Avenged (Hostage Rescue Team Series) (Volume 5) (9 page)

Ayman straightened. “What about the computer system at the office building where my father works? Would that work?”

Jaleel frowned. “How new is the system?”

“Just got upgraded a few months ago.” Ayman shrugged, not seeing any other viable option at the moment. “We won’t even have to break in, my father will let us inside. We’ll tell him it’s for an assignment you’re working on for your master’s thesis. That your computer’s busted and you have a deadline coming up. He’ll let us if he thinks it’s for school.”

Jaleel hesitated. “We shouldn’t involve your father in this. Not even in such a small way. He’s smart, Ayman, he might figure out what we’re doing. And as soon as I hack in, it’s only a matter of time before the FBI finds out as well. I can cover my tracks well enough, but I can only buy us time. And probably not much of it.”

They didn’t have any other choice, so they’d have to risk it. “He won’t, because he’ll be too busy doing his job.” Cleaning an entire nine story building before business hours tomorrow morning.

It was one of the things that made Ayman most angry about coming here. In Syria his father had been a respected government official in their city. Now he was reduced to menial labor as a janitor, working graveyard shifts six days a week just to pay the rent and put food on the table for the rest of the family.

Ayman wanted more, wanted to strike back at the country he blamed for Syria’s woes. The money offered to him only sweetened the deal. “And we’ll go on the move as soon as we’re done. We’ll have a good head start from the FBI.”

“What kind of security do they have there?”

He blew out a breath. “A few guards, but my father knows them all. Their system’s password protected and whatever. And they’ll have cameras. We’ll have to hide our faces without looking suspicious.”

“I won’t know until we’re in there, but yeah, I can get us in to pretty much anything. The hotel security systems are likely on an intranet network, so I’ll have to use special equipment to access those, which will be a red flag for anyone monitoring the site.” He licked his lips, his tension obvious as he shook his head slowly. “You and I both accepted the risks involved with this back when we joined the group, and we’re prepared to go on the run. But your father…he’s a good man. If it comes down to it, are you willing to let him go to jail for us?”

Ayman ignored the sudden rise in his pulse and pushed aside the guilt forming inside him. “He won’t. Even if they figure out who we are and what we’re doing, they won’t have any evidence against him. Besides, you’re the best hacker The Brethren have. If anyone can find her, it’s you.” Whatever the cost, whatever they had to do, they had to find her.

Jaleel didn’t look convinced. “All right, if you’re sure.”

Ayman was already in too deep. He didn’t have a choice now. “We can’t back out now. You know what will happen if we do.” They’d both wind up dead, cut into pieces and dumped into the Potomac as a former member of their group had been a month before when he’d balked about an operation he’d been tasked with.

Apparently the man had been about to go to the FBI to turn everyone in. The Brethren had sent a death squad after him. Men like Darwish, trained in militant camps throughout the Middle East and south Asian countries.

Men Ayman never wanted coming after him.

They were all playing a dangerous game. For Ayman, winning it was the only way out.

****

As Nathan drove them down the darkened highway, he glanced over at Taya in the front passenger seat. “You doing okay?”

She made herself nod. “Fine.” It was just the two of them, which was a relief, but her mind was spinning. She couldn’t stop thinking about Chloe, about the horrific ways she might have died at her captors’ hands after surviving so much. The possibilities turned her stomach.

“Were you and Chloe close?” he finally asked, correctly guessing the direction of her thoughts.

That was harder to answer than she realized. “Not close in the normal sense, no. The men kept us apart from one another as much as possible, to avoid us making escape plans. But she was so young. I remember when they first brought her in, she was terrified.” She shook her head, lost in memory for a moment, of Chloe’s blue eyes so wide with fear that the whites showed all around the irises. “When I had contact with her I did what I could to comfort her, tried to make the transition easier for her, but it wasn’t much.” A kind word here and there, a hug. Stolen minutes of whispered conversation, giving her advice that would hopefully help her avoid some beatings.

Nathan made a growling sound in his throat and tightened his hands on the wheel, a muscle flexing in his jaw. “Fucking bastards,” he muttered under his breath.

Yep. “The man she was given to was one of the most brutal.” Her voice hitched on the last word. “She had it way worse than I did. He got off on beating her for the slightest thing, like making eye contact with anyone, or crying. Any excuse he could find to punish her.”

Taya hadn’t realized until later how fortunate she’d been that Hassan had chosen her. The last time she’d seen Chloe had been in one of the endless string of mountain villages they’d been moved to in an effort to escape detection by anyone searching for them. Chloe’s eyes had both been recently blackened, one swollen nearly shut. She’d walked with her head down, shoulders hunched, cowering anytime one of the men came near.

Broken. It made Taya’s eyes sting to think of it.

“Goddamn it,” Nathan muttered, shaking his head. “It makes me want to punch something, to know you and the others were treated like that.”

Taya understood all too well the helpless fury he felt. At first after she was captured she’d assumed the U.S. government was searching for her. That they’d launch some sort of secret rescue op and get her out. But weeks had turned into months and no one had come for her. She hadn’t learned the truth until after she’d come home. Turns out her own government had left her in captivity because they didn’t want to risk blowing Hassan’s position in Qureshi’s network. They’d weighed the major bust he’d been close to giving them as more important than her life or freedom. All of that had been covered up of course, so there was no hard evidence for her to use against them in a lawsuit.

Knowing they’d abandoned her was one of the hardest things for her to get past.

So many times during those months as a prisoner she’d thought about running, risking everything just for a chance at freedom. But knowing what would happen to the other women if she did had always stopped her cold. They’d all have been tortured and then slaughtered because of her actions.

She was quiet a moment, staring out her window as the scenery flashed by in the darkness. “I think the worst part is to know she survived all that, actually made it home and got into WITSEC, and now she’s gone anyway.”

Nathan drew in a deep breath then reached across the console for her hand. His fingers wrapped around hers, strong and sure.

Oh, his hands.
Callused at the base of the fingers, fingertips slightly rough, but so gentle on her.

He squeezed. “It’s not exactly classified, but the bastard she was given to was killed when she was rescued. And whoever took her this time will get what’s coming to them.” It sounded like a vow.

“I hope so.” She shook her head, tried to make sense of it all. “God, I hope so.”

Nathan didn’t say anything else, just kept holding her hand and for that she was grateful. The physical contact made her feel less alone, not as lost. This madness had to end. She would get up on that witness stand whenever she was called, and earn justice for Chloe and the others.

Let it go. There’s nothing you can do for now. Let it go, before it eats a hole inside of you.

She’d lived with a giant black hole inside her for the better part of two years after coming home. She refused to let it take over her again.

With effort she exhaled and sought her center, focused on everything she had to be grateful for. Her health. Her father and brother. Finding Nathan again after all this time.

“So where are we going?” she finally asked as he drove west away from the base.

He’d left his truck parked there and taken an unmarked SUV instead, in case anyone was looking for them. He’d explained that the hotel security cameras would have both of them on video, so there was a chance someone would be able to see them coming and going from the hotel. Cruz was in another vehicle not far behind them and other agents were on call as well, available to them if they wanted extra backup. Nathan had told her they might use a rotating team, or just stick with him, Cruz and Vance, depending on what intel came to light in the next twelve hours or so.

“My commander’s house,” he answered.

She glanced over at him in surprise. “Are we staying there?” She understood that she would have people guarding her during this trip, but she still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of going to someone’s home—she didn’t want to put DeLuca or anyone else at risk. Too many people had already been in harm’s way to protect her, and now Nathan was as well. If anything happened to him she didn’t know if she could take it.

“No, just making a quick stop to grab a few things.”

His enigmatic answer made her curious but she didn’t ask anything else on the short drive over to a residential neighborhood close to base. Nathan pulled into the driveway of a white two-story house with a long porch across the front. He took the keys from the ignition just as Cruz appeared in a silver Bureau-loaned SUV behind them and parked alongside the curb. She didn’t know where Vance was, but assumed he was somewhere nearby.

“Come on, she’s expecting us.”

Taya followed him up the short walkway and up the steps to the front porch. The door opened even before his finger pressed the doorbell. A dark-haired, fit-looking woman somewhere in her mid-twenties stood in the threshold, dressed in snug jeans and a thin black sweater. “Hey. Come on in.” She stepped aside to let them enter and closed the door, locking it behind her. “I’m Briar.”

Taya noticed that the woman didn’t offer a hand to shake, so she kept her hands at her sides. “Taya.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” Taya shot a questioning look at Nathan. Was this woman DeLuca’s… daughter? No, that couldn’t be right, unless he’d become a father in his teens. Niece maybe?

“Briar’s my commander’s better half,” Nathan told her in an amused tone.

“Oh.” She covered her surprise. There was a pretty big age difference between them, but having known Briar for all of six seconds, Taya could already see the razor sharp edge to her. Similar to that military bearing Nathan and his teammates had. It made her seem much older than she looked.

“Thank you for that,” Briar said to him, a smirk on her face as she turned and led the way into the kitchen. “I’ve got everything ready in here for you.”

What did she mean by
everything
? When Taya came around the corner she saw the items laid out on the kitchen island. Clothes, makeup.

“I wasn’t sure how big a transformation you guys had in mind, so I’ve laid out some stuff you can choose from,” Briar said. She settled her gaze on Taya, and this time Taya recognized the timeworn look in those dark eyes. Whatever had happened to Briar in the past, she hadn’t lived an easy life. “Wig or hair color?”

Taya glanced at Nathan for help. “I…”

“We’ll just take a bunch of options with us,” he said to Briar, reaching past them to grab some items and put them into a bag she’d left on the countertop. “You got the ID ready?”

“It’s here.” Briar gathered up what looked like a driver’s license and maybe some credit cards. “I digitally lightened her hair color in the pictures, so she’ll have to go lighter too.”

“Perfect.”

“And you’ll need this,” she said to Taya, picking up a new cell phone. “It’s encrypted. Have you made or received any calls from the burner phone?”

“Yes, from Nathan.”

She nodded. “I’ll transfer all your contacts and whatever else you need into the new one, and you’ll leave that burner with me so I can take it apart and make sure no one can trace anything.”

Holy. “Wow, okay then.”

Briar grinned and shrugged. “Tech stuff isn’t my area of expertise, but I can handle this kind of thing.”

“Just what is your area of expertise?” Taya asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

A slow smile stretched Briar’s mouth, and a satisfied gleam entered her espresso-colored eyes. “Long guns.”

Long guns? “You mean…rifles?”

Briar gave a terse nod. “Yes.”

“What it means is, she’s one of the best shooters in the world, she’s just not gonna say that out loud. She can outshoot most military and law enforcement guys I know with a sniper rifle, including me,” Nathan interjected, his voice shaded with a hint of amusement and a whole lot of admiration. “Except for maybe her other half and the shooters on our sniper teams. But she holds her own with them too on the range.”

Whoa. Taya eyed her with newfound interest, trying to imagine this trim, petite woman as capable of being that lethal. “Okay, now I’m fascinated. And a little intimidated, to be honest.”

Briar’s cheeks turned pink and she frowned as though uncomfortable with the praise, and shot what seemed like a censoring look at Nathan. He obviously wasn’t supposed to have told Taya that much, and she wondered why. “Everybody’s got their own strengths,” Briar said, waving a hand away in dismissal.

“Actually, you two have a lot more in common than you might think,” Nathan said to Taya now. “Maybe after the trial’s over and things have settled down you guys can do lunch or something. Briar’s got some very interesting friends she might decide to tell you about. And if you’re lucky, she’ll even let you live afterward.” His eyes danced with amusement as he said the last part.

Now Briar shot him a warning, narrow-eyed look. He just grinned at her, managing to look both sexy and adorable at the same time. Then Briar shifted her gaze to Taya. “Anyway, enough small talk. Let’s get your phone set up so you guys can hit the road.”

Fifteen minutes later she was back in the SUV with a new phone and a bag full of things to change her identity. Nathan plugged his phone into the charger in the center console before wandering down to the curb to talk with Cruz for a minute and Taya took the time to gear up for these next few days. She’d have to dye her hair as soon as they got to the hotel.