Page 54 of Dangerous Lies

“Are you really going hide behind some door and not faces us?”

Carter stepped out of a door near the glass cells. He wasn’t dressed for war he had on black slacks and a white button down, but then again the man never did the dirty work. Always hired someone to do it for him.

Eight guards pointed guns at them.

“You promised me my reward if I delivered,” Brittany said. “I don’t give a shit about all these people. You know what I want.”

Carter narrowed his eyes at her, his shoulders squared. “You seem to forget who you work for.”

“This shit is all old. Hell, I handed my sister over to you.”

Ginger’s heart pounded against his chest. The bitch had set him up a second time.

Lucas’s voice came through the comm. “The gas he’s talking about, someone damaged the gauge, maybe Brittany is working with us, but he has the cell wired. Keep him talking while I work my way deeper into the system.”

“Why me?” Ginger asked Carter.

Carter turned in his direction. “Every move I make I have a reason. I targeted your team years ago because I needed my own guards. You were already coming after me. You don’t recognize the men in this room. It was surprising what money and power could do. They easily flipped sides and turned on you. It seems like you weren’t the leader you thought you were.”

“He always did what command wanted,” Nic said as he stepped around a stack of crates. A voice he hadn’t heard in years.

Ginger’s head whipped to the right where Nic stood. The man who was supposed to protect Sarah.

“Came down to money,” Nic said. “We broached it with you one night, and you said you fight for your country bullshit. So, we figured out a way to get out, and fuck was it the best decision.”

“Then why not kill me?” Ginger wondered out loud.

Carter nodded toward Brittany. “The wife of the man I kidnapped started dating the team leader of the team set to get me.” He wrapped his arm around Brittany. “Was too much of a coincidence. I approached her and asked her to take your men, and she agreed no questions asked. Once she completed the task I still planned to take her out and you, but she was pregnant, and I figured I could use her pregnancy to fuck with you. Over the years, she proved herself, but her true loyalty test was when she found out I had taken you.”

“This is a game to you,” Ginger said. “What do you get out of it?”

“He’s building biochemical warfare,” Lucas said in his ear.

Carter pulled a sheet covering a large object to reveal a bomb. “Money and power. Brittany’s husband is a genius. This gives him something to work for, and he does fine work. Bring him out.”

Vic, another one of Ginger’s old teammates barged through a closed door, hauling a man who was little more than skin and bones.

Brittany gasped before she schooled her features.

“Now that I have what I want,” Carter said, “I’m going to kill him and make Brittany watch. Then the rest of you can decide between your loved ones or coming after me.”

Brittany paled. “You bastard!”

“I disabled the wire to the cells,” Lucas said through the comm.

“We can go. Lucas took out the cells and the gas,” Ginger whispered, so only Marcus and Xavier could hear.

“Prepare to fight.” Xavier raised his gun and shot. Carter crumbled to the ground.

Ginger dropped to the ground and rolled to the side as another shot rang out. Marcus took two of his old teammates down as Ginger worked along the edge of the room and took down another man.

Nic headed for Rose’s cell. Ginger ducked behind a crate and made it across the room, but not quick enough. Nic threw open the door to Rose’s cell and held her in his clutches, with a gun pressed to her head.

He stepped around the crates and leveled his gun at his one-time teammate. “This is over. Walk out, and you don’t have to die,” Ginger told Nic. “Carter is dead and soon Xavier will take this organization down.”

Nic threw his head to the side and laughed. “You think this is over? Carter is a low-level player in this game. Now his spot is open, and I can work my way up. I knew it was a matter of time before the idiot got sloppy. He wanted all these games when he should focus on the bigger picture.”

Rose’s eyes fluttered open. “Ginger?”

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