Page 69 of Don't Let Go

Yes, briefing now meant he’d turn his comm back on, not that I couldn’t hear him via theirs. But he couldn’t hear me and he had to know I wasn’t going to put up with that. If he didn’t know, he was going to find out.

I waited.

The click as it came back online echoed in my ear. McQuade blew out a breath. “Online, Sugar Bear.”

I stared at the screen.

Then back at the town. “Then brief the boys,” I suggested, fighting for a professional tone. “I’ll have my report for you when you get back. Going silent.”

I shut it off before he could say anything. Shut all of them down, then yanked the headset off. My heart hammered so loud, it echoed in my ears and my hands were shaking.

Worse, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to cry, throw up, scream, or hit something. I pressed the heel of my hand against my eye as my head thundered with every beat of my pulse.

McQuade had gone silent and had been in some kind of fight. He’d been recognized. Recognized someone who was there. But he’d been running alone.

He could have been killed.

The more my thoughts chased around in circles, the worse my headache got. Doors swung both ways, you could open and shut communications. He’d been offline… anything could have happened.

I’d just gone offline when…

No sooner did my mind go there than it retreated. I shoved away from the desk and headed for the little kitchenette. I retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge and pressed the icy plastic against my suddenly flushed face.

I had no idea how long I stood there, how long I fought to get the shallow breaths to deepen, and to stop panting. I was still there when the alarm alerted me to their arrival. The slam of the car doors echoed through the silence. Their footfalls, a soft shush of shoe on the metal floors and then quieted more when they hit the rubber mats that lined everything for traction.

Then they were walking around the corner, McQuade in the lead. I had no idea what I was going to do before I did it, butwhen he grinned with his bloodstained lips, I saw red. Then I threw the water bottle as hard as I could and it smacked him upside the head, bouncing once before he caught it.

Locke and Remy froze in place and McQuade stared at me. “What the hell?”

“Apparently, I needed tofreakout.”

Chapter

Twenty-Four

PATCH

Still holding the bottle of water I’d hurled at him, McQuade eyed me. No smile touched his lips, nor any teasing expression on his face. Good. I wasn’t kidding.

Thiswasn’tfunny.

“All right,” McQuade said slowly, his guarded gaze fixed on me. “We good now?”

Are we good now?

Are we…

My headache surged as I clamped my teeth together before I said anything more.

McQuade set the water bottle down on the little kitchenette counter as he took a couple of steps in my direction. Neither Remy nor Locke moved. It would almost be funny, if anything about this situation was laughable, how still they’d both gone.

“I get that you’re pissed, Sugar Bear. But it was important for me to get this info.”

His next step put me in arm’s reach and I took a step back and to the side, retreating, but also regrouping. Arms folded, I fought to keep my expression neutral. Probably failed at it, because right now, I wasanythingbut neutral.

McQuade exhaled a long breath. “Tell you what. Let me debrief. I was filling the guys in but you disconnected before I could read you in.”

My stony silence would just have to serve as all the permission I was going to give him. I absolutely didnottrust myself to speak.

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