Page 19 of Concerto of Crows and Cowards

“Yeah,” he said. “It was missing me. That’s about the same time the I met the Director of the CIA, Robert Lockwood. He said he recognized some things in me that he was looking for to create a specialized team that wouldn’t answer to anyone but him. I never looked back after that.”

He’d made a lot of detours in his life, searching for something to give him purpose and support as his family never had. Serving his country had given him that purpose, and he was grateful for it.

“Like you, I often wonder if I’d have taken a different path if my grandfather had lived,” he said. “It’s hard for me to remember him other than what I see from pictures. I remember his laugh and the way he always smelled like peppermint and aftershave. I remember he loved me and reminded me how important it was to bring honor to the Devlin name. To always remember where I came from and be grateful to those before me who’d made sure we never had to worry about where we’d get our next meal.”

“He’d be proud of your service,” she said. “You’ve more than brought honor to the Devlin name.”

“Not according to my parents. They sent flowers when I was shot, and my father tried to get power of attorney over all my holdings and my trust, using the argument that I’d never be of sound mind again. He’s still trying to get control last time I talked to my attorneys.”

Jade raised her brows. “On what grounds?”

“Of consorting with nefarious criminals, squandering Devlin money, and blackening the family name. In their eyes, there’s nothing in what I’ve become to be proud of. And I have to let them continue to think that way.”

She propped herself up on crossed arms and looked angry on his behalf. That was enough to wash away his own anger at the people he shared blood with. He’d come to realize they didn’t have the ability to love or nurture as they should have, and it wasn’t worth wasting the time or effort on them any longer, though that didn’t make the hurt go away.

“To show you what a good friend I am,” she said, grinning, “The next time you’re invited home for dinner, I’m going to let you take me as your date. We’ll see what your father has to say about that.”

“I’d take you anywhere and be proud of it,” he said seriously, watching as the laughter faded from her eyes. “The deficiency is in them, not either of us. Just like it was with your mother’s family. Two lost souls.” His hand reached out and squeezed hers. “And we turned out just fine.”

A high-pitched alarm sounded on his phone and Jade rolled away from him and grabbed the pistol she’d put under the chair. He grabbed his own weapon and the phone and they ran back into the house.

“Someone’s on the main road to the house,” he said. He pulled on a pair of jeans and a white shirt and then shoved his feet into his boots. Jade did the same thing and then pulled the black bag she’d stashed from under the bed. Max flipped on the flat-screen TV and watched as the surveillance cameras gave faces to their visitors. The road leading to the house made them have to slow down enough that the cameras could see inside the car.

“It’s not Vassin,” Jade remarked, loading a magazine in her weapon and then putting it at the small of her back. “But there are only two. How do you want to handle it?”

Max picked up his own weapon and then he picked up the familiar thumping sound in the distance.

“Hell,” he said.

“They’ve got a chopper. That could be bad.” Nothing much ever fazed Jade. That’s why he’d always liked working with her.

Max hit the security panic button and metal shutters closed over all the windows. Damned if he wanted to have to replace a bunch of broken windows if they came out of this alive.

“They’ll try to take me,” he said. “Vassin wants the information too bad. And these men aren’t likely to see you as a threat. Let’s let them keep believing that.”

“ETA two minutes,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong. I’ve enjoyed the week of leisure. But there’s something nice about the weight of a rifle on your back.”

“Have I told you I’m crazy about you?”

“That’s not what you said the time we got stuck during a hurricane and went three days without electricity.”

“That’s because I was stuck in close quarters with you and I had to pretend we were just friends. I was going mad.”

She winked at him and then chambered a bullet in her weapon, taking her place just to the side of one of the thick cedar posts on the porch.

Max took a seat on the front steps and propped his arms on his knees in a casual pose so no one would get too jumpy, and he watched as a cloud of dust plumed from the bottom of his driveway. A sleek black sedan shot out of the tunnel and sped toward them even as the whoomp, whoomp, whoomp from the chopper became louder and the blades kicked up red dust and dead grass.

The helicopter was bullet shaped and black, and it touched down in the wide expanse of his lawn just as the car pulled to a stop. Max slowly got to his feet and walked out to meet the new arrivals halfway. He kept his hands loose at his sides as two men got out of the car.

Dressed in worn jeans and T-shirts, they could have been any average Joe walking down the street. Except for the fact that they looked like thugs. Slicked-back hair and big, meaty hands that would do serious damage if they made contact. One of them had a ragged scar on the side of his eye and the other had a tattoo of a snake wrapped around his neck.

Both of them were armed. Max counted at least three weapons hidden under their clothes. These guys were the muscle—probably hired out locally and too dumb to do any research other than what Vassin spoon-fed them.

It was the two men coming from the helicopter that would have to be watched. They were dressed in black cargos and T-shirts, reflective black sunglasses covering their eyes and their guns visible in the shoulder holsters they wore. They moved with an easy balance that only someone who’d been trained could carry off. They looked ex-military or government, and that just pissed him off.

“You Max Devlin?” one of the thugs from the car asked.

Max ignored him and watched as the two from the helicopter moved in closer. They’d all positioned themselves neatly around him so he stood in the center of their little circle.

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