“First, we don’t know if your people are where you left them. For all we know, they got out just fine on their own. They were moved. Who knows? Second, looting has begun all over that part of the city. We were barely able to scrape together enough vehicles to move us and our equipment.”
“Leave the equipment behind. Take just what we need,” Jackie replied. She sounded so confident.
“You want us to leave munitions behind for anyone to find and use to kill more people?”
Jackie’s shoulders fell a bit. He didn’t want to crush her hope, but he had to be realistic. “Even if we could get enough transportation, we’d have to find someone to bribe to get through the checkpoints. We made through a weak spot in their line tonight, but it was close. To get to you, we went through four and ploughed through a lot of our cash to make people look the other way. We don’t have a way of getting more because the banks are shutting down. I’m guessing you aren’t walking around with a couple grand in your pockets?”
“No,” Jackie whispered.
“Once we get past the check points, there’s the risk of coming under fire, getting caught in the crossfire, homemade bombs, and bonfires like the one set up tonight.”
“I just assumed your team did that...”
“No, someone else started it to keep the PPM busses out of their area, we just used it to our advantage.”
“Would you leave someone behind?” Jackie pinned him with the most agonized expression.
Felix grimaced and blew out a breath.
He really hated these shades of gray situations.
“This isn’t a perfect situation. Your father was clear, our job was to get in, get you, and get out—”
“What does he really want, anyway?” Jackie’s gaze narrowed.
“To get his daughter home safe?”
The other woman barked out a laugh.
“Newsflash—my dad doesn’t give a rat’s ass about me. I’m shocked he sent anyone after me.” Jackie’s brow furrowed and she glanced from her friend to Felix and back.
“He has to want something.” The woman stared at him. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“Viking?” Kyle’s voice echoed down the hall.
Thank, God.
“There you are, Jackie.” Kyle stopped just behind the other woman. He’d wiped his face and looked more civil than Felix. “Val, Jackie, you ladies want to come in here and we can brief you on the plan?”
“I know what your plan is, and I’m not leaving with you.” Jackie crossed her arms over her chest.
Oh, boy.
There was a right and wrong way to go about this. They’d bungled their one shot at getting her to agree to leaving town fast. He almost wanted to toss her in one of the trunks and just fly her out. Didn’t she get it? Staying here put her life at risk, and the lives of those around her. She did a lot of good, but she couldn’t do it dead. Besides, given that her father owned the rights to the gold mines in the country, she had to be a valuable bargaining chip in a government thrown into unrest. Why couldn’t she understand that?
“Then Felix has saved me some time.” Kyle’s smile never slipped. “The others are bedding down for the night. Our current plan is to stay here, lock everything up, and keep a watch going. There’s a lot of activity in the city tonight and we seem to have made it in undetected. Plan is to get up early, assess the situation and make a decision from there. How’s that sound?”
“All due respect, I don’t care what your decision is, I’m not leaving my people out there.” Jackie gestured at the garage doors.
“If we can send some of the guys out to get them in the morning, we will. Otherwise, we are in contact with a group here who will likely be able to get to them easier than we will.”
“No.” Jackie shook her head. Her pony tail whipped back and forth with the force of her movement. “You don’t understand. These women—”
“Were slaves.” Kyle said over her. “We are aware of the work you do, Ms. Davis. While we might not be prepared or equipped to carry out your objective, I’ve taken the liberty of contacting some guys I know who work with the African Court to see if they can assist us. They have a team fairly close.”
“Oh...” Jackie blinked at Kyle, all the wind knocked out of her sails.
“Why the hell didn’t you say that earlier?” Val wheeled around to face off with Kyle.
“I tried to, but we got started talking in the wrong place.” Kyle just smiled. “If you’ll head back this way, Val can show you where we’ve got some food, and Isaac is getting everyone situated for the night. I know your team has had a difficult couple of weeks.”
“Thanks.” Jackie’s tone wavered.
She crossed to the stairs. Val offered her a hand and together the two women disappeared down the hall. Kyle watched them go, his smooth smile fading. Felix ducked his head and got back to work, unlocking, checking and securing each case. This was what he needed to do, keep his mind on the job and not Jackie.
“Stubborn little thing, isn’t she?” Kyle said.
“That’s a word for it.” Felix glanced up. “Why don’t we just tell her?”
“Because this is not the setting to find out her mother is practically a vegetable.”
“We’re keeping that intel from her. Wouldn’t you want to know?”
“Not like this.”
Felix couldn’t wrap his head around the concept of waiting until the perfect time. There was no right moment to learn a loved one was dead. Sure, Jackie’s mom might be on a ventilator and her body was still alive, but the mind was gone. There was no waking up. And how long could they keep her there? The sooner they got on a plane headed state-side, the sooner that poor woman could be laid to rest.
It wasn’t his call though. That was Kyle’s. Felix was just the do-what-he-was-told guy. Didn’t mean he had to like keeping things from their asset.
4.
Friday. Aegis Group safe house, Nouakchott, Mauritania.
Watching someone eat should not be a full-body experience.
Felix pried the loaf of bread apart and proceeded to fill it like a sandwich with the rice and fish provided for dinner. To top it off, he drizzled the red, tomato based sauce on it, then promptly bit off the end.
At first, she’d thought she was dizzy from the knock on her head, but that wasn’t like her. Then there were the waves of heat radiating up through her body. The dry mouth. How her stomach knotted up every time the corners of his mouth curled into a slight smile.
He glanced at her, catching her staring.
His lips did that thing where the corners lifted and his eyebrows darted up briefly.
“That’s one way of eating it, I guess.” She spooned up some of the rice. Despite her last meal being ages ago, she couldn’t find interest in the food.
“Tastes like red beans and rice.” Felix licked his thumb and studied his sandwich.
“That’s because that dish is derived from this. Slaves brought this to America. It’s changed over time, but it’s similar enough.”
“Eat.” Val jabbed her elbow into Jackie’s ribs.
Felix nodded around his mouthful of food. Unlike the other men who seemed a little smaller without their tactical gear on, Felix was still as big and imposing as he’d been fully kitted out. One of the guys earlier had called him Viking, and the resemblance wasn’t lost on her. From the neatly trimmed beard to his long hair bound back in a tight braid, she could see him playing the part.
Jackie glanced over her shoulder at Val. The others had inhaled the meal and were moving on to the next thing they hadn’t had in a while, showers and sleep. Jackie was too restless for any of this. She wanted to get back out there, find the people she’d promised to help, and get them safe—but that wasn’t a good idea. Her better sense won out, which was a rare enough occurrence it left her at odds. Usually she did what she wanted. Being limited wasn’t something she was accustomed to.
“Do you think we’ll be able to go back in the morning?” s
he asked.
“I really can’t say yet.” He wiped his mouth and sniffed at the tea. “What...is this?”
“Probably mint tea if it’s the same thing I got.”
“I see.”
“You get used to it after a while.”
“It’s edible, it’s drinkable, it’s better than a lot of stuff I’ve had before.”
“You guys, are you all military?”
“Retired, and yes. Those guys are mostly retired SEALs. I was Royal Navy.”
“Wait—Royal Navy?”
“Norway.”
“You sound pretty American to me...”
“I was born in Norway. Parents moved to America. We have dual citizenship, and I figured—what the hell?”
“That’s how you make your life choices? What the hell?” Jackie shook her head. She couldn’t imagine not having a purpose or a target.
Felix shrugged and kept eating.
“When will you guys know about being able to go back?” She pushed her plate aside and leaned forward. So far, Kyle had stonewalled her and the others simply smiled and pointed her in the direction of food and sleeping quarters. Felix was the only one who’d said anything of substance to her. She didn’t want to talk to him. Her stomach situation got worse every time they locked eyes, but if she didn’t pry answers out of him, she wouldn’t get any.
He finished his bite of food and wiped his mouth before answering. “Hard to say.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that there’s a lot of factors. We’re having to gather our intel, vet it, and evaluate the situation.”
“Whose job is that?”
“Ultimately, the Team Leader has final say on what we do, but I’m in charge of tactical.”
“So you and Kyle make this decision?”
“On this op, for the most part, yeah.”
“How does this work? Your team?”
“What do you mean? Our job?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Our team specializes in what we call asset recovery. Fancy way of saying we get the hostages no one else can. We do that typically working with American law enforcement.”
“So you’re mercenaries?”
“No, ma’am. We aren’t hired guns. We don’t take just any job. We focus on asset recovery and protection.”
“You’re really fancy bodyguards then?”
“That’s one way of putting it, yeah.” Felix nodded.
“Rescuing hostages. Got it. What are the chances you and Kyle will go back for the rest of our people?”
Felix grimaced and finished his last bit of food.
Jackie’s mind whirled with options. Her father and brother had paid this team to protect her. She got the feeling that if she tried to leave under their watchful eye, they’d stop her. But if she went without them knowing and managed to get there—they’d come for her, right?
“It depends on a wide variety of variables.” Felix arranged the salt and pepper shakers in a line with his plate and utensils. “When we go into a situation, if at all possible, we bring everyone out. Like with your medical team.”
“If the rest of our people were with us, you’d have figured out a way to get them out?”
“Yes, and no. We only had one vehicle and there was incoming danger to you. Everything boils down to that. We were paid to bring you home safe. We would have likely split the group and sheltered in place until we could arrange to transport the other targets.”
“It’s so odd that my dad would care now, of all times.” She shook her head.
“He’s your dad.” Felix shrugged and glanced away, his gaze shuttering.
Jackie swallowed down the sour taste in her mouth.
“You met him, didn’t you?” she asked.
“I did. He was there when we were briefed.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and stared through the open door where most of the rest of his team had gathered.
“I see.” She didn’t know if she should be glad they were on the same page regarding her father. Her biggest question was, what had Dad said? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know that, which only left one other question. “Why’d he send you? Do you know?”
“You’ll have to ask your Dad.” Felix glanced at her, his blue eyes steady, his voice calm, but his mouth twisted into a grimace.
He knew why Dad wanted them to bring her home. He didn’t like it. And he wouldn’t tell her for some reason.
Dad had stopped factoring into her decisions the day he’d kicked Mom out. Even at her young age she’d known what was going on.
Jackie remembered being woken up from a deep sleep to her mother’s keening wails of grief. Jackie could still smell the other woman’s perfume when she wandered out to see what was going on and discovered Mom and Dad facing off in the foyer. Mom left, tears streaming down her cheeks because Dad didn’t see anything wrong with what he was doing. She’d driven her car into a concrete barricade because she couldn’t see it. She’d been crying too hard. That was the beginning of her pill addiction, and the end of their family.
Right now, Jackie had to choose. Either she pestered Felix, or someone else, into telling her why Dad suddenly cared, or she focused on getting the rest of her team out.
There was no contest for her. Only one mattered.
“Back to getting everyone out.” She leaned forward.
“We don’t know yet. If we can get in, get them out safely, and everyone transported, we will. Our goal is to always protect life, but we are in the middle of a budding civil war. There’s a fifty-fifty chance we won’t be able to go back for them.”
Thoughts sparked. Felix and his team wanted to protect people, and she had people in need of protection.
“What if I refuse to leave with you? What then? Could I pay you to be my bodyguards here?” Whatever they cost to hire wouldn’t fit in her budget, but if she cut out some things she might be able to swing it.
Felix stared at her for a moment, his brow furrowed.
He really was too handsome for a gig like this.
“No, you couldn’t hire us,” he said.
“What?” Had Jackie heard him right? She sat up and frowned. “Why not?”
“Because you are reckless. You want to run back into danger. One of our guys would die protecting you. That’s not to say that we aren’t willing to die doing what we do, but that’s why we gauge the safety of a situation for us, our clients and assets. At the end of the day, you don’t have to live with that loss of a team member, we do.”
“You don’t know that anyone would die. And I am not reckless.” Impulsive wasn’t the same as reckless.
“All due respect, ma’am? I’ve seen your social media postings. I’m not going to argue that you do some great work, but you take risks. Maybe if we hadn’t lost someone recently, and maybe if I hadn’t gotten on this team because a guy was nearly killed I’d have a different assessment, but as is, I wouldn’t accept a job from you.”
“That’s a lot coming from someone who decided to join the navy because it seemed like the thing to do at the time.”
“Jack?” Val braced her hand on the table, her smile far too bright. “Want me to show you where we’re sleeping?”
How much had Valentina heard?
Jackie inhaled a deep breath and pasted on her smile.
“Thanks for the dinner talk, Felix.” She pushed to her feet and gathered her things.
Val’s glare was enough of a warning to keep Jackie from saying anything. They both knew her mouth could run away from her, and more often than not Val served as Jackie’s better sense.
She stored her mostly uneaten meal in the fridge for later. Eventually she’d get her appetite back. This whole place was a snapshot of luxury in the middle of one of the poorest cities in the world. It was crazy to her.
Jackie followed Val upstairs. The rescue team had set up in a large home, but there were still only so many beds for ten people. She’d shared less in worse conditions. They went from room to room
, checking in on the others, sharing Kyle’s plan and rolling ideas around for how to still complete their objective. An hour later, they had no better ideas and were a lot more tired than before.
Val showed Jackie to their room at last and flopped on the edge of the bed, shoulders slumped and her face drooping from exhaustion.
“What was all that about with the blond guy? You two looked like you were about to fuck or fight.”
Felix.
Just thinking his name had her clenching her teeth. She’d yank that too pretty hair off his head.
No, she really wouldn’t, but she’d think about it a bit.
“He called me reckless. Said I’d get people killed.” Jackie paced across the room to the windows and peered out through the shutters. For some reason, his assessment of her rankled in a way she wasn’t used to.
“You don’t always think through things. Your heart is in the right place.” Val stretched out along the foot of the bed. “I should shower before I sleep.”
“I offered to hire them to be our bodyguards so we could get everyone out safe and he said they wouldn’t take the job.”
“You mean someone didn’t do exactly what you wanted?” Val snorted and tossed her head back on a laugh. “I heard that—and your teeth grinding. I’m sorry, that guy practically telling you no was the best thing all week. I needed that. You two would be good for each other.”
“That Instagram model? Yeah, no thanks. You are so not helpful.” Jackie paced to the windows and peered out. In the distance she could see fire bathing the horizon, the slums of the city going up in smoke. The heat crawling up her neck cooled at the sight of the city, what had happened to it while they’d been locked away.
“Maybe not, but I see his point.”
“What?” Jackie turned and frowned at Val.
“Did we go into Syria last summer?”
“No, but—”
“No, we didn’t, because it was too dangerous. Don’t try to say it’s because we weren’t able to find the right people willing to do the job, it’s because everyone accepted that without some serious protection it wasn’t safe enough.”
Dangerous in Transit Page 4