Survive By The Team (Team Fear Book 3)

by Cindy Skaggs

  Sirens blared in the distance. Probably backup for the deputy, but given everything that had happened, sticking around was a dumbass move. They raced to the corner where the bus was roaring to life after its brief stop behind the hospital. Stills stepped in front of the square bumper and the driver stalled, cursing him through the windshield.

  He didn’t move until the bus driver let Mandi in the side door. The few steps up drew attention to the aches and pains from the fight. He was too damn old for street fights that aggravated the old wound on his hip.

  The bus driver didn’t move the vehicle until Stills shoved enough coins into the pay slot. A block away, Echo slammed a fist into the captain’s throat. In the space of a breath, Echo shifted his gaze to the bus. He leveled a look of pure evil at Stills.

  You’re next, he mouthed.

  Stills gave a fast salute as the bus roared down the street.

  Mandi yanked him to an empty seat near the back of the bus. Lifting a shaking hand, she swiped gentle fingers across his lip and he jerked in reaction. “Your lip is split again.”

  “Not even a thing,” he assured her. He’d had worse from his own teammates. He had the unique ability to piss them the hell off, but he got things done. The team now had evidence against their creators. They were that much closer to finding the fuckers who did this because Stills didn’t play by the rules.

  Unlike Ryder, their second in command, Stills wasn’t interested in redemption. If their time was up, he was taking out the psychos who had played God with their lives. Saving Gault’s sister in the process was a bonus, but not the end game. “We need to figure—”

  “I know the man who tried to run us over.”

  The words chilled his skin. “Which one?”

  “The one in scrubs.”

  “You mean the orderly?”

  “Was he?” Mandi shrugged. “I didn’t see the orderly. I wasn’t even sure he existed.”

  “And now?”

  A coughing fit interrupted her answer. He dug through his pockets until he pulled out a small packet of lozenges. “I picked up some supplies.”

  She sucked on a lozenge while the city rushed past the windows. Her chest rose and fell with each shaky breath until she was seconds from hyperventilating.

  “How do you know him?”

  “I had a coffee date with him yesterday.”

  “You what?” His voice lifted so everyone on the bus heard him.

  A lady in front of them turned to glare.

  Mandi gripped his hand and spoke at a whisper. “I didn’t go. Obviously.”

  “Back it up for me. How did you meet him in the first place?”

  A bell dinged and the bus lumbered to a standstill in front of an empty bench. The lady in front of them got out. Mandi rubbed her thumb absently over his bruised knuckles and she rocked in her hard plastic seat. Inside his, her hand was icy. Was she going into shock?

  When the bus pulled away from the stop, she spoke low. “If I had gone to coffee like I was supposed to.” She turned red-rimmed eyes to him. “He would have killed me, wouldn’t he?”

  “Probably.”

  “God, I have seriously bad taste in men.” She leaned forward to press her forehead against the seat in front of her. The bus went three blocks before she sat up straight. “Thank you for being honest with me.”

  “No more lies,” he promised. “If they tracked you to Smallville—”

  “Dalton. We live in Dalton, Colorado.”

  Half the time she talked about her brother like he was still alive. Stills wondered if she was fully prepared for the chaos that was about to screw with her life. She couldn’t live in the past anymore. “If they tracked you to Dalton, they planned to kill you.”

  “They or he?”

  “They. Echo was part of a twelve-man team, just like us. They’re down several men.”

  “So are you,” she countered.

  The pounding started in his skull again, and he wasn’t sure if it was the bright daylight or a residual side effect. He rubbed his eyes and tried to keep up with the conversation. “We lost Madigan months ago.”

  “Then Danny.”

  He pulled on his wraparound sunglasses to block the glare. The throbbing gradually subsided. “They tried to screw with Ryder. Then Rose. Hell, they would have killed anyone of us if they had the chance.”

  “Anyone else dead?”

  “Bennett’s missing. Half of the team is at a separate location.” They needed to stay separate so if one part of the team collapsed, the other was in position to take out Echo. “Have you been asking questions?”

  “I’ve been making wild speculations.”

  “Not so wild.”

  “I suppose not.” She pulled the lozenge from her mouth and held it between two fingers. “Do they still have twelve men?” she whispered.

  “Last count, I think there were four or five left.” He would have to take a look at the kill wall to verify and right now that kill wall and his backup was a long damn ride away.

  “You just upended my world.”

  “Technically, Echo did that.”

  “So you’re an innocent bystander?”

  “Sugar, I don’t know what the hell I am.” They swayed and jostled with the movement of the bus, their thighs rubbing for several miles before he spoke again. “How did you meet Echo?”

  “He attended a funeral. I knew him as John.”

  “Small town. Don’t you know everyone by now?”

  She smiled sadly, her lips pursed in thought. “More accurately, they know me. Morticia, the town mortician.”

  “Like Morticia Addams? I love The Addams Family.”

  “They don’t mean it as a kind comparison.”

  “I don’t imagine they do.”

  “Some people can’t get over the fact that we live in the same building as the business.”

  “You live in a funeral parlor?”

  “The family quarters are attached, but it’s not like we bunk in the morgue.” She sniffed.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” He couldn’t imagine the petite woman beside him working on cadavers, but it took all kinds.

  She plopped the lozenge back in her mouth and licked the sticky off her fingers.

  The muscles in his body tensed at the way her tongue flicked out, and he became hyperaware of the brush of her arm against his side, her thigh against his. What the hell? He adjusted his position so their bodies no longer touched with the roll of the bus. Forced himself to focus on what she said.

  “It was easier when Danny was alive. He’d crack jokes about people’s ignorance and tease me until I let the hurt go. But now...” Her hand shook as she brushed hair off her face.

  Despite the earlier need for separation, Stills couldn’t prevent his automatic response. Comforting was foreign, but he reached out, grabbed her hand, and held on until the trembles stopped. He ignored the tingle of awareness. “Let me get this straight. You didn’t know Echo as someone from town. He didn’t treat you like you had cooties—”

  “I don’t know about cooties.” She smiled wistfully. “People are freaked out by my job—”

  “Which is as juvenile as cooties.”

  “I suppose.”

  “You knew he wasn’t from town, but somehow he knew you were a funeral director?”

  “Not so hard to figure out. We were at a funeral. It’s not unusual for one of our elderly community members to pass on. Family comes in from out of town. Not many people stay in small towns anymore. Not enough jobs. Not enough excitement.”

  “Is that why Danny joined the military?”

  She shook her head, letting her gaze drift to the large window and the world beyond. “Not even close.”

  He wanted an answer to that question, but he tabled it for now. “Echo invited you to coffee over a casket?”

  “It wasn’t that crass.” She twisted to see if anyone was listening, but passengers had moved forward. They probably looked like hell. “John said..
. Well, it doesn’t matter what he said. We were to meet for coffee yesterday afternoon.”

  “You didn’t go.”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  She adjusted in her seat to get a better look at him. Her eyes were dead serious and they held his rapt attention until the bus rumbled to the next stop. Finally, she grinned. “Because it’s plain creepy when a man asks you out over a casket.”

  Stills chuffed out a laugh. At least she still had a sense of humor. He rubbed a hand over her stiff shoulders. She relaxed and leaned into his touch. “You’re going to be okay.”

  “That’s what Danny promised. But we can’t stay out of it now, can we?”

  “No, I don’t suppose you can.”

  “I get that you call them Echo, but who are they?”

  “The men who killed Mad Dog. Killed your brother.”

  “No. They didn’t get Danny. The police killed him in a shootout not that far from here. There were pictures.”

  “As you pointed out earlier, pictures lie. In this case, it was meant to look like he’d lost his mind. Honestly, do you think your brother strapped on a gun—”

  “Five guns. They found five guns on him. Two rifles and three handguns.”

  “Do you think he strapped on all those weapons without being shoved?”

  “No,” she admitted. “That’s why I’m here. I never believed the story the police told me. It didn’t make sense.”

  “It wasn’t like Danny,” Stills agreed. “He wasn’t suicidal, but if our guess is correct, he was given a medical cocktail that would have confused and disoriented him. It would have pushed him over the edge.”

  “I knew it,” she screeched.

  “Settle down.” Stills’ voice carried like a foghorn. The bus driver glanced back in the mirror, his hand easing toward the radio.

  Mandi twisted until her knees knocked against his, keeping her tone low. “Danny’s autopsy was as blank as I’ve ever seen. The medical examiner called it suicide by cop but didn’t do a tox screen, or not one that showed on Danny’s records.”

  He had to lower his head to hear her last words. “What are you chasing here in Tucson?”

  “This is where Danny died.”

  “I’m aware. What are looking for?”

  “An old friend of mine lives here.”

  “An old friend.” He raised a brow. He didn’t want to take her to visit an old boyfriend.

  “It’s not like that,” she insisted, her eyebrows furrowed. “We went to mortuary school together.”

  “Mortuary school?”

  “Did you think they let just anyone prepare a body for burial?”

  Yes, that’s exactly what he thought. “What does your friend have to do with this?”

  She cleared her throat. “The police weren’t very forthcoming about what happened with Danny. The death certificate was filled with holes, so I petitioned for his autopsy report. I’ve seen enough autopsies to know that they weren’t looking for answers. They wanted a rubber stamp on a pre-conceived cause.”

  “Death by cop.”

  “I didn’t buy it, but they wouldn’t give me access to information. It took a couple months for me to realize why he might be in Tucson. The same reason I am right now.”

  “What?”

  “A friend of ours—just mine now, I guess—works for the medical examiner.”

  “Which explains how your brother had a copy of Madigan’s autopsy results. It’s probably what got him killed.” As soon as he said the words, he wished he could retrieve them. Mandi didn’t need his negative, paranoid bullshit running through her head.

  Her eyes blinked closed. “I can’t sleep. The not knowing is killing me.”

  Stills ran a soothing hand over the tight line of her shoulders. He wanted to berate her for working alone, but wasn’t he doing much the same thing? “They’ll stop at nothing to keep that information secret.”

  She slumped into him as if her strength had finally given out. Her head rested against his shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here. I’d probably be dead by now if you weren’t, but what are you really doing here?” He’d had plenty of time to check on her after Danny died. Why now?

  “I needed out. I ticked off my friend Rose and decided the best course of action was to lay low for a few days.”

  “Oh, you have a girlfriend.” Mandi straightened as she spoke. An arctic blizzard may as well have settled between them. “What did you do to piss her off?”

  “Rose is a he. It’s his last name. Although trust me, we give him shit about the name all the time.”

  “Oh.” A slight blush covered her neck. “So what did you do to him?”

  “I went looking for answers.”

  “I thought you were all looking for answers.”

  They were, but they had different ideas about how to accomplish that. The military kicked him out, a fact that continually ticked him off, so his days of blindly following orders were done. “Death by briefing isn’t my speed. When an opportunity came up to get intelligence on the pills they gave us, I went for it.”

  “Why did that piss him off?”

  “I took his girlfriend and sister with me. Actually, they took me with them, but he couldn’t wrap his head around the difference.”

  “Is that the cause of your split lip?”

  He rubbed a thumb over the scab. The fight outside the university and the subsequent bombing felt like a lifetime ago. “Possibly. We have an issue with temper. He took his out on me. If roles were reversed, I probably would have done the same.”

  “You don’t strike me as angry or—”

  “Oh, you bet your sweet ass I’m angry.” The last words came out a hiss.

  A tremor shook her shoulder beneath his hand. He pulled back, clenched a fist at the thought of what the company had done. His entire body simmered with unspent rage. A deep breath failed to ease the tension. Nothing could until the bastards paid for what they’d done. “They stole something from me, from all of us, that we’ll never get back. I love my country, loved the military, and then the team. They kicked us out like we were defects. Damaged our service records. Took away the thing we loved most. Hell yeah, I’m angry.”

  “You seem very...” Her gaze flicked up and down his tall frame. “Controlled.”

  “Taking my frustration out on the team perpetuates the shit the company is raining down on us. Better to save it for the men who deserve it.” He leaned low to whisper in her ear. “I swear on Mad Dog’s grave, the bastards who killed your brother won’t live through the year.”

  Chapter Five

  The absolute fury in Dean’s last words settled Mandi’s nerves as nothing had since Danny’s death. Vengeance wasn’t her go-to response—it wasn’t even in the top ten—but if half of what he told her was true, then she wanted retribution. These people needed to pay for what they had done to her brother, to Dean, to the rest of the team. Tears blurred her vision, because it wasn’t just the men who suffered. What had been done impacted her and Ellie and the rest of the families.

  Several miles passed before her jagged breathing normalized and the tears dried up. Stills said the team had anger issues. Really? Then how did they make it through the day without blowing something up? Because as far as she was concerned, anger was a perfectly natural response to the bad hand they’d been dealt.

  Two blocks from the ME’s office, she dinged the bell and they stepped silently into the busy street. Wind blew straight through her scrubs. The backs of her shoes flapped against the heels of her too-small feet. The new reality was hard to wrap her head around, but walking through Tucson in someone else’s clothes about summed about the desperation of her situation. She didn’t have a car, a wallet, or a phone. She didn’t even have keys to her house. If she disappeared right now, no one would know for days, and even then, they wouldn’t know where to look. It was as if Danny’s history had sucked her into an alternate universe.

  She wrapped her arms over her chest and bent her head
into the wind.

  “How safe is your friend?” Stills asked.

  Surprised at the way his voice cut through the confusion in her head, she glanced up. Sunglasses covered most of his rugged features. Five o’clock shadow covered his strong jaw along with bruises and a few scrapes. Movement was constant with him as his head turned to locate any possible threat. Mandi didn’t bother looking around. She wouldn’t know what to look for, except maybe John the creeper.

  “I’ve known Glen most of my life. He’s as safe as they come.”

  “Could he be blackmailed or threatened to give you up?”

  She shook her head. “You watch too many movies. Most people aren’t like that.”

  “Everybody has a price. No one said it had to be cash.”

  “I’m sorry you believe that.” Danny believed the same thing in the end. Mandi sighed and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

  When they reached the rectangular building, he pulled her to the side. “I need to acquire a vehicle. Will you be safe?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.” She tried not to think of him stealing a car someone had worked hard to buy. Her car was sitting in a junkyard somewhere, which limited her ability to come and go at will. It stole her freedom of movement and her sense of independence. Stills would take that from someone, but if they were tracking a murderer, what difference did a little grand theft auto make? “What you’re planning sounds dangerous.”

  “Driving is more dangerous,” he insisted. “Now answer my question. Is it safe inside?”

  “There are metal detectors. Guards.”

  “Same thing at the hospital. Look how that turned out.” He glanced along the roofline of the opposite building while he spoke.

  “It’s safe,” she insisted. “And Glen will be with me the whole time. He’s the guy in the photo you have of me.” She gestured to mime his size. “He’s a big guy. I’ll be okay.”

  “Do you have his number?”

  “Of course.”