Page 12 of Gabe (Blue Team #2)

Call me crazy, but Gabe glaring at me made me want to smile.

At least he was paying attention to me. Especially since he’d practically dumped me in Garrett’s office as soon as we got to Z Corps, and the one time since then when I saw him in the breakroom he’d fled like I had a nasty case of genital warts and he was afraid they’d magically jump from my vagina and infect his penis.

Okay, so perhaps I was exaggerating about the warts but he certainly was avoiding me like I had the flu.

“She’s smarter than I am,” I complained.

Gabe’s piercing stare felt like a steel blade to my chest and I no longer felt like smiling. He was really pissed. And if I didn’t know any better I’d say there was some hurt mixed in there with all his irritation.

“Why do you say that?” Garrett asked.

“She hasn’t used her credit cards, her phone, hasn’t traveled by plane, train, or bus.

You haven’t found her on traffic cameras.

She hasn’t been home. She’s not staying with friends.

And she hasn’t gone to her parents’ house.

To me that says smart. She probably had one of those go-bags Gabe was telling me about packed and full of cash. ”

“She could be dead,” Gabe added.

That would be a problem. We needed Delilah Watts alive. She had the answers we needed. And besides, since I’d calmed down and looked through clear eyes at the emails she’d sent me, what I’d taken as threats now made me wonder if she was trying to help me.

Her messages consisted of “they’ll find you” and “you need to watch your back.” One even said, “the deeper you go down the rabbit hole the more danger you’ll find.

” All of the emails had pictures attached.

It was the pictures that had scared me. All three women in the images had suffered greatly.

Kalee had been presumed dead. Anaya had almost been killed by rebels in the village.

And Piper had narrowly escaped the attack on the orphanage.

Delilah might have been warning me to be careful.

But why? And where did she get the pictures?

“I wonder who took the pictures,” I mumbled.

Now my mind raced with possibilities. Did Abrams send someone to Timor-Leste to scout the land?

Did the rebels have cameras? That would be weird, right?

A rebel walking around taking pictures. Abrams made more sense.

Or maybe the prime minister. He wanted to lease the land.

No, the president sending someone to take pictures of the village and the Peace Corps volunteers smiling and working together would be more like it.

The president could present the pictures as a reason not to lease the land.

The village wasn’t thriving per se but the volunteers were making a difference. And the countryside orphanage was a thousand times better than the ones in the city that were full of corruption.

“What?”

“I’m making this more difficult than it needs to be,” I told him.

“What are you making more difficult?”

“All of it. I’m overthinking the situation and looking for a scandal.

Abrams wanted to lease the land. When there was pushback from the president of Timor-Leste, Abrams paid off the prime minister.

The prime minister paid the rebels to destroy the village.

That was what was holding up the negotiations.

The president didn’t want to displace the locals.

Kalee, Piper, and Anaya got caught in the crossfire.

Simple as that. I keep looking for some crazy conspiracy but there isn’t one.

I bet Delilah found something on the Abrams servers and when she saw me poking around a couple of hundred times she thought she’d found an ally. ”

“Or she’s complicit and she set the dogs on you to take you out,” Gabe interjected.

“I thought you said you didn’t think she was a threat.”

“No, babe, I said I didn’t think Piper, Anaya, or Kalee were targeted. I said it looked like she was sending you warnings. I said you were safe with us. Never did I say Delilah Watts wasn’t a threat.”

“But she didn’t try to hide her identity, Gabe. She’s in IT. She can’t be that stupid.”

“I’m not denying that. What I want to press upon you is we don’t know who this woman is and since we don’t she’s the enemy.”

“The enemy? But—”

“No buts, Evette. I won’t take any chances with your life. All we know is, Delilah Watts works for Abrams, she sent you emails and pictures, and now we can’t find her. She’s not an anonymous source helping you with a story.”

Damn. How did he know that was what I’d started to consider her?

Before I could respond—not that I had a ready response since Gabe totally had my number—he turned and moved to the door. Before he exited he looked over his shoulder and said, “Let me know if Garrett’s bringing you home tonight.”

“Huh?”

What was he talking about?

“Dinner with Garrett,” he bit out.

Gabe lifted his chin toward his friend and that was when I saw it. Cold eyes and masked features.

Or maybe that was wishful thinking and he really didn’t care one way or another and he wasn’t masking anything because there was nothing to mask.

Damn. That hurt. It shouldn’t but it did .

And since I was hurt and didn’t want him to know I played along.

“I’ll let you know.”

The only change in his bland expression was a small tic in his jaw and if I hadn’t been staring so hard I probably would’ve missed it.

I waited for Gabe to leave and swiveled my chair to face Garrett.

“You did that on purpose,” I accused.

“Sure did.”

“What? You’re not gonna deny it?”

“Why the hell would I lie?”

That was a weird question. Everyone lied when they got called out or caught.

“Because I caught you?”

“Is that a question?” Garrett’s smile could only be described as sinful. If I’d been the slightest bit interested in him he’d be dangerous.

“I don’t get it.”

“Just go with it,” he recommended.

“I’m not sure I want to.”

“Trust me. Gabe just needs a kick in the right direction.”

“Garrett—”

“Babe, trust me.”

I had to be the stupidest person on the planet because I wanted to trust Garrett. I also wanted to rip off Gabe’s dumb mask and stomp on it until it was beyond repair and he could never wear it again.

At that point, I had nothing to lose.

Except my heart.

Nah, who was I trying to fool?

I’d already lost my heart.