Zero Trace

by Cara Carnes

  Did it matter?

  They were two consenting adults who were free to explore whatever the heck they wanted to with one another. She nodded as she agreed with the voice in her head. Decision made, she headed off to the shower. The sooner she got dressed and ready to face everyone, the better.

  Nothing good had gotten them up so early.

  She took what she needed from the bag and showered. She spent extra time conditioning her hair. Sooner or later she’d have to touch up the roots, but there hadn’t been time for that lately with everything happening.

  Gage liked her hair. He’d spent the whole movie running his hands through it or massaging her scalp.

  So freaking tactile.

  She shook off the thought as she finished up her shower and got dressed. Hair semi-towel-dried and brushed, she made her way back to the living room.

  Everyone DJ had rattled off was in the small room watching in varied expressions of outright amusement and shock as Gage prowled toward her, lifted her up, pressed her against the wall, and kissed the hell out of her.

  The carnal fusion was hot, deep, and demanding. Nothing soft, chaste, or hesitant with Gage. All in. That’s what he’d said last night.

  “I think I’m pregnant just from watching that,” Bree said. “Holy shit.”

  “Wow. If the operatives all kiss like that, I should be nicer to them,” Riley commented.

  “Fuck no,” Jesse muttered. “That’s not happening, sis.”

  The woman smirked and walked into the kitchen. Zoey alternated her gaze between them and Gage, who grinned as he leaned forward.

  “That’s the way I was going to say good morning,” he whispered. “Are you okay?”

  “That depends,” she admitted. “Why are they all here?”

  “We haven’t gotten that far yet,” Gage said. He moved away from her and focused on Vi and Mary. “There’s a problem.”

  “Not a problem as much as a development,” Mary said. “We’ll talk about it after we eat. The baby’s hungry. I really hope there’s picante sauce for the eggs.”

  “I brought some and told him softly scrambled,” Dylan muttered softly.

  “Eggs,” Vi said the word as if it was a curse and grabbed her mouth. Jud cursed and motioned toward the hallway. The woman surged that direction.

  Mary visible paled. “Ugh. I hated the first trimester.”

  Riley gasped. Bree squealed.

  “Shit,” Mary muttered.

  “Whoops,” Zoey said. “Surprise! Erm, let’s rewind time and pretend you didn’t hear any of that.”

  “Good idea. She’s nervous and didn’t want anyone to know until after the first trimester,” Dylan said.

  The women all nodded their agreement, but the excitement and happiness zipped through the room like a livewire. Jud entered first, took one look at the women, and muttered, “Fuck.”

  They screamed and rushed Vi as a collective. Mary winced and mouthed sorry as the crush of congratulations struck the room. While some of the people at The Arsenal may have semi-known, it was official.

  The next generation of the Quillery Edge was officially being baked. Let the revelry begin. Zoey smiled up at Gage. “This is so cool.”

  By the time everyone had eaten and the dishes were done, Gage was ready to hear what had dragged everyone out of the compound and over to the small farmhouse. The women all sat around the newly purchased dining room table while Gage and the rest of the men leaned against the wall.

  “Your bug has been busy. We’ve gotten most of the Weathers’ files while your other bug cleaned Ian Schmidt and all related accounts dry,” Vi said. “The fallout was swift. Ian’s gone to ground, but not before putting out an order on the dark web to get you. One million.”

  Son of a bitch.

  “We heard about the order because of one of Jud’s contacts,” Mary said. “Kristof Lavrov. He implied you and he had a history as well.”

  Zoey gulped. “Not exactly. He said that? That we had history?”

  “How do you know him?” Jud asked. “He doesn’t buzz around the same circles you do, so that makes me think you weren’t aware he knew you. That complicates this.”

  “I’m not following,” Gage said.

  “Kristof handles acquisitions. He brokers a lot of deals between parties who aren’t necessarily friendly,” Jud explained.

  “He’s a trafficker who’ll sell anything, including his own mother,” Zoey spat angrily. “He’s pond scum in a heaping pile of flaming dog shit. Since scum isn’t nearly as bad as shit, I have to tolerate his existence because he’s useful.”

  “Useful how?” Dallas asked.

  “Useful in that I found his network on the dark web and have been hacking into it to find out about pending deals,” she whispered. “Deals he declined or didn’t necessarily agree to handle yet. I turn information over to people I know, and the women or children get freed.”

  “Let me get this straight. You aren’t just helping women and children after they’re free. You’re actually freeing them?” Gage asked.

  “Not really. I track them down and turn the info over to a crew I know that handles the hard part. Then I take it from there.” Zoey shrugged as she turned and looked at him. “It’s not a big deal.”

  “Kristof isn’t the sort of man anyone should go up against,” Jud said “I’d have to think long and hard about going against the resources he has acquired over his career. He has more power than God as far as a lot of people are concerned. And you’ve been peeing in his coffee without thinking he’d notice.”

  “Ewww, way to ruin my coffee,” Kamren said.

  Vi took a sip of her juice and looked lovingly up at her husband. Jud had taken to marriage like a duck to water. Gage admired the hell out of his ability to blend in wherever he was while also standing out and terrifying the living shit out of everyone.

  If he was nervous about Kristof, Gage didn’t like the fact he was not only aware of Zoey’s little excursions into his network but had reached out to inform Jud about the contract on her acquisition.

  “Do you think Kristof will come after her?” Jesse asked.

  “No. He’s backed off as a favor to me. He owed me for giving him a heads up about our taking out the Collective leadership. We’re even now,” Jud answered. Gaze on Zoey, he finished. “He wants a meet.”

  “Fuck no.” Gage shook his head.

  “He’s not a man you say no to without paying the consequences. If we refuse, he’ll show up at your doorstep in a way that’ll leave more than a few body bags. I’m not certain they’ll all be on his side,” Jud admitted.

  Gage looked over at Dallas.

  “He’s right. I’d take the meet,” Dallas said. “He’s damn near the king of the underground.”

  “He is,” Zoey admitted.

  And she’d been hacking into his network. Gage wasn’t sure whether to be proud or pissed, but he was leaning toward the latter at the moment. In time he’d drift toward proud. For now he seethed in silence.

  “What’s the plan?” Bree asked.

  “Jud, Gage, and Jesse go with Zoey to a meet.”

  “Why Jesse?” Rhea asked. She looked over at the man. “No offense.”

  “His team has called dibs on having Gage’s back on this,” Mary replied.

  “Didn’t realize we could call dibs,” Addy commented.

  “I don’t like this idea,” Zoey admitted. “Why would he want a meet with me?”

  “Whatever it is won’t be good,” Vi said. “Either way, he’s the lynchpin to getting the information we need to take this contract down before anyone gets dumb enough to try and take it.”

  “Can’t you use one of the programs to take it out?” Riley asked.

  “It’s spread too far,” Zoey said. “Once a contract like that with a big payday gets out, there’s no scrubbing it. It gets a life of its own and has already moved past the dark web.”

  “How does Ian have money to pay the contract?” Bree asked. “I thought the pro
gram took all his money.”

  “Cash, yes. Assets, no.” Mary’s grim expression settled on Zoey. “You’re worth a lot of money to a lot of people. It wouldn’t surprise me if you were the payday after he’s done with you.”

  “Jesus, watch the shit you say.” Gage glared at Mary.

  “Growl at my wife again and I’ll knock you into next century,” Dylan shot back.

  Gage didn’t respond, but his rage must’ve voiced itself because Dallas moved to intercept him and Dylan. “Everyone’s on edge and in protective mode. Calm down, or I’ll knock you both into orbit.”

  “This could very well be a trap. And you all are okay with just walking her in there?” Gage asked. “That’s not what we do.”

  “It’s exactly what we do,” Vi said. “She’s not going in alone. She’s going in with some of the very best operatives in existence at her side. There is nothing that bastard or anyone else could do that we will not handle because that’s what Mary and I do.”

  Some of the anger and fear clawing at Gage eased. The woman was right. He wasn’t sure what the hell had crawled inside of him. “Sorry. I knew there’d be fallout, but nothing this swift.”

  “It’s an annoyance, but nothing we didn’t expect,” Mary said. “Honestly, I expect the monetary offer to grow when the first few attempts are thwarted.”

  First few attempts? Fuck no.

  “There’s already a plan in place. Security at the compound has been tightened. Our response to any threat will be swift and deadly. No one who attacks us walks away,” Dylan said. “No one.”

  “And we need to meet with Kristof because you think he’ll help take the contract down,” Zoey said.

  “And he’d have the power to help take Ian down. We could lay waste to the remnants of the Collective, the Hive, and all their operations once and for all,” Jud said.

  “Why would he do that?” Gage asked.

  “It’d leave him with more power,” Zoey answered. “That’s what he’d get. His quid pro quo. He’d be an unstoppable force.”

  “No one is unstoppable,” Vi argued.

  “We’ve gotta pick our enemy here. Sometimes to take one down you need crawl into bed with another,” Addy said. “What’s the rest of the plan?”

  “We need eyes on Jade,” Mary said. “We tried contacting him this morning, but he didn’t answer. Is there a protocol for this?”

  “He didn’t answer?” Zoey grabbed the nearest cell on the table. The line rang. And rang.

  Each one sent unease through Gage. He looked across the table at the women.

  This wasn’t good.

  Jade wasn’t answering. Zoey stared at the phone as the debrief she’d just undergone thundered through her. There was a one-million-dollar contract out to kidnap her and deliver her to her former boss.

  And Kristof Lavrov was demanding a meeting. The man terrified her to her core, even though she’d never met him. She’d scraped by too many brushes with his minions on the dark web. He had entire groups trying to find do-gooders like her.

  But she’d have the meeting because Vi and Mary would. It was the right thing to do if it put an end to all this once and for all. It’d gotten so damn complicated. All she’d wanted to do was help the women and children being victimized.

  It wasn’t supposed to be that complicated.

  But a lot of this didn’t have anything to do with the network she ran. It was fallout from the wars The Arsenal had declared. Somehow, they’d all simmered together in a big shitstorm.

  “Send the info to me. My team and I will be wheels up in thirty,” Addy said.

  “Take Marshall and his team with you,” Vi said. “Expect the worst.”

  The redhead nodded and headed out the door. Zoey hoped to hell it was all an overreaction, but Jade had never missed a call. Ever. He lived with the phone attached to his ear as far as Zoey could tell.

  “I don’t understand how they would’ve even known about Jade,” Zoey whispered.

  “We don’t know what all Sara told Rosa, remember. Did Sara ever meet Jade?” Mary asked.

  “No, but I called him a few times while I was around her,” Zoey admitted. “I didn’t think he could be tracked.”

  “And with Ian involved, there’s a lot more depth to the surveillance. If he’s pulled in NSA assets on this, finding the connection between you and Jade would’ve been simple enough—even with the disposable phones. There’s always a thread to be found,” Vi said. “Usually. You’re damn good at hiding them. Better than anyone I’ve seen.”

  “There were three girls he had secured. Addy will need to tend to them,” Zoey said.

  “We’ll coordinate it with her,” Bree said. “Rhea and I have been learning your program. We’re going to help run the dots. That’s what you call it, right?”

  Zoey hadn’t even thought about that. It’d totally escaped her list of things to worry about.

  Because you’d had Jade running the dots.

  “The system. The dots. He was running them. They’ll tell you when he was last logged in. That could help, right?” Zoey looked at Vi and Mary.

  “That’s a good plan,” Vi said. “We’ll find him, Zoey.”

  She bit her tongue and swallowed the fear lodged in her throat. They never made promises they couldn’t keep, which was why they hadn’t promised he’d be alive. Now wasn’t the time for fear or regret or guilt.

  Anger.

  Zoey tapped into the vein of rage she’d suppressed too long. It was time the sick bastards who’d started all this paid. Once and for all.

  “Let’s get the plan firmed up,” Zoey said. She looked over at Jud. “Call the bastard back. Set it up.”

  13

  The home was smaller than Gage’d expected and sat at the top of a mountain on the outskirts of a small Colorado town. It was forgetable in its plainness, which made it the perfect location for a man like Kristof to live.

  Details were few in the file Vi and Mary had offered. Jud’s info was even less. Kristof was one of the most sought-after procurement specialists around, a seedy profession where anything and everything was assigned a value.

  Jud walked confidently a few paces ahead of Gage and Zoey, who took such small steps one would think she faced an executioner.

  Gage wrapped his arm protectively around her. He hated the idea of putting her or any woman in the sightlines of a man like Kristof. But she was already in the crosshairs, and this was the only way Vi and Mary saw to get her out quickly.

  Cameras had picked up their presence two miles back, an impressive display of the quiet, confident power a man like Kristof exercised with ease. Power sources were hard to come by in remote regions like this, but he had security cameras well enough away from his seemingly unguarded house to be prepared.

  “In position,” Jesse said into the com.

  Jud had been here before and had run point on the plan. Jesse was set up in a sniper position halfway up a hillside. The location should give him an accurate line of sight into the living area where Jud would keep them for the conversation.

  Lots of assumptions fed into this plan. Gage didn’t like any of them.

  “Seems we could have parked closer,” Zoey muttered.

  “This is a more non-threatening approach,” Vi said.

  “There’s nothing non-threatening about your hubby.”

  Zoey wasn’t wrong. Gage drew her closer as another two cameras fell into view. The house was a pale gray with splashes of crimson along the window frames.

  “Glass is reinforced,” Mary said into the com. “Scans indicate they’ll take a heavy load to break.”

  Which means they’d be on their own without sniper coverage if needed.

  “Roger, adjusting position,” Jesse said. “Time to get up close and personal.”

  “Stand by for new instructions,” Vi said.

  “Stacia two-zero-one percent,” Zoey said.

  “Okay, what’s that?” Mary asked.

  “The password he uses for his dark
web account.”

  “Because it might be the same for his cameras. We’re on it,” Vi said.

  Gage figured they could’ve hacked their way into the cameras without incident, but having a password would save time. The door opened when Jud took the first step.

  Kristof wasn’t what Gage had expected. He was cut, a fact evident because he exited the house in a pair of loose shorts and nothing else. He wasn’t the short, old, overweight toad Gage had imagined.

  “Yowza,” Zoey muttered.

  A smile broke out on Kristof’s face as he closed the distance between himself and Jud, taking the stairs two at a time. Jud halted halfway up and laughed as the two connected in a firm hug.

  “Come. Come. We have much to discuss.”

  Gage positioned Zoey halfway behind himself and kept his gaze locked on the man, whose eyes glinted with a mischievous humor as he tracked the movement.

  “Ah, I see we have the little bird worth her weight in gold with us. My apologies. You arrived earlier than I expected. Come. My house is your house.”

  Unease pricked the back of Gage’s neck. Zoey’s hand settled at his back, and even though he wanted to move it to have easier access to the gun stowed there, he said nothing because of the slight tremble in her touch. He wasn’t sure whether it was fear or hesitancy, but he didn’t like thinking about a woman like Zoey experiencing either one.

  “I know you’re used to flying under the radar, but with a man like Kristof, you need to own your space or he’ll own you,” Mary said.

  Like hell he would.

  A growl rumbled from Gage’s throat.

  Jud cocked his head as he did a half turn. One eyebrow lifted as he folded his hands across one another in the front of his body. “Kristof, these are my friends, Gage and Zoey. Forgive her shyness. Just this morning she informed me I terrify the shit out of her. I’m still not sure how to respond.”

  “Ah, an enchanting creature like this should never fear anyone.” Kristof smiled. “If he scares you, let me know. I will deal with him.”