Catching Teardrops (MAC Security 5)

“I’ve been on this team nearly as long as everyone else here. Have I not showed you all my loyalty?” She doesn’t let anyone speak before she brings her arms down to her sides. “I knew something wasn’t right with Dean. I fuckin’ knew, and I tried to talk to you about it.” She points her gaze at Ty. “But every single time I brought up his name, you’d veer the conversation off course. So, I knew I had to do something.”

“Kitty—”

“No.” She leans forward before slamming her hands on the table. “I didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t leave a trail, and I’m guessing you couldn’t work it out either?” She raises her brow at me, and when I shake my head, she stands up to her full height. “I didn’t understand what he was doing…” She points to the paper in the middle of the table. “Until I saw this at Darrell’s base.”

We all lean closer, and when I look down, Dean’s face stares back at me. I frown not understanding.

“It’s Dean in his service uniform,” I say, looking up at her. “What’s that got to—”

“Flip it over,” Kitty tells me, slamming her hands down onto her hips and tilting her head at the photo.

I raise a brow, picking it up and turning it over.

“Son-of-a-bitch!”

“What?” Evan asks, looking over my shoulder and reading out loud what's written on the back. “Private Darrell Le’Fraine.”

“Dean is Darrell,” I murmur.

“He was always one step ahead of us,” Evan says before leaning back in his seat and blowing out an audible breath. “He was the inside man. He saw it all before we could even react.”

“But why would he leave a photo like this in a place he knew we could—”

“He wants us to know,” Ty interrupts. “He knew we were coming, which probably means…” He looks over at Daley. “He knows you’re here.”

He was here all this time. Right under our noses. Around our family.

“Well… fuck.”

LILY

I try to pry my eyes open but no matter how much I try, it’s like they’re stuck together. My hands move automatically to wipe at them, but when they won’t move, my breath catches. I’m right back in that basement, the rope wrapped around my wrists, burning as I try to break free, only this time my body doesn’t hurt like it did then.

My muscles may be slow at moving, but I don’t feel the pain I used to, all I feel is cold wind whipping me in the face.

“Just in time.” Hands clap causing me to jump and finally my eyes spring open. The sun shines in front of me, only a slice of it as it comes in through the broken window, and when I look around, I realize that’s also where the cold wind is coming from. “Ready for the show?”

My head whips around, my nostrils flaring as I look into a pair of eyes I trusted even though I know I shouldn't have. Luke's warning rings in my mind and I wish I would have heeded it and not panicked when he said Luke was in the hospital.

“What are you doing?”

He laughs, the sound manic before he paces back and forth in front of me.

“You know I’ve had this plan for years, but I just couldn’t work out the missing piece.” He shakes his head. “I wracked my brain for so many hours, days, months… and yet I couldn’t make it click.” He snaps his fingers and stops in front of me. “Until you.”

“Me?”

“Yep!” He jumps on the spot and rubs his hands like an excited toddler. He has the same crazy look in his eyes Jonah had when he watched me. “When I saw the way he looked at you, I knew.” He grins wide. “I knew you were the answer.”

/> “The answer?” If I can keep him talking then nothing else is happening, right?

“You’ll see,” he says, doing a little jig on the spot and pulling his gun out, scratching the side of his face with it.

I wince at his motion as I yank my wrists apart from behind me, trying in vain to get out of the binds. I shuffle on the chair and grimace when it scrapes along the concrete floor, gaining his attention.

He pounces at me, his hands coming down on the arms of the wooden chair as his face stops centimeters from mine.

“No cheating… this is my game.” His breath fans over me. “I don’t like cheaters.” His eyes flash with a warning. “I kill cheaters.”