Chapter Twenty-Nine
Blade
A lpha didn’t knock.
Walking into the mansion like he owned the joint, his only tell was the scan. Left to right, taking in the open-plan space in one glance, Alpha headed toward a wall of sliders that made me fucking twitch.
Then I saw who the hell was standing on the lanai.
“ Fuck me ,” I muttered as Alpha opened one of the sliders.
Wearing board shorts, his signature two Glocks on a table next to him, Ghost stood facing the ocean, gaze locked in on a brunette.
A brunette I fucking recognized.
Not bothering to check his six because the asshole had eyes in the back of his head, Ghost crossed his arms. “You didn’t tell me you were bringing company, Trefor.”
“You wouldn’t have agreed to the meet if I had,” Alpha countered, flanking Ghost’s left side as he zeroed in on the brunette.
“I didn’t agree to it at all.” Ghost spared me a glance. “Your burner and GPS were already wiped. Your memory ends before you pulled out of the garage at AES. If you ever come here again, I’ll kill you.” He threw a warning look at Alpha, then focused on the brunette who was now walking into the surf. “You have two minutes, Trefor.”
Alpha fucking blindsided me. “Blade got a call that traced back to Baghdad.”
Waist deep in the ocean, the brunette glanced back toward shore.
Ghost nodded once at her as he replied to Alpha. “Not my problem.”
Alpha didn’t say shit, and neither did I.
The brunette dove under the next wave.
We all fucking watched her.
Alpha broke the standoff first. “Blade’s going down the same path we did.”
Ghost threw Alpha another glance. “We?”
“Me,” Alpha corrected.
“Can’t help him.”
Fuck both of them. “I’m out.” Before I could turn to leave, Alpha beat me to it and strode in front of me.
“Quid pro quo, Ghost.” Alpha paused at the slider. Then he pulled a fucking maneuver on Ghost that reminded me exactly why he’d been the best Team leader the SEALs ever had. “November secured your servers. He also created a portal. You’ll have access to our network and his proprietary software for one year. We’ll have access to your satellites. Help Blade, and twelve months from now, I’ll be willing to revisit the arrangement.” Alpha took out his cell as it alerted with a new text. “My ride’s here.” He tipped his chin at me. “Blade.” The fucker walked out.
Ghost watched his woman swim in the ocean.
I tried to decide if I’d just gotten ass-fucked without lube or handed a Hail Mary.
“What’d the caller offer you?”
Ghost excelled at two things—not fucking being seen and playing the long game. He was also hard as shit to read because, unlike most operatives, he actively hid his tells. The fact that he’d asked what instead of who wasn’t a tell. It meant he knew the caller, he was letting me know he knew the caller, and he already knew how the conversation went down.
“You know who called.”
Ghost looked at me. His expression more unreadable than his nonexistent tells, he laid out a calculated question like it was an actual offering. “You want real help finding your middle brother?”
I read into the shit he didn’t say—body, remains—and took note of how he was still maintaining eye contact. Then I lied. “I know exactly where he is. Section sixty. Arlington.”
Ghost refocused on his woman in the ocean. “Then you don’t need my help.”
History fucked with me. My old man, Geir, my mom, Church.
Last man standing.
I swallowed my fucking pride. “Who the fuck is the caller?”
Ghost threw me another glance. “Not who, what.” He looked back at the brunette as she came out of the ocean. “If you’re smart, you’ll walk away.”
“And if I’m not?”
“You’ll keep doing what you do.”
I was stupid enough to ask what this fucker thought I did. “Which is?”
“Be a trigger. Except this time, your kill shots won’t be for the Navy or Trefor.” Ghost grabbed a towel off a lounger. “Walkway on the south side of the house takes you back to your SUV. Don’t fucking show up here again.” He strode toward his woman.
I aimed for the walkway.