Jacob(4)

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. Three days without sleep were starting to wear on him, but he lowered his voice. The conversation became intimate. “Oh, I’m afraid that one is far too easy my new friend. You’re a spook. It’s the only plausible reason you were in a warlord’s prison camp. You live and work in D.C. or close to it.”

A mask fell over her face. He hurried to continue the conversation. He didn’t want to threaten her privacy. God knew she’d been violated enough. “I could let you pick the restaurant, but I recommend O’Malley’s in Georgetown. The steaks are the best I’ve ever had.”

“What’s the date today?”

“October 25th.”

“October? Oh God…really?” Her eyes glazed over. Undoubtedly, her sense of reality and the truth had collided. He waited for her to process the information he had given her.

“October?”

He nodded in silent affirmation.

She closed her eye and moved her head slowly from side to side. After several minutes, she turned to him and whispered. “I tried. Tried to keep track. I missed a couple days.”

A series of expressions passed over her face. Once again, he waited to give her space. She drew a deeper breath and with effort, she smiled. “What time…at the restaurant?”

His eyes locked with her one sapphire-blue eye. “Seven-thirty. And don’t make me wait; I’m not a patient man.”

She chuckled with a wince and held her ribs. “A lady is allowed a few minutes?”

He looked at her and took in the damaged body. He couldn’t imagine the horror she had seen in the last one hundred and four days. “I think you may be entitled to be a few minutes late.”

The plane banked. The red cargo light came on and draped the bay in an eerie glow. “That means we are on final approach. We’re landing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. A medical team has been arranged and is meeting the plane on the ramp. The crew chief is coming back here to stay with you until the plane stops. My team and I are exiting stage left, prior to anyone boarding the aircraft…if you get my drift.”

She nodded. “Thank you. I wasn’t…primary mission?”

Jacob shrugged his shoulder. “No need to thank me. I just go where I’m told and now and again, I get to rescue a lovely damsel in distress.”

A tear slipped down and streaked the muck that caked her face, but she smiled. “Lovely? No, not… anymore. Don’t recommend that place… as a spa.” The last word came out as more of a groan than a word.

The misery and distress in her voice revealed a fragile psyche that appeared to teeter on the edge of sanity. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Her whispered cry for absolution uncharacteristically struck a chord deep within him.

Jacob reached his hand out and wiped the tear that hung near the corner of her eye. The caked filth smudged across her cheek. Damn it. Tears. He hated female tears. He had to find his contract.

He whispered as he leaned close to her, “Now I’m throwing the bullshit flag. I know that under all this dirt is a nice person and that is all that matters. And FYI…the entire staff at your spa has been served their termination notice. It seems other people had lodged serious complaints.” He lifted the back of her hand to his mouth and kissed it before he stood.

He noticed Tori watched him turn to his team and gear up. The men shouldered backpacks full of equipment and strapped on enough firepower to start a small war.

“Is being a giant mandatory?”

Jacob looked at his men and then himself and started to laugh. His men were all massive, but he stood taller than all of them. “Yeah, good ole, home-grown, American boys.” Her head turned towards him. He held her eye with his. “One year from today, seven thirty at O’Malley’s. Don’t be late.”

She lifted her hand and waved in his general direction and panted shallowly in between her words. “I’ll…knock you…on your ass.”

“I look forward to it, Victoria.”

He moved to the cargo ramp and waited while his team checked each other’s gear. As the hydraulics activated, Jacob looked back at her and smiled. He pointed at her and mouthed the words, “Don’t be late,” before he dropped onto the tarmac while the plane taxied toward the arrivals hangar.





Chapter Two


“Ever think to clear bringing back a passenger?” The question from Jacob’s supervisor and mentor, Gabriel, rang down the entryway as the team filtered into Guardian’s building. Jacob raised his arm and the squad froze, the signal obeyed without hesitation or question.

“No.” Jacob’s body tensed and his mind raced. What the fuck was Gabriel’s issue? They’d encountered an American held captive in a hostile country. Get ‘em home. An easy decision.

“That was an agency operative.” Gabriel turned and faced the team.

Across the room, Jacob tensed. “The agency operative was a woman. An American woman held captive and damn near beaten to death.” The statement echoed in the room. “You wouldn’t have left her behind.”

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?”