off book. Is Garrett involved in any way?”
“I couldn’t tell you that, Alexa, even if I knew myself.”
“Did you know someone is using unauthorized satellite time to track a cell-phone GPS signal inside the estate of Manolo Quintanilla Perez, a drug-cartel boss?” She pressured him to let her in on the mission by spouting what she knew. “Your op is south of the city at the Perez compound, right?”
“I can’t talk about the mission, Alexa. You know that.”
“I just gotta know he’s okay. That’s all.” Alexa took a risk and pretended to know more than she did. “Is he inside that estate? Is that who you’re tracking? I’ve seen the satellite images of the kidnapping. What’s going on, Hank?”
From the look on his face, she knew she’d hit on the truth.
“Damn it. How did you . . .” Hank shook his head but stopped before he said too much. “Look, the best I can do is run this up the food chain, see if they want to bring you into this.”
“Who’s running the show?” she asked.
“Don’t know, but if they want you gone, you gotta follow orders.” Hank headed for the door like everything had been settled. “In the meantime, give me a number where I can reach you. And stay put until you hear from me.”
“Not good enough, Hank. I’ve got business with our mutual friend, Victor. Unless I hear from you, I’ve got my own agenda.”
Hank turned and faced her, unable to hide his frustration. She’d seen that look before.
“Guess I knew that’s what you’d say.” He pulled a gun and aimed it at her, a move she didn’t expect. “Since I can’t trust you to behave, you’re coming with me.”
“And just where are we going?” Alexa gritted her teeth, feeling more than a little pissed that she hadn’t seen this coming.
“You’ll see soon enough. Now move.”
Hank always did know how to entertain a woman. He had her stashed in a cheap motel room a few blocks from the sleazy bar he’d just abducted her from—at gunpoint. The place rented by the hour, which explained the low-rent decor . . . and the smell.
Slouching in a chair by the bed, Alexa had eavesdropped on a few of his cell-phone calls, but they were so cryptic, she hadn’t learned much. The only thing she really knew was that after the last call to the handler for the mission, Hank was more nervous than she’d ever seen him.
When she saw a huge roach crawl across the floor, she watched it until Hank noticed it, too.
“Friend of yours?” she asked. When he didn’t find her amusing, she said, “Hey? What’s eating you?”
When Hank glanced at her sideways, Alexa cocked her head and batted her eyelashes, playing it real coy just to piss him off. Midpace, he stopped and did a double take.
“You’re kidding, right?” he asked. “You come down here and mess with my op, forcing me to leave my men and make a call I never wanted to make to my handler. Now the head honcho in charge of this mission is coming here, breaking all protocol, to fix this screwed-up mess because you can’t leave well enough alone. And you wanna know what’s wrong with me?” He ran a hand across his short hair and shook his head. “That’s just rich.”
“Hey, you made the choice to bring me here. I had my own party goin’ on.” After Hank rolled his eyes, Alexa pressed him for more. “So why are you sitting this one out? You know they have a hostage. You’ve seen proof off the satellite. What are you waiting for? The guy could be dead, and you’d never know it. What kind of mission are you on?”
She hated grilling Hank, but she was bored and more than a little antsy.
“I’m following orders, Alexa. And if that hostage was in real trouble, we’d know it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Before Hank could answer, a knock on the door stopped him cold.
“So who’s at the door?” She leaned forward with her eyes darting between him and the closed door. “Come on, Hank. In a second, that won’t be a secret anymore.”
“That’s just it, Alexa. I don’t know.” He rubbed his palms across his shirt to dry them off.
“Don’t you know who’s heading up the op?”
“No. I follow orders, Alexa, something you should consider doing from time to time.” Hank reached for the door and pulled his weapon. After he nodded at her, making sure she was ready to back his play, Hank opened the door.
“What the hell . . .” He lowered his gun. “So
And Alexa stood with her mouth open. She couldn’t help it. She was stunned.
“I thought you were . . .” She shook her head, staring at the man standing in the open doorway.
“You two better have a real good reason for risking this mission, especially you, Alexa.”
Larger than life, Garrett Wheeler filled the threshold and lowered a weapon of his own.
Chapter 8
Alexa was completely shaken. After seeing Garrett Wheeler standing in front of her, she didn’t know if she should be happy he was alive or be mad as hell. And he had the nerve to point the finger at her, accusing her of messing up his op.
“And you better have a damned good reason for breathing.” She pulled him into the room by the arm and after she gave a quick look down the hall to make sure he was alone, she closed the door and turned on him.
“What’s going on, Garrett? And why all the secrecy?”
“You ever look up the word ‘secret,’ Alexa? You should try it sometime.”
“I was worried that something bad had happened to you. Sorry for caring.” She glared at him. “If you’re here, then who is Perez holding as hostage?”
“What do you know about that?”
Typical Garrett. He had shifted gears by going on the offensive.
“Don’t change the subject. Answer me.”
She knew she was pushing it with the man who was her boss, but she was in no mood to be diplomatic.
“Give me one legitimate reason why I should? You’re not part of this mission, Alexa. And from the way you’ve barged in here, I think that was a good call.”
“Whoa, now. I don’t wanna get hit in the cross fire.” Hank raised both eyebrows and backed off. He found a corner in the room and crossed his arms, playing it as neutral as Switzerland. When Alexa saw Hank’s reaction, she mumbled under her breath, “Coward,” before she directed her anger back at Garrett.
“I was worried about you. If I had gone missing like that, what would you have done?”
“Touche, but jeopardizing a mission in progress? That’s . . .” Garrett searched for the right word. “ . . . irresponsible.”
“So is disappearing without a word. And I refuse to apologize for caring about you.” When Garrett softened the stern expression on his face, she knew he was finally listening. “Tell me about this mission. I’m down here. You might as well use me.”
“I can’t.” He shook his head and turned his back on her. “The reason I didn’t ask you to join us hasn’t changed.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Damn it, Alexa. I need you to walk away from this. You came here looking for me. Well, you’ve found me. And I’m telling you to go home.”
When Garrett looked her in the eye, he flinched for an instant. His reaction was enough for her to realize he was holding back. And it was personal.
“You’re hiding something. What is it?”
When Garrett looked to Hank for support, the guy shrugged, and said, “Hey, don’t look at me. This op is on a need-to-know basis. And, apparently, you didn’t want me to know anything either.”
