Sworn to Secrecy (Special Ops) (2 page)

“The price is set, Mr. Jones. We don’t swindle people here. What you were quoted is what you pay.”

He nodded. “So you’re going to be okay going in there by yourself?” He looked to Alex who still seemed to be studying the photographs.

“I’m skilled and trained Mr. Jones. I can bring her home.”

He nodded. “It’s just…you’re so young.”

Preston looked at him earnestly. “He’s skilled. He’ll bring her home. He’s pulled missions on his own before. This isn’t his first one.”

Ronald nodded. “Thank you. I can’t thank you enough.” He shook their hands and left their office. He had what he needed now. They were going to find Carissa, and that was all he needed right now. The fee would be worth it if they could just find her.

“So?” Natalia looked to all of them. Micah laughed and Alex couldn’t help notice the love the two of them had for each other. They gave him hope that somebody might be out there for him someday. He wasn’t looking for that to happen today, but one day…maybe it would be nice.

“We’re taking it, as I’m sure you are aware since we took the money.” Preston told her.

“I saw Micah scanning it to make sure it was all real. I figured you would take it. So who’s going in?”

“Alex.”

“Solo or joint?”

“Solo,” Alex said.

“Well be careful out there,” she gave him a sweet smile. She was definitely his favorite in the office. He loved the guys too. They were like the brother’s he always wanted, but never had. His brother, the biological one, wasn’t much of a brother at all. These guys were all he had. But still, Natalia was a breath of fresh air in the office. Something about her just drew him in from day one. She made him feel comfortable. She made him feel like family and he loved her for that. He wouldn’t say he thought of her as the sister he never had, because he certainly didn’t look at Natalia in the brotherly, sisterly, kind of way. Had she not been so in love with Micah when he first came on board Alex would have tried to sweep her off her feet. But she was in love with Micah and he knew that was a kind of love that she wasn’t going to just be able to forget about. He had watched her for years; the love, the admiration, even the sadness that she had in her eyes each time Micah started dating yet another woman. He felt for her, maybe his heart broke for her, because he couldn’t imagine how she held it together when one of Micah’s women would show up to take him to lunch. Each time he wanted to knock some sense into Micah’s head. He had a good woman right in front of him and yet he couldn’t even see it.

Things had clearly changed. Natalia being taken, becoming one of their rescue missions, and almost being dead to them was enough to change anybody. She had gone to Australia to help her best friend move there. They had taken a run of the mill tourist excursion when everything went south and they came upon a drug exchange. With her friend getting killed, her getting taken to Columbia with one seriously bad drug lord, and the danger she remained in even when they returned, it was enough to finally open Micah’s eyes to the feelings he didn’t even realize he harbored for her. Alex silently laughed at the thought. He had helped speed things along at least a little by giving Micah the impression that he just might have a thing for Natalia. It wasn’t hard to fake. If her heart had been free he would have had a thing for her.

Right now she was one of his best friends and he loved her—like a friend.

“So are we going in with the private plane or should I book a commercial flight?” Natalia swiveled her chair to check an alert that had popped up on her computer screen. She hit one button, looked at the message and then closed it out. “All is fine with the checking account by the way,” she said to them. She had set up alerts to let her know when money went in or out. They had finally gotten the reimbursement from their last search and rescue mission. They had taken on a high security clearance government employee, which wasn’t something they liked to do too often, but work was work. The difference was, the government gigs, while they paid, they paid slowly. Preston still owed a favor to one of his friends so he took it without the cash up front because the payment was going to be too slow to come through. That was the third government gig they had and they all agreed that they should refrain from taking another if possible. Of course an assignment was an assignment and as long as the person hiring them was honest and they got paid for their work they would all agree that it didn’t matter if it was government or private sector doing the hiring. They preferred private sector, but keeping influential government men in their contact list was a good thing too. They never knew when they might have to call in a favor or two either to get into a country they shouldn’t be in or to get past some of the travel embargo mandates on the way back into the country. Not everybody they rescued had the brains to stay out of places that weren’t either safe to be in, or legal to be in. The government gig before the last had fallen into the illegal travel sector. Thanks to the senator’s son thinking he could break all the rules and do whatever he wanted Jet had spent a great deal of time trying to get the idiot out of Iran. His father was wealthy, too bad money couldn’t buy his kid a brain and common sense to use it.

“We’ll use the plane. Julian’s on leave right now. He’ll be willing to fly for us. I’ll set it up,” Preston told her. He always set up the transport when it involved Julian.

“Anything you need from me, Alex?” She asked him so sweetly. The thing that warmed his heart the most was that she was genuine in her offer to help and in her concern.

“Nah, I’m good to go. I just need to pack some things and I’ll be ready to leave as soon as Preston secures passage.”

“All right then. But if you need me you know where to find me.”

“Always,” he winked at her. He knew exactly what he needed and where he was headed. He could do this with his hands tied behind his back...although he wouldn’t want to. He wanted to get the package back home safely. She was attractive, that was for sure, but a job was a job. His only priority was getting the package. The security she would need after that wasn’t his responsibility. It wasn’t the responsibility of the team. They were search and rescue. So that’s what he was going to do. He was going to search, find her and then rescue her. Getting her home was where his job ended. If there was somebody looking for money from her father by taking her then her father would have to be the one to hire a bodyguard for her. His team did not provide those services to their clients.

He would leave once the plane was ready to depart and Preston had said that wouldn’t be before morning. Julian was on leave, but he still had to get clearance just in case he was needed for a military assignment. Preston would be the one contacting the right people to get the ball rolling for their departure. Of course he wouldn’t tell them what the assignment was or where Julian would be going. That was part of the deal he had worked out with the connections he had. They didn’t get much by way of location, mission or length of time needed, but that freedom and willingness to cooperate came with a price. Alex had simply shaken his head at their predicament. Maybe they were ending up with more government contracts lately because they needed special clearance for so many assignments.

Alex would have flown commercially, but Preston didn’t think it was a good idea. He didn’t either actually. He needed his gear and going commercial wouldn’t allow for him to take it. He had his own connections in specific areas of the world where he knew he could get the weapons and other supplies that he couldn’t get onboard a commercial flight, but this wasn’t a place where he knew anybody he could go to for a hookup on weaponry. He wouldn’t have time to try to secure what he needed once he arrived in the country, especially when they didn’t have any reliable contacts in the area.

He knew they had a bidder down near where he needed to go. He could have taken a detour and acquired things that way, but a bidder was just that—a man or woman who sold their services to the highest payer. They never used one if they could avoid it. If they couldn’t avoid it then that usually meant it was a two member assignment, something so detailed and complicated that for some reason they hadn’t been able to use the private plane and they needed some heavy duty weapons to get to their location. That scenario was rare. While they did tag team some missions, some of the more dangerous ones, it was rare that those missions led them to a bidder. He rolled his shoulders and shook out the tension already creeping into his muscles. He wasn’t nervous. This was like a walk in the park—a really hot and humid park, but that didn’t mean that his body wasn’t already giving him grief for the trek he was going to have to take once he landed. First they would have to land someplace secure, someplace where he could get out in a hurry without having to log a flight plan. Preston said he knew a perfect spot. He had researched their options long before he agreed to take the case because that’s what he did. Between Preston and Natalia going in blind was never an issue. They always had knowledge of what awaited them; even though they didn’t always have knowledge of every detail they weren’t flying completely blind either.

Alex was also going to have to acquire, and by acquire that meant steal, a vehicle and stash it on the route he planned to take out of the jungle. Then, as always, he was going to have to enter from an outside direction so that the way out and the way in never overlapped. He couldn’t risk any bad guys knowing his general location and tracking his movements back to his escape vehicle. Oh yeah, he thought; this mission was going to be barrels of fun, and of course that thought was pure sarcasm, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t ready for the challenge or that he wasn’t up for the mission. There were two things he knew about himself. The first was that he loved the danger and the excitement; while he knew how to be smart and be careful he still loved feeling as if he were making a difference and pushing himself at the same time. The second thing was he knew how much he craved a challenge. Challenging assignments always got him going because it meant doing something that his family never would have thought he could do. While they didn’t know the extent of his job with these guys, and they didn’t care for that matter, it still made him feel a hundred times better just knowing he was right and they were wrong. He was worth something, even if they didn’t think he was.

Chapter Two

I
t was hot; he was tired and after a long night and day of travel, getting to the package seemed like a glorious relief of pressure. Alex wasn’t complaining—much. He was used to hard missions in inhospitable conditions, but there was a sudden sense of urgency in this mission. No demands had been sent yet. No contact had been officially made and that told him that the package could soon be dead or moved to another location.

 
He saw which hut the package was being held in so he knew he could get to her, but he also knew he had to play this smart. Just walking into the village wasn’t going to get him what he needed. It might get him killed though. He needed to enter covertly, that was the plan, but apparently they were having some kind of party that night because the fire was burning, the food was cooking and the people were festive. He didn’t see her until she came out the hut, accompanied by several women and one man. She was adamantly refusing something; he didn’t know what but the look on her face and the tension in her body caused him to speculate. Given the people clearly watching her moves, he would guess she wasn’t getting much alone time. He wasn’t worried; he knew he could find his way in. He would retrieve the package and back to Austin they would go. He could sit out on his porch and do some stargazing. Watching the stars happened to be one of his favorite past times and from what he had been tracking before he left he knew the sky was going to be lit up with a meteor shower in just a few days. He wanted to be back in time to catch the show.