Heroes In Uniform (55 page)

Erin shrugged. “I guess. I just feel like I’m caught in a whirlwind right now, you know?”

Yeah, he did know. He’d been in meeting after meeting since seven this morning, including several with the director, while Erin had been in a few debriefings and security clearance meetings, the last one with Bill. “Should quiet down for you after today. The big concern was your security clearance, so once that’s all taken care of the only thing left for you to do is lie low.”

She nodded. “What about you?”

“More of the same.” So far they were trying to keep him out of the loop about the investigation on Rahim, but Wade knew they needed him. Sooner or later, they’d have to let him back in the game again. With his intimate knowledge of how the man thought and operated, he was still the best shot they had at finding Rahim.

She opened her mouth to say something else but stilled as Bill came around the corner. “I need to talk to you again for a few minutes,” he said to Erin without preamble.

Erin had stiffened when Bill first appeared, and she was watching him now like she was about to be dragged away into a full-on interrogation. Wade moved closer to her, until their shoulders touched, instinctively putting his body between her and Bill. He had to stay the impulse to wrap a protective arm around her.

Bill’s hazel gaze flicked from Erin to Wade, not missing the gesture. “Alone,” he clarified, but made no further comment about Wade’s reaction.

“What’s up?” Wade asked, though he already knew. Bill wanted to talk to her about
him
. Find out what he’d told her about himself and Rahim, the investigation. Wade clenched his jaw. Erin had been through more than enough already, she was mentally exhausted, and surely to Christ she’d already been asked everything Bill had in mind by someone else. Likely more than once, repeating the questions in various ways to ensure her story never wavered and that she was telling the truth.

“Just some more questions.” He gestured impatiently at her. “Come on. Won’t take long.”

Erin set her mug down on the counter and straightened, flicking him a quick glance and the dread he saw in her eyes made him want to pull her into her arms.

“It’s okay, he’s one of the good guys,” he said, putting his hands into his pockets so he wouldn’t be tempted to reach for her as she passed by. After she left the room felt too quiet, too empty.

Shrugging off the strange thoughts, he turned his mind back to Rahim. Even with his substantial network overseas it still wouldn’t be easy for him to move around, especially while wounded. The Company didn’t know shit about his location at the moment. Wade had already told them he was convinced Rahim had crossed the border into Pakistan. The question was, where? Up to the tribal region to withdraw and heal up? To Peshawar? Karachi?

It all depended on how severe the wound was and how brave Rahim’s contacts were feeling now that the heat had been turned way up. With the amount of money the U.S. government was offering through various back channels, it was likely some of Rahim’s biggest supporters over there would be tempted to give a tip regarding his whereabouts.

He was still going over various scenarios in his head when Bill appeared around the corner and summoned Wade with a jerk of his head toward the hallway he’d just come down. Wade followed him to his office. Erin was seated opposite the wide desk, and the look of relief that flashed over her face when she saw him filled him with gratitude. He glanced at Bill.

“She can stay,” he replied in a gruff tone as he seated himself behind the desk. “Close the door behind you.”

Wade did and lowered himself into the chair next to Erin’s. He was close enough that he could smell her clean, sweet scent, but more than anything he was glad his presence seemed to comfort her. “So? What’s up?”

Bill opened a drawer and pulled out a file, placing it on the desk and pushing it toward Wade. “New intel just came in a while ago from Kabul.”

Wishing he would just say whatever the hell it was he wanted to say, Wade reached forward and took the file. He opened it to find a report about the checkpoint incident. He looked up at Bill. They’d been over all this twice already. “And?”

“
And
, take a look at the name on the bottom of the second to last page.”

Wade flipped to the correct page and looked at the bottom. The name jumped out at him like a neon sign.

Brayden Schafer.

He snapped his gaze to Bill, aware of a sudden tension gripping his muscles. “What the hell is this? You think he had something to do with it?”

Bill’s stare never wavered. “That’s what it looks like to us. All the signs point to him. He was in Kabul before and during the attack. He had contacts at Bagram who could easily have given him your travel itinerary. He had the means, the motive and opportunity. So yeah, at this point I’d say he had something to do with it.”

Wade was already shaking his head. “No way. I know why you’d think that, but…no way.” Bad blood and worse history between them, yeah. Schafer trying to have him killed? And using Rahim’s network to do it? No fucking way.

“I figured you’d feel that way.” Bill leaned back in his seat, dividing his gaze between him and Erin. Wade glanced over to find Erin watching him with a worried expression. “He can fill you in on the details later,” Bill said to her, “since he’s already told you so much about everything else.”

Erin’s face flushed and she flicked an apologetic, almost guilty glance at him. There was nothing for her to feel bad about. Wade wasn’t angry with her for telling Bill what he’d said to her last night. He’d never tell her anything classified or something that would put her in further danger anyway, and Bill had to know that.

“He’s being transported here for questioning,” Bill added. “Flight arrives tonight at twenty-one hundred.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Wade said.

“No, you won’t. Until we’ve questioned him and found out who set you up, you’re staying at that safe house and you’ll only be involved in the investigation on a consultant basis.”

Wade set his jaw. “You need me on this one. You know it, and I know it.”

Bill inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Not yet. We’ll bring you in when necessary. It’s for your own protection, Wade.”

Yeah? Well it fucking sucked. He’d rather take his chances with Rahim and his network than stay stuck in one spot, waiting there like a sitting duck out in the country while the most important manhunt since the search for bin Laden took place without him.

* * *

Erin wasn’t sure what the story between Wade and Bill was, but their relationship wasn’t what she’d expected. When Wade had told her that Bill was his handler, she’d assumed they’d be on much friendlier terms than they actually were. Not outright hostility, perhaps, but an undercurrent of friction was there. Maybe it had something to do with Wade being off the grid for so long and having all kinds of rough edges, she wasn’t sure. What she
did
know was that he’d been quietly seething all the way back during the drive from Langley. Now that it was just the two of them alone in the farmhouse again, he still hadn’t relaxed. He was prowling around the lower floor like a caged lion and she’d been very careful not to say anything as she did her best to keep out of his way.

He stood at the window with his back to her, hands braced above him on the window casing, every muscle in his back stretched taut beneath the light gray T-shirt he wore. While she loved the view, she knew he was upset about the investigation and this latest development he’d seen in that file.

She took a few steps into the room and cleared her throat. “I was going to make something for dinner. You up to eating?”

He turned slightly to look back at her, and the anger in his eyes faded. “Not really hungry right now.”

“You need to eat,” she answered, the nurse in her taking over. The man already had no body fat on him. This wasn’t the tribal region of Afghanistan. With a full refrigerator in the kitchen, he shouldn’t be starving himself and making his body start metabolizing his muscle tissue.

He let out a deep sigh, visibly pushed his frustration aside, and nodded. “I’ll help you.”

Not about to argue, she turned back to the kitchen. “What do you feel like?”

“Whatever you want is fine.”

She wasn’t so sure about that. She could think of a
great
way for them both to burn off their excess frustration, but she doubted he was thinking along the same lines, or that he’d let his guard down that far. And it probably wouldn’t be smart for them to cross that line while they lived here together anyhow. Just made things messier when it was all over.

From the fridge she pulled out a bunch of greens and veggies, some berries and goat cheese for a salad. “You want chicken or anything to go on the salad?”

“Sure.” He stood there in the middle of the kitchen, looking awkward as hell, and Erin took pity on him.

“Can you grab a cutting board for me from the cupboard next to the stove?”

He found one and put it on the counter, then pulled a knife from the butcher block beside the stove and started to cut up a red pepper she’d just washed. She watched him work. His knife skills were good, but she knew he hadn’t gained them by slicing up salad ingredients. To stop herself from thinking about him using that knife on human flesh, she turned back to washing the baby spinach leaves she’d placed in a colander. “So, whose name was on the bottom of that piece of paper?”

Wade paused for a fraction of a second before he resumed slicing the pepper into neat strips. “Brayden Schafer.” He practically growled the name.

She turned off the tap and stole a sideways glance at him, noting the scowl on his face. “You know him?”

He nodded. “We served together. In SF.”

Whoa.
Betrayed by a fellow Green Beret? Erin stopped and turned to face him, incredulous. “And they think he’s the one who set us—you—up?”

His jaw tensed. “Evidence looks pretty convincing so far.”

“But you think they’re wrong.”

Wade lowered the knife to the cutting board, his fingers still wrapped tight around the handle. “It’s way over the line, even for him.”

She waited for him to continue, but he stared down at the knife, seeming lost in his own thoughts. Treading carefully, she asked, “What happened?”

He cut her a sideways glance, then back down as he resumed cutting, his strokes even and precise. “We had a kind of rivalry going in our SF days. Friendly one. But after, when we did contract work together, things changed. During one mission things turned to shit and he made a bad call. I stepped in to correct it, and after that…” He shrugged, the motion tight, stiff. “He blamed me for the smear on his reputation. And that guy holds a helluva grudge. But setting me up to die through Rahim’s network? I don’t think so. He’s a piece of work, yeah, but he’s a patriot and loyal to his brothers. He might hate my guts, but that still doesn’t mean he’d do something like this.”

She digested all that in silence, afraid to speak in case it made him clam up. He’d just strung more words together in the past minute than he had the entire time she’d known him, with the exception of the conversation about Rahim last night. “Well, I guess they’ll find out the real story once they question him.”

He nodded, and it seemed like his shoulders weren’t as rigid as they had been at the start of the conversation. “Whaddya want me to do with this pepper?” He gestured at the neatly sliced pile of red cubes with the knife.

She grabbed a big bowl from the cupboard beside the sink and set it next to him. “Here, just toss them in there.” She pan fried some sliced-up chicken breasts while he finished prepping the veggies. When it was ready she tossed the veggies in some dressing, plated the salad with some chicken and sliced strawberries on top, then added some crumbled goat cheese and chopped pistachio nuts. “Look okay?” she asked him.

“Looks great.” He took the plates. “Want to eat in the living room?”

“Sure.” She followed him in and took a seat on the couch. He handed her a plate and stood there hesitating a moment, but rather than sit on the floor as he had last night, he took the opposite end of the couch, sitting cross-legged with the plate balanced on his calves. She watched him fork up a bite and chew it, her gaze drawn to his mouth as he made a sound of pleasure. “This is good.”

“Thanks.” And way better for his digestive system than the pizza had been.

They ate in companionable silence and he took the dishes into the kitchen, telling her he’d clean up. Not about to argue, she turned on the TV and was half-engrossed in a show when he came back out. He stood in the entryway, as though unsure whether he should come in or not. “Want to watch a movie together?” she asked.

He put his hands in his pockets and gave a shrug. “Sure.” He sat back on the far end of the couch.

She flipped through the menu and settled on an action flick. “This one okay?” she asked, glancing at him. He probably hadn’t watched a movie in years.

“Sure.”

She turned it on and tried to get into it, but with each passing minute she was more and more aware of the distance between them. He wasn’t stiff exactly, though she could tell he wasn’t completely comfortable, either. She wasn’t sure if it was because they were sitting on the couch alone together, or whether he was still thinking about Schafer’s possible involvement in all of this. “You want me to go?”

He looked at her in surprise, eyebrows drawing together. “No, why?”

“I feel like I’m making you uncomfortable.”

He huffed out a rueful laugh. “You’re not. It’s just…everything,” he said with a wave of his hand. “Weird sitting here watching a movie when I know he’s still out there, that’s all.”

That wasn’t all, and she knew it. They both knew it. He was attracted to her too, she was pretty sure, and didn’t want to acknowledge that. She didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable around her though. “I bet. But I’m okay going upstairs to read or something if you’d rather be alone. Or we could—I dunno, play cards or something for a while.” She mentally rolled her eyes at herself.
Cards, Erin? Really?

His mouth quirked. “No, this is fine. Thanks, though.”