Page 94 of Wilde and Deadly

And just like that, they weren’t talking about security breaches anymore.

They were talking about the mission. The one that broke them.

Davey exhaled sharply, his pulse spiking at the mention of it. He had spent the last ten years trying to bury that day, but Cade’s words yanked it right back to the surface. His SEAL team had been called in after US intelligence indicated WSW was preparing to extract a high-value defector without full operational clearance. The mission had been Cade’s for six months—his contacts, his planning, his team. And then, at the last second, the U.S. government stepped in, overriding WSW and sending in Davey’s team to “assist” with an operation Cade already had under control.

Only it hadn’t been under control.

Davey had seen the warning signs the second he landed. The extraction point was too exposed, the Serbian paramilitaries too quiet. The whole thing smelled like a setup. He tried to warn Cade. Told him to pull back, reassess, abort if necessary.

But Cade hadn’t listened.

And people had died because of it.

“You ignored my warning,” Davey said evenly.

Cade scoffed. “Your warning? You were barely on the ground a week before that op. You got to walk in at the last second with your orders and your authority, while I was the one who had spent six months laying the groundwork, earning trust, building something real. And then, just like always, you got to be the one they listened to.”

“And I saw what you didn’t,” Davey snapped. “It was a setup.”

Cade shook his head, jaw flexing. “I had reliable intel. It only became a clusterfuck when you and your SEAL buddies stormed in, acting like you were the only ones who knew what the hell you were doing.”

Davey barked out a laugh, sharp and humorless. “Thatreliable intelgot one of my guys killed.”

“And I lost two of mine.Ours.WSW employees that you never knew before that op because you were never here.” He thumped a finger down on the table for emphasis. “I was. I’ve always been here—working in the trenches, putting in the time, proving myself to a company that never once looked at me the way they looked at you. You were their golden boy, their perfect leader, and I was just the guy who kept the machine running in the background, waiting for a shot I was never going to get.”

Silence stretched between them, thick with old wounds and unspoken accusations. Nova squirmed slightly in Cade’s lap, and he adjusted her without missing a beat, his touch instinctively gentle despite the tension rolling off him.

Davey swallowed back the sharp words sitting on the tip of his tongue. He hadn’t come here to rehash the past, but it was clawing its way up between them anyway.

“You made a bad call,” Davey finally said, his voice quieter now, rougher. “And the uncles stopped trusting you after that.”

Cade’s gaze flickered. “No.Youstopped trusting me.”

Davey didn’t deny it. Couldn’t.

Cade exhaled, his expression unreadable. Then, without a word, he reached into Nova’s diaper bag.

Davey’s muscles coiled. He knew Cade wouldn’t be stupid enough to pull a weapon here, but instinct still had him preparing for a fight. Instead, Cade pulled out another folder and dropped it onto the table.“A few weeks ago, I noticed my credentials were being used when I wasn’t in the building and started investigating. Thought maybe you were the problem.”

Davey’s gut clenched as he flipped the file open. His blood turned to ice.Cade wasn’t the mole. But someone inside Wilde Security was.

Cade took a slow sip of coffee, his expression unreadable. “You got the wrong fucking cousin.”

“Liam?” he breathed in disbelief. The man who told him earlier today, I’ll back your play no matter what.

Davey felt physically ill. He forced himself to look up, heart hammering. He flipped through the file, scanning the supposed evidence: access logs showing Liam’s credentials used to enter secure areas at odd hours, suspicious bank deposits, and snippets of intercepted messages—out of context but damning enough.

He pushed the file away. “No. No way. Liam wouldn’t?—”

But the words tasted like a lie.

And then?—

Davey felt something ripple along his senses. That tiny, almost imperceptible shift in the air. That instinctual prickle at the back of his neck.

“Get down!” He shoved Cade just as the window shattered. A bullet tore past his shoulder and embedded itself in the wall behind them with a dull thud. Nova let out a piercing wail as Cade turned sharply, tucking her against his chest, his entire body a shield between her and the threat.

Screams filled the café. Patrons scrambled for safety, chairs clattering to the floor. The barista behind the counter ducked out of sight, and a family near the window yanked their children beneath the table.

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