Sacrifice Love: Saints Protection & Investigations (36 page)

The three men eyed the others before jogging down the road in the opposite direction. Roscoe saw them leave and marched over to Jack. Glancing into the fully equipped van, he halted for a moment before turning on the Saints.

“You cannot interfere with my operation,” he barked. “Chad’s a civilian now and not part of this.”

“Got a private citizen going after his woman. Don’t see that you’re gonna stop him,” Jack growled back.

Roscoe’s tirade was interrupted when the call came through that a van and an SUV had left the house. He turned and continued barking orders to his men. As the two vehicles came into sight, they were rushed by the combined task force agents. The two vehicles were surrounded with guns pointing directly to them.

Jude, Bart, and Cam took the opportunity to follow Chad’s group that had now circled to the back of the house, to provide support and continued intel.

Jack and Monty headed over to the halted convoy, watching as the men were hauled out. Mohammad’s face was stone as one of the men in the van held a weapon against his head. That man yelled to Roscoe, “I’ve got his phone! He can’t call in the detonation, but the hostage is inside.”

The agents rushed to secure Mohammad, Abdul, Habib, and the two others with them. Fazan stepped outside, chest heaving as he looked at Roscoe. “I tried to get her out, but couldn’t. She’s taped to a chair in the front room. TATP is taped to her lap. There are no outside trips. Nothing in the house but her.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jack relayed the intel to Chad and the other Saints.

Mohammad glared at Fazan, saying, “You whoreson traitor. You’re worse than the ones we fight. You were one of us.”

Fazan walked up to the man, now in handcuffs. “I was never one of you.” Turning, he walked away.

Jack and Monty, done with the events outside the house, ran to the van, pulling themselves in. Driving around the barricade while the agents were busy with their arrests and processing, they stopped three houses away from where the other Saints were approaching.

Chad, armed with the information from Fazan, approached the house. Carefully stepping onto the front porch, he peered into the window, his heart stopping at the sight. Dani was not just taped, but almost mummified to a chair with duct tape. A lump was in her lap, taped to her as well.

“Dani!” he yelled, “Don’t move. Stay very still. I’m coming in the front door.”

Dani’s teary eyes jumped to the window, stunned to see Chad standing so close. Still processing his appearance, she heard the front door lock jiggling. The doorknob turned and she saw Marc swinging the door open gently.

Suddenly, Chad was in front of her. His large body, bulked with the Kevlar vest, filled the doorframe. Her gazed jumped to the window where she saw ATF agents in full ABS gear in the yard.

“Why aren’t you suited? Why are you here?” she whispered as he approached her. “Please don’t sacrifice yourself for me.”

Squatting in front of her, his eyes captured hers. “Nowhere else I’d rather be than with you…in this world…or another.” He watched as her chin quivered, a silent tear sliding down her cheek. “But don’t worry, babe. We’ll be together in this world for a long time.”

Luke, busy in the van, spoke to the other Saints. “He’s gonna need oil…something like WD-40.” Cam ran to the neighbor’s abandoned house and broke into their garage. Coming out, he brought two bottles of oil, hustling them over to Marc, who met him at the bottom of the porch steps.

“Babe, I want you to keep your eyes on me,” Chad ordered gently. “I’m going to cut away the tape from your body as best as I can. Then I’ll work on the package taped to you. Do you know what it is exactly?”

“I’m sure it’s TATP,” she whispered. “They left, but one of them was—”

“We know. The task force captured them and it was Fazan who was on the inside as undercover.”

“Ethan Petit brought me here—”

“They’re picking him up too, babe. Now shush and let me work.”

Dani sucked in her lips, continuing to still their quivering. Her eyes roved over the man squatting in front of her. His dark hair, mussed from his hands moving through it. His face, masculine and youthful, now a study in concentration. Focusing on him, she remembered the first time she saw him when he and Adam walked over. The first time she knew she had fallen for him. Burying the old hurt of his leaving and the many mistakes she made after that, she forced her thoughts back to when he showed up at Adam’s funeral…holding her hand during the service.
My hand in his always felt like…home.

Chad focused all his attention on the careful slicing of his knife through the tape. First around her ankles, then pants.
Thank God she’s wearing pants or the tape would be attached to her bare legs.
He left her thighs for the moment, not wanting to jostle the package in her lap. He moved to the back of the chair, swiping the back of his hand over the sweat dropping off his brow. Slicing the tape at the back of the chair, she was now free of the seat, although he ordered her to stay as still as if she were still taped to it.

Squatting in front of her again, he held her gaze. “You know I need to get oil onto the TATP to stabilize it as much as possible. As soon as I can do that, I’m getting you out of here and the ATF can take care of the house. Got that?”

A barely perceptible nod was his answer.

“Okay, tell me how they taped the explosive.”

Forcing her mind back to her former agent days, Dani meticulously divulged the steps. “They taped me first then taped the TATP to my lap. It’s in a plastic bag, laid on my taped lap with tape put over it.”

“Good, good. That’s the first break we’ve got. That means that if I can get the tape off of you, then the package comes off with it. The trick will be to move slowly.”

He stood and moved to the door where Marc handed him the oil. Looking at the road full of emergency vehicles he cast his eyes to the ATF agent in full ABS gear.

The agent walked to the porch, standing at the bottom of the steps. He called to Marc, saying, “Let me take your place, man. I can be of more help to Chad right now.”

Marc looked at Chad, accepting his nod, and moved down the steps carefully as the ATF agent walked up. “I’d suggest you let me take over, but I’ve got the feeling you’d tell me to go to hell,” the agent said, trying to lighten the tension.

“You’d be right,” Chad agreed.

“I’ve got part of a uniform you can use and something for her head.” The agent handed the headgear to Chad, who slipped it on, providing protection to his face. He watched as the agent moved behind Dani, placing the headgear on her as well. He then looked to Chad for more instructions. “What do you need me to do?”

“I’m going to work to cut the tape off her midsection. Put the oil in a bucket and, when I release it, I’m putting the whole package into the oil and we’re getting the hell out of here.”

The agent left and returned a minute later with a container full of oil, placed close to Chad’s kneeling body. “I’ll set it here for you and when you’re done, we’ll take care of it while you get her to safety.”

The next ten minutes crawled as Chad methodically sliced the tape from her midsection. Looking down, Dani said, “Chad, cut my pants and blouse. Just take them away so that you don’t have to pull the tape back.”

Nodding, he knew it was a good plan, but felt his hand shake slightly as his knife passed through the cloth. This made the work quicker and within a few more minutes, he had the taped package, with the material clinging to the back, in his hands.

Looking into her eyes, he whispered, “Don’t move. Stay with me.”

A tear slid down her cheek as she fought to hold it back. Yearning to reach out to touch his face, she simply nodded. “Always.”

D
ani watched as
he stood, ever so carefully, and placed the package into the container full of oil. The agent then walked steadily to the door where he was met by another agent. They took the container out to their explosive storage container.

As soon as the agent passed through the door, Chad scooped Dani in his arms and, shielding her from prying eyes, moved to a protected area of the yard. Monty had already set up a safety perimeter for them, keeping the media in the background.

Tossing his helmet to the ground, Chad carried Dani to the Saint’s van, where Blaise was waiting with a blanket. Her arms wound tightly around his neck and his arms, shaking, refused to let her go.

“Come on, brother, at least sit down with her so I can check her out,” Blaise ordered gently.

“Her clothes were cut away. Get another blanket.”

Sucking in a deep breath, Chad watched as the other Saints formed a protective circle around them, keeping any prying eyes away. Marc grabbed a blanket from his SUV and jogged over to wrap it around her.

“I’m fine,” she protested as Blaise shown a light in her eyes. “I’m not hurt.”

Blaise looked her over, but with some of the tape still attached to her body, it was difficult to ascertain any injuries. “We’ve got to get this tape off. Do we still have some WD-40?”

Bart ran to his vehicle and came back with an aerosol can of the spray lubricant. Blaise looked at Dani and explained, “I’m so sorry, honey, but this is going to hurt no matter what I do. I’m going to let Chad keep holding you while Marc sprays it around the ends. As we lift up the end of the tape, we’ll keep spraying.”

She smiled weakly. “I think if Chad was willing to sacrifice himself to save me…I can sacrifice a little skin.”

Chuckling, they arranged themselves and began working on the tape on her arms. The process took over thirty minutes, during which she clung to Chad’s arms as he held her tightly, offering his strength to her.

Roscoe made his way over to the van, his progress halted by the semi-circle of Saints. He stood toe to toe with Jack, his jaw set. Finally, giving in, he looked around at the group, saying, “You did good. You don’t follow orders for shit, but you did good.”

“Not our job to follow your orders,” Jack clipped, his taciturn voice hard.

With a sharp nod, Roscoe turned and walked away. In his place, Mitch came over. Nodding to Jack and Monty, he said, “She okay?”

“She will be,” came the answer.

Nodding, Mitch dropped his head, staring at his feet for a moment. Finally, lifting his gaze back to the Saints, his eyes settled on Jack’s. “I’m sorry. Really, fuckin’ sorry.”

“Wasn’t your fault, man. Don’t take that on.”

“A fuckin’ task force working out of D.C. and they don’t bother to tell me when a cell is sitting in my back yard. I fuckin’ understand need-to-know, but I promise you, heads will roll over this one.”

Jack clapped his hand on the agent’s shoulder and said, “You do what you’ve got to do, but this was not your fault.” He waited a moment, letting the words sink in, and then smiled as Mitch stared back. “It’s been great having a friend at the FBI as we work together, but if you ever get tired of the bureaucratic bullshit, you know you’ll have a place with the Saints.”

Chuckling, Mitch nodded, seeing acceptance in the eyes of the others around. Looking over Jack’s shoulder into the van, he smiled at Chad and Dani. “You know you’ll have to be interviewed, but that can wait until tomorrow.” With a slight wave, he headed back to his team.

The tape finally off her arms and legs, Blaise added cream to her skin, telling Chad to have her keep out of the shower for at least a day to give the ointment a chance to work on her abraded limbs.

Jack gave the nod to his men, and said, “You did good. Everyone. We need to debrief tomorrow. I suggest we meet at Chad’s place to make things easier on Dani.” Getting the nods from all around, they moved to their vehicles.

Luke, from the driver’s seat, said, “I’ll take you two home.”

As the van moved away from the house at the end of the cul-de-sac, now swarming with ATF and FBI agents, Chad tucked the blanket tighter around Dani.

She reached one arm out, sliding her hand through his hair and down to cup his jaw. Holding his gaze, their eyes remained locked on each other.

“You’re safe, babe.” He moved his hand down to her protruding stomach, saying, “You and our baby girl.” His thumb captured the tears flowing down her cheeks, before leaning forward to kiss them away. Moving his mouth over hers, he sealed his vows with his lips.

*

The next day,
the Saints met for their initial debriefing at the compound before heading to Chad’s house. Mitch was present, Jack having taken him into their conference room.

“So Jahfar and Fazan were working undercover for the ATF,” Mitch said, still shaking his head at being kept out of the loop.

“I get that it took Fazan two years to be placed with Muhammed’s group,” Chad said, “but what about Jahfar? Was he at MES because of Dani?”

“According to what I finally got out of Roscoe, it was pure coincidence that Jahfar and Dani were hired by the same company and about the same time.”

Doubtful expressions appeared on every Saint’s face at the same time. “No fucking way,” Chad cursed.

“I know, I know,” Mitch agreed, “but according to Roscoe, Fazan had discovered that Ethan Petit at MES was in contact with Muhammed. So the ATF planted Jahfar at MES to see what he could discover. It appears that even Roscoe and Jahfar were surprised to learn that Adam’s widow was there also.”