The SEAL's Special Mission

by Rogenna Brewer

  Bari studied Nash’s face. “That’s not how this game works. I have a sniper in place who will ensure that they stay inside wherever they’re at.”

  “Is he as good as the guy you sent earlier?”

  “What do you mean earlier?” Bari seemed genuinely confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Nash, so let’s get back to the matter at hand, shall we? Unless you think your FBI agent sister-in-law can find and disarm the bombs you set, tell me what I want to hear,” he demanded. “And then I let them live. It’s your choice. You can save three lives or one. But you can’t save them all. I’m done playing games.”

  He started to lower his thumb.

  “Los Angeles!”

  “Even the unbreakable break,” he said to his man. “I’m going to need more than that.”

  “I don’t know where she is right now!” Nash stood prepared to lunge with the chair still taped to him. When Bari hesitated, Nash pressed his advantage. “But I know where she’ll be a few short hours from now.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “She’s coming here. To the ghost town.”

  “You lie.”

  “I’m not lying. The U.S. Marshal Service is extracting me this afternoon. Sari will be on the helicopter with them.”

  “He’s lying.” The henchman reverted to his native tongue, calling Nash’s character into question. Bari argued back in angry, rapid-fire Arabic, knowing full well Nash was fluent, but convinced he’d outsmarted him this time.

  “I’m not lying,” Nash pressed his advantage. “Think about it, Bari. They’ve got to get her from Los Angeles and then deliver both of us to New York. Why do you think Mal and Ben are down there? We didn’t know you were coming. I was to clean up here at the cabin and then we were all going to spend the night in the ghost town so as not to miss our ride.”

  “Shut up, the both of you,” Bari roared. “Let me think.”

  Nash knew when not to press and settled back into his chair. Bari looked at him from his superior standing height. “If you’re lying...”

  He let the threat hang in the air.

  “Bring the car around,” he ordered the sentry posted at the door.

  * * *

  “I’M GOING TO go look for him,” Mal said as dawn crested the sky.

  Doc stopped her at the saloon doors. “He’d want you to stay here.”

  “Perhaps you’ve never heard the old military axiom, Never leave a man behind. He wouldn’t leave me. I’m not going to leave him—”

  They heard the crunch of tires on snow and stopped arguing. A dark SUV drove up and then stopped in the center of town. Mal pulled out her gun and Doc had his rifle at the ready.

  A man got out from the passenger side and moved to the front of the vehicle. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he said with exaggerated nonchalance. “I have something you want.”

  Two more men exited the back. One dragged Nash out behind him.

  Doc squinted against the snow’s glare. “What’s he wearing?”

  “Explosives,” Mal said. “Or silly putty.”

  Ben tried to push his way past her to get a glimpse of his father.

  “Ben.” She grabbed him by the arm and made him look her in the eye. “I want you behind the bar. Do not come out unless I say so.”

  He must have recognized her mom voice, because he didn’t argue.

  “Where the hell is Rainey?” she mumbled under her breath. Mal exchanged her handgun for a rifle and trained it on the man holding Nash. She was a decent shot. She could take him out. “You take the loudmouth.”

  Until now she’d only seen Bari Mullah Kahn in pictures with the caption FBI’s Most Wanted.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he shouted. Though he couldn’t possibly have heard her. “He held up his cell phone. I know these buildings are rigged with explosives and I have the detonator. If you do not believe me, perhaps a little demonstration is in order?”

  “He doesn’t know about the silly putty,” Doc said.

  “What if that’s not what he’s talking about?”

  “There are no good choices,” Doc said.

  “Nash has even fewer.”

  “He wouldn’t want you to give yourself and the boy up for him. We don’t even know why Kahn has him strapped to a bomb. Maybe he wants to throw us all down a mine shaft and then seal it up. I’ve got to believe Rainey is out there somewhere.”

  Unless they hurt her.

  Mal glanced over her shoulder toward the bar where Ben was hiding. She liked their odds better in here. Even Nash’s. She fixed a bead on his captor’s head.

  “We’re not coming out, Kahn. What we have here is a standoff.”

  * * *

  “YOUR WOMAN PLACES less value on your life than you do on hers.”

  “Never said she was my woman.”

  “I could blow them up now and be done with it.”

  “And risk turning away the helicopter? Besides which, we have a deal. You hurt them and I have no reason to cooperate,” Nash threatened. “She’s smart. She has you all figured out.” A weaker woman would be cowering in the corner. Or worse, trying to save him.

  Nash could see Bari’s growing frustration with the situation. “You underestimate me, my brother,” Bari said. “While you spent six years living among us, I spent six years learning from you. Observe...”

  Mal stumbled out of the saloon with her hands in the air. Another of Bari’s henchmen held her at gunpoint. Doc also came out at the end of a barrel. And a third man dragged Ben by the scruff of his collar.

  Nash took a halted step forward. “Just let them walk out of here.”

  “Not until after the fireworks.”

  His men walked the trio across the street to the jail. Like most of the buildings around town, the jailhouse had paneless windows and no hanging doors. And the single cell had no cell door. Only one guard stayed back to guard them while the rest of the men spread out around town.

  “You’d better not be lying about that helicopter,” Bari threatened.

  “Guess we’ll know in a minute,” Nash said. “Got a flare?”

  “It’s broad daylight.”

  “Look around, Bari. From the air, this is nothing more than a couple of dilapidated rooftops in a dense forest of pine trees on a mountain range full of dense pine. The only clearing big enough is between the old schoolhouse and the church. The pilot needs to know where to put down. That’s where you set it off.”

  “You’ll light the flare.” Bari gave him a little shove in that direction with the barrel of his gun. “Just try not to light up yourself in the process.”

  “Whatever floats your boat.”

  Bari shouted in Arabic for his men to take up positions close to the buildings and out of sight. He grabbed a flare from the SUV and had the driver move the vehicle back behind the buildings. And then Nash and Bari set off down the middle of the street toward the church steeple.

  Nash caught glimpses of shadows moving between buildings. He went over the number of Bari’s men and their positions. It was possible the sheriff had arrived with reinforcements. And just in time.

  They’d reached the clearing.

  He could hear the helicopter in the distance.

  Bari couldn’t help taunting him one final time as he handed Nash the flare and backed off from the landing site. “The redhead and the boy will fetch a good price on the open market.”

  Nash wrapped his fist around the flare. “You said you’d let them go.”

  “I said I’d let them live.” Nash wanted to wipe the smug smile off the man’s smug face.

  The helicopter grew louder. “Then it’s a good thing I lied about your sister being on that chopper.”

  “You double-crossed me?” Ba
ri seemed to find the idea incredulous. “You will pay.” He pressed the keypad of his cell phone detonator, but nothing happened.

  Bari screamed in outrage and lunged for him. Nash snapped the cap off the flare and struck it against the cap to light it. Bari retreated. A spark could easily ignite an explosive vest. Nash used the other man’s fear and the high-intensity bright light from the flare to temporarily blind the other man. After that it was easy enough to disarm him.

  The sheriff and her reinforcements saw their opportunity and took it to gain the upper hand on the rest of Bari’s henchmen. The sniper fired into the battle, but all he accomplished was giving his position away. The helicopter crested the trees and the SEAL sniper on board took Bari’s sniper out.

  Significantly impaired, Bari struggled to maintain his distance and aim his weapon. He stumbled backward, firing off wild rounds. Nash tossed the flare to the landing zone and then rushed the terrorist before he actually hit something.

  Nash had Bari under his control in a matter of seconds.

  “You thought this was C-2?” Nash pointed to his duct tape vest bomb that Bari had constructed back at the cabin. “Child’s clay.”

  He might have taught Ben how to construct a bomb, but he would never have used real explosives to do it. None of these buildings were rigged. If Bari wanted the upper hand, then he should have thought to bring his own C-2 or C-4 to the party.

  The helicopter circled the town and landed. Nash handed Bari off to one of the SEAL team members. He only recognized a couple of the guys. The face of his old team had changed in ten years. But one very familiar man walked up to him and held out his hand. “Good to see you.” Mike McCaffrey drew Nash into a bear hug.

  “It’s good to see you, too.” Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the team’s sniper, Kip Nouri, walk straight up to Mal. Nash tried to control his jealousy. It wasn’t as if either of them would get the girl in the end.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “YOU LOOK GOOD,” Kip Nouri said with a cheeky grin.

  She looked a mess. “You mean for a gal who just wrestled an armed man to the ground.”

  “Might I add that was a real turn-on? Seriously, you okay?”

  Mal couldn’t help smiling back at him even as she shook her head. Same old Kip. Even though he wasn’t. His jaw seemed harder somehow and he looked more mature even if he wasn’t. Although maybe he was, because he didn’t seem to be having any trouble keeping eye contact. “We are now. You’re a sight for sore eyes, Ensign.”

  “It’s Lieutenant now. Lieutenant Commander soon.” He looked embarrassed to be correcting her. “And who’s this guy?” he asked as Ben came up and glued himself to her side.

  “Ben,” the boy answered.

  “You look just like your dad,” Nouri said. “Give me a fist bump, Nash Junior.”

  Ben and Nouri bumped fists. A total guy thing.

  “Well, I have to go set up on a rooftop until Mac gives me the all-clear.”

  “The saloon still has a second story,” she offered, not knowing what else there was to say.

  “It was good to see you again, Mallory Ward. Believe me when I say I’m wishing I’d never accepted no as your final answer.”

  “I know,” Mal said. They never met up for that lunch they’d talked about, because her sister had been murdered the morning after she’d dropped Nash off at Kip Nouri’s bachelor pad. He’d called around noon and she had still been at the hospital, or maybe the police station by then, but in either case she’d been in no condition to answer.

  He’d called again after he’d heard about what had happened. Left a couple of sympathetic messages. She blew him off for a whole week before she finally picked up and told him she didn’t want anything to do with Nash’s teammates. She’d asked him not to call her again and he’d respected her wishes. Simple as that.

  “Nouri,” Commander McCaffrey shouted. Or maybe it was Captain McCaffrey now. “Get your ass up on a rooftop.”

  As Mal watched Kip walk away she looked back on that moment almost eight years ago and realized he was probably the last real boyfriend she’d ever had. Even though she wouldn’t have called him that at the time. He at least had potential.

  The few relationships she’d had since qualified as dysfunctional. Guys she could dump with no regrets right after the sex had played out. If she happened to come across a decent guy, she’d run as fast and as far as she could.

  Or got inside his head and really messed him up.

  She glanced over at Nash. He was talking with Mac and the female helicopter pilot.

  If it had been anyone but Nash, she would have said that was the reason she’d fallen into bed with him. Because things were going great and she wanted to screw them up. But that wasn’t the reason and now she had to live with the guilt.

  She’d heard the chatter. They were waiting on the U.S. Marshal Service.

  The marshals were transporting the other witness—Nash’s wife—to this very location and would be here within the hour. The FBI and the SEALs were working together to ensure that the route and the location were secure before giving the Marshal Service the all-clear.

  At the moment, the SEALs were sweeping the buildings with bomb dogs.

  Mal didn’t want to meet this other woman. Her sister’s replacement.

  Technically, Mal had slept with the woman’s husband, and that made her the other woman. She didn’t think she could look his wife in the eye and lie to her. And she sure as hell couldn’t tell her the truth. That she was in love with Nash and had been for a very long time.

  The special agent in charge of the Denver field office—her boss, Dave Glaze—had arrived on the scene and had made it clear that she was to stick close to his side. That might have been comforting if Christopher Tyler wasn’t glued to the man’s other side.

  So she kept her distance while Dave was busy with the sheriff men.

  Doc was busy with the injured, so she didn’t even have him for company. There had only been the one fatality during the shoot-out—the sniper that Nouri had taken out. But she heard passing comments from fellow officers regarding other bodies that had turned up in and around the cabin.

  She felt more like a captive now than when Nash had first kidnapped them. She and Ben were not allowed to leave—not that they had anywhere to go anyway. Their house was no longer their home, and their home of the past few weeks—the cabin—did not belong to them.

  There was a second SEAL team in the process of securing it now.

  But it was still the one place she wanted to retreat to when she saw Tyler headed their way. “How you holding up?” Tyler asked with passable concern.

  “Fine.” She crossed her arms.

  Ben moved from her side to stand behind her.

  “Look, Mal. I know how it must have looked from your perspective—”

  “Like you needed target practice.”

  “I was aiming for the tire. Like I told Dave, I just wanted to stop a fugitive from getting away with you and the kid.”

  “He’s not a fugitive.”

  “I’m going to go by my dad.” Ben raced up the street toward Nash before Mal could stop him. He didn’t feel safe with her. Not as safe as he felt with his father. Nash looked up as Ben came to stand beside him. He put a hand on Ben’s shoulder and nodded to her with a rather grim look on his face.

  “Excuse me,” Mal said to Tyler.

  Mal crossed the street to the saloon while Dave and Rainey were arguing over prisoner transport. Dave was playing the FBI jurisdiction card and Rainey was none too happy about it. For now the prisoners were all hooded and zip-tied, sitting in the middle of the street under heavy guard—local, FBI, SEALs and military K-9s. There were in fact more guards than prisoners.

  Mal just wanted a moment of peace and quiet and then perhaps she’d
seek out her sole friend in all of this confusion—Kip Nouri. She stepped behind the bar and slipped through the panel door to a small office that Bari’s henchmen had come through.

  They’d grabbed Ben and taken her and then Doc by surprise. That seemed like ages ago.

  Thank God Bari Mullah Kahn and his men couldn’t tell the difference between C-4 and homemade Silly Putty.

  She stepped from the small office and then out the back door.

  A couple of deep breaths of mountain-fresh air to quiet her thoughts and she was already feeling better. She knew why Dave couldn’t allow her and Ben to leave, but she was having a hard time coming to grips with it.

  * * *

  FBI SPECIAL AGENT Christopher Tyler waited exactly five minutes before following Mal into the saloon. Nash didn’t wait five seconds before following Tyler.

  Nash left Ben with McCaffrey’s wife, Hannah, and Tess Galena.

  Commander Hannah Staton McCaffrey had been a combat pilot since before women were even considered combatants. With three kids to worry about, they no longer paired up for routine missions because of the risks involved, but as Mac put it, he knew nothing was going to keep his wife away from this one.

  Nash was just glad to have women he trusted watching over Ben.

  The CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter would keep the boy occupied long enough for Nash to go check on his aunt. He wished he could think of Mal as Ben’s mother—she earned it—but he just couldn’t. That was Cara’s place in his heart.

  He was still trying to figure out Mal’s.

  But he knew it did not begin or end with her sister.

  He pushed his way through the swinging doors of the saloon. A quick look around showed nobody on the first floor. He kept to the side of the stairs as he made his way up to the second floor. There had been doors at one time, but there were none now. The smaller rooms to the back of the building were all dark. But the largest room at the front of the building had light pouring in through the windows and he could see a body on the floor. Nash drew his gun and entered with caution.

  The moment he did he had a gun pointed at his head.