Page 28 of Renegade

I eyed Thayne and Jarrett. They were Federal officers. I knew they all held top secret security clearances due to their jobs with the ATF. I also knew Jarrett had been a Marine Corps sniper, most likely assigned to the same region where I’d spent too much time. We might have even crossed paths at some point. I didn’t know what help they might be in this situation, but anything they could contribute to our current situation might help.

“Yeah, sure, of course.”

“We’ll meet you three back at the office,” a small, blonde woman called out. We all turned to look at the group standing about fifteen feet away. The woman had exited the elevator with the rest of them, including the man with black hair and twinkling eyes who was watching Mac like he wanted to eat him.

“Yeah, Sarah. We’ll see you there,” Thayne said, waving at her.

She smiled back and walked out of the building with the others who headed toward their cars. We followed, heading to the parking lot, and waiting until everyone was out of earshot before I turned to Mac.

“So, you know I was Force Recon, right?”

“Yeah.” Mac nodded.

“Something’s come up and honestly, I could use your expertise.”

“Anything I can do.”

I decided to jump right to the questions I had. Mac’s time was short, and I really needed answers, assuming he could help resolve some of the concerns I had.

“When you helped us out on that job a few months ago, I think you mentioned you were with the CIA as well as the FBI, right?”

Jarrett slapped Mac on the back, hard enough to make his whole, huge frame shudder. “Mac Mac Mac wears many hats,” he drawled, chuckling.

Mac shot him a look. “Yeah,” he said as he turned his attention back at me.

“I hesitate to ask but there’s this thing that you might be able to help with.”

“A thing?” Thayne asked. His blue eyes twinkled. “Mac’s good with things.”

“It might have to do with the CIA,” Raven said.

I could hear the nervousness in Raven’s voice, and I was sure the others could too. They were all trained for that sort of thing.I steeled myself and decided I had to tell them whatever I knew, if I was going to get any help from them.

“Like Raven said, if you have any contacts within the CIA, I’d like to find out some things.”

“If it’s in my power to help, I will,” Mac replied.

“I obviously can’t divulge anything classified, so I’ll just say this,” I began. “On one of our missions out in the desert, our Recon unit got caught in a sandstorm. We sheltered in our Humvee until it stopped. Then our team leader got out of the vehicle to check if it was buried in sand or whether it had been damaged somehow. The area where we were stranded was full of unfriendlies and it was dangerous to linger. When the sandstorm kicked up again, Sutter was trapped outside the vehicle.” I sighed. “By the time the storm died down and we were able to extricate ourselves from the vehicle, Sutter was gone.”

“Sutter was your team leader?”

“Yes,” I replied. “John Sutter. Anyway, we searched for him for as long as we could. We thought he might have sheltered beneath the vehicle…I don’t know…behind a tire or something. Unfortunately, he was lost out there. When we got in touch with the base commander, he ordered us to abandon the search and go back to base. You can understand how that made us feel.”

“Fuck yes, I can,” Jarrett said before Mac could answer. He was standing with both big arms crossed over his chest. I could feel the waves of anger coming off the guy and could only surmise he’d had a lot of contact with the brass, with people who either didn’t care or couldn’t understand why we’d wanted to stay and keep up the search for John. They weren’t all bad, but the base commander was responsible for a whole base, and unfortunately, a mission we had to complete elsewhere. Mac had a similar expression of disgust on his face as he nodded.

“Anyway,” I said, “we went back to join a convoy to complete a mission where we were overdue. When we returned, we made several forays into the desert where we’d lost Sutter.” I sighed again. “We never found him. We could only assume he’d become disoriented and had wandered away, dying out there without food or water. Maybe he was buried in the sandstorm, maybe taken prisoner by the enemy. We didn’t know. We never found any trace of him.”

When I paused, Mac reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “How can I help?”

“He showed up here in L.A. a couple of days ago,” Raven blurted.

I turned to look at him, catching sight of his frown before glancing back at Mac. “We were meeting with a new client to pursue the recovery of a missing ruby. After our meeting at the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas, we noticed a man arguing with the security guard who checks IDs before letting folks onto the patio where we just happened to be. The moment the man turned in our direction, I knew it was John.”

“He recognized Miguel right away,” Raven added, “because the minute he saw him, he ran.”

“He ran from you?” When I pivoted back to Mac and the others, the huge Green Beret was wearing a surprised expression. “Why would he do that? Are yousurehe recognized you?”

I nodded. “Yeah, he recognized me. When we ran after him, he jumped into a car that was waiting.”

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