Mission Made For Two (25 page)

She walked out of the locker room at headquarters and headed to the debriefing room.  Jake had showered and shaved
, and now
in a clean pair of jeans and another black t
ee-
shirt, he sat in a chair as
Andy
Bradshaw
, one of their tech guys, worked on the phone they’d brought back.

“Anything?” she asked and walked toward them.

Andy had the phone hooked up to some sort of electronic gadget that she assumed was pulling numbers from it.

He wrote something down, then handed Trent the piece of paper.  “
This number is the
one that was programmed into it,
”
Andy said.

Trent looked
at
her and Jake.  “I think our mole is Senator Cassidy.”

“Any idea why?”
Sierra asked.

Trent nodded.  “I think she’s basically being blackmailed to help him.  Her sister has some health problems that prevented her from having a child and prevented her from
being eligible for adopting here in the States.  But she adopted a baby two years ago, supposedly from Russia.  After looking into the paperwork, it doesn’t pan out.”

“So she bought a baby from Diaz,” Jake said.

“That’s what we think,” Trent agreed.  “Diaz found the connection and
we think
he’s been blackmailing the Senator ever since for information on our members.
  I was looking for money being paid into someone’s account, but he wasn’t paying her in money.
Only in silence.
”

“Okay, so once we make sure she’s the mole, we put a stop t
o it and go after Diaz for real,
”
Jake said.

“
You’ll have to put protection on the Senator.  If Diaz thinks she’s been made, he’
ll try to take her out
,” Sierra said
.

Trent rubbed his neck. 
“
We’ll take her into custody immediately
.”

Sierra sat on the edge of the table. 
“
So, what about Diaz?
 
Any idea where he is now?”

“Some ideas,” Trent said.  “But you need to rest, Sierra.”
 

She caught Jake’s gaze and arched her eyebrow at him
, daring him
to say anything.  He lowered his gaze to
the table.

“I’m fine, boss.  I want to see this through.”

“Jake, what do you think?” Trent asked.

Jake
looked back at Sierra, his expression intense.
  The war he fought with himself played out behind his eyes.  She waited, knowing that his answer held more importance than whether Trent let her go.  Their future rode on what he said now and they both knew it.

“I think she’ll be fine.” Jake nodded at Trent.  “We started this, we should both finish it.”

Trent’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded in return.  “Okay, both of you get some rest.  You won’t pull out
for at least forty-eight hours
.  That’ll give me enough time to neutralize Cassidy and
set up the mission.”

~***~

After Trent arranged a car for them, Jake drove them to Sierra’s small apartment in silence.  She was exhausted, yet she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep.  She was revved up not only over the mission, but over Jake’s acquiescence of her going.  He’d wanted to say no.
She knew that like she knew her own name.
  

But he hadn’t and that meant more to her than any declarations of affection he could utter.

He parked the car
in the parking garage and took
the elevator to her fourth story apartment. 

Once they were inside, she turned to him.  “Why did you tell Trent
I should be in on the mission to take down Diaz
?”

He blew out a breath a raked a hand through his hair.  “I put myself in your position and knew how I w
ould have felt if I’d been side-
lined.”

“But you didn’t want me to go.”

He crossed his arms over his chest.  “I’m not thrilled with it, no.”

His frown was so deep, it made her laugh.  Like a little child who hadn’t gotten the toy he’d wanted.  She walked to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.  “With you watching my back, everything will be fine.”

Blue eyes locked with her gaze
.  “You’re not a hundred percent.”

“
I feel a lot better than I
did a couple days ago
.”

Using both hands, h
e speared his fi
ngers into her hair cradling
her head.  “
You have to promise me you won’t
take undue chances.”

She leaned into him for a quick kiss,
then
smiled.  “I promise. 
Now, I think you said something about getting me out of my shirt and pants once we had a nice comfortable bed.  I have a king-sized on
e
in the other room.”

Pulling her
fully against him, he kissed her with t
he kind of heated intensity
only he possessed.
  When he let her up for air, her knees were ready to buckle.  Good thing Jake scooped her into his arms and took her to bed.

~***~

Sierra looked at her reflection, glad to have her natural hair color back.  I
t would take longer to grow out
, but that was okay.
The shorter locks weren’t too bad and
Jake didn’t seem to mind.

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.
  Spending an entire night in his arms, making love, not once but three times was not good.  She was too involved. 

But what else could she do.  The man lit her on fire.  Never in all her years
had she
felt anything even remotely like what she felt for Jake.  She still wasn’t sure it was love, but then she didn’t know if she even knew what love was
if it hit her full in the face
. 

She didn’t think she’d ever been loved. Her mother had gotten rid of her at three. She had no memory of
the woman who’d given birth to her
at all.  Yes, there had been a few adults who had been nice to her, but Sierra had never made it easy. She could see and admit that now.

She’d had a giant chip on her shoulder.
Always waiting to be let down or for someone to use a weakness against her.
  Jake hadn’t done that yet though.

He’d told Trent to let her go on this mission, even though he didn’t want her to.  And he didn’t want her to because he was worried. She could see that now. 

Which still didn’t help her figure out her feelings.

She shook her head at her image.  “You really have gotten yourself into a mess this time, Sierra.”

~***~

Sierra watched the car
pull up outside the dilapidated building.
  Between satellite imagery and some
discreetly asked questions, they’d learned that Diaz had fled Santo Domingo after she’d blown up his home. 

His private plane had flo
wn to Bolivia. From there he’d been tracked to
this isolated town
,
just north of the mountains. 

The driver’s door to the car opened and Michael
Toraz
climbed out.  He looked around,
then
shut the door. 

After he disappeared
in
side, Trent’s voice sounded in their earpieces.
  “Okay, ready your positions.  Wade? Zach?
You in position?”

Wade Riley and Zach Chambers were both expert snipers.  They’d taken position on either side of the building about a hundred yards away.

They both checked in with
,
“ready”. 

Trent went through the roster,
Matt,
Lanny
, Adam,
Kate
, and David, all of whom Sierra had worked with before. Jake was the only one who was finally working on a team with the unit. 

She glanced at him as they
were positioned together between two buildings fifty yards away
, wondering how he was handling being a part of the big group
after so many years of working alone
.  His gaze was fixed on the target, his body vibrating with the tension of the mission. 

“Ready, Sierra?” Trent asked.

“Ready,” she answered.  And she was.
 
Ready to be done with this.
To have Diaz locked away and the children safe again
and Daniel
’
s death avenged
.

Once Jake gave his okay, Trent gave the go signal.  They all converged on the building.  Matt and Adam took the door out,
then
th
ey all streamed inside.  The assault rifle in Sierra’s hands felt heavy.  She didn’t want to use it.  As much as she hated Diaz, she wanted him to really be punished for his crimes. To suffer the way only prison would make him suffer.

At their entrance, screams of frightened children echoed though the building.  People s
cattered.  Trent and the others
were yelling at everyone to get down on the floor. 

She spotted
Toraz
, his hands raised.  Then from the corner
of her eye, she saw Diaz.  He
slid into a side room. 

“Diaz is on the move,” she communicated.  “I’m going after him.”

“Sierra.”
  It was Jake’s voice in her ear.  She didn’t have to look behind her to know that he was there. 

“I’m with her, Trent.”

Sierra slowed when she got to the door Diaz had gone through.  Jake caught up with her. They both pressed their backs against the wall on either side of the opening.  Giving the signal, Jake kicked it open.

Nothing happened. They went in, Sierra now covering Jake’s back.  The room looked to be a small office.  They went to the door at the opposite end.

It opened to a stairway.  Without a word, they climbed the stairs, Jake in front.  The space was too narrow for them to walk side-by-side.

The dank smell of a place unused greeted them when they made it to the second floor.  They came out into another small room that opened into a huge space littered with crates.  The same crates she’d seen at Diaz’s compound.

“You shouldn’t have destroyed my home, Lea
h
.”  Diaz’s voice echoed across the room.  He was behind a huge stack of weapons.

This definitely changed the equation
.  She had a bad feeling about what Diaz would do.

She and Jake stayed behind the wall of the smaller room.  “Yeah, well, I’ve been told I do a lot of things I shouldn’t,” she called back to him.  “Give it up, Diaz.  It’s over.”

“Is it?” he asked.  “The bottom floor is filled with young
children and your own agents. 
I’m holding five grenades as we speak.  If I pull the pins and toss them around, this place will go up like…what is your American saying? The fourth of July?”  He laughed.  “The entire floor will crash down and how many people will be killed.”

“What do you want, Diaz?” Jake
asked,
his voice angry.

“Jacob,” Diaz said, drawing out the word.  “You know, you pissed me off too. 
But not as much as Lea
h
or
should I call you Sierra?
”
  He paused a moment.

Jake spoke low into their headsets.  “Trent. Get the people out of the building.  Diaz is threatening to set off some grenades.”

“There’s no way to get them all out immediately. There are babies in the back room.  We’ll move as fast as we can. Stall him.”

“I want Lea
h
.  She’ll come with me and we’ll walk away from here,” Diaz finally said. 

She and Jake exchanged a hard look.  He put his hand
o
n her arm.  “You can’t go with him.”

“I can’t not, Jake.
  You heard Trent. They can’t get them all out that quickly.”

His hand tightened. 

“I’ll be fine, Jake.”  She leaned into him and kissed him hard on the mouth.  “
Beside
s
, I had Andy
reset my compact.”  She pulled it out of her vest and quickly hit the button
and slid it back into her vest
.  “I’m transmitting.”

“Sierra…”

She pulled away from him and walked into the larger room.  “I’m here, Diaz.”

“Throw your weapon down. 
You too, Harding.
  Throw them out onto the floor.
Your
back up pieces too
.  And knives.”