Guardian Agent (6 page)

He didn’t know what to say. Murderous rage burned through him, impotent rage since he could do nothing about those men at this stage. He wanted to protect her, but he was too late.

He thought of Brent. Maybe not entirely too late.

He wanted to take her into his arms again, but she didn’t look like she would welcome anyone’s touch just now. So he simply said, “I’m sorry,” and they went on with their task of trying to help Mandy.

He carried the girl over to the tub then let Jasmine take it from there. “Call me when you need me to bring her back,” he said before he closed the door behind him.

Time to finish his talk with Jake.

“What about the army captain?” was the first question he asked. Jake had killed that man first, before the other two.

“Eric was the captain of the four-man team I went down to the cistern with. Brian, Greg and the one medic were dead. I figured the other medic was, too, but couldn’t confirm since I didn’t know his name. I figured Eric took the gold and had the others killed. I knew he would come after me, and I knew arranging some friendly fire on the battlefield would be pretty easy for him. So I went AWOL, but left him some leads to follow. I wanted to meet him on my own turf, when I was ready. He came. He didn’t want to leave any witnesses.”

“So you killed him in self-defense.”

Jake nodded. “Meanwhile, my unit shipped back to the U.S. I was heading back home, ready to turn myself in over the AWOL thing, but then Jasmine was kidnapped.” His face darkened. “I knew then that the second medic had to be alive and running the show.”

“Who were the two bastards Brent sent to grab Jasmine?”

“Hired guns. Brent must have paid them to do his dirty business. I think at the beginning he figured it’d be quick and easy to get me. But I took care of his goons and brought my sisters across the ocean. So Brent stepped up his game, somehow finagling a government contract for his security company to bring me in. That gave him a whole team to order around.”

A pretty complicated story, but it all made sense in a certain way. Gabe rubbed his hand over his face. He could no longer get around the fact that he believed Jake. “Do you think his team knows about the gold?”

“I don’t think so. Then he’d either have to share with them or kill them for knowing. He’s just using them as his private commando team. All they know is that they have orders to bring down a rogue soldier.”

Gabe thought for a second. “So back in Lahedeh… The medics had an ambulance, could transport the gold out and stash it somewhere. Then Brent and Eric took out everyone who knew about the gold, except you. Eric failed there, so Brent has to finish the job.”

“The way I figure it,” Tekla said, “Brent left the army and joined a private security company so he could get back into Afghanistan with less oversight and more freedom to come and go as he pleased. He couldn’t exactly bring the gold out in his army duffel bag.”

“Right.” Gabe agreed. Military personnel were tightly controlled and supervised. “But as team leader for a private firm, Brent could tell his team they were transporting arms seized from the Taliban, or whatever. One sealed crate looks pretty much like another.”

Jake nodded. “Getting the gold into the U.S. would be the next obstacle. How do they get it through customs? Maybe that’s where the
high up in the ranks
protector comes in.”

Gabe scratched his chin. Sooner or later, they had to figure out who that man was. Otherwise, Jasmine and her family would never be safe.

Chapter Eight

After the cold bath brought her temperature down, Mandy could stand and walk once again, even if her teeth chattered. Jasmine helped her back into the room where Gabe and Jake were still talking. It did her heart good to see the two of them without holding guns on each other.

Gabe jumped to help as soon as he saw them coming. He seemed to truly care. His being here was helping already. Jake could have never carried Mandy over to the tub with his bad arm and leg, and Jasmine couldn’t have done it either. Her little sister was taller than she was and weighed about the same.

But Gabe was here and things were going to turn around. For the first time in a long time, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

“Take Mandy and Jasmine. Get them someplace safe. I’ll stay here and deal with Brent,” Jake told Gabe suddenly.

She gaped for a second, while heat crept up her face. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

As far as she was concerned, they were going to live or die together.

* * *

Gabe watched the dynamics between the two with interest.

“How about Colonel Markowsky?” he offered Tekla after careful consideration. “Whoever is involved in whatever is going on, I can’t see the colonel being involved in anything shady.”

Markowsky had been his colonel, but everyone in the Afghan war theatre knew or knew of the man. He was the toughest son of a bitch there, and the most honest man Gabe had ever met.

Tekla didn’t protest.

Progress. Especially since Gabe was sure Jasmine meant what she’d said. She had incredible loyalty to her family. No way was she going to leave her brother. The woman had character. He liked that.

“What if the colonel could get you out of Venice? Out of Italy. You’re AWOL from the army. His men could take you into custody. If you explained yourself to him, he could help.”

“What about my sisters? The army can’t help them.”

“If the colonel can get them back to the U.S., I can take it from there.” He thought of a good friend who was still with the Bureau. Gordy could get the girls into one of the unused safehouses if Gabe asked. And he would keep quiet about it.

Tekla watched him closely. “I’ve got your word on that?”

“You do. It’s either this or face Brent and the teams when they get here. Which won’t be long now.” He glanced at his watch. They had about ten minutes left before Brent reached the island. “Even if you can evade them once again, how long do you think Mandy is going to make it without medical care?”

The man looked at his sisters as he struggled to his feet. “All right. Let’s do this.”

They all looked at each other. Here they were. Last Chance City.

Gabe pulled his phone and identified himself when the colonel picked up on the other end.

“FBI treating you good, soldier? If they aren’t, you know we’d welcome you back here. Anytime you want to return to us, just say the word.”

He’d saved the colonel’s life once from a roadside bomb, his and the lives of four other men in the vehicle, which the colonel never forgot.

“Thank you, sir. I’m not with the Bureau anymore. I work for a private outfit these days. I’m in a situation here, sir.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“I’m with people who are in trouble.” He thought of Camp Darby, U.S. Army Garrison, at Livorno, a few hours’ drive from Venice. The colonel had a reputation for knowing everyone everywhere. “I don’t suppose anyone at Livorno owes you any favors, sir?” And then he explained everything.

“I can have a car sent to your location.”

“Livorno is a three-hour drive from here, sir. Could you find out if they already have someone out our way?”

The colonel promised to do just that before hanging up. Relief coursed through Gabe. And the news only got better.

“This could help with the colonel.” Jake tugged a tattered manila envelope from under his homemade cast.

“What is it?” Jasmine asked, looking as if this was the first time she saw the thing.

“Some documents I’ve been able to find before we ended up here. It should be enough to get an investigation going.”

Gabe reached for it, but his cellphone interrupted. The colonel was calling back.

“A convoy of U.S. troops is on its way to Livorno from the Nato base in Hungary. They’ll be passing through near Venice. I’m sending one of the trucks over to Ponte della Liberta. Can you rendezvous with them at oh eight hundred?”

Gabe glanced at his watch. Just enough time to make it. “Yes, sir.”

“Help is here.” He lunged into action as soon as he hung up, handing the envelope to Mandy, wrapping it up with her in her blanket and picking her up. “You have to help your brother,” he told Jasmine. “We have twenty minutes to reach Liberty Bridge.”

She tried to prop Tekla up as best she could, but the stairs proved unconquerable on crutches. So after Gabe took care of Mandy, he had to go back up and carry Jake down on his back. At least, Jake could take it from there, so Gabe could go back to carrying Mandy who couldn’t move nearly as quickly as they needed to go.

The morning rush just about over, at least they didn’t have to fight any crowds. Since they didn’t have time to wait for the next
vaporetto
, Gabe hotwired a motorboat and helped everyone in, hoping to be away before the theft was discovered. He kept an eye out for the owner, and also for the teams. Hopefully, by the time Brent and his men found the hideaway, Jasmine and her siblings would be getting into the back of an army truck, heading away from Venice. Gabe drove toward the bridge, grateful that Team B wouldn’t be out there today.

Mandy and her brother huddled under the blanket in the back of the boat, one in worse shape than the other. Gabe stood in the front, steering. Jasmine came up to him.

“So what do you do when you’re not ducking commando teams?” he asked. Her maturity, capability and ingenuity had more than impressed him. He tried to picture the life she would be going back to when this was all over, but he couldn’t. He knew her heart was in the right place. He knew she was the most remarkable woman he’d ever met. But beyond that, he knew next to nothing about her, and suddenly that seemed intolerable.

“I dabble in SM stuff,” she told him.

SM what? He nearly choked on his own saliva. A picture of her in a studded leather choker and thigh high boots popped in to his mind, her slim hand holding a whip. The image nearly knocked him on his behind.

“Social media consulting,” she explained.

“Oh.” He cleared his throat, his blood pressure slowly returning to normal. “So what happens to your job now that you’ve been away for so long?”

“I have good people in place.” She gave a self-deprecating smile. “Not that I don’t worry about them. I check in whenever I can snag some credits at an internet café.”

Right. She owned the company.

“You’re a good man, Gabe Cannon,” she said out of the blue.

“There’s a village of orphans and widows in Afghanistan who would beg to differ,” he said more to himself than to her.

She tilted her head and watched him for a few seconds. “What are you doing to help them?”

“What makes you think I’m doing anything?”

“Seems to me you’re the kind of man who does the right thing if he can.”

He gave a sour laugh. “Don’t make me into some kind of saint. You’ll be disappointed.”

“So what are you doing for all those people in North Village?”

She’d paid attention. She even remembered the name of the place. “Trying to refit the truck part factory with sewing machines for the women. A friend of a friend could get them a Fair Trade contract if the factory is operational by the end of spring.” They were about halfway there. Except he had no idea how he was going to send money after this. His gig with XO-ST was over.

“You have a lot of friends,” she observed.

“Doesn’t mean I’m a good man.”

“I think you are.” She pressed an unexpected kiss to his cheek, then went to the back to sit with her brother and sister.

His skin tingled. He was a thirty-six-year-old hardass commando soldier and his cheek tingled from a kiss. He rubbed his thumb over the spot. Somewhere in the middle of his chest his heart turned over. An unfamiliar feeling. He glanced back at her, and she smiled at him, and his heart turned over again.

Something was going on. He just couldn’t put his finger on it. He wasn’t sure he liked the feeling. Kind of left him off balance a little.

He maneuvered among the water taxis and gondolas and all the private boats that left the harbor every morning, so focused on what he was doing that he barely heard when Mandy said, “I don’t have the envelope.”

Jasmine searched the blanket. “Where is it?”

“I don’t know. I thought I had it with me.”

“I set her down when I went back up for Jake. It might have fallen into the rubble then,” Gabe said, knowing that in all that mess, none of them would have seen it.

“We have to go back for it.” Jake pushed to his feet. “It’s all the proof I have. Without those papers, I’ll never be exonerated.”

“At least you’ll be alive and you--”

Jasmine interrupted. “Drop me here. I’ll take another boat back and meet you at the bridge.”

They just reached the far edge of the harbor, plenty of small boats unattended.

“As long as you can make it to the rendezvous point in time, you can make them wait for me,” she added.

He hated the idea, but didn’t have time to argue, no time to come up with a better plan. If they all turned around, whoever was bringing the truck might think they weren’t coming and take off without them. “Watch out for Brent and his men.”