Waiting for Him (13 page)

“Of course, Benny. They belong to Katerina anyway.”

Boomer tried to hide his wince at her calling him ‘Benny’. She obviously picked it up fast from Kat’s use of it. He strode to the front door and took out his phone again. By the time he was done filling in Egghead, a patrol car was pulling up to the mailboxes next to the road. Harry must’ve heard it because he came outside at the same time the sheriff exited the vehicle.

Harry introduced the two men and they shook hands. “Pleased to meet you, Sheriff Bernhard.”

“Same here, Ben. But call me Marty. Harry tells me we might have a problem here.”

“I hope not, Marty.” Boomer filled the other man in and just as he was wrapping things up, a rental sedan pulled into the drive. “Here’s my backup.”

More introductions were done as Devon and Marco joined the group. Devon clapped his teammate on the back. “So, what’s up next, Baby Boomer?”

Boomer growled, but didn’t take the teasing bait. The guys only added the ‘Baby’ to his call sign when they wanted to get a rise out of him or ease tensions. Instead of getting snarky, he told them about the note on the back of the photo. “I think our next stop is Mint Hill. There’s gotta be some reason why Ivan used those two pictures as clues.”

“I agree. It’ll take about four and a half hours to get there, which means it’ll be too late to take a look around tonight. We can stay at my folks’ place. They’re out in San Diego visiting my brother while his team’s INCONUS.” The youngest of the Sawyer family, Nick, had followed in his brothers’ footsteps and was a Navy SEAL on Team Three. It’d been a few months since he’d been on U.S. soil.

Boomer looked at his boss in confusion. “Why can’t we make a puddle jump in the jet? We can be there in under an hour.”

“CC’s daughter went into labor about two hours ago with his first grandchild. He was refueling and heading right back down to Tampa. I’ll call Ian and have him get a hold of Chase. He can send one of his jets to Charlotte for us.” Chase Dixon owned Blackhawk Security and supplied Trident and other companies with additional trained personnel or transports if needed.

“All right. Then we better get on the road. Let me get Kat.” He rolled his eyes. “Get ready for more tears as she and her aunt say goodbye.”

Almost as one, the other men all shuddered.

It was just after six p.m. when they all walked into a pub not too far from the Sawyer family home. Kat couldn’t help but notice the drooling stares from most of the women toward the three handsome men who surrounded her. The guys were impressive by height and physiques alone, but add in their good-looking faces and she could just imagine how many of the women wished they were her at the moment. She was sure they might change their minds when they found out people were trying to kidnap and possibly kill her.

After they sat at a table, a pretty waitress with fake tits openly flirted with Benny, Devon, and Marco, but only the latter flirted back. From what Kat had been told, Devon was happily engaged while Marco was currently single. As for Benny, he only seemed to have eyes for her and it made her body tingle when she saw the heat in his gaze. She hoped it meant he wanted her as much as she wanted him. Not knowing how many bedrooms there were in Devon’s parents’ house, she didn’t know the sleeping arrangements for the night. Kat prayed Benny and her would be sharing a room.

“So, Kat, what was Baby Boomer like as a kid?”

She looked at Devon in amusement. “I know his nickname is Boomer because he’s trained in explosives, but why do you call him Baby Boomer?”

“Two reasons. One, because he’s the youngest guy on the team. And two, because he hates it.”

Kat giggled as Benny rolled his eyes. “So, of course, the more he hates it, the more everyone uses it.”

A grin spread across Devon’s face. “Pretty much, yeah. A lot of call signs received in the military are not ones we would’ve picked for ourselves. Mine’s ‘Devil Dog’, and while it’s a long story, let’s just say it involved my foot locker and a month’s supply of Drake’s Devil Dogs.”

She laughed. “I love those! Mom always used to stock up on those and Yodels.” She looked at Benny’s other teammate. “So, Marco, what’s your nickname, or don’t you have one.”

“I got lucky with mine, no embarrassing story behind it. They gave me ‘Polo’ as in Marco Polo.”

“Oh, how cute!”

The other men chuckled and Marco pretended to be insulted. “First time someone’s called my name cute.”

The waitress returned with their drinks and Kat thought the woman was going to melt when Marco winked at her. But as soon as the giggling blonde walked away, he turned his attention back to Kat. “So, tell us about when Baby Boomer was a juvenile delinquent. Give us some good dirt we can use against him.”

They spent the next hour eating and telling tales. She told them about Benny, Alex, and her antics back in high school and they told her what they could from their military and Trident days. She quickly found out teasing and practical jokes were a large part of the teammates’ relationships. When they’d finished with dinner, she realized she felt more relaxed than she had in years.

From the pub, it didn’t take them long to reach the Sawyer home. As Benny followed the other rental car up the long driveway, Kat couldn’t help but gawk at the…estate, she guessed she could call it. “Holy cow! This is where Devon and Ian grew up?”

The large home sat on several acres of land, but despite its size, it wasn’t ostentatious. The lawn was beautifully manicured, and trees, shrubs, and flower beds dotted the landscape, similar to her aunt’s place, but on a grander scale. Four columns were spaced evenly across the front of the brick and stucco house, and both vehicles parked in the circular drive which surrounded a water fountain.

“Actually, no. Mr. and Doc Sawyer bought this the year after Dev enlisted. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of their dad out on the west coast. His name is Charles, but those close to him call him Chuck. He made a fortune in real estate when his boys were younger, and now they’ve got houses all over the place. Doc Sawyer is a plastic surgeon and they both do a lot of charity work, so they travel a lot.”

“Wow. The name doesn’t sound familiar, but I’m not big on reading about people I don’t personally know.”

“They visit Tampa a few times a year and we visit them when we can. They’ve kind of adopted the rest of the team as their own. You’ll get along with them great. Nicest people in the world. Laid-back. Despite the nice houses and cars, you’d never know they were loaded. They remember what it’s like to be a struggling middle-class family.”

Benny grabbed their duffel bags before they followed Devon and Marco into the house. After shutting the door, Devon reactivated the security system. “Polo, you can crash in Ian’s room. Boomer, you and Kat can take the two guest rooms at the end of the upstairs hallways.”

“We only need one room.”

Devon raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question the statement. “Okay. Why don’t you show her to a room and I’ll check in with the office. I’ll see if Egghead made any sense of those letters and numbers.”

Kat followed him up the elegant staircase and down the hall to one of the guest rooms. He shut the door behind them, dropped their bags, then drew her into his arms, kissing her senseless. She lost track of time before he pulled away then stared at her with lust-filled eyes. “I’ve wanted to do that all day.”

Giggling, she admitted, “I’ve wanted you to do that all day. Well, and a few other things.”

He pinched her ass and she squeaked. “Little tease. I have to go back down and find out if Brody has any information for us. Why don’t you relax or take a shower, and I’ll be back up in a bit.”

Placing a swift kiss on his lips, she turned and sashayed to the bathroom, swinging her hips seductively. “Don’t be long.”

* * *

While Kat was taking a shower and getting ready for bed, Boomer joined his teammates in the entertainment room, but not before taming the hard-on she’d given him. A glass of Jack Daniels was waiting for him and he thanked Devon for his foresight. “Anything from Egghead?”

“No, but he’s running the sequence through every code-breaking program he has. And a few you don’t even want to know he has access to.” The geek was one of the most talented hackers in the business, and if the FBI, CIA and NSA couldn’t have him as one of their own, they were just grateful he was on their side of the law.

Marco was occupying one of the recliners and had the TV tuned to a baseball game with the volume on low. As the other two took seats on both couches, Boomer’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and checked the screen.

Caller Unknown
.

That wasn’t unusual. “Michaelson.”

“Boom-Boom. What’s going on?”

“Hey, Carter, what’s up?” Boomer was a little surprised to hear from the black-ops agent. It’d been over two months since he’d seen him at The Covenant, enjoying an evening of play. T. Carter had become close friends with the men of Trident after running into them on numerous missions over the years. Each one of them owed him for being in the right place at the right time on several occasions. If it hadn’t been for him, one of the team could’ve been killed by a sniper at the Trident compound almost a year earlier. Boomer had no idea which one of the U.S. alphabet agencies the man actually worked for, but from experience and the stories he’d heard over the years, he was glad Carter was on their side. In one word, the man was deadly.

“Spoke to Ian then Keon this morning, and they told me what you’ve been up to the past few days. I did some digging and found some intel for you.”

“Shit, you’re the best. Hang on. Polo and Dev are with me. Let me put you on speaker.” He punched the correct button and sat the phone on the coffee table, so they could all hear the information. “All right, go.”

The man’s deep voice rumbled from the speaker. “Rumor has it Sergei Volkov’s own people put a hit out on him. It was suspected he was making deals under the table and not telling those above him on the food chain. He was getting greedy and it was pissing some people off. Again, rumor has it, his second-in-command did the dirty deed and then replaced him. Name’s Viktor ‘The Bull’ Denisovich, a mean mother-fucker. Not a guy you want to be fucking with. Word is he immediately began looking for buried treasure.”

“‘Buried treasure’…what the fuck does that mean?”

“Apparently, many years ago, an accountant of theirs was killed along with his family in a car accident…sound familiar?”

“Yeah,” Boomer replied cautiously. He didn’t like where this was going.

“Yeah, well, three days
after
this accountant was allegedly killed, a large sum of money disappeared from several accounts this guy had access to. Transferred off-shore and then to parts unknown.”

“Fuck!” he spat out. “How much money are we talking about here, Carter?”

“Fifteen mil.”

“What? Holy shit!” Boomer shoved his hands into his hair and almost pulled a few chunks out in frustration and disbelief. “Aw, fuck me. Ivan stole fifteen million dollars from the Russian mafia. Was he fucking crazy?”

“My guess…it was his form of revenge, Boom.”

Marco nodded in agreement while Devon spoke. “Sounds like it. From what I understand, Ivan was a simple, family man. Looks like he extracted his revenge where he could hurt them the most—in the purse strings.”

Still trying to wrap his head around this new development, Boomer stared up at the ceiling. “I don’t get it. From what Kat’s told us, they both worked and lived middle-class lives. Nothing to indicate that kind of money. So, what the hell did he do with it?”

“That’s the big question. Carter, any ideas?” Devon asked.

“Sorry, Devil Dog. All I know is Volkov had been looking for the money for years, even though the higher ups wrote it off as a loss. If I get wind of anything else, I’ll give you a buzz.”

“Thanks, man.”

The call disconnected and after going over a few more things with his teammates, Boomer headed upstairs to the bedroom he was sharing with Kat. He wasn’t sure if he should hit her with this news tonight or wait until morning. He had to tell her soon because there were questions he needed answers to. Opening the door, he froze at the sight before him. Damn, she was so fucking beautiful, she took his breath away.

Kat was sitting on the queen-sized bed in nothing, but a soft green towel. Her bare arms and legs glistened with newly applied lotion, and the tropical scent of coconuts hung in the air. It must be from Doc Sawyer’s guest stash because it was different than what Kat had used earlier at the bed and breakfast. She was running a brush through her towel-dried hair, struggling to get a few knots out. Boomer shut the door and strode purposely toward her, holding out his hand. “Let me do it for you.”

Surprise popped up in her eyes, but she handed over the brush, then turned so her back was to him. Sitting behind her, he took a section of her long locks and glided the bristles through them. When he hit a snag, he made sure he wasn’t hurting her as he began to work the light brown strands free. Wordlessly, he continued, section by section, until the brush flowed easily with each pass.

“There. All done.”

When she peered at him over her shoulder, there was no mistaking the heat in her gaze. Her voice was low and husky when she asked, “How did you do that?”

His eyes narrowed in confusion. “Do what?”

“You turned something I do every day into an erotic gesture. I thought only guys in romance novels did things like that.”

Boomer smirked and leaned forward to lick her ear. “You ain’t seen nothing yet, Kitten.”

Encouraged by the shiver which coursed through her, he moved her damp hair to the side and she tilted her head to give him better access to her neck. He kissed, licked, and nibbled the sensitive skin there as he reached around and tugged the towel free from her body. Bringing one hand to her breast, he plucked and rolled the hard little peak until she was squirming and begging him for more.

“Do you trust me, Kitten?” he whispered in her ear while his hands continued to push her arousal higher and higher.

She was panting as her back arched in pleasure. “Oh, God, yes. Yes, I trust you.”

He growled and kissed her bare shoulder. Scanning the room, Boomer spotted what he needed. He hurried over to the French doors leading to a small balcony and removed one of the tasseled ropes holding the heavy curtains back. It was perfect for what he wanted to do to her.

Returning to her, he chuckled at the doe-eyed expression on her face. “I promise you, baby, you’re going to love this. Put your hands behind your back.” He was pleased when she only hesitated a split second before doing as he requested. With practiced ease, he secured her wrists together, then checked to make sure the rope wasn’t too tight. The material used to create the crimson braid was soft and silky, so he didn’t have to worry about it chafing her tender skin.

He caressed her cheek. “Your safe-word is ‘red’. If you get scared or something doesn’t feel right, just say ‘red’ and I’ll untie you right away. Okay?” He kept it simple for now, like an on-off switch. As things progressed between them, he would introduce the ‘yellow’ safe-word which she would use to slow things down before continuing.

“Okay.”

“Mmm. That was rule number two. Rule number one was no putting yourself down. Now, rule number three is, when we are playing like this, I want you to call me Sir or Master. Can you do that for me, Kitten?”

“Yes. Yes, Master.”

He leaned down and brushed his lips to hers. “Damn, it sounds so nice coming from your mouth. Say it again.”