“So, you were here when the Feds went to your place on Wednesday?” Luke asked.
“Yeah.”
“Why have your neighbor lie and say you took off from your home only after the news broke the story that you were a suspect?” Knox holstered his gun at the sight of Luke stowing his Sig.
“Because I was hoping that’d trigger some sort of alarm for the Feds, so they’d wonder why I waited to run until then.”
Well, it worked. “You saw your neighbor talk to the Secret Service that day then?”
He nodded. “Then I saw the same agent on the news with you guys at the truck station yesterday. I figured you guys were solid since you took down Ike.”
“And who do you think leaked your name to the press?” He wasn’t sure if he was prepared to buy the story yet.
“I don’t know. Maybe Ike thought it’d help draw me out to find me quicker.” He shrugged.
“So, how’d Chelsea die?” Knox asked. “If Ike killed her, why wait almost forty-eight hours after she let you go to do it?”
“I killed her.” His brows drew together.
Knox began to reach for his gun, but Aaron held up a palm.
“Not literally, but if I hadn’t convinced her to let me go, Ike probably wouldn’t have hurt her.”
“So what the hell happened?” Knox’s shoulders relaxed a touch.
“I’d been keeping an eye on her. I saw the FBI pick her up for questioning, then I stayed outside her place that night. I hoped Ike had bought her story about me, but I wanted to make certain she was okay.”
“But when you saw one of the police cars leave that morning you couldn’t resist talking to her, right?” Knox brought his hands into prayer position and tapped them at his lips as it all came together.
He closed his eyes. The true burden of guilt now showing. “Ike was probably worried Chelsea lied. He used her as bait to draw me out to test his theory. I was helping Chelsea pack her bags when he came through the back door. We fought, then he knocked me over the head with a lamp, and when I came to, she was already dead. My knife in her back.” His eyes grew glossy.
“If Ike cared about Chelsea and saw her helping you as a sign of betrayal—the strangulation and knife weren’t only to frame you,” Luke said. “A crime of passion, too.”
“I know it’s crazy that I’m sad over her death when she played a role in trying to kill your father, but I loved her. I’m sorry.”
“Sometimes love can make you crazy,” Knox admitted.
“He had the gun to my back, trying to get me to leave when I heard you guys hit the buzzer. I dropped to my knees, refusing to leave.” He glanced at Knox. “He wanted to kill me right then, but he had orders to keep me alive.”
“Until my dad was dead so he could frame you for his murder?”
“He said I was lucky they didn’t have time to find someone else to pin the murder on, and that was the only reason he didn’t double-tap me.”
“What happened next?” Luke asked.
“Since you showed up, and I wouldn’t leave with him, he had to take off.” Aaron stood, and Luke stepped back to give him space. “I was going to stay, but she was dead, and it was his fault. And I wanted him to die for it.”
“So, you grabbed your knife and ran. Why fight A.J.?” Knox asked.
“I had no idea whose side he was on. A.J. had been in BUD/S with us, and I wasn’t sure if he was friends with Ike and part of it.”
Luke lifted a hand to his ear. “You getting this?”
“Yeah,” Asher replied. “Calling Jessica now.”
“Do you have any idea who else Ike could be working with?” Knox asked. “Chelsea and Ike were part of the Liberation Defense Force. What can you tell me about them?”
His eyes stretched. “She was in the militia, too?” He slumped back onto the bed in surprise.
“You didn’t know?” Knox cocked his head.
“No, she didn’t tell me, but now I understand why I was chosen.”
“Why is that?” Luke asked.
“The group was pissed I left. You don’t exactly turn your back on them, and they said I’d pay eventually.”
“Why’d you leave?” Knox asked.
“Ike pushed me to join. He’d said it’d be like being in the Navy again. The friendships and stuff, and I missed that. But they were a bunch of angry government-hating people. Wannabe killers. No bonfires and beers like Ike promised.”
“You’re saying the laid-back attitude is a sham?” Luke asked.
And shit, what would Roman be walking into tonight?
“I think it’s an act to keep the ATF off their back,” he replied. “But hell, their perimeter might look weak, but it’s booby-trapped with land mines.”
His words had Knox’s spine bowing. Roman was minutes from making contact.
“Bravo Three,” Luke said in a rush. “Tell Jessica to order Echo Team to stand down until further notice. Do you copy?”
“Copy that,” Asher said abruptly.
“You’ve already been cleared of the assassination attempt,” Knox told Aaron. “Sarah confirmed Ike took the shot. But the Feds aren’t convinced you didn’t play a part, especially given you all have a history together. And innocent people usually don’t run.”
“We can’t turn him over to the Feds before we clear his name,” Luke said. “Our best chance to take down the militia is to surprise them, and if they know Aaron’s been taken in, they’ll go underground, and we may lose the chance to find out who hired them.”
“You think the militia even knows who hired them?” Knox couldn’t help but ask.
“Maybe not directly, but I think they’re our best shot at finding out.” Luke averted his attention back to Aaron when he stood and crossed the room to the desk.
“They may have changed the compound since I was there, but I had to memorize every square inch of that property, so I didn’t get blown to hell. I can draw you a map of sorts. I assume you’re thinking to infil at some point. I’d go, but you probably won’t be able to get me across state lines.”
“Yeah, thank you,” Luke replied.
But would they be able to get onto that property and without it turning into a blood bath? Operations in the U.S. were a logistical nightmare. Maybe if they used rubber ammo . . .
“Aaron, we’re trusting you to stay put here, okay?” Luke kept his voice firm. “You’re not planning on heading to the hospital and killing Ike out of revenge, are you?”
Shit, why hadn’t Knox thought about that? If anyone ever so much as touched Adriana, he’d end them.
“I want you to find the pricks who are responsible for Chelsea’s death.”
“Doesn’t mean you don’t want Ike dead,” Luke said. “Don’t make me regret trusting you.”
Aaron focused back on his notepad and Knox wasn’t sure what to say, but he also didn’t want to leave one of their people behind to babysit, and they couldn’t exactly take Aaron with them.
“Bravo One, this is Three. You copy?” Asher came over the line.
“Copy, this is One,” Luke replied.
“We have a situation. We didn’t reach Echo Team in time. Echo Four has already made contact. He’s gone inside.”
Luke’s eyes widened.
“Do we send the boys in after him?” Asher asked, and Luke pivoted his attention to Knox as if not sure what the hell to do right now.
“They’ll be outnumbered,” Luke replied. “Is Echo Four’s cam working? Do we have eyes and ears inside?”
“One sec.” Asher disappeared from the line for a minute.
“We could put up a drone if we have to,” Knox said before Asher returned on the line.
“Roman’s talking to someone,” he began, “and I think they’re buying it. But I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.”
* * *
Knox glimpsed his phone as he hurried up the stairwell to get to the hotel suite and meet up with Jessica.
Adriana: Your father
is secure. We’re all set here. I’ll call you when I can.
She was on a government phone, and so he couldn’t mention Aaron or anything he’d learned. He gave her a burner phone before she’d left so she could call him when she had a second alone. But seconds were turning into hours. Well, it felt like it, at least.
“My dad’s at the hotel. Safe for now.”
“Some good news, at least,” Luke said, unlocking the door to the suite.
Asher blew past them and hurried to Jessica as if she was the one infiltrating the militia in Texas, not Roman. He practically crushed her against him as he pulled her into his arms.
“What do we know?” Liam asked once Asher released her, and she pivoted the laptop around to showcase the screen.
“I’m sharing Harper’s screen,” she said. “Roman’s okay. It looks like the militia bought his story. If they run a background check on him, the alias I created should hold up.”
“Are we sure they’re buying it and not just letting him think they bought it?” Unease burrowed in the pit of Knox’s stomach. If anything happened to Roman . . .
“Let’s hope so,” she said, worry in her eyes.
“But we’re not going to rely on hope,” Luke said. “You get our tickets to Dallas?”
“Yeah.” Jessica checked her watch. “You have an hour to get to the airport.”
“I hate leaving you.” Asher gripped both her shoulders.
“We can’t exactly leave behind a case full of weapons in the hotel room. And the airline frowns upon rifles being brought on board.” A small smile touched her lips. “I can stay here and work.” She glanced at her brother. “If shit goes south for Roman, what will you do?”
“Private property. American soil. The guys at the compound would have every right to defend themselves if we go in, and we could end up on the wrong side of the jail bars for it,” Luke began, slowly making eye contact with everyone in the room, probably remembering their fallen brother Marcus, who’d gone in alone on an op and died years ago. “But I don’t give a damn as long as we bring our brother out alive.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“How are you holding up?” Adriana asked Knox over her cell phone. Knox had startled her awake with his call at three in the morning, but she’d hid her sleepy voice the best she could so he didn’t feel bad about waking her.
“I hate not being with the team,” he grumbled.
She dropped her eyes closed at the gritty texture of his tone—the pain there. “They needed you to stay back for a reason, right? Help with the case. Plus, it’s good you’re with Jessica. She’s pregnant and shouldn’t be alone.”
A crackling came over the line from a deep breath. “This is my fight, too. I should be with them. We can’t lose someone else.”
“‘Someone else’?” She sat upright with open eyes. “Who’d you lose? And why don’t I know about it?”
These were the parts of his life he’d kept from her as if he needed to protect her from the truth. To prevent her from worrying even more than she already did when he was working.
Her insides hurt. Everything hurt.
And she wanted to weep for him. Weep about a loss that must’ve shredded him.
Her stomach dropped as she traveled back to the past—to the moment he may have been referring to.
He’d shown up at her doorstep. His eyes had been bloodshot. Booze on his breath. “Can I crash at your place for a few days?” He’d stumbled into her apartment in D.C., a brown bag in hand, and he’d barely made it to her couch before passing out.
And when he’d woken, he’d grabbed the bottle again.
She’d called out of work sick, afraid to leave his side.
He’d drunk himself into oblivion those few days—barely talking.
The only time she’d seen someone drink himself, practically to death, had been when her father lost her mom.
How had she not realized Knox had lost someone close to him? He’d been drunk before but not that kind of drunk. The kind that’s meant to obliterate the deep, cutting pain of a monumental loss until you gather the strength to deal with it. If you ever do.
“I wasn’t allowed to talk about it,” he said after a few moments of silence. “Still not. But . . . a friend on my team, well, he died.”
She let his words sink in, wondering how many other dark and painful stories he’d held back over the years. Not allowed to talk about it? Whose orders?
“I wish you’d told me so I could’ve helped.” She moved off the bed and went to the window and peeked between the blinds and up at the sky. No stars in sight. Her mother’s star wasn’t visible, and she needed that star right now.
“Marcus died on an operation,” he admitted slowly. “The, uh, details weren’t made public.”
“What kind of operation? I don’t understand.”
Knox had never even shared the names of everyone he’d worked with in the last seven years. A few had slipped into their conversation here and there. Jessica. Luke, of course. Wyatt. Liam. It wasn’t until the barbecue she’d met the entire crew. Well, except for Luke and Eva, who’d been traveling at the time.
“We almost lost Liam last year, too,” he said instead of answering her question, and there was a slight slur to his voice she hadn’t picked up on before.
Lost Liam? Liam was a parent. A husband.
“Jessica, too.”
His words had her stomach shriveling to nothing. Pain darting in crisscross patterns inside of her.
“A lot of close calls, but we can’t lose anyone else.” Emotion broke down his words into practically nothing, and—oh, God—was he crying? “You mind opening up? I probably shouldn’t be drunk in the hall.”
Her heart jumped at his words, and she whirled around and rushed to the door and swung it open.
He was sitting outside her room. A familiar brown bag in one hand and a burner—a cheap flip phone—in the other.
“I’m not your father,” he said as she crouched before him. She held his face between her palms. “I don’t have a drinking—”
“Shhh. I know.” Tears hit her face as she leaned in and pressed her mouth to his. He returned her kiss with a lazy, whiskey-flavored one. “What are you doing here?” she asked when pulling back.
“Jessica decided we should stick close to my dad.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I-I don’t know.” His eyebrows pulled together, and she helped him stand. “I should be with Jessica and working, but Roman’s okay right now. Asleep at the compound.”
Once in the room, she took the bottle and phone from him and set the items on her dresser.
“But I have a bad feeling.” His free hand converted to a fist, and he pressed it to his abdomen. “Right here, you know?” His eyes were barely open as he spoke, and she guided him to her bed. “I need to be with the team,” he whispered as she unlaced his black sneakers and pulled them off. “I need to be with them,” he said again.
“And they need you here to protect your dad. Find who is after him. You’re helping from here,” she tried to remind him. “Your dad needs you, too. Your mom.” Still kneeling before him, she held both his hands between hers. Her lip quivered, her heart breaking for him.
He pulled his hands free from her grasp and tucked her hair behind her ears. “Are you mad at me?”
“Why would I ever be mad at you?” Hurt for keeping things from me, but not mad.
“I’ve been lying to you for so long.” His hands fell onto the bed at his sides. “I’m so sorry. I was scared if you knew how dangerous my job was you’d be afraid to . . . I’m so damn sorry, Addy. There’s so much I need to tell you and—”
“Stop,” she begged. “If you want to tell me the truth, you’re going to have to do it when you’re sober. I won’t let you do this now. You kept a secret from me for a reason.” She palmed his cheek. “No liquid courage, okay?” It had to be that way.
“I need to get back to Jessica, but maybe I can close my eyes for a
second.” He started to shift to his back when he paused. “Damn those PJs of yours,” he murmured before passing out.
The man had been running with barely any sleep since Tuesday. It was no wonder he was out of it right now. Probably more tired than drunk. But, of course, he’d noticed her yellow cami and matching shorts.
She shifted him all the way onto the bed then searched his pants pockets for his room key.
After covering him, she changed and left the room for Jessica’s suite.
“Is Knox with you?” Jessica asked the second she saw Adriana on the other side of the door. “I was in the bathroom changing, and when I came out, he was gone. I’ve been calling his phone, but it’s off. Tried his burner—no answer.”
“He’s asleep on my bed. I wasn’t sure if you knew where he was, so I thought I’d stop by.”
Jessica’s shoulders slumped with relief. “Thank you.” She motioned her inside. “Is he okay?”
“He’s been drinking. I don’t even know where he got the bottle at this time of night, but he’s finally sleeping, and I don’t think he’s slept since the shooting, so . . .”
“Thank you. I’m glad we came here.” She sat at the desk, a similar setup to the hotel back in Charlotte. “I knew he’d feel better if we were near you. He’s not used to being pulled from, um, cases.”
“He’s thinking about Marcus, too.” She sat on the couch and kept her gaze steady on Jessica, noticing the slight twitch to Jessica’s lips at the mention of the name. “He’s worried about Roman.”
Jessica pulled her focus from the screen to Adriana at her words but didn’t speak.
“He didn’t tell me anything, don’t worry.”
Jessica fidgeted with the knot of her ponytail as if not sure what to say.
“He’s sad. It’s been a hell of a week. Maybe you should be asleep, too?”
“I slept in the car on the way here, and right now, I’m monitoring Roman’s live camera feeds. Harper will take over soon when she wakes up.”
“When do the guys meet up with the rest of the team?” Knox had filled her in on everything that’d gone down with Aaron before Luke and the others had flown to Texas. Only, Knox had left out the part about him heading to Atlanta.
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