“Do you trust her?”
“Hell no, the only people I trust are under this roof. But one way or another, shit is about to go down, and we have one shot at staying in front of it.”
“And you think sticking together gets us out of this alive?”
“I think it ups the odds.”
“So, until we figure out who the real threat is, we work the middle, and protect our asses from both sides.”
Adam nodded sharply—once. “Exactly.”
“And you want Eve to be a part of this?”
“Fuck no. I don’twanther anywhere near this shit any more than you want Gray to be.”
“But you love her,” Chase said.
“Yes.” Eve belonged to him, and there wasn’t a person in the lodge who didn’t know it—including the woman herself. And yeah, loving him put her at risk, but with everything that happened in the last week and everything about to happen in the coming months, the safest place for her to be was by his side.
“Alright,” Chase said. “I’m in.”
“And Gray?”
“She goes where I go, or she stays here with you or Grant. That’s nonnegotiable.”
“Agreed.” Johnson wanted Gray dead. Until the JTT rectified the problem with a lead-based solution, she needed to be under constant surveillance. “What about the rest of the team? You think they’ll be on board?”
“They already are,” Chase replied.
“What about Doc?”
“He’s in for now, but it’s no secret, he has some things to sort out.” A trauma surgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Kosamina Snow was done waiting around for her husband to come home. Pregnant with another man’s baby, she wanted a divorce, and she’d sent Jamie the official documentation to prove it. “What about Davis?” Chase asked.
“I’ll talk to him,” Adam replied. “If he wants to stay, he stays, but he starts training ASAP. Hand to hand. Weapons. Tactical planning and strategy. He needs to be able to handle himself.”
“Fair enough. I’ll have Cody draw up a curriculum. When are you planning to share with the team?”
“I have a call scheduled with Diane Heughan on Thursday. I’d like you to listen in. We’ll draw up contracts and meet with everyone after we hear what she has to say.”
“Roger that,” Chase said. “Anything I should know about in advance?”
“Yeah,” Adam frowned. “Keep this to yourself for now, but Diane’s claiming she sent Jay to the JTT because he’s the mission. Know anything about that?”
Chase shook his head. “That’s news to me. Any mention of it on the colonel’s laptop?”
“No. But there’s more than one file we haven’t been able to break into.”
“Yeah, we need more IT support.” Chase got to his feet. “Jay’s flirting with a serious case of burnout.”
“Any ideas?”
“A couple, but let’s hear what Heughan has to say first. We can discuss options as a group after.”
“Fair enough. By the way”—Adam stood and held out his hand—“welcome to the Grayson family, motherfucker.”
CHAPTERFORTY-SEVEN
“And that’s everything.”Still in his office after a long day of planning and meetings, Adam finally had Eve in his lap, his arms around her waist. She sat quietly, absorbing the information he’d given her. A personal vendetta. A rigged election. A presidential puppet. A significant threat to national security. And an unknown entity at play.
