Way of the Warrior (Troubleshooters #17.5)(62)

“He’s right, Agent Bentwood,” Knight chimed in. “We really need you back inside.”

“You aren’t locking me out of this?” she asked, spearing Rook with her gaze. Warmth replaced the cold from seconds ago.

“No. You’ve done more for me than anyone else. I won’t lock you out of this. But it’ll be need-to-know, Vivi.”

“Endgame is real,” she said firmly.

Arbor raised his hand, demanding silence. “Not now, Agent Bentwood.”

“I know it’s real, Vivi,” Rook said. “The packet I took off Coombs was labeled with a single name—Endgame.”

She raised her gaze to his. It took his breath. “You’ll be safe?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ll let me know what you need?” she asked, and a single tear dropped down her cheek.

Knight and Arbor disappeared into another room. Rook was grateful. He went to a knee in front of her then. “I could tell you now what I need, Vivi.”

She cocked her head and stared at him intently. Slowly, she lifted a hand and traced his eyebrows. Her fingers were gossamer silk over his skin. She would unman him with a single touch.

“I’m worried. What if they come after you? Me?”

He raised his hand then, wrapping it around her neck and pulling her to him. “Don’t worry about me. They’ve already tried. They had no idea I’d have a rogue CIA cyber spy on my side. And I’ll be watching out for you. But I need everything you have, and that means you going back in. Arbor will fill me in on this end. But at the first sign of anything off, you tuck tail and use the phone I’m about to give you to call me. Watch your back.”

She nodded and licked her lips.

He took her offer and sank into her heat, twining his tongue with hers, telling her with his actions everything he wanted to say with his words. She tasted of promises he’d denied himself. And sex. She tasted of sex and want and need.

He pulled away when his cock beat at him to take her to the floor and cement her to him with his body. Now wasn’t the time. He needed to get her on her way back to D.C.

“I don’t understand this,” she whispered as she stroked her fingers over her lips now.

“I don’t either. But I’m coming for you, Vivi. You came for me, and I won’t let you go.”

Rook stroked a thumb over her cheek, letting the softness of her ground the hardness in him.

Her brother was a smart man. Because Rook had been drifting, lost in a sea of desperation and betrayal and then there’d been Vivi. He owed Michael Bentwood and would pay the man back by making sure Vivi was always kept safe.

Rook stood and turned. Knight was there, holding out a sat phone. Rook took it and gave it to Vivi. “Check it,” he said to her while never removing his gaze from Knight.

Knight smiled and shrugged. “I understand.”

“It’s clean,” Vivi said and stood to her feet. To Knight she said, “Do I need stitches?”

“Nah, Johansen was a horrible shot.”

She snorted. “Or a great one.” She averted her gaze from the deceased man on the couch.

“Agent Bentwood?” General Arbor called her name from the doorway. “One of my friends is going to fly you back to wherever that jet of yours came from. I’ll take you back to the airstrip now.”

She nodded and glanced at Rook, then turned.

“Jonah Knight? I traced you to Syria after the transport plane supposedly carrying your body landed in Germany. From there, you were off-grid. When I first started digging, I thought you were in on framing him. When I realized you weren’t, I decided your secrets were your own. You’ll tell him now though. Or I’ll make your life very uncomfortable.”

Rook wanted to grab her and run, take them far away from this insanity. It didn’t even shock him that she’d known Knight was alive.

Knight held up his hands. “Understood.”

She nodded and turned to follow Arbor. Rook wanted to call after her, but when she looked back at him, all he could do was nod.

He’d known her mere hours, but she’d stolen a vital piece of him. It pissed him off but more than that it made him nervous. It wasn’t about Rook alone anymore. She’d taken something from him, but she’d replaced it with something invaluable. Her.

Then she was gone, and by the time the dawn broke the night sky open wide, he knew that Endgame was much more than he’d ever suspected. He knew Coombs had told Knight what was going on, and before Knight had a chance to tell Rook, the game had been in play so he’d had no choice but to disappear, faking his death and sending an empty coffin up the on-ramp to the transpo flight to Germany. He’d been on the plane, but he’d been very much alive, and searching for the ones behind the clusterf*ck on the side of that mountain.

Arbor urged Rook and Knight to seek out the help of a man more powerful than most but one who had something the other men in power didn’t have—honor. He gave them a single name, The Piper, and a number. Arbor told Rook that The Piper would be very interested in the information both Rook and Vivi had.

Rook knew what he was setting in motion was going to tip the balance of power for some of the most powerful people in his government.

And it was all good. Because Rook was in for a penny, in for a pound. He’d destroy them, and if he gave his life in the process, so be it.