Chapter 12

At eleven p.m., Rafe headed for the control room. He and Pete had already broken up fights in the bathroom and thrown out a drunk bachelorette party. He’d also met some of the strippers, most with eyes shadowed by self-loathing. He’d been extra polite to those he’d met.

He found Pete staring at the laptops. “How’s Nate?”

“Out.” Pete nodded to the couch where Nate lay beneath a plaid blanket either asleep or unconscious. From his shallow breaths, could be either.

Not feeling the love from Pete, Rafe studied the screens. A man with a heavily tattooed bare chest guarded the door to the velvet room. “Who’s that?”

“Bruce.” Pete adjusted one of the cameras. “The VIP room just opened. If he has a question about a patron, he’ll radio. One of us should stay here for the rest of the night.”

“We get to approve who gets in?”

“Yeah.” Pete took a mug out of the microwave, and the scent of stale, reheated coffee filled the room. “After spending years in an A-team, it’s a power rush.”

Rafe heard the sadness in Pete’s voice, but since he couldn’t help, he watched the monitors. The main room had filled. Women stripped on the poles near the stage; others worked the cages above the dance floor. Too high to touch but close enough for men to throw in money. A leggy blond in a gold mini was the only dancer who deliberately kept her face hidden from the cameras. “Who’s that?”

“Deke handles the women,” Pete said.

“You don’t care what goes on in the club?” Considering what Rafe had seen in the bathrooms, the women not only danced, they were for sale.

“I care about our mission. This job keeps us fed and pays for our shitty motel.”

“Is that where Nate got beat up?”

“No.” Lines curved around Pete’s dark eyes. “When Nate gets stressed, he spars with the regulars at Iron Rack’s gym. The more upset he is, the more bruises he gets.”

“Nate went today after finding out I’d come home?”

“Yep.”

Rafe wasn’t the only screwed-up man in the room? That didn’t bode well for the mission.

“What about yours?” Pete pointed to the bandages on Rafe’s shoulder and arm.

They ached, but he’d had worse. Much worse. “A welcome-home gift.”

“From that guy killed by a sniper on the Isle?”

“You heard?”

“Nate is your PO.” Pete raised an eyebrow. “Did you know the victim?”

“The less I tell you, the better.”

“Uh-huh.” Pete went back to zooming cameras in and out.

The room filled with the hum of computers pumping out heat and the clacking of Pete’s molars digging for diamonds. “What the fuck is wrong?”

“Colonel Torridan told Nate there’s a Fianna warrior in town.”

“The Fianna is my problem. I don’t want you and Nate caught in the cross fire.”

“Fine by me.” Pete glanced at him, and then back at the laptops. “Is the Gauntlet real?”

The question Rafe had been waiting for all night. And he gave the three answers every soldier around the world wanted to know. “The Gauntlet’s real. Most men die. I survived.”

Pete stared at Rafe’s arm. “And the tattoos?”

Now that Q was unexpected. “They mean what you think they mean.”

“Oh,” Pete said quietly. “Does Juliet—”

“She knows.” And that’s all he was going to say about it. He refocused on the security screens as the blond took off her bra, keeping her back to the camera. Despite the men throwing money at her, she danced as if alone.

“I want the truth, Montfort. You disobeyed Nate’s orders once. Will you help us now?”

“Yes.” If Juliet was involved with what happened to Nate and his men and that vial, Rafe was in. “What else did Torridan say about the lily?”

“Only that he traced it to Savannah. Why? Do you know anything else about it?”

Rafe tightened the camera view on Deke, near the blond, adjusting his pants.

“That lily grew on the Isle when I was a boy. We called it the Capel Lily because it appeared on Capel land. I haven’t seen one since I was a kid.”

“Damn it.”

Rafe heard a groan from Nate and checked his breathing. Steady but shallow. “Does Nate remember anything else about the ambush?”

Pete took a bandana from his pocket, soaked it with water from the cooler, and put it on Nate’s forehead. “Nate suffered a head injury during the ambush, and someone in the POW camp pumped him up with drugs. He lost his memories of that night. Whatever info he might have to help us is buried so deep, no one can access it.”

Rafe felt Nate’s wrist. Pulse was slow and erratic. How ironic that the man who needed to remember couldn’t and the man who wanted to forget wasn’t allowed to.

“Since we’re in truth-telling mode,” Pete said, “I’ll share something Nate made me swear never to tell anyone. Not even Colonel Torridan. During the ambush, Nate saw a man on the other side of the ridge from where his team had dug in.”

Rafe waited while Pete planted his hands on his thighs, his enormous upper body heaving. Whatever the secret was, it was a hell of a burden. “And?”

“Right before the first rocket-propelled grenade hit the unit’s location, the man bowed.”

That was seriously bad news. “Did anyone else see this…bowing man?” Rafe hated Calum’s nickname, but it seemed less harsh than soul-sucking assassin.

“No. Two years later, after the rescue from the POW camp, Nate’s memory was potholed. He didn’t mention it because he didn’t want Torridan to get wound up over something that might not have happened.”

“That’s the first good news I’ve heard all day.”

“If Nate saw a bowing man on that ridge—and no one else did—what does it mean?”

Rafe shook his arms to stretch the twitchy muscles. His pain meds must’ve faded because the thudding ache felt like Escalus’s knife was still stabbing. He found the ibuprofen bottle and downed four pills with a cup of water. “When a warrior makes himself known to another man, it’s for one of two reasons. He’s being recruited for the brotherhood or marked for future assassination. The fact that Nate is alive means it could’ve been a hallucination.”

“Unless either one of those scenarios hasn’t happened yet.”

Rafe nodded. Truth was nothing if not honest.

“Do you trust Calum Prioleau?” Pete asked.

“Everything Calum does is for the purpose of destroying his enemies and protecting those he loves.”

“And his city. He wants us to finish our mission and get out.”

“That sounds like Calum. He adores Juliet like a sister and would do anything to protect her. With your intel on her lily, he thinks you’re a threat to her as well.”

“What about you? Calum got you out of prison, right?”

Rafe tilted his head.

Pete held up both hands. “I guessed. And I’d love to know how he did it.”

“Piles of money and a sister who’s a U.S. senator.” Rafe went back to the cameras, to the woman in gold. The way she moved seemed…familiar. “If we succeed, we’ll all get what we want.”

“Except for Nate.”

Something in Pete’s voice sounded off, like the low drone of a helo with one engine blown out. “What do you mean?”

“Nate’s seizures?” Pete’s black eyes shone. “They’re not just stealing Nate’s memories. They’re killing him.”