Reid - Maddie Wade Page 0,76
Always has a team of highly trained muscle around, not Spec Ops but I’m guessing ex-military. He also has an Irish guy that has just come on the scene. He seems high level, but I don’t know a lot about him, just that the Count trusts him.”
“Is the Count the top man?” Liam asked.
Gunner shook his head. “I don’t think so. He talks about his boss but never mentions any details. He is meticulous about it. I’m not convinced he even knows who it is.”
As Jack took all the information in, Liam knew Lopez would be working night and day with Will to find out who the Count was, as well as trying to trace Bás.
“What did they ask you to do that you can’t?” Alex stood straight from the wall as he asked the question.
“They wanted me to Kill Reid and Callie Lundholm.”
“And?”
“They want me to weaken Eidolon by taking out your partners. I’m sure you figured out I sabotaged missions.”
“We did. What we couldn’t figure out was why you failed. You had plenty of opportunities to do us all real harm, and you failed. Why?”
Gunner looked at Jack with a pained expression. “You were my brothers, the closest I had to family here. I didn’t want to succeed and hurt anyone. I was trying so hard to walk a thin line, but they must have figured out what I was doing. They sent me a video of a man standing over Milla’s bed.” Gunner swallowed, and Liam knew this was painful for him. “They asked if she was a virgin.”
Liam’s lip curled in anger at the thought of the vulnerable woman being terrified by such a threat.
“I had to go all in.”
“And if we do this favour, what will you do for us? Favours are for friends, family, or team member, not traitors. Jack was being a hard ass, and Liam understood his stance and why he was forcing Gunner to work for this.
“Whatever you want. Name it, and I’ll do it.”
“I need you to stay undercover, go about your business and get me all the information I need to take these motherfuckers down.”
“What about Milla?” Gunner looked scared but was holding his own with Jack.
“We’ll make sure Milla is safe.”
“You need to hurry. I can’t hold off doing something and keep her safe.”
Jack tipped his head to Decker, who moved forward with the laptop and hit play. They all looked on as Gunner watched the video of Fortis rescuing Milla.
He looked at Jack. “She’s safe?”
“Yes.”
Gunner sagged as if he was a balloon with all the air sucked from him, his head hanging as he sucked in vast pulls of air. “Thank you.”
Liam could see his old teammate was sincere as the tension left his shoulders in a visible sigh. Liam was pleased they could do that for him even though he’d betrayed them. He could see now Gunner wasn’t evil, misguided maybe, but he’d lost his way. If he was honest, there had been many a time when he’d been close to losing his own way.
“They won't believe I had nothing to do with this. How will I repay you?”
“Because this is the video the men who are blackmailing you will see.” Decker hit play and Gunner watched, before he looked away, his face ashen.
“You’ll go to them, tell them that you received this through the post, and you want to see us all burn for what we did.”
“They may not believe me.”
“They will because you’re not our only inside man.”
“Oh?” Gunner angled his head to Jack in a query, but Jack shook his head.
“That’s privileged information. But you’ll leave any information for us in a chat room for this game.” Jack showed Gunner an app that had been added to his phone by Will, Jack’s tech genius brother who worked for Fortis.
“I understand. So, what now?”
“Now you get thirty minutes to visit with your sister to make sure in your mind she’s safe, and then you go back undercover.”
Gunner nodded as Alex moved to release the restraints at his wrists and legs. Gunner stretched and offered a grateful smile. “Thank you.” He looked at the four of them individually before he spoke again. “For what it’s worth, the decision was the wrong one. I’ll regret losing what I had with you all for the rest of my life.”
Liam nodded but didn’t speak; what could he say to the man that he didn’t already know. They had to move forward now.
“I will have Waggs and Alex escort you to see Milla.” With that, Jack and Alex left the room, as he and Decker followed.
Liam knew there’d be much discussion on this now, but he needed a minute of fresh air first. He walked to the exit at the back and opened the door, feeling the camera follow him as he did.
His feelings toward Gunner had changed wildly during that interrogation, although to call it an interrogation was false. Gunner had given up the information readily. Taking some cleansing breaths to rid him of the emotions clogging his head, he turned to go back in and saw Jack striding down the hall toward him, a pissed off expression on his face.
“What?”
“I just had a call from Princess Taamira.”
Liam groaned at her name. The woman drove him crazy with her demands and her stuck up behaviour, yet when he was with her, he couldn’t help but wonder what she would feel like soft and pliant beneath him if she put all that fire to good use and let go of her prissy ways.
“What now?”
“She just fired her entire security team and is demanding you fly out to her.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Liam hung his head as he massaged his neck.
“You need to find out what happened.”
“Fine, I’ll be on the first flight out. But if I wring her pretty neck, you have to post bail.”
Jack chuckled. “Deal.”