Military Romance Academy! The Series

P R O L O G U E : R E C R U I T M E N T

Undisclosed location

Luke blinked, adjusting his gaze to the dimly lit room once the

black bag had been removed from his head.

"Sorry I had to do that, but I can't let anyone know where we are. Not even you." A deep voice came from behind, which had Luke casting a suspicious glance over his shoulder at a man in a suit.

"And binding my wrists behind my back? What was that for?"

"Had to curb your impulse to yank the bag off your head." The man now held a seven-inch, partially serrated steel blade and circled the chair to remove the flex-cuffs.

Luke eyed the weapon as the man set it on the table alongside a laptop.

The man dropped his focus to Luke's shoes before his attention gathered back up to his face. "Why the hell are you in your dress blues?" He folded his arms and squared his shoulders.

"Why else does one take a C-17 cargo plane in the middle of the night to Dover . . . unless to ID or pay respects to a serviceman lost?" Luke wasn't about to show up in cargo pants and a tee for that.

"Hm." His head crooked to the side ever so slightly.

"Clearly, since men in suits bagged and cuffed me upon landing, this trip is about something else." Luke stood and hooked his thumbs in his slacks pockets, trying his best to maintain his cool. "So, you gonna tell me why your man pulled me from Jalalabad?"

The guy remained quiet for a moment, simply observing Luke as if unsure about him. The feeling was damn mutual. "Speaking of which, you didn't need to give my guy a hard time in J-Bad about leaving. Surely you have confidence in your team to handle the HVT you were recently greenlighted for."

Tension tapped at Luke's temples, pressure building there. "Who the hell are you?"

Few people were privy to commissioned ops led by the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or more commonly known as DEVGRU or SEAL Team Six-so this man had to be high up in the chain of command.

He continued to study him, trying to gauge if he'd seen him before and just couldn't remember for some damn reason. Threads of silver darted through his black hair, and his green eyes tightened as he continued to observe Luke right back.

The guy's chin edged forward. "Your sister's been kidnapped."

An instant coolness frosted his insides as the man's words replayed in his head for a solid minute. "Who took her?"

"Kaleem Rassani."

Silence hung heavy in the windowless room, the only light coming from a low-watt bulb dangling from a thin cord at the center of the ceiling.

Was this an interrogation site?

"Why'd you bring me here?" he asked through gritted teeth, his arms hanging loosely at his sides now.

"Your sister, of course. We thought you'd want to be part of the investigation." He kept his green eyes steady on Luke's.

Neither man blinked.

"For starters, the Feds would handle a kidnapping case." Luke took one step forward. "There's no way a Tier One operative would be pulled from J- Bad to interfere with an FBI investigation." He took another step, the distance dwindling to a foot between them. "Interfere being the key word because I couldn't possibly remain objective. Also, if I found the cocksucker who'd taken my sister I'd slice and dice the pig. And that kind of shit might float during war, but not on U.S. soil."

The guy remained quiet and impassive, his lips a straight line, his face resolute and unreadable.

"Secondly, Kaleem Rassani's dead. I should know since I double-tapped the bastard two months ago outside Ramadi. Two kill rounds fired because

the guy wouldn't put his hands behind his head."

"Anything else you want to add?" he responded with a mock of casualness in his tone.

"Actually, yeah. I'd venture to say you're not a congressman based on your cocksure attitude and posture. And given the SOG S 37-K blade you've got over there, it's safe to assume you were once a Teamguy. How long have you been out of the SEALs? And why the hell are you lying to me about my sister being kidnapped?"

The only door into the room opened a split second later. A spear of light shone through, and his sister walked in.

Luke looked back at the man, and the guy removed a comm from his ear. He assumed his sister had been listening to the conversation.

"What the hell is going on?" Luke sidestepped him and strode across the room, embracing his sister.

It was nice to see her alive and safe, even if he'd known in his gut she hadn't been taken.

When Jessica pulled back, he realized she looked different. There was an unmistakable hardness in her blue eyes. He recognized it because he saw the same look in the mirror every time he viewed his reflection.

"You might want to sit back down." Jessica motioned for the chair, but her eyes were on the man Luke didn't trust right now. And trust was everything to him.

"I'll stand. Thanks," Luke responded.

"I told you he wouldn't fall for it." A kick of sarcasm bit through her words as she stood before the man, her hands settling on her hips.

"He passed the first test, but we'll need to run more," the guy said as if pained by the idea.

"Tests?" Luke pinched the skin at his throat as he faced his sister, a rush of unease gathering up his spine.

Jessica brushed a loose strand of blonde hair off her face. "Can I take point on this?" She directed her question to the man, clearly a superior, which didn't make a lick of sense since she worked for a civilian cyber company.

"It was your idea to bring him in, so yeah, I suppose." He extended his palm. "Will Hobbs."

Luke's eyes widened as he gripped his hand. "The Ghost?"

Will Hobbs had been a legend in the SEALs back around the time of 9/11. The man had basically reinvented what it meant to be a Teamguy. He and Luke belonged to the same exclusive fraternity, which must have been why Luke had sensed a familiarity about him.

It was the job of a SEAL to stay in the shadows, and Will had been a master at that. But the last Luke had heard, Will worked for the Department of Defense.

So, why was he standing before Luke right now, and what was Jessica doing with him?

"I need answers, Jessica."

"I'll be outside when you're ready." Will tipped his head in Luke's direction, but the icy edge in his eyes remained.

Jessica waited for Will to leave and inhaled a deep breath as if she were about to go diving without the proper gear. "So."

"So." He stood before her with his hands tucked beneath his armpits. "I'm not who you think I am," she said softly.

"Yeah, I'm getting that." He cleared his throat and kept quiet after that, waiting for her to drop something seriously heavy on him.

"I was recruited from MIT my last year of school. I went to the Farm when I was twenty-two, and my job at Henly Computers has been a cover ever since."

"You're CIA?" He couldn't believe it. How the hell could his baby sister be government and he not know it?

Her eyes cruised the room before finding his again. "No one knows. Not Mom or Dad. No one. I'm sorry I had to keep this from you."

He turned his back and shoved his hands into his pockets, his mind racing faster than the bullet from his 50-caliber sniper rifle.

"Why are you telling me now?"

"Because I need you." Her voice dropped an octave, and she walked around him and toward the laptop on the table. "Your country needs you."

"My country has me." He stood next to her and looked at the screen. "What the hell are you talking about?"

She began clicking through various case files of operations, including some ops he'd led as master chief. "I know about your missions. I know your kill count. Hell, I've provided the DOD with some of the intel needed to greenlight a few ops."

His sister's government-talk blew his mind. "And?" He pressed a closed fist onto the table and glimpsed a woman he didn't recognize anymore.

Seven years in the CIA. Seven years of lies.

But he was familiar with lies, wasn't he? Only his closest friends knew he was a SEAL, and they only knew because they were military, too. He didn't have friends who weren't in the service, or at least former Teamguys. He'd even lost touch with his college buddies.

It was hard to carry on a conversation with most people when work was your life and your job was classified.

"These are either the missions that were screwed up because intel got leaked to the press," she said while pointing to new data onscreen, "or the ops that never got the go from Congress or the DOD because they were in friendly nations or whatnot."

He straightened, his spine going stiff. "What's your point?"

She looked away from the screen and rested a hand on her collarbone. "Ever since bin Laden was taken down our Tier One operatives have been increasingly in the public eye. It's become more difficult to stay out of the spotlight." She found his eyes, and an almost grim look reflected off her irises and slammed into him. "And even though you guys pretty much operate under different rules, there's still too much red tape."

This wasn't new to him, but he waited for her to get to the point. "Will got approval from President Rydell . . ."

"For what?"

"We want to form a team to run more covert special ops. We want you to lead ten men-all active duty SEALs."

"Why poach from the SEALs? Why not recruit retired Teamguys?"

"Will thinks we should recruit men who are still at the top of their game."

"This is crazy."

"Crazy or not, it's going to happen. The team will be on call for the powers that be."

He almost laughed as he stepped back from his sister. "Which powers exactly?"

"Secretary of Defense Tom Handlin and CIA Director Paul Rutherford. And, of course, POTUS. If they need something done that can't be on the books, they'll come to us. Only a handful of people will know about this."

He continued to eye her like she was, in fact, nuts.

She took a breath before continuing, "You'd be handling the sensitive jobs we can't get Congress to approve, or other matters that may involve dipping our toes in friendly nations. Hell, some ops may take place on American soil. The funding won't be great because we need to stay under the radar, but the jobs will be impactful."

"Sounds illegal to me." He shifted his gaze to the ceiling. "Besides, I don't want to step on the Feds' toes and get into hot water by operating in the U.S." He turned and closed his eyes when she remained quiet. "Why'd you lie about being kidnapped?"

"To prove to Will you're the man for the job. He's worried because we're family you and I can't work together, which is ridiculous since I put you in harm's way in the past. Of course, my intel was always spot on." She touched his back.

"I can't believe you're a spy. Mom and Dad should never have let you watch that Alias show growing up. You always wanted to be like that CIA character." He made a tsk noise and faced her.

"Luke . . . this is serious."

"You think I'm kidding?" He shook his head.

"I guess it runs in the family then." She gave him a shy smile.

"So, you're asking me to lead some black ops group-and what else, exactly?"

"Co-lead, actually. I'll run it with you." Her lips tightened for a second. "We'll recruit SEALs with limited family obligations. We'll need a good cover though."

He half-grinned. "An alias?"

"How does Scott & Scott Securities sound?" He laughed. "Like we're going to be lawyers."

"No, not even I could fake that. But I figure the best way to hide is behind the truth. Well, a version of the truth."

He rocked back on his heels, trying to wrap his head around everything. "We'll run a security company." She crossed her arms. "It'll look as if our people retired and work in the private sector. Government contractors or

whatnot."

"Then you might consider actually hiring some retired SEALs, too." She opened her mouth to object, but he raised his hand.

"Hear me out." He quirked a brow and smiled when she nodded. "Hire some younger vets to run the day-to-day operations of this tactical security

company. They won't be privy to what we're doing on the side, but it'll look more legit if we have more people. Plus, they can run things when we're not around."

"It might be hard to keep it a secret from a bunch of SEALs, but I get what you're saying. I'll talk to Will."

"And where does Will Hobbs fit in with all of this?"

"He'll be our only point of contact, the one to alert us to a mission."

Luke thought about everything carefully, but didn't know what to say. He didn't want to leave his platoon, but the idea of his sister getting hurt had his stomach wrenching.

"There's an important caveat . . . if an op goes south-"

"The government doesn't know us," he finished. "We're on our own." She gave a hesitant nod. "So, what do you think?"

Instead of answering, he asked, "How'd you move up so quickly in the agency? You must be damn good if Will came to you with this idea."

A smile lit her face as she pointed a finger at her chest. "Came to me?" She playfully rolled her eyes, her blues softening. "I'm the brains behind this."

"And you really want to give up your cushy CIA gig to do this deep- cover stuff?"

She chuckled and swatted at his arm. "'Cushy' my ass. I've been holed up in barracks not much different than yours these past several years."

His eyes narrowed even though a slight smile tugged at his lips. "How the hell did you pull the wool over my eyes all these years?"

"My boss thought it'd be dangerous for you to know the truth in case I ever needed an extract. He was worried you'd, literally or figuratively, jump ship to save me."

"And Will seems to have a similar idea about me."

"What would you have really done if you thought I'd been kidnapped?" she asked.

"I guess you'll never know because I won't let anything happen to you." "Does that mean you're in?"

He wrapped a hand around the nape of his neck. "You think I'm going to let someone else take point on this, with you at the helm? No damn way. I've got your back, sis. As always."

She threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you. You need to jump through a few more hoops for Will, but I promise you won't regret this."