Singed (13 page)

He glanced over, caught the slight frown wrinkling her brow. “No idea. Want me to call him up and ask him?”

She laughed softly and waved his offer away with a graceful flick of one hand. “No. Sorry, I can’t help being nosy. It’s in my nature.”

Well, it was his nature to make people laugh and he loved the sound of hers. He wanted to hear it more often. “That’s probably what makes you so good at your job. Your penchant for wanting to investigate.”

“You mean my obsession? Yeah, probably. I’ve noticed you’re pretty good with details yourself.”

He just smiled and kept his eyes on the road. “I’d better be.”

“You were a Recon Marine, right?”

He nodded. “For six years.”

He had her full attention now. He could see her watching him curiously out of the corner of his eye. “Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes.” He shrugged. Sure as hell didn’t miss the conditions and lack of equipment they always seemed to suffer out in the field. “Mostly I just miss the guys.”

“Why’d you get out?”

“It was time.” Not wanting to talk about that anymore, he shifted the conversation to her. “What about you? You graduated from MIT, right?”

“I did.”

“With honors.”

“Also true,” she said with a little smile. “Though I’ll admit, I didn’t realize the Marine Corps taught people such good computer skills. Might’ve rethought my decision and enlisted instead, if I’d known.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised what skills I picked up during my time there.”

“No, I don’t think I would, actually.” Still smiling, she folded her arms beneath her breasts, which of course made him steal another look there. She was trim and toned, but still soft in all the right places. And despite the conservative way she always dressed, she exuded an innate sensuality that tantalized him. It was damned distracting, considering they had to work together so closely. He’d been fantasizing about her since the first day they’d met.

He’d love to stop at the next light to lean across the console, watch those incredible eyes go wide as he bent and inhaled the fragrance of her skin just below her ear. His fingers itched to stroke across her smooth cheek and down her throat to her bare shoulder, slip beneath the neckline of that dress and find out what she was wearing beneath it. Because he’d bet every cent he owned that her bra was silky soft and just as sexy as she was.

Jerking his gaze back to the road, he tamped down his impatience at having to curb the impulse. If he rushed this she’d bolt. That was the last thing he wanted, and he wanted more than the one night stands he’d become so bored with. With Zahra he’d like the chance to get to know her on a personal level, see if things developed naturally from there. “Hunter said you stayed late at work last night,” he heard himself say. “Anything interesting turn up?”

Rather than answer right away, she shifted in her seat and pointedly avoided his gaze.

He looked back at her. He could read changing conditions on a battlefield in an instant, know exactly where and how to hit a target, but he could also read people just as well. She knew something and didn’t want to tell him. “What? What did you find?”

She nibbled her plump lower lip for a second before responding. “I’m not really sure if it’s anything. I called Alex last night to talk to him about it. He said he’d look into it further and let us know after the service today if he thinks it’s worth all of us following up with.”

Bullshit. She was damn good at her job and a hard worker. If she’d found something she thought was important enough to work half the night on and report her findings to Alex, then it was something they all needed to look at. “Zahra, what did you find?” he prompted, his body tensing slightly.

Her foot tapped on the floor mat. “I was translating some more of that chatter you and I found yesterday.”

“From the satellite feed?”

She nodded, met his eyes at last. The serious expression on her face put him on instant alert. “Remember the lead we’ve been following from the chat room? Abdullo?”

“I remember.” The guy was suspected to have ties with a militant network in Tajikistan, as well as being linked to the TTP. “What about him?”

“I was translating his phone transmissions. He’s been very clever so far, only using the same phone a couple of times, but the voice recognition software matched him to this other conversation and I started listening in. It was to someone in Baltimore.”

Sean processed all that in silence. “And?”

“It was a short conversation made a few days ago, and I wouldn’t have paid much attention to it except that the man he called spoke in English rather than Urdu, and the entire conversation was cryptic. I think so he wouldn’t raise suspicion if anyone else overheard. Abdullo said something about needing this guy’s ‘trusted services’ and said there was an envelope waiting for him with all the necessary information. He was to call Abdullo back with his decision about taking the job.”

Sounded like a terrorist cell activating a sleeper cell here in the States. “Did you trace this guy in Baltimore?”

“I looked him up, but couldn’t find anything else that might link him to a terror network. He’s not on any of the watch lists as far as I could tell and if he called Abdullo back I can’t find a record of it, so maybe he used a different phone. And I couldn’t find any record of Abdullo’s incoming calls after. That’s why I stayed so late—I thought I was close to finding all the pieces but I never did.”

All his instincts were screaming that this bastard was planning some kind of attack in the area, and soon. Was it Claire? Hunter and the rest of the team had to know what was going on, and to hell with waiting on Alex and whoever else at the NSA was working this thing. He pulled his cell out of his pocket and hit a number before holding it out to her. “It’s Hunt. Tell him everything, right now.”

Zahra took it without arguing and relayed the information when Hunt picked up. Sean took a deep breath and drove to the funeral home, knowing that by the time they got there, Zahra’s boss and half the NSA’s counter-terrorist people would already be working on this. And he also knew that as soon as the funeral was over, the entire team would be pulling an all-nighter except for Claire and maybe Gage. And if Sean was in his place, he wouldn’t let Claire out of his sight for a single second until they figured out if this bastard was the threat they’d been trying to neutralize.

****

By nine o’clock that night, Gage could tell Claire was done with pretty much everything. She was done with everything surrounding Danny’s funeral, finished with her relatives, and hell, definitely finished with people in general. No surprise to him, because it had been a long, emotionally exhausting day for her.

The service had gone well enough, though there’d been way more people there than Claire and her father had wanted, thanks to her mother calling up all kinds of acquaintances after she and her husband had gone back to her hotel last night. That inconsiderate move had only caused Claire more stress as she’d been forced to run around buying more groceries this morning and then had spent all her time prior to the service prepping the food. Gage had helped out as much as he could, cleaning, chopping and assembling the stupid crustless tea sandwiches Claire’s mother had insisted on. Didn’t matter that the woman had come over to help, Gage was still pissed at her for putting more stress on Claire.

At the funeral Claire had insisted he sit with her in the front pew, with him and her father flanking her and Mel directly behind her. Claire had looked around at all the additional “mourners” and he’d seen the fury and disgust burning in her eyes.
Where the hell were they during the past two years?
she’d demanded in an angry whisper, her body vibrating with tension.
If they didn’t care about Danny enough to be there for him when he was alive, then they have no right to be here now to stare at his urn.

He couldn’t agree more. Unable to do anything to make it any easier on her, he’d sat with his arm around her while the minister had presided over the service and read the eulogy Claire had written for Danny, offering what comfort he could. She’d stayed quiet and strong throughout the service. Too strong. He knew how much she was hurting even if no one else could. The last thing he wanted was to see her break under the strain of it all. And now a lot of those same people who had filled the little chapel had come back to her place for the reception that had started well over four hours ago. With one look at her drawn face now, he knew she wanted everyone to take the hint and get the hell out. Trouble was, she was too polite a hostess to ever say it.

“Okay people, feel free to leave any time,” Mel murmured as she stepped up beside him, wiping her hands on a dish towel. She’d been a godsend all day, doing whatever needed to be done without complaint. Of all Claire’s friends, Mel was his favorite. “When do you think they’ll take the hint and get out?” she whispered to him.

“When all the free food and booze is gone,” Gage muttered darkly.

“I already shoved the last few platters into the back of the fridge so no one sees them, and I put away all the bottles that were on the counter. Want me to light something on fire to set off the smoke alarm?”

His lips quirked. “Might come to that. I’ll give you the signal.”

Mel sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. Gage lifted his arm and draped it across her shoulders. “I’m really glad you’re here,” she told him quietly. “I sleep better knowing she’s got you to look after her.”

He’d do a hell of a lot more than look after her if she’d let him. “Thanks.”

She tilted her head back to look at him. “It’s good to have you back. I’ve missed you, you know.”

“Missed you too, sweet pea.” Too bad he wouldn’t be around for very long. And probably less than that if Claire had her way. He was still sure he’d averted disaster last night by turning her down, even if he’d wanted her so much his hands had been shaking.

Mel blushed like she always did when he called her that, but he knew she liked it. Together they stood in the doorway and watched in silence as Claire played hostess. After a full minute, Mel eased away. “I can’t take this anymore. I’ll be in the kitchen, watching for the signal. Make sure it’s noticeable.”

“All right. Stand by.”

Claire needed peace and quiet after everything she’d gone through today. He’d felt the same way every time he’d attended a buddy’s funeral, and she’d just come from saying goodbye to her only sibling, the man she’d looked up to for most of her life.

He leaned against the kitchen wall, watching her move around the living room filling up glasses, handing out food, and generally worrying about shit she shouldn’t have to. He had to keep reminding himself of the new foreign boundaries imposed upon him by their estrangement. Had it been six months ago he knew exactly how he would have handled things. Now he was forced to stand back and watch her drive herself into the ground right in front of him.

Another half hour passed and only one or two people trickled out. Claire was more than courteous to the few guests still hanging around, but he could read her better than anyone and so he knew she was hanging on to the last of her composure by a rapidly fraying thread. Her smile was forced, almost brittle, her movements short and jerky. The irritation in her eyes had long since turned to flat out annoyance and he knew it was only a matter of time before she exploded.

To save her from that embarrassment and not wanting Mel to actually set fire to anything, he decided to ignore the unspoken rules and take care of the situation himself.

Pushing away from the wall, he stepped into the center of the room and used his NCO voice, honed to perfection by more than seventeen years of service. “Thank you all for coming out to support Claire and her family today. We appreciate everyone being here, but it’s been a long day and if ya’ll don’t mind we’d like to wrap this up now.”

A shocked silence met his words, followed by an awkward hush. Claire’s head snapped around, her eyes wide with incredulity before she narrowed them at him. He stared right back unapologetically and mentally raised a defiant eyebrow at her. She didn’t like his methods? Too fucking bad. His only concern right now was her and he didn’t give a shit what anyone else thought.

The guests all looked at him in surprise, including Claire’s parents. Mel walked past him and started clearing up, and that seemed to make it official. After a heartbeat of awkward hesitation, everyone stood up and got moving. Some carried their cups and plates into the kitchen. Others went to Claire and her parents with a murmur of condolence and left, sliding him a sidelong glance as they walked out the door.

He hurried them along with a glacial look and a tight-lipped smile that barely passed for civil. It didn’t take long for them to all clear out, five minutes tops. When only Mel, Claire’s parents and stepfather remained, Wayne came up to Gage and clapped a hand on his shoulder.