Dangerous Protector (Aegis Group Book 5) (13 page)

“I’m Ghost.” The other man crossed to the porch, offering her his hand.

Things had to be really bad if Ghost was willing to meet more people face to face.

“Marco’s friend. Hi.” Fiona blinked at Ghost, probably trying to figure out where she’d seen him before.

She hadn’t, but that was the point of Ghost’s appearance. He could be anyone. Literally anyone with a face like that.

“Can we all talk?” Ghost hefted a laptop bag higher up on his shoulder. “Inside?”

“Of—I mean, Marco?” Fiona glanced from Ghost to him. Probably because he was about to crack a tooth grinding them so hard.

“Sure.” He waved at the door and followed them both in.

Fiona offered Ghost coffee and poured one for herself.

“I guess you didn’t come out here to go up to Hell’s Revenge with us.” Fiona wrapped her hands around the mug.

He wanted to hold her. To tell her it would all be okay, even if it was a lie.

“No.” Ghost sat the laptop on the counter.

“So…Scott?” She grimaced.

“It goes deeper than just Scott.” Ghost glanced once more at Marco, but he shook his head. Whatever happened, he’d protect her. Even if it was from the truth.

“I’m going to need to sit down for this.” She crossed to the small dining table that saw more poker games than meals on its surface.

“Scott works for a company called Good Global. I don’t have access to the data they transmitted from your home network, but I would assume they’ve just about copied everything from NueEnergy.”

“What? Are you serious?” Fiona’s eyes went wide and her knuckles white, the tips of her fingers pressed tightly to her mug. “Why?”

“Espionage. That’s what he does.” Ghost tilted his head a little. A subtle movement Marco only noticed because he’d been around the guy for so fucking long. “There’s more. NueEnergy is illegally dumping waste material. That could either be what Scott was looking for, or something he found in the process of searching for other things.”

Fiona glanced between Ghost and Marco, her jaw working soundlessly.

“The bad part, for you, is that Scott orchestrated his theft to look as though you did it. He planted emails, data packets on your laptop… I pulled everything I could find and wiped it.”

She inhaled, but it sounded more like a squeak, and her face flushed red.

God damn it.

“Fiona. Fiona, sweetheart, breathe.” Marco rubbed her back, pushing her to lean forward until her head was nearly between her knees. He glared at Ghost while muttering the kinds of soothing words his sister said to her fussy babies.

“Oh my God.” Fiona sat up, her face red, eyes watery.

Shit. He could not deal with tears. Tears were not in Marco’s wheelhouse.

“What do I do?” her voice cracked.

“My professional opinion?” Ghost asked.

“You—shut up.” Marco thrust his finger in Ghost’s face. He pushed Fiona’s chair back, until he could sit on the edge of the table between her and Ghost.

“She only has two options,” Ghost said. “Either she quits and hopes they don’t come after her, or stays and tells them the truth.”

“I need to think.” Fiona pushed Marco’s hands away and paced around the table. “I need to think. I need to think.”

She opened the front door and walked out onto the porch, arms wrapped around herself.

“Way to go, fuck face.” Marco balled his hands into fists.

“She trusts you.” Ghost followed her with his gaze from window to window.

“Yeah, well, I haven’t given her reason not to yet. If we come clean, she won’t.”

“I think she would, after she got over it. She likes you too much. You did a good job getting into her pants.”

“Shut your mouth, Ghost.”

“Remember, this was only supposed to be a weekend bender for you.” Ghost’s gaze raked over Marco’s body.

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“I think you did. Look at yourself.” Ghost grimaced. “I told you from the start that there would be a fall guy, and you picked her. Now you want to undo it. I’m sorry, Marco, but that’s not possible. This is a fucked situation, and she’s going to eat it. You made that choice.”

“No. She’s not taking the blame for this. We can fix this.” Marco had to believe that.

“Yeah, well, maybe keep your dick in your pants. You’ve lost perspective. Over a cunt.”

Marco swung before he could think. His fist connected with Ghost’s jaw. The sensation of bone meeting bone jarred all the way up his arm into his shoulder. His vision hazed red. Even Ghost falling sideways onto the floor and the chair clattering to the ground didn’t register all that much.

Ghost lay on his back, laughing. He wiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth.

“You are so fucked, man.” He laughed again and rolled to all fours, levering up using another chair for support.

Marco had just punched Ghost. Marco shook his head, trying to clear it of the haze. Ghost was fast and mean. Marco shouldn’t have been able to land that punch, but Ghost had sat there and taken it. Why? What did that mean?

“I’m going to piss and then sleep. Tell me when you’ve made a decision, lover boy.” Ghost waved over his shoulder and headed for the stairs.

Marco stood there for several more moments. Had he lost sight of what they were doing? Was it because he’d gotten to know Fiona? He hardly knew her. It couldn’t be more than guilt talking. Which was all the more reason to fix this and put it behind them so they could all move on.

13.

Fiona was…numb. This?
The sort of thing happening around her now was the sort of thing she’d expected from her old life. Now, as Fiona, she shouldn’t be involved in a…a…what was this? A crime? A theft?

She needed to call the Marshall assigned to her case. No, this wasn’t directly related, but there was a crime going on, and she was involved against her will. If it went public and people started snapping pictures things could go bad. Fast. She’d always been careful about avoiding photographs that would end up on-line. Hell, she didn’t even use an avatar for her social media. Just a random stock photo silhouette of a woman that might be her. If NueEnergy was involved in something that broke laws, then her Marshall should be able to handle it. That made sense. Didn’t it?

She paced back and forth, along two sides of the house.

How had she not seen this coming?

Scott had played her. She’d known something was off, that they weren’t quite right for each other, but she was so lonely. And he’d been there. Maybe not in the way she needed, but he’d been around at least.

“Fiona? Hey, Fiona. Stop for a second.” Marco wrapped his coat around her and she shivered.

“I don’t know what to do.” She stared up at him and wished she could tell him the truth. The whole truth. Every bit of it. Maybe then he’d understand. Scott’s crimes against her were bad, but she’d get over them. She didn’t know if she’d survive another identity change. Each time they’d remade her, she’d lost bits and pieces of herself until…the only thing she recognized was her own reflection. And even that sometimes didn’t look like how she felt on the inside. She didn’t know who she was, but when she was near Marco she felt…she felt like maybe she’d figure it out.

Fiona wasn’t her name, but it was the identity and life she’d been in the longest. Starting over again meant losing the few anchors she had. Her life was lonely. Always watching her back was exhausting. If she had someone with her, a partner, a lover, someone who could be hear teather to the real world then maybe it wouldn’t be quite so hard. But she didn’t have that and the moment the Marshalls snatched her out of this life…she’d be alone. And that would kill the tiny, flickering flame of her soul.

She couldn’t remake herself again. She just couldn’t.

“You’ve got a few options.”

She turned away. There was only one option. Go to the Marshalls. Call them. Except her damn phone was dead. Maybe she could borrow Marco’s without raising too many questions.

“With what Ghost has on them, we can do something. Make their wrongs right.” The floorboards creaked under Marco’s feet as he shadowed her across the porch.

“Would you get your grandparent’s place back?” She glanced over her shoulder at him.

Marco flinched. He tried to hide it, but she saw it. From him, it said a lot. He didn’t have many expressions. Most of the time he frowned a lot, which made the smiles that much more precious. And the flinch? Was that for her? Or something else?

“You must love this.” She wrapped his coat around her tighter. “You hate them, and now I’ve put a situation in your lap that will allow you to get even. It’s a weird kind of justice.”

Fiona needed to get home. She had to be where the Marshalls knew to look for her.

“I hate that this is happening to you.” His voice was different.

She turned toward him. His hair moved in the breeze, but his face might as well have been carved from stone.

“You’ve been really great through all of this.” She reached out and placed her hand on his arm. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”

This whole situation was a shit storm, no doubt about it. But at least she was prepared. She knew it was coming. It wouldn’t catch her off-guard.

Randy tapped his fingers
on the arm rests. In a few short hours they’d land the private jet in Denver, and he could get ahead of this mess.

This was a nightmare. A fucking nightmare.

Who the hell thought it was a good idea hiding sensitive information in plain sight? If he could, he’d put a bullet between the fucker’s eyes. The headache at NueEnergy was going to have far-flung repercussions. This was why having all their financial data at one site was a very bad idea. Once the clean-up was complete, once he figured out who Fiona worked for, Randy could fix things.

His phone vibrated in the cup holder.

He snatched it up, flicking his finger over the button.

“You found her yet?” he asked.

“No, sir. I was—”

“Find her. That’s the only thing I want you doing.”

“But—”

“Find her or you can join George Trent.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. The next call I get from you had better be to tell me you know where this Fiona is. Nothing else matters. Got it?”

Randy hung up and stared straight ahead.

A multi-billion dollar operation nearly brought to its knees by a fucking secretary.

Marco kept pace next
to Fiona. They’d taken a walk down the drive to the county road and were now headed back. Lunch had been a silent affair. So far the only thing she’d done since Ghost arrived was to stare off into the horizon and ask to use his phone. Other than that, they were all on pins and needles waiting for her to make-up her mind.

“Do you mind if I check my voicemail again?” she asked.

“No. Here.” He unlocked his phone and handed it over.

She plugged in her number and pressed it to her ear.

He wished she’d listen to him. Maybe if he’d been…softer, she’d take his advice. People split from jobs all the time without a backward glance. The way he saw it, she needed to get as far away as she could and damn the consequences.

Fiona stopped in the middle of the dirt road, her eyes wide.

“What?” He didn’t like the look on her face.

“George…he’s dead.” She tapped the phone screen and replayed a message from someone named Eli. The details were sparse. George was dead, and they needed her to help sort out where George was at on a few things.

Fuck.

Marco glanced down the road. He wanted to get her inside and under cover. Her boss kicking the bucket the same time the higher ups would have become aware they had a breech? It was too coincidental to not be connected.

“Come on. Now.” He planted his hand in the small of her back and ushered her forward.

Fiona played five or six more messages from frantic coworkers, all in dire need of her help for one thing or another.

Marco guided her up the steps into the house and locked the door, something he never did. One more glance up the road and he pulled the blinds and went window to window, shutting out the rest of the world.

“Wondering where you two went.” Ghost’s feet thumped down the stairs. He still looked like hell, but his fat lip was gone and his gaze was brighter.

“We’ve got a problem.” Marco took the rifle from over the door down and checked the chamber.

“That’s loaded?” Fiona scampered into the kitchen, her eyes wide.

“Yup.” Marco leaned it up against the door.

“How bad?” Ghost stood at the bottom of the stairs, unnaturally still.

“Bad.”

“George is dead. That doesn’t mean anything.” Fiona’s voice was high, thin, breakable. She knew the truth, but she wasn’t ready to accept it yet.

“Any other messages?” Marco asked.

“I didn’t finish them. Hold on.” She pressed the phone to her ear, chewed on a nail and stared at the floor.

Ghost closed the distance between them.

“Get her out of here. Get her somewhere safe,” Ghost said. “We had no idea the scale of the operation when we started. Something this big? They’re going to find out you’re here.”

Marco felt the words like a punch to the gut.

He’d brought Fiona here, to his home, near his family because he’d believed it was safe. Now, if he left to protect her, who would protect them?

“We can’t go.” He stared at Ghost. Could the man understand? It was hard to tell sometimes with Ghost. He wasn’t wired right.

Fiona put the phone on the counter and leaned against the fridge.

“Anything?” Marco strode toward her. He had to fix this to make things better, but how?

“Eli called again. He wants me to come in to…to go over where George was with a few things…” She seemed paler. Because she was getting the bigger picture?

“You can’t go in.”

“I have to.” She looked up, searching his face. “Marco, if I don’t go, that’s an admission of guilt. We know the truth, right?”

“They killed George,” Ghost said.

“What?” Fiona flinched.

“Think about what we know.” Ghost crossed to the kitchen bar and leaned his elbows against it. “We know that NueEnergy is owned by a company that’s owned by a company that’s owned by someone. We know that NueEnergy was illegally dumping waste material, among other things. I don’t know what else because I haven’t had time to dig through it all. Yet. But guys like this? They aren’t going to roll over because someone knows the truth. NueEnergy alone is worth millions as a brand. Money like that is worth killing over.”

“No.” She shook her head. “You don’t know that.”

“No, you’re right. But think about it.” Ghost shrugged. “Have you ever thought it was weird that your boss did something, or maybe he gave you too much oversight on something that should be his?”

Fiona stared at the counter tops, her face completely white.

“I’m guessing George was involved in the bigger picture and you know too much.”

“Stop it.” Marco crossed to Fiona and cupped her cheek. “Hey, hey. Look at me. It’s going to be okay.”

“I’m going in. I have to. I need to return my laptop and give them my notice, at least, Marco. I can’t just leave.”

“Yes, you can.”

“No.” She shook her head.

“Fiona, if you go in there, if you try to act like nothing has happened, that you don’t know anything, something bad is going to happen to you.” Marco knew it, in his gut. The words were right. He wasn’t sure what the higher ups at NueEnergy would do but…Fiona would pay the price for his sins.

“I didn’t do anything wrong.” Fiona drew herself up to her full height. “Scott did this. I didn’t.”

“We already know he was designing it so you’d take the fall if he was found out.” Marco stared at her. Why was she being so stubborn? Couldn’t she see the truth? Or at least the truth they’d told her?

“I’m not running. We don’t know George’s death has anything to do with this. We don’t know how he died.”

“Mugging.” Ghost turned his phone to face them, the news headline clear.

“See?” Fiona waved a hand at Ghost.

“Who gets mugged first thing in the morning outside a downtown skyscraper? Doesn’t your building have security? Shouldn’t someone have seen something? Hm?” Ghost’s glare wasn’t friendly. “You want to go back? Fine. It’s your death.”

“Ghost—shut up,” Marco snapped.

“What do you know? How do you know that?” Fiona was yelling now.

“Right,” Ghost rolled his eyes and stood, “because—”

“Get the fuck out.” Marco grabbed Ghost by the arm and hauled him to the door.

He needed to control the situation, not let Ghost push her into doing something stupid. Talking down to Fiona only made her spine harden. He shoved Ghost out the front door and slammed it far too hard.

The only people who needed to be involved in this discussion were Fiona and himself. Somehow, someway, he had to convince her to stay. That alone made his stomach churn. How the hell did he manage this?

Fiona stared straight ahead,
spine rigid.

The last thing she wanted to do was go back to Denver, and yet…here they were. On the road again, Ghost driving ahead of them.

It was the right thing to do, morally speaking, and if she weren’t in danger, there would be no question about what she should do. But…she’d spent her life running and hiding that it’d become second nature, and she didn’t like that either.

She had to find some way to ease her mind. She trusted the US Marshalls, or had. This latest case agent left her…uneasy. He wouldn’t put her in danger, would he?

It was imperative that she keep the faith. Believe in the Marshalls, and stick to their plan. Business as usual.

Her confidence in the Marshalls was firm where her case was concerned. They all wanted the same things. But when it came to her current case agent, she wasn’t quite as certain he understood her or what was going on. Was she willing to split? Go it alone?

Marco would leave her at some point. Maybe if things got too hard, or if he got called away, she’d be on her own. Then what? She didn’t have the resources to set up a new life for herself. She needed the Marshalls. And they needed her to someday put Nova behind bars. It didn’t make sense that her case agent would put her at risk. The problem must be with her. She was scared and it’d been a long time since she’d had to pick up and move her life. It made sense that she’d have some bad feelings about this.