Chapter One
OPAQUE agent Mitch Granger motioned the taxi driver to keep the change then turned toward the Mariner’s Bar and Grill. The place was a Fort Myers waterfront eatery billed as vintage for the tourists. Old for the locals. Didn’t matter to him what the place was called. He wasn’t a local. And he damn sure wasn’t on vacation.
At least this was a hell of a lot better location to be assigned to than a week ago, when he was crawling through a swamp full of snakes and poison dart frogs. But he was supposed to be on vacation. Even had a first-class plane ticket to Tahiti in his go-bag.
Instead here he was, starting another protection assignment where his life was only a mistake away from ending. He blew out a cheek-puffing breath. A single twitch hugged the corner of his eye. Nothing like getting real.
On the other side of the restaurant, the Gulf of Mexico crashed ashore, filling the night’s darkness with a mesmerizing rumble. He inwardly smiled and sucked in a deep breath. A light breeze, heavy with the smell of wet sand, seaweed, and empty shells washing ashore, bombarded his senses.
He loved everything about the water. Good. Bad. Sunny day. Dark of night. Smooth as glass. Raging storm. He loved it all. If his plans worked out tonight, he should be able to take a nice long swim later.
Scanning the lot, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of one of his team members, OPAQUE agent Keith Airs. The agent leaned into the light, nodded, and faded back into the darkness. Usually the agent led his own team, but tonight, the boss of everything OPAQUE, Director Drake Lawrence, had evidently enlisted Keith for this job, too. Mitch had been assigned lead.
A second later, Mitch’s security-scrambled phone rang with his boss’s ringtone, and he moved to the empty parking lot across the street. Didn’t need anyone listening to his conversation. “Talk to me.”
“Glad you got there.” Drake cleared his throat. “Hated to end your time off, but this is high priority.”
Mitch’s eyebrows pinched together. During their conversation, Drake had insinuated this was a simple shadow case involving someone he’d known when he worked for the Chicago Police Department years ago. Now it was high priority? Didn’t sound simple anymore.
Not one to hold back, Mitch got right to the point. “I asked for Cat and Joey for my team. Now I see you’ve also brought Keith in. Am I still lead?”
“Hell, yes.”
“Then cut the bull. Is this a Shades Team mission?” Toss in the three other specialized agents like himself and that would be the full Shades roster.
“Affirmative. I want only my best agents on this assignment.” Drake paused. “And I want you to be personally responsible for Elizabeth Walkert’s—”
“Call her Liz,” Mitch said. “Shorter. Faster. Nondescript.”
“Agreed.” Drake paused. “I’ll let Liz fill you in on everything that’s happened in her life during the past week. Suffice it to say, I…uh— OPAQUE believes she’s in danger. With…”
Mitch’s instincts flashed. OPAQUE thought? Or Drake thought?
“That being said,” Drake continued, “maybe regular security shadow will be enough. But to me, this stinks of Coercion Ten involvement.”
Damn. Mitch had hoped, for once, the case didn’t involve CT. The corrupt organization seemed to continually spread, expanding its hold in more and more directions. “Working the CT angle, what would make her a target?”
“One, she’s a journalist who’s friends with CEOs and politicians. Two, the fact her dad’s missing.”
“Not enough reasons.”
Drake sighed. Long. Loud. “And, three… Her family has been in the Witness Protection Program for longer than she’s been alive.”
Witpro program took the case to another level. One that made the next answer enormously important. Good thing he’d moved to the vacant parking lot. “Okay. Hypothetically, if CT is involved, is Liz the target, or do they want her for leverage?”
“Leverage. Nothing would make her valuable enough to be a target.”
“You sure you know her that well?”
Drake’s silence dragged on. “I hope so.”
What the hell did that mean…he hoped so? That left a whole lot of space between yes and hoped so. “Down and dirty, give me the details. All of them.”
Other OPAQUE agents took pleasure in harassing Mitch about his million and one who-what-where-why questions. Better to have the answers instead of some obscure detail blowing his plans to hell and back. His main goal was being able to live with himself at the end of an assignment. He’d never blown a mission. Never failed to get the client out safely. Never lost a team member.
“Everything I told you went down twenty-nine years ago. Almost a year before Liz was born. Consequently, the life she’s lived is the only one she knows. You need to tell her she’s been in Witness Protection from the moment she took her first breath.”
His mind fuzzed. “What the hell did you say?”
