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JASON

“Do you think he’ll understand the message?” I asked, staring through the binoculars at the entrance to the abandoned underground government site.

I could practically hear Rae rolling her eyes over comms. “Why are you asking that? Do I look like the type of person who doesn’t know how to send a message?”

I glanced at Johnny, who laid beside me on the ground. “How the hell does Duke put up with her?”

“Maybe she’s great in bed,” Johnny grunted.

“She’s a pain in the ass.”

I heard the telltale click of a gun behind me and froze. Who the hell managed to creep up on us in the dark? Slowly, I rose to my knees, abandoning the binoculars on the ground. Johnny did the same, neither of us moving too fast for fear that we’d get our heads blown off before we had a chance to make our move.

“I happen to be amazing in bed,” Rae said, nudging me with her gun. “But that’s not the only reason Duke’s with me.”

I let out a long breath and put my arms down, spinning around to face her. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Besides scaring the shit out of you?” she grinned.

I rolled my eyes, getting to my feet. “You’re not sticking to the plan.”

“The plan changed. Let’s move.”

She walked away without another word.

“You could have just said that over comms,” I muttered.

“Ah, but then I wouldn’t have been able to see you laying on the ground, scared shitless as you saw your life flash before your eyes.”

“You know, I walked you down the aisle at your wedding,” Johnny muttered. “And I performed the ceremony.”

“Which means you should be on my side,” she chuckled. “Now, should we get to work or did you want to let Cash get away?”

“He’s here?” I asked, wondering how the hell I had missed that.

“It’s a good thing one of us knows Cash better than Rafe. Come on.”

I grabbed my pack and followed Rae through the trees, down the mountainside. The terrain was rough, but I remembered scouting out here enough times to know the best route to take to make the trip as easily as possible. Thankfully, we weren’t having to make the trek in the dead of winter. Snow in Colorado was unforgivable.

“He’s at the back entrance,” Rae whispered as we approached the front gate.

“Any chance he has control of the facility?”

She shot me a look that begged me not to repeat that question. “He has Knight with him. He probably had control before he stepped foot inside.”

“Where’s Jack?” Johnny asked.

“I would imagine he’s already doing his job. Who knows? Maybe he’s cornered Cash, too, and is interrogating him.”

Johnny muttered something under his breath, but was on the move before I could ask him what he said. Rae ran to the first gate, entering the code quickly. As soon as the light turned green, we slipped inside.

“We’ll be lucky if we make it through the next two gates,” she mumbled. “Let’s make this quick.”

I pulled out the explosives from my pack and attached the leads to the system on the wall. It would knock out the power, preventing anyone from trying to hack the system. Anyone being government officials or whoever the fuck was after us. This was first and foremost Rafe’s facility. He taught us the ins and outs, where to pull the trigger to bring down the whole facility, and all the fail-safes he had in place. There wasn’t a single inch of this place that we couldn’t control.

I nodded to Rae as she typed on her computer. She’d hacked into the mainframe, sending signals throughout the system, jamming our location. Technically, this facility was no longer in use, but that didn’t mean the government wasn’t watching.

As soon as she gave the signal, we moved again, turning down a hallway instead of heading for the next gate. At the end of the hallway was a storage room, nothing special, and definitely not something anyone would take a second look at. We slipped inside and headed for the back wall, removing the fake panel that blended in seamlessly with the rest of the room.

“Twenty seconds,” Johnny said, timing the extraction.

I worked quickly, removing the screws and letting them fall to the ground as I moved on to the next step. As soon as the inner panel was removed, I entered the keycode, pressing my hand to the sensor.

“Five seconds.”

The light turned green and the door hissed open. I barely had time to grab my bag and step through, followed quickly by Johnny and Rae, before a metal wall slammed down from the ceiling, creating an impenetrable barrier.

Rae coughed as the room filled with dust, staring back at the thick wall. “Well, that would have been unpleasant to be crushed by. I hope we don’t have to break out through that, too.”

“There’s no going back the way we came,” I said, slinging my pack over my shoulder.

“So, we take the back exit like we did when we escaped with Eva?” she asked.

I grinned at her, finding it funny that she thought that was the only way out. “We have a few other routes that will work. We’ll see what Knight leaves available to us.”

“You know, the last time I had to hack out of here, I really expected the security to be a lot better. I would have thought with someone like Rafe that he would have made it a little more challenging.”

I glanced over my shoulder at her as we took the stairs to the underground levels. “Who says he didn’t let you escape?”

“And why would he do that? He wanted to keep Eva under his control.”

“Did he?” I asked, still not sure about that one. “I’ve never seen Rafe get beaten like that.”

“He’s not the best,” Rae snapped, then flinched, remembering he was dead. “He wasn’t the best.”

“Cash had his moments of surprise,” I admitted, “but he didn’t have that killer instinct Rafe had.”

“I’m beginning to think it was hiding inside him all along,” Rae muttered. “All it took was pulling the trigger on his brother for him to finally lose it and turn into Rafe.” Then she turned to Johnny. “What about you? Still think Rafe was someone to follow through anything?”

Johnny shook his head slightly. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”

It took another five minutes to reach the IT room, where we figured Knight and Cash would be hiding out. If we were right, they would have the same idea as us, taking out all technology before anyone could track them here.

We stopped just down the hall, giving Rae the chance to check the building for any surprises. “All clear.”

I nodded, pulling my gun as I slipped along the wall. Johnny was right behind me, just to the left while Rae was hugging the other wall. As soon as she reached the door, she gave a nod and slowly turned the handle.

It flew open from the inside and Knight stood just inside the doorway, covering his ass as he pointed his weapon at us.

“Is Cash with you?”

“What do you think?”

“Right behind you.”

I didn’t take my eyes off Knight, but I heard Johnny adjust his stance, facing Cash, who was behind us.

“Hey, boss,” Rae said cheerily. “It’s good to see you. Though, I didn’t really think I’d be doing it like this.”

“You’re the one pointing a gun at me,” he bit out.

“Actually, I’m pointing my gun at Knight,” she quipped. “But since he’s your brother, I guess I can’t shoot him.”

“I would prefer not to lose two brothers,” he spit out.

The silence stretched for a tense minute before she dropped her arm and holstered her weapon. “Well, I’m glad you got my message.”

“Why the fuck did you come?” Cash asked, holstering his as well.

Slowly, the rest of us followed their lead. “Because we need to know what the fuck is going on and how to put an end to this shit.”

“We’re working on it,” Knight growled, stepping out into the hall.

“Not good enough,” I snapped, staring at the man. “You asked something of us before you left, and we’re trying to honor that, but there’s shit you don’t know.”

“Such as?”

I narrowed my eyes at Knight, wondering if I should even tell him. In the end, I felt he needed to know. “Such as your sister ended up in the psych ward at the hospital and then a recovery center after that.”

He stiffened immediately. “What happened?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does,” Cash argued, inserting himself into the conversation.

Johnny laughed at that. “Oh, now you care what happens? You left your wife and kids. You haven’t given a shit about them since you walked out, but your sister, you care about?”

“What the fuck happened?” Knight snapped.

“Let’s just say Zavala still had a little too much of a hold on her,” I said angrily, still remembering what it was like to walk in on her beating the shit out of her own hand. “She’s better now, but in order to keep her that way, we can’t lock her up for the foreseeable future.”

“It’s not safe for her out there.”

“It’s not safe for her inside her head!” I shouted, realizing a second too late that it appeared I had just a little too much stake in the game, and now Knight knew it.

His eyes narrowed on me as he stalked closer. “Stay the fuck away from her.”

“That’s a little hard to do when you asked us to look after her.”

“I didn’t fucking tell you to get in her pants.”

“Whoa, just hold the fuck on,” Johnny snapped. “That’s not what’s happening here.”

It wasn’t, but he didn’t need to know about my thoughts the first time I saw Izzy.

“He’s been looking out for her, trying to get her out of the house and keep her from falling back into that rut she was in. That’s it. We’ve been there. We’ve seen it.”

“Who’s we?” Cash asked.

“Jack and me,” Johnny replied.

“Speaking of, where is the third one?” Cash snarled. “The three of you never go anywhere without each other.”

“He’s around,” Johnny answered cryptically.

“That’s vague as fuck,” Cash muttered. “What the fuck do you want to know?”

“For starters, who killed Leah?”

He ground his teeth, and for a minute, I didn’t think he was going to answer. “I don’t know.”

“Then how the fuck did you know who the next target was going to be? You were at Asher’s just in time. How the hell did that work out?” Johnny asked.

“We had a tip.”

“We, as in, you and Knight? Or we, as in, you and Shadow?” I asked.

“Jason,” Rae warned, shooting me a warning look.

“Just what the fuck are you implying?”

“Don’t,” Rae snapped.

“You were gone already—” I started.

“Gone from where?”

“OPS. You were gone when the senator was shot. And then Kavanaugh was taken out at his old man’s funeral. Both long-distance shots. Both nearly impossible. Yet, both struck their target with deadly precision.”

Cash’s eyes darkened, and I got my answer. “So, that’s what this is all about.”

“If you’re playing both sides, we deserve to know,” I argued.

I noticed Knight was particularly quiet the whole time, but I could feel his eyes burning into my skull.

“So, how deep are you with these guys?”

His jaw clenched hard as his eyes flicked away guiltily.

“That deep, huh? So, that’s how you knew. You knew because you’re already in with them.”

“Cash, it’s time to go,” Knight snapped. “We’ve been here too long.”

“That’s it?” Rae asked. “You’re not even going to defend yourself?”

“What the hell do you want me to say?” he argued.

She stepped in front of him, holding her hand up to his chest. “Did you pull the trigger?”

“And if I did?”

Her nostrils flared in anger. “Cash, tell me you didn’t fucking kill the senator and Kavanaugh. He worked for you. He was your friend!”

“He’s not dead,” Cash said, proving once again that he had contacts on the inside.

“But you were trying to—” she started. “You— What the fuck is wrong with you?” she shouted.

She kicked hard, taking him by surprise, dropping him to the ground with little effort. He was on his knees, groaning as he struggled to stand on his injured leg.

“Rae—”

She gripped his head and slammed her knee into his face. Blood gushed as his nose broke and he collapsed to the ground. She went on the attack, slamming her boot into his stomach over and over again. It took both Johnny and me to drag her off him, and when it was over, Cash was a bloody mess on the ground.

She jerked our arms off her, breathing hard as she stared down at her boss with anger. “I’ve never been so fucking disappointed in anyone in my life.”

She spat on him and turned, walking away down the hall.

Staring at Cash, I didn’t know what the hell to do. I couldn’t believe that Cash was involved with all this for no reason. Same as Rafe, there was always some other plan in the works. But shooting Kavanaugh? Christ, that was taking things too far.

“What’s going on with Claire?” Johnny asked Knight.

“She’s safe.”

“We know that, but Michael made contact. He wants to drop her at OPS.”

Knight’s eyes stayed hard, not shifting or giving any sign what he was thinking.

“Give us something,” I seethed. “Fuck, we’re on your side. We can’t help if we don’t know what the fuck is going on.”

Knight’s nostrils flared as he walked over to Cash, gripping him by the arm as he hauled him to his feet. “You want to know what’s going on? Don’t fucking trust Michael.”

“Why?” I stepped in front of him, refusing to let him go anywhere. “Give us a fucking reason.”

Cash wiped the blood from his face, spitting on the floor. “You got us here. We answered your fucking questions.” They shoved past us, refusing to answer any more questions.

“Not nearly enough,” I spat. “How many more people have to fucking die because of this?”

Cash stopped and turned back toward me. “As many as fucking necessary.”

“Does that include the rest of us at OPS? Or was Kavanaugh enough for you?”

His jaw clenched hard and his eyes turned steely. “Kavanaugh wouldn’t stop fucking digging, and he paid for it. Don’t make the same fucking mistake.”

“Just like fucking Rafe,” I snapped. “So fucking cryptic. You said you would never be like him, but here you are, taking up his cause and pushing everyone away who’s trying to help. You’re gonna end up dead, and then your wife and kids are gonna be all alone.”

If I had hoped to get through to him, I was sorely mistaken, he turned around and walked out with Knight, not sparing us a backward glance.

* * *

“Did we give you enough time?” I asked Jack as he joined us back at the motel.

“Got it done,” he answered. “I had hoped they’d leave something behind?—”

“It’s Knight and Cash,” Rae scoffed. “Did you really think they’d be stupid enough to do that?”

“Not really, but it was worth a shot,” Jack continued. “I planted several trackers. You wouldn’t believe how fucking long it took to find their bikes.”

The door to the motel sprang open and all of us reached for our guns, only to relax when Fox walked through with a spare pair of boots in his hands. “Did I miss him?”

“Miss who?” Jack asked.

He rolled his eyes with a laugh. “The Kamau, of course. I got him a matching set of boots. You know how much he loves his boots. And since we have the same taste, I thought I’d spring for a pair this time. I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me you were going to see him.”

“There was a reason for that,” I muttered.

“And that reason would be?”

“Because Cash wouldn’t have come for anyone at OPS,” Johnny told him.

Fox looked pointedly at Rae, who sat on the bed, twirling a knife in her hand. “She works at OPS. You can’t lie to me like that.”

“Rae’s an exception. We needed her skillset.”

Scoffing, he tossed the boots on the ground and pulled a sandwich from his back pocket. “What skillset could she possibly have that I don’t?” he asked, taking a large bite.

“Hacking,” she answered, walking over to him. She grabbed the sandwich out of his hands, earning a scowl from him.

“That was my sandwich. I don’t share.”

“How did you find us?” I asked. “We didn’t tell anyone where we were going.”

“Nope, but when you left all cryptic-like, I shot your vehicle with one of my tracking darts. It didn’t take long to figure out where you were going. The three Js on the road with the can opener. Seriously, guys. I think you could have done better at hiding your tracks. Did you at least find something?”

“Yeah, Cash is losing it,” I muttered.

“Nope,” Rae said, popping the rest of the sandwich in her mouth. “He’s lying.”

That was news to me. “You beat the shit out of him for taking the shot.”

“What shot?”

I ignored Fox and stared at Rae. “Did he take the shot or not?”

“Oh, he took the shot,” Rae grinned.

“What shot?”

Again, I ignored Fox.

“If he took the shot, then why are you smiling?”

“What fucking shot?” Fox shouted.

“I’m smiling because Cash is still Cash.”

Johnny shook his head. “That doesn’t make any fucking sense. Cash doesn’t shoot his own people.”

“Cash shot someone?” Fox said, shock lacing his words.

Rae sighed at Fox. “Can you keep up? Cash shot Kavanaugh.”

“What? How the fuck do you know this?”

“Because we confronted him and he didn’t deny it. I saw it in his eyes.”

“And that makes you happy?” I asked. “Did we wake up in the wrong world? Since when is Cash acting like Rafe a good thing?”

“You’ll see,” Rae grinned. “Trust me.”

“That’s the fucking problem,” I snapped. “Everyone wants everyone else to trust them, but without any fucking reason!”

“Can we back the fuck up for one minute?” Fox snapped. “Are you telling me that you confronted Cash and he admitted to shooting Kavanaugh, and while you were there, you didn’t think to tell The Kamau that he owed me a visit?”

I turned to Fox, wondering which part he was upset over because from where I stood, I didn’t have a fucking clue.

Rae walked over to him, handing half his sandwich back. “It wasn’t exactly a friendly chat. If anything, he seemed rather pissed that we were there at all.”

“But he showed up,” I pointed out. “He took the risk, which means there was a reason he decided to join us.”

I glanced at Johnny to see he figured the same thing. “But he might not have been there for us.”

“How do you figure?” Rae asked.

“Because he was in the IT room before we made it there,” I surmised. “Did you notice how Knight stayed in the doorway?”

“Like he was blocking it,” Jack nodded. “He didn’t want us to see inside.”

“Or…” Rae said in an exaggerated tone. “He was there because he trusted us enough to meet us.”

I didn’t want to burst her bubble, but Cash wasn’t there for us. Maybe it was convenient for us to meet him, but something else was going on, and now that we were already away from the facility, there was no figuring out what he’d been after. There was no way we could risk going back there.

“I still can’t believe you let The Kamau walk away without so much as promising a visit to his brother,” Fox sighed. “What the fuck good was it to meet him if you didn’t extract a few promises?”

“Believe it or not,” Rae grinned, “not everything is about you.”

“Well, it should be.”

“But it’s not. Now, the sooner we get back, the faster I can run down all the locations they’re headed and figure out what Cash is up to.”

We’d done all we could in Colorado. What little information we did glean would have to tide us over until they made their next move. We just had to hope it was sooner rather than later. If Cash didn’t take his shot soon, there was every possibility we’d lose our window to help.