Lost in Shadows (31 page)
Billy entered her office, followed by Hollywood, and she sat up.
“It’s over,” Billy announced, the grin on his face saying everything Rose needed to know. “We got them all.”
“Anyone hurt?”
“A few LEO’s in Bumlick, Idaho—”
“Cowslip,” Hollywood corrected.
“Rolled their vehicle in their rush to get on scene first. Nothing serious. And some DEA guy in Phoenix discharged his weapon in an unsafe manner.”
Rose raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Shot his partner in the—ah—posterior,” Hollywood explained. “Other than the Guard pilot, that’s it for the good guys. The bad guys, we’re still counting. A few of the hard-core groups—one Al-Qaeda cell, a Crusade compound—decided to go the suicide route. We’ll have more details in a little while.”
“Thanks, Hollywood. Why don’t you go round up the troops?” Rose waited until he had left, then turned her attention onto Billy. “They all did good work today. These last few days. Wish there was some way to really thank them.”
Her people didn’t get paid overtime, much less hazard pay. How could they when on paper, they all held boring, inconsequential jobs far from the action?
Billy shrugged, his gaze locked onto hers as he moved closer to her desk. She saw the disapproval in his expression.
“Thanks for taking care of business while I was detained,” she continued.
His lips tightened. Had he been worried? About her? Rose could take care of herself. Billy Price knew that better than anyone.
“I need to know that you won’t do something like that again,” he started. “Rose, I can’t work in the dark. You have to trust me—”
“I trust you, Billy. To do what needs to be done. There’s no one else that I would trust my people with. Which is why I couldn’t tell you—if things had turned sour, we both could have been arrested for treason. The Team has to come first.”
“Don’t give me that plausible deniability crap. You knew I’d argue with you, tell you how incredibly stupid it was to let The Preacher go, just to save one woman.”
But they both knew that between her and Lucky they had saved far more than one woman. The location of the chlorine tankers hadn’t been included on the hard disk. If Rose hadn’t followed her instincts, thousands would now be dead.
She said nothing, merely held Billy’s gaze, waiting. Rose wanted to keep working with this man, felt that together they made for an unstoppable team. But he had to decide for himself.
Billy blew his breath out, edged his hip onto the corner of her desk, ignoring the stack of surveillance photos that went sprawling. The fact that he didn’t immediately straighten them into a nice, neatly squared stack spoke worlds about how upset he was. Rose braced herself, hoping that he wasn’t about to offer his resignation.
“I would have told you,” he continued, “that just like sending KC and Chase after Lucky earlier, you were being sentimental, that it was too risky. And,” he leaned toward her across the desk, “I would have been absolutely correct. But I also would have been dead wrong. We could have lost everything.” A frown creased his brow. “How the hell did you know? That The Preacher was on that mountain? That he would lead Lucky to those tankers?”
Rose knew a man like Billy would never understand the logic behind her illogical choices, but she owed him an explanation.
“I just put a lot of little pieces together. That area’s always been a Crusade hot spot. Lucky’s too smart to let a routine small-time bust go that bad. He would’ve cut out at the first sign of trouble. But Tillburn was a cowboy, had a history of risk taking. And after what happened last month, I knew if Lucky’s cover was blown, there was a good chance The Preacher would go after him in person. A man like that takes any insult to his ego very personally.”
“And Lucky surviving last month was worse than an insult.” Billy nodded his understanding.
“Right. After we captured The Preacher and I saw him in person, I realized that he had to have a back-up plan. Probably something so catastrophic that he’d keep it hidden from all but a few followers. He’d never allow himself to fade into memory, a footnote in history. His goal from the start was front-page headlines. For him it was either conquer the world or be the creator of its Armageddon.”
“That’s not what the psych evals said. You got all that meeting the guy for what, a minute or so? And decided to trash the experts’ opinions?” He shook his head. “Sounds like voodoo to me. But I can’t argue with the results.”
He stood and stretched. “Lucky and his friend are tucked in. I comped it to my dad’s company, so that’s one expense we won’t have to justify to the bean counters.”
Rose was relieved he’d changed the subject. He was going to stay. And hopefully continue to keep her on her toes. She enjoyed their sparring contests more than she cared to admit. She stood, joined him. “KC called. They won’t let Chase try crutches for a few days. He’s already driving everyone crazy. I think after we finish here, and I go talk with the Guard pilot’s family, I’ll drive over there.”
“Gonna see that long-haired, hippy freak again?”
Was Billy Price jealous? Surely not. And of Shunderson of all people. Rose almost laughed. “Mitch? Might run into him, why?”
“Think I’ll go with you. I didn’t get a chance to talk to KC or Chase this morning.”
“Isn’t Senator Payne expecting you?”
He stopped, turned back in the doorway, his gaze settling on her face like a laser target. “You really don’t like her. Why?”
“Nonsense. What makes you say that?” Rose brushed past him into the hallway.
“She’s one of the few people you don’t call by her first name.”
“She’s a US Senator, Billy. Where I come from, it’s called respect.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Look, I’m just tired and frustrated, that’s all.” Rose stopped outside the closed door of the conference room where everyone else was gathered. Thank goodness for soundproofing, she really didn’t want her people overhearing any of this.
“Frustrated? Rose, you just pulled off the biggest intelligence coup in history. Saved literally millions of lives. What the hell are you frustrated about?”
His hand rose to rest on her shoulder. It was a friendly gesture, one she’d seen him do with any of the Team, but tonight she felt grateful for his warm presence. As if she wasn’t alone in the darkness, had someone to help lead her back.
“
We
just saved millions of people,” she corrected him. “And I’ve got the feeling that we’re only peeling away layers. Like an onion. And at the center is a stinky, rotten ball of slime.”
Billy was silent for a moment. “The Preacher wasn’t working alone.”
“No. I don’t think he could have forged all those connections by himself, not in the time frame he had.”
He moved his hand away. Rose missed his touch. He leaned against the wall opposite her, his expression grim.
“You’re thinking someone connected helped him.”
“I’m thinking that every time we get close, somehow our ops get compromised. There’s a leak somewhere and it’s higher than even I dare to imagine.”
Billy pursed his lips in a silent whistle. He nodded to the conference room door where their people celebrated with stale pizza and ginger ale instead of champagne. “You gonna tell them?”
She shook her head, her gaze moving to the group of laughing men and women visible through the window in the door. “Not tonight. Not until I know more about what’s going on.”
He nodded and reached to open the door. Then he stopped, his body tensing as he turned back to her, and she knew his mind had wandered down the same dark paths as hers.
“Rose,” his voice dropped to a low murmur, “you’re not thinking one of our guys—that one of the Team—could be a traitor. Are you?”
She tried to ignore the knot tightening in her belly as he voiced her greatest fear.
“Not tonight, Billy. We’ll talk about it in the morning.” She nodded to the window. “We’ve all earned a night off.”
Rose moved past him and opened the door. The smile on her face was genuine as she greeted her Team. But it did little to quiet the apprehension churning her gut.
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Hart and Drake Romantic Suspense Series:
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Shadow Ops, Romantic Thrillers:
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AJ Palladino Suspense Series (co-written with Erin Brockovich):
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