Circle of Deception (27 page)

“Have they found Jack?”

She jerked around, dropping her binoculars as she aimed her gun at Rex. “You could’ve given me a heart attack or gotten shot again. How are you so quiet for such a big guy with a cane?”

He looked like hell, with his pale skin and deep grooves bracketing his mouth. A thin sheet of sweat covered his upper lip. His clothes even looked to be hanging off his body as if he’d lost weight in the last couple days. What was he doing? He should be in bed recovering.

He hobbled closer, keeping one leg straight to keep from pulling the stitches. The operative assigned to protect Rex stayed farther away. Smart man. She’d give him a piece of her mind later.

She lifted the binoculars from around her neck and handed them to Rex. “No sign of him yet. They’ve moved enough rock and dirt to fill in a stadium.”

“What are you doing up here instead of down there in the middle of all that?” He hooked the cane on his arm and balanced on his good leg as he looked through the binoculars.

“I’ve been down there, but Ryker told me I was in the way. So here I am.”

He stood so close that the heat of the day was nothing to the warmth radiating from him. Not from fever, but from his normal body temp. Those few nights they’d slept together, she’d enjoyed snuggling up to him, his internal heater thawing her body and heart. That had to be the reason men lost weight so easily. Their bodies generated so much heat that they burned calories by merely standing.

A flower petal caught in the breeze landed on his shoulder. She wanted to brush it off, but was afraid to touch him, afraid it wouldn’t be enough. She missed running her fingers down his broad chest, following the sparse trail of hair to his navel and beyond. Like a well-fed woman who was starving, the hunger pains were twice as strong.

“Jack will be found. I’ve got a gut feeling,” he said as he continued to watch the activity below.

“You really want him to be alive.” The amazement squeezed through and pushed her voice up an octave. With all the fighting they did, she’d expected him to be indifferent.

He lowered his hands and looked at her. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“From what I know, he hasn’t always been a good brother.”

“Don’t think I’m being so noble. I want him alive so I can kill him with my bare hands.” The worry in his voice told her he had mixed feelings about that.

He handed her the binoculars and headed back down the small path to where his transport was parked. His stiff walk with the cane didn’t mar the view from behind at all. The man had a fine-looking ass.

She shook her head in disgust. Time for her to move on and concentrate on finding her brother. She’d given the locals plenty of rope to hang themselves. Besides, Ryker didn’t want her help digging out the bodies and tracking down Brody.

Then she heard a shout. Looking through the binoculars, her gaze followed Jack as he walked out of the yawning blackness with someone’s limp body in his arms. With a thick coating of dirt over every inch of his body and clothing, he lowered the body stiffly onto a stretcher set up in front of him. EMTs surrounded Jack and the body. Several people slapped Jack on the back, sending clouds of dust into the air as they shouted their happiness. Behind them, several more operatives stumbled out of the darkness. She recognized Liam’s tall frame leaning on Charlie’s slightly shorter one. All of them covered with dirt. Emergency workers hurried over and helped by offering shoulders to those who stumbled out. Other personnel with stretchers waited a good distance from the caves in case the weak walls gave way.

Returning her attention to Jack and the stretcher, she caught an EMT leaning over it and examining the body. He placed a stethoscope to the person’s chest and then shook his head.

Jack’s shoulders hunched as he covered his eyes with an arm and his whole body shuddered. Another EMT said something to him and he straightened, lowering his arm to answer. No tears on his face, but in seconds the pain and sorrow aged him. He shook his head, causing dirt to fall in a cloud around his shoulders. The EMTs moved to help others, and finally Abby could see the face of the person on the stretcher.

She lowered the binoculars.

Nic. Nic was dead.

Closing her eyes, she said a little prayer. The woman was a psycho, but she’d never wished her dead. Rex and Jack thought a lot of her.

Brody needed to pay—not only for Nic’s death but also for the six other operatives who had died during the operation. Every time they entered the field, the expectation was that it could be their last.

Oh, no. What about Rex? How much more could he go through? And what about Jack? She was grateful for Jack’s survival, but she wondered at what price? She knew Jack praised his people when a mission was a success, but when things didn’t turn out right, he blamed himself—even when it was out of his control. He believed he should be prepared for anything.

A quick glance behind her confirmed Rex had left. He hadn’t heard the shouts. His brother was alive but his ex-lover, dead.

Between news of their baby and now Nic, what would he do? No one could continue to receive blows like these and not react.

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be around when it happened.

R
EX LEANED ON
his cane and glared at his brother.

The crowd of workers came to a standstill. Birds chirped in the trees as generators hummed beside the cave’s entrance. Everyone was quiet. Word had obviously spread about their fight a few days ago. They knew that even with his wound and Jack’s severely bruised body, they were still dangerous to each other and anyone around them.

All of The Circle operatives were accounted for, dead or alive, and the forensics arm of the organization had stepped in. Jack pressed each one hard for answers. Not so much who was responsible—they knew Brody was the culprit, as he’d given the Inferno the info—but how had he found out about their raid?

Mere hours before they showed up, the charges were hidden in the cavern. The type of explosive used had been too unstable to leave for an unforeseen future need. They had taken precautions along with taking out the guards before they could give an alarm.

Could it be someone within The Circle who betrayed them? Since the upper ranks were the only ones to know about the raid in advance, who among the most trusted could have alerted Brody? He, Abby, and Ryker were the only ones of rank not inside the cavern.

At another time, Rex would have been worried about the answer to that dilemma, but he had a more pressing need. His brother had lied to him again, had sworn to his face that he had no more secrets when it came to Abby.

Jack turned around to see what everyone was staring at, and that was when Rex struck. With his wound affecting his balance, he knew he would have only one chance. His fist hit with a resounding smack. His swing shifted his weight to his left side and the stitched wound, and he nearly fell. A couple operatives grabbed his arms. He didn’t fight their hold. He’d made his point.

“I’m sorry.” Jack pressed the back of a hand to his cut cheek. “I tried to protect her.”

“You lying asshole.” Rex shook his head. “Some protection. You believe fucking them is protecting them?”

“Fucking? I haven’t—” Then his eyes widened, and his mouth snapped closed.

“Oh, you’re remembering now.”

“Abby finally told you.” His relief evident in his voice.

“Yeah.” Rex leaned in, bunching his brother’s shirt in a fist. “I’ve forgiven you for sleeping with her, but I’ll never forget that you can’t be trusted. Taking her to bed while knowing she was pregnant with my kid . . . that I’ll never forgive.”

“But—”

Rex jerked him closer. “Shut the fuck up. Then when you heard I was alive, you didn’t even try to be a real man and contact me and tell me the truth. When I saw that you were alive, I was unbelievably fucking happy. Maybe I’m not as smart as you, but I know when I’ve been played.” He pushed him away. “You’re no longer my brother. You’re dead to me. When this mission is over, I’ll tell Ryker that I want to be reassigned to the West Coast division. The more distance between us, the better it is for The Circle and for your chances to live to an old age.”

Rex and Jack stared at each other. No one spoke a word for several seconds.

“I’m really sorry about that and about Nic.” Jack looked off to the side, avoiding Rex’s angry glare.

“You slept with Nic too?” He shook his head, gritting his teeth. Hatred for his brother boiled over until he was certain he could kill him with his bare hands.

“No—”

“Don’t lie to me again.” For a moment, Rex felt a twinge of tightness in his throat. Too many times in the past he’d forgiven his brother for being inconsiderate and self-centered, but no longer. He’d reached his limit and needed to concentrate on what was best for him.

“For Christ’s sake, Rex, that’s not what I’m trying to tell you! I didn’t sleep with Nic. Shut up long enough to listen to me! She’s dead! Nic was killed in the cave-in. She pushed me out of the way and a rock hit her. Crazy thing was it would’ve missed me anyway, but she got in the way. They said she probably didn’t even feel any pain. It was instant.”

The men released his arms.

Rex stared at him. What game was his brother trying to play this time? He was tired. So tired of his manipulations. For years he’d gone along with it, believing his brother was smarter and knew what he was doing.

“I swear. You can see her if you want. The ambulance isn’t back yet. There were too many wounded. They have her with the other bodies in one of the smaller caves so she’ll be out of the heat until they can get here.”

Seeing Nic lifeless wasn’t an option. He shook his head. Another life gone. He clasped his hands behind his neck and shook his head. The silence continued. Rex looked at the people standing around, watching the drama between the brothers play out. Even the birds had hushed, though the generators still hummed steadily.

As if his acknowledgement of their presence was the release for others to talk, a brave soul asked another operative about checking the electrical hookup for the lights in the cave. That was everyone’s signal to return to normal and avoid looking at the brothers.

Without a word, Rex turned and hobbled away. He ignored the tears on his face as he reached the waiting guard and his truck and got inside.

His feelings for Nic had always been mixed, but she deserved a long life. Why hadn’t he insisted she come with them? By leaving her behind, had he ensured her death?

Her sweet face flashed behind his eyelids once he leaned back against the headrest. Another face moved in place of Nic’s. Abby. He couldn’t leave her alone to search for her brother. It was time for him to stop fooling around and make her understand how important she was to him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“S
HIT, SHIT, SHIT.”
Abby ducked behind a Dumpster and counted to ten before peeking around the edge. The smell of rotten food almost overpowered her. She hoped it rained again soon.

The section of Birmingham she’d tracked her prey to would never be on any tourist map. Redbrick buildings coated by dust and hidden behind metal fences and topped with razor-wire lined the opposite side of the street. Hiding in an alley between an abandoned car dealership and a burned down restaurant, she waited for a certain person to exit the gate covered with sheet metal.

Normally she didn’t do surveillance. Not long-term anyway. But after watching Rex and Jack argue, she’d rushed down to stop their intense face-off. Only she’d arrived too late and word had gotten to Ryker. He’d arrived an hour later, furious with everyone.

“What the fucking hell happened here?” Ryker’s voice sounded like gravel in an oak barrel.

Jack straightened and lifted his chin. A defeated look pulled at his bruised and scratched face. “I underestimated the enemy, sir.”

With a jerk of his head, Ryker directed Jack to follow him. They stopped not more than ten feet from where she stood. Grinding his teeth, Ryker looked like he could spit out pebbles as he listened to how the events unfolded and the number and names of the injured and dead.

“I take full reasonability for the clusterfuck,” Jack said. His shaking hand slid across his shaved head.

“As well you should.” Ryker crossed his arms and stared hard at Jack. “Finish up the mission. We have more intel for you to check out. You know what you have to do about Brody. When it’s over, you and I will have a long talk about your future with The Circle.”

Jack nodded and looked down at the paperwork Ryker handed him.

Abby had never envied Jack’s position. One failed mission could find you demoted to grunt work, in a holding cell, or dead.

She didn’t move fast enough before Jack caught her eavesdropping.

“Rodriguez! You’re on surveillance duty. Get your shit together to watch the front and back entrance of this facility.” He blasted out the orders, and she did her best to keep up as he headed to the impromptu control base. Her skills were wasted on surveillance.

“Whatcha looking at?”

The unexpected voice brought her crashing back to the present. In one fluid move, she kicked out and drew her gun.

Rex stumbled back; one hand slapped down her leg while the other held tight to his cane.

“Whoa! I guess you could say I deserved that. Put that away.” He nodded to her Sig.

“You’ve got to stop it. I don’t know how you do it, but you need to stop.” Warmth flooded her face from embarrassment. She needed to be more alert. At the rate he continued to sneak up and scare the crap out of her, if she didn’t die of a heart attack, someone else would take advantage and kill her.

“Who are you watching?” Rex looked over her head at the street beyond.

They had moved back to the hotel in Birmingham that afternoon, but they shared the suite with Ice and the operative assigned to keep an eye on them. Ryker claimed the man was there to ensure Rex stayed put and let his injury heal, but the big guy wasn’t having any of it. And here he was in the middle of her assignment.

“What are you doing here? And where’s what’s his name? You know, your watchdog?” She turned her back on him to monitor the gate.