CHAPTER THREE
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
A pint-sized growl reverberated from under the war room table.
Camden Brooks half-heartedly hid his smile as a dog bone the size of an armored vehicle pressed against his boot.
Jared “Boss Man” Westin leveled Camden with a look that could have bowled over a brick wall.
“Something I said amusing?”
Camden tamped down his grin.
“Nope.”
“Because I’m telling you about an assignment that could leave you in a body bag if you don’t listen.”
“Understood, Boss Man.”
Another growl came from under the table.
Most of the men on Camden’s team tried not to laugh as Thelma, Jared’s bulldog, attacked the rawhide.
The puppy had doubled in size since the summer, but Thelma didn’t know it and still thought she was a little dog with oversized toys as she attacked her treasure underneath Titan Group’s conference table.
Camden nudged the dinosaur femur away from his boot.
Thelma returned the toy to where it had been after leveraging the side of his foot to get the best hold.
She barked at the bone and did her best to wrestle it into submission.
Boss Man glowered.
Across from Camden, Chance and Sawyer threatened to laugh.
If they broke, Camden would fall apart.
Their boss wouldn’t give anyone else grief if they did.
Camden was the sole focus of Jared’s growing irritation.
He ran a hand over his face and cupped his mouth, catching a glance at Liam, their team leader.
Liam was going to laugh but not before he silently warned Camden to keep his act together.
Jared’s phone vibrated on the table.
His glare narrowed on Camden as he swiped the phone and stood.
“Your ass has been saved by the bell.”
Thelma nabbed her bone and fought through boots and chair legs to trot after Jared.
Tough-guy Boss Man waited until his dog had walked through the door with the dinosaur leg before pulling it shut behind himself.
Hagan let out a long whistle.
“You are going to get him on your bad side before nine in the morning.” He snickered.
“That takes a special talent, you know that, Cam?”
Camden crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair.
“Jared loves me.”
“Like a hole in the head,” Liam muttered.
Liam had tried to mentor Camden over the years.
It had worked, more or less.
Camden’s arrival in Abu Dhabi had been coupled with Titan’s very nice paycheck and benefit package.
He’d been a little wild.
Jared hadn’t been all that amused even if Camden thought his boss was a wild man too.
Liam had pushed Camden to have fun but focus on their assignments so that he didn’t die on the job.
That wouldn’t happen.
He listened when it mattered.
The heavy door swung open again.
Jared’s scowl had deepened.
After a sweeping glance at the team, his storming eyes landed on Camden again.
Shit.
“Everyone out.” Boss Man didn’t have to say “except for you”—every man in the room read that loud and clear.
Sawyer and Chance gave Camden a pitying glance.
Liam slapped him on the shoulder.
“Nice knowing you, buddy.”
“Shut the hell up, and go do something productive.” Jared stalked to the head of the war-room table.
His dark brows furrowed as the door shut soundly.
As though he didn’t know where to start, Jared glared and scrubbed a hand over his face.
“Look, Camden…”
But nothing else came.
Jared wasn’t one to mince words.
He sure as shit wasn’t one to be without them.
“Yeah?”
Boss Man said nothing.
Well, hell. What had Camden done to get canned?
His stomach sank. The last straw had apparently been laughing at his damn dog.
That didn’t sound like Jared Westin, but part of his maverick nature was doing the unexpected.
“If you’re going to fire me, then fire me. You don’t need to sugarcoat it.”
Boss Man hadn’t sugarcoated a thing in his life.
Camden wasn’t sure why he was starting then.
The corners of Jared’s mouth twitched.
“Why am I firing you?”
Camden lifted his shoulders.
“No idea.”
“You know, everyone thinks you’re happy-go-lucky, have a good time, party a little too hard, laugh a little too much. But I see through that bullshit, you know that?”
He raised his shoulders again.
“No, I’m not firing you, dipshit.”
Camden didn’t relax.
“Then what are you doing?”
He cracked his knuckles.
“Your attitude is one of the reasons I like you. You come off as a liability, but I think that makes you good at your job. You ask the right questions even when no one wants those questions asked. You force the situation when it needs to be forced.”
Had Jared instituted a new policy for employee performance reviews?
“Thanks?”
Jared ignored the sarcasm.
“The CIA has a massive clusterfuck on their hands and is asking for a favor.” He tapped his teeth together as though making a decision that he wasn’t sure about.
“A personnel database was breached. They don’t know how deep or who has access.”
“Shit,” Camden muttered, not thinking about himself anymore.
“Yeah. Exactly.” Jared paced the narrow end of the war room.
They had a global staff and a number of ghost teams whom Camden knew nothing about.
Were they in danger?
Finally, Jared returned to the head of the table with a grim expression.
“As of right now, this is what we know: Covert assignments and real names have been paired up and put into the wrong hands.”
Information like that would easily pair spies with their cover stories and covert assignments for what they were.
“Fuck.”
He offered a tight nod of agreement.
“But they don’t know who has the intel or how it’s been exploited.”
Camden pulled in a heavy breath.
“Christ. That’s a problem.”
“Now for the favor. They don’t have enough resources to monitor every asset and their handlers. So they’ve given out contact information and passcodes to function like a 911 call center for spooks. We are amongst the contractors that will help facilitate this global communication network.”
Camden nodded but wondered why he was the only person having this conversation with Jared.
Their team leader seemed more suited to the briefing.
“You need to work with Amanda and Shah,” Jared continued.
“Their tech know-how will ensure a smooth setup, but your understanding of operational requirements will expedite any required assistance.”
What the hell did that mean?
“This is really important to understand: We’re not the help.”
“We’re not?”
They were always the help.
That was one reason the job was so much fun.
They could swoop in and save the day and swoop right out without any long-term responsibility.
Here today, gone tomorrow.
That could’ve been his personal motto.
“We’re not. At least not right now. There’s no telling where in the world a mayday call could come from. Paris or Paraguay.” He shrugged.
“So, you’re good to oversee this?”
Am I?
It was more of a job for Liam—anyone else, really.
He wasn’t the manager type.
Jared eyed him as though an actual choice had been offered.
“Cat got your tongue, or what?”
Jared wanted an answer.
Liam wanted Camden to step up and take on more responsibility.
He wasn’t sure that was what his team leader had been talking about.
Tied to an office, waiting for a phone call that might not come—that sounded a lot like hell.
“Camden, there isn’t a single day that you’ve been on my payroll that I haven’t thought, ‘Why don’t you know when to shut the hell up?’ Now you’re sitting there, staring at me like you don’t know what to say.”
“This is like desk duty? Doesn’t the US headquarters handle this type of job?”
A crease furrowed at Jared’s brow, but then he shrugged.
“Fair question. Semi-related to this shit storm, no one in that office is available to handle incoming calls that may or may not come.”
This was desk duty.
“I’m the guy you throw out of planes and into fires.”
Jared nodded.
“You still are. But this time, the fire’s at the CIA, and it’s burning hot in a way no one understands yet.”
Potentially interesting.
But hadn’t Jared just threatened him with a body bag fifteen minutes ago?
“Look, man,” Jared said.
“You’re right. I can see your hesitation. This might be a big ol’ nothing burger.”
Exactly…
So a shit job for Jared’s least favorite employee.
Got it.
“But this is the thing. It takes a certain kind of pain in the ass to deal with the CIA. If this nothing burger turns into a phone call, and if that phone call turns into something, I want you dealing with the Agency. You have the right personality for it.”
Was that a compliment?
Camden wasn’t sure.
Jared shrugged.
“But it’ll probably be nothing. You hang out in the operation center and shoot the shit with Amanda and Shah. Easy workday. What do you think? You game?”
“Probably boring with the potential for more complicated?” He pursed his lips.
“I don’t know if I’m your best guy on the job.”
“Brother, I dig more complicated. It’s how I pass my days.” Boss Man crossed his arms. “And I think you do too.”
Boss Man wasn’t wrong.
Most of their jobs were sit and wait anyway.
Wait for ignition. Wait for the target.
Wait for the go. He could collect a paycheck and sit on his ass in the comfort of the operations center.
How bad could it be?
“All right. I’m in.”
The operational nerve center of Titan’s Abu Dhabi headquarters hummed with electronics.
Cool air pumped into the room.
Screens covered the walls.
Workstations sat empty without any jobs monitored at the moment.
Camden sat in a rolling chair and pushed back as a football sailed toward him.
He easily snapped the ball to his chest. An electronic beep announced someone entering.
The outer door whooshed open, and Amanda Carter walked in.
Her eyes locked onto Cam, arm cocked and ready to throw the football, then onto Shah.
“You two are going to break something expensive.”
“ Everything’s expensive in here,” Shah pointed out.
Camden dropped his arm and instead tossed the ball to himself.
“Oh, come on. Don’t sound like Liam.”
“I sound like someone who knows the cost of this equipment and the hours spent setting it up.”
“We’re being careful.” He patted the football and nodded to Shah before lofting it his way.
Shah caught it. “We have to do something. I’m bored out of my mind.”
The special phone line that apparently required the three of them to rotate in shifts was silent.
At least they’d adopted a buddy system.
Otherwise, this assignment, which had initially piqued his interest, would be unbearable.
Its highlight had been the bare-bones CIA briefing that elaborated vaguely on what Jared had previously explained: Hackers discovered the identities of covert agents.
No one seemed to know which agents, if they were current or former, or even which continents they were on.
Still, Boss Man had the three of them focus their attention on a phone line that never rang.
Camden caught the ball and gave it a smack.
“Well, you’re off duty now.” Amanda shooed Camden toward the door.
“Go before you break something.”
“We just ordered food.” Shah caught the ball.
“And we’re on a streak. We can’t leave until one of us fumbles.”
The phone rang.
Camden’s head snapped toward the desk.
It wasn’t a call made to Titan’s phone system.
The screen on the desk console lit up with the caller’s location: Arlington, Virginia, thousands of miles away.
Excitement—or at least boredom-killing interest—jumped in his chest, and he answered.