by Cindy Skaggs
A few minutes ago, the doctor had seemed tall, but the newcomer towered over him by several inches. The doctor disappeared before she objected. So much for charming. The sweet-talking doctor left her with a stranger. She glared up at the monstrous man. “Sugar, you ain’t family.”
Chapter Two
The woman in the bed was pale as death. Her soft cheeks were scraped up with contusions and chemical burns from the accident. Stills couldn’t take his eyes off her. Underneath the marks, she looked much the way she had in the picture Gault had shown him that day on the Chinook. Thinner though. Sadder. “Look, Amanda—”
“Mandi,” she corrected. “And my brother would know the difference.”
“They wouldn’t let me see you unless I was family.”
“Good. Maybe they’ll make you leave.” Mandi reached for the nurse’s call button.
Stills grabbed her wrist to halt the movement. Her bones felt fragile in his grip. She was tiny. And breakable, but letting her call for help would bring trouble for both of them.
The heart monitor spiked and an echo of tension rode the skin where they touched, but he didn’t let go. “I served with Danny. He asked me to keep an eye on you.”
At the mention of her brother’s name, Mandi stopped struggling. Her eyes watered, but she blinked the tears away. “Which is why you’ve been around so much.”
Mouthy little thing. Despite the bruises, she was a looker. Hair the color of mink, blue eyes, and lips that were curled into a pout. No wonder the doctor had pulled out the charm. “After what happened, I figured you were better off without a bunch of military men around as a reminder.”
“A bunch of military men?” She made a show of leaning to side as if looking for an invisible posse behind him.
“Me plus the rest of Danny’s team.”
“You’re a complete stranger.” She eyed the call button.
True, and he couldn’t fault her for the suspicious look in her eyes, even as he wanted her to trust him. For her safety. For reasons that tugged at his chest. “Danny was one of the best men I knew. We were discharged at the same time. Same day.” The date he gave her was imprinted on his soul just like the day he’d joined Team Fear. Some days stuck with you for the rest of your life.
“That information was in the newspapers, after...” Her voice trailed off. “I don’t believe for a minute my brother sent you. He’d ask someone close to home.”
Someone close to home wouldn’t have the skills necessary to protect her. That day on the Chinook, Gault had known that only someone from the team could protect against any potential blowback from the program, but Stills had been in denial at the time. No more.
He let go of her wrist to reach back and grab his wallet. Tucked behind his license was the picture Gault had given him that day. He handed it to Mandi. She rubbed the edges of the picture much the way Gault had done so many months ago.
“Gault said the picture was from the day you graduated.”
“Doesn’t prove a thing. You could have taken that from him, after...”
“You’re a suspicious little thing.”
“I’ve got plenty of reasons.”
Didn’t they all? The pictures on his phone were gone because of security concerns and Fowler’s paranoia, but Stills had made one print. He pulled out a second photo, this one of the entire team taken when they were on leave in Germany. He handed it over.
She fingered the image of her brother before staring at the rest of the team. “What did you say your name was?”
“Stills.”
She relaxed against the mattress. “He mentioned you, about a year ago, but when you didn’t come to the funeral, I thought...”
He hadn’t been able to face another funeral. Instead, he’d gone home and kissed his former life goodbye. “The timing... Hell, there was no good reason, and I’m sorry you thought his army buddies didn’t care.”
“Bennett came,” she interrupted.
What the hell? Bennett had gone radio silent months ago. The majority of the team thought he was already dead and buried. Did the company use the funeral to trap members of Team Fear? To take them out if they showed? “Are you sure?”
Mandi handed back the photograph. “The guy in the back row on the far right.”
“That’s Bennett,” Stills confirmed before tucking the photos back into his wallet. “We haven’t heard from him in months. Maybe since the funeral. I hope...”
“What?”
Sharing wild speculation would only end up hurting Mandi, but Stills’ paranoid mind was making some crazy connections. No one had seen Bennett since Gault died. Maybe the funeral provided the company with an opportunity to take Bennett. Quietly. Without witnesses, but telling Mandi that her brother’s funeral was a trap served no purpose. The less she knew the better.
“I have mad respect for Bennett standing up, but I need you to know the rest of us not coming... We... I,” he stressed. “I didn’t mean any disrespect. Danny was my best friend.” He braced his hands on the bed rail and let his head hang low to avoid the censure in her eyes. “I couldn’t watch another soldier lowered into the ground.”
“After Madigan.”
Stills jerked back at the mention of Mad Dog. Madigan’s suicide was the first real indication that the experimental program they’d joined had altered them. Permanently, and in ways guaranteed to get them killed. “Your brother told you about that?”
“A lot of down time in the mortuary business.”
He glanced up to see a soft, sad smile on her pretty face. “Hard to picture Gault coming from a line of morticians.”
“Funeral directors.” She rubbed the back of her neck as she stared up at him. “Since you’re not my brother, and you’re not my emergency contact, how did you hear about the accident?”
He sat down in the vinyl chair by the bed to ease her tension. “Google pings me whenever your name or your brother’s name hits the news.” A partial truth.
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Gault told me to watch over you.”
“Yeah, that’s not creepy.” She eyed the call button. “Is that Google thing even legal?”
“Let’s ask the deputy,” he bluffed. “Oh, wait, then we’d have to explain that I’m not your brother and you’d lose your ride home.”
“Danny always said I was too trusting.”
“He mentioned that.”
“After someone tried to force me off the road—”
“It was intentional?” The accident was suspicious, but he needed more information. If he had his way, he’d keep her in the dark and take out anyone who put her at risk. She deserved a normal life. That’s what Gault would have wanted.
“Felt like it at the time.” The bright blue of her eyes went glassy for a minute as she stared across the room. A moment later, she refocused on him. “Danny wouldn’t want me to blindly trust what you’re saying. Not after...” She cleared her throat. “You look like you could have been in a car accident last night.”
“Me?” His voice actually squeaked. Was she seriously suggesting that he was behind the accident?
“Split lip. Bruises.”
“Causing a car accident is sloppy and weak.”
“How did you get the bruises?”
“I got in a fight.” Which was why he was here now. Without backup. He needed to give that shit time to rest. “Are you seriously suggesting—”
“Why should I trust you?”
“I’m the safest thing out there.” And if everything went right, she’d never understand the true dangers.
She raised an eyebrow and gave him a look of doubt.
“Your choice. You want to find another ride home, that’s fine, but I will follow to make sure you get home safe.”
“Why?”
“Because Gault was my brother in all ways but blood.” And Stills had failed to protect him. The failure hurt down to his core. The experimental medication had altered them. They’d come out fearless, paranoid, and angry, a
volatile combination that had cost two teammates their lives before the team had circled the wagons. They’d compared notes and come to the conclusion that the company wanted them to join the dark side. Or die. Gault had been drugged. He was hallucinating and out of his fucking mind when he’d walked through the streets of Tucson. The local PD had taken him out.
The incident in Tucson haunted Stills, because he’d been too far away to make a difference. Now was the time to step up and honor his promise to Gault by helping the sister get home. “I wasn’t there for your brother that last day.”
Her expression turned speculative. She cocked her head to the side. “Do you feel bad about that fact?”
He nodded.
“Enough to... Would you...” Her throat flexed as she swallowed her words.
“What were you going to say?”
Her mouth twisted like she was trying to get the words out. Finally, she shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Looks like a whole lot of something.” Stills sat quietly and waited.
She knotted the sheet in her fist. “I don’t think my brother committed suicide.”
Her response knocked him back in the chair. An instant lie was on his lips, but he swallowed it. “I don’t either.”
“I think I can prove it.”
Stills struggled to keep his features impassive. Inside, his heart pounded. How much did the sister know? “How’s that?”
She smoothed the blanket over her lap with shaking hands. “I’m tired of being in this alone.”
“In what?”
“I’m investigating his death. His last days.”
“Don’t go down that road.” If she found out the real reason Gault died, then the forces mounting against them would never let her live. As it was, the accident was a big fucking clue that Team Echo wanted her out of the picture. “There’s no redemption in digging up the past.”
“I can’t sit on my fanny and do nothing.”
Stills nearly laughed. “Fanny?”
“Backside. You know what I mean.” She glanced at the open door and lowered her voice. With the hoarseness from the accident, it dropped to a sexy level. “A friend of mine has a copy of Danny’s autopsy and the final tox screen.”
What the hell? The team still didn’t have access, and they had a computer genius with serious hacking skills. Stills leaned forward. “Where is it?”
“That’s why I’m here. To get a copy of the report, because it doesn’t match the death certificate. Glen said it was too dangerous to put in an email. Too easy for him to get caught.”
That kind of investigation would explain the accident. Gault’s sister needed to stop before she ended up dead. “If I promise to find out what happened to your brother, will you back off?”
“Not a chance.”
“As long as you’re open to the possibility.”
“I can’t go home and pretend to believe the garbage story the papers are spinning. My brother—my twin—wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t suicidal. Someone did something to him.”
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“It’s a hell no.” Her face warmed to a pretty pink. “You haven’t done anything for Danny since he’s been gone, so pardon me for questioning your sincerity.”
She was wrong. Team Fear had stepped up after those early deaths and was working to find the truth. When Team Echo tried to take out Ryder, the team made sure it didn’t happen. The only way to survive was by working together to find their common enemy. Find them, kill them, and eliminate their superior officers. “After your brother...” He cleared his throat. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll find out what happened to Gault, but it’s way above your pay grade. Back off and let me find the answers before you get yourself killed.”
A hurt expression further marred her bruised face. “Do you have Danny’s autopsy? His tox screen?”
“No.” But they had others. They’d found copies of the autopsies from Mad Dog’s incident on Gault’s laptop, but had Gault died because of it? “I can get it.” Or, more accurately, Craft would get it.
“Twenty minutes and I’ll have concrete answers. Can you work that fast?”
Was going with her faster than having Craft get the information? Probably. The computer tech was a genius, but he was looking into other information on the classified program that had turned them fearless. “Tell me where and I’ll take care of it.”
“Not a chance, hotshot. I’m going.”
“We can argue all day, but you’re not going anywhere without a car. Unless you have money for a rental.”
She flinched.
“Give me the contact and I’ll get the information.”
“While I sit my fanny in the hospital?”
“Precisely. You’ve got the deputy outside. Stay safe while I retrieve the autopsy.”
“Then I guess we’re at an impasse, because I’m not telling you squat.”
The nurse stepped into the room on a breeze of floral perfume. She started disconnecting Mandi from the machines. “You sound like me and my brother, but I have to interrupt and get the patient cleaned up and ready for the CT scan.”
Mandi held the back of her hospital gown closed while the nurse helped her into a wheelchair. Tilting her head aback, she glared at Stills. “We’re not finished with this conversation.”
She was as big a pain in the ass as her brother. Stills smiled. “I look forward to it.”
The nurse tucked a sheet over Mandi’s bare legs. “We’ll get you cleaned up and sent upstairs right quick. I’ll set aside breakfast for you.”
“But—”
“They had a slot open up in the lab, which is rare, believe me.” The nurse shifted her gaze to Stills. “I can steal a plate for you.” She winked. “Or two if you’re hungry.”
“I’m good,” Stills answered.
The nurse shrugged and turned her attention back to Mandi. “I brought you a pair of scrubs seeing how no one could bring you clothes from home.”
“Thank you. That was actually really thoughtful.”
The nurse helped her into the bathroom as Stills weighed his options. Mandi’s accident fit Team Echo’s MO. They had already wrecked Lauren, Ryder’s wife. They liked their executions to look like accidents, but chasing the sister of a dead man didn’t make any sense unless she asked too many questions. Or found too many answers.
Taking the girl with him to get information had potential. It would protect her if Echo was responsible for the accident, but the more time he spent with her, the greater the chance she’d get caught in their chaos. The burner phone in his pocket was his failsafe. He could use it to call Craft. Find out if Craft could get the information, but doing so would bring the wrath of the team down on his head.
He had left without telling anyone, which was his MO. The quick departure was due, in part, to the fact that the information about Mandi had reached him in the middle of the night. He liked working while everyone else was in bed. Not like he slept much these days anyway.
The other reason he’d split had to do with his lack of impulse control. Thanks to the experiments, his teammates were volatile. Angry and paranoid, and Stills had stepped over the line and brought Sgt. Rose’s wrath down on his head. Getting away from the safe house was a tactical maneuver. Given a few days, the whole thing would blow over.
The scuff of a shoe on tile brought Stills’ attention back to the small hospital room. He straightened, ready to pounce from his seat if necessary. Sitting down didn’t make him the least bit vulnerable.
The deputy came back in the room looking stern and official. “Mind telling me what’s going on between you and your sister?”
“Actually, I do mind.”
“She wasn’t happy to see you.”
“You got a sister?” Stills asked.
The deputy nodded slightly, but his expression was unreadable.
“Then you know they’re not always happy.” Stills thought fast. He wanted information about the accident and the deputy was the ma
n with the answers. “If you’ve got a sister—”
“Sisters.”
“Then you know the road isn’t always smooth. Amanda is too trusting and has a habit of getting involved with the wrong men.” He was playing fast and loose with the information Danny had told him. “The last one was a real loser and I did what any brother would do.”
“And by that you mean?”
“Nothing illegal.” Stills grinned as he verbally poked at the officer. “Not in your county.”
“It pissed her off.”
“Doesn’t change a thing. I did what I had to do to protect her. Which is why I’m here. What happened on the highway last night? You find the other driver yet?”
“Truck was reported stolen. Probably a joyriding teenager with more balls than brains.”
There was a time that statement would have applied to him. “Out in the middle of nowhere? Far-fetched story. You get fingerprints?”
The look on the deputy’s face said no.
“There were no fingerprints? As in the truck was wiped clean?” Nerves tingled. No dumbass teen wiped his fingerprints. “Where the hell did he hide during the storm?”
“Mr. Gault, we’ll let you and your sister know the results when we’re through, but I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation.”
“Which means you know dick.” The irritation rose, as it sometimes did, and Stills let the anger flood his system. Unlike his teammates, he didn’t mind the side effects if they helped get the job done. “Some lowlife plows into Amanda, rubs bumpers with her on the highway first, and you’re here questioning the victim.”
“How do I know she didn’t cause the accident? Eliminate the guy in the truck?”
“Right, because Mandi looks like a coldblooded killer.” Stills stood to let the deputy get an eyeful of what a trained killer looked like. Hands on his hips, he stared down at the deputy.
To his credit, the deputy didn’t back down. “You have plenty of bruises of your own. Maybe you were in the car with her.”
“I wish I had been,” he admitted. He could have prevented the accident. He’d have known what the fuck was going on.
“The hospital confirms they didn’t make a call. There was no emergency contact information in Amanda’s personal affects. No one notified the family, so how is it you knew to show up? Especially given the fact that your sister was damn unhappy to see you?”
