Kitabı oku: «Calculated Vendetta»

ONE

The conversations of the late dinner crowd in the Mexican restaurant hummed around Staff Sergeant Casey Jordan as she loaded one more chip with salsa and promised herself this one—like the eight before it—would be the real “last one.” Probably not, but still... Didn’t she deserve to indulge a little after her dinner companion had excused himself to take his fourth phone call in twenty minutes? Finally, she’d given up and told John Winslow they could reschedule, and he’d taken off for the door after a quick thanks and a wave.

Sure, it wasn’t technically a date, rather an interview for the story she was working on for the Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office, but the diners around them had no idea of that. To them, she’d been royally disrespected.

Reaching for the chip basket, Casey chose a perfect triangle. One more, then she’d throw in the napkin and go home to the cliché of pajamas, ice cream and the hardest sudoku puzzle she could lay her hands on. After her last relationship had spectacularly flamed out, she deserved all the comfort food she could get.

“Casey?” The sound of her name rose above the other noises in the small restaurant. For a second, her hopes rose, but they crashed to the floor just as quickly. The voice was definitely not John’s.

It was her own thoughts come to life in flesh and blood.

She did her best to ignore the call as her stomach tightened around the chips she’d downed. Not now. This was the last thing she needed on a night when it looked as though a date had abandoned her. Way to drive the knife in, making him appear.

Grabbing the backpack that held her laptop, Casey slung it over her shoulder, pretending she hadn’t heard Travis Heath hailing her. It had been three months, and he hadn’t called her once. Let him enjoy the burn of being ignored. She’d rather go home and dig into a pint of Mackinac Island Fudge than make small talk with the guy who’d gotten her hopes up before he ground them into mush under the heel of his combat boot.

Then again, knowing Travis, ignoring him would only make him more persistent. Better to face the past than have it chase her out of the restaurant and become the dinner show for an audience chowing on tacos and chips.

When she stopped near the counter and turned, Travis ran right into her. He grabbed her upper arms to steady both of them, forcing Casey to look at him fully for the first time.

Yep. He was everything she remembered. Tall. Lean but muscular. Blue-eyed under slightly longer-than-regulation dark blond hair. If she glanced around the restaurant now, half the women there would be staring at him. Casey inhaled and tried not to notice he still smelled like outdoors and ocean, even though the coast was nearly two hours away.

Scent recall was definitely a thing, because the slightest whiff of him brought an assault of memories that threatened to drag her right back to him. For a second, she’d glimpsed the old him, the him she’d loved.

But he’d hurt her, and being nice to him wasn’t on the agenda.

She didn’t even bother to fake a civil smile. “Travis.”

“Casey.” He scanned her face slowly, like he was soaking her in, but then he blinked and glanced over her shoulder at the door. “The guy you were having dinner with. Was he John Winslow?”

She edged closer to the counter to pay. Hopefully her cheeks hadn’t turned as red as they felt. Casey focused on his question, trying to ignore the way he folded the past into the present. What did it matter to him whom she had dinner with? He didn’t have the right to ask.

“It was.” She made a show of glancing at her watch and then over her shoulder at the door, as though she had somewhere so much better to be. “And I have to go.” Sidestepping him, she pulled her arms from his warm grasp, trying not to make the action as slow and reluctant as she felt. The tiny little traitor inside her wanted to stay right where she was. Good thing her intellect was stronger than her heart. “See you around.”

Travis opened his mouth and closed it again, watching her like he couldn’t quite figure out if she was serious about walking away. “How did you meet John?”

He couldn’t really believe he had the right to ask such a question. “Really not any of your business, is it?” Casey turned away and forced a smile at the cashier. There was nothing to talk about, especially if it was the way he’d spotted her across the room and suddenly remembered she existed. Or he’d decided to be jealous because somebody else wanted to be with her.

Except John didn’t have any more interest in hanging around than Travis had. She huffed out her frustration and headed for the exit without looking back.

Travis didn’t follow, but she knew he watched her as she pushed through the front door. Pent-up anger roiled inside her. If he was the kind of man who could be trusted, he wouldn’t have taken off on her with some lame excuse about the army not being conducive to a family. She was as much of a soldier as he was, and that was the flimsiest reason in the world for a breakup.

Outside, she inhaled deeply and immediately wished she hadn’t. The humidity of the early September evening made taking a breath feel more like drowning. It was after eight o’clock, but the heat of the day held on even in the twilight. It didn’t matter she’d been raised here, nobody ever really got used to the way summer dragged into autumn. The North Carolina Sandhills brought with them a special kind of humidity-fueled torture.

Grabbing her phone, she started to fire off a text to John to cancel their interview for the next day, but she paused. He’d been a great source on her last article, and his input would be valuable for her research on the Joint Task Force mission he’d been a part of five years ago. Casey tapped her thumb against her phone. This was why business and personal didn’t mix.

Maybe she should let it go. This was one working dinner with a man she hardly knew. Nothing serious. Casey glanced over her shoulder. Nothing like the place she’d been with Travis when he walked out her door for the last time.

Forget him. Forget this day. She was done. Casey shoved her phone into her hip pocket and pulled her keys from her purse. Time to go home to air-conditioning and ice cream.

“Casey, wait.”

Against her will, her feet dragged to a stop on the sidewalk. Yep. Travis was still tenacious.

And she still couldn’t resist him.

Travis stopped beside her and glanced around the parking lot. “At least let me walk you to your car. If John can’t be gentleman enough to—”

“Are you for real?” Casey whipped around and turned the full force of her pent-up fury on him. “Were you watching the whole time? You think you get to spy on me because...because why, exactly? Walk away, Travis. Seems like that’s the one thing you’re really good at.”

He didn’t back off like she’d expected but held his ground, his expression neutral. “Just walking you to your car, Case. Let a guy be nice, okay?”

Travis was a lot of things, including a big kid in a man’s body, but one thing was certain—his mama had taught him how to be a gentleman. He’d walk any lone female to her car. It had nothing to do with her. She could stand on the sidewalk and fight him, or she could let him take the walk to the end of the row with her, thank him, then go on her not-so-merry way.

It was easier to give in. Without another word, she turned on her heel, made sure no cars were coming, then stepped off the sidewalk.

Travis kept pace beside her, not saying a word.

As much as she didn’t want to talk to him, Casey couldn’t hack the silence. Between the two of them, it was unnatural. She tightened her grip on the strap of her backpack, running her thumb along the stitching. “Did you ever get any word on orders?” He should have moved on from Bragg months ago, but an investigation at his unit had held all his soldiers in place. Word around post was the fence was down now that the investigation was closed, and guys were being shuffled to other assignments.

He lagged behind then caught up, as though the question had slowed his pace. “I—” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to selection for a Special Missions Unit in a little over a week.”

“I never knew you wanted to go that route.” There were a lot of things he’d kept from her, including his apparent fear of commitment.

“You still with the Public Affairs Office?” He didn’t answer her question, and she didn’t push it.

“I am.” They’d reached her Jeep and Casey stopped, staring at the door handle as she slipped the backpack from her shoulders. Turning to look at him would be dangerous. Her pride was already bruised by John. She didn’t need the reminder of what could have been if she let herself look at Travis Heath long enough to remember he wasn’t the root of all evil. “I’ll probably be there until—”

There was movement at the front of her Jeep, and someone melted out of the shadows. Surely John wasn’t waiting, thinking he could shoehorn his way into her evening once again.

She turned her back fully to Travis, facing the newcomer.

It wasn’t John. A man appeared at the front of her SUV, a hood over his head casting his face into shadow, and a pistol pointed straight at her chest.

* * *

Travis’s muscles tightened, the heat of confrontation rushing through him. It took all he had not to shove Casey to safety and rush the guy. Instead, he edged between her and the gunman and balled his fists, forcing his attention from the pistol to the man, trying to size his advantage and figure out the best way to get Casey safely out of this.

In spite of the heat, their attacker wore a dark hoodie pulled forward to distort his features in shadow. Still, something about him was vaguely familiar, a flicker of memory Travis couldn’t grasp.

Now wasn’t the time to try.

The gun wavered from Travis to Casey, almost as though the man holding it wasn’t quite sure what to do next.

Travis eased one foot forward, getting himself in position to take out the foe, but the pistol stabilized, aimed squarely at him.

Whoa. Travis froze, reading confusion in the gunman’s expression. This guy was no pro, but he wasn’t a novice either. Rather than aiming at the head, he had the pistol pointed squarely at center mass, the mark of someone who had at least a little training. Something told Travis the guy could probably get off a fairly accurate shot, but that wasn’t a theory he wanted to test.

He’d trained for moments like this, but having Casey thrown into the mix complicated everything. Right now, Travis was physically trapped with the Jeep on one side and a car on the other, but he’d always been better with his words anyway. “Dude, you don’t have to do anything crazy.”

The statement hardened the man’s resolve, and his stance stiffened. “I want her backpack...and your wallet.”

“Take it easy.” He’d hand over everything in his possession as long as the guy didn’t pull the trigger on Casey. The barrel of a weapon aimed straight at them made Travis willing to do whatever it took to protect her.

But he had an idea. “Casey, hand me your backpack.” He lowered his right arm slowly, like he was reaching behind him for the bag.

The gunman steadied his aim.

Behind Travis, Casey hesitated, giving him a second to pray she wouldn’t choose this moment to argue, then she slipped the strap into his hand.

Perfect.

Travis wrapped his fingers around the canvas strap and eased forward, bracing himself for whatever came next. If this was the last breath he took, at least he could say he’d given it all he had. He threw his arm out, the backpack catching their assailant in the arm.

The gun clattered off the trunk of the car beside them and Travis rushed forward, but the narrow space between the Jeep and the car slowed his momentum.

The other man snatched Casey’s backpack, skirted the front of the Jeep and ran for a dark sedan idling two spaces away, leaving tire rubber in the parking lot as Travis skidded to a halt, trying in vain to read the license plate before distance made it impossible.

No good. The car was moving too fast and the lights weren’t bright enough.

Travis slammed a fist into the side of his leg, then turned and ran to Casey, his heart racing from adrenaline and exertion. If anything had happened to her...

She sat on the running board of her Jeep, face buried in her hands.

Travis knelt in front of her and rested his hands on her knees. Even though the weapon hadn’t been fired, relief still washed over him at the sight of her. “You okay?”

Her whole body moved with the effort of breathing. “Give me a minute.”

Easing away, Travis stood and pulled his phone from his pocket to call the police. He let his free hand rest on the back of Casey’s head, running his fingers through the loose blond strands that fell forward to cover her cheeks, the softness cascading across hands that shook from the adrenaline of the chase. How to handle this? He couldn’t put an arm around her to hug her. She’d probably deck him. But he also couldn’t let her suffer alone.

When he ended the call, Casey slipped her hair from his fingers and looked at him, her gray eyes cloaked in an emotion he couldn’t read. “I’m not your dog. You can stop petting me.”

In spite of the situation, Travis bit down on a grin. That was exactly what he’d been doing. Hey, it had worked for Harley the shelter mutt back in the day, when his family had ridden out hurricanes on the Florida Panhandle. And it had worked for Gus, the dog he’d had to give up when he deployed the last time. He ignored the ache the Australian shepherd’s memory brought. He always lost the things he loved. Life somehow seemed to work that way. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? What was in your backpack?”

“My laptop.” She gave him a weak smile. “He’s in for a surprise. The battery’s dead and the charger’s at my apartment.”

Casey was as sarcastic as she’d ever been, a quality she tended to amp to a thousand under stress. He’d encountered the trait more than once when her best friend was under the gun in February. “Bad day for him, huh?”

“For sure.” She dipped her chin and stared at the pavement between her feet, growing serious. “You know, if you hadn’t walked me out...”

Travis glanced toward the sky, grateful for the nudge that had sent him after her. If something had happened to her while he licked his wounds inside, he’d never have been able to forgive himself. He eased to the running board beside her, wary of touching her after her reaction. Running a hand down his face, he winced at the realization of what she’d lost. She kept her life on her phone and her laptop. Losing the machine would be a blow. “Were you working on anything?”

“An article on...” She froze, then waved her hand as though the question were a buzzing mosquito. “No big deal. Everything’s saved in the cloud, so it’s all retrievable. The machine’s password protected, so I doubt he can do much with it anyway.” Her hand fluttered up and fell. “It’s the hassle of having to deal with insurance and then finding the time to buy a new one. And knowing somebody held a gun on us and now has my whole digital life in their hands...” A shudder shook her, the biggest since she’d bucked up and tried to act like this whole incident was no big deal.

Travis slipped an arm around her as two police cars roared into the parking lot, sirens blaring. He couldn’t let her sit here and fight this internal battle by herself. And when she leaned into him he knew...

He was in this for as long as she needed him.