Code Name: Ghost (A Warrior's Challenge 1) (4 page)

Their underwater demolitions expert, Master
Chief Petty Officer Mason Briggs, who they called “Fox,” stopped
his conversation with Nathan. They’d named Nathan “Tadpole” just to
irritate the shit out of the cocky young bastard, but everyone
liked him and he made a great addition to the team.

“Ahoy, Captain," Fox greeted.

"How’s the Port?” Tony asked.

“Same as always. Bitchy as a woman and twice
as beautiful.”

“Speaking of beautiful women—we just saw a
knockout walk in. Over there.” Mace pointed over his shoulder.

Redding followed his stare. He grinned and
nodded at the Commander. “Yup, she is that, Mace.”

“Mace here figures he can get a date with
her,” Tony said, his streamlined shoulders lifting with a
laugh.

“Do you know her? What’s her name, Captain?”
Mace asked.

“Kayla Banks, but call her ma’am, she’s
earned it,” Redding said, and darted a glance at the Commander.

Mace scanned the team. “You know who she
reminds me of?” The other guys shrugged. “Snow White, but a sexy
Snow White,” he drawled, knuckling the table to push his six-foot
frame up. “I think I’m going to let her know I’m her Prince
Charming. Watch the master in action, boys.”

“Stand down, Mace,” the Commander growled
when he was only halfway out of his seat.

The Commander had never stopped him from
making a move on a woman, and he sure as hell wasn’t one to talk.
Women of all ages gave the Commander their phone numbers. He had a
drawer full of them.

A scar running across the Commander’s
cheekbone—a reminder of youth and a hard lesson learned— didn’t mar
the man’s features. Women loved him, probably more because of the
old wound that gave him a dangerous as hell look. It didn’t deter
most girls from wanting to wrap their hands around his square jaw
or get lost in his crystalline blue eyes. The Commander didn’t
mind, either. He always landed the pick of the litter, yet none of
them had been good enough to keep him home.

“Sit,” the Commander ordered, and there was
no doubt it was an order.

“Ah, okay.” Mace glanced a little dejectedly
in her direction, “but…”

“Leave her alone, Mace,” the Commander
growled, but there was no explanation to follow.

“Yes sir.” He cracked a
piss-off
look
at both Clay and Tony as they sat back with crossed arms and glib
expressions sliding across their faces.

“Ah, the sweet smell of a twenty,” Clay
said, with a look of victory. “For some reason, you got some
self-inflated idea every woman is gonna fall at your feet,
Mace.”

“Women do fall at my feet, asshole, and that
twenty isn’t yours. I have to get the chance to talk with her
first, then we’ll see who’s payin’ who,” he shot back. “Besides,
women love snipers, it sounds like a dangerous gig to them.”

Caleb “Stitch” Stone, the squad’s corpsman,
craned his head. “Nah, I’m in, too. By the looks of her, I’d be
giving you CPR. You don’t have a hope in hell, Sniper.”

“Listen to Base Command much?” Captain
Redding asked, leaning over his tray to be heard above the loud hum
of conversation in the hall.

“Yeah, why…oh, shit, that’s not the new
voice we’ve been hearing since we got back, is it? She’s not
supposed to look like she sounds,” Mace said, easily remembering
the woman’s voice wrapping around him like silk when they’d called
Base Command to check out alongside the dock this morning.

“That’s enough,” The Commander interjected.
“We’ll debrief in my office in thirty minutes. And Mace, if you’re
going to keep your mouth open, you might as well put some food in
it.”

The rest of the guys chuckled and fingered
their palms looking for the twenty they weren’t gonna get.

A group of Marine Recon students shuffled
into the galley. The Marines’ Special Reconnaissance training
brought men who wanted to broaden their experience and test their
metal to Coronado. Some were straight from boot camp and some had
earned their stripes in the dust already.

“Look at those guys. They look lean, mean
and about as bad as we did in BUD/S,” Clay said, eyeing the men as
they fell in line for the serving counter behind Kayla. Clay
grinned at him. “Maybe one of them will get lucky, and then you’re
outta luck, Mace.”

The Commander scanned the Marines, but
returned to his conversation with Captain Redding without
concern.

Lieutenant Cobbs scoured the group as well,
and then a gust of air escaped his lungs. “Jesus, I don’t believe
it, did you see that?”

Now they had the Commander and the Captain’s
attention, and they both saw the guy behind Kayla brush his hand
across her ass. The Commander tensed, the look in his eyes becoming
predatory.

“She probably doesn’t know she could court
martial his ass. I’m going up there,” Mace said, rising to his
feet. “Maybe they’d like to eat a little dirt for lunch.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mace,” Redding said,
“Watch.”

Kayla slowly turned, but didn’t look at
them, still concentrating on her cell phone. She said something,
and the two closest men took a step back.

“Sorry ma’am,” floated across to their
table.

“What the hell did she say?” Tony asked the
Commander.

They all knew he could read lips. It came in
handy running silent ops out in the field.

The Commander’s mouth quirked as he shook
his head. “Brave little thing, isn’t she?”

“What did she say, Ghost?” the Captain
asked, using his old team name.

None of them used that name, he was
“Commander” to them, but the Captain had been his lieutenant once
upon a time, and they’d had plenty of missions together over the
years.

“She said, ‘Do it again and you’ll wake up
with a grenade between your thighs, sans a pin.’” The Commander
barked with laughter. All eyes turned on him. He scanned his men
swiftly, cleared his throat then put his attention on his meal.

“We can find another chair,” Tony suggested.
“Invite her over here, Captain.”

“Sorry, fellows, she’s all business and she
keeps to herself. Besides I don’t think you boys could handle
her.”

“I’d have no problem learning something from
her,” Mace said, and glanced over his shoulder, but when he turned
around the Commander was glaring at him. He knew that look, and it
meant stop now or else. There was a distinct, harsh line when it
came to the Commander. For some reason he’d just crossed it.
Immediately, he dropped his gaze to the table.

* * * *

After lunch, the team convened in Captain
Redding and the Commander’s office for the mission debrief. Tinman
and Fox grabbed the empty chairs first, Mace and the rest of the
team found a wall to lean against.

“Any questions?” the Commander asked,
looking at them once he’d finished.

Mace replayed the scene in his head. There
wasn’t much to say after the Commander busted their chops for being
sloppy on their last exit. They had to go out hot. It happened, a
lot, but it put everyone in danger. Bullets flew like a swarm of
locusts on both sides after they’d grabbed Faron’s brother, the
second in charge of the Serpiente family drug cartel in Panama
City. It was uncontrolled chaos, a fast and furious exit.

“Any word of a new deploy?” Caleb asked,
turning his red bristled head toward the Lieutenant. “Naomi’s just
about ready to have the baby, and—”

The room erupted with congratulations and
everyone clapped Caleb on the back.

Lieutenant Cobbs rose to stand next to the
Commander. Only an inch apart in size, both were warriors that any
man would think twice about taking on. Together they had more
medals and service awards than the entire West Coast teams put
together. They’d been swim buddies, BUD/S recruits together, and
though as different in personality as two men could be, they were
best friends, and both extremely deadly.

“You’re on stand down as of tomorrow. Make
good use of it and be around for the family.” Lieutenant Cobbs gave
Caleb a thoughtful look. “Congratulations, Petty Officer Stone. You
thought sleep deprivation as a SEAL was tough, you ain’t seen
nothing yet, son,” he said, reaching out and shaking his hand.

Captain Redding’s radio broke with base
traffic and all the men’s heads turned when Kayla answered. The
Commander reached across the desk and turned the volume down. “I’d
like them to be listening to me, not her,” he said, giving Redding
a dry look.

“Sorry, Ghost, didn’t think she’d be that
big of a distraction.” Winking at the team, Redding ignored the
Commander’s burning look as he reached for the phone on his
desk.

Turning the radio off didn’t help because
the entire squad was looking through the glass. Commander Austen
twisted the long stem hanging from the blinds, snapping them shut.
“As I was saying—Mace.” He zeroed in on him and Tony. “Find
something to wind down, and that
something
doesn’t work
here.”

Both he and Tony gave each other a “yeah,
fine” look.

“Jesus, that’s not good news,” Captain
Redding said into the phone. “Yes, I’ll post them as soon as they
arrive,” and hung up.

“What’s up, Red?” the Commander asked,
taking his seat behind his desk.

“He got another one,” Redding replied,
shaking his head and sighing.

“Another one?” Cobbs questioned.

“The Blood Shark added one more woman to his
list. HQ is sending out posters they want hung dockside, and they
want us to warn all women who work shifts to find a buddy to walk
with.”

“Man, who was it this time?” Clay asked.

Redding twisted his aging hands together.
“She was a nurse. Worked in the base hospital. They just found her
body. All they had to do was follow the flies. Married to a sailor
deployed overseas right now, two kids.”

They all shook their heads.

“Why the hell can’t they catch this guy?”
Cobbs growled. “I told Marg the base is off limits until they find
that piece of shit. She says most of the wives are keeping clear
anyway, they’re scared even if they don’t fit the profile.”

“They’ve got all their resources on it,”
Redding assured them. “He’s just one smart bastard.”

“How many is that, Red?” the Commander
asked, swiveling in his chair.

“Eight. This guy is prolific, and the kills
are getting closer together. He must be losing it fast.”

Nathan crossed his arms tightly, asking,
“How the hell does he pick ‘em? Do they think it’s random?”

“Not at all,” Redding replied. “They’re all
the same, brunettes—beautiful brunettes. Same approximate size,
similar features, he likes to slaughter women in their late
thirties or forties. I hope they catch that son of a bitch soon,
and save the justice system some money with a bullet between the
eyes.”

Mace rammed his hands in his pockets. It was
either that or hit something. Tony was close enough. “Everyone
thinks the Shark works on this base. What does that say about us?
We travel thousands of miles to track down bad guys, but we won’t
do it on our own soil, while this fuckin’ monster tears our women
apart.”

“Mace—they will find him. NCIS knows what
they’re doing,” the Commander assured everyone, and raised the
blinds. “Someone should tell Ms. Banks. She’s in that age
range.”

All the men craned their necks. Kayla and
John stood next to the charts covering the west wall. Track
lighting illuminated where he pointed. Mace drew a grin watching
John’s body language. He was trying to impress her. Kayla smiled,
bowing her head, her long lashes whisking her cheeks, and it just
about dropped him to his knees. He was going to get a damn date
with the woman if it killed him. He’d already asked around. She
wasn’t married.

“Talk to her,” the Commander said
gruffly.

“Does that mean you think she’s beautiful,
boss?” Mace asked, knowing he was going to pay for the comment.

The Commander turned a deadly blue glare on
him. “Mace, the zodiacs need some cleaning, I think you’re just the
man for the job.”

The guys chuckled, and a couple of them gave
him a cuff on the shoulder.

“You just never know when to shut your
mouth, do ya, Mace?” Tony jeered.

Captain Redding laughed as well. “I will,
Ghost. John says Kayla’s ready to go on her own soon. Speaking of
which—I’m sending the three of them out on a familiarization trip
this afternoon on the harbor boat. You guys want to throw in a
little practice?
”

“Never say no to practice,” Nathan piped up.
“Terrorist, search and seizure?” he asked, raising a brow at the
Commander.

“A little below your skill set, isn’t it,
men? Three civilians, one of them a woman.” He surveyed them, and
they all waited for a thumbs-up. “Fine, gear up,” the Commander
ordered.

“I’ll do the searching and seizing,” Mace
offered, thinking about getting into a close quarters situation
with Kayla, but it earned him another scowl from the Commander.
What the hell? If he didn’t know the Commander as well as he did,
he’d swear his boss was being possessive. Yeah, right! The
Commander left a trail of women behind him like shrapnel.

“Okay, lady and gentlemen you’re going out
on the water instead of just talkin’ to it,” Captain Redding said,
when he wandered into the ops room around two. Kayla and her two
compadres turned their attention to their new Officer in
Charge.

“Always up for a fam trip,” Barry said,
jumping out of his chair.

“What are we doing, Captain?” she asked,
standing to join Barry. A call came in and she broke off to take a
position report from two naval training vessels bound for the
U.S.-Mexican border.

“You’re heading out on a quick mission,”
Captain Redding advised.

“Mission?” She looked warily at Barry and
Gord. She knew working with the US Navy brought a completely new
angle that they weren’t used to.