Gabriel’s eyes narrowed almost unperceivably and the man stood rigidly upright. Jacob had seen the stance and mannerisms before. His mentor battled to control his outward appearance. The subtle tell wouldn’t be recognized by Jacob’s team, but Jacob knew the inner struggle the man faced. Weakness, any weakness, could be exploited and his friend hid his frustration well.
Gabriel put his hands on his hips and nodded. “Agreed. The Agency has crimson-tagged the op and the operative. They want to debrief you and your team. It’s unfortunate, but you seem to be unavailable for discussion.” The pressure in the room released with Gabriel’s words.
Jacob relaxed his stance. “Debrief us on what, exactly?” His team started to take off their packs.
Gabriel walked to the coffee machine, filled two cups, and handed one to Jacob. He shook his head as he handed him the mug. “That’s just it. The CIA won’t disclose what information they look to gain. They want a word-for-word script of your conversations with her and any documentation you seized.”
Jacob took a big gulp of his coffee and shrugged. “They want the transcript of her screams when we set her fractured leg and dislocated shoulder? She didn’t talk much; she was in and out of consciousness. Been held for over ninety days. Messed her up. Besides, there was no significant paperwork. The documents I found we photographed and sent electronically to you with the proof of identification.”
“That so?” Gabriel leveled an expressionless stare at him.
“Yeah, that’s so.” He returned the man’s stare unblinking. “Did you get confirmation on our assigned terminations?” Gabriel tipped his head towards the secure , vault-like communications area within the building. “Let’s talk there.”
Jacob drank the rest of his coffee in one long pull. Even the taste of the lukewarm coffee beat the hell out of the camp coffee he’d had two days ago. Check that…three days ago. He cast a glance over his shoulder to his team. “Good work. Get some food and rack out. I’ll be back soon.”
Jacob followed the man who had recruited, trained, and guided him through the ranks of Guardian Security. Sixty years old, give or take, standing six-foot-six, the man could kick some serious ass. Gabriel’s physical condition rivaled any member of Alpha team. He wondered what the fuck was up. It wasn’t common for Gabriel to be at the recovery site. In his experience, it had happened only once before. That had been one bitch of an assignment with a hell of a lot of mopping up needed. This operation had no loose ends. Gabriel had no reason to be in Germany.
The door closed with a thud. Gabriel hit the button that prevented any electronic signal from being sent or received. “I need something from you.”
He lowered himself into a chair casting a sharp look at Gabriel. “And that would be?”
“I need you to step up.” Gabriel sat down across the table and leaned back in his chair.
Jacob considered waiting the older man out, but his curiosity got the best of him and besides, he was fucking tired. “Step up to what exactly?”
“The restructuring of Guardian Security on the domestic side is complete. Your brothers are doing an excellent job. I need someone to overhaul the international side of operations.”
A feeling of dread grew as Jacob waited for Gabriel to continue. “Since DKW Security has lost all credibility we have been overrun with requests from non-domestic entities. I can’t keep up with the workload.” Jacob watched the man. Damn it, he looked tired. His shoulders slumped before he lifted his eyes to speak. “I want you to take over International Operations. Chief Operating Officer. You’ll still be responsible to me, but I need you to take on the responsibility of restructuring the overseas business. Our current operations tempo is too much, too fast. We need to grow without the loss of the professionalism and dedication that is our hallmark.”
A thousand questions occurred to Jacob as he listened. In the end, all his questions boiled down to a few primary concerns. He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the cheap linoleum table. “Will I still be able to work as Alpha team leader and who will be in charge of black ops and the operatives? Specifically who is going to keep a collar on Fury?”
Gabriel pulled a deep breath and released it. “I’ll need you to extricate yourself from Alpha team.” He lifted a hand to silence Jacob’s instant objection and added. “It doesn’t have to be immediate. With you at the helm, we can bring the other teams up to Alpha team standards and develop an intake process to acquire and train new team members. Black Ops will be yours. Fury is my responsibility…for now. It is just a matter of time before that brother of yours self-destructs or disappears.”
Jacob snorted. “That’s been the assumption since he tracked down and killed our father’s murderer twenty years ago.” Jacob drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “What did the CIA say about the woman?”
Gabriel shook his head. “Changing the subject?”
Jacob just stared at the man across the table. There was no need for pretense and Jacob’s concern for the woman had to be apparent to his mentor and friend.
Gabriel shrugged his shoulder. “They didn’t confirm or deny her employment. Standard procedure, but there is something about this one…something is off. It made me uneasy.”
“Figured that when you gave them the unavailable for debrief bullshit.” Jacob rubbed his hands over his face as he yawned and closed his eyes trying to will away the headache that had started. “I’ll step up, but I don’t want to let go of Alpha team. Can we work a compromise?”
“I don’t compromise and neither should you. How about we take it day by day? We’ll figure it out. This is uncharted territory. What did she say to you?”
“Not a damned thing. Talked in general terms about her stay at Club Med. Determined we like the same food, spoke the same language. She said zero about her op. Strong woman. Unbelievably strong. They fucked her up bad, Gabriel. That woman was beaten so bad we couldn’t tell the extent of her injuries. Jesus, if you could’ve seen just the soles of her feet! Fuck, Gabriel, I don’t know if she… Look, I just couldn’t leave her there. I just couldn’t, and I know for a fact you wouldn’t have.” Jacob caught a hard stare from the man across the cheap white table.
“Jacob, stay away from her. There is something going on there that is not standard operating procedure.”
“Right.”
Gabriel shut his eyes again and sighed. “Well, shit. You obviously aren’t going to listen. When are you two hooking up?”
“Not like that. Not my type.”
“What? She isn’t breathing?”
Jacob laughed at his friend. “Fuck you, man. Nah…it’s…well to be brutally honest, she just isn’t attractive. At all. But still, she has one hell of a personality. I enjoyed talking with her. Look forward to speaking to her in a year or so.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “In a year or so, huh? And in all that conversation she never said a word to you about her mission.”
“Nope, never.” Jacob stood and stretched. “I’ve got to rack out.” He looked at his watch. “Working on forty hours without sleep.” Jacob stopped, lifted his finger and tapped the air. “Wait. I want to see my contract, there is a clause I want added if it isn’t already there.”
“You don’t have a fucking contract, you idiot. You’re down for the next twenty-four. Go saw some logs. My bird is scheduled for our pickup tomorrow. You and the team are headed to D.C. with me.”
“No shit? I don’t have a contract?” When Gabriel looked at him like he had three heads, Jacob shrugged. “Thought I did. Could’ve sworn there was a ‘no tears’ clause.”
Gabriel’s eyebrow rose and he blinked in rapid succession before he cocked his head.
Jacob waved a dismissive arm and hit the button to unseal the room. “Never mind, not important anymore. Anyway, the team isn’t going to be happy about being pulled in.”
“Tough. They are paid damn well to do what they are told.” The exhausted gruffness of the older man’s voice surprised him.
Jacob�
��s eyes held emotion he rarely let anyone see. “That is a crock of shit and you know it,” he murmured. “The money has nothing to do with why these guys do what they are told. Each man in this section would lay down his life or fight through the flames of hell if you ordered it.” Jacob walked out the door without a backward glance. Jacob heard the words echo after him as he left.
“All of you have—too many times to count.”
Chapter Three
Victoria threw the saddle she carried over the rack in the tack room and hung the bridle on the saddle horn. With a resigned grimace, she flexed her hand to chase the numbness away.
“Tori, Dad wants the last of the herd moved to the lower pastures this weekend. Danny is sick. You’re still up for this little slice family tradition right?”
Tori looked over her shoulder at her sister, Keelee. “No, I have to leave the day after tomorrow for a professional conference in D.C. It’s just for the weekend. I’m flying back on Monday, so if Dad can wait until Tuesday I’ll be happy to help out.”
“Why do you have to go back for a conference? You know we do this drive every year without the Koehler’s. They have their own herd to move. Thank God. Besides, you said you didn’t think you would be going back to work for that company again. You still have doctors’ appointments because of that accident.”
“Honestly, Kee, I probably won’t go back, but I have to keep my skills updated. I need to refresh my network contacts and keep my options open. I can’t live on the ranch for the rest of my life. South Dakota doesn’t have the most robust computer security industry, so moving to Rapid City or even to Denver to keep a job in my field might not be possible. The doctors are for the nightmares and anxiety attacks. I’m working on them. I just need to figure out what I want to do, but until then, I’ll stay and help you and Dad.”
“And what is wrong with living on the ranch for the rest of your life?”
Tori stood in the middle of the tack room and shrugged. “Nothing at all. Look, if this is what you want to do more power to you…but it’s not necessarily what I want. I used to enjoy what I did. The accident caused me to put that on hold. I don’t know if I’m ready to give up something I felt really made a difference.”
“I fail to see how being a computer programmer for some accounting agency makes a difference.” Keelee walked out of the tack room and headed towards the hay rack. She broke open a bale of alfalfa and distributed flakes of hay for the horses that waited in the stalls.
Victoria followed her out and opened the feed room door. She lifted the heavy lid on the grain bin and measured the mixture of corn, oats, barley, and molasses into ten plastic buckets. Bent in half and almost standing on her head, she scooped the grain out of the bottom of the bin. Her anger at defending her cover yet again earned her sister a shouted retort from the bottom of the feed bin. “It makes a difference when your money doesn’t go missing, when the company that invests my money isn’t violated, and our savings are safe. I happen to enjoy the fact my portfolio is not subjected to hackers, and I feel better knowing I had something to do with that.”
Keelee threw another bale to the ground and broke it open. Never one to step back from an argument especially when Tori was involved, she yelled back. “Yeah, okay I get it, you’re smart, and you have options.” The emphasis she placed on the words brought Tori out of the feed room in a huff.
“What in the hell was that supposed to mean?” Tori glared at her sister.
Keelee busied herself with a rake and the hay on the floor of the barn. “Oh, nothing! It means absolutely nothing! Just drop it, Tori. I’ll tell Dad we can bring the rest of the herd down Tuesday if Danny isn’t better by this weekend.” She propped the rake against the stall and lifted the pile of hay she had gathered over the door.
“Jesus, Keelee you act like you want to leave the ranch, yet I can’t even get you to go into Rapid City to watch a movie or go shopping. Seriously, what in the hell is your problem?” Tori hated when her older sister acted like she was trapped. Nobody forced her to stay at the ranch.
“Nothing! I just…damn it, I don’t know. Okay? I don’t know! Sometimes I just… God, I feel boxed in, without options. But you? Oh no, no, you get to jet off to Washington D.C. Who does that? I mean really? Oh hell, I don’t care… Just go have your fun, Tori. I don’t really give a shit.” Silence swarmed the barn and with the exception of the muted sounds of the horses in the stalls, and they finished chores without a word.
She and Keelee walked out of the barn, chores finished and began the long plod up the drive to the house. She worried about her sister. Tori chuckled to herself. They looked almost identical and that is where the similarities ended. Keelee was so damned reserved. But Keelee was a rancher, no doubt about it. Had the business savvy and loved working with the animals. She, on the other hand, she’d launched out of South Dakota like a bat out of hell as soon as she could. She only came back home to recuperate. Not that it was a bad place. This land was home. Home provided safety and a sense of normalcy, and the scenery stunned the senses with its beauty.
The walk up to the house provided a breathtaking view of the Black Hills. A burnt orange and crimson splash from the setting sun painted the ranch in warm, golden hue. Towering dark evergreens rose with a majesty that pulled the eye towards the western skyline. The Aspen leaves in the lower elevations had turned a brilliant pallet of gold and red. The radiance had started to dull and the leaves dropped in the brisk autumn wind.
But in spite of the natural glory of her home, it was just a matter of time before she’d take out again. She was just like her mom, a driven spirit, a restless soul that needed a higher purpose in her life.
Tori saw her dad climb the stairs to the house and take a moment to relax on the front porch swing.
As they stomped up the steps to the porch in frozen silence, her dad eyed both of them with a grunt. “You two look like you’ve been at it again.”
They stopped at the top of the stairs and both folded their arms at the same time. Like mirror images, Tori leaned to the pillar on the right and Keelee leaned to the pillar on the left.
“Tori’s cinching up and going back to D.C. this weekend for a conference which means we need to postpone the family drive to bring down the cattle until after she comes back unless Danny makes a miraculous recovery.”
Her dad nodded. “Alright, we can wait or we can ask one or two of the Koehler boys to come over and help after they move their herd. Not like we haven’t done that in the past. They’re our hands for most of the year anyway.”
Keelee’s back stiffened and she shoved her hands in the front pockets of her jeans. “No, we’ll wait. I don’t want to give that moron Clint any more reason to come over here. The man won’t take no for an answer. The weather report doesn’t indicate snow yet, and we don’t need to spend money hiring on hands this time of year. ”
Keelee glared at her sister. “Enjoy your little D.C. jaunt, Tori.” She stomped towards the door. “I’m going to see if Aunt Betty needs help with dinner.” The screen door took the brunt of her anger, shuddering against the door frame with a resounding slam.
Tori sat down in the swing next to her dad and elbowed him. “You think she is mad at me or mad because you mentioned the Koehler’s? I think Clint really likes her.”
Frank grunted. “She ain’t mad at you. Much. She was looking forward to this year’s drive because she wanted to spend time with you. That Koehler has his hat set for her, but I hope Clint ain’t got a chance with her. He’s too…hell, I don’t know what it is. He sticks to her like a wet saddle blanket. He won’t meet my eye when I look at him. She needs a strong man beside her, not one who is going to consume her.”
He leaned back and pushed the planks of the porch with his boot, setting the swing in motion. “Trip is kinda sudden, ain’t it?”
“No, not really. And if I’m honest…I’ve had it planned for a year now. Daddy, I can’t miss this weekend.” She leaned in and nudged him with a shoulder. “I ha
ve a date with a gentleman.”
Frank gave his daughter a sideways glance. “That so? You never mentioned a man to me before. ”
“Yeah. Look, this might be nothing, but we have had this date planned for a year. I didn’t want Keelee to know because I didn’t want to take any shit over it.”
“Watch your mouth. You sound like a ranch hand.”
Tori chuckled at a rebuke she’d heard a thousand times growing up. “Alright, Daddy, I didn’t want to take any crap over it.”
“That don’t sound much better, baby girl.” He drew a deep breath. “So did you make this date before or after you got hurt?”
Tori’s face relaxed and her eyes lost focus, thoughts of Jacob did that to her. “Jacob responded to the situation…accident…I was involved in. He rescued me. He was so kind and stayed with me when I was hurt, afraid and alone. We agreed to meet in a year at a restaurant we both know.”
She shrugged her shoulders and forced a smile. “Who knows. He might not even show.” Tori leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I love you, Daddy. I’ll be back by Monday afternoon. We can ride out Tuesday morning to bring the rest of the herd down.”
Frank nodded, cleared his throat several times. Tori glanced at him and darned if her father didn’t look all misty-eyed. “That will work. And baby girl, if this man has any sense at all—he’ll be there.”
Chapter Four
Jacob glanced down at his watch for the fifth time in as many minutes as a line of limousines pulled up in front of the restaurant. He disregarded the town cars and cast his eyes down the street to find any woman who might be Tori. She would be tall. His eyes searched between several different women, all with escorts. Most of the people waiting for tables stood close to the huge outdoor heaters that warmed the beautiful front courtyard of the restaurant. His gaze skimmed the women standing in the area. No, nada, zip, zilch. Fuck.
He blew out a huff of frustration and disappointment. Damn it…he wanted to talk with her again. No, check that—he needed to talk to her again. The woman’s spirit had captured his attention. His leg bounced in agitation and impatience. Another long glance down the street. Nothing. Damn it…he didn’t care if she showed up covered in filth or dripping in diamonds. He just needed to see her, to talk with her, to make sure she had made it through the aftermath of the torture and the pain. He’d thought of her almost every day since he’d left her in Germany.
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