Retribution (SSU Trilogy Book 3) (The Surgical Strike Unit) (9 page)

Gabby took a moment and watched two girls and a boy, all under ten, race around the yard before she continued her stroll. Could this place possibly be real? It seemed impossible that yesterday she’d feared for her life working with Kaufmann, and now she was back in a world where happy children played.

A couple of houses later, the path forked. Remembering McDermott’s instructions, she turned left. The trees grew closer together here, dimming the sunlight. She shivered, then paused as she heard the sound of male grunts and the unmistakable slap of boots on concrete. Frowning at the violent intrusion, Gabby hurried forward.

She emerged from the copse of pine trees and stopped in shock. On the other side of a low stone wall, a group of soldiers swarmed up a vertical net, climbed over, then dropped down the other side. The men’s muscular bodies gleamed with sweat that plastered their tight t-shirts and shorts to their skin as they high-stepped through a tire course. One man in particular caught her eye.

Rafe reached the top of a giant net and easily swung himself over before dropping to the other side with feline grace. The man next to him landed badly and Rafe leaned over and helped his friend regained his balance. Then the two of them raced forward.

As Rafe reached the end of the tire course, a staccato burst of gunfire caused Gabby to gasp and jump back. But Rafe and his men just dropped to the ground and started belly-crawling through the mud under a series of low-hung nets.

Gabby inched closer to the wall separating her from the training field. Because of the way the land dipped, no matter how hard she strained or which way she moved, she couldn’t see past the middle of the nets. Yet she needed to know that Rafe survived the obstacle course. Which made no sense. First, he was some kind of private soldier. He probably could run this course in his sleep. Second, she barely knew the man and what she did know confused her. He’d been ruthless last night, then flirtatious. She’d seen him controlled and deadly, then touched with grief. He intrigued her in a way she instinctively knew was dangerous. No matter how much Rafe appealed to her, she couldn’t afford to get distracted from her work.

She stepped back into the trees, intending to find the correct path to the dining hall, but she’d already been noticed. A man in his forties with close-cropped brown hair, wearing a long-sleeved olive green t-shirt and matching pants approached her.

“May I help you?” His light blue eyes regarded her with curiosity.

Gabby shrugged self-consciously and stuck her hands in her jeans’ pockets. “I think I took a wrong turn. I was looking for the dining hall.” Unable to help herself, she glanced over the man’s shoulder in hopes of seeing Rafe. “Um…” Oh, to heck with it. “Rafe and his men will come out of the exercise okay, won’t they?”

The man grinned at her. “You must be Rafe’s lady doctor, the one he rescued last night.”

Gabby felt her cheeks heat. “Uh…I suppose. I’m Dr. Gabrielle Montague.”

“Pleased to meet you, ma’am. I’m John Wilson.” The man shook her hand. “Would you like to watch the rest of the exercise? We’ve got a viewing area in the middle of the field.”

“I…” She didn’t know what to say. This obsession to know everything about Rafe wasn’t rational.

“C’mon.” He held out his hand. “Rafe will work harder knowing he has a pretty woman watching him.”

Giving in to her curiosity, Gabby let him help her climb over the stone wall. A few minutes later, she was seated in a low grandstand next to a couple of men in dress uniforms who Wilson said were observers from the Department of Defense. Apparently, even though the SSU was a private organization, it often performed contract work for the DOD.

She felt self-conscious and out-of-place at first, but soon lost her nervousness as she became absorbed in watching the training exercise.
For as many years as she’d worked with veterans, Gabby had never seen soldiers in action
before last night. Even if Rafe hadn’t been among the men running this obstacle course she would have been fascinated with their sheer physicality. Tasks which would have driven her into the ground they handled easily.

To her eyes, Rafe stood out as quicker and more graceful than the others. She bit her lip to hold back her smile, instinctively knowing Rafe wouldn’t appreciate being called graceful. But his movements were performed so smoothly she couldn’t think of a better word.

True to John Wilson’s word, when Rafe spotted her he grinned, threw her a mock salute, then turned up his effort. At the end of the exercise, after the teams had huddled around the observers to get feedback, Rafe sauntered toward her.

Gabby’s mouth dried up and her heart started beating erratically. She’d like to think she was experiencing a fear response based on the way Rafe and his men had terrorized her last night, but she couldn’t lie to herself. This reaction was purely feminine.

Rafe’s muddy clothes clung to his body, defining his lean muscles. It had been way too long since Gabby had been attracted to a man, and she’d never met anyone who shone with such wild vitality. Arousal curled in her belly. She shook her head, dismayed by her reaction.

“Hey, doc,” Rafe greeted her with a self-satisfied smile. “Like what you see?”

She wanted to deny it, certain he received too much flattering female attention. A set down would do him good. But she couldn’t lie. So she said instead, “Just trying to understand what you do, since Ryker wants me to help you plan your return to the compound.”

Just thinking about Rafe facing Kaufmann’s trained killers and the insane rage of his subjects made Gabby’s hands tremble. Yes, this exercise proved that Rafe and his men were extremely capable, but he didn’t understand the unnatural power of Kaufmann’s subjects. If they were let loose to attack Rafe and his men, only death would stop them.

“Hey.” Rafe’s finger stroked her cheek.

Gabby flinched in surprise, not realizing that he’d stepped closer.

“What’s got that pretty face all somber?”

Gabby shook her head, afraid that if she gave voice to her fears she’d somehow jinx Rafe. Again, not rational. But it seemed that with this man she acted on instinct instead of intellect.

Rafe raised one eyebrow, but thankfully didn’t push her. “So, what brings you out to the training field?”

“I got lost looking for the dining hall.”

He glanced at his watch. “Give me ten minutes to shower and change and I’ll walk you over.”

She should tell him no. She had to tell Ryker she accepted his job offer, then start work before Nate and the others got worse. But the long-denied feminine core of her refused to pass up the chance to get to know Rafe better. After weeks of stress she needed something positive in her life. “Okay.”

His rakish grin set butterflies dancing behind her breastbone and she wondered if she really understood what she’d just agreed to.

“M
y dad worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency,” Rafe said during lunch. “One of the best field agents they had.” He glanced down at the sandwich in his hand, but not before Gabby saw the flash of pain in his eyes. “When I was nine, he was shot in our driveway while washing the car with my older brother, Niko. Pop was paralyzed and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, but that didn’t stop him from going back to work for the DEA.”

“What about your brother?”

“Physically, he had just a few scratches. Psychologically?” Rafe shrugged. “It messed him up. He was only thirteen, but he blamed himself for not protecting Pop. No matter that Mexican crime lord Jaime Alvarez had ordered a hit on our father and no thirteen-year-old boy could’ve stopped it. Niko was already big on taking responsibility. He turned angry. Started getting in trouble.”

“I’m sorry.” She wondered how the change in his brother had affected Rafe, but didn’t feel comfortable asking. Not when he’d given her such a deeply personal story. Given that she barely knew the man, she didn’t know whether to be flattered or horrified that he felt comfortable sharing such a traumatic event.

“Yeah, well, Niko ended up putting his anger to good use. When he was eighteen, he accepted an offer from the DEA to unofficially go undercover in Alvarez’s organization. Niko spent five years working his way up to being Alvarez’s right hand man, until finally he had enough evidence to call in a raid that sent the bastard to prison.”

“Did you know your brother was undercover?”

Rafe shook his head. “Alvarez sent us reports a couple of times a year, bragging about how he’d turned Niko into the type of man our father had spent his life working to put behind bars. Pop knew the truth, but not the rest of the family.”

To her surprise, Gabby reached out and touched his hand. She wasn’t the touchy-feely sort. Yet she left her hand where it was, wanting Rafe to have the comfort of touch. “That must have been hard.”

Rafe turned her hand over and straightened out her fingers one by one. “I never believed Niko had gone bad. No matter what the evidence showed. Even when the DEA sent Niko to prison after the raid, as punishment for the things he’d done while undercover, I still knew he was one of the good guys.”

Gabby’s throat ached. She’d always wanted a brother or sister to love. Someone who would stand by her side no matter what. “Niko is lucky to have a brother who loves him so much.”

Rafe grinned. “Damn straight. You stick around long enough, you can tell him yourself. He’s also an SSU agent.”

“Is Alvarez still in prison?”

“No.” A feral expression swept across Rafe’s face. “Long story short, Alvarez was released from prison after ten years, but then he tangled with Niko and ended up dead.”

“I’d be interested in hearing the whole story some day,” Gabby said, surprised to find how hungry she was for more information on Rafe and his family.

“I’ll tell you, but only if you promise to stick around.”

“That’s something I need to discuss with Ryker first.”

Rafe’s eyes probed hers. “All right. So, what about you? Happy childhood? Your file says no brothers or sisters.”

Gabby lowered her gaze to her plate. She didn’t feel comfortable talking about her past, and never told anyone about her father’s rages. Yet she owed Rafe some insight into her life, since he’d been so open with her. “Well, I was mostly raised by my aunt—”

“Dr. Montague?”

Gabby looked up to see McDermott heading toward her. “Yes?”

“Ryker would like to see you in his office now, if it’s convenient.”

“Of course.” Gabby stifled her disappointment at having her time with Rafe cut short. What kind of spell had the man thrown at her to make her greedy for such intimate, two-way conversation?

Before she could stop him, Rafe stood up and disposed of their food trash. “I’ll see you later,” Rafe said, kissing the back of her hand. “McDermott,” he acknowledged with a nod.

Then he was gone.

Gabby blinked at his abrupt departure. “Okay, McDermott, lead on. I don’t know my way around yet.”

Ryker met her and McDermott before they reached the administration building. “Hello, Dr. Montague.” With a nod, Ryker dismissed McDermott, who flashed Gabby a grin before disappearing down a side path.

“Have you made a decision regarding my job offer?” Ryker removed the dark glasses hiding his eyes, making it easier for Gabby to answer.

“Yes, sir. I’ve decided to accept your offer…for now.”

He nodded. “Good. Let’s get you settled in right away. I know my medical team already has a list of questions for you.” He started walking back the way she’d come, then took a right at the first intersection.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to see Kaufmann’s men, sir,” Gabby said.

“Let’s hear what Dr. Smith has to say about that.”

The medical building turned out to be the size of a small hospital. Inside, though, it looked like the same decorator who’d done her guest apartment had taken care to make the facility as warm as possible—painting the walls in warm earth tones and hanging plants and artwork where they best caught the natural light from skylights and windows.

“Of course,” Dr. Smith said when Ryker passed on Gabby’s request. “I’m afraid, though, that the men remain sedated.”

“Dr. Montague, I’ll leave you in Dr. Smith’s capable hands,” Ryker interjected. “Welcome on board. I’ll check back with you later.”

Five minutes later, Gabby stood on one side of a reinforced plate glass window looking into the room where the four surviving men slept on hospital beds. All of them were shackled at wrists and ankles. Even in deeply drugged sleep, they moved restlessly. She wondered what they dreamed of. Or did they remember what Kaufmann had done to them?

“I don’t know if I can help them,” Gabby admitted. “But I’ll do everything I can.”

“That’s all we ask,” Dr. Smith said. “Come, I’ve called a meeting in the conference room so you can meet the rest of the team.”

There were five other members of the medical staff waiting in the small conference room. Two men and three women. Gabby made careful note of their names and wondered what they thought of her. How much information had Ryker given them?

Did they understand that she’d never intended her research to cause harm? That until the end she hadn’t realized what types of experiments Dr. Kaufmann had been running? Or did they think she made that excuse to avoid responsibility?

If there were any doubters, they managed to keep their suspicions off their faces. Gabby decided to treat everyone like a respected colleague and hoped she’d win over any dissenters.

“I don’t know much about what was done to Nate and the others,” Gabby told the group. “There were two sections to Kaufmann’s compound. The upper lab, where we believed we were working to resolve issues specific to veterans, and the lower lab, where Kaufmann worked to create his superhuman soldiers. I worked in the upper lab until last week.” God, talking about this to a group of strangers was harder than she’d thought. She didn’t see any judgment on their faces, but she couldn’t help but feel guilty.

“My role was to find a chemical that would neutralize the rages Kaufmann’s subjects suffer. The only time I saw any of the subjects on the lower level was when I first stumbled across the transport bay that led back to the labs.” She took a deep breath and looked down at her clasped hands. “That’s when I saw one of my former patients from the upper level tear out a man’s throat with his teeth.” She looked up and saw echoes of shock and horror on the faces surrounding her.