To Die for... Virtue

THREE

THREE

SHE DIDN’T NEED TO LOOK to know the identity of the person behind her but did anyway. By the curtain, glaring across the room at his brother, was the man she’d left outside. The one meant to stay outside.

Her bag was on the floor a few feet from him. “What are you doing…” she said, though Daire was so focused it was doubtful he heard her. “I asked you to wait outside.”

Styx was no less focused. “Golden boy, ignoring orders?” he asked, subtle in his amusement. “The old man will have you running laps for days for insubordination. Lost your tact too. You knocked out three of my guys to get in. Isn’t discreet.”

Her mouth opened in shock as she twisted to Daire again. Still, he saw nothing except his brother. Given the direction Styx had appeared from and the timing, how did he know what his brother did to get in?

Her Heart’s narrow eyes were laser precise on the man in his sights. “They tried to take my gun.”

The guys at the table took that revelation as a warning and pushed their chairs away from the table to get closer to the wall.

“Don’t worry,” Styx said, inching his chin their way. “My brother is a pretty good shot. If he wants to take me out, one shot’ll be enough.”

Panic fueled her retreat to Daire. Styx wouldn’t put up a fight and her Heart didn’t know that. “Daire—”

“What did I tell you about code names in the field, Lady?” Styx asked.

Spinning around to pin her back against Daire, she hoped to prevent him from reaching for his g*n. “He doesn’t know, Styx. Please don’t… Letting him is not the same as provoking him.”

“He’s trained to take emotion out the equation. He’s good at it too. If executing me is his mission, he’ll carry it out. What is your purpose here, Ares?”

“None of your goddamn business.”

“So it’s personal, not professional,” Styx said, easing away from the doorframe, showing he held a g*n in his concealed hand. “Good. Always said you needed to grow a set.”

She gasped but didn’t have time to say a word. Somehow, Daire had already put himself in front of her. He’d reacted before she even fully registered the threat.

“Thought guns were for p*****s,” Daire said, aiming his weapon at his brother.

“I’ve acquired a taste for them.”

Still trying to figure out what was going on, the parallel between her first meeting with her father and this moment was striking. At least this time she wasn’t between the firearms. Although either of the men being hurt or killed wouldn’t be a win.

Her pulse pounded. Laying her hands on Daire’s ribs, she wanted to speak or get in front of him, except any sudden movement could startle the men into action.

“What do you want, Styx?”

“You wandered into my house, brother. Uninvited.”

“Please, don’t…” she said, trying to go around Daire.

He stepped to the side, blocking her, scooping his other arm around to hold her at his back.

A shot went off. On instinct, she ducked. Daire didn’t react at all, he didn’t flinch or recoil. The bullet hit the wall behind her, betraying the identity of the shooter. Instead of firing back, as she might expect, Daire’s arm sank to his side.

“You need practice,” Daire said, stalking across the room toward his brother.

Holding her breath, tension tightened her every muscle. The possibilities were agonizing. She wouldn’t be able to bear it if they hurt each other.

One twitch and Styx could put a bullet in Daire. Only she knew he didn’t want to. Unless he’d been lying in London. Maybe the plan wasn’t to let his brother kill him. If it was a lie, she could be seconds away from losing the most important person in her world.

Styx didn’t fire. Daire shoved his g*n back into its holster and swept his brother’s g*n arm aside to get right in close, facing off with the man point blank, toe to toe.

“You always were better up close,” Daire snarled. “With your bare hands, right? It’s your gift.”

“If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead ten times over,” Styx hissed, dropping his g*n to shove Daire back.

Her Heart swung, making contact with his brother’s jaw, sparking a flurry of movement. Styx swung; Daire blocked. There was a punch and push; the card table tipped over as they crossed the room in combat. Furniture fell and the card-playing men leaped from their seats to get out of the brothers’ way. She was frozen to the spot. They were fighting. Actually fighting. Hitting each other, blocking, grabbing, shoving.

Snapping out of her trance of amazement, she dashed across the room. “No,” she screeched. “No. No!”

Forcing herself between them, she didn’t care about the blood or the panting or the adrenaline racing heart beats firing their testosterone. She wouldn’t let them hurt each other. Wouldn’t let them turn on each other in that crucial time.

As she ramped up for a lecture, Daire breathed out. He was behind her, his weight bearing down on her back until he began to relax. Styx’s lips twitched, he smiled, then the man behind her was laughing and the two of them were slapping their palms together, doing some special handshake.

“You’ve let yourself go,” Styx said.

“Me? Fucker, what was that upper left cross? Weak. You haven’t been training.”

Styx put a hand to his shoulder and rolled his arm. “Had some fun this year, still getting back up to speed.”

“You need an assist?”

“Nah, I was good… Got my a*s saved by a beauty with a set of balls and a f**k-me figure.”

“Really?” Daire said, the note of interest in his voice teasing. “We get to meet this beauty?”

Styx exhaled a laugh. “Don’t think her boyfriend would like that. Boyfriends don’t like you.”

Lost, she didn’t know whether to be shocked or relieved. “What the hell?” she asked. The moment was reminiscent of Daire and Harry burying the hatchet after a simple apology. “You were trying to kill each other!”

“Just for fun,” Daire said.

“You get H’s message?” Styx asked, talking over her.

Message? What message? Her ignorance was irrelevant.

Daire answered. “Yeah.”

When was the message sent? Received? What did it say?

“Get proof of life?” Styx asked.

“Not yet,” Daire said. “Tomorrow… This your SP?”

“Nah, just friendlies,” Styx said. “Got something serious yet?”

“As per instructions, yeah.”

Tipping his head in a backward nod, Styx backed away. “Come upstairs, I’ll grab my shit.”

He disappeared back into the shadowy doorway. Daire’s hands landed on her shoulders to push her after him. They went up some stairs into a hallway that was like going through a time warp. Styx led them into a bedroom with a pink rug, bare floorboards and not a stick of furniture that matched.

“Take a seat, Lady,” Styx said without turning around.

Daire urged her toward the bed while keeping his own post by the closed door.

“This isn’t Olympus,” Daire said.

“Encyclopedia would know,” Styx said, grabbing a familiar bag from the floor by the other side of the dresser nearest the window.

“You wanna give me a report?”

“We’re not on a mission, bro,” Styx said, taking things from the top drawer to put them in his bag. “And no one is coming for us here… Even after all the s**t that’s gone down, you’re loyal to the core… It’s the orders, isn’t it? You’re going nuts without a specified objective.”

“How do you know?” Daire asked.

Styx paused to look at his brother. “Twenty-one years, that’s how I know. The old man’s fine and you know it, he’s made of steel.”

Just like his word in the letter. These men were raised by her father. Losing him would be a blow. It had to be on Daire’s mind, maybe Styx’s too.

“We’ve gotta keep it together,” Daire said.

“Yeah, ‘cause Z just blew it to s**t… I’m gonna bet it’s ‘cause someone didn’t hit her mark.” Styx turned to her. “You missed your flight,” he said, coming over to angle her chin toward the light. “Your mouth get you into trouble?”

“Maybe,” she said. Before giving him any kind of update, there was something more important to clear up. “You have something of mine.”

“Yep,” he said, returning to his bag to unzip an inner pocket.

When Styx next faced her way, he held up his hand and opened it to let the bullet drop on its chain. Ecstatic to see it swinging, she’d missed it more than words could express.

Pouncing to her feet, she dashed over to snatch it from him. “Thank you,” she said, putting it over her head and sweeping her hair out of the chain.

Holding it in a fist, she closed her eyes and exhaled in relief.

“Feel better?” he asked, then returned to his conversation with his brother. “We won’t get to Z.”

He spoke as though her involvement in the moment hadn’t happened at all. The men clearly shared a mindset and followed the same train of thought.

“No,” Daire said. “I’ll bet he’s already burrowing in deep.”

“We have to send a message.”

“Your favorite way to send a message is to gift wrap a corpse.”

Styx shrugged. “What’s wrong with that? I know where the Six are.”

A ripple of trepidation crossed Daire’s shoulders. “Where?”

“Fourteen.”

Her Heart exhaled disbelief. “I should be surprised, but I’m not… You need a go order for a move like that.”

“So get me one.”

Obviously, Styx didn’t think that was going to happen.

“Beta site’s in lockdown,” Daire said. “I was there but couldn’t get into the armory… Guess now we know why H was so adamant about us training without equipment. What I’d do for a field rig right now…”

Styx’s hand disappeared into his bag and a moment later, he held up the black box she’d seen in London. “Got a Gizmo.”

Daire straightened up, clearly not expecting to see it. “How did you…? s**t, you were in the field when the Exodus went down.”

“Yeah,” Styx said, putting it down on the dresser. Daire started toward him… or it. “For all the good it will do you with Minotaur offline.”

“We can ping H’s base unit,” Daire said, turning it toward himself.

“Maybe,” Styx said, going to his brother’s side. “Will he know it’s us?”

“We can open comms… if we’re careful.”

“Can’t verify the clearance with Mino offline.”

“Then we bypass Mino,” Daire said, surprising her by pressing something on the device to bring up a glowing image of a keyboard on the lower portion of the perpendicular device.

She couldn’t see it very well, bobbing back and forth to peek between the brothers. The unit hadn’t physically changed; the lines were just vague light in an otherwise unremarkable space. What else could it do?

“You have the clearance for that?” Styx asked.

Daire crooked a brow at his brother. “I have H’s clearance.”

“We’re gonna use his clearance to contact him? How the hell does that work? He can’t be in two places at once.”

Her Heart was working furiously on the glowing keyboard, the screen filling with letters, numbers, and symbols as he went. “With Minotaur offline, we could get away with it. Gizmo won’t code through the system; I’ll have to reach out to the base unit direct.”

“For a guy so set on following the rules, how come you always know a way around them?” Styx asked, putting a glimmer of a smile on his brother’s face. “We don’t wanna do that when we don’t know where he is or who’s watching.”

Closing the unit, Daire laid a hand on it. “Yeah, we should be stable, prepped and ready.”

“He expects a battle,” Styx said. “You sure you’re ready for this?”

“More ready than you. We have to get you in shape before H sees you again.”

“That could be a while,” Styx said, putting the thing he’d called Gizmo into his bag before zipping it up and throwing the strap over his head, across his body.

“You got a ride?”

“Out back. Follow me.”