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“Heads up,” he said. “We’ve got another message coming in, this one to Nina’soldcell.”
Noah’s face disappeared, replaced by the message streaming across my screen:You fickle bitch. Do you think I’m stupid? I see you’ve got help. Doesn’t matter. I’m going to find you and when I do, you will die the slow, painful death youdeserve.
Dimayev had been watching. Somehow, he knew we had Nina’s people under surveillance.His message had my blood boiling. I was gonna get this fucker and when I did, he was gonna wish he’d never comeafterNina.
“Get going,” I said to Noah. “See if you can track this filth back toDimayev.”
“Already on it,” he said. “Noahout.”
Ten seconds hadn’t passed when my screen bleeped again. I clicked on the video call and Josh Lane’s face came on myscreen.
“I heard,” he said, without preamble. “This son of a bitch has some balls taunting a woman under ourprotection.”
“That’s the problem,” I said. “He doesn’t know Nina is under our protection. He probably thinks he’s dealing with the Feds. Doesn’t seem he fears themoverlymuch.”
“Let him believe that,” Josh said. “Better for usthatway.”
“Makes me think he’s got an in with the Feds.” My gut churned like a washing machine. “What if somebodysqueals?”
“It’s a risk we have to take,” Josh said. “We need the Feds’ cooperation if we’re going to bring down Dimayev and catch up with Calamity. Besides, we haven’t told anyone Nina is withyouguys.”
It was a small consolation, but I wasn’t gonna take any chances. From now on, Tanner, Aiden, and I would ratchet up our security protocols and that meant ramping up our readiness and beefing up our defense capabilities to the max, even if we had to do so behindNina’sback.
“You were right about Nina Leon,” Josh said. “DOJ slammed her really hard as a political move, but also as a containmentstrategy.”
“Containmentstrategy?”
“It wasn’t the pentagon that went after her,” Josh said. “It was the VA. I got the full story from my inside sources. Nina knew a lot about everything that was wrong with the VA. She found flaws and irregularities and she sounded the alarm and demanded changes, not only for her brother, but for thousands of veterans stranded in a system that wasn’t workingforthem.”
Like Tanner would say, it was behavior consistent with Nina alltheway.
“The VA administration didn’t want her talking to anyone about it,” Josh continued. “So the higher ups at the VA insisted the federal government prosecute her. They put her in jail and then slammed her with a retribution payment so high she’d have to shut up and spend the rest of her life at theirmercy.”
My stomach tightened into a burning knot. “That’s not fuckingright.”
“You bet it isn’t,” Josh said. “They neutralized her in abrutalway.”
My voice came out rough and angry. “I wanna do somethingaboutit.”
“On it,” Josh said. “Don’t you go vigilante on me. Sit tight. That’s an order.Laneout.”
It took me a while to get a lid on the rage coursing through me. I could’ve strangled the assholes who’d made the case to prosecute Nina. Like I was gonna strangle Dimayev. Payback was a bitch and these fuckers were gonna get it for making Nina’slifehell.
I went upstairs and found Nina and Ryan making sandwiches in the kitchen. I stopped at the threshold and watched them working together. Ryan was engrossed, making sure he spread the peanut butter evenly on the bread while Nina was in charge of the jelly. Watching her inmykitchen, withmyson had my heart doing all kind of weird somersaults in mychest.
When she spotted me, Nina jumped three feet in the air and put her hand to her heart. “Jesus, Zar, you scared me! I didn’t hear youcomeup.”
“Sorry.” I strolled into the room. “It’s a good habit when you’re sneaking up on theenemy.”
“Well, I’m not your enemy.” She flashed me a small, tremulous smile and, slicing off the crust, pointed her chin at the sandwich on her cutting board. “Wantone?”
“Sure.”
I wanted to tell her that she was in more danger than she knew. I wanted to tell her not to worry about it, because I was gonna make sure nobody would ever hurt her. I wanted to tell her that I’d give my life for hers. But of course, Icouldn’t.
Nina leaned over and, very gently, pressed her forehead to Ryan’s until she got his attention. “What do you think, buddy? Should we make a sandwich for yourdaddy?”
Ryan’s gaze shifted to Nina’s face. He smiled, reached for another piece of bread and immersed himself in the serious task of spreading the peanut butter. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was the kind of interaction that I craved for my son, the kind of miracle I’dprayedfor.
