That wasn’t news. Chase had already come to the same conclusion based on the bits of information he already had. “Do I want to know?”
“Probably not. But I will tell you, Gray almost bought it on one of the assignments he sent her on.” Jay only ever shared the intelligence that mattered. He knew a lot of crap about a lot of people, but his integrity was beyond question. He never divulged secrets that weren’t relevant to the operation.
“How bad?”
“A bullet that nearly severed her femoral artery during an attack on our pre-positioned forces in Jordan. Happened almost two years ago.”
“Jesus Christ!” That explained the scar on the inside of her upper right thigh. “Where did you find the information?”
“There was some traffic on her phone after the fact, but the details were in the DoD database. They airlifted her out.”
Shit! Chase couldn’t help thinking he’d almost lost her before he even had her.
“You should know it was friendly fire. The colonel went ballistic over it.”
Chase had no trouble picturing Colonel Grayson turning his organization inside out over nearly losing his daughter to a friendly fire incident. It probably had some far-reaching repercussions, which was exactly why Jay raised it. “What’s bothering you?”
Jay shrugged. “Some pieces of the investigation are missing. Not buried. More like they’ve been wiped out.”
“You’ll keep looking.” It wasn’t an order. Chase knew Jay wouldn’t leave any part of a puzzle unfinished. If it had relevance, he’d hear about it. If not, the information would get buried in Jay’s mental vault of privileged information. “How’s the search for Wright going?”
Jay let out a string of curses to rival Gray’s prolific use of the f-bomb. “I swear to God, there’s nothing. Every time I feel like I’m getting close, he vanishes.”
“He’ll make a mistake at some point. You’ll find him one way or another.” Destination reached, Chase hitched Gray a little higher as Jay opened the door.
Tak looked up from cleaning his rifle. “Vodka?”
Chase shook his head. “Tequila.”
Tak shuddered.
“Hey, Mac,” Jay said from the open doorway.
“Yeah?” He surrendered his payload to his mattress. She rolled over and put her back to him in a comatose version of “up yours.”
“Do yourself a favor. Do a YouTube search for crazy American chick deep water soloing in Mallorca. It’ll give you a pretty good idea what you’re up against.”
Despite his off-the-charts intelligence, Jay happened to be as much of an adrenaline junkie as the rest of the JTT. The man liked to go fast, preferably on two wheels. If he found Gray’s apparent knack for throwing herself off cliffs impressive, there must be some spectacular footage posted.
With his own grin taking over his features, Chase hitched his thumb over his shoulder at the crazy American chick passed out on his bed. “Dude, I’ve seen this girl in action. I already know what I’m up against.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
Chase wrungthe steaming hot water out of the washcloth and used it to wipe his face. He groaned into the pitted square, passing the scratchy fabric hard over his skin and letting the heat sink in. Christ, he was tired. He’d only managed to snatch a couple of hours of sleep here and there in the last four days.
In a hurry, he tossed the cloth into the sink, and flicking the light switch off on his way out, the bathroom went dark. Gray had protested drunkenly but didn’t wake when he’d washed her face and hands a minute ago. Still curled in a ball, she appeared determined to spend the next twelve hours in that position.
Before putting her under his sheets, Chase had done a quick check of her contusions. The majority of them were already turning into a kaleidoscope of healing. Her body a mass of various shades of shit that hurts.
He sat on the edge of Tak’s bed, the mattress sinking under his weight. Forearms braced on his thighs and hands hanging loose, he watched her sleep, relieved he finally had her where she should be. With him. In his room. In his bed. He just wished it were big enough for both of them.
Watching Gray hibernate wasn’t how he’d intended to spend their second night in relative safety, but Jackson biting the bullet had altered his plans. As expected, it hadn’t taken Jay long to locate Gray’s business partner. Unfortunately, the man had already taken up residence in a body bag.
The news broke on CNN an hour later.
Chase had let Gray sleep as long as he dared. Once she was awake, he barely had time to finish breaking the news to her before she’d taken off at a dead run.
Barefoot with tousled hair flying behind her, she’d bee-lined for the COMMs center. Going too fast, she didn’t make the turn and had crashed into the door on her way in. She had a couple of new bruises on her arm for her efforts.
