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Val swung around in his chair at the kitchen table when Matthias came through the door of their rental, his expression dark.
“Where’ve you been?” he demanded. “You were supposed to check in over an hour ago.” They still didn’t have a lead on Whitaker, but they’d received word yesterday that Jaia might be in Portland.
She’d stolen sensitive files from the head office and disappeared. It was possible she had somehow found out about him and Matthias and warned Whitaker about the hit on him. And it didn’t bode well that she was in the area, since Whitaker was from here.
No matter what she was up to, the boss wanted her brought in for questioning, making her a priority over Whitaker. It worried Val. Jaia was a civilian and had no training whatsoever to withstand what would be thrown at her.
Two tips had come in this morning from techs monitoring security cameras downtown. Val and Matthias had split up to check them out. Val’s had been a bust, and Matthias had repeatedly ignored Val’s attempts to contact him.
“Yeah, well, I was busy taking care of shit,” Matthias said, tossing his wet jacket over the back of another chair.
A bad feeling took hold. If Matthias had been successful, he would have been bragging about it from the moment he walked in. “What happened? Did you find her?”
“Yeah.” He stalked over to the coffee pot and reached into the cupboard for a mug.
“And?” Val snapped.
“And, she wrapped her fucking car around a light pole when I chased her.”
He stilled. “Chased her?”
“Yeah.”
What the fuck?
Val was out of his chair without even thinking about it.
He seized Matthias, spun him around and slammed him up against the wall, gripping the front of his throat with one hand. Fighting the urge to strangle him right here and now.
“I told you to follow her, and that’s all,” he snarled. He wanted to choose the right moment to act. Make the process of capturing her as non-traumatic as possible. She knew his name. He might be able to convince her to just come with them.
“Get the fuck off me,” Matthias growled with a shove, one hand reaching down for his holstered weapon. It stayed there, a silent warning.
Val didn’t budge as the tense seconds ticked by, his stare drilling into those narrowed eyes until his point was made. He was running this show, not Matthias, and fuck him if he didn’t like it.
With a rough shove, Val finally released him and took a step back, struggling to rein in his anger. This was exactly the sort of cowboy shit that had led to everything imploding in Yemen, and why he hadn’t wanted to work with a partner on this op.
For the thousandth time he was left shaking his head at how fast things had spiraled out of control. Working for Graystone had been great at first. Good money, working with quality, well-trained and disciplined former SOF guys who knew what they were doing.
But over time that had degraded. They’d started hiring anyone who met the basic qualifications, regardless of background. Wannabes with small brains and big egos with no discipline or respect for chain of command.
He’d made a huge mistake by staying. The incident in Aden in January had been a disaster. If it ever came out, he would spend the rest of his days in jail.
But not the guys at the helm who’d known all along exactly what was happening and chose to look the other way. Because people like them, people with that kind of money and power never faced the consequences of their actions.
They’d forced him into this. Forced him into this hellish situation where he had to go after Sukhi’s sister too.
“Is she hurt?” he demanded, anger pulsing through him.
“I didn’t stick around long enough to check,” Matthias snapped, jerking the bottom of his shirt down to straighten it. “But she should be fine. The passenger side hit the pole.”
Jesus. “Did she see you?”
“Nah, she was too busy trying to get away.”
He set his jaw. “Did anyone see you?”
“I mean, yeah, of course people saw the vehicle. But no one came after me.”
Val shook his head in disgust. “So now she knows she’s being followed, and the whole incident will be all over security and traffic cam footage—”
“Relax, I took care of it. Ditched the SUV a couple hours ago and got something else. I’m not an idiot.”
Yes, you fucking are. Val kept glaring at him, anger building like a volcano.
He would have been far better off doing this op alone. Matthias was cocky and impulsive and may have just made this whole thing go so sideways so bad they might not be able to get it back on track. “If we find her again, we follow her to see what she’s doing, and that’s all. I decide when to intercept her. Got it?”
“Yeah,” Matthias muttered, stalking past him and out of the room.
Val ran a hand over his face, cursing silently. He had no problem killing someone in combat to protect himself and his men, but this was different.
Now that Jaia knew someone was after her, she would be scared and even more cautious, which made her harder to locate and take. And given all his connections, the boss would hear about the accident sooner rather than later.
Better to tell him up front.
He pulled out his encrypted phone and shot off a text. Package located. Was in collision while trying to evade surveillance vehicle.
He was tempted to throw Matthias under the bus just to have him removed from the op but held off. He knew how these guys operated. Knew that Matthias could just as easily be sent off on his own to compete with him on this job.
Or be ordered to turn around and kill him to cover his own ass and tie up loose threads.
Intercept not possible, current location unknown. Contact me when you have another lead, he typed. He would keep searching for Jaia on his own in the meantime, but any tech help he could get from behind the scenes would make finding her a whole hell of a lot easier.
He hit send, could just imagine the reaction on the other end, and was glad he wasn’t there to be on the receiving end of the fallout.
He was just sliding his phone back into his pocket when it rang. Holding back a sigh, he reluctantly answered and hit record. “Yeah.”
“What the hell happened?” the man snapped.
“She noticed she was being followed and panicked, hit a light pole downtown.”
“In the middle of downtown in broad daylight.” The anger and displeasure in his tone was obvious.
“Yes.”
He let out a string of curses. Something crashed in the background. “You think I have unlimited time and resources to keep having my techs track down your targets for you? Or that I don’t have better shit to do than babysit you two?”
“I didn’t ask to be saddled with an incompetent teammate,” he fired back, changing his mind about saying it.
“So? I tasked you to lead this because I trusted your ability as a professional.”
A spike of fury whipped through him. No, you tasked me with this because you’ve got my balls in a vise by threatening my kid, and you know it.
He didn’t respond, tuned out as the man kept ranting. The only reason Val was doing this was because he had no other option to protect his son. Period. He would never be able to stomach the sight of himself in the mirror after this, but it was a price he was willing to pay to ensure Kevin’s safety.
“You find her,” the man bit out. “You goddamn find her, what she’s doing and what she knows, or—”
“Or what?” Val snapped. Say it. Say it, motherfucker, so I’ve got it on record.
Then maybe he could do something to extricate himself from all of this, instead of having to carry out his orders, only to abandon his life here in the States after and try to start over overseas somewhere. But if that’s what it took to keep Kevin safe, he would do it.
He would do anything.
“Just find her.” The call ended abruptly.
Val gritted his teeth and pulled in a slow, deep breath to calm himself. Then another. Then two more.
He wouldn’t let Matthias go off on his own anymore. Val knew Jaia. Had known her brother, liked and respected him and the way he conducted himself. Now he was gone, and Val was going to do everything in his power to keep Jaia from being harmed. They could find her and take her without resorting to that.
At least, for her sake he hoped so.
****
Jaia sat stiffly on the sofa, watching Brandon as he crossed the room with a glass of water. “Here,” he said, handing it to her along with two pain relievers. His friend was somewhere out of sight, possibly listening in.
“Thank you.” Her neck and upper back were both sore and the scrapes on her face throbbed.
But she was lucky. It could have been so much worse. And it scared her even more to think what might have happened if he hadn’t stopped to help her exactly when he had. That was probably the only reason the SUV had taken off, though she worried the driver might have seen and identified him too.
She swallowed the pills while he lowered his tall frame into the wide easy chair opposite her. He was bigger than she’d realized from the pictures she’d seen, taller, shoulders broader and his build more muscular.
He wore his light brown hair cut short, and his eyes were a piercing blue that seemed to look right through her. His stare was unnerving.
“I need answers,” he told her, a steely edge to his deep voice.
She nodded and licked her lips, wondering where to begin. She understood that he was still suspicious of her, but they were linked by their common situation and they both wanted to get to the bottom of this whole thing.
Hopefully that was enough to convince him she was on his side. “I work for what used to be called Graystone. Well, up until the other day, anyway.”
His stony expression didn’t change. “Doing what?”
“Executive assistant to Robert Giesbrecht.”
His eyebrows went up, his expression full of surprise. “One of the owners?”
“Yes.”
He sat back, resting his hands on his thighs. Big, powerful hands trained to both save, and, when necessary, take lives. She was thankful that he had chosen to help her today—and that he wasn’t her enemy. “Why have you done all this?”
It was a fair question, and one he deserved an honest answer about. “For my brother.”
She drew a deep breath before continuing, uncomfortable under the force of that hard stare and feeling emotional after everything that had happened. She wanted them to be allies. Needed them to be. “He raised me after our mother died, soon after we came to the States. He was the only family I had left.”
Brandon didn’t say anything, staring at her, and she could feel him weighing each word and her every reaction carefully.
“He was a decorated Marine, served multiple combat tours. I was already working at Graystone. I was the one who urged him to apply there, because of the high pay and good benefit package. When he got out of the military he applied and took a job with them.”
Guilt pressed in on her, heavy and oppressive. If not for her, he never would have worked there. “It was a good job for him at first, but at some point late last year, things started to take a turn. He called me twice a week or more. The last time we spoke he didn’t tell me much, only that something bad was going on where he was in Yemen, and I got the sense it was within the Graystone team.
“He said he couldn’t tell me more because it wasn’t safe, and that he would call me when it was.” She fidgeted with the glass, missing him more than ever. “A few days after that, I was notified that he’d been killed in a road accident while out on a patrol. But I don’t think it was an accident. I think either the guys on his team or whoever was in charge staged it to keep him from exposing what was happening.”
That made the loss so much worse, to think that he had been murdered by guys he should have been able to trust with his life.
“I’m sorry,” Brandon said.
“Thank you.” It still hurt. It would always hurt. But maybe it would hurt a little less once she brought the truth to light and got some sort of justice for him. And some sort of closure for her.
“What did the company say?”
“Graystone claimed it was an accident, showed me reports that backed it up, and paid for the funeral. After I buried him, I started looking into it on my own, but didn’t get far. Then I came across your story, and shortly after you were rescued, I overheard a rumor at the office that you might be looking into Graystone’s involvement in Yemen too. So I sent you the only file I’d been able to find with evidence incriminating the company.”
“That was a big risk.”
She lifted a shoulder, the motion stiff. “I didn’t know who else to turn to, and I thought you might be able to help. Or that you knew something I didn’t and could expose the company by going to the FBI or whatever.” Anything she had to endure would be worth it if she could get justice for her brother.
“I wish I could.” He studied her for another long moment. “What about the hit team? How did you find out about it?”
“I bugged my boss’s office and car.”
Both his eyebrows shot up. “How in the hell did you manage that?”
“I studied up on how to do it for weeks and ordered all the equipment and software. But mostly I think I just got lucky that no one noticed. They had no reason to suspect me.”
He shook his head, looking baffled. “And then you went back in and stole more files?”
“Just one. But yes. I’m pretty sure he found out almost as soon as I did it. He called asking me to come back into the office, and I took off.”
“It’s a good thing you did.” He sighed, seemed to weigh his words before continuing. “As you know, I was held captive in Yemen.”
She nodded, her heart twisting at the thought of him being subjected to whatever he’d suffered during that time. He’d been innocent, not even involved with Graystone, and had almost died anyway.
“The group holding me kept interrogating me about Graystone and what they were doing over there. They showed me so-called ‘evidence’ about crimes its contractors were committing in the country. Aden in particular.”
“What sorts of crimes?” If it lined up with what was in the second file she’d stolen, their evidence was even stronger. “Tell me,” she urged when he hesitated. She’d lost her brother and her home, had risked her life to get this far. She could handle whatever ugliness Brandon was withholding.
“Theft. Rape. Murder.” He paused. “Mass murder.”
“Of civilians?” It shouldn’t surprise her, but it sickened her nonetheless. And it could relate to the files she’d taken.
He nodded. “Old men. Women and children. They had photographs. Video, and the militants holding me weren’t wealthy enough to be tech savvy, if you catch my meaning. With the technology available to them in that remote part of the country, I don’t see how they could have faked it.”
Her heart beat faster. “So you think it’s true?” The company must have scrambled to cover everything up because it didn’t want the crimes made public. Its contractors were paid a lot of money, and instead of helping where they were deployed, some of them had hurt and even killed civilians.
“Has to be. Because what they had seemed damn real, and what’s more, nobody here wanted to talk about any of it when I got back. I could tell officials present at my debriefings recognized the company name, but when I told them everything and what I’d been shown, I got no reaction and a wall of silence in return. Same with the former Graystone guys I’ve reached out to since then.”
“They’re scared.”
“Yeah, and now you and I both know they’ve got a right to be.” He held her gaze for a long moment. “There’s a massive cover-up going on.”
“Yes.” It was such a relief to hear him say it. To know someone else understood what was really going on.
“I just don’t know how far up the chain it goes. That’s why I’ve been digging around on my own and trying to keep a low profile. I don’t even know if we can trust certain people within the FBI, and they’re going to be calling me any time now about this morning.”
“I’d wondered about that, and about what’s really going on with American involvement in Yemen. Or whether US officials and the military knew what was going on and were okay looking the other way because whatever Graystone was doing over there suited their agenda.”
“Exactly.”
She nodded, glad they were thinking along the same lines. “But there’s no way my brother was involved in anything like that. None. I know you never knew him, and that you don’t really trust me, but you have to believe me when I tell you that he would never do those things. I swear it on my life.”
“I believe you.”
Some of the tension drained from her. She sagged a little, blinked against the sudden sting of tears.
Everything was finally catching up to her. She’d felt so alone and scared for so long. Had traveled across the country for days straight, on edge the entire time, barely sleeping. She had left her entire life behind and risked everything, and now this man was the only one who could help her.
“Sorry, I—” Her throat closed up. She swallowed hard, blinked furiously to contain her tears, berating herself.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s okay.”
She nodded once, battling to get a grip on herself. She’d held it together for so long, but it was all crashing down on her at once now. The lack of sleep. The constant stress. The danger. Nearly being killed today.
A shudder sped through her. The room blurred as tears blinded her.
She sniffed, struggling to hold on. Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry. Not now, not in front of Brandon.
He reached across the table and took the glass of water from her. Before she even knew what was happening, he was beside her, his arms going around her.
She curled her hands into fists against his shirt and buried her face between them, embarrassed. Her shoulders jerked. He didn’t say anything or try to shush her, but he tightened his hold and just sat there, holding her while she wrestled with her fraying composure.
Another shudder rolled through her. Then she felt the weight of his chin come to rest on the top of her head, and his willingness to comfort her—a stranger who he had little reason to trust and had just endangered him more—almost broke her heart.
She squeezed her eyes shut and took slow breaths, focusing on all the sensory details instead of her emotional turmoil. The overwhelming sense of safety his hold offered. His citrusy, masculine scent. The incredible heat radiating from his big body. His kindness and consideration of her in the face of all that had happened.
It all blended together in a dizzying rush, distracting her enough to stem the tears and allow her to get control again. She slid one hand around to rub his back in a quick, silent thank you, then pulled away, wiping the heels of her hands under her eyes.
He released her and sat back, his eyes searching hers. “Do you want to sleep a while before we pick this back up?”
Sleep would be heavenly. She was so tired her bones ached. But it could wait. “No, I’d rather show you what I brought.” The sooner they figured this out together, the sooner they could do something to rectify it.
Reaching for the bag at her feet, she withdrew the laptop and accessed the most recent files she had scanned and encrypted. She turned the screen toward him so he could see. “An internal report about the January 17th incident in Aden.”
She watched his face as he read. “Containing names of the men allegedly involved—including my brother.”
