by Cara Carnes
“It wasn’t Riley, but I heard things, noticed the tension between you two. And I’ve met Hailey, of course.” She touched the hand at her waist. “I’m sorry she got between you two. It shouldn’t ever be like that.”
“Leave it alone, sweetheart. We’ll work it out, okay?”
“Okay. I just can’t help but think the thing with Dean is similar. I didn’t want him meeting Vi and the other girls. I’m the mousy, average one, and the guys were always drawn to one of them. When he showed interest in me, I safeguarded him, tucked him close, and didn’t let them know. The thing with you and Dallas isn’t the same, but it kind of is. I mean, it’s all about not trusting each other and not communicating, right?”
Mary wasn’t mousy or average, not to him. The damn word came from what the bastard who’d taken Riley said. It was stuck in her brain, burned there by whatever crap someone fed her before all this mess started. Probably a parent. She’d had a shaky upbringing from what little was in her file.
“Sleep, sweetheart.”
Dylan listened to her quiet breaths slip into the steady rhythm of before. Maybe what went down between him and Dallas was closer to her handling of Dean with the girls than he first realized. Neither had trusted the other. He hadn’t explained anything. Dallas hadn’t either.
Dylan fed off the insecurity Hailey’s actions created in him. No, they’d simmered there all along. Small town life. Five brothers. Competition had been tough for love interests. He’d always taken the wingman position. That’s what the middle brother did.
Then he’d hooked up with Hailey. Things moved in the right direction. He’d always been shy with women, more circumspect than his brothers.
Lighten up, Dyl. You can’t blame me for having a little fun. It’s not a big deal. It’s not like I’m marrying him. See? Your ring’s still here, right where you put it, baby.
He’d been too shell-shocked to see anything beyond her thousand-watt smile burning a hole in his heart, his soul. Thinking back to the night he’d come home from the service and found them together, in his bed...
His gut burned. He choked back the anger roiling through him in a deep rumble. Dallas. His face. Confused. Shocked. Hurt.
Jesus.
Big brother Marshall was right, as always. Enough time had passed. They needed to sort their house before someone showed up and knocked it down. Whether they liked it or not, The Arsenal was balls-deep in Mary’s mess.
No, this wasn’t her crap. It had the stench of Hive all over it.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Even though all the pieces of the who-the-hell-is-Dean puzzle had more or less been put together, Marshall insisted they go over everything again, just to make sure nothing had been overlooked. Listening to the details again soured Mary’s stomach.
“So this guy we’re calling Dean tried to hook up with Addy, then wormed his way into a few dates with Vi, and ultimately landed out with Mary, and no one figured it out until last night.” Cord typed on the laptop he’d brought in. “And I thought girls shared everything.”
Mary bit her tongue.
“First off, I was out of the country on an op when I met the shithead. I don’t talk about what happens on those. Ever. And I never talk about shitty lays.” Addy shoved the loaded cartridge back in the gun she’d been cleaning.
Though her voice was calm, Mary recognized the tell. She always cleaned guns when she was pissed. She was one step from firing off a few rounds into whoever pissed her off next. Right now, Cord was in the number one position.
“My girls feel deep. They all got worked over by assholes with more brawn than brains while in college. By the time we met up, they were hermits, cowering from everyone to keep those big hearts of theirs from getting cut open. I got real protective. Now, they keep interest from men as pretty and together as shithead seemed to themselves because I geld first and question later where they’re concerned.”
Yep, she was pissed. Addy set her massive knife on the table. “Are you done being a dick, or do you need a demonstration. It’s been a while, and the blade’s a bit dull, but I’d get through it easy enough. I’m thinking you’d make a great eunuch.”
“Ouch,” Gage commented as Nolan whistled.
Marshall cursed. Jesse stood and left the room. Cord paled.
“Not cool, Addy. You want to call me on my shit, go for it.” Cord rose. “I’ll get him. Keep going. I need a time out anyway.”
He stormed from the room. Mary’s friend gave her a what the hell look, but she couldn’t ignore the tension in the air any longer. The other brothers were bombs ticking.
“I’m sorry, Jesse. She didn’t know,” Mary whispered into the awkward silence. “None of them knew. I did the background, read all your files. I never share what I learn unless it’s pertinent to the discussion. The fact an excellent soldier survived an IED that nasty deserved whatever discretion I could give.”
Mary had heard her friend issue the threat a hundred times over the past few years. There was no real animosity in it, and she never would’ve made the angry comment if she’d known about Jesse’s injury, the one he wouldn’t discuss with anyone—even his brothers. His file had been flagged with his request for privacy.
“I didn’t know what?” Addy demanded, her face redder than the hair on her head. Mary knew when she’d connected her threat with the apology. Addy paled. “No.”
The two men returned. Addy was up and wrapped around Jesse before anyone realized her intent. Cord grabbed her about the waist, but she was latched on tight and furiously whispering something in the man’s ear. Whatever it was, softened his face.
He wrapped an arm around her and shook his head at his brother. Tears ran from the woman’s face. Shock poured through Mary. She’d never seen her cry.
“Okay, let’s get this done. Everything’s good,” Jesse commented as he sat and dragged Addy into a chair. “The women didn’t know he’d worked them. What was the objective?”
“Names. Specifically, Bree or Rhea, probably both. That’s something we established fairly early on, because it’s the only objective that makes sense.” Vi tapped a few keys. “Then we added in everything you all could give us from the times some of you worked with Peter. That’s when things started smelling fishy.”
“Why would anyone want a power source? It’s gotta be about Rhea and her weapon stuff. That makes sense.” Bree put her forehead in her palm and closed her eyes.
“Not to rain on your parade, friend, but your power source is unique, one bad guys could use to arm any number of things, run secret compounds, you name it. It’s entirely off radar, self-sustained, a hundred times more powerful than anything else, and fits into a cellphone case. Do I need to continue?” Vi asked.
“We’re assuming they want you both. Hell, all of you.” Nolan folded his arms. “What’s fishy?”
“Mary tracked Dean down using HERA. Where he is, who he’s pretending to be. Phone numbers, that sort of thing.” Vi clicked another couple of buttons. “And then she sort of hacked into your databases, phone records, that sort of thing.”
“Yeah, when this is over, we’re having a long talk about passwords and numerical codes. Using Riley’s birthday is not a good idea, guys,” Mary added.
“Which of you idiots is doing that?” Cord asked.
Dallas, Nolan, and Jesse held their hands up. Marshall and Dylan shook their heads. Gage chuckled.
“Someone in your compound is making a lot of calls to a burner I’ve tracked to Dean. It isn’t Dean’s, though. It’s a number he’s calling.”
“You tracked down the asshole, hacked all of his stuff, including his phone, and you identified someone here calling the same number.” Marshall leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling.
“Yes and no. We know someone is calling the number from here, but not who. You have no surveillance on operations, and the call is originating from one of the rest areas.” Mary glanced at Marshall and Dylan. “We have enough equipment to overhaul security here.
If you give us the go ahead, we’ll get the cameras up, and the entire compound, including your mom’s house and all the surrounding grounds, wired and monitored by HERA. Then we’ll know who it is.”
“Or they’ll bolt. Seeing cameras go up will likely make them nervous. That’s probably why the move was made on Riley,” Dallas said.
“Makes sense. Inside man here gets nervous after the little show and tell you all did. Makes a call to whoever’s money he’s taking,” Nolan continued.
“But why? If they have someone here, then they’ve seen Bree and me. Why not just snatch us instead of Riley?” Rhea asked.
“Smoke screen,” Addy explained. “They want to keep the inside man secure, where he can do more damage later when it’s really needed. Hiring outside people to do a messy snatch and grab off the compound grounds shifts our focus.”
“Putting in the system is smart, but a big risk,” Marshall replied.
“Mary has a plan,” Vi offered. “It’s brilliant.”
“Of course it is. She’s Edge,” Cord said with a grin. “I still can’t believe the system y’all designed even does this shit. It’s like space age crap.”
Pride settled in her chest as she smiled at Dylan’s brother. He really loved HERA. Mary withdrew one of the new cameras and settled it on the conference table.
“It was Peter’s suggestion to enhance HERA’s surveillance capabilities.” Mary took the laptop from Vi and activated the protocol. “When long term monitoring is necessary, but you can’t get into the area without raising alarms, you can do it remotely. Like flying a drone.”
Mary pushed a few buttons. The camera whirred, then rose from the table and darted about the room. “It can fly, roll on the floor, and several other critical maneuvers. I’m still working on the programming for others. These are the same apparatuses we use for the weapon drones. The camera has a three hundred sixty-degree view and will adhere to any surface, or remain unmounted in case you want to follow someone as they move about.”
“Get this. She’s working on programming where you can tell it what you’re trying to do and it’ll handle things by itself,” Cord added, his voice an octave higher than normal. “So, we could fly these things around the compound, computerized guard duty.”
“Wow, seriously big brother style tech here,” Gage commented.
“It has its uses, and drawbacks,” Vi admitted. “Sometimes privacy takes a backseat.”
“You’re saying we can wire the entire compound with this system because it basically installs itself,” Dylan said with a smirk. “Guess she’s working you out of a job, Nolan.”
“Been on enough hot roofs and fended off enough horny housewives to last a lifetime. They’ll make a fortune rolling this out for public use on this ability alone.” He motioned toward the corner where the device quietly folded into the corner.
“She’s working on camouflage,” Vi offered. “We’re calling them the chameleons.”
“Not as cool as the zingers, but they definitely have their uses,” Addy commented.
“Zingers?” Jesse asked.
“Those are the ones we knocked you all out with,” Rhea offered. “I helped with those.”
She’d more than helped. The compounds she’d created went from non-toxic, untraceable, sleep drugs to lethal. If someone got their hands on the formulas she’d constructed, they’d have an extremely strong chemical weapon. One entirely untraceable.
“And you all have these things just lying around in the room we assigned you?” Dallas asked.
“They’re secure,” Cord offered. “I cleared out one of the weapons safes when the mean redhead dragged me out by my ear when she found out they had all that stuff lying around.”
“We’ll run drills on the back end of the property tonight through the morning. Will that give you enough time to get this up and running?” Marshall asked.
“More than enough,” Mary answered.
“Great, Dylan and Dallas will help with whatever you need.”
Both men tensed.
Marshall glared at them both. “Work it out. Tonight.”
“And the phone number Dean and the sleeper are calling?” Nolan asked.
“I tracked it to the Dulles airport, but it’s in Austin now.”
“They’re moving in, getting ready,” Dylan replied. “I’ll take a team to Austin, do recon.”
“Tomorrow, take Mary and the computer or whatever that thing is.” Marshall ran his hands through his hair. “You ladies are sitting on a goldmine of things any number of really bad people would kill to get their hands on. Keep being smart, laying low, and doing what we say. We’ll get this sorted.”
“And what about me? Am I supposed to lay low?” Addy asked.
“No. You’re working with me, Red. My team’s a person down, and you fit the bill. You up for it?” Jesse asked.
“I’m not leaving the compound until they’re secure,” Addy responded. “But yeah. I’m in.”
Everyone had their assignments and headed out. Mary looked around, then tensed. “Wait. Where’s Fallon?”
“Graves is chasing another lead,” Marshall replied.
“Another lead. Care to expand on that?” Mary closed the laptop.
“Fallon isn’t in a good place right now. He shouldn’t be off alone,” Vi argued.
“Graves reports to me now. I’m monitoring his situation.” Marshall headed out the room.
Only Vi and Dylan remained. The two of them darted a quick glance at each other.
“Okay, what the hell am I missing? Where’s Fallon?” Mary demanded.
“Girlfriend, that man came unglued when he rolled in and saw you. He tried keeping the rage bottled, but he blew.” Vi touched Mary’s shoulder. “He’s okay, but he needs this. Let him work it out however he needs to.”
“Work it out. I don’t understand.”
“You have no idea how important you are to the operatives in the field,” Dylan said.
“If he was Peter, you’d be his Addy,” Vi explained.
“I need to talk to him.” Mary stood. “Who’s point? Is he checking in? Where did Marshall send him? He’s not good in deserts, gets flashbacks. Did he tell you that?”
“No, but I’ll make sure it’s noted.” Dylan cupped Mary’s face. “I know you’re worried, but let someone else carry that for a while. Cord and Marshall have him situated. He’s stateside. That’s all you’re getting from me.”
“What if I want more?” Mary teased.
A lazy grin formed on Dylan’s face. Amusement flickered in his gaze as he leaned down and feathered a kiss across her lips. “Stay out of trouble.”
Heat crept up her cheeks as he left the room. She’d forgotten Vi was still there.
“Holy...” Vi’s gaze darted from the door to Mary, then back again. Mouth open, finger pointing between the two. “When...”
“It’s nothing.”
“The temperature in here rose at least ten degrees with you two making googly faces at one another,” Vi returned. “That’s not nothing.”
“He doesn’t want anything serious, and I don’t do relationships. We’re attracted to one another, but we both know it takes more than that.”
“Well, for the record, I’m thinking you’ve gotten over that foolish notion about sex being boring or awkward, because you aren’t either with him.” Vi looked around. “Are we going to talk about Dean?”
“I don’t know. Do you need to?”
“Do I need to? Mary, you were with him way longer than us.” Vi sat and grabbed Mary’s hand. “Talk to me, girlfriend. You’ve got a lot bottled up right now.”
“The bastard was smooth. I even apologized for being a bad girlfriend when we broke up.” She shook her head and collapsed in the seat beside Vi’s. “I never understood why he was with me. So gorgeous. Smart. Funny. But I couldn’t let go of work and make him my primary concern.”
“Some part of you must’ve registered something wasn’t right.” Vi zipped up the laptop’s
bag. “I met him when I went to Seattle, at the underground con I was invited to speak at.”
“You never mentioned him.”
“I guess Addy was right. I don’t mention guys until they mean something, matter enough to warrant her wrath and your snooping into every second of his past.” Vi shrugged. “I should’ve said something.”
“It was just the weekend then?”
“Yeah, he wasn’t for me. He tried way too hard, kept asking a lot of personal questions, and you know I’m not okay with a twenty questions session, especially after mediocre sex.” Vi chuckled.
Dean was a shitty lay for Addy, mediocre for Vi, and the best Mary had been with. Okay, he didn’t have much competition where she was concerned. He was technically the best and the second to worst, the worst being the first time she never discussed.
“What kind of things was he asking?”
“He wanted to have a get together, a barbecue where all our friends could hang together. Things like that. Getting in my face about everyone meeting, wanting to know where they lived, how we met. He even asked to see my photo albums. Can you believe that? Like I’d have them with me.”
“You kind of do, though. Right?”
“He didn’t need to know I digitized everything,” Vi argued. “Look, I promise never to go off reservation with a guy again without letting you know. Okay?”
“Same here.”
“So, Dylan?” Vi asked with a quirked eyebrow. “He’s one sexy drink of water.”
“I’m scared. He’s out of my league. I don’t even know what’s going on. One minute, I feel like a burden, a chore he’s crossing off his list. Then the next, he’s putting me in his clothes, tucking me into his bed, and holding me so close I can breathe for the first time since all this started.”
“Wow.”
“And the kissing. It’s like a toddler playing football with the NFL Player of the Year or something.” Mary shook her head. “Like I said, he’s out of my league.”
