Page 38 of Jonas (Silver Team #4)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

By the time Derrika and I made it to the big house and down into the basement, Kira, Nebraska, Easton, Theo, and Smith were already sitting around the table. Cash and Lore were absent, as was Zane. Though it was Cash being late that had me looking at Theo for answers.

“He went for a run,” he told me.

“So did Stella,” Nebraska mumbled.

Derrika glanced at me, then we both looked to Kira.

“What? Why are you looking at me?”

“I think they want to know if they’re running-running or if they’re running while horizontal,” Smith helpfully explained.

“How should I know? I don’t spy on people.”

Derrika cleared her throat, her way of calling Kira out on her lie.

“Fine. I spy, but I’m too busy to look. If you’re interested y’all have the same app I have to check the cameras.”

“I don’t want to know,” Easton said.

“Neither do I,” Theo put in.

“I saw too much yesterday, I’m not looking,” Smith added.

Nebraska just shook her head, and pushed a box of cinnamon rolls toward the middle of the table. “Here, have one.”

“Cinnamon, my favorite,” Derrika said as she reached for the box.

I watched her shove a good portion of the pastry into her mouth. Her eyes closed and she groaned while she chewed.

Christ .

Less than thirty minutes ago I’d heard her make a similar sound as I sank my dick inside of her. There was a nuance of difference but close enough I needed to sit before my teammates caught sight of cock twitching.

Derrika made me feel like a horny twentysomething with nothing but pussy on the brain. Not that I was complaining, but my teammates would if they spotted my hard-on.

“Want one?” Derrika asked, pointing at the box.

“No but thanks.”

“You don’t like cinnamon?” she asked, as if it were a mortal sin not to like the spice.

“Cinnamon’s fine?—”

“It’s fine?” she gasped. “Just fine?”

Fuck, she was cute.

“Cinnamon’s great, Dee Dee, I’m just not hungry.”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Kira piped up. “Did you already eat this morning?”

Derrika quickly covered her mouth as she started coughing.

“Jesus fuck.” I pushed out of my chair.

“Fine,” she choked out. “I’m fine.”

“Does she need the Heimlich?” Cash asked from the bottom of the stairs, Lore suspiciously only a few rungs above him.

“No!” Derrika croaked.

“Is she okay?” Lore inquired, pushing past Cash.

Derrika’s hand was in the air waving Lore off. “I’m fine. It just went down the wrong hole.”

“Say less, the wrong hole does it every time,” Lore teased.

“There’s no such thing as the wrong hole, just improper preparation,” Cash tossed out.

“He’s not wrong,” Zane boomed. “Though, in our current situation, no amount of lube is gonna make the glide any easier.”

“Seriously?” Nebraska moaned. “You’re leading with that?”

“Sorry, Dove, was I supposed to ask how everyone’s doing this morning?” Zane parried.

“Yeah, that would’ve been nice,” she returned.

With a dramatic roll of his eyes, Zane asked, “How’s everyone doing this morning?” He paused for two seconds then continued, “Great. Good to hear it. Brooks checked in this morning, everyone’s settled in Tennessee and the team is headed to Wyoming.”

I figured Smith and Theo had already talked to the women and knew the state of play.

“I talked to Cooper,” Kira said. “Everything’s good in Kentucky and Blue is leaving for Pennsylvania in a few hours.”

“Linc called me last night,” Theo added. “After he bitched about the heat for the first ten minutes, he told me the team’s mission-ready and on standby.”

“Now explain the double-sided dong situation we’ve found ourselves in,” Smith requested.

“Doubled-sided dong?” Derrika leaned in close to ask.

“It means we’re fucked either way we go,” Zane replied, as he pulled his phone out of his trouser pocket.

With a ferocious growl he answered the call, “Who is this?” There was a pause, then, “Who?” Another longer pause accompanied with a deep frown.

“How’d you get this number?” he asked, and lowered the phone from his ear.

After he stabbed at the screen, a female voice in mid-sentence filled the room. “…Chamberlin. He told me if I ever had a problem to call you.”

“Who?” Zane clipped.

“Oliver Chamberlin. He said if I ever found myself in a situation I should trust no one but you.”

I had no idea who Oliver Chamberlin was. But it was obvious Zane did.

“He told you to call me? When was this?”

“Yes!” The woman sounded either exasperated or out of breath. “He told me if I couldn’t get to him, you were the next best thing. And since he’s been dead for a decade, you’re the next best thing. He warned me if I ever needed you, you’d be a total asshole. I see he hadn’t exaggerated.”

“Ollie said I was the next best thing?”

“Really? I’m running for my life and you want to measure penises? He said when I called to remind you he saved your bacon.” Zane’s lips twitched. “He also said to tell you, Cherry Vanderbeak, and you’d know what that means.”

Zane’s shoulders snapped back.

“You said your name’s Penny?”

“Yes. Penny Cox.”

“In for a Penny, in for a Pound,” Cash quipped.

“Like I’ve never heard that before,” Penny huffed. “I need to see you. I found something I shouldn’t’ve and now I’m screwed.”

“Where are you?”

“Right now I’m running to my car. If I can make it out of the Fort Meade gate, I’d like to be on my way to you.”

Fort Meade was where the NSA was headquartered, among other intelligence agencies.

“Alright, Penny, I’m going to give you an address with the warning this is not a fuck-around-and-find-out situation. Cherry Vanderbeak or not, I’ll personally shoot your ass if you fuck me.”

“Zane, may I call you Zane?” she panted, totally out of breath. “I’m not even sure I’ll make it to you for you to shoot me. Text me the address. If I don’t make it, look at Operation Freebird.”

With that, she hung up.

“Kira?”

“On it.”

“What the fuck was that?” Easton inquired.

“That was my good friend Ollie fucking me from the grave.”

“Who’s Oliver Chamberlin?”

Zane’s head dropped forward. His hand came up and he gripped the back of his neck.

With a deep exhale, he said, “When I was on the Teams, Ollie was CIA. I’d just finished a mission in Panama when Ollie showed up, needing protection while he interviewed an asset.

Me and a few of the guys from my platoon went with him.

To say his mission went tits up would be like saying getting hit center mass with a forty-five is a boo-boo—a gross understatement for a total clusterfuck.

His informant was a double. The whole thing was a trap to capture Ollie and torture him until he gave up what he knew.

It was one of the times in a long line of them I didn’t think we’d make it out.

And we wouldn’t’ve if air support hadn’t come in when they did.

They lit up the whole fucking jungle. We were almost to the exfil location when a tango came swinging from the trees on a fucking vine.

It was straight out of Tarzan. And the motherfucker had me in his sights.

Ollie went full-on Rambo, yelling obscenities at the guy while filling him full of holes.

I didn’t think he had it in him. Oliver Chamberlin looked like someone’s grandfather.

From his out-of-style hairstyle to his loafers, nothing about him would have you guess he was a case officer. But damn if he didn’t save my life.”

And now a woman was asking for an audience with Zane while we were in the middle of a shitstorm.

“Who’s Cherry Vanderbeak?” Theo pushed.

“A porn star.”

“So a mission from your porn era,” Kira surmised.

“Yep. The CIA needed Red Team to fetch something important. I didn’t want to do it.

They pushed, claiming I’d be helping to save the world.

Blah, blah, blah. Same song and dance. I gave in when they offered an obscene amount of money.

I retrieved the package, they deposited three quarters of a million dollars into my account.

Three days after the mission was a success, Ollie sent me a bag of chocolate-covered cherries along with a DVD of the only feature film Cherry starred in, with a note taped to it that said ‘You’re welcome.

’ He wanted me to know he worked that deal for me.

And over the years, he called in what he considered payback.

But he never fucked us. Every op he pulled us into was straightforward.

He just needed firepower and for whatever reason he trusted my team.

As far as CIA officers go, he was one of the good guys.

He cared about the security of the nation more than he cared about being right.

He left the CIA to go work at the NSA. When he died, he was a well-known and highly respected cryptologist.”

“Are you sending one of us to intercept Penny?” Nebraska asked.

Zane looked down at his phone, tapped the screen a few times, before he tossed it on the table.

“No. If she makes it here we’ll hear her out. But just because she knows Ollie’s name and a few tidbits of information doesn’t mean shit. The timing of her call is suspect.”

“If we have to dig a hole it’s gonna put us behind schedule,” Cash grouched. “And I hate blisters on my hands.”

“Didn’t peg you for a man with soft hands,” Lore mumbled under her breath.

“If you’d like a demonstration, it can be arranged,” Cash shot back.

“You two can play grab ass after the briefing,” Zane cut in.

“Trent Graham is furious. He’s also feeling cautious, not wanting to publicly point fingers at the Chinese.

He’s worried if the intel is wrong, it’ll pour gasoline on an already volatile situation.

He’s also a man who wants to believe the best in people and doesn’t want to accuse a senator of wrongdoing unless there is ironclad proof. ”

“The intel isn’t wrong,” Lore angrily clipped. “Charlie and Pidgeon laid it all out for him.”

“And the only person who could’ve corroborated Pidgeon’s intel is dead,” Zane pointed out.