Jaimie frowned. “How come you didn’t know, Mack? That’s big. Huge. No one really believes such a thing exists. I can hardly believe someone has that kind of talent. If he does, no one else must know about it or he wouldn’t be in your unit.”
Mack frowned. “Every unit should have a psychic surgeon going into combat with them. Think of the lives you could save. If you could take the violence, even you, Jaimie, would have an easier time of it if we had a skilled surgeon. Hell, we talked about this for months when we were in the hospital undergoing the psychic evaluation and enhancement. Psychic surgery was the one talent they screened for aggressively.”
“There are a few healers, but not an actual surgeon,” Jaimie pointed out. “Do you really think they’d put the only one they had in the field, Mack? They’d want to study him and figure out how his talent works, to maybe try to reproduce it.”
Mack closed his mouth, teeth snapping together. “I didn’t think about that.”
“Like Gideon and Joe, Mack,” Jaimie said. “I don’t think anyone knows about their differences, not even them.”
“Or you,” Mack said. “We know Whitney wants to know how your talent works.”
Javier flashed a grin at Mack. “Makes you think we’re just run of the mill, boss.”
“Be grateful, Javier.”
“What’s with Gideon lately? I’m a little worried about him,” Javier said, the smile fading from his face.
“I don’t know. I think everyone’s talent has been growing. Have you noticed your psychic skills getting sharper? Expanding?”
Javier shrugged. “I don’t pay much attention. I just do my thing. I’ve always been accurate. I have good hand- eye coordination and fast reflexes. I attribute everything to that.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose and gave a small sigh. “I don’t want to think about it, Mack. We went into this together. I’m in my element.” He flashed Jaimie a wan smile. “Sorry, hon, but I am. Mack is. All of us.”
“I know. I’m just wired differently.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Javier said. “We like the way you’re wired.”
The computer made a rude noise and Jaimie lost all interest in the conversation, turning back abruptly to the laptop and hitting a few keys. She broke out in a satisfied smile.
“Here we go, Mack. We’re in. His passwords are on the screen.” She turned the laptop to face him so he could read easily. “We got it in just over an hour.”
LOCATION WHAT HAPPENED WHY TRAUMATIC
[red] [barn] [bee] [stings] [nearly] [died]
“Poor Paul ran into some very unfriendly bees in a red barn when he was a kid,” she explained. “He was probably allergic and most likely went to a hospital. Definitely a nasty experience for him, and one he’d remember, but one you’d never find on his resume. Nothing he would have told anyone. And not something you could grill his parents about and extract from them.”
“Can you get into whatever he’s hiding?”
Javier scanned the documents. “Letters. To Sergeant Major.”
Mack swore under his breath. Deep, in the pit of his stomach, where no one could see, he felt sick. Bile rose. He knew what he would have to do. “I knew the kid was spying. What’s Sergeant Major into? Why in the hell is he selling us down the river? Go through them carefully, Javier. You too, Jaimie. I don’t want you to miss anything. Did Griffen think I wouldn’t catch the kid? And he had to know what I’d do if I caught him. Damn him for this.”
Jaimie spun around in her chair. “First of all, you wouldn’t have caught him if we hadn’t been experimenting. And secondly, what do you mean by what you would do if you caught him?”
Mack shook his head, his gaze meeting Javier’s.
“No! I mean it, Mack. I helped you get into his laptop. You never would have if it wasn’t for me. Don’t you dare hurt him.”
“He’s selling us down the river.” She could make him feel like a fucking monster with her quick condemnations. He’d forgotten that. Forgotten how low he felt, how torn by some of the decisions he knew were right to protect his team. “What do you think I should do with him? Turn him over to the sergeant major? Just find me something to vindicate him.”
“This is why we can’t be together, Mack. You’re not God. You can’t make decisions like that. No one can.”
“I do whatever it takes to protect my team. And you aren’t going to use this as some way to get out of our relationship, Jaimie. I’m sorry you don’t like reality, but you’re the one who pointed out Griffen sent Brian and Kane on more than one suicide mission. Did you think I wouldn’t take you seriously and do something about it? He’s not going to get away with it. And anyone working for him is working against us.”
“Is he just going to disappear? Is that what will happen?”
“Jaimie, damn it, what do you want me to do? Find something that tells me he wasn’t sent to spy. For all you know he could be a trained assassin.”
“He’s too young. He looks like a kid.”
Mack spun her chair around so she was staring at Javier. “Take a good look, Jaimie. What the hell does Javier look like to you?”
“It’s not the same. Javier isn’t an assassin…”
“It’s exactly the same. He looks like a kid and yes, he was trained exactly as an assassin. So was I. All of us were. Isn’t that what you hate most about me?”
She paused, her gaze sliding over him, sadness in its depths. “I don’t hate you, Mack. I could never hate you. I just don’t understand you.” She pushed her hand through her hair and turned away from him, but not before he caught the sheen of tears. “Let me just read the documents, Mack. There’s no point in speculating.”
Javier sent him a frown and turned his back on him to help Jaimie. Mack paced away from the two of them, his hands balled into tight fists. What the hell was he supposed to do-lie to her? Hell, he liked the kid, but he wouldn’t like him so much if Kane was found with his throat cut or Brian “accidentally” slipped in the shower. His job was to protect his men. That meant making hard decisions no one else wanted to make.
Silence fell in the room while the two began tracing through Paul’s private mail.
Mack stayed way back, in the shadows, a good distance from the light spilling around the banks of computers. Trying to steel himself for the worst possible news wasn’t easy. Paul’s looks might be similar to Javier’s, but his personality wasn’t. Javier was edgy, dangerous, a man who took the slightest threat seriously. Paul appeared to be a boy looking for a place to settle. He seemed more like Jaimie, soft inside, wanting a home and family, not geared for combat.
The boy had joined them weeks ago and every member of his team subconsciously watched over the kid. They didn’t want him because he appeared to be a weak link and weak links got one killed. Mack frowned thinking about Paul. It wasn’t that he panicked. He had the nerves for combat. He was quiet and steady. He just seemed-young. Yet he was older than Jaimie. Was he undercover and very, very good at it? His stomach knotted. At this rate he was going to have one hell of an ulcer.
“Just out of curiosity, Jaimie,” Javier said, his voice low and casual, “if we’re going to make it an intellectual discussion. If the kid is really an assassin sent to spy and/or kill certain members of our team, what’s the best way to handle that situation?”
Jaimie glanced at him. Javier didn’t offer opinions on much very often. If he did, the others listened because he was making a worthwhile point. She knew him well enough to know he wasn’t being casual.
“Turn him over to the authorities.”
“Which authorities would that be, Jaimie? Sergeant Major, who both you and Mack obviously suspect is up to no good? Which, by the way, I suspected on the last mission when Kane and Brian ran into a firestorm. Someone set them up. If Mack hadn’t suspected something was wrong, both would be dead.”
She bit her lip. “Not Sergeant Major.”
“Above him? Go up the chain of command? Colonel Wilford? Wasn’t he the one Sergeant Major gave the evidence to?” Javier prompted.
“I don’t know. Someone.”
“That’s the problem, now, isn’t it, Jaimie? It’s Mack’s responsibility and there’s no one he can trust if he can’t trust Sergeant Major or Colonel Wilford. So tell me what to do here. You’re the one with the brains.”
