98
GAbrIEL
Everyone was gathered inside the main tent for the final all hands sitrep.
North stood at the front with Nyx and Atlas.
A table had been pushed to one side, and behind it sat our comms team, which consisted of West, Rune, Ghost and Kaelin.
A low hum of anticipation ran through the group, but when Nyx raised his hand, silence fell fast and heavy.
“Alright, let’s get to it,” Nyx said. “Operation Deadfall. Objective? To detain our target—Greg Mahoney. We will depart by boat for his island in nine hours at oh-six hundred. It’s roughly thirty-six hours to the island if the weather holds—” He looked over at West.
“The weather is holding,” West reported.
Nyx nodded and continued. “We’ll be staging about forty nautical miles off shore, on the opposite side of the island from the estate, to avoid detection.
Team A will then depart at twenty hundred.
This team consists of Atlas, Lachlan and Knox, with myself as lead.
” He turned to point at a map of the island on a board behind him.
“We will take an inflatable around to the cliffs below the estate here—Team A will then take control of the three guns on the roof and hold overwatch. At which time Team B will come in by Little Bird. This team consists of North, Emersyn, Graham, Tex and Sakari. They will drop on the lawn, and the Little Bird will retreat to a holding pattern.” He looked over the room.
“To create a distraction and to hinder our target’s escape, there will be a Team C deployed to rig the hangar and jet with explosives.
That team will be Cal, Deathwing and Seven, with Knight as team lead. ”
Atlas stepped up. “To avoid overloading communications, each team has been assigned a comms channel with a tech liaison. Rune will communicate with Team A, West with Team B, and Ghost with Team C. Kaelin will provide drone support and communicate with leads. North will be the only one who will have oversight on all comms channels until all teams converge.”
North took over. “A survivor recovery team will also be deployed. Their sole task is to recover anyone who may be held captive on the island and need extraction. This team will be led by King.”
The three of them went over more details, including each team’s responsibilities in depth, so everyone was on the same page. They answered questions, dug into the last minute tasks and delegated loading the boat. As the meeting wound down, North stepped forward again.
“This operation is the accumulation of three years of dead ends and false leads—of being misled. Played—” His jaw ground together, audible throughout the room.
“Of being within reach of recovery only to be too late. Again and again and again.” North let the edges of his anger permeate the room.
He pointed toward the sea. “That man—Mahoney—he’s had control over things for far too long.
Now, he’s isolated and backed into a corner.
He’s lost the support of the Brothers. But, he’s still dangerous and extremely calculating.
Despite all of our anger, it would be devastating to underestimate him.
Expect the unexpected, and execute at the highest level. I will accept nothing less.”
He looked once more around the room. “Let’s end this. Meet with your team leads before you leave. Dismissed.”
I gave Emersyn’s hand a squeeze before I headed over to where Knight and Cal stood off to one side. They seemed to be in a heated discussion, but stopped talking when Seven and I approached.
“Are we interrupting something?” Seven asked.
“Nah, we’re good,” Knight brushed it off and launched into the last minute details that pertained to our team’s specific objectives. Once he was done, Cal stalked off. Knight rubbed his hand over his mouth and stared thoughtfully after him.
“Ark sure knows how to stir things up,” Seven muttered.
Knight shook his head. “It’s not about her.”
“Sure,” I stated. “Want to tell me about that?”
“You should ask her—”
“I did. Now, I’m asking you.”
“Oh yeah?” I watched with fascination as a glimmer of hope flashed in his eyes. “What did she say?”
I didn’t answer him, and eventually the light died and he sighed. He gave a flat look, and I saw the years settle on his shoulders.
“It was after your sister died. Actually, not too soon before I met you,” he admitted. “I met her on a job. She only told me her first name so I never put two and two together.” He shrugged. “It was a fling—”
“All that for a fling?” Seven asked skeptically.
Knight gave him a humorless smile. “It’s Arkady.”
Knight looked across the room where Arkady was speaking to Kaelin.
I followed his gaze. The two women looked like they were hitting it off.
Kaelin was laughing and Arkady looked like she was in the middle of a story with her hands flying expressively.
I looked back at Knight who sighed, and wiped what looked suspiciously like longing from his face, before he turned his back on the scene.
“Don’t worry—whatever it was, it’s over now.” He headed for the tent door. “I’ve got shit to do. See you on the boat.”
We watched Knight leave the tent.
“What the fuck was that all about?” Seven asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You saw that, right?”
I nodded.
“I’ve never seen Knight look so—dejected,” Seven said.
I sighed. “Fucking Arkady,” I muttered.
“Where does Cal fit in I wonder?” Seven mused.
I headed for the exit and glanced at Seven as he followed. I could see the glimmer of sly intrigue, and mischievousness, growing in Seven’s eyes and I shook my head.
“No. Nope. Whatever is going on is absolutely none of our business, Sev.”
I walked through the darkness back to our tent.
“I mean, it kind of is,” Seven insisted. “She’s your sister.”
“Exactly,” I frowned. “I want nothing to do with my sister’s sex life. Gross.”
Seven didn’t look convinced at all.
“Don’t do it,” I growled.
He smirked. “What?”
“You know what.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Seven said.
“You’re going to dig,” I said in exasperation. “I know you.”
We’d stepped between two tents and Seven suddenly yanked me against a tree. His body pressed against mine as one hand slammed into the bark near my head, and the other fisted my shirt. The shadows crept in around us, as heavy as the tension that had erupted when he touched me.
“Speaking of knowing each other,” he said. “Are we ever going to talk about that look you keep giving me?”
Fuck. I’d tried not to make a big deal about whatever new feelings had come up recently. The ones that screamed to touch him during sex with Emersyn. The ones that wondered what he tasted like. I’d tried even harder to stop looking at his lips. But, they were right there—
“There!” Seven stabbed his finger into my chest. “You keep looking at my lips!”
I shoved him. “I do not.”
“That’s fine. You can continue to deny it.” He chuckled and stepped away. “But, if I were to cross a line during sex would you freak out?”
“What line?” My words sounded strangled, and I was glad for the few feet he’d put between us.
“Jesus, G,” Seven ran his hands through his hair. “I’m trying to have a grown up conversation about this.”
I threw up my hands. “I don’t know, okay? I don’t know why I’ve suddenly started thinking about it. And I don’t know what I want to happen.”
Seven smirked. “There. Was that so hard?”
“Fuck you.”
“Hopefully.”
I scowled, and Seven’s breathless chuckle was laced with heat that seemed to cut through the chill of the night.
“Anyway, friends kiss all the time, so I mean, it wouldn’t be that weird,” Seven said. “I’m pretty sure that entire crew is fucking.” He gestured back at the tent we’d just left.
“It’s not that,” I grumbled. “I don’t think it would be weird.”
Seven raised his eyebrows.
“I don’t,” I insisted. “I just—I’m not sure if I’m bi, or—I don’t know—”
“You don’t have to label it,” Seven scoffed gently, and his smirk took on a wicked edge as he moved in closer again. “Maybe you’re just gay for me.”
I leaned my head back against the tree with a groan of frustration and shut my eyes.
“You’re not helping,” I growled.
“Fine, I’ll drop it…for now,” Seven leaned in as he went to walk past. His tone dropped, low and seductive.
“But, I saw the way your eyes darkened, and the way you licked your lips when I kissed Emersyn’s cheek—” I couldn’t breathe.
“—all while your cock was between her lips—” His voice was nothing more than a whisper. “—inches from my own.”
He pulled back, but it wasn’t enough to ease the suffocation that pressed on my chest.
“I’ll never forget that look, G,” he mused. “In fact, I’m addicted to it. And we all know how that usually ends.”
The shadows engulfed him as he left me standing against the tree, more turned on than I cared to admit, and wondering why, for the first time in my life, I was hesitating.