Free On Thin Ice (Special Ops) by Capri Montgomery

where a ringing phone could give his position away. Or he might not have any coverage at all. He would have to turn the phone off before he went out on foot. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t ever been out of contact while on a mission, but this time he needed access to updates, and he needed to let Aaron and Sakura know there was hope. This was the first time he wanted to keep the people who hired him updated on every step. He knew he couldn’t do that, and that he shouldn’t do that, but he still felt compelled to do it. Feeling compelled to do it didn’t mean he was going to risk screwing up. After he set out on foot the phone would simply have to go silent until he could make his next call to Alex.
     
    He looked at one black and white picture in particular and he recognized the subject in the photo. Then he saw another photograph and then another series of them one right behind the other. “Why do you have pictures of him?”
     
    “Who?”
     
    He held up the picture.
     
    “Oh, the supposed cop,” she laughed. “Actually I can’t find anything to say that he’s not on the level, other than the fact that he’s going by a different name. I got that picture out of a file from about seven years ago. I don’t know who took it, or when they took it, but I found it while searching some government files.” She winked at him and he knew her search had been anything but legal. “I couldn’t find anything on him really. I was just curious as to why the photo was there. The only name that I found with the picture was Nikifor Chuchin. There was no other information attached to it…nothing at all. And you know me; I can’t resist a good mystery. From what I can tell he changed his name somewhere along the way. My research on this guy faded fast. He just vanished off the map. Basically I lost track of him until I saw him on the tube today giving a statement about catching the guys. I don’t know if he’s friend or foe, Jet. I can’t find anything on him. It’s like he just vanished as Nikifor and showed up as Nathan.”
     
    “He doesn’t have an accent.”
     
    “From what I could find on Nikifor it would seem that he was born in America to parents who were second generation Americans. He was born in Michigan and then his family moved to New York, New Jersey and then dropped off the grid when he was probably fourteen or fifteen, but I can’t be sure on his age at the time, just that they all vanished. In that photo he looks older so I would say the government was keeping tabs on him for some reason. I wouldn’t trust him. I’m not even sure how he obtained the credentials he has…but he could have fabricated enough information to get on the force. I was planning to investigate later. This really isn’t my war, but I like to know who’s in my backyard if you know what I mean. I just wanted to get some target practice in first.”
     
    He nodded. “What you’ve given me is enough to get me going.”
     
    “Jet,” Henri waited to get his full attention and when he finally looked up at her she spoke again. “She seems like a nice woman—genuine.”
     
    “She is.”
     
    “Then don’t muck it up. When you get her out of there and get her home don’t let her get away. Put a ring on her finger and make it forever.”
     
    He laughed nervously. “Who says she would want to marry me.”
     
    “She would have to be a fool not to. And she doesn’t strike me as a fool. Besides, you and I both know having a woman want to marry you was never the problem.”
     
    He knew she was right. The problem was he never wanted to marry them. Even Charlie…they had been together so long that he was comfortable with the way things were. He didn’t want a wedding. He didn’t want to live together. And for a long time she didn’t either. Then she suddenly decided to change her mind just because her mother gave her the tick-tock speech—that and the fact that she was getting tired of him leaving to go on missions. She