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“It’s complicated…” Reid started.
Noah laughed. “The best ones always are. Who is she?”
“Aliya, Fariq’s sister,” Reid said softly.
Croft whistled slowly. “Complicated doesn’t begin to cover it.”
“Does she know about you?” Noah asked.
“Yes…”
“Does NATO know she knows?” Mac, the head of the team, asked.
“Oh, yeah.” Reid nodded slowly. “The bastards recruited her. Her handler is dead, and she’s on her own. She can’t survive against Fariq. I have to…”
Finn reached across to her brother. “We have to?—”
“There’s no we, Finn,” Croft interrupted. “You and Zara are going to stand down.”
As both women started to protest loudly, they were cut off by their respective fiancés, stifling their outbursts with commanding kisses. Reid noted the differences between the two. Croft’s was a long, lingering exploration of Finn’s mouth, coaxing her to yield and soften to him. Noah’s, on the other hand, was commanding and passionate, demanding Zara quiet and submit to him. He thought if it was Aliya, his would land somewhere in the middle.
Mac chuckled. “Most effective way I know to shut them up. But don’t worry, Reid, we’ve got your back. We’ll get your girl.”
“What do you mean you don’t have her?” Christian said, appalled. He’d left the headquarters of the Wild Mustang team at the behest of NATO, making the trip to join the mercenaries. He now sat in a NATO debriefing room, where he’d been whisked the moment they’d landed.
Two agents from NATO sat across from him. One who looked both old enough and competent enough to have earned every one of the stripes and commendations on his dark blue dress jacket. The other was dressed in rumpled camo, looking fresh out of whatever transport had brought him here, most likely at the behest of General Markoff himself.
Clenching his jaw twice, the man in camo replied, “I mean, Aliya Abdal is not being held at this location.”
“What location is she being held at?”
“None as far as I’m aware. Believe me, Mr. Reid, we have no reason to hide her from you.”
Setting the aside cup of coffee he’d been provided, so he didn’t accidentally spill it all over either one of them when he erupted out of his chair in a full blaze of temper—something he already felt perilously on the verge of—Reid scooted to the edge of his chair, rubbed his face for calm, and tried again.
“I called you. I called the Mustangs in the middle of their initial attack on the compound. Aliya had a GPS tracker on her. It had her exact location. You can’t tell me you didn’t get that call.”
“Nobody got that phone call.”
“Don’t tell me that!”
“Mr. Reid?—”
“I said don’t fucking tell me that!” Vaulting out of his chair, he planted his hands in the middle of the table, leaning over them both. He didn’t even look around when the door opened,and the two guards who’d been stationed on the other side of the no doubt two-way mirror directly behind him rushed in. They only stopped because the higher-ranking officer held up a staying hand.
Reid pointed directly at him. “I said, don’t fucking tell me you don’t have her. You had one job—get her to safety. That was it. I dideverythingelse! I’ve been in hell for years because of you people. The one time I need something from you in return, you fumble the fucking ball? Get me a goddamn helicopter.”
Oh, Jesus. Fariq hadn’t been blowing smoke out his ass. He really did have Aliya and most likely Finn as well. His knees almost went out from under him. He had to find them. Right now. Before Fariq…
“Sit down, Mr. Reid.”
Reid shoved away from the table so hard, he knocked his chair over. The soldiers behind him grabbed him, and he erupted. In one murderous punch, he knocked one man flat on his back, which immediately brought two more charging into the room from the outer hallway. They grabbed him, slamming him facedown on the table. No matter how he fought, they pinned his arms behind him, and he couldn’t get free.
“Mr. Reid, please,” the older officer finally sighed. “Something somewhere regrettably broke down, but the plain fact of the matter is, Fariq Abdal stands to hurt and perhaps even kill a great many people. I am responsible for the safekeeping of more than just one woman. To be perfectly blunt, the things you have done, both with and without your handler’s knowledge and our consent, put you in a very precarious position. We are willing to overlook a great many of your transgressions but only because you have provided us with information that will make it worth our while to do so. Locked in your head, I’ve no doubt, are one or two important kernels left to add. We’re going to take you for debriefing. Whatever you can tell us will be taken intoaccount and may be used to lighten the sentence passed down at your trial. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“I understand I’m getting fucked for serving the greater good.”
“You may have entered his employ with the intent of serving NATO, but there are things you’ve done we never would have sanctioned. There’s a price to be paid for that. I’m sorry about the girl, but you need to think about yourself right now and exactly how many years you want to spend making little rocks out of big ones in Leavenworth.”
