Chapter 32
Ethan winked at Fern as he left the library. She turned her head. Okay, so maybe he was a bit intimidating, but fuck all if he’d let that evil bitch terrorize Paisley ever again. According to Paisley, Fern hadn’t so much as said boo since the first time he’d confronted her.
He’d left Paisley in her office, glowing from three orgasms and stuffed full from a Reuben sandwich with potato chips. Nothing in this world he liked better than taking care of his woman and child.
Violet had never been stand-offish with him, but these days she was so happy to see him—and comfortable being around him—that it almost felt like she’d been a little reserved at first. Even though she hadn’t been.
True, she called him Mr. Ethan most of the time, but sometimes she said daddy.
His heart melted when she did that. He never pointed it out, because he’d read that he shouldn’t make a big deal of it, but he didn’t discourage her either. She had to say it in her own time, and he had to let her.
The past couple of weeks had been amazing, but he hadn’t stopped worrying about Trey. Seth had expanded his surveillance to Trey’s executive assistant’s computer, so he knew when Trey was scheduled to go out of town. Trey had gone to Washington once, back to Destin, and now he was in London.
He traveled frequently, but so far his travel plans hadn’t brought him anywhere near Huntsville. Though he appeared to have a couple of clients in the area, he hadn’t had any in-person meetings in several months.
Paisley’s attorney called once to tell her there’d likely be a hearing in September that she would need to attend.
She’d squeezed his hand when the lawyer said that, her eyes wide and fearful.
He’d wrapped his arms around her and whispered that he’d be with her.
She wouldn’t have to go alone. He’d work it out with Ghost when the time came, but he wasn’t letting Paisley go to Destin by herself.
Ethan hopped in his truck, his balls still tingling from having Paisley wrapped around him while he shot a load deep inside her.
She made him feel so fucking good. He hadn’t intended to eat her pussy on her desk until she’d walked into her office in front of him, hips swaying, and he’d found himself locking the door.
He’d only meant to bring her lunch and talk with her while she ate.
But, nope, he’d dived in face first and devoured her sweetness until she’d shattered. Then he’d fucked her like an animal on that desk—but he didn’t regret it. She didn’t either if the stars in her eyes told him anything.
His girl loved it when he filled her with his cock and made her come. He just hadn’t planned on doing it in the library during opening hours.
Ah well, something to check off the bucket list of places he intended to make love to Paisley.
When he got back to the range, Kane met him at the door. “Boss wants us in the SCIF. Daphne’s covering the front. There’s nobody on the range.”
Well, fuck. That couldn’t be good. Maybe something had finally cracked open on Brent Gannon.
They’d gotten nothing out of the surveillance they’d planted at his work, and Daphne and Kane didn’t have anything interesting to report about his time at the brewery.
He usually drank a couple of beers, listened to a band, and hit on women.
Sometimes he got lucky and went home with one, other times he struck out.
Nothing ground breaking yet though they continued to surveil him.
The men filed into the SCIF, which was located behind a closet door and down a short hall in Ghost’s office. Looked like storage from the outside, but it was state of the art security inside.
Ghost was already in his chair. Lights flickered on computer equipment, and the overhead screen was currently dark.
“We’ve got a problem,” Ghost said when they were all inside and the door shut behind them.
“There’s been a breach in Washington. Somebody attempted to access our service records.
Not the official ones, but the hidden ones.
Nobody seems to know if they actually succeeded or not before they got locked out, but we’re operating on the assumption they did. ”
“You mean our real ones,” Blaze said, his voice reflecting the shock Ethan felt. “The ones that were locked down and replaced with that bullshit about being Rangers and retiring.”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Why?” Ethan said, more to himself than anyone else.
“You tell me, Dragon. Why would you break into our records?”
Ethan met Ghost’s troubled gaze. “To ascertain if we’re on a mission.”
“And then?”
“Put together a plan to surveil us, gather information, and stop us from completing that mission. Assuming whoever it was is an enemy of the United States.”
They’d been watching Brent Gannon, looking for a connection to The Dashevsky Group, but somebody’d been watching them, too. Putting enough things together to want to know more.
“Bingo. That’s what General Mendez thinks. I can’t fucking get anything out of POTUS’s chief of staff. He’s conveniently too busy to return calls, and President Willis is in Europe for a G7 meeting about NATO.”
“Somebody talked. Somewhere,” Seth growled.
“There’s no other way. We’re six former military men among thousands of former service members.
Us being here isn’t unusual or suspicious.
Not unless we’ve either been careless and left a trail, or somebody knows we aren’t just your typical military guys with typical training. ”
They looked at each other. They hadn’t been careless. They got in and got out and left no trail. Not that they’d had to break into anything lately. Not since Daphne’s brother was in town a few weeks ago and they’d crashed that warehouse.
“Your ladies know we’ve got something happening, some of them more than others,” Ghost said. “But I know it’s not any of them. They’re too fierce and protective of all of you to risk it. It’d take somebody with access and a lot more knowledge about what we really are to go after our records.”
“Agent Corbin has access and knowledge. She knows everything about what we’re doing. And she was there for the warehouse break-in. Maybe she’s pissed we didn’t wait for Jackson O’Malley to reveal the buyer for his Stingers.”
Ethan wasn’t surprised it was Seth speaking.
They were probably all thinking it anyway.
Diana Corbin was ruthless and cool-headed in pursuit of justice, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t potentially a traitor.
No matter that she’d been the one to tell them about the Dashevsky investigation in the first place.
“Know that, too,” Ghost said. “And I’m not saying she’s incapable, but I can’t see why she’d do it.
What’s there to gain? She already knows our mission.
She wouldn’t need official HOT records to interfere if that’s what she was about.
She could just set us up and watch us take the fall.
Get us out of the way if that’s what she wanted.
I don’t think she’s above throwing us under the bus, but I can’t see why she’d do it now. ”
That was true, too. Why break into their secret records?
Unless it was all a bunch of misdirection.
A way to get them chasing their tail and not seeing what was happening in front of their eyes.
Something Diana Corbin was capable of. Though she wasn’t the only one.
Her uncle knew about them. So did the FBI director.
Both of them were career men, but there were others in their organization’s hierarchy that were political appointees with agendas of their own.
Men who couldn’t spell FBI or CIA until the president gave them the job.
They had access to things they’d likely never had access to before, and that could be tempting to people who only cared about lining their own pockets.
Ethan shared those thoughts with the group. Ghost frowned and nodded. The other guys had hard looks on their faces, and he knew they agreed.
“We’ve had a few soft months, not accounting for the O’Malley business and the Griffin Research Labs saboteur,” Ghost said.
“Think we need to get used to the idea that’s about to change.
Somebody has an idea about us, and it doesn’t matter what set them on the track.
We’re in the crosshairs now, like it or not.
That means, potentially, your women, your children, this range, the town.
We have to be more vigilant than we’ve ever been.
The consequences are life and death, gentlemen.
For all of us. That’s how we have to act, how we have to prepare.
Or everything we’ve done, everything we’ve gained, will turn to ash—and take us along with it. ”
Ethan’s gut twisted hard. He could tell by the looks on the faces of his teammates they were right there with him.
They were in love with women who understood them for the first time in their lives, they’d found a home and a family they’d never envisioned, and they were reaching for a future they desperately desired with people they loved. To lose it all now?
Unthinkable.
Ghost tapped his pen on the desk, his forehead furrowed. “I think it’s time we started taking care of business. Stop waiting for orders from Washington and go hard at the problem.”
The men exchanged looks. Blaze was the one who spoke. “What did you have in mind?”
Ghost looked up as if he’d forgotten they were all there. “Not sure yet. I’ll let you know when I figure it out. All I know is that I’m done sitting around with my head up my ass. Gave up too much to end up being put out to pasture and forgotten about like a broken down nag on its last legs.”
He nodded as if deciding something. “You’ve all given up too much. I’m not letting that sacrifice be for nothing. We stay vigilant, we do our jobs, and we celebrate when Athena goes live and our mission is done. Because it’s going to happen. Promise you that.”
He stood and they stood too, sensing this was the colonel in charge rather than the friend.
This was the man who’d run secret ops from a residential basement, against orders, to save John “Viper” Mendez when he’d been accused of going rogue.
Not only had he saved Mendez, he’d saved the Hostile Operations Team.
They were who they were today in part because of Alex Bishop.
When the colonel made up his mind to do something, nothing was going to stop him short of death. An involuntary chill shuddered through Ethan. He’d heard Emma Sutton call that a ghost walking over your grave. He’d thought it quaint at the time. Now he thought it too close for comfort.
“You’ve got your orders, men. Keep doing what you’re doing,” Ghost said. “Dismissed.”
Nobody said a word as they left the SCIF.
“Not sure I liked that,” Chance said quietly when they were in their office and away from the SCIF and Ghost. “What do you think he’s planning?”
It took Ethan a moment to realize the question was directed at him. “I have no idea, man. If I was him, I guess I’d be thinking about how to shake the tree and see what falls out. Doesn’t have to be anything radical, though.”
Blaze scratched his chin. “Hope you’re right. I got a baby on the way. So does Chance. You’ve got a little girl to take care of. I’d really like to be around for it, you know? Ghost gets radical, I’m gonna have to be there to help. And who knows what kind of trouble that’d bring.”
They all knew what they’d signed up for. Unofficial. Deniable. They got in trouble, nobody was bailing them out. The president and her team would deny any knowledge. They would be rogue former operators taking matters into their own hands and they’d be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Ethan sucked in a breath, blew it out again.
“Look, we can’t worry about this. Ghost is a reasonable man.
He’s not a criminal and neither are we. So let’s get back to work.
We’ve got a self-defense class this afternoon for a church group, and a ladies shooting course at six.
We’re going to the Dawg later to wait for our ladies because they’ve got a book club meeting at the library.
We’re going to drink a beer while we wait for them and laugh about shit, and then we’re going to wrap our women in our arms and hold them tight, okay? Day at a time is how we take this.”
“Amen, brother,” Kane said, looking fierce.
The rest of the Ghost Ops team chimed in. Seth put his hand out. They all joined in, hand on top of hand like they were a football team in a huddle.
“Where None Dare,” they chanted as one, repeating the HOT motto before breaking the circle.
It’s who they were, what they were. They hadn’t uttered it since leaving Washington behind, but they did now. It was brotherhood and community, service and integrity, purpose and belonging.
They were HOT operators. They would fight and win.
No matter the odds.