The Echo of Violence by Jordan Dane

play twenty questions?”
    “Attitude? You’re giving me attitude here?” She shrugged. “Look, I don’t see anyone else lined up outside. So cut the crap. You asked for help, and I brought a team. Whatever beef you have with Garrett, I don’t care. It’s not gonna interfere with this mission. Capisce? ”
    His jaw tightened and he narrowed his eyes. Eventually he took a deep breath and gave her an almost imperceptible nod. That was all the concession she’d get from him.
    Kinkaid crossed his muscled arms over his chest, and his broad shoulders and narrow hips got her attention again. The man carved out his own corner, leaving little elbow room in the cramped space for her to feelcomfortable in. Thankfully, he kept his distance and leaned against a wall. His man Joe backed off and took the corner of a mattress.
    She still had one more point to make.
    “And while we’re setting ground rules, there’s another thing we’re gonna get straight. I’m in charge of this mission. I make the call on pulling the plug. If I see you or your friend endangering my team, I won’t hesitate to take you both out of the equation. Is that clear?”
    “Crystal. What else?” His somber expression gave her nothing. Only his gruff tone sent her a warning that he wasn’t in the mood for playing nice.
    “Garrett said you had intel. What happened after the bastards left the clinic? Are they still in Haiti, or did they get out?”
    “They left by boat,” he said. “I saw them leave, heading north.”
    “But you didn’t tell the cops,” she guessed.
    “No.”
    By the look on his face, he challenged her to ask why. She didn’t.
    “Tell me everything,” she said.
    Kinkaid gave her what he’d seen, from specs on the boat to bad-guy head counts, weapons details, and the number and condition of the hostages—a thorough account that not even the Haitian police had. His intel might keep them one step ahead of anyone else.
    “These guys had a SAT phone, handheld GPS units, and a damned laptop,” he told her. “And they were in and out like they’d run the scenario before and knewwhere to go. They had to be connected to a handler. Why else would they come with all that high-tech gear?”
    He shook his head and continued, “The Haitian cops didn’t stand a chance. They were outgunned, and all they had were dated walkie-talkies. Hell, the terrorists were willing to die, Alexa.”
    “Maybe we can help them with that.” She narrowed her eyes. “Anything else?”
    “Yeah, I got a good look at their tracks after they left the medical clinic. If we cross their path, I’ll know what to look for.”
    The man had given her plenty of detail. Alexa knew how outraged she would have been if this attack had happened to her, but Kinkaid was taking this harder than she would have believed for a guy who was on the payroll of drug cartels. Something else was at play that she didn’t understand, and instinct told her to have patience. A guy like Kinkaid wouldn’t be pushed into talking if he didn’t feel like sharing.
    “This is good stuff, Jackson. I’ll feed your account back to Garrett. See if he can ID the terrorist cell. And someone might have claimed responsibility on Arab news. Al Jazeera might have something by now. I’ll let you know.”
    After he nodded, she held up her file and stepped toward a small table near the door. “I’ve got satellite digitals. If we can narrow down the time, we might figure out where they went.”
    “That’s great. Let’s do it.” He looked surprised to have satellite surveillance and sat down next to her atthe table. He was slow to move and looked beat-up, with bruises on his jaw under the shadow of his day-old beard.
    “What’s wrong with you, hotshot? You look a little rough.”
    “It’s nothing.”
    She opened her file and put a series of satellite images on the table. Narrowing the time, they were able to locate the time stamp that worked. Using what Kinkaid had witnessed and her