Page 2 of Hidden Agendas (Tempting SEALs 4)

The girl did enjoy some unique ways of research, Diego thought with a hidden smile. She was as wild as the winds and yet as innocent as newly fallen snow. The innocence he hadn’t expected, but her doctor’s records confirmed it.

“You are, as always, thorough.” Diego tapped his fingers against the desk. “I believe it is time to show our friendly spy that his efforts to defeat me will not succeed. I have a particular little game in mind for this one.”

“In what way?” Saul asked, leaning forward now with interest.

“He has requested that we take care of a certain problem for him,” Diego mused. “This Senator Stanton worries him, and he wishes him taken care of as well as his daughter. It seems he fears the girl will remember something of her stay here, especially those events which pertain to the other two girls who were kidnapped with her. Tell him we will do this. Then, send a message to Judas and inform him that this action will take place and that the SEAL team Durango is the only force that I now fear. After all, two of its members have already defeated me. Perhaps I worry, late into the night, that these men are too powerful for me to defeat.” His lips twisted at the thought.

“Judas will question the information,” Saul warned him. “He is not so easy to fool, Diego.”

Diego shook his head. “When you impart this information, tell him also that we have uncovered a rumor that the missing SEAL he seeks is being held by the same man that the senator seeks and there is the chance we can negotiate his release. Tell him, then, that all things come with a price, and he must decide if this is a price he can pay.”

“Do you want the boy when you must blackmail him into your arms, Diego?” Saul asked gently.

Diego’s fist slammed onto the wooden desk. “I will take my son however I can get him!” he snarled. Then, with a force of will he regained control, his jaw tightening with the effort it cost him. “I will not have to blackmail him. He is a man of his word and he is loyal. I have pulled back each time I have encountered his men. I give him things he needs to save those he loves. I have shown him my loyalty, now he must show me his. Tell him this. This woman is in danger.” He pointed to the file. “She is in danger because of her father’s investigations into the identity of the government spy. A spy who also knows the location of his missing SEAL brother. This team will be assigned to her protection. I know this. And I will then have the final key to the chains that will tie my son to me. The man we hold is no longer of use to us without the drug we were using on him to perfect. With the scientist’s death, financial gain will no longer be an option. But his safety will be of importance to the boy.”

Saul stared at him for long moments before realization began to dawn. “He will have to compromise himself in the eyes of his people to save his friend. He will no longer have their trust.”

Diego nodded slowly. “That one called Macey, he works diligently to uncover Judas’s identity. Discovering this informant is very important to him. We will give Macey the final key to uncovering Judas if he does not come to us willingly before then.”

Saul inclined his head in approval. Disconcertingly, Diego felt a rush of pride at the old man’s response. This was as close to his father as he could ever come, and the approval was nearly a benediction to him.

“I will begin this plan.” Saul rose to his feet slowly, his age hampering movements that had once been smooth and powerful. “You will have your son soon, my friend.”

Diego nodded in agreement, but in his heart he feared nothing with his boy would ever be easy. His son had been raised with hatred for the father he had never known. His son had feared him as a child, and the mother who bore him had been terrified for his life because of Carmelita’s vindictiveness.

A child he hadn’t known of until the bitch’s death. The teams of assassins sent out to track him down and kill him, the constant threat of death or kidnapping, had resulted in a child who had known only a blood lust for vengeance.

Defeating the blood lust had been the hardest battle. It had taken nearly two years of careful maneuvering before his son had accepted the truth. And now, now, Diego was so close to drawing him in, to gaining the loyalty of a man known among his peers as one who could always be trusted. He was a man of his word, and of his weapon. He was the man to lead the Fuentes cartel into the future.

But first, one more small game. It would take one more finely tuned move to draw him in. This woman, Emily Stanton, would have the option of only two protectors. Diego knew which one it would be, for Judas would never give his heart to such a tender thing until Diego’s death or imprisonment.

That left Krieger. He had learned much about this SEAL team over the past eighteen months. Two were married, and fiercely devoted to their wives. They were also the senior officers of the team. The protection of the girl would go to one of lesser rank while the superiors guarded the senator and this Macey worked the computers for information.

They each had their roles, separate but working together in every operation they undertook. Disciplined and in control, they were powerful warriors. And when his son accepted his rightful place, then he would bring this discipline and control to the men beneath him.

Diego smiled. A cartel of men trained with the same degree of precision as a Navy SEAL by a man dedicated to the cartel’s future, and the Fuentes power would only increase tenfold.

And this was his dream. To one day lie safely in his bed, taken from this earth because age could not be denied, and knowing that his legacy, the legacy of his father and grandfather, would thrive through Fuentes blood. A dream he could now see coming to fruition.

One

IN THE MIDDLE AGES EMILY Stanton would have been tied to a stake and set aflame for witchcraft. Or bound in chains and stuck in a dark little hole where she couldn’t drive sane men crazy, Kell Krieger thought with a grin as he kept a careful distance between himself and Emily’s Trailblazer as they traversed Atlanta’s increasingly heavy traffic flow.

Were it the Middle Ages, he would have rescued her from a dark hole or the stake, outfitted her in leather, given her a sword and followed her into battle. Because sure as hell, any man who saw her coming at him would have been struck dumb long enough for a strong warrior to lop his head from his shoulders.

But it wasn’t the Middle Ages, and Atlanta’s traffic wasn’t really a war zone, it just resembled one sometimes. Like now, just before rush hour, when those fighting to escape the maddening traffic jams were driving like kamikaze students with no fear of death.

Emily certainly had no fear. But then again, he couldn’t remember a time when she had known fear. Even when she should have, the time she was bound and shoved into a dirty shack on the Fuentes compound and glared at her captors with hatred.

What she had on the freeway was experience. Someone had taught her aggressive driving techniques that would have done a SEAL proud. Hell, she had lost the tail he was certain she hadn’t known she had, miles back.

Research. He was betting she had taken some kind of lessons on the pretext of research for the books th

at were never published and stories that were still only half finished.

And he had to grin at the thought of that. She was driving her father crazy with the so-called research, and over the years she had given Kell no end of amusement as he listened to the senator rant and rave about her exploits on the rare occasions Kell had managed to meet with him over the years.

But now, the danger she was in had him and the senator sweating, especially after her kidnapping by Fuentes nearly two years ago.

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