Relentless (Option Zero 2)

“In time.”

Liam shook his head. “You know good and well the longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be. She finds out you’ve held on to that intel for months, you’ll be in the doghouse big-time. Besides, she deserves to know the truth.”

“Yeah, she does. But she’s still recovering from that fall last year. When she’s one hundred percent again, I’ll tell her.”

Liam got that. They’d almost lost Jazz—Jasmine McAlister—last year. Some maniac on a crusade to die had tried his best to take Jazz with him. They’d managed to rescue her, but she’d been out of commission for months. Jazz was just now getting her strength and endurance back.

“She’s stronger than you give her credit for,” Liam said.

“There’s no one who knows that better than me.”

“And?”

Xavier murmured softly, “It’ll break her heart.”

“And you’ll be there to help her through it. We all will.”

“Yeah, we will.” He shrugged. “She’s got a physical eval coming up soon. If she passes, I’ll tell her.”

“She’ll pass.”

“I know.”

Liam let it go at that. He knew Xavier would do the right thing. Jazz was special to all of them, but Xavier had a bond with her that went beyond mere friendship. Something everyone just accepted.

Just as they accepted that Liam had spent over a decade searching for a woman he’d never seen and knew only by a name that most certainly was not her own.

The day they’d escaped from that prison had been one of the worst days of his life. Not being able to find Cat had been hellish. When he’d left, he’d felt as if he were abandoning her, though there had been no reason to stay. She wasn’t there. And then the helicopter had crashed, almost killing them all.

Six of them had survived the brutal trek across the desert. They’d formed a bond that he would’ve sworn couldn’t be broken. Until Hawke.

“You know Olivia came to see Ash a few months back?” Liam asked.

Though he didn’t respond, the tense set of Xavier’s shoulders told him all he needed to know. Xavier wasn’t ready to forgive.

“She’s working for Last Chance Rescue now.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Of course he would. Not much got by his friend. But the man was beyond stubborn about some things, such as forgiveness.

Olivia Gates had been an OZ operative. She’d been married to Nick Hawthorne, and they’d seemed like the perfect couple, the perfect OZ partners. When things had gone south, they’d gone all the way to the bottom. Hawke had been killed, and Olivia had been lucky to leave OZ without being shot by one of her fellow operatives. That had been one of their darkest times.

Even though he understood why Olivia had made the choice she had, it was still hard to conceive that she’d actually made it. And many on the OZ team, including Xavier, would likely never forgive her.

“I’ve talked to her a few times for intel on a possible lead. Last Chance Rescue focuses a lot on human trafficking. She and her boss, Noah McCall, have been a big help on a couple of leads.”

Silence. Liam let it sit there. He couldn’t say he agreed with what Olivia had done, but refusing her help would never be an option. Her intel had saved a life—that trumped hard feelings every single time.

“Liam, you copy?”

Putting his finger to his earbud, Liam answered Gideon. “Roger that. What’s up?”

“We’ve got a problem. We’re at the surveillance house. Our target house looks empty.”

“What? How is that possible?”

“Hell if I know. We got here about half an hour ago. Everything looked fine. Lights off, everybody asleep. Night crew reported nothing unusual.”