Live By The Team (Team Fear Book 1) (35 page)

The house went silent, and somehow, the silence was more haunting than the sounds of brawling. “We need to get downstairs. I have to know.”

Debi squeezed her hand, and then let go. “This is quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

They turned to the mostly empty room. Mostly, except for Joe on the floor with his head separated from his body and Dead Eyes crumpled in the doorway. His eyes were definitely dead now. Lauren crawled across the room and picked up a discarded gun. Not a single shot had been fired, but where was Ryder?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

They passed two dead bodies on the way down the stairs. Lauren averted her eyes like she would when driving past road kill. She’d been up close and personal with too many dead bodies in the last twenty-four hours. The pulse pounding in her head sounded loud, so she couldn’t hear beyond it. Sweat slicked the fingers gripping the gun. Carrying it gave her a sense of security, but she’d feel better when she found Ryder.

Debi followed, her hand on Lauren’s back like when they’d gone through a haunted house. Like touch was a lifeline. Leading with the gun, Lauren turned to see an empty living room. Anticipating violence, she stiffened, her arms taut and the muscles along her back pulling painfully tight. The emptiness and the harsh rasp of her breath pushed her blood pressure into heart-attack territory.

A man rushed through the door, and Lauren swung the gun to aim at center mass, just as Ryder had taught her, although she didn’t have his steady hands. “Don’t move.” Tremors in her forearms stole the force from her threat, but she’d pull the trigger if he took a step towards them. They hadn’t survived all this to go down a few feet from the front door.

Ryder walked in the room and past the other man, his gaze assessing, and then he stepped closer to her. He put his bloody hand over hers and forced the barrel down. “This is Fowler. He’s one of the good guys.”

“
Oh.” Lauren relinquished the gun. “What happened to handling shit on your own?”

Ryder snapped the safety in place before tucking the gun behind his back and pulling the t-shirt over it. “Sometimes, you need help from a friend.”

“
The guard vanished.” Rose pushed through the entrance.

Craft came through and smacked Ryder on the back with a hearty clap. Ryder flinched. “Watch it. I have the worst fucking headache.”

“
Disoriented?” Rose turned and pulled Ryder’s eyelids up.

“
Fuck.” Ryder backed away. “I’m seeing fifteen of you, man. Give me a fucking break.”

“
Fowler, close the door. Craft get me some light.”

The men followed orders, and when the light came on, Ryder shielded his eyes. “Jesus, are you trying to give me an aneurism?”

Rose flashed a penlight in Ryder’s eyes. “Pupils are dilated, pulse rapid, breathing erratic.”

Ryder pushed Rose away and walked to flip off the overhead light. “They dosed me, put something in a bottle of water. I woke up disoriented. Lost time, serious time, couldn’t remember shit.” His eyes fairly glowed with anger. “I was coming here, unarmed and without backup. I couldn’t think straight.” He paced like a caged animal. “If you hadn’t intercepted me, I would have—” He glanced at her, and then away. “How did you find me?”

“
That was Lauren’s idea.” Craft winked at her from across the room.

“
You put a tracker on his phone?” Lauren’s body shook so she could barely stand. The adrenaline letdown was a bitch. She leaned against Debi. “Seriously?”

“
Sure, I added the same app he had on your phone. Thought I’d use it to screw with him, but when he didn’t respond after our near-death experience on the highway, we used it to track his ass. Stopped him a mile from here.” Craft shook his head at Ryder. “Brother, you fell off the crazy train.”

“
Adrenaline overload had me shaking like a junkie. Hallucinations. Then the panic hit.” He rubbed his chest, smearing blood on his shirt. “Thought I’d have a coronary. What the hell did you give me?”

Rose followed Ryder across the room and checked his pulse. “Beta blocker, but it’s a short-term fix. We need to isolate you until the drugs fully clear your blood. I wish I knew what they gave you.”

“
I do.” Four pissed-off soldiers snapped laser focus in her direction. Lauren cleared her throat. “Would you do something about his hand?”

“
Right after you tell me what they gave him,” Rose answered.

“
Um, you know this wasn’t random, right? Those five guys were Team Echo.”

Across the room, Fowler started cursing like a sailor. When he finished he looked at Ryder. “Training accident my ass. The company cut us loose and then sent those psychotic bastards after us.”

“
Joe said that they were the successful test, and the rest of the teams were failures. He, uh—” Lauren bit her lip. “They gave you a medical cocktail, he said, using… I don’t know what to call it, but the meds they used to make you fearless plus alcohol. God knows what else.”

Debi gasped, her response lost as the men started talking at once.

Rose spoke above the noise. “We need to strap your ass down for detox until your blood is clean.” He ripped a strip from Ryder’s t-shirt and wrapped it around the hand.

“
Afraid I’m ate up?” Ryder applied pressure to the wound.

“
I think they dosed you with the same crap they gave Madigan, which explains his symptoms. Disorientation, fear, headache, the shakes. He was detached and paranoid, and it wasn’t residual side effects like we originally believed. Fuckers gave him a nudge and he killed his wife before he knew who she was. Hell, probably before he knew who he was.”

Ryder’s gaze shot to Lauren, and then froze as if a shield fell in place.

“
Not a chance.” Unsteady, Lauren disengaged from Debi and wound around the lab equipment to Ryder. He shook his head and backed into the wall, but Lauren wasn’t backing off. She wrapped her arms around him, and rested her head on his chest. The uncertain heartbeat was rapid beneath her cheek. “You would never hurt me.”

He stiffened and forced his arms rigidly at his side. “We don’t know that, baby.”

“
To the pit of my soul, I know you’d never hurt me. Besides, Joe said they planned to kill me and frame you. The plan was never for you to do the deed.” She glanced up at his strong jaw. “You came in here like a force of nature and stood between me and danger like you were the last line of defense. That’s not the attitude of a madman.”

“
Actually, it was crazy as hell,” Fowler corrected. “But it gave us time to climb in through an upper window and get into position.”

Ryder scrubbed a hand over his face, wiping away sweat. “We need to clear the scene. The soldier standing guard took off, did a good job of evading us, but they’re only one small part of the team. The rest could be close.”

Lauren tucked herself into Ryder’s side, even if he didn’t hug her back. “We can’t leave this here. Not just the drug lab, but the bodies. Six bodies. In our house.” It was incomprehensible.

“
She’s right. We need to wipe this place down, clear away the evidence, and it would be a damn good thing if we did that before sunrise.” Rose glanced at his watch. “In thirty-seven minutes.”

The guys looked around with the same hang dog expression. Clearing the scene of evidence seemed insurmountable. Ryder’s blood was all the hell over the place. Lauren looked around, but instead of seeing the picket fence dreams from when they first bought, she saw dead bodies, a drug lab, and the six months without Ryder. “I have another idea. Why don’t you just blow it up like you did the meth house? Fewer questions that way.”

“
Because this is your house,” Craft said.

Rose nodded in agreement. “We don’t want to hurt you, sweetheart, and blowing up your house is permanent.”

There would be no reclaiming the dreams they’d spent on the place, but Lauren was starting to see that she’d held back. She’d dreamed, but not big enough. She hadn’t embraced Ryder fully. He was a part of a team, but in all the time they were together, they never went out with the team or had them over. She’d been too afraid to share Ryder with the men who were so obviously his brothers. They were such an integral part of his life that she always figured he’d choose them over her.

Ryder finally placed an arm over her shoulder. “We’ll find another way.”

“
It’s not the house.” The weight of his arm soothed the tremors and warmed the chill off her skin. “We never had you over,” she said to no one in particular. “Never had a barbeque.” Never extended the hospitality Texans were known for. She’d failed Ryder just as much as he’d failed her when he left. Selfish little heifer, she’d wanted to keep him to herself rather than join into the family he already had in his teammates.

“
We’re here now,” Rose said. “Where are the beer and brats?”

“
You can’t drink beer.”

“
True, but I’m a meat eater, so anytime you want to cook, sweetheart, I’m there.”

Lauren smiled. The house was four walls and a roof, just as Ryder had said. She could find that anywhere, but an empty house wouldn’t mean a thing unless Ryder was by her side. He was the only home she needed. She turned to Rose with a shaky smile. “How about now?”

“
For the barbeque? Not much food in the fridge.”

“
Well, at least we could have the fire.” Lauren warmed to her sudden inspiration. “Light it up.”

“
The grill?”

“
No. The house. Light it up.”

For a moment, no one moved, and then next to her, Rose rubbed his hands together. “Burn, baby, burn.” He retrieved supplies from his truck. The team set the charges through the house, promising the blast would only take out their house and part of Callahan’s. No one else would be injured, but the evidence would be destroyed. The police would link the explosion to the meth lab supplies in the kitchen. They retreated to the trucks in less time than Lauren thought possible. Full dark was fading, but the sun had yet to rise. They pulled out single file, slow as though the world wasn’t changing. The explosion sounded before they made the turn out of the park lot. Debris flew. Flames burst through the roof. Unexpected tears stung her eyes. She had put so much hope into that dead building.

In the seat next to her, Ryder scrubbed his uninjured hand along her shoulders. “You okay?”

Tremors still shook her system. Lauren turned away from the flaming building. She curled into Ryder, tucking her head under his chin. “Everything hurts.”

Ryder squeezed her shoulder. “It’ll feel better tomorrow.”

“
Promise?”

“
What more could possibly go wrong?”

Ryder woke desperate to see Lauren, to know she was safe, but Rose wouldn’t give him clearance until he’d proven he was of sound mind. “Good luck with that.” He sat at the edge of a doughy mattress while Rose took his vitals.

“
You were out for three days. Had to strap you down at one point. Sucked to watch. Last time during the detox, we were all in the same pyre.”

Ryder didn’t remember much after leaving the townhouse.

Rose clicked off the penlight and returned it to the first aid kit. “Remember the look on Madigan’s face before he pulled the trigger?”

Ryder scrubbed a hand over his whiskered jaw. “Hard to forget.”

“
That look was in your eyes the other night.” Rose focused on organizing and reorganizing the kit, shifting boxes and bandages around before zipping it closed. The whole time, he didn’t meet Ryder’s gaze. “While you were detoxing, we were able to positively ID the soldiers from the townhouse. They’re all on the KIA list from Kandahar. Fowler identified two of the men following him. Definitely Team Echo. Definitely tracking us.”

Ryder twisted his neck until a knot popped, and then he simply stared at the water-stained ceiling. “Where are we?”

“
Some crap motel in BFE Texas. The ranch isn’t safe at this point. The team after Fowler made an escape because we had to get back here and save your ass.”