Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action) (22 page)

“Thank you,” he said and she laughed.

“It wasn’t a compliment.”

“Was to me,” he assured her. “A man protects his woman,” he looked deep into her eyes before leaning in and covering her mouth with his. His kiss was soft, explorative and passionate rolled into one, and instead of pulling away and continuing the conversation, she leaned into him and kissed him back.

Chapter Twelve

S
hane knew from the moment he walked into the room and saw the rest of his former team members sitting at the table that retired or not, they were all back in the game for at least one last hunt. Some had never left in the first place. This wasn’t just about saving their own butts, this was about making a man pay for killing two good men. They wouldn’t let that slide. They would either take this guy in alive, let him stand trial and go to prison, or they’d take him in dead. It didn’t matter at this point because he knew, they all knew, that the next body in that box wasn’t going to be their body, and if they had to kill the bastard to see to that, then they would.

“Guys,” he pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Hey, Shane. Good to see you, man;” Jimmy’s somber voice told Shane these were not the conditions he wanted to see him under. Jimmy had been out on a covert mission when Shane turned in his papers, so he hadn’t been there before he left. They had all agreed to get together when they were all landlocked on the same continent, but this wasn’t exactly what they had in mind when they made the agreement.

Shane nodded. “What do we know so far?”

“Not sure yet,” Jimmy pushed a file folder in front of Shane. “The C.O. was waiting on you to get here before he started. He got a call before you came in, but he left these files on everybody who has ever applied for transfer into one of the
Dove Team
units.”

Shane looked at the file folder that was nearly bursting at the seams. “And we couldn’t narrow this down a bit more beforehand?”

“Guess not,” Jimmy pointed to all the other folders. “I’d just like to add that your file folder has completely different names than mine and the others. We’re all looking at different people here.”

“That’s a lot of people to look at.” Out of the five men who had showed up, they all had the same dark green folders.

“These are just the ones who were denied. The captain didn’t think we needed to look at the people who were approved.”

Shane nodded. “Wouldn’t make sense that it would be one of us,” he said. “But clearly Rick knew, or at least recognized the man who killed him. Maybe he interviewed him through one of his testing phases.”

“That’s why the commander gave you those,” he pointed to the extra file folder.

“I get two? Lucky me,” he said dryly. The benefit was that the second folder in front of him was thin, which meant it had less paper which in his book equated to far fewer names to look at. Maybe he should start with that list first.

“It’s a list of the ones he interviewed under your supervision, and the ones you both tag teamed. After what happened to your lady, the captain thought it would be best if you took the shorter list first—just in case.”

“Just in case it’s related to us,” he finished the sentence Jimmy didn’t feel the need to finish.

“What affects one of us hits us all, you know that.”

“I know,” he said. He wasn’t taking this on his shoulders alone. He was well aware that they were all in danger, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought maybe this was about him. He had given it some thought while he was in route to Colorado Springs and every thought led him back to the fact that David and Rick had been killed, and whoever it was now seemed to be targeting him—no, he had targeted an innocent civilian and in Shane’s book that meant the man was probably some weak, unethical bastard that got denied because he couldn’t live up to the code. Every branch of the military had a code, but the
Dove Team
had stricter guidelines, and those guidelines and rules were not optional.

This wasn’t just some elite country club. They were working on security breaches closer to home; on things that would impact the citizens in their backyard and in a situation like that there was no margin for error. If any one of them went off half cocked it could get more than just the team killed. It could get the kids on their way to school, their parents, their entire community, killed. It wasn’t a game, and though they sometimes had to find fun activities to take the edge off, they all had to stay alert, vigilant and realize the seriousness of every mission. Maybe that’s why the applicants were so many, yet the members were so few in comparison—not everybody was cut out to be a member of the Dove. Clearly somebody on one of these lists couldn’t handle that fact.

Shane sat through the briefing, feeling as if he had never left his team, as if he had never retired. Once again they were reunited for a common goal, justice and survival. It was good to be back, but where he wanted to be, where his mind had already traveled to, was back home. He was worried about Alyssa. Not only had he brought trouble into her life, there was still a maniac terrorizing the shops on the Row. The cops had released Dumas which meant they were back to square one on finding, and stopping, whoever this man was. Shane wanted to keep her safe. He knew she could hold her own if equally matched, but whoever was after him wasn’t likely to be her equal match on the battlefield and he couldn’t stomach the thought of what could happen to her; what would happen to her if he didn’t find out who this guy was and stop him.

“Gary,” Alyssa smiled. “What are you doing down here? You never leave the studio.”

He laughed. His big brown eyes wide and bright. “I heard about what happened.” He paused as Leo stepped out of the security room. Alyssa had told him he could go enjoy the shops or even the park if he wanted to. She would be fine, or at least she thought so, since the stores were open and nobody would try anything during the day. Leo didn’t think so obviously because he refused to go anywhere.

“Gary this is Leo; Leo this is Gary. He runs the art studio and gallery down the street.” Leo nodded, but he failed to retreat back into the security room. She resisted the smile that threatened to grace her lips. As much as she wanted to think the men currently in her life were far too overprotective, she had to admit she felt safer with them around. If anything did happen, and she wasn’t able to handle it—like the other day, then at least she would have backup. Or maybe it was more like she could be their backup if they needed it because she was sure neither Shane nor Leo would let her go in fighting first.

“I wanted to come down and make sure you were okay,” he said. “Did you fire the other guy?”

“How do you know about the other guy?”

“Craig’s been up and down our block telling everybody. He said he was short.”

She laughed. Compared to Leo she guessed he was short. “Not short really, but yeah, this isn’t him. I didn’t fire him; he is just away on business. He’ll be back soon.”

Gary nodded. “You’ll still come down to the opening next Friday night?”

“Yes,” she nodded. Leo cleared his throat as if he was trying to tell her not to promise anything, but she had already done that weeks ago. Gary’s art students were displaying their work and he was going all out with the opening. He promised wine, finger foods, music and of course, great art. She wasn’t going to miss that. She loved art too much to miss the opportunity. “I promised Gary a couple weeks ago that I would go to the opening,” she told Leo because she wanted him to understand that she wasn’t going back on her promise.

“You can bring your friends; both of them if you want,” he said. “I really want the students to have a good showing.”

She nodded. “Okay. I think I might be able to talk at least one of them into coming.” She was almost sure of it actually because neither one of them were going to let her go anywhere without at least one of them accompanying her.

After Gary left, her day went back to normal—mostly normal. A few other shop owners stopped in, more afraid and needing information than anything else. She didn’t have any information to give them. As far as she knew, the guy robbing them blind was still at large, and the guy after her guy was still on the hunt. She also knew that she hadn’t heard from Shane and she was starting to get worried. That was just crazy because the man was trained for war, and since he hadn’t been gone long she really shouldn’t be stressing his whereabouts; but she was. She was worried and she couldn’t deny that.

By eight she was closing up shop. Her register took a little longer to balance, thanks to her own counting error, but at least she was thankful to find out she hadn’t undercharged a nine hundred dollar piece of jewelry. “I’m almost ready,” she told Leo; he was patiently waiting at her counter. “I just have to run upstairs and get something.” She was sure he wasn’t thrilled about having to squeeze into her little car to get back to Shane’s place, but Shane had needed the truck for his trip so they were down to just her car. Leo really was too big for the space, but at least he fit—although probably not super comfortably.

She turned off the store lights, ran upstairs to grab the pieces she had been working on earlier in the week. She wasn’t sleepy so she was sure she was going to want to do some work once they got back to Shane’s place. They were almost completely out the back door when somebody hit Leo over the head and pushed her inside before locking the door behind them. She took one fist to her face that split her lip and that was all. She fought like her brother’s had taught her. Her last move took her assailant down to the floor and she dug her stiletto boot heel into his spine. “Stay down or I will be forced to keep you down permanently!” She kept one of his arms twisted and elevated in a way that would dislocate his shoulder if he tried to move.

“Alyssa!” She heard the pounding on the door. She reached over, keeping her balance and twisting the lock. The second she flipped the bolt he rushed in.

“I’m fine,” she said as he surveyed the damage.

“Shane is not going to be happy about your lip,” he mumbled.

“Hey! I kicked butt,” she said nearly irate with the fact that the only thing he noticed was her lip—a lip that was throbbing with pain right now. “You should call the cops.”

“He pulled out his cell and punched in the emergency number, gave location and situation details like a law enforcement officer would, and then he disconnected the call.

“Let’s see who this bastard is, shall we?” He yanked the ski mask off her attacker while she kept him neutralized.

“Petrof? You’re the one doing all of this.”

He laughed the best he could from his position. “I had fun,” he said. “That night I got Shatrel I was going to come do you instead, but she was easier access, and her products are worth a hell of a lot more than yours.” He uttered his words flippantly and detached from any emotion other than joy and satisfaction.

“You have a successful bistro. Why would you do this?”

“You all are funding my lifestyle,” he said as if that should make everything okay.

“Yeah, and now unfortunately we get to fund your lifestyle in prison too.” She voiced her discontent with the situation. She would have never suspected it was one of the other Row owners. She always thought the threat was outside when clearly it came from within. “How’s your head, Leo?”

“It’s had harder hits,” he grumbled. “But the bastard better pray he doesn’t make one move or I’m going to save the tax payers some money.”

His tone was so lethal and serious that she didn’t doubt that he would do as promised. Lucky Leo, a.k.a. Percileo Dugan-Mishoto, was clearly a lot like his highly lethal sister, Valencia. She wouldn’t want to be on enemy grounds with that family.