morning. They would crash after a long day of flying, and I didn’t blame them. Disappointment stung me as I didn’t get to speak to Scottie that night.
In the morning, my new phone rang. I grinned when I saw her name.
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Where have you been? I’ve been calling you.”
“We got new phones in case O’Brien was tracking us, so I was off the grid for a good while yesterday.”
“Damn, after I heard about the house, I freaked.”
“All’s good here, babe, and I heard your mission was a double-decker success.”
Her groan surprised me. “Everything but contacting O’Brien. We couldn’t reach him. And now we have a little spoiled shit in our midst.”
“You mean she’s with you?”
“Uh, yeah. What else are we supposed to do with her? She’s the key to everything. And the daughter who rants and raves constantly. My head aches around those two.”
“Hopefully, when O’Brien finds out, he’ll give himself up quickly.”
“One can only dream.”
“So, babe, when can I see you?”
She moaned again. “About that. One more issue. You can’t come here. The more people the screaming banshees see, the more people we put in danger. And I can’t leave because we need as many guards on them as possible.”
“Well, fuck me. That just sucks.”
“Right? I didn’t know this mission would extend to babysitting.”
“Maybe we can figure something out.” I wasn’t hopeful though.
“Yeah, call me if you work something out.” She didn’t sound very optimistic.
“I miss you, Scottie Sullivan.”
“You do? How much?”
“Stop teasing me. You know I miss the hell out of you.”
Her bubbling laughter rolled over me and ended at my dick. Damn, that woman was a sexpot. Even her laughter got to me.
“Maybe we can figure something out.”
“You’re the expert on covert operations. I’ll leave that up to you.”
“Just leave your bedroom window unlocked.”
“About that. Scottie, my bedroom window is over a canyon, so unless you can scale the side of the house, that’s a negative.”
“Let me come up with something then. I’ll text you when I figure it out.”
After we spoke, I headed to the shower. My dick wouldn’t allow me to sleep in this condition. If she didn’t come up with something, I would call Drex and demand her presence here. Nothing would suffice but that.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Scottie
Raiden put a smile on my face, the first in days. Too bad everyone noticed. I was locked into this mission, but staying with Gem and Drex took a toll on me.
Gemini tapped my shoulder. “I know who you’ve been talking to.” Her husky chuckle had me doing the same.
“Yeah, and I’m not as lucky as you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve got to be joking.”
Drex approached her and slapped her on the ass. “Don’t be obtuse. You know Scottie is in a difficult situation.”
Gem pouted. “I was only teasing.”
I bumped shoulders with her. “You can stop. It’s not fair, and that’s all I’m saying.”
Drex’s expression switched from playful to serious. “All kidding aside, Huff has noticed an increase in chatter on the dark web.”
My gaze was now directed at Huff, who sat at the counter on his computer. “Can you explain that?”
Huff answered instead of Drex. “We know O’Brien ordered Raiden’s house to be destroyed. The preliminary reports from WI via the fire department say it was probably an RPG.”
“Fuck. That would account for the explosion the neighbors heard.”
Huff, who still tapped away on his keyboard, added, “Look at this.”
The report he’d pulled up described grenade fragments but omitted explosive charges or trace elements of explosives you usually saw with bombs. “Damn. Do you think he knows?”
“Not sure if he did when he ordered this attack, but he’s bound to by now,” Drex answered. “Raiden made an excellent call coming up here. It bought us a few days, at least. But there’s something else.”
Drex was not a jovial person by nature. Brevity was not his strong suit, which was why Gemini suited him so well. She brought out that side of him. However, his eyes darkened when they pierced mine. Something was incredibly wrong, and I feared what he would tell me.
“Spit it out. Not knowing is worse than how you’re making me feel right now.”
“Huff?”
“Scottie, your name came up on the dark web. I’m not sure how they picked up on you, but they did. There’s a contract out on you.” Huff motioned for me to check it out. I didn’t want to. I wanted to run and bury my head in the sand. Only I didn’t and checked out the screen. There were over a dozen pictures. In