One Shot [IAD Agency 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Laurie Roma

  What the hell is wrong with me?

  Not insulted in the least, Bella shook her head and laughed out loud. “The wedding is pretty much planned. Less than three weeks to go. You don’t even know what we were talking about, do you?”

  Tara’s blank face made all the women laugh.

  “We were talking about bachelorette parties,” Liz explained. “Obviously you weren’t listening to us.”

  Okay, now that she could get into.

  Feeling slightly guilty, Tara tried to relax. “Look, Bella, I’m just not good at this planning stuff. Your bachelorette party I can do, I can plan that for you no problem. All this other stuff…I’m sorry, I’ll try to pay attention. I know this is important to you.”

  She pressed her fingertips to her temple to try to relieve the pressure lurking there. Her recent excursion to Cape Town had been a tough one. Although the debriefing was finished, memories of the mission stayed with her like a bad hangover. Christ, she needed a vacation. Only, people like her didn’t take vacations. Perhaps she just needed to stay busy and go on another assignment, pronto.

  “Sorry, I’m just tired,” Tara murmured absently.

  A look of concern crossed Bella’s face as she reached a hand out to touch Tara’s arm. “Are you okay? I’m sorry, sweetie. You just got back from god knows where, and here I am forcing you to deal with my wedding crap. You should be in bed getting some sleep or relaxing.”

  That was one of the perks of having your best friends know your darkest secret. Tara didn’t have to hide from them, or lie about what she did. On the other hand, having people care was a bitch.

  Tara didn’t want anyone’s freaking sympathy.

  She was a counterterrorist agent for Christ’s sake, she could damn well handle some wedding plans. Son of a bitch, she needed to be alone when she was in this kind of mood. Not fit for human consumption on any level, she needed something to keep her busy. Something hard, something dangerous. She needed to get away from her friends who were looking at her with all that compassion in their eyes before she screamed.

  Tara waved a hand dismissively. “I’m fine, Bell. Don’t worry about me.” She managed a smile for her friends. “You know, just had a little too much fun in the sun and all that. Gotta love South Africa. I must be depressed being back here with all this snow.”

  “Is that where you were?” Liz asked, truly intrigued. “I always wanted to go cage diving with the great white sharks down there, but I don’t think I have enough courage to do it in reality.” Although Bella knew about IAD, Liz still thought they were all agents of Mac Securities, still a dangerous job, but nothing compared to the truth. They tried to keep any information as vague as possible, but Tara wondered how much Liz actually knew.

  Tara held her easygoing expression by force of sheer will and determination. Deep down she was screaming inside. At the very mention of sharks her blood froze. She had been part of a task force working in conjunction with CIA operatives to retrieve three canisters of stolen biological agents in Cape Town. During the joint operation, the team had been forced to find cover in the water before the charges they had placed up on a bluff blew them all to high hell.

  Local authorities had screwed with their case big-time and the situation had gone FUBAR pretty damn quick. They had been able to recover two of the canisters, but the surviving Tango had been able to get away with one. Needing immediate extraction and unable to wait for airtranspo, Tara’s team had been forced to swim miles to safety amidst the hazardous rocks falling from above. With a few of the agents wounded, that was never a good situation and Tara had watched in horror as sharks drawn to the scent of blood in the water had ripped two members of their team to pieces.

  No words could describe what that had been like.

  Tara tried to be flippant and winked at Liz. “Yeah, it’s been snowing here for weeks now and I thought a little sun might cheer me up.”

  Bella and Liz had quickly learned that the trips that all of them took were never just for fun but they smiled just as Tara had intended. They didn’t know what happened and, by god, she would keep it that way. No one should have to deal with that shit, but Mikayla as a fellow agent knew better.

  Tara wasn’t fooling her.

  As a sniper, Mikayla “Lynx” Lincoln had been on her own share of dangerous missions. She had eyes like a hawk and never missed what she was aiming at. Mikayla had read the brief on the mission and knew exactly what Tara had been doing in South Africa. The sympathy in her striking violet eyes was almost more than Tara could bear at the moment.

  Unable to stand the conversation any longer, Tara tried diversionary tactics. “What were we talking about? Oh yeah, the bachelorette party.”

  “I’m not having one.”

  Tara gasped. “Not having a bachelorette party? Well, crap…that’s the only fun part about a wedding!”

  Bella laughed at her friend. “Jason and I decided not to follow that little tradition. He doesn’t want to go out and see a bunch of strippers and I don’t want him killing whatever poor soul you would hire to dance for us.”

  “Hmm.”

  Tara took a moment to think about that one. Yeah, Jason would kill any other man Bella saw naked, but she still had to pout a little. “I guess you’re right. Damn it, I was looking forward to that part, though.”

  The women all laughed.

  Mikayla looked out of the apartment window with a grimace. “If it keeps snowing like this, you’re sure going to get that winter white wedding you wanted.”

  Bella gave a happy sigh of contentment. “I know.”

  “I think it’s so romantic that you’re getting married on Christmas Day,” Liz sighed.

  “At least Jason won’t ever forget your anniversary,” Tara added.

  Like he ever would. Jason MacBain would forget his own name before he forgot something as important as the day he married the woman he loved.

  Tara’s phone pinged an incoming text, cutting off further conversation. Mikayla’s phone issued a similar sound. They quickly read their messages and Mikayla rose from her chair, smiling in apology.

  “Work calls.”

  “Sorry, B.” Tara tried for a look of reticence but knew she failed as Bella laughed.

  “No, you’re not but that’s okay.” Bella giggled. “I’m not trying to torture you and believe me I know this is torture for you. Go ahead. Come back up for dinner if you can.”

  “Are you cooking?” Tara asked hopefully.

  Bella laughed. “You know it.”

  “Then hell yeah, we’ll be back. Thanks. See you guys later.” Tara squeezed Bella’s shoulder as she passed by her chair. As she and Mikayla made their way out of the apartment, Tara hoped that no one heard the sigh of relief that escaped.

  Chapter Two

  “Whatever the assignment is, I’m in.”

  Tara spoke as she strolled into the room a few steps ahead of Mikayla. Jason MacBain stood at the head of the conference table where the members of his elite team of field agents had their briefings. The walls were a slate gray and the room housed the most elaborate set of electronics anywhere on earth. IAD didn’t mess around when it came to their equipment. If someone could dream up an idea, then the IAD geek-squad had probably figured out a way to create it.

  Nothing but the best was acceptable.

  The levels of IAD were located in the subbasement below the apartment complex where they all lived, not in the Mac Securities building next door where most of the agents worked as a cover. The sublevels of the building were reinforced, so well protected that even if a nuclear bomb was dropped on the city it wouldn’t be destroyed.

  Sal Moretti stood off to the side pouring himself a cup of coffee. He turned with a wink when the women entered the room. Bella’s oldest brother Sal was a big man, with arms like torpedoes and a heart of gold. He was officially an agent-in-transition. IAD only recruited field-ready agents, but working for the agency required that they were prepared for anything and that meant extensive prepara
tion. Any time a new agent was activated, they went through three months of training on anything and everything that might be useful in the field. It covered everything from bomb making to electronics to hand-to-hand combat. The agents mostly worked in teams but often had to go it alone if the situation called for it. The transition phase helped prepare the agents to handle whatever might be thrown at them, and from personal experience, Tara knew that the training was necessary to stay alive.

  Tara had been the one to suggest pulling Sal into IAD. She had been working to take down an arms dealer’s network for three long months before Sal stumbled onto the op by accident. He’d been an Army Ranger when Tara had saved him and one of the men from his unit in Budapest. Sal never knew that Tara was a covert agent before that moment.

  Since Tara had always been like a little sister to Sal, he had been royally pissed when he found out what she really did for a living, although he’d been smart enough to wait until they’d reached a clean room with no surveillance to let her have it. He could never stand to see any of his girls in danger and it had taken quite a bit of adjusting for him to work with her.

  Not that he had much of a choice. She was the senior agent, after all. They’d gotten the job done and he’d taken some time to clear things up with his unit before officially transferring to IAD. He had been a good soldier, following the rules and regulations set forth by the military, but IAD worked on a different scale.

  Their motto was to get it done, no matter the costs.

  For some, learning how to operate under a different set of rules was difficult to get used to, but Sal seemed at ease with the change. Like most of the agents, Sal had always had a strong protective streak. With IAD he put it to good use, only on a larger scale.

  Mikayla quickly joined Sal at the coffee pot. Those who knew her well knew that Mikayla would put coffee through an IV, straight into her veins if she could. She raised an empty cup in silent question but Tara declined her offer with the shake of her head.

  Her gaze drifted across the room and settled on the two large men already seated at the conference table. Adrian and Ryan “Rock” Savage were twins, two dangerously appealing men and two of her closest friends. They were identical in appearance, except for their hair. Rock, with his head shaved, looked all kinds of wicked while Adrian had his hair fashioned in short, dark-brown, stylish spikes. Both had arresting emerald-green eyes that sparkled with affection every time they looked at her, and she had a special place in her heart for them.

  The twins had a unique bond that most people couldn’t understand. They acted as one and understood each other without speaking. Tara had met them on one of her first missions with the CIA, where everything had gone to hell and she knew without a doubt that she’d never have survived without their help.

  The three of them had been stuck in Afghanistan out in the desert. Cut off from all aid for three days, they had learned to depend on one another and had gotten to know each other pretty damn quick. They had shared the warmth of easy companionship with each other during that time together, and since then they had developed a love for each other that had transitioned to that of family.

  The twins had expressed an interest in taking their relationship further, but Tara just couldn’t go there. Over the years she had wished with all her heart that she could love them the way they had wanted, but she realized that she just wasn’t the girl for them.

  She was too hard, too controlling, too much like them.

  Tara resigned herself to accept that she just wasn’t capable of falling in love. She had been screwed over too many times in her life, especially by the people who were supposed to care for her the most. No, trust certainly did not come easy for her and to her mind, trust was essential for love.

  Although Tara had many friends, few people truly knew the real her. The twins were of the select few that did. She had let them in more than anyone else in her life, besides her old partner. Overall, they had walked away from that shitty assignment still breathing, with a bond formed between them that would never be broken.

  Shaking off the past, Tara looked around the room and was grateful for the men and women she worked with, feeling a deep sense of pride at what they had accomplished together over the years. Tara walked over to Jason and punched him lightly on the arm. Startled gray eyes met hers and she snickered with wicked glee. Jason was still not used to her friendly manner and she got a kick out of how off-balance she could make him.

  “Thanks for getting me out of wedding planning duty. Whatever the assignment is, sign me up.”

  Jason MacBain’s stoic expression eased into a smile, a smile that she had never seen before he had met and fallen in love with Bella.

  “So you just want to avoid all the girlie things they have planned for you?”

  Rock had gotten up and moved over a chair, leaving the chair in between the twins for Tara like they always did. She sat down immediately in the comfortable black leather and leaned back.

  “It’s not that bad,” Mikayla protested as she took her seat across the table.

  “Yes, it is. I’m going to have nightmares for a month from all the talk about color schemes and ribbons and lace.” Tara gave a mock shudder that had them all laughing. Although she embraced her femininity and was a sensual woman, Tara couldn’t stand certain girlie activities. She would rather be shooting at someone armed and dangerous than planning a party.

  Sal sat down next to Mikayla. “Knowing my sister, Bella probably won’t need either of you to do anything besides show up.” He cast a knowing glance Tara’s way. “Besides, I doubt you were listening anyways.”

  “Damn right, I fell into a coma about an hour ago.” Tara waited for the snickers to fade to ask, “So, what’s up, boss?”

  Jason expression cleared of all mirth. “New mission. We have to save the world.”

  “That again?” Adrian quipped.

  “Didn’t we do that last week?” Rock asked dryly, making Tara snort out a laugh.

  “Focus, people.” Jason hit a button that brought pictures and information up on the large screen centered on one of the walls. Tara immediately saw that it was the recap of her last mission.

  “As you know, Tara’s team recovered two canisters of stolen biological agents in South Africa a few days ago. A sample of the virus was sent to our labs in Germany and we now know that that the substance was a mutated version of sarin.”

  The room was completely silent as the impact of that statement settled over them.

  Sarin was a deadly nerve agent. It was a clear, odorless, tasteless liquid that, when evaporated into gas form, spread easily in the air. It was a nasty chemical that could shut down a human body within minutes of exposure, resulting in death.

  “This is some seriously bad stuff and the virus has been genetically spliced for easier dispersal from liquid to gas form with a longer life cycle. Where normally it would dissipate within a few minutes, our experts have confirmed this mutated version remains active for approximately an hour after it changes to gas.”

  “Fuck.”

  Jason nodded. “Exactly. Now that we know what we are dealing with it makes it even more imperative that we recover the missing canister. Unfortunately, someone dropped the ball and somehow the missing canister is now here in the US, waiting to be sold to a third party.”

  Rock jerked to attention in his seat. “What the fuck?”

  “That’s not one ball, that is a whole shit load dropped all over the damn place.” Tara’s voice nearly dripped with disgust. “Who screwed this up and please tell me they are no longer breathing?”

  “The FBI blocked all other agencies from coordinating on the takedown. In doing so they failed to apprehend the Tango carrying the canister and lost him. Bishop is en route to the FBI office with Sin, who was in town for a meeting. Trust me, they are ready to kick whatever ass is needed.”

  Brett “Bishop” Michaels was the cohead of the Midwest branch of IAD along with Jason. Sinclair “Sin” Hamilton was one of the IA
D Commanders who coordinated all of the branches around the world. His main focus was the divisions located within the United States, but he had eyes and ears everywhere.

  There were very few individuals that intimidated Tara, but Sin Hamilton scared the shit out of her. Tara had no problem believing they would take care of whoever screwed up.

  “Fucking feebs,” Sal sneered. “Now they want our help?”

  Jason’s smile was deadly. “They really don’t have a goddamn choice at this point.”

  “Good.”

  “The FBI is scrambling to find the seller and recover the canister, but they don’t have the intel our network has put together, and I’m not about to share what we have with them just so they can fuck it up again. Once Bishop collects whatever data they have, he’ll send it back to us. On to what we do know, we have confirmed that the canister has been put up for sale to a few select individuals. The final auction and tradeoff will be held in Las Vegas in approximately three weeks.”

  Tara looked at the picture of the seller, John Gorin that was up on the screen. He was a black-market dealer who was a particular favorite to terrorist groups, since he would sell his own mother if it were for the right price.

  “Just tell me where this asshole is and let me pop his head off,” Mikayla demanded.

  Tara wished it would be that simple.

  “If only,” Sal agreed.

  Mikayla tapped a finger on her lips, pondering. “How solid is our info? Coming back to the US was certainly a big risk. Why come back here?”

  “Tara and her team took down most of John Gorin’s network in South Africa a few days ago. Gorin came back here because three of his biggest clients happen to be in the area and he’s hoping to make a quick sale. We are going to disappoint him.”

  “Damn right we are,” Rock stated. “How did we find out about the sale?”

  “That’s where things get interesting. We received an encoded message a few hours ago on the hard line.” Jason brought up another image on screen. “This is a copy of the message. From the Phoenix.”