Chapter 12
When they were safely on the ground and taxiing, Jordan climbed to his feet and pulled out their luggage, shouldering his backpack and dragging Daisy’s case to the entrance.
The plane came to a standstill, and he rapped his knuckles on the door of the cockpit. “Thanks for the assist.”
The co-pilot opened the door and shook his hand. “No problem.”
Jordan ignored the fact the guy slipped Daisy his business card. Who could blame him for trying?
Maybe Carl was Daisy’s type.
Scowling, Jordan released the outside door mechanism. The stairs descended to reveal that the plane had come to a stop beside a small hangar. He moved onto the top step and scanned the small waiting crowd.
Shit. Ackers was here. So was the new FBI Director, Ursula Rhodes.
This couldn’t be good.
He held out his hand to draw Daisy forward, and she took it without hesitation.
“Showtime,” he muttered into her fine blonde hair.
Now they were back on US soil, he was more worried about the potential danger from Bocharov than the Mexican authorities—except the new director was an unknown entity, as were the political agendas at play.
“I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you. ”
She placed her hand on his chest and her fingers burned through the fabric of his T-shirt, but her gaze was cynical. “Until they send you away on a new mission.”
“I have a few more days of leave. Hoping we can figure it out by then.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead before they started down the steps. “I would, respectfully, suggest you don’t travel to Mexico for the foreseeable future, but we’ve got this, Daze. As long as you do what I say.”
She indicated he come closer and then he jerked back in surprise when she nipped his earlobe. Ouch.
“I’m not a dog,” she muttered. “I won’t be ordered around like one.”
He rubbed his ear. “Understood.”
He helped her off the bottom step.
“I’m hungry.” She pouted, but he knew her better now and the expression was an act, a distraction from something more important. She was feeling vulnerable but didn’t want it to show.
“I could eat too. We’ll see if the FBI Director will let us stop for burgers and fries on the way to our interrogation.”
Her grip tightened on his hand, but he had no intention of letting go, not until he had to.
He walked over to his boss, Daniel Ackers. “Quite the welcome home committee, sir.”
Ackers indicated the FBI Director. “Director Rhodes meet Operator Jordan Krychek and Daisy Montana, Kurt Montana’s daughter.”
“Ma’am.” Jordan drew Daisy forward and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, ignoring the look of surprise that flickered in Ackers’ eyes.
Ursula Rhodes’ handshake was an iron grip. “Operator Krychek. You caused quite the international incident.”
“No, ma’am.” She looked shocked he disagreed with her. “I did what we’re trained to do. Get off the X. Get out of danger.”
“You avoided the local authorities.”
“Again, with respect, that’s not true. We both gave verbal statements regarding Francois Tremblay’s death last night.
They never said we couldn’t leave, and we were both on record as flying out this morning.
They have our names and contact details.
” He took a breath. “I believe I have important information about who might have had a hand in Tremblay’s death that you would—”
“You didn’t think the Mexican police might want to know that as he was killed in their country?” Rhodes’ tone was scathing.
“Absolutely. But I believed I needed to discuss it with my superiors first.” He scanned the surrounding area. A good parabolic mic would easily pick up their conversation. “We need to go somewhere more secure to discuss it, ma’am.”
The director’s sharp features tightened.
“It’s not like we went on the run, Director Rhodes.” He let his own impatience show. “We made contact with US officials and arranged through them to get back into the country ASAP. And here we are.”
“It looked as if you were fleeing the scene.”
“I was doing what I’m trained to do. Keeping American citizens safe.”
“We’ll discuss it in the car.” She indicated he climb into her official vehicle, so he urged Daisy toward the door. Something about being out in the open like this made him nervous. That’s what happened when you knew what a sniper bullet could do to the human skull.
One of Rhodes’ bodyguards, a guy Jordan had helped train, held out a hand to block Daisy’s way.
The director spoke up. “The invitation doesn’t include Ms. Montana, I’m afraid.”
Jordan ground his teeth. “I’m not leaving her.”
“If you want to keep your job you don’t have much choice.” The director’s tone was ice.
Daisy put a hand on his arm. “It’s fine. I know I need to give a statement about Francois. You don’t—”
The director cut her off with a dismissive wave of her hand. “These agents will escort you where you need to go and question you about the events of yesterday.”
Two black-suited men approached.
Daisy eyed the new agents with obvious dislike. “Er, sure.”
“Where exactly are you taking her?” demanded Jordan.
“To be questioned by all the various authorities who want to talk to her.”
“Where?” he repeated, not budging.
The director tilted her head back to eye him. “A secure location.”
Ackers stepped forward. “Don’t worry. I’ll stay with her. We’ll be on base.”
Director Rhodes gave Ackers a plastic smile. “Now if you could possibly follow orders, Operator Krychek? I thought you people were supposed to be good at that sort of thing.”
Jordan pulled Daisy close and kissed her, long and hard, in front of everyone—selling the story and going to Hell because he enjoyed it regardless of circumstances.
“Don’t leave the base.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “I’ll see you as soon as I can.”
She nodded, then climbed into the back of another ubiquitous government vehicle. Ackers’ mustache twitched before he nodded and then climbed into the car with her. They drove off, and Jordan didn’t bother to hide his dark mood from the director.
“Why the theatrics?”
“You and Ms. Montana have caused an international incident, and I have POTUS blowing up my phone every ten minutes demanding answers about one of my men.”
He bristled, he belonged to the FBI and the American people, not to one person. “So tell him the truth.”
“I would.” Her cool blue eyes lasered into him. “But I don’t know the truth, Operator Krychek, now do I? Get in the damned car, and we’ll talk about it.”
He handed over their luggage—he was given zero choice. He went to climb in the back of the limo, but the bodyguard demanded Jordan raise his hands while he frisked him for a weapon.
Jordan was kind of proud the guy followed procedure and insulted down to his core that he believed it was necessary on a fellow senior agent.
Jordan climbed into the back of the limo and sat opposite Director Rhodes.
The bodyguard sat beside her.
“What were you doing in Mexico, Operator Krychek? And don’t give me any bullshit about dating that child.”
He stared at Ursula Rhodes, his boss’s boss. “I can tell from that statement that you have no idea who you are talking about.”
“Oh no? The daughter of your immediate superior, a student who you yourself placed into the protective custody of another HRT team only last month.”
“I believed I had valid reasons to do so at the time, but that was a mistake,” he admitted.
“So was carrying out an unsanctioned operation south of the border last night. Why did you assassinate Francois Tremblay? On whose orders?”
He shook his head. “With respect, ma’am, that’s crazy talk. There was no mission. I never touched that guy.”
She snorted. “Don’t treat me like an idiot.”
“I wouldn’t if you weren’t acting like one.”
The bodyguard’s gaze widened while the director’s narrowed into slits.
Jordan decided not to give her the chance to reprimand him.
“Daisy Montana is not a child. She’s an intelligent woman pursuing a career in nuclear engineering, and you are prejudiced against her due to her age and hair color, which means the joke is on you.
Her IQ leaves both Einstein and Hawking in the dust, and she easily outwitted Blue Team and escaped protective custody, which I remind them of every opportunity I get.
She’s the daughter of my best friend, and I haven’t figured out how to tell him I’m involved with her, yet—with respect.
” He didn’t hide the snide tone because she was insulting him and Daniel Ackers to suggest they’d do anything illegal.
“After I found out she had this conference in Mexico, I figured I’d tag along.
It would give us time alone when she wasn’t attending presentations. ”
Kurt was smart enough to know Jordan might have had to improvise and that he wouldn’t blurt out the truth if questioned.
“You had separate rooms.”
“I spent the nights in her room, but I didn’t want her associated with me should the cartel target me as a federal agent. Her safety was—is—my priority.”
No lie there.
“Then why is there no evidence of you entering her room via the hotel security system?” Her smile suggested she’d caught him in a lie.
They’d already searched the security tapes. Then she’d know the footage from the time of Tremblay’s death was missing.
“I didn’t use the door.” Jordan crossed his arms over his chest.
“Then how did you get into her room?” She snapped impatiently.
He flicked a glance at the bodyguard. “It was a very scalable hotel.”
“You were seven floors up.”
“So?”
The director obviously didn’t know whether to be pissed or impressed. She went with pissed. “Tremblay—what do you know about him?”
“A professor from Paris.”
“His relationship with Daisy Montana?”
“They didn’t have one, outside of being colleagues who were both interested in nuclear energy.”
“From all accounts, he was quite the womanizer.”
Jordan shrugged. “Like I said, I didn’t know him.”
“Many suggested they believed he was interested in Ms. Montana in more than a professional manner.”
Many?
“Daisy is an attractive woman.”