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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Preacher took a deep breath and tried to relax. It was fifteen minutes after ten and the team was gathered at Safe’s house to discuss the situation with Robertson. Josie was at MacGyver’s house with the kids. Maggie was sitting nervously at the table just off the kitchen. Kevlar had picked up a few things for her before the meeting, then called Dude and Benny to go with Wren and Remi to Maggie’s apartment to pack up more of her stuff. She’d agreed that morning to temporarily move in with Preacher until things with Robertson were resolved.

He should be ecstatic that she’d be in his space for the foreseeable future, but he was also concerned that she felt as if she had no choice. It wasn’t lost on Preacher that Maggie had no real home. She’d been staying with Adina after being paroled because she had nowhere else to go. And now she was being shuffled to his place because of circumstances beyond her control once again. The last thing he wanted was her agreeing to move in with him because she felt cornered. He wanted her there because she wanted to be. She’d told him that morning that she was happy to stay with him, but he still worried.

Then there was Robertson. The man was a threat. A big one. Not only to Maggie, but to his SEAL team, other women, and even other Navy personnel. There was no telling what he’d do in order to evade justice. He’d already proven he had no problem setting up others to take the blame for his actions.

“I’ve been talking to Tex this morning, and what he’s been able to dig up so far…it’s not good,” Kevlar said.

“This morning?” MacGyver asked. “Thought he was joining us via phone for this meeting?” His teammate had dark circles under his eyes, and Preacher wondered if he’d gotten any sleep at all. He was obviously stressed about Artem, Borysko, and Yana, but he was here, which meant the world to him.

“Yeah, he is. But I was up early, and I didn’t want to wait to update him. The thought of Robertson messing with not only our careers, but other SEAL teams, is so fucking wrong it’s not even funny.”

Preacher nodded, as did all the other men. Nothing about the rear admiral using his power inappropriately sat well with any of them.

“He’s not going to do anything himself,” Flash said. “He’s a coward. If he’s going to come after Maggie again, he’ll send one of his flunkies. ”

“I agree. Which is why Tex has been trying to figure out who Robertson has doing his dirty work. So far he’s found a few enlisted sailors, as well as a convicted drug dealer or two.”

“Really?” Maggie asked.

“And he thinks that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Kevlar said with a nod. “Tex has a couple of his hacker friends working on this too. A woman out of Texas, another in New Mexico. And also Rex, who we all know…the leader of the Mountain Mercenaries. It’s their top priority at the moment. They’re looking especially hard at the cold case of his missing wife. Including combing through reports of unidentified remains that have been found in the area where he lived, to see if any of them can be traced back to the wife, and thus to Robertson.”

Maggie looked down at her lap, and Preacher realized she was trying not to cry. He went to her side and pulled out the chair next to her. He took her hand in his and put it on his thigh.

“So…what now?” he asked. “What do we do while we wait for Tex and his friends to do their thing? It’s not exactly safe for us to go back to work.”

“I talked to the commander as well,” Kevlar said. “He’s pissed. He agreed that Robertson had to have a hand in Maggie ending up in a crate on that plane. He’s put us on a no-deploy list for now. Of course, Robertson has the power to rescind that order, but if he does, it’ll be even more obvious that he’s guilty of everything we’re accusing him of. ”

“And Maggie? How do we keep her safe?” Preacher asked.

No one spoke for what seemed like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds. Preacher felt Maggie’s hand tighten in his grip.

At that moment, Kevlar’s phone rang. He answered it and put it on speaker. “Tex,” he said briefly, acknowledging the former SEAL on the other end.

The conversation continued as if it hadn’t been interrupted.

“She’s not to be alone. One of us needs to be with her at all times,” Safe said.

“Working is probably a bad idea too,” Smiley agreed.

“He’s going to do everything in his power to make sure she can’t testify against him when he eventually goes to trial. And he will have to own up to what he’s done. Tex will make sure of that,” Kevlar added.

“No.”

It would’ve been comical the way everyone’s head swiveled around to stare at Maggie. But nothing about this was funny. Preacher did his best to stay calm. “No what, Maggie?”

“He put me in prison once. I won’t let him do it again. I don’t want to hide away like a coward. I don’t mind having someone with me, because I’m not an idiot, and I don’t want to risk being snatched again and being sent to some other war zone just so he can get rid of me. And I don’t want to quit my job. I like it. But I know being near me puts other people in danger. That’s the last thing I want. It’s bad enough that your association with me has put all of you in his sights. This needs to stop. Now .”

Preacher’s gut rolled. “What are you saying?” he asked.

“He won’t be able to resist talking to me if he has the chance. He’ll want to exert his power over me. Threaten me. Probably brag about all the things he’s already done. Gloat about what he’s going to do. If we can get that on tape, that’ll help prosecute him. Oh! And I completely forgot. I still have the recording from that last phone call he made to me.”

“That’s right,” Tex said from the phone. “Can you send it to me? Like…ASAP?”

“Sure. It’s on my laptop at my apartment though.”

“I can go get it and send it to you, Tex,” Kevlar said.

“Good.”

“I still think it would be a good idea to get him to admit what he did to me. The Ukraine thing,” Maggie said. “The phone recording is pretty bad, incriminatory, but what if a lawyer says it’s not him? There’s no other proof he’s the one threatening me. If we can get both audio and video recordings of him bragging about what he did?—”

“No,” Preacher said firmly, interrupting her before she could finish her thought.

“Probably not the best idea,” Blink agreed.

“I’m with them,” MacGyver said.

“She might have a point,” Smiley said.

Preacher gave his friend a death glare.

“I’m not saying let her waltz into his office and have a showdown…although, now that I think about it, that’s not th e worst idea either. He won’t be able to do anything if she’s on his territory. He seems to work best outside the boundaries of his job. So if she shows up on base, where there are people around, he won’t be able to snatch her again or do anything that would hurt her.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You can’t be that stupid,” Preacher told Smiley.

“I’m guessing he wouldn’t risk saying anything someone could overhear in his office,” Safe interjected.

“Okay, good point. But what if they ‘accidentally’ run into each other in a parking lot on base? With no one in hearing distance, he might feel empowered enough to tell her what he has planned for her next. And obviously, we’d all be there watching, recording, out of sight. Just in case.”

Preacher took a deep breath. He wanted to beat the shit out of Smiley for even suggesting that Maggie confront Robertson face-to-face. But he also had to admit that the idea had some merit. On one hand, there was a good chance if the man knew he was being investigated, he’d be paranoid and even more careful about what he said, and to whom. On the other, he was a cocky bastard. Someone who thought he was smarter than everyone around him. He might make a mistake. And as long as they controlled how and when he and Maggie met up, the rear admiral couldn’t do anything to hurt her.

“Yes. Let’s do it,” Maggie said.

Kevlar frowned. “I’m not so sure about this. I don’t trust the man as far as I can throw him.”

“Me either,” Maggie told him. “But I also don’t want to spend my life looking over my shoulder, wondering when he’ll strike. He could put drugs in any of your cars next. ‘Forget’ to order bullets to be packed on your next mission. Or worse, leak your location to the bad guys. I admit that being bait was pretty horrible back in Ukraine, but the end justified the means. I’m here, MacGyver’s here, and so is Shawn. I’ve felt helpless against him for so long. Please let me help take him down.”

“Fuck,” Blink muttered. “How can we argue against that?”

“If we do this,” Preacher said forcefully, “we need the agreement and assistance of NCIS. There’s no way we’re going to do anything that might end up not being admissible in court.”

“Agreed,” Kevlar said. “I’ll talk to the commander. He was going to contact NCIS anyway, so he can arrange for them to be part of the operation.”

“Thank you,” Maggie said softly to the group. “I can’t stand the thought of anyone else being caught up in his lies and accused of something they didn’t do.”

Preacher didn’t like this. Not at all. But he couldn’t think of anything else they could do to keep her safe, other than fleeing the country, which in the end would get her in more trouble, not less. But honestly, this was no longer just about her. Robertson was abusing his power and there was no telling what he’d do to other Navy personnel in the future. He needed to be stopped for the good of the institution, the country, and every man and woman who could be affected by his orders .

Never had Preacher heard of someone abusing their power as badly as Robertson was doing now. He knew exactly what he was doing when he’d sent their SEAL team to deliver those crates. They’d questioned the mission even before they’d discovered Maggie in one of the boxes. The man was unhinged, and clearly feeling utterly invincible if he thought he could get away with smuggling a person out of the country and leaving her to die in a war zone.

The group broke up not too long after the decision to let Maggie meet with Roman face-to-face. Preacher wanted to take her home, to hide her away, but she insisted on stopping at My Sister’s Closet to talk to Julie. That, in turn, led to Aces Bar and Grill for a late lunch. Jessyka, Caroline, and Alabama happened to be there, and somehow they ended up commandeering Maggie and telling Preacher to shoo, that they had women stuff to talk about.

Since Maggie seemed happy to talk to the women, he backed off. He kept her in his line of sight at all times, but slowly as the afternoon went on, he relaxed a little. No one would touch one hair on her head as long as he was there. She was…

Preacher couldn’t think of the best word to describe the woman he’d fallen head over heels for. She was everything he’d ever wanted in a partner. And he’d be damned if he’d lose her to some asshole who got off on wielding power over others.

It was around three-thirty when Maggie’s phone rang. Preacher had been staring at her, attempting to gauge where she was at mentally, when he saw her pull out her phone, the one Kevlar had brought over that morning with a change of clothes for her.

And he saw the instant all the blood drained from her face as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the line.

Adrenaline spiked within Preacher and he stood up so fast, his chair teetered on its back legs. He rushed over to the table, and he noticed that the other women were looking just as concerned. But all his attention was on Maggie.

“Yes, sir. I understand. I can explain everything. Uh-huh. Okay. Now? All right.” She looked at her watch. “I can be there in twenty minutes? Yes, sir. Bye.”

“What? Who was that? Where can you be in twenty minutes?” Preacher asked.

Maggie’s hands shook as she put her phone back into her purse. “That was someone from my PO’s office. They heard I took a trip out of the country, which is against the terms of my probation. He said I needed to come in immediately so she could assess what happened…and whether I would be going back to prison.”

“That’s bullshit!”

“No, that’s not fair! You didn’t want to leave the country!”

“I’m calling Tex. He’ll straighten this out.”

Preacher blocked out the other women. It wasn’t as if he didn’t share their outrage. He did. But he was more concerned about the freaked-out expression on Maggie’s face. He pulled a chair over from a nearby table and sat, then took Maggie’s face in his hands. “Look at me,” he ordered.

Her gaze immediately found his.

“We’re going to straighten this out.”

“I can’t go back there,” she whispered in anguish. “I just can’t!”

“You won’t.”

“Damn straight she won’t,” Caroline said as she scrolled on her phone. “Tex will make sure of it.” She hit a button, brought the phone to her ear, then pushed her chair back and stood, stalking over to a quieter corner of the bar.

Tears fell from Maggie’s eyes, and each one tore at Preacher’s heart. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

“Do?” she questioned with a frown.

“Do we head to Mexico? Wait and meet with your PO tomorrow, after we make arrangements to bring the commander and a lawyer with us? Or the pilot of the chopper who was there when that damn crate you were in burst open after landing on the ground? Whatever you want to do, I’ll make happen.”

She stared at him for a long moment. “You’d go to Mexico with me?” she asked softly.

“In a heartbeat.”

“But that would ruin your career. You’d probably be charged with aiding a fugitive.”

Preacher shrugged. “Don’t care. All I care about right now is making that horrified look on your face disappear.”

Maggie closed her eyes and sighed. “I can’t run. A lifetime of being hunted sounds like the worst kind of hell. Besides, I suck at foreign languages. I almost didn’t graduate college because of French.” She opened her eyes and stared at Preacher. “I need to go in now. If I don’t, they’ll issue an arrest warrant. That’s what the guy on the phone said. I’ll go in and talk to them, explain what happened. Maybe you can give me your commander’s number on the base for my PO? Maybe he can vouch for me?”

“Done. And Caroline is right, Tex will come through. We just need to stay calm. Okay?”

Maggie licked her lips. “Okay.”

But Preacher could tell she was anything but calm. He could literally see her heartbeat in her neck. Could feel the slight shaking of her body under his hands.

He hated this. Loathed it. He’d never been the kind of SEAL who enjoyed taking another person’s life. But if Rear Admiral Robertson was standing in front of him right now, he’d break his neck without feeling an ounce of remorse.

“Come on, let’s go. Cheyenne, will you call Kevlar and let him know what’s happening?” Preacher asked.

“Of course.”

“And I’ll call Abe. He’ll rally the rest of the troops. Don’t worry, Maggie. Our guys’ll figure this out,” Alabama told her.

Maggie nodded and attempted to smile, but everyone could tell it was forced.

Preacher took her hand and led her through the bar to the door. His mind spun. He needed to figure out what to say to Maggie’s probation officer to make her believe that she hadn’t gone on a pleasure trip to Ukraine. It was a ridiculous thought, but the bottom line was that leaving the country was against the terms of Maggie’s probation. The state had every right to put her back behind bars until this mess was sorted out. But he hoped that wouldn’t happen before it could be proved that Maggie had no choice. That she’d been fucking kidnapped and locked in a crate.

Hell, he’d bring in Artem, Borysko, and Yana if he had to. Anything to make this nightmare end for Maggie.

Her fingers clasped his with a grip so tight, it almost hurt. But Preacher didn’t say a thing. He’d go to the ends of the Earth for the woman at his side, and it killed him that he didn’t have the magic words right this moment to make everything better. To fix this. Not being able to help the woman he loved through one of the most stressful times of her life was as painful as anything Preacher had ever experienced.

His heart hurt as he drove them toward the government building in Riverton, but Preacher vowed that no matter what happened, he’d be Maggie’s rock. Her protector. The one person in the world she could rely on.