Page 5 of Gabe (Blue Team #2)

I wanted to do what Gabe had demanded and spit it out.

I wanted to explain everything with the hopes that when I was done it would all be erased from my memory.

I didn’t want to know what I knew. But that was impossible and now that I was close to having all the facts I was a step closer to getting justice.

I dropped my head forward in defeat. I’d screwed everything up. Without my permission, my eyes closed and memory took over.

I was sitting on the couch with Kalee in the apartment she shared with Phantom.

It was a few weeks after Phantom had been sent to Admiral’s Mast for disobeying an order.

An order that meant Kalee was home. I barely knew the man but as far as I was concerned Forest Dalton was my hero.

He’d been willing to give up his naval career for Kalee.

He’d saved her life. And after he’d done that he set about helping her heal.

He loved and protected Kalee the same way Ace did Piper but somehow it was different.

Phantom was the most closed-off, aloof, surly man I’d ever met but when he looked at Kalee all of that melted away.

“Can you believe how big John is?” I asked.

Kalee flinched at the mention of Piper’s newborn. If it were possible I would’ve kicked myself in the ass for dimming Kalee’s smile. The problem was she was still a walking minefield. With that thought, my stomach knotted and anger rushed to the surface.

Fucking savage assholes .

“I’m getting better,” Kalee murmured.

“Of course you are,” I rapped out, irritated she felt the need to remind me.

My beautiful friend was doing amazingly well.

“The first time I held John, he started to cry and I had a flashback so bad, Ace had to video call Phantom to calm me down. I hate that Piper saw. I hate that will always be the memory she has of me holding her son. That’s the worst part about all of this, the pain I cause—”

“Stop, Kalee. You do not cause anyone pain. We are all grateful you’re home. You do realize that you sitting here is the kind of miracle every person who has lost a loved one prays about. We all thought you were dead. We mourned you. The loss was unbearable. But here you sit. We have you back.”

“You have the new Kalee,” she uttered.

“And that’s a bad thing? New, old, before Timor-Leste, after Timor-Leste. None of us gives a flying rat’s ass. All we care about is having you back.”

“It’s good to be back. No, it’s great to be home.”

“Evette?”

Gabe’s soft, deep rumbly voice called from beside me, pulling me from my thoughts but not from my misery. Guilt and heartache swirled together, making my chest hurt.

I had to make a decision—was revenge worth putting my friends in further danger? The answer was no but I worried I’d already done that. Kyle would be furious. So would Ace. Phantom would be off-the-charts gonzo.

Shit .

I messed up huge.

Why couldn’t I have just left it alone? Kalee was doing great. Piper was married with four kids. Anaya had found the love of her life and together they’d created the cutest little girl. All three of them had moved on.

Why couldn’t I?

“Slow,” he muttered and placed his hand on my shoulder.

And when his fingers curled in and he gave me a gentle squeeze I felt the same inexplicable reaction. It was like his touch was a conduit of electricity but not the kind that zinged you. No, it was a flow of energy that warmed and calmed .

Okay. What the hell ?

“I messed up,” I whispered.

“We can fix whatever it is you think you messed up. But I need you to tell us everything.”

Everything would take a long time.

So I started with the facts.

“I found it curious that the rebel attack just happened to be at the very location that Abrams wanted to lease. I knew Prime Minister Akito Ximenes wanted the deal to go through so I started looking into him. I found a large bank transfer. I followed that to a bank in Tel Aviv. A hundred thousand went into Akito’s account and a few days later ten thousand went out.

Needless to say, ten grand is a lot of money in Timor-Leste—a hundred thousand would allow Akito to live like a king. ”

“Abrams is an Israeli corporation,” Zane grunted.

“And the day after that ten thousand was transferred the attack on the village happened,” I finished.

“Where’d the money go to?” the guy I think was named Owen asked.

“I couldn’t find information on the account holder’s name. But the bank is in Dili.”

“And the pictures?” Gabe asked. “Those were all emailed to you?”

“Yes.”

Damn, this was going to piss Kyle off.

“All of the emails were threatening me. But the last one with the picture of Kalee in the…” I trailed off, unable to utter the words mass grave. “Well, that email threatened all of us.”

“Are you telling me someone threatened my wife?” Kyle thundered and I flinched.

“Yes. And that was when I stopped. I swear, Kyle, I never thought—”

Kyle’s temper flared and he shouted, “No, Evette, you didn’t fucking think!”

I expected him to be pissed but his anger still sliced deep. And when he stalked out of the room leaving me with a bunch of strangers I was worried he wouldn’t come back.

Damn .

A new man entered the room, though he wasn’t watching where he was going; his head was turned and his eyes were on Kyle.

“Who pissed in his—” The newcomer froze in the doorway, his gaze narrowed on the big screen, and he muttered, “Fuck.”

“’Bout sums it up. To bring you up to speed, Evette here has been looking into Timor-Leste and Kalee Solberg,” Zane explained, then went on. “Evette, this is Garrett. He’s going to analyze the files on the thumb drive. I don’t suppose you have anything else helpful hidden in that bag of yours?”

I fought rolling my eyes but welcomed Zane’s stupid question.

What did he think I was hiding in a bag that barely had enough room to hold my now-empty wallet and tossed-out cell?

I was going to miss that phone, it was the latest and greatest tech gadget and it’d cost me a damn fortune.

Thankfully, it was backed up but my bank account would take one hell of a hit replacing it.

“Babe?” Gabe’s smooth voice once again pulled me from my thoughts.

Unfortunately, I stopped thinking about expensive cell phones and started thinking about how much I liked him calling me babe.

I’d had boyfriends call me baby, one had even called me snookums which creeped me the hell out.

Thankfully, he didn’t last very long—and yes, calling me snookums was my motivating factor for breaking up with him.

That and the dude had a serious OCD about clean floors.

Like, take your shoes off outside—which is cool I get that—but if I’d been wearing flip-flops or shoes with no socks he’d made me put on nylon footies.

And, yes, he had a box of disposable nylons like a department store so “foot sweat” didn’t get on his floor.

That’s weird, right?

Totally cuckoo.

“Evette, babe,” Gabe called again.

Damn.

“Sorry.”

“No worries. There’s a lot going on, take your time.”

“Are you familiar with G2ware?” I asked Garrett .

I saw Garrett’s lips twitch but he quickly masked his amusement. “You could say I’m familiar with G2, yes.”

Gabe chuckled from beside me and I didn’t see what was funny about computer recovery software but I wasn’t in the mood to ask why everyone in the room seemed to find my question entertaining.

“Everything’s on that drive but I also have the rest of my computer backed up.”

Garrett moved to the laptop and finally, the horrendous image of Kalee disappeared.

It must be noted I could type quickly but Garrett’s fingers moved over the keyboard at least three times faster than mine. Impressive.

There was a C prompt on the big screen and without looking at me Garrett asked, “What’s your password?”

“Um, don’t you need my login first?”

“Nope. Just your password.”

“BeetleJuice06141969001. With the B and J capitalized.”

While Garrett typed it in and poked around, Gabe stared at me for a second.

“Seriously, babe? Beetlejuice ?”

Gabe’s rumbly laughter sent an unwanted shiver up my spine. And I was too busy fighting the warm squishy feeling in my tummy to be embarrassed about my choice of passwords.

“I change my passwords every couple of days. I was on a Michael Keaton marathon. And Beetlejuice is better than One Good Cop or Multiplicity .”

“ Batman ?” Gabe suggested.

Which was absolutely appalling.

“Everyone knows Adam West was the best Batman ever . Second to Adam was Christian Bale. So say I was on a Christian kick, I would’ve probably changed my password to Batman. Michael Keaton, no way.”

Then I watched up close, with such extreme fascination that the rest of the room melted when Gabe tilted his head to the side and roared with laughter.

I was so enthralled by the way his lips parted, exposing a line of perfectly white teeth I almost missed the way his eyes lit and narrowed, forming deep grooves at the corners.

There was so much to see, so much to enjoy, I didn’t know what to look at next.

My gaze roamed quickly—jaw, cheeks, Adam’s apple, thick corded muscle on the side of his neck.

There was a lot there to admire but I went back to his smile.

So beautiful. And contagious, seeing it made me want to smile, so I did.

I instantly regretted it when his laughter died and his eyes heated.

“I’ll give you Adam. But Bale as Batman is a negative,” Gabe said when his humor died down. “ American Psycho is where it’s at.”

Um. I had to agree. Christian Bale was better in American Psycho than he was in Batman .

Damn.

“Fine, I’ll give you a point for American Psycho but only if you admit Michael Keaton was awesome in Beetlejuice .”

“He was but he was better in Birdman .”

Before I had to concede yet again Garrett cut in. “All right, Siskel and Ebert, if the two of you are done I need to ask about internet searches.”

My eyes went to the screen and my face heated. Right there on the big screen for all to see was my browser history. I contemplated the wisdom of including my internet data in the backup. And when I say the screen was big, what I really mean was it was huge. Ginormous. Obscenely large.

Shit .

“I was researching a story,” I blurted out.

“On penis enlarging?” Garrett inquired.

To his credit, he did this mostly with a straight face. Zane however didn’t hold back his amusement. Nor did any of the other men in the room.

Ivy gave me a wink and I wanted to crawl under the table and hide.

“Well, no. Not on penis enlarging exactly. I was doing a story on scams.”

“Scams?” Garrett smiled. “So you’re telling me pumps and creams don’t really work?”

Oh. My. God .

“I thought you mostly covered gang activity and crime stats,” Linc asked.

“I do,” I nearly shouted. “My editor felt I needed a break. A palate cleanser after back-to-back stories involving children.”

“So you chose penis enlargement as a palate cleanser?” Zane inquired, not allowing the topic to die. “My kinda woman.”

“It’s not about penises. The story was about scams and the psychological reasons people fall for them.

You know like, five-minute abs, miracle skin tightener, breast enlargement pills, penis cream.

I mean, who falls for that? Did not one man who purchased the cream stop and think “gee, if this enlarges my penis what will it do to my hand?” The cream needs to be applied; common sense would say if it makes your penis bigger it would also make your hand bigger.

I pulled the company’s financials. They sell a lot of it so it got me thinking, then I started looking and I’ve yet to see a man walking down the street with an abnormally large right hand. ”

“What if they’re left-handed?” Garrett deadpanned.

Gah.

“And the penis pump? By the look of it, you seem rather fond of the pump.”

“Zane,” Ivy interjected.

“What?”

“Don’t mind him, Evette. He’s like a five-year-old. He likes the word penis.”

“Actually I prefer cock. But cock pump isn’t as catchy as penis pump so I’m going with that. Garrett, hit that first YouTube link “mishaps of the pump.” That one looks like fun.”

“Please don’t,” I mumbled.

“Oh, please do,” Zane continued.

“Seriously, Zane,” Ivy chided.

“Does no one else want to see some dude get his balls sucked into the pump?” Zane looked around the table.

Gabe’s hand dropped to my knee and a wave of excitement shafted through me. The gesture was friendly and I knew that when he made no move to slide his palm higher into non-friendly territory—which I would’ve probably welcomed—but instead patted my leg .

“He’s teasing,” Gabe whispered. “It’s his way of making you comfortable so you’ll relax.”

Comfortable? I wanted the floor to open up so I could jump in and escape.

And where was Kyle?

I couldn’t relax until I talked to him.

“Evette? Look at me.”

I didn’t want to look at Gabe because I really, really did.

I wanted to turn sideways and stare at the man sitting next to me until I took my fill.

I wanted to see him smile. I wanted to hear him laugh.

I wanted to feel his touch. I wanted to know how he kissed. I wanted to know everything about him.

And that wasn’t like me. I was cautious.

I was reserved. My stomach didn’t flip-flop and get squishy.

I didn’t attract good-looking men so I knew better than to look.

I was slightly better than average and that was only on a good day when I put in the effort to make myself that way.

I was on the tall side which some men found to be a turn-off.

Even my hair and eyes were average brown—just brown, no hint of red tones that would make my hair interesting.

No green highlighting in my eyes that would make them pretty. I wasn’t witty or worldly.

My life was boring.

At least it was until I poked my nose in things I shouldn’t and now I had someone trying to kill me.

“Please look at me.”

It was the please that made me turn my head and when I did my breath caught. The stony look on his face countermanded the softness in his voice. Gabe looked pissed.

“You’re safe.”

That was all he said but that was all he needed to say.

For some odd reason, I believed him.