“And I’ll make certain you don’t,” Judd had promised. “We’ll hide you before we leave, make certain you’re safe. But you won’t know where we are. And you’ll never have a chance to harm either of us.”
He would find them both. And he would keep the promise he made. They would both pay.
CHAPTER 3
There were few things Diane Broen hated worse than she hated late night landings and forcing her tired body to yet another hotel room.
One of these days, she promised herself as she entered the lobby of the exclusive, expensive hotel Jonas Wyatt sent them to, she was going to have her own bed, her own apartment, and her own clothes to fill it.
Rather than whatever she had in her suitcase, whether it was dirty or not.
“Boss, don’t forget about that meeting we have with the accountant while we’re in town,” Thor, the big deep-voiced blond Swede reminded her as they stepped into the lobby of the D.C. hotel and headed for the elevators.
“Do we have an appointment?” she asked, all but dragging her bags behind her as she fought to stay on her feet long enough to get to her room.
Three months. She and the four men who had once fought with her uncle and now followed her command, had been on the trail of one of the most elusive damned targets she’d ever been sent after.
They had gone after terrorists, extracted kidnap victims, provided security for heads of state, kings and even a few shady characters, but never in the history of her time with her uncle’s men had they failed to complete a job. Until now.
It was as though she had disappeared off the face of the earth and the message she had received the night before returning to D.C. hadn’t settled her mind.
An anonymous message left in her hotel room and a warning that there was a spy too close to her. A spy who didn’t care to kill. And with that message was a reference to a possible location that she still couldn’t believe.
Hell, she didn’t need this.
“I’ll get an appointment, boss,” Thor promised. “But you have to keep it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said with a sigh as she punched the elevator button and watched the lit numbers descend as the elevator moved from the upper floors back to the lobby.
She was taking that warning to heart, as much as she hated to. There was too much at stake, and she wasn’t risking her men without more information.
She leaned against the wall and stared back at the four men.
The Swede, Thor, was their moneyman. He kept them solvent and well supplied. He paid the bills and managed to keep their paychecks from bouncing. Next to him was Aaron, their logistics expert, emergency medical needs, and travel agent. Brick was their communications expert and supply tech while Malcolm took care of weapons and, before they’d joined the Bureau of Breed Affairs, he’d scheduled their missions.
They’d lost two of their men after joining the Bureau though. The two Breeds that had fought with them since the team had rescued them from a small lab several years before. They’d moved on to security in Sanctuary, the feline base in Virginia.
Now Diane and her remaining team were expert consultants to the Bureau, a glorified title for gophers she liked to think, but it kept her close to her sister, Rachel, and Rachel’s daughter, Amber.
It kept her close enough that she could ensure she was never again unable to help her sister and niece when they needed her.
The elevator pinged its arrival.
“Hey, boss, want me to haul your gear?” Thor’s voice was softer as she opened her eyes and stared back at him.
She was tired, and evidently she looked tired too.
She was aware of the other three men watching her curiously.
“I have my gear, Thor.” She straightened as the doors slid open and a couple left the elevator. Their expressions were wary as their gazes moved over the less than reputable-looking group.
Diane snickered up at Thor as she stepped into the elevator and caught his disgruntled look. Readjusting her gear on her shoulders, she almost wished she had taken him up on his offer.
Yeah, she would have loved to have had Thor haul her gear for her. His shoulders were a hell of a lot stouter than hers, and he carried his own gear as though it weighed nothing. But her uncle had warned her that no matter how tired or wounded she was, she had to pull her own weight if she wanted them to respect her. The day she couldn’t haul her own gear, and she wasn’t wounded, was the day her men would start protecting her instead of following her. It would be the day she would lose her command.
She’d fought too many years for their respect to risk that. She wasn’t going to give it up because she’d missed a few nights’ sleep in order to return to the States in time to follow the lead she had been given and to complete her mission.
“Man, I need a cold beer, a warm woman and a soft bed,” Aaron said, sighing as he leaned against the elevator wall, his brown eyes reflecting the same weariness they all felt.
Diane snorted as she leaned against the wall as well and waited for the tenth floor. “Cold beer, warm shower, and that soft bed.” She sighed.
The thought of a warm man slid through her mind and she immediately, forcibly, pushed it back.
“Here we go,” Thor breathed out in relief as the doors slid open. “I’ll let you know about that accountant, boss.”
“I’ll be there,” she promised. “Once Wyatt hears my report we’ll probably be heading out for that vacation we’ve all dreamed of.”
It was the only distraction she had to use to explain her own disappearance once she gave the impression of having given up on this mission.