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Though Ash raised a brow at the confrontational tone, he said calmly, “You agreed to let her go on a rescue. Have you changed your mind?”
“No, she’s welcome to go on another one, but this op’s too important. I’ve already let those victims down once. I can’t risk anything going wrong this time.”
“What makes you think she would jeopardize the operation?”
“She’s not an operative. She’s not trained. If she can’t help in the rescue then she’s a liability. She can go on the next one, after she’s had some training.”
“Both Serena and Jazz have indicated she’s calm and competent, not one to panic. Serena verified her assertion that she’s weapons-trained and has good self-defense skills. I don’t believe she’ll be a hindrance. And we did agree to allow her access on our next rescue op.”
Seeing that Ash wasn’t going to back down, Liam clenched his jaw and nodded. “All right, but I want Jazz with her at all times.”
“I don’t think you’ll get an argument from either of them.”
With a jerk of his head for assent, Liam went to the front of the room. He still wasn’t happy with an untrained newcomer tagging along, but he also knew that Ash would not allow someone on the op that he didn’t trust. He’d have to let it go at that. He had bigger fish to fry.
Liam gave a blanket nod of acknowledgment to everyone in the room. “Thanks for coming on short notice. I thought we’d lost these victims for good, but looks like we’ve been given another chance. We’re going to need to move fast, though. We can’t allow what happened last time to happen again. If they get a breath of an idea that we’ve found them, they’ll disappear again.” His eyes veered to the woman in the corner. “We have an additional person tagging along on the op. Everyone, say hello to Aubrey Starr.”
Instead of acknowledging his introduction, she seemed to shrink into the chair. What the hell? When he’d walked in the door, she had sat calmly and confidently in her seat as if she belonged there. Now she had grown pale and looked like she was going to slide onto the floor.
So much for the not-one-to-panic persona she’d supposedly shown Jazz and Serena. Tough shit. She was going to have to get over that. OZ was no place for the timid.
“Our target is a house five miles from the original location. My intel is credible enough that I don’t see the need for long-term surveillance. The house belongs to a shell corporation. Serena’s people are working to tie the ownership to a real person, but it’s going to be slow-going. My guess is that it’s Gomez’s property, like the other one. It’s likely he owns several such houses. I figure the group moves every few weeks to stay ahead of authorities.
“I’ll go through assignments on the plane. Anyone have questions before we head out?”
* * *
That voice.
She had dreamed of that voice, heard it in her head a million times. Could this man with the grim countenance and disapproving glare really be her Lion?
She had been all eager to hear the specifics of a rescue and how it was planned. The moment she’d heard Liam Stryker’s voice, she’d lost all concentration. Instead of listening to the content of his words, she had listened to the intonation, the accent, the sound. She had examined everything, anything she could that would confirm her belief that this was the man she’d connected with in a filthy, icy-cold prison in Syria.
How was that even possible?
Even though she had prayed and prayed that Lion had somehow survived, in her heart of hearts she had not believed that he had.
She mentally shook her head. No. It just wasn’t possible. Plenty of people sounded like other people. It had been over twelve years. Her memory could be faulty. She was tired, had had an exhausting day. There were a dozen reasons why her brain could be malfunctioning. Out of the billions of people in the world, what were the chances of her finding the one man she’d longed for? It was impossible.
Maybe her subconscious, recognizing that she was attracted to Liam Stryker, had decided to assign the absurd notion that he could be the man she’d been obsessed with for so long.
Vaguely aware that people had gotten up and were milling around, Aubrey realized that she needed to do the same. But somehow, all she could do was sit there and stare at the dark haired-stranger with the voice of her Lion.
“Aubrey, you okay?”
She glanced up at Jazz, who was standing before her with a concerned expression on her face.
Her mouth was so dry she couldn’t get a word out. She managed a nod and a grimace of a smile.
A bottle of water appeared in her vision. “Take a few sips, you’ll be fine.”
Doing what she was told, Aubrey drank from the bottle. She needed to get herself together. These people didn’t know her. Behaving like a frightened mouse who’d run at the first sign of trouble would not instill confidence.
She drew in a few breaths, and peace followed. Whatever the answers to her questions were, she would find them. For right now, these people
had a mission to accomplish. And she had a job to do, too. She intended to absorb every nuance of the rescue so she could one day put the experience into words. Focusing on what she had to do had gotten her through difficult times. This was no different.
“Better?”