Gone (13 page)

Peter guided the car into a parking spot. “I’ll be right back to pick you up.”

True to his word, he was back in a remarkably short amount of time, arriving in a nondescript green sedan, tossing her suitcase in the back. “You won’t be alone,” he told her as he drove out of the lot. “I have a…colleague who also might be affected by this threat and his girlfriend will be there, so at least you’ll have someone to talk to.”

“I suspect the topic of conversation will be how we ever got ourselves in such a convoluted position.”

“Love,” her husband told her as they gained the freeway, “is a hell of a lot more complicated than war.”

“Will you do this?”

Eric looked back at him. “This is Nikki. Of course I will, but can you help me out a little here? What specifically am I doing?”

“Not too much. How the hell am I supposed to tell you what I don’t really know yet?” Jack pulled the car into the lot. “When I get a call like that, I go. Orders are orders.”

Testily, Eric said, “Last I knew I did not enlist in the Army or Navy or whoever else—”

“The only other real choices would be the Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marines,” Jack supplied helpfully. “Don’t forget the reserves. But I don’t see you as a military guy. And I assume since you want to keep her safe, you’ll keep
them
safe.”

“She’s pregnant, and the wife of an important colonel? Thanks, Jack.”

The sardonic edge of his tone got through.

“You’re smart. That is what I’m going with. This isn’t protocol or usual military action, and for your information, all colonels are important, that is why they rise up to that rank.”

“I’ve shot a gun twice in my life and both shots were at a deer. Neither bullet, by the way, hit its target, and the experience left me immensely relieved, because killing an innocent creature isn’t on my agenda, though my father was visibly disappointed. Which was fine. My real question is: Am I qualified to do this?”

Jack ran his fingers through his hair. “We obviously didn’t see this coming. All we need is for you to guard them both. I’m not asking you for sniper duty on a rooftop. I’m just suggesting that they’ll be better off with you than anyone else I know.”

“Could you stop discussing me as if I’m not here?” Nicole said it vehemently from the backseat where they’d both insisted she sit. “I’m fine protecting myself, or would be, if someone could just outline maybe who might represent this threat.”

“I can’t.” Jack was regretful, no doubt about it. Thanks to him their lives were being upended, and he got it, but a long time ago he’d learned that was how it worked when he’d signed on to protect his country. A moment of notice—if you were lucky—and then the game changed and it was go-time.

Bad things happened to good people.

Colonel Hanes was already there, waiting in the parking lot of the hotel. Tall, blond, fit—in his command everyone was fit—and he flicked a glance over Nicole and then studied Eric as he got out of the car.

“You aren’t a soldier.”

Eric replied wryly, “No. Banker.”

“We need those too.” There was a hint of humor in the colonel’s voice. “Nice car.”

“Thank you.”

“Yours?”

“Yes, sir.”

“In the past twenty-four hours have you loaned it to anyone or seen anyone behaving suspiciously around it?”

“No to both.”

The colonel nodded approvingly. “Major Templeton tells me he’d trust you with his life. I guess I am supposed to trust you with two of mine.”

A little too much information there about his rank, but if Hanes was comfortable with it, he was too. Jack watched as the colonel assisted his wife out of the car. The woman was a beauty with sleek dark hair and flawless skin, and definitely pretty pregnant. He sure as hell wasn’t a judge, but a month or two and the kid would be born. Eric gave him a sidelong look, to which he shrugged in sympathy.

“I’ll do my best.” Eric offered his hand instead of a salute, and after a moment, the most decorated colonel at his age in the US military took it.

Hanes said, “Thank you. You’re checked in. Here’s the keycards. Kathy has my cell number but there’s every chance neither of us will be in a position to communicate very often. You have a suite, two queens and pullout couch. I don’t want them out of your sight.”

“Understood.” Eric took the offering and Jack almost laughed at the expression on his face. His friend was certainly more used to giving orders than receiving them, but probably most of that was via email or memos.

The colonel turned. His gaze was razor sharp as he looked at Jack. “Let’s go. You’re driving. I’ll brief you in the car.”

Jack turned to Nicole and pulled her close, inhaling the fragrance of her hair. He whispered, “I’m sorry about this. I love you.”

Her fingertips feathered along his jaw as he lifted his head. “Be careful.”

“Always,” he lied. Careful sometimes got you killed.

Then he climbed into the driver’s seat of the obviously rented sedan—he would have done the same thing—and buckled up. “Where to, Colonel?”

Hanes closed the door. “Just start driving and we’ll talk about the details. I want us away from them as soon as possible.”

“I’ve already gotten that impression.” Jack put the car in gear, negotiated the lot and pulled out onto the street. “What do we have going on?”

“Two suspected terrorists on the move, directly connected to our last mission and confirmed to be here in the Heartland.”

Jack had to admit he was startled. “In Indiana?”

“Landed in Chicago yesterday. Three and a half hours from here. We’ve had them on watch for months. They didn’t rent a car, so someone picked them up from the airport. I don’t like that they are so close, and neither does intelligence, which is why they contacted me. There have been rumblings that the rescue operation invoked a threat of retaliation.”

They
had
taken out some high-ranking individuals, but as someone who had been shot and broken his leg, Jack didn’t have a lot of sympathy for the other side. “With all due respect, they can kiss my ass.”

Colonel Hanes just looked amused. “I agree, but, Major, we are vulnerable in some ways, and the enemy doesn’t play nice. So, what we need to do is eliminate this problem as soon as possible.”

“How do you suggest we find them?”

“Leak information so they find us. Then they’re less likely to go after our families but instead come at us directly. I think I’m going to do that right now.” The colonel scrolled through his phone. “We’re monitoring an employee of the Justice Department who is collecting a paycheck from the US government but definitely not working for it. Let’s make sure this woman knows just where we are.”

“Woman?”

“We’ve discovered this particular organization is an equal opportunity employer when it comes to espionage.”

Jack had to laugh. “I see.”

“You will when they come after us. Chatter has it we’ll both be dead by tomorrow.”

That was interesting, but he’d been a target before.

“Are they going after the rest of the team?” Jack braked at a light, his chest tightening a little as he thought about Nicole…and even Eric, for that matter, left at some generic hotel. This was hardly their problem, nor were they trained to handle it.

“I’m sure. But us first. We happen to be from the same place.”

“The hometown advantage. Got it.”

“Two birds in the hand rather than the bush. Got to admire their logic, or at least their efficiency.” Hanes looked pragmatic. “I’m going to text in our location. She’ll report it and I suspect we’ll engage not very much after that. You got this, Major?”

“If there’s another choice, I’d love to hear it.” Jack was joking, of course. More seriously, he said, “I assume this is happening whether either of us wants it or not, so count me in feet-first.”

“I suppose if I had to be from the same place as any of the team, you’d be the one I’d prefer.”

“That’s quite a compliment, Colonel.”

“At the moment I’m not sure that’s a distinction you’d prefer.” Colonel Hanes took in a short breath. “We need to get them and get them fast, and resume our lives. This operation has already almost cost me my wife, and I wasn’t the one stuck in a foreign country like you were. Surely you agree. Let’s finish it.”

Jack had never been on board with anything more in his entire career. “So, let’s send them a real message,” he said, pulling onto I-70. “If they really want to follow us, and I’m guessing they will after what we did over there, let’s send them someplace that’s really our home turf. I heard once you were also a country boy, Colonel.”

Hanes nodded in resignation. “Born and raised right here. Corn and soybeans.”

Jack couldn’t help but smile. “I’ve fought all too often on someone else’s territory. This almost sounds like fun. Let’s lead them right to us and then let them discover what it is like to fight a war when the enemy owns the ground. I didn’t go looking for them, but if they came looking for me, here I am.”

“I suppose there is a certain validity to that logic.”

“With all due respect, I have swum through rivers that have creatures that made my skin crawl.”

“I get it. I’ve done the same. My vote for worst life experiences is South America, but Northern Africa gets a nod in there.”

“Agreed.” Jack grinned. “But hey, there are times when Indiana isn’t a picnic either.”

“I thought that was all we did during the summer here.” The colonel stretched out his long legs, but he was punching in a message. “You know, picnics and baseball games, and so forth.”

Jack said with conviction, “Not
this
summer.”

His CO said without missing a beat, “You’ve got that straight, Major.”

Chapter Thirteen

“When is your baby due?”

It was a lame question, but there wasn’t much to do really but talk to when stuck in a hotel room with a perfect stranger.

And Eric, of course, which was a relief under the unusual circumstances, but he’d positioned himself at the window and stood watching the parking lot. The tension was visible in his broad shoulders, and truthfully, she couldn’t blame him. It was hardly like he was trained for this sort of thing. Jack and the colonel had seemed matter-of-fact, but it was their job to react that way.

Eric could manage a corporate merger involving millions of dollars effortlessly, but this was not his area of expertise.

Nicole couldn’t decide whether to be irritated or frightened, but the first seemed a better option.

Damn Jack for turning her life upside down again.

To make matters worse, they all had strict instructions to not use their cell phones except to answer direct calls from a certain number and absolutely to not access the Internet.

So…conversation would have to be it, unless they wished to watch television, and quite frankly, Nicole didn’t do that all too often to begin with and at the moment was much too wound up anyway.

“In seven weeks.” The colonel’s wife smoothed her stomach in what was probably an unconscious mannerism. She was stunning, with flawless skin and natural long lashes over her luminous eyes. She wore a flattering sundress in a pale yellow shade that set off her dark hair, and she carried the baby well, her form still willowy except for the significant curve indicating her condition.

The other woman’s mouth trembled. Just a fraction, but Nicole caught it, and sensed that under that serene exterior, the woman was extremely distraught.

“It will be fine,” she said reassuringly, and certainly hoped she was telling the truth. The colonel’s wife had chosen to drop down on one of the beds, and Nicole sat in a chair near a small table, glad at the moment she wasn’t expecting a child and in danger. “Trust your husband and trust Jack. They know what they are doing.”

“Good men get killed every day.”

“I realize that. When they told me about Jack…” She trailed off, the old horror flooding back. Maybe it was just the circumstances.

Kathy Hanes said to her in quiet tones, “The military doesn’t do that often or lightly.”

“I assume what is happening now has something to do with that decision.”

“Lesson one. Never assume anything.”

If she talked about it, she’d have to think about it, so Nicole deflected the subject back. “Boy or girl?”

“Boy.”

“Names?”

Kathy smiled faintly. “Peter and I haven’t discussed it yet. I only told him about the baby a week ago.”

That was hard to respond to in an appropriate way, if there even was one. Nicole’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry…but didn’t he notice? I mean, I’m kidding but—”

“We were in the middle of a divorce.”

“Oh.”

“His job.”

Oh again. “Were?”

“I’ve reconsidered but that might have been a mistake. Maybe at this moment in time you see why I’m thinking along those lines. Not that I’ve been in this particular situation before, but I’m going to guess you understand.”

Nicole glanced around the generic room, thought about the phone call and how Jack had woken clear-headed and ready to go, and nodded. “I do.”