Renner (In the Company of Snipers Book 19) Read online

  Table of Contents

  In the Company of Snipers

  IN THE COMPANY OF SNIPERS

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Thank you for reading Renner’s story

  Other Irish Winters’ best-selling books/series

  Preview of ADAM

  About the Author

  RENNER

  IN THE COMPANY OF SNIPERS

  Book 19

  IRISH WINTERS

  COPYRIGHT

  Renner; In the Company of Snipers, Book 19

  Copyright ©2019 by Irish Winters

  All rights reserved

  First Edition

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, dialogues, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Cover design: Kelli Ann Morgan, Inspire Creative Services

  Cover image: Paul Henry Serres Photography, www.paulhenryserres.com

  My gorgeous cover model: Francis Brunet

  Interior book design: Bob Houston, eBook Formatting

  Editor: Linda Clarkson, Black Opal Editing and Proofreading

  ISBN Paperback: 978-1-942895-74-9

  ISBN eBook: 978-1-942895-75-6

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2019911452

  In the Company of Snipers

  You can find Irish Winters

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  For news on upcoming releases, sign up for Irish Winters’ Newsletter at IrishWinters.com.

  For more information about all my books, visit IrishWinters.com.

  IN THE COMPANY OF SNIPERS

  This series revolves around former Marine scout sniper, Alex Stewart, and his covert surveillance company, The TEAM, home-based out of Alexandria, Virginia. An obsessive patriot and workaholic, he created the company to give former military snipers like him, a chance at returning to civilian life with a decent job, security, and a future.

  This is not a serial with each book ending at a cliffhanger. In the Company of Snipers is a collection of passionate love stories involving strong women and men who are tough enough to take on the world alone. Each is a stand-alone read, complete in itself.

  Spoiler alert: Every story contains adult scenes including sexual situations (some explicit), language, and violence. I don’t write sweet romance, so be forewarned.

  Book 1, ALEX, reveals how The TEAM came to be, as well as how Alex met Kelsey, how they fell in love and fought all odds to stay together. Each of the following books is a complete romance in itself, where, in the course of an active TEAM operation, one agent comes face to face with his or her demons. The men and women I write about are all patriots and warriors, dealing with what they’ve lived through or mistakes they’ve made.

  It’s my hope that you will come to realize along with my heroes...

  Love changes everything.

  Prologue

  Alex Stewart loved early mornings, but especially this particular Saturday morning in December. This was the day volunteers from all over the country converged on Arlington National Cemetery to distribute Christmas wreaths provided by Wreaths Across America, one to each and every headstone. Forgetting none.

  He had too many friends and family sleeping on these hallowed grounds to feel anything but respect for their service and for the kinds of men and women they’d been in life. Today, he and his little girl were part of a throng of like-minded people headed for Section 60, the parcel set aside for heroes who’d served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other current conflicts.

  People said there was a community of dead below the surface of Section 60, as well as a community of the living above the surface. Those losses there were too fresh, the deaths so recent. And the pain in these survivors’ hearts was still a living, screaming beast. Families and friends came here to talk with their fallen brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, as if they were still alive. As if they could hear them. Wives, children, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and friend spread blankets and spent hours among the dead but not forgotten. They left gifts and remembrances, ribbons and photos, bottles of Jack or of Johnny Walker Blue. They planted Christmas trees in December, roses in June. They came with teddy bears and framed photos of baby boys and girls those Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Coasties, and Sailors would never meet.

  Passing McClellan Gate at his right, Alex hoisted Lexie onto his shoulder, so she could see. This morning was different. The humble Wreaths Across America event had grown since its inception in 1992. But in 2005, WAA exploded onto the national scene. The once trickling crowd of patriots had become a vibrant, raging river of steadfast patriots with WAA’s tenets in mind: Remember. Honor. Teach. But above all, say their names.

  This was Lexie’s first time ‘hewping Daddy’. Alex took special care, teaching her to say to each fallen warrior. How to stand the crisp balsam wreath at the headstone with the red ribbon up top. How to salute afterward, then stand straight and proud when she told that fallen warrior ‘thank you’. Hence the sheen in his eyes and the lump in his throat. He’d lost his first daughter in a past life, and this sweet three-year-old would never replace that first sweetheart, his one and only Abby. But watching this tiny girl perform her solemn duty at the first white granite headstone and mimicking him while she did it, had somehow combined both his girls into one heartbreaking, breathtaking moment.

  The rising sun cast a gentle rosy glow over Lexie’s pudgy cheeks as she saluted Todd Chandler in her adorably gruff, I’m-gonna-be-just-like-my-Daddy way. How often had Abby said those same words? Alex could barely keep from crying out loud at the joy and pain culminated in his heart. But that was the bitter sweetness of Arlington where Joy walked hand-in-hand with Pain. H
onor. Respect. His solemn vow to never forget the men and women who had died for him, Kelsey, and Lexie.

  Todd was the first agent Alex lost after he’d put out his shingle and declared he owned the best covert surveillance team In. The. World. Alex was arrogant back then. Green, stubborn, and out of his mind. So dumb to the ways of business that he’d simply named his half-cocked idea The TEAM. Back then, Alex had balls, but no faith that his harebrained idea would fly. He hadn’t truly realized the price of that arrogance until Todd fell during a firefight at one of The TEAM’s safe houses.

  In her selfish zeal to nail a sensational story, an idiot reporter had unwittingly followed his agents and outed their location on the air. She’d stalked Alex’s office like a rabid dog, then followed his agents for days. She was the one responsible for Todd’s death. She and the punk who’d thought he’d killed Zack Lennox when he’d ended Todd instead. But none of that mattered when it was one of your own bleeding out in your arms.

  Zack Lennox and Ember Dennison were there that day. She hadn’t been Rory Dennison’s wife then. Before Rory, she’d been head over heels in love with Todd Chandler. They were the buzz of the office. But Todd fell during that operation gone bad, and for months after, Ember went dark. If Alex hadn’t assigned her and Rory Dennison to a simple protection detail that began here at Arlington, she’d still be one of the ghosts haunting these hallowed grounds. Out of that singular protection detail had come one of the strongest married couples Alex knew, Mr. and Mrs. Rory Dennison.

  “An I am neber gonna forget you, Mr. Todd,” Lexie pronounced with childish solemnity. Mimicking her father’s straight as an arrow profile, she stuck her chin out, her shoulders back, and extended her tiny fingers to her forehead in a damned good salute.

  “Respect,” Alex whispered as he also saluted the man who’d lain down his life to protect the woman he’d been guarding that day, the woman who was now Zach Lennox’s wife. What else could Alex say? He owed Todd more than anyone could know. Respect and a Christmas wreath seemed small reward for a life freely given, for a humble warrior lost. These men and women deserved to be remembered—applauded even—for their acts of valor on and off the battlefield. Yet this was all they got.

  “Kin I do a nutter one, Daddy?” Lexie asked, blinking those big beautiful brown eyes up at him.

  What else could Alex say but, “You bet, sweetheart.” Dutifully, he handed over the other wreath he’d been given to distribute.

  It was still early in the event, barely after nine am. The trucks had just opened. Wreaths were still being doled out. The scent of fresh cut evergreens from Maine was everywhere. Alex had done this often enough to know there’d be plenty wreaths leftover in each of the semis parked throughout the grounds should he and Lexie want to distribute more.

  Of the more than seventy-thousand volunteers here today, most laid just one wreath. Some didn’t want to stand in the long lines. Few volunteers came here to work. But those few were the same who lined up again and again, who stayed until the job was done. Until each warrior had been spoken to, respected, and remembered. It used to take all day, but last year it took less than a couple hours to distribute the more than three hundred thousand wreaths. Imagine that. All these willing patriots come to serve the nation’s honored dead.

  It seemed a ridiculously small thing—to remember. But Americans were good at moving onto the latest brainless-celebrity scandal, while red-blooded heroes who’d sacrificed all for their country, were easy to forget. George Bernard Shaw had once said that ‘the one thing we learn from experience is that we never learn from experience’. God’s honest truth, that.

  A bump on his shoulder had Alex turning to apologize, but Junior Agent Renner Graves’ cocky smirk came back to him. Alex gave him a chin nod in recognition.

  Renner fluttered his fingers at Lexie. “Hey, short stack.”

  “Hi, Unca Renner!” she squealed, then ran to him and hugged his leg. “I hewpin’ Daddy!”

  Stooping, he flipped her giggling little girl body upside down before he planted her upside-right on his shoulders. Renner had a way with little kids. He made a good uncle for all The TEAM children.

  Dressed in what passed for TEAM casual wear, black jeans, TEAM polo, a leather motorcycle jacket, and black work boots, Renner clutched Lexie’s fluffy fur boots at his neck, making sure she wouldn’t fall. Leaning into his scruffy, spiked hair, she giggled as she hugged him again and said, “I wub you, Unca Renner!”

  Like her mother, Lexie loved everyone.

  A USMC veteran, Renner was a wiry, slightly built guy who’d served three deployments in Afghanistan. He’d seen action in South America, the Philippines, and most recently, Saudi Arabia, though that one was largely redacted. No big surprise there. He had that windblown look, and he was out of breath as if he’d been running.

  “You seen Jed McCormack today, Boss?” Renner asked as he stepped to Alex’s side, his blue eyes hard, but twinkling like he knew something Alex didn’t.

  Alex looked over his shoulder. “He’s here? Where?”

  Jed was a good friend who’d bankrolled Alex, back when he’d started out.

  “Up the hill, at the Tomb of the Unknown. He’s not alone. He’s with some woman, think he called her LuAnn.” Renner’s cocky smile dropped to the dry December grass at his feet. “But it’s her, Boss. I’m sure.” Renner handed over his cell. “It’s Montego. I took pictures. Scroll right.”

  Heart pounding, Alex couldn’t believe what Renner had captured on his cell. Jed McCormack’s wife had died less than six months ago. He couldn’t be out with another woman—especially not that woman—already. God, no.

  But son of a bitch! Yes. There Jed stood as elegant as ever in his full-length black cashmere winter overcoat, a gray striped scarf at his neck, that woman clutching his arm like she belonged with him. She’d changed her looks. The blonde short bob now long, shining raven black hair. Her cheeks seemed fuller. Her brows and hairline—different. They were outside Arlington Amphitheater facing the Tomb. Diamonds sparkled at the neck Alex wanted to break. Other sparkles glittered on her wrist and fingers. She looked younger in that long, red leather coat. Thinner. But yeah. The bitch was back in town.

  Alex could’ve spit nails he was so angry, but not with Lexie around. “Damnit,” he muttered under his breath as he handed Renner’s phone back, palmed his out of his jeans pocket, and rang Kelsey. Because of the massive crowds, she’d volunteered to work the counter at Arlington Visitors Center today, but no more. He needed her here. They were leaving. Now.

  “Boss,” Renner said calmly. “She won’t get far.”

  Instantly pissed that Jed could be so foolish—what the hell was he thinking?—Alex asked, “Why? What’d you do?”

  Still clutching Lexie’s boots, Renner fingered a Tattle Tale, one of Mother’s infamous inventions. Sasha Kennedy, aka Mother, worked for Alex as his personal secretary/technical genius. She’d invented a bug so small and inconspicuous, it could transmit sights and sounds until deactivated by someone who knew the deactivation code. Or until the battery died.

  “I brushed by the two of them while they had their heads together. Stuck one of these babies on her red coat. She won’t find it.”

  “No visual? Just audio?”

  Renner shrugged. “Better than nothing.”

  Alex allowed a frosty breath. The woman he detested most on the earth was now stalking one of his best friends. Maybe sleeping with him. Jed McCormack was the famous billionaire who’d anted-up and given Alex the funding to implement his crazy scheme, now known up and down the Eastern Seaboard as simply, The TEAM. The best and most faithful advocate of the common warrior, Jed had more clout on Capitol Hill than most elected officials. He influenced federal budgets in his practical, pragmatic way. Presidents respected him for his talent to compromise. Hell, the man could run for that office and beat any competition, hands down.

  Up until six months ago when his wife fell ill with an odd case of foo
d poisoning at one of her chili cookout events. Within twenty-four hours, she’d died. Alex stared over his shoulder at the trees obscuring the Tomb, suspicious now. Had Lois died of food poisoning—or Catalina? The witch would’ve done something like that, kill a man’s wife to get to him. How could Jed be so stupid?

  “You want me to hang onto Lexie for you, Boss?” Renner offered. “Kelsey’ll be here soon. Shouldn’t take long. That way you can check on Mr. McCormack yourself.”

  Alex shook the compulsion to run to his friend and tear that black widow spider’s fingernails off his arm. But he’d chosen his job over his first wife and daughter before, and that call to duty had cost him their lives. He’d been deployed when Sara and Abby died. Alex wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  “Follow them,” he ordered his newest recruit. “Don’t let that woman out of your sight. If she tries anything—”

  Renner’s head bobbed. “Understood. End her.” Ducking, he handed Lexie over his head into her father’s arms. “Consider it done.”

  Rattled, Alex encased Lexie against his chest while he hurried back to the Visitors Center, fighting a steady current of veterans, military members, and family.

  “Alex!” Kelsey called. What a sight. Rosy-cheeked with her winter jacket wide open and flapping, it looked like she’d run all the way. Good girl!

  “Here,” he shouted, truly frightened that he’d put her and Lexie at risk by not ending Montego after she’d nearly killed Beau Villanueva, another TEAM agent. She’d drugged and kidnapped him, then clipped off his finger. The unholy bitch! Yet she’d gotten away from The TEAM, then fled the United States and returned to her natural hunting grounds in Cuba. Talk about a bungled operation.

  The woman was nothing less than a psychopathic, cold-blooded murderer, a dominatrix of unholy appetites, who lured willing young servicemen to her web. Worse, she’d been at it for years. While Beau hadn’t been her last, he had been the first to locate the devilish prison where she’d kept her victims. He’d been the hero that day. But they hadn’t been quick enough to end her. They’d failed and she’d gotten away.