Mission: Treachery: Bear's Brigade, #1

By Emily Mims

TREACHERY ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF LOVE

Colonel Angus "Bear" Bustamante lives in the danger zone, never knowing which mission may be his last. Being the leader of an elite task force is his passion, and his son owns his heart.

Until Wildcat, a former one-night-stand, arrives at Fort Sam. Bear's heart inflates, and he finds he wants more than a roll in the sheets with the sultry, sexy Dr. Felicia Castillo.

Felicia loves her work and is dedicated to doing her best all the time. With a sworn determination to stay away from complicated men, she finds herself paired up with a rugged, tough-spoken, hard-assed soldier on a sensitive operation that could make or break her career.

No, she hasn't forgotten their night together. She doesn't think she'd forget that night even after she's dead.

But Bear is determined, and more than sex is on the table.

When treachery strikes and accusations fly, the breach between them seems irreparable. It takes a near tragedy, and an incredible sacrifice to mend the chasm between them.

No one said the battlefield of love would be easy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781957295275

Emily Mims

The author of over thirty romance novels, Emily Mims combined her writing career with a career in public education until leaving the classroom to write full time. The mother of two sons, she and her husband split their time between central Texas, eastern Tennessee, and Georgia visiting their kids and grandchildren. For relaxation Emily plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele for two different performing groups, and even sings a little. She says, “I love to write romances because I believe in them. Romance happened to me and it can happen to any woman—if she’ll just let it.”

Book preview

TREACHERY ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF LOVE

Colonel Angus Bear Bustamante lives in the danger zone, never knowing which mission may be his last. Being the leader of an elite task force is his passion, and his son owns his heart.

Until Wildcat, a former one-night-stand, arrives at Fort Sam. Bear's heart inflates, and he finds he wants more than a roll in the sheets with the sultry, sexy Dr. Felicia Castillo.

Felicia loves her work and is dedicated to doing her best all the time. With a sworn determination to stay away from complicated men, she finds herself paired up with a rugged, tough-spoken, hard-assed soldier on a sensitive operation that could make or break her career.

No, she hasn't forgotten their night together. She doesn't think she'd forget that night even after she's dead.

But Bear is determined, and more than sex is on the table.

When treachery strikes and accusations fly, the breach between them seems irreparable. It takes a near tragedy, and an incredible sacrifice to mend the chasm between them.

No one said the battlefield of love would be easy.

ALSO BY EMILY MIMS

Durango Street Theatre

Vivi’s Leading Man

Maggie’s Starring Role

Wade’s Dangerous Debut

Jessica’s Hero

Letti’s Second Act

Cameron Unscripted

Miranda Rewritten

Rachel's Favorite Villain

Sasha's Happy Ending

The Smoky Blues

Mist

Smoke

Evergreen

Indigo

Emerald

Mistletoe

Violet

Ruby

Amethyst

Noelle

The Texas Hill Country

Solomon’s Choice

After the Heartbreak

A Gift of Trust

Daughter of Valor

Welcome Home

Unexpected Assets

Never and Always

A Gift of Hope

Once, Again

Other Romances

Season of Enchantment

A Dangerous Attraction

For the Thrill of It All

MISSION: TREACHERY

BEAR’S BRIGADE – Book 1

Emily Mims

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www.BOROUGHSPUBLISHINGGROUP.com

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Boroughs Publishing Group does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites, blogs or critiques or their content.

MISSION: TREACHERY

Copyright © 2023 Emily Wright Mims

All rights reserved. Unless specifically noted, no part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Boroughs Publishing Group. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or by any other means without the permission of Boroughs Publishing Group is illegal and punishable by law. Participation in the piracy of copyrighted materials violates the author’s rights.

ISBN 978-1-957295-27-5

Contents

Also by Emily Mims

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Title Page

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

Sneak Peek at next Bear’s Brigade Story

About the Author

To my son, Major Brian Mims, United States Army.

While he's never done black ops work (that I know of),

he has served our country for twenty years.

A special shout-out to his wife Sarah Murphy,

who has been by his side for most of his career

and has turned moving into an art form.

Much love to you both.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As always, this book was not written in a vacuum. Many thanks to editor Susan Stones and the Boroughs copy editing department for their priceless input.

Thanks to the Boroughs Art Department for a terrific cover.

Many thanks to Boroughs Publishing Group’s publisher for asking if I would like to write a series around Bear Bustamante.

I also want to thank my favorite military consultant, Major Brian Mims, for answering all of Mom's questions about all things military.

MISSION: TREACHERY

Chapter One

Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t a gin joint. And Bear sure as hell wasn’t Humphrey Bogart. But the sentiment was the same.

What the fuck is last winter’s smokin’ hot one-night stand doing marching into Fort Sam’s US Army South in San Antonio like she owns the place?

Bear rocked back on his heels and watched the woman step smartly up the steps and disappear into the same building where his meeting was set to begin in a few minutes.

She was dressed in a crisply cut summer-weight suit suitable for the hot San Antonio September sun. Her shoes were practical pumps and she carried an expensive-looking satchel and laptop case. Nothing like the curve-hugging dress and fuck-me heels she’d worn in the bar of the Watergate Hotel. He wondered if her bra and panties were equally no-nonsense or if they were more like the jaw-dropping red lace thong and bra she’d worn the night he’d peeled them from her body before fucking her brains out.

His cock stood at attention at the mere memory of their all-night marathon.

A marathon I’d love to repeat if the lady’s willing.

He grinned, thinking of nickname he’d given her: Wildcat. She’d been the best sex he’d had in years. Maybe ever.

Sleek and beautiful, like a jungle cat, he never got her real name, and she didn’t have his. He’d been on an unadvertised trip to the Pentagon, not as top secret as were most of his missions, but still on the DL.

He’d introduced himself to her as Bear and hadn’t volunteered his identity: Colonel Angus Bustamante. No need, and no time since they were too busy getting their buzz on and slow dancing to sultry blues. Six hours after they’d singed the sheets to a crisp, they’d fallen into a stupor.

She’d been gone when he woke an hour later with Thanks and a happy face written on a hotel notepad. He’d chalked it up to a wonderful memory and jacked off to it often, never expecting to see her again.

Apparently, it’s time to get reacquainted.

Bear strode up the stairs to the lobby of the Army South building, repurposed from its days as Brooke Army Medical Center. He didn’t see her in the lobby or by the elevator, and wasn’t concerned. If she was going to be here for any length of time, he’d run into her sooner or later. Fort Sam wasn’t a particularly large base, and the world of Army South was even smaller. He’d bet his paycheck he’d run into her by the end of the week.

Unless he got sent on a mission, which in his world was always a possibility.

He glanced up at the wall clock. He had a few minutes before the meeting, and he needed to touch base with Lieutenant Highsmith, his administrative assistant. The plane hadn’t touched down last night until nearly nine, and the lieutenant had been long gone by then. Bear took the stairs two at a time and strode into his office. Lacey Highsmith smiled and snapped him a respectful salute. Welcome back, sir.

Thanks, Lieutenant. Anything new?

Nothing earth-shaking. General McKinley’s assistant dropped this by a few minutes ago. She handed him a sealed envelope and reached for the ringing phone at the same time.

He took the envelope and gave her a smile. Cool, calm, collected, the daughter of the legendary General Robert Buck Highsmith could hardly be considered a chip off the old block, but she was a treasure. Bear thanked his lucky stars she’d been assigned to his office. But then, he felt that way about everyone who worked for him.

The members of his detachment, dubbed Bear’s Brigade—he’d argued they were way too small to be a brigade, but his second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Barbara Johnson, told him they were as fierce as one—were, to a soldier, the best the Army had to offer.

To do what they did month after month, year after year, they had to be.

Bear tucked the envelope under his arm and went to the elevator to head up to General McKinley’s office. While he and Amos McKinley weren’t personal friends and never would be, he respected the man for his leadership skills and appreciated the latitude given to Bear’s detachment. The general’s outer office door was open and his admin, Lieutenant Hartz, was seated at the desk. He stumbled to his feet and snapped a salute. Good morning, sir.

Good morning, Lieutenant. Are they in the office or the conference room? General McKinley held smaller meetings in his office and larger ones in an adjoining conference room.

Conference room, sir.

He opened the door and strode into the room, snapping a sharp salute to the general. He glanced around the table at the members of his detachment before lasering in on the woman at the far end of the long table. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head. It was all he could do not to let his surprise show.

Wildcat was in the room.

And she didn’t look happy.

At the sight of him, her eyes widened momentarily before returning to her cool expression. Interesting. Beside her sat an older man in civvies who didn’t look any happier than she did.

Bear took the remaining chair and greeted everyone with a nod.

General McKinley cleared his throat, and turned his attention to Bear. Good morning. I’ll keep it brief since several of you have classes to teach at ten. If you’ll open your envelopes.

Wildcat glanced at the first sheet and laid it down. Either she was disinterested, which Bear doubted, or she was already aware of the contents. He wasn’t surprised. He might’ve seen the sexy, flirty side of her in DC, but this morning she had competent, successful professional written all over her.

Whatever was going on, she was an integral part of it.

He scanned the first page, then slowed down when he reached the second page, where the words started jumping out at him.

"Prototype."

"Unmanned fighter jets."

"Stolen specs."

"Industrial espionage."

He read the next couple of pages slowly and carefully as he absorbed the summary of what’d happened. It seemed his Wildcat was Dr. Felicia Castillo, one of the foremost aerospace engineers for the Peterson-Ryland Engineering Corporation based in San Antonio and Dallas.

And, apparently, someone had stolen her highly sensitive prototype plans and sold them to a rival company.

No wonder she looks pissed.

General McKinley cleared his throat. While we have reason to believe the original perpetrator has been identified and dealt with, we have doubts about the security of the testing program overall. Hence this meeting, which will set the stage for the next assignment for selected members of Colonel Bustamante’s detachment. The general gestured to the two civilians. Let me introduce George Tanaka, the director of the San Antonio division of Peterson-Ryland, and Felicia Castillo, the engineer who designed the stolen prototype, as well as a brand-new one that has been evaluated only in computer simulations. Mr. Tanaka, Dr. Castillo, this is Colonel Angus Bustamante. He’s the commander of the detachment that will be testing your latest design.

Bear blinked. He and his team will be what now?

We’ve made arrangements to use Fort Hood to run the needed test scenarios. The general looked around the table. We’ve undertaken this partnership with Peterson-Ryland at the request of its board and with full backing of the Pentagon. I don’t need to stress the utmost secrecy this project requires.

Bear caught the general’s eye. Sir. How was the original security compromised?

Felicia and her boss looked at one another and the general shook his head. That’s still under investigation, but suffice it to say Peterson-Ryland and the Pentagon believe using members of your detachment is more secure than continuing to use the company’s design testers. There’ll be less chance of compromised security, and there’ll be no personal relationships in play. We’re looking for, and it’s more likely we’ll have, total objectivity overall.

No personal relationships? Objectivity? If he had to guess, something involving inherent and destructive conflicts had occurred the first time around. Something personal the general didn’t think Bear and his soldiers needed to know.

He glanced at Felicia, who kept her gaze trained on the general. Bear had the passing thought of how personal the general would consider Bear and Felicia’s one-night stand. Not that he was about to divulge anything about his private life. Some things weren’t the Army’s business.

Tanaka nodded. Felicia didn’t. If anything, she looked more put out.

Bear jerked his attention away from her and back to the business at hand.

The rest of the details are in your briefings, the general said. You’ll be staying in the Fort Hood BOQ. When you’re not in the field, you’ll be working in one of the highest security labs in the world. Your time line is indefinite. Dr. Castillo will decide when the results are to her satisfaction. Inform your alternate instructors to be ready to take over Monday morning.

The instructor designation was the cover for Bear’s Brigade. Some knew it was a blind, but precious few knew what Bear and his people did for their country.

Everyone at the table nodded. Bear bet his soldiers would have plenty of questions for him this afternoon. Not that he could answer them. At this point he knew as much as they did.

When the general dismissed everyone, Bear, Barbara, and Captain Richard Matheson rose and the three of them walked toward the elevator.

The moment they’d cleared the general’s area, Richard pulled out his phone, bent his head, and was thumbing the screen. Bear caught Barbara’s eye and she winced.

Well, shit. Richard’s wife had a virulent form of breast cancer and was fighting an epic battle for her life. She was too sick from the chemo to care for their daughter, and right now Richard was probably scrambling to have one of the grandmothers stay with his wife and daughter while he was gone.

On more than one occasion, Bear had offered to have Richard transferred to an all-teaching position, but the man stubbornly refused. We’re fine, he’d insisted.

Bear didn’t think so, but Richard was an adult, and this was his family. He knew his mind better than anyone.

Bear checked his watch. His Advanced Individual Training class began in a few minutes and he needed to get a move on. He strode toward the parking lot and spotted Sergeant Jerome (Jazz) Washington and Felicia two rows over, standing between a dirty Jeep and a brand-new cherry red Mustang convertible. Since he knew Jazz drove the Jeep, the Mustang must belong to Felicia, a supposition confirmed when she clicked open the doors. She and Jazz leaned up against the car and continued talking.

His AIT class was waiting patiently for him. He scanned the notes left by Major Meadows, the pinch-hit instructor who came in when Bear and his detachment were away. Meadows had to know Bear was involved in something more than training missions, as he often disappeared without warning, but he never said a word.

Bear picked up the lesson where Major Meadows left off and taught his ten o’clock and noon classes before disappearing into his office on the top floor of Army South to write a detailed, highly classified report of the mission he and three members of his detachment had finished last night.

He summarized the mission in the opening paragraph: At zero two hundred we subdued all members of the hostiles’ security team and gained entry to the medical facility where the American medical team was being held. Three of the hostages were bound and gagged and were locked in an inner room. The fourth was with the kidnappers in the main holding area of the clinic. We determined the fourth, Brian Tidwell, of Los Lomas, Colorado was the inside man and part of the kidnapping for ransom scheme. He was apprehended along with the Venezuelan kidnappers.

The Venezuelan kidnappers were left secured and their location was reported to the Venezuelan authorities. Brian Tidwell was secured and was kept separated from the three hostages who were freed, checked for injuries. When no serious injuries were found, the former hostages were flown directly to Kelly Air Force Base where they would receive medical care and be debriefed before being reunited with their families. Brian Tidwell would be turned over to military authorities in conjunction with civilian authorities upon arrival at Kelly Air Force Base.

He went on to give the details of the rescue and describe the condition of the hostages. He doubted any action would be taken against the kidnappers in that part of Venezuela. But that wasn’t his concern. The safety of the American hostages was all that mattered, and bringing Brian Tidwell to face justice was part of Bear’s duty.

The rescue had gone off without a hitch, and typical of the kind of mission his team was called on to undertake.

It was nearly seventeen hundred by the time he finished writing the report. He wasn’t punching a time clock, and nothing screamed for his attention, so he wished Lacey a good evening and headed for the sprawling mid-century modern he’d bought a few blocks from Fort Sam’s back entrance.

He’d purchased the house when he was permanently attached to Army South more as an investment than for any real desire to make the house a home.

But it had become a home over the last year.

His only son, Clay, had moved in to finish high school in San Antonio, and then Clay’s boyfriend, Justin, who had to get away from his mother and asshole stepfather due to his sexual orientation, had, for all practical purposes, moved in too.

From the moment Clay was born, Bear adored his child with a ferocity he’d never thought possible and one he’d never known since. The boy was all heart and Bear was immensely proud of his son. Over time, Bear had grown to love Justin, a bright, tough kid who was good to and for his son.

The boys had both been accepted to Texas A&M