Exchange of Fire

by P. A. DePaul

  A shiver shot down Sandra’s spine. That was the first time she had ever heard Magician mention what had happened when she was purposefully captured.

  “I still carry the scars,” Magician finished, and Sandra’s eyes shot to the woman’s cheek, following the line until it disappeared. Magician stiffened. “Not all of them are visible like that one.”

  Romeo growled softly. Magician frowned up at him and maneuvered out from under his hold.

  A pang of guilt lanced through Sandra’s gut. God, could she be any more of an ass by staring at Magician’s face like that?

  “Do you want to know why I stayed?” Magician asked, crossing her arms. “I had the team’s love and support to help me heal and work through it. Because I knew that with my knowledge I could save someone else from going through what I did.”

  Sandra turned away from Magician’s unforgiving eyes.

  “You took the coward’s way out when you ran without telling us,” Cappy stated, still standing next to Talon, but with his hands gripping his hips. “We could’ve helped you; would’ve understood if you wanted out. But when you ‘died,’ you took a piece, a special element, away from the team.”

  Magician stepped forward, pointing at each of the men. “Romeo, Cappy, and Talon had my broken body to deal with on top of their grief at losing you.”

  Talon had said much of the same thing earlier. She hated the picture they all painted. She swiped at the useless tears, not sure what she could say.

  “We practically razed half of Mexico trying to avenge you before Victor pulled us back and onto other cases,” Romeo said flatly, his jaw now hardened. “And we still didn’t catch that weasel Carlos.”

  Cappy grunted. “Unfinished business, that one. But we’ll get him.” Cappy focused on her. “I may be mad as hell—beyond pissed, actually—but we’re family, Wraith. We love you. You need to see the pattern you’re developing before it’s too late.”

  Tiny jabs hit her stomach with each word he uttered. This wasn’t about love; it was about their safety.

  “You pushed away the very people who could’ve helped you; who wanted to help you,” Cappy continued before she could figure out her defense. “Not only that; you turned into a runner when you’ve always been a fighter.”

  Guilt gripped her heart, making her swallow past the lump in her throat. God, she sounded so weak when it was said out loud.

  “Then instead of helping us figure out how to end this, you ran here like a scared rabbit. Without a word. Again.”

  “We can’t end this, Cappy,” Sandra whispered. “You all would be declared Rogues and have KOS orders like me.”

  “Isn’t that for us to decide?”

  Sandra looked away. Not if they decided to throw their lives away, then no, they didn’t get a vote.

  “On to festering point number two,” Cappy announced, breaking into the tense silence. “Wraith, walk me through that last night. Specifically about the explosives. Was that you? Did you discover them and use the opportunity? Or did you have help?”

  Crap. She hated to lie, but couldn’t rat out Romeo. After all, the man had kept his promise and hadn’t confessed to the group.

  “She had help,” Romeo bit out, causing everyone to freeze for a split second. Then they exploded into disbelief and movement.

  Talon slipped past Cappy and lunged, swinging his fist while shouting, “I knew it, you bastard.”

  Romeo ducked and jumped out of the way just as Cappy intercepted Talon, who was already halfway through throwing another punch. The CO hauled him against his muscled body and wrestled him to the side.

  Magician stepped in front of Romeo, and Sandra scuttled forward. “Don’t take it out on him,” she yelled. “I made him promise not to tell a soul for everyone’s safety.”

  “So the rest of us aren’t trustworthy?” Talon retorted, breaking free from Cappy’s grip. He crossed his arms, his posture portraying how much he considered her actions a betrayal.

  “Of course you are,” she snapped. “Everyone here is trustworthy or we wouldn’t have survived this long or been as successful, but why burden you with the knowledge when you were going to be ‘interviewed’?” She made air quotes around the word. “I was trying to spare you from having to lie.”

  “Another decision I’d like to have made for myself,” Talon bit back.

  Cappy paced the room. “I agree. I’ll say it again: You don’t know how destroyed this group was when we all thought you were dead.” Cappy glared at Romeo. “At least I thought all of us were grieving.”

  Romeo held his hands out. “I was grieving. She never clued me in on her plans. I was just the delivery system. She set it all up herself, and I was never a hundred percent sure she planned to escape.”

  The wind flew out of her lungs on his blunt pronouncement. Oh my God. He actually thought he helped her commit suicide?

  “And you didn’t think that was something you should have brought to my attention, Romeo?” Cappy asked, rounding on the man.

  “Of course it was, but I couldn’t. Like Wraith said, I’d promised I wouldn’t tell a soul, including the team.” Romeo sighed. “I almost broke that vow so many times, even that night when she left Command Central after ignoring my pleas to help her. She was determined to carry out her plan by herself.”

  “You didn’t follow her?” Talon barked.

  “Couldn’t. You guys weren’t back yet. Someone needed to be with Magician.”

  Magician jerked, her baby-blue eyes narrowing on Romeo before encompassing the rest of the team. “What? You guys swore you didn’t have me on a schedule.”

  “We didn’t,” Cappy responded. “But you refused to leave Mexico to receive the medical care you needed until we went with you. We couldn’t leave you by yourself after what you had been through and how badly you were beaten. Christ, that first week, you could barely open your eyes or walk properly.”

  “Festering sore number three,” Magician muttered, turning away. She gripped the sides of a box on the closest stack and hung her head, her shoulders shuddering.

  Naked regret encompassed Romeo’s face as he gazed at his partner’s back.

  Sandra had no words to describe the sorrow flowing through her at seeing the destruction her actions had caused, the ripple that took on a life of its own and just wouldn’t end.

  Chapter 23

  Victor laced his hands behind his back and watched a family dressed in their Sunday best trod along the sidewalk in front of his town house. The father appeared to be relating a rather animated story by the way his hands gestured, and the mother laughed while holding their daughter’s hand. The little girl clutched the palm of a boy who was probably about two years older than she was.

  Such a wholesome scene. The family most likely on their way to church. Praying for peace, justice, and safety. All the things he strove to provide, though they’d never know it.

  He swiped at a bead of sweat trickling along his hairline. Damn Phoenix heat. It was only seven thirty in the morning and the temperature had already reached boiling.

  He turned away from the overlarge window in his office on the top floor of his safe house. The air conditioner was already running at full blast. Soon he’d have to make his way to the first floor.

  Mars had better call him back with the news that the threat had been neutralized. He wanted to go home. Dive into his pool and swim his usual daily laps. Kiss his latest mistress on the cheek before sending her away until he wanted to see her again. In other words, he wanted to get back to living his life. Not stay holed up in this slow cooker while SweetBriar Group grew further out of his control.

  He snatched the landline receiver off his desk and waited for the click to let him know the line was secured. After two rings, his nephew answered.

  “Ted, I need the files on the rest of Delta Squad. I only have Wraith’s.”

  “You have somewhere you want me to ship them?”

  Victor paused. Did he detect a note of desperation in Ted’s voice
? Like the boy was asking for information beyond being helpful? “You can just remotely save them into a secure folder on my computer drive,” he responded coldly.

  “Sure. When you want them?”

  “Today. I know it’s a holiday Sunday, but you don’t mind, do you?”

  Ted responded with a sigh. “No. I can upload them in the next few hours. Anything else?”

  “Yes, now that you mention it. Do you think you could pull together files on any known persons that a Sandra Walsh in Ridge Creek, North Carolina, might associate with?”

  “You think she’s Wraith? I know she’s been one of your top suspects for a while.”

  “It’s a strong possibility. The anomaly of the twice-pulled background check and the fact that it was run within the perfect time frame for her to establish a new cover moved her up the list. Now Granger’s death seems to solidify it.” Victor’s alarm bells grew louder. What were his senses picking up that he had consciously missed? “Think you could get those to me today?”

  “It will probably take me longer on those since I’ll be starting from scratch. When is your business trip done? Could I give them to you then?”

  “Not sure yet. You can upload those as you finish them. That should be fine.”

  Victor hung up, the niggling feeling in his gut growing. He closed his eyes and ran through the short conversation again, slowly.

  His eyes popped open. The extra swallowing.

  His nephew seemed very accommodating, yet nervous at the same time. Thank God he hadn’t told anyone where he was going and no one knew he owned this town house. The ownership was buried so deep, it would take a forensic accountant months to unravel it all.

  It was looking more and more like his nephew would have to be “handled.”

  ***

  “Thanks, Andrew, you’re a lifesaver,” Sandra gushed into the phone, feigning the enthusiasm she knew was required for the mondo favor she just received. She lazily strolled from the back of the unit toward the front. “Remember, don’t send any invoices to Grady, okay? Keep my credit card on file and bill everything to that. You’ve got my contact information if you have any questions or problems.”

  Once Andrew agreed she signed off, sighing heavily. Collapsing onto the cement floor and slumping against the corner, she stared at the now dark screen. She had to call Grady and let him know the miracle she had just pulled off, but wasn’t sure if she could. Too much had happened in too short of a time frame for her body to process it, especially with no sleep.

  One bombshell after the next kept dropping, making her afraid of what the next hour would bring. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the corrugated metal. The cool sensation seeped into her temple, tempting her to hide in this box until she caught up on some much needed REM.

  Talon’s broken expression outside the storage unit invaded her mind, then Magician’s disappointed face, Romeo’s angry eyes, Cappy’s chain saw bellow, Grady’s twinkling irises morphing into cold fury . . .

  Her phone slid off her thigh and clattered onto the cement, jolting her from the barrage. The display flared to life as if to mock her, telling her she really needed to get on with the phone call. The small anvil that permanently sat on her chest grew into a ten-ton vise gripping her heart. She swallowed hard against the abject hurt radiating out of every one of Grady’s pores before he left. He would not welcome a phone call from her.

  Romeo hefted one of the boxes off the stack on the other side of the storage unit and handed it to Talon, who walked it beyond the entrance outside. Magician appeared in the overlarge opening and headed her way.

  Despite her protests, the team had taken all of two seconds to decide to stick around Ridge Creek so they could ascertain whether Grady would be safe on his own. Nobody trusted Victor wouldn’t send someone else to check up on Granger. Sandra had tried to reason with them again, but Cappy had cut her off, telling her the team would be fine. No one knew they had left the other mission, and they wouldn’t be missed for a while longer.

  Yet another portion she got to scoop onto her guilt platter for one.

  The blinking icon on her screen flashed, demanding she unlock the display.

  Had Grady made it to the center in time to catch the employees from starting their workday? She glanced at her watch: eleven a.m. It would’ve opened an hour ago if he hadn’t been able to close the doors.

  Hand over the keys to the center. You’re no longer employed or welcome in Gradwick.

  Sandra pulled in a breath at the memory of the cold announcement. Just get it over with. He probably won’t answer anyway.

  Magician plopped down beside her just as she pulled up his profile. Not really a conversation she wanted a witness for, but she was way too tired to move deeper into the unit again.

  “You successful?” Magician asked, staying Sandra’s thumb over the send button.

  On the bright side, the woman was at least talking to her. In fact, everyone but Talon seemed to be in a state of numb acceptance and moving on from the explosive revelations. Cappy was right to call them “festering wounds.” Hopefully they’d all be able to heal now that they had been aired.

  “Yeah,” she answered, resting her head against the wall again. “Going to cost me a fortune for ‘expediting priority’ alone, and then I’ll be billed for whatever they touch.”

  Magician didn’t say anything, just peered at her with her haunted eyes.

  Sandra knew she should say something profound but had no clue where to begin. Easier to stick with the actual topic. She held up her phone. “I was about to leave a message, letting him know when to expect them.”

  “Cappy just got off the phone with a Realtor.” Magician jabbed her thumb toward the opening as if to indicate Cappy made the call outside. “She thinks she has a house for us to use as Command Central while we’re here.”

  “Oh, yeah? That’s good news.” Her emotions flickered between fight and flight. Every instinct in her still wanted to flee, but she could see no way to do that now without destroying the tenuous seed of forgiveness she’d just garnered earlier.

  “From my understanding the house has been vacant and sitting for sale for a while, so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince the owner to accept the money to rent it.” Magician studied her perfect manicure before casually adding, “It’s not too far from where Grady lives. So that’ll make it easier to keep an eye on him. The boys will head there after they clear these boxes.”

  Sandra’s heart lurched and she gazed up at the ceiling, holding back the sheen of tears threatening to fall. She couldn’t be that close to Grady, knowing she wouldn’t be able to talk to him or make him understand.

  The cool touch of Magician’s fingers against her arm made her roll her head toward her friend.

  “Want me to make the call?”

  Yes. “No. I should do it.” She took a deep breath and swiped the phone awake and hit send. At the first ring her hand shook; by the third she let out a sigh—hating to admit how close to relief she felt. Coward.

  Her pulse jumped and an intense longing gripped her at his happy, deep Carolina drawl purring in his voice mail greeting. She left a message as quickly as she could, then dropped the phone into her purse’s side pocket. The apology sounded lame even to her, but what the hell could she say on an electronic device that Grady would believe?

  Cappy’s heavy footsteps thumped in their direction.

  “I got the company to agree to send a few trucks’ worth of workers by one o’clock today,” she said just as the man paused before them. “Just left Grady a message about it.”

  “Good. We’re almost finished here.”

  As if to make Cappy’s point, Talon and Romeo each grabbed the last few boxes sitting near them and hauled them outside. Talon still hadn’t made eye contact with her since she first opened the unit’s door.

  “While we check out the place the Realtor found for us, I need you two to load up on supplies,” Cappy commanded in his typical brisk style. “Usual
stuff, nothing fancy. Then I want you to hit the rack.” The CO pointed at Sandra, and her body almost sang his praises in agreement.

  Chapter 24

  Mars slowed the Explorer and glanced at the beacon flashing on the laptop’s screen. According to the black market software, one of the members of Delta Squad had just used their phone at a location around the next bend.

  He scanned the area. Trees and industrial buildings filled the landscape. The minute he cleared the corner he laughed.

  “Of course you’d be at a storage locker.” How predictable.

  The flashing red dot indicated the operative was deep within the property. Wait until Victor hears this. Better confirm the high-and-mighty squad was actually here before he called the boss. Victor didn’t handle misinformation well.

  He pulled up as far as he could, but the round bar blocking his path refused to lift. Damn. It figured this would be one of those supposedly secure facilities. He glanced up and, sure enough, two cameras were aimed at the exit and entrance gates. He smiled and gave a small wave.

  Static squelched from the speaker beside him, and a young male voice asked, “You want to rent a unit?”

  He pressed the intercom button. “No. I’m supposed to meet my friends to help them go through their stuff.”

  “Name and number?”

  He held his breath. Would she be stupid enough to use the same alias when she signed the lease? He doubted it. If she was smart enough to stay off Victor’s radar this long then she’d know better. He gave a fake laugh. “No clue. It’s more like I owe a friend of a friend kind of thing. He just said to show up and drive around until I find him with the group.”

  Silence.

  Mars flipped through his options. He could ram the gate or park just beyond the entrance and wait for them to come out.

  Just as his hand reached to shift into reverse, the bar lifted.

  “Thanks, man,” he called, giving another chuckle to sell it. “You just saved me from having to owe a case of beer too.”