Chapter 46
Austin
“We’ll take you home tonight and leave for the safe house tomorrow. That’ll give you time to pack and see your grandmother,” Austin said.
Her eyes bugged out. “Is it safe?”
“Yes, we’ll have people inside and out to watch over us.”
Nina looked around the room. “But you’ve all been working all day.”
“We’ll take shifts and sleep in between,” Jack said.
“It’s nothing we haven’t done a hundred times before,” Jamie said.
“Thousands,” Jay and G said at the same time.
They air fist-bumped with knowing smiles.
Jay and Gibson were opposite sides of the same coin, and I was grateful they were on my team.
Individually, they were dangerous. Working together, they’d be unstoppable.
And I needed them, Nina needed them, to be unstoppable.
I’d served with the SEAL team, and had given Jay shit for assuming I did all my work from a recliner in a temperature controlled office, but the reality was that while I was with the team in the field, I wasn’t part of the team.
I wasn’t busting down doors and storming in, guns blazing. Not because I couldn’t; I had the physical skills required, but because I didn’t have the experience the team guys did.
The experience Jay and Gibson had. That Blazsek and Robinson had.
I’ll need them to get Nina through this safely.
“We’re used to adjusting our schedules around protection duty needs,” John said.
I doubted John did much of that anymore. He was mostly a desk jockey now. Not that I’d say that out loud. My uncle was still more than capable of leading an op, and he wouldn’t hesitate to remind me.
Mary will kill me if I’m the reason John gets hurt. Again.
The domestic terrorist who’d kidnapped Ashley had stabbed John under his body armor in an attempt to escape. He failed.
He and his minions did some serious damage that day, including almost killing Nathan.
SSI was outgunned three-to-one that day, but the numbers didn’t matter. According to the report, no terrorists survived.
I was beyond stupid for underestimating them.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gibson signal to John that we needed to talk without Nina.
“Cate, will you take Nina downstairs to visit the girls and their babies?” John asked.
Cate laughed, “Sure thing. Come one Nina, it’ll do you some good to get spit up on.”
“Christ, Cate,” John said. “Nina, forgive her, she’s anti-baby.”
Unphased, Cate laughed again. “I love my nieces and nephew; I just don’t like all the body fluids they spew forth like gross little fountains.”
Before the situation got out of hand, I stood and offered Nina my hand. “She’s right, sans the baby spit part. Take a few minutes away from this and laugh while we sort through a few things.”
After the door closed, I asked, “What happened?”
“Rogers agreed to the under skin trackers. He’ll be here in the morning to inject them.”
“For all three of us?”
“Yes. Are we telling Nina?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Keeping this from her went against everything I believed in.
“Let me know what you decide,” G said. “I’ll back you up.”
“Thanks, G.”
“Do you want my opinion?” John asked, interrupting my racing thoughts.
“Please,” I said, shocking everyone in the room.
“Don’t tell her. I know lying to her sucks and I don’t like it either, but if something goes wrong, and she says or does something that alerts your captors…”
John let the rest go unsaid, but my mind finished for him. They’ll kill us immediately.
“I agree. Gibson?”
“Agreed. We keep Nina in the dark.”
Fuck. Doing shady shit like this was the part of the job I hated.
“Now we have to figure out how to inject it without her knowing.”
“A mild sedative should do the trick,” Jay suggested.
“If Rogers won’t be here until morning, it needs to be short term. I want her awake for the trip so she doesn’t freak out when she wakes up in a foreign place.”
“You really have gone soft on me,” Gibson said.
“Fuck you.”
He was wrong. I wasn’t turning soft, not entirely.
Only for Nina. The girl I couldn’t have, but would protect at all costs.
“Not tonight, I’m busy.” He waited for the laughter to die down before returning to business and saying, “But I agree she should be awake, in case we need her mobile. I’ll tell Rogers.”
I could’ve saved myself a lot of grief by thinking of that logical, mission-focused explanation.
“Thank you.”
“Doug, can you and Cate create some diversions with random safe house searches?”
“How loud do you want us to be?”
“Texas loud,” I said with pride.
“Yee Haw,” Jay said.
I didn’t expect the guys shadowing us and hunting Nina to buy it for long. I just needed a head start to get Nina safely into hiding.
“You think it’ll work?” G asked.
“No, but if it might buy us a few hours.”
“We should discuss logistics for tonight and transportation tomorrow,” John said.
“I don’t care who you have outside, but G and I will be inside with Nina. We’ll transport her tomorrow and need one car to escort.”
“No discussion needed,” Jamie said, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. “We’re just along for the ride.”
“No, you’re not, but this is our mess. The fewer of you I put at risk, the better.”
“You realize we have targets on our backs for helping you, right?” Jack asked.
“Yes. But that doesn’t mean I have to make it worse.”
“Any chance it’s because you caught feelings?” Jamie asked.
A small chance.
“Fuck you.”
“That’s Gibson’s job. I’m just calling it as I see it.”
“Enough,” John’s authority prevented my reply. “Austin’s feelings for Nina are his own to deal with.”
Well, fuck. When had my uncle become such a master at manipulating words? He’d added fuel to the fire while shutting everyone up.
If I were more like G, I’d bow to his mastery.
But I was me, and that wasn't my style.
To John, I said, “I’m leaving the other decisions up to you.” I faced Jamie and returned to the original issue. “And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m literally leaving every shred of hard evidence I have to nail these bastards with you and your team while I drive Nina home tonight.”
Jamie nodded.
“In case I haven't been clear enough for you.” I swallowed the bitter pill and owned the truth. “I need your help.”
It was as close to an emotional plea as I could get.
“You have it,” John said.
“Thank you.”
“What else can we do tonight?” Jamie asked.
“Photograph and copy the personal stuff for Nina.”
“Do you want to take the evidence to the safe house?”
My stomach dropped like it always did when my sixth sense spoke up. “No. Let’s leave that here.”
“Shit. You have that feeling again, don’t you?”
“Care to share with the classroom?” John asked.
“Winchester doesn’t want us to have anything relating to the case with us because he’s worried they’re nab us en route. That about sum it up, boss?”
“That about sums it up.” I said, while pinching the bridge of my nose.
“This is gonna get ugly, isn’t it?” Jay asked, not realizing he was asking the same question G had asked earlier in the week.
“Very.”
And Nina, Gibson, and I would be caught in the crosshairs.
“You sure you don’t want a two car escort?” Jack asked.
“Positive. It’ll be easier to lose a tail with fewer cars.”
“I’ll have people on standby, just in case.”
“Don’t forget, we’ll have Shepherd Security to help when things go FUBAR.”
I couldn’t have been the only one who heard G’s omission of the word if.
“Only if we can’t handle it ourselves. We don’t want to create a bigger issue by bringing in Shepherd,” I said.
“Is anyone else a little weirded out by the Sheppards calling in Shepherds for backup?”
“One Shepherd,” G corrected Doug. “Shepherd Security is a brotherhood, but not a family business.”
“Whatever, that’s not my point. We already have too many Sheppards; that’s why Cate goes by Maxwell at work.”
“Trust me, we’ll be happy they’re covering our six.”
“G’s right. These guys are the best of the best, and if we make a mess, they can help clean it up.”
Another piece of my integrity slid away and twirled down the fucking toilet.
I’ll have to resign when this is over.
Stealing evidence. Not reporting evidence.
Giving intel to civilians not authorized by the CIA.
Hiding a person of interest in a decades old cold case.
Using a black ops team to clean up the mess rather than reporting it back to the CIA.
Killing two CIA officers, maybe more. It didn’t matter that they were corrupt and traitors to our country; my job was to find the evidence and let the system judge them.
The Singers tried. The system failed them.
No way Kane and Gable are getting away with it again.