Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(43)
Edict kept things straightforward. Pay them and they got the job done. No matter how wrong it was.
“You hinted there was good news in here somewhere.” Harte peered mournfully into his glass.
“Since the biotech sponsor does have offices in Tianjin, I initially thought we’d need to go there to locate and extract An-mei Cheng.” Gabe sipped some of the melted ice water in his glass. “Our little run-in with Jewel included a slip of the tongue. Indicates the sister is actually in the States.”
“No shit?” Harte raised an eyebrow.
Gabe nodded. “Worth checking out their facility in California and any other sizable holdings they have domestically before taking the search to the other side of the world.”
“Keep me posted.” Harte stood. “Can’t give you additional resources right now, and I’m guessing you knew it walking in here. We’re good men but we’re running a business, not a charity. It’s my job to keep us business-minded enough to stay well into the black every year when the books are balanced, even if I have to be the *.”
There’d been a small hope. But the decision was made and communicated. Gabe didn’t waste time or emotion on disappointment. “Our team has decided to move forward with locating the girl. We’ll renegotiate once the initial goal is achieved.”
Harte nodded. “You do that.”
Chapter Twelve
Gabe took himself out of Harte’s office and strode down the hallway. He wanted to get outside and take a run or head to the nearest gym and pound a punching bag. Do something to take the edge off his temper when there wasn’t anything he could do about the hard news he had to give. Neither of those was a good option at the moment, with limited time and Maylin waiting for him.
Still, he ducked inside a conference room at the other end of the suite and starting pacing. He wasn’t ready to give the update to Maylin yet. Too many things didn’t fit.
He’d have been fine if he’d never had to deal with Jewel again. Some part of him had known he would have to, though. The business of private military contractors had a high turnover rate but it was a small world. They’d have ended up on a multi-contractor job together—or ended up like this, set to go head-to-head. All things said and done, it was less complicated as it stood.
Still, a couple of questions were hanging out there and he didn’t like letting them go unanswered. Jewel wasn’t as good a distance shooter as Lizzy, but she could’ve made a head shot in that last mission. She could have killed him. He’d spent his recovery rapidly progressing through the shock and betrayal, setting those aside and dismissing the whole thing, assuming she’d decided leaving him crippled was worse than dead. He’d gotten good and angry then and used it to fuel his temper and get himself back on his feet.
Now? He wasn’t so sure. She might not have adjusted her shot out of spite.
He and his teammates didn’t pry into each other’s backgrounds much. They had all met as they’d joined the Centurions. All any of them had ever needed to know about their teammates was who they were as Centurions: skill sets, abilities, anything lending to the completion of a given mission. Strengths and weaknesses were reviewed in terms of performance.
But none of those things gave insight into why people did the shit they did. Gabe wasn’t particularly fond of psyches, but he saw the value in a therapy session if it helped a person get their head back on straight. With Jewel and her fire team leaving the Centurions, he’d assumed they’d made a simple choice: money.
Her having chosen not to kill him added a twist to the logic. And her showing up now mucked things up. Made it more difficult. Because he didn’t want to wonder if she was going to take him out this time, or worse, kill Maylin.
Gabe dragged a hand through his hair and cursed.
He’d always been a no-strings-attached kind of guy. When he mixed it up with a woman, it was for mutual enjoyment and lasted only as long as convenient. No regrets when it came time to walk away.
He halted and planted his hands on the windowsill, looking out and not seeing anything. He couldn’t walk away from Maylin the same way. It wasn’t just about missing her. Even considering leaving her opened up a hole inside him.
No idea what it meant, but the thought of Jewel or her team doing anything to Maylin filled him with ice cold fear.
Fear slowed a man down, made him hesitate, second guess. If he couldn’t see clearly, he was going to make a mistake. He needed to decide how to move forward with the least amount of damage.
His phone rang. Yanking it out of his pocket, he growled, “Diaz.”
“Lykke here. You okay? You sound pissed.”
Gabe sighed. “Nah. Just working through some reality over here.”
“Ah.” Marc probably had a good idea of what the reality was, but he’d wait until Gabe briefed the team. “Well, I got some bad news to add.”
“Sure.” Great. Fantastic. “Better now than later. Go ahead.”
“Porter van Lumanee died. Diagnosis still indicates food poisoning as the root cause.” Marc didn’t sound too broken up about it. “I managed to find a few different email accounts for the guy in addition to his work email. An-mei Cheng was the first scientist he was tasked with approaching and acquiring, but if it had gone successfully, she wouldn’t have been the last. There’s one or two other emails with information on other scientists. None of them are missing.”