Devil's Tango (Running with the Devil Book 1)

by Claire J Monroe

  “By laying it out in simple words stated as simple facts that don’t fuck with my head.”

  Black scoffed at that. “Whatever. You know what you need to do. Laurel stays hidden until I say otherwise. When the threat to her is negated, then and only then will I consider letting her go back to her husband.”

  Tango frowned. “She can’t stay hidden forever.”

  “Can’t she,” Black countered. “She has a son. His name is Jason and is my son’s best friend. I won’t let Sinclair’s fucked up agenda touch what’s mine. That shit is non-negotiable.”

  And now he got the real reason behind Michael Black’s uncharacteristic angst. “We’re family. We protect our own. I got it. But, Michael, as soon as the threat to her is identified and removed, she goes back to where she belongs.”

  A muscle worked in Black’s jaw as he chewed on that thought. “Clean up your mess with the suit, deal with Bravo’s shit, and I’ll consider reevaluating the situation.”

  “You’ll do more than consider it,” Tango replied in an equally even tone.

  “Hopeless fucking romantic,” Black muttered as he took the file and tablet from Tango, then turned and started walking toward the edge of the porch. His shoulders jerked and black wings sprouted from his back. “Keep Bravo clear of Sinclair and Delta team, Gabriel. I’ll be back in the morning after I’ve got Andrei’s report.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Tango watched as Black leapt into the air and flew off. Once he was sure Black was out of range, he slapped a hand to his forehead and slid it over his face. This day needed to end. “Fuck me. I did not need that. Fox, erase any video of this meeting then meet me in the war room. And be alone.”

  Once inside he found Fox at the computer and Lily-pup next to him at his feet. “It’s erased.”

  Tango nodded. “Good. The others down for the night?”

  “They are.” Fox’s usually subdued alpha half started to rise. “Should I pretend I didn’t hear anything and go to bed or are you going to explain, Gabriel?”

  “Can’t explain what I haven’t finished processing, Boone,” Tango said, calling Fox by his real name, Boone Fields. He dropped into the chair next to Fox. “We’re fucked. There’s no way I can protect my wife, protect Bravo, and recover the suit.”

  “That’ll be hard given that Caliv sent word while you were out back. Delta team will be here in less than twelve hours.”

  “Of course they will,” Tango muttered. “Because them not being here would be way too convenient. Shit.”

  Fox folded his arms across his chest and leaned back in his chair. “You have a plan?”

  “Hell no, I don’t have a plan.” Tango thought about it for a minute. “Other than protect Maddie. Recover the suit. While protecting Maddie and not dying. That about sums it up.”

  “What about Bravo? He included in this ‘protect your own’ shit you and Black keep spouting? Or is he like me and not worthy of being read in on your real agenda?”

  “Shit.” Having to deal with a pissed off wolf was easy compared to dealing with one that had insecurity issues like Fox’s. Something that Tango had known from the git-go would be a problem and went out of his way to manage, but there was no way in hell he could avoid having a conversation to soothe the wolf’s fur and feeling. Tango rubbed his tired eyes, then dragged his hand down his face. “I’m tired of the games, Boone. Yes, I work for Sinclair. Didn’t tell you because I was ordered not to disclose it to the team and disobeying a direct order from the puppet master himself is not always conducive to living.”

  “I get that but why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Why didn’t you punch me when I walked in the door,” Tango countered.

  Fox frowned, confused. “What?”

  “Answer the question. Why didn’t you punch me the moment I stepped into this room?”

  “I don’t know. Did you want me to?”

  Tango shook his head. “Trust, Boone. I had your trust and didn’t want to break it.”

  Fox looked even more confused. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Yeah it does because your wolf trusts me.”

  One look at Fox’s disbelieving face and Tango’s hope of wrapping this up quickly evaporated. “Look, when I found you, you were a lost mangy mutt that wouldn’t let your human side out no matter how peaceful the situation.”

  “That’s what happens when you spend your whole life being hunted by the shifter council. It was the only way I felt safe.”

  “Understood, but you did shift human.”

  “Well, yeah, because you made me.”

  Tango shook his head. “I didn’t make you. You chose to do it because you wanted the food on the table not the canned stuff on the floor.”

  “Same difference.”

  “Bullshit. You made the choice to go human because I earned your wolf’s trust by actions, not words.”

  “Maybe,” Fox hedged.

  “No maybe about it. I worked my ass off to earn your respect and you know there’s not a damn thing I’d do to break it.”

  “Other than lie to me about who you work for and your name.”

  Tango let that one roll off his back. “Actions, not words, Boone. Remember that. Your wolf does.”

  “My wolf has issues and a split personality disorder. You can’t judge anything by him.”

  “Bullshit. Your wolf knows which way the wind blows and he knows I have your back no matter what. I’ve proven that time and time again.”

  “Then why did you lie to me? Why couldn’t you tell me the truth?”

  The truth? Really? After everything he’d been through today, Fox wanted—no demanded—the truth and to be read in when he’d freaking listened to every goddamn word that Black had given him on the porch? That was the last straw and Tango snapped.

  “Because I fucked up,” Tango roared. “Is that what you want to hear, Boone? I tried and failed to do the right thing by you. By Maddie. By my own child that I didn’t even know existed and lost!”

  Admitting that out loud hurt like a son of a bitch but he wasn’t done. Not by a long shot. “You’re not the only one who doesn’t know my real name, Boone. Maddie doesn’t and you know what she’s gonna do when she finds out I lied to her? She will leave me. She will pack her shit and walk the fuck out of my life then lose our babies and there isn’t a goddamn thing I can do about it other than what I’ve already done by my actions and NOT words!”

  “She won’t leave you,” Fox replied in a calm voice.

  “You don’t know that!”

  “Yeah, I do and if you weren’t so damn tired you’d see it, too. Maddie didn’t ditch you when you divorced her. She made a commitment, Tango. Same commitment as you.”

  “That commitment won’t mean shit when she realizes I lied to her about everything including my real name.”

  “She will be pissed and rightly so, but she won’t run.”

  Tango wanted to believe that. Truly he did, but he couldn’t because it’d give him hope and that was damn dangerous to have when he was a man holding back a darkness so scary that he couldn’t even bring himself to fully open up to her and let her see it.

  Fox shook his head. “Face it, Tango. You’re stuck with your true mate forever and a day. She’ll stick around if only to beat a lifetime’s worth of apologies out of you.”

  “I want to believe you.”

  “Then do,” Fox said. “Maddie isn’t half as skittish as my wolf and I’m still here.”

  “For now, but how long will that last?”

  “As long as I’m breathing.” Fox smirked. “We’re pack, Tango. Nobody messes with pack. Other than pack.” He laid a hand on Lily’s neck and absently stroked her fur. “But there is one thing Black didn’t mention that makes me think he doesn’t know.”

  Tango tensed. “What?”

  Fox looked up. “Bravo’s been hunting the same thing Chase Maitland’s after. He knows the world believes he was behind his step sister’s abduction and he’s h
ell bent on clearing his name.”

  “He tell you this?”

  “Not at first, but after he met Daisy? Yeah.” Fox looked up. “She’s his true mate.”

  “When the hell did that happen and why wasn’t I told?”

  “Because what happens at Oak Haven stays at Oak Haven,” Fox quoted.

  Oak Haven was a project that Bravo, Dell, and Fox had put together to help victims of domestic abuse and sex trafficking. It was a safe haven for women and children only that his three soldiers funded on their own and spared no expense to make sure the tenants in their sprawling, secure apartment complex got every advantage they could to turn their lives around and start over. That included hiring live in social workers to help oversee the day to day operation and tenants’ health and welfare. Like Daisy Mason. “Daisy is Trace Mason’s niece.”

  “Bravo knows which is why he kept his hands to himself. I asked him why he was holding back and he told me about his step sister. Didn’t give me her name, but everything Black told you matched what Bravo said. He wants to clear his name.”

  “If he finds out Laurel is alive—”

  “He’ll get her and return her to Chase,” Fox finished.

  “Then hunt down everyone involved and kill them.”

  “Yep and it won’t mean a damn thing to him that Black is your foster brother. If Black took Laurel, Bravo will kill him and ask questions later.”

  “Shit.” Fox was right. Bravo saw the world in black and white. It was either right or wrong. No shades of gray existed when it came to doing the right thing by a woman and child. He had no tolerance. No patience. And now with this and Daisy being Bravo’s true mate? That gave Bravo all the motivation he’d need to justify his actions. “Bravo stays in the dark until we know what the hell is really going on and can slow walk him through it before he does something stupid.”

  “Agreed. Let me read Dell in when he wakes up. He’s good at handling Bravo and thinking through this kind of stuff. Besides, we need options.”

  Fox was right. They did need options and a fresh perspective. Along with a full night’s sleep. Decision made, Tango rolled with it. “Do it, but keep Whiskey out of it. I’ll read him in after we have options.”

  “But we will read him in,” Fox stated more than asked.

  “We will.”

  “And we will get the suit and destroy it.”

  “We will.”

  “And you will tell Maddie your real name.”

  Tango hesitated. “I will.”

  “Not good enough,” Fox said. “You gotta say it like you mean it.”

  “I mean it but… damn. She will be pissed.”

  “Pissed? Try livid. But she won’t leave you. If Maddie didn’t move on after the shitty way you divorced her, she won’t leave you after you give her the truth.”

  “It’s not the truth I’m worried about.” Tango paused and thought about it. He wasn’t afraid of the truth. It was the lies and everything else he had to do to make things right between them. At the top of that list was the soul rite and fully opening himself up to her. Trace had warned him to wait to do the soul rite and something in Tango’s gut whole heartedly agreed with him. There was more to it. There had to be.

  Because as much as he craved to mate Maddie and make her fully his, there was an equally determined part of him hell bent on keeping her as far away from the darkness inside him as possible. Could it be his own fears holding him back? Hell yes.

  Except it didn’t feel that way. It felt like the right thing to do. For now.

  Answer found and his conscience okay with it, Tango pushed himself up out of the chair and to his feet. “I will tell my wife when the time is right. But until we know for certain that she won’t miscarry again, there will be no added emotional stress on her plate. That clear?”

  “Understood.”

  Tango waited long enough to visually confirm Fox was onboard with his plan, then waited for his gut to ping back a response that agreed with what he was seeing. Took longer than it probably should have, but he couldn’t blame Fox for that.

  It was his own intuition that was freaking out and causing the delay, because there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that this keep Maddie in the dark plan for the near, undefined future would come back to bite him in the ass. Hard. But if that’s what it took to make sure his wife stayed safe and his sons in the oven… then so fucking be it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Maddie woke up with a start and the answer to an equation she’d been struggling with for the past three weeks. The equation was one of any she’d been tinkering with for a contract she’d accepted from Sinclair several years ago to evaluate the Nexus Suit program for potential future use.

  What potential future use looked like according to Sinclair was anyone’s guess, but, based on what she’d gleaned so far, it had something to do with how Van—when in the suit—had been able to “link up” with the men on his team and “influence” them to align into a cohesive battle ready unit. Something that Sinclair said that Delta team desperately needed.

  And he was right.

  Delta team was broken. From the inside out. Because each of them—Derek, Rafe, and Caliv—were connected to each other telepathically and to their team lead, Chase. Which meant that they lived with nonstop only each other’s thoughts on a daily basis, but also Chase’s mountain of guilt over losing his mate, Laurel.

  And while Rafe and Caliv displayed signs of being able to block out Chase at will… Derek did not and was wide open, all the time, teetering on the edge of insanity, and a nonstop, situational insomniac.

  Derek’s insomnia—coupled with Caliv’s complaints about how it affected the team—had been the original reason why she’d come up with the “nullify the mind monkey” technology. Granted, her original intent had shifted during development after she figured out that she couldn’t shut Derek down—because that would require A-killing him, B-knocking him out, or C-modifying his genetic code to completely eradicate his ability and/or kill him—she had come up with an Option D that was feasible and didn’t require extreme measures.

  Creating small devices that could modify energy frequencies emitted from people, then modulating them slightly so Derek would receive frequencies he couldn’t naturally read.

  Of which there were only seven.

  And considering that Sinclair naturally emitted one of those seven frequencies, Maddie really doubted he wanted her to know that or muck with it. So she went with Option D and it’d worked.

  But it wasn’t enough. Definitely not enough to meet Sinclair’s high standards.

  Especially after he’d pointed out an aspect of the dataset she’d collected on Van’s time in the suit and announced that he wanted to know how and why Van had been able to do the impossible.

  Switch Flipping.

  That was her technical term for it, because that’s exactly what it looked like. Van would get into the suit and emit an energy pattern that—for all intents and purposes—looked normal. Then something would happen and his signature would change. On a dime. A second. A nanosecond. So quickly that there was no way she could explain it.

  Other than to say that Van had some sort of multiple personality disorder.

  But he didn’t.

  So she’d gone with the next logical conclusion which was that his ability to flip an internal switch was a learned ability triggered by a situational event that culminated in a specific energy shift. And while some might argue that statement was simply a rewording of the definition of a multiple personality disorder, she didn’t care.

  Because her definition laid out a lovely system of logic that gave her data to look for and, more importantly, math to analyze. In an equation. A very specific equation that Sinclair was very interested in seeing completed. Then put into practice.

  On Derek.

  With an end goal of making it so, at any point in time, the mind monkey could be triggered to flip an internal switch and go from neurotic exhaustion to calm, cool, and in control
.

  And before she could even think of delivering that miracle wrapped up in the latest version of the Nexus Suit that was currently sitting in her lab down the hall, she had to get the math right and her equations nailed down.

  One component of which she’d gotten in a dream and wouldn’t do her any good if she didn’t reach her tablet on the nightstand then scribbled it down before she forgot it.

  Maddie started to reach for the tablet.

  Behind her, Van murmured a sleepy shush and tightened his hold on her.

  Maddie looked back over her shoulder. He was asleep. Even breathing, dead to the world, and holding her as if she were about to slip from his fingers. That was sweet—so much so it made the girly part of her turn to mush, but her inner scientist wasn’t backing down because she needed that equation documented. Trying not to wake him, she eased away from him and reached again for the tablet on the nightstand.

  He shifted, grumbled, but let her go. “Bad dream?”

  “Math dream.” Fingers on tablet, she pulled it to her. “Go back to sleep. I won’t be long.”

  He rubbed a hand over her back, but let her go. “What time is it?”

  “5:42.”

  “Can it wait?”

  “No, I don’t want to forget it.”

  He sighed and rolled back towards her to spoon her from behind, then laid hand on her hip. “Two minutes and dim the screen.”

  That was longer than she expected he’d offer her, but she did as he asked and dimmed the screen then pulled out the stylus and concentrated on transcribing. Equations down, she cross referenced data from her old files and the information she’d collected from scanning Caliv’s notes on how the link up process worked, along with the cryptic medical files he kept on all the other creatures he’d encountered while working with Sinclair who could naturally link up. Then she pulled up the data she’d collected from her sensors when Van’s team had entered the warehouse.

  Cross reference done she had her answer.

  The only way to embed a natural non-fry-Derek’s-brain switch flip routine into the Nexus Suit would be to completely erase and then rewrite the suit’s base code. Which wasn’t a problem, but did mean that Sinclair would have to choose between Delta team being able to link up to share abilities or giving Derek the ability to flip a switch and take over as Delta team lead.