Savage Love (Savage Trilogy 3)

I twist away from him and face the table again. “Who’s with Reynolds in Iraq?”

Rick steps to my side again and Adam flicks a look between us before he says, “Neal and Brody.” He focuses on Rick. “You and I both know Brody.”

“And I know Neal,” Adrian interjects, “and no, you don’t know me well, but Adam does. I wouldn’t say Neal was good if he was an asswipe.”

“Neal’s ex-FBI,” Adam adds. “Blake’s wife, Kara, who is also ex-FBI, holds him in high opinion. And Candace, so you know what we know, Brody’s ex-Special Forces, and part of a covert operation of badasses.”

Satisfied we have a good team, especially since my father is a warrior himself, I fix Rick in a stare, compelling him to look at me and act on my father’s extraction. When he does, when those blue eyes burn into mine, I say, “No one is an asswipe. I want my father out of there.”

“I know what you want, baby, and so do I, but I also want him out there alive. That’s all this is. Me making sure he gets back to you in one piece.” He doesn’t wait for my understanding. He turns back to the team. “Where are we on the plan?”

“Timing’s our biggest issue,” Smith says. “If the goal here is to take out Tag and his team at the same time, we extract the general the night of the party, we have a couple of factors to discuss. One being the time difference between here and Iraq.”

“I’ll deal with Tag while you’re extracting her father,” Rick says. “We’ve talked about this. It has to be the exact same time.”

“The party is at eight o’clock Saturday night,” Adam interjects. “Our team will need to hit before dawn. Tag will expect Savage to take out Gabriel at the party.”

“Just to be clear,” Adrian says, “are we killing Tag and Gabriel or just having them arrested? There are some mixed signals going on here.”

Rick flicks him an irritated look. “I’m dealing with Tag. Walker’s staying out of it.”

“We’re in it to win it,” Adam corrects. “All of us, in all things.”

“Walker isn’t going to play in my dirty sandbox,” I say. “That’s my privilege and right.”

“We have morals, man,” Asher snaps. “That doesn’t mean we turn into pussies.” He eyes me. “Sorry, Candace.”

“She’s a military brat,” Smith interjects. “Believe me, she can handle it.”

Adrian moves past my non-existent sensibilities. “Don’t be a selfish prick, Savage. I like a good dirty sandbox. I want to come and play.”

“Tag isn’t a fool,” Adam says. “He knows we’re involved. He found you to pull you into this while you were sitting at a poker table with us.”

“He’s right,” Asher says. “We’re in it and after meeting that prick, I’m all about a second chance to take out the trash.”

“Nope,” Adam says. “Not happening. I’m going with Savage. You, Asher, need to run the tech side of things.” He waves his hand between Adrian and Smith. “You’ll protect Candace who’s, unfortunately, going to be at the party, on Gabriel’s arm.” He points at Adrian. “She needs a monster like you to fight a monster like Gabriel.”

“What the fuck kind of monster are you?” Rick demands.

Adrian’s lips quirk. “The kind who’ll slice and dice Honest Gabe, and never feel remorse.”

Rick points at him. “You just better make sure you’re not the kind to touch her.”

“I’ll shoot him,” I promise, which earns me several barks of laughter, but not from Adrian.

Adrian is looking at Rick. “Not that stupid or that kind of monster, man.”

“Are we in agreement that this is a team effort, Savage?” Rick asks. “Or are we going outside to fight? Because I can stand up and we can go outside. Or fuck it. We can fight right here.”

Rick gives Adam a deadpan look. “You know what they say about big ass guys like you with tiny feet?”

Adam smirks. “My feet aren’t tiny.”

“But your brains are,” Rick says, pulling the data drive from his pocket and slides it across the table to Asher. “I had an epiphany,” Rick says, as Asher snatches it up. “I hid that at my mother’s grave. It’s loaded with Tag’s business.”

“Which,” Asher concludes, “we now know ties to good ole’ Honest Gabe.”

“And now you, Asher,” Rick says, “can be a real hero. If you find what we need, and Candace doesn’t have to go to the party, you save at least one life. Because I swear to God if I have to watch Gabriel touch her, I’ll kill him on the spot.”

I don’t object, not here and now, in front of the Walker team, but the room is a silent crackle of tension. We all know that I have to go to that party. I’m cover for two missions: Rick’s mission to kill Tag and Reynolds’ mission to extract my father. We all know that I have to spend one more night pretending to be another man’s fiancée. There’s no way around it.