Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
“If I would’ve known this was an option, I would’ve bagged off Maryland,” I muttered, looking out Dutch’s floor-to-ceiling windows.
Nothing but undisturbed beauty of the Bear River Valley as far as the eye could see.
“Land down the way’s for sale,” Badger’s deep voice rumbled from the couch behind me.
I’d glanced over my shoulder at the man.
To the untrained eye he looked relaxed—just a guy chillin’ in his friend’s living room greeting guests.
Legs stretched out in front of him, not crossed at the ankle but instead the heel of one boot rested on top of the toe of the other.
His fingers of his left hand wrapped around the neck of a bottle of beer. His other hand rested on his thigh.
However, the man was coiled to strike.
A predator who knew better than to let his guard down around an unknown equal.
“Not sure what your pay packet looks like, brother. But clearly, I need to renegotiate if you think I can afford all of this.”
To make my point I lifted my hand and circled my finger around the room.
One that was so large there were three tan leather couches that formed a U—one faced the wall of windows, one faced the stone fireplace, and the third looked into the huge kitchen.
Between the long rectangle table that sat ten and the granite-topped island, Dutch could host a dinner party for twenty with room to spare.
Not that a man like Dutch would have something as uppity as a dinner party at his house, but he could throw one hell of a cookout with his team, mine—hell all of Z Corps—and we wouldn’t be lacking for places to sit.
I heard a door close, then two sets of footsteps.
Dutch slowly rose from his perch on the arm of one of his couches, seemingly uncaring someone or two someones had entered his home.
Badger didn’t so much as twitch. Lore shifted on the couch she was occupying.
Her hand went to her hip—muscle memory. I had the same reflex but we were both unarmed.
When the two men came into the room, Dutch immediately greeted them. “Shades, good to see you.” The shorter of the two men jerked his chin but his gaze zeroed in on me.
I wasn’t a fan of being examined, and the longer the man called Shades took looking me over the harder it was to remember he was a friend of Zane’s. When he was done, his mask of indifference fell away and he smiled.
“Heard a lot about you,” Shades started. “Good to finally meet you.”
Since I hadn’t heard anything about him, except that he had something for my boss, I only extended a “Good to meet you.”
Shades looked over at Lore. His smile stayed firmly in place when dipped his chin but he remained silent. Bet he’d heard a lot about her, too, and since that would’ve come from Zane, he was leery of her.
However, the other man wasn’t wary when it came to the woman—he almost looked happy to see her. My suspicions were confirmed when he made his way closer to her while saying, “There she is, in the flesh. The ever-gorgeous Lore.”
“Hollywood,” she strangely said, then continued, “Seems you held out on me.”
The man shrugged. “We all have our secrets, don’t we.”
It wasn’t a question, but rather a statement of fact and obviously the two of them knew each other.
“Indeed. Though if memory serves and I know it does, you failed in your attempt to extract mine, so we’ll call you failing to mention you work for Zane Lewis as even.”
My body tensed when his smile turned cajoling. “I don’t work for Zane Lewis,” he denied.
Tense was history when Lore returned his smile and something that felt a fuckuva lot like jealousy infiltrated.
Not that I’d know exactly what jealousy felt like since I’d never actually felt it but whatever the feeling was, it made me want to tear the man’s head off and spit down his bloodied, dismembered neck.
“I know how much you like word games. That is, twisting words and truth to fit your purpose, but you have to know since Zane sent me here, that particular game’s up.”
“Yet, there are other games we could still play.”
The growl that rumbled up my chest was wholly involuntary and an unprecedented slip of my self-control.
I felt all eyes come to me, except Lore’s. She was still smiling at the man, like she was assessing her next play.
Which was something I could help her with. “Warning, choose your next words wisely, baby girl.”
Lore cut her murderous gaze over to me. Her smile was long gone, and her eyes were narrowed in a way that would’ve sent a lesser man running for safety.
Before she could unleash her tongue-lashing, Shade’s laughter filled the carnivorous space.
“Right, before there’s bloodshed let me make the introductions,” Dutch said over Shade’s waning amusement. “Cash Phillips.” He jerked his head in my direction then to the other guy. “Hollywood.”
“The king,” Hollywood muttered.
“The soon-to-be castrated king if he doesn’t mind his business,” Lore put in.
It was perverse and probably made me somewhat of a masochist but the woman’s smart mouth and threats made my cock jump.
“You say the sweetest things, baby girl.”
She let her Lore mask slip for a moment and rolled her eyes.
It was there and gone, only giving me a glimpse of Stella.
If we’d been alone, I would’ve pushed her buttons until the real woman under the cloak came out to play.
But in a room full of men I didn’t know and didn’t fully trust even if they were deeply connected to Zane, I refrained.
“As much as I’d love to stick around and watch how this plays out, I got my family outside in the truck,” Shades said then zeroed in on me. “I just need a moment in private with you.”
I wasn’t privy to the intel Shades was there to hand off, though I was surprised there was a need for privacy.
“Use my office,” Dutch offered. “And give my love to Julie and the kids.”
“Will do. See you next weekend.” With that, Shades turned and started across the room.
If the next weekend comment didn’t speak to their closeness, Dutch allowing Shades to use his office would’ve been a dead giveaway.
In another unlike-Lore gesture, she flipped me on when I passed in front of her line of sight.
“Careful, Lore, with all that tender treatment you might give a man ideas.”
A perfect brow arched. “What? To sit and spin?”
Oh, she was just too easy.
“I’m not opposed to a little ass play, though truth be told, I’m more of a giver than a receiver. But for you I might make an exception.”
I wouldn’t, but the way her cheeks tinged pink, it was worth the lie. I was under no misconception my comment shocked or embarrassed her. Nope, the color hueing her pretty face was from anger.
“Not on your life,” she spat her lie.
Stella could pretend she was a heartless bitch, but it was all a front.
A well-practiced, hard earned smoke screen.
I had no doubt if my life was in danger she’d do any number of things to have my back.
That being said, when I got my finger up her ass it wouldn’t be because one of us was dying.
It would be when she was on all fours taking my cock.
“And here I thought Z was just being dramatic. As per usual,” Shades said as I walked into the office. “Mind shutting the door?”
I reached over and gently closed the heavy wood door. Which made me wonder if it was simply solid wood or if Dutch was as paranoid as Zane and it was bullet proof.
“Zane’s always dramatic,” I noted. “But what specifically are you referring to?”
“You and Lore. At least once a month I get a call either begging me to come back to work in the office so he can retire or it’s to bitch about how the office has turned into a dating game show and the contestants are his men, and how no one listens to him anymore.
First, the man’s full of shit and doesn’t want to retire—he’s just jealous I did and refuses to leave me be.
And him bitching about his men not listening to his advice anymore is laughable, when none of us listened to it in the first place. ”
None of us listened in the first place.
“You’re on Black?”
My question gave him pause. Then he smiled. “No, I retired from Red.”
Shades didn’t look any older than Zane. Too young for retirement in the real world.
However, in our world, it was a young man’s game.
At least field work was. There was only so much abuse a body could take before permanent damage was done.
A smart man knew when to get out while he still had some of his sanity intact and a few joints that didn’t ache when he rolled out of bed.
“I take it he didn’t tell you about me?” Shades went on.
Now, that was a loaded question. Thankfully, the man didn’t make me answer.
“This isn’t the Navy, Cash. It’s not a ‘when you’re in, you’re the best. When you’re out, you’re a pest’ situation.
Once you’re family, you’re family. Zane not mentioning me is his way of respecting my privacy.
I’m still tight with my old team, and them not bringing me up, isn’t disrespect or not trusting the new hires with my identity, it’s their way of showing me respect. Nothing more.”
“I get it,” I told him.
“I know you do. Z might be a drama king and a sarcastic prick but he ain’t stupid.
He wouldn’t have brought you and your team on if you didn’t understand brotherhood and loyalty.
” Shades reached into his pocket and pulled out a flash drive.
“Tell Z this is the only copy. All electronic communication has been wiped, and the paper copies have been burned. He loses this, there’s no recovering the intel. ”
I took the flash drive Shades offered. “Copy that.”
With a nod he started for the door but stopped short. “Last time we were in Maryland to visit Eric we missed meeting you and your team. This year we’ll make that happen.”
I might not have ever heard of Shades, but I knew who Eric Wheeler was. And by visit, he meant visit the man’s grave. Eric was the brother they’d lost in Brazil. The brother that none of them had forgotten.
“Sounds good. And good to meet you, Shades.”
The man’s lips twitched. “It’s Drew.”
“Drew,” I acknowledged.
I waited until he slipped out of the room before I pulled out the RFID blocking pouch I had in my pocket and secured the flash drive. Once it was safely tucked in my pocket, I went back out to the living room. A quick scan of the occupants and my blood pressure spiked.
“Where’s Lore?”
“Said she had to make a call,” Dutch answered.
I let it lie only because Hollywood had sprawled out on the couch Lore had vacated.
“I was only fuckin’ with her,” Hollywood drawled.
I wanted to ask if fucking with her in the past had included actually fucking her, but the question would make me sound like a jealous douchebag. Which I was, but I didn’t need these men knowing it.
“She lets her guard down around you,” Hollywood continued. “I thought I’d imagined that eyeroll, but when she flipped you off, I knew I didn’t. Lore never loses cover. Never shows emotions. Never shows a single sign she’s actually human.”
It took more energy than it should’ve to tamp down my resentment. He obviously knew Lore well enough to make those observations. However the question if he knew Stella would remain unanswered because I was too afraid I wouldn’t like the answer.
“I’d stop while you’re ahead, brother.” Badger chuckled. “Dutch’s got three-hundred and eighteen acres of prime body dump land and he looks like he’s plotting.”
Badger wasn’t wrong.
The dude smiled and when he did, I got how he got his nickname. Hollywood looked like an A-list Hollywood actor.
“Never touched her, brother.” My relief was short lived when he tacked on.
“And not for lack of trying.” Motherfucker.
“But unlike you, when a woman threatens to do harm to my boys I take her seriously. And I think she’s serious, or at least I did before I saw the eye roll. Now, I think she just needs—”
I knew exactly what Lore needed. But more, I knew what Stella needed but she wouldn’t be getting it from Hollywood.
“Just to say my night vision is excellent and I’m good with a shovel so maybe we stop talking about what you think my…” Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “About what Lore needs and we get back to work.”
Hollywood didn’t miss my almost slip. Lore wasn’t my anything. And in a few days or weeks she’d be off doing her own thing, and it was very likely I’d never see her again. Or if I did there would be long stretches of time before she came around to visit her friend Nebraska.
“Right. North will be here with Irine Peterson by mid-morning. Her flight from Vancouver lands at LAX within the hour. He’s taking her to a safehouse so she can rest before he puts her in a car for an eleven-hour drive.”
That tracked. From the report I’d read Irine was in her late sixties.
I glanced back at the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Fresh air and mountain views.
“Mind if I have a look around?”
“Not at all. But warning, the electric perimeter fence will put you on your ass.”
“Noted.”
I debated looking for Lore before I headed out to clear my head. But she was part of—no, scratch that—she was mostly what I needed to purge. Not the thoughts of fucking her, but the possessive rage I had no business feeling.
Lore wasn’t mine.
Stella wasn’t either.
And the one thing I knew for certain was, she never would be—I wasn’t built for that shit. A white picket fence and a woman were not in my future—never would be. And the thought of a kid running around that I was responsible for made me physically ill.
Fresh air and sun hit my face as soon as I stepped outside. And to my left, Lore stood holding her phone out in front of her face. Smiling. The woman was smiling—a big, wide, honest to goodness smile. Making each of the grins I’d seen pale in comparison.
Who in the fuck was making her smile like that?