Page 6 of Gabe (Blue Team #2)

Ivy Lewis was a smart woman.

A few minutes ago she’d suggested she and Evette go get some coffee. When Evette perked up and nearly jumped out of her chair I felt like an asshole for not thinking to offer the poor woman something to drink.

And now that she was gone the rest of us could speak freely.

Kyle had stalked back into the conference room like a grumpy grizzly bear who’d been awoken from hibernation.

Not that I blamed him. It wasn’t recent but it didn’t have to be for Kyle to remember the way his wife looked when she’d returned from Timor-Leste only to turn around and go back to the warring country.

They’d saved a bunch of girls from a lifetime of pain and misery.

But it hadn’t been easy and had led to Anaya being kidnapped.

Being as I’d never been in love I couldn’t understand the magnitude of Kyle’s anger that his wife had been used as leverage to control Evette, as well as being threatened directly, but I could imagine it.

“She’s good,” Garrett muttered as he clicked away at the keyboard. Not looking up, he continued. “And she’s organized. I like that it makes this easier.”

“What’d she find? ”

“Enough to make a lot of very rich people nervous. Though I doubt she knows what she’s actually found.”

I was not in the mood for more riddles and delays.

I wanted details and facts about how a beautiful, funny woman came to have a gun pointed at her head. Something I hadn’t broached, but I would, as soon as I understood what the hell was going on.

Thankfully, Kyle was done with the bullshit, too.

“Garrett.”

Garrett was one of the best information specialists in the country.

And what Garrett couldn’t find, John “Tex” Keegan could.

Tex didn’t work for Z Corps. He technically didn’t work for anyone, he helped various organizations and if he considered you a friend he was always on standby.

Luckily for us, Tex considered Zane a friend.

There was nothing the man couldn’t find.

“As you all know, I’ll need to vet her intel. But from what Evette found it looks—and I caution you to withhold judgment, we all know in most cases the surface is bullshit—but it would appear someone at Abrams sent the emails and pictures.”

“Seriously?” Linc asked.

“Again, this is surface. It’s also sloppy even for a novice.

So immediately I call bullshit. Delilah Watts, a high-level IT specialist at Abrams, would without a shadow of a doubt know how to mask her IP address.

It wouldn’t do her any good, I’d still be able to track it back, but at least it would give the appearance she wasn’t a complete tool. ”

“All the emails came from her?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Set up?” I guessed.

“That would be my thought,” Garrett agreed.

“Address for Delilah?” Zane asked.

“Already sent it to your email.”

“Myles, Kevin, you’re on Delilah Watts. I want her brought in.”

Kevin and Myles gave Z twin chin lifts in acknowledgment.

“Kyle, you’re scheduled to leave tomorrow for vacation,” Zane continued.

“I’ll leave it up to you how much you tell Anaya.

My advice, keep a lid on this, your wife is crazy and she’ll likely cancel your trip and horn in on whatever revenge Evette is planning and want to participate and we all know what happens when the women get involved. ”

Good to know my boss hadn’t missed Evette’s plans. Though I didn’t think he would; the man didn’t miss much.

“Owen, you’re with Garrett. I want Evette’s files gone over, everything she had backed up, not just what’s on that thumb drive. And, Garrett, you call Tex and ask him if he’ll share all the intel he collected about the rebels and Kalee.”

Zane stopped rapping out his orders and leaned back in his chair.

“I need to make a very uncomfortable call to Rocco. I’ll let him decide how much information he wants to share with Ace and Phantom. Which means ten minutes after I hang up with Rocco, I’ll receive an ass-chewing from Phantom.”

“And Evette?” I asked.

When Zane didn’t answer I glanced from the wall-mounted screen to my boss.

For all intents and purposes, Z looked totally at ease.

His chair was pushed back from the table, his hands casually folded in his lap, his face devoid of emotion.

He was coming up with a plan, and by the way he was leveling me with one of his signature glares, I was certain I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

“Two choices. I make a call and see if Chaos and his guys are around, Fallport, Virginia’s only a few hours away. Or, Gabe, you and Cooper take Evette to the safehouse.”

“She stays with me.”

Relief swept through me, Evette would be protected while we sorted out her situation.

His glare turned amused and I braced.

“Thought so.”

I needed to shut this shit down before Zane’s meddling ass got too deep into his delirium and had me married with two-point-five kids and a white picket fence.

Married?

Where the fuck did that come from?

“Zane— ”

“You and Cooper take her to the safehouse. I’ll send Ivy out to get her some clothes and whatever girly shit women need. Tomorrow, Evette’ll come in, work with Garrett, and this will be over ASAP and she’ll be on her way back to Cali.”

Back to Cali.

My stomach clenched and my jaw tightened.

Fuck .

“I’ll go get Evette,” I announced.

I was at the doorway when Zane called my name.

“Yeah?”

“Is it too soon to remind you to glove up?”

Goddamn smartass.

I decided a nonverbal answer was in order and flipped him off. My rude gesture was met with Zane’s obnoxious cackle.

“It’s a good day to be me,” Owen said and I looked from my boss to my teammate.

“What?”

“Brother, brother, brother.” Owen shook his head. “I didn’t think I’d get my chance so soon. Payback’s a bitch.”

“Payback?”

What the hell was Owen talking about?

“I see step one is complete. The woman has already scrambled that pea brain of yours.”

Realization hit and it seemed I needed to set Owen straight, too.

“Not even close to the same thing.”

“Right. I’m blind, deaf, and stupid. Because I’d have to be all three to miss how you were staring at the pretty Evette London.”

“Gabe,” Kyle warned.

“You have nothing to worry about,” I assured. “Owen might have good vision and his hearing along with his big mouth work just fine but he is stupid. I got Evette covered.”

“She’ll be covered all right.”

I ignored Owen’s lewd comment and left before I reminded him back in Idaho the whole house heard how he’d “covered” Nat.

Halfway to the breakroom, the knot in my stomach turned to a boulder. I’d known the woman an hour and she already had me building a fortress to fight against my attraction.

This was a bad idea. So bad I started thinking Myles and Cooper should take Evette to the safehouse and I should go with Kevin to find this Delilah woman.

Yeah, that would be better.

I rounded the corner and froze when I heard Evette laugh and the thorn that had started to push under my skin burrowed deep. So deep I was worried I’d never work it out.

But I had to. I couldn’t give in. I had to fortify my defenses.

She’d be gone soon and this would be over.

How hard could it be to keep the woman at arm’s length?

I couldn’t know it then, but I should’ve guessed; it was harder than a motherfucker. Evette was shifty, devious even, a witchy woman who’d woven magic and ripped my heart from my chest and held the bloody organ in her palms. It was fitting actually, seeing as it was hers to take.