Sacrifice Love: Saints Protection & Investigations (30 page)

Dani’s eyebrows raised as her heart leapt and her green eyes sparkled with glee. Before she had a chance to speak, a knock on the door interrupted.

“Babe, is this okay?” Chad asked, his hands on her shoulders. Peering into her eyes, he vowed, “If not, just say the word and I’ll have everyone leave.”

“No, no, this is perfect!” she effused. “I can’t believe you got the crib I wanted!” Standing on her tiptoes, she gave him a quick kiss before turning to rush to the front door. Opening it, she grinned as she welcomed their friends inside.

By lunchtime, Bart, Jack, Jude, and Monty had easily moved the excess furniture out of the room across from the master bedroom, while Cam and Chad tackled assembling the new crib.

Faith, Bethany, and Angel had scrubbed the room clean while Sabrina sat with Dani, poring over paint color swatches. Miriam prepared sandwiches in the kitchen and the group moved to Chad’s back patio to enjoy lunch. The sun was high in the sky, but with the mature trees in his yard, the group was lounging comfortably in the shade.

That evening, while Chad checked the doors, Dani stepped inside the room, now designated as the nursery. With her hand on her stomach, she looked around. The spotless space held the beautiful crib and matching dresser as well as her beloved rocking chair. She and Sabrina had chosen the colors for the nursery and as a baby gift, Sabrina was having someone from her interior design company come to paint and decorate, as well as reupholster the chair.

Lost in pleasant thoughts, she jumped as Chad’s arms encircled her. “Is the room beginning to look the way you envisioned?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” she assured. “The crib must have been difficult to assemble.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well,” she began, leaning her head back against his chest. “I seem to remember hearing some cussing coming from this room earlier when you and Cam were in here.”

Chuckling, he agreed. “Yeah. I thought Cam would be an expert, since he’d already had to take care of their nursery. But damn, that thing,” he said, nodding toward the beautiful crib, “had more parts, nuts and bolts. And I swear, it had fifteen pages of instructions, written in six different languages!”

Laughing, the couple stood for a few more minutes soaking in the realization that this room would be holding a baby. Finally, nuzzling her neck, he murmured against her warm skin, “Happy, Dani?”

Turning in his arms, she reached up to cup his jaw. “With you…and this baby…I have everything I could ever want.”

Leaning down, he captured her lips in a warm kiss, full of promise. “Let’s go to bed,” he said, picking her up and carrying her across the hall. Worshiping her body, he showed her that he felt the same.
This woman and this baby are all I need.

L
ooking at the
sleeping woman in his bed, Chad smiled as the sun peeked through the blinds illuminating the brilliant red highlights in her auburn hair. She appeared to still be deep in sleep, so he slipped out from beneath the warm covers. Pulling on his jeans, he walked to the kitchen to fix a cup of coffee. Walking to his deck, he felt his phone vibrate.

“Yeah, boss?”

“Sorry to call so early…and to fuck up your Saturday,” Jack apologized. “We’ve heard from Mitch and need to have you bring in Dani this morning to go over some things.”

“She’s still sleeping right now. When do you need us in?”

“I haven’t called anyone else yet, so why don’t we make it eleven.”

“Perfect, thanks.” Disconnecting, he sipped his hot coffee. He thought of the events of yesterday with the men following Dani. Sighing deeply, he pulled in the fresh morning air into his lungs, slowly letting it out.
We’ve got to get this case figured out…and soon. I want this done so she can peacefully enjoy this pregnancy. And I want the baby safe.
Protective emotion for the baby rushed through him, causing him to grab the deck rail for support.
Adam, I don’t know what the fuck you were up to, but Dani and the baby are now mine to care for and I’ll be damned before letting anything happen to either of them!

“Hey, sweetie,” came the gentle voice from behind as small arms encircled his waist. “You were so deep in thought, you didn’t even hear me come out.”

Dropping his chin to his chest, he felt her warmth hit his back as she laid her cheek against him. Squeezing her hands on his stomach, he turned and wrapped his arms around her as well, resting his chin now upon her head.

“You sleep good?” he asked.

“Mmmmmm,” was her reply.

Chuckling, he lifted her chin with his fingers so that he could look directly into her face. Seeing clear eyes smiling at him, he leaned down to settle a gentle kiss on her lips.

She looked up, the dreamy expression morphing into a questioning one. “You look like a man who’s talked to his boss this morning. What’s up?”

Laughing, he said, “It’s going to be hard to keep you from finding out about the cases I’m working on, isn’t it?”

“Hey, I was an investigator. Granted, I spent most of my time investigating the explosive devices, but I had enough field time to be able to read people.”

Kissing her forehead, he nodded. “Okay, here’s the deal. Jack wants us to meet at about eleven with the others. Seems our FBI contact has some information for us and you’ll need to be in on some of it.”

“What time is it now?”

“A little after nine. We slept late, but then, after last night’s activities, I’m not surprised.”

Grinning, she said, “Well, I’ve got to shower, but how about I fix a super-duper breakfast for you?”

“Super-duper?” he teased.

“Yeah, and if you liked my world-famous potato salad, you’ll love my super-duper breakfast!”

“Then, by all means, dazzle me, baby!”

Arm in arm, the two walked into the house, enjoying the moment of levity before having to face whatever was coming.

*

Dani sat at
the table in Jack’s dining room, surrounded by the other Saints. Her heart pounded but she willed it under control. Watching the screen on the tablet given to her, she saw as Mitch Evans appeared and was introduced.

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Turner—”

“Dani, please.”

“Alright, Dani, and you may call me Mitch. Okay, here’s what we know so far about yesterday. I want to congratulate you on your quick thinking, by the way, but you were a trained agent, so I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that you did a great job. It’ll be no surprise that the license plate was fake – the number did not register to anyone and the DMV does not have that number in their system. The dark-tinted windows made it impossible to see who was driving, even when we followed it in the traffic light camera system. By the time the police were following, they had gotten the car out of the city and out of our camera range.”

“Why the fuck didn’t the police follow immediately? I called that shit in as soon as I tagged its partial number and description,” groused Jude.

Mitch, his lips tight with irritation, said, “I was pissed about that also. Found out there was a new dispatcher on the job and they did not understand your relationship with the police…nor recognize my authority as an FBI agent. I assure you that won’t be happening again.”

Rubbing his hand over his face, the fatigue showing, Mitch continued, “The good news is that we got a match on the man who stupidly stepped out of the vehicle. The bad news is…their identity.”

This gained the attention of the group, including Dani, who felt her heart pounding wildly again. Chad, recognizing her change in breathing, linked his fingers with hers, giving her a reassuring squeeze while working to tamp down his own rage.

“The man identified was Abdul Nagi, the right-hand man of Muhammad Hakim. Right now, he appears to be the leader of what we consider to be the biggest ISIS cell in Virginia.”

“Can’t you just arrest him?” blurted Dani, indignant that this Muhammad was known yet he wasn’t taken out of commission.

“Sorry, Dani, but right now, we have no proof. He’s a person of interest and we’re on it, I promise. He’s being watched by a joint task force of ATF, CIA, Homeland Security, and FBI. I have contact with them, but I’m not on that task force, so my information is somewhat limited. But I will say, they have been informed of the events of yesterday.”

Dani noticed her irritation was mirrored on the other Saints’ faces, but had to admit that even when she was with the ATF, not every agent knew everything that was going on. Most of the time, the agencies worked on a need-to-know basis…and sometimes the left hand definitely did not know what the right hand was doing.

“Why do I have the feeling there is more bad news?” Monty asked. As Mitch’s friend, he could tell when the agent was not happy about something even when his face appeared professionally impassive.

All eyes jumped back to the screen, their attention once more riveted to Mitch’s face.

Nodding slowly, Mitch added, “Yeah, there’s more.” He pointed to a board behind him, and said, “Here are some of the ones we’re keeping an eye on. Muhammad is at the top, with Abdul. Also in their leadership group is Habib El-Amin and Fazan Darzi. They usually use burner phones and we can’t get a line of who they talk to, but occasionally someone screws up. We have one phone contact that links Fazan Darzi with Jahfar Khouri, who happens to work at Marsden Energy Systems and you—”

“Oh my God!” Dani burst out, sitting up straight, her expression openly distressed. She did not feel the squeeze of Chad’s arm until he repeated the action. Jerking her head toward Chad, she explained, “I work with him. Closely with him. Oh, Jesus,” she leaned back, “I thought something was off there but wondered if I was being biased. I even talked to Ethan about him.” The words came rushing out; the dam broke as she no longer held back.

“Okay, Dani,” Mitch began, “let’s go back over this. Marsden is a huge company and I had no idea you might work with this guy. Start at the beginning and talk me through what you know.”

Blowing out a deep breath to clear her mind, Dani placed her hand on Chad’s thigh, grateful when he clutched it in his own. “I don’t know much, but he mentioned the other day that we were hired about the same time, so he’s only been there a few months. He works in the military sales division, as do I. My work is more about ordinance safety and his is in the actual sales department. His office is across the hall and about two doors down. He’s punctual, efficient, mannerly, asks appropriate questions in meetings…I…uh…”

“Dani, that’s good,” Monty said, knowing he was saying what Mitch was thinking, having been a former FBI agent himself. “What can you tell us that we won’t find on a dossier?”

Sucking her lips in, Dani was suddenly self-conscious. “I…maybe I’m just…I…” she looked around the table at the other Saints before her eyes landed on Chad.

He leaned over, touching his lips to her forehead. Murmuring on her skin, he said, “Just talk from your heart, babe. Anything you’ve thought.”

“I don’t want to be wrong,” she said, her voice agonizing. “I mean, he gives me the creeps, but that doesn’t make him a terrorist. I don’t want to be ethnically profiling in a way that could ruin someone’s life.”

“Okay, Dani, I’m getting that this is uncomfortable for you personally. Here’s what I want you to understand. He’s already a subject of interest because of the contact he had with Fazan. You’re not putting him on our profile list…you’re providing background information. That’s all. I promise.”

Nodding her understanding, she said, “Now, this all may seem silly, but he’s given me reason to be suspicious. He seems to be outside my office door at times when I’m speaking with others. They’ll walk out and say, ‘Oh hi, Jahfar’, which lets me know he must have been lurking right there. Or I’ll hang up the phone and as soon as I do, he’ll walk in as though he’s been out in the hall listening. Maybe he’s just being polite and waiting his turn, but it makes me feel weird to think that someone…anyone…is right outside my office door listening.”

“Good, this is good,” Mitch encouraged. “Keep going.”

“He left a meeting earlier than I did one day and I thought I saw him coming out of my office when I went back, but I couldn’t be sure. Then as I opened my file drawer to get my purse for lunch, my purse had been rifled through.”

Chad squeezed her arm, wanting to be supportive…and wanting to find this guy and confront him immediately.
To hell with him being a possible FBI suspect…he’s fucking with the wrong girl if he thinks Dani is going to be a target.

“Honey?”

Dani’s voice broke through Chad’s thoughts. “Yeah, babe?”

“You’re squeezing too tight,” she said, with a small smile.

Loosening his grip instantly, he said, “Oh, shit, babe. Sorry.”

“Is that it?” Mitch asked.

Thinking for a moment, Dani said, “No. A couple of weeks ago, we had a new person promoted to Head of Production Security. He beat out a couple of others who wanted the position.” Her mind roamed to Aaron for a moment, but dismissed him as she had seen no professional jealousy from him at all. “Ethan Petit is his name. He’s good. Been there for a while, easy to work with. In fact, I’ve shared a few of my concerns about Jahfar with Ethan. Anyway, after Ethan was promoted, Jahfar gave me a warning.”