Soldier Protector

by Kimberly Van Meter

  “The team is here,” he said, returning to business. “Wait here and when the team comes in, say nothing about you and me. Got it?” She had a small frown but nodded nonetheless. “It’s complicated,” he said and then returned to the garage where he found CJ, Scarlett and Laird, heavily armed and looking like they were ready to party.

  His kind of party.

  “Break his ankles?” CJ asked, regarding the man tied to the chair, who was breathing heavy and trying not to move.

  “Went full-on Misery-style.”

  CJ approved. “Nice.”

  Scarlett looked at the man without a shred of mercy before turning to Zak. “One assailant?” Zak nodded. She returned to the man in the hot seat. “Ready to talk yet?”

  “Nothing to say to you.” He spat, missing Scarlett’s booted foot by an inch. “Screw you.”

  Scarlett didn’t so much as blink at the insult. If the man didn’t have the sense God gave a goose to know he was staring down a highly efficient killer, he didn’t deserve to live anyway. A little respect could go a long way but then idiots didn’t often realize how close they were to checking out until it was too late.

  The man’s labored breathing did nothing to soften the rage in his eyes. CJ peered at him, saying, “You’re an ugly mofo, aren’t you? No wonder you went with a mask. I’d cover that shit up, too.”

  “Screw you,” he panted again, refusing to give an inch.

  “Pretty much the response I got, too,” Zak said, folding his arms across his chest. “I say we put a bullet in his skull and bury him in a field. Let him become fertilizer. At least then, he’d serve a purpose.”

  CJ frowned as he straightened. “I ain’t digging no hole. Dump his ass in a chipper. Let him become fertilizer without the need for a hole.”

  “You got a chipper handy?” Laird drawled. “’Cuz I left mine at home.”

  “Fair point.” CJ turned to Zak. “Think we could rent one?”

  “Enough,” Scarlett commanded, returning to the man listening with dead eyes. Nothing shook him, apparently. Whatever cause he was following, he was dedicated. “We’re going to find out who’s behind this, and when we do, you’ll have zero leverage. You’re looking at hard time with really bad people. If you cooperate, we can put in a good word for you, maybe find a way to soften your time.”

  “You’re wasting your time. I have nothing to say but this: judgment is coming for you.”

  “Judgment? So this is a religious thing?” Scarlett said. “Refresh my memory, in what scripture does the Almighty call for the total destruction of mankind at the hands of some crackpot lunatic with a God complex?”

  “Religious nut,” CJ muttered, irritated. “Why is it always the self-righteous idiots who somehow get their hands on the real dangerous stuff?”

  To Laird, Scarlett said, “Start searching up the usual fanatics and see what they’ve been up to. Time to switch gears and start looking beyond people hoping to make a quick buck.”

  “You won’t find shit,” the man said, chuckling. “We are right beneath your nose and you’ll still never see what’s coming.”

  “Yeah? And why is that?” Zak asked.

  “Because God is on our side. He wants this to happen.”

  “He wants his most kick-ass creation to go down in a hail of shit and piss as everyone leaks out their insides? Yeah, naw, dude, I don’t know what God you’re praying to but it ain’t what was taught to me in Sunday school,” Zak said, disgusted.

  CJ looked at Zak. “You went to Sunday School?”

  “A time or two.”

  “And you didn’t burst into flame?”

  Zak laughed. “Kiss my ass. No, but the holy water did make a slight sizzle sound when it touched my skin. Is that bad?”

  All joking aside, Zak knew, just as Scarlett knew, that religious conviction was almost impossible to shake.

  They could violate the Geneva Convention six ways from Sunday and still come up empty with this guy because he believed in the cause he was willing to die for.

  Zak sighed. “Screw this. I need a beer.”

  Scarlett checked her high-tech watch. “We can take five minutes. I want to talk to Dr. Willows.” To Laird she said, “Prepare him for transport,” before exiting the garage. Now the real fun began. Caitlin was going to love Scarlett.

  Or not.

  Only one way to find out.

  Chapter 16

  “Well, that was a bust,” Zak said, irritated. “There could be hundreds of religious crackpots out there. There’s no way to narrow down which one was responsible for breaking into Tessara and stealing that sample.”

  Caitlin’s eyes widened as two men and a woman entered the kitchen through the garage with Zak, all looking as dangerous as vipers with a bad attitude and equally as good-looking. Was Red Wolf also known as the Hot and Dangerous Squad?

  The woman stepped forward with a no-nonsense expression. “You must be Dr. Willows. I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances. My name is Scarlett Rhodes.” She thrust her hand out. Caitlin acknowledged the greeting with a nod and shook her hand. “Pleasure.”

  “Likewise,” Caitlin murmured, her gaze darting to the other men. “This must be the team Zak has mentioned.”

  Scarlett nodded, gesturing to the men. “This is CJ Lawry and Laird Holstein.”

  “What kind of food you got around here?” Laird asked. “Did CJ pack you anything good?”

  CJ grinned with the smug assurance of a job well done. “Only the best. SpaghettiOs, Twinkies, Pop-Tarts and gummy worms, basically the four food groups.”

  Laird quipped, “How is it that you don’t weigh four hundred pounds?”

  CJ answered with an angelic smile, “Blessed with the metabolism of a twelve-year-old boy. Don’t be jealous.”

  Their camaraderie didn’t disguise the disappointment in their eyes. The interrogation hadn’t gone well, if she were to hazard a guess. The man had given up nothing and they were back to square one.

  Caitlin asked, “What happens now?”

  CJ winked, popping a dimple in his cheek as he assured her, “Don’t you worry, we’ll find out who the Big Bad is. By the way, Zak didn’t mention how cute you were.”

  Scarlett barked, “Knock it off, CJ. This isn’t the 1980s. Sexual harassment isn’t cute.” Looking to Caitlin, she softened slightly to ask, “How are you feeling?”

  Caitlin appreciated the gesture from the hard-as-nails team leader. She was a little intimidated by the GI Jane but she figured there was nowhere safer than behind the Red Wolf wall of muscle and ammo. “I’m not sure what the appropriate answer is, but I’m alive, so I guess everything after that is a bonus. What’s going to happen to him?”

  “We will transport him to a holding facility where he’ll be properly processed.”

  “I’m a little weirded out by this whole interrogation situation. Do you all usually do this kind of thing in your line of work?”

  Scarlett was judicious with her answer, not that Caitlin expected anything less. “We do what we have to do to get the job done. However, I can definitely say there have been extenuating circumstances when it comes to this case.”

  “So you’re telling me you’ve never had end-of-the-world scenarios happen before?”

  Scarlett had the grace to chuckle. “Not like this. This case is definitely keeping us on our toes.”

  At that, Zak said, “Now that we’re pretty sure we’re dealing with a religious cult of some kind, we know why the dark web has been silent.”

  “Yeah, for once, greed isn’t the catalyst.”

  “Yeah, that’s just our luck.”

  “What do you mean?” Caitlin asked, worried. “What religious cult?”

  “Whoever took the sample feels they have a righteous cause. They aren’t in it for the money, like we thought. Usually when big-ticket items
are stolen—priceless art, large sums of cash, etc.—the dark web lights up with talk about the theft because usually an auction will follow. Most money wins the prize,” Zak explained.

  “And because you can’t put a price on faith, that’s why no one’s been nipping at the bait.”

  “Why does that sound so much worse than greed?” Caitlin mourned, worrying her bottom lip. “So now what happens?”

  “Well, it’s obvious this location has been compromised. The fact that they were able to locate you so quickly means either they’re watching 24/7 or they’re tracking you somehow.” Scarlett looked to Zak. “Did you confiscate her phone?”

  “I didn’t,” Zak admitted with a pursed frown. “I should’ve.”

  “My phone?” Caitlin repeated. “What’s wrong with my phone?”

  “All smartphones are equipped with location trackers. It’s a very easy thing to hack into a SIM and hijack the GPS. Dr. Willows, will you please retrieve your phone?”

  “What are you going to do with it?”

  “Smash it to bits,” Scarlett answered simply.

  Caitlin gasped. “You can’t do that. I have important notes in my phone. Notes I need.”

  “Sorry. No compromising.”

  Caitlin looked to Zak for help but he was backing his team leader without a second’s hesitation. She had all of her contacts, her notes, her passwords... She’d never be able to remember everything she had stored in her phone. “There has to be another way,” she protested.

  “Sorry, it’s just the way things have to be done,” Zak said.

  Caitlin made a small sound of frustration as she reluctantly handed over her cell phone to Scarlett, who promptly smashed it on the ground, just as she’d promised she would.

  Caitlin yelped as the phone shattered, feeling just as broken as that phone. It was stupid—cell phones could be replaced—but there was so much in her life that had spiraled out of control that this was just one more thing to remind her that she was well and truly screwed.

  Ridiculous tears pricked her eyes. She refused to cry in front of strangers. Lifting her chin, she said in the strongest voice she could muster, “If you’ll excuse me, I’d like some time by myself,” and then left them in the kitchen to disappear behind the bedroom door.

  * * *

  “She was real attached to that phone,” CJ said with an arched brow but Zak knew it wasn’t about the phone.

  “She’s been through a lot. Hard to process.”

  CJ shrugged. “Feelings. I get it. I mean, I don’t get it, because feelings aren’t exactly in my wheelhouse but yeah, I get it.” He grabbed a package of Twizzlers and ripped them open. “I really outdid myself on the grub.”

  “The fact that you don’t have diabetes yet isn’t fair,” Laird said.

  Zak and Scarlett walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. She gave the place a quick once-over before declaring, “It’s not the best, not the worst.” Zak agreed but he was still replaying the scene in his head where the knife-wielding religious wack job had been too close to Caitlin.

  Naked Caitlin, at that.

  He knew that streak of possessiveness revving up his testosterone wasn’t appropriate to the situation but it was there, juicing up his veins, all the same.

  “I screwed up. Got sloppy.”

  “Don’t let this get in your head,” Scarlett warned. “It happens to the best of us.”

  “No excuse. If I’d been a second late, she’d be dead.”

  Scarlett didn’t argue. Nor did she waste time trying to soothe his pride. She simply moved on. “Tessara has a lab on standby but we need to move out by 0600. We’ll take turns taking watch until we can move out. You good with that?”

  “Yeah, sure.” He immediately hated the fact that he would be sleeping in the chair again but there was no way in hell he’d climb into Caitlin’s bed with his TL standing guard. For one, he wasn’t interested in getting the lecture or “the look” because he knew it wasn’t right. He also knew he didn’t care. He was already getting grumpy at the knowledge that he couldn’t have the sweetness of Caitlin’s body against him but he’d shove that down deep because nobody had time to dig deeper into that issue.

  “Laird will drive the prisoner to the airfield where he’ll be picked up for processing and—” she slid a slightly amused look Zak’s way “—medical attention.”

  Zak shrugged. “He resisted.”

  “Yes, I’m sure he did. Odd injury, though.”

  “Isn’t it, though,” he agreed with a nod. “Where’s the lab?”

  “Tessara wanted to stay on this side of the States, even though the California lab was the next best choice as far as equipment goes. Apparently, they have a small lab in New Hampshire that’s adequate. It has a smaller footprint, so it should be easier to secure than the Vermont location.”

  “All this lab business, I don’t know, makes my head spin. Reminds me of high school chemistry. Unless I could blow stuff up, I wasn’t interested.”

  Scarlett chuckled. “Not much of a school nerd, huh?”

  “Not really,” he admitted. The nerdiness, if he were being honest, was one of the things that intimidated him about Caitlin. She wasn’t only smart, she was genius-level smart, which meant they had next to nothing in common.

  Aside from the epic sex. Yeah, that was pretty good. He caught the smile before it appeared but Scarlett, damn her intuition, knew something was up right away.

  “Are you into the doc?” she asked, her gaze narrowing.

  “Of course not,” he lied. “Why?”

  “Because you’ve got a dopey look on your face.”

  “Sorry, that’s just my face.”

  Scarlett looked annoyed. “Seriously, Zak? I’ve never had to worry about you dipping your wick where you shouldn’t. Do I need to start worrying?”

  “Calm down, TL. I’m fine. I feel protective over Caitlin because she reminds me of my sister.”

  “Your sister? How?”

  “She’s smart like Zoey and a little socially awkward. She doesn’t have much of a filter. Maybe if Zoey hadn’t checked out early, she might’ve ended up a brilliant scientist like Caitlin. So yeah, I feel a certain sort of way about her but it’s not like you’re thinking.”

  It sounded like good copy but Zak knew he was spinning tales for his TL’s benefit. The thing was, he did feel a certain sort of way about Caitlin and he wasn’t sure what to think about it so until he could figure things out on his own, he’d just keep that intel to himself.

  Whether Scarlett bought his bullshit or not, she didn’t pursue the topic. That was what he appreciated about Scarlett. She didn’t play Twenty Questions; she simply got down to business. “We’ll all head to the New Hampshire location to give you more support. Now that we know we’re dealing with a religious faction, we’re going to need more eyes on this, which means more eyes on your scientist.”

  He knew Scarlett was making the right call but it didn’t make him happy. “I’ll tell Caitlin. She wants to bring her team. Have you spoken with Tessara to see if that’s possible?”

  “If the team is necessary for her to finish her job, then, yes.”

  “She says they are but we need to do more checks on them before that happens. I still feel this was an inside job.”

  “Copy that.”

  CJ joined them. “Laird left to transport the prisoner,” he reported. “And while you two were yapping, I made some food. Thought you might be hungry.”

  “Twinkies are not considered food,” Zak retorted.

  “Shut your ungrateful piehole, Mr. I-Only-Eat-Veggies. I made burgers. I found an old grill and some briquettes outside. Cooked up real fast and easy. You can even wrap your meat in a piece of lettuce.”

  “I’m impressed, CJ,” Zak said, laughing. “I’ll go get Caitlin.”

  Scarlett chuckled an
d followed CJ back into the kitchen to grub up.

  Zak knocked once and then entered the bedroom, where he found Caitlin hastily wiping her face.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Stop asking me that,” she said, glowering. “No, I’m not okay. Nothing about this situation is okay. I’ve been shot at, knifed at, shipped from one place to another, been witness to a man tortured for information and now, playing hostess in a house that isn’t mine to a bunch of people I don’t know. So yeah, things are not okay.”

  “I told you not to watch,” he reminded her. But he received a dour look, so he stopped. “Look, I know this sucks. Everything is crazy and I can’t promise it won’t get worse before it gets better. But I can promise on my life that I’ll do everything humanly possible to keep you safe.”

  She cast a frightened look his way. “What if that guy had hurt you? I was so scared when he kicked you in the head. I thought he might’ve killed you.”

  “Takes more than a kick to the head to put me down,” he said, knuckling her cheek softly. “Come here,” he instructed. When she stepped forward, he pulled her to him and brushed a tender kiss across her lips. He could practically feel the anxiety vibrating off her in waves. Touching her seemed the right thing to do. Immediately he felt her soften against him. He drew her closer, savoring this stolen moment because he knew it would be their last, with the team surrounding them. After a long moment, he reluctantly broke the kiss, meeting her gaze. “You’re pretty damn cute, you know that?”

  A shy smile followed a rueful look. “I think you’re blind or that kick to the head did more damage than you realize.”

  He shook his head. “Nope. I thought you were pretty cute the moment we met. There’s a whole lot of spunk hiding under that shy-girl facade.”

  “It’s no facade, I can promise you that. I’m a card-carrying introvert but you make me braver than I normally am,” she admitted. “Watching you in action...it’s pretty impressive.” Then she whispered, “And super hot. God, you are hot,” before lifting on her toes to kiss him again. Only this time her hand went straight to his groin, where she cupped his hardening erection.