Page 76 of Deadfall

“Quit fucking interrupting me!” I exploded.

“If you can’t even execute basic CQB, you’re a liability.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jamal stood up and put a hand on Riggs’ shoulder. “Maybe give her some slack, boss. We all made mistakes today—”

Riggs shoved the man’s hand off his shoulder and cast one last scathing look at me on his way out of the room.

“You’re back on surveillance,” he snapped.

I struggled to breathe. “Fucking asshole,” I sputtered as my fingers dug into the edge of the table.

Mouse diligently kept his eyes on the wound and finished the last stitch.

“He is that,” he muttered. “Lie down—I have to dig the bullet out of your shoulder. Better keep some of that anger handy cause it’s going to hurt like a bitch.”

I was a mess after Mouse dug the bullet out. It did indeed hurt like hell, and I tried my hardest to keep my emotions at bay. But, between the humiliation of Riggs berating me, and the pain and anger I felt, the tears streamed silently down my face by the time Mouse was done. To his credit, he pretended not to notice.

I quickly cleaned up and went downstairs to the basement where I unloaded round after round into a dummy target until my shoulder screamed in protest and my aim went to hell. I knew none of this was going to be easy—I just hadn’t expected to have to deal with someone like Riggs.

I needed him though—I needed all of them. The last few months had shown me I was in way over my head. The thought made me angry, and I had to remind myself of what Sacha always told me—small stones move the mountain. That mentality hadn’t failed me yet. When I couldn’t do a pushup, I trained until I could. When I couldn’t run even as far as the lake, I’d kept at it until I could. When I wasn’t a good shot, I practiced until I was. This was just another one of those things I had to have patience for. I had to find a way to deal with Riggs. I had to find a way to become so focused and good at what I did that he’d have no room to bitch. I was just going to have to prove to them what happened when I was underestimated.

34

EMERSYN

Age 20

“Are you sure that thing isn’t a wolf?” Jamal asked as he side-eyed Fang who had his large head on my thigh. I grinned at Jamal’s look of apprehension and thought back to the first time I’d opened my eyes to Fang’s gold gaze and how unnerved I’d been—I kissed the dog’s nose and gave him a good scratch behind the ears. Fang had taken well to domestic life and when he wasn’t hounding everyone for scraps of bacon, he was curled up in Lev’s office under the warmth of the computers, or burrowed under the covers of my bed.

“That’s for sure a wolf-dog right there,” Hangman chuckled.

“I don’t know, he certainly doesn’t act like it,” Lev said. “Damn thing thinks he’s a lap dog.”

As though he understood, Fang turned over onto his back, all four paws in the air. We all laughed and Hangman obliged with belly scratches that sent Fang’s back leg kicking wildly.

“We leave in thirty!” Riggs called out from somewhere in the house.

That sobered the mood. The last several months Riggs had been on a rampage. After the failed job that had sidelined us for weeks, we’d gone over our failings backwards and forwards until I could replay every second of that job in my sleep.

I kissed Fang on the jaw, and he and Lev disappeared down the hall, while the rest of the men and I got ready and headed out to the cars. Tonight, we were taking out a warehouse that was a popular hand-off spot for a group of traffickers we were currently targeting.

“What are we betting on tonight, Sinny?” Hangman asked. “Most kills?”

The two of us were on overwatch. I had a suspicion Hangman somehow had convinced Riggs to put me there, but I knew Hangman wouldn’t admit it, so I didn’t ask. I was ready for anything after being relegated to surveillance for so long—I’d been about to rebel again. Hangman finished loading his gear and threw his arm around my shoulder.

“How about if I win, I get a kiss?”

I punched Hangman in the stomach to get him off me. “You wish.”

Hangman’s subtle flirting tactics had escalated in the last few months. I thought he was harmless, but Riggs’ warning still hovered in the back of my mind, which caused a lot of it to make me uncomfortable. I kept second-guessing my reactions and overall just wasn’t used to the attention.

But, the worst part was, Riggs had started to notice and was constantly growling at him to leave me alone. Hangman didn’t seem put off by his friend’s threats. In fact, in the last few weeks, I’d become pretty convinced he was doing it on purpose to get a rise out of him.

“You’re killing me, gorgeous.” Hangman slammed a fist into his chest, dramatically impaling himself with an imaginary blade.

I rolled my eyes. “Quit being so dramatic. Besides, I think Riggs might actually kill you if that happened.”

Hangman waved away my warning. “Psh, I can handle that old man.”