Page 37 of Oath
My heart was a pulsing bruise at the tension in Alphabet’s voice. “What happened?”
Despite his warning, I didn’t sit. I hadn’t been able to be still since they’d left three hours earlierafterthey’d walked me through the plan andafterthey’d made sure I felt like a part of it, even if Iwouldn’tbe there.
All four of them were united on this,noneof them wanted me there when they went to see O’Rourke. It didn’t matter that O’Rourke wanted a private meeting with Voodoo, it was all of them or none of them.
Voodoo voted to skip it entirely, but Bones disagreed.“We should deal with him and whatever angle he’s working. I don’t want to leave anything behind to ambush us.”
Legend and AB agreed with him, so Voodoo had shifted his gaze to me.“You promise to stay here and not fight us on this?”
Without missing a beat, I’d folded my arms and said,“You promise to brief me so I know what’s happening and when, that way I’m not sitting here paralyzed, not knowing?”
“I will, if he won’t,”AB volunteered. Funnily enough, Bones’ snort and rolled eyes entertained me almost as much as the one-upmanship that the guys engaged in for my briefing.
That amusement carried us—or me at least—through the briefing, then armed with the maps, the GPS, the locations, and their contingencies as well as their plotted schedule, I settled in to wait.
The safehouse was not associated with them directly. It was secured. There was a saferoom, that was a fireproof vault if I needed it, and Bones made sure I had a taseranda gun.“Taser first. Then the gun.”
I stared at him. “You want me to tase them downthenshoot them?”
“It’s easier to hit a stationary target.” Honestly, I really didn’t know what to do with that deadpan response. Was he serious? Teasing? Both?
Then he kissed me and I forgot about that debate. There was nothing joking about his kiss. It was fierce, breath-stealing, and burned like he was branding me. The intensity had me shaking, just a little before he strode out ahead of the others.
“Always knew he’d be the dramatic one,” Voodoo told me with a wink, but he left me with his own firm kiss before he followed Bones, then Legend, and finally AB. They were all so different and yet, they fit. The four of them together were so very much a team, it was hard to picture them without each other.
That they functioned as a unit without Doc made sense to me, because I really didn’t know Doc. Yet, at the same time, when he was there, he slotted right in. They had a bond I couldn’t truly fathom, yet that bond didn’t exclude me.
From the beginning, they’d been protective. Then they’d encircled me and wrapped me up in the shield of their team. I was still very much in the cosseted heart of the team, but I was also apartof the team.
“Bones is down,” AB said, the grim words and tone yanking me into the brutal present.
The air pressure change that made your ears pop when bad news was coming seemed to muffle everything. Those three words played on a violent loop in my head.
No breath
No sound.
Just the walls closing in.
“He’s dead?”
“No, Gracie,” AB said, his tone gentling immediately. “No, he’s—he was taken.”
“By who?” How could they have taken him? Bones was—they were all tough, but Bones was so hard. So damn fierce. Theidea that anyone could hurt him seemed impossible and at the same time, I wanted to rain fire down on whoeverhadhurt him. “What are we doing to get him back? What canIdo?”
VOODOO
I kicked a metal crate across the floor of the garage. It hit the far wall with a crash. Lunchbox didn’t flinch. Alphabet’s voice still hung in the air from the comms.
They took Bones.
That phrase hadn’t even finished settling into my bloodstream yet. My hands were clenched. I didn’t even remember balling them. Even as I blew out a breath, I forced my hands to uncurl and focused my attention on O’Rourke.
“How much?”
“Not enough to set you up,” he said, not even pretending to misunderstand my question.
“Then why the isolated meet and greet?” Lunchbox asked, his voice as cold and remote as it ever got. Of the four of us, he was probably the most human—most of the time. I played the part almost professionally. While Alphabet seemed the more relaxed of the two, his humor hid a well of pain.
