by Maya Banks
“What’s being done?” Steele cut in. “Who do we have there? What can they tell us?”
“He’s questioning the locals, but I’m concerned enough that I want to send in a team. Rio makes the most sense because he’s closer.”
“Fuck that,” Steele growled. “Me and my team are taking this.”
Sam’s brow furrowed. Donovan looked equally surprised and Garrett frowned.
Steele’s team stirred beside him. They were on edge, just like he was.
“I agree,” Cole said shortly. “By the time Rio pulls his team in from God knows where, we could already be on the ground. We’re all here and accounted for. We can load and go within an hour.”
Steele nodded, as did all his other team members.
“We could go as well,” Joe spoke up. “We’re ready. Our team is here.”
“No,” Steele bit out again. “This is our mission. With or without your blessing.”
Donovan blew out his breath. “I’m inclined to agree with Steele.” He cast an apologetic look in his brother’s direction. “Sorry, Joe. It’s not that we don’t have confidence in you, but we don’t want your first mission to be something like this where we don’t know shit and are basically flying blind into God only knows what. This is personal. Maren is important to all of us. And we need to move fast.”
Again, Steele nodded. “We can move out now.”
“I’ll go with them,” Donovan said.
Sam glanced at Garrett. “I thought we gave the orders around here?”
Garrett shrugged. “The job’s gotta get done. Seems to me we need to go the most expedient route. Steele and his team have the experience. They’re here. Why wait?”
“I’m going with you,” Sam said tersely. “You’ll go, Steele, but I’m going with you. No way in hell I’m going to hang Maren out to dry. She’s done too much for this family, this organization.”
“Well, fuck, someone has to stay here and sit on things, and it’s sure as hell not going to be me,” Garrett said. “Maren’s one of us. No way in hell I’m going to sit it out.”
Steele held his hands up. “Look, I get it. Maren is one of us. But this would go a lot smoother if you’d just let my team handle it. We’ll keep in constant contact with you, and if we need backup you can have the new team at the ready.”
Donovan looked like he was digging his heels in. Steele knew that look. While Donovan might be a more affable, easygoing member of the Kelly clan, when he set his mind on something, he was like a pit bull latched onto a prime piece of beef. It didn’t help that he had a huge weakness for women and children. The fact that Maren was a woman and was someone extremely important to the Kellys just sealed it.
“Sam and Garrett can stay here. I’m going with you,” Donovan said.
Garrett raised one eyebrow. “I’d love to know who died and left you in charge, little brother.”
Donovan held up his middle finger. “While we’re standing here arguing like a bunch of fucking two-year-olds, we could be moving out and finding out what the hell happened to Maren.”
“Hooyah,” Cole muttered.
“Hell yeah, hooyah,” Dolphin echoed.
“I’m with Van on this one,” P.J. said resolutely. “We’re wasting time that we could be using to find Maren and kick the motherfucker’s ass who messed with her.”
Sam held up his hands again. “We don’t know if anyone has messed with her. No sense going off half-cocked until we know for sure what’s going on.”
But his expression remained doubtful. Donovan spoke up, saying what was in the backs of all their minds.
“If Maren went off the grid without telling anyone, she’s in trouble.”
Baker and Renshaw stepped forward, their expressions determined. But it was Skylar who interjected next.
“So when are we going to be turned loose?”
Everyone turned toward Skylar when her softly spoken question filled the short silence.
Her lips were drawn into a tight line. Edge stood beside her; the only hint of his thoughts was the slight narrowing of his eyes. Swanny stood behind Skylar, quiet, away from the others. That was just Swanny’s nature. He was self-conscious about the jagged scar that covered one side of his face. He’d been captured with Nathan when both were still in the army, and they’d both been imprisoned and endured months of unspeakable torture.
It was easy to forget Swanny’s presence because the man rarely spoke. He was a lot like Edge in that regard, but no one could ever overlook Edge. The man was too huge. Swanny blended. A perfect chameleon. You could be in the same room with him and forget he was even there. He was a master at never drawing attention to himself.
Nathan looked calm, but his twin, Joe, simmered with impatience and frustration. But then of the two, Nathan was the more laid-back. Joe was more hot tempered and quick to want to act. Steele could understand that. But no way in hell was he standing down from this mission. He and only he would go after Maren and make damn sure she got back home safely. And while he was at it, he was going to convince her that practicing medicine in the middle of fucking nowhere in Costa Rica was a bullshit idea. She needed to be back stateside where it was safe. Where he and KGI could keep a better eye on her.
“You’ll get a mission when we say you do,” Garrett directed at Skylar. “And not one minute before. Maren is very important to us and not just because of the medical services she provides our teams. She’s family. We send the best, and right now the best is not you.”
The blunt assessment was enough to make a lesser person cringe. But Skylar and the rest of her team stared back at Garrett, and Skylar nodded.
“Fair enough,” she said.
“Now if we’re done?” Steele interjected. “We’re wasting time.”
“Let’s roll,” Donovan said.
As Donovan started by Steele, Steele stuck out his hand to catch Donovan’s arm.
“We do this my way,” Steele said in a low voice. “My team. My mission. My way.”
The corner of Donovan’s mouth turned up. “Is it ever any way else?”
Dolphin snickered, having overheard the exchange. “He’s got you there, boss man.”
“I want to know what the hell is going on as soon as you hit the ground there,” Sam said. “And I want to know the minute you find out what the fuck happened to her.”
Steele nodded. “My first priority is her safety and whatever I have to do to secure it. My second priority will be keeping you in the loop.”
Garrett chuckled. “Ouch. I’d say he just schooled you on the way things are in Steele’s world.”
Sam’s lip curled and his eyes narrowed. “As long as I sign your fucking paychecks I expect you to follow my goddamn orders.”
“You can shove that paycheck up your ass,” Steele snapped. “Now if we’re done here, I have more important things to do than to stand here with this petty bullshit bickering.”
He turned and strode out of the war room, his mind filled with images of Maren. Maren smiling. Maren underneath him. How she smelled. How she tasted. And now she was fucking missing. No one knew where the hell she was. Her family, whoever the hell Sam had watching out for her. They’d done a piss-poor job and that enraged him. If they’d been doing their fucking job, he wouldn’t be about to get on a fucking plane to go hunt down the son of a bitch who’d put his hands on her.
He knew he was jumping to hasty conclusions. Maren could simply have gone away. She could be on vacation. She might have had an emergency. But no matter how many possibilities he came up with, he knew that it was none of those things. Maren was uberresponsible. She wasn’t flighty. She was as steady and as stable as they came. Always had a welcoming smile, a warm shoulder. Always offered comfort and reassurance. She was good to her toes. Sunshine and sugar all in one package.
There was no way she would take off without telling her family. Which meant that whatever had happened to her wasn’t by her choice. If some asshole hurt her, so help him, he was going to take the son o
f a bitch apart with his hands.
CHAPTER 17
STEELE stared piercingly at the man standing in front of him and his team, waiting for him to cough up an explanation as to why he hadn’t figured out Maren was missing until well after her disappearance. For that matter he hadn’t known jack until Sam had contacted him for information. Steele had no patience for half-assing a job, and it was clear Sam had employed someone to watch out for Maren who’d done a piss-poor job of it.
The man looked nervous, but then he was being scrutinized by an entire team of pissed-off people. Donovan had his arms crossed over his chest, staring expectantly. P.J. and Cole were on the other side of Donovan, not looking any happier, and Baker and Renshaw were circled around so they almost encompassed the guy.
Yeah, he knew he’d fucked up.
“I’ve been talking to the locals and the most likely suspect is Javier Mendoza. Apparently he’s been sniffing around Dr. Scofield for quite some time. Mendoza’s hired heavy was seen outside her clinic the night before her clinic didn’t reopen as usual. She hasn’t been seen since.”
Steele’s nostrils flared and his lips curled in displeasure. “I see. So maybe you can explain to me why you had to find out this guy was sniffing around Maren from the locals. Your job was to keep an eye on her. You should have known the moment some asshole started expressing interest, and you should have immediately reported that to Sam Kelly, the man who pays you to know these things.”
Rico went pale and he shuffled his feet nervously. “There’s never been a problem. Things are always quiet around here. She gets up, goes to her clinic, treats her patients and then she returns to her cottage. Every few weeks she’ll drive to get supplies, but other than that, she’s predictable.”
“So you got lazy and complacent,” Donovan growled. “You didn’t think anything would go down, so you stopped keeping a close eye on her.”
Rico didn’t respond, but it was evident that was exactly what had happened.
Steele shook his head in disgust. “If anything has happened to her. If one hair on her head has been touched in any way, I’m coming after you. There isn’t a hole you can hide in big enough that I can’t find you.”
Rico looked like he was about to piss his pants. He stuttered and stammered, trying to come up with an explanation, but Steele was done with this idiot. He was pissed that Sam hadn’t kept better tabs on the moron. He was pissed that he’d been called away from Maren and she’d been left vulnerable and alone. If he’d been here, there was no fucking way Mendoza’s man would have gotten close to her.
It ate at him that while he was away on a mission, Maren had been in trouble and he’d never known a thing. He hadn’t left her any way to get in touch with him. It hadn’t even occurred to him to leave her a way to reach him on his phone because he’d planned to be back as soon as possible. He’d fucked up. Every bit as much as the idiot Sam had hired.
No way in fuck that was ever going to happen again. As soon as he had Maren back, things were going to change.
“You’re fired,” Donovan snarled at Rico. “Get the fuck out of here. I don’t want you anywhere near Maren or her clinic.”
Rico looked relieved and spun around on his heel, hurrying to his SUV. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough, and he likely realized the very real danger of getting his ass kicked the longer he stayed in their presence.
“Rico,” Steele called out.
Rico halted and slowly turned around to look at Steele.
“Don’t even think about fucking us over by giving Mendoza a heads-up. You’re a dead man if I even suspect you talked.”
He went pale again and nodded. Then he hurried to his vehicle, got in and tore off down the road.
“Son of a bitch,” Donovan swore. “What a dumbass.”
“Yeah,” Steele agreed. Then he turned to his team. “Okay, we need to do some recon stat. I want everything there is to know about Javier Mendoza and I want it yesterday. P.J. and Cole, I want you two to take position outside his compound. Figure out the lay of the land. Tell me what goes on, what we’re up against. Baker, I want you and Renshaw working on an entrance-and-exit strategy. I want visual confirmation of Maren’s presence inside his compound. We have twenty-four hours to get this together. I don’t want Maren in this asshole’s hands any longer than absolutely necessary, and I want to make damn sure she isn’t hurt when we go in.”
“Where does that leave me and Dolphin?” Donovan asked in amusement.
“We need all the information we can get on Mendoza, his dealings, what goes in and out of his compound. From what little that dumbass Rico could tell us, he has tight security and he monitors every vehicle in and out of his gates. If he has deliveries, I want to know when and what day. That would be the easiest point of access for us if we could hop on one of the deliveries.”
“Provided the locals will even talk to us,” Donovan said grimly. “From what Rico said, he wasn’t able to get much out of them. They’re all scared shitless of Mendoza.”
“Rico is an incompetent idiot,” Steele shot back. “Do what you have to do. I need as much info as we can get.”
Donovan nodded and then turned to Dolphin. “You’re with me, I guess. Let’s go ask some questions.”
Dolphin grimaced. “How’s your Spanish? Mine’s a little rusty.”
“I can get by,” Donovan said.
“I want everyone to report back in six hours,” Steele said. “Stay low and don’t be seen. I don’t want Mendoza to have a clue that we’re here. If he keeps his finger on the pulse of everything local like I suspect, he’ll know we’re here, if he doesn’t already. We need to go in, get Maren and get the hell out before he knows what hit him.”
“On it,” Renshaw said.
The others echoed Renshaw’s affirmative and they quickly moved out.
Steele stared at the clinic and down the road to Maren’s small cottage.
“Hang tight, Maren,” he murmured. “We’re coming for you.”
* * *
SIX hours later, they gathered on the periphery of Mendoza’s compound in a dense section of trees and snarled bushes and foliage. Cole and P.J. were the last to arrive, slipping from the darkness. One minute they weren’t there, and the next they appeared, barely causing a ripple with their movements.
They were good, and if they didn’t want to be seen, you weren’t going to find them. Steele liked the absolute confidence his entire team inspired. There wasn’t a better team anywhere. Rio’s was good, but they weren’t Steele’s team. His money was on his operatives any day of the week.
“Give me the rundown,” Steele said in quiet tones. “P.J., Cole, I want your report first.”
“This is nothing like Garza’s operation,” Cole began. “Garza had a half-assed security net. He was lazy and convinced he was untouchable. Mendoza takes his security seriously. He has men on the ground in heavy patrols, but they’re irregular, so there’s no pattern. Looks like it’s designed that way so no one ever knows when or where the guards show up. This guy is smart.”
“Four guard towers, one on each corner,” P.J. added. “Three men in each plus an additional watch post in the middle of the complex that enables the occupants to see the entire encompassing area. He has six guys there. All armed with long-range assault rifles. I’d lay odds on them being crack snipers, but that’s just a guess based on what we observed of everything else. I doubt he’d go to such lengths with his security if they weren’t capable.”
“Fuck,” Steele muttered. “What else?”
“High concrete walls surround the main house. Iron gates on the north and south with four guards posted at each. No one comes in or out without being cleared. We saw one delivery truck come in and it was at least five minutes before they were allowed inside. Everyone inside the truck was searched and patted down. The entire truck was searched, top to bottom. I doubt we’d get in that way. They were very thorough,” Cole said.
“With only two snipers, the best we’re looki
ng at is being able to take out front or back but not both at the same time. Cole and I would both have to team up and take out one side and by the time that happens, they’re going to know we’re here and all hell will break loose. This guy is armed to the teeth. I’d say he’s one paranoid son of a bitch,” P.J. said.
“What you’re saying is that we’re outmanned and outgunned,” Donovan said grimly. “We need to pull another team for this, even if it’s Nathan and Joe’s.”
Steele swore. They didn’t have the time for this shit. What were the fucking odds they’d run into a goddamn fortress tighter than Fort Knox in the middle of Bumfuck, Costa Rica?
“We don’t have time to pull in another team,” Steele ground out. “Any sign of Maren? Do we know if she’s even there?”
“We have a pretty good idea she is,” Dolphin interjected. “Ninety-nine percent certain.”
“Give me what intel you have,” Steele directed Dolphin and Donovan.
“Van and I poked around,” Dolphin began. “Mendoza had several deliveries. Women’s clothing. Several shipments of feminine shit. Lotions, bath stuff, perfume, hair crap. The whole nine yards. Not to mention a few local deliveries of floral arrangements. Looks to me like a man trying to court a woman. But no one has actually seen her. He’s tightened security in the last week, which falls in line with the timeline of Maren’s disappearance.”
Steele’s lips tightened and he swallowed back a snarl of rage. “Anything else that points to evidence that Maren is being held on his estate?”
“We have an eyewitness,” Donovan said grimly. “A child. Not the most reliable witness in the world, but he sounds believable to me and it was pretty clear what he saw.”
“Tell me,” Steele demanded.
“He saw a guy drive up to Maren’s clinic right before closing time. He was waiting when she came out. They spoke and the kid said Maren looked scared. But then he said the man picked Maren up, threw her over his shoulder and then stuffed her into his vehicle and drove away.”