Chapter 24
The next morning found Marc and Kendall once more settled into airplane seats for the flight to D.C. As she boarded, she was surprised to find that they were all sitting in business class. Watching Marc easily store their carry-on luggage in the large bin above, she locked her eyes on the way his muscles flexed against the sleeves of his shirt. Blinking out of her lust induced stupor, she said, “Estelle must have added this perk to our flight.”
Marc, grinning down at her as he caught her gaze traveling over his body, replied, “This’ll be a lot more comfortable for you than our first trip together.”
Settling into the seat, she placed her hand on his arm, confessing, “Looking back, I’ll always be grateful for flying with you in your plane.”
Across the aisle sat Will and Fahdil, chatting amicably, and in front of them Estelle and Cliff talked, their heads bent together.
Karen and another intern, Bob, chosen by Kenneth, were sitting in front of Marc and Kendall, excitedly talking about the flight.
Enjoying her coffee and pastry, Kendall licked the powdered sugar off her lips, capturing Marc’s attention. Staring at her mouth as her pink tongue flicked out to slide along her upper lip, his cock stirred. Taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly, he willed his dick to behave. It’s gonna be a long flight!
“Marc?”
Jerking as she called his name, his gaze jumped to hers. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
Grinning, she said, “Hmmm, where was your mind? On last night, perhaps?”
His gaze raked across her face as he growled, “Girl, if you don’t want me to introduce you to the mile-high club, then don’t talk about last night, ‘cause this flight will be damn uncomfortable!”
Giggling, she agreed, “You’re right. If I think about it I’ll be dragging you to the bathroom myself!” As she sobered, she glanced around the airplane cabin and, lowering her voice, she whispered, “Do you think any of us are in danger?”
His jaw tightened as he replied, “I’ll assume the worst so that I’ll be prepared for anything.” Seeing the light in her eyes dim, he added, “That’s what I’m here for—so you can focus on your meeting.”
“It’ll be hard not to continually look over my shoulder all the time.”
“Good,” he confirmed, gaining a surprised look from her. “That way you’ll be cautious. Until we know what the threat is and where it’s coming from, I need you vigilant.”
The flight passed with no problems and Kendall breathed a sigh of relief as they disembarked, heading to the taxis waiting to take them to their hotel. Walking into the two story lobby of the four-star hotel, Marc scoped out the area as she moved toward the reception desk.
Calling out to the group, Kendall reminded them to meet back at one o’clock in the lobby to taxi over to the Department of Homeland Security.
Grumbling under his breath, Cliff mocked, “We know what to do.”
Estelle moved to the reception desk as well, her lips continually pursed, and Kendall wondered if sitting next to the dour Cliff caused her to be even more irritable.
Standing back slightly, Marc viewed nothing untoward, but kept his eyes on the others in their group just the same. Fahdil and Will got their rooms first and Marc noted that Will and Karen were on the same floor. Bob ended up with a room on the first floor. Cliff and Estelle also received rooms near each other.
Unsure if any of their room placements were significant, Marc nonetheless noted the whereabouts of all in their party. Kendall checked in and turned as the others made their way to the elevator. Grinning, she handed Marc the room key. “Guess you’re bunking with me,” she gloated.
Laughing, he was pleased for the empty elevator, since the others took the first one that came to the lobby. Once inside, he walked her backward until she pressed up against the wall, his body moving in to claim hers. With his hands on either side of her head, he dipped down until his lips captured hers. His kiss was dominant as his tongue thrust inside of her mouth, relishing the taste of coffee and the mint gum she was so fond of chewing. Breathing her in, he backed away only when the elevator dinged their arrival at their floor.
Licking her kiss-swollen lips, she breathed heavily. Reluctantly moving out of the privacy of the elevator, they hurried down the hall of the seventh floor to find their room. Opening the door, Marc stepped through first, his gaze sweeping the room, first for security and then in appreciation.
The room was elegant with heavy wooden furniture, a thick, cream-colored down comforter on the king-sized bed, and windows that gave a view of some of the grand, stone government buildings’ architecture. Turning, he lifted his eyebrow, observing Kendall as she stepped up next to him peering out the window.
“You usually travel this way?”
“No,” she laughed, wrapping her arms around his waist as she snuggled close. “I decided to upgrade.” Looking into his face, her heart skipped a beat as she took in his rugged handsomeness, unable to believe he was here with her. “I wanted to treat you since you’re doing all you can to protect me.”
Pulling her close, he replied, “Sweet girl, you don’t owe me anything.” Seeing doubt flash through her eyes, he rushed to explain. “No, no, not just because this is my job. But because you’ve got to know that I’d do anything to keep you safe.” Bending down to hold her gaze, he promised, “You’re in my heart.”
Lifting on her toes, she kissed him, soft and gentle, letting her lips say what her heart was feeling. As she settled back on her heels, she glanced at the clock. “Do we have time to play before we have to be back downstairs?”
“Oh, yeah…plenty of time to play.”
With that, he scooped her up and deposited her in the middle of the bed, both willing to skip lunch for time together.
*
Nick and Monty met with Hank at a restaurant in town at the insistence of the young FBI agent. They had been planning on returning to Virginia, when Hank contacted them early in the morning for a meeting.
Hank was already in a booth when they arrived, his eyes darting around as they slid into the booth opposite of him. Neither spoke, waiting to see what Hank had to say.
“Look, I know you all suspect me, but I had nothing to do with Marc’s plane—”
“You weren’t there? You didn’t walk away and not continually observe them?” Nick interrupted, his eyes glaring at the agent sitting across from him.
Hank dropped his head as he sighed. “Yes, yes…I know. I fucked up and I’ll be paying for that mistake for a long time. But I’ve learned from it and I can’t believe you never made a mistake.”
The tic in Nick’s jaw was the only outward expression of irritation. He opened his mouth to speak, but Monty stepped in. “You found something?”
Hank nodded several times before leaning in and saying, “I’ve been checking into everything. Kevin asked me to work on ‘cause, like everyone else, he’s pissed at me, but he was the only one in our office to know that Dr. Kenneth Rhodes was being flown back to Louisiana.” Rubbing his hand over his face, he added, “I don’t know who to trust other than you two.”
“And…” Monty prodded.
“I’ve checked the IDs of the men who were supposed to show up that night and it’s no surprise that they weren’t the two men I let in. Obviously the names were the same and they had fake badges. I’ve been trying to figure out who they were and started with some of the known members of the terrorist cell we have here in Alaska.”
Nick, calmer now that Hank was making sense and not excuses, nodded for him to continue.
“Okay, so far I haven’t identified them, but in doing more research, I have learned that the cell recruits heavily from universities, especially the young who might be gullible or financially needy. I’ve been going through the database of who we know is there.”
“No hits yet?” Nick asked.
“Not positive, but I’ve compiled a list of some names, though I don’t have pictures of all of them.” Sighing heavily, he added, “We’re a small office and Kevin’s already given me another case to work on. I just thought that maybe with your resources you would be able to help.”
“Give me what you’ve got and I’ll send it to my people,” Monty said, glancing at the list that Hank immediately pushed across the table. Lifting his gaze back to Hank, he said, “We were going to leave today, but I think we should stay at least another day, to give my group a chance to look this over.” Nick nodded, but stayed mute.
Hank heaved a sigh and, with a look at his watch, said, “I’ve got to get back to the office.” Standing, he added, “Thank you,” before he left the restaurant.
Nick moved to the now empty side of the booth and asked, “You believe him? Or is he blowing smoke to take suspicion away from himself?”
Rubbing his chin, Monty shook his head. “Don’t know. But let me get this to Luke and see if we can start making sense of it all.”
*
Jack and Patrick settled around the conference table with the other Saints. Looking over to his computer experts, Jack asked, “What have you got for us?”
Luke smiled at Charlie and said, “Take it away.”
Rolling her eyes at his comment, she turned her focus to the others around the table. “As you know, Luke and I focused originally on the security feeds from the hangar to see what we could discern, but they had been interrupted. So, while we knew we were dealing with professionals, we had no way to counter what they had done to protect their identity. So, next, we went after the financials of any and all possible suspects. We began combing through the agents in the FBI office in Fairbanks and the people who worked in the NCBRT.”
“And,” Luke interjected, “as you know, there are a lot of people to consider and it takes a long time to work through all the possible money routes. But, we have made a few connections worth digging into further.”
“As far as the Alaskan group, we haven’t found any money concerns with Kevin, Hank, or Sharon. But we did find that Sharon Chikuk’s family has been involved in protests against the government taking over native Alaskan territories for oil routes. No terrorists’ activities, but something to note in case she would be susceptible to blackmail. So far, we’ve found nothing overtly suspicious with Kevin or Hank, but I’m still digging,” Charlie reported.
Flashing more information onto the wall screen, she continued. “Now, here’s where it gets interesting, and it’s with the people in Louisiana. I finally found an account with a significant amount of money deposited into it, in the name of Fahdil Mahdi.” At that, only the sounds of the Saints cursing could be heard.
“Hang on guys,” Luke interrupted, gaining their attention once more. “The problem is that the account is not set up with his social security number—it’s a fake one. So, we don’t know if it’s his account, and that’s how he’s hiding things, or if it’s someone else’s account and they are using his name.”
“How do we find out?” Blaise asked.
“We’re still working on it,” Charlie admitted. “Like I said, these things take some time.”
“Is he the only one right now that’s suspicious?” Chad queried.
Shaking his head, Luke admitted, “Nope. Estelle Barnaby has not hidden her displeasure at being assigned to the backwaters of Louisiana.” His fingers made air quotes around her description of her assignment.
Charlie added, “I’m also looking into Dr. Cliff Wallace. His unhappiness at being under Dr. Kenneth Rhodes is well documented and he’d be a perfect candidate for wanting to get rid of both Dr. Rhodes. Now, whether or not either his or Estelle’s professional dissatisfaction comes out strong enough to want to kill…we’re still trying to find out.”
Jack nodded thoughtfully for a moment before continuing assignments. “Charlie, you keep working the financial angle to see who might have the money to pay to have Marc’s plane sabotaged. Chad, you and Patrick work with Luke to compile the pictures of all known ISIS members, from any and all databases, and get them to Monty. He’s informed me that one of the agents there is trying to identify the men who came into the hangar. Since he’s not sure he trusts the other agents, he’s working rogue with Monty and Nick. Cam and Bart, you two head up to D.C. and assist Marc in keeping an eye on the NCBRT delegation. We’re missing a link…somewhere there’s a connection and we’re not seeing it yet. Keep on it.”
With those orders, the group went back to work.