Fight By The Team (Team Fear Book 2) (5 page)

“I’d pay good money for that.”

“We’ll work on it.” The warmth of her hand tucked into his tugged at some lost humanity he didn’t want to awaken. After Madigan, he’d worked hard to bury the links and connections to those he cared about. He couldn’t afford to let her close when he wasn’t sure he could control the angry monster inside. So he dropped her hand and glanced up, away from the intensity of their exchange. His silver pickup stood out in the faculty lot filled with sedans and the occasional SUV. Maybe he was too working class for the academics. Rose rubbed a hand across her shoulders, washing away the last of the shivers. “Are you cold?”

She straightened, holding his gaze. “Your hands warmed away the chill.”

“That was the plan.” It was more than warmth that passed between them, it was alchemy, that undefined something that turned a touch into fire, but if his truck didn’t belong in the parking lot, his hands sure as hell didn’t belong on her. He swiped his hand back. “Ready to go?”

“Sure, Rosie.” She picked up the stack of files where she’d dropped them earlier and led the way to the lot.

Rose picked up the bags of water bottles and the rest of the evidence and followed her. They damn sure better get some good intel out of the bottles, considering the pain of seeing the source of her personal pain face-to-face. If she’d told him back at the motel about the ex, he would have suggested she stay back. Why had she insisted on coming if she knew her ex would be around to rub her nose in the past? Rose wanted to ask, but it was none of his business. They all had pasts they regretted. Debi was no different than any of the men on the team. The past haunted you, no matter how hard you tried to leave it behind.

Rose helped Debi into the truck and tucked the water bottles in the cooler behind the driver’s seat. He started the engine with a rumble and pulled out of the lot. The roar of the truck drew a few stray looks from passing pedestrians, which he ignored. “I would rather have spared you that situation. You should have said no when I told you where the mission was.”

“Why? Because of Barry?” She shook her head. “He’s whatever. I needed to come.”

“Why?”

“The motel was making me stir-crazy, you know that.”

A group of cars pushed into line behind him, eager to leave the lot. “Was it worth running into Barry the Bastard?”

“Ha. I like that nickname.”

“Enough to stop using the nickname you use for me?”

“Not a chance.” She grinned at him, the smile warming the air.

Rose accelerated to move around a gold sedan and into the adjacent lane. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Which one?”

“Was it worth running into Barry?”

Her smile faded. “It keeps my ego in check.”

From what he’d seen, she didn’t seem like an egomaniac. “That’s not an answer.”

“Best you’re going to get.”

He rode a few miles in silence. “You’ve got some sharp edges.”

“You have no idea.”

Rose watched the mirrors as he sped up the entrance ramp to the highway. An itch at the back of his neck said they’d gotten off too easy. “What’s Barry’s deal?”

“You’ve a lot of questions for a man who didn’t say word one to me on the way here.”

“Takes me a while to wake up.”

“Didn’t take long for you to wake up and scare the crap out of me in the dark motel room.”

“Wasn’t asleep yet.”

“You need to sleep more.”

“Said the pot to the kettle.”

She curled a foot underneath her legs. “I took a job at the bar because I don’t sleep much at night. Not since...”

The gold sedan that had been in line behind him in the campus parking lot still followed three cars back. It had been there since leaving campus. “Since Barry?”

“Not so much him as the whole sordid mess. There’s not a single researcher in the lab that Barry hasn’t poached. He takes the glory and does none of the work. He does luncheons and awards ceremonies and schmoozes the grant committees while the rest of us are...
were
doing the bulk of the work.”

“How does a skater like him get rewarded?”

“Skater?” She’d never heard that term.

“Someone who skates by while everyone else does the work. Happens in every field, the Army included. Not on the teams, but in the regular Army. There’s always some loser who skates out of the hard deployments while the rest of us do double time to make up for their lazy asses.”

“And you take it?”

“Hell no. A blanket party is the preferred method of correction.”

“I thought hazing was illegal.”

“It is. Officially. Unofficially it’s how shit gets done, although there are less physical means of getting a skater to pull his weight.”

“Did you really beat some poor guy in his bunk?”

“Poor guy? Is it right or ethical for the go-getters to face nearly double the risk of death or dismemberment because a soldier who made a pledge and took a paycheck failed to deliver?”

The anger etched on his angular jaw surprised her. “You lost someone, didn’t you?”

“We all lost someone.” He forced his focus out the windshield. “Did you really take an experimental drug?”

“To think that on the way here, I actually wished you would talk more.”

“Change your mind?”

“Absolutely.”

“Too bad. Answer the question.”

She rolled her eyes to deflect the emotion clogging her throat. “Barry made it sound worse than it was. I’d been working on a proprietary compound for nearly two years. I followed the protocol, and the compound passed animal testing with flying colors, but it can take years, years I didn’t have, to get approval for human trials.”

“You needed to succeed that badly?”

“God, I wish it were my ego, but no. I developed DV1028 for me. I needed—” She bit her lip. “I was an idiot. And I have no idea how Barry knew I’d started taking the compound. Couldn’t wait to tattle to my father, the filthy little weasel. After accusing me of human trials, Barry took credit for my research, and said that my irresponsible behavior was putting his entire research program at risk. Jesus.” Debi shoved a wisp of hair from her face. “Why do I spill my guts around you?”

“It’s a gift.” Rose shifted lanes to pass a slow semi. The gold car shifted as well. “I take it your father didn’t take your side.”

“I admitted to testing DV1028 on myself, and then told him in no uncertain terms that the research was mine, not Barry’s. My biological looked me right in the eye and told me to prove it.”

“Sounds like he’s more of a bastard than Barry.”

“And then some.”

“Do me a favor.” Rose pulled out his phone and handed it across the console. “Give Ryder a call.”

Her face paled. “Why?”

“We’ve got company.” He grabbed her arm before she turned. “Don’t look. The driver isn’t stupid.”

“Echo?”

“Odds are high that the driver of the car is Team Echo.” Her pulse beat rapidly beneath his touch. “Stay calm. We knew this was a possibility.”

“We did?” Her voice squeaked.

“Yes, that’s why we have contingency plans. Dial Ryder. While I drive, you’re radio communications. Think you can handle it?” Challenging her gave her a job that forced her to focus away from the fear. She’d gone pale and frightened, two steps closer to another panic attack.

“I can handle it, Rosebud.” The sarcasm made her voice stronger. She dialed and put the phone to her ear. He could have her put the phone on speaker, but relaying information would give her something to do. “Ryder, it’s Debi. We have a tail.”

A
whooshing sound
strummed through her eardrum and she could see about as far as the dashboard. Debi held the phone to her head with the other hand over the opposite ear. “We picked up a tail when we left campus.”

“Why didn’t they attack when you were in the open on campus?”

“How the hell would I know?”

Ryder’s warm laughter sounded tinny through the phone. “Relay my question to Rose.”

“Oh.” She turned her attention to the driver. Strong hands gripped the steering wheel with long, lean muscles sculpting up his arms. Everything about him screamed safe, steady, and calm, exactly what she needed. “Ryder wants to know why they didn’t attack on campus.”

“Best guess is this guy was a loner, set in place in the off chance we showed up there. He’s waiting for orders.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“Relay the information to Ryder.”

“Right.” Bad, it was probably bad, because once the guy had orders—

“I heard.” Ryder’s calm voice soothed the panic clawing her insides. “Ask Rose if we have enough time to get the primary plan into place.”

“He wants to know if we have time for Plan A or if we need to go with Plan B?”

Rose glanced at the mirrors before signaling and getting off at the next exit. “I can make time. How long until they can get into position?”

Debi continued relaying information as they formed a plan. Ryder knew the perfect place for an ambush with high ground, whatever the hell that meant. The men seemed pleased and would be in place in thirty minutes, at which time Rose would drive them into position, drawing the guy on their tail into a trap. All Debi had to do was stay buckled in her seat. After hanging up the phone, she forced a deep breath to calm her nerves. “What now?”

“Now, we drive the long way to our destination, while avoiding high-risk areas.”

“High risk?”

“Low traffic. Bad neighborhoods. Anywhere it feels like we’re getting herded toward an ambush. This guy could have another team en route same as us.”

“I really didn’t need to know that.” The idea of another team curdled the coffee and creamer in her stomach.

“Yes you did. You’ll be fine.”

“Easy for you to say.” He was a tank that could survive a direct hit. She was like a porcelain doll held together with glue. All brittle edges and easier to break the second time around.

“How do you deal with drunks at the bar?”

The question threw her off. “With a bouncer.”

“And when the bouncer isn’t there?”

“With a smile on my lips and a big stick in my hands.”

“Or a shotgun.”

“That would be illegal.”

“Not in Texas.”

Debi choked out a laugh. It was still illegal to pull a loaded shotgun on a civilian, but she got his point. “So am I supposed to be the distracting smile or the shotgun?”

“This isn’t a metaphor.”

“But if it were?” She really needed to know where she fit into the plan, and better yet, where she fit into the outcome.

“You’re the customer at the far end of the bar. I’m the distraction and the rest of the team is the shotgun. If we do things right, Echo will never see it coming.”

“And what happens to the customer at the end of the bar?”

He turned to her, blessing her with a devastating smile that did funny things to the butterflies winging through her stomach. “The cute customer at the end of the bar will enjoy a second round on the house.”

“Make it a double. Top shelf tequila. Proximo 1800.”

“Sounds expensive,” he teased.

“The customer at the end of the bar is worth it.”

He winked. “Is she, now?”

“Definitely. Worth it.”

“You and Lauren have a thing for tequila.”

The first day Rose barreled into their lives, Lauren had been recovering from a few rounds with Jose Cuervo. “The tequila thing started as a dare years ago. Are you trying to distract me?”

“Does it matter?”

Not really. She needed a distraction. Rose was driving like a granny, making wrong turns and ending up caught in slow traffic that delayed progress, and all she could think about was the loser from Echo behind them. “What’s he driving?”

“An ice cream truck.”

She released tension with a smile. “Your humor always catches me by surprise.”

“I’m not sure why. I’m told I look funny.”

Not by any stretch of the imagination. “Do you have a girl back home? Because someone, somewhere has convinced you that you’re charming.”

“I am charming, and no, I don’t have a girl back home.” He took his eyes off the road long enough to smile, and he went from hard warrior to good-looking as sin. The smile could melt the ice cap. “What I have are sisters.”

“God help ‘em.” She couldn’t imagine overprotective Rose with sisters. He probably had them fitted for chastity belts when they hit puberty. “Did your poor sisters ever date?”

“Not when I was home.”

“So they had you kidnapped and sold to the Army.”

“No, but Iris—she’s the second to the youngest—tried to convince me to run away and join the circus.”

“She sounds fun.”

“She’s a pain in the ass. They all are, but...” He glanced back in the rearview mirror. “They’re mine.”

Antiquated and sweet at the same time. Debi turned her attention to their tail. “What’s he doing?”

“Getting antsy. He’s on the phone. We need to get back on the road. All this driving around has given our team time to get into position.”

Nervous energy swirled like a low-grade twister in the cab of the truck. Debi tugged at the hair band on her arm, snapping it against the tender skin on the underside of her wrist. As distractions went, the little snip of pain did nothing to take her mind off the danger. They passed the city limits sign and traffic thinned as the surrounding area turned rural. Now even she could see the sedan in the side mirror. “He’s getting closer.”

“He’s not trying to hide.”

“Is that a bad sign?” Probably a bad sign, but Rose simply shrugged. Was the soldier from Echo that confident in his abilities? Did he know something they didn’t? The truck’s clock counted two minutes of absolute silence. Debi cleared her throat. “How old are your sisters?”

“Twenty-seven, twenty-six, twenty-five. Two of them are twenty-five. Irish twins. The next oldest is twenty-three. That’s Iris. The youngest is twenty-two. Camy will graduate from nursing school in May.”

The information slid through her ears like a vapor. Her breathing went shallow and she couldn’t force enough oxygen through her lungs. A cigarette sounded fabulous right now. She snapped the band on her wrist. “Should I call Ryder? Let him know where we are?”

“They know where we are.”

“How?” Right now she was having a hard time taking things on faith.

“They still have a tracker app on your phone, sweetheart.”

“Oh.” She’d be mad at the intrusion—Ryder had done the same thing to Lauren—but right now, that tracker meant the good guys knew where they were and when they’d arrive at the ambush site. Debi swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Wait, am I counting right? How many sisters do you have?”

“Six.”

“That’s... Six. Sisters? You’re making that up to distract me.”

“Nope. Six sisters. Lily, Daisy, Ivy, Marigold, Iris, and Camellia. Camy’s the baby.”

“Where do you fit in birth order?”

“Oldest.”

Figured, given how he liked to control, plus the man had the first-born determination sitting in his square jaw. “The poor things with you for a brother.” Debi rubbed an ache in the back of her skull. They were on the highway now, speeding to an uncertain destiny.

“Save a little sympathy for me. Six girls are hard to raise.”

“And you did that?”

“Yeah. My old man left when Camy started kindergarten.”

“How old were you?”

“Thirteen.”

“Tough age to lose a father.”

“Wasn’t much of a loss. I was doing most of the work around the farm by then anyway. I helped Mom as much as I could. Joined the Army to make sure those that wanted went to college.”

Where did that sweet edge come from? He was supposed to be a hard-ass. “Wait a minute. Ivy Rose, Lily Rose. Those are all flower names. What is your first name? Rosebud?”

“It’s not a freaking flower name. My father named me.” He sped around a slower farm truck, his eyes constantly flipping from the front to the mirrors, keeping his focus on the tail. “Mom named the girls.”

“This is too good.” She rubbed her hands together. “You shouldn’t have given me this much ammunition.”

He stomped on the accelerator as they climbed a hill. “If we survive the next fifteen minutes, you can harass me all you like.”

“That’s not funny.”

“Wasn’t aiming for funny.”

The sudden rise as they crested the hill sent her stomach flying. Normally the tummy tickler at the top of the hill made her smile, but right now, she wanted to throw up. “Do you think he’s going to make a move before we get to the ranch?”

“I would.”

“You know you’re supposed to lie to me to make me feel better?”

“Wrong. My job is to protect. Being unprepared will get you killed. You need to accept the reality of the situation.”

The sedan hugged their bumper as they sped down the hill faster than the speed limit. “Reality sucks.”

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

“What are you, a freaking billboard?” The lake on her right barreled past, giving her a sense of vertigo. The curve at the bottom of the hill wavered in her vision. She dug her fingers into the armrest. “We won’t make it at this speed.”

“Won’t need to.”

She yanked on the seatbelt, locking it tight around her midsection. “I really don’t want to end up in the same ditch as Lauren’s truck.” Lauren had crashed into that spot a week ago when men intent on kidnapping her cut her brakes. “There’s not much left of her truck.”

“Not planning on wrecking my truck.” Rose released the accelerator as they approached the sharp turn. One wrong move would have them blasting into the side of the bluff. Or the lake.

Debi’s heart pumped like a windmill drawing blood painfully through her veins. The sun dimmed and her vision blurred. The lake was murky this time of year. Cold. Her breath sputtered. She’d gone swimming in the lake since she was a kid, but she’d rather not dive in car first.

Echo slammed into the truck from behind, and the truck fishtailed. Rose straightened it out. “Damnit. I’m still paying on this truck,” he muttered. “Come on, Fowler.” The sedan hit from the side, pulling more low curses from Rose. “Fucker.”

“Is this part of the plan?” She really didn’t remember this part of the plan.

“Wait for it.” He slowed the truck at the curve.

The sharp report of gunshots echoed. Debi ducked. She tried to drop to the floor, but the seatbelt locked her in place. Rose braked and shifted the steering wheel. The move slammed her into the door. They wheeled around the curve before Rose yanked the emergency brake, forcing a skid that spun them in a half circle. They slammed to a stop in the center of the highway, facing the opposite direction. Dizziness spun her head in a loop. Her vision fogged and she welcomed the blackout that threatened.

“Deep breath, sweetheart. We’re not finished.”