Her Fierce Warrior (X-Ops #4)(36)

Ivy shrugged. "Maybe. Tanner seems to think so, but Zarina says there's no way to tell."

John frowned. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Zarina knows about  what happened to you. She's obviously been hiding stuff from me for a  while. But Tanner, too? Is there anyone else involved in this that I  should know about?"

"The only other person who knows about Stutmeir getting my DNA is  Kendra," Ivy said. "But that's only because she's my best friend. And  Layla, of course."

John sighed. "I know we can trust them not to say anything. As for  Minka, we're going to need her to get as close as we can to where you  found her, Angelo, then ask her to lead you the rest of the way." He  gave Angelo a small smile. "I think it might be best if you tell Minka  we're sending her back to Tajikistan to find Klaus and Renard. She'll  take it better from you."

Angelo nodded. He still didn't know how the hell he was going to do it, though.

Beside him, Ivy and Landon were exchanging another of those looks again,  like they were trying to decide if they should say something else.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" John asked.

Landon waited until Ivy gave him a nod; then, he reached out and took  her hand in his before looking at John. "Ivy and I are married. We have  been since June."

John stared at them, disbelief clear on his face. "Married?"

"We wanted to tell you," Ivy said. "Heck, Landon wanted you to be there.  But in your capacity as director, we were worried you'd be forced to  split us up as a team if you knew we were violating DCO policy."

John's mouth tightened. "I wouldn't have, but you had no way of knowing that. Who else knows?"

"Layla, of course. And the rest of Ivy's family," Landon said. "Kendra,  Declan, Clayne, Danica, and Angelo, as well as some of the guys on my  former A-team."

John laughed. "So half of the DCO."

"You're not mad?" Ivy asked.

"Mad? Hell no. I've known you two were romantically involved for a while  now. And you're obviously good at hiding the fact that you're married,  so just keep doing that and everything will be fine. Not everyone at the  DCO thinks the no-fraternization policy is as stupid as I do."

Then John looked at Angelo, his eyes suddenly knowing. "No one mentioned  it, but I assume you were in Washington State, too? Any chance the rest  of your A-team was out there with you?"

Angelo swore silently. So much for keeping the rest of the guys off the DCO's radar.

* * *

Minka tightened her grip on Angelo's hand as they sat down in the big  conference room. She'd been relieved to see Ivy, Landon, and John when  she and Angelo had walked in a few minutes ago. But Dick was there too,  along with the two men who had come to Zarina's office the day they  scared her into letting the beast out. There was a man deep in  conversation with John, too. She didn't recognize him, but he made the  beast restless, and she had to force herself not to growl.                       
       
           



       

She ignored the man and focused on Angelo's presence beside her as she  studied the map of southern Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan in the  front of the room. She recognized the markers for the cities and  territorial boundaries but understood little beyond that, especially the  various circles and lines drawn on it. But since the whole purpose of  this meeting was about going back to Tajikistan to find the doctors who  had hurt her, she supposed the markings must have something to do with  where the DCO thought the doctors were located.

When Angelo had come into Layla's office a little while ago and told her  they would be going back to Tajikistan to find Klaus and Renard, she  had almost hyperventilated. She knew Angelo would be with her and would  keep her safe, but the thought of the doctors had nearly brought out the  beast.

At the front of the room, John moved to stand behind the podium. He  started the meeting by introducing the man who made the beast uneasy as  Thomas Thorn, then said something about the classification of the  briefing and other security protocols, most of which went completely  over her head. She was still trying to understand what he was saying-all  the acronyms made it very hard-when a picture flashed up on the big  television screen over his left shoulder. It was the older doctor,  Klaus. Minka only half listened as John gave them details about where  the man was born, where he went to school, and his connection to the  hybrid program. Klaus looked just as smug in the picture as he had when  he'd tormented her.

Then another picture flashed on the screen, this time of Renard. She  squeezed Angelo's hand more tightly, digging in her nails. In the photo,  Renard was smiling-just as he had during the experiments he'd conducted  on her. Even now, she could hear him laughing as she begged him to stop  one of the hundreds of painful things he had done to her.

Angelo leaned over to put his mouth close to her ear. "Hey. You okay?"

She nodded. "I do not like that man. They are both evil, but he was the worse of the two."

Angelo traced the barely discernible scars on her arm. "Is he the one who did this?"

"Yes," she whispered.

When Angelo didn't say anything, she looked over to see him staring at  the picture of Renard intently, as if he were trying to burn the image  into his mind.

She turned back as John mentioned the autonomous region, which was where  Angelo had found her. He pointed at the region on a map and indicated  how far the DCO believed she had walked. He described different circles  on the map, calling some of them "objective points" and others "rally  points" or "primary" and "secondary landing zones." Minka couldn't  follow all of the jargon, but she understood that was where they would  be starting their search.

"Minka will lead the team in from there," John announced after going  over the map for a few more minutes. "In addition to Minka and Sergeant  Rios, who is Army Special Forces, the team will include Agents Donovan  and Halliwell. They both have personal experience with the doctors,  which will be invaluable on this mission."

Minka had assumed Ivy and Landon would be going, but she was still  relieved to hear John say their names. She and Ivy had made a connection  the day before that was unlike anything Minka had ever felt with even  her closest girlfriend.

With a nod, John stepped away from the podium and Dick took his place. Minka stiffened.

"Powell and Moore will round out the team," Dick said. "That should be more than sufficient for an op like this."

The beast inside Minka growled at the mention of Powell's name. He was  the guard who'd suggested Dick should threaten her with the needle. She  didn't have to look to know that Moore was almost certainly the other  guard. Minka was no expert on military operations, but the two men  seemed like strange choices.

Landon leaned over Ivy and whispered to Minka and Angelo, "Powell and  Moore aren't typically used for anything more than corporate security. I  don't think I've ever seen them on a tactical operation. If they're  going, it's more to spy for Dick or Thorn than to do any fighting. We'll  need to keep an eye on them."

Dick stepped away from the podium and John took his place. "Minka,  Angelo, could you please come up here? A few members of the team have  some questions they'd like to ask."

Minka's pulse raced as Angelo led her up to the front of the room, but  she tried not to let her nervousness show. She was going to spend quite a  bit of time with these people over the next few days, so she was going  to have to get used to talking to them.

Most of their questions revolved around the place where she'd been held  captive. She told them as much as she could, saying she'd been chained  to a wall most of the time and hadn't seen anyone except for the two  doctors and the guards.                       
       
           



       

"How many guards?" Powell asked.

"Usually three." She refused to mention that there had only been two  after she'd killed one of them with a rock. She tried to remember all  the different faces and scents, but those memories belonged to the  animal inside, and the beast wasn't talking to her at the moment. So she  gave the best answer she could. "But I saw others as they passed my  cell, and I smelled at least ten different men."

"Were the guards locals?" Moore asked.

"Some of them were," she said. "But most were foreign."

"What about weapons?" Powell wanted to know.

Minka didn't know much about weapons. "They carried handguns and longer  rifles like soldiers carry. Some of them carried grenades."