“I thought your job was to keep them alive, not help them prove a point,” Luke said, not backing down.
A tremor ran down Peter’s spine, his voice coming out flat and tight, “I do not need you to tell me what my job is.”
He’d seen bigger men scamper away at the sound of that voice, but Luke just stuck out his chin and regarded Peter from across the room with a stubborn look.
“You’re angry because you know I’m right.” Luke turned and walked out the door.
For a minute, the silence seemed deafening. Peter slumped into his chair and glowered at the door. He picked up his cell phone and dialed Skull.
“Peter,” Skull’s deep voice sounded on the other end.
“Everything going all right?”
“Yes. Team Beta in position, got Dave’s car, ready to take the Commandos on a chase.”
Peter nodded. “Good. Tell everyone to be careful. They have AKs.”
A pause. “I’ll remind everyone to keep their distance.”
“Call me if there’s any news in the next…” Peter looked at his watch, “two hours.”
“I will.”
The line went dead, and Peter put the phone down. His mind blank, he stared at the gun that Chad had left on the table.
He got up and walked across the room, then picked up the gun, studying it with an absent frown. His hands moved of their own accord, and before he knew it, the AK was just a pile of metal on the table. There was only one part in his hand.
He looked away as he weighed it on his palm, lost in thought.
The magazine was empty.
Chapter 17
“Wake up.”
Chad heard her but stayed as he was, sprawled on his queen-size bed with his eyes closed. She had made him get one, if she was going to spend nights in his room, and now wouldn’t even let him sleep.
“I know you’re not sleeping. Wake up!” Pain whined. Her fingers wrapped around his ankle, trying to pull him off the bed.
He groaned and rolled over on his side, then pretended to have fallen back asleep. Her impatient footsteps told him she had come to his side of the bed. Before she could get away, his arm shot out and hooked around her.
“Hey!”
He pulled her down, making sure her arms were trapped against her body. Then he threw the covers over his head and willed sleep to swallow him once more.
“I’ve been waiting for hours,” she said. “Will you just get up?”
She tried to wriggle out of his grasp, which only made him tighten his arm around her. There was a choking sound. Maybe she’ll pass out, he thought, drifting somewhere between dream and consciousness.
Once more, her voice tore him out of his sleep. “It’s ten o’clock!”
He didn’t hold back the growl that ripped from his mouth.
“I understand that you had a stressful day yesterday, but you gotta get up eventually,” she insisted.
“Night,” he muttered. “A stressful night.”
She struggled to free herself, and this time, he didn’t hold her.
He rolled over onto his back and opened one eye to find her standing at the foot of the bed, arms crossed. “You missed breakfast,” she grumbled.
“My God, how am I going to live with myself?” His arms flew up in the air in mock astonishment before dropping back on the bed as he closed his eyes again. “One less reason to get up.”
“Oh, come on. You can’t go back to sleep.”
“Why?” He looked at her face, so adorably frustrated for no real reason, and answered his own question, “Because you’re bored, I know, I know…”
She grinned—that rare, sudden grin that went all the way up to her eyes; then climbed onto the bed with him. “Aren’t you curious what Rooney and Mark have found out? Get up!” She bounced on the bed, and Chad huffed, feeling nauseated already.
After all the stress, what with the operation and Luke being mad at him, all he’d wished for was a good night’s sleep. Instead, he’d gotten insomnia. He’d spent hours watching Pain snore like a drunken pirate, the image complete with a black eye and a band-aid on her nose after her practice session with Marco. And when sleep had finally come, shallow and troubled, he dreamed of the Commandos, of their dark base, glowing control rooms, and countless rows of women in black uniform.
He deserved a day off after a night like that.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked. Chad turned to find her stretched at his side, her eyes on him. “You gotta check up on Dave, too, you know.”
Dave.
He sighed, reaching out to brush his thumb down her nose, light as a feather. The bruises were almost gone, but she kept the band-aid on.
“I forgot,” he murmured. Her hand wrapped around his. “All right. Gimme a minute.”
He was still half-asleep when he knocked on Dave’s door and called, “Dave, open up, it’s me!”
Silence.
He leaned against the wall, curling his fingers into a fist before he rapped on the door again. “Come on, I’m waiting!”
No sound came from the room. Chad straightened up. It was too quiet, like no one was even there. He yanked at the doorknob, but it was locked.
“Dave, if you’re in there, and you don’t open the door in ten seconds, I’m gonna have to break it down.” His heartbeat speeding up with each passing second, he took a step back. Already, panic was filling every cell in his body. “Time’s up!” he yelled, and raised his foot for a kick.
The door exploded inwards, and he caught Luke’s surprised face sticking out of the waiting room down the hall before he stormed inside. He took in the empty room and swore. The bathroom door was open, so Dave couldn’t
