Avenging Kiss (Savage Security Book 2)

by Karen Tjebben

  As he’d started the truck, he pushed aside the image of Bella in Eric’s scrawny arms. He needed to keep that image out of his head. Besides, he knew she was relatively safe. With the yeast infection, she would definitely not be in the mood for sex, no matter how big the floral arrangement was that Eric had sent her.

  Jack walked into his house and looked around. Everything was quiet and in its place, but he was missing something. He was missing the woman of his dreams living in his home. It was so easy to picture Bella in his house. She’d look great on his porch, curled up on his couch, and naked in his bed.

  Walking into the kitchen, he dropped his backpack onto the chair. He hated bringing work home with him, but he needed to go through the video images and photos of the training camp. And he felt beyond a shadow of doubt that Lieutenant Shaw’s murder deserved his full attention. There had to be something useful in the intel that would consume his night. They’d nail the bitch that killed Shaw.

  He snagged a water bottle from the refrigerator and grabbed his cell. After ordering a pizza, he unzipped his backpack and got out his laptop. He walked down the hallway and into his office, placing the computer on his desk. Opening it, he booted up the computer.

  He still couldn’t believe that Shaw was dead, but when he’d seen the photo, there was no denying it. They all knew death was a risk they faced in their profession. They felt lucky when they finished a job and hadn’t sustained any injuries or deaths. But being killed by a woman during sex was not something they worried about.

  Leaning back in his chair, he pulled out his phone while the laptop came to life. He scrolled through his email, deleting the worthless spam emails. Then he saw a group email from a friend that he’d served with. He clicked on it and read the announcement of Lieutenant Shaw’s death. There were no details or specifics about his passing, just the information concerning Shaw’s wake and funeral. He’d need to make airline and hotel reservations, but first he needed to find Shaw’s killer.

  The doorbell rang, breaking Jack’s attention from the photos. He tapped his cell phone screen as an alert chimed that motion had been detected on his front porch. The image of the pizza delivery boy holding a pizza box popped up on the screen.

  Walking down the hallway, Jack glanced at his watch. It was already 7:00. It had taken longer than he thought for the pizza to be delivered. He’d been hungry when he got home; now he was famished. His stomach rumbled as he opened the door and took the pizza. He gave a head nod to the boy. “Have a good night,” he said as he handed the guy a tip.

  The young, pimply faced guy smiled and said, “Thanks.” He shoved the tip into his pocket and hurried down the front porch steps.

  Jack knew the kid didn’t realize how dangerous the world was. Most Americans didn’t grasp the depths of evil that threatened to flood the earth and wash away the little goodness left in man. A small part of him missed the innocence of his youth, but another part of him was thankful that he played a part in the protection of freedom.

  Jack set the pizza box on the kitchen counter and lifted the cover. The aroma of veggies mixed with sausage and pepperoni assaulted his senses. He’d smelled those damn flowers all day. It was great to have different scents flooding his mind.

  He wished he was eating pizza with Bella. She could curl up next to him on the couch while he poured through the pictures looking for any clue pertaining to the Black Widow. It would be nice to have her companionship. But she was eating dinner with Eric. The metrosexual probably took her to a hoity-toity restaurant. She’d probably like it too. She could fit in anywhere.

  Jack would take her to Holy Smokes. The quaint Mom and Pop restaurant had the best barbeque and fried chicken he’d ever tasted. Better yet, they could eat it at home so he didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing them. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off of her once they were alone and away from work.

  Jack plopped three pieces of pizza onto his plate and grabbed a beer from the fridge. He headed back to his office and took a huge bite out of one of the slices. He set the plate on the desk and clicked on the encrypted folder from work. He planned to spend the next several hours studying pictures and videos gathered by intelligence agents and the military before the bombing of the training camp. The woman linked with the Black Widow was in there, somewhere, and he’d find her.

  He clicked through the images of the men she’d killed. Their naked bodies bore her mark of shame, the descriptor ‘sinner’. Her attack must have been sudden and disabling at the first blow. The men she’d killed were dangerous killers. They were the kind of men that most men wouldn’t take on, but she had. She’d clearly been fearless. There were no hesitation marks on any of her victims. If she had hesitated, it would have been her death. She wouldn’t have stood a chance against the men in a fair fight.

  Jack didn’t know what her kill number really was. She’d probably killed men whose pictures they didn’t have because their deaths went undocumented. The tribal lands of the Middle East were centuries behind the West when it came to crime scene investigation. The only deaths that provided any DNA evidence were the ones that occurred in the larger cities.

  Manish Darzi was killed in Afghanistan at his home in Kabul. His bodyguards left him alone with a woman whose time he’d purchased. Jack found that piece of information very interesting. He wasn’t sure how Darzi had managed to buy the Black Widow like a common whore. How could she arrange for Darzi to choose her to take home? Did she have connections to these men that she was manipulating?

  Karim Nagi was killed in his hotel room in Mosul, Iraq. He was linked to several attacks throughout Indonesia. Nagi’s bodyguards were questioned, and their stories were the same. Nagi had watched a belly dancer perform during dinner. They reported that she’d been especially attentive to Nagi, teasing him with the scarves and gyrating close enough for him to touch. After the show, he’d arranged for her to be brought to his room. His men had stood guard outside the suite while Nagi received her personal attention. After several hours, the men finally entered the room and found him dead. It appeared that she’d escaped through the window in the bedroom and disappeared into the night. Within days of giving their stories to the local police, all the bodyguards died in freak accidents.

  And then there was Lieutenant Shaw. Looking at Shaw’s body was troubling. The man was a trained killer. He was big and muscled. He’d been shot several times, and his body bore the scars of shrapnel from various battles. He very rarely let his guard down, not even when they were trolling for women in bars. His eyes had always been scanning the room for trouble. There must have been something about this woman that had put him at ease. Apparently he hadn’t found any of her behavior to be suspicious. He’d let his guard down, and he ended up dead.

  Jack leaned back in his chair and raised his arms over his head as he stretched. He’d been sitting too long hunched over his computer. He stood and rolled his head and shoulders, hoping to ease the tension oppressing his body. Perhaps another water would sustain him. He quickly went to the kitchen and pulled out a bottled water, glancing at the clock on the microwave. “Where does time go?” he mumbled to himself. It was already after 8:30. He figured he’d do another hour and then relax a little.

  He settled himself back in his chair and set his water on the desk. Clicking on another image, it filled the computer screen. The photo had been taken from a distance with a telephoto lens. It was a group of men training with AK-47 submachine guns. Targets were set away from the camp so that the men shot towards the rugged mountains. The plywood tents of the camp were behind the men who were practicing their shots. Most of the men were in profile. Their dark skin and black beards was a commonality they shared. This angle of shot was poor. Very few distinguishing characteristics were visible. Jack clicked to the next photograph.

  Two women in abayas had been photographed as they walked between the tents. Although their heads were covered, they weren’t wearing a niqab, so their faces were visible. They weren�
�t fair skinned either. Jack could tell that much. But he couldn’t make out their eyes from the profile shot. One woman was definitely taller than the other, but there was no way to accurately guess their height with that shot, not enough known details.

  The next image was a video. A small group of men and women stood talking outside a tent. Although there was no dialogue, they were obviously talking animatedly with their hands. One of them turned and faced the camera.

  Jack clicked the mouse and froze the image. He leaned forward in his chair to look more intently at the image. “What the hell?” he mumbled in shock. His heart clenched. His blood turned to ice. As he rushed to stand, his chair smacked into the wall.

  “Fuck!” he shouted and grabbed his phone.

  23

  6:30 PM

  Cole hung up the phone and swiped his hand down his face. The conversation with Captain Wallace had been brief but very enlightening. Now that their intelligence had collected all the police reports on the people killed with the Black Widow’s MO, some new intel was available. There were at least six other men killed with the word ‘sinner’ carved into their chests. The Black Widow had obviously been busy.

  They’d confirmed that the woman was short, between 5’2 and 5’4. She had long black curly hair and dark eyes. They weren’t sure of her nationality. They were working under the presumption that she was either Indian or Middle Eastern.

  Cole still needed to call Tony to ask him to do a background check on Logan’s new female friend. With the news of Shaw’s death and the abundance of information on the Black Widow’s killings, he’d forgotten to make the call earlier in the day. He picked up his cell and found Tony in his contacts list.

  Tony shoveled the bowtie pasta into his mouth as he sat at his kitchen table surfing through news articles on the Web. When his cell rang, he looked at the screen and saw that the call was from Cole Savage. While he was friends with Cole, they only talked occasionally.

  Tony chewed quickly and hit speaker. “Hey, man.” He swallowed and said, “Sorry to hear about Shaw. I know you were friends.” Tony moved the fork back and forth between two fingers. He was always moving to offset the energy that seemed to constantly pulse through him.

  “He was a good man.” Cole wanted to tell Tony the details of Shaw’s death, but he couldn’t. If Captain Wallace thought Tony or his men were in danger, then he would have informed him. “But that’s not why I’m calling.”

  “What’s up?” Tony set his fork down and leaned back in his chair.

  “You know Logan Murphy?”

  “Yeah.” Tony wasn’t sure where this was headed. He hoped not to the shitter.

  “He’s got a new girlfriend.”

  Tony laughed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Let me guess. He doesn’t want to do the background check on her?”

  “He’d do it, but he doesn’t want to violate her privacy.”

  “Then he shouldn’t be dating her,” Tony teased. “Violating people’s privacy is what you do best.” His low laugh sounded gruff even in his own ear. “You want to know everything or just the basics?”

  Cole wasn’t sure. If he hadn’t heard about the Black Widow, he’d settle for the basics. But now that they needed to work under the assumption that someone was gunning for them, he should know everything about any new woman in any of their lives. “Everything,” he sighed. “Her name is Aditya Chopra.” Cole opened his email and sent the email with the attachments that he’d already prepared for Tony. “Check your email.”

  Tony tapped over to his email and opened the email from Cole. He opened the first attachment. It was her driver’s license. Tony raised his eyebrows as he checked her out. Flawless brown skin. Seductive eyes the color of melted chocolate. Perfect lips, full but not too big. Spiraling black hair that hung over her shoulders. “Wow,” Tony whistled. “How’d Logan get her?”

  Cole barked a laugh. “Miracles never cease.”

  “There may even be hope for you,” Tony teased. Maybe even hope for him.

  Cole already knew who he wanted. Julia Romero. Maybe when this was all over he’d make his move. Seeing her flirt with Jack the other night had shaken something loose in him. He needed to make his move or let her go. No more waffling, and no more worrying about what Mike wanted. “Yeah, maybe the gods will smile down on me.”

  “They have apparently smiled down on Logan. I’ll get someone on it tomorrow morning. You’ll have something by the end of day tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good. Thanks,” Cole replied. He really hoped that Tony’s guys didn’t find a checkered past on Aditya. They frequently did background checks for wealthy people. He always hated giving them bad news. He didn’t relish sharing Aditya’s worst vices and unusual proclivities with Logan.

  “Sure thing. See you around.” Tony ended the call and looked at Aditya’s picture again and smiled. Logan was a lucky guy.

  Cole shut down his computer and packed up his stuff. He needed to get out of his ergonomically designed chair before his ass and the material became one. There was still plenty of work for him to do, but he’d do it from home.

  He loaded his laptop into his backpack and turned off the lights. Shutting his office door, he realized that the stench from the flowers still filled the hallway. He’d made sure to keep his office door closed today so he wouldn’t have to smell the overwhelming fragrance and get a headache. But as Bella’s desk came into view, he saw them.

  “Damn,” he murmured under his breath. How the hell did she forget to take those things home? They nearly took up her whole desk.

  Ugh, he groaned. At least he could escape their stench while he was at home. He locked up and checked the app on his phone. All the security cameras were working.

  24

  6:15 PM

  Logan took his laptop from his backpack and set it on the desk in his home office. Gratitude that Aditya would be there soon washed over him. After the hellish day of learning about Shaw’s death and slugging his way through pictures and video, he needed to give his brain a break and relax with her for a while. The new photos and videos that he’d received right before he left work could wait a few hours.

  Trudging into his master bathroom, he turned on the shower and peeled off his clothes. He didn’t always shower after work, but he wanted to today. He wanted to feel refreshed and clean for Aditya. He’d stared at so many grotesque pictures that he hoped a shower would wash away some of the filth and horror that had seeped into his soul.

  He quickly washed his hair and soaped up his body. Refreshed, he shut off the water and wrapped a towel around his waist. He sighed as he looked at himself through the fogged mirror. Was someone really coming after them? He always knew they’d made some enemies, dangerous enemies, but he didn’t really think someone would hunt them down. Veterans returned to the States and did their best to assimilate into the population as they left that other life behind. They sure as hell didn’t want it following them around in the States.

  Logan brushed his hand through his wet hair and quickly styled it. With his natural waves, he didn’t have to do much. His hair just fell into place. He quickly stepped into jeans and pulled on his favorite Henley. Staring at the bed, he debated pulling back the comforter. Doing so would make falling into it so much easier when he brought Aditya back to his bedroom, but he didn’t want her to think he was some Neanderthal who didn’t make his bed. So he hit the light switch on his way out of his bedroom and pulled the door shut behind him.

  Mojo sat on an oversized pillow bed in the corner of Logan’s family room. The dog gnawed on a huge bone with his front paws holding it in place. The dog stopped chewing and looked up as Logan cut through the family room on his way to the kitchen.

  “Let me know when she gets here,” Logan said to Mojo. He chuckled as the dog tilted his head and then gave a loud bark in response before returning to the bone.

  He walked into the kitchen and headed straight for the cupboard that held his recipe books and a few file folders. He pulled
out the file folder that contained the take-out menus. At the sound of the folder plopping onto the counter, Mojo’s head shot up and tilted in curiosity as he stared at Logan.

  Logan opened the folder and rifled through the menus. He’d let Aditya choose. With the news of Shaw’s death, he wasn’t really that hungry.

  Mojo’s head snapped towards the front door. He gave a loud bark and headed straight for the door.

  “She here?” Logan asked. He walked towards the front door as Mojo stood patiently beside it, his tail thumping the wall.

  The doorbell rang, and Logan pulled open the door. She looked beautiful as usual, but what he liked even more was the way the tension left his body when he saw her.

  “Hi,” she cooed.

  That little word washed tranquility over Logan’s heart. He’d had a hell of a day, and he needed her. He needed comfort and affection. He wanted to feel cared for. “Hey,” he replied, settling his hands on her hips and pulling her against him. “You wore your hair up,” he said. “I like it.”

  She’d pulled part of her hair into a braided bun and secured it with Kanzashi hair sticks. The rest of her hair hung loose in curls around her shoulders. He buried his nose in her hair as she nestled her head against his chest.

  Aditya pressed the palms of her hands into his back as she listened to the steady thump of his heart. She breathed in the fresh scent of his soap and aftershave and let his masculinity wash over her. She loved the feel of his strong body pressed against hers. That was a problem.

  She was in serious trouble. She’d hunted him down, found him and his friends, and successfully infiltrated their lives. She hadn’t counted on falling for him. The more time she spent with Logan, the more she realized that he was one of the good guys. He was like her, taking out the bad guys. He’d dedicated his life to helping those too weak to help themselves, and she respected that. And that’s where everything fell apart.