Read Talon: Combat Tracking Team (A Breed Apart) for Free Online

him out. If we don’t—”
    Burnett held up a hand. “I know. And so does Payne. They’re sending a team—”
    “They send anyone who smells like American military down there, the hounds of hell are going to rip out their hearts. Then you’ll lose him for good.”
    Blue eyes held his. “Son, this is not my first rodeo and you’re not Cardinal, god of the spy sea.”
    The terse words pulled Cardinal off balance. The general had never snarled at him like that. Which meant one of two things: Burnett agreed with Payne, or Burnett was ticked off, too.
    Either way, his mission just got tanked. Austin’s life had been put in dire straits.
    There was no battle to fight here. Payne tied Burnett’s hands. Which cut off Cardinal’s limbs. And possibly severed the heart of a family—the Courtland’s.
    Not that they’d ever know their son had been abandoned by their country.
    Aspen already knows that
. She just didn’t have the right definition to MIA: Presumed Dead. To her, it meant they couldn’t find a body. Cardinal knew the truth—the U.S. buried the body with its complacency and bureaucracy. He respected laws and procedures.
    They defined civilizations, prevented collapses.
    They also crippled civilizations. Initiated collapses.
    He’d seen it too many times. Cardinal gave a nod of surrender. Gritted his teeth, then turned for the door.
    “Cardinal.”
    He opened the door and dragged his attention back to where it did not want to go.
    “Don’t.”
    A smile almost made it to his face.
    “I mean it.” Burnett leaned forward, rested his arms on his desk. “That very propensity to go rogue is why you got benched. Let them handle this.”
    “Of course.”
    “I mean it. I’d hate to see you fly off without his stamp of approval,” Burnett said. “Then get down there and need help. They’d be all over my hide.” A smile twinkled behind the terse words. “I’d have to send my very best after you to drag your sorry hide back here.”
    Cardinal stared at the general. The man who’d taken him under his wing, guided him, honed his skills, taught him things, learned things from Cardinal…and always, always saw things the same way Cardinal did.
    “Understood.”

Amadore’s Fight Club
Austin, Texas
    “Good gravy, girl.”
    Aspen eyed her friend as they headed into Amadore’s, assaulted at once with the thick odor of sweat and BO wafting toward them. “What?”
    “You only e-mailed him two days ago. What do you expect? He was in DC, for crying out loud. For him to drop everything and come up here?”
    Bristling at her best friend’s wisdom, Aspen strode back to the women’s locker room, which wasn’t more than a converted broom closet with a shower well. “He’s military. He’ll get it. If he was with Austin, then he was a Green Beret.”
    “Girl, I don’t know. I couldn’t find record of that.”
    “You’re an investigative reporter, Britt, not the FBI. Records like his would be blacked out or concealed.” It was a stretch, but hey, it made her feel better.
    Brittain Larabie tossed her bag onto the bench. “What if he doesn’t come?”
    Aspen turned to her friend. “We went over all of that with the others before I e-mailed him at your condo.”
    “Yeah,” Brittain said, with a roll of her head. “And if I remember, not everyone thought it was a good idea to bring this guy into the plan. In fact, Timbrel said you were digging a grave. And Darci says this man’s psych profile showed a lethal dedication to his career. She’s not convinced he’s right. I was with this guy an hour and he never smiled. I mean—creepy! And—”
    “Enough!” Aspen thrust her hands into her hair and tied it back with black elastic as she met Brittain’s gaze in the mirror. “We
need
him—he was there with Austin the day of the attack.” Yanking the zipper on her bag, she felt the tension tangling her mind and thoughts. “He knows what happened. Maybe I’ll have enough to file an appeal or something