Healing Love: Saints Protection & Investigation (3 page)

Bart piped up and added, “Good thing I plan on staying single.”

“As many women as you take home from bars, it’s no wonder you’re single,” Luke retorted, balancing his cup of strong coffee with his cobbler plate.

Blaise, a veterinarian specializing in bio-terrorism with Homeland Security, shot Luke a disparaging glance. “I gotta confess, when Jack was talking about how this life doesn’t fit any woman needing a white-picket-fence life, it made me wonder if he was just talking about himself…or all of us.” Blaise had Nordic looks with his blond hair and, like Bart, easily attracted women when they went out. Blaise’s last girlfriend had left him quickly when she saw how many hours he worked and traveled.

Cam knew that besides Jack, the other six men did not have relationships either. A few, like him, had fuck-buddies that they could keep at arm’s length or they would hit the bars and enjoy nights of mindless fucking. In this business, whatever they needed to do to keep focused on the job was most important.
But if Jack can combine his business and his heart, there may be hope for the rest of us too.

Cam’s thoughts returned to the morning’s scene with Lisa. Not that she was ever a contender for his heart; he knew that most women would react as she did—anger and disgust when he was gone so often.
I’d like to have what ma and pop have,
he realized, his thoughts now turning to his parents.
But this life? Maybe I’ll never have that happy ever after.

Just then Jack walked down into the command center and they all sat at the main conference room table.

“Boss? You’re kinda scaring us,” Cam commented. Seeing Jack’s raised eyebrow, he continued, “You seem sort of happy.”

Jack caught the smirks of the others around the table and hung his head chuckling. “Okay, okay, have your fun.” He looked back at Cam and said, “If you bunch of women want your gossip then here it is. I have approached Ms. Bridwell about renewing our relationship and she agreed. There. Now are you happy?”

The men offered heartfelt congratulations accompanied with head jerks in approval before they got down to business.

The Saints began earnestly analyzing the compiled data on the serial killer and reporting on their aspect of the investigation. The meeting lasted for several hours, but Cam did not mind. The chance to get to the killer before he struck again was paramount.

Their data-mining genius, Luke, had left his job with the CIA as a software engineer and now spent much of his time in the command center coordinating their investigations. He was typing furiously, only stopping to slurp more of his potent coffee, trying to enter all of the information from Monty, who was still in contact with his former FBI agents.

The killer was only striking women at colleges. In a lull in the discussion, Marc said, “Spent the weekend at home with my family.” His face mirrored the frustration the group felt. “Gotta sister at Dominion College. Sophomore. Pretty. Nice. Decent student.”

“Fuck man,” Luke bit out.

“Spent the weekend with her and my parents and even though she’s home for the summer, we talked about her not going back until this is over with.”

“Some serial killers are not caught for years, Marc,” Jack said.

Nodding, Marc agreed. “Yep, but I’d rather her not be at risk than to take that chance.”

“This is exactly why the governor gave us this task. We’ve got to find this fucker and shut him down.”

Cam’s mind wandered back to his family, whom he had not visited for the past month because he had been so busy with the case.
Gotta get back and see the family this weekend.

*

Walking out of
the hospital after a graveyard shift into the warm, early fall sun, Miriam Delaro’s body had to adjust to the temperature change. She tilted her face to the sky, her long, dark ponytail falling down her back. Her blue nursing scrubs provided little warmth.
The hospital is so friggin’ cold
, she thought as she climbed into her old car. As she glanced at the mirror, her tired eyes stared back. Driving to the apartment that she shared with her sister, Rebecca, her mind was on overload.
The busy night in the emergency room, the upcoming wedding, needing to find a new roommate, the irritating Dr. Sose…augh!

Driving on autopilot, she pulled into her apartment’s parking lot seeing her sister’s fiance’s car there. She liked Thomas—he had a decent job, got along with their parents, and he adored her sister. The two of them were in the process of moving in together, much to the ire of their parents who wanted a wedding before they lived together.
He’s just so boring. At least Rebecca has boring—I’ve got no prospects right now!

Walking into the apartment, she met him as he was coming out, carrying another box of Rebecca’s clothes. Bending down to kiss her cheek, he smiled as he greeted her.

“Hey, Thomas,” she called. Looking past him into the kitchen where her sister was already holding out a plate for her, she grinned. “Oh, girl, you’re a lifesaver. I didn’t get to eat on last night’s shift.”

Her sister blew Thomas a kiss as he left and then turned to Miriam. “Well, eat up, sis. I need to make sure you don’t lose weight or we’ll have to have the maid-of-honor dress taken in.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Miriam said, while digging into the scrambled eggs topped with cheese. “I’ve been eating like crazy lately, so I’ll be lucky if the dress doesn’t have to be let out!” Her sister handed her a diet soda with a wedge of lemon squeezed into the glass and floating on top.

“How you drink that with breakfast food, I’ll never know,” laughed Rebecca.

As Miriam ate, she watched Rebecca staring at her. Her sister’s dark hair was cut to swing above her shoulders, but her face was so similar to her own that they were often mistaken for twins. Looks were not the only way the two girls were alike—it was as though they could read each other’s minds.

“You know,” Rebecca began. “Thomas has some nice, single friends—”

“Stop right there,” Miriam shouted over her mouthful of toast. “I love Thomas for you, but his friends are just not my type.”

“And what type would that be? Tall, dark, mysterious, gorgeous, standing on the bow of a pirate ship or riding over their plantation?”

Miriam blushed, her sister knowing her penchant for reading romance novels long into the night. They used to hide them from their mother and then Rebecca stopped being her reading buddy. Now, she just read them and dreamed alone.

“There’s nothing wrong with wishing for the handsome prince,” Miriam said, her sharp expression belying the wistfulness in her voice.

Walking over, Rebecca hugged her before taking the plate from her hands. “You can always dream, but just don’t forget to be practical.”

Looking around, Miriam said, “It’s going to be weird not sharing a place with you.”

“I know.” Rebecca’s voice was laced with a mixture of eager anticipation and nostalgia. “You gonna be okay living by yourself?”

Laughing, Miriam responded, “Of course. And it’s not like you’re terribly far away. Hmmm, let’s see? About ten minutes?”

“Okay, smartass,” Rebecca grinned.

“Seriously though, I will miss having you around all the time. But you and Thomas need to build your own life and I’ve got…well, I’ll be fine.”

The sisters hugged before Rebecca left the apartment heading to her job as a kindergarten teacher and Miriam walked to her bedroom. After a quick shower, she fell onto her bed with barely the energy to pull the covers up over her. As she drifted off to sleep, she heard the faint sounds of the TV in the living room that Rebecca had left on. Her dreams of a handsome prince became tangled with a newscast about an earthquake in Mexico.

Two weeks later

C
am poured his
coffee into a large Superman mug his nephews gave him last Christmas. His brother-in-law was a great guy but not very large so they considered their Uncle Cam to be as strong as Superman. Chuckling at the thought, he sat down at his table to go through his emails. They had been accumulating since he had been away for the past several days, still working on the serial killer case for Jack. That Saturday dawned beautiful and sunny and he eagerly anticipated a run later followed by a pick-up basketball game with some of the other Saints.

A knock on the door caused him to glance at the clock. Seven a.m.
Who the hell comes that early on a Saturday morning?
Throwing open the door, he was surprised to see Jack standing on the stoop. And behind him were two people he had not seen in over a year. Jobe Delaro and his wife, Mackenna.

He first met them when he was still undercover and assisted in rescuing Mackenna when she was being chased by the gang he was with. Jobe had initially not been happy that Cam had given her a gun to use, but they had a mutual respect for their work. Jobe was with Alvarez Security and a former squad member with Jack when they had served in the Special Forces.

“Cam,” Jack greeted. “We gotta talk.”

Stepping back, he motioned for them to enter. Receiving a chin lift from Jobe, he noticed that his expression was one of stress…anxiety…
fear?
Once settled in his living room, he looked sharply first at Jack and then at the others, knowing that for them to show up so early on a Saturday morning it was not a time for pleasantries.

“Cam, Jobe’s got an issue and I’ve talked to Tony about the situation. Want to get you in on it and find out your take.”

Cam nodded, focusing first on Jack and then settling his gaze on Jobe, noticing Mackenna quietly placing her hand on Jobe’s, giving it a little squeeze. The movement was not lost on Cam, nor its significance. Whatever was happening was making Jobe fight to control himself, but he had the love and support of an amazing woman.

“I’ve got a sister who’s a nurse,” Jobe began. “Her name’s Miriam.” He sucked in a ragged breath before continuing. “She usually works in the ER at Richland General Hospital, but she’s also qualified as a Red Cross volunteer nurse. Other than being called for a few local needs, she’s never done too much with the Red Cross. Until now.”

Jobe’s voice faltered and Mackenna spoke quickly, giving her husband a chance to recover. “She’s very special. She helped my mother when she had a stroke and lately she’s been wanting to do more with her life. More volunteering. So—”

“So two weeks ago, she got a call from the Red Cross looking for nurses to travel to Mexico to aid in recovery when they had that earthquake,” Jobe continued. “We, the family…tried to talk her out of taking the assignment. The job just seemed so dangerous but she was determined.” He rubbed his hand over his face, pulling his thoughts together. “She had about two days of briefings here in the states with the Red Cross and then she flew to Mexico. She called every day for the first ten days…” his voice broke again.

Cam felt his heart pounding in his chest, fearful anticipation crawling up his throat, threatening to choke him. Knowing where the story was heading, his mind quickly jumped to his own younger sisters.
Fuck, oh fuck.
Steeling his expression, he knew that Jobe needed all the strength he could draw upon. Giving a nod, he turned his gaze to Jack.

Taking over, Jack said, “She’s been out of contact for the past four days. The family held out hope for the first day, knowing that Miriam had told them of the horrible conditions, the poor cell reception, and with everything she was doing, calling might be impossible. But two days ago, they got a call from the Red Cross and then the American embassy. She and a few other nurses were abducted.”

Cam’s gaze shot over to Mackenna as a sob broke through. She was pressing her fingers to her mouth, trying hard not to cry but was unable to hold back. Her eyes were on Jobe, his face becoming more ravaged with each minute.

“What can I do?” Cam asked Jack, giving him the signal that he was ready and willing to do whatever was needed.

“The latest intel is that they were taken by a drug cartel. One of the larger ones, who might normally have their own infrastructure for medical emergencies, but were wiped out with the earthquake. I got Marc on it last night. He used his CIA contacts and found out who has her and where they’re located. It appears that several medical personal were kidnapped so that they could provide services for the cartel’s workers who were injured.”

Jobe rubbed his hand over his face once more as his gaze lifted back to Cam’s. “Tony’s men are on this, but we’ve got no one who speaks Spanish. Tony went to Jack and he immediately thought of—”

“I’m on it,” Cam said, interrupting Jobe. “Got no reason to ask. You need me, you got me.”

Mackenna leaned forward grabbing his hands as more tears slid from her face. “Oh, Cam, thank you.”

Jack turned to Jobe, saying, “We got this. I told Tony we would, but I wanted Cam to have that choice. He’s got undercover experience, knows the language and we can use Marc as our pilot and CIA contact.” His normally gruff voice softened as he continued, “Jobe, man. We’ve been through a lot together with our squad in Afghanistan. We’re brothers till we die. That includes family.” He looked back over at Cam and then said, “And Jobe, that includes my Saints. We’re brothers as well. You take Mackenna home, take care of your mom and dad and let us take care of this.”