Heat Seeker by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online Page B

pretty much described Raymond to a T.
    She nodded toward him sharply before moving quickly back to the ballroom and the party she had organized so painstakingly. She was on a deadline. She didn’t have time to be drawn into John Vincent’s games. She didn’t have time to allow her heart to be broken again. She had a past to put to rest, and trying to resurrect her lover in another man wasn’t part of the plan.

C HAPTER 2

     
     
     
    JOHN STARED OUT INTO the Colorado mountains from the cabin Jordan rented for the time the team would be in Aspen. A frown pulled at his brows as the rest of the men began to gather in the room behind him, their images wavering in the glass of the window.
    Jordan had arrived earlier and set up a situation room of sorts. There was plenty of hot coffee, computers along one wall displaying a multitude of images, and several communication bases staffed by the redheaded spitfire Jordan had brought in just after the inception of the Elite Operations Unit.
    Tehya Talamosi Fitzhugh was the daughter of a white slaver whom Ian Richards, and the SEALs he’d worked with at the time, had brought down. She’d spent her life running from the Fitzhughs and once that was over, she had been unwilling to step into any life other than the one she had learned how to live within. One of danger.
    “I’m going to assume last night went about as well as you expected it to,” Jordan announced as the rest of the team gathered around the large table set up in the room.
    John turned away from the vista spread out beyond the cabin and faced a room filled with dead men. Noah Blake had once been known as Navy SEAL Nathan Malone. Then there was Travis Caine, a former MI-6 agent; Nik Steele, a former Russian intelligence officer; Micah Sloane, Bailey’scousin and former Israeli Mossad agent; and Jordan Malone, Noah’s uncle and the commander who had fought to keep five dead men from living again. He had a hell of a job cut out for him, as two of them had already reclaimed parts of their lives.
    “She’s uncertain and angry.” He shrugged addressing the question. “We expected that.”
    “Then find a way to work around it,” Jordan ordered him. “We received word last night that Warbucks is getting ready to move on his next acquisition. We can’t afford to let that sale go through.”
    “We’re certain he’s here?” Nik leaned forward, staring at Jordan intently. “There’s no sense in drawing her into this and endangering her further if we’re not certain.”
    Jordan stared back at the six-foot-five-inch Russian coolly.
    “Would we be here if I weren’t certain?” he asked.
    Nik shrugged. “Knowing you, Commander, one can never be certain.”
    There were a few chuckles from the other men, especially Noah Blake. They all knew Jordan. He was sharp as hell and one of the best commanders John had ever worked with, but he was a bit prone to go with his gut rather than proof. Not that his gut had been wrong yet, but there was always a first time.
    “You’ve read the same reports I have,” Jordan finally grunted. “Code-named Warbucks, this individual or group of individuals is acquiring top-secret information and hardware and billions in sales on the black market. There’s rumor that Warbucks has acquired this.” Jordan turned to the large monitor on the wall.
    The black screen flickered to show an image of a soldier holding a shoulder-mounted missile launcher. When he fired, they watched as the missile exploded from the barrel. Within seconds it took out a military drone flying above the accepted limit for commercial airliners.
    “Code-named
CROSSFIRE
, the military’s new toy has exceptional speed and reach,” Jordan informed them. “But it has even more. It can be programmed to a specific aircrafteither using a stealth transmitter that can be attached to the hull of the aircraft, or using the airplane’s electronics themselves.
CROSSFIRE
can be programmed to the transmitter, fired in