Page 73 of Command and Control: GHOST Operative

Heidi finally looks my way, shooting me a quick grin. "Vincent's real good at making dead bodies disappear."

I smile back. "That's kind of a relief, because I recently made a dead body."

Heidi's eyes widen and her mouth drops open. "No shit?"

"No shit." I still feel a little guilty about not feeling guilty for what happened, but it was kill or be killed. Or maybe kill or be abducted. Either way, that guy wasn’tthere to sell me popcorn. "I took out one of the guys who showed up at my condo."

Heidi holds up one hand, palm facing my direction. "Hell yeah."

I give her a high-five. It probably makes me a bad person, but it seems like I’m in good company around here. It's probably a good thing my moral compass is more questionable than I realized, otherwise it would likely be difficult to be with someone like Vincent. And I want to be with him. Indefinitely.

Loose morals for the win.

I grab my coffee cup, ready to take another swig before getting back to work, but the second I pick it up, I groan. Peering into the lid’s drink hole, I frown. "Dammit. I didn't notice I'd already drunk all this."

Heidi waves me on. "Go get more. It's gonna take me a while to get all this deciphered."

I wish I could help her with it, but I never quite made it into those super clandestine groups. Once I discovered there were companies like GHOST that I could work for, I focused most of my attention on that and less on the social aspect that comes with hacking. It's a solitary sort of thing, but the community surrounding it is surprisingly big and close-knit.

"You want anything while I’m in the breakroom?"

Heidi shakes her head, lifting up her giant cup with one hand. "I'm good."

“I’ll be right back then.” I take my empty cup with me, because there's no reason for me to use a new one every time. I’m at the coffee machine waiting for my next brew when movement catches my eye. I turn to find Amos, the guy in charge of Vincent's SWAT style teams,entering the room. I give him a nod, but don't smile, because that's how Vincent greets people. Then go back to making my coffee, figuring he’s here for a beverage of his own.

I finish making my cup and turn to find him standing right in front of me, so close I almost jump back in surprise. Thankfully, the fear of being scalded by my screaming hot coffee keeps my reaction subdued. I must be in his way, so I step to one side.

He follows, blocking my path. "Vincent wants you to come to the training center."

"Oh." His rounds must be taking longer than he expected, and he wants to touch base with me about how things are going on my end. "Okay." I double check the lid of my cup and follow Amos out of the room, trailing behind him.

GHOST headquarters is huge. Like, could serve as an Amazon distribution center huge, and I'm still not great about knowing my way around. I blindly follow Amos as we make turn after turn, switching my hot cup from hand to hand, wishing I’d taken the time to slide on a cardboard sleeve so my palms wouldn’t be melting.

He pushes a heavy metal door open, and I follow him through, expecting to walk into the giant auditorium style arena. Instead, the sharp cut of the Alaskan breeze steals my breath.

Maybe I'm not the only one who doesn't know their way around this freaking place. I stop, ready to turn back and race inside before my nipples can cut glass, but Amos grabs my elbow, his grip a little tighter than I'm expecting. "This way."

He tries to pull me, but I hold my ground. "I'm prettysure the arena isn’t that way. I've never had to go outside to get there."

Amos stops and slowly turns to face me, but this time when he looks at me his expression is different. It’s colder. Darker.

I figure out I’m in trouble a split second before he tries to grab me with both hands. The only weapon I have is a cup of screaming hot coffee, and I use it, ripping the lid free before throwing it right in his face. I know it won’t stop him, but maybe it’ll slow him down enough to give me time to run. Time to get someone’s attention.

But Amos barely even flinches when the scalding liquid makes contact with his skin. The only way I know he even realizes it happened is because he immediately backhands me across the face. The hit stuns me. I've never been hit in my life, and it seems to short-circuit my brain just long enough for him to start dragging me away from the building. The path is a little slippery and my cute black ankle boots do nothing to help me get traction, so instead of fighting to get free, I’m fighting to stay upright.

"We could have done this the easy way, but you just had to be difficult." His voice is flat. No inflection at all. "You know how long it took me to find you? Months. It cost me millions. And because of you, it was almost a complete waste."

What the fuck is he even talking about? "I haven't—"

Before I can finish my sentence, he slaps me again, palm connecting with the other side of my face in another shocking blow.

"I hope you weren’t about to say you haven't done anything. We both know exactly what you've done." He continues moving, and now my whole face is throbbing. Ifit wasn't for him holding me up, I'd be splattered across the snow, melting into a puddle of panicked tears. He’s hit me twice now for less than no reason, so I can only imagine how he'd react if I fell. And since I don’t want to find out, I put all my effort into keeping both feet under me while I try to come up with a way out of whatever the fuck this is.

"You have two options." He continues hauling me forward, and I catch sight of an idling SUV as we round the corner of the building. "You can keep dragging your ass and I can take out whoever gets in my way, or you can come with me and no one else has to get hurt."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand what he's telling me. He’s all in on whatever this is, and will do whatever it takes to get me out of here, killing anyone who tries to get in his way.

Including Vincent.

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