Page 33 of Peace Under Fire

“You already told him about me,” she finally said in a tight voice.

Squish’s jaw tightened. “He’s safe. You can trust him.” His tone was curter than he’d intended, but she didn’t pull back as she had in the past.

“Can I?” she asked. “I’m not even sure I can trust you,” she added, her face tinged with bitterness.

That stung.

“You came to me,” he growled, his temper stirring.

“Because you left me no choice,” her voice heated. “You dug into things you should have left alone, things you had no business looking into. You’re the reason—" She broke off and took a deep breath, holding it.

Ten seconds ticked by before she released her breath in a deep, even gust.

“Is he getting us a car and a place to stay?” she asked, facing forward and staring woodenly out the windshield.

Scowling, Squish considered responding to her accusations. But hell, there wasn’t much he could say. So, he focused on her last question instead.

“Yeah. He’s taking care of it.” He cast her a sidelong glance. She hadn’t lost her tension. In fact, anxiety vibrated off her. Her arms were even wrapped around herself in a classic self-soothing gesture.

His chest tightened. She obviously didn’t trust him to keep her safe. Why that bothered him so much, he couldn’t say.

“Look…” He turned back to the road. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” His voice came out grumbly and rough.

She sighed and loosened her arms. “I’m not worried about me.”

Before he had a chance to question her about that, Tex came back on the line.

“Squish?”

“Yeah?” He checked the rearview mirror. A white SUV had pulled onto the road behind them.

“Are you familiar with the strip mall on the corner of Beach and Dreyfuss?” Tex asked.

Squish frowned. “Vaguely. That the one with the Kroger’s?

“That’s the place.” Tex’s voice rose slightly. “Head there. Pull behind the mall. Halfway down, you’ll find a silver Toyota Highlander with rental plates.”

“Where will I find the keys.”

“With the driver.” Tex’s voice went hollow for a moment. “You remember Drake Vandine?”

Squish’s gaze wandered back to the rearview mirror. The white SUV was still behind them. “You mean Brick?”

Damn right he remembered Brick. Everyone knew the dude. Or at least they knew what had happened to him. Brick had been a hell of an operator. One of the best, until he and his team had been blown to hell and back during a mission gone south. Brick had been the sole survivor and spent weeks in the hospital undergoing surgery after surgery to put him back together.

Losing your entire team like that was every operator’s worst nightmare.

“What’s he doing in town?” Last Squish had heard, Brick had left the teams and settled in the mountains of New Mexico where he ran some kind of retreat with a bunch of other guys.

“He flew in to talk to the widow of one of his old teammates. No one knows he’s in town. Which makes him perfect for our purposes.”

It did?

“How so?” Squish took the next left and kept an eye on his rearview mirror. The SUV continued down Mercy.

“The only reason someone would be after Mandy is if they knew about her ability. And the only reason they would be following you, in hope of getting to her, would be if they knew about her connection to you. And the only way they’d know about either of those things, would be if they—”

“Listened to the voicemail.” Squish filled in grimly.

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