Page 31

“A wolf eats sheep but now and then; Ten thousand are devour'd by men. An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretend friend is worse.” ― John Gay

Axel

Holy God Almighty, that was close. Once I kick the gun from DeClaire’s hand. I squat to check the traitor’s neck for a pulse. Certain she’s dead, I stand.

“Gwen, it’s over. She can’t hurt you anymore.” As I move toward my glassy-eyed spouse, the circle on the computer monitor reaches 100%.

“Fuck.” Scott Hunter steps into view from where he hid in the cubes with me.

At the same instant, Callie gasps in my earpiece. “Axel, the hackers now have full control of the program.”

With my arms wrapped around my wife, I duck my jaw to my comm unit. “Can’t you stop them?”

“I’m not sure, but we have a bevy of experts trying.” Her panicked tone tells me things have gotten out of hand.

In my ear, the rest of my FBI team remains silent. Dammit. The point of letting this scenario play out was to find the missing EMP weapons, not to put the whole damn world at risk.

“I’m rebooting.” When a red X appears on the screen, the quick-thinking Hunt drops into the swivel chair, undocks the computer, and powers down.

My God, what if we fucked up? I press on my earpiece. “Calliope, I thought you said your plan was foolproof.”

“Can’t talk. Working.” Her keyboard clicks at an astonishing rate as she directs her team on another connection.

Ah, hell. I pray our airmen can shoot those bombs from the sky. Otherwise, say goodbye to life as we know it.

Palms to my chest, my brilliant spouse inches back to stare down between her breasts as if looking for a bullet hole. “Axel? I’m not dead? I was so sure she shot me.”

“No, babe. It’s over.” With my chin on her head, I swallow hard, turn my face away from Hunt, and squeeze back tears. “I would never let anything happen to you.”

Fucking A, nothing could be further from the truth. My fingers caress her bruised cheeks. My chest tightens while I gaze into the one eye not swollen shut. She was hurt on my watch. And for what? The Russians won. They have the program.

Her computer beeps. Stuck on the bios screen, Scott hits some function keys before trying again.

“Ask her what she changed. Now.” Callie returns to my ear.

I rub my thumbs over Gwen’s split lip and touch my nose to hers. “Listen, babe. Your boss says you did something in the code, but it happened so fast, she couldn’t tell what you did.”

Gwen starts to sniffle, then sobs. “Where were you? What took you so long?”

Sonovabitch. I may have made things worse. How the hell can I reach her? “You were never alone, hun. I swear, sweetheart, I’ve been following you all along. I love you so damn much. Please don’t cry.”

“For chrissakes, Wulf. Your leg.” Eyes widening, she touches my bloodied pants and rubs the staples I’d forgotten all about.

“A scratch, honey. Are you with me?”

“The bastard shot you!” The animation in her voice tells me she’s recovering from shock.

Finally! My voice level and my pace slow, I turn her toward the desk where Scott reboots for the third time. “I will heal, babe. This is really, really important. Callie says she’s locked out. Can you do anything about it?”

“Too late.” At Trever’s announcement in my ear, I hold my wife closer to me.

“The EMP rockets have launched?” Although I say this out loud, my wife appears eerily calm and unaffected.

Holy Jesus. My heart thumps so hard I can hardly think. “Guinevere, can't you stop them?”

“What? No. It’s fine.” Unfazed, she doesn’t even bat an eyelash. Clearly, she’s not herself.

“Six seconds. Five, Four…” I hold my breath as my data analyst counts down to zero.

While I wait for the power grid to die, I lean into the mic, probably no longer working. “You guys still there?”

Gwen tilts her head, brows creased. “Why wouldn’t they be? I put everything in test mode.”