Authors: Piper J. Drake
Chapter Twenty-Four
“How’s the family reunion going?” Harte leaned against the far wall of the hallway, out of range but near enough by for his presence to be a sort of brotherly comfort to Gabe. Hard to explain, but there it was.
Gabe had retreated to the hallway to give the sisters space. Left alone, Gabe had to admit he’d probably be slamming his fists into the wall until something broke. Didn’t matter if it was the wall or his knuckles.
Truth be told, the walls had survived a lot of Centurions so it’d probably be his knuckles.
“Fine. More than fine.” Seeing the damage in An-mei’s eyes, knowing from experience what that meant and how much therapy the girl would probably need before she could sleep through a night or take a bite of food without wondering if it was drugged, had been the final straw to ignite his temper in a slow-burning rage. It’d already been prepped and ready when he’d gotten a good look at the lump on Maylin’s head after her encounter with Jewel.
“Those two have each other back. It’s just going to take a metric shit-ton of time for them to recover. No thanks to Jewel and Edict and fucking Phoenix Biotech.” Gabe finished on a growl and clamped his mouth shut, grinding his teeth.
“From what Maylin told us and what she will undoubtedly repeat to you, Jewel could have done a lot worse. I’m thinking there’s more going on there.”
Gabe spit out a low curse, careful to keep his voice down. Just in case Maylin woke up. Or her sister, who was in the hospital bed next to her. “I’ve got no fucks to give about Jewel’s reasons for stabbing us in the back.”
“Or shooting you in the back, as the case may be.”
Gabe waved a hand, dismissing the interjection. “She made her choice and joined Edict. Not a whole lot in the world to excuse it.”
Harte stepped away from the wall. “See. She knows that. I’m thinking she might’ve even been okay with never telling us her reasons, either. But things are changing pretty rapidly and what we saw at that location was a lot more than one little biotech company could’ve funded on its own.”
Now might not be the best time to be thinking of a bigger picture. But it was Harte’s job and Gabe might be damned for slowing down, but part of what he did best was finding the puzzle pieces for Harte to put together. So he let himself pace, but his mind tracked back to the things he’d seen. Things the cameras might not’ve caught.
“Their training was standard, not the higher level we’re used to seeing from Edict or similar teams. The contingent guarding that facility was complacent and used to being there.”
Harte nodded. “They had an evacuation plan, but they moved a lot of equipment before they decommissioned the facility.”
“If you want to call blowing the place up decommissioning.” Gabe snorted. “It might’ve been Jewel’s work, though. The explosions were controlled, kept perimeter damage to a minimum.”
“Based on satellite surveillance, it looked like they got all of the personnel out along with the equipment.” Harte began his own pacing, on a path perpendicular to Gabe’s. “But we were more concerned with keeping eyes on your escape route to be sure you didn’t have any unwelcome pursuit, so we lost them when their paths split up and scattered. Even if they’re still in the state currently, they won’t be for too long.”
Course not. If it’d been Gabe, he’d have scattered his resources and sent them out by various modes of transportation too. Whoever had governance over that site had plans in place and those people were following them.
“So there’s a sponsor behind this Phoenix Biotech.” Gabe didn’t like it, and the words tasted bitter in his mouth. “Somebody into projects like the genetics they were trying to make An-mei research.”
“And with the means to pay several mercenary organizations, not just Edict,” Harte added to the list with even less pleasure in his voice. If it were possible.
“Whoever it is won’t be happy to have lost a valuable asset.” Gabe would be damned if they’d send Maylin and An-mei back to their lives only to see them snapped up again.
“No.” Harte settled again, a shit-eating grin on his face. “About that. I reached out to a few contacts.”
“Yeah?” Gabe halted and leaned back against the opposite wall. He’d wait to find out what Harte had in mind. If he didn’t like it,
then
he’d get up in his CO’s face.
“There’s a few government sponsors concerned about the potential for biological warfare and the best way to develop countermeasures.” Harte lifted his chin to indicate the women in the room behind Gabe. “If An-mei is amenable—and I’m thinking developing countermeasures is better than developing the weapons themselves—they’ll provide a new identity and protection for her. Sort of like witness protection but specialized.”
“And what about Maylin?” It’d be awful to separate the sisters after how hard Maylin had worked to get An-mei back.”
“Option to disappear with her sister.” Harte’s gaze settled on Gabe.
Gabe held steady. “Maylin deserves to be with the only family she has left.”
“Maybe.” Harte let the word out slow. “She does have an entire catering company she’s built from nothing.”
“She could build another one or do something different.” Gabe had no doubt Maylin could do anything, start from scratch over and over. She had the tenacity to make anything happen.
Harte nodded. “She could. She’s made some changes here, even. I’m realizing the recuperation portion of these facilities could do with a stabilizing influence for the teams stationed here. From what I hear about her cooking, she had a lot more of an impact on your team’s recovery than maybe anyone realizes.”
Gabe hadn’t thought about it. Maylin’s impact on him, on his life, was so big he couldn’t wrap his head around it. She’d changed his life, and he didn’t even know what he was going to do when he went back to who he used to be.
“‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.’ Hippocrates.” Harte was looking at him expectantly after the quote, and Gabe wasn’t sure he was following his CO’s logic this time.
Harte sighed. “I considered hiring a bartender because most of you really don’t like talking to a shrink, and outside the military, I don’t have a way of making any of you see one no matter how much good it’d probably do you. But a bartender means booze and some of you would best be as far away from alcohol as possible.”
Yeah. Alcoholism. Drugs. Some of them turned to just about anything that could change a mental state when things got bad. Being a working mercenary, having to stay sharp, probably saved all of their lives every bit as much as the continued danger presented by their jobs threatened to end them.
“I’m thinking your Maylin found something a lot better for all of you. And I heard from a lot of the personnel on the training side too. They were jealous. Not just about the good food, and I hear she is a very good cook, but about the way you all could gather in the kitchen. Talk. Really talk.”
“We talked about the mission.” Gabe didn’t mean to argue. But it was what they’d been doing.
“You relaxed. I’ve checked with Lizzy, with Marc and Vic. It was more about working together and less about the dark side of what we do. Family-like, complete with picnics in the car.”
“If you’re going to offer her a job, offer it to her.” Gabe wasn’t about to try to influence her decision. He couldn’t make her promises, and it’d be damned unfair if the only time he came back to her here was in pieces.
“I plan to.” Harte said. “But I’m thinking this mission showed us some realities about you too.”
“And what are those?” Gabe couldn’t keep the growl out of his voice. He didn’t like where this was going.
“Your back injury never healed one hundred percent. Not letting the medics see to it isn’t going to hide the issue. You’re also stupid as shit trying to walk it off right now.”
Fuck.
Okay, so spasms had been running through his back the entire ride home. “My legs are working.”
“For now.” The words came out short and sharp. Harte wasn’t fucking around anymore. “I’m requiring you to pass a PT test before you’re cleared for active assignment again. You were damned slow leaving that overturned vehicle, and things could’ve happened before you got clear.”
Cars actually didn’t explode the way they did in Maylin’s television shows. But sometimes they had help. Especially when your ex had a thing for planted explosives. So yeah, things could have turned out a lot worse. And in a way, he should thank his freaking stars Jewel had been up here in Washington State and not out there with an eye on them.
“Jewel is not the only explosives specialist out there.”
Course, Harte could also be a mind reader.
“Didn’t happen this time.” Gabe gritted his teeth. His back muscles spasmed as he spoke, and having his temper up wasn’t going to help him relax.
“Let’s not have it happen at all.” Harte sighed. “There are other options here.”
“Retirement isn’t my thing.” Gabe would go insane in retirement. Especially if Maylin disappeared with An-mei under government protection. He wasn’t sure he wouldn’t go after her and if he did, he could end up leading danger right back to them. It’d be stupid. But if he didn’t have a job to do, stupid was the least of his worries.
“What about a change of career path?” Harte asked. “Obviously security on this site needs to get to a higher level of performance. Edict shouldn’t have ever gotten close. I need someone here to overhaul on-site defenses and adjust the program before we take on more personal-security contracts. Trainees need to be ready for the real thing when they’re here, or they won’t be when we send them overseas.”
Those who can’t, teach.
Gabe hated the saying because it was incredibly shitty.
And what was it Maylin had taught him?
I take the sayings I like to heart.
And the ones you don’t like?
I prove them wrong.
Gabe chuckled. Couldn’t help it. She’d changed him and she hadn’t meant to. It was probably why she’d been so successful at it.
Harte cleared his throat. “Wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.”
“Yeah, well. I guess I’m learning new tricks.” Gabe sighed. “Talk to me about what you have in mind.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
At the first crack of his bedroom door, Gabe came fully awake. He kept his eyes closed, though, and his body relaxed, his breath the long, slow rhythm of sleep.
Soft footsteps told him his visitor was small and female, and his girl. The urge to smile almost broke his facade.
Maylin walked like a cat, especially in just her socks on the hardwood floor. But she wasn’t the furtive kind of silent a trained Centurion would be. She was quiet in a non-threatening, make soft imprints in his heart sort of way.
“Don’t even try to convince me I can sneak up on you, Gabriel Diaz.”
Ooh. She was feeling feisty. It made him even happier, and he didn’t fight the grin spreading across his face even though he kept his eyes shut. Apparently a minor concussion didn’t keep her in the infirmary for long. And he wasn’t even going to hide from how happy it made him. Course, another part of him was up and ready to welcome her too.
“I’ve got a tray here for you.” Her voice turned to warm honey. “You want it on the desk, your bed, or flipped over on your lap?”
Oops. No more faking sleep. He opened his eyes and couldn’t help grinning even broader. Didn’t matter to him if he looked like a complete idiot. His girl was there, in his room, standing on her own power.
“Wanted to enjoy being with you again,
coração
, one sense at a time. Hearing you. Seeing you.” He tapped the desk next to the bed and waited for her to safely place the tray, then caught her hand in his. He ran his thumb along the inside of her wrist, over her pulse point. “Touching you. I missed you.”
He didn’t dare more. Not yet. Twice now, he’d kissed her while she lay on a stretcher, and this time the next steps had to be her choice.
The spark of temper faded from her eyes. She drew in a long breath. “I missed you too. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk earlier.”
Sounded like a good thing. He hoped it was. “You needed to see your sister.”
Her gaze was warm. “I did, and I want to thank you for bringing An-mei home safe.”
Aw, hell, he couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t sound stupid or end up with his foot in his mouth.
“But getting back to what I was talking about before you took me to see my sister.” Her eyes narrowed as she continued, “I probably should take some self-defense classes. I bet there’s some in the city, but those are usually big group seminars.”
“I can teach you.” He wasn’t going to leave it to some civilian instructor.
She nodded. “I’d like that. Maybe Lizzy or Victoria could help? They’re closer to my size and they have to adjust for...a few things.”
He dropped his gaze to the tempting curves of her chest. “I’m very fond of the things that make you different from me.”
She cleared her throat. But when he looked up, there was heat in her gaze, not embarrassment. Good. “So, self-defense classes. Hopefully you all can teach me the basics before you have to leave again.”
She stepped back and away from him, turning to retrieve the tray. He swung his legs over the side of his bed, but before he could stand she set the tray in his lap and sat next to him.
There were two bowls of clear soup with vegetables in it. Next to the soup was a platter of crackers, thin slices of salami and pepperoni plus a selection of cheeses.
Maylin reached across him to layer a cracker with a couple of slices of meat and cheese. “I sort of dumped the first pot of soup I made on Jewel and the kitchen floor. Caleb let me loose in the pantry over at the main facility, so I brought back a few supplies to make sure you all had a warm meal when you woke up.”
The kitchen had been a mess when they’d gotten back. Security detail had still been taking pictures before they cleaned up, and verifying how Jewel had gotten in and out. Still, Caleb and Harte had made sure everything was taken care of so Gabe and his team could hit their bunks.
“Not that I don’t appreciate this.” He paused as she held the cracker and meat, and took a bite. It took another minute to chew and swallow. Awkward, because he’d never had someone feed him before, and hot, because she took the rest of the loaded cracker and ate it herself. Food was good. “But I didn’t want you to think you still had to take care of us when you could be with your sister.”
She took one of the bowls and a spoon, nodding. “Who do you think raided the kitchen with me? But she ran out of steam quickly. Your medics say she’s going to be very tired for a few days yet. Dehydrated. They’ve put her on an IV and they say rest is the best thing for her. When she fell asleep, I needed to make myself useful.”
“You mean you stress-cooked.” He lifted his bowl and took a sip directly from it. Spoons were for chasing peas and fancy dinners.
She sipped at her soup and huffed out a laugh. “Exactly.”
“Thank you.” And he put every bit of sincerity he had into it. “This is delicious.”
He had no idea how she managed to put together these meals over and over again. From bare minimum supplies, no less. Hell, Harte had asked if they could challenge her to make MREs edible. She probably could, but it’d take some serious effort, even for her.
“I’m the one who can’t thank you enough.” Her words came out in a whisper and he saw a tear fall into the bowl in her lap.
“Hey.” He got the tray back on the desk and took her bowl from her, kneeling down in front of her so he could look up into her face. “No tears. She’s back safe and sound.”
“I’m not sad. I’m so incredibly happy. You found her and you brought her back,” Maylin whispered. “How can I ever repay you and the others?”
He cupped her face in both hands and used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. “Don’t cry. It kills me to see you cry. Every one of us was glad to do this for you.”
“You were hurt. You all could have been killed.”
It was the truth, and he didn’t insult her by making less of it. “This is what we do.”
She nodded into his hands. “I get it.”
Most people didn’t want a relationship after they realized what they’d be getting into. The waiting sucked. The time apart made people bitter. And it was too easy to pretend the awful things weren’t happening.
“I don’t want to hide this from you.” He tried to choose his words carefully. “Because I want us to have a future, and this is a big part of it. Truth.”
“Managing expectations?” Her question didn’t sound bitter. It was actually very neutral.
He turned his head to the side, searching for how to say things. “Expectations, I try not to have. More like informed decisions for both of us.”
“But you want there to be an ‘us’ going forward?” That sounded definitively hopeful.
“That’s an affirmative.”
She turned her head and kissed his palm. “I do too.”
Back to grinning like an idiot. “Yeah?”
“Yes.” She slid her hands up to his and pulled them away from her face, holding them instead in her lap. “So what are our choices?”
He liked the sound of that. “For starters, I’m going to be here a while longer, healing. Not going to hide it from you, but I messed up my back more this last mission.” He squeezed her hands in his before she could apologize. “If it didn’t happen this time, it would’ve happened farther away from home. So don’t you think it’s your fault.”
She was overthinking and about to argue again, so he stopped her the best way he knew how.
He kissed her.
Just one kiss, and he was on fire. It started simple, but then she yielded her mouth to him and he was caught up in the feel of her lips against his and her sweetness against his tongue.
When they both pulled back, it took a couple of seconds to remember where he’d been going with his line of thought.
“I know you’ve got a couple of choices.”
She nodded. “There’s a government representative here already. Harte introduced him to An-mei and me while she was awake enough to talk. He’s offered to extend protection to me if I go with her, or to assign a protection detail here with me until they’re reasonably sure I’m not a risk.”
For her own safety or to be used as leverage against An-mei.
“It’s a big decision.” He ached to know what she wanted, before he gave her his news. But he’d learned by now she liked to have the full picture before she made her choices. “I’ve got a few things for you to consider too.”
She watched and waited then, her clear green eyes unreadable.
Okay. Lay it all out there, Diaz. She’s worth it.
“I wanted you to know I’ll be right here.” He held her gaze steady with his. It meant everything for her to understand. “I’ll be training new recruits at this site, and wherever you go—if you call me—I will come to you. Doesn’t matter when or how often. I’ll make it work.”
He’d make
them
work, if she wanted it. Or he’d leave her to her life if she asked, no matter how badly it’d rip him to pieces.
Her eyes widened as his words sank in. “You’re not going overseas anymore?”
His mouth twisted a little, but he wasn’t going to hide from her. “Looks that way. This is where I can do the most good, training the rookies to be good enough to be Centurions and developing a new domestic personal-security branch of the Centurion Corporation. Harte wants to call it Safeguard. So this is where I stay.”
He gave her hands another squeeze. “You don’t have to decide right now, but I’m hella curious about what you’re thinking.”
She huffed out a laugh. “I was really confused before I got here.”
“Did I help or did I make it worse?”
Her smile did crazy things to him. “You made everything simple.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Nothing about us is simple.”
“No.” She bit her lip and freed one of her hands to trace a fingertip along his jawline. “This is. I want to be with you, Gabriel Diaz. And I was going to try to come to you wherever you were whenever you were back on domestic soil, or even where you might be able to meet me abroad. Come hell or high water. And here you are, meeting me halfway.”
He turned his head and kissed her finger, then rose up to gather her into his arms as he settled them both on his bed. “I’m liking this meeting in the middle thing.”
“Me too.” She cuddled into his arms. God, she fit so well against him. “I want to keep running my catering business. Charlie might quit and I don’t blame him, but he might stay on. He’s got a few things to think about, he said.”
Gabe gritted his teeth hearing her talk about another guy. She was in
his
arms, after all.
“But the company is a part of me and I want to keep it going. The government officials gave me some resistance about being able to visit An-mei wherever they take her, but Harte said there might be some provisions made in conjunction with Centurion Corporation, plus he had a talk with me about the kitchen here.”
“You provide a calming influence for us.” He kissed her forehead. “Stabilizing. And you feed us good.”
She pressed kisses along his jaw, just about driving him crazy. “Basically what he said. So long as I can commute from here to the city when I have catering engagements, I like the idea of living here. He said we could have the guest cabin, or another residence could be built. I’m kind of blown away by the idea.”
“We.” He couldn’t hold back any more. Rational conversation was going to have to hold for a while. “You said ‘we.’”
She kissed him then, hot and inviting, until they were both breathless. “I love you, Gabe. So yes, ‘we.’
Zhí zĭ zhī shŏu, yŭ zĭ xié lăo
. For life or for death, holding your hand, and aging with you.”
He’d tried so hard to go it alone for so long. He’d fucked up a lot of things in his life. But somewhere, sometime in his truly crazed life he must’ve done something good, because here she was, and she was his.
And he was hers.
“I love you, Maylin.” And he was going to show her. Over and over.
* * * * *
We hope you enjoyed HIDDEN IMPACT! Watch for DEADLY TESTIMONY, the next book in the
SAFEGUARD
series, coming in 2016 from Piper J. Drake and Carina Press.