Covert Intents: A Branson Family Novella (9 page)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“
What
are you doing here?” The words were sputtered. Rachel barely remembered to keep her voice down.

Of all the things that had happened to her over the last couple of days: elevator falling, crazy kisses, finding out Seth was a federal agent, getting kidnapped; finding her cousin in Seth’s bathroom was definitely the most impossible to believe.

“I’m here to help. We’re going to get you out of this.”

“
We’r
e
? Who’
s
we’r
e
?”

Juliet grabbed Rachel by the shoulders gently. “Rachel, we don’t have much time before that buffoon comes back in here. I’m here with Seth, Cam, and Sawyer. We know about Lydia. How many others are here?

Rachel shook her head, trying to clear the mental cobwebs. “Two. Big guys. Scary.”

“You’re hurt,” Juliet whispered, touching her cheek.

“Not too bad. I’m okay.”

“Alright. Just be ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“Just get out of the way when the guys and I come in.”

Rachel shook her head slowly. “Okay. But why are you and the boys here? I don’t understand.”

Juliet smiled gently at Rachel, and kissed her on her uninjured cheek. “Yeah you do, cuz. You’ve known for a while. Seen the things nobody else in the family has. You were just too polite to ask.”

Of course. It all came together for Rachel. “You’re an agent too.”

Juliet reached behind Rachel and flushed the toilet then turned her toward the door. “Try to stay out of dodge when the crazy goes down.”

“Be careful. They’ve got guns,” Rachel said.

“So do we, sweetie.”

Juliet stepped back behind the shower curtain and Rachel walked back out the door.

#

The
drive from the hospital to his apartment had been the longest twenty minutes of Seth’s life. He was thankful it was a Saturday and the notorious D.C. traffic wasn’t such a problem.

Lydia was the other inside man. When the buyer couldn’t flip Ryan, he’d moved on to her. Evidently she’d been more willing. The Omega agents tailing Dr. Hudson had rushed his home on Cameron’s instructions a few minutes ago so they could bring him in, unsure if he was part of the ring or not.

They’d found him handcuffed to a chair. Left there by his “lover” Lydia. She’d been staying close to him to avoid suspicion and gather whatever information she could. She’d left him alive only so she could get details from him if she needed anything else. Hudson had no doubt Lydia had planned to come back and kill him once she was sure she had everything she needed.

Lydia could not be the one who’d hurt Ryan badly enough to put him in the hospital, but she was obviously running with people who were able and willing to commit such violence. Thugs who now had Rachel in their clutches.

Seth drove faster.

The Bransons were right behind him in their car. Everyone had their phones on speaker to formulate a plan.

“I have a front door, back door and window to my bedroom that is accessible from the road. But I don’t think I can fit through the opening.”

“Could I, Seth?” Juliet asked. She was small enough.

“Probably. You’ll need a boost.”

“We don’t know how many people are in there. If Rachel is hurt or incapacitated.” Cameron pointed out what Seth could barely stand to think about.

How had she come to mean so much to him in such a short time?

“I think our best bet is to storm multiple doors at once. Draw their fire and attention away from Rachel.”

It was a risky plan, not well formulated. But time was of the essence. Lydia and her crew knew the microchip was somewhere in Rachel’s possession —Ryan had told them that much. Once they found it, they wouldn’t have much reason to keep Rachel alive.

Still, storming in, just the four of them, with no vests, no assault rifles, no backup and no plan except to stop Lydia and whoever she was in league with?

The plan had holes large enough to drive a car through.

“I’m willing to listen if anybody else has any better ideas,” Seth said after his statement met with silence.

Rachel was these people’s family. They wanted her out unharmed just as badly as he did.

“We’re with you Seth. A not-great plan is better than no plan at all,” Sawyer said.

Seth had heard rumors about some of Sawyer’s “not-great” plans, including one that had involved punching their boss in the jaw and knocking him unconscious. But Sawyer still had his job, and even seemed to be on pretty friendly terms with Dennis Burgamy now, so maybe that story wasn’t true.

“I’ll get through the window,” Juliet said. “Gather whatever intel I can. I know it’s hard, but everyone sit tight until I text you. We don’t want to make a mistake that will hurt Rachel.”

The plan, or whatever it should be called, was formed. They had driven as fast they could to Seth’s apartment. Gotten Juliet through the window and now were waiting for her text.

Seth’s phone buzzed and her text came through.

Two big guys and Lydia. All armed. Rachel scared but not hurt. She knows we’re coming. But we need to move now.

Seth felt part of the weight that had settled on his chest dissipate. Rachel was still alive. They had gotten here in time.

Now he needed to focus on the task at hand. A raid in his own apartment. Fast.

The odds for getting his security deposit back were not looking good.

Sawyer had gone to evacuate the people who lived directly above and beside Seth. The apartment complex was pretty decent, but if bullets started flying, the walls may not stop them.

When they got the word the other apartments were clear, Seth signaled Juliet. They would all move in ten seconds. Seth and Cameron were at the back door, Sawyer was at the front, Juliet would be coming into the living area from his bedroom.

Engrained training took over for everyone. Seth didn’t have a key to the back door with him so they would have to break it to get in. He knew as soon as they slammed into it all hell would break loose.

3-2-1.

He motioned to Cameron and they hit it together, on the hinge side. A bolt would often hold against brute strength but hinges rarely did.

Seth saw the two big guys immediately. One was from the university yesterday.

“Federal agents. Put your hands in the air,” he called out.

Both reached for their guns instead. Seth and Cameron scattered in different directions in the living room and dropped to the ground to divide their targets as both thugs fired their weapons.

Seth heard his television smash into pieces behind him as a bullet hit it.

Too close.

He rolled and pushed himself quickly onto his feet as he shot off three rounds. The guy who had tried to take Rachel yesterday let out a groan before falling to the ground.

At the sound of the first gun firing, Juliet had come out of the bedroom. The bald thug, about to take another shot at Cameron was stopped by a bullet to the shoulder that spun him around.

“Drop the weapon, or the next shot won’t just wound,” Juliet told the man.

The man grimaced but dropped the gun to the floor. Juliet kicked it away.

“Down on the ground,” Seth told him. The man dropped to his knees.

Where was Rachel and Lydia? Seth only had a second to wonder before Lydia walked out from the kitchen using Rachel as a human shield. She had her in a chokehold with one arm; a gun pressed to Rachel’s temple. 

“Now now, folks. I’d hate for anyone else to get hurt. Especially Rachel here.”

Seth, Cameron and Juliet all swung their weapons toward Lydia.

“There’s no way you’re going to make it out of here alive, Lydia,” Seth said.

Lydia shot one eyebrow up. “That may be true, but you can damn well believe I’m not going to let your precious little book nerd live if I don’t. So everybody put the guns down.”

Seth lowered his weapon, as did Cam and Juliet. Where was Sawyer?

“Now, put them on the ground.”

They all reluctantly did so.

“Look at you, all secret agent,” Lydia sneered. “I should’ve known when you showed up at the restaurant all kissing on this one that you were on some sort of undercover work. As if you’d be interested in her otherwise.” She jerked Rachel tighter.

Seth looked at Rachel. Her breaths were short and labored as she tried to breathe around Lydia’s arm across her throat. Her eyes were terrified.

Hold on, baby.

“The reverse beauty and the beast story was just too good to be true,” Lydia continued. “When I realized I was being tailed today, I knew law enforcement was closing in, but I didn’t think it was you.”

“She means nothing to me, Lydia. Just part of the case, like you said. And while I’d hate for any innocent life to be lost, there is no way I’m letting you walk out with that microchip. That’s worth more than any one life.” Seth forced himself not to look at Rachel as he said the totally untrue words. He could feel acid burn in his gut at the thought of playing on Rachel’s worst fears.

Even if it meant saving her life.

He saw the knob of his front door turn. Sawyer was using Seth’s key to enter. The distraction would be Seth’s chance.

As Lydia took a step backwards with Rachel, Seth took a step forward. He caught Rachel’s eye, ignoring the tears brimming there, and motioned with his head for her to get ready to drop to the floor. She nodded. He hoped she understood.

When the door clicked open, Lydia was momentarily distracted. Seth dove for the two women while Rachel just folded her legs and let her body weight drop her to the floor. Lydia couldn’t hold them both up so was forced to release Rachel.

Just in time for Seth to come crashing into Lydia.

He heard a gunshot and felt a burn in his arm but was determined to get the harm away from Rachel. Once he landed on top of Lydia, wrestling the gun away and subduing her wasn’t difficult. He heard scuffling behind him and knew the Bransons were taking care of business also.

“We’re all clear back here,” Cameron called out. “You okay, Seth?”

“I’ve got Lydia. All clear.”

“I’m calling local PD to get some uniformed officers to this place. The neighbors around here are probably scared to death,” Juliet said.

Rachel was huddled against the wall, her big brown eyes struggling to take in everything going on around her.

“You okay, cuz?” Sawyer asked, winking at her.

She didn’t answer, just continued staring. She finally looked over at Seth.

“You’re hurt.”

Seth looked down at his arm where a bullet from Lydia’s gun had grazed him. Blood was oozing, but nothing serious. “Yeah, I’m going to need to get that looked at, but it’s really more a burn than anything else. I’m okay.”

He reached toward her, wanting to run a finger down her cheek, to assure her it was all going to be okay. She had a bruise on the side of her face and marks on her neck. Not to mention she was in shock.

But when she flinched away, Seth stopped. “Rachel…”

“No, don’t talk to me right now. I don’t want to talk to any of you.”

Her volume had picked up and her cousins had all stopped what they were doing and were staring at her.

“Rachel…” It was Sawyer who tried this time. Youngest of the four Branson siblings. Amiable, charming.

“No. You can’t come in here, rescue me like you’re some sort of super-commandos, then expect me to just roll with it. You’ve all lied to me. For years.”

Juliet stepped forward. “Rachel, we couldn’t—“

Rachel held out an arm to stop her. “I know. You couldn’t tell me. And I do understand that, believe it or not. But right now I want all of you to stay away from me.”

Seth reached for her again. “I’m so sorry—“

She stepped back so he couldn’t touch her. “You’ve told me the least amount of lies, but somehow yours hurt the worst. Stay away from me.”

She turned and walked out the door.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Rachel
took a cab home. It wasn’t that she was mad at her cousins or even Seth. But she just couldn’t be around them right now.

She was afraid if one more thing shook her world it might completely break apart.

She had spent the rest of Saturday putting her house back together from where Lydia’s partners had torn it apart looking for the microchip. She’d gotten a call from each of her cousins and Seth. When she hadn’t answered, they’d switched to texts. She had assured each of them that she was fine. That she wasn’t mad. That she just needed space. That she’d see them soon.

Well, she didn’t tell Seth that. She’d thought about Lydia’s venomous words suggesting that Seth had just used her. Rachel had almost let the words get the best of her, but had stopped herself. Seth had proved multiple times over, in his bed when they were alone and it wouldn’t have done his case any good, that he was attracted to her. More than attracted to her.

But she still needed to give that whole situation a lot of space. Because she knew for sure she couldn’t be with a man who had to lie to her all the time. Even if it was for her own protection.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

Quoting Shakespeare was easier than thinking about what may or may not ever happen with Seth.

Saturday afternoon a cleaning service showed up —services already paid for— to help Rachel get her big items re-situated. They were a huge help and had to have come from Seth. He was the only one who knew there were a number of items in her house she couldn’t lift or move herself.

It was thoughtful and made Rachel more confused than ever.

On Monday when Rachel went back on campus to teach her classes everything was in utter chaos on the computer engineering floor. Multiple offices were blocked off with police tape: Lydia’s, Ryan’s, the lab, the break room.

Rachel knew she’d eventually be brought in to give a statement. She wondered if she’d see Seth then. At least to tell him thank you for sending the cleaning crew if nothing else.

After class as she made her way back up to her office in the elevator —everyone had to face their fears sometime— she saw the custodian cart as she rounded the corner. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of seeing Seth again.

But when the custodian stepped out of the office Rachel realized it wasn’t him. It was someone else. Someone older. Someone trying to figure out why she was staring at him.

She said hello then fled to her office. Of course Seth wasn’t here. Seth wouldn’t be working here ever again now that the microchip was safely back where it belonged.

She had just put her teaching materials down when she got a call from Juliet. Rachel knew she couldn’t keep ignoring her family. Sooner or later they’d just show up if she did.

“Hey Jules, how are you?”

“Hey cuz. I’m actually downstairs in front of your building. Got some time to go in to my office and do some official stuff?”

“Right now?”

“You’re done with your classes, right?”

“Yeah. How’d you know that?”

She could hear the smile in Juliet’s voice. “I work with someone who is pretty familiar with your schedule.”

Seth.

“Oh. Um okay, I’ll be right down.”

Rachel expected her cousin to drive her to a police station but instead Juliet took her to a nondescript building in the middle of the business section of D.C. It looked like dozens of other buildings all around it. Rachel wasn’t sure she could even pick it out again if she had to.

Then she realized that was the point. Nothing about this building even whispered law enforcement.

Juliet took Rachel inside where she and her ID were scanned and studied by a guard. The man obviously knew Juliet, but was still thorough with checking out Rachel, before finally letting both women pass.

Juliet had to do a fingerprint and ID card scan in order to open the elevators. Then they went up.

“Am I here to give my statement?” she asked.

“We’ll need a written and verbal statement from you, but first we needed to go over some other stuff.”

Juliet led her out of the elevator and down the hall to a conference room. All her cousins were there, even Dylan, who hadn’t been a part of this weekend’s shenanigans. Rachel didn’t really know what was going on.

But she smiled at Dylan. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find you here either.”

Dylan wrapped her in a huge hug. “I don’t work here. Not any more. Not since Fiona died.”

Dylan’s pregnant wife had died due to a mugging gone horribly wrong years ago, or so Rachel had thought. Maybe there was more to that story too.

Cameron cleared his throat. “We brought you here because we wanted to formally apologize for having to lie to you for all these years.”

“I know you were doing your job.” Rachel couldn’t stay mad at them. They were her family. The only family she had left.

Sawyer grinned and reached over to give her a one-armed side hug. “We knew you were too sweet to stay mad at us, but we still wanted to apologize.”

“We worked all day yesterday to get this packet approved,” Juliet said, sliding a stack of papers across the conference table. “Once you sign those, we can tell you more about what we do. Where you are.”

“It’s like a non-disclosure agreement or something?”

“Yes. We got approval for you to get clearance about our job. Parts of it anyway. What you sign there is an agreement to tell absolutely no one about it,” Juliet explained.

“And if you do, you go to jail,” Cameron smiled, but Rachel knew his words were serious.

“If you don’t want to sign, don’t want to know, it’s fine,” Sawyer cut in to lighten the mood. “Nobody is going to take you out back to kill you or anything.”

Part of Rachel wanted to put the papers down. To just smile at her family and say no thank you and leave.

To put her head back in books where it had always been. Safe. Boring.

But if she wanted any chance of being a part of Seth’s world, this was a step she’d have to take.

“Okay, I’ll sign.”

The ink wasn’t even dry on the paper before they all said, “Welcome to the covert operations division of Omega Sector.”

She laughed. “You’re going to have to explain to me what that even means.”

“Actually sweetie, we’ve got someone else who will do that.” Juliet reached down and kissed her on the cheek. “We’ll see you in just a little bit.”

Probably some sort of orientation or something. She hugged her cousins in a big group hug.

“I love you guys.”

“We love you too, hun,” Cameron whispered. “And I’m thinking we may not be the only ones.”

Before Juliet could ask what he meant, they filed out the door.

Seth walked in.

He looked good in gray pants and a white collared shirt with the sleeves turned up. He smiled at her and she couldn’t help but smile back. She saw the heat in his eyes and knew that she’d been right not to let Lydia’s words upset her.

This man definitely wanted her.

#

Seth
took a step closer to Rachel. It had been so difficult to keep away from her for the last thirty-six hours. Everything in him had screamed to go to her. To make sure she was alright. To explain and hold her while she processed it all.

But he couldn’t. Not until she’d been cleared and the paperwork had been signed. Now it had.

“I work for a covert section of a law enforcement agency called Omega Sector. There are many divisions, but the one we’re in right now specializes in undercover operations. That’s why everything we do is top secret.”

He took a step closer to her, relieved when she didn’t take a step back or flinch away.

“I couldn’t tell you, Rachel. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to lie to you, but it was part of the job.”

“Seth—“

He didn’t want to hear what she had to say, afraid it was still a rejection. That too many lies had passed between them. That he’d used her.

All of it was true.

“Rachel, please forgive me. We couldn’t take a chance on that microchip falling into the wrong hands. It could’ve caused the loss of thousands of lives. I know I stepped over some lines with you—“

“Seth.”

“—And I’m sorry. But I don’t think I would change anything even if I could go back—”

She kissed him.

He wasn’t expecting it, and the air swooshed from his lungs as she pushed him back against the closed conference room door.

The heat was instant and he had his arms wrapped around her in moments, pulling her closer.

“No more lies between us,” she murmured in her sweet voice. “If I ask you something you can’t answer, you just tell me you’re not at liberty to say and I won’t press you any further.”

“Got it, Dr. Almost.” He pulled her in for another kiss.

“I can promise you this,” he said after a few passionate moments. “I never faked my attraction to you. Not once. Ever. You are everything I want.”

“That’s good because I think you’re going to have a hard time getting rid of me. Janitor or secret agent, you’re all mine.”

That was one mission he’d be glad to fulfill.

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