Page 67 of Covert Operation

My cell starts to ring again. The name across the screen is expected, and once again I put it on speaker. “You’re up early.”

“You assume I’ve been to sleep.” Pierce’s voice is tight. “I understand the team will arrive in about an hour.”

“That’s what Isaac said.” I don’t try to keep the annoyance out of my tone. It’s a little too convenient that Pierce had me here less than two weeks ago and now I’m back and shit’s going to hell. I have to think he knows more than he’s letting on.

“Do you have any idea who’s behind this?” Pierce asks.

“Do you?” I shoot right back at him. If he has even a fucking inkling of why someone would try to take me out, I want to know.

Pierce sighs. “If I knew who was behind this, I would tell you. Especially since you’re not alone.” His voice is a little softer when he says, “You helped protect Mona. I would hope you’d know I’d do the same for you.”

I stare at my phone, letting the insinuation Pierce makes sink in. Letting it burrow under my skin.

Just like Savannah has.

I judged Pierce a little when he lost his shit over the woman who became his wife. Questioned how he could allow his judgment to become so clouded.

I might owe him an apology.

“I’ll let you know as soon as we find anything out.” My thumb hovers over the screen of my cell. “You don’t think this has anything to do with Vincent, do you?”

I should think it does, but I don’t. Never once did it seem like Vincent suspected our presence. If anything, the head of GHOST seemed to have tunnel vision. His attention stayed on the pretty, voluptuous brunette who was about to find out she fucked with the wrong man.

And that’s only because he’d already figured out he fucked with the wrong woman. It was amusing as hell watching Vincent fall apart, but maybe that’s the key to all this.

It’s possible Vincent wasn’t the only one with tunnel vision.

“I’m working on that.” Pierce’s tone is clipped. “I’ll be in touch.” He disconnects the call and I grit my teeth in aggravation. If Pierce won’t help me figure this shit out, I know someone who will.

“I was in Nashville a couple weeks ago, collecting intel on a man we do business with on occasion.” I think through the whole situation, using Christian as a sounding board. “From what I gathered, he was here to scare a woman who’d breached his system into minding her own fucking business.”

Christian lifts a brow. “Is that how that’s normally handled?”

I huff out a laugh. “No. Especially not by Vincent.” Scratching at the short crop of my beard, I continue. “Normally he’d makesure anyone who even tried to access his servers would never be seen or heard from again.”

One corner of Christian’s mouth lifts. “Sounds like love to me.”

“I’d probably say obsession, but love works too in this case.” I’ve known Vincent for a long time, and his version of love probably looks a whole hell of a lot different than mine. “It’s possible my trip here and Vincent’s activities connect to all this, but I don’t know how yet.”

And when I was here before, I was so pissed at the task I was given, I wasn’t being as careful as I maybe should have been. I didn’t lay low. Didn’t watch my back everywhere I went.

Hell, I acted like a fucking tourist at times, visiting fancy hotels and eating in Yelp recommended restaurants. It’s possible, if someone else was watching Vincent, they were also watching me.

And my head was too far up my ass to know it.

“Fuck.” I rake one hand through my hair. “I should know more than I do.”

“Want me to put out feelers? See if I can come up with anything?” Christian offers.

I know a little about the morally questionable life Christian’s led. Just like he knows a little about the morally questionable life I’ve led. But hearing he might be able to get information for me is still somewhat of a surprise. “You seriously have those kinds of contacts?”

My friend gives me a slow smile. “You’d be shocked what kind of contacts I have.” He stands. “I’ll see what I can come up with, but first, you have a meeting.”

I angle a brow. “A meeting?”

Christian chuckles. “You didn’t think you’d get out of here without having to meet my brothers did you?”

“THIS IS A lot of people.” Savannah scoots closer to me as more and more men and women file into Christian’s house. Her brows pinch together as she takes them all in. “These are all his brothers?”