Rendezvous with Danger (Reunited Series)

by Cooper, Sharon C.

  Quinn jerked him forward. “Whether she said something or not, you were one of the few people who knew we were together. Me going into Guerrero to rescue her should have been enough for you to know what she meant to me,” Quinn growled, maintaining a tight hold on Harry’s jacket. “And if no one else knew the truth, I should have been told. But that’s okay, because as of right now anyone who has had any involvement in this will regret the day they ever crossed me.”

  Harry held up his hands. “Listen, let’s just calm down and talk about this. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

  “You missed your chance to tell me what I wanted to know. Now I’m going to—”

  “Wait!” Harry saw his life flash before his eyes when Quinn shoved his Glock against his temple. A pulsing knot of fear lay in the pit of his gut. Quinn was a trained killer and Harry had no doubt that he wouldn’t hesitate to blow out his brains if he didn’t get answers. “Please, let me explain.”

  Quinn slowly released Harry and stepped back. He holstered his gun and stood a couple of feet away, his legs spread shoulder width apart, his arms folded across his chest. It was no wonder people feared him. The man was one solid muscle, whose angry, unblinking eyes held him in place.

  “Why did you tell me Alandra was dead? And when I asked you why she went to Tzbekystan, you said you had no idea, yet, you put an agent on her.”

  With shaky hands, Harry fixed his clothes and heaved a weary sigh. “I thought it the right thing to do at the time.”

  “Why would lying to me be the right thing to do?”

  “We didn’t know who we could trust.”

  Quinn’s eyebrows drew together. “We?”

  “Well, me. I didn’t lie to you about Tzbekystan. At the time, I didn’t know why she went and when I found out she was gunned down,” he shrugged, “I didn’t want to take any chances that whoever tried to kill her, wouldn’t try again.”

  “And you thought I had something to do with her getting ambushed?”

  Harry shrugged again. “Maybe not directly, but yes, I thought it might have something to do with you.” Quinn paced in front of Harry.

  “Why was Sarah Olson involved?”

  Harry ran his hands through his thinning hair then loosened his tie. “When Alandra returned to Langley, and we debriefed about her Guerrero assignment, she informed me her cover had been compromised. I thought it best for her to lay low especially after finding out she was accused of selling secrets to North Korea. She refused to stay at my vacation house, and went to Florida instead.”

  He took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead. “You have to understand. When she told me she was going to Germany because something had happened to you, I tried talking her out of the trip because it didn’t sound right. The call, the plane ticket, and no additional information - it sounded shady. I didn’t find out about Tzbekystan until I heard from Sarah. I knew she could handle any situation that came up. She’s had search and rescue training, as well as extensive combat training, and she knew the area.”

  “Dammit, Harry.” Quinn pounded the desk. “If you had doubts, why the hell didn’t you try talking Alandra out of going to Germany?” he roared.

  He stepped toward Quinn. “Have you ever tried talking her out of something? If you have, then you know it’s impossible. When Velvet—”

  “It’s Alandra, asshole!” Quinn yelled, his face an inch from Harry’s. “Her name is Alandra.”

  “Okay, Alandra.” Harry wiped his forehead again and the bridge of his nose. “When she said she was going, I tried to stop her, but she was hell bent on going. God knows, I wish I had talked her out of the trip. Since I couldn’t, I got in contact with Sarah, who followed Alandra from the time she left the airport in Germany until she reached you. Sarah executed an exfiltration operation that worked and got them out of there. You should be thankful for that.”

  “Have a seat at the desk,” Quinn ordered. Harry hesitated, fearing the calm fury behind Quinn’s request.

  Once Harry sat in his office chair, Quinn stood in front of the desk, and pulled out his gun, aiming it at Harry’s chest. Panicked, Harry pushed back in his seat, only to bump into a lateral file cabinet. He lifted his hands.

  “I…I’m telling you the truth. Yes, I lied before, but you would’ve done the same thing if you were in my shoes. I did it to protect her. She’s like a daughter to me.”

  “Is that why you sent a private investigator to Chicago the other day? Why the deception?”

  Harry leaned forward. “What are you talking about? Yes, I hired a P.I, but only to find her and make sure she was safe. My contact never started the search.”

  “Why?” Quinn demanded. “And don’t lie to me.”

  “He was in a car accident.” Harry studied Quinn’s wary expression. “I can prove it. If someone is looking for Alandra it’s not because of me. Whoever it is has their own agenda.” He thought about the mysterious call he had received the other night, but had no intention on telling Quinn about the call, especially knowing it would spark questions Harry didn’t plan on answering. Instead, he said, “Someone knows she’s alive.”

  ****

  “Someone like who? Who else knows she’s alive?” Quinn’s patience was waning and if this guy didn’t start giving him answers he could use, he planned to shoot him and suffer whatever consequences.

  “I don’t know.” Harry pursed his lips and his eyes skittered to the door.

  Quinn stared at him wondering what he wasn’t saying. “Let me rephrase the question. Do you suspect that someone else knows she’s alive?”

  Harry met his gaze. “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  Slow to speak, Harry rubbed his hands together and rolled his shoulders. “I received a call last week from Congressman Ramos. He said he’d heard Alandra had been sighted, and he wanted to know if she was alive.”

  Quinn frowned. “What’s it to the Congressman? Why would he call you?”

  Harry shook his head. “I…I’m not sure. The only thing I could come up with is that I was her boss and was the one who told people she’d been killed during a covert op. We receive more oversight by Congress than any other agency, so maybe…maybe the Congressman knows Alandra. I’m really not sure.”

  “You know, Harry…I’m having a hard time believing anything you say.”

  “I’m telling you the truth.” Harry lunged out of his seat and Quinn raised his gun higher.

  “You better be or so help me. Instead of celebrating the birth of your new grandson, your family will be preparing for your funeral.”

  Harry’s dark eyes grew big and a play of emotions danced across his brown face. “How’d—” He dropped back down in his seat.

  “I did my homework.”

  Quinn slid his gun back into the holster beneath his leather jacket knowing Harry was too much of chicken-shit to do anything stupid. He ran his hand down his face. If Harry hadn’t sent the investigator, then who had? Or was it someone posing as an investigator? And what did Congressman Ramos have to do with all of this?

  “What else do you want to know? I’ll tell you,” Harry said.

  “Did you ever find out who compromised Alandra’s cover while she was in Guerrero?”

  “No. And as far as I know, no one besides you and I knew she was there.”

  “No one?”

  “The assignment was a fact finding mission. We kept it covert due to the nature of the subject and where she was going. No one else knew, unless she told Agent Anderson.”

  “Anderson?”

  “Vance Anderson. They were good friends and had several assignments together, but I doubt she’d tell anyone. Besides, if I remember right, he was on vacation during that time.”

  Quinn vaguely remembered Alandra mentioning Vance once or twice. He planned to get Wiz to dig into the man’s background, as well as determine whether or not there was a connection between the congressman and Alandra. If there were she probably would’ve said something that night at Wiz’
s place.

  “Now, what about Sarah?”

  Harry pulled on his shirt collar looking more nervous than he had when he first walked into the office. “What about her?”

  Quinn’s lips twisted into a cynical smile. “Sarah knew Alandra was still alive, but I’m wondering how you got her to keep quiet all these years.”

  Minutes ticked by and Quinn didn’t think the Director would respond. During Wiz’s research, he’d found proof that Harry was listed as the trustee on Sarah’s offshore trust account. The question is why.

  “Cat gotcha tongue? A moment ago, you were willing to tell me anything I wanted to know. Don’t clam up on me now.”

  “We had an agreement.” Harry rubbed the back of his neck. “If she kept quiet about Alandra…I’d help her disappear.”

  “Disappear?” Quinn leaned back, surprised by the answer. “So what is it with you and helping your agents disappear? First Alandra and then Sarah, who’s next…you?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I had good reason for helping each of them. Just because—”

  “So are you the one who killed her, then blew up her house?”

  His mouth dropped open, and his eyes grew large. “Wha…What? She’s dead? How? When?”

  Quinn shook his head. “I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough. Right now, this is about my wife. I don’t give a damn about you blackmailing people to keep your secrets or how you’re able to sleep at night when you know the person who sold government secrets to North Korea.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry said unconvincingly.

  “Ah, Harry, Harry, Harry.” Quinn glanced at his watch knowing that Malik would burst through the door in the next five minutes if Quinn didn’t head back to the car as agreed. “I know a lot about you. Actually more than I care to know, but there is one other thing that’s been bugging me since Alandra’s return.” Quinn leaned on the desk, his palms landing on several file folders. “As it relates to my wife, what was in it for you? Why did you go through all of this trouble to save her? And don’t give me that shit about she’s like a daughter to you.”

  Harry released a long drawn out breath before responding. “Alandra’s a good person. When she started with the Agency, I took her under my wing and watched her become an outstanding agent. She’s one of the most generous people I know and my wife and I have treated her like she’s one of our kids. So, when she ended up in trouble, I wanted to help. I’d do anything for her.”

  Harry might’ve thought of Alandra as a daughter, but there was a small part of Quinn that thought Harry was still holding something back, something important. Quinn stepped away from the desk and slid a hand down his face and over his goatee. He was tired as hell and the only new information he had acquired was that there was a possibility that Vance Anderson knew Alandra had been in Guerrero and that Congressman Ramos might know something.

  Quinn turned back to the desk. “Why did you tell Alandra I was dead?”

  “I didn’t want her to search for you,” he said without blinking. “If we were going to fake her death, no one could know.”

  Holding his anger at bay, Quinn asked, “Is that why you lead her to believe that I had something to do with her getting ambushed?”

  Harry cocked his head. “I didn’t. After her memory returned, she said she thought you might have had something to do with her being lured into Tzbekystan. Ultimately, having something to do with her getting shot.”

  Quinn tensed. “Me?”

  “That first year of Alandra’s recovery was touch and go. Not only did she have to deal with recovering physically, but she suffered memory loss from the emotional trauma. As she started remembering, she couldn’t come up with any other reason why someone would lure her to Tzbekystan, if it didn’t have something to do with you.”

  Quinn shook his head. “That can’t be right. Alandra knows I’d never do anything to intentionally hurt her. I’ve proven time and time again that I would give my life for her.”

  “Well, I don’t know, but once I came clean with her about you being alive, it was her choice not to seek you out.”

  ****

  Alandra walked down the stairs of the split level, four bedroom, three and a half bath townhouse owned by Wiz’s ex-wife, Olivia. She slowed several times, stopping on the steps to look at the numerous black and white photos gracing the walls of the staircase. When Quinn arranged their trip to D.C., Wiz suggested they stay at Olivia’s place since she spent a lot of time out of the country and rarely used the space. She happened to be in town and Alandra liked her immediately, enjoying her and Wiz’s interaction. They acted more like husband and wife than exes.

  Alandra continued down the stairs and thought about the P.I. who had visited the hospital. Harry was the only other person who knew her as both Alandra and Velvet. What she didn’t understand was why he would send a private investigator after her. She was a grown woman, not some child who needed looking after.

  Alandra stepped into the kitchen hoping to find Quinn, but instead Cameron sat at the table with his laptop.

  “Hi.”

  He looked up. “Hey. You’re awake. Did you sleep okay?”

  “Like a rock.” She grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and sat across from him, surprised to see him wear his shoulder holster in the house.

  “Glad to hear it,” he said and took a sip of his coffee. “I’m also glad you’re up because I have a couple of questions for you.”

  “Shoot.” She glanced at his gun. “I mean, go ahead.”

  He smiled that handsome smile and Alandra couldn’t help but smile back. She was thankful for all he and Malik were doing to help them.

  “What do you know about Los Hermanos drug cartel?” Cameron asked. “I know your last assignment was in Guerrero and you were there to collect Intel. Did you learn anything about the organization that you didn’t know before going?”

  “Whew. That seems like a lifetime ago.” She sat her water bottle down and dragged her hand through her hair. “Let me see. One thing we suspected, but didn’t know for sure was that Los Hermanos had connections in the U.S. I recently heard that some of the Intel gathered during that op was helpful in shutting down a major drug trafficking organization here in the U.S that was believed to have been a branch of Los Hermanos.”

  “Yeah, we talked about that the other night, trying to rule out the idea that Los Hermanos was behind the ambush in Tzbekystan.”

  “Oh, Quinn didn’t mention it.” She wondered what else they talked about that night that he hadn’t told her.

  “Quinn said before Orlando Medina was killed, he mentioned Quinn had killed his father. Did you know this information prior to your assignment?”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t find out until Quinn rescued me. He and I rarely talked about our ops. My assignment in Guerrero was covert, but I let it slip to Quinn where I’d be, which now I’m glad I did.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  “Why all the questions about Los Hermanos? Do you think they had something to do with Tzbekystan?”

  “I’m not sure yet. I’ve run into a few brick walls, but one name that keeps popping up is Congressman Ramos.”

  Alandra tilted her head. “Really? His name never came up during that mission and nothing I collected attached him to the drug cartel, but we did think that Los Hermanos had a major connection in the States. ”

  “What about Sarah? Did she allude to a connection between the two?”

  She thought back on the night Sarah died. “Before she died, she said to trust no one, not the government or the CIA.” Alandra shrugged and picked up her water. “Maybe this Ramos guy is connected somehow.”

  “We’ll be able to get into her storage unit tomorrow and hopefully whatever she has in there will fill in the gaps.”

  “I hope so. I’m ready for this to be over.”

  Cameron gave her a sympathetic look. “I know all of this has to be rough on you, but we’re going to find whoever was
behind that night in Tzbekystan. Quinn’s not going to stop until somebody pays.”

  Alandra drank from her bottle, and then sat it down. “Where is he anyway?”

  “He went to see Harry.”

  “What?” Anger boiled inside her. “How could he?” She bolted out of her seat and hurried to the hall closet for her coat. Quinn was going to catch hell for lying to her.

  “Don’t worry about Harry. Malik drove and I’m sure he’ll make sure Quinn doesn’t kill the guy. They should be back soon,” Cameron said from the kitchen.

  Alandra slipped an arm through the sleeve of her jacket. “That’s not it. We were supposed to go together. He told me he wasn’t going until sometime in the morning.”

  “Oh. Uh, well forget I said anything.” Cameron walked into the front hall. “Going somewhere?”

  “Yeah, I’m going to Harry’s.”

  “Whoa. Hold up.” He slammed the front door closed when she pulled it opened. “Wherever you go, I go. I promised Quinn I wouldn’t let you out of my sight.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “I think it is.” He grabbed his jacket. “If anything happens to you on my watch, then I have to deal with Quinn. Let me get my keys.”

  Alandra cursed under her breath when it dawned on her that she didn’t have the keys to Quinn’s rental truck. She wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere without Wiz anyway. Both Quinn and Malik had rented a vehicle when they arrived in D.C., and Wiz had access to his ex-wife’s car.

  Alandra thought about what she would say when she saw Quinn. He knew she wanted to go with him when he talked to Harry, but he intentionally left her behind.

  She zipped her coat just as the front door flew open and Quinn stormed in. He stopped when he saw her, his face a kaleidoscope of emotions, and tension radiated from every pore of his body. A sinking feeling settled into the pit of her stomach. What had Harry told him?

  He moved past her and practically ran into Cameron when he walked in.

  Glancing from Alandra to Malik, who had just walked into the house, Cameron asked, “What did I miss?”

  Alandra looked at Malik. “Is he okay?”