Chapter 19 #2
Asher pivoted to face Jessica in the doorway, only wearing his boxers. “What if I was buck naked in here?”
“Nothing I haven’t seen before.” A white towel was wrapped around her body. Her hair not yet touched by water. “I just wanted to catch you before we showered and went upstairs.”
“And you thought coming in here in only a towel and with me in my boxers would be the perfect time?” He hoped to hell he’d keep his dick from leaping to attention at the sight of her.
She remained near the door, which was probably a good idea, and he leaned his shoulder against the wall of lockers.
“I need this to just be between us. I don’t want anyone to know what I said last night. I don’t want them to know I got . . . weak.”
He pushed away from the lockers, unable to stop himself from striding closer to her. “To let the guys know you’re human?”
“Luke has enough on his plate. I don’t want him to worry about me.”
“Too late for that.” He stopped a few inches away, focusing on the hand that clutched the white towel to her body. “He’s your brother. It’s in the job description.”
“Well, I . . .”
“I can’t keep secrets from him. He’s already on my case about not telling him about Aleppo and—”
“That’s my fault. I’m sorry.”
He tipped her chin with his fist to focus on her eyes.
“I’m not asking you to keep a secret, but I am asking you to protect my privacy. When we go upstairs, I don’t want them looking at me like some broken China doll. I can’t deal with them being fragile with me, and if they know what I said to you last night—”
“Okay.” He lowered his hand from her chin, and her gaze dipped to his chest.
“Same time tomorrow?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“And you’re not going to Angelo’s tonight?”
He let go of a breath. “If you stay in the locker room practically naked for much longer, I can’t make any promises.
I’ll need to relieve some tension.” He hadn’t meant to answer so honestly, but damn.
Did she not know what being in a towel in front of him was doing to him right now?
And the guilt at wanting her after what she’d been through was going to shred him.
“You can relieve tension with me instead.” A true blush—one he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen on her—touched her cheeks.
“Oh, can I?”
“I mean, fighting.” She shifted back a step, and he propped a hand on the wall at his side and studied her.
I’m going to hell. “Please, get out of here,” he practically growled, unable to hide the bulge in his boxers anymore. His hand converted to a fist on the wall, and he fought the urge to bite into his lip as he studied her.
Her gaze journeyed to his tented boxers.
“Go,” he said with a laugh.
“Yeah, okay.” She touched his chest, pressed up on her toes, and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for the fight,” she whispered and left the room so he could take the coldest shower of his damn life.
“What do we have?” Jessica dropped her purse onto Luke’s desk and joined the team at the conference table where Bravo was gathered. She scooted to the table, placing herself between Owen and Luke and straight across from Asher.
Now, like a damn idiot, all he could think about was her in that towel thirty minutes ago. He cleared his throat and glanced at Luke. There was a visible strain in his throat. He probably had concerns about her being back at work.
“Uh, what are you doing here?” Liam was the first to speak.
When Asher directed his focus back to Jessica, he noticed the pearl earrings he’d given her for Christmas. It was the first time he’d seen them on her. She’d said she was going to save them for a special occasion.
“You guys need my help.” She clasped her hands atop the table, looking strong as hell, her blue eyes sharp and focused again.
The Jessica everyone knew was back, but he couldn’t shake the worry that came along with the return of her old self.
“Ah, welcome back, then?” Knox said it as more of a question, his eyes skating over to Luke with concern.
Everyone appeared to be looking to Luke for a clue as to how to handle Jessica’s appearance at the office.
“Is it safe for you to be walking the streets?” Owen looked at her.
“I wore a wig to the office this morning.”
Asher hadn’t seen it, but then again, she’d already stripped to yoga pants and a sports bra before he’d arrived.
“So.” She drummed her nails on the table now. “What do we have? Why’d you call everyone here to work so early?”
Knox laughed. “You kidding? We’ve been rolling up here before the sun even gets her ass out of bed every day since . . .” He dropped his words. No one wanted to mention what had happened to Jessica, not the second she was back.
Her lashes lowered for only a beat before she gathered her focus back on the team.
Luke gave a slight nod as if trying to come to terms with her being present after what had happened to her. “Echo Team’s in Detroit. Looks like an old al-Nusra cell may have been recently activated.”
Jessica took a slight breath, barely noticeable, when Luke delivered the news. “How’d we find this out if we’re not on the case?”
“A tip from one of my guys at the FBI,” Luke said. “Since they know Samir went to his uncle’s enforcer, they decided to track down everyone still on the streets affiliated with Yasser Hadeed.”
She cocked her head, clearly needing more details. “And were they right? Anything turn up in Detroit?”
“Nothing they’ll tell us, which is why Echo is there, so we’re not kept in the dark.
” Luke straightened. “Wyatt’s working on mirroring the phone of the guy he believes to be in charge.
Once we have access to his texts and data, we should be able to determine how Samir has been in contact with him.
Maybe we can figure out their next moves. ”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve come in sooner.” She frowned. “I know more about Yasser Hadeed than anyone, and if Samir is taking any pages from his playbook—I’ll be able to help.”
“How’d Hadeed make contact with his people in the past?” Liam asked.
She stared at her hand on the desk, her mind possibly skipping back to the past. “Ciphertexts in the classified sections of newspapers. I’m betting Samir utilized the same route.”
“Someone, probably the enforcer from Berlin, told Samir the old protocol,” Asher said with a shake of the head, disappointed Yasser’s enforcer had slipped through the government’s fingers six years ago.
“We need to get those phones mirrored and fast.” Luke scratched at his neck. “I don’t want to be two steps behind the FBI. This is our fight.”
“What else do we have?” she asked a beat later.
Luke opened his laptop, tapped at a few keys, and then slid it to her.
Jessica stared at the screen for a few minutes. The room dead quiet.
“Ara was in contact with her aunt for that long?” She looked up from the laptop. “I taught her everything. Selecting a key. Using a cipher to encrypt a message.” A few quick blinks later, she added, “Apparently, she taught Fatima.”
“You can thank Liam for that find.” Luke tipped his head toward him. “The translations from Arabic to English are fairly accurate.”
“So, that’s how she knew Fatima was in Paris?” Her fingers brushed over her lips as if in thought. “I can’t believe she’d take the risk by staying in contact with her old life.”
And Asher knew what else she was thinking: how could Ara have lied to her about it? But people didn’t always think straight when it came to family. To the ones they loved.
“They emailed each other only a few times a year,” Liam said. “But in the more recent messages dating back to the last five months or so, Fatima started to ask Ara where she was living. And she began insisting Ara reach out to her cousin.”
“Samir,” Jessica whispered. “I still don’t understand why Samir would become this person. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Well,” Liam began, “his brother was killed eight months ago.”
“By us?” she asked, shock in her eyes.
“No, Samir’s brother had joined the rebel fighters against the Assad regime. He was taken out by Assad’s military,” Liam explained. “But it looks like the event pushed Samir over the edge. Maybe he blamed the US and Europe for allowing Assad to remain in power?”
“The timeline would fit, I guess.” She surveyed the team. “What else did you find out?”
“Since I couldn’t get the hospital in France to discuss patient records, I had to hack their systems to access Fatima’s charts.” Liam gave her a lopsided smirk. “You’re a good teacher; what can I say?”
“My teaching helped Ara send messages to her aunt—getting her killed.” She rubbed her forehead, and Liam winced at her words. “Sorry, go on.”
“Fatima didn’t have cancer,” Liam said. “Her scans were clean, so I think she lied to Ara to get her to visit.”
“She lured her out,” Jessica said with a shake of the head. “Samir must’ve put Fatima up to it. Any idea where she is?”
“We may not be on this case, but thankfully, some of our people are keeping us in the loop.” Luke took a breath and looked at Jessica. “A DEVGRU team went to Syria after Berlin to try and locate Samir and his mom.”
“They were gone, weren’t they?” Jessica’s lips pursed, and Luke nodded.
Their team had been working this case for a week, and as much as they still felt in the dark—he couldn’t imagine the way Jessica was feeling right now. Getting slammed with all of the details at once.
Were they overwhelming her?
Then again, she wanted to get more than her toes wet—she was ready to jump in the deep end and swim right away.
Right or wrong, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop her from going full throttle.
“Without operational authority, it makes what we do on our end tricky.” Asher roped a hand around the back of his neck and squeezed at the mounting tension.
“We need to figure out how Samir was able to afford such a high-priced assassin,” Knox said.
At his last word, Jessica’s hands dropped beneath the table, and she snapped her eyes closed.
“You need a minute?” Asher asked.