Chapter 9
NINE
Breckenrow, Montana
Noah watched through the living room window at the lawn in front of the house where Marina chatted with Noah’s sister-in-law Tessa and Morgan, the local vet.
The three women watched Marina’s two dogs race around with Jay’s dog Cass and two other dogs that were rescues from a local breeder that Morgan was rehabilitating back to being pets.
Jay tossed Morgan’s daughter, Ava, who he planned to adopt, into the air and caught her as she came back down.
“So weird to see him like that.”
Caleb chuckled, standing beside him at the window. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen? Force Recon all the way to hometown family guy?”
Noah shook his head. “Jay seems happy. I should be happy for him, not bothered that being on the team didn’t give him that.”
“He’s still on the team, and this is a different kind of happy. That was more like satisfaction.”
“Maybe.” Noah didn’t argue with him. “You’re usually not the one who is right, so I’ll give you this one.”
Caleb shoved his shoulder.
“Boys.” Pops shuffled by the archway that led into the living room, continuing out the front door. The screen door creaked, then snapped back on its hinges.
“How does he always know?” Noah glanced at his twin.
Caleb shrugged. “Makes me wonder if he knows more about Mom and Dad than he’s ever said.”
Noah rubbed a hand across his sternum.
Caleb shoved Noah’s shoulder again, till they were facing each other. “Spill.”
“And you wonder how Pop knows?” Noah wanted to roll his eyes. “I should be paranoid that everyone can see right through me, but it’s only you and Pops. Thank goodness.”
“Quit with the preamble and get to the point.”
Noah blew out a breath. When he inhaled again, the scent of coffee left on the burner too long tickled his nose, along with boots worn to do real work and a hint of the cows currently grazing the west pasture.
“You went to the CIA…”
Noah slumped into Pops’ recliner and put one boot on the coffee table. “You ever meet the Division Chief, Thomas Kraus?”
“I doubt it.” Caleb didn’t sit. Sunlight through the wide window lit him from behind, shadowed his face.
The edge that all DEA agents had remained in him, even though Caleb had quit the job.
These days he was as much of a family man as Jay was turning out to be, and a rancher who helped Pops keep things running—doing what Noah didn’t have the time to do.
Being here would feel far too much like being trapped. Something he’d never done well with—which was the whole problem with the CIA.
“I don’t think they work any other way,” Noah muttered. “Back room deals. Holding what you want over your head so they can get what they want.”
“What do they want?”
“The team is their new Division Zero.”
Caleb shifted. “That’s great.”
“In exchange for information about Mom and Dad, the team works for them.” Noah winced. “Budget cuts.”
Caleb sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “Does Adam know?”
“I need to tell them, but they’re working on their plan to retrieve the drone first.”
“Don’t put it off.”
Noah winced, nodding. “It’s a real good thing they got another job from Earthnet.”
“I wouldn’t have turned down the CIA’s offer, either. I want to know as badly as you do what happened to Mom and Dad.”
Noah glanced at his twin. “But…”
“They aren’t here,” Caleb finished. “Tessa is pregnant. Pops won’t be around forever. Life is moving on without them, and they’re missing it.”
“They’ve been gone so long it has to be because they can’t come back. Because staying away keeps us safe.”
“Or they’ve been gone so long they think they can’t. Like when you build it up bigger in your mind, and it seems more than it really is.”
“You’ve been thinking about this.” Noah would rather just get a file from the CIA and read the truth for himself than try to puzzle out a hundred theories about why their parents left and never came back.
“And you’ve been trying to solve it.” Caleb shrugged. “There’s not much I can do out checking fences and doing chores except think. If you believe the CIA will honor the deal and give us real intel about who Mom and Dad were, and where they are—”
“And why they never came back.”
“—then convince the team.” Caleb wandered over and slumped onto the couch.
“But you’ve got to figure out a way to get past it, or you’ll be stuck here forever.
Watching them drive away from the ranch.
Thinking they’ll be back in a few weeks.
Then it’s August and we’re trying out for football.
Then it’s homecoming and they’re still not back. Then it’s Christmas and—”
“I get it.”
“Let it go.”
Noah’s phone started to vibrate in his pocket.
“Let it go,” Caleb repeated. Then he got up and walked out of the room.
Noah didn’t recognize the number. “Rour—” A click interrupted him. Noah tried again with the call actually connected this time. “Rourke.”
“This is Doctor Emanuela Peraya, and you’re on a secure line.”
“Understood,” Noah said. This was what working for the CIA was going to be?
“We have a situation here with one of our assets, and we may need the help of Division Zero to pull them out.” Peraya laid out the particulars.
“You haven’t heard from her since?”
“That’s correct. We have a possible location, but even that is flimsy intel at best.”
Noah gripped the phone tighter. “We’ll find her and bring her home.”
“Looking forward to it,” Peraya said. “I’ll email you everything we have.”
“Sounds good.”
The call ended, and Noah stood, dialing Adam’s number as he went back to the window.
Tessa and Marina now sat on the porch steps, Morgan and her daughter were using the hose to fill a row of dog water bowls, and Caleb and Jay chatted.
Pops was likely watching the whole scene from his rocker on the porch, though Noah couldn’t see him from this angle.
The sight filled Noah’s soul, watering the cracks and making him feel more like himself than he had in months.
“Hey, what’s up?”
Noah set aside the thoughts of home and family, and said, “The CIA called, and they need their new Division Zero team to do a job.”
“Serious?”
“There’s more to the agreement I need to fill you in on, but it can sit until later.”
“We’re ninety minutes out of GZT,” Adam said. “I could argue I’ve got time, but I could use some sleep now that we’ve got a solid plan.”
“The CIA needs you to find and retrieve an asset.”
“Any idea where they are?”
“I should have an idea for you before you land.” Noah braced his hand on the frame of the window. “How is Ice?”
“We gave him something to knock him out, so he quit complaining his shoulder hurt.”
Noah smiled to himself.
Adam said, “I’ll keep an eye on him. But if we’ve got two rush jobs on, I might want you or Jay.”
Noah studied Jay. Did the guy want back in the field? He’d been here for a few months, and Noah knew he was planning to propose to Morgan pretty soon. Make this Montana thing permanent the way Caleb had.
Noah couldn’t imagine doing the same. He had to say, he preferred Marina’s bolt holes. Or he just preferred Marina. But he’d always been more nomadic.
First, his parents had moved them around or dumped them here to stay with Pops while they went…
wherever they went. Then the navy moved him wherever they wanted, ordering him to one base or another and deploying him all over with his team.
As a result, he didn’t really feel as if he fit anywhere geographically.
Just that he fit with his twin—wherever Caleb was.
With his family. With the team he’d put together.
Finally, Noah spoke. “Marina’s cousin is missing, and she asked me to help her find out what happened.”
“You help Marina. Tell Jay we need him.”
The definitive way Adam said that almost sounded like an order, even though Noah was his boss. That was just the reality of two guys like them working together. Noah said, “Will do.”
He heard Adam yawn.
“Catch you later.” Noah hung up and went outside, striding off the porch and over to the huddle of his twin, his buddy Jay who he’d worked with off and on for years, and the woman who had stopped Jay in his tracks—and her daughter, who had stolen everyone’s heart.
“You want in?” Noah asked Jay. “Adam needs extra personnel.”
“You’re helping Marina find her cousin?” Jay lifted his chin.
Noah nodded. Morgan and Ava shifted closer to the huddle, and Jay looked at the woman and her daughter. “If they need your help, you should go,” Morgan told him.
“Plenty of reasons to stick here.” Jay’s tone stayed even.
Morgan turned to Noah. “Order him to go.”
Noah shook his head. “It’s his decision.”
Jay glanced between Morgan and Ava. “I’m supposed to be here with the two of you. That’s my job now.”
Morgan’s eyes filled with tears. She closed the gap between them, laying her hand on Jay’s chest. “We’re part of your life. But this is who you are.”
He covered her hand with his.
“Go help your friends,” she whispered.
Noah ducked his head, not wanting to intrude on their moment.
Tessa wandered over, and Caleb put his arm around her. Marina moved to Noah’s side, and he glanced at her.
“Okay.” Jay’s voice sounded like gravel. “I’ll go back them up.”
“We can fly you to the closest airport,” Marina said.
“I’ll get my stuff.” Noah stepped away, needing the breath he could only take away from the huddle of home and family. But that put him on a path right to where Pops sat in his rocker. Noah clasped the old man on the back of his neck and leaned down. “Don’t go anywhere until I get back.”
It wasn’t a promise Pops could make, and they both knew it.
Still, the old man said, “I’ll be here.”
One way or another, Noah knew that would be true.