CHAPTER 15
Five minutes before the meeting and it was already rowdy in there. Shane pushed the door open to find the other members of the Hudson Kings team—at least the ones who weren’t either undercover or out of town—sprawled about the room. He was instantly reminded how glad he was he’d chosen to join the Hudson Kings instead of the Sixth Ward. It made for a little extra tension on freelance jobs whenever the two competing merc teams mixed, but Shane wouldn’t trade away the men in this room—nor Rothgar for the Ward’s leader, O’Neill—no matter how good those guys were.
“Bet you missed this,” Nick said, giving Shane a nod and looking every inch the billionaire businessman in one of his many fine suits. He’d scored the oversize leather club chair.
Roth stood at the head of the room going over a list of something with Missy, who had started on the team as a proxy for her missing brother, Apollo, but had earned her place as a member in her own right.
The corner seat was occupied by Geo, wearing his signature combat boots and sunglasses, the latter to hide a pair of the deadliest-looking eyes Shane had ever seen.
Romeo was at the big sofa looking over a fistful of red files. He had dark moons under his eyes and was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with sweatpants—not his usual look.
Chase came in next and took a seat on Shane’s right. “You sticking around long?”
Shane’s mind moved to Cecily so fast he almost gave his own brain whiplash. If Roth needed him, he’d stay as long as that took. If Cecily needed him—hell, he’d stick around just to see her settle in safe. He knew he would. “We’ll see what’s on Roth’s plate. But you can bet I’ll be here long enough to take all your cash in Hold’em.”
“That’s what I like about you, Shane. Your blind optimism.”
Shane snorted. “You know what I like about you, Chase? Your shitty poker face.”
Dex appeared in the doorway, balancing awkwardly with his leg in the brace, and shot Shane a pissed look before taking a seat at the computer up front next to Roth. If Shane was hoping for any sort of thanks from his friend for taking care of Cecily, it didn’t appear he was going to get anything close. What the fuck?
Cecily must’ve said something. That surprised him. She balked at the idea of Dex knowing anything about her sex life, so there was nothing to tell him. Maybe if any of what went down on the road had actually meant something, that’d be one thing, but there wasn’t. They had a road trip. They fooled around a little. She was safe, and they were over before they’d ever really started. End of story. No use getting Dex riled up.
Shane sighed. He’d find him after the meeting and clear the air.
Once Flynn entered and closed the door behind him, Rothgar wasted no time. “Let’s get on with it. It’s been a while since we’ve all been in one place.” He touched an index finger to his temple and then pointed it in Shane’s direction. A murmur of welcomes passed around the room, giving Shane an oddly warm feeling, like maybe these guys really were brothers and maybe this really was home. I should come home more often.
When the room quieted, Rothgar said, “Some of you know all of the details, and all of you know some of the details, but let me catch everyone up-to-date. About one year ago, I took a contract from the US government to help uncover a cell of Russian sleeper agents. They were able to give me next to nothing as far as starting information. Members of our team have been laying the groundwork for a long time just to get some suspects, some names, some initial evidence to point us in the right direction. The break in the case came when we outed Yakov Petrenko, a.k.a. James Peterson. He’s the handler for this cell—makes sure the agents get what they were promised and get what they need to continue their charade in this country. James is aware of us and, in fact, has been trying to get counterintelligence, if you will, on our team through Dex’s sister, Cecily. But we don’t think he knows that we know the game he’s been playing; we don’t think he knows he’s been made.”
Shane shifted in his chair, listening to Rothgar do the rundown. It should have felt like any other mission briefing, but this still felt personal. He wanted to flip the switch, go back to the man he was before Cecily, but he just couldn’t think of her as simply a file detail in a case to be solved.
“If we didn’t need to supply a healthy stack of evidence to the government, I’d send Geo in to take care of this shithead just for that.”
Somebody went, “Ooooh,” and everybody swiveled around and looked at Geo, who didn’t move a muscle and showed no actual signs of life.
Rothgar continued. “But we took on a job and we’re going to deliver. So, we’re going to focus on building an ironclad evidence file against our first name. Low-hanging fruit, because she’s not even trying to pass as something other than Russian. Anya Gorchakov. Like I said, we believe James is her handler, so we’ll be able to pull evidence in on him at the same time, but we don’t want to take him out of action unnecessarily, since he may be our link to other agents on the list.”
That didn’t sit well with Shane. He fumed for a minute, trusting Rothgar to make the right decision but hating the idea that they couldn’t pull James in immediately, because he might lead them to the other agents.
“If it goes well,” Rothgar said, “we might get the contract to work on the rest of the suspected ring. The government has specified we can use any means necessary, and, as you know, that either means they’ve tried and failed within the constraints of what they consider to be the law, or they know enough to know they should punt to freelancers immediately.”
“Cold War’s back,” Romeo said with a grin. “Maybe this means action movies get good again.”
“Not exactly,” Rothgar said. “But we’re part of the plan to keep it back in the eighties where it belongs. The Russians like to play the long game, get agents embedded in everyday life, put them into action against the United States years later. Our game is to weed them out before they even get a chance to work against us. We know they’ve already got spies hacking into election results, transportation hubs, corporate networks, and the like. And we know they’ve put people on the ground to build relationships and position themselves to gain access into areas of influence. The big bad isn’t here, but that’s because the government’s hiring people like us to stop it before it grows.”
Rothgar opened a bottled water and took a long draft.
“We’re putting more of our own guys on the job than we probably need, going light on freelancers. Just to cross all the t’s, dot the i’s. It won’t change your cut.” He paused and crossed his arms over his chest. “That said, I also want to remind you that if you don’t feel like risking—”
Somebody booed and then the whole room took it up. Roth cracked a smile and tried to speak again. A wad of crumpled paper hit him square in the chest amid an even louder roar of dissention. “Quit with the disclaimers, Roth. You’ve got our backs; we’ve got yours,” Shane said when the noise quieted down. “Besides, I’m not the only one who still owes you.”
Roth held up his palm. “Fine, then. This one’s gonna bring in a serious chunk of change. Something nice for those of you working on nest eggs, and something nice for those of you who just want to blow it all.”
Laughter rang out.
“Hey, Shane,” Chase called out. “Which one are you now?”
Shane felt Dex’s gaze swing over.
Rothgar continued. “Just don’t get yourself killed. Not to be selfish, but you’re not easily replaceable. I’m still in the planning mode, but I’ll come to each of you with details, and then we’ll do a project meeting.” He looked up. “Oh, and an official welcome back to Shane.” He looked over at Dex. “And welcome to Dex’s sister, Cecily. Goes without saying she’s off-limits.”
“Maybe you should’ve said that a little earlier,” Romeo said.
Nick raised an eyebrow. “Careful, Romeo.”
Romeo blinked, all innocence. “You can downshift that look, brother. I’m not about to accelerate on Dex’s sister, here, but you might have to put the brakes on someone else.”
“Is there something here we need to cover?” Dex asked Shane through his teeth.
Shane shot Romeo a look of death.
“Let’s break for twenty, and then we’ll get to work on the specifics of the mission,” Rothgar said, his voice cutting into the tension like a knife. He gave Shane an irritated look. “What the fuck” is right, thought Shane. He turned back to deal with Dex, but he’d already left.
When Shane stepped into the hall, Cecily was standing there listening to her brother, rubbing the palm of one hand with her thumb, her lower lip caught in her top teeth. Her forehead was wrinkled. She wasn’t smiling.
Not his job or his place anymore. Shane walked on. Nervous gestures. No light in those baby blues. Without breaking his stride, he just wheeled around and headed back.
“But I hadn’t read any e-mail since I left Minneapolis, and some were marked as read,” she was saying. “Some of the ones that were from actual people and not spam.”
“And you changed your password?” Dex asked.
She nodded, then caught sight of Shane. “Hi,” she said softly.
“Hi. There a problem?” Shane asked.
“Got it covered,” Dex said, problem written all over his face.
“James bugging you?” he asked Cecily.
Dex raised an eyebrow. “I said I got it covered. It’s a computer thing.”
“Right. Got that,” Shane said evenly. “I was just asking Cecily if James was still bugging her.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s weird. I think maybe he’s reading my e-mail even though I know I changed my password just before I left.”
Damn. That was definitely Dex’s territory. “You need anything from me, you just ask,” he told her. He gave Dex a nod. “I still got your back.”
Dex stared at him and then looked at his sister, who looked slightly maniacal, what with her big, bright, fake smile.
Shane left in flames, itching to talk to Cecily some more, feeling the strange barrier of Dex’s protection, like his chance was gone, the opportunity over.
Seemed like she didn’t need him for anything. Not anymore.
In a week, job done, it will be like we’d never met. Like we never kissed. I’ll start going invisible again. And I’ll be relieved. I’ll miss the feel of the road, the steering wheel in my hands, the power of my car under my control. And I’ll disappear.