Gaige scoffed. “I’m not going anywhere. My debt to you is paid.”
Debt. The word echoed in Alec’s mind, overtaking every other thought. Seth or the CIA or SAD, maybe all of them, had something big on Gaige. Something that would make him take the risk of breaking into this server room.
Seth shook his head. “It’s not and you don’t have a choice here.”
“Why doesn’t he?” For some reason the answer to that question really mattered to Alec.
“Hey.” Gaige shoved Alec’s hand away from his chest. “Worry about yourself.”
This guy liked to push. Alec wasn’t accustomed to that. “You clearly don’t know me or you’d be more careful.”
“You two really are perfect for each other.” Seth sounded far too happy and satisfied with the arrangement he was setting up. “Like you, Gaige is the best at what he does.”
If that were true, Alec would have hired him long ago. “I’ve never heard of him.”
Gaige blew out a long and loud breath. “That’s kind of the point in my line of work.”
Enough playing. Enough indulging. Alec zoomed right in on his main concern as he looked at Seth. “You will not poke around in my system. There’s privileged information in there. Trade secrets worth a lot of money.”
“You can watch over every move Gaige makes. Which is why you two will be inseparable until I say otherwise,” Seth said.
Gaige frowned. “Wait, what?”
“You’re pushing it, Lang,” Alec said at the same time.
“You both do discreet jobs for the CIA. This time I need you two to work together.” That stupid grin showed up on Seth’s mouth again. “To be together.”
Alec felt the last hold on his control slip. Seth thought he had the upper hand. He wasn’t offering anything. He was insisting and being cryptic, and all of it ticked Alec off. “What the hell does that mean?”
Seth winked. “You’ll see.”
Chapter 3
Gaige had hoped to be on a plane drinking a watered-down soda by now. Instead, he sat in a claustrophobic room on the second floor of the Drummond Enterprises building.
This day just kept getting worse.
They’d all traveled up together from the server room on a private keyed elevator only a few had access to. Alec had peeled off with his guards, which left Gaige sitting with Seth in front of a wall of blank television monitors. He whistled loud enough for Gaige to seriously consider throwing a punch.
He was about to point that out when the lock clicked. Alec pushed the door open and charged in, head down, studying a file. Gaige tried to look away but couldn’t. His gaze traveled from Alec’s hands to his long legs to the sexy way the waistband of his dress pants balanced low on his hips.
That stride, so determined and in command, spoke to how he saw his position in the world. At the very top.
It took another moment for Gaige to realize a second man had come in behind him. This one a bit shorter than what Gaige pinned as Alec’s six-two. Darker hair with less of a rough edge. Not a guard and not obviously armed. This guy possessed a less determined walk and actually smiled.
Still, the resemblance was tough to miss. He had to be one of the other Drummond brothers. Gaige didn’t know what that family put in their food to build the boys like that, but they sure had a specific style—hot hardass in a suit.
Gaige enjoyed the view but was past ready to leave. This time he’d get back, gather what he needed and slide off the grid. Make it impossible for Seth to find him again. The hell with trying to fix the past and make amends. He was fucking done.
Gaige let out a long exhale as he glanced at his watch. “Does anyone else care that it’s only five in the morning?”
“No,” Alec answered without looking up from his file.
Gaige decided to try the other brother. Maybe that one had inherited the lone reasonable gene in the family. “Who are you?”
“Finn Drummond.” He leaned across the table with his hand out. “Alec filled me in on why you’re here.”
Gaige wished he’d been that lucky. “Any chance you can explain it to me?”
“Okay.” Alec dropped the folder on the rectangular table and planted his hands on the back of the seat next to Gaige. “Are we done with the chitchat?”
“Some words sound extra ridiculous when you say them,” Seth said as he leaned back in his chair.
Alec barely spared the agent a glance before nodding to his brother. “Finn.”
“Right.” He went to the far end of the table and sat down. He flattened his palm against the deceptively normal top and the area in front of him lit up. It was some sort of makeshift computer and he started typing on what looked like the outline of a keyboard.
Images flashed on the screens at the other end of the room. “Here are the satellite images of the Svalbard.” Finn smiled at Gaige. “It’s the global seed bank.”
As far as Gaige was concerned he’d heard enough about seed vaults to last him a lifetime. “So I’ve heard.”
Finn’s smile grew. “It’s hard to get excited about seeds, right?”
This Drummond brother had some charm. The flirty smiles, the lightness in his voice. A sane man would be intrigued by this one and not the gruff pounded-into-the-ground-by-life other brother Gaige found so compelling.
The second Gaige thought about Alec a wave of heat hit him. So much for acting cool and detached.
He could feel Alec’s stare. The way he watched and assessed, as if looking for any weakness, unnerved Gaige. He preferred computers to people. Being alone to dealing with groups. His house over some random building in Germany. But he’d never been one to back off from a challenge, and he wasn’t going to start now.
He turned his head and met Alec’s gaze. He expected fury, maybe even another barking threat about making him disappear. He got a narrow-eyed stare. Intense and…something. Gaige couldn’t name the sensation but it burned through him.
Alec held Gaige’s gaze for a beat longer, then turned to Seth. “Tell me the dates of these suspect deliveries and we’ll check them.”
A chair screeched across the hardwood floor as Seth stood up. With slow steps he walked up to the monitors, studying each one. “Care to tell me why you have satellite imagery?”
“You act like you’re the only one with resources.”
Tension pinged around the room. The walls seemed to press in, choking out the air. Gaige wasn’t sure what kind of power play he’d walked into but he’d bet Alec would win this round. He had the home turf advantage and an element of surprise on his side.
The break-in should have shifted him to the defensive, panicked him, but it seemed to do the opposite. The more frustrated Seth sounded, the more relaxed Alec looked. The strain across his shoulders eased and the tiny lines tugging at the corners of his mouth disappeared.
Seth pointed at one monitor that appeared to show a whole lot of snow and ice and little else. “You shouldn’t have this intel, and we both know it. Are you piggybacking a government satellite or is this one of yours?”
When they threw around words like intel and talked about satellite images and who had access, Gaige knew it was time to slam on the brakes. The more he knew, the deeper he’d be dragged into this mess. “It’s now five-o-six, for anyone who’s counting.”
If Alec heard him, he didn’t show it. He was too busy digging his fingernails into the smooth leather of the chair he held. “You’re accusing me, my company, of using seed bank deliveries to…I don’t even know what. Expect me to use any resource I have to prove you wrong.”
The image on the monitor finally registered in Gaige’s brain. A concrete structure half buried in the snow. “Is that a door?”
Seth pointed to the outline of a rectangle sticking up out of a snow bank and what looked like a small path leading to an entrance. “Yes. It’s in the side of a mountain in a remote chain of islands halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole.”
That sounded like the last place on
earth Gaige wanted to visit. “And you think I’m going there? No fucking way.”
“Yes, you are.” When Gaige started to deny it, Seth talked over him. “Look, until I know what’s happening here, Alec and this company and you, Gaige, are all under my jurisdiction.”
As if he had the power to take over lives and businesses. Gaige had hated the guy before but that was nothing compared to now. “You can’t be serious.”
Alec exhaled as he dropped his hands from the chair and stood up straight. “Seth sometimes gets confused about the reach of his power.”
“November twenty-eighth of last year.” That’s all Seth said. He dropped the date, then nodded in Finn’s direction.
For a second Finn just sat there. He glanced at Alec, as if waiting for permission.
Alec nodded. “Do it.”
The soft thump of Finn’s fingers hammered against the table as he typed…and typed. When he finally stopped, more images flashed across the screens. The monitors showed a time stamp of the date Seth requested. Carts rolled out of the door in the side of the mountain and met a truck. It was dark and only a few people moved around, bundled up in thick coats. Gaige couldn’t see anyone’s face or make out the marks on the truck.
“Is this a delivery?” Gaige didn’t want to ask any questions but he couldn’t help but be intrigued. He’d always been a person who needed to understand how things worked. The idea of the key to the world’s food supply being kept at the top of the world made no sense to him.
“In the usual course, boxes are shipped to Svalbard and x-rayed to make sure they actually contain seeds. The vault is locked and only opened a few times a year to allow for deposits. At all other times it’s guarded by extensive security, both human and non,” Seth explained.
“The one time I went up there polar bears were walking around outside.” Finn snorted. “It was a disincentive to break in.”
“The isolated location and weather make getting there difficult, but that’s by design. Add in cameras and sensors and an unwanted intrusion gets tougher.” Seth stared at Alec as he talked, as if challenging him with every syllable. “On top of that, there are five locked doors between the entrance and the actual vault. To save electricity the lights only come on when the doors open. And did I mention no one person has the keys to all five.”
Gaige whistled. If Seth meant to impress him, it worked. He got it. A vault secure enough to operate as a safe if the end of the world came. But they were still talking about food and he didn’t understand how humans would ever be in a position where this vault was needed on a large scale.
“It’s also negative eighteen degrees Fahrenheit inside.” Finn shrugged. “So, there’s that.”
He’d been in the room twenty minutes and Gaige still didn’t get the point. “That’s a lot of over-the-top protection for fruit and plants.”
“It’s about ensuring crop diversity and global food security.” The edge had moved back into Alec’s tone.
“You sound like a brochure,” Seth said. “A boring brochure, by the way.”
They were missing the most obvious issue. Gaige wondered if that was on purpose. “Doesn’t all of this security mean whatever happened has to be some sort of inside job? If so, why are we here?”
Finn’s eyebrow rose. “The man asks a good question.”
Alec’s gaze shot to his brother again. He didn’t say a word but something was happening between them. Even Gaige could pick up on the unspoken communication. There was an uncomfortable vibe in the room that had Gaige shifting in his chair. He seemed to be the only one who noticed.
“On November fifteenth, the vault was opened as scheduled. It was then opened again thirteen days later, here, for a special delivery, which isn’t supposed to happen.” Seth pointed to the time stamp. “The excuse was a missing earlier shipment.”
Both Finn and Alec frowned. Gaige didn’t know what that meant.
“If you’re trying to build tension with the way you’re explaining this, I’m missing it,” Gaige said. “Maybe skip ahead to the end.”
“The paperwork for the unscheduled transfer notes Drummond Enterprises as the originator of the temporarily lost shipment.” Seth came back to stand on the side of the table, right across from Alec.
Alec shook his head. “That’s not possible.”
“This anomaly happened in August and again in November.”
“Then someone faked the manifests,” Finn said.
Seth shrugged as he stared at Alec. “Probably.”
“Probably?” Alec’s voice dropped even lower. The deceptive softness carried a note of menace.
The word lingered there, then faded out. Other than the slight hum of the monitors, silence screamed through the room. Alec and Seth stood, staring at each other. Finn didn’t move.
Gaige thought about making a joke, or even getting up and trying to leave. Whatever was happening here, power grab or pissing contest, didn’t involve him. But danger whipped through the room and around him. Gaige could feel the tension pounding inside him.
Finally, Seth relaxed his stance. He no longer looked ready to attack or shoot. “I believe you’re not involved, but now I need to prove it before someone in the CIA yanks your security clearance and ability to work with the government, then drops you in a hole somewhere and forgets about you.”
Alec barely let him finish the sentence before shooting a new question at him. “How does Gaige fit in?”
That’s what Gaige wanted to know. “Excellent question.”
When Seth didn’t answer, Alec continued. “You said he was a target. What the fuck is that about?”
Gaige was just about done with these two talking about him like he wasn’t in the room. He started to tell them both to go to hell when Seth’s comment came into sharper focus. “A what?”
Seth’s gaze bounced from Alec to Gaige. “I need to attract the attention of the people who are playing with the seed vault and find out why. To do that, I need to draw them out.”
“Using me?” Gaige pushed back from the table and stood up next to Alec.
Finn scoffed. “Aren’t you lucky?”
“No way.” Gaige refused to get sucked in any deeper. He was done being Seth’s bitch. He’d done shit, terrible shit, but nothing that warranted this or more threats from Seth.
Alec held up a hand. Positioned it right in front of Gaige as if silently holding him back. But his attention stayed on Seth. “So, you’re saying that your ability to clear me and my company depends on Gaige here.”
Jesus, these people. Gaige had dealt with people who assumed every order would be followed and tried to slice through you with a word or a look. But he’d never been the dedicated target before. “Then you’re screwed because I’m out.”
Alec talked right over him, still keeping his laser focus on Seth. “Tell me what you’re not saying. You have an angle. You’re holding intel back. It’s what you CIA types do.”
“Technically, I’m with the Special Activities Division of the CIA,” Seth said.
“Yeah, the special ops guys who go in and rescue the Navy SEALs when things go to hell. I know the PR.” Alec did not back down one inch. That badass reputation was well earned. “We’re all out if you don’t talk.”
Seth laughed. “Now you’re protecting Gaige? He broke into your building.”
“On your command,” Gaige said. Interesting how Seth forgot that part. Gaige wasn’t so lucky.
Alec still hadn’t moved. He stood there, almost frozen to the spot on the floor. “Make the decision, Seth.”
“You are a fucking pain in…” Seth shook his head as he mumbled something under his breath and stared at the floor. When he lifted his head again he wore a blank expression. One that looked practiced and controlled. “Fine. There was unusual activity around those special dates the vault was opened. As you pointed out, this is a remote area, so truck movement and people in and out draws attention.”
Gaige’s mind raced to keep up. “And?”
“He thinks all the movement in and out covers up something bigger in or near the seed vault.” Alec stared Seth down as he talked. “But he’s not sure what it is.”
Seth nodded. “Yes.”
“Do you have the CIA’s support in this?” Before Seth could answer that one, Alec fired again. “Or are you sending Gaige, and by extension us, into this without authorization?”
Seth made a strangled noise. “I’m the only thing standing between you and an all-out assault from the CIA. They think you’re playing games with the seed vault. There’s talk about bringing you in for questioning and putting your company’s government contracts on hold while you’re interrogated.” Seth made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Imagine how much money that would cost you. Would you ever get those contracts back?”
“Nice crowd you run with.” Finn shook his head. “You’re a real asshole, you know that?”
“At least we’ve found something we can agree on.” Gaige was all for the Drummond brothers taking on Seth. Maybe while they hammered Seth, he could slip away.
Alec stood there for a few seconds, not breaking eye contact with Seth, then nodded. “It’s fine.”
“Fine?” What the fuck? Gaige didn’t know if they were talking in code or what, but the CIA could snatch someone else off the street to do this and leave him alone.
Alec turned and looked at Gaige. His rage had morphed into something else. Resignation with a bit of curiosity, maybe?
“You’re going to work here as an outside auditor,” Alec said as if the words made any sense.
Gaige wanted to punch something. “I don’t even know what that is.”
“In his defense, it does sound like a made-up thing,” Seth said in a voice dripping with sarcasm.
After what looked like the world’s most frustrated eye roll, Alec continued. “Everyone will believe you’ve been hired at my direction as an independent contractor to review computer security protocols.”
To Gaige the explanations only made this worse. “Because?”
Dirty Deeds Page 3