Chapter 7

January 14th

5:13 P.M.

"You"re free to go."

Scarlett startled as the suit entered her interrogation room, this time leaving the door open behind him and uttering the words she'd been longing to hear.

Only they didn"t mean as much as she'd thought they would.

Maybe because it was clear from his expression, he still thought she was guilty of making a deal with the notorious weapons trafficker to sell the Reactivator.

Rubbing tiredly at her temples, where a headache raged, Scarlett nodded and shoved to her feet. She was still dressed in Tate's borrowed clothes with no shoes on her feet. In the hours she'd been locked in there she'd been given nothing more than a couple of bottles of water to drink. The last time she'd eaten was the sandwich that Dora had snuck in for her, and the painkillers from before they got on the helo had long since worn off.

Tired, in pain, hungry, and defeated.

Yep.

That pretty much summed it up.

Since she didn"t know their names and had nothing to say to them even if she did, Scarlett merely shuffled on her ruined socks toward the door. Her body was stiff, muscles cramped from hours of just sitting, and right now, she didn"t even care that the last time she'd been in her house she'd been shot and kidnapped, she just wanted to lock herself away from the rest of the world.

When her purse was shoved into her arms, she stared at it surprised. Must be more exhausted than she thought if she hadn"t even considered that she would need her phone, keys, and wallet if she was going to get home.

Somehow, she made it to the lift and out onto the street. She used her Uber app to arrange a pickup and thankfully, the driver seemed too shocked by her disheveled appearance to attempt conversation.

Conversation was the last thing she wanted. Company too. While she might have needed her team and Prey family to rally around her earlier, now the sting of their betrayal ran too deep. Her team were the last people she wanted to see right now. If they thought she was capable of betraying not only them but their country, by giving an enemy an edge in war, then they had never been true friends to begin with.

It wasn't until she had paid the driver and hauled herself out of his vehicle that she realized the lights were on in her house.

Scarlett froze.

Just because nobody else believed her didn"t mean she didn"t know the truth.

She hadn"t sold any information, she'd been kidnapped by Raul Castillo and tortured for that information. But even with the pain she'd gone through, she hadn"t told the trafficker what he wanted to know.

Which meant he could come back for her.

Did he have more men in there waiting for her?

Before she could panic and try to call back the Uber, the front door to her place was thrown open and three women came bursting out.

Lucy Elrod, a month to the day younger than Scarlett's twenty-eight, with long blonde hair and light blue eyes, she hadn"t allowed her epilepsy to rule her life. Cassidy "Cassie" Caddel, twenty-three, with brown hair and eyes, an actual genius who had graduated college before she hit her twenties with several degrees. Ella Whitlock, a twenty-seven-year-old musical prodigy with blonde hair and pretty green eyes.

Athena Team.

The people she loved the most in the world.

Her own little family where she finally felt like she belonged.

All ruined now.

When the three women ran toward her, Scarlett instinctively took a step back. She didn"t want them there, didn"t want to have more accusations thrown at her, especially by the people she thought would always have her back.

But they hadn"t.

Their absence when she had been held for well over a day spoke volumes. Actually, it told her all she needed to know. They weren"t her friends, they weren"t the family she'd always wished for. They were nothing. And the last thing she wanted was for them to be there when she already felt raw and exposed.

Hurt flashed over Cassie's face, Ella looked confused, and Lucy looked angry.

"Are you okay?" Cassie asked, taking a tentative step forward even though Scarlett had wrapped her arms around her middle and stiffened, ready to run the second they hurled accusations at her.

"Of course she's not okay," the ever-practical Lucy said. The anger had faded a little, but it was still there, Scarlett could sense it.

Tears blurred her vision, and she did her best to hold them back. She was just so tired of having everyone's anger directed at her when she hadn"t done anything wrong. After living through a horrific ordeal, all she wanted was someone to show her a little warmth and compassion. Heck, she'd take just a little ounce of kindness, but nope, all she kept getting was anger, and she was way too exhausted to deal with it.

"We were so worried about you," Ella said softly. The woman was all warmth, softness, and goodness, and even though Scarlett was closest to Lucy, Ella had always held a special place in her heart because of the light she shone so freely, so of all their betrayals hers seemed to hurt the most.

"Listen to me," Lucy said in that take-charge voice she used when she was close to the end of her patience.

Although she didn"t want to, Scarlett found her gaze snapping to meet her friend's. The anger still glowed brightly in Lucy's blue eyes, but there was something else there, too. Something that made her long for the impossible. Something much too close to compassion for her to handle right now, so instead, she only stiffened further.

"We did not believe for one single second that you did what that email says you did," Lucy spoke clearly and firmly.

"Not for a second," Cassie echoed.

"Is that what you thought? That we believed you would do that?" Ella asked, hurt in her voice, and her green eyes filled with tears that turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Right then and there the meltdown that had been steadily building inside her since she woke up and realized someone was inside her house just detonated.

There in the street, Scarlett burst into noisy tears, her entire body shaking with the force of her sobs. Yeah, she had shed some tears when Tate had saved her from drowning in the pool on Raul's estate, but those tears had been filled with relief. Then she'd thought she was saved and her ordeal was over, little did she know it hadn"t even come close to really beginning.

Now the pressure on her was too great. Too much had happened too close together, and she'd had no one by her side to help support her.

Arms wrapped around her, but her tears blinded her. Still, she didn"t offer any resistance as her team somehow managed to get her inside despite the fact she was crying so hard her chest ached, and shaking so badly it felt like she was going to fall apart.

"Y-you didn"t th-think I b-betrayed you?" she stammered as she was gently eased onto the couch, a warm fluffy blanket wrapped around her.

"I"m a little offended you would even think that," Lucy said in that straightforward way of hers.

"B-but you weren"t th-there," Scarlett cried. If they believed she was innocent, why did they leave her to face the wolves all on her own when she was nothing but a helpless sheep in comparison to what she was up against?

"We wanted to be there, Scarlett," Cassie told her. "But we weren"t allowed. Orders were everyone from Prey had to keep their distance. We all believe in you, the guys, too, they're super mad at being forced to stay away. They wanted to be here when you got home but we told them it might be too overwhelming for you after everything you've been through."

"Plus, we were a little selfish and wanted you all to ourselves," Ella added. "We got your back. Always."

"Someone not emotionally invested in you had to be the one to clear you," Lucy added. "Which is why orders were all Prey people had to stay away. It killed us. We've been terrified ever since I got your text asking for help."

"So, y-you don't think I w-was trying to sell o-our drug?" she asked, needing to hear it again if she had any hope of believing it.

"Not in this lifetime," Lucy answered.

"Not in any lifetime," Ella clarified.

"Like Ella said, we got your back," Cassie said. "All of us. You know Prey is a family and we know you would never betray us like that."

"But there's some email I supposedly sent." Worried they didn"t know all the details and that was why they believed in her, she dropped her gaze just in case they were about to back away from her now they knew.

"You didn"t send that email," Lucy said fiercely.

Relieved, Scarlett felt like a weight had lifted off her shoulders. "I didn"t," she agreed. "But somebody did."

"Someone who's trying to frame you," Cassie said, stating the only logical conclusion.

"But who? And why? And how am I going to prove it?" Just because her team believed in her didn"t mean she was anywhere close to clearing her name.

January 14th

5:50 P.M.

There wasone thing Tate knew about Scarlett Madden with absolute certainty.

The woman had absolutely no idea how to pay attention to her surroundings.

He'd followed her out of Prey's building, watched her get into an Uber, got into his car, and tailed her on the drive home.

Of course, he was tailing her because he wanted to see where she was going to go and if she was going to meet up with anyone, nothing more personal. Likely the same reason she had been released rather than held in a cell where she belonged. So far, she hadn"t cracked, hadn"t changed so much as a single detail from her story, and if they wanted to get more proof of what she'd done, they needed to shake things up a little.

If Scarlett felt like she was being believed, then she would slip up.

When she did, he would be right there waiting.

No one else had tailed her, and he had to wonder if despite there being a discrepancy with her polygraph, maybe she had been cleared. After all, it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility that someone had set her up.

Despite being in prison serving a ten-year sentence for dealing drugs, his father was completely innocent. Well, his dad had turned into an addict, and he had married a dealer, but he was not guilty of the crimes he'd been charged with.

Could the same be true for Scarlett?

Knowing firsthand how badly it sucked to know the truth and have no one believe you, a surge of guilt had him tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

If Scarlett was innocent, he owed her a huge apology.

Major apology.

But that was still a big if as far as he was concerned.

Not that her team seemed to agree.

As Scarlett climbed out of the Uber, looking so utterly defeated, and so very small and vulnerable that he almost got out of his car and went to her, the door to her house was flung open.

Apparently, none of the four women had any idea they were being watched if their behavior was any indication. There was not a single glance around, no attempts to hurry and get inside, no concerns that perhaps a sniper was waiting to pick them off, or a team of Raul's men close by.

If by chance Scarlett was telling the truth, then there was a leak at Prey who had set Scarlett up and had their own plans to sell the Reactivator to a dangerous weapons trafficker. If there was a leak at Prey, then no one on Athena Team was safe.

Raul Castillo was not a man to be messed with, and once he set his mind to something he was going to follow through. Either he would come after Scarlett again or he would target one of the other women.

Tate watched as Scarlett stiffened when her team came barreling toward her, taking a step back. Because she knew she had betrayed them and was feeling guilty? Or because she was hurt that they hadn"t been there for her?

His dad had been lucky, Tate had always been there for him, always supported him, and made sure he had a good lawyer—not that it had ended up doing any good—but so far, Scarlett had been facing this alone. Her own problem if she was suffering the consequences of her own choices, but hell if she was suffering for something outside of her control.

Another wave of guilt surged through him as he watched Scarlett break down.

Noisy tears burst out of her, her sobs audible even from inside his car parked across the street and one house down from Scarlett's place.

Whatever words were exchanged amongst the women he couldn't hear, but he did see them bustle Scarlett inside.

Before Tate even realized what he was doing, his hand was on the door handle, ready to follow them.

The problem was, he wasn't following because he wanted to keep a visual on a suspected traitor.

Never had been.

It wasn't why he'd gotten in his car to tail Scarlett home, and it wouldn't be why he spent the night right there, watching her place.

The reasons he was there were a whole lot more personal.

He was there because he felt an … all-consuming need … to watch over Scarlett.

It was ridiculous and he hated himself for it, because chances were, she was guilty of the things she had been accused of, but there was that tiny niggling piece of doubt in the back of his mind that kept whispering, what if?

What if Scarlett was innocent?

What if she'd been kidnapped?

What if she'd been horribly tortured?

What if, instead of attempting to support her, he'd been cold and callous after rescuing her?

What if it really had been a rescue and not a retrieval of a target?

What if she'd been left alone to answer hours of questioning when what she needed was care and comfort?

What if he was the villain in this story and not her?

It was that last what if that irked him the most. Tate had always felt like the outsider, the one in the wrong even when he knew he'd never done anything wrong. He hadn"t asked to be born to parents who would have preferred to remain childless so they could focus all their time and attention on one another. He hadn"t been responsible for his mother's death and yet his father checking out had made him feel as though he somehow were. And he wasn't responsible for the mess his dad had gotten into when he remarried, even though there were times his father had implied that if it weren"t for Tate and his quote "pressuring" he never would have remarried and betrayed the deceased wife he still loved.

Was his own recent history with his dad being framed, the betrayal of the stepmother he thought would breathe new life back into his family, clouding his thinking? It simultaneously made him think of Scarlett as just another traitor, while making him feel like she was innocent.

When his phone buzzed with an unknown number, Tate debated whether or not to answer it. His CO hadn"t approved this little stakeout, not that he'd told anyone where he was going and what he was going to be doing, but his team knew there was something with him and Scarlett, they just didn"t know he'd slept with her then been unable to forget her. The last thing he wanted was to be either directly ordered to stop following Scarlett, or for his team to be sent out on another mission.

He needed answers, needed proof one way or the other.

All numbers from anyone he knew were programmed in his phone, but wondering if it was the agents who had interrogated Scarlett, he answered the call.

"Tate Laurier?" a voice asked before he could even say hello or ask who it was.

"Yeah. Who is this?"

"It's Eagle Oswald."

The legend himself. The former SEAL who had been forced into retirement after an op went badly wrong and he lost part of his leg was almost a mythical being in the special forces community. Using the billions he and his siblings had inherited when their parents were murdered to start Prey Security, Eagle had connections everywhere, was respected by everyone, and had a reputation for being used to getting his own way.

Why was the man calling him?

There was no way Eagle could know that he'd slept with Scarlett a few months back. Nobody knew. Tate didn"t go blabbing about his sex life, and even if he did, there was something about Scarlett that felt different, he definitely hadn"t spread the word that a woman had managed to affect him in any way.

"What do you want?" he asked, unable to think of a reason why the legend that was Eagle Oswald would be calling him.

"Are you outside her house?" Eagle asked. So far, the man was yet to make a physical appearance, but he had no doubt that the founder and CEO of Prey was keeping himself apprised of the situation. In fact, Eagle was likely the one who had given the order that Fox and the guys, as well as Athena Team, were to keep their distance from Scarlett. Tate just couldn't figure out if it was because Eagle believed Scarlett was guilty, or if he wanted a clean investigation to clear her.

If it was the former it filled him with the uncomfortable feeling of wanting to rip the man apart for doubting Scarlett.

Which absolutely made him a hypocrite because he doubted her too.

"Why does it matter where I am?" he demanded, unwilling to answer without knowing more about Eagle's motivation.

A chuckle came down the line. "I'll take that as a yes. Don't take your eyes off her."

Before he could open his mouth to ask why, the line went dead. His gaze moved to the house, where the lights were shining brightly, and he could just make out shadows moving in the front room.

A ball of anxiety rested heavily in his gut.

Was he worried about Scarlett because she was a danger to her team and her country? Or was he worried for Scarlett because she had been dragged into something dangerous?

How did he get an answer to that question?

And what did Eagle Oswald know that he hadn"t shared?