Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Try that camera again.” Rafe stood over his daughter’s shoulder.
Alice leaned closer to the monitor. “I am trying it.”
He watched lines of traffic cameras fill up the screen.
The Tac-Ops conference room had transformed in minutes, switching from a place to announce his retirement to a full-on command center. Phones, tablets, laptops, and printed maps littered the large table. Alice had arrived within minutes of her call.
Fearful at first, she was at her computer now, committed and fully locked in.
That was his Alice. Give her a problem to solve, and she attacked it with everything she had. Her fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard.
“I’ve got the coffee shop camera,” she announced. “I’m pulling footage from the surrounding businesses now.”
“Can you track the SUV?”
“If it stayed on major roads, maybe.” Her fingers flew. “But if these guys know where the cameras are, they could’ve deliberately avoided them.”
Rafe stared at the screen, every second feeling like a never-ending amount of time. His jaw tightened as he prayed with everything that he had.
Please, God. Please let her still be alive.
“Run every possible route from the coffee shop and work your way out.”
“Already doing it.”
He looked around at the other men in the room. Digger stood near the windows, talking quietly with Falcon. Bones and Apollo were working from the opposite side of the table while Coulter hovered over a tablet, studying a digital map.
No one was sitting, aside from Alice. Not a single soul in the room was relaxed. They were Tac-Ops, and one of their own had been taken. They wouldn’t stop until Lena was safe and those responsible were either dead or brought to justice.
This is what they did. It was who they were at their core. Protecting the innocent was in their blood.
The phone in Rafe’s hand began to ring. He glanced down at the screen to find Derek West’s name and immediately answered the call.
“West?”
“Rafe. I’ve got something.” The former SEAL’s voice was clipped and focused.
His spine straightened. “What?”
“I traced the financial activity we’ve been watching.”
Alice sent him a questioning glance, and he put the call on speaker as West continued.
“The money moving through the shell companies wasn’t random. Whoever set this up went to considerable lengths to obscure the beneficial ownership.”
“Walk me through it.”
“I started with the offshore accounts we already had, then I worked backward through the shell structure itself.” West paused. “Several companies were registered through nominee directors.”
“What’s that?” Bones looked up from what he’d been working on to join the conversation.
Alice quickly explained, “A nominee director is a person who holds an official title of company director on public records. Basically, it’s a name-only position, because the nominee actually takes direction from someone else within the company.”
“Those I found held accounts in multiple jurisdictions,” West added. “Cayman, Luxembourg, and a couple of private banking institutions in Switzerland.”
Alice frowned. “How did you break through the nominees?”
“They made one mistake.” The man on the phone paused. “They reused an attorney.”
Rafe’s eyes narrowed. “Keep going.”
“The same legal firm represented three supposedly unrelated companies. Different names, different registered addresses, different directors . . . you get the idea. But the incorporation documents were all filed by the same attorney.” West’s voice hardened.
“On a hunch, I kept digging and cross-referenced the financial records with the old CIA personnel files.”
Something shifted inside Rafe’s gut.
“Who is it?” he nearly growled.
“Henry Stanton.”
Rafe looked to Alice, whose gaze had swung straight to his. Pretty blue eyes matching her mother’s grew wide.
“I’m sorry, Derek.” She clarified, “Did you say ‘Stanton’?”
West was silent for a beat and then, “Henry Stanton is Michael Stanton’s son.”
The entire room went still.
Rafe stared at his daughter while the men around them ceased to move. Everyone there knew that name all too well.
“Stanton’s son is the one behind the money.” West went on to explain. “Now, I’m sure his father played a hand in it, but from what I can tell, Henry pooled his resources with Kozlova, and somehow got the guy to help him go after those who were on the op with you and Lena in Syria.”
His heart squeezed at the sound of her name.
“Are you certain?” Rafe demanded.
This was too important not to be sure.
“As certain as I can be without putting the man in a room and asking him directly. The shell companies ultimately trace back to a trust established before Michael Stanton went to prison. The trust had several beneficiaries, but the financial control was transferred to Henry.”
Rafe thought of his late wife, Amanda. Of how everything had recently gone down with the eldest Stanton. He thought about Alexei Kozlova and how it had all come together after nearly thirty years of hatred.
He considered all West had shared and how Michael Stanton’s and Kozlova’s fortunes had both been built from piles of dirty money. And how Henry Stanton was clearly a son seeking revenge for all his family had lost.
Rafe closed his eyes briefly. Henry—a man who hadn’t been so much as a spec on their radar—was the actual head of the snake.
I can’t wait to cut it off for good.
He opened his eyes and put himself in mission-mode.
“Where is he?” It was the most important answer he needed to hear. “Where is Henry Stanton now?”
The pause that followed sent a heaviness into his chest.
“That’s the bad news.” West’s tone was thick with regret. “I haven’t been able to locate him.”
“Derek—”
“I know, Rafe.” He sounded as if he truly did.
“Trust me, I know. I can prove Henry is connected to the financial network. I can prove the money funded the hits on you and the others. I can even show the transfers that went through the third parties that are solidly connected to Kozlova.” West blew out a breath.
“But I don’t know where Stanton would take Lena. ”
Alice looked to him as her face grew pale.
Rafe knew exactly what she was thinking. She blamed herself for being the one to prove Michael Stanton killed her mother.
If she hadn’t done that, Henry wouldn’t be out for blood. That’s what she is thinking.
But he shook his head. No. He would not let her carry the weight of this on her shoulders.
“Don’t.” He spoke softly. “Do not think for one second any of this is your fault.”
“But I—”
“You got justice for your mother.” His throat thickened. “And I have never, ever been prouder.”
Unshed tears welled in her beautiful eyes. “It’s Lena, Dad.” Her sweet voice broke with the falling of tears. “You love her, just like you loved Mom, and now . . .” Alice’s face started to crumble. “Now it might happen again.”
No.
“I won’t let it.” He shook his head. “Not this time.”
He couldn’t prevent Amanda’s untimely death, but there was still a chance he could save Lena. They just needed to figure out where Stanton had taken her.
We don’t even know where to start.
Bones’ phone began to ring. He looked down at the small screen. “It’s Evie.”
Apollo’s phone was next. His dark gaze met Rafe’s. “Nicki.”
Alice nodded her head. “They’re together.” She looked up at Rafe. “I called Alex earlier and told her what happened. She said she would round up the others and wait for an update.”
“Guess they got tired of waiting.” Bones stood and motioned toward the door.
“It’s okay.” Rafe nodded. “Take five to speak to your women, hit the head, and then get back.”
“Copy that, Boss.” Bones gave a sloppy salute.
He, Apollo, and Falcon left the room, but Coulter lingered a moment longer. Rafe could see the emotion in his eyes. Lena hadn’t just been his CIA boss. She’d been his mentor. Someone he respected deeply. And later, she’d become his friend.
“I’m going to find her,” Rafe assured him.
Coulter nodded and walked out the door. Within seconds, the conference room was quiet again.
Alice looked to him. “Dad.”
He met her eyes. “You said I love Lena.”
“You do.”
His chin dipped. “I do. But it’s not the same as your mother. The love I felt back then belongs solely to her. Just as I still carry the love she gave with me.”
More tears fell down his daughter’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry.” She pulled him into a tight hug. “You don’t deserve this. Not any of it. You deserve to be happy.”
Warmth mixed with worry. “I don’t know if I ever believed that.”
“Well, I do.” Alice reached up and palmed his cheek like she used to do as a little girl. “Lena makes you happy. Anyone with eyes can see it.”
Rafe covered her hand with his. “She does.”
“Then we’re getting her back. There is no other option.”
He was forced to blink against a sudden rush of his own tears. He held on to the certainty in his daughter’s eyes.
They would find Lena. They had to. He was in too deep, and he wasn’t sure he could survive another love lost.
Please, help us find her.
His phone dinged. Rafe looked down and found that an unknown number had sent him a message. He picked up the device, his pulse spiking as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
He opened the message. A single photograph appeared. Every ounce of air in his lungs left in a rush.
Lena.
Her face was bruised. Her lip and cheek were swollen. Blood marked the corner of her mouth, and one of her beautiful eyes was nearly swollen shut.
Rafe stared, and for a moment, he couldn’t breathe. His mind raced, yet he couldn’t think.
Another message from the same number came through beneath the picture. It was an address with instructions—
One chance. Come alone. If anyone else is spotted, she dies.
He bent forward, catching himself with a palm on the table’s smooth top.
“Dad?” Alice moved closer. “Oh, my God.”
Rafe grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair. He took off for the door, his steps broad and quick.
“Wait, where are you going?”
He glanced back at her as if she’d gone perfectly mad. “To get Lena, where do you think?”
“Uh, not alone you’re not.” She rushed toward him.
“You saw the message. I don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, you do.”
He left the room and hurried down the hall.
“Dammit, Dad. Would you just stop for one second and think this through? You know full well, this is a trap!”
He did know that, and he didn’t care. If he died, at least Lena would know he tried. He couldn’t leave her there to get beaten again, or worse.
A flash of that picture filled his mind’s eye as he stormed through the otherwise empty reception area. His fists curled painfully at his sides.
The fury he felt for Henry Stanton was a living, breathing monster. And it lived inside him.
Not for long.
Because the second he got his hands on that son of a bitch, Stanton would wish he was already dead.
Alice shot directly in front of him, forcing Rafe to make a sudden stop.
“You remember what happened when I pulled my lone-ranger stunt going after Henry’s father, right?”
Rafe clenched his back teeth together. “That was different.”
“No. It wasn’t.” She shook her head. “I almost lost my dad because I thought I could handle everything myself.”
He stared at his daughter. “I have to go after her.”
“But you don’t have to do it alone.”
“Alice—”
“No.” She stepped closer. “You taught me better than that.” Her gaze fell over the open space. “You taught all of us better.”
“Princess?” Digger’s deep voice sounded from the hall’s entrance. “What is it?” He went to his wife.
Rather than answer her husband and team leader, Alice looked directly at Rafe. “You want to tell them, or should I?”
His heart kicked as he stared deep into his daughter’s eyes. She was so strong. Damn smart. And so incredibly capable.
She’s also standing between you and a mistake neither you nor Lena will survive.
“You remind me so much of your mother.” He inched closer, placing his hands on Alice’s shoulders.
“And what would Mom tell you if she were here this very minute?”
The question took him off guard, but he immediately knew the correct answer.
“She’d say, ‘Listen to your daughter, Rafe. She’s smarter than the two of us put together’.”
Alice’s soft giggle took him back to when she was little. “She’d be right, you know?”
“Always was.”
The two hugged before Alice turned toward her spouse.
“Dad got a message.” She took the phone from Rafe’s hand and showed Digger. “So he thought he’d go traipsing off after Lena without us.”
“Not the way things work around here, Boss.” Digger handed him back his cell. “You taught us that, remember?”
Alice sidled up beside his son-in-law with a wide, smug grin.
They’re right. You just don’t want to admit it.
“We’ll get her back, Rafe.” Digger gave Rafe’s shoulder a tight squeeze. “You can count on us.”
“I know I can.”
Fear clawed at his chest, but beneath it, something stronger began to take shape. Acceptance and resolve.
He’d survived all these years because he’d learned to trust his training, his instincts, and the people beside him.
Trust them now.
It would be the most important mission of his life. This was a mission to save his future.
He looked at Alice. “Go get the others and meet me back in the conference room.”
“What do I say?”
Rafe held her stare a moment longer before sliding his gaze to Digger. “Tell them we’re going hunting.”
And Henry Stanton was their prey.