by Lucy Monroe
Roman nodded, but left it to Neil to fill in his fellow techno-geek on the details.
“So, you think Sympa-Med is involved?” Kadin asked when the other men fell silent.
Roman nodded. “What I don’t know is whether anyone local is in on it too.”
Ben gave an almost not there flinch and grimace.
Roman sighed again. “Right. Dr. Andikan might be the local contact.”
He waited for Ben to refute him, but the other man just tightened his jaw.
“What do you think?” Roman asked him, pushing for an answer.
“I think she’s been through hell and back and would do almost anything to ensure stability and safety for her adopted daughter, Johari.”
“That’s the way I read it too.” Unfortunately. Tanya considered the doctor her friend.
“So, what do we do?” Kadin asked, always more interested in action than talking.
Roman met his gaze squarely. “We find out who the hell is casing the compound.”
“Those U.S. soldiers in the roadblock yesterday worry me,” Drew said with a frown.
Roman agreed and it pissed him off no end. “Me too. Colonel Idiot may have decided to handle his problem in-house after all.” If that had happened, Roman would deal with the man when he got back Stateside. No one messed with his operation, not even the men who ordered it into existence.
Ben’s mouth curved with dry amusement as he asked, “Colonel Idiot?”
“The Army brass that requested our presence,” Kadin clarified. “He wanted us to kill Tanya.”
All amusement drained from Ben’s expression. “I was afraid of that.”
Roman was impressed with the other man’s ability to read the situation as well as he had. He’d make a good Atrati agent. Of course, he didn’t know if he could handle more than one Spazz on his team.
“But our actual directive is to plug the leak,” Neil reminded everyone.
“Which killing her would only do in the short term,” Roman said.
Kadin glared at him, while Neil just shook his head. Ben gave Roman a probing look, but it held no judgment. Drew sat there blinking as if he was still taking everything in. Roman knew it was just a front. The man was no doubt plotting at light-speed times ten. He thrived in complicated situations like this one, which made him good for the Atrati. Roman had yet to be on a simple mission.
“We need to get the JCAT software off the chip, if it’s there,” Neil said, giving a sop to the remote possibility they were on the wrong track. But the expression on his face and everyone else’s said that they were as convinced as Roman that Tanya had been made an unwitting mule. “We can use the hand-held scanner you took from the soldiers and see if it works.”
“Right.” Ben frowned. “Unfortunately, we can’t assume the data transfer will erase the chip.”
Which meant that until the chip was destroyed, the JCAT was at risk. “So, we have to get the chip out of her.”
Roman gave Face a pointed look. Face’s Ph.D. was in psychology, but he’d trained in emergency field medicine and could dig out a bullet or administer an I.V. when the need arose. Their team’s usual field medic had not been assigned to this operation. She’d been on leave and Roman hadn’t thought he needed to recall her.
Face shrugged. “I’ll do it if I have to, Geronimo, but I’ve got a better idea.”
“What?”
“We want to know if the lovely Dr. Andikan is in on the espionage, right?”
“It would help my case, yes,” Ben said mildly enough, but irritation had flashed when Drew called the doctor lovely.
Roman said, “If she’s part of the leak, she’s under our purview as well.”
“Right.” Drew smiled that smile he got which should put fear in grown men, but usually just put others at ease. “We ask her to remove it.”
Roman tried to figure it out but, not for the first time, he had no idea where Drew was going with this idea. “On what grounds?”
“We tell her the truth.” Drew spoke as if that should be the most obvious conclusion to draw.
“And tip our hand if she is in on it?” Kadin demanded, not even pretending to think it was a good idea.
“Watching her afterward will tell us all we need to know about her,” Drew assured them. “We’re good at that, spying on people who don’t suspect us. She’ll assume we don’t suspect her because we took her into our confidence. She’ll act accordingly.”
“Sometimes, I think you overmanipulate, Face.”
Drew shook his head. “Nah, this is my specialty. I’ve been watching everyone, including the beautiful doctor, since we arrived. This plan will work.”
Ben went still at Drew’s second compliment to Dr. Andikan’s looks. The quality of that stillness was similar to that of a predator waiting to strike. Drew should recognize it. Roman didn’t know if his friend was deliberately egging the other man on, or had not yet recognized the danger to himself. He had a hard time believing either, no matter how many times he’d seen Drew skirt the line of death in the past.
“And if she’s innocent?” Ben asked, his voice showing no sign of the predatory danger now lurking inside him.
“She’s going to suspect Sympa-Med,” Drew postulated.
“Then what?”
“She’ll start looking for a way out of the program.” Drew met Ben’s gaze with assurance. “You said her driving motivation is to keep her daughter safe. She’ll want to get out before Sympa-Med goes down.”
“So, she won’t tell us of her suspicions?” Roman asked.
“The woman is more than passin’ smart, chief. She’ll have figured out we suspect them already.”
Okay. Drew’s plan was starting to make sense, but Roman required proof the JCAT was on the chip before putting it into action. “First things first. We get the scanner near Tanya’s chip.”
“Another sex-for-the-job moment?” Kadin sneered.
“It’s the job, damn it. Besides, she knows I’m going to be gone soon. She’s not looking for commitment or love everlasting,” Roman ground out between clenched teeth.
“Yeah, well maybe you should be.”
Ah, shit, not this again. “Drop it.”
“Consider it dropped.” Yeah, like Roman believed him. Kadin was nothing if not stubborn.
Damn it.
Drew was looking at them both speculatively. Roman scowled at him. “You got something to say?”
“Not a word. Well, maybe just one. The sooner you activate that scanner, the better.”
“I’m aware of that.”
Drew went on as if Roman hadn’t spoken. “If whoever is casing the compound kills Tanya, I think our Kadin is going to go AWOL to track them down and wreak his vengeance.”
Kadin wouldn’t be alone, but Roman knew better than to say so. Hell, he could barely believe he’d thought it. Shit. Piss. Damn. If he didn’t watch himself, this assignment was going fubar and he wasn’t going to let that happen.
Kadin let out a heavy sigh. “She reminds me of my little sister.”
“You got a kid sister?” Neil asked with justifiable shock.
Kadin had never mentioned her before.
“She was killed. I didn’t keep her safe.” The former MARSOC assassin turned away and headed for the bedroom. “I’m going to get some shuteye.”
Neil said a word Roman echoed in his own thoughts. No wonder the man had been so protective of Tanya since they’d arrived. Roman couldn’t help feeling some relief too, that his friend clearly did not see Tanya in a sexual light. Kadin had said so before, but now Roman believed him.
He would have hated to have to maim a good man.
Fleur woke feeling more at peace than she had since before the Tutsi massacre. She ran her hand along the blanket tucked securely around her. Had she truly allowed Bennet Vincent to hold her while she cried like a broken child? And fallen asleep? On him, much less simply with someone else in the room. She had not done so, except in her daughter’s presence, since she wa
s a child.
And yet, last night…she had done all of that.
And it had felt good. Better than good, it had felt safe. Tears she had never allowed herself the luxury of shedding had cleansed her in a way she had not been able to accomplish, no matter how hard she tried.
The memories of her rape were still there, still horrible, but they now seemed a step away from her present reality. It was not quite as if they had happened to someone else, but close. She knew it had been her, how could she not? But in the years since, she had grown and become someone other than the naïve, rather spoiled girl she had been fifteen years ago. Someone other than the woman whose feminine power had been ripped from her with such brutality that she had not wanted anyone to touch her in more than a decade.
How could this man, this American, help her heal when others had been unable to? The answer lay within her. She had told him a truth she’d hidden from almost everyone else.
It didn’t matter why, not really; all that mattered was that she had opened up and in doing so lanced the wound so poison could drain away in her tears.
“Mama, will you fix my braids for school? They are not so neat,” Johari called from her room across the hall.
Smiling, Fleur got up from her bed. A quick look down at her rumpled clothes made her smile grow. Ben had maintained her modesty. “I will be right there, child. Be patient.”
“I’m always patient, Mama. Tanna says so. She say I am the most patient little girl she know.”
“She says and she knows,” Fleur corrected her as she quickly changed her turban and clothing for something fresher.
“I remember,” Johari assured her.
Fleur shook her head with a small chuckle as she headed for her daughter’s room. Johari always said she remembered, even when she didn’t. Tanya’s door was still shut. The other woman must still be sleeping. For her to do so despite Johari’s morning chatter meant she must be very tired. They were not so busy today that she could not be allowed a small ly-in; Tanya put in long hours.
Ben was already in the dining hall when Fleur and Johari arrived to break their morning fast.
Johari ran to the man and gave him a hug in greeting, which he returned with a warm smile. “Do you like my braids? Mama made them fancy this morning.”
Fleur had rebraided the ones that had gotten straggly and tied them all back with a bright ribbon. She smiled at Ben and said indulgently, “She believes ribbons to be the height of fashion.”
“Aren’t they? For a girl her age?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Oh, they are.” Johari patted her hair self-consciously, looking so pleased Fleur’s heart ached. She was so different from the child that Fleur had taken into her life two years ago, traumatized by the loss of her parents to the violence of war.
“Sit down and eat your breakfast, child.”
“Yes, Mama. I cannot be late for school,” she told Ben. “There is an award at the end of the year.”
“For not being tardy?” Ben asked.
“Yes, and for not missing any days of school either.” Johari’s tone left no doubt she wanted those awards.
The Mission School put a premium on timely attendance, but that did not always work for the children living in out-lying villages, who often had to help care for their younger siblings before going to school in the morning. Johari’s life with Fleur was easier for her in that regard. But Fleur never deceived herself into thinking that that made up for not having the rest of her family.
Fleur missed her dead sister and lost brother with a physical ache to this day.
“How does she get there?”
“Mabu has one of his men drive her in the jeep.”
“Where is the school?” Ben asked.
She told him.
“We can drop her on our way to the mine this morning,” he offered.
Johari’s squeal of delight was not to be denied. Fleur did not even try. Instead, she said to Ben, “You are leaving early.”
“Yes, a good two hours before they are expecting us,” he replied with a wink, determined amusement lurking in his pale blue gaze.
The amusement was contagious, and she found herself smiling.
“Good for you.”
“We all do what we must.” There was a tone in his voice she did not understand, but for once such a thing did not worry her.
She trusted this man who had held her for hours in safety. “Some only do what they must, but others like you, do what is necessary.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?” Johari asked, sounding confused.
“No, sweet one, often the two are far apart, but Ben will make sure they overlap in his job.” Fleur allowed all the admiration she felt for him to show in her eyes.
His widened and then darkened with that tender desire she found so intriguing.
“His job is important, isn’t it, Mama?” Johari asked.
“Yes, child.” Fleur gave Ben a warm smile she usually reserved for the few people she called friend. After last night, she could give him that moniker and perhaps even more.
“I will do what is necessary on all fronts.” He gritted his teeth, but a small yawn escaped. He shook his head. “Sorry.”
“You are tired?”
“I did not find my bed until dawn.”
She had to process what that meant. First, that he had gotten almost no sleep, considering dawn had only been a couple of hours ago. But second, it meant he had not left her for almost the whole night. He had held her while she slept. And done nothing to compromise her safety or privacy.
She reached out in a rare act and laid her hand over his. “Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure.” Eyes the color of the summer sky warmed and he turned his hand over, holding hers.
Johari gasped. “Mama, you’re holding hands with him. Are you going to be my papa?” Johari gave Ben an earnest look that was wholly adorable. “Mama said I would never have a papa, but sometimes even moms are wrong.”
Even as embarrassment at her daughter’s words filled her, Fleur had no desire to remove her hand. Or look away from Ben.
He winked at Fleur and then grinned at Johari. “Holding hands is not quite an expression of intent to marry, princess, but I do enjoy holding your mom’s hand. Do you mind?”
“Oh, no. I like you lots. You can call me a princess any time you like too,” she offered with childish graciousness.
Ben nodded solemnly. “Thank you.”
Fleur swore her hand tingled from the touch all through her morning clinic.
Tanya woke well after her normal time. She stretched her body, reveling in the unfamiliar aches. She was going to use every single one of her allotted minutes to shower this morning. After she got up. Later. She rolled over and buried her face in her pillow.
She was dozing, snuggled into her bed when her satellite phone rang. The sound so jarred her, she jumped from the bed, diving for the clunky black device, which looked more like a long-range walkie-talkie than a phone. She pressed the connect button and waited a few seconds before the buzzing air indicated there was another person on the other end of the call.
“Beau?”
“It’s Mom.”
“Mom?” Tanya squeaked, her heart jolting in shock. Her mother never called between their once-a-month scheduled calls. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s your father.”
“Dad? What happened?” She sent up a silent prayer for her father’s health as fear took hold and she waited with trepidation for her mother’s answer.
“He’s been shot.”
“Shot?” Her legs giving way, Tanya fell back on the bed. She couldn’t have heard right. “Mom, you didn’t say shot.”
“I did.” Instead of the tears she expected in her mother’s voice, there was an almost bemused shock.
“But—”
“He’s going to be fine. The ER doctor said he was lucky the carjacker used a small-caliber pistol and didn’t have the best aim.”
“He was carjacked?”
“Yes, and you know how much he loves that stupid car.” Tears laced her mom’s voice now. “He wasn’t about to give it up. He didn’t either. He tasered the guy as he tried to drag him from the driver’s seat.”
“He fought the carjacker?”
“He did. And he won.” The confused shock in her mom’s voice made a lot more sense now. “Listen, monkey, I’m calling to tell you about what happened, but it’s also made me realize how easily one of us could be gone tomorrow.”
Tanya was having the same revelation, so she didn’t even balk at the wave of guilt that rushed over her. Nor did she chide her mom for calling her that awful nickname from her childhood. So she’d liked to climb and had been caught on top of the refrigerator more than once before her second birthday. That was no excuse for calling her “monkey.”
Pushing aside the old mental argument, she said, “I know, Mom, I’m so sorry.”
“Me too.” Her mom’s voice broke a little. “Your dad is not a good patient. He’s going to be a bear.”
“I wish I was there,” slipped out before Tanya could bite the words back.
She waited for her mom’s “I told you so,” but got a soft sigh instead. “I wish you were here too. You don’t know how much. I could really use a hug from my daughter right now.”
Tanya’s need to be there for just that thing was so strong, it was a physical ache in the muscles of her arms. “Close your eyes and pretend I’m hugging you.”
For once, her mom didn’t argue practicality or semantics. After a beat of silence, she said, “Done. Thank you, monkey.”
“I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too. More than you’ll ever know.”
“I know you love me. I do.”
“I’m proud of you too.”
“You are?”
“Yes. I know I didn’t want you to go to Africa the first or the second time, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate what a special person it makes you for going.”
Tanya thought she was going to start crying. “Thank you, Mom.”
Silence stretched for several seconds. Tanya figured her mom was regaining her composure, just as Tanya was.