Jaxon

Zane had been pacing for the last hour. I was contemplating duct taping him to the chair or tossing his ass over the balcony into the water below. I wondered what his fancy neighbors would think when they saw a body falling from the penthouse.

“It’s not adding up,” Zane told me something I already knew. That was the whole reason for our meeting this evening. “The information is classified, yet the hacks are sloppy. If someone was hacking into top secret information, wouldn’t they cover their tracks better?”

“They have covered their tracks. We don’t know who the fuck they are. It’s as if they wanted someone to know the system had been breached, but not who they are,” I mused.

It had been too easy to find where Olivia Cox had been kept. Too easy to trace that someone from Langley had hacked into the White House server. And way too easy to pin it on Timothy Clark. Why would anyone want us to find all the breadcrumbs they were leaving but not their identity?

Zane’s phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket, looking at the screen. “Goddamn telemarketers. I’m writing the fucking phone company a letter tomorrow about the do not fucking call registry. I’m on the list. Assholes.” Zane angrily swiped his phone, stopping the ringing. Before he could re-pocket his phone, it started again. This time he answered, placing the call on speaker.

“Hello,” he barked. It was hard to suppress the laugh that was bubbling.

“Zane Lewis?” a woman asked.

Zane turned to me and rolled his eyes. “Yes. Who is this?” he asked.

“My name is Violet Myers. I am with the CIA. I believe you’ve been looking for me?”

“Why would I be looking for you?” he asked and motioned for me to trace the call.

“There is no time for games. There has been a breach and a SEAL platoon is walking into an ambush. They were deployed two hours ago out of San Diego. I’m working on my end to find their exact location. With your resources, I thought it would be faster to work together,” Violet replied. “And there is no need to try and trace this call. I have emailed you all my intel and I will give you my cell number before we hang up. I’m actually on my way to you right now. I had to leave Virginia.”

“On your way to me?” Zane asked, still trying to stall so I could triangulate her location.

“Yes, to your condo. ETA five minutes,” she replied.

“The fuck you say?” Zane Lewis had gone from pissed to nuclear.

“Mr. Lewis, I don’t think you need me to repeat myself. Do you want to play these games and explain to Caroline why her husband Matthew and his team didn’t come home? Or do you want to work together and warn them?”

“I swear to Christ woman, if you leaked information that gets them killed, I will personally cut your throat and watch your blood spill,” Zane yelled.

“And I will gladly stand in front of you while you do. I’m ready to turn myself in and help but I need a favor.” Violet had lost the bravado she had at the start of the conversation.

“You have some balls asking me for a favor. What could you possibly want from me?” Zane glanced at me and I turned my laptop in his direction. Sure as shit, the woman was turning down his street heading straight to us.

“I’ll tell you when I come up. I’m here now.” The call disconnected, and I thought Zane was going to crush his phone.

“Call Tex,” Zane yelled over his shoulder as he moved to his bedroom, no doubt to pull out the heavy artillery. Zane can be a scary motherfucker when he was pissed.

Tex picked up on the first ring. “Tex, it’s Jaxon. I’m unsecure,” I informed him.

“Copy that,” he replied, apprehension thick.

“Sorry to bother you. I need conformation that the Frogs have gone to play in the Sandbox,” I asked, using the nickname for SEALs and the universal term for the Middle East.

“I’d say that sounds about right,” he replied.

“We have a problem. Track them and tell them to hold fast for further intel and possible EXFIL. Possible mission compromise.”

“Fuck. Copy.” Tex disconnected. There was no one better at tracking. I had faith that we’d have their location within the hour, hopefully before the team landed.

Zane came out of his bedroom just as expected, his Sig Sauer P226 secured in a thigh holster and a HK MP5 slung over his shoulder.

“Seriously?” I asked and shook my head at his antics, then sobered. “Tex confirmed. The team is deployed.”

“You’re questioning my choice of firepower when a fucking spook called my private cellphone, knows my address, and…” He was cut off by a knock on the door. “Can get past building security.”

Zane ambled to door, checked the peephole, and threw the door open, uncaring he looked like Rambo.

I thought I heard a feminine giggle before Zane barked, “What the fuck woman? How’d you get up here? Never mind, I don’t want to know. I knew I should’ve installed my own system.”

“May I come in?” she asked.

This woman had no sense of self-preservation. Zane Lewis was an opposing man standing at six-foot-three. He was so large I couldn’t see the woman who called herself Violet, if that was her real name. His hand was also on his P226 at his thigh, yet she still asked to enter. Either she had a death wish or she was plain stupid. Much to my surprise, Zane stepped to the side offering her entrance and I got my first look at the petite brunette. Not at all what I was expecting. She was younger than I thought, and absolutely stunning. I shook my head to dislodge the fantasies my mind was conjuring up and back to the situation at hand. There was a traitor in our midst and she needed to be dealt with accordingly.

She walked in and wasted no time. “Have you already confirmed what I told you?” she asked.

Zane narrowed his eyes and asked, “Why are you here?”

“I already told you. I have credible intel that says Wolf and his team are walking into an ambush.”

“That’s not what I’m asking. Why are you here - in my living room? You could’ve alerted a hundred different people in your office, including the National Security Advisor. Maybe the Secretary of Defense. Yet you’re standing your skinny ass in my house. What. The. Fuck?”

She didn’t even flinch at Zane’s gruff comeback. If anything, she stood taller and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know who I can trust.”

“But I’m supposed to trust you?” Zane asked.

“No. You’re supposed to trust my intel.”

“Like that can’t be faked. Again, what the fuck?”

For the first time since Violet walked into Zane’s apartment, she turned toward me. “Is he always like this?”

“Only with people he doesn’t like,” I told her.

She didn’t seem to be deterred and pulled a laptop out of her messenger bag, knelt down in front of Zane’s coffee table, and powered the machine on. Zane looked at me, his eyebrow cocked up in his signature look of annoyance and asked, “Can I shoot her now?”

“Not if you don’t want to have to explain to the management why the carpet needs to be replaced.”

Violet didn’t care Zane was plotting her murder and continued to click buttons on her keyboard until she’d pulled up the file she wanted.

“Here.” She turned the laptop so Zane and I could see the screen.

“Jesus.” I muttered. It was the flight plan and mission information for Wolf’s team.

I scanned the top-secret document, reading the mission specifics, something that no one outside of the platoon’s chain of command should have.

“Where’d you get that?” I asked. My phone was already in my hand, ready to call Tex.

“It doesn’t matter.”

He answered on the first ring and before I could press for more answers. “Go.”

“Mission is compromised. Call them back.”

“That’s a no-go. All comms have been severed. They’re dark.”

“The pilot?” I asked.

“Negative.”

“Sat phone, personal cell, a smoke signal?”

“No. No. And triple no. They’re ghosts,” Tex said.

“Unfortunately, they’re not. They’ll have company as soon as they land,” I told him.

“Tell him to clear our path. They’ll be at least three hours ahead of us, but Wolf is smart. He’ll sniff this shit out, quick. We’ll be right behind them for back up,” Zane said. “Ask him to run a full work up on Violet Myers. I want everything. Tex knows how I like it, crawl up her ass. She’s a turncoat – no lube necessary.”

“I heard him,” Tex chuckled. “I’ll have what you need within the hour.”

He disconnected and for the first time Violet looked nervous. There was something in her background she didn’t want us to know.

“Why’d you do it?” I asked.

“Do what? Bring you my intel? Innocent men are getting ready to die.”

“That wasn’t a problem for you before,” I reminded her.

“Innocent?” she screeched. “Timothy Clark, the agent who sold state secrets? The Bolivian drug lord slash arms dealer, Siles? Gomez? Who of them were innocent? I sent you everything you needed to save Olivia Newton. The only thing more I could’ve done was draw the map myself.”

“You still haven’t answered. Why?”

“It doesn’t matter why. I did it. I’m prepared to turn myself in and suffer the consequences right after we get to Wolf.”

“We’re not doing anything. I’m hauling your ass to the Director personally and handing you over,” Zane put in.

“No, you won’t. I haven’t told you who else is involved.”

Violet and Zane locked eyes and it was a toss-up who was going to cave. I almost had the tiniest bit of respect for her. Not many people had the balls to go toe-to-toe with the former Navy SEAL – especially a woman.