Ryder
Atlanta, GA
Thursday morning
Like wild animals we circled each other, watching intently for any sign of weakness. My opponent’s hands came up, ready to strike. I waited, knowing that patience was the key to my victory.
The strike came, a head shot aimed right at my jaw, but I ducked, following with two jabs to the kidneys and a leg sweep taking my foe down to the ground. One arm around one leg, and the other around my adversary’s neck, I linked my hands tight. No mercy for the enemy. No rest until the job was done. With a quick twist, I could end this fight once and for all.
Tap, tap, tap.
“Ugh! I never see that coming!”
I blinked back the memories of the training I’d spent years honing, and let Jolie Phillips—not my enemy—out of the hold.
“You need to be quicker. Strike faster. You pulled your punch.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
I laughed darkly, hoping to rile her just a bit. She was something to behold when she got all worked up.
“Is that what you’re going to say to the enemy?”
Jolie shot me a withering glare, her hands propped on both hips, her short but sculpted legs tense in her tight spandex shorts. “Of course not. But you’re not my enemy.”
“You have to practice like I am.”
She sighed and shook out her muscles. “Fine. Let’s do it again.”
We took our stances, bent low, hands at the ready, facing off, circling, evaluating. I saw the determination lighting Jolie’s face. She wanted this. Badly. But I knew the truth.
She’d never be ready to face off with a real opponent. Never be confident in the possibility of taking another person’s life. And the truth was—I didn’t want her to live that kind of reality. Every day watching behind your back. Looking down dark alleys before you crossed them. Wondering if your past was finally going to catch up with you.
No, Jolie deserved better than that, which was why these lessons were so important. If she was going to work at Shadow Force, she needed to know how to defend herself, but I was determined to show her that this life wasn’t for her. I knew it would bruise her pride a little, but in the long run, she’d thank me for it.
I saw her intentions before her fist shot out, so I was ready, grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her back. With a heel to the back of her knee, I had her on the ground in seconds. She flipped around, her face inches from mine. And I was lost.
The blue intensity of her gaze was mind-altering, and I blinked, trying to focus on what we were doing. Instead, all I could concentrate on was the wiggle of her lithe body underneath mine, the softness of her curves, the suppleness of her breasts heaving above her sports bra.
Blinding pain shot through my groin, and I rolled over, cupping the family jewels.
“What. The. Hell!” I would not throw up. I would not throw up.
Jolie jumped to her feet and grinned above me. “You said to treat you like you were the enemy. So, I did.”
I turned over, my face to the mat, the pain slowly residing. “That’s not exactly what I had in mind.” I could barely get the words out.
“Well, next time you should clarify.”
She leaned over me and reached out her hand to help me up. But I wasn’t done with her yet. I grabbed her hand and pulled hard, tugging her on top of me. She landed with a gasp, her face inches from mine.
The sweet smell of her breath tickled my nose, and her breathing hitched, taking on a new cadence that spoke of hot nights and warm caresses.
A throat cleared. “This sure looks cozy.”
I groaned loudly, just as Jolie scrambled to get upright. Unfortunately, in her haste to not appear like a floozy in front of her boss, her knee crushed my groin again. The noises I made I wasn’t proud of, but two hits in less than five minutes could bring even the strongest warrior to his knees.
“Oh, geez. I’m sorry. Here.” Jolie held out her hand again to help me up, but I shook my head, waving her off. It was going to be a few minutes before I could be vertical. I sat up slowly, looping my arms around my knees, and tried to give Levi Slater, team leader of Shadow Force Security, my undivided attention.
“You good?” he asked, nodding towards my nether regions.
“Peachy.” He grinned, but it disappeared quickly as he relayed why he’d interrupted something that wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t let it.
“We’ve got news. Washington has a lead on Nikolai.”
My head jerked up at the name—a name I’d been watching for since I’d left Moscow over a year ago. A name that I’d recently stumbled upon in relation to one of the largest shipments we’d ever seen of drugs and guns come into this country. Chavez had singlehandedly delivered the goods to an organization named Los Caballeros del Camino, The Knights of the Way. Unfortunately, those drugs and guns had gone missing three weeks ago after a drug bust gone wrong.
“Where is he?”
Levi shook his head. “Not sure. But we need a plan—and fast. Whatever Nikolai has planned for that amount of firepower can’t be good. Get cleaned up. Conference room in fifteen minutes.”
He turned to walk out and then paused. “You too, Phillips.”
I glanced up at Jolie and saw the excitement in her eyes. Something curled in my belly, a feeling I hadn’t felt in months. It coiled itself tightly, nausea rising up the back of my throat.
Fear.
I had a really bad feeling about this.
***
Jolie and I were the last ones in the conference room. Her rainbow-colored hair was wet and pulled into a tiny ponytail at the nape of her neck. Loose strands escaped its hold, framing her face. Her cheeks were rosy from the sparring and the heat of the shower. She looked seventeen in that moment—pure, innocent, untouched by the cruel world we lived in. How I longed to keep it that way.
I took my seat, and she took hers across the table as we waited for Levi to begin. When he looked up, his face was stern, serious, determined.
“Washington sent news. Nikolai Dmitriev is in the States. Only, we’re not sure where. Somewhere on the East Coast we believe.”
He pulled up a security photo on the screen behind him and pointed. “This is him early yesterday morning at La Guardia.” It was a grainy picture of a man in his sixties, gray hair slicked back away from his lined face, with a basketball hidden under his shirt. There was nothing remotely interesting about the man. Levi switched the photos. “And this is him leaving the airport.” The same man was hailing a cab. The next slide showed him getting into the car.
“Did they pull the records from the cab company?” Cade Montgomery, Levi’s right-hand man, asked from his seat at the front of the room.
“They did. And they ran facial-recognition software on all the street cameras. Seems he took several cabs, jumping from one to the next until they lost him outside the city.”
Disappointment thrummed in my body. I needed to find Nikolai, and he needed to pay for what he’d done to Nina.
“So, we have no leads?” I knew what the answer would be, but I asked it anyway. If we’d lost him, what was the point of the meeting?
“None. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a plan.”
Well, that was an interesting turn of events.
“What kind of plan?”
Levi sat back down in his chair and leaned forward. “It’s time Sasha Petrov was resurrected.”
I hadn’t heard that name in over eighteen months. I hadn’t even thought about Sasha, the role I’d played while undercover in Moscow. My mind shot back to the deceit, the fighting, the near-death experiences. Could I do it? Could I sink back into that roll again?
“Who’s Sasha Petrov?” This question came from Oscar Cortada, who usually sat quietly until we started talking about things that go boom—then, he came alive with animated fervor.
“Sasha was my undercover persona while I was in Moscow.”
Oscar shook his head. “Come again? I thought you said ‘Moscow.’ And ‘undercover’? I thought you were some computer geek for the CIA.”
“I am a computer geek from the CIA. I was also a trained operator. Spent four years in Moscow infiltrating a strand of the Russian Mafia under Dmitriev’s leadership. He’s an up-and-coming boss. Doesn’t have the clout of the other bosses quite yet. Proving himself. I took all that away from him when I stole a database with the names of all his undercover operatives here in the States.”
“So, we not only have a Russian Mafia boss—we’ve got a pissed-off one at that.” His eyes gleamed with the excitement of danger on the horizon.
“Pretty much.”
Oscar grinned—it was a frightening thing, known to make little children cry. “Nice.”
I couldn’t help but smile back at him. Oscar lived for danger.
“What do you need me to do?” I directed the question to Levi, knowing he had some semblance of a plan he’d already hashed out with Washington, the advisor to the President and the man who made sure we had the funding we needed to get the jobs done.
“We want you to fight.” His words brought on a rush of memories: dead men lying on the ground after a brutal beating; cheers of “Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!” shouted in Russian from the crowd as a fighter stood over his adversary, ready to deliver the death blow. I shivered, hoping no one noticed, but when I looked up, my eyes met the concern in Jolie’s. I looked away sharply, returning my attention to Levi.
“Washington discovered a string of underground fights starting next week. Rumor has it there’s a Russian fighter who’s a force to be reckoned with. Former Russian military or something like that. We believe we’ll find Dmitriev there.”
“What does this have to do with Los Caballeros? Any murmurings related to their involvement?”
Cruz Ortiz spoke up. “No. Not yet. But it’s not every day a Venezuelan drug cartel has dealings with the Russian Mafia. Something is going on. We just haven’t figured out what that connection might be.”
I nodded, knowing I’d do what was expected of me, even if I lost a little bit of my soul in the process. Too many lives could be at stake.
“We’re hoping something will pop up at one of the fights. Interestingly enough, they’re all in port cities along the southeast.” Cruz slumped back in his seat, drumming his fingers on the table. Cruz was our typical go-to guy for undercover. A former marine who had just finished a long stint undercover in Chavez’s organization. It was there he’d found and rescued the love of his life, Lydia Ayala. They’d been married just a few weeks ago.
“So how does Sasha fit into all of this?” I had a feeling I knew, but I was hoping I was wrong.
“Sasha is bait.”
Nope, not wrong. Bait. Dangle it in front of the big fish and wait for him to bite. Nice.
“But it’s your call, Ryder. I know you were done with the undercover life. If you don’t want to go back under, we’ll support you in that and find another way.”
And let my team down? My country? No way in hell.
“I’m in.”
Levi nodded his approval. “Okay, then.”
“If these are MMA fights, why not send Cade in?” Jolie asked a legitimate question, but I knew the answer to that. These weren’t fights like Shadow Force held frequently in our arena.
Levi glanced at me to answer, and I sighed.
“They’re not MMA fights. It’s underground fighting. No rules. No drug tests. No referees, except to keep the bloodbath going. Many times, it’s a fight to the death.”
“I don’t understand.”
I knew why she didn’t. In the MMA world, Cade was our lead fighter. He’d taught me everything he knew within the rules of MMA. He’d taught me about martial arts, the art and techniques of fighting. But I was the one who had the experience in underground fighting. Not Cade.
“Sasha Petrov was a champion fighter in Moscow. He had a reputation. People came from all over to fight him.”
Jolie’s eyes glistened, and she looked away, giving her attention to the paper in front of her, drawing something with her pencil.
Levi cleared his throat and got back to business. “We’ll spread the word that Sasha is returning to the underground fighting scene, only this time in the States. Our hope is that Nikolai won’t be able to stand it and will show his face at one of them. Meanwhile, we’ll need someone else with you. Someone who can get access to the people working the fights, but also someone who is openly close to you.”
“Like Oscar?” The wording confused me. Why not just say I needed backup? That wasn’t unusual in an op like this.
Levi grinned. “You and Oscar got a thing going I should know about?” Oscar laughed like a hyena, while the rest of the team chuckled.
“A thing?” It hit me. “You mean a romantic thing? Hell, no, man. I thought you were talking backup.”
“I am. But I had someone a little softer in mind. Someone who can easily slip in and out undetected. Someone that everyone underestimates.” I knew where Levi was going before I followed his gaze. My stomach sank.
“No.” The word came out harsher than I’d intended. I tried to soften my voice, but I wasn’t successful. “No way, Levi.”
Jolie stopped her doodling on the paper in front of her, and her gaze jerked up to find Levi staring her down. “Me?” Her voice was incredulous and at the same time filled with awe.
“No. I mean it, Levi. She’s not ready.”
“She is ready. And she’s our best option.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Hello! She is sitting right here, and I believe she has a say in what happens in her life, yes?”
Levi grinned and nodded for her to finish.
“What would I have to do?”
“They’re holding tryouts for ring girls on Saturday night. You know, the ones who carry the cards that indicate a change in the round during the fight?”
“So, you want me to try out to be a ring girl?”
“Exactly. I’ll have Piper and Lydia take you shopping. You’ll need to smile, flirt, bat your eyes, and ‘Ah, shucks’ your way through it. Think you can handle that?”
Jolie’s face lit up with excitement. “Of course I can, sugar! I’m sweet as honey.” Jolie played up the accent, batting her eyes while reciting her cheesy lines.
The team chuckled at her antics. Everyone except me.
“The second piece is that we need you to have a connection with Sasha. You’ll go as his fiancée. We need you close enough that you’re not just a piece of action he’s toting around for the moment. You need to mean something to him. You’ll have to act as if you like each other. That you’re lovers. Do you think you can do that?”
Jolie’s face turned bright red as her eyes met mine. She shrugged as if she was unaffected, but everyone in the room could see that blush.
“I think I can handle that. The question is—can Ryder?”
I shook my head. “You’re right. I can’t. I’m not doing this, Levi. I need legitimate backup. Someone who’s quick on their feet, knows how to use a gun, and can blend in.”
“I can do all those things. You know I can. You’ve been training me, for crying out loud.”
“I’ve been training you to defend yourself. Humoring you, Jolie. I never actually thought you’d be an operator.”
Hurt flashed in her eyes mixed in with a whole helluva lot of anger.
Crap. I hung my head, suddenly remorseful for embarrassing her in front of the team. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Of course it is.” She stuck her nose in the air and straightened her shoulders.
Belatedly realizing we were having a semi-private conversation in front of the whole team, I met Levi’s hard stare. I sighed.
“She could get hurt. Or worse.”
Levi’s gaze softened. “Let’s take a break. Jolie, Ryder, you stay. Everyone else, see you in ten.”
The group left, each one casting pitying glances over their shoulders at us. Geez, what a mess.
When everyone had left, Levi leaned forward, clasping his hands on the table. He turned to me first.
“I’ve been watching the two of you for months. You’ve got the kind of chemistry to pull this off. And, Ryder, you’re one of the best trainers I’ve ever seen. If anyone can make sure Jolie is ready by next week, it’s you. But I need to be clear about something. This may be our only chance.”
“What about Piper?”
Cade waltzed back in at the mention of his former FBI wife’s name. “Piper is pregnant. And sick as a dog.” Well, that explained her absence at the table today.
Jolie squealed like the girly-girl she was and jumped out of her chair, throwing her arms around Cade’s neck. “Congratulations!”
I couldn’t help but stand and shake Cade’s hand, happy for them, but realizing my only substitute for Jolie was unavailable. “Congrats, man.”
“Thanks. But she’s off active duty for a while. She’ll man the office while Jolie goes with you. It’s our best shot, Ryder.”
Jolie sat back down in her chair and straightened her spine. “I’m ready. I could still use some lessons with firearms. I know that. Piper can work with me, if she’s feeling up to it. But otherwise, I’m ready. I want to do this.” She turned pleading eyes to mine. “I want to help.”
Dammit! I hated this. Hated everything about it. I could feel the sense of foreboding shadowing me. Resolved and outnumbered, I dipped my chin in agreement. “Fine. You do everything I tell you. Is that clear? No questions asked.”
Jolie nodded her head up and down like an over-eager puppy.
“You will not get hurt. Do you understand?”
Her gaze softened, and she jerked her chin in response.
“Fine. I’ll be by to pick you up bright and early in the morning. Be ready, Phillips. I’m about to kick your ass.”
Jolie popped up out of her chair and saluted me. “Yes, sir!”
Levi and Cade roared with laughter, but I didn’t think it was the slightest bit funny.
I’d been down this road before. I’d had a female partner I cared about. Granted, my feelings for Nina were brotherly, and there was nothing brotherly in the way I felt for Jolie. But Nina had died on my watch. I’d been unable to keep her safe. I wasn’t about to let that happen again.
Jolie would be safe. I would keep her that way.
Or I would die trying.