He gritted his teeth, willing his body under control. Forget a simple date. When this mess was over he was taking Karen on a long vacation, somewhere warm where they’d be naked the entire time. Somewhere deep down, he knew she was it for him. He’d seen what his parents had, two seemingly mismatched people who worked in every way that mattered. His dad had told him he’d known his mother was it within a day of meeting her. Tucker had never truly understood that until now. Hell, he’d never thought about settling down or having anything solid, real in his life. He could see all that happening with Karen. Wanted it so badly he could damn near taste it.
But he had to keep his head in the game. He looked back at Burkhart. “If we leave soon we can catch him before he heads into work.”
Burkhart’s expression was hard and determined as he nodded. “That’s the idea.”
? ? ?
Rayford nearly jumped when he heard his wife’s heels clicking across the kitchen tile. Taking a deep breath, he shut the refrigerator door and smiled as he turned to face her.
Impeccably dressed as always, Johanna smiled at him, her pale pink lipstick perfect against her ivory skin. Her black peacoat was draped over one arm, her black Gucci purse hooked over the other and she wore, of course, a black sweater and a black-and-white wool skirt. She didn’t deviate much in her wardrobe colors and knew what worked well with her petite frame. He loved his wife, but he also loved what she did for his own career. She was smart and beautiful, so he could take her to any function. Not to mention that she had a job of her own, something that kept her driven and occupied her time. They had the perfect setup together.
“You’re off to work early,” she said, smiling.
“I could say the same to you.” He held out an organic energy smoothie to her, which she took.
“Early showing. Very nice commission too.” Her eyes glinted as they often did when she talked about money.
Though her parents were disappointed she’d gone into real estate after getting a law degree, no one could argue that Johanna Osborn wasn’t good at her job. She’d had the connections going in thanks to her wealthy family, but that wouldn’t have mattered long if she’d been a bad saleswoman. As it was, she made four or five times more than her husband annually. Some men might have a problem with that, but not Rayford. He was proud of her. Unfortunately she read people well and he could tell she was eyeing him curiously now.
“You’ll make the sale,” he said, confident in her abilities.
“I know,” she murmured, brushing her mouth against his as she leaned into him.
For a moment he let his hands slide down to her waist and held her loosely. He was too tense to think about anything else and she wouldn’t want to have sex this early anyway. Not after she’d already done her makeup and gotten dressed.
“What’s wrong?” Her eyebrows pulled together as she stepped back.
Sighing, he played up his reaction. Since he couldn’t hide his stress from her, he’d just give her a line about work. Which wasn’t technically a lie anyway. “Just work stuff. You know how it is.”
Her lips pulled into a thin line, but she nodded. “He’s lucky to have you. Something he’d do well to remember.”
Smiling at her biting tone, he shook his head. “It’s not him, just the stress of everything, that’s all.”
She nodded but didn’t look convinced. Her parents were huge supporters of Rayford’s boss and he didn’t doubt she’d ask them to say something if she thought he was being mistreated. He didn’t want that to happen. Ever. He was his own man.
“You’re going to be late,” he continued, knowing talk of work would distract her.
She let out a short curse and glanced at her phone. “You’re right—turn on the news, Rayford. Now.” But she was already racing from the kitchen, her heels clicking quickly as he followed after her into the living room.
She flipped on the big flat-screen. They rarely watched anything other than the news, so it was already on CNN. His gut twisted as he listened to a reporter animatedly yet somberly deliver an account of another drone strike.
One that he’d had no knowledge of.
The International Spy Museum, while not part of the national landmarks they’d discussed striking, was still symbolic and had been on their list of places to destroy eventually. Hillenbrand had gone behind their backs. He must have been planning it even last night when Rayford had seen him.
“This is terrifying,” Johanna whispered, her eyes riveted to the screen.
Anger punched through him, but he nodded, not needing to feign his own alarm. He didn’t think Hillenbrand would target him. No, the man needed Rayford, but he didn’t like this turn of events. He should have been kept in the loop. With trembling hands, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket, not surprised when it started ringing. One of the staffers.
He answered on the first ring. “Get Daphne to start on the press release,” he snapped out, not bothering with a greeting. He and his team at work had way too much to deal with right now. As soon as he got into his car, he’d call Hillenbrand from one of his burners and ask him what the hell was going on.
He didn’t care how powerful Hillenbrand was. He’d be shooting blanks without Rayford’s help in their end game. Leaving him out of the loop on any of this was not going to be tolerated.
Chapter 17
Black operations: covert operations that are not ascribed to the organization performing them.
Tucker glanced at Cole as they slipped into Vane’s backyard. The sun had risen, but the middle-class neighborhood was quiet in the pre-work hours. Soon enough people would be getting up, getting ready and leaving their homes, but for now a blanket of snow and quiet had descended around them.
From the time Burkhart had requested that he go after Vane till now was almost an hour exactly. The man and his team moved fast when motivated. Tucker had read over the impressive files the NSA had collected on Vane on the drive here and reviewed the layout of his home.
Standard three-bed/two-bath with more room than one man probably needed, but from the real estate records, Vane had gotten a good deal on it when it went up as a short sale. Couldn’t blame the guy for jumping on that kind of deal.
But Tucker definitely blamed him for hanging him and his guys out to dry. He was going to bring this dirty piece of garbage down and make sure he paid for everything he’d done.
Cole reached up and touched his earpiece as they hunkered behind a thick tree trunk. Tucker knew his friend was muting it, so he did the same to his. Now no one on the other end of the comm could hear them.
“What is it?” he whispered.
“You really trust them?” Cole asked just as quietly, referring to Burkhart and the NSA. “We’re moving on a DEA agent’s house with no authority. If things go south, it’s our asses on the line. They won’t admit knowledge of being involved with us.”
What they were doing was definitely off the books, but if it got them the answers they needed, Tucker didn’t care. Right now wasn’t about following the letter of the law. They’d already crossed that line when they took Karen. He frowned. “You worried it’s a setup? Why bother when they could just arrest us now?”
Cole tugged on his black skullcap. “Just wanted to make sure you were really on board.”
They hadn’t had a chance to talk one-on-one since the NSA picked Cole up on the way here about ten minutes ago. “I trust Karen. She believes us and she’s doing everything she can to help us.”
Cole’s eyebrows lifted, likely at Tucker’s heated tone, but he didn’t say anything, just turned his earpiece back on, giving them full audible capabilities.
Tucker did the same. From this point on, until they breached the house and incapacitated the target, they wouldn’t be talking except when necessary.
“Moving in,” he said quietly to the others on the other end of the line. Burkhart had put together a small but highly qualified team for this op. Tucker liked the way the guy operated too. As deputy director, he didn’t have to wait for operational approval for the most part. He made decisions instantly and got things done.
“The front and sides are clear,” Karen said. She was currently in the nondescript van the team was using as their command center. The sound of her voice kept him focused.