Chapter 2
“She’s not here,” Bubba said unnecessarily.
Spike’s former teammate had picked him up and Tiny from the airport, and they’d gone straight to Reese’s apartment. Except she hadn’t answered the door. Nor was she answering her phone.
Spike had a bad feeling about the situation. It was one thing for her brother to be missing, but the fact that Reese also couldn’t be reached wasn’t sitting well with him.
Bubba started making some calls to people he knew in town, trying to figure out if Reese was at work. They’d already talked to a neighbor, who didn’t recall seeing her lately. Spike knew in his gut that they weren’t going to find her in Kansas City.
One thing Woody had always mock-complained about was how stubborn his sister could be.
How she was impulsive and acted without thinking, especially if she was concerned about someone else.
Spike suspected that Reese had gotten tired of sitting around, worrying about her brother.
That she’d made the decision to head down to Colombia to find out for herself if he was all right.
He took his own cell out of his pocket and dialed Tex’s number.
Tex was a former SEAL and a computer genius who’d always told the owners of The Refuge that if they ever needed anything—anything—to not hesitate to reach out for assistance.
He was a huge reason why The Refuge even existed at all…
he’d helped Brick, the former SEAL who’d originally conceived of the place, connect with all the men who had eventually become his co-owners.
“What’s wrong?” Tex immediately asked in the slight southern accent he’d never lost, even though he hadn’t lived in Texas for years.
As quickly as he could, Spike explained where he was and why, then said, “We can’t find Reese, Woody’s sister. Her car’s not at her apartment, she’s not answering her phone, and a neighbor said he hasn’t seen her in a few days.”
“You think she went to Colombia,” Tex said.
“I hope like hell I’m wrong, but yeah,” Spike agreed
“Okay, hang on…”
Spike resisted the urge to tap his foot as he heard Tex’s fingers clicking on a keyboard. Absently, he realized the hand holding his phone to his ear was shaking…and his heart rate was higher than normal. He hated his body’s physical reactions to danger.
Still, his current anxiety gave him pause.
He hadn’t felt like this when Jasna, the daughter of a Refuge therapist, had been missing and they’d all frantically searched for her.
And his heart rate hadn’t gone above a hundred when they’d found out a sexual deviant was prowling The Refuge property, attempting to kidnap Brick’s woman, Alaska.
He’d thought he’d finally worked through the shit in his head and gotten past all this.
It was extremely disheartening to realize he hadn’t.
That his body was still letting him down when he needed to be at his strongest. He was particularly confused as to why he was feeling this way now, when he’d handled the recent harrowing events with Alaska and Jasna just fine.
But he didn’t have time to wonder long before Tex was speaking.
“All right, it looks like she left four days ago. Took a red-eye flight from Kansas City to Dallas, then to Colombia, arriving late the next morning. I’m texting the address of the hotel where she’s booked.”
Spike was relieved Reese wasn’t lying dead in a morgue somewhere in Kansas City, but less than happy to hear his suspicions had been correct. “Any idea where Isabella lives?”
“I’ve got an address for the translator, but it’s several years old,” Tex said. “I’m sending that too.”
“Thanks.” Spike took a deep breath. “No other movement on Reese? No return flights booked? Can you track her cell?”
“No, no, and no,” Tex said, dashing Spike’s hope for a quick resolution to the situation.
“Shit,” he swore.
“I’ve booked you and Tiny a flight,” Tex said.
“It leaves in three hours. I’ll continue to do what I can from here to help, but I’m thinking getting your boots on the ground down there and going to her hotel to find Reese, or talking to the employees to see what you can find out, will get you a lot further than anything I can do remotely. ”
That’s what Spike was thinking too. “Right.”
“Keep your phone on,” Tex said firmly. “I’ll make sure international rates are active and I expect you to check in with me frequently. I can also track you if you leave it on. If I don’t hear from you regularly, or if you go dark, I’m gonna send in the troops.”
Spike felt a wave of relief go through him.
More often than not on missions, he and his team had been on their own.
If the shit hit the fan, there was no expectation of any assistance coming because much of what they did was top secret.
They went into countries they weren’t supposed to be in, like North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China, and the US couldn’t risk an international incident if they got caught.
So knowing Tex had his back was a huge weight off his shoulders, though in no way a surprise.
Tex’s mission in life seemed to be helping as many people as he could, in any way possible.
He was known in literally every military circle, no matter how covert.
He was like Kevin Bacon, connected to damn near every single person in the country in some way.
“Spike?” Tex asked. “You hear me?”
“I hear you,” Spike told him. “And thanks.”
“Why do people always want to thank me?” Tex grumbled. “I’ll send any new intel I get. Be safe.”
Then the older man clicked off the connection. Spike took a deep breath and turned to Tiny. “Looks like we’re headed to South America.”
He didn’t seem surprised or even too concerned. He simply nodded, then asked, “What’d Tex say?”
“Reese flew to Colombia,” he informed his friends. “I’ve got the address of the hotel she booked and the last-known address for Isabella. But that’s about it.”
“Damn!” Bubba exclaimed, pocketing his phone. “What do you need me to do?”
“If you hear from Woody, or anything about what’s going on, let me know,” Spike said.
“That’s a given. You need any gear?”
Shit. He should’ve brought some of his own stuff. It was just another thing that proved Spike wasn’t thinking at the level he should’ve been. “Yeah, that’d be great,” he told his friend. “Our flight leaves in three hours,” he warned. “So we need to be quick.”
Bubba merely nodded and led the way down the stairs toward the parking lot.
“You think this is gonna go bad?” Tiny asked as they followed the former Delta.
“Let’s just say I don’t have a warm and fuzzy feeling,” Spike told him.
Tiny nodded yet again, as if Spike had confirmed his own feelings about the situation.
Three hours later, after borrowing gear from Bubba and boarding the plane to Colombia, Spike opened his phone and clicked on the file Tex had sent. He scrolled past pages of text, stopping on a picture of Reese Woodall. If anything, she’d gotten even prettier since he’d last seen her.
She still had her long blonde hair and blue eyes, but she had even more curves than before.
And Spike approved. Her body was fucking gorgeous.
He’d always been a sucker for a well-built woman.
He had nothing against skinny chicks, but in his opinion, there was nothing better than being able to dig his fingers into a woman’s fleshy ass as she bounced on his cock…
seeing her tits shimmy and shake as she moved.
He liked a little extra meat on a woman’s bones, and between looks, personality, and smarts, Reese was literally the epitome of everything he wanted in a partner.
Reading the profile Tex had put together made a streak of pride course through Spike.
He already knew Reese was smart, but she’d been moving up the ranks of her engineering firm and taking on increasingly difficult projects.
She also spent her spare time volunteering at an animal shelter, a women’s center, and at a Boys and Girls Club.
Tex had even dug up a video clip of her giving a speech at a fundraising event.
She was funny, engaging, and her smile lit up the entire stage.
Of course, no one was perfect. Spike recalled Woody constantly bitching about how his sister didn’t care enough about her own safety.
How she didn’t think twice about walking to her car in the dark after a volunteer shift at a homeless shelter in a not-so-great part of town.
Of how she refused to admit when she was wrong.
How she loved designer handbags so much, her collection was reaching ridiculous proportions.
Spike couldn’t speak to most of that, but considering he was on a flight to Colombia at that very moment, it was clear Reese’s disregard for her own safety was still alive and well.
He was almost embarrassed by how many times he’d watched that video clip. It was a good thing Tiny was seated a few rows ahead of him and couldn’t question his sudden interest in Woody’s sister.
But the more his admiration for the woman grew, the more worried he became. Where was she? Had she found her brother? Had someone hurt either her or Woody? He had too many questions and not nearly enough answers.
The quick trip to Missouri to reassure himself, and Reese, that his old friend was fine and not in any danger had morphed into something that felt far more urgent.
In Spike’s mind, this was no longer a trip to find Woody—it was to make sure Reese was all right.
That she hadn’t gotten in over her head.
He didn’t know why he was so worried about a woman he barely knew…but he was. He had the oddest feeling that if anything happened to Reese, he’d miss out on something huge.
It wasn’t normal, this attraction and concern for a woman he hadn’t spoken to in years. But his shaking hands, nausea, and pounding heart told him that if he didn’t find her and get her back to the States safely, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.