Page 67 of Lethal Salvation

“Okay enough, break it up.”

Gideon found himself pulled bodily from his brother and watched as Titan held Damon until he settled. Gideon rubbed his bottom lip with his hand smearing blood across his knuckles.

“If you two have finished, I have more serious things to discuss,” Bás ground out from between clenched teeth.

“This is bullshit,” Damon declared, his heated gaze bouncing off Nadia and him, a look of betrayal on his features he didn’t understand.

“What is? What the fuck happened that I don’t know about?”

“Lotus and Damon were fucking around in one of the bedrooms when I caught them.” Nadia held up a hand to stop Damon and he huffed but remained quiet. “While I don’t care who fucks who, I, we, can’t have it happen during an operation like the one tonight. Here, where others have our backs, fine but anyone could have walked into that room and shot you both before you had a chance to defend yourselves. Lotus knows that and she knows she fucked up, so she’ll be taking a little break to get her shit together.”

“So it’s okay for you two?”

Damon pointed between them, but Gideon was still reeling that his straight-laced brother had been caught with his pants down. It would have been good to know his brother had found a woman who made him loosen up, even if that woman was scary as fuck, and if the dangers hadn’t been shoved down their throats so violently.

“Your brother and I have never put ourselves or any of this team at risk. I get it, Damon, I do but if you care about her at all you’ll see this for what it is and not as an attack on you or her.”

Damon seemed to lose some of his bluster, and Gideon knew he was smart enough to see the truth. He just wondered if his pride and stubbornness would win out this time.

“Fine. What do we know about Carter?”

Nadia moved to sit beside Bás and he tried not to let that sting. This wasn’t about them, it was also her job and she took it seriously. “Well first off, this isn’t a police investigation.”

Gideon shook his head, his tongue licking out to swipe at the blood where his brother had clocked him. “I don’t understand.”

“Those men weren’t police officers. They’re associates of ours. Watchdog intercepted the 999 call. The last thing we need is the authorities involved, especially when we don’t know all the players complicit in Project Cradle.”

“Makes sense. So what do we know?”

“Hansen killed Carter. What’s more, he wanted us to know it. An email came into an unused account of mine about twenty minutes ago. Watchdog is verifying it now but the footage is pretty compelling.”

“Why would he do that?”

“It’s a warning. He found out Carter was going to flip and killed him for it.”

“Why send the video to you?”

“A warning to back off.”

“We aren’t going to though, are we?”

“No, but I think perhaps I should handle this alone from here on out.”

Gideon watched Nadia’s jaw tense and knew this wasn’t the first time she was hearing this and didn’t agree.

“No, we fight as a team. It’s where our strength lies.”

“I agree,” Hurricane nodded.

“You don’t understand.”

“Because you won’t fucking tell us.”

“God damn it, Duchess,” Bás bellowed, slamming his hand on the desk.

“You know I’m right, Bás.”

“He’ll come after you all.”