39

STEEL

I hung my head at Mia’s sweet whispered words.

I know.

Just knowing Mia trusted me to keep her safe made me feel ten feet tall. But I needed to keep it contained. Mia’s life was in my hands because someone wanted to hurt her to get back at the club, and that scared the shit out of me.

Finding a more comfortable position, I looked across at Creed. He was in a similar pose as me, low on our bellies, our rifles trained across the alley where we could see Mia and Rainn standing near the bar. Rainn was furiously wiping at her cheeks. Rainn was crying? I didn’t think I had ever seen that in all the years she has been with us. It was kind of difficult to watch, and judging from my brother’s reaction, he was finding it fucking hard, too.

“Fuck,” Creed cursed.

I moved my rifle sight back to Mia and dread ran through my blood. Are you fucking kidding me? Standing next to Tori was that fucking sleazy strip club owner Shifty. Was this arsehole involved with Rogue, too? The girls couldn’t be in there alone with him. Charlotte’s encounter with him a few months back nearly resulted in Deck killing the prick. Thank fuck, Deck was on his honeymoon instead of here because my SAA would lose his shit.

I needed to get Mia out. No amount of intel was worth her being in the room with Shifty. With Tori alone, I had hoped she would talk and spill, but with this guy at her back, this just had FUBAR—fucked up beyond all repair—written all over it.

“Bossman, do you have a visual,” I radioed to Booth. What the fuck? I had a clear shot. Just a squeeze of my trigger finger and—

“Roger. This is unexpected and too dangerous. Whiskey, get your arse out there.” Booth barely had the order said before the sound of a high-powered rifle firing broke the silence of the night.

Frantically looking through my sight, I watched in horror as Tori crumpled to the ground, a gaping hole right through the middle of her throat. I heard Mia and Rainn scream loudly. Fuck me—no.

“Apollo?” Booth barked.

“Negative, it wasn’t us,” Creed answered the unasked question.

“Vader, move, move, move,” I yelled into my comm. Shifty had a gun, and his hands were waving madly about, pointing the gun from Mia to Rainn and back to Mia again. His eyes were wide and wild as he looked down at the very dead Tori. I could see through the scope that the sight of the dead stripper lying at his feet had him stricken. Tori and Shifty? This was becoming too much like what we experienced in the army. Enemy hiding amongst us. Who the fuck to trust?

Another bullet sounded from behind where Creed and I were keeping watch, and there was another shrill scream.

“It’s Rogue,” I heard in my ear. Something I already knew. Shifty was working for him—or with him, I wasn’t sure which, but the fucker wasn’t going to do any more of Rogue’s dirty work for him or hurt Mia.

“Take the shot,” Creed shouted since I had the better position to take Shifty out. With the horror of Tori being shot, Rainn had moved from where we told her to stay, which blocked Creed from having a clear shot.

I breathed in, and then out, in, then out. My heartbeat slowed, and counting to ten, I took a breath in and squeezed gently on the trigger. The familiar kick of my rifle sent a welcome shunt down my arm. I blew out a puff of air as I watched Shifty fall and join Tori in a heap on the ground after the bullet hit him dead centre in the heart.

It took no more than thirty seconds from the first shot taking Tori out to my bullet doing its job on Shifty. Tossing my rifle aside, I scrambled to my feet. Booth’s command to go came too late because I was already on the move to get to my woman. It took me no more than twenty seconds to rappel the seven-story building, and Creed was right beside me, keeping pace. I hit the ground with one leg, which was hard to do from such a height, but seeing as though my amputation was with me forever, I had spent the last few years perfecting every move I was once able to do with two legs with just one.

Running as fast I as I dared, I grimaced when Creed overtook me. He and Booth were always challenging one another to marathon runs and sprints while over in the desert. Sometimes, there had been an exorbitant amount of downtime, waiting between missions. That was their thing and, fuck, did they take it seriously.

Picking up a little more speed, I made it to the huge front door just seconds after Creed. The door was still open halfway, so I shouldered it the rest of the way and nearly stumbled from the impact of hitting the door. Without stopping, Creed reached out and grabbed hold of my arm, helping me regain my footing. Fuck, my brother always had my back. Grunting my thanks, I received a chin lift as we burst into the bar.

“Cooper!”

“Mia!” Pushing past Creed, I rushed to her.

Mia barrelled towards me and hit me with the force of what the punching bag in the compound’s gym must have felt like after Darth threw a punch at it. An oomph left my throat, and once again, I felt Creed at my back, holding me stable.

Folding Mia against me, I buried my face in her neck. Her silky, soft hair smelled like it should. Her skin was soft like it always was. Her heart was beating just for me. I tightened my arms around her slight frame and willed my hammering heart to slow down. Our baby was right where she needed to be, and the love of my life, the reason I drew breath, was safe in my arms.

Alive.

Unharmed.

Thank fucking Christ for that.

But she saw something no one should ever have to see. Two people were shot right in front of her. One by my hand, and taking a life was not something I would ever get used to doing—whether it was an order or a matter of survival. But I wasn’t shitting you, I would take that shot all over again and twice on Sundays if it meant having Mia warm and alive in my arms, loving me and all mine. Forever.

“Steel.”

I lifted my head from my favourite place in the world and saw Booth and Darth standing over two bodies that were now covered by what looked like the blankets the staff used to cover the pool tables at closing. Thank God. Mia had seen enough, and so had Rainn. Shit! Rainn. Turning my head, I saw Mannix had Rainn cradled into him exactly the same way Mia was to me. His large, tattooed hand had a slight tremble to it as he ran it up and down her thick, ruby-red hair. Her body shook uncontrollably. Her arms weren’t around Mannix, though. Instead, they were wrapped around her middle, but she was leaning into him as far as she could get.

Fuck if I knew what was happening to those two, but Mannix needed to figure out what Rainn was to him—stripper or something much more. She couldn’t be both. Despite his tough talk and playboy lifestyle, I knew my brother, and there was no way he could stand idly by and let her make the club money by men ogling her on a pole. At least, I hoped not. But Mannix had weird ways of looking at life, especially when it came to women. Trust was not in his vocabulary, which was understandable, but if I could see the light and learned to trust the right one, then there had to be hope for my twin.

“You have got to be shitting me,” Creed muttered beside me. His hand was on Mia’s shoulder, offering her and himself comfort. He cared for her, and I accepted it now. She cared for him, too. They had a strong friendship, but her love was all mine. He had his phone in his hand, and an ominous look clouded his features.

We all instantly knew who was ringing. The fucker always knew when to ring. Booth stalked forward and swiped the phone from Creed. Hitting speaker, he unleashed.

“You mother fucking arsehole,” Booth bellowed. “You killed a woman. Who the fuck do you think you are?”

“I’m the motherfucking arsehole in charge here, Vincent, and I just showed you I’m not shitting around. You should be thanking me because that whore was selling intel to me. Aren’t you happy to be rid of her and her sleazy boyfriend? He had plans for the pretty ballet dancer. Seems she really got under his skin, and those long, sexy legs and perky tits kept him up at night.” The disgusting filth laughed. Fuck, I was so glad Deck wasn’t here. Hearing something like that said about his wife could have sent him off to empty a clip into the dead pimp’s lifeless body just for the hell of it.

“Tori? Tori was your contact at the club? How the hell did you get her on board? Tori wasn’t exactly known for her brain power,” Darth said. There was something wrong here because Darth was right. Tori was mean and nasty to the other women of the club, but there was no way she could have gotten the information that she did. She just wasn’t that smart.

“Ha, you are so correct, Vader. By the way, how is your grandmother? I hope the cancer treatment works this time around. Three times with cancer must be hard for her and you, being her only living relative left and all.”

A look of thunder crossed Darth’s face at the mention of his grandmother, but he also had a look of confusion. No one but the team and a handful of trusted serving members still overseas knew our mission codenames.

“Ah, the sounds of silence as you try to figure out how I know your real name is Vader and that your father was a Star Wars fan, naming you after his favourite character. But you choose to go by Darth as some sort of ‘fuck you’ to him. Those questions will be answered in due time, but for now, let me say that the cripple’s pregnant bitch is safe for now. Quite frankly, she was starting to bore me.”

I squeezed Mia a little closer as she whimpered. Her face was still pressed tightly into my chest, but I knew she could hear every word this fucker was saying. What he said about me meant shit, but he had better stay the fuck away from my beauty.

“Listen here, you fucktard.” My harshness made Mia jump, and I placed a kiss on her hair in apology, which soothed her back down.

“Vincent, you still have a problem,” Rogue continued, ignoring my outburst. His tone implied he did not like to be challenged. Good to know.

Mannix came up by my side. I couldn’t see Rainn from where I was standing, but Mannix wouldn’t stray too far from her. Not now.

“And what may that be, you dickless fuck.”

“Watch it, Vincent. I am not above killing your child while it is still incubating. The baby means nothing to me, and I will make sure I take its mother in the process.”

What the fuck? This guy was so out of control it was dangerous. Beyond dangerous. Booth’s face was unreadable, which was one of his many talents, but the tick in his jaw was his tell, and my president was pissed.

“Tori was a contact, but not mine. She was working for my contact, and that person is still alive and active. Things may be a little harder for me to get what I need, but that just makes this even more entertaining. For me, at least. Oh, and Mannix…”

Oh, fuck no. Mannix tensed beside me, and I could feel the anger radiating from him. We knew what was coming.

“You might want to keep an eye on that red-headed slut of yours because she is going to be fun. She is kind of feisty compared to the other pathetic women. This may be my favourite one yet.” The line went dead, and we were left staring at the phone. Was this ever going to end? Rainn was the next target. Or was it Stella? How the fuck were we going to outsmart this guy? He was two steps ahead, and who was this contact if it wasn’t Tori?

“For fuck’s sake,” Booth yelled, throwing his phone hard against the wall behind the bar. It hit a bottle of Captain Morgan rum, smashing it and the phone.

“Are you serious, Booth? Another fucking one?” Darth reprimanded in disbelief. Being the purchasing officer for the club, the big prick must have a direct line to the phone store by now.

Running my hands up and down Mia’s back, I took a semi-relieved breath. She was safe. I just didn’t know about Rainn. Thinking of the stunning dancer, I twisted to get my eyes on her. She must have heard everything Rogue said and must be pretty freaked out by it.

When I searched for her at the bar, I came up empty. She wasn’t here. Where the fuck was she?

“Where the fuck is Rainn?” I voiced my silent question.

Mannix whipped around, then rushed to the bar and looked behind it. Darth ran out to the hall towards the staff room as Creed took off for the exit, but in my gut, I already knew she was gone. Fuck.

“Rainn,” Mannix shouted out frantically. He had feelings for her. He had to. She had to be more than a hook-up for him.

Creed walked back into the room, his look telling me what I already knew.

“Brother, Darth’s truck is gone,” he said quietly.

My twin stared at us all in turn before he settled his eyes back on Creed.

“What?” His voice was full of fear. Yeah, he cared.

“She is gone, Mannix.”

I watched as Mannix picked up an empty bottle from the table to his left and hurled it in the same direction as Booth’s poor phone. The sound of smashing glass didn’t mask the roar that left my brother’s lungs. He just unleashed his beast, and God help anyone who stood in the way of him getting his woman back.