Sworn to Secrecy (Special Ops) Read Free Page A

Alex. They were like family—they were family, and they all worried about each other, would die for each other and would kill for each other if it came down to that. After the usual before mission speech Alex left. He needed to secure his home, gather his things and make sure he was completely ready for his mission. Hanging around the office would only be procrastinating and he wasn’t much for procrastinating. Things needed to be done, so he set about doing them. “No time like the present,” he had said. “No time like the present.” And with those words he secured his home, packed his gear and turned in for a few hours of sleep before boarding the plane at three o’clock in the morning. The package was coming home. There was no doubt in his mind about that at all.

 
    Chapter Two
     

     
    I t was hot; he was tired and after a long night and day of travel, getting to the package seemed like a glorious relief of pressure. Alex wasn’t complaining—much. He was used to hard missions in inhospitable conditions, but there was a sudden sense of urgency in this mission. No demands had been sent yet. No contact had been officially made and that told him that the package could soon be dead or moved to another location.
     
      He saw which hut the package was being held in so he knew he could get to her, but he also knew he had to play this smart. Just walking into the village wasn’t going to get him what he needed. It might get him killed though. He needed to enter covertly, that was the plan, but apparently they were having some kind of party that night because the fire was burning, the food was cooking and the people were festive. He didn’t see her until she came out the hut, accompanied by several women and one man. She was adamantly refusing something; he didn’t know what but the look on her face and the tension in her body caused him to speculate. Given the people clearly watching her moves, he would guess she wasn’t getting much alone time. He wasn’t worried; he knew he could find his way in. He would retrieve the package and back to Austin they would go. He could sit out on his porch and do some stargazing. Watching the stars happened to be one of his favorite past times and from what he had been tracking before he left he knew the sky was going to be lit up with a meteor shower in just a few days. He wanted to be back in time to catch the show.
     
    It would be nice to have somebody to watch it with, but since his last relationship ended he hadn’t jumped into another. He was too busy dealing with work and balancing his family—or more like surviving his family. Kevin had inked yet another endorsement deal and his parents just had to throw a few parties they required him to attend. He couldn’t even use the excuse of work because at the time of the parties he wasn’t on a rescue mission. Maybe he didn’t care as much about the parties. He was rather used to the “Kevin is a god and you’re a nobody” treatment he received, but what he couldn’t adjust to was seeing his brother dating one of his ex-girlfriends. It wasn’t the last woman he had been with; that relationship had ended and that was his choice since she had cheated on him. But Kevin had taken interest in Krystal Diggs, the first woman he thought he might just be in love with. When she moved to California it had been hard for both of them, but they were going to make it work. At least she said they were. He understood long distance relationships. He was in the military; he knew what it was like to be thousands of miles away from each other. He thought they were okay until he got the email that she had met somebody else. Apparently absence did not make the heart grow fonder.
     
    Now she was back in Texas. She was moving to Dallas to be with Kevin. Krystal had moved away for a job when they were together, but she was willing to give that same job up just to be with his brother. He found out about their relationship at one of the