by Maddie Wade
“Fuck sake,” Mitch growled causing Gunner to look at him through one open eye. “Who did this?”
Gunner looked down, spitting out blood from his mouth. “Bás but he had no choice or he would’ve blown his cover.” Gunner glanced at Waggs. “That’s why I know no internal stuff is fucked up. He pulled his punches. Listen, I haven’t got a lot of time, they’ll be watching me closely now. I met the boss, and you won’t fucking believe who it is.”
The tension seemed to magnify. It was so thick that you could almost touch it in the air around them.
“Tell me,” Jack ordered as all eyes went to Gunner.
“Osbourne.”
“Deputy Commissioner Osbourne?” Waggs asked incredulity lacing his tone.
“Yeah, met him earlier. He wants you out so he can put his own men in our,” he paused for a second, “your places.”
“That bastard.” Alex paced, showing a rare moment of fury.
“He must have someone inside the Palace, though.”
“He has his men,” Mitch offered as his own anger unfurled in his belly. He should be used to it by now—money was so often the source of conflict or war, yet he still found it hard to understand.
“No, higher up than that. We need to talk to Fitz and perhaps even consider Fitz as the source.”
“I don’t like him for this.” Decker was walking around the car after Alex had run a wand over it looking for bugs or bombs and finding none.
“Who then?”
“Not sure but Fitz is loyal to the Queen and she’s loyal to us.”
“Everyone has a price,” Waggs said as he straightened and held out a hand to help Gunner up. They fell silent as the meaning behind his words settled over them.
“I should go.” Gunner stepped towards the driver’s side.
Jack followed him. “You need to pull out, this is too dangerous. You could get killed next time.”
Gunner shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I need to find out who the insider in the Palace is and I think Osbourne has a partner. Bás agrees with me.”
“You and Bás best friends now or what?”
Mitch frowned not liking this turn. He didn’t trust the Irishman’s sudden appearance in all of this. The man was a true ghost, not even Will could find him, and that was a dangerous place for the team to be especially as he’d been the man to torture Siren—Alex’s woman.
His link to Osiris, the largest Heroin dealer in the US and Europe and the man who’d hidden under the radar for so long before Roz and Zenobi had eliminated him for hurting one of their own, was reason enough to distrust him. Now Gunner seemed to be allying himself with him too. It made Mitch’s skin crawl to think one of their own was in such a precarious position, but then he remembered Gunner wasn’t Eidolon any longer.
“No, but we have the same goals.”
“We had the same goals, that didn’t stop you before.” Mitch pointed to his chest with emphasis.
Gunner’s jaw went hard, the verbal blow landing where Mitch had meant it too. “Do you think I don’t fucking know that? I fucked up and now I’m trying to fix it.”
“How?” Jack stepped closer his head tilted, the light showing the tension on his face. Gunner held his gaze, not flinching but Decker must have seen something they didn’t
Decker moved in for the kill, his voice low and calm. “You’re hiding something.”
Mitch saw the sweat bead on Gunner’s brow from the lights on the car. Decker was right; he was hiding something.
Jack grabbed him by his shirt and shoved him against the car, causing Gunner to wince from the injuries he’d sustained. “Lie to me one more time, mother fucker,” Jack nodded to his face, “and this will be the least of your problems.”
Mitch couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Jack lose his cool.
Gunner’s face reddened, but he didn’t attempt to fight back. “I can’t tell you. Just tell Will to look into Miqdaad al-Sabir.”
Jack dropped him like he was on fire. His boss looked shocked, distraught even. “How do you know that name?”
“How do you think?”
Jack paced away, brushing his hand over his face. “He’s dead. We killed him on our first Eidolon op.”
Mitch remembered it all too well; it had been his first visit to Parwan Province in Afghanistan, also known as the Sandbox and Bagram Airbase.
They’d landed late at night and joined a Seal Team to take down the high ranking Taliban leader Miqdaad al-Sabir. The op had been a success with the Seal Team providing support as it was an unsanctioned mission. Nobody ever knew Eidolon were involved. It had been clean and quick, with only their target and his men killed in the raid.
Jack whirled to face Gunner, who was observing him. “He’s dead.”
“Yes, but his son Samir isn’t, and he took over last year when he turned twenty and is more vicious than his father ever was.”
Waggs crossed his arms, angling his eyes at Gunner. “What has any of this got to do with the Palace or Osbourne?”
“You think Osbourne is working with Samir?” Jack asked.
Gunner nodded slowly. “I have to provide security for Osbourne on a trip to Germany next month where he’s meeting with him. Then I can confirm and also find out who his partner is as he’s the one facilitating it.”
“I’ll have Will look into Samir al-Sabir.” Jack fixed his eyes on Gunner. “But if you hold anything more back from me, then this arrangement is over, and you can kiss seeing your sister again goodbye.” Jack left the threat hanging in the warm night air.
Gunner straightened, his jaw hardening. “Don’t pull that on me, Jack. We both know harming innocents isn’t how you operate.”
“Maybe I’ll make an exception this time.”
Mitch knew he wouldn’t, that wasn’t Jack and certainly not him, but Gunner was a loose cannon and he was getting himself in deeper than he should be, and it could cost him his life.
“If they figure out you’re playing them, they’ll kill you.” Mitch knew people like that; the chances were they’d kill him anyway once they were finished with him.
Gunner glanced at him with a shrug. “So be it.” Then he turned to Jack. “You know why I kept this quiet until I was sure.” With those words, he got in the car with a muffled groan of pain, reminding them of the beating he’d taken to get this information. “I’ll be in touch.”
The tires crunched on the dry earth as the headlights swung around before disappearing into the night.
“I want a meeting at 0800 to debrief.” Jack turned to Alex. “Arrange for Blake, Reid, and Liam to be included on a video link.” Jack was already walking away as he gave the command.
Mitch didn’t like the feeling in the pit of his gut; it had always served him well in the past to listen to it, and now it was screaming something was wrong. He just didn’t know if it was to do with Gunner or Autumn.
Chapter Thirteen
“Knock, knock.” Jack popped his head around the door of her new office before stepping inside.
“Hi.” Autumn swivelled from the computer in front of her on the sleek glass desk and faced her new boss, who was now seated in the chair on the other side of her desk, his posture relaxed as he leaned back, legs spread in front of him.
“I just wanted to check you have everything you need.”
Autumn looked around at the office Mitch had shown her to this morning and let out a nervous laugh, throwing up her hands. “Are you kidding?” She looked at the travel cot in the corner, the baby play station that was still boxed up against the wall, and the playmat before her gaze fell back on Jack. “I can’t believe you did all this.”
Jack shrugged his shoulders, brushing off the kindness. “With you bringing Maggie in, I wanted to make sure you have everything you need to make this work.”
“I have more than enough. It’s very kind of you.”
“Not really. I just don’t want to give you a reason to leave when you see the amount of work that needs doing.” Hi
s warm chuckle filled the room.
“I just need to gain access to some of these files then I can run some reports and see where we are with things.”
Jack nodded once. “Lopez will be in shortly to set up your computer and access to things. There will be some things that are strictly confidential for Alex or me, but as time progresses, we can discuss that. Are you good with the filing side of things? I’d like most things filed in our secure cloud with as minimal paper as possible.”
“Yes, I understand confidentiality as my last job was the same. I can scan a lot of this and get it on the cloud but the rest I can file using the system Madison set up.”
Jack stood. “I’ll need your bank details to pay your salary.”
“I’ll email them over.” Autumn felt good having a purpose, not that having Maggie wasn’t the best reason in the world, but it didn’t stimulate her brain, and she’d realised she needed more than that.
Jack walked to the door, glancing at a sleeping Maggie as he did, his lips twitching up. “Oh, to sleep the sleep of the innocent.”
Autumn got up and walked towards him. “Can I ask you something?” She wasn’t sure if he’d answer, but she was curious.
“You can ask, no saying I’ll answer.”
Autumn nodded, tipping her head. “Fair enough. Why are you doing all this? Helping me, giving me a job.” She twisted her fingers around the length of her hair, guilt swarming her that she’d doubted his kind intentions.
Jack looked at her intently as if he weighed up his answer before he spoke. “Eidolon is more than a bunch of men who work for me. They’re family, you can’t put yourself in the kind of danger we do and not know you’d die to protect your teammate. When you have that level of commitment, you stop being teammates and become brothers. Mitch is my brother, and you mean a lot to him, so that means you mean a lot to us now too.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to say to that.”
“Don’t get me wrong, the fact we get to take down this dangerous group is also a big factor, but we’d already decided before we knew the details.”
“And the job, is it a pity job?”
Jack laughed. “Only in that you’re taking pity on me. As you can see, I’m up shit creek with my paperwork.”
Autumn laughed as she looked at the boxes of filing around her. “Well, filing is a guilty pleasure.”
“I guess it’s a win-win for everyone.”
The door behind him opened, causing Jack to turn towards the sound. A woman with beautiful red hair poked her head in and smiled. “Pax, what can we do for you?” Jack sounded amused.
“I thought perhaps Autumn might need a hand getting settled in the job.”
The woman called Pax walked in, looking elegant and sophisticated, her blush pink dress moulded to her body. Autumn looked down at her own bohemian dress of petrol blue with orange flowers, simple V-neck and floaty short sleeves, and wondered if it was a bit too grunge.
Pax walked straight towards her, a broad grin on her beautiful face. “Wow, I love this dress, it’s so pretty.”
Autumn started as the woman pulled her in for a hug before she returned it somewhat awkwardly. “Thanks, I love yours too.”
Autumn looked at Jack as another woman walked inside. She was shorter than Pax with long dark hair and full lips.
Jack cocked his head as he crossed his arms. “Evelyn, you too?”
“We just wanted to say hello.”
Evelyn, she remembered, was Alex’s fiancée.
“Callie, Taamira, you might as well come on in, I know you’re out there,” Jack called.
Two more women stepped through the door and into the now crowded office at Jack’s command looking sheepish.
Jack turned to her. “On that note, I’ll leave you to it.”
In moments he was gone closing the door with an eye roll for Pax.
“That man needs to loosen up,” Pax drawled her American accent cultured.
Autumn lifted her hand to rest on the pram where Maggie still slept as four pairs of eyes fell on her.
The other two women were equally beautiful, and it took her a second to figure it out, but one was Calista Lund.
“Hi, I’m Callie. It’s nice to meet you.”
She took the proffered hand and shook it silently, feeling somewhat lost for words and for once hoping Maggie would wake up and steal all the attention.
“She knows who you are, Callie. Look at her face.”
Autumn blinked and looked at Evelyn. “Yeah, sorry.”
“I’m Evelyn, this is Pax, Callie, who you know, and this is Princess Taamira, but you can call her Taamira.”
“It’s nice to meet you?” Autumn wasn’t sure if her words were a question or a statement at this point.
Mitch was out of the office all day and wouldn’t be back until early that evening as he and Decker had a meeting with someone in Gloucester. Jack had left her so she was on her own with these four women, and honestly, she hated situations like these.
She’d always got on with people at school but being the focus of attention and especially when that attention was from four gorgeous women, one of which was a model and the other a Princess, she wasn’t comfortable.
Princess Taamira moved closer, and it was hard not to be affected by the knowledge she was royalty, especially encased in such beauty. She took Autumn’s hands. “This is a lot, is it not? I know from when I met my Liam, it was scary to be bombarded by such confidence. Rest assured we mean well. We just wish you to know we are here and wish to be your friends.”
“Why?” The single word was sharper than she intended, but her awkwardness was making her words come out wrong.
“Why?” Pax asked with a tilt of her head which caused her wavy hair to fall over her bare shoulder.
“Why do you want to be my friends?”
“Aubrey and Bebe said she was spunky one.” Evelyn laughed before she made herself at home in the chair Jack had vacated. Autumn’s ear pricked at the names of two women she knew and liked already.
“You’re with Mitch, right?” Callie asked.
“Well, yes, kind of. It’s all very new.” Autumn started moving the pram slightly as Maggie stirred.
“I’m with Reid, Pax is with Blake, Evelyn is engaged to Alex, and Taamira is with Liam. We’re the Eidolon WAGs.”
“WAGs?”
“Wives and girlfriends.”
“Oh, I see.”
“I hate when you use that term.” Pax took a seat on the small couch that was along the left wall, and Taamira and Callie did the same as Autumn escaped behind her desk now that Maggie had gone back into a deep sleep.
“Well, what else would you call us?”
Pax twirled her hand. “Anything but that. It makes us sound like footballer’s wives, or worse, Waggs’ harem.”
Callie giggled as her eyes went wide, her hand covering her mouth. “Oh my god, I hadn’t even thought of that. Yeah, we definitely need a new name.”
Autumn had never had an encounter like this, but she liked Bebe and Aubrey and if they all knew each other, then it had to mean something. “So, you all know each other well?”
“Pax and Evelyn work together, but they were super kind when I met Reid. Then we pounced on T when she met Liam. Our men are amazing, and I love Reid to death but having these three as friends has been one of the best things to come from everything that happened.
“What happened?” Autumn sat and leaned forward as her natural curiosity won out.
“I had a crazy stalker and got kidnapped but Reid and Eidolon saved me.”
“Oh my god, that’s awful.”
“Yeah, but it was nothing compared to what Taamira went through.”
Autumn looked to the Princess who was wearing a deep pink kaftan with gold edging, pale gold trousers that fitted to her ankles, and ballerina pumps.
“We all have stories that start badly. It is why we know how important it is to have friends. You are one of us now, so if you need anything, then we
are here for you.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Autumn grinned, the sense of belonging strengthening with every day she spent in the company of these people.
“So, Mitch, huh? He’s a handsome devil and such a sweetheart too.”
“He’s amazing. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t met him.”
Pax looked her dead in the eye. “You would have survived, it’s what women like us do.”
Autumn returned her gaze, understanding these women were privy to her background and didn’t care. She didn’t feel the overwhelming urge to hide or run; she felt safe and surrounded by people who understood on a deeper level what she was going through.
“Maybe.”
“So, what can we do to help you get sorted?” Taamira glanced at the boxes and then at the baby station. “How about I build that before this little one wakes up?”
“Uh, yes, if you like.”
“Callie, you and I can make a start on these boxes of filing while Evelyn goes and sorts lunch.” Pax was like a drill sergeant, but in such a way you didn’t realise it until it was too late.
“Why do I have to sort lunch?” Evelyn glared at Pax with her hands on her hips and Autumn spied the dynamo beneath the small but sexy exterior.
“Because you can use your wiles on that man of yours to whip us up something nice.”
“He’s busy on a call.”
Pax laughed the sound rich and full. “Use your imagination.”
“I’ll try.” Evelyn closed the door as she left the room.
Callie laughed. “They are so having office sex.”
Autumn slapped her hand over her mouth as she tried not to laugh. “No.”
Callie nodded. “Oh yeah, this place is a hotbed of sweaty sex when one of us visits. You wouldn’t believe how much fun the gym can be when nobody is here.” Callie winked, and Autumn’s mind went to Mitch, the image of them together filling her head.
Autumn lifted her hand from the desk, wondering if anyone had partaken on there.
“Oh, don’t worry, nobody has been in here. This was Ambrose’s office. Nobody has used it since he died.”
Autumn’s belly clenched at Taamira’s words. “Someone died?”
