Code Name: Kayla's Fire (9 page)

 
Nina’s eyes narrowed when she
didn’t confess. Kayla lost her appetite, and pushed her food around on the
plate. “We have some trouble on the base. There’s a serial killer running
free.” Cranking a look at Law, she said, “Nina’s obviously a redhead, she
doesn’t have to worry.”

“Who does?” Nina’s question shot across the table. “Brunettes, by any
chance?”

More staff joined them, filling the empty seats at their table. Alpha
Squad muscled for room, Fox, Nathan, Caleb, Clay, Tony and Mace joining them.

Tony hurriedly took the seat next to Nina. “Hey, Nina.”

“Hi,”she said, then turned piercing green eyes back on her quarry.
“You better start talking, boss.”

Boss, shit she hadn’t been called that in a while, but that’s what
Nina had always called her.

“Boss?” Tony piped up.

Nina gave him a cursory glance. “Yeah, didn’t you know, Kayla gave up
her commission to come here.”

What a blabbermouth. She didn’t need to look up to know all eyes
turned her way.

“Man, does everyone like keeping secrets around here,” Nina chided.
She turned a sour look on Greg. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me any of this?”

Greg raised his hands, seeing Nina’s temper starting to pick up.
“Lieutenant Banks kept me in the dark just as much as you,
cherie
. I’m innocent.”

“
Need to know
is a way of
life around here,” Tony interjected. “Has to be that way, either that or we end
up dead. We don’t like dead.” Tony shrugged in a friendly way.

Mace laid a hand on her thigh. “A lieutenant?”

She shook her head not wanting to share. She, Nina, Barry and Gord
worked for the Canadian Joint Operations Command initially, and then
transferred to the West Coast where they had been hired by the U.S. Navy. The
others were non-commissioned, but she had joined the Canadian Navy at seventeen
in the officer cadet program.

“Kayla, that’s an O-3 in the U.S. Navy. Hell, you outrank me, by a
long shot.” Mace said.

She looked around the table to see everyone staring. “What?”

 
“She was one helluva good one
too,” Greg added.

Nina waved her hand in the air. “Hey, Boss Lady, over here and nice
diversion, but what’s the story?”

Mace’s expression sobered. “Kayla’s on the Shark’s radar.”

“The Shark. The serial killer? What do you mean on the radar?
He’s…would someone please spill?”

“The Blood Shark has been tracking Kayla,” Mace explained. “But we’re
tracking him now.”

“No you’re not. I saw Art this morning. You’ve got a mission,” she
interrupted. The guys all turned their eyes on her. “When do you leave?”

“The Captain’s not coming, Snow White,” Tony offered.

“What? He is going,” she said sternly. “He’s not staying here. You’re
a team, and I know you can operate on your own, but now is not the time for him
to stay behind.”

“Kayla, easy,” Mace said.

“Mace is right, take a breath,” Greg said, giving her hand a squeeze.
“You don’t want to have a—moment—here, do you?”

She didn’t feel like calming down. Cobbs joined them, taking the seat
on the other side of Nina, and across from Greg.

“Listen up, Snow White,” Cobbs said harshly, pinning her with his
wicked silver eyes. “You don’t dictate Ghost’s decisions, he does. He extracts
every option, and always picks the right one.” A noodle from his lunch slipped
off his plate, and he forked it up.

“So do I, Lieutenant,” ruffled at his response. “Nina, this is Patrick
Cobbs, Alpha Squad’s lieutenant.”

Cobbs, sensing he’d pushed in the wrong direction, said, “It’s never
been an obligation for the Captain to continue in the field, it’s been an
option. He’s exercising that option now.” He cast his sharp gaze at her in
warning not to argue.

Nina’s expression twisted with worry. “Are you staying?” she asked
Greg.

“As long as she’ll let me,” Greg answered.

Their voices began to attract attention, mostly hers, and she toned it
down. “This,” she argued, craning over the table toward Cobbs, “has got to
stop. I appreciate everything you have done, but I make the decisions in my
life, not him.”

Nina watched with widening eyes, and then they rose to something
standing behind her.

Thane’s words were like a cold knife drawing against Kayla’s ear. “This
is my base, my men and you, my Maple Leaf lieutenant, are mine as well.” He
cranked his head toward Greg. “Don’t forget that.”

Kayla recognized the flutter of trepidation in Nina’s eyes. She could
imagine the scary look on Thane’s expression. One Nina wasn’t used to, the one
that shook everyone to the core. The roughness of his cheek grazed hers. “We’ll
discuss this later—privately,” he whispered.

A few chuckles from the guys in the team broke the moment, and Nina’s
jaw went slack. Kayla pushed herself up, making Thane step back. “Nina, come
on.”

“Uh, yeah right. Um, bye, guys.”

“Next weekend, the ranch,” Cobbs said. “Marg and I are having a party.
Everyone’s invited.”

Cobbs’ wife had inherited a hundred and fifty acre ranch from her
grandparents. Whenever Marg threw a party it meant the mission was going to be
a hard one, meaning someone might not come home. They obviously had time to
plan, since they weren’t on a plane already.

The SEAL wives hung on to these moments while the men were away. Hope
and fear. The two clung to each other like wayward children, until the plane
landed and their men stepped off it.

Nina joined her, pushing against the flow of personnel entering the
galley. “Umm, is there something you want to tell me about that extraordinarily
out of this world, hot Captain Austen?”

“Shut it, Nina.”

“Yes, boss.”

* * * *

Kayla paced outside of the building where Nina was being given the
once, twice, three times you’re out interview. If it was anything like hers,
she’d have to rivet her ass to the chair and hang on for dear life.

The Navy implemented everything in one flaming shot, knowledge,
psychological assessment, and scenario-based questions, all the while trying to
see if the candidate would remain collected and not compromise. Some parts of
the inquisition were like the Star Trek evaluation—Kobayashi Maru—the no-win
test Captain Kirk infamously cheated on.

“Holy shit,” Nina blustered, pulling Kayla out of her thoughts.

“Well?” she asked, palms up as Nina stopped in front of her. “SITREP.”

“I’m sure I hit the skids.”

“Oh, God, Nina, you’re such a pessimist. How hard was Tha…Captain
Austen on you?”

“Not at all. He was polite and straightforward. He seemed almost
subdued. They must have mentioned you five times or more. I think you greased
the wheels for me—again.”

“Has nothing to do with me, you get what you get, on your own merit.
You always have.”

“Yeah, bullshit, boss.”

They walked toward Base Command, and she began to give Nina a quick
explanation as they strode down Bougainville Road. “NABC—Naval Amphibious Base
Coronado is the maritime component of the U.S. Special Operations Command. We
have a community of approximately eighty-three hundred, including Amphibious
Construction Battalion One, NavSpec Warfare Group One, and Tactical Air Control
Group One. Twenty-three hundred active duty SEALs, and—”

“Kayla, I did my homework before I came.”

“Right, of course you did.”

Turning the corner onto Eniwetok Road, they passed the pool where water
and fortitude challenged each other in the men and women who trained there, and
ran into Tony and Mace.

“Hey, Snow White,” Tony said, diverting with Mace who walked a few
steps behind him.

“Snow White,” Nina snorted and placed a hand on her kicked out hip.
“More like Cruella De Ville.”

“Hey now, Missy.”

“Just saying it as it is,” Nina spouted.

“Don’t you always.”

Nina stood five-foot-eight, and her body rocked because she spent an
hour every day at the gym pumping something, except the guys slobbering over
her. When they found out she was a single mom, with the cutest daughter in the
world, some headed for the hills, but others left a drooling trail behind her.
Her daughter Gabby was the center of her world. The guy who finally caught Nina
would have a package deal.

Tony watched with a burgeoning grin while Mace stood composed but
attentive, all of it on Nina.

“I’m taking Nina back to my place, Mace, would we be able to get a
ride?”

“Yeah, sure,” he said, glancing at Tony.

“Where’s your gear, Nina, I’ll grab it,” Tony said, giving her a head
tilt and a smoky smile.

Still creepy.

Mace was extremely quiet in the car, leaving Tony to try his best at
impressing Nina sitting in the back seat with him. When they arrived at her
condominium, Mace parked the car, and both he and Tony got out.

“Guys, you don’t have to come in, unless you’re coming for a drink,
because that’s what’s on the dinner menu.”

“Just going to check things out, Kayla,” Mace said quietly, and lifted
one of Nina’s bags across his shoulder.

“Thanks, Mace. I can take that,” Nina said, but he pulled back giving
her a quirked brow.

Tony swung her other bag from the trunk, and thumped the lid closed,
taking up the rear, while Mace led the way up the front walk.

Kayla dug for her keys. Thane didn’t exactly know she was coming home,
but too bad. If he assumed she was going to be walled-up for the rest of her
life, he could stuff it. Throwing a strong arm over her head, Mace pushed open
the door, and she scooted under it. It smelled like someone had stashed a
gazillion pennies somewhere in her condo.

Nina blew out her breath. “Whoa, Kayla, nice place, but open some
windows, it’s a little stuffy in here.” Nina strolled down the hallway. “I need
to use the head.”

Everything happened so fast. Recognition of what the smell was, Tony
and Mace’s body language going taut, their eyes scanning the place as quickly
as she did.

“Oh, shit,” she muttered.

Mace turned abruptly. “Nina, stop,” he yelled, running after her, but
she’d already reached the bathroom.

Chapter Eight

A strangled cry flew down the hallway. Nina backed out of the bathroom,
and slammed against the wall sending a picture crashing to the ground,
shattering the glass. Mace yanked the bathroom door shut, and swung Nina into
his arms.

“Kayla, stay there,” Mace shouted at her, even though she was right
beside him.

Nina’s eyes widened like a silent movie star.

“What is it?” Tony grabbed Kayla around the shoulders. “Mace?”

The smell of blood curled through the hallway, and she glanced
worriedly at Nina.

“Hey, are you all right, Red?” Mace said to Nina, seeing her pallor
change to sheer white, her veins standing out like a blue maze.

“Watch out, Mace!”

“What?” Not taking his eyes off Nina.

“Uh-oh.” The woman could eat a mouth full of bugs and spit nails, but
blood—she couldn’t stand the sight of it. “Hang on to her,” she ordered. Mace’s
grip tightened, as Nina draped like a flag across him.

“Check the rooms, Tinman,” he ordered, picking Nina up into his arms.
“Kayla, follow me.” His hands were full with Nina, and she wasn’t so good at
following orders. Tinman was already in her bedroom when she forged a will of
steel, and prodded the bathroom door open with one finger. The smell of blood
wafted from the interior like a sticky, humid blanket.

There was no body, but her bathroom held a bloodbath. A stream of
blood from the overfilled sink crawled across the floor, staining the grout.
Sticky fingers of red liquid stretched across her white counters and pooled
against the backsplash. The stark white tub held a couple inches of congealed
blood, and the sides were splattered with droplets and streaks as if the Shark
had splashed around in it like a kid playing in a puddle. Her eyes stilled on
the message left on her mirror.

Your friend first.

“Kayla, get the hell out of here,” Tony growled, grabbing her from
behind, and yanking her backwards, slamming the door closed between her and the
gore.

The hallway darkened and began to spin, a cold numbness creeping
through her veins like an advancing enemy.

“Please, I can’t watch that again. I don’t know what to do.” He shook
her once. “Snow White, no!” She winced as Tony engulfed her in his arms and
squeezed tight. “Stay with me. No wandering into the dark zone.”

“I’m okay. I’m okay,” she murmured, her voice muffled by his chest.

Mace appeared beside them. “Kayla, Nina’s out cold. She needs you.”

“I’m coming.” Tony kept his arm around her waist, and helped her walk
with shaking legs back to her friend. “Tony, get me some scotch out of the
cabinet above the sink.” The pointy corner of her coffee table tagged her shin.
“Shit!” She staggered toward the kitchen sink, and grabbed a cloth, soaking it
with cold water.

A wave of darkness came with the telltale thumping of her heart. She
shook her head to clear it.
Keep it
together.
Returning to the couch, she knelt down, and pressed the cloth
against Nina’s forehead. Tony was on his phone, and Mace hovered, looking
worriedly down at Nina. “She can’t stand blood. The woman is tough as nuts, but
blood is her weak link. Her father’s a doctor. They found out early, when he
took her to work one day.”

Nina started to come to, and Mace rounded the couch and crouched down,
reaching out to glide a finger across Nina’s delicate cheek. “Hey, Red, you’re
all right.”

Huh, there was that funny little lilt in his voice again. And Red?
Mace took the cloth from her, and dabbed it against Nina’s neck.

“Oh, God,” Nina breathed, holding her hand across her eyes as she came
to.

“Come on, sit up. Let’s get the bloo…” he bit down on the word. “Let’s
get you sitting up.”

“Oh, God. I’m so embarrassed.” Nina buried her face in her hands.

A smile broke on Mace’s lips. “For what?” He grasped her delicate
fingers in his to stop them from shaking.

Tony crouched down beside them. “Team’s on the way. No doubt the
Captain is breaking all speed records to get here.” Tony ground a look at her.
“Especially after the dressing down I just took. You didn’t clear it with him
to come back here.”

“Clear it?” she sputtered. “What the fu…
Tony
…never mind.”

“Do you think that’s actually—somebody?” Nina choked out, staring
wide-eyed at Mace.

“Probably not,” he said, and cleared his throat.

Nina took the cloth from him, and held it against her forehead.
“You’re not a very good liar, are you?”

“Actually, I am, just not to you.” The two of them gazed at each other.
Kayla felt uncomfortable, as if she was interrupting a moment, and backed away.

Mace reached over to the side table where Tony left the glass of
scotch. “Here,” he tucked it in Nina’s hands, curling his fingers over hers to
help her steady it, and take a sip.

“I think I’ll need a few more ounces than this.”

The front door crashed open. Lieutenant Cobbs, Thane and Greg came
barreling through it, their faces as severe as if they were going into a
hostile situation. The look on Thane’s face would scare the four horsemen of
the apocalypse.

Tony rose, and jerked his head. “Down the hall, bathroom.”

Fox, Caleb, Nathan, and Clay weren’t far behind. Lieutenant Law,
followed by two others from team three, were only steps behind. Thane and Greg
aimed for her.

Greg pulled her to her feet. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” she said, trying to keep it together. The darkness probed at
her again.

“Like hell you are. You’re shaking all over,” Thane said. He gave Greg
a look to back off, but Greg wasn’t letting go of her.

“Why didn’t you tell us you were coming back here?” Greg asked,
folding her in his arms. Curling a hand over his wrist, she felt the fast beat
in it. “This fucking guy is going to drown in his own blood when I get my hands
on him.”

“Police are on the way,” Tony said, reappearing with Cobbs and Law.

Cobbs gave her a long, wary glance. “You okay, Snow White?”

Everyone treated her with kid gloves since her
episode
at Thane’s. A PT episode wasn’t a pleasant thing to watch.
The SEALs shouldn’t be fazed, but they all were—to the point of distraction. It
ticked her off. “I’m fine, Lieutenant Cobbs.”

Greg wasn’t intending to give her over to Thane, and she could see it
grated his nerves. “I’ll be right back. Sit down, Kayla,” Thane ordered.

“I don’t need to sit, Thane, I’m not an invalid.” She yanked herself
from Greg’s arms, and headed toward the patio, opening all three doors wide to
let out the bloody vapors of the Shark’s victims. Anger almost pitched her over
the side of sanity, but at the same moment, her body froze with a thought. The
media, more specifically one reporter, who was spearheading the finger pointing
at the SEALs as one of the killers had coined the name the
Blood Shark
. Was it just coincidence? Her tactical mind began to
wheel through the possibilities. Coincidence? Not frickin’ likely.

* * * *

Cobbs and Law followed
him down the hallway. “How bad is it?” Thane asked, pushing on the bathroom
door. No one needed to say anything, as it swung open. “Oh, Jesus. What do ya
think? Real or cow?” Like a house of horrors, blood seeped into the cracks,
across the counters, and crawled down the white porcelain tub.

“Wish it were the
latter,” Law stated, darting a look at the blood covering every surface. “Doubt
it, though.”

Thane walked down the
hall, stopping in the doorway of her bedroom. The Shark had shredded her bed,
her clothes, and trashed her cabinets. He took a couple steps inside. The
picture he’d hung above her bed, the one he’d given her for Christmas, lay on
the ground, the glass broken in three pieces, and the painting slashed as if
the Shark had known it meant something special to her.

“What did he do to my
room?”

Kayla couldn’t see with
Law and Cobbs’ large frames in the way, and they both turned at the same time
and pushed her backwards. More voices joined the crowd in the living room. They
met Manchester in the hallway. The same technician who’d come to the Command
Center to collect the finger veered into her bathroom with a kit clenched in
his hand.

“I don’t think Kayla
should be in here, do you?” Manchester asked.

“Listen up, men,” she
barked. “I have post traumatic disorder. That doesn’t mean I’m weak-kneed,
addle-brained or unable to exist just friggin’ fine.”

“Couch. Now,” Thane
ordered.

“Fuck you, Captain,
this is my house,” she railed at him as Lapierre towered behind her.

Thane leaned over her,
and she did her damnedest not to lean away. “Fall—back—now.” His emotions were
on the reeling edge of a cyclone. Tony’s first words to him on the phone had made
his entire soul seize tight.
We’re at
Kayla’s condo, it’s filled with blood.
He was in his office, and gave
himself whiplash turning toward the ops room. Not seeing her, he lost it just
like a rooky squid instead of a man who’d spent years crushing the turmoil and
pressure of seeing bad things under his heel. When Tony expounded that Nina and
Kayla were with him and Mace, it was too late for his heart to cease its fever
pitch. “Just give us a second.”

Her eyes narrowed.
“Ma maison.
Ma salle de bain. Je ne veux
pas de ta maudite protection. J’ai le droit de savoir les détails. Arrête
d’être un dominateur.”
My
house. My bathroom. I don't want your damn protection. I have a right to know
the details. Stop being an overbearing ass.

Yup, she was pissed.
Staring her down was his only option. She rolled her eyes at him and stormed
down the hallway.

Lapierre raised a brow
and turned to peer in her bathroom. Over the last week, Thane had gotten to
know Kayla’s ex-brother-in-law, and with resigned acceptance appreciated his
help. Lapierre had given them some angles they hadn’t thought of, and they’d
exhausted all of them. The guy was as solid as they came, which bothered the
hell out of him.

“Human?” Lapierre asked
Manchester, jerking his head toward the bathroom.

“We’ll know in a
minute,” Manchester said. “How’s she doing?”

Thane breathed out a
deep sigh. “She only speaks French when she’s seriously pissed.” When Tony
explained what the Shark had done, he thought she’d fall into an episode. She
looked a little off-kilter, but by taking control away from her, he knew he’d
piss her off, and keep her afloat.

The tech bending over
the sink turned with a little bottle in one hand and a stick in the other.
“Lieutenant.” When Manchester looked at him, the tech offered one sharp nod.

Law spoke out. “I’m not
a professional here when it comes to psychos, but how many women…people would
this take? More than one, I’m sure.”

“It fits,” Manchester
explained. “There was almost complete blood loss with each woman we found,
although we didn’t find the kill sites. We assumed they’d just bled out. Now we
know what his keepsake is.”

“Keepsake?” Thane
asked.

“Every serial killer
has a prize.”
 

 
His eyes scanned the room. “Looks like his is
blood.”

“This seals it,” Cobbs
said, snapping a look at him. “You have to stay here with Snow White. I know
you’re torn about the mission. Don’t be.”

He’d been warring back
and forth since the meeting with Art this morning. This wasn’t just a case of
leaving his heart with her while he disappeared on a mission. If he left, and
the Shark got to Kayla, he’d never be the same again. Leaving her in Lapierre’s
care was not an option. It might be his imagination, but Kayla seemed to be
swaying back and forth between them. He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not
just her any more,” he said, glancing at the message the Shark left on the
mirror. “Now it’s the two of them.”

Manchester’s phone
bleeped with an incoming text. He scanned the message while asking, “The
redhead I saw coming in?”

Thane nodded. “She used
to work with Kayla, and she just interviewed for us.”

“She’s from Canada?”
Manchester asked.

“Yes.”

“Then she can go home.”

“I agree,” Lapierre
stated. “I’ll take them both home.”

“No,” Thane said
firmly. “If they leave now, they’re wide open, and I have no doubt the Shark
would follow them. Nina stays.” He glared at Lapierre, “So does Kayla. We’ll
keep them together until this is over.”

Mace and Tony joined
the circle. “I’ll stay too,” Mace said, dropping into the conversation. “I’ll
watch her.”

He hadn’t missed the
look on Mace’s face when he laid eyes on Nina. There was immediate heat between
them. A man only looks at a woman that way for one reason; instant
possessiveness. “They’ll both be safe, Mace. I need you on this mission.”