Retribution (11 page)

“Then you need to designate one of the others to tell her. I can’t. I won’t. You haven’t heard her scream your name as she wakes up from the night terrors. She deserves to have you telling her why this is going down the way it is, Dray.” Surrey was adamant about not telling her; it wasn’t just in his tone of voice, it was in his stance too.

He stopped pacing and leaned over the conference table in an aggressive manner. Dray shot out of his chair and got in Surrey’s face.

“Do you think for one fucking minute this is the way I want it, Surrey? Fuck you, man. You don’t want to tell her? Hell, neither do I. It shouldn’t have to be told, damn it.” He ran a hand through his hair and rubbed the same hand down his face before he breathed in and tried to tamp down the anger. It was a spike in his brain. “I can’t risk anyone seeing me near her right now. You don’t know Dempsey. He’s a fucking maniac, and she’s already on his radar. I’m hoping that Sasha’s presence in Kabul was just a convenience—an American woman he knew we wouldn’t be able to resist helping. But he used her for bait just the same, and while I hope that little incident two weeks ago wasn’t orchestrated by him, I won’t provide the sack of shit with anything that might lead him to believe that I have feelings for her. So you don’t want to tell her, fine. I’ll have the general do it.” He paused and looked each of them in the eye. “Nobody says one word about why I’m not coming to her, do you understand? I’ll have Post tell her I’m just not interested in pursuing anything right now, but I wish her well. Are we clear?”

Each man except Con said, “Yeah.”

Dray’s gaze drifted to his munitions expert, and he noted the tension in the lines of his face. It wouldn’t be long before the other man said his piece.

“You’re fucking up here, Dray. Surrey’s right, this woman deserves the truth. She’s been through too much. She’d just gotten back on the right track when she made this last trip to Kabul. She may be safer physically without Dempsey knowing you care, but she will not be better off emotionally. You do this and what she did at the rehab center that day will be a walk in the park for you. She’ll cut you off at the knees. Hell, all those crazy-ass Bennoit women have spines of straight steel. You’ll have to walk over hot coals to get another chance with her. And I may be speaking out of turn here, but do you really think she’s stupid enough to simply listen to what Post has to say? She’s gonna want it from your mouth, so you better come up with another way quick before you lose this woman.”

“No. I don’t have a choice, Con. This is the way it must be. Everything will either work out in the end or it won’t, but I will not lead him right to her. It’s too risky. If she balks at Post, then we’ll come up with something else. But this is how it is. Discussion closed.” Dray’s voice cut like a scythe. Finality rang through the silent room.

He turned to sit down as they prepared to land, his mind in turmoil and his heart bleeding at yet another lost opportunity with Sasha. Would they never get it right? He might just lose his mind before this was over.

God knew he’d probably already lost his heart.

“Jerry! How nice to hear from you.”

Jerry winced as the man’s voice slithered over the line. He didn’t return the greeting. “He’s not going to her. She’s going to be covered twenty-four-seven until he feels he’s got you in the bag. I can’t stay in this position anymore, Dempsey. They’re looking under every rock for you, and pretty soon the connection will be made.”

“You’ll fucking stay where I put you, asshole. You owe me, Jerry, and you’ll go down just as hard, if not harder than me, if you screw this up. Keep on it and report back to me in regular intervals. He’s running, huh? Good, let the little mouse scurry to and fro. He’ll have no idea what’s coming and then
bam
! I’ll cut his world up into so many pieces he’ll never be able to fit them back together. Did you get in touch with Aaqib and Abdul?” Peter Dempsey’s voice was flat, no intonation to indicate any feelings of joy or anger.

It was scary when Jerry thought about it, but he was in too deep now to turn his back on the very sick Peter Dempsey.

“Yes, they are looking forward to meeting you in Kabul next week. They want the woman, though, and I have no idea how you’re going to accomplish that without eliminating Bonner first.”

“Don’t you worry, Jerry-boy. I’ve got it covered. You let me do the coordinating. No reason to stress the few cells you have in that little brain of yours, my man. I’ll send you disclosure on the next step in two days. I’m out.” Dempsey disconnected.

Jerry didn’t know how it would happen, but he did know that he probably wouldn’t survive it. He was in too deep now, and he had no choice but to do what Dempsey ordered or his life wouldn’t be worth living. Of course, if anybody else found out, it wouldn’t be worth living either, but Dempsey appeared to be his best shot at any kind of future.

He sighed and rubbed his chest. He missed her so much some days. And with every breath he took, he hated Peter Dempsey that much more.

“Sasha!” Kara’s voice rang out loudly up the stairway for the second time. “We’ve got company; get down here.”

“I’m coming already. Stop yelling!” Sasha put on a sweater and headed downstairs.

Surrey, Itchy, Con, and Bleak had their asses parked in the living room. Sasha kept walking, though her heart stuttered when she noticed General Post to the side. While it wasn’t unusual for any or all of them to be at the house, General Post looked uncomfortable. Her heart stuttered and then began tripping at a rate that had her pressing a hand to her chest.

Damn it.

“General, it’s good to see you. And you guys, come here,” she said as she walked toward them and held out her arms for a hug from each one.

They all hugged her back, but Surrey and Con refused to meet her gaze.

Just keeps getting better and better.

She stepped back behind the sofa and watched them…waiting. A tendril of anger wound through her, and she fisted her hands together.

She sucked at patience. “So what brings you boys out to our neck of the woods?”

Itchy grinned. “Aww, we couldn’t stay away, little bitty. We wanted some of Mama Bennoit’s black-eyed peas and corn bread and some mighty fine, can I stress
fine
, company.”

He was quite the ladies’ man, but his gaze lingered on her youngest sister when he drawled the word fine.

Sasha snorted. “Itchy, you keep calling me little bitty and I’ll break your legs. And hey—eyes forward. No scoping my little sister.” She winked at the twinkle in his eye. “Mama will be thrilled to have you guys, you know that. She should be home any minute. Y’all want some hot chocolate? Sweet tea?” She winced on the inside and then mentally shook herself. She had this. She could absolutely ride this out and see where it was going. “Con, how have you been? Surrey, Bleak, y’all are looking great. General Post, how about you?”

Silence. That can’t be good.

Finally, Post cleared his throat as he tugged at his collar. “I’m fine, Sasha, and you look beautiful as ever. The boys keep me posted on how you’re doing, and I heard about your little adventure with Hal. Is she doing all right? What would it take for me to get you ladies to stay out of trouble?” he inquired as he looked anywhere but at her.

Her mouth opened and maybe she smiled. Everybody looked away, so it must’ve ended up more a baring of her teeth. There wasn’t anything remotely funny about any of this.

“How about some information on Dray, General? That might keep me busy enough that I don’t go searching for trouble on my own.”

“Nothing like getting right to the point is there?” His chest rose and fell, and he pulled again on his collar as he shifted his weight. “Can we talk in private?”

“Why?” She waved in the direction of the others in the room. “From the looks on their faces, they know already.”

The anger was there and she reached for it. Heat suffused her tone, and she could literally feel it creeping up her cheeks, but there was no help for it. She’d been jacked around so much lately she was starting to get a complex.

Why did it seem as if everybody always knew more than she did when it came to Dray? Her sisters, Hal especially, had seemed uncomfortable from the moment Sasha stepped in the room, and the guys refused to look her in the face. Except for Con. His look, so full of pity, nearly took her breath. Fear was an acrid taste in her mouth.

“Well, Sasha, Dray wanted me to let you know that he’s doing well. He’s doing so well in fact that he has decided to take some time off and travel a bit, pursue other interests. I told him, uh, I told him I was headed out your way the last time we talked, and he, uh, told me since he wouldn’t be around this way any time soon, to please give you all his best regards. He said to tell you he hopes you’re doing well and back on your feet after that last incident.” General Post’s voice rose several octaves, and by the time he finished his speech, he was sweating and slightly out of breath.

She was the one shifting her weight now, balancing it, trying to absorb the body blow.

“Other interests, hmm?”
Ooohsah, Sasha, ooohsah…
She kept a tight leash on it for a few seconds and then, “What does that even mean? Are you telling me he isn’t coming to see me, General? Is that what you’re saying? Because, and let’s be clear shall we, he
will
see me come hell or high water.” She took a deep breath and brushed a wayward strand of hair from her mouth. “In fact, since he was too chicken-shit to come and tell me himself, and since you volunteered to be his errand boy, take this back to him: he comes to me or I go to him, it doesn’t matter. But he can handle this with me face-to-face. Yes, General, you go tell him that little thing for me, okay? And Con, get that smirk off your face, you knew what I’d say; why didn’t you warn him he couldn’t get off that easily?”

Sasha shook with anger. She turned to the men and addressed them as a unit.

“You all know what I’ve been through. I am ready to move on from this stage of my life, but for some reason or another I can’t without getting this thing, whatever the hell it is, with Dray resolved. I love y’all dearly, and without you guys I probably wouldn’t be alive. Whether I want you to or not, you know how I feel about Dray. I thought I’d done a decent job of disguising it, but apparently not. Hell, I’ve hidden it from myself for almost a year. You come to me with stories of how great Dray is, how wonderful he is—let me tell you something, I deserve to hear this from him, and if he’s half as great as you say he is, he’ll come see me before it’s too damn late.” With that parting shot, she turned and walked out of the house, leaving silence in her wake.

*

Nobody moved and nobody spoke for several seconds. The air was thick with tension, and Sasha’s expectations hung over the room like a cloud.

“And that, gentlemen, is why we are all a little bit in love with Sasha. Put it right out there, didn’t she? I don’t know what the hell Dray was thinking, but that was a complete bomb. General, you okay? I thought flames were going to shoot from her mouth there for a second. Your hair still there?” Con tried to inject some levity in the situation.

He failed miserably. He’d told Dray. Stupid fool should’ve known that any woman he had it bad for wouldn’t give up that easily.

“I’m fine, Parks. Well, I guess I need to make a call. I’ll be back in a second.” General Post was no doubt about to give Dray down in the country for this fiasco.

“That was fabulous, guys.” Hal’s sardonic reply came into the void left by the General’s departure.

She’d been hovering near the stairs, another watch dog waiting to snap and snarl at them if Sasha were hurt. “Men suck. You couldn’t drag his ass here, Surrey?” she turned on Surrey, taking the skin off of him with her eyes. “What the hell was he thinking? What a dumb ass. You tell him he better not expect her to forgive this if he doesn’t show himself. And if by the grace of God he gets past us, he probably won’t get past her. I’m gonna go find Sash and see if I can settle her down. Stupid, shit-for-brains men don’t know their asses from a hole in the ground,” she muttered with a venomous glance to Surrey before she stomped off after Sasha.

“What the hell did I do?” Surrey glanced at Con.

Con shrugged. Hal gave Surrey fits and starts every time he turned around. It was too confusing to figure out the prickly woman.

“Mama’s home,” Kara’s voice was like a bullhorn from the kitchen.

It was about to be estrogen overload up in here. And now Sasha was pissed, which meant the rest of the Bennoit clan was going to be pissed by default.
Fuck
. Con’s head was starting to hurt.

“Ya’ll want something to drink?” Devyn inquired as she entered the living room. She stopped, turning around the living room as she looked at their faces, and then asked, “Did I just miss something? Sasha’s walking down the drive pissed-off-fast, and you guys look like you just lost your best friend.”

Itchy immediately looked up, attentive to Devyn’s every move. Con shook his head. Did each of them have a thing for a Bennoit woman? He sighed. Thank God he didn’t.

Itchy straightened from the banister along the enormous rock fireplace and started toward her. “Devyn, I’d love some sweet tea, honey. How’s your mama?”

Bleak got up and followed them into the kitchen.

That left Surrey and Con in the living room. Con rubbed his eyes and sat down wearily in a chair. “Told the dumb bastard what was going to happen. Did he listen? Hell no. Surrey, this isn’t going to end well. We need to help Dray get rid of Dempsey ASAP. This family has been hurt enough.” Con’s voice was raw. Couldn’t be helped. He hated tense, emotional situations. “What was Dray saying earlier about plans to move on Dempsey?”

“He said he had a bead on the bastard’s location and that the information Post had given him pretty much cinched it up in his mind that Dempsey was behind everything. I can’t figure out, though, how Dempsey knew we were going to be in Afghanistan that last time? Hell, our operations don’t go through Central Command anymore since we’re private sector, so where is he getting that information? And how did he know Sasha was going to Afghanistan if Itchy didn’t know, and he was right here in the house with ’em before she and Hal left? There’s something we’re missing here, Con,” Surrey said softly but emphatically, “and we need to find out what it is.”