Chapter 14

Chapter

Fourteen

LOCKE

T he shower installation was a huge hit with Fallon. She'd returned with a smile on her face and a fresh flush to her cheeks. Remy prowled behind her like a silent guardian. Each time his gaze landed on me, he'd go unreadable.

Frankly, I couldn't tell if I needed to watch my back or just make the most of my time with Fallon. The Brit was a sniper after all. I'd probably never know what hit me. There were worse ways to go.

Then Fallon would look at me and the harsh glare of reality softened. The strain around her eyes was gone and the tightness to her lips had relaxed. If nothing else, sex had definitely taken the edge off.

At the same time, it left me hungry for more. By unspoken agreement, we slept for four hours, then had a planning session. We left the big bed to Fallon and I took a bunk nearby, so did Remy and McQuade. As we had at the house, we all took turns on watch.

I got the first one.

Fine.

When it was time to get my two hours, it went by in the blink of an eye. Not even the coffee Remy pointed me toward seemed to touch the sandpaper in my eyes, much less the fuzz around my brain.

The lack of sleep would be the death of all of us if we weren't careful. At least my morning view included a deliciously rumpled Fallon, cradling her coffee mug in hand as she stared at the map McQuade had spread out.

"So," McQuade said. "We didn't get much out of our invaders because they didn't know much." Annoying, but practical, his tone suggested.

"Except, we may have figured out how they kept finding you."

Fallon snapped a look up at Remy and he gave her a gentle smile. "Are you going to share?"

"Yes," McQuade said. "Injectable isotope. I've heard about it…"

"Slow decay over forty-eight hours, not harmful, and hard to scan for without the proper equipment." Of course she knew what it was. "But I've been at that house for a week and based on our discussions, for a few weeks before that… Why now?"

"I've been thinking about that," Remy said before McQuade responded. "The isotope is likely gone, but we'll want to scan for it regardless."

No arguments from anyone on that subject.

"You were likely injected while they had you, probably updated it—a failsafe."

Her nose wrinkled.

"It took us more than two days to secure the house," I said. "They had to have used a tracker to get close and then stay close…"

Fuck.

McQuade met my gaze and nodded. "All they had to do was get a tracker on a car or on one of us. The smart thing would be to make them slough off or activate one at a time, so we wouldn't find them in a simple sweep. They used us to triangulate."

"That's a lot of work," Fallon argued. "A hell of a lot of work, not to mention the risk to keep track of me. The fast decay, bouncing trackers. Unless…"

The moment she said unless it was almost like you could see the processing reflected in her eyes. She'd thought of something. Hands planted on the tabletop, McQuade stared at her steadily.

As rough and ready as he came off, he was a master of patience with Fallon—rock steady. Dependable. His punch earlier had fucking hurt. At the same time, he hadn't been wrong.

No, he hadn't been wrong in the slightest. When she'd noticed my new bruise the night before, she'd frowned at the explanation I offered. I'd deserved the blow and that was enough for me. While she seemed like she would object, Remy distracted her.

"Skimmers might have caught the call…" There had been no word from her contact since the meetup went to hell. McQuade was sure whoever they were, they'd been dead before the meet. "But if they'd already tagged me to the house, they could have tasked a satellite to keep an eye on it."

No sooner did she say that then she shook her head.

"Overkill." No, it wasn't. Her concentrated frown seemed to say she'd evaluated the statement and discarded the idea immediately. The interplay of emotion dancing through her expressions fascinated me. "No, not overkill. But the cost of resources seems exponentially out of balance with the return unless the information I encoded is more critical now than it was then."

All at once, she was talking to herself and not us. She pushed away from the table, her gaze and mind a million miles away, then she whirled to face us.

"I need to do some research."

"Your system is onboard and ready to go. We have enough power for the juice, but if we go too many hours we'll need to recharge it." McQuade folded his arms, a content look on his face.

"My system?" She frowned. "It's very annoying that I helped with any of this and I can't remember it."

"Trust the source, luv," Remy told her. "You set up the specs and got everything on board. Locke brought your tower with your hard drives from the house."

I had. "Yeah, let me grab that."

"Wait," she said, before focusing on McQuade and Remy. "Did you get anything else out of them?"

"Not really." McQuade shrugged. "The tracking data was what they had. The idea they knew about the house but didn't move on it bugs me."

"They were waiting for her to get the files," I said. Son of a bitch. "Once she was out of their hands, and they had the tag, they had to keep someone on her. On us. Once they had the location and a solid fix, they sat back and waited. They wanted you to bring the information to them. Or at least get it to where they could lay hands on it."

"It's digital," Remy countered, skepticism rifling over his words. "How would they know when she collected it?"

That was an excellent question. Fallon stilled, head tilted. For all she had trusted us, she hadn't revealed this part. She told us she strip-mined it all. Damn impressive, but not where it was or how to get to it. Was it in a physical or virtual location? Both? Neither?

If it were a physical location and she had issues with remembering how to get it, I'd take care of it. Virtual location? That would require her, specifically.

"They wouldn't," she said slowly. "Not until I acted on what I took. Not until I'd done what I said I would do. Then they would try to intercept."

Fallon's eyes went distant, the chilly look didn't belong on her warm, animated face. If anything, it seemed downright alien. Then, I'd never really been able to "see" her while she worked. Maybe it was how she processed.

"I threatened them," she continued in a voice that was almost too quiet. "I threatened them with more than exposure. Shadow ops only work if they can remain in the shadows. Governments hate to admit that they are running them, so when they are exposed?—"

McQuade snorted. "Exposure means scorched earth. Disavow the identified players. Senior officers fall on their swords, and if they are jailed—well, that's the cost of doing business." Disapproval echoed beneath each word. "It's clever and stupid in equal measures."

Remy folded his arms and merely shrugged when McQuade shot him a look. McQuade seemed like a lifer, so I had to wonder what made him leave that life behind. Particularly since what he did now was basically the same job—only he worked for himself.

That, I understood on a visceral level. I didn't do acquisitions for others unless I approved of their reasons for wanting something. For me, it was never about the money. Okay, to be perfectly honest, it was never about only the money.

"The exposure would cost them their investments in time, budget, and manpower," Fallon continued, tapping a finger against her plump, still kiss-swollen lower lip. Swollen from my kisses. Possessiveness slid through me. I wished I could just kiss her again and table the rest of this discussion.

Sadly, not an option at the moment.

Later, I promised myself. Definitely later.

"That's not all it would cost them though," she said. Lips pursed, she paced away from us, then back. The restlessness around her had transformed from chaotic energy to something far more laser-focused. The intensity of it demanded all of our attention. "International relations with allies could be forever damaged."

Allies?

Remy raised his brows. "Do you know everything in the files?"

The harsh, cold reality of that question left my bones aching. If she knew it all…

"Yes." No prevarication or play. Nothing coy or dismissive. If anything, she was blunt, hard, and direct. "Enough to be a threat, but without the files themselves, I'm just a crackpot conspiracy theorist and easily dismissed and painted into a corner. Like so many others before me."

"But you have the files," McQuade seized the thread. "That means you know the names of those involved…"

Well, shit… "You would also know who we might be able to trust with the info if you have to take it public. Cause if we go public with it, all their reasons for going after you evaporate. They are exposed."

"Yes," she said, only this time it was far softer. "They would also lose any rationale behind trying to be quiet about it. At that point, assassinating me could just be a drone attack if they wanted."

"Retaliation," McQuade said in a tone that suggested he agreed with her conclusion. "Right now, they need you alive cause they don't know that you haven't set up a failsafe. You die and it goes public. You go missing for too long, it goes public— son of a bitch…"

The lack of anything resembling surprise on Fallon's face told me she'd already reached that particular opinion.

"They let me go," she said. "They wanted me to escape."

Assholes. Except…

"You might not have made it if we hadn't been there." She'd been struggling so hard.

"Maybe," she said. "Or were they the token resistance I wouldn't have identified as token because I was drugged up, exhausted, in tremendous pain, and ready to believe anything… who says you didn't scoop me up before their scoop team could—the team that had been set up to play my savior."

I raked a hand through my hair, but it was Remy who looked grim now. "Operatives running as civilians. Someone to offer you a ride. Another a doctor…"

"We fucked up their plans." Aggravation gave way to a kind of feral glee in McQuade. "Fucked them up good."

A smile flirted around the corners of her mouth. "The truly frightening part of all of this, is how good of a plan it was. They truly could have gotten me."

"Except, even when we first rescued you, you didn't tell us where the information was." I hated to rain on anyone's parade, but it was the simple truth. "You didn't trust us . No doubt exists within me, you wouldn't have taken their bait."

"Agreed," Remy said firmly. "With that in mind, don't tell us. We're not asking unless it becomes something you think we need to know."

"As much as I hate it, I also think that's wise." McQuade nodded. "Give us a list, Sugar Bear."

"A list?" She raised both of her eyebrows.

"Yes," Remy said, as though picking up the thread. "We need a kill list. Eliminate the potential threats until those that know about you are gone. Then they can't threaten you anymore."

Though she didn't dismiss it completely, she did frown. She was thinking about it. When she flicked a look toward me, I shrugged.

There were worse plans.

"Whatever you want to do," I told her. "I'm in."