Thrill Ride (Black Knights Inc. #4)(67)

“Our ride is two minutes out,” the big guy announced after glancing at his iPhone’s screen. “Ghost, grab the body bag.”

“Body bag?” Eve interjected for the first time since they’d all gathered around the table, a definite hint of horror in her tone. “Why do we need a…a…body bag?”

“Because Rock’s dead,” Boss shook his head, frowning at the poor, obviously overwhelmed woman like maybe she’d been absent the day they handed out extra IQ points. “We can’t very well let him walk out of here. No one but the people in this room, not even General Fuller or the other Knights, know what we’ve pulled off. And they won’t. Not until we get home. And Fuller won’t know until after we clear Rock’s name. Which begs the question, Ghost. You gonna be all right not telling Ali what’s going on?”

“She’s at her parents for the next two weeks, and she knows I’m on a mission. She doesn’t expect t’hear from me for days,” Ghost said, bending to pull a thick, black body bag from a duffel bag, laying it out on the floor and unzipping it.

Eve’s gulp was audible. And seeing that monstrosity there, watching Rock push up from the table, Vanessa felt herself on the precipice of bursting into tears yet again.

So close. She’d been so close to really losing him. Had that bullet that’d taken a bite out of his ear been two inches to the right…

This time, it was her gulp that was audible.

“Chere,” Rock leaned down to whisper in her hear, his hot breath tickling her lobe. “You didn’t do anything wrong today. You gotta stop beatin’ yourself up, okay?”

No, she couldn’t stop beating herself up for almost getting him killed. No way. No how.

Then he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. “I’d have done the same thing if I were in your shoes,” he insisted, and Ozzie piped in with, “He’s right. We all would’ve done the same thing.”

“But how c-can you forgive me after I almost got you—”

“Vanessa,” he held her gaze until she could see the truth of his words in his eyes. It warmed her heart like nothing else ever could. “I don’t hold anything against you. You did what you thought was right. That’s all any of us can ever do.”

And a little bit of the weight that’d been pressing on her shoulders lifted away. Because if Rock could forgive her for what she’d done, then maybe she could begin working toward forgiving herself. Sucking in a shaky breath, she nodded. And Rock must’ve been satisfied with what he saw in her face, because he winked and then strolled over to lay down inside the body bag.

And, okay, seeing him there like that, inside that retched thing, had tears threatening again. But she figured she used up her allotment of everyone’s patience when it came to hysterics, so she held them back.

“You…you c-carry body bags around with you?” Eve asked, watching with wide, terrified eyes as Ghost zipped Rock into the thing.

“Of course,” Boss said, bending to grab four duffels, shouldering two on each arm. “This isn’t a game of Risk we’re playing here. Men die in this business. But one thing’s for certain: if they do, we never leave ’em behind.”

“Hoo-ah!” Ghost, Bill, Steady, and Ozzie all answered in unison. And hearing that call to arms, that battle cry to duty and brotherhood, sent a shiver streaking down Vanessa’s spine.





Chapter Eighteen


Black Knights Inc. Headquarters

21 hours later…

“Why can’t I go home now?” Eve asked.

Bill watched as she glanced warily around at the hard faces of the Knights. Everyone who’d been down in Costa Rica was now gathered around the conference table on the second floor of the shop, anxiously waiting to hear the sit-rep—situation report—from Rock. Everyone except for Ozzie, that is. He was over at his bank of computers monitoring all CIA activity to make sure no one was second-guessing the show they’d seen down in Central America.

Of course, after the eighteen-hour, two-plane-ride journey north to Chicago, and the three-hour power nap each of them had taken upon arriving home—they’d all been fall-on-their-faces tired—it was a pretty sure bet if they hadn’t heard anything from The Company by now, they were in the clear in that respect.

Still…the Knights never took chances. Case in point, the next words out of Boss’s mouth. “You can’t go home because you know too much.” The big guy’s jaw looked hard as a rock, his gray eyes flinty.

A hand jumped to Eve’s throat as she swallowed…loudly.

Becky punched Boss on the shoulder, glaring at him. And when Eve turned to Bill beseechingly, he had to fight hard to keep from reaching across the table to grab her hand. Consoling her, protecting her, reassuring her had been his job…once.

But not anymore.

“What the hell?” Boss demanded, glowering at his wife, rubbing his shoulder as if her puny swipe actually hurt him.

“The way you said that, because you know too much,” Becky lowered her voice, frowning lopsidedly, and it was actually a pretty good impersonation of Boss at his most badass, “made it sound like there was an unspoken and now we have to kill you tacked on to the end.”

“It did?” Boss turned to Eve, his scarred brow arched in a ragged line.