Her Master Defender (The Masters Men Series) (19 page)

“I’m going to get the ice pack. Find something to prop your leg up on.” When he started to argue she held up her hand. “This is not negotiable. You don’t want your mother to see you wincing every time you move at church tomorrow, rather later today, do you?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure out an excuse to get us out of going,” he said, but she noticed before she left the room he moved a box and the wastebasket under the desk.

Copper didn’t say anything though she wondered why he was so determined not to go. Coming back in the room she found him booting up the system. His leg was already positioned on the box. She’d brought a pillow as well and positioned it under his foot on the wastebasket so his leg would be even. After a few hisses when she lifted his leg to place the ice packs he sat back and closed his eyes for a minute. She wanted to brush the hair off his forehead and tell him everything would be alright. Instead, she sat on top of a low filing cabinet and waited. The computer beeped and he sat up moving the mouse and clicking several times before leaning back and looking over at her then away.

“The guy in the picture is, or looks a helluva lot like one of my teammates.”

“Garrett?” she asked. His gaze jerked to hers. “When I said you were looking hard at something you said that name.”

“Yeah, Captain Darin Garrett, my second in command.”

Copper lifted an eyebrow. “I thought Dad said they were all --"

“Dead,” he interrupted. “Yeah. Seeing his face must have triggered a flashback. That’s what you walked in on.”

“Okay, can you remember it now?”

“Yes, but I can tell you, you don’t want to hear about it.”

“Dos, I’m a big girl. I’ve seen plenty of nasty stuff. You don’t have to keep ugly stories secret from me,” she said. “If I could hear what they did to you, someone I know, and not shy away, I’m sure I can take whatever else you need to say.”

The picture popped up on the computer then snagging his attention from her. Copper could see him trying to make sense of it in the way he leaned forward staring. “Tell me,” she whispered.

“We were in a cement room, strapped to chairs across from each other. Cardone had been torturing Garrett for almost an hour. It wasn’t the first time. The same scene had been happening for days. Cardone or one of his men would punch him, cut him, shock him, but Garrett held on. I begged Cardone, everyday to leave Garrett alone, to beat me instead.” He pressed the heels of his hands against his temples.

Copper knew he was trying to push the memories back. She also knew he needed to let them out. “I don’t doubt that. It’s the kind of man you are. Watching what that man did to your men was torture. My guess is their lives weren’t the issue to him. They were just the best way of hurting you.”

Dos released his head and nodded. “I know, but I don’t know why. He never asked for anything. No information, no codes, no names, no anything, so there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“I could see Garrett couldn’t take much more. I yelled at Cardone again asking what he wanted. For the first time in all the times I’d asked he looked at me with his black eyes and smiled. He wiped off the knife he’d been cutting Garrett with, tossed it in the air, caught it, stared me straight in the eye and said ‘I want you, Major’ before driving the knife into Garrett’s chest. God, the scream. I don’t think I’ll ever get it out of my head.”

Copper hopped off the cabinet and knelt beside his chair. His hands covered his ears. Every muscle in his face as tight as he had his eyes squeezed shut. She pulled his hands down holding them in her own. “You hear him screaming. Tell me what you see,” she encouraged  him, knowing he had to get the whole thing out to be able and deal with it.

“Nothing,” he said as if trying to catch his breath. “Nothing. The room’s black.”

“There weren’t any lights?” Copper asked, trying to concentrate on both Dos’ words and his vital signs. It wasn’t good for his body to bounce back and forth with such high respiration and blood pressure.

“They went . . . out,” he said, opening his eyes and looking into hers. “I didn’t see it. I never saw the knife go into Garrett. The lights went out before Cardone’s knife reached its target.”

“I’m sure you saw his body, right? Cardone would have wanted you to see him.” She watched Dos shake his head again.

“You’re right. He would have if Garrett were dead. He’d made sure I saw all the others. Before the lights came back on someone slammed me in the head with something and I passed out. The next thing I remember was coming around chained in another damp, dark, cement room. I didn’t see Cardone, or anyone else for two days.” Pulling his hands from her hold he cupped her face. Leaning forward he kissed her lips before reaching for the phone.

Copper watched him punch numbers on the phone, but was too shocked to react. The last thing she expected for making him talk was a kiss. Her hand touched her lips briefly as if trying to reclaim the sensation of his mouth on hers. His angry words on the phone washed away all her sensual thoughts.

“Where the hell is he?” Dos slammed the receiver down.

Dos’ hand was poised to punch in the Colonel’s number again when the phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID. “Sir, I just tried to call you.”

“Sorry, I was with the police,” the Colonel said. “I think we found the leak.”

Dos heard guilt in the Colonel’s voice. That made absolutely no sense since there wasn’t a more trustworthy man in the world to his knowledge. He didn’t ask, but gave the man time.

“They just found my secretary’s body.”

With the Colonel’s statement Dos accepted the fact that his second in command was still alive. Despite his warnings, Garrett had been secretly seeing the Colonel’s secretary before the mission. Dos considered it Garrett’s way of pushing the envelope without totally breaking the rules. Now he realized the truth. Garrett had been using her to get information.

“You still there, Major?”

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry about Jan.” Dos shook his head with regret for not having tried harder to keep them apart. The young woman had been no match for Garrett’s charm. “You’re certain she was the leak?”

“She’s the only one that could have possibly overheard or found information in my office. And she’s the only one who’s been MIA for two days.  What I don’t get is why? Who was she giving the information to?”

“Captain Garrett, sir.”

“Garrett? But I thought he was dead.”

“So did I. I would have sworn I watched him die. Thanks to Copper, I realized I never actually saw it. And now I know why they’re after her. The picture is of him.”

“Copper’s film?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Son-of-a-bitch. That bastard will really be after her once he knows she’s my daughter.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, not wanting to remind the man Garrett had broken into her house, so he probably already knew. Looking up he saw the object of their discussion watching him. Thinking about it, Dos realized he must have recognized her when he saw her at the event. He probably knocked her over to make sure it was the Colonel’s daughter. That would explain the rage in tearing her house apart. And now he know she’s with me. Crap!

“I’ll try to convince her to stay with someone until I can contain the situation.” Of course she shook her head hearing his statement.

“Copper won’t cooperate.”

“Sir?”

“As much as I’d like to have you stow her somewhere safe, it won’t work. You’re better off keeping her close anyway. At least that way you know what she’s doing. Believe me; she won’t let this go because you or I say so. She’ll start looking on her own and that would be way too dangerous. You’re my best bet for her safety, Major. I’m counting on you.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir.” Dos waited for him to finally accept that his faith was misplaced. He heard a loud sigh on the other end of the line.

“Look, son. I’m not ordering you to take care of my daughter. I’m asking you as a friend. I know you have doubts. After all you’ve been through, I’d be worried if you didn’t. But I don’t. You are the only man I trust with her life. My guess is she feels the same.”

Bowing his head Dos pinched the bridge of his nose. How could they trust him so much when he’d gotten his men killed? Forget he was so stupid he hadn’t known one of his men was a traitor. Couldn’t they see how hopelessly he’d failed?

“You didn’t fail, Dos,” the Colonel said as if reading his mind.

“I let--" Dos started to argue.

“You didn’t
let
anyone do anything. If you want to blame someone for Garrett, blame me. I’m the superior officer. It’s up to me to make those calls. I thought we could help him. I should have seen how far gone he was. Me, Major, not you.”

“Sir, I didn’t mean you --"

“No you didn’t. You think you’re the only person in the world who should carry any guilt for this. That’s the way you are. Well, I’m here to tell you you’re wrong.”

Realizing he wasn’t going to win this argument right now, he changed gears.

“Fine, none of that matters. Getting back to Garrett being alive and here, I’m not sure the break-ins at Copper’s properties were about the pictures.”

“Meaning?”

Dos heard fear in the Colonel’s one word question. “Copper told me when he knocked her over the other night he looked at her like he knew her. I think the first break-in was his way of messing with her. Then at her house he had other plans but I screwed them up. I’ve no doubt he knew it was me. We served together too many years for him not to recognize my voice when I confronted them that night.”

“You think he was after Copper all along?”

“Not necessarily. My guess is he tracked down my brothers and figured I’d be here eventually. For him, finding Copper was icing on the cake,” Dos said, looking at her as he told her father. “So now do you see why we need to get her somewhere safe?”

The silence on the line didn’t make Dos any happier than the hard glare from Copper. He’d just made two people he respected and cared for scared and angry. When the Colonel cleared his throat, Dos feared he was going to get what he’d asked for.

“No. With you two together we have fewer variables to worry about. Plus no one knows Garrett better than you. The safest place for Copper is right where she is. Now, since I’m sure my girl is standing right there, tell her I love her and thanks for her help. I’ll get back to you when I get any new information on Cardone.”

The line went dead. Dos squeezed the receiver so hard he thought it might break in two. With great deliberation he placed it gently back in the base.

“Your father says he loves you and thanks,” Dos told her without looking at her. Just saying the word love in front of her was bad enough. If there were a woman he could love, he had no doubt it would be Copper. Hell, he’d been half in love with her since talking about her with her brother years ago. He’d watched her grow more beautiful by the pictures in the Colonel’s office.

But he couldn’t love anyone. It wouldn’t be fair to them. Instead, he would make damned sure she stayed alive so someone else could give her what he couldn’t. In that vein, he focused on the computer, saving the image and sending it to Tres as well as the Colonel.

“What else did he say?” Copper asked.

Dos glanced up at her, then back to the computer not wanting to talk about murder and traitors. Not with Copper. She didn’t belong in this ugly world.

“What happened to Jan?”

Scrubbing a hand over his face he leaned back in the chair.

“She was murdered. They found her body a little while ago,” he said looking up at Copper’s stricken expression. “My guess is Garrett.”

She pushed away from the cabinet she’d leaned against and turned away, but not before he saw the tears in her eyes. He hated that he’d put them there. Why had he told her?

Because she needs to know what a sick bastard Garrett is
.

“I’m going to fix something to eat,” she said and left the room.

Dos stared at her back as she left the room, unsure how to read her reaction. What did walking away from him mean? Denial, retreat, anger? He listened to her move around the kitchen. The refrigerator opened. A moment later it slammed closed. As quickly as he could, Dos grabbed up his crutches and went to the doorway. He found Copper sitting on the floor in front of the refrigerator. Her head in her hands bowed to her knees and her shoulders were shaking.

There was only one thing to do.

It was the last thing he wanted to do.

Dos crutched over and eased himself to the floor beside her. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. She all but collapsed against his chest. For several minutes he held her letting her cry it out. Hell, he didn’t know what to say anyway. When the tears subsided he waited for her to talk first.

“Why Jan?” she asked between sniffles. “She was so sweet.”

Dos kept stroking his hand over her back. He wasn’t sure who he was comforting now, her or himself.

“Garrett was seeing her before the mission. That’s probably how he got information to use against the team. She was a means to an end for him, but I know it was different for her. She came to see me in the hospital after I was rescued. I could barely look at her the guilt weighed so heavy on me. Thankfully, she didn’t tell me it was okay, she cursed me for letting him die.”