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  “But they vaccinated you guys, right?”

  “That was two-fold,” Delta said. “Experimental, to see if it’d kill us or give us antibodies to fight Kite, and practical, because we’re out in the field and need the extra protection it can give us.”

  “Oh. The news keeps reporting on that government website, where results are being posted. Is that true?”

  “That’s all true,” Juju said, picking up the narrative thread.

  He then went on to spin her a story, of their adventures from what they called TMFU, when they were first assigned to find the scientists. Rev. Hannibal Silo and how he was connected to this, how Ax was in contact with the man’s missing wife. Their travels through Vietnam and Australia and Hawaii and Mexico, the destruction of Los Angeles and Barstow, Seattle, and now…

  Now the rest of their group was someplace he wouldn’t name.

  That seven women, so far, had joined their team, in addition to the scientists. Women who apparently were now romantically involved with pairs of the guys and providing critical support skills to the mission.

  “No offense,” Juju said in closing, “but I can’t tell you where we’re working out of and put our bases at risk. Suffice it to say it’s not here in Houston.”

  “I get it,” she quietly said. “So what happens now?”

  Lima yawned. “Now, I get to contact our local operative and tell him his job is finished. And I think we all need some sleep. Do you need to get home?”

  She shook her head. “No. My parents will think I’m at work. As short-handed as we’ve been, they’ll believe it’s a long shift. Especially…” She tried not to think about the picture of Waxler’s family sitting on his desk. “Especially since they know one of our guys died.”

  “What about your brother’s funeral?”

  “We’re not having one. We’re having him cremated. That’s it. The people he knew locally were mostly users. Frankly, we’re not fond of the idea of getting to know them.”

  “Understood. And again, sorry for your loss. Sorry we had to meet you under these circumstances, but your help was invaluable. Can you hang around here with us until later today? I’d like to get the unencrypted files from you so I have a backup. I got them encrypted earlier, but I want to make sure I have the most current ones available.”

  “Sure. I can hang here. I can’t afford a room though.”

  “That’s okay. You and Delta and Juju can stay here. Us four will go next door and bunk down.” He turned to the others and they gathered their stuff and walked out, leaving her alone with Juju and Delta.

  “I really screwed up, didn’t I?” she softly said.

  The men looked confused. “What?” Juju asked. “What do you mean?”

  “Had I just left it alone, you guys would have found it and destroyed it and I wouldn’t have sacrificed my own principles in the process.”

  Juju knelt in front of her and took her hands in his, gently squeezing. “Shasta, what you did tonight was very brave. You saved lives. I’ll admit maybe you didn’t think things through very well, but it was brave. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

  “I couldn’t save my brother. Or Waxler.”

  “You can’t save the world,” Delta said. When she looked, he wore a lopsided smirk. “Besides, that’s our job.”

  She didn’t know if it was because she was so exhausted and drained, or because he was just that cute, but she giggled.

  Juju stood, helping her up. “We’ll take the bed closest to the door,” he said. “You can have the other one. Let’s get some sleep, and in the morning, we’ll buy you breakfast and go from there. We can’t leave until we’re sure you’re safe anyway.”

  “Can I have my gun back before you leave?” she asked. “It was Stu’s. I found it under his bed. He brought it home with him from the military.”

  The men exchanged a glance. “How about we do you one better?” Juju proposed. “Before we leave, we’ll take you to a gun range and show you how to use it.”

  “I didn’t think you were staying here long.” Damn her luck, hell, yeah, she’d do either of these guys.

  “We’ll be here a day or two now. We need to make sure you’re safe. We don’t want a repeat of Silo’s goons finding you.”

  “My parents. Are they safe?”

  “For right now, most likely. But I promise, we won’t leave until we find out for sure. If they’re not, we’ll pay to relocate them and take care of them. All three of you.”

  She stared up into his green eyes. He was someone she could get used to hugging.

  Kissing…

  Exhaustion. That had to be it.

  She nodded. “Thank you.”

  When he smiled, it twisted her heart in good ways. “You’re very welcome.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The knock on the hotel room door at ten the next morning startled Shasta out of a sound sleep, but apparently the men had either been awake, or were far better at getting up than she was.

  They flanked the door, guns drawn, as Juju carefully eased in front of the viewfinder to look.

  From outside, a muffled man’s voice. “Clear. It’s Lima.”

  They opened the door and let him in. She’d slept wearing shorts and a T-shirt from her bag, so it wasn’t like she was worried.

  Not only was it Lima, it was the twins, Ax, and another, older man.

  And Lima carried a large bag from a fast-food restaurant, and a tray of large cups of coffee, both of which he set down on the table.

  After closing the door behind them, he introduced her to the man. “This is Kant,” he said.

  “Hi.” She threw back the covers and got up. “Excuse me for just a second.”

  She went and used the bathroom, splashed water on her face, and then put on her glasses, bringing everyone into sharp focus again.

  Along with a stabbing pain in her soul. She could see so clearly again thanks to Stu and the money he’d given her.

  Blood money. Literally.

  Lima passed her a coffee. “I didn’t know how you took it, so I ordered black and there are creamers and sugar. All the breakfast sandwiches are the same. We already ate. That’s for you three.”

  “Thank you.” Yeah, at this point, she knew she was safe. They could have killed her in her sleep, and they damn sure wouldn’t have brought her breakfast.

  “So what’d we miss?” Delta asked.

  She listened while she fixed her coffee the way she liked and settled, cross-legged, on the bed to listen. Juju sat on the end of the bed and gave her a warm smile before taking a bite out of his sandwich.

  Lima and Kant filled them in. Whoever this Bubba guy was, he apparently helped run the mission from the shadows.

  “He’d like to speak with you,” Lima said, directed at her.

  “Me? Why?”

  “He wants to personally thank you and pick your brain about a couple of things.”

  Her face reddened. “I need to delete that signal app off my phone.” She’d reset the traffic cameras after getting to the hotel earlier so there wouldn’t be any errors reporting for that morning’s rush hour.

  “Don’t be too hasty.”

  “I’m not a black-hat,” she said a little more emphatically than she’d meant to. “I mean, don’t get the wrong idea about me. Just because I know how to do something doesn’t mean I usually go around doing it. Last night was the first time I’ve ever done something like that in my life.”

  Delta smirked. “We kind of got that impression that you’re not a pro, don’t worry.”

  “Part of our battle,” Lima continued, ignoring the aside, “is from inside. Burrowing through Silo’s electronic defenses. We’ve got Pandora and Scooter analyzing the data Bubba’s pulled from the servers so far, but it’s like sifting the Sahara with a tea infuser. There’s a lot of it. Any assistance you can give us right now, that goes a long way toward helping us end this for good.”

  “You have proof, though. Why not take him down?”

 
“Fail-safe,” everyone said.

  Lima continued. “We don’t know for sure yet if Silo’s set up to spread more of the virus around. That’s why it’s so important for us to eliminate every lab we find.”

  “But you said he’s got a lab in St. Louis, too, right?”

  “Yes, but that one’s on the books. He’s talked about it publicly and even touted how they’re working hand-in-hand with the government to try to help. It’s the secret labs we have to take out. As you’ve seen, even the drug-only labs are deadly in their own way.”

  “I’ll do whatever I can.”

  “So how long are we here, now?” Juju asked.

  “We need to track down the operatives from the lab,” Kant said. “They might go to ground, but I’d bet some are locals. We need to interrogate and eliminate them. And Bubba wants you all here long enough to ensure there aren’t any loose ends that might come back to harm Shasta.”

  The men all stared at her, making her blush.

  “So figure at least two or three days,” Lima said. “As long as it takes.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?” she asked.

  The men went silent for a moment, apparently trying to decide how to say it when Ax spoke up.

  “It was my fault,” he quietly said. “I’d been using Scooter’s computer to piggyback through to the Internet at a coffee shop. She went there every afternoon during work for her lunch. She worked a split shift. Silo’s guys tracked me and my blog postings through her computer and thought it was her. I was stupid and clicked on a link in an e-mail to a trojan that I thought was a video clip link.”

  “Stupid noob mistake,” she said.

  “Yeah. It was. I wasn’t paying attention and I was in a hurry. And Silo’s guys used info they pulled from Scooter’s computer to…” He looked at the floor, finding his feet really interesting, apparently. “They went to her apartment and found her roommates. There’d been an ice storm so they were stuck home and Scooter was with us, with Victor and Uni. And they…” He closed his eyes, slowly shaking his head, obviously unable to continue.

  “They killed them,” she finished for him.

  He nodded.

  “Not just killed,” Juju solemnly said. “Tortured. Cruelly tortured. Silo isn’t above hiring mercs for his dirty work.”

  “So my parents are in danger?”

  “Doubtful,” Lima said. “There’s nothing but your brother tying you to the clinic, but there were several other families who lost loved ones. They won’t tie you directly to any of this, as far as we know. But we’ll take the time to make sure. And we’ll need your help to do it.”

  Hell, Lou had begged her to take time off. “I’ll need to go into work tomorrow and talk to my boss about asking for some extra time off. I’d call him, but I’d rather go in. Bailey’s supposed to be in then, and I can see for myself how he’s doing.”

  Lima considered that. “Not a bad plan. Can you access his personnel file so we have his address, or do you already have that?”

  She smiled. “Give me a challenge, why doncha?”

  Ax still seemed emotionally overcome. It was blatantly obvious to her that he felt guilty and responsible for what happened to the woman’s friends.

  She didn’t want that to be her. The burden of guilt she already carried over Stu was heavy enough. Indirectly causing her parents’ deaths would be more than she could bear.

  After talking some more, Oscar and Yankee went out to go find her parents and put trackers on their cars, too. Kant left to focus on the VA for another round of watching to make sure there weren’t any other recruiters working the lobby for fresh Kite addicts. Lima and Ax had her laptop and would pull all the files she’d retrieved from the lab, as well as see if they could locate the lab’s employees.

  Meanwhile…

  Meanwhile, the men wanted her to just chill with Juju and Delta, until the others got caught up. Juju and Delta would take her to a shooting range that afternoon. They would meet back in the room at six, Yankee and Oscar staying with her parents and following them from a distance until they were safely home that evening.

  When it was just the three of them, she realized the men seemed a little…lost.

  “What’d Lima mean last night by you’re the ranking officer?” she asked Juju.

  He sat on the edge of the other bed, facing her. “Just that. I’m a sergeant. Everyone else on this mission who isn’t a civvie is a specialist. Well, I don’t know what Kant is or was. Probably an officer, but that’s not my business.”

  “So why was Lima in charge?”

  “He’s our unit’s electronics genius,” Delta said. “When there’s a mission heavy on electronics details, he is usually in charge.”

  Shasta wasn’t a virgin by any stretch of the imagination, although it’d been the better part of two years since she’d last been with anyone. Who had time for a social life when her work schedule was so damned crazy? She sure as hell didn’t. Any time she wasn’t at work, she was helping out at home, or asleep.

  But these two guys…

  These two guys were sin on a stick. If they were straight and willing, she was available. Who cared if it wasn’t permanent?

  She was fucking horny.

  Wasn’t like she was going anywhere for a while, and neither were they.

  “So what was that I heard them talking about? The other guys.”

  “What?” they asked.

  “Some of you guys have, what, wives?”

  Delta grinned, those gorgeous brown eyes of his crinkling at the edges. “Partners. Trios. Not exactly wives, but close enough.”

  “Only some of you?”

  Juju turned to face her. “We’re a twenty-man unit split up into ten teams of two. Seven out of ten teams of guys have paired up with women. Most of us, that makes it. But we’re just dumb monkeys. Math’s not my strong point.”

  Her face heated up. Yeah, insulting them when they’d grabbed her hadn’t exactly been the smartest move. “Sorry. I was mad. Upset. I didn’t mean it.”

  Juju snorted. “I’d hope so. If you weren’t mad then, I’d hate to see you when you’re really pissed off.”

  “If you’re on some super-secret mission, how’d your guys end up hooking up with women?”

  “Accidentally,” Juju said. “Just sort of fell in that way. A woman crossed our paths, usually ended up becoming a team’s package, and it just…happened.”

  “Package?”

  “Responsibility,” Delta said in that distracting purr of his as he shot a glare at Juju. “Slang.”

  “Oh.” She studied the two studs. “So…does that make me your package now?”

  She wouldn’t mind getting a look at their packages. It’d be a nice distraction, a way to get the fuck out of her head for a while.

  A way not to have to think about the real world spinning around outside these four walls.

  The men exchanged a glance, almost like a silent conversation went on between them before they turned back to her.

  “What do you think?” Juju asked.

  She stood, heart pounding. “I think Lima said you’d be here for a few days yet. I’m going to be blunt and put it out there that I think you two are hot, I have a five-year, and I’m really looking for a distraction right now. Your two options are boinking my brains out, or listening to me cry as I get too deep into my head and start thinking about Stu again. I’m not looking for forever. I’m just looking for right now to distract me. You a good distraction?”

  One more shared glance between the men before they both stood and stepped forward. “I think we can handle that,” Delta said, staring down at her.

  Juju stepped behind her, pressing her against Delta. Both men’s cocks strained against their shorts and pressed into her.

  That she could feel both men’s cocks like that gave her hope that she’d be walking funny tomorrow.

  “I’m guessing the military makes sure you boys don’t pass around any STDs, right?”

  Delta smiled do
wn at her. “We’re clean.”

  “I know I am. Been over two years now since I’ve gotten laid.” Her mouth felt dry all of a sudden. She nervously licked her lips, not missing how Delta’s cock twitched against her front as he watched her do it.

  Juju’s voice softly spoke in her right ear, sending the good kinds of shivers down her spine. “Then baby, you’d better buckle up for a looong day, because it’s been over two years for us, and we’re going to make this last.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The thought of questioning this and putting on the brakes crossed Juju’s mind for about a split second. Then he turned Shasta to face him, carefully removed her glasses, and set them on the bedside table.

  After staring down into her gorgeous blue eyes for a long moment, he cupped her face with his hands and traced her lips with his, slowly, gently. No, they wouldn’t have much time with her, but he’d damn sure savor this first kiss.

  Her eyes dropped closed. He wished they’d have more than a few days together with her. Maybe this was fast and crazy and a really bad idea, but she was willing, and so were they.

  He’d also be a liar if he said he didn’t find her attractive. Since he’d first set eyes on her, with those cute glasses, he’d wanted a crack at her sweet body, if she was interested in them. Which, obviously, she was.

  Hell, the others have happiness. Why can’t we?

  It couldn’t—wouldn’t last, though. Not for right now. She wasn’t a fighter. She wouldn’t have a place there in the team if she came with them.

  She obviously worried about her parents, and they needed the money. He would understand if she didn’t want to just up and leave them, especially so soon after her brother’s death, to go galavanting around the world with them, possibly getting shot at, or getting Kite, or getting…well, dead.

  Although she was a hacker. But they had two of those already, Lima and Ax.

  She’d be in harm’s way, or the risk of it, even with them.