CHAPTER NINE
“Where are we going again?” Katrina asked, for the tenth time in the past thirty minutes as they drove across town the next morning. “And who are these people we’re meeting?”
“I already told you. We’re going to see some of Lennox’s friends who are helping us find Anna,” Talia said from the passenger seat without glancing up from her phone and the directions they were following. “I called Kyla and Wes last night to tell them about some new stuff I learned and am hoping they’ve been able to use it to get some more information about the guy who chased me the other night.”
Her friend gave her a sidelong glance. “Are you sure this isn’t a way to keep yourself occupied until Lennox gets home tonight? Not that I’d blame you if that’s the case. I know I’d be excited too if I had a man that good looking leaving me texts in the middle of the night.”
“It’s not that at all,” Talia said, even as a little voice in the back of her head whispered that it probably was. “Or, at least, it’s not only that. I honestly do want to hear what Kyla has come up with since last night.”
“I’m sure you do. But don’t act like I haven’t seen you staring at those texts for the entire drive.”
Talia looked back down at her phone to flip over from the map directions to her text messages, drawn to reading Lennox’s words again for what was probably the fiftieth time. He’d texted her at four-twenty this morning, so of course, she’d been fast asleep. When she’d read his message, she’d been stunned at the tremendous sense of relief that had flowed through her.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed him or how worried I’d been until I got his text saying he’d be home tonight,” Talia said softly, the words coming out before she could even consider whether she should be saying anything at all. “It hit me then that I’d been holding my breath, expecting the worst. I think my biggest fear was that he’d be gone, and the Navy would never say a word. I’d just never see him again.”
Katrina opened her mouth, almost certainly intending to say something she thought would be reassuring but would probably only make Talia feel worse. Not wanting to get any further into it, she flipped back to the map directions and held up her phone as a distraction.
“We’re almost there,” she said. “Take the next left into that apartment complex and keep going to the back left side of the parking lot.”
Katrina frowned, almost certainly knowing when she was being put off. But she didn’t complain as they turned into the parking lot and found an empty space. A few minutes later, Talia was knocking on Wes and Kyla’s apartment door, her thoughts divided between what she hoped Kyla might be able to tell her and what she’d say to Lennox when she finally saw him.
“Before we go inside, I should probably mention that the McDaniels might be involved in this whole mess,” Talia said as they waited for someone to answer the door.
Beside her, Katrina did a double take at that announcement, her eyes going wide. “What? Why didn’t you tell me before now?”
Talia opened her mouth to reply but before she could the door to the apartment opened.
“Hey!” Kyla said, giving them a smile. If she noted the stunned expression on Katrina’s face, she made no mention of it. “Come in.”
Talia smiled and led the way, Katrina following.
“Kyla, my friend, Katrina,” Talia introduced. “She’s an au pair for the McDaniels and knows about Anna.”
Kyla held out her hand, shaking Katrina’s. “Nice meeting you. The guy in the kitchen making coffee is my boyfriend, Wes.” At the sound of his name, Wes gave them a wave. “He’s on the SEAL team with Lennox, while I work with Navy Intelligence. I don’t know how much Talia had already told you, but I’ve been using my contacts in the Navy to try and figure out what happened to your friend, Anna Medina.”
“Could we wait for a few minutes before we get too deep into this?” Wes said, popping his head out of the kitchen to interrupt before Talia could jump into her list of questions. “Some of the other guys are on their way over and will want to hear this too. They should be here any minute.”
Talia wondered who he was talking about, but before she could ask, a knock sounded at the door. Wes came out of the kitchen to answer it, mumbling something about perfect timing .
The moment he opened the door and she saw Lennox and Colt standing there, Talia’s heart started thudding in her chest. Both of them looked exhausted but weren’t injured that she could see. That was all that mattered.
Lennox walked over to her, mouth curving into a gorgeous smile. Around her, everyone else seemed to disappear.
“What are you doing here?” Talia asked a little breathlessly, fighting the urge to step forward and throw her arms around him. “When did you get back?”
“A little while ago,” he said. “I was about to call and let you know but Wes texted to say you were on the way over to talk to Kyla, so I decided to surprise you instead.”
“Okay…yeah…you definitely surprised me,” she stammered, unsure what to say now that Lennox was right here in front of her. “But, how did you get home so fast? I thought you wouldn’t be getting in until later this evening?”
“We got lucky enough to find some seats on a commercial cargo flight heading direct to San Diego.” He gazed down at her, the warmth in his blue eyes doing funny things to her. “The company doesn’t normally carry passengers, but if you know the right people, it can save you a lot of time.”
Talia didn’t know what Lennox meant when it came to commercial cargo flights but could only assume that he and the other guys had talked their way onto a UPS or FedEx plane. Not that she cared one way or the other. Lennox was back, and she found herself breathing easier than she had in a week.
He reached out and took her hands in his, fingers lightly tracing the ridges of her knuckles. “You okay? Even though I couldn’t have done anything differently, I’m still sorry I had to leave on such short notice the other day.”
“I’m better now that you’re back,” she murmured, caressing the palms of his hands, absently noticing how rough his skin was. “And, while I don’t think I’ll ever be okay with you having to leave like that, I do understand why you have to.”
It was then that Talia realized she and Lennox were standing in the living room by themselves and that everyone else had escaped to the kitchen, probably assuming they needed time alone to talk. Of course, now that he was here in front of her after worrying about him all week, she had no idea what to say.
“I guess we should go into the kitchen,” she finally said, motioning in that direction with her head. “I’m sure they’re all waiting for us.”
Lennox glanced that way then nodded. “You’re probably right.”
All that said, it still took them a few moments to make their way there.
In the kitchen, everyone was crowded around the small table. Talia expected someone to ask what took them so long, but nobody said a word.
Lennox pulled out the two remaining chairs, holding one for Talia as she sat, then slipped into the other one beside her. It was such a simple thing that he probably didn’t even realize what he was doing, which made it even nicer for some reason. She was still smiling as Wes brought out two mugs of coffee for them. She added sweetener and cream to hers then took a sip of the caffeinated brew.
Talia glanced covertly at Lennox as she drank her coffee. While he still looked tired, he seemed physically okay with no obvious injuries. Maybe she and Maria had been wrong. Maybe Lennox and the other SEALs hadn’t been involved in anything dangerous at all. She let the thought go with a silent sigh, just glad that he was home.
“I was talking to Maria yesterday,” Talia said, setting her mug on the table. “It turns out that she’d developed a habit of eavesdropping on people, including her father’s business meetings.”
On the other side of the table, Katrina stared, stunned. “Seriously?”
Talia nodded. “Seriously. Don’t worry, I made her promise to stop. However, if it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t know that Bogdan Rybak and Dayton McDaniel have been meeting with a man named Mason Keller, who is probably the same man who chased me the other night.”
Talia went on to provide details about exactly what Maria had seen, including the physical description of Keller and how it matched the man she’d seen outside Anna’s apartment. Then she recounted the stuff Maria had heard about Bogdan’s European contacts and what she assumed was Keller’s interest in McDaniel’s bio-medical research firm.
“What does all that mean?” Katrina finally asked. “I get that it’s bad, but what do we think that Mr. Rybak and Mr. McDaniel are involved in? And what does it have to do with Anna?”
“That’s what I’m hoping Kyla will be able to tell us.” Talia glanced at the young Navy intel analyst. “Please tell me you found out something about this Keller guy.”
Kyla grinned. “I did.”
Getting up, she went into the living room, coming back a few seconds later with her laptop. Setting it on the table, she flipped it open and booted it up.
“You might not think it, but Mason Keller isn’t exactly an uncommon name,” Kyla said as she clicked away at the keys on her laptop. “But that stuff our newest little spy, Maria, picked up about him being from the U.K. but preferring to live in Spain made all the difference. Is this the man you saw outside Anna’s apartment?”
She spun the laptop around so Talia could see the screen, revealing a face she was unlikely to ever forget. Even in the darkness that night, she’d gotten a close enough look at the man to memorize his face.
“Yeah, that’s him,” she said even as she heard a grunt of surprise from Lennox. Glancing over, she saw him staring at the man. “Do you recognize him?”
Lennox glanced at Colt, who gave him one of those vague shrug-like nods as if leaving it up to Lennox to decide what to say.
“Without getting into the details of where we were or who we were working for, I can tell you that we encountered this guy, Keller, and some of his friends the other night,” Lennox said. “They were extremely well-trained and well-equipped with stuff that’s on par with our SEAL Team gear.”
Talia had about a hundred questions but bit her tongue as Katrina leaned forward. “So, who is this guy? And if he’s the kind of man the Navy SEALs would get into a fight with, why the hell are the Rybaks and McDaniels meeting with him?”
“I can’t help you much with that last part, but the first question is easy enough,” Kyla said. “Mason Keller is a soldier of fortune—a highly trained and experienced one. He served eight years in the British SAS, with almost all of that time deployed to one combat zone or another. He received multiple commendations for valor including the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross and was injured in the line of duty at least three times.”
Lennox frowned. “You might not intend for it to sound that way but if I didn’t know better, I’d think this guy was some kind of hero.”
“That’s because from all appearances he was some kind of hero—until he wasn’t,” Kyla said. “Something happened during his last deployment to Afghanistan. The incident is so classified that even I couldn’t dig out the details, but I think some locals died. Four weeks later, Keller was no longer a part of the British Army and was already working for a private military company in Yemen. For the next seven years, he moved from one mercenary job to the next. If you can think of a country in violent upheaval, there’s a good chance he’s been there. Two years ago, he disappeared off the radar. I have no idea who he’s working for now, but the rumor is that it’s a big-time player on the international scene.”
That didn’t sound good.
“Why would the Rybaks and McDaniels possibly be involved with a man like Keller?” Talia wondered aloud. “More importantly, what does he want from them? I’m not even sure what Bogdan and McDaniel have in common with each other besides money.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t have many answers when it comes to those kinds of questions,” Kyla admitted with a sigh. “My working theory was that Keller is running some kind of protection racket, telling San Diego’s wealthiest families he’ll make sure they aren’t harmed in return for money. But based on what Lennox just said—and didn’t say—I’m assuming Keller is part of something much bigger than that.”
Talia looked at Lennox along with everyone else.
“We can’t say too much,” Colt said. “Not without clearing it with some people.”
Kyla snorted. “He means the CIA. They’re the only people who would have dragged SEALs out of the country to deal with someone like Mason Keller.”
“You know that line, I can neither confirm nor deny that? Well, it applies in this situation,” Lennox muttered, glaring at Kyla. “But if I was to say something hypothetically, it’s that the Mason Keller we went up against wouldn’t be running any kind of protection racket. Theoretically, he’d be part of a major international terrorist operation with an agenda no one has figured out yet.”
That raised a few eyebrows around the table, especially Kyla’s. Talia could tell that she wanted to press for more answers but at a look from Wes, she backed off.
“So, Dayton McDaniel—a bio-medical nerd—is involved with international terrorists?” Katrina asked incredulously.
Talia couldn’t tell if her friend was stunned at the thought or simply refused to believe it.
“That might not be such a leap,” Lennox said. “This group Keller might be a part of has a history of going after targets associated with certain economic sectors, including pharmaceutical and bio-medical. Maybe they want McDaniel for his bio-medical tech connections.”
“That would probably also explain his interest in Bogdan as well,” Colt pointed out. “He has a lot of connections throughout the world that would be valuable to a terrorist organization.”
Talia groaned. “I’m not sure I want to know, but what kind of connections could he have that an international terrorist organization wants?”
“As I understand it,” Colt said slowly, as if he was leery of saying the wrong thing, “while Bogdan was certainly a powerful man in the political arena of Belarus, his true strength always lay in his far-reaching network of loyal military officers, spies, arms dealers, and underworld figures. I could see a terrorist organization seeing the value in that network.”
Talia didn’t know what she was supposed to do with that information. It seemed her boss had a drastically different background then she’d expected. One that was quite a bit shadier than she would have imagined.
“Do we think John Fredrickson is involved with this terrorist group too?” Katrina asked.
Lennox looked at Talia. “Didn’t you say something about Fredrickson owning an international shipping company? If that’s true, it would definitely fit the profile of the kind of people Keller would go after. What major terrorist group wouldn’t want access to a fleet of ships that could take them and their weapons anywhere in the world without anyone knowing it?”
“Oh, no,” Katrina moaned. “Do we think Keller is the one responsible for Anna going missing? If so, would he even have a reason to keep her alive?”
Talia felt her stomach knot. If Keller grabbed Anna because she heard or saw something she shouldn’t, then he’d have no reason not to kill her.
Lennox and the other guys did their best to convince her and Katrina that Anna was still alive, that they would have found a body if there was one. Kyla, however, looked far less sure of Anna’s safety, though she didn’t say so.
“I think we need to bring all this information to the CIA,” Colt said. “Not that I’m admitting they’re the ones looking into Keller and his terrorist group. But if they were, they’d want to know about this.”
“While you’re probably right, this is all supposition until we get some kind of proof connecting Keller to Bogdan and McDaniel,” Kyla said, then added, “More proof than the word of a little girl who’s been eavesdropping on her father’s private conversations. Unless you like the idea of the CIA questioning Maria.”
Talia shuddered at the thought of sweet little Maria being questioned under bright lights by a man in a trench coat—she’d seen all the movies.
“I agree,” Talia said. “How do we find proof though? It isn’t like we can ask Maria to hide a camera in her father’s office.”
“Actually,” Kyla said slowly, “I was thinking you could just sneak into Rybak’s office and find something incriminating while Katrina does the same thing in Mr. McDaniel’s office.”
“Um…” Talia started.
Beside her, Lennox cursed under his breath. “No way! Snooping around was the thing that got Anna into trouble.”
“Unfortunately, Mr. McDaniel doesn’t do any of his work from home because of all the proprietary design information he deals with, so I couldn’t do it anyway,” Katrina said.
Everyone looked at Talia, including Lennox, who had a worried look on his face. She took a breath. Could she sneak into Bogdan’s office and dig around? Would she know what she was looking for? Even if she could find the courage to try? But then she thought of Anna. If her friend was still alive, she was probably alone and terrified. Talia couldn’t do nothing if there was a chance this could help find Anna.
“I’ll do it, though I’m not sure how good I’ll be at it,” she finally said, then looked at Lennox. “I have no doubt that Anna would do the same for me if the situation were reversed.”
Lennox sighed. He didn’t look thrilled but at least he didn’t tell her how reckless she was being. Instead, he reached out and took her hand under the table. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Yes, though I have no idea how I’m going to get into his office. Not that I’ll know what I’m supposed to be looking for even if I do manage it.”
“Just promise me you won’t take any chances,” Lennox said softly.
“I won’t,” she promised. “But what if the information we need is on Bogdan’s computer? I don’t know his password.”
“That’s not a problem. I can walk you through hacking into it over the phone,” Kyla said matter-of-factly, then looked at Katrina. “If McDaniel brings his computer home with him, I can help you do the same thing.”
Katrina didn’t look like she was too sure of that idea. Talia was right there with her.
Over second cups of coffee for all of them, Kyla gave Talia some idea what she should look for in Bogdan’s office while Lennox and the other guys advised her on being stealthy. She knew they meant well but wasn’t sure their tips applied to sneaking around her employer’s office and only hoped she didn’t get caught.
“I know you drove over with Katrina, but I thought I could give you a ride home,” Lennox suggested when they were getting ready to leave a little while later.
Talia smiled at him. “Okay.”
“So, how’s Maria?” he asked once they were in his pickup and heading toward the Rybaks.
“Other than spending way too much time eavesdropping, you mean?” she said with a laugh. “Adorable as always. Though she did remind me that we’re supposed to take her back to Legoland.”
Lennox chuckled.
“I’m glad you’re home,” she said, the words coming out in a rush. “And that you’re safe.”
She almost added that she’d missed him but chickened out at the last minute.
He glanced over, flashing her a grin. “Me too.”
Deciding to stick to safer topics, she spent the rest of the drive to her cottage at the Rybak’s talking about Maria and what they’d done that past week.
When they got to her place, Lennox came around and opened the door for her.
“I was thinking that maybe we could grab dinner tomorrow night,” he said, gazing at her expectantly. “If you’re cool with that, I mean.”
Talia’s first instinct was to turn him down. Getting closer to a man who was prone to frequent unannounced and dangerous travel was only asking for heartache. The last week of misery was proof of that.
But as she opened her mouth to tell Lennox that dinner probably wouldn’t be a good idea, she remembered Katrina’s advice about not looking at every situation as some kind of problem to be evaluated and solved. That sometimes you needed to take a leap of faith so that magic might happen.
“I’d like that,” she said.
Grin broadening, his shoulders relaxed, like he was relieved. “Great! I’ll text you and we’ll figure out the details.”
Talia smiled and nodded, excited about their date despite herself. “Thanks for the ride.”
“Anytime.”
As Lennox climbed back in his truck and drove off with a wave, Talia hoped that leap of faith she’d just taken wasn’t going to send her off a cliff.