When the other men in the room looked to Rocky for more, he asked no one in particular, “You remember the story about the Lockheed C-130 Hercules that crashed somewhere over the South Atlantic a few years back?”
“Hell yes, I do.” Cade brought his gaze to hers. “Are you sayingthatwas a cover for what happened to your team?”
“That’s exactly what that was.” Raegan nodded.
“Not the first time Uncle Sam’s pulled the wool over civilian eyes,” Jagger drawled. “Sure as hell won’t be the last.”
Unfortunately the man was right.
“Anyway, after I got out of the hospital, I made it my mission to get justice for my team.”My friends.“I wasn’t trying to cause trouble, but I also wasn’t going to just sit back and keep quiet if they weren’t even trying to find Samer. I needed to know they weren’t going to let him get away with what he did.”
“You can probably guess how they reacted when Raegan started asking questions,” Rocky rumbled from beside her.
“That when they started pushing for the separation of service?”
Turning to Jagger, she nodded. “It started with my psychiatrist. Hypervigilance due to obsessive paranoia secondary to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, I believe was the official diagnosis.” Or at least, that’s what the jerk told the higher ups. “Of course, the Army was all too happy to jump on the crazy train, so…”
“Well, why wouldn’t they?” Jagger shot her an incredulous look as he freed his hands from his pockets and crossed his arms at his chest. His tone oozing with sarcasm, the highly trained operative took it a step further with, “Easier to believe a wounded, grieving soldier has lost her marbles than admit they lost at their own game.”
Yep. Definitely like this guy.
“You said you went to the cops when you saw Samer—or a guy who looked like him—at the house down the road.” Brody brought the conversation back around. “What did they say?”
“I got an eye roll and an offer to fill out a report they’d get to ‘as soon as they could’.”
Cade’s lips curved into the smallest of smirks. “I’m assuming you didn’t waste the ink?”
“Didn’t figure it would do any good.”
Jumping back in, Christian kept the conversation moving forward.
“So you see this guy and follow him to the house down the street.” Delta’s leader shifted his stance as his dark gaze met hers. “You see him and the men with him carrying stuff inside, and decide to rent the house next door to Rocky so you can…what? Run your own rogue investigation in hopes of getting photographic proof to take to the authorities?”
Raegan nodded. “That was my first thought, yeah. But it was dark, and I didn’t want to spook him, so I never got a shot worth running through facial rec.”
“And tonight’s B and E?” Brody stared over at her. “What were you hoping to achieve with that?”
“Proof that Samer was there.” She blew out a frustrated breath, praying these guys were taking what she was saying to heart. “I know this man. I’veseenthe evil in his eyes, and I’m telling you, if he’s here…if the man I saw really is Samer Nasim Ali, and he really is in the city, it’s because he’s planning something.”
Something very, very bad.
Several seconds passed before Christian asked her point-blank, “How sure are you that it’s him?”
With Rocky’s supportive hand still holding hers, Raegan locked eyes with his team leader and said, “I’d bet my life on it.”
And at this point, that was exactly what she was doing.
9
“Doyou really think Agent Atwell will follow through on this?”
Rocky turned to the woman who’d singlehandedly made him reconsider everything he ever thought he knew about the female race. She was sitting at his kitchen table with a beer in one hand and her head resting in the other, and even after the day she’d had, she looked absolutely beautiful.
And damn but if she wasn’t so much more than he’d initially given her credit for.
A former soldier who’d taken a bullet and nearly died trying to get to her team? Hell yes, she was more.
So much fucking more.