Page 32 of Secrets Along the Shore (Beach Read Thrillers #1)

Tyler pulled a rented Volkswagen T-Cross out of the airport parking lot and onto the main road.

He shifted his right shoulder trying to ease the tension.

Ever since he’d had it dislocated a few years ago, it acted up at random times.

The long flight from Australia had put a lot of tension in his shoulders.

The people filling the confines of the plane and their chatter, combined with the airline crew’s updates, had him on edge the whole flight.

He should have found an alternate way to Croatia. But he didn’t have the money to pay for a private jet. And with the timeslot on the job, he couldn’t have taken a boat…or cargo plane if he figured out how to do that.

Why had he agreed to this? The last two years of his military career had been rough. Bad injuries. Difficulties with his commanding officers. Deaths of his mates. All those things had been major obstacles that he’d fought to get past, and then he’d been discarded.

Now he was trying to get back into the same kind of missions. What if this one went wrong too?

He sighed. No matter what happened, there was always the chance that a mission would go wrong. This was his chance to get back to work. If he couldn’t handle this, he might as well give up. He hadn’t been taught to quit so easily.

Tyler would complete this mission. No matter what. The fear of messing up again crept up on him. He tried to shake it off. Maybe he wouldn’t have to go in and get her. Koen’s team was working on negotiations, so there was a chance they’d get her out the easy way.

Driving down the only road to Dubrovnik from the airport took him by the coastline.

The clear blue water reminded him of Australia.

It’d been a couple of years since he’d surfed those waves.

He just hadn’t gotten around to it since settling in the Kimberley.

Not that he had anything to occupy him. It was just a long drive to any body of water in Australia from his home .

A twenty-minute drive brought him into Dubrovnik.

The GPS guided him to Lapad. The landscaped lawns, wrought-iron gates, and stone walls of the properties made them stand out from the simple limestone homes in the neighborhood he’d driven through earlier.

Koen gave him the address of a residence, hadn’t he?

Not a black ops team’s place of operation.

Unless these people worked out of a luxurious house.

Tyler followed the GPS and turned down a road. He was stopped by an iron gate. A call box was attached to a post a few feet from the gate. He rolled down his window.

“Who are you?” a man asked.

These people got straight to business. He liked that. “Tyler Reid.”

“Oh.”

Tyler glanced up as the gate started to swing inward.

“Welcome. Great to have you with us. We’ll meet you at the front door.”

“Thanks.” He rolled up his window and continued down the driveway to a modern home near the water. A few cars were parked on the left of the house. He pulled his rental around the front and put it in park. Leaning down, he surveyed the home.

The owners were well off. The multi-level mansion had a fancy balcony on the upper level.

The walls appeared to be made of white granite.

The vehicles parked beside it weren’t cheap either.

A Rolls-Royce and a Lamborghini. So they liked to show off their wealth.

Those vehicles didn’t blend into the traffic he’d seen today.

Above the front entrance, a black object caught his attention. A camera. They had a security system.

The pivot door opened, and a woman emerged from the house.

Time to meet his teammates. Tyler got out of the SUV. He’d leave his bag in the backseat until he figured out where he was staying. A few steps brought him onto the front porch.

The woman pulled her hands from her black slacks.

She wore a simple green blouse that didn’t show off any figure.

But she was slim and probably fit. She held out a hand to him.

“I’m Von Khatri.” She spoke with an accent.

Arabic, but it also held a hint of a French accent. An interesting combination .

“Tyler Reid.” He shook her hand, surprised for a second by her firm grip. Koen told him that she was the boss, but she didn’t have a military vibe. Her outfit, while simple, made him think businesswoman, not soldier.

Maybe that was the idea.

A light breeze tossed the short brunette curls that hung around her neck. She stepped back and gestured to the door. “Please, come inside. If you’re ready, we can get straight into work.”

“Sounds good.” He followed her inside. The interior had been simply decorated, but was as modern as the outside.

A spiral staircase on the left led up to the second floor.

He strode through the foyer that had a few pieces of furniture against the walls.

He glanced to his left where a large room stood empty, except for the paintings covering the walls.

A room on the right had to be someone’s office, given the desk cluttered with a laptop and stacks of files, Tyler glimpsed through the open door.

As they approached the back of the house, he stepped into the living area.

The back wall had an excellent view of the sea through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Von stepped past the couch and entered a room on the left of the living area. A few voices came from the space. “Is everything set up?” she asked someone.

Tyler entered the room. Six people, besides Von, stood or sat around a table. Five men. One woman. This wasn’t a small team. His unit in the military had only three guys besides himself.

Von turned to him. “Tyler, meet the team.” She gestured to a man with short black hair standing in front of a long monitor by the entrance. “This is my brother, Amir.”

Tyler shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you,” Amir said.

Turning to an older man seated behind a computer, Von said, “This is Patrick Acosta. He handles the technical computer stuff and hacking.” She then pointed at the woman with her brunette hair in a ponytail and the dark-haired man at her side. “Adam and Adele Mitchell. Intelligence and sniping.”

Tyler nodded to them .

The woman eyed him for a moment, as if trying to decide if he was trustworthy, before returning the nod and giving a slight smile.

“Man, you’re young.” Adam crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair. His wife elbowed him in the ribs. He lifted his hands in surrender.

Tyler ignored him. It wasn’t the first time people were surprised. He might have been twenty-six, but he acted, at least, thirty. That’s what happened when you lived a tough life.

“Mechanic and former US Army Ranger.” Von gestured to the guy with a mountain man beard leaning against the wall on the left of the table. “Gage Hunter.”

“That’s spelled G-A-G-E. No U. Even though he’s a mechanic,” an American guy in his late thirties said with a chuckle from his seat near Adam.

“That was a really lame joke,” Gage muttered.

“Can that even be classified as one?” Adele asked.

“Hey, that is one of my b—” the American started.

Von lifted a finger and silenced them, then pointed at the last guy. “Paul Harraway. Also, a former Army Ranger. But pretty much useless nowadays, if not for his contacts.” The Ranger seemed to take no offense to that as he laughed.

Tyler nodded. Each member had a purpose here.

But none sounded like they wanted to go in and get involved in extracting hostages.

Things got messy. Adele would probably handle assassinations.

Gage might go in. Was that why Koen wanted Tyler here?

Because, yeah, maybe they had the skills to do it, but probably didn’t want to get into those kinds of situations.

Koen said he didn’t want to risk his daughter’s life.

So he felt that letting them handle it was more of a risk than Tyler going in.

“Now that the introductions are done. Let’s get to work,” Von said as she sat at the table. Tyler pressed his back to the wall by the doorway, his attention on the monitor.

Amir turned to the screen behind him that had Elara’s info. “Here’s all the intelligence we have on our target and her location. Elara Atkinson. Twenty-nine years old. We have no knowledge of any notable scars or marks. She’s been staying in Dubrovnik for the last ten years. ”

Another picture popped up of a kid. A boy. Close to ten.

The kid was trapped, too, wasn’t he? Tyler clenched his jaw. He kept finding kids in bad situations. It tore him up inside. Some people were cruel and ruthless, and didn’t give a second thought about hurting a child.

“After a few calls and a little digging, we have confirmed that she has a kid with her. We’re ninety percent certain that the boy is hers.”

Tyler folded his arms. Did Koen know? He’d never mentioned the boy. Just Elara. He wasn’t one to be ashamed of that kind of thing. Elara must not have told him, and Von neither, apparently.

“I think the kid is Viktor’s,” Adele commented.

Tyler stretched his jaw. Of all the people Elara could get tied to, she had a kid with a mobster.

He swiped a hand over his short beard. Viktor probably saw them as his property.

He wouldn’t let them go, and he didn’t love Elara enough to ensure his men didn’t hurt her.

That’d just make the negotiations much harder.

“Probably. She’s spent at least the last ten years in Croatia. The boy looks to be about that age,” Von added.

Amir brought a small file for the kid onto the screen. “Kid’s name is Rian. Confirmed by a bystander who heard Elara shout his name a few nights ago while they were fleeing. He does appear to be ten years old, but there’s no way currently to confirm he’s Viktor’s son.”

Adam shifted at the far side of the table. “What about Viktor? What intel do we have on him?”

After closing down Elara’s and Rian’s files, Amir pulled up their opposition’s information.

In the photo, Viktor stood on a sidewalk, wearing an expensive suit, a Rolex watch on his wrist. His gray hair was combed back, and made his dark eyes more noticeable.

He sneered as he stared at something past the camera.

Tyler stretched his jaw. Yeah, he wouldn’t trust this guy with anything. But Von thought that negotiating with him would work. As much as he wished that it would, he doubted it.

“Okay. Viktor Kova?. Age, forty-nine.”

“Eww,” Adele muttered.

Tyler frowned, but didn’t look at her.

“What?” Adam asked .

“That age gap.”

“We need to stay focused,” Von silenced them.

Amir continued, “He’s got a tattoo of bones on the back of his neck.

Major identifier right there. He owns about a dozen properties in Croatia.

He’s got one ‘legit’ company and then he’s running illegal operations to make the most money.

After some thorough digging, Patrick and I were able to confirm that he’s leading a large mob in the country.

” He glanced at the iPad he held in his hands.

“The Crna Ruka. Means the ‘black hand’. They’re a pretty rough group and seem to have control over law enforcement in their areas of business. ”

Interesting. How had Elara gotten involved with the mob? “Do we know where he’s holding our target?” Tyler inquired. They needed to know for the extraction.

“She tried to escape from his home in Dubrovnik. We’re assuming she’s still there.”

“We need to be certain.” Von met her brother’s gaze.

He nodded. “Yep. Patrick and I will double-check.”

“How many men does he have?” Tyler asked.

“About two hundred. Spread over all twelve locations.”

He nodded. Not terrible. He’d taken out more with a smaller team.

“We’ll have more intel prepared if we have to do an extraction.” Von got up from the table. “I’ve already put forth an offer. Now we’re just waiting to see if they accept.”

If they didn’t, Tyler would have to go in.