Hell for Leather: Black Knights Inc. by Julie Ann Walker

for breakfast.
    “She also said…” Zoelner stopped, scrunching up his face. “How did she put it? She said that in an effort to assist us in our exemplary work for the president and his Joint Chiefs, they’ve been monitoring the online activities on one of our computers and—”
    “The hell you say!” Ozzie exploded. “Which one? I have anti-spy programs running on all of them!”
    “Well, they’re obviously getting around that somehow, hermano ,” Steady observed.
    Now it looked like Ozzie munched on babies for breakfast. He attacked his laptop keyboard as if he had a personal vendetta against the poor thing.
    “Go on,” Boss growled. “They’ve been monitoring the online activities on one of our computers and what ?”
    “And they were wondering if there was anything they could do to assist us in our most recent endeavor regarding Theo Fairchild,” Zoelner finished in a rush, still wearing a slightly bewildered expression.
    “Yeah, well, that sounds like a prime example of my cow done up and died so I don’t need your bull,” Mac said. “Why would the CIA give one shit, much less two, about helpin’ us? I don’t trust those people.”
    “Yeah,” Zoelner snorted. “You don’t have to tell me. Remember I used to be one of those people.”
    Mac made a face. “Then what did you tell her?” And Delilah was curious about that as well. Was it possible the CIA could do something more than the Knights in locating Uncle Theo? Were there…she didn’t know…some sort of secret CIA ways and means?
    “I told her we were simply looking for Delilah’s missing uncle,” Zoelner said. “And I told her that unless they had some sort of LoJack on Theodore Fairchild or his old Marine Corps buddy, Charles Sander, there wasn’t much they could do.”
    Okay. Apparently the CIA didn’t have any sort of secret ways and means. Shit.
    “Good.” Boss nodded. “Sooo,” he drew out the word, “barring any more mysterious telephone calls from the CIA, I think we all have our assignments here. Let’s get to it.”
    “Permission to stay behind and figure out how those goddamned spooks are monitoring our Internet activities?” Ozzie said, typing frantically.
    “Permission denied,” Boss said, causing Ozzie to glance up from his laptop screen. “You’ve got more important things to do besides getting into a dick-measuring contest with the CIA’s tech boys. You go help find Theo. You can whip it out and prove your superiority to the spooks when you get back.”
    “But—”
    “No buts,” Boss announced, pushing up from the table.
    Delilah stood along with the rest of the group, itching to mount up on Big Red, her beloved custom BKI motorcycle, and hit the road. But a loud squawk followed by a quickly indrawn breath drew her attention over to Ali.
    “Uh…folks?” the blonde said, wrinkling her nose and staring down at the floor. “My water just broke.”

Chapter Six
    Holy shit, I’m such an idiot.
    Chelsea reached up to slide her forefinger and thumb beneath her glasses, pinching the bridge of her nose. What were the odds that her supervisor would ask her to call Dagan on this night? And what were the odds that she’d completely forget just what this night meant?
    “I didn’t expect to hear from you,” had been Dagan’s initial salvo. “Not tonight of all nights.” To which, idiot that she was, she’d responded with, “Tonight? What’s so special about tonight?”
    The words had been out of her mouth a half second before she glanced at the date on the lower right-hand corner of her laptop screen, a half second too late for her to call them back.
    “Oh…” was Dagan’s immediate retort, and there’d been no mistaking the hurt in his voice the moment before all emotion whatsoever disappeared. She could picture him getting completely still in that weird way of his, becoming a living, breathing statue. “So, what do you want then, Agent Duvall?”
    Agent Duvall…
    He never used to call her