Revealed (The Found Book 1) (11 page)

“So where are we going?”

“Georgia.”

“Sarah?”

“Yep.”

“Do you think the men guarding her are compromised?”

“I’ve got to assume so.”

“If they are, they’re not going to want you to take Sarah away. If they’re good guys, they won’t want to let her go. You’re screwed either way.”

“Looks like.”

Okay, now she wasn’t giggling.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Not really. I’m going to wing it.”

“Since my mom’s not here, I’m calling bullshit.” She looked at his profile and prayed she was right. He looked so serious driving. Resolute. Her dad always looked like that too. Her mom said it came from having been called on too many traffic accidents. Kali didn’t know what Noah’s excuse was.

“I might have an ace up my sleeve.”

“Huh?” She’d lost her train of thought.

“I called in some reinforcements. I don’t know if they are going to be there in time, if they aren’t we’ll punt.”

“I thought you said we can’t trust anyone.”

“These guys aren’t just anyone. These are men I trust with my life. More importantly, I trust them with
your
life.” He gave her a quick reassuring smile.

“You called your team in from the jungle, didn’t you? How could you? Did the admiral transfer them stateside? No, it would have looked too suspicious. What did you do?”

“Did I ever tell you how attractive intelligent women are?”

“So what did you do?”

“There’s one hardship leave, one emergency medical leave, and two regular leaves.”

“Well,
that’s
not suspicious.”

“It’s been done before, and their temporary commander approved them all. It won’t raise any flags to the people we’re worried about, that’s the main thing. Nate will be here first. He should already be in Atlanta by the time we get there. Now the knot in your stomach has relaxed, can you finally eat the breakfast sandwich?”

Boy could she.

* * *

“Miss Kelly, it is good to see you looking so well.” Here she thought Noah and her dad were big men. Nate made both of them look puny. He had to be six feet six, and his muscles had muscles. Despite the fact he was huge, he wouldn’t allow her to get into the backseat of the car. They all admired the view from the parking garage looking over the Atlanta airport.

“Defensive Tackle?”

“You got it in one.” He smiled at her.

“Don’t be flirting with my woman, Nate. I happen to know the bigger they are the harder they fall.”

Nate gave Noah a smile as well. “We missed you man. How can we help?”

Noah opened up the console and passed Nate the stash of goodies he had purchased.

“Oh man, I was going to help you no matter what, but now, you get my first born.” Kali looked on in awe as he opened up the beef jerky and a cherry pie at the same time and took alternate bites.

“First, we have to hide Kali, then we have to pull Sarah Johnson out from under Navy supervision.”

“Yeah, I talked to Dave Rydell. I can’t fucking believe this shit,” Nate said between bites. “Do you have anything to drink?” Noah handed over a warm soda. “Thanks.”

He finished the food, drank half the soda and proceeded to plop some of the peanuts into the half empty cola, and continued to drink until he was at the end and then he chewed. It was fascinating.

“So Sam, can you two tell me more about being
found
?” he asked as he opened up one of the candy bars and took a bite encompassing half the bar. It took Kali a moment to remember Noah was actually Samson Noah Kukailimoku, Sam to his friends.

“Yeah, my adoptive parents kept it quiet, and the Islanders are notoriously closed mouthed about their people.”

“That’s freaky. So do you know where you came from?”

“Bits and pieces are coming back. Kali and I basically had amnesia for the past twenty years until we met again. We mostly remember one another in another place.”

“Do you know why you came here?”

Kali liked this man, he was filled with open, honest curiosity.

“I remember we were in a stadium, and someone, another child got up to speak. She said we were coming here to help, to make a small difference for good. Something about a tipping point. I didn’t understand it then, and it still doesn’t make a damn bit of sense to me. Nate, she couldn’t have been more than four years old, and an entire stadium filled with people gave her a standing ovation.”

As Noah described it, Kali remembered a little girl with brown hair, blue eyes and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks. She remembered thinking the girl was even smaller than she was, and how scared she would have been on a stepstool talking in front of so many people. Even standing in the center of the stadium holding Noah’s hand, and surrounded by other children, had been scary.

“So if the
veil was lifted,
so to speak, after meeting Kelly, do you think you were meant to be together?” Nate asked as he ripped open the package of ding dongs.

“Absolutely.” Noah reached over the console and pulled Kali’s hand into his. “We were absolutely meant to find one another and be together.” Kali could only look at Noah in stunned silence.

“Breathe Kali,” he murmured.

She let out a big gust of air and glared at him. It was so disconcerting being around someone who could feel what she was feeling. He laced his fingers with hers, and then slowly brushed his thumb against the pad of flesh on her palm. She no longer cared he could feel what she was feeling.

He gave her a tender smile, and then turned back to look at Nate. “Okay, so I figure you’ve been talking to the team?”

“You know it. Mathers will be here tomorrow. In the meantime, we have someone to meet so Kelly can get a new identity. As for you, Riley is flying into DC to pick up cash and papers from one of the safety deposit boxes. He should be here by Wednesday. He had some problems getting his paperwork approved for leave, otherwise he’d be here sooner.

“You seem familiar.” The words came out of her mouth before she had a chance to think them through.

“He was one of the men who helped rescue you, Beautiful. Everyone you are going to meet, were part of the rescue mission to get you out of that hellhole.”

Kali shuddered, the thought of people, besides Noah, seeing her when she was destroyed made her ill. He pulled her over the console and gave her a hug. “He’s family, Kali. They all are.” He ran his fingers down her back, and the panic slid away with the stroke of his hand.

Noah settled her back into her seat, she relaxed and turned to meet warm hazel eyes.

“We were really worried about you Kelly, but not as much as we were about Sam here. I thought he was going to pass out when he saw how bad your wrists were torn up when we got inside the chopper.” His cheek creased, Kelly realized he must have had quite a following while he had been playing football.

“So Noah was woozy at the sight of blood?”

“Noah, huh? It works I guess. Well, Noah, was sure as hell worked up at the sight of
your
blood, for damn sure.”

Kali imagined Noah broken and bloody like she had been and realized she couldn’t have kept it together. She felt a wave of panic, and realized it came from Noah, he had a flashback to the night of the rescue. It was time for a change of topic.

“So Nate, I gotta tell you, I’m not really liking the whole, stash Kali away, part of the plan.” Nate’s grin got even broader. Now she felt a definite sense of annoyance coming from Noah, but this she chose to ignore. “Sarah’s not going to be willing to go with you guys because you ask her to. You’re going to need someone like me to convince her it’s in her best interest to go with you.”

“She’s smart too, Noah. You know we all appreciate beautiful and smart in our women.” Nate seemed to be laughing at Noah.

“Back off Goodman,” Noah growled. Kali gaped at him, he had literally growled at his friend. Nate could not possibly be chuckling. For God’s sake, couldn’t they see her?

“For God’s sake, can’t you see yourself?”

“Did you just read my mind?”

“No. Of course not.”

Kali stared at him, she could feel the sincerity and shock coming from him in waves.

“Whoa. I knew you two were connected. We all did. But you can read each other’s minds?”

Kali ran a trembling hand through her hair and gave a weak smile to Nate.

“It’s more we can feel what one another is feeling.”

“You’re not going with us. We do rescue and recovery missions all the time.”

“She doesn’t think she needs to be rescued or recovered, she’s going to think you’re kidnapping her. How are you going to keep her from hurting herself? From hurting you?” Their laughter pissed her off.

“Kelly, just how is Sarah Johnson going to hurt us?” Nate asked between chuckles.

Her ears were about to start bleeding. These men were going to end up getting killed. Of course Kali knew everything there was to know about Sarah Johnson. She was another
found
. Unlike Kali, she was brilliant. She was currently an intern in the busiest ER in Atlanta, and also put in hours at a free clinic in the inner city. She was amazing. She also grew up with six, count them, six older brothers.

Sarah Johnson might have made the grades in high school and gotten a scholarship, but the girl was tough. That, along with smart, and she would give anyone a run for their money. It could end up getting Noah hurt, which was unacceptable in Kali’s book.

“I’m not going along with your plan.”

“It’s unacceptable.”

“Funny you should use that word Noah, I was just thinking it was unacceptable you be hurt or killed because you didn’t do the smart thing and use me to help. I’m going with you when you go to get Sarah. She knows me.”

“What do you mean she knows you?”

“I mean she’s studied me, she knows exactly who I am.”

“Oh, makes sense. You’ve studied her, too.” Noah said slowly. “Mathers downloaded a file, it’s really comprehensive.”

“Did it tell you she actually got into a knife fight with a gang member and beat him, when she was ten and he was fourteen?”

“No shit.” Nate whistled as he scrolled through his phone. “Nope, not on here. I can’t believe Mathers missed it. How’d you know about it?”

“It was in her school newspaper. I downloaded it, when I was in grade school. I made up stories in my head about how mad her brothers must have been.”

“I’m betting the punk who pulled the knife didn’t have a happy life afterwards,” Nate muttered. “I vote for taking Kelly with us.”

“Her name is Kali, and I vote against it.”

“It’s two against one. You’re outvoted.”

“This is the military, the lieutenant makes the rules, and I say you’re not going.”

“Noah, you know this is the right thing to do. Sarah will listen to me. This will work a hell of a lot easier. You know that.”

“Here’s what you’re not getting. You’re a target too. The two of you together will be like a Thanksgiving feast for these guys. I am not putting you in the same spot at the same time. Are we clear?” He was every inch the leader.

“Okay, you’re both right, we do need Kali to convince Sarah to come with us. So now all we need is a plan.”

Kali knew she wasn’t going to get her way, but Noah was so hot when he was the commander, it didn’t matter.

Chapter Seventeen

Noah loved seeing his team together in the little hotel room. It would have been better if Riley and Dave were there, but it would have put Kali in to shock, too much testosterone in one small area. Thank God for Mathers.

Sierra Mathers was one of those beautiful redheads, with honey gold skin and no freckles. Noah and the other men on the team wondered if having her in the unit would end up being a problem, but within three days of her working on their electronics, nobody cared. She was a magician, and it was all that mattered.

Sierra had been working on finding a way to get to Sarah Johnson since the second he had called her. Now she and Kali were comparing notes. “How in the hell did I miss that? Even if the school newspapers were deleted, my searches should have pulled them up.”

Kali was practically on Sierra’s lap at the desk in the little corner of the hotel room. Why was there something erotic about seeing two beautiful women cuddled so close together? He turned to where Nate was on the phone talking to Kota and saw he was watching the two women with interest. They grinned at one another. Yep, their penises were just hard-wired that way.

Nate hung up. “There are four total. Two on. Two off. They break it up into eight hour shifts, the next trade-off is five and a half hours from now.”

“Kota’s sure if the relief doesn’t come the ones on duty will make a play for Sarah?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“It’s me, Lieutenant,” Sierra piped up from the desk. “I’ve got their room under surveillance.”

“How the fuck did you manage that? And when?”

“I did it before reporting in to you. They have adjoining bedrooms over at the Marriott and I went in as housekeeping and planted some transmitters. They only record when somebody’s talking, and then they translate into text, and feed them to me.” She held up her phone. It boggled his mind.