Matt sipped his drink slowly watching his friends Zeke and Brady refill their glass with their punishment of choice at the nearby bar. The fireworks display that had welcomed in the new year with a brilliant display of pyrotechnics had faded, leaving streaks of pinkish smoke clinging to the edge of the beach where it met up with the incoming tide.
His mind went as it always did to what his friends were doing in their various ports they called home all over the world. Chris had moved to the Houston headquarters of his corporation to assist President Murray Chase and to spend more time with Dan. especially since he was starting his new business. Scott was working as the accountant at his office in L.A. where C.J. was overseeing his business interests and obviously too busy to come to the phone.
"So you thinking of taking on that gig?"
Matt glanced over at Brady, who looked up from his own glass. He shrugged after a long sip from his current beer bottle. Tempted to sample something stronger and with more kick, but he wanted to be able to do more than stumble back to his bungalow.
"I don't know. Like I told you I'd rather stick to making a few bucks fishing than go looking for some woman who doesn't want to be found. And might have very good reason."
Brady sighed.
"These are some very tough customers Houston. I'll inquire around...discreetly and I'm sure the money will be…"
"I don't need the money…"
His response to his friend had been terse but Matt wasn't sure what he wanted. He still felt raw after they had rescued those children that had been kidnapped from their families in remote villages and forced to be soldiers.
More like cannon fodder. Cowardly adults abducting children and forcing them into battle, to face what they themselves wouldn't face.
Certain the hands of those much more experienced in war games. Matt hadn't served much time in the combat side having used his college degree to opt for a stint in military intelligence that came up six months after he had arrived in the Middle East. His own uncle had became an operative at a shadowy intelligence agency following his own recruitment into Ultra after he had answered the call to arms after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Like Uncle, Like nephew, probably all the two of them really had in common. In many ways, Matt had been like his father.
Both of them.
Pushing all those thoughts into the background where they belonged he glanced at Brady.
"I'm not going to take this job. This just seems like another form of trafficking to me. Maybe this woman whoever she is needs to not be found. Maybe it's the only way she can survive."
Brady gulped the rest of his drink and ordered another round from the bartender who knew him all too well.
"Well if you feel that way."
Matt slammed his bottle down.
"I do. Whoever trafficked those children we just saved is evil. Scum but wealthy and powerful enough to remain untouched. All these agencies that could bring him down but they leave it to the mercenaries to go out on the front lines for someone with a large bank account and conscience."
You didn't see too many people in the world who satisfied both qualifications. But the shadowy individual who had funded their operation had been one of those few.
Actually Matt suspected it might have been a woman.
Stefan stared out the window of his hotel room down at the festivities unwinding below, now that the new year was already in its second hour. The woman who called herself Clarissa most of the time stood next to him refilled his glass from the wet bar and joined him. She rested a hand on his shoulder.
"So they're not going to help you...us find this woman?"
Stefan simply stared out the window not responding. She leaned towards him. He didn't seem to notice.
"There are always others...besides you do realize you're playing with fire here with Matt. Once he discovers the truth…"
Stefan put down his glass after swallowing its contents.
""He won't know the truth and by the time he might realize it, we would take the necessary measures once we accomplished our goals."
So cold, so clipped in his speech and so detached when she knew he was anything but. He was more than a frustrated customer who had purchased a product that had been denied him by unforeseen circumstances.
She stroked his arm thoughtfully.
"Matt is extremely intelligent, very resourceful and very dangerous if he knows someone he cares about is in danger and there is no one else he cares about more than…"
Stefan cut her words off simply by pivoting on a heel and turning towards her. She shut up.
"It won't matter. I want what is mine and I'll get it. If I can him to help me all the better. Andre was reckless to leave her unattended with that flunky from that hick town. At least he's dropped off the face of the earth. Someone's hand no doubt."
Clarissa nodded.
"Andre was most displeased when he found out...I…"
They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Clarissa pulled her gun out of her belt and approached the door carefully. She looked through the peephole and then opened.
"Where the hell have you been….you were supposed to be here hours ago…"
The other woman with dark hair and even darker eyes viewed her coolly.
"I had work to do. Now I'm here to talk business…"
Clarissa parted to the side immediately as Selena Cruz walked into the suite.
C.J. sank onto the sofa in the living room of the ranch house, listening to the wind howl outside and the rain which might turn into snow later on hit the windows. She sipped her mug of tea, chamomille not necessarily her favorite but it'd help her sleep tonight. There was some celebration of the new year to get through but later on, she'd welcome the chance to slip off into slumber land.
Save for some dreams.
Thea walked into the room and sat in her own chair near the table. She'd been working in the kitchen where others waited feasting on appetizers and drinking some sangria that had been prepared.
"Another year down...not the worst...not the best either…"
C.J. just shrugged sipping from her mug.
"It started out good before it all went to shit. I'm just ready to say goodbye to all of it. I'm not sure what the new year will bring."
Thea leaned forward.
"I don't know either but you are away from that nightmare even if it doesn't feel like it's left you."
"It hasn't. I revisit it evernight. I revisit it anytime any man touches me or even looks at me."
Thea looked thoughtful. She knew the woman in her had been so badly wounded and broken and remained more badly damaged than any of them including Jonathan knew how to address, let alone fix.
Her son thought he could do both but all he had done was alienate C.J. and push her further away inside herself.
"I know but you're safe here. My son and the FBI, ICE, DHS are trying to trace the whereabouts of the man who took you."
C.J. shrugged.
"It's like tracking a ghost, a phantom. They won't find him and if he wants to he'll find me. My escape placed him in a horrible position one that could get him killed."
Thea widened her eyes.
"What do you mean?"
C.J. paused for a long moment, rubbing her scarred hands together even as their rough texture reminded her.
"There's more than one player in this game...more than one person who's looking for me."
Selena poured herself a drink. Vodka on the rocks with some lime. She figured she was owed after being forced to come to the hotel. Stefan and the gringo just stared at her as she walked back towards them with her drink.
"So do you have a report for me?"
Stefan stared at her as he delivered a request that was an order. She didn't care as she knew his sensitive spots. She also had her marching orders from a bigger gringo bitch with a badge and an attitude.
"Your efforts to hire those men to find your promised whore failed. No way that Houston guy will do anything to hurt his precious amor. "
Stefan frowned, looked at Clarissa and she shook her head.
"She's not his girlfriend…"
Selena raised her brows pointly.
"Shows how much a man knows….he's onto you he'll come after you and he's got enough to take you out."
"The moment he figured it out, that's the end of his life and I have the money to do that."
Selena shrugged.
"Whatever you say capo but it's your life...and your money and speaking of both, you owe me for that job I just did for you…"
He went to refill his glass at the bar.
"It'll be wired to the account of your handler…"
She glared at him then gulped down her drink.
"As you wish...Now I just go. I've got other customers to please...I'll see you soon."
Stefan and Clarissa watched as the woman put her glass down and walked out of the suite. Stefan sighed.
"She's at the point where she's more trouble than she's worth."
Clarissa nodded.
Outside the suite, Serena whipped out her latest burner phone and plugged in a familiar number. She had to do what she said she'd never do but she had no choice.
Anything for her son.