12. Cole
12
COLE
Cole gripped his drink as he watched his brothers. He’d told them to meet at his house. He wanted to have an upper hand this time, with no audience. Cole sat with his gun on the table. His older brother rolled his eyes when he sat down.
“I’m not even armed,” Bryson grunted.
“You’re lucky I’m even speaking to you after you pointed a gun at Zoey.”
Bryson winced. “We needed everything, or there might have been a chance you’d continue the mission without us. This is something we’ve been working on for years. Does Zoey know we are here? I would really like to apologize.”
“No, I’m never letting you around her,” Cole grumbled.
“Dude, I can tell by the way you look at her you’re going to marry her, which will make her our sister. You can’t keep us away forever. Now that we know some of the things we were told were lies. You’ve been told lies, as well.”
“So what lies was I told?” Cole asked bitterly.
“We never got the calls. Mom told us you stole millions from the family and then joined the military. A year after you left, there was a raid on the house, and she told us it was you. We didn’t understand Mom was dirtier than Dad. Yes, he was a piece of shit, but the things we have on Mom make him look good. He wasn’t doing what he did by choice—she has always been behind everything.”
“He could have walked away,” Cole said.
Bryson ran his hand down his face. “No, she has everything. She would have killed him on the spot, and who knows what would happen if he wasn’t there to buffer us?”
None of this makes sense. He’d watched his dad kill and torture someone. “Believe me, I’ve seen what our dad is capable of. I’ve witnessed it first-hand.”
“I told you he wouldn’t believe us.” Nathan threw his hands up in the air.
“You talking about the trip to Vegas? Think back to the day. Someone else was in the room,” Bryson told him.
Cole wracked his brain, but all he could see was the man in front of him bleeding to death, while he couldn’t do anything to help him. His dad had put the man through hell, and he remembered hearing a faint laugh in the background, though he couldn’t place it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He could remember the smell of the blood, but not if there was someone else in the room.
“Mom was there.”
“No, she…” He faintly remembered someone else but didn’t know who it was. Why would she want her kid to see that? “Why?”
“She’s fuckin’ crazy!” Nathan exclaimed. “Each one of us went through it, and to top it off, she had it all recorded. A few years ago, we came across the tapes. You left a week after the incident, and she fed us full of lies. For once, she gave us attention we’d never seen before, and it was all a ploy to make us hate you. Hell, it worked for years. Then when we put all the pieces together, we didn’t want to drag you into the mess.”
“Now?”
“Well, your girlfriend kinda dragged you into it now. We are going to take mom down. I promise you that, and the evidence you gave us helped, but we…”
Cole had worked enough missions to know his brothers wanted Zoey’s help. “No.”
Nathan looked over at Bryson and shrugged. “You don’t even know what we were going to ask.”
Cole snorted. “I was a Navy SEAL. You want to use Zoey for something. You didn’t come here to see me or try to work shit out. The CIA only cares about their mission and nobody else.”
Neither of his brothers seemed to care he was upset. They acted like he hadn’t even raised his voice. “We do want to get to know you. Hell, it’s been years, but you’re right—we’ve turned into the mission. We want to take the bitch down so bad that we will risk everything. That isn’t fair to you and Zoey, but we can’t do this without her help.”
Cole clenched his hands together. “Tell me what you need so we can figure out another way.”
“We need her to get into the computer at Clyde’s place, and before you say anyone can hack it, that’s not true. He’s paranoid and doesn’t have it connected to the internet. The info Zoey retrieved the first time helped, but we need more. We are sure he didn’t wipe out her retina authorization. She was the only one besides Clyde who had access. He’s out of town. We can sneak her in, log in, and make a copy of the remaining files. There is more evidence on the computer, and if we wait too long, it might be gone. I overheard him talking about a fail-safe on the hard drive—it will erase if removed.”
“She is not going to do it.”
“Will it take everyone down this time?”
Cole’s head whipped toward the kitchen door.
Bryson nodded.
“I will do it.”
“We can find another way.”
“No, you can’t. That computer is locked down, and your brothers are right—he hasn’t removed me, because I set up the protection on the machine. He was moving everything from his safe files onto the computer. He destroyed the other copies. There’s no other way.”
Bryson stood from the chair and gave Zoey a hug. “Thanks, Z?—”
Cole grabbed Bryson’s shirt, pulling him back. Bryson stumbled, but Cole pulled his arm back before forcing it forward. His fist connected with his brother’s jaw. Bryson grabbed his jaw and let out a few cuss words.
“Cole,” Zoey yelled before rushing to his brother. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back.
He knew he was acting like a teenager, but his family had put a gun to Zoey. Now they were asking her to put her life in danger for a mission. A fucking mission! Cole knew first-hand how they could go FUBAR—short for “fucked up beyond recognition”—and he didn’t want to put Zoey in danger again.
She wiggled in his arms, pressing her ass against his dick. He couldn’t control himself around her. She twisted in his arms. “Really?”
“You were the one wiggling.”
She huffed and tugged harder. Once out of his grasp, Zoey stomped over to the freezer, pulled out a bag of peas, and tossed them to his brother. “What about my hand?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Did you know they were coming here today?”
Cole reached out and tried to pull her in, but she walked to the other side of the counter in the kitchen.
Bryson chuckled. “You have your hands full.”
“Oh, don’t think you’re not on my shit list. Your Christmas present is going to be rocks this year. I haven’t forgotten you held a gun to me. But you”—she turned toward Cole—“forgot to mention we were having guests today, and if I hadn’t forgotten my phone here, I wouldn’t have come home for lunch and known what was going on.”
“I was trying to protect you… These fuckers didn’t tell me what they wanted, and if they did, I wouldn’t have even allowed them in my house.”
Zoey sighed and slid into one of the chairs around the table. Cole took the one next to her, and his brothers sat across from them, the same seats they’d sat in the last time his brothers were there. Today, if his brothers pulled a gun, they wouldn’t make it out of his house alive.
“I’m not a little kid you need to protect. Your brothers are trying to take down your uncle, and he needs to go to jail. The info on the computer will also help take down others. I can’t sit back knowing I could do something to help.” She reached over and squeezed his leg. “You know, if it were you needing to go in, you would do it in a heartbeat.”
She was right—if his brothers needed another person, he would do everything to help. Putting Zoey in danger was not at the top of his list, though.
“Can we come up with a different way?”
Both of his brothers said, “No.”
Bryson continued. “We’ve tried everything to get the information and lost our only informant on the inside. Clyde is back in town tomorrow, and we think he knows we’re on to him. He will erase the info when he gets back.”
“Tonight?” Cole growled. “We haven’t had time to prepare or come up with a plan—hell, I need to buy her a vest.”
“We took care of everything, including the vest,” Nathan said, tapping his finger on the table.
Cole still didn’t trust his brothers. “Ian and I are going with; no way will I let Zoey go alone with you two. I haven’t forgot about you holding a gun to her.”
Bryson nodded. “Will you help us, Zoey?”
She narrowed her eyes and looked over at Cole’s brothers. “Yes, but I want to talk to Cole in private.”
“Sure, we will go grab the things from the car.”
Nathan stood, “We really did try a different way. Zoey is our only option, and I promise I will take a bullet for her.” He didn’t wait for a response before turning and walking out of the kitchen, following Bryson.
“You don’t have to do this, Zoey. Please, let’s find a different way. I don’t want you to put yourself in danger. You mean way too much to me.”
Zoey squeezed his hand. “I want to do this. We’ve been watching every day for your uncle to be taken down. If we can get what they need, I have to help, but I wanted to run something by you first.”
“Okay,” Cole responded immediately.
“Jessica mentioned Brock has a way to track her and the other women out in California. I don’t think we help unless Brock can have a tracker on all of us. Ian coming along is a good idea. I’m still not sure if I trust your brothers one hundred percent. They haven’t given us a reason, besides being cleared by Brock, and he is pissed about the gun incident.”
Cole pressed his lips to hers, catching her by surprise. The kiss wasn’t soft. It was demanding and full of passion. He wanted to take her upstairs for being so kind and caring, putting herself in the line of danger to help others and take down his uncle.
“God, I love you.” He paused for a second. “I know it’s soon, and I had a whole thing planned, but we’re not going into a dangerous mission without me telling you first. You don’t?—”
Zoey put her fingers over his lips. “I love you too.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but—” He pressed his lips to hers again.
She rested her head against his chest. “But we are a team, and hiding your brothers from me is not being part of a team. We need to make decisions together, even if it is to put me in danger.”
“Okay, next time you’re going to be put in danger, I will let you know.” Cole winked at her. “Now let me go call Brock real quick.”
“Hopefully, we can figure out a tracker thing quickly,” Zoey said.
The conversation with Brock was short. He had the address pulled up and was looking into it while we got ready. He found a technology store that had a few trackers. Ian was picking them up on his way over to the house. When Cole asked him for help, Ian didn’t even ask questions before saying he wanted to help.
After his call, he walked back into the living room to find Zoey dressed in tight black yoga pants and a tight black long-sleeve shirt. Her long hair was up in a ponytail. She was sexy as hell. He groaned as his pants became uncomfortable. It would be a long night.