by Rie Warren
Madge sure could cook a mean omelet though.
We’d barely finished breakfast when Justice contacted me. I expected more porn logic, but his face showed on the screen.
I skidded my chair back from the table. “If you’re breaking protocol you better have a damn good reason. I told you not to FaceTime me on this phone. That’s what the other throwaway’s for.”
“How’s it going with the old harem there?” Justice asked.
The resulting crossfire conversation happened at a rapid pace:
“Huh? You’re getting face to face with me to find out about my three-way sexy times?” I scratched the back of my neck.
Jade glared at me. Justice laughed.
“OLD?” That came from Madge.
“HAREM!” Jade pushed up from the table.
“Besides, Jade doesn’t put out.” I smirked with an aside to Justice, “More like a bunch of harpies.”
“Walker is a cunt tease!” Jade shot forward, shouting at the phone like Justice was deaf.
“Got that wrong, lady. I’ll do you in ten seconds flat.”
“Early emission problem?” She quirked an eyebrow.
“Sounds like you need to gag her.” Justice grinned onscreen.
“I’ve got something to gag her with. Non-synthetic.” I leered at Jade.
Madge stood from the table. “Breakfast is over?”
“Your whole existence is over unless Walker gets you out of there fast.” Justice panned to his workspace.
The black and white computer map detailed bright red darts moving in on our hidey-hole originating from Asia, Russia, China, Algiers . . .
“You got heat.” Spinning his phone, Justice spoke directly to me. “Two hours lead time. At most. They’ve honed in on your location.”
“Fuck.” Remaining in Mt. Pleasant was a no-go now. I didn’t exactly want to bring World War Three to town. “Tell Storm I’ll send coordinates from the road. Don’t suppose you’ve got a safe house we can relocate to?”
“I dunno. You’ve got that whole overuse of explosives issue going on.” His Abercrombie & Fitch face lit up with cruel intent. He stroked his chin. “But I suppose I can’t just leave you out in the cold to die.”
“Thanks, man. You’re a real fucking buddy.”
“Just get your asses—and your assets—somewhere Storm can pick you up.”
Disconnecting the call, I turned to Jade and Madge. They’d heard everything and looked ready to sprint into action, but I needed some info from them first.
Cursing myself for not confiscating every single fucking gadget or phone they might be carrying, I asked, “Either of you make contact with anyone since we’ve been here?”
“We’re not stupid, Walker.” Jade, the spokeswoman of the duo, rolled her eyes. “Everything’s been turned off since before the speedboat.”
“Just the same, I’m gonna check anyway.” Pocketing my own phone, I held out my hand. “Get the devices. All of them. And I’m getting Justice to go over them too.”
Jade marched upstairs—stomp, stomp—and returned shortly—thump, thump.
She placed an iPad and two cell phones in my hands.
“That’s everything? You swear?” I asked.
“Trust issues?” Her upper lip curled in distaste.
“Yeah. I got ’em Especially when someone just busted our hideout wide open.”
I inspected all three devices for tracker devices, messages, calls, and Internet history.
They looked clean, and I kept them really fucking close to me when I mentioned the unnecessary to Jade and Madge who stood watching me with identical ferocious glares, “We gotta jet.”
Although I’d appropriated their techy shit, I thought it might be muy bueno to have Jade armed since we were on the run again. She and I made quick work in the master bedroom: two minutes and we were ready to launch out of there.
She snagged her bag by the grips, but I captured her arm.
“You pull a knife on any of your other lovers?” I asked.
Glancing at my hand then at my face, she tilted her head. “Not usually. No.”
“Are there other lovers?”
“Are you calling yourself my lover?” She shook her arm free.
“I’m asking if you have anyone waiting at home for you.”
She snorted a laugh, but her voice came out softer than usual. “No. There’s no one.” Her eyes flicked to me. “You?”
“Same.” I busied myself handing over the Beretta, her ammo supply, a KA-BAR similar to mine but with a smaller grip, and lastly her dagger.
Jade touched my hand. “Cheers for this.”
It was an oddly tender moment while we prepared to evac, and she accepted her own weapons like they were the most precious gifts in the world.
Turning my palm, I touched my fingers to hers. “I know what it’s like to be without them. I feel naked without my C-4.”
She drew up with a burst of bubbly laughter so unexpected it made me chuckle.
“Yes. And then there’s that,” she said, giggling and shaking her head.
“And then there’s that.”
While we hustled, gathering the last of our shit, it felt like we’d reached some kind of accord.
Clean up, clear out, and disappear were Jade’s and my specialty. Madge seemed pretty well versed in the procedures necessary to vanish from search and sight, too.
She kept her head down, got her gear together, and was second out the door after me. Jade performed a last sweep—and fingerprint swipe—of the premises before joining us in the borrowed-not-stolen vehicle.
I started the engine. “Did anyone remember to load the dishwasher?”
“For fuck’s sake, Walker.” Jade strapped into her seatbelt. “It’s not a holiday rental.”
And I considered the truce between us null and void with her pinched words.
Damn woman.
“No. It’s Hunter’s new wife’s old house. And you don’t know the world of pain he’ll put on me if we left one speck of dirt in the place.”
“I did the dishes.” Madge sighed from the backseat.
I aimed the rearview mirror at her. “What about the sheets? Did anybody put them in the washer?”
“I stripped the beds as well.”
“You just saved my life.” I put the SUV into gear.
Madge solemnly nodded. “Now you save mine. Again, I am not just a spoiled rich lady.”
“Don’t get used to it.” Jade daggered me with a glare. “And don’t you think for one second I’m ever going to do your dishes or laundry.”
“Woman. Seriously?”
Ten
The U. S. of A. On the Run
TURNED OUT I DIDN’T need to contact Storm with coordinates. He got to me first, pointing us to Langley AFB. I’d texted Hunter as soon as we’d vacated Mt. Pleasant, telling him I hoped the incoming tangos redirected before they razed JB’s house to the earth. Then I blocked him just like I had Blaize, because I didn’t need any more flak back from anyone.
Two women were difficult enough to deal with.
After that, I’d driven hell for leather, making the rendezvous in just under-seven hours instead of the six I’d planned on. Two women and their doll-sized bladders slowed me down, undercutting the clean and green highway conditions.
“You got size issues or something?” I asked Storm, cruising into the cockpit of the C17 aircraft as it trundled down the runway at Langley Field.
I didn’t even want to know how he’d hijacked the transport on such short notice.
“Ladies like big things.” He peered at the controls.
“Only if you know how to use the big thing in question.” Jade appeared next to me.
And here we go.
Everyone crushed into the cockpit—Justice, Madge, me, with Bane acting as the copilot for a change, although the amount of enmity between him and Storm seemed to have doubled in the two days since I’d seen them. They’d been sniping at each other when we’d arrived
, insulting one another ever since.
Sometimes I wanted to crack their fucking skulls together.
“Oh, I know how to handle something big.” Pulling back on the thrust, Storm took us airborne at one hell of a hellacious angle, narrowly missing the traffic control tower on purpose.
I turned green at the gills during lift-off. I hadn’t been fucking kidding about the vertigo thing. Really, really not helpful when I spent half my life shuttling from one part of the globe to the other.
As soon as we reached a more stable cruising altitude that only made me swallow bitter bile with every tiny bump of turbulence, I turned to the guys. “What exactly do we know?”
“Nada. Except the sheikah here is drawing agents from all across the world like a heat-seeking missile to a locked-in target.” Justice sat in the jump seat, fielding incoming messages on his tablet.
“Zip.” Storm concurred.
“Zilch.” Bane barely glanced at me, the stoic motherfucker.
“But how about you and Jade, huh?” Justice looked up long enough to throw me under the bus.
Subtle. Real subtle. About as subtle as an ax cleaved through a skull.
“Walker is dead to me after this mission.” The woman in question casually tossed back her hair and tossed me into the grave.
“Ouch.” Bane looked over long enough to wince.
“That’s gotta hurt,” Storm uttered from the side of his mouth.
“And you know everything I know about Majedah’s situation. She is not the rightful target. Her husband is.” Jade huffed.
“Can it, Lucy Liu.” Justice clicked away on her phone I’d handed over earlier.
“I’m so glad you gave me back my Beretta.” Jade’s warm tone was a warning light if ever I’d heard one.
I stood up straight. “Why?”
“So I can shoot him!” She pointed at Justice who merely shrugged.
Madge watched the entire showdown with a small frown between her eyebrows. The woman was one cool customer who knew when to keep her mouth shut, unlike her ballsy protector.
Despite her threat, Jade didn’t reach for her hip holster, but she did watch every fast tap of Justice’s fingers while he inspected her and Madge’s phones and the iPad.
Finally he sat back. “Nothing. No incoming received. No outgoing sent. They haven’t been tagged.”
“I told you that, Walker.” Jade started to retrieve her phone, but I grasped her wrist and shook my head.
“No.”
Her fist curled, and I felt her clubbing pulse beneath my fingers. One by one her fingers opened and relaxed. Then I released her, gathering the items from Justice and putting them in my pack.
“What about Hunter?” Jade asked, her hands on her hips. “He knew where we were.”
“Hunter?” My eyebrow ratcheted high. “Hunter’d get himself killed before he narked out anyone else.”
“So we’re back at ground zero,” she said.
“What’s the word from Blaize?” I turned my back on the two females, addressing Storm.
“Oh, you don’t wanna know,” he answered.
“She’s ripshit pissed,” Justice said, and there was no mistaking the yeehaw in his voice.
“Yeah. She doesn’t like this wild goose chase thing you got going on,” Bane interjected.
“Well, I don’t like being the turkey with a target on my tail feathers either.”
“So, why don’t you just hand over the asset and be done with it?” Storm glanced over. “Because Blaize is gonna come down on you like an avalanche, brah.”
Madge snapped Storm’s earguards with a painful sounding thwack. “The asset is right here.”
“And you’re all arseholes,” Jade added.
“Aaand you want to go down on Blaize, Storm.” Bane’s added commentary was so not welcome.
Storm half stood with his dangling earguards and walloped Bane one. “Shut the fuck up about Blaize.”
“It’s not his fault she’s hot.” I sought to relieve the tension, only succeeding in dialing it up another notch.
Jade slammed me with a glare I felt like a dagger in my throat.
“What? It’s the truth.” I defended myself. “So is Madge here. And you’re not so bad either when you shut your trap.”
Hands flapping in the air and hair swinging down her back, Jade swiveled away. “Men! I don’t know why I bother. I should just be a lesbian.”
Storm’s, Bane’s, Justice’s, and my eyes pinged open like hell yeah bring on the girl-on-girl action!
The cockpit was beginning to feel as claustrophobic as a closet, and there was a lot of cock-of-the-walk going on.
Just once I wanted to fly the fucking friendly skies.
Once more, I stood down and tried to defuse the situation, stating quietly, “I’m not handing over Madge because I want to know the truth first.”
“First?” Hissing, Jade spun toward me.
“First?” Madge pretty much mimicked Jade.
“You know we’re all at risk of losing our jobs, possibly our American citizenship, maybe even our lives because of this stunt.” Justice didn’t really excel at the peacekeeper’s role.
Now Storm and Bane’s hackles were up as well.
“So why don’t you just fuck off and die already?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I did that in my previous life.” Pretty Boy Justice smiled, flashing a mouthful of brilliant white teeth.
“I can make it happen for real,” Jade threatened.
Ignoring Miss The Spy, Justice stowed away his tablet and hunched forward, answering my question. “Because. Danger. It’s why we all signed up for the job.”
Amazingly, we landed at McGuire AFB in New Jersey without heads cracked, stomach contents spilled, or new hostiles on the horizon. That we knew of, anyway.
Justice commandeered the stripped down, black Jeep waiting for our arrival while Bane and Storm returned the borrowed cargo plane from whence it came.
What a joyride that would be with just the two of them who couldn’t wait to destroy one another given half the chance.
The darkened streets of New York City slickened with late winter sleet that dinged off the soft-top roof of the Jeep. We weren’t on a freakin’ sightseeing tour, yet Madge wiped a forearm against her misted window and practically plastered her nose against it. Evening had settled in, but tall buildings, bustling sidewalks, and brilliantly lit billboards overshadowed the sky.
I wasn’t a big fan of big cities. But I guess I could understand the allure.
Hell, give me a horse and a tent, a rifle and the woods, and I’d be a happy man. Almost. I concentrated on Jade who sat beside Madge. She looked worried. Not the usual balls-out babe or the soft woman in my arms from last night.
As Justice navigated toward Manhattan, I watched the lights illuminate Jade’s downturned face. I could understand her concern. She’d placed her and Madge’s lives in my care, and so far I’d made a mess of everything. Not my usual MO.
The showy, glittery, and ooh ahh fancy disappeared behind us as Justice took us down one alleyway then another, throwing us deeper and deeper into darkness.
Hell’s Kitchen may have been on an urban upswing, but from the outside Justice’s so-called safe place looked much, much worse for wear.
The background wail of sirens. The scraps of litter in the street. A line of dumpsters good for hiding the dismembered body parts of a corpse without being detected above the stench of three-day-old trash.
A punked-out little hellhole to hole up in Hell’s Kitchen. Nice.
Justice led us inside the warehouse and ushered us into a cold, metal, meat-packing-sized elevator. Another great way to get rid of bodies.
I approved.
We made it to the top floor of the midrise building, and the elevator door rattled open.
Justice stepped out, beckoning us to follow. “This floor is the living area. I own the rest, but it’s empty. You’ve got free rein as long as you need it.”
&n
bsp; Color me fucking impressed.
From the exterior, I’d expected a squatter’s haven, but the inside was downright palatial. Well, as palatial as a dark ops hacker could get. I ambled around, taking in the lay of the land. The space was open, large, pretty damn decent.
Justice pointed out the kitchen area, the main room that dominated most of the space, and the bathroom, which wasn’t too shabby at all. One bedroom, too, and a screened-off corner outfitted with another bed.
Sweet.
I was particularly interested in the bank of computer monitors and the security screens that lined nearly one entire wall in the main area.
Scratching his chin, Justice squinted at me. “Yeah. You can have access to my babies. What the fuck. We haven’t been able to get anywhere with the intel so far. Knock yourself out.”
Righteous.
I popped my knuckles and eyed the high-tech equipment with something close to hope we might get out of this mess after all.
“Dedicated Internet. Got us hooked up to a satellite circling somewhere up there in the atmosphere. Ain’t nobody tracking my shit down.” Justice dug his fingers into his pockets.
“Damn. Nice digs.” I almost got teary-eyed with gratitude.
Not.
“Yeah. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bomb the place to dust.”
I looked from Justice to Jade and back again. “Why the hell does everyone think I’m gonna go all crazy train with the boom-boom?”
“Because we can see it in your eyes,” Jade tartly replied.
Huh. Only thing I planned on going crazy on was her rockin’ body with my cock buried deep inside.
I glared at the woman until Justice dragged my attention back to him.
“So, here’s the control pad.” He palmed a slim silver tablet-sized rectangle that came to life when he swept his thumb across the interface.
“For your apartment? I need one of these things.”
“I have one of those for each of my homes.” Madge’s eyelashes fluttered down, and she smiled serenely. “I can use it to alert the guards as well.”
Always trying to one-up us. I rolled my eyes. “And now you’ve got two guards. The best of the best, babe.”