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Dave seemed to sense I was at my limit as he searched my face. “I won’t push you today, but we’re not done. We’re circling back to this.” He glanced at Dio over my shoulder briefly before he turned to the other guys. “Everyone, sit the fuck down. Damon, if you have more questions, now is the time to ask them.”
Damon smirked and spread his hands, as if to insinuate he wasn’t the one causing trouble. Dave just shook his head and stretched his shoulders out to force them to relax.
“Fine,” Damon said as he turned and sat down again. He jerked his head toward their chairs, and his mates followed his lead. “Next question. You knew us on sight outside the fence the day you arrived. How?” Damon asked. He had his arms crossed, and a finger was tapping against his arm impatiently, as if he’d been waiting to ask this question for a while.
Fucking hell.I had no time to relax. We were jumping straight into the next fire. Damon wasn’t pulling any punches as he watched Dio and I closely, noting the way we were still standing together. I took another breath to center myself, drawing strength from Dio’s touch, before I patted his hand on my shoulder. He let me go reluctantly before we both sat and pulled our chairs into the table.
I waited until the guys had all picked up their chairs and sat down as well. Max ducked into the kitchen quickly and came back with a large bottle of cold water and glasses. He passed me a glass, and I drank it gratefully. I shot him a small smile of thanks.
The pressure in the air dissipated slightly, but things were still tense.
“I don’t know any of you, but I know of you. Your exploits are legendary. You’re even more famous in military circles than the twins,” I answered, as I slouched down in my chair, attempting to look casual.
Damon just raised his eyebrows. It wasn’t a query, though. He knew who I was talking about. Most people just didn’t talk about the twins so openly. They were death incarnate, appearing out of nowhere with lethal efficiency and disappearing just as quickly when their job was done. Nobody knew who they reported to or where they came from, but rumors of their exploits were rampant.
“You knew me on sight,” Damon argued. “You knew Leif, Hunter and Max as well, and we never worked a mission together.”
I just shrugged while he glared at me. I’d answer him eventually, but I needed my own answers first. People’s lives were riding on who I trusted with this information. “My turn. Why did you leave the military?”
Damon looked incredulously at me, his eyebrows raised so high they were almost hitting his hairline. “You’re dodging my question, but you expect me to answer yours?”
I growled lightly at him. Dio put his hand on my arm again, but it only calmed me slightly. Damon was completely unruffled, and his mates just watched me with amusement, as if I was a stray puppy barking at the devil.
“He’s asking for a reason, Damon,” Dave said, intervening before the situation escalated. Again.
“Do you know the reason?” Damon asked Dave, flicking his eyes towards him.
Dave nodded. “I do, and I answered the same question he’s asking you.”
Damon grunted in annoyance, swinging his dark gaze back at me. He obviously trusted Dave implicitly, though, which increased my respect for them both. It was rare for an alpha and a beta to have such a rapport. Most dominant alphas treated betas like a necessary evil, or as little more than servants.
“We left,” Damon said begrudgingly, looking like he wanted to punch the smirk off my face, “because we suspected Dave was about to take on a world of hurt to protect us and we couldn’t allow that to happen.”
Dave stiffened at my side, and I heard his surprised inhale.
“Plus, we’d lost trust in his superiors. We signed up for our own reasons, some of us against our will. Regardless, we only wanted to protect people and when it became clear the military didn’t hold the same values, we figured out an exit strategy. What happened with Dave just meant we got out faster than we planned.”
Silence reigned for a moment until Damon’s eyes flicked to Dave again.
“You knew about the shit that was going down?” Dave asked.
“Yeah,” they all answered in unison again. “And we weren’t going to let it happen,” Damon finished.
Dave looked conflicted for just a moment, before he sat forward in his chair and rapped his knuckles on the table.
“I should have known. Nothing gets past you guys.” He looked over all four of them with a mixture of pride and affection.
Dave turned to me next, and I fought the urge to sit up straighter. I wanted to earn that same look of pride, maybe even the affection too. “Tell them,” he urged. “It’s the only way we can keep Lexie, Maia, and Ava safe.”
I looked around the empty dining room, making sure we were alone. “Have you ever heard of the Network?” I asked, keeping my voice quiet.
Damon, Hunter and Leif all looked blankly at me, but something sparked in Max’s eyes. I swiveled my gaze and narrowed my eyes at him. His mates did the same.
“When we were trying to figure out how deep the military corruption went and what our exit strategy would be, I came across some vague references that mentioned the Network. I dug further, but I couldn’t find anything else. I kept coming across scrubbed files and closed systems. There was so much else going on, I let it go. I couldn’t risk triggering anything. We didn’t need more heat at that point.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Damon asked.
“I was looking for evidence of crimes. When I’m hacking, I have to skim information quickly and decide what trails to follow. I assumed at the time it was talking about some kind of new, top secret software or digital system they wanted to implement. It wasn’t what I was hunting for. I figured I could come back to it later, but then we got out and I never did. It was more than that, though, wasn’t it?” He asked, as he looked at me curiously. He’d leaned closer towards me as he talked. His interest sparked.
