Chapter Twenty

Ghost

T wo paces into the command room, Alpha had already taken in the monitors, me, and the floor with a single scan before walking back out.

"Delete everything," I ordered November.

The hacker hit another key, and the computer screens went dark.

Calculating the time from my arrival at AES to the moment the hacker pulled up eighteen headshots of the assholes who ran the sex trafficking rings, I did the math.

It was impossible. "You were onto this before I walked in here."

November didn't have a chance to confirm or deny it.

Alpha walked back in with a med kit, followed by a pissed-off Echo.

Alpha tossed the black bag onto the nearest desk and issued his SEAL an order as he leveled me with a look. "Echo, triage Ghost's wound."

" Fuck no." Echo crossed his arms. "That motherfucker can bleed out for all I care."

"Wasn't a request," Alpha clipped.

"Wasn't a consideration," Echo threw back.

Fuck this. "I don't need triage. I need assistance."

All three of them focused on me.

Alpha spoke first. "With?"

Echo snorted.

November went back to his keyboard.

"Coordinated relocation." I glanced at the hacker. "November, bring up the addresses."

Three keystrokes and both the wall of monitors and the computer screens repopulated. Except the hacker didn't just bring up the locations—he added the headshots from all of my women's photo IDs along with their aliases.

Echo cursed in Italian, Alpha scanned the monitors, and the hacker reached for a laptop.

Alpha turned back and gave me a look that said it all. "You want me to simultaneously relocate eighteen women."

It wasn't a question, but I corrected his assumption. "Sixteen. One's already with Christensen."

"You've got Christensen involved in this."

Again, not a question. I didn't answer.

"Where's the seventeenth woman?" Echo asked.

Taken. Because of me. "I'll handle that."

" That ," Alpha repeated, looking like he wanted to level me.

I glanced at Alpha's hacker, who was also AES's overwatch. "How soon can you make this happen?"

"Don't ask November," Alpha clipped.

I looked back at the SEAL Team Leader who'd always played by the rules unless it meant one of the lives of his men, then he did what he had to. There was honorable, then there was Adam "Alpha" Trefor. We didn't operate on the same field, let alone the same plane. "How soon can you make this happen?"

For two seconds, he studied me. "How many know?"

He wasn't asking about the women. I knew what he was after, but I made him work for it because Trefor didn't respect anything less. "About?"

"You."

"Meaning?" I knew exactly what.

Like the Tier One operator he was trained to be, Alpha stood deceptively still, expression locked. Then he handed me my ass, Trefor style, without emotion or raising his voice. "You hacked my security, breached my headquarters, and helped yourself to my resources. Which I may have overlooked for a Team brother in need if you'd had an imminent, life-threatening critical situation that necessitated bypassing my system. But you didn't. Make no mistake, Ghost, we're not friends anymore. Not since you fed me a bullshit protocol to follow if I ever needed to get in touch with you, and definitely not since that stunt you pulled in Dubai."

He'd asked for help. I'd provided it. "You got what you needed out of Dubai." Which had cost me resources, my timeline, and risked my cover. No regrets. I'd gotten my number eighteen out of the deal. But he'd complicated my schedule and mission, and now they had Safiya.

Too fucking pissed to acknowledge the help he'd gotten from me, Trefor kept going. "To be clear, you're only standing in my command room right now because I took an oath. But my code of honor does not mean I owe you. And it sure as hell doesn't mean I'll risk my men for whatever this is really about."

Reining it in, keeping mission focused, I ignored his last statement. "The protocol wasn't bullshit." Not back then, and not for him. I hadn't secured ownership of my satellites yet, and Alpha was the last person I wanted to know my location because he was exactly as he'd stated. Honorable. He would've made it his mission to track me just to check in.

"This isn't a discussion. My number's easily accessible. AES's response time is minutes. You had options, but you chose to bypass my security."

Echo snorted. "And bleed all over the floor."

Alpha was the best Team Leader the SEALs ever had. I didn't need to explain to him that option was a relative term. I also shouldn't have had to reiterate we were losing critical time. "Clock's ticking."

"How many?" Alpha demanded.

I glanced at my watch. Two hours. "How many what?" Where the fuck was Helios?

"How many people can get a hold of you?"

The second he'd mentioned my previous protocol for contact, I knew this would come down to trust. Hell, breaching his security had made it about trust, and Trefor had been rooted in the notion of loyalty that'd been drilled into us since day one of training. I wasn't.

Calculating which answer would piss him off the least because I needed him, I hedged. "Of your men?"

Alpha tipped his chin.

I placated. "Two."

"Three," November interjected.

I threw the hacker a warning glance before looking back at Trefor and triaging this fucking conversation. "You're right, you don't owe me, and I'm not here to collect on any perceived goodwill." Favors weren't Trefor's MO. But quid pro quo was, right along with his code of honor that I was about to play into. "I'm asking for assistance."

"Was that before or after you broke in and brought a tail?"

" Jesus fucking Christ ," Echo muttered.

I glanced at the hacker. "Bring up your security cams for the garage."

"November works for me, and they're not on the premises," Trefor clipped. "They're across the street. One van, one SUV, both with untraceable plates."

"Untraceable my ass." Echo shook his head. "We all know what that means. He brought Agency fucks with him."

Glad that Helios had showed, but pissed he wasn't alone, I glanced at Echo. "They're not CIA." I focused back on Trefor. Then I gave more intel than I'd intended, but I was out of time, my women were unprotected, and I needed to be en route to Safiya. "You may think I lack loyalty or that you don't need my skill set, but you've benefitted from both ever since you started AES." I'd been behind the scenes on more than a few of his ops, including the one that brought his woman home.

Crossing his arms like he was settling in for a laundry list, Trefor leveled me with his Team Leader stare. "Benefitted how?"

"Classified." It wasn't. I didn't report to Brass anymore. But discussing who I did work with or why wasn't a conversation we were ever going to have.

Glancing at his hacker, Trefor didn't let it drop. "Which AES ops has he had his hands in besides Dubai?"

The former Airman looked up from his keyboard. "Officially or unofficially?"

I didn't bother reminding him Dubai was for his benefit, not his company's.

Exhaling, Alpha threw his hacker a look.

November nodded once. Then he downloaded intel he never should've had. "Unofficially, he commandeered the Contender before the Feds seized it, refueled in St. Kitts, then kept the sixty-five-meter Heesen yacht off the grid until he delivered her months later to a secured hangar in a remote shipyard for a retrofit." The hacker glanced at me. "He's also been using the stolen Sikorsky S-76D helo. Once to land on the Heesan yacht." He looked back at Alpha. "He's had direct contact with Whiskey, Delta, and Kilo, and he facilitated a solo mission for Kilo. HALO insertion, assisted exfil."

I didn't leave an opening for interrogation. "Last chance. Do you want to save sixteen women or not?"

Before Trefor could answer, the command room door burst open, and Vance "Victor" Conlon walked in.

Grinning, the former Marine sniper who now carried a British accent instead of an MK13 glanced from me to the hacker to Alpha. "What'd I miss?"