Crystal had called in a few favors, even ones he hadn’t been owed, and played his theory that Kell and Reid were in Mexico, sent in to take out a gang leader turned drug lord. The information had been difficult to get, shrouded in mystery and rhetoric, but when the agent he’d been utilizing knocked on his door with a worried look on his face, Crystal knew he’d played his cards just right.
“I have an update on the men sent in to grab your targets.” This guy was so young and earnest.
He’d never survive.
Crystal stepped aside and let the man into his house, which doubled as his office. “Tell me what you’ve learned.”
“They’re … missing.”
This was no surprise to him, although he pretended it was. “Care to elaborate?”
“We’re checking morgues and hospitals.”
“Christ.” Crystal scrubbed his face with his palms to hide his grin. He’d known from the start he’d have to work hard to get to Dylan Scott, that there was only one person capable of carrying out his plans.
“There’s more,” the young man continued. “Wires are reporting that Rivera and Cruz are dead.” He spoke flatly, as if he wasn’t sure if it was good news or not.
Crystal wasn’t sure either, but the fact that his agent had a bead on Dylan’s men showed him they weren’t invincible.
The fact that he could get to Dylan’s girl, even more so. The contact with Riley Sacadano had been enough to keep him smiling for a good, long while.
That little shit Dylan thought he could learn what he needed to and then throw Crystal away like a piece of garbage he no longer needed. Thought he could torture him by forcing him to run and hide from the Albanians and figured that he’d never surface again. But that wasn’t the case at all, and Dylan was about to learn that Crystal wouldn’t give up until he got even.
He was a very patient man when it came to revenge. Waiting until he’d been able to give the Albanians their money back—complete with interest—had taken time. But it was just as well, as now Dylan had a life in place—something he would not want to see destroyed—and that made getting revenge even sweeter.
Crystal would pull Dylan’s life apart, brick by brick, and force him to watch.
The fact that Dylan’s retreat still bothered Crystal these years later pissed him off the most.
Crystal had never been the touchy-feely type. Most of his life, that seemed to work against him, an ingrained fault always pointed out to him by girlfriends. Until he’d found the military, that is. There, being a hard-ass worked very much in his favor.
Now, being self-employed, it was working even better.
He only had one real regret and he stared at her picture now. He hadn’t thought his sister needed protection, and while she hadn’t been killed by anyone he knew, she had been brutally murdered.
To this day, he’d been unable to bring those men to justice and it hadn’t been for lack of trying. He could do most anything he set his mind to, hunt down some of the most wanted men in the world, but he hadn’t been able to find the scum who’d raped his sister before killing her.
It haunted him, woke him out of semi-sound sleeps.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to the picture now. And then he put it away and stared at the photos that were spread out in front of him. Dylan Scott. Caleb Scott. Zane Scott. Mace Stevens. Kell Roberts. Reid Cormier.
It was hard to track Dylan and his friend, Cam, and Kell too, but Reid had been a bit easier to track because he was still in the military system, and Crystal had inroads to those files. And Reid’s life story was an interesting one—he’d been able to pull some early records on the man, and he’d certainly discovered something that intrigued him.
He finally found his pound of flesh. So yes, Reid would be his first target, followed by Kell. In half an hour, he’d be on the last flight to El Paso.
By tomorrow, he’d be on his way to being the worst thing that had ever happened to the last two men on his list. If he wanted the job done right, it was time to do it himself.
“Sir, would you like me to continue to track down the missing men?” the agent asked Crystal.
“Too hard. Besides, there’s going to be a third missing very soon,” Crystal said, and when the man looked confused, Crystal leaned forward and wrapped his hands around his neck.
The kid slumped to the floor and Crystal hauled him over his shoulder and left the house with the body of the would-be agent who’d been just short of being a good enough protégé. None of them measured up anymore. None of them were willing to do whatever it took to be the best.
From this point on, he would do his own dirty work. After years of grudge work, it was finally time to have some fun.
CHAPTER
7
The drive home was quiet, save for Reid letting him know that he’d pulled some intel from Chambers’s house, and that he hadn’t been spotted. That was good—it would give them an advantage if Chambers thought Teddie was out there alone and scared.
Once inside the safe house, Teddie walked out to the balcony.
“I’ll give you guys some time alone,” Reid told him.
“That’s best.”
“I’m going to call Vivi to give her the phone numbers I copped from inside Chambers’s house. I also pulled some intel from the hard drive of the man’s computer that Vivi can no doubt hack into, although none of it promises to clear Teddie’s father,” Reid said before retreating to the privacy of a closed room.
Kell had a really bad feeling about this. Any father would want to protect his daughter from his faults—blaming the stepmom was an easy out.
Moreover, when all was said and done, Teddie was still hiding something. Something extremely personal, maybe something she wouldn’t even admit to herself except in her darkest moments.
To push her now would do nothing but drive the confession inward. Besides, he had a feeling what she was holding on to would do nothing to alleviate or accelerate the danger of the current situation.
No, it was just a part of her overall emotional minefield. He just had to hope it wouldn’t blow at the wrong time.
Teddie was a strange combination of take-no-bullshit and softness. She intrigued him, but he’d let her go her own way after all this was over.
He should’ve let Reid handle this. But it was too late for that now.
Teddie was out on the balcony overlooking the pool and he went out to her in order to finish what they’d started in the truck. He stood next to her, looking down at the pool and the lush plants surrounding it.
This place was paradise, so he wasn’t sure why it felt like hell.
“I feel so trapped” was all she said.
He understood her desperation in a way she probably didn’t herself. It was something he’d lived with on a daily basis, the knot in his stomach when his parents discussed a new con, one that could still form easily if he thought back to those days.
“You don’t know what I’m dealing with.”
“Bullshit, I don’t. Stop fighting me. I’m the only chance you’ve got.”
“Then I guess I’m out of luck.”
“I never said that.”
“I didn’t want to kill Samuel,” she admitted. “I was going to make him talk. And then everything got out of hand and I needed to get away. I knew my father hadn’t been lying, and when those men who killed my family came into the restaurant and I saw it all with my own eyes, I knew I had my proof. But I still have to prove all this to the marshals.”
“Teddie, this is something too big for you to handle alone.”
She had no one left and nothing left to lose. “The way I’ve been living this past year is not really living.”
“Having nothing to lose makes people do stupid things.”
“And sometimes it helps you think a lot more clearly.” The agitation that came with her earlier lies had burned off, leaving behind pure anger and frustration burning in its wake.
She was a beautiful girl who had been living
a life involving lots of travel and perks. She’d been independent, living life on her own terms. Having all that come to a screeching halt in such a horrific manner would’ve shaken the strongest of people. But Teddie was still strong, still fighting.
Granted, he’d prefer she fight him a lot less, but you couldn’t have everything.
“The marshals want me to continue hiding indefinitely. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life like this.”
He could understand that. Living in fear was really no way at all to live, she was right about that. And he knew all too well what it was like to be shoved someplace without your consent. What it was like to have no way out.
But he also knew Teddie was trouble with a capital T, and he wasn’t at all sure he was ready to handle it.
His body argued otherwise.
Soft skin under his fingers; she’d been wet through the lacy fabric when he’d searched her in the warehouse hideout and it had been all he could do not to fall to his knees in front of her and lick her until she came against his face.
“Please don’t turn me in. I’ll do whatever you ask,” she told him softly, touched his cheek and moved closer to him. He turned, allowing her to do it, and she took full advantage, pressed her body to his.
She was goddamned trying to seduce him. And it would work if he let it. He wanted her lips on his, so when she moved against him, he didn’t stop her—not physically anyway.
“You should never make an offer like that to someone you don’t know.”
She drew in a harsh breath but didn’t back down. “You said I was safe with you.”
She wasn’t even close to being safe with him. Whether she was choosing to ignore that or had momentarily forgotten it in light of her confession regarding Chambers didn’t matter. Kell burned for her and it had nothing to do with the heat. No, his body pulled to her … he wanted to strip her down to her bra and panties and finish what he’d started the other night.
And from the way she was looking at him, she wouldn’t argue.
Kell had her backed to the balcony wall, yet wasn’t touching her at all. Maybe six inches separated them and it was as if he radiated a force field that kept her pinned. Her knees trembled a little and she couldn’t be sure if it was from fear or something else … that flare of desire that shot through her every time she was near him.
And she hadn’t really been out of his sight for days.
“Your pulse is racing,” he noted. She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Because she wasn’t sure a moan wouldn’t escape. “What are you afraid of?”
Everything. You. But again, she couldn’t trust herself to speak.
He moved, an infinitesimal amount, and she instinctively went to back up.
But there was nowhere to go. Her breath sounded harsh to her own ears and she fisted her hands at her sides, wondered how she could be so angry at someone and want him all at the same time.
He brought a hand up to her cheek, teased her earlobe with a finger then ran his thumb along her jaw-line. Her heart jumped, her nipples hardened … all her body’s way of screaming at him to notice her.
And he had, judging by the fire she saw in his eyes.
“I’ve got to kiss you,” he muttered.
And he did, his mouth unforgiving on hers. In response, her hands went to his face, touching lightly as if afraid to break the moment. His scruff was rough on her fingertips, his mouth hot, his tongue searching … teasing … tempting.
His hands were nowhere near as tentative as hers. They were under her shirt, playing with her nipples, and she melted, went wet between her legs.
Resistance had been futile from minute one with this man. If it had been a different time under different circumstances, she knew this attraction would still be there, because in spite of everything it was there now.
She shouldn’t want to be in his arms, but that’s the only place she did want to be.
Kell could take her right here. Probably would have too, if he didn’t hear the not-so-subtle clearing of a throat and fought a combination groan and growl, with his mouth still on Teddie’s.
He pulled back, noting the confusion in her eyes, and asked, “What’s up, Reid?” without bothering to turn around.
Teddie put a hand to her mouth, her cheeks reddened.
“Not as much as what’s up with you, Kell,” was Reid’s reply. “Dylan’s on Skype, needs to talk to us both.”
“Give me a minute, please?” he asked as Teddie continued to stare at him.
“Sure thing.”
When he heard Reid walk away, he addressed Teddie. “I’ve got to go talk to Dylan.”
“Who is he?”
“I work with him. He might have some information we need about the men who are after you.” He left out the part about investigating her. No need to piss her off when he had some of her trust.
“He knows about me?” The panicked look in her eyes had returned.
“Yes. He’s on our side, okay?”
“Is he going to turn me in?”
Kell had no goddamned idea. “No, he’s not. Come on inside.”
But she pulled back from him. “I need some air. I think I’m going to go down and swim.”
He started to shake his head but she pointed out, “It’s gated. I’m not going anywhere. I get it, okay?”
It was heavily gated—she couldn’t go anywhere unless she decided to scale twelve-foot walls. But still, “I don’t think you get it at all.” It was then that he pulled the picture she’d had in her bag out from his back pocket and held it up to her. “These men are mercs, like you said. One of them was American military.”
“Do you know him?” She looked like she wanted to back away from him, but didn’t. Couldn’t, actually.
He pointed to McMannus and she shifted uneasily. “Not personally. His name’s Connor McMannus. He was discharged on medical a few years back. An IED caught his Humvee in Iraq. He lost some fingers on his right hand, sight in his right eye.”
She blinked. Took the picture and stared at it. “He was wearing long sleeves in the market, but …” She shook her head. “His vision. He could’ve seen me, should’ve. Makes sense now.”
“Hard to compensate for that, especially in close quarters,” he said quietly, trying not to sound too soldierlike. Those close quarters found her family killed. “I know you’re trying to reconcile me and Reid with these men. In some ways, I’m sure we’re like them. But Reid and I—our friends—we don’t murder innocent families,” he said shortly.
“The men from the alley …”
“That had nothing to do with you and everything to do with us,” Kell confirmed. “You’re not safe with us, but you’re not safe on your own either.”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because you need to make some hard decisions.”
“I don’t care about the danger. But I have no way to pay you,” she admitted.
“But you’re not going to give up searching?”
“How can I? Would you?”
He didn’t answer that, not for a long time, because he wasn’t sure of anything these days. “I can’t make any promises longer than twenty-four hours at a time, and I sure as shit can’t do anything for you if you lie to me again.”
“That’s fair.”
Goddammit, she looked so sad and so strong all at once, and she took his rough hand in her soft one as she said, “Thanks,” in a voice filled with more emotion than she’d previously shown.
Such a loaded word … such a loaded situation.
He didn’t want her thanks, didn’t want her depending on him, and why did she make him want to act like a freakin’ hero?
He turned away and headed downstairs before he agreed to anything else, heard her follow him him until she got to the door to the pool. She went outside and he went into the kitchen, where Reid had the computer set up and was already talking with Dylan.
Kell pulled up a chair next to Reid. “Hey, D.”
“Where’s your
girl?” Dylan asked.
“She’s not—Forget it. Teddie’s out by the pool.”
“And her problems are screwing everything up.”
Kell couldn’t argue with that. He was tangled up in her, unwilling to extricate himself, and Dylan seemed to be all filled in on that regard.
Strangely enough, he wasn’t trying to talk Kell out of it. “She’s all alone,” Kell said finally, avoiding Reid’s gaze.
“And she’s told you everything?” Dylan asked.
“Yes,” Kell lied. Because she had—mostly. “She thinks her father was set up by Chambers. He’s got to be in bed with the mercs who killed her family—they showed at the restaurant where she met with him.’
Reid nodded in confirmation. “Vivi got back to me with the numbers I found from Chambers’s phone. They trace out to two of the men in the picture Teddie had. So he’s definitely a part of all this.”
“From what I could find out, the authorities believe Teddie’s father was the mastermind behind a kidnapping ring,” Dylan said without further hesitation. “It’s probably the reason he got killed. He had access to the rich Americans traveling in and out of Khartoum. They think McMannus and the other two men were working for him and that they turned on him in the end.”
“So nothing points to Chambers as his partner,” Kell said, and Dylan shook his head.
“Nothing. Either Chambers covered well or Teddie’s dad was behind it all. Maybe he just got greedy. Or else he was on the verge of getting caught and the people he was working with decided to finish him off.” They heard Dylan drumming his fingers on the table he was sitting at in his house in upstate New York. “You have to tell her—now.”
“I know, D.” He stared at his friend and then glanced at Reid, who remained silent, taking all the information in. “She won’t believe it. She’ll want me to investigate it further.”
“Gotta do what you gotta do.” Dylan was cryptic as usual; he rarely gave an exacting answer unless they were on a job. Then he was precise, the way they all needed to be.
Night Moves: A Shadow Force Novel Page 10