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Zeke
Zeke wasn’t crazy about being left behind. Nor did he like being out of the loop. He didn’t know why Aggie had brought them to some small-town garage, who Nix or Taser were, or what any of that had to do with their current mission.
Aggie had said to trust her though, and he would, no matter how hard it was, until she gave him a reason not to.
“Sean Callaghan,” the muscled mechanic said, holding out his hand.
Zeke took it. “Zeke Ericsson.”
“You want to grab a beer, Zeke?”
Zeke’s gaze moved to the side, where Aggie had disappeared with the other woman. They were on a schedule. A flexible one, but a schedule, nonetheless. And maybe, just maybe, a tiny part of him worried that Aggie might disappear again if he left despite what she’d said.
“I’ll pass.”
“It wasn’t really a request.”
Zeke returned his full attention to the man, even more alert than he had been. The guy was jacked and fit, as if he lifted four-hundred-pound engine blocks and ran ten miles every morning. There was an intensity in his blue gaze and an easy readiness to his body language that smacked of special ops.
The whole situation was getting weirder and weirder.
“Excuse me?”
“Let me enlighten you, Zeke. When my wife said I should take you down to the pub, what she was really saying was, Vet this guy. I don’t know who your woman is, but Nix obviously does, and she’s very protective of those she cares about.”
Zeke crossed his arms over his chest and remained where he was, bristling.
“Do you always do what your woman tells you to?”
“Do you?” Sean countered. “Seems like you’d rather be in there with her than out here with me, but here we are.”
Fuck. The guy had a point.
“Besides,” Sean continued, “by the look on your face, you have some questions of your own.”
He was right about that too.
“Are you saying you have answers?”
“Maybe.”
Zeke considered his options. He could stand in the parking lot arguing with this guy, or grab a beer and get some information. “Fine.”
“Smart man. Nick!” Sean called out. “I’m heading to the pub. Watch the garage, yeah?”
Another man appeared out of the shadows of the garage, looking like a masculine version of Sean’s wife. Same dark hair. Same freaky pale eyes.
“You got it.”
“Let’s go.”
Sean started walking down the sidewalk. Zeke fell into step beside him. They didn’t speak, which was just fine with him.
A couple of blocks later, they entered Jake’s Irish Pub. It was a nice place. Clean and classy yet welcoming, it reminded him of a place he’d visited outside of Dublin once.
Two men, who bore an obvious resemblance to Sean, looked up at their approach from behind the bar. They were older than Zeke by about a decade, give or take, and had the same intense blue eyes and special ops vibe. The younger of the two held a phone to his ear.
Zeke and Sean took seats at the bar. The bigger of the two poured two drafts, placed one in front of Sean and one in front of Zeke, and then looked to Sean expectantly.
“Zeke, these are my brothers, Jake and Ian. Guys, this is Zeke Ericsson.”
Sean’s tone shifted subtly when he said Zeke’s name. Zeke could have sworn their eyes flashed in recognition, which he neither understood nor liked.
Zeke nodded in acknowledgment and said nothing. He didn’t know these guys from Adam, and he certainly wasn’t accustomed to sharing information.
“Zeke’s woman came to see Nix,” Sean said conversationally. “She’s with her now.”
The younger guy—Ian—slipped his phone into his pocket. “Wouldn’t by any chance have anything to do with a satellite zoom on Parryville, now would it?”
Zeke’s eyes narrowed, and Ian laughed.
“Relax, Zeke,” Jake told him. “You’re among friends here.”
“Is that so?”
“It is, Raguel.”
“How did you—”
“Not important,” Sean said. “What is important is why you need eyes on Parryville.”
* * *
Zeke and Sean returned to the garage. His head was swimming. Though he still didn’t know a lot about the men he’d just spent the last hour with, he did know that they were a hell of a lot more than they appeared.
Before long, Aggie emerged with the other woman. Both were smiling. Zeke’s chest loosened considerably.
“Robin, it’s been great seeing you again,” Nix said. “Good luck!”
“Thanks.”
The two women hugged.
“Think about what I said, okay? Trust your instincts.”
It might have been his imagination, but he could have sworn he saw a blush creep up Aggie’s cheeks when she answered, “I will.”
The dark-haired woman went to her husband’s side.
Aggie came to his. “Ready?”
“Yeah, I’m ready.”
He opened the passenger door and she climbed in, then he made his way around to the driver’s side. He wanted to ask questions, but he wasn’t sure where to start.
“We’ve got to make one more stop before we head to Parryville,” she said as they pulled out of the garage lot and onto the road.
“To Sanctuary, I know. Sean filled me in. Sort of. You’ve got some interesting friends.”
Aggie grinned broadly. “That I do.”
The ride to Sanctuary was a nice one with mountain roads and unspoiled scenic vistas. They drove with the windows down, filling the interior with clean air and the scents of sunshine and pine.
Zeke wasn’t sure what he had expected, but it sure as hell wasn’t a sprawling resort that looked more like an exclusive country club getaway. The Callaghans had said it was a facility for former servicemen and women, run by vets, for vets. It didn’t look like any military facility Zeke had ever seen.
A man was waiting for them when they arrived. He introduced himself as Matt Winston and invited them inside. “Zeke and Robin, I presume?”
Zeke couldn’t help but notice that these people only seemed to know Aggie by her code name, which was telling.
“Right in one,” Aggie said with a smile. “I hope we’re not intruding.”
“Not at all. Ian told us you’d be coming. The satellite’s not quite in place yet. Cage will let us know when it is. It shouldn’t be long.”
“What smells so good?” Aggie asked.
“Kate’s chicken pot pie,” Matt said with a knowing grin. “Best there is. How about we wait in the dining room and you can see for yourself?”
Zeke opened his mouth to decline, but Aggie spoke first. “That would be wonderful, thank you. We haven’t eaten yet, and it’ll save us a stop later.”
The dining room was open and airy, with lots of windows and lots of plants.
“Help yourself,” Matt said, sweeping his hand toward a buffet table.
Unsurprisingly, Aggie loaded her plate with fresh fruits and vegetables. “These are so good,” she moaned around a mouthful of cucumbers and tomatoes.
“We grow mostly everything in our on-site greenhouses or in our orchard,” Matt told them. “We’re pretty self-sustaining here.”
“So, this is a place for vets, huh?” she asked.
Matt nodded and looked meaningfully at Zeke. “It’s hard, making the adjustment from active service to civilian. Hard to find your place sometimes. We try to make that process a little easier.”
That was something Zeke understood all too well. His own adjustment had been jarring and disorienting, and it had taken a while to find his footing. He still wasn’t sure he completely had. “How so?”
“We give them a safe place to stay, let them figure out what’s next, then do everything we can to help them achieve that. It’s a work in progress. My wife recently started a program to integrate Sanctuary with the community. It’s been well received on both sides.”
Matt’s phone vibrated, and he glanced at the screen. “Cage said everything’s ready.”
“Perfect timing,” Aggie said. “I couldn’t possibly eat another bite.”
Matt grinned at this, then led them to a conference room. Well, Matt called it a conference room, but it looked more like a high-tech command center to Zeke. One large screen was mounted in the center of the wall with half a dozen smaller screens around it. Each screen had a different picture, and Zeke recognized them for what they were. Surveillance footage of the buildings and property.
He couldn’t help but wonder why they needed that kind of surveillance.
“Zeke, Robin, this is Cage, our resident IT guru.”
An auburn-haired guy with bright green eyes turned away from a bank of monitors, laptops, and tablets and smiled. “Nice to meet you. Ian said you wanted a real-time high-def look at some mountains outside of Parryville. Are you looking for something in particular?”
“Someone,” Aggie clarified.
The guy nodded as if it wasn’t an unusual request. “No problem.”
Cage tapped a few keys, and an aerial image appeared on the screen. Then, he zeroed in to cover just the mountains they were interested in, which amounted to several hundred square miles. The tree canopy was thick, making it difficult to see the ground in many areas. As far as hiding places went, it was a good one.
Cage superimposed a grid over the image and panned section by section in a methodical sweep. Zeke concentrated on those areas that seemed the most likely places to hole up, knowing exactly what to look for. He’d performed the same tasks for his SEAL team hundreds of times, having analyzed mountains, jungles, deserts, and war-torn cities. In none of those cases had the intel been so clear or current.
“Can you zoom in on A24, C8, and F13?” he asked.
“Sure. I’ll layer in some thermal imaging scans, too, though I’m not sure how helpful they’ll be. There’s probably a decent amount of big game in those woods.” Cage tapped more buttons.
“There,” Zeke said, pointing to an area with a natural rock formation. “If he’s hiding anywhere, it’s there.”