AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Amen.” Scotty fist-bumped his teammates. “What’s the plan of attack?”
“Since we don’t know which location Arrieta will choose, our best bet is to split up,” Kyle said. “Gage, you take the server in California. Spencer, you head to Minnesota. Scotty, you get Maine. And Nat and I will take the one in Georgia.”
“Hold up, dude.” Scotty hiked his thumb toward Gage. “How come he gets Cali? I’m the one who looks the part.”
“And Minnesota? Seriously?” Spencer scowled. “Can I at least take Toni with me to keep me warm?”
“No one is taking anyone else with them. The only partners on this mission are Nat and me, because that was part of the deal I made with the CIA.” Kyle gave his team a withering stare. “This is serious. National-security-level serious. Do. Not. Screw. This. Up. Got it?”
“Got it,” the guys said in unison, now all business.
“Right.” Kyle walked to the door and yanked it open. “Good. Now get the hell out of here so Nat and I can talk strategy. If there’s anything you need to take care of before we roll, do it now. Be back at”—he checked his watch—“twenty-hundred-hours for your final briefing.”
The guys filed out of the condo, and Kyle closed the door behind them while Natalie went over the paperwork on the table. He had to hand it to his big brother: Nick had excellent taste in women. Natalie was smart and capable and focused. Not to mention gorgeous. And it certainly didn’t hurt that she smelled like his favorite dessert—warm vanilla cake with strawberries.
Good enough to eat.
Good enough to want around for a long, long time.
Not that that was an option, with all the history between them.
Kyle walked back into the living room and took a seat across from her.
She cleared her throat and frowned down at the document in her hands. “From what I can tell, it looks to me like the Georgia location would be Arrieta’s most likely target.”
“Why’s that?”
“The Agency’s latest intel puts him in Havana. Savannah would be closest. Quick in, quick out.”
“Guess I picked the right location for us, huh?” He leaned back in his seat and narrowed his gaze. “What other intel are you not sharing with me?”
“What do you mean?” Natalie sat back and drew her legs up to her chest. “I’ve told you everything I know.”
“For your sake,” Kyle said. “I hope that’s true.”
* * *
“Of course it’s true,” Natalie said.
Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, Kyle reminded her so much of Nick it hurt. But there were differences too. Take Kyle’s passion. It was evident in the sparkle in his eyes, the pride in his tone whenever he talked about his family or his country or his team. He was a man who cared deeply and fought for what he believed in with every fiber of his being. Nick had been warm and open, constantly affectionate and kind, but nothing ever seemed to go quite as deep with him as everything seemed to with Kyle. Nick had loved everyone—Kyle loved only a handful of people, but he’d walk through fire for any one of them. Hard not to be attracted to that.
“Tell me how you got mixed up with Coran Williams in the first place.”
She’d expected him to ask about that at some point, just not so soon.
Natalie took a deep breath and frowned at her knees. “Tony approached me a few years ago. They needed someone to write a book and get in with Williams, and he remembered that I always used to scribble down stories in notebooks.”
“It’s impressive that you were able to come up with something on the clock like that. I’ve heard that some writers try for years and never manage to finish a manuscript. How did you get a novel done so fast?”
“I didn’t, really. I minored in literature and creative writing in school, just for a creative outlet. I had a lot of emotional baggage that I needed to unpack, and writing was a good way to do that. I had a few manuscripts hidden under my mattress, never expecting them to see the light of day. Wasn’t hard to pull one out and polish it up for them. Honestly, it took longer to ingratiate myself with Williams and convince him to use my story. Our reports showed that he was shopping around, looking for a writer who could incorporate the information he’d gathered into a novel that would slip under everyone’s radar. We needed that author to be me, so we could control what information got out. I ended up publishing two books with Coran Williams Publishing, plus the children’s story that I donated for the Williams Wishes foundation. That one, I actually had to sit down and write.” She smiled sadly. “Nick used to tell me I should write a children’s book—something I could share with our kids someday. When I wrote it, I sent him the file so he could read it, but I guess he didn’t get a chance to before…”
Kyle watched her for a moment, then looked away. “I tried to call you, you know. Before everything went to hell and we had to go underground.”
“You did? You didn’t leave a message.”
“Yeah.” He scowled at the toes of his boots. “I didn’t really know what to say, I guess.”
Heart in her throat, she asked, “Then why did you call?”
