Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Roman poured his second cup of coffee down the drain in the kitchen sink, deciding caffeine wasn’t the best thing for his nerves since he felt as if he’d taken ten shots of espresso already.
All of Echo Team was supposed to have been on the flight back to the U.S.
as of noon, five minutes ago. But Wyatt managed to buy more time for a few of them.
Director Spenser wanted Harper’s ass on the plane as of yesterday, he’d said.
Okay, so maybe Wyatt hadn’t bought time so much as blown off orders.
And there’d be hell to pay all around for that, no doubt, but they had the feeling they’d be forgiven if they achieved mission success.
A.J. and Chris, however, had boarded the military flight. They needed to be with Ana and Rory, keeping them safe. Also, apparently keeping them out of trouble, i.e., going after bad guys on their own as Rory had done.
For now, a SEAL from Scott & Scott was parked outside Mauricio’s sister’s hotel. An hour ago, he’d reported that there’d been a change of guard, so to speak, of the two security guys watching the hotel. Most likely, they were rotating shifts and following orders not to leave their mark.
Rory’s theory had been almost spot on. The men staking out the hotel had been sailors who washed out of BUD/S. They rang the brass bell on the grinder five years ago.
And the two men parked there now had failed out of Army Special Forces.
Harper had found a pretty obvious pattern in who the owner of the company, Fox Security, hired.
Ninety percent of his employees had been in training to be elite operators for different military branches but didn’t complete the training.
Only the boss, Talon Fox, had earned his trident.
Of course, in Roman’s mind, the bastard forfeited it even before involving himself in whatever the hell was going on.
Taking jobs to protect oil guys in the Middle East who tended to fund terrorists was a slap in the face to everything a Teamguy should stand for.
“We could also have eyes on us here.” Wyatt peeked out the window.
“No recent flights to Spain or any nearby countries from anyone at Fox Security,” Harper told him. “But I don’t like that we can’t locate Talon Fox himself.”
“Or that Talon went to sniper school and can pull off a two-mile shot,” Wyatt glibly responded.
“I don’t recognize any of Talon Fox’s employees,” Finn said a moment later, handing the iPad to Roman to check for any possible connections he might have to one of the guys at Fox Security.
Roman scrolled through the list with accompanying photos on the screen.
“I vaguely remember Talon.” He zoomed in on the picture of the Teamguy, then read his military bio.
“We must’ve crossed paths at some point when I was still with my platoon before Talon got out in 2008.
Most likely in Gan or Iraq. But he clearly didn’t make much of an impression on me since I only recall his face.
” Hopefully, this wasn’t another post-concussion memory issue, and he was forgetting something important.
Aside from pain and popping Advil nonstop, he’d thought he was better.
“Anyone else on his roster?” Wyatt asked, turning to the side to catch his eyes.
“Nah.” He handed Harper back the tablet since Wyatt had already checked it, and he found himself gulping when their fingers touched.
“And you double-checked that Talon’s never worked with the CIA post-service?” Roman subtly cleared this throat. “Maybe Zack? Or, um, Brandon?”
Harper’s long lashes fluttered, her eyes seeking the contact they’d briefly made before pulling the tablet away. “I, uh, triple-checked. I can’t find any connections between the Agency and Talon or his men. And unless Talon met with Ezra before I went to France, I doubt they ever had contact.”
Roman let go of an uneasy breath and returned to the bar, set his forearm flat on top of it, and curled his hand into a fist. God, he wanted to do a lot more than just punch himself after witnessing the hurt in Harper’s eyes.
“How much of the intel in the files you got your hands on was redacted? It’s possible Talon’s name was hidden under one of the lovely, thick black lines,” Finn suggested. “What if Talon and Brandon worked together at some point back when Talon still served, but we don’t have access to that info.”
“You think it’s possible Talon was part of the Dumas case?” Wyatt asked, fully facing Harper. “And Brandon didn’t roll over on him, thinking maybe somehow Talon would get him out of prison one day? It’d be a long shot but most likely his only shot.”
Harper looked toward Roman for a brief moment.
“Brandon died in July. Six months later, I’m being followed.
Did Talon find out it was me who’d exposed Brandon as the ringleader of the dirty operation, and he’s looking for revenge?
And since I work with you all now, have I placed targets on everyone’s heads?
” Her lower lip trembled, and Roman wanted to go to her and scoop her into his arms. But after what he put her through, he had a feeling she’d reject his comfort right now.
“Everything is speculation at this point until we can get some concrete evidence,” Wyatt spoke up.
“And no, you’re not to blame for anything.
” Wyatt knelt in front of Harper’s chair the way Roman wanted to do and positioned his hand on her shoulder to look into her eyes. “We’ll figure this out, I promise.”
Harper softly nodded before Wyatt stood. “I’ll recheck the files. There has to be something we’re missing.”
Or something I’m forgetting.
“Maybe we need to move forward with questioning the Fox Security employees, as well as Mauricio’s sister,” Finn said, his tone hesitant, as though not entirely sold on the idea. “But that’ll tip off whoever is calling the shots that we’re onto them.”
No, if they wanted to get ahead of the mastermind behind this living hell, it was better if that person remained unaware the teams were looking into the idea there might be more to the story than an attempted assassination of the President’s son.
In Roman’s mind, the two security guys posted outside Mauricio’s sister’s hotel should serve as evidence to the President that he needed to keep the teams actively investigating the case instead of benching them.
But Roman would leave that conversation to Luke and Jessica.
They’d arrived in D.C. an hour ago and were meeting with the President and CIA director tonight.
Thankfully, Wyatt had received word from Liam that he was with his family. And Knox and Adriana were now posted in the safest house in America at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Roman knew Asher was itching to pull Jessica and the twins to safety, too. And Owen had his wife and son to think about. Luke had Eva and their two kids.
“Let’s wait and see what President Bennett has to say in his meeting with Luke and Jessica tonight,” Wyatt decided.
“For now, we keep our man parked and watching. No action.” He looked at Roman as though waiting for his opinion, but Roman struggled to concentrate with everything going on.
He was also surprised Wyatt would even want his thoughts after betraying his trust.
He clenched his hand tighter on the bar top. In addition to being exhausted and stressed out, his patience had run thin. Knowing he’d have to face his uncle soon and ask for his help in catching a sniper as the team had discussed only added to his anxiety.
Plus, Harper had been giving him the cold shoulder unless she had something to share pertaining to work, which had him worried she may never forgive him.
He wanted to get her alone again. Try and talk to her—something he was horrible at. But he doubted he could talk her out of being mad at him, especially since he deserved it.
She’d lost two parents and had so many other terrible things happen to her.
The last thing in the world she needed was for Roman to come into her life and flip it upside down and not in a good way.
And he’d done exactly that because he’d been unable to resist her.
Maybe, just maybe, if they’d never ventured out of the friend zone, his secrets wouldn’t have hurt her so much.
“I think we should—” Harper left her thought unfinished at the sound of a knock at the door.
Roman went for his gun on instinct. They weren’t expecting company.
“Delivery,” a woman said from the other side of the door.
After hiding his gun at the back of his pants and peering through the peephole, Roman opened the door. There was a woman in a hotel uniform holding an envelope in her hands waiting for him.
“This was addressed to the hotel with this room number. Came through the post.” The young woman shrugged, then glanced over at the two men his uncle had sent sitting in chairs outside the room scrolling on their phones.
“Thanks.” He reached into his pocket for a few euros and tipped her before locking the door. “Anyone expecting mail?” He carefully opened it and cocked his head in surprise to find a Starbucks gift card and nothing else. “Someone must have sent it to the wrong hotel room.”
He was about to toss it when Harper shouted, “Wait!”
Roman turned to see Harper quickly striding his way with an outstretched hand. She snatched the card from him and, with lightning-quick steps, went back to her laptop.
“You, uh, gonna tell us what that was all about?” Finn stood off to the side of her desk as she worked.
“Just give me a second.” Her fingers moved so fast over the keys Roman barely followed the movement as he walked up behind her.
Wyatt and Finn exchanged a quick look and turned their attention on Roman.
They were still upset with him, but he also believed they would have done the same in his position.
They were all self-sacrificing, only Roman had messed up and also sacrificed Harper’s heart by sharing those five months with her last year.