Her stomach twisted, and her skin started to sweat, despite the freezing temperature and snowfall, so she rushed to the edge of the road and bent over the guardrail to throw up.
A moment later, a hand was on her back. “Shit, you okay?” Luke asked.
“No, nothing about this is okay,” she said, her voice trembling. She wiped her mouth and slowly turned to face him. “They’re putting bodies in the trunk of that SUV.” She swirled a finger around in the air. “That doesn’t seem like something the police would do.”
“Police?” The blonde woman approached. She didn’t appear to have an accent despite the German she’d spoken moments ago.
“Who are you people? You’re not the good guys, are you? You lied.” But he protected me in the truck. She attempted to brush past Luke as if she could actually make a run for it, despite her heart telling her he was safe.
Luke captured her arm in one swift movement and tugged her back to his side.
“We are the good guys. Those men”—he jerked his chin toward the bodies that were now being carried—“are the dangerous ones.”
She tried to pull free from his grasp, but his hold was too tight. “Yeah, well, they’re dead. So, let me call the police and tell them what happened since I’m thinking you’re not a cop.”
“I’m afraid we can’t let you do that,” the woman said and then looked to Luke. “She’s going to be a problem.”
A heavy sigh fell from his parted lips. “Get Knox over here. Find out if he has anything on him that’ll help.”
Shifting, Eva pressed her palms to his chest and looked up at him. “Please let me go. I-I won’t tell anyone what happened tonight.”
He grasped both her arms, the exact opposite of what she wanted to happen. “Unfortunately, I can’t let you leave. You got yourself involved in something, and until we know how to fix it, you’ll be staying with us.”
“I don’t want to be involved.” What she wanted was to be back in her New York loft. She did not want to be on the side of a mountain with a bunch of dead bodies and strangers with guns.
Luke leaned forward, his mouth close to her ear, and a strange sensation washed over her. “I wish you didn’t have to be, either,” he whispered, and then a darkness dropped over her mind, and everything went black.
Chapter Five
Luke assessed the scene.
Twelve assault rifles with optical and thermal scopes attached, eight pistols, and three shotguns. Not to mention the unused flashbang grenades and shit-ton of body armor.
Eight dead bodies. Three vehicles they needed to dispose of.
A female civilian caught in the crossfire.
And one failed operation.
Luke watched as the rest of his team worked to cover up the area as fast as possible. Thankfully, it was late, and with the storm few people would be traveling the roads. His people had set up a detour sign a half-mile back in each direction to prevent any potential witnesses just in case, though.
“Ender’s still alive! We’ve got a pulse,” one of his team members shouted.
Luke circled the truck on its side and eyed Ender’s body sprawled on the road outside the passenger side door. “Get him out of here fast. Don’t let him die,” he ordered and looked at one of his other buddies, Liam. “Make sure you get samples from the dead and cross-check their DNA in the database. I want IDs on all the vics.”
“Got it.” Liam helped lift Ender’s body, and then Luke turned around to see Knox on approach, his teammate who helped him and Eva out of the truck.
“This is why I really hate operating on U.S. soil,” Knox said. “Eva’s resting like Sleeping Beauty in the back seat. Too bad she’ll remember everything when she wakes from her nap.”
It’d make it a hell of a lot easier if the drugs Knox had given her could erase the last few hours of her memory. He’d spoken to his sister in German regarding the op, hoping the woman wasn’t fluent, but he was afraid Eva already knew too much. If she were to go to the police with her story, Luke would have a hell of a lot of explaining to do, and he wouldn’t be able to use the guise of Scott & Scott Securities as a cover this time.
“This is a disaster.” Luke swiped at the snow hitting his face and curled his hand into a fist. “If only this woman had shown up tomorrow.”
“Yeah, talk about shit timing,” Knox said when Jessica came before them with her phone in hand.
“I got the GPS location to where Ender was headed, but I’m assuming when these assholes don’t check in, Malik won’t show at the rendezvous.”
“You’re still certain Ender and Malik are working together?” Luke asked.
“Why? Something happen back there that’s given you doubts?” Jessica asked.
Luke thought back to what went down at the cabin. “If Malik really had his brother killed, why would Ender work with him? Why would Ender work with the man who murdered his dad?” Luke scratched at his chin, wet from the falling snow.
“We’ve been through this before: that’s the intel we were given,” she said, but he sensed the echo of suspicion in her voice as well. The intelligence passed on to them wasn’t always accurate.
He pinched his shoulder blades together for a moment and relaxed them. “I don’t want to make assumptions at this point. We need to keep Ender alive so we can find out what’s actually going on.”
“You know he won’t roll over. There’s a reason Ender wasn’t at the meet four weeks ago with his father. He didn’t approve of the deal his dad made with the CIA, which is probably why his dad didn’t give him his code,” Jessica replied.
Speculation, he thought, but kept it to himself this time. Jessica had more faith in the CIA than he did since she used to be an agent.
“Ender had to have been there watching the meet, or he wouldn’t have known to follow the CIA operative after the mission went to hell,” Knox chimed in.
“I doubt he’ll give up the second code. Hell, he may not even know it himself. Malik may not have told him.” Jessica tapped at the screen on her phone. “Our men are now en-route to the location where Ender was planning to take you.”
“Which was where?” Luke asked.
“North of Poughkeepsie, about eighty miles outside Brooklyn.”
“No one will be there.” Luke cracked his neck and leaned against one of the SUVs, his mind running through all the different scenarios they had planned for, none of which had actually happened.
“Nothing like a five-foot-five brunette to fuck shit up. Who would’ve thought? Guess we ought to update our contingency plans,” Knox said sarcastically, his Southern drawl dragging through his words. “You think we can turn these goddamn lemons into some lemonade?”
A tight smile met Jessica’s lips. “If you’re suggesting we make a trade with Malik—first, we’ve got to find where he’s hiding . . . and second, I doubt Ender’s life is valuable enough for him to make that deal.”
“Shit, we gotta try something,” Knox responded.
“We’ll figure it out, but Sleeping Beauty’s caught up in the middle of this all now, too.” Luke’s teeth clamped tight.
“We can’t let her talk to the press or police,” Jess responded while staring at the ground, a scowl on her face. She hated failing as much as he did.
“I’m not just talking about that. Before Ender and his men brought Eva into the cabin, they took my picture, but—”
“We accounted for that. They’ll get the match we planted for you,” Jessica interrupted.
Luke shook his head. “Yeah, well, we didn’t account for them taking a picture of her.”
“Christ. Do you think Ender already texted or uploaded her image?” she asked.
“Get Ender’s phone unlocked and decrypted as soon as possible, but let’s assume the worst. We’ll need to protect her,” Luke said.
Her hands rested on her fatigue-covered hips. “President Rydell’s waiting for news. Will can’t leave him hanging. We’ll have to let him know the mission’s been compromised.”<
br />
Failure wasn’t an option, though. The SEALs liked to say the only easy day was yesterday, and God, was that true, especially right now.
“Don’t tell him anything yet.”
“You want me to lie to the president?” She took a tentative step his way.
“Have Will tell him there’s been a change in plans. Tell him we have Ender in custody now, and we’ll update with new details soon.”
“And if Ender remains comatose, then what? We can’t keep this from POTUS. We have seven dead bodies on our hands.” Her shoulders squared back with frustration.
“You could’ve kept some of them alive—and maybe left Ender in better condition.” A crease formed in Luke’s brow.
“Ha! You’re no one to talk after what you did three weeks ago,” she exclaimed.
“That wasn’t my fault,” Luke grumbled.
“Whether Ender survives the night or not . . . we need to figure out another way to find Malik,” she said.
“Well, Malik needs the code as much as I need his, so he’ll be looking for me.” Luke spotted his teammate Owen walking up the road in their direction.
“Sorry I’m late,” Owen said. “When I went in to get your girl and discovered she’d been taken, too—”
“My girl?” Luke rolled his eyes. She was about the last woman he ever wanted to see again right about now.
How the hell had a writer screwed up one of the most important missions his team had been on since starting five years ago?
“Guess we chose the wrong place to lure Malik’s men to,” Owen said. “What do we know about this Eva Sharp woman?”
“I only did a quick background check on her before we signed the rental agreement. She didn’t matter then,” Jessica answered.
“Looks like she matters now.” Owen jerked his thumb toward the SUV. “Can’t exactly ditch her along with these terrorist motherfuckers.”
Failure.
Fuck failure.
“Hell, we blew the op to save her, so we’re going to have to ensure she stays alive and kicking.” Luke tensed. “Especially if Ender got the chance to tell Malik what I told him.”
“Which was?”
“She knows half the ten-digit code, and I know the other half,” he added dryly.
“You did what?” Jessica came before him, ignoring the snowflakes catching in her long eyelashes.
“What choice did I have? They’d have put a bullet in her head.”
“So, not only do they have a picture of Eva, they’ll want her brought in as much as you.” Jessica blew out a breath. “Just great.”
Owen secured his pistol and looked up at them, placing his hand as a visor to shield himself from the high beams from the nearby SUV headlights.
“You guys handle the bodies and let me know as soon as our men reach Poughkeepsie,” Luke instructed and then went over to the other SUV with Sleeping Beauty in it. “And give me hourly updates on Ender’s status. Keep the prick alive.”
“And what will you do?” Jessica asked as he got behind the wheel of the Range Rover.
“Get Eva somewhere safe,” he answered. “Let me know if you find anything of use off the phones.”
Jessica nodded. “Malik’s going to be pissed when Ender doesn’t report. He’ll assume all his people are dead.”
“Malik allegedly killed his own brother, so tomato fucking toe-mah-to. He’ll only be upset that he doesn’t have me.” Luke slammed the door shut and started up the car.
Jessica knocked on the window. “You forgot your go-bag,” she said as it scrolled down. “Your new ID, credit cards, and cash are inside. Plus, your favorite firearm, of course.”
“Thanks.” He nodded and set it on the passenger seat. “Be safe.”
“You, too.”
He shifted the rearview mirror to catch sight of Eva lying in the back, asleep. “Now what the hell am I going to do with you?”
He checked his burner phone when it began to ring and went into the hotel bathroom and closed the door, hoping not to wake up Eva. “Tell me you have news,” he said straight away.
“The address brought our people to an abandoned factory. And unfortunately, no one was there. We have two men in position, but I’m betting Malik and his men won’t show,” Jessica said.
“If Malik ever planned on showing.” Luke stared at his tired eyes in the mirror, wishing this had all ended as planned. “What’s Ender’s status?”
“Still breathing, and our very expensive doctor is trying to keep him that way. Ender’s under the knife now.”
“Okay. Good.” He swiped his hand down his face, allowing it to fall back to the countertop. “If the same people who were after Malik’s brother are now after him . . . he’ll be getting desperate, especially with Ender off the grid.”
“Malik may have already cut a deal with the terrorists. His brother’s death and the safe in exchange for his own safety.”
“These are all guesses. But if you’re right, and Malik doesn’t hand these people over both access codes for the safe, someone will be out for his blood. And although it’d be nice to have someone else take him out for us—”
“POTUS still needs Malik’s code and the location of the safe,” Jessica finished for him.
“We’ll get it,” he said as confidently as possible. “But I don’t want to stay at this hotel for another night. Can you find me some place to bring her?”
“You planning on babysitting this woman?”
It wasn’t his idea of a good time, but what choice did he have? It was his responsibility now, since he had gotten an innocent woman involved in this mess. “For now.”
“Never thought I’d see the day when my big brother played house.”
His lips pressed into a tight line as he fought the urge to offer a snarky retort.
“And, Luke, we’ve already screwed this woman’s life up enough . . . so don’t complicate shit with her.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” He stood erect and backed away from the counter, eying the door, wondering when Eva would wake. He didn’t know how potent a dose Knox had given her.
“I know you.” She cleared her throat. “You and a gorgeous woman alone for however long sounds like a shit combo to me. Maybe there’s a reason why you’ve never been assigned to babysitting.”
“Because I’m too fucking valuable.”
Jessica went quiet, and he knew he’d probably pissed her off.
“You get their phones unlocked?” he asked.
“Yeah, I was about to bring that up before I got distracted.”
He mumbled under his breath. “And?”
“The photos were sent, but the receiving phone line’s been killed. We can’t ping a location.”
“Great.” He dropped a mouthful of curses. “Just get me a place that’s owned by a spook and not being used.” He paused for a moment as he thought about Eva. “And when you have the name of whoever will be stocking the place, get it to me. I have a few special requests.”
Chapter Six
“What’d you do to me?” She sat upright and blinked a few times, trying to focus on her surroundings.
She was on a bed and in what appeared to be a hotel room. Her jacket and boots were off, but she was still clothed, thank God.
“We gave you something to help you relax.” Luke tucked his hands in his khaki fatigue pockets. “Can you see without your glasses?”
She was still too tired to even feel angry. “Those are a Clark Kent thing,” she said softly, in a bit of a daze.
“A what?”
“I, uh, don’t need them.”
Luke stood alongside the bed now, and she eyed the veins on his forearms like they were a decadent showcase of male power. When he shifted a step back, she also spotted ink peeking out from beneath his black short sleeve shirt.
“You didn’t need to drug me. I would’ve come willingly.”
“Sorry, but we couldn’t take any chances.” His blue eyes darkened for a moment as his gaze swe
pt up the length of her body before seizing hold of her eyes.
Even in a semi-foggy state, there was something about this man that both calmed her and made her shaky. “Where am I?”
“Somewhere safe.” He cocked his head. “Why don’t you go back to sleep? We’ll be leaving in a few hours.”
“Leaving to where? People are going to worry when I don’t check in. I-I need to make a call.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re in danger.”
“What are you talking about?” She thought back to the whirlwind of a night that had happened . . . well, she wasn’t sure when it had happened. Had it been hours ago or days? How long had she been asleep? Her stomach tightened, hunger stirring inside. “You told those men I had a code.” Her eyes closed with the memory. “You did it to keep me alive. I remember now. So, you think they’ll come after me?”
“Most likely.”
“Are you going to use me as bait?”
“The thought has crossed my mind.”
His words had her eyes opening, her chin lifting to look at him. A hint of a smile brushed across his face so fast she almost missed it. “Didn’t you kill everyone?”
“Most, but the important ones are alive.” He pressed his back to a closed window and continued to study her.
“Who do you work for?”
“We’ve been through this before. It’s still classified,” he said, his voice all cloak-and-dagger-like. “Boyfriend? Husband? Who might wonder where you are?”
Her lips pursed in thought. “My brother’s very protective. He’s the one who called. I didn’t think to turn off my phone in the haste to try and get to safety.”
He went over to the desk for a minute. “Who’s your brother?”
She didn’t want to tell him his name, but she had a feeling he’d find out anyway. “Harrison Reed,” she said softly. “Can you let him know I’m okay?”
“Give me his number, and we’ll send a message. We’ll have it appear to be coming from you and out of New York.”
Finding His Mark (Stealth Ops Book 1) Page 5