Page 2 of Shadow Games

Wyatt went still. “Rowan?”

“Yes. You know her, I believe.”

Fuck. Yes, he knew her.

Wyatt paced through the clearing, but he could see Rowan clear as day in his mind’s eye. Rich auburn hair and a lean face. Bright green eyes that seemed to probe into his soul. She’d been a burst of color in his drab green world, an anomaly he didn’t know how to deal with. And he’d been unable to help her. She’d been as much of a victim as he had.

What the hell had she gotten herself into? Actually, what had Blade left her to deal with, might be the better question.

“What happened?”

“We’re not sure, exactly,” the woman said. “We think she was turning something in two days ago, but we don’t know what. She was talking to a local attorney, and she disappeared from the courthouse. We have a CCTV shot of two men chasing her down an alley behind the courthouse, then nothing.”

Fuck. This was bad. “What do you know about him?”

“Blade was dirty. We knew that. He’s been under surveillance for eighteen months, but he took leave three weeks ago and kind of dropped off the grid. We know he has contacts with the cartels, as well as the Navy, so we expected it to happen at some point, but he was in the middle of a pretty big deal. Not sure what happened exactly or who he pissed off, but they were done fooling with him. Found him last week in a dumpster outside a bar in Laredo, Texas.”

“Sounds like the cartel. And where was Rowan taken from?”

“She was in Ohio. Got a job up there after she split from Blade. She was trying to get him to sign divorce papers, but he was dragging his feet for some reason. She still has family up there, a father, but he hasn’t seen her for a few days, he says.”

This was bad. “So why are you coming to me with this? I have no skin in the game.”

“We know about Qala-e-Naw,” she said simply.

Wyatt’s jaw clenched. “I very much doubt it.”

After two years, the impact should have been diminished, but it wasn’t. When he heard the name of the small town in Afghanistan, his gut clenched and he wanted to throw up. Scenes flickered through his mind as if they’d happened yesterday. His heartbeat picked up with panic, and he had to open his mouth to breathe. He heard a whine from the bushes, and he knew Echo wanted to come to him, but he made a hand motion, keeping her still. She needed to watch Mitch.

“What is it you think you know about Qala-e-Naw?” he asked, voice tight with so much emotion he knew she had to hear it.

“I know your dog was killed and you were blamed for killing part of your team.”

He felt the stab through his heart like it had happened yesterday. She continued.

“I know that Blade pinned the failed rescue attempt on you, and I think I know why you went along with it, but I’m not positive. Six SEALs died that day, including your dog, yet you took the blame for it. Blade claimed you were the dirty one, yet you had no record other than as an exemplary operator. You didn’t defend yourself at trial, you just sat through the proceeding and let them wash you out, charged with misconduct and dereliction of duty. Why is that, Whisper?”

Wyatt blinked at the call sign, something he hadn’t heard in years. He’d given up on hearing it again in his life.

If Blade was dead, what did it matter if he told her? Then the pieces rearranged themselves. “I think you know why I didn’t fight the inquest, don’t you? It’s why you came to me.”

The woman sighed on the other end of the line. “Yes, I do. He held the safety of his wife over you, didn’t he? A woman that you… had a relationship with.”

“A strictly platonic relationship with,” he said clearly.

Rowan had been his friend, in the truest sense of the word. And he would have happily died to keep her safe.

In his mind’s eye, he could see Blade’s sneer as the smoke swirled about him. “Why the fuck do you think I knocked her up? To get her to marry me. That way you had no more hold on her. You’re such a pussy, Whisper, letting a woman get to you like that. And she’s going to be your downfall. You’re taking the heat for this,” he jerked his hand at the carnage surrounding them. “Or she dies, in some tragic accident. Like your fucking dog. Do you get me?”

Wyatt could remember nodding, his cool shattered as he looked down at the body of his partner. The vest hadn’t saved him from the headshot Blade, a fellow teammate and supposedly safe, had inflicted. Four years of training and companionship gone in an instant. Blade had hated Switch, though, because the dog had barely tolerated him. The dog had known that Blade was dirty. Wyatt had picked up on the cues, but he hadn’t imagined how dirty.

“Yes, he did,” Wyatt answered, coming back to the now. “She was there for me at a very dark time in my life, and we… liked each other. He hated that. And he knew that I would do anything to keep her safe.”

“She told us that.”

Wyatt blinked. “What?”

“She gave a deposition six months ago that she thought her soon to be ex-husband was dirty. They were in the middle of a separation, and he’d been stalking her. When he was killed last week, everything went to her. She went through the house to get ready to sell and began finding things. Called DEA to come clean out her house because she found 200 pounds of opium in their garage.”

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