Page 64 of Renegade

“Ankles.”

He hitched up both denim legs of his jeans.

“Yeah. Let’s go.” I bent and picked up my keys, opening the door to the Ford and slipping into the driver’s seat. He ran around and got into the passenger seat, sliding down and grabbing the brim of his ballcap, pulling it lower over his face as he made himself as small as possible. I started the truck then drew out my phone, calling Raven, putting it on speaker, not caring if John could hear.

“Baby? You’ve been gone a long time. Where—”

I interrupted him. “Are you still at the office?”

“Uh…yeah. I’ve been waiting for you to call after your meeting with Vonne. How’d it go?”

“I’ll tell you all about it in a bit.” I glanced at John before looking back out the windshield. “Something else has happened.” When I heard his sharp intake of breath, I hurried to reassure him. “Raven…I’m fine, but I need you to meet me at the ATF in Glendale. Call Mark and make sure he’s there. I’ll need himandThorne. The whole team.”

“Oh, okay. What’s—”

“Just do it, Sunshine. Please.” I wanted to tell him everything over the phone, but I wasn’t about to spring news like the fact that the man we thought might be trying to kill us, was sitting beside me in the truck.

“Okay, Miguel. I’ll see you in about a half hour depending on traffic.” He hesitated. “You’re okay, right? No one’s forcing you to say that?”

I darted a glance at John who was watching me. When his lips twitched, I frowned. “No, Raven. I swear it.”

“Okay, then, I’ll see you as soon as I can.”

“Good. Thanks, Raven.” I hung up the phone before he could say anything more.

“Raven—”

I turned to look at John and he shut his mouth.

I could barely speak through gritted teeth. “Don’t say a word to me about Raven. He’s not a Marine. He never served in the military. He’s a civilian and ever since you showed up at Sagebrush, he’s been scared for my life…not his life…mylife.” I didn’t want him uttering Raven’s name to me.

“I’m…sorry.”

I drove out of the parking lot as John reached over, putting a hand on my arm, making me turn to look at him. He was sitting up a little higher, looking directly into my eyes. “I never would have done anything to hurt you. I hope you know better than that.” He was frowning, looking hurt. I sucked in a deep breath, saying nothing as he dropped his hand. I looked into the rearview mirror. I couldn’t spot a tail but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t following us.

“Iusedto know you,” I said. “You were my brother. But to be honest, I think I was wrong. I don’t know what would have keptyou from me and the team or how in the hell you ever got out of that desert alive.”

“I’ll explain it all to you once we’re inside somewhere.” He kept checking the sideview mirror, something I recognized as hypervigilance. I’d seen it in guys with PTSD, guys I’d served with in the Corps. One day they’d be fine, laughing with you over a meal in the mess one minute, and the next, seeing ghosts in the scrub, shooting at things that didn’t exist. “I don’t think they know I’m off the reservation, and they trust me for now. Like I said, they think I’m still working with them.”

“But you’re not? How do I know you’re telling me the truth aboutanything? I don’t even know you anymore.”

“Trigg, you need to stop saying that. Youdoknow me. Like you said, we’re brothers, and even though you might not trust me right now, in your heart you have to believe I would never hurt you. When they sent me to the Sagebrush Cantina to spy on whoever was hired to find the ruby and when it turned out to be you, I almost died inside.”

“Why?” I was dying to know why he’d run from me, not stopping to explain what was happening to him if it were true.

“Because I’d not only been ordered to find out who was hired to find the ruby, I was ordered to take care of the problem as soon as we had the stone. It took a hell of a lot of convincing to make them believe the place was too crowded to carry out the mission that day.”

Mission?The word made my blood run cold. I couldn’t believe it. If that were really true, it meant that they’d been using John as some sort of assassin, holding Daniel and his mother’s lives over his head. Maybe he really hadn’t gone over to the dark side, but it still begged the question.

“Take care of the problem?” I asked, trying my best to keep the anger out of my voice. “Is that what you call murder? Is that what happened to the Marines in Afghanistan?”

He got quiet, and I glanced over. He was looking at me with pain and confusion in his eyes. “You mean the forward scouts? The guys we found in the desert?”

“You know who I mean,” I growled. “The three Marines…shot in the back of the head like animals. You were with us when we found them, Sutter. We…I didn’t know what happened to them. The execution style murder wasn’t what we’d come to expect from the Taliban. They’d much rather capture U.S. personnel and put their executions on display for the whole world to see. They’d claim they were infidel invaders who’d come to Afghanistan to infect their people with our Western ways. Did you kill them, Sutter?”

“No!” He was quick to deny the accusation, sitting up higher in the seat. “It was Mendez, Filmore, and another operative by the name of Bishop.”

“Lance Bishop?” I asked, somewhat stunned. He’d been assigned to lead our unit as intelligence liaison when we went out to interrogate a local warlord. I’d always been wary of the guy. He was unlikable and I could honestly say of all the CIA operatives I’d known during that time of my life, the most likely to commit heinous crimes for his own gain.

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