Code Name: Kayla's Fire (39 page)

“Well yeah, of course, why?”

“I’m his next victim. He’s been tracking me for months. It’s only
because of Thane he hasn’t caught me.”

Lena’s face filled with worry. “What? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m not coming back here until it’s settled.”

“Settled?”

“I’m putting the kids at risk. We don’t know what this maniac will do.
I can’t take the chance that he’ll do something to you. I just wanted to let
you know. Tell the boys that I’m on a special assignment.”

“I’d say you have a very special assignment,” she said and stared down
at her stomach. “The Captain is the father isn’t he?”

She nodded.

Lena clutched her hands, but she didn’t look overly concerned. Darting
a glance at Thane as he passed them heading out the front door, and then back
at her, she said, “That man would protect you with his life. I’m not worried.”

Thane leaned against the porch post with his arms crossed, when she
turned from closing the maroon-colored front door. “You told her you won’t be
back for a while, didn’t you?”

She nodded and wobbled down the whitewashed steps.

“They’re good boys. I remember that little guy with the blond hair.”

She stopped and gazed up at him. Standing there in his uniform, he
seemed so untouchable, a hero, and so not meant for her and all her faults.

“I remember putting the flag into his mom’s hands when her husband was
killed. He worked with Seal Team Seven. His name was Cody too.” Thane swayed
his head, his gaze falling to the stairs. “He was so damn proud when his son
was born.”

She swallowed and concentrated on the pebbled walkway leading to the
house. “How many…” she didn’t think she wanted to know but she asked anyway. “
How many of your men die every year?”

“One is too many. Last year was a bad year. I lost four men before you
came.”

“I’m so sorry.” The pain each and every widow had to go through left a
raw mark inside her. She loved the warrior that stood before her. If something
happened to Thane, there would be no hiding from the pain, but he was a SEAL,
and always would be. “To think the public goes along on their merry way, and
they have no idea how often you’ve stopped terrorism in its tracks. How have
you managed to live so long?”

The words poured out of his mouth. “I’m not going back to combat,
Kayla. That’s not the position I’ve accepted,” pinning her with a hard look at
the same time. He took each step with meaning until he stood in front of her. “You
don’t have to worry.”

“I’m not worried.” She wasn’t going to get into a debate and turned
for the car, but his next words filled her feet with cement.

“I stopped for you, Kayla. Only for you.”

Taking a step back, she tripped over a child’s bike that lay strewn on
the walkway, her arms flailing to keep her balance.

His eyes burned into hers. “I won’t put you through what I’ve seen
other women go through. You’ve spent enough time at war and so have I.”

She pursed her lips. “You belong with your men, Captain.”

“You never stop putting others before you. So many people failed you,
and you accepted each one with your head held high. You consciously put
yourself in last place, thinking you’re not worth anything because everyone you
trusted put you there, except maybe Lapierre.” His brow crumpled, and he
whisked his hat from his head, tucking it under his arm. “Kayla, I never go
back on my word. I promised you I’d be there for you and our son.”

“I don’t need or want special treatment. You love being a SEAL. You
all do.”

He thrust his hand through his hair. “Kayla, I have spent a lifetime
chasing bad guys. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to.” He shook his head, and
drew her into his arms. “Although I know what I want, you still don’t.” Thane’s
brow creased, and his Adam’s apple jumped in his throat. “I have a mission, and
this time you’re coming with me.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

“Captain, what mission? You can’t take her on a mission, sir. She’s as
big as a submarine,” Mace blustered in his ear.

“Mace, if you don’t shut the hell up, and that goes for the lot of
you, I’m trading you all off for a team from the East Coast,” he warned.

Her eyes popped open, and she looked around. “Mace? The team’s here?
Where?”

“Close by,” he said. “I have one thing left to do before I take my new
position.”

“Captain, I don’t want you to stop being who you are, and I don’t want
you chasing the Shark. That hasn’t changed.”

He shot a look over her shoulder at the tall hedge between the
Vicaroy’s and the neighbors, where Fox lay hunched and waiting. “This is going
to come down to the Shark and me, Kayla. I’m going to prove to you that you’re
worth it. Someone has to prove that to you once in your life, and it’s going to
be me.”

 
“Ahem,” someone interrupted
loudly from behind them. Lena stood at the top of the stairs with her arms
crossed. “Sorry to interrupt, but there’s a phone call for you, Kayla.”

“For me? Who?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t identify himself, just said
 
he wants to talk to you.”

Kayla wrenched from his arms. “It’s probably work.”

He watched her waddle up the steps as gracefully as she could. “Eyes
wide open,” he ordered.

“Roger, Captain,” Cobbs replied.

Kayla was still on the phone when he pushed the door open. He could
easily read her body language. Her shoulders were taut, and her fist clenched
against her leg. When he reached her, she hung up. “Who was it?”

“Just work,” she said, without turning to look at him, and bent over
to straighten a book on the coffee table. “They want me to do an extra shift.”
She shot him a quick smile. “Well, I’m getting hungry. I think I’m going to go
home and make a late dinner.”

Evasion she was good at, interrogation, she cracked like a nut. She
offered all the signs he needed to know she was lying. “Which shift?”

“Um, a day shift.”

“Tomorrow?”

“No, uh the day after.” She blew past him with a quick stride, headed
toward the door. “I’ll see ya, Lena.”

Lena didn’t know the first thing about interrogation, but he could see
she didn’t believe Kayla either. “I’ll call ya, okay, Kayla?” then threw a
serious look his way.

He waited until she was out the door. “Did you hear that?” he asked
the team.

“Yes, sir,” Clay answered, “already dialing.”

Halfway down the neat and tidy front yard framed with a white picket
fence, Clay responded, “Sir—”

“No one called from work, right?”

“Affirmative.”

“Threats, probably on your life, Captain,” Cobbs returned.

“Yup, and now she thinks she’s going to protect me,” he said, placing
a hand on the roof of his car and opened the door with the other.

“Oh, shit,” Mace muttered.

“What is it?”

“Sir, she’s…she’s. Where the hell is she?”

A cold knife skewered his gut as he bent over, looking into an empty
car. “You’re surrounding the place. Where is she?” He thrust himself up, and
scanned the area quickly. “Where is she?” he barked loudly.

“I didn’t see her,” Tinman stammered, losing his cool edge.

“Everyone quiet. Listen.” Thane dialed her number. He told her to
change the damn ring on her phone. It was loud and unmistakable. She said she
needed it that way to hear, now it was like putting a bell around her neck.

“Got it,” Mace yelled, from the south end of the house. “The alley.”
They all zeroed in on the location.

* * * *

Mace came to a sliding stop, and his blood ran cold, the phone and her
purse lay on the ground. The rest of the men joined him to form a circle.

“It can’t be,” Cobbs choked. His head shot up, seeing the Captain
coming. “Shit, oh shit.”

Their captain strode toward them with purposeful steps. When they
turned and separated, he looked down at the ground, stopping in his tracks.
Seeing her purse, he blinked, looking as if he was going to refuse the notion
outright. The Captain’s eyes darted to every face, then lingered on his. “Captain,
I’m sorry.” He couldn’t think of anything else to say.

The Captain took the last step to stand over the phone ringing with a
short chorus of “O Canada.” Kneeling down, he scanned the ground, and his hand
brushed the pavement gently. Then the emotion came, but it wasn’t what Mace
expected. The Captain didn’t blow like a box of dynamite like they were used
to, and Mace almost wished he had, because it would have been far easier to
accept than to see the man he respected more than any on the planet break down.

“She’s still got time,” Cobbs said. “Thane?” He reached out, and
gripped his shoulder. “Come on, man, she still has time if it’s like the
others. Two days, we’ve got two days.”

Mace stared at the Lieutenant. No one had survived over two days, but
each autopsy revealed the women had been kept alive for that length of time,
raped repeatedly, abused, and he knew all of that was running through the Captain’s
mind. He didn’t utter a word, pressing his knuckles against his mouth, and then
his face crumpled into a mask of pain.

Mace knelt down in front of him. “She’s going to give him a fight.” The
tears came after all, but he fought them back. “We’re not going to give up on
her, you know that, sir.” He swiped at his eyes, and glared into his captain’s.
“When are you going to ask her to marry you?”

The question jerked the Captain from his thoughts. “What?”

“When are you going to ask her to marry you?”

“Mace.” He shook his head as if he’d already given up.

“I want to be your best man.” He watched him carefully. Hope brought a
SEAL home. This time they would give
him
hope, instead of taking their strength from him, as they had done for years.

Mace slipped his fingers in the Captain’s upper left pocket. No matter
what uniform he wore, he carried it since the day Kayla gave it to him. Mace
drew out the small piece of paper and thumbed it open, turning it toward him. The
other men craned to see the words.

Ghost reached for the paper as if it was Snow White herself. “Don’t
give up on her. I think you want to look into her eyes again, don’t you? You
weren’t listening to her, Captain. She might not have been able to say the
words, but she was showing you all along she loved you. Those first days she
spent at my place we talked a lot. Her biggest fear, the one she could never
tell you was that she wasn’t noble enough for you. That’s why she walked away
when Zara claimed you were hers. Everything from tracking you on your missions
to trying to convince you not to chase the Shark, it all came from her heart.
This note wasn’t about you in battle. This note was her silent plea that you
never give up on her.” He choked, but he back his emotion, reading Kayla’s
words aloud. “Never give up, Commander. I want to look in your eyes again.”

The Captain’s head jerked up to look at Cobbs.

“It’s true, Thane. She said the very same thing to me at the ranch.
You could have told her a thousand more times you loved her, but over the years
Kayla erected a house of smoke and mirrors to survive. She was afraid one day
you’d see through it, so she kept trying to push you away.”

Ghost looked at every man in the squad. “Every day, every chance I
could, I tried to show her she was all I wanted.” His breath caught in his
throat, and his jaw flexed as he bit down on his pain. “My son, my Kayla, I’ll
have to bury both of them.” Tears rained from his eyes, and a sob tore from the
man’s heart that Mace was sure the whole squad felt. The legend that everyone
looked up to, respected, was prepared to ring out. He couldn’t believe it.

Lieutenant Cobbs hunched down in front of the Captain. “You think the
Shark’s won and you’ve lost. The only thing you’ve lost, SEAL, is your
direction. It always points toward her. Where is she, Ghost?”

The Captain shook his head. Grief had him by the throat, cutting off
the air to his heart. “Thane,” Mace uttered and squeezed his arm. “The Shark is
twisted, but he’s just a man. He covets what’s yours. Have you
ever
failed a mission? Is this the one
you’re going to bail on? Are you going to leave Snow White’s life in his hands?
She can’t survive this without you.” Mace leaned back as the Captain fisted his
tears away.

His eyes closed, but when he opened them, strength returned to his
gaze, settling on Mace. “You can be the best man, Mace, if you keep your damn
mouth shut for a change.”

A few chuckles erupted from the team. “Okay,” Mace said, nodding and
slowly standing up, rubbing his sleeve across his eyes. “I promise.”

The Captain rose, his daunting frame shadowing all of them,
determination flickered in his eyes. Mace had seen the look so many times. The
Shark was going to die.

“Cap’n, I’ve called Manchester. His team will be here in under ten
minutes,” Clay announced, putting things back into business mode.

“All right.” Mace glanced down at his watch. “Ten minute lead, and
every second he’s taking her farther away from us.” He scanned the alley.
Movement caught his eye. A woman stood in her back window, watching them. They
all turned to look. She cocked her head, and then made a motion as if she were
driving, and pointed to the right.

“Shit, we’ve got a witness. Cobbs—” the Captain ordered.

“On it,” already running for the woman’s back door.

Fox parted from the group, searching the roadway for signs.

* * * *

Within minutes, they heard the call of sirens. The woman had called
the police when she saw Kayla’s struggle and abduction. The police gathered at
the scene as day gave way to night. The car lights flashed with their eerie
blue and red shimmer, the headlights flickering off the garages in the alley.
Thane saw and heard everything, but his soul was stone cold with fear, but he
refused to give in to it.

Cobbs interviewed the woman. They were looking for a black, luxury
Monte Carlo, an older model, maybe early nineties. The description she gave of
the Blood Shark wasn’t very good, but a sketch artist was with her now. Kayla
and the Shark had talked for a few seconds and then she’d turned to leave, and
he’d struck her from behind, knocking her out and putting her in the car. The
woman had only gotten the first three digits of the license plate, but it was
something.

They rallied in the alley around Manchester. He clutched a piece of
paper in his hand. “We’ve got a good composite.” He held it up, and Tinman
shone a light on it.

“Jesus Christ,” blurted from the mouths of his men at the same time.

He ripped the paper from Manchester’s hand. “Holy fuck.”

“You know who this is, Captain?”

“Let’s go,” he said to his men.

“Captain?”

“It’s the Harbor Patrol boat Captain, John Themes,” he yelled over his
shoulder.

“That fucking asshole, I should have fed him to the sharks,” Mace
swore. “You think he’ll take her to the docks?”

“Probably,” Cobbs said, as they ran for their cars.

“He’s left the majority of women on the base. That’s where he’ll take
Kayla. There’s plenty of places to hide her on the waterfront, but our search
area is a lot smaller than five minutes ago,” Thane said, running fast.
“Rendezvous at the boathouse. We’ll work a search pattern from there.”

Cobbs and the others broke off, Mace stayed by his side.

In a tight convoy, they raced toward the base, weaving in and out of
the heavy traffic. The road opened up when they hit the Silver Strand leading
to the base, and they reached the gates together.

“Captain Austen, good evening, sir.” Johnson, one of the older
security guards, leaned on the window.

He nodded, and said nonchalantly. “Have ya seen Captain Themes? We
were gonna meet for a drink. Did he come through already?”

“Yes, sir, he came through here not more than an hour ago. Said he had
to do some work on the boat.”

He gave a short laugh. “I think he treats that thing better than he
treats his wife.”

Johnson wheezed out a chuckle. “Sometimes I wish I had a boat, if you
know what I mean. Go ahead, Captain.”

“Team’s right behind me.”

He saluted, and then waved the rest of the team through the gates.

“She’s here,” he said. “Clay, get Manchester on the earpiece.” He wove
his way toward the boathouse, obeying the speed limit, not wanting to rouse
attention.

“Austen? Can you hear me?”

“Roger, listen Manchester, I don’t want fifty cops splattering the
docks. Let us go in and find her. Themes is here, and he’s probably got Kayla
with him.”

“I’ll agree to that, but if you need more resources we’ll be standing
by. I’ll put up a second curtain about a hundred yards around the dock.”