“So have you. I’m thinking you’ve fought more than any of us realize.” Her heart warmed. “We love you, Addy. Everyone loves you.”
Love. Hearing the declaration calmed her tumultuous thoughts and eased the ache in her chest. Peter hadn’t ever expressed the sentiment, not even before her parents had died. Even though she’d started over at The Arsenal after Hive was taken down, she’d operated as she’d always done—from the sidelines. Guarding those she cared for from a safe distance.
But she hadn’t been at a safe distance. Mary and the girls had flanked her. Marshall and the guys had somehow maneuvered her into the center of their protectiveness without her realizing how deeply entrenched she was with them.
Sure, she’d known how important they were to her, but she hadn’t taken a step back and considered her value to them. She’d known her importance to her team, though.
And everyone at The Arsenal was a team.
No.
They were family.
“I love you, too.” Her eyes burned with the admission. Why had it been so hard to admit that?
She couldn’t answer that, not right now. Maybe later. After the mission was complete and she was…
Home.
She kept her back to the room and swiped at her eyes. Damn. She was a train off the rails and headed into terrain she wasn’t sure she could handle. She’d watched her girls and the guys go through this shit, but she’d never thought she’d be here. Exposed. Emotionally eviscerated.
“Don’t kill Marshall and Nolan. I know you want to kick their asses, but you’re their commando sister and they’d do anything to protect you.”
She chuckled. “I know.”
“Good. Now let’s get this meeting started before Kristof takes on everyone in that room.” Mary chuckled. “I’m almost tempted to let him.”
“He’s too injured for that.” Addy turned and froze.
Kristof stood in the center of the room. Intensity resonated within his stance as he faced off against Marshall, who’d inserted himself in the path leading to Addy.
Oh boy.
14
“Sit down,” Marshall ordered.
Kristof clenched his fists and glared at the man standing between him and Addy. He’d agreed with Nolan earlier. She deserved better than him and he wouldn’t stand in their way to remove her from the mission, but he wasn’t about to sit back and let her get ganged up on when she was exhausted.
“Have some common sense,” Kristof said. “She’s exhausted. Whatever is going on will wait until she’s rested.”
“You’re right.” The man crossed his arms. “Nolan and I didn’t know her team would corner her like that. They’re worried. Any of our teams would’ve done the same thing. As for the conversation I’m suspecting she’s having with Mary, I’m as in the dark as you are since she turned off all of our coms. Edge will never hurt Addy. None of us will.”
“Fine.” Kristof turned and sat between Nolan and Gage.
Gage settled his forearms on his knees and looked over. “I’m thinking we can have a sidebar right now about what the hell you were thinking sharing Zoey’s contact info with that psycho.”
Kristof tightened. His gaze cut to the woman, whose eyes widened from where she sat in a rocking chair.
“Gage.”
“Not now, Little Bit. That could’ve gone sideways.”
“It was the smart play,” Zoey said. “He knew I’d handle it. He knew we were listening. Those calls triangulated their location and got you there in time to exfil them. It also gave us another in to figure out who we’re up against.”
Gage’s eyes narrowed. “What did you find out?”
The com system in the center of the room buzzed. Everyone glanced that direction. Marshall clicked a button. “We’re all here, Edge.”
“First,” Edge said, “we think the group we’re up against is the remnants of the Mandrake splinter we fought in Cuba. The account the funds were sent to the second time isn’t tied to Mandrake. It was a private account of an operative terminated from Mandrake last week.”
“Convenient,” Nolan said.
The tension in Kristof eased somewhat when Addy sat across from him in the makeshift circle of the living room. Redness appeared around her eyes. He glared at her team. Had they made her cry, or had it been Edge?
Didn’t matter who instigated. The reason was him.
He was a toxin in her life. Nolan and Marshall were right. He needed to carve himself out of her life even if it wasn’t what he wanted. He’d waffled between doing so too much the past few days. It was time he manned the