Page 11 of Her Ruthless Protector

“In the meantime, we’ve got to alert the Omanis on the targets you identified. I’m also going to move this up the chain of command. We’re going to be dropped off in Duqm tomorrow, then go overland to Muscat. The Black Dawn team is already there with the Lieutenant Commander.”

“Why’s Liam there?” Kane asked. Last he heard, Liam had his ass in a sling with the brass— of course that always seemed to be the case.

“Captain Hale wants him there, that’s reason enough.”

Kane shrugged. It was all good as far as he was concerned.

* * *

Travellingin Oman compared to Yemen was night and day. The highways were smooth sailing, and they got to sit in three cars with seats and everything. They were living large. The brass had a briefing room set up in a building near the American Embassy. Kane was happy to see the men of Black Dawn.

Most of his team had only trained with them from time to time, but Max and Gray had gone through BUD/S together, so they were tight. Then there was the fact that Zed had been part of the Black Dawn team for a couple of missions, so it was like old home week for him. Not to mention that Hunter Diaz, a member of Black Dawn, was Zed’s little brother.

Kane had been working with Black Dawn in Oman three months ago when they’d been investigating the sudden appearance of two al-Qaeda leaders who were supposed to be dead. It had devolved into a whole other mess that led them back to Afghanistan—that might not have led to their capture but had at least stopped one major terrorist cell.

Two weeks ago, when they got the lead on al Fadi’s son’s whereabouts, Black Dawn was in the Sudan, so it was Night Storm’s turn to take point. Now it looked like everyone would be working as one big happy family.

By the time they got to the briefing room and got settled, the teams were feeling pretty comfortable with one another. The two lieutenants, Max and Gray, were sitting in the front of the room, and he was huddled in the back with Dex Evans who was Black Dawn’s communications guy.

“How in the hell did you manage to work out the code? I saw it, I couldn’t have figured it out,” Dex admitted.

“It reminded me of my hacking days,” Kane said.

Dex stared at him. “I keep forgetting your run-in with the law. If you hadn’t been thirteen, you would have been prosecuted as an adult and never seen the light of day for that stunt you pulled with the power grid.”

“How’d you find out about that?” Very—and he meant, very—few people knew about his involvement with his takedown of the Eastern seaboard power grid almost twenty years ago.

“I might not have been able to crack that code, but I’m not half-bad at ferreting out information that people want hidden,” Dex said as he buffed his nails against his fatigues.

Kane laughed.

“So, you have an I.Q. off the charts, you’re a master criminal at age thirteen, and you made your millions with that start-up creating those apps in your late teens before going public in your early twenties. What I couldn’t figure out is why you enlisted at twenty-four.”

“Could you figure out why I took down the power grid?” Kane asked.

“That was easy. You were trying to show the powers that be how vulnerable we were if we didn’t upgrade.”

“They’ve only put in a couple of minor back-ups, but they still haven’t done the major overhaul necessary to protect us,” Kane said with disgust. “Why’d you enlist?” he asked Dex.

“It was born and bred into my DNA. My family has served going back since before the Civil War.”

Kane nodded. “Not mine. But when I did enlist, they figured it would be the officer route. Then when I went and enlisted, they were blown away. They still don’t get it. How can you really understand something unless you look at it from all angles?”

“Sure,” Dex drawled. “I’m buying what you’re selling.”

“Funny,” Kane said slowly. “Most people do.”

“I’m sure. Don’t think I’m done digging,” Dex warned.

Fuck. He really didn’t need this.

The door to the conference room banged open. Lieutenant Commander Liam McAllister walked straight to the desk and leaned his hip against it. He was Captain Hale’s right-hand man.

“You ready?” he asked.

Everybody quieted. Liam was not in a good mood, which was odd. Normally he never let people know what he was thinking or feeling. He was smooth as a lake at dawn.

“Whatcha got?” Max Hogan asked.