Facing Fire

by HelenKay Dimon

  She drew back, pushing her body closer to the wall. “I can explain.”

  “Oh, you will. While strapped to a chair during an interrogation.” He couldn’t control the heat rolling through him or the stabbing pain in his gut. Fury like he’d never known thumped inside him in time with his heartbeat.

  She’d lied from the beginning and he’d fucking bought it. Sure, he put up a token fight, but he kissed her. Hell, he still wanted to kiss her.

  Sutton stared at him with haunted eyes. “You are blowing this out of proportion.”

  The act could be guilt or part of her plan. He couldn’t tell anymore. “And you are going to regret this.”

  He walked out then. Had to for fear he’d lose it. Even now as his footsteps pounded on the stairs he wanted to go back up and let her tell him her excuse. Maybe Benton threatened her family or someone she cared about. Josiah could understand that. Could fix that.

  He stopped on the bottom step and stared at the door that led out to the main floor. Instead of going through he leaned against the wall. The door almost slammed into his side when it opened without warning a second later. He jumped back as Mike slid to a halt in front of him.

  Mike let the door swing shut again. “You okay?”

  “What?” The question hit Josiah wrong. He’d expected something else, not concern. Friend or not, he hated that anyone felt sorry for him. “Yeah, I got the tablet.”

  Mike looked down at his feet and swore. “I was hoping you were wrong. Fuck, I bought her act and hear she was waiting for a chance to slip that out and take a look.”

  He didn’t need to explain. Josiah got what he was saying. “When she looks at you . . .” The eyes, that sad expression. “She’s believable.”

  “But you didn’t get sucked in.”

  Josiah ignored the hint of sarcasm in Mike’s voice and tried to answer. “I’ve been careful.”

  “Come on.” Mike slapped a palm against the closed door. “You can’t be that deluded.”

  Somewhere along the line he’d lost control of his team. Gabe and Parker were scattered, protecting others. Mike tested him at every turn. Sutton lied and he bought it. Hell, maybe he shouldn’t be in charge.

  “We work together. We know each other. We hang out together. Fight together.” Mike wasn’t one for emotional outpourings, but delivered one now. “The one thing you’re not is neutral. Not when it comes to her.”

  “No, not neutral. I’m pissed.” And in that moment it wasn’t a lie. Her newest betrayal wiped out the memories of the kiss. If he’d given in and taken her to bed she probably would have tried to kill him. Tried and failed.

  “You were in her room for a long time last night.”

  The comment snapped Josiah’s attention back to Mike. “You’re fucking checking up on me?”

  Mike shrugged. “Tasha’s orders.”

  Of course. That’s what that little talk was about yesterday. She assessed his mood and made a plan. He admired her no-nonsense way of keeping them all on task and safe, but he hated the invasion of privacy. “Goddamn her.”

  “She’s worried and, frankly, it looks like she wasn’t exactly wrong to be.”

  “Nothing happened.” But almost. He’d been so close to the line. Thought all morning that tonight he might cross it. He made a bet with himself that if Sutton had shown any interest in him staying with her tonight, he would. “We’re done talking about my personal life.”

  “You sure?” Amusement moved into Mike’s tone. “It’s kind of fun watching you get all twitchy.”

  Josiah knew with blinding clarity that now was the time to step up and act like the team leader. “Let’s talk about yours.”

  Mike dropped his hand from the door and stood up, all traces of humor gone. “There’s nothing to say.”

  “Everyone else provided a list of people potentially in harm’s way thanks to Benton’s newest round of bullshit.”

  Mike’s face went blank. Nothing about his body language or expression gave away what was happening in his head. “You have my dad.”

  “That’s not the guy I’m talking about.” When Mike just continued to stare, Josiah gave in and pulled it out of him. “Jesus, Mike. How about you drop the act and admit you’re gay?”

  “I’ve never denied it.” But his expression slipped, just for a second. His eyes widened a fraction, then he went back to blank. Even widened his stance and folded his hands together in front of him in some sort of odd battle pose.

  “That’s not really true.” He’d never disclosed it, which was close to the same thing and Josiah knew it. He was pretty sure Mike did, too.

  “How is my love life relevant to anything?”

  Besides the obvious, that a secret could be used by hostiles to break Mike, there was the hiding issue. Josiah had reached his end with people keeping things from him. “When you’re not on assignment, you’re living with a guy. A guy who has not undergone a proper security check.”

  Josiah had seen the photos in the file Mike didn’t know he kept and read about the guy’s background. He was out. Mike didn’t pretend to date women or stay cloistered in his house. He and this guy named Drew lived a life together. Undercover on Mike’s part and careful, but anyone analyzing Mike’s movements and savvy enough to find his residence—which should be no one, but Benton had skills—would realize they were a couple. Yet Mike never advised anyone in the Alliance.

  “I vetted him.” Mike leaned against the door. “He’s not a threat.”

  “But you’re still a threat to him. You think I wanted my family drama dragged out for the team to dissect? Sometimes you don’t get a choice.” Some of Mike’s stoic look faltered and Josiah knew he understood the seriousness of this topic. Point made. Time to move on. “What does he think you do?”

  “Personal security. It explains all the time away and being on call.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Home. I’ve been checking in.”

  Not good enough, and from the tension tugging on the corners of Mike’s mouth, Josiah guessed Mike had been quietly wading through a river of worry. “We need to get him somewhere safe.” Josiah dropped the piece of information that concerned him the most. “Because, and I can’t stress this enough, Benton knows about Drew.”

  “No fucking way.” Mike kept shaking his head. “I’ve been careful.”

  Josiah refused to argue about this because he knew he was right. “Every second you deny and evade and whatever the hell else this is, the bigger danger you’re putting this guy in.” Despite his frustration with Mike’s secrecy, Josiah felt bad for the guy. None of this could be easy. “I’m assuming he means something to you.”

  Mike nodded. “Everything.”

  Well, shit. “Then his name goes on the list.”

  “Fine.”

  Josiah went to leave but stopped before he opened the door. “You know, I don’t give a shit about who you love or fuck or whatever, but the fact you tried to hide this pisses me off. You put me in a position of knowing and tracking you.”

  “I know there are rules about disclosing close contacts and I skirted them.”

  That’s not what he meant at all. “Screw the rules.”

  Mike winced. “How long have you known?”

  “From the beginning. The entire administrative staff knows.”

  Shaking his head, Mike started walking around the small space. Talking to himself. “That’s fucking great.”

  Josiah didn’t want to make it worse, but it was too late to hold back now. “Ellery runs checks all the time. As Delta leader I have to run checks. I don’t like it, but I do it.”

  “You didn’t say anything.”

  “I figured one day you’d trust me enough to tell me.” Josiah hated that the day never came and he’d been the one to push the issue. It took an emergency to get Mike to open up, as he should have done long before now.

  “It’s not really about that.”

  “Mike, come on.”

  “Trust doesn’t com
e easy.” Mike opened his mouth and closed it. It looked as if he was searching for the right words. “With my past . . . it’s taken a while to fit in with the team. But I do, and I do trust you.” He smiled. “Not to be an ass but you’re not exactly great at it either.”

  No way was he going to be thrown off or sucked into this conversation. Josiah had played enough games for one day. “I’m not the one hiding my feelings.”

  Mike glanced up the steps. “Go tell that to the woman you have locked upstairs.”

  Something froze inside Josiah. He didn’t like the parallel. Didn’t really like the team talking about his personal life . . . Okay, yeah, maybe he could understand Mike holding back on that score. Still didn’t mean he liked the conversation one damn bit. “That’s different.”

  Mike opened the door. “You keep telling yourself that.”

  13

  SUTTON SERIOUSLY considered kicking Josiah in the balls. A half hour after accusing her of whatever he accused her of this time he stopped at the end of her bed, still fuming. All that confidence and ego slamming into her as he put his fists on his hips and stared her down.

  She was done. With the name calling and the threats, the back-and-forth with his feelings, and the kissing. Yeah, that last one was so done. And here she thought . . . It didn’t matter. Fantasies about touching him, being with him, died a vicious death.

  His newest round of fury strangled that right out of her.

  “I’m giving you a chance to come clean.” The words said in quick staccato beats came out like a demand.

  She was done with that, too. “Go to hell.”

  She folded her legs in front of her, crossing one over the other, and stared at the gray blanket underneath her. The stitches blurred together as she sat there. Tiny rows with little holes. She poked her finger through one as she counted down the seconds until he stormed out again. The guy deserved a medal for the most dramatic storming around in a minute.

  The mattress dipped as he leaned in and placed a palm against the bed. “You don’t get to be angry, Sutton. You’re the one stealing computers.”

  According to him she had all sorts of criminal skills. Pretty soon he’d convince himself she could build a gun out of bed parts and haul that away, too. Make her sleep on the floor. “That’s not what happened.”

  “Did you get a message out to Benton?”

  She’d always hated Bane. Didn’t matter what name he used. He’d masterminded her mother’s murder. Sutton would bet on that. But now she despised him for something else. He’d taken her life and spun it around. Turned it inside out. She had no idea how she was ever going to get back to the States and her old job.

  “Sutton!”

  She winced as his yell bounced off the walls in the confined cell of a room. “I have no idea where he is.”

  “Sure.” Josiah practically spit the word out as he stood back up.

  She unfolded her legs and slid to the end of the bed. “Maybe instead of accusing me, you could ask me.”

  “Ask what? Give me the question that will get you to start telling the truth.”

  She was about to tell him where he could stick his question when the door opened. This time he hadn’t locked it and in walked Harlan.

  He pointed at Josiah. “I need to see you.”

  Josiah didn’t even spare his superior a glance. “Not now.”

  “I’m not asking. I’m telling.” The anger in Harlan’s tone matched Josiah’s.

  She was starting to like this Harlan guy. She peeked around Josiah at him. “You’re a pilot.”

  Harlan’s eyes narrowed a fraction but his proper British accent never faltered. “We all can fly, but yes.”

  “Of course. Heaven forbid there be something you guys can’t do.” For some reason their excessive expertise at everything pissed her off right now. With all those skills at least one of them should involve listening. Or at the very least being able to reason out that she was telling the truth.

  Harlan cleared his throat. “Did you have a question?”

  “Fly me out of here.”

  Josiah exhaled, long and loud, as if to signal how little he thought of her comment. “That’s never going to happen now that you’ve been caught.”

  “I looked at a laptop. I’m a PI and the information is right there. Was I supposed to stop investigating when you guys have only told me pieces of the story?” Never mind that she’d treated them the same way. She’d gone down to talk with Ellery and saw it there. Snuck it off the edge of the desk while she handled a call.

  Sutton knew she should have waited. Maybe asked to see what they had on Benton so they could compare notes. Work the whole scene that way. If the constant churning in her gut had died down, if she could have shaken off the sense that Benton or Bane or whoever he was had something bigger planned. Something headed right their way.

  She chalked this up to one time when her PI skills overtook her common sense. But Josiah’s reaction had been so over the top. So soul crushing. He refused to listen for even a second and that made her want to punch him.

  “You were giving away our position. Contacting Benton,” he said.

  “Neither of those things happened.” He’d shown her a video of this Benton blowing up a human being and still he thought . . . God, he must really think she was a piece of human garbage.

  “That’s what I wanted to tell you.” Harlan’s deep voice boomed through the room. “She’s right.”

  Josiah stopped glaring at her and turned the harsh look on Harlan. “What?”

  “She wasn’t searching for Benton or even looking at the work files on the tablet.” Harlan looked like he was trying to hide a smile.

  Sutton suspected she knew why. What started out as intel gathering had taken a sharp left turn once she held the tablet. Her search hadn’t been about work or being kidnapped or Benton or anything she wanted to talk about.

  “Who was she searching?” Josiah asked.

  Harlan glanced at her then back to Josiah. “We should go downstairs and talk about that.”

  “Fine.” Josiah motioned to her. “Get up.”

  “No.” She did not want a front seat to this humiliation. Not after the stunt he pulled. Her radar had been off. Whatever she felt for him, the attraction, would go away. She’d make it go away.

  “I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you downstairs. Is that what you want?”

  She was convinced the whole forgetting-about-him thing would not be too hard so long as he kept talking. He could kill a moment faster than any man she’d ever met.

  Her interest in him only sprang up from her adrenaline high anyway. That had to be the right answer. “You’re an asshole.”

  “Not the first time he’s heard that,” Harlan said.

  “Let’s go.” This time Josiah took a step toward her.

  She jumped up. Having Harlan talk about the real target of her searching sucked. Being carried downstairs struck her as even worse.

  They walked the steps in silence. Josiah didn’t touch her, which was a good choice on his part. They entered the main work area and everyone turned. Tasha hadn’t turned up, but Ellery, Lucas, and Mike all stood over the tablet. Sutton knew then the next few minutes were going to veer into annoying territory.

  Josiah didn’t say anything until he stood on the opposite side of the conference table from the others. “Ellery, you have something for me?”

  “Yes.”

  Josiah’s eyes bulged. “Well, who was she searching?”

  The moment of truth had arrived. Sutton looked at Mike’s grin and then to Lucas. There was no use delaying the inevitable. They all knew. All but Josiah. She decided to speed this up. “Just tell him.”

  Ellery’s eyebrow lifted as she stared at him. “You, Josiah.”

  “Maybe she’s right.” Harlan walked by but hesitated next to Josiah for a second. “You are an asshole.”

  “I don’t get it. What about me?” Confusion still clouded Josiah’s face. He looked around a
t his teammates with a frown growing deeper each second. Then he glared at her. “What, my uncle wasn’t enough? Who are you going after now?”

  Sutton didn’t even try to call up a well of patience. She really was done. “You can’t be this stupid.”

  Mike nodded. “Sure he can.”

  Ellery spun the laptop around. The split screen showed the last site she visited. The other side was a series of lines of what looked like computer code. Sutton could only guess Ellery ran some sort of diagnostics on the tablet. Sutton had never been more grateful for people with the skills in her life since the talents might save her from whatever awful interrogation Josiah wanted to subject her to.

  “It looks like a general search to learn more about you.” Ellery clicked on keys and different sites flicked by.

  “I should have stayed upstairs,” Sutton mumbled.

  Ellery shot her a sympathetic smile. “Which is something a woman who’s interested in you might do.”

  “That’s not . . .” Josiah looked around, looked at everyone except Sutton. “We don’t know that she—”

  “This is getting embarrassing.” Mike looked at Sutton. “Him, not you.”

  Sutton didn’t quite agree with that. “For both of us, actually.”

  “Ellery, explain it to him. Use simple sentences since he seems to be lagging behind,” Harlan suggested.

  She nodded and started talking. “Nothing was compromised. She didn’t stray. Didn’t play with the settings or try to figure out where she is.”

  Lucas put his hands on the back of a chair and leaned in. “It looks innocent, man.”

  Josiah stumbled over his words before he finally spit out a coherent sentence. “Why steal the tablet then?”

  “I didn’t steal anything. I thought I was free to move around.” That wasn’t quite true, but Sutton felt the need to say it.

  “Do you know anything about women?” Ellery asked.

  Josiah swore under his breath. “Apparently not.”

  “You think she wanted to announce to all of us that she’s interested in you?” Mike snorted. “I’d hide that.”

  “Shut the fuck up.” Josiah stood there not moving. Barely looked like he was breathing. “Everyone.”