“Tag might well want me dead,” Rick says, “but Gabriel didn’t hire Tag. He might have tried but Tag isn’t that stupid. Tag was a key player in that black ops program. He’d have dirt on Gabriel like no one else would. If Gabriel wants anyone gone, it’s Tag. And Tag won’t sit back and wait for an attack. He goes for the throat. That’s his way. He kills you. Before you kill him. And so, he sent me.”
“To kill Gabriel,” I say. “It makes sense. Maybe he plans to use me as leverage. You kill Gabriel and I survive. Someone else does it and I don’t?”
“We don’t know that,” Smith interjects. “Tag hasn’t given him his orders. Everything is an assumption.”
I blanch. “He hasn’t given you the target?”
“He hasn’t,” Rick confirms. “But it’s Gabriel. I’d bet my right arm on it.”
I frown. “I feel like I’m missing something.” I try to put it all together. “If Gabriel doesn’t know you, why pursue me? It can’t be a coincidence that he chose me, when I was engaged to you in the past. And I can’t believe he chose me to control my father. My father would have warned me away from him.”
Rick’s lips thin. “The way he warned you about me?”
“He obviously didn’t know your story, Rick. And he must not have known Gabriel’s until I was already involved with him.”
“Right,” Rick says, motioning to the table. “Let’s dig in and find the dirt on Gabriel to put him in jail.” He walks to the table, grabs one of the briefcases and moves to a chair by the fireplace. He doesn’t look at me.
There’s something I still don’t know. Something Rick still doesn’t want to tell me. Something that not even Adam dares to push him to reveal.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Savage
I sit in that chair and will myself to stay in it.
Let’s dig in and find the dirt on Gabriel to put him in jail.
Who the fuck even said that? Am I a boy scout now? No. I’m not. Nor have I ever been a fucking boy scout. I don’t want to dig in and put Gabriel in jail. I want to dig his grave and shove him inside. And her father damn sure knows who and what I am. He created me.
He obviously didn’t know my story, my ass. Holy fuck, I’ve tried to spare Candace her father’s involvement in all of this, but right then, I wanted to tell Candace he created me. He molded me. He made me. But telling her that right now, while pissed off, would be like jamming a square into a circular hole. I’d make it fit but it would be painful as fuck.
Thus the boy scout shit that spewed from my mouth.
“So that’s the plan?” Candace challenges. “Put him in jail?”
I glance over at her, my defenses prickling like Spidey senses. “Would you rather me kill him?”
“I don’t think you can do that,” she says primly.
I arch a brow. “And why is that?”
“You’re acting like such an ass,” she says, “that I’m going to kill you before you get the chance.”
Adam and Smith laugh and just that easily, she’s smashed my anger. God, I love this woman and as much as I’m pissed at Adam for telling my story for me, he was right. With all she’s got going on, with all she has to fear, she needed to hear it. That’s in the air right fucking now. “Is that right?” I challenge.
“Oh, it’s so right,” she assures me. “Stop acting like a little bitch.” And then she snubs me with a look at Adam. “What can I do to help?”
“Just to be clear,” I say, “she’s the only one who gets away with that. And that’s because she smells pretty. You two bastards might act pretty, but you don’t smell pretty.”
Adam leans toward her with a conspiratorial reply. “Don’t kill him yet. We need him to make contact with Tag. In the meantime, you can look through the documents we pulled from Gabriel’s hard drive.”
“Oh,” she says. “You pulled documents from his drive? You’re very resourceful.”
“You have no idea just how resourceful,” Adam assures her.
“That’s comforting,” she says. “Because Gabriel was so high up the CIA ladder that his resources run deep. Especially overseas, where my father is now.”
“We’re there,” I quickly assure her and when she looks at me, I add, “We’ll get to him. We’ll protect him, but based on that text you copied and showed me, he’s safe for now. Gabriel wants you locked in before he goes after your father.”
She nods. “I should call and check on him. I need to make him feel like I’m still all in.”
My jaw clenches and the rejection is on my tongue when Smith jumps in with, “She’s right. I’m reading through data on this guy. He’s a bastard.”