“…or walk into their trap.” Pushing away from the table, Brad rubbed his arm. The stitches in his shoulder had to be itching. Sachi had checked the bandaging and her handiwork on the new stitches after their shower. Prowling through the lodge to the windows, he studied the white painted landscape beyond. Sachi had been gone for an hour, but Merc was with her.
She was fine.
“If you’re thinking we go, check it out, and trip the trap,” Gabriel mused aloud, “I’ve been considering the same thing.”
“Could be a wild goose chase.” Brad’s tone betrayed no emotion.
“Yes.”
“Could be a mistake. We’ve walked into traps before, thinking we knew what the op was.”
Gabriel nodded. He’d considered that possibility as well. “Yes.”
“Whatever we do, she has to be in the middle of it.” Folding his arms, Brad seemed to retreat into himself. The transformation, so similar to Sachi’s submergence into a role, gave Gabriel further insight into the other man. Who’d taught whom that trick?
“She is the best suited to be herself, and if we can lure out the asshole behind this little distraction and deal with it, we’re all free to go home.” Free to get back to work.
“Free to hunt Red Wolf.” Something cold rolled through those words. Hatred was too weak a word. Brad pivoted and faced him, wearing a smile completely at odds with his words. “Or we get a tan and more frustration.”
“Feels right.” He couldn’t tell him why, or even point to the evidence and say whom they wanted was on that beach in the Caribbean. The more he turned the idea over in his head, the more it seemed right.
“You win in five moves,” Brad said, grabbing his jacket, then tossing Gabriel his. “Talk to me while I smoke. I need to think this through.”
“Which part? The beach, or putting Sachi out there?”
The other man paused and frowned. “How the fuck do you do that?”
“Do what?” Rising, he pulled on his coat and kept his expression bland. It drove Sachi nuts, too. But the likeness between the two, the shared habits, the careful phrasing, and the deflections—Brad and Sachi were two sides of the same coin. No wonder they were combustible together.
Scowling, Brad jerked open the door and let in a whoosh of icy air. “Anticipating my reactions and what the fuck I’m thinking. It’s annoying.”
He was good at his job, and it turned out to have a huge payoff in his life. “Maybe you’re an open book.” Outside, he leaned against the railing and stared down the trail Sachi had jogged off on earlier. Snow up to their asses, yet she went running. God, he loved her.
“Maybe you’re an asshole.” Brad made it sound like a compliment.
“Could be. Stop trying to change the subject. If we want this settled before she’s back, we discuss it now.” He’d never lie to her, never hold her back, and he trusted her abilities, but he refused to risk her on a fool’s errand. He and Brad had to be on the exact same page before they involved her.
“Not changing the subject, just not liking the idea. A bulletproof vest on a beach is impossible. While she’s the best person for the job, all it takes is a sniper with a rifle and it’s game over.” On that, they agreed. “Rather just fucking handle it myself.”
“That’s nice. You handled shit by yourself for three years. You can go back to that, but if you do? Don’t come looking for her again.” The line in the sand—or snow, as it were—was nonnegotiable.
The lighter in his hand flared as Brad touched the flame to the end of his cigar. He puffed twice, sucking the heat into the tobacco and stared at Gabriel. “That sounded like a threat.”
“It’s a fact. Sachi and I have rules. We don’t lie. We don’t leave each other out. We accept each other for exactly who we are. She will have missions. She’ll do them. I’ll back her on site or by waiting for her…but we don’t lie. We don’t leave anyone behind. You can do things your way, run solo, play the Ghost. If that’s what you want, you can do it. I’m not kidding, however, I will fight you returning, and I will win.”No games. No playing. “I opened the door to you. I’m good with you being here. I’m not good with you fucking her over again.”Ever. In any existence. “We’re on the same page with this, or we’re done before we take another step.”
Another puff of the cigar, then Brad nodded slowly. Ice frosted in his eyes, but he gave a tight smile. “Good to know where we stand. I’ve spent three years being a Ghost, whether I liked it or not. Risking her is not something I’m comfortable with—a fact Titanium used whenever they sent her on missions, they made sure I was somewhere else.”
Which explained his absence in Vegas. “She is who she is. No one puts her in a cage—not Chrome, not Titanium, not us. Deal?”
Blowing a stream of smoke toward the overhang on the porch, Brad nodded. “Deal, though you may have to call me on it from time to time.”
“No problem.” Gabriel studied the landscape, then checked his watch. What the fuck was taking her normal forty-five to sixty minute run so long?
“Ten minutes, then we go look for her.”Brad’s turn to read my mind.
“Agreed.”
Then they stared at the trail and waited.