SEALs of Honor Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  About This Book

  Complimentary Download

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  About Paxton

  Author’s Note

  Complimentary Download

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  About This Book

  Lachlan is delighted to be picked by Tesla to help her friend out in Germany on a sensitive joint operation. Yet, when he finds out what’s involved, he’s shocked and intrigued. He’s not so overjoyed at the several references to how this “friend” would be perfect for him.

  Leah is relatively new to her job as a military analyst based in Germany. When her department is asked to help in a joint task force, she’s afraid she’s in over her head. She’s worked with several of these people before, but this case is an international banking scandal, which everyone is anxious to keep out of the media. But that’s pretty hard to do when the kidnapped victims survive, and a loved one doesn’t.

  As the bodies pile up, Lachlan realizes this is more about keeping Leah safe and less about helping Tesla out. It doesn’t take long for him to agree, and she becomes his priority too.

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  Prologue

  Lachlan MacGavin walked into the huge conference room. He’d been with Mason’s team for a few months now and when Mason had called, Lachlan had stepped up. One thing that Mason had that Lachlan would like to have in his own future was the respect of everybody he knew around him. As he walked into the empty schoolroom setup, he frowned to see Mason sitting there, with a stack of papers in front of him. “Hell of a place for a meeting.”

  Mason looked up. “Yeah, we’ve got computer training coming up. I do get tired of it, but it’s important to stay on top of the new techniques.”

  “Absolutely.” Lachlan sat down beside Mason. “You called me in, so what’s up?”

  Mason laughed. “I always liked that about you. A straight shooter all the way.”

  “Don’t really have time for games,” Lachlan replied in a mild voice.

  “Nope, I hear you there. I’ve got somebody telling me that you’re quite the electronics guy.”

  “Well, I am,” Lachlan agreed, “but I don’t think I’ve got anything on Tesla.”

  “She’s in a world unto herself. But she’s the one who told me that you were really good.”

  Lachlan found himself smiling at that. “Praise from her is high praise, indeed. Tell her thanks.”

  “Not an issue,” Mason stated. “So I was thinking I’d get you in here, while we do some other training.”

  “What are you doing training on?” he asked.

  “Security, but more for our own offices.”

  Lachlan winced at that.

  “Not exactly your thing, I know,” Mason noted, “but we have an interesting case that we’re tracking right now. We’ve got a hacker out of England, hitting banks in Europe.”

  “What’s that got to do with us?”

  “It’s a joint task force,” he explained, “with Germany. Because they suspect it originated from a joint team of hackers in England and Germany. We’ve been asked to send in specialists to help, if we have anybody.”

  “Is Tesla going?”

  “She’d love to,” he replied, “but no.”

  “So?”

  “The idea is that you would work with her. You would be her field person over there, while she works from here.”

  Lachlan looked at him in surprise. “Wow. Is this …?” And he stopped, a little confused.

  Mason looked over at him and smiled. “Basically Tesla would like you on the team. She’d like you to be her eyes and ears.”

  “I’d be honored,” he stated. “I’m just not sure what capacity this would be in.”

  “You’d be heading over with two of our men.”

  “Two?”

  “Markus and potentially Axel.”

  “And the three of us will do what?”

  “Sort out exactly what’s going on.”

  “And we’re expecting it to be out of Germany, not England?”

  “We do have a few feelers out in Germany. MI6 will be there, and you’ll coordinate with Jonas.”

  At that, Lachlan winced.

  Mason grinned. “Everybody loves Jonas.”

  “Sure, but Jonas doesn’t love any of us,” he murmured.

  “See? That makes you so perfect for this. You already understand the lay of the land.”

  “And who are we coordinating with in Germany?” Lachlan asked.

  “Her name is Leah,” he responded. “She’s a friend of Tesla. She’s in a similar position to Tesla’s here, but she’s green and new to the job. New to the post. She’s set up for a six-month stint there in Germany. Tesla wants to make sure Leah has the help she needs, and you’re to keep Tesla in the loop. And me.”

  “Okay, that sounds decent.”

  “Yep.” Then Mason grinned.

  “What’s that grin for?” Lachlan asked, staring at him.

  “Nothing. Just that Tesla is of the opinion that you two would be a great pair.”

  Lachlan’s heart sank, and he glared at Mason. “Oh no, not happening. None of that.”

  “None of what?” Mason asked.

  “No matchmaking.”

  “Not me.” Mason raised his hands, with an innocent look.

  “No, not at all,” Lachlan repeated. “No matchmaking.”

  “If it’s not to be”—he shrugged—“I presume you wouldn’t have anything to do with Leah.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “If you don’t find her attractive and if there isn’t any chemistry, then you have nothing to worry about.”

  Lachlan stared at his friend suspiciously. “That sounds dubiously like a sidestep.”

  Mason laughed. “This training is about to start.” He straightened up his stack of papers, as the door opened, and more guys sauntered in. “Is that a yes or a no?”

  “It’s a hell yes,” Lachlan replied immediately. “When do I leave?”

  Mason looked at him with a smile. “Yesterday.”

  He rolled his eyes and asked, “Seriously?”

  “You leave in less than three hours. So get your gear, and I’ll set it up.”

  “On it.” As Lachlan walked to the door, he watched as everybody else filed in for the computer upgrade session. Then he looked over at Mason, who was watching him. Lachlan shook his head at him. “No matchmaking.” He pointed his finger for emphasis.

  Mason gave him a thumbs-up and a big grin.

  And Lachlan knew he was already halfway lost.

  The only way to prove Mason wrong was to get there, to find out Lachlan had absolutely nothing to worry about, and to carry on.

  Tesla had asked for him, huh? For that, he was pretty damn happy. He loved working with her, and she was one smart cookie. If there was anything or anyone he wouldn’t mind learning under, it would be her. Smiling and whistling, he headed home to get ready to go.

  Chapter 1

  Germany

  Lachlan MacGavin held out his ID as he entered the US Army Garrison Stuttgart—or USAG Stuttgart for short. He hadn’t really expected to end up here, but he
was being rerouted here for the moment. As long as he got wherever he needed to go, the logistics didn’t really matter, not as far as he was concerned. He reminded himself that he was here for Tesla’s and Leah’s sake and for the assistance that potentially could be required by Markus. Axel was apparently already here.

  Lost in thought, Lachlan heard a shout and looked over to see the man himself walking toward him. Smiling, Lachlan headed that way, reaching out to shake hands.

  “There you are,” Axel greeted Lachlan with a big grin. “What did you guys do? Take the long way around?”

  “Felt like it,” Lachlan replied, feeling the weight of the international travel he had endured. “But we’re here now.”

  “Grab your bags, and let’s go.”

  “Are we staying here?” Lachlan asked, looking around in surprise.

  “We’re meeting up near here, but we have places to go and things to do,” Axel replied. “Or make that people to see. Another bank CEO has been killed.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Lachlan asked. “Fill me in, man.”

  “We’ve got a unique hacker situation, focusing on banks, but the hackers aren’t holding data hostage but real people, yet with a twist. We’ve got the bad guys kidnapping someone associated with a bank, like a manager or somebody in the actual bank building, but, when the bank fails to make the ransom payout,” he added in a low voice, “instead of killing the hostage, the bad guys go after their CEO. Presumably because the CEOs are the ones saying no to the ransom payouts. And, just as we made the CEO connection in those previous cases in England, now the bad guys are expanding into Germany.”

  He relayed as much as he could as they moved through the airport. “Remember that ransomware pipeline fiasco a few years back, where the company paid five million to the hackers to get back into their own website? Well, hacker prices have gone way up, and I think these hackers are asking for twenty-seven million for this latest one. The bank said no from the start and told the kidnappers that the bank doesn’t do hostage negotiations and that they won’t pay the ransom—even though they shut down the whole banking system for a couple days. Almost immediately the CEO related to that bank turned up dead. Shot in the back of the head. No witnesses. No nothing.”

  “Of course not. Was the kidnap victim taken from home? What do we know?”

  “We don’t know a hell of a lot,” Axel replied in frustration. “That is where we think the hacker part comes into play. This latest dead CEO was in Germany.”

  “Oh, great,” Lachlan muttered. “So, like Mason told me, I presume Jonas is coming then.”

  At that, Axel looked over at him with half a grin. “Oh, so he’s your favorite too, huh?” They heard a commotion not too far ahead, and there Jonas was, the one who got along with everyone. Not.

  “Come on. It’s not like you’re all my favorite people either,” Jonas snapped, his thick British accent hard to ignore.

  Lachlan looked over at Jonas. “Hey, buddy. Nice to see you.”

  Jonas rolled his eyes. “You know what? It would be nicer if we didn’t meet quite so often.” He nodded to the group at large. “You guys just bring shit whenever you came over to England.”

  “Hey, it’s not us all the time,” Axel argued.

  “Are you sure about that? Because it seems like it is.”

  “Maybe you’re talking about Levi’s group or Badger’s.”

  “I am darn certain that it’s all of you.” Jonas raised both hands. “Sometimes I think the entire country gets overrun by your supposed goodwill police.”

  “Hey, we don’t have to be here on goodwill,” Markus added, joining the group, with a nod in greeting to Axel and Lachlan, “but it generally does get us a better footing with the locals.”

  “You have such a good relationship with my people,” Jonas pointed out in a mocking tone.

  With a dangerous grin, Markus slugged him on the shoulder. “I know you love us.”

  Lachlan shook his head, smirking at the male bonding going on around him.

  “God, help me,” Jonas replied, “I’ll admit that sometimes I like the work you guys do. I enjoy it in the moment, but I don’t enjoy the mess you leave for me to clean up?”

  “You do just fine,” Markus stated, with a chuckle. “I know our supposed mess is not that bad.”

  “It’s not that good either,” Jonas muttered. “And you do know that it would be nice if you didn’t destroy Germany either, while you’re here.”

  “We may not be in Germany for long, and maybe we’ll resettle over in England,” Markus teased, practically beaming, his eyebrows raised at Jonas.

  “Personally I’m okay with working and living in England. At least for the moment.” Axel added, “It may very well be Germany or France with these hacker types. Who cares?”

  “I suspect we’ll end up in England fairly quickly.” Jonas frowned, as Markus and these guys enjoyed mocking MI6. “However, our present meetup is here.”

  They all looked over at the incoming woman, a tall, graceful, and willowy blonde. Her hair was held back in a clip, but it still fell below her waist. Just the fact that she had hair that long was amazing, considering the time it must take to care for it. She was dressed in business attire. She wore it all very well.

  Lachlan reached out a hand. “I’m Lachlan MacGavin.”

  “I know who you are,” she stated immediately. Then she smiled. “Tesla sent me photos. I’m Leah Ketridge.”

  He looked at her in surprise. “Too bad she didn’t do the same for me,” he noted cheerfully.

  “Not needed. I would be the one to pick up you guys, so you’d have met me soon enough.” At that, she turned and shook hands with the rest of them.

  “I still don’t quite understand why we’re all here,” Lachlan admitted.

  “No, I know,” she replied. “Much of it will involve doing run-around work, boots on the ground stuff, instead of actual computer work.”

  “I hope it won’t be too much legwork. The more computer work, the better,” Lachlan noted, his eyes twinkling.

  “You’ll be Tesla’s eyes and ears, I understand, sending her impressions and other information.”

  He nodded. “That’s for all of us to share, right?”

  “Yes, and you’ll all be learning about our computer software,” she murmured. “But, with this latest murder, things have gotten serious and are a hell of a lot more complicated than I anticipated. We’ve noted an MO. So much of the training will be pushed back.”

  “Right,” Lachlan agreed. “I’m not exactly sure what that’ll mean for us.”

  “It means that I don’t really have time for teaching and delegation. I need information, and I need it fast. So you and your team will be helping with that.”

  “And you need that information from us? What about MI6? Are they not capable?” Lachlan pointed to Jonas, who sneered back at him.

  Markus and Axel both shared their views, uncensored, and Lachlan stood rooted there, a smirk on his face.

  Leah turned to Jonas, her own lips twitching. “I won’t get into an argument there. I have worked with Jonas and his agents a couple times now.” She reached out and patted his hand. “Nice to see you again, by the way.”

  He nodded and in a quiet voice added, “I just wish it was under better circumstances.”

  “Me too,” she agreed. “Me too.” She turned back and looked at the group of men in front of her, motioning to them all. “Too much to do and too little time. You will all have to pick up and dig in. Come on. Let’s go.” She turned and led the way through the building and outside. Lachlan looked over at Markus, who frowned as he followed the group. “Problems?” Lachlan asked Markus quietly.

  “Not so much a problem,” Markus admitted, “but this scenario means that we’ll end up in the way of law enforcement.” He sighed. “I was hoping to work behind the scenes. I was also looking forward to the specialized computer training.”

  “And that you will still get,” Leah replied, overhearing
their quiet conversation. “We might have to get you to stay for a few days afterward.”

  He nodded. “Understood. This comes first.”

  “It has to,” she murmured. “This is the third one that we know of, two in England and now this one in Germany. We can’t have this happening anymore.”

  “What do we know so far?” Lachlan asked. “I’m interested in the fact that they’re not killing the person they are kidnapping.” Lachlan was the new guy on the team, and the others let him ask the questions, so he could be brought up to speed. Plus it was no hardship for Lachlan to get his answers from a beautiful and smart woman.

  “No, apparently the kidnapping appears to be a decoy,” she replied, looking away. “The frustrating part is that we don’t know what banks they’re targeting. It appears random at the moment. We have little to nothing to go on. Hence the call for all hands on deck.”

  “Which is an interesting strategy, if you think about it,” Lachlan murmured, “and certainly not a bad one.” She looked at him, and he just shrugged. “Consider it from the hackers’ perspective. All attention is focused on whoever they’ve kidnapped. They keep the hostage as a backup, and yet, in the meantime, they are busy working their own agenda, all behind the curtain. It’s a game-theory scenario. Plain and simple.”

  “I get that, but I don’t understand the logic behind it. Well, the logic I do, but the purpose of the action eludes me,” she murmured.

  “I’m not sure there is any, other than to throw us off and to make us feel like we don’t know what’s going on,” Lachlan suggested. “Sometimes that’s all it is—divide and conquer. Throw in false leads to muddy the tracks.”

  “Unfortunately,” Jonas added, “that’s quite possible. But it doesn’t help at all when it comes to finding out who’s doing this. Has anybody claimed credit so far?” he asked Leah curiously.

  She looked over at him and nodded. “Yes. We do have a group here who has claimed credit for the kidnapping and for the hacking. It is a big-ass black-hat group that I’m sure you’ve probably heard of.”

  He nodded as he heard the acronym. “But that group has never killed before.”