Chapter Twenty-Four

“You think he’ll be okay?” Stone asked, gazing after Ice.

Dave sighed and made his way toward his favorite armchair. “I hope he doesn’t do anything rash.”

“Rash?” Stone growled and dropped into the chair opposite Dave. “It sounds like you have a leadership problem.”

“Mhmm.” Dave cleared his throat and gazed out the window at the garden that lay shrouded in darkness.

“Did Solomon set Ice and Echo up?”

“It seems so, but it’s bigger than that.”

“Are you talking about the facilities?”

Dave finally turned from gazing through that damned window and Stone got a look at the man’s face. Their eyes locked and held.

“How much did you hear?”

“I came in around the part where you told Ice this was bigger than he could imagine.”

“So, then you know about Real.”

He grunted, irritated. “When did you start up Genesis?”

“A year ago.”

Well, that just showed him how much he was really needed around here. They’d talked about Genesis together. When they actually had talked in the past. Now, he and Dave didn’t communicate much, they just skirted around each other. It was a bitter pill to swallow.

“I’ll get out of your hair.” He stood and Dave grabbed his wrist.

“Stay. I’ll tell you what’s going on.”

“I’ll hear it when the rest of the team does,” Stone growled, pulled his arm free, and walked out.

“Stubborn,” Dave whispered, closing his eyes. He dropped his head against the back of the chair. The hurt on Stone’s face had been hard to miss. But Genesis was top secret right now and there were reasons he hadn’t been able to share it with Stone. There were reasons they hadn’t done it together.

If he could have told anyone about the President’s order, Stone would have been that person.

However, getting Stone to believe that he had no choice was a different story.

It was another nail in the coffin of their constant conflict.

And he silently chided himself to remember that they would never work.

Closing his eyes, his mind raced over the steps he’d need to take to have Solomon eliminated and his facilities found before more children could die. And as much as the President did not want Genesis exposed, Dave really didn’t see any other way. He couldn’t have Phoenix or Pegasus caught up in assassin business—with the exception of a few key people on both of those teams, all other members were out of the loop, and for good reason.

In the past, during Jaxon West’s and Hunter’s leaderships, Erebus assassins worked more as a team. Of course, not all the time, but a good portion of it. But now under Solomon’s leadership, Erebus assassins did not work together. So what it boiled down to at this very moment…was to initiate Genesis.

Dave stood up and walked toward the secret room that held the red phone.

The following morning, all who’d stayed the night before filed into the room.

Ice was pleased to see that every single man had stayed—Stone, Real, Wrath, Savage, and Thane all took a place at the dining room table and filled their plates with food Dave’s staff had brought in.

The chair next to Dave was empty and Stone walked over and sat. Ice noticed Dave’s small start of surprise, but he was positive nobody else had.

“Good morning,” Dave said, and the rest of the men mumbled the same between eating and sipping coffee.

“Eat first,” Stone said, placing a plate piled with food in front of Dave. That got the attention of several of the men at the table. Ignoring them, Stone lifted another plate and dished up more food.

Dave slanted Stone a look, but lifted his fork and took a bite of sausage.

“I spoke to the President last night,” Dave said after swallowing.

Nobody batted an eye. They all knew who they ultimately worked for. And as expected, the room dropped down to muffled eating while every man gave their full attention to Dave.

“Last year, I was tasked with organizing a group of military assassins. The President and I are…were the only two who knew of the team—except for the team members. Now, you all know. However, POTUS and I ask that it doesn’t leave this room.”

Every head nodded and Ice wondered why Thane was included in this conversation. Dave already knew Savage, and now it appeared he also knew Thane.

Interesting.

Ice forked up some pancake and wondered if Echo had food to eat. He suddenly lost his appetite and took several swallows of coffee instead of the bite.

“There’s a man who is taking runaway children off of the streets, and he’s turning them into killers,” Dave said.

At those words, the whole room stopped moving. Every pair of eyes locked on Dave as if to see if the man was joking.

“Let’s kill him,” Thane said, and Savage shook his head sharply. Thane covered his mouth with his own hands and gave a muffled sorry.

“I wish it were that easy, Thane. I really do.” Dave gave a sad frown. “However, it’s going to take more than that.”

“Tell us,” Wrath said.

“The hard part is that we don’t know how many facilities this guy has. If we kill him without that information, those kids will die. They will starve to death in their cages.”

“Is this the same guy that locked up Rogue and Echo?” Wrath asked.

“And Fisher,” Ice added, holding Wrath’s eyes across the table.

“Fisher was there too?”

“Mhmm.” Ice nodded.

“Is it?” Wrath turned on Dave, but Stone gave the assassin a death glare and Wrath sat back. Ice got it, nobody wanted to fuck with Stone. Unless they had a death wish.

“In answer to your question, Wrath, yes, this is the same man who caged Echo, Fisher, and Rogue,” Dave said.

“Who was it?” Wrath practically spat the words out and clenched his fists on the table.

Dave didn’t look away from Wrath. “I want you to remember what I said. If we kill him without knowing where those facilities are, those children will die.”

“I remember,” Wrath snarled.

“It’s Solomon.”

Wrath slammed up from the table and forks and plates rattled. Ice lunged to his feet. When Wrath stalked out of the room, Ice hurried in his direction.

“Give me five minutes,” Ice called back to Dave, and the SecDef nodded.

“Fifteen-minute break. Finish eating, use the restroom, stretch your legs if you need it, and then come back ready to make a plan,” Dave ordered.

Ice didn’t wait to hear anything more. When he caught up to Wrath, the assassin was sitting at the bottom of the large grand staircase, head bent, elbows on his knees, staring at his hands.

Ice took a seat on the step next to him.

“You’re not going to go off and kill him, are you?” Ice asked.

“I want to.” Wrath closed his eyes and then popped them open. “When I charged from that table, he was a dead man. But I can’t do that to little kids, you know?”

“I do,” Ice said, gripping Wrath’s shoulder firmly.

“He had Rogue,” Wrath croaked. “As a little boy, he had Rogue. I’ve seen a bit of the scars on his wrists and forearms, but I don’t know how many there are nor what was done.”

Ice stayed quiet. His heart told him, Rogue had been given the same fucked up treatment as Echo.

“Do you know how much he tortured them?” Wrath’s voice turned raw, the question ragged.

When Ice didn’t answer, Wrath held his eyes for a long moment and then tipped his head back and gazed up at the ceiling.

All Ice could do was make the only promise he could.

“We’re going to kill that son of a bitch the minute we find all the facilities.”