Marked (Hostage Rescue Team Series) (8 page)

Out in the parking lot in his truck, Jake kept his eye on Rachel. She was seated at a window booth, waiting for her brother to show up at the restaurant they’d chosen, after she’d changed the meeting location. Having seen the state of her bedroom, there was no way in hell Jake was letting her stay in her building a second longer. The team was still going through her condo, but hadn’t turned up anything new yet. Others had begun the hunt for Xang. With any luck, they’d have him in custody by nightfall.

For now, Jake needed peace of mind.

He dialed his roommate, Tuck, who picked up on the third ring with a drawled, “What’s up, farmboy? You meet up with your mystery girl yet?”

Normally the dig at his Iowa roots amused him, but he was in anything but a happy mood at the moment. He knew Tuck and Bauer were curious about Rachel, since he’d dropped everything to rush out and meet her this morning. “Yeah, and I’ve got a bit of a situation.”

Tuck hooted. “That was fast. Serves you right for ditching us for a chick. You’re missin’ out on some gorgeous conditions, by the way—we’re just about to hit our first trail.”

Jake had originally planned to go dirt biking with them, right up until the moment he’d seen that e-mail from Rachel. After that, there was no question where his priorities lay. “No, I mean as in this could be turning into a work situation.”

A startled pause followed as Tuck digested that. “The hell did you do, man? You’ve only been gone a couple hours. Even you couldn’t find trouble that quick.” He sounded genuinely interested.

“Nothing,” Jake said with tried patience. “Look, I don’t want to go into details over the phone, but I need some backup. Unofficially,” he added. Their overlapping work schedules should do fine for what he had in mind. And though Tuck loved to give him a hard time whenever possible—Jake was one of the newest members of the team, after all—he knew Jake would never ask him for a favor on their day off if it wasn’t really important.

“Can you and Bauer meet me back at our place within the next couple hours?” He felt bad that it would end their dirt biking adventure before it had gotten started, because downtime was precious and Tuck sure as hell could use some R&R with everything that was going on in his personal life right now.

But Tuck didn’t hesitate. “Whoa. Yeah, man, if you need us, we’ll be there.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it, brother. We’ll just add this to your tab.”

“You do that,” Jake replied with a grudging chuckle. The form of payment at the end of all this would no doubt be taken out in the form of food, alcohol, or some shitty-ass job no one else on the team wanted to do.

Hanging up, he already felt better knowing his buddies had his back in whatever was unfolding here. Until he knew Rachel was no longer under threat, he wasn’t taking any chances with her safety. It made his skin crawl to think of that asshole invading her place and pawing through her underwear.

Slashing a woman’s underwear to pieces meant the guy had a shitload of rage underscored with sexual undertones and it was a definite warning sign that things could easily escalate to something like rape or worse. Jake wasn’t going to let that happen, and the FBI team hunting Xang would be doubly motivated to bring him in before he did something worse.

A few minutes later there was still no sign of Brandon and Jake’s phone buzzed with an incoming text from Rachel.

He’s not here and won’t respond to my messages.

They’d already been here nearly forty minutes. It should only have taken her brother fifteen to get there after their last conversation, and unless his phone had died in the past few minutes there was no reason for him not to reply to her. Jake didn’t like the implications involved in all of this.
Come on out
, he texted back.

The diner door opened a few moments later and Rachel strode toward his truck, all poised, feminine grace with an aura of confidence that never failed to stir him. Letting her slip through his fingers had been a huge mistake, but he was a different person in a different place now and he wasn’t making that same mistake again. The circumstances of their reunion sucked ass, but at least now he’d be spending a lot of time with her until this was dealt with. That was a start.

He hopped out to open the passenger door for her, taking in the tense set of her shoulders and the worried frown marring her brow. He wished he could make this go away for her.

“What now?” she asked, looking up at him as though she hoped he had the answer that would make everything all better. Unfortunately he had nothing.

“We’ll wait a bit longer out here.” He helped her up, shut the door and rounded the hood to climb back behind the wheel. Once inside the cab, he could practically feel the tension pulsing off her. “He might’ve been farther away than we thought when you last talked to him.”

She shook her head, anxiously scanning the parking lot. “He said he’d be here in twenty. And he was really worried about me, so I know he’d come straight here.” She turned those big, green-flecked eyes on him and he didn’t even think—just reached out and curled his fingers around her hand. She gripped his tight in return. “Something’s wrong.”

Her skin was cold, her hand so delicate and fragile in his own. He rubbed his thumb across the back of her knuckles as he spoke. “We’ll give him another fifteen minutes, and if he still doesn’t show, we’ll let the other agents know. Okay?”

She nodded and looked back out the window. “This isn’t like him.”

“We’ll find him, no worries.” His gut said otherwise. And dammit, he didn’t want to be the one to have to tell her she was right about this. They sat in silence while they waited. He kept her hand tightly entwined with his while she checked the time on her phone every few minutes. When the hour mark came and went with no sign or contact from Brandon, he saw no point in keeping up pretenses. “Try him one more time.”

She dialed, waited, and the call went straight to voicemail. Not bothering to leave another message, she ended the call and texted him again. He didn’t respond.

Yeah, this was not good.

Jake fired the truck up and began driving as she typed out another text. Using his hands free device he called the other agents and explained that Brandon hadn’t turned up, waited while they updated him.

“They’ve traced his phone to a metro station south of town about an hour ago. They’re out looking for him now,” he told Rachel after he hung up.

She set her phone down and clenched her hands in her lap, casting him a worried glance when he got on the highway and headed south from Baltimore. “Where are we going?”

“My place, near Quantico. I’ve called a couple buddies and asked them to meet us there, just as a precaution until we know what’s going on. The field office will call when they know something more.”

Her eyes were full of anxiety. “Do you think he’s all right? Do you think Xang might have done something to him?”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” he said, but he was thinking exactly along the same lines as her.

She blew out a breath and closed her eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening. God, I feel sick. I need to call my mom and let her know what’s going on.”

“Don’t call her yet. No point in worrying her until we know more details.”

“I just feel like I should be
doing
something.”

“I know. But we’ve done all we can for now.” Since he couldn’t make this any easier for her and he respected her too much to give her pointless platitudes, he let a silence lapse between them. He could practically feel the tension humming inside her, and didn’t know how to ease it.

“What about your family?” she finally asked him.

Her question surprised him, but he realized she was probably trying to distract herself. “They’re all good. My parents are officially retired now and my brother and his wife have two little kids. They’re all still back in Iowa. We get together for family holidays when my schedule allows. Christmas is a big deal but we don’t usually get to celebrate it on the twenty-fifth.”

She made a noise in her throat to show she was listening, that frown still in place. “My mom still flies here every year to spend Christmas with me, and now Brandon too.”

“I’m glad. I bet you miss her.”

“I miss her a lot, but she’s still not ready to move back here. She’s got her relatives there and she says being here reminds her too much of my dad, so…” She trailed off, her frown turning speculative. “These buddies of yours. Were you in the Rangers together?”

“No, but they’re all former military.” And he loved them all like brothers, same as he had the guys in his Ranger platoon. The time-intensive tempo of their schedules meant they spent a lot of time together—sometimes more than the guys did with their own families. The result was a tight, cohesive unit where every man trusted the others with his life. They sometimes fought and bitched at each other just like all brothers did, but at the end of the day, they had each others’ backs.

She turned her head to study him. “So why are we going to see them?”

He didn’t see the harm in telling her the truth, since she was going to find out anyway. “They’re teammates of mine. I want to fill them in, have you get to know them a bit so you feel comfortable with them.”

“Why?”

He shrugged, kept his eyes on the road. “I want them to help keep an eye on you. Our schedules rotate, depending on a lot of different things. I’m tied up with scheduled training most of the week if we don’t get called out, so the guys can take over when I can’t be there.”

Her eyebrows shot upward. “You’re putting a personal security detail on me?”

Wasn’t exactly protocol to do it himself, but he and his teammates could protect her as well as anyone, and the control freak in him wanted to pick her detail himself. The guys he worked with were definitely the best. “Yes, ma’am. For now, anyway. If you’re not comfortable with me and the guys doing it I can let the Baltimore office handle it, but you definitely need protection until this guy’s brought in.”

“What about my place and my job?”

There was no easy way to say it. “I think you know you can’t go back to your place. And unless you can work remotely, you’ll need to take some time off.”

Rather than get pissed off or argue about it, she stared at him for a long moment before relenting with a sigh. “I’ll talk to my bosses once I hear back about my brother.”

“Sure, but given everything that’s happened, they’ll want you to take time away until this is all cleared up. And I wouldn’t worry about them blaming you for the stolen files. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

It didn’t surprise him that she was more worried about Brandon and her job than her own safety. Rachel was like that, always thinking of the people she cared about, putting them first. He’d once been included in that select group. He’d been stupid not to stay in touch more, a fucking moron to believe he could ever get over her.

All this time he’d told himself he’d been doing her a favor by letting their communications lapse, especially while he was overseas or in training at Quantico. She’d e-mailed him once a week without fail at first, never once chastising him if he didn’t reply, but gradually they’d begun to trail off —whether she’d finally gotten fed up with him or she’d realized he wasn’t worth her time, he wasn’t sure—and he’d let them drift apart until she’d finally moved on.

Biggest mistake of his life. She wasn’t Linda and it wasn’t fair of him to assume she couldn’t handle or want to adjust to the demands of his career.

When she didn’t respond, only twisted her hands in her lap, he reached across the console to take her hand again. It was important to him that she understood she wasn’t alone, that he wouldn’t fade out of her life again. She had him to lean on now. “Whatever happens, I’m here for you, okay?”

At that she looked over and gave him a tremulous smile that made his chest ache as she squeezed his hand. “Thanks. I’m glad I called you.”

“Me too.” He was only sorry it had taken this for her to re-establish contact.

Wishing he could go back and undo all of that as he drove south toward Quantico, Jake vowed to make sure he never pushed her away again.

****

After an hour long drive, Jake finally turned the truck into a residential neighborhood and into the driveway of a two-story brick, traditional-style house.

“This is your place?” Rachel asked him as he parked beside another pickup with dirt bikes loaded into the bed, unable to hide her surprise.

“What, you expected a trailer park or something?” he said, his tone teasing.

“No, you just used to be a turnkey kind of guy. Condo or townhouse maybe. No yard, no maintenance, able to just lock the door and go whenever you want.”

“Oh, that’s still me. Just figured it was smarter to invest the money into a house rather than throw it out the window in rent each month. My buddy Tuck and I bought the place together. It’s a good area. We should make a decent profit when we sell.”

She nodded, hardly able to believe she was having this conversation when her brother had yet to respond and could potentially be missing. Her phone had remained silent in her lap the entire trip and Jake hadn’t heard back yet from either the team at her place or the agents tracking Brandon’s phone. It was maddening. She wanted answers, now, or she was going to go crazy. Feeling helpless sucked.

He led her through a neatly organized garage full of tools, sports gear and tactical gear, and into what she guessed was the mudroom. The smell of grilled meat hit her as soon as they stepped inside. With a solid hand planted at the small of her back, Jake ushered her through the mudroom to a spacious, newly renovated bright, country kitchen.

Two men were standing around the dark granite-topped island in the center of the room, one blond and the other huge with dark-hair, eating burgers. They both looked up when she and Jake entered.

“Guys, this is Rachel Granger,” Jake told them.

The blond set down his burger and wiped his palm against his jeans as he strode over. “Hey, I’m Brad Tucker,” he said in a warm Southern drawl. “You can call me Brad if you want, but most people call me Tuck.” He stuck out the hand he’d just cleaned.