NICK HAD FAILED to protect Kaylan, and he was going out of his mind with worry. Surrounded by other SEALs, he beat a path toward Janus, caring little about the repercussions. If she wouldn’t talk, someone would have to restrain him from killing her. They had reached a dead end. Their last hope for quickly identifying Kaylan’s location remained in the hands of a psychopathic terrorist.
“Hawk, chill, brah. You’re not thinking clearly.” Colt grabbed at his arm, but Nick swung away, barreling across the landing field and toward a waiting plane. They’d only been back from Ukraine a few hours, but he knew they didn’t want to wait long to transport Janus to a safe place for questioning. The plane sat gassed and ready to load.
He spotted her walking across the tarmac. All five foot one of her, head held high, nose almost stuck in the air. Right now he didn’t care if this woman was the pope; he wanted to punch the smug look off her face and keep going until she told him Kaylan’s location.
Micah stepped in front of him, and Nick stopped short, coming nose to nose with his best friend. “Move.”
Nick watched Micah’s jaw flex, could almost see his mind whirring, choosing his words carefully. “I want to find my sister as much as you do. But you will not help things if you take that woman out, wanted murderer and terrorist or not.” Micah reached in his pocket and tossed Nick a piece of Juicy Fruit gum. “Now pop that in your mouth, shut up, and let me talk since you clearly can’t control yourself right now.”
“Bulldog, get out of my way.” He attempted to shove past Micah, but he stood firm, his mouth tightening slightly as Nick jarred his injured arm. Nick would care about that. Later.
“Hawk!” Nick flinched at the sound of X’s gruff voice. He stiffened and refused to turn around, his gaze glued on Janus’s progress. The team around her had stopped, taking in the action.
X moved past Nick and popped the back of his head. “What are ya thinking, you idiot? Let me handle this.” He moved toward the head of Janus’s security, his hands on his hips as they talked.
Nick held his breath, straining to hear across the tarmac, but the sounds of base life ruined his chances. He took a step, but Micah and Colt stepped in front of him again. “Cool it. It’s under control.” Nick refused to meet Micah’s eyes, knowing the concern and caution he would find there. He didn’t want to be the controlled man. Irrational, in love, terrified, and pumped full of adrenaline with no direction all defined him right now. He’d temporarily deleted calm from his vocabulary.
But he knew if he were to get anything accomplished, he would have to remember to stuff his emotions and call on his training to do what was necessary, even when his world crashed around him.
X motioned them forward to join the party. “Carmichael, they are having trouble with the preflight check. They are giving you ten minutes with her in the hangar. But I don’t trust you or Bulldog alone with her. Colt and I will stay in the room. You keep your hands to yourself, you understand me?” He pointed a finger in Nick’s face. Nick choked down his anger at feeling like a child under the administration of a disapproving parent.
“Got it.”
“Great, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go find your girl.”
X led the four of them into the hangar where Janus’s security detail stood waiting for them. At a nod from X, they moved a few feet away and began to whisper.
Nick clenched his fist and furiously chewed his gum, trying to find the inward calm he usually achieved in the heat of a mission. Somehow, making it personal stripped any semblance of normalcy.
Janus smirked. “Come to gloat?”
“No. There’s no point.”
She flexed her hands, the handcuffs rattling. “These aren’t the prettiest bracelets I’ve ever worn, but far from the worst.” Her smirk went slack, and a deadly cold filled her face. “Even in custody, American hospitality is better than anything under the Iron Curtain.”
He didn’t have time for her mind games. He took a measured step. “Where’s Kaylan?”
A wicked smile blossomed on her face, and he forced himself to stay put. “When they didn’t hear from me, they took her.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“Men you never want to meet. They live for money, and they are very good at what they do. You will not find her unless I give the word.”
Nick advanced a step, Micah tensing at his side. He held his phone out for her to take. “Then give the word.”
She held her hands out in front of her face, checking her now cracked nail polish. “And why should I?”
“Because it might make things a lot easier for you.”
“Might is not a promise I am willing to cash in on. I speak in currency. And in comfort.”
“Two things I can promise you will never see again if you don’t help me.”
“Again, you haven’t given me a reason to.”
“What do you want?” Nick shouted. Micah took a step closer to him.
A wicked grin spread across Janus’s face. “I want to tell you a story.”
“We don’t have time for that.”
“Oh, I think you will make time for this one,” she snapped. “About twenty-eight years ago a young Stasi officer received an assignment to make contact with American military personnel in strategic locations on the other side of the Berlin Wall. Sometimes she posed as a young student, other times she just slipped past the guards. Quite an accomplishment, I might add. She met a young man in the United States Air Force. He was young and handsome enough. Full of life and naivety. The perfect candidate.”
“Does this story have a point?” Micah gritted through clenched teeth.
Her cold blues eyes fastened on him. “In fact it does. And that point is standing next to you.”
A roar filled Nick’s ears as her gaze shifted to him. Her eyes, icy blue. Lifeless. And entertained. He felt sick.
“And how am I the point? I need to know where my girlfriend is. Now.”
Janus seemed to tire of the charade. The smirk dropped from her voice, and the ice in her eyes laced her voice. “I left you wrapped in a blue blanket with a brown rabbit for the Americans to find. Your name is Nikolai Sebastian.” She shrugged. “I am not the motherly type. It was even worse when I found out I was having twins. I got rid of you as soon as I could. Now do you really want to turn me over to your government?”
Nick smirked. “You have really done your homework. I’m impressed.”
“Man, I said she was crazy.” Micah shook his head.
“In my business that is possible, but it is more than likely that I know what I am talking about. I never had to research you, Nikolai.”
Nick’s head spun. Mother. Janus was claiming to be his mother. It seemed impossible. He didn’t have time to think about it now.
“You’re lying.”
“Now is that any way to talk to your mother?” She took a step closer and spoke in Russian. “I know you understand me. I know your name. I know who you are. And I know where your sister, Natalia, is. I can make life very difficult for her as well.”
Nick responded in English, fighting the fear that clawed its way through his entire body, threatening to paralyze him. “If you have a motherly bone in your body, you will tell me where Kaylan is.”
“Do you not realize I never had that trait? I gave you up when you were only days old and never looked back.” She grinned. “Kaylan and her annoying friend will be put to good use. She will make many men happy. Cheer up, my son. You will find someone else to warm your bed.”
Nick snapped. He lunged forward, his fists raised, but X yanked him back. Colt struggled to restrain Micah on his left. “You sold her into the sex trade? Tell me where my fiancée is!”
“Temper, temper. I am sure she is awaiting transfer at this very moment. You should have left well enough alone.”
Nick took a deep breath and tugged free of X’s grip. He straightened his shirt and imagined himself under a hide on one of his missions, his finger massaging the trigger as he scanned the area through his scope. Another deep breath. His senses honed in. A plane taxied down the runway. A gnat buzzed near his ear. His knuckles ached from his wadded fists. The gum in his mouth sent bursts of flavor down his throat with every movement of his jaw. He could smell gasoline and exhaust and the faint scent of body odor mixed with liquor. His heart rate settled.
Janus studied him, her blue eyes growing wary. “You could have done better, you know. Kaylan is just one of many.”
Nick blew a bubble with his gum, ignoring her jab. It popped and he chewed some more, folding his arms over his chest. “Here’s how this is going to go.” His voice adopted a deadly calm, back in control and back in his element. The predator instead of the prey. Micah settled next to him, his posture relaxed but his hands balled into fists.
“I’m going to ask you one more time for any shred of information. You then are going to tell me something. The more you share, the more I will work with these guys”—he nodded to the security that had come nearer during his episode—“to negotiate a deal. Your help in exchange for a more comfortable prison sentence.”
He took a step closer, towering over her, his shadow a giant on the wall behind her. His teammates flinched but held back. “But if you don’t, I’ll make sure your life is a living hell, and every man in Gitmo that you ever cheated in business will know exactly who you are and what cell you cower in. Got it?”
“You have searched for me long and hard.” Her smug smile made his blood boil. “I have watched you with those you care about. Your threats are empty. You wouldn’t do that to your mother.”
Nick finally fully appreciated the home he’d grown up in, the love of a woman who hadn’t shared his blood but had spent nights awake when he was sick, hours at the hospital after every major accident, and made dozens of cookies for every kid in the neighborhood. “My mother died. I only see a woman who will die alone.”
If her eyes could freeze him in place, he would have been a block of ice. But Nick noticed that her hands began to shake.
“I can give you a name.” Her nose remained tipped firmly upward, but there was a slight crack in her voice.
“You’ll give me more than that.”
“In a card game it is not good to show your hand. I think I will still keep some cards close to the vest, as you Americans like to say.”
Nick could feel his calm slipping away again. They were losing time. He dug his ringing phone out of his pocket. Logan. The Feds had a possible location. At least it was something.
“The name, Janus?” He took another step, his face towering over her, and the only place she had to point her nose was up at him. “My offer stands this last time. Name and location.”
He could almost feel the war rage in her. For the first time he saw her face flinch in fear. He wondered how many people she had double-crossed or left in her wake as she slipped into the shadows. If he won this battle, what others could he win on the hunt to capture her boss and end a major arms operation?
“And what if I said it is too late? She cannot be saved?”
“Then your boss and all your former clients will know where you are kept. I’ll make sure of it.” He turned his back on her and began to walk away.
“Dmitri Novechek,” she nearly shouted.
Nick breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t called his bluff. He slowly turned around. “Location. Now,” he gritted.
Her hands shifted, the metal cuffs jingling with the movement. “I do not know a location, but you will be lucky to find him. He is ruthless, cunning, and knows how to hide. I do know where he is going but not when.” She spat an address before a small smile of triumph twisted her bitter features. “It may already be too late for your nosy girlfriend and her terrible friend.”
Nick took a step back, fighting the urge to run in her presence. “Fiancée. She’s my fiancée. And she’s tougher than you give her credit for.”
“I would not count on that if I were you.”
This time it was Nick’s turn to smirk as he turned to walk away. “Oh, I like my odds. You see, she’s marrying a United States Navy SEAL.”