Rescue Me (25 page)

Gessler walked up to the Com Van. He said a
few things to Kathryn, nodded, and then left. Spencer saw him
disappear into another group of trees, where he knew Team One
waited for their assignment. Did Weber already tell Gessler that
Spencer was off the find? Did Team One know that Team Two had a new
team lead?

It made sense for Weber to remove Spencer
from the team. Right now, his priorities were skewed. He couldn't
think straight when he knew Kathryn may be in danger. If Weber
hadn't removed him as lead, Spencer would have. He refused to be a
liability to his brotherhood. The boys could take care of
themselves without him leading them. He'd at least remain on the
team in his plan.

But not Weber's plan. No, he kicked Spencer
out altogether. And now here he stood, debating whether Team One
knew of his sudden departure.

Only one way to find out.

He snuck around and approached Team One's
location, making sure not to be seen until he came right up on
them. When he did, the team tensed but when they saw him, they all
relaxed.

“Jesus Christ, Allen.” Gessler dropped his
pistol into its holster. “You almost got yourself shot.”

Spencer knew better. Steve Gessler was a hell
of a driver and loved his field work, but he had lousy aim. “Just
checking in.”

“Where's your radio?”

“Lost it in the chaos.”

“Schmitty, hook him up.” Gessler nodded at an
agent leaning against a giant rock.

Schmitty pulled a mic out of his kit and
tossed it to Spencer. “Key of A for us. Key of B for you.”

“Thanks.” Spencer caught the device and
slipped it on, careful to look and sound casual. He still had his
earpiece from the last search dialed into K-SAR's frequencies. Once
he had everything in place, he gave Gessler a nod and turned to
leave.

“Hold up, Allen.”

Shit.

“Yeah?” he said once Gessler caught up to
him.

“Dude, I get where your head is at. I really
do. She's more than a piece of ass to you. But seriously. Don't
throw everything away for her.”

“Weber told you.” It annoyed him that his SAC
shared this with Gessler.

“And only me. I have to tell you, you've got
some serious brass balls walking into the middle of my team like
that.” Gessler slapped him on the back. Hard. “It's no wonder we're
friends.”

Spencer didn't care much for Gessler, but
kept it to himself. “I need to be able to talk to my team.”

“From what Weber tells me, they're Snyder's
team now.”

Heated irritation gripped his insides. He'd
lost his team, his career, and now his focus. All for a woman. Was
it all worth it?

“They will always be my team, Gessler.”

“I hear that.” He stepped back and touched
his collar, his expression gone. “He's wired.”

Weber's voice came over the airwaves. His
tone had just a touch too much amusement for Spencer's taste. “It's
about time, Allen.”

He should have known these two would have
something like this planned. No wonder Weber demanded Spencer's
radio. He wanted to get something in place with Gessler before
Spencer showed. “What the hell, Weber?”

“You're slipping. I figured you'd be all over
Team One the minute you showed.”

“At the exact place you told him not to go,”
Gessler added, ever so helpful.

“Gessler,” Weber growled. “Radio silence. I
want to talk to Allen and only Allen.”

“Then don't do it over the radio, dumbass.”
Gessler switched off his radio before giving Spencer a look and
walking away.

“God
damn
that guy,” Weber grunted.

“Interesting way to refer to your best
friend.” Spencer wanted to be irritated. He wanted to feel a sense
of betrayal. Instead, he felt relief. Relief that he still had
contact with TREX. Relief that he had TREX's permission to do so.
Relief that he may not have lost everything after all.

“It's because he's my best friend that I
refer to him that way. You should hear the way he talks about
me.”

Spencer knew the way Gessler talked about
Weber. They had a very interesting relationship, those two. He
thought about Lyons and suppressed a shudder of emotion.

There was a pause and Spencer tensed.

“Let's do this in person.”

“You didn't say enough when you took my team
from me?”

“You threw it away!” Weber roared. Shit,
Spencer hoped no one else heard that. “Jesus
fucking
Christ,
Allen. I had no choice. You
made
me take your team from you.
I told you what would happen if you chose her over TREX. I. Told.
You.”

Spencer switched off his radio. Not
surprising, his phone buzzed. He let it go. It buzzed again and he
debated, but finally picked it up. “What?”

“Don't you start that shit,” Weber barked
back.

“You're no longer my SAC so I can talk to you
any goddamn way I want.”

“I got intel back on that email threat sent
to Kat.”

The breath whistled out and deflated
Spencer's lungs as well as his fight. The son of a bitch
threatening Kathryn wouldn't be able to hide from him. He'd kill
the bastard with his bare hands.

“And?”

“It's someone inside.”

“What the fuck does that mean? Inside TREX?
Inside K-SAR? What?”

“McKoy said some shit about an internal IP
address or something. I don't understand half the bullshit she
spouts. Only that the computer the email was sent from is inside
our firewall.”

“
Our
firewall? As in TREX?”

“That's what she said.”

Rage and the unknown ate at Spencer's
insides. “Are you seriously saying the threat is coming from
someone inside of TREX?”

“That's what our
intel
is saying,” he
clarified. “I had McKoy verify it.”

“Who sent it?”

“That we don't know.”

Un-
fucking
-believable. “What do we
know?”

“That it came from a computer that doesn't
even exist on our network. We were hacked.”

“This is bullshit. We're chasing our tails on
this. What good is our own fucking intel if they can't find a
threat inside our own agency?” His voice jumped an octave and he
paused to collect himself.

“Don't get yourself worked up. We'll figure
it out.”

But something deep inside told him to get
worked up. Get
very
worked up.

“I gotta tell you, Allen. I don't like this.
Everything is playing out just as it did at the Haynes search.”

Not everything.
This
find didn't start
with a call from TREX HQ.
This
find didn't involve a cover
up.

This
find didn't have a directive for
TREX to terminate the subject.

* * * *

The sun had just started to set and darkness
threatened to creep in, creating an ominous scene at base camp and
setting a mood. Dark. Uneasy. Menacing.

Kat wanted to tell TREX to pull their teams,
but two members of Gessler's team had yet to radio in, according to
him. The rest of the TREX teams had completed their assignments and
now stood by. Everything hinged on the duo and they were long
overdue.

The search took second chair to her finding
the TREX men. If they didn't radio back with their status on the
next check, she'd call on another two-man TREX team to track them.
Anytime a unit didn't respond during a status check, the entire
command team went on alert. It usually meant the unit was out of
radio range, but until she knew for sure, they were her top
priority. Even though TREX didn't officially work for her, while
she ran this search, they were every bit a part of her team as the
ones she paid to be there.

Travis barked a curse. “Where are the rest of
the fucking TREX gods? They should be here tracking their own lost
team. It's not our job.”

“We don't need a piggyback search. We run the
search from here.”

“Then give the command.”

She chewed on her thumbnail. “No, Travis. We
run this my way.”

Travis started to pace. “We need more hasty
searchers. Containment. We need to find this guy. We need to find
him now! The TREX team is just out of radio range. Shit!”

“Calm down, Travis. We don't know that.”

“I can't just sit around here and wait. I'm
going to run up a couple of the roads and see if I see
anything.”

Kat stared at him, completely baffled. The
command team didn't leave base. Period. “Why?”

“Because you're wasting time searching for a
goddamn team out of radio range, that's why.”

“If you have issues with the way I'm running
the search, there's the door.” She crossed her arms in front of
her, warm anger creeping up her neck and steadying her glare on
him.

His expression fell slack as he stared at
her, the hurt swirling in his eyes. “Are you firing me?”

God, she really hated when he looked at her
like that, like a kitten that just had his favorite toy taken away.
As with every other time he'd given her that expression, she caved.
“I need us on the same page, okay?”

He nodded and dropped his gaze as he walked
out of the Com Van.

Kat went back to her papers and chewed the
end off another pen. Where the hell was that TREX team? Were they
okay? A knock on the Com Van door brought her attention out of her
notes. When the door opened, she practically sprang out of the
bench seat at the table to greet Spencer as he smiled at her. She
hurried out of the Com Van, stopping just short of throwing her
arms around him and planting a sound kiss on his full lips. They
were, after all, working.

“Kathryn? Are you all right?” His velvety
voice, so full of concern, caused her chest to swell.

Oh, to hell with it. She threw her arms
around him and kissed him, grateful to see him. She squeezed him
tight and didn't want to ever let go. “What are you doing here?
Weber said you were on a find.”

“It's over.” He had a slight tease in his
tone, but something else had his gaze darkening. Worry? No, she'd
seen him worried. This was something more. If she didn't know
better, she'd say it looked like fear, which had her on edge.
Nothing scared the surly TREX agent. Knowing that something did had
her terrified.

“Are you okay?”

He gave her a curt nod. “I'm fine. How about
you?”

“I'm good. But there's a TREX team still out
there. They've failed to respond to status checks.”

Spencer cussed and paused as he stared off
into the trees. “Are they just out of radio range?”

“I certainly hope so.”

“But...”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek to try
and hide her concern, but he picked up on it immediately. “What is
it?”

Kat finally admitted aloud what she'd feared
all along. “Their last known location is only a few miles up the
road. That's well within radio range, Spence.”

He stiffened as he studied the hills around
them. “Have you sent anyone up there to check it out?”

“Travis went up there.”

“Travis? The command team runs the search,
not participates in it.”

“I know,” she replied and rubbed at her eyes.
Her weariness started to show and she knew it.

Gessler popped up between them. “Allen,
buddy! What are you doing here? I thought our SAC's orders were
pretty clear.”

He threw Gessler a look and a million things
passed between them that Kat couldn't even begin to read. Spencer
nodded once. Gessler shook his head in return.

“It's your ass,” Gessler finally stated.

“Yes, it is. You can go now.”

Gessler brought an arm out and pulled Kat to
him, squeezing her soundly. “I guess our time is over, baby. But
don't worry. Spence has all the time in the world to take good care
of you.” He turned to Spencer. “Right, Spence?”

“Right.” Spencer rested his gaze on Kat and
the assurance in that obstinate glare slammed into her. “And now
that I'm here, I order you to stay at the Com Van. If there's any
trouble out there, it's my job to deal with it, not yours.”

Her admiration melted, replaced by
irritation. His arrogance not only annoyed her, it pissed her off.
“You can't pull rank on me. I'm not TREX and you aren't running
this search.”

The look he offered as his answer shut her
up. Again, another one of his glares she knew better than to
ignore.

To hell with that. The
old
Kat would
have obeyed that hard, not up for discussion, take it or leave it
look.

The
new
Kat would not.

“If I want to go out there, you'll have to do
more than attempt to pull rank and order me to stay. As you know, I
don't follow orders very well.”

Spencer stepped toward her, their lips only
inches from touching. She smelled the desire on his breath as it
tickled her face. The air between them charged, transforming the
tension to sexual energy, thickening it like the air before a big
storm.

“I could always restrain you.”

That could make things interesting. “You
wouldn't dare.”

That look in his eyes said he would.

“Are you a gambling woman, Kathryn Davis?
Because I'm willing to place a large wager that I would.”

“Awesome,” Gessler laughed. “I had no idea
I'd be getting a show. Go ahead. Tie her up.” He wiggled his
brow.

Spencer glared at him. “Are you still
here?”

“We all have our orders.”

“And were yours to piss me off?”

“Fine. Give me a call if you need any help
restraining her. We could tag team.” Gessler hurried off when
Spencer stepped toward him. He got a safe distance from Spencer and
turned back. “Hey, Allen? I want my radio back when you're
done.”

Spencer gave him a single nod. Gessler turned
and jogged away, disappearing into a cluster of trees.

“There's something I need to tell you,” he
whispered in a grave voice. His eyes clouded with some sort of
expression Kat had never seen before. It forced the worry she had
coiling inside her to the surface. “It's important.”