Page 63 of 72 Hours

“No!” Greg raised the gun. Sheri shrank back on the couch.

“Shit, Niall!” I gasped.

“I think you’re jealous,” Niall persisted. He stood a little way in front of me now, and I could see the glint in his eyes. “You probably wanted to be on the Project Team yourself. You spent all your time pretending you were no kind of a field agent, just happy to be on the support side, loyal and unassuming and amenable to others. But that would mean you’d never get a chance to move on up the organisation. You’d never be anything more than an assistant.”

“I don’t need the Team!” Greg’s eyes looked wild. “I don’t need your praise, your contempt means nothing to me. I’m the one who wrecked your homes and your lives, remember? I’m the one in charge. I’m the one with the gun.”

My heartbeat doubled.

“So who’s to be first?” He hadn’t slipped the safety yet, but surely it’d only be a matter of seconds before he did. “You, Tanner? Or maybe Niall, the guy with all the brave talk tonight?” He took a step towards us.

We both stood transfixed, but only for a second.

Then I stepped in front of Niall.

​​​Chapter 23 – Wednesday 22:40

“Tanner, you stupid bastard!” Niall’s snarl was vicious.

To my surprise—and let’s face it, my momentary relief—Greg laughed. “Tanner, he’s right. You truly are a stupid bastard. If he wants to push me to shoot him, let him, right?”

I dropped my gaze, shaking a stray hair from my eyes. My voice faltered. “Greg. Please. Look, can’t we talk some more? Can’t we make any of this right again for you?”

Greg looked disgusted. “I despise you both. There is no right for me any more. Niall here is nothing but bluff and aggression, and you, Tanner—well, you’re just pathetic. I can’t believe how eagerly you want to give yourself up for him. Just to give him a few more minutes before I shoot him as well. It’d be touching if it weren’t such a romantic cliché.” He glanced between our faces, curious. “But then you’re close, right? The pair of you. Or at least you used to be. They talked about it at the office. The two of you couldn’t keep your hands off each other. Someone said they caught you once, making out against the vending machine. That there were places in the parking lot that were regular venues for your lunch hour. They said you’d once been living together in that apartment I blew up.”

Greg hadn’t known much about us in the early days of Mission Dove. By the time he joined the Team, we were on our slippery slope towards splitting up, and we were probably nothing more than the subject of scrawled graffiti on the toilet wall.

“That’s got nothing to do with any of this.” I could see Sheri’s gaze on me, fascinated despite her fear.

Greg laughed. I had my eye on his gun. He’d lowered his hand a few inches. “I’m not so sure. I heard you lost the plot for a while. Not as reliable, not as careful. Not as smart. I think your mind must have been someplace else. Maybe down Sutherland’s trousers. Wasn’t he interested any more?”

I frowned, looking angry. “I tried damned hard not to let it compromise anything professionally.”

Greg looked at Niall’s equally angry face, then back at me. He seemed to be enjoying the tension between us. “Maybe Niall doesn’t agree with you. He doesn’t seem to think much of your professionalism here tonight. And you’ve messed up before, haven’t you, Tanner?”

“Fuck off,” I said, but with little energy. Like he said—he was the one with the gun.

“The subject of two internal investigations in three months, Tanner MacKay.” He was taunting me. “They all talked about that. About you.”

“It’s over,” I said shortly. Greg knew I was on suspension. “I’m on my own now, aren’t I? Maybe you’re right. I fucked up one time too many.”

“Tanner, shut up!” Niall hissed behind me. “For God’s sake, he doesn’t need to hear all the sordid details.”

Greg sneered. He seemed to be enjoying our discomfort, especially mine. I shifted in front of him, blocking his view of Niall, demanding he look at me. “Just let Sheri go, Greg. She really is no good to you.” I sneered. “You know how they are, girls. They cry and howl and generally get in the way.”

Even through her tears, I could see Sheri’s eyes glare at me.

Greg seemed to give it some consideration this time. “Why should I? I’ll lose my hostage. Give you and Sutherland the chance to plot some way of fighting back.”

It was my turn to laugh, and there was a hell of a lot more bitterness in it than his. “Me and Sutherland? Don’t talk about us like we’re still an item. Okay, so maybe we had something going once. But you heard all the rumours, didn’t you? How we fucked up a surveillance, fighting like school kids? The bastard punched me! He got me suspended, it’s his fault I’m here in this hole, stuck with its lowlife, scraping up a living, no respect from anyone anymore.”

Greg looked taken aback at my outburst. “Judith talked about you coming back into service.”

I snorted. “She’s a smooth one. She said that to keep the industrial tribunal off her back, didn’t you know? No, there’s no question of it. She wants me out. She blamed me for the debacle at the club when your brother was taken, she blamed me for the fight with Niall when he was the one who started it. He’s the Team’s hero. I’m the villain of the piece.” My breath was short, and I knew my eyes would look wild. Greg certainly looked shocked by me. “Just don’t include me in with him like that. I’ve got no desire to work with him again. Shit, you saw how it was when you brought him here. He can’t stand my guts. He’s only here under sufferance.”

Greg shrugged, but I could see a flicker of relaxation in his eyes. “It makes no difference to me how you two work together.”

“Except that maybe it does.” I moved another step towards him, my whole attitude the embodiment of a man on the edge of panic. “It was Niall who was there in the thick of it at the club. Niall’s threat that your poor brother struck back at. I was just trying to keep the peace, to be honest, but he wouldn’t listen to me. Even then I knew what a psychotic bastard he could be. He saw them all as enemies, even the innocent kids.”