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

by Claire J Monroe

  “Yes,” Caliv answered. “And I agree with your math.”

  “Good. I’m calling Sinclair now.” Maddie disconnected and went to her workstation then transferred Zed’s video and all the files on Thor’s Hammer OP from her father’s secure server that he called his Baker’s Oven to Sinclair. Minute into the transfer, her phone rang. “You get the packet?”

  Sinclair answered. “What am I looking at?”

  “Watch the video. The rest is coming.” She stepped away from the terminal and went to the cabinet where she kept the suit. She could hear Zed’s voice talking in the background.

  Sinclair remained silent during the duration of the video. When it was over, he didn’t curse, he didn’t bitch, he simply said, “I do not need to remind you how dangerous that suit is if it falls into the wrong hands.”

  “Yeah, well, you should have thought of that before you let it walk out the door and before you lied to me about it being destroyed.”

  “Carrots dangle for a reason, Madeline.”

  “So do participles, but you don’t see me bitching.” Maddie pulled the second generation suit out of the closet and laid it on her workbench. “I don’t know who the hell you’re after, Sinclair, but I’m done sitting on the sidelines. They fucked with mine and I will make them pay.”

  “Sign the contract and you’ll get access to everything you need to complete your vendetta.”

  That made her pause. Van would have her head if she signed on with Sinclair. She drew in a deep breath. “Release my husband from his contract and I’ll consider it.”

  “Not happening. Your husband is too valuable an asset for me to lose now.”

  Something in Sinclair’s tone, the way he said what he said made her stop. Then it hit her. “Son of a bitch. That’s why you’re sending Delta team here. You want Van, my Van, on Delta team.”

  Sinclair didn’t deny it. “Delta team needs to be whole. Your last assessment of Derek’s state of mind confirmed that. Your husband is the logical choice for team lead and has all the characteristics the team needs to help bring Derek back from the edge.”

  “Van already has a team he leads,” Maddie ground out. “He doesn’t need another one.”

  “No, Madeline, Tango has a team of recruits he’s vetting for addition into my organization. He’s always been slated for Delta team.”

  “Then why wait? If you knew he was always destined for that why didn’t you put him on it in the first place?”

  “I had my reasons.”

  “Dammit, you smarmy Machiavellian puppet master, you give me the reasons right now or… or I’ll crash every freaking server you have and sell all your secrets to the highest bidder,” Maddie screamed.

  “Sign the contract, Madeline.” Sinclair’s didn’t sound ruffled.

  “I swear I’ll do it,” she warned.

  “Oh, I have no doubt you would, but given that the answer to your question is so simple that even a child—a child who spent the better part of a day ensconced with each and every handpicked, serendipitous reason—could figure it out, it’s really not worth my time to argue the point. Get me the last known location of your brother, Madeline. If I have resources in the area, you will sign that contract and your brothers will be home in time for dinner.”

  Click. Sinclair disconnected.

  Maddie watched in furious silence as the call disconnected and the phone dimmed, then went to the lock screen and finally black. Unable to stop it a strangle scream of frustration tore from her throat and her fists clenched tight with rage. “I hate it when he does that!”

  She inhaled through her nostrils and glared at the door. Thank God, her lab was soundproof. The last thing she needed was for anyone, especially Fox or Van to come racing to her rescue only to find out that she was trapped in a mess of her own making. A mess that she never should have started. A mess that was her fault and not only screw up Van and her life, but Dell, Fox, Whiskey, and… Bravo’s.

  She banged her fist on the table. Why hadn’t she kept her big mouth shut? Why hadn’t she stopped poking the dragon when she’d been ahead? Why did she have to open her big, fat mouth and demand Sinclair give her… the answer. Ohmigod. It couldn’t be that simple. Could it?

  Delta Team was Sinclair’s flagship team. The one he kept the closest. The one that interacted with all the other teams that worked for the smarmy Machiavellian puppet master. The team that Maddie knew from experience was in charge of vetting and testing and reading the minds and intent of all the other teams in Sinclair’s arsenal and… ohmigod. “It was that simple.”

  Sinclair intended to swap Van and Chase as team leads.

  “Fuck. Me.” Maddie scrambled for her phone and called Kenny. “You got Zed’s location?”

  “Yeah. Fox has everything up on the big screen and they’re going through Thor’s Hammer now.”

  “Awesome. Great job. Hand the phone to Van. Now.”

  “Sure thing. Tango, Maddie wants you.”

  Phone changed hands and Van demanded, “Where are you?”

  “In my lab. It’s soundproof. Can Fox hear me over the phone?”

  A pause, then Van said, “Yeah. Why?”

  “Sinclair is sending Caliv, Derek, and Rafe here to link up with you and make you a permanent member of Delta Team. Then he’ll send Chase in to take over your team.”

  Bomb dropped, there was silence.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Tango heard what she said. His brain processed what she said. Hell, he’d even thought the exact same thing that she said. Suspected it. Guessed it was Sinclair’s master plan, but accepted it? Hell no he hadn’t accepted it. Which was why he’d never mentioned any of his crazy, mixed up thoughts to the team. Kept them to himself. Because hearing it said out loud? Loud enough over the phone for Fox’s sensitive ears to pick up on it so he’d spin around in his chair and… blast the whole fucking room some whacked out alpha-omega hybrid wolf-ness that did nothing but ratchet up the tension? “Shit. Fire. Fuck. Me. Fox.”

  Damn alpha-omega hybrid wolf wasn’t helping. At all.

  “Van, is everything okay,” Maddie asked in his ear.

  Okay? Hell no, it wasn’t okay. There was a reason that alpha-omega hybrid wolves like Fox were usually put down as soon as they were discovered. They were unpredictable, unstable, and ruthless as fuck when anyone threatened their pack. And to Fox, the team was his pack. His only pack. And nothing said threat to the pack like breaking up the band and making the alpha lead of another. And there was no way in hell Tango could ever convince Sinclair that Fox was stable enough for Delta team. So no, everything was as far away from being okay as it could get. But he couldn’t tell her that. Instead, he mumbled, “Yeah.”

  “I have a potential solution and you’re not going to like it.”

  Another muttered curse and he said, “That’s a given.”

  “I’ll be in with it in a minute. After I drop my bomb, I need you to get mad and clear the room.”

  “No more shit fairy bombs, Maddie. We’ve had enough of those already.”

  A chorus of muttered agreeance went up around the room.

  “I know, but I have to, Van. I know I don’t know them as well as you do or have spent as much time with them as you, but I love your team like they’re family. I won’t—no, I can’t let Sinclair get his hands on Bravo.”

  Fox muttered, “Or Tango.”

  Tango grunted his agreement with both statements.

  Maddie continued, “Because Chase will lose it when he finds out Laurel’s alive. And he will find out, Van. The moment Derek links up to you. Chase. Will. Know.” She drew in a deep breath then finished in a rush. “So please, Van, I need you to trust me and do as I ask. Once I drop the bomb, get mad, clear the room and I’ll tell you everything. No secrets. Everything. Promise. Just trust me. Okay?”

  It took him a minute to process what she’d said. The importance of whatever left field girl logic she was pitching his way in run-on sentences this time. In the end it really did
n’t matter. He was fucked ten ways to Sunday. Without a complementary reach around.

  He and his team were on the edge of meltdown. Stress fractures were popping up everywhere and there wasn’t a damn thing he could that he wasn’t already doing to keep the team whole, functioning, and alive.

  No matter how he sliced it, they were running out of time and luck points. If Maddie had a potential solution, then who was he to argue? He might as well shut up and take it like the good little soldier Sinclair wanted him to be.

  Tango bit back a world weary sigh and proceeded to adapt and overcome. “Done for the day order is officially rescinded. Get your ass in here now and so help me, Madeline, if I have to come in there and get you, there will not be enough pillows in this bunker to save your ass from sore-dom. Do I make myself clear?”

  She released a breath and he heard the smile in her voice when she spoke. “Absolutely and I love you, too. I’ll be out in a couple minutes.”

  Tango disconnected the call. “Fox, tell me you have that satellite hijacked and in position. I want confirmation on Zed’s location before Maddie gets out here.”

  “Working on it,” Fox mumbled. “Couple more minutes and should have it.”

  Tango nodded then stepped up behind K-dog and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Maddie is going to kick both our asses if anything happens to Nev or Zed. Need you to tell me everything you know about Thor’s Hammer.”

  “It’s an encryption app. One I’ve been working on with Zed to seal up files that he wanted to make sure stayed out of Maddie’s hands.”

  “Why?”

  “Uh, because there are some things we don’t want our sister knowing about.”

  “Such as?”

  “My sex life for one.” K-dog said as he opened a folder on the screen. “The other… Zed was working on a project.”

  Tango had a bad feeling. A really bad feeling. “What project?”

  “Promise you won’t kill me.”

  Tango growled in the back of his throat.

  Whiskey laid a hand on Tango’s shoulder. “Don’t push him, kid. Spit it out. Now.”

  K-dog’s eyes rounded with fear. “Zed’s been tracking Dad. He didn’t have proof, but said something wonky was going on with him.”

  “Define wonky,” Tango bit out.

  “I don’t know specifics. Zed didn’t share. I swear!”

  Bravo appeared out of nowhere and gripped Tango’s other shoulder holding him back when he would have grabbed the runt and shaken the truth out of him. “Tell us what you know. Quickly. What did Zed tell you?”

  K-dog swallowed hard and his eyes darted to Bravo, then back to Tango. “Just that our father was up to something. That things didn’t add up. That Dad had multiple opportunities to take a target out and pulled back each time. That he let the guy get away and there was no reason for it.”

  “What. Guy,” Tango ground out between clenched teeth.

  “Hey, Kenny,” Fox uttered. “Did Zed have a copy of your app on his computer?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Explains why the video is so big.” Few clicks and Fox brought up Zed’s video again. It started playing, this time the background was the same, but it was daylight and Zed started talking.

  “Tango, man, hope you get this. Kenny, make sure he gets it. Trust no one but Tango. You hear me? No. One. But. Tango.” Zed ran a hand over his face. “I don’t even know where to start. Yeah, okay, shit’s gotten crazy. Colby Jack has been acting weird for a while now and whatever shit he’s messed up in has Nev in trouble. Lost touch with Nev two weeks ago in this location.” He held up a piece of paper with coordinates scrawled across it in large block print letters.

  “Fox,” Tango ordered.

  “On it.”

  Zed continued. “Don’t have enough time to tell you everything and… shit, you need to know everything. Few months after you and Maddie split, Colby Jack dropped off the grid. For a week. When he resurfaced, he was different. Didn’t understand it then and sure as shit don’t get it now. That’s why I had Kenny make the encryption program. Needed a way to hide what I found out in case things went south. Couldn’t take the chance that Colby Jack would get his hands on anything I hid using software that Maddie shared with him. With all of us.”

  Zed paused as he wrote something on the piece of paper then held it up. Income Taxes. “Look for this file. Inside is everything I know. Pictures, names, locations, meetups, everything. Encrypted. Best guess is Colby Jack… can’t believe I’m saying this, but…,” Zed trailed off, drew in a long deep breath then dropped his bomb. “Colby Jack is Rutger Dillon.”

  Tango blinked. “Sonofabitch. Fox.”

  “Hunting for a confirmed picture of Dillon,” Fox said.

  The video was running down as Zed shook his head. “No longer care about proving it. Not after he ordered Nev to steal the Nexus suit. Don’t know if Nev was successful. We were supposed to meet up so I could give him a decoy. Just in case. One of the prototypes Maddie said were flawed. No clue why Colby Jack wants it. Money, power, shit, who knows. Regardless, don’t need to tell you how much the competition would love to get their hands on that suit.”

  “Found the file,” K-dog murmured.

  Tango kept his eyes on Maddie’s brother, the brother who’d been more like a father to her, who’d been the one that’d given up the bulk of his paycheck early on his career to make sure Maddie’s mother always got the alimony check, that teenage Maddie and Kenny always had a roof over their head and food on the table, and who’d been the first one to hunt Tango down to demand why the hell he had dared divorced Maddie. So yeah, he didn’t give two shits about Colby Jack, but Zed? Yeah, he’d go to hell and back to save him.

  Zed cleared his throat and drew Tango’s attention back to the screen. “Have no idea how things are gonna go down, but I’ve got a play to make and it can’t wait. He knows I’m in the area and he’ll get suspicious if I don’t make contact. Soon. If I don’t make it out, Tango, do me a favor. Tell Maddie and Kenny the truth. They deserve to know. This isn’t on them. Never has been, never will be. Watch your six and… Zed out.”

  The video went dark.

  The room was silent save for the clacking of Fox at the keyboard.

  “What truth is he referring to, Van?”

  Tango closed his eyes. Damn, she had to hear that part, didn’t she? Of all the things Zed could have closed out his transmission with he had to wrap it up with that. One of the no doubt myriad number of secrets that he had every intention of sharing with her after they came out of this and set to fixing things between them.

  But no. It had to rear its ugly head now.

  Tango squared his shoulders and, like the emotional coward that he was went with Plan B. “I’ll tell you later. Fox, K-dog, show me what you found.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “For once can the bad guy’s not have a fucking compound,” Whiskey mumbled. “Twenty bucks says there are at least three exit tunnels leading from the main house out.”

  Photos one after another flipped onto the screen. All were of a hacienda style home with a few trees and wall surrounding it. Nice house. Yard well maintained. Looked like a drug lord’s citadel minus the bloodstains, but whatever. Tango agreed with Whiskey, but stayed silent as Fox continued the slide show.

  “Wait. Go back,” Bravo barked. “Show me the compound again. Yeah, that one. Aerial view.” He walked forward closer to the monitors. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

  “What,” Tango demanded.

  “Seen this before.” Bravo half turned and flicked a thumb over his shoulder at the screen. “Tactical Hostage Recovery course. This was the compound used.”

  Tango furrowed his brow. He didn’t remember authorizing Bravo to take any courses. Other team mates, yes, but not Bravo. He was always mission ready and focused. “When did you take it?”

  “I didn’t. Romeo did.” Bravo looked back at the screen. “I did his homework. Do we have satellite image of it yet?”
<
br />   “Working on it,” Fox murmured.

  “What was the objective?” Whiskey asked.

  “Same as the name, Tactical Hostage Recovery, but with a twist. Half the class was offense, other was defense.”

  “Which was Romeo,” Dell asked.

  “Defense,” Bravo answered. “Instructor was a hard ass.”

  “According to these notes, instructor was Capt. Jack Colby. That can’t be right. I thought he was higher rank than that.”

  “He was until he crossed a line,” Tango answered. Knowing that Maddie was standing right behind him and most likely hanging on his every word, he didn’t go into detail. The less she knew about how he’d had a hand in making sure the right people had known about her shitty excuse for a father taking kickbacks for defense contracts… the better off they’d all be. “Took a demotion and a slap on the wrist instead of the boot.”

  “Explains why he was such a bitch about the homework. Guy expected perfection. Threw out every single defensive scenario submitted.” A pause then Bravo said, “But one.”

  “Please, tell me it was yours,” Tango muttered.

  “You know it.” Bravo tapped out locations on the screen. “Compound is fully walled. One road in-out. Three outbuildings. Stable, chapel, and guest house. All three have a bolt hole to tunnels that intersect and lead to main house.”

  “Tunnels out from main house,” Dell asked.

  “Three, but only one leads out. One goes to dead end with underground waterway and cave formations. Not big enough to squeeze through unless they were excavated. Second tunnel leads to food cellar. Food cellar is an intersect point. Tunnel three exits out from the property… here.”

  “That’s not far,” Tango said.

  “Cenotes are in this area. Couldn’t risk exposing that or a sink hole. At least not without serious geological studies.”

  Tango opened his mouth to ask Fox to look into it, but he beat him to it. “Looking. Nothing so far.”

  “Defensive positions… here, here, and here.” Bravo pointed to spots on the screen then walked through details on the strengths and weaknesses of the compound. The lecture was brief but explicit and more than enough to make Tango rethink every defensive position he’d ever thought about maintaining in any of his safe houses.