Deliberate Deceptions: Hauberk Protection, Book 3 (12 page)

When she didn’t answer, he yelled, “Tell me, damn it!”

“Cooper was my boss. That’s all I can tell you. And even that can get us all in trouble.”

Troy apparently didn’t feel the same boundaries. “Fuck that. Cooper is head of The Brigade. It’s a multi-government, black-op, hostage rescue unit that operates separately from any of the government agencies in order to provide plausible deniability.”

Chapter Eleven

Chad jerked back as if he’d been shot. He straightened and looked between the two of them, processing the various scenarios from the little information he’d gleaned and added it to his conversation with Sam. “You lied to me. Both of you.”

“We had to,” Lauren agreed quietly. “The Brigade often has to infiltrate terrorist organizations. If the wrong piece of information gets out, if the wrong person finds out about something, people could die. If we talk to someone who we’re not authorized to talk to, we can be charged with treason and tried in a very private court with a very private—and very final—sentence.”

His stomach felt as if he’d been buckled into a roller coaster that was doing loops and spins, ready to rocket off its rails. He hated roller coasters.

He glanced at Troy, who was staring stone-faced out the window. “How long have you known about this?”

“About eight months. It was the Brigade who extracted our guys in Colombia.” Troy slumped on the windowsill. “Lauren was running the op. I don’t remember seeing Weir there, but things got pretty hairy and…well, maybe he was there and I just missed him.”

“Does Sam know about any of this?”

“No.”

Which explained why Troy had worked from home for weeks after he’d returned from Colombia.

The roller coaster they were riding flipped over in a dozen different directions then abruptly stopped. She’d owed him no explanation. If she’d been working with a black ops team, she wouldn’t have been able to tell him anything. They’d each had to keep certain parts of their work secret from each other before. How was this any different?

Troy was a different matter. He may have possibly put not only Hauberk but the club members at risk. However there was nothing to be done about it at the moment. Not until they’d solved this current situation.

“Is there really a threat? Is there really a Jack Harris?”

“Yes, there’s really a Jack Harris. He’s after me because I had him taken off active duty. And you’re a target because he may try to get back at me by hitting you.”

Could he believe her? She’d given him a completely different story in the gazebo. Was this tale any closer to the truth than that one? “Who is he really?”

“He’s a former British agent. He’d been working undercover to infiltrate an offshoot of the Shining Path when his cover got blown. He didn’t like the way his government handled his case after he got back so Cooper recruited him.”

“Why did you have him taken off active duty?”

She took a deep breath. “I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you we noticed he was having problems after a mission went sour in Somalia.”

“PTSD?”

She nodded. “Among other things.”

Somalia, with its war lords and lawlessness. She’d been facing those thugs? Chad pinched the bridge of his nose. Too many scenarios flashed through his mind. Too many questions. Troy had said Colombia had been a hell of a firefight; where else had she been? “Were you in charge of the op that went bad? Is that why he’s after you?”

“No, I was in charge of his next mission. He wigged out and damned near caused us all to be killed. When we got back Cooper put him on administrative leave. Because I was the one who signed the report, he’s focused on me as being the cause of all his problems.”

“A variation of the ‘kill the messenger’ response.” He’d seen it before. “Was Weir part of the decision making process?”

“No. Ed was part of the team, but I’m the only one he’s targeting.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” There was no way to break it to her gently, and no time either. “Weir’s dead, Lauren.”

Beside him, Troy swore and turned away. Lauren said nothing but color drained from her face.

“He was found this morning in a seedy hotel room up near Fredrick. According to the news reports, other guests reported hearing an argument in the middle of the night and called the front desk. When the police arrived, the room had been trashed and Weir was dead. His throat had been slit.”

He narrowed his eyes at Lauren’s curse.

He shared a confused look with Troy when she knelt at the side of the bed and stuck her hand between the box spring and mattress. “Lauren? What are you looking for?”

“The transponder.”

“The what?” He took a step forward at the same time as Troy.

“A transponder—Ed gave it to me in case things went bad here and I needed to be extracted.”

“You didn’t have any sort of device with you.” Troy’s eyes were wide with horror when he met Chad’s glance. “I swear, we checked. Walters went over her with a wand before they took off the first time, and we checked again right after I met her. We took her purse away, everything. There were no devices on her. I swear.”

Lauren sat back on her heels and stared at the device she’d retrieved. It was smaller than the key fob Chad used to unlock his car doors. “Ed tucked it in my hair just before he left. Andy was thorough but you…”

“Just checked your fucking clothes,” Troy snarled.

From the look on Troy’s face, Chad was pretty sure if he hadn’t been in the room Troy might have attacked Lauren.

Her fingers closed around the device. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t broadcast its location unless it’s turned on. Which it hasn’t been since I arrived. So if Harris took the other unit from Ed, he can’t find me.” She placed it on the floor. “We have to destroy this one so there’s no chance it can ever broadcast our location. Troy, stomp on it. Break the damned thing.”

“No. Don’t,” Chad barked when Troy took a step forward. “We might be able to use it to draw Harris in.”

It was almost comical the way both Troy’s and Lauren’s expression mirrored identical looks of understanding within a split second of each other.

“We set him up.” Troy scooped up the transponder and started pacing, toying with it with each step. “We choose a place we can watch without him realizing it. Make him think Lauren’s there. Catch him in the act of breaking in.”

“There’s always the chance he may not have Ed’s device or the right codes,” Lauren said.

Chad shook his head. “Someone’s going to know if it’s among Weir’s things. Sam said there was a single report on the news this morning but nothing since. Someone is keeping a lid on it.” Which meant Davis had a helluva lot of connections to keep the press muzzled.

“Andy might be able to find out if it’s missing through his police buddies,” Troy suggested. “In the meantime, I’ll take this effin’ thing back to D.C. and set something up with Cooper so he can…
neutralize
Harris nice and quiet.”

“We’ll be fine with Andy in charge of things up here.” Chad stopped Troy before he could leave the room. “When I came in, you two were talking about the club being used as a front. Lauren, will Harris be looking for you there?”

Lauren hesitated. “I don’t think Harris knew anything about the club. There was some emergency going on that Cooper couldn’t get away from, so he had Ed and I meet him there. It was one time only. I don’t think any of the other team members knew about it, or would connect it with the group.”

It didn’t quite add up. If it was only used the one time, why refer to it as a front? “Tell me no one in the club has ever been put into any sort of danger.”

“No.” But doubt fluttered about the edges of her response. Shit, he had to get word out. Make sure Thalia stayed away. Sam and Rosie too.

“Is it possible Harris will go after Cooper himself?”

Lauren pursed her lips for a second before shaking her head. “Cooper’s deliberately created opportunities for Harris to go after him if he wanted. As far as we can tell, Harris is fixated on me.”

“Have you told me everything I should know about it?”

There was a split second’s hesitation to her “yes” this time. Shit. Shit. SHIT.

“I’ve told you everything I’m
allowed
to tell you,” she finally allowed.

His suspicions settled down at her answer. Somewhat. Rules and secrets were part of his world. And hers. “Is there anything you’re not telling me that might affect how we’ve set up the protection of this place? Or of the club?”

“No.” No hesitation.
 

All right, he could live with that. As long as she was telling him the truth. “When this is over, you and I are going to sit down and have a long talk.”

Troy snorted. “Since you’re both stuck here until we stop Harris, I’d say you two could start talking now.”

He turned on Troy. “Before you start casting stones, you might want to remember that you’ve known about this for almost a year and not said anything. So don’t go postal on Lauren for keeping quiet.”

Troy had the good grace to look away.

Chad rolled his shoulders, releasing the tension that had been building in them. “All right. Let’s plan what we’re going to do to draw him in. The sooner we can get it underway the sooner we can get out of here.”

Chapter Twelve

Lauren shifted her weight between the balls of her feet, watching for an opening. When she saw it, she brought up her knee and snapped her foot out, aiming toward Chad’s solar plexus. Perhaps she’d telegraphed what she was going to do, or maybe she shouldn’t have tried it twice in a row because this time he deflected the kick and spun away.

“You always did have a nice roundhouse.”

“Thanks.” She raised her hands and started circling again, allowing herself to admire the play of his shoulder muscles. Muscles that had rippled beneath her fingers the night before. The quick jab she took at him didn’t make it past his glove.

For the next two minutes there was only the smack of leather on leather, and the occasional grunt when a hit connected, interrupting the silence of the gym. Then Chad telegraphed what she thought was going to be a right cross. Turned out it was a feint and he landed a forward kick to her solar plexus. She would have cursed him. If she could have drawn a breath.

“Shit! I tried to pull it but you leaned in.” He grabbed her under her arms and held her so her lungs could fill with the air he’d knocked from her.

She hauled in a breath, then another. “Good one.”

“Thanks.”

Covered in sweat from her workout, Lauren stripped as she followed Chad to the bathroom. “Mind if I join you?”

The dark look he gave her sent a thrill down her spine and into her very core. “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

He turned on the shower then stripped off his tee. Lauren frowned when he folded it before putting it in the hamper. She’d noticed that about him before—from the way his clothes were arranged in his closet, to how everything on his desk was neat and tidy. Even tidier than hers. “What’s up with the neat freak routine all of a sudden? Did you have a housekeeper who complained about how you left your clothes on the floor the way you did when we were married?”

The heat in his eyes changed to ice, as did his tone. “There’s no pleasing you, is there? When we were married, you’d complain that you were always having to pick up after me, and now I put things away properly, you’re questioning me?”

Tread carefully
. “I just wondered what changed—you never used to worry about dropping your clothes on the floor or leaving papers piled up on the desk…”

“What changed?” He advanced on her until they were inches apart. “You left. That’s what changed.”

Oh God. He didn’t mean…“You thought if you kept things cleaner, if you hung up your clothes, I’d come back?” She reached up and stroked his neck. “Chad, I didn’t leave you because you left your clothes on the floor. You know that, don’t you?”

He shook his head. “All I knew was you weren’t there anymore.” He rested his forehead against hers. “I knew you were upset that I didn’t talk to you about going against orders to protect Thalia but I couldn’t go back into the past and change it.”

“So you changed what you could.” She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. He stayed tense for a moment then relaxed and held her too. “We were both trying to change things in our own way, weren’t we? To fix things we couldn’t fix.”

“I was willing to do anything I could to get you back.”

She knew that feeling. After all, she’d spent years running, fixing up other people’s messes, living from a suitcase while leaving no traces of herself wherever she went. How she wished there was some magic time machine…but there wasn’t. “I know we can’t go back, but is there a future for us?”

When this is over, will I lose you again?

His brows drew together in that familiar way.
 

“We have a lot to work out. I know there are things you’re still not telling me.”

She dropped her gaze. “You know I signed—”

“I’m not talking about your agreement with the Brigade. There’s something else you’re not telling me, isn’t there? Like the divorce that you think I asked you for while I think it was the other way around. About the letters that you sent me that I never got.”

“There are going to be some things you may not want to hear. I need you to trust me about some of the rest. That there may be things that I’m protecting you from.”

“Did you remarry? Has there been someone else?”

She smiled at his gruff tone. He was jealous. “No. There’s never been anyone else.”

He fell silent for a moment but she didn’t dare break the spell. “Remember I said I bought a house? I’ve spent a lot of time fixing it up—I’ve put in hardwood floors and torn out a lot of ’70s paneling. I put in a new kitchen too.”

She knew that already. Except Thalia had told her he’d bought it with his new wife. “I’d like to see it one day.”

“You don’t have to share a bedroom with me, but I’ve got one to spare. If you’d like.”

That would last for…a minute. “I’d like that.”

Footsteps slapped across the mats, slowed then stopped at the door. A half-second later, someone knocked. “You two decent in there?”