Page 60 of Dirty Justice

“You know where to find me.” With that, he turned and headed to the opposite end of the alley.

Apollo watched him go for a moment. A heavy weight crushed him. What he held in his hand was so much responsibility—to Blackout, to his country…to Indika.

The urge to return to her, to stand over her and watch her sleep, was like being power-washed with a flamethrower.

But if he was going to stop any of what Raheem and the wannabe leader in the US, Amaya, were plotting, he needed to see Sparrow. Now.

He walked the few blocks back to the place his car was parked. When he used a key fob to unlock it, he thought more about Oz’s words. The chip implanted in all the members of The Guard could literally unlock cars, open buildings, download files. That kind of technology was beyond his knowledge.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t learn.

As he drove away from Indika’s building, he threw a look up at her window. He was so conflicted right now. He’d been away from Blackout so long. Too long. Was he even part of it anymore?

Maybe Sparrow and Con had it right, pushing him onto the ledge and letting him figure out if he wanted to jump or crawl back to the team he knew.

Con wouldn’t think like that. Sparrow might. Either way, Apollo had some big decisions to make.

When he reached Blackout headquarters, he entered through a hidden entrance in back. At least his code still worked and he wasn’t greeted by a high-powered weapon.

At the sound of his entrance, two people met him at the door. Frost and Lena both looked as if they hadn’t slept all night.

“What are you doing here?” Frost’s voice came out gritty, confirming he’d been up a while.

“I need to see Sparrow,” Apollo said.

Lena looked to Frost. The tough woman wore cammies and a black shirt with the sleeves cut off, revealing all the hard-earned muscle in her shoulders and biceps. She was the toughest woman Apollo had ever met, let alone had the honor to fight with.

But she didn’t look as though she was going to allow him to just walk into Sparrow’s office.

Damn. That stung more than a little.

What could he do but play the outsider?

He folded his arms over his chest. “Get him. I’ll wait.”

A deep voice sounded from behind Frost and Lena. “Back off, guard dogs. I saw him coming on the camera. Let him in.”

Frost and Lena stepped back to allow him to pass. As he did, Frost gripped his shoulder. “Sorry, man. You know the rules.”

“I do. No hard feelings.”

Lena held out her fist, and Apollo bumped knuckles with her.

Feeling a measure lighter than he had a minute before, Apollo followed Sparrow into his office.

“Shut the door.”

He did and then walked over to Sparrow’s desk and clapped the thumb drive down on the surface.

“More intel you dug up like when you decided to go off the grid? What happened to feeding it to us through other channels?”

He snorted. “Of course you know about that.”

“It didn’t take us long after you were spotted in Paris to know why intel was coming to us so easily. I just can’t believe you’d think you could do it again without us figuring it out.”

He swiped his fingers through his hair. “You can’t blame a guy for trying. You wouldn’t take anything I had to share.”

Sparrow eyed him. “What makes you think there’s anything on this I haven’t seen yet?” He twitched his jaw toward the thumb drive.

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