Agents Under Fire (8 page)

Gabe controlled his fury. He’d been pegged from the beginning, recruited because of his connection to the target. “Long shot, wasn’t it? Tekla and I were never best friends. Last time we saw each other was a decade ago.”

Brent had counted on the man to come out of hiding, if he thought he could give himself up safely, to a friend. It hadn’t exactly worked out that way, but the stalemate had been broken. Gabe had led them to Tekla’s hiding place. Brent had Jasmine because of
him
. Man, he hated the thought of that.

“
I didn’t bring you here because of your friendship to Tekla,” Brent lectured. “You were brought in for your girlfriend here. When the men I hired took her, they searched the house and sent me every scrap of paper. Most of it was crap. But this one little diary…” He gave a mean laugh.

“
A teenager’s diary from ten years ago. Didn’t pay much attention to it first, but I read the damn thing after Tekla took out those men. I figured I might find a clue to where he was hiding. People go to familiar ground when they’re on the run and all that. Nothing about Venice in the diary, I tell you that. But there were pages and pages about you.” Brent sneered.

Jasmine blushed scarlet and wouldn’t meet Gabe’s eyes.

He was too angry at Brent, too worried about her being in the middle of all this danger to feel amused. But he promised himself to enjoy the hell out of this little piece of information the second they were safe.

First, he had to get out of this jam. “Tekla got away. He’s talking to the authorities right now. Whoever has been protecting you won’t take the fall for this. He’ll make you the scapegoat.”

Brent flashed a grin of pure conceit. “I have enough on the man to be sure he’ll never turn against me.”

So he hadn’t simply bought a politician with the promise of a share in the gold. It all came down to blackmail. “What’s next then?” He needed to keep the man talking. His gun hand was almost free.

“
I shoot you now, then wait for the B Team to call me with the news that they have Tekla. Once I know I no longer need your girlfriend for anything, I’ll have some fun with her before I shoot her.”

Jasmine stood frozen—her eyes wide, cheeks pale—looking lost in some nightmarish memory. She was too stunned to struggle.

Come on, honey
, Gabe tried to tell her with his eyes.
Do something. Anything. All I need is a second of distraction.

“
You know, reading all those teenage fantasies wasn’t as bad as it sounds.” Brent leered at her, but was still talking to Gabe. “Let’s see what she does with a real man. Maybe I won’t shoot you just yet and let you watch. If you say, pretty please.”

“
Go to hell.”

“
I take that as a no.” Brent raised his gun.

That brought Jasmine out of her frozen fear, and she launched herself at the man who hadn’t expected much resistance from her. Big mistake.

“
What the hell—” He turned to deal with her.

Which was all Gabe needed. He shook off the rest of the bricks and took aim. He didn’t try to go easy on this one. He put a bullet right into the middle of Brent’s forehead.

Another shot rang out at the same time, slamming into the man’s chest.

Troy stood in a doorway, his face grim as he looked at Gabe. He must have heard it all. “Let’s get out of here before the others gather themselves and someone gets killed in the confusion.”

His scarred face looked even more haunted than usual as he watched Jasmine, and Gabe remembered the rumor he’d heard from another guy on the team. The same explosion that had messed up Troy’s voice and face had also killed the woman he loved. And for the first time, Gabe had an inkling of what that could mean to a man.

“
Thanks for the help.” He pushed free from under the rubble, ignoring the pain that shot up his leg.

Troy nodded, his eyes narrowing. “Don’t you ever knock me out again.”

“
Sorry about that.” But his attention was on Jasmine who still stood in the same spot, her eyes riveted on the blood flowing around her feet.

Brent had grabbed on to her as he’d fallen. His lifeless fingers still circled her ankle.

“
I’ll make sure we have a clear path out of here.” Troy took off.

Gabe kicked Brent’s arm away and pulled Jasmine into his arms. Nothing ever had felt more right.

“
I have the envelope,” she whispered as she lifted her face to his. “Are we okay now? Is it over?”

He wanted to kiss her more than anything he’d ever wanted in his life. And then he did, just a slow brush of his lips against hers. He needed to go easy on her. She’d just been through hell. But she tightened her arms around his neck, and kissed him right back.

A long, life-altering moment passed before they pulled apart.

“
I’m here. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he promised.
Ever.

~~~***~~~

Chapter Ten

His room at Camp Darby in Livorno seemed more and more like a cage with every passing day. He’d brought Jasmine here to catch up with her brother and sister after the showdown with Brent three days before. They’d been separated for Gabe’s debriefing and he hasn’t seen her or her brother since. Nobody seemed to be able to tell him where they went.

He wasn’t allowed to leave. He was to wait for the colonel who wanted to speak to him in person and was due at camp any minute.

So when the door of his room opened, Gabe pulled his spine straight and put his heels together out of habit. But instead of the colonel, Jasmine walked in.

“
Hi,” she said, her Bourbon eyes fast on his face, a small, shy smile on her amazing lips. “How is your leg?”

The rubble that had buried him had done some muscle damage. He’d been limping the last time she’d seen him.

“
Fine.” He was used to getting banged up, didn’t see why everyone wanted to make such a big deal out of it. He’d been checked and rechecked by medical personnel in the camp.

She linked her hands together in front of her in a nervous gesture. “I didn’t get a chance to thank you. You saved my family.”

“
No thanks necessary.” He wanted something else, something more. He wanted her not to walk out of his life. He wanted to be able to kiss her again. And again. “How is Mandy?”

“
Much better after some IV fluids and antibiotics.”

“
And Jake?”

“
Has a new cast.” Her smile grew a little. “Looks like the Army is going to clear him of all wrongdoing.”

“
Good. Excellent.”

They faced each other in silence for a long minute, both of them clearly uncomfortable. He hated all the awkwardness between them.

To hell with that. He smiled at her. “So do I get to know what’s in that diary?”

She blushed crimson. “That diary got you into this mess. You could have been killed. How can you joke about it?”

“
No joke. I’m sincerely interested.” An understatement. He would have given his antique baseball bat collection to know what she’d written about him ten years ago.

“
I was a foolish teenager.”

“
And now?” He stepped closer.

She didn’t answer.

He held out his hand. “My life is a mess. I don’t know if I have anything to offer to a woman like you. I’m pretty sure you’d be a lot better off without me.”

She gave a lopsided smile. “Are you asking me out?”

He held her gaze. “I’m asking a lot more than that.”

She stepped into his arms.

“
I’m going to kiss you, if that’s all right.”

She lifted her mouth to his without hesitation.

She was soft and sweet, the most amazing woman he’d ever met. He wanted to know more of her, all of her. Need surged through him to feel those soft curves of hers, to hear her soft breath hitch in his ear as they tangled in the sheets together…

The door’s scraping interrupted his fantasy, and they pulled apart. The colonel came in and gave them a narrow-eyed look, his gaze settling on Gabe.

“
I just had to sit through a very uncomfortable meeting with some top brass and Congressman Wharton who is visiting the troops here ahead of the elections. They’re not happy about the shootout.”

“
Yes, sir. I apologize, sir.”

“
Do you have proof of any of your fairytale beyond your report and Tekla’s envelope?
Hard
proof. And by that, I mean, do you know where the gold is, soldier?”

Gabe started to shake his head, but then thought of Congressman Wharton’s great yacht as it had bobbed in the harbor back in Venice a couple of days ago. Working in pairs, the A Team had searched all larger vessels to make sure Jake Tekla wasn’t hiding on one of them.

But Brent had gone to the Congressman’s yacht alone. Because of the sensitive nature of the thing, he’d said. He’d gone at night. Didn’t want the media to catch him. They showed up every couple of days to snap some photos of the Congressman.

What if he hadn’t gone to the yacht to search it? What if he’d carried something with him? Like gold disguised as crates of supplies? The teams had several vans.

He filled the colonel in on his suspicions.

The man gave him a displeased, narrow-eyed look when Gabe was finished. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s dirty politicians. You better be right about this.” He strode to the door, turned back from the doorway. “Neither of you go anywhere until I say so.”

They stared after him.

Then they stared at each other.

“
Are we grounded?” she asked, her tone uncertain.

“
Welcome to the Army. I’m sure we’ll find something to do.” He grinned at her, happy to see her, happy that the op was over and they were both safe, happy that she’d come to see him.

That had to mean something, right?

“
Jasmine, honey?” He stepped closer to her again.

“
Yes?” She stepped closer to him.

“
Do you still feel the same about me as you did when you wrote that diary?”

To his disappointment, she shook her head. But then she said, “I feel much stronger.”

He took her into his arms. “Thank God. Because I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you here.”

She gave him a tremulous smile. “I want to feel good things again instead of fear when a man touches me.”

He furrowed his forehead. “No other man better touch you or I’ll give
him
reason to fear.”

She smiled.

He took her lips in a passionate kiss, running his hands lightly down her back then up her ribcage, using great control to stop under her breasts. “How is it so far?”

A smile of pleasure bloomed on her full lips. “Good enough to record for all prosperity. Maybe I should start a new diary.”

He thought about all the things he wanted to do with her. “You better get one with a key.”

* * *

The sky turned dark outside by the time the colonel came back, his expression just as grim as when he’d left. Gabe’s stomach sank.

“
The congressman is denying knowledge of the half dozen crates we found on board of his yacht. He claims they must have been smuggled on board when he wasn’t looking. And that’s not our only problem. We can’t take the gold to the U.S.

“
That would be out and out theft from the people of Afghanistan. Not to mention, we can’t have a U.S. congressman implicated in something like this when half the Arab world believes we’re only warring over there to steal everything that’s theirs.”

He seemed to have aged five years since he’d left the room earlier. “We can’t give the gold back to the warlord, either, or he’d use it to buy arms against us. And we can’t give it to the Afghan government without confessing everything.”

He took off his hat and sat, his eyes tired as he looked up at Gabe. “Any ideas what in hell I’m supposed to do with eleven million dollars’ worth of gold coins?”

Gabe swallowed hard. “Eleven?”

“
Could be more,” the man said in a tone of disgust. “They’re still counting.”

“
There’s this garment factory I heard of in Afghanistan. In North Village,” Jasmine spoke up. “It’s a non-profit gig to give work to widows and support orphans.”

The colonel shot a questioning look to Gabe, then nodded. “There’s one more thing,” he said after a moment. “I had a quick teleconference with the FBI about this. They’ll be investigating. They want a small team, preferably people who are already on the ground and already know the case.”

Gabe thought those words over long and hard. As long as Congressman Wharton was flying free, people who knew the truth about him would never be safe. They needed to figure out what Brent had been blackmailing the man with and bring him down.

“
The pay won’t be what private security promised you, but it’ll be decent,” the colonel said. “Do you know anyone who might be interested in the job?”

Gabe looked at Jasmine. The expression on her face said she’d been thinking the same thing as he had. They needed to tie up all loose ends to have any chance at a normal life together.

“
I waited ten years already. I can wait another couple of months,” she told him.

One in a million.
He smiled at her.
One in a million.
And she was his.

The colonel cleared his throat. Gabe caught himself and stopped staring at her, wiped the goofy grin off his face.

He refocused on the topic at hand, considering Jake Tekla and Troy, two men who already knew all about Wharton, men he trusted. They both had what it took to take on an op that would be more dangerous than the mess they’d just survived.

He took Jasmine’s hand and looked at the colonel. “I think I can put a small team together, sir.”