Devil's Tango (Running with the Devil Book 1)

by Claire J Monroe

  “Doesn’t have to be in order to facilitate the suit’s sale.”

  Maddie was shocked. “Sale? What sale?”

  “Huh, I didn’t tell you about the auction? How remiss of me.”

  “Andrew Jackson Hopewell,” Maddie growled out using Andrei’s given name. The one she’d known him by when they’d been kids living in the same cul-de-sac near Fort Bragg. “I will crash all your servers tonight if you do not tell me everything. Now.”

  “Careful. Remember I know all your secrets,” he told her in a deadly soft voice that had virtually no impact.

  “Right back atcha and then some. So spill. Now.”

  “What and then some? No, wait. I don’t want to know. Do I?”

  “Meredith is good. Not dating anyone. Still hung up on you and miserable. Happy?”

  “Not remotely, but it’ll do.” Andrei cleared his throat. “Dillon has the suit and set an auction up to sell it. He, someone, doesn’t matter, brought in a team of engineers to fix what’d been fried. Took a while, but they were able to power it up to demo mode.”

  Maddie pursed her lips. “So we assume Dillon wants me brought in alive to remove the safe codes and make the suit operational beyond demo mode.”

  “Yes,” Andrei confirmed. “That can’t happen. So you need to sit tight in the warehouse and let your husband watch over you.”

  Maddie hmmmed to herself.

  Andrei heard it when he shouldn’t have. “Whatever it is you’re plotting, forget it.”

  “I’d like to but there’s a problem with that.”

  “There’s no problem. The suit can’t go beyond demo if you’re not there. End of problem.”

  Maddie checked the cameras to track Van’s progress. He and his team were reunited and headed for the back porch. “You’re right. That solves everything. Have to run. Keep me updated on the auction and what not. Talk to you later. Mad Dog out.”

  She disconnected just as he was growling her name in warning.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to come clean with Andrei and confess her not so complete eradication of the software used to power the suit. She had given Sinclair everything he’d needed, along with his promise to wipe the DOD servers clean of any and all copies of the program, but… his promise had come at a price.

  Nexus Suit program code 2.0.

  Which had led to another lengthy negotiation that’d given her enough funds to build several prototype suits that’d evolved to her current situation. Nexus Suit 7.0 and operational software 15.2. The last version had nearly all the bugs worked out. All she needed was for Van to do the same thing to this suit that he’d done—without her knowledge—to power up and solidify all the circuits on the first one. Which really meant…

  If Sinclair wanted that suit operational again, he’d need Van. Along her latest code.

  But that was only true if that was the brilliant mastermind’s plan. There was only one way to find out for certain. Maddie debated it for all of three seconds before making the call.

  Sinclair answered on the third ring. “Wondered when you would call.”

  Maddie didn’t hesitate. “You lied to me.”

  “You know about the suit,” Sinclair said. “Who told you?”

  “I’m resourceful and you swore to me it’d been destroyed.”

  “Exact phrasing was ‘taken care of’.”

  “Bastard. What else have you kept from me?”

  “Plenty.” Sinclair didn’t sound upset from her tone of voice. “I assume you’re in a safe location with your husband and his team guarding you?”

  “Ex-husband and, yes, I am safe.”

  “Location?”

  “None of your business.”

  A pause and then he said, “At Caliv’s warehouse.”

  “Is there anything you don’t know?”

  “More than you can imagine. Get some rest, Madeline. I’ll have a mission brief ready for you in a few hours.”

  “I don’t work for you.”

  “Yet,” he said. “But you will. Get some sleep. We will be in touch.”

  The line went dead as Sinclair disconnected.

  “Smarmy Machiavellian bastard… one of these days, Michael Sinclair, someone is going to take you down and I hope like hell I’m there to see it.”

  CHAPTER TWLEVE

  Tango paced back and forth in front of the loading dock while he waited for the rest of the team to show. Dell’s bombshell that Whiskey had recognized one of the perps that’d been on location the day their sixth team member had been killed was not something he wanted to have to tell Bravo. But he would. Because it was his job.

  That wasn’t why he was pacing a hole in the pavement.

  He still had no clue who Maddie worked for and more important… if her employment status was the reason shit was going down like it was. And yeah, he could have pushed the issue with Caliv, but he hadn’t because the smarmy Brit, while connected to Sinclair, could give him an answer… Tango wouldn’t have believed it.

  No, he needed to talk to the one person he’d trusted to keep Maddie out of Sinclair’s grasp. His mentor. Trace Mason.

  But he couldn’t do that. Not with his team within earshot. Because they hadn’t been clued in yet that Tango worked for Sinclair.

  Shit. It was a mess. That had him pacing. Impatiently waiting for the rest of the team to arrive so he could brief them on the situation, dish out the orders, and take a much needed walk to clear his head and make a phone call. Preferably six blocks away where his car was sitting like a damn duck on a downtown street waiting for the bad guys to notice at any time.

  He almost wished they would notice it and show up, because it’d give him something to take out his frustration on. That’d be nice, but he doubted he’d get that lucky. His head popped up as headlights lit up the back alley. Lights flipped off and his eyes adjusted to the dim light and confirmed it was his team. “About time.”

  Soon as Bravo’s black SUV rocked to a stop, Whiskey leapt out of the passenger side. “You’re fired as a driver.”

  “Quit bitching,” Bravo said from inside. “You said we needed to hurry. So I hurried.”

  “And broke every damn traffic law doing it. What part of low profile don’t you get?”

  “All of it.”

  “Dumb ass.”

  “Pansy.”

  “The cops could have—”

  “Cops wouldn’t have done shit. Besides, K-dog had us covered and hacked the street lights with that tablet.” Bravo turned back to Kenny. “You did good kid.”

  Kenny mumbled something that Tango assumed was a Thanks.

  Bravo nodded. “Grab your gear and get out. And whatever you do, don’t cry when the boss chews your ass out for not being there for your sister.”

  Tango missed Kenny’s response, but the kid did as he was ordered. All six and a half feet of him. Holy hell, the kid was gonna be huge once he filled out. “Kenneth.”

  K-dog jumped, startled, and spun around in a fluster, apparently not expecting Tango to be waiting like a bird of prey ready to pounce on its prey. The kid would have fallen back against the truck, but Bravo was there with a hand to the shoulder to keep him in the line of fire. “Tango, I, um, I’m…I’m sorry I wasn’t there for Maddie. Is she okay?”

  “Smart kid,” Bravo said in a loud whisper to no one in general as he reached into the truck to pull out a bag of chips, then shoved Kenny forward towards the dock. “Starting off with concern over boss’ girl. Smart.”

  Whiskey came around the front of the truck and up behind Bravo in time to tap the irreverent fucker on the back of the skull. “Shut up. Go help Fox and Dell.”

  Bravo took the hit and chuckled as he squeeze the bag of chips until it popped open on a hiss. “Nah, I’m good and they’re done.”

  Comedy hour over, Tango advanced on Kenny and herded him until the kid stumbled backwards into the loading dock. Back of his knees hit on the platform and the kid plopped down then leaned as far back away from Tango as possi
ble. Worked for Tango. Delivering an ass chewing was a helluvalot more fun when he didn’t have to look up to do it. “What did I tell you about leaving your sister unprotected?”

  “Th-that I sh-should-shouldn’t do it.”

  Tango arched a brow. “What did I tell you would happen if you did?”

  The kid’s face caved in and his bloodshot eyes grew round. “No, please. Don’t. Anything but… she’ll kill me!”

  Tango frowned. Blood shot eyes? Oh hell no, the kid better not have done what he thought. He paused and deliberately sniffed the air, then looked over his shoulder at his team. “Am I smelling pot?”

  Bravo held out a bag of nacho cheddar chips for the rest of the team to dip into, then shrugged. “No clue, but I confiscated his munchies.”

  “Duuuude,” Kenny whined. “You swore not to tell.”

  Whiskey answered before he shoved a handful of chips in his mouth. “Yeah, but he never said he’d lie.”

  “That’s great. Now he’s gonna kill me for that, too,” Kenny grumbled.

  Bravo spoke up. “Not as bad as Maddie will when she finds out. Sucks to be you.”

  “True that,” Dell muttered with a chuckle and fist bump to Bravo.

  Tango shook his head, then turned back around and pointed to the building. “Inside and get sober. Quick. Maddie will fill you in on the situation.”

  “Really?” Kenny looked stupefied with shock. “That’s it?”

  Tango growled deep in his throat and made to move.

  Kenny didn’t need any more motivation. He grabbed his shit, then scrambled up the steps and, ten seconds later, was out of sight. Which left Tango the unmitigated pleasure of bringing his team up to speed.

  Few minutes later, his team was not happy and Bravo had called dibs on interrogating the presents.

  The bravest of the bunch—also known to have a suicide wish—Bravo asked, “Does Maddie know everything?”

  “No,” Tango said.

  Bravo shook his head. “Does she know you lied to her about why you left?”

  “No lie. I left to protect her.”

  Bravo executed an eye roll worthy of a tween. “Not that part. The other. Romeo.”

  Tango didn’t blink. “Hasn’t come up in conversation.”

  “Yet,” Whiskey said.

  Tango reluctantly grunted a confirmation to that.

  “But it will,” Whiskey reiterated.

  Tango sighed. “It will.” Unfortunately, and that was not a conversation he was looking forward to. “Fox, if you’d made the Nexus Suit what protocols would you have put on it to prevent theft?”

  Fox’s response was almost instantaneous. “Lo-jack. Tracking. Ability to find it anywhere.”

  “Can you do that without alerting someone you were tracking it?”

  “If I were half as smart as your girl, probably, but we won’t need that.”

  “Explain,” Tango ordered.

  Fox hesitated and looked to Whiskey for permission to proceed.

  Whiskey nodded once. “Go ahead.”

  Fox blew out a breath and said, “Nexus Suit has advanced circuitry that enhances neural networks, but it was still a prototype. One that as far as we were able to determine was specifically designed to enhance—or in this case, regulate—one person.”

  Whiskey pointed at Tango. “You.”

  “So the first time you put the suit on…,” Fox trailed off as he motioned for Whiskey to explain.

  “It mapped and memorized your abilities. To learn then, best guess, start regulating them.”

  Tango was incredulous. “Are you telling me that my wife built that suit to… fix me?”

  “More like stabilize you and your energy, emotions, et cetera,” Whiskey confirmed.

  Sonofabitch. Maddie had a lot to answer for, but she wasn’t alone. Tango turned his ire on Whiskey. “And you didn’t think I needed to know this?”

  “Have you met you on a bad day? Hell no, I didn’t want to tell you. That suit worked better than any shit I could prescribe you. But I would have told you had you needed to know, but you didn’t. Not back then.” Whiskey flicked a thumb at Fox. “Walk him through it.”

  “Uh, okay,” Fox said. “The program running the suit has two directives—to learn and regulate. So when you first put the suit on, it learned you and mapped your energy signature. Because you only wore the suit when you were leading us… the suit compensated to keep you stable and focused so that it learned… how you kept us stable. So when either me, Dell, or Bravo put it on, it was like… going to school.”

  “And getting schooled at the same time,” Bravo muttered.

  “Complete with ass whippings,” Dell added.

  Whiskey spoke up to add. “Look, not gonna lie, us as a team, in the beginning, we were jacked. Dysfunctional as hell. You were burning yourself out trying to keep these knuckleheads in line. Then the suit happened and suddenly things got better. Fox got control over his wolf, Dell stopped killing to feed, and Bravo… has tripled our finances each year for the past four.”

  “Quadrupled,” Bravo said. “Compared to our total combined assets, the smarmy Brit is dirt poor.”

  Tango barely managed not to clench his fists at his sides. Fingers drumming on his thigh, he said to Whiskey, “Still not enough of an excuse for you not to tell me.”

  “In hindsight, yeah, I probably should have told you sooner.”

  “Probably,” Tango sputtered. “There was no probably about it, Carter. Not after the shit that went down in Madrid.”

  Bravo chimed in. “Cut him some slack. Whiskey had no idea you, me, Dell, and Fox were… I don’t know, linked up through that suit.”

  “Not a clue,” Whiskey confirmed. “Had I? I would have nipped it in the bud. Immediately. But how the hell was I supposed to know, Tango, that you, whatever the fuck you are, could… connect, channel, summon… I don’t even know what to call what you did in Madrid.”

  “Harness,” Dell offered. “He harnessed our combined powers and sucked the energy out of us to open a portal to hell.”

  Bravo nodded. “And the suit learned the technique.”

  “Which is why after we got it off you, I drained it,” Dell said. “Completely.”

  “And I tweaked the program with a failsafe that’d keep it in demo mode forever,” Fox said.

  “And I snuck into headquarters and surgically sliced the main conduits leading to the power source and processor,” Whiskey added.

  Tango considered what they’d told him as he let his gaze slowly land on each one. “So you’re telling me the suit is… defunct?”

  The three of them nodded.

  “Because of a… drained battery, slightly tweaked code, and some sliced circuitry that could easily be replaced by any moderately intelligent engineer?”

  “I know it doesn’t sound like much,” Fox said in a rush. “But even if someone was able to physically fix the suit, they can’t get around the code.”

  Tango shook his head. “Nice try, but that is not enough justification for the fact that you three lied to me!” He jammed a finger in Whiskey’s direction. “You told me the suit was broken and the code destroyed. Not tweaked!”

  Whiskey didn’t even flinch and if that didn’t make Tango damn near lose it, his second in command’s next statement sure as shit pushed him to his limits. “It is what is. Now quit your bitching and fucking think, Tango.” He stepped forward until they were toe to toe. “The bounty on Maddie is for her alive. Someone shows up to get her and they’re firing live rounds. It doesn’t matter whether I told you shit back when. We’ve got a problem and no plan to solve it.”

  “He’s right,” Bravo added. “Your girl’s got not one person after her, but two.”

  “You think I don’t know that,” Tango exploded. “The farmhouse should have never been breached. It was secure. No one knew about it.”

  “Except Howser,” Bravo said.

  Tango went cold. “No. He couldn’t have unless… fuck. Tell me you didn’t. Not a
fter I specifically ordered you not to.”

  Bravo shrugged. “How else were we to confirm if our light bird was trustworthy?”

  “By keeping him in the dark and doing it the old fashioned way,” Tango growled. “Not by using our commander’s personal information to rent a short term safe house!”

  “Speaking of which,” Whiskey interrupted. “Howie called. He’s expecting us in his office first thing in the morning.”

  “Or else,” Bravo added.

  “Or else what,” Tango demanded.

  “Didn’t say,” Whiskey answered. “Personally, I’m hoping it’s to fire our sorry asses.”

  “Or court martial,” Bravo offered.

  “Can’t court martial what’s not on the books,” Dell said.

  “True,” Bravo said in a chillingly cold voice. “But considering the mercs at both sites were using live rounds and aiming more at us than her, I’m beginning to wonder if Howie doesn’t have a more permanent solution in mind for us.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Tango muttered. “You had to go there.”

  “Been there all along, just waiting for you to catch up and connect the dots,” Bravo said. “Tell him, Fox.”

  “Our accounts have been frozen,” Fox announced.

  “Since when?” Tango asked.

  “This morning.”

  “Before Maddie’s house went boom.”

  Tango’s blood pressure spiked and his hands shook with the need to throttle the three of them. “And you’re just telling me this now? Did they get all of them?”

  “Not all,” Fox said. “Just the ones they could find. The buried ones are still good.”

  “But we’re burned,” Bravo said.

  “Shit. Fire. Fuck me.” Tango felt a headache coming on and massaged his forehead. “Anything else I should know? Or are you four done dropping shit fairy bombs?”

  Crickets chirped in the background as his men looked at each other, then shook their heads.

  Thank fuck. Tango massaged his aching head, then started rattling off orders. “Fox, get inside and work with Maddie on the computers to find and locate her brothers and father. Whiskey, Bravo, inventory of weapons. Get Maddie to show you all exits to the bunker, what vehicles she has available for escape, and where to put the ones we came in. Dell, you need sleep. Six hours minimum and don’t give me any shit about it, understood?”