Forged in Steele

CHAPTER 35

“GOT him in your sights, P.J.?” Steele murmured into his radio.

“Yeah, I got him. He so much as twitches wrong, I’ll nail him between the eyes.”

“Coast is clear, boss. No sign of anyone,” Renshaw reported in. “Unless he’s got people hanging back and waiting for his order. But no one has breached our perimeter.”

“Stay on it,” Steele ordered. “Baker, you stay with Maren. I don’t care what goes down, you do not leave her, and if shit goes south, you cover her and get her the hell out of here.”

“You got it,” Baker replied.

Steele waited at the bottom of the steps of his porch and watched as Hancock slowly made his way up the drive. His gait was different. He was moving stiffly, as though each step were painful.

When he got closer, Steele could see why.

Someone had beat the shit out of the man.

Hancock’s face was swollen and battered. His lip was split, and dried blood matted his hair. It was obvious he hadn’t even had enough time to clean up before coming here. Steele had a thousand questions, number one being how the fuck Hancock knew where to find him. If Rio had leaked that kind of information to his former teammate, Steele was going to kick his damn ass all over Belize.

“What the hell happened to you?” Steele asked bluntly when Hancock was just a few feet away.

“Caldwell has lost his shit,” Hancock said, not mincing words. “Where is Maren? Is she safe with you?”

Steele’s gaze narrowed and he pressed his lips into a thin line.

Hancock sent him a weary stare. “Look, we don’t have time to fuck around and have a pissing match over territory and who has the bigger dick. There’s a lot you need to know and fast. Maren isn’t safe and you need to know what you’re up against.”

“So you’re here to warn me,” Steele said, one eyebrow cocked upward.

“Believe what the fuck you want. Do you want the intel or not?”

Steele stared a long moment and then slowly nodded. Then he turned, gesturing toward the door. “Stand down,” he said into the radio. “He’s coming in, but maintain your position.”

As he opened the door he fixed Hancock with a fierce glare. “You do anything to frighten or upset Maren and I’ll make whoever did that to you look like an amateur. Got it?”

Hancock nodded. “Despite what you may think of me, I have no desire to see an innocent person hurt. I have an objective. Something you should understand. Succeed at all cost. Nothing gets in the way.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Steele said in a deadly soft tone. “If you’re trying to compare yourself to me to ease your conscience, that’s bullshit. I don’t use innocent people to achieve my objective.”

Hancock pushed in until he and Steele were nose to nose, neither backing down.

“Tell me something, ice man—yeah, I know what they call you—if there was a threat to Maren, if your objective was to keep her safe, would you give a damn who you hurt to achieve that goal? Would you give a damn who you had to use, or what you had to do to keep her alive?”

Steele stared back, unable to respond, because Hancock was dead on. Steele would do anything to protect Maren and keep her from harm. And he wouldn’t give a damn who he hurt in the process.

“So what’s your Kryptonite, Hancock?” Steele murmured. “What’s your motivation for your relentless pursuit of your goal? You used Grace. You used Maren. What’s driving you?”

Hancock’s gaze became shuttered and he stiffened. “We’re wasting time on useless bullshit.”

Steele knew he’d hit a sore spot, and yeah, who really gave a fuck what motivated Hancock. If he had intel that Maren was in danger, Steele damn well wanted to know about it.

As soon as they entered the living room, Maren gasped, her eyes widening in alarm when she saw Hancock. He didn’t know if it was because she feared his arrival or if she was shocked over his appearance.

He soon had his answer when Maren shoved by Baker and hurried up to Hancock.

“What on earth happened to you?” she demanded.

As she spoke, she reached up, probing one of the lacerations to his scalp.

“This needs stitching and it looks like your nose is broken. Did Tristan do this? Is it because you helped me get away?”

Hancock looked bemused by the rapid-fire questions and even more befuddled that Maren seemed concerned about him. He reared back so his head was out of reach.

“I have a lot I need to tell both of you,” Hancock said, looking between Maren and Steele.

“Well, you can tell us while I stitch those wounds. Steele, you have a med kit. Can you send Baker for it? Surely you have a suture kit.”

Steele swallowed back the smile that threatened. There was nothing remotely amusing about the situation, but he found it hilarious that Maren was barking orders like a seasoned drill sergeant and didn’t seem the least intimidated by Hancock.

Baker hurried to get the med kit and then Steele dismissed him to take watch with the others.

Moments later, Hancock was sitting on one of the stools at the bar in the kitchen while Maren focused intently on stitching his wounds.

“You need to watch your six,” Hancock said to Steele as Steele stood close by. No way Steele was leaving Maren with Hancock without Steele Velcroed to her side. “Caldwell has lost his shit.”

“Yeah, you said that already. But what does that mean? Did you shut him down? Why are you here and not wherever he is?”

“The entire situation was FUBAR,” Hancock said in disgust. “Caldwell went off the deep end after I got Maren out. Before, he played it cool. I was never in favor of him taking Maren. He could have hired anyone to do what he wanted her to do. I knew he had the hots for her, but I didn’t realize the full extent of his obsession.

“I kept Maren with us because I wanted to appease Caldwell and keep him focused on the deal he was working with the guy I’m after. Caldwell was just a means to an end. I was counting on him to lead me to Maksimov.”

“Whoa, wait a minute. Ivan Maksimov? The Russian?”

“I see you’ve heard of him,” Hancock said.

“Who the hell hasn’t?”

“Uh, me?” Maren said, pausing in her work.

Both men ignored her.

“You’re taking down Maksimov?” Steele asked. Despite his deep dislike of Hancock, the man had balls for going after Ivan Maksimov. This was a man not to be fucked with. He was feared—with good reason. He had a reputation for being utterly ruthless. It was rumored he’d killed one of his own children in front of its mother as punishment for the mistress defying him. Later he’d sold the woman into sexual slavery and when she attempted to help Interpol agents by feeding them information, her mutilated body had been found. In pieces.

“Caldwell was an up-and-comer. Big on the scene. He quickly gained a reputation for being able to get things done. Cleanly. He gained the notice of Maksimov, and Maksimov was interested in dealing with Caldwell. It was why Caldwell was leaving Costa Rica, having reconstructive surgery and assuming an entirely new identity and relocating to Kosovo.

“I got in with Caldwell at the right time. I gained his trust and I did what I had to do to make myself invaluable to him. I also exerted a lot of influence and control over him. It’s what I do. It’s what I did with Farnsworth. It’s a gift, I guess you would say.”

“Some gift,” Maren muttered.

“It’s a very valuable gift,” Hancock said. “After a while I can control them by making them do what I want while making them think it was their idea. And it was working fine until you.”

Maren tied off the knot and then stepped back with a frown. “What did I have to do with anything?”

“He’s bloody obsessed with you,” Hancock said bluntly. “He’s convinced himself that the child you carry is his.”

She went pale and reached out to brace her hand on the bar. Steele wrapped his fingers around her elbow to steady her.

“Easy, Maren,” he murmured next to her ear. “He can’t touch you here. Remember that.”

“He went crazy after I got you out. Lost focus. Didn’t give a shit about Maksimov. Started blowing him off because he was too busy turning the world upside down looking for you.”

“Oh God, please tell me you didn’t give him any information on me,” she said faintly.

Steele slipped his arm around her shoulders, offering her silent support. He was too pissed to say anything.

“I didn’t have to. It’s not hard to find, Maren,” Hancock said in an oddly gentle tone.

Steele was starting to wonder if Rio wasn’t right about Hancock having a heart buried somewhere under all those layers of stone. Hancock was being extremely gentle with Maren, treating her with gloves on. And she’d told Steele the lengths to which Hancock had gone to reassure her when Caldwell had kept her under lock and key.

“So what happened?” Maren blurted. “Why are you here and not with him?”

“I have Maksimov to blame for that,” Hancock replied. “Well, and the fact that Caldwell lost his shit and went off the rails.”

“Spill it,” Steele cut in, impatient to get to the point.

“From the moment Maren left, Caldwell was consumed with getting her back. Nothing else mattered. He was pissed at me, but still afraid enough of me not to push me. He didn’t think I knew the lengths he was going to in trying to locate Maren. He asked me a hundred questions about KGI, when before he’d blown them off as no threat to him.”

“And what did you tell him?” Steele asked harshly. Fuck it all, but all they needed was a batshit-crazy person unleashed on KGI. As if they didn’t have enough to deal with already.

“Nothing that would get him anywhere but enough to keep him busy and occupied. With Maren there, Caldwell was less interested in dealing with Maksimov and more focused on Maren. He was very close to losing his patience where she was concerned, and I expected him to make a move any day.”

Steele’s nostrils flared and his hold on Maren tightened, his fingers digging into her shoulder.

“I had hoped that if I removed Maren from the equation, Caldwell would refocus his attention, forget about her, move on. I underestimated his obsession with her.”

Steele’s eyes narrowed. “So the great badass Hancock fucked up.”

“If I’d fucked up, I would have left Maren there,” Hancock said, coldly meeting Steele’s stare.

“Anyway, when Maren was there, Caldwell kept canceling his meetings with Maksimov, citing his surgery and that he wasn’t fully recovered. Even well after the normal recovery period, Caldwell kept blowing him off, and Maksimov is not a man you want to piss off.

“As I said, I’d hoped that if I removed Maren, Caldwell would refocus and move forward and I’d be one step closer to taking them both down. I set up the meeting with Maksimov and then that morning, Caldwell simply disappeared. I went through his correspondence, his computer files, anything I could lay my hands on.

“Then Maksimov shows up and there’s no Caldwell and Maksimov didn’t take that very well. His men worked me over and told me to deliver a message to Caldwell when and if he showed up again. It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. Caldwell is a dead man.”

“Not if I get to him first,” Steele growled.

“Well, that’s the thing. You’re likely to do just that.”

Hancock glanced at Maren, reluctance in his expression as if he didn’t want to tell her what he was about to say.

“He knows where your parents live. It was evident he’d done extensive research on them and the area in which they live. He’s likely searching for you, but as unstable as he is, he’s likely to completely lose it if he doesn’t find you there.”

All the color leached from Maren’s face. Her eyes were huge, stricken with instant fear. She twisted from his grasp and lunged for Steele’s cell phone, her fingers fumbling with the buttons.

Steele got to her and forced her to look at him. “Breathe, Maren. Call your mom. Make sure everything’s all right. Then let me talk to her. I’ll tell your mom and dad what they need to do and I’ll have Sam get the plane there for them immediately. I don’t want you to worry. We’ll protect them and we’ll protect you.”

She nodded, some of the agitation fading from her eyes. She punched the buttons on the phone and then brought it to her ear, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited. For several long moments, she stood there, her lips drooping more and more as the silence extended.

“Mom, it’s me. Please call me back as soon as you get this. It’s urgent.”

Then she hung up the phone.

“Voice mail,” she said unnecessarily. “Oh God, Steele, what if he already has them?”

He went to her, slipping his hands over her shoulders and then rubbing up and down her arms in an effort to soothe her. “We don’t know that, Maren. Don’t panic. We’ll try again soon. Just keep it together until we know more, okay?”

She nodded, but the worry didn’t ease in her eyes.

Steele turned to Hancock. “You have a hell of a lot of answering to do. First, how did you know Maren was here and where to find me? Did Rio give you my location?”

Hancock’s lip turned up in a glimmer of a smile. “I didn’t contact Rio since I knew Maren wouldn’t be with him. Would have been a waste of time. I have resources you can’t imagine.”

“Who the hell are you working for?”

Hancock regarded him steadily. “Does it matter who signs my paychecks? Titan is no more. There’s talk we went rogue. We just don’t happen to be on Uncle Sam’s payroll any longer. But it doesn’t mean we’re traitors or that we don’t have the best interests of this country in mind. You’re so derisive of me—of us—but how the hell are we any different than your KGI? Just because I don’t work for Uncle Sam doesn’t mean I don’t still have access to contacts and intel, and it doesn’t mean we don’t take private assignments that no one else has the resources to touch. We aren’t bound by politics and bullshit foreign policies. We aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty if the cause is righteous. But what’s righteous to one may not be righteous to another. And we don’t just work for U.S. interests. We take out any threat to national and world security. Think what you want of me, Steele. I don’t give a fuck. But for a man I’m trying to help, you have a shitty way of showing gratitude.”

Steele bared his teeth. “The only goddamn thing I’m concerned about is the safety of Maren and our child. Yeah, my child. Not fucking Caldwell’s baby. Maren and that baby are both mine, so you stay the fuck out of my way when it comes to protecting her because I don’t give a goddamn what your mission is, how fucking righteous it is or how it tips the scale in world politics. This is my family we’re talking about here, and I’ll take you and whoever the hell else out in order to protect my family.”

Hancock lifted an eyebrow in a mocking gesture. “And they say you’re the ice man. You and I have a lot in common, or so I’m led to believe. But maybe we’re both a lot more passionate than we’re given credit for. But where you’re a black-and-white kind of guy, I’m so buried in gray that I’ll never see the sunshine again. My soul is damned, but as long as at the end of the day I can look in the mirror and know the world is a better place for what I’ve done, then I don’t give one fuck what you or anyone else thinks.”

Steele’s lips curled in a sneer. “You don’t know fuck-all about black and white.”

Hancock regarded him a moment. “No, I suppose that wasn’t an entirely accurate statement. I know about what went down with Brumley and your team member P.J. Rutherford. Or is it Coletrane now? Heard they got hitched. And I know she took out Brumley’s men before killing him in cold blood while you stood by. So yeah, I’d say you have no room to judge me, Steele. You’ve crossed the line, but I suppose that’s okay when you’re the one crossing it as long as no one else does, eh?”

“Fuck you, Hancock. I don’t owe you shit. You protected Maren, but then you could have damn well prevented her being taken in the first place, so don’t expect my gratitude for the weeks she spent in that bastard’s hands, pregnant and terrified. She should have never been in that position in the first place, especially since you supposedly exerted so much control over Caldwell and wielded that much influence. You could have put a halt to his wanting to take Maren, but you didn’t because it advanced your mission. And say what you want about the choices I’ve made, but I’ve never willingly put an innocent person in harm’s way to achieve my goals.”

“Ah, so you didn’t send your teammate undercover in a situation where she was vulnerable and without the backup of her team. Okay.”

Fury seared through Steele’s mind. Blinding rage mixed with guilt, guilt he’d lived with ever since that night when P.J. had been savagely attacked. He lived with that every goddamn day. He regretted that decision and the fact that he’d failed P.J. and the rest of his team. And having it thrown back in his face by this smug bastard made him want to put his fist right through Hancock’s teeth.

“Stop it! Both of you!” Maren cried. “This isn’t helping! I don’t care about what was or is, or what either of you have done in the past. It doesn’t matter! What’s done is done. I just want to know that my parents are all right and that that monster doesn’t have his hands on them.”

Steele turned, regret already registering. She was right. This wasn’t the time or the place, and he was letting his own worry and fear take over. But Maren didn’t need this from him or Hancock. She needed reassurance and she needed his support. He wasn’t going to fail her. He wasn’t going to let someone he was responsible for down again. He’d live with regret for the rest of his life over what had happened to P.J., and he’d be damned if he’d ever let anything happen to Maren and their child.

He ran a hand through his hair and sent her a look of apology. Then he turned back to Hancock.

“So why are you here? Just to warn me and then you’re on your way back to whatever hole you crawl out of when you pull a mission?”

“I’m here because I’m no more willing to let Caldwell get his hands on Maren than you are. Maksimov may have slipped through my fingers—this time—but Caldwell needs to go down. I’ll just have to find another way to take Maksimov out. And I’ll do it. No matter how long it takes, no matter what I have to do. He’s going down. Caldwell is going to take first priority at the moment. He’s unstable, and with his wealth and connections, there’s no telling how far he’ll go to get what he considers his back. He won’t care who he has to hurt as long as the end result is him getting what he wants.”

Maren went even paler until Steele worried she’d drop. Her eyes were huge against her colorless face.

He opened his mouth to offer her reassurance, but he knew they’d be empty words. He had no idea what they were dealing with, where Caldwell was, and as Hancock had said, there was no way of knowing just how far he’d go in his single-minded pursuit of Maren.

“I’ll call Sam. He was going to talk to a local security firm about protection for your family. He was going to have it in place so that when they went home after visiting you they would be protected. But I’ll call him and get him on it immediately. We’ll find your folks and get them here as fast as we can. Once they’re here, we can work out a plan that includes round-the-clock protection for you as well as them.”

She looked a little relieved and then the phone rang, causing her to jump. She glanced down at the phone and then her face lit up. “Steele, it’s my parents’ number! Oh, thank God!”