Page 47 of Peace Under Fire

Squish glanced over his shoulder. Mandy was curled up across the backseat, using the shawl as a pillow and his sheepskin jacket as a blanket. She looked exhausted, her skin gray, her face carved with stress. Most people’s faces relaxed when they slept, the lines and crevices of life vanishing. Not Mandy’s. If anything, her face looked more tense. More lined. More exhausted. She’d crashed as soon as she’d revealed her secrets.

He knew why she’d come back now. She needed his help to recover her family. But she hadn’t told him everything. Of that he was certain.

“She sleeping?” Brick asked quietly.

“Yeah. Out cold.” He turned to stare out the windshield at the nearly empty highway ahead.

Tex had hung up to arrange a reconnaissance team to sweep Mandy’s home. Squish had no doubt the dude would be hacking into the place’s security system as well. Those video cameras could provide some interesting visuals. Not just about the assholes who’d attacked the compound and kidnapped the women living there—but about Mandy’s sisters themselves.

Would there be any evidence of these abilities Mandy claimed they possessed?

It was hard to wrap his mind around what she’d described. Talking to animals? Healing people with a touch? Reading minds? Blowing things up or setting fires just by thinking about it? A nefarious organization on their heels? It sounded like the plot of a dozen sci-fi thrillers available for streaming.

In other words, it sounded like she’d made the whole thing up.

“Her story sounds crazy, doesn’t it?” Squish glanced at Brick. Did the dude buy any of it?

Brick shrugged, his face neutral. “From what Tex said, she did forecast that last fucked up mission of yours.”

True. Squish scrubbed his palms down his face. But hell, he still had trouble wrapping his brain around that.

“Even if she exaggerated that whole explanation, we know two things for certain.” Brick pulled into the right lane to pass a brown paneled, old-style station wagon. “People are after her and they’re willing to kill to get their hands on her, as evidenced by that high-speed chase after you left the clinic.”

More like a low-speed chase. But the bastards in the silver sedan had tried to kill him. Multiple times. Which at least gave credence to her account of a nefarious organization targeting them.

“She’s not telling us everything,” Brick said as he passed the station wagon. “There were major holes in her explanation.”

Squish nodded. “Like how this mysterious organization even knows about the family’s abilities.” That was the biggest missing puzzle piece as far as he was concerned.

“Yeah.” Brick glanced over his shoulder and pulled back into the right lane. “And doesn’t it seem odd to you that their abilities are all over the map? Obviously, genetics can manifest in strange ways, but they’re sisters, which would give them similar DNA. You’d think they’d have similar abilities. Like all being able to future-cast. Or all being able to read minds.”

Squish nodded thoughtfully. “It didn’t sound like they have much in common when it comes to their specific talents.”

“Other than the fact they have the ability to do things normal humans can’t do,” Brick said as he tapped out a vaguely familiar rhythm on the steering wheel. “Which indicates they can tap into areas of the brain normal people don’t have access to.”

Squish thought about that. “What are the odds an entire family would be able to access areas of the brain not available to the average human?”

Brick ran a palm over his dark hair. “I’m no statistician. But I’d guess, the odds aren’t good.”

“Unless someone messed with their brains,” Squish said quietly. A shudder rippled through him at the thought of anyone deliberately digging into his mind and manipulating his gray matter.

“That would explain how this organization she alluded to would know what they’re capable of. If they’re responsible for the family’s so-called-talents it would also explain why they want them back.” Brick paused, before sliding Squish a curious look. “What do you think? Is Tex going to get approval from North to go in and rescue her sisters?”

“Assuming Tex can find out where they were taken,” Squish muttered, “North will give the green light. This Giulia could be the best shot we have of pinpointing our traitor.”

Brick nodded. “Doesn’t that whole thing feel off to you, too? With the kind of information Tex has at his fingertips, you’d think he’d have uncovered something that pointed toward your spy.”

No shit. Squish scowled. “Tex checked into everything. Hell, the whole damn lot of them passed a polygraph.”

Which wasn’t that big of a surprise. Polygraph readings were based on elevated physical cues. Heart rate. Blood pressure. Respiration. Sweating. Shit like that. If you learned how to lock down your physical responses, you could fool a polygraph. But it wasn’t just the polygraph. Tex had a huge network to pull from. He should have been able to find something. A clue. A bank account. He should have been able to find someone who knew something.

But nope, dead silence—which was just…weird.

This Giulia looked like their best option. Which meant they needed to find her, and free her. Hopefully Tex would have better luck with that.

An hour slowly crawled past, followed by another, and then a third. Brick refused Squish’s offer to trade places and Mandy slept on. They were well into their fourth hour on the road when Tex finally called back.

“Hey,” Brick said as he put the phone on speaker.

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