by Cara Carnes
“It’s a small world,” Gage commented.
Ian shrugged. “Not particularly. I enjoy studying the human condition, Sanderson. You piqued my interest with your actions in that village. Then you left the service altogether and roused my interest. I gave you two paths to choose from. Weathers or Mason.”
“You told him where I was.”
“I did. Through an acquaintance, of course.” Ian rose. “There are no bad men, Sanderson. Simply bad decisions. You are living proof of that.”
“Why tell me all this now?”
“Because you are the proof that I not only plan long-term but succeed.” Ian smiled as he huffed on his cigar. “I orchestrated your team’s defection and your decision. Then I once again chose your path and set you up at The Arsenal.”
“Bastard thinks he’s God,” Vi said. “He’s a classic narcissist. More than half of this is nothing more than fabricated connections of grandeur in his head.”
“She’s right,” Mary said.
“I found out where you were because of a man I’d trust with my life. No way in hell was my decision driven by or remotely connected to this bastard,” Dylan said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Zoey whispered. “However it happened, you did the right thing and kept innocent people safe. Then you got out and came to The Arsenal. Now can we please get the hell out of the black-in-black-ops building? Cord, please tell me you’re done.”
“I’m done and out,” Cord commented. “Dig into the connections anyway. We know Weathers and Ian are connected to the Collective. We need to know how far back their connection goes either way. As for whatever went down in your past, Z’s right. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t control us. We choose our own paths.”
They were right. Gage had clung to what he’d done for too long. He’d made the right decision, one that he couldn’t allow to control his future any longer. “You may have pulled the strings, but no one controls me. Do you think admitting these things will make me fear or respect you more?”
“It should give you pause. There is nothing you can do I have not already considered and planned for,” Ian said. “You and The Arsenal should back off and return Zoey Danson to me and my associate here. I am someone you cannot take down.”
“You’re wrong.”
The man shrugged as he huffed on his cigar. Rage rose within Gage. Seven moves. In seven moves he could snap all three necks. Not that Jud would stand there and do nothing. The man exuded lethal intent, even though he’d no doubt missed a few of the taunts Ian was laying down like cookie crumbs.
“He’s fucking with you,” Mary said, her voice the same lethal calm she always maintained.
But her voice wasn’t the one Gage needed to hear. The one he needed came a heartbeat later and carried more anger and emotion than a nuclear weapon.
“Fuck whatever head game he’s playing with you, Gage. We’ve already won. We dealt the blow to him before you walked in,” Zoey whispered, her voice rapid and excited despite the anger that clipped each word.
“What did you do, Z?” Vi asked.
“I took it,” she answered quickly. “I sent the worm in the other way when I realized Cherling was the puppet, not the master. The worms are grabbing everything. Every penny, every kilobyte of data, every contact Ian’s ever had. We have it all, Gage. That’s the blow he takes today. Courtesy of the rainbow-haired, fat-assed bitch.”
Gage pulled back in the reins to the rage riding him hard. This meet wasn’t about what’d happened three years ago. It was about Zoey and what’d gone down when they’d taken down the Collective.
The war they’d started back then to keep the Quillery Edge safe was still waging beneath the surface. They’d just unearthed the next layer, and Zoey had already dealt it a blow—the same ruthless blow Vi had used against the Collective.
“You took it? How?” Vi asked. “I took everything I found.”
“The new worm burrows deeper. It found the rest,” Zoey said.
“You’re done fucking with us,” Gage said. “Come after Zoey or anyone else at The Arsenal or tied to me, and I’ll make what happened in that village look like a three-year-old’s birthday party.”
Ian grinned. “I’m not the only one going after her, you know. Friendly advice, cut her loose.”
Gage lunged, grabbed the man by the throat and squeezed—no hesitation because he knew Jud would handle the other two assholes.
And he did.
“Down,” Jud growled at Josiah. “You twitch and you die.”
“Who did you send after her?”
“Give me my daughter, and I’ll call them off,” Cherling said from the other sofa.
Gage released Ian and took a step toward the man, but Jud was already there. Knife against his jugular.
“You don’t have the balls to play with us, Congressman. Call your dogs off. You aren’t ever getting near your daughter.”
“Zoey never should have gotten her nose in my business. That was her first mistake,” Cherling said.
“Your first and final mistake was thinking she’s alone,” Gage growled.
“Her second was trusting a stupid teenager to not call anyone. I know about the network,” Cherling said. “Rosa didn’t need much incentive to talk.”
“Fuck,” Zoey spat into the com. “Mary, take over. I’ve gotta call Jade.”
“Stand down,” Vi ordered. “He’s fucking with us. Even if Rosa talked, Sara wouldn’t have known anything beyond a handful of people who helped her. Who besides Ben helped her?”
“No one. I did it all myself,” Zoey said, her voice calmer.
“Right. Because your network is not only brilliant, but almost impenetrable. Any holes in its defenses can be handled by us and HERA,” Mary said. “The network is not compromised. It’s just on radar now. There’s a difference.”
Gage hoped to hell so. He grinned and leaned into Cherling’s personal space. “Your daughter is at The Arsenal. You think you’re man enough to get her, go ahead and try. The second you do, every news outlet in the country gets footage of these discussions and every image we have of Sara’s abuse. They get it all.”
The man paled.
Jud pointed toward one of the drones in the corner. “Smile, Congressman.”
“I’ll ruin you,” the man warned.
Gage chuckled. “By the way, gentlemen, you shouldn’t ever piss off a beautiful and brilliant woman. She doesn’t get pissed, she gets even.”
“In case you’re too stupid to read between the lines, Zoey’s cleared out all your accounts. Go ahead and try to mount a war without the funds to pay your crews. See how far you get,” Jud said as he reached into his pocket and tossed a twenty on the sofa beside Ian. “Go buy yourselves a happy meal, then move the fuck on. Come near us or our women again and Gage won’t be the only one you’re dealing with.”
“You may have played a long-term game against me for some fucked-up reason, but here’s some advice,” Gage said, his voice low. “Don’t ever think you can outwit or outsmart The Arsenal.”
Zoey snickered on the com. Gage assumed it was her because Vi and Mary rarely expressed themselves during an op. Jud headed toward the door first. Gage waited a couple seconds, then followed suit.
He turned his back on the three men because the drones had his back.
No.
Zoey, Vi, and Mary had his back.
Zoey had no idea how dangerous she was. She’d cleared the accounts of a dirty NSA agent and a U.S. congressman without blinking. Gage couldn’t help but chuckle as they walked down the hall and entered the cubicle area to find everyone frozen, watching as Dallas whittled. Two men were stacked atop one another in the empty cube beside him. Gage assumed they were both still alive.
“Trouble?” Jud asked.
The man shrugged and held up the small bit of wood. “What do you think?”
“I think you’d best leave the knife work to your woman. She’s got talent. You don’t.”
“Ouch,” Dallas said as
he rose and sheathed his KA-BAR. “Everyone’s a critic.”
Gage smirked at the exchange. The two men wanted everyone in the room to know The Arsenal wasn’t anywhere near worried about Weathers Enterprises and anyone else connected to it.
Message delivered.
10
Zoey wasn’t sure why she’d wandered out to the hanger and plopped her ass down on an unboxed crate of commando gear. Legs crossed, she tried to ignore the riotous emotions rising in her as each new body joined her.
First it’d been Bree. The blonde had checked her typical hyperactive personality at the door and remained quiet. She’d been the lone sentry for a few minutes. Then Kamren and Riley had appeared with sodas and chips.
Zoey had opted for a diet soda and a bag of Cheetos. She’d seen Gage eat them a few times. She preferred salt and vinegar, but whatever. Addy and Fallon had been the first two commandos to appear. The latter hadn’t remained, but the redhead was still there, watching from across the hangar.
“You okay?” Kamren asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I heard things got a bit intense,” Bree said, opting to voice her thoughts for the first time.
Mary and Vi wouldn’t have said a damn thing and neither would Dylan. Yet someone had sent Bree and the female contingent out into this hangar to babysit her emotionally-charged self. Zoey supposed the women had narc’d after all.
“Things got ugly, but not for me.”
Damn. Zoey squeezed her eyes shut as her brain replayed Ian’s recount. Clearly Gage had never wanted anyone to know. As far as she was concerned, no one except those on the com would ever hear. She’d kick anyone’s ass who tried to share his past without permission.
He’d killed his own team to save a village. Tears pricked her eyes as dust rose in a spewing inferno visible only because of the floodlights spotlighting the area. Her pulse quickened as she worried about the plane’s descent.
Mary had ensured her more than a few times that Levi was an excellent pilot.
“He’ll talk when he’s ready,” Kamren commented. “Until then, just be there.”
Zoey didn’t waste words denying she intended to be there for Gage. It’d be pretty stupid since she’d camped out in the freaking hangar for the past few hours waiting for him to return. Like it or not, she was invested in Gage because he’d gone all in for her back at the coffee shop.
Now she knew why Vi and Mary deemed him a ninja. She couldn’t imagine the emotional war he’d waged with himself and the resulting upheaval he’d endured afterward. The guilt and pain. The anguish.
Gods.
Suck it up, buttercup. This isn’t about you.
Gage had walked into that black ops building to have her back and stepped back into his own private hell, one he’d likely never intended to revisit. Who would?
That was why he hadn’t wanted to get a team.
Dylan had known.
How?
Right. Ian had mentioned Dylan and a Delta team.
Zoey filed the information away as the plane taxied to a stop just short of the hangar. Vi and Mary appeared via the golf cart as the plane door lowered. Kamren didn’t wait with a pretense of patience. She was at the bottom of the stairs peering up when Dallas appeared.
Zoey’s heart squeezed tight at the look of love between the two. The woman squealed as Dallas pulled her into an embrace and claimed her mouth. Levi vaulted off the stairs by jumping off the side as he shook his head at the display. Cord slapped his brother on the back and shoved the couple out of the way as he and Jud made their way off the plane.
The latter’s gaze swept the small contingent of greeters. His mouth upturned into a grin when he spotted his wife to the side with Mary. The man paused near Zoey and looked down, an intensity reflected in his gaze. “Get him away from here. Even an hour is better than nothing.”
She was about to argue, but in typical Jud fashion, he was already gone. Gage took the stairs two at a time and headed directly to the supply cages with two large totes slung over his shoulder.
Zoey swallowed the nervousness crawling through her as his gaze swept across everyone, but somehow bypassed her altogether. As if he knew precisely where she was and had chosen not to look.
Right.
Addy was at the cages and had them unlocked. Zoey remained on the fringes as the redhead muttered some indiscernible words to him. He growled something equally inaudible in response.
Zoey looked over her shoulder to Riley. “Well?”
“Well what?” The blonde asked the question innocently.
“Don’t give me that ‘well what’ shit. I know Kamren’s been teaching you to lip read,” Zoey said. “What did he say?”
“I don’t know,” the woman lied. Red rose in her cheeks.
What the fuck ever. Coming out and waiting for him had been the dumbest idea Zoey ever had—which was saying something ‘cause she’d had quite a few doozies during her formative years. She headed back into the hangar and returned to her makeshift seat atop a crate.
Dobby hissed his displeasure as she picked him up and situated him within the circle of her legs. As an act of goodwill, she set a Cheeto on her thigh and watched as he started licking the fake cheesy goodness off.
She should’ve stayed in her danged room. Or better yet, in the theater. Yeah, she could’ve gotten loads of work done if she hadn’t been out here being stupid and waiting for Gage like he’d give a damn.
“Little Bit.”
Tingles ignited beneath her skin as his growly voice filled her ears. Hand in the Cheetos bag, she looked up and tumbled into the gorgeous, cinnamon gaze. His full lips upturned into a smirk as he closed the distance between them. Were she to look straight ahead, her gaze would land on his crotch and thick thighs.
She swallowed and skittered her gaze back up as he reached down and gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist. And pulled. Fascinated and more than a bit confused, she watched as he guided her hand from the Cheetos bag to his mouth.
Where he proceeded to thieve the crunchy, cheesy goodness from her fingers. Fingers he then sucked into his hot mouth and…
Damn.
Molten awareness rolled through her like an out-of-control lava river. Amusement and a glimmer of knowing settled in his gaze as he popped her two fingers out of his mouth. “You aren’t a Cheetos girl, Little Bit. You’re salt and vinegar all the way.”
“I’m an equal opportunity chip connoisseur,” she retorted. Her pulse quickened as he continued to hold her wrist hostage. “What are you doing?”
“That’s what I was about to ask you. Why did you come back in here?”
“Dobby. He gets into trouble if I don’t watch him closely.”
“Since when?”
“Erm…have you not met Dobby?” She looked down at the kitty who’d had more than a few dustups with Hermione and Harry, Vi’s kitten and puppy. “Territorial negotiations are going well, by the way. Dobby has been accepted into Hermione and Harry’s circle of tentative friends. They now share the theater without scrapping.”
“Funny. I heard it was Dobby who did the scrapping and hissing,” Gage commented, his voice lazy and low. He reached down with his free hand and scooped Dobby out from between her legs.
Fiery awareness drifted there, scant inches from where his hand had been. Her pulse quickened as he perched Dobby on his shoulder like they’d been friends forever. When the heck had that happened?
“Come on, Little Bit. I’d rather be anywhere but here.”
“Then let’s go,” she blurted, recalling what Jud had said. “Not Bubba’s, though. Everyone always runs away to Bubba’s. Kamren told me about somewhere in Marville, a Mexican diner along the highway to San Antonio. I think they have other stuff, like steak.”
“I could do Mexican,” Gage commented with a grin. “You asking me on a date, Little Bit?”
She gulped. Damn. She kind of had. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. Men like him didn’t date chunky geeks. Wha
t had the asshole of all time called her? Oh, right. A rainbow-colored, fat-assed bitch.
“Yes,” he said as he leaned down. “But I pay.”
“You have a problem with a woman paying for your meal?” Zoey’s stomach somersaulted. Had she somehow landed a date with Gage Sanderson?
No. It was only dinner.
People ate together all the time.
“And I drive.”
“Why?”
“Because last time you drove it took half an hour to go fifteen miles,” Gage said with a grin.
“It did not!”
Gage crossed his arms and quirked an eyebrow.
“Okay, okay. But we had to stop for gas.”
“That doesn’t take fifteen minutes.”
“It does when you have two curious little boys who’ve rarely been into a convenience store in tow. They had questions and some serious lessons to learn about proper road-worthy snackage. Someone has to show them the ropes.”
Gage chuckled. “Come on. I’m starved.”
She looked over at the line of vehicles awaiting them. No one ever bothered laying claim to a particular truck at The Arsenal. Keys were always in the ignitions, money and weapons in the glove compartments.
“We’ve gotta stop by the units so I can get Dobby situated.” And change. Jesus. What had she been thinking?
A date?
With Gage?
When was the last time she’d been out on a date?
She couldn’t remember. How pathetic was that?
“Kamren and Dallas can take Dobby,” Gage said, “but if you want to go back to your place first, we will. Whatever will make you comfortable.”
She looked past Gage and into the sea of people watching them from a not-so-subtle distance that screamed “We’ll pounce the second you’re done talking.” That was what Jud had meant. Gage wasn’t ready to handle discussing what’d gone down with Zoey’s asshole ex-boss. He needed someone running interference, and that someone was her.
“Let’s go. I’m hungry,” she declared. She reached up on her tiptoes and snagged Dobby from atop Gage’s shoulder. The beast growled his displeasure as she curled him into her and headed to Kamren.
