Jacob(5)

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.