Exchange of Fire (19 page)

Sandra woke up feeling more unrested and unbalanced then when she’d lain down. It could be the sleeping bag or the floor she was curled up on, but she doubted it. She had claimed the master bedroom with Magician, though that only netted them a bathroom that had no shower curtain—or even regular curtains.

She peered out the side window. The sun was low in the sky, almost to the point of setting. That meant it had to be around quarter of seven. Ugh. She hadn’t even slept a full night yet. That meant none of this was a horrible dream. Her breath hitched.

Is Grady still at the entertainment center?
A hole punched into her heart. How did she go from fulfilling her deepest longing in a night full of passion to lying in a sleeping bag in a furniture-less house?

“I’m curious,” Magician said softly. “How in the world did you allow Grady to get mixed up in this?”

Sandra rolled over and squinted into the darkening room. She hadn’t even realized her roommate had been lying on her electric-blue sleeping bag until now.

Talk about not being aware of your surroundings.

“What?” Sandra asked, stalling for time, trying to figure out how much she wanted to say.

“How did he end up at the cabin last night?”

Hesitantly, Sandra began to describe the last few months of her employment at Gradwick. Her initial reaction to first meeting Grady (angel choir singing as she salivated over his physique), their mini tussles over experimenting with new ideas to see which would work best for the center, how hard it was to maintain her vow to keep things professional even though he had dropped plenty of hints that he’d like to have something more, culminating with their run through the streets to avoid Granger.

With each word she spoke, she allowed the tears to fall freely down her face, counting on the darkness after the sun had set to hide them from Magician. As she reached the end, a sense of hopelessness hung like an albatross around her neck. She had waited too late to leave. She knew better than to stay in one place too long, to get attached to anyone, but goddamn it, she couldn’t leave that man. Every dream and fantasy she’d ever had as a child seemed so possible when she was with him.

“So you knocked him out and he still came after you, huh?” Magician asked, breaking into the heavy silence. “I can see why you fell in love with the guy—outside of his gorgeous face and body, of course.”

Sandra jolted at the blunt announcement.
Fell
in love. As in already there. Christ, was she in love? Had she fallen completely even though that would be the stupidest thing she could’ve done? She put a hand over her eyes and bit her lip on a sob trying to break through. The shattered pieces of her heart said yes.

She swiped her cheeks and sat up. “I can’t talk about this anymore.”

“Hey.” Magician placed a hand on her arm. “It’s not too late. You can still fix this, you know.”

No, I can’t.
One phrase after another he’d hurled at her during the fight raced through her head.

Magician squeezed. “That man only has eyes for you.”

A spike drove through her heart, and she responded dully, “Maybe he did once, but not anymore.”

“I’m serious; when I tried to test the waters to see how he’d react, he dismissed me completely.” Magician chuckled. “Kinda humbling, actually. It’s been a while since I bombed at ensnaring a man I set out to pursue.”

Sandra’s territorial instinct roared forward.
Mine,
echoed in her head. “Yeah, thanks for that. I wanted to do major bodily damage to you.”

“Spoken like a woman in love.”

Sandra fiddled with the zipper on the bag. How in the world could she have let this happen?

“He may be royally pissed, and rightfully so, but you can fix this.” Magician’s warm hand patted her arm. “All those feelings he has for you can’t just disappear in a day. Think of it this way: If he
wasn’t
in love with you, do you think he would’ve reacted so strongly? Been so furious at being made to feel like a sucker?”

Each question her teammate asked punched her in the gut. Damn, she’d hurt him bad, hadn’t she?

“You want my opinion? I think Grady’s amazing.”

That territorial instinct roared forward again, and she had to bite her lip to keep from lashing out.

“He’s so perfect for you, it’s like it’s ordained from God. You need to stop thinking like Wraith and start thinking like Grady.” Magician held up her hand and started counting, though Sandra could only see the silhouette since the room was too dark. “A beautiful woman applies to his company with all the qualifications he needs to keep it going.”

“Yeah, he believed me so much, he ran a background check twice,” she couldn’t help but snark, still feeling a little put out that the man hadn’t fully believed her. The irony was not lost on her.

“That’s because you didn’t follow the most basic rule. Don’t make your cover too perfect; you’ll send up red flags every time.”

Damn, she hated to admit Magician was right. She had wanted to work in Gradwick so badly, she may have gone a little overboard in knocking out all the other competition with her “experience.”

“Anyway,” her teammate continued, though Sandra wished she’d stop. None of this was helping, just making her feel worse. “Boom!”

Sandra flinched at the loud clap following the word.

“Instant attraction, but you play hard to get. Not maliciously, but you’re not allowing him a chance either. Now he’s hooked. But so are you. For months, you two are circling each other and then,
Bam,
out of the blue you knock him out and go on the run.”

“And he comes after me,” Sandra finished wearily.

“Exactly. He could have washed his hands of you and moved on, but he didn’t.”

“His pride demanded answers.” She patted the floor beside her and found the roll of toilet paper she had staged there right before she fell asleep.

“I’m not doubting it, but he doesn’t strike me as the typical egotistical, macho Marine.”

Sandra blew her nose, remembering a line from a conversation they’d had a month ago. “Some of the best snipers are women,” she murmured.

“What?”

Sandra waved her hand until she realized Magician probably couldn’t see it. “Nothing. Something he once said to me.”

“See! I knew it. God, this man is so perfect for you, and it doesn’t matter that he’s a civilian. He already knows the truth about us and we’ve got your back in protecting him, but to finish my thought, you
lied
to him, and not about something as trivial as hair color.”

Sandra opened her mouth, but didn’t get to say anything since Magician kept going. “You’re forgetting that men’s minds are different. They’re masters of their own universes. They like to control and dominate their environments. You basically bitch-slapped him and shoved in his face that he had no say or authority. Then you slammed his ego when you called all the shots, made all the plans, and relegated him to the roll of passenger just tagging along for the ride.”

Sandra squeezed her eyes shut as her stomach knotted. “So I was right. I blew it.”

I blew it,
she repeated, truly feeling the weight of the words.

“No, you haven’t,” Magician disagreed softly. “You have your work cut out for you, yes, but if you show him you’re in this fight, show him the woman he fell in love with still exists, just an upgraded version of her, you can win him back.”

***

Talon curled into the corner of the hallway outside of the master bedroom, softly thumping his forehead against the drywall. He rubbed an aching spot on his chest, hating to admit it was the organ underneath that hurt.

“I can see why you fell in love with the guy,” Magician crooned.

He winced, sliding down the wall and hugging his legs tight. Had he already lost her again when he’d barely gotten her back? Before he got to utilize the second-chance miracle he had been granted to tell her how he felt?

Cappy’s deep, gravelly voice echoed down the hall from the living room, the sound a little hollow since there were no furnishings to absorb the timbre. He rested the back of his head against the wall and stared up, not really seeing much in the dark.

No doubt Cappy was recounting his run-in with the assassin to Romeo, who was now watching over the center. Cappy should’ve put a bullet in Mars’s brain instead of pumping the guy for information. Talk about a psycho.

Lover Boy had accused
him
of being certifiable? Talon snorted, encouraging the usual simmer of his inner rage to clear out the anguish attempting to take over. Mars won the overachiever award in the unbalanced category. No wonder Wraith and Magician were attacked in a public parking lot. The lack of finesse and willingness to take a shot no matter what made the sniper twice as dangerous.

“God, this man is so perfect for you,” Magician’s voice drifted into the hallway.

A pang shot through Talon’s heart. He didn’t want to know about how Wraith enchanted Grady or how the guy was a perfect saint for running after her when his ass woke up. Actually, that part made him smile.

That’s my girl.

Snatches of what happened in the cabin after Grady had caught her made Talon want to adorn the walls with some new holes. He clenched his hands tighter. The way Wraith had trailed a finger across her collarbone while staring up at the bastard with smoky, hooded eyes, her teeth biting the edge of her bottom lip . . .

Talon inhaled a shaky breath and swallowed a lump of anger deep into his gut. The very actions and expressions he fantasized about but knew he’d never experience in person.

His back pocket vibrated. What now? He hauled his pathetic ass off the floor and crept past the master bedroom’s door. He couldn’t bring himself to walk away completely, but now he’d be out of sight when the display lit up. He yanked the burner phone out and
flipped
the cover up. Seriously, how old was this thing to still have that style? He missed his real phone. This cheap phone Romeo picked up for them all sucked. It didn’t have any apps, and whoever he talked to sounded like he lived in a tin can.

Nothing showed up on the screen. What?

His pocket vibrated again. He pulled out his old phone and found a warning letting him know he had two unread text messages from an unknown number. Shit. He had forgotten to pull the battery out after using it to test earlier. Fuck-ups like this caused operatives their lives.

This afternoon, he had managed to pack all of Mars’s equipment on his bike and haul it back here. After Wraith went to sleep, they had tested the system and found that only an open channel like an actual call sparked the software to trace the location. Texts didn’t do a thing. Cappy postulated they were probably too brief in length for the system to triangulate on them. Whatever. As a precaution, the team decided to pull the batteries out of their phones to wipe out any chances of being traced. These two messages from the mystery number shouldn’t bring Mars down on their heads until they were ready for him, but that didn’t mean he was going to take a chance in the future.

“Shhhhh,” Magician crooned. “You can win him back.”

Wraith’s sobs increased. Talon sagged against the wall. She cried with such pain, it seemed to dwell within her soul.

For a moment, he allowed himself to believe he wasn’t a twisted, fucked-up asshole, but a regular man. Maybe if she realized she had another option, that someone else loved her for who she
really
was instead of condemning her, she’d be able to put that prick behind her.

A crazy fantasy of him marching into the room, kicking Magician out, and wrapping his arms around Wraith gripped him. At first she’d be surprised, but then a slow, hesitant smile would spread across her gorgeous face.

“I can’t believe I fell in love with him,” Wraith wept.

Then again, maybe not. Who was he kidding? He wasn’t cut out for romance and love. What did he know about the stupid emotion other than it caused destruction in everyone it touched?

Wraith didn’t want him, had never wanted him.
Goddamn it.

His teeth squeaked in his clenched jaw. He needed to walk away before he let the anger talk him into doing something he couldn’t take back later. Burying the pain came naturally, not knowing how else to deal with it.

Marching down the hall, he read the two messages.

The second message brought him up short. He powered the burner phone up and dialed the numbers in the text. He couldn’t put the damn thing on speaker, so he could only motion for Cappy to come closer and listen next to him.

The CO hung up his own burner phone and strode forward.

After two rings the connection opened, but no one said a word.

“Hello?” Talon asked.

A tinny male voice gushed,
“Oh thank God you got my message.”

“What the hell is going on, Ted?”

“Victor’s paranoia is out of control.”

“I’m sorry, but your uncle has always been on the extremist side,” Talon said, ignoring the annoyed expression Cappy shot him.

“Yeah, well, his mission to keep the company’s true purpose out of the public spotlight has tipped him over the edge. He’s so afraid he’ll lose all the Black Ops contracts the government can’t be seen having a hand in.”

“What happened?” Cappy barked.

Ted squeaked.
“Who is that? Talon, who did you tell?”

Talon rolled his eyes. “Relax, it’s Cappy.”

“Oh. Okay.”
Ted sounded neither relaxed nor happy; if anything, he seemed more nervous.

“Where are you?” Talon tried to reign Ted in. The guy was a little overstrung.

“Uh, let’s just say I’m sightseeing, but ultimately headed your way.”

Great. One more burden for this team to carry.

“What’s going on?” Cappy asked again. “I had a run-in with Mars earlier. He mentioned that Victor’s gone to ground. Is that true?”

“Yeah.”
Ted swallowed.
“It’s true. Even I don’t know where the man disappeared to.”

Son of a bitch. That meant they couldn’t take the fight back to the bastard who started it.

“Did Mars mention how everyone in Delta Squad is now classified as Rogue?”
Ted asked, making Talon grit his teeth, knowing what the IT genius was going to say next.
“You all have KOS orders on your heads.”