Broken Honor (9 page)

“Yeah,” he admitted, but not without a huge load of grudging reluctance in his tone. “You’re right. Quinn wouldn’t do that.”

“And we all want to find him and Mara and the baby and make sure they’re safe, right?”

“Yes.” No reluctance in that answer. Jesse hadn’t yet told Mara’s brother, Matt, who was stationed overseas in Japan, about her disappearance. It was a call he really did not want to make without the news that she was now safe and okay.

“So we need to focus on finding them.” Gabe climbed out of the car and retrieved his cane from the backseat. “And then we’ll worry about working out the rest of it. But right here, right now in this moment, I need you with me on this. You know Mara better than any of us.”

Jesse followed him to the sidewalk. “Why do you have to make so much goddamn sense?”

“Because, as you so often point out, I’m the big, bad, all-knowing boss.”

Jesse snorted a laugh. “All right. I’m here. I’m focused. Later, though, when we find them…I can’t make any promises I won’t punch Quinn.”

“Good enough for now.” Leaning more heavily on his cane than usual, Gabe studied the street. “Which house is hers?”

“This one.” Jesse led the way up the walk to Mara’s duplex, a tan stucco house that she shared with Mrs. Ruiz, a seventy-year-old widow. “And it’s 98 percent.”

“What?” Gabe said as he followed.

“I’m 98 percent sure there are no other little Jesses out there besides my son.”

“That high?”

“Never had much time for baby makin’. I was married to the army for eleven years, and she’s one jealous, demanding bitch.”

“So’s the navy,” Gabe said. “What’s the other 2 percent?”

“Well, there was this weekend leave in Hawaii right after my first divorce was finalized.” He rubbed his jaw. Winced. “I started drinkin’ soon as our plane touched down, and I don’t remember much after leaving the base. Pretty sure I was so hammered that even if I’d wanted to try some baby makin’, I wouldn’t have been able to get it up, so—”

Mara’s front door swung open and a tall, lean figure stood silhouetted there, weapon aimed. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” Her voice was soft, but there was an edge in her tone that said she meant business.

Jesse reached for his own firearm and saw Gabe doing the same out of the corner of his eye. “Good question.” He aimed at the woman, although he had no intention of firing unless she did. “How about you go first? You know, since you’re outgunned right now.”

“Oh, a lady never gives it up that easily, cowboy. At least buy me dinner before you go asking me to spill all my secrets.” But she relaxed, dropping the muzzle of her gun toward the ground and clicking on the safety. When she stepped into the light, he about swallowed his tongue.

Dayam.

He should have known, but she looked so completely different from the last time he’d seen her at her and Mara’s high school graduation. She’d…grown up. A lot.

“Hello, Jesse,” she said. “Thought you might show up here.”

“Lanie.” He lowered his weapon. “Mara’s best friend since high school,” he explained to Gabe, who also relaxed. “She’s a Texas Ranger. And a mighty pain in the ass.”

“Aw, I’m hurt you think so. Look at me cry.” Lanie smirked at him as she holstered her weapon and approached. In the muted light of the street lamps, her skin glowed a gorgeous mocha and she wore her tightly curled black hair pulled back in a ponytail. She used to be all awkward, gangly limbs—which he’d found appealing as an awkward, gangly-limbed teenager himself—and her clumsiness had always reminded him of a baby giraffe learning to walk. But not anymore. She had to be close to six feet tall now, with jeans-clad legs that stretched for miles, and she moved with the lithe confidence and purpose of a predator.

She held out a graceful, long-fingered hand to Gabe. “You must be Gabe Bristow. We never had the chance to formally meet when you and your team were here last summer, but you briefly met my partner, Dennis Aranda, and he had nothing but good things to say about you.”

Gabe nodded and holstered his gun to accept the handshake. “I remember him. Good guy. Solid cop.”

“Yes, he—”

“Jesus, we don’t have time for this chitchat.” Jesse scowled at the two of them before turning his full attention to Lanie. “What are you doing here?”

Her dark eyes flashed annoyance. “I already said I was waiting for you. The local authorities were notified about Mara’s disappearance when her neighbor noticed her door was hanging open and found her dog pacing around the yard. They launched their own investigation, but I knew that Travis Quinn guy had been here and—”

“And you thought he might have had something to do it,” Gabe finished.

“It crossed my mind,” she admitted. “She hadn’t told him about the baby yet when I last spoke to her. I thought—”

“Hold up. You knew she was pregnant?” Jesse demanded. Betrayal soured his blood. Why would Mara confide in Lanie before him or even her brother?

“Of course I knew,” she said like he was an idiot for asking. “I was with her when she bought and took the pregnancy test. What kind of friend would I be if I abandoned her when she most needed one?” She looked at Gabe. “And when I heard about the abduction, I worried maybe her baby daddy flipped his lid when she broke the news.”

Gabe shook his head. “I can assure you, Quinn has nothing to do with this. But he did witness the abduction and went after Mara to rescue her. We’ve been tracking his phone.”

“So do you know where they are?”

There was no mistaking the fragile hope in her voice, and Jesse hated to crush it. “No, we don’t.”

“But we will,” Gabe added.

Lanie nodded, closed her eyes for a moment, and drew in a soothing breath. Then she opened her eyes again and nailed them with the gaze of a woman determined to do something stupid. “All right, here’s the thing. Mara’s my best friend. Honestly, one of my only friends, and I know y’all have a better chance at finding her than anyone else—but if you think for one hot second I’ll let you leave me behind on this, you need to think again.”

Gabe arched a brow, but he appeared more amused by her demands than angry. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. And if you try, I’ll turn your asses in to the local police faster than small-town gossip, and you’ll be tied up in so much red tape you won’t be able to move. Please don’t make me do that.”

“You wouldn’t,” Jesse said.

“No,” Gabe said slowly. “I believe she would.”

She nodded. “If you get in my way, absolutely. I don’t think it needs to come to that, though. Gabe here seems like a reasonable guy.”

Meaning Jesse wasn’t. Heat crawled up his neck, and he realized he was grinding his teeth. “No, you’re staying here.”

She ignored him and met Gabe stare for stare. “Well?”

Gabe considered her for a long moment. Then he lifted a shoulder. “Okay.”

Jesse whirled on him. “Boss—”

“She’s had some training, knows how to shoot, and from what I can tell, has balls of fucking steel. Nothing against my wife or Phoebe, but she’s better than any of the assets we’ve had to work with in the past, and we need all the help we can get.” He held up a hand, cutting off all further protest, and reached into his pocket for his buzzing phone. “Bristow,” he answered and walked away.

Jesse scowled over at Lanie. “You’re not going anywhere, Elena.”

She scowled right back. “It’s Lanie. And oh, yes, I am. Didn’t you hear your boss? I have balls of fucking steel, and you’re stuck with me, cowboy.”

Gabe returned a moment later, his face set in grim lines. “Marcus and Ian found three bodies at the airfield, two men and a woman.”

Lanie sucked in a sharp breath. “Are they…?”

Jesse had the strangest urge to pull her into his arms and comfort her. Jesus. Instead, he faced Gabe. “It’s not Mara and Quinn?”

“No.”

He’d guessed as much because of how calm Gabe was after ending the call, but it still felt like a weight off his chest to hear it confirmed. “Any sign of them?”

“Tank picked up on Quinn’s scent in the hangar and led them to a cell phone.”

Jesse’s body went cold. “Quinn’s?”

“Yeah.”

“How do we trace him now?”

“Ian said he left us a clue,” Gabe said. “They’re headed back to the hotel. Lanie, I’m assuming you already searched Mara’s house?”

She nodded. “After the police cleared it, I had to go in and round up Mara’s animals. Mrs. Ruiz next door has them for now. But if there was anything in there to help us, it’s now in the possession of the El Paso Police Department.”

“Then we’re wasting our time here.” Gabe walked to the car, opened the driver’s side door, and arched a brow in question. “You two coming or what?”

Chapter Nine

Somewhere in Transnistria

“Clothes,” Alexei said in heavily accented English. “Off. Now.”

Quinn glanced around the tiled room, which was like a crappier version of his high school gym locker room. Besides him and Mara, three of the other women had been transported to this place via a van with blacked-out windows. All of the women were exhausted, beaten down, but not one of them moved. They all looked toward him, as if he had all the answers.

He lifted his still-cuffed hands. “Handcuffs,” he said, mocking Alexei’s accent. “Off. Now.”

Alexei just grunted in response and walked over to a hose coiled up on the wall.

Well, it had been worth a shot. Now that his body wasn’t contorted, he could theoretically break out of the cuffs, but he wanted to save that little party trick until he really needed it. Until then, he’d have to live with them on.

He gazed over at the women and nodded. “Do what they say.”

Mara translated his words for the women, then touched his shoulder. “What are they doing?”

“They’re going to hose us down, probably cavity search us.”

She shuddered, and he turned to her, cupping her face in his bound hands. “Any way you cut it, the next few hours are going to suck. I can’t do anything about that.”

Nodding, she covered one of his hands with her own. “I know.” Then she let go of him and glared daggers at the thugs before yanking her sweatshirt off over her head and throwing it to the floor.

Even before they finished undressing, Alexei hit them with a powerful spray of icy water, nearly knocking them both off their feet. It was like needles piercing Quinn’s flesh, stealing away his body heat almost before he could produce it, and it transported him back to his days in Coronado when his need to become a SEAL had been the only thing keeping him going during Hell Week. His BUD/S instructors had loved pushing him to the brink of hypothermia and even one step over, and he’d never forget how cold the Pacific was at oh-dark-thirty when your body was beyond exhausted and you’d taken only the briefest of naps in the last twenty-four hours.

This water was colder.

He gritted his teeth to keep them from chattering and caged Mara between his body and the wall, shielding her from the worst of it. He couldn’t do anything to help the other women and winced with each new scream as the water sprayed back and forth over the line of them.

Mara huddled against his chest. Her skin was warmer compared to the ice of his, but not by much. She was amazing, never making a sound, enduring the torture silently each time the water rained over them. Trembles raced just under the surface of her skin, and he rubbed her back, trying to generate more heat.

Finally, the damn hose was shut off, leaving the room silent except for dripping water and chattering teeth. Alexei and Pyotr laughed as they led the other women away, one by one, until only he and Mara were left.

“Oh, God,” Mara whispered against his chest. “They’re going to separate us. Travis, please don’t let them take me away. I’m scared.”

He looped his cuffed hands over her shoulders and squeezed her tight. “Shh. I’ve got you. You’re not going anywhere.”

“They’re going to—” Her voice caught on a sob. “They’re going to sell the baby.”

Yeah, that would be their plan. He hugged her closer and eyed the two thugs standing guard by the door. They hadn’t come back into the room since removing the last of the women. Seemed to be waiting for something. Or, possibly, someone.

The door opened moments later to admit a man in a white coat. A doctor. They wanted confirmation she was pregnant.

“I need to examine the woman,” the doctor said with a deadness in his voice that chilled Quinn more than the cold water had.

Christ, he hated doctors.

“I don’t think so.” He removed his arms from her shoulders and stepped in front of her, again using his own body as a barricade. She pressed her face into the middle of his back. Hot tears trickled down his spine to mingle with the water still clinging to his skin.

He had to get her out of here.

He lunged for Pyotr first because out of the three of them, that guy was the most dangerous. He had soulless eyes that spoke of the depths of his brutality and depravity. But for all of that, Pyotr wasn’t trained, and the surprise attack threw him off guard. Quinn had him disabled and on the ground, gasping for breath, in half a heartbeat. He sneaked his hands into Pyotr’s coat pocket, found his cell phone, and drew it out as he spun on Alexei, knocking a knife out of the guy’s hand with a roundhouse kick.

“Travis!”

Pain stabbed into his shoulder, but with his hands cuffed, he couldn’t reach around to dislodge what he thought was a knife. Fuck. He’d miscalculated, had focused too much on the thugs and hadn’t thought of the doctor as a real threat.

The room fuzzed and wobbled around him. Not a knife, then. Drugs of some kind. He dropped to one knee, gagging as bile threatened to come up. A boot connected with his gut, bending him double.

“Stop it!” Mara shouted. “Leave him alone!”

There was a strangled cry of pain, and Quinn glanced up in time to see Mara break free from the doctor’s grasp. The guy was doubled over, too, one hand cupping his crotch, the other braced against the wall for support.

Despite another surge of nausea, a smile pulled at his mouth. Christ, she was amazing. “That was fucking stupid, Mara.”

“Yes, it was. I don’t know why I did that.” She knelt beside him and set a hand on his back. “Are you okay?”

“C’mere.” He gripped her face in his hands and dragged her closer until their lips touched. Just a quick, hard kiss, but it did all kinds of hot, unwanted things to his body. Which wasn’t part of the plan. If he could even call this sloppy kiss-and-grope a plan. With the drugs numbing his system, he was mostly just winging it at this point.

Mara’s body stiffened up in shock.

Shit. He probably should have given her some kind of warning first. He pressed his lips harder against hers, silently urging her to play along as he fumbled with the cell phone, pushing it into her bra, down between her breasts, where it would be hidden.

“Get them out of here,” the doctor ordered in a strangled voice. He straightened away from the wall, tugging his jacket back into place with as much dignity as a guy could muster after getting kicked in the nads by a woman half his size.

Yeah. Mara was freaking amazing, and Quinn kissed her again because—well, he had to. She’d stunned the hell out of their captors just now, and he couldn’t be more proud of the way she’d handled herself.

Alexei pulled them apart, and panic flashed in her eyes as she was dragged toward the door.

“Mara, it’s okay,” he called after her, not bothering to fight when Pyotr yanked on his cuffed hands, pulling him to his feet. His world was spinning, and his feet were numb. If he tried to fight anyone right now, he’d just get himself dead. “Hey, you hear me? We’ll be okay. Just go with them. I promise you, we’ll be okay.”

…

El Paso, Texas

The clue left on Quinn’s phone was an unsent one-word text message:
Zaryanko
.

Jesse’s heart nose-dived into his gut when he saw it. “Are you fucking kidding me? Nikolai Zaryanko has them?”

“Uh, I’m sorry,” Lanie said and lifted her hands. “Newbie here. Who is Zaryanko and why do you all look like you just bit into a lemon?”

The hotel room went pin-drop silent, and all eyes turned in her direction.

Jesse couldn’t pinpoint why, exactly—if he were in th
e men’s shoes, he’d be suspicious of her, too—but all that mistrust directed toward her pissed him off in a big way. “This is Lanie,” he said. “She’s Mara’s best friend, and I’ve known her since she was knee-high to a grasshopper. We can trust her.”

The tension eased, then evaporated altogether when Gabe added, “She’ll be helping us on this. Harvard, can you bring up our file on Zaryanko?”

Harvard nodded and hit a few keys on his computer. A photo popped up on screen. It wasn’t the best picture, having been taken during a recon mission in Afghanistan that went to shit shortly thereafter, but it was the only one they had of the man.

“That’s Nikolai Zaryanko,” Gabe said, motioning to the photo. “He’s known for trafficking arms, drugs, organs, and humans. He first popped onto the radar five years ago after the discovery of his association with Liam Miller, a disgraced British SAS operative. Since Liam had a nasty habit of cultivating friendships with the scum of the earth, the spec ops community learned pretty damn fast it behooved us to keep tabs on his associates. And Zaryanko was one of Liam’s closest friends. Shit.” He pinched the bridge of his nose as if a tension headache hammered behind his eyes. Made sense, since his wife had been the one to finally take Liam Miller out, and he’d worried about the repercussions ever since. “What are the chances that we cross paths with Zaryanko twice in the eight months after Audrey killed Liam?”

“I don’t like coincidences, either, boss,” Jesse agreed and dropped his head into his hands as a headache thundered between his own temples. “Goddammit.”

Gabe grasped his shoulder. “I know it doesn’t seem it, but this is good.”

“Good? My cousin’s in the hands of a man who supposedly sold his own sister into sexual slavery. How the fuck is this good?”

“You’re not thinking like an operative, Jesse. We know where Zaryanko lives, where he runs his businesses. Now we can find her and maybe shut him down for good before he tries for anyone else.”

Like Audrey.

Gabe wouldn’t be cruel enough to speak those words aloud, but they hung in the air between them anyway. Jesse couldn’t blame the stark fear he saw in his boss’s eyes and tried to calm himself.

Think like an operative. Think like an operative.

Of course Gabe was right again, but that still didn’t make the whole goatfuck of a situation any easier to stomach. “All right. So what’s our game plan?”

Gabe rubbed a hand over his face. “They’re most likely headed to Transnistria.”

Similar reactions came from everyone in the room, except Lanie, who frowned. “Trans what? Never heard of it.”

Harvard hit a few more keys and pulled up a map. “Transnistria,” he said, turning the laptop around so everyone could see the screen. “It’s an unrecognized breakaway republic sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine. They have tight ties with Russia, and many in the intelligence community fear it’ll be the next Crimea.”

“So, basically, it’s only a matter of time until Russia invades?” Lanie asked.

Harvard winced. “Wouldn’t be so much as an invasion as a ‘welcome back.’ Transnistria is very much stuck in the Soviet era. Their economy completely collapsed when the Soviet Union fell, and they’ve never recovered. That and the fact they are unrecognized and have largely unprotected borders has turned it into a hotbed for smuggling and sex trafficking.” He slid an apologetic glance in Jesse’s direction. “My research indicates our best option is to infil by parachute here.” Harvard brought the map up on his computer again, indicating a spot just outside the Transnistrian border in Ukraine. “Once on the ground, it’s about sixteen klicks southeast to the capital city of Tiraspol.”

“Let me get something straight,” Jace Garcia said, speaking up for the first time. He walked forward, placed his hands on the table and leaned toward Harvard. “You want me to fly into Ukrainian airspace? You do know they recently shot down a passenger jet that had nada to do with their war.”

Gabe nodded. “We’re aware.”

“HumInt has a small airfield just outside of Odessa, Ukraine,” Harvard said, pulling up another map. “It’s about an hour’s drive from Tiraspol on the main roads. Obviously, HumInt pulled their people out of there when the crisis started, but the field’s still functional for our needs. After we parachute out, you can land the plane and stay hidden there, keeping our exfil route open.”

Gabe met the pilot’s gaze across the table. “Can you manage that?”

Garcia grunted. “Yeah. Yeah, I can. But y’all are more loco
than I am. And that’s saying something.”

“What about border guards?” Jesse asked.

Harvard tapped a spot on the map. “There aren’t any border checkpoints or patrols. Not here, at least. Satellite imaging shows this location’s a field in the middle of nowhere. There’s not even a sign to indicate which country you’re in.”

“So we can walk in without anyone the wiser?” Jesse asked with more than a little surprise. He hadn’t expected anything about this op to be easy.

“Yes. The problem won’t be getting in, as far as I can tell. Or even getting out, as long as we stick to the back roads on our way to Odessa. It will be staying undetected while there. Tiraspol is crawling with Transnistrian KGB officers—”

“Whoa, what?” Lanie straightened away from the table. “Didn’t the KGB go the way of the Berlin Wall?”

“They did,” Harvard agreed. “For the most part. But like I said, Transnistria is stuck in time, desperately hanging on to their Soviet roots, and the KGB is still very much alive there. They will stop anybody who looks like they don’t belong.”

“So we best not be spotted,” Gabe said and also straightened. “Pack your bags, gentlemen—”

Lanie cleared her throat loudly.

Gabe sighed. “Gentlemen
and
Lanie. We just got an open invitation to the black hole of Europe.”