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It was the longest two minutes of my life.
ChapterSix
Ethan
I tookthe order handed to me, fronted as if I belonged in with the suits and ties of the people waiting to start work, and paid in cash, so there was no audit trail. The guy behind the counter wasn’t asking questions or looking at me a certain way. It seemed as if he was half awake, which worked in my favor.
“Have a good day,” the server mumbled and hid a yawn.
“Thank you,” I said, then turned on my heel and walked with purpose, passing the tables and heading for the entrance. I was aware of Josh moving as instructed, and given how he must be feeling right now, he didn’t falter even if he was in shock. We had a lot to talk about, but unless we got out of the mall and away from cameras, there would be no talking. The doors to the food hall shut behind me, and for a second, I couldn’t see Josh, and everything I was trying to keep hold of began to slip away. But then Josh strolled around a corner as if he didn’t have a care in the world, the cap still low on his face. He walked past me as if he didn’t know me and then stopped to check the list of outlets and a mall map. He was waiting, and I had to pull myself the fuck together and guide him out.
I headed to the main door into the stores and took a left, glancing once into a vast bank of windows in GAP, catching Josh’s reflection as I shadowed him. All too soon, we were through the main door. I stopped and pretended to check my order but instead scanned our surroundings, then walked with purpose toward the man standing by a silver Prius, who nodded at me. He’d parked well away from cameras, and the car was one of many silver cars in this world. I never doubted that Ali would get someone here for us but had no idea what organization or government department she worked for to get it done.
I knew I trusted her. As long as Danvers and every other person involved in this mess hadn’t gotten to her first.
Hell, Luca and her were divorced, but they still trusted they’d have each other’s backs.
It was the residual of being Army Rangers together.
This is a fucking mess.
“Ali says that you owe her a Dime bar,” was all the man by the car said, and it was enough to know thatthiswas our connection. I took shotgun, my heart in his mouth, until Josh slipped into the back seat and buckled up.
“What now?” Josh asked.
I had no clue what was happening next—all I knew was that whoever was driving had been tasked with getting us away from here as their priority.
“What about cameras?” I asked the driver.
“We’re dealing with that.” He joined the flow of morning traffic, which was heavier since it was nearly rush hour, and we soon blended in with all the other Priuses heading around Charleston.
“Where are we going?”
“Away from here,” was all the big man said, focusing on the flow of cars and heading out of the city. “There are coms… ” He waved at the glove box.
I flicked the catch, pulling out the leather case and thumbing it open. Inside was an earpiece, a mobile, and a charging unit, and that was it. I scrolled the mobile contacts—four with their stupid made-up aliases related to candy—Dime, Mars, Corn, and White, all familiar and the remaining members of my Ranger unit. I put the ear bud in his ear and connected to Dime, aka Ali.
She answered immediately.
“What the fuck?” She snapped, which summed up how Ali felt about me popping back into her life after she’d cut us all off. I could prevaricate, skirt the subject, or hit the heart of everything in one go.
“Rouxier, drugs, kids Ali—kids.”
She was very quiet. “You’re still working on the Rouxier case?”
“I never stopped.”
“Jesus, Ethan, the fuck!”
“If you’d seen what I’d seen… look, it was a skin job that went wrong.”
“A skin job? For fuck’s sake, Ethan!”
“It was the only way to get in with Rouxier, but I couldn’t go through with it, and I found out… jeez, I can’t trust any federal agency right now. The asset has a son—”
“Ryder already contacted me, heard Luca in the background. Are you telling me all three of you were in on this?”
“We’re a team,” I instantly regretted saying that—we used to be a team of five, but Trey had died, and when Ali and Luca’s marriage broke apart, so did their unit. Ali had vanished, Luca had searched, Ryder kept what was left of our team ticking over with an almost OCD control, and as for me? Well, I’d been in the middle of any action I could find, desperate to hold on to a career that meant something.
