia trees and elephant grass that lined the area. The concealed location was perfect for a CIA safe house. While there weren’t that many close neighbors, it wasn’t completely isolated either.

  Jesse had called Hawk on his secure cell phone ten minutes into the drive. One thing Jesse had wanted to avoid was arriving to the location without giving the CIA agent any heads up that he should be expecting company. He was already in breach of proper protocol by just bringing Lena there. He didn’t bother to wake Lena just yet as he got out of the car.

  Her head rested against the window in a position that would normally leave a crick in your neck the next morning, but she appeared to be sleeping soundly judging from the soft snoring sounds that escaped her nose. He couldn’t help it as a slight smile crossed his face while he lightly touched the soft strands of her hair. He loved that she snored, he was already operating under the idea that she was pretty much perfection incarnate, and even those small deviations from grandeur made her infinitely more real to him. Locking the car doors behind him—just in case—he strode up the rickety steps to the front door of the home.

  Grayish-white paint covered the wooden planks that made up the small house. Someone had painted the window trim a garish-forest green color. The house wasn’t fancy and, despite the unfortunate paint choices, didn’t stick out like a sore thumb among the other meager homes in the vicinity.

  Hawk pulled open the door before Jesse could even place his first knock on the acacia-wood frame. An imposing man of six-feet-four inches, Hawk was a somber machine of brute strength, keen intelligence, and determination. His light, sepia-colored eyes were simultaneously shrewd and calm. His close cropped, black afro-styled hair was typical military issue. Jesse had known the man for a couple of years, but still didn’t know his real name.

  What he did know about him, however, was impressive. Hawk had been recruited straight out of University of Chicago as an analyst. His “desk” work had been integral in capturing several key Al-Jaazeez HVTs until he’d been promoted to field operations. Due to his mixed heritage and fluency in Arabic, Somali, Swahili, and Oromo, he was the ideal candidate for an undercover position in Somalia. The CIA agent had supposedly received his moniker due to his hawkeyed attention to detail. Jesse, however, was willing to bet that it had more to do with his hawkish personality.

  “Where is she?” Hawk asked as soon as the door opened, his sharp gaze taking in the fact that Jesse was alone on the stoop in one fell swoop.

  “In the car,�
�� Jesse said, gesturing back toward the vehicle. “She’s asleep. Are we all good here?”

  “Yeah, you’re clear. We don’t have any other deliveries planned for a couple of weeks.”

  “Deliveries” or “packages” as those in the special operations world like to call them, were high value targets who had been acquired for level three interrogations.

  “Communications set up?”

  “Always.”

  Walking back out to the car, Jesse carefully lifted Lena from the vehicle and carried her inside. She didn’t even rouse as he placed her on the full-sized bed in one of the corner bedrooms. He’d seen every inch of her body, but he still felt a little weird about undressing her while she was asleep. The clothes that she was wearing had to go though, they were covered in dust and grime. Stripping her down into her underwear, he tucked the comforter around her before kissing her temple. Closing the door quietly behind him, he went out into the living room to talk to Hawk.

  “We have a problem,” Jesse informed him without preamble.

  “Yeah, no shit,” Hawk grunted out, his sepia-brown eyes narrowing in on Jesse’s face. “Exactly what type of trouble is she in?”

  “Don’t know, but I’m sure as hell going to find out. AnSawar has come after her twice, and now they want her to deliver this to her father,” he said, lifting up the manila envelope that Lena had given him in the car.

  “You haven’t opened it?”

  “Not yet.”

  “You thinking germs here?” Hawk asked, his brows furrowed. He was referring to the idea of a biological weapons possibly used as booby trap of sorts. If AnSawar had been able to get their hands on anthrax, tularemia, or botulinum toxin they could have found a way to lace the inside of the envelope with it.

  “Not sure, possibly.”

  “I don’t have the proper equipment here to test this. I can bring in one of our scientists, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.” It was unlikely, but still a possibility, that the terrorists had spiked the envelope so that when Alfred Westlake opened it he’d be exposed to a lethal virus. They just couldn’t take the chance at opening that type of can of worms right now.