Page 29 of Her Captivated Hero

Another slide came up, and a dazzling blond woman appeared on screen. She could easily have been a super model or movie star.

“This is Chantelle Briggs, she has been the mistress of Prince Khalid bin Al Halabi for the last two years. He’s in charge of the Greater Dammam Investment Bank,” Wyatt explained.

“Define ‘in charge’,” Dex demanded.

Gray was interested to see how Wyatt would handle this question considering Dex was normally in charge of gathering all the intelligence for Black Dawn. With Wyatt’s injury on one of the last missions, Dex had been training him on intel and communications. Gray knew Dex was now putting Wyatt through his paces.

“Khalid bin Al Halabi is a minor prince and a distant cousin to the ruling Saudi king,” Wyatt said. “Therefore he gets to run the day-to-day operation, but the Saudi royal family owns the bank, and that’s who bin Al Halabi reports to.”

“So break down what happened,” Gray requested.

“Three days ago, bin Al Halabi and his two sons who are fourteen and sixteen years old, and two bodyguards were rushed to a private hospital of the royal family in Al Khobar. The fourteen-year-old, Mohammed, was close to death. His older brother wasn’t doing much better. Khalid was in and out of consciousness.” Wyatt projected a picture of an Arab man with his arm around two teenage boys who looked remarkably like him.

“The five males, Ms. Hoag and Ms. Briggs were all staying at the royal villa at the Al Khobar Beach Resort. We know this because one of the doctors at the private hospital is Australian, and he has been secretly providing the United States Saudi Ambassador with information. All five of the Saudis were suffering from what looked like late stages of meningitis. In the notes that the Australian doctor provided, it said that Ms. Hoag told the emergency crew the symptoms came on suddenly. Poisoning was suspected. All of the food in the suite was inspected.”

“The women weren’t affected?” Aiden O’Malley asked the obvious question. He was Gray’s second-in-command.

“Not according to what our source was told.” Wyatt answered. “The women haven’t been seen or heard from since the bin Al Halabis and his men were hospitalized. Emily’s father hasn’t brought in the media at this point. He knows the drill.”

“So the Saudis are just assuming that the women were responsible?” Hunter Diaz asked Wyatt.

Gray watched as Wyatt hesitated. He also saw Dex stop himself from jumping in to answer.

Good.

He wanted to see Wyatt stand up on his own in the communication’s role. It was important that he prove to himself that he could bring something of value to the team until his leg healed. Gray was in no doubt that Wyatt would eventually make a full recovery, but in the meantime the young SEAL needed to pull his weight in other ways.

“Hunter, I was informed that the US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia has talked to the Saudi king, but as far as I know, the Saudis haven’t come out and said that they think the women are responsible.”

“But they’ve got the women locked up,” Hunter pressed.

“I was briefed by the CIA. They told me that right now we’re being stonewalled. The Saudi Kingdom is saying the women are being detained for their safety. Our people think that the women are being held by Khalid bin Al Halabi’s people and awaiting instruction from him when he recovers.”

“Bullshit, they’re being ‘questioned’,” Aiden O’Malley said with air quotes.

“That was my CIA liaison’s take as well,” Wyatt agreed. “We’ve got to get them the hell out of there. ASAP.” Wyatt was pressing down on the top of his leg. Gray wondered if it was real pain, or if it was a way for him to cope with anxiety.

“So these women have had three days of special attention. Is it likely that either one of them is responsible for the poisoning?” Aiden asked.

“Langley has been through their backgrounds with a fine-toothed comb and came up empty. There’s nothing,” Wyatt answered.

“I’m not saying it matters, we’ll deal with it when we get them out of there,” Aiden continued.

“Now I’m up,” Gray said. He began to man the projector. A map of the Middle East appeared. “We’re heading to Bahrain,” he said.

“NSA Bahrain? The Fifth Fleet? I’m taking extra MRE’s with me,” Dalton Sullivan grumbled. Gray knew Dalton was trying to lighten the mood a little after thinking about the women being tortured.

Dex laughed. “Considering we’ve eaten rats, snakes and bugs to stay alive, it amazes me you’re still freaked out that they served you camel.”

“We’ve had to ride camels. It’d be like eating a horse. No thank you.” Dalton shook his head. “I’m sticking to the MRE’s.”

“You’ve turned into a pansy ass. If you were married to Evie that wouldn’t have happened,” Aiden said, shaking his head sadly.

“Ah hell, Mr. Health Food was like that even before Aurora fell at his feet,” Dex laughed.

“Listen up,” Gray pointed to the map projected up on the wall. “We’re not going to have time for a meal at the air base, so problem solved. We’re getting our asses over to Um Al Nasan as soon as we touch down. We’ve got lots of opportunities for things to go sideways, if you catch my meaning.” He looked around the room and his men nodded. They all knew that this was not going to be an easy mission.

Gray really wished that he’d worked with any of the leadership at NSA Bahrain. He hated it when he had to rely on people he didn’t personally know, especially on a mission that was going to be so fucking complicated. He brought up a satellite image that encompassed the coast of Bahrain and the coastal city of Al Khobar.