Chapter 23

Gaige didn’t know how he was going to make it through the next day. He’d been up most of the night, reeling from Alec’s story. He knew what it took for a man like Alec, so strong and sure of his place in the world, to share that type of personal information. To rip the skin open and bleed.

As he listened, Gaige took it all in and tried not to swing from one reaction to another. He knew Alec didn’t want his pity, but Gaige still needed to show support. Walking that line proved difficult. Most of the time it worked out best if he said nothing, so he went with that. But when Alec’s breathing grew heavier and he slipped off to sleep, Gaige’s mind began spinning.

He thought about all the pain Alec had survived. The disappointment and frustration he waded through every day and the guilt he took on for not having handled each situation in a perfect manner. That type of pressure ate at a person.

Gaige had spent the last few months barricaded away, not getting involved. He’d detached and looked for ways to become even more isolated. With Alec that hard shield cracked. Something tugged at Gaige, that need to open up and let Alec in, if only for a short time. The idea was so dangerous, so against how he’d survived the mess with Jase that part of Gaige balked. But a bigger part no longer did.

Alec needed a sounding board. When it was just the two of them alone in bed, Gaige could offer it. They talked and shared information Gaige never intended to tell anyone. He knew that mattered, but he wondered if Alec did.

“This is not my idea of a vacation,” Tony said as he sat across from Alec and Gaige the next morning at the small café that consisted of four tables.

They drank coffee and avoided the vault and the people who worked there. For now, they needed to meet without too many eyes watching them.

Alec nodded. “I know. I will make it up to you, but I needed you here to relay information and run backup if needed.”

“Because you’re here without warning Seth and against Finn’s advice.” Tony didn’t ask. He offered the comment as a fact.

“Finn was against this trip?” That was information Gaige wished he’d known before he boarded a plane for the middle of nowhere. Pitting brother against brother didn’t interest him at all, especially now that he knew more about the inner workings of the Drummond family.

Alec shrugged. “He has a really great lecture about how we’re businessmen and we should let the CIA and special ops guys handle the lethal stuff.”

Gaige was starting to think Finn was the smarter Drummond brother, or at least the one without a death wish. “He’s not wrong.”

“In general, it’s good advice, but Seth needs us and we don’t need him here being a pain in the ass.”

That was the party line. Alec had gone along with Gaige’s request to keep Seth in the dark for now. They were supposed to be there gathering intel and getting a sense of which players had access to all the information and all the seeds.

At the last minute Alec had filled Tony in. Gaige agreed with the choice. Alec trusted Tony, so Gaige trusted him. Plus, they needed someone who could work from the outside and handle the influx of data they collected. Why his presence had to be top secret was unclear to Gaige, but he let Alec work out those details.

“I do have a bit of a surprise,” Tony said as he wrapped his hands around the mug in front of him.

Alec smiled. “Caroline is with you at the hotel.”

For a second Tony’s mouth dropped open. “You really do have eyes everywhere.”

“It probably benefits me if you think so, since I’m the boss.”

“Well, there’s no great mystery why.” Tony launched into the explanation, rushing his words as if he needed to convince Alec. “She’s started making sly comments about work being the most important thing in my life, and Pam backed her up. The two-against-one thing is not a winner, no matter what I do.”

The pitch almost made Gaige laugh. Tony failed to pick up the cues. There was nothing in Alec’s tone or body language that suggested he was upset with the news about Caroline.

“Leaving town after the anniversary disaster seemed like a great way to lose a girlfriend and never have sex again.” Tony did a quick look around the empty café. “I mean, come on.”

“That would suck.” Gaige didn’t know about women but he did know about sex.

Tony looked from Gaige to Alec. “Right? So, she’s here. She knows I need to work, but I am going to call in a favor and stay up here for a few days after you two leave. Alone and without work.”

That sounded smart except for the part about vacationing in an ice cave. Gaige didn’t get that at all. “It’s freezing here. There are beaches, you know.”

Tony waved off the concern and rolled his eyes. “She’s fine with cold. She’s off on some group snowshoeing expedition.”

“I can’t think of anything worse.” Gaige believed in indoors and heat. And right now he believed in more coffee, so he signaled the server with what he hoped was an international symbol to get some.

“I can.” Alec leaned back and slipped his arm along the length of the back of Gaige’s chair. “Today we go in, pretending to perform an in-depth check of the seeds when what we’ll really be doing is giving Gaige more time to crack their internal system.”

“And what will you be doing while he does that?” Tony asked.

“I’m the one checking seeds.”

Gaige was impressed Alec managed to make that answer sound real. “Wouldn’t you have to be a scientist to do that?”

Alec frowned at him. “I can identify the seeds.”

“You’re a businessman.” Yes, that was stating the obvious but Gaige felt obliged to point out now and then that Alec did not know everything. It just seemed that way sometimes.

Alec tapped his fingers on the back of Gaige’s chair. “Don’t underestimate me.”

Fair point. “I’m learning not to.”

The crate from the late shipment was on the table when they walked into the small room next to security. The room held exactly one chair and a small desk. Alec expected them to be left alone to work. Daniel, the head of security, appeared to have other plans. He stood near the door and watched every move.

That meant Alec actually had to catalog the seeds, or pretend to. Since whatever Gaige was doing with the laptop in front of him had nothing to do with inventory, Alec was on his own.

After about twenty minutes of working in near quiet, Daniel piped up. “Everything okay?”

No, but Alec wasn’t about to admit that. “The sealed foil packages look fine. No evidence of tampering and the manifest lines up.”

Daniel made a humming sound as he continued to stand there in his thick jacket and gloves. “That’s good news, but how did the late shipment really happen?”

Alec had waited for this question. For a moment he thought Gaige even hesitated in typing. His hands rose off of the keyboard for a fraction of a second, then the clicking of the keys resumed.

“That’s just it. We’re not sure.” Alec continued to keep his body between Gaige and Daniel. If Daniel shifted even a little, so did Alec. The goal was to keep security away from Gaige’s computer screen. “Our records show a clean, on-time deposit. When we realized that didn’t happen, we started investigating.”

“What did you find?”

The way Daniel kept pushing had a warning bell ringing in Alec’s head. Drummond business was not Daniel’s responsibility. The fact that he couldn’t accept Astrid’s decision to let them be at the vault could be a territorial pissing match or it could be something much bigger.

“A lot of loose ends.” Alec shrugged. “Typical red-tape stuff.”

The chair screeched against the cement floor as Gaige pushed back and stood up. He had the laptop closed and tucked under his arm. Daniel had already warned he would need to look at the computer before they left the building. Alec knew Gaige was prepared for that and had a work-around.

Alec glanced at Gaige. “So, are you good here?”

“Looks like I have what I need.”

That meant they could go and should do it now. Alec shook Daniel’s hand. “The scientific team will assess. If all is well, we’ll come back tomorrow, say goodbye and head out.”

“Sounds like another night in Svalbard for you two.” Daniel made the comment as he stepped away from the wall and opened the door to the outer hall.

“The place is growing on me.” Which Alec had to admit was a damn lie. The exact opposite was true. He appreciated the work here but he preferred not to wear nine layers of clothing, if possible.

“If you’re looking for dinner, you should try the Lodge,” Daniel said.

More food talk. Before Gaige, Alec had tended to skip meals. Now he needed to keep the guy fed. The Lodge should work. It was the place you went if you dropped in from out of town for vault work.

“Sounds good.” Alec nodded. “I haven’t been to the Lodge in some time.”

Daniel left the room first and they followed. Alec wanted to ask about Gaige’s work and what he uncovered, if anything. He settled for the usual business chatter.

“You think this was worth the trip?” Alec couldn’t afford to ask Gaige a bigger question, one that might draw attention.

Gaige shot him a quick glance. “Definitely.”

They walked up the three steps to the front porch of the cabin later that night. Gaige was itching to dive into the information he’d downloaded at the vault, but dinner had been too tempting to pass up—when Alec actually bothered to offer a meal Gaige didn’t say no.

Of course, not all food was equal in Gaige’s mind. “I was doing just fine at dinner until you told me smalahove was a sheep’s head.”

“If I knew, you had to know. I didn’t want to suffer alone.” Alec laughed as he pulled the keys from his jacket pocket. “But I did like how you tried to cover it up with potatoes.”

“It didn’t help.”

The porch light outlined Alec’s body. The thick coat only made him look more formidable. The broad shoulders and long legs. Clothed or not, Gaige appreciated everything about the way Alec looked and how he held himself. And that body…God damn.

Alec unlocked the door and stepped inside. Gaige was about to explain his love for chips and junk food when he froze.

“Stop.” He whispered the order as he grabbed for Alec’s arm.

They stood there, frozen for a few minutes in the silence. Alarm bells rang in Gaige’s head. He tried to silence them but the clanging only grew louder.

The sense of wrongness hit him immediately. His gaze scanned the small space. The bag on the floor. The pillows on the couch. Everything looked to be in order.

He was about to apologize for the kick of paranoia when he glanced over at the table. Blank notepad. Files.

No laptop.

“Shit.” Adrenaline shot through Gaige as he looked at the floor for any sign of footprints. It was wet and cold outside. There could be snow or…his gaze stopped on the closed door to the bathroom. That and the closet were the only two separate areas. The only two spaces he couldn’t see.

Alec frowned but didn’t say anything. He seemed willing to trust and let Gaige guide him. The only move he made was to step back and close the front door behind them.

Inhaling, Gaige tried to slow his breathing. Forced his mind to work. He knew where he’d left the laptop. He hadn’t hidden it because he didn’t have to, but no one else would have known that. The bigger issue was that only a few people knew they were here. Maybe this was the kind of place where people noticed outsiders, but the vault had to attract a few. So if someone broke in, that person likely had a very specific reason to do so.

Careful not to step on the wrong floorboard or make too much noise, Gaige inched toward the bathroom. This time Alec reached for him. He put a hand on Gaige’s elbow and tried to pull him back. Gaige pointed toward the table and mouthed the word laptop. Alec gave a quick look then jerked his gaze back to Gaige.

Maybe the person was long gone, but maybe not. Gaige wasn’t taking the chance. He also refused to go down without a fight. He walked over to the pocket door to the bathroom. Watched and listened for any sign of life.

Right as he reached for the handle, the door rolled open with a crash. A figure dressed in dark ski clothes jumped out. He flew into Gaige, nailing him in the stomach and sending him falling onto the edge of the bed. Gaige didn’t stay down long. He hit the mattress and bounced up again.

The attacker took off for the door but Alec stepped into his path. “Going somewhere?”

Alec’s voice sounded deadly cool. He and the attacker stalked each other but this game was two against one. Gaige picked up a chair, thinking to smash it over the guy’s head. He lifted it as he heard the noise. Pounding footsteps on the stairs outside.

“Alec, move!” Gaige called out the warning as he let the chair drop. The legs hit the floor with a thud.

In this position Alec was too close to the door. If someone stormed in he would be trapped in the middle. Gaige didn’t know about gun use in Norway or who sanctioned this attack. He couldn’t take the risk of Alec getting body slammed in the crossfire.

Alec ducked right as the attacker made a move. The guy swung but missed. He put his head down to charge at Alec but stopped when the front door opened with enough force to hit against the inside wall with a crack.

The attacker bolted then. Used the element of surprise to pivot around Alec as a black canister, the type that might hold pepper spray, rolled into the room. Gaige reacted. He stepped in front of Alec and knocked the thing back outside before slamming the door shut with a kick.

He turned to say something to Alec and saw him charging forward. Alec plowed into Gaige’s side and took them both crashing to the floor. Gaige put out a hand in time to prevent smacking his head against the hardwood. Still, he thudded against the unforgiving surface with Alec’s weight pinning him down.

A shuddering bang rang out. Even through the door and under Alec’s arm, Gaige could see hints of the blinding flash. He put his hands over his ears and felt Alec curl around him.

The noise lasted for about five seconds, but seemed to go on forever. Gaige could hear people shouting and thought he smelled smoke. The world spun in slow motion and every sound was muffled.

A few more minutes passed before Alec talked. “Stun grenade.”

The comment didn’t make sense to Gaige. “What?”

“Someone hit us with a stun grenade. You okay?” This time Alec shifted to a crouch as he talked. He winced and put a hand to the side of his head.

Gaige didn’t know if the fall or the grenade caused the damage, but his ears rang and his stomach flipped over. “Yeah, but damn.”

“This wasn’t a coincidence.” Alec rose slowly, dragging his body up. He moved to the door and stood beside it. Peeked out. “It looks like all of our neighbors are out there.”

“Do we call the police?”

“I’m sure someone already has.” He looked back at Gaige. “Did they get the laptop?”

Gaige didn’t see the attacker take it, but he also didn’t see it in the cabin. “Probably. It doesn’t matter.”

“What about the information you stole from the vault’s security office?”

Gaige tapped his hand against his front pants pocket, then slipped out a jump drive. “It’s here.”

For a second Alec didn’t say anything. He stood there with a blank look on his face. “That’s it? There’s nothing on the laptop?”

“I wiped it clean when I signed off.” Gaige tried to smile but failed. He didn’t feel either light or amused at the moment. He wasn’t even sure he could stand. “Aren’t you happy about my paranoia? You’re rubbing off on me.”

Alec stood over Gaige and reached down to offer a hand. “So, someone knows we’re digging, which means things are about to get ugly.”

Gaige took Alec’s hand, but rather than pull his body up, he looked at the splintered front door. He had no idea when that happened but cool air had started to seep through. “It also means we need another place to stay.”

“No, it means we need to get back into the vault before someone starts covering their tracks.” Alec pulled Gaige to his feet. “And it’s time to call Seth.”