Deadly Promises (Tracers #2.5)(92)

Nine

Mia knocked again and glanced at her watch. She tapped her foot impatiently. Finally the door swung back and her jaw dropped open at the sight of the gorgeous, half-naked man standing before her.

She cast a glance over her shoulder. Yep, it was Kelsey’s Suburban, parked right in front of this motel room.

“I’m sorry.” She turned back to face him, and he hadn’t somehow managed to put on a shirt in the intervening two seconds. She concentrated on not drooling as he looked her over with a calm, blue-eyed gaze.

“Excuse me,” she said. “I think I have the wrong room.”

“Mia?” Kelsey appeared in the doorway. “What are you doing here?”

Mia took in the wet hair, the bare feet, the towel in her friend’s hand.

Oh, damn. She cast an apprehensive glance at the parking lot. “Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to let you know we’re here. Obviously.”

The man’s eyebrows tipped up. “We?”

“Yes, me. And some… colleagues.” She glanced at Kelsey.

“It’s okay. He knows everything.” Kelsey made quick introductions, acting as if it made perfect sense for a naval lieutenant to be out here in the middle of nowhere providing security for an archaeology dig.

“Kelsey, can I talk to you for a sec? Privately?”

The lieutenant disappeared into the dim room as Kelsey stepped outside and pulled the door shut.

“Oh my gosh, Kels.”

“What?”

“Where do I start? The FBI is here. The CT task force out of San Antonio. There’s a briefing in ten minutes and they want you there.”

The blood drained from Kelsey’s face. “Blake’s task force?”

“Yes.”

“But what does counterterrorism have to do this?”

“Come to the briefing in ten minutes,” Mia said. “Behind the diner.”

Fifteen minutes later, Mia was leaning against the fender of a black SUV as Special Agent in Charge Blake Reid updated his team. Kelsey and her lieutenant, both in jeans and T-shirts now, walked over and silently joined the group.

Mia watched Blake’s reaction, but he didn’t miss a beat, probably because Mia had already let him know that his ex-girlfriend and the man providing her security would be attending the meeting.

“I just got off the phone with San Antonio,” Blake said. “The remains sent to us by Dr. Quinn have been positively IDed as Khalid Rahim, who was working as a confidential informant for us before he went missing last January.” Blake glanced at Mia. “Dr. Voss is here today with a mobile DNA lab on loan from the Delphi Center. She’s going to try to get an ID on the second set of remains as soon as they’re pulled from the ground.” He glanced at Kelsey. “We’d appreciate your help with that.”

“Of course.”

“We expect to learn that the second body is that of an agent out of our Brownsville field office. He went missing at the same time as our CI while investigating a possible terrorist cell out of Mexico City.”

Kelsey’s brow furrowed. “Mexican terrorists?”

“Al-Qaeda,” Blake corrected. “We believe this particular group is a sleeper cell that we’ve heard rumors about for years. At the time of his disappearance our agent had a lead on an attack they’d been plotting from their base in Mexico. Our theory is that the CI’s cover got blown somehow, and then both he and our agent ended up murdered.”

“Tell me about the attack.” This from the SEAL.

For the first time, Blake hesitated. “We’re still running a background check on you, Lieutenant Brewer. Until that’s complete—”

“Then let me tell you what I know,” he cut in. “Those two graves Kelsey found were located near a dirt road that makes a bend down near the border.” He turned and held his hand out to Mia. “Borrow your pen?”

She handed him a ballpoint pen and the SEAL produced a small notebook from one of his pockets. He flipped it open to a page where he’d obviously been mapping something. Mia noted the GPS coordinates scrawled on the edge of the page.

“Here’s the town.” He drew a straight line from a spot marked “Madrone” to a spot marked with an X. “Here’s where the road bends. Now watch this.” He extended the line north and south. To the north, the line followed a highway until it intersected Interstate 10. To the south, it intersected a crudely drawn picture of a rock and some trees.

“What’s that?” Blake wanted to know.

“The entrance to a tunnel.”

Blake’s gaze shot up. “A tunnel leading—”

“South, under the river. We were there last night, saw some traffic moving through.”

“Foot traffic?” One of the agents asked.

“Motorized traffic. This thing’s big enough for cars, SUVs, even a mid-sized rig.”

“That fits with the intercept.” The agent turned to Blake, who was regarding Lieutenant Brewer with a wary look. Blake wanted the SEAL’s information, obviously. What he probably didn’t want was a reason to cooperate with this man, who clearly had been doing a very hands-on job of guarding Kelsey.

Blake’s gaze moved from the SEAL to Kelsey. From what Mia knew of Blake Reid, she predicted his professional ambition would win out over petty jealousy.