Finding the Way Back: A Stealth Ops Novel Read online

  “You’re from Atlanta, Foster,” Rodriguez said. “You know the Bennetts?”

  This wasn’t really a question. Rodriguez knew her background. He knew her history, which meant he wanted to hear the words from her mouth that her relationship with the Bennetts wouldn’t interfere with the job.

  “She knows him,” Calloway grumbled, clearly still bitter about how things had ended between them a few months back.

  “You ever date the senator’s son?” Rodriguez interrupted her thoughts.

  If Rodriguez wasn’t in charge of their assignment, and his girlfriend didn’t cook delicious food for her, she would’ve probably told him to mind his own damn business.

  She had to remind herself he was doing his due diligence. Not overstepping boundaries even if it felt like it.

  “You would think they dated.” Calloway jammed his hands into his pockets, irritation springing through his words.

  “There a problem I need to be made aware of?” Rodriguez shifted to the side to get a good look at both Adriana and grumpy-as-hell Calloway.

  “No, sir,” she quickly replied.

  “Calloway?” Rodriguez asked.

  Calloway remained quiet but shook his head as he removed his sunglasses.

  “So, it’s Hummingbird for the wife and Hawk for Senator Bennett,” Rodriguez announced.

  “I remember. You checking to make sure I did my homework?” She painted on a smile, trying to suppress the pressure of this moment—the winging around of jets in her stomach.

  “This is a big day for you all. Just making sure you’re ready.” Rodriguez turned back around, and she did her best not to bump into the agents standing behind her.

  Seven guys. One woman.

  But this was her moment. It was the closest to the White House she had ever come.

  Chen and Calloway had the best chance of rotating to protection detail for the next POTUS since they had the most experience, but maybe someday she’d have a shot.

  And maybe one day she’d make her mom proud even though she wasn’t there to see her. And she’d stop worrying about her dad slipping off the wagon.

  And, oh yeah, maybe Knox would kiss her again.

  So many maybes . . .

  “Stacey told me you canceled your blind date but didn’t reschedule,” Rodriguez said as the elevator doors opened and they all moved into the hallway.

  Calloway shot her a quick look at her boss’s words. Great. The last thing she needed right now was a jealous Calloway. The second he and Knox were in the same room . . . she shuddered to think about how things might play out between them.

  “So, you gonna tell me why you canceled?” Rodriguez asked, toying with the ends of his handlebar mustache.

  “We’re here, aren’t we?”

  “But why not reschedule?” He wasn’t going to let this go, was he?

  “And why are you and Stacey so interested that I date this friend of yours? Is he third in line for the crown of some incredible country I haven’t heard of?” she teased. “I mean, if he cooks as good as Stacey, I might marry him now, but—”

  “Because I know the kind of men you date, and we’d like you to meet a nice guy.”

  Nice guy was usually code for boring. Bland. Probably a few more B words she could come up with, too.

  Nice guys were also safe. But she didn’t need safe. She had Knox to keep her safe. And she’d done a fairly decent job of protecting herself as well.

  No, what she needed was someone who gave her that spine-tingling-weak-in-the-knees type of feeling. And she knew who that was, but . . .

  “You are thirty-five,” Rodriguez went on, his steps slowing as if to ensure they had time to continue their talk before the job started.

  She stopped and faced him, and a touch of red met his cheeks.

  The movies always depicted agents as humorless and bland. Not true at all. The men and women who worked for the Secret Service were human. They had to rein in their emotions like everyone else during working hours.

  “I’m not that old.” She hid a nervous smile.

  His hand raced over the top of his perfectly styled black hair. “Stacey wants to see you happy. Me, too. Sorry to pry.”

  “Thank you, but I’ll be fine. I promise.” She turned back toward the direction of the presidential suite and regretted it because now she had to focus on what was about to go down—a meeting with the Bennetts.

  The second Knox or his father set eyes on her she’d have to stand her ground and demand she remain on the assignment. But her nerves were getting to her at the thought, and her heart rate inched higher.

  “You okay?” Rodriguez was near the door, but at the sight of her glued in place, he strode back her way.

  Maybe there was a way for her to stay without a one-punch knockout from the Bennetts at her presence. “A few of us are assigned to work the investigation. Can I do it? I have the most experience in that area. It makes sense.”

  “I thought protection is what you wanted. Didn’t you practically beg me for the chance if it ever arose?” Rodriguez cocked his head. “I put in a good word for you, Foster. There are a few bigwigs from Homeland here, and we really can’t screw this up.”

  There’s a lot more on the line than looking good at our jobs, but . . . “Yeah, of course.” Her gaze lifted as the Bennetts’ door opened ten feet away.

  Knox was there, and he was blinking as if seeing a mirage.

  The man was tall. Six-two. Muscular but lean. Handsome as ever. Even more so with age. The kind of sexy everyone seemed to notice but himself. In her opinion, one of the most appealing traits in a man was a good-looking guy who didn’t seem to know it.

  He checked off all her boxes, even ones she didn’t know she had until him.

  Knox stepped aside as another man exited the suite. And now Knox was looking somewhere other than at her.

  Shit. He’d spotted Calloway. The two men had met in the spring when Knox had crashed her date. She’d been on date five with him that night. She had an eight dates before sex rule. Well, eight didn’t guarantee sex, but she refused to have it any sooner than that.

  But when Knox had shown up that night, she’d actually thought he’d finally admit he wanted to be her date instead. A real date. Not a friendly one.

  But she’d been dreaming. Living in her head. The part of her that still believed in fairy tales and happily-ever-afters.

  Of course, who was she kidding? She still believed in happily-ever-afters, even now with Knox’s eyes dead set on her.

  “I’m FBI Director Mendez.” The man who’d exited the suite a few moments ago pulled her attention his way and back on her job where it needed to be.

  But her heart continued its intense climb with Knox so close.

  “Good to see you made it,” Mendez added. “We’re about to head to the office to interview some possible witnesses.”

  Rodriguez shook the director’s hand and then introduced the rest of the team.

  “Glad to have you here.” Mendez added a phony smile. The director was a lousy liar, and she had the distinct impression he was anything but glad they’d joined the case. “Let’s have you meet the Bennetts, and then I assume you’ll want to assign some of your people to the investigation? They can come with us.”

  “Sounds good.” Rodriguez followed Mendez, but Adriana remained stuck in place.

  Knox wasn’t moving either. His eyes were pinned to her. His jaw set in a hard line. A noticeable clench there. On second thought, maybe she should get him and Calloway together and divert Knox’s energy away from her.

  Because.

  He.

  Was.

  Pissed.

  “Can we have a minute?” She peered at Rodriguez with a plea in her eyes. Her puppy dog eyes, as Knox liked to call them.

  “One minute,” he said before heading into the suite.

  Knox didn’t waste a second once they were alone. He lunged forward, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her in tight for a hug. Not what she�
�d been anticipating.

  “I thought you’d be mad,” she murmured into his chest, hugging him back. Hell, she was clinging for dear life.

  “I am.” His warm breath tickled her ear. “But I need to hold my best friend for two seconds and hope, when I open my eyes, this shit day will have been a bad dream.”

  Her shoulders sagged.

  This wasn’t just a case.

  This was Knox. Her go-to on the bad days and the good.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered with regret.

  His big hands moved up to grasp her shoulders, and he held her slightly away from his body, his eyes running over every inch of her. “How are you? Are you okay?”

  Of course he’d worry about her, too, even though this day should have been strictly about his parents, his family.

  But he knew her well. Each time she’d closed her eyes during the flight from D.C. to Charlotte, the painful image of the coroner covering her mother’s lifeless body appeared in her mind.

  “I’m fine.” And she had to be. “How are you?” she asked when he palmed her cheek as if he were relieved to see her alive, and she’d been the one to nearly take a bullet.

  “I feel better knowing my people are here and looking into things. But you appearing out of nowhere,” he said with a shake of the head, “and finding out you’re on the case . . . well, it’s like getting hit in the nuts with a baseball.”

  “You don’t play baseball.” Okay, so humor probably wasn’t appropriate right now, but she needed to take some of the edge off the shock of her presence.

  “Okay, a basketball.” He shifted farther away and observed her again, allowing his hand to fall to his side. “You don’t actually think you’re going to stand in front of a bullet for my dad, do you?”

  “You know it’s a myth. We never actually sign our names in blood and promise to die for POTUS.”

  “It’s an unspoken rule.” He crossed his arms, offering her his “don’t mess with me, you won’t win” look. “Does your boss know your connection to my family?”

  She needed to zip up her emotions and store them in one of those mess-free leak-proof containers if she was going to get through this night unscathed.

  “Rodriguez knows, and I had nothing to do with my being here.”

  His brows pulled together. “Oh, mustache-guy. Yeah, I recognize him now. His girlfriend makes you all that delicious food you’re always going on and on about.” His smile was equivalent to a dozen pillowy-soft arrows, with heart-shaped tips, plunging into her chest.

  But his smile was brief. So brief, she barely had time to enjoy the moment.

  “If you get hurt, or worse, because of my dad, what do you think that’ll do to me?” There was a crack in his voice. A deep drop where his words descended briefly into the abyss of fear as he’d spoken them.

  She tried to hide the unexpected wobble in her bottom lip as her resolve massively failed, exposing her emotions for him to see. “And how do you think I feel every time you go on one of those mysterious jobs of yours?” And why do you have to keep that part of yourself from me?

  His warm brown eyes remained connected with hers. His pupils constricted. More emotion stirred, a reflection of her own.

  “Please support me,” she said when he refused to speak. “When I go into that room, I need you to have my back. I already know your dad will object to having a woman protect him, especially when that woman happens to be me.”

  The door behind her opened, and Rodriguez called out, “Your minute is up, Foster.”

  “Coming.” The word came out like a choked whisper. Her throat scratchy and worn from fighting back a million things she wanted to say to Knox. An epic battle that had seemed to rage with new life over the past few months.

  She reached for his arm when the door shut.

  He stared at her hand. No eye contact.

  And when he didn’t respond and pulled his arm free of her grasp, her heart could’ve fractured into a million pieces, but she refused to let it. Because Knox would be there to pick the pieces up. Because he was always there for her. And the last thing she wanted was to add more to his plate. He didn’t deserve it.

  He slipped inside his father’s suite, and she took a minute before she followed.

  “Everything okay?” Rodriguez asked once she was inside, concern in his eyes as both friend and boss.

  “Yeah, I’m good. What’s the situation?” They moved farther into the suite, and she put her game face back on.

  “Making the introductions.” Rodriguez motioned her down the hall and into the living area. The place was more like an apartment than a hotel.

  Isaiah Bennett’s eyes widened, and he rose from the couch in the spacious room and loosened the knot of his tie at the sight of Adriana. He was a little shorter than Knox. A touch stockier, too. But he had the same eyes and killer smile as his son.

  “Adriana?” A gasp left Kathleen Bennett as she stood alongside her husband.

  Kathleen was blonde and blue-eyed. Tall. Gorgeous. But not in a way that screamed look-at-me. Subtle. Sophisticated. She always had this look in her eyes, too—like she could get a read on a person within seconds.

  She’d met both Isaiah and Kathleen the same night she’d met Knox. He’d called his parents after driving her to the crime scene as if he’d hoped his senator father could bring her mom back to life.

  “You’re assigned to protect us?” Kathleen’s gaze raked over the length of Adriana before she crossed the room to get to her.

  “Yes.” The second the word was out of her mouth, Kathleen hugged her.

  It wasn’t the warm type of hug her mom had given her as a kid, but Adriana was sure it was as motherly as Kathleen knew how to be.

  “Are you okay?” Adriana asked once Kathleen had let go of her, doing her best to avoid the curious eyes of her coworkers.

  “I think I’m still in shock.” Kathleen’s eyes moved to Knox then back to Adriana as if worried about a potential battle of the sexes over her presence as their Secret Service.

  Yeah, me, too. She focused on Isaiah. “Sir.”

  “You’re not stepping in front of a bullet for me, Adriana,” he announced right off the bat.

  Like father like son.

  “After what happened to your mother, I have no clue what possessed you to join the agency.” Isaiah’s commanding voice captured the room. She felt all eyes ping back and forth between the presidential candidate and herself. And that’s how she had to think of him from now on, or she wouldn’t be able to separate emotion from the job.

  “I’m here because of my mom. She sacrificed her life to protect others, and that’s what I’m doing. She’s my—”

  “I won’t let you sacrifice yourself for me,” he interrupted, his voice louder now. “Charlie, say something!”

  His dad still called him by his given name, and maybe that was why he clung to his nickname so fiercely over the years.

  “A woman is fully capable of protecting a man,” Kathleen said, to Adriana’s surprise. “Don’t you dare say otherwise.” She peered at Knox next. “Either of you.”

  Knox frowned and kept quiet.

  “I can reassign Foster to work the investigation. We’ll be coordinating with DHS and the FBI to find the shooter,” Rodriguez noted.

  “We’re about to head to the office now,” Knox said.

  Was this a white flag? His way of saying he wouldn’t be a roadblock?

  “The president authorized him to be part of the investigation,” Mendez said as if reading the what-the-F look now on Rodriguez’s face.

  “Why?” Rodriguez turned toward Knox.

  “The ‘why’ doesn’t matter,” Knox said. “I’m going to help out. So, if we’re done with introductions, we should get a move on it.” He slipped his hand into his pocket, grabbed his phone, and left the room without saying another word.

  “Are you sure this is what you really want?” Isaiah asked her.

  “More than anything.”

  He b
raced her shoulders. “Do me a favor then, keep an eye on my son.”

  If he’ll let me. But she smiled and murmured, “Always.”

  Chapter Six

  Adriana leaned against the side of her Tahoe as Knox locked his Suburban. They’d taken separate vehicles to the FBI office. It was already eleven at night, so she wasn’t sure how much they’d accomplish, but they couldn’t exactly sleep with a shooter out there.

  “Why aren’t your friends here? Don’t you always travel in a pack?” Her lips teased into a grin, and his mouth tipped into a smile at her words.

  “We’re not wolves.” He looked heavenward. “I don’t see the moon right now, but I doubt it’s a full one.” He winked. “Anyway, the boys are back at the hotel for now. More coming tomorrow.” He tucked his keys into his pocket and positioned himself in front of her. So close a hint of his cologne mingled with the night air and touched her nose. An aquatic scent. Probably Nautica, his go-to in the summer.

  “And why are you waiting for me when the rest of your people are in the building?” He cocked his head, the smile still resting on his face like he could keep it there forever for her.

  “You’re a slow driver. Someone had to wait for you.” She pushed away from her ride, but he didn’t step back at the proximity.

  “Funny.”

  They needed to go inside. To do anything other than stand face-to-face in the parking lot as her thoughts about his so-called “other life” begged to slip free.

  She’d managed to keep the questions mostly at bay for years, but if they were going to work together, she was now part of that world he’d kept from her. She needed to know if he’d let her in or try and keep her on the sidelines out of some moral gotta-protect-you code of his. She didn’t want it to be business as usual. Not now. Not with his father’s life on the line. A shooter on the loose in the Queen City.

  “Is this going to be a problem? Us working together?”

  “Of course,” he rushed out, which wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

  “I don’t mean because of your crazy need to keep me safe.” She had to stand her ground. “Because your friends are here, and you finally brought us together, and I’m worried about how this whole us-working-together thing might go. I still don’t even know why the hell you’ve kept them from me, but—”