17. Zach

SEVENTEEN

Zach

I watched Kai leave through a crack in the blinds, like some lovesick fool, and then, cursing, I set about locking the house down. Everything came with me that might incriminate me as something other than a wandering environmentalist.

It made the pack heavy, and my shoulders ached like fuck, but that and hefting the weight meant I had other things to focus on than sleeping with Kai.

Sleeping. Fucking. Whatever.

The noises he made, the way he said my name, the taste of him…

What had I done last night? Why had I let myself give in to something I had resisted for so long?

And now, he was heading into god knows what, and an unfamiliar fear gripped me. What if we never got to talk? I couldn't afford to let my personal feelings cloud my operational judgment, and that was a bridge I had to cross after we'd closed Kozlov down. I forced myself to focus on the task at hand.

First, I needed to head to the mayor's office, update the man on intel, and probably calm him down again. Then, it was time to provide backup for the fool who had somehow wormed his way past my defenses.

With a deep breath, I pushed aside my doubts and fears; I couldn't let my feelings for Kai distract me from the mission. His life depended on it.

What would my life look like without him in it?

Quiet, for sure.

Lonely?

"Sierra Base, comm check."

"We have you, Sierra Two."

"Heading out."

"Copy."

Next, the mayor. Thomas Bennett had been the mayor of Cedar Ridge for several years, standing unopposed, and on the surface, he was a good man who wanted the best for the town where he'd been born and raised. College had been a blip, taking him away from here, and he'd come back with a shiny new degree with grand ideas of bringing prosperity to his hometown. Only the slow pace of legal and economic growth had led him to make compromises he never thought he would. Namely, getting into bed with Kozlov by allowing concessions that never should have been granted.

With the flood of income came too many crossed lines, and then, all too soon, the mayor was too far under, and there was no way out. The bribes he received helped fund community projects, making it easy to rationalize his actions. He might have had good intentions and was the king of rousing speeches about Cedar Ridge's future, but right now, he was sitting at his desk, piles of papers to his right, laptop to his left, and he looked like death warmed up.

He was sickly gray, his blue eyes dull, and although he attempted to muster a confident smile, it was weak and thinned his lips. A crystal tumbler stood front and center on his desk, and an unopened bottle of Jack was next to it. Was the man planning on day-drinking his way out of his troubles? Not a good start.

"My son is back home this weekend," he blurted as soon as I walked in, fear twisting his expression.

I shut the door behind me, all too aware of the prying eyes and the keen hearing of his secretary, June, and his part-time staff of two, Evan and Lois. All three of them were small-town gossipers. I'd heard chatting about why my meetings with the mayor were closed-door, given that I was an environmental researcher, and nothing more. The surveillance I'd set up in here showed a lot more than gossip, like the fact Evan and Lois had sex on the photocopier, on the desk, and in the stationery cupboard.

I really didn't want to hear all of that, but yep, that was my role in this shitstorm.

Watch. Wait. Let Kai have all the fun.

Thomas continued. "He's only got a few months left in his doctorate, and then he's returning permanently to the area. How do I stop him from getting on Kozlov's radar—how do I keep him safe?"

My inner Kai, all blunt words, wanted to tell the mayor he'd made his bed, that it was him who'd taken bribes, putting his family in the crosshairs, but I wasn't Kai—I at least could play nice.

"I'll let the team know," was about all I could give him.

"And my wife… she's…" He rested his head in his hands, but if he was waiting for me to ask him to expand on that, he could forget it—I wasn't here to talk about his family.

"My partner has his position with Indigo. He's heading out now."

Tom's head shot up, and he stumbled to stand. "Now? It's going down now? Fuck, I need to…" His gaze ricocheted around his office, not settling on one thing, as if he didn't know where to start. "I'll get my wife and daughter to her sister's and tell Alex not to come and?— "

"The rest of your town?" I interjected in a low growl. "Will you give them a heads-up as well?"

If it were possible, he grew more pale as he collapsed into his chair, which slid back and hit the cabinet behind. "You said you could fix things without affecting the town. You said it would be surgical, but look at what happened to that kid they left in the street. You promised you could make it so people wouldn't get hurt."

"You put yourself in danger." I didn't add that if the idiot hadn't given carte blanche to Kozlov, then there wouldn't have been danger to start with. I didn't need to, because Mayor Thomas was a broken man, wracked with guilt. I took the chair opposite and waited for him to calm down until he could at least think straight. Shadow Team couldn't promise a surgical end to Kozlov and his actions, not when the asshole had a small private army and seemingly unlimited funds.

Unless we shut down the mine, cut off the drug routes, and disbanded the private army, Kozlov was more like the king of this region than a mere mayor would ever be.

Thomas shook as he unscrewed the top and poured a double, a triple, kept going until the amber stuff was right at the brim and spilling over. I leaned forward to stop the pour, and he started, stared down at the puddle and swore .

"Fuck. Fuck…" he cursed, and then carded his hands through his hair and tugged. "Fuck."

"I need you to keep it together," I said.

"I'm trying!" he moaned.

"Try harder," I snapped back at him, and he deflated.

I needed to call this in to Swim Central—he was a man on the edge, and if he took a step out of line, then that put Kai in danger and that shit wouldn't fly. Kai might be an annoying asshole with boundary issues, and I might have crossed a line with him, but he was my team, and my team was everything. Last thing we needed was a loose cannon like the mayor drawing attention to himself to get his family out of danger.

Thomas focused on his breathing, and when he was calmer, I carried on.

"My partner is in position, I'm heading out. You need to keep it together for your family and the town. Smile. Kiss babies. Okay?"

"Got it," he said, abandoning mopping up whiskey with tissues and instead wiping his tie across his desk.

I moved the files out of the way, emptying the bottle and the tumbler down the sink in the attached bathroom. Me, who took off his tie and stuck it in a cupboard, and me, who patted his shoulder and told him everything was going to be okay.

He just had to believe me.

I couldn't do anything about the stink of alcohol in the room, but I opened the window, the blast of cold spring air enough to dilute the eye-watering fumes.

When I left, and entered the forest on the closest hiking path, I connected to comm, suggesting someone else get out here to watch over the mayor.

And then there was nothing else to do but keep walking to the ATV, then locate myself close to Kai, and wait.

Finally, in position outside the security radius around the mine, I monitored the tracking screen. Kai had four locators on him—on his phone, in his watch, his beloved HK pistol, and, most importantly, his bootlace, albeit the shoelace wasn't active yet. The backup had a backup designed to ensure I could always keep tabs on him, no matter where he went.

A sinking feeling settled in the pit of my stomach as two dots vanished from the screen, the phone and watch disappearing. That left the lace and the gun, and woe betide anyone who got between Kai and his HK.

Grabbing the satellite phone, I dialed the encrypted line to Sierra Base, my fingers flying over the keypad. The line crackled to life, and I wasted no time in relaying the situation to Ethan, our point man, back at headquarters.

"Sierra Two to Sierra Base," I said, my voice tight, although I didn't want to show it.

"Go ahead, Sierra Two."

"We've lost two of Kai's locater tags, as expected. He's reached the mine and is in position." I'm not worried. Kai and I had done this before, been separated with no way of knowing if each of us was alive, but this case was messing with my head.

My heart was messing with my head.

There was a brief pause before Ethan responded, his voice cool and steady despite the gravity of the situation. "Copy that, Sierra Two."

I ended the call and turned my attention back to the tracking screen. A nagging sense of unease lingered and would never leave me until Kai was here next to me. He was out there, and it was up to me to have his back. I just wished I could do more than sit on my ass and watch dots on a screen.