On Her Master's Secret Service (Masters and Mercenaries #4)(48)

Adam’s hands went up in sheer defeat. “Let’s clear some things up before we move on. I would like to have it on the record that I am merely here as the tech guy. No workouts required. I’m a married man. I can totally let myself go now. Speaking of letting myself go, Sean, my man, you’re here. What’s for dinner?”

Sean snorted a little. “I don’t know. I’ll have to check out what Miss Mysterious has in her fridge. I’m going to go unpack and call my wife. Let me know if you need me, but I think this really is Adam’s expertise.”

Adam’s eyebrows raised in question. “Is he asking about the work-up on Jesse Murdoch that I already have done? Because I know everything, of course.”

Adam could be a pain in the ass, but he was damn good at his job. “Give me the story on him.”

Adam walked up to the table in the living area and slapped a folder on it. The table looked like the rest of the condo. It was a rich, dark wood and had Asian influences, though with all the computer equipment and wires covering it, Alex could only think that it was from an Early Nerd Period.

The folder Adam opened contained a picture of Jesse Murdoch and what looked to be a hefty dossier. “Jesse Murdoch. Age twenty-seven and some change. Born in the wilds of Wyoming. Mom was a waitress. Dad was a cop. Shot in the line of duty three months before Jesse was born. Apparently, mom couldn’t handle it. She dropped him off at granddad’s place one day and never looked back. Now she managed to get her shit together later, but she married some wealthy guy and never even sent the kid a birthday card from what I could tell. He has three half siblings, but I don’t think he’s met them. Tough breaks. Anyway, he helped out on his granddad’s ranch until it went belly up. Granddad dies, and where does a kid who has absolutely nothing end up?”

Alex knew that story well. “Prison or the military.”

Adam touched a finger to his nose. “He was in the Army. Lucky, lucky us. I spoke to some of my contacts there while you were driving in from the club. The word was he was being recruited for special ops when he was taken prisoner. He spent a couple of months as a guest of one of the jihadist armies. Most of his unit died in the ambush. Nasty IED. Took out the Humvee they were in. He was taken in with three other soldiers from his unit. He was the only one to survive.”

Alex whistled as he looked through the pages of documents Adam had already assembled. “Shit. Was this the incident where they beheaded three of our soldiers?”

It had been a big story a couple of years back. The government had tried to keep it off the mainstream media, but no one could stop the Internet. The group had beheaded good, honest soldiers to further their political interests.

“They executed everyone but Murdoch, including a female sergeant. When the extraction team found him, he was still alive. He was immediately relieved of duty. The official word was for PTSD.”

But Alex knew there was more to that story. “They were worried he’d turned. They couldn’t trust him with intel. I saw it on the news, but he almost immediately went into hiding and the story died down. Poor bastard.”

Adam frowned. “Unless he actually turned and gave up his teammates.”

There had been times when Alex’s name and reputation were all he had. He couldn’t imagine a whole country questioning him. What had Jesse Murdoch really been through? And how had it twisted him?

He was definitely someone Alex wanted to keep his eye on. “So what’s he doing here? How long has he been in Florida?”

“About three months, from what I can tell,” Adam replied. “He’s been doing odd jobs up and down the coast, keeping a low profile. He did some security work in Virginia for a while, but he drifted down this way and, as far as I can tell, he was hired on at the club ten weeks ago. Other than the fact that he works for a criminal prick, he doesn’t have any kind of a record. Not so much as a parking ticket.”

But he was working as a heavy for a nightclub that almost certainly laundered money for a terrorist. And he’d been held by terrorists for three months, more than enough time for a man to be indoctrinated into radicalism. Brainwashing was just another tool in a terrorist’s kit. Was Jesse Murdoch a sleeper? “Keep working that angle. I might need you to do some surveillance on him. Is Jake in town?”

He asked the question very quietly. Kristen didn’t need to know every single player he had on the board. He was willing to trust her, but only so far.

Adam nodded. “Jake and Serena are set up in a rental two buildings down from us in case we need him. Why doesn’t Kristen want the whole team here? Why does she want to split us up?”

“She thinks too many new faces around might cause some questions to be asked, but she doesn’t know how good my team is. Just keep it quiet. From what I understand, the crowd at the club is quite rowdy most nights. They’ll blend in nicely. I want someone to have eyes on her.”

Adam nodded. “Will do.” His voice came back to normal as Kristen walked into the living room. “You’ll be happy to know your place isn’t bugged.”

“Checked for that, did you?” She shrugged. “I expect you to be thorough, Adam. I’m an open book. Check any records on me you like.”

Adam crossed his arms over his chest as he studied Kristen. “I did. There aren’t a whole lot of them. I read a couple of your articles, but I was surprised you didn’t put pictures with the byline. Most big reporters do these days.”