Maya Banks - Shades of Gray

“Sit down, Cole,” Steele said. “You need to hear this.”

Cole’s jaw tightened, but then he saw the glint in Steele’s eyes. It wasn’t anger over the fact that Cole had been about to walk out. There was keen interest. Anticipation. Like something big was about to go down.

It made Cole stop in his tracks.

Donovan picked up a folder from the table and opened it before addressing the occupants of the room.

“We’ve been looking for Brumley for months. He disappeared, and it seems he’s been hiding. Which is interesting enough—given his arrogance and the fact that he has so many connections, he’s never concerned himself with being too obscure.”

“He’s got a damn horseshoe stuck up his ass,” Garrett bit out. “The son of a bitch is lucky.”

“Yeah, well when you add the kind of money and power he has to luck, you get someone damn near invincible,” Sam said.

“He’s scared,” Donovan said.

He got everyone’s attention with those words.

“Two members of his personal security team, men he’s never without, have turned up dead,” Donovan continued. “Brumley doesn’t take a shit without them, so the fact that someone got close enough to kill his guards is enough to make him spooky. It’s probably why he’s gone to ground for these past months. He’s been quiet, but the magnitude of this new deal apparently was enough to flush him out of his dark hole.”

Donovan pulled out a stack of enlarged photos and then carefully laid them out on the table.

Curiosity got the better of Cole, and he moved so he could see the pictures.

Several whistles and exclamations echoed through the room as everyone crowded around the table.

“Holy shit,” Dolphin said. “Whoever killed these dudes harbored some serious animosity. This isn’t a simple execution. This is personal.”

Cole stared down, frozen, as he took in the cuts on the men’s bodies. One vertically down the midline of their chest. Two more above the ribs. Two on the insides of their thighs. And each one had his throat slashed. In one instance, the head looked to only be barely attached to the rest of his body.

Ice crept through his veins until he felt incapable of moving or reacting. Fear clutched his insides.

“Sweet Jesus,” he finally whispered.

His hands shook as he picked up one of the pictures. Then he looked first at Donovan and then at Steele. Both had the same recognition in their eyes.

Cole let the picture fall from his fingers to the table. “P.J. went after them.”

“We believe so, yes,” Donovan said grimly.

Cole picked up the picture again, held it up and pointed to the knife wounds. “Believe? This is pretty conclusive evidence. These wounds are identical to the ones that bastard put on P.J. You were there. The only people who saw them were us and the assholes responsible for it happening to her. We’re supposed to believe it’s a coincidence P.J. quits her team, disappears and then guys who have ties to Brumley start showing up dead?”

“It’s why we want to get to Brumley before she does,” Steele said.

“Hell yes we have to get to him before she does,” Cole bit out. “I don’t want her near that bastard ever again.”

Dear God. The idea of P.J. going vigilante filled him with gut-wrenching fear he hadn’t felt since he was a brand-new navy recruit back in the day.

She could be dead even now. What if she’d attempted to get to Brumley and the bastard had her right now? Nelson had wanted her as a plaything and would have kept her if Brumley had allowed it. If they ever got their hands on her again, there was no telling what they’d do to her.

“She started with the two men who were there but didn’t participate in the attack on her,” Donovan said in a quiet voice. “There were only four men there when she was raped. Two are dead, which leaves Nelson and Brumley. I think we can assume she has plans to go after both of them. Our intel says that Brumley and Nelson both will be present for this deal to go down. If you want my opinion, I think Brumley knows P.J. is after him and he’s scared because she managed to get to his men without anyone discovering her. But he’s also a greedy bastard, and if he thinks he can surface to make a deal, he’ll do it. He’ll just beef up security.”

“Or he could be fucking with her,” Dolphin said grimly. “He’s the type whose ego wouldn’t allow him to hide from a woman. I’m with Cole. I don’t want that bastard anywhere near her, or rather her anywhere near him.”

The others nodded their agreement.

Cole didn’t want to even think of P.J. falling into Brumley’s hands again. He couldn’t go there or he’d lose his damn mind. He glanced up at the others, resolve etched in every word. “Nothing we can’t handle, right?”

Steele lifted an eyebrow. “That mean you in or you still plan to fuck around solo.”

“Oh, I’m in,” Cole said. “I want to take out both those bastards before P.J. has a chance to get to them. I don’t want her to go through what she did all over again.”

Dolphin, Baker and Renshaw closed in around Steele and Cole. They exchanged fierce looks, their intentions made without ever uttering a word.

“I’m in too,” Donovan said.

Steele frowned. “This is my mission, Van. You’re not taking over. This involves my team. My teammates.”

Sam started to open his mouth, but Donovan shot him a stare that had him backing down. Garrett frowned but didn’t intervene. The rest of the members of KGI looked on with abject interest.

“You’ve got the lead, Steele,” Donovan said calmly. “But I’m along for the ride. I was there. I may not be a member of your team, but I was there with P.J. I heard every goddamn thing you did. I’m the one who let her get away at the party. I have as much a stake in this as you and your team do. P.J. is KGI. You’re all KGI. I’d feel the same if it was any other person.”

Garrett couldn’t contain his silence any longer. “I think we should send at least two teams.”

“Who are you going to send?” Cole demanded. “No way a new team can handle this.” He sent an apologetic look in Nathan and Joe’s direction. “No offense to your team, but this is too important to fuck up.”

He turned his stare back to Sam, Garrett and Donovan. Yeah, technically they ran the show, but everyone knew the teams operated independently.

Donovan stared intently at his two older brothers. “Steele’s team goes and I go with them. You can help by providing intel. But we do this Steele’s way.”

“Then let’s get it done,” Cole cut in impatiently.

He was tired of talking. He was tired of arguing. He just wanted to get moving so he could get to Brumley before P.J. did. If she hadn’t already.

There was a murmur of conversation, mostly between Sam, Garrett and Donovan. Cole’s thoughts had drifted to P.J., wondering if he should have been focusing his search internationally. He would never have dreamed P.J. would have gone after them herself, but it all suddenly made sense.

Why she’d left. Why she’d been so adamant that she cut all ties with her team. It wasn’t that she wanted to. She’d done it because she hadn’t wanted to involve them.

He wanted to strangle her. Anything that happened to her involved the team whether she liked it or not. Just as had been the case when Cole and then Dolphin had taken a bullet while on a mission.

She hadn’t minded butting in then to boss them around and make sure they were resting. But then they hadn’t planned a vigilante mission to go track down scumbags on their own either.

“Cole, a word,” Steele said tersely.

Cole turned and met his team leader’s gaze. Steele motioned toward the door and then left the war room. Cole followed him outside and then a short distance away before they both halted.

“What’s so top secret?” Cole asked.

“Don’t be a smart-ass,” Steele said sharply. “I need you to have your head on straight if you’re going to be a part of this.”

Cole frowned. “Wait just a damn minute.”

Steele pinned him with his forceful gaze. “No, you wait a minute. Don’t act like you haven’t gone to shit in the last months. You look like something the cat dragged in. You’ve lost weight. You look like you haven’t slept in a month. You won’t do P.J. a damn bit of good if you can’t perform your function within the team. We don’t need a goddamn hero, Cole. What we need is an efficient team to go in and take care of business without allowing our emotions to rule.”

Cole wanted to argue. Damn but he wanted to tell Steele to shove it up his ass, but his team leader was right and Cole knew it.

“I get it,” Cole said gruffly. “I’m in. You aren’t doing this without me.”

Steele held up a finger. “The only reason I’m letting you in on this is because I know if I sideline you, you’ll only go off on your own and then you’ll get in the way. I’m not losing P.J. and I’m damn well not losing you either. I’m keeping this team together if it kills me.”

Cole sobered and then turned away to stare over the lake. “I hope we’re not too late, Steele.”

Steele sighed. “Yeah, me too.”

“I want this bastard. I want him to pay for what he did to P.J. But more than that, I just want her back home, with us. With the team.”

“I get it,” Steele said quietly. “And she will be. I told her what she could do with her resignation.”

Cole chuckled. And then he glanced Steele’s way. “You’re not the robot everyone accuses you of, you know.”

Steele’s expression could have frozen lava. “Don’t start thinking I have a heart, Coletrane. I just don’t want to have to start over and train a new recruit.”

Cole stifled a smile. Yeah. Whatever.

SLOVAKIA, SURVEILLANCE DAY TWO

SWEAT rolled down P.J.’s sides, making the thin camo shirt she wore cling to her flesh. She was absolutely still, barely breathing as she waited, just as she’d waited for the last twenty-four hours, for the right opportunity to present itself.

She was patient. She’d often spent long hours in the field on sniper watch. Some missions had been drawn out for days, and she and Cole had been partners in the silence. Unable to communicate or even acknowledge the other’s presence in any way, but it had been comforting to know she wasn’t alone.

That wasn’t the case now. She didn’t have Cole as her partner. She didn’t have her team to back her up. She was flying solo straight into the lion’s den.

She was smart enough to be scared, but she refused to allow that fear to paralyze her and make her helpless and weak. Never again.

She held her breath as she stared through the binoculars to the residence below. Two armored cars had arrived, and she watched as Brumley got out on one side. Nelson got out on the other and looked around, his gaze obviously searching for any threat.

You won’t find me, bastard. Not until I’m ready.

Brumley went in, surrounded by his guards. It would be so easy to pick the asshole off with her sniper rifle. But it was too easy. She wanted him to suffer, and she wanted her face to be the last he saw right before he died. So he’d know it was her and that she’d made him pay for his sins.

Nelson lagged behind, lighting a cigarette as Brumley entered the house.

P.J. smiled. Arrogant assholes. They thought the high fence and million-dollar security and surveillance protected them from the outside world. That she couldn’t come in. That they were safe.

They were wrong.

She eased from her hiding place, making sure the silencer was attached to her gun properly and that the knife Brumley had used on her was in her grip.

Over the past months, she’d spent a frustrating amount of time frequenting places that Brumley was rumored to enjoy. She’d gone through every penny of her savings to support her search for the men who’d raped her.

And it was worth being dirt-poor for the rest of her life if she accomplished her mission.

She pulled out a handheld PC and quickly typed in a series of commands. Donovan wasn’t the only one handy with computers. They just bored her to tears.

In the first hour of her surveillance she’d hacked into the estate’s security monitoring system. It had been a piece of cake. It baffled her that with as much money as Brumley threw around, he’d actually have such a pussy surveillance system.

She programmed the system to replay the tapes of the last four hours, ending before the procession of cars arrived. She’d only have two hours before they’d know something was up, because the sun would start to sink and dusk would be upon her.