Badger Read online

  “Isn’t that the truth? Apparently I had nothing but hamburger left. Trouble is, every time I put any weight on it, it still feels that way,” he growled.

  “I know the feeling.”

  Badger leaned back to stare out the window. That was the thing about Stone. He was in the same boat Badger was in. But he had been there a little longer. He’d had time to heal. Time to adjust. Badger was still dealing with the original fallout. “Why’d you call, man?”

  “Got a little bit of intel.”

  “Yeah, on what?” He turned on the engine while he waited for Stone to spell it out.

  “On a directive that sent you in a certain direction that morning.”

  Instantly his hand turned the key to shut off the engine. The silence filtered around him like some kind of shock wave. “What directive?” he asked, his voice quiet. It had to be quiet because he wanted to reach through the phone and shake Stone, clasp his hands around the big man’s neck and squeeze for taking so long to give him the answers Badger was so desperate to receive.

  “Not a ton of information yet, just a line.”

  “Tell me,” Badger barked.

  “The plans were changed that morning, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

  “From what plan to what plan?” Badger asked. Why would the directives have been changed? “How good is your intel?”

  “It’s good. It’s just that it’s been two years. According to the intel, somebody is finally talking. But he was at a bar, drunk. So I don’t know how good it is.”

  “You just said it’s good.” Inside Badger could feel hope starting to splinter. Over the last couple years, he’d heard lots. People pointed in many directions. It always came down to the fact it was an official decision. It was an accident. Nobody knew about the land mine. Things like that happened in war. He understood that. But, at the same time, he’d wondered. They’d been redirected, on a different route. Why?

  Had somebody known that land mine was on that road? The road they were instructed to take had been changed. Was it just a shitty coincidence, or was somebody really sabotaging an entire unit? And, if that was the case, why?

  He’d racked his brain over the last two years for the same damn reason. Not one of his team knew anything worth getting killed over. Everybody knew the same shit. They hadn’t been on any particular mission in the weeks prior. They hadn’t been hunting down any one asshole over any other asshole. The world was full of them. When they were working in Afghanistan, there were more than a few. But they hadn’t been after any leaders on that particular day. It had just been a shitty accident, according to the report. But inside Badger knew it was more than that. He just hadn’t been able to prove it.

  “You still there?”

  “Yeah, I’m still here. Whatever you’ve got, shoot it to me in an email, will you?”

  “Will do.” Stone hesitated for a moment, then added, “And give that damn leg a rest, will you? When the time does come to move, you won’t be ready if it isn’t.” And he hung up.

  Badger snorted, tossed his phone on the seat beside him, turned the engine back on and pulled out into traffic.

  Stone was right about one thing. The leg wasn’t any good as it was right now. He needed to get off it and let it heal a bit more. But he sure as hell hated to. He’d put out a ton of money trying to get the information he needed. And, so far, there’d been nothing. All coming back negative. Somebody—somewhere—had to know something. His worst nightmare was to continue searching for answers only to find out there really weren’t any, and it was truly a shitty accident. If he could believe that himself, then maybe he could learn to live with it and move forward.

  There were other things to want in life. At one point in time, he’d wanted a family. Now? Well, hell. A steady girlfriend would be a step up.

  His mind fleetingly went to Kat. The only woman to interest him in years. She was one hell of a woman. Smart, intelligent, capable, direct. He liked them direct. That she was missing a leg wasn’t something he held against her. And, if nothing else, it made her more sympathetic to him. And him to her.

  The trouble was, he didn’t want sympathy. He wanted to be the dashing hero who swept her off her feet and carried her into the wild blue yonder. But that wouldn’t happen. He was doing weight training again. Part of the reason why his stump had bombed out. Although Kat didn’t weigh much, he certainly wasn’t up to doing that kind of coordinated effort.

  He drove down the main road for another couple miles, then took a right, thinking about what Stone had said. Had he deliberately held back a little bit? Badger knew Stone. They were the same type of guy. But Stone had somehow gotten past his anger. His personality was more laid back. But then again, Stone losing his leg had been part of an active mission. Not like Badger, driving over a land mine when your unit was potentially not where it was supposed to be in the first place, doing some recon work.

  He shook his head. “I’ve got to get out of this endless loop.”

  It took another ten minutes to get home. Badger opened the truck door, stepped down, landed a bit hard on the sore leg, swore a blue streak and slammed the truck door shut. Dotty, an aging coonhound, greeted him with her usual loving barks and yelps. He’d found her on the side of the road where she’d been shot by her previous owner. He’d picked her up, plucked out the bullet himself, got her back onto her feet and had been looking after her ever since. Or was it really that she looked after him? They were both lost and wounded dogs.

  She was good people, and he was doing the best he could to be good people to her. They’d both learned some tough lessons, and the bottom line was, people couldn’t be trusted. Now if only he could find out who the hell had betrayed him and his team.

  Just as he walked in and pulled a cold beer from the fridge, his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket. “Kat, what’s up?”

  “You left some of your gear here,” she said. “That’s not like you.”

  He swore softly. “What the hell did I leave?”

  “The original pieces on your leg that you’ll need for spare parts. And your multitool that you brought out to show me how you’ve been trying to fix the one joint. When I told you to put that piece of crap away, you didn’t. You just set it down.”

  “I won’t need either of those for the next couple days. I’ll stop by when I head back into town next.”

  “Good enough.”

  He thought she’d hung up, but he heard her swear. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing,” she said quietly. “I’ll see you in a few days.” Then she did hang up.

  He stared at the phone in his hand and wondered. Something about her voice had been odd before she ended the call. What the hell was wrong?

  He placed his phone in his pants pocket, snagged his beer and headed out on the porch. Whatever the hell was wrong, it would be a long cold day before she told him. He couldn’t afford to be sidetracked, even by the very sexy Kat. Unfortunately.

  Sitting on the wooden chair he kept on the porch, yet still unsettled, cold beer in hand, his laptop balanced on his thighs, he brought up his email program and waited for Stone’s email to land in his inbox. He clicked it open as soon as it had and read the short message. He pulled out his phone, quickly dialing Stone. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that you had a name?”

  “You didn’t give me much chance.” Stone’s tone held a bit of humor. “I figured you’d get back to me when you read it.”

  “I want to talk to this guy,” he said.

  “Good luck with that. He wasn’t very talkative to anyone apparently.”

  “Do you have any contact information?” Badger reread the email but still didn’t get anything more from it. “Your email is a little short on substance.”

  Stone chuckled. “I don’t want you going off half-cocked and getting yourself blown up again.”

  “Why not? The first time was so much fun.”

  Stone’s voice dropped all hilarity when he said, “This could be bad. You k
now that.”

  “I know. It’s not just about me. There are seven of us. We’re all in various states of getting back on our feet. I haven’t spoken to them about this, but, now that I have a lead, I know they will want to know who’s behind this. It’s up to us to find the asshole who did this.”

  “Then let us help. While you know a lot of men still active in the units, there’s our team out here.”

  “You guys are more of a unit now than you ever were.” Badger thought about Levi and the crew he’d pulled together that made up the company of Legendary Security. “But it’s bad enough that some of us will risk our lives and whatever is left of our pensions and medical support to do this. We don’t want anybody else to get hurt.”

  “Bullshit.” Stone gave a half snort. “You can pull that line on somebody else. Not with us. You’ll need help. You’ll need weapons. You’ll need intel. We’ve got eyes in the sky, and we’ve got people all over the world. You know that.”

  Badger pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he was doing way too much lately. It went along with the frustration in his life. “Some of that might be helpful, but, if it ever comes back that you civilians have stepped into naval matters to make this happen, you know it won’t go well for Levi or anyone else. And that’s not good.”

  “And you know that, if Levi gives you a hand, Mason will want to do what he can too.”

  “Oh, hell no. He’s still active duty. That’ll be treason if he gets caught.”

  “Treason?” Stone’s voice took on a thoughtful, pensive tone. “Treason if we find the asshole who blew up our own units? Somehow I don’t think that’s the definition of treason. Will Mason get official clearance to help? I doubt it. But that doesn’t mean he won’t cross the line and do what’s right. You know Mason is all about doing what’s right. He’s a man of honor.”

  “He is that.” Badger couldn’t argue that point. They were all the same breed. After he ended the call, Badger got up and looked across the yard. The pool twinkled in the light. He ignored it. His mind was twisting and turning on this tidbit of information. He finished his beer, walked back inside to the fridge and grabbed a second one. Just as he popped the top, he heard the ding on his laptop, telling him another email had come in.

  He walked around the desk to check it. Another one from Stone. No wording, just a phone number. Badger raised his eyebrows, pulled out his cell phone again and dialed the number. Instantly a message on the other end of the line swept through. A voice almost recognizable.

  But not quite. He frowned as he listened to the standard I’m not here but please leave a message at the sound of the beep. Instead he hung up and dropped the phone on the desk. The least Stone could have done was say a little bit more about who the number belonged to. And maybe that was the trick. Stone had a phone number but no names. Intel, when it came, was often only a portion of what they needed. Badger sat down and searched a site for the phone number but came up with nothing.

  His phone rang a few minutes later. He picked it up and frowned when he saw the same number ID on the display dial. “Hello?”

  “You called me.” The voice was hard, curt.

  “I did. Looking for information on a change of orders from two years ago.” He heard the sucked-in breath of the man on the other end and realized this asshole knew something. “I pay for solid information,” he said calmly.

  “How much?”

  Badger leaned back in the chair and thought about this turn of events. “It depends on how good it is.”

  “It’s hard to say. Two years is a long time ago.”

  “Do you know something, or don’t you?”

  “I know the order was changed.”

  “I know it was changed too. But by who and why?”

  “A phone call came in, saying the original route was bad, and to make a last-minute change.”

  Badger leaned forward and then stood. “Who made that phone call?”

  “I don’t know. It came through secure lines. It had to be somebody out in the field that morning.”

  “Was the information checked and confirmed?”

  “There was no time. In order to save the men out in the field, the change of direction was done immediately.”

  Badger swore softly under his breath. He could see that happening. Any intel had to be accepted or rejected on the fly. Information was fluid. They would pick up a tidbit here and a tidbit there. But they had to be prepared to act. They’d been given their instructions; then they’d been given a new set on the way. It hadn’t been anything they had questioned. That was why they’d taken the change of direction. “No way to find out who that phone call came from?”

  “Not with the security level I have. Or at the level anybody I know has.”

  “Any suspicions?”

  The man took a deep breath. “Yeah. From inside the truck that blew up.”

  And he hung up.

  Chapter 2

  For the rest of that afternoon, Kat found herself staring off into space, caught on the enigma that was Badger. He cared about her but couldn’t let himself follow up. He might even be deliberately blocking his feelings.

  He couldn’t afford to let anything interfere with his revenge plan.

  She didn’t know all the details of the originating event, but this anger had been evident every time she’d seen him. She had also seen several of his navy friends from the same unit. She’d picked up little bits and pieces from each of them. The accident had been bad—not one of the eight-man team had escaped unscathed. She’d understood it was an accident. However, they had been in a war-torn country, driving in military vehicles while on active duty. Were there such things as accidents then?

  She dropped the folder she’d been working on to the stack at her side. Jim would come and retrieve them and refile at the end of the day. She was overwhelmed with work right now and would once again be taking her designs home to work on there as well. Most of her patients were simple cases, but a few, like Badger, required specialized designs. He’d lost his leg at midthigh and needed more muscle built up at the end for padding against the prosthetic cup. But he didn’t want more surgery.

  In the back of her mind she worried he didn’t figure to be around long enough to make it worthwhile.

  He didn’t give a damn about that either.

  And that hurt. She wanted to be enough for him to change his mind. To care enough to come back to her. She didn’t have any idealistic views of what a relationship with this man would entail. He’d never been an easy patient. The good news was, she’d already seen him at his worst. Nothing like a disgruntled patient to show her the man’s dark side. But that was only a prelude to the volcanic force being held back inside.

  Jim’s head popped around the corner. “The next patient just called. He’s had a breakdown and is stuck on the side of the road. He wants to reschedule for next week.”

  She nodded. “That’s fine. Any other patients this afternoon?” She flipped through her daily paper calendar atop her desk. A canceled appointment in many ways was a gift.

  “No, you’re done now.” He gave her a wide grin and a thumbs-up. “But don’t appear too happy. You’re several prototypes behind.”

  She groaned. “I know. Sadly. Close my door. No disturbances for the rest of the afternoon.”

  He closed the door quietly. She returned to the stacks of files on her desk. Where to start? For the next two hours she buried her head in Stacking’s file. He needed a better connection for his forearm. The car accident took off his arm at an angle, and the surgeon at the time had closed up the arm with the intent of keeping the man alive. The subsequent reconstructive surgery had taken a couple years, and she still didn’t have much to work with.

  When she lifted her head and looked around later, she found complete silence. No noise even came from the main office. She stood and stretched. Had Jim left?

  Moving slowly and breathing deeply, she walked to her office door and opened it. The lights and computer were off in the
main office. She glanced at the wall clock. It was after five.

  She rotated her neck to loosen the kinks. She had a habit of getting so involved that she lost track of everything else. Like today. She walked to the window, still adjusting to pull her out of her intense work mode. The late-afternoon sun was starting to fall, but it would be light for hours yet. Her gaze landed on a man leaning against a tree on the far side of the street. He was on his cell phone.

  Just like so many, he appeared to be unaware of what was going on around him. The digital world dominated every corner of society. It was a constant surprise to her, but still she was no better, having just now spent hours on the computer, researching. The world had changed.

  As she moved to the side of the window she caught a shift in the man’s head movement.

  Suspicious, but not knowing why, she deliberately stepped back out of sight.

  The stranger glanced around, then looked up to study her window. Unnerved, she watched until he walked toward the street corner, pocketing his phone. Feeling better, she returned to her computer. She had a few things to finish up; then she’d head home.

  As she set her security alarm, she once again had a weird feeling, setting the hairs on the back of her neck upright. She had no idea why she felt so unnerved.

  Except it was Tuesday.

  And that meant another letter would arrive tomorrow.

  They always came on a Wednesday.

  That night was one of the worst. Badger tossed and turned, woke up in a cold sweat, dropped back into sleep again, only to be blown up time and time again as his mind relived the horror of what he’d been through. Only now was the added element of somebody making a phone call. He tried to cast his mind back to that time, but he’d been riding shotgun in the front of the vehicle. He couldn’t tell who might have been sending a text or making a phone call behind him. They’d been in good spirits; the day was hot, sunny, with everyone in a good mood and good health.