Damon's Deal Read online

  Frowning, Damon stared at the table and the tablet of notes. “Where do we start?”

  “I’d say Iran, in the cell that we shut down, doing the same kind of work as we are doing, but of course for the other side.”

  “And how many other sides are there now?” Damon snapped bitterly. “It seems like we’re up against the Russians and the Chinese all the time. Now you’re saying Iran.”

  “And I can’t say for sure it’s them. It could all be connected.” He took a slow deep breath. “And it could be connected to our bosses.”

  Damon leaned back, dropped the pencil. “I know, and that means that we need to investigate them and Iran, while keeping an eye on China and Russia. And we don’t have anybody to help us do that.”

  “I can bring in some help,” Terk replied. “I don’t think our three admins are doing anything right now. We all went our separate ways that night, with the expectation of the team getting in touch in a few days. Only we never got that chance.” He cast Damon a raised eyebrow.

  Damon realized who he was talking about. “Interesting.” He hated the idea. He didn’t want her in any more danger than she already was. “I’m not so sure that that’s even a wise idea.”

  “But at least they understood what we were doing, and we still need people to run searches and people to do tracking.”

  Damon frowned, still not liking the idea. “You mean Tasha. She was good at that.”

  “I’ll contact her. I think they’re still working for the government though, and, if we don’t want the government to know that we’re alive and well …” Terk raised his eyebrows.

  Damon shook his head. “Tasha was given her walking papers the same day the government shut us down.”

  “Why?” Terk asked in surprise.

  “Mostly I think because of the connection to us.”

  “Has anybody talked to her since? I haven’t.” Terk looked at Damon.

  “Neither have I.” Damon immediately snatched up his phone. “If they killed off our abilities, hoping that they would completely close down the department,” he noted with emphasis, “what are the chances that they did something to permanently injure her?”

  “Well, they sure as hell better not have. We had three great hackers, IT staff. Let’s see if we can find any of them.”

  “I’ll check in with Tasha.”

  Terk nodded. “I’ll contact Wilson, and then we’ll have to look for Mera.”

  “Yes, and, if any or all three of them want to come back and work for us while we sort this out, we need them. That just brings back one other issue.” Damon turned toward Terk. “When we got shut down, they removed our access, I presume?”

  “Yes, access to databases, access to security, access to everything.”

  “What about the bank accounts?”

  Terk gave him a ghost of a smile. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”

  “Will they accuse you of stealing?”

  “I highly doubt it because they didn’t know about it in the first place.” He was torn on that because, of course, that was in theory how it was supposed to be. “It was access we had before anyway.”

  “What are the odds that this annihilation was actually done because of that money? How much money are we talking about?” When Terk gave him a ballpark figure, Damon whistled silently. “We could have all been targeted just to get access to the money. Hell, they hide our budget from Congress so nobody without the highest of clearances knows what we’re up to. This money is dark. Someone steals it, and who’d be the wiser? If it would never openly go into the government coffers because they didn’t know about it, because it was hidden money, maybe someone did know and decided to get it for themselves.”

  “It’s possible, but they could have done that without taking us out,” he reminded Damon. “We would never have known once we were ousted.”

  “No, that’s quite true. But still, it makes me suspicious.”

  “Anytime big money’s involved, it makes us all suspicious,” he murmured.

  “Yeah, that is very true.” His fingers were already redialing Tasha’s number. But, so far, no answer. He bolted to his feet. “I don’t like anything about this. I’ll run over to her place.”

  “If she’s still there. Remember. The bosses knew that we had some abilities, but they didn’t really know all of what we did.”

  “No, they knew exactly what we did. They just didn’t always understand the nuances of how we did it.”

  “Okay, good enough,” Terk agreed. “I don’t have a problem with that definition. Use your connection with Tasha to bring her back.”

  Damn it. How did he know? Terk was like that. He knew things—that no one should know. Damon pocketed his phone and shook his head at that. “I just want to make sure that I find her alive.”

  Terk’s smile fell away. “Yeah, I hear you there.” Just then he got a text, and he frowned. “I need to handle this.”

  As Damon went to walk out the door, he turned back to Terk. “Anything I need to know?”

  “Not necessarily. My brother is about to call.”

  “Ah, well, let me know, and don’t forget we could use the additional manpower.”

  Terk eyed him knowingly and then slowly nodded. “It is what they do. So maybe. I’ll talk to my brother and see.”

  “Remember. They’re already involved. She’s there.”

  “You go look for Tasha. I’ll talk to my brother.”

  With that, Damon exited. Outside, he hopped into a black truck—nondescript, beaten up, slightly dirty, with nothing to cause any attention. He drove out of the huge compound of warehouses and headed to the address he had on file for Tasha. He didn’t bother calling again. Besides, this would need to be personal.

  It didn’t mean it was still the current address though, and that was a bit of a concern. They’d never gotten personal on the job, and he had deliberately kept it much less than personal. Mostly because of the heavy attraction. Personal relations on the job never worked out. However, they weren’t on the job anymore, and that was even more dangerous because whatever the hell had happened had affected their whole team.

  Only two days ago this had all come down; Damon had barely even surfaced when he found out that Terk was alive, and so they immediately banded up to try to find the rest of their team. What they’d found had been horrific.

  The phone call to Levi’s team, warning them about Celia’s arrival, had been heartbreaking when all of them had realized what was going on. And even that knowledge came from Terk’s psyche. And, of course, the text message saying that she was carrying something special had Terk sending out a probe and finding out the truth; she was carrying his child.

  When he realized it was his own child, they had just sat here in stunned fury, realizing just how much somebody was playing games of life and death with the next generation. And one of the reasons why Terk’s team had been disbanded was all over the arguments inside the government of how dangerous the group was. It should have been an easy job to shut down their operation, but now it looked way too much like the government had plans to shut them all down in another way too.

  Yet why Celia? Surely that didn’t play into the government’s shut-down orders?

  Damon understood, he really did, because to anybody in black ops oversight, who knew what Terk’s team could and would do was terrifying. But, if they thought they would shut down and injure this entire team, like they had in an attempt to cover the behinds of some bureaucrats, they had another think coming. That would never be something this team agreed to.

  Terk was the most powerful of them all, and yet, at the same time, he was also the most exposed because he had family. It was one thing to have a team like they did, but, with families to intimidate or to use as blackmail threats, it became a whole different ball game.

  Especially now with this woman and Terk’s unborn child.

  Damon had no family. He had been abandoned at birth and had no clue who anybody was. He was raised in foster homes
until he was old enough to join the military, all the while realizing something very strange was going on, so he cultivated it. Only when Terk had showed up at his door about eight years ago and had suggested that Damon come to work for him did he realize anybody else like him was out there. Since then, the two of them had been like brothers.

  That it was possible that not all of them would regain their senses or potentially even survive was just devastating. Every one of them had a different ability, and some that they shared. Most of them could see either a location or people somewhere else, could communicate from another location, often on the other side of the world. Some of them could do so much more. And the longer they worked together, the more their individual skills improved.

  That was one thing Damon could do. As long as he had something from that person, just a picture even, he could connect to wherever they were, sometimes talk to them, although they weren’t necessarily amiable to psychic communication. Most of them thought he was speaking inside their head and thought they were going crazy. He’d learned a few tricks to help them believe, but it made his job that much more challenging. But, if he could get them to provide information to help a rescue go down, it was all worthwhile.

  However, once the government found out more of what they could do, there had been a big push to annihilate the program. And maybe the team itself, in order to have their gifts no longer available to be exploited. And, of course, that was just the brass speaking.

  Damon had always wondered whether his job would end in a good way or he would get out of this industry in a box. He finally figured out that it would be in a box, and whether he liked it or not didn’t really matter because, when you knew the stuff that he knew, nobody out there would let him live.

  Particularly when it came to the government.

  He had absolutely no doubt in his mind that his own government was behind the attack on them. But proving it and getting payback or at least stopping somebody else from trying a repeat attack was a whole different story. The biggest problem would be finding out how this was done. And how could he protect himself and his team from a future attack?

  He had an ability to help others and had utilized it to rescue many people. To think that somebody out there could shut them down on an energy level and could put them in a coma at a whim was scary. Whoever was capable of doing this had to be stopped, and unfortunately, in this case, Damon could only see that those people would have to be permanently stopped. There couldn’t be any other way because that threat would always stay out there on the horizon, and there would be no peace for Terk’s team ever. Not exactly something Damon was willing to let happen.

  And, on that note, he headed down the street in his nondescript black truck, punched in Tasha’s address to his GPS, and followed it to his destination. There he stopped and stared up at the high-end apartment building, with full security features.

  “Why an apartment?” he murmured. Except, given the work she did, maybe it was for safety. And then again, given the work she did, maybe she’d become a pain to the dark side. Was she even here? Or had she run to the Caribbean? He might not have answers now, but he would sure as hell find out.

  *

  Tasha Millwork peered through the curtains, watching the road outside of her apartment building. She watched as Damon slipped from the truck, his gaze ever wary, as he casually walked down the block, crossed, and then slipped into the back entranceway of her building. She raced to the apartment door with an ear against it, then listened quietly as she mentally thought about him coming up the stairs and crossing the hallway. No doubt he was coming to her, but the question was, Why? She’d never had reason to distrust him; then she’d never had reason to distrust anything until two days ago.

  Two days ago she realized she was being followed. The same night somebody broke into her apartment, and she thought she heard footsteps cross toward her bedroom and had just enough time to push aside the covers and disappear onto her balcony, right when the bullets fired into her bedding. And, with that, the footsteps had raced away. She hadn’t slept since. She also hadn’t changed the door lock. Which meant that they could come back at any time.

  But all of her contact numbers in the government no longer reached anybody. No answer at the end of anything. She didn’t know what the hell had happened to her team either. She had known that they were due to be disbanded on that day and that was essentially the last day of work, but she had hoped to stay in touch with them, especially Damon. But given the circumstances, she knew it would take a few days; she’d been waiting eagerly, until bullets split her mattress.

  Eagerness mixed with fear. Was he here to kill her? Or was he here to help her? She listened as the footstep strolled down the hallway—confident, sure, and powerful. When they stopped and knocked on the door across the hallway, she smiled.

  When his low voice called out, “Tash, are you there?” her heart skipped a beat.

  She looked down at her sweaty palms and wondered. Answering him could be the last thing she ever did. When she heard something at the other door, she peeked through the peephole to see him testing the knob, and, when it opened under his hand, he frowned, quickly glanced either way, and slipped into her apartment.

  She swore. “I really should have fixed that damn door lock.”

  When he bolted out a little bit later, he was on his phone, and his face was stark white.

  She heard him call somebody.

  “Her apartment has been ransacked,” he reported in a low voice. “Bullet holes are in her bed, but I found no sign of her and no blood. Kidnapped maybe?”

  At that, she opened the door to the apartment across the hallway and poked her head out.

  His gaze landed on hers, and he sucked in his breath. “No, I’ll call you back. She’s okay.” He quickly slipped into the opposite apartment, shut the door, and stared at her.

  She watched the emotions he wore on his face, as he reached out, grabbed her, and pulled her into his arms. When he held her close, she finally relaxed and burrowed in deeper. Thank God he was here for her.

  “Dear God, when I saw the bullet holes …”

  She reached up, gently stroked his cheek, and, when she could, she stepped back and swallowed hard. “What the hell is going on? Nobody is answering any phones. Nothing works anymore.”

  “I know. The entire team was attacked.”

  She stared at him in shock and wavered on her feet. He instantly picked her up, carried her to the couch, and plunked her down on the first cushion. “Deep breaths.”

  She tried hard; she really did, but it was almost impossible to breathe at all. “Are they … are they dead?” she finally got out.

  He shook his head. “No, most are unconscious or struggling severely, two are in a deep coma,” he murmured, “and we have no way of knowing whether they’ll survive or not.”

  “Jesus.” She closed her eyes and thought about the men she had worked with. “Do we know what happened?”

  “No. … Terk is fine.”

  She laughed at that. “Of course he is,” she said affectionately. “That man is invincible.”

  “Not quite,” he argued. “I have to bring you up to speed on a lot.”

  She slowly nodded. “I get it, but I also need to tell you what happened here.”

  “Let’s start with you.”

  She reiterated going to bed early but feeling off, and, when she heard somebody breaking into the apartment, she quickly pulled the pillows into the middle of the bed and, with the lights out, slipped onto the balcony. There, through the gaps in the curtains, she watched as the bedding bounced when the shots were fired into it. “I also heard some things getting tossed and turned, and then he was gone.”

  “Probably just making it look like a burglary gone bad.” Damon reached out once again, grabbing her hands.

  “Maybe, I don’t know what the hell is going on though. I mean, we were supposed to be disbanded.”

  “What about you? Is that what you were supposed to do?
”

  “I thought I was moving back stateside,” she explained. “I took an extra week here to maybe have a holiday, and then I would go see what my options were. They mentioned something about Homeland Security, if I wanted it. But honestly I think it was just talk.” And how did she explain to him that she’d stayed around in case he contacted her? She just hadn’t expected it to be like this. He frowned, but she shrugged. “I don’t know why I would even go to a different department.”

  “And I’m not sure that was ever part of the plan,” he stated. “Have you checked your emails?”

  She nodded. “I can check my emails, but any email I send out to the government comes back as Undeliverable.”

  “And your phone?”

  “Calls aren’t going through at all.”

  He pulled a burner phone from his pocket and handed it to her. “Try with this phone. It’s mine.”

  She looked at him in surprise.

  “I don’t know if you have been alienated because you work with us or if it’s just your phone.”

  She frowned and quickly dialed one of the numbers that she knew by heart. When it went through, and a voice answered, she quickly hung up. She stared at him. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that I think you’ve been alienated—or worse,” he replied quietly, “just like the rest of us.”

  She stared at him, her jaw slowly dropping. “What?”

  “The question is, where are the other two admins?”

  “Oh my God.” She shook her head. “I haven’t talked to Mera or Wilson. I tried to call both of them, but I couldn’t get through.” With her burner phone, she quickly phoned Mera. When the other woman answered, her voice cautious, Tasha said, “Mera, this is Tasha.”

  “Oh my God, oh my God,” Mera cried out, “where are you?”

  “I’m still”—and then she stopped because Damon was shaking his head at her—“I’m safe, put it that way. But my apartment was attacked a few days ago.”

  “You too? Did they come in and shoot up your bed?” she asked bitterly. “I didn’t move fast enough.”