No one speaks for a full five seconds. “You’ve been out a long time, Doc.” West’s voice is deathly calm. “But you know what we do. And how we do it. Trust me when I saythisis why we’re the best at what we do. We listen. We understand each other. We’re a family.”
“A very large,verydysfunctional one,” Inara adds.
I sink against the back of the chair and reach for Natasha’s hand. “Noted. But you do have a plan, right?”
West’s dry laugh isn’t reassuring. “Fuck, no. I heard about this shitstorm when it went down. Some of it, anyway. We need Natasha to fill in a lot of the holes before we get anything that evenresemblesa plan. That’s why we’re here.”
Ripper pulls a tablet from his bag and taps the screen a few times. “Wren tracked down the guys she testified against. Montgomery Bastian, Dylan Sutton, and Ethan Doherty were released from Leavenworth a month ago. Allan Collins and Rob Bowen got out last year.”
At my side, Natasha shudders. “They killed seven people—while they were running drugs all over Iraq and Afghanistan. The prosecutor asked for multiple life sentences to be served consecutively. How did they get out?”
“I can’t answer that,” Ripper says. “Yet. Dax suggested we let Trevor handle that thread.”
“Who the hell are Dax and Trevor?” I ask. This was a mistake. If they’ve told anyone else, I won’t even try to convince Natasha to stay. I’ll run right along with her.
“Dax is our brother.” Ryker sets his plate down and straightens his shoulders. “You remember the day we met, Doc?” At my nod, he continues. “When you figured out who I was, you said ‘there were two of you.’ Dax was the second. Rip was the third. Though we only got him back two years ago. We thought he’d died months before we escaped.”
“I had,” Ripper says under his breath. Charlie whines, then puts his front paws on the man’s thigh and licks his hand. “I’m okay, buddy. Down.”
I never heard Ripper’s story. I treated his wife after she was kidnapped. Though they weren’t married at the time. But hell, I don’t know most of their stories. Only their injuries.
“And Trevor?” I ask.
“CIA.” West snags another breadstick. “He and Dax are out of Boston. Figured if anyone he asked was dirty, it wouldn’t come back to us in Seattle.”
“None of this is making me feel any better.” My appetite gone, I push my plate away and turn to McCabe. “I’ve never asked you for a fucking thing. You gave the orders, and I showed up. But I’m asking now. Get us out of the country. Help me access my accounts in a way that can’t be traced, and we’ll disappear.”
His stare turns cold. A vein in his temple throbs. “Not how this works, Doc. You’re one of us. Natasha is too. No man—or woman—left behind.”
“Bullshit.” I shove the chair back and lurch to my feet. My ribs send lightning bolts of pain wrapping around my torso, but I don’t care. I’m so fucking done with the man, I’m ready to snap.“If I wereone of you, I wouldn’t have gonefour fucking monthswithout a single goddamn call!”
West gets between me and McCabe. “Easy there, Doc. We’ve been lucky. Five jobs and we haven’t had anything more serious than bumps and bruises. One knife wound, but I took care of that. We weren’t going to bother you for a handful of stitches.”
“Well, wedidalmost die the day Harlow was born,” Ripper mutters.“Thatwas pretty fucking serious.”
“What?” I look from Raelynn to West. The pieces fall into place slowly, and when the last one clicks, the phone call he made from the helo finally makes sense. “It wasWrenwho was kidnapped from the hospital? While she was in labor?”
“Bait,” Ryker grits out. “Fuckers wanted me and Dax. Then they discovered Rip was alive and took him too. Beat the shit out of them. By the time we got to them, Wren was ready to push. West delivered Harlow.”
“And you didn’t call me.” The realization shouldn’t hurt this much. My shoulders slump. I sidestep West so I can look Ryker in the eye. “I’ve treated every member of this team and half the people you all love. I’ve kept your secrets. Not because of the obscene sum of money you pay me every month. Because I believe in what you do. Because I can’t save people anymore. Not the way I want to. But you can. I would have been there.”
The big man looks beaten. “If you want to run, I’ll make it happen.”
“For fuck’s sake,” West says. “Enough of this shit.” He stalks over to Natasha and braces his hands on the table. “Do you want to run? Or do you want to put an end to these assholes?”
“You—” Her voice cracks, and she swallows hard. “You can’t stop them.”
“That’s not what I asked. Do. You. Want. To. Run?” The SEAL stares her down, waiting. No one makes a sound. I hold my breath, not sure what answer I should hope for.
The one that lets us stay together.
“No.” She shakes her head. A single tear glistens on her cheek. “No,” she says again. Louder this time.
“All right. That, we can work with.”
Natasha
The pizza sits like a lead weight in my stomach. Doc slides another cup of coffee in front of me—my fourth of the day—and sinks down with a small wince of pain.
