Free Fall (Elite Force 4)

Brick coughed, loudly.

Jose startled and realized—damn it—he’d been staring at the door like a lovesick puppy. Most of the team started hoofing it away before he could bite their heads off and started walking toward the west side of the building, where they would give their statements of what went down.

Brick held back, striding alongside him, one stubborn determined step at a time. Great guy to have guarding your back, but the pigheadedness wasn’t always convenient.

“Fine,” Jose conceded. “Say it.”

“What?”

“Don’t play cutesy. You’ve been giving me that wise old married guy look like you know better than me about everything. So either speak your piece or back the f**k off.”

“You’re in a mood.”

He hadn’t fully grasped that himself until just now. “It’s been a crappy couple of days.”

“You were worried about Stella.”

“You think?” He’d been through hell and back, more than once, and now he was screwed, trying to figure out how to make things right with her.

“Why don’t you just marry her and put yourself out of your misery?”

His neck itched. Things weren’t that simple. “Just because you tied the knot doesn’t mean everyone else is cut out for the happily ever after gig with two-point-five kids and a picket fence.”

Brick nodded slowly, lumbering alongside. “So you’re moving on. Okay then, now that we’re clear on that… Who’s the new lady in your life?”

“There isn’t one and you know it.”

“Fair enough. I can help. Sunny has this great friend she met at a recycling fair. A hot babe, truly, blonde with an unbelievably awesome rack. But don’t tell Sunny I said that part or she’ll kick my ass then serve me those granola bran pancakes of hers.” He shuddered. “Anyhow…”

“Quit with the mind games,” Jose interrupted, stopping outside their door, the rest of the team already climbing the steps to go inside the concrete building for interrogation. “I’m not interested in seeing anyone else. There? You got what you were fishing for. Are you happy?”

“Why would I be happy, dude?” He clapped him on the shoulder. “I feel bad for you. Because for whatever reason, you keep turning your back on an incredible woman who, honest to God, seems perfect for you.”

Brick’s hard-hitting truth made heading into a CIA debrief sound like a cakewalk. Jose didn’t bother denying a thing.

The words rolled around like acid inside him. “I’m not a total idiot. You aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know. She is perfect. I get that. Man, I really do. She’s not the problem. I am.”

***

“Henry Pope, we’re very disappointed in you.”

Fear gripped the CIA agent in an icy hold at odds with the sweltering sun overhead. Nothing compared to the heat these bastards kept pouring onto him. He hadn’t been able to think of anything but the hell they were putting his family through back in the States while he was stuck over here. “I did what you said, damn it. I sent all the transcripts of Sutton Harper’s debriefs. I covered his ass when he slipped away instead of leaving the country.”

“But he got caught and that could create a real problem for your family.”

A scream sliced through the crackling connection. Charlotte. In agony. Oh God, he was going to lose it.

“You bastard, let her go.” He hissed, terrified of being overheard by one of the spies crawling all over this place. Even more terrified of what was happening to his wife.

Her scream dwindled to a low moan. Whatever they’d done to her had stopped. She was still alive. For now.

“Daddy,” his daughter, Ellie, sobbed hysterically in the background, hiccupping with fear. “Make them stop hurting Mommy. They cut Mommy. Daddy!”

“No, goddamnit, stop!” He wanted to howl out his frustration, to claw his way across continents and oceans to get to his family, vulnerable and alone because of him. He considered just turning himself in, sacrificing his career and even his life for his family.

He’d heard about agents being blackmailed, flipped because of one mistake. He’d never thought it could happen to him. But they were that damn good at finding a person’s vulnerability.

“Henry,” the mechanical voice came on again. His own personal demon. “Henry, we’ve been very generous with you. We paid off your gambling debts so you wouldn’t lose your job and your family wouldn’t lose their pretty house.”