Waiting for Him (6 page)

Chris had never broken his non-disclosure oath about his safeguarding Kat and her father in the Witness Protection Program, but Jeremy wasn’t stupid. He knew who his friend worked for, the U.S. Marshals, and could figure things out from there. But the afternoon Jeremy had agreed to see if the young woman had it in her to be a canine trainer, he knew she had the right stuff. While she was shy around people, when it came to dogs she showed her alpha side, and the animals respected her as one of their pack leaders. At least when this was all over, she had a life to go back to if things didn’t work out with Benny.

* * *

They arrived back at the compound without saying another word to each other. Boomer got out of the car after he parked and went around to open Kat’s door for her. But he was too late. She was standing outside the vehicle and closing her door. His eyes narrowed, but he left it alone.
Remember ass-hat, she’s not your submissive
. His dick would like to rectify that, but his head told him ‘no’.

At least she let him hold the door to the office open for her and he followed her inside along with Jake. He introduced her to Colleen, their secretary, who’d just started her work day. The two women shook hands before he led her into the conference room where his life had changed a little more than fifteen hours ago. Ian and Devon were waiting for them and neither one looked happy.

Boomer held out a seat for Kat. “Katerina, this is Ian’s brother, Devon. He’s the co-owner of Trident. Dev, this is Katerina.”

She held out her hand to shake Devon’s before taking the offered seat. “It’s nice to meet you. Please call me Kat.”

Devon took the seat across from her with Jake sitting in the one next to him. “Kat it is. And it’s nice to meet you, too.” He glanced at Boomer. “Everything all right last night?”

Boomer sighed as he dropped into the seat next to Kat. “Yeah. Just forgot about Pop coming by this morning. He was as shocked as I was. He’s stopping for breakfast for everyone and should be here in a few minutes.” His gaze flicked between the Sawyer brothers. “What’s the scoop?”

Ian tossed him a few papers he’d printed from an email. Some were text, others were photos. “These are from Keon. Sergei ‘The Wolf’ Volkov was found murdered in an empty warehouse three weeks ago. Double tap and clean.” Meaning he’d taken one bullet to the head and another to the heart. No bullet casings were found. “No suspects, but the guy had lots of enemies, so it could have been anybody. But tell me what you think.”

Rick walked in as Boomer was studying the pictures of the crime scene photos. He looked at them over his son’s shoulder after handing a bag of egg sandwiches to Jake to distribute. Boomer suddenly zeroed in on what Ian wanted him to see. “It was someone he knew, someone close to him. The warehouse is empty. If he was killed there, and it looks like he was, he was meeting someone. He wouldn’t have gone there without at least one of his bodyguards.”

Ian nodded. “Exactly what I was thinking. Keon, too. The FBI has the case because he’s been on their watch list for years. Everyone they’ve interviewed in his inner circle has denied knowing what he was doing there. So the questions keep mounting, but the big one is…if Volkov is dead, who the hell is after Kat? And why?”

As Rick took the seat next to Boomer, the five men turned their attention to the bewildered woman. “I have no idea. All I know is what I’ve told you. My father was dying and high on morphine, so all I have is his mumblings and hearsay from twelve years ago.”

Boomer’s mind was spinning with details, none of which added up. “What did Keon say about Mr. Maier’s involvement from back then?”

Ian shook his head as he accepted the wrapped sandwich sliding across the table at him. He left it unopened. “Not much more than what Kat told us. Maier got himself in too deep to cut and run, and he ended up with information he should have never seen. Information which resulted in a price on his head.”

“So we head to the bank in Norfolk.” Boomer couldn’t think of anything else which would help them at this point.

“Yup. Jake, I want you to go with them and keep us updated every four hours. CC will be at the hanger at eleven-hundred to fly you all up there.” Conrad Chapman, otherwise known as CC, was a retired air force pilot Trident contracted to fly their jet wherever they needed to go. The small private airport they used was about twenty minutes from the compound. Ian directed his next statement to Boomer and Kat. “Keon will arrange for someone to meet you with ID and the death certificate. Kat is to stay hidden as much as possible. I don’t want the chance of someone from her past recognizing her.”

She frowned. “I doubt anyone would recognize me from twelve years ago, but you never know. I can get a wig or dye my hair if you want.”

Before Ian answered her, Boomer spoke up. “I can grab a wig from the club.”

He mentally kicked himself for mentioning The Covenant. The first building in the compound gave no indication it was a BDSM club. There was a small store on the top floor and it specialized in fetish wear and toys. Blonde wigs were popular and they had several in stock, but he’d have to run over there without Kat. There was no way he was letting her inside the club. He’d never been ashamed of his lifestyle, but at this moment, he couldn’t bring himself to tell her about it. He thought back to the shy, little virgin she’d been twelve years ago and figured she would run to the hills if she knew about his kinks. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to notice his flub, and Jake sensed his predicament.

“I’ll grab one before we go.”

Boomer nodded his thanks, then said to the room in general, “Anything else?”

Ian and Devon looked at each other for confirmation and both shook their heads. Ian stood and picked up his egg sandwich. “At the moment, no. Brody and Marco are due back this afternoon. I’ll get Egghead on his computers to search for everything he can find on all the players in this.” Brody ‘Egghead’ Evans was their computer and tech specialist, and a world class hacker of the first degree. And Marco ‘Polo’ DeAngelis was their communications specialist and backup helicopter pilot. He was also Brody’s occasional ménage partner. “When you get to Norfolk, let me know where you’re staying, so I can have Keon’s man meet you with the paperwork.”

After Boomer acknowledged his order, Ian left the room as the others stood. Jake pointed to Rick. “Do you mind following them back to Boomer’s condo? I need to swing by my place to grab my go-to bag. It’s usually in my truck, but I was cleaning it out yesterday and didn’t have a chance to put it back together.”

“No problem at all,” the older man answered.

They all picked up their unopened egg sandwiches and headed for the door. They could eat on the way to grab their gear. As they passed Colleen’s desk, the secretary hand Boomer a piece of pink paper. She had taken a phone message for him while they were in their meeting. He glanced at the message before folding the paper twice and sticking it in his back pocket. He’d take care of it later.

As they headed back to his condo, with his father following him this time, Boomer turned his head toward Kat when he noticed she was rubbing her temples. “You all right?”

She winced. “It’s a headache. I’ve been getting them about twice a month for the last few years. I take over-the-counter migraine meds and they help, but I ran out of them. Can we stop at a pharmacy real quick?”

“Yeah. There’s one up ahead.” He grabbed his phone and dialed his father’s cell. Using the car’s Blue-tooth feature, he told Rick their plan to stop.

Pulling into a Walgreens, he waited for his dad to park next to him, get out, and approach the Dodge’s passenger door before exiting the car. Rick opened Kat’s door and extended his hand to assist her from the vehicle. When the two of them met Boomer on the walkway between the car and building, Kat swayed. He grabbed her around the waist before she could fall, and eyed her in alarm. “Kat? You all right? Are you going to pass out?”

Kat rested her arms on his broad shoulders and steadied. Boomer’s body reacted immediately to her close proximity and he inwardly cursed, fighting the urge to pull her flush against him.

“Uh, no, I’m okay. Just got a little light-headed. It happens when I get a migraine.”

After making sure she had her balance again, he forced himself to step back, but kept one hand at the small of her back as he escorted her into the store. Rick remained three steps behind them, his head swiveling from side to side, always on the lookout for danger. It was highly unlikely the people after Kat were lying in wait at a Florida Walgreens on the off chance she’d stop there, but one never knew.

They headed down the OTC medicine aisle and Kat quickly found the brand she used for her headaches. Before they had a chance to reverse their direction, a pretty brunette came around the far corner of the aisle and her face lit up as she spotted Boomer.

“Hi, M…Ben.”

Boomer winced at the woman’s cheerful voice and near slip of his title of Master. “Hi, Cassandra.”

She approached and stopped a little too close for comfort. Normally Boomer wouldn’t have minded running into the petite submissive he’d topped a few times, but with Kat at his side, he was a little uncomfortable.

“We missed you at the club last weekend.”

He scratched the top of his head. “Uh, yeah. I was working the whole weekend.”

Cassandra’s eyes flashed to Kat who had taken a step closer to him and looked as if she was waiting for Boomer to introduce them. “Hi. I’m Cassandra.”

Kat shook the woman’s outstretched hand. “I’m Kat.”

“Nice to meet you.” Her eyes went back to Boomer’s face. “Will you be there tomorrow night?”

Boomer gently grabbed Kat’s arm and shook his head. Cassandra was a sweet submissive who waitressed at The Covenant, and he knew she wouldn’t step on another woman’s toes intentionally. She also wouldn’t publicize what kind of club The Covenant was. “Uh, no, I don’t think so. Maybe over the weekend, but I’m not sure.”

Cassandra’s gaze flicked to the possessive hand on the other woman’s arm, and she took a step back, her eyes full of apology to Boomer. She must’ve realized she’d almost said too much. “Okay. If not, I’ll see you some other time. Kat, it was nice to meet you. Have a nice day.” Without waiting for a response from either of them, she spun around and waved goodbye over her shoulder.

Boomer’s hand griped Kat’s arm a little tighter as he turned her in the direction of the cashiers. His father had been a few steps behind them and gave him a ‘you’re so fucked’ smile before leading the way. Boomer wasn’t sure what that was all about. Cassandra and he were friends. Friends who occasionally fucked during a scene at a private BDSM club. What was wrong with that? He glanced at Kat who had a curious expression on her face. He knew she wanted to ask him about Cassandra. Yup, his father was right—he was so fucked.

They had about another half hour before they landed in a small airport outside of Norfolk, Virginia. Boomer hadn’t been up this way in over a year, but his last trip had been a long weekend of catching up with people he hadn’t seen in a while. Another one of his old high school friends had taken the plunge and gotten married. They were dropping like flies these past few years. His mind drifted to Alex and he wondered, if his friend had still been alive, would he have found some woman and put a ring on her finger. He doubted it. Alex had been worse than he’d been back in the day. His friend had a new hook up almost every weekend, going through girls as if trying to win a new Guinness Book of World Records event. At least Boomer had dated several girls for a few weeks before moving on.

But all that changed after his Kitten had ‘died’. He’d only fallen in love once in his life and look how it’d ended. She was gone less than thirty-six hours after he professed his love. Yeah, it hadn’t been her fault, but it still hurt like hell.

He glanced over to where she was curled up on the plane’s couch and reading a book since her migraine had faded. Damn, she was still the prettiest woman he’d ever met despite her recent weight loss. She’d passed on the egg sandwich, letting him have it instead, because she couldn’t eat with the headache. He had Jake stop for a turkey and cheese sandwich for her to eat on the plane and had been happy to see her finishing it off about fifteen minutes ago.

In the recliner next to him, Jake was taking power nap. His teammate had been up half the night trying to find his missing informant. He’d finally found the little punk in a local crack house and Jake was pissed. The kid had been clean for six months before this set-back. Jake dragged his ass out of there and into a hospital. The next stop was an agreed upon rehab facility. Boomer had never met the informant, but if the former SEAL was putting this much work into trying to save him from the life of a homeless junkie, then there had to be something there which impressed him. Boomer hoped the kid was worth the effort.

He got up and sat down on the couch next to Kat. Against his better judgment, he grabbed her ankles and pulled her feet into his lap. She’d removed her slip-on flats earlier and, without conscious thought, he began to rub the arch of her right foot. As he dug his thumbs deep into the tissue, she closed her eyes and groaned. The sound went straight to his groin.

“God, that feels so good. Please don’t stop.”

His mouth twitched, and he wished he was doing other things to her which gave him the same response. “So, tell me about Portland.”

Her eyes opened just enough for her to see him through the slits. “What do you want to know?”

“I don’t know. Everything? Anything? Do you have a job there? Friends?”
Boyfriends?
He was torn between wanting and not wanting to know the answer to that.

She shrugged. “Only a few close friends, but I have a great job which I love. When we first ended up there, our handler, Chris, sent me to see an old army buddy of his. Jeremy Pierce and his wife Eva own a canine training facility for protection and law enforcement. We clicked right away and he taught me how to train the dogs. I’ve been working for him ever since. I train them in drug and explosives detection, as well as passive and aggressive tracking, depending on the dog and the agency. Passive tracking is for missing persons and aggressive is for suspects.”

“What differs?”

Groaning, she bit her lip when he dug into a particular spot in her arch. “Passive tracking, the dog will lead its handler right up to the person. When you’re tracking a possibly armed suspect, you want some warning before he’s suddenly right in front of you. There’s a funny story about one of our graduates. His dog was a passive tracker and drug detector, but a few months ago, they had a suspect disappear into the woods, and they didn’t have an aggressive tracker available. So, what they did was put two officers, with their guns at the ready, on either side of the team because the handler’s eyes had to be on the dog, looking for tells. This way if the suspect suddenly appeared, they were covered. Anyway, they were tracking for about ten minutes when the dog suddenly sat down in the middle of nowhere. The handler was trying to get him back on track, but the dog wouldn’t budge. It took a few moments, but they realized the dog was sitting on a pile of leaves and one of them spotted the heel of a sneaker. The suspect had buried himself under a pile of leaves, hoping they’d walk right by him and the darn dog was sitting on his back.” They both started laughing. “The handler kicks the guy’s leg and says ‘Don’t move.’ The suspect answers, ‘Wasn’t planning on it.’”

Laughing harder, Boomer couldn’t help but be impressed. It was obvious she loved her job. “Wow. That’s awesome. Beau went through a training place like that in Florida. He was about six-weeks old when Ian found him at the compound. His mother was a stray who’d just died, so Ian took him in.”

“I noticed his training,” she told him while nodding.

“Do they know where you are? Your bosses? I mean, do you still have a job after we find who’s after you?” Part of him wanted her to say no, but they would both be better off if she said yes.

She glanced out the window of the plane. “Yes. Sort of. I told them I had a family emergency.” At his raised eyebrow, she shrugged. “It was all I could think of at the time. Anyway, even though no one ever came out and told Jeremy I was in witness protection, he’s very astute and I’m sure he figured it out. He just told me to keep in touch and to call him if I needed anything. I should call him later to let him know I’m still alive.”

“Good idea. Use your pre-paid phone, since they’re very hard to trace. Then we’ll throw it away and get a new one. Ask him if anyone suspicious has been snooping around asking about you.”

Kat nodded and tapped his hand with her left foot. It was a blatant hint to give it the same treatment he was giving her other one. He chuckled and swapped them. “Better?”

“Yes, much.” She groaned as he worked his thumbs deeper. “I can’t remember the last time I had a foot massage. I used to get them all the time when I treated myself to pedicures, but it’s been a while.”

He was glad it was a professional service where she had gotten the massages, and not from a boyfriend. A pang of jealousy at her dating some guy hit him in the gut and he forced himself not to question her about other men. Who she dated was none of his business.

Glancing down at her lap, he eyed the book she’d been reading, and…
oh, fuck
…it was
Leather & Lace,
by Kristen Anders, soon-to-be Kristen Sawyer, Devon’s wife. While Boomer hadn’t read the whole thing, he’d flipped through and read the steamy sex scenes after Devon mentioned how hot they were. It was fucking hot porn in written format, plain and simple. It also involved BDSM and he was shocked Kat was reading it. Did she just like reading about the lifestyle or was she into it? And if she wasn’t, would she be interested in trying it? Did she fantasize about a man doing to her the things Master Xavier did to his submissive in the book?

He shifted uncomfortably and shoved his thoughts back where they belonged—in the gutter. She was a job and an old friend, nothing more.
You might as well give up trying to convince yourself buddy, because it’s not working.

“Prepare for landing.” CC’s voice came over the intercom and Jake’s eyes flew open. That was the thing about being in special ops—you got used to catnaps and waking up completely refreshed.

Boomer swung Kat’s feet to the ground so she could sit up and put her seatbelt on. He then strapped his own around his waist. They would be on the ground and in their waiting car within fifteen minutes. After he had the plane refueled, CC would get a room at the closest motel for the night, so he would be nearby if they needed him. Meanwhile, Boomer, Kat and Jake would head into the Norfolk residential area where the two childhood friends used to live. There was a Best Western near the bank they needed. From what Boomer had been able to access online it was the ideal motel for them. There were plenty of escape routes if things went south.

Next to him, Kat visibly shuddered.

“You okay?”

She gave him a tiny smile. “Yeah, I think so. It just hit me. I haven’t been here since I was seventeen with a bright and happy future ahead of me.”

Boomer reached over and squeezed her hand because he couldn’t think of anything to say which didn’t sound cliché. He just hoped, when this was all over, she did have a happy life in her future, even if it wasn’t with him.

* * *

As Jake let himself into the adjoining room to the left, Kat followed Boomer into their motel room. He tossed his duffel bag on the bed closest to the door and gestured for her to take the other one. It wasn’t even one in the afternoon yet, and she wanted nothing more than to crawl under the covers and take a nap.

He must have seen the look of longing on her face before he turned to unlock the go-between door connecting the two rooms. “Take a nap if you want. Jake and I will be next door working on a few things for tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Kat pulled off the blonde wig she’d donned before getting off the plane and scratched her itchy scalp. Reaching to pull the bedspread down, she kicked off her shoes at the same time. “Don’t let me sleep past three, please. Otherwise I’ll be up all night.”

“Sure.” Boomer watched as she climbed into the bed fully clothed. She shifted a few times trying to find a comfortable position and finally settled on her side facing away from him. Her long brown tresses fanned across the pillow and his hands ached to run his fingers through the soft strands. The longer he was around her, the more his old feelings for her pounded in his chest. But there were new feelings there too. Feelings he didn’t know what the fuck he was going to do about.

Sighing, he walked into the other room and left the door ajar in case she needed him. Jake was exiting his bathroom and drying his hands on a towel. He raised an eyebrow at seeing Boomer alone.

“She’s lying down for a while.”

“Ah.” They both sat down at the table for two and Jake opened a folder with all the pertinent information they had so far. “So…you want to talk about work or what it’s like to have an old girlfriend come back from the dead?”

Boomer knew his friend was being sympathetic despite how his words sounded. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the partially opened door behind him before turning his attention back to Jake. “How do you know she was a girlfriend?”

“Ian keeps me around for my sniper skills and powers of observation. If she wasn’t your girlfriend, there was a time you wished she was.”

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and keeping his voice low so she wouldn’t hear him. It’d been a long time since he’d told anyone about his Kitten. “She was my best friend’s sister and a year younger than us in school. I never thought of her as anything more than a good friend until I took her to my senior prom. One minute she was my friend, the next minute I wanted something more. Hit me from out of the blue, you know?”

Jake nodded, but didn’t say a word.

“The night of my going-away party, a week before basic training, I found out she felt the same way. I asked her to be my girl and to wait for me. She agreed and two days later…her entire family was gone.”

“From what Ian told me, she didn’t have a choice.”

Boomer leapt from his chair in frustration and began pacing, but kept his voice low. “Damn it, I know it wasn’t her fault. But too much time has gone by. We don’t even fucking know each other anymore. I’m not the same eighteen-year-old kid without a care in the world. I’ve seen and done shit she could never imagine. I’ve changed, and I doubt she’ll like the guy I’ve become.”

Crossing his arms, Jake narrowed his eyes at his teammate. “Close the door.”

“What?”

“Close the damn door and sit the fuck down for a minute.” After Boomer eased the door shut and plopped back down in his seat, the harshness ebbed from his friend’s voice. “I’m a little confused here, Baby Boomer. Are you talking about the Navy and the shit we’ve done, or are you talking about the club and the lifestyle?

“Both, I guess,” he mumbled, staring at the floor.

“Well, the SEAL shit is easy. You’ve served your country proud and followed orders like the good frog you are. Yes, you’ve killed more people than anyone will ever know about, but what it boils down to is you killed because you had to. You’re not a murderer. You saved lives—civilians’, your teammates’, and your own. There’s nothing wrong with anything you’ve done in the name of Uncle Sam and apple pie. I don’t think your girl in there would have any problem with that, especially since you can’t tell her most of it.”

Boomer shrugged and kept his eyes downcast.

“Now, about the lifestyle. You’re not the first Dom to question himself, and you won’t be the last. The point is…which is more important to you? Can you love her without topping her? Or do you need it like the air you breathe? You said before, you don’t know each other anymore…maybe this is your chance to get to know her again. Maybe she’s changed, too. Maybe she wants to be topped, did you ever think about that?” He paused a moment to let the idea sink into the other man’s head. “Now stop being an ass and let’s get your girl out of trouble, all right? Think about fucking her after this is all over.”

Boomer snorted then grinned. “You’re a prick, Reverend.”