Novus Ordo was desperate to find out why Irina had suddenly called Matt Parker back from assignment in Mahjidastan and announced to her employees that she was ending her two-year-long search for her husband—or his body.
“It’s not your fault, Deke.”
“The hell it’s not. I should have taken care of her, put her in protective custody.” He shook off the feeling of failure. He’d let Mindy get captured. Now he had to rescue her.
“Don’t worry, Irina. I know more about Novus than anyone alive. You listen to Rafe and Aaron and Brock. They each have their instructions. Their primary mission is to keep you safe.” He paused. “And Irina, don’t leave the ranch without one of them with you. Make sure all three of them know where you’re going and who you’re going with.”
Irina sighed in frustration. “You sound like you don’t trust your own team.”
“My helicopter was sabotaged. I don’t trust anybody but you and me.”
“You mentioned your timeline. What is it?”
“I plan to be out of there with Mindy in less than twenty-four hours.”
“What’s your drop-dead time?”
“Seventy-two.” He had his timeline. He wished he knew what Novus’s was.
“Be careful, Deke.”
He hung up and started to pocket his phone, then hesitated, looking at the display.
Two days ago, the BHSAR recovery team, along with the FBI, had found the body of the man who had tried to get his hands on Matt Parker.
Papers and a prepaid cell phone found on the dead man proved his involvement in terrorist activities, with ties to Novus Ordo. It was bad enough that it took only a couple of hours for Novus to find out that Irina had recalled Matt. What made it so much worse was the ruined helicopter rotor on the floor of Deke’s hangar that proved his bird had been sabotaged. The grounded helicopter had caused Deke to miss a critical rendezvous point and had almost cost Matt Parker and Aimee Vick their lives.
There was only one explanation for those security breaches.
Both the sabotage and Novus’s intel had to have been engineered by someone who had unrestricted access to Castle Ranch. They had a traitor in BHSAR. Someone who was working for Novus.
Deke had put his most trusted specialists to guarding Irina. He just wished he could trust them without reservation.
But there was only one man in the world, other than himself, whom he could trust with Irina’s life.
Trying to ignore the fact that his fingers were shaking, Deke dialed a number he’d thought he’d never call.
Irina’s innocent action had negated everything Rook Castle had done to keep her safe.
Deke listened to the electronic message, hoping he was doing the right thing. He spoke quickly, quietly, then hung up.
It was done. Two years ago he’d made a promise to his best friend, Rook Castle. Today he’d broken it. But he’d had no choice. It was time to raise the dead.
DEKE CAREFULLY CLIMBED the crumbling steps and put his shoulder against the weathered front door of the abandoned hotel. He stopped dead in his tracks when it creaked loudly. Clutching his weapon in both hands, he listened.
Nothing. Not a scurrying rat or the buzz of a disturbed insect.
He’d expected Novus to come after him. He’d hoped the terrorist wouldn’t be savvy enough to go after his ex-wife. Hell, they’d been divorced over two years.
It disturbed him that Novus knew that much about him. Mindy was his weakness.
His only weakness.
The air force had done what nothing else ever had—it had made a man out of him. He could fly a helicopter. He could shoot a housefly off a general’s lapel at two hundred yards—hell, he could take that shot while flying a bird.
Being a Special Forces Op had taught him there was nothing he couldn’t face and conquer.
But with one disappointed look, and the sparkle of a tear, Mindy could reduce him to his pathetic, arrogant high-school self, trying to bully his way through school and drink his way through life.
He stood outside the hotel’s door and wondered what kind of traps Novus had set for him. He’d have preferred a face-to-face confrontation, but he already knew the publicity-shy Novus wouldn’t do that.
There was a reason the terrorist wore a surgical mask in every known photo. An excellent reason. And only a few people knew what that reason was.
Yeah, he was walking into a trap. But Novus had baited it with the only lure he couldn’t resist.
His ex-wife.
All those thoughts swirled through his mind in the two seconds it took for him to flex his fingers, retighten them around the grip of his Sig Sauer, and take a deep breath.
Here goes.
He nudged the door another inch and slipped through.
The hotel lobby could have been lifted out of one of the Western movies his old man had watched when he wasn’t passed out from cheap vodka.
When Deke stepped inside, eyeing the ornate desk and curved staircase, glass crunched under his boot. Shattered prisms from a broken chandelier.
Then something moved at the edge of his vision.
Startled, he swung around. His finger tightened on the trigger.
A raccoon. It scurried across the room, claws clicking on the worn hardwood floor like faraway machinegun fire.
Deke’s breath whooshed out and his trigger finger relaxed. He took another step, eyeing the dark room beyond the arched doorway. He figured it was the dining room.
What was the raccoon running from? He crossed the lobby and angled around the arch so his back stayed to the wall.
Heavy curtains revealed only slivers of the late afternoon sun. The smell of mildew and rotting wood tickled his nostrils. He held his breath, resisting the urge to sneeze as he moved silently across to the shrouded windows and reached up to push the drapes apart. Too late, he saw the flash and heard the report.
Something stung the curve of his cheek. He whirled, ready to shoot, but whirling turned out not to be such a good idea.
Things got real hazy real fast. A fuzzy shadow loomed in front of him. He aimed, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t make his fingers hold on to the gun, and he couldn’t make his legs hold him up.
As the room tilted sideways, the haze before his eyes turned to black.
DAMN, HE HATED THE WAITING. He liked to be the one making the phone calls. When he had to wait to be called, he couldn’t control who might be listening.
He paced back and forth in front of the big picture window, with its panoramic view of the Black Hills, until he couldn’t stand it any longer. He yanked the blinds shut. He despised those desolate looming mountains. He’d seen enough of them to last him the rest of his life and beyond.
The prepaid cell phone hidden in his shaving kit rang.
Finally.
“Everything’s in place here.”
“No change here.”
“There better be a change soon.”
“I’m working on it. Do you have any idea of the level