Leather & Lace: Trident Security Book 1 (20 page)

Kristen must've been just waking up when he entered his office as her eyes blinked several times before she stretched and smiled seductively at him. "Good afternoon."

He crossed the room and sat on the edge of the couch next to her. "How are you feeling? Did you sleep well?"

"Mmm-hmm. How long was I out?"

He glanced at his watch. "About an hour and a half. You earned it." He chuckled as her cheeks flamed.

"Is he still here?"

"No, Pet. Carter had to leave. But next time he stops by, I'll give you two a formal introduction." His grin faded. "I have to cancel dinner tonight. Something's come up but I still want you to spend the night in my bed. I don't know what time I'll be back in my apartment, maybe around nine or ten, but you can go over anytime you want. If you come with me now, I'll have Brody scan your hand print into the system. It won't get you in every secure area but it'll open the gate and my apartment for you."

Her eyes and smile widened. "Wow. Is this your version of giving me the key to your place?"

Laughing, Devon stood. "Yeah, I guess it is. And I want you naked as the day you were born when I get there. Now, come on; let's go see Brody. We have pizza being delivered in a little bit so I'll feed you before you go."

A half hour later with her skirt straightened, bra back on and hair down from its bun, Kristen sat in the conference room with Beau at her feet. She ate her pizza and listened as the sexy six-pack and Jenn talked about everyday subjects. It was obvious how close they all were, and their easy banter and teasing was fun to listen to. "I have a question. Why do you call Devon, Devil Dog? I mean, it's obviously a play on his name but is there something more to it?"

Everyone laughed as Devon rolled his eyes and sighed. "It goes back to a parachuting practice-demonstration we were doing right after I joined Team Four. We were doing high-altitude jumping. After I jumped, I decided to see how many somersaults I could do before I had to pull my cord. Normally it wouldn't have been an issue but what no one told us was Admiral Richardson, a real stickler for protocol and stuff, was watching with a bunch of other big-wigs on the ground. After I land, the admiral gets in my face, reaming me a new asshole. He was beat red, yelling at me and some of his words were getting jumbled. I guess instead of asking me if I thought I was a daredevil, he asked me if I was a devil dog. The next day someone had emptied my locker at the base and filled it to the top with Drakes' Devil Dogs, those little chocolate cakes." Staring at his way-too-innocent-looking teammates he added, "I still don't know who did it but I was eating Devil Dogs for months."

"Yup, and the bastard didn't share either," Brody piped up. "And he wasn't happy with his new call sign for a long time since 'Devil Dog' is a standard in the Marines. Of course, when someone doesn't like their call sign, it pretty much becomes permanent."

Kristen smiled, "I guess he didn't like it because of the rivalry between the Navy and Marines, right?" Devon nodded around a bite of pizza and rolled his eyes again. "So does everyone else have a nickname?" She looked at Brody. "Yours is egg-something, right?

"First off, darlin' they're not nicknames...they're call signs. And yes, mine's Egghead, a bow to my superior computer hacking skills. By the way, we've already approved of your call sign. I'm diggin' the Ninja-girl tag."

She gaped at Devon. "Seriously? You told them?"

He just grinned and shrugged his shoulders as everyone else laughed. From there, the men went around the table.

"I'm the explosives and demolition man, so I ended up Boomer," Ben told her. "Nothing embarrassing about it."

"Except when we call him Baby Boomer," Jake said, making the younger guy groan and flip his buddy the middle finger. "Mine's Reverend. I'm a sniper and when I first joined Team Four, one of the guys said I was sending my targets to meet their maker.

"Yup and because everyone feels the need to confess their sins to you, Father Donovan." The room filled with laughter again. "Anyway, I'm Polo."

When Marco didn't explain further, Kristen asked, "Why Polo?"

The room got quiet and she was confused as everyone, including Jenn, stared at her. Brody deadpanned, "Wait for it."

Wait for what? What was the big deal about calling Marco, Polo? The second her eyes lit up, Boomer chuckled. "Ding, ding, ding...she gets it, just under the wire."

She giggled. "Okay, so I was a little slow on that one. I get it now. From
The Travels of Marco Polo
and the game. We used to play it in the pool when I was a kid." She looked over at the man who'd yet to answer "So, Ian, what's your nickname, I mean call sign?"

Before he could respond, Brody jumped in. "He doesn't have one, at least not any we can say in front of two pretty ladies. We tried a few names for him over the years but nothing ever stuck. Now he's the Boss-man."

Ian smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "And don't you forget it, ass-hat."

* * *

After they finished eating, Devon walked Kristen to her car and kissed her sweetly before he opened her door for her. "I'll see you later, Ninja-girl. And don't forget, you better be naked when I get there."

He watched as she drove away with a wide grin on her face. His own smile faded when her car disappeared through the outside perimeter gate as his thoughts returned to what they now had to put Jenn through. Making her relive the events leading up to her parent's murders was going to be hard on her but Doc Nelson agreed to meet with her and Ian first thing in the morning to help her deal with the repercussions. When Devon walked back into the conference room the rest of them had cleaned up their meal and Ian had moved to sit right next to Jenn, ready to offer his god-daughter the support she was sure to need. Even Beau seemed to sense she would need him because he was now sitting on her other side with his big head resting on her thigh as she stroked his silky-soft ears. The dog's eyes were closed in what had to be canine ecstasy.

They all remained quiet as Ian took Jenn's hand and spoke to her. "Baby-girl, we have to ask you some questions and I wish we didn't but it's important."

The young woman's eyes widened at Ian's serious yet gentle tone. "What's wrong, Uncle Ian?"

"We need you to think back to the days and weeks leading up to your parent's murders. Did anything happen that you thought it was weird at the time? Was your dad nervous or upset or worried about something? Did he ask you or your mom anything odd? Did you see anyone near your house who was a stranger to you or if you knew them, was it unusual for them to be there?"

They watched as Jenn's eyes filled up but to her credit, her tears didn't fall. She took a deep breath. "Something else happened, didn't it? Something happened to make you think my parents weren't killed because some burglar didn't expect anyone to be home when he broke in, right?"

Ian sighed, hating what he had to tell her. "We received some information this afternoon which possibly links your parents' deaths to Eric's hit and run accident, which we now believe was no accident." He paused and Devon knew this was killing him. "Sweetheart, Quincy Dale was found shot to death in his cabin. He'd been killed about three months ago. His brother went to check on him after he hadn't heard from him."

Jenn's hand covered her mouth in shock. They'd known she was going to take Dale's death hard. The man had been a big American history buff and always captured Jenn's attention with stories from Christopher Columbus' discovery all the way through to the twenty-first century. Though Dale had withdrawn from pretty much everyone else, he stayed in contact with Jenn through emails and the occasional phone call. She was the only one who could bring a smile to his scarred face these past few years. He even left his lonely mountain twice for her–to attend her parents' funeral and then to watch her graduate from high school three months later. Devon realized Dale had probably returned from Jenn's graduation right before he was murdered. Jenn could no longer hold her tears back.

"Oh, no! Not Quincy! I sent him a couple of emails over the summer but with the move, school and work, I just realized he hadn't answered me. He would do that sometimes when he got into one of his funks, and then send me a whole bunch of emails at once. Uncle Ian, what's happening? Quincy was the nicest man in the world. Why would someone kill all of them?" Her questions may've been addressed to Ian but she turned her head to survey all of them, hoping someone had an answer for her.

Devon spoke to her softly. "We don't know, Baby-girl, but we will find out, I promise and you know I don't make promises I can't keep."

"I know, Uncle Devon," she whispered before clearing her throat and speaking up again. "Okay, so let me think. You know I was at my friend's house the night...the night it happened. I'd also spent most of the day shopping with Dana and so I only saw my parents that morning. I remember they were talking in the kitchen when I went down for breakfast. Dad said...he said something like, if he needed to, he would call you, Uncle Ian, but he wanted to look into something first. They changed the subject when I walked in and I didn't think anything of it since you two were always on the phone with each other and Dad had done some research and work for you before. The week before, Dad was also out more than usual and in his home office on the computer a lot. I remember a few nights when he didn't come home until after dinner. When I asked him where he'd been, he said he'd been working on something for you and it was no big deal."

"For me?" Ian asked with a confused expression on his face. When Jenn nodded, he looked at Devon. "I didn't ask him to look into anything for me. Did you?"

"No." Devon shook his head as the other men all denied having asked Jeff to look into anything.

Jenn sighed. "I'm sorry I don't remember more but nothing else stands out. I mean it was six months ago and I was such a mess after."

Ian lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. "It's okay, Baby-girl. If you think of anything else, let one of us know. For now though, I want you to stay at your room here. I don't think you're in any danger but I'd rather not take any chances. Tomorrow morning there'll be a few men assigned to protect you when you're not with us. I know you can't miss any classes if it can be avoided, but Mike is giving you the next few days off until we get a better idea of what's going on."

Her bottom lip trembled and six Navy SEAL hearts were breaking for her. "Are you...are you all in danger?"

Ian stood and pulled their niece to her feet and hugged her tight. "Nothing's going to happen to us, Baby-girl. You're going to be stuck with us for a long time."

* * *

The assassin answered his vibrating phone from his current perch in a tree a fair distance away from the fenced-in compound. "What?"

"How long do you expect this to take?"

The man funding his current excursion sounded anxious after having been calm the past six months. "Why, has the time frame been changed?"

"The party wants to make an announcement in two weeks. I want this dead and buried, literally, before it happens. If any of them are still alive, certain things may come to light and I refuse to accept the possibility."

"It'll be done by then. After the rest of my money is deposited into my account, you'll never hear from me again and this number will no longer be available."

He hung up, not caring if the other man had anything else to say. Picking up his binoculars, he went back to watching the increased activity at the compound. On Monday, the four men he'd been hired to kill had boarded a plane to Iowa to attend the funeral of their fallen teammate, along with the other two and the Mullins girl. He'd been a little surprised to see her. After her parents' death, he'd assumed she would go live with her father's family, but it made no difference to him either way. She cheated death once, but if she, or anyone else, ended up being collateral damage this time around, it didn't matter to him.

Until today, the compound had been quiet with only one security guard at the front gate which gave him the opportunity to check out the security systems. But he'd been pissed to find Trident Security was closely monitored by multiple cameras and sensors stationed inside and outside the fences. Whoever designed their system was good–almost too good. He had yet to find a way past their defenses. There was also a big dog which appeared to be well-trained in addition to being a pet.

If it hadn't been difficult before, with the amount of people going in and out of the compound today, it was damn near impossible to penetrate. Devon Sawyer and the woman who he'd learned was their secretary had been the only ones in there during the morning. Then around noon, the secretary left in a huff and about an hour later an unknown woman arrived. He'd wondered if Sawyer was banging them both but then an unexpected person showed up.

Carter. He didn't know if it was a first or last name. He only knew the man was so dark in the world of black ops that many informants and contacts whispered the guy's name in awe and fear. While he'd never met or dealt with the agent or whatever his title was, from the stories he'd heard, anyone who'd ever underestimated the man was either dead or missing and presumed dead.

A few minutes before two p.m. was when it started getting crowded in the compound. The rest of the former SEALs showed up along with three people who carried themselves like feds. Then all was quiet and mundane again for a while. The feds and Carter left, pizza and the Mullins girl showed up, and about a half hour later, the unknown woman drove away. He watched as Devon Sawyer kissed her and knew he had the answer to one of his questions.