Password to Her Heart (2 page)

She swallowed hard, her heart was racing, and her eyes filled with tears.

“Can’t I go with you? You’ll protect me like always, Keith.” She grabbed his arm. She wanted to cry, to burst into tears and demand that he hold her, take the fear away like he did when they were kids.

“I can’t, Shawna,” he whispered, holding her shoulder and her waist. He stared down into her eyes. “It’s better if you’re not with me. Hopefully I can resolve this and you can go on with your life. I want you safe and I want you happy.”

She swallowed hard.

“And what about you?” she asked.

He released her arms and took an unsteady breath. “I’m going to finish what I started.”

He hugged her tight and she cried, holding him, not knowing if she would ever see him again. Her life was now in danger, too. What the hell was he involved in?

He pulled back and wiped the tears from her eyes. “You’re strong, well trained, and smart. They may never come here but that’s not a chance I’m willing to take.”

“When will I know that you have it all resolved and that I don’t have to hide out or move around a bunch?” she asked him.

He stared at her and she could tell that he was upset.

“I don’t know. But if these people succeed and they kill me, remember to trust no one. Only trust the person who knows the password and gives it to you.”

“The password?” she asked. He smiled as he tugged on her long brown hair.

“Yes, you mean you forgot after all these years?” he asked. She thought about it and then remembered.

“Are you serious? Do you mean the cubbyhole?”

“Of course. It’s where we hid whenever they fought and yelled at one another. It was under the stairs in the house and blocked out most of the noise.”

She swallowed hard. “It was our secret place,” she said, remembering how they ran to it as soon as their parents drank too much and started becoming violent. Keith kept her safe then, and he would keep her safe now. She held his gaze.

“I’ll remember the password, Keith. Please be safe. Please come back to me. You’re the only family I have.” She hugged him and he held her close until it was time to leave. Her life just didn’t feel the same.

Mercury Brooks was looking at the computer screen in the library. He couldn’t believe the e-mail he received from a friend inside the government agency.
What the fuck did you do, Keith? You were supposed to be here months ago. Retired and living the life with your team.

Mercury ran his hand through black crew-cut hair and leaned back. He felt sick to his stomach. How could Keith go rogue? He had always been one of them. They conducted their missions with the upmost respect and commitment to the Corps and to the United States of America. This couldn’t be right.

Mercury looked away from the computer screen and toward the window that looked out at the open land. Their land. He and his team, Tex, Lee, Stitch, and Tiek. They’d moved out here to Texas, to an area near fellow soldiers, people who understood the life they once led and how difficult it was to fall back into civilian life. Keith was supposed to be part of this, too, but the kid never wanted to settle down. Mercury knew Keith had a tough life. As his gunnery sergeant, hell, he knew that he had someone in San Antonio from his past that he went to see from time to time between missions. But what was he doing in Mexico, Brazil, and even Argentina? Had he really gotten involved with some sort of terrorist group?

“Fuck!” he yelled out and slammed his fist down onto the desk.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Lee asked as he walked into the room. Mercury turned toward his friend, well, more like family now. Lee was the team planner. Thirty-six, no family, a soldier through and through, and Keith’s closest friend. This was going to be hell.

“It’s not good,” Mercury began to say, but Lee caught sight of the e-mail and a small picture of Keith along with it.

“What’s going on? Is Keith finally coming here to settle down with us?” Lee asked.

Mercury felt his own temper flaring. “Keith is in trouble. I just got this e-mail from a friend. They think he’s a traitor. They say he’s involved with some shitheads in Mexico and Brazil and planning terrorist activities.”

“No fucking way. That’s just plain bullshit,” Lee stated, raising his voice.

“There’s a lot of fucking evidence.”

“Like what?” Lee asked, running his fingers through his dark-blond hair. He was originally from Oklahoma. Tex was from Texas, Stitch from New York, and Tiek was from Hawaii. After fifteen years together, they were more than friends. They were family.

“How bad is it? Do the feds know where he is and who he’s with?” Lee asked.

“I only got this message. I’m just debating about digging deeper.”

“Why, Gunny? He was one of us. Do you really think Keith would do that? I mean, he’s got responsibilities.”

“Like what? He has no family, and he kept on working with the government even though he could have gotten out. I hate to think why he would do something illegal.”

Lee turned away, and rubbed his mouth with his hand.

“Can you dig a little deeper? Can you find out whatever you can? I know Keith, and there’s no way he’s a traitor, or went rogue as a soldier. You were there when we did that mission in Costa Rica. He wanted Montoya and his entire operation to go down, but our orders were clear.”

“You shouldn’t even be bringing that up right now.”

“I know, Mercury.”

“I’ll look into it. I’ll make the call.”

Lee walked out of the room looking none the happier. Mercury would have to tell the others at lunch about this. But for now, he would make the phone call and see what was happening. They owed Keith that much at least.

* * * *

Lee was furious as he headed toward the kitchen. He pulled his cell from his pocket and tried calling Keith. He didn’t know why he bothered. If the guy was on the run and wanted, then he wouldn’t answer. But Keith was also very intelligent and a great strategic planner. Lee left a message.

“If you get this, you know who it is, and I will help you any way I can, brother. Call me back.”

He disconnected the call.

“What was that about?” Tiek mumbled in that extra deep voice he had. It drove the women wild and made him the worst person to whisper in the fields of battle. He used hand signals more often than the rest of them. At six feet three inches tall and filled with muscles, the man was intimidating.

Lee took a deep breath, and then explained what he just heard from Mercury.

“Holy shit. I don’t believe it. Not Keith.”

“Don’t believe what?” Stitch asked as he walked into the kitchen carrying his laptop. He placed it onto the island in the kitchen and then grabbed an apple from the yellow fruit bowl and took a bite. He chewed and stared at Lee and Tiek.

Stitch was their medic in the field and was always trading stocks online, his new hobby after hitting it big over the years as a day trader.

Lee explained and Stitch appeared just as upset as he placed the apple down on the island.

“Do you think it’s true?” Stitch asked.

Lee shook his head.

“What did Mercury say?” Tiek asked.

“I asked him if he could look into it. I mean, if Keith fucked up, then so be it, but if he’s in trouble, if he worked some mission and screwed up, then I need to know. There are things that need to be done.”

“Like what, Lee? He never showed up here as we all planned on settling down on this ranch. He never wanted the things we talked about. You had that job all set for him to work for the US Marshals with Tex and he didn’t take it,” Tiek said.

“We need to tell Tex. Is he stopping in for lunch?” Stitch asked, and Lee nodded his head.

“Why would Keith go rogue? I mean, I know he doesn’t have a family aside from us, so what the hell? Was it the money?” Tiek asked, sounding so angry. He was the biggest of all of them. With wide shoulders, lots of muscles, he worked part-time with the academy to train law enforcement officers in hand-to-hand combat techniques.

Lee swallowed hard. The rest of the team didn’t know what Lee knew. That Keith indeed had a family member. His one baby sister whom he adored.

Just then Mercury walked into the room.

“What is it?” Lee asked.

“I assume you told the others about Keith.”

“Yes, sir, he did. What did you find out?” Tiek asked.

“There are no leads on him whatsoever. I got nothing. I’m sorry, guys. I did ask that my friend contact me if he hears anything at all, even mild chatter.”

Lee ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. His heart was heavy. His gut clenched and he knew that there was more to this.

“Lee, you’re taking this hard. I understand that you and Keith were close, but shit like this happens. As much as my gut is telling me there’s something more to this, we have to prepare for the worst,” Mercury stated.

Lee felt the anger hit his gut. “This shit doesn’t happen to our team members, to any of us. He’s not guilty of treason or aiding terrorists or whatever some federal bureaucrats want to pin on him. I’m not just going to sit around and do shit. He was part of us. He should be here right now.”

“Well, he isn’t. And what the fuck are you going to do? No one knows where he is. Like Mercury said, Keith didn’t have a family,” Stitch stated.

“Just wait it out, Lee. If Mercury gets a heads-up to where Keith is and we can help, then we help him,” Tiek added.

Lee looked at Mercury. “Keith does have someone. He has a sister.”

“What?” Mercury asked, looking shocked and sounding insulted. Lee knew that Keith only shared that he had a sister during a time when Keith thought they were going to die. It was a very brutal and terrifying time in their military careers and they truly thought they were dead. But their team came through and pulled them out. They rescued them.

“He never mentioned a sister,” Tiek stated first. He seemed insulted, too.

“Listen, he told me about Shawna when we were held captive for those three weeks in Morocco. We didn’t think you guys were coming. We thought we were dead.”

“Where does she live? Do you think Keith would go see her and hide out with her?” Mercury asked.

Lee shook his head. “They had a really tough life. She’s all he’s got and he’s all she’s got. I don’t know much about her. She’s got to be in her twenties. I just don’t know.”

“Shit. Maybe I should call my connection and have someone check in on her?” Mercury asked.

“No. Don’t even give up the information. I’m telling you, Mercury, we don’t know all the facts in this. I don’t trust it. I know Keith, and he is no traitor.”

“We don’t believe it either, but if he’s in trouble why wouldn’t he come to us for help?” Tiek asked.

“To keep us safe, just like he probably did with his sister,” Mercury said.

“I’m not sure what to do right now,” Lee stated.

“There’s nothing we can do but wait and see if he’s spotted or if he contacts us. Then we’ll make a decision,” Mercury said.

“Make a decision on what?” They all turned toward the doorway as Tex entered the kitchen, Stetson in hand.

“We’ll explain,” Mercury said.

Lee looked out toward the window, hoping that his best friend wasn’t dead already and that he would call him for help.

It had been three weeks since Keith had stopped in to see her. Since then she had been paranoid about every single person who came into the bar and flirted with her or tried to ask her questions. Tonight was no different as two Hispanic men watched her from a table and then headed over for a closer inspection.

She jumped the second Mike bumped her elbow. “Hey, sweets, what’s with the angry expression on your face? That’s no way to get the big tips.”

She locked gazes with him. “Angry? I look angry?”

“Hell yeah, but still sexy as anything. You sure you won’t take me up on the friends-with-benefits thing? It could work well for both of us.” He winked and she rolled her eyes and then gave him a slap with the clean white rag she had just pulled from her waist.

He gave a nod toward the bar, and she didn’t have to look to see the two Hispanic guys were there. “You got two new ones. They’ve been watching you all night. Maybe a ménage is what you need?” he teased and she felt her cheeks warm.

“Can you take them?” she whispered as a group of four people walked up to Mike’s side of the bar.

“Hey, Mike, we need some fancy drinks for the ladies. Can you hook us up? Marley asked for your Mikey special,” one of the guys stated, and Mike waved then looked at Shawna.

“Forget it,” she said. “Go ahead and take their order, I’ll handle these two.”

“Hey, you let me know if they bother you.”

She gave a wink. She may have been five feet six and petite, but she was well trained by Keith. Not that she was cocky, but she could put up a hell of a fight if the circumstances called for it. She swallowed hard. God, she hoped the circumstances didn’t call for it. She just wanted to live her normal, boring life alone. Why was she feeling on edge tonight of all nights?