Las Vegas Sidewinders: Drake (Book 2) (24 page)

“Yes, sir.” She forced
herself to meet his gaze directly.

“Tell everyone we’re
delaying deployment for an hour.” He turned his back on her. “Go on. Get out of
here.”

“Yes, sir.” She hurried
outside, trying to control her breathing. “Hey! Heads up! Mission delayed for
an hour.”

“What?” Liv looked
startled as she joined her. “What are you talking about?”

“I have no idea. I went
in to find out if he had any last minute instructions and he said we were going
to delay for an hour.” Erin shrugged.

“What the fuck, man?”
Eric leaned against the building.

“This is weird,” Louie
looked concerned. “I just spoke to my contact at NSA headquarters and he had
word this was a go.”

“Jesus Christ,” Mark
feigned indignation. “Shay wouldn’t have done shit like this.”

“God, I miss him,” Erin
looked down, hoping she looked sad. Now that she knew Liv was behind all of
this, she was paying attention to how she reacted to everything she said. She
could see Liv looked down as well.

“It sure ain’t the same
without him,” she said quietly.

Colonel Nicoletti came
out of his office. “Some bullshit going down with Washington. Mission delayed
until I find out what the fuck is going on.” He stomped off in the other
direction.

“Hell.” Ronnie nudged
Liv. “You got a cigarette?”

“Yeah.” She handed him
one and lit one up herself. She glanced at Erin. “You want one?”

“No thanks.” Erin shook
her head. “Not tonight.”

“Come on,” Mark
motioned Erin with his head. “We might as well do some paperwork while we
wait.”

She followed him
without a word. They went back to her office and he shut and locked the door.
Putting a finger to his lips, he started feeling around the edges of her desk
and looking under all flat surfaces. Realizing he was looking for bugs, she
started doing the same. After an exhaustive search didn’t unveil anything, she
sat in her chair and he sat across from her.

She reached inside her
desk and pulled out the sat phone. “I’ve got to call Drake.”

“Erin…” He looked at
her in alarm.

“I have to warn him.”
She stared off into the distance. “No matter what happens to me, I can’t let
anything happen to him. None of this is his fault—he got caught up in my
miserable life and now he could be in danger.”

“He’s a big boy, Erin.”

“He needs to know
what’s going on.”

“Does he know you’re
pregnant?”

“No!” She shook her
head vehemently. “Hell, I don’t even know! I never would have deployed if I’d
known…” Her voice trailed off and she forced any thoughts of pregnancy out of
her mind. She couldn’t think about that until this was over. Although she loved
the idea of having Drake’s baby, there was so much more at stake here. She had
to protect both her unit and the man she loved, even if it meant something
happened to her. She and Shay had been pawns in some kind of sick game last
time she’d been here, but she wouldn’t allow anyone else to get hurt because of
a college romance gone wrong. Kate’s accusation that she had a death wish came
back to her as she dialed the new number Drake had emailed her, and realized
that while she would gladly die to protect the people she loved, she had a lot
to live for these days.

“Hi!” he answered
sounding breathless. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” She smiled
at the sound of his voice.

“Honey, I have a lot of
stuff to tell you.”

“You need to check your
email,” she said softly. “I can’t talk, it’s not safe. I just wanted you to
know that I love you. More than you could ever know.”

“Erin?” He sounded
frantic. “Wait! You need to know who’s behind all of this!”

“I already know,” she
said sadly. “Liv.”

“Not just Liv! It’s
Jan! Jan’s been behind all of it, since the beginning.”

“What?” her eyes met
Mark’s, widening in surprise and horror. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, positive. I’ve
had one of the best security firms in the country working on this. We know a
lot.”

She heard a knock at
the door. “Listen—I have to go. Please be careful, and no matter what happens,
remember I love you.” She disconnected and put the phone back in her drawer
just as Mark opened the door.

“What’s up?” Louie
wandered in, looking from one to the other.

“Just trying to keep
our heads in the game until we find out what’s going on,” Mark sank back into
the chair.

Louie frowned at them.
“You two are full of shit. You forget I’ve been NSA the last two years. I know
something’s not right here. I know something wasn’t right on that
last
mission, and I think you two found something out that you’re not sharing.”

Erin met Mark’s gaze.
“It’s complicated.”

“Why? ‘Cause I’m an NSA
liaison now and not a Marine anymore?!” He looked annoyed.

“You know that’s not
it,” Erin made a face at him. “You’re one of us—you’ll always be one of us.”

“Then why the fuck are
you keeping me out of the loop?!” His dark eyes flashed angrily.

“Because what we know
and what we can prove can get people killed.”

“Because we ain’t ever
been in danger before?” He folded his arms across his chest. “Don’t jerk me
off—tell me what’s up.” He looked at Mark. “Since when are you on
her
side?”

“We’re on different
sides here?” Mark raised his eyebrows.

“Last time you and I
had a conversation you thought she was going to get someone killed—and then
someone died.” Louie was looking more and more annoyed.

“Yeah, that’s not what
I was talking about, and you know it.” Mark’s ears turned red but he never
broke Louie’s gaze.

“You two gonna sit here
and lie to my face?” Louie looked from one to the other.

“Liv is on the take,”
Erin said simply.

“Wha—?” Louie was
literally gaping at her. “Girl, what the fuck’re you goin’ on about?” He looked
at Mark. “Is she serious?”

“I found a bank deposit
slip on the floor—in Liv’s name. $200,000 was deposited in her account four
days ago and someone mailed her the receipt.”

“No way.” Louie got up
and ran his hand over his bald head. “For real?” He looked devastated.

“And Drake just told me
that Jan has been behind everything.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t
believe this! How could two people I loved and trusted do this to me?” She
buried her face in her hands and let the tears fall.

“Jesus!” Mark gave
Louie a dirty look before going to stand behind Erin and pull her against him.
“It’s okay, babe. It’s gonna be okay.”

“Shit,
you two
got somethin’ goin’ on?!” Louie was shaking his head in disgust.

Erin’s head snapped up
but Mark squeezed her arm, hard, preventing her from saying anything.

“You just got married!”
Louie eyed her. “Man, you might be a hell of a Marine, but you suck men dry!”
He got up in annoyance. “And now you got me all tangled up in this bullshit!”

“I didn’t get you
tangled up in crap!” Erin jumped to her feet, brushing off Mark as she marched
up to Louie and swiped at the tears on her face. “You listen to me, and you
listen
good
!” She got right in his face, eyes blazing as she poked him
in the shoulder with her finger. “You were still a Marine last time, and we
came over here as a unit! Shay picked you—and me—because he trusted us. I can’t
help that his mother and brother have lost their fucking minds—that is
not
on me! I’m here this time trying to make something that was wrong right. You
can believe what you want about me as a woman, but as a solider, and an
American
,
I have never been anything but straight up! Shay’s mother paid off someone in
our
unit to have me killed, and instead, she killed her own son! Now she’s gunning
for me again, so don’t you dare accuse me of getting you tangled up in
something!” She was breathing hard now, her fists clenched. “So you can take
your sorry NSA ass out of my office, and stay the fuck out of my face.”

Louie looked somewhat
deflated as they stood nose to nose, but he backed away first. “Shit.” He
turned and hung his head. “You don’t understand. Me and Liv…” His voice trailed
off.

“You and Liv?” Mark let
out a groan. “Oh, no, no, no. This can’t be happening.” He slowly put himself
between Louie and Erin. The motion wasn’t lost on either of them but Louie
looked at his friend in surprise.

“You think I’m gonna
hurt her?” He took a step back and hurt flashed across his face.

“I don’t know, but my
best friend asked me to take care of his girl if anything happened to him, and instead
I listened to you and Liv talking shit all the time about how Shay died because
he was all wrapped up in Erin. Instead, I should have been there for her,
looking out for her, and there were you and your
girl
, trying to kill
her. You in on it too?” Mark was the one in Louie’s face now. “Huh? You takin’
a cut of that money? How much more is there, Lou? Huh?”

“Whoa, hold on!”
Louie’s eyes had widened in horror. “No way, man. I had no fucking idea what
she was doin’! I thought…” His voice died as he looked at Erin. “I blamed you
for Shay being off his game, but I didn’t know anything about any of this. I
would die before I betrayed my country or a fellow Marine. Shay was my bro…
Hell no!” He slammed his fist on the desk. “I would never be involved in some
shit like that!”

Erin’s finger had
released the safety of the 9mm she’d had at her hip since arriving back in
Afghanistan. She felt a moment of sadness knowing that Mark and Louie had
blamed her for Shay’s death all this time. How could any of them have known
what Jan was up to? How long had she hated Erin for the wedge between Clay and
Shay? The problem was that Shay had been covering up for Clay’s temper for
years, but he’d made it sound like harmless mischief when he’d told Erin about
it. Later, he’d acted like everything was fine, but in retrospect, she realized
that although he kept his distance, he emailed her almost daily. Not the fun,
lighthearted emails of years past, but always keeping tabs on where she was and
what was going on in her life. Now she knew that he probably had been worried
about what Clay might do. Had he known about his mother’s duplicity too?

She looked at Mark.
“Did Shay have any idea his mother was crazy? I mean, he knew something was
wrong with Clay, but did he know about his mom?”

“I think he was
beginning to suspect,” Mark said slowly. “He said something a few days before
he died, about how he wanted to take you and get as far away from his family as
possible.” He looked away. “I didn’t know what to think, Erin. I thought he was
talking about Clay, but he said ‘his family,’ not just Clay. At the time, it
didn’t seem important. I knew that you two had feelings for each other, but it
wasn’t until the last couple of days that I realized he was afraid of something
or someone, and he was constantly checking on you.”

“You think he knew
someone in our unit was dirty?” Erin wondered.

“I think he suspected,”
Mark took a deep breath. “Sonofabitch, and I thought he was just another
lovesick moron. I didn’t take him seriously, although to be fair, he never came
out and said anything.”

“How are we going to
handle Liv?” Louie asked quietly. “There’s no way I can be in the same room
with her now—she’ll know right away I’m hiding something.”

“How long has this been
going on?” Erin asked him.

“Since last time we
were here,” he admitted. “That’s why I left the Marines and went to the NSA. It
was too complicated with us both being Marines.”

“Why haven’t you gotten
married?” she asked curiously.

“She won’t,” he
shrugged sadly. “Said she wasn’t ready. I guess that was a load of bullshit
too. She was using me to find out what the NSA knew.”

“Okay, we’re done with
this pity party.” Erin stood up straight. “We can’t afford to think about who
did what or who used who. Right now, our mission is to stay alive long enough
to find out who was responsible for the death of a Marine on August 17, 2010.”
She looked from one to the other. “Do we understand each other?”

Mark nodded. “Yes,
ma’am.”

Louie nodded his head.

“Lou, you need to get
to Colonel Nicoletti and explain your situation.” Erin motioned with her head.
“Now.”

“I don’t think so.” Liv
kicked open the door with her foot and pointed her gun at Erin. “All of you
move back. Now.”

“Liv, have you lost
your mind?” Louie glared at her. “What the fuck?”

“Shut up!” She pointed
the gun. “Move. Now.”

Erin pulled her own gun
and aimed it back at Liv. “Not this time, you two-faced bitch.” She took a
stance in front of Mark, causing him to growl in frustration.

“Who you callin’ a
bitch,
bitch
?” Liv’s dark eyes gleamed, her stare meeting Erin’s.

Erin held her ground.
“How could you, Liv? I mean, once you knew Shay was in that vehicle with me—”