by Dana Marton
“Go to hell.”
“I take that as a no.” Brent raised his gun.
That brought Jasmine out of her frozen fear, and she launched herself at the man who hadn’t expected much resistance from her. Big mistake.
“What the hell—” He turned to deal with her.
Which was all Gabe needed. He shook off the rest of the bricks and took aim. He didn’t try to go easy on this one. He put a bullet right into the middle of Brent’s forehead.
Another shot rang out at the same time, slamming into the man’s chest.
Troy stood in a doorway, his face grim as he looked at Gabe. He must have heard it all. “Let’s get out of here before the others gather themselves and someone gets killed in the confusion.”
His scarred face looked even more haunted than usual as he watched Jasmine, and Gabe remembered the rumor he’d heard from another guy on the team. The same explosion that had messed up Troy’s voice and face had also killed the woman he loved. And for the first time, Gabe had an inkling of what that could mean to a man.
“Thanks for the help.” He pushed free from under the rubble, ignoring the pain that shot up his leg.
Troy nodded, his eyes narrowing. “Don’t you ever knock me out again.”
“Sorry about that.” But his attention was on Jasmine who still stood in the same spot, her eyes riveted on the blood flowing around her feet.
Brent had grabbed on to her as he’d fallen. His lifeless fingers still circled her ankle.
“I’ll make sure we have a clear path out of here.” Troy took off.
Gabe kicked Brent’s arm away and pulled Jasmine into his arms. Nothing ever had felt more right.
“I have the envelope,” she whispered as she lifted her face to his. “Are we okay now? Is it over?”
He wanted to kiss her more than anything he’d ever wanted in his life. And then he did, just a slow brush of his lips against hers. He needed to go easy on her. She’d just been through hell. But she tightened her arms around his neck, and kissed him right back.
A long, life-altering moment passed before they pulled apart.
“I’m here. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he promised. Ever.
~~~***~~~
Chapter Ten
His room at Camp Darby in Livorno seemed more and more like a cage with every passing day. He’d brought Jasmine here to catch up with her brother and sister after the showdown with Brent three days before. They’d been separated for Gabe’s debriefing and he hasn’t seen her or her brother since. Nobody seemed to be able to tell him where they went.
He wasn’t allowed to leave. He was to wait for the colonel who wanted to speak to him in person and was due at camp any minute.
So when the door of his room opened, Gabe pulled his spine straight and put his heels together out of habit. But instead of the colonel, Jasmine walked in.
“Hi,” she said, her Bourbon eyes fast on his face, a small, shy smile on her amazing lips. “How is your leg?”
The rubble that had buried him had done some muscle damage. He’d been limping the last time she’d seen him.
“Fine.” He was used to getting banged up, didn’t see why everyone wanted to make such a big deal out of it. He’d been checked and rechecked by medical personnel in the camp.
She linked her hands together in front of her in a nervous gesture. “I didn’t get a chance to thank you. You saved my family.”
“No thanks necessary.” He wanted something else, something more. He wanted her not to walk out of his life. He wanted to be able to kiss her again. And again. “How is Mandy?”
“Much better after some IV fluids and antibiotics.”
“And Jake?”
“Has a new cast.” Her smile grew a little. “Looks like the Army is going to clear him of all wrongdoing.”
“Good. Excellent.”
They faced each other in silence for a long minute, both of them clearly uncomfortable. He hated all the awkwardness between them.
To hell with that. He smiled at her. “So do I get to know what’s in that diary?”
She blushed crimson. “That diary got you into this mess. You could have been killed. How can you joke about it?”
“No joke. I’m sincerely interested.” An understatement. He would have given his antique baseball bat collection to know what she’d written about him ten years ago.
“I was a foolish teenager.”
“And now?” He stepped closer.
She didn’t answer.
He held out his hand. “My life is a mess. I don’t know if I have anything to offer to a woman like you. I’m pretty sure you’d be a lot better off without me.”
She gave a lopsided smile. “Are you asking me out?”
He held her gaze. “I’m asking a lot more than that.”
She stepped into his arms.
“I’m going to kiss you, if that’s all right.”
She lifted her mouth to his without hesitation.
She was soft and sweet, the most amazing woman he’d ever met. He wanted to know more of her, all of her. Need surged through him to feel those soft curves of hers, to hear her soft breath hitch in his ear as they tangled in the sheets together…
The door’s scraping interrupted his fantasy, and they pulled apart. The colonel came in and gave them a narrow-eyed look, his gaze settling on Gabe.
“I just had to sit through a very uncomfortable meeting with some top brass and Congressman Wharton who is visiting the troops here ahead of the elections. They’re not happy about the shootout.”
“Yes, sir. I apologize, sir.”
“Do you have proof of any of your fairytale beyond your report and Tekla’s envelope? Hard proof. And by that, I mean, do you know where the gold is, soldier?”
Gabe started to shake his head, but then thought of Congressman Wharton’s great yacht as it had bobbed in the harbor back in Venice a couple of days ago. Working in pairs, the A Team had searched all larger vessels to make sure Jake Tekla wasn’t hiding on one of them.
But Brent had gone to the Congressman’s yacht alone. Because of the sensitive nature of the thing, he’d said. He’d gone at night. Didn’t want the media to catch him. They showed up every couple of days to snap some photos of the Congressman.
What if he hadn’t gone to the yacht to search it? What if he’d carried something with him? Like gold disguised as crates of supplies? The teams had several vans.
He filled the colonel in on his suspicions.
The man gave him a displeased, narrow-eyed look when Gabe was finished. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s dirty politicians. You better be right about this.” He strode to the door, turned back from the doorway. “Neither of you go anywhere until I say so.”
They stared after him.
Then they stared at each other.
“Are we grounded?” she asked, her tone uncertain.
“Welcome to the Army. I’m sure we’ll find something to do.” He grinned at her, happy to see her, happy that the op was over and they were both safe, happy that she’d come to see him.
That had to mean something, right?
“Jasmine, honey?” He stepped closer to her again.
“Yes?” She stepped closer to him.
“Do you still feel the same about me as you did when you wrote that diary?”
To his disappointment, she shook her head. But then she said, “I feel much stronger.”
He took her into his arms. “Thank God. Because I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you here.”
She gave him a tremulous smile. “I want to feel good things again instead of fear when a man touches me.”
He furrowed his forehead. “No other man better touch you or I’ll give him reason to fear.”
She smiled.
He took her lips in a passionate kiss, running his hands lightly down her back then up her ribcage, using great control to stop under her breasts. “How is it so far?”
A smile of pleasure b
loomed on her full lips. “Good enough to record for all prosperity. Maybe I should start a new diary.”
He thought about all the things he wanted to do with her. “You better get one with a key.”
* * *
The sky turned dark outside by the time the colonel came back, his expression just as grim as when he’d left. Gabe’s stomach sank.
“The congressman is denying knowledge of the half dozen crates we found on board of his yacht. He claims they must have been smuggled on board when he wasn’t looking. And that’s not our only problem. We can’t take the gold to the U.S.
“That would be out and out theft from the people of Afghanistan. Not to mention, we can’t have a U.S. congressman implicated in something like this when half the Arab world believes we’re only warring over there to steal everything that’s theirs.”
He seemed to have aged five years since he’d left the room earlier. “We can’t give the gold back to the warlord, either, or he’d use it to buy arms against us. And we can’t give it to the Afghan government without confessing everything.”
He took off his hat and sat, his eyes tired as he looked up at Gabe. “Any ideas what in hell I’m supposed to do with eleven million dollars’ worth of gold coins?”
Gabe swallowed hard. “Eleven?”
“Could be more,” the man said in a tone of disgust. “They’re still counting.”
“There’s this garment factory I heard of in Afghanistan. In North Village,” Jasmine spoke up. “It’s a non-profit gig to give work to widows and support orphans.”
The colonel shot a questioning look to Gabe, then nodded. “There’s one more thing,” he said after a moment. “I had a quick teleconference with the FBI about this. They’ll be investigating. They want a small team, preferably people who are already on the ground and already know the case.”
Gabe thought those words over long and hard. As long as Congressman Wharton was flying free, people who knew the truth about him would never be safe. They needed to figure out what Brent had been blackmailing the man with and bring him down.
“The pay won’t be what private security promised you, but it’ll be decent,” the colonel said. “Do you know anyone who might be interested in the job?”
Gabe looked at Jasmine. The expression on her face said she’d been thinking the same thing as he had. They needed to tie up all loose ends to have any chance at a normal life together.
“I waited ten years already. I can wait another couple of months,” she told him.
One in a million. He smiled at her. One in a million. And she was his.
The colonel cleared his throat. Gabe caught himself and stopped staring at her, wiped the goofy grin off his face.
He refocused on the topic at hand, considering Jake Tekla and Troy, two men who already knew all about Wharton, men he trusted. They both had what it took to take on an op that would be more dangerous than the mess they’d just survived.
He took Jasmine’s hand and looked at the colonel. “I think I can put a small team together, sir.”
_._._
I dedicate this story to Jenel Looney, a truly extraordinary person and the best friend anyone could ever wish for.
Agents Under Fire
GUARDIAN AGENT
AVENGING AGENT
WARRIOR AGENT
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
GUARDIAN AGENT. Copyright © 2011 by Dana Marton. All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author.
http://www.danamarton.com/
First Edition: June 2011
AVENGING AGENT
A Novella
BY
DANA MARTON
This story is dedicated to Jenel Looney with my most heartfelt gratitude.
Agents Under Fire
GUARDIAN AGENT
AVENGING AGENT
WARRIOR AGENT
"... started with a bang and the tension never let up. Marton is an accomplished thriller writer, and it shows. Every time I promised myself I'd stop and turn out the light, I kept reading just one more page..." Paula Graves, national bestselling author (about GUARDIAN AGENT)
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
AVENGING AGENT.Copyright © 2011 by Dana Marton. All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author.
www.danamarton.com
First Edition: August 2011
~~~***~~~
Chapter One
The full heat of summer poured in through the iron bars of the glassless window. Two pesky flies buzzed around the police chief’s head, trying to get to the sweat beading on his forehead. Another settled on the man’s coffee cup that teetered on top of a crooked stack of files on his desk. He dabbed his forehead with a rag and swatted at the flies. “People think you are an American spy.”
Not for the first time, Allison Myers considered whether it had been a huge mistake to come to Afghanistan.
No, not a mistake. She had to find Kenneth. She hadn’t been able to save Daniel and had blamed herself all these years, had wondered every day if there’d been anything more she could have done. She wasn’t going to lose Kenneth. She couldn’t live with any more regrets.
“I’m looking for my fiancé. He disappeared around here six months ago.” She glanced at the two-door metal cabinet behind the man, its doors a crack open. That two-inch dark gap kept drawing her eyes.
“Is your fiancé a spy?” The man whacked at the flies again, and knocked over his empty coffee cup.
The guard standing outside the open door dashed in, restored the cup to the table then returned to his post, all without making eye contact.
Allison fanned herself. She couldn’t breathe in the mid-afternoon heat. She reached for her top button, but caught herself in time, folded her hands on her lap. “My fiancé, Kenneth Hatch, is a businessman. His company designs irrigation systems.”
“We don’t have any irrigation systems here. Just the old cisterns.” The man’s beady eyes never moved from her for a second, as if he was watching some loathsome snake he would have liked to cut in half.
She looked up at the ceremonial dagger displayed on the wall behind him, probably some tribal relic, and she swallowed hard.
He braced his stubby-fingered hands on the desk. “You’ve been bothering people with your questions. Why do you want to know so much?”
“I just want to find Kenneth.” Again, her gaze fell on the cabinet and her instincts prickled. She had the strangest feeling that someone was watching her from inside. The heat and stress were getting to her.
“Where are your brothers and your father?”
“I don’t have any brothers. My father is gone. Dead,” she clarified.
His glare said he fully blamed her for having no protector. “Are you spying for an American company that wants to steal our water?”
Not the first time he’d brought that up. People here seemed paranoid about water. Probably because they didn’t have enough. If they thought anyone threatened their water supply…
Despite the oppressive heat, a chill ran down her spine. “I’m only in Lahedeh to take my fiancé home. I swear.” She would have loved to go back to New Hampshire. Nobody wanted her here. But she couldn’t leave until she found Kenneth.
She hadn’t been a hundred percent sure about her feelings toward him for some time, but no matter what happened with the engagement, they would still be friends. And she wouldn’t abandon a
friend. She believed in loyalty with all her heart.
A moment of tense silence passed. The police chief measured her up, then leaned back in his chair. He seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion.
Her muscles tightened as she waited.
“The police commissioner is coming tomorrow on his annual visit. He might want to talk to you.” He glanced toward the guard outside his door.
Probably getting ready to order the man to lead her away and lock her up until the commissioner got here.
“I’ll be happy to come in.” She sprung to her feet and looked at her watch. “Thank you for your time. I better get back to the hotel. I have some health issues. I should take my medication, now,” she lied.
“And they’ll be calling me from the American embassy,” she added for extra measure. “They’ll be worried if I’m not there when they ring.”
The man gave her another long, speculative look. He didn’t give her permission to leave, but he didn’t block her way either.
Good enough. She took advantage of his momentary hesitation and hurried out past the guard, down a long, dingy hallway with suspicious-looking stains on the cement floor, expecting to be called back any second.
Steel doors banged in the distance. Now and then, she could hear muffled cries.
On the way in, she’d been escorted. Nobody bothered with her now. She took one turn after the other, hoping she got it right.
Sweat ran down the middle of her back by the time she reached the outer door that led to the sun-drenched street. Another guard manned that post. He shot her a hostile glare as he stepped aside.
She steeled her spine. She would stay until she found Kenneth. She refused to be run out of town. She hadn’t let her board of directors oust her from the helm of her father’s company. A small town police chief wasn’t going to get the better of her.