were investigating? Is he the one who hired Harris?”
When she didn’t answer, he yelled, “Tell me, damn it!”
“Cooper was my boss. That’s all I can tell you. And even that can get us all in trouble.”
Troy apparently didn’t feel the same boundaries. “Fuck that. Cooper is head of The Brigade. It’s a multi- government, black-op, hostage rescue unit that operates separately from any of the government agencies in order to provide plausible deniability.”
Chapter Eleven
Chad jerked back as if he’d been shot. He straightened and looked between the two of them, processing the various scenarios from the little information he’d gleaned and added it to his conversation with Sam. “You lied to me. Both of you.”
“We had to,” Lauren agreed quietly. “The Brigade often has to infiltrate terrorist organizations. If the wrong piece of information gets out, if the wrong person finds out about something, people could die. If we talk to someone who we’re not authorized to talk to, we can be charged with treason and tried in a very private court with a very private-and very final-sentence.”
His stomach felt as if he’d been buckled into a roller coaster that was doing loops and spins, ready to rocket off its rails. He hated roller coasters.
He glanced at Troy, who was staring stone-faced out the window. “How long have you known about this?”
“About eight months. It was the Brigade who extracted our guys in Colombia.” Troy slumped on the windowsill. “Lauren was running the op. I don’t remember seeing Weir there, but things got pretty hairy and…well, maybe he was there and I just missed him.”
“Does Sam know about any of this?”
“No.”
Which explained why Troy had worked from home for weeks after he’d returned from Colombia.
The roller coaster they were riding flipped over in a dozen different directions then abruptly stopped. She’d owed him no explanation. If she’d been working with a black ops team, she wouldn’t have been able to tell him anything. They’d each had to keep certain parts of their work secret from each other before. How was this any different?
Troy was a different matter. He may have possibly put not only Hauberk but the club members at risk. However there was nothing to be done about it at the moment. Not until they’d solved this current situation.
“Is there really a threat? Is there really a Jack Harris?”
“Yes, there’s really a Jack Harris. He’s after me because I had him taken off active duty. And you’re a target because he may try to get back at me by hitting you.”
Could he believe her? She’d given him a completely different story in the gazebo. Was this tale any closer to the truth than that one? “Who is he really?”
“He’s a former British agent. He’d been working undercover to infiltrate an offshoot of the Shining Path when his cover got blown. He didn’t like the way his government handled his case after he got back so Cooper recruited him.”
“Why did you have him taken off active duty?”
She took a deep breath. “I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you we noticed he was having problems after a mission went sour in Somalia.”
“PTSD?”
She nodded. “Among other things.”
Somalia, with its war lords and lawlessness. She’d been facing those thugs? Chad pinched the bridge of his nose. Too many scenarios flashed through his mind. Too many questions. Troy had said Colombia had been a hell of a firefight; where else had she been? “Were you in charge of the op that went bad? Is that why he’s after you?”
“No, I was in charge of his next mission. He wigged out and damned near caused us all to be killed. When we got back Cooper put him on administrative leave. Because I was the one who signed the report, he’s focused on me as being the cause of all his problems.”
“A variation of the ‘kill the messenger’ response.” He’d seen it before. “Was Weir part of the decision making process?”
“No. Ed was part of the team, but I’m the only one he’s targeting.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” There was no way to break it to her gently, and no time either. “Weir’s dead, Lauren.”
Beside him, Troy swore and turned away. Lauren said nothing but color drained from her face.
“He was found this morning in a seedy hotel room up near Fredrick. According to the news reports, other guests reported hearing an argument in the middle of the night and called the front desk. When the police arrived, the room had been trashed and Weir was dead. His throat had been slit.”
He narrowed his eyes at Lauren’s curse.
He shared a confused look with Troy when she knelt at the side of the bed and stuck her hand between the box spring and mattress. “Lauren? What are you looking for?”
“The transponder.”
“The what?” He took a step forward at the same time as Troy.
“A transponder-Ed gave it to me in case things went bad here and I needed to be extracted.”
“You didn’t have any sort of device with you.” Troy’s eyes were wide with horror when he met Chad’s glance. “I swear, we checked. Walters went over her with a wand before they took off the first time, and we checked again right after I met her. We took her purse away, everything. There were no devices on her. I swear.”
Lauren sat back on her heels and stared at the device she’d retrieved. It was smaller than the key fob Chad used to unlock his car doors. “Ed tucked it in my hair just before he left. Andy was thorough but you…”
“Just checked your fucking clothes,” Troy snarled.
From the look on Troy’s face, Chad was pretty sure if he hadn’t been in the room Troy might have attacked Lauren.
Her fingers closed around the device. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t broadcast its location unless it’s turned on. Which it hasn’t been since I arrived. So if Harris took the other unit from Ed, he can’t find me.” She placed it on the floor. “We have to destroy this one so there’s no chance it can ever broadcast our location. Troy, stomp on it. Break the damned thing.”
“No. Don’t,” Chad barked when Troy took a step forward. “We might be able to use it to draw Harris in.”
It was almost comical the way both Troy’s and Lauren’s expression mirrored identical looks of understanding within a split second of each other.
“We set him up.” Troy scooped up the transponder and started pacing, toying with it with each step. “We choose a place we can watch without him realizing it. Make him think Lauren’s there. Catch him in the act of breaking in.”
“There’s always the chance he may not have Ed’s device or the right codes,” Lauren said.
Chad shook his head. “Someone’s going to know if it’s among Weir’s things. Sam said there was a single report on the news this morning but nothing since. Someone is keeping a lid on it.” Which meant Davis had a helluva lot of connections to keep the press muzzled.
“Andy might be able to find out if it’s missing through his police buddies,” Troy suggested. “In the meantime, I’ll take this effin’ thing back to D.C. and set something up with Cooper so he can…neutralize Harris nice and quiet.”
“We’ll be fine with Andy in charge of things up here.” Chad stopped Troy before he could leave the room. “When I came in, you two were talking about the club being used as a front. Lauren, will Harris be looking for you there?”
Lauren hesitated. “I don’t think Harris knew anything about the club. There was some emergency going on that Cooper couldn’t get away from, so he had Ed and I meet him there. It was one time only. I don’t think any of
