Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Griffin was trying to make sense of Jack’s accusation, which had not only blindsided him but sounded like pure insanity when he caught sight of Savanna quickly releasing Jack’s arm, a look of shock on her face.
“You did what?” Shep joined in, his tone a mix of appalled and disgusted. He reached for Savanna, pulled her back against his chest in a protective manner, then skated his hands down the sides of her arms possessively.
Watching Shep take hold of her as if Jack had just alerted the world to the news that Griffin was a serial killer had his blood boiling.
The pain in his ribs and every other thought in his mind faded away at that moment.
Griffin leaned in close to Jack’s face. “I. Do. Not. Sleep. With. Married. Women.” He slowly enunciated each word so the prick, who was supposed to be a teammate, understood him. “Got it? Yet another man misinformed. It seems to be the theme of the day,” he added, thinking back to Joe and his screwup about Savanna.
“What in God’s name is going on?” Gray’s voice echoed off the walls.
Another guest to the impromptu party. They should pass out drinks and toast to all the insane shit that’d happened in the last twenty-four hours.
“I told you weeks ago not to bring this up. Period,” Gray tossed out a moment later, obviously hearing the tail end of the altercation. “That was an order.” Gray jerked a thumb toward the hangar from where he stood in the bathroom doorway. “All of you, out now.”
Jack slowly backed away, and Griffin sidestepped him, catching Savanna’s eyes as he moved past where she remained frozen against Shep. He didn’t have a chance to get a read on her, but he hoped she believed him. That he hadn’t slept with Jack’s ex-wife when they were still married.
“Carter’s here,” Gray added in a low voice, nodding to where Carter stood outside the hangar talking to Jesse. They were more than a hundred feet away, which explained why Carter hadn’t crashed the bathroom party—he hadn’t heard the commotion. “Deal with this shit quickly or another damn time,” he said before heading toward Carter.
Griffin stopped walking and set his hands on his hips, a hard look in his eyes. “We handle this now, or we won’t be able to work together.” Addressing Jack, Griffin asked, “Who is your wife? Your ex, I mean?”
“Jill London.”
The name didn’t register, but he resisted shrugging, assuming that’d only piss Jack off. “Do you have a picture?”
Savanna tugged at the sleeve of Shep’s shirt and tilted her head, indicating they should move away to give the two men some privacy.
“No, don’t go. You need to hear this. All of you,” Griffin blurted. It would bother the hell out of him if she ever thought, well . . . if anyone ever thought he was like his mom.
His stomach, already in a knot from the beating, clenched even tighter at the memory of his mom laying the news on his father that she’d cheated. Griffin was sixteen when he’d overheard her confession and some of the painful conversation that followed between his parents. Feeling just as betrayed as he imagined his father felt, judging from the hurt in his voice, Griffin had run out to the garage and punched a wall or two, tears falling down his cheeks. Tears he couldn’t prevent despite how much he’d tried to stop them.
His mom had been his dad’s absolute everything. His reason for living. His reason for doing his best to make it home safely from every deployment. He worshipped the ground she walked on, and she’d betrayed him.
Griffin didn’t realize he’d reached out toward Savanna in a plea for her to stay and witness his innocence, but when Jack lifted his phone to show him a photo of Jill, it took him a minute to put the face to a memory. A barely there memory.
“You do know her,” Jack said, reading the recognition on Griffin’s face. The anger he’d apparently kept bottled inside for the last two weeks at Gray’s directive cracked loose, and he came at him swinging.
Griffin raised his palm and blocked the punch in one fluid movement. Clenching his jaw against the pain caused by the effort, Griffin held him off. “If I had slept with your wife, I’d let you hit me ten times over. And tell Shep to hop in and join you. But. I. Didn’t.” He paused for a moment. “She wanted to, though,” he delivered the shit news. “I said no. We were at a bar in Virginia Beach, and I noticed a tan line on her ring finger.”
Jack’s arm relaxed a little before he slowly pulled back, belief starting to register in his eyes.
“I have no clue if she left with someone else because once I realized she was married, I backed off. I don’t know why she gave you my name. My rejection pissed her off, maybe? I don’t know,” Griffin explained, his tense body starting to relax.
Jack’s attention fell to the floor. “She told me this when I asked for a divorce. Gave me your name. So, yeah, maybe she was trying to hurt me.” He looked up. “I considered finding you years ago but decided it wasn’t worth it.”
Griffin dragged in a deep breath and peered at Savanna, whose eyes were set right on him. “I’m sorry, man. But you can believe me when I say I’m not that guy. I’d never be that guy.”
And it was also why he couldn’t be with Savanna, because in his mind, she was still married to Marcus, and he didn’t think he’d ever be able to see beyond that. His own screwed-up past would prevent him from perceiving her situation differently. And he knew that.
With his shoulders collapsing ever so slightly and defeat in his voice, Jack said, “I’m sorry.”
That couldn’t have been easy for Jack to say, and maybe if Griffin had been in the man’s shoes, he’d have reacted the same, though he’d have slugged Jack on day one regardless of Gray’s order.
Hell, the mere sight of Shep’s hands on Savanna, a woman he’d only known for twenty-four hours, made him nuts. So if he discovered another man had slept with his wife—he’d most likely murder the guy and dump the body—unlike his dad, who’d tried to make it work with his mom, only for it to blow up in his face.
Griffin extended a peace offering by way of a handshake. Jack’s shoulders fell, but he accepted his palm.
“You two good now?” Gray called out, coming down the steps of the jet. “Because Oliver’s here, and he needs Savanna’s help.”
At that news, Savanna started past Griffin, but he couldn’t help himself as he reached out and captured her arm. “Can I have one second?”
He waited for Shep and Jack to leave the two of them alone before releasing her arm. She tipped her head up to peer at him with guarded eyes.
“Are you okay?” she asked in a soft voice. “That was intense.”
“It needed to happen, I suppose. Clear the air so we can focus on what’s important.” He tucked his hands in his jeans pockets. “This exchange, though, has me worried that Shep is going to try and come with us on that jet. Jesse too. And I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t think either will be able to see clearly when it comes to you, particularly Shep.”
She studied him with a frown on her beautiful face.
“Shep has feelings for you,” he slowly pointed out. “And if he comes along, I can see that creating some tension,” he admitted, “and I might lose my focus.”
Her mouth opened, prepared to protest—he wasn’t sure about which part—but then she pressed her lips together.
“They’re also civilians,” he tossed out. A weak excuse, he knew. Even as he tried to convince himself it had nothing to do with the ridiculous jealousy he felt toward Shep’s relationship with Savanna and more to do with his concern that Shep would react just as Jack did if he suspected Griffin had crossed a line with Savanna at the cabin.
“You’re a civilian, remember?” She arched a brow.
“I may not have the country’s flag on my arm anymore, but?—”
“You wear it on your heart,” she finished for him.
He smiled. “I doubt I’ll ever consider myself a civilian again.”
She looked back over her shoulder at Oliver, who was carrying one of Marcus’s boxes in his hands. “I agree, they shouldn’t come.” When Savanna turned his way again, she looked as if she’d just gotten the worst news of her life. And he had to believe it was the box in Oliver’s hand that’d produced that effect. “Plus, I’d rather them stay here and protect Ella and the others.”
Ella, right. Ella was Jesse’s girl. Jesse’s girl? That a song? He removed his hands from his pockets and nearly slapped himself in the back of his head at the distracting thought.
“Savanna,” Oliver called out, snagging both Griffin’s and Savanna’s attention. He jerked his head to the side, motioning for them to join him where he’d set the box down.
When the rest of the team gathered around Oliver, Griffin assumed the two Greeks were bound and gagged inside the jet.
Griffin set his hand on the small of Savanna’s back, but that reminded him Shep’s hand had been there earlier, so he quickly pulled away. Maybe she wasn’t just Marcus’s girl? Maybe she belonged to Shep too.
“Tell me this isn’t yours, and you didn’t do your best to make sure it was never found inside the Mustang,” Oliver teased with a smile while holding up what looked like a brass barrel key with some type of intricate design at the top.
Savanna reached out and took the key, turned it this way and that while looking at it closely, but remained quiet.
“Not yours?” Griffin asked as all eyes were on her.
“I’ve never seen it before,” she answered, then looked down at Oliver crouched and searching the box. “What are you doing?”
“I have a pretty good memory, and when I saw the key, the symbol at the top looked familiar. I remembered seeing it when going through these boxes the other day.” Oliver stood and handed her a photo.
She swapped the key for the photo, and Griffin looked over her shoulder to view it.
She ran a finger over the face of one of the boys, probably Marcus as a teen. He assumed it was Nick and their father with him in the photo. “I remember this.”
“That symbol on the key is engraved on the building behind them. I don’t know where the photo was taken, but we can upload the symbol to try and get a match,” Oliver explained. “Do you happen to know anything about this photo or why Nick would hide a key with that symbol in the Mustang?”
Savanna glanced up at Griffin for a moment before resetting her hazel eyes on the photo of the man she’d lost. “Marcus was sixteen in this photo. And it was taken in Greece,” she dropped the news on them. “I only remember the details because he told me he got to spend that summer with his dad in Santorini. His dad had been hired to design some special security vault, which housed individual safe boxes inside. The place is similar to a bank, but I don’t think money’s stored there.” She blinked a few times, pulling herself out of her memories. “Sorry, I don’t remember the specifics. But Marcus also told me about that summer because it’s when he lost his virginity to a Greek girl.”
“He told you he lost his virginity there?” Oliver followed up as if more shocked by that part of her explanation than the fact some mystery key was connected to Greece.
She nodded and looked straight at Griffin. “He was an open book with me.”
An open book? Hell, she had a good memory too. Within the first hour of meeting her, he’d handed her a snarky comment about not being an open book. Called her Sugar too. God, he was an ass.
Carter folded his arms and steered the conversation where it needed to be. “What else do you remember?”
Savanna peered back at the photo, then closed her eyes as if trying to draw more information to her mind. “Ada-something. Um. Adámas,” she said while snapping the fingers of her free hand. “I think that’s what Marcus had called it. He’d been pretty proud of his dad.”
Griffin opened his phone and looked up the word. “Diamond. Invincible.”
“Explains why there’s a diamond surrounded by what looks like Greek letters for the symbol,” Oliver noted.
“It also means,” Griffin added, “unbreakable.”
Savanna’s eyes opened as if he’d shaken loose another memory with the word. “Yes, that’s it. The vault was nicknamed adámas because it was deemed unbreakable. Marcus’s dad helped design it to ensure the vault couldn’t be breached. That was years ago, so I don’t know if it’s still impenetrable, but . . .”
“So, I’m just thinking out loud here, but are we assuming, based on this key that matches the one on the building in that photo, that Nick opened an account for a safe-deposit box in the vault his father designed and helped build within that very building in Santorini?” Gray began, his thoughts on point with where Griffin’s were at right now. “And the safe-deposit box is where he hid whatever he stole? Obviously, he used an alias. And as an extra insurance policy in case he was captured, he hid the key to the box in Marcus’s Mustang so that whoever got to him first would need to keep him alive to track down the key.”
“They’d probably need Nick himself to access both the vault and his safe-deposit box even if they obtained the key. I’m betting that once inside the building, you also need identification along with a fingerprint or retinal scan to access their vault,” Griffin added.
“So, are you saying Nick chose that vault in Greece because if he’s captured, and um, tortured for the location but refuses to hand over the key, the bad guys can’t just force Nick to do what he does best . . . break into the vault to get to the box and recover what he’d stored there?” Savanna added her two cents, and she was spot on in Griffin’s opinion.
“Maybe. Because it’s probably one of the few places he, himself, can’t infiltrate. But most likely, he chose that location because of its significance to him. His memories with Marcus and his father. And he believed it was the safest place to hide whatever he has.”
Savanna looked at the photo, then back at Griffin. “Wouldn’t they eventually get Nick to give up the key? He has to know they’d kill him if he didn’t. But I suppose this all was meant to buy himself time until . . . well, whatever he has planned. And he’s hoping he’s never captured.”
Griffin tensed at what he had to say next. “Or they’d find someone they believed Nick cared about and threaten her. Possibly use you to force him out of hiding in the first place.” He paused at what that also might mean. “The Archer Group may think you worked with Nick, though, which is why they’re also after you.”
“ Or Joe lied about that, and they want Savanna for the same reasons as the others, to bait Nick,” Gray said with a grimace because no one wanted a Teamguy to be their enemy.
“I don’t think Joe would be okay with using an innocent woman to draw out a criminal,” Griffin quickly defended him, despite the fact Joe ordered the beatdown earlier, and his ribs still hurt. “And he genuinely seemed to believe Savanna was dangerous. A threat.”
“Multiple possible motives. Multiple people hunting her down. This is messy,” Carter bit out.
Savanna lifted the photo and touched Marcus’s face again, and it had his stomach squeezing at the pain she must have been feeling right now. “I just don’t believe a man I’ve met one time would give up whatever was important enough for him to risk his life for . . . for me.”
“Maybe he won’t,” Griffin admitted, because Nick was a criminal, after all. “But if you’re the only living family he has, it’s possible these Greeks, and whoever else may want him, are hoping Nick cares enough to save you if they have you in their possession. But I think we were right to assume no one knew Nick ever hid anything at Savanna’s place. They’re just after you.”
The hangar was quiet for a minute or two, everyone giving Savanna some space to absorb the news. And then Jack said, “Well, I guess it’s safe to say that safe is still unbreakable. Well, the vault containing the safe boxes, at least.” He was probably trying to lighten the dark mood settling inside the hangar despite the fact they now had a possible break. A lead.
“So.” Carter pointed to the jet. “Lucky for us, I have a new safe house in Santorini.”
Of course, you do.
Jack cracked a smile. “Yeah, no, you suck at humor. Good try, though.” He slapped Carter on the back, and more of that tension fizzled. Thank God for something.
Maybe Griffin would get along with Jack after all.
“Let’s go.” Carter turned toward Shep and Jesse. “You two are staying.”
Jesse stepped forward with palms in the air, preparing his protest.
“You need to stay with Ella,” Savanna spoke up before Jesse could say more. “Please.”’
“Like hell are you getting on that plane without one of us with you.” Shep moved to stand in front of her, and the rest of the guys, aside from Griffin and Carter, started for the jet. “A.J. wouldn’t approve of you taking her. Period.”
“He would if he knew a team of spec ops guys managed to track her down to that cabin against all odds,” Carter pointed out.
Shep drew his hands to his hips, and Jesse remained next to him in a guarded stance.
“More reason for us to go with you,” Shep interjected, his gaze lingering on Savanna.
Yeah, the man cared about her, but did he want more than friendship? Griffin would bet money on it.
“And what’s to stop these guys that were sent to the cabin from following you to Greece? If they found you at the cabin, don’t you think they have eyes on us now?” Jesse addressed the elephant in the room, the concern that no one wanted to talk about in front of Savanna. Because yes, they would most likely track them to Greece. And it was why they’d be letting Savanna use her real name and passport for this trip. There was no point in hiding the fact she was leaving the country.
“Yeah, but we’ll be in a secure location in Oia, the northern part of the island,” Carter began, “so unless these guys try to take us out with a drone strike, they won’t be getting onto the property. I have a team prepping the site as we speak.”
“Drone strike?” Shep’s eyes widened. “That a possibility?”
“If it was, do you think I’d take Savanna there?” Griffin looked straight at Shep. “They want her alive for questioning or as bait to draw out Nick. They won’t risk an aerial attack and possibly killing her.”
“But we’re sitting ducks here,” Carter said. “We won’t be there. You have my word.”
“Who the hell are you?” Shep arched a brow. “For real.”
Carter only winked, which was as forced as the humor he’d tried a few minutes ago.
“I still want to go,” Jesse insisted.
Savanna handed the photo to Carter, then pulled Jesse’s palm between hers. “Ella has to be freaking out. Please stay with her. I’ll feel better knowing not just more of Carter’s men are here, but that she has you too.” She looked to Shep. “And you.”
“I can’t do this. I can’t watch you get on that plane.” Shep wanted to add, with him , didn’t he? Because his attention was dead set on Griffin when he’d spoken. He was jealous too.
“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice. I can’t force Savanna to go with us, but this is my team, my op, and you’re not coming.” And with that, Carter started for the plane, letting them know the discussion was over.
Well, Griffin sure as hell would force Savanna to go with them. He had to keep her safe, and the best way to do that was with his team.
Savanna turned to the side and set her eyes on Griffin. “Give me a minute alone, okay? Be on the plane in a second.”
He didn’t want to walk away from her, but he lightly nodded. He remembered he’d left their duffel bag of clothes in the bathroom, so he started that way for it. And he told himself not to look back at her. He was worried he’d see Shep hugging her. Touching her. And irrational as it was, he’d lose his control again.
He cursed under his breath as he pushed the bathroom door open. I’m so fucked.