Gah. Work. That was something else I’d been trying to keep up with. Thankfully, my boss had not thrown a fit when I lied and told him I had to take an emergency trip to see my parents. I didn’t need to be in the office to work, and plenty of my co-workers preferred to work from home and that was allowed as long as they didn’t miss their deadlines and came in for staff meetings. I’d missed a staff meeting but I made my deadline so my boss was being lenient.
“Yes, I sent it to the editor this afternoon. And I called my boss and told him my father’s condition hadn’t improved and asked for another week off.”
“Your boss was okay with that?”
“He was.”
But I wasn’t. I hated lying. Then there was the fact that I totally sucked at it. The story we’d come up with was that my father was ill. Which of course led me to the question of what my father’s supposed illness was. Gabe told me to go with something simple like a heart attack. That led to me researching what caused a heart attack. I was deep into the rabbit hole of causes when Gabe pulled me back and explained the less I told my boss the more believable it would be. That sounded like good advice so I stopped researching. But again, I hated lying and it felt wrong to lie about my dad being sick. Like it was bad juju lying about a loved one being sick. However, I couldn’t tell the truth.
The funny thing was, I didn’t think my boss would believe the truth, it was so crazy. And if he did, he’d want the story and that was never going to happen.
“Good. Now that Delilah’s reached out, hopefully, she’ll be amenable to sharing information.”
That was interesting.
“So, you believe she’s on our side?”
“No. I don’t believe anything when it comes to your safety. But I’m willing to use her if it means this ends for you sooner rather than later. I want her close so we can keep an eye on her. I want to know what she knows. But I don’t trust a goddamn person outside of my team to have your back.”
And now that he brought it up I wasn’t going to miss my opportunity to ask him questions.
“Zane said—”
“Zane is the nosiest sonofabitch I know. Don’t let his attitude fool you. He puts up a, I don’t give a fuck front but it’s a lie. He butts into everyone’s business like a commando-cupid.”
“Why?”
Gabe’s thumbs drummed on the steering wheel and he took a moment before he answered.
“I can’t imagine the weight Zane feels. Day to day he runs Z Corps. No, Ivy runs the day-to-day operations. But Zane, he measures risk. Every contract that comes across his desk holds a certain level of danger. Every contract Zane accepts he knows when he sends us out one of us may not come back. He buries that knowledge under layers of sarcasm, attitude, and assholeness. But under all the bullshit is a man who cares deeply. He feels the weight of his decisions and takes them personally and seriously.”
Well, that didn’t actually answer my question but it did scare the pants off of me.
“And has someone not come back?”
Please say no. Please say no.
“Yeah. Eric Wheeler. He was on the Red Team. We lost him on a mission in South America a few years back.”
Eric Wheeler.
“Zane’s son,” I whispered.
“Yeah. Zane named his boy after Eric. Before Ivy, Zane was…I can’t explain who the man was except to say he was a fortress. He locked himself away from everyone, including his brother Lincoln. Now he’s a busybody who can’t keep his trap shut and gets in everyone’s business. His normal way of doing it is by making snide comments and pushing buttons. Apparently, he’s trying a new tactic and I’m the lucky test subject.”
“It wasn’t cool what he did,” I murmured my earlier assessment.
“It wasn’t. But I understand why he did it.”
Well, that was very magnanimous of Gabe. If Zane had called me out in that manner I didn’t think I’d be so understanding.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Gabe continued. “I’m pissed at him. But in a way he was right.”
“In what way was he right?”
“You don’t know me.”
My heart sank and my stomach clenched.
“What does that mean?” I asked even though I was rapidly changing my mind about having this conversation.