Chapter 6

January 13th

4:56 A.M.

Why dideverybody seem to hate her?

By the time the helo touched down back home, Scarlett was more confused than she'd been when she first realized it was Tate and not a Prey team who had saved her.

It was weird, and she had tried her best not to take it personally, but it was like she had the plague or something. Not only did no one on Tate's team seem to want to get too close to her, but they had also remained on edge the entire flight.

Now, sure, she wasn't a field operative, the lab was where she was most at home, but she was pretty sure that once a team was on a helo flying home, they didn"t sit with their weapons at the ready as though a threat was about to jump out at any second.

Although she hated to admit it and certainly didn"t understand it, it was almost like they believed she was the threat.

Which was totally crazy.

As far as threats went, she had to be bottom of the barrel. Scarlett was pretty sure Raul Castillo would back that up.

The helo landed at Prey's West Coast office, and it felt good to be back on solid ground. Metaphorically speaking since she had no problem with flying. But she was back home now, and she needed to be surrounded by the people who loved her for a little post-kidnapping coddling.

When she stood and looked out the window, Scarlett was surprised to see that none of her team was there waiting for her.

Weird.

None of the retired SEAL guys who ran the West Coast office were there either.

Double weird.

Her team was like the sisters she had always wished she had when she was a lonely little girl, and they had grown even closer after she lost her brother eighteen months ago. The guys were absolute surrogate brothers, and she loved them dearly and their families, too. Call her a loser, but she'd rather babysit their sweet little kiddies than go out to a bar or a club.

A home and a family, people who were hers forever, who could never be taken away from her, that's what she wanted above all else.

There was a moment where she thought the man who stood so close to her back she could practically feel the warmth emanating from him might be the answer, but obviously she'd been wrong.

Oh well, lesson learned.

But she wasn't giving up.

Happiness, family, love, it was out there somewhere, and she would find it. One day she'd belong somewhere, be loved by people who accepted her for who she was and who would never walk away from her.

The tension continued to pulse through the helo as she stepped down, aware that Tate and his team remained close and attentive as though they were still on duty.

Deciding to ignore their strange behavior, it wasn't really important right now, she started toward the door leading to a lift that would take them down off the roof. Scarlett startled when two men dressed in crisp black suits approached.

For a moment, the contrast of their black suits and white shirts made her think of Raul and panic sparked to life inside her.

Instinct had her taking a step back, but she bumped into Tate who was still standing close, and his large hand clamped around her bicep, right over her gunshot wound, making her wince.

"Ma'am, please come with us," one of the suits said, his hand hovering above his weapon, and with a shocked gasp Scarlett realized that every single man on the roof with her either had a weapon pointed at her, or their hand close enough to draw their weapon.

Panic grew.

What was going on?

Why were they treating her like the enemy?

Where were her team, and her Prey guys?

There wasn't a single friendly face, and the uneasy feeling that had been growing inside her ever since she was met with Tate's open hostility flared so strongly that she was almost positive she was about to throw up.

"Don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be," Tate murmured above her.

Harder than it had to be?

That made no sense.

"What's going on?" she asked, hating that her voice trembled. Showing weakness in front of men like this was not a good idea, but she was too scared to rid the shakes from either her voice or her body.

Nobody offered her any answers, and the two suits came up to flank her, walking her between them across the roof and into the lift. Tate and his team didn"t follow them, and honestly, she didn"t want them to.

Whatever lingering feelings she'd had for Tate were gone.

He wasn't on her side.

He was the enemy.

These men were too.

Were they Raul's?

Did he have the kind of reach to have her … taken into custody?

Is that what was happening here?

Okay, she hadn"t been cuffed, but it was more than obvious that she was considered a threat.

Instead of being taken to the main office levels or the lab, they stopped at the floor used for interrogations. If she had any energy left for humor, she would have reminded herself she was lucky she hadn"t been taken to the level that contained holding cells. While nothing like Raul's dungeon torture chamber, they weren"t pleasant rooms, and she didn"t want to find herself locked in one.

Marched down the hall, she was taken into an interrogation room and left alone as the two suits disappeared. The hard metal chair only aggravated her beaten and tortured body, and her dreams of a hot shower, comfort food, and a soft bed seemed to drift further away.

No one from Prey was here, although since she was in the building, they had to know she was here.

That hurt.

Abandoned.

Again.

The people she needed never seemed to be there for her when she was at her lowest.

In the last few days, she'd had the safety of her home shattered, killed a man, been drugged and abducted, held captive, tortured, beaten, whipped, and drugged again. Was it too much to ask to at least have someone who cared about her here at her back?

Although she guessed their absence only proved they never really cared about her.

When the door edged open, Scarlett forced away her fear, ready to demand answers, but it wasn't the suits, it was Dora Hibbert, the office receptionist.

Not who she had expected.

Creeping into the room, the woman quickly set a steaming cup of tea and a sandwich on the rickety metal table. "Sorry, it's not much, but I"m sure you must be starving. I made you some tea, I know how much you love it."

Touched by the only little bit of kindness she'd been shown, Scarlett promptly burst into tears. "Thank you," she managed to get out. "Do you know why I"m being treated like this? Do you know what they think I did?"

A hand touched her shoulder, squeezing gently. "I don't know, but whatever it is I know you didn"t do it. You"re the kindest, sweetest, most generous woman I have ever met. You"re nice to everyone. You care about everyone. I have to go, I"m not supposed to be in here, I just … couldn't let them keep you here with nothing to eat or drink."

"Thank you," she whispered again, doing her best to get her tears under control. She was obviously in hot water, but she had no idea why. If she was going to be accused of something, she couldn't show any weakness, and tears were a definite weakness.

After offering her an encouraging smile, Dora slipped away, and Scarlett quickly forced down the sandwich, knowing that as part of the interrogation she was about to be subjected to, she would be denied water, food, sleep, and painkillers.

Ten minutes later, the door to her interrogation room opened, and the suits strolled in. They both eyed the empty sandwich wrapper and the cup of tea she clutched in her hands, but neither commented.

"Ms. Madden, we need you to answer a few questions," one of them said.

Gathering strength she hadn"t had to reach for in a long time, Scarlett set down her cup of tea and met their gazes squarely. She hadn"t done anything wrong, she had the money to pay for a lawyer if she needed one, and she had plenty of practice facing problems alone.

She had this.

Or at least, she'd pretend she did until she convinced herself it was true.

"Why am I here?" she demanded, pleased her voice came out strong and steady.

"What is your relationship to Raul Castillo?" one suit asked.

Feeling the blood drain from her face, Scarlett curled her now trembling fingers around the edge of the table, letting the bite of the sharp metal keep her sane. "My relationship to him? You make it sound like we're lovers or something." Her stomach rolled and she pressed a hand to it in the vain hopes of keeping the sandwich down. "The man is a monster who kidnapped me, tortured me, and demanded I give him the formula for the Reactivator. Which I did not do," she said, proud that it was the truth. "I don't know what you think I did, but I do know I"m happy to do whatever it takes to convince you you"re wrong because a dangerous man wants a drug I helped create, and no way is he getting his hands on it."

January 13th

5:04 P.M.

He should have left already.

Gone home and washed his hands of this entire situation.

Yet Tate was still there. Still in the Prey building, still watching the feed from the camera set up in Scarlett's interrogation room, still feeling like something wasn't right.

Leaving with the rest of his team felt like … leaving Scarlett to the wolves.

Knowing that she was getting what she deserved, and that if she had been tortured because she'd been double-crossed then it was her fault, didn"t seem to make one iota of difference.

When he'd tried to go home it was like his body physically could not leave the building as long as Scarlett was being kept in an interrogation room.

The weirdest sensation.

After Scarlett had been taken into custody, he and his team had debriefed in an empty conference room. Then they'd grabbed their stuff and headed to their vehicles parked in the underground garage. Only as soon as he got in the car his hands got all sweaty, his pulse sped up, and it seemed near impossible to draw a full breath.

Almost like he was having a panic attack.

Absolutely as annoying as it was weird.

Lying to his team that he wanted to stay because something in his gut was telling him something was off felt wrong on so many levels. You didn"t lie to your team, not if you wanted to make it home alive. Trust was imperative in their world, you had to know the guys watching your back had you one hundred percent. It could mean the difference between life and death in the field.

But his ability to trust and accept others' trust in return had been shattered by his father's recent ordeal, and he found that lying had been easier than it should be.

No one had questioned him when he'd said he was going to stay and see what happened and headed back inside. Just because no one had questioned him didn"t mean he didn"t see the questions in their eyes.

Had felt those unasked questions the entire ride back home.

They knew something was up between him and Scarlett, and they were wondering why he was interested in a traitor.

Only Scarlett had consistently denied being a traitor.

She'd shed a few tears, and her body had shaken, whether from exhaustion, fear, or pain he wasn't certain, but she had answered every question, maintained her innocence, kept her back straight and her head up, taking on each increasingly harsher interview session.

Was it possible she was really innocent?

The email said otherwise but …

Scarlett didn"t act guilty.

Her profile didn"t match with someone who would sell sensitive information for money either. They'd done a deep dive into her past when they were given this mission, and from the background check none of this added up.

Scarlett and her twin brother had been mostly raised by their paternal grandparents up until the age of thirteen while their parents served in the military. Their grandfather was also former military and it looked like Scarlett's life had been rough. Not abusive, but not a warm, loving environment to grow up in either.

After their grandparents' deaths and their parents' refusal to accept the offered honorable discharges, she and her brother went into the foster system. While there were no reports of abuse suffered, Scarlett and her brother were both bounced about often, sometimes winding up in a home together but oftentimes separated. Again, a lonely place to be even if not outright abusive.

As an adult, she had bucked against family pressure and gone to college instead of enlisting. That had gotten her shunned and contact with her brother had dwindled to virtually nothing after he did enlist. She'd been engaged twice before. She was lonely and from all reports a romantic at heart.

Bottom line was Scarlett Madden was desperate to be loved.

The exact reason he never should have touched her.

She wanted a family and a happy ever after, he wanted to remain single.

But it was her very profile that said she wasn't the kind of person who would do what she was being accused of. People desperate to be loved and accepted didn"t usually throw away the only connections they had for money. Because love and acceptance were more important to them than money.

Was she possibly coerced into selling the formula for the Reactivator?

The idea had been bouncing around inside his head since they'd been sitting on the helo. It would explain why Scarlett had been tortured—and the evidence on her body meant nobody could argue with that fact—and why she had been grateful to see him when he came to rescue her. Maybe she'd tried to go through with it and then found that she couldn't, and that was why Raul had turned on her.

Or maybe he was just reaching because he … wanted … her to be innocent.

Sighing, Tate raked his fingers through his hair and then rubbed at the tight muscles in the back of his neck. Tension had his entire body feeling like it had been twisted into knots.

When the door to the room he was holed up in watching the feed from Scarlett's interrogation room opened, he lifted his eyes to see who it was.

Chaos and King walked into the room. Both of them looked as exhausted and stressed out as he felt. Despite what Scarlett probably thought, everyone at Prey seemed to be on her side. Even with evidence to the contrary, nobody seemed to believe it. Every single person had wanted to be there for Scarlett, comfort her, reassure her, make sure she knew they believed in her, but the best thing they could do for her right now was let someone neutral handle the situation.

None of the Prey people could be neutral when it came to her.

Hell, he couldn't even be neutral when it came to Scarlett, leaving him feeling angry and helpless.

"Why are you still here?" Chaos growled. Despite the fact the man had a reputation of being easygoing and lighthearted, a lover of practical jokes that he sometimes took too far, right now, Chaos looked every bit the lethal warrior he was behind the jokester veneer.

Since there was no good answer he could give to that, Tate merely shrugged.

"She hasn't wavered in her story once." King said it as a challenge, but Tate had no intention of refuting it. That was true. Her story had zero inconsistencies no matter how many times she was asked to go over things. Either she had her lies memorized or she was telling the truth.

King had been a notorious playboy up until he met and fell in love with Faith Johnson, now Faith Voss. All it had taken was for him to meet the woman who would own his heart for his entire life to change. King and Faith were now happily married with a two-year-old daughter Indigo.

Was that how easy things could change?

Was it possible for falling in love to make everything different?

If he wasn't intent on lying to himself, would he admit that he already had feelings for Scarlett even if he'd done his best to shove her away?

Refusing to allow himself to continue down that path, Tate straightened and looked the two men in the eye. "Did you get the results of the polygraph?"

There had been no hesitation on Scarlett's part when she had been asked to take the lie detector, she had readily agreed. Eagerly even.

While not admissible in court because it was much too easy to fake it, passing the test would go a long way in helping convince everyone outside of Prey that something else was going on.

Instead of answering, the two men shared a look, and Tate felt his stomach drop.

If Scarlett had passed they would have been shouting it from the rooftops.

All that anger that had been dimming these last twelve hours as he listened to and watched Scarlett insist she was innocent over and over again suddenly flared back to life.

Of course she hadn"t passed.

Of course she wasn't innocent.

She was a liar and a manipulator just like his former stepmother had been.

"She failed," he growled, surprised at how much that seemed to hurt. Maybe there had been a part of him that needed to know the only woman to ever have made him feel anything at all was not a traitor.

Anger sparked in King's gray-blue eyes. "Only one question. And not any to do with her guilt."

"Then what?" he demanded, completely confused. If she had passed when asked about her guilt, what had she lied about?

"A question regarding her torture," King replied.

There was genuine pain in Chaos' voice and his light green eyes when he spoke. "When asked if she gave up any information while being tortured there was a slight indication that she wasn't being completely truthful."

What did that mean?

Had Scarlett gone there intending to sell information or not?

If she hadn"t, had she given intel up under torture?

Did this mean she was guilty or innocent?

And why the hell did he care so much?