Page 4 of Deadfall

The top email was unread with the title: For Deathwing’s eyes only.

I looked up at him, brow furrowed. “Did you read it?”

Rune looked offended. “Of course not, it says for your eyes only.”

“Why would they send it to you?” Seven asked.

Rune shrugged. “Griff never checks his emails,” he said dryly.

“Yeah, but how would they know that?” Seven pressed.

Rune responded, but I didn’t hear what he said as I stared at the contents of the email.

“What the fuck?” I muttered.

I quickly scrolled through it, bombarded by conflicting emotions. I clicked on one of the images the email had included—adrenaline surged.

“What does it say?” Rune asked.

I threw the image up on the monitor. “It’s her.”

Silence blanketed the room as we all stared at Emersyn. We only had one photo of her because that was all that we’d found, but now—I greedily took in every detail this new one offered. It wasn’t a very good picture. It was grainy and she was half-turned away, but those eyes—they were the same.

“This is great,” Rune said excitedly. “I’ll start analyzing—”

“Wait,” I interrupted.

A heavy sense of foreboding settled over me.

“What? This could lead us to her, Griff. This could be the missing leg up we need to get ahead—”

I slid the tablet across the table to Rune and his words died as he read the message already embedded in my mind.

You have a mole.

Give Rune the coordinates, otherwise be careful who you share this with.

My veins heated at the thought of someone betraying me. But, at the same time, it was extremely validating. I knew something was wrong—I fucking knew it wasn’t all just bad timing.

Rune looked up, his eyes wide with worry and about a million questions I didn’t have the answers for. I rubbed my jaw and stared over at Seven. There was no way he’d betray me. We’d been through some shit together. We’d been deployed together on teams, kidnapped, tortured—shit that made turning on your brother so far-fetched of an idea, it was laughable. People had tried to pit us against each other once, using far, far worse tactics.

“Give him the tablet,” I said, my eyes never leaving Seven’s.

“Griff—”

“I won’t ask you again, Rune,” I growled.

Rune carefully slid the tablet across the table. Seven broke eye contact only long enough to read what it said.

“There were people who tried that once,” Seven said dryly as he echoed my thoughts in that eerie way he often did. “Do you need to see the reminder?” There was a cold set to his eyes and I saw the challenge there when he tugged at the edge of his t-shirt.

I scoffed. I didn’t need to see his scars.

“I didn’t doubt you then. I don’t doubt you now,” I said firmly. “Not even for a minute, brother.”

“Good. So, if it’s not either of us, who do we need to fuck up?”

I shook my head—I wasn’t sure. I hated to think it was anyone on my team, especially Kyllion. He was my second. That trust ran deep, but an insidious thought nudged the back of my mind—did it run deep enough? If he was the mole—if he’d been fucking this entire thing up for us—the thought of such a huge betrayal from him, I couldn’t fathom it. I could tell Seven wasn’t happy about it either. But, it could still be a whole host of other people—including Lincoln or the five other guys currently somewhere in the house decompressing from the job.