Page 56 of Reclaiming Izabel

“She’s been in contact with Exetron Oil’s CEO, Lawrence Mitchell, through official channels,” Brick said. “The news breaks at oh-six hundred. We’ve locked in on Tierney and Mitchell’s signal clouds. Tim is also working on their access to several messaging platforms and will continue to monitor.”

Brick’s eyes shifted beyond my shoulder and I knew that could only mean that Izabel was back. I cleared my throat and glared at my friend. Brick shrugged and looked at the floor with a secretive smile that I wanted to wipe off his face.

“Marcus,” Izabel whispered and this time I didn’t stop her from greeting my former commander. After their hug, though, I pulled her back to my side.

“What’s going on?” Izabel asked.

I gave her a summary.

“No more hiding?”

“No more hiding,” I affirmed, then cut a glance at my team. “I’m concerned with how this will affect Izabel’s safety. There were no event triggers when Hamza was killed, correct?”

“That we’re aware of,” Viktor murmured.

I narrowed my eyes.

“We can’t be one hundred percent sure, Maddox, and you know it. Why we took Izabel the same time we needed to bring Marcus in.”

“Okay, then I’ll be Izabel’s bodyguard,” I said.

Marcus cleared his throat. “I believe that’s my job.”

“Not sure I trust you after Brick and Edmunds got the jump on you.”

“Drake,” Izabel chided sharply.

“If Mitchell and Tierney are going to make a play, we need to keep everything business as usual,” Viktor said.

“Sorry to contradict you, boss…press is gonna have a field day with this story,” Edmunds spoke up for the first time. “Nothing’s gonna be business as usual.”

Viktor shot the Guardian a look of irritation. “Agreed.” He turned to me. “But you can’t be in your wife’s space all the time.”

“I am not risking Izabel.”

“He can play the devoted husband,” Brick suggested. “Totally understandable, right? Some might question why Drake doesn’t whisk her away after having been gone for three years.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic idea,” I muttered.

“She can’t abandon the Solace project. It’s high profile and at a critical stage,” Viktor turned to Izabel. “Am I right?”

“Yes,” she responded slowly. “But why do you care?”

Viktor’s face was bland, but he was watching Izabel in an assessing way I didn’t like.

“No,” I growled.

Viktor raised a brow.

“You’re not using my wife as bait.”

“What’s going on?” Izabel grabbed my hand and I instinctively wrapped my arms around her. “Am I missing something?”

“It’s nothing, baby. Viktor and the others were just leaving.”

The man in question made no move to leave.

“Tierney and Mitchell may not have directed the attack on our operators,” Viktor said. “But as far as we know, Tierney breached operational security that wiped out an entire JSOC team. The buck doesn’t stop with her. She’s the chief of staff of a presidential candidate and I’ll be damned before I put any more of our military in this kind of danger.”

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