Twisted Mercy (Red Team Book 4) (28 page)

She caught a movement over by the house from the corner of her eye. Her brother. He’d come outside. He stood just off the wide patio, in the sun, his hands in his pockets, watching her. She stopped and looked at him.
 

He’d demanded her security in exchange for his participation in whatever scheme they were cooking. He’d put her first; he was starting to care about her.

No matter what, she wasn’t going to leave without him.

Hope looked behind her. Mads was there. His expression was so intense that she couldn’t mistake the concern in his eyes. She changed direction and walked over to her brother, stopping a few feet from him.

He looked down at her, then up at the horizon, squinting. “There are things that I believed were true in my life,” he said. “Everything, really. And none of it was.” His gaze lowered to hers. “Soon, very soon, I would have done things that would have hurt or even killed you. And people like you. And my people. I was training the others to do that as well—and to survive the aftermath.” His nostrils flared. “I don’t know what to think or who to believe. But I feel my heart is still true, and it tells me to help these men.”

Hope reached out to touch her palm to her brother’s chest. The heart of a lion. She was beginning to see why he was a leader. She wasn’t certain she could take any more revelations without having some time to process them, time to assemble her questions. She lowered her hand. “Does this mean you’re going to leave your pride?”

“Not necessarily.”

Owen joined them. He watched her, his expression unreadable. She met his pale blue eyes unflinchingly. “Hope, please come back inside,” he requested, his voice calm yet authoritative. “We need to finish our conversation.”

She couldn’t take much more crazy. She really couldn’t. Mads was still standing near her, watching warily. This train had already left the station; she had no choice but to hold on and see where it was going. She nodded at Owen, then followed him inside the dark den.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The room fell silent when Lion and Hope returned. She went to her seat once again and told herself that if she was strong enough to face down the WKB when she first went after her brother, she was strong enough to deal with this group of—seemingly—law-abiding men.

Mads brought her a glass of ice water from a tray near the desk. The glass was cool between her palms. Hope took a sip, then a long draw of the water. It helped settle her.

“Max, give her the short version,” Kit ordered Mads. Max, not Mads. She looked at her lover-turned-enemy, thinking “Mads” still suited him better.

“The man who sent you to the WKB with his mysterious emails has grown several prides like Lion’s, with different specialties for specific purposes in his plan to unleash mass casualties across the US and possibly the world.”

Hope blinked, trying to understand what he’d just said.

“Your brother, as a leader of one of the prides, has agreed to help us unravel what your mysterious emailer has planned.”

Hope looked at her brother, who was regarding her in a calm way. “No.” She looked at Kit, then Owen, then Max. “No, he’s not. He’s done. He’s out. You can’t ask him to go back.”

“We can and we have,” Owen said. “A lot of lives are at stake.”

“Mads, you know I was trying to get him out. How can you send him back?”

“We weren’t going to,” Mads said as he met her angry eyes, “but he volunteered.”

“And that’s that? You feel he’s qualified to make that decision? You don’t care about his safety? Or that of the boys?”

Lion spoke up. “I’m going to help these men defuse the destructive plans the other prides have.”

Hope looked at her brother. “Is your pride destructive?”

“We could be. We’re warriors.”

“Hope, I’ll find you a safe place to stay in town. I don’t want you to go back to the compound,” Mads said. “You’ll be close to Lion, but out of danger.”

“No. I’m not staying in town. If Lion’s going back, I’m going back. Besides, if I don’t, won’t that raise suspicions? Feral knows I came here.”

“I can’t watch out for both of you,” Mads warned.

“I don’t need you to. I don’t need you for anything." Her voice broke on that statement. He knew the meaning behind it. And he probably knew it was a lie. "You watch out for Lion; I’ll watch out for me.” She looked at Lion. “It’s only for a few weeks, then we can leave, right?”

Lion gave her a long look. “I can’t leave my pride.”

Mads stood up. “This is why it’s best for you to stay in town, Hope.”

Hope got to her feet as she faced off with Mads. “If I’m there, you have a reason to be at my house and shop—it’s the building nearest to their quarters.”

Mads’ eyebrows lifted. “Are you bargaining? Again?”

A warm flood of blood rose up her neck. “I’m pointing out the logic of my returning. You need me.”

Mads’ gaze lowered from her eyes to her mouth. It seemed his eyes darkened, and his reaction sent shock waves down her, as fast and easy as that.
 

Someone cleared his voice, making her aware they had an audience. “Blade, take Lion and Hope to the foyer and wait with them there,” Kit ordered.

Kit gave her a hard look as she followed Ty and her brother out of the room.

Kit shut the door. He looked at Max, then at Owen. “You know this doesn’t look good for the girl.”

“Her name’s Hope.”

Kit ignored that. “King gave her the very thing she most wanted: her brother. Gifts like that don’t come free.” He braced his hands on his hips. “You gotta tell me what I’m looking at here, ’cause I don’t like the pieces I’m seeing.”

“She’s not working for King.”

“Bullshit. We have proof he sent her. It’s unfolding exactly as Jafaar said it would.”

Max met Kit’s eyes. He felt the muscles tense at the corners of his jaw, making it hard to speak. “Someone helped her. We don’t know it was King. All we do know is that it’s someone who knows about King.”

“And you,” Kit added.

“There’s no evidence she was paid to get to me.”

“What do you think her brother is?” Owen asked.

“I would bet my life on her innocence.”

“Yeah. Yours, ours, and a million others,” Owen snapped.

Max looked from Owen to Kit. “I don’t want Hope to go back. I can do what I need to do without her.”

“She’s right that her shop’s the closest building to the pride’s,” Owen said.

Max felt a twinge in his chest. He hated sending Hope back to the WKB.

Kit stepped close. “Answer me this: is she a weakness?”

“No.”

“Good. Get them back to the compound.”

“Roger that.” Max walked down the hallway. He nodded at Blade as he came into the foyer. Hope looked as angry as a momma bear with her cub. That she was a whole lot shorter and less lethal than her kid brother seemed a non-issue.
 

He took her arm and walked her through the front door. “Take your brother back to the compound.” She pulled free of his grip. He let her go. “Your story is that you came here looking for your brother. The Feds let you in, but explained to you that they’re not Feds and didn’t have your brother. You return to the compound, at a loss as to what to do next.”

He looked at Lion. “Have Hope drop you off a mile out of the compound. You walk back in. Tomorrow, it’ll be business as usual. I’ll be seeing you in the morning.”
 

Max watched them pull out of the drive and head down the road. When he stepped back inside, Blade was still there, still leaning against the wall.
 

“S’up?” he asked Blade.

“You like the girl.”

Max took a minute to answer. “There’s something about her. She came up a rough road as a kid, but still managed to find her feet. She went alone into the WKB to get her brother out. And Christ, she’s hot as fuck.”

“And pissed as hell.”

“Yeah. I can’t blame her, though.”
 

“I like being part of a couple, Max. I like knowing Eden’s in my bed at night. I like waking up with her, seeing her during the day. There’s something to be said for this couples stuff.”

Max smiled. “I’m happy for you, Blade. I don’t know if I’ll ever experience that, but I’m glad you are.”

Blade pushed off the wall. “I want those boys out of there, Max. How could a community that prides itself on its holistic approach to life send their children to be raised and taught by a pedophile?”

“Lion isn’t a pedophile.”

“No, but Holbrook was.”

“Maybe they didn’t know. Maybe living holistically isn’t their purpose, but a byproduct.”

“Fuck that. It was their business to know,” Blade snapped.

“Agreed. I don’t understand it, but we don’t know much about it either. My gut feel is that their little camp school is going to end pretty soon.”

Blade nodded. “If you need backup, you know where I am.”

Max went back down the hall, through the garage, to his bike that was parked in the little lot beside the garage. He kick-started the engine, then sat and listened to it rumble, its purring roar a balm for his nerves.
 

When Hope had panicked earlier, his heart had gone cold, black-fucking-ice-cold. He took her into the sun, hoping it would warm her skin and stall the shock that was setting in. It was the first thing he’d thought to do, the first thing he wanted whenever he felt the walls of his six-by-nine hole closing in on him.

For one long second, she’d gone limp in his arms. He’d been about to start CPR to get her to breathe again, when she’d returned to herself. He’d never expected that she would walk right back into the place that had caused her such terror. That took guts. The woman had the strength of a hundred soldiers.

He liked Hope. A lot. Maybe because of her strength. Or maybe because she didn’t need him. Or maybe because of the way her body felt against his, under his. And that really sucked. The chances that they’d get through the coming weeks unscathed were damned slim. If anything happened to Lion, she’d never forget and never forgive him.
 

And he had a real bad feeling about the kid’s future.

He rolled down the driveway, deciding to head into town for some takeout for him and Hope.
 

A little while later, he turned into the compound. The standard complement of bikes was parked out front of the clubhouse. As he rode around the steel building, a man stepped out of a side entrance. Feral.

Max let his engine idle when he stopped next to his hang-around.
 

“Hey.” Feral nodded, then looked around. Max was unsure if that was the tweaker’s natural twitchiness, or if he was anxious about something.

“S’up?”

“I got some news. You ain’t gonna like it.”

“I like waiting for it even less.”

Feral rubbed a finger beneath his nose, then sniffed. “It’s about your girl. She’s fine. And she’s already back. But she went over to the Feds looking for Lion.”

“What made her think the Feds had him?”

Feral shivered through a shrug. “I may have told her the guys here think the Feds took him from the rodeo.”

“You’re an idiot, you know that, right?”

“Look, she’s back. It’s all cool. They didn’t have him. She said they said they’re not Feds, but it don’t pass the sniff test, in my opinion. If they aren’t Feds, they work for the Feds.”

“Great. Don’t be flapping your jaw about this. The guys are already on a hair trigger over those a-holes.”

Feral held up his hands. “I know. I won’t. I just wanted you to know what happened today.”

“Why didn’t you call me when she took off?”

“I did. I did, Mads. Check your phone.”

Max pulled out his phone and checked it. He knew Feral had texted him, but he’d ignored the message on his phone, reading its contents from the controls in the ops room instead. “So you did.” He looked at Feral. “You’re lucky.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Hope heard Mads’ bike come up to her house. She pushed the front door open, still mad as hell that he’d misrepresented himself so completely.
 

“Miss me?” He wrapped his arms around her, walking into her as he moved them back inside the house. He bent close and whispered against her ear, “Play along.” He kicked the door shut, then let her go. Taking out his phone, he opened an app. “What’s for dinner?”

Unbelievable
. He thought she was going to cook for him? “No idea.”

He grinned at her as he started to move around the rooms of her little cottage. “Bad day?”
 

“I couldn’t even begin to describe it.”

“Guess I’ll do dinner, then.” He walked into the kitchen—the last room he had to check. It was clear, as was the rest of the house. “How does parmesan chicken, fettuccine alfredo, garlic bread, and salad sound?”

Some of her tension eased up. “That sounds great, actually, but I don’t have the stuff to make it.”

“I brought it with me. Your house is clear, by the way.”

“Clear of what?”

“Cameras. Listening devices.”

Hope folded her arms, feeling her new reality squeeze in around her. It was odd that what had already seemed terribly complex—getting her brother out of a cult—had devolved into something so much worse. A whole other reality, one she never knew existed, had just overtaken her life.
 

Mads went out to his bike and returned with their takeout. He walked into the kitchen, and she followed him. “I want some answers.”

“Shoot. I’ll tell you what I can.”

“Does anyone here know what you are?”

“No.”

“How long have you been under?”

“A long time. Want some wine? I bought a Chianti and a Shiraz.”

He seemed disinclined to talk about the very things she wanted to know. “Chianti.” She took two glasses out of the cabinet as he opened the bottle. She didn’t have any wine glasses, just a couple of mismatched Mason jars. He filled them and handed one to her, then took the aluminum containers out of the bag and set them on the stove.
 

“Look, Mads. You can keep your secrets. There’s only one thing I really want to know, and I doubt you can answer it.”

He leaned against the counter and sipped his wine. “What’s that?”