Exchange of Fire (23 page)

Grady jogged to the open-sided pavilion and dumped the pile of small rocks he’d gathered from the gravel parking area onto the picnic table. He pulled the Carolina Panthers hat off his head and sat on top, resting his boot-clad feet on the bench seat. Interacting with one more person was beyond his capabilities at the moment. After helping with the cleanup, he’d aimlessly driven the back roads from Doreen’s farm before pulling into the public park that had been etched into one of the mountains. Craving solitude and a chance to just think, he knew the park would be empty due to the weather.

Normally the view was breathtaking. Now it was blurry behind the wall of water pouring down. The fresh ozone scent filled his lungs and he closed his eyes. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and for who cared how long he listened to the water plunking against the wooden roof and rushing past the cliff in front of him.

Talon’s words crept past his defenses and banged through his mind.

I just got her back from the dead, you selfish son of a bitch. I won’t risk losing her again.

You cursed her . . . sent her fleeing again. We almost didn’t catch her.

So she’d tried to run again. Disappointment flared through him. A part of him had always sensed her restlessness as she kept one eye on the horizon and gazed at him with the other. He had hoped that once he convinced her to take a chance on him, some of that turmoil would settle and she’d see she could have a future with him. What a joke.

He picked up a rock and hurled it over the cliff.

You claimed you were falling in love with her, yet you’ve all but destroyed her.
He swiped his hands through his hair and laced his fingers behind his head. Not to sound five years old, but what about him? She’d all but destroyed him too.

She lied because she
had
to
. Grady snorted. Who did that asshole think he was fooling? Lies this big
always
revealed themselves eventually. Whether it be through the team divulging their true purpose during a raid or from an unaccounted for factor exposing the truth (as in this case), these types of lies wouldn’t stay buried.

A remnant of the blowup in the cabin rushed through his head.
What you should have done was confide in me from the beginning. All this cloak-and-dagger bullshit has now put everything I’ve worked for at risk.

Like you would have believed me.

Maybe, maybe not. But you never gave me a chance.

His breath sawed in and out. Had she thought him such a chump that he’d proclaim her a loon if she came clean? Her bullshit story said yes. He pitched another rock.
Crack!
Damn it. He had nailed the bottom lip of the roof.

She trusted you, overrode our protests and confessed information that compromises all of us because she believed in you so much.
Only because she got caught. He chucked a larger stone. If that assassin hadn’t broken into her apartment, she wouldn’t have confessed a thing. Probably just stolen away in the night with him always wondering if they could’ve had a future.

Thunder rolled ominously, and a pang spiked through his heart.

Have you ever listened to sobs that sound like they’ve been wrenched from the soul?

He lifted his chin and swallowed.
Do not feel sorry for her.
He repeated the phrase, but a part of him grieved with her.

Her falling in love with you wasn’t part of the plan either, but it happened. It’s because she thought she’d found a home
.

He hung his head, unable to hold the tears in any longer.
Her falling in love with you. In love with you. Love you.

Words he had so badly wanted to hear . . . Granted, not from that prick, but he had longed to see them pass over Sandra’s lips. Knowing she felt the same as him, that he had conquered her wandering spirit and she had chosen to stay.

She’d found a home.
Son of a bitch. No home, no future could be built on deceit. His throat ached from attempting to swallow around the lump.

The woman you got to know over these last few months I imagine is the same woman we’ve known for years. Sweet, warm, kind . . . sound familiar?

He swiped at the tears. He missed that fantasy woman. The one who laughed easily, who bit her lip when she got nervous, who tried to get the employees to do her bidding by winning challenges. He flipped a pebble over and over in his fingers, unable to see it through the moisture clouding his eyes. Who gazed at him with shameless desire as he made love to her for hours.

He grabbed the remaining pile and jumped off the table. Moving to the edge of the pavilion, he lobbed rock after rock over the cliff, imagining each one to be every phrase and look she gave him that suckered him into her fraudulent web.

A web he saw no easy way to get out of. Assassins shooting, high-speed chases with cops coming to him for answers? How did he escape that?

Her explanation about her former employer rolled through his head. Sandra and every one of her teammates had used the title CEO when describing the head of the company. Not director, but CEO. Whether they meant to or not, they’d given him a clue. A government agency appointed directors, but private corporations had chief executive officers.

A chill shot down his spine that had nothing to do with the wind plastering his wet shirt against his body. Had he managed to get himself caught up in a war with a private military company who didn’t answer to anybody? Who had no oversight or accountability? Who thought themselves above the law?

Pain flared from his mouth and he forced his jaw to loosen. Goddamn it. He should’ve listened to Henry and not followed Sandra to her apartment.

His gut tightened as image upon image of making love to her for hours intertwined with running for his life, closing the center, and hosting today’s event at the widow’s farm. Who was he kidding? The assassins would’ve still found him anyway as they retraced
Wraith’s
steps. His interest in the woman hadn’t been a secret, though he had tried not to broadcast it. If someone had asked, an employee would’ve told on him and he’d have ended up as a pawn to draw her out.

His knuckles popped. He may have fallen in love with Sandra, but that didn’t mean he had to forgive her. He glanced up at the sky.
Christ.
How long had he spent here? The darkening pitch to the clouds meant the sun had already set and nighttime was closing in.

No way did he feel like going back to the entertainment center. He’d call from the SUV and have the security guards kick everyone out for the night and go home.

Sandra coveted the quiet oasis she had found on the back porch. The sun had set a half hour ago, and the rain hadn’t let up since it’d started Monday afternoon. Grady had gotten lucky the Fallen Heroes event had just been winding down when the skies opened yesterday.

A pang gripped her at missing the worthy cause. As if she hadn’t already had trouble keeping her emotions in check, the minute he had told her about his annual support of the soldiers’ families left behind, she had pretty much lost her heart.

Sighing into a slump, she rubbed her forehead. She should feel rested after sleeping most of the night and then another nap when she got back from the very early morning shift watching Grady’s house, but she couldn’t stay out of her head.

Her two halves, Sandra and Wraith, continued to wear her down with their war. Who was she anymore? Her team wanted, needed her, to be Wraith. Grady only accepted Sandra. The future she had fantasized about leaned more toward Sandra, but the danger she faced now and probably in the future required her to be Wraith. She could no longer be just one or the other, but blending the two seemed damn near impossible.

Boots scuffled against the covered wooden deck and paused just behind where Sandra sat, dangling her bare feet off the edge. Rain splattered against her legs and rolled off her toes as she rested her chin against the same lower rail her arms hung off of.

“Since you didn’t join Talon and me, does that mean you’re skipping dinner?” Cappy’s chain saw voice broke the solitude. “Was it the company or the frozen lasagna?”

Sandra smirked at his attempted lighthearted tone. The man could never be mistaken for a teddy bear. A grizzly or polar bear, maybe, with his rigid stance and fierce determination to exact justice, but warm and fuzzy he was not.

“Neither,” she replied, not ready to muster the energy to move. “I’ll grab some later.”

“Uh-huh.” Cappy waited a beat, then said, “Ted just reached out to Talon.”

Talon.
Her heart twinged as a shot of ire stole through her. Her former teammate still hadn’t voluntarily spoken to her since he’d found her at the storage unit. Two days ago. She caught him a few times gazing at her with a closed expression, but he always walked away.

Sandra nodded to let Cappy know she’d heard.

“I realize you had the early shift, but I need you to relieve Romeo and Magician so they can help Talon escort Ted here from wherever he’s holed up.”

“Sure.” She shrugged.

Cappy’s knees creaked as he crouched to her eye level. “I know these last few months have been hell. Taking on a new persona and leaving the old one behind is never easy.”

Sandra’s instincts flared, pulling her away from rain-watching. “That sounds like you have some experience.”

Cappy sighed and flumped his ass onto the deck. “It’s a long story I really don’t have time to tell, but I used to be a Green Beret.”

Sandra waited a second, then drawled, “And?” failing to see the significance. “You told the team that the first day we all met. Heck, you even told Grady.”

“What I never told you and what only a few people know is that my real name used to be Jeremy Malone.” He scratched at his forehead with his thumb. “Captain Jeremy Malone, KIA, to be exact.”

Sandra sucked in a breath, searching his face. His good-looking but weathered face that bore the history of his thirty-eight years.

“Cappy,” she breathed, “we’re not supposed to tell anyone our real names. Ever. Even to our own team.”

“You think I give a shit about SBG’s asinine rules? If you’re ever tortured for information, you knowing my real name will be the least of my worries.” Cappy’s intense expression showed her how much he meant what he said.

She swallowed, humbled at the knowledge he was entrusting her with.

“Anyway,” he continued, “SBG helped me reestablish my new identity—which was completely to their advantage. I didn’t protest since it helped keep my parents and sisters safe.”

“Can I ask what happened?” She fiddled with her dragon pendant.

A haunted scowl crossed his face. “My unit broke cover from the trees and raced into a suicide bomber’s trap. That asshole killed every member.” His Adam’s apple bobbed with an audible swallow. “The Army had declared me dead with the others, and SBG helped me stay that way.” His hard eyes softened. “So I’m a little more versed than the rest about what you’ve had to deal with these past few months.”

She blinked back the moisture trying to break free from her eyes. She had done enough crying to last a lifetime. “I’m not sure what to say,” she whispered, knowing her mere words would be inadequate.

“I never dreamt,” Cappy said in a low, gruff voice, “that one of my own, an operative who I spilled blood with, wouldn’t come to me for help.”

Sandra stared out at the water streaming down. Her throat ached from the lump lodged in tight. “I’m sorry, Cappy.”

“I know you are.” His deep brown eyes roved over her face. “You really love him, don’t you?”

Her cheeks and neck flamed. What the hell? Cappy didn’t do heart-to-hearts. She cleared her throat. “I, ah, yeah, I do, but it seems all I do anymore is hurt the very people I love. I mean, you guys are now targeted by SBG because of me!” she said vehemently.

“Yes, but only because you didn’t have enough faith in us to help you in the first place.”

“I told you before I was trying to protect you.”

“No. Protecting us would have been to clue us in to your plan. Instead you went off on your own and crippled this team. Until I received Talon’s phone call, I was still carrying around the weight of your death on my head. Castigating myself daily for not being a better captain. For not ensuring your safety when I switched to plan B, for not doing everything I could in the mission to keep you alive.”

Each sentence punched her in the gut. “I had no clue.”

“I know. You were so wrapped up in your pain, you couldn’t see beyond your own problem to understand how integral you were to the health of the rest of us. Did you know Magician refused to go to therapy? She swore it was her fault for getting so beaten that she couldn’t fight Sanchez’s men like we had planned.”

Sandra covered her mouth.

“Talon was a mess. Out of all of us, that coldhearted bastard was closest to you. I had to keep a close eye on everything he did because I couldn’t tell if he was going to run off on his own vendetta or try to find you on the other side.”

Tears slid down her cheeks as she envisioned the strongest, most forbidding man she knew brought down to that level.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, wiping her eyes with her T-shirt.

“I’m not saying this to hear you’re sorry,” Cappy continued in his usual brutal tone. “I’m telling you this because I want you to realize that your actions have consequences.”

“Oh I’ve gotten the message, believe me.”

His calloused hand lifted her chin. “I’m sorry to pile it on, but I wouldn’t be any kind of CO if I didn’t give you a proper dressing-down.” He clamped onto the rail and hoisted his muscled frame to his feet. “Think you can handle covering Grady when he’s not asleep? At least until we get Ted settled. Someone can relieve you if it gets to be too much.”

Sandra latched on to his proffered hand, amazed anew at his strength as he pulled her up.

“I’ll be fine, Cappy.” She swiped at the moisture that had seeped into the back of her shorts. “You all do what you need to do.”

Cappy nodded and clomped back inside.

Her pounding pulse belied her blasé words. Snatches of Sunday night’s failure with Grady chose that moment to play loudly in her mind. She pulled the burner phone from her black nylon running shorts with trembling hands and hit send beside Romeo’s programmed number.

“Yo.”

“I’m coming to relieve you. You guys at the center?” She went to run her hand through her hair but got tangled at the top.
Hmph. Guess I forgot to brush it after my nap.

“Yeah. Grady hasn’t moved all day. Thank God.”

“You prefer sitting in the truck?”

“Nah, but it’s too wet out there. With all my sweetness, I’d melt.”

“More like evaporate like the wicked witch,”
Magician retorted.

Sandra snorted. “True statement.”

“Hey,”
Romeo said, overplaying his supposed hurt.

“It’ll take me fifteen minutes to reach you,” she said, shutting the sliding glass door leading into the living room behind her. She didn’t bother pausing to acknowledge Talon leaning against the counter in the kitchen. He wouldn’t talk to her, anyway, if she tried.

“’
Kay. One of us will call you if he moves before you get here.”

She dropped the phone back into her pocket and yanked her new cheap brush through her hair. Satisfied she’d gotten the worst of the knots, she pulled it up into a ponytail and slung her purse strap diagonally over her shoulder.

Exactly fifteen minutes later she killed the lights and drove to her teammates’ location in a neighborhood close by. For the tenth time she uttered, “I miss my car.” No matter how many times she slid it up and back, she couldn’t get the seat in Cappy’s rental Jeep positioned right. Not that she should complain since she no longer owned a car. She woke up from her coma-nap on Sunday to the ominous pronouncement from Cappy that they’d “made it disappear.” She didn’t ask a single question after that.

The F150’s engine growled to life. She waved to Romeo and Magician and settled in to wait. Gradwick appeared eerily quiet. Such a weird sight to see it so empty of cars, customers, and roaring go-karts.

Luckily she didn’t have to wait long. Grady locked the employee entrance and climbed into his SUV. The air left her lungs. She hadn’t seen him since he’d kicked her out of his office on Sunday night. She covered her mouth with her fist. The quick glimpse she caught didn’t tell her anything.

He veered out of the empty parking lot and headed for the main road. She pulled out and tracked her way over until she maneuvered behind him. The light from his phone flared at one point during the drive and she foolishly held her breath, praying her phone would ring.

But it remained silent. She slumped into the seat, castigating herself for getting her hopes up.
Why would you think he’d be calling you? The woman he kicked out of his life twice.

A few houses up from his, she pulled off onto the side of the road, unable to see the house she parked in front of for all the trees and land hiding the structure. Perfect. His neighbors wouldn’t call the cops on a strange vehicle if they couldn’t spot it.

His brake lights flared to life as he turned into one end of his circular drive and continued to pull toward the opening garage that sat angled to conform to the curve. Just another aspect of his house she loved outside of the peaceful beauty and the fact that he made it a home.

She tapped a sequence into the buttons on a universal garage door opener and captured his signal’s frequency. Now they had a way in if they ever needed it.

Outside lights, along with a few spread throughout the rooms inside, burned brightly, obviously on timers. She buzzed her window down and stared wistfully at the welcome they beckoned. Her heart pumped painfully. She wished she still had the right to accept the invitation.

After watching the right door of the two-car garage seal shut, she put the Jeep in gear and entered his driveway. She needed to see if his house was safe. Might as well get the confrontation over with now.