Page 73 of Peace Under Fire

“Look.” Mandy steadied her voice and held her sister’s furious gaze. “I’m well aware I’m responsible for what—”

“They would never have found us if you hadn’t left to find him,” Jo snapped, her angry eyes cutting to Jacob and then back again. “Was he worth it? Huh? Was he worth betraying your family? Was he worth exposing us to the cockroaches?”

Mandy flinched. She reached out to clasp JoAnn’s balled fist, tightening her grip when Jo tried to jerk her hand away.

“No. He wasn’t worth it.” She saw Jacob’s big body twitch out of the corner of her eye, before going rigid. She ignored his response. It was true, after all. She’d found a whole lot of nothing with Jacob, and she’d lost her family in the process.

It hadn’t even occurred to her that she might end up regretting her choices when she’d left the compound all those months ago. She’d been so full of optimistic naivete. So certain she and Jacob were meant for each other.

What a reality check.

“If I could go back and do things over, I wouldn’t leave to find him,” she said, her voice hoarse. “But I can’t turn back time. And I don’t have the skill set, or a strong enough talent, to rescue our sisters on my own. Neither do you. These men do have the skill set, and the training, along with the equipment to find where the cockroaches took our family. They can go in and get our sisters out. We need their help.”

“Yeah?” JoAnn’s lips twisted into a sneer. Scorn brightened her hazel eyes to glittering green. “At what cost? For God’s sake, Mandy, they’re military. They’re just as dangerous as the cockroaches. Once they rescue everyone, they’ll stick us in cages. We’ll just be exchanging one prison for another.”

Mandy simply nodded. That was her fear too. But what choice did they have? They needed help to save their sisters.

“We need them, Jo. I don’t know what will happen to us once this is over. But I do know what will happen to Giulia and the others if we don’t do something, and soon. We can’t find them, let alone rescue them, on our own. We need Jacob and his friends to get them out of that hellhole.”

“And when they betray us?” JoAnn snapped. “Because you know they will.”

“We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Mandy said tightly.

Gray silently reentered the room, carrying the orange, rolling cart that Kaylee used when she was working beneath one of her cars. He lowered it to the floor.

Jacob shifted beside her, only to go still again—as though he’d been about to say something but thought better of it. There was no doubt all three men were listening. She could feel their interest.

Mandy forced herself not to look at any of them. Thank God the rest of Tex’s team had left the room. An audience of three was bad enough.

“I’m not asking you to trust them, Jo. I’m not asking you to divulge all our secrets. I just need you to tell them anything you know about the cockroaches. Anything that will help find our family.”

“We should just hire someone to rescue them.” JoAnn scowled. “We have the money. We could bypass these bozos completely. We don’t need them.”

Mandy forced herself not to look at Jacob after JoAnn’s latest insult. Lord, her sister fed on confrontation sometimes.

“We had the money. Before the cockroaches attacked the compound. Do you really think they didn’t ransack Kaylee’s computers and ferret out our aliases and bank accounts? If they left any of our accounts up, they probably did so to monitor them. The minute we access the money, they’ll know where we are. So yes, we do need these men.”

With a heavy, put-upon sigh, JoAnn sat up. “Fine. What do they need to know?” She didn’t look at anyone as she asked the question, just glared down at her child-sized, pink hiking boots.

Crusher glanced at Jacob, as though waiting for him to take charge. When silence ticked by, he cleared his throat and said cautiously. “Anything you can tell us about the men who attacked you would be appreciated.”

JoAnn rolled her eyes. “Yeah? Like what?”

“Like anything you overheard, or whether they’ve been back since that initial attack two days ago. Have you noticed any new cameras or unfamiliar objects on the property? Have you seen any drones flying overhead?” Crusher said.

“Fine.” JoAnn said, her tone a cross between long suffering and stoic. “Yes. They’ve been back. Twice. Both times at night. Both times on snowmobiles. I thought you guys were them when you cornered me.” She sighed before adding with disgust, “How was I supposed to know my idiotic sister would hook up with a bunch of oversized gorillas?”

“Looks like ape-themed insults are a thing with you two,” Jacob said dryly.

Mandy flushed, remembering the ‘over-amped ape’ comment she’d flung at Grumpy earlier.

Crusher didn’t react to JoAnn’s insult this time. He simply responded to her comment. “There are no tracks outside.”

JoAnn’s snort indicated she feared for his intelligence. “Because it’s snowed since then.” Dumbass.

While JoAnn managed to rein the slur in, Mandy could hear it, hovering there on the tip of her tongue. Her sister was certainly full of snark today.

“So, you’ve been hanging out here in the gym since it snowed last?” Crusher asked.

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