“She didn’t almost overdose. She has a prescription for a bunged ankle.”
My jaw muscle tenses when he has the audacity to laugh. I’d ram it back down his throat with my fists if my hands weren’t shackled to my seat. “Whatever you want to call it, Ox, Caidyn’s request for downtime left Demi ‘vulnerable for an attack.’” He must have something with air quoting today as ‘vulnerable for an attack’ is his fifth foray this afternoon.
The touch of a smile gracing his lips fades to a sneer when I mutter, “An attack you organized.” Don’t misconstrue. I’m not asking a question, I am stating a fact.
Apfftnoise vibrates his lips. “Why would I do such a thing, Ox? I’m not a monster.”
Not a single man around him attempts to back up his claim because they know as well as I do, he’ll do anything to stay at the top of the pack. He’d even go as far as leaving his team open to infiltration if it helped him get one step ahead. I thought the rumors circulating throughout Wallens Ridge about him being a traitor to his country were exaggerated. I should have known better.
“Tobias was onto you, so you orchestrated his demise. Now you’re trying to do the same thing to me. But unlike Tobias, you need me, so instead of coming after me, you’re going after the only person capable of making me fall into line.”
“You have quite the imagination.” He tilts in even closer. Not close enough that I can reach him, but close enough for me to smell the celebration drink he had earlier today. He truly thinks he’s won this battle. I’m not yet ready to announce defeat. “For curiosity’s sake, if I were the villain in this story, would I leave Caidyn alive, or would I kill him to ensure you knew I wasn’t playing? He didn’t visit the range like you and Demi did every week, so I doubt he would have had the means to protect himself from two home invaders.”
I balk, both physically and emotionally stunned. “Caidyn better be—”
“Alive? He is…barely.” I clench my fists when he expresses his last word with a snicker. “But from what I’ve heard, it’s touch-and-go. He may not make it through the night.” I almost crack my jaw from how hard I hold it when he squeezes my shoulder. “I’ll be sure to keep him in my thoughts. We’re all one big family around here.”
Once the pilot gives him the go-ahead, he unlatches his seat belt, then clambers out of the helicopter like he didn’t shred the last of my composure. I’ve never felt more unhinged in my life, but instead of letting my hotheadedness get the better of me, I give it my best shot to act cool, calm, and collected. Leaping into the deep end won’t help anyone. It won’t help Caidyn, and it won’t help me. And it most certainly won’t help Demi.
“Come on,” says a soft female voice at my side when the occupants in the twelve-seater helicopter is shrunk to two—the pilot and me. “Let’s get you unshackled and prepared for transport.”
The helplessness shutting down my emotions gets a small moment of reprieve when the agent outside of the helicopter tilts her head enough, she shows her face. I’m not one of those men who remember every face they’ve seen, but it would be pretty foolish of me to forget the face of the woman who pickpocketed me on what I thought would be my darkest day.
“Sorry,” I stutter out when my scoot across the seat sees my knees scraping past Agent Machini’s chest.
Our contact is only brief but long enough to inflame her cheeks with redness. “That’s okay. It’s just one of those days, right?”
As she hunts for a key to switch my shackles to regular cuffs, she stares straight into my eyes. Her eyes are as dark as Agent Tobias’s once were, and they speak just as many words. She knows I tried my best to protect Demi, but she also believes the time has come for me to admit I can no longer give her the protection she needs. I either concede or watch the light slowly fade in her eyes as it has the last twelve months and risk every member of my family being hurt in the process.
Once she has my shackles unlatched from a deadbolt in the floor of the helicopter, she assists me out of my seat. The tight confines leave barely an ounce of air between us, so it means I have no trouble hearing her when she whispers, “The men who attacked Demi were police officers.” I scarcely register the shock of her first confession when she hits me with another one. “They’re going to claim it wasn’t self-defense. I saw the paperwork they forwarded to the DA before they left Wallens Ridge. They’re requesting Demi be charged with first-degree murder.”
“They?” I keep my voice as quiet as a whisper, but there’s no denying the anguish behind it. Agent Moses’s wish to attend this meeting now makes sense. He can’t arrest Demi if Dimitri hides her before he gets the chance.
Agent Machini bobs down to jab a key into the shackles circling my ankles before she inconspicuously nudges her head in the direction Agent Moses is standing. “They.”
He is with two gentlemen I haven’t seen before. One is little with sandy gray hair, and the other is around my age. They don’t look rogue, but I stopped judging people by their appearance many months ago. Some of the most down-to-earth people I’ve met the past couple of years are covered head to toe in tattoos. Why do you think I’ve added so many to my collection the past six months?
After ensuring we don’t have any additional eyes on us, I drop mine to Agent Machini. “What benefit would they get from locking Demi away?”
I read the truth from her eyes long before her lips part in preparation to speak.
Me.
I did whatever they wanted for ten minutes alone with Demi once a month, so imagine how far I’d go to ensure she doesn’t go through the hell I went through my first couple of months at Wallens Ridge.
As she leans across my body to dump the shackles from my ankles into a bag behind my left leg, Agent Machini whispers, “It is time to call it, Maddox. You’re tired, your family is tired, and Demi is veryverytired.”
“You’ve spoken with her?”
The faintest smile touches her lips before she bobs her chin. “Briefly. She is very stubborn.” I can’t help but smile. Demi is as stubborn as she is beautiful. “But I’m confident if permission to put herself first for a change came from the right person, she’d realize following Agent Brahn’s original plan is best for all involved… including you, Maddox.” After adjusting the cuffs on my sleeves to hide the welt on my wrists, she adds, “He will never find her. I promise you that.” If her eyes didn’t unconsciously float over my shoulder during her comment, I would have taken her statement as solely meaning Col. I know better now, but just in case, she backs up her silent pledge with words. “We’re not all like Agent Moses, Maddox. There are far more good agents than there are b-bad.”
She stammers over her last word, her stutter compliments of Agent Moses’s sudden appearance at her side. “Is everything okay? You’re taking a long time to organize the perp for transport, Ms. Machini.”
Agent Machini wets her lips, rolls her shoulders, then twists her torso to face Agent Moses front on. The sun is already blinding since it’s hanging low, but its rays become more intense when she breaks out her biggest smile to date. “Arrow,” she purrs his name in a husky tone before playfully bumping him with her hip. “You know how I am with cuffs. Always nervous when they’re being placed on but grinning ear to ear when it’s time to remove them.”
The huskiness of her words already announces she meant her comment in a sexual manner, but if it didn’t, Agent Moses’s uncomfortable shuffle would soon set you on the straight and narrow. He only needs to grab his crotch, and he’d have the nervous virgin shuffle down pat.
After ensuring he doesn’t have the eye of the other three dozen agents surrounding him, Agent Moses leans in close to Agent Machini’s side. “Should we grab a drink after this? You seemed to enjoy it the last time we did.”
