Code Name: Ghost (A Warrior's Challenge 1) (39 page)

A couple hours later, a second deliveryman
appeared carrying a box. “I’m looking for Kayla Banks,” he said,
reading his portable clipboard.

“I’m Kayla.” She grinned, seeing the guy
holding a beautifully wrapped gift box about five inches
square.

“This is for you.” He placed it on her
console and held out the pen for her electronic signature.

“Have a good afternoon, ma’am.”

“You’re kidding me,” Gord scoffed, “more
presents? I didn’t forget your birthday, did I?”

“No, I stopped having birthdays about ten
years ago, smartass.” She turned the box on the console and pulled
the foil ribbon apart. The beautiful satin-brown wrapping paper
fell away to reveal an envelope sitting on top of a cardboard box.
Someone was definitely sending a message, and it wasn’t even
Valentine’s Day. She picked up the white envelope and turned it
over. No name and again she wondered if someone had made a mistake.
Cracking the lid of the box, she folded the tissue paper away with
one finger to reveal the contents.

“Oh, my God. Call security, Gord, call them
now.” She swung around. “Stop that delivery guy.” Bile burned the
back of her throat, threatening to erupt.

* * * *

Kayla’s strained call made both their heads
spring up, but he was out of his chair and around the corner before
Red could even get out from his desk. He nearly ripped the door off
its hinges. “Kayla what’s wrong?” Thane yelled.

“Get me a piece of foolscap, Gord,” she said
harshly.

Gord leaped out of the chair and ran across
the room to her console. “What?”

“A clean sheet of paper. Lay it here.”

Thane reached her side, and watched her open
the envelope carefully over the paper. “Kayla what the hell is the
matter? Why did you call for security?” They were already rushing
in the room with their hands on their weapons. “Stop,” he ordered,
and the two men came to a halt. Kayla tapped the card on the white
sheet and a long dark hair fell onto it.

“Okay,” she breathed.

He saw the box and pushed the tissue paper
aside. “Jesus, come here, sweetheart.” He snatched her into his
arms.

“Commander,” she whispered looking up at
him. “Don’t blow it away.”

Both of them gazed at the long hair, instead
of the severed finger laying in a bloody pool soaking into the fine
tissue paper.

“What’s going on?” Red asked, coming to
stand beside them.

“Red, call the NCIS unit, and the base
police. Get Lieutenant Manchester, he’s in charge of the Blood
Shark investigation, over here now.”

Red stared into the box and then jerked his
attention toward her with understanding. “Kayla, it’s going to be
all right,” he reassured her before heading to his office.

Someone called the base on the radio and she
picked up the mic. “Gord, take the call,” he ordered. He turned her
in his arms. “Remember what I promised you Kayla, I won’t let him
get near you.” Searching her eyes, he looked for a sign this would
throw her into an episode, she’d had two more over Christmas.
They’d come up fast and without warning, but it didn’t take long to
figure out it happened when she was left alone with her own
thoughts, so he’d goaded her every time he saw her falling into
reflection.

Seeing she remained clear and focused, he
curled her against him, and knew it was where he wanted her to
stay. Next to him, right next to him, and this time there would be
no argument.

The Blood Shark had taken a hiatus after
he’d chased her down at the docks, probably thinking she was being
watched, and she had been. Before he left on deployment, Thane had
made sure of that. The letter the Shark left in her Christmas tree,
he’d managed to hide from her. He and Manchester had conversed over
the phone, but Manchester didn’t divulge what had been inside. The
Shark’s hunger was back in play, and he was coming for Kayla, which
meant he’d just put a bullet between his own eyes. The Shark had
just called him out.

They waited patiently until five people
strode into the ops room, led by Red. “This is Commander
Austen.”

“Commander Austen,” A tall lanky officer
replied, removing his hat. “Ma’am, you’re Kayla Banks, is that
right?”

Kayla nodded.

“I’m Lieutenant Manchester with San Diego
NCIS. I’m in charge of the Blood Shark investigation. Can we talk
in another room?” he asked, surveying the surroundings. “Barker,
Hicks, I want you to interview the deliveryman. You’re probably not
going to find out any more than before, but do it anyway.” The two
uniformed men who flanked him nodded and left. The other two people
in the entourage approached the box, pulling on gloves.

A hefty man with thick glasses leaned over
it, nodded, and turned to Manchester. “It’s the same. The ring
matches the description we got from her husband. This is our
missing base police officer.” He carefully lifted the box and
inspected it. “Ma’am, this hair,” he asked, “did this come out of
the note?”

“Yes.”

“That’s different,” he said, pinning a look
on Manchester.

Kayla reached for her hair, pulling a strand
out and holding it out to the CSI technician. He cocked his head at
her. “It’s a message within a message.” They all turned to look at
her. “He wouldn’t be stupid enough to put his own hair in there,
and there’s plenty of DNA with the finger to identify the last
woman,” She paused looking up at him, her gaze hollow. “I think
you’ll find it matches mine. He’s saying he’s been close enough to
me already to take it from me.”

Thane’s heart shattered as a slice of fear
shot down his spine, a foreign feeling to him. Anxious, on edge,
ready—he knew, a cold biting fear, he hadn’t felt since the attack
in the desert.

The CSI investigator took her sample, popped
open a plastic bag and dropped it in. “We’ll test it.”

“Captain Redding,” Lieutenant Manchester
said, prompting him to lead the way.

Settling in the office, he placed himself in
the chair next to Kayla. He wanted to reach for her hand to give
her reassurance, but she didn’t seem to need any, and it bothered
him. He turned a purposeful gaze on Manchester. “Is this what he’s
done all along, and why haven’t we heard about it?

“We kept it quiet for obvious reasons. You’d
be surprised how many guys want to off their wives and will use
this to cover it up.”

Kayla’s brows quirked. He had to admit, he
was a little shocked at that himself.

“What else don’t we know?” Redding queried,
taking a seat behind his desk and pointing at an empty one for the
Lieutenant to take.

“Not a lot, I’m afraid, but the hair is new.
The note is different as well.”

“What does it normally say?” he asked.

The Lieutenant scanned all their faces, and
then as if trusting his present company he said, “The same as was
left in Kayla’s Christmas tree, ‘
I can’t wait to feel your warm
blood on my hands
.’”

“What?” Kayla exclaimed.

“You didn’t tell her?” Manchester
queried.

“What are you talking about?” Kayla flinched
and forked her fingers together.

This time his hand had a mind of its own and
he covered hers, squeezing it gently. The Lieutenant didn’t miss
it, and neither did Red. “I didn’t tell you, for obvious reasons.
The letter was left in your Christmas tree, Kayla. Why do you think
I was…” He stopped himself. If he said more, more would be asked.
He turned to Manchester. “So this time it’s very different.”

The Lieutenant leaned forward, eyeing him.
“Yeah, not sure why though.”

The note with the finger only had two words,
“You’re special.” He felt anger begin to well up, normally when
that happened he needed to kill something. His rage had a target,
but he had to keep his emotions under control and keep thinking,
for Kayla’s sake.

Manchester turned his hawk-like stare on
her. “Can you shed any light on that, Ms. Banks?”

Kayla and he exchanged a glance. “We think
he chased me once before.”

“I have that report. You didn’t see him, you
just ran,” he said as if accusing her.

“She ran for her life. If she had slowed
down to look, she’d be dead,” he growled at the Lieutenant.

Kayla spoke up. “I don’t usually spend any
extra time around the base. If I’m on base, I’m working. The only
time was…” She paused and swallowed hard.

He’d coaxed her out to the bar the day her
friends graduated, and then she’d put herself on the stage at
Christmas, and it was like throwing a spotlight on her. The only
other time would be at the galley, but his instincts told him the
Blood Shark had been in the bar. Maybe the Shark had been stalking
her all this while, but Thane had made sure she was always watched.
By Christmas, the Shark must have lost his patience, that’s why
he’d come into her condo and left the first note.

He remembered graduation night. “Kayla.” He
folded her hand in both of his. “Remember graduation, you were
walking back to the table. Someone grabbed you. I think he hurt
you. Who was that?”

Surprise crossed her features. “What? No, he
was just a little overzealous, that’s all.”

“Do you know him? Have you seen him before?
Have you seen him since?”

“No.”

“Do you remember what he looked like?”

“Not really. Maybe…” She paused thinking.
“It was dark, and there were so many people packed in there. He had
dark eyes, nothing really stood out on him. Just a guy.”

“Was he dressed in civilian clothes or a
uniform?

“He wore a camo jacket and pants,
practically bald, but isn’t everyone around here?” She shook her
head and offered a weak smile.

Shooting a look at the Lieutenant he asked,
“What else does he do?”

“That’s it, the next contact is usually…” He
cleared his throat and jerked his head. “Ms. Banks we’re—”

“We’re ready for our daily flailing,
Commander,” Mace said, bounding in the room with the rest of the
team behind him.

Cobbs stepped ahead and read the temperature
in the room immediately, putting his hand out, he scanned the
scene. “Uh, I guess we’re interrupting.”

“Come in, men, and shut the door,” he
ordered.

Lieutenant Manchester shook his head,
opposing the idea. “Commander, I—”

He put his hand up instantly. “Gather
’round, men.” None of his team delivered a smartass remark, sensing
something was very wrong. They edged up and circled them.

“This is confidential information,”
Manchester warned.

“I understand that, and they do, too. This
is my squad.”

The Lieutenant offered a cool stare.
“Men.”

They all nodded back, but remained silent,
their faces severe.

“We have a new mission,” he stated to them,
twisting in his chair.

Manchester gave his head a quick jerk. “No,
Commander, I know your team is renowned, but this is police
work.”

“Police work for who?” Tony asked, breaking
the team’s silence.

“Oh, shit,” Cobbs growled, and then they all
turned their eyes to Kayla.

“That’s right, the Blood Shark has his
crosshairs on Snow White.”

“Commander,” Kayla hissed at him and
clutched his hand hard.

He turned in his chair to see her eyes
widening, she began to shake her head as if she didn’t want him to
tell them. He turned his gaze on Manchester. “You’ve just added
eight new men to your team, and if I have to add the rest of the
SEAL units on the West Coast, I will. This stops now.”

“I did get a bouquet of flowers earlier,”
Kayla added quietly.

Every eye in the room turned to her.
Oh,
for fuck’s sake.
The groan almost escaped his lips.

“Did it have a note?” Manchester asked.

“Yes, but it wasn’t addressed to me. I
thought it was delivered here by mistake. I can get it.”

“Do that.”

She released his hand and quickly left the
room. It would take all of fifteen minutes to track down the flower
shop in a nearby strip mall. “Ah…” He darted a glance at Red, whose
expression cracked with a stupid grin on his old crow. He let out a
deep breath and cleared his throat. “Lieutenant, the flowers they
ah…” He didn’t have to look around to know his squad was burning
looks into his shoulder blades. “The flowers are from…from me.”
Someone behind him coughed out a chuckle, and he was pretty sure it
was Cobbs. He rolled his eyes.

“I see, but she doesn’t know it was you, is
that it?” Even the Lieutenant started to sport a grin.

He adjusted his girth in the chair and
nodded.

“Oh sure, you said—”

“Mace, you say one more word and you’re
doing a sixty-minute dead man’s float in the bay, today.” Mace
slapped his jowls shut instantly.

“Well,” Manchester began, opening his
briefcase and pulling out a file. “Then she’s got two admirers, one
that just might be able to protect her, because the others have all
failed.” He glanced at the door to make sure she wasn’t coming back
yet. “I pulled her personnel file. Her parents are deceased, she
has one half-sister, but they’ve had no contact for years. She owns
real estate in Canada. Uncle Sam just cleared her immigration
paperwork. She has no prior criminal or civil charges, not even a
speeding ticket. There’s a children’s nonprofit literacy
organization in the Coronado district she volunteers at, and she
purchased a condo at Ferry’s Landing.”

“And…” he prompted, reading the Lieutenant’s
hesitation.

The Lieutenant’s expression sobered. “And
she was married—once,” he said, flipping the paper in the file.
“I’m waiting for more information in that regard.”

NCIS knew how to dig. Since the cop’s
revelation, he hadn’t prodded Kayla, hoping she’d tell him in her
own time. Time was up. “What kind of information?”

A quiet bleep sounded from the Lieutenant’s
phone and he read the screen. Bringing the phone to his ear, he
listened for a long time. “There has to be some kind of error…” He
paused. “Understood, thank you.” He cleared his throat and hung up.
Manchester darted a look in his direction. “She’s thirty-six,
and—”