Page 19 of Black Bay Enforcer (Beasts of Black Bay #3)

“This guy’s fucking hilarious,” Kong heard Jace say as he entered General Davies’ office. Leo, Erik, and Perrin were also there, with the general seated behind his desk.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, joining them. “Bring me up to speed?”

Jace chuckled. “Cleary thinks he’s a stealthy super spy.”

“Okay, that’s enough.” General Davies looked at Kong. “Earlier this morning, August Cleary left his house and drove to a busy McDonald’s.”

Leo snickered. “He needed that McMuffin.”

The general glared at him for the interruption but continued. “He went inside, ordered, and spoke to several people. After eating, he went to the men’s room and was shortly followed by another patron.”

“Let me guess,” Kong inserted. “He swapped clothes.”

Jace started laughing again. “Ball cap and sunglasses too.”

The general nodded, a hint of a smile pulling at his lips. “It appears he bought the man’s vehicle as well.”

Kong shook his head. “The team tailing him must be having a field day with this.”

“Cleary took a circuitous route but appears to be heading south. Our people have three vehicles on him, rotating in and out to keep him from getting suspicious.”

It was a strategy that worked well. The three vehicles stayed in communication the entire time. The lead car would follow at a distance for a while, then get off at a ramp or side street to avoid being identified as a tail while the next car took point. Rinse and repeat.

“Any idea of his destination?” Cleary’s primary residence, where he’d been staying up to now, was just outside DC. If he kept heading south, he might end up right in their backyard.

“Not yet. We’ll know more once he lands.” General Davies’ eyes went from person to person. “This is good news, folks. Cleary will be working under the assumption he was successful in losing any tails placed on him. He’ll think he’s in the clear and drop his guard. This is when we get him.”

August looked in his rearview mirror at the heavy morning traffic behind him and breathed a sigh of relief.

Free at last. He’d paid an exorbitant sum for the truck he was currently driving but the anonymity it afforded him was worth it.

At least it was a newer model and he hadn’t had to settle for someone’s ancient junker.

Pairing his phone with the vehicle’s system, he made a call. The house’s caretaker answered on the second ring.

“Jim, I’ll need the house readied for my arrival.”

“Of course, Mister Cleary. Will you be entertaining? Shall I stock enough for guests?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.” He had no desire for company. “Depending on traffic, I should be there in a few hours.”

“It’ll be ready.”

Disconnecting the call, his eyes were drawn to one of the roadside signs that advertised the amenities available at the next exit.

A Target. Not a store he’d normally choose, but he would need clothes and toiletries.

It wasn’t like he’d been able to pack a suitcase for this trip.

Not if he’d wanted his plan to work. Engaging the turn signal, he changed lanes.

A little laugh escaped him as he imagined whoever had been watching him, scratching their heads, wondering how he’d given them the slip. If the whole ordeal hadn’t been so inconvenient, he might have enjoyed this cloak-and-dagger business.

Kong had been called away by General Davies according to someone named Matt who had brought Katherine breakfast. It was disappointing because she’d been looking forward to a little more time with him before she had to go to work. And kisses. She’d wanted more kisses.

Matt also told her that Kong said he’d call her later if he could. She stared at the phone on her desk and released a long, drawn-out sigh. She had it bad.

Distracted, she was startled when ORION’s voice broke the silence. “I just received word from the doctors that three of my soldiers have passed their psychiatric evaluations and have been cleared to return to active duty.”

“That’s excellent news. Who?” She’d bet it was one of the ones she’d almost gotten to smile.

“Chet, The Captain, AR-WCU1, Anthony, The Seargent, AGB-WCU5, and Franklin, The Major, MR-WCU2.”

ORION including their names in that report showed improvement.

The AI used to only refer to the soldiers by their rank and Resurrection identification number which consisted of an abbreviation of the branch and unit they’d been in before being taken into the Resurrection program, their upgrades – all of them currently being WCU or Weaponized Combat Unit as they hadn’t created any other designations before being shut down – and the order within a specific rank that they’d been upgraded.

Katherine still needed to look at her cheat sheet to identify the first abbreviation.

Her finger skimmed down the list she kept taped to her desk for quick reference.

AR stood for Army Ranger, AGB stood for Army Green Beret, and MR was Marine Raider.

Katherine was thrilled. She might need to make them another pan of brownies to celebrate. Maybe some cookies too. “I’ll send an update to my liaison.”

She made quick work of it, basically writing verbatim what ORION had told her.

God forbid she added anything that might be interpreted as unprofessional.

That first chastising message she’d received from her government contact still annoyed her.

Since when was being friendly and pleasant unprofessional? Whatever.

This was great news though. There were fifty-two Resurrection soldiers, and before today, only Grady Carter had made a full recovery from what had been done to him.

Chet, Anthony, and Franklin could now be added to the success column, and more would follow soon no doubt.

Lisa, for one. Katherine was sure she’d seen the lieutenant’s lips twitch as if she were fighting a smile the last time she’d visited.

“What will that involve?” Katherine asked ORION curiously. “Active duty, I mean. They won’t be deployed to some warzone, will they?” Those soldiers had just gone through hell. Cleared or not, they didn’t need to be thrust immediately back in.

“For now, they’ll join teams from Black Bay on suitable missions and I will monitor their responses to assess for myself that the doctors are correct.”

Katherine nodded thoughtfully. One of them might be assigned to Kong’s team. A team that, if she was reading things correctly, was looking into her father.

She glared at her phone, not because she was waiting for it to ring, but because she was tempted to pick it up and call her father to chew him out for whatever shit he was up to.

And that, right there, was why Kong couldn’t give her any details.

Katherine pushed away from her desk and stood before she did something stupid.

Her father made her so mad sometimes. She needed to go outside, get some air, clear her head, maybe take a walk, and stretch her legs.

She was just about to say as much to ORION when her phone rang. Katherine dove for it. “Hello?”

She cringed, hoping it wasn’t her liaison who would surely light into her for not answering her phone professionally .

“Hey.”

Katherine breathed a sigh of relief at hearing Kong’s voice and settled back into her chair, already feeling better. “Hey.”

“Sorry I missed breakfast.”

Katherine smiled. “Duty calls.”

“We could do lunch together if you want?”

A little thrill went through her. “I’d love to.”

“I’ll see you then.”

“See you then.”

Katherine was still smiling when she hung up the phone. Lunch with Kong. In a moment of whimsy, she pushed off with her feet so her desk chair spun in a leisurely circle.

“Why are you smiling?” ORION asked.

This was new. The AI never asked her questions, and certainly never anything of a personal nature. “I’m happy.”

“Yes. I understand the expression denotes happiness. I’m asking why you are happy now, Miss Knox, when you clearly were not happy before the phone call.”

Oh, wow. How should she explain that? “Um… someone I like just asked me to meet them for lunch and I’m happy about the invitation.”

“A male someone?”

Hesitantly, Katherine offered, “Yes.” She wasn’t sure what to think about this new chatty ORION.

“Romantic interest then. The incoming call log indicates it was Kong Davies. He is a worthy specimen for reproduction. You should continue the pursuit.”

She was so surprised by that bald statement, that Katherine choked on her own spit and started coughing.

“Do you require a medic?”

Still coughing, Katherine shook her head and waved off the offer. She’d be fine in a minute. Maybe. But holy crap. Just a few days ago she’d wished ORION was more personable but this was a complete one-eighty. Definitely a case of be careful what you wish for.

Katherine was practically skipping as she went to meet Kong for lunch.

There’d be no kissing since they’d be in public, but that was okay.

She just liked being with him. And a good thing too, since there was barely even a chance for conversation.

Their table was packed, everyone talking over each other, and all too soon her lunch hour, and her time with Kong, was over.

A point that was highlighted when Kong looked at his watch – a chunky, tactical-looking thing in dark green that probably had all the bells and whistles.

She expected him to say he’d walk her back, but instead, he grinned wickedly and asked, “Do you want to see something funny?”

Katherine nodded eagerly. She could be a little late.

Outside the mess hall, he looked at his watch again. “We’ll have to hurry.” His eyes skated down her cream-colored sweater set and calf-length khaki skirt before settling on her sensible black pumps.

The next thing Katherine knew, she was off her feet.

Not swept romantically into Kong’s arms, but tucked under his arm like a football as he took off across the central green, her legs flopping embarrassingly behind her as she clutched at him for dear life.

It was a jarring ride, the scenery blurring past her and Katherine went a little lightheaded, her recently eaten lunch making a bid to come back up.

“Kong!”

Thank heavens he stopped. Still, she stumbled drunkenly when he set her on her feet but his big hands were there to keep her from falling on her face. She swallowed hard in an attempt to keep things down. “What the hell, Kong! I almost puked on you.”

Kong shot her a sheepish look of apology. “Sorry, but I didn’t want to miss this.”

Katherine looked around at the buildings she saw every day. There was nothing special going on. Nothing out of the ordinary. “Miss what?”

“Wait for it.” With a snicker, Kong consulted his watch again. “In three… two… one.”

General Davies came out the door and marched briskly to his Jeep. Jumping in, he turned it on. The windshield wipers started flapping like crazy as music blared from the speakers.

“Is that… Spice Girls?”

Kong was laughing his ass off, bent over with amusement while General Davies stood up in the Jeep and bellowed, “KOOONG!”

Still laughing like a little kid, he grabbed her hand and they ran for cover. He looked down at her with such an adorably boyish look of wild glee on his face when they finally stopped in the shadows between two buildings. “I love it when he does his Kirk impression.”

She didn’t get the reference, but it didn’t matter, his joy was infectious. Reaching up, Katherine cupped his cheek in her palm, and going up on her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to his – an act she never could have accomplished if he hadn’t already been slightly crouched over her.

Any sense of boyishness disappeared as Kong pulled her tightly against him and took control of that kiss with a hungry desire that nearly made her swoon. This Kong was an adult male and he was hungry. Katherine wanted to whimper with want.

With a groan, Kong broke the kiss and let out a shuddery exhale. His voice was gruff when he said, “I wish we both didn’t have to go back to work.”

She wished that too. She was hot, her skin flushed, her limbs feeling liquid, and her breathing none too steady. “Later?”

“Definitely later.”