Hostile Ground (The Arsenal #7) - Cara Carnes Page 0,58
me.”
“It has everything to do with you.” The man closed the kit. “We expect her to argue with our decision. It’d help if you take our side.”
“The only side I’ll ever take is whatever’s best for Addison.”
“You aren’t what’s best for her,” Nolan said. “I trust we’re in agreement with at least that much.”
“We are,” Kristof said. “I’d appreciate a heads up before you pull her from Russia. There are a few things I want to say before she leaves—things she should know.”
“That’s not a good idea, especially if it’ll make her want to stay.”
“I very much doubt it will matter. By the time this is all done, I’ll likely be dead.” Kristof met the man’s surprised gaze. “Keep her safe. That’s all I ask.”
He turned and exited the room.
The internal war he’d fought before The Arsenal teams arrived had been pointless. He should’ve realized they’d intervene and make the decision he hadn’t managed to. Nolan was right. Addy was better off without him in her life, even if he didn’t agree.
Life hadn’t ever been simple. Not for Kristof.
Why should this be any different?
Addy ignored the tension radiating from the other side of the room where Kristof sat with Marshall, Nolan, and Gage. She studied the men clustered around her in the vacant dining room area off of the kitchen. Johnny turned the skull rings on his fingers around and around and around. Concern crackled in tiny frown lines around his face whenever he looked at her.
Beast, Thunder, Cracker, and Shep alternated concerned gazes toward her and annoyed ones to where Kristof sat. To say her team was worried was an understatement, and for the first time in a long while, she wasn’t sure how to talk them down from the ledge because she was right there with them.
“You good?” Beast asked, taking the lead as he always did whenever the team intended to confront her.
“I’m good. I’ll be better when we get those other missiles.” And make sure Kristof is okay with whatever clusterfuck he’d become buried in. “You?”
“We’ve been better,” Cracker said. “You never should’ve left that auction house without us on your six. We shouldn’t have agreed to that.”
“We should’ve split into two groups and left Gage and his guys with Yesim’s crew,” Shep commented. “That won’t happen again. We won’t allow it.”
“It was the right call,” Addy said.
“Anything that leaves you alone and at risk is never the right call,” Johnny said. “It was amateur hour bullshit that never should’ve gone down.”
“We all know that’s horse shit.” She met each man’s gaze, then continued. “First, it’s a lot easier to see what went wrong after it’s already gone down. We were in an armored transport with active coms and less than twenty miles from our target destination when we were hit at the same time the missiles were. No one could’ve mitigated that. Second, I wasn’t alone.”
“Lavrov isn’t an operative,” Beast said.
“Maybe you should go take a look at his injuries and then come back and say that shit.” Addy pointed to where he sat. “I’ve heard the interrogation they did. I made Edge play it for me after I showered and changed because I wanted to know what I’d missed while I was passed out. He got the com out of my ear and had Fatima hide it because he had his shit together enough to not only keep his mouth shut during a rough interrogation session but to spin that around and give Edge what she needed to triangulate our exact position. He’s why you found us. I get that none of you like him, but I’ll be damned if I sit here and let you all disrespect what he went through.”
The guys regarded one another as the silence unfolded.
“He’s not one of us, Red. He won’t ever be,” Cracker said quietly.
“Never said he was.”
The admission stung. Anger seeped into her. She deserved more. So did Kristof. Walking away from him simply because they’d chosen two different paths was unfair. No. Neither of them had chosen their lives. They’d been forced on them both.
She wanted more. With Kristof.
“Why won’t you tell us about the ops you worked with him? Or about the camp you were at?” Johnny asked.
“You know why, dipshit,” Shep said. “Thought we’d all agreed to leave that be.”
“The only thing that bastard deserves is a bullet in his brainstem,” Beast muttered. “We should’ve found another way to get those missiles that didn’t involve him.”