Heated Pursuit (Alpha Security #1)(22)
“Good thing I was a Girl Scout, then, huh? I wasn’t blowing smoke up your skirts when I said I’d do anything to get Rachel back. The question is are you going to let me?”
Fuck no. The red-blooded man in Rafe wanted her sweet ass on a plane. Out of sight. Out of mind. And out of danger. But the trained operative grudgingly admitted that she had a point. Her leaving at this juncture in the game would make their job more difficult than if she stayed.
Still, it wasn’t Rafe’s call to make—thank f*cking God.
Stone, looking a hell of a lot like a gargoyle, went quiet. That alone wasn’t what alarmed Rafe, because the Alpha head often kept his thoughts under a tightly sealed wrap. What had Rafe holding his breath was the way Stone tapped his fingers against his thigh…as if he was in deep thought.
And then his boss’s gaze shifted to him. Fuckin’ A.
“The decision’s yours, Ortega.” Lips pressed into a thin line, Stone’s expression looked anything but thrilled. “You’re the one going on the inside with her. I know I don’t have to remind you that you’re going into this deaf and blind. Bail enforcement or not, Penny’s not Alpha trained. That means on top of everything else you’re responsible for, you need to add her to the list—and right at the damn top.”
“He doesn’t need to—” Penny started to protest.
“Yeah, he does. Though you can hit a target and inflict a fair amount of damage, you’re green. You’ve never been on this kind of an op. Hell, even Ortega hasn’t.”
But no f*cking pressure. Dealing with Taliban leaders in the middle of the desert had nothing on the expectant stare Penny slid his way. On the exterior, she looked the poster girl for calm and cool. Direct gaze. Back straight. But the subtle bite to her lower lip identified it as a carefully controlled ruse.
He wanted to say what his team expected him to—no f*cking way. But the words wouldn’t come.
Though he didn’t have family in the true sense of the word, everyone associated with Alpha was his family—even their ball-buster analyst, Charlie. If he were in Penny’s shoes, he’d turn over every rock in the Afghan desert, search every damn block of ice in the Arctic, and make a deal with the devil if it meant the safe return of his family. That same brand of loyalty was etched on every feminine curve of Penny’s face.
Lives counted on their success, and not just their own, but Rachel’s and the countless others being subjected to Freedom and God only knew what other nasty drugs Fuentes peddled around the globe.
Meeting Penny’s gaze, Rafe mentally relived the last week—Penny sparring in the training room, the too-close-for-comfort scuffle in the alley, and the professional ease with which she handled the meeting with Fuentes. Hell, she’d been the one who remained casually aloof while he nearly reached across the table and throttled the sick f*ck with his bare hands.
He couldn’t believe he was going to f*cking say it. “Don’t make me regret agreeing to this, Red.”
With no questions, no hesitation, the team sprang into action. Logan fired up the laptop while waiting for Charlie to answer stateside. Stone and Chase talked schematics and logistics with Trey. Backup plans were only good if you knew where the hell you were, but some kind of contingencies needed to be made—and a hell of a lot of them. Plans A, B, and C wouldn’t hack it this time around. Their ducks needed to be lined up straight to f*cking Z.
Penny’s presence hovered behind Rafe’s shoulder. “What is it, Red?”
“Thank you,” she murmured softly.
He stole a glance and mentally cursed with the sudden urge to yank her onto his lap and tell her everything would be fine. Instead, he gave a slight nod and prayed he hadn’t made a mistake. “You can thank me if we manage to get out of this in one piece.”
*
In her mind, Penny envisioned Alpha’s tech guru as a tall, lanky brunet with a built-in pocket protector in every shirt. And the way the guys talked about Charlie Sparks also had her anticipating him to be…well, a him.
Not only was Charlie not a him, but she sported shaggily bobbed blonde hair adorned with pink highlights—and an English accent Penny couldn’t get enough of.
“It isn’t a bloody windup toy, Ortega. Stop playing around with the bloody thing.” Charlie glared at Rafe from over the video link like she wanted to reach through the screen and strangle him.
“No. It’s a watch.” Rafe smirked, obviously having a good time teasing the other woman. “But do you really think this looks like something Rafael Manuel, self-made millionaire and professional ladies’ man, would be caught wearing?”
“He’d be bloody lucky to wear that baby. And it’s quite a bit more than a watch. What you have in your hot, callused hands is my pride and joy. It’ll detect any surveillance device that’s within a hundred-foot distance—audio or visual. Because let’s face it, Fuentes is going to have his place bugged like a New York City hotel room. Before either of you decide to talk any kind of shop, you scan. If you move an inch to the left while in a heated discussion, you scan. It wouldn’t even hurt if you ran a scan after breathing too deeply.”
“I get it,” Rafe interrupted. “I scan and scan again.”
“Scan until your bloody finger is well…bloody. I know I don’t need to remind you that one slipup could mean the two of you coming back or becoming cheetah bait.”