Page 10 of Desert Wind

“Well, my brothers are fucking driving me crazy again,” he smirked. “Let’s send Luc and Antoine. I’m sure their wives will thank me for giving them a break.”

“I appreciate this more than you know,” said Nash.

“Brother, it’s what we do. Just win that woman’s heart and bring her home,” said Ghost. Nash nodded and left the room, promising to send all their details soon.

“If she can’t get past this, she’s going to crush his soul. I always knew that Nash was holding back, and now I know why,” said Kane.

“Well, hopefully, she’ll be able to move on with her life,” said Gaspar. “She won’t ever forget it, but she can make a life for herself with him. We’ve got a whole lot of women who have done exactly that.”

They looked at Kane, a frowning, pained look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” asked Ian.

“I don’t know. He said he felt like something was wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Nash is never wrong. None of us is ever wrong.”

“Maybe we should ask the tech boys to dig in a bit on the area. They can see if there’s any criminal activity happening in the desert, other than the usual, that we need to warn them about.” Gaspar nodded.

“Do it. We want them both to come home in one piece. Well, two pieces, but happy to live as one. You know what I fucking mean.”

CHAPTER SIX

“The duffel has a false bottom to it,” said Sly. “I’ve taken the liberty of loading you up with our latest toys.”

“I love you guys,” smiled Nash.

“Four weapons, ammo, knives, comms devices, all of it. You can even go through security if you need to, and it won’t be found. Your stealth netting vest is in there as well. We’ve tested your comms device, and it’s functioning, along with the GPS attachments. There’s also a GPS tag on the SUV.”

“What about Jenna?” asked Nash.

“She refused, brother. We wanted to give her a tracking tag when she arrived, and she refused. I voted to do it without her knowing it.”

“You were going to inject her tag without her knowing?”

“No,” said Sly, shaking his head. “I was going to give her a bracelet that had tracking software in it. It’s much classier than tagging someone without their permission.”

Nash laughed at the man, shaking his head as he looked at all the things in the bottom of the duffel. From the outside, it just looked like a regular duffel bag. But when you lifted the clothing out of it and pulled the bottom, it was remarkable how much space was in there.

“You good?” asked Sly.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Do you ever just get that feeling that something isn’t right, Sly?”

“All the damn time,” he mumbled. “Part of it is I worry constantly that my cancer will return. It’s been more than thirty years, and I still get scared every time I feel tired or get a cold. It’s ridiculous, really, but I can’t help it.

“Top that with me worrying about my beautiful wife, Suzette. I worry about my teammates and their families, all of it. I’m the guy constantly looking for threats, and it’s exhausting because I usually find one.”

“Sly, I hate to ask this,” started Nash.

“You can stop there,” he smiled. “I’m already looking into things in the area and trying to find any background information on Jenna’s family. It seems strange that they all died within a few years of one another.”

“I never said that, but I damn sure thought it,” he frowned. “It seemed too much of a coincidence. I’m sure I sound paranoid, but I just can’t shake that feeling.”

“Did you meet her family?” asked Sly.

“I knew who her parents were. She introduced me to them once at a school function of some sort. They’d come to pick her up early. Some emergency at home or something.”

“What kind of emergency?”

“I honestly don’t know. I guess I’m going to have about fifteen hundred miles to figure it out and hopefully get her to talk to me.”

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