Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
It was pushing eight o’clock and Ghost still hadn’t heard from Diana.
They didn’t text or call each other throughout the day, because they weren’t the kind of people who needed to cling to each other, but the longer the day got and he didn’t hear from her, the more that feeling of standing on a railroad track with a train chugging toward him intensified.
There was no reason for it. Diana would have told him if Gannon had contacted her.
The people she’d met and cultivated at Big Mike’s, when she was trying to infiltrate the militia on her own, weren’t as connected as Gannon was.
Even still, she’d have called or texted if one of them had contacted her and asked for a meeting.
Wouldn’t she?
Doubts began to circle his brain. She’d seemed worried about him leaving her behind—but what if she’d been working her own angles all along? What if she’d left him behind because she’d gotten intel that sent her on a different path?
No. Diana wasn’t stupid. She knew they had to go together. Hell, just that morning she’d urged him to involve the team. She wouldn’t have done that if she was planning some kind of meetup on her own. He didn’t believe it for a moment.
He trusted her. It had happened slowly, over weeks, but he trusted her like he trusted his guys. She wasn’t stupid and she wasn’t reckless. Even if he didn’t know what drove her, he knew she was smart and determined. She wanted to take Dashevsky down, and she wanted to do it right.
So where was she? Why hadn’t she been in contact?
He picked up his phone and sent a text. It was possible she was just busy, that time had slipped away from her.
“Hey, boss. Locking up and heading to the Dawg,” Ethan said, peeking into his office. “You going with?”
He hadn’t intended to. He’d been planning to wait for Diana, but without any communication from her, he had an urge to head into town, wait for her there.
If she got in late, she might want to crash in her own bed, afraid to disturb him in case he was asleep.
He’d send another text, tell her where to find him.
If he didn’t hear from her by the time the Dawg closed, he’d head home again.
He didn’t like that idea, though. He needed to know where she was. He wasn’t going to be settled until he did. He’d never felt like he needed to know where a woman he was fucking was before—but this was more than fucking. He knew it, even if he hadn’t admitted it yet.
“Yeah, I’m coming.”
He logged out of his computer and turned off the light, following the guys out the door. They were talking, laughing, discussing the events of the day. They were happy men, and he was glad for that.
Try as he might, he felt disconnected, unsettled. Wrong.
“What’s going on, Ghost?”
His head snapped up to meet Blaze’s questioning look. They were standing in the parking lot. His men were watching him. Not one of them moved toward their cars.
“Nothing.” And then, because it was eating away at him, he told them.
“Haven’t heard from Diana yet. She and Ackerman had to drive to eastern Alabama today, but I thought she’d have texted to say she was on the way back by now.
Or had to stay overnight somewhere if they weren’t done.
Just a little preoccupied with why she hasn’t gotten in touch. ”
The men exchanged a look.
“And does that seem normal to you?” Seth asked. “Diana taking off and not letting you know where she is?”
“We aren’t up each other’s asses all day.
She has a job. I have a job.” He said it gruffly, but even as he heard himself say it, it sounded like an excuse.
Denial. Because he didn’t want to be that teenage boy who messed up again.
Who missed the signs and made a mistake he’d never stop thinking about.
You should have used the sat phone when you had the chance. She might not have died.
“Think it’s time?” Chance asked.
Ghost started to ask time for what, but the guys were looking at each other, not him.
“Prolly so,” Kane said. “Seth?”
Seth cleared his throat as he fixed Ghost with a stare.
“We know what you’re doing. We know where you’ve been going, who you’ve been talking to, and what you and Diana thought you were going to do alone.
We know, we’re pissed, but we forgive you.
We know you didn’t want us involved out of some misguided attempt at protecting us, but you’re wrong, man.
So fucking wrong. And you damned well know it.
We’re a team. We came here to do a job, and we’re gonna fucking do that job.
We’re gonna do it right, we’re gonna win, and then we’re gonna settle down and raise our kids with our family—that’s you and all of us, by the way—because that’s how this is gonna go. Any questions?”
He was staggered. Just fucking staggered. He stared at them. They stared back, faces set, expressions stern.
“Did you bug my fucking house?” he growled. “My phone?”
Seth frowned. “Didn’t have to.”
“Then how?”
“Because we’re not stupid, you dumbass,” Blaze practically yelled before he quieted down and added, “Dumbass, sir.”
Kane snorted at the amendment. “That’s right. Not as dumb as we look.”
“Hey,” Chance objected. “Not all of us look dumb. That’s just you, Demon.”
“Asswipe.”
“Douche.”
“Focus, children,” Ethan said, snapping his fingers. “We’re busy telling our lovable but idiotic teammate and leader here why he didn’t fool us, not fighting about who looks the dumbest.”
“We know about the meeting tomorrow,” Seth said, cutting to the chase.
“And we know that Diana not being back yet is setting off alarm bells in your head. Could just be that she’s out of range and it took longer than they thought.
Could be any number of things. But we’re fucking tired of pretending we don’t know what’s happening.
We’re here, we’re involved, and we aren’t taking no for an answer. ”
Ghost blew a breath. Raked a hand over his head. These fucking guys.
But he loved them, dammit.
“How do you know these things? If you didn’t bug me—or her—how?”
“First, I wouldn’t do that,” Seth said. “Okay, I would do that. But only if it got bad enough I had to. Didn’t need to, though. The bug at Eagle Defense Systems was the first clue. Gannon talked about you. About meeting with you. To someone on the phone.”
Ghost frowned. “You didn’t tell me that when you gave your reports.”
“Because I’m not an idiot!” Seth was yelling now. “I told them. Wasn’t gonna clue you in that I knew you were up to something. I lied and said there was nothing on the recordings.”
“Lying to your commanding officer,” Ghost said mildly.
“Sue me.”
“All it took was knowing you were meeting with him,” Chance added, “to realize you were trying to cut us out. I’m gonna guess it’s because we’re making lives here, and you’re worried that involving us puts us in the crosshairs of Washington if something goes wrong.
And while I care very much about what I’m building with the woman I love, the kid we have coming, none of that is gonna matter if Viktor Fucking Dashevsky gets his hands on the project! ”
And now Chance was yelling. Fucking hell.
“Did any of you ever think maybe I’d really gone rogue?” Ghost demanded. “That I wanted to join up because my fucking father was a separatist and I understand the life? What if I’m a believer, huh? You think of that? Just because you think you know me doesn’t mean you do.”
“Fuck no,” Ethan said. “Not for a minute.”
The rest of the guys chimed in with emphatic fuck nos of their own.
“Didn’t know that about your father,” Blaze said.
“But even if we did, not one of us would think you’d be involved in that shit show other than to try and be a fucking hero who’d sacrifice himself to save the rest of us.
Which, for the record, we didn’t ask you to do.
So, no, never occurred to me you were actually a believer.
Diana either. Woman has too much of a grudge against Dashevsky to fall in line with that crap.
It’s either that or she missed her calling as an actress, because there’s no way the same woman who gave us information—helped us—when Callie needed protecting or when Daphne needed sheltering, believes for a single damned minute that a militia movement tied to a Russian oligarch is what she needs to be doing with her life. No fucking way. And neither do you.”
Ghost huffed a breath, and then another.
“You fucking assholes,” he growled. “I didn’t want you involved.
I want you to have those futures you’re planning, to make lots of babies and be happy.
You deserve it, more than most, and I didn’t want to drag you into anything.
I’m not authorized to do what I’m doing.
It’s not sanctioned. If we get caught being involved with these people—”
He sucked in another breath, forced down the emotion threatening to well up. “I don’t want you going down with me. I won’t put that burden on any of you.”
Ethan was closest. He slung an arm around Ghost’s shoulders. “You dumb fuck. Respectfully, of course. None of us are going down. The trick is not to get caught, right? So we don’t fucking get caught.”
Blaze put a hand out. The rest of them piled on. Ghost kept his hands at his sides, fighting his impulses, fighting the urge to order them to stand down. He was still their commanding officer. They were civilians only in name, but they were HOT until they died.
“Waiting on you, Alex,” Blaze said.
He groaned as he put a hand on theirs. “You assholes. You should go home and cuddle your women and leave this to me.”
“Not happening,” Kane said cheerfully. “Anything happens to you, I’m not explaining to Daph why I didn’t have your back. She’s fond of your cranky ass for some reason.”
“Count of three,” Seth said. “Where None Dare,” they chanted in unison before breaking the circle.
They were headed for their cars when Ghost’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He snatched it out to see if it was a reply from Diana, but he didn’t recognize the number.
Using Clay’s phone. Sorry, we were in a dead zone. My phone died. Day ran late, so staying in hotel. Will text in the morning. Love you!
Darkness swirled in his soul. Anger—and an impending sense of a loss that would kill him if it happened—churned in his belly.
All he had left was instinct, and his instinct told him the text was wrong. Completely wrong.
Diana wouldn’t call her partner Clay. She wouldn’t say she’d text in the morning when she had a phone—Ackerman’s—and could call him for a quick conversation now.
And she definitely wouldn’t say love you in that casual, flippant way.
She would have said she still didn’t like him.
That was her style. Not love you when they’d never used those words before.
They had a language that was theirs alone, and this wasn’t it.
He dragged in a breath, and then another as certainty settled bone deep. “Something’s happened,” he called to his team. “Diana’s in trouble, and we need to find her.”
Five faces hardened as they moved toward him. Five men vibrated with anger. Not for him, but for her. She was one of them, and they took care of their own. He loved them more in that moment than he’d ever thought he could. Brothers. Comrades in arms. Family.
“We need a plan,” Ethan said.
Chance was already moving, unlocking the door to the range. “Then let’s get to work.”
They filed inside and stalked toward the SCIF. They’d use every bit of technology and know-how they possessed to find Diana. Then they were going after her, no matter where she was.
Nobody took one of their own.
Nobody hurt a hair on his woman’s head and lived to tell about it.
He would annihilate them. No matter what price he had to pay.