That’s all Ella wanted or cared about. Yes, her teammates were important. But nobody was as important as Jude.
She needed to find out why the Piper hadn’t told Endgame and King McNally the theory of someone being higher than Dresden. Ella knew it all led back to that fuckup in Kunar Province more than four years ago. Endgame had been born out of that failed op. The Piper had secrets Ella was beginning to suspect tied him to Dresden in some way. He also played a dangerous game. Kingston McNally was nobody to mess with. And his team was his number one priority. Well, his team and now Allie Redding.
King wouldn’t appreciate being kept in the dark. Though maybe he had secrets she needed to discover as well.
She rubbed her head and stood, heading to her room.
Sleep would probably evade her, but she would try. Tomorrow promised to be trying. More games to be played, more people to maneuver and watch.
Ella removed her heels, skirt, and shirt, showered, and then dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. She never slept in anything else when she stayed here. Dresden was public enemy number one, and Ella wanted to always be prepared to run at a moment’s notice.
She flipped off the lamp beside the bed and watched the moon climb through the sky. She wanted to dream of Jude but knew that falling asleep opened her up to nightmares rather than dreams. Instead, she closed her eyes and counted every breath she took, keeping track so that if she was lucky enough to live through this, she could take them all over again with her man.
With Jude.
Chapter 5
“What do you want, Jude?” Vivi Granger asked for the second time since he’d entered the room.
“The same thing I always want, Vivi,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest and watching her. A big part of him felt remorse that he kept coming to her. There was no way to skirt around the fact that he was asking her to keep information from their team leader.
Yet still he did it. Ella was a piece of him he thought he’d never get back. After being close enough to her to see where the gray of her irises bled to black, after having the regret on her face cut him like a knife, there was no way he could walk away from her—even if that took him through the hottest fires of hell.
Vivi huffed and blew a strand of long, curly brown hair out of her eyes while her gaze roved over the computer directly in front of her. She paused for a second to throw him an exasperated look before she glanced at the computers sitting to the left and right of the main laptop. “I’ve got things to do, and you’re bugging me just standing there staring. Don’t make me get Rook.”
“I don’t know if you know this, but I’m not scared of Rook,” he said with a small grunt.
“I don’t know where she is exactly, Dagan,” Vivi hissed. “And if you keep coming in here asking, eventually my man will find out I’m feeding you information, and then my ass is grass.”
“Your man already knows” came from a deep voice behind Jude.
He shifted to the side, and Rook Granger walked into the room, oozing confidence along with no small amount of anger, both directed at Jude. The man moved like a cold wind, silent and lethal. He’d lost a leg in Afghanistan ten years ago, but you couldn’t tell unless you looked down and saw the blade he wore. Even then, you doubted what you were seeing because Jude knew some warriors with two fully functioning legs who didn’t move the way Granger did.
“And he’s pissed,” Rook finished.
Jude shrugged. Vivi gasped and removed her glasses, rubbing her eyes wearily. She put her glasses back on and glared at Jude. He shrugged again. He needed to know where Ella was. It had taken him an hour to maneuver that damn bed she’d strapped him to enough to get the key and unlock himself. By then, Adam Babic had walked in and laughed at Jude. The Serbian had a wicked sense of humor, but when Jude was the butt of the joke, it pissed him off.
Ella had been long gone by then, her trail cold. Adam had given him nothing but his well wishes. Jude had spent the flight back to DC angry, determined to talk to Vivi and then the Piper.
Vivi knew things. A lot of things. And what she didn’t know, she could find out with an ease that left all of Endgame Ops shaking their heads. Jude had thought no one besides him knew Vivi was helping him locate Ella.
Apparently he was wrong. And he was desperate enough that he didn’t give a damn—hell, two damns—about being wrong.
“I need her, Rook,” Jude told his friend and teammate.
“She’s busier than hell, and you’re pressuring her, Dagan. That’s not cool,” Rook bit out. “Plus, King told you not to continue your little sideline ventures if they relate to Ella Banning.”
“I don’t mean to burden Vivi, Rook.” Jude sighed and ran a hand down his face, recognizing he needed to shave and not really caring. “But I need to find her.”
Rook faced him from behind his wife. His wife. He had his woman. Jude didn’t.
“If her is Ella, then you’re screwed. Because Vivi isn’t going to give you anything else about her,” Rook told him, his voice hard and very, very final.
Vivi gasped again and turned in her seat to face her husband. Her husband. She had her man.
“You don’t get to do that, Rook Granger,” she said as she stood to her diminutive five-foot-nothing height and shoved a finger in Rook’s chest.
Rook’s face softened. “I earned that right when I went all in, Vivi. And we’ll
