7. Zoey
7
ZOEY
Zoey gripped the door tightly. She didn’t know what to expect. Cole reached over and grabbed a gun out of the glove box. Zoey wanted to tell him to put the car in reverse and run for the state lines rather than get into a shootout with his own brother. Then another man stepped out of the expensive car.
“Fuckers,” Cole mumbled under his breath as he grabbed the clip to go along with the black gun. Zoey didn’t know what kind it was; it looked similar to the one she’d tried to shoot, but larger and more deadly. Zoey laughed at herself for a second. All guns are dangerous.
Cole leaned over and pressed his lips to hers. He pulled away more quickly than she would have liked. The sun was setting over the house, making it harder to see the men’s facial expressions. Cole needed backup. She wouldn’t let him face these two men alone.
“Call Ian, or let’s leave.”
Cole smiled. “They won’t hurt me.”
“Then why the gun?”
He didn’t reply as he climbed out of the SUV and walked toward his brothers. Over the past week, he had filled her in on bits and pieces about his family. Growing up, his brothers were inseparable, but he hadn’t told her what had made them grow apart. She knew he’d left because of his dad. Maybe his brothers held that against him.
Zoey quickly looked around the car for something that might help. She had a good feeling whatever he was about to walk into was because of her. Making a quick decision, she grabbed the paint can from the back seat and jumped out of the car. It wasn’t the best weapon, but it might be useful.
Cole’s head whipped around when he heard the car door slam. “Stay in the car, Zoey.”
Zoey’s heart was beating a mile a minute. For a split second, she considered getting back in the car. Instead, she marched up the driveway and stood next to Cole. “Are you going to introduce me?”
He clenched his jaw and stared at his brothers. They all looked so much alike, except the one on the right had a beard. She assumed it was his older brother. He had a few lines under his eyes and was the tallest. Next to him stood an equally handsome man with laugh lines. He didn’t seem to be as angry as the older one.
“I told you to stay in the car, Zoey,” Cole gritted out.
“And I choose to ignore your demand. Last time I checked, I wasn’t five. Now, are you going to invite them in and figure out why they are here, or are we going to stand in the driveway with a gun out and let old Mrs. Smith watch the whole thing go down?”
It took a second for the words to sink in before Cole slipped his gun into his waistband and turned to wave at his next-door neighbor. The old lady narrowed her eyes but waved back. “She needs to learn to mind her own business,” Cole huffed.
The oldest of the brothers stuck out his hand. “I like you. I’m Bryson, and this is Nathan, since Cole is so rude.” Bryson gave her a panty-dropping smile. When she went to reach for his hand, Cole batted it away.
“Let’s go inside and you can tell me why you are here. I’m still not convinced you’re here to help.”
Lord. These three men are deadly hot. Zoey was going to need to pick her jaw up off the ground as she walked behind the brothers. Zoey watched them all carefully. Bryson seemed tired, but Cole was tense, ready to take his brothers down. Nathan seemed fun-loving on the outside, but he was hiding something deadly. Her money was on him being the most dangerous. Cole opened the front door and let everyone in. He led them to the kitchen, and everyone sat around the table.
“Can I get you guys something to drink?”
“They won’t be here long enough” Cole answered angrily.
Ignoring him, Zoey got up and went to the fridge. She pulled out four beers and walked back to the table, where she set one down in front of each of them. Zoey pulled out the chair next to Cole and sat. They sat in silence until Zoey said, “I take it you’re here for me?”
“Zoey!” Cole bit out. He gripped his beer, staring at his brothers. “Why are you here? I haven’t seen either of you in eighteen years.”
“Nineteen, to be exact, and Zoey’s partially right—we’re here because of her, not to take her but to help you guys.”
“Yeah?”
“A lot has changed over the years, but you wouldn’t know that, would you?” Bryson asked.
Zoey reached over and gripped Cole’s hand. “Did your uncle tell you what I did?”
Bryson took a sip of beer. “No. We have people watching Cole at all times.”
“What the fuck!” Cole yelled.
Nathan rolled his eyes at Cole’s response. “Like I said, a lot has changed.”
“That doesn’t explain how you are watching me or who is watching me. I sure as hell know I don’t have a tail.”
“Detail on you is not easy. The government trained you well, but I also have my ways.” Bryson smirked.
“Let’s put our dicks away and get back on track,” Zoey snapped.
Nathan picked at the label on his bottle. “Why don’t we get your friend Brock on the line, and he can help explain. I have a feeling you will trust him more than your own brothers.”
“Brock?” Cole asked. “I’m not sure I know a Brock.”
“Fine.” Bryson pulled out his phone and pressed a button. The phone rang a few times.
“I told you I would call once I talked to your brother.” Brock’s Southern drawl came over the line.
“Brock, what the hell is going on?” Cole asked.
Zoey could hear the sound of Brock typing on the keyboard; each stroke echoed through the phone. “Since you finally let me start to dig into your background, I connected some dots. Let’s say my contacts at the CIA had a lot of information about your brother.”
“What do you two have to do with the CIA? If you are here for help, I’m out of the military.”
“Ohh, brother, we aren’t here for help. We’re here to help you.” Nathan’s smile disappeared and was replaced with a deadly expression. “See? You weren’t the only one to serve your country, but I never left my family or brother to deal with the hell alone.”
“It wasn’t like?—”
“Doesn’t matter what it was. We need the thumb drive Zoey has.”
She reached in her pocket and clutched the thumb drive harder. “Why do you think I have the thumb drive?”
“I have a man working on Clyde’s team, and they have a video of you downloading something. Do you?”
“Maybe.”
Brock’s voice came through the phone. “Zoey, these men might be assholes, but I’ve looked into them, and they aren’t going to go against us. Do you trust me?”
She trusted Cole the most, and if Cole was on board, she would give them the information, but she wanted a copy first. “Cole, do you have an extra thumb drive and computer?”
“Yes,” Cole stood and handed her his gun. “If they try anything, shoot.”
Zoey looked at the gun he handed her. God, she hoped she didn’t have to fire the weapon. It hadn’t worked out for her so well the last time. Cole had helped her putty the bullet hole in the wall—she had missed him by three feet. Now, she was glad the bullet had gone very wide, but she wasn’t confident in her ability to take anyone out.
Cole
He practically ran to his office to grab the USB. He felt like his world was being turned upside down. When Cole left his childhood home, Nathan was a goofy teenager. Bryson had always been serious. The verbal abuse was directed mostly at Bryson, and Cole received some, but not as much. Their father seemed to leave Nathan alone.
From the deep lines under Bryson’s eyes, nothing seemed to have changed. Why would Brock say they’re trying to help? He grabbed the drive and headed back to the kitchen. Cole planned to demand some answers before Zoey handed over what she had. He placed his computer and thumb drive in front of Zoey and sat down next to her.
“While Zoey does what she needs, I want some answers before we show you what she has.”
Zoey fired up the computer.
“It’s been so many years. You’ve missed a lot of what happened,” Nathan said.
“Well, I’m listening and want to know,” Cole said.
Bryson smiled sadly. Cole knew he wasn’t going to like what his brother had to say. He recalled the incident with his dad that had made him decide to leave. Typically, a father would take his son to a sporting event for fun, but Marcus had taken him to Vegas and used him to get intel on a competitor. When he couldn’t find what he needed, Marcus had beaten the guy until he signed over part of his business. That was the moment Cole knew he wanted nothing to do with his father.
“My first year at Harvard, I was approached by the CIA to help take down Samuel Highmore. It was easy for me to get into any event around the world. When Nathan turned eighteen, they brought him on too. The two of us used our connections to help take down some evil in the world.”
Samuel Highmore had run a pyramid scheme that stole millions from his clients over the years. Cole knew about the story because his friend Antonio Ross had lost money to Highmore. Antonio also came from a wealthy family, but he’d still gone into the Navy. He owned a mercenary company in Fort Lauderdale. The always-grumpy guy settled down with his wife. Cole chuckled inwardly thinking about the last time he talked to Antonio he complained she wouldn’t stop feeding her kills to the gators. She was a retired assassin for the CIA. But Cole knew the story, and Mr. Ross took down Samuel Highmore.
Cole leaned back in his chair, “Why would the CIA take on a case on US soil, and furthermore I know Mr. Ross was the one to take him down.”
Bryson nodded, but before he could answer, Brock’s voice came through the phone. “Come on, Cole, you know the CIA works on US soil all the time. Mr. Highmore did go down because of your brothers, but they couldn’t admit to the public what they’d done. Mr. Ross worked with the CIA to make it look like it was him.”
“Okay, you work for the CIA,” Cole announced, more for himself than anyone else in the room. “What are you doing here now? You could’ve come to me years ago, but why now? And what do you want on the USB?” Zoey hadn’t told him what she had yet, but he assumed it was terrible, especially if the CIA wanted to get their hands on the information. Every muscle in his body was tense as he waited for the answer.
“We’ve watched you for years, and you’ve made a good life for yourself. Neither one of us wanted to bring you into the issues at home. The government hasn’t let us bring our family down, because they worry it will draw too much attention to us. So instead, we work to keep Father under control and in the background, which is easier now since he is getting close to retiring.”
“This is why I hate the CIA. Sometimes I think they are as corrupt as Dad.”
Bryson narrowed his eyes. “Our father will pay for what he did. You can count on that.” Something flashed across his older brother’s face. If Cole weren’t watching every move, he would’ve missed it.
Not saying a word, Nathan looked out the window.
Cole took a deep breath. “Sorry, I’ve worked years to forget about my past, and it wasn’t you guys I ran from—it was him. And I have so much hatred. Then when I tried to contact you guys, I was told you wanted nothing to do with me. Calling you to help with Bella took everything in me.”
Nathan fisted his hands. “There is so much you don’t know—and believe us, we weren’t the ones who didn’t want to talk to you. However, we can talk about all that later. Zoey, can you show us what’s on the drive?”
She pushed one of the thumb drives into her pocket. He liked that she’d made a copy. She turned the laptop so everyone could see and clicked on the MOV file. Cole reached over and grabbed her hand.
A gruesome movie played out before them. Clyde Walker stood to the side, ordering his men to brutally beat Senator Cramer. Zoey had stopped watching after the first hit. Screams came through the video. Clyde kept asking where the product was. Cole figured he was talking about drugs. Nothing else would make someone beat and kill a man.
Cole watched in surprise as his mother walked onscreen in a white dress and high heels. She didn’t even flinch as she walked over to the man in the chair and stared down at him.
He grabbed the mouse and skipped back a couple seconds. This can’t be right. His mother was a drunk who liked to party. She wouldn’t be able to stomach watching something like this. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would not have believed anyone. Was my childhood a lie? He kept his eyes on the scene, watching as she ordered Clyde to put a bullet through the senator’s head. Clyde Walker wasn’t the devil—Cole’s mother was.
A couple things clicked into place. His brothers had shown up because they knew he might see the video. They’d come to protect their mission, nothing more. His anger bubbled over. He wanted to kick them out. “You didn’t come to help. You came to protect her .”
Bryson closed his eyes and let out a sigh. “There is so much more than we have time to discuss. The hit on Zoey’s head is gone. Nobody is looking for her anymore. One day, I hope we can sit down and talk about everything.”
“Brock, is the hit gone?”
“Yes.”
Cole let out a sigh.
Bryson grabbed the thumb drive from the computer, pulled out a gun, and aimed it at Zoey. “I need the other USB.”
Cole ground his teeth and went to reach for his gun, but Nathan had one pointed at him. Zoey slowly reached into her pocket and pulled out the drive. She was as pissed as he was, and if she handed it over, all their evidence would be gone.
Nathan grabbed the second drive, then he and Bryson left. When the door clicked, he grabbed his gun.
Zoey held him back. “It’s not worth it.”
“I’m going to kill them.”