by Cara Carnes
“The crime squad,” Mary whispered. Face pale, she motioned Bree inside. “Get up and get your new toys moving. The next wave is about to hit.”
Fuck. Of course.
“Command, this is team seven. Come in.”
“Where the hell have you been?” Mary’s voice was lethal calm but steely with rage.
“We ran into a few unfriendlies needing an education in manners,” Fallon replied. “We’re en route to exfil. I’m rendezvousing with Dallas at camp four to assist. My team will help with camp three.”
“Roger,” Viviana replied. “Glad you’re okay.”
“We’ll talk about why we’re okay when we return home, Command. We had a big assist.”
Jud was glad the teams were all accounted for, but he didn’t ask about Danny. He was surprised Jacob hadn’t, but he suspected his nephew was still in shell shock over the attack they’d just neutralized. Now all they had left was the next wave. Then the real war would begin.
The Collective made a huge mistake today by ignoring his warning.
The external line rang as Vi clicked off from the teams. Everyone was present and accounted for.
“Zero. What just happened?”
“I helped neutralize the problem your team ran into. I’m burned,” the woman said. “It wasn’t a take down like Hive, but I did what I could to keep good men breathing. I hope it’s enough.”
“It was. They’re en route home, with a few stops to hospitals and military bases along the way.” Vi read the subtext behind the woman’s statement. “You hung your ass out there for me today, Zero. I won’t forget that. Get yourself secure, get out and come down here. Edge and I always have room for someone of your caliber. Come help those good teams breathe every day.”
“I’ll have fall out from what I did today. I pissed a lot of people off,” she admitted.
“Get up and walk out like nothing is wrong. They won’t move, not right away. Don’t go home. Get in your car and drive to the nearest airport. There’ll be a ticket waiting there for you. If you want, I’ll send an escort to bring you home. We’ve got two teams in Dover.”
“No. I’m good,” the woman said quickly. “I’ve gotta go home. I have a cat.”
Vi couldn’t help but laugh as she wondered what Jud would think about the cat. “Stay where you are, in public. There’s a coffee shop down the road from the base you’re working at. Gage Sanderson will meet you there in one and a half hours. I’m sending you his picture. Don’t trust anyone but him. Get to that coffee shop. Edge and I will have you on surveillance the entire time. I’ve pinged our cell numbers and Gage’s to you. He’ll help you secure your cat and gear. Okay?”
“Okay.”
She sent the data and orders to Gage. She headed outside as she studied the bloody carnage awaiting her. Jud’s wake was extensive, and proved what Dallas had said. The man knew his way around knives. Marcus and a couple of the new operatives arrived. The potential team lead’s gaze swept over the bodies, then at Jud. He offered a lone chin lift, which was returned. Men. Mary had extra drones heading toward the fence line. The operatives tracked their progression.
“There’s still a problem,” Marcus guessed.
He was a recruit from Delta, a recommendation passed to Nolan. So far, he’d fared well and all the Mason brothers wanted him fast-tracked to a lead role. Vi glanced up at the rooftop closest to the fence line.
“Potential enemy penetration of the crime scene investigation, or the alphabet soup. We won’t know who, if anyone, is a threat,” she said.
“Until they are,” he finished.
“Me and the guys will take the rooftops. Sal here is a sniper. I can snipe from the roof. Where do you want him?”
Vi studied the area. Before she could reply, Jud was motioning past the entry. “Across the road, where the incline starts. That’ll box them in if needed.”
“On it,” Sal said.
“You should be in medical letting someone tend that wound instead of bossing around my men.” She yanked Jud’s shirt up and ignored the blood sticking it to his skin.
Most wasn’t his. But someone got a hit. She turned him around. Exit wound. Whew. At least there wasn’t a bullet wandering around in Jud’s body. Heat spread through the palm splayed on his abdominals. She peeked up at him. He stood motionless, mouth tipped up in a slight grin as she molested him like she had every right to.
“You done?”
“No,” she clipped. “Get inside and to medical.”
“If you think I’m running inside while another squad of Collective agents comes to plow you and Mary down, you’re crazy.” His voice lowered, rumbling with a rage she’d noted on the footage. “I warned them off, they didn’t listen. I know you’re used to being the growly dog in the yard, the one who goes after the bad guy first. But we’re in a bigger, badder yard than before, Viviana. This isn’t just your fight, not any longer.”
“There you go comparing me to a dog again, Judson,” she snapped.
“I’m thinking a Rottie with a couple pups,” he commented. “An instant family.”
Her belly warmed at the thought. She curled her toes in her sneakers and rocked back on her heels. As much as she’d love to argue the merits of cats over dogs, they had a situation to handle. Nomad was the larger town of what locals called the tri-county. Nomad was the north most point of the triangle for the county of the same name. Resino was twenty miles southwest and in a different county. It was fifteen miles west of Marville, which was a dump of a village twenty miles south of Nomad and in a shadier-than-hell town.
Vi let her mind wander to Riley’s friend, Rachelle. Trouble of some sort had spooked the blonde and they’d hauled her over to stay at the main house. With things going sideways with their own mess, Vi and everyone else hadn’t had time to wade into whatever trouble lurked at their backyard. They would, though, as soon as they figured out what the heck was about to go down. A high-pitched whistle sounded from across the way. Excellent. Sal was in position.
“We have incoming,” Bree shouted from the rooftop.
“Let me take the lead on this one,” Jud requested. Hand on the small of her back, he leaned down. “Jacob, help them get personnel records for Nomad. We need facial recognition scans on everyone. Hack into their bank accounts, personal data. Make sure there’s no abnormal deposits, payoffs, assets moved under their name. If someone paid them off to get them in, there will be a paper trail of some kind. Greed makes people stupid.”
Vi flashed a look at Mary, who grinned. It was fun to work with someone more paranoid than them for a change. “Mary, you and Jacob head inside. I’ll handle the front line with Jud.”
She didn’t want her best friend anywhere near danger. She’d endured enough. Fortunately, neither she nor Jacob offered her any guff. Marcus had slipped away, hopefully to take a higher position. She and Jud were alone. Too bad they hadn’t at least gotten him a clean shirt or something. He looked like a rejected extra for some Rambo movie, but way sexier.
Approach would be tricky. If they gave away their suspicion by being leery, a kill shot could be made from fairly far away. Neither of them wore a bulletproof vest. She made a mental note to get onto Jud for not bothering to try and wear one. It’s like he was made of Teflon and shit just slid off him. Her pulse quickened as vehicles appeared. Sheriff Patterson and a deputy exited from the first. So much for keeping the nice man out of their unfolding drama.
“I heard there was a ruckus out here. The boys aren’t here?”
“No, they’re gone. We had some trouble, but we’re handling it.” Vi let her gaze settle on the coroner’s van and crime scene unit from Nomad. “You’d best head back home, Sheriff. This mess is more in the alphabet soup camp.”
“Right.” He remained behind the door to his vehicle. “Gary, get on the horn to Nomad, get them on the way.”
“But…” The deputy’s gaze widened as he scurried into the vehicle.
“We heard there was some trouble,” one of the men commented.
/>
“There was.” Jud moved in front of Vi. “There is. Take a look around, we’ve got higher ground advantage on two sides and enough juice in the drones to need a few more bags when the real coroner arrives.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Ready on your mark.” The statement resonated confidence Vi appreciated. She hadn’t thought too much of Marcus, but he’d gone to the top of her cool list.
“You know I was ready five minutes before the bastards showed up,” Mary declared. “Light the bastard up if he reaches for a weapon.”
“Roger.”
“Roger.”
Vi’s gaze swept to Sal’s position across the road. The coverage was sound. Two snipers and an army of pissed off drones? The bastards moving around her didn’t stand a chance.
“You fucked up,” Vi stated. She let anger and rage fill her words. “I don’t give a shit who you are or who you work for. There’s no out for you, not today. Anyone who comes after my crew doesn’t walk away breathing.”
The man moved his hand behind him, but blood appeared on his forehead. One of the other men screamed. Drones whirred overhead. Chaos ensued. A heavy weight settled atop her as the drones spewed darts. Bullets flew. Sheriff Patterson remained behind the door to his vehicle, returning fire.
But the fight was over. Drones zoomed and darted toward Sal, then moved the direction the vehicles had come. Mary was seeking more prey for the drones. Vi shoved, but the weight atop her didn’t budge. It grunted.
No. He grunted.
“Get off me, Judson.”
He chuckled as he rose up on his arms and looked down. “You’re definitely not a boring cat person, Viviana.”
12
“I don’t give a damn if you’re so important the President wipes your ass. Get in your car and get the hell off this property or I swear I’ll dart you and your minions and pile you all in the trunk.”
Jud suppressed his amusement, but barely. It’d been four hours since chaos rained down on The Arsenal’s front gate. Vi stood with both hands on her hips as she glared up at a suit from Homeland Security. They, along with the FBI and another unnamed guy that stunk of CIA, had shown up and attempted to run roughshod over the situation. That hadn’t gone over well.
At all.
“Ma’am, if you don’t step out of the way and do as I say, I will have you arrested.”
“Go ahead and try,” Vi warned. “If you so much as blink in the direction of my compound, I will shoot you.”
“You don’t have a gun,” his helpful partner replied.
Guns cocked around her as Marcus and the operatives aimed. Jud pulled out his knife and sneered at the collection of idiots. At first, he’d suspected the group was another wave of Collective personnel making a downright idiotic attempt at removing HERA from The Arsenal under the guise of evidence collection.
“I tell you what.” Vi sighed heavily and pulled out her phone. “I’m going to make a phone call and my operatives are going to stand down. If you want HERA, take her.”
She motioned toward the compound. The men looked at one another.
“If you want her, go and get her. All you need to do is bypass her security and remove her from The Arsenal operational theater before the person I am calling sends someone over here to kick your ass so many security levels down the chain, you won’t even be able to work as a janitor in Washington.” She looked at her phone and punched a few more numbers, then pinned the asshole with a glare. “What the fuck is your name anyway? Badges. Get them out. I’m gonna need them.”
When they didn’t move to do as she ordered, she stood up on her tiptoes, leaned into his face and shouted, “Now!”
A rumble of warning rolled from Jud when the man’s face turned a few shades too red. If the bastard moved to touch Viviana he wouldn’t be breathing for long.
“Hi, Bob. I’m sorry to bug you, but we have a situation over here.” Her voice softened, then paused. “Yeah, I love it here at The Arsenal. Marshall and the guys are awesome. You should come by for a visit sometime. We’re setting up a bunch of new stuff I’m thinking you’d have fun with.”
Jud gathered the badges and noted the way the men shifted restlessly as Vi turned her back to them.
“Yeah, we had a critical mission tied to our contract with you. I’m pleased to report things are going smoothly. Or, they were, until a little bit ago. We have some…problems I’m afraid. It seems we have a couple gentlemen from Homeland Security, one from the FBI and a rather strange fellow who hasn’t told me yet, but he’s CIA. Yeah. I’ll ping you their pictures.”
Vi looked at her phone, pushed a few buttons, then continued talking. “So, as you are probably seeing, Bob, they’re way below their security clearance on this one. I hate to bug you with something this trivial, but I’ve just come off an op and we have bodies piled all over the place from a hit squad who showed up to neutralize Edge and I and take HERA. And I’m pretty sure we’ll have more than a mild dust up because an incredibly brilliant and brave woman working intelligence at the NSA ratted out some really bad operatives who were gunning for one of my teams overseas.”
Vi sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. “Thanks to lots of awesome teamwork, everyone’s okay. And we’ll handle whatever comes our way, you know we always do, Bob, but I’m afraid my patience is thin, and I may land out with four more body bags to haul off if they keep tap dancing on my last nerve. You don’t even want to know how close Edge is.”
Vi turned and smiled sweetly at the men, who hadn’t moved to accept her challenge of removing HERA themselves. Jud crossed his arms and laughed outright when she held the phone out.
“I think he wants to talk to you,” she said. “Come on, everyone. We need to debrief. Bob’s handling our unwelcome guests.”
She turned and headed into the building. Marcus motioned for a couple of the guys to hang back. Jud remained hot on her heels as she moved silently along the hall, down a corridor he hadn’t been in yet.
“Who’s Bob?”
“Oh, Robert Mattis,” she said nonchalantly.
“The Secretary of Defense Robert Mattis?” Marcus asked.
“Yeah. Bob and I get along way better than me and his boss. That guy’s a grade A dick,” she said. “Don’t worry, I told him so last time he called. He appreciates me shooting straight with him, even though I think he likes Mary better than me. Probably because she hasn’t called him the ultimate asshat of all time like I have. Repeatedly.” She shrugged and headed through a set of double doors.
Jud froze and stifled his curse as his gaze swept the interior. Medical.
“Well, well, I heard rumors you were around.” Logan Callister, CIA doctor and general pain in Jud’s ass, snapped on a glove and offered a grim smile. “It’s been a while, Judson.”
“Not nearly long enough,” he returned.
“Wait.” Vi froze. Her gaze darted between the two of them. “You know each other. How?”
“Long story,” they answered in unison.
“A mutual friend of ours sometimes reaches out to me for favors,” Jud said. “The last one was a setup that got me gut shot.”
“Didn’t have anything to do with that,” Logan said. He reached down and pulled up his shirt. “If it’s any consolation, a wound like the one I patched up on you almost got me.”
“What are you doing here?” Jud cut to the chase. He didn’t like anyone tied to the CIA hanging around. He was a bit surprised Viviana and Mary were okay with it.
“I’m out,” Logan said. “I got called in when Dylan and the guys pulled Mary out. I’m Arsenal now.”
Interesting. Jud studied the doctor. Vi squeezed his arm.
“You’re bleeding like a stuck pig, Jud. Let him patch you up,” she pleaded.
“It can wait. We need to get a few things handled first.”
“It’ll wait,” she said. “Sit.”
“Definitely not a cat person,” he muttered.
“Just got word the rescued hostages a
re being treated. Other than the three casualties before arrival, everyone’s going to be okay.” Logan looked at Jud as he approached. “Heard one of them is a relative of yours.”
“Not sure how that’s any of your business,” he snapped. Two and a half decades of ingrained distrust in everyone surged forward. “Anyone so much as whispers that connection to him or his kid, they’ll eat a bullet.”
“I understand you, man,” Logan replied. “I’m the same way with my family.”
“You have family?” Vi asked. “You’ve never mentioned them.”
“Would you? Do you?” Logan shot back.
Jud wondered what Vi’s family was like. He suspected he’d be beating one of them down for the shit they instilled in her head, the need to be perfect. Someone did a number on her.
“He’s been favoring his left side, too. I think he has some cracked ribs,” Vi offered.
“I’ll check it out,” Logan replied.
“Should you be up? Aren’t you still on bed rest?” She looked around. “We need more staff so you aren’t our only go-to-guy.”
“Patching up a bullet wound isn’t a strain on me, Vi,” Logan promised. “Marshall and Nolan are working on more staff for this place.”
“Oh, good.” Her gaze settled back on Jud. “You’re a close quarters ninja. I haven’t seen too many of those, maybe one.”
He wasn’t sure what the term meant, but Logan whistled low.
“The girls don’t hand out ninja status to just anyone. I think only Fallon and Gage have it here.”
“Not the Masons?” Jud asked.
“Dallas is close. Mary says Dylan is, too, but she’s biased.” Heat settled in her cheeks.
“What kind of ninjas are Fallon and Gage?”
“Gage is just a ninja. That’s like the first level. Fallon is an ordnance ninja cause, well, he’s Fallon. He’d make a building blow with just a stick of gum.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s a hierarchy in progress. The Pentagon has to approve all appointments though, so don’t think you’re really in.”
“The Pentagon?” He couldn’t help but laugh at the thought.
