Page 18 of Brooks

“How do you know that?”

“Not at liberty to say.”

“Bullshit.”

“Bullshit nothing. I saw six with my very own eyes.”

“Goddammit. Please tell me you’re fucking with me.”

If he was telling the truth, months of hard work were in the toilet.

“’Fraid not. But the good news is, we’ve tracked down the brothers. Consider this an olive branch.”

“Olive branch?”

“Yeah, you know a gesture of goodwill.”

“I know what an olive branch is. What I don’t understand is why you’d want to extend one to me.”

“We didn’t get off on the right foot. I’d like to rectify that. Thought you’d like to go with us.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I work alone.”

“Suit yourself.”

Brooks started for the door and my stomach dropped. I thought he’d argue his point, let me negotiate an exchange of information.

“Wait. That’s it?”

“Yeah, Doll. That’s it. I’m not going to force you to go with us if you’re not interested. I thought you’d want in on the op. I was wrong.”

“I want the intel,” I told him. “How about I give you what I’ve found on Militrix and you give me the location of the Bitoo brothers?”

“No dice.”

“Why not? It’s a good deal. You’re not interested in the tablets and you need the information I have on Militrix.”

“It may be a good deal, but I’m not taking it. No way am I letting you try to take down five men on your own.”

That pissed me off. His words were too close to the shit my ex-husband used to shovel at me. I’d worked my ass off to prove myself in this business. And it was no easy feat, I’ll be dammed if I stood there and listened to Brooks and his alpha male bullshit.

“Why’s that, Brooks? Because I’m a woman?”

For some unknown reason his face turned hard and the cold stare he leveled me with made me shiver. “You shittin’ me? I have to say, it pisses me off you’d try that fucked-up nonsense on me. I had no problem you taking my back at the compound. Never said shit about you being a woman and staying behind in the safety of the house.” He was right, he didn’t, none of them did. Thad had simply handed me a rifle and sidearm and never asked if I knew how to operate either. “They’re dangerous and unpredictable. They know they fucked up and lost six tablets. They also know they’re as good as dead. If not by the hands of the people they’ve double-crossed, by the hands of the three SEALs they unsuccessfully tried to kill. Lucky for the brothers, the three men they’d locked in a cellar are alive and well and on their way back to the states. Unlucky for them, they’re about to be on the receiving end of retribution. We thought you’d like to question them about the tablets before they’re disposed of.”

“Fuck.”

“Your choice, Doll. But what isn’t, is going in alone. Not a chance in hell I’ll let that happen. And it has nothing to do with you being a woman, and everything to do with wanting you breathing.”

I needed to find the other tablets and I couldn’t do that if Brooks and his team killed them before I had a chance to talk with them.

“I want in.”

“Grab your shit and let’s go.”

“My shit?”

“Yeah, Tatiana. Your shit. Personal belongings.”