Fuck. “No.”
Stahl blew out a long, hard breath. “You need to take a step back from this overprotective act and look at the situation logically. This might be our last chance to save dozens of innocents. We’ll set that mansion up like a goddamn fortress to protect Tomi. Think about it. I’ll call you back in ten.” Stahl disconnected the phone call. Cole checked the urge to throw the phone across the room. His hand trembled with rage, but he managed to carefully place it on the table. And then he stalked across the kitchen, ignoring his twin brothers, yanked a mug from the open cabinets and sloshed some coffee intoit.
“Are you going to fill us in?” Cartersaid.
Cole turned and leaned his hip against the counter, not bothering to hide the storm raging inside of him. “Luis contacted Adam. He said it wasn’t him who attacked us—it was the Frenchman we outbid. Wants to meet, follow the protocol in thecontract.”
Clint crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in the kitchen chair. “Which means you and Tomi have toreappear.”
“I doubt Luis himself will come, but he’ll send one of his guys to the estate the FBI set up as part of Adam’s cover. Tomi will have to bethere.”
“And she’ll have to be in proper form,” Carter said, eyebrowsraised.
Clint snorted. “Tomi Tomlin couldn’t fake being a slave, even if her life depended onit.”
“Her life does depend on it,” Carter saidquietly.
The amusement melted off of Clint’sface.
“It doesn’t matter, because I’m not going to let her do it. This discussion ispointless.”
An uncomfortable silence settled over the room. Feeling slightly more in control now that he’d made that declaration, Cole took a small sip of his coffee. He’d spent the past ten years in the Navy SEALs learning escape and evasion. He knew how to disappear without a trace, and he was prepared to do so at a moment’s notice. Prepared to do what it took to keep hersafe.
“You really want to do that? Live the rest of your life on the run?” Carterasked.
Hell, no, he didn’t want to do that, but he would if it meant saving Tomi. “Yes.”
“You’re lying.” Carter stood from his chair and faced Cole straight on. “If Tomi goes completely missing, then Luis will go underground. He’ll send men to find her, and we’ll lose our best chance at finding and saving the rest of the women. You wouldn’t do that. I knowyou.”
“You don’t know anything,” Cole snarled. The thought of Luis getting his hands on Tomi ripped him apart. His soul couldn’t take losing heragain.
“I bet if you gave Tomi the option, she’d make the right choice,” Cartersaid.
Cole slammed his half-empty mug of coffee on the counter, sloshing some of the liquid over the rim. He balled his hands into fists and stepped toe-to-toe with Carter. “She doesn’t make the choices, I do, and my answer isno.”
Before he did something stupid, like wrap his hands around Carter’s throat, he walked away, grabbed the sink, and stared out the small window. Was Carter right? His protective instincts with Tomi had always been on hyperdrive—just like they were now—but he didn’t want to put any other lives atrisk.
Cole dropped his head, the heavy burden weighing him down like a physicalforce.
“We can protect her, brother, you know we can,” Clintsaid.
Yeah, they’d all had the same special training, but the risk still felt like a sharp knife to his chest. In a rare show of emotional honesty, Cole admitted, “I can’t lose heragain.”
He felt Carter step up behind him. “We know. We won’t let you. But you and I both know you couldn’t live with yourself if you let all those innocents suffer. It’s not in your nature, any more than it isours.”
He knew that, but with Tomi, he could maybe live with the regret. Without her, he couldn’t live atall.
Carter put his hand on Cole’s shoulder. “What do you say? Are youin?”
Cole stared at the stainless-steel sink, taking in the random patterns scratched in the metal. Ultimately, there was only one answer. “Yes.”
Carter expelled a harsh breath. “Good. When are you going to tellTomi?”
“I’mnot.”
“Why the hell not?” Clintasked.
“She doesn’t need to know.” If only he could strip the knowledge away from his brothers too. Cole was the older brother, so it was his responsibility to look after his younger twins, whether they liked it ornot.
