Guardian Agent

by Dana Marton

  “The less you know, the safer you are.”

  “Like your sisters?” he snapped. “Do you know what a miracle it is that they’re still alive? How long are you prepared to gamble with their lives?” Gabe caught himself and toned it down a notch. “If you don’t trust Brent and his crew, I got connections I can call on. I can turn you straight over to the U.S. authorities. The FBI, even.”

  “This thing goes too high. Brent has a backer. Someone in the government.”

  Gabe considered the possibility and the implications. Brent was one of two dozen team leaders at a fairly small private security company that specialized in overseas missions. The contract to retrieve Jake Tekla had come from the government that couldn’t send military force after the man into a sovereign country like Italy. Maybe in the Middle East they could have justified something like that, but certainly not in Europe.

  The U.S. government didn’t want to get local law enforcement involved, at least that was the way Brent had explained it to Gabe when he’d been hired on. A rogue American soldier, a killer loose wouldn’t have inspired much confidence in the U.S. And the Italians were already wary of military presence in their country, especially since the cable car accident a few years back when a U.S. jet flew too low, cutting the cables, sending twenty people plunging to their deaths.

  So sending a private outfit after Tekla and keeping the op under wraps had made sense when Brent had first explained it. But, apparently, Brent and Tekla had a shared past in Lahedeh, and it sure looked like Brent had a private agenda where catching Tekla was concerned. What were the chances that his team just happened to get the government contract?

  Maybe Brent did have someone somewhere, making sure the contract went his way.

  Too many unknown elements. Too much to lose. The op wasn’t entirely right, but Tekla wasn’t innocent, either. Gabe didn’t want the man’s family to come to harm, but he drew the line at aiding and abetting a killer.

  He looked the guy straight in the eye. “I need to know about those three men you killed.”

  Chapter Seven

  “How about we step out into the hallway?” her brother asked Gabe.

  Jasmine opened her mouth to protest, but Gabe said, “I think your sisters have a right to hear this. I think they should get a vote in what happens.”

  She gave him a slight smile, her heart softening. She liked that he was treating her and her sister as equals. She liked the way he looked at her, a lot differently than he’d looked at her ten years ago. As if he actually noticed her now. Way too late, but definitely flattering.

  Man, she’d been crazy about him. Well, that ship had sailed. She wasn’t going back to live on Obsession Lane. She’d embarrassed herself over him enough for a lifetime back in the day. Every email she’d sent to Jake had at least one question about whether he’d seen Gabe again, and if so, how he looked, had he mentioned her.

  Thank God, this time around she was a lot more mature and a lot smarter. She was not going to develop any kind of crush on him again. Although, if he managed to save them, she might—just might—forgive him for tying her down and drugging her.

  The two men stared at each other.

  She knew how difficult it would be for Jake to trust someone after all they’ve been through. He had a lot of pride. And he’d always shouldered all the responsibility for the family. He hated to ask for help. He always wanted to fix everything alone.

  But he also always did the right thing.

  “All right.” The tight set of his jaw betrayed that he was only doing this because he had no other choice. He lowered himself to sitting and set his gun down at last.

  Gabe acknowledged the gesture with a nod. “Let’s start with what happened in Lahedeh. What were you and Brent doing there?”

  “We were still looking for Osama at that point. My team—Brian, Greg, Eric and I—went down into the water cistern. We found two locals down there with these huge terra cotta jars. They got Brian before we got them, and injured Eric. Greg called in the medics. They were there pretty fast. I knew one, but not the other.”

  “Brent,” Gabe put in, his face clouded.

  Jake nodded. “Greg and Brian were pretty tight, from the same town and all that, enlisted together. So Greg was ticked that they killed his buddy. He started pumping more bullets into the dead locals. I told him to knock it off before someone got hit by a ricocheting bullet. So then he starts kicking over the jars. Or tried. They were too heavy. He knocked the lid off one… I’ve never seen that much gold.”

  “What gold?” she asked the same time as Gabe did.

  “Some warlord’s hoard. Worth in the millions.”

  Her blood pressure spiked. “Our lives were destroyed because of money? That’s the big secret you couldn’t give up? I thought it had to do with national security. Are you kidding me?”

  For the first time in her life, she really, really, wanted to hit something.

  “Eric was the team leader. He sealed the jars, told us this was all confidential. Word couldn’t get out or we’d have the warlord’s private army after us, plus all the locals and treasure hunters. He took charge. Later he told us that the treasure was transported to the National Museum in Kabul.”

  “Except it wasn’t,” Gabe put in.

  Jake shook his head. “Last day I was in Afghanistan, I had a couple of hours to kill in Kabul and a cute private I wanted to impress. I thought I’d take her to the museum, show her the gold and tell her the part I played. See how far that gets me.”

  She rolled her eyes. Her brother had a way with women, no doubt about it. He definitely had the Casanova gene, and he wasn’t afraid to use it. She hated to see him like this, sick and weak. That he couldn’t protect them about killed him, too. He was too used to being the tough guy, a warrior.

  “They never heard of the gold.” He adjusted his bad leg. “So I tried to call Greg when I got back home. He was dead. Friendly fire.” He closed his eyes for a second. “Called the medic I knew. Friendly fire again. Couldn’t track down the other guy. Figured it was time to get the hell out of Dodge.” He took a slow breath and shot an apologetic look to Jasmine, his eyes filling with regret. “That was a mistake.”

  * * *

  Gabe watched as Jasmine wrapped her arms even tighter around herself and stared at a spot in front of her feet, all emotion sliding off her face.

  He wanted to know what happened to her after her brother had first gone into hiding, but Mandy had slumped over while they’d been talking, and that worried him. She didn’t seem fully aware of her surroundings anymore. They had to take care of Mandy before they could move out of here.

  He stepped forward. “We have to bring this girl’s fever down.”

  Jasmine looked at her sister then launched into action, shaking off whatever dark weight had been sitting on her shoulders. “There’s a tub in one of the other rooms. We could bring cold water up from downstairs.”

  “Do you have any buckets?”

  She hurried to the corner and pulled two five-gallon paint buckets she probably had picked up at a construction site.

  He took those from her. She grabbed a chipped pot from the windowsill and led the way.

  He could tell downstairs that the water to the building had been shut off at one point but someone, probably Jake before he’d been injured, had rigged it. He filled the buckets and she filled the pot, then they started up the stairs. The drug seemed to be wearing off. She no longer swayed with every step.

  “What happened back in the U.S. before you came here?” He wanted to help, but to do that, he needed to see the full picture.

  She wouldn’t look at him.

  He knew he should let it go, but something deep inside him demanded to know. He followed her into a smaller room and dumped the water into the tub, caught her by the arm as she turned to go back. “Jasmine?”

  She avoided his gaze, a haunted look coming onto her face. “When they couldn’t find Jake, they came after us to draw him out.”

>   He waited, cold tension gathering in his stomach as he wished he knew what to do for her, what she needed from him. With the work he did, his relationships with women had been always superficial: quick and easy. But he wanted to give something more to this woman, something real, something she could hold on to.

  His jaw clenched with frustration. “Jasmine?”

  “Mandy had some emergency junior prom planning meeting, so she had to stay after school, thank God. I was home alone.” She swallowed hard.

  He put the empty buckets down and gathered her into his arms without giving her a chance to resist. “Who?”

  “I don’t know.” Her voice broke. “They took me and kept me tied up in a basement to draw Jake out.”

  No wonder she’d fought his restraints so violently. If he’d known— “I’m sorry.” He bent to rest his chin on the top of her head.

  And, little by little, she relaxed against him.

  He wanted to ask what they’d done to her, but he was afraid of hurting her by dragging up the past. So he simply held her until she pulled away.

  “Jake came. He got us out of the U.S.” She moved toward the door. “We better get Mandy.”

  He put two and two together halfway down the hallway. “These were the two civilians Jake killed in the U.S.?”

  His opinion of the man rose a couple of notches. So there was a good explanation for those kills. Of course, the death of that army captain still remained unexplained.

  The empty pot slipped out of her hand, her reflexes probably still not one hundred percent, and she bent to retrieve it. Her top rode up her hips, revealing a strip of skin. Two half-moon-shaped scars peeked out at Gabe.

  “Did you get hurt on the roof?” He winced, hoping he hadn’t been too rough on her when he’d brought her down.

  She yanked on her top to cover the spot. “Old stuff. It doesn’t matter.”

  He stilled. “Did those two men do this to you?”

  A grief-stricken expression came onto her face, making him wish he hadn’t asked. “Sorry.” He was such a damned idiot sometimes. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

  She drew a shaky breath. “I don’t. Not even to Jake.” She watched him for a second. “But I want you to know what kind of men Brent works with.”

  The tone of her voice almost made him wish she didn’t.

  “One of them liked to come down to me while his buddy was sleeping at night. He would pull my shirt up or my pants down…” She swallowed. “He liked to bite me.”

  Human teeth marks, he recognized the scars now and the gruesome images in his head filled him with fury.

  “He got real excited if he drew blood. Sometimes he touched himself.” She looked away.

  He didn’t know what to say. Murderous rage burned through him, impotent rage since he could do nothing about those men at this stage. He wanted to protect her, but he was too late.

  He thought of Brent. Maybe not entirely too late.

  He wanted to take her into his arms again, but she didn’t look like she would welcome anyone’s touch just now. So he simply said, “I’m sorry,” and they went on with their task of trying to help Mandy.

  He carried the girl over to the tub then let Jasmine take it from there. “Call me when you need me to bring her back,” he said before he closed the door behind him.

  Time to finish his talk with Jake.

  “What about the army captain?” was the first question he asked. Jake had killed that man first, before the other two.

  “Eric was the captain of the four-man team I went down to the cistern with. Brian, Greg and the one medic were dead. I figured the other medic was, too, but couldn’t confirm since I didn’t know his name. I figured Eric took the gold and had the others killed. I knew he would come after me, and I knew arranging some friendly fire on the battlefield would be pretty easy for him. So I went AWOL, but left him some leads to follow. I wanted to meet him on my own turf, when I was ready. He came. He didn’t want to leave any witnesses.”

  “So you killed him in self-defense.”

  Jake nodded. “Meanwhile, my unit shipped back to the U.S. I was heading back home, ready to turn myself in over the AWOL thing, but then Jasmine was kidnapped.” His face darkened. “I knew then that the second medic had to be alive and running the show.”

  “Who were the two bastards Brent sent to grab Jasmine?”

  “Hired guns. Brent must have paid them to do his dirty business. I think at the beginning he figured it’d be quick and easy to get me. But I took care of his goons and brought my sisters across the ocean. So Brent stepped up his game, somehow finagling a government contract for his security company to bring me in. That gave him a whole team to order around.”

  A pretty complicated story, but it all made sense in a certain way. Gabe rubbed his hand over his face. He could no longer get around the fact that he believed Jake. “Do you think his team knows about the gold?”

  “I don’t think so. Then he’d either have to share with them or kill them for knowing. He’s just using them as his private commando team. All they know is that they have orders to bring down a rogue soldier.”

  Gabe thought for a second. “So back in Lahedeh… The medics had an ambulance, could transport the gold out and stash it somewhere. Then Brent and Eric took out everyone who knew about the gold, except you. Eric failed there, so Brent has to finish the job.”

  “The way I figure it,” Tekla said, “Brent left the army and joined a private security company so he could get back into Afghanistan with less oversight and more freedom to come and go as he pleased. He couldn’t exactly bring the gold out in his army duffel bag.”

  “Right.” Gabe agreed. Military personnel were tightly controlled and supervised. “But as team leader for a private firm, Brent could tell his team they were transporting arms seized from the Taliban, or whatever. One sealed crate looks pretty much like another.”

  Jake nodded. “Getting the gold into the U.S. would be the next obstacle. How do they get it through customs? Maybe that’s where the high up in the ranks protector comes in.”

  Gabe scratched his chin. Sooner or later, they had to figure out who that man was. Otherwise, Jasmine and her family would never be safe.

  Chapter Eight

  After the cold bath brought her temperature down, Mandy could stand and walk once again, even if her teeth chattered. Jasmine helped her back into the room where Gabe and Jake were still talking. It did her heart good to see the two of them without holding guns on each other.

  Gabe jumped to help as soon as he saw them coming. He seemed to truly care. His being here was helping already. Jake could have never carried Mandy over to the tub with his bad arm and leg, and Jasmine couldn’t have done it either. Her little sister was taller than she was and weighed about the same.

  But Gabe was here and things were going to turn around. For the first time in a long time, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

  “Take Mandy and Jasmine. Get them someplace safe. I’ll stay here and deal with Brent,” Jake told Gabe suddenly.

  She gaped for a second, while heat crept up her face. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

  As far as she was concerned, they were going to live or die together.

  * * *

  Gabe watched the dynamics between the two with interest.

  “How about Colonel Markowsky?” he offered Tekla after careful consideration. “Whoever is involved in whatever is going on, I can’t see the colonel being involved in anything shady.”

  Markowsky had been his colonel, but everyone in the Afghan war theatre knew or knew of the man. He was the toughest son of a bitch there, and the most honest man Gabe had ever met.

  Tekla didn’t protest.

  Progress. Especially since Gabe was sure Jasmine meant what she’d said. She had incredible loyalty to her family. No way was she going to leave her brother. The woman had character. He liked that.

  “What if the colonel could get you out of Venice? Out of It
aly. You’re AWOL from the army. His men could take you into custody. If you explained yourself to him, he could help.”

  “What about my sisters? The army can’t help them.”

  “If the colonel can get them back to the U.S., I can take it from there.” He thought of a good friend who was still with the Bureau. Gordy could get the girls into one of the unused safehouses if Gabe asked. And he would keep quiet about it.

  Tekla watched him closely. “I’ve got your word on that?”

  “You do. It’s either this or face Brent and the teams when they get here. Which won’t be long now.” He glanced at his watch. They had about ten minutes left before Brent reached the island. “Even if you can evade them once again, how long do you think Mandy is going to make it without medical care?”

  The man looked at his sisters as he struggled to his feet. “All right. Let’s do this.”

  They all looked at each other. Here they were. Last Chance City.

  Gabe pulled his phone and identified himself when the colonel picked up on the other end.

  “FBI treating you good, soldier? If they aren’t, you know we’d welcome you back here. Anytime you want to return to us, just say the word.”

  He’d saved the colonel’s life once from a roadside bomb, his and the lives of four other men in the vehicle, which the colonel never forgot.

  “Thank you, sir. I’m not with the Bureau anymore. I work for a private outfit these days. I’m in a situation here, sir.”

  “Are you in trouble?”

  “I’m with people who are in trouble.” He thought of Camp Darby, U.S. Army Garrison, at Livorno, a few hours’ drive from Venice. The colonel had a reputation for knowing everyone everywhere. “I don’t suppose anyone at Livorno owes you any favors, sir?” And then he explained everything.

  “I can have a car sent to your location.”

  “Livorno is a three-hour drive from here, sir. Could you find out if they already have someone out our way?”