Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“We can’t take her with us. That’s a non-starter.
” Wyatt looked up from where he was packing his belongings in his suite.
Echo Team had arranged for a private flight to take them to Dubai, once again bypassing the domestic-only flight situation in and out of Aswan.
Wheels up at zero five hundred hours. “Her brother is catching the next flight out, and you’ll watch her until he gets here.
Then you’re on a flight to Dubai the second Michael has her. ”
As soon as Michael learned the truth about what Julia had been up to, he flipped out at the team for taking her to Egypt.
And after he calmed down, he pleaded with the guys to keep her in Egypt until he could personally escort her home since they’d politely told him they couldn’t force her on a plane back to the States when she had every intention of going to Dubai.
She was a woman on a mission to save a friend, and the only reason Finn considered standing in her way was because it’d be a death sentence for her if she got involved with Tariq.
People who tangoed with the royal family died an ugly death.
“What if Oliver was set up and someone found out Julia’s been looking into Ario’s death? ”
“Julia said Mya did all of the leg work, so we can put in a call to make sure she has protection, and as for Julia, Michael will keep her safe.” Wyatt zipped the duffel bag and stood.
“Harper and Jessica will do what they do best and track Tariq’s last movements as far back as they can.
And if the man so much as takes a shit from here on out, we’ll know about it. ”
“I think we should talk to Luke. Convince him to let us bring Julia along.” Finn held up a palm, hoping to ward off another protest from Wyatt.
“Hear me out. Julia is desperate to save her friend, and she’s disappointed her brother hasn’t been able to make any headway, so she may not have high expectations of us, either.
But she will damn well find a way to Dubai, I guaran-fucking-tee it. ”
Wyatt settled his hands on his hips as he processed Finn’s words.
“Think about Natasha and the lengths she went to in taking down the man she’d been after for years,” Finn reminded him how his wife had gone rogue to pursue a notorious cybercriminal.
“Julia has that determination. She’ll go to Dubai without any plan.
And out of sheer desperation, she’ll most likely go straight to Ario’s wife herself for answers. ” That scared the hell out of him.
“Natasha is Natasha.” Wyatt took a seat on a nearby chair as if his legs were going to give out. “I can’t stop that woman no matter what, even when she’s . . .”
“She’s what?” Finn stepped closer to his team leader, trying to get a read on him since he’d been acting a bit off all night.
“Nothing.” He set his elbow on his jeaned thigh and rested his palm against his face.
“Doesn’t look like nothing, man.”
“She’s pregnant.” Wyatt slowly lifted his head to meet Finn’s eyes.
“And the woman won’t slow down. And I . .
. shit, this is our first op since I found out, and I, um.
” He curled his hand into a fist and placed it over his heart.
“There’s been something inside of me I’m not used to feeling when we’re working an op.
Fear.” He lowered his hand. “I’m terrified I’m going to leave that baby fatherless someday.
I already missed out on Gwen’s childhood, and I don’t want to miss out on this kid’s. ”
Ohhh. What was he supposed to say to that?
“Not to mention the world is nuts. Hell, the guys might be right about an imminent zombie apocalypse. We know UFOs are a thing. And 2020 and 2021 were a damn disaster. I just can’t handle the stress.”
Finn stepped before him and set a palm over his shoulder to try and calm him down with the conversation taking an unexpected turn. “I thought you wanted a baby with Natasha.”
“I do.” He closed his eyes and hung his head. “But I need to find a way to put the baby in a bubble. Gwen, too. Natasha. And everyone I care about.” Wyatt’s voice cracked, and Finn had a feeling Wyatt hadn’t shared this news with anyone else yet.
He didn’t mind Echo One opening up to him. He was happy to be there for him. But Finn really was beginning to think there was something about him that brought out confessions.
“Should’ve been a priest,” he accidentally whispered his thoughts aloud.
And there was the humor he’d grown so accustomed to falling back on, same as Chris had done over the years to hide his PTSD.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to lay this on you. I just have this bad feeling in my gut I can’t seem to shake.”
“Like a storm is coming?” Finn asked. “Because that’s how I feel.”
“Remember that sandstorm we were caught in back in Gan a few years ago?”
Finn thought back to the desert in Afghanistan. A herd of horses had been racing across the sand to God only knew where, fleeing because they’d instinctively known what was coming.
“Like we’re going to choke to death on sand?” Goose bumps rose on Finn’s arms at the memory.
“I feel like I have sand in my throat, and I’m struggling to breathe. Stuck in a storm that’s not even here yet, but it’s coming.”
Wyatt may not have been his brother by blood, like Jaden, but he was family just the same, and Finn was glad to push his own problems aside to help him out.
As a matter of fact, for the last nine years, Finn had considered Bravo and Echo his only family.
“You can’t think like that. Everything will be okay. ”
Why did that feel like a lie? And why the hell did Julia have to choose the Osiris statue that came complete with an ominous warning?
Another reason he wasn’t ready to fly off to Dubai and assume she’d listen to her brother and not go to the end of the world to save her friend.
He knew exactly what was motivating her.
She was trying to absolve herself of the guilt she’d been hauling around for years.
Guilt that was not her responsibility to carry.
He understood her more than she’d ever know.
He’d be lying if he didn’t confess to himself that one of the reasons he joined the Navy was penance for his own guilt. To try and save as many lives as possible. But all the lives he’d saved didn’t undo the one life he couldn’t.
“I’ll snap out of it. Override.” Wyatt blinked a few times, his blue-gray eyes a touch glossy. That was also new.
“According to our therapist, we’re not supposed to override. Well, not unless we’re on an op,” Finn said, recalling Dr. Logan’s words from a few weeks ago.
“We are technically on an op, so.” Wyatt cleared his throat, an announcement that he was done with the “feelings” conversation, stood, and brushed past him.
“I’ll call Luke and run your request up the line.
Bravo is en route to Dubai in the morning, too.
We’ll be splitting up in the city, staying at different hotels, though. ”
“Yeah, you, uh, already told me.” Finn stared at his team leader, worried about him.
Wyatt’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, right.”
“And thank you for trying. Let me know. I should go check on Julia.”
Finn made his way to the door and clutched the handle when Wyatt asked, “About the pills, what do you think Tariq is up to?”
“Weapons. The jihadi drug of choice. Money. Sounds like he’s building his own private army.” Finn did his best to answer like an operator and not a man broken by his past.
“That’s what I’m thinking, that this is more than him simply funding activities. Tariq seems more involved than usual.”
Finn opened the door and turned to put eyes on his team leader. “We’ll stop him. It’s what we do.” He nodded, then left the room.
A.J. was on the balcony with Julia when Finn walked into their hotel room. “Hey.”
A.J. turned around at the sound of Finn’s voice and started his way. Julia kept her attention fixed off in the distance. The hours and days were all blending together at this point. He was losing track of time.
He checked his watch. It was zero three hundred. The time when he was originally supposed to spin up. But what day was it?
Her date with Lorenzo had been on Monday. They flew out Tuesday. Arrived Wednesday. So, yup, it was technically Thursday now. When did that happen?
“Thanks for keeping an eye on her.”
“Of course.” A.J. tipped his head. “You good?”
“I should be asking you that,” Finn replied in a low tone so Julia wouldn’t overhear.
“You know how I get when we talk about Marcus. I thought I was better since I still swear the man is haunting me—in a good way—but you know.”
“I do know,” he said apologetically.
“I’m square, though. Gonna go pack.” A.J. jerked a thumb back toward Julia. “She ain’t happy about her brother ordering her to wait for him to fly back to New York.”
“Can you blame her?”
“Not really. She’s got a personality like my Ana,” he said with a smile. “Well, good luck, brother.” He slapped Finn on the back and left.
“Julia.” Jewels didn’t feel appropriate when he was expecting tornado Julia to make landfall any minute in retaliation for the fact that she was being handled. Told what she could and couldn’t do, and the woman hated that.
“He said no, didn’t he?” Her ice-cold tone had him pausing midstep, just as she whirled around, the look on her face thunderous. “I’m not waiting for my brother, and you can’t keep me as a prisoner until Michael arrives. That’s illegal. I’ll find a way to Dubai on my own from here.”
“Oh, you will, will you?” It took every ounce of effort to keep his voice steady because that was exactly what he was worried she’d say. And it wasn’t an empty threat. She’d somehow find a way to give him the slip, and that thought fucking terrified him.
Julia planted her hands on her hips and stared at him with icy eyes.
“I have orders, Julia. The kind that runs all the way from—” The President.
She ate up the space between them and lifted her chin, confidence flowing so fiercely he wondered if maybe she could go head-to-head with Tariq and the entire Saudi monarchy. “Who do you really work for? Tell me and I won’t give you a hard time.”
Well, damn. Too bad he wasn’t a liar.
She crossed her arms and squeezed her brows together as she stared him down, or more like up. She stared up at him.
“What’s it going to be, sailor?”
“Are we back to that?” He cocked his head, waiting for her to take the lead. If he weren’t so broken-hearted for her about it all, he’d find her attitude amusing. Also sexy as hell.
“You’re standing in my way again. You know how I feel about that.”
“Yeah, I feel like we’re heading toward DEFCON 2 status in about three seconds.”
“More like DEFCON 1 if you try to stop me from helping Oliver.” The woman didn’t miss a beat. She even knew DEFCON 1 was the most severe level of military readiness—many thought that was DEFCON 5, which was peacetime readiness.
Her brother is Michael Maddox, he reminded himself. But he still avoided answering her.
“You can’t blame yourself for what happened to Oliver.”
“I can do whatever I please. And now that I’m not keeping any more secrets from you, you shouldn’t keep any from me.”
“None? Really?” He fake-frowned. A distraction attempt to keep her in the room so he wouldn’t have to physically pin her down. “I was hoping for a few salacious secrets. Or, at the very least, something juicy. But nothing? Zilch?”
She relaxed her arms only to slap him in the chest, then she winced and covered her mouth. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” He’d forgotten he was in pain, actually. “You hit my right side. You know, the right-right side of my body.” A fake laugh went about as well as his fake frown five seconds ago—zero response aside from a look of annoyance.
“I was just trying to playfully swat you.” She grimaced and turned away. “I’m sorry.”
“You and your habit of hating me one second and apologizing the next. Woman, you give me whiplash.”
“I’m doing it to myself, too, then.” Her shoulders fell, and he wanted to walk up behind her, set his hands on the sides of her arms, and rest his chin on top of her head. Comfort her. But he’d decided on distance, hadn’t he?
Finn had to come up with a way to keep her in the room until either the President agreed to Julia joining them in Dubai or Michael arrived. It’d be a hell of a long wait for her brother, which meant A LOT of distraction attempts that didn’t involve fingering her in the shower. Too bad for that.
“I refuse to believe Oliver is guilty. But no matter what I think, in one week, he’ll be stoned to death or shot by a firing squad or something equally horrific after he’s moved to Saudi Arabia.
He’s accused of murdering a man who, in addition to being a wealthy and influential business leader, was also married to a woman related to the royal family.
” Her voice was thick with emotion, and he was unable to stop himself from going to her and doing exactly what he’d visualized.
He lightly gripped the sides of her arms and rested his chin atop her head.
“Shhh, it’ll be okay. I promise. I won’t let him die.
” And why the hell did I just make a promise I may not be able to keep?
But damn it, now he had to. Because he wasn’t a liar.
“If I have to break him out of jail, then so be it.”