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Zy opened the folder and found his employment contract inside. The nonfraternization clause had been crossed out. All three of them had initialed.
They had removed the restrictions keeping him from pursuing Tessa? Even the goddamn idea made his skin tingle.
When he looked up, Logan smiled. “Yes, you’re now free to fuck her. Congratulations. But you better think with something other than your dick.”
Too late. His dick was already having a party…and his conscience was choking on guilt. The only way to get close to her was to deceive her?
“No.” He couldn’t do that to Tessa.
Joaquin shrugged. “Told you we should have just fired Trees and Tess and been done with it.”
It took everything he had not to jump out of his seat and tell them to go fuck themselves. “Neither of them deserves that.”
“No?” Hunter shrugged. “Then prove it.”
Over the past ten months, he’d seen the three of them push, shove, and maneuver some of his fellow operators into tight spaces and corners to get what they wanted. Zy had always been careful to keep his nose clean, so he’d never had it happen to him. He’d even wondered if the rumors were an exaggeration. But no.
They really were manipulative motherfuckers.
“Tessa won’t touch me. She needs this job.”
Joaquin flashed him a rare smile. “I’m going to take her aside this morning and present her with a new contract. Better sick pay and vacation, tighter non-disclosure…and no nonfraternization clause. She’ll sign. Then you’re both off the hook.”
Goddamn it. Their coercion pissed him off. But the thought of touching Tess while proving she’d done nothing wrong? “Fine. I’m in.”
“We know.” Logan sounded like an arrogant prick. “You’ve got two weeks. Get a move on.”
He clenched his jaw against some choice words that would probably get him fired and stood. As he marched for the door, it crashed open. In walked a man he hadn’t imagined he’d see in this office ever again.
Caleb Edgington looked shell-shocked, like he’d collided with panic and run face-first into death.
What the fuck was wrong? “Colonel, sir?”
Hunter and Logan both stood. Joaquin, not far behind, rose with a frown.
“Dad?” Hunter approached him.
The older man swallowed. “Your sister…”
Sudden tension gripped the room.
“What’s wrong with Kimber?” Logan scowled.
“I received a threat a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t specific, just a tube of lipstick and a warning to hand over Valeria Montilla before they took whoever the tube belonged to. I didn’t know who—” Emotion choked off the colonel’s words. He pressed his fist to his lips, grasping for the fortitude to finish delivering the bad news.
Zy stood in shock, his gut twisting. The man’s only daughter, Hunter and Logan’s sister…
Another guy came in behind the colonel—big, blond, badass, and totally pissed off. Deke Trenton, Kimber’s husband. “She’s gone. She dropped the kids off at preschool, then made a trip to the grocery store…and didn’t come home. A courier delivered this thirty minutes ago.”
They all crowded around as he whipped out a picture of Kimber, her auburn hair tangled, her big eyes red rimmed, with a gag over her mouth, her hands tied behind her back, and a gun to her head.
Oh, holy shit.
“We’ll get her back.” Despite having gone ghostly pale, Hunter found his voice. “We’ll do whatever it takes—”
“You’re fucking right we will,” Deke spat. “I want my kitten back. Jack and the rest of the Oracle team are at our offices strategizing. Any help you can spare…”
“You’ll have it,” Hunter promised. “We need to lock down the rest of the wives and kids.”
“Fast,” the colonel managed. “Before it’s too late.”
The older man ducked out, looking as if he could barely keep himself together.
Deke didn’t look much calmer. “Thanks for whatever you can do.”
“Fuck that, she’s our sister. We’ll devote day and night to saving her.”
Kimber’s husband nodded, then he was gone. Silence prevailed for a protracted moment. Then Hunter swallowed, collecting himself first. He turned to ice in an instant. Logan lived up to his fiery temper, grabbing an eraser from the nearest whiteboard then throwing it violently. His empty coffee mug followed next, shattering against the wall.
Before he could toss anything else, Joaquin stepped in. “We don’t have time.”
“I know. I fucking know. Goddamn son of a bitch!”
Hunter and Joaquin raced out the door, already strategizing to keep all the others in their family safe. Logan fumed, trying to gather himself, his lungs working like a bellows.
