an enigma of a couple. He had shaken his head at the last name. Why his father had changed his name when he came to America had been a bit of a mystery to him until lately. That mystery was unraveling and his anger was intensifying.
“He was part of their Force Reconnocense team.” Autumn’s voice brought him back to the here and now.
“FORECON, I know it.” He also knew those men were lethally trained because he had been a part of that too.
“He was also one of their top men for the Military Intelligence teams too.”
He growled. Now he got it. They needed him because this man was a younger version of him. Force Recon, military intelligence, lethal training with the intellect to know how to use it and use it well. The man could find anything and get in and out without a hint of warning. He knew this because he had been that man during his career.
“So then how do you know he’s the guy you’re after? In my day FORECON men didn’t get seen.”
“In your day men probably didn’t get distracted by their southern head. He has a heart on to sink his dick inside this woman before he kills her.”
He grumbled several curses in perfect Columbian Spanish as he saw the file with the picture of the woman that Autumn sent to him. He couldn’t blame the guy, he’d want to introduce his southern head to her vagina too, but back in his day men followed their mission through without distraction. Maybe…just maybe…he traced his fingertips over the picture of her delicious looking lips.
He wasn’t thinking with his southern head here; he was thinking with the northern one. There wasn’t anybody in the Special Conditions Witness Protection program who was qualified to deal with a man with this guy’s training. Not even a southern distraction would save an officer guarding her. She would be dead in less than three days.
“Don’t make this a habit, Autumn. I mean it. I’ll pick her up at the stopping ground…you know which one I’m talking about and how we’ll do this. Don’t be late. I won’t wait.” He disconnected the call. He had twelve hours to get his stuff together, and less than forty eight before the war commenced.
Yeah, the conversation had ended with him willfully taking on this job. What was he thinking? Or more like what wasn’t he thinking? That Abigail Hayashi was one sexy woman. He couldn’t deny that the second he saw her picture regions of his body that had been dormant for far too long started to awaken with a blazing fire. He told himself to kick that mess out of his mind. This was not his job—protection was not what he did. But something in those eyes, that soft innocence that he saw within them, made him want to help keep her safe.
“Damn fool,” he mumbled to himself as he drove toward the pickup point. “As if you don’t have things to take care of for yourself.” He chastised himself again. “You’re not in the business of saving the world anymore, especially when the world doesn’t want to be saved.” He tried to tell himself his mission came first. Never abandon a mission he chided himself, but the other half of his brain told him protection, fighting for justice, that was a part of him that wasn’t going to die just because he needed a special kind of justice of his own. He wasn’t going to stop with his mission he was just taking a break long enough to keep this woman safe. “Besides, you can still work yours while you help her. You know how to do more than one thing at a time, Rhys.” He chuckled to himself realizing he was talking to himself out loud far too often now. He laughed even harder when he told himself, “you know you’re right.” Of course he was right. Could he live with himself if that woman died and he knew he could have helped save her life? No; he couldn’t do that because he was still a Marine first. He was still the FORECON Marine who went into the hot zones because he knew it was the right thing to do and because he knew his mission