Special Ops Affair

by Jennifer Morey

  She wondered if he could help her. As a senator, he could have valuable connections. Maybe it would lead to something.

  Something linked to Hersch, a voice taunted in her mind. She felt a disturbing chill run down her back. How deep did this go? Cullen also had connections in the government, and at least one of them had asked him to carry out this mission. But what had triggered the inquiry into Defense Initiatives? Who had tipped off Cullen’s higher-ups to the Albanian company?

  She moved her focus again to Friese. Tall and expressionless, he had dark blond hair and wore sunglasses. To hide his lack of tears? He was on the thick side with muscle. No fat. He had all the signs of special ops.

  Feeling Jag watching her, she looked up at him. Without even trying to pretend he hadn’t noticed where her gaze had gone, he looked away.

  Mourners began to line up to offer their condolences to Kate’s family. It wasn’t easy to watch. Odie waited until the last of them finished before leading Jag there.

  “You didn’t tell me Kate’s father was a senator.”

  “I thought you already knew.”

  “I had to read about it.”

  “Poor baby.”

  “What else am I going to read about?”

  She glanced at him as they approached Luis and his family. “Don’t embarrass me.”

  He grunted a laugh. “Is that even possible?”

  “Odelia,” Luis said, reaching out his arms. She went into them and they hugged.

  “Your mom couldn’t make it?” he asked as he leaned back.

  Odie shook her head. “She’s in Egypt right now.”

  “She’s still traveling all over the world?”

  The reason why gave her a pang of sadness. “Yes, ever since Dad died.” She and her mother had that in common. They’d both lost their husbands. It made for sad reunions, which is why they hadn’t had many in the years since.

  Odie hugged Mo. “If there’s anything I can do, just call.”

  “Thanks.” Mo braved a small smile before turning to the next mourner.

  Odie moved on to Alice. She didn’t even try to say anything to the woman. What words were there for a mother who’d lost a daughter?

  “Thank you for coming,” Alice managed to say. It sounded feeble.

  “Of course,” Odie said, looking at Luis.

  His kind eyes showed how much his grief ravaged him.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said to Alice.

  “You were close to her, too.”

  “Yes.”

  “You were her best friend.” Alice dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

  Luis’s eyes misted as he watched his wife. When he finally managed to control his emotions, he cleared his throat and turned to Odie again.

  “Kate told me you were getting married.” He looked pointedly at Jag, the change in subject pushing the grief from his eyes. “I was sorry I had to miss the wedding.”

  He must have been in the Bahamas when her wedding had fallen to disaster and her wedding had been small. He and Alice hadn’t been there. Wait a minute… Did he think…

  A flash of astonishment stunned her for a second. He thought she was with Jag…like that? “This isn’t my husband.” Oh, my God. “This is Jag Benney. He works at TES.”

  “Ah. Then he couldn’t be your husband.” He chuckled and turned to Jag. “She has an aversion to special forces types.”

  “Yeah, I picked up on that the first time I met her.”

  Odie slid a look at him. Had he? Most newbies who walked through TES doors checked her out without holding back. Jag had shown no emotion. It had impressed her, though she’d never tell him that.

  “Where is your husband?” Luis asked Odie. “Is he here?” He glanced around.

  “I didn’t get married.” She did not want to explain it again. “We canceled.”

  “You can add engineers to her list of not eligible,” Jag said, clearly enjoying her stiffening mood.

  She bit back a sarcastic retort.

  “Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Odie,” Luis said, then again turned to Jag. “I’ve always told her there’s only one kind of man for her, and it’s the kind that Cullen employs. They’re the only ones who have half a chance of standing up to her.”

  Jag chuckled, a low, deep sound. “I never thought of it that way, but you’re probably right.” He grinned at Odie.

  Damn him.

  Seeing Mo and her mother move away from the senator to join a couple and their teenaged daughter, who greeted them in typical funeral-mode fashion, Odie used the appearance of distraction to ignore both of them.

  “Well, if you aren’t married to this fellow, why is he here? Are you working?” Luis asked.

  “Not at the moment,” Jag said, no longer sounding amused. Clearly their work was a subject he didn’t want broached.

  Luis looked at her, a silent question in his eyes. If they weren’t working why was Jag at Kate’s funeral with her? He knew how much losing her husband had hurt her and how she felt about dating operatives.

  “Our assignment was waylaid after we heard of Kate’s murder.”

  “Ah.” He nodded. “How long will you be in D.C.?”

  “I’m not sure. It depends on how long it takes to find Kate’s killer.” If they ever did.

  “I went to Langley and asked around,” Luis said.

  Odie perked up with interest.

  “No one could help. Her death doesn’t appear to be connected to her job.”

  No, because it was connected to Hersch…or more precisely, ELF.

  “What about her boyfriend?” Odie caught the way Jag turned to look at her. She hadn’t told him about Calan.

  Luis nodded. “I wanted to talk to you about that. I checked him out. He doesn’t have a solid alibi the night of Kate’s murder. The police have questioned him and I don’t think they’ve ruled him out as a suspect, but there’s no evidence implicating him. No prints. And no motive, at least, not yet.”

  That was essentially what Mo had said. “Did you talk to him?”

  “I haven’t had the chance. Here at the funeral…”

  Friese had stood right next to him but, yes, it might have gotten ugly at Kate’s funeral if Luis had started asking questions.

  “I was going to go see him tomorrow, but now that you’re here…”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “We’ll take care of it,” Jag corrected.

  Odie wanted to roll her eyes.

  Luis chuckled. “You’ll have to get used to Odie’s independence. She’s a little more high-strung than most other women. She likes to do things her way.”

  Jag grunted. “Well, I like to do things my way, too, so we have something in common.” He smiled cheekily at her.

  Meaning, he’d get his way and stick to her like duct tape.

  Luis missed the exchange and said, “I brought you everything I have on him. It’s in my car.”

  “Great. That’s wonderful.” A burst of hope encouraged her.

  “What have you gotten so far?”

  “Not much, I’m afraid.” Careful not to look at Jag, knowing he wouldn’t want her to say anything, she added, “But I did receive a package from Kate a few days ago.”

  “Odie,” Jag warned. “The details of this assignment are confidential,” he told Luis.

  “Your assignment is related to Kate?”

  “No,” Jag said before Odie could answer.

  “It’s all right,” Luis said, catching on. “I understand the way these things operate.”

  “I didn’t get a chance to see everything that was in the package,” Odie said despite Jag’s presence. “Just a picture of a man TES is investigating.”

  “Odie, that’s enough.”

  “What do you mean you didn’t get a chance?” Luis asked.

  She ignored Jag’s rising temper. “Someone tried to kill me.”

  “What—”

  “A man broke into my house. He was after the package.” She told him about her kidnapp
ing and what had followed.

  “Where is the package? Do you have it?”

  “No. It burned with my truck.”

  “My Lord. Are you sure you’re all right?” He gestured to the mark on her cheek. “I was wondering where you got that.”

  “I’m fine. Jag rescued me in the nick of time.” She sent Jag an exaggerated glance. “Hero that he is.”

  He cocked his head in annoyance.

  “Who was in the picture?” Luis asked.

  Jag turned to him. “We can’t tell you that.”

  Odie narrowed her eyes at him, but he didn’t acknowledge her. She faced Luis. “When’s the last time you talked to Kate?”

  “I saw her about a week before she was killed, and she didn’t say anything unusual, nor did I think she was afraid of anything. That was the last time I had contact with her.” He fell into a sad moment.

  “Did she ask you for any information? Anything on anyone in particular?”

  “Like who? The man TES is investigating?”

  The man in the photo Odie had seen.

  “We should get going,” Jag said, and she knew he’d had enough.

  “She didn’t,” Luis said to Odie. “I’ll bring what I have on Friese to the reception.”

  “Okay, see you in a while.”

  He waved and started toward the remaining parked vehicles.

  Odie looked for Calan Friese but didn’t see him.

  “He already left for the reception,” Jag told her.

  Did he never stop observing? He must have listened to her conversation with Luis and kept vigil at the same time.

  She walked toward the car with him. A man on a motorcycle caught her eye. He wore jeans and a black leather jacket and the helmet on his head made it hard to see much of his face. None of his hair peeked out from the helmet. Though he wore sunglasses, he seemed to be looking right at them. Had he been among the crowd at the funeral? She didn’t think so. As they drew nearer, he started the bike.

  “Do you see that?” she asked Jag without looking at him.

  “Yeah. No plate on the front.”

  The man rode down the cemetery lane and Odie saw that the rear plate was missing, too. Whoever he was, he didn’t seem to want anyone here to be able to identify him.

  Why not?

  Chapter 3

  Jag left Odie sleeping in the room before driving to Mo McKenzie’s house. He fully expected her to disappear while he was gone. The way she’d avoided telling him about Friese had cued him plenty. But he’d seen her checking out the guy standing next to Senator Raybourne. Kate’s boyfriend. While she’d been talking to the senator, he’d seen the man leave the funeral and get into a white truck.

  Jag pulled his rental car to a stop in front of Mo’s house. About the time he finished here, Odie would probably be on the move. The senator had given her a file folder yesterday just as he’d promised, and she hadn’t shared its contents with him. That grated on him. But the modified GPS transmitter in her purse, which was more of a work tote—Odie wasn’t a purse type of woman—would tell him all he needed for now.

  Stepping to Mo’s front door, he knocked, glancing around while he waited. No one on the street. No cars passed. No one peered through windows.

  The door opened and an attractive blonde eyed him through the space allowed by the security bar. Her brow lowered warily.

  “Mo McKenzie?” he queried, even though he knew it was her.

  “Who are you?”

  “Jag Benney. I work with Odelia Frank. I was with her at the funeral.”

  Her wariness smoothed and she unlocked the door. Opening it, she looked curiously past him. “Where is Odie?”

  “She isn’t here. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

  “Without Odie?”

  “Actually, it’s Odie I need to talk to you about.”

  Her perplexity showed. “Why?”

  “I know she came to see you, but did she tell you someone tried to kill her?”

  The abruptness of it caused Mo a moment of stunned silence. “What? No. What happened?”

  He’d answer that in a minute. “Did she tell you about a package Kate sent her?”

  Confusion ravaged Mo’s expression. “No,” she said unsteadily. “When did Kate send her a package? What was in it?”

  Just as he’d hoped, Odie hadn’t told the woman anything. She was too protective of her secret. It was the carrot he’d hoped she would leave for him to dangle.

  Mo opened the door wider, allowing him to enter.

  Stepping inside, Jag faced her in the entry. “Odie claims she didn’t have time to see the contents of the package before someone attacked her in her house,” he said, and explained everything, leaving out Odie’s strange behavior and the connection to Hersch. As Odie had probably intended, he didn’t want to put Mo in danger.

  “Is that why Kate was killed?” Mo asked. “Because she discovered something?”

  “That’s what I’m going to find out.”

  “Does Odie know more than she’s letting on?”

  He hesitated, not wanting to hurt her at a time like this. “I’m afraid of that, yes.”

  “But…why would she do that? Why would she withhold information that might lead us to the person who killed Kate?”

  Jag didn’t know, and it was enough to let Mo fill in her own blanks. He watched her face map out emotions of worry and hurt. Odie was supposed to be a friend and she might be working against the people closest to her.

  “What do you need to know?” she finally asked.

  “How much do you know about what she does?”

  “Not much. I know she works for someone named Cullen McQueen.”

  “She did special ops before she went to work for him, didn’t she?”

  “Yes. She was an operations captain with the army. Mostly Middle East issues. Why?”

  He knew that, but it was a soft way to lead into his next question. “Why did she leave? It seems like she was on her way to a successful career.”

  “Odie is a very driven woman. I think part of her got bored and wanted something new and maybe a little more challenging.”

  “That wasn’t challenging enough?” It didn’t mesh.

  “Well…there was the matter of her husband dying. She resigned shortly after that and then Cullen found her.”

  Jag had an idea what it was like to love someone that much. While his wife hadn’t died, she may as well have. His idea of her certainly had. And that’s what he mourned more than anything.

  “What got her into counterterror ops?” he asked.

  “Her dad was a colonel who ran counterterror operations. She always admired him. Daddy’s little girl, you know? I think she wanted to follow in his footsteps in some way. She was doing that with the army, and she’s continuing it now, with that secret company she works for.”

  “Where is her father now?”

  “He died. Five years ago.”

  A year after her husband died. She’d had two hard blows.

  “He was murdered.”

  That stopped him short. “What happened?”

  “Nobody really knows. His killer was never caught. But Odie thinks it was a professional hit.”

  What the hell…? “Why does she think that?”

  “He was shot twice in the head and there was no sign of a struggle.”

  “Were there any leads?”

  She shook her head. “The crime scene was too clean and Odie’s dad was well respected. Who would want to kill him? Not even Odie knew the answer to that. It was hard on her. Still is.”

  “You’re telling me that in five years nothing’s come up?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Odie hasn’t found anything? Nothing?” That he had a hard time believing. Her secretiveness only convinced him more. She knew something. She just wasn’t telling anyone. Why?

  “No.”

  “Don’t you think that’s strange? Someone with Odie’s background should be able to learn
something.”

  “Whoever killed her dad must have covered his tracks extremely well.”

  “I’d say.” Or she’d covered hers. But why? What was the need for secrets? Her father was murdered. Unless he was involved in something outside the law. Would Odie go to extremes to hide that?

  “What was her father working on when he was killed? What was he doing?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Odie never told me. What reason would she have to say anything? She doesn’t operate that way.”

  True.

  “What was his name?”

  “Edward Leland Ferguson.”

  He made a mental note of that so he could do a little of his own digging later. “How did she get on with TES?”

  “Her father knew someone who got in touch with the man who runs it.”

  “Who did he know?”

  “I don’t know. Odie’s work is always so clandestine. I never ask about it and she never volunteers information. All I know is going to work for that company was the best thing that could have happened to her after her husband died. Everyone was pretty worried about her, especially her father. It was good to see her bounce back.”

  Jag nodded. Odie had had a good relationship with her father, and he’d had a stellar reputation. But what had he been involved in and why hadn’t Odie said anything about it?

  “I just can’t imagine Odie deliberately hindering Kate’s murder investigation,” Mo said.

  Yes, it was out of character for her. She was tenacious in her counterterrorism work. Righteous and thorough. “If she is, I don’t think it’s because she means to. I think she’s afraid of something.”

  “Odie?”

  Jag nodded. Odie wasn’t afraid of anything, and the fact that she was now convinced him she was in danger. Big danger.

  “Someone tried to kill her, remember,” Jag said.

  With a grave and thoughtful nod, Mo stared off into her living room.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she’s all right,” Jag said. He didn’t want to give her more burden than she already had.

  “But…what if whatever she’s hiding is…wrong?”