Dying Commitment (Lucky Thirteen) (19 page)

“You’re so sure, but—”

“No. It’s not possible.” He sighed. “Why are you so sure?”

“Because I know what this team is capable of. I trust them with my life.” God, that was weird admitting, especially since the one thing Dylan and I had fought over was trust.

He eyed me suspicious and careful then finally nodded curtly. “I’ll talk to you, but no one else. And not here, where there are ears.”

“And give you a chance to stab me in the back, again.”

“Cady, I could have done that at any time.” He leaned over the side of the chair and pulled out a small knife from his boot. He set it down on the table. “It would have been smart to take my shoes before bringing me in here.”

Goddamnit. He was always teaching me something, even when I didn’t want him to. I covered the knife with my hand and slid it back toward me, never losing eye contact with Jack. “If I talk to you in private, what guarantee do I have that you won’t do something I’ll regret?”

“You really don’t have any. I am who I am, Cady. And I will do whatever I need to do to achieve my objective.”

And there it was. The one thing I could count on from Jack. His allegiances might shift, and he could turn on you in a hot second… but he would always do what he needed to do. Right then, I knew he would do anything to keep his daughter safe. I didn’t know what that would entail, exactly, but I didn’t want to be on the wrong end when it happened.

Slowly, I stood up, and walked over to the side console, by the big observation window. I pressed the intercom. “Shut the cameras down.”

Murphy’s voice filtered through the speaker. “You sure about that?”

“Absolutely. Shut them down.”

“Roger that. Cameras are down.” The line went dead. Well, not dead. I could press the button and get a hold of them, and they’d see me in here so if Jack tried anything, they’d be on him in a second.

I turned, and walked back around the table, and sat down across from Jack. “Okay. No records. This is just you and me talking.”

“They’re in the other room.”

“And that’s not changing,” I snapped. “I gave you the cameras. But the team is there for my safety as well as yours. They’re there so I don’t kill you. Don’t get the idea that I’m caving to you just because I gave you one thing.”

Jack smiled. “Now that’s the Cady I wanted to meet.”

“She’s also the one that will slit your throat if you lie to her.”

“This new violent side is hot. It’s just a matter of time, isn’t it?”

I smiled back, my lips still pressed together. Finally I said, “What does that mean?”

“Your team owns you, just as well as Alex Giroux owns me.”

“No.”

“Sorry, sweet pea. You’re just like me.”

I slammed my hand on the desk. “Lies. I’m nothing like you.”

He laughed. “The facts don’t lie.”

I leaned forward, twirling his knife between my fingertips. “Let’s talk about your daughter, Jack. Let’s talk about what I can do for her.”

Jack’s smile vanished. I was weirdly excited about seeing it fade away.

~*~*~

Dylan

I almost punched my way through the glass as soon as I saw the knife come out of Allen’s boot. Murphy grabbed me, and set me down in the nearby chair, forcing me to look at him in the eye. His hands kept me down in the chair as he pushed down on my shoulders. “Dude. Listen to me.”

Damn, the guy had strength. I started to stand but he pushed me back into the seat again.

“He had a knife? What the fuck were Richter and Bonham doing? Didn’t they search him? He could have killed her.”

“Stop!” Murphy snapped. He sighed. “We knew.”

I froze. I shook my head, like maybe I’d heard wrong. “What?”

“We knew about the knife. We let him keep it, at Long’s request.”

“At her—” I stared at Murphy. “What the hell is going on?”

“Calm down, Urban. Cadence thinks we can flip him. She talked to me about it before she went in.” Murphy slowly let my shoulders loose and backed away from where I sat. “She wants to see if she can bring him back. He’ll have all kinds of intel on Giroux Enterprises if we can. He’d be valuable.”

“He’s a risk.” I growled the words through clenched teeth. “We should burn him. Now.”

“Master Chief said the same thing about Addison.” I glanced at Murphy. Was he really comparing pinup girl Addison to the monster sitting across from Cadence right now?

“Addison didn’t shoot you in the chest and leave you bleeding out on the floor.”

“We don’t know the whole story here.”

“That’s not really a fact that changes, Murphy.”

The corner of Murphy’s mouth lifted on one side but he didn’t say anything. Damn Murphy and his calm exterior. I was churning up inside, wanting to go in there and punch the shit out of that man. Even through the reflection on the glass, I could see the smugness emanating off him. I balled my fists at my side.

“Urban.” I slid my eyes from Jack to Murphy. “She can handle him. And Richter’s right outside the door.”

That was our standard play. It was how they had handled Addison too. Or very nearly was. One person interviewing, one person outside the door. They’d underestimated Addison and hadn’t had anyone outside the door. He and Hardy had been too eager to find out why she had been at Giroux’s house. I wondered if Murphy still thought about that. She’d broken his nose that day. He still had a bit of a crook in it even now.

The intercom crackled, making us both freeze. “Shut the cameras down.”

Murphy gave me a look, and then stepped back to press his thumb over the intercom button. “You sure about that?”

I glanced over at the window, where she should, one hand on the intercom. Her hair was back in a ponytail, but it still fell over one shoulder. She was wearing a tank top, the bandage over her arm visible to all. She hadn’t even bothered cleaning up. Dirt caked her normally rosy cheeks from the floor of Atrix’s basement, streaked with tear tracks. She wasn’t a crier, but the body had its own responses, mostly involuntary. And yet, somehow, she still managed to look so beautiful to me.

“Absolutely. Shut them down.”

Murphy glanced back at me. I shrugged. She would do what she wanted to do. I couldn’t stop her. “Keep Richter close.”

“He’s outside the door,” Murphy said. He turned and pressed the button. “Roger that. Cameras are down.”

Silence fell between us as I stood up to leave. I couldn’t sit there and watch her kill herself. And that’s what she was doing. The more she involved herself with Jack Allen, the more she lost just a little more of her humanity.

“Why don’t you just tell her?”

I stared at Murphy, surprised that he’d spoken. “Tell her what?”

“That you’re fucking in love with her, you moron. What do you mean, ‘tell her what’?”

“Joke’s on you, Murphy.” I laughed ruefully. “I already did. Opened up my chest like a fucking idiot, and she still chose him.” I cleared my throat. “Do me a favor. Keep me off this one. I can’t handle any more jabs to the chest.”

I turned to leave, ready to go busy myself in the room I used when we were in Aruguay. It had been a few months since I had been there, almost a year, actually. The other guys had been in and out here for a while, especially when Addison’s intel led to us finding out that Aruguay was Alex Giroux’s newest base of operations.

“She loves you. Any moron can see that.”

I faced him from the doorway. “Yeah, but she can’t. And I’m tired of trying to get her see it.”

I left the room, ignoring the murmuring sounds coming from the interview room as I passed by the closed door. She was in there talking to her old partner, and I was out here, alone with the stupid feelings I let myself have, for a woman who couldn’t feel the same. I couldn’t do this anymore.

~*~*~

Cadence

After talking with him for so long, I was second guessing my original intentions toward Jack. Killing him… it just didn’t sound right to me anymore. It was still up in the air if we could flip him on Alex or not. The one true thing about Jack was that he’d do what was best for Jack. If flipping on Alex saved his life, he’d do it. But if he was telling the truth, and Alex had his daughter, then I wasn’t so sure I could flip him.

“You good with this?” I turned toward Murphy. The interrogation room was still freezing, but at least it was quiet again. Jack and I had come to an agreement, but I still wasn’t sure it was the right one. But it was worth the shot. Jack had a clear line of access to Alex Giroux.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“You sure?”

No. I wasn’t sure. On the one hand, Jack had done the best he could in a shit situation. His daughter was the most important thing in his life and he’d been exploited because of it. I understood more why Jack had told me that I was too human. I would have fallen into the same trap. But this whole experience had me shaken up.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” I nodded, smiling at Murphy. He wasn’t fooled. I could see that in his eyes, but he didn’t push. I was glad he didn’t.

“How about you?”

Murphy shrugged. “Giroux tried to kill Addison. Me. Hardy. You. He killed his own family. That list of crimes is long. He needs to be brought down.”

At least we agreed on that. Alex needed to be stopped, and that meant that we needed Jack on our side again. He had all kinds of access, and Alex thought he had the man on a leash, a tight one.

The thing about Jack was that he didn’t stay on a leash. Jack did what was best for Jack. And while most people would be wary of people like that, I actually thought that made him more reliable in a way. While most would be iffy on trusting Jack—and I was—I knew he wanted his daughter free. And that was where our agreements laid. He’d stay with Alex and report back to us as he could, and in return, we’d find where his daughter was and keep her safe.

“I have a few hours to burn before I leave. I’m gonna eat something.” Without waiting for Murphy to say anything, I left, heading toward the chow hall, which was a little more than a twenty foot room. But with less than ten of us there at any given time, it was usually sufficient.

But the sight in the chow hall was enough to make me almost want to skip this meal all together. Not because it was bad, but because everyone was there. Well, most everyone. And unfortunately, “most” included Dylan Urban.

“Hey, Cadence!” Richter waved happily. I waved back.

I wasn’t ready to face Dylan yet. I’d let him walk away in Valonia. I’d made my choice, and yet, I couldn’t reconcile it. Every time I saw him, I needed him, craved him desperately. His eyes found me immediately, zeroing in on me like heat-seeking missiles. He downed the shot in his hand, and picked up his beer, never losing eye contact with me.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore, I broke contact and headed for the box of MREs. We sometimes had someone from outside the team here to do the cooking for us, but apparently, when Stephen split the team from the regular military, creature comforts like regular food vanished. I missed regular food. MREs messed with my stomach. But I understood the need for security at this point.

I grabbed one package and a bottle of water and sat down, apart from where they were drinking. I wouldn’t be there long enough to get sucked into conversations.

Dylan plopped into the seat across the table. “Hey, sweetheart.”

I glanced at Dylan. He didn’t look drunk… “Look, Dylan—”

“Oh, the Ice Queen does know my name after all.”

“Please don’t.”

“Don’t? Don’t what? Talk to you?” Dylan laughed. The boisterous sound caught the attention of a couple of the others, but they went back to what they were doing, leaving Dylan and me alone. “Don’t worry. I’ll behave and not talk about feelings.”

“What do you want?” I whispered. Even having him this close, seeing the anger radiating off him, it hurt my heart more than the phantom pain of my bullet hole scars in my chest.

“I need to know. This is important.”

“Know what?”

He sighed, and the anger seemed to deflate from him, leaving behind a pained expression on his face. “You love me. I know you do. But you won’t let yourself. Why?”

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about feelings.” My voice almost sounded like a stranger’s to my ears. It was rough, and quiet.

“I lied,” he said through clenched teeth.

“It’s too complicated, Dylan,” I said.

“It’s really not.” He sighed. “You’re pushing so hard. Keeping everyone back. But I don’t give a shit about them. I want to know why not me? When I know that you feel the same way, why not me?”

“Oh, Dylan…” I let out a long shaky breath. He really didn’t know what he did to me. “If it could be anyone that I loved, it would be you in a heartbeat. I can’t let myself.”

“Why not? Because not loving, not being human worked out so well for your mentor?” he snorted and pushed himself to his feet. The chair fell backward in the process. All conversation in the room ceased. Dylan’s anger suffocated me, enveloped and wrapped around my lungs, my heart, anything it could touch. He seemed to notice he’d attracted attention, his eyes casing the room briefly before they settled back on my. When he spoke again, he leaned over the table, his voice dangerously low. “You have a fucked up view, Cadence Long. But dumb sap that I am, I’ma still be here, whenever you decide to unfuck it.”