Page 18 of Hazard

She was confrontational, complicated, but in his experience, there was always a reason why people acted the way they acted. Leigh was no different. She affected not only his libido, but a soft side of him that had only been reserved for his mom, or victims he’d encountered over his tenure as a SEAL. He mostly sought out sedate women who enjoyed his company. But from the moment he’d met the sassy blonde, she’d strained even his formidable patience, which contrasted sharply with his normal modus operandi: keep cool, calm, and collected.

Leigh shot that all to hell as was evidenced upstairs in their now-shared room.

He sighed heavily as he looked over at Leigh, then did a double take. She looked worse than she had when she’d been standing in the embassy lobby. He hoped this meeting wasn’t going to last too long. The woman definitely needed sleep.

He understood one aspect of workaholism, but that was because his mother had to work long hours to support them after the death of his father. This did several things to him when he was young. He had to suppress his emotions about how much he needed his mom, aware that she was doing the best that she could, and not adding to her burden by demanding more than she was able to give came naturally to him. He thought about it rationally, or intuitively, maybe. Until his stepfather came into the picture, Hazard was the only person in her life that mattered to her. He knew that without reservation, but that didn’t make it any easier.

He couldn’t seem to turn off his thoughts with Leigh, or his brothers.

Why she was a workaholic wasn’t something he understood yet, but he would.

And he needed a run and a whole session of weightlifting to process everything that had happened between them. But, for now, he had to focus on what was going on in this meeting. It was important to call it, or Ice would have waited until tomorrow.

When they reached the door, everyone was already assembled. He met Skull’s dark eyes, his brows lifting. Hazard gave him a tell-you-later look.

He could see Skull was in a sour mood. He nudged his chin, and Hazard noted that their two Shadowguard nemeses were in attendance.

He nodded. “Nice of you to join us, Mr. Booth. Counselor.” His tone was tolerant, but reserved, especially because their CO, Terry “Patch” Patchett, was in the room.

Hazard nodded to his CO with the respect he was due. Commander Patchett had just taken command of the Special Warfare Unit before their deployment, but he and Iceman meshed well. The commander had obviously been briefed on the team’s takedown of No Safe Haven, a monumental feat. His respect for Iceman’s leadership was evident in the leeway he gave their fierce leader.

He held out a chair for Leigh to sit and she took it. He settled in next to her.

“Now that we’re all here,” Patch said, “let’s get the introductions out of the way. I’m Lieutenant Commander Terry Patchett, and I’ve been with the teams for six years, two with DEVGRU. Most people call me Patch.” He turned to Anna. “This is Officer Anna Graham, our CIA liaison and the one who formulates our target packages. We also have as a valuable and knowledgeable consultant not only in this region, but in the drug trade, Jose Molina and a guest from Harvard University, Dr. Nickolas Tremont. His specialty is network and complexity analysis.”He turned to the last person in the room. “This is DEA Agent Angelina Torres. She has a close working relationship with the Colombian National Police and the Colombian National Prosecutor's Office. The DEA can only gather information and collect evidence to be used in US courts or provide assistance with information that leads to drug seizures. They are a resource for the CNP and will continue to carry out that function. Agent Torres will liaise with the CNP in any direct actions we have planned, so that brings us to the reason for this briefing. The interrogation from our money man, Enzo Russo, netted us a target.”

“That’s the news we’ve been waiting for,” Preacher said. “But can we trust this guy?”

Iceman shrugged his shoulders. “As much as we can trust someone who cracked for a more lenient sentence from the Italians. He was looking at quite a bit of hard time from them. They’re doubling down on drug trafficking in a big way.”

“We helped him along,” Anna said. “After deep diving into his business, we discovered that he was sending a lot of money to a small town. We called him on it, squeezed him for hours, and he finally broke down.” She glanced at the two Shadowguard, and Hazard was sure that those two women had put some pressure to bear. Neither one of them batted an eyelash.

“Where?” Kodiak asked, “’cause I’m getting the feeling we’re not going to be happy.”

“San Andres,” Iceman said.

Hazard’s gut clenched, and a soft groan and one distinct, “Hell, no,” came from the guys. He understood exactly why.

“The fucking Darien Gap is a stone’s throw from that town,” Boomer said. Nothing but uninhabited jungle past that place.”

“That’s correct, but we’re not entering the gap. The target is an airstrip next to a production facility for cocaine. Our target says that there are upper-level Alzate management people and intel ripe for the picking.”

“What can we expect by way of the CNP, Torres?”

She straightened. “They will back you up with an eight-man team. It’s already been set. You’ll fly from Bogotá to our mobile TOC, then the team and the CNP will head to the target on foot.”

“To me, it’s a credible target,” Jose said. “Mr. Russo knows the consequences. Giving up any intel puts him in a very bad place with the cartel. They’ll be out for his blood, and they won’t let anything stand in their way. You don’t have much time to hit this place before they pull up stakes and vanish again.”

“Jock up,” Iceman said. “You’ve got thirty minutes. We go in when it’s dark.”

Leigh stood up and Hazard wanted to groan. She had that attorney look on her face, and it was clear she wasn’t happy.

“What the hell is going on here? I should have been informed of this…mission. I understand that the military takes precedence over legal matters when there are suspects and information to gather, but I am the attorney general’s eyes, ears, and authority here.”

“There was no time, Leigh, to brief you before all this went down,” Anna said. “We’ve only come from the interrogation, and we had to act fast.”

Leigh didn’t look mollified.

Hazard pushed back his chair. He was going to need to find a Marine to handle Leigh while he was gone. But before he could take two steps, she piped up.

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