Her jaw clenched and through gritted teeth she told me, “I can’t fail.”
“Well, you have. If you want to salvage what you can, explain why keeping Lucre in business is so important.”
“Fuck.”
Her hands scrubbed over her face again and she started to pace. Declan had an op to complete and we were on target to complete our objective. If Tatiana didn’t start talking, tonight after the Bitoo brothers were taken care of, we’d be out of there and off to track down the Saudi prince. Then she’d really be fucked, because whatever intel she could’ve gleaned from his capture would be lost.
As beautiful as I thought she was, as drawn to her as I felt, I wouldn’t compromise my goal for her. Not without good reason.
Chapter 9
I had to think. But with Brooks staring at me I couldn’t gather my thoughts. I knew I owed him an explanation. I just couldn’t think of one that wasn’t the truth fast enough. I had to get away from him and come up with a plan, one that didn’t involve Brooks muddling with my good sense.
“I need a minute,” I told him.
I stood still and fought the urge to fidget under his scrutiny. His piercing gaze was too intense. Not to mention, annoying. I didn’t want him studying me. I was too afraid of what he’d figure out.
“If you’re thinking about running off, don’t.”
I bit back a childish retort about him not being the boss of me and instead asked, “Why do you care what I do?”
“Can’t answer that, Doll. I just do.”
“Can’t or won’t.”
“Can’t. You’re prickly as fuck. Your attitude in general sucks. You’ve done nothing but lie to us. Yet, I still care. I think you’re hiding something more than who you work for. I think you’ve been jacked around and fucked over. So as a way to protect yourself, you come off as a bitch. I believe you like to work alone. Probably because you have trust issues that have made you a control freak. But I do think somewhere in that smart brain of yours you know you need us. But you’re too hard-headed to get out of your own way and let us help you. Pride will be your destruction. Mark this, Doll, if you run, I’ll find you.”
Direct hit. I was right, he saw too much. It was disconcerting. Not even my ex-husband could read me as easily as Brooks had. In the beginning, James had worked for it, he’d put forth the effort to get to know me. But it had taken him years before he fully understood why I did or said certain things and by then he only wanted to know so he could use them as weapons. But not Brooks. He had me pinned in a matter of hours.
He was wrong about one thing, this wasn’t about pride so much as it was about revenge. It was personal, and there was no way for me to separate the job from my need for retribution. He may’ve been right, I was compromised. However, that wasn’t going to stop me from finishing what I’d started.
“I’m not going to leave. I just need to think.” I picked up my laptop but left the file. It had the information I’d gathered on Falcon and Militrix. “That’s for you.” I pointed at the documents I’d left and walked out of the dining room.
Before I knew where my feet were taking me, I was in Brooks’ room, or mine, as he’d offered it to me if I was going to stay. I sat on the hard mattress and started coming up with a new plan. If the team took out the prince would that really be so bad? Over the last two years I’d been back to work, I’d gathered enough intel to know how his network operated. And wasn’t that what my end game was, anyway? When Al Issa was removed as the head figure another person would be put in his place. It wouldn’t stop me from tracking the money Lucre dispersed. Why did I care who took out Al Issa? Because I wanted to do it. I wanted the pleasure of being the last person on this earth he saw as he drew his last breath. I deserved it. I was owed at least that much.
Even with the air conditioning blasting in the house I was still sweating. A nice cold shower was exactly what I needed to clear my thoughts of vengeance and figure out my next step. I made my way to the small bathroom attached to the bedroom and stripped down and turned on the tap to cold. Relief washed over me as the lukewarm water cascaded over me. Damn, I missed cold water. Something I’d yet to find in Bahrain. It took a long time but I had a new plan. I was going to have to give Brooks and his team something.
I was actually surprised Tex hadn’t figured it out yet, or if he had, why he hadn’t passed along the information to the team. The people I worked for were careful, but I supposed the real reason they were able to keep everything secret was because they took credit for nothing. Complete and total deniability. There was no payroll, there was a simple chain of command, and I had no idea who else worked for The Company. We all worked alone, no partners, no teams, we worked our own intel. It was simple really. I was given a mission, told where to apply for a job, magically I was offered whatever job I’d applied for, and I was off. I did work for the UN this time. Before this job I’d worked with different relief organizations, UNICEF, and even the Peace Corps. Temporary jobs that would keep me in whichever region I needed to be in.
I’d never met my handler in person, I only knew him as Leon Brown. Which was a bullshit name, I’d researched him. I was offered a position at The Company after I divorced James and decided to go back to work. My old job at the CIA was a possibility, however when I was presented this opportunity, I took it. I thought working alone was what I needed after everything that had happened with James. A little peace and quiet, no one breathing down my neck telling me I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t smart enough, wasn’t fit enough, my deficiencies were never ending.
Fuck James Monroe. I’d more than been a good wife to him.
I turned off the water and quickly dried off, feeling no less hot than I did before my shower. I grabbed clean clothes out of my bag, put on my shorts and bra, and filled the sink up with water. I’d learned a long time ago to handwash my clothes after wearing them. Perspiration-soaked cotton was not your friend. I was hanging my now rinsed out tee from earlier over the towel rack to dry when I heard it. The swift intake of air and I knew without turning around who was behind me.
Fuck.
“Don’t you knock?” I snapped.
“I did. When you didn’t answer I thought you bailed again.”
“Do you mind? I’d appreciate some privacy.”
It was too late. He’d seen them. My heart was thundering in my chest and the room was suffocating.
“Tatiana, darlin’.”
“Don’t,” I bit off. “I don’t want your pity.”
“The last thing I’m feeling is pity,” Brooks told me.
I heard his footsteps come closer. It didn’t matter anyway. Close up, far away, you couldn’t miss the mess of scars.
“Who did this to you?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“The fuck it doesn’t. Who?” he growled. “Did Monroe do this?”
“Hell, no.” I turned to face him. He’d seen the back, might as well give him the full experience. “Do you think that cocksucker would be breathin’ if he did this to me?”
My front was nearly as bad as my back. Brooks’ eyes traveled up from my stomach up to my face. I knew what he saw, puckered exit wounds scattered over my torso. When his gaze locked onto mine, I flinched at his angered expression. I’d seen a lot of pissed-off males in my line of work, but never one as furious as him. He looked like a feral beast, and I was a little afraid of him.
“Who. The. Fuck. Did this to you?”
“It was a long time ago.”
“I didn’t ask you how long ago, Tatiana.”
In that moment, him using my name, I missed him calling me Doll. My real name sounded like an expletive the way he snarled it out.
“Al Issa. Not him personally. He’s too sophisticated for something as unpleasant as torture, he sent his men to do his dirty work for him.”
“Motherfucker!” he roared and stomped out of the bathroom.
So much for my new plan. Time for damage control.
Chapter 10
&n
bsp; I wanted to commit murder.
No. Scratch that. Murder was too easy. Too fast. I wanted to string up every man that dared to touch Tatiana and torture them they way they’d done her. I’d thought the scars crisscrossing her back had been left from a whip or stick, but when she turned, I’d realized she’d been sliced up and stabbed in the back. Literally. There was so much scar tissue I couldn’t tell where one wound had ended and another began.
Inhuman pieces of shit. I’d done a lot in the name of country. Seen a lot more. What I’d never done was brutalized someone. No one on my team had. That’s not to say I’d never taken a life, I had, plenty of times. Quick and fast. I had no use for playing with someone. If you were marked for death, it was because you were either trying to actively kill me or my team, or your crimes were so atrocious it warranted the bullet.
But right now, seeing the marks left on Tatiana’s beautiful flesh I wanted to hunt and maim. Another piece had clicked into place and I now understood why this was personal for her. Al Issa meant something to her. I just didn’t understand why keeping him in power was important. I’d think she’d be happy we’d planned on taking him out.
“What the fuck?” Kyle followed me out of the house into the courtyard.
“Not now,” I warned.
“What the hell happened? Did she bail?”
“I said, not now.”
“I didn’t bail.” Tatiana’s smooth voice drifted over me. She sounded nothing like the strong woman she had hours before when she was going toe to toe with Dec. She sounded unsure and I didn’t like it one bit. “Do you mind if I have a word alone with Brooks?”
“By all means.” I heard the door slam behind my friend and I tried to contain my anger.
“It happened two years ago. My second op with The Company. I was in Saudi Arabia just over the Iraqi border,” she started. “I had a lead on some items being smuggled out of Iraq, I wanted them before they went to bid. Turned out Lucre wanted them more. I went in to make the buy, so did Al Issa’s men. I was taken and held for two days. They left with the items, I was left with the scars.”
I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I had a hundred questions but I couldn’t find my voice. All I could see were the marks on her back. Men had put their filthy hands on her, hurt her. For two days she had to suffer through their brutality.
She sighed and continued, “I thought I was going to die. In and out of consciousness. I actually don’t remember a lot of it. Maybe I was passed out, or I’d been able to let go of the pain and go somewhere else. But after they left, I woke up in a home. A man and his wife were tending to my wounds the best they could. I called in for an extraction and was on a plane to Germany within an hour.”
Yet, she still wanted to work alone, even after she was captured and tortured. I didn’t understand. And who the fuck did she work for that had the capabilities to get to her within an hour of her call for help?
“I was lucky and was able to get medical care before infection set in. I was back in the field in five weeks.”
“Five weeks?” She jerked back from my outburst and that pissed me off. “You have no reason to be afraid of me.”
“I’m not.” Her chin lifted in defiance. I’d give Tatiana Jones one thing, she put on a brave face. She wasn’t always truthful, but damn if she didn’t fake it.
“Right.”
“What’s your problem?”
I wasn’t sure what my problem was. I’d seen the horrors of war. I, too, bore the marks of battle. I’d seen what humans were capable of doing to each other. I knew. I lived it. I saw it. But seeing it on her was different. Outrageous. Infuriating.
“What’s The Company?”
“No way. You don’t get to change the subject.”
“Someone hurt you.”
I stepped closer.
“I’m well aware.”
“They cut you.”
Another step.
“Again, I know.”
“They placed their hands on you with the intention of tormenting you.”
Last step and I was face-to-face with her.
“I lived it, Brooks. But nothing happened to me that hasn’t happened to hundreds of soldiers, or aid workers, innocent civilians in the wrong place, or hell, to men I’m sure you’ve worked with. It’s a chance we all take. The price we all know we may have to pay if shit goes sideways.”
“It shouldn’t’ve happened to you.”
“Why not?”
Why not? Why not? I didn’t have a good answer as to why it should’ve never happened to her. She was right, we all know the price, and we all go out into the field and take our chances. Yet, the thought of someone harming Tatiana filled me with irrational rage.
I wanted to pull her into my arms and explain my reaction but I couldn’t put it into words. It was a gut feeling, something deep in my bones. A sense of protectiveness I’d never felt. An uncharacteristic urge to claim her and shield her from anyone who challenged her safety.
“It just shouldn’t’ve,” I lamely told her. “What’s The Company?”
She stared at me for a moment, clearly surprised by my lack of verbal communication skills.
“Do you mind if we go in so I only have to explain this once?”
“Sure.”
“Are you okay?”
“Not even fucking close,” I told her honestly. “Let’s go in.”
She had nothing to say after that, simply looked at me liked I’d grown a few extra heads and went inside.
Yeah, Doll, I know. I’ve lost my ever-loving mind.
The guys were already in the dining room. In addition to the maps that had been laid out, the intel she’d left in the folder was, too. She’d done a good job connecting the dots.
“I’m former CIA,” she blurted out. “I now work for an off-the-books black ops organization called The Company.”
“Never heard of it,” Declan said with his brows pulled together.
“No. You wouldn’t’ve. As I said, it’s off the books. As in, all of the operatives hold down legitimate employment from various different companies. I am truthfully employed by the UN.”
“Who owns it?” That came from Kyle.
“No clue.”
“How do you not know who owns The Company? Who hired you?” I asked.
“I was told about it by one of my colleagues at the CIA. He asked me if I was interested in a career move. When I told him I was, he passed my information on, and a week later I was offered a job. No interview. A man named Leon Brown called me, made the offer, explained everything to me, and gave me my first assignment.”
“So you’re rogue,” Declan declared.
“I’m sure the US government would agree with you.”
“What’s your assignment?”
“Exactly what I told you. Win the auction on the tablets. Once the payment is transferred, we track the money. The Company will see where it’s funneled to. Mostly it goes to fund small extremist groups. The up and comers. They are stopped before they can gain traction. Some of the money goes to warlords, the conflicts are good for the smuggling business. Those are typically untouched, those keep the flow of goods.”
“But only four tablets remain,” I reminded her.
“I’ve been thinking about that.” She started pacing. “I think the Bitoos double-crossed the Lucre and were trying to sell the tablets outside of the auction. I’m not asking for mission specifics, but who sent in the SEALs to recover the artifacts?”
My mind was still spinning on the fact she’d been CIA. And now I was struggling with how much to trust her with, considering she was a good actress. All the bullshit with an off-the-books group, we’d have no way to verify her story. I wondered if Tex knew, or Zane. Tex could find anything on anyone. The Company she supposedly worked for was not in her dossier, neither was her previous employment at the CIA. Those records didn’t just vanish. Even if she’d been scrubbed from their database, Tex would’ve been able to dig and find them. Unless the intel was p
urposely withheld from us, but why would they do that?
“Special assignment. No other information was given,” Declan told her.
“What do you think?” Tatiana turned and asked me.
What did I think? I thought the whole situation was fucked-up. I much preferred a clear and clean cut mission. Black and white. I knew my target and executed my orders. I didn’t like this double-cross, who-done-it bullshit. The gray murky area where you had to wade through layers of deceit to get to the truth.
“Given what we know, I’d agree with you,” I answered.
Her dark eyes held mine, waiting for me to expand on my curt reply. She’d be waiting a long time. I had nothing to add.
“We found the money trail. So, after tonight we’re done?” I asked Declan.
“Not exactly. Mission scope has expanded.”
“Expanded?”
“We’re waiting on intel validation. Once Tex runs through the new data and confirms it, we’re going after Al Issa. Dead or alive. Either way, Zane wants Lucre dismantled.” Declan stopped and addressed Tatiana. “I know that’s not what you wanted to hear. Someone new will pop up and take over the trade. You’ll have a new lead to follow within a week. Omni is too important. Too powerful. Lucre is a cog in the wheel that has to be removed.”
Tatiana didn’t look pleased. As a matter of fact, she was pissed. Her entire body was vibrating with anger. I wasn’t sure how much of it had to do with all of her hard work going in the toilet or if she’d been planning to take out Al Issa and Lucre on her own as payback. Maybe a little of both. I couldn’t fault her for wanting revenge. Hell, I wanted to strangle the man with my bare hands for what he’d ordered done to her.
“I need to call this in,” she mumbled. “What time are we leaving tonight?”
“Late. The brothers like to drink. We’ll wait until after they hit the bar,” Declan answered.
“Okay.”
Without a glance in my direction she left the room. Four sets of concerned eyes swung my way.
Brooks (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Gold Team Book 1) Page 6