Page 79 of Dark ’N’ Deadly

Chapter Twenty-Five

Eric grit his teeth harder. “No. Hell, no.” He was a millisecond away from punching his fist through the wall.

There might be a mountain of insurmountable shit piled between him and Tess, but there was no way he’d let her turn herself over to Gant, especially now that he knew the extent of the horrors she’d endured as a child, and what she’d be facing if Gant took her back to Alabama.

Confused didn’t begin to describe what he was thinking and feeling where Tess was concerned, but it had been all he could do to sit there, listening passively as she told him that her own stepfather would have turned her over to a rapist. Jesus H. Christ. Jesse had already told him some of the story, but he couldn’t believe that kind of backwoods mentality still existed in this country. Despite Tess’s deception, he believed that part of her story. No one could make that up. But it couldn’t stop the painful beating of his naive, foolish heart.

“It’s our only option, and I already agreed.” She looked at him from red-rimmed eyes, and all he could stupidly think was how beautiful and selflessly courageous she was. “I’m meeting him tomorrow at nine a.m. He insisted that I come alone.”

“No! We’ll find another way.” What way, exactly, he didn’t know, but his mind was already working on another option.

“There is no other way,” she insisted with a shake of her head. “You said so yourself, you lost Pritchard and the others, and that ammonium nitrate is just useless fertilizer now. Without me, you’ve got nothing. I’m your only connection to Gant, and I’ve got a lot to make up for. I lied to you about not knowing him. I was going to tell you before you found out, I swear it. Maybe if I’d told you sooner, somehow you could have figured out where they were making the bomb. I can’t sit by and do nothing. You have to let me do this.”

Fear—for her—clawed at his gut so much he could feel it ripping his insides apart. He couldn’t believe this was happening. The entire operation had gone from one over which he’d had total control to one that was spinning completely out of control faster than a tornado.

“Eric?” Dayne took a step into the room. “She’s right. We’ve got nothing without her.”

“Dammit, Dayne! Don’t you think I know that?” This time, he couldn’t stop himself. The lid that had barely been keeping his emotions in check exploded like the top of a volcano, and he slammed his fist against the wall, leaving behind a one-inch dent in the sheetrock. Pain shot from his knuckles up his arm, but he barely felt it.

He hated her idea. Hated it because it would put her life in incredible danger, and it had to be a trap. She might have ripped out his heart and stomped on it, but he didn’t want to see her get hurt. Despite what he’d told her, he couldn’t automatically flip a switch and completely shut off his feelings.

Eric stared into Tess’s vivid green eyes. “You can’t believe for one second that he’d actually let you go.”

“No. I don’t,” she agreed solemnly. “He’ll either take us both back to Alabama, or—”

“Kill you,” he interrupted, finishing her sentence. A new rush of heated emotion welled inside him. There was so much to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to voice a damn thing. He just needed more time to process the revelations that were tearing him apart.

“That’s where you come in,” Tess said. “I have to get my brother away from Gant. You need me. I need you.”

Christ, he did need her. In so many ways he was only now truly coming to understand. That was, until she’d yanked the rug out from beneath his feet.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” Dayne said. “Gant knows you and Jesse are working with us, so why would he risk meeting with you at all? He has to know we’d monitor your every move.”

“Harley’s never forgiven me for running away. No one gets away from him, but I did. I didn’t know what he was—a sovereign citizen cult leader—until years after I left Alabama.” She turned to Eric. “My leaving made him look bad in front of his followers. I’m an embarrassment that has to be rectified. Or erased.”

Unable to stand still a moment longer, he clasped his hands behind his head and began pacing around the room in tight circles. “This is an insane idea.”

“Agreed,” Tess said. “Do you have a better one?”

No. He didn’t. He unclasped his hands and stopped pacing. There had to be another way.

Dayne gave a subtle shake of his head. “She knows what’s inside Gant’s head better than anyone.”

“Here’s where I’m meeting him.” She pulled a slip of paper from her skirt pocket and handed it to him.

He stared at the address. It was vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint why, and he couldn’t fathom Gant’s rationale by giving her the location so far in advance of the meet. “Then he already knows we’re coming. We’re being manipulated like puppets.” He handed the paper to Dayne. “This has to be a trap.”

“Eric,” Tess pleaded as she stood, “he has my brother. I don’t have a choice. I have to go.”

Judging by the determined look in her eyes, she would go with him or without him. More gut-deep emotions hammered his skull so loudly he had to shut his eyes to process other viable options, but he was still coming up empty. The only way to Gant was by putting Tess in so much danger he didn’t know how he could possibly handle it.

“Okay.” He snapped open his eyes and glanced at his watch. “We need a plan, one with leverage to counter whatever Gant is orchestrating. We’ve got seventeen hours to figure something out.”

“We’ll need to run this up the chain.” Dayne canted his head in the direction of the other conference room.

Tess clasped his forearm, staring up at him. “I’m sorry. You’ll never know how much.”

Their gazes met and held. After all her lies, how could he still want her with every breath he took?