Three sharp whistles cut through the now silent morning. “We’re clear.”
“Well, that was no fun,” Tatiana complained.
Her declaration had my dick jerking in my cargos. Why did I find her thirst for enemy blood so arousing? She wasn’t the first woman I’d seen with a gun, nor the first in combat. But there was something different about her. The first time I’d met Tatiana she was in a skirt and a pair of heels that made me want to fall to my knees and give thanks to whoever had designed the sexy shoes. Right before I found a flat surface to lie her on to worship every inch of her. She had been proper and mostly bitchy. A far cry from the woman I’d been stranded in the water with.
But this version of her, the strong, capable gun handler in a pair of shorts and soggy sneakers… off-the-charts-erotic as fuck. All that was missing was her throwing her spunky attitude my way and I’d be a love-sick fool.
With another quick look around, I stood, and Tatiana followed my lead. Once we were back into the safety of the house, I stopped blocking her progression and backed her against the plaster wall. Uncaring there was a fully-automatic weapon between us, I leaned in close.
“Who are you, Doll?”
“No one special.”
“Now that right there is the biggest crock of shit you’ve tried to feed me. Who are you, Tatiana Jones?”
“A ghost. A no one. A loner with no friends, no team, no home address.” Her words were strong but her expression was sad. “No different than you.”
She was incorrect, we weren’t the same. I had my team and I couldn’t imagine them not having my back. It made all the long, hard missions easier. Each of us had given up a part of who we were to continue to serve our country. But my closest friends were always with me.
“The phone’s for you, Tatiana,” Declan said, ending my time alone with her. “Brooks, help us drag the bodies into the courtyard.”
I stepped back allowing her to move around me and take the phone from Dec. It was the wrong time and the wrong place for me to have to adjust my hard-on in an effort to hide it, but there I was with my hand on my crotch.
“I now understand why Zane is always complaining,” Declan grouched as we walked out the front door.
“Why’s that?”
“Trying to keep a team of assholes in line and their dicks in their pants would make anyone grumpy.”
“My dick never left my pants.”
“And it’s a good thing. That woman is not who she says she is.”
“No shit.”
Declan stopped at the gate and turned to face me. “No, Brooks. She’s not who any of us thought she was. She’s not agency.”
“Who is she?”
“You two gonna help before the defense force shows up or stand around and gossip?” Kyle asked as he dragged a body into the courtyard.
Without another word, Declan jogged off, leaving me wondering who the fuck Tatiana Jones really was and who she worked for. I didn’t pull out of my stupor until Kyle passed me on his way back to the street and slapped me on the back.
“Come on, lover boy, we got stiffs to stack.”
It took us less than ten minutes to move the bodies and shut the gate behind us. Zane had arranged for a clean-up crew to come in and dispose of the men. No one had IDs or any marks that would help us figure out their identities. We’d have to wait until our intel specialist back in Maryland ran the fingerprints Declan had scanned and emailed.
The moment we entered the house I knew she was gone. I didn’t need to see Dec’s cell phone and the HK416 lying on the table to know. Interestingly enough, she hadn’t left the Sig P226. For some reason, that made me smile. Sneaky bitch ran off with one of our handguns. It was all the reason I needed to track her down. I couldn’t have her stealing company property.
“She left you a note.” Dec handed me a slip of paper.
Brooks,
Thanks for today.
I owe you one.
T.
“Who was she talking to?”
“Don’t know. Her handler if I had to guess. He knew the color and mission code so I let him speak to her.”
Who the fuck was Tatiana and where did she go?
Chapter 6
It had been two days since I’d seen Tatiana and there was a knot in my gut the size of a boulder. We’d gone by what was left of the fire-bombed annex but there was nothing there. We’d checked her apartment, the one I’d followed her from the morning of our ill-fated boat ride, and it was empty.
“Brooks! Get in here,” Declan called from the dining room.
Max, Thad, and Kyle were already around the table waiting for me.
“What’s up?”
“Rocco, Ace, and Gumby are MIA.”
Yesterday when we were at the naval base talking to the MPs about the fire at the annex we were shocked to run into Gumby and Ace outside of the temporary tenant quarters. The three men were a part of a six-man SEAL team stationed in San Diego. We’d actually worked a recovery mission with them not too long ago. An international group of the power elite known as The Omni had made the mistake of initiating a bad play. They’d taken down Marine One and had kidnapped the president. The only thing the group had done was piss off Tom Anderson, and expose where his security weaknesses were. Those holes had not only been patched but double fortified. The Omni Group had been on every US three-letter-agency radar for years. The issue had always been their membership was a closely guarded secret. Not even the impressive John “Tex” Keegan could break their code. That was until recently. Now we knew, Omni members held positions of power in our government. What that meant exactly was anyone’s guess.
“Come again?”
“Tex called. They missed their last check-in. It’s been over twenty-four hours,” Dec reaffirmed.
“Last known coordinates?” I asked.
“Need to know.”
“Hate to state the obvious,” Thad began, “but we need to know.”
Thad was our team’s MacGyver. There was nothing the man couldn’t hot wire, fix, or rig. Unfortunately, none of his impressive skills would help us track the three men.
“Tex is working on it. So far, it’s a no-go. Grab your shit, we’re out of here in five.”
“Copy that,” Max agreed and double-timed it out of the room with Kyle hot on his heels.
“Any idea where to start?”
Ace and Gumby had said they were in Bahrain on a special assignment, but hadn’t elaborated. Other than us knowing they were staying on base and some woman had caught Rocco’s eye, we were flying blind. Hell, they hadn’t even told us the woman’s name that Rocco had the hots for.
“Manama seems like a good place.”
Manama was not a good place, it was a hotbed of criminal activity. A slum that you didn’t want to be in after dark. But it was the perfect place for a Navy SEAL to go hunting.
Max and Kyle came back with their kit, reminding me I needed to go grab my go-bag. I made my way to the bedroom I’d been staying in and glanced around the small space. Not the worst accommodations, not even in the bottom hundred shittastic places I’d had to bed down over the last ten years.
Sometimes it was easier sleeping out in the desert under the stars, with distant gunfire and bombs to lull me to sleep. Hotel rooms, military quarters, and temporary compounds were a tease. Just enough comfort to make you miss home. Wherever home was. I didn’t have one of those anymore. Uncle Sam had provided everything I’d needed to survive for eight years and Zane Lewis had kept me moving for the last two. I didn’t own a damn thing; I was as free as the wind. I had a bank account I rarely touched and my passport, albeit an alias, was stamped full. We’d been back to the states three times in the last few years.
We were supposed to be INCONUS for sixty-days of R and R. I’d planned on going off grid and finding a place to be alone. Now all I could think about was what it would be like to have a few days of down time with the elusive Tatiana. Alone didn’t sound all that appealing anymore. Not when
I couldn’t stop thinking about the beautiful woman’s smile. Not to mention, the way she’d handled her gun, reminding me of a way sexier upgrade of Sarah Connor. Days later, I still couldn’t purge her from my thoughts. It was driving me crazy not knowing where she was or who exactly she worked for.
“Two minutes.” Dec’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
“You got eyes on the woman in the black and pink abaya?” I quietly asked. “Two o’clock. Just got out of a taxi.”
“Roger,” Declan came back through my earpiece.
It was after eleven at night, we were smack dab in the middle of a red zone. An area the US embassy and common sense would tell you to stay the fuck away from. It was out of the touristy section of the city. The streets were dirty, building and shops dilapidated, the stench of poverty thick in the air. It was mere miles from the heart of opulence and wealth, but it might as well have been a whole other country. The Crowne Plaza Bahrain this place was not.
A woman walking by herself stood out. A woman who was struggling to walk in the long abaya that looked to be brand new might as well have had a flashing strobe over her saying, violate me. Women were not supposed to be out by themselves without a male accompanying them. Unless of course they were a woman of the night working a street corner. Which this woman clearly was not.
“Is she crazy? She’s gonna get herself killed out here,” Max added.
“What are you thinking?” Declan asked.
Bahrain was our first official mission with Declan at the helm. So far, he was proving to be a good leader. During the planning of the operation he’d asked us our thoughts and how we would run the op. Once he’d had all of our input, he’d adjusted his initial plan. Not all of it, but he’d seen the value in other’s perspectives.
“The abaya is new. Too expensive for this area. She can barely walk in it. She’s adjusted her hijab several times. Her head is on a swivel. There’s no way she belongs here, and I doubt she’s ever worn a head covering, or the long robe.”
“Agreed,” Dec said.
“What’s your gut telling you, Brooks?”
“We follow her.”
“Stay spread out. Do not engage,” he reminded us.
We were all armed to the teeth. Though none of us needed to draw a weapon to neutralize a threat, we’d never be in this neighborhood of Manama unarmed.
Sweat was pouring down my back under my heavy body armor. Even this late in the evening it was hotter than Hades. What I wouldn’t give for a cold brew and a nice cool breeze.
“What the hell is she doing?” Max asked.
We’d followed the woman almost a mile into an alleyway behind a grocery store.
I couldn’t see him, I couldn’t see any of my teammates through the darkness, they blended into the shadows like the ghosts we were. I flipped down my night vision goggles. With everything tinted green, I watched the woman push a box under a window and hoist herself through.
“Is she robbing a grocery store?” Max inquired, as the woman slipped through the small space.
A grocery store in this area was a loose term. The shops in Manama would sell everything from near rotting food to a variety of household items.
“Doubt it,” I answered.
Call it a gut feeling or hard-won intuition. There was zero chance she was simply out for a stroll this late at night to rob a store this far into the heart of a shithole. Her clean abaya was another tell, she wasn’t a street rat scrounging for her next meal. And she was too clumsy to be a professional.
“We’ll give it five minutes,” Declan instructed.
“Roger.”
I held my position at the back entrance, not bothering to take my eyes off the door. I knew my team had the building surrounded and would call in if there were unfriendlies in the vicinity.
“She’s moving something and not trying to be quiet about it,” Max informed us. A few minutes later he came back with, “Something’s definitely going on in there. I don’t know if the owner of the store caught her, but there’s a scuffle for sure.”
“Hold your positions. B and E is not our concern,” Declan reminded us.
I hated this shit. There was something inherently wrong knowing a woman was most likely being hurt but not being able to do a damn thing about it. Rules of engagement and culture prevented us from intervening. We had our mission, saving a woman from the punishment she’d face for stealing was not it.
“Someone is exiting the back window. Male.” I was too far away to make out features but there was no mistaking it was a man. “Male number two is out. The woman. And a third male,” I called in.
“Hold fast,” came from Declan.
I looked through my spotting scope, zooming in until I had a clear picture of the men’s faces. “Rocco, Ace, Gumby, and the unidentified female.”
“Injuries?” Dec asked.
“They’ve been beat to hell, but I don’t see any GSWs.”
The four made their way through the alley, heading to the street. Max called in their location. “Rocco and the female broke away. Gumby and Ace are falling into the shadows.”
“Max, Kyle, and Thad, follow Rocco. Do not approach. Brooks, you’re with me.”
I quickly got to my feet and jogged down the small embankment I’d taken cover on. I met up with Declan and we went in the direction he’d last seen Gumby and Ace.
“Whoa.” My hands came up as I felt the cool blade against my throat. “It’s Country.” I used my call sign instead of my name.
I wasn’t sure which one was behind me, but I knew it was Gumby or Ace. Sometimes it’s easier to let your target come to you. Especially when dealing with men who were as highly trained in evasion as they were.
“What the hell?” Ace said, lowering his knife. “How’d you find us?”
“Tex called and said you three had gotten yourselves into a jam.”
Declan and Gumby both came out of the shadows and joined us.
“You ready to get the fuck outta here, before we attract anymore attention?” Declan asked.
We kept a good distance between us and Rocco. His arm was wrapped protectively around the woman as he kept a fast clip.
“Who is that?”
“Caite McCallan,” Ace answered as he took two of the four boxes Gumby was carrying.
“You want me to take those?” I asked Gumby, noticing his limp.
“I’m good,” he returned, adjusting the heavy load.
“You guys get what you came for?” Declan inquired as he continually scanned the area.
“Not everything. But hopefully the commander will be happy with the new intel.” Gumby tried to hide the pain as he spoke.
“What the hell happened?”
Ace gave us the abbreviated version of the last twenty-four hours, including how a mob of men had ambushed them and locked them in a cellar. How they found some ancient artifacts. And ending with a crazy woman, albeit brave, coming to their aid. Hearing what Caite had done for Rocco, Ace, and Gumby made me think about Tatiana. I wondered if my team had gone missing if she’d come searching for us. I doubted it. She had her mission and had made it painfully obvious she wanted nothing do to with any of us, me especially.
“Wait. Did you say ancient artifacts?” I interrupted Ace.
“Yeah. Some sort of tablets.”
“Did Tatiana say what she was bidding on?” I asked Declan.
“Not to me.”
“Who’s Tatiana?” Gumby slowed his pace and watched as Rocco stepped in front of a taxi, forcing the driver to stop.
A few seconds later, both Rocco and the woman were in the car and it sped away.
“Tatiana is…” I wasn’t sure how to explain her.
“Is the woman that is going to put Brooks’ dick in a vise if he doesn’t leave her alone,” Declan helpfully supplied.
I was going to say sexy, beautiful, and smart but I was glad Dec had cut me off.
“Grab that taxi, would you?” Ace motioned toward a car coming our way. “Twe
nty-four hours in that cellar, I’m ready to get the hell out of here.”
“Copy that.”
Chapter 7
The Bitoo brothers were not at the store and my contact told me they hadn’t checked in with Nazari. If they’d taken the tablets and run, they were screwed. Or better yet, if they’d sold them outside of the auction, they’d wish for death. There were a lot of interested buyers. So far, I was still the highest bidder on the ten Iraqi cuneiform tablets. They’d bring in a hefty price, and I’d be able to follow the money back to whichever terrorist organization was smuggling artifacts out of Bahrain.
I’d like to say my motivation was preserving the cultural and spiritual relics but it was purely about the money. It was my job to track, then intercept, payments before they could be used to buy guns and fund extremist groups hellbent on killing.
I just needed a few more days and I’d be in possession of the tablets and on my way to Iraq. Three clay cones dating back to 2,200 B.C. that had been looted after the fall of Saddam Hussein had come up for bid. The asking price was five-million but they’d bring in closer to thirty after collectors from around the world frantically tried to get the pieces into their private exhibitions.
A knock had me looking at the villa door. No one knew I was here. I’d moved every day since the annex was firebombed and I hadn’t even checked in with my handler. It was probably one of the other tenants in the building. This was one of the nicer areas of Bahrain, a small group of man-made islands. Amwaj offered the most beautiful panoramic views of the sea and was popular among expats.
Another knock pulled me from my thoughts. Checking my Sig P226 was loaded, I smiled, wondering how pissed Brooks had been when he’d come back after cleaning up dead bodies and found I wasn’t there. I hadn’t needed to take the Sig that belonged to them, I’d done it because… well, I wasn’t sure why I took the gun. Just that I liked having something that belonged to him. Which was absolutely absurd. It wasn’t like I’d ever see…
My thought was cut off when I opened the door. “Hey there, Doll.”
Brooks (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Gold Team Book 1) Page 4