“Ali, it’s a freaking trap.”
“Yes, and we’re the one setting it.” She rose from the chair. Started to push past him. But Jinx caught her and pulled her back. He lifted her onto the edge of the desk.
His mouth crashed onto hers.
Ali couldn’t help herself. She leaned into him. Gave herself up to that hot, wild, frantic kiss. Fear and adrenaline pumped in her. She knew this was bad. She knew going to that fort would put her in danger.
And Jinx. Jinx will be in danger.
Her hands rose. Her fingers bit into his shoulders. Her mouth tore from his. “Don’t come with me.”
“Yeah, not happening.” His expression was hard with intent. Almost brutal. “I would walk through hell with you in a heartbeat. There is no way—no way—that I let you go off into the night alone and face this guy.”
“He’s tried to kill you already.”
“I won’t be alone. We’ll make sure War and Odin have our backs.” A muscle flexed along his jaw. “And Landon. I have to call Landon.”
That was a ton of reinforcement. War and Odin were the best trained men she knew, after Jinx. But they were her friends…I hate risking them all.
“We’ve gone out on missions way riskier,” Jinx reminded her.
She knew that. Of course, she knew that. But this was different. It was different because it was because of her. The risk they faced wasn’t because they were trying to protect their country. It was because they were trying to protect her.
Jinx stood between her legs. His hands were locked around her hips. “If I was in danger, sweets, what would you do?”
“Fight for you.” Her immediate reply. She’d fight dirty and hard and do whatever it took to protect him.
“Then you understand why I will do the same for you.” Another kiss. Deeper. Longer. “I love you.”
His words rolled through her. Warmed her in all the cold places that fear had created.
“I will stand with you, I will fight for you, and I will not let anything happen to you.” His forehead pressed to hers. “You see, I want a future with you. A life where I get to wake up and see you first thing in the morning and make love to you last thing every night.”
That sounded pretty good to her. It was a dream she wanted. It was one they would have.
“Trust me,” Jinx said.
She nodded. She did. She absolutely did…
Don’t trust Jinx.
Ali pushed the warning from her mind. Cy didn’t know Jinx. She did. The person she didn’t know, not any longer…
Cyrus.
***
The fort was spooky. No other word for it. There were no lights inside, and the myriad of tunnels that cut through the historic site seemed dark and menacing. The wind blew off the Gulf and swept through those tunnels, and the sound of the wind blowing sounded like moans. Ghostly echoes.
The moon and stars shone down from overhead. The bastions of the fort rose like angry beasts in the night, and the scent of salt air surrounded her.
Ali slowly strode forward. She had a flashlight in her left hand and a gun in her right. She didn’t have the light on yet. The minute she turned it on, she’d be a beacon to anyone hunting for—
“Ali.”
She whirled to the left. Toward the gaping tunnel. Her name echoed through that tunnel.
She knew Jinx was watching her. Jinx. War. Odin. Landon. They were all there, hiding in the shadows. Ready to swarm at a moment’s notice.
She took a step toward the tunnel. “You’re a fool if you think I’m just blindly walking in there.” She made sure her voice was clear and that it carried easily. “I came to the fort. I followed your directions, now you follow mine.” A pause. “If you want to talk to me, Cy, then come out.” If she went into that tunnel, Jinx wouldn’t be able to see her. She’d promised him that she’d stay in the open.
Ali had no intention of breaking a promise to Jinx. She kept her gun aimed at the entrance to that old tunnel. The waves were pounding against the nearby shore. The fort was on a small barrier island, and the surf was rough and hard as the wind blew with the promise of an oncoming storm.
Over the pounding, she heard the light pad of steps.
A dark shadow emerged from the tunnel. Came toward her. Closer and closer…
She turned on her light. It illuminated the man in the dark hoodie who stood at the entrance to that gaping tunnel. A tall man with wide shoulders and a muscled chest. A beard covered his hard jaw, and beneath the top of the hood, she could see thick, dark hair.
He had changed a lot from the too thin, hesitant teen that she’d known.
But she knew that she was staring straight at Cyrus. “Why?” Ali asked him softly, sadly. “Why did you do all this?”
***
“Contact,” Jinx barely breathed the word into his comm link. They’d all linked up before Ali went inside. “I can see him.”
“Take him out.” An order that came from Landon.
Jinx saw Ali’s shoulders jerk. He knew she’d heard that order, too. She was on the link, a small bit of tech that most wouldn’t be able to see. In the dark, they’d been counting on Cyrus not noticing her comm as it hid in her left ear.
“Take him out,” Landon blasted. “He is a security threat. My orders are to remove him from the equation. If Ali isn’t going to do it…Jinx, you know what you have to do.”
Remove him from the equation? Who said shit like that?
“Jinx!” Landon was snarling in his ear. “He’s reaching for a weapon! Don’t you see him, don’t you see—”
Cyrus was reaching into the pocket of his hoodie.
Jinx sprang from the darkness.
***
“Drop it!” Ali ordered.
Cyrus lifted up what appeared to be a small box—barely any bigger than a matchbox. “It’s a signal jammer. I just made sure that whoever you’re talking to on your comm link—those people won’t be whispering in your ear any longer. You won’t hear them, and they won’t hear us.”
“What makes you think I have a comm link?” She could now hear nothing from the link. Landon had been snarling about Cyrus reaching for his gun, and then everything had gone quiet.
“Oh, Ali.” Cyrus sighed and dropped the little box to the ground. He raised his hands toward her. “It’s predictable. It’s exactly what the people in the agency would want. Control. You do know that you’ve been under their control for years? They’ve lied to you. Manipulated you. Used you.”
“But they haven’t tried to kill me. That would be something you did. You came after me. After Jinx. After—”
Jinx burst out of the darkness.
Cyrus tensed. “I warned you about him, Ali.”
Jinx was trying to move between her and Cyrus.
“Dammit, Ali! I told you he was lying to you!” Cyrus shouted. “I told you that you couldn’t trust him, I told you—”
A gunshot blasted. Cyrus stumbled back, then slammed into the ground.
Ali hadn’t fired. Neither had Jinx.
“War? Odin?” Ali called.
There was no response on her comm.
Cyrus was on the ground, rolling to his side and swearing as he grabbed his shoulder. “Ali, help me!”