Fight By The Team (Team Fear Book 2) (24 page)

Training with Janet made every muscle in Debi’s body ache, but she couldn’t complain because she’d asked for it. Hell, she’d demanded it. And Janet had encouraged her, which should have been a warning. Debi had ignored it. Fool that she was. Rose had given her permission—damn but that burned—to train in kicks, but no hand-to-hand, after which he turned her physical therapy over to Fowler who was as cruel and unfeeling as his mother.

Debi paused during a kicking lesson and leaned heavily against Camy. “The men are up to something. Do you have any idea what the plan is?”

“No.” Her chest heaved with the extreme effort of keeping up with Janet Fowler. “They’re doing a good job of keeping us otherwise occupied today.”

Somehow they’d used training to keep the women out of the loop. “Any word from Allyson?”

“No.” Camy kicked the punching bag, hitting higher on the bag than she had a week ago. When she wasn’t training, she worked in the command post doing computer stuff Debi didn’t understand. “My brother still being an asshole?”

Rose hadn’t spoken to Debi since the breakfast showdown. “Is he still breathing?”

“As far as I know.”

“Then he’s still an asshole.”

“On a positive note.” Camy bent at the waist trying to get a solid breath. “He hasn’t asked me a question about school since I got here.”

“Lucky you.”

“Kick higher,” Janet ordered.

Debi panted out a breath. “I take back every nice thing I ever said about you, Janet.”

“Thank you. Now, move your ass.”

They finished the lesson in silence because there wasn’t enough oxygen to talk and train. Janet didn’t take it easy on them because they were female. If anything, she expected more of them.

When the lesson was over, Debi plopped onto the mat. She wasn’t sleeping much at night in her big cold bed, and that made her as frustrated as a cat in a cage. Rose had shut her down, not wanting her to take any risks, and the rest of the men had followed his lead. They wanted to fold the women in bubble wrap and keep them on a shelf, but they needed her access to get the information they sought. She didn’t see any option but around Rose and his stubborn wall of silence.

“I need to get a message to Allyson.” But she didn’t want to endanger the team by trying to bypass security on her own. She did not have the skills. Camy did. “I delivered on the time to yourself,” she told Camy. Even if she wasn’t distracting Rose so much as pissing him off. Debi dropped onto her back. “Now you need to do me a solid.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Contact Allyson without the guys knowing.”

“Craft has safeguards in place and Fowler is paranoid as hell.”

“You’re good. You can do it. Just don’t get caught.”

“Nice. A challenge and a warning at the same time. You’ve been taking lessons from the men.”

“If they’re not going to work with us, then we work separately by default.” She’d rather work together. She’d come to rely on the team, think of them as her own. But ever since she’d watched Rose go after Robert in the lab, her nerves had been in tatters. She was about ready to resort to pyrotechnics. “Can you do it?”

“Girl.” Camy mimicked Debi’s tone. “I hacked into the student loan records database.”

“Really?” Debi wished she could do the same. “How much do you owe?”

“Not a damn thing.”

Wow. “You’re hired.” Debi frowned as they walked back upstairs. She’d just asked the world’s peppiest hacker to help. What could possibly go wrong?

W
ith her shoes
in one hand and keys in the other, Debi stepped into the hall outside her room. Sneaking past Rose’s room was simple as he’d locked her out of it. His words from the other night still haunted her.

We’re done
.

The memory squeezed her heart dry. Trying to cure her panic attacks had cost her everything. Her father had washed his hands of her after Barry ratted her out. DV1028 had cost her friends from the lab and a sense of security she hadn’t regained until she’d settled in with the team here at the manor. She couldn’t lose Rose. It was time to stop letting everyone else take care of her.

The information in Barry’s computer could save them and she had it within her power to get it. Rose couldn’t stop her from doing what was right for the team.

In her stocking feet, she made her way to the kitchen. Camy and Dean had cleaned up and were the last to go to bed. A single light over the oven lit the way to the pantry. Debi sat on the stairs leading to the tunnel to put on her shoes before heading to the barn. The lights in the tunnel were horror movie scary and the walls echoed with the memory of Rose’s screams when he’d been in recovery.

A shiver chilled her skin, but she forced herself to walk—not run—to the other end of the creepy tunnel. Footsteps followed her, or they were echoes of her steps, or she was crazy. She ran up the stairs to the barn and headed straight for her car.

“Where do you think you’re going?” The deep male voice stopped and restarted her heart.

“Crap.” She stumbled back and hit the side of Fowler’s pickup. She twisted toward the voice.

Stills stood between the cars with his arms crossed over his massive chest. “Going somewhere?”

The keys in her hand were pretty damning. “Uh, looking for something in my car.”

“Tell me, do I look stupid?”

“That’s one of those no-win questions.” The hand holding her keys trembled, so she stuffed it in her front pocket.

Camy peeked around Stills. “Sorry. He busted me when I came over to check the email.”

Debi closed her eyes for a split second, her thoughts going fast, but not fast enough to make up a lie big enough to cover her tracks. “You can’t keep me here if I don’t want to stay.”

“Actually, I can.”

Ugh. The men all had this annoying ability to stay reasonable and calm when she wanted to scream. “Okay so you’re bigger and meaner and could physically restrain me. Is that the kind of man you want to be?”

He chuckled, but only a fool would think he was amused.

The silence stretched, and it was one of the moments like when you were in school and got busted breaking into the science lab. The teacher merely sat there waiting until you couldn’t take the silence and had to fill it. And damn, but Debi’s breath was ragged. Panic threatened. “Fine. What do you plan to do?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“What’s your plan with Allyson?”

“Well.” Debi scratched the back of her skull. She wasn’t exactly expecting him to be... open to discussion. “The plan is to meet Allyson and steal a copy of Barry’s records while he’s asleep. I thought I’d make it back for breakfast and no one would be the wiser.”

“How do you plan to get past Fowler’s security system?”

Debi’s heart pulsed with hope. He’d used the present tense.

Camy raised her hand like a student in class. “Getting past security here at the manor is my job. I plan to bypass it and reset it in five minutes once we’re clear of the gate.”

“Wait, there’s no we.” On this, Debi was emphatic. “Rose would destroy me if anything happened to you.”

“You think he wouldn’t kill me for helping you escape and then letting something happen to you?” Camy asked.

“Not even. Right now, he’s mad enough to kill me himself.”

“Let’s table that discussion for a moment.” Stills interrupted. “How are you getting into the lab? Or are the records somewhere else?”

“I think the records are at the lab in Barry’s office. And I’m getting through security with Allyson like I did last time.”

“What happens if Echo shows?”

“On that point, I was hoping for a little good luck. We’re due.”

“That’s about stupid. Luck has nothing to do with it. One of their men disappeared from the lab. Of course they have it under surveillance.”

“You’re a killjoy.” For her, going was worth the risk. Her heart hurt with the separation from Rose. Maybe getting the records would help to redeem her in his eyes. It certainly couldn’t hurt.

“What you need is a bodyguard.” Stills stared at her, his gaze void of emotion.

“As in... You?” Her voice rose hopefully.

“Possibly. Let me see Allyson’s email.”

Camy handed him a computer printout. He glanced over it before looking up. “Will Allyson let me through with you?”

“Doubtful.” After the attack last time, it was a miracle she’d agreed to let Debi in. “I told her I wanted evidence to prove Barry had stolen my research. She doesn’t know about you guys, and I don’t think she should.”

“Then Camy needs to come along to help me get into the lab.”

Camy drew her hand into a fist and pumped in celebration. “Yes!”

“No way.” Rose hated Debi enough already.

“It’s the only way it works. You’re not going into the lab without backup. Camy, can you get me past security?”

She rolled her eyes. “Piece of cake.”

“Things like this are seldom easy. Put ego aside. Can you do it?”

“Of course. I’ll need to borrow some of Craft’s equipment.”

“Run get it.”

Camy spun on her heel and raced to the command post. Debi waited until she disappeared before speaking. “How did you know something was up?”

“I’ve come up with some particularly dumbass plans, which is how I recognized yours.”

An ache started in her stomach. Camy was bubbly and sweet, and every single time they faced someone from Echo, people got hurt. “We should leave right now, before she comes back.”

“We need her to get off property and to get me into the lab.”

“If anything happens to her, he’ll kill us.”

“If anything happens to either one of you, he’ll kill me.”

“Then why do it?”

“Fastest way to the desired result. We’ve sat on this information for too long, and sooner or later, the Company will eliminate your friend Barry and probably Allyson and the rest of the people in the lab. While we sit around fighting or negotiating or planning or whatever the hell we’re doing, we’re letting Echo take the lead.”

“You’re quite the strategist.” Or fearlessness made him reckless.

“I’m flying by the seat of my pants here, and it will probably come back to bite me.”

Debi had the same feeling, but she needed to do something, because waiting for Rose to change his mind hurt too much.

“I think we have more than the cone of silence going on. Believe me, I’ve been there,” Camy said with a shake of her head.

“The cone of silence is real,” Stills insisted. They debated Rose’s cold-shoulder treatment on the drive into El Paso. “The most consecutive days on record is twenty days. We don’t even know what caused it. Rose simply tuned everyone out. No words for twenty days.”

Camy weighed her thoughts. “That makes it seem like he was in a protracted bad mood, but my brother doesn’t have a temper.”

“The brother you knew before joining the team.”

“He doesn’t have a temper,” Camy insisted.

“Girl, you did not see him beat a man to death.”

Stills shook his head. “That wasn’t him.”

“The drugs may have pushed Rose over the edge to kill Robert, but it wasn’t drugs that made Rose want me to get the fuck away from him. The way he said it was more than temper.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you before Dean so rudely interrupted,” Camy said. “Sounds like the zone of protection.”

“Is this some weird sci-fi thing?” Debi asked. She was never quite sure what was going on in Camy’s head.

“He’s protecting you.”

Right. As he carved her heart out with a spoon.

Stills nodded slowly. “Zone of protection, huh? Sounds like him. Hell, sounds like all of us. I ditched the girl back home. Told her I found another girl. A woman. Made sure she wanted nothing to do with me. Ever. Didn’t want her trying to look me up the way Camy went after her brother.”

“That’s you. And, by the way, that makes you an ass. You could try honesty.”

“Sure.” Stills watched the scenery drift by in the headlights of the car. “Let’s see, how does that conversation go. Hey, baby, I’m a walking experiment. No longer human. No fear. No emotional ties. And if you stick with me, you’ll probably end up dead. By my hand.”

“Are all of you guys so melodramatic?” Camy asked.

“This isn’t melodrama. Look around. Debi, how many dead bodies have you since you and Lauren got kidnapped?

“Baby Face Joe and his team at the townhouse. The two guys from the meth house. Robert.”

“Seven. Does that sound like melodrama to you?” Stills asked.

“Sounds like a nightmare.” Debi wanted to feel something, but sadness oozed from her pores and negativity spewed from her mouth. “Did you love her? The girl back home?”

“It’s not past tense.” Stills pounded a soundless tune on the steering wheel. “But I wasn’t going to see her gutted in front of me. After Mad Dog, I figured we were marked. Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t, but I’m not going to bring her into this. We made our choices. Signed on the dotted line.”

“It wasn’t informed consent,” Debi contradicted.

“We agreed. We deal with the consequences. And wanting to keep the woman I love out of harm’s way is not an asshole move. It’s the right choice.”

“Which is what I’ve been trying to tell you.” Camy peeked up between the bucket seats. “River is trying to protect Debi, the same way Stills is protecting his girl back home.”

“I’m hardly an innocent. Rose knows I was the one who developed the drug.”

“You didn’t use it on him or anyone.”

“I used it on myself.” She’d been desperate to get rid of the panic attacks. To make her father proud. “God, I make myself sick. I don’t want to be near me. Can’t say I blame him for the distance.”

“I do,” Camy answered. “That’s why I’m here with you now. Plus, the manor is starting to creep me out.”

“Same.” Debi laughed, but it sounded hollow in her ears. Sleeping by herself, she jerked awake at every old house noise, imagining ghosts or monsters or Rose moving even farther away. “Do you think Janet sees dead people?”

Stills laughed. “I think she orders them around like her own personal army.”

“Somehow that’s comforting,” Camy answered. “I mean, if she can see dead people that’s creepy, but if she can order them to protect us, that’s the coolest thing since the Internet.”

They rode in silence the rest of the drive into El Paso. The closer they got, the more nerves twisted her thoughts. When the lights flickered and grew closer, she pulled out the printout of the email. “Allyson said to meet her at an all-night café a block from the bar. I know the place. It’s where Ryder took Lauren the first night they met.” And Debi tried not to be jealous of the love they shared.

Camy watched Allyson and Debi slip through the first line of security. “How long before we sneak in behind them?”

“As soon as backup arrives.”

“Backup?”

As if the word conjured them, Ryder, Craft, and Fowler gathered with them in the shadow of the science building.

“You traitor.” Every bit of fun she’d had faded into reality. “I thought you were on our side.”

Stills shrugged. “There’s only one side. Team Fear.”

“Hooah,” the soldiers agreed.

She had considered Dean a friend because he’d been with her longer. He’d hitched a ride. He’d let her come along on the mission.

“I may be fearless, but I’m not crazy. At least not yet. We need backup. This forced the team here sooner rather than later. They got the alert ten minutes after we left. With the time we had to meet Allyson, I figured they’d beat us here.”

“Ran into a complication.” An earring glinted in Craft’s ear, and with his wicked grin, he looked like a marauding pirate.

Camy turned her back on her former friend. “Where’s my brother?”