Freeing Jasper Read online

“Affirmative,” Lenox answered.

  “Why don’t you break this down Barney style and walk me through why you thought it was a good idea to kill two bank robbers on American soil. You’re not playing in the sandbox, Christ Almighty. At least I can partially contain the intel on this base.”

  Yep, the Commander was pissed.

  “I called in my team for backup, they’re easier to contain. And frankly, I don’t trust an MP to have my six. I had no intention of killing any of them. My plan was to disarm and detain. The plan was shot to shit when douchebag number one pointed his gun in my goddamn face. I took exception to the threat and feared for my personal safety. After he was properly dealt with, douchebag number two pointed his gun at me, I couldn’t get a clean shot off so I only winged him and he fled the scene. Douche number three took one between the eyes when in his infinite wisdom he thought it was a good idea to point a gun at Emily’s head.”

  I hadn’t meant to mention Emily by name. Lenox’s eyebrows shot to his hairline at the same time the Commander asked, “So, this is personal?”

  “Not at all,” I answered. Damn, I cannot believe I slipped.

  “What then? Not enough action. You thought you’d swoop in and save the day?”

  “No, sir. I was just trying to save the Army’s investment. It’d be expensive to train another operator with my skill set.”

  “Wiseass. What did the hostages see?” he asked.

  “Not a damn thing. When Levi and I entered from the rear, both women were hugging each other in the corner out of the line of sight. Levi stayed with them, and I entered the lobby to provide backup for Jasper. The situation was contained by the time I entered,” Lenox explained.

  The Commander’s face was bright red, and I actually thought he might stroke out at any moment.

  “Contained? You call this contained. What about the other girl?”

  “She was under her desk and didn’t see anything.” I respected the hell out of the Commander. He was a good man and had served on the front lines, but if he thought I was going to stand down while three innocent lives were in danger, he didn’t know me very well. “I apologize for your trouble but not for my actions. They were justified, and I’m prepared for whatever action needs to be taken.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, you’ll fall on your sword. I need to know Lenox, did you or Levi fire your weapons?”

  “No,” Lenox assured the Commander.

  “And what about you, Andy Griffith? Did you fire your personal weapon?”

  Now, who was the wiseass?

  “No. You’ll find that body number one’s cause of death is from a hangman’s fracture. I used his gun, thought I’d save my ammo.”

  The Commander uttered a few more expletives under his breath and walked around the lobby shaking his head as he went. I glanced at Lenox, taken aback by the wide smile plastered on his face.

  Before I could ask why the hell he was smiling, the Commander stopped in front of us. “I’ll send in a crew to scrub the scene. I want that videotape at the hangar in twenty minutes. I want a sworn statement from all three hostages they didn’t see anything. We don’t have time for this. I have a lock on Roman’s pilot. I want him brought in. If Roman was telling the truth before he was taken out and he had an inside man in our ranks, I want to know before I send another team out.”

  Now I understood why the Commander was over-the-top mad. It wasn’t like I had caused an international incident. Hell, I was within my legal rights to protect myself from personal danger. He didn’t want me caught up in an investigation that would make it impossible to leave on a mission. He could, obviously, waiver me through the system, but that would draw attention to me. Attention that we couldn’t afford.

  The Commander left, leaving me alone with Lenox. “What’s the smile for?”

  “You snapped his neck? Christ, there’s something wrong with you. Why can’t you just shoot bad guys like a normal person? It’s always up close and personal for you.”

  I didn’t bother answering. I didn’t like having to kill anyone, but I would if I had to. Lenox was referencing my ability to eliminate a threat with my bare hands or blade if necessary. Some men preferred the impersonal nature of a gun. We were all trained to kill by any means, but some men faltered when it came to wet work, so to speak. Not me.

  I opened the door to the manager’s office to find Emily sitting in a chair by herself. Levi was softly speaking to the other two women who were still crying. I was surprised that Emily had remained calm and collected through the whole ordeal. A sense of pride welled in me. A feeling I didn’t want to examine.

  “Hey.” I knelt down in front of her and waited for her to look at me.

  “Hi,” she spoke so softly I could barely hear her.

  “The Commander needs you and the other tellers to sign a statement. Do you think you can do that?” Emily nodded. “And ask the other two tellers, as well?”

  “Sure.”

  Maybe she wasn’t handling this as well as I had first thought. She was staring into my eyes, but hers were flat and lifeless. My heart squeezed. I didn’t like the fear I saw. Without another word, she got up, forcing me to stand as well. I watched as she walked over to the other two women and spoke to them. Hugging them both trying to soothe them. They nodded at whatever Emily was saying to them. Levi was standing closest to them and handed Emily a yellow legal pad. The first woman jotted something down on the tablet and handed it to the other woman. She did the same thing and gave it to Emily. After Emily wrote her statement, she walked back to me and handed me the pad.

  “Here. Is it okay if I leave now?” she asked.

  There was no spunk in her tone, no playful smile on her lips like there was the first time I met Emily. She was a beautiful woman, but what made her absolutely stunning was her sassy sense of humor and smile. She had been easy to talk to that afternoon. Her playfulness was painfully gone.

  “Sure, I’ll drive you home. I don’t think it’s a good idea if you drive.” I scanned the statements she had given me. All three women had said the same thing. Three gunmen and no one saw the actual shooting. Perfect.

  “No, thank you. I have to pick up Jason from my mom’s house first.”

  The son.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and remembered what had put a screeching halt to my flirting with Emily. She had a kid. I was trying to come up with something to say or tamp down my irrational panic when Lenox spoke up.

  “I’ll drive you, Emily. Lily would have my balls in a sling if I let you drive. Considering we’re trying for another baby, I sorta need them,” he joked.

  “Okay,” she agreed.

  That rankled. She told me no but would let Lenox take her to pick up her son. That’s what I wanted, right? A way out. Lenox saved me by offering her a ride. I should’ve been happy she was safely getting home, and I didn’t have to do it. But I was irked instead.

  “Alright. I’ll see you at the office, Lenox.”

  Lenox was right, there was something wrong with me. I needed to get the hell away from Emily and stop thinking about her. For the last six months, I have thought back to the day I met the raven-haired beauty and wondered what it was about her that calmed my ever-racing mind. We talked about nothing important or personal, not that I did that anyway, with anyone. She didn’t overtly hit on me, but she did give as good as she got in the flirtation department. But it was different when she did it, she wasn’t trying to be sexy to get me into bed. She was friendly and spirited. I had no idea why this woman got to me, but she did.

  I was shocked when I saw her in the bank. I had been actively trying to avoid her. There had been two occasions I had turned down dinner at Lenox and Lily’s house because I knew she’d be there. She was Lily’s friend; that should’ve been enough to make her off-limits. But I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

  I pulled up to the hangar before Levi and parked my truck. I needed to get my head on straight and get laid. That had to be my problem. I hadn’t had a woman in a
very long time; it was hard to go back to easy pick-ups after meeting Emily. Fake and easy paled in comparison to her. I had to let the fantasy of her go and jump back into the saddle. No strings attached and mindless was all I deserved.

  Easier said than done.

  Levi and I were watching the bank footage when the Commander walked in. “Where’s Lenox?”

  “He took Emily home,” I answered.

  “Is Emily Jenkins going to be a problem?” he asked.

  “Jenkins? As in Captain Jenkins?” I asked.

  “One in the same.”

  Well, fuck me running. I knew Emily’s husband was KIA, but I had never asked for her last name or details. I heard he had died with honor and bravely gave his life to save his rifle platoon.

  “Emily is a non-issue. She’s Lenox’s wife’s friend. That’s all.” Then why couldn’t I get her out of my head?

  “Good. Start the video over. I want to see when the first one walked in. What about the security cams from the dry cleaners next door?” the Commander asked.

  “I downloaded the footage, they came in on foot. I checked all of the cameras from the surrounding buildings. I could trace them to the woods behind the barber. When they came out of the clearing, their masks were already on. Why not one person on the street gave them a second look is beyond me.” Levi pointed to one of the monitors showing three men running out of the woods dressed in full battle gear.

  “Well, I’ll be fucked sideways. Why would anyone on an Army base that houses Rangers and an infantry battalion think twice about what looks like a regular training day? Are there cameras in those woods?” I asked Levi.

  “Normally, yes. But the Ranger unit was training in those woods earlier in the week. They had new body armor and thermal imaging sights that they didn’t want anyone to see. The cameras we disabled,” Levi explained.

  “Who knew about the cameras being disabled?” the Commander asked.

  “It was need to know, but hard to say,” Levi answered and fast forwarded to the injured robber fleeing the bank and running back into the woods. “How confident are you that your investigators can track those blood drops? Jasper clipped him in the bicep, and it was bleeding like a son-of-a-bitch. It should leave a nice trail if no one goes into those woods.”

  “I already called in Fink. She’s my best CSI and has the best instincts and most importantly knows when discretion is necessary. Three perps that had access and knowledge. Someone’s head is gonna roll for this.” The Commander pulled a cigar out of a metal tube and bit the end off, spitting the nub into his palm. He tucked it into his pocket before he lit his cigar and gave it a few puffs. “Clark’s still on leave. I’m sending you three in to pick up Roman’s pilot. Lucky for you, ladies, he’s down in Florida. It should be a day trip. And if Lenox bitches one more time about having to schedule missions around his wife’s ovulation cycle, I’m cutting his balls off. No man that is worried about ovulation deserves to have a pair anyway.”

  We had kindly ridded the world of Roman last year. He was a traitorous asshole who sold out the U.S. for money. Selling weapons and munitions to any terrorist organization that would pay. Those weapons were used to kill U.S. service men and women. He was a scumbag of the highest order. The worst part about Roman was he used to be a part of the 707 before he defected. Before we killed him, he said he wasn’t working alone. He had someone on the inside that was feeding him information.

  “Why are we talking about my balls again?” Lenox asked as he walked into the hangar. “Sounds like scrotum envy to me, Commander.”

  The Commander barked out a laugh. “Boy, I have bigger balls than you could ever hope to have.”

  Damn if that wasn’t the truth. The Commander had a full rack of medals deploying to every major conflict since he enlisted. He was a serious badass.

  “Do you really think the pilot knows anything?” I changed the subject from Lenox’s balls. The truth was I didn’t want to hear about either of their balls.

  “He’s our best lead to any intel Roman left behind. He murdered his staff before you caught up with him in the Bahamas. There was nothing at that location. Roman had to have stashed it somewhere,” the commander explained, still puffing on his cigar. I choked back a cough and waved my hand in front of my face trying to dispel some of the thick smoke.

  “What type of interrogation are we conducting?” I asked.

  “A very clean one. We’re stateside. If he proves to be difficult, maybe a few weeks in rendition will loosen his lips.”

  “Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. I prefer not to work with the CIA,” Levi said.

  “The last time the spooks got involved they blew the op,” Lenox added.

  No one liked working with any outside agencies. Due to the secrecy of our ops, none of them knew our team existed. Which meant when we had to work with them they treated us like grunts instead of equals. Our chain of command was simple. The President gave his order to the Commander who in turn briefed us. That was it.

  “When does our flight leave?” I asked.

  The Commander looked at his watch. “Thirty minutes. I’ll let you ladies get ready for your flight. Levi, I want that tape in the lockbox. No one views it without my okay.”

  “Copy that, sir.”

  Levi took the thumb drive out of his laptop and started shutting down his many computers. The Commander took off toward the door when he stopped and turned back to Lenox. “How’s the boy?”

  “Perfect. He’s crawling now.” Lenox’s whole demeanor changed whenever he talked about his son. I was happy he and Lily had found their way back to each other and I could play a small part making sure they ended up together. Now their crazy asses were trying for another one when the first was only six months old.

  “Glad to hear. Have a safe trip.”

  I was mentally calculating the time it would take us to get to Florida, pick up the pilot, interrogate him, and ship him home. There was a constant nagging in my gut that something wasn’t right. I didn’t like that one of the robbers had escaped. I also didn’t like that Emily and her son were left unprotected.

  Chapter Three

  Emily

  “Mom, I’m fine. Please stop before you scare Jason. I don’t want him to know.”

  The last thing I wanted was my son knowing the bank was robbed. I was trying to come up with a way to spin the incident on the drive to my mom’s – a way to downplay what had happened, but she took one look at me, and in true mama bear fashion, she knew something was wrong. It was on the tip of my tongue to try and lie when Lenox helpfully told her a watered down – what the Army wanted out - version of the story. It still wasn’t enough to calm my mother. She was half crazy most days, give her something to worry about, and she was crazier than a loon.

  “Emily Ann, someone tried to rob your bank today,” she shrieked.

  Yes, and held a gun to my head before he fell dead in front of me. I didn’t say that last part out loud. My mom didn’t need to know that, or she’d have a come apart for sure.

  “I need to get Jason home and fed. Can you please drop me off at my house?”

  I gave Lenox my car keys when he dropped me off, he said that he and the guys would drop off my car sometime tonight. All I really wanted to do now was get home, take a hot shower, and a cuddle with my boy.

  “You can stay here tonight,” my mom argued.

  “No, mom. Please. I’m so tired.”

  After twenty minutes of back and forth, my mom finally relented and took us to my house – only after I threatened to call Uber. By the time we walked through the door, I was too tired to cook and declared it was pizza night, to which my awesome kid concurred. However, every night should be pizza night according to him. I ordered our food and plopped down on the couch next to Jason. He immediately scooted closer to me and burrowed into my side. I dreaded the day when he decided he was too old for this. Jason flipped through the channels trying to decide on a show. It didn’t take long for me to replay today’s events. A
mazingly, I had held my shit together pretty well until the end when I saw the gun pointed at me, and I was certain I was going to die. It was days like these that I missed Steven even more than usual. I wished he was here to hold me. I was so scared today that I was going to leave Jason an orphan. I was still scared and barely holding on. If Steven were here, he’d know what to say to calm me down. He always had. From the first day I met him, I knew we’d always be friends.

  Steven had a way about him that was both comforting and safe. He had picked me up when I was at my lowest point and helped me get my life together. I will always be grateful for the love and kindness he showed me. I missed him so much. I wished that Jason had gotten more time with him, too.

  The knock at the door startled me pulling my attention back to the present. “Be right back buddy. Pizza’s here.”

  By the time I got back to the living room, Jason had cleared off the coffee table to make room for the box. I didn’t make a habit of letting Jason eat in front of the TV, but pizza night was the exception.

  Jason spoke all the way through dinner about the latest episode of his favorite shark series. Normally, listening to him prattle on was the best part of my day. But tonight, it did nothing to calm my frazzled nerves. The boy loved anything sea life. He could talk for hours about sea turtles and sharks – those were his favorite. Once he was yawning more than talking, I knew it was time for bed. The bank wouldn’t be open tomorrow, but Jason had school and I needed to figure out if I wanted to continue to work at the bank after it reopened. I didn’t think I could go back.

  Maybe it was time for a career change. The bank was never meant to be permanent; it was simply a steady paycheck, a way for me to contribute to the household bills. Steven had insisted that it wasn’t necessary, we could live comfortably on his officer’s salary and Army benefits. But after all he had already done for me, I wanted to pitch in. It didn’t seem right for me not to work.

  “Mama, can I sleep with you tonight?” Jason asked when he was done brushing his teeth.

  After Steven died, Jason slept in bed with me every night for almost a year. We both needed it. It was bittersweet when he started sleeping in his own bed again. It meant he was healing, but I missed having him close in my bed.